Paige gasped. Did Jeff admit, in front of his friends, he wanted her? Was his declaration a confession of lust or something else? And why did she care? He’d pursued her without any regard for what she wanted, what she desired.
The truth hung in the balance anyway. She longed for him, and she’d sent mixed signals. She was dying to get wild with him but much too frightened to let herself go. This was what living with Ramone Carpasia had done to her.
“You promised you wouldn’t hurt her!” Connor said, throwing his punch.
Jeff let him take one. He held his jaw and moaned, “I deserved that.”
“If Adam comes up here, this will be bad,” Miles bit out. “Fucking separate, now! We don’t have time for this shit! Pull yourselves together!”
Adam must’ve been the magic word. When Miles threw out his name, Connor stormed to one corner of the living room and Jeff grabbed his pants and, with a haughty attitude, stuffed his legs in them and zipped up but didn’t bother with the top snap.
Miles glared at Jeff. “What were you thinking?”
“Don’t ask me,” Jeff replied. “Ask her.”
Miles swung his gaze in her direction.
“He pushed himself on me.” That wasn’t true.
Jeff looked devastated. What was she thinking? Why had she said that?
“The hell he did,” Miles said. “We watched the first kiss from the riverbank. You rubbed yourself all over him.”
Jeff smirked, the cocky demeanor replacing the hurt she’d first witnessed. “She wanted every inch of it.”
“She must’ve changed her mind,” Connor barked. “A woman has the right to do that at any time, and a fucking man should stand down when she does!”
Jeff studied her intently. “Wanna tell them what happened?”
Paige glared at him. The look in his eyes told her he understood more about her than he’d ever said. Jeff Jacobsen knew her secrets. Had he been so aggressive with her to prove that, or did he genuinely desire her?
“I asked you a question, Paige.”
She slumped to a large chair upholstered in a busy paisley design. Connor rubbed the back of his hand over his lips. He’d been so angry when they burst into the room that he’d nearly foamed at the mouth.
“Do you want a glass of water?” Miles asked.
She shook her head.
“Talk,” Jeff said. “Or I will.”
“I don’t give a damn what you do!”
“Yes, you do,” Jeff said smugly.
“We really don’t have time to examine feelings here,” Miles pointed out, obviously standing in for Adam. Where was Adam when she needed him? He’d promised to keep Jeff in line. How did he plan to do that, exactly?
“Fine,” Jeff said, pacing. “I’ll tell your story.”
“Paige, or should I say Mrs. Ramone Carpasia, has only been with one man. And the experience wasn’t always pleasant, was it, Paige?” He stopped in front of her chair and looked at her with pity. Not compassion, but pure pity! Or was it? Confused, she didn’t know what to believe anymore.
She was suffocating, feeling trapped, like she’d been sentenced to the same doom she often faced when Ramone locked them away in his large master suite in order to have his way and humiliate her. No one heard her screams. If they did, they ignored them, refusing to help her.
She wanted to run, but there wasn’t any point in trying. They’d follow her. Jeff would catch her. Men were pigs, weren’t they? They took what they wanted, and when they finished, they disposed of women like they were nothing more than pure garbage.
She kept her eyes downcast and watched the back and forth movement of Jeff’s feet as he paced in front of her. “Ramone locked her in his room, had his way with her, did what he wanted, and then sent her away for weeks at a time. When he decided to abuse her again, his men tossed her in his bed and Ramone repeated the process. That’s right, isn’t it, Paige?”
“How dare you,” she choked out. Tears threatened to spill. They pooled in the corners of her eyes, but she defied crying, fought against showing the emotions she wanted no one in that room to see. Connor stirred beside her.
She closed her eyes and covered her face. Seconds later, Connor stood beside her. He pulled her hands away from her cheeks. “Is this true?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Why didn’t you tell someone?” Miles asked.
She wiped her face on her sleeve, continuing to convince herself that she wasn’t crying regardless of how damp her cheeks became. She stared at Connor. Concern lingered in his gaze. Did he actually care for her? And if so, how did she make a choice between men?
