Damn and hell. Tal wasn’t telling him anything about Alea he hadn’t already known. Every instinct in his body told him to top her, but she just kept shoving back. He didn’t want to push her too hard. He’d been down that road with Kelly, and it had only ended in divorce.
“I can’t force her to see what she needs,” Dane argued.
“I’ve watched you with Alea,” Kade said, stepping up. “You’re at your best when you tell it like it is. But you’ve been very careful with her. Hell, we all have. My brothers and I have resolved to stop now. You have to do the same. I’m not telling you to force her to your will, but you should be open and honest about everything you can do for her. What the three of you give her.”
“We’ve tried so many things,” Rafe added. “We’ve brought in therapists, given her charity work to take her mind off things, surrounded her with family and friends from her past who can help her remember happier times. None of it has worked. She pretends to be content, but she doesn’t connect with people anymore.”
Coop pushed himself off the floor. “She’s got a terrible self-image. She thinks she’s ugly and frigid. We can’t work on that from a distance.”
Lan got to his feet as well, wiping blood from his mouth. “I hate to admit it, but I agree with Cooper. What we’ve been doing so far hasn’t worked. We’ve been treating her like she’s too fragile. We’ve almost convinced her that she is, too. But she won’t break. She just needs to know that we’re strong enough to handle her.”
Dane looked at his two best friends. They had beaten each other stupid, but now they were standing together. Maybe that’s what real brothers were like. And maybe it was time to start following his instincts. Alea was floundering. Her world had been broken in a way that she couldn’t put back together all alone. She didn’t know how to ask for help and was afraid to need it. She was damn straight terrified to open her heart.
He’d worked plenty of operations where he couldn’t just walk through the door, guns blazing. The key was strategy. Find a sneaky way in. He could manage that. A two-pronged approach would work. He could start doing exactly what Tal had suggested, tell Alea everything she was missing, everything they could give her in the filthiest language possible. He wouldn’t hold back. He wouldn’t be polite. And he wouldn’t let her get away with anything.
And then, when she couldn’t stand another second, they would deliver on their promises. They would show her just how beautiful they thought she was, how hot they could make her, how high they could send her soaring. Once her body belonged to him and his brothers, her heart wouldn’t be far behind.
“Go get cleaned up,” Dane said to Landon and Cooper. “We have a lot to talk about. Tal, please have the investigators send me the report. We’ll will regroup in the morning and figure out exactly where to go from here. In the meantime, were going to figure out new protocols for the princess.”
Tal held out his hand, shaking Dane’s firmly. “The backup security team can handle the rest of the evening. It’s winding down anyway. Consider your team reassigned. You’re completely in charge of Alea’s security from now on. Good luck.”
Tal and his brothers, along with their friends, filed down the stairs, heading back to the ballroom, leaving Dane alone with the two men who had watched his back for the last two years. There wasn’t anyone else he would rather go into battle with.
This was the mission of a lifetime, and Dane didn’t intend to fail.
Chapter Four
Alea nearly cursed when she heard the soft knock on her door. The last thing she wanted was more conflict. At least she was dressed this time, having donned silk pajamas after a punishingly hot shower. “Please, Dane, can we talk about it in the morning? I’m so tired.”
Dane would be the one they sent. He always delivered bad news or a lengthy lecture on how stupidly she was behaving. She knew putting him off wasn’t right, but she couldn’t handle another confrontation tonight.
The door opened, and a pretty brunette in a designer gown floated in. Piper al Mussad stood halfway in the room, her hands raised in a silent gesture that pleaded for peace. “It’s just me. Don’t blame me because my husbands are nitwits.”
Alea couldn’t help but smile. Despite the terror, uncertainty, and shame of the last hour, Piper was a breath of fresh air. Her cousin-in-law was one of those people who lit up the room simply by walking into it. “You really should have had their IQs checked before you decided to marry them.”
Piper shrugged. “Give a girl a break. I was blinded by their hotness.”
“Okay, as a girl who remembers them during their prepubescent years—ewww.” But Alea smiled. Piper had been so good for her cousins. She’d become the sun they all orbited around. It reminded Alea of the joy her aunt and uncles had once shared and how happy the palace had been during her youth.
Piper closed the door behind her, her radiant face suddenly serious. “Are you all right?”
Alea was so far from all right that it was ridiculous, but she didn’t need to drag Piper any farther into this mess. And she wasn’t about to cause problems in Piper’s marriage. “I’m perfectly fine. My cousins have always been protective. I’m positive they would’ve told me in the morning.”
“You’re taking this way better than I would have. I have to confess, when Talib admitted what had happened, I thought about shoving something up his backside.”
“Piper!”
She shrugged. “It’s his favorite form of discipline. We should see how he likes it.”
Alea felt her face flush. She shook her head as she sat on the couch in the living area of her apartment. “I don’t understand how you can talk about things like that.”
Piper eased down beside her. “Because it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Tell me something. Was your aunt very proper? I know when she was the shaykhah she was every inch a lady in public, but was she reserved in private? I’ve only known her in private and she’s so open. I’m wondering how she dealt with the public side of this life.”
Alea laughed. Her aunt had been the same whether cameras were on her or not. “She used to tell us that she wouldn’t hide how much she loved my uncles. She’s very British, my aunt, but that stiff upper lip completely softened around her husbands and children. She is a lovely woman. She was the perfect queen in her day. You actually remind me a lot of her.”
“Thank you.” Piper smiled. “I’ve heard enough stories about when their fathers were alive to know that my husbands weren’t raised in a household that lacked warmth. When they were children, their parents often displayed their affection and told my husbands that they were loved. So were you. She still loves you.”
“My aunt and uncles created a wonderful environment to grow up in, though I missed not really knowing my own parents.”