Page 12 of The Drag Race Debutante & the Detectives
Dane’s shift in mood was making her nervous. She’d never seen him like this, heard him like this. As if he was disappointed in her.
“This has nothing to do with our work and everything to do with you, Emily.” He grabbed her hand and started towards the stairs, practically dragging her behind him. He wasn’t disappointed, he was mad. “This wall you hide behind, it’s not going to work with us.” He stopped at the top of the stairs and stared down at her, his frown deepening. The expression didn't sit as well on his face as it did on Eric’s. “You don’t need to hide your feelings from us, baby.”
Her mouth fell open as her brain scrambled for a retort but the best she could come up with was, “What wall? I’m not hiding anything.”
“You’ve been hiding a lot of things from us,” Dane said, then dragged her the rest of the way to her bedroom and stood her at the foot of her bed. “But that all ends tonight.”
Emily couldn’t help poking the bear. This was Dane after all, not Eric. He was horny, not a hard arse… usually. “Oh? And what are you going to do about it?”
His response was to grin and lift his chin in the direction of the doorway. She turned and found Eric standing there, watching her with his signature scowl and stormy gaze, and a sudden knot of emotions formed in her throat, cutting off any further smartarsery.
Backing away from the dominant devil, she was quickly caught again by Dane, his strong arm banding around her waist as he held her captive against his chest. His warm breath brushed the shell of her ear. “Careful what you wish for, baby.”
Chaos reigned inside her, her heart suddenly beating so fast it couldn’t possibly be good for her, and her emotions went to war with one another. As Eric slowly closed the distance between them, his dark gaze locked on hers, her lust and need were engaged in a battle for dominance with her uncertainty and dread, and by the time he stopped in front of her, Emily wasn’t sure which camp had won the war, just that her skin felt ready to combust and her panties were soaked.
And then he dropped his hands to his belt buckle. “Strip her.”
Chapter Seven
“But… Dane said we weren’t going to have sex.”
Eric bit back a smile even as his ego preened. He was sure Emily had meant for her words to sound accusatory more than disappointed, but she hadn’t quite nailed it. And he was man enough to admit he liked the thought she was upset they wouldn’t be fucking her tonight. Truth be told, he was pretty pissed off about the whole situation too. He and Dane finally had their girl alone and at their mercy, and they were going to waste the opportunity by punishing her.
But it had to be done.
She had to learn, to know that what she’d done was unacceptable.
She had knowingly put herself in a dangerous situation and it could not—would not—happen again.
“Dane was right. There will be no sex tonight. We don’t reward bad behaviour.”
“Arms up,” Dane said, proceeding with Eric’s instructions to undress their woman. Emily folded her arms across her chest instead. So stubborn.
“What bad behaviour?” she demanded, scowling up at him. “I know I screwed up your undercover job but I’ve already apologised for that. Repeatedly. What else can I do?”
“What can you do? You can listen when we tell you this has nothing to do with our job and everything to do with you putting yourself in danger. What you can do is take your punishment like a good girl.”
“Punishment?” Emily visibly swallowed as she wriggled against Dane’s chest, but his brother’s grip was much stronger than her attempt to escape him. She moistened her lips, the action drawing Eric’s attention, then launched into her defence. “I know, okay? I shouldn’t have gone out with Matthew. I saw the red flags and I ignored them, but I honestly didn’t think he would take me to an illegal drag race, or that people would be selling drugs right out in the open. I mean, who does that, right? But I had my phone, and I was just about to call Teddy to come and pick me up when I saw Dane and I felt—” She dropped her gaze and stared at the floor.
“What did you feel when you saw me, baby?”
Eric slid a knuckle under her chin and lifted her face, but she refused to meet his gaze. “Look at me, kitten,” he said, keeping his voice soft. She had to learn to stop hiding from them, and that might be easier if he wasn’t his usual grumpy self. He hated the silent tears that tracked down her cheeks, how she nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Leaning down, he kissed away her tears. “Talk to us, Emily,” he said. “What did you feel when you saw Dane?”
She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth and bit down, as if she was trying to keep her words inside, but one slipped out. “Safe,” she whispered, finally looking up at him again. “I felt safe, because I knew if Dane was there, you wouldn’t be far away. I felt safe knowing both of you were there, knowing you’d take care of me.”
“Even though we haven’t been around much lately?” Dane pushed. “Even though you thought we’d lost interest in you?”
Her tears fell faster, thicker, and she sniffed loudly. “Yes.”
“Why?” Eric asked. “Why would you trust us after we abandoned you?”
It hurt to say those words. They hadn’t abandoned her, but she hadn’t known that at the time, and what she said next would determine how many lashes of his belt she got, if she got any at all. They needed to teach her a lesson in safety, something she wouldn’t forget, but at that moment all Eric really wanted to do was pull her into his arms and hold her tight, tell her she was theirs, that they were hers, that this whole thing had just been a colossal fuck up.
But there was another reason to punish her. Another lesson to be taught. One that was long overdue.
“Because you’re cops,” she said quietly, and dropped her gaze again. “I knew you’d do the right thing.”
Eric looked at his brother and thanked God Emily couldn’t see his expression. Dane already hated this undercover gig they’d had thrust upon them, but now he looked like he wanted to burn the world to the ground.
