His helicopter took off early that morning, the blades slicing through the cold air as I watched from the window of my room. He’d asked me to walk out with him, but I’d refused. He’d looked handsome and powerful in a dark gray suit, but I wanted him gone. The emotions he churned up inside me made me feel as if I was betraying myself. Instead of trying to understand him, I needed to come up with a plan to get away.

The helicopter turned and leaned forward, carrying him farther from me with each passing second. Someone knocked at the door, and then I heard the keypad beeps. Timothy swung the door open and clicked a switch along the closing mechanism. The door remained open.

“Please help me get away from here.” I walked over to him.

He kept his eyes downcast.

“Timothy.” I stood in front of him.

He wouldn’t look at me.

“Hey!” I snapped my fingers in front of his face.

He glanced at me. “I’m not to engage with your escape wishes.”

“You’re fine with keeping me prisoner here?”

“I’m not to engage.” He clasped his hands in front of him. “Your breakfast is ready downstairs.”

In his distress, his British accent came through stronger. I recognized it. Everything finally clicked. Anger roared through my bloodstream, poisoning all rational thought.

“Dr. Williams?” I hissed.

His eyes widened, but he didn’t respond.

He was the man who’d called and explained the Amazon expedition, the one who’d claimed my old professor recommended me highly for the prestigious spot on the team. It was all a set-up, just part of Sebastian’s twisted plan to trap me.

“You lied to me. Played along with his game to get me here. Why?” Fury welled inside me as his silence deepened. “What is wrong with you?” I stepped closer, though he was far bigger. I wanted to shake him. “What has he done to you?”

He finally met my gaze. “He set me free.”

“Leave the poor man alone.” Sebastian’s voice chilled me. It came from a speaker somewhere nearby.

He was watching me, could hear me somehow. I whirled and peered around the room, trying to find the camera. Even when I thought I was free of him, he was still here.

“I didn’t want to tell you this, but I have a camera system set up throughout the house.” Did he actually sound sheepish? I fought the urge to kick and slap Timothy just to get out some of my anger. But it wasn’t his fault. Not exactly. It was the fault of the asshole with the disembodied voice.

“You didn’t want to tell me about constant surveillance, huh?” I put my hands on my hips and stared at the black chandelier in the center of the room for lack of a better target. “Because it’s the most psycho thing you’ve done yet?”

“In my defense, I had the home wired quite some time ago.” The whir of the helicopter blades made a soft whomp whomp whomp noise in the background each time he spoke.

“Why?”

“I like to keep an eye on things.”

“Where are the cameras?”

“You won’t find them. No point looking.”

Horror crept up my spine at the thought of him keeping recordings of me. Then another thought smacked me right between the eyes. “Oh, god, are they in the bathroom?”

Silence.

More silence.

“Oh my god!” I screamed and covered my face. After several deep breaths, I dropped my hands. “Turn them off!”

“What will you give me in exchange?”

I didn’t want a deal. I wanted privacy. I wanted some semblance of my own space inside this cage he’d created for me. How dare he? Anger made me bold. I returned to Timothy and stopped only a breath away from him. “If you don’t turn them off in the bathrooms and this bedroom, I’ll kiss Timothy.”

Timothy blanched, and his gaze went to the chandelier. Busted.

A growl, followed by, “Turn the helicopter around.” Whomp whomp whomp.

“You won’t make it in time.” I threw what I hoped was a sexy look over my shoulder to the chandelier. “Maybe I’ll make it more than a kiss.”

Timothy swallowed hard.

“You wouldn’t mind, would you?” I ran my hand along his smooth cheek.

“Turn this helicopter around right this goddamn minute!”

“Agree to my terms or Timothy gets a taste.” I lifted onto my tiptoes and flattened my palms on Timothy’s hard pecs.

“Please don’t.” A sheen of sweat broke out along his brow. Pity for him tried to overcome my bravado, but I couldn’t let up. Not now.

“All right!” Sebastian’s bark startled me. “All right. I’ll turn them off in the bathrooms only.”

“And the bedroom.”

“No.”

“Pucker up Timothy.” I gripped his cheeks and pulled him down to me.

“Deal!”

I smiled and released the poor man, then turned to the chandelier. “Turn the cameras off now.”

“Done.”

Timothy sighed with relief and sagged against the doorframe.

“How do I know you aren’t lying?” I stared at the chandelier.

“Timothy, dismantle the cameras in my bedroom and all the house bathrooms.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good.” I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling more than a little satisfied with myself.

“Keep going to the city.” Sebastian’s stern command could have cut glass.

