by Linzi Basset
Say Now
Their Command Series - Book 3
By
Linzi Basset
Copyright © 2018 Linzi Basset - All rights reserved
Say Now
Copyright © 2018 Linzi Basset
Editor: Anumeha Gokhale
Proofreaders: Marie Vyer, Melanie Marnell
Published & Cover design: Linzi Basset
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, locales, business establishments, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Linzi Basset has asserted her rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this eBook only. No part of this eBook may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without prior written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Warning: This book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. This book is for sale to adults only, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase.
Disclaimer: Neither the publisher nor the authors will be responsible for any loss, harm, injury, or death resulting from use of the information contained in this book.
Contents
Author’s Note
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Excerpt: His Devil’s Desire
More Books by Linzi Basset
About the Author
Stalk Me
Author’s Note
Dear Reader,
Their Command series, is my second Dominant/sub novella series, following Their Sub Series.
If you haven’t read Their Sub Series yet, why not take a look here.
https://www.books2read.com/TheirSubSeries
Their Command series is about three besties, Alexis Moore, Rachel Cooper and Shanna Lovett, who became involved with the owners of Silverstone Resort in Colorado, Noah Harris, Logan Chase and Mason Walker. But, were the three friends ready for the kind of lifestyle the three men envisioned in their future?
In Say yes, Book 1, Alexis Moore meets the formidable and somewhat frightening ‘mountain man’, Noah Harris.
Alexis Moore is between a rock and a hard place. Literally.
After her car wraps itself around a tree (blame Dora, the GPS), Alexis is looking for shelter in the woods. While running from plenty of sinister things, she runs smack into the most dangerous thing in these woods—a wild man, no less.
Okay, so he isn’t exactly wild. He lives in the woods; is built like an oak; has long, luxurious hair; a killer beard and too many abs to count. The only thing standing between Alexis’ lust and his modesty is a tiny towel wrapped around his sinful body.
Somebody needs to save this guy.
Not a chance in hell.
Noah Harris doesn’t need too much persuasion to offer his beguiling guest a bed—his bed, for the night; although, there isn’t much sleeping involved.
In the light of the day, things get even more convoluted. But nothing is going to stop Noah from claiming this gorgeous wood nymph for himself . . . and his best friends, Mason and Logan. Alexis is in for one of hell of a debauched ride, to say the least.
But Alexis is weary of love and commitment. A lifetime of neglect and distrust is a hard habit to break. Will she learn to trust Noah and take a leap of faith into the future, or will she be relegated to a lifetime of loneliness?
Will Alexis say yes?
In Say Please, Book 2, Rachel Cooper returned after a brief visit a couple of months earlier. The reason? Mason Walker.
Mason Walker is a man of refined tastes. He’s the part owner of the luxurious Silverstone Resort, a brilliant businessman and a gorgeous male specimen. He may appear civilized, but underneath the suave veneer, is a man raging to run wild. He’s ravenous, and on the scent of a delicious prey.
Rachel Cooper is a celebrated two-star Michelin chef, making a fresh start in Colorado, at the resort. She’s quirky - a mixture of sense and sultry. She’s the happiest when concocting recipes and feeding people. She has an excellent job and wonderful friends. Life is good. Until she crosses paths with Mason, who seems hell bent on making a meal out of her!
Lord, have mercy.
Mason is torn between devouring his prey in one bite or savoring her essence piecemeal. One thing is for sure, Rachel was his. To eat, prey or love?
As the two of them combust between sheets, an avalanche of emotional demons threatens to annihilate everything in its path. Will Rachel be able to deal with past baggage and find that perfect recipe for love?
In Say Now, Book 3, Shanna needed the support of her friends during a time of the year where she was thrown back to a very painful past. The trip to Silverstone resort unearthed more that she’d ever imagined.
“I’m waiting, Shanna.”
“F-for what?”
“For you to tell me to stop.”
Shanna Lovett is seeking solace from her past and the constant emptiness in her life. Since both her best friends decided to move to Colorado, where the weather is cold, but the men more than make up with their hotness. Shanna decides it’s time to check out what the fuss was all about.
The ‘fuss’ is called Logan Chase and he completes the holy-gorgeous-trinity of the billionaire owners of the Silverstone Resort. Logan takes no prisoners. He ignites a potent mix of emotions in Shanna, reminding her, what it’s like to be really alive. When it comes to her body, one minute he is tender, but a complete rogue the very next. It doesn’t help that he shuts down her brain with his sinful body, clever hands and dirty mouth.
Shanna is everything Logan was hoping for. She is exquisite, intelligent and fiery as hell. The woman drives him insane with desire. He wants to protect her, but he wants to debauch her more. Luckily, he has his wingmen, Noah and Mason, to help him reel in this sensual woman. One way or another, Shanna Lovett was going to his.
