Obsession
Michelle Betham
A Forbidden novel
(The Forbidden Series Book #2)
Copyright © Michelle Betham 2015
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the prior permission of the author.
This book has been written to entertain, therefore the story, characters and events are very much a work of the author’s imagination, and are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to any person, places or actual events is purely coincidental.
Also by Michelle Betham
Titles published through HarperImpulse (A division of HarperCollins Publishers)
Striker
Extra Time
Final Score
The First Christmas Without You (A HarperImpulse Contemporary Romance Novella)
Shirley Valentine Goes to Vegas
Self-Published titles
No Matter What
Illusions of Love
See You At The Show
Unbreakable
Revolution – The Lone Riders M/C Series Book #1
Retribution – The Lone Riders M/C Series Book #2
Resurrection – The Lone Riders M/C Series Book #3
Allure – The Forbidden Series Book #1
For Gill, Pam, Lesley, Mel, Tracy, Jane, Susan, Sara, Michelle and all those other amazing people who’ve stuck by me, supported me and been there for me throughout my crazy writing journey. Your support means the world to me.
Thank you.
This one’s for you, girls!
A selection of music from The Forbidden Series Playlist
‘Obsession’ – Book #2
Checkmate - Smash Into Pieces
Obsession - Animotion
Earned It - The Weekend
Uninvited - Alanis Morissette
Fire - The Pointer Sisters
Tear You Apart - She Wants Revenge
Hello - Adele
S&M - Rihanna
Elastic Heart - Sia
Battlefield - Jordin Sparks
I Have Nothing - Whitney Houston
Stay - Eternal
Every Day Of The Week - Jade
Dare Me - The Pointer Sisters
Pony - Ginuwine
Undo It - Carrie Underwood
All Again - Ella Henderson
Second Hand Heart - Ben Haenow/Kelly Clarkson
Breaking Inside - Shinedown
I Feel Love - Donna Summer
The complete ‘Forbidden Series Playlist’ can be found on Spotify.
http://spoti.fi/1W8P8dl
One
Kira
I still pinch myself, sometimes, just to make sure I’m really here; that it’s really happening, this new life I’ve thrown myself into without any kind of safety net. But it’s been a few weeks now, and I still wake up every day with the most beautiful man in the world beside me and a future I’m beginning to believe might just be possible after all.
My escort days are behind me, and I’m OK with that now. It seems a lifetime ago, that world. The one Neal Cannon walked into, changed, then took me away from, bringing me here, to his. And while it’s taking some getting used to, I don’t think I could go back now. I don’t think I want to.
‘You really have to stop these early mornings, beautiful.’
I smile at the sound of his sleepy voice, and I lean back against him as he wraps his arms around me from behind.
‘I hate waking up and you not being there.’
He kisses my shoulder and I let that now familiar shiver wash over me, closing my eyes as his mouth continues to brush over my skin. ‘I like this time of day.’
‘Since when?’ he murmurs, resting his chin on my shoulder.
I reach back to touch his face. ‘Since I met you.’
Those nights I’d spent with him in his hotel suite back in Newcastle, when I’d wake in the early hours, unable to get back to sleep; the mornings I’d leave him in bed and go sit by the window, watching as the world got ready to begin another day. Those mornings he’d join me and we’d watch the dawn break together. I should have known then I was falling in love with him. I should have known, but instead I chose to fight it. And then the fighting stopped, and my new world started turning.
‘You’re not gonna make a habit of it, are you?’
I turn around in his arms and look at him. And even after a night of almost non-stop sex and very little sleep he’s still painfully handsome. Achingly beautiful. Even with his hair all mussed-up, his impossibly blue eyes and heartbreaking smile make my stomach jolt every time. ‘And I thought you were romantic.’
‘What gave you that idea?’ He grins and I laugh and he picks me up and I wrap my legs around him as he carries me back to bed. ‘Did I promise you romance, Ms Blu?’
He lays me down and lies beside me. ‘You promised me a lot of things.’
‘Yeah. I did, didn’t I? In that case, romance could well have been one of ‘em.’
He grins again, and again I laugh. I’m so ridiculously happy I still can’t believe that just a few weeks ago I was ready to walk away from this. But I didn’t understand what was happening then. Now I know I don’t need to understand it. I just have to live it.
‘So, this romance thing. It’s not a deal breaker then?’
He’s still smiling, and I close my eyes and kiss him, sliding a hand around the back of his neck, pushing him down, and he holds me close, his hand snaking up my thigh underneath the short nightdress I’m wearing.
