Daniel’s words kept repeating in Alison’s head. She couldn’t help it. She wanted…
Something.
She didn’t even know what exactly. All she knew for sure was that everything they did teased some deep part of her that had never awoken before.
It terrified her and excited her and made her want to both hide and drop to her knees and beg.
Still, after Daniel’s statement, they’d released her. No one had mentioned it again while they ate. Trent had hand-fed her again, and though she had her own plate, she’d found herself eating what he offered instead.
Why the hell do I like that?
Now, after night had fallen and she should have been sleeping, she stared at the ceiling.
Daniel had his e-book reader out, his back against the wall in the bed. The backlit reader meant he’d turned the lights off for her, but it seemed he hadn’t been quite ready to turn in.
He confused her most of all. He could seem so sweet and easygoing, and yet there was a darkness in his gaze when he looked at her some of the time. How he’d pulled her hair and told her she’d need to ask nicely showed a different side to him, one she hadn’t expected.
One she really liked.
Why not ask?
The thought surprised her as much as his statement had. Alison didn’t ask for anything, let alone for someone to do…well, whatever they wanted to do to her.
She thought back to her sex life. She’d thought herself some liberated, modern woman, sleeping with men in backrooms or motel rooms or wherever sparked her fancy.
She’d thought herself experienced, yet suddenly she wasn’t so sure. The way they’d looked at her, the things they hinted at, she didn’t understand them. How could she be naive?
And yet, she wanted to know them.
She wanted to have experienced them, at least so she could look back and say, “I tried it and I hated it.”
You’re such a liar. You won’t hate it.
She considered the end of the case, when she’d walk away and go back to her own life. She’d never considered such things before—even if she’d known enough to think she wanted them—because she didn’t care for messy entanglements.
This wasn’t messy, though.
It was temporary. It was a job. At the end of it, they’d all go back to their own lives no worse for wear.
Which made it perfect.
What if she gave in? What if she surrendered? She could pretend it was for the case, that it was to get into character—as if that might help her not feel so strange about it—and once she’d experienced it, she could walk away.
Alison rolled toward Daniel, looking up at his face, which was lit by the glow of his reader. He had on a pair of glasses—he only wore them when reading—his attention on the book.
She risked it, reaching over and setting her hand on his bare stomach, just above where the sheet covered his waist.
His stomach tightened in response, but he didn’t stop what he was doing, didn’t acknowledge it.
Alison took the chance to stroke her fingers over his warm skin. He wasn’t as lean as the other two, with a more relaxed physique. She could feel the muscles beneath the skin, beneath the layer of fat, so she’d never think of him as weak. Dark hair ran from his navel down below the sheet, and more covered his chest. She teased that trail of hair to where the fabric stopped her.
“You’re supposed to be sleeping,” he said, his voice deep.
Alison scooted closer until she pressed against him, seated lower in the bed so her face was near his ribs. She followed the trail back up, past his navel, so she could trace over his chest. She circled his flat nipples and stoked along the dark, coarse hair.
His body was so different from hers. How had she never realized that before?
Well, she had, in a clinical way, but when she’d slept with men before, it had always been quick. It hadn’t meant anything, and she’d been only too happy to finish as quickly as possible. She hadn’t wanted to explore, to spend any time on their body beyond what was necessary to get to business.
This time, however, she wanted to touch, to feel the bumpy skin on the outside edge of his nipples, to feel his breath catch when she raked her nails over his pecs.
Daniel set his reader aside, as though he’d given up trying to pretend he didn’t care or notice exactly what she was doing.
He rolled over her, moving her with such ease that she released a gasp. She’d fought hand to hand enough, been trained enough that she understood how to counter nearly any move, but she didn’t want to counter this.
Daniel pinned her wrists above her head in a single large hand of his, his warm body over and against hers.
The way she spread her legs to give him a cradle to fall into, to keep him close, was so quick she was embarrassed by it.
