“Jesus.” How in hell had she learned about that? He shook his head, knowing it didn’t matter who had told her. Many in town knew what occurred at the Bravado Club, so why not the older kids? “Who said you could talk to me like that?”
“Who said I can’t? You?”
“Whoa there, little girl.”
“My name is Jennifer. I’d be obliged if you remembered that. I’m my own person. And I’ll be happy to remind you that I am nearly twenty-one and you cannot push me around.”
“I’ll come down there and get you myself.”
“You just try.”
Christ. What was wrong with women these days? “Let me talk to your brother.”
“No.”
“Jenn.” He used her name as a threat.
“I don’t care, Dad. I won’t pass the phone and I won’t let you corral Matt into strong-arming me. You do that all the damn time and I’m sick of it.”
Whoa. “Jenn—”
“You think you control the world. You don’t. You can’t. I want to work here. I will. I’m hanging up now.”
“Wait!”
“No, Dad. For years I’ve waited for you to grow up. Thinking I was like my mother and needed to be herded and manipulated.”
His own daughter blew his mind. He worked at words. “You can’t mean that.”
There was a long silence on the other end. “You treat Matt like a man. You treat me like your chattel. I won’t have it any longer. If you need someone to control try your horse. Not a woman. Bye, Dad.”
“But Jenn—”
“I’ll call you again next week at the end of the session and maybe by then we can have a calm conversation. Love you, Dad, even if you can be an ass. Bye.”
He stared at the receiver. Bad enough he had female trouble from Willow, now he had it from his own daughter.
He sank to a chair. First thing tomorrow morning he’d call the administrator of that mission group and see just what transportation he could arrange for Jenn to come home. If she got on the plane. If he didn’t have to go down there himself and ho-tie her to a propeller.
But in his heart he knew he shouldn’t even try. He couldn’t risk that she’d hate him for the attempt.
Maybe she had a point too. One he should remember if he wanted Willow to live with him. Love him.
* * * * *
“What do you mean you refused him?” Skye widened her big baby blues at Willow the next afternoon.
Beneath her breath Willow cursed. She’d spent a ridiculously long sleepless night, fighting her own desire to drive out to Wade’s and surrender her body, her heart, her goddamn freedom just to have him near her again.
Skye startled at Willow’s use of four-letter words. “Really, Sis, you don’t need to do—”
“Sorry! I’m sorry, Skye. I can’t just go and live with him.”
“Like you’d be the first woman in the whole wide world to do that, huh?” Skye flipped her dark-brown hair over her shoulder as she flounced away and plunked down into the sitting chair in Willow’s rooms. Crossing one long leg over the other, her sister flashed her brilliant-blue eyes at her.
“No, but I’ve never let a man lead me so completely.”
“Yeah. We know why too.”
“Because I never found one I liked enough.”
“Because you damn well never found one strong enough.”
That socked the wind from Willow.
“Hit the nail on the head, have I? Right. Well. So now you’ve found one and you’re not so concerned about burning your bra as you are afraid. Afraid to give in to a man’s desire for you. Like it’s all so fulfilling to live alone, to find a job, keep one and never have children or a big family. Good for you.”
“I didn’t glorify living alone. Without love or family or—” A man to heat my bed and my heart.
“So what is the deal here?”
“Why are you so mad?”
Her sister shook a finger at her. Christ, a college degree had transformed the girl into a harpy. “Do not change the subject to me.”
“I’m just trying to explain.”
“Well, you’re not. What holds you back from running right over there and making him your own? Not me coming here to live, I hope. Assuming I get hired.”
Willow tried to dial the argument down a notch. “I did consider that if you got the job here and if I decided I wanted to live here too, that we’d live together. Get an apartment. Be a team, a family like we were before you went to college.”
Skye grimaced.
“What? You wouldn’t want to live with me?”
“Near you, yes. With you, no.”
Willow blew out a breath. “Wow. You have changed. What gives that suddenly you don’t like your own sister?”
“I like you. I love you. I just don’t want more of you.”
“Why not?” God, she was asking that question of a lot of people lately.
“Because I like my own place. My own life. My own preferences.”
“Preferences?” Willow shrugged, clueless. “Like what?”
“Oh, no. Not sharing that.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” Skye said very carefully, “they’re not the usual.”
“And you think I would disown you for something different or…or…unusual?”
“Not disown, no. But you’re a straight shooter and I’ve developed a taste for a bit of spice.” Skye rolled a shoulder. “Plus, I’ve heard rumors about Bravado.”
Wow. What precisely did Skye know? That the men were eager for young women. That the population was definitely lacking in the female sex. That she could have more than one man in her bed and the locals wouldn’t bat an eyelash? Dear heaven. Would a sexual behavior that was good for herself be good for her little sister? And why should she judge that? She couldn’t. Shouldn’t. Wouldn’t. “I see.”
