Dante's Honour-bound Husband

“David?” she murmured sleepily.

“Almost there. I hadn’t planned to make this trip tonight, so I need to stop for gas. Then it’s not much farther.”

“Where are we?”

“A little north of Calistoga.”

The information filtered through with sludgelike speed. When it did, the confusion clouding her mind began to clear. Calistoga? It took her a moment to place it. When she did, her breath caught. That was a solid hour outside of the city at the north end of the Napa Valley. Why in the world would he have driven so far? It didn’t make sense. “I don’t understand. What are we doing in Calistoga?”

He spared her a brief, impatient look. “You should have finished your champagne. You were supposed to sleep until we reached the lodge.”

Once again it took time to sort through his comment, but little by little she could feel the sluggishness fading away. She didn’t understand the wine comment and focused instead on his second statement. Lodge? What lodge? “I’m not going to any lodge with you. I want you to take me home.”

“I’ll be happy to.” He paused a beat. “Tomorrow.”

She shook her head in protest, shocked by the weight of it. Why was it so heavy? She could barely hold it up. “Something’s wrong with me,” she said. “I feel so odd.”

“You’re just tired. Put your seat back and go to sleep.”

He’d said that to her before. This time it wasn’t a request, but an order, so firmly delivered, she almost didn’t resist. More than anything she wanted to obey him and surrender to the darkness just waiting to consume her once again. The champagne. He’d said something about the champagne.

“You drugged me.” She didn’t pose it as a question.

Instead of protesting, he grinned like a schoolboy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Maybe just a little.”

Fear, sudden and abrupt, coursed through her system burning through the remaining mists blanketing her thoughts. He’d drugged her. Dear God, he’d actually drugged her. She attempted to moisten her lips but found it impossible. Her mouth and throat had gone bone-dry.

“Why?” she managed to ask. “Why would you do that to me?”

He shrugged, taut muscles rippling beneath the impressive expanse of his dress shirt. He must have removed his tux jacket at some point while she slept. She shuddered. What else had happened while she’d been unconscious?

“Because I want you,” he admitted, as though that were explanation enough.

And maybe it was, for him. She’d always been aware that he possessed an overdeveloped sense of entitlement. More than once she’d heard him excuse the occasional excessive indulgence with the excuse, “But I deserve…” Whether a suite at the Ritz-Carlton or a third Rolex or a fully loaded Jaguar, David always felt entitled to the best. Apparently he’d now decided that he “deserved” her. Anger ripped through her, combating the drugs, as well as her fear. Well, not if she could help it.

“It doesn’t bother you that drugging and kidnapping me was the only way you could achieve your ends?” she asked. Maybe if she kept him talking, it would give her time to think…and plan a way out of this.

“Drugging you wasn’t the only way, just the most expeditious.”

He took his eyes off the road long enough to frown in her direction. It occurred to her that if she had any hope of escaping her present predicament, she’d be wise to pretend the drugs had a stronger hold on her than they did. Otherwise, he might decide to administer a little more and she’d never get away. She closed her eyes with a soft sigh and allowed her head to roll to one side.

“So sleepy,” she murmured.

He trailed the back of his hand along the curve of her cheek and it took every ounce of self-control to keep from flinching. “Trust me. By morning you’ll wonder why you held me off for so long. And by tomorrow afternoon…”

“By tomorrow afternoon…?” She deliberately yawned out the question.

“We’ll be engaged.”

She lifted a hand to her forehead. “I… I don’t understand.”

“Once I explain what happened to your grandfather, abashed and contrite that we allowed passion to overcome Dante propriety, your family will demand I do the honorable thing and marry you. In fact, I’ll insist it’s the only reasonable solution.”