Her gaze traveled from one fellow to the next, including Miles in the mix, too, and wondering why she found him more appealing than before. He was ruggedly handsome, tanned a golden brown, and his thick dark brows gathered, studying her with new interest. Did she appeal to him, as well?
“Paige,” Jeff began. “I wasn’t going to hurt you.”
“The hell you weren’t,” Connor snapped. “She told you to stop! She felt threatened.”
“I wasn’t,” Jeff assured them. “I wanted her to talk to me, to open up and tell me why she feared being here with me.” After a pause, he said, “Paige, I’ll never hurt you. Search your heart. Feel what I’ve put there. Respond to that. Don’t think about Ramone or what he’s done to you. Think about me. Think about us.”
“Don’t pretend to care for her,” Connor bit out. “Didn’t you hear him, Paige? He told you he’d walk away. I won’t leave you.”
A light came on in Jeff’s eyes, and he said, “She doesn’t have to choose.”
Paige’s heart raced. She observed the sudden change in expressions, translating the transformation as group lust.
“I understand you,” Jeff said. “We don’t have to talk about your time with Carpasia, but at some point, you’re going to have to step away from your past. You can’t live forward if you’re always moving back.”
His confession should’ve made her feel better. Instead, she was angry. He’d prowled around in her life and found out intimate secrets she didn’t want anyone to know. Who did he think he was? What right did he have?
She pushed Jeff out of her way. “Don’t you pretend to know everything about me! You bastard! You snooped for information. Then, you share it like I’m some kind of experiment everyone needs to research in order to understand completely. What gives you that right?”
Jeff looked shocked. He didn’t retaliate, though, something she’d actually expected.
“I’ve played by your rules,” she ranted, waving her hand and pointing her finger at them. “I’ve allowed each of you to come into my life and tell me what to do.”
“We paid a hefty price to earn that right,” Miles reminded her.
She laughed. “And you think I need your money?”
“She probably doesn’t,” Jeff informed them, implying he’d prowled into her finances, too.
“No! I don’t! And I don’t need this. You came in here and messed up my life! I was finally making it on my own. I had everything I needed, and then you, all of you, came in here and made me…”
“Made you what, Paige?” Miles said when she stalled.
“You’ve made me a moving target all over again!” She rushed into the bedroom, retrieved what she’d left on the nightstand earlier, and then stormed back into the living room. “And I won’t stand for it! Do you hear me! I will not stand by and let you destroy me! I’m not going back to him. I’ll die first! Do you hear me! I’ll die first!”
She opened the palm of her hand and showcased the grenade. “In fact, we’ll all die together—you, me, and that bastard you want me to bait. We’ll all go out of this corrupt world together. What do you say we do it now?”
Chapter Twelve
When chaos erupted, it was hard to determine who moved first. Jeff wasn’t sure who did what, or when. But when the commotion had ended, Connor held Paige against the bed. Jeff had the grenade in his
hand, and Miles was screaming into the phone, something about Paige being a crazy bitch.
Jeff agreed, to a certain extent. Paige Lambert was crazy. The bitch part was still out for debate.
Paige had lived under extreme circumstances, and Jeff was probably more forgiving than the others in that he considered her emotional rollercoaster similar to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. She couldn’t be sane or stable, but that didn’t matter. Jeff couldn’t look at her and see anything more than a woman he desperately wanted to love, and that alone had become a minute-by-minute challenge.
Even though they endured quite a struggle, Paige wasn’t huffing and puffing, a show of overexertion never emerged. Damn, she was in great shape.
“Are you done now?” Connor asked her, hovering over her chest and holding her wrists against the bed.
“Let me go,” she demanded, wiggling underneath him.
“Not a chance.”
Miles peered outside the room, eyeing the inviting lawn. “Y’all could’ve been enjoying tea for two or something.”
“Would’ve been better than catching grenades and rolling around on the floor,” Jeff said.
