What She's Looking For (16 page)

She knew she should’ve been
disturbed at such imagery.

“She’s even better than you led on,
Parker,” Drake’s deep voice murmured. “Holding out on me, asshole.” His dark
eyes evaluated her, roving up and down her exposed flesh.

Parker shrugged, leaning against
the doorjamb, perfectly at ease. “Hey, you should be glad I said anything. I
wanted to keep her all to myself.”

“What a crime that would be.”
Drake’s eyes met hers, and she saw warmth in them, kindness even. Then as a
cloud passes across the sun, they darkened, his full lips flattening to a thin
line. “He gave you an order, Ashley. You should listen to your Sir.”

Her eyes flashed to Parker. “You
told him that? What the fu—”

In two steps, Parker loomed over
her, his hand clenching her chin firmly, a thumb tapping a warning against her
lips. “If you say it, I’m going to spank you. Right here, right now — Drake or
no Drake.”

She shook his finger away. “Since
when did I tell you it was okay for Drake to know what goes on between you and me?
Jesus Christ, Parker. I trusted you.”

His jaw clenched, a crystalline
mote of light caught in his eye. “Last warning, Ashley. I meant it when I said
you needed to be sure this is what you wanted. When you came back after Friday,
you chose this.”

Drake stepped closer. “Just listen
to him, Ashley. You’ll be fine. I won’t touch you, not yet. But I
will
look at you. Nothing you can do about that now.”

Tearing her gaze away from the
dark, compelling handsomeness of Drake’s face, Ashley turned her face up to
Parker. “I didn’t choose
this.
”

Incredibly, he smiled at her. “Of
course you didn’t, silly girl. When you came back after Friday all choice was
taken away from you. That’s what this is all about. Are you going to stand here
and tell me you’re confused about that?”

Shit.

“Parker, that’s not what I meant—”

His finger pressed to her lips,
silencing her. “Stop talking now. I don’t want to hear it.”

Drake moved to stand next to
Parker, crowding her back against the glass, hemming her in with a veritable
wall of virile men. She wanted to whimper even as she felt giddy at it. Hadn’t
this been what she’d dreamt of? Hadn’t this been the last, fast-fading thought
on her mind as lucidity chased away the fevered dream, her hand under her
panties, fingers buried in her cunt? How often had she cried out in bed, the
shadows of the night pale compared to the darkness of her fantasies?

“Ashley, Parker gave you an order.”
The timbre of Drake’s voice was so low it rattled in her chest. “Time to start
listening — and obeying.”

She swallowed, feeling sure her
hair might actually burst into flames, and dropped her hands to her sides.

Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.

“Jesus Christ, Park.” Drake’s dark
eyes scanned Ashley’s revealed nudity. Her heart hammered so hard in her chest,
she thought it might shake her apart. She looked down, unable to bear looking
at those two pairs of eyes boring into her, evaluating her, judging her attributes.
Like livestock at an auction. Of course, her pussy, with a mind of its own
seemed to have no problem whatsoever with the turn of events, the surge of
moisture between the lips of her sex so strong, she feared it would actually
start dripping from between her thighs.

Then it got worse.

“Put your arms up, girl,” Parker
growled. “I told you to reach up and grab the top. I won’t tell you again.”

Swallowing, Ashley did as
instructed, clasping the glass at the top of the shower wall with trembling
hands. She felt the way the position lifted her breasts, her mortification at
the feeling of helpless exposure acute. She knew she was safe here, but with
Drake here too … it almost felt like it was just too much.

Almost.

“She hides them from everyone, from
us.” Drake edged a half step closer, Ashley’s supercharged senses feeling the
very air pressure in the room change. “It’s those suits and coats she wears.”

“She won’t anymore, I guarantee you
that.” Parker’s knuckles touched under her chin, raising her face to them. “Is
that what you’ve been doing, Ashley? Hiding?”

She tried to look over their broad
shoulders, the combined intensity of their gazes overwhelming.

“Stop that. Look at me when I’m
speaking to you.” Parker tapped her cheek lightly with his hand, snapping her
eyes to him. Part of her flared at the childishness of it, smacking her as if
she were a recalcitrant little girl. Another part of her pictured him smacking
her much harder, telling her to open wider, the broad head of his cock tapping
impatiently at her swollen lips.

