Page 28 of Enslaved

“Her drink…or her shots…they must have been tampered with. Who knows? She drank quite a lot.”

“Get out of my sight. You’re fired. Pack your things and never step foot back on my boat again.”

He sputtered, not wanting to leave Jessie. “Go!” I roared. “It was your job as her date to protect her…you dragged her to that disco knowing what kind of place it was…this is on you.”

With a barely conscious Jessie safe in my embrace, I hailed a taxi and in perfect Italian, ordered him to take us to my private villa high above the cliffs.

Her breathing was shallow; my lips were thin as I imagined every possible way to kill a man. I slid my phone out of my pocket to make a call. “Jin, I need you to hack into the surveillance tapes from Bueno Notte in Capri. An employee of mine was drugged. I want the name and face of the bastard. Hell, I want his entire family tree sent to my phone by 7 am tomorrow.”

“It will be handled.”

I ended the call somewhat satisfied. Jin handles all the security and IT for my firm. He’s the best in the world at what he does. My only focus was Jessie from that point forward. My next call was to the private physician I pay a fortune to keep at my disposal. “Beckett, an employee of mine was drugged at Bueno Notte. I’m bringing her to the villa, be there in five minutes.”

In hurried Italian, he replied, “I’ll grab my things.”

Jessie moaned in my arms, trying to fight the tide that was dragging her under. “Jessie? Baby? I’ve got you,glykiá mou. You’re going to be alright. You’re safe now sweeting.”

“I’m not safe. I’ll never be safe as long as you want me,” she weakly replied. I held a bottle of cold water to her lips that the driver had handed me.

“Drink,” I ordered.

“I’m going to be sick. Pull over.”

I threw open the door, my hands iron bands around her waist as she retched onto the pavement. She was trembling. Cold. But starting to burn up too.

“Help me, Christos. Something is wrong. Very wrong.”

She was right about one thing.I’d keep her life safe, but her heart and soul are the things I seek to capture and destroy, and she knows it.

I roared at the driver to go faster. The taxi swerved as it climbed the hills above Capri.

“I didn’t want this,” she whispered weakly.

“I’ll keep you safe, tonight. But I can’t make any promises after that.”

“I knew you’d come. How is it that you make me feel both safe and terrified at the same time?”

The drugs lowered her walls, and she was spilling all her secrets.

“Don’t fight what’s happening between us,glykiá mou.It’s natural. My male DNA wants yours…wants to meld us together in the most primitive way. Until we’re both breathless, on another planet, slowly floating back to earth.”

“Why? Why me? I’m just a tomboy from middle-class America with ship grease under my nails and sea salt in my hair.”

My gaze traveled down her tanned, toned body as I held her in my arms. “Noglykiá mou, you are a sea siren. A golden-haired nymph tempting me with your sweet curves and innocent eyes.”

“I’ve never met anyone like you. You speak so formally…with such poetry. I’d laugh, but the way you speak the words are so serious…with such conviction.”

“I’m Greek. It’s in my blood to see the beauty in the world even if I can’t wholly feel it.”

“What? I-I don’t understand.”

My dark eyes blazed with passion as I looked deep into her eyes. “I know,” I sighed, as the drugs stole her consciousness and she fell back under.

I used my phone to open the gates, punching the four-digit code into my security app, hurriedly throwing five hundred euros at the stunned man, then ran into my courtyard with a writhing Jessie in my arms.

I raced up the stairs, ignoring my stunned staff that came rushing to the grand foyer at the sound of the security beep when I barreled through the front gates.

Finally reaching the master suite, I placed her on the bed, watching helplessly as she moaned, tossing herself around on the cool bedspread, caught between planes of consciousness.

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