Ice Blue - Anne Stuart [56]
The more she hesitated the worse it was going to get. She reached for the coffee mug, and his hand shot out. She wasn’t quite sure how he managed it, but he got both her wrists in his grasp, imprisoning her. It hurt. A lot. She remembered a few short hours ago, when he’d hurt her into telling him the truth…and what he’d done afterward.
“I told you, don’t even think about it,” he said. He hadn’t slowed his speed even the tiniest bit—they were going about eighty. Certain death.
“I just wanted some coffee.”
“You don’t like coffee.”
“Says who? Just because I drink soda in the morning doesn’t mean—”
“You had no coffee in your house.”
“You don’t know everything I had in my house.”
“Want to bet? I know everything, including where you stash your porn.”
“I don’t have porn….”
“Your erotica, then, if you’re going to be squeamish. You have a taste for sci-fi sex—interplanetary kinkiness. Tell me, is it better when I did it for you? Am I alien enough for you?”
“I suppose it would be a waste of time to tell you how much I hate you,” she said in a tight voice.
“At least you’re honest.” He let go of her hands, and she pulled away, rubbing her wrists.
He glanced over at her. “And if you’re trying to distract me, I can think of more effective ways. You could try going down on me and see if it makes me slow the car enough for you to jump out.”
“You are such a rat bastard,” she said, sick at the thought. Sick, because she felt his words between her legs, and she wanted to lean over and see exactly what he would do if she tried it. Sick, because that wasn’t the reason why she wanted to.
The houses were fewer and farther between, the wide, flat countryside was starting to look desolate. If she somehow managed to get away from him there’d be no place to go, no place to hide. Why was he taking her out to the middle of nowhere?
Silly question. She was now just as expendable as her sister. He was taking her someplace where he could kill her, where no one would hear her scream, where he could hide her body…
“Cut it out.”
He’d startled her enough to make her look at him. He was staring straight ahead, concentrating on the almost empty road. “What?” she asked.
“Stop thinking about death. I liked it better when you were thinking about sex.”
She didn’t bother asking him how he knew what she was thinking. She’d worked long and hard on masking her feelings—it was far too dangerous to be vulnerable when you had a mother like Lianne. But Taka seemed to have the ability to know her inside and out, even before he’d known her body.
“And your likes and dislikes are of primary importance to me because…? And don’t say it’s because you’re the only thing that stands between me and the Shirosama. Right now I’d welcome him with open arms.”
“I’m sure you would. It would be a mistake.”
“Oh, I forgot. You’re so much kinder than he is.”
“Kindness has nothing to do with it.”
“I noticed.”
He’d slowed down again, almost imperceptibly, and turned onto a dirt road. She was toast, she thought. If she jumped out of the car she’d die, saving him the trouble. But then, she wasn’t particularly interested in saving him from anything, and if he could look into her eyes and choke the life out of her, then she’d come back to haunt him.
“How are you planning to do it?”
“Planning to do what?” He was barely paying attention to her, concentrating on the barren landscape.
“Kill me. I’ve never actually seen you kill—just witnessed the aftermath. Are you going to strangle me? Break my neck? Stab me?”
She made the mistake of watching him to gauge his reaction. His eyes met hers, and a faint smile touched his mouth. His beautiful mouth, which she wanted to smash with a two-by-four. “I’ll probably