My Captor, My Love Read online

  I didn't know what I was thinking, what made me think I could get away. He was on me before I went three steps, grabbing ahold of my pony tail while he still sat on the horse.

  "Owwww. No!" I would've fallen in a heap to the ground but he had such a tight hold on my hair. I was crying furiously. "Leave me alone. Lemme go. Please! Lemme go. Damn you!"

  He reached down, grabbed my arm, and pulled me up onto the horse in front of him. His arm held me tightly around the waist and I was forced snug against him. I pushed hard against his arm trying to loosen his hold on me, but I couldn't budge him. Repeatedly, I slammed my head back against his chest and tried to kick back at him.

  "Damn you, let me go!"

  He flipped me like a ragdoll and laid me on my stomach over his legs. I grabbed at his leg, scratching, trying to bite it. When he slapped me on the rear, I yelped, then yelled, "You son-of-a-bitch keep your hands off me!" He slapped me twice more, so I let go of his leg and tried to cover my bottom. He grabbed my hands together, held them behind me, and brought the horse to a gallop. I had to stop yelling; I could barely get enough air in to fill my lungs.

  After awhile of me grunting and groaning, he finally flipped me back up so I was sitting in front of him again. He held me against him with his arm around my waist, but not as tightly. I guessed he could sense my temporary defeat. We continued to travel away from the mountain, away from the cave, for what seemed like many hours.

  We rode on the edge of beautiful meadows and crossed over a couple of streams. He tapped my shoulder and pointed off to the side. I looked and saw a huge mama bear with her cub; they stopped eating to watch us pass by. The chubby cub was adorable and fuzzy; the mother bear stood and watched us warily. Lots of times I heard or saw other quick movements in the bushes we passed, but I never saw an animal. I felt him tap my shoulder again; he pointed and I saw deer off in the distance, one buck and three does.

  Why's he being nice? How did this happen? TamTam. Please let there be a search party. Where're we going? His chest is a rock. I'd wanted to get away from pushy men and boring men and the heat wave, but… I looked down at his legs surrounding mine, pure muscle. Huge. His hair looked soft, not coarse and wiry--I wanted to touch it and find out. Crap, I gotta get outta here. Are they for real with the breech cloths? Maybe a pow wow? Why take me? Help me, Lord, please.

  I kept watch of the skyline and the shape of the mountains around me, trying to remember everything. Several times I tried to get a look at the mountain we'd come through, but every time I turned, Adam moved so I couldn't see around his shoulders. One time he even grabbed my chin and forced my face forward. I jerked my head out of his hand.

  We started climbing up another mountain through dense trees. Sometimes we had to duck so we weren't hit by branches. He would bend forward into me to keep branches from hitting me, hitting us. I tried to sit up straight the rest of the time because I didn’t want to lean back against him, but I must have been getting tired because I kept finding myself resting back and I'd immediately move myself away again.

  I finally couldn't see the sun anymore and the air was starting to get chilling, though I felt warm enough with the heat coming off Adam. It had to be well after six o'clock; I thought they took me around one o'clock. What's TamTam doing? What's gonna happen? Does anyone know about the cave? If not, they won't look for me here. God, don't let them hurt me. I wanted to ask Adam again what they were going to do with me, but that would've been wasting my time. He'd never answer me even if he did understand me.

  When they stopped the horses, Adam lifted me off and I immediately crumbled to the ground; my legs couldn't support me. They were in shape to do spin and step classes, but they definitely weren't in shape to be on a horse for hours. He lifted me up in his arms and gently set me next to a tree. He acted like I weighed eighty pounds; I'd never had a man carry me before. Even though the bark was hard, it felt good to just relax and lean back. He started to walk away and then stopped and looked back at me. After a few seconds, he walked away to his horse. He must have figured that he didn't need to tie me up; I wasn't going anywhere on my useless legs.

