Their Virgin Concubine, Masters of Ménage, Book 3 Read Online Free PDF

perfectly ready to leave.
    “No! I love seafood. I adore oysters. I’m just really clumsy with them, and the waiter didn’t offer me like a bib or anything.” Because yeah, that would be classy in a five-star place like this.
    Kade laughed, the masculine sound running a shiver up her spine. “You’re worried you will make a mess?”
    “Worried? No. How about absolutely certain. There’s a reason they call me Pandora. I tend to make a mess wherever I go.” Her reputation hadn’t bought her a ton of friends at Black Oak. Women like Amanda seemed to genuinely hate her.
    Rafe slid back into the booth and settled closer. He squeezed a lemon over the oyster and picked it up once more. “Pandora was the most beautiful woman in the world, you know. She was a gift from Zeus to Prometheus’s brother.”
    Piper knew the story. “She was a trick. Zeus’s gifts always came with a price.”
    His lips curved in a satisfied smile. “Oh, habibti , the discussions we could have. You are right, but I think this was one trick that worked for the world. Without Pandora, the gifted one, there would have been no women.”
    Kade shuddered. “That would be truly horrible.”
    “She opened a box she wasn’t supposed to and unleashed suffering on mankind,” Piper argued.
    “You view this story in the wrong way. By unleashing suffering, she also unleashed joy. Men before Pandora did not know love or happiness or true comfort because they cannot exist without their opposites to define them. Pandora made mankind.” Rafe brushed a stray piece of hair from her face. “You are afraid of many things, habibti . Do not be afraid to try. Do not be afraid to fail. Be afraid to simply exist never knowing either the high of success or the low of failure.”
    He held the oyster up, offering to control the shell.
    His words, those beautiful words coming from deep inside him, coated her ears with that rich chocolate voice that filled her like a sensual spell. She shouldn’t take him up on the offer. He was practically her boss. No, more important even, since he could influence the presentation of all her research. But she was twenty-five years old and suddenly she realized just how much fear had ruled her world. Fear of losing her sister. Fear of failing. Fear of being hurt.
    She looked him in the eyes, a spark flaring inside her as he placed the shell to her lips and tilted the oyster in. Soft, with a lovely acidic flavor from the lemon. The oyster slid down her throat, a decadent experience.
    Rafe looked down at her, pleasure oozing from his pores. “It was good?”
    She nodded, feeling a flush creep up her cheeks.
    Kade’s hand slid around the back of the booth. “What else have you been afraid to try?”
    The answer to that would probably have shocked them. Sex. She hadn’t tried sex, but now it crept across her mind, luring, tempting her. Rafe would treat her well. Kade must surely know how to woo a woman between the sheets. She suspected either of them would make her first experience wonderful. She shivered, picturing losing herself in a downy bed, wrapped in those strong, sun-kissed arms.
    As her cheeks turned hotter, Piper reached for her iced tea and began gulping. With those thoughts, she feared she’d just opened her own Pandora’s box and that she might not be able to close the lid again.
     
     
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    Unable to sleep, Talib al Mussad looked out his office window in the palace, onto his garden, still shrouded by night. He wondered what his brothers were doing. Bloody hell, who was he fooling? He wondered what Piper was doing. He was a thirty-four-year-old, powerful-as-sin multi-billionaire, and he was practically mooning about a little bit of fluff. Except that Piper wasn’t just a bit of fluff. The woman had proven herself to be blisteringly smart, and she shared many of his interests—the environment, history, economic concerns, bad B movies…but would any of that translate into being an effective