An Escape to Love Read online

  “Do you know what you need? You need some fun, outdoor activity. I’d die if I had to stay here for a while, cuddled up on the couch with absolutely no physical activity.”

  Jake chuckled. “If you’re looking for some physical activity, you can have plenty right here, inside the house.”

  She stiffened. “What do you mean?”

  Jake stared at her, watching her face change pallor to a deathly shade. Realization dawned, and he saw that she had misunderstood his statement to mean something sexual. “Oh! No, no, no! That’s not what I meant. I meant there’s a fully equipped gym on the first floor if you want some exercise.”

  Leona relaxed and laughed a little. “I’m sorry, I misunderstood. You seem like a decent enough guy.”

  Jake’s bite refused to slide down his throat at her statement. Here he was sitting with a beautiful girl talking and having dinner, but if she found out who he really was, she would run away screaming. “I’m not that decent,” he said softly, and she smiled.

  “Oh, stop being so modest, I only meant it as a joke. I don’t really know you at all, do I?”

  He smiled back. “No, you don’t. Not at all.”

  “So what do you do?” she asked, taking a small sip of wine from her glass.

  “I, uh, own a small company,” he said and he regretted starting the conversation. All this talk about decency and work was depressing him, reminding him of what his life used to be once upon a time.

  “And what does your company do?”

  “We buy run-down businesses and invest in them to make them thriving businesses.”

  “Oh. That sounds good and boring,” she said jokingly and he laughed aloud.

  She went back to work at her steak and his eyes kept darting to her face. She had beautiful eyes, almond shaped, big and black. Her long, wavy hair framed her gamin-shaped face and full lips practically begged for a man to kiss them. He struggled to pull his lustful gaze away from her, so he stood up to get some ice. He took longer than necessary to get the cubes out of the tray, and his thoughts veered in various directions, making him lose focus for the first time in years.

  Ever since he had gone to prison, he was constantly on high alert. You couldn’t turn your back on an inmate anyway, and he had the double task of planning his escape while going along with the normal routines of a prisoner.

  Leona was making him lose that focus. She was destroying the sturdy calm he had relied on for ages. It was his driven concentration that had made him a free man right now, albeit a fugitive. He couldn’t go back to prison, under any circumstances, so he had to stop fantasizing about the beautiful girl in the living room, and work instead on his own survival.

  Chapter Five

  The next morning, Leona awoke to the soft humming sound from a blender. She shifted on her pillow, her eyes adjusting to the unfamiliar furnishings and surroundings. She groaned as she remembered she was trapped in a house in the middle of nowhere, and got up to wash her face.

  Her face looked fresh in the mirror and she was glad for the comfortable bed. It was way better than frozen solid snow, which would have been her bed if she hadn’t found this place.

  I should thank him, she thought to herself as she removed the nightshirt she had borrowed from Jake. She took a quick shower and washed her hair before dressing in the same emerald green sweater and jeans from the day before.

  She had none of her cosmetics, or anything else for that matter, so she scoured the medicine cabinet for some Vaseline. She rubbed some on her lips and surveyed her reflection in the mirror above the sink.

  She had always thought she looked good once she had the usual moisturizer, blusher, and mascara in place. Since she didn’t have any of those things, she felt dowdy and boring. She wanted to look nice, and then her mind brought her back to earth.

  Jake was just her host, and an unwilling one at that. She couldn’t believe the direction her mind was taking and she absentmindedly slid her fingers through her hair.

  Would it be so wrong if I did make a move on him? she thought quietly to herself. After all, he was a handsome devil, all rugged and tough-looking. Her father wouldn’t approve of him. Jake had something he would call un-refinement. That thought just made him all the more enticing and she smiled to herself as she thought over the situation.

  She was still here for nine more days, and it wouldn’t hurt to engage in simple, pleasurable flirtation.

