Surrender (19 page)

The quakes inside of me set him off, the muscles of my sex tightening around his cock and milking him until he was gasping and groaning and grinding his teeth. Letting out a last, harsh exhalation, he sank against me, still shuddering for several moments. I stroked his back, trying to ignore the fact that he was getting heavier and heavier.

He snored in my ear, sending a jolt through me. Biting my lip to keep from laughing, I shoved at him until he rolled off of me. He hooked his arms around me as he did so, though, dragging me with him. I struggled for a few moments to try to untangle myself from him, but I was too weak and too exhausted. Finally, I gave up and let him arrange me to his satisfaction and drifted to sleep.

The sound of the door opening woke me. Bleary eyed, I lifted my head from the hard pillow my cheek had been resting on. Seeing it was Kaelen, I dropped my head again eliciting a snore. Lifting my head again, I looked down at Gareth with a touch of surprise.

“Get up, Gareth!” Kaelen said, striding across the room and heading into the SURRENDER Kimberly Zant 85

bathroom.

Gareth lifted his head, looked around the room, and rolled over me, nuzzling my breasts lazily, his eyes still glued shut, and finally found a nipple to suck on. “Gareth!” Gareth’s head popped up. Unfortunately, he didn’t let go of my nipple. I winced, wide awake as it snapped back, thankfully, instead of parting company with me. After staring at Kaelen blankly for a moment, Gareth looked around groggily and finally stumbled out of bed. Scratching his balls with one hand, he scrubbed the other over his head, wandered around the room for a moment, and finally headed for the door.

Kaelen gave him look. Bending, he grabbed Gareth’s clothes, wadded them into a ball, and threw them at him. “Heads up!”

Gareth turned just in time to catch them in the face. He didn’t catch anything but one sock in his hands, however. When he had gathered them off the floor and straightened, he spied me on the bed and favored me with a lopsided grin. “Mornin’

baby!”

I bit my lip to hide a smile. He was still drunk, poor baby! “Good morning, Gareth,” I murmured as he turned to the door again and finally managed to get it open, leaving it open as he wandered down the hallway in search of his own room.

Kaelen collected what he had dropped on the way out, tossed it through the open door, and closed it.

Eying Kaelen uneasily, trying to gauge his mood, I got up and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind me. I had just cleared the toilet and flushed it when he came in behind me. Irritated that he had almost caught me on the toilet and hadn’t even given me enough time to brush my teeth, I glared at the floor, deciding he didn’t look like he was in the mood to take a glare from me at all well.

He jerked at the ties on the back of the bustier as I struggled to brush my teeth and then unfastened it. I gasped, swallowing a mouthful of toothpaste, as he bent me over the lavatory and snatched the plug out of my ass.

Feeling vaguely nauseated, I rinsed my mouth since I was already bent over the lavatory anyway.

Fortunately, it dawned on me even as I considered giving him a nasty look that I had been the center of an unfortunate event the night before—through
no
fault of my own! That didn’t change the fact that Gareth had torn out mad enough to wreck the car before he got out of the yard and led everyone on a merry chase the night before until they had tracked him down. I wasn’t sure if Kaelen was pissed about that, or hung over because he had stayed to commiserate with his brother, but I decided just to ignore Kaelen’s nasty mood.

He seemed to have gotten a grip on his temper by the time he had helped me dress, but he didn’t kiss my pussy awake as he had been in the habit of doing. Instead, as soon as he had fastened the restraints, he straightened and left.

Wondering if everyone was going to give me the cold shoulder, I left the room and looked around timidly. No one appeared, so I headed into the kitchen for breakfast.

When I had finished, I wandered around the mansion for a while and finally settled in the media room, still with no clue as to whether or not everyone was pissed off at me. No one showed up, at all. Finally, I went back up to my room and lay down on the bed to rest for a little while before I had to serve luncheon.

Having been up for most of the night, I fell asleep. It was one o’clock when I SURRENDER Kimberly Zant 86

woke up again. I stared at the clock in disbelief for several moments and finally bounded out of the bed. I could hear sounds coming from the breakfast parlor when I passed it, but I didn’t see any signs of food when I got into the kitchen. Finally, I nerved myself to see what was going on and pushed the kitchen door open far enough to peer in.

