Sinful Desires (Sinful Menage #2)

Chapter One

Camila stopped behind a tree, looked over her shoulder, pressed a shaky hand against her chest, and tried to calm her racing heart. At that moment, she felt she was away from the threat that had taken over her life, at least for the moment.

She swallowed the fear that stuck in her throat, almost choking her. The thought of going back to the gilded prison made her want to run until she was as far from the threat as she could get. She would almost rather be dead than go back.

The only thing she was going to miss was her mother.

She would have thought she’d given up on her after what she had become, but deep down, she couldn't forget the years before their lives changed so dramatically.

The family she once had and the happiness she had felt.

It just seemed so long ago that she was afraid the memories were starting to fade.

She wiped angrily at the tears that burned her eyes and slipped down her cheek. She couldn’t afford to weaken or give up.

She tried to forget that she was lost in the middle of a forest in a state she’d never been to before or knew anything about. She had no idea what the weather was like or what wild animals were a threat to her. At that moment, she didn’t care. She wanted her freedom at any cost.

When her breathing was close to normal and the pain in her side had receded, she set off again.

She bit back a scream when she tripped over a hidden branch.

The pain running through her got worse after each fall.

She knew her hands and knees were bleeding, but she couldn’t stop to check or do anything about it.

As long as she could, she needed to stay on the move, she had to because the alternative was unthinkable.

****

Aiden cursed when his truck hit another pothole. “We’ve got to get gravel down on this road.”

“I know. I’ll order it on Monday,” Malik replied.

Aiden looked up at the sky. “I’m glad we went to town for supplies today instead of tomorrow as planned.”

“Yeah, the way the temperature is dropping, this rainstorm could turn into sleet, and then we’re stuck until it dries out.”

Aiden grinned over at him. “That doesn’t bother me because then no one will be able to get up to us.”

Malik snorted. They had come back from the military, wounded, shattered men. They decided not to re-up because they had already seen and done too much. The innocent people they saw being terrorized and killed would stay in their minds for the rest of their lives.

They hadn’t known what they were going to do or where they would go when they got back to the States, but they’d been lucky.

Malik’s uncle had left him several hundred acres on the mountain.

It had one road in and out, and there had been the cabin Malik remembered from his childhood.

It wasn’t much to begin with, though they didn’t have anything else to do but improve the home and survive. Something they were very good at.

If he thought Aiden was a bit antisocial, his uncle Henry had been a full-blown hermit.

The cabin they’d found had actually been in great shape, but it had been too small for two large men, so the first year they built on and up, turning the two-room cabin into a five-bedroom, three-bath home.

It was larger than they had planned initially, but they still held out hope they would find the woman who would fit them both.

They had tried traditional relationships, one man and one woman, but had both been miserable and decided they’d rather be alone and together than unhappy with someone who didn’t give them both what they needed.

The fact that women were hard to come by in the area made the possibility that much worse.

“Jesus, the sky is getting dark,” Aiden said. “I think we’re going to get wet before we can get everything into the cabin.”

“We’ve been wet before.”

“Yeah, but when it’s cold and rainy, it kinda sucks.”

“Watch out!” Malik bellowed and braced his hand on the dashboard when Aiden slammed on the brakes to keep from running over the woman standing in the middle of the road.

“Fuck, that was too close,” Aiden hissed, and they both jumped out of the truck.

Malik held his hand out when she looked around frantically. “Easy, baby. We won't hurt you.” He cursed in his head when it started misting. The woman was already shaking and looked like she was about ready to collapse.

“Honey, where did you come from?”

The woman looked from Malik to Aiden and tried to speak, but her teeth chattered so violently that nothing coherent came out.

Aiden took a step toward her. “Sweetheart, we need to get you inside. We’ve got a storm headed this way, and frankly, I doubt you’d survive. Let us take care of you until we can get you to a hospital.”

She backed away, straightened her arms out in front of her, and her eyes got wider. “No! No hospital. Please.”

Malik held his hands up. “All right,” he said to appease her.

“We’ll take care of you. You don’t have a choice, baby.

We won’t hurt you.” He took a few steps toward her and held out a hand as he would to a frightened animal.

“Come on, baby. You’re getting colder by the second, and your lips are already blue. ”

He breathed a sigh of relief when she set her frozen hand in his. “That’s good, sweetheart. Let’s get you into the truck and home.”

She walked with him, but he could tell she was ready to run if they made one wrong move.

If that happened, she would be dead within the hour.

He could tell she was already hypothermic, and the fact that her shaking had started to lessen scared him.

She had already passed the first stage of hypothermia.

He gently lifted her into the truck, then turned the heat to high and pointed it directly at her. He reached back and grabbed the blanket they always kept and tucked it around her.

“There, this will help get you warm. Don’t you worry, we’ll take care of you.”

Malik watched as Aiden slid in slowly, so he didn’t startle her, and then drove them home.

Malik’s gaze swept over her. She was a little thing.

The top of her head was level with his shoulders.

He could tell she was thin, but not how small, because of the caked-on mud and debris she’d picked up on the way.

His teeth clenched together when he caught sight of the blood mixed in with the dirt.

She was definitely injured. He didn’t know where or how bad.

“Are you hurt anywhere, baby?”

She looked up at him in confusion. “I don’t know.”

“It’s all right. We’ll fix it. What’s your name?”

She stiffened, hesitated, and tears filled her eyes.

“Camila.”

He didn’t know for sure whether she was telling him the truth, but he decided it was the wrong time to push her.

“My name is Malik, and that guy,” he said and pointed at Aiden, “is Aiden.”

She didn’t say anything and didn’t look at either of them the rest of the way.

Malik was happy her lips had turned to a healthy color, but she still wasn’t shivering as she should.

“Baby, we need to get you warm before it’s too late. The fact you aren’t shivering concerns me.”

She nodded.

“You’ll have to trust us, baby. We’ll have to strip you out of your wet clothes.”

She bit down on her lip and nodded.

He could tell she was extremely apprehensive, even terrified, but she knew she really didn’t have a choice.