Their Virgin Captive by Shayla Black, now you can read online.
Chapter One
Gavin James put down his coffee and looked out over the Dallas skyline. From the top floor of the Black Oak Oil building, he could practically see all the way to Fort Worth. He knew the view well. The same buildings and trees, the same smog hanging over the same traffic jam this time of morning. Even the coffee was the same, just like every other morning. He rose long before the sun, nightmares chasing away any semblance of peaceful sleep. He always gave up and, after a punishing run, came in to the office. His employees thought he was dedicated, but the truth was he had nothing better to do.
His only reason for smiling anymore was the one person he must stay far, far away from.
Hannah Craig.
Yeah, you did such a great job staying way far away from her, you idiot. You hired her as your admin. Way to keep the girl safe. She’s a whole twenty feet away from you eight plus hours a day. Good going, James.
The phone ringing on his desk interrupted his nasty inner monologue.
“Hey, bro, I’m going to be a little bit late.” Gavin’s brother Slade yawned as he spoke.
“What a surprise. Another late night at the club?”
Maybe Hannah wasn’t the only one who made Gavin smile. He couldn’t help the way his lips quirked up, thinking about how his brother spent his nights. Spanking women was rapidly becoming a second job for Slade—and he was good at it. Often, Gavin wondered why he didn’t go out with his brothers. Maybe not to the BDSM club they frequented, but dinner would be nice. He’d become so solitary in the last ten years since—
Nope. He refused to think about that.
Gavin forced a cheery tone to his voice. “Did Dex keep you out all night?”
“I did not keep him out,” Dex said as he strolled into the office, proving once again that he was always on time. Of course, he also was the illegitimate child who felt the need to prove he belonged. “Slade managed that all on his own. He found a pretty blonde. Surprise, surprise.
When I left the club they were getting mighty cozy.”
Gavin’s brief foray into a decent mood took a nosedive. Slade would have picked a pretty blonde for one reason and one reason only—to pretend she was Hannah. Of all of Gavin’s many reasons for staying the hell away from his admin, the fact that both of his brothers were crazy about her sat at the top of his list.
Who are you fooling? That’s not why you stay away. If you don’t, you know what will happen. You know what you’d do to that girl. You already lost one. Do you really think you deserve a second chance?
Gavin took a deep breath and forced a smile. Dex already believed that he was indifferent.
He didn’t want to push his half brother even further away.
Punching the button on the phone, Gavin put Slade on speaker. “Tell me you’re going to make the board meeting.”
Dex snorted and tossed his big body into one of the chairs in front of Gavin’s desk. He crossed one leg over the other, his beat-up cowboy boots poking from his tailored suit. That was Dex. Gavin could force him into a designer suit, but he was never going to lose the cowboy.
“Of course I’m going to make the meeting,” Slade said with a long-suffering sigh. “I’m not late because I partied too hard. I just talked to the blonde. Mostly. Candy? Sandy? I don’t remember. She was nice, but she wasn’t…”
Hannah. Gavin watched Dex’s mouth turn down. He was obviously thinking the same thing.
Slade continued. “It doesn’t matter. Listen, I got a call about the Alaska site. We’ve had a little trouble there. Something’s gone wrong with the infrastructure. I’m going to have to head up there for a few days. I spent the morning calling around to make sure the house is ready for me after the board disperses.”
Gavin arched a brow at Dex, who waved him off. “It’s an engineering problem, not security.
I already talked to Mike in River Run. He said it’s been really quiet there. The worst they’ve had is some kids deciding the base office needs new graffiti on the side. They have computer problems, too, but the IT guy is on it. The situation Slade is talking about just needs a little follow-up and supervision.”
Well, at least security was one thing he didn’t worry about. Since Dex had taken it over for Black Oak Oil, that function had been running smoothly.
Gavin grabbed the stack of mail he’d taken from Hannah’s desk, waiting for her arrival in thirty-four minutes. God, he was an idiot. He knew the exact time she would walk in the door, and he waited on her like a dog waiting for a promised treat. Anxiously, he sorted through the mail. It was too early to expect anyone else to be in for meetings, and he had nothing else to do.
She was far too efficient. He’d hired her straight off the bus from some no-name West Texas town, never imagining how quickly she would become essential. Sometimes, Gavin even found himself twiddling his damn thumbs because Hannah ran his workload so efficiently.
There was a slight pause on Slade’s end of the line, and then his brother sounded almost reluctant. “Gavin, Dex and I want to talk to you about something. Do you think we could schedule lunch after the meeting?”
The mail was all crap. He could throw most of it away. He came to a large envelope that looked more interesting. Maybe it contained something other than an offer to halve his budget for bulk paper. Gavin sliced his letter opener neatly through the material as suspicion about this luncheon crept into his mind. “About what? Business?”
Dex shifted in his chair. “Not exactly.”