“You will— You will treat me like a lady!” I add, trying to keep the indignation in my tone and wishing I didn’t sound so much like Scarlett O’Hara on the verge of a swoon.
My stomach dips again when I see the angry red mark growing on his cheek. I’ve never hit anyone before. Even frightened, I’m better than this. I’m certainly smarter than this. Guilt makes maintaining my anger difficult.
I’m about to apologize when his eyes trail over me obnoxiously, lingering on my breasts. I don’t have to look down to know my nipples are tight and hard against the thin silk.
Traitors.
The urge to apologize dies, and I lift my chin.
Jaykob meets my eyes and sneers. “Lady, is it?”
The scorn in his face makes me cringe, though there’s a flash of something small and bitter in his downturned mouth that makes me wonder. Why should he be upset?
Then he rubs a hand over his reddened, stubbled cheek and the look is gone.
He looks at Dom. “Got a type, don’t you? Just so it’s on the record, hypocritical bitch ain’t mine.”
Beau’s brows lower in a menacing look that would make Dom proud, but Jaykob pulls his arm free of Beau’s grip and moves toward the door. Just before he leaves, he turns. “If she’s staying, she’ll do her part for all of us. Or she’s out.”
The door slams behind him.
Chapter 7
Eden
SURVIVAL TIP #238
You won’t actually pass out from embarrassment.
It’s not a good defense mechanism.
I tremble, looking at my feet. Their gazes sear me, and I swallow, trying not to let my panic grow. I cannot, will not, have sex with that man. A dark stain on my new shirt catches my eye, and I examine it. Not paint, I realize. Grease. His shirt had engine grease on it.
A hand grasps mine, gently twining our fingers. Lucky tugs me toward him into a loose hug. My head barely tops his shoulders. He rests his chin on the top of my head, and his chest rumbles with a nervous laugh. “You know, that went better than I thought it would.”
Just like that, the wary tension in the room eases.
Jasper gives a wry laugh. “Would you like a drink, Eden?”
Dom sits back down across the room, flipping open his book—somehow managing to do all that without once looking my way, as though he hadn’t just been holding me up.
Beau slumps on the couch, right by where Lucky and I are standing.
“Better than you thought it would? What did you think was going to happen?” he asks incredulously. “Another whiskey, Jaz?
Make it a double.”
“I want a double monkey master mix! Get us two!” Lucky calls to Jasper.
The light catches on Jasper as he looks down on us from the raised bar, making a halo of his dark hair and turning the angles of his elegant face wicked.
To my surprise, Lucky stills entirely under the stare—it’s the first time he’s stopped moving since I met him, I’m sure of it. I twist to take in his expression, but he blinks and then shoots me a grin, as though he hadn’t just drawn taut as a bowstring.
With an easier smile, Lucky waves off Beau’s question and addresses me, “Aw, Jayky’s okay, he just gets nervous around pretty girls. Trust me, he’s more scared of you than you are of him. Deep down he’s a real sweetie.”
“He pawed at her,” Jasper cuts in smoothly. “It’s inexcusable.”
Lucky sucks in his lower lip, considering that. “Deep, deep down.”
Jasper gives him a disparaging look, but I think I detect a hint of humor in the too-determined press of his lips. He pours the whiskey and his own glass of red wine with exacting precision. “I don’t know how to make your ridiculous drink, Lucien. You need to make it yourself.”
Lucky huffs and releases me.
“You’ll see that I do all the important jobs around here.” That earns a reluctant smile from me, and Lucky joins Jasper up at the bar. “And he was always going to paw at her; he’s an animal. It’s all those primal instincts—pheromones, you know.”
I shift. “Would he have . . . ?”
“No,” Dominic says, finally looking up from his book. “Jaykob might be rough, but he wouldn’t hurt a woman without a damn good reason. We wouldn’t keep him around otherwise. He wouldn’t have touched you if we hadn’t already told him you’d agreed to this. But he is rough. He likes it that way. He is that way.” He grimaces. “If I had to guess, that was a test.”
I cross my arms, realizing with relief that the movement covers my breasts. The silk shirt truly hides almost nothing. “A test I failed, I take it?”
He gives me a blank look. “Did he hurt you?” When I stay silent, he shrugs, turning back to his book. “Not really that different to what Beau did at the lake then, is it?”
Beau scowls at his friend, and my back stiffens.
“That was not even close to the same thing,” I mutter.
When Dominic looks up again, I try not to squirm. He reminds me of a medieval king. There is something so forbidding, so rough with power about him, that I feel the urge to kneel and ask for mercy whenever he directs the full weight of his attention to me. His presence is a physical thing.
He studies my face. I know Beau is looking at me too, but I can’t bring myself to meet his eyes. I’ve been in the wild long enough to know to keep my eyes on the biggest predator in the room, especially when he seems about to pounce.
Dominic’s lips purse in a considering way and he shuts the book with unnerving finality. “You liked the way Beau touched you?”
His golden gaze traps mine and won’t let go. Mortification spreads through me.
“Answer me, little librarian. This is just the beginning of the inquisition.”
An inquisition. Oh, yes. I could just imagine him now, giving direction from his throne. Demanding cuffs and chains and exquisitely painful torture devices. Watching with those heavy-lidded eyes as his inquisitor spreads me open, bare and naked for the king. The two of them working me over until I scream and expose my every secret. Expose every part of myself and . . .
and . . .
My breaths start coming in shallow pants I try to hide but know he doesn’t miss.
Lucky gives a low laugh from the bar. Jasper makes his way back down and hands off a whiskey each to Beau and Dominic, then takes a seat beside the king.
Jasper would make a good inquisitor, I think before I can control my ridiculous fantasy.
Dominic is still waiting on a response, but embarrassment makes me snarky. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
A golden-tanned hand catches the bottom of my silk shirt and tugs. After a moment of hesitation, I let Beau pull me down.
At the last moment, he directs me to his lap, rather than the seat beside him, and I shoot him an indignant look. He smiles lazily and picks his drink back up from the side table. His other hand remains wrapped around the hem of the shirt, his fingers stroking absently over my inner thigh. I become very, very conscious that I’m wearing nothing under the dress shirt.
Lucky comes down from the bar, two large, bright orange cocktails in his hands.
“C’mon, Dom, you saw it. She practically mounted him on the bank.” He offers me one of the frothy concoctions. When I hesitate, eyeing the obnoxious color dubiously, he says, “You should take it, sweetheart. The boss man will want to cover the bases, and I’m thinking you might need some good ol’-fashioned liquid courage. Double monkey master mix’ll sort you out.”