I’d been homeschooled until high school, and entering high school while wearing floor-length dresses you sewed yourself… um, yeah, I wasn’t the most popular girl.
And the PSAs said things would get better when I was a grownup but this was friggin’ ridiculous. Leander frickin’ Mavros?
Then the wiser inner me whispered that he wasn’t my knight in shining armor and I wasn’t a damsel in distress.
But I wasn’t marrying either of them. That was the whole point. I needed to stop taking things so seriously. Growing up in church, courting had to lead to marriage and a quiver full of babies and— Blech! I didn’t want any of it!
What I did want was a seriously hot fling with a set of badboy twins who know exactly how to touch a woman and light up my every nerve ending.
What I wanted were nights I would never forget.
What I wanted was to discover exactly who I could be beyond the proper young woman I was raised to be. I’d been lied to my whole young life about what the world was and what it wasn’t—and about what a woman was and what she wasn’t. What I could become and what I very much was not allowed to do.
The religious texts I was taught said:
A woman must submit to her parents.
A woman must submit to her husband.
Do not lie.
Do not cheat.
Do not steal.
Do not fornicate.
Do not masturbate.
Do not lust after another, even in your mind.
I’d spent the first nineteen years of my life terrified of every thought I had, absolutely convinced I was going to hell because my thoughts were constantly unruly.
And from what my parents and my church taught me, that meant I was doomed to the fiery pit.
I’d escaped and gotten the job in LA while I went to UCLA on scholarship. And slowly, my world broke wide open.
I’d left behind the husk of my past in so many ways. All that old thinking, cast off.
Except for in the way that felt most important. Most primal.
I needed to exorcise the bad religion from my body and from my blood.
I needed one or both of these sexy as hell men to fuck me—a thrill ran through me both at the curse and at the naughty image the curse brought forth.
It was all I could think about, even though there was plenty to look at as we climbed the stairs to the private plane. And plenty to look at as we seated ourselves inside the sumptuous plane.
It looked more like a private lounge than the inside of an airplane. I settled myself in one of the chairs while Janus disappeared up front, talking to the pretty blonde flight attendant. I looked away, trying not to feel a pang in my chest. But then I remembered how he’d been at the afterparty. He was a flirt. It was just his way. Just because he said sweet things when we were alone, I couldn’t start to think that he—
I turned away from them and sat down in a seat facing the back of the plane. Since it was an overnight flight, with a push of a button, the chairs could lay back and become a bed. And good Lord, I’d had a day. My emotions were all over the place. I stowed my purse beside me and, even though I imagined I wasn’t supposed to put the chair in the laid-back position until we were up in the air, I did it anyway and closed my eyes.
But the nap in the car meant it was impossible to sleep. I kept my eyes closed anyway as the pilot’s voice came overhead and announced take-off. Then the usual feel of the plane speeding up and the lift of take off that always made my tummy feel funny. Then we were up in the air. I breathed out. Okay. We were in the air now. I’d sleep and wake up and we’d be in London.
I could try to make sense of my crazy life there.
“Look how sweet she is all curled up,” a voice said from above me.
“Seems a shame to disturb her,” came an identical male rumble.
My eyes shot open, only to look up and see the twins standing beside my seat, Milo not far behind them, all of them peering down at me.
Leander’s eyes were dark gray, matching his polo, but they had an excited edge to them that made my stomach flip.
“No time for sleep, honey. Janus bribed the flight attendant so they’ll leave us alone the whole flight. Daddies wanna play.”
My eyes widened in excitement right as three pairs of hands started pulling at my clothing, stripping me bare in a matter of seconds.
16
NOT NICE… BUT SEGGSY AS HELL
“We’re going to push your limits, Hope. I’m sorry and not sorry at the same time, because I want you to feel things you couldn’t imagine before you met us. You see, I’ve never had a blank canvas before.”