Kidnap My Heart

Chapter Thirty-Four: Will

Kidnap My Heart

Chapter 34: Will

If someone had told me I would be standing in my dad’s cellar a week after Emma had run away, holding her in my arms after saving her from the ridiculous prison cell my dad had stuck her in, I would’ve laughed and said that was absolutely crazy. Because it was, but it was actually happening. I was really standing there, and I was really holding her, and I never wanted to let her go. It kind of felt like the moment I did, she would slip away again.

“Are we going to keep standing here just hugging each other?” Emma eventually asked, her voice slightly muffled. Her head was resting against my chest as she held on tightly, and she hadn’t bothered lifting it to talk.

“If you want,” I said, although I still didn’t move. I didn’t want to let go of her, but I didn’t want to force her to stay there longer than she wanted to, either. I had a feeling that would constitute as cuddle-raping, which apparently was not okay.

“I do, but I’m starving, and I don’t want to start exhibiting cannibalistic tendencies,” she mumbled against my chest. “For your sake.”

I laughed and shook my head. God, I’d missed her. She was so different from what I’d originally thought she was like—a good different. Definitely a good different.

“I need to take a shower, too,” she went on. “The bench in that cell is nasty.”

“If you’re trying to scare me into letting go, it’s not gonna work,” I said. “You weren’t in there long enough to become unsanitary.”

“You’d be surprised. What time is it?” she asked, pulling away to look at me.

“Almost nine,” I said. “My dad called me a couple of hours ago, and I came over here as fast as I could.”

I was surprised my dad had left me alone with Emma after everything that had happened. He had even said as much, basically, but he had also said that he assumed I was capable of handling her when she was locked up. He should’ve known better. There was no way I was going to leave her in there, especially not after what she had said to me. She was falling for me. She was feeling the same exact thing I was feeling. Hearing her talk about her feelings and her fears was like listening to my own thoughts.

As I stood there and stared into her green eyes, I let out a small smile. Maybe this was what Eric always talked about. Maybe this was the appeal he saw in serious relationships and being a one-girl kind of guy. The way I felt when I was with Emma was better than all of the flings I’d ever had, and we hadn’t even had sex yet. That had to mean something.

“Well, thank you,” she said, her eyes never leaving mine. “For coming, I mean. If I have to be here, I’m glad it’s with you.”

I grinned and kissed her on the forehead. “Come on. I’ll make you something to eat while you take a shower.”

“Okay.” For once, it wasn’t me that grabbed onto her hand. It was her that grabbed onto my hand, and this time, she was fully conscious. She intertwined her fingers with mine and squeezed. “Lead the way.”

I tried to act cool about it, but I wasn’t sure I did a very good job. I was so used to her pushing me away. Now that she was actually letting me in—well, starting to—I didn’t know how to handle it.

I led her upstairs, internally debating over whether or not I should just do the whole shebang. You know, the whole love confession romance thing. I wasn’t the best at that shit, but for her, I could figure something out.

Not that I was in love with her. I mean, that was… that was extreme, right? Oh, shit.

“Why do you guys have two houses?” she asked as we climbed upstairs. “Your dad said the other house was your old one and that you’d moved into this one, but he didn’t elaborate or anything.”