The next evening, Bianca sat, wearing a deep green oversized sweater and figure-hugging jeans, listening to her Masters.
They had turned up that evening, O’Grady looking as ruggedly handsome as ever, although he was also looking tired. St Just, as cool as ever, but with a piercing look in his eyes, as though he was searching for a way to tell her something she would not like to hear.
Her knees drawn up to her chin, she hugged herself silently and watched them as they circled like wary fighters.
She had asked them when she could resume her work and the strained silence that followed had alerted her to something unpleasant in the offing.
It had been St Just who had stepped to her side, and placed his hand on her knee as he said gently,
“Pet…everyone in the place you worked at… they know of your… ahem…relationship …with us.”
Her plump lips parted in horror.
O’Grady glowered at Bianca who had turned to look at him in mute appeal. St Just held her hand, icy cold as it was as her face went white and then flooded with colour.
In shame, thought O’Grady angrily.
So Bianca Cruz was ashamed to be seen as their pet?
St Just knew what she was thinking: they must have gossiped about her, laughed at her.
All of a sudden, St Just wished they had never taken such a young girl for their pleasure. In many ways, they had destroyed her.
People who knew her would judge her unkindly. And the friends she had made at the workplace- well, how many of them would see past the fact that she had sold her body for a price?
O’Grady, who had been standing in the doorway, his big muscled arms bulging as he stood, his face grim, arms crossed, said nothing. His brother had explicitly ordered O’Grady to keep quiet, knowing his propensity to put his foot where his mouth was.
“We don’t want to upset Bianca further,” St Just had said in a clipped tone.
Finn St Just scowled as he looked at his brother.
Bianca’s wide brown eyes had filled with horror at St Just’s words and O’Grady, who was standing at the door, felt his muscles bunch as unfamiliar waves of guilt flooded him, making him stiffen.
It made him angry.
He was fighting the feeling of remorse at how they had used the innocent woman, exploiting her helplessness for their own benefit…
Bianca’s soft brown eyes, dulled with pain, held St Just’s gaze for a long time. Then they slid to O’Grady.
But he looked at her with a flat gaze, no tenderness showing on the chiselled planes of his handsome face.
She sighed and lowered her head
St Just rose and glared at his brother warningly as O’Grady rolled his eyes.
For some inane reason, O’Grady was irritated and the young woman with her hair in a messy topknot, her luscious body swathed in unshapely clothes, only made his desire to take her grow.
His face was like thunder.
Bianca was lost in her thoughts as she sat, chewing her lip.
Then, forced to react to what Finn St Just had just told her, she said,
“…so they all know that I’m…I’m…”
She faltered, unable to say it. That she was just their sex toy.
“Our wh*re.” snarled O’Grady and she directed an anguished look at him, eyes wide in pain and shock. Her soft lips parted as he went on, “You chose this, Pet, so why are you playing the martyr now? You wanted this for your family.”
The sneer was in his voice and she flushed, her face hot as he smirked unkindly.
“I don’t recall anyone forcing you to sleep with us, baby.”
He walked forward, towering over her and she stared at the tattoos visible around his throat, shock making her numb.
This is a nightmare, she told herself as she met his cold black eyes, he is not so cruel. He can’t be…
His voice was mocking as he went on,
“From where I was when we were f*cking you, together and in turns, it looked like you were enjoying it as much as us. All those little screams and moans; that wasn’t acting now, was it lassie?”
Bianca felt as though she would burst as she looked at him, her hurt and pain in her eyes.
Her breath came in ragged gasps as she met his cold, cruel eyes. Was this the man she loved?
With an oath, O’Grady turned his back to her.
“Baby, you got what you wanted. You wanted to be free of Dean Nelson’s clutches. Your sisters got to be sent to a fancy school and your alcoholic stepma is having the time of her life.”
He spun to fix her with his steely eyes as he went on in a low rumble,
“So you f*cked the both of us for it.”
Bianca cringed noticeably, the blood rushing from her face as she recoiled from his calculated cruelty.
S Just leapt ot his feet, his face harsh as he glared at O’Grady.
But the Irishman was unstoppable.
” So what? We’ve had many women in our beds before this.”
And he turned to look at her as he added his final insult,
“There’s nothing remarkable about your pus*y, my girl.”
Her gasp was loud and shocked and this time, St Just rose and O’Grady realised that he had gone too far.
Cursing ferociously, he turned and strode out, feeling Bianca’s eyes following him like a puppy’s.
St Just, who had stepped to her, sank down beside her on the bed, clutchingher cold hands. Bianca turned her glittering brown eyes to his face, her face mirroring her sorrow.
More than the fact that people were laughing at her, was the hurt she felt over his brother’s calculated cruelty, he thought.
O’Grady could be charming but there was a brutal side to him that he had never unleashed on any woman in St Just’s presence.
Until now.
Sensing that she needed to be made to feel better, St Just wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his arms gently. Kissing away her tears, he soothed,
“Hey Bianca; he has killed a man for you…”
She shook her head, pushing him away.
“No Finn.” She said sadly, hating the break in her voice as she spoke,” No. Liam O’Grady killed because he knew the man was threatening the business. Me?” she laughed and the bitterness, the heartbreak in her voice made him grasp the extent of her hurt.
Pushing his hands away, she rose and walked to the centre of the room, hugging herself. Her eyes went to the little desk calendar she had bought a while ago.
Seven months had flown by, she thought in wonder. Shaking her head, she focussed on St Just as she went on, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice,
“Me? I’m just the one who warmed your beds for a while…”
She turned to look outside. It had begun to rain and they could hear the roar of O’Grady’s car as it shot off down the street. Bianca padded across to the window and stared out bleakly