“I don’t hear you asking,” he said.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
He smiled at her snark. “Yeah, but I need to hear you say it.”
“Do you get off on women begging or something?” Even as she asked, the very thought made her temperature rise a few degrees.
Does she mean to shame or embarrass me? She has a lot to learn, doesn’t she?
“Yeah, I do,” he said. “But this is more about making sure you know you want this. The last thing I’m about to do is trick or push you into anything. So if you can’t ask, if you can’t even tell me what you want, well, you must not want it bad enough.”
His lips sat a whisper from hers, and the need to lower his head, to take that kiss, swamped him. He wanted so badly to taste her, to know how soft they really were, to feel her writhing under him as he drove her crazy.
“I’m curious,” she answered.
“Curious? Hell of a way to put it.”
She twisted her hands, and he got the sense she wanted to shove him away. Not because she wanted him gone, but because she wanted to keep him at a distance so she could lie to herself.
He held her still. She could always safeword or even tell him to stop, but the girl needed to learn to use her words.
“I just thought…”
“Thought what?”
The look she gave him would have sent a lot of men running. “We’re doing this until the case is over. You’re right—I’ve never done any of those things you mentioned. “
“But you want to?”
“I want to try. It isn’t something I have in my regular life.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t trust people enough, haven’t ever wanted to trust them enough. This might be my only chance.”
The longing in her voice killed him. She deserved so much, but as time went on, he realized self-denial seemed to be her motto in life.
“But you trust me? Us?”
She shook her head. “No, but we’re here, going halfway with this nonsense. Why not try something here? I can walk away afterward knowing what it’s like.”
He stifled the growl at ‘walk away’. Why the hell that set him off, he wasn’t sure, but he knew he didn’t care for it at all. He wanted her to want to stay. He wanted her desperate for another touch from him, begging for another kiss, not putting timelines on it as if he were nothing more than a sex toy to try out and discard.
And, yes, he realized how stupid that thought was, but it didn’t stop him from having it.
“So what do you want? Make it clear.” He kept his voice low, not bothering to hide the slight growl to it.
She opened her mouth, but before she could say it, she closed it.
“Not that hard. You want us to touch you? To fuck you?” He didn’t curse much, but damn if that hadn’t rolled right off his tongue. There wasn’t another way to describe what he wanted to do to her.
She swallowed hard but didn’t answer with anything but a nod.
“Say it.”
Still nothing.
Daniel sighed and rolled off her. “You don’t want it yet, not bad enough, not if you can’t even say it. Let me know when you change your mind.”
He picked up his e-book reader and ignored the way his cock pulsed inside his pajama bottoms. It would be so easy to roll back over, spread her thighs and slide into her. She wanted it, he wanted it, why wait?
Because she’ll damn well be begging before I give her anything.
And judging from the frustrated groan as she rolled away, he doubted that would be all that long.
* * * *
Kyle laughed as he stood in the small outside porch. Daniel had already told him about the night before, and now Kyle couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Damn, he knew how delicious Alison could smell, but would he have been able to pull away like Daniel did?
“You are a sadist,” Kyle chuckled.
Daniel sat on the swing, leaning back, looking as though he hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep the night before.
Then again, sleeping with a hard-on and an all-too-willing omega beside him wouldn’t do much for any alpha’s sleep.
“A bit, but really, we all agreed that she needs to ask for anything she wants.”
“I’m pretty sure I’d take a lingering glance as her asking right about now,” Kyle admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a female this much. What the hell is it with her?”
“You just want to screw the girl who broke your nose. You’re worse than the rest of us.”
Kyle grinned, unable to deny it. Something about a girl who could best him was an unbelievable turn-on. The more he discovered about her, the deeper it went, though.
The way she’d sat in his lap as she’d admitted her past, how she’d talked about her father—it had chiseled away any of his resistance. She’d been…almost sweet.
The girl was never helpless, but she had cracks that ran through her, the same as anyone, and Kyle getting a look at them made her feel all the more like theirs.
