“Please,” I whispered. “Please don’t hurt me. “I’ll give you anything you—”
“No one’s going to hurt you,” he growled. He reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, this is complicated.”
“Letting the woman you kidnapped go might make things simpler for you,” I snapped.
He smiled darkly. “I’m going to untie you now. You’ll be confined to this room, but there’s a bathroom—” he nodded at the door on the other side of the room “—and clothes, and food will be brought to you.” His eyes narrowed at me. “Do know, Ms. Thorne, that there will be consequences to you trying anything when I untie you.”
I nodded.
Because nodding meant at least appearing to agree with him. And I knew one thing: anything I could do to make it look like I was cooperating was a step towards winning their trust.
…And winning their trust meant a shot at escaping.
He stepped towards me, and I could feel my pulse skip as his powerful hands pulled at the ties, freeing one hand. I bit my lip, feeling my muscles coil and feeling my body ready itself. He moved to the other side of me, and undid the tie on that hand.
I bolted.
I lashed out, getting him in the ribs with a bare heel before I scrambled off the bed and went stumbling for the door. I made it three steps before I screamed as his arms went around me. I shrieked as he lifted my small body up easily, hoisting me over his powerful shoulder and striding back towards the bed.
“You disappoint me, Ms. Thorne,” he hissed, his hands tightening on me. My eyes went wide as I felt his hand slide up over the back of my thigh, pushing the thin robe up as he went, until my panty-covered ass was exposed.
His hand came down on it hard, with a sharp smacking sound, and I gasped out loud.
“Get your hands off—!”
The hand came down again, spanking my ass, jolting my pelvis against his muscled shoulder and sending a tremor through my body.
…And igniting something inside of me.
I blushed bright red at the way my traitorous body reacted to the spank, tingling, and moving against him. Growing hotter.
Getting wet.
I bit my lip, squeezing my eyes shut and shoving that horrible thought deep down inside.
I would not be turned on by this! This man may have been gorgeous, and captivating, and insanely powerful, and dominating in a way I’d barely dared to admit to myself that I’d dreamed about.
But he was my kidnapper.
He and his friends had bought me, against my will, at a fucking auction.
And I’d be damned if I let my body react like this to a man like that.
I lashed out again, trying to get my knee up into his side, but he suddenly tossed me down onto the bed. I screamed as he came after me, pinning me down against the sheets with his hands holding my wrists down, his weight against my body. I panted, gasping as I felt his hard, muscled, powerful body press the fight out of me.
And yet somehow, it did more than that. Somehow, it pressed heat right through my body as well. I gasped in horrified shock as my pussy throbbed with sudden and wildly unexplainable desire for him.
Yes, on a purely physical, base level, this was a gorgeous man pressing me down onto a bed, my legs spread beneath him and his thick bulge pressing hard against me.
Kidnapped! I reminded myself furiously. This man kidnapped you, or…bought you, or, whatever.
And there was no freaking way I was letting myself get turned on like this by a man like that.
I shoved at him, trying to push him off of me. Except of course, the only effect it had against his strength was my hips rocking up to grind into him, which only got me hotter, and wetter.
“Get off of me!” I hissed, trying to get the anger to cover the red heat in my face.
Oliver grinned.
“Careful Ms. Thorne.”
I glared at him, swallowing the lump in my throat as I felt just how hard and how damn big he was, pressing me there between my legs.
“Careful of what,” I spit.
“You might just find you enjoy being controlled.”
My jaw dropped. “I will do no such—!” I shoved my full weight up into him, shoving him off of me just enough for me to get a hand free. I swung it blindly, gasping in surprise when my palm actually connected with his face.
The room went still, and I froze.
Slowly, Oliver turned back, his eyes blazing ice blue fire. I gasped as he suddenly flipped me around, face down on the bed with my hands behind my back. I bucked against him, but one of his powerful hands held both of mine fast at the small of my back. He used his other hand to push my robe up high, and my eyes went wide as he suddenly yanked my panties down to my knees!
“Just what do you think you’re—!”
I shrieked as his palm came down with a firm crack on my bare little ass, the spank jolting through my body and spreading heat out from his hand. He pulled back and did it again, his firm palm connecting with the tender skin of my ass and making me gasp.
And then, I moaned.
God help me, I closed my eyes, and I moaned as he spanked me. I knew I was bare to him, and I was pretty sure he could fucking see how wet I was by this, there between my legs.
My cheeks burned hot with the thought.
I gasped as Oliver let his hand connect with my ass once more, before he stopped.
And chuckled.
“Looks like I was correct about you enjoying this, Ms. Thorne.”
I closed my eyes as the heat flooded my face.
Suddenly, he was off of me, and rising from the bed. I took a shaky breath before I slowly turned, avoiding his eyes with mine.
“Now then,” he spoke firmly. “That was a warning. I will not be nice next time.”
I looked up, my wide eyes meeting his. There was a raw, dominating fire there that left me breathless. Then, he turned and strode from the room. The door locked behind him.
I sat there on the bed, panting, my cheeks still flushed red, my mind still whirling, and my pussy still throbbing in confusing, horrible desire.
