THEIR_VIRGIN_PRINCESS (25 page)

“The whole family thing. I think that’s why I tried to be
the one in control of all of it. If you all needed me, then you wouldn’t get
rid of me.”

She leaned closer, her skin warm against his, and he felt
all the ice in his chest starting to melt. He’d tried to put her in this very
position, to need him, but fuck, he needed her.

“I would never get rid of you, Dane. Why would you think
that?”

At her sweet words, he relaxed a little, shocked by just how
nice it was to talk. “Besides the fact that you’ve been trying to fire me since
I got hired?”

“I’m awfully glad I didn’t succeed.” She pressed against
him, their hips touching, her arm through his, then she looked up at him for a
long moment. “Tell me. It’s about more than just your ex, isn’t it?”

Her perceptive question stunned him, but the beauty of this
place and the intimacy of sitting beside her settled him. He’d sat with lots of
women, had plenty of lovers, but somehow Alea made him breathe easy. Something
about sitting with limbs entwined, the sound of the surf rolling on, brought up
a deep well of peace in him. And that made it so much easier for him to talk.
He’d thought he would never discuss Kelly with Alea, but she needed to
understand. And he was shocked at how good it felt to let go and tell her about
his damage.

“It’s not just her, baby. It’s my whole life. My dad was a
military man. He believed in running his household like a war camp. He was a
Darwinist of the highest order.”

“Survival of the fittest?”

“Yep. He thought getting the shit kicked out of me on a
regular basis would make me a man. He didn’t hit me himself, just didn’t really
stop it when my older brothers did. And yet I still tried to please him, tried
to keep up with my brothers. I got married because she was beautiful and my dad
liked her. Said she’d make a fine military wife. I didn’t love her. I thought I
did, but I didn’t even know who the hell I was. How could I love her? And then
the long deployments started, and my team was shipped to Afghanistan.”

“They kicked you out because of what happened in the
Korengal Valley, didn’t they?”

He turned to her, a little startled. “How do you know about
that? It’s supposed to be classified.”

There was not an ounce of shame on her face. “I snuck into
Tal’s office and read your files. He has a very good relationship with the US.
They sent him over a lot of stuff on the three of you that no one should know.
You did the right thing, Dane. That CIA agent was an asshole.”

“He was covering his own ass. Things didn’t go down the way
they should have. We were working on faulty intel, but make no mistake, Lea. I
knew what I was doing and I knew I would be out. I made the decision to get
those civilians out of the line of fire thereby blowing an undercover op.”

“You saved them,” Alea said, her cheek against his arm. “I
think it makes you a hero.”

“And I blew a multi-million dollar op. When I flew home, I
expected my wife to be waiting to drive me home from the airport. I knew it was
going to be a rough conversation, but I didn’t even get to say a word. She
wasn’t there. I got served with divorce papers the minute I stepped off the
plane. They were right there in an envelope with a note from my father
disowning me and a key to the storage place where they’d shoved all my worldly
possessions.”

Cooper had been standing next to him. He’d been ready to
board a plane for Denver to get back home, but he’d stayed with Dane. And eventually
they had found Landon, then made it to Bezakistan, to Alea.

To this island where he just might finally get the family he
deserved if he wasn’t an insecure prick.

“I want this so badly, but I’m afraid I can’t be what you
need.” There it was, all out there for the world to see.

She moved, shifting away from him. He thought for a moment
that she would leave, but she cupped his face as she moved, positioning herself
between his legs. “Take it easy on me. Let’s go slow and see where it’s
heading, Sir.”

Sir?
The word
caused his cock to tighten. “No, Lea. It’s okay. I’m going to shelve that
shit.”

He could do it for her. He wasn’t sure if he could be as
passive as Lan had been, but he could try.

“It’s not shit, Dane. It’s what you need. You were out of control
all your life. I can see that. Even when you were grown, you were still at the
mercy of everyone else. You need one place where you have complete and utter
control, and I trust you to take care of me.”

“And you need control, too.” That was the problem with their
relationship, the basic, never ending, no-solution-at-all problem. They were
both damaged, and he wasn’t sure how to fix it.

