last member of the Rosewood family. And we were already too late to rescue Miss Mabel.
"So back to the matter at hand," Shawn said, drawing my gaze down to him as I tried to focus on the present instead of falling into the pain of that discovery. Because if this all carried on the way it was going, there might be four more heads up there before long. "We have already established how far the Harlequin prince will go for his merry men. But I'm not all that interested in muscular blondes, I have to admit. And I can't say I'm much in the mood for dear old daddy to come charging in here with all his men, fucking up my house in some vicious attempt to rescue his boy from my basement. So I guess the only option left to me is death. I'm just trying to figure out where to start."
My heart leapt as he swung his shotgun back and forth along the line of us, his eyes sparkling with the game as he bobbed the barrel between each of the boys one at a time.
"Stop," I demanded, a sob catching in my throat. "Don't hurt them. Just tell me what you want. We can figure this out."
Shawn released a low whistle, his gaze narrowing in on me as a wicked joy lit within his blue eyes.
"What I want?" he asked curiously, rubbing at his jaw as he considered that. "Well, now that you mention it, this has all been a little easy. I was only getting into the swing of this game when you bunch of dumb fucks just came and landed yourselves in my lap. And yeah, it's tempting as fuck to blast all of your heads off and win myself a war in one fell swoop - but it's just so fucking easy that I can't say it's all that alluring."
"Spit it out," I growled, my hands fisting at my sides as I dared a glance to my right where Fox and JJ knelt, their gazes both locked on me. Shawn seemed to notice that I held their attention too and he smiled slowly as he raked his gaze over all of us.
"How about we stick to my former offer, sugarpie? You bring that fine ass of yours over here and throw your lot in with me and I'll let them go. Just like that. Poof. Ready to fight another day."
"You'd seriously let them leave?" I demanded while all three of my boys protested angrily, the men surrounding them swarming closer and waving guns around to stop them from moving out of their positions on the ground. "All you want is me? Why do you even give a fuck about me anyway? You can't seriously need to get laid that desperately."
"It's not about fucking you, sunshine," Shawn purred, stepping up in front of me again and taking hold of my jaw. "I could point a gun at any one of these assholes and command you to suck my cock in payment for their freedom and I know you'd do it. You'd part those pretty lips of yours and swallow me down like a good little whore. But I don't want to force anything from you like that. I want you on your knees for me because that's where you want to be. Where you need to be. If you agree to come back to me, I'm not gonna tie you up and fuck you whenever I want. That would be too easy. What I want is so much better than that, sugarpie." He tugged on my jaw and drew me up to my feet, keeping his gaze fixed on mine as he drank in my fear and swallowed it whole. He leaned closer, whispering in my ear so that only I could hear him. "I want to smother that fire in your eyes. I want to tame that spirit. I want to be your entire world, sugarpie, and only when I am, when you're begging on your knees for a taste of me again and I know that you'll die if I don't give it to you - only then will I take your body and own that too. And believe me, sweetheart, when I do you'll love every single moment of it."
He drew back and smiled at me, his mouth so close to mine that I could taste his breath washing over my lips as I suppressed the shiver of fear that ran through