  The men all took off while Adam emptied stuff from the pack tied to his horse. He grabbed my backpack and started emptying it. "Hey, that's mine," I croaked out. Between screaming and not talking for hours, my voice hardly worked. He looked back at me as he went to the horse and grabbed my windbreaker, which he tossed to me along with my shirt; I quickly put both on. He grabbed one of my water bottles and shook it. First he tried to push the cap off, then, he pulled it.

  No way, he doesn't know how to open it? "You twist it off," I said while miming the action. Where're they from? Is he joking? He got the lid off and sniffed the water before taking a drink. He replaced the lid and tossed the bottle to me. I drank greedily while he looked at my band-aids, sniffed my sunscreen and bug repellant, opened the tube of Neosporin and squeezed a good blob out, pulled a wipe out and rubbed it between his fingers, and even started squeezing my energy bars.

  "Stop! You're going to make a mess of them." I held out my hand, hoping he'd hand the bar to me. He did. I opened the wrapper and started eating, and he came over close to me and kneeled down, watching me. I held it out to him. "You want to try it?" Adam pinched a small piece off and ate it. I didn’t know if he liked it or not because he didn’t make any expression as he got up and walked back to his horse.

  I didn't recognize one of the Indians, he must have been the one I ran into inside the cave; I never did get a good look at him. Not wanting him to see me staring, I watched him out of the corner of my eye. I decided to call him Hidden. He started building a small campfire and the other two soon returned. The other cutie pie had some fish, and the mean one had a couple of rabbits. They cleaned their catch and put them over the fire. While the food was cooking they all sat by the fire and talked, though Hidden didn't seem to be saying much. I could tell Meanie was still angry.

  I was able to just sit and study them. Adam was an Adonis. I figured him to be about six foot three. His profile was amazing with a strong, sharp nose. He had a mole, a beauty mark below his right eye. His shoulders--I still couldn't believe the span of his shoulders. And he had a narrow waist. His pecs were built--really all of him was built--and he had a washboard stomach. His arms and hands were huge like his thighs. So many men are built well, but have skinny legs. I like a man's legs to be bigger than mine. He had very little hair on his body; his and Cutie Pie's hair was dark brown, not jet black like the other two. His hair was long, almost to his shoulder blades, pulled back and tied with a strap of leather with a feather tied in it.

  They were all squatting on the ground; Adam's breech cloth covered his front and back, but barely. I had a whole side view, and just as I was licking my lower lip I felt his eyes on me. I quickly looked up at him and bit my lip; I didn't want him to think I wanted him.

  I shook my head, "No." I thought he gave me a little smirk, but I didn't know for sure because I'd turned away too fast. I better be more careful. What the hell am I thinking?

  Slowly turning my head, I looked over at Cutie Pie; he was so much like Adam, but he looked younger. The other one, Hidden, looked more like an American Indian. His hair was jet black and he had a braid down by the side of his face with a feather in it. His eyes looked black, but I couldn't tell at night. He had no hair on his body. His nose was kind of flat, but not too big. He didn't seem to be saying too much. He had to be six foot himself and was just as muscular, but he had a leaner look to him than Adam and Cutie Pie.

  Meanie was another thing altogether; he scared me to death. My fear wasn't so much from his looks. He had a strong jaw and high cheek bones, but a scar started just outside his right eyebrow and ran down to the top of his cheek, then jumped to his lip and down his chin. After the cruel looks I'd received from some people when I was overweight, I wouldn't judge him solely on his fierce looks. My fear came instead from his temperament, his express, and his eyes His solid black eyes looked at me with a com
bination of lust and hate, and he had a perpetual sneer that had nothing to do with the scar. He had to be a little over six foot and he was built like a brick shit house, as my dad used to say. He was stocky with a barrel chest and covered with muscles. His skin was a little bit darker than the others.

  Every once in awhile one or all would look at me or one would point at me, so I had to keep averting my gaze. Adam seemed calm and in control. At one point, he took some of his beads, grabbed a knife from his roll, and tried to hand it all to Meanie--who shook his head and looked furious as he pointed to me, then pointed to himself. His jaw was clenched and his deep voice rumbled. Adam pointed to his horse. Meanie looked at the horse, looked at me, and shook his head again.

