CAPTURE THIS (Updating regularly)

Chapter 4

The next week was spent in an array of places that Alex had chosen for Amber. He soon learned that he needed to find the places that were easily accessible with her crutches but that she would enjoy anyway as she tended to feel self conscious amongst other people. Whilst Amber loved everywhere that he took her, she felt bad for the amount of effort he was putting in for her. She wouldn't have minded if they spent all day talking in his flat. She just wanted to be with him. Listening to his smooth, deep voice.

It wasn't always easy leaving her home to see Alex. Amber didn't think her father would approve of her spending so much time with a man she had only met a couple of days before. So instead, she led him to believe she was spending all her time with Matty without so much as confirming it with words. When she wasn't sneaking out of the house, she spent more of her free time with Ann. After the week was over, Ann would be heading back to university and Amber would be back at school, too busy to comfort her sister. Ann was still throwing up but on most days, it was in the early hours of the morning when their father was fast asleep across the hall. The sound of his rumbling snores echoed throughout the house and covered the sound of Ann's retching and the hurried creak of the floorboard as Amber limped to her bathroom to rub her back.

On the last day of the summer holiday, Alex decided he wanted to cook dinner for Amber in his flat.

He picked her up midday, as he had been busy that morning preparing for work the next day. Amber was quiet on the drive to his house. She didn't know how she was going to handle going back to school and still continuing to see Alex in their free time. She knew that his timetable would be hectic too.

"There's something wrong," he stated, his eyes flickering over to her in the rear view mirror. "What's wrong?"

Amber shook her head gently. She didn't want him to hear her doubts about how the relationship would work. The past week had been going so well. She forced a playful smile. "Oh you know, just wondering where my kidnapper's going to take me today.  I may have a serious case of Stockholm syndrome."

Alex chuckled and Amber felt relieved that he didn't push the matter. "Are you saying you like the kidnapping?"

She turned to look at him, her eyes gliding over the dark stubble on his chin, up to his messy hair that fell over his forehead. "I believe I do, Mr Kidnapper. Is that a problem?"

His relaxed smile formed his crooked grin as he quickly glanced over at her. "In fact there is a problem. Your hair..."

Amber subconsciously raised a hand to twirl a wave of her flaming hair. "What about it?"

Alex was conscious of the fact that he had made her feel slightly insecure and hurried on. "The problem is, when you wear your hair up like that, I find it terribly distracting."

Amber felt a pleased smile break out onto her face, her cheeks began to heat up, as if trying to match the shade of her hair. Every time he complimented her, her body seemed to find a new way to respond. Alex seemed to take the most pleasure out of her rosy cheeks. 

"You're blushing again," he pointed out, without so much as a glance in her direction. 

"I am not, your car is just too hot," she insisted, fixing her gaze out of the window.

She felt Alex's gaze on the side of her face, as if his eyes radiated a warm glow.

"I love it when you blush," he confessed as they turned the corner onto the street of his flat. "I think it's cute."

Amber sighed. "I hate that you know what I'm thinking all the time or how I feel. You're so much harder to read than I am. It's not fair."

She tried to keep her insecure voice from creeping into her words but it was too late. Alex parked the car in front of the flat before he secured the car and turned to her. "I'm the open book here, Amber and it's nice not to be for once. So will you be so kind as to sacrifice yourself as the open book? For me?"