THEIR_VIRGIN_PRINCESS (9 page)

Lan brushed away another tear and turned, following after
Dane and Coop. They were all leaving, and she’d been the one to shove them
away, hurting them and lashing out because she wasn’t brave enough to be kind,
welcoming. That required a strong heart, and hers was shattered.

More tears fell, but the scream that was always in her
throat stuck. “Landon.”

He stopped but didn’t turn. “What do you need, Your
Highness?”

So many things. Nothing she could ask for. “Tell Dane I’m
sorry. And Cooper and… I’m very sorry that I hurt you too.”

He nodded and left, and she was alone again.

Alea crumbled to the floor. The gorgeous gown she’d picked
out in hopes that they would notice her was lying on the tile, trampled by boot
prints, ruined. What had she been thinking? She could dress up all she liked,
but she was still that girl chained to a bed, waiting to die.

The only trouble now was she seemed determined to take
everyone to hell with her.

* * * *

Dane let Cooper drop as soon as he’d hauled him out of the
princess’s quarters. He didn’t trust Coop not to run back in and try to get on
top of her again.

And he didn’t trust himself not to walk back and have a
throw down with her that would very likely end with him getting his ass
arrested for laying hands on Her Royal Highness.

“You asshole.” Coop was on his feet in a heartbeat. “What
the fuck was that about?”

The hallway around them was quiet. He’d been afraid Tal
would follow them, but it appeared he had gone back to the ball. He was fine
with that because he was just about ready to start throwing punches. Caving in
Coop’s face might take the edge off the nasty anger building inside him.

Alea had scored a direct hit. He could still hear Kelly
screaming at him that he was a pervert, a freak for what he needed. He could
still remember the day his father had told him what an embarrassment he was to
the family and that he was no longer welcome in the house he’d grown up in.

He hadn’t been invited to his brother’s wedding. Of course,
that wasn’t such a huge surprise since his very vanilla brother had been
marrying his ex-wife.

He felt Coop shove at his arm, goading him. “What? Now you
can’t talk?”

Dane narrowed his eyes, flexed his hands. He’d thought he was
going to beat the shit out of Lan for bringing Alea to the meeting, but Cooper
had done something much worse. “I can talk, man. I just don’t think you’re
going to like what I have to say.”

Cooper pulled back slightly, frowning. “I didn’t mean for it
to happen.”

“Oh, it was an accident then? You tripped and fell on top of
her pussy? Did your tongue fall out and land on her clit?”

“She was responding, damn it.”

Dane had seen just how she’d responded. “Yeah, you must have
done a hell of a job with her, buddy. She was screaming and kicking and
fighting you as if she was struggling for her very survival.

He’d heard her from down the hall. He’d been lighting into
Lan when they both heard Alea’s shout. They’d run, terrified that someone was
trying to kill her. Lan had his gun out and he’d just about taken off Coop’s
head when Dane realized who it was.

Coop’s whole body sagged. “It didn’t start out like that. I
was trying to check up on her. I wanted to make sure her BP was okay. She
nearly fainted. When she took a while in the bathroom, I went in to make sure
she hadn’t fallen or stumbled and hit her head. And I saw her. She was…”

“Beautiful.” Yeah, he’d gotten that, too. He’d seen every
inch of her golden body, every curve and valley. Even though she’d been screaming,
he was just enough of a bastard to get a hard-on because she was so fucking
sexy. Shame filled him. She didn’t want him and she was probably right. No man
with real morals would have gotten an erection when the woman he adored was
terrified.

And they damn straight wouldn’t have threatened to spank
her. The trouble was, she responded to dominance. It was only when he’d used
his Dom voice that she’d calmed and come out of her episode. She needed someone
to take control when she couldn’t, to make sure she didn’t hurt herself. To
stand by her and give her the safe boundaries and structure she needed.

“Yes, she was so beautiful, and we had this connection,
Dane,” Coop continued. “She thinks she’s frigid, but she’s not. She was
pressing her pussy against my mouth and wriggling around. That’s why I tried to
hold her down, so I could finish her off. Damn, I don’t think that girl’s ever
had an orgasm. If I hadn’t wrapped my arms around her, we would be in a totally
different place.”