  They're bartering for me! Ohmygod. My heart started beating so quickly that I had to control myself not to get up and run away; instead, I slowly started backing away. I thought Adam want me too. More discussion went on until Meanie finally stalked off. Adam gestured me over to him and he held out some food. I was afraid to get closer but I was hungry and I didn't know where Meanie had taken off to. He could've been right behind me. That thought got me up and moving closer to Adam as I looked behind me.

  I took the fish he offered me and ate it all. The taste was so divine that I even licked my fingers clean and licked down the side of my hands where the juices had dripped. I looked up to see Adam watching me intently. Oh, not good, Dani. I put my hands down and wiped them on my jeans.

  He stood and moved over to me. I quickly tried to scramble away from him, but he stepped on the edge of the blanket to stop me. I couldn't stop my whimper when he reached out to take the blanket from around me and laid it on the ground next to the fire. Lying down, he patted the open space between him and the fire. I shook my head and looked around at the others. Meanie stalked back toward us and I immediately moved to sit next to Adam. Cutie Pie chuckled and said something that got Hidden to laugh.

  Adam grabbed my shoulder and pushed me down next to him. Oh no, here it comes. I struggled; I wasn't going to make it easy for him. "Stop!" But all he did was pull me back into him so we were spooning. His arm was draped over my waist and I felt his slow even breath on the back of my neck. I didn't feel I was in any immediate danger from him, but I was acutely aware of how our bodies were touching. Between Adam and the fire, I was nice and warm.

  Evidently I slept well, because the next thing I knew I was being jostled awake by Adam. They already had their camp picked up and the others were on their horses slowly riding away. I sat up and winced at my sore and stiff shoulder.

  He handed me one of my water bottles and some type of biscuit that had dried berries and nuts in it. I took a bite; it wasn't the best thing I'd ever eaten, but some of those protein bars aren't exactly gourmet either. He sat next to me and took hold of my shoulder. I tried to jerk away, but he held on and started massaging. It actually felt good. I looked at him, but I didn't see anything sexual in his eyes so I figured he was just helping me. Soon the stiffness lessened. Huh…that's nice of him, I think. I moved my shoulder and arm around while looking at him. "Thank you, I feel better."

  He grunted and walked away.

  After I finished eating, Adam stood and watched me. I could tell he was packed, ready to go, and waiting for me. Okay, potty break again. I pointed to my backpack. "I need to get something?" I raised my eyebrows in hopefulness and grabbed my wipes, slowly walking behind a tree. I was surprised he'd let me go, he'd given me privacy. "Well, thank you for small favors," I said under my breath.

  When I returned, he motioned me toward the horse. No…I can't ride again. I groaned and rubbed my butt, shaking my head. Adam got on while holding my hand; I was lifted up and swung around so that he cradled me in his arms At least that didn't hurt my bottom. But maybe the pain would have been better; I knew I was blushing. He held me tightly to him while he rode the horse hard. My cheek was against his arm and I didn't know what to do with my hands. I wanted to hold on, but I didn't know where to grab; I decided to crossing them over my chest was the best plan. I stared up at him, his hard jaw--until he looked down at me.

  When Adam caught up to the others, he slowed down and I was able to relax a little. We rode all day up and down hills, higher into a mountain, and then down and around. Sometimes we rode in one direction and sometimes another. Again, he would point out animals or a patch of pretty flowers to me. Trees were all around us and I was completely lost. We stopped at one point near a stream to water the horses and quickly eat some food. I shook myself and took a deep breath, relieved to finally be out of his arms, and I looked around. The view was beautiful with the clear blue sky and sunlight cascading through the trees; it was just too hard to enjoy when my brain was working overtime trying to figure out how to get away, and being so aware of Adam's strong arms wrapped around me.

  I got up to walk away. "I have to go to the bathroom," I grumbled. When I looked back at them, they weren't looking at me. I took off running. I didn't even get ten steps away before I was tackled from behind. We rolled and someone was on my back. My hands were pulled behind me and I felt him bite me at the base of my neck, enough to startle but not enough to cause pain. He licked where he'd bitten me. I was pretty sure it was Adam; I tried to stifle my shiver and was unsuccessful.

