Because Karolena wanted nothing more than to stay in his arms.
Which was why, long before she would otherwise have budged, she peeled herself from his grasp on legs so wobbly Legend had to assist, then sank to the floor as her insides still pulsed.
Spent, Legend crashed beside her and Tavish melted, his head lolling backward on the chair as the milky, opaque condom settled around his deflating cock.
At least they looked nearly as wrecked as she felt.
What the hell had they just done to each other?
Karolena refused to believe it was anything other than an explosive bodily reaction inspired by years of starving herself of attention or affection or sexual stimulation. That’s all she could afford for it to be.
So when Tavish came around a bit and frowned at her and Legend sprawled on the floor, she knew she had to retreat before things could become more serious than she would survive.
“Let me take you both to bed.” Tavish peeled himself from the chair, disposed of both his and Legend’s condoms, then returned with two dish towels dampened with warm water.
When he offered one to her, she took it from him rather than letting him clean her as he seemed to intend. No way could she stand to be that intimate with him or anyone else.
Legend froze as he noticed the shift in the energy surrounding them.
“You’re not staying, are you?” Tavish asked quietly.
“We’ve had our fun. And it was. Honestly. Now I should go back to my place. Alone.” Karolena didn’t try to be as careful with him as he’d been with her. But she saw it. The pain she caused when she retreated. She wouldn’t make that mistake a second time, so she added, “This can’t happen again.”
Legend made a sound that reminded her of a wounded animal. She thought she heard him mutter, “Thought we’d gotten lucky like the rest. Stupid.”
Karolena scooted farther away from them both to avoid rushing to their sides and soothing the sting of her disavowal.
“I’m afraid we can’t let you leave.” Tavish grimaced.
“What the hell do you mean?” Karolena found the strength to stand then, jamming her leg back in her pants. Good thing she’d left them mostly on after all.
“James told us to keep an eye on you. Why’d you lie, Karolena?” Tavish shocked her.
“You know?” How much had they figured out about her past and why she’d shown up in Middletown? “Was this all some attempt to soften me up? You bastards! Do you get paid extra for having to fuck me? Are you going to send me back?”
Karolena should have realized two men like them could never truly want a woman like her. She scrambled away from them, backing all the way through the kitchen while they approached, their hands out. She crashed into her cleaning cart hard enough to leave a bruise on her hip. Good, it would remind her how real the hazard was of believing anyone. Especially wicked men like them.
How stupid to forget. To be blinded by their sexy bodies and the things they could do with them.
“Calm down.” Tavish snatched his kilt off the floor and wound it around his hips. He closed the gap between them and she knew even if it was unlocked, she’d never make it out the door before he caught her. Besides, where would she run to? There was nowhere to hide. “It might be my job to make sure nothing happens to you or anyone else around here, but what we just shared was honestly my pleasure.”
“Ourpleasure,” Legend corrected.
Karolena realized they’d fucked her in more ways than the obvious. Because it turned out she wasn’t the sort of woman who could separate sex from the emotional impacts of blinding pleasure on her mind as well as her body. Even if the people she’d slept with were liars and a threat to everything she’d thought she was embracing.
She didn’t expect she’d be able to slip past them and escape again, but for her own sanity, she had to try. Except just as she turned toward the exit to bolt, Legend’s phone chirped behind her. Tavish ignored it, sprinting in her direction and slamming his hand on the door to keep it closed even as she realized it was indeed electronically locked and she didn’t know how to open it from the inside.
Shit!
Karolena rounded on him. She lifted her fists, though she’d never hit a person in her life. Before she even registered Tavish’s intent, he’d grasped her wrists and pinned them to the door above her head. Not violently. Without hurting her. But so deftly that there was no way she could break loose.
“Gonna help me out here?” Tavish asked over his shoulder at Legend, who was reading something on his phone.
The flush faded from his cheeks as he leveled a gaze at Tavish and her, caught in his grasp. Entirely differently from how he’d held her so recently. “Ruby works fast.”
“They need us downstairs again?” Tavish’s mouth pinched at the corners.
“Yeah, but not only you and me. All three of us.”