by J. S. Scott
“I told you. I’m never letting you go.” He stroked errant strands of hair from her face, and nipped at the side of her neck, his mouth finally nuzzling against her ear. “I plan to pleasure you until you’re out of your mind and agree to marry me. I figure that’s the only way I’ll get you to agree.”
Asha trembled as his husky, low whisper vibrated against her ear, his voice a silky, low purr that reminded her of a cat.
“I can’t marry you, Kade,” she informed him sadly.
I’m barren. I can’t marry him. It wouldn’t be fair to him.
“Figured you’d say that. So I guess it’s my job to change your mind. You’ll eventually understand that all I need is you, sweetheart. Because I love you, too. More than anything or anyone on this planet. And you’re going to be mine,” he warned dangerously. “So after I taste you until you’re screaming my name, and fuck you into the most incredible climax you’ve ever had, maybe you’ll agree. If not, I’ll try again.”
Tears trickled down her cheeks, tears of pure joy that Kade loved her, too. “Kade,” she moaned, pulling against the ties that were binding her. “These are your good ties.” She noticed the feeling of silk against her palms.
“Baby, they are very good ties right now,” Kade answered in a wicked voice. “I have a feeling every time I wear one of them from now on my cock will be hard all day. All I’ll be able to think about is the way you look right now, spread out on my bed, mine to love and satisfy. And so fucking beautiful that I can’t believe you really love me.”
He was barely touching her, the tips of his fingers still stroking her hair, but his naughty words were driving her insane. She could imagine exactly how she looked…wanton, needy, and ready to be fucked. It was exactly how she felt, and her core clenched almost painfully. “Believe it. I love you.” She repeated the words she’d said earlier. “But I won’t marry you.”
“Ah…you will, sweetheart,” Kade answered confidently.
Asha gripped the ties as Kade began his assault on her senses, one finger tracing her pebbled nipples languorously. Being restrained was alternately frustrating and erotic. Asha longed to touch Kade’s hot, muscular body, but the bindings set her free to just feel.
“I never want to be inside another woman again. Not after being inside you,” Kade told her right before his tongue followed the trail of his finger, the heated warmth on her sensitive nipple making Asha lift her hips in need. Then he bit gently, sending waves of erotic pulsation straight to her pussy.
She was desperate to feel his cock fill her, pound inside her until she felt claimed. “Please,” she pleaded, unable to tolerate Kade’s teasing.
“Marry me?” Kade asked roughly, his hand moving down her stomach and between her thighs, parting her wet folds.
“No,” she moaned, shifting her hips up, pleading for friction on her clit.
Kade didn’t give her anything near what she wanted. He teased the tiny bundle of nerves lightly, barely flicking her clit with his finger, ramping up her desperation until she was whimpering. “More,” she panted.
Kade parted her thighs wide, leaving her open and exposed. Grabbing a pillow, he stuffed it under her ass, making her even more vulnerable to him. Asha closed her eyes as she felt his warm breath caress her glistening flesh, quivering with anticipation.
All teasing ended as Kade buried his mouth into her pussy, groaning as his tongue, lips, and teeth consumed her like a starving man. Every stroke of his tongue was deadly serious, intent on making her come. The pleasure was so intense that Asha reflexively tried to close her legs, but Kade pushed them wider, feasting greedily on the cream he was creating with his erotic touch.
“Oh, God. Kade. I can’t take this,” Asha moaned, her head thrashing on the pillow, her hands tearing at the restraints.
“Take it, sweetheart,” Kade rumbled against her flesh. “Come apart for me.”
Kade’s teeth clamped gently to her clit, flicking it over and over again with his tongue. He thrust two fingers into her channel, fucking her deep and hard, while his tongue created waves of pleasure that had her moaning and thrashing on the bed, so desperate to come that she was focused only on Kade.