  The atmosphere of the house was having an insane effect on her senses. The house was in the middle of nowhere with snow banked all around the place, the fireplace casting mellow lighting. Knowing that they were probably the only two people on the whole mountain made it even more enticing.

  She shrugged the thought away. They were alone on this mountain, and any flirting could be taken to mean they’d have sex. Leona knew she couldn’t be that bold, so there was no point even thinking of the possibility. Pushing her heavy mane of thick, brown hair off her shoulders, she walked out of the guestroom and stopped in her tracks as she saw Jake standing at the window. He looked so incredibly handsome, his hair wet from the shower again, a new camel colored sweater accentuating his insanely broad shoulders.

  “What are you looking at?” she asked casually and he glanced towards her.

  She saw a moment of pain in his eyes before he hooded the expression and smiled, “Nothing. Was just thinking about someone I knew. It’s the anniversary of her death today,” he added softly.

  “Oh! I’m so sorry,” she said.

  “It’s alright. It was a long time ago.”

  “Was she a friend?” she asked softly, walking closer to him and tilting her head upwards to stare into his eyes.

  Jake was about to lie when he realized he wanted to talk about Jessica. His chest ached with her memories, and he wanted to discuss her with someone.

  “She was actually way more than a friend.” he said, looking outside the window again, clearing his throat to soothe the ache of unshed tears clogging it.

  She stood there, not saying a word, and her hand came to rest on his forearm. Jake tensed, his whole body tingling with sensations from that simple touch. He was suddenly so glad Leona was here in his hideout with him. Whatever the future held for him, he was thankful for the company he had during this time.

  She took her hand away and walked into the kitchen, pouring two cups of coffee and bringing one to him. Her hand brushed his and Jake couldn’t believe the current that flowed through his blood stream. His cock had tightened to harden and surge in size and he wanted to pull Leona against his chest, crush her breasts and feel her body underneath his palms and lips.

  His eyes fell to Leona’s and she was already looking at his face. Their eyes locked for a mere second before she pulled hers away and walked over to the couch, lifting the remote to switch on the TV. Jake walked swiftly to the sofa and took the remote from her hand, switching to HBO before she decided to watch the news.

  “Guess I’m making breakfast then?” she asked, chuckling softly and getting up.

  “Seems like you are,” he replied casually, and gave her a wide, cheeky smile that made her laugh.

  Leona was halfway into the kitchen when Jake heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter slicing the air. He jumped over the back of the couch and reached his bedroom, sliding his hand under the mattress to grab his gun. He walked out and Leona had a smile on her face. “There’s a chopper outside. Maybe I could wave or...” she stopped abruptly, her eyes on the gun in his hand. “What happened?” she asked in a little voice, her eyes wide.

  Jake grabbed her arm, pulling her through the back door in the kitchen. Cold, biting wind hit Leona and she shivered, her teeth chattering and her heart beating insanely. He kept looking skyward, the gun in hand while his fingers dug into her flesh.

  “What are you doing? You crazy freak!” Leona screamed at the top of her lungs, but Jake didn’t hear her, he was too concerned with keeping her safe.

  Chapter Six

  If the chopper was here
to take him back to prison, there was going to be shooting, and he didn’t want Leona to die. If anything happened to her it would be his fault, and then he couldn’t even plead innocence to himself.

  He pushed her down into the bushes and she stared back at him with angry, wild eyes. “Stay down!" Jake screamed to be heard over the sound of the chopper, and she was about to give him a scathing reply when her teeth began to chatter uncontrollably.

  Jake went back into the house, taking cover behind the wall as he peeped through the wide, high windows. The chopper swayed, circling the perimeter of the house, and Jake finally saw who was inside. He could see three skiers, all decked out in full ski-gear. His breath came out in a rush and he felt lightheaded, all the adrenaline in his bloodstream going to waste.

