Cameron drew away at once, his fingers leaving her, and she tried to remember words, any words at all, to ask what had happened.
“What is it?” Liam was looking down at her, worry clear in his voice.
“It…hurt.”
Liam’s look was quick, sharp, and Cameron only nodded.
“What?” Lily asked them. “What is it?”
“You’re…” Cameron gave a sigh, clearly trying to steady himself. “You’re a virgin.”
Shame crashed down on her. She pulled away from Liam, from them both, wishing she knew where her shorts were.
“I’m not…I don’t just…”
“We know.” Liam’s voice was softer than she had ever heard it. “But we shouldn’t have done this. And we definitely shouldn’t do it now.”
“Why not?” Lily whispered, her voice breaking. “You want to. I want to.”
“You deserve more for your first time than a dark room and…” Cameron looked away, and Lily remembered all of it: that she was their prisoner, that she’d been left to die, that…
She turned away, lying down on the bed and hunching her shoulders.
“Just go.”
Chapter Five
The sound of shouting reached her ears and Lily looked contemplatively at the door. They were leaving it unlocked now, and had for the past two days. But she didn’t open it. She made sure to be in the bathroom, hidden, when someone came to deliver her meals, and she never went out into the hallways.
She did not want to see either of them. She couldn’t bear to face them, not after they’d rejected her. She was a virgin, nothing more. And she was a virgin, she thought rebelliously, because up until two nights ago, she’d never known what it was she wanted. Well, now she knew. She wanted them—both of them.
And they wanted her. This shouldn’t be so difficult, should it? But they had left and she was still here, still slick between her legs when she thought of them, slipping her fingers between her legs sometimes at night to try to remember how it had felt. She wanted…she wanted Cameron’s mouth on her again, and Liam holding her in place, kissing her until she wanted nothing more than him inside her.
She dropped back on the covers with a groan, hands pressed over her eyes. It already didn’t feel real. They couldn’t possibly have wanted her that much, could they? Had she just dreamed all of it? Maybe it hadn’t actually happened. That would make a lot more sense than what she remembered. Of course, it would make her desire to show up naked in their bed a lot more embarrassing. She sat up, blushing, and tried to compose herself.
The yelling hadn’t stopped, and finally she pulled on her work dress and went to go investigate—barefoot, of course. She hadn’t gotten her shoes back yet. She looked along the corridors to see if anyone was going to apprehend her, but no one seemed to be around at all. Odd. She was just looking around for a clock when the shouting took on a familiar tone, and she froze.
It couldn’t be…
But of course it could, she thought bitterly as she descended the stairs. It had been two days and she hadn’t been released. James hadn’t bargained to release her, or she would be gone. He never lost at bargaining. He must consider keeping the others captive to be a higher priority than her safety.
It occurred to her that Liam and Cameron might have lied to her, but she didn’t entertain the thought for long. Their words had rung true. The business deals had been too good lately; she had noticed, even if she wasn’t smart enough to ask why. She still couldn’t quite believe that she’d thought James was turning into a better person.
She padded along the hallway toward the sound of the yelling: the study, she was willing to bet, though it was difficult to say for certain, when she’d been blindfolded the last time. Two men were guarding the door, and they gave her the sort of nod that said she was welcome in the house, but not quite welcome enough to go into the study just now.
She didn’t particularly care.
“That’s my boss in there,” she said, and if it wasn’t entirely accurate—she intended to quit as soon as she got out of here—she was sure they wouldn’t much care.
“No one’s to go in there,” one of them told her gently. “I’d go back upstairs, miss.”
“No. I need to go in.”
“Miss—”
The door opened behind him, and Liam peered out. He seemed almost approving when he saw Lily’s stubborn expression.
“It’s all right, Dennis. Come in, Miss McDermott.”
Lily raised her eyebrows as soon as she made it into the room. James was lying on a very nice carpet wrists and ankles bound, and his suit mussed. She had never seen him look less polished than a GQ model, and she could not stop herself from biting her lip at the indignity.
