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Chapter Fourteen


They slammed through the porch door, banging into the main door, their mouths locked. She groped around him for the handle of the door and he only just caught his balance as they tumbled into the house. She threw her keys and purse onto the floor as the door banged shut and they made their way down the hall. Avery carefully made certain they turned into his bedroom, and she pushed him back onto the mattress, her palms spread on his shoulders. “Wait here a second,” she said, catching her breath, “I gotta get the… the condoms,” she said.

Nick nodded, her lipstick smeared around his mouth sloppily.

Avery went to her room and pulled open the drawer where she’d put the rope they’d bought at the general store. She ran her fingers over it, then gripped and tugged, a little tug of war with herself, testing the strength. She took a deep breath and went back to the bedroom, carry the rope and a pair of scissors with her.

Nick was sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked up as she came back in the room. He’d taken off his shoes and his pants and he sat there in just his shirt and boxers..

“How do you feel about… a little… fantasy?” she asked thickly. Her heart raced in her chest.

“Fantasy?” Nick asked, curious.

“Yeah,” Avery said. She walked over, slowly pulling the rope and the scissors from behind her back. She bit her lip in what she hoped was an alluring way. “I’ve always wanted to… to have control…” She stared into his eyes.

Certainly he could hear the unsteadiness in her voice.

He looked at the rope, then up at her, “You wanna tie me up?” he asked uncertainly.

Avery nodded.

Nick reached for the rope, holding it across his palms. She felt like her heart had crawled up into her throat and set up residence in the spot where her voice box rested. She could hardly breathe around it. Nick’s eyes roamed slowly from her hands on the other end of the rope, up her arms, to her eyes. He licked his lips. “That’s… that’s kinky,” he whispered.

“Mhm.”

A grin spread across his face, slowly, then all at once he was grinning like a naughty kid reaching into a cookie jar at her.

Avery took a step closer and said thickly, “Lie down on the bed.”

Nick did as he was told, stretching across the bed, staring up at her, his eyes sparkling with mischievousness.

This was too easy.

She walked down to the end of the bed and pulled one of his large feet to her. He giggled when her fingers touched the bottom, tugging his foot out of her grasp. “I’m ticklish,” he laughed, grinning, the corners of his eyes crinkled up. Then, “Hey, shouldn’t I have, like, my clothes all off or something? How are we gonna get’em off once you tie me up?”

“We’ll get it, don’t worry,” she answered, because honestly it just didn’t matter for what she really had planned. She reached for his foot again, careful not to touch the bottom of it this time, and quickly fastened one foot, then the other, to the end posts of the bed. Once she had his ankles secured, she climbed up onto the bed, her stomach dancing all jittery inside of her. She was a vanilla sex kind of girl, not this crazy, kinky, rocky-road sort of stuff. She wasn’t sure how to act, she felt so awkward, she was scared Nick would figure out what was going on just by her uncertainty alone. But how else was she supposed to get him tied up? Her throat throbbed with anxiety as she straddled Nick’s chest and put her hands on him to steady her a moment. She rose and fell with his breath.

Nick stared up at her from the bed, his heart racing, too, because he’d never really done this before, either. Sure he’d joked about it a lot and stuff, but he’d never actually done it. But what better time to try some light bondage than with a she-cop, right? A beautiful one at that.

As he stared up at her, he wondered how he hadn’t seen it before - how pretty she was, that is. He was enamoured now, like he’d been blinded before and suddenly the way the string lights at the party had shined on her had opened his eyes. Sure, part of it had something to do with embracing the role of Chad talking to those guys, telling them stories he made up off the cuff about how he’d met Avery in Cincinnati when he’d helped her fix a flat tire on the side of the highway - a good samaritan who fell smitten for a damsel in distress sort of fairytale. Plus the jealousy in Billy’s eyes had made him feel more intrigued by her, too. He’d always been the kind of guy who fell for the most desired woman in the room simply because she was the one he wanted to know he could get.

Now here she was, sitting on his chest, about to do unspeakable things to his helplessly tied up body, and he could feel his boxers getting tight across the crotch and his toes curled a little at the thought as all the nerve endings blazed with heat. She was touching him, running her hand over his shoulders, pulling his hands over his head, her breasts against his chest, her smell invading his senses, her weight making his breathing heavy.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered.

She stared at him, “What?”

Nick licked his lips, his eyes staring into hers, “You’re beautiful.”
Avery felt a lump rise in her throat. She hesitated, her hand still against his skin, her legs astride him. He thought she was beautiful? She couldn’t even remember the last time someone had said those words to her. Marty certainly hadn’t ever told her that. Nick’s voice had been so full of sincerity. She wasn’t sure how to respond.

