by Lili Valente
Nate
I slide the ring down her finger and take a moment to soak it all in, admiring how right it looks there. “That’s pretty damned sexy, even if it did used to be my grandmother’s.”
She laughs. “It is. Which reminds me…” Her eyebrows wiggle up and down as she reaches for the top of her coat and slips the first button free. “My surprise isn’t nearly as exciting as yours, but hopefully you’ll still be able to enjoy it a little bit.”
“I’m sure I’ll enjoy it a lot more than a little bit.” I watch with undisguised fascination as her fingers work. “Especially if it involves you wearing something sexy under that coat.”
“It does, actually.” She stands, holding my gaze as she parts the fur, revealing a black leather corset, lace, bows, and a garter belt attached to silky black stockings.
“Fuck,” I say, the sight of her stealing all my pretty words away.
She grins. “It’s based on a Victorian pattern, like the one Eleanor wears in your book. I thought, what better way to celebrate your book deal than with some historically accurate lingerie?”
“Oh, yes, please.” I lean in, running my hands up the backs of her legs beneath the coat, teasing the place where silky stockings becomes silkier skin. “As soon as we get back to the room, I’m taking this off of you with my teeth.”
She shivers. “You might need your hands. It’s pretty tricky.”
“I think you’ve forgotten how good I am with my mouth.”
“Oh no, I haven’t.” Her lids droop to half-mast as my fingers reach the lace of her panties. “I was thinking about how good you were with your mouth the entire time I was lacing myself in. At one point, I was thinking about it so much that I was tempted to, um…take the edge off before you got here.”
I gasp in false horror. “No! You didn’t.”
“I didn’t.” She laughs, and then shivers again. “But we have been apart three whole nights. I’m starting to suffer from orgasm deprivation.”
My jaw clenches. “I would take care of that right fucking now, but you’re already shivering. Sad as it’s going to make me, we’re going to cover all this back up until we get inside.”
“No, it’s okay.” Her teeth dig into her bottom lip. “It’s not that cold. I’ll be okay for a little while.”
I shake my head. “No way. I’m not risking you getting hypothermia, not after last year. We’re going to have responsible fun outside with our clothes on, and then I’ll take you inside…” I grip her hips. “Get you out of this coat…” I press a kiss to the soft leather above her belly. “And make you come until you beg me to stop.”
Her fingers thread into my hair. “But what if I told you that there are two snaps on the front of my panties,” she murmurs as I kiss her again. “That all it would take is a little flick of your fingers and you could have your mouth on me?”
Blood rushing faster, I pull back and look down, immediately finding those two sinful snaps. “You play dirty, Adeline.”
“Or you could be inside me,” she continues in a soft, sexy voice. “You could unbutton your pants, take out that cock that I enjoy so very much, and I could wrap my new coat around both of us while—”
Her words end in a gasp and rush of laughter as I grab her by the waist and quickly reverse our position. Ten seconds later, I’m on the bench with my cock out in the cold air, Addie’s panties have been converted to the crotchless variety, and I’m pulling her back into my arms as she straddles me.
“Inside me,” she says in between kisses. “Yes! I’ve always wanted to make love to you in an ice gondola.”
“Always?” I tease as I slide my fingers through where she’s wet and ready.
“Well, since twenty minutes ago when I saw you in an ice gondola.” She moans against my lips as I fit the head of my cock to her entrance. “Oh yes, just like that. Oh, God, yes, Nate.” Her head falls back as I guide her hips down, down, until I’m buried to the hilt inside my future wife.
“You feel fucking incredible.” I grind against her as she begins to move, sliding up and down my shaft. “I can’t believe this beautiful, sexy as hell pussy is going to be mine for the rest of my life.”
“Yours and only yours.” She wraps her arms tighter around my neck, letting her forehead rest against mine. “I love you so much. I can’t wait to be Mrs. Casey.”
“Because Klein means ‘small one’?”
