And then, part of me recoiled. Part of me felt shame, and embarrassment of having just given up so much — at having submitted so readily to this man. It wasn’t just that I didn’t know him very well, but he was my captor. This man had bought me from a damn auction house, had kept me prisoner in this room, and now had strolled in here, magically tapped into some dark part of me, and made me his willing slut.
HIs begging submissive
I closed my eyes.
What the fuck did that say about me?
My brow creased, and the darkest version of those thoughts began to come up to claim me, when I felt Oliver’s arms tighten, and his lips at my ear.
“Don’t.”
I bit my lip.
“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. This is…” He sighed. “This is more complex than you’ve been led to believe.”
“More complex than you buying me and keeping me in this room?” I spat bitterly.
“Yes,” he growled. “Much more complex. And whatever you’re thinking — whatever place you’ve gone where you think this is Stockholm Syndrome or something—”
I froze. What was he, a mind reader?
“It’s not that, I can promise you.” Oliver sighed, his hands stroking my skin. “I think it’s time we talked.” He started to stand from the bed, and I shivered at the absence of his body against mine.
“Why don’t you take a bath, refresh yourself, and then come down to the library.”
I whirled my head around to stare at him.
Oliver grinned. “Before you ask, no, this isn’t a test, or a trick, I assure you. Take your time, get dressed, and when you’re ready, come down. We’ll explain everything.”
I swallowed as I slowly nodded.
Oliver finished getting dressed, and he turned for the door when he paused. His fist clenched at his side, and his shoulders tightened, as if he was wrestling with something. And I was about to ask, when he suddenly whirled and strode back across the room towards me so intensely that I gasped in fear.
“Wait! Please! I just—”
And then Oliver Blackwood grabbed my face in both his hands, and kissed me.
Hard.
He kissed me like something you see in a movie, at the edge of a cliff, or on the docks before someone goes off to war. He kissed me until my toes curled and my heart almost jumped out my chest.
He pulled away, and our eyes locked.
Whoa.
That kiss had been a world apart from the raw, intense fucking from earlier. It was…more than that. A lot more. And for the first time since I’d laid eyes on him, I saw something in Oliver’s face that I hadn’t seen before.
Doubt, and worry.
Quickly, it was dashed away though. Replaced with his usual dark, guarded look.
“When you’re ready, Mia,” he whispered, kissing my cheek.
“We’ll be waiting.”
Chapter 15
Ash
I paced the floor of the library, jaw clenched, eyes focused on the floor in front of me.
Nervous.
Me.
The fuck was I nervous about? I didn’t get nervous, not even a little. I got angry, I got cold-blooded in my need to get things done, how they needed to get done.
But I sure as hell didn’t get nervous.
And it was her, if course.
Mia.
Mia who’d changed fucking everything I knew when she’d walked into that club. I’d looked at her that night and known she was out of her element. No girl like that should have had anything to do with that club. And she definitely shouldn’t have had anything to do with Ryan fucking Cunningham.
But it was later, seeing her at the auction house that almost broke me.
I mean that.
Seeing her walk out like that, despite how fucking incredible she looked, almost killed me. A woman like that at the old action house? Fuck yes. The new one though? The one that’d been twisted from its original purpose to the fucking horror it was now thanks to the Cunninghams?
Yeah, no way.
Two and a half million — it was a fortune. Well, or at least it had been, back before. But now? Now it was nothing. I would have paid fifty times that to get her off that auction block and away from Ryan.
And now she was here, and we’d crossed a line. She was supposed to be safe here, and she was, from him.
But from us? And from the darkness we brought with us? Us and our desires to take her and make her ours?
Apparently not. Apparently, she hadn’t been safe from that here.
Big shocker.
I ran my fingers over the stubble of my jaw, shaking my head. I could still remember her sweet moans, and the way her body had quivered for me. I could remember the way her sweet pussy tasted. Fuck, I’d been hard ever since thinking about it. I remembered the way she’d moaned when I slid in, and how fucking tight she’d been around my thickness.
How she’d felt when she’d come on my cock.
Telling Oliver had been tough, though not for the reasons you might think. There was no jealousy between us all — fuck, we’d left that long ago. Just the same, though we’d shared plenty of girls, I knew Mia was different — to all of us.
So yeah, telling him that Erik and I had given in to our desires and tasted her? Without him there?
Yeah, I’d been worried. But then there’d been that spark in his eyes, and I knew things were okay. Because that spark wasn’t jealousy — not at all.
When he’d stormed off, Erik swore and tried to follow, but I’d grabbed him, shaking my head.
I knew that look in my friend’s eyes, and it sure as hell wasn’t jealousy. He wasn’t mad, he was just going straight to Mia’s room to finally give in to what he’d been holding back. He may have been stronger than us, but even he was human. I’d gotten the gist of what happened later, while Mia was bathing and resting up.
And now here we were, in the library waiting for her. We’d crossed the biggest line with her, and now there was no turning back. Because now?
Now she meant too much.
She mattered too much, and she was in too deep with all three of us.
Our decision to say what we were about to say to her had been unanimous, but it was still going to be hard to explain it all.
But she had to hear it.
There was a slight cough, shattering my thoughts. I whirled, along with Erik and Oliver, to the door to the library, and there she was.
Damn.
She was dressed now, and shit, I mean, that sucked, but it was probably a good thing. We’d had Martin, our house manager, bring her some clothes to choose from after she’d washed off. Having her come have a talk with us in that damn robe she’d been wearing and nothing else would have— Well, it wouldn’t have been much of a talk that’s for sure.
She was in a short skirt, stockings, and heels, with a formal, but gorgeous button-up top. She wore her hair up this time, which gave her this sophisticatedly sexy look — maybe the opposite of what she’d been intending, but there it was.
Long story short, her walking in — even fully clothed — had my cock raging hard in seconds.
“Hi,” she said softly, her cheeks going red as her eyes darted between all three of us.
I cleared my throat, stepping forward, my eyes locked onto her.
“Nice clothes.” Erik grinned, obviously also taken by how amazing she looked.
“You picked ‘em.” She smiled back.
Her eyes darted to Oliver, and her face reddened.
I grinned wolfishly — yeah, I knew what happened in her room earlier this afternoon. Oliver had told us of course. And as I said, I wasn’t a jealous type. But Jesus, Oliver taking her anal virginity?