Because I didn’t want him to be nice.
I wanted him to be bad.
I wanted him to be the dark, dominant, even scary man I saw there in his eyes.
I shook my head, letting my breath out and pushing my fingers through my hair.
I must’ve been going insane.
8
Oliver
Ash had been right.
This had been a fucking terrible idea.
My blood pumped like gasoline as I paused outside the door to Mia’s room. My fists clenched at my sides, and my jaw tightened as the rush of what’d just happened came pounding through my head.
What had just happened, and what had almost just happened, too.
I’d gotten too close. I’d taken showing her who was in charge, and showing her the discipline I could mete out and pushed it way past what I’d intended. I’d gone to that dark place inside — the place I only went to when I was ready to make a woman submit to me, body and soul.
And that is not what I’d gone in that room to do.
Except, she’d gotten the better of me. Fuck, just being around her shattered my control and seemed to erase any sense of self-restraint I had. Because being around her made me want her — primally, animalistically, in every conceivable way. Being around Mia Thorne made my cock hard as steel and made my blood run hot like fire. It made me want to get her on her knees — submissively, subserviently, her hands tied at her back, and those big doe eyes looking up at me as she learned to say “yes, sir.”
Possessing a woman — dominating her and making her your submissive, was not about force, or some sort of dark, evil desire to subjugate her. It was about showing her how good it could be to give me control of her — all of her. It was about showing her how sweet I could make it if she trusted me, and gave in to me.
And I wanted that with Mia Thorne more than I’d ever wanted it in any woman I’d e
ver met.
And yet…
I swore silently as my eyes squeezed shut.
Mia wasn’t like women I — or we — had had before. We’d paid for her, as we’d done in the past with women at the Auction House. But again, this was different. Things had changed, and buying a woman against her will?
That was different, and I knew that.
This wasn’t a plaything I’d outbid a competitor for. This wasn’t some nervously eager sub who’d only heard the stories of what Erik, Ash, and I would do to her — the ways we’d dominate her body like she’d never felt before and the ways we’d make her shatter so sweetly.
No, Mia wasn’t that girl.
She was a prisoner. A real, actual prisoner. Yes, her being here kept her safe. And yes, the alternative of letting Ryan Cunningham use and degrade her would have been impossible to let happen.
But that did not mean I could go down the familiar path with her.
In fact, it meant I had to keep my distance. It meant as much as I wanted to march right back in there, blindfold her with my tie and bind her with her own panties before I felt those sweet lips slide down my cock—
I hissed as I slammed my fist against the hallway wall outside her room.
I heard her gasp inside.
Her being her meant I couldn’t do that. And if I knew what was good for me, I’d stop thinking it as well.
Before it was too late to stop myself.
I shook out my fist, my eyes narrowing at the locked door to her room, before I whirled and stormed away.
9
Mia
I didn’t see anyone for the rest of the day. Around six — I had to trust the clock on the wall since there were no windows — though, there was a knock on the door.
I froze, steeling myself for another encounter, my muscles starting to coil as if preparing to fight again, even if I knew it was hopeless.
The knock came again, and I slipped from the bed. I pulled the robe tight, and then grabbed a blanket from the foot of the bed and wrapped that over my shoulders as well.
“Hello?”
The door unlocked with a click, and an older man stepped in, smiling and carrying a tray. His grey hair was thinned, and the lines in his face were deep, but he smiled in a kindly way as he stepped into the room.
“Evening, Ms. Thorne,” he spoke in a crisp, cultured voice. He nodded once at me, his eyes shining. I noticed that he shut the door firmly before he moved to the table in the far corner of the room and set the tray down. The lid came off with a flourish, and he nodded at the exquisite looking meal beneath it.
My stomach roared, and he smiled.
“Some sustenance for you, Miss.”
I bit my lip as my eyes searched his kind face. “Please,” I whispered. “Please, where—”
“Everything will be explained to you, Ms. Thorne.” He turned to leave, but I rushed to grab his arm.
“You don’t understand! I’m being kept here, against my—”
“Masters Holland, Blackwood, and Wilder have their reasons, miss,” he said quietly.
Masters Holland, Blackwood, and Wilder.
So, the other two had names now.
“Trust me when I say there are reasons for you being here — reasons that they will explain in due time.” He smiled again. “Believe me, you are quite safe here.”
He left as quickly as he’d come, leaving me alone with the food and my gurgling stomach.
Safe?
I wondered what was so bad out there that being here with them was a safe alternative.
After I ate, I found that the elegant bathroom off my windowless bedroom was fully stocked with a toothbrush and toothpaste, face scrub, towels, and soap. It felt good to scrub my face, brush my teeth, and even use the brush I found on the vanity to get the tangles out of my hair.
When I was done, I eyed the large, gorgeous, clawfoot bathtub along one white-tiled wall.
Screw it.
I shrugged off the robe and my underwear, and ran the water hot, before stepping in.
I groaned, letting the water soak out the tensions before I soaped up. I washed my hair, luxuriating in the heat of the water as I rinsed the soap out. There was a safety razor on the edge of the tub as well, and I even shaved my legs, for no other reason than to feel human again, despite my current position as prisoner.
