The Louisiana Liaisons Series Box Set

by Chance, Lynda

  She wasn’t obsessed with getting a man to take care of her, even though she was beautiful enough that she could easily accomplish it. That was obvious. James Cameron said she had shot him down, and that fucking bastard probably had more money than he did. No, by all evidence, she was completely independent, and she liked it that way. He admired her for that. Respected that about her. After his experience, the idea of an independent woman was heady. But then, the evocative picture of her being dependent on him sprang to mind. The idea of her being completely dependent on him was compelling. Already, the subtle idea of her needing the paycheck he gave her was beginning to appeal. Erotic images of having her in his power, his control, were stealthily invading his brain.

  He didn’t know what the fuck he wanted.

  Except for her.

  He wanted her.

  Chapter Ten

  Renee lay completely still under him and tried not to let absolute horror invade her senses. She couldn’t even play the victim here, or cry rape, because it had to be obvious to him that she was with him all the way. One-hundred percent, she had been with him.

  God, she couldn’t even blame him for this. Since day one, she had been infatuated. He was so compelling, so demanding, so blatantly male. He did something to her, pushed something in her, she couldn’t control. She had sworn to herself that she wouldn’t make this easy for him, and here she was, naked underneath him again.

  The reality jolted her. She began pushing against him in an effort to free herself. She needed space. Space to think. Space not to think. Confusion gripped her and she pushed harder against him.

  Robert felt her go from complete stillness, to frantically pushing away from him. “Hey. Be still a minute. You went to so much trouble to make me use a condom, I know you don’t want any accidents here.”

  Renee tensed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Robert felt himself begin to swell at her unconscious movements. “Nothing. Not a damn thing. Just be still.” He slowly pulled out of her, bringing the soiled condom with him. He swiveled his big body and grabbed a tissue from the bedside table and removed it.

  “There. Happy now?” His short, salient words abraded her raw feelings. She jerked away from him.

  “Yes. Just great.” She pulled the edge of the duvet up and over her, covering her naked body from his view.

  He watched her with dark, inscrutable eyes. “You’re wasting your time. I’ve already seen it all.” His voice was flat, unemotional.

  A new kind of tension invaded her body as he continued to watch her. The butterflies in her stomach were set loose when he reached up a hand and gripped the duvet between her breasts and tugged.

  She held on tight.

  “Let go.” He could easily take the covering from her, but he wanted her to give in to him.

  She shook her head and held on.

  “Renee. Sweetheart. You don’t think this can go backwards, do you?” His hand released its grip and slid up to her exposed collarbone. His finger moved back and forth. “It already happened. It’s going to continue to happen. You need to understand that.” His hand moved to the back of her neck and brought her mouth up to meet his.

  The kiss he gave her was tender, unexpected. So completely different from anything he had shown her tonight. Her thoughts turned off as she was inundated by his touch. An insidious weakness invaded her system. Her eyes closed and her body trembled as she felt light sips taken from her mouth. His lips moved to her cheek, up to her forehead, and then to her ear.

  Her breathing fractured. Her hands slowly released their grip on the duvet, and moved to curl around his head.

  Robert knew the moment she gave in to him, and blood rushed to his groin, hardening him again fully. His eyes opened, and his mouth moved down to her breasts. She was still lusciously tangled up in her lacy bra, and a streak of pure, unadulterated lust hit him.

  He put his head to her breast, and sucked the nipple into his mouth. He stabbed his tongue at her. The sweetness of her body went to his head like a shot of whiskey. He moved his mouth to the soft fullness of her breast and began sucking, intent on marking her. Strong, insistent, he continued to suckle her until she began undulating against him.

  Never releasing the ambrosia in his mouth, he moved between her thighs and began pushing her legs apart.

  Renee surfaced from the arousal that gripped her when she felt him pushing into her. She frantically began trying to scoot away from him. She felt a moment of true hysteria when he seized her wrists and lifted them over her head. She opened her eyes and saw the fierce, masculine beauty of his face.

  His lips were drawn back from his teeth and a drop of sweat slid down his cheekbone. Strength radiated from him. She had to break through his domination. “Stop. Robert. Stop.”

  He showed no sign of hearing her or stopping and Renee began to fight. She pushed her wrists against the hands holding her and tightened her body against him. “Stop. Get a condom. God, Robert, stop.” She shouted the last words.

  Robert surfaced from the haze enough to understand her. Resentment once again ripped through his guts and he was incensed at the need for restraint. He was fully jolted into awareness by her stiff body under him, and her face turned completely away. He ripped himself off of her and stood by the bed.

  Goddammit! He had done it again. Felt it again. The need to do her without birth control was elemental. Primal. Stupid. What the fuck was wrong with him? He never had sex without protection. Refused to even think about it. And now here he was, desperate to feel her naked. He wanted to be naked in her, against her.

  He looked down at her, lying there so helplessly, her hands moving to cover her face. His eyes slid over her body. Dark, purple bruises covered her right breast.

  He felt a kick to his gut when he saw the damage he had done to her. And why he had done it. He wanted to mark her. Brand her. Screw her without protection. The knowledge should have cooled him down. It didn’t. It only provoked him.

