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“I wasn’t free, though. I was owned by him. Jonathan only ever cared about himself. I was just a piece of property. The only difference was my living conditions. I never starved, and I was never made to take off my clothes. But he has a temper. And when he is close to losing it, his hand will twitch. It’s a warning sign. I didn’t recognise it at first, though, and there were so many times when he’d lose it. He’d throw things. Yell. He never hit me, but it was terrifying. It made me very wary.”
“You should have told us,” Judd said.
“I know. I didn’t want to lie to you all, but Jonathan, he . . . I owed him.”
“Is that why you were so jumpy when we first met you?” Beck asked. “Because of him and his temper?”
“Partly. I guess it was all of it. The way I grew up, being sold to a gang, but yeah, living with someone who could just explode like that made me a bit jumpy.”
“Christ, I’m surprised you let us ever touch you,” Hux said.
“I liked you guys touching me, though. I came to crave it. I knew you would never hurt me.”
“Never,” Judd swore.
“Jonathan would humiliate me if he thought I was showing my poor breeding, as he liked to put it. He would constantly put me down, tell me I wasn’t good enough, smart enough. If I did something he didn’t approve of, he’d unleash his sharp tongue on me. So I learned to be what he wanted. Quiet and subservient. To see to his needs. To always look perfect. Behave a certain way. And if he ever asked something of me . . . then I did it. It’s no excuse and I’m sorry. So sorry. I’m sorry, Judd.”
She buried her face into his chest. She could feel him trembling.
“Hush. You do not apologize to me. You do not.”
She shook her head. “No, I have to. I know that you can’t trust me now. I don’t want to come between you all.” She drew herself out of his arms. “You’d all be better off without me.”
Turning, she walked away.
She wished she could cry . . . could release this pain inside her.
“Chloe,” Judd called out. “Freeze your butt right now.”
Freeze her butt? She shook her head.
“Chloe Reed, we claim you,” Judd said. “We claim you as our intended bride.”
Okay, now she froze. She turned and stared at them. They were standing together, united.
“What?”
“We claim you,” Beck said.
“As our bride.” Hux had a wide smile on his face.
“You’re going nowhere,” Owen told her.
Judd strode toward her. “You’re our intended bride. We are capturing you. The way you captured us. Today we enter our twenty-one days of Marjarsom where we’ll romance you, and convince you to marry us for real.”
“I . . . you can’t. We’re not even in Escana. It’s not legal.”
“Like that’s going to stop us,” Owen said.
Well, stop Owen, no. But the others . . . she looked to them for backup. But they all looked determined.
Especially Judd.
“You’re going to be ours, Baby Blue. Just give us a chance.” He swallowed heavily. “I loved Ester. But she didn’t feel the same way. She lied to us, cheated on us, and left us for someone richer who she thought would give her the life she deserved. After that, I became bitter and distrustful. And I wasn’t very trusting to begin with. That’s part of the reason I reacted the way I did. However, I want to be different. I want to be better with you.”
“I’m so sorry, Judd,” she whispered.
“Shh. No more apologizing. We need to find a way to move forward.” He rubbed his hand up and down her back for a long moment. Cupping her chin, he moved her head from side to side. Firm resolve filled his face and he nodded and pointed at his nose. “Take a shot.”
“What?”
“You need to smack me in the face. I deserve it for ever hurting you like that.”
“It was an accident, Judd.”
“Doesn’t matter. We shouldn’t have been doing that near you. Hit for a hit.”
“Oh, so when you guys spank me I can spank you back? That’s how it works?”
“Nice try. Not happening.” Beck walked over and took her face between his hands carefully. Judd took a few steps away. “We want you as our intended bride. Will you give us a chance? Let us really romance you the way we should have always done.”
“Let us treat you like a princess,” Hux added. “Let us grovel and prove to you that we can be the men you need.”
“Our baby girl,” Owen said.
“But at the end of the twenty-one days . . . I mean, I wouldn’t hold you to it—”
“Yes, you would,” Owen said fiercely. “And we’d hold you to it as well.”
