Riding Steele #1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

masculine. It must be the soap Steele used because it smelled just like him.
    She glanced around at the surprisingly large bathroom, with a big, deep, old-fashioned soaker tub, a large glassed-in shower stall along the end wall, and a window overlooking the lake on one side and the dense trees surrounding the cabin on the other. She could easily pull open the window and climb out, but Steele had cautioned her he would have people watching. She frowned. She didn’t relish climbing down from the second story anyway and she definitely wouldn’t get far barefoot.
    A fluffy white bath towel was folded neatly on a shelf over the toilet. Another one was thrown haphazardly over the edge of the tub, still damp, probably the one Steele had used to dry off his big, muscular,
naked
body.
    The scent of him filled her nostrils, and the memory of waking up snuggled close to the big man, his arm around her, jolted through her. At first, she had felt warm and protected. Then she’d realized her wrist was pressed against his hard, hot cock and she’d jerked away.
    But that initial feeling … that feeling deep in her gut … that she was safe in his arms … That really threw her.
    It was probably because she was looking for a safe haven in a storm. Steele wasn’t the one who’d kidnapped her. And he hadn’t touched her last night, even though he’d assured her this morning, he was
never too tired
to fuck.
    But she couldn’t trust him. Any more than she could trust Donovan.
    Everything that had happened last night suddenly hit her full throttle. Even before the crazy biker had kidnapped her. The way Donovan had treated her. If Wild Card hadn’t shown up when he had, Donovan would have taken her against that post. Against her will.
    She sank to the floor, curling into a ball on the large, fluffy mat that filled the center of the room as her throat closed up. He would have
raped
her.
    Tears flooded from her eyes as she realized she had let herself get sucked into an abusive relationship. One where she had given up control to a ruthless, violent man.
    How had she let that happen?
    Oh, God, she’d been an idiot. Craig had cautioned her to be wary of Donovan, but he was her brother … and an overprotective one at that. She hadn’t heeded his warnings. She’d been so headstrong and sure of herself. And Donovan had been so charming … at first.
    He’d known exactly how to gain her confidence. And how to keep her under his thumb. She’d graduated from university five years ago with a communications degree, but with the job market the way it was, all she’d been able to get were service jobs. She’d been a barista for a while, then moved on to retail, but it was part-time work with lousy schedules. And lousy pay.
    Once she and Donovan started dating, Donovan had gotten her a job in the local office of one of his companies working in the marketing department. The job gave her the stability she so craved and the income to finally buy her own home. Donovan had even arranged a great deal on a brand new town house for her.
    When he’d started controlling her, she’d turned a blind eye. Deep inside, she worried that if she broke up with him, it could put her job in danger, and without the job, she couldn’t afford her mortgage.
    He’d started with mild demands at first, then bigger ones. He’d cajoled her into letting him command her in the bedroom, even binding her sometimes. At first it had been sexy, submitting to a strong, dominating man, but he didn’t always satisfy her, and had started doing things she wasn’t really comfortable with.
    Then when he’d wrapped his hands around her throat and choked her while he took his pleasure, she had realized she had to get out. Never would she have believed he would be capable of the things he’d said and done in the parking garage.
    She realized she was trembling all over and a sob escaped her