  He turned away and rolled on another condom. She was getting her way again. But not for long.

  His time would come.

  ****

  Five weeks slid by.

  Renee was thrown whirlwind into a pattern that contained a working and sexual relationship. She couldn’t fight him on it, because she couldn’t fight herself.

  Her days were spent learning the minutiae of the job Mrs. Argenot was passing on to her. Her nights were mostly spent at Robert’s house.

  The first week had been rocky. Getting him to use a condom was a battle every time. His argument was always that he was clean, she was clean, why use one? He was broodingly silent when she brought up pregnancy, and she had the uneasy feeling he didn’t care if she got pregnant or not. Finally, during a heated row about condoms, she found out the reason why. It turned out to be the same simple reason why there were so many unplanned pregnancies in the world. He didn’t want to wear one. He wanted to feel her flesh against his. It had little to do with the pros and cons of birth control. It was more basic than that. More primal. Animalistic. He hated anything separating them.

  After a particularly harrowing fight, she went to the doctor and got on the pill. She’d never had trouble with the pill before, and if they were going to be in a relationship, she thought it was for the best. But she hated to bring a relationship or anything long term up with him. So she didn’t. She just went on the pill, and when it was safe, she told him.

  Their relationship improved somewhat from that point. The sex was fantastic, and she could still remember the first moment he’d pushed completely naked into her. That time had been frenetic, crazy, fast.

  And, oh God, it just kept getting better and better.

  The birth control pill had calmed him, or more aptly, the lack of condoms had calmed him. Not calmed him completely, but just enough to take the edge off. He was more leisurely, and he seemed to enjoy every facet of their lovemaking.

  He also never brought up her quitting her job again. She didn’t think
he had forgotten about it, but it wasn’t a priority with him anymore. His sexual needs were being met, and the days at the office were on a much more even keel.

  Until the day James Cameron walked in the office.

  “Hey there, beautiful.” His smile and swagger would surely send some lucky woman into ecstasy someday, but she wasn’t that woman.

  She smiled back. “Hi. How’ve you been, James?” He approached her desk, leaned down and let his mega-watt smile loose.

  “Lost without you, sweetheart.” He winked at her.

  “Right. Do those lines actually work?” His smile was infectious, and she grinned back at him.

  “You’d be surprised, Renee. Although Thibodeaux beat me this time, let’s just say I don’t usually come in second. In fact, I’ve got my eye on this little bartender—”

  A door slammed and Robert walked into the room. Renee looked up and saw a menacing scowl cross his features.

  He prowled over to them. He slammed a manila folder at James and said, “Here are the docs you need. Get out.”

  James laughed. “Jesus Christ, Thibodeax. How the fuck do you plan on staying in business if you treat every client the way you treat me?”

  Robert fought to get a grip while James continued to berate him. “You’re lucky I’m so goddamn easy-going, or I’d have quit your ass a long time ago. Why don’t you marry her so you can curb these murderous tendencies of yours? Maybe then you wouldn’t be so fucking scared somebody’s going to steal her away from you. Tie her to you, man.” James glanced into the folder and nodded his satisfaction with what he saw there. Then he looked at Renee.

  “Good luck with this one. I’ll see ya’ll in about six weeks.” He turned and left the building.

  Renee looked at Robert. He was watching her with a stunned look on his face. Finally he spoke. “I ought to fucking do that.”

  Renee’s heart got clogged in her throat as she stared at him. She heard a slight cough from the hallway and she and Robert turned in unison to face a smiling Mrs. Argonet who said, “Yes, dear, why don’t you fucking marry her? That’s why I hired her for you, after all. So much trouble I’ve gone through finding just the right girl for you. I hope you appreciate all my hard work young man.”

  Robert’s face slowly turned from frustrated to satisfied. He slowly smiled as he answered his long-time secretary. “Yes, ma’am, I do.”

  Epilogue

  Three weeks later, Renee and Robert were lounging on his couch, his arms around her. His fingers entwined with hers, and he slid the wedding band and two-carat solitaire around on her finger.

  His voice was husky when he spoke. “I still can’t believe she could have been that scheming.”

  Renee laughed. “She loves you Robert. You’re like a son to her and she’s been taking care of you a long time.”

  “Yeah, I know, but to plot against me like that in my own office—”

  She turned in his arms. “Plot against you?” Renee’s voice was soft and slid through his bloodstream in a calming rhythm. “She was plotting for you. Hasn’t it all worked out? Don’t you like me taking care of you at home and at the office?”

  “Yeah, I like it.” Satisfaction laced his voice and his arms tightened. “I like it a lot.”

  She smiled the smile that calmed his soul. “That’s good because I’m passed my ninety days. I won.” Her voice carried humor and happiness. “You can’t fire me now.”

  “Never in a million years. I love you, baby.”

  She let out a small, satisfied sigh, “I love you, too.”

  ###

  Here’s an excerpt from a book I’m working on. To put you in the scene, our young hero is eighteen and our heroine is fifteen during this encounter. But never fear, they do grow up.

