Page 37 of Kept to Kill
Lily stared up at him, looking defiant. ‘Surely you heard our exchange. It’s not as if we left the room to speak privately,’ she said without fear.
‘Tell us.’ Quin stepped closer, letting out a sound that spoke of punishment if she didn’t answer truthfully. ‘Or do I call her back and tell her that you’ll sleep in her daughters’ bed with them after all? How far into the night do you think they’d last before you killed them?’
Bastian watched Lily’s resolve crumple. ‘You’re such a bastard.’ she whispered brokenly. ‘Gods, she just asked me if I was all right, if you must know.’
‘All right?’
‘Yes, because I’m a lone woman here with three Dark Brothers. Obviously I look like I’m in some sort of distress.’ She looked down at the floor again. ‘Perhaps she’s right,’ she said very softly.
Quin made a sound of amusement. ‘Distress? Trust me, Lily, I could show you what distress actually looks like.’ He stopped right in front of her so she had to crane her neck and lean back to see his face. ‘Would you like me to “distress” you?’ he growled.
She held his gaze, her jaw trembling, hatred in her eyes. She wasn’t going to concede, Bastian thought, and he’d give her the lash for her insubordination.
Bastian stood up. ‘Enough of this,’ he said sharply. ‘The night grows late and our food, cold.’
Quin grunted but backed away from Lily. There was yet another knock at the door, which he answered, snatched something, and closed the door hard. He turned and threw something at Lily, which she caught. The nightgown the woman had promised. He watched as she immediately draped the thick winter nightie over her head and stood, the hem falling almost to the floor. She looked so prim and proper, not like a killer with the power of death running through her veins at all. His cock grew uncomfortable in his trousers and he shifted slightly. His eyes narrowed knowingly as Mal did the same. Gods, did they all want her? Perhaps he shouldn’t have suggested binding her to the unit after all.
Frowning, he watched her cross to the table and sit next to him, hunger winning out over fear. If they did bind her, both Mal and Quin would be able to touch her with no ill effects. Would she be safe with them after that? Bastian didn’t hold with rape personally, but he knew many Brothers did or, at the very least, didn’t care one way or the other, and there were no specific laws against it in the camp. He glanced surreptitiously at Mal. What if Mal hurt her in other ways once she was bound to them? A Brother could hurt another Brother. The wards didn’t stop that. The idea he’d put into Quin’s head would do her more harm than good. He was a fool.
* * *
She choked down her meal,trying not to let any of them know how rattled she was. Dinner was chicken and potatoes and brussels. It looked and smelled delicious, but in her mouth it might as well have been ash.
As soon as she was finished, she pushed her chair away from the table and practically ran for the furthest bed. She tried to sort through her turbulent emotions. The day’s exertions had left her weary. Traveling with these awful men made her weary too. She rubbed her shoulder, where a dark bruise had formed. When Mal had pushed her down in the muddy yard, she’d hit it on a stone or something that had been beneath the mud.
She curled into a ball beneath the coverlet as she went through the rest of the evening. Why had Bastian attacked her like that? She shivered. She’d been so afraid, not just of what she could do to him, but actually of him. It was obvious now that, for some reason, he was immune to the darkness in her. She’d put that to one side for now, though. She just didn’t know what to make of such a thing.
She moved on to Quin’s threats. She had no doubt that callous man could and would – how had he put it? –distressher. Her mind was running rampant with all the ways he could do that without touching her. Between his threats and Bastian and Mal’s attacks on her person, it was sinking in how dangerous these men really were. She’d known it before, of course, but the way a person knows a wolf is dangerous without ever meeting one. If they did, they knew they were in danger, but really it was no different than a big fluffy dog until it snapped its jaws.
She closed her eyes, trying to relax. She was exhausted. She needed to sleep. But the thoughts just kept running through her mind, over and over, giving her no respite.
‘Are you awake?’
The sudden voice behind her made her jolt. Turning her head, she saw that Bastian was sitting on the bed and that the other two were already asleep in the other one. How long had she been lying here?
She didn’t answer his now moot question.
Unthinkably, he kicked off his boots and lay next to her. With a gasp, she rolled away until her back was to the wall and she was as far away from him as she could get.
‘What are you doing?’ she hissed.
He turned towards her and wriggled about, clearly getting more comfortable, and she frowned. ‘There’s a chair over there by the fire.’
He looked over to where she pointed. ‘So there is. Would you like one of the blankets?’
She opened and closed her mouth several times. Wasn’t it bad enough that they were being … how they were being? Did they have to torture her with sleep deprivation as well? Feeling like crying, she began to edge down to the foot of the bed. ‘No.’
He gave her a look and reached out a hand that made her throw herself back from instinct. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said. ‘The bed is more than big enough for us both and it’s obvious that you can’t kill me.’ He grinned. ‘At least not with your usual methods.’
Her eyes narrowed at him. ‘Perhaps that’s a problem. Did you ever think of that?’
He gave a low chuckle. ‘Don’t tell me you think yourself so alluring that you believe I can’t control my baser urges.’
Her cheeks heated. That was what she had feared – well, not that she was alluring. She wasn’t sure she knew how to bethat, but she was afraid that he would attack her again. She had no way of fighting back if her touch didn’t kill him, after all.
‘Why did you—?’ She broke off and began to scramble, freezing when she felt his hand take hers in a gentle hold.
She looked down at it, almost unable to comprehend that someone’s touch waslingering. She could feel his skin on hers, the warmth of it not fleeting or terrifying. He said something, but she didn’t hear what, too wrapped up in the feeling of it.
