Allie woke to the warmth of sunlight caressing her skin through the open balcony doors and the smell of coffee. She stretched, enjoying the feel of her limbs sliding against sheets with a much higher thread count than she was used to. Though the things Jay surrounded himself with were sparse, he definitely liked for those things to be luxurious. Allie blushed as sore muscles protested her movements.
She opened her eyes and glanced around in search of the source of the delicious coffee scent. Spotting it on the nearby dresser, she clutched a blanket around her breasts and rolled off the bed, reaching for the cup. It was sweetened with hazelnut flavoured cream, just the way she liked it. She glanced around, knowing Jay would have left it for her and wouldn’t be far. She took a hasty sip, then set it back down so she could wrap her makeshift sarong around herself more firmly. Picking her precious coffee up in one hand and the tail of her blanket in the other, she made her way outside. Cool mountain air greeted her, but the warmth of the smooth paving stones against her feet kept her from being cold as she stepped onto the patio.
Jay stood with his back to her, facing the eastern rows of grape vines. He was talking quietly on the phone. She approached him cautiously, wondering if he would be upset with her for interrupting. He turned his head, his icy grey eyes pinning her to the spot. Allie froze and took a hesitant step back, thinking she would leave him alone until he finished his conversation. He swiftly stepped toward her, reached out and took her wrist in a firm grip. Mindful of the hot coffee, he pulled her steadily into his arms, maneuvering her so she was standing in his embrace, all the while continuing his conversation uninterrupted.
“I won’t make that meeting, but I need someone I trust to be there in my place,” Jay said into his phone. “Call Greg and leave a message. He might be out of cell range, but he’ll check in. He should be back in time to make the meet in my place and he knows the line I want to take.”
Jay said nothing for a moment. He wrapped his hand over Allie’s, around the coffee mug, and lifted it to his lips to take a generous sip. He grimaced in distaste. Allie stifled a giggle with her hand and pulled her coffee back. She wasn’t going to waste her precious caffeine on someone who wouldn't appreciate it. Jay took his coffee black, she remembered.
Jay continued speaking. “I’ll be back in the city by then.” His eyes flickered over Allie’s face. Something in their cold depths chilled her. “I’ll need extra security on the house. I want everything in place and double checked. Talk to Greg, he’ll know exactly what I want. Make sure he has what he needs to do his job.”
She shivered. She knew without a doubt that he intended to take her with him to Vancouver. He meant what he said. They weren’t going to be separated again. Allie dropped her eyes and tried to step away from Jay, her playful mood lost. He refused to release her, his arm tightening around her.
Jay issued a few more statements that sounded more like orders now that Allie was beginning to understand he was talking to a subordinate. He finished his call and put his phone in the back pocket of his jeans then wrapped both of his arms around Allie. She stood with her back pressed against his chest, his chin resting on her shoulder. He held her like that while she clutched her coffee. They faced the vineyards and watched the morning sun creep over the mountainous land.
“Are we going to have a problem, Allison?” Jay’s quiet voice murmured in her ear.
His breath tickled against her throat turning her knees to water and making her heart speed up in anticipation. The words frightened her though. She understood what Jay was saying. He wanted her cooperation and acceptance. He wanted her to comply with her kidnapping and happily go along with his plans.
With a sigh Allie bent over, reached out and deliberately placed her cup on the iron and glass patio table. She straightened and turned in his arms, clutching the blanket protectively against her chest. “I don't know, Jay, are we going to have a problem?”
Surprise flashed across his face before he masked it in a frown of annoyance. “Don’t make things more difficult for yourself than they need to be, Allie.”
Allie sighed. “You mean don’t make things more difficult for you, right? Because I’m pretty sure I didn’t ask to come here. I also didn’t ask for whatever you decided to do to my marriage.”
Jay’s hands slid from her back to wrap around her arms and tighten in warning. He looked down at her, shadows flickering in his eyes. A breeze lifted Allie’s hair and shifted it across her bare shoulders reminding her that she was naked and vulnerable in Jay’s arms. In his home. She tightened her hold on the blanket and dropped her gaze from his intense perusal, panic welling up within her. She suddenly felt very much at the mercy of a gangster boss and not in the arms of the man she’d known and loved forever.
“I’d like to get dressed now,” she whispered.
He held her for a moment longer and then released her, stepping back with a nod. “Get dressed and meet me in the dining room. We can talk there.”