“I want to live here. Work here. Play here.”
“Right. So you don’t want to live together because you might like the ménage lifestyle?”
“Got it in one.” Skye beamed at her. “Shocked?”
“Yes. A little. A lot really. I never thought that you’d go for that.” Never thought I would. And would keep it up too if I hadn’t fallen for Wade like a ton of bricks.
“It might not be good for you but I have a right to find out if it is for me.” Skye brushed a crease from her white cotton slacks. “I’ve had a few men in my bed. Each had as much life to them as a funeral director. I’m entitled to more. Better. So are you. And if Wade Saxon gave it to you what are you waiting for?”
Willow shrugged. “You don’t understand all the issues here.”
Skye lifted both hands and let them fall to her lap. “So tell me already.”
“Wade is a Dominant.”
Unfazed, Skye blinked. “Is that so,” she said with appreciation in her voice.
“It is. He hasn’t shown me much of it but what he has shared with me, I…”
“Liked?”
Willow nodded. “I did.”
“Well, there you go. That should settle a lot of your unease.”
“How so?” What was wrong with her? She was letting her little sister lead her to a conclusion she already knew in her heart was right.
“If you liked what he shared then he’s easing you into it. Seeing how much you can take. How much more you want. I’d say he’s damn considerate. And if he’s as hunky as you say, and charming, and a good family man, well, then what the hell is your problem?”
Willow gulped. “I flinched. I demanded he do the one thing he hates.”
After a long minute, Skye asked, “Going to share what that is?”
“Yes. I asked if he would participate in threesomes.”
“A ménage?”
“Yes. And he said he couldn’t ever do that.”
“Where you egging him on or do you really want that?”
“I did it to keep some power for myself.”
“Not because you want other men.�
��
“Right.” Willow examined her sister, bold and beautiful in the far chair as she lifted her brows in question. “I’d really love to be Wade’s woman.”
“His sub?”
His lover. “His everything.”
“Well there you are, then.” Skye rose from the chair and stepped toward the door. “Time for you to go to him.”
“You think it’s that simple?”
“Sounds like a three-sentence apology to me.”
“Three sentences, huh? Like, I’m sorry. I want only you. Make me yours.”
Skye nodded repeatedly. “Time’s a-wasting, girl. Do I kick your pretty ass out this door or do I drag you there?”
* * * * *
Chuckling, Willow walked arm in arm out to the parking space with Skye. “I don’t know if I’ll be back tonight. So just tell the receptionist that you’re taking my room for the night. Jeez, what is that sound? A stampede?”
Skye turned toward the plain and cupped a hand over her brow. “A horse. Maybe two or—”
“Good grief.” Willow gaped at the sight before her. Headed straight for her was a tall cowboy dressed in buckskins and yelling like a wild banshee. Behind rode four more cowboys, all yipping like coyotes, their faces wreathed in smiles. “Wade?”
“Wade,” Skye said with a sigh. “Our main man. With who else?”
Willow snorted in laughter. “The three MacRae brothers and Case Turner.”
“Our long-lost relatives, right?” Skye asked as the men approached across the tall grassy plain, showing no signs of reigning in their mounts as they neared the B&B and civilization.
“What are they doing?” Willow asked, concerned that the riders would charge right over them if they kept on the same path.
Skye chuckled. Then stepped away from Willow. “I’d say they’re having fun.”
“Fun?” Willow shot a glance from Skye to Wade and his buddies. “What the hell are you boys— Ooof.” The breath leapt from her lungs.
Before she could say squat, Wade had her by the waist, lifting her, hoisting her with one meaty arm up beside him as he continued over the parking lot, up to the plain and back the way he came.
She yelled at him, screamed at him. “Put me down. Ohhhh! Wade!”
But he either didn’t hear or didn’t want to and she was terrified.
Terrified he’d drop her and good Christ, she’d roll and bounce and wind up diced and broken as mincemeat.
He slowed, then with his other arm hauled her up over his saddle and spanked her ass. Good. And. Hard.
She wriggled. She complained.
She lost her voice and her breath as he paid her no heed and just kept riding.
“Where are you going? Wade, for godsakes.”
He caressed her ass cheeks.
Damn man. What the hell was wrong with him?
He kept riding. Her ribs ached, her stomach was tender. Her heart swelled with pride. She knew what he’d done and she had to smile. Had to love him all the more. Who knew a man could think of this?
She hadn’t judged him fairly.
But he had valued her enough to do this.
So she stopped wriggling and yelling. She stopped wondering what his motives were. She knew and though she wasn’t capable of much else, she smiled.
