Beautiful Catastrophe

Chapter Four:

"Because you should be."

They were so dangerously close to each other in that moment. Close enough for her to stupidly inhale his scent and warm to the feeling of his arm hooked around her waist. But she needed to snap out of it? This man was merely a stranger, a dangerous one at that. He could kill her in an instant and had already said he would if he felt like it.

"Say something sweetheart..." he whispered in her ear, turning her legs to jelly. She was more than a little surprised to feel his lips brush lightly against her jawline, placing soft kisses as he went. Wasn't he just majorly pissed a minute ago? She thought in confusion.

Kim had to stop herself from moaning at the close contact from Nathan. He lifted her shirt a little so his fingertips could feel her soft skin. Kim shivered in delight and he liked knowing she could be easily affected by him- it would help him in the future if ever he needed to use this trick of his.

She began to realise that she was more frightened than she had ever been before in her life and wonder what had gotten into her. Where had the fierce Kim gone? Where was the fearless Kim hiding? What had happened to the brave Kim? Was she allowing some man- dangerous or not- to control her actions? She had allowed her father to control her for too long, she would not let anyone but herself decide what she done ever again.

Kim found herself again and pushed Nathan abruptly away from her, just as he thought his plan was working. He looked at her in confusion once he saw a pair of furious eyes burning holes into his face. But as soon as his confusion had arrived on his face, it had departed- making him look unaffected again, even slightly bored.

"Get the hell off of me you creep!" she exclaimed and tried to cross her arms but then she felt Nathan swiftly take her wrists and snap something onto them.

"What the-"

"I told you already the names Nathan sweetheart, and I'd really prefer if you called me by that instead of creep or physco or whatever else you come up with. Now get in the car."

Nathan was unphased by her continuous whining and bickering at him. Although it was quite humorous to watch, Nathan was in no mood at that moment. He was tired and needed to find a place to stay for the night. They both had an early start the next morning and were in need of some sleep.

"No." she said out straight with some kind of pride behind it that confused Nathan. No wasn't an option for her, so it made him wonder why she had even thought about not doing as he said.

"Unless you want me to tie your legs up again and throw you in the trunk Kim... I suggest you get your skinny little ass into the goddamn car before this turns from zero to a hundred really quick. Maybe I'll give you more of those answers you're looking for eh?" he taunted her and spoke with finality.

Despite wanting to put up a fight, Kim felt exhausted from the new information she had gathered. Her thoughts were running wild. What did her father have to do with all of this? She knew that taking back what was hers all those years ago would come back to haunt her but not like this.

Kim remained silent in the car ride to wherever Nathan was taking her. She did not care. Her thoughts were too much to deal with at that time and she needed to reflect. There was no time to be pushing Nathan's buttons, wondering what could happen next. He sensed her quietness and flicked his eyes from the road to her a couple of times. She failed to notice this or acknowledge him, but sat there staring vacantly out the windscreen at the road ahead.

Nathan decided to say nothing too, but observed her face full of sorrow with curiosity. He wanted to know what was going on inside that head of hers but pushed that thought away to think about the issue at hand: a place to stay the night. After a couple of minutes driving through the small town, he managed to find a dingy motel and pulled in as soon as he spotted it.

Kim stayed in the car while he organised a room to stay in. She would have noticed him knocking on the car window next to her had she not been recollecting everything that led up to the day she decided to stand up for herself. She left everyone she had ever known without saying goodbye, not that she felt it was needed anyway- she didn't want to stay minute longer in Chicago.

Everyone there, her family, and friends, even her own fiancé had deceived her. She knew she deserved better so moved on to Portland to make something of herself there, without the influence of her well known family or her father's world renowned technology company.

"Kim!" Nathan's voice immediately snapped her out of her thoughts.

Her head shot to the side to find him peering in the window at her, his thick brows furrowed in annoyance. She shook her head, as if the simple task would rid her mind of the heavy thoughts and unbuckled her seatbelt as quickly as she could considering she was handcuffed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't hear you." Her voice was the sweetest he had ever heard it since he met her earlier that day. It was soft, gentle and sounded as if she was somewhere else.

Nathan could tell she was tired, her eyes were sleepy and she was calm, a little too calm for his liking. He could tell there was something bothering her, something other than any of the events that had happened previously that day.

Once he opened the door with his key, he threw his dark duffle bag on the double bed and looked around the room. Kim's thoughts had travelled back to the situation at hand, like what was going to happen next?

"You better go to bed. We need some sleep for our journey tomorrow." Nathan's voice returned to its dark and serious tone from earlier.

"Where are we going?" Kim tried to stop herself form fidgeting with her hands to avoid any eye contact.

Nathan sat on the bed and retrieved something to sleep in from the bag. He kicked off his shoes and slid his suit jacket off. She almost thought what she had asked would be another ignored question to add to the list from that day but eventually, he spoke.

"I'm taking you to D.C. where my boss will decide what to do with you."

"But I haven't done anything? Those files that I took back belonged to me. It's my father who should have been the one taken and hauled back to D.C. Not me."

"Look, it's orders from above. You're going to D.C. with me, whether I have to drag you there or not."

Nathan had researched a lot about Kim but didn't know as much as he let on to know about the situation and what she had stolen from her father. He didn't quite understand everything that was going on around him but went along with it anyway. He knew he had to trust whatever orders he was given. There was something the people above weren't telling him, something was missing from their explanation.

Although Kim may have thought Nathan was the enemy, she had the whole thing entirely wrong. Nathan was told to keep her safe, to make sure she was unharmed when they returned to D.C. The enemy though, was not too far behind them. Nathan hadn't been the only one looking for Kim out there. There were others too, ones that were more dangerous than he could ever be.