She frowned at him. “Not like you mean. It’s different for
me. I didn’t grow up scared the way you did. I had a great family. The sex
stuff is hard for me, but being here has given me a lot of time to think. You
said that how I eventually dealt with this would be the measure of what kind of
woman I am.”

He remembered it like it was yesterday. He’d been standing
in the background watching Alea with Piper on the evening she became the future
queen. Alea had thrown a bunch of bile his way, and Piper hadn’t understood. “I
said those things to Piper. You had stomped off in a blaze of rage and
sequins.”

A little smile curled her mouth up. “I didn’t stomp very
far. I listened.”

“You eavesdropped.”
Little
minx.

“Another lesson from my childhood. Dane, I listened in on a
lot of things. Why do you think I was always in the garden or the hall or wherever
the three of you happened to be? Because I couldn’t let myself believe you
wanted me and I couldn’t really convince myself that I didn’t want you. I
didn’t choose Landon. I went with the flow and made love with my men. This is
the way of life in my world. I can’t set up a schedule. I can only promise that
I need each of you.”

He didn’t want a schedule. God, not at all. “I guess I’m
wondering why you need me. Landon is like your knight in shining armor. Cooper
makes you laugh. I just seem to make you mad.”

“You make me think. You make me get off my ass and fight.
I’m not dumb, Dane. You’ve been topping me from the minute we landed on this
island. Oh, you put it in questions and circle it all back around so it sounds
like it’s my idea, but I know what you’re doing and I need it. I think it’s
what I’ve been missing for a very long time. I know I’ve pushed a lot of people
away and made it hard to help me, but you’ve found a way to do it. If you want
something to shelve, make it the jealousy.”

His cock stirred because that last line had been said with a
tone of perfectly intended brattiness. She knew exactly how to provoke him.

“I’ll always be possessive.” It was his nature. No amount of
beat downs by his brothers had taken that away from him. He’d just gotten good
at hiding what he wanted to keep and he’d gotten really fucking good at
fighting dirty. But he didn’t have to with Lan and Coop. “Did they send you
here?”

“I came myself. To fight the good fight, so to speak. Do you
understand what we could be?”

Dane nodded. He understood and deeply desired it. “I was an
ass. Forgive me.”

“Make me.”

He felt his whole body go on alert. “Do you know what you’re
asking for?

“I know what I’m willing to try. Go easy on me, Sir. Landon
was really big and I’m a little sore, but I want you. I want to…play.”

A haze of lust seemed to envelope him. Yeah, he could play.
He could play hard and rough, but he had to be careful. “I can handle it, Lea.
I’ll get the lube. I’ll go easy on you.”

She stopped, frowned. “We have lube?”

Of course. He was a Boy Scout. He’d had plans that had
involved a metric shit ton of lubricant. “Yeah, baby. I’m prepared.”

Her eyes narrowed. “The waves took the condoms but not the
lube?”

Fuck. He was the one who had to explain this? “Baby, the
waves only took one bag. The lube was in a different duffel.” And thank god Lan
had made the right call. The lube was way more important. “If it makes you feel
better, he also sacrificed my favorite pair of nipple clamps which are now at
the bottom of the sea.”

Her whole face flushed, but the sweetest smile came over her
lips. “We have to talk about your priorities, Dane. Condoms are more important
than lubricant.”

“You’re wrong.” She’d just given him an all-access pass, and
he was fucking taking it. “I want you pregnant. I want to fill you up because
you’re my female and I want the family only you can give me.”

He dreamed about her round and soft and full of their baby.
His children would have such a different experience. They would know love and
peace and joy. They would have four parents to protect them. He wanted this
life. He wanted to know that if anything happened to him, his precious wife and
their offspring would still be loved and protected by his brothers—brothers who
would never take from him, but simply enhance his life, be by his side no
matter what. He’d been dealt a shitty hand in the past, but this time he’d come
up aces.

“I want that, too,” Alea said quietly. “I thought I would be
married by now. I thought I would already have my husbands and I would have
kids. I never wanted to wait. I wanted my happy ending”

“Your husbands are right here, Alea.”

Tears pooled in her eyes. “You don’t know everything.”

He shook his head. “I know everything I need to know, baby.
I love you.”