Her climax hit her like a speeding freight train…fast, hard, and devastating. Her whole body shook as Kade kept rocking her body with his tongue and fingers, pulling every drop of pleasure he could from her.
Asha lay there panting after it was over, feeling raw, vulnerable, and completely loved. She watched as Kade climbed up her body like a dangerous animal—strong, powerful, and incredibly male. His expression was almost feral, and Asha felt an answering carnal need rising inside her. “Fuck me, Kade. I need to feel you.” She needed to be joined to him in the most primal of ways, and the urge was soul deep.
“I love you, Asha,” he groaned, his cock thrusting into her with one deep, long stroke.
“Ah…” She sighed, her body opening to him immediately, naturally. “I love you,” she echoed, needing to tell him again and again. She’d had to stifle the emotion for so long that it was a relief to finally be able to share that part of herself with him.
With her ass already elevated, Kade had only to grasp her hips and thrust. He wasn’t gentle or easy. He rode her with the ferocity of a man who was coming completely undone. “Fuck! You’re so damn beautiful,” he rasped as his cock pummeled into her. “So hot. So tight. So damn mine. Never another woman. You’re all I want. You were always meant to be mine.”
Asha’s heart thundered in her ears, her body quaking as Kade spoke the passionate, possessive words that clenched at her heart.
Wrapping her legs around his waist, she savored his hard possession, feeling a sense of finally being exactly where she was supposed to be. “Harder,” she demanded, wanting to surrender completely to him.
Kade buried his cock inside her in deep, forceful strokes, dominating her senses until she reached her peak with volatile intensity. “Kade. Kade. Kade.” She chanted as her body convulsed around him, her core milking him, causing him to flood her with his hot release.
Releasing a strangled groan, Kade leaned forward and quickly released her wrists. “Shit. I marked you.”
Asha’s breath was sawing in and out of her lungs as she felt the circulation returned to her fingers. “Worth it,” she gasped, knowing the only reason she had marks was because Kade had sent her over the edge of reason.
“Never,” Kade growled, rolling to his back and pulling her half over him and half beside him. “I never want to leave a mark on you.”
Asha looked up at the faint lines and smiled. “Call them love marks. I couldn’t help myself,” she told him breathlessly. “I needed something to hold on to.”
“Next time you can hold onto me,” Kade answered irritably, kissing the faint line on her wrist.
“I don’t know…that was pretty hot.” Asha sighed and snuggled up to Kade’s body.
“I can’t fuck you into submission,” Kade answered, wrapping his arms around her body and pulling her skin-to-skin with him.
“You can. Anytime you want to,” Asha answered eagerly.
Kade grinned down at her. “That good, huh?”
She nodded and smiled. “I changed my mind. My answer is yes. You can’t fuck me into submission for any reason other than pleasure, but you made love to me until I saw sense. I realized that we do belong together. I think we’ve both seen enough heartache in our lives. I just want to be happy together. And I can still heal and find out who I am when I’m with you. You’re actually part of who I am. One of the best parts.”
“You mean it?” Kade asked gruffly. “Tell me you’re going to marry me.”
Asha leaned up and beamed at him. “I’m going to marry you,” she answered obligingly.
Kade rolled her under him and held her wrists over her head. “Say it again,” he commanded.
Asha glanced up at his face, s
o strong and stormy, yet with a hint of vulnerability in his eyes.
“I’m going to marry you,” she said louder and with even more conviction.
“It was inevitable, you know,” Kade replied in a more cocky tone.
“Was it?” Asha answered happily. Really, how could she not be ecstatic when a man like Kade loved her and wanted to marry her so desperately?
“Yep. I would have hounded you until you said yes. I never give up.”
She smiled at him, her love shining from her eyes. Kade’s tenacity was one of the things she loved about him, and she was pretty sure he would have done just that.
He lifted himself off her and slid out of bed, coming back with a velvet box. He sat naked on the side of the bed and flipped the lid open. “You deserve a real proposal with flowers, candlelight, and a romantic dinner. And I’ll give you all of that. But for now, could you just say you’ll marry me one more time?”
