Page 9 of Marauding Daddies

Aria thought it wise to immediately leave the stage but once she did, her footsteps slowed. Suddenly, she wasn’t all that keen to join the Master who had bought her bid. Master T took the decision out of her hands as he appeared by her side. With a firm hand on her elbow, he led her to Master Tiger.

“You do recall the protocol as discussed prior to the auction starting, Lollipop?” he asked as they stood in front of Keith.

“Yes, Master T.” Aria could hear the tremor in her voice. She wasn’t scared, so all it could boil down to was anticipation that, finally, she was one step closer to avenging her father’s death. Except the hatred and utter disgust that she had expected to feel when Keith Frazer brushed the hair from her face was absent. Instead, her cheek tingled warmly in reaction when his knuckles grazed her skin.

“Eyes, Lollipop.”

The low, dulcet-toned voice of Master Tiger overwhelmed her defenses and coaxed her submissive persona to immediate obedience. Her eyes rose to meet his. His gray eyes had the lustrous color of a polished shard of metal. She stared in fascination at the immaculate sclera that surrounded them. They swirled with fragments of black onyx, coruscated with the cold, emotionless color of the last ashes of a fire, tossed up in the breeze.

Does he know who I am? Is that why he looked at me with such anger? For the first time since she’d made the vow at her father’s graveside, fear shuddered through her body.

“What did you promise Master Raptor?”

Raising her chin, Aria dug deep to find the scrupulous Mafiosi that had been dormant for so long. She had loved her father, but he had treated her like just another useless woman, never believing she had the chutzpah to become a true Mafiosi. When she found out he had personally overseen the training of another girl he had illegally adopted, she had been livid and took on all the assassination jobs she could lay her hands on. Her strategy had been sound. She would show him just how good she was. How capable she was at forward planning, execution, recovery, and instigating follow through—everything he had always said he required from his successor.

Salvitore Sanchigo never had the honor to find out just how good she was and what his daughter had done to prove to the Sanchigo mafia that she had the skills and the cunning to be the Comare of the group. Her well-planned retaliation to show her father had splintered under the weight of misjudgment of time. The cruel reality of the world they lived in had interfered.

The Frazer brothers and their friends had killed him before anyone could inform him just how proud his daughter could make him. That, more than anything, awakened the resolve inside her to succeed in her quest.

Glancing briefly at Master T, she addressed the question to him while holding Keith’s angry glare.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, Master T, but protocol doesn’t include information about my personal life or what I do or don’t owe anyone.”

“She’s got you there, Master Tiger.” Tanner rocked back on his heels.

Keith ignored him, keeping his gaze locked on Aria. She shifted uncomfortably under his direct stare. It was as if he could see right through the defenses she had built around her soul. Like he was reaching inside and unlocking every key to every secret she had kept hidden from prying eyes.

Fuck! If he does that to me, what will Kevin, whose gaze over a distance almost crippled me, manage to see?

That didn’t bode well for where the night was heading... not for her, anyway.

“Is there going to be a problem here I should be aware of, Lollipop? Because once you leave with Master Tiger, it is because you trust that he and Master Panther are who you wish to spend the night with, offering the items they just bid on. I would hate to lose such a vast amount to provide to our cause. If you’re not sure, tell me now so we can open your lot again for bidding.”

“I have committed to what I offered, Master T. As long as Masters Tiger and Panther don’t pry into my affairs outside of those parameters.”

“Master Tiger?” Tanner looked at Keith. Unbeknownst to Aria, he was well aware of the actual reason behind the auction, so Keith’s possessive reaction wasn’t unexpected.

Aria struggled not to drop her eyes but continued to return Keith’s stare innocuously. He sauntered closer. She forced herself not to turn and run. In all of her relationships, short or long, she was the one who set out the rules, the barriers, and the boundaries. No one ever dared overstep them. Having a man encroach on her personal space in such an intimate setting shook her inside out. The intensity of the moment frightened her as much as it excited her.

Keith grazed her cheek with his thumb. “You’re wrong, Babygirl.” He leaned closer still. “Once you step into that private room with me, you belong to us. Body, heart, and soul.” His lips brushed against hers as he kissed her, tilting her head back with a gentle touch beneath her chin as he ended the kiss, and lifted his head to study her. “That, Lollipop, is not negotiable. With Master Panther and me, it’s all or nothing. That’s what we’re after with you. That’s what we want. Choose. Now.”

“I... that’s not... the auction...” she stammered, clearing her throat when the reality of what he was saying inflamed her veins with a flare of desire. It was incomprehensible that she reacted this way. Being attracted to or lusting after the Frazer brothers had never been part of the plan.

“We arranged the auction to find you. That, little one, is the beginning and the end of it.”

“I... what do you mean? Find me?” Fear unfurled deep inside her at the thought that they knew who she was. That her ploy to come at them through the side door had backfired. His lowly uttered words against her cheek put an end to her fears... only to replace them with a lust so profound, she was left breathless.

“You, Lollipop. We want you... as our Babygirl, our woman... our wife, and the mother to our children.”

“Your... wh-what?” she stammered lamely, completely perplexed, and struck speechless. The last thing she had expected was for a mission that had the potential to fail rapidly to become as easy as pie.

Except for one little detail...

Aria quickly realized that scening with two such powerful Doms was very different from what she had experienced in training... and without a doubt, she knew she wasn’t prepared for what was coming.

Perhaps she should retreat, recoup, and reconsider her approach. Intimacy with these two men could prove to be detrimental to her success. It didn’t matter that Aria had never allowed emotions to rule the decisions she made. What mattered was that, within a matter of minutes, one of the two brothers had stripped her of her assertive nature and tapped into the natural submissive deep inside her. A sub who seemingly wanted nothing other than to do exactly what he was after and forget why she was there in the first place.

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