Christmas Bytes Read online

  “I put that together,” she said acidly. Lying through her teeth, she hoped a flush on her cheeks didn’t give her away. “I’ve learned that con-artists like you set up fake identities and whatnot to steal what it is you want from banks.” She rolled her eyes for good measure. Lucy wanted to make sure he knew how she felt about people like him. “Since you won’t let me go, I have to call you something. Kyle Seaton was on the name on the account you set up. I don’t suppose you feel like sharing your real name with me?” He frowned at her, as if not sure what to make of her. “I didn’t think so. Kyle it is then.”

  A corner of his mouth lifted before he smoothed it back down again. She was pretty sure he was trying to keep from smiling. Did he find her predicament funny? He ignored her pointed comments to goad him.

  “My, my, your lips do a pretty pout when you purse them that way.” There was a hint of an accent to his voice that she hadn’t hear before. Something northern. She only noticed it because she was originally from Southern California. His eyes were fixated on her mouth and Lucy forced it to relax.

  “Do you come onto anything that’s female and see if works to get what you want? I won’t be as easy to fool as the teller.”

  “Ah, I see. A bit jealous, are we?” He crooned at her with amusement in his eyes. “All the ladies to seem to be a bit partial to my smile,” he demonstrated and flashed her a grin.

  Lucy would eat her stockings before she admitted that maybe (ok, yes) his attentions on the teller had irked her. But the bastard did have an amazing smile… He had an amazing everything. His frame was tall and strong. She knew it was strong since she has been pressed tightly against it and had hauled her around with ease. A delicious warmth and a cool, crisp scent had wafted from his body, flooding her senses with his very maleness.

  Now, being subject to that charm, she ignored his attempts to goad her. She didn’t want to admit to him that his smile was almost perfect. His lips very kissable.

  “As I was saying; there is no need to hold me hostage. It may seem unlikely to someone of your ‘profession’, but I am a girl of my word. I’ll give you a head start like a said before and not call the police until you have had time to get away cleanly.”

  “No honor amongst thieves, eh?” He raised a sardonic eyebrow at her.

  “Something like that,” she shrugged.

  He wasn’t going to fool her into thinking she had hurt his feelings. “If you covered your digital tracks sufficiently, it will take them months to figure out where to even start the investigation into who you really are. By then you will probably have covered your tracks ten times over. And I promise not to help.”

  “So, you work cyber security then,” he stated rather than asked. “I didn’t peg you for a simple bank teller and you didn’t seem to be management either” – He waggled his fingers in her direction – “Don’t give off that corporate vibe.”

  He looked her over again, seeming to reassess her, his eyes roaming her restrained figure up and down. Her skin prickled with awareness at his regard. She hated to admit how much it flattered her that he looked at her like that.

  Once she got out of this, she soooo needed to get laid… If she got out of this.

  “Why were you there working so late?”

  Lucy was not going to answer any more of his questions. She didn’t have the upper hand in the situation, and she wasn’t going to give him any more to leverage over her. She especially was not going to let him know that she had been there looking his account up. Trying to find a discrepancy and prove that her instincts had been right.

  “When are you going to let me go?” she shot back at him instead.

  At her question, Kyle, or whoever the hell he was, had a look of uncertainty pass over his face. It was gone in a flash.

  “Don’t go anywhere,” his tone sarcastic as he gave her a smile. Lucy opened her mouth to protest, but he spoke over her. “I have to check on something and figure out a plan. You were an unexpected… surprise. Make yourself at home.” He threw the mocking comment from over a shoulder as he left the living room.

  At this point, Lucy was starting to get much more peeved than scared. She knew she had a wicked temper and tended to not be so smart at times when it was provoked. Taking in a deep breath, she tried to calm herself before she starting hurling profanities at the handsome jerk and demanding to be set free.

  Assessing her surroundings, Lucy looked around the apartment for anything that could help her. A cheerful, moderately sized Christmas tree was in one corner of the room. It was decorated and the multi-colored strand of lights were on. There were no gifts beneath it. She turned to look the other direction and saw that a kitchen lay that way.

  Score!

  She gave her wrists an experimental twist. Maybe, just maybe, she could use the tips she had learned in self-defense and try to maneuver her hands out of the zip ties. From there, here ankles would be a piece of cake. Especially if she could make it to the kitchen.

  The self-defense classes were ones she enrolled herself in not too long after the incident that had caused her to leave the BDSM industry. With that experience, along with her knowledge in bondage, Lucy was fairly certain she could set herself free.

  She needed to keep as cool and calm as her kidnapper was about this situation. And she had to work fast.

  Jayce

  “Fuck!”

  Jayce was panicking. Like, for real panicking.

  He had managed to keep shit together so far, but now that he was in a room with just his self, he could let the “oh shit” factor sink in.

  He had to figure out what to do and fast.

  Pulling out his laptop he checked the soonest flight schedules. If he planned things correctly, and with a bit of luck on his side…

  A sick feeling hit his stomach.