Asha gaped at the ring in the box, the gems nestled in the gold nearly blinding her.
“I looked at plain solitaires, but they weren’t you. I know you like color, so I decided on this.” Kade pulled the ring from the box and reached for her hand.
Asha’s hand trembled as Kade pushed the ring over her finger. It was so incredible that she was speechless. The middle was a huge diamond, but the surrounding stones were a perfusion of color, each one a different hue. “I’m Indian. My love for color is in my genes,” she replied with a tremulous voice. “It’s beautiful.”
“When did you get these?” Kade fingered the thin, gold bangles on her wrist.
Asha explained how she’d always wanted bangles but had never been allowed to wear any. “So it was my one indulgence,” she explained, her finger still moving over her engagement ring in awe. “Bangles are important to an Indian woman.”
“I’ll get you a new one to add to your collection every week,” Kade told her huskily. “You’ll never want for anything again, Asha. I swear.”
Asha looked up from her ring and her eyes met Kade’s. How lucky could a woman possibly be? He was everything she’d ever wanted and more. She’d gone from a lonely victim of domestic violence to the fiancée of a man who would do anything not to hurt her. Kade would give her everything she wanted, but she saw everything she needed reflected in his gaze.
“I don’t want for a thing anymore,” she answered honestly.
Asha wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, proving to him without words that his love would always be more than enough.
“I think what Devi was trying to make me understand is that what happened with Ravi went beyond culture,” Asha told Maddie as they sat at Maddie’s kitchen table talking one morning. It had been two weeks since Kade had asked her to marry him, and she still rubbed her ring every few minutes, unable to believe she was actually going to marry a man like Kade Harrison.
Asha took a sip of her chai latte, while Maddie drank lemonade. Maddie looked across at Asha, answering, “You do understand that, don’t you? Your foster parents and Ravi both had issues that went deeper than culture. And Ravi had a drinking problem.”
Asha paused as she absorbed what Maddie had just said, and then continued, nodding. “Kade’s taking me to India. I want to learn more about my father’s country firsthand so I can contribute to the foundation and help out there, too. I know that India has gender inequality and a very high rate of domestic violence and that there are laws to protect women, but they’re rarely enforced. I think some women just accept it as their lot in life. That many years of brainwashing is going to be hard to overcome, but I know it can be done.”
“It’s because they don’t know anything different,” Maddie injected softly. “I see a little of the same mentality here in the United States, too, in domestic abuse issues. Too many women accept it because their self-esteem has been undermined and manipulated by the man or men in their life. Unfortunately, it’s more the norm and more common in India than it is here in the US.”
Asha’s enthusiasm for her newfound cause was evident. “I think the younger generation is starting to move for gender equality, but there’s still a long way to go. Devi does some work over there to help women fighting for equality and I want to be part of it. There are also some beautiful things I’d like to see in my father’s country.”
“I think your dad would be proud that you want to continue his legacy,” Maddie said gently.
Asha nodded. “I think so, too. But it’s not just for him. It’s for me, too. I know what it’s like to be held back and punished just because I was born female. I’m lucky enough to be free of that now. I’m still a work in progress when it comes to getting rid of my old baggage, but I’m working on it.”
“And Kade?” Maddie prompted.
“Is so incredibly supportive that he makes me cry almost daily.” Asha finished her sister’s thought with a smile.
She fingered the two additional bangles that Kade had already added to her collection, intricate gold spirals with delicate designs, one of them bursting with a variety of color. Both were much more detailed than the ones she’d bought for herself, and incredibly beautiful. The only tiff they’d really had in the last few weeks had been his highhandedness over ditching her car and buying her a new one. It had ended with him apologizing for doing it without her knowledge, but he had stubbornly refused to return the new vehicle, asking her to drive it for him. Really, Kade made it so damn hard to refuse him when his reasoning all revolved around her safety.