She hums her laugh. “No, though I always felt that was a little on the nose considering no one in my family is over five-four.”
“Then why, baby?” My breath catches as she swivels her hips, sending the head of my cock on a blissed-out joyride. “Oh, fuck, that feels good.”
“Because then we’ll really be a family,” she says. “I’ve missed having a family.”
“You’re already my family, beautiful. We’ll just make it official. God, I love you so much. I love you, Addie Casey.”
“Yes. Tomorrow!” She rides me faster, making it hard to focus on anything except how amazing her pussy feels around my cock. “Marry me tomorrow, in this gondola. We’ll make Mitch and Ed witness and go home with the same name.”
“Yes.” I thrust into her welcoming heat as I reach between us, finding her clit below the open panel of the lace. “Let’s get fucking married tomorrow.”
“Yes, yes.” Her breath comes faster as her fingers dig into my shoulders through my coat. “Oh God, Nate, I’m coming. I’m coming so hard.”
I groan, moving past words as her body grips my cock, sending me over the edge right after her. I cling tight to Addie, and she clings even tighter to me as we ride out a release so intense it’s like an earthquake rocking through my bones.
I actually hear a crackling, crunching sound and hope I haven’t broken something vital on the hard wood beneath my ass or thanks to the weird position Addie and I end up in by the time we’re finished—half sprawled over the seat and the back of the boat.
But even if it is, she’s worth a cracked tailbone or a slipped disc. I will never regret fucking her in the middle of a frozen lake, with my ring on her finger and her dressed to destroy in leather, lace, and fur. I know I’m never going to forget a moment of this night even before Addie says, “Nate, do you see that?”
“See what, babe?” I let my hands skim up and down her thighs, relishing the sensation of still being joined with her as my cock begins to soften.
“See that.” She points to the lake as the crackling sound comes again and the line in the ice she’s brought to my attention grows a few inches longer.
“Shit.” I quickly but carefully pull her from my lap, guiding her to the seat beside me. “Try not to move. I’ll get us back to shallow water as fast as I can.”
“Jesus,” she says, her voice rising as I reach for the wheel. “Is the lake not completely frozen?”
“They told me it was frozen.” I turn the key in the wrong direction, then quickly turn it back in the right one, but the only response from the gondola is a clicking sound and a low, unhealthy hum.
“Oh no,” Addie says, her words underscored by another sharp crack from the ice beneath us. “Oh God, Nate, this thing won’t float, will it?”
“Doubtful considering it’s heavy as shit.” I turn the key again and again with even more lackluster results. “We may have to make a run for it, Ad, across the ice.”
“I’m in high heeled boots.” She grabs a handful of my coat and squeezes tight. “But if you hold my hand, I should be okay. Maybe. If we both don’t fall through the ice and die. I love you. Just in case.”
“I love you, too, but we’re not going to fall through the—” I’m cut off by an epic snap-pop from the ice and a sharp dip from the front of our gondola as the nose slides down into the lake beneath the too-thin-to-be-safe surface.
I’m bracing myself for the shock of freezing cold water, silently promising myself that I’ll get Addie out first and then drag my own sorry ass onto the ice if I have enough strength leftover, when two things happen at once. The lights go
out, plunging us into near darkness, save for the halo of the moon rising above the pines. And the gondola jerks sharply backward as if a giant has reached down and pulled us—boat and all—away from the edge.
But the boat doesn’t stop when we’re back on solid ice.
The gondola keeps sliding steadily backward with a soft shush shush shush as it’s propelled across the lake by some unseen force, until the lanterns that have flickered on at the hotel beach grow closer and closer.
“What’s happening?” Addie whispers, her eyes like saucers in her pale face.
“I don’t know,” I whisper back. “I’m not driving. The engine isn’t even on.”
“I can see that.” She glances carefully from side to side. “Maybe…magnets?”
“Magnets?” I hiss back. “What kind of magnets?”
