"You are alright, my dove?"
She nodded against his chest, and he gave her a few more moments of respite before gently settling her down on the couch.
He returned to her side with a wet washcloth, and it was only when he gently started wiping her cleavage that his Sara seemed to remember what he was wiping off.
She sat up with a cry, her cheeks rosy with embarrassment. "No, please—-"
He caught her gaze and held it, wanting her to see the truth in his eyes. "There is nothing to be ashamed of, my Sara."
Her embarrassment faded, but when she started to speak—-
"Do you promise?"
The catch in her voice betrayed her, and it was then he realized how vulnerable his Sara felt.
"Because I'm scared you'll judge me one day—-"
Her eyes lifted up to his, and the terror in her gaze made him realize that there was only one thing for him to do.
"You were not the only one who was terrified."
He had never bared his soul like this to anyone, but he was beginning to realize that for his Sara, he would do anything.
"I was sick in my gut while I waited for you to make your choice."
Her eyes widened, and his lips twisted in a self-mocking smile.
"I was afraid it would make you think I was grotesque, and what I asked of you would make you run away."
Just like he had seen so many other women run away from men who were far more less monstrous than him—-
"But instead, you were magnificent."
A little sigh escaped her after a moment, and he swallowed hard because he now knew that sound meant she saw through him.
"You wanted to see if I would break."
And she did.
Sara gently placed a hand against his cheek. "I may be young, and I might have led an awfully boring life, but neither of those things make me weak."
He wanted to believe her, badly. But just because she wasn't weak didn't mean he was good enough for her, and even now...
"What's wrong, Raaf?"
To answer such a loaded question would be too dangerous, and so he simply bent his head to distract her, with his tongue gently tracing the soft curves of her lips. A quick and easy distraction, that was all it was supposed to be, but when he heard her make a soft little mewl...
Fuck.
It was was more than he could handle, and Raaf groaned even as his hands were already moving up to clasp her face.
Her lips parted at the first brush, and his tongue thrust inside of her mouth. The kiss lasted for a long time, and when he finally let them both up to catch their breath, she collapsed against his chest, and in the next moment, his Sara was fast asleep.
As expected, her first taste of a ménage à trois had tired her, and Raaf took extra care as he lifted her up in his arms to carry her back to her room.
He had seen how the world of fiction tended to romanticize such an experience. Had seen how books and movies made the whole thing less intimidating and more tempting. But for women, and especially girls like his Sara whose feelings had to be engaged before her body could be involved - nothing could be further than the truth.
It required a level of trust and courage for a girl to expose and leave herself bare and vulnerable in the presence and possession of two men. Not only did they outnumber her, but they were also genetically designed to overpower her.
Only when a ménage à trois was done right would it empower her, just as it had done now for his Sara.
But even so...
Rafe watched his Sara sleep, and the way she looked, with her innocence unspoiled in spite of everything that had happened, made his guts clench hard. His Sara had seen his darkness, but instead of shunning him or running away, she had let him see hers.
It should be enough to convince him that fate meant them to be together, but there was still a part of him that refused to believe this. A part of him that remained chained to the past. And when he finally headed back up and saw a sailboat power into view—-
The man behind its wheel looked up, and it was that part of him which Sara's father ended up seeing.
And from that one moment, William Perez knew exactly what to do to rescue Sara from her captor without having to shed a single drop of blood.
SARA'S FATHER SEEMED as if he had aged overnight, and his movements were slow and stiff as Cain and Gerard assisted him in climbing aboard. He looked as if he carried the weight of the entire world on his shoulders, and maybe that was exactly how it was, when Raaf had kidnapped his daughter.