  It was fucking two weeks until Christmas A time when people gathered with their family and friends. Was there someone waiting for her even now at home? A boyfriend? A husband? Shit, he hadn't even thought to check her finger… Would there be someone that would be worried enough to alert the police when she didn’t show up or answer her phone?

  If she was in a relationship, it was one lucky bastard that could claim a woman like her. She was brave, smart and sexy as hell on top if all. From what he could see she was a feisty, little package. Jayce cursed himself under his breath. He was starting to think with his dick again instead of the very real threat to himself.

  Some of the few old timer professional thieves he had met in his line of work had hinted at having to ‘tie up loose ends’ during their sordid careers. Jayce had usually taken every precaution to avoid hostage situation. His hast to get this job done and put this kind of work behind him had cost dearly.

  He tried to shake off the negative thoughts… He was not going to go to jail.

  Getting his thoughts in order, he booked a flight a few hours from now for a little after six in the morning. That should give him enough time to deal with the situation at hand and pack up or destroy any items or information that could lead back to him.

  The documents and flash drive he had stolen from the safety deposit rooms were tucked into his equipment bag. They were the reason he was here in this shitty little town in the first place. Those would be the first thing he secured into is carryon bag for the flight...

  Shit. He had left the bag in the room with Lucy!

  In his haste to get away from her and think for a moment, he had left the very thing he had risked his neck for tonight. Her very presence, her imperious air and sex appeal had been overwhelming. He’d had to put distance between them to just even think!

  A sound coming from the living room. It made Jayce pause mid-pace.

  He bolted in that direction.

  Had the little vixen had freed herself!

  Lucy was seated on the carpeted floor, no longer on the couch, and was struggling to pull one of her ankles out of the zip ties. She had a butter knife in one hand and had managed to pop one of the two ties loose.r />
  Jayce realized his mistake in thinking she would be too scared of her situation to not try something.

  She spotted him entering the living room. They both froze in place and time seemed to stand still.

  Jayce could hear her panting breath, evidence of her exertions, from where he stood,

  Without thinking, Jayce lunged across the room toward her, completely ignoring the butter knife she now held in front of her to ward him off. She struggled to her feet, using the couch to support her weight. They crashed together in a mess of limbs and tumbled to the floor. Jayce managed to get her on top of him, not knowing why he cared, so that he didn’t crush her with his weight.

  He had now tackled her, successfully, for a third time this evening.

  The wind was knocked out of both of them. She managed to get hers back first. “Ow, Kyle! You big brute. Are you going to crush me every chance you get?”

  “My name is Jayce,” he managed to wheeze out. “Just call me Jayce.”

  “Wha-,”

  Jayce lost track of what Lucy was saying as he registered the position of their bodies; The softness of her breasts. The press of her belly and thighs against the hard planes of his own body. His brief annoyance at her attempted escape was quickly forgotten by the overwhelming arousal that overcame him as she squirmed atop him.

  She was all woman.

  Lucy wriggled atop him, still expressing her indignation at her treatment. He felt her hips between his own and a delicious friction was building there.

  He couldn’t help the guttural groan that escaped him. Of their own volition, his hands came up and gripped the side of her hips. He pulled them down, against his erection, and was helpless against the urge to grind himself into her.

  Lucy movements came to a halt.

  She was frozen on top of him for only a moment before a peculiar look overcame her face.

  “Hands off.” She said the words softly but with such an intensity that he felt scalded by her command. Again, without thinking, his hands released her and they hovered, palms open, to either side of her.

  “I’m sorry,” he gulped. “I don’t know what came over me.” It sounded pathetic to his own ears. He could have kicked himself for his stupidity.

  Instead of censure or disgust, which was what he had been expecting, there was a calculating gleam to her eyes. The look made Jayce swallow roughly.

  Anticipation, for what, he didn’t know, was coursing through him.

  Chapter 4

  Lucinda

  If Lucy’s instincts were right, and they nearly always were when it came to reading people, the man beneath her had at least some submissive tendencies.

  Those unfamiliar to BDSM tended to think of subs as usually being all female. Or at the very least to include some men that were not outright very masculine or assertive. In truth, everyone carried submissive and dominant traits within them. There just seemed to be few people that were brave enough to openly explore those aspects of themselves. Those that did would sometimes tend to gravitate more toward one or the other.

  Most people, not into any kink scenes, never understood the freedom that could be found in total submission. Even partial submission could be a glorious feeling. She knew that to be true from her many clients that had told her so. And she knew it from her own few sessions where she had given herself over to be “taken care” of by another experienced dom.

  Lucy wanted to explore this. Explore it with him…

  She gave herself a mental slap. His hands were off of her and she had to take advantage. You have to get out of here stupid girl!

  In a move that surprised even herself, she rolled off of him and to one side and landed like a cat. She was about to sprint for the door when a hand grabbed her ankle and yanked her off balance.

  Come on! This was the bank all over again!

  “No!” she shouted as she came crashing down hard onto her hands and knees. “Just please! Let me go. I won't say anything,” she pleaded with him again.

