“Why are you so nervous around us, then?”
That question shook her loose from her open and honest moment, though. Her eyes narrowed and she curled her hands into fists. “Maybe because I don’t care for arrogant alphas who think they have a right to pry around inside my head. I’m here to do a job and, to be quite honest, you need me more than I need you.”
Lie.They needed one another, from what he could see.
Still, he let her keep the lie this time. “In order to pose as someone who had been our slave for weeks—especially since our cover is a trio who sells extremely high-dollar slaves with training—you’re going to need tolearn. There isn’t any way to do that other than to actually train you.”
She blinked, slowly, followed by a loud swallow. Even still, her voice kept its almost bored and more than a little hostile tone. “If you just want a slave, I’m sure there are plenty of omegas willing to play your sick little games.”
Trent snorted. “We’ve had plenty of omegas who enjoyed our little games, and I’m going to bet you’d be more trouble than all of them put together, but no, this isn’t some game. How the hell do you expect to play a part you’ve never experienced? You’ll need to get comfortable with us around you. You’ll need to look like you’ve spent the last few weeks being trained by us and the only way for that to happen is to actually train you.” When she opened her mouth, he held a hand up so he could finish. “With limitations and safe words, of course.Thatis the point of good communication, so you can say ‘don’t pull my hair,’ and we’ll know to never do that. Without, we could stumble on a hard limit for you we were never aware of.”
She shifted in her chair, most of her attitude dissipating.
It made Trent wonder…what’s beneath all that attitude?If she actually let her guard down, if she stopped fighting just to fight, what would he find beneath it? Someone shy? Someone who loved praise? A person who got off on humiliation?
He normally loved this time, when he was able to find out the secrets that every female kept close, to see how she was unique, to discover all the beautiful things she hid.
Except then he reminded himself—that wasn’t the point with Alison. They would only discover what they needed to in order to complete their task.
Daniel leaned in, his elbows on the table and his normal good-guy expression in place. “Don’t think you’re the only one uncomfortable in this, Alison. This is new territory for us, too. We’ve established that you don’t have any experience with this sort of relationship, no large traumas involving men or alphas, so why don’t we give you your homework, then you can go on to bed?”
“Homework?” Her look went past disrespectful to downright mean. “I haven’t done homework since I was in high school, and honestly? I didn’t do it then, either.”
Daniel laughed and pushed a stapled pack of papers across the table to her. Trent knew what was in them—they all did. They’d written those up years ago, and just seeing a glimpse of them reminded him far too much of their old lives.
She flipped through the first few pages, her cheeks going pink at what she found. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Not at all,” Daniel said. “Fill that out—thoroughly and honestly—and you won’t even have to discuss it with us.”
Trent could see it all in his head—the questions about her medical history, her personal history, about her hard limits and experience. They were the same packets they’d go over with potential subs back when they’dplayedmore seriously. The thought of Alison filling it out made him uncomfortably turned on, and he struggled to keep it from showing.
This was proving to be far more interesting than it had any right to. She seemed to awaken things in him he’d thought were gone, a part of him that wanted to really take her, to watch her come undone, to taste eachlittle shocked moan when he pulled passions from her she had no idea were there.
That can’t happen, though.He sighed as he shook his head, trying to drive home the most important part.This is just a game, and that makes her off limits.
* * * *
Kyle chuckled as he read over Alison’s paperwork. She’d left it on the kitchen table as though that was the end of it.Girl has no idea.
She’d answered all of nothing. A few questions had smart-ass remarks—after the anal sex question she’d put ‘only if I can shove something up your ass first’—and the rest were blank. Saying she’d half-assed it would be giving the girlwaytoo much credit.
“She’s going to have a rough two months,” Trent said as they got ready to go have a talk with her.
“Funny thing is, I don’t think she’s even all that opposed to some of this. I think she just likes to be difficult,” Kyle responded. “It’s like she fights with herself and decides she should argue, so she does.”
Daniel offered a grin as he picked up the water bottles they’d pulled from the fridge. “I don’t mind a brat one bit.”
“You will when it isn’t one you get to have fun with,” Kyle pointed out.
Daniel’s smile fell, as though someone had just dashed his hopes. After another moment, the smirk came back. “Hell, I’ll take a little emotional torture, and you know she isn’t going to be happy about redoing this.”
Kyle chuckled, ready for the wild omega to have herself a world-class hissy fit over being forced to notonly actually answer the questions but do so with them there. Then again, since giving her space hadn’t convinced her to be forthright, he didn’t mind changing up tactics.
She was lying out by the large indoor pool, and Kyle damn near lost his balance when he saw her. She’d been stunning in those tight pants she’d worn the first night, but they were nothing compared tothis. She wore a bikini that showed off her amazing figure. It wasn’t the sort of body a woman got from not eating, but instead one honed by hard work. The black of it stood out against her pale skin, and the large sunglasses on her face only made her look even more like some doe.
He caught himself before he face-planted into the concrete floor and spilled all the food on the plate. Still, the action caused enough noise that she lifted her head to look in their direction.
Anddamn, he’d had no idea a person could feel an eye roll, but there it was.
