“Stop pacing,” Liam ordered from behind the desk.

“I can’t.” Cameron threw him a look and returned to his circuit of the room. “I want to go up there and…”

“Don’t think about it.”

It was good advice, but the time for it was long past. From the first moment Liam had passed the woman over, a wordless plea in his eyes, Cameron had felt desire growing, flaring out of control. She’d trembled in his arms, lips parted softly in her fear, and he could feel the curve of her spine, the delicate strength in her neck. She smelled clean, faintly like flowers. And from the look in her eyes while they held her together in the study, she didn’t have the first damned clue what they wanted of her.

It was a unique torment. They’d never gone for innocents. Innocents didn’t want to do what Cameron and Liam wanted. They might both be in their prime, either one of them a catch—just as long as the girl wasn’t too particular about what they did for a living—but taking both of them…wasn’t a thing most girls would do. They’d spent the last few years looking for come-hither glances and long red nails, a certain sway of the hips that said a woman knew just what they were looking for and was only too eager to give it to them. And they’d had fun, a good counterpoint to a job where any day might kill them.

But from the look in Liam’s eyes, having Lily in their arms had told them both the same thing: fun wasn’t enough anymore. Fun, and well-practiced moans, and woman who left matter-of-factly the next day without being asked, had begun to make them both feel empty inside. The women they bedded cared nothing for them, and no matter how practiced their hands and their mouths were, it wasn’t enough.

And then…her. Trembling between them, and Cameron could almost have said she knew what they wanted, and she wanted them back. That fine, soft brown hair straggling out of its bun, the rosy lips still parted as if she didn’t know he was rock-hard while he held her in place, and slowly going mad from the way her chest rose and fell… She was so small, 5’5” at the most—and Cameron, the short one, was 6’4”. To look down and see the slope of her neck, the gentle rise as her breasts trembled with her frightened breaths…

Oh, God, he was going to lose it. He was supposed to hold her on his lap in the car, but at the first bounce, he’d had to shove her aside. That round ass bouncing on his lap would have made him come, right there. He was halfway to tearing off her shirt, pushing her skirt away, taking her in front of everyone—

He dropped into one of the chairs with a groan.

“You’re still thinking about it,” Liam said.

“Like you’re not,” Cameron challenged.

“Of course I am.” Liam looked up, and his ice-blue eyes held something dark, something dangerous. Cameron knew what that look meant. He’d heard the moans of the women Liam turned that look on, and it was making him even harder to think of Lily straddling his friend, held in place by one strong arm, that round ass exposed for Cameron’s fingers.

When his gaze cleared, Liam was looking back at the paperwork.

“So we’re just not going to talk about this?”

“What is there to talk about?” Liam demanded. “She’s our prisoner. We kidnapped her. We can’t…there’s no way even to ask. You saw her, she’s worried we’re going to kill her.”

“You could have taken the time to explain we wouldn’t,” Cameron muttered.

“I was trying to get out of there with everyone’s clothes still on, and I said no one was going to bother her.”

“But she didn’t believe us, did she? Oh, come on, you couldn’t have told her so that—”

“She’s not the kind of woman you can just ask that of.” Liam’s face was strained. “She’s…she knew what we wanted. She knew. Some part of her. But she couldn’t admit it to herself. She’s too innocent for that.”

“She wanted us,” Cameron murmured. His eyes drifted closed at the thought of her spread out on the bed, legs around his waist.

“It doesn’t…” Liam made a strangled sound. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t…”

“I know.” Cameron groaned. “It’s not going to stop me from thinking about it, though.”

“Well, find something to distract yourself,” Liam advised. “Or it’s going to be a long few days.” He paused, pen hovering over a sheet of paper. “Do you think she’s actually a virgin?”

Electricity shot through him. He didn’t go after virgins, didn’t want the young women with their hair still in ponytails and their bright, innocent faces. He’d never understood the appeal, never been much of a one to go for corrupting innocence.

Until now. Now, the thought was enough to make him want a cold shower. Or eight.

“You are going to drive me mad,” he said shortly. “I’m going to bed.”

