Their Virgin Hostage, Masters of Ménage, Book 5 (16 page)

And Riley was an equal, who supposedly appreciated life and
humor and the people he shared them with. Which was why it hurt so much that he
wasn’t interested.

He turned on the TV hanging on the opposite wall and changed
the channel to a twenty-four- hour news network. Greg’s face immediately came
up. He was wearing a perfectly pressed suit as he spoke to the camera. It
didn’t look like he’d missed any sleep.

“Someone took my fiancée. I can only pray they treat her
well. She’s my heart. She’s the better half of me. I’m begging for
Kinley’s
swift return.”

A voice came from the audience. “How do you reply to
Kellan
Kent’s assertion that
Kinley
Kohl is a runaway bride who fled your wedding with her lover?”

She had a lover? Oh, this story was way more interesting
than her actual life.

Greg frowned. “My bride isn’t interested in lovers. This is
pure libel. She’s an innocent.
Kinley
is one of the
world’s most true and pure souls.”

Meaning an idiot who couldn’t get a guy—or see when the one
in front of her was trying to profit from her death.

Greg droned on. “
Kinley
would
never abandon her family without a word. She values her loved ones and knows
that her sister misses her. That her father needs her. I pray she’ll find a way
to survive this because my everything depends on her coming home.”

He stared into the camera, giving her that same look he’d
given her when he’d offered to save her charity. It made her feel dirty and
selfish because she had to choose between throwing caution to the wind for what
she wanted and whoring herself for the people who needed her.

Becks was in the background, her face shining in the
sunlight as she stood behind Greg. She had on her best suit, the one that
showed off the ten grand she’d spent on her boobs. She kept her left side to
the camera because she’d always told
Kinley
that was
her good side. It was so comforting to know her sister was concerned with how
hot she looked on camera.

Kinley
loved her niece and nephew.
She’d never understood how Becks could send them off to boarding school,
especially so young, but it was all there in her sister’s plastic face. The
woman didn’t feel anything. Something was deeply and profoundly wrong with
Becks. She was missing her heart, possessed an empty soul. She didn’t care
about anyone but herself.

Same with her father.

Her mother had been so lovely, but she’d accepted less than
she’d deserved. Would her mother have wanted her to do the same? What did
Kinley
want for herself? What was she willing to accept?
How much was she willing to risk?

A plan started to germinate in her head. Law, Riley, and
Dominic had kidnapped her…

“He sounds sympathetic.” Riley frowned at the screen.

“I’m not going to press charges.”

He turned his head. “What?”

She’d decided that before she made her one escape. When
she’d been wrapped around Law’s body, his arms holding her close, she’d known
she didn’t want freedom. Freedom had kind of sucked because it couldn’t love
you back. “I’m not going to press charges. I’ll go along with what
Kellan
said. You were smart to involve him. He’s
Annabelle’s employer. She cares about him. I’m not going to take him down any
more than I would the three of you, so I’ll go along with his cover story.”

“You’re going to tell the press that you took medication for
your nerves and were sleeping it off while you let Law whisk you away to a
secluded lovers’ retreat?”

Why not? What did she have if she went home besides a life
of taking care of people who would never thank her and always want more? And
that was provided Greg didn’t kill her first. Here was a totally different
tale. Nice accommodations, good food, sure. Law had actually asked her for her
preferences before they’d cooked dinner. Dominic had even asked what kind of
wine she’d like. Before these guys, no one had ever given a damn what she
wanted. And now that she thought about it, she was pretty sure Riley had been
the one to pick her warm clothes.

“Sure, why not. I’m just a bride gone wild. This sweater is
a little scratchy.”

He narrowed his blue eyes. “It’s one hundred percent pure
cashmere. It can’t be scratchy.”

Yes, Riley had picked her clothes with care, like she was
important to him. Law carried her around like she didn’t weigh a thing. Dominic
looked at her like he wanted to eat her up.

And her fiancé? The man she’d been ready to marry was
sleeping with her sister and planning to murder her so he could take over her
business.