Allie nodded and retraced her steps back inside. Part of her wanted to have it out now. To demand he tell her what he was planning. To demand he release her and let her go home. But she was frightened. Jay wasn’t a man to cross. She knew he’d killed people before. When she was young she had thought it was only self defence, but as she got older she became less sure. She knew first hand exactly how brutal the streets were. She also understood what it took to survive. Jay had not only survived, he succeeded better than most. He shook off the dirt and the blood and he sat alone atop his throne.
She knew it wasn’t wise to go up against a man like Jay. But if anyone in his world could survive a confrontation it was going to be Allie. She was going to say her piece. Even if it got her nowhere. Even if it got her… hurt. She shivered as she unwrapped the blanket from her body and dug around in the walk-in closet for some clothes. To start, she wasn’t going to confront a west coast gang boss with no clothes on.
A suitcase of Allie’s clothes had shown up the same day she had, with the boxes from the plane. She’d tried not to give too much thought to the idea of one of Jay’s guys pawing through her underwear drawer back home. Over the past three weeks more women’s clothes of every variety had shown up in the mail. Everything fit her perfectly and was always to her taste, except the items were more expensive than she would have chosen for herself. Allie thought briefly about not wearing the clothes Jay was buying for her, in protest of her captivity, but then she would have been confined to the three outfits that had come with her on the plane. And having grown up on the streets Allie was first and foremost a practical woman.
Reaching into the closet Allie chose a mid-thigh length blue and beige flower-patterned dress. It was high-necked and sleeveless. She wore it with a loose black cardigan sweater and soft indoor calf moccasins with intricate beading. She was incredibly grateful that Jay’s guy grabbed her moccasins when he was packing her stuff. They had been a university graduation present from her mother and they meant the world to her.
Allie decided she wasn’t quite ready to face Jay yet and went into the ensuite bathroom. She brushed her teeth thoroughly and then tidied the counter. Then she brushed her hair until it was smooth and waving down her back. It was so dark it looked almost black in the dimmer lighting of the bathroom. Only out in the bright sunlight was the natural deep red brown shade truly visible. Allie decided to braid the thick length. Then, looking at herself critically in the mirror, changed her mind. Running her fingers quickly through the mass, she unbraided the sections. Instead, she decided to gather the entire glossy length in a chic twisting knot on top of her head. Then changed her mind again and took it down, shaking it out until it streamed loose around her shoulders.
“Are you done?” Jay asked from the doorway.
Allie jumped and turned to look at him. He stood with his arms crossed, watching her with amusement. She dropped her hands where they had been fussing. Jay held his hand out to her. Allie looked down at his long fingers for a moment and considered not taking his invitation. She knew what it meant. It was time for them to talk about their altered relationship.
With a shaking hand Allie placed her palm in his. He wrapped his fingers around hers and tugged her gently out of the washroom, through the bedroom, toward the dining room. He quickly seated her where he placed another cup of coffee in front of her and a bowl of cereal.
Allie blinked down at her cereal for a second, then looked up at Jay with a laugh. “Fruit Loops?”
“I don’t cook,” he said gruffly, sitting down next to her with his own cup of black coffee and nothing else.
“I remember,” she said fondly, picking up the spoon. She took a few polite bites and then finally dropped the spoon with a laugh and pushed the bowl away. “I can’t do it. I can’t eat this much sugar in the morning.”
Standing up, Allie went to the kitchen and put two pieces of whole grain bread into the toaster. She quickly sliced up a kiwi, apple and orange, then arranged the fruit on two small plates. When the toast popped she spread some goat cheese and apple jelly on each piece, cut them in half, then arranged them on the plates. She set a plate in front of Jay and sat next to him with the other plate.
“Eat,” she ordered quietly picking up her toast and biting into it.
Jay watched her for a minute, his expression unreadable before digging into his own plate of food. She knew he must be at least as hungry as her. A blush suffused her features as she thought of their energetic activities of the night before. She thanked goodness for her duskier features and shifted her hair slightly so it would cover her face a little.
Jay waited until they had both finished eating before speaking. He stacked their plates and moved them aside. Then he shifted his chair back from the table, leaned forward until he was in her space and took her hand in a firm grip. He had one elbow on the table. Allie looked down at their linked fingers, her eyes lingering on the tattoos sweeping up and around his hand and arm. They were all faded, leftover from his street days.