“Right here and right now, I believe it. I don’t know that I
want to leave this island. It feels like a dream. I don’t want to wake up.”

They would get rescued. He knew it deep down inside or he
wouldn’t risk getting her pregnant. He had faith. But nothing had to change.
“You’re safe with us.” The “us” came easy now. And so did something else. “Take
off that shirt. Show me your breasts.”

She hesitated, but just for a moment, then her hands went to
the edge of Cooper’s navy-blue shirt and she started to pull it up, revealing
inch after inch of gloriously golden flesh. Her knees. Her thighs. He held his
fucking breath as he caught sight of her pussy. She was smooth and golden
there, too, with just a flush of pink to show that she’d recently taken a cock.
She’d given up her virginity and moved forward, taking another step in her
healing.

“Keep going. I want to see everything.”

She pulled the shirt up, her belly button coming into view.
He loved her roundness and the way her belly sloped into her hips. So graceful.
That was Alea. The bottoms of her breasts showed beneath the hem of the shirt,
and his cock sprang up long and thick, tenting his sweats. The fucker seemed to
be pointing her way.

Nipples. Hers were sun-kissed brown, and he couldn’t wait to
get his mouth on them. But he had control. He needed to have control. For her.
For him.

He sat back, aware of every cell in his body coming to life
for her as she held the shirt in her hand. “Toss it away and tell me about it.”

“It?”

Like she didn’t know what he meant. “I want to know how it felt
to be with my brothers.”

He loved the way she blushed. “It was nice.”

“Oh, that won’t do. Tell me how it felt and I don’t want you
to use the word nice. Landon isn’t exactly a small boy.” He shrugged a little,
moving his hips to give his cock more room. This was right where he wanted to
be. In control. “You live with a guy long enough, you end up seeing more than
you’d think or want. It’s not like Coop’s tiny, either. Tell me what you did to
them.”

She sat back on her heels, her knees together. “I don’t know
if I can talk about this. Can’t you just kiss me?”

He felt his eyebrow arch. She didn’t understand the word
submission, but she would. “I could spank you. It’s your choice.”

He loved the way she flushed and her mouth made that perfect
little
O
. “You want to spank me?”

It was said with a breathy little huff that lifted his
hopes. She wasn’t disinterested. “I would kill to spank that ass. I dream about
it. I want to get that skin just the perfect shade of pink. Come on, baby, give
me a reason to put the flat of my hand on your ass.”

“I gave Cooper a hand job. I don’t know why they call it
that. It didn’t feel like a job.” She spoke way too fast, her words tripping
over each other as she flushed.

“Did you like it, you little vixen?” He hoped she did because
he wanted to feel her hand and her mouth on his own cock as soon as possible.

The sweetest smile crossed her face. Fuck, she was
beautiful. “I wasn’t sure I would, but I liked the way he pulsed in my hand.”

His cock twitched, his whole body relaxing as he realized
she was going to give him everything he needed. She wasn’t running away. She’d
come after him, despite his idiotic outbreak. She was smart, his girl. She’d
fought for what they all needed, and they needed that kind of courage in a
wife. “Did he fill you up?”

“Yes. I could barely get my hand all the way around it.”

Alea’s voice went husky, and he could tell the moment she
became comfortable. Besides the deepening of her tone, her body relaxed, her
knees spreading wide as though she didn’t realize that she opened her pussy
wide and lovely. Damn, he needed a camera because that sight needed to be
preserved.

“You must have done it right. He looked happy.”

“I tried to make sure he enjoyed it, but I had never done it
before.”

He reached out for her because the insecurity that slipped
into her words hit his heart as hard as it hit his cock. He got to his knees
and brushed his lips across hers. “I’m sure you were perfect, Lea. You couldn’t
be anything but. I have no doubt Cooper loved it.”

“I did,” a masculine voice said.

His brother was here. A feeling of deep rightness flowed
over him, and he knew that not only could he handle this—he wanted it. He
glanced behind him and saw Coop and Landon waiting there. Cooper had gotten
dressed again, but Lea had stolen his shirt. Lan was in his boxers. Damn. If
they were here much longer, they would all be nudists.