“I don’t know,” Connor said lightly. “I think that’s exactly what she needs, if you ask me.”
Miles arched a brow. “Did you miss the part where Jeff said she has a problem with intimacy?”
“I get you now, Paige,” Connor said, ignoring Miles and releasing her arms, but still pinning her to the bed with the weight of his body. “You don’t want to be alone with one man because of what Ramone did to you. He abused you, took away your ability to trust. That’s what this is about. I don’t doubt what Jeff said is true. Ramone hurt you in ways one man may never be able to heal.”
Jeff studied Connor intently. Where was he going with this?
“I said, let me up!” she screamed but her body looked completely relaxed under Connor’s weight.
“No, you’re talking to us, like it or not. You’re gonna open up because that’s the only way any of us will survive this mission. We have to trust one another. Jeff may be a hard-ass, but even he needs to be assured he can trust you.”
Her gaze caught Jeff’s, and Jeff practically saw the reels turning. She didn’t trust him, but she wanted him to have faith in her. He could play that way as long as she didn’t turn on him again.
“What do you want from me?” she bellowed.
“You know the answer to that,” Connor told her, making no bones about expectations when he pressed against her. “Question is, what do you want from us?”
She locked eyes with Jeff, swung her gaze over to Miles, and then looked Connor eyeball to eyeball. Her face softened, and her moist lips parted. What was she thinking? Jeff would love to play around inside her head.
“I’m scared,” she finally admitted. “That’s shocking, huh?” she went on. “Me, right? The one with the guns and grenades is afraid of…” Her voice trailed, and once again, she made eye contact with Jeff.
God almighty, Jeff saw the future acts unfold right in front of him. “Paige, we won’t hurt you.”
“Maybe you will. Maybe you won’t,” she said, raising her arms behind her head, signifying, perhaps, her willingness to submit, or at least her decision to call a truce. “But I won’t know for sure until I try, right?”
Connor grinned, tilting his head toward the curtains. “No, you’ll never know until you give us a chance.”
Jeff’s head was spinning. The us-factor teetered along the lines of being a deal-breaker, but what the hell? If Connor could convince her to go with it, who was he to argue?
Connor kissed her, and the jealousy hit Jeff squarely between the eyes. Connor licked at her lips, whispering something Jeff couldn’t make out. Seconds later, Connor rolled to his side, flattened his palm against her stomach and gave her one hell of a smooch, the kind Jeff had earlier enjoyed.
When she responded to Connor like she’d reacted to him, Jeff motioned Miles, too. “Get those damn drapes.”
“Not a problem,” Miles said, closing the curtains and reaching for the bedside lamp.
“Don’t talk,” she muttered against Connor’s lips. “Don’t any of you say a word, because if you do, I swear I may change my mind.”
* * * *
“What the hell is going on in there?” Callan asked when he joined Adam in Paige’s living room. Thanks to the bugs and cameras they’d planted in the Presidential Suite, they captured everything on three separate monitors.
“I’ll be damned,” Adam ground out, unable to provide Callan with any other reply. He could watch for himself. And drool.
“Fuck!” Callan said, taking a seat. “Are they doing what I think they’re doing?”
“No,” Adam remarked with a great deal of sarcasm. “They’re playing strip poker. You missed the card game. They all lost.”
“What happened while I was making sandwiches? I left the room and Connor was playing hero. I come back and now he’s no better than the villain?”
“You missed plenty. Jeff revealed something he’d discovered on his own. Apparently, Paige was physically abused by Ramone. She has a fear of being alone with one man.”
Callan leaned closer to the monitors. “Yeah, by the looks of it, she’s scared to death.”
Adam laughed uncomfortably, watching as Connor fingered Paige. “If she’s frightened, she’s getting over it pretty quick, huh?”
“Just our luck, eh?” Callan said, patting him on the back. “Jeff gets her adrenaline pumping, and Connor slides in for the save.”
“He’s sliding somewhere,” Adam pointed out, “but I have a feeling Paige doesn’t need saving.”