  He stood there for several seconds trying to catch his breath and his gaze fell on the gun in his hand. Where had life landed him? He was prepared to shoot down innocent people as long as they didn’t take him back to the hell of prison. He pushed the gun under the couch and grabbed a blanket as he ran towards the back door.

  He found Leona huddled under the buses, her teeth chattering and her nose red from the cold. Jake ran towards her, his heart clenching painfully at the look on her face. She probably had never had anything to fear like this before, what with her family background.

  A vision of her chattering on about useless things crossed his mind, and then the current sight of her, huddled under the bushes, terrified. Self-hatred flowed through his bloodstream like acid and he clutched her tightly as he lifted her up.

  He clenched his teeth and threw the blanket over her shoulders, pulling her against his chest and into the house. She mumbled something which he couldn’t understand, he just focused on getting her inside the warmth of the house. She sat down in front of the fire and he finally understood what she was saying.

  “Get away from me,” she mumbled while her teeth chattered.

  “I’m sorry, Leona. I thought it was…I’m sorry,” he said.

  She stared at him, holding the blanket snugly around her shaking body “What is wrong with you?” she hissed angrily. “Who did you think was in the helicopter? Aliens? You threw me outside in the snow, for what?”

  Jake paused for a while, running his hands through his hair roughly as he tried to come up with a good enough excuse. Leona was too smart to fall for a random story he could feed her. “No one ever comes near the house. It’s all alone, secluded in the mountains. I thought it might be robbers or something.”

  “In a helicopter?” she screamed, and Jake couldn’t help but feel entranced by the sparks of anger shooting from her eyes.

  “I realize how stupid it was now, but at that moment I was terrified for your safety. If it had been just me in the house it would’ve been fine.”

  She narrowed her eyes and he could sense that she didn’t believe his story. “Just…don’t talk to me for a while. Please. I don’t feel like talking to you,” she said angrily.

  Jake lowered his eyes to the ground and then turned around to head to the kitchen, to make Leona a cup of steaming coffee. Leona watched his back as he walked around and her mind was alert, almost tingling with the doubt coursing through it. She wanted to believe what Jake had told her but she just couldn’t. It was a lie and she knew it.

  She thought maybe her background as a law student was making her feel suspicious, but then shoved the thought out of her mind as Jake returned with a mug in each hand. He placed one in front of her without a word and sat on the sofa farthest away from her, sipping in silence.

  Leona’s eyes fell to his strong, masculine hands and a shiver ran through her body. Several of her friends had confided that men with big hands had big cocks, and for some bizarre reason, she recalled that little detail at that very moment.

  Jake’s hands were large, his fingers thick and strong, and she wondered if she would ever find out the truth about the link between hands and cocks.

  She shook her head to clear it. She was not going to sleep with Jake, no matter what. She was a strong woman and she could control her insane cravings for a man she knew nothing about, besides the freaky fact that he was incredibly jumpy about helicopters hovering over his place.

  Jake stole a glance at Leona as she looked into her mug, blowing at the froth over her coffee. Her long hair was tangled and slightly wet from the melted snow. She was beautiful in the perfect kind of way. He was suddenly desperate to press his lips to the soft fullness of hers and taste them.

  His cock hardened as he fantasized about sliding his palms over her nipples, back and forth, and he wanted to stop thinking but it was so pleasurable he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  He imagined her hair spread over his pillows, a tangled, beautiful mess as he bent over her and ravaged her lips. He was so starved he felt like his cock would explode right there in his pants, without the tiniest of stimulations. Leona’s legs were long and lean and he could just see them wrapped tightly around his hips as he filled her body with his cock.

  She glanced up and saw him watching her and her heart skipped a beat at the intense, fiery look in those gray eyes. Jake couldn’t look away, he was heated beyond recall, and he just wanted to take her face between his palms and crush her pink lips with his mouth.

  Leona jumped off the couch, spilling a few drops of coffee on her foot and mumbled something about going to the bathroom and disappeared. Jake watched the bedroom door close behind her and his breath was harsh. He closed his eyes and rested his elbows on his knees, covering his face with his palms.

