by Marla Monroe
“Please don’t do this.”
“Do what?” Justin leaned in and ran his tongue against her lower lip.
“Seduce me. I know you can, and there wouldn’t be anything I could do to stop you.”
“What’s wrong with letting us show you how good it could be between us?” Paul stopped a few feet from her, standing to one side as he watched Justin nuzzle her neck.
“You’ll just get tired of me in a few weeks or months. Then where will I be without a job?” She hated that they had reduced her to begging.
“No, babe. We’ll never get tired of you. Don’t you get it? You mean so much more to us than anyone we’ve ever been with before.”
“Give us a chance, sweetheart. Let us show you all the wonderful things you’ve been missing. We’ll take good care of you.” Justin kept kissing her neck down to her shoulder.
She couldn’t think with him doing that. She knew they weren’t going to let her leave without a firm answer. She had no doubt that if she said no or stop, they would. They weren’t bullies. The problem was that she didn’t want to say no or stop. She wanted them. She wanted to experience what they promised. Just once, she wanted to know what being a woman really felt like. Then, when things were over, she’d pick up and move on.
God, was she really considering it? A little voice inside of her tried to remind her that she wasn’t sophisticated or part of the in crowd there in Riverbend. She lived in a crappy, rundown apartment building, and they lived in a huge, four-bedroom mansion out in the country. When that didn’t seem to be working, the little voice reminded her that she didn’t have the right kind of clothes to be seen with them in public if they even wanted to drag her out with them. So she would be making good money working for them. She could afford to add to her wardrobe if the need arose.
Finally, she realized that Justin had stepped back to stand next to Paul and was no longer touching her. He had moved as if to give her room to think. She looked up at the two men and took in their expressions. Justin’s held hope and worry while Paul’s was completely blank. He wasn’t going to let her see inside of him, but she could imagine that he felt much the same way as his brother.
Lana bit her lower lip once again. Their eyelids lowered just a fraction, and a grunt escaped Justin’s mouth. He wasn’t immune to her. That made her follow the quick nip of her lip with a sweep of her tongue over the offended tissue. To her amusement, both men sighed.
“If I say yes to this job offer, are you going to micromanage every little thing that I do?”
“Absolutely not.” Paul stood up straight. “We wouldn’t have offered you the job if we didn’t think you had the ability to do it. We’ll let you do the job as you see fit as long as it gets the desired effect.”
“So that means that you will trust me to handle everything?”
“Once we’ve shown you the ropes, we’ll stand back and let you do your stuff.” Justin grinned.
He knew they had won, and she was going to take the job and eventually give in to their demands to let them love her. Whoa, not love. Love played no part in this. It was simply lust, and there was nothing wrong with a little lust. Still, she planned to resist them as long as she could. She was still sure that once the new had worn off of a relationship with her they would eventually tire of her.
“Okay. I’ll take the job at the salary you offered. I’ve got to work out my schedule this week and my notice of two weeks for the school, but I can still work a little bit beginning the week after next to get the ball rolling.”
“Excellent! You won’t be sorry. I can’t wait to get you started in the office.” Paul’s enthusiasm seemed out of proportion to his usual calm façade.
It surprised her so much that she frowned at him. This just seemed to make him smile even more. Justin pulled her into his arms and swung her around until her feet left the ground.
“Okay, let’s fix something for dinner and celebrate.” Justin let her down so that her feet reached the floor.
“Oh, well I need to be leaving. I have to get ready for work tomorrow.”
“Not to mention that you’ve got to prepare your resignation letter for the school. I think a simple ‘I quit’ for Rick should suffice, though.” Paul winked at her.
Lana didn’t answer him because she had no intentions of just saying that she quit. She would type up a resignation letter for Rick as well. He’d given her a job when she’d been desperate. She owed it to him.
Justin pulled out his keys. “I’ll drive.” Lana and Paul followed behind him as he hurried out to the truck. Once Paul had locked up the house, he helped her up into the truck and assured that she fastened her safety belt before giving a nod at Justin that they could leave.
Justin kept up a lively conversation the entire trip back to town and her apartment. When they had pulled into the parking lot, Lana tried to tell them that they didn’t have to walk her to the door, but they both insisted on it. She had no intentions of inviting them in, but it didn’t seem to matter. Paul wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in for a kiss. Justin rested his hands at the swell of her hips and pressed against her from behind.
Lana didn’t fight the kiss. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Paul’s neck and let him lead her where he wanted to take her. Their tongues dueled before he finally released her and pulled back. He let his brother turn her toward him as he rubbed his hard cock against her lower back, dipping down so that it pressed between her ass cheeks before moving back up once again.
When Justin finally pulled back, her panties were soaked and her lips swollen from their kisses. A soft hum seemed to fill her body with a need that she knew wouldn’t be sated by her vibrator alone. She was sure they had done it on purpose so that she would not only think about them all week, but also be primed and ready for when they got ready to push their relationship further. For some reason, Lana couldn’t be angry with them. For the first time in her life, she felt truly alive. Nothing was going to stand in the way of that. Not even her nosey good intentions.