When he slowed his horse and walked the stallion toward a clearing and up a hill, she knew where they were. And she dared to hope she knew why.
“Come down off that nag, woman,” he told her, reaching out his arms to help her off the horse.
She went, aching and stiff, but eager to hear what he had to say. He held her in his arms, climbing the hill to the top of the broad, flat rock. There he sat down with her still in his arms and combed her hair from her face, blessed her lips with his own and smiled at her.
“You know where we are?”
“Bull Elk’s rock.”
“Who know why?”
Her gaze lost in his she shook her head. He planned this, let him have his say. Then if all else seemed right she’d have hers. She knew he would give her that…and so much else.
He hugged her close, cradling her in his embrace, his fingers cupping her chin. “I brought you here to prove to you that life has circles.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist. “You brought me here once and kissed me. Will you do it again, then?”
“I will. If you’ll let me.”
“You’re asking me?”
“I am.”
She laughed. “You just abducted me, Wade Saxon, from my sister.”
“Mmm. I did, didn’t I?”
“Just like Bull Elk took Fancy from her own sister.”
“Just like Bull Elk took the woman he wanted and made her his wife.”
That implication stopped her very breath. She searched his face to make certain she wasn’t imagining his meaning.
He pressed her against his warm, hard body and she melted to him. “Marry me, Willow.”
“I don’t want another man,” she blurted, giving him his due now that she was clear about her own true desires. “I want to be yours. Only yours.”
Smiling, he pushed back tendrils of her hair from her cheeks and brushed his lips on hers. “My lover?”
“Yes, please.”
“And my sub?”
“Yes, make me yours.”
“And will you also become my wife?”
Her lips trembled and she stumbled over the words. “I want nothing more.”
“Soon then.”
“Very,” she agreed.
“You’ll come home with me and I can have you naked, night and day.”
Beneath her tee and jeans, her body flushed with wet heat at the mere idea of being at his beck and call. She let her fingertips define the sculpted perfection of his lips. “Will you be naked too?”
He hooted, wrapping her close and rocking with her. “If you want.”
“I do.”
He splayed his fingers into her hair and held her steady as he turned serious and stern. “And do you want Giles as well?”
“No. I asked that foolishly. I want only you, Wade.”
He caught back a sound that she swore was part sob. “Poor bastard, he cares for you.”
“He’ll find a woman who loves him. He deserves that.”
“Yeah, baby. He does. Can I really kiss you now?”
She nodded, eager as a kid. “One more question.”
“Hurry, honey. I’m an impatient man.”
She wiggled on his lap, feeling just how formidably impatient he was becoming. “Will you ever want another woman?”
“I have my hands full of the luscious lady who writes the family history. Why would I ever want any other woman when no one could ever compare?”
About Cerise DeLand
What’s an East Coast gal to do to if she lives deep in the heart of Texas, travels often everywhere, and adores Paris, Florence, London, Tokyo and all points east and west? Ah.
She becomes an author who can write about those romantic places. With a passion for cowboys, spies, rakes, knights in shining armor and their gutsy women, Cerise DeLand is an author who adores an alpha male with a tender heart and a need for a smoldering erotic love affair with the right woman!
And when Cerise isn’t dreaming up fiction or traveling? She is a fabulous cook and an avid history buff.
Busy lady. Happy writer.
Cerise welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Cerise DeLand
Carried Away
Cougar Challenge: Hat Trick
Do Him Right
Her Three-Way Merger
I Caught the Sheriff
Knights in Bla
ck Leather 1: Rope Me In
Knights in Black Leather 2: Tie Me Down
Laid Bare
Me and Mr. Jones
Mia Dolce
Nemesis 1: Until the Dawn with Desiree Holt
Nemesis 2: Until Midnight with Desiree Holt
Nemesis 3: Until Twilight with Desiree Holt
Nemesis 4: Until Noon with Desiree Holt
Steal Me Away
Strong Arms of the Law
Wedding Belles 2: Something New
Wedding Belles 4: Something Blue with Desiree Holt & Allie Standifer
Whenever We Meet
Print books by Cerise DeLand
Cougar Challenge: Cougarlicious anthology
Irresistible Forces
Nemesis 1: Until the Dawn with Desiree Holt
Nemesis 2: Until Midnight with Desiree Holt
Nemesis 3: Until Twilight with Desiree Holt
Rope Me In
Wedded and Bedded anthology
Wedding Belles anthology
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Bind Me Close
ISBN 9781419990601
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Bind Me Close Copyright © 2014 Cerise DeLand
Edited by Elizabeth London
Cover design by Dar Albert
Cover photography by Mauro Rodrigues, Vitaly Krivosheev, nikilitov, yadviga
Electronic book publication May 2014
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