Unbeknownst to Logan and Shanna, the wheels of fate are turning, and their pasts are coming full circle. Will their love for each other be enough to survive the secrets and misfortunes of past?
Because, now is the time; to live . . . and to love.
Editor’s Note: Handle with care. Objects in the book are hotter than you expect.
I hope you’ll enjoy this highly emotional and super-hot story as much as I did writing it.
Warm regards.
Linzi Basset
Prologue
The LIGHT House Christ-centered maternity care for teenagers, Kansas City.
15 February 2006—Valentine’s Day
“Take the child away.” The order was curt. Richard Lovett’s cold voice tore through Shanna’s heart.
“Daddy, please. Let me hold him. Just once,” she pleaded. Her eyes moved to the tiny bundle wrapped in the blue knitted blanket she had lovingly made a couple of months ago. She longed for a sight of the little boy she’d given birth to, the previous day. Her heart had been beating wildly since one of the nurses had agreed to bring him to her. It was nurse Bettie’s first day and she wasn’t aware that the little boy had been given up for adoption. Or rather, Shanna’s father had forcibly coerced her into giving up the baby.
“My darling,
you know it’s for the best not to get attached to the baby,” Marie Lovett tried to soothe her daughter’s distress. Her own hands trembled as she wrapped her arms around her weeping, teenage daughter.
“Why can’t I keep him, Mom? He’s mine. My flesh and blood. It’s not right to give him to strangers. I’m his mother! Please. I want to keep him,” Shanna sobbed into her mother’s chest.
“And who is the father, Shanna? I refuse to bring up a stranger’s spawn in my house or give him my name. Can you imagine what it would do to my image as a politician, if proof of your wantonness came out? It will mean the end of my career and I can kiss the chance of becoming the next state senator goodbye.”
Richard wasn’t entirely unaffected by his daughter’s sorrow and his wife’s pleading look. They didn’t know how hard it was for him, to take the baby boy from his precious daughter. Shanna had always been his treasure. Not allowing her the opportunity to give the same to her own child, tore at his heart. But it was for the best. Apart from the negative impact it would have on his political career, Shanna had a bright future ahead of her. A baby at the age of eighteen would stand in her way of following in his footsteps.
“If I told you who the father is, would you let me keep him?” Shanna looked at her father with a flutter of hope in her heart.
Richard’s face remained impassive as he returned her stare enigmatically. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He would probably end up in jail for beating the bastard to the pulp. In his opinion, the boy was a coward. What man would leave a girl to face her parents alone with the news that she’d fallen pregnant halfway through her final year at school? Luckily Shanna had carried small and she’d been able to complete the year. That she’d managed to pass with honors, still amazed Richard. Not that it should have, because Shanna had scored 165 on her Mensa IQ Test when she’d been twelve years old—five points higher than Albert Einstein. She was gifted on all counts and destined to be his protégé.
“It doesn’t really matter, does it, my girl? He’s obviously not interested in being a parent or supporting you.” Richard shook his head. For the first time, Marie noticed the sadness in his eyes. “I’m afraid there’s no other way, Shanna. You can’t keep the child.”
“If you do this, things won’t ever be the same between us. For one thing, I won’t follow in your footsteps! I’m sorry. I know that you’re disappointed in me, but if you take my child from me, I won’t be able to forgive you.”
“This is for the best, Shanna. Not only for me, but for you too. In time, you’ll realize that I’m right.”
“No. You’re wrong. This is morally wrong. You know that. You always say that human life should be treasured. That we must protect and care for those we love. You’re supposed to protect and care for me as my parent, yet you deny me the same honor toward my own child. How is that treasuring me as your daughter?”
“Shanna,” Richard cautioned her, but the lump in his throat prevented him from voicing his protest. He turned away and walked toward the door, where Nurse Bettie was still hesitating with the baby in her arms. “Take him to his adoptive parents. They’re waiting in the chapel.”
“Nooo! Daddy, please!”
Richard walked away. No one saw the tears that slowly trickled down his cheeks. The brief eye connection with the tiny baby, when he’d walked past the nurse, would forever be ingrained in his mind.
Chapter One
“I’m so glad I swapped with Viola to be on this flight, otherwise I would’ve missed the pleasure of attending to you.”
Shanna was hard pressed not to snort aloud at the sugary voice of the flight attendant. She continued to read and didn’t pay attention to the tall, muscled frame of the man she could see in her peripheral vision.
Therefore, the cytotrophoblasts, epithelial in nature, replace the endothelial cells and in the process, the epithelial-like receptors are replaced with maternal adhesion molecules such as vascular endothelial . . .
Shanna stuck her nose deeper into the medical journal as the man took the seat next to her. The article on Preeclampsia didn’t offer anything new, but because she was an OB specializing in pregnancy disorders, she always read everything related. It was also to signal that she had no interest in chit-chatting on the two-hour flight to Denver.
