THEIR_VIRGIN_PRINCESS (36 page)

“Lea! Lea!”

“Lan?”

Landon stood on the ground beneath her, a gun in his hand.
He quickly shoved it into his holster and held his arms up. “Jump, Lea. Jump
and I’ll catch you. I swear I will. Jump, darlin’.”

“Got you,” Yasmin snarled as she came through the doors.

Alea jumped. No question about it. She would rather die
trying to get to Lan than face down a bullet. She heard herself scream as she
made the short trip from the second story.

Her breath huffed from her chest as she landed in strong,
warm arms.

“I can kill you both.” Yasmin stood on the balcony, her gun
in her hand.

Lan moved fast, turning so his back was to the gun, and he
pressed Alea to the ground.

A loud report filled the air. That hadn’t been Yasmin’s gun
with its silencer. Then whose?

“Thank god,” Lan whispered and pulled Alea upright.

Yasmin’s gun fell to the ground, her body slumping over the
balcony railing. She hung there for a moment, eyes wide, as Dane and Cooper
charged through, both with a semiautomatic in their hands.

Alea gasped in horror as Yasmin teetered, her body
unbalanced, then tipped over the railing. She fell through the air, her blonde
hair flipping with her body before she hit the ground with a sickening thud. A
glance told Alea that Yas’s neck hung at an unnatural angle. She was dead.

Dane looked over the railing. “Is Alea okay?”

“I’ve got her,” Lan yelled. He scooped her up, holding her
to his chest.

Alea stared at Yasmin’s dead body as he carried her away,
brutally aware of just how close she’d come to a very similar end. She clung to
Lan and cried.

“How is Oliver?” Piper asked as she poured out the tea and
waited for the servant to step back. “Thank you so much. That will be all for
now. We should be finished in an hour or so. Until then, I’d like to be alone
with my cousin, please.”

The servant frowned, but nodded and bowed as he left the
room.

They were finally alone. It seemed like Alea was never alone
these days. “He’s recovering but very slowly. His brothers arrived a couple of
days ago. When the doctors say he’s stable, they want to move him back to
England.”

She’d met Callum and Rory at the airport and escorted them
to their brother’s side. She’d felt a horrible pressing guilt the whole time.
Oliver had been a target because of her. She’d apologized, but the brothers had
hugged her and assured her they placed no blame on anyone but Yasmin. Callum
had mentioned that if Oliver had followed his initial instincts and pursued
Alea instead, none of it would have happened.

Yasmin had already been cremated, her urn placed in the
family crypt by her grieving mother. Alea had felt so badly for her aunt.
Though Yasmin had been horrible, her aunt had loved her only daughter. Her
grief was complicated. She’d been horrified by what Yasmin had done.
 

So much sadness. And there had been so much rage in Oliver’s
eyes. Even through the pain of his surgeries, she could see the hatred there
that burned for the woman he’d once called his wife.

“I’m glad to hear he’s going to make it,” Piper said,
putting her tea down and looking at the door as it closed. Landon was standing outside
the door, his silent figure a monument to his protectiveness.

Unfortunately, she wanted his figure to be a monument to
sexiness and love, but that hadn’t happened. Despite the fact that she’d tried
to talk to them about why she’d refused the marriage in the beginning, they
didn’t seem to be listening. Oh, the wedding plans were going through. They
were scheduled to be married in the garden next week, but Dane and Landon
seemed to be going through the motions with grim determination.

“Are you all right?” Piper asked.

She nodded. “I’m fine. No morning sickness at all. I feel
great physically.”

In fact, the doctor had said she was healthy and that sex
wouldn’t be a problem at all, even sex with all her fiancés as long as they
were careful.

But Cooper and Landon were the only ones who had slept
beside her in the four days that had passed since she’d leapt from the balcony
and into Landon’s arms. She’d tried to explain, and Dane said he understood,
but he’d been remote.

They were circling each other like wary sharks, and she
needed to break the stalemate. She wanted her wedding to be a joyous occasion,
not something they all went through for the sake of the baby.

“I wasn’t talking about your health physically. How are you
emotionally?” Piper asked. “I saw that two of the other women from the brothel
called you. How did that go?”

