Page 13 of Holiday Hostage

Koda's room is slightly larger than Eli's, once again with its own bathroom off to the side. Eli's room was sparsely decorated, but Koda’s is barren. There's absolutely nothing on the walls to even indicate somebody lives in this room. No pictures or posters from things that he likes. There are no books or decorative accents lining the walls, not even any shelves for air fresheners or candles. The place could use a woman's touch.

“Am I permitted to shower?” I ask Koda, standing in front of the door to the bathroom with my arms crossed. He opens a closet door and grabs a towel, tossing it to me before handing me a clean pair of sweats and a new T-shirt.

“The door stays open.” I know better than to object to him. But the small smirk playing on his lips makes mewantto fight him on it. Something tells me he'd like that too.

“Seriously? Again, I don't know how many times we have to go over this—there isn't anywhere for me to go,” I say, rolling my eyes while I look at the standing shower with clear glass walls. With the door open, nothing will shield my body from Koda's eyes.

He steps toward me, just a few inches away as he stares down at me and narrows his eyes. “I don't know why you think this is up for discussion, but it's not. If you want to shower, go take one. But the door stays open.”

I take a deep breath and turn away from him, walking into the bathroom to shower. Over my shoulder, I can see that he sits on the bed and kicks his feet up, watching me with an emotionless gaze. I don't want him to think that I'm too affectedby what he says, so I take off my clothes as calmly as I can and step into the shower.

I force my eyes away from him, trying to focus on the task at hand. The sooner I finish showering, the sooner I can get dressed and pretend this never happened. Even though I try to focus on anything else, Koda's eyes don't leave me. I can feel them on my skin, and I don't know how to interpret it.

A part of me feels titillated knowing he's watching. If this is anything like what happened with Eli in the shower, I can only imagine he's sitting there getting aroused by the situation. But then again, Koda hates me more than anybody I've ever met in my entire life. In fact, I don't think I've ever met anybody who hates me before.

When I step out of the shower, I look into the room to see that he is still watching. No surprise there. He refuses to let anything slip by him because he's a massive control freak.

I slip into my clothes and immediately make my way over to the bed, trying to look as unashamed as I possibly can even though I feel humiliated. The bed is big enough that the two of us can sleep comfortably away from each other. That's my plan anyway. I lie down on the bed as far away as I possibly can from Koda, turned to the side with a small sliver of the blankets wrapped around my waist.

My eyes are closed, and Koda is silent beside me. I'm acutely aware of every movement in the bed as he shifts around beside me. I try to focus on something other than him. What's my life going to look like when all of this is over? Am I going back to the bakery? Will there even be a bakery to go back to?

It's strange to realize, but everything that happened yesterday is almost a relief to me. Running the bakery was never my dream. The only thing I ever really liked about working with Grammy was spending time with her. If I wasn't good at cooking, I would always draw up the flyers for the sales she would have orhelp design things to put on the cakes. She would always tell me my little doodles were special, and she hung them up all around the bakery to show them off.

The warm and fuzzy memories of Grammy that I planned on carrying me through the night are interrupted when an arm snakes around my waist. My body stiffens, and I look over my shoulder at Koda as he stares at me with his eyes lingering on my hips.

“What are you doing?” I ask, trying to lift his arm and push it away from me. He's far too big, and his grip is too strong for me to even budge him a little.

“Can't have you running off in the middle of the night, can we?” He takes a deep breath and rests his head on the pillow, not taking any argument about the matter. I shake my head and close my eyes, knowing there's no use in trying to persuade him of anything else. He's far too hardheaded for that.

Any sleepiness in my body is completely gone. All I can think about is the awkward tension between the two of us and how badly I want it to disappear.

“Why do you hate me?” I find myself saying before I have the better judgment in my brain to stop myself. I know it's a mistake right away, but the diarrhea of the mouth gets the better of me once again.

“I don't hate you,” Koda says, taking a deep breath and talking into the back of my head. I roll around slightly, looking him in the eye with both of my eyebrows raised at the answer. Everything that's happened between us so far tells me a much different story. “I think bringing you here was a mistake, but that's not because I hate you. If things had gone according to plan in that bank, we would have been in and out without having to use any of you. I know you being here isn't your fault, either.”

“Then why won't you cut me some slack?” I ask, shrugging my shoulders and staring deep into his dark eyes.

“You're a liability, and the others aren't treating you like one.” He takes a deep breath and looks away from me briefly before staring straight in my eyes once again. The same softness I saw in them when he came back from town is there again. It makes me want to reach out and touch his face, but I restrain myself. “Someone around here has to have a level head. We can't all be thinking with our dicks, even if it's hard not to.”

I can't help but blush at the comment, and I turn to look away from him once again. I stare at the window on the opposite side of the bed and watch as snowflakes fall outside. What did he mean by that? Obviously, I know that Eli and Bryce both have a thing for me, but is he insinuating that he does too?

“Plus, if there's a reward on our head, how am I supposed to trust that you won't squeal?” he adds, pulling me close to him once again as he takes a deep breath.

“Koda, I'm not telling the police anything.” I turn to look around at him one last time, forcing him to make eye contact with me. “I swear it. I don't break my promises.”

“Go to sleep,” Koda says, nodding for me to turn back around while he settles in behind me. “You have to understand I can't just take you at your word. I have to look out for the three of us.”

There's nothing left to say between us, so I close my eyes and try not to think about how good the warmth from his body feels against mine. I also try to ignore how chiseled his body is and how much I want to trace my fingers over the bulges in his arms. After a few minutes, sleep finally takes me.

CHAPTER 8

Bright sun rays reflecting off the blanket of snow outside the window beam into my eyes and wake me up. For a moment, I stare outside and think about how happy I am that it will be a white Christmas after all. The past few years have been warmer than usual in Harmony, and I've missed out on the beauty of the season.

I shift in the bed, and not long after, I feel something pressing against my butt. I look over my shoulder to see that Koda is still asleep, but his eyes are fluttering rapidly behind the lid. Without question, I know I'm feeling his morning wood against me.

My breath catches in my throat, and I don't know what to do. I know it's something he can't control. This happens to a lot of men as they're waking up. It's just blood flow really when you get down to it.

But there's something about it that I find arousing. Knowing that he's there behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist and a hard-on pressing against me... I can hardly help myself.

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