She’d played by the rules for far too long. The rules hadn’t
gotten her anywhere. These ridiculous ideals had left her a virgin, completely
and utterly alone. They had placed her in a position where everyone lied to
her. Getting kidnapped had brought her clarity, shown her a place where at
least a couple of men wanted to bring her pleasure.

Pleasure was better than the nothing she’d had before.

“Could you call Law and Dominic in?” An idea had been
brewing in her brain all day, a way for her to get something out of this.
Determination had replaced mildness in the last several hours. She wanted
something beyond just getting to live and keeping her charity. She wanted
something for
her
.

“Why?” Riley asked.

“I want to talk to them.” She didn’t want to explain it to
Riley. He wouldn’t understand. He would probably be horrified. But she hoped
that Dominic and Law would grasp her meaning immediately. They had kissed her,
held her, brought her pleasure. Dominic had gone cold only after she’d pulled
away. And Law had just been hurt.

Kinley
supposed that some would
argue that Law had hurt her by abducting her. But he hadn’t. In his head—and
heart—he’d really believed he was saving her. She kind of had to agree. Because
of that, she didn’t like hurting Law in any way. The idea that she had made her
feel anxious inside.

She wanted more than that unfinished experience in the
kitchen and she was willing to give in order to get. If Riley didn’t want her,
fine. She would go into the situation knowing that whatever passed between her,
Dominic, and Law wouldn’t be long term. But she would finally ask for what she
wanted. If they turned her down… she had no idea what she would do.

Riley turned and exited, leaving her alone with the cable
news channels who questioned everything from her whereabouts to her morality.
There was a short story on Annabelle’s law firm and how they were handling the
case Greg was trying to build against the “unnamed suspect.”

So Annabelle had a hand in this.
Kinley
wasn’t sure of her exact role, but she smiled anyway. Of course some people
would be deeply disturbed by a friend’s involvement in a criminal act, but
Kinley
had looked at all the evidence now. Belle had done
her damnedest to persuade her to not marry Greg…and
Kinley
hadn’t listened. If she had been in Annabelle’s shoes, she would have fought
like hell to save her friend, too, including having her kidnapped.

So Law had a good lawyer who had floated the story that she
was overwrought and medicated. Legally, it was a good play. The story wasn’t
totally implausible. It bought them all some time.

The doors opened, and her heart rate tripled as all three
men strode into the room. Law was at least six and a half feet tall with stark
blue eyes that pierced right through her. Dominic was so gorgeous and
commanding, he made her heart stop. Slightly taller than Law, he was just as
broad, his body lean and strong. And Riley’s face could be on a movie poster.
He was stunning, not to mention blazingly smart, which was a kind of sexy all
its own. Three amazing men.

She could only really make a play for two.

“Baby, you want something?” Law asked.

He’d been so easy to connect with. She’d fallen for him so
quickly. He’d held her when she was scared, when she felt alone. Law was the
kind of man who did what it took to protect the people he cared about.
Kinley
couldn’t deny she admired that.

“I have an idea and I’d appreciate you listening.” Her heart
was pounding out of her chest, and she was surprised she couldn’t hear it. But
she couldn’t shy away. She was done being the good girl. She was done playing
by anyone’s rules but her own. She was more than ready to find out who
Kinley
Kohl really was and what she was capable of. “I want
to trade.”

Dominic stepped closer, scowling. “Trade?”

“You need my help with your case against Greg. Fine. I’m
willing, but I want something in return.”

Law’s mouth turned down. “What is it?”

“Knowledge.”

Dominic turned to both of his partners with a shrug, then
back to her. “What kind of knowledge?”

Kinley
bit her lip. Was this
stupid? Maybe, but she was still going to do it because she wanted—needed—this.
“About sex.”

The words dropped inside the room like a bomb, and the
silence that followed in the aftermath seemed to go on forever.

“Sex?” Riley finally asked, his tone intimating that she had
to be kidding.

“Exactly.”
Kinley
dragged in a
rough breath. “I would like to trade information about my charity and Greg for
information about sex.”

“You want to watch a video?” Riley asked incredulously.