Chapter Eight
She was rather surprised that her resignation letter was accepted so easily at the school until the principal called her into the office to talk to her. It seemed they were happy for her because they had been about to let her go. The school district had been under orders to cut costs before the next school year, and her job was considered to be expendable. Paul and Justin’s job offer had come in the nick of time for her.
Rick, however, didn’t take her resignation as well. When she had handed him her letter, he’d frowned at her and opened it to read it. Then he’d grabbed her by her upper arm and dragged her into his office.
“I thought you needed this job to pay your bills?”
“I did. I really appreciate your giving me the job when I needed it, but now I don’t. I’m taking another full-time position that pays enough that I don’t need a second job anymore.”
“Where? I didn’t think anyone was hiring around here.”
“I’m going to be working for Paul and Justin for their landscaping business.”
Rick’s mouth opened then closed again. “You’re crazy! They are just trying to get in your pants. Once they’ve had you, they won’t want you anymore, and you’ll be without a job at all.”
“Gee, thanks, Rick, for having so much confidence in my job skills.” She started to open the door to walk out, but he stopped her.
“I’ve seen how they’ve looked at you when they are up here. They just want to fuck you, Lana. Don’t throw away your reputation by getting mixed up with them.”
“Rick, it’s really none of your business. While I greatly appreciate the chance you gave me, I won’t allow you to talk to me this way. If you can’t behave appropriately, I might as well leave now.”
“Don’t.” He ran a hand through his hair. “At least work out the rest of this week since you’re on the schedule.” Even though he sounded resigned to her decision, she could tell that he was still trying to think of some way to change
her mind.
Too bad. It wasn’t going to happen. Her job at the school was no longer needed. She and Rick agreed that Friday night would be her last shift. She needed to tell the guys that she was available to start in a week instead of two weeks when they came to pick her up. No doubt they would be happy since they hadn’t wanted her to even give a week’s notice in the first place.
Rick didn’t let her go home early that night. Instead, he sent one of the other girls home and had her work ’til close. She worried that he planned to harass her and try to change her mind while she cleaned up and set up the drive-thru for the next day. To her surprise, he didn’t mention it even once. When she had clocked out and was ready to leave, he merely said goodnight and nodded at Paul as he walked her out to the truck where Justin was waiting.
“He didn’t seem to be so worked up about your leaving,” he said as they walked out to the vehicles.
“Oh, he said plenty when I gave him my notice, but he sobered up, and as you can see, he seems to be fine now. I guess it was a shock since I’d needed the job so badly. Anyway, you’re not going to believe this.”
“What?”
“Let me tell Justin, too.” She opened the truck door and climbed up so that Justin could hear her.
Lana told them all about her day at the school and the fact that she would be available to start sooner than she had originally thought since her position was being eliminated at the school.
“Looks like we all made the right decision in the nick of time.” Paul nodded his head.
“How do you feel about it, Lana?” Justin was of course the one to worry about her feelings.
“I’m good, actually. Since I had already made up my mind to take the job, I wasn’t upset about it. Now if I hadn’t had a job, that would have been horrible, but things have a way of working out for the best.”
“I’m glad you see it that way, because I really think working for us is best for all of us.” He pulled her closer and kissed her before letting her climb back out of the cab so she could ride home with Paul in her car.
After they had dropped her off at her apartment, Lana hurried through her shower so she could get into bed. Working until close during the week made it rough for her to get up the next morning to go to work. Just because she was leaving at the end of the week didn’t mean she could be late in the morning.
Despite being exhausted both mentally and physically, she had trouble drifting off to sleep right away. Thoughts about how things had worked out kept circling in her head until finally she managed to slip off into a restless sleep.
Sometime later, something woke her. She didn’t open her eyes. Instead, she listened for what had startled her out of sleep. At first, everything seemed fine. She couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. There was the annoying drip of the faucet in the bathtub that the landlord refused to fix, the soft hum of the fridge in the kitchen, but she didn’t notice anything else. She relaxed and chalked it up to being overtired and settled down to go back to sleep.
The sound of a single piece of glass hitting something jerked her eyes open this time. Immediately her heart began to pound and her breathing sped up. Someone was in her apartment only feet away. She was scared to move in case she made a noise. A soft crunch in the other room had her stomach threatening to empty itself of the hamburger from the night before.
She glanced over at her bedside table. It was barely three in the morning. She realized that she hadn’t brought her phone into the bedroom with her for once. It was still in her purse in the living room on the couch where she’d tossed it when she got home.
She quickly assessed her options as she eased out of the bed, praying that she didn’t make a noise as she did it. The only thing she could come up with was to climb through a window in order to get away. Lana didn’t think she had time to put on clothes, so she crept over to the only window in her bedroom and unlocked it before attempting to open it. At first, it wouldn’t budge then it slowly began to move but made a loud scraping noise she was sure the intruder would be able to hear.
