“That’s why you need to let me go back.”
Alexander shook his head vehemently.
“No, Scarlett. I forbid you putting yourself at risk anymore.”
Scarlett raised an eyebrow at him and spat, “You forbid me? Did I even hear that right?”
Alexander leaned over towards her so his lips hovered near hers. She watched him stare at her lips trembling for a moment, captivated before he tucked his fingers underneath her chin to raise it.
“Yes, you heard correctly,” he told her in a deeply lowered voice that caressed every part of her while making her body fire with unexpected need. “And from now on that is the way it is going to be. Your safety and protection are of paramount importance to me. And I am not going to allow even the police to take advantage of you and put you in danger anymore.” He raised his eyes to hers and held her gaze. “When I forbid you to do something, I expect you to obey me without question. Or, my beautiful, little one, I am going to throw you over my knee, pull down your panties and spank that naughty bottom of yours until it’s a stinging hot red. Do I make myself clear?”
His words made her feel safe on a primal level. Her whole body ached to surrender to him and indulge in the warmth, protection and dominance he swirled around her but after her recent experiences with Ross, her mind was in its own protection mode and demanded she resist. She’d wanted dominance from Ross when they had first married but he had taken advantage of her and broken her trust. Why would Alexander be any different? He had virtually kidnapped her. Feeling her anger brew, worried she could fall for the same trick again, she pulled away from him and barked an order at the driver.
“Stop the car. Stop it now.”
Alexander frowned.
“Ignore her,” he snapped. “Keep driving.”
Furious he had dismissed her request so flippantly and stress of the past months taking its toll, Scarlett undid her seatbelt pushing Alexander away and reached for the door trying to open it. The car was going to damn well stop, whether they wanted it to or not, or she was going to throw herself out of it.
Chapter 6
Alexander’s driver glanced back at him waiting for an instruction. “Stop the damn car, before she kills herself,” he told the man while loosening his own seatbelt to stop Scarlett from opening the door. The Bentley came to a screeching halt in the darkness on the side of the road leading through a forest not far from the private airfield he was taking her to. Before Alexander could stop her, Scarlett had pulled the door open and had somehow slipped from his grasp to run into the forest.
He charged after her followed by his security chief from the front passenger seat.
They split up to look for her. It was growing darker. Alexander was afraid for Scarlett and stopped dead calling out her name.
“Scarlett. Scarlett, where are you? I will not leave without you. I know you feel like you are letting the police down and I know you feel you can’t trust anyone at the moment but I can’t let you be hurt again. I only want to take care of you. You need to be protected. Answer me.”
Nothing.
A few more calls out and he was growing more worried and impatient to find her.
“Face what is happening to you. I will help you recover. If I have to get helicopters and search teams out here to help me hunt you down I will. It is only early April and it’s cold tonight. You can’t go far or you will freeze to death.”
He heard a rustle of leaves. Alexander shot his head in the direction of the sound and spied Scarlett running away to the left and further into the forest. She must have been standing there hiding, watching him, waiting for the perfect moment to continue her flight. He ran after her. It wasn’t long before he was gaining on her.
“Scarlett, stop,” he demanded. “You can’t keep running away from this. Stop or so help me I will color your butt crimson and you won’t be able to sit down for a week.”
His words must have both shocked and startled her because he could plainly see her turn to look at him and lose her concentration. It was enough to make her trip on a stick and fall to the ground. He grinned when he could see she was all right and pounced on top of her before she could stand again. He pinned her to the floor of the forest amid the moss and twigs.
He lay flat on top of her and leaned towards her ear.
“Now, I am going to teach you never to make me afraid like that for you ever again. In one quick movement, he raised her up from the ground noticing she was shivering in her light blue sweater that brought out the color of her eyes to perfection on top of a silver-gray skirt and black leather boots. Her breasts bounced with the quickness of the movement he used to drag her by the arm towards a collection of rocks and boulders sitting in the middle of the small clearing. It was as though they had been strategically placed to allow him to administer discipline upon her.
“I’m cold and I need to go back. The police are expecting me to be there. I will have ruined everything,” she shouted.
“I’ll soon make you warm,” he warned leading her to the largest rock. “You aren’t going anywhere but with me. Tonight, we are flying you to my home in Cumbria where I can keep you safe. Your bare bottom will be burning and stinging like it never has before in a moment,” he told her like an angry father figure sashaying her skirt up her legs away from the black patent leather boots
