Hello, chumrades, and welcome to Mid Week Tease! This week I’m featuring a snippet from Do No Harm, a story that started out as a potential entry for Evernight’s Dark Captive antho and quickly grew into a novel of its own. I love it when that happens.

Enjoy, and make sure to hit the list after the teaser to see other great Mid Week Teases!

All Daniel Graff wanted to do on Christmas evening was finish his surgical rounds at Lakeside Memorial Hospital and go home. When he’s kidnapped from the hospital parking lot, he’s astounded to find out that his captor is also his colleague, world-famous neurosurgeon Simon Falk.

Simon has good reasons for his actions, but Daniel is determined to fight him every step of the way, bringing Simon’s Dom side to the fore. When he learns something very unexpected about his handsome captive, he decides to make Daniel his, no matter what it takes.

Daniel noticed the movement first. The soft vibration of the road, broken by the occasional bump. Warm air caressed his face, scented with clean leather and the faint tang of long-chain monomers. The custom air of an expensive car.

He opened his eyes, and blinked. It took a moment to resolve the pointillistic study of grey and white in front of him into a windshield.

Snow. It’s snowing.

“You’re awake. Good.”

Still blinking, Daniel tried to turn his head. A sharp ache along the front of his throat convinced him that wasn’t a good idea. “Where am I?” he croaked.

“Specifically? My car. If you mean location, we’re on McKinley Road, close to my home.”

The voice. He knew that voice.

Daniel’s vision finally cleared, allowing him to see the man behind the wheel. “Simon?”

“Good, you’re back.” Simon Falk gave him a brief smile but kept his eyes on the road. “Forgive my rudeness. The weather is getting worse, and I don’t want to hit anything.”

“Uh.” Daniel tried to work through the cotton still blanketing his mind. The last thing he remembered was heading out to his car, and then—

—choking, a struggle, darkness.

“How—” he paused, dredging up some saliva, “did I get in your car?”

Falk’s lips pursed. “I’ll explain when we get home. How’s your throat?”

Home? “My—” Daniel tried to lift a hand to rub his throat, and couldn’t. Looking down, he saw that someone had taken off his parka and put both his hands in a sort of leather mitt. Each mitt was mated to a belted cuff with D rings; those were clipped to a belt that now ran around his waist. He tugged experimentally, then harder. His arms were immobilized. “What the hell?”

“I didn’t want you to panic and try to get out of the car when you woke up,” Falk explained. “Your feet are secured with cuffs, as well.”

With a dim sort of horror, Daniel leaned as far as his seat belt would allow and spotted more leather wrapped securely around his ankles. “What the fuck are you doing?”

The other man’s expression was calm, even serene. “One. Now, tell me what you remember.”

Daniel opened his mouth, then hesitated. Someone had grabbed him, choked him into unconsciousness. Now that he thought about it, it had been done with what could be called surgical precision.

Falk’s hands rested easily on the steering wheel. Large hands, exquisitely talented with a scalpel, they were connected to arms that were long and strong enough to wrap around his neck.

He swallowed again, more easily this time. “Did you—” It was crazy, totally unbelievable. But he had to ask. “Did you mug me?”

Falk’s expression remained serene. “I wouldn’t call it mugging. Your wallet is still in your pocket and your computer bag is in the back seat. But if you’re asking whether I choked you until you passed out, then yes, I did.” A corner of his mouth lifted, the briefest of smiles. “I apologize for the method, but I didn’t have time to acquire a tranquilizer and syringe. I was very careful, I promise. You should be fine by morning.”

Daniel stared at the other surgeon, trying to understand what he’d just heard. Falk seemed calm, perfectly normal. And yet he’d just admitted to assault, as if it was nothing more than a minor inconvenience. “Why in God’s name did you choke me out?”

Falk sighed. “I didn’t think you’d get in my car otherwise. I’ve done it before with others so I knew what I was doing, although I apologize for any residual pain I may have caused.”

Residual pain. That was the last thing Daniel was worried about. “Pull over and take off these cuffs.”

Now Falk spared him a brief look. “No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“You speak English, yes? No, I will not take them off. Not until we get to the house.”

A spike of fear punched through Daniel’s anger. “This is kidnapping. Goddamn it, Falk, you’re kidnapping me!”

“Two. And I prefer to think of it as protective custody, but call it whatever you like.” The neurosurgeon’s expression changed now, turning sober. “I have reasons for my actions, Daniel, very good ones. I know you have no reason to do it, but for now you’re simply going to have to trust me.”

Daniel could feel his mouth drop open, and shut it with a snap. “Trust you? You choked me into unconsciousness, kidnapped me, and now I’m supposed to trust you? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”

“Three. And no, I’m not. Now please settle down. We’ll be home soon.”

Fists clenched in their leather mitts, Daniel sat back in his seat and fumed. Falk had a good two inches on him and at least thirty pounds, all of it muscle. With his hands and feet immobilized and a seat belt holding him down, the most he could do was lunge sideways and hit Falk in the shoulder with his head. I might be able to bite him, distract him.

A strong gust of wind drove snow against the windshield, reminding him of the weather outside the car. If he distracted Falk now, they’d probably go off the road. Even if they didn’t hit anything and just landed in a ditch, Falk could simply get out of the car and walk away, leaving Daniel behind to freeze. He said he had good reasons for doing this. It’s not like he’s a serial killer, for God’s sake. He’s a world-famous doctor.

Daniel shuddered. Yeah. So was Hannibal Lecter.

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