Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 113272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Wait.
What?
“I can’t . . . you can’t do that in here!” she protested.
“Why not?” Eli asked. “Get it over and done with and then you won’t worry about it any longer. The punishment will be over and you’ll remember to obey your men. And not to lie.”
“Unless you’re not feeling up to it,” Kellan said.
She groaned. Damn her newfound vow to tell the truth.
“I’m up to it,” she told them. “I just didn’t think you’d do it while I was nearly naked and wet in the shower.”
“Hmm, wet, huh? I’d like to see that. Or feel it. Taste it.”
A shiver ran through her. “Taste it?”
“Oh yeah,” Eli whispered in her ear as he turned her toward the wall. He brushed the hair back away from her ear to lick behind it then he kissed down her neck to her collarbone as Kellan leaned against the other wall, watching them.
Eli grasped hold of the hand closest to him and placed it up against the wall. Kellan did the same with her other hand, then he surprised her by running his hand along her arm and down her side to place it on her hip.
“So fucking beautiful,” he whispered.
Turning her head, she stared at Kellan. “You’re the beautiful one. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone as gorgeous.” Then she turned her head to look at Eli. “Or as sexy.”
They were incredible and she was just . . . her. What did she even have to offer them? What if they left her? What if they got hurt doing their job?
“Hey, did we lose you?” Eli asked, cupping her chin. “Scared?”
“Just of losing you.”
He leaned in and kissed her. “Not going to happen. We aren’t going to leave you.”
“But what about your job? How dangerous is it?”
Kellan grasped the back of her neck and she turned to look at him.
“We are good at what we do and we’re not easy to kill. The truth is that for most of my life, I haven’t actually cared if I lived or died.”
Oh God.
That admission struck her hard. It hurt her deep inside. He hadn’t cared if he lived or died?
She heard Eli suck in a breath and wondered if he’d known this about his own brother. The two of them were so close that surely he must have.
But perhaps Kellan had never told him that?
Perhaps he hadn’t realized how dire his thoughts were.
“Kellan, no,” she said, turning to him.
He moved his hand through her hair, twisting it and tugging lightly. She gasped.
Why was that a turn on?
And how was it so easy to be here like this with them? Naked and yet not scared.
For so long she’d been so scared of her sexuality that she’d convinced herself she didn’t get aroused.
That way she’d never have to make herself vulnerable and sleep with another man.
Now, she was feeling so much that it was almost overwhelming.
“We’re pushing too far and fast,” Eli said. “Even with the punishment, aren’t we? Fuck. Kellan, let’s get out and let Arabella finish showering.” They tried to leave but she grabbed hold of them both, stilling them.
“Don’t leave.”
Eli was torn.
He hated the look of panic on her face before. They wanted to touch her, to taste her, take her. But they couldn’t move so fast that she was scared.
It was completely understandable that she’d need to move slowly. Spreading those photos of her naked body must have been traumatizing.
Yeah, the guy that did that better be living a miserable fucking life.
Because if there was anything they could do to make it worse, they would.
However, was she telling them to stay because she wanted to?
Or because she thought she had to?
“Listen to me, we’re not upset that we need to take things slow. We get it. If anyone is in the wrong here, it’s us for pushing too fast too soon. We’re going to back off but it’s not because we don’t want you. It’s because we want to do what’s best for you.”
“And what about the two of you?” She turned so she was looking up at them both. She glanced over Kellan’s near-naked body to Eli’s fully-clothed one. “What about what’s best for you both?”
“What’s best for us is whatever makes you happy,” Kellan told her gruffly.
Damn.
He hadn’t realized his brother could be so good at this.
But Arabella seemed to relax even further at Kellan’s reassurances.
“Then I want you to . . . to spank me. I don’t want to think about it anymore. I want to know what it’s like. And then I want to wash the conditioner out of my hair.”
Eli nuzzled her cheek. “You’re sure, baby?”
“I’m sure. And I don’t want you to be scared to . . . to touch me or to tell me how you want to touch me. I think I need to hear that. To experience it. I’ve never really felt desired before. And the more you make it clear that you want me, the more secure I think I feel.”