“She’s still toying with them?”
“She’s a player, Callan. Some women, just like men, are born with it.”
“If what Jeff said is true, then she’s still a victim. It doesn’t matter what goes on with our buddies, she has a lot to overcome. They shouldn’t be doing this, not now, when her ex is in town. She’s vulnerable.”
“A woman who can move like that between three men is no man’s victim. If anything, she’s developed a defense mechanism to play the part of unsuspecting prey, helping herself to a better position if she’s caught in the line of fire.”
“Meaning?”
“You can see for yourself,” Adam said, nodding toward the screen. “By the time she’s done with them, they’ll kill for her. I’d bet dollars to pennies, they’ll be willing to die for her, too.”
“You’ve been without a woman for far too long. One piece of pussy can’t do all that.”
Adam swiveled around in his chair. “Wars have been fought over women who haven’t bent over for, or knelt in front of, the man taking up arms in her honor. And you think that won’t change a guy? I’ve never seen anything like it, not even in the movies.”
“Yeah,” Callan agreed. “You’re right. Paige could ruin a fellow.”
“I’d fight for her,” Adam said, winking.
“Me, too,” Callan grumbled. “But while you and I are fighting, it looks like our friends will be the only ones shooting off anything substantial.”
* * * *
Paige hadn’t planned this. Would she be able to finish what she’d started? She let herself go, imagining she meant everything to the men working their hands and lips over her. At what point did a foursome make sense? Sure, she’d feared being with one man by herself. With three, she didn’t have a chance of getting hurt, especially with Connor nearby. Or did she?
As a woman, she’d had Connor by the balls from the first time he saw her. In some ways, Miles was just as easy to read. He liked her but didn’t think he had a chance with her. If he hadn’t been in bed with Connor and Jeff, she wasn’t sure she’d find him as appealing as she did at the moment. He wasn’t the kind of man she’d ever trust.
Connor’s hands swept over her. He tweaked her nipples with his thumbs, rubbing the points with enough friction to drive her out of her mind.
Jeff. Where’d he
go? She stretched her neck, trying to find him. He was on his knees at the foot of the bed, holding himself at the base of his cock, toying with his hardness, working fingers over his length rather than using them to work her into a better state of arousal.
Miles knelt beside her. He was naked, too. Had she slipped into a temporary coma while they’d undressed? She felt euphoric, but the angst she’d coveted for years, carried around like a trophy, prevented her from claiming the moment, indulging in the eroticism of the experience.
Relax, she reminded herself. Find pleasure.
Miles held his dick to her lips. “Taste me, honey.”
He wanted head? Miles, the computer geek with the pretty-boy smile and easygoing demeanor wanted her to wrap her mouth around him and give him a blowjob? And what was wrong with her? She couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do.
Her mouth on Miles would drive the other two a little bit crazy. Oh, yes, she mused, swiping at the tip over and over again, Miles should fuck her mouth. It was imperative now.
Her eyes met Jeff’s and then Connor’s. Could they all take her at the same time? Would they?
Connor licked her nipples. “We’re waiting on you to start, Paige.”
She sucked the tip of Miles’s dick. He tasted like salt and lime, a little bitter and a little sweet. She drew him between her cheeks and pulled him close to her throat, twirling her tongue around his size and savoring the texture of straining veins, the way he thrust between her jaws.
Jeff’s hands wrapped around her ankles. “Relax, beautiful.” He spread her, lying between her legs while kissing her knees, her thighs, and, oh God, her mound.
“That’s our sweet woman,” Connor said, taking her full breast into his mouth once more.
Jeff’s tongue went to work. Someone should’ve warned her. Perhaps she should’ve read up on this kind of experience. She’d never received head. She’d given plenty. Ramone had required a lot of blowjobs, but he’d never returned the favor.
Oh! What she’d give to stay spread out like this for hours and hours.
Blaine, Destiny - Breakfast by the Sea (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 13