Timothy pulled his black butler’s jacket down at the hem, though it was already straight. “I’ll set to work on the cameras while you’re eating break—”

A buzzing erupted from his pocket followed by a ringtone. He glanced at me. “Excuse me for a moment, please.”

“Sure.” I walked into the hall and turned toward the stairs as the door clicked shut behind me.

“And, Camille.” Sebastian’s voice floated along the hall ahead of me, planting a seed of worry. “I’ll deal with you when I return this evening.”

“I think I can get my hands on most of these.” Gerry pushed his worn baseball cap back on his head and surveyed the list of plants I’d given him. “Some of these scientific names I’m not sure of, but I’ll figure them out.”

“Great.” I dug around the roots of the tomato plant I was working with. “How long do you think it’ll take to get them?”

“Some of them today. Some might take a little longer.” His weathered skin crinkled as he spoke, but his dark brown eyes retained a youthful sparkle. “Got big plans?”

I shrugged and pulled the tomato up gently and re-potted in a larger terra cotta. “Just some experiments. I want to do my own drawings and studies on the exotic varieties. The more common ones, I’ll use for hybridization.” I paused. “You wouldn’t be interested in helping me escape, would you?”

“No. I’m not supposed to.” He shifted from one foot to the other. “Has he hurt you any?”

“If I said yes, would you help me?”

“I would, but I’d hate for us to start off on the wrong foot with a lie like that.” He folded the paper and stuffed it into the pocket of his denim coveralls. “And it would be a lie, wouldn’t it?”

“Other than the obvious mental and emotional damage …” I wanted to chew on my thumbnail, but my hands were covered in dirt. “No, he hasn’t physically hurt me, but I still shouldn’t be held captive here.”

“No, you shouldn’t. I agree with you there.” Despite his words, he didn’t seem inclined to do a damn thing to help me. He patted the pocket where he’d put my list. “If this is all you need, I best get going.”

I returned my attention to the plant and ignored the useless sting of tears in my eyes. No one here would lift a finger. I was on my own. The urge to cry eased as Gerry’s footsteps faded toward the back of the greenhouse. Though no one would help me, something on my list would allow me to help myself.

“What are you thinking?”

I jumped as Sebastian’s voice came from one of the nearby roof supports. The speaker must have been wired inside it. I placed the tomato into the pot, then poured dirt around it to fill. “I’m thinking it’ll take me all morning to re-pot the tomatoes, then all afternoon for me to do the complete taxonomy on everything else in here.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

I looked around, wanting to see the camera as I spoke, which was ridiculous. Maybe it was better if I didn’t know and just continued with ghostly Sebastian. “Now you’re an expert on the time it takes to pot and classify plants?”

“No, that part was true. I’m simply saying that wasn’t what you were thinking of.”

I pressed the dark soil around the base of the plant. “Too bad you don’t have a camera in my mind, huh?”

“What I wouldn’t give for such a thing.”

“Psycho,” I whispered as I moved on to the next plant.

“I can read your lips.” His voice dropped lower. “I think about your lips quite a bit, actually. How soft they are. The way you taste. How your tongue is almost as curious as my own.”

“Don’t you have some dirty deals to do?” I wiped a stray hair from my face with a clean section of forearm. “I’m busy here.”

“I have a meeting in five minutes that I’m looking forward to.”

“Why so excited?” I threw in some extra manure at the bottom of the terra cotta pot. “You planning the annual seal clubbing retreat?”

His laugh filled the space around me, electrifying it with unexpected mirth. Something about it warmed me. I couldn’t stop the faint smile that crept across my lips, so I tipped my head down so he wouldn’t see.

“Thank you for your beautiful smile. I’ll carry it with me for the rest of the day.” He sighed. “I’m afraid I’ll be busy until six or so. And then we’re having company this evening.”

I paused my work. “Company? Who?”

“My father.”

I tried to keep a steady tone. “He knows you have me locked up here?”

“I tell Dad everything.”

“And he’s okay with it?” I almost snapped the stalk of the next tomato plant.

“I wouldn’t quite say that. But he’s learned to let me do my thing, even if that thing isn’t exactly—”

“Legal, moral, ethical, fair, sane?”

His low laugh was darker this time. “I was going to say reasonable.”

“He’s an enabler.”

“Of sorts, yes.”

“Great.” My deadpan was still as fresh as my gardening skills.

“I must go, but I’ll be back soon.”

“Take your time.”

“And don’t think I’ve forgotten about your little maneuver this morning. That will require a bit more of an intensive discussion.”

I lifted my arm toward the sky and extended my middle finger.

His laughter rolled through the rays of sun. “Soon.”