“Yeah, you would be fucking her, and Dane would be
rearranging my face,” a laconic voice said from the doorway. Landon stared at
Cooper.

Coop rolled his eyes. “God, don’t give me that. I wasn’t
trying to steal her. I was trying to show her how good it can be. And you’re a
fine one to talk. What the fuck was that move you pulled? Did you sell her on
how awful Dane and I are to cut her out of that meeting?”

“Fuck you, Coop.” Lan squared off, facing the other man
down. They started to circle each other like two pit bulls waiting to take a
chunk out. “She deserved to be in that meeting. It was about her. She’s not a
child.”

“She sure knows how to throw a temper tantrum,” Dane said,
frowning. “That shit she just pulled is exactly why I left her out. Alea isn’t
ready for that much reality. We all agreed on this plan, and you took it into
your own hands to reverse our decision.”

He’d been trying so hard to get them all on the same page.
Alea needed all three of them. She’d grown up in a country where she was
practically expected to marry two or three men, maybe more. Being kidnapped had
torn her world apart, but eventually she would find comfort in her custom of
plural marriage. But in order to offer her what she needed, they had to stick
together, and his asshole, idiot partners were being selfish pricks.

Lan’s face flushed an angry red. “Look, I talked to Cole.
He’s been in this place before.”

“Oh, Cole Lennox is now your best friend?” Coop shot at Lan,
rounding on him. “Or is he the guy giving you advice on how to get her all to
yourself?”

“What are you talking about? He shares his wife with his
brother.” Lan growled a little, a sure sign that this situation was about to
get ugly. “And you’re a fine fucking one to talk, Coop. I made a decision to
bring her into something that involved us all. I thought we’d sit down and hash
this out with her. I thought that maybe if she understood the situation, she
would be a little easier on us. Let us closer. What’s your excuse? Are you
going to try to convince me that you were just warming her up so Dane and I
could come in behind you and show her a good time? I didn’t see you leaving a
whole lot of room in her pussy for us.”

Coop’s right fist flew out, catching Lan’s jaw. There was a
thud, and a nasty, happy little smile crept across Lan’s face because he was a
man who appreciated violence, and Coop had just made the enormous mistake of
giving it to him.

Lan’s fist popped up almost faster than Dane could see it,
and a nice splash of blood came from Coop’s face. His lip, it looked like. He’d
shifted just enough that Lan hadn’t broken his nose.

They started to wail on each other, but Dane had lost the
desire to fight.

Because he was pretty sure they had just lost Alea. Or maybe
she’d already been lost, and tonight had simply forced him to face facts. The
woman spitting the cruel barbs just wasn’t his princess.

He heaved a long sigh. She needed him, but she would never
acknowledge it, never give him the chance to prove it to her. And, hell, maybe
he was wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time. Maybe he should just join a
fucking club and spend his time with the subs there who came out for a good
time. He’d wrecked his marriage. He’d fucked up his career.

“I should have expected this.” Tal stood beside him,
watching the fight and shaking his head.

Dane turned, and it looked like Tal had brought out the
whole fucking gang. Rafe and Kade were with him, along with the three James
brothers—Gavin, Slade, and Dex—as well as the Lennox twins, Cole and Burke.

“Brothers shouldn’t fight like that, man,” Dex said, shaking
his head.

Gavin James sent his youngest brother a scorching look.
“Really? My nose is crooked because of you two fuckers.”

Slade shook his head. “That was all on you, brother. Ouch,
that’s going to hurt. They’re not big believers in rules, are they?”

Dane winced because Coop had just landed a kidney shot. “He
was my team’s medic. I don’t think he takes the Hippocratic Oath very
seriously. And we’re not really brothers.”

“That’s where you’re making your mistake,” Rafe said. “If
you want Alea, you better behave like brothers. Blood or no, be a cohesive
unit. You have to take care of each other and work together.”

“Yeah, you’ve got to do that if you’re going to survive your
wife. Trust me, Cole’s the dumbass. He’s always hiding behind me when he says
something stupid.” The Lennox twin on the right pointed to his other half.

Yeah, Dane would like a word with Cole. “He might want to
hide behind you now.”

A single eyebrow arched on Cole’s face. “You’re pissed that
I talked to Landon? Well, someone had to. You guys are fucking this up and
hard.”

