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His left hand began to stroke her hair as it hung halfway down her back, gently tangling his fingers in its soft blondness, and even through her fear she found herself relaxing soed to turn her head sideways so she could breathe more easily, but he didn’t allow her to move the rest of her body as he kept her pinned close and intimately to him

“Let me out of here,” hissed the man locked in the wardrobe

Theher hair, his right hand inching down her back toward her buttocks She’d never had a h, calloused hands felt good

She recovered herself and began to struggle against hi her, but showing no signs that he ever intended to release her

“Who are you?” she repeated “Tell et it for you I don’t haveRelease ain tried to move, he held her fast

With a sigh of frustration, she relaxed against hiain “If you plan to take le such as you’ve never seen before I’ll take some of your skin to replace what you take from me” She tried to twist her head to look up at hi the wrong thing? she thought, wondering if what she’d just said ords that were inflammatory to a…a rapist, she finally said the word to herself In spite of her brave words, she began to shiver and his arhtened around her in a way that, had the circuht have found protective

“We’ve come froh her cheek It was a very deep, very rich voice “There are two of us and we’ve come to take you home”

“Yes, I’o home But first I have to—”

“Ssssh,” he whispered, snuggling her against him as if they were lovers and fao home nohether you want to or not,” he said, obviously not listening to her “You can fight it ou

t with your father later, but noe take you home to him Do you understand?”

“But there’s a story that I—”

“Chris,” he said and the way he said her name made her try to look up at him, but he still wouldn’t allow her to see his face “Chris, you have to return to your father I’et dressed, then I’ll let Prescott out of the wardrobe I’ll meet you outside with the horses Pack only what you’ll need for the trip We’ll be going through the rain forest and it’ll take a few days so take rain gear if you have it”

“Through the rain forest! But no one can travel through that”

“There’s a way and I kno Don’t worry your lovely little self about that, just get ready to leave”

“I have to take my story to John Anderson,” Chris said She didn’t seem to be in all thatthe past few minutes, her hands hadhi him away either

“Who is John Anderson?”

“My friend and the editor of a newspaper He’s the one who first suspected Hugh of selling rifles to the Indians”

He moved his head so that his face was buried in her hair and she could have sworn she felt his lips against her scalp “We’ll talk about that later, but noe have to go We’ve taken too long as it is You’ll have to get dressed so we can leave”

Chris waited, but he just held her, his hand now stroking gently across her shoulder blades “Are you going to release me or not?”

“You aren’t cold, are you?”

“I a kidnapped by ahi here insmothered by a man I’ve never even seen, o so I can put on some clothes?”

“Yes,” he said in that voice of his, but he made no effort to release her