“I quite like troublesome.” She walked around behind me. “My, my.” Her fingernails scratched my buttock, making me suck in a breath.
“Bend over and touch your toes so I can have a better look here.”
I obeyed. I don’t know how, but I did. I bent forward, my fingertips brushing my bare toes. When the woman pulled my bottom cheeks apart and looked at me, looked at my most private places, all I felt was hate, a cold hate.#p#分页标题#e#
“When you’re mine, I’ll fuck you daily. Have you ever been fucked by a woman?”
I refused to answer, but when she smacked my hip hard with the flat of her hand, I stumbled forward, nearly falling.
“Myra,” Gabriel called. “I have something special here for you.”
“I’m quite enjoying something special right here, Gabriel.”
I rose to stand, to watch what would happen.
“She’s not for you.” His tone made it sound final, even to me, and when I met his eyes, I felt something I didn’t think was possible to feel after what had happened at that pole.
I felt Gabriel’s protection.
He broke eye contact first, but not before I saw something that surprised me, something akin to guilt.
There was a moment of hesitation and I could feel a frustrated tension rolling off the woman.
“Shame,” she said, then walked to where Gabriel stood. “Ah, but this one is lovely, isn’t she. And seems more coy than that one there.”
I looked at the girl who stood trembling before the woman, her eyes shiny with tears, her lip quivering. I should have felt relief that Gabriel had called the woman away from me, but I didn’t. I felt hatred toward the horrible woman and fear for the girl she now appraised.
I straightened and a man came to stand before me, his breath fowl as he spoke to his bodyguard in a language I didn’t understand. They walked around me, not once touching me, not yet.
“Open your mouth,” he said in broken English.
I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. Even as I stood shaking all over, I couldn’t do it.
“I said—”
“No, not that one.” Syn’s shadow fell over us.
I had never felt so relieved to hear Syn’s voice or feel his cane at my thigh as I did in that moment.
“That one isn’t for sale.” Syn spoke quietly, his tone low, but there was no question he would be obeyed.
I met his dark gaze. The grin that turned up one corner of his mouth sent ice through my veins. He kept his obsidian eyes on mine when he tapped the cane against the front of my thigh once, twice, then, with a flick of his wrist, lashed me with it.
Tears stung my eyes as the rattan stung my flesh and I took a step backward, looking down at the welt rising where he’d struck. Thankfully, the man who had been considering me nodded with a reluctant growl before stepping to my right, to the next girl who stood shuddering beside me.
Gabriel joined Syn. Both brothers watched me intently as Gabriel whispered something into Syn’s ear. Syn nodded, then turned his attention from me to the girl who was being handled by the prospective buyer. My gaze faltered when Gabriel approached and my body shook as he looked upon me.
“Evangeline,” he said. “Kneel.”
I understood now what it meant when a girl knelt. Once a girl was sold, she was made to kneel so that the next buyers knew who was still available. The girl beside me whimpered and I turned to see the large man weighing her breasts, turning her nipples in his fingers, his cock pressing against his pants as he fondled her.
“I’d like to try her,” he said.
Syn’s eyebrow went up. The girl stood upright, naked, her hands clasped at the back of her head. He looked her over, his gaze cold even as the girl now openly wept.
Syn turned back to the man. “You can look. You can even touch,” he said, turning the girl so she stood with her back to the men. He then pushed her forward and down so she bent deeply at the waist. “But you can’t fuck until you pay.”
“Evangeline.” Gabriel’s fingers tightened in my hair, the girl’s whimpers louder as he brought his mouth to my ear. “I said kneel. Eyes down. And just be glad it isn’t you this time.”#p#分页标题#e#
Without giving me time to obey, he forced me down by my hair until I knelt on the hard earth. I glared at him but my defiance lasted all of one second, the darkness I saw behind those beautiful golden eyes making me shudder. I cast my gaze to the ground before me, swallowing, shivering at what was to be my fate, knowing now that the brothers intended to keep me for themselves.
Gabriel glanced in the rear view mirror as he drove the pickup truck along the lonely road, leaving a trail of dust behind them. The girls had been sold within an hour, the fastest and most profitable shipment yet. Evangeline now sat in the enclosed back of the pickup truck, and Syn sat beside him. The RV had been driven off and a handful of guards had remained behind to break down the tents.