Free The Hitman's Pregnant Bride: A Baby Romance by Alyse Zaftig

see. I'll have a costume delivered to your room."
    He hadn't answered her question at all, and now her stomach felt weird because he'd asked her to dance.
    "Do I really have a choice here?"
    He laughed and his eyes switched back to green. "It's polite to ask. Let's go back to your room. I'll tell my staff to put a costume in your room." She watched as he tapped on his smart watch. "It should be there by the time that we get back."
    Phoebe understood now how much menace lay beneath the surface. His tone about the costume being there soon was very mild, but it was just too mild. Whatever Odhran Garin wanted, he would get.
    Phoebe fought the urge to put a protective hand on her little baby. It was better if he didn't know about the baby.
    Odhran walked her slowly and courteously back into the house. They walked all the way back up the stairs to Phoebe's bedroom.
    "I'll expect you downstairs in ten minutes." Odhran closed her door but didn't lock it. For a short time, she had some privacy.
    As he had told her, there was a costume laying on the bed. It was a purple and black dress. The inner panel was purple with some kind of flowers all over it and the black parts were on the outer thirds of the garment to create a silhouette like that knockout Stella McCartney color contour dress that Kate Winslet had caused a sensation in.
    She took off the clothes that he had given to her before and put on the dress. She gasped when she looked in the mirror and saw how sheer the purple fabric was when it was on her body. It was nearly transparent. She had tulle on her dance outfits, of course, but always with something beneath it.
    She looked around her room for hidden passages or covered vents. Anything at all would help. If she could hide herself somewhere on the compound, she was pretty sure that she could find a way out...or at least she'd be able to figure something out when night fell. Maybe she'd be able to hitchhike her way out.
    She really wished that she had taken self defense classes. Her father had taught her the bare basics, but it had bored her.
    She looked back into the mirror and touched her slightly rounded stomach. But she had to quickly move her hand, because she didn't know if there were cameras in her room. She had to get the baby out of here.

24

Oregano
Phoebe
    W hen Phoebe got downstairs , the door to the dining room was open. She could smell oregano wafting out.
    "Come in, come in," Odhran said, standing up as she approached. "Eat something before your dance."
    "What is here?"
    "A filet mignon with mashed sweet potatoes. You deserve the best." Like the day before, he pulled her chair out before she sat down. Having him so close to her made her flesh crawl.
    He sat across from her.
    "Dig in." He seemed a little less polite than he had been before, and Phoebe didn't know whether or not that was a good sign or not. Ever since she asked when she could leave, he'd been just a little colder, as if she had disrespected him by reminding him that she wasn't at his home of her own accord. Maybe Odhran was one of those types who needed to think that his presence was awesome and overrode the fact that he kidnapped people and held them against their will.
    She looked at the steak knife next to her plate and then at Odhran. Odhran immediately rang a bell by pressing a button under the table.
    "Please cut Ms. Phoebe's meat for her, Eric, then take away the knife."
    "Of course, sir." Eric was wearing a chef's whites. He pulled the plate away from Phoebe and cut everything into small pieces before giving it back to her.
    "I hope you enjoy, miss." Phoebe couldn't be mad at him for doing what his employer asked.
    Odhran was smiling. Phoebe totally hated him in that moment. He was toying with her. He'd probably asked for steak just to torment her with a tiny bit of hope.
    Phoebe stabbed each piece of food as if she totally hated it, but she had to admit that his chef was phenomenal. The filet mignon wasn't anything like any steak she'd