He drug the chair beside my bed then stared at the door. “Shit place to do confessions,” he grumbled.
I gave him my best serious stare.
“Fine.” He gulped. “I was in love one other time. Layla, she was my sub, and we went so deep into the role-play we lost ourselves. Shit happened, bad shit, and I had to cut her loose or watch her be corrupted by Ren and the Old Man. I cut her loose and she killed herself.”
Misty had given me some of the details but I hadn’t known he loved the girl. I hurt for him. The pain he’d lived with, the guilt—I bet it still ate at him.
“I made two promises...never be a Dom again and never love again.” He hung his head. “What I feel for you is so much more than I ever felt before and it scares me because I’m a crazy fucker when I feel things. You. Your fucking strength demanded my love, called out my dominance. I denied it because I was trying to keep my promises.”
I scooted to the edge of the bed and awkwardly plopped into his lap, keeping my injured leg up the whole time. “Ace, I love you, and you love me. We can’t deny it anymore.”
He pressed his lips to mine in a slow, tender kiss that heated me up. I caressed his face as I pushed him back, needing more from the kiss, but he broke our kiss. “You need to heal, and to come home with me.” His face clouded with what might be worry. “Ren’s gone but things are far from settled in the club. I need to know you’re safe by me.”
“Fine, you bossy ass. I’ll let you wait on me.” I kissed his bearded chin. “Since you love me.”
He hugged me to him, burying his nose in my hair. “Mine. Always.”
Epilogue
“Marr, get your gorgeous ass out here.” He shouted at me from outside.
I wasn’t deaf, but the man loved to shout. I grabbed the salad and made my way to the back deck where we were going to eat dinner. We’d built a new house a half a mile back from where Jericho had demolished his parents’ house. Our new home had a fabulous view of the woods, and a half a mile away, Dare’s house sat beside ours—it made my man ridiculously happy to have his closest brothers all within a mile of his place.
He wouldn’t talk about it, but I knew he was happy it was gone. No one had to tell me bad shit happened there.
The deck table was set with plates and candles. “Do you know what today is?” Jericho’s gaze was intense.
“Thursday.” I had no fucking clue what he was talking about.
“Three months since you became my old lady, and we’re celebrating that the damn cast is finally off.” He laughed and poured a tumbler of whiskey for me.
“I can get behind that.” I’d lost track of time, sometimes it felt like minutes and other times an eternity. I moved closer to him until I was caught up in his embrace. His hot kiss still revved me up like it was the first kiss. I lost myself in his hot touch and wicked tongue. He stepped away and I wanted nothing more than to strip him and fuck him right now, but he wasn’t cooperating.
“Dinner’s getting cold and Rebel will be here in an hour.” His eyes sparkled. “With Rachel.”
We’d had a couple nights of play with them, but still the idea revved me up. That girl was as wild as they came, and she might get away if Rebel didn’t claim her soon. That’d suck for me. “I’d forgotten about that too.”
“What did you remember?” He sat across from me and scooped up the salad I’d brought out to go with our steaks.
“Hmm... I remembered to set up our new dungeon and that’s about it.” I laughed and added salad to my plate.
“That’s important shit.” He grinned at me.
When we’d moved into the new house we’d agreed to keep our play with others in the dungeons and our house to ourselves. It was a line I liked, giving us some much needed separation. We’d made our home a retreat for us. The clubhouse and dungeon worked fine for our public fun and club duties.
“We voted Mark in as a member today.” He bit into his steak and closed his eyes, savoring the mostly raw meat.
“That’s early. But he’s ready, and more you need the brothers.”
He nodded. “That we do.”
“Maybe you should go on a recruitment drive.” I’d toyed with the idea for a couple days.
“How’s that?” He cut into his steak and forked the bite into his mouth.
“You and the boys go up to bike rallies and recruit a whole class of prospects—maybe ten or whatever you can handle.”
“How would that work?” The wheels of his mind were turning.
“It’s how we used to do it in L.A. We’d recruit a class of apprentices from different fetish events, almost like a tryout but not really. And that class, usually eight, would start for the four Masters every year. It created a sense of continuity.” I shut my mouth, I’d been babbling out of nerves. This was approaching a line we’d formed. He let me run my apprentices and dungeon and I stayed out of brother business.
“That’s a fucking great idea.” His eyes shone with pride. “I like it. Bear should have thought of that shit when we were grousing about it today.”
“I’m not sure other dungeons did it that way.” I licked my lips, excitement building in me.
“The only thing is I don’t see how this shit works out, I’d need more than a meeting to assess the guys.” He ate more steak as he thought it through. “Maybe we could host an event right after the week, have potentials stop by.”
“That’s brilliant, then you could send some brothers up to the city to see if there’s some interest there.” I was seeing it happen. He could have a solid base of new members in just a couple years. Between the situation with Romeo and Renegade the club had lost more than a few members in the past few months. They needed numbers.
“You’re the brilliant one.” He grinned at me.
“You just want a goddess on your arm,” I teased.