“Would you like some champagne, Mr. Chase?” The flight attendant simpered once again.
Chase? Is it a coincidence or is he the Logan Chase? The one who is friends with Alexis and Rachel’s fiancés?
Shanna silently cursed Alexa and Rachel for not sending her a photo of the very elusive Logan Chase, who apparently didn’t like to pose for pictures. She’d seen a mountain of pictures of the gorgeous Noah Harris and Mason Walker, but never him. She was in a predicament. She really didn’t feel like making small talk with a man she didn’t know from a bar of soap, irrespective that both her friends were very intimate with him—if it was him. On the other hand, her friends knew how involved she got while studying, so she might get away with pretending she hadn’t made the connection.
Yeah. Perfect solution. There’s enough time to meet Mr. Sex later.
Rachel and Alexis couldn’t stop singing praises of Logan Chase’s sexual prowess every time they talked on the phone. So much so, that he had invaded Shanna’s dreams—in a very erotic and inappropriate manner to say the least.
“If memory serves, I told you before to call me Logan and no, nothing for me, thank you, Pauline,” the man drawled. His voice was deep, with a soothing edge that got under Shanna’s skin. It awakened a memory—one she had buried in the depths of despair a very long time ago—that threatened to shatter her composure. She’d only been affected by the tone of a man’s voice once in her life. She’d been too young to know what it had really meant, but she had been completely overwhelmed by the compelling nature of the man at the time.
“And you miss?” The attendant asked Shanna politely.
“No, thanks,” she muttered from between the pages of the journal.
“I’ll be back later but please buzz me if you need anything,” Pauline said with a very open invitation in her voice and a slow brush of her hand over his shoulder.
Shanna noticed the movement from the corner of her eye and was stumped that it annoyed the hell out of her.
Since when is it normal to have possessive feelings toward a stranger? Get a grip, Shanna!
She shrugged it off and refocused on the article but felt the eyes of the man next to her on her profile. The heat that started from her chest bloomed over her cheeks and she just knew that she was turning a deep rose color.
Let that be a lesson to conjure up a stranger when you masturbate, Shanna.
Yeah, but how was I supposed to know I would end up next to that stranger on the plane?
Now she was sure that it had to be the Logan Chase. It felt like him—however strange that might sound. The name wasn’t that common, so the assumption that anyone with that name, travelling to Denver, which was close to the Silverstone Resort in the Colorado Mountains, where she was headed too, seemed plausible. She just prayed that he had no idea what she looked like. At least not until she managed to get her emotions, which had been haywire since she’d heard his voice, under control. She itched to turn her head and see what he looked like but nipped that urge. She turned her back toward him in an obvious snub when she realized he was still staring at her.
His deep chuckle at the immature action, made her want to glower at him. Her heart rate increased when she sensed him leaning closer. His breath felt warm and tantalizingly inviting next to her temple.
“You can count your lucky stars we’re in a public place, little one, otherwise I would’ve shown you exactly how I react to such blatant disrespect.”
Shanna shivered when he dragged a finger down her cheek to press it against her furiously pulsing carotid vein in her neck.
“Hmm, it seems the prospect excites you. But, never fear, I’ll keep myself in check . . . for now.”
With the threat d
elivered in a guttural voice—a promise of intent, he reclined the back of his chair and within seconds, the deep, even sound of his breathing told Shanna he was fast asleep.
She finally gave up when she realized she was reading the same sentence for the fifth time. The man next to her had completely unsettled her. Not to mention her libido, that had gone into overdrive the minute he’d whispered in her ear.
And I don’t even know what he looks like. How fucked up is that?
No, it just means that you’ve not done the horizontal tango for too long now. Your ovaries are begging for the drought to end!
Well, they can beg all they want. They’re not getting watered by Mr. Sexpot, aka Logan Chase, that’s for sure. Especially seeing as he’s dipping his cock inside my best friends’ pussies.
You know what they say, Shanna. Sharing is caring.
Oh, just go to sleep!
Shanna had to suppress a giggle as she realized how bizarre her inner debate sounded—even to her own ears.
* * * * * * * *
“Miss, would you like the chicken or beef meal?” Pauline interrupted her thoughts. Shanna slanted a quick glance at her.
“Just a cappuccino, please.”
Shanna purposely kept her eyes glued on the blonde woman even though her mind screamed at her to take a quick peek. Surely, if he was Mr. Sex, he had to be as ugly as sin. No man had the right to be both; it went against the order of nature, in her opinion.
She accepted the hot beverage, took a careless sip and hissed when it scalded her tongue. She held her breath, praying that she hadn’t woken up her neighbor. With a sigh, she placed the cup on the fold-up tray in front of her. Curiosity got the better of her. She tried to move only her eyes but he was too far back to see his face. She leaned forward but immediately sat back when his legs moved.