Get it together, slut. Who are
you?

Did she even know the answer to
that question anymore? Who would have thought she’d find herself here, like
this, exposing herself, exposing her
heart
, to these men? One of which
whom, for all practical purposes, was a mere acquaintance.

Wrong, you idiot. You’ve thought
of him as a lot more than an acquaintance since just about the first second you
laid eyes on him.

“Answer him, Ashley.” She shivered
at the lowering of Drake’s already deep voice. She imagined that voice could
probably command a woman to do just about anything. Anything he wanted.

“I don’t hide anything. It’s what I
have to wear.”

“Bullshit.” Parker’s big hand
smoothed over her cheek, the tips of his fingers pushing back a strand of hair
that had clung to her jaw line. “Try again. This time, tell us the truth.
There’s no lying here, Ashley. We’re going to learn everything there is to know
about you. Even things you didn’t know about yourself.”

She dared a glance up into those
gray fathomless eyes, the absence of kindness she found there strangely
comforting. She needed that implacability in her life, someone who wouldn’t put
up with her shit, her evasiveness. Someone who would hold her to account, force
her to own up to deception — even her self-deception. Those eyes wanted only
one thing.

Surrender.

“I — I don’t know, Parker. Sir.”
She gulped, the lump in her throat almost painful. “I’ve always been …
embarrassed.”

Why in God’s name was she telling
them this? She didn’t have to; she could just do what she’d always done.
Protection mode. Go along to get along, Ashley. Always afraid of showing who
she really was. Fearing any revealing of real weakness, true vulnerability.

Hiding.

“What are you embarrassed about?”
Parker’s gaze softened, and his hand cupped her breast. “These?”

Ashley nodded, dropping her head
again. She knew there was no point in running anymore. What worse could they do
to her than she’d already suffered with Terry? Maybe even something good might
come out of this fix she’d backed herself into.

This isn’t a ‘fix’, Ash. This is
what you’ve wanted. All along.

“Can you believe that, Drake?”
Parker’s voice held a note of incredulity that both made her blush even more,
and had her inwardly soaring. “Embarrassed by tits like these?”

Ashley sighed as he squeezed her
breast firmly, not enough to hurt, but more than enough to send a surge of
electricity straight to her clit.

“Look at me.” Drake’s voice snapped
her head up, and she met those dark eyes, the neutral expression of that handsome
face giving nothing away. “You’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever
seen, Ashley. Women pay thousands of dollars, go through hours of torment to
get the kind of beauty you’re blessed with.”

“I’m … not that great. Really.”

The surreal nature of this
conversation was not lost on Ashley. This felt like almost an out of body
experience. It had to be some other girl, plastered up against the glass, a
tall, alluringly threatening man squeezing her breast as if it were produce at
a market. Debating the quality of her physical attributes with another dark,
hulk of a man. Life was truly stranger than fiction.

“I want you to stop that.”

Ashley met Drake’s gaze again. “Stop
what?”

“Putting yourself down,” Parker
said. “We don’t like it.”

“Now I can’t tell you the truth
about how I feel about my body? What am I, some kind of puppet for you guys?
Tell you whatever the fu—”

The slap rang through the bathroom
like a pistol shot, the heat from it radiating out across her cheek. It wasn’t
a hard blow, but it was unmistakably a slap.

“You will
not
curse anymore
around me,” Parker said. He glanced at Drake, who nodded almost imperceptibly. “Around
either of us.”

She dropped her arms and pushed at
Parker’s hand, smacking it away from her face. “Don’t tell me what I can say
about
myself.
You don’t control that.”

Ashley tried to process what had
just happened. Was she angry because he’d slapped her face? She knew she should
be, that she should march out of that fucking place and never look back.

But she knew she was kidding
herself again. Her aching nipples, the boiling heat of her pussy, told the
tale. Part of her, that deep seated core that needed to be overcome, conquered
responded the way her body had. That part of her
needed
this. Needed to
struggle, to fight … and to lose.

