The Other Half of Your Heart

Soft hands touched Cara, holding her gently, arranging her legs and arms. It was more wonderful than she had ever thought it could be. How right he had been to wait, to wait until it was just perfect. The bed was soft, there was a soft, flower-laden breeze... She had come close to spoiling it all by having a ugly bad dream, but he had taken care of her...

“Buck...” she murmured dreamily.

“Sorry.” The edged voice cut through the silence, jerking her from semi-sleep into nightmare.

It hadn't been a bad dream. Dave Burkhart stood at the foot of the bed, thumbs hooked in the belt loops of his jeans, staring at her with a queer mixture of insolence and anger.

Someone else angry with me, Cara thought blankly. Why was everyone so mad at her?

Bed? Awareness came to Cara in chunks. She was on a bed, but it wasn't hers, and this wasn't her room. Their luxury hotel probably didn't have a storeroom as bleak as this tin-ceilinged, dirt-floored cubicle. The bed was double and covered with a ratty chenille spread in a startling pink. She couldn't see any other furniture.

“Where am I? Why did you bring me here?” Cara would have leapt up at that moment, only suddenly there was a terrifying new chunk of knowledge. She was bound hand and foot to the bed.

Panic filled her like a flash of lightning. She was in a foreign country and, because of Buck's romantic desire to keep their holiday secret, no one knew where she was. Now she had fallen into the hands of a demented pervert who was going to do God only knew what to her and Buck had no idea of where to find her. She flopped in fear, flinging herself against the bonds without being conscious of the pain.

“Wait a minute!” Her tormentor threw himself across her, pinning her to the sagging mattress and stifling her screams with a harsh hand over her mouth. “Calm down!”

The weight of his body drove the breath from Cara's lungs. It also hurt as the rope bit into her wrists and ankles.

“Ouch!”

Her exclamation sounded more like a gurgle, but he arose instantly, only keeping his hand over her mouth.

“Sorry. Didn't mean to hurt you. Are you going to stay quiet?”

Cara thought for just a moment, and then nodded.

He lifted his hand slowly. The silence was thick, broken only by muted sounds from outside. Cara could hear the crystalline notes of a wind chime dinging in the wind. Visions of tabloid horrors danced in her head.

“What are you going to do to me?”

“A lot less than you deserve.”

“What do you mean by that?” Cara asked indignantly. He wasn't only perverted, he had to be mad!