Liam waited until he was sure Essie was sound asleep, along with everyone else in the house. He quietly, carefully, tiptoed to the door and slid it open. He went downstairs and systematically began searching every single cabinet, drawer, and closet, trying desperately to find keys to a vehicle, a cell phone, or some other way to communicate with the outside world. He found nothing.

In an even more desperate attempt to find freedom, he ran outside the chalet and checked all of the cars in case, by some miracle, someone left their keys in the car.

Damn! Why hadn't he ever learned to hotwire a car?

He went back inside, cold and wet for the second time in 24 hours.

And there he found Essie standing there, waiting for him.

"Liam! What were you doing? Trying to escape? I thought you were going to stay and do this for me."

"Woman, you have lost your mind! On what planet is it okay to just find a man, pull a gun on him, and force him to be your boyfriend?!"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic! I told you why I'm doing this. I'm not going to hurt you! Just two days, I promise!" Essie reasoned.

"Don't be dramatic?! Okay, then tell me how you would react if someone kidnapped you when you were just about to marry someone else, handcuffed you and forced you – at gunpoint – to be his girlfriend?!"

"I guess I'd be kind of annoyed," Essie sighed.

"Annoyed? Annoyed?! I was annoyed when you stood there like a nitwit when I wanted you to take my order at the pub-"

"Saloon," Essie corrected him.

"But I'm way past annoyed right now. I'm absolutely enraged and I will not stand for this any longer!" Before Essie knew what was happening, Liam's face was right in front of hers and he continued to yell. "Make no mistake, I will find a way to get away from you and your batshit crazy family if it's the last thing I do. And then, you my dear will go to prison!"

Essie giggled at hearing him say batshit crazy in his oh-so-proper accent.

"This is funny to you? Your father is right, you freak of nature! You will never amount to anything because you are a bona fide lunatic who has absolutely no grounding in reality! No sane man, in heaven or on earth, will ever agree to be your boyfriend or your friend. In fact, I doubt any man would willingly live in the same city as you!"

Even though she deserved every word he said, he felt remorse as soon as he said it. The look on Essie's face said it all – she was devastated.

She pursed her lips tightly and blinked back the tears. Then she simply walked away and went back to bed. She started to think that maybe prison wouldn't be so bad. She knew she had severely messed up and now she was just trying to figure out a way to make it better. Prison might be okay – a bed to sleep in, meals brought to her every day, a workout room, TV and free wi-fi.

Anything would be better than having someone rip into her the way that Liam just did.

The worst part was that she knew she deserved every single word.

In the morning, she nudged Liam, who had come back to bed some time after she had fallen back to sleep.

"Hey," she said. "I know what you were looking for last night. Don't bother trying to find the keys. I'm the key master this year and I've hidden them in a place you will never, ever find them. And the cell phones, too. My mother forces us to have an electronic-free, family-focused Christmas every year. Cell phones are strictly forbidden."

Liam just grunted, acknowledging that he heard her. He cared more about sleep at that point than trying to escape.

"Come to think of it, it's kind of like prison – we're all locked up together for a few days and no one is allowed any access to the outside world. I guess I'd better get used to it, huh?"

Liam laughed and planted his face back into the pillow.

Essie then broke her mother's cardinal rule at Christmas and dug her cell phone out of her hiding place and quietly escaped to a quiet corner of the house.

"Lilibeth!" She whisper-shouted into the phone as soon as her best friend answered.

"Essie, oh my gosh! Is everything okay? I was so worried about you yesterday. You seemed like you might have gone off the deep end." Her friend's voice was a comforting reminder that there was still normalcy back in civilization.

Until Essie told her what she'd done.

"I did go off the deep end. Actually, it's more like I jumped into the Marianas Trench with bowling balls tied to my feet. I...um....well remember that British guy in the brown coat, the one who was at the saloon yesterday?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, he's here with me."

"Oh, my gosh, Essie, that's fabulous!"

"No! Not fabulous. Not even remotely fabulous...I kidnapped him."

"Esther Marie Richards, shut your mouth! That is nothing to joke about!"

Essie managed a squeaky whisper. "I'm not joking. I think I had a psychotic episode or something. I mean, I could plead insanity, right? You know my parents; you know the kind of stress I'm under, right?" Essie started to freak out.

"Calm down, Essie. You can't have a panic attack, too. You've got to put your head back on straight and get yourself out of this. First of all, you have to let him go."

"I can't let him go!" Essie squealed. "He'll go straight to the police. I have to figure out a way to get him to believe that I was temporarily insane."

"No, Essie. You cannot keep him like a stray kitten!"

"Oh, my gosh, I'm in such deep shit, aren't I?" Essie whined.

"Yes, you are," Lilibeth agreed. "But I'll help you with that insanity plea, I promise."

"Thanks, Lil, no wonder you're my best friend!"

Essie hung up and turned around to find Liam standing right behind her.

"No phones allowed, huh?" He asked angrily.

"That's the rule," she laughed nervously. "But this was kind of an emergency."

"So you get to make an emergency call about God-knows-what, and I can't make a phone call to let someone know I've been abducted by Queen of the Psychos?"

"Yeah, duh. That's generally how these things work," she snipped.

Again, Liam was right in her face, demanding, "Give. Me. The. Phone."

"Make me."

"Darling, you don't want to mess with me. I was captain of my high school football team."

"Oh, you mean your soccer team?" She sneered. "Or perhaps you mean cricket, which sounds like the dumbest sport ever invented."

"No, I mean captain of the Oakwood High School Raiders. I was a running back. That means I'm fast. And I'm strong. I could snap a little twig like you in half if I wanted to."

