His Only Hope: The Maison Chronicles, Book 2 (18 page)

She smiled back. “I did too.” The spell he wove around her was broken and she could feel the blush creeping up her neck. She was in a room full of strangers, and she was practically climbing all over the most gorgeous man she had ever met like she was one of his model/actress floozies—a man she had to see on a regular basis when she returned to the real world on Monday.

Awkwardness descended between them like an avalanche. The skin around his eyes tightened, letting her know he could feel it too.

“Oh, no, you don’t, Dr. Brunner. I’ve got you where I want you, and I’m not letting your embarrassment get in the way. We should go make nice and socialize, but I don’t want to give you the opportunity to close up again. Instead, you are going to begin your first lesson with me.”Skylar Kade 20 www.samhainpublishing.com

She opened her mouth to protest, and he silenced her again with a short, albeit sweet, kiss. “Obedience, Lara. We will sit and discuss specifics in a little while, but for now, trust me. Trust I’ll be here to catch you when you let go.”

Dammit, those words again. Let go. First dream-Jaxon, then Samantha, now real-Jaxon. Lara guessed the universe was trying to send her a message. She looked into his eyes, feeling the sparks between them coalesce into something stronger, an invisible thread tying her to him. It scared her even as it made her heart race in anticipation.

“Okay.” She flashed him a tentative smile. Although she didn’t know Jaxon well, she trusted him. And not only because both Samantha and Kat vouched for him. Besides, she didn’t want to make a scene. They had attracted enough attention as it was.

She was stuck there for the weekend, so she may as well make the most of the opportunity. Treat it as an experiment. The geeky part of her wanted to take notes and measurements of their time together in order to quantify how different a Dominant could be from an average guy.

And since Jax had decided he wanted to train her, she guessed sitting back and watching or hiding in her room with a book was out of the question. The idea of participating, of physically experiencing some of what the BDSM lifestyle had to offer, excited her. Way more than she thought it would. Maybe there was something to Sam’s belief that Maison Domine would shake up her life. She could feel the beginning tendrils of change unfurling in her already. Dr. Lara Brunner, giving up control of her life—who’d have seen that one coming?

Jax reached for her. His hand opened, waiting patiently for her own. For her silent acceptance of his offer to train her for the weekend. Having decided to throw her staid professorial persona to the wayside for the weekend, she took his hand. The question was, would two days be enough to sate her craving for submission, or would she be unable to return to her staid existence?

She has the right to her pleasure…any way he wants to inflict it.

Miranda’s Rights

© 2011 KyAnn Waters

Jase Ralston gets hot under his very blue collar just thinking about his friend and neighbor, Miranda Carlucci. Yet she can’t possibly be interested—not when she could have champagne, caviar and her pick of Vegas high rollers.

The bruises change everything. She denies she’s in an abusive relationship, but his cop instincts won’t let him rest until he finds out the truth. When he follows her to a BDSM club and finds her writhing under a flogger’s stinging kiss, his Dom instincts kick in.

Jase takes command of the scene—and Miranda—at Club Creed.
This
is what she’s always wanted. Pleasure, pain…and rough-around-the-edges Jase. Yet after his domination transports her to a level of subspace she’s never known, he leaves her—unwilling to continue the scene.

Confusion gives way to hurt…then anger. He’s claimed her and Miranda wants more. Even if it means confronting Jase and making demands of her own.

Warning: This submissive woman has the right to be silent. Anything she says could result in being tied up, flogged, and spanked. Law enforcement has never been hotter.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Miranda’s Rights:

Was this what Miranda yearned for? There was a ribbon of fear coiled around his heart that Miranda would want more than he could give her. She had bruises, hid this part of her life from him, much the same way he hadn’t divulged his desire for control. But he could never hurt her, not without pleasure, not to the point of mutilation.

With renewed determination, he turned away from the erotic performance and walked with purpose down the corridor. The place was too large, had too many rooms. The closed doors were a problem. If he was going to find Miranda, he needed in these rooms. He approached the next door cautiously, wrapped his fingers around the knob, and turned. The door opened and he peered inside. Empty. He released a breath and leaned against the wall.

“Where are you?” he whispered. Miranda was somewhere in the club, and Jase hated to think of someone else pleasuring her, of restraining her, of controlling her release. In the time they’d known each other, he hadn’t an inkling she was into BDSM, fetish or anything remotely kinky. Hell, she was from small-town Nebraska. Had he known, would the knowledge have made a difference? Hell yes. He wouldn’t have hidden his predilection for domination. Unless he was wrong, and the intuition that made him a good cop said he wasn’t, not this time. Miranda required that he demand her submission.

The crack and snap of a whip sounded from behind the closed door across the hall. He hesitantly approached and listened. His own heartbeat thundered in his ears and his ragged breath heightened his awareness.