She didn't know it yet, but this situation was a lot more serious than she could ever anticipate. All Nathan knew was that those documents and files she stole from her father were very important ones. And what she had done pissed a lot of people off.

"Didn't you say you worked for the CIA?" She questioned, trying to understand all of this.

"Yes." He said before tossing her a familiar pyjama set. It was hard for her to catch considering she was still in hand-cuffs but she caught them anyway.

"Aren't they the ones who look after foreign affairs and threats? Not stuff regarding a US based technology company."

"Your father deals and associates with powerful people from around the globe. I thought you would have known that considering you worked for Scott Inc. for quite some time before moving away." Was all he said.

He watched carefully as she looked down at the pyjamas, waiting for her reaction. Kim's face reddened quickly and she slowly looked up from her pink, care bear pyjamas to meet Nathan's eyes. He had a smug smile on his face, it was almost too sexy for her to mad at him, note the word almost.

"Where did you get these?" Kim asked as he laughed at her embarrassment.

"Aren't you like twenty-five?" he sniggered at her.

"Twenty-six actually." Kim mumbled. She felt self-conscious under his stare then. She was getting defensive and he found that even more humorous.

"Why did you go through my things? It's none of your business what I wear to bed."

"I would have liked to think you wore nothing at all sweetheart." He wandered into the bathroom, leaving her to get dressed in a pair of handcuffs which was near impossible. He left the door slightly ajar and called out, "What a disappointment."

Kim rolled her eyes at his statement and managed to remove her sweatpants. She slid her care bear pyjama bottoms up her legs but was struggling to remove her top. Nathan came back into the room dressed in a dark tee and boxer shorts but she was unaware of his presence. He watched as she continued to lift her t-shirt over her head and stifled a snort.

"Why don't you f*****g take these handcuffs off so I can maybe get into my care bear pyjamas you wanted me to wear so f*****g much?" she almost shouted, thinking he was still in the bathroom.

She was clearly agitated and her voice broke a little, like she was about to cry but she swallowed back her tears. It took everything in her to do that but she done it without hesitation. Kim didn't want to look weak in front of him by breaking down. She didn't want to get dressed, she didn't want to go to bed, she definitely didn't want to go to D.C.

What she did want to do was to go home, back to Portland where she belonged with her friends and her job teaching at the dance school near her place. Although none of the things she had in her life back there brought much happiness, she would rather be there than here and it tore her apart to even think about her family again or specifically her father for that matter.

"Why did you even bump into me back in Portland? Were you stalking me? What were you planning on doing? Taking me out to dinner and then kidnapping me later?" Kim focused on her annoyance of what was happening to stop the pain she was feeling which she was unable to cope with that night.

"Of course not Kim." She was surprised to hear his voice close behind her but didn't turn around. "Firstly, we would've gone out to dinner." Kim sensed his body right behind hers; he took the hem of her shirt and began to lift it over her head.

She went along with it and held her cuffed hands above her head so he could slide off her top to expose her sports bra she had put on early that morning. She gulped when she felt his hands on her waist and his chest against her back.

"Maybe f**k a couple of times." He spoke soft and seductively, his lips dragging along her skin from her shoulder to her neck as he spoke.

"Then I'd take you on a weekend to D.C. where I'd bring you back to my boss."

He held her hands up again so that he was able to put on her matching care bear top. Kim did not welcome the feeling of fabric instead of his rough hands. She almost groaned but stopped herself when she felt his touch again. He leaned forward and reached his hands around to her wrists. Kim's breath hitched in her throat at his actions.

He tormented her skin, made her feel like everywhere he touched was burning. Nathan knew what he was doing to her, the affect he had on her. It made him want to test her patience even more but he stopped himself before he done something he would regret. His mission was to bring her to D.C. not sleep with her.

He surprised her even more with what he done next. Nathan unlocked one of Kim's hands and swiftly moved to her side to snap the open ring onto his other wrist. She looked in horror, unable to understand why he had made her believe for that one split second that he was going to free her hands. But instead of what she had hoped, he had made the situation worse by binding the two together between this metal.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kim narrowed her eyes at him in some sort of disgust, it made him chuckle.

"You think I'm going to let you escape when I go asleep? I don't think so. You won't find the key so there's no point in looking- besides, you can't go very far without me."

"But...But-" she was lost for words. God he was annoying, she thought. "But I need to pee?"

"Go ahead." He dragged her along into the bathroom and stood looking at the opposite wall, giving her as much privacy as he was willing to give.

"You can't be serious, I'm not peeing with you here."

"Well then I suggest you hold it in until morning." He remained facing the wall. He heard her let out an agitated sigh before shoving the lid up and going toilet. She slammed the lid down and flushed, making her way over to the sink to wash her hands. Kim dragged him with her; there were only a couple of centimetres of chain holding the two of their hands together so his hand was shoved into the sink along with hers.

"You're an i***t, you know that?" she gritted her teeth angrily at him once she saw him watching her, a smirk plastered upon his beautiful face.

Nathan said nothing, just made his way to the bed and got onto it on his side. Kim was forced to follow behind and stood there looking at him as he tried to get comfortable under the covers.

"How am I supposed to get into bed now that we're handcuffed?"

"Oh quit whining like a little child Kim." Nathan said before yanking her over the bed where she fell on top of him with a squeal.

She squirmed off of his body to lie on her side of the bed next to him, shooting him a deadly look to which he let out a hearty laugh. He already loved pissing her off, it was more than a little comedic.

"I bet you wish you had've said yes to that dinner invitation now don't you Kim?" he smirked, turning on his side to look at her adjusting in bed with the cuffs keeping them close.

"No! And you think I'd f**k you after one date?" Kim scoffed then narrowed her eyes at him in disgust when he gave her a wide grin.

"I know it sweetheart."

"Oh shut up!"