Page 42 of Taken
Passageways. That went all over the Compound.
If Trish had known about this, she could have escaped days ago!
The elation she’d expected to fill her chest was strangely… flat. Small. In fact, it didn’t feel like elation, at all. Just confusion. Conflict.
Plain old idiocy.
She should be happy about this.
And she could share it with Bella and Alex.
Trish glanced over at Jordan, who stood talking with a small group of soldiers. Her time with him outside had already been interrupted several times. That wasn’t unusual, but it did seem like there were more soldiers than usual and Jordan didn’t always talk to them with Trish there. He kept stepping away.
The Wolf and Cora were doing whatever mission they’d been planning today—that much was obvious, and probably why Jordan had less time, and had needed to take a detour this morning. He’d been left in charge, and that was another reason he kept getting up and abandoning her.
No, not ‘abandoning.’
Trish didn’t feel abandoned. She was fine being on her own. She’d been on her own for almost her entire life. Just because Jordan usually made sure to leave her with company didn’t mean she felt abandoned or lonely or anything now.
She was just off-kilter. Her emotions were still upset and roiled by being part of a near-orgy with someone she considered a friend. That was all. She just hadn’t wanted to admit it because… because…
Because she hadn’t wanted to admit how much she’d liked it.
Just like she didn’t want to admit she felt lonely and a little abandoned by Jordan.
Trish locked her traitorous thoughts away and turned toward what she knew she should be doing with her newfound information. Her Stockholm Syndrome could wait.
“Bella,” she whispered loudly, trying to focus her voice to where Bella sat by the side of the pool, watching Alex pounding his way through the water, as he often did. “Hey Bella…”
After telling Bella about the passageways, Trish was a bundle of nerves for the rest of the afternoon, but Jordan didn’t seem to have noticed her conversation with Bella. He acted normally: holding her on his lap through meals, keeping hold of her hand whenever they were walking somewhere. And when he had to run and do something with Trace, he left her with Chevie and Trix. Trish was relieved not to be left with Marek and Laura.
Waving to Laura from a distance and acting like everything was okay was one thing, but actually interacting with her? And Marek? Was she ready for that yet?
She was grateful to Jordan for leaving her with Chevie and Trix, though she wasn’t sure whether he’d done it to be considerate, or if Chevie and Trix had just been available and convenient. Part of Trish wanted to think the latter, but another part of her reluctantly acknowledged how in tune with her desires Jordan often was—and not just the sexual ones.She could absolutely believe he’d purposefully left her with the people she was the next most comfortable with who weren’t Marek and Laura because the next time she saw the couple, he’d want to be there to support her.
Which was a weird thing to think about her kidnapper, but… Jordan wasn’t a normal kidnapper, if there even were such a thing.
The Earth citizens didn’t have the same mentality about kidnapping that the Moon did. Not that Trish thought the Moon was a more moral place; they were just better about hiding their sins under shiny, glamorous disguises rather than leaving them out in the open, uncaring of who saw.
When Jordan came back and took her to dinner, he was as normal as before. His hand caressed her bottom while they ate, making her skin tingle as if in anticipation of the spanking she knew she’d get if he knew she’d shared information with Bella. It made Trish more fidgety than normal as the anxiously awaited for some sign he knew what she’d done.
But none came.
After dinner, he took her back to his room.
“I missed you today,” he murmured, leading her over to the bed.
Trish didn’t respond, even as a stupid trickle of warmth wound its way around her chest at his unexpected statement. She looked up at him, tilting her head to the side and wishing her body wasn’t already heating and preparing itself for him. There was no denying her reaction, but she still could wish she didn’t have it at all.
“Come here.” He didn’t need to say the words as he pulled her between his thighs and sat on the edge of the bed, but the order made her shiver, anyway.
Jordan pulled her in for a kiss, his lips and tongue demanding her participation as his hands slid under the pinkskirt of her dress and squeezed her ass. Trish stiffened for a moment before softening into his grip, her hands on his shoulders as he groped her, his fingers caressing and teasing her sensitive places. The plug in her ass jiggled as his fingers brushed over it, jostling it slightly and awakening the nerve-endings there. “Good girl.”
His lips slid down her neck as he pulled her forward so she was no longer standing but straddling his lap on the bed. Trish’s head fell back, giving him greater access to her throat as his hands kneaded her buttocks.
She wasn’t participating… but she wasn’t fighting, either. There was pleasure in passivity. Peacefulness in submission. She didn’t want to think; she just wanted to feel.
The com on Jordan’s belt chimed, and he stiffened with agitation beneath her. She pushed away her own wave of disappointment, feeling strangely vulnerable as he clicked the button on the earpiece he wore.