“Lily.”
“Hello, James.” She supposed she should look frightened or injured, but that hadn’t moved him to pity before, and she rather doubted it would do so now.
“Thank God you’re safe,” he told her, and Lily raised an eyebrow at him.
“It’s not God that’s kept me safe. They haven’t harmed me. That’s why I’m safe.”
“Lily, you can’t trust them. Come away from that man.”
“I’m quite all right, you know.” She gave a glance at Cameron, and saw his lips quirk. Was it just her own desire, or could she see the pulse speeding at his throat? Was his breath coming short? She hoped so.
But there were other matters to attend to, and the genuine worry in Liam’s eyes reminded her of that. She leaned forward to peer at James.
“So where are they?”
“They’re—where are who?” His voice was suspicious, but growing in fear. She shouldn’t know about this, his eyes said.
“The people you had kidnapped.” Lily watched his face pale, and swallowed down her regret.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, but it was far too late. She had hoped against hope that when she saw him again, he would say something that would prove he’d had nothing to do with all of it. That everything had been a mistake. A terrifying mistake, but just a mistake. She’d known from the moment he got so scared that he’d done something truly, terribly wrong. She had continued to hope that she was mistaken, but she knew it was a lost cause.
She looked away, tears in her eyes, and took a moment to compose herself.
“Mr. Dominick.” Liam crouched behind him, his voice friendly in a way that made Lily’s blood run cold. “You seem to be under the mistaken impression that you can lie your way out of this.”
“I won’t be lectured to on morality by a hit-man,” James hissed.
Lily winced, expecting a blow, but none came. Liam only stood, pacing around James where he lay on the floor.
“Do you know,” he said conversationally, “Watts constrains himself by the same standards to which he holds you?”
A glare was the only answer.
“Accordingly, he did not do what the extended family requested, and hand you over to them.”
At this, at last, James paled.
“He asked,” Liam said, as if he hadn’t noticed the man’s discomfort, “that he at least be given a chance to change your mind. They agreed. They gave him four days. As you’ll note…this is the third.”
“You don’t know what you’re meddling in,” James tried. “You’ll get their enemies coming down on you if you try this.”
“I don’t think so. I think everyone’s going to think a stupid American businessman tried to play hardball and got taken out. You see, Mr. Dominick, I don’t want to hurt you, and we both know that.”
“You’re not a very good interrogator.” James looked like he wanted to laugh. “Watts’s morality shot him in the foot.”
“I don’t have to do anything to you, though, do I?” Liam asked. “Like Watts, I don’t like doing violent things. But you see, in this case…I just have to step out of the way. Unless you give me the information, they’ll be here for you tomorrow. And they’ll kill me and mine if I get in thei
r way. And you see, my obligation to you ends when it starts to endanger my men. Do you understand me?”
James said nothing. His face was contorted with hatred.
“So, let me put it this way: you can tell me, or you can go with them, and you will tell them, because you will tell them anything you can think of to make them stop hurting you, and then they’ll kill you anyway. What’s it going to be?”
“Lily.” James’s face was twisted. “Don’t let them do this to me. Don’t let them—”
“Where were you,” Lily asked him softly, “when they took me? You were in your panic room. You hadn’t even bothered to warn me. And it’s been two days now that you haven’t even tried to save me. How can you possibly ask me to save you?”
“You could. They’ll listen to you.”
“They will,” Lily agreed. “But if you think I’m going to lift a finger to help you so that you can keep holding a family hostage, you’re sadly mistaken. Goodbye, Mr. Dominick.” She stood up and walked out, listening to his cries behind her, hating him and hating herself for ever having trusted him, and she was almost to the stairs when Cameron’s feet sounded behind her.
She caught her breath when she looked up at him, and saw desire flare in his eyes as well. But he was resolute.
“He’ll talk,” he told her. “He’s talking now. Lily, I’m…sorry.”
