Page 6 of Trapped

“Stick together?”She sniggered.“Is that what we’re doing, sir?I thought we were intermittently fucking while you held me hostage.”

“Held you hostage?”I sat down beside her.“I don’t remember demanding a ransom.”

She laughed, the noise hollow.“There’s no one to demand one from.Besides Chelle, I don’t exactly have the widest social circle.”

“You have me.”I turned to face her.“To get you out of here and for whatever else you need afterward.”

“WhateverI need?”Her tone was sardonic, goading me into the idea of spanking the sarcasm out of her.

“That’s right, little girl.Don’t doubt it.”

The notion of pulling her over me for punishment was tempting, but not until I’d gone some way toward consoling her.I’d seen enough of the hysterical version of Erin to know we’d do better without her.I much preferred the calmer, more loving facet of the woman.

She shook her head.“But I don’t even know you.”A blush crawled along her neck as she glanced away.“Just because we’ve…”

“Fucked?”I interrupted.

“Yeah.”Her awkward smirk was delightful.“It doesn’t mean I can trust you.We’re not engaged or anything.”

“You’re hilarious.”Wrapping an arm around her shoulder, I pulled her close and was pleased she didn’t try to fight me off.“I’m just saying, you’re not alone.”

“Thanks.”Her brow rose.“It’s just, all I really know about you is that you’re a tour guide who used to be a park ranger.You could beanyone!”

“Like a serial killer, you mean?”My laughter was dark, mirroring the grains of truth in my question.

I wasn’t a serial killer, but only because of a technicality of definition.My acts had been state-sanctioned, but technically, I’d killed more people than most serial killers.

“No!”She struck my chest playfully.“Nothing like that.I’m just saying, you like to get your own way.How do I know I’m safe?”

I chuckled at her accurate analysis.She’d known me for such a short time, yet, instinctively, she seemed to understand me.

“I do like getting my own way, but I won’t harm you, little girl.”

How could she even think otherwise?

I’d been a bad man, paid to do bad things, but I’d never maltreated a woman.

I never would.

Erin knew nothing about the things I’d done, though.No doubt she’d have thought twice about being so close to me if she had.

“You spanked me!”Her tone oozed with indignation.

“Because you deserved it.”My laughter deepened.“And you responded, Erin, almost as though you’d been waiting for someone to give you those boundaries your whole life.”

“That’s rubbish,” she muttered, shrugging away from my embrace.“You hurt me, and you had no right.”

“I spanked you.”My dick throbbed at the delicious recollection.Taming her had been one of the greatest highs of my life.“But I never harmed you, Erin.Iwouldnever harm you.”

“What’s the difference?”She scowled.

“There’s a world of difference, believe me.”

“If you say so.”Her jaw tensed.“It sounds like convenient semantics to me.”

“It’s not.”I balled my free hand at my side, trying not to think about the people I’d really hurt.

Sometimes, I had seen their faces in faded photographs clipped onto the corner of paper files.Sometimes, I’d only been given their name—an anonymous identity which meant nothing—but sitting there, I realized my view had been slanted.Every one of those people had beensomeone.They were all someone’s father or brother—someone’s child.“I know you have no reason to trust me, but you can.”

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