He smiled up at her… a crooked sort of smile. The one that wasn’t the Carter Grin. The one that seemed more real.

Get a grip, Ave, her brain yelled at her. You have a job to do!

Slowly, still off guard, Avery slid the length of rope around one wrist, wove it through the rungs on the headboard and tied the other end to his opposite wrist. Her stomach churned.

Was she doing the right thing? she wondered. Once she sat back up, once she’d gotten him secured, once the sexual ruse was over, what would she say? How would she tell him the truth about his bondage? What would he say? What if she hadn’t fastened the ropes tight enough to hold his limbs in place? What would he do?

“Not too tight,” he requested.

But she tightened it anyway.

The bonds made, he closed his eyes, feeling contained, feeling helpless, and suddenly he wasn’t positive he liked this game anymore. He bit his lower lip, waiting, telling himself this anxiety building in him would dissipate once she started actually having the sex with him. He waited, anxious, squirming, willing himself not to allow a panic to build inside.

Why wasn’t she fucking him yet?

Avery sat up, looking down at him, at his face, at the way he was grimacing, and she felt like a monster doing this to him. “Are you okay?” she asked, worried.

“Uh huh,” he choked.

She frowned. She hated that he was uncomfortable. But then again, was being kidnapped really supposed to be a luxury? She felt torn, somewhere between being ballsy enough to actually be a kidnapper, like Marty wanted her to be, and being the beautiful person that Nick apparently thought she was. She needed to talk to Marty, she realized, to be encouraged, to be reminded of what she had with him. She needed to be told she was doing the right thing. “I’ll be right back,” she stammered, and she rolled off him and off the bed.

Nick’s eyes flew open, “Avery? Where are you going?”

“I gotta.. make a call.”

“But… hey, untie me first,” he requested as she went to the door. “Wait. Don’t leave me here like this. I’m serious, I dunno if I wanna do this. Avery?”

She’d gone out the door.

“Come back, Ave,” he called, panic rising up in him like a red-hot bile in his stomach. “Sonofabitch,” he groaned, and he tugged at his bindings, his wrists and ankles no sooner loosening than he was likely to grow feathers and fly off. He couldn’t even hardly move at all, actually, he realized, and the panic grew all the more intense. “Avery!!!” he yelled.

But there was no response.

What if she forgot about him tied up in here? What if the gunman found them at this very moment, came through the window and found Nick all tied up like this? He’d be a goner. What if she was working for the gunman? What if that’s who she was calling, to tell him to c’mon in ‘cos Nick was all tied up and ready to be served like a fucking duck on a silver plate?

He shook his head. Stop being ridiculous, Carter, he coached himself.

“Avery!” he cried, feeling like his sanity was fleeing from him the longer he was restrained, “Please, come let me out!”

She was in the hallway, her back against the closed door, eyes shut tight, biting her lower lip. As the panic rose in his voice, her heart beat faster and faster against her ribs. She felt cruel, leaving him there as he started to freak out. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed Marty’s phone number… only to be sent to voicemail. She groaned. More than anything, she needed Marty’s reassurance at that moment, his promise that this was gonna work out exactly like they’d planned for it to.

“Avery, please!” Nick was shouting.

Her palms were sweaty.

What should she do?

Her phone vibed and she looked down. It was a text from Marty.

cant talk right now - some shits goin down - will txt u later

Avery sighed and ran her hand over her face. She typed back, What shit is going down?

gotta get out of this area - headed north

Headed North?

Avery stared at the text.

You’re coming here?

Avery chewed her lower lip, waiting for a response.

“Avery, fucking hell, please! Where are you? Come back!! I’m kinda tweakin’ out a lil bit in here… hello?”

Her throat ached.

“This is for the best,” she breathed to herself.

just north of cincinatti. wont go there til we get the $$$, Marty replied finally.

She sighed in relief, though she wasn’t sure why she was relieved that Marty wasn’t coming.

Then:

a chick I was hangin’ with just got arrested - i used her cell to send ransom note

A chick? What chick? Avery’s eyebrows knit together, concerned.

You were with another woman? she typed.

“Fuck,” Marty muttered on his end. He was sitting in a stolen car, smoking stolen cigarettes, his hands shaking as he listened to a news station on the radio talking about Megan getting arrested. He was trying to remember how much about himself he’d told her, if he’d said his last name at all, if this stupid piece of ass was going to be his undoing, and now here he was, about to get into domestic bullshit with Avery - the one person who could destroy him faster than he could even blink.

