Page 350 of Wild Mustang Security Firm

“You had me at quiet and relaxing,” Cobb finally said.

“You had me at fishing,” the second laughed.

“What part of bouncing ski bunnies and subs did you guys not understand?” Alex asked.

Reid grinned as the others rolled their eyes and gave their companion a look. He turned to Aliya, sitting quietly in her chair.

“What do you think, Princess? Want to wear my ring and my collar, play dress up in the snow, and do some bouncing?” He waggled his eyebrows, hoping to get her to smile, but she barely looked at him.

“You’re inviting me along?” she asked, averting her eyes. She was still a horrible liar. He saw right through her uncertain frown to the insecurities she was trying to hide.

Turning to face her again, he caught her chin, forcing her to look at him.

“What part of ring and collar do you not get, Princess? If you don’t want to throw in with the guys, that’s fine. We can go anywhere in the world you want, so long as you understand I’m going to be right there with you. I told you, you belong to me… in the same way, I belong to you. I’m willing to give being a part-owner of a resort a try, but I’d be just as happy tending bar withyou in Scotland, farming tulips with you in Holland, or counting koalas with you or whatever they do in Australia. The point is, unless you safeword out of this relationship and tell me you’ve lost interest in being with me, then the keyword in this entire discussion is ‘with you.’ You need to get it through that beautiful, stubborn, temperamental head of yours that unless you opt-out in no uncertain terms, I intend to be with you.”

“What if I prefer to be alone?” she asked, her fear of his answer evident in the tightness of her body.

Reid took a deep breath and shook his head slowly.

“Then I’ll very gently take you out of that wheelchair, put you over my knee, and blister your backside.”

The reaction of the men in the room was split between stifled laughter and quiet groaning.

“Granted,” Reid continued, “it won’t have as much impact as if your bottom was bare, but I’m fairly sure I can put enough sting in your tail to make you settle down and behave.”

“And if not,” Cobb offered, “we can give you the room to do what you need.”

Aliya looked into the faces of each of the other men and knew she would have absolutely no support from any of them.

“Why?” she whispered. “He tortured you because of me.”

Reid pulled her gently from the wheelchair into his lap.

“He tortured me because he was a monster. And sick with sepsis, beaten to within an inch of your life, dehydrated and starved, you picked up a weapon you’d never used, and ended his miserable, misbegotten life, and saved me. Do you get that, Princess? You. Saved. Me. If you’re still able to see me as your knight in shining armor, you need to know, I see you as my warrior princess. Xena’s got nothing on you,” he said quietly.

“I don’t think Ares ever spanked Xena’s ass.” Aliya giggled as she relaxed into his body, tucking her head under his chin and snuggling against him.

“Thus, the reason she was forever riding around doing stupid things. You should know, Princess… I’m smarter than Ares and know how to handle a brat.”

“I thought I was a princess.”

“Yes, a princess brat. So, Switzerland or…”

Once again, she looked at the faces of the men gathered around the table.

“We can have a four-poster bed?” she asked, blushing profusely.

“Oh, Princess, we’ll have a four-poster bed, and as Alex said, we’ll create one of the best dungeons in Europe. After all, every princess has to have a dungeon…”

Aliya smiled up at him, her face telling him everything.

“More,” she stated simply and definitively.

Reid nodded, knowing somehow, inexplicably, he had found his way to an improbable home with the woman cuddled in his lap.

Epilogue

L’AMORE SOFFERENTE HOTEL BASE OF THE MATTERHORN, SWITZERLAND

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