Muffled voices sounded from the room. A male and a female. He couldn’t discern what was said but the woman’s voice had a familiar tone. Cop instinct kicked in: assess the conditions, move with caution and control the situation. Jase turned the knob, opened the door and stepped into the room. Chills broke along his flesh. A flogger snapped, the leather tassels delivering a stinging blow to pale skin.

The master pivoted, the flogger poised to strike again. “This is a private room.”

Jase vaguely heard the words. He couldn’t focus on anything but Miranda. She knelt naked on the floor, chest rounded over the top of her trim thighs and her forehead resting on her knees. Her blonde hair softly fell around her narrow shoulders and shielded her face from his view. Behind her back, braided rope restrained her arms. The rope wrapped her forearms, bound her wrists together and tied her wrists to her ankles. Her ankles were tucked tightly under her bare rounded buttocks.

“Do you have a problem?” The man tightened his grip and took a step toward Jase.

“Yeah.” With his first word, Miranda visibly trembled. “Were you with her two nights ago?”

“How is that any of your fucking business?” He tapped the flogger against his thigh. The tassels swished and Miranda whimpered. Red marks crisscrossed her bared back where the man had thrashed her with the flogger.

Jase slowly dragged his gaze from Miranda. “Oh, I assure you, she’s my business.” He grabbed his badge from his waistband and flashed his detective shield to the bare-chested man.

The guy cocked an eyebrow. “I guess that makes her your problem.”

“I asked you a question,” Jase repeated.

“Wasn’t me.”

“Then get out.”

“Whatever.” He tossed the flogger to a small bench. “Don’t be gentle. She likes it rough.” He crossed to a small closet and grabbed his shirt. He pulled it over his head and strode to the door. His voice softened as he spoke to Miranda. “Sorry, love, but I don’t need trouble.” His gaze met Jase’s. “In case you want to know, I haven’t fucked her. Sex wasn’t part of the contract.” He slipped out the door.

Jase squatted down on his haunches to see her face in the restrained submissive pose. “Are you okay?”

She didn’t speak.

“Miranda, answer me.”

“I’m fine.”

Jase sighed and clasped his hands together between his widespread thighs. “I don’t know what to say to you. I’m full of questions, yet I don’t really need you to answer. Finding you here tells me everything I should know, doesn’t it?”

Her heavy breaths seeped into his psyche. Heated flesh released the scent of her perfume. Beneath the subtle fragrance was the musky hint of her arousal. Still, she didn’t speak.

“When I ask you a question, I expect a response.”

She nodded.

“A verbal response,” he said a little more sternly. “This is what you want?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“I worried about you. You should have told me.”

“Jase—”

“The reasons no longer matter.” He stood and stripped off his shirt.

Her head snapped up. “What are you doing?”

“You aren’t in any position to question.” His palms sweat. Would she ask him to go? She wanted a rough bout of sex, to be told what to do and when to do it. Hell, part of his job was enforcing the law. The time and opportunity had come for her to acquiesce to his rules.

“Jase, are you sure you understand?”

He paused. Oh yeah, he knew exactly what he was doing. “If you want me to leave, say so now.” He glanced around the room. The flogger waited on the table. Tempting, but not tonight, not after the man who just left had flogged her. He let his eyes rest on her again. The ropes were sexy. Those would stay.

“I know what I want and I know what you need.”

His Only Hope

Skylar Kade

This time, he’s not giving her up without a fight.

After two grueling years caring for her terminally ill mother, Hope O’Shea is eager to start fresh. Except her first interior-decorating job is for a popular BDSM club—part of her kinky past she misses, but had to leave behind.

Worse, she somehow ends up in the arms of her ex-Dom, Gabriel Cassidy. The one man who could strip her emotions bare, so bare that rather than reveal her painful history, she ran.

Gabriel never understood why Hope left without even a goodbye. Determined to get answers, he entices her to Maison Domine for a weekend on the promise of meeting the owner for another decorating job. Except being with her again reminds him why he loved her in the first place—and why she shouldn’t trust him as her Dom.

As their attraction reignites, Hope is transported back to the sub-space bliss she felt only with Gabe. Then a nightmare from her past shows up at the club, and with no other safe place to turn, she has no choice but to trust Gabe with her shame. Leaving Gabe with a devastating choice—reveal his last secret…or lose his Hope.

Warning: This book contains a feisty interior decorator, a dominating leather worker, heart-wrenching sex and redemption.
 

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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His Only Hope

Copyright © 2011 by Skylar Kade

ISBN: 978-1-60928-567-8

Edited by Sue Ellen Gower

Cover by Scott Carpenter

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: September 2011

www.samhainpublishing.com