The urge to kill flared up again. “Is that right?”

Tal held up a hand. “Before you kill Mr. Lennox, perhaps you
should understand a few things.”

“Like he could kill me.” Cole rolled his eyes.

Burke shrugged. “Dude, we’ve spent the last year hauling our
son around, not training for battle. He would probably take you down.”

“Please. I could take him down with Caleb strapped into his
baby Snugli across my chest.”

“The fact that you just used the word Snugli proves how out
of the game we are.”

The Lennox brothers continued to argue, but Dane looked to
Tal. “What do you mean?”

“I mean what you’ve tried hasn’t worked. You’ve all come at
her in different ways, and she is going to require a coordinated assault where
you leave her absolutely no way out. It’s imperative the three of you work
together. And be smart for a fucking change. I believe she’ll respond to how
gentle Landon can be, to Cooper’s playfulness, and I absolutely believe she
needs you most of all.” Tal looked pointedly at Dane. “But you’re the one who’s
holding back the most.”

Tal could accuse him of a lot of things, but not that he’d
been holding back. Something crashed in the background, and Dane looked over
his shoulder. Landon had Cooper pinned to the ground, getting ready to bash his
head in with what was probably a priceless vase.
Idiots.

Cooper kicked up and Lan groaned as his balls met with a
steel-toed boot. Every man in the hallway moaned, and Lan started a long fall
to the floor.

Yeah, this was fucking helping.

Dane moved in to avoid utter catastrophe. The last thing he
needed was to get billed for damaging historical art or some shit. He caught
the vase just before Lan hit the floor.

Cooper and Landon were both on the carpet, chests heaving
and blood dripping. They had done numbers on one another.

“You two, stay the fuck down or I will get involved in
this,” Dane promised. Maybe Rafe was right and they should start considering
themselves brothers. If they did that, Coop and Lan better understand that Dane
was the big brother, and they were going to have to fall in line.

For now, they seemed content to lie there and focus on
breathing.

“Sorry.” He handed the vase back to Tal. “I’ll talk to
them.”

Tal nodded. “That was a start.”

“How the hell can you say I haven’t been trying with her?
I’ve been on walks with her almost every day. I try talking to her, coaxing her
out of her shell. I’ve brought her treats, complimented her… Everything I
should.”

“Everything a vanilla man should. Alea requires more, and
you know it.”

Fuck.
“She’s
fragile.”

“She’s also submissive without a firm Dominant. She’s in
free fall without a safety net. Rafe, Kade, and I have stood back, hoping you
three would get your act together, but…” Tal shook his head.

Damn and hell.
Tal
wasn’t telling him anything about Alea he hadn’t already known. Every instinct
in his body told him to top her, but she just kept shoving back. He didn’t want
to push her too hard. He’d been down that road with Kelly, and it had only ended
in divorce.

“I can’t force her to see what she needs,” Dane argued.

“I’ve watched you with Alea,” Kade said, stepping up.
“You’re at your best when you tell it like it is. But you’ve been very careful
with her. Hell, we all have. My brothers and I have resolved to stop now. You
have to do the same. I’m not telling you to force her to your will, but you
should be open and honest about everything you can do for her. What the three
of you give her.”

“We’ve tried so many things,” Rafe added. “We’ve brought in
therapists, given her charity work to take her mind off things, surrounded her
with family and friends from her past who can help her remember happier times.
None of it has worked. She pretends to be content, but she doesn’t connect with
people anymore.”

Coop pushed himself off the floor. “She’s got a terrible
self-image. She thinks she’s ugly and frigid. We can’t work on that from a
distance.”

Lan got to his feet as well, wiping blood from his mouth. “I
hate to admit it, but I agree with Cooper. What we’ve been doing so far hasn’t
worked. We’ve been treating her like she’s too fragile. We’ve almost convinced
her that she is, too. But she won’t break. She just needs to know that we’re
strong enough to handle her.”

Dane looked at his two best friends. They had beaten each
other stupid, but now they were standing together. Maybe that’s what real
brothers were like. And maybe it was time to start following his instincts.
Alea was floundering. Her world had been broken in a way that she couldn’t put
back together all alone. She didn’t know how to ask for help and was afraid to
need it. She was damn straight terrified to open her heart.