Page 16 of Hideaway

“Yes, you,”Cade responded menacingly, earning a dark look from Mrs. Hughes before she turned her protective gaze to Kara.“Don’t worry, I promise I’ll be on my best behavior.”Mrs. Hughes and Kara both looked at him dubiously as though they fully expected him to have crossed his fingers behind his back.

“Do I have a choice?”Kara asked hesitantly, reluctant to leave the peace and warmth of the kitchen and follow Cade into the unknown.

“No,”Cade answered simply—arrogance rather than malice filling his tone.“But, I can promise you, you’ll be pleased you came.”Cade offered Kara his hand, expecting her to take it if she didn’t want to be dragged out of the kitchen over his shoulder. Resorting to the measures of a caveman when the situation required didn’t bother him in the slightest.

Kara narrowed her eyes, fully aware that Cade’s statement could be taken in more than one way. Was there an innuendo woven into his words, or was Kara merely imagining things? Or, to her absolute horror,longingfor a sexual suggestiveness from her captor? No, that definitely wasn’t it. If Cade—with his lush, curly locks, and captivating eyes the color of sun-dappled leaves, and stupid fucking lips that seemed perpetually pulled into a self-satisfied smirk—attempted to proposition her, she would answer with a resoundingfuck you.Meant as a rejection, of course, not a suggestion. And she would only marginally regret turning him down. Well, perhaps a smidge more thanmarginally, but she would survive the fucking loss.

With a sigh of resignation, Kara took Cade’s hand, allowing his fingers to wrap tightly around her own. He squeezed her hand briefly, not very hard, but enough to force her to acknowledge that she was within his grasp. Kara inhaled sharply at the contact, overcome with feelings she couldn’t even begin to process. Nor did she want to.

“Good girl,”Cade praised with a smug grin as he pulled her toward the doors exiting the kitchen.

Those two words obliterated the small flutterings of butterflies in Kara’s stomach, burnt them to a crisp with an all-consuming inferno of need. The sudden weakness of her knees would have caused her to stumble if it wasn’t for Cade’s firm grasp keeping her upright. She obediently followed as he led her from the kitchen, too distracted to even bid Mrs. Hughes farewell.

Cade pulled her through the dining room and, rather than heading for the stairs, led her down the right hall on the first floor. She hadn’t ventured in that part of the house, and she could only contrive guesses at what lay beyond the many closed doors in the outstretched passageway. Shortly, Cade pulled her to a stop in front of a set of doors that stood out from the other plain ones that lined the hall. These two were special—tall, arched, and decorated with a tapestry of art carved into wood.

Cade reached into his pocket and pulled out an ornate, golden, skeleton key.“Here,”he said as he presented her with the key, the act appearing almost ceremonious.

“What’s behind those doors?”Kara asked distrustfully as she eyed the key in his open palm with suspicion. Was that where he housed the torture chamber? Would she merely be unlocking another cage that she would be forced into? Perhaps something worse than the luxurious bedroom upstairs? Maybe this was where she paid for defying his orders and safeguarding the Chaucer text.

“I promise you, nothing behind those doors will harm you,”Cade reassured her, his eyes full of the utmost sincerity as they locked on to hers.“Now take the bloody key and open it.”

Kara let out a breath that she hadn’t even been aware she was holding as she snatched the key from Cade’s outstretched fingers. Resigning herself to whatever fate lay beyond, Kara fitted the key into the keyhole and turned it counterclockwise, hearing a loud click as the lock disengaged. Not allowing herself the time for cowardice, Kara confidently pushed open both doors, a gasp slipping from her lips as she beheld the welcome sight that greeted her.

The room was windowless. Twin, vintage, Victorian chandeliers hung from a wooden ceiling inlaid with octagonal shapes that lent the impression of honeycomb in a beehive. The only other light source, other than the dramatic chandeliers, was the dim glow of sconces along the walls, lending an ancient, atmospheric feel to the room. Gothic sculptures perched atop the corners, a mixture of angels and gargoyles as though the decorator wasn’t sure whether they meant to emanate darkness or light and settled for a marriage of both. Intricately carved, gold-inlaid shelves formed eight arches around the room, some encased in glass, some open. And on those beautiful shelves—books. There were bookseverywhere. Thousands of them. Filling every shelf. Lining every wall.

He had a complete library right in the middle of his fucking house.

“It’s my personal collection,”Cade explained, interrupting Kara’s sheer, function crippling awe.“Not nearly as expansive as the university library, of course, but I thought it might help you feel more at home while you’re here.”

“It’s beautiful,”Kara responded in reverence, the word sounding dull and hollow to her ears compared to the sheer majesty before her.

“Half of the books are far older than you. A quarter are either first editions or special publications. There’s one annotated by Dickens himself if you can find it.”A rare smile of genuine happiness crossed his face as he watched Kara eagerly devour the sight of the books as though it were the first sustenance she’d ever been offered.

“The library is kept locked, both for privacy and security. I have a key, Mrs. Hughes has another, and you, Miss Caine, hold the third and final key. You may use the library whenever you wish. Let it be your sanctuary or escape; you’ll not be bothered while you’re behind these doors.”

“Thank you, Cade!”Kara exclaimed with unabashed happiness. Before she could even think to restrain her exuberance, Kara wrapped her arms around his neck, stood on her tiptoes, and placed a kiss softly on his cheek.