  God, I want her, he hissed in his mind, and rubbed his face fiercely as he tried to bring his hardened body under control. He wished she had never come here because then he wouldn’t have to worry about what to do with her, when to send her back – and how he could possibly get her into bed before that.

  He was done with complications in his life and he knew that if he fucked Leona, the complications would just get worse. Leona was not one of those girls who would let him fuck her and leave without a second glance. She was kind and sweet and intelligent, and she deserved more than a quick romp under the sheets with a man who was an escaped convict.

  He knew he had to keep distance from her, but for that he had to let her go from his hideout and back to her family. It was only a matter of time, though, before she found out who he really was, and her family of lawyers and Supreme Court justices would just make sure he ended up back in prison. He was not going back, not unless it was to the morgue.

  Chapter Seven

  An hour passed as he sat there and his coffee grew cold, untouched on the table. He was waiting for a phone call from a man named Ramone, and then he could leave this place on a helicopter to a ski lodge up the mountain. From there he was due to take another chopper which would drop him off on an airstrip where a private jet would be waiting for him.

  His escape was an intricate web of complicated plans which had to go right, or else the whole thing would come down like a stack of dominoes. Leona could end up being the piece that brought down his whole plan.

  Leona sat on the bed in her room and realized that her arm was aching from when Jake had grabbed it to pull her out of the house. The ambience of the place and the uncertainty of the future were making her feel completely out of it. All she wanted to do was feel Jake’s large hands over her body, caressing her, and even as she thought of it, her breath hitched.

  She could feel liquid heat seeping out of her pussy and she squirmed on the bed before collapsing back onto it and closing her eyes in defeat.

  She had never had sex, and the only reason was that she had never liked anyone enough to let him have her virginity. She hardly knew Jake, yet her whole body screamed to be touched by him.

  She grunted loudly, frustrated by the direction her thoughts were taking. She knew Jake was into her, she wasn’t stupid, but he wasn’t the first man to look at her the way he did. Then why was it that she had never wanted to give her virginity to anyone else?

  He
was probably ten years older than her and had plenty of experience being with women. The thought enticed her more than repulsed her, and she wanted to throw caution to the wind and sleep with him. He was so sexy with those gray, steely eyes and long eyelashes, her limbs shook at the mere thought of them.

  “What am I going to do?” she moaned aloud and pulled a pillow over her face, pressing it down. Her arm ached like hell and it was getting worse by the second. She was suddenly fuming as she recalled his insanity earlier, and she had half a mind to go out and punch him in the face.

  She got up quickly thinking maybe that’s what she needed: a good, violent outlet for her emotions. She opened the door and walked swiftly towards Jake. He looked at her, his eyes furrowed as she purposefully marched to where he sat.

  A small fist connected with his shoulder and he winced as it poked his muscle. “What the fuck?” he said, and chuckled, an incredulous expression on his face.

  His completely unaffected response to a pretty hard punch made Leona angrier, and she punched him again and again and again. Jake laughed and grabbed her wrist after the fourth punch, laughing. “What are you trying to do? Dig a hole in my arm?”

  Leona glared at him and finally the expression on his face and the stupidity of her childish actions made laughter bubble up inside of her. She burst out laughing and crashed onto the sofa behind her. “Didn’t you feel it at all? I was hitting you with all my might.’

  He made a grave expression. “Oh, I might need to go to the emergency room.” Leona laughed harder and he joined in, enjoying the musical sound of her laughter. “Okay, why exactly did you attack me, Leona?”

  Leona’s laughter ended at the sound of her name on his lips, and she cleared her throat after a moment. “My arm ached because you grabbed it so hard. I wanted to hit you back.”

  “I’m sorry I hurt you,” he said instantly and Leona’s heart literally began thudding in her throat.