“Large magnets that can magically pull boats out of the water?” Her tone makes it clear she isn’t buying her own words. “Or, um…”
Before she can come up with her next theory, we slide across the last few feet of ice and up onto the pebble beach, the wheels of the gondola grinding deep into the gravel beneath. Not one to look an invisible gift horse in the mouth, I jump from the boat and haul Addie out after me.
As soon as I’ve set her safely on the beach, I grab the blankets, basket, glasses, and thermos, which I pass over to Addie. “No alcohol in there, but it might warm you up, take some of the shock off.”
“Thanks,” she murmurs in a dazed voice as she reaches for the lid. But before she gets it off, she stops, eyes going even wider as she points to the ice. “Nate, look. On either side of the gondola. Do you see them?”
“See wh…” I trail off as I discover what she’s pointing at this time.
Footprints.
There are footprints on either side of the boat, a larger pair on the right and a smaller pair on the left, each print clear in the snow dusted atop the ice. The steps follow the path of the boat right up to the beach, then they turn back, continuing side by side across the lake before disappearing into the forest.
“This place isn’t haunted,” Addie whispers. “It isn’t. I checked. Mitch checked, too, just in case.”
“Maybe it isn’t the place…”
“You mean, maybe it’s us?” she squeaks, swallowing hard. “Oh God, I guess that would make a crazy sort of sense. Well, at least the ghosts were friendly this time, so…that’s good?”
“Let’s never go out into the woods again. At least, not alone.”
“Done.” She grabs a handful of my coat as she backs away. “Done and done. In fact, let’s go back to the resort right now and find a lot of people to tell all about our engagement and be not alone the rest of the evening.”
“Sounds like an excellent plan.” I glance her way. “But you should probably button your coat first.”
“Right. And you should zip your pants,” she says, giggling as I hurry to make myself decent.
As we start up the path a few seconds later, I shout, “Thank you for your help!” into the woods on the other side of the lake, and then Addie and I turn and run. We dash through the trees, across the parking lot, and into the main lodge area where the people at the bar and the restaurant beyond are all too happy to help us toast our engagement. We finish off two glasses of champagne each, and no one says anything about the fact that Addie never takes off her coat.
When the chill is out of our bones, I have a long talk with the manager about their not-nearly-frozen-enough lake, and she promises to give the activities director who approved my gondola plan an earful tomorrow, comp our stay, and help us arrange a quick and lovely marriage ceremony for tomorrow night in the hothouse behind the closed pool.
Addie thanks her profusely, and I do, too, but neither of us says a word about the footprints or the fact that the gondola was dead when it rolled up onto the beach.
After hot chocolate under the stars on our porch, we head inside our cabin and make love again, slower this time, and it’s beautiful and real the way it always is. And as we’re lying together afterward, watching the fire in the fireplace burn down and arguing about how early is too early to wake Mitch and Eduardo and tell them we’re getting married, I decide I wouldn’t mind lingering for a little while after death, so long as I get to haunt someplace special with Addie.
“I bet you’d be a hot ghost,” I say, fingers trailing up and down her arm.
She hugs me closer. “You, too. I’d help save stupid humans with you.”
“Me, too. Stupid humans need all the help we can get.”
She presses a kiss to my chest. “I’m just so glad I’m still here with you now.”
“Ditto, baby.”
She yawns as she curls onto her side, becoming the perfect smaller spoon to my larger one. “Good night, pretty devil. Enjoy your last sleep as a single man.”
“I will, “ I promise.
And I do, but not as much as I enjoy my first sleep as a married man, and all the nights thereafter.
THE END
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Keep reading for a sneak peek of
MASQUERADE WITH THE MASTER
a naughty novella out now!
Sneak Peek of
MASQUERADE WITH THE MASTER
A red hot, standalone, super sexy novella…
“Leave the mask on, princess, but everything else comes off. I’m ready to see what’s mine.”
