Ransom by Callie Rhodes

Chapter Ten

Gretchen didn't even realize that she was backing away until she tripped over a stone and landed on her ass, adding a few more bruises to her collection. It hurt, but she barely noticed. Every ounce of her attention was focused solely on the overwhelming presence of the huge, vital, gorgeous—not to mention naked—alpha towering above her.

She made sure to keep her gaze glued to his, absolutely refusing to let her eyes drift to other…attention-grabbing parts of his anatomy. Unfortunately, his cock was far too prominent to be ignored, and no matter how hard she stared at his face, it still dominated her peripheral vision.

To Ransom's credit, he offered his hand to help her up without commenting on her discomfiture. She wanted to accept his help but was far too afraid of knocking intimately against him in the process.

"Here," she stammered, pulling the T-shirt off and tossing it up at him. "You need to put this on. There could be…people. You know, watching us."

Ransom laughed. "The people I'm worried about aren't going to be put off by catching a peek of my bare ass, woman. Trust me, if they were close enough to get a good look at me, we'd have a whole different set of problems."

She didn't want to think about the soldiers chasing them. It was still early, and she had enough problems to deal with.

Well, only one at the moment, but it was big enough to crowd out all the others.

When that predatory look had returned to his eyes—the one that said he could tell exactly what she was thinking about—Gretchen decided to ignore his hand and pull herself up off the ground.

"Why do you insist on calling me 'woman'?" She asked, desperate to change the conversation. "You know my name, right?"

"Yeah," He held the T-shirt balled up loosely in his hand, covering just enough of his anatomy to make it seem like he was trying…but Gretchen knew that if she let her gaze drop, she'd still get an eyeful. "I call you that because it's what you are. You're a woman, and I'm a man."

His voice was thick and heady and made Gretchen's knees go weak. Why was he talking that way? He had to know the effect it had on her. This hardly seemed like the time to indulge in sexy cat-and-mouse games. Still, she supposed Ransom's lack of concern was justified. If their pursuers had tracked them this far, they would have already made their move.

Not only that, but the forest that had seemed so forbidding at night was unexpectedly peaceful now, suffused with warm morning light, filled with the chattering of birds and the scent of loamy earth and the white flowers on the tangle of vines growing up the sides of the waterfall. It was like an ad for travel to far-off places, only better, because it was real.

Ransom watched her with a barely concealed smile that hinted at all kinds of lascivious thoughts. Flustered, Gretchen turned to the side and focused her attention on the water.

"Well, I would prefer it if you'd call me Gretchen," she said, trying to sound firm, though fearing her voice was just as trembly as the rest of her.

"Is that right?" he purred—actually purred. "Well, I'd prefer that you stop hiding and watching me from the shadows. If you want to look at my body, then say so. There's no shame in desire."

"I wasn't…I'm not…" she sputtered. "I was just out for a walk. "

"No, you weren't," Ransom drawled. "At least not for the last few minutes. Once you found me, you sure weren't walking anywhere else."

"How can you possibly know that? I was behind that rock the whole time!"

Ransom inched closer.

"I heard you coming down the minute you left the cave. I sensed your heart beating faster from the exertion. You made a racket coming through the trees." He paused for a moment, bringing his face so close that she could feel the warmth of him, before sniffing her neck. "And then there was your scent."

Gretchen blanched in embarrassment. "Are you saying I smell bad?"

He chuckled low. "Not hardly. I'm just saying that your lips may lie, but your scent gives all your secrets away."

Oh, God. He couldn't be talking about…

He filled his lungs, taking his time, and Gretchen suddenly got a glimpse into his extraordinary powers because she could almost feel his lips on her skin, trailing down from her jaw along her throat to the hollow of her collarbones…

Abruptly, Ransom stepped back with a satisfied smirk. "Just as I thought. Right now, you're too embarrassed to be afraid. You're trying so hard not to let me see your wants…your needs.

Gretchen bit her lip, refusing to get drawn into this game. She couldn't help the fact that she was blushing and her skin tingled outward from where he'd hovered, but that didn't mean she had to let him get the upper hand. "The only thing I need right now is breakfast."

"Liar," he whispered against her ear before pulling back.

"What does that mean?" she demanded, deciding it was far more comfortable to be outraged than emotionally vulnerable at the moment. "I don't lie. I mean, not usually."

"I know. Just like I know you're lying more to yourself than me right now."

Wait. What?