The last thing he wanted to do was piss her off.

just u kno a scapegoat, he typed finally.

Avery glared at the screen.

A scapegoat you’re fucking?

no no princess nothin like that at all - just a scapegoat, u kno i needed some way to send the note without gettin traced back n that was the way is all thats it - ur the only 1 i love u no that babe

But even as he denied it, Avery sat staring at the screen of her phone feeling sick. As much as she wanted to trust Marty, she wasn’t sure that she did.

“Fuckin’ hell, Avery, please!” Nick’s voice rang with panic.

She realized that she didn’t give a fuck what Marty wanted her to do with Nick, it wasn’t like Marty gave a fuck what she wanted to do about any of this. He was down there, gallivanting around with women, apparently, and she was here doing all the work. Marty wasn’t the one that had to stand there in the hallway listening to Nick’s yelling.

Avery turned and quickly re-entered the bedroom. Nick’s eyes were wide, his chest heaving with panicked breaths, a thick sweat on his forehead, all four limbs pulled to the full taut of the rope. Well, she thought, At least I know the rope would actually hold him if I needed it to.

“Thank fuckin’ God,” he crowed when he saw her, “Why’d you leave? Untie me, okay? I don’t like this.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. Hurriedly, she ran over and quickly undid the knots that kept his ankles in place. She kneeled beside him and reached over to undo the bonds at his hands. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out.”

“Where’d you go?” he asked, sitting up, rubbing his wrists, frowning at the red marks that the rope had already started to make on his skin.

Avery’s stomach twisted with guilt. “I realized I hadn’t called in a report. I have to call in everyday or the station won’t know everything’s okay and --”

Nick was staring at her.

“And… that’s… that’d be bad.” Avery finished lamely.

He looked away.

“Look, maybe this was a bad idea anyways,” he said.

She bit her lips.

“The sex I mean,” he said. “I mean, you’re on the job and I’m like a target and maybe letting the guard down or whatever to… y’know… engage in that stuff, I mean… it’s a bad idea. We’re all we got out here, if something was to go wrong, like this whole protection program shit’s hard enough without complicating it with sex.” Nick was pretty sure it was the first time in his entire life he’d suggested that he and a sexy woman refrain from having sex. Like ever. Usually his game was fuck first, ask questions later, but there was something unnerving about what had just happened that had him on edge, that was keeping him from feeling in the mood.

Avery nodded. “That makes sense,” she agreed.

Nick rubbed his wrists again absently.

Avery cleared her throat and stared at the carpet as they sat, side by side, on the edge of Nick’s bed.

After a few moments she looked up, “Okay, I’ll, uh, I’ll let you get some sleep, Nick.”

“Okay,” he nodded.

“Okay.” She stood up and went over to the door, hesitating in the frame of it. He was still sitting there, rubbing his wrists, the rope laying sadly on the floor next to the bed. She felt her throat tighten. She took a deep breath, “You said… before… when I was on top of you. You said I was beautiful.”

Nick looked up.

“Did you um… just say that, because of the sex?”

He shook his head. “Why would I say it just because of the sex?”

Avery shrugged.

Nick could see the question in her face, her mannerisms, the way she held herself and he realized that maybe all the noise about being so tough and so strong wasn’t about being bitchy but more about feeling inadequate. Maybe she lacked self-esteem. He could identify with that all too well, strutting to make up for the confidence that he lacked was one of Nick’s greatest acts. He cleared his throat to get her attention. “Avery,” he explained, “I said it because you are beautiful.”

She blushed.

“Good night, Nick,” she said, and quickly ducked out of the room and into the hallway.





“It wasn’t me,” Megan said. She was sitting in the interrogation room, Officer Flynn and another, female, cop stood over her. “I swear to God,” she added. “It was Marty, this guy I was at the hotel with. He must’ve used my phone.”

Officer Flynn’s palm was pressed against the metal table she sat at, his fat fingers splayed, supporting his considerable weight. “I don’t think you’re telling us everything you know.”

“Yes I am,” Megan whined. “I am, I swear it. I don’t know him that much. I met him at a cafe and we were just hangin’ out is all. His name’s Marty, that’s all I know.”

“Why were you with him if you don’t really know him?” the other cop, a woman named Laureen Taylor, asked. She lowered herself into the chair opposite of Megan, her eyes gentle.

Megan turned to her, “Because he… he was real nice and we were gonna get food and…” she blushed.

“Did you have sex with him?” Officer Taylor asked.

Megan’s cheeks turned even redder than before. “My momma’s gonna kill me if she finds out,” she sobbed suddenly.

