The room was quiet for a minute after that, Mia just shaking her head in the silence.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“It is what it is,” Ash growled, looking away.

“Thats awful.”

We were quiet another minute before I spoke. “We aren’t telling you this to bring you down or anything, Mia. We wanted to tell you because we need you to know why you’re here — why you’re really here. We couldn’t let Ryan do to you what he did to Amy, or any of the other girls he’s hurt.”

“So you bought me.”

I grinned, shrugging. “Yep.”

“Just…because?”

The three of us glanced at each other before I turned back to her. “We’d have bought anyone we saw that night to save them from Ryan, you need to know that. But…”

She glanced up into my face.

“But you were different.”

Mia blushed, swallowing quickly.

“You—” I shook my head. “You do something to us, Mia. You walked into the club the other day and you just… fuck, I don’t even know. You make something click in us we’ve never felt before.”

Her brow shot up, her soft lips parting slowly.

“We all feel it,” Oliver spoke. “So that’s why it was hard taking you here. Because yes, we wanted to save you, but there’s also some things ingrained in us about women from the auction. Bringing you here was confusing for a moment.”

She smiled, looking down. “Seems we worked through that confusion.”

Ash chuckled darkly. “Apparently we did.”

Mia laughed nervously before shaking her head. “God, I— look I didn’t mean to do anything to get between the three of—”

We all chuckled at once, and she looked up sharply, frowning.

“Mia,” Oliver shook his head. “There’s no coming between us.”

I snorted, and though Oliver and Ash shot me a look at the dirty humor, Mia looked up and laughed.

My kinda girl.

I grinned. “What Oliver means is, no, you’d didn’t break anything with us.”

“So, what now?”

Ash nodded. “Now, ideally, you stay here until we can make a move on the Cunninghams.”

She balked. “And how long is that?”

“I don’t know, but it’s the only way you’ll be safe.”

“I have friends, and family—”

“They’re safe,” I said evenly. She looked at me and I met her eyes. “We’ve got people watching them.”

“Can I call them say least? Let them know I’m alive?”

Ash, Oliver, and I exchanged looks before I cleared my throat. “They think you got pulled away for job training. It’s remote, so no cell phones and all that.”

She stared at us.

“If they thought you’d been kidnapped, they’d be in much more danger of reprisal from Ryan,” Ash said evenly.

“So, yes,” Oliver nodded. “We’ll make arrangements. Ryan and Johnson are watching them too, so it’s tricky, but I swear we’ll make it happen. Soon.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course.”

“So I just stay here, locked in your tower?”

I smiled. “You make us sound like evil beasts or something.”

“Aren’t you?”

I glanced back, holding her look. “Aren’t we what? Evil, or beasts?”

“Either,” she said quietly.

“Not the first one,” I said evenly, my gaze leveling at her. “The second one though, maybe.”

She bit her lip, her cheeks reddening.

“You’re welcomed to stay here — actually, we’d like you to stay here, at least until this is worked out.

She nodded at Oliver's words. “And at what times will I be expected to get back to my room so you can lock me in?” her brow arched sarcastically.

I grinned.

I’m not used to a girl with this kind of sass, that’s for sure. The women we’d had over the years tended to be FAR more…I don’t know, more willing to do as we said. And yes, when it came to domming a woman, you wanted that. When it came to having a conversation though, and being with a woman in a capacity outside the bedroom, it got old.

There was something refreshing about Mia’s ability to talk back, and I liked it.

Of course, in the bedroom?

Well, in the bedroom, she could be damn sure we’d strip her of that sass-back. In the bedroom, we’d have her begging to submit — on her knees, dripping wet, the word “sir” breathed across her lips.

My cock pulsed between my legs at the thought.

“I think it’s fair to say you won’t be locked in your room,” Oliver said with a dark smile. “Free range of the house, provided you stay inside of it. The house is alarmed and basically a fortress, but I can’t offer the same protection once you step outside.”

She nodded.

She bit her lip, and I felt myself growl, slowly losing my ability to keep my mind off of taking her and making her ours. I glanced at my two friends and saw the exact same look in their eyes as well.

Keeping Mia Thorne here would keep her safe.

But keeping her here meant she’d be ours — there was no denying that.

“Well, and I suppose I’ll have to keep sleeping with you to earn my keep.”

She said it as a joke — a completely light-hearted, sarcastic little quip.

…The room immediately got quiet, and I could see the blush creep up in her cheeks. I watched as her chest rose and fell with her breath, her hands nervously twisting in her lap.

Yeah, not a joke. Not with the chemistry and the barely contained desires floating around that room. And very quickly, that “joke” was starting to feel a whole lot more like an invitation.

“Being here with us like this, and if we continue what we’ve started…” Oliver trailed off, his eyes drinking her in as she blushed. “It might entail certain things.”

“Like?”

“Like submission,” Ash said darkly.

Mia gasped, swallowing quickly as the heat rose in her cheeks. Ash moved to sit on the couch on her other side, and even Oliver landed closer to her from his chair.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t feel what we all felt,” Ash whispered darkly. His hand landed on her knee, and she shivered. “When you were us, or with Oliver, you know you felt something you’ve never felt before when we took charge — when we dominated you.”

She moaned quietly, her eyes wide as she nodded slowly. “I— maybe,” she breathed. She shook her head. “This whole dom thing, and the whole being submissive stuff, I—” Her eyes darted to all three of us. “I mean, I’ve never—”

“But you’re dying to feel it again, aren’t you?” I husked into her ear, moving closer and putting my hand on her other knee.

She whimpered, her breath coming shaky.

“And you’re dying to see how it feels to completely let go with all three of us, and let us take you places you’ve never even imagined.”

Her eyes fluttered shut, and her lip caught between her teeth.

“Say yes,” Ash growled into her neck, his hand sliding up and down her thigh as her breathing got heavier and heavier. “Say yes, give us the control, and let us show you how good submitting can make you feel.”

The room got still again. Mia’s chest rose and fell with her breath, and her big blue eyes slowly moved between all three of us. I could see how badly she wanted to say yes. I could see the war there behind her eyes, the fear of letting go clashing with the raw desire to embrace that darkness.

Ash’s hand lingered on her leg, and mine did the same on the other, teasing across her knee and tracing up her thigh. We moved closer, the heat of the three of us enveloping her as her eyes moved faster and her breath came quicker.

“I want you to be our good girl,” I growled into her ear, my lips teasing her skin.

Her breath caught loudly, and she whimpered.

“Yes.”

The three of us groaned as we moved in, and she gasped as my lips pressed on one side of her neck, Ash’s on the other, Oliver, leaning in to claim her lips.