Jennifer and Lisa. She barely remembered them, but they had
given her so much strength. She’d been terrified at first, but they had drawn
her out, getting her to really talk about what had happened. They had cried,
all three of them. They had cried for each other, for themselves, and for the
girls who hadn’t made it.

“I’m starting a new foundation. I’m bringing Lisa and Jen
into it with me. It’s going to fight international slavery and push the United
Nations and other countries to advance women’s rights.”

Tears formed in Piper’s eyes, and she put down her teacup
and reached for Alea’s hand. “A long time ago, Dane told me that how we handle
the pain we’ve been given is the way we’re measured in life. A strong person
can take the horror and pain and use it to make the world a better place. Lea,
I think that’s a wonderful idea.”

She was excited about it, and especially excited about the
fact that Jen and Lisa were going to get some of the others together for a
visit at the palace so they could meet and talk and help each other heal.

Alea was going to reach out to Brittany, too. She was
letting go of her anger because it had no place in her life. It solved nothing,
but forgiveness and understanding…those could solve everything.

She was done with anger and bitterness. She was ready to
move on, but she had no intention of moving on without Dane Mitchell.

There was the sound of a door opening, and Landon walked in.
His blue eyes found hers, and she was shocked at how her heart pounded in her
chest at the very sight of him. He nodded toward Piper. “Your Highness.”

“It’s Piper, Lan. In a couple of days we’ll be family, and
no one in my family calls me Your Highness. Well, except for my sister, but it
sounds more like Your High Ass. She’s a classy one, my little sis.”

Lan’s smile made him beam. “I’m excited to meet her. I’m
also excited that Coop’s family is going to descend on the palace tomorrow
morning. I think it might be the first time that monstrosity Tal calls a plane
gets completely filled.”

Alea couldn’t wait to meet Cooper’s family. She just hoped
she could remember all their names. There were six brothers and five of them
were married with eleven kids between them. But first, she had a job to do.
“Are you going to help me?”

Lan put a hand on her hair, smoothing it back. “Always, Lea.
You’re sure the doc said it was all right?”

He was killing her, treating her like she was made of glass.
“Lan, have you ever heard of pregnancy hormones?”

Piper shook her head. “Oh, honey. I have a load of those.”
She also proved she had Alea’s back. “But it’s okay because your men are taking
care of you, right?”

She was so glad Piper was on her side. She shook her head.
“No. They’re not taking care of me. They’re very gently making love to me, but
only once since we got back and only Cooper.”

Lan went a stark red. “Lea, baby, should we be talking about
this?”

Piper stood up and wagged a finger at him. “How could you?
Pregnant women need sex. Crazy, dirty, nasty sex. So, you liked having sex with
her so much that she got pregnant, but now that she’s expecting, you’ve lost
interest. Is that the way it is?”

“No. God… N-no, not at all. I’m so horny….” He shut his
mouth and started to laugh. “This is one of those times when you two are having
fun with me, isn’t it? Well, fine. I can deal. If you’re going to make it a
royal decree that I get down and nasty with the love of my life and share her
with my best friends, then I have no choice. I have to follow a royal order. Do
you have the key to the dungeon, Piper? Cooper is going to get Dane down there
in twenty minutes.”

Piper smiled and handed over a key. “You guys have fun. The
bed is in the back if you decide to stay down there. There’s also a phone that
goes directly to the kitchen. We had that installed a few months back because
Kade gets hungry when he’s playing. Y’all have fun. I’ll keep Tal busy
elsewhere.”

Lan took her hand and started to lead her down the hall. She
threaded her fingers through his, but worry still swamped her. “Are you sure
you want to do this with me?”

Lan looked down at her. “Do I want to play bondage games
with the most beautiful woman in the world? Uh, yeah.”

“You haven’t seemed to want me lately.” He’d been perfectly
polite and he’d said all the right things, but he hadn’t made love to her. “I
said some terrible things when we first arrived at the palace. I was reeling
and I didn’t mean them. And—”

“Stop. Lea, I love you. The last few days have been rough. You
almost died, baby. You’re pregnant. I’m so worried that I’ll do the wrong
thing.”

