Chapter 1

Maybe the driver didn't realize another car would not be coming, she deduced. After all, they hadn't told her they would be upgrading her transportation either, Shawna chalked it up to the busy nature of the last-minute wedding hustle and bustle. She shook off the nagging feeling that something was amiss. She wanted to speak to the Chauffeur for last-minute confirmations, as well as inform him that she may need to find alternative transportation and wanted to use his cell phone. She had left all of her belongings inside the hotel. Unfortunately, there was a thick glass partition that divided them.

Shawna had just noticed it when thinking about the dilemma that had just been created. She looked out the back window to see Amber. Her father was still nowhere to be found. That nagging feeling grew a little more intense, but she decided to continue to ignore it and chalked it up to wedding jitters. She faced forward, smoothed out her gown, then looked in the rearview mirror. She could see the driver still wore his dark shades.

He noticed her looking at him. He nodded his head slightly to acknowledge her. She turned her view to the moving scenery out the passenger window and took a deep, calming breath. She felt like she had to say something. She leaned forward and tapped on the partition glass. That was the last thing she did before the back of the car filled with sleeping gas...

Shawna awoke in a dimly lit room. She felt groggy. Her limbs felt as if they each weighed 100 pounds. Her vision couldn't seem to properly adjust to the low lighting. She realized then she had been drugged.

She felt something cold on her left wrist. She looked down. Her vision adjusted enough for her to see the cold object on her wrist was a handcuff. Whatever was in her system delayed her reaction time and it took her several seconds to register what her wrist being handcuffed and her feeling this way could mean. Once it did, she tried wiggling her wrist out of the handcuff.

She felt panic trying to rise within her, but the drugs would only let them float just below the surface. She felt a hand rest on top of her own, stilling her sluggish, yet frantic movements. 

"Rest." She heard a familiar male voice say.

Shawna felt like she was in a fever dream. Her eyelids were extremely heavy, and her mind was having a hard time registering what was going on because of her drugs. She put her head in her free hand. She didn't know if any of this was real. She heard the voice again. 

"Rest." 

She felt the hand, once more on her shoulder guiding her to lie down. She did not fight back. She did not have the strength to. She was so sleepy.

Her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. Maybe this was all a dream, she concluded. When she awoke the second time, she would be in her home with Harper. Yes, she agreed with herself. A small smile escaped her lips. She fell back asleep.

The next time Shawna awoke, she felt much more like herself, with a tinge of a headache. She had thought she had dreamed all of that, but her eyes were able to adjust to the dimly lit room, and Shawna realized she had not been dreaming. This was real. She assessed herself and saw she was still wearing her wedding dress. Alarm bells were ringing in her head. Her wedding! She was missing her wedding.

The panic that had swirled below the surface now crept up on her, and she felt herself slipping into full-blown panic mode. Shawna wanted all of this to be a bad dream, but she knew by the gnawing pain in her stomach that she wasn't dreaming. She had been kidnapped. Her wrists were handcuffed to the bed posts. This wasn't a room. 

This was a cabin on a plane. She slowly sat up on the bed. Just as she did, the door opened. Shawna felt her heart drop to her knees, and her anger rose immediately when she recognized who it was. Her tongue felt thick in her mouth. 

All her anger, rage, frustration, and shock would let her say was, "You!"

It had been two years. Two quiet, drama-free years without this man in her life. Giancarlo Motain, the bad boy CEO, was ruthless in business and in love. Of course, Shawna had not known any of that when she met him one night at her favorite nightclub. They never had a serious relationship. It had been more of a 'situationship'. 

A very brief one. It lasted a month. He had ghosted her, and a few weeks later, she saw him plastered on high-profile fashion and business magazines with another woman. To say that Shawna was confused was an understatement. 

His dark brown eyes looked into her hazel eyes. He made his way over to her. She didn't know what he planned on doing to her. She felt her fear amplified with each step he took towards her. Within a few seconds, he was towering over her.

She had forgotten how tall he was. He was 6'3, and she was 5'5. 

He spoke. "You thought this was over between us?" Giancarlo demanded. "I told you, we belong together. You robbed us of that. Not anymore."

"I-I didn't rob you of anything! " She countered. 

The familiar feeling of inadequacy he had always made her feel began to wash over her, and their brief yet extremely toxic relationship came rushing back to her in waves of memories. Giancarlo was one of the richest, most sought-after bachelors in the Western Hemisphere. On any given month, his sultry looks were plastered on at least two men's fitness or business magazines. He was notorious for being the loverboy who was unlucky in love. Over their brief romance, she recognized that he was not what the media and himself had portrayed him to be. 

It was all a mask. His sexy looks and charm. No one knew just how possessive and stubborn he was. He lived a double life and could never tell her the truth. She thought she had escaped him. 

It would appear that was not the case.

"We will arrive at our destination soon." He informed her. 

"Why are you doing this?" She pleaded with him.

It did not work.

"I should have done this years ago. You will be my wife and only my wife."His words held a possessive finality she had never thought she would experience.

Giancarlo stood up, reached inside his right trouser pocket, and took out the handcuff keys. He held the small keys up so she could see them.

"Are you going to behave if I unlock you?"

She emphatically nodded her head 'yes.'

Giancarlo did as he promised and quickly unlocked her handcuffs, freeing her wrists. She immediately began rubbing the dull ache out of them. He turned on his heels. 

Just before opening the door, he looked back at her and spoke, "We arrive in an hour. Welcome to your new life, Shawna. Get used to it."And with those words, he opened the door exiting the bedroom.

When the door shut, Shawna tried standing up from the bed. When she did, the gathered material from her dress, plus the slight side effects from the drugs, made it hard for her to gain her balance. With each step she took, she stepped on her dress. She tripped, catching herself on the bedpost closest to her. She sat back down on the bed.

What the hell was going on! She wondered. How could she have not seen this coming? She asked herself. She couldn't beat herself up about being kidnapped by someone who she couldn't claim as an ex.

It had been years of no contact. Their lives had naturally grown apart. There had been so many things wrong with their situation ship Shawna had buried it in the recesses of her mind, hoping to never relive it, but here she was trapped on a plane, not having a clue as to where they were going. Her mind went to Harper, and when it did, she felt her heart aching for him. She didn't want to think about possibly never seeing him again. 

Their relationship was pure and magical. She didn't want to give that up for the hurt Giancarlo was sure to inflict upon her. He was selfish and hated to be challenged in any way. How would she survive this, she wondered. Giancarlo was practically a stranger to her.

Shawna sat with her back pressed up against the bed as the Captain made the announcement over the airplane intercom.

Within the next ten minutes, they were landing. It was more bumpy than she expected. Once the plane came to a complete stop, Shawna stood up. Her legs still felt like jello as she made her way to the window in the room. She lifted the tiny shade and peered out the circular window. They were in a desert...