The slider opened and drew both Kyle’s and Daniel’s gazes to it.
If Daniel looked as though he hadn’t slept, Alison was worse. Dark circles rested beneath her eyes, and he’d watched her down two large cups of coffee, drinking them as if the meaning of life were at the bottom.
It seemed the girl didn’t sleep well when horny, either.
“Late night?” Kyle made sure to pair the quip with a smirk.
Alison offered a half-hearted glare in return.
“That’s it? Wow, you really aren’t up to snuff, are you?”
She shut the slider behind her, the light that streamed in between the vines covering the outer patio lighting up her pale complexion. She looked like some goddess, and with how she’d turned his world upside down?
He wasn’t sure that was an altogether wrong description.
“I didn’t sleep well,” she admitted, her gaze on the ground.
“And whose fault was that?” Daniel didn’t look all that sorry. If anything, he seemed to enjoy that he’d done that to her.
“Yours.” Her tone came out sharp.
He clicked his tongue. “All I said was that you needed to tell me what you wanted, clearly. That’s how this works, all of it. If you want something, you need to say it. We’re happy to give you what you want—within reason—but you’ve got to learn to ask.”
She stood beside Kyle, one hand picking at the nails of her other.
He thought back to what she’d said to him, about her father, to the bastard who had taught her she wasn’t good enough.
He doubted she’d had the chance to ask for much of anything in her life. She seemed like the pull yourself up by your bootstraps sort of woman, the kind who would rather go without than just ask. Obviously, she is. She went without last night because she just didn’t want to voice it.
He was glad Trent wasn’t out there. Trent was always the softy, the one who would give in. He’d have taken her in his arms and told her he’d take care of it all.
Soft-hearted idiot. Trent might like rules, but he also bent over backward to take care of those around him.
Kyle, however, could be hard if it was in her best interests, and this was.
Alison drew her hands into fists and squared her shoulders. Ah, there’s that steel will.
“I don’t want to have sex with you.”
Kyle nearly grumbled at that, because it wasn’t at all what he’d hoped she’d say. Force her to talk and that’s what she comes up with?
Before he could say anything or show his disappointment, she kept going, as if she needed to get it all out at once. “Not yet, at least. But I’m carrying Trent’s scent already. I don’t know what I want to do, not exactly, but I want to…try.”
Not specific, but a hell of a lot better than before.
Kyle glanced Daniel’s way, wanting to get a consensus on whether that was clear enough for him.
The curl of Daniel’s lips said he had no issues with the request, and thank fuck for that. Kyle wasn’t sure he could have just turned around and left if Alison’s begging wasn’t good enough.
Still, he wanted to check on things. “If this is just about scent, I think you know we could remedy that with something less intimate. Not that hard to get you to wear our scent.”
And…fuck…even that made Kyle wish he’d been sitting. He considered all the ways he could have her wear his scent without actually touching her. It made him picture her down on her knees, as she had been the night before, and he’d stroke himself until he came. She wouldn’t even touch him, but he wanted to rub that into her skin, to make sure she wore his scent while he told her what a good girl she was.
“I know,” she answered, and her side-eye toward Kyle said she’d picked up his arousal, his reaction to their conversation. “What I said last night, I meant. I’ve never had the chance to experience this, and clearly you know what you’re doing. I want to try.”
Kyle gave up being passive. She’d made her wants clear, and he needed to touch her. He grasped her collar, tugging it until she was in front of him—careful not to grasp her chin—until she looked up at him. “We won’t fuck you, not yet. Any other lines you don’t want crossed?” He leaned in, her breath sweet and hot against his lips.
“Don’t kiss me,” she said.
He hid his disappointment. Limits were limits and he’d obey hers, even if it was hard to imagine not taking her lips. “Okay, sugar.”
“Okay? I thought you’d argue more,” she whispered back.
“Why would I do that? There are plenty of other places on your little body to enjoy, and I plan to explore each and every fucking one of them.”