After my shower, I opted for just the silk robe before I crawled under the covers.
My mind wandered again to Andrea, and my family, and I wondered if they were still looking for me. Looking for me without thinking in a million years that I’d be in some house outside the city, kept captive by three gorgeous, dark, and dangerous men in an elegant but windowless bedroom.
Eventually, somehow, I slept.
10
Mia
I was just waking up the next morning when, the door unlocked sharply. I sat bolt upright, clutching the sheet to my chest as it swung open, and I swallowed thickly as I saw who walked in.
It was the other two men — the blonde one and the man with the piercing dark eyes and thick dark hair. Seeing as I’d met Oliver Blackwood the day before, that meant these two were Holland and Wilder.
“I trust you slept okay.”
I swallowed again, narrowing my eyes at the two of them as they stepped into the room and shut the door with a click.
I shivered.
They were more casually dressed this time — no jackets, but still in those crisp Oxford shirts and tailored pants.
“What do you want,” I hissed, narrowing my eyes at them.
A smile pulled at the corner of the blonde man’s lips. The dark-haired man just glared right back at me.
“Ms. Thorne, my name is Erik Holland, and this is Asher Wilder.”
I sneered. “And I suppose you want me to call you both sir as well, don’t yo—”
“Yes,” Ash growled lowly, his eyes burning right into me. “Yes, we do.”
I shivered under that gaze.
“And suppose I don’t feel like calling the men who bought me anything of the kind?”
That smug smile teased Erik’s lips again as he glanced at his friend, as if they were both amused by my fighting them.
“Then I suppose, Ms. Thorne,” Erik said quietly, turning back to me. “Then I suppose you will need convincing in that department.”
My mouth shut, eyes darting between them.
“You’ve never been a submissive, have you?”
I glanced at Ash, seeing his jaw tighten and his eyes dart over me.
“And you’ve never been trained, nor have you ever had a Dom in any way.”
“I don’t know what you’re even talking about.”
He shook his head. “You had no business being in the club that night, even less being in the Auction House.”
I glared at him. “Oh, right, because it was my choice to get dragged there by that asshole pal of yours Ryan, and then kidnapped and dragged to that disgusting place where you seem to think it’s okay to buy women.”
This time, the smile teased Ash’s mouth as well.
“Not our pal.”
“Excuse me?”
“Ryan Cunningham is not a friend,” Ash said quietly.
“You’re here because you need to be, Ms. Thorne,” Erik moved towards my bed, and my fists tightened on the sheets. “You’re here because it’s safe for you here. But while you are here, you will obey, and you will abide by the rules.”
I started to roll my eyes, when I gasped as he suddenly marched right up to the bed. “Do not roll your eyes at me,” he said sharply and quietly. And I thought about retorting, or throwing it back in his face, but there was something dark in those eyes of his that made me bite my tongue.
I nodded instead, and Erik smiled. “Good girl,” he purred.
I bit my lip.
“We’ll begin showing you those rules today. I’d like you to get out of bed, bathe, and get dressed.”
I nodded, and he raised a sharp eyebrow.
“What, now?”
“I’m not sure what I said to make you think otherwise.”
I swallowed, glancing between Erik standing right next to my bed, and Ash down by the foot of it. Their eyes — Erik’s sharp blue ones and Ash’s piercing dark ones — burned into me, seemingly looking right through the sheets and the thin silk robe, as if they were looking at me bare and naked.
I squeezed my thighs together, dropping my eyes and trying to will the heat away from my face.
The room felt warmer, closer with the two of them there looking at me like that. And just like before, with Oliver, I felt that horrible sense of attraction to them that I knew was so wrong, and so terrible.
I was their prisoner, and here I was getting caught up and pulled in by those chiseled features, those gorgeous eyes, and the demanding, dominant way they spoke to me.
I shook my head quietly but when I looked up, I felt that shiver as I caught them both looking right at me.
“Get up, Ms. Thorne.”
There was something so commanding in Ash’s voice that I found myself doing as I was told. I swung my legs out of bed, clutching the robe tight as I stood, avoiding Erik’s eyes.
“We’ll have clothes brought in. In the meantime, you may run a bath.”
“I took one last night.”
“And I wasn’t asking.”
I glanced up sharply at Erik, seeing that smug grin on his perfect face, those eyes lancing into me. I quickly turned away.
“Fine,” I muttered, stepping for the bathroom. I stepped in, and I turned to get the door, when I gasped, finding the two of them standing right there.
“Do you mind?”
Neither man said a word.
“I have to get undressed to take a bath.”
“No one’s stopping you.”
My cheeks flushed hot, my eyes darting between them.
“Can you look away?” I said quietly.
“No.”
I swallowed, that traitorous tingle creeping through my body as I turned away from them and stepped into the luxurious bathroom. I shivered again, feeling their eyes on me, but I took a deep breath as I untied the robe, and then shrugged it off. It pooled at my feet, and I felt the heat of their gaze on my bare back as I sucked my lip between my teeth.