"There's no way you could possibly know something like that," she said.

Ransom slowly shook his head before speaking in a voice that vibrated along her spine. "I've breathed in the scent of every emotion you've experienced since the moment I saw you."

Gretchen blinked. That couldn't be true…could it? "So, what have you been feeling?"

"Mostly fear, but also pride, doubt, and empathy…and don't forget lust."

Gretchen's mouth dropped open, but she stopped herself right before the automatic denial. Contracting him would only give him more fuel. He'd accuse her of lying and tell her he could smell it, and then he'd be sticking his nose in her neck again, and she would probably melt into a puddle on the spot.

Besides, he was right.

"Do you want to know what it's like?" he murmured. "The scent of your desire?"

"No!"

"—because I can tell you that I've never smelled anything like it. Apricot nectar, maybe, and marigolds and something I can't even…if going double the speed limit in a Lamborghini had a smell, that's what it would be."

"Now, you're not even making sense." Not much of a comeback, but it was hard enough hiding the fact that she liked it. Not every girl got compared to a race car, after all.

He continued on with challenge shining in his dark eyes, daring her to try and stop him. "Your pulse speeds up, of course, and your body temperature goes up. Your pupils widen. They're doing it right now."

So are yours, she almost said before she caught herself. Because that would mean that he was just as riled up as she was. If she wanted proof of that, all she needed to do was look down. Though, at the moment, she wasn't sure that she could handle that much validation.

"Go ahead," he purred, like some enormous jungle cat. "You know you want to look."

Damn him. Ransom was either an incredibly skilled manipulator or…

She looked.

Holy shit.That was a hell of a lot of…yeah. Gretchen's spine went rigid as she snapped her gaze back up to find Ransom looking like a jungle cat who caught all the canaries.

"You know," he mused, "it doesn't really seem fair. You get to see me naked while you're still wearing all those clothes."

Suddenly, her now three-day-old summer blouse and skirt outfit felt more like a protective suit of armor. "You should have thought about that before parading around naked where everyone can see you."

"Not everyone." His eyes narrowed, the intensity of his gaze like a seductive caress against her skin. "Just you."

For a moment, Gretchen thought Ransom was about to reach for her, and her body responded with a rush of warmth and desire even stronger than before.

And the bastard knew it because he winked when he said, "But if you want me, you know where to find me." He took two strides and leapt into the pool, disappearing under the surface.

Gretchen didn't wait around to see if he popped back up this time. Instead, she turned tail and hustled back to the steep hill which led to the cave. Which was really too bad, because if there was one thing she could've used at the moment, it was a dunk in cold water.

* * *

Not even the ice-cold mountain water could provide the relief Ransom's aching cock craved. Damn, why did the woman—Gretchen—have to be so maddening desirable?

But if you put a man in a cell for eight years, he's likely to get pretty damn good at jacking off. Ransom was able to quickly take care of business efficiently under cover of the water. Just like back in the Basement, the act was mechanical and unsatisfying, far more about physical need than gratification.

For that, he would need an enthusiastic partner.

He'd need Gretchen.

But she was already gone, headed back to their makeshift shelter. By the time he got out and toweled himself off with the shirt she'd wanted him to wear, she was already starting her ascent up the hill. It was obvious from her tentative steps that she wasn't having an easy time of it.

The wilderness clearly wasn't her comfort zone.

But for Ransom, it felt like coming home. Even before his transition, he and Ryan had roamed all over the sprawling Kansas countryside, hiking, and hunting, and fishing. He loved the outdoors.

Quickly pulling on his pants, he hurried to catch up with her. When he found her struggling up the first quarter of the hill, he swooped her up into his arms without giving her a chance to argue, catching up to her in seconds and sweeping her into his arms. From the startled yelp she gave, he guessed she hadn't heard his approach. It was a good reminder of how vulnerable a beta like her was.

"Don't worry," he growled. "I'm not going to ravish you here on the side of the mountain."

Gretchen made a face at him. "You make it sound like you're just waiting until we're back in the cave."

Ransom shrugged and tried to dial down his shit-eating grin, but he couldn't help it—he was feeling better than he had in years and didn't mind who knew it. Especially if that person was Gretchen.

It was a foolish thought and just proof that all this fresh air was messing with his head. With every passing moment, every mile Ransom put between himself and the facility, he'd felt himself changing, coming more into his true nature.

Becoming the alpha he was meant to be.