“Are you going to fight me, Allie?” he asked seriously.
She forced herself to look up into his grey eyes. Her heart stuttered at the utter implacability she saw there. Jay was not willing to show her any leeway. He wouldn’t negotiate with her. Not like he used to when she was a child, when she could almost always argue and cajole Jay into giving her what she wanted.
“I need to know what this is, Jay,” Allie said, trying to infuse some emphasis into her voice. “Am… am I your prisoner?”
He lifted his left hand and touched her cheek with one long finger, running it down the soft roundness. She saw another tattoo of her name along the inside of his ring finger, “Allie” it read. She lowered her lashes so he wouldn’t see her surprise.
“That’s up to you, love,” he said gruffly.
Allie looked up at him sharply. “Up to me? You mean, if I just relax and take my kidnapping like a good girl? If I don’t argue with your decision to take me away from the life and the people I love? That’s not fair, Jay, and you know it. I had a job that I cared about!”
“A job that nearly got you killed,” he growled. “I warned you not to take that job. I told you not to go into addictions, but you didn’t listen to me. Now you get to deal with the consequences.”
Allie pushed her chair away from his, pulling her hand abruptly away from his and standing before he could stop her. Pacing away from the table she shoved an agitated hand through her long hair and then whirled around to glare at him. He remained seated, though his body language was anything but casual. His shoulders were set and the muscles of his arms were stiff beneath his black tailored shirt.
“You warned me? You told me?” Allie snapped at him. “You sent me away from the coast, Jay. You made sure that I had to grow up in a hurry, which included making my own decisions. Well, guess what? That includes career decisions. ”
“Not anymore,” he said quietly.
“You don’t get to decide that for me!” she yelled at him.
He put his hand flat on the table and stood. “Actually, I do.”
Allie gasped and paled. She opened her mouth to say something, but changed her mind. Jay took a step toward her, but she took a step away from him shaking her head. Finally, she said in a shaking voice, “You’d take that away from me? You’d take away a career that I love?”
He made a frustrated sound and shook his head. “It’s too dangerous, Allie. I’ve told you that. What happened to you at the shelter proves it. A few more inches and you could’ve been killed. I know you love your job, but I can’t risk it.”
“I can!”
Though quiet, his words were implacable. “I won’t let you.”
Tears sparkled in her eyes. He stepped toward her again. She moved away from him, backing up until her back came into contact with the wall behind her. She thrust her wrist out defiantly, shaking the beautiful bracelet at him. “Take it off,” she demanded.
His hard grey eyes held hers captive. “No.”
With a sob she dropped her wrist. Slowly she let her body sink against the wall until she was sitting on the ground. She wrapped her arms around her knees like she’d done as a teenager when she felt beat up by life. She glared at his legs where he came to stand in front of her. Tears trickled down her cheeks.
“I am your prisoner,” she whispered brokenly.
He crouched down in front of her, his icy eyes holding hers. He reached out and captured her tears on his fingertips.
She shook her head. “You’re breaking my heart, Jay.”
His eyes hardened. “Better your heart now, than your body later.”
She sighed and tried to turn her face from him, but he wouldn’t let her. She would never be allowed to shut him out, not even if he was the one causing her suffering. He took a handful of her hair, tilted her face up and bent down to kiss her. She cried against him, tears trickling down her cheeks and touching their lips. He pulled back a little and leaned his forehead against hers.
“It won’t hurt forever, Allie.”
She tried to push him away, but he captured her hands in his and held them against his chest while blocking her legs between his knees. He touched his lips to hers once more, this time more forcefully, coaxing the passion that was always there just beneath the surface of their relationship. Tension flared and built between them until she was soon clutching at the collar of his shirt instead of trying to shove him away.
Jay pulled her into his arms and stood with her. Allie’s head spun as he lifted her off the ground and into his strong arms. She held onto him while he strode down the hall toward their bedroom. She realized his intention right away and a combination of heady excitement and panic flashed through her.
“Jay, please…,” she moaned against him.
He squeezed her tightly against his chest and, entering the bedroom, dropped her on the bed. He came down on top of her and he kissed her gently. “Let me take care of you, Allie.”
She stared up at him and shook her head. “That’s what I’m afraid of,” she whispered.
He stood up, looking down at her where she lay on the bed. His eyes hardened to glacial grey. “You don’t have a choice.”