He grimaced. “Not particularly. But I suppose I have no real objection to you keeping one.”
“Why, thank you, Your Majesty,” she said mockingly.
“Could you keep it in its cage though?”
“He has a name. Roger. And he doesn’t have a cage. Roger is a free spirit.”
“Wonderful,” he muttered. Then he turned his attention back to her. “So, what do your dreams have to do with breaking into our castle? Is it your life-long dream to become a thief?”
Great. She’d thought Roger had distracted him. But she didn’t have that sort of luck. “Of course not, I’m trying to escape this life.”
“You are? You wish to leave here?”
She sighed. “Look, I love my brother. It would devastate me to leave him. But I have nothing else here. There’s nothing for me here. Carlin is so worried about someone harming me he’s wrapped me up in cotton. He’s smothering me.”
Joe was still for a moment. “His protection isn’t allowing you to breathe.”
“No.” She felt a little relieved that he understood. That she had someone to talk to. “I haven’t got any friends because there’s no one he trusts around me, except for a few of his top men. He won’t let me do anything out of fear. I can’t even buy my own fucking underwear. One of the women here does it. I’m his only family. He feels responsible for me. He loves me.” Even she heard the surprise in her voice. She shook her head. “I know he does. But he shows his love with his protection. I’m the chink in his armor, you see. I could be used against him.”
“And what do you long for? What do you desire?”
“Freedom,” she said simply. “I want to be my own person. I don’t even know what I’m good at because I haven’t been given the chance to try.”
“And what does that have to do with breaking into our home?”
She grimaced. “You won’t be happy.”
“Tell me.”
“Freedom comes at a price.”
He nodded in understanding. “You’ve heard rumors of our gold.”
“I know it’s wrong, obviously. I also know it’s ironic I would commit a crime in order to get away from a life filled with criminals. Not that I’m a criminal exactly. Well, I wasn’t until I broke into your place. But I was desperate. I know the gold rumors aren’t true.”
“Do you, now?”
“I saw your place. I’m guessing it takes a lot of money to keep it going, huh?” She gave him a look of sympathy. “Probably uses every penny you’ve got just to heat the place.”
* * *
She thought they were paupers. Amusement filled him. He was richer than probably any man on the planet. It was just that none of them cared for decorating. They each had their areas—those were all they cared about. But he could see how it would look to someone else.
“So, you see, I can’t go with you. I can’t trade one life of being under someone’s thumb for another.”
“You believe you would be under our thumbs?”
“Look, no offense, but you don’t exactly strike me as the most easy-going of guys. I can tell we’d butt heads a lot. And Sawyer is fanatical about keeping everyone around him safe. I could only imagine how little freedom I’d have with him wanting me under constant guard. And Garret, well, I’m not certain he’d ever let me out of bed.”
No doubt she was right. “It wouldn’t be just Garret keeping you in bed. And it wouldn’t be our thumb you’d be under.”
He loved the flush that filled her face. So innocent. So sweet. And he was so turned on by the thought of her under him, over him, of him inside her that he could barely think.
“We would protect you, that’s true. We would want you near one of us at all times. But I believe we could do it without smothering you. And if things became too much for you, I’m certain you would knock us back into line.”
“You say that, but there are three of you and just one of me. How on earth could I hold my own?”
“Oh, quite easily I would say.” He couldn’t believe he was going to admit this. “Because of all of us you would have the most power.”