Chapter Six
Kyle always woke first, something he’d grown used to. Daniel didn’t sleep in, but he preferred to take a long shower, to go through an entire routine to get his day started right.
Kyle’s morning needed a big cup of coffee. Nothing much mattered before that.
He all but stumbled into the kitchen, half-awake, expecting to find the room empty.
Instead, he nearly ran into Alison, who stood there staring at the fridge.
He stopped short, just before actually touching her, his brain catching up despite his lack of caffeine. It seemed like spotting her was as good as a coffee for waking him up.
The black collar stood out at her throat, and he admitted…it had been the right choice. It looked marvelous against her light skin, sitting right at the level where her hair fell.
Then he got a better look at her. She wasn’t moving, seemingly frozen in her spot. Whatever ran through her head showed on her face, and it was nothing good. She wrung her hands together, the action making the metal loops of the cuffs clink together.
What’s got her so nervous?
“Hey there, sugar. You okay?”
She blinked slowly, as though waking up. Still, when she spoke, her voice seemed quiet and distant. “I didn’t know if I was supposed to…”
He frowned, trying to work through what she didn’t really say. Finally, it hit him. He slid around her to put himself between her and the fridge.
She lifted her gaze to his, the immediate response more pleasing than it probably should have been.
“You worried about what we expect from you?”
She nodded.
Kyle backed her up a few steps before he grasped her around the waist and lifted her.
The little gasp she let out was gratifying, but not as good as the fact that she clutched his shoulders as he set her on the kitchen counter.
Kyle moved forward between her knees, so he could look at her and she had nowhere else to look but him. “I’m not expecting you to get up early and cook us breakfast, darling.”
She didn’t react to his closeness, and that said everything about how unsettled she was. “I thought…”
Kyle ran his fingers over the leather of her cuffs, teasing the skin around it. “You thought what? That we’d have you be our servant?” Her expression said that, yeah, that was exactly what she’d thought.
Well, no wonder she’d been so nervous walking into the place if she thought she was going to have no safety net, if she truly expected to be treated as a slave.
But that wasn’t it. She didn’t think it out of nowhere, not with the shadows in her eyes. She’d concluded it because of something she’d seen before, something she knew.
“What had you thinking that?” He continued to stoke her soft skin, trying to ease her, rewarded by her heart not racing as it had been.
He tugged softly at the restraints on her wrists, a way to try to focus her on his question.
“I’m not stupid,” she said, her voice low. “I know exactly what a slave does, what’s expected of one.”
“When have you seen slaves, darling?”
She blinked slowly, as if waking up. Well, she said more than I thought she would.
After a moment, she drew her eyebrows toward one another. She pulled her wrists, and he released her.
Part of being dominant was knowing how far to push someone, and he’d pushed her plenty.
Even though he let her go, though, he didn’t move away. It kept her on the counter and temptingly close. “You’ll tell me the truth,” he assured her.
“Good luck with that.”
Ah, there it was, that hard look in her eyes that dared him to challenge her. It drew him in, especially after seeing the softer side of her, after seeing her for that one vulnerable moment before she’d put on her armor again.
Kyle stroked his thumb across her pouty bottom lip, mesmerized by how it gave beneath his finger. “You will. Now, as the one in charge, I say you should sit right there and keep me company while I cook. Do you eat eggs?”
He pulled back and grabbed a fry pan from the hanging rack above them. When she didn’t answer, he twisted toward her and raised an eyebrow.
Pink spanned her cheeks, but she nodded.
Fuck, I like when I win with her.
What the hell was I thinking?
Alison couldn’t figure it out, no matter how much she thought about it. She’d stood in that kitchen, feeling like she was staring at her past.
She’d remembered the way her mother walked through the large kitchen of her childhood home, effortlessly, as though drawn by routine.
It had been routine, though. Her mother, Sasha, had known exactly what she was supposed to do, what was expected of her. Alison’s father had always made his expectations clear—to everyone.
Alison recalled the way he’d grasped her chin and cleaned a smudge from her cheek when she was six, his lips pulled down in disappointment.
Nothing in his world was ever out of its place, and he’d had the same hard attitude with Alison.
And worse than her little walk down memory lane? The way Kyle had witnessed it.
