Their Virgin Hostage (Masters of Ménage #5)(52)

Moose shouldn't be that big. Like huge. Enormous. And slobbery. That thing could seriously put out the mucous.

"You all right?" Riley Anders stood in the doorway, leaning negligently against it.

He was heartbreakingly gorgeous, and it was so obvious that he wanted nothing to do with her. He was the only one who never invaded her space, who stayed as far from her as possible. 

She knew these men considered themselves so close that they were all for one and one for all. If Riley didn't want her, she was screwed. Or not screwed.

"I'm okay." Except that she was dumber than dirt, and the evidence in front of her proved it. The last six weeks showed a series of payouts that she couldn't account for. And apparently her accountant wasn't doing his job anymore for whatever reason. Someone had been keeping the books, but nothing like meticulous Steve.

And she was a fool because she just knew she was falling for the men who had kidnapped her.

Nothing in the world had felt so right as running toward Law this morning. Even as she'd crawled out the window, something inside her kept insisting she was making a huge mistake. But logic told her that she should want to escape her abductors, so she'd kept walking. Very quickly, Kinley had realized that she knew absolutely nothing about surviving in the woods. And obviously, they hadn't lied about the whole Alaska thing. The sun didn't stay down for very long. She'd managed to sleep a little, but the lack of darkness threw off her whole system.

So did they.

Riley stood in the doorway, almost staring a hole through her. "How about the rat thing?"

She wasn't sure she liked them referring to her dog as a rat. "Gigi is fine now that's she's been fed."

Riley frowned. "Is that what all the barking was about? For such a little thing, she can be awfully loud."

Gigi was simply a dog who knew what she wanted. "She's used to a certain feeding schedule. The whole kidnapping thing threw us off. If she starts up again, she's likely hungry so if you want her to stop, feed her a little something. And she's smart. She knows where the food is. She'll come running into the kitchen at least twice a day barking up a storm now that she knows where the food bowls are kept."

"Good to know," Riley said. He looked back at the door as though he was contemplating walking back out, but then he seemed to come to a decision. That straight-line jaw of his firmed. "Are you going to run again?"

After the whole snot-nosed moose incident? "No. Now that I've seen what's out there, I feel much safer here. You're not going to murder me and leave my body in the woods, are you?"

"No." He took a single step toward her. "We really are trying to help you. Your boyfriend meant to kill you."

She'd just about accepted that fact. "He was never my boyfriend, just my fiancé. That may sound weird, but a boyfriend is someone who wants you. A fiancé can be bought. I should know."

She'd bought Greg with her name, her connections, and apparently her charity.

Riley stared at the floor. "I wouldn't know about that. I've never had enough money to buy one."

She heard the bitter tone of his voice. "Yeah, well, I would tell you to hold out for someone you love. The whole sacrifice thing tends to go wrong."

"Is that how you saw it? A sacrifice?"

She'd been sacrificing her whole life. She'd given up so much time, energy, and love. She'd always thought that, while her sister and father meant well, they struggled with self-discipline and showing affection. But now she knew they simply didn't have any kind of a conscience.

"Yes. I was marrying Greg because I firmly believed my father had cancer and my charity was going under. The economy has been bad. Donations are way down. Hope House was the work of my mom's heart. I couldn't let it die. And the thought of my dad having cancer and no insurance nearly killed me. Mom was the one who worked. Dad, uhm … he didn't think about practicalities like paying bills and stuff."



       
         
       
        

"Or he was too busy gambling to send his check in."

She started to protest and stopped. Because it was true. "Yeah."

"So you were marrying Greg to save your dad and your charity?"

"And because I was lonely." Her heart ached, and she was too tired to lie. "I'm twenty-five and I've never had a lover. I was lonely, and I wanted a family before it was too late."

He was silent for a long moment. "You want a family? Like a husband and kids and a white picket fence?"

That had been the dream, but …  "I think I would take love any way it came to me."