‘I sold myself for ten years, Neal. Romance isn’t something I’ve gotten used to in my life.’
‘All the more reason why you should experience some,’ he whispers, and he’s inside me, and I stretch out and arch my back as he makes love to me slowly, the way he’s done every morning since we arrived here. Every morning we make love, during the day we have snatched sex in his office, his car; anywhere we feel brave enough to risk it, and at night we fuck – hard and fast and dirty. At night Kira Hardy goes away and Kira Blu comes out to play. After dark that woman I’d once been – his whore, his plaything – she’s back. But only for him. She only ever comes back for him, now. After dark all inhibitions disappear – the sex becomes darker, lines become blurred; we take on roles the outside world might not want to understand. But we like our sordid, dirty little bubble.
‘We really should get some sleep,’ I murmur as he comes inside me, his body barely moving as he lays against me.
‘I’m kind of awake now,’ he groans and I wrap my legs around him, keeping him close. I hate it when I can’t feel him next to me; when he isn’t touching me, that’s how bad it’s got. How dangerously obsessed with this man I’ve become. And it scares the hell out of me. I walked out of a life I had total control over into one I have no control over at all. I’m blinded by sex and a love I barely understand, but I don’t want to be anywhere else.
‘I’m gonna go grab a quick shower.’ He smiles, and I reluctantly let him go. ‘You gonna join me?’
I sit up, drawing my knees to my chest. ‘Take this one on your own, handsome. I’ll go make some coffee.’
He leans back over me and kisses me quickly before he disappears into the bathroom. But it’s a couple of minutes before I make any kind of move, pulling off my nightdress and slipping on one of his shirts, dragging my hair back into a high ponytail.
I leave the bedroom and head into the vast, open-plan living room. The view over Manhattan from the huge floor-to-ceiling windows that cover one entire side of the room still takes my breath away every time I step in here, especially at this time of day, when it’s only just beginning to get light outside and everything s
eems slightly ethereal as the city begins to wake up.
I walk over to the wall of glass, hugging myself as I look out at a view I’d only ever seen before on TV or in movies. And now I’m here, looking out over it for real from Neal’s incredible penthouse apartment in Midtown East Manhattan. Every time I stop and think about it I panic slightly at the realisation of where I am, what I’m now surrounded by; who I’m with. It still doesn’t feel completely real, and I’m still not entirely used to the sudden, drastic change in my life, but I’m getting there. And I know I was right to take this risk. I was right.
I’m happy.
I really do think I might be in love.
And they were two things I never thought I’d be again.
Neal
I position my tie just right and brush down my shirt, smiling at my reflection. I look like one lucky son-of-a-bitch; a man who’s got everything he could fucking wish for, and that’s because I have. I’ve got it all – a career I love, more money than I know what to do with, and the woman of my freaking dreams in my bed, every night.
I had most of that just a few weeks ago, too. I had everything, except the woman of my dreams. But back then, despite all the money and the perfect career, I’d felt anything but lucky. I’d felt empty; lonely. Then came Kira Blu. And it was like a light had been switched on somewhere in my dead, cold soul. She gave me back my life.
I step away from the mirror and lean back against the wall, closing my eyes. Kira Blu. My living, breathing fantasy. By day we work together; by day she’s Kira Hardy – my girlfriend, my beautiful apprentice. But as soon as the sun goes down Kira Blu is back, and she becomes my walking wet dream. We shut out the world and escape into our own – the playroom. We go there, every night, this place where inhibitions cease to exist and fantasies are played out until our bodies can take no more. In the playroom she becomes everything from my submissive whore to a dominant bitch; super-hot schoolgirl whose detention punishment is just plain wrong, and a more-than-willing patient to my dark and dangerous, dirty doctor. We cross lines and we push boundaries. There’s intense pain and indefinable pleasure in our secret sex games and, man, I can’t get enough of them; enough of her. Kira Blu. Before she’d opened those beautiful, crazy-long legs for me just a few weeks ago sex had always been an almost mechanical act for me; a necessity, a need I’d had to fulfil, nothing more. For six years that’s all it had been – emotionless, empty sex with escorts who hadn’t meant a thing. Until Kira happened. And then everything changed. Everything. The future I’d thought I had planned, that’s gone. And I’m looking at a whole other future now. One Kira and I need to live, as the people we’ve become.
