Page 10 of Kidnapped Bride

Yes, my father would be upset, but not because of Niko. Simply because of his age, but that didn't seem to be a problem a minute ago.

"Niko, what are you doing? Why are you looking at me like that?" I had an impulse to grab my dress and run, but he stood between me and the door.

Besides, I’d just had sex with him.

He was the kind, sweet man I spent the past two weeks texting. I didn't have any reason I could think of to be scared of him.

"Have a drink, Kira. Relax." His eyes narrowed on me, but I didn't feel comfortable drinking more.

"I don't want a drink, Niko. I want dinner. And then I think I want to go home." I reached for the dress, but now I felt so uncomfortable, I didn’t want to be naked in front of him. I just clung to it and watched his scowl grow angrier.

"Take a drink," he growled, and it made my whole body go rigid.

"Niko, you're scaring me. I just want to get dressed and go home." I turned and tugged the dress on over my head, but he got a glimpse of my bare backside as I shimmied it down, and when I turned back around, he was by the door. "What are you doing?" I asked, feeling flushed, reaching for my panties.

"I don't really care for it when my playthings rebel… You're mine now, Kira. Didn't you hear me say that?" His eyes swept down over my body to the panties dangling from my hand.

"What? No, I don't belong to anyone." My heart raced and my hands shook a little. Adrenaline surged through me, making the alcohol buzz less intense but scarier. "I want to go home."

"This is your home now. I own you for the time being. Make yourself comfortable. You're not going anywhere until your father learns his lesson." Then he backed out the door and shut it.

I raced around the bed and grabbed the doorknob, twisting and tugging, but it was locked.

"Niko! No! You let me out of here!" Smacking the door hurt my hand, so I balled up my fist and pounded, but soon, that hurt too. "Niko! This isn't funny! Let me out!"

My phone wasn't here, nor was my purse—both left downstairs on the table where I was sitting. I couldn't call for help and his footsteps were fading away from the door.

But I stood there banging and screaming for him to let me out for a long time as tears erupted and panic took over.

I had trusted him, and this whole time it was some sort of trap.

I had no clue who this man was or why he thought he could do this to me, but my father would never stand for it.

When I thought about how I'd been so duped, I got angry.

So angry that I threw the side table down, shattering the lamp and making the things on top and inside the drawers scatter on the floor, and a paper fluttered across the room and landed at my feet.

When I stooped to pick it up, the name on the letterhead made my blood run cold. It readNikolai Dragonov, and I knew exactly where my foolish heart had gone wrong.

I just slept with my father's mortal enemy.

And now I was his prisoner.

3

NIKOLAI

Kira's tantrum had stopped somewhere around midnight, when I lay on the couch to catch a few hours of sleep in the blessed silence.

Now, just after eight a.m. she was back at it, banging on the door and shouting. It was a wonder her throat wasn't so swollen from all that shouting that she'd gone hoarse and lost her voice.

I sank into my chair at my desk with a fresh cup of coffee and tried to block out all the shouting.

It wasn't my goal to make her miserable, though I knew without a doubt when I took her that it would happen.

It was a shame.

She really was an incredible woman, and she made my body feel things I hadn't felt since I was a teenager hyped up on hormones and sex drive.