Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
“ B aby, look at me.”
Turning her to face him, Dane cupped Emily’s cheeks in his hands and stared deeply into her bewildered gaze. He understood her confusion, her mistrust of what they were saying to her, but the level of disbelief in her voice broke his heart.
They’d already agreed they wouldn’t have sex with her yet, their emotions were too heightened. Hell, Eric had to stop him from putting a fucking bullet in Shane Spencer’s brain, and all because that scumbag had dared to put his hands on their girl and whispered foul things in her ear.
It didn’t get much more heightened than that, and he certainly didn’t want his first time with Emily being marred by the anger still swirling around in his head.
And yet, as he stared into Emily’s eyes and watched her overactive imagination pinball back and forth as she tried to decipher their declaration of love, he felt a sense of calm wash over him, through him. Diminish that anger a little more.
She was there, with them.
Like she always should have been.
“I get it, baby. I do. You’ve had so much shit thrown at you tonight, and we’re just piling it on even more.
It’s overwhelming, isn’t it? Your body is telling you one thing, your brain is telling you something different, but in your heart you know what’s right.
You know Eric and I mean what we say. That we love you.
” He shook his head. “We don’t expect you to say it back. Not yet, but?—”
“Shut up.” Emily pressed her fingertips to Dane’s mouth, and her eyes cleared and focussed on him with pinpoint accuracy. “My brain is telling me to run away and hide, that it’s all too much, that I can’t trust you.”
“Kitten,” Eric murmured, his gaze glued to Emily and his hands fisted by his sides, but she held her hand up to him too, silencing whatever he was going to say.
“But… my body is screaming out for you to touch me, to hold me, to prove me wrong and make me stay. And my heart?” She shook her head.
“My heart feels too big in my chest, as if it might explode if I don’t tell you right now how much I love you too.
How much I love both of you,” she said, reaching for Eric.
His brother moved and stood beside him as they smiled down at Emily. And while he didn’t know exactly what Eric felt, if it was anything like the relief coursing through him, Dane could imagine well enough.
Emily loved them. She was theirs.
Finally.
“Hold me,” she whispered, her gaze darting between the pair of them. “Please. I’ve missed you both so much.”
In an instant, she was wedged between them.
Eric at her front, her shield. Dane at her back, her protector.
They held her as she quietly sobbed, as her body shook.
They held her until she sagged between them, until she lifted her tear-stained face and smiled up at them, a mixture of love and contentment and renewed confidence blanketing her expression as she sniffed loudly and wiped away her tears.
“So what happens now?” she asked.
Eric leaned down and kissed her, a brief peck on her sweet mouth. “Now you let Dane undress you.”
“Okay,” she sighed, reaching back to wrap her arms around Dane’s neck.
Taking advantage of her position, he slid his hands over her breasts and gently squeezed them.
Emily settled against him even more, so he nuzzled against her neck, nibbled and licked his way to her earlobe, then bit down.
Her little moans of pleasure coupled with the way her luscious arse rubbed against his jeans sent a jolt of lust directly to his dick, but he also knew Eric hadn’t finished speaking, and knew Emily wasn’t going to like what would happen next.
Sliding one hand down to her waist, he deftly unfastened her jeans and slid his hand inside, then flicked his gaze to Eric and nodded.
His brother’s gaze darkened, his voice roughened, his dominant side taking over. “Now you take your punishment like a good girl.”
“What? No! Why?”
Before Emily could put up a fight, Dane slid a finger deep inside her pussy. She was so tight, so fucking wet, he easily slid in another. She squirmed against him, her moan almost a whimper as he softly stroked her.
“I thought we’d settled this,” she whined, then moaned, her head lolling against his shoulder.
“We haven’t settled anything yet,” Eric said, his usual stern expression back in place. “Not completely.”
“But.” She panted. “Oh, God….” She thrust her hips against Dane’s hand, tried to push her clit against the heel of his palm. Tried to control the situation. Like he’d let that happen.
Dane removed his fingers and grinned at her frustrated whimper and the way she stamped her foot again. “Bad girl,” he growled in her ear.