Dear God, you’re hopeless,
Ashley. You really are.

Parker’s hand caught her wrist,
squeezing it just past the point of pain. “If you really believe I — we — don’t
control what you say, then obviously I haven’t been getting my point across
successfully.”

“Oh, you got it across alright.”
She brushed the heat of her face with her free hand. “Across my cheek. Loud and
clear.”

His eyes dropped pointedly to her
chest, then lower, before meeting hers again. “Your body isn’t getting with the
program here, girl. Care to tell us what you really mean?”

Parker’s eyes flashed at her, the
challenge in them plain.

“Who do you think you are?
Slapping
me?”

Stop this, Ashley. Just stop!

She had to. Just had to. They
couldn’t think they could just do whatever they wanted to her. Ashley wondered
though, deep down, if maybe that’s all she’d ever wanted, all she’d ever
needed. No choice in the matter.

Surrender.

“Who do I think I
am
?”
Parker’s brow lifted, his lips hinting at a smile. “I’m the one who won’t let
you hide anymore. The one who’ll make you accept who you really are.” His hand
touched her cheek, a caress of the tingling skin. “And the man who’ll take you
where you need to go.”

“That’s not what I want, Parker.”

He stepped close to her, his warm
breath against her ear. “But it’s what you’re looking for.”

Parker’s soft lips brushed her ear,
then he stepped back once more, hands on his hips. Ashley looked up into his
eyes, the gray depths bright with anticipation. What the fuck
was
she
looking for? She knew what she was fleeing from, but did she have any idea what
she was fleeing toward?

A hand cupped one of her breasts,
taking its weight, making her catch her breath. “Now, I want you to step into
that shower, Ashley. You’re going to reach up and slip your hands through those
cuffs.” He squeezed her breast, heat flashing down to her sex. “Then you’re
going to let me lock them.”

Stop being so weak. If he wants
it, make him fight for it.

Did she even know what
it
was?

“And if I don’t, Parker? What if I
just decide to walk out that door?” She flashed her defiance to Drake. “Neither
of you will stop me.”

Drake leaned a massive shoulder
against the wall, shaking his head. “Don’t try it, Ashley.”

“Why?” She practically yelled it
now. “Not used to a woman fighting back? Used to doormats?”

She felt the absurdity of her
position, displayed for both set of eyes that, even now, still roamed over her
body, appreciatively, possessively. But her instinct for rolling over, for enduring
to survive — it was done.

No more.

If Parker wanted her surrender, he
was damn sure going to earn it.

Parker glanced at Drake, something
passing between them, then looked back at her. The hard, pitiless gaze sent a
chill down her spine, even as it made her hard nipples ache. “Unless you give
the word, you aren’t leaving this fucking room unless we allow it. If you don’t
do as you’re told I — we — will do it for you. Either way, you’re going to be
bound to that harness. The choice as to
how
, remains with you. For now.”

Her arms moved much slower than
she’d hoped, but she did manage to surprise Parker, slipping by him in an
instant, her mind shutting down higher thought, running on instinct only now.

Get out. Hide.

Then she hit Drake’s chest so hard
her head bounced off of it, dazing her for a moment.

It was more time than they needed.

Steel-hard fingers closed around
her arms, lifting her off the ground as if she weighed nothing, Drake’s big arm
wrapping up her kicking thighs. There was a deep male curse as one of her
flailing feet made contact with a shin, sending bright pain up her leg at the
clash of bone on bone.

“Let me
go
, goddammit!” She
craned her head down at Drake. “What happened to not touching me?”

“You ran into me,” he muttered, his
expression as hard and impassive as a mountainside.

“Grab her feet, Drake. She’s liable
to kick one of us in the nuts.” Parker’s half smile, challenging, just angered
her more, but there was no way she was going to say it. She wouldn’t give them
the satisfaction.

Still kidding yourself, Ash.

The cold rubber of the cuffs shocked
her, feeling like ice against her heated skin. Drake held her legs together
while Parker clapped her ankles in heavy leather cuffs, a tiny chain linking
them close together. Drake rose, his deep chuckle making her want to slap him
even as the timbre of his voice made her clit vibrate like a tuning fork.