Cade turned rigid beneath her touch, wholly shocked by the display of affection. She had kissed him. The gesture was more gratitude than anything else—chaste rather than sensual—but he couldn’t deny that her lips on his skin left him wanting more. Intrigued by the thought of how those lips would feel in other places. How she’d look on her knees with her mouth wrapped around his cock. How her skin would taste beneath his tongue. Kara’s arms were still circled around his neck as she stood frozen, clearly dealing with a shock of her own. Against his better judgment, Cade reached out his hand and stroked the tip of his thumb along the curve of Kara’s jaw, not missing the slight shiver of her body as she leaned into his touch as if begging for more.

She’d called him Cade, he realized after the shock of her outburst dispersed. The name in itself sent a wave of emotion flooding through his body. No one called him Cade. She certainly never had. It was alwaysMr. Ashfordorfucking bastardif she was feeling particularly cheerful. His business associates called him Ashford. His parents called him Caden in a way that made him grind his teeth in irritation. His companions, when he had them, called him whatever he ordered them to. Only one other person had called him Cade, and he hadn’t heard the name in years. Cade’s eyes warmed as he drew his thumb up to Kara’s lips, tracing the shape of them almost reverently.

“You’re welcome,”Cade finally responded, his voice husky and rough with desire. His words startled Kara from her trance, and she pulled away from him sharply, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Or perhaps something more carnal.

“I’m sorry,”she said softly, avoiding his gaze as the mortification of what she had just done began to settle in. She’d practically accosted him, all because he’d shown her a few books. Okay, probably more like thousands of books in his own personal library. For which she now had a key. A sanctuary to escape her prison. A prison that he kept her locked in, she reminded herself in reprimand. She felt foolish. And ashamed. And…horny as fuck, but her arousal only made her feel worse.

“Kara.”Cade grabbed her chin, stirring her from her self-doubt.“Do not apologize to me,”he ordered, his tone stern.

Kara swallowed hard as Cade kept her chin in his grasp, his fingers digging in slightly as he seemed to contemplate something. Something that set his eyes ablaze with a heat that looked like anger but felt entirely different. It felt like a searing, insatiable hunger. Like he wanted to eat her alive—violently devour her, but make her feel good while he did it. Kara willed him to do it, silently pleading with him to close the space between them and kiss her. Touch her. Fucking destroy her, if he wanted.

A flicker of fear crossed Cade’s face, and then the fire was gone, buried as his usual cold indifference took its place. He released Kara’s chin, stepping back until an appropriate amount of space lay between them and straightening his suit as a means of occupying his hands and keeping them off her. Kara felt his sudden distance as though it were a chill in the air, wrapping her arms around herself as if to ward off Cade’s obvious coolness toward her.

“Enjoy the library, Miss Caine. It is at your disposal,”he said, the formal titles firmly back in place.“I will see you at dinner.” Without so much as a goodbye, Cade strode out of the room, his footsteps heavy and angry against the marble floor.

Kara flinched at the sound of the library doors slamming closed, sequestering her in solitude. What the fuck had just happened? Cade had nearly kissed her, she was almost sure of it. But then his features had turned harsh, and he rushed out of her newly gifted library as though he couldn’t bear the sight of her. Had she done something wrong? Guilt was certainly one of the more prominent emotions surging through her body as she felt the dampness between her thighs and her chest heaved gustily in tune with her erratic pulse. What the hell was wrong with her? She was allowing herself to feel things no one in their right mind would feel for the man who had drugged her, stolen her from her home, and kept her captive in his house. Perhaps that was the problem; the sanity of her mind was slowly eroding beneath Cade’s arrogant charms, infuriating smiles, and oppressively well-distributed physical genetics.

KARA anxiously fidgeted with the hem of her dress as she descended the stairs for dinner. It was an unusually bold choice for her: a silky red dress that accentuated her breasts with a very low cut in the front, a back that dipped nearly to the curve of her ass, and a skirt that flared at her hips and fell in luscious ripples down to her ankles with a subtle slit on the side that went up to her thigh. She had made her dress selection as though choosing armor and slipping into that red dress felt like sheathing herself in pure power. She’d paired the dress with subdued makeup apart from a bright, cherry-red lip that made her mouth the center of attention. Her style might have been misconstrued as seductive, but for Kara it was less about inciting sex and more about inciting confidence. The look made her feel strong, brave, and she would need both when encountering the fearsome man who waited for her in the dining hall.

The overwhelming scent of Mrs. Hughes’s cooking wafting down the hall as Kara made her way to the dining room smelled delicious and familiar; it was a nostalgic reminder of Sundays spent with family, and, as much as her current situation differed from those happy, carefree memories, she still appreciated the sentimental reminder. Kara wasn’t sure whether she should be relieved or disappointed when she entered the room to discover a full table. Declan, Jace, Ortega, Braxton, and Cade all turned to look at her, their expressions varied. Declan and Ortega met her with friendly smiles, while Braxton offered a brief nod of greeting. There was an unnerving hunger in Jace’s lingering stare that made Kara’s skin crawl, and she subconsciously put more distance between them. Cade looked at her with a heady mixture of fury and desire, his typical iciness melted away to reveal a mere human comprised of the same primal needs as everyone else.

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