Their Virgin Hostage, Masters of Ménage, Book 5 (23 page)

“You’re awfully naïve.”

“I’ve been told that before, but I think you’re awfully
cynical.”

“That happens fast when you’re the kid of the town whore.”

“Don’t you call her that.” No matter who he was,
Kinley
wasn’t about to let someone talk about Law’s mother
that way. When he’d talked to her as California Mike, Law had been completely
open about his mother. Though she’d been flawed and damaged, he’d loved her.

Riley shrugged. “It’s what she did.”

“But it didn’t define who she was,”
Kinley
argued.

“I’m just being realistic, the same way Simone was. She
wanted Dominic’s connections to climb the social ladder, using my back and
Law’s as the rungs. Keeping him separate from us in public was the only way she
could hope to achieve that because a woman who slept with two brothers and
their friend…who knew what went on there? Speculation would always run rampant,
and she’d always be a whore.”

“You were in love with her.” Nothing else explained his
bitterness.

Riley hesitated, then shook his head. “I was in love with
the idea of her. I was in love with the idea of having the relationship I
wanted. Simone showed me the truth.”

“No, Simone showed you what a horrible person she was.”

“She wanted what all women want.”

“What do you think that is? In my book, it’s love and
companionship. To be desired and needed.”

He snorted. “Try money, respect, and a place in society.”

“Wow. She did a number on you. I’m surprised. I wouldn’t have
expected you to just lie down like that and take it. You either loved her with
every ounce of your soul or you’re not the person I thought you were.”

He frowned her way. “I didn’t love her.”

If that was true, he sure seemed willing to give up an awful
lot for a woman who didn’t have his heart. “But are you going to let her
dictate the rest of your life?”

His cynical smile was back. “Oh, please. Are you going to
try to tell me that you’re not going to let what Greg Jansen did affect you?
You already have. You just tossed out twenty-five years of saving yourself for
marriage to give Greg a big old ‘fuck you.’ So I wouldn’t say too much about
not bowing to bitterness if I were you.”

“You think I slept with Dominic and Law because I wanted to
get back at Greg?”

“Of course. Greg was going to be your husband, and you saved
yourself for him. Spreading your legs for my brother and Dominic probably made
you feel powerful. Was revenge sweet?”

It had been, but not for the reasons he thought. “I didn’t
save myself. I just never cared enough about anyone to sleep with them.”

“And yet you came to care for my brothers in the couple of
days since we drugged and kidnapped you, then ripped your world apart? Yeah, I
believe that.”

But she had. And she was starting to think that maybe her
love and future were worth fighting for.

“I don’t care what you believe, Riley. I know who I am. I
know what I’ve done and what I feel. I’ve absolutely come to care a great deal
about your brother and Dominic. Sleeping with them had nothing to do with
revenge and everything to do with moving on with life. You can’t understand
that because you’re clinging to the past. Some woman hurt you, and now you
won’t let it go, so you’ll take it out on me. Fine, but stop and think about
the fact that I’m not you. Greg hurt me. Becks hurt me. My dad hurt me. Guess
what? I won’t let them ruin my life. I won’t allow them to change me. I might
be naïve and stupid, but I will keep trying to find love. I don’t care how it
comes to me. If it comes from one or two or three men, I’ll take it. I don’t
care what the rest of the world thinks because no one there cared that my
fiancé was going to kill me. You, Dominic, and Law cared. That’s all that
matters to me.”

“We didn’t care because of you.” The words came out on a harsh
rasp.

That hurt, but then he seemed determined to make her see his
twisted truth. “They do now. I can’t change how you feel.”

And Riley didn’t get to choose her reality either. From now
on, no one ever got to decide who
Kinley
Kohl was or
what she would do. No one got to change that deeply held part of herself that
kept trying to fill her heart, despite all the evidence that it wouldn’t work.
She refused to believe that she would end up alone.

“Have you thought about the fact that we’re just isolated here
in Alaska and they’re horny? Or that they feel sorry for you?”