“Bed?” Liam’s voice was amused. “Or a shower?”

“Shut up.” Cameron resisted the urge to slam the door behind him and climbed the stairs. He was almost shaking with desire, and he turned resolutely away from the old guest bedrooms and toward the room he’d shared with Liam for most of the past year. What he wouldn’t give for there to be a woman there tonight, any woman. It wouldn’t be the same, but it might get him through the night without losing his mind.

The sound caught his ear when he was nearly at the door and he turned, hand on the doorknob. For a moment, he thought it had been nothing, and then it came again: a quiet sob from down the hall.

Cameron squeezed his eyes shut and turned the knob, intending to strip off his clothes and drop straight onto the futon in the corner. He needed release before he saw her again. Then he might have a shred of self-possession.

But the sob came yet again, and he felt his hand come up from the doorknob and his body walk down the hallway even while he screamed at himself to turn around, to go back to his room, that she wasn’t safe with him. That those luscious, perfectly tempting curls and her heart shaped face and her brown eyes were too much for him not to beg for what he wanted.

What both he and Liam wanted.

He hoped Liam was just as distracted as he was. Smug bastard.

The lock clicked under his fingers and he opened the door carefully.

“Lily?”

A sob was his only answer. She had turned out the light. Shutting the door behind him—at least a tiny barrier to her escape—Cameron edged into the room and followed the sound of her crying to the bed. He sat cautiously on the edge of it and felt her shift away.

“Please don’t be scared,” he said, because he didn’t know what else to say. He wanted to say that this wasn’t what they did, and that they weren’t going to kill her, and that her boss was one hell of a jerk for leaving her there while he ran for safety. He wanted to say that if they weren’t trying to save another life, they never would have taken her. But all of those words seemed inadequate.

“Why shouldn’t I be scared?” She whispered, tears in her voice. “He’s…he doesn’t care for me. He doesn’t care for anyone. And he’ll just let me die.” Her voice quavered on the last word, and any shred of resolve disappeared.

“You’re not going to die,” Cameron told her forcibly. “We are not going to kill you.”

Liam was going to kill him. He would say that being afraid they’d kill her wouldn’t actually kill her, but it might keep her from running away. He would say that if they needed her to make a call to James Dominick, the quaver of fear in her voice had to be there.

And if he was here right now, Cameron knew he’d break, too. They’d done things that would horrify other people, but they had a line. No pain. And no innocent people. She should know she wasn’t going to be made to suffer for this jerk, that they would never do to her what he was having done to someone else.

Her sobs paused briefly at his words.

“What?”

“We need to scare your boss. We need him to tell us where he’s hiding the people he kidnapped. But we would never, ever hurt you. You haven’t done anything. You weren’t involved.”

“But I was,” she whispered. “I’m sure I sent some of those emails. When I think about—”

“Then don’t think about it. You can’t truly think you’re culpable.” He reached out tentatively, and wrapped his fingers around her hand. She stiffened, but didn’t pull away, and so he kept his hand there, touching her, marveling at how comfortable this seemed. “We don’t. Even the guy who hired us would say you aren’t. We’re just trying to get someone back. Remember how Liam said no one would bother you?” A thought occurred to him. They hadn’t planned for all of this. “Your family is going to worry.”

“I don’t…have any family.” She looked down. “My mother died giving birth to me. My father died five years ago. No siblings.”

“A boyfriend?” Could he be more obvious?

“No.” Her voice was bitter. “No boyfriend. No cat. No one to miss me.”

He couldn’t believe that, not for a moment.

“You’ll go home soon,” Cameron said finally. His fingers tightened over hers, and he tried not to leap away when she drew closer. He didn’t know what to say other than that he didn’t want her to go—and he couldn’t say that.

“You’ll keep me safe?” She asked, not understanding the danger she was in, too focused on the fear that someone might truly kill her. All of a sudden, her face was closer.

He shouldn’t. He really shouldn’t. But Cameron felt his hand rise in the darkness to the faint outline of her face. He cupped her cheek, drew her closer, and their lips met.