Essie was thankful that she had stashed the phone in her bra for the time being. Even though Liam was threatening her, she felt fairly certain that he was enough of a gentleman not to give her a pat-down.

However, she was sorely mistaken as Liam grabbed both of Essie's wrists with one hand and with the other, he started patting around her back jeans pockets, then her front jeans pockets. When he came up empty-handed, he noticee the unnatural lump in her sweater and smirked.

"You wouldn't dare!" She hissed.

"I would." And he shoved his hand straight inside her bra and yanked out the phone. As soon as he released her wrists, he sprinted to the bathroom and locked himself inside.

He dialed his fiancée Sloane's number and hoped that she wasn't off getting a facial or a manicure or some hair cut or color or whatever she did at the salon. That woman seemed to have some kind of beauty appointment every single day.

"Hello?"

"Sloane! It's me, Liam," he practically shouted, so grateful that he'd finally made contact with the outside world.

"Liam who?" She whined. "My Liam was supposed to pick me up for a romantic date last night, but he never showed up!"

"I know, listen Sloane! I've been kidnapped. I need you to call the police."

"Is this your way of trying to get out of Christmas with my parents?"

"Sloane! Did you hear me?! I've been abducted, taken against my will, kidnapped!!!"

"Well, where are you?" She asked impatiently.

"I don't know, honey, I was blindfolded."

"Well, what am I supposed to do with that?" She shrieked.

Essie was just outside the door, frantically trying to pick the lock. She could hear Sloane's voice loud and clear, even through the door.

What a whiny, self-absorbed bitch! Essie thought.

"Honey, I'm the one who's been kidnapped. Can you try to work with me here? I think we may have headed north, but I'm not sure. It took us about two hours, I think. And there is a ton of snow."

"Oh, there's snow here, too, Liam. How is that supposed to help me?" She griped.

Just then, Essie popped the lock, startling Liam enough to grab the phone out of his hands, which she then proceeded to throw into the toilet.

Liam just stood back and chuckled in delight. "Doesn't matter now. My fiancée is calling the police as we speak. And it's only a matter of time until you are hauled away and thrown into jail."

Essie gave him the death glare.

"Oh, and from now until then, I will play along with your little game. I will be the best boyfriend you ever brought home. Wait, that's right, your parents said you've never brought a boyfriend home before? Now I know why! But anyway, from now on, your family will see the perfect boyfriend who dotes on his little hunny-bunny-wunny."

"Why on earth would you do that?" She spat.

"Because it will be all the more satisfying when I see the disappointment on your parents' face when the police show up and throw the handcuffs on you!"

Essie rolled her eyes and walked away.

Prison was sounding better all the time.

"Good morning, lovebirds," Mrs. Richards sang as they walked into the kitchen.

"Mom," Essie groaned, rolling her eyes.

"Can I help you with breakfast, Mrs. Richards? I make a mean pancake."

"Oh, Liam, that would be lovely," she grinned.

Essie rolled her eyes again.

While Liam bustled around the kitchen, throwing ingredients into the bowl and mixing furiously, Essie studied him. Despite all the mean things he'd said to her, he was still the most beautiful man she'd ever seen. She saw a little smile on his face as he got lost in the task at hand. She tried to memorize every little detail about him so she would have something pleasant to remember when she was hauled away.

His thick brown hair was teased a little bit on the top, although it had a little more body when she first met him. Obviously, he hadn't gained access to a brush or a razor yet, but the scruffy look was undeniably hot, especially on him. He had bushy eyebrows, but they only added to his boyish charm. She drank in the rather spectacular specimen moving adeptly through the kitchen. Everything about him was pleasant to look at, from his firm tush to the muscles that bulged just a little bit through her brother's too tight t-shirt to the little birthmark on his neck.

How could one man be so splendid in every physical way?

The others began trickling into the kitchen, greeting Liam like he was a long-lost relative.

Abigail asked, "Essie, do you want me to help you with that today?" She motioned to Essie's hair.

"Yeah, I bought some Color Oops, and yes, I'd love to not look like the Little Mermaid."

"Oh, darling, I think that color looks lovely on you. Of course, you'd look ravishing in any color," Liam gushed.

Abigail put her hand over her heart and cooed, "Oh, how sweet is that? I hope I can find a man like you some day, Liam."

"Abigail!" Essie snapped.

"I wasn't hitting on your boyfriend – I said a guy like him, not him."

"Well, now, what's wrong with me?" Liam asked.

"Absolutely nothing," Abigail smirked. "But you're taken."

Essie just grunted her disapproval.

"How did you two meet anyway?" Essie's brother Louis jumped in.

"Oh...um...," Essie stumbled, trying to think of a story. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why hadn't she thought of a story???

"Well, let me tell it," Liam offered. And for a moment, Essie thought he was going to try to tattle on her again.

"I was at the pub-"

"Saloon," Essie mumbled under her breath.

"Essie! Don't be rude," her mother chided.

"As I was saying, I was at the pub when Essie came to take my order. I was captivated by her long, beautiful...uh," he paused when he realized she didn't know Essie's true hair color. "Her long, beautiful....hair. And those eyes. I like to think mine are a nice color, but Essie's eyes drew me in instantly. I knew from the moment she took my order that she was the one I wanted to spend my life with."

Essie glared at him while everyone else said, "Awww, that's so sweet."

She got up to make a hasty exit from the kitchen, but Liam stopped her. "Where are you going, darling? You're under the mistletoe."

Essie's eyes went wide as she silently screamed, "No!"

He was taking this way too far.

Everyone in the room agreed. "It's tradition. You can't break tradition."