“Sorry about what?” She asked, a touch of humor. “Him being him, or you kidnapping me?”
“Both. I’m sorry you were scared. I hope you know that no one here would ever have hurt you.”
“I do know,” Lily said softly. She looked down at her hands, trying to screw up her courage to ask the one question she couldn’t hold back any longer. She had just drawn in a deep breath when he said, softly:
“You should go now.”
“What?” She looked up, lost.
“You should…you should go. There’s a car waiting outside. It will take you home.”
“I don’t…” I don’t want to go. She knew how ridiculous it was, but it was still true.
“You should. This is no place for you.” And he was gone. Did she see regret in his face? Was he fleeing from her?
She hesitated, looking at the front door that one of the men was holding open for her. She wanted to run back to the study, to drag Liam and Cameron both away from what they were doing, to tell them the truth—that she wanted them, that she wanted to stay.
“Miss?” The man’s voice was soft, and Lily blinked back tears and hurried out into the sunlight, still shoeless, to go back to a life she no longer wanted.
Chapter Six
“Stop pacing.” Liam looked up to see Cameron making his way around the room once more.
“I said I can’t help it.” Cameron threw him a look.
“The last time you said that, you made everything a lot worse.”
There was no blame in his voice. Hell, Liam knew that if it had been him in that hallway, he would have started it. He would have started it, and it would have been Cameron who joined in. They could have ridden her together, moaning in that way that still made his breath come short a month later—a month in which they had become increasingly snappish. Trips to bars, to clubs, had all yielded nothing. Oh, there was no shortage of women who might take them up on their offer, and a few of them who had suggested it before they even got the chance…but there was no one they wanted.
They wanted her. Her. Lily.
The doorbell rang, and Cameron didn’t even pause in his pacing. A few seconds later, it rang again.
“Go get that,” Liam said softly.
“Why?”
“Make yourself useful, and go get that.” Liam did not raise his voice. He rarely raised his voice. But it had the desired effect nonetheless; Cameron left, and Liam was free to return to his work.
It wasn’t long before the buzzer rang.
“Yes?” God in heaven, what now?
“Boss... ” It sounded like Cameron was smiling. “I think you might want to come see this. In the bedroom.”
He knew what that meant, knew it in an instant. But it wasn’t possible. It wasn’t… He took the steps two at a time, heart pounding, flinging open the door to the bedroom and shuddered with what he saw there.
She was naked, the warm glow of the lamps glinting off her alabaster skin. He could see where Cameron’s fingernails were dragging along her back, leaving pink scratch marks. She looked over when he came in, her eyes hazy with desire, and he saw the invitation clear in her eyes before Cameron pulled her head back to his for another kiss. A coat was pooled on the floor nearby, and she was barefoot—the same way she’d left.
It was more like her to do that. She wasn’t a woman who seduced in heels, with red lipstick, or a woman in a schoolgirl outfit, playing at innocence. She was innocence, a desire so pure he hardly wanted to touch her. He took a deep breath and settled into one of the chairs. He wouldn’t touch her. Not yet. They looked over at him, Cameron’s hair honey gold in the light, hers deep brown and silky against her pale skin.
“Liam?”
The sound of his name on her lips made him shudder, but he smiled.
“I want to see you with Cameron.” And he did. What Cameron could do with his mouth, bringing women to the edge, making them beg and moan, was what Liam wanted to see now, and his blood raced when she blushed.
“I…you want to watch?”
She was the most exquisite thing he’d ever seen. He beckoned to her, and she came to nestle in his lap, still blushing.
“Listen to me, Lily. I want all of you. And I’m going to have you.” His fingers parted her thighs and slid inside her, to the hot wetness he’d dreamed about for weeks, waking in a torment. “I’m going to take you every way you can imagine…and more.” His fingers twisted and she whimpered with pleasure. “Right now? I want to see you with Cameron. I want to watch him take you, and watch you learn to respond.” He pulled her head close for a kiss, and she moaned again. But she needed no more impetus. She wanted Cameron. How could she not?