  Copyright 2013 Lynda Chance

  Try as she might, Hannah attempted to stay away from the small strip of fencing that separated the border between the McIntyre and Turner lands. But almost every afternoon, when the weather allowed, she climbed on one of the four-wheelers and drove the fence line until she ended up at the place that overlooked Turner land. She did this for weeks and never saw anyone.

  And then one day, she hit pay dirt.

  Josh was working on the old well house that stood twenty or so feet over the fence line.

  She saw him glance up when he heard the hum of the engine and nerves tightened in her stomach as he stood to his full height and turned toward where she approached the fence. She’d been waiting for this, no matter how much she lied to herself, and when he began wiping his forehead on his shirtsleeve and walking over to the fence, she let the engine idle and waited.

  She couldn’t read the expression on his face, but she had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that said it wasn’t good.

  He came directly in front of her, and stood on the opposite side of the barbed-wire fence, his brilliant green eyes running over her. She stayed silent and concentrated on the tic in his cheek, and tried to calm her raging heartbeat.

  His words when he spoke were low, controlled, and as smooth as whiskey. “I’m thinking this can’t be a coincidence, princess.”

  Embarrassed by the truth, Hannah immediately thought to deny it, but she didn’t want to lie. She remained silent as she tried to think of a response that wouldn’t completely humiliate her.

  She waited too long and he began to remonstrate, “I kind of had the idea I’d already made myself plain. Maybe you didn’t understand?” His words were low and heated and even though she heard the controlled anger, his voice washed through Hannah like cold water on a hot summer day.

  “I’m sorry,” she managed to softly apologize.

  Josh continued to stare at her without speaking, and then in a rush of movement, his booted foot stepped on the second rung of barbed-wire and forced it down as his gloved hand simultaneously pulled up the third rung, and that easily, in a move that ranchers had been using for decades, bent down and slid unscathed through the treacherous wire and stood in front of Hannah.

  He pulled the leather work gloves off one at a time and stuffed them in his back pocket. Then he reached out and cut the engine with a twist of the key.

  He stood over her where she sat on the cracked vinyl seat of the four-wheeler, her body turned slightly to his. He was so close she could see the beads of perspiration on his face and smell the heady, delicious aroma from the sweat that drenched his t-shirt. The masculine combination was almost more than she could stand.

  Her eyes started to slip closed in a sharp, shocking, agony of arousal.

  They flew open again when she felt his rough fingers on her chin.

  His eyes glittered down at her, his nostrils flaring.

  “Hannah baby, we have to get this straight between us. Maybe I should have spelled it out better. Do you know anything about the deadbeat asshole who calls himself my father? He’s always drunk. He’s in and out of jail—all the time. The sheriff watches me like a hawk because he thinks I’m just like him. He expects me to cause trouble one way or the other.” His thumb caressed her chin gently in direct opposition to the fierceness of his voice. “Now what do you think the sheriff would do if I suddenly took up with the fifteen-year-old town princess?” His eyes glittered down at her, giving her a moment to digest his words before his hand tightened on her jaw once again and he continued, “You need to stay away from me. Don’t make this harder on me than it already is. You don’t know what it’s doing to my insides—knowing I can have you, but I can’t.” His fingers unclenched from around her jaw and then became caressing once again. “You understand?”

  Hannah tried to answer. She licked her lips and opened her mouth to speak but the words stalled again as Josh’s eyes fell to her mouth and his fingers tightened on her face.

  Her throat closed up and no words came.

  His eyes tangled with hers and seconds slipped by until an agonized, ferocious look crossed his features a
nd he bit out, “Repeat after me, princess. Josh wants me.”

  Shock and heat hit her system and she gasped.

  His fingers shifted, slipped into her hair and his voice hissed out, “I’m serious. Repeat it. Josh wants me.”

  “Josh, please—“

  “Now!” he barked and she jumped.

  “Josh w-wants me,” her voice came out shaky and soft.

  “Josh wants me so bad his guts are tied in knots of constant pain,” he pounded the words through his teeth and waited.

  His eyes seared into hers and she attempted to answer. “Josh wants me s-so bad—“ she found it impossible to say and her words dwindled off.

  He reached up and his fingers twisted through her hair until he was holding her face in both of his strong hands. He continued to punch out his words in third person. “He thinks about me constantly.” As he spoke, his gaze ran over her lips, her nose, and the hair that he held in his hands. “He lives from one hour to the next for the day he can sink into me.”

  Hannah’s insides were lacerated by his primal words. It was almost more than her youth and innocence could handle. At the same time, an exquisite pleasure infiltrated her system at what he was telling her. He was telling her the truth. He wanted her just as much as she wanted him. Her body shook as the depth of his need and what he was trying to convey to her sank in.

  He continued in a harsh biting tone, “But I don’t want Josh to go to prison.”

  She was silent as she trembled in his hold.

  “Say it,” he bit out.

  A single tear escaped from her eye.

  “Say it,” he growled, even as his thumb shot out and wiped away the tear.

  Hannah sucked in a shuddering breath. “I d-don’t want Josh to go to p-prison.” Her eyes closed as more tears welled over.