Hurt flared again. It was time to leave. If Riley wanted to
be mean, she needed to stay away from him. That woman had damaged him, and he
didn’t even want to recover.

But the question haunted her. Did Law feel sorry for her?
When she thought about it…no. She’d felt his caring. It might not be love, but
Law felt something for her. It wasn’t strictly pity or desire. And Dominic
Anthony would never sleep with someone because he felt sorry for her.

Riley was glaring down at her, challenging. Some beast
trapped under his skin wanted her to fight with him. He just kept poking at
her, then pulling her back when she tried to walk away. He behaved like a kid
who didn’t know how to emerge from the dark corner he’d put himself in.

Anger fled in a rush of sympathy. Riley had loved and lost,
and he didn’t know how to find his way back. It was sad, and railing at him
wouldn’t help.

His deep disconnect would likely cost her everything, but
again, she wouldn’t allow that to change who she’d become or what she believed.

Kinley
didn’t hesitate. She simply
stepped closer and wrapped her arms around him, resting her cheek on his chest.
“I’m so sorry.”

He tensed around her. “What are you doing?”

“Offering you what Simone didn’t. She didn’t deserve the
three of you. I know you miss her, but you need to let her go and find someone
who will love you. The three of you deserve a woman who will stand at your side
and proudly be wife to you all. Don’t compromise or settle, Riley. This is your
forever. You have to fight for it. I just learned that. Don’t let anyone take
it away from you.”

Riley blinked at her in silence, his expression incredulous.

She eased back enough to look into his eyes. “Find someone
who makes all of you happy. I know I’m not her because you’re not interested in
me, and when the time comes, I’ll step away quietly. Just let me have a few
days with them. Let me know what it means to have a lover. By the time we have
to return to the real world, I know it will fall apart, but can’t you and I be
kind to one another until then?”

He held his hands up, shoving himself out of her embrace.
“What are you doing? I’ve been horrible to you.”

“I’m being true to myself. You’re hurting, and I’m not the
kind of person to ignore that. So I’m offering you comfort.”

She slid against him, her eyes downcast because she didn’t
think she could stand to see censure in his stare. To her shock, when she
pressed closer to him, she discovered that his cock was stone hard.

A little voice inside her prodded her. If Dominic and Law
were interested in dominating a woman and they usually all took her to bed
together…maybe Riley wanted some control, too. “Sir.”

“Fuck.” Suddenly, he wrapped one arm around her, yanking her
against him in a tight embrace. The other hand wound through her hair, his fist
closing around the strands. When he tugged and forced her to meet his stare,
she hissed. “You’re insane,
Kinley
. It won’t work. It
can’t.”

She could feel his heart pounding against her, his cock
hardening even more against her belly.

Her heart rate tripled as she met his gaze with beseeching
eyes. “It can. Don’t give up. The right woman, one you all can love, is out
there.”

“And what if that woman couldn’t possibly love me? What if
I’m the one who fucks everything up?”

“You won’t. Just believe and give her a chance.” She wanted
to be that woman so badly. Her whole body was softening for him.

Riley said nothing for what seemed like an eternity. He just
stared into her face, as if trying to read her heart and mind. The tension drew
tight, thick. Her belly coiled up. Excitement throbbed inside her body. “Will
she give me a chance?”

“If she’s smart, she will.”
Kinley
forced herself to close her eyes. He didn’t mean her, and she needed to
extricate herself from his embrace and step away or she was going to make a
fool of herself.

He swallowed thickly. “Give me a chance,
Kinley
.”

His mouth descended toward hers.

* * * *

Time seemed to stop just for a moment as Riley covered
Kinley’s
lips with his and kissed her for the first time.
It would probably end badly. He’d avoided the pull between them for as long as
he could, but now he felt utterly helpless. He’d completely lost his resistance
the moment she’d wrapped her arms around him and called him Sir.

She couldn’t possibly know what that did to him, the place
that sent him to. Dominic might have introduced Law to that world first, but
Riley had come to crave it. As a kid, everything had happened
to
him. He’d had no say for so much of
his life that being in control now was paramount. He could cede some decisions
to his brother and Dominic, but he needed to feel like he was in charge of his
own destiny.