“For fuck’s sake,” Flynn groaned and turned away.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell anyone. This is just between us.” Officer Taylor reached over and took Megan’s hand. “He didn’t tell you anything else about himself? A last name, anything about where he was from or anything at all?”

Megan shook her head.

“Where did you meet him again? What cafe?”

“Starbucks,” Megan replied. “The other day, in the afternoon. I was there with my friends and he came over and started talking to us. They thought he was creepy, but… I don’t know, he seemed nice.”

Officer Taylor looked up at Officer Flynn. “Why don’t you go contact the Starbucks about security footage before they close for the night, and I’ll carry on here.”

Flynn nodded and stormed out of the room.

As the door closed behind him, Officer Taylor turned back to Megan. “Let’s talk about the decisions you made here, and then we’ll talk more about Marty and what this mean for you and your involvement in the case.”

Megan nodded nervously.





Avery was laying in her room, staring up at the ceiling. She couldn’t still her mind. It just kept racing over and over everything that had happened. It was a jumble of images and words - the firefly-like string lights at the barn and the way Nick’s eyes had looked, so blue and perfect. The only color in an otherwise grey world. She thought of Marty and wondered who the girl had been that he had mentioned on the phone. Had he slept with her?

Suddenly, Avery wished she really had fucked Nick Carter. Just to get revenge on Marty for sleeping with this girl, whoever she was. She’d had the chance, too, before he’d changed his mind.

Anxious, she hugged her pillow to her chest, her eyes on the window, on the moonlight filtering through pine trees. She could hear the wind on the water outside, crickets and frogs chirping along the lake's edge.

There was a knock on the door, quiet and uncertain.

Avery sat up. "Nick?"

"Can I come in?" he asked.

She was in a tank top and some underwear, the only clothes she ever slept in. She turned on a lamp next to the bed and pulled the blankets up to her chest, covering the low-cut of the top and hiding her legs completely. "Yeah," she called.

He pushed the door open slowly and stepped inside. He was still in just the boxers and t-shirt she'd left him in before. She couldn't help but notice the significant bulge in his pants, though she quickly diverted her eyes. He rubbed the side of his neck with his palm as she shuffled to a stop a few feet from the bed where she laid.

"I um..." he cleared his throat, his eyes turned upward, "I was thinking... and... I..." he stared at her. He'd been laying in bed, thinking of her, about how much he'd wanted to kiss her earlier, and how much he really, secretly understood her questioning his statement about her being beautiful. "I didn't want you to think that me not wanting to... to fuck you earlier... had anything to do with me not thinking you're gorgeous because I really seriously think that, okay? I just wanted you to know that."

Avery shook her head, "I'm not gorgeous."

"Fuck yeah you are," he answered eagerly. He laughed, embarrassed at his own enthusiasm. "Seriously."

Avery rolled her eyes, "You're obviously blind."

"I'm not." He licked his lips, "You're seriously a really pretty girl. Really beautiful. And I didn't want you to, like, think that I 'just said that' before." Nick shrugged, "I know what it's like to doubt it when people say that about you, and --"

Avery scoffed.

"What?" he looked surprised, interrupting himself.

"You. Like you have self esteem issues. Fuckin' look at you. You're a Backstreet Boy for fuck's sake."

"So?"

Avery laughed, "So... Like you have an insecure bone in your body. You're the most egotistic, self-assured ass I've ever met in my life."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Am I?" he asked.

"You know you're a sex symbol," she said.

He shrugged. "That's what they tell me. But that doesn't mean I believe it about myself. It doesn't mean when I look in the mirror I feel any more self-assured than you do." Nick licked his lips, "Look, I was just trying to do something nice here, I'm sorry if that came off wrong and you think I'm just an egotistical ass, but I just know what it's like to question something like that, to be worried about it or whatever and I didn't want you to think that I didn't really want to -- y'know what, forget it. Never mind. Goodnight."

Avery watched as Nick turned and left the room.

She sat there, staring at the closed door, her brain trying to process the stuff he'd said.

Was it possible that Nick was seriously just as self-conscious as she was?

That he really thought she was beautiful? For real?

She was being given a second chance, she realized.

She got up and, forgetting she wasn't wearing much of anything, rushed to the doorway. "Wait," she called. He was just about to close his own bedroom's door. He opened it back up and stepped into the hallway, his eyes registering surprise to see here there, barely clothed. "Yeah?" he asked, mouth dry as his eyes moved over the pale of her skin, over her thighs, the little patch of her stomach that peeked between the hem of the tank and the band of her panties.

"Come back," she whispered.