“Oh goddess, I love you and every time you’re on my arm.” Raw emotion gave punch to those words and it hit me square in the gut.
“I love you too, ace.” Desire flicked through me. I wanted him now, to hell to waiting until our friends showed up. “You should show me how much you want me.”
“I love your greedy cunt.” He stood as I did. “Bring yourself over here.”
Two steps and I was in his arms. He made quick work of my buttons and shoved down my shorts. “You ready for me?” His finger slid through my seam. “Yup, you are.”
I heard his jeans unsnap and slide down his legs. “Taking you now.” He growled in my ear as he slid his cock inside me.
“Now.” I panted and pushed back until he was fully seated inside me.
“Fuck, you feel good.” He pressed deep and drew out with a slow precision that drug his apa along my most sensitive flesh.
“More,” I whispered, trying to press back, but he held my hips firm.
“When I give it to you.” He growled and slammed into me. “And you say yes sir.”
I threw my head back, loving the way he commanded me. I’d learned the joy of letting go sometimes—giving myself totally to his power—something I never thought I’d do. But that’s how total our trust was.
He repeated the move out slow and slamming back into me again and again.
“Yes, sir.” I moaned. “More, sir.” I loved when my Dom came out to play with me.
“Fuck, goddess, you’re driving me insane.” He drove into me fast and hard.
“Yes, sir.” I mewled pumping into him.
He pinched my nipples tight, pushing me down further so he could reach deeper inside me.
“Yes... Yes... Jericho...fuck me.” I was lost, needing him, needing the way he took me.
“Yeah, that’s it.” He grunted and our bodies slapped together faster and faster, racing for the end.
“Make me come, Master,” I shouted.
He pulled my nipples hard and I fell over the edge and screamed my release. Jericho followed me over, bellowing when he came.
Panting, we held each other a long moment until I heard a knock at the door.
Damn I’d meant to be in the dungeon before our friends came over. I let Jericho fall out of me and hurried to pull out my shorts.
He laughed at my jumping dance to get them up. “They’ll wait for us, no hurry.” He flipped me to look at him. His pants already up and buttoned. “Although you can wiggle that ass again for me anytime.” He swiped my nose.
“I love you too.” I gave him a smacking kiss. “But I don’t want them to wait, I want to play...with her.”
“Oh yeah, that’s my girl.” Jericho buttoned his pants and followed me to the front door. “I love every dirty bit of you, goddess.”
* * * * *
Acknowledgments
There are so many friends I want to acknowledge for helping me get here. My critique partners (you know who you are) have helped me improve my writing and supported me as I learned about publishing. Some even read much sexier content than they normally do just to help me improve this book. I also can’t say how much I have appreciated my writing groups and the open community of romance writers in general.
Also available from Jade Chandler
and Carina Press
The Jericho Brotherhood series
Enough
Release
About the Author
From my youngest days, I have attempted to be an author, writing stories about cartoon characters, which turned into stories of teens as I became a teen myself, and then romances.
A true believer in happily-ever-after, romance has always held the number one place on my bookshelf, and now my tablet. I enjoy escaping to new worlds and meeting all kinds of people who live in the imaginations of others. Now that I have brought my imaginary world to life, I find I cannot write fast enough to bring those ideas to you.
For me, erotic romance offers a gritty, close intimacy that allows us to explore dark emotions and taboo desires. I love that more and more diverse definitions of happily-ever-after are accepted in our world every day. It is the dark intimacy that draws me to read and now write erotic romance.
If you would like to know more about my upcoming book releases or anything else Jade related, visit me on my website, www.jadechandler.com. Or enjoy my social media ramblings on any of these sites:
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“Interior design has never been as sexy as it is here... Gold packs this story with a wealth of sensory detail, perfectly complementing the emotional and sexual development between the leads, creating a thoroughly satisfying tale.”
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The Vengeful Love trilogy by Laura Carter
He’s a devastatingly handsome, filthy-rich CEO. She’s a high-flying London lawyer. All it takes is one boardroom pitch. One hostile takeover. VENGEFUL LOVE is darkly suspenseful, sinfully sexy white-collar romance at its very best.
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Jericho Brotherhood: a dark, erotic motorcycle-club romance series
by Jade Chandler
She wanted nothing to do with me. Well, that’s too f*cking bad.
My MC brothers call me Dare for a reason. I never back down from a challenge. And Lila was the sweetest challenge I ever faced.
ENOUGH (Jericho Brotherhood, book one)
RELEASE (Jericho Brotherhood, book two)
Lessons in Control by Jade A. Waters
What would you do if someone offered to fulfill your wildest fantasies? A series of assignments could be all that’s separating her from embracing her submissive urges and experiencing limitless pleasure.
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The Falling Under series by Jeffe Kennedy
The kinkier the sexy, the higher the price tag.
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UNDER HIS TOUCH (Falling Under, book two)
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ISBN-13: 9781460397527
Deny
Copyright © 2016 by Jade Chandler
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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Deny: A Dark, Erotic Motorcycle Club Romance Page 30