His laugh sounds a lot like a sneer. “Oh, he’ll be busy for a while. Why, worried he’ll interrupt us?”
Now, my heart blows up with fear. This man’s casual delight in my fear sends desperation rising like a tide in me. There were no knives in the kitchen, but maybe there’s a fire poker—
I try to skirt my way closer to the fireplace, but the man steps in, blocking me. His blue eyes travel down the length of my body like he’s mapping out every step of a route he’s about to take. A small, fearful sound escapes my throat.
He grins. “Fuck what Adan says. You’re too sweet not to sample.”
Terror thrums through me. My mind cedes way to my body, which knows what to do. I make a break for the door, but he catches me around the waist, chuckling gruffly as I struggle against him.
“Easy, girl. I’ll make it fast.”
His words drill into my bones until I think I’m going to crumble, but some deep well of strength inside me keeps fighting. I kick and squirm, but he’s got wiry strength. He drags me, struggling, to the table and kicks a chair out of the way so he can set my ass on the tabletop. He grabs the back of my skull with one hand, while trying to pry my knees apart with the other.
“Too bad you don’t have that long hair,” he says huskily, his voice heavy with threat. “Something to hold onto. Like the reins of a horse. Bends a girl to your will, but no bother—I can make do.”
His hand fists painfully in my short hair. Crying out, I try to pry his fingers off. His brothers outside must hear my cries, right? Where’s Adan?
“Stop fucking moving,” he growls, his terrible grin gone now.
“Let me go!” I shout, baring my teeth. “Adan will kill you!”
“Adan? Adan isn’t in charge.”
He shoves me back against the table. I try to lock my knees together, but he manages to wedge his body between my thighs, then shoves fistfuls of my skirt up around my waist. His hand probes roughly around my cleft. He gets a finger beneath the band of my panties, but before he can shove them aside, I buck my hips to push him away.
“Wait!” I gasp, my mind’s gears whirling as fast as my lungs are pumping for breath. “Wait, not here. Not, um, like this. At least—at least do it in a bed.”
“I told you,” he says curtly, “shut up, and it’ll be over soon.”
“Please, it’s—it’s my first time. At least do it in a bed. I—I won’t struggle. I’ll make it easy for you, I promise, as long as you don’t make it hurt.”
A crack opens up in his dogged determination. He grunts, releasing his hold on my hair. He jerks his head toward the bedroom. Slowly, I sit up. I can’t believe it, but Basten was right. Men will believe whatever they want to believe when their cock is involved.
He barks, “Go on, then, get in the bedroom—”
I knee him in the groin immediately, using the momentum from sliding off the table for extra oomph. His eyes go round as he clamps his hands over his cock and balls. With a cry, I hurl my weight at him to knock him down. He doesn’t fall over, but he stumbles back a few steps. As soon as a path opens to the door, I lunge for it. Go, go, go.
I throw open the door—
And stare into Adan’s startled face as he clutches firewood in one arm, with an axe in his other hand. For a breathless second, time stops, as we both struggle to make sense of the situation. He’s blocking the door—I can’t get past him.
His eyes shift to look at his brother behind me, and there’s a moment when understanding snaps in them. He dumps the clattering firewood on the floor as he storms into the cottage. His shirt is sweatstained from chopping wood, buttons open halfway down his chest. His hair, normally tamed, hangs wild.
Before I can rush out the door, he slams it shut and fastens the latch.
“Maks, what the fuck are you doing?” he demands, the axe tight in his fist.
The elder brother is still hunched over from the pain in his groin. “She fucking kneed me!”
“Yeah—she should have rammed your balls all the way into your brain, you idiot!”
My body is still swimming in adrenaline, unable to float back to solid ground. Clinging to the back of a chair to keep myself upright, I fight to calm down. It was so close to . . . He was going to . . . But it’s all right now. Adan is back. And even though I’ve known Adan only a few hours more than his brother, I pour all my trust into him.
I have to. He’s all I have now.
Adan sets the axe down by the stove, then paces tightly, muttering curses under his breath. With each passing second, my heartbeat slows as my body attempts to register that the danger is over. My whole body shakes from the final purge of adrenaline, and I sink into the chair before my legs give out.
“No one would have known,” Maks huffs defensively.
Adan thrusts a finger in my direction while he yells at his brother. “You know they would! What did you expect me to tell the king, eh? That she slipped and fell on your cock? She’s supposed to be untouched!”
“His court doesn’t give a shit about chastity.”
“He’s the king, you idiot. He said he wanted the girls unharmed and untouched. What part of that don’t you understand? Don’t you think, if it were allowed, I would have fucked her myself? If anyone deserves to, it’s me. I found her in the first place!”
Fear finds a crack in my numb bones and works its way back in. It sifts through my body until my skin slithers with it, and something unlocks in my brain. This. This. This. My gut was right all along. I should never have taken Adan’s hand in that Blackwater stables . . .
A small exclamation slips from my lips. I feel gutted from throat to bowels.
Then, as my panic crests, my eyes fall to the axe.
Adan must realize where he left it at the same time that I do, because as soon as I scramble out of the chair and dive for it, he does the same.
“Sabine, stop. Don’t, goddammit!”
We wrestle on the floor as we both try to grab the axe. Maks snakes his hand behind the woodstove from the opposite direction to grab it, but his arm doesn’t reach. I kick and claw blindly until my fingers slide over its smooth handle. The axe falls, clattering to the stone floor.
“No!” I cry. Gathering my strength, I lunge for the handle again—
But Maks stomps his boot down on my hand. I scream as I feel my bones crunch. Pain radiates in lightning bolts down my arm.
Maks snatches up the axe. Adan ensnares me around the waist and drags me away from the stove. My hand hurts so bad that I feel like I might black out. It’s all I can do to flail and kick, but between the two of them, they make quick work of picking me up, shoving me into a kitchen chair, and binding my wrists with thick coils of rope.
Fighting against the rope, I squeeze my eyes shut against the pain in my hand. It’s sprained, if not broken. But pain is nothing new. Pain I can deal with. It’s the ropes that frighten me. The axe. The terrible things Adan said.
Think.
Think.
If an animal is close . . .