“But,” she tried again, wriggling her arse against his cock, “you told me you love me, and I told you I love you, and now you want to beat me? And I still don’t understand why. You said I didn’t mess up your work.”
“He’s not going to beat you, Emily,” Dane said, tightening his grip on her breast. “A beating means maliciously inflicting harm. He would never do that to you.”
Eric stroked his fingers across her forehead and brushed a stray lock of hair off her face. “But I am going to discipline you. You’ve earned that much at the very least. And as to the why, well,”—he grinned—“where to begin?”
“I—” Her mouth flapped open and closed as she stared at his brother, then she turned her ire on Dane, attempted to glare at him over her shoulder.. “And what about you? Are you just going to stand there and watch him do this to me?”
“Of course not,” Dane said, his tone offended. “I’m going to help him.”
Emily’s outraged gasp quickly morphed into another moan as he slid his fingers deep inside her again. “This is so unfair,” she whined, panting her words into being as Dane stroked in and out of her. “You can’t use my horniness against me.”
Dane chuckled and circled his thumb around her swollen clit, making her gyrate against him. “Apparently I can.”
“Arms up, kitten. Show me what a good girl you can be.”
Finally realising she had no option but to obey, she made the cutest little growling sound before doing as Eric commanded and lifted her arms above her head.
“Good girl,” Dane whispered in her ear.
He quickly had her T-shirt off, followed by her shoes, jeans and underwear, then he took a step back and joined his brother. “Beautiful,” they said in unison, their eyes raking over every stunning inch of her curvy body.
Emily stood before them, completely naked, a pink blush decorating her cheeks even as she tried to glare at them, with one foot tapping against the carpeted floor and her hands anchored to her hips. Not exactly the picture of a demure, submissive woman.
But then again, she never had been.
That was one of the things they loved most about her. Her fighting spirit, her fearlessness.
Although after tonight, reckless might be a more appropriate description.
“Hands by your side, Emily,” Eric said, cocking one brow when she took a little too long to obey. “Stand still.”
Emily opened her mouth to respond but Dane pressed a finger to his lips in a shush motion, sighing contentedly when she did as instructed.
He wasn’t as dominant as Eric, never had been, never would be, but he did enjoy the trust she put in him, in them.
She knew they would never hurt her. Not intentionally anyway.
She wouldn’t be so quick to obey them if she didn’t.
Their only wish was to keep her safe and happy. To let her know they had her back no matter what. To show her how deeply they cared for her so the shitshow that happened that night would never happen again.
With all of her naked splendour on display, the anticipation was driving Dane crazy.
He ached in a way he never had before. It was more than physical, more than the hard-on aching to be released from his jeans.
His heart had hurt to see her tonight, to know the danger she was in simply by being there.
Christ only knew what Shane and his cronies would have done to her had they found out he and Eric were cops.
The fact remained that Emily might still be in danger.
He wasn’t sure what had been said during Eric’s earlier phone call back to base, but the expression on his brother’s face as he’d entered the room wasn’t encouraging.
“Have you figured it out yet, kitten?” Eric continued, pulling his belt free from the loops on his jeans. “Do you know why I’m going to punish you tonight?”
Her mouth pressed into a mulish line, Emily continued to glare at them. “Because I went on a date with someone else?” she guessed, and lifted one shoulder in a shrug.
Eric folded his belt in half, making sure the buckle was secured in his palm, then shook his head as though he were disappointed in her answer. “No. I’m punishing you because you gave up on us, and then you went out with someone else.”
Emily’s hands fisted by her sides, but when she opened her mouth to respond no words came out, just the sound of frustrated irritation.
“You knowingly put yourself in danger—don’t deny it—and for that alone you deserve a bloody good whipping,” Eric said, tapping his belt against the side of his leg. “But you committed one other sin tonight, one you’re guilty of committing before. One we should have put a stop to well before now.”
Finding her voice again, Emily said, “Oh? And what’s that?”
“No one— no one —calls our girl names,” Dane said. “Especially not our girl.”