Page 79 of While He Breathes

He stops suddenly outside a door, and I slam into him, too busy looking at my surroundings to stop myself in time.

His hands wrap around my hips and trap me between his body and the wall.

A wave of nausea rolls over me, but I refuse to show him fear.

“If you wanted my body on yours, Ember, you could have just asked.”

“I just lost my balance,” I say softly, blinking up at him through long lashes.

This would be a lot easier if he didn’t know I had a whole lot of badass in me, but he seems to eat up my softness, exactly as I want him to.

He chuckles. “Of course you did.” His eyes flicker to the door beside us. “Do your business. Once you’re finished, I’ll get you something to eat.”

“Thank you.”

Lucas trails his fingers down my cheek in a gesture that’s far too intimate for my liking. “Anything for my bride-to-be.”

I slip through the bathroom door before allowing the panic to roll over me in brutal waves.

Fuck.

He’s really committed to this whole marriage thing, which is not ideal.

I wonder if I can push it out, give Orion more time to find me.

Maybe I could fake an illness. I feel nauseous enough that it wouldn’t even be that far from the truth.

I shake myself off and quickly use the toilet. It’s surprisingly, and thankfully, pretty clean in here, but there are no windows,which means I’m just as clueless as to where we are as I was before I left my cell.

“Hurry up,” Lucas says from the other side of the door.

I splash some water on my face, hoping it will help regulate my nervous system, but I don’t think any of my body will be regulated until I’m no longer in an eternal loop of anxiety and panic.

I open the door and shuffle out, looking up at Lucas through what I hope are innocent eyes. That’s one thing I noticed about the women he preferred at the club. He liked them to seem helpless, and that’s a part I think I can play, at least in the short term.

He grasps my bicep and pulls me back toward the kitchen area where the guards had been playing poker, but they’re all notably absent now.

Thank God.

Lucas is bad enough. I don’t need more men gawking at me and my barely covered body.

He shoves me into a vacant seat and opens the small fridge in the corner, pulling out what appears to be a microwave meal.

This is very organized. Like it’s something he’s been planning for a while.

If that is the case, and Orion can find a hacker, there’s a chance there’s a trail that exists that will lead them here. Wherever here is.

He stabs the top film and shoves it into the brand-new microwave.

At least when he was concocting this plan, he planned to feed me. That’s good, I suppose.

“What about Peru?” Lucas asks, resting his back against the counter to face me.

“Is that where the llamas are?”

He cuts me with a glare, letting out an irritated huff. “You’re not being very helpful.”

“I’m sorry,” I murmur, dropping my eyes to my hands in my lap. “Like I said, I don’t know much about anywhere outside the US. Hell, I don’t really know the US that well.”