Remembering something else she’d talked over with Dr. Miller, she asked Maddie, “I wanted to see if you could recommend a gynecologist. I’m late this month. I know it’s just the stress of what’s been happening, but I think I finally need to know exactly why I’m infertile. It’s going to be vital to my healing process and acceptance.”
Maddie’s head jerked up and she pinned Asha with a calculating stare. “How late?”
Asha shrugged. “A week or two. It’s no big deal.”
“And you’re emotional every day?” Maddie asked carefully. “Have you been sick or nauseated? Anything else out of the ordinary?”
“The smell of garlic seems to make me nauseous lately. I’ve had to stop cooking with it for now.” She looked at her sister, the suspicious look on Maddie’s face forcing her to add, “I’m not pregnant, Maddie. You know that’s not possible. I only mentioned this because I think it’s time for me to start dealing with reality instead of going through life with blinders. I need to know why I’m not fertile. Then I can move on. Kade accepts the fact that we’ll never have natural children, and we’d both like to adopt someday.” Asha’s heart lightened at the thought. Kade was an extraordinary man, and she knew he really didn’t care if he had children of his own. He truly believed that there were so many children in need of a good home that it didn’t matter if his children were his blood or not.
Asha watched as her sister hurriedly rose to her feet as quickly as a woman who was carrying twin babies could get up. Popping to her feet, Asha grabbed Maddie’s arm and helped her straighten. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be resting,” Asha scolded, knowing Maddie was really starting to feel the effects of carrying twins.
“We need to see if you’re pregnant,” Maddie said excitedly, waddling out the kitchen door without another word.
Asha followed quietly behind her, putting a hand to her flat belly. No! She wasn’t even going to consider the possibility. “Maddie…I shouldn’t have mentioned it. I know I’m not.”
Stopping in the downstairs bathroom, Maddie ignored her, rifling through her medicine cabinet until she had what she wanted. “Asha…no offense…but your ex-husband was the lowest scum on earth. Do you think he wouldn’t lie?” She handed Asha the two pregnancy tests she had in her hand and waved at the toilet. “Pee. Now.”
Asha grasped the pregnancy tests to her chest, her heart starting to gallop like a herd of wi
ld horses. What if…
“I’m not pregnant,” she told her sister again obstinately.
A small smile formed on Maddie’s lips as she pushed Asha lightly into the bathroom. As she closed the door she said softly, “We’ll see.”
Alone in the bathroom, Asha pulled the first test out of the packaging. She was completely familiar with the tests. She’d used plenty of them early in her marriage, sad that she couldn’t conceive, but secretly relieved every time they came back negative. But it would be different this time. Now, she’d give anything to see a positive result, even though the chances of that were pretty slim.
Gathering her courage, she tested twice.
Kade beat her home that evening. As Asha let herself into the house, she could smell something delicious in the air.
A man who cooks!
Kade’s culinary talent might be limited, but he tried, and he’d even gotten some easy recipes from Sam.
Asha stood at the entry to the kitchen, silently watching her fiancé with awe. How had she ever gotten this lucky? Just a few years ago she’d been a battered wife, and now she was the cherished fiancée of the most wonderful man in the universe. With his wealth, looks, and personality, Kade could have had any woman of his choosing, yet he wanted her.
You are worthy. You are worthy. Asha chanted the mantra in her head, not completely sure she entirely believed it yet, but Dr. Miller said that acceptance would come with time. Right now, she just felt damned lucky.
Kade’s head whipped around suddenly, as though he felt her presence. “Hey beautiful…I didn’t hear you come in,” he greeted her happily, his blue eyes reflecting nothing but love.
“I had a great view of your ass. I didn’t want to ruin it,” she told him jokingly as he swept her up in his usual hug, picking her up by the butt and kissing her as though he hadn’t seen her in months. In reality, it had been just this morning.