“I’m getting hard just thinking about it,” Lucas murmured.
Josh rolled his eyes. Leave it to his oversexed brother to think with his dick. Not that he could blame him. If they played their cards right, she could be spending the evening, and maybe the night, with them both. His own shaft tingled at the possibility.
Josh’s heart rate jumped as he recalled her expressive tone when she’d told her friends about her lumberjack fantasy at the Dancing Pony the previous weekend while they stood behind her out of sight. In the same breath she’d sworn off ménages permanently. He wanted to give her what she wouldn’t acknowledge as a need.
When she’d talked to them later at Rudy’s, she’d claimed to want to play the field. She was doing her best to protect herself after being hurt, and he didn’t blame her, but he and Lucas weren’t like the men she’d known before.
The anticipation, love, and, eventually, the devastation he’d watched her experience every time that asshole had contacted her while they were renovating the Emporium replayed in his memory. The secretive way she’d smile when she answered the phone. The hope and excitement in her eyes when she hung up and the hurt and loneliness emanating from her were always markers he’d been in town again. Yet, despite her sadness, she still managed to make her customers smile.
“She deserves better, and we can give it to her,” Josh whispered as Joseph entered the room and greeted the crowd. Then Josh caught sight of the curvy blonde who’d appeared under the wide, arched opening into the expansive, paneled study.
Uncertainty clouded Violet’s pretty face, and she wrung her hands together. She kept her focus on Joseph, as though she was afraid to meet anyone else’s eyes. When she wasn’t in her element at the Emporium, she found it uncomfortable to be around strangers in social settings. Knowing this made him want to take hold of her hand so she’d know she wasn’t alone. He’d do just about anything to put the sparkle back in her warm brown eyes right then.
He listened to Joseph as he explained the parameters for the group, but the sensation that his inner compass was pointing toward her, just as it had been since meeting her, was undeniable.
As Joseph finished his instructions and made concluding remarks, Josh caught Lucas’s eye and gestured with a slight tilt of his head at Violet, who’d moved farther back until she stood outside the arch.
Lucas nodded, and they began inching around the crowd. He had no intention of allowing her to retreat. There were lots of people here for different reasons. To role-play, to make use of the dungeon for darker fantasies, to swing with their friends, or to indulge in voyeurism and exhibitionism. As far as he and Lucas were concerned, pleasing her was their only interest, and they couldn’t do that if she hid in her room the whole time.
Her eyes widened as they closed the last few feet between them, and her mouth fell open, making him want a kiss her, after putting her over his knee for lying to him about the weekend. The spanking wouldn’t be much of a punishment, though, since he’d known all along about her subterfuge. Earning her trust came first.
“You’re here,” she said before closing her mouth and scrunching her eyes closed. “Sorry—stating the obvious. Why are you here? Are you working?” Pure mortification showed on her features at this thought, and she looked ready to flee.
“No, baby girl. We’re here to play.”
She gulped again, and it alarmed him when her expression changed, and not in a good way. She scanned the crowd as she whispered to herself, “I knew this was a bad idea. I knew it.”
“Whoa,” Josh said, catching her clammy hand as she turned toward the grand staircase. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Upstairs to pack. This was a huge mistake. There’s lots of gorgeous women here, so you go…have fun.”
She tugged at her hand, but he didn’t release it. The hurt in her eyes told him more than all her bravado the previous weekend ever could. The assembly dispersed into smaller groups, conversing with each other as they waited for the announcement that dinner was served.
“Please don’t go,” Lucas cajoled as he took her other hand.
Josh wasn’t about to let her hand go. Not now. “It’s not what you’re thinking, baby girl. Please don’t go.”
“I don’t want to be here anymore.” She looked ready to run.
Determined to stop her flight response to their news, Josh stroked her cheek, giving her a chance to calm again. “We’re here because you’re here.”
“Me?”
Josh nodded. “We got the same invitation from Joseph.”