"Neither of us will. Yet," he clarified. "When your body is ready, then I will find your maidenhead."
I continued to eye him skeptically, doubting him as my body would never be ready, but he was so confident in this!
"Tell me, Emma, what did ye like about watching the couple fuck?" Ian asked. He moved to lean against the wall, ankles crossed, his stance relaxed. Positioned as he was by the door, there was no escape. "Nay your step-brother. The other."
I glanced at a letter opener on the table, my bare feet, the unlit fireplace, everywhere but at him. Them. My sensibilities were being tested.
"Answer me, please."
I couldn't avoid a response. It appeared he had a well of patience and would get what he wanted. They both did. As they said, I belonged to them. Oh dear lord, them! Kane's tone – the way he positioned himself across the room, the way Ian stood so casually – made them unthreatening, as if this was their intention. Even so, it was impossible to forget their purpose. This gentle approach was a plan to win me over, and it was only a matter of time before their real ways would come to light. This couldn't be as simple as just two men wanting me.
"I was returning for a child's lunch pail and at first didn't know what I was witnessing." When they quietly watched me with penetrating, dark gazes but did not respond, I continued. "It caught me by surprise. I never expected, never knew, this could occur in the kitchen."
"You didn't answer my question, but I'll let it pass. How was he fucking her?" Kane asked.
I closed my eyes briefly, completely unaccustomed to this line of query. "She was...on her back on the table. He held her ankles up and spread wide. His member–"
"Cock." I jumped when Ian said the word, interrupting me. "His cock. Say it, lass."
I licked my lips. "His...cock was big and hard and red and he was putting it in her, over and over."
"He was fucking her cunny with his cock." He said the words I couldn't.
I pushed a curl back from my face. "Yes."
"The woman was enjoying his attentions?"
I looked to Kane at his question, met his stare. "Yes. Yes, she was."
"Did you enjoy watching?"
I pushed off the edge of the desk, paced the small room, from the unlit fireplace to the bookshelf and back, steering clear of Ian. I couldn't tell them the truth. What would they think of me? I would be just like the girls below stairs if I admitted I'd felt...need course through me at their actions.
"Emma?"
"No. No, I didn't," I replied, averting my gaze.
"Emma." This time, when he said my name, it was laced with harshness, disappointment. "I will offer you this one opportunity to lie to me. In the future, if you lie, I promise you will not enjoy the consequences."
"How do you know I'm lying?" I waved my arms in the air. "Isn'
t it possible that I didn't like what I'd witnessed?"
"As I said before, your body doesn't lie. Look at your nipples, they're hard."
I glanced down. They were.
"Your eyes, they're not a pale blue now, but a deep, stormy gray. I'd say just thinking about what the secretary did to the woman has you aroused. Answer the question, Emma."
I spun around, faced Kane, narrowing my eyes. I didn't need to glance down at my breasts to know the tips were hard. I could feel them, painfully erect. I was not one to let my ire show – no lady of good breeding did – but I'd had quite the day and they'd pushed me too far. "Yes! I enjoyed it. I felt...something when I watched them." I tightened my hands into fists. "Now you know the truth, but it's too late." My breasts were rising and falling beneath my thin shift and the material chafed my sensitive nipples.
Kane only arched a brow at my heated response. Why did he have to be so calm? "Too late?"
"You're married to a woman who is just as her step-brother painted: a voyeur with the moral leanings of a prostitute. Why you would want me, both of you, is beyond me. There's no escaping marriage to me now." No doubt he could hear the bitterness in my tone.
My words did not have the effect I expected. Instead of anger, they were both amused. Kane smiled, broadly, showing off his straight, white teeth. He was even more handsome, and that irked me.
"That's true. You are mine." He still rested his forearms on his knees. "You are Ian's as well." He let those words settle for a moment, perhaps trying to ease my worries. It was not working.