There was food on the table, but no one looked terribly interested in it. Gareth was sitting in his chair with his head in his hands. Expecting to catch hell for sleeping through lunch, from Kaelen anyway, I really didn’t want to go in. Unfortunately, I realized it would not help matters if I sneaked back upstairs and hid.

“I’m sorry. I fell asleep,” I said when I had everyone’s attention.

Dropping his hands, Gareth looked at me. Several emotions chased across his face, including embarrassment, but he sent me a crooked smile. “That’s alright, baby.

Come sit with me.”

Kaelen scooted his chair out, caught my wrist, and yanked me down onto his lap.

Kaelen and Gareth exchanged a long look. Gareth looked away first. After a moment, he muttered something under his breath and got to his feet, excusing himself.

Trying to act casual, the others got up almost as one, looked at each other uncomfortably, and finally left.

I chewed my lip, refusing to look at Kaelen, though I could feel his gaze on me.

With one finger, he nudged my chin in his direction, forcing me to look at him.

“I’m sorry,” I said uneasily as I met his gaze.

“About

what?”

I bit my lip. I didn’t really want to dredge up the incident from the night before, though. “I fell asleep.”

“Because you were up most of the night.”

I reddened. “I just wanted to be sure Gareth was all right,” I said finally.

His lips tightened. “Gareth has a few … self control issues,” he said dryly. “It was a mistake not to send him to the military academy our father sent me to,” he added thoughtfully after a few moments. “I didn’t think he could handle it.” I looked at him in surprise. He had been more reticent about himself than any of the others, and they had been very careful never to mention anything specific about themselves. They talked about boyhood and college antics, mentioned people I didn’t know by first name only, but they never talked about where or when anything had happened, never mentioned last names, never named specific places. I knew it was because they were protecting their true identities from me so I’d never asked.

Not that telling me he had gone to a military academy really told me anything …

except that it explained his rigid self-discipline, I thought, and supported Gareth’s complaint that Kaelen suffered from a determination to father him.

He hadn’t thought Gareth could handle it … which meant it had been rough.

“You shouldn’t take anything Gareth says too seriously,” he said after a moment.

My gaze flew to his at that. I wondered if he was referring to the comment that had started the fight, but realized he must be. Gareth must have told them the whole thing, I realized, feeling my face color.

“… Especially when he’s drunk,” he added after a lengthy pause.

That comment stabbed through me like an ice pick. I looked away, trying to sooth the hurt that had caused me with the reflection that I hadn’t taken him seriously at all, wondering if he just suspected what Gareth had said or if they had discussed that, too.

SURRENDER Kimberly Zant 87

I decided after a moment that it was probably just a suspicion because of the way Gareth had behaved. He hadn’t actually said anything … not really. He had behaved as if he was making love to me, though, and it had broken through my defenses.

Trying not to feel embarrassed that I had given too much of my own feelings away, or hurt that Kaelen had felt compelled to warn me not to take anything Gareth said to heart, I got up and went back into the kitchen.

I hadn’t eaten, I thought a little absently as I rummaged around the kitchen. I didn’t particularly want any of the leftovers from their luncheon. Finally, realizing I didn’t actually want anything, I took an apple from the refrigerator and peeled it, ate about half before I felt like I was going to choke on it, and tossed the rest away.

Gareth was laying in wait for me when I left the kitchen at last. I braced myself.

I didn’t particularly want to be around him at the moment, but I didn’t have a choice.

He caught me around the waist as I came even with him, glanced both ways down the hallway, and finally waltzed me into the nearest room—the breakfast parlor—which thankfully was unoccupied. I stared at his chest as he backed me into the corner and ducked down a couple of times to look at my face, evading him by turning my head.

Tiring of that quickly, he caught my chin and made me look up at him.