He'd been an alpha for only a few days before he was taken, and his transition had suffered because of it.

It wasn't that the change in his nature stopped. He'd continued to grow and develop until he was over seven feet tall and three hundred fifty pounds of muscle, but it had stunted in other ways. His senses had grown stronger, of course, but with so little to stimulate them, they'd never fulfilled their potential. It wasn't until Ransom had a chance to breathe in the fresh air outside his cramped cell that he'd really started to discover what he was truly capable of.

In the last couple of days, every one of his senses had deepened and sharpened…and become much harder to control.

Inside the lab, there was little he could do to affect the world around him. He could slam himself against the unyielding walls of his cell and roar until the floor rumbled under his feet, and that was about it.

Out here, it felt like anything was possible.

Like his instinct to take Gretchen up on her words and have her the moment they got back to the cave.

She'd been joking, but she had no idea how obvious her desire for him was. The scent of her slick was urging him to lay her down on the cave floor and behave like his prehistoric ancestors who once roamed this land—take her, make her his, fuck her until they both were spent. Taste every part of her and bury himself inside her over and over again until it was clear that she was his, forever.

He knew she was no omega. He didn't care. He couldn't spark her transition even if she was…Fulmer had seen to that. All that mattered was this moment, this precious freedom that could end at any moment. They were both alive, together, and they wanted each other with a ferocity that drowned out every other thought.

Last night, as he held her in his arms and watched her sleep, his thoughts had taken a dark turn to how much worse the consequences of mating would be for Gretchen than for him. Ransom could easily be dead in a week…but she had her entire life ahead of her, and he'd be damned if he'd let that life be tainted by the judgment and cruelty of beta society all because of her association with an alpha.

It was only hours ago, but it might as well have been a lifetime. The argument that had seemed so compelling last night now felt abstract, even pointless. Ransom couldn't hold onto his reasoning for more than a few seconds before his mind went back to all the things he wanted to do with Gretchen. His primal side was overtaking him almost faster than he could keep up with, his nature coming into focus and, with it, a refusal to bend to any man's will ever again.

Who cared what anyone else thought? Why give a shit about the whims of beta society? With new clarity, he saw how little it mattered, how betas tied themselves in knots over meaningless slights and ignored what was important.

He was an alpha. A wild creature born to satisfy his needs—Tired? Sleep. Thirsty? Drink. Horny? Fuck. The rest would take care of itself.

But there was one need that superseded all those, Ransom reminded himself: the need for vengeance.

That thought was enough to bring him out of his primal haze and back to reality.

He hadn't brought Gretchen to this place to screw. No matter how badly he craved her touch or the feel of her tightness slipping around his cock.

No, she was here to write the story that would bring down the man who killed Ryan—to do the one thing that struck fear in Fulmer.

And if that meant letting go of the chance to be with Gretchen the way he longed to, well, he'd just have to learn to live with it.

Once they reached the cave, Ransom set her down and spread his T-shirt on the flattest part of the floor. He picked up her bag and handed it to her. At her questioning look, he took a breath and willed himself not to betray what his words would cost him.

"It's time to get to work," he said in a hard voice. "You've got a story to write."

He couldn't miss the sharp flash of disappointment in her eyes before it was replaced with an opaque smile. Gretchen nodded before pulling a large notebook and half a dozen pencils out of her bag. Then settled on the floor, wincing as she folded her legs, tucking her feet under her thighs. Her scent let him know it wasn't just the pain of her bruises nagging at her.

Ransom made it to the cave opening before she spoke, her voice much too plaintive, the scent of her unmet desire as sharp as fresh-cut evergreen boughs in winter. But her fear had returned as well.

"Where are you going?"

Unlike before, Gretchen's fear prompted an overwhelming urge to protect her, an urge that seemed forged from his most elemental purpose. She needed him, and that need sent his own lust rocketing higher. As unexpected as it was, he'd never heard anything hotter than her unspoken plea.

"Don't worry," he said, not trusting himself to turn back around. For one thing, his cock was as hard as granite. "I'm just going to find us something to eat. I won't go far, and I'll be back before you know it."

"But what if…um, you know, that thing about the bears and snakes and spiders?"

Ransom couldn't help but laugh, and when he glanced over his shoulder, he saw that she was smiling too.

"They won't bother you."

"But what if they do?"

"Just scream my name at the top of your lungs." Ransom slowly turned so she could see every inch of the evidence of his feelings for her. "It'll be good practice for later."