Footsteps in the other room heading for the bedroom gave her the adrenaline burst she needed to finally shove the window all the way up. Just as she began to climb out, the bedroom door slammed open against the opposite wall. She screamed, but it was cut off when gloved hands grabbed at her as she tried to make it through the open window. He grabbed her by the hair and jerked her back inside, dragging her body back over the bottom of the window, scraping her back and sides on the edges. Her head hit hard on the bedframe as she tried to right herself so she could fight her captor.
Grabbing her by the throat, the man pulled her to her feet and flung her on the bed. Lana was dizzy from the lack of oxygen, so her reflexes were much slower. She attempted to roll to the other side of the bed, but the intruder grabbed one of her wrists and jerked her back toward him. He captured her other hand and taped both hands together. She started to scream but found that her throat was too sore for her to do more than moan and screech. Tape covered her mouth, but she continued to fight.
She couldn’t see anything other than a pair of wild brown eyes staring down at her in the darkness. He had to be wearing a mask. She continued to try and fight him with her bound hands and kicking feet. She was so busy swinging and kicking, she never saw the blow coming that nearly knocked her out. For the few seconds that she was stunned, the stranger managed to tape her feet together as well.
Fear gurgled in her throat as she tried to regulate her breathing. She was afraid she was going to get sick and choke on her own vomit. Was this the one who’d killed that woman, or was he just a burglar?
The man disappeared from view for a few seconds, and she hoped he was going to just rob her and leave. When he returned with what looked like electrical cords she knew he wasn’t just a thief. She started to roll off the bed, but he climbed up and stopped her. Then he showed her a knife, and she froze. He slipped a piece of electrical cord between her taped hands and then tied her hands above her onto the base of the bed somehow. She pulled and struggled, but it did no good.
Then he was tying her legs to each corner of the bed, having cut the tape holding them together. She struggled, kicking him with the foot that was loose until he cut her with the knife. She could feel the blood trail down her leg where he’d stabbed her. The pain didn’t even register at first. Not until he was kneeling between her legs and cutting away her panties and T-shirt. Tears leaked from her eyes in a steady stream as she fought to breathe through her congested nose. When he pulled the remnants of her T-shirt from her body, Lana knew she was going to die.
He held up the knife where she could see it again before slowly dragging the flat side of it along her body between her breasts. Then he poked at her nipples with just the tip. His wild eyes told her that there was no one at home inside the mask. Tied down as she was, Lana was totally at his mercy, and hope began to slip away.
* * * *
The ringing of his cell phone on the bedside table jerked Paul awake. He grabbed the offending thing and answered it in a gravelly voice.
“Yeah.”
“Paul, it’s Mac Tidwell.”
Thinking that someone had messed with the trench digger at the site where they were working, he groaned and ran a hand over his face.
“What’s up?”
“I need you and Justin to come to the hospital as soon as you can get here.”
“What the hell?” He sat up, wide awake now. “What’s going on?”
There was a pause before Mac started talking again.
“Lana was attacked in her apartment. She’s hysterical. I was hoping you and Justin could help calm her down so the doctor can treat her and we can talk to her.”
Paul was already pulling on his jeans as Mac spoke. Fear coursed through his veins at knowing she was hurt.
“How bad is she hurt?”
“We’re not sure, yet. She’s covered in blood, but she won’t let anyone near her.”
“We’re on our way
.” Paul slid the phone in his pants pocket and grabbed a shirt and his boots and hurried over to Justin’s room.
Bursting through the door, he yelled at his brother to get his ass up and dressed. “Lana’s been hurt. We need to get to the hospital.”
He didn’t wait for Justin’s questions. Instead he hurried downstairs and finished dressing. He waited impatiently for his brother to make it downstairs. Neither man said anything until they were in the truck headed for town.
“What the fuck happened?”
Paul filled him in on what little he knew as he sped toward the hospital. Justin had one hand on the dashboard and the other one on the handhold above the door. When he parked the truck outside of the emergency room, a deputy met him at the door with his hand out.
“Give me the key so I can move your truck.”
Paul handed him the key and pushed past him with Justin right behind him. He walked up to the registration window. The clerk behind the glass backed up in her chair, fear all over her face.
“Where’s Lana Peters?”
“Um, she’s being seen by the doctor right now. You can’t go back there yet.”
“The sheriff called me to come help calm her down so they could treat her. Let me the fuck back there right now.”
“I–I can’t, sir.” She was frantically dialing someone on the phone.
“Open the fucking door, now!”
“Paul! Over here.” Mac’s voice reached him from around the side of the registration desk.
He and Justin hurried over to where Mac held a door open for them.
“How is she?”
“Wild. I don’t think she can actually see anyone past her fear. I sure hope you can calm her down, or they’re going to have to overpower her and give her something to knock her out. They don’t want to do that because she’s already got a head injury.”
Mac pushed through the swinging door to Trauma Room Two. Paul and Justin walked in right behind him.
“Ah, hell, baby. Look at you.” The sight of Lana curled up in a sheet on the floor in the corner covered in blood just about took him to his knees.