“I’m not fragile, Lan.”

“You sure felt that way when you jumped off the balcony and
into my arms. If I had been off, if I’d tripped or stumbled, I would have lost
both you and the baby.”

She hugged him close. “Oh, you never would have done that.
You wouldn’t have dropped me. Why do you think I just jumped? I realize now
that no matter what way I would have gone, someone would have saved me. Cooper
came in through the back rooms of the suite so he would have found me in the
bedroom. Dane came in through the front. And you were going to climb right up
to the balcony. I was protected on all sides. She didn’t have a chance.”

“She had a chance to take a shot at you.”

“Don’t, Lan. I want this afternoon to be perfect. I’m alive.
Our baby is alive. The doctor said I can have sex just about any way we want.
We only have a few more days to have crazy single sex before we move on to
crazy married sex.” She sighed and rested her head on his chest, listening to
the sound of his heart. “Please, Lan. I need to know if I’ve lost Dane.”

“You haven’t lost any of us, baby. Dane just feels the
weight of what happened. And I’m a little worried that he thinks he needs to
change. That’s why Coop came up with this insane plan.” He leaned over and
kissed her, his lips brushing against hers. “You have to prove to Dane you can
handle the whole Dom thing. I know he thinks he can live without it, but there
will be a huge hole in his life.”

And in hers as well because she craved the kind of dominance
only Dane could give her. “I want him to be happy, Lan. And I want this part of
him. I trust you and Dane and Cooper. I love you all so much. I want to try
everything. I don’t want any walls between us.”

“All right. Let’s get this ball rolling then. You’re wrong
about the single sex though, baby. I haven’t been single since the minute I saw
you. I think I married you in my heart a long time ago.”

God, he always said the right things. He thought he was
inept, but he always knew how to calm her. She smiled at him, and they started
down the hall, to the dungeon, where their lives together were going to begin
again.

* * * *

“It’s down here,” Cooper said, practically pulling Dane
along.

What was up with that? Dane pulled back.

“Coop, the only thing that way is the dungeon.” And he
didn’t want to be there. God, he hated the fact that there was a dungeon right
here and he would never step into it with Alea. He would never lovingly bind
her and torture her for their mutual pleasure. He would never hear her call him
Master.

Husband. He had to be satisfied with being her husband. She
couldn’t handle the missionary position, so he definitely couldn’t expect her
to climb onto a St. Andrews Cross and count it out for him.

“Yeah, what I need you to see is in the dungeon,” Cooper
insisted. “Come on, man. It’s a surprise for Alea. It’s for our wedding night.”

“In the dungeon?”

Cooper shrugged. “It’s the one place I don’t expect her to
look. Come on, Dane. Don’t tell me you’re still having doubts.”

About loving Alea? Not a chance. About being the right man
for her? Yeah. He was having all kind of doubts about that. He could still
remember the minute he’d seen the guard dead in front of her room, his body
lying there like a message to Dane.
You’ll
lose her. You can’t keep her, you fucking pervert. You ruin everything you
touch.

He could still hear his ex-wife and his father. He’d lost
one family over his needs. Was he ready to lose another one? Did he even
deserve another one?

“I love Alea, but the last couple of days have been rough. I
had to kill her cousin. I think I should give her some space.”

“Her cousin was a jealous whack job who was trying to kill
her. I think she’s going to be fine with you pulling that particular trigger.
The al Mussads are wonderful, but I have to say that the extended family leaves
something to be desired. First Khalil and then Yasmin. I think we should take a
look at the old family tree and prune it proactively of any other cousins who
don’t live in the palace. Really, it’ll save us so much time and crap in the
future,” Cooper said.

Dane turned to him. They were getting closer to the dungeon,
and he really didn’t get Coop’s good mood. Well, he did. Coop had been making
love to Alea. Coop had been wrapping himself in her sweetness. Lan was too
worried. And Dane just kept his distance. She hadn’t wanted him since their
time on the island, and he couldn’t shove his needs on her. Alea was pregnant,
and he’d forced her to marry the three of them. Oh, she’d said all the right
things lately, but she’d only said them after she’d learned about the baby.