She’d all but blurted out the truth to him, drawn somehow by the way he’d moved her, the way he’d seemed solid when she couldn’t tell past from present.
Thank god I didn’t say it all.
At least Kyle hadn’t pushed. He’d cooked food, moving around the kitchen while Alison had remained on the counter. She’d thought about getting off it—mostly because he’d told her to stay—but she’d lacked the energy for that.
Instead, she’d watched him.
Kyle was odd. He worked as though he didn’t care about anything, as if he moved to his own music. He’d toss glances at her, as though making sure she was okay, but otherwise? He seemed unaffected by anything else, as though the world didn’t touch him.
He’d cooked scrambled eggs—hers mixed with veggies and everyone else’s with ham—and sliced fresh fruit. By the time he’d finished, movement in the rest of the house implied the other two had woken.
Daniel came into the kitchen, dressed in a pair of slacks and a button-up shirt. “Smells good.”
Kyle grabbed one of the plates he’d made and handed it off to Daniel, who pulled a stool into the kitchen.
Trent came in next, wearing only a pair of jeans, his feet and chest bare.
And holy shit…the man was built.
His skin was darkly tan, as though he spent a lot of time outside without a shirt. Then again, if someone had a body like that, why not?
Kyle took a plate of his own and hopped onto the counter, handing one off to Alison and balancing the other on his lap.
Trent pressed his lips together for a moment before he got a plate from the cabinet and served his own food. He piled on the fresh fruit, then came over to lean against the counter on Alison’s other side.
It left her between the two alphas, with Daniel across the way.
It was nearly as unsettling as it had been every other time. It wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t so large, but it was as though there was no room for her in the kitchen, not with them there.
Trent shifted and offered her a piece of pineapple clutched between his fingers.
“I can feed myself,” Alison snapped.
“But I like doing it. Stop arguing, pet.” When he lifted his eyebrow, Alison reminded herself to fall into her role.
You’ve only got so long to get used to it, so stop being difficult.
She took the piece of fruit from his fingers, careful not to actually touch him.
It was tart and juicy, and Alison nearly moaned at the taste.
Trent went back to talking as if he hadn’t done that, as though it weren’t weird as hell. “Gregory is putting in our information today. Any idea when to expect a visit?”
Daniel shook his head as he ate, finishing his bite before speaking. “Probably pretty soon.”
Kyle shrugged as he balanced his plate in his lap. “I bet you anything they’ll have someone come check us out before then. I don’t care how good Gregory’s rec is, no one as careful as this slavery ring is going to just accept some no-name trio from out of town.”
“They’ll accept us,” Alison said after swallowing another bite that Trent offered. “They need us. With the problems they’ve had here, they’d love some more scouts. This is going to be the last chance to make any good money, so if they think you’ve got something worth selling, they’ll risk it.”
Which brought her back to Anne, again, back to the reality that she was missing and Alison was still no closer.
Is she even alive?
A bump to her shoulder had her turning to find Trent staring at her. Being watched so carefully, having people who saw so much of her feelings, unnerved her.
She only offered a quick shake of her head, so he shrugged and picked up another piece of fruit—cantaloupe, this time—and offered it.
Alison took the piece, but it had become so normal already that she wasn’t quite as careful. Her lips slid against Trent’s warm fingers, tasting the juice from his skin.
Which heated her up in far too many places.
Not that he mentioned it. Did he even notice it?
He continued to feed her pieces, always giving her the best of the fruit on his plate, while her own food in her lap became forgotten.
Trent discussed the case with Daniel while Kyle ate—rather loudly—and chimed in from time to time.
None of it required Alison’s advice. Not being the direct topic of conversation or focus for once felt nice.
It seemed as though every moment spent with the three alphas made her the center, and she’d grown tired of it.
Other than the show she’d put on in the bars to tempt the scouts, Alison was far more of a ‘work from the shadows’ sort of woman. She didn’t care to be looked at, to be noticed.
Being noticed doesn’t tend to go well, in my experience.
So when they spoke amongst themselves, when she was able to just listen, to absorb it, she felt normal for the first time.
Besides the fact that she continued to eat the food Trent supplied. He’d steal a bite for himself now and again, but only of the things she wouldn’t eat. He didn’t mention it as he did it, as though it were nothing out of the ordinary. Stranger still, he seemed pleased by doing it.