He was frowning with a mixture of puzzlement and anger. “What’s wrong?” I swallowed with an effort, forced a smile. “Nothing.” He looked confused for a moment and then his brow cleared. “I’m sorry as hell about what I said last night, Anna. It was stupid. You’re not still pissed at me, are you?” I dragged in a shaky breath. “No. I’m not mad.”

“What is it, then? Something I did after that? I was drunk, stinking drunk. Did I hurt you?”

That almost made me feel like crying. My throat felt like it was sticking together.

“No. You didn’t hurt me.”

“I

did.”

I pulled myself together with an effort, struggled to act ‘normal’. He hadn’t meant to hurt me, I knew. Maybe he even thought he actually had a crush on me, but the things he had said and way he had behaved … that was just … an effort to coax me into giving him his way. I realized I hadn’t really thought about how young they all were –

young in terms of manhood. Men never seemed to mature like women, and I doubted very seriously that Gareth was even approaching thirty. He was three years younger than Kaelen, and I had already deduced that Kaelen, the eldest of the bunch, had to be several years younger than me.

I didn’t know for certain. I didn’t know a damn thing about them, really.

They knew about me, though, everything, including my full name, date of birth, and social security number—everything. There had even been a background check on me.

He probably thought I was too old to fall for his flirtation … and I knew that was all it was. I had pegged him as player the moment I set eyes on him.

I felt like telling him women never got too old to fall for handsome men and make complete fools out of themselves, but I figured he would find that out for himself eventually.

“It was something Kaelen said to you, wasn’t it?” he asked tightly.

I dragged in a shuddering breath. “No. It wasn’t anything he said. And you SURRENDER Kimberly Zant 88

didn’t hurt me. I’m just … tired. I was worried about you when you left, and I waited up to make sure you’d be ok.”

He reddened, looked uncomfortable about the reminder. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper with you. I’m sorry as hell about that.” I nodded. “I know. It’s ok. Really.”

“No, it isn’t,” he said, lifting a hand to stroke my cheek. “I was rough. I behaved like an ass.”

I smiled faintly. “Yes, you did … but you didn’t hurt me.” He chuckled ruefully.

“I’m a tough old bird,” I added pointedly, wincing inwardly. I didn’t, in fact, feel old at all, but the sad truth was I was probably at least six years older than Gareth and maybe even more. He was
approaching
the age of considering marriage and children and I, unfortunately, was on the down side of that slope—not entirely over the hill or beyond the possibility, but not prime meat either. Even if what Kaelen had said wasn’t true, even if Gareth actually was seriously considering some sort of relationship, it wasn’t one that could, or should, go anywhere. It was doomed to failure, I realized, because of my age, and also because of the unfortunate predicament I had found myself in, where I had felt that I had to sell myself to save my children—or save myself. They might do fine without me. I was going to be a broken woman if I lost
them
.

And whether Gareth realized it or not, he had already condemned me for it, already proven he thought poorly of me, or he wouldn’t have tried to buy me.

He frowned. I could tell from the way his gaze flickered over my face that he suspected there was a reason I had pointed out my age. He straightened away from me.

“What
did
Kaelen say to you, anyway?” I tried to shrug off handedly. I did
not
want to say anything that might get the two of them stirred up. I was bound to come out the loser if I turned the brothers against one another. “He just reminded me that I’d be leaving in a few weeks,” I said. It wasn’t exactly the truth, certainly not what he had said, but he
had
reminded me that I would be leaving.

I could tell Gareth thought that was suspicious and cast around in my mind for something to distract him.

Sex seemed like the answer.

Although I didn’t realize it at the time, the incident was a prime example of just how radically that one moment of weakness had altered everything between us, completely changed our perception of one another. Before, Gareth would have been all over me by now, would have instantly launched a sexual assault the moment he dragged me into the corner, scratched his itch, and gone merrily on his way. He would not have asked me so many difficult, probing questions, and I certainly wouldn’t have considered, wouldn’t even have thought of, dropping my role as submissive and becoming the aggressor, not even to divert him.

“Which reminded me that we don’t have long,” I murmured, moving close to him and stroking my hand down the front of his pants suggestively. “We should make the most of it.”