I open my eyes and breathe in deep, sliding my hand into my pocket to touch the set of keys I’ve just put in there. I don’t know how she’s gonna react to what I’m about to tell her, because it’s kinda come from out of nowhere, but, at the same time, I think we’ve been heading towards this ever since we got here, to New York.
I run my thumb over the cool metal and smile. No. I’m not worried. She’s gonna love the idea, I mean, Jesus! She fucking inspired it! Her, and our own private playroom.
That smile’s still on my face as I head into the kitchen, and she’s already in there, singing along to the radio. She’s got her back to me, and I can’t take my eyes off her as she sways her hips in time to the music, and my cock reacts in the only way it knows how to when she’s around.
I walk up behind her and slide my hands up under her shirt – well, it’s my shirt, really, but it looks way better on her – resting them on her hips.
‘You’re wearing panties,’ I murmur quietly as I nuzzle her neck, and I feel her shiver slightly, which only stirs my cock even more.
‘Yeah. I do that, sometimes.’
I laugh, resting my mouth against her skin and she shivers again. ‘Take ‘em off, beautiful.’
She turns around and smiles and I feel my whole world shift further towards that new future I need with this woman.
‘I think you need to check your watch, Mr Cannon. You don’t get to tell me what to do until after dark.’
I jerk my head towards the window, but keep my eyes locked on hers. ‘Sun ain’t completely up yet, darlin’. So take the panties off.’
Her eyes bore into mine, and we both know exactly what we’re doing now. The game is on. ‘You want them off, you take them off.’
The corner of my mouth twists up into a smirk before I turn her around and bend her over the countertop, tearing her panties off and spreading her legs. And I take a second to just look at her – her perfect, hard ass; thighs that have held me between them as I’ve fucked her, over and over. But there’s only so long I can hold out here, even though the view is damn freaking hot!
I pull her upright; back against me, sliding the shirt off, and she’s naked, and I want her so fucking much it still makes my head spin.
She reaches back and threads her fingers in my hair, throwing her head against my shoulder and I lean in to kiss her neck, breathing her in as my hands cover her tits. Her nipples harden against my palms, and she pushes her ass back into me as she begs me to fuck her.
She’s begging me, to fuck her.
Another day in freaking heaven is about to begin…
Two
Kira
I’m leaning against Neal’s desk in his Manhattan office, flicking through his diary when Barry walks in.
I look up, and my eyes immediately lock with those of Neal’s younger brother, and although he hasn’t yet said anything out loud, his expression gives so much away. Probably more than he realises. He’s wary of me, and that’s understandable. Joey was wary of Neal, in the beginning. So I can’t blame Barry for feeling that way. I’m a stranger to him, he knows very little about me, bar whatever Neal’s told him. I haven’t really had a chance to talk to him myself, not properly. Not yet.
‘Where’s Neal?’ he asks, leaning back against the desk beside me and folding his arms. A defensive stance I don’t miss.
‘He’s taking a call, in the back office.’
I steal another glance at Barry but his gaze has dropped to the floor. He’s nowhere near as handsome as Neal. I mean, he isn’t bad looking, he just doesn’t have Neal’s piercing blue eyes or strong jaw. His mouth isn’t perfect. He isn’t a beautiful man. Neal is.
‘You settling in OK?’
He doesn’t raise his gaze as he asks me that question. ‘Are we really still doing small talk, Barry?’
He finally looks up, but I can’t read his expression this time.
‘I don’t agree with what my brother’s doing.’
‘You don’t like the fact he’s brought his escort home with him, is that it?’
He laughs, but there isn’t a great deal of humour in there. ‘You must be giving him some unbelievable sex. For him to risk everything like this.’
I keep my eyes locked with his. He doesn’t rattle me. He can throw as many insults at me as he likes, I’ve heard them all, from those who’ve judged me before.
‘What I do – what I’ve done doesn’t make me who I am, Barry.’
He says nothing for a second, he just continues to stare at me. ‘Like I said, you must be fucking him real good.’
I smile slowly, not shifting my gaze. I’m not reacting to him, not in the way he wants me to, anyway. ‘Your brother paid for the best.’
He doesn’t quite know how to take me, I can see it in his face, he’s confused.
‘I’ve used girls like you before, Kira.’
It’s all coming out now. Everything he’s quite obviously kept bottled up, he’s letting it all spill out, but he won’t get to me. Shit like this, it’s like water on glass. ‘Then you’ll know we don’t come cheap.’
Obsession (Forbidden #2) Page 1