“Hardly,” Devin snorted, and Jonathan’s lips twitched amidst his well-trimmed salt-and-pepper beard.
“Are you trying to tell us not to catch feelings for our auction winnings?” Jonathan asked me, raising one dark brow.
“I’m telling you that even as we take our pleasure tonight,” a rumble, a synchronized low growl I could relate to on a primal level as a man even if I wasn’t as prone to showing it, greeted my words, “we have to keep our wits about us. The second we’re free to do so, we need to figure out what Anthony wants. Why he put us up to this. Why he kept us in the dark.”
I owed my life to Anthony Butera in a lot of ways, but that didn’t mean I trusted him in all things. I’d never been prone to trusting anyone without limits or conditions.
“We’ll have plenty of time to find that out after she’s been thoroughly fucked,” Jonathan said.
Just like that, the girl was back, standing in the corridor with an expression like a lost woodland creature. Instinct had me approaching her, placing a steadying hand at the small of her back, and leading her into the dining room.
The table was laid with well-made dishes, the room cloaked in delicious smells. A bottle of champagne sat in a bucket of ice, four flutes neatly arranged around it. As my colleagues settled into their seats, I uncorked the wine, watching as Frankie jumped at the cork’s pop.
I poured for each of us, handing Frankie her glass by its delicate stem, letting our fingers touch as the drink passed from my hand to hers. She pulled back, cheeks flushed again like she’d been out in the cold.
I could imagine that sweetness lending itself well to submission. My own inner dominance flared to life at the thought, eager to get this meal over with so the night could truly begin. I’d just as happily skip it entirely, but the girl…well, she’d need her strength to hold her own with all three of us.
I watched Frankie as the four of us began eating in near-silence. She took careful bites of her food, made little effort to exist outside of her own head, the anxiety that made her tremble slightly until she willed it away.
It was a good opportunity to take in all her features. To truly look at her without the watchful eyes of the auction crowd watching me just as closely.
It was strange. She was so…remarkably unremarkable. Pretty, but in an almost unassuming way.
Dark hair, smooth skin, a soft mouth that didn’t immediately evoke sin, but I had enough of an imagination that I could see those lips around my cock.
Without the glitz of her auction outfit, which had been designed to make sure she fetched a high price, I could see how Frankie might have slipped under people’s radar before now. Especially with the shyness she carried like a shield. A sheer curtain.
She was young, of course. I’d noticed that right away. But now that she was closer, a different picture painted itself into clarity.
The longer I watched the methodical movements she made, the heaviness that was apparent in her slim shoulders, the contrast of the innocence in her doe eyes and the seriousness they held, the longer I was sure this was a girl who’d grown up fast.
A young woman with undue burdens that likely had led her to participate in the auction tonight in the first place.
“Before we do this,” Frankie’s soft but surprisingly steady voice broke through the silence, shocking me back to awareness. “I want to lay out some ground rules. For my own safety.”
I exchanged a look with each of my colleagues. We all wore similar expressions of surprised admiration.
None of us, it seemed, had expected our little auction item to have any kind of backbone. I leveled my gaze on her and gave a terse nod, signaling for her to go on.
“First, I get to stop if…if I need to.” She shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable, but stood her metaphorical ground. “I agreed to this, right? But agreeing to…to lose my virginity is one thing, and actually doing it is another. I…if I’m not ready, I get to say no, and we revisit it later.”
Christ, if she thought we had no concern for her consent in the moment, she must think we were even more monstrous than we were in reality.
Her instincts weren’t unhoned, to be fair, but my body prickled with some fiery annoyance anyway. I certainly wasn’t a man who’d ever wanted for female attention, and the idea of taking what I wanted with no regard for the woman I was taking it from…it disgusted me.
“You get to say no,” Jonathan agreed before I could. He liked to position himself as our de facto leader because of his status as the royal son, but we had an equal share of power in this circumstance. His eyes seemed to urge me to continue, leveling the playing field again.
“In fact, you should choose a safe word,” I declared.
Frankie blinked at me. “A…safe word?”
Fuck. She really was an innocent. The three of us would eat her alive, and the cruel bastard in me relished the thought of it. She’d sure taste sweet.
“It’s more powerful than a no,” I told her. “The second you say it, everything stops. Helps if you want to say no when you really mean yes, too.”
She looked puzzled but gave a careful nod.
“We could even stoplight it,” Devin cut in. “Yellow means slow down. Red’s stop. Green…” he smirked. “Well, that’s encouragement. Keep going, because you like it. Don’t stop.”
