Jade laughingly departed from her friends with one last wave and a smile. The smile held strong for all of two minutes before falling from her face as soon as she gained access to her apartment. She ruefully acknowledged that it hadn't taken long for her to become a master in the art of deceit.
The move to New York had been calculated, as well as the relationships she had built at a frantic pace. She went out every day whether she wanted to or not. Parties, wine bars, sporting events, movies; it didn't matter where. As long as her mind was occupied and she had people who would worry if they didn't see her often.
She had even pushed herself out of her comfort zone and acquired a new highly visible job as a Life Coach at her local community center. It wouldn't be so easy to remove her from her life a second time.
Jade had no doubt that Akim was looking for her, but she was determined that he would never find her.
Moving cities and making friends were the least of the changes she had made. Her hair had been cut, colored and chemically straightened, her name legally changed, and her rich green eyes all but non-existent under her new ice blue contacts.
No one looking at her now would ever associate her with the doe eyed innocent that had been kidnapped only months before.
Her keys dropped to the dining room table with a clatter as she kicked off her stilettos and made her way to the kitchen in search of Miko. Miko was a mild-mannered, affectionate cat except when he hadn't eaten. Then he turned into the worst kind of ornery stalker.
Jade flipped on the kitchen light seeking Miko out. It was a little past Miko's dinner time and she was surprised he hadn't accosted her at the door. She stopped short once the room flooded with light.
Miko was curled up and purring ferociously as Akim's big hand scratched him behind the ears. She felt a small stab of envy remembering how those hands had felt stroking her. She stifled those emotions and replaced them with something a bit more appropriate. Like anger. Anger she could do.
"How did you get in here?"
The angry question was ripped from her lips as her eyes quickly scanned around verifying there was no one else in the apartment. She couldn't be sure, she acknowledged, after all she hadn't even known Akim was in the apartment.
His coolly mocking smile was her reply.
They existed in silence for a time, staring at each other with accusing eyes.
His gaze slowly swept her form from toe to temple missing nothing in between. After a time he said, "I wondered if it was you."
His tone was pensive, almost as if he was speaking to himself, but the intense fire in his eyes said his thoughts were on her alone.
"Everything is different." His hand swept out to catalogue the changes. "Your hair, your eyes. Even your name."
She shrugged her shoulder negating that it was any of his concern. "I didn't know you cared."
He chuckled. "Everything about you fascinates me Anastasia. Of course I care."
She didn't miss the way he slid her name into his reply. His tone had changed as he had formed the syllables of her new name, and it hadn't been a positive change.
"Anastasia not to your liking?" she drawled, edging away from him to put herself within close reach of her phone.
She had other resources in the apartment for emergencies, but she wanted to get rid of him without sirens and sniffing dogs if possible. She kept talking to distract him as she moved. "I thought you'd appreciate the irony if you ever caught up with me."
His low chuckle followed her as she casually headed for her purse. "Russian for resurrection," he acknowledged. "Charming."
"I thought so." Jade threw a meaningless smile in his direction as she gained the table. Her hand had just closed around her cellphone when his insidious voice wrapped around her.
"Calling Ryan are you?" His tone was pure insolence. "Or is it Phillip?" He let that sink in, let her acknowledge that he knew who she had been seeing. "It is hard to keep track; you go out so often these days."
Akim deposited the cat on the floor before purposefully striding in her direction.
She had seconds to do something before he was within reach, and what would happen then she didn't want to imagine. Call Ryan? Press the security button? Run for it? Yeah, run for it.
She turned and ran for the door, one hand lifting to open the locks and the other resting on her necklace in case she made it out. The pretty bauble hid a high tech device that would activate her security system if she left the perimeter without deactivating it. It was her fail safe against being taken while unconscious.
Jade had already alerted her security company that she was high risk for kidnapping and the tracking device in her earrings ensured they could find her anywhere in the world.
The necklace and the earrings were both thoughtful gifts from Ryan in his bid to coerce her into taking their relationship further. While she hadn't gone into details, she had told him an obsessive ex who thought nothing of kidnapping had made her weary of relationships. If it wasn't in direct opposition to her wishes, she might've been impressed by Ryan's tenacious attempts to change her mind.
Haste made her clumsy and she was still fumbling with the locks when Akim's arms closed around her. Her fingers toyed with the necklace while she determined if she should set it off.
She stood passive in his arms for a moment wondering what would come next. She didn't have long to wait. His lips lowered to plant a delicate kiss against the back of her neck.
A shiver raced up her spine and she bucked against him hoping he would release her. His touch was too skillful. She knew it would be mere seconds before he seduced her of her will to flee.
"Let me go," she demanded. Her tone huskier than she would have liked, but beggars couldn't be choosy.
His arms shifted minutely and she thought maybe, just maybe, he was responding favorably to her request. Then he pressed her deeper into the door, one hand settled on her waist keeping her anchored to him, and the other slid up to caress her breast.
A prince to the very end. He did only what pleased him.
Her hand covered his trying to slow his progress. It only made him that much more determined to enjoy her body.
He was pleasantly surprised to find she wasn't wearing a bra. His desire escalated from a simmer to a full on boil. His passive hand slid up from her waist and began an intensive exploration of her other breast. He gently knocked her hand aside and continued massaging the twin globes.
Her hips moved in an unconscious rhythm of seduction against his throbbing cock even as she thought of ways to repel him. Her head tilted back towards his for a second. It was all the invitation he needed to steal another kiss.
His lips slid down the side of her neck leaving a small trail of love bites in their wake. Her head fell forward as desire racked her slender frame. There was a "no" on the tip of her tongue that was never given voice.
He felt the increasing pliancy of her body and used the moment to ease her dress to the floor. Her mind was half numb, simultaneously needing the pleasure she knew he could provide and clutching at her newfound freedom.