  He flipped me over on my back and straddled my stomach, holding my hands beside my head. Slowly he brought his face down to mine, stopping before he touched me. I tried not to make any sound. His gorgeous, green, piercing eyes looked hard into mine while he slowly shook his head. He didn't look mean or mad, just intense. Making a loud sigh, I turned my head to the side and completely relaxes my body so he would know I'd given up; plus I had to try to get my heart to slow down. Instead I got mad.

  "You can't do this. I want to go back."

  He stood up and held his hand out to me. Having no choice, I took it and he pulled me along until he put me back on the horse and got on behind me. I sat stiffly with my arms crossed in front of me, trying to wiggle forward so I wasn't touching him, but he'd just pull me back against him.

  "You can't expect me not to try to get away. You're kidnapping me you know."

  He didn’t respond, not that I expected him to. I sighed once again and leaned back against him. There was nothing I could do; no use in further exhausting myself. Whenever he moved his arms, I felt the muscles in his chest move and I'd quickly sit forward. Most times he would gently put his hand on my collar bone and push me back toward him again while I hoped that he couldn't feel my heart beating so hard.

  We rode again until dark, and like the previous night, the others went away while Adam stayed with me and took all the packs off the horses. Since I didn't have the strength to fight him, I knew I was going to have to use my brain and try to reason with him.

  "Why won't you say anything or talk to me?" I asked in exasperation. "At least tell me you name, or I'll start calling you Adam." I didn't know why I was talking to him when it was obvious they didn't speak English. He stopped what he was doing, and holding the blanket, he knelt down to me.

  I pointed toward my chest, "My name is Danielle…Dani." He looked at my finger, then back to my face. Again I pointed to myself, "Dani." I point to him with a questing look.

  He said something I didn't catch and I knew I had a bewildered look on my face. He pointed to himself and again said more slowly, "Honon." Then he pointed to me. "Da'ni." I wouldn't exactly say he was smiling, but he didn't have his normal stone face.

  "Okay," I smiled. "Honon I want…Dani…," I pointed to myself, "I want to go home. Dani…" I pointed back in the direction we'd come. He looked to where I was pointing and my heart began to beat in anticipation. He looked back at him, made a big sigh and almost looked apologetic as he shook his head.

  I sighed deeply in return, grabbed the blanket from him, and turned away so he couldn't see the tears in my eyes. I laid out the blanket and sat down with me back to him.

  All through dinner I refused to turn around. Luckily, Cutie Pie built the f
ire close to me so I didn't have to move. When Honon lay down in front of me, I quickly turned toward the fire. He gently pushed me to lie down and I wanted to fight him but I was too tired. His head was close to mine and he whispered words I didn't understand, but I felt comforted by them. I fell asleep with silent tears running down my cheeks and his arm draped over my waist.

  The next morning was the same as the day before, except that I was feeling dirty. Actually, "dirty" was an understatement. I used my bandana to wipe my teeth, but I still felt disgusting. Well, maybe it'll keep him and Meanie away.

  Honon handed me a twig and a leaf; it was mint. Wonderful. I put it in my mouth to suck on and rub over my teeth. He took hold of my chin and turned my head to look at him. He sat very close; I looked back and forth between his gorgeous green eyes and his luscious mouth, wondering if he was going to kiss me.

  He waved something in front of my eyes. Once I focused on it, I saw it was a twig. He made me watch him while he chewed on it. He smashed the end so it fanned out and used it to scrape his teeth. But between his lips and glimpses of his tongue, my heart started to speed up. I wondered why they'd feel like-- until Honon held up my hand that had a twig and waved it in front of my eyes. I blinked and sat up straight; I'd been staring again. I felt a blush cover my face.

  I saw his little smirk right before he kissed me on the tip of my nose and stood up to walk away. Ugh, that was embarrassing. I hoped my mouth hadn't been hanging open catching flies.