And he hadn’t liked the truths
Kinley
had pointed out.

Need raged inside him. He had to take charge of it. Of her.
Conquer this desire so it didn’t control him for another second.

Riley crushed his mouth against hers, his cock twitching the
minute she softened underneath him, accepting him.

He’d been awake all fucking night, studying her. He’d read
articles about her, watched the newscasts about her kidnapping, stared at
pictures of her—anything to get his mind off the fact that she was in a bedroom
with his brothers, making love.

When she’d walked in, he’d used all his restraint to keep
himself from hauling her into his arms and taking his fair share. He’d tried to
anger her, scare her away, but she’d seen right through the smoke screen,
through to the core of him. Instead, she’d given him compassion.

How the fuck was he supposed to resist that?

He cupped her lush breasts. Damn, he loved these. She tried
to hide them away in punishing bras held up by metal wires. Even so, they were
achingly soft and weighty in his palms. Though she wore a cotton T-shirt, he
couldn’t escape how warm and luscious she felt through the fabric, how her
feminine curves moved against him.

Riley delved beneath her shirt, desperate to get his hands
on bare flesh. Now that she was in his arms, he couldn’t make himself stop.

He found her breasts, palming them in turn as he crowded her
against the kitchen table, plunging his tongue deep inside her mouth. Her
nipples were hard little pebbles against his hands and her skin so damn soft
that he groaned.

Kinley
wasn’t turning him away. In
fact, she clutched him, filtering her fingers through his damp hair like she
still wanted him. Like he still had a chance. Right now, he didn’t even want to
question whether he wanted that chance. It didn’t matter. He just wanted
her
.

He skimmed his hands around her to find the cheeks of her
perfect, round ass and dragged her up against his cock. He rocked against her,
loving the way she gasped into his mouth. His whole body pounded with arousal.
He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d wanted a woman this way. But
Kinley
eclipsed everyone else in his memory. With Simone,
there had been a desire for sex, a hope for something lasting—nothing more.
With
Kinley
, he felt a pulsing lust he couldn’t deny.
And a pang in his chest he couldn’t ignore. Riley didn’t even bother trying.

“Get ready, sweetheart. I’m going to lay you out on the
kitchen table and fuck you. If it breaks under both of us, I’ll just fuck you
on the floor.”

Kinley
pulled back, her lips
swollen from his kisses, her chest heaving. “I can’t.”

He felt as if the floor dropped out from under him. She couldn’t?
Yeah. Not with him at least. What the hell had he been thinking?

Riley jerked out of her arms. The damn teapot started to
whistle. She’d come here for a sandwich, not to be fucked again. He’d totally
misinterpreted the situation and made a complete idiot of himself.

He forced himself not to look her way, to concentrate on the
task at hand. As quickly as he could, he’d get her something to eat, then
retreat to his own room, masturbate, and wonder if he would ever be able to
look her in the eyes again.

After pouring her tea into her mug, Riley ignored the cup
she’d prepped for him. He didn’t need fucking tea. He needed a metric shit ton
of Scotch.

Drawing in a shuddering breath, he steadied himself and
turned. “Your tea is…”

Kinley
knelt on the floor before
him, minus the shirt she’d been wearing. Her creamy skin was on full display.
In the low light of the kitchen, she practically glowed, a pearl that shone in
the night. Her honey hair flowed around her shoulders, and her eyes were steady
on him. “I don’t want the tea. I want you, but I’m too sore for sex on the
table. Your brothers really did a number on my,
uhm
…”

“Pussy?” The word slipped out without thought. In fact, all
he could think of was her, naked, luminous, and presenting herself to him.

“Yes.” She blushed. “I need a day or so before I take you
there.” She glanced at his fly, then licked her lips nervously. “I’ve never
done this, but I want you to be my first.”

Riley damn near dropped her cup. He had to steady his hands
and put it down. Was she saying what he hoped? He didn’t want to assume and
make an ass out of himself again. Time to be smooth, romantic. “Are you talking
about a blow job?”