by Eden Bradley
The road ahead will be rocky. Especially since Lori will just have to take it on faith that he won’t skip out again. But when nightmares turn real, they’ll both need to show ultimate trust to survive.
Warning: This book contains intense bondage scenes. Man on woman as well as woman on woman action will titillate the mind. Be prepared for public nudity, vibrators, a seriously huge dildo, restraints, a ring gag, spreader bars, lube action, and a steaming-hot wax scene…
Enjoy the following excerpt for Bound to be Tested:
Lori put the last of the dishes away and leaned against the counter to stare out the kitchen window. It was Friday night. One week ago today she’d been faced with the stunning revelation that Jude Cavanaugh was back in town. Where had he been all week after torturing her last Friday?
She figured he’d met with Jason by then. She hadn’t asked, but the two had been best friends at one time. There was little doubt they’d exchanged words at some point this week. Lori was afraid to find out.
She hadn’t spoken to Margaret all week. And to be honest, she’d spent more time dreaming about Jude, both awake and asleep, than the sub she’d lived with for over a year. Guilt made her curse under her breath. She nearly always went to Emergence on a Friday night, but there was no way she could do so this week. She couldn’t darken the doors of that club right now.
She didn’t know if she was avoiding Margaret or Jude, but either prospect made her feel the tightening stress in her chest. She didn’t know what to say to Margaret yet. She’d asked for some time. And Margaret had given it to her. Lori knew Margaret had returned at some point during the week and taken more of her belongings. Her side of the closet was almost empty.
Lori swallowed back the knowledge that if she truly loved Margaret like she deserved, Lori would fight for her. Instead she pined over the memories of a long-lost relationship she had no idea would ever be hers again to enjoy. She never should have let that bastard get under her skin. Lori stomped around the room. She was wrung out. Luckily her classes had been light this week or she’d have had a meltdown.
The doorbell rang, freezing Lori in her tracks. She took a deep breath, her heart racing, before she shook her head and regained some sense. Probably Jason. She hadn’t spoken to him and he was surely tired of her silence.
Expecting to roll her eyes at the only real family she had, she whipped the door open—and froze.
He wasn’t facing her at first. He’d turned around to wait for someone to come to the door. But his ass was enough to make her weak in the knees, and his jeans pulled tight around his firm cheeks because he had his hands in his pockets.
When he turned, his look was one of remorse. “May I come in?”
As though she were a puppet, Lori stood back and nodded. Why the fuck was she letting him in?
Her hands shook and she fisted them at her sides as he shut the door behind him. He turned the deadbolt, because he was that controlling. Immediately she felt his gaze penetrating her from above. Why did the man have to be so tall on top of everything else?
Jude stepped farther into the living space and wandered around, absorbing everything Lori owned. She felt open, almost violated. This was her space, dammit. Her apartment. Nothing in it was his. She’d taken nothing from the house when she’d sold it. Not even photographs of the two of them together.
He would find nothing to remind him of the past.
This apartment belonged to Lori, and Margaret. They’d forged their way together.
“How did you two meet?” He fingered the edges of a painting on the wall, one Lori and Margaret had purchased together over the summer on vacation at the beach. They’d bought it from a street vendor. It held sweet memories.
Lori jerked her gaze from the painting to the man in front of it as he turned toward her and lifted an eyebrow. He’d asked her a question. He’d never been a patient man.
She knew who he was talking about. “At the club.”
“Emergence?”
“Yes.” Lori tried hard not to fidget. She’d been completely in control for so long it felt odd to be out of sorts again. He did this to her just by being in the room.
She squeezed her legs together in attempt to keep the pulsing need that emerged in her pussy at bay. Thirty seconds and he had her befuddled.
And he looked fucking sexier than ever with his head shaved close and his two-day-old beard. How did he manage to look like that all the time? Except for the blue smudges under his eyes that made him look ten years older, he was GQ sexy.
“Sit.” He pointed at the couch.
When she didn’t move quick enough, he nodded at the couch, one eyebrow raised as though he didn’t appreciate having to repeat himself.
Lori shuffled around to the couch, keeping her gaze locked on Jude. Goddamn him.
Somehow she managed to make it to her designated spot and grasped her thighs with her hands. She struggled not to bite her lower lip. He loved it when she did that. He punished her for it, but he loved punishing her. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
She did squeeze her knees together, though. That would get his goat.
Jude wandered, examining everything in sight. With his back to her, he made her wait.
“What are you doing here, Jude?” Lori asked, emboldened by the knowledge that he didn’t own her anymore.
“I moved back.” He strolled behind her.
“I see that. Are you here to stay?”
“Depends.”
On me.
“I’d like to.” He leaned over the back of the couch and twirled a length of Lori’s hair in one hand. “Your hair is longer.” He dropped the lock. “What made you try topping?” he asked as he ran a finger down Lori’s neck.
She shivered. “It just kind of happened.” And it’s none of your business.
“Have you been with anyone else?”
God, he was bold. That bastard. She knew what he meant. The unspoken “since I left” hung in the air. “It’s not really any of your business.” There, she said it. “Where have you been?”
Ignoring her question, he leaned in closer to her ear. She could feel his warm breath on her skin. “Lori.” He spoke the single word with authority. She wanted to slap him. She also wanted him to fuck her.
“Sir?” God, why had she said that? The word came out from habit.
“Have. You. Been. With. Anyone. Else?”
She shook her head and lowered her gaze. “Not exactly, Sir. I tried, but—”
He stood and wandered in front of her again.
Dammit. He was assessing her. She loathed him at that moment. And she wished to hell that emotion overrode her other feelings toward him. The reality was, dead or alive, he owned her. He would for the rest of her life. Their souls were entwined. It wasn’t a bond she could break even if she never saw him again. No one would ever meet the standards he met in her eyes.
“What do you mean, you tried?”
She swallowed. “I worked with several Doms at the club.” None of them were you.
“I see.”
Did he?
Lori squirmed. She felt uneasy about letting Jude top her so easily. It had unsettled her last week and that feeling hadn’t eased.
“So let me see if I’m reading this situation correctly.” Jude sat on the coffee table, his knees inches from Lori’s. “You’ve been dabbling as a Domme in my absence because you couldn’t find a man who could make you feel the way I do.” He narrowed his gaze at her, but his statement wasn’t meant to mock her. His expression was serious. His brow furrowed. He was truly assessing her position.
Lori’s entire body shook. “I’ve been a Domme for over a year, Jude.”
“That may be, and I think it’s fabulous you’ve experimented with other aspects of the lifestyle. But you aren’t now, are you?”
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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.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Ink and Iron: Obsession
Copyright © 2015 by Eden Bradley
ISBN: 978-1-61922-671-5
Edited by Christa Soule
Cover by Angela Waters
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: February 2015
www.samhainpublishing.com