She stood there hovering over him so long she got a sharp cramp in her back from bending over. Putting a hand to her lower back with an angry little cry, she massaged fiercely.
This is stupid. Stop being such a coward and just do it!
Leaning down again, she forced herself to press the pads of her first two fingers to the side of his neck, feeling for the carotid pulse. Except…did Kindred have carotid arteries? Apparently they did because after a moment, she felt his pulse, strong and steady and slow, as though he was simply asleep.
Feeling braver, she pushed his head back carefully until it rested against the cabinet type panel behind him. He didn’t even stir—just kept breathing slowly and evenly with his eyes closed. Hmm. Bolder than ever, Nina pushed his shaggy dark blue hair out of his face and looked at him—really looked at him—for the first time since he had abducted her.
He had a cut above his left eye that looked nasty—it was going to leave a scar, which was a shame with a face like his. The blood had trickled down the side of his cheek along his strong jawline, which was badly in need of a shave.
But even the ugly wound couldn’t diminish the perfection of his features. Nina bit her lip as she stared at him. Her first assessment had been right—he really was almost inhumanly gorgeous. With a face like this and his huge, muscular body, he could have any woman he wanted. So then, why had he bothered to kidnap her? It couldn’t be for her looks—Nina knew she was pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way, but she was nowhere near beautiful enough to match this man. Honestly, she didn’t know if anyone was. He’d said something about her being the one he needed though, back when he was shouting at the other guy on the ship’s radio—what could a man who looked like this possibly need from her?
Suddenly, Nina realized she was just standing there staring at his perfect face and that she had been for a long time.
Everyone said Ted Bundy was handsome and personable too, and he was a serial killer. Gorgeous or not, this Reddix guy is still a kidnapping bastard, she reminded herself sternly. One who might wake up at any minute and continue with his evil plan—whatever it is.
Right. So she needed to do something about that before he woke up.
Nina considered her options—should she run for it? But how did she know the planet outside the ship had a breathable atmosphere? Or what if it was too cold or too hot or all the local vegetation turned out to be horribly poisonous? Nina had watched enough of the old Star Trek episodes with Mehoo-Jimmy to be wary of stepping foot on an unexplored world. Also, the farther she got from the ship, the farther she got from any chance she had of ever going home. So trying to find a way off the ship and running was out of the question.
Option two was to just stay here and wait for Reddix to wake up. But he was so much bigger and stronger than her that Nina was sure she’d be right back where she started—cuffed and tied to a chair—the minute he opened his eyes. Unless…
Her eyes went to the spot above his head where a long silver bar ran. He had collapsed in what appeared to be the kitchen area of the ship. At least, there were a lot of cabinets, a sink, and a machine that looked something like a microwave mounted on the wall above his head. The bar, which ran the length of the countertop, appeared to be fixed very firmly in place. Maybe it was something to hang on to if you were cooking in the kitchen and the ship happened to hit a pocket of turbulence or go through a wormhole or crash land on an unknown purple planet…ha ha.
Whatever its actual use was, Nina could immediately see an alternative application. Running back to her chair, she grabbed the abandoned copper cuffs and brought them back to where the big Kindred was still slumped like a gorgeous Raggedy Andy doll.
Raggedy Andy is right, she thought as she raised one of his hands above his head. He really needs a shave and a haircut. Still, maybe personal grooming was last on his to-do list at the moment. Apparently, kidnapping Nina and dragged her through a wormhole took precedence over getting that clean, close shave all the ladies loved.
Getting his arms up and cuffed to the rail above his head wasn’t easy. Reddix was big and muscular, which equaled pretty damn heavy, especially when he was knocked out, and the parts she was trying to lift were dead weight. Twice his eyelids fluttered, revealing glimpses of those disturbing pale silver eyes—and once he said something that sounded like her name. Nina nearly jumped away that time, but somehow she kept her nerve and kept working. It helped that she had pretty good upper body strength from years of doing massage.
She was careful, throughout the procedure, not to touch the strange little snake tattoo on his inner wrist. The thing was blood red, as it had been after he touched her with it, and Nina could swear it was larger somehow. But that wasn’t possible, was it? Tattoos didn’t grow. Whatever the case, she made damn sure she didn’t so much as brush it while she was fastening the cuffs around his wrists.