They say you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, but I knew long before the day I said goodbye to Ivy Prescott that I was never going to find another woman like her.
Now, we’re both six years older, and my sweet, innocent Ivy has become a sexy, irresistible woman.
She wasn’t ready for me then, but she’s ready for me now. Ready to learn all the wicked, wonderful things I have to teach her.
Her lesson will begin with a box. A box with a beautiful dress, a mask, and an invitation to come play with a man who has been watching her from afar…
A man who wants to master her—body and soul…
Warning: This sinfully sexy read features voyeurism, bondage, and a Dominant alpha male who likes to play rough with his toys—but don’t worry, he’ll make sure you enjoy every scorchingly hot minute of it.
CHAPTER ONE
Dear Ivy,
Are you sitting down? If you’re not, I advise that you do so.
Put your feet up and get comfortable, doll. This isn’t the kind of letter you want to read standing up. Yes, I’m serious. Find a seat for that fine ass of yours and take it.
Now.
There. That wasn’t so bad, was it?
Maybe you even liked it. At least a little. Maybe you’re intrigued. Eager to learn who has the balls to write a savvy corporate woman like you a letter like this.
I have the balls because I know you, princess. You like a man who isn’t afraid to take control. You always have, even back when you were so naïve that I’m pretty sure you had no idea what I meant when I said I needed to win a woman’s submission.
But you got on your knees anyway and asked me to take you to the ball.
Do you remember?
I do. I think about that night—and what a shit job I did of breaking things off—more often than I would like to admit.
But saying goodbye was for the best. I wouldn’t have been good for you in the long run. Not back then. I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from taking advantage of your inexperience, no matter how hard I would have tried. We were spark and tinder, Prescott, and I would have burned you to the ground.
But things are different now…
Aren’t they?
I know how you spend your Saturdays, Ivy. I know about the secret staircase, the red door, and the toys you play with in the back room with a man who wants you to call him Master. But you weren’t meant for him.
You were meant for me.
If you’re shaking your head—or having a hard time coming to grips with this blast from the past—ask yourself this: Whose face do you see when you close your eyes and slip your fingers between your legs? Whose hands are brushing across your nipples, smoothing over your ass, spreading your thighs wide? Whose voice is in your ear, telling you how sweet you taste, how perfectly wet you are, how much he wants to fuck you and keep fucking you until there is no doubt in your mind who your pleasure belongs to?
Tell the truth, princess. Don’t lie to me, or to yourself.
Maybe you’re even turned on right now. Wet. Thinking about how good we were together and all the fun we could have now that your kink has caught up with mine.
I hope so. Because I want to be with you, Ivy—in person, unfiltered, no holds barred and no holding back. I want to push your skirt up around your hips and get my mouth between your legs. I want to tie your wrists to my headboard and tease you until you beg me to take you. I want to make love to you in every filthy way you’ve daydreamed about and a few new ways I’ll teach you because I’m a dirty bastard with a filthy mind and you are the star of every single one of my fantasies.
I want to pleasure you, possess you. I want it so bad I can almost taste the salt and honey of your skin.
No one tastes like you. So sinfully sweet…
I’ve been thinking so often lately about that camping trip on the beach, of that first kiss mixed with rain and the way you came on my mouth with the wind howling outside our tent. You were lightning in a bottle, and I knew that first night that I was never going to find another woman like you.
Which brings us to this moment.
This gift, and a chance to see if lightning can strike twice.
In the letter I sent with that first tuition check, I warned that there would come a day when your “anonymous friend” would ask for a favor. I also said that you would be free to say yes or no to that request—no hard feelings; no harm, no foul. I meant it then, and I mean it now. There is no debt to be repaid, only an opportunity sincerely offered.
I want to show you all the things I’ve learned since the night we parted ways. I want to show you how sorry I am, and how truly incredible submission can feel. That man you’ve dabbled with doesn’t have what it takes to top you, but I do. Meet me tonight and let me prove it.