She returned to him with a self-conscious glance over her shoulder that said that she knew he was watching her, and she was self-conscious. Liam smiled, settling back in his chair. He wanted to see her break—oh, not the rough break of a struggle, of forcing, but of a woman surrendering completely to pleasure. Women did not give themselves up like men did…not unless they had Cameron’s hands on their body, and his tongue between their legs, and the promise of Liam riding them until they came.
He watched while Cameron laid her down on the bed, saw the brief, and whispered words of reassurance. Did she remember the pain she’d felt before? She would only feel it once more. Cameron’s head dropped, trailing kisses down between her breasts and onto each hipbone, his fingers already playing, lazily, between her legs. When he began, tongue and lips moving slowly, Liam saw her arch. He remembered the feel of her on his fingers, so wet, so tight, and so hot. He was rock-hard, already clenching the arms of the chair while she put her hands over her mouth to stifle the sound.
“I want to hear you.” The command came without his volition, and she rolled her head to look at him, brown eyes soft with need. She was whimpering, biting her lip, moaning when Cameron slid his fingers into her. She opened her mouth on a breathy cry. “Good girl.” He felt himself throb, and saw her eyes flutter closed in desire.
It was a few minutes before she began to beg, but Liam had been waiting for it. He knew her, had known her the second she kissed him back, brushing her fingers over his hardness. She was responsive, unable to hide her own desire. She wanted to please. And when Cameron commanded her, with his mouth and his hands, to writhe her hips and plead with him, promise him anything if only he’d give her more… It was everything Liam had dreamed of.
He felt the familiar stab of possessive envy when Cameron slid into her to the hilt, Lily arching and crying out, pain and pleasure intertwined. Cameron would have her first, and Liam would always envy him that. But Cameron was the sweet one, th
e one who would hold her while she came. The one who wanted her pleasure as much as she wanted his. Cameron was the right choice, and Liam would always remember the sight of them, her lost in pleasure, hips beginning to move by instinct and need alone.
She learned quickly; she must have tightened around him, for Cameron gasped as he moved inside her. He guided her fingers down between her legs, showing her how to please herself, and her cries were coming faster, breathy. She came in a rush that surprised even her, burying her face against Cameron’s shoulder and crying out: yes, yes, yes…
She was still in his arms for a few moments, nuzzling against him, offering her mouth and moving her hips against him as he took it. Cameron was shuddering in the aftermath of pleasure, his muscles taut. When he rolled away, not wanting to crush her fragile form underneath him, she rose on one elbow to kiss him. Liam did not need to see her face to know she was smiling. When she looked back, he beckoned to her, and she came at once.
Obedience. It made his breath come short.
“Do you…do you want…” She fumbled for the words. Her skin was still flushed. “What do you want?” She asked finally, and she smiled when she saw his pleasure.
“Have you ever used your mouth on a man?” He asked her, and she shook her head shyly.
This would be interesting. But the thought of her learning, on him…Liam stood and stripped off his shirt. He held her gaze as he kicked his boots off, and stood still for her to undo his belt and his pants, slide them down with his briefs. When he kicked them away, she looked at him, uncertain, and he took her hand while he settled back into the chair. He enjoyed the flare of pleasure in her eyes at the sight of him.
“Kneel.” A command, but his desire made it smooth, and she complied at once. On the bed, Cameron shifted to watch them, his brown eyes heavy lidded, a smile on his face.
“I don’t know how,” she whispered, and he could feel her breath on him.
“Experiment,” he told her, and God help him, he nearly lost it at the first touch of her lips. She licked over the head of him, flicking her tongue across the most sensitive part, jerking her head up when he groaned. He managed to nod, and she did it again, circling, licking. She grew more bold, taking as much of him as she could in her mouth, until he was slick with it. She gasped when he drew her away.
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