  Lucy was flipped easily onto her back. she renewed her efforts to free herself, elbows and knees flying, hoping to land a blow hard enough to stun him. Through struggles and grunts, both hers and his, he somehow managed to pin her wrists again in a vice-like grip.

  “I told you I can’t do that!” came his shout mere inches from her face.

  Jayce

  Jayce fought his urge to cringe as he pinned her wrists above her head. It felt so wrong, but he couldn’t let her escape. He was so close to freedom and leaving behind this chapter of his life.

  She struggled beneath him and he could feel the globes of her breasts pressed tight against him. The edges of her button-up blouse were strained and revealing tantalizing glimpses of the creamy flesh beneath. Anymore force them and the buttons would go flying.

  Hating the thrill of excitement that went through him, he felt as if he should feel wrong about it, but instead he was turned on... He must be perverse and just never really known that about himself.

  “I said I wasn’t going to hurt you!” he practically shouted in her face, still heated and confused and taking it out on her. “Believe me, I don’t like doing this kind of thing. If you will just let be patient, I will leave you someplace without harming a hair on you head.”

  “Yeah right! I'm supposed to trust a thief to keep his word?” She hissed back, raising her head from the floor so that their noses were practically brushing.

  There were golden flecks in her warm brown eyes. They glared fiercely at him, again, at this moment and he was unwittingly aroused even more by the fire he saw within them. His eyes wandered to her full lips. They were parted and the bottom lip, lush and plump, looked a little ragged from where her teeth must have worried at it. Her little pink tongue darted out to wet them, no doubt aware of his stare, and the column of her slender neck moved. She tried to speak

  Jayce became conscious that she was aware of his intense captivation by her.

  Caution thrown to the wind, he leaned in.

  Lucinda

  Lucy felt the searing kiss along her throat.

  She stifled a groan of ecstasy as his mouth left a blazing trail in its wake. A pulsating thrum started in her bell and crawled its way down to her core. The throbbing sensations, in her belly, core, and in her very blood was driving her wild. She threw up her hands around him and clutched at his upper back with the clawed hands of a possessed woman.

  Jayce, jerking his head back, let out a hiss of gratified pain. At the same time, his hips, seeming to have a mind of their own, gave a helpless thrust forward. There was an unmistakable hardness in his jeans. She stilled at the sensation against her inner thigh, incomprehension stealing over her for a second.

  What the hell are you thinking Lucy?

  His eyes rounded in alarm as he looked at her, held down beneath him. She could only imagine what she looked like; hair tousled about, chest heaving, and a slightly unhinged gleam in her eyes.

  Only she would know that the gleam came from having been sexually awakened for the first time in over a year. She felt his cock jump against her thigh. She decided to do herself a favor and stop thinking.

  “God, Lucy,” he whispered. Stricken. “I didn’t mean to do this. I –,”

  “Oh no you don’t!” She grabbed and pulled him down atop her. One hand fisted in his hair, the other cradled his jaw and cheek to guide him to her hungry mouth. Her usual control and resistance had snapped. Lucy had been physically and emotionally deprived of human touch and care for too long.

  Admittedly, it had been a self-imposed deprivation, but it had still been hard on her. Her, a naturally sensual woman who had thoroughly enjoyed intimacy and her own sexual nature.

  The tension had been building up between them all night. She knew, without it having to be spoken, that they found each other attractive. Letting loose the part of her that had been starved for affection and touch, she poured her neediness into that kiss. Demanding more, enticing more from him to fill the emptiness in her.
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br />   Jayce seemed to get the message and be totally on board.

  After a surprised moan, he had kissed her back enthusiastically. No longer reticent since she had shown her obvious consent to this. His mouth tasted of mint and spice and she was loving it. Lucy fed on his taste, as much as the intimacy, as she nibbled and stroked his mouth with her own.

  Her hands continued to knead the muscles of his upper arms and back, urging more from him. His own hands, hesitant at first, began their own exploration of her curves starting at her hips. He was gentler than her as he handled her body. Taking his time and stroking her almost reverently.

  Slowly (almost too slowly for Lucy), Jayce was making his way up towards her breasts. As his fingers brushed against her ribcage, she could feel her breasts grow heavy and her nipples tighten in anticipation.

  The slowness was maddening! She wanted to her toss her head and whip her hair back and forth in abandon.

  “Touch me! “She growled out.

  Jayce swallowed hard and nodded his assent. When his hands took too long to work on the buttons of her blouse, she brushed his hands away and took over the task herself. His hands were trembling and his breath was coming out if harsh, short bursts.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Take your clothes off first,” she said without hesitation. Later she would kick herself for acting so rashly, but not right now. “Then you can help me with mine.”

  He nodded in agreement, stunned acceptance on his face, and he leaned back to start stripping himself as she’d commanded. The sight of his lean, toned muscles and flat stomach made her pause in the removal of her own shirt. There was a tiny bit of chest hair, the same dark brown of his hair, and an enticing treasure trail that dipped below the waist of his jeans. Her mouth watered at the sight.