Their Virgin Captive(58)

Gavin didn’t do that for all his employees.

She also bet he hadn’t put his last secretary on his piano and made love to her like he was a dying man and she was the only one who could save him. She could be pregnant with his child right now…and a part of her didn’t hate that idea. At the time, all she’d been able to think about was getting closer to him. Because she loved him. Maybe Gavin had been under the same spell.

And maybe she was making excuses for him because the alternative hurt too badly.

“It doesn’t matter,” Hannah said with a sad sigh. “He might have feelings for me, but he won’t face them.”



And she wouldn’t come between him and his brothers. Her own family had been so fractured that she couldn’t stand being the reason Slade, Dex, and Gavin fought.

Would Slade and Dex accept her goodbye? She doubted it. They would probably be on the next plane to Texas once they figured out she’d gone. They would hunt her down. Because they loved her.

Was it too late? Had she already come between them and Gavin? Was she giving up Dex and Slade for nothing?

“I’m not being very smart about this, am I?” Hannah asked Marnie.

“Walking away isn’t the answer, girl.”

“I don’t know what to do.” Hannah’s misery washed over her. There was a big part of her that wished none of this had happened. Then she would just be at home, cuddled up with her cat, continuing to dream about her men.

But that was no longer an option. So now what? She’d always thought that love would be easy-breezy and bring her nothing but joy. Nope. It was hard, like everything in life. Maybe harder because it was so precious. Yet, she hadn’t fought for it at all. She’d gotten almost everything she wanted, and now she was willing to throw it all away because it wasn’t quite perfect enough?

Marnie leaned across the bar, propping her chin on her fist. “Do you think you gave Gavin any reason to push you away?”

She shook her head, fighting tears as she remembered that horrible scene. “No. He had no reason to talk down to me that way. Bastard.”

He’d treated her like an annoying pest when all she’d done was offer him comfort. Well, and a blowjob. She’d given the man her very first blowjob. Shouldn’t that count for something? Yes.

But she hadn’t fought, hadn’t told Gavin how his words made her feel. She hadn’t stood up for herself.

She pounded a fist on the bar.

“Now, you’re getting mad.” Marnie grinned. “That’s the reaction you should have had.” The woman was right. Gavin had been a total jerk to her. Why had she cried over him and been willing to walk away from two men who did treat her right? She knew he was hurting, but that didn’t give him the right to hurt others. Why should she give up her future with Dex and Slade because Gavin wanted to wallow in the past?

“Hey, Marnie, why’d you have to go and do that?” Six-foot-five-guy frowned. “She was real sad. Sad women are easier to comfort than mad ones. Now we ain’t ever going to get her to come back to our place.”

“You step one inch closer to her and your place is going to be a pine box six feet under,” a low voice threatened.

Afternoon sunlight slanted in through open saloon doors. Slade, Dex, and Gavin stood in the doorway, looking like gunslingers about to start an Old West-style fight. Hannah’s heart took a nosedive. Individually, they were gorgeous. Together, they were positively heart-stopping.

Not one of them had on their usual, expensive suit. Instead, they all wore jeans and cotton shirts that proved they were far more rugged and male than the average executive. Slade was long and lean and bulged in all the right places. His face had such beautiful angles, it looked chiseled. Those blue eyes were sharp with intelligence. And under it all, a barely concealed power that pulled at her.



Dex was all dangerous cowboy. He was built more like a linebacker than his brothers. His biceps were huge and that cut torso of his tapered into a lean waist and the finest butt she’d ever had the joy to see on a man.

And Gavin looked like a fallen angel. His face was all kinds of stunning, which matched his body. Those lips of his, so skilled, so demanding, just unraveled Hannah completely. She couldn’t help but think about how it had felt to have those lips on her skin, loving her.

None of them looked very loving now, though. As they stared down the crowd, they looked ready to kill.

All the other men froze.

“Now, Dex,” Gavin said in that smooth-as-silk voice of his, “I don’t think we need to spend the money on a pine box. We’ll just toss his carcass off the mountain or let the bears take care of it.”