“No.” Law shot his brother a dirty look. “She’s not asking
for a porn flick, idiot. She wants to talk about sex.”

There was a bit more to it than that. Were they really going
to make her say it? “I want to maybe, probably…a-almost certainly actually have
sex.”

Kinley
resisted the urge to slam
her eyes shut and pray they didn’t laugh.

Instead, Dominic stared a hole through her. “Let me see if
I’ve got this right. You want to trade information for a good fucking?”

God, when he put it that way, she felt two feet tall. And
she was done feeling like crap about herself. “If I’m not putting you out too
much or making you do something against your will, yes. I would like to
exchange what little I understand about what’s happening with Hope House for
first-hand sexual knowledge.”

“Why not just ask us if we want to go to bed?” Law asked,
arms crossed over his chest.

“I want to have sex with men who know what they’re doing.
And I don’t expect something for nothing. I know that everything comes with a
price.”

“You said
men
.”
Dominic emphasized the word with a hard edge.

“Yes.” She needed to make herself clear. “I don’t know
anything about sex. It seems to me that I wouldn’t have been deceived by the
people who are supposed to love me if I wasn’t so naïve. Maybe if I’d been more
worldly, I would have realized that my sister was sleeping with Greg. Maybe if
I knew what good sex was, I would have admitted to myself sooner that I had no
interest in him and stopped fooling myself that marriage between us would work.
Maybe if I wasn’t a naïve little virgin, I wouldn’t be here.”

Those weren’t her only reasons, but the ones the guys needed
to hear.
Kinley
ached to know what it felt like to be
in their bed. God, she wanted that so badly. The days she’d been with them
seemed surreal. She’d been terrified, then surprised. They’d confronted her
with realities that had broken her heart. Before she could go back and deal
with the real world—where she faced the likely loss of her family and her
charity—she needed a few moments of pure fantasy.

“You read the evidence?” Dominic remained still as a statue,
his eyes cold on her.

“Yes. I still don’t know exactly what he’s doing, but it’s
obvious that he’s using Hope House for something nefarious. If you ask the
right questions, we might be able to find answers. I suspect you don’t want to
go to the feds until you actually know what he plotted.”

Dominic nodded. “I don’t want to give him any wiggle room or
loopholes to jump through.”

“Though he’s likely covering his ass right now,” Riley explained.
“He would have started the minute the police identified Law on that tape. I
know the media is keeping his identity quiet because
Kellan
is handling it, but Greg knows who Dominic works with, so he knows who has you.
It’s another reason we moved your accountant. He’s under watch at Black Oak Oil
offices. We have some friends who can make sure he doesn’t have a convenient
accident or house fire.”

“So you can see just how serious all of this is?” Dominic
asked.

“Yes. Of course.”

He huffed, an oddly aristocratic sound. “And yet you want to
negotiate for sex? You want to sell your body to us, like you tried to do with
Greg? Is that all you know how to do?”

Shame flooded her. Somehow she’d expected them to jump on
the offer. It was just sex, after all. Men were supposed to really enjoy it.
Kinley
didn’t know what to say.

“I won’t barter for sex, so I’m going to have to turn your
offer down.” Dominic scowled. “I happen to believe that you will cooperate
because it’s the right thing to do.”

Kinley
had always had the
impression that he’d do anything to avenge his sister, so his refusal was a
blow to the gut. “Are you saying no because I don’t have any experience or
because I don’t arouse you?” Actually, she didn’t need to hear them explain all
the reasons they didn’t want her. She could guess. “Forget I asked. In fact,
forget I said anything at all.”

Kinley
closed her eyes in
mortification. She wasn’t experienced, and they were men who had likely taken a
lot of women to bed…as well as on sofas, across tables, and against walls. She
wasn’t beautiful enough for them and knew next to nothing about being sexy. She
lacked grace and height and the ability to look really good in a short skirt.
Not that they were so shallow as to want only those traits. But
Kinley
knew that she often wore rose-colored glasses,
wasn’t a fan of adrenaline, and probably didn’t seem level-headed enough. She
was all the things men like them wouldn’t want in a woman.