“I’ll answer to whatever name you choose to give me, sir,” she said softly. “I belong to both of you and I will do whatever you want me to do. My name is your choice.”

“I meant what I said,” Stafford said. “I’ll see no one takes advantage of your position in this arrangement.”

Hayden spared one, annoyed glance at the other man. “She doesn’t just belong to you. And I know well enough how to be careful with those weaker than me.” He reached out to touch her cheek. His palm was rough and had obviously seen a lot of use as the surface of a paw, but in spite of Stafford ’s predictions, his touch was the most gentle she remembered feeling.

Leaning in close, he nuzzled her neck. “You’re safe,” he whispered, softly in her ear.

“What name is written on your birth certificate?” Stafford asked.

Jasmine looked up at him. The vampire glowered at Hayden’s closeness to her. He obviously wasn’t in the mood for games or for naming anyone.

“Jasmine Neal, sir,” she said.

He nodded. “Jasmine, very well. In case you missed the rather inadequate introductions earlier, I’m Stafford Ingram. The pup is Hayden Griffith.”

Hayden smiled against her neck and pressed a kiss to the sensitive bit of skin behind her ear.

“For heaven’s sake, stop slobbering all over the poor woman.”

He pressed another gentle kiss to her neck. “She likes it.”

“Not believing she has permission to push you away is not the same as welcoming you,” Stafford snapped.

She felt Hayden sway as Stafford tugged on the cuffs, but he didn’t move away from her.

“You do like it, don’t you, Jas?” he asked her, softly, whispering the words against her skin. “I can tell by your scent.”

Jasmine swallowed. The gentle kisses were getting to her, calling to something inside her that had slept through a great many of the scenes she had completed over the last few years.

Such soft touches from a strong master always made her ridiculously eager to please and gain more of the same. She looked up at Stafford and saw his expression change as he saw the truth in her eyes.

“You are here of your own free will?” he asked.

Jasmine swallowed down her nerves. “Yes, sir.”

Stafford studied her very carefully. Seeing no other way to communicate the truth, she forced herself to hold his gaze and let him read the truth there.

“You want this, with both of us?” Stafford asked, almost daring her to lie to him.

Jasmine took a deep breath. She hadn’t expected it to be the entire truth, she hadn’t expected the misgivings she’d felt when she agreed to take part in the scene to fade away so quickly, but somehow when she nodded it was the entire truth.

Yes, something inside her said. She wanted this. She wanted both of them.

“Excuse us for a moment.” Stafford sharply tugged on the cuff around Hayden’s wrist. “We need to talk.”

Hayden shrugged. He rubbed his cheek against hers. He was clean shaven without a touch of stubble to roughen the gesture. His fingers stroked the other side of her face, trailing down her neck. “So, talk,” he told the other man. “I’m not stopping you.”

“In private,” Stafford clarified with obviously forced calm.

Hayden pulled back a fraction. He looked from Jasmine to Stafford and back again. He gave another shrug and a soft sigh.

Getting up from his crouching position, he turned back to her before he followed Stafford to the other side of the room. “Stay there.”

“She is not a bloody puppy,” Stafford snapped.

“I didn’t say she was.”

“Then stop ordering her around as if she’s the mongrel in the room.”

“I want her to stay where she is. If I don’t tell her, she won’t know,” the werewolf replied calmly.

Stafford gave a long suffering sigh. He walked away, tugging on the cuff. Jasmine heard him mutter the words, “heel boy,” under his breath.

Hayden growled in response, but he followed Stafford across the room and out of her earshot.

Stafford Ingram looked across the room. The woman, Jasmine, sat on the edge of the bed, eyes lowered and patiently waiting. Her hair flowed across her shoulders, down her back. It was practically impossible to catch sight of her throat, unless you were willing to burrow and nuzzle past the blonde locks the way the damn wolf had. Stafford took a deep breath and tried to turn his thoughts away from the girl’s jugular.

The thought of sharing a woman with the wolf was… he mentally shook his head at himself. This is what he got for going too long between feedings. If blood lust hadn’t been pounding through his veins, begging him to feed from her it would never have even occurred to him to lower his standards far enough to include a damn werewolf in his sex life-even if the man was very firmly on the other side of a woman.

“You’re certain you would be able tell if she was unwilling?” Stafford asked.

“Can’t you tell?” Hayden asked, tilting his head on the side as he studied him.

Not with blood lust making him lightheaded with need. Not with the damn wolf in the room clouding his thoughts and making it so much harder for him to focus in on the woman. He couldn’t speak softly to her and read her body language the way he normally would, not without showing weakness before the other man-and that wasn’t going to happen.

It was bad enough to have to ask the man once. He would cheerfully be damned before he gave him the satisfaction of repeating the question.

“I am sure,” Hayden finally said. “I can smell it in her scent.”

Stafford nodded that he had heard, then he stood very still, determined not to show any sign of uncertainty. “If we are going to do this, we need to set some ground rules.”

“Why?”

“Because the only reason I’m resisting the temptation to kill you right now is because I don’t want your corpse hanging from my arm until the council stop playing these stupid bloody games and let us out of the room.”

Hayden seemed to consider the possibility that Stafford would mount an attack on him for several long seconds before he shrugged the idea aside. “Werewolves are not easily killed. Perhaps I am the one who will be left with a corpse attached to his wrist.”

“We need to set the rules,” Stafford repeated firmly.

“Werewolves do not follow rules.”

“Well, you’re going to have to learn pretty bloody quickly if you want this to happen,” Stafford snapped.

“There is a natural order,” Hayden said. “Rules are not necessary when everyone in the pack knows his place in the order.”

“Fine,” Stafford bit out. “Your natural place in the order is after me. I want the girl first.”

Hayden looked back at her over his shoulder. He seemed to consider the matter very carefully, putting more thought into the matter than Stafford would have believed a wolf capable of. Then he nodded. “Yes.”

Stafford waited, but the word seemed to be the beginning and the end of the answer. He tried to switch mental tracks. The long and difficult battle he’d expected to fight before finally gaining privilege of laying with Jasmine first wasn’t happening and for a full minute he couldn’t think of anything to say.

Finally he kicked his brain into action. “You have no objection?”

Hayden shook his head. “Why would I?” he asked.

Stafford cast a suspicious look at him. The werewolf returned it blankly.

“Very well,” Stafford said eventually. He looked at the cuffs around their wrists. There was only a certain amount of space he could put between them-at the very least, they would have to allow the pup onto the bed with them. There was no chance to obtain any privacy for Jasmine.

Privacy. Yes, Stafford told himself he wanted it, but he knew it was a lie. At least part of him wanted Hayden to see him with Jasmine. He wanted to make it quite clear to the wolf that the woman was his. There really was no better way to do so than let him watch and see the evidence for himself.