by Zoey Parker
He shoved his hands into his front pockets and nodded his head. “Yeah, I did.” He took a deep breath, then let it out a second later. The wind picked up his blonde hair and tossed it about, the breeze a little cool, but not uncomfortable. “I… I never should have just left you here in the first place, but I really hate hospitals.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, folding my arms across my chest. If he thought he was getting off that easily, then he was sorely mistaken. I wanted answers, no matter how relieved I was that he was here.
He laughed a little, then shook his head. “I know, I know. You deserve a better answer than that, right?”
I lifted one shoulder in half a shrug. “I think so. I mean… what were you doing at my apartment?” I flushed, remembering how terrified I’d been when Shae was there. I held myself a little closer. “And all those calls to my phone? You were the one who broke it off. You got scared and told me—”
“You’re right. I did get scared.” He took a step closer and reached for me, his right hand wrapping around my upper arm and squeezing lightly. His grip wasn’t vicelike or even that firm. It was just a light touch and a squeeze, telling me he was there, but also reminding me that I could pull away whenever I wanted.
But I didn’t.
I let him continue, trying to keep the levels of hope in my system at a manageable level in case this wasn’t going where I wanted it to.
“I got scared, because… because in a lot of ways you remind me of a woman that I loved once.”
That… wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear. No one liked being told about a previous lover, especially in the context of being like her. Was that the only reason things even got semi-serious with us?
“We had been together for a long time. She was my sub,” he conceded, his voice dropping slightly just in case there were some doctors who liked smoke breaks. “And for a while, I thought she was my perfect match.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I murmured. What good did hearing about his past epic romance do for me?
He smiled a little. “So, you understand why you made me so terrified.” He paused, then said, “Like you, Sandra was a natural submissive. She liked to follow orders, liked to give over control. She needed me to take care of her, and that’s all I ever wanted to do. To take care of her. But things got out of hand. Suddenly, she liked the punishments more than she liked the pleasure. She wanted—” He broke off, like he wasn’t sure how much to say. Ultimately, he shook his head and finished, “She went places that I didn’t want to go. But I didn’t realize that until it was too late.”
A sliver of fear ran down my spine, one of the very few I’d ever felt in conjunction with Jules. “Too late?” I questioned.
He nodded. “I hurt her. She pushed me and the lines blurred. I didn’t know when to stop, and she didn’t want to tell me to stop. I hurt her badly enough that she had to go to the hospital. After that, I decided I couldn’t do it anymore.”
The hospital? Oh, my god!
I was about to ask if she was alright, when he pressed forward. “We talked about it afterward, but she couldn’t understand why I was so upset. At least, not consciously. But subconsciously, she’d begun to flinch. She both looked forward to and dreaded punishments. There was this trust broken between us, and I knew that it was my fault. I should have known where the lines were.”
I frowned. “But… she pushed you to it, didn’t she?”
He shrugged his shoulders and glanced away. It was dark outside and the lights from the city were visible, making the view kind of pretty since we were up on a hill. The closest you could see to stars out here with all the light pollution. After a moment, he said, “Maybe. But it didn’t matter. She gave me control, and I lost it. She was the one who got hurt. I couldn’t take that back, so I broke it off. And I made myself a promise to never do this again. No more Dom/sub relationships – no matter how I enjoyed them.”
“So why did you do it with me?” I asked curiously.
“Because you were a natural at it. And… and I needed this. I needed to prove to myself that I could be trusted again.”
We both fell silent as I processed all that he was telling me. I had sensed that he was afraid of something, but I hadn’t really understood what. Now, I at least had a better picture. “Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked quietly.
His blue eyes found mine and held my gaze. “Because this sort of relationship is based on trust. If you can’t trust me – and I can’t trust you – then it’ll never work. Part of trusting is telling you what you’re getting into and letting you make up your own mind about it. It’s not fair for me to make decisions for you, not even for your own safety, because… in the end, you have all the control.”
I have the control.
It was a strange concept. Despite being the adult and taking care of someone else, it had always felt like my life was spiraling out of control. Like I had no say in what was happening around me. But that was it, wasn’t it? I’d felt that this weekend, for that short time I’d spent with Jules. Like I had the power, even when I gave it to him.
“So… what are you saying?” I prompted him, feeling a fluttery, excited feeling build in my chest. I’d long since let the stirring hope in my chest run wild.
He stepped closer and said simply, “I’m saying that I messed up. I was cruel to you just to get you to leave, because I was afraid of how much I’d already come to care for you. I’m saying that I’m a complete asshole and that I’m sorry. I’m here, because I want you, Allison. I need you. Please, take me back?”
I stared at him, letting his words wash over me and collide with my own thoughts until they were a sea tossed tangle of roiling emotions. I wanted him, too. The world he presented to me, I wanted that, too.
So I put my hands against his hard stomach, shifting them until they found his hips. I tilted my chin up and smiled at him. “Of course I’ll take you back. Because I do trust you, Jules.”
He leaned down and pressed his lips against mine, pulling me close until our bodies were pressed together tightly. It was the best kiss we’d shared yet, because for just a moment, I couldn’t tell where he ended and I began.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jules
Two weeks later
I made her move immediately. Allison protested and told me that her apartment was fine, but her arguments were weak at best. After the whole incident with Shae, she wasn’t all that keen on staying anyway. Once I found out that her biggest reason to stay was the money, I took care of it.
“You can’t just pay for everything, Jules!” she told me, slapping my arm lightly.
I ignored her as we browsed through several apartments on my tablet. I was reclining on the couch and she was seated on a pillow I’d gotten specifically so that she wouldn’t get cold on the floor next to me. It was blue, because it reminded me of that shirt she first wore, and it was large and lumpy. She’d helped me pick it out. She was completely naked, because that was how we both liked it when we were at home.
My home, because she was going to keep her own apartment for a while still. We’d argued about that, too, but I’d conceded on that one, because she had a good point.
Bree, her little sister, would be out of the hospital soon. She needed a stable environment to live in while she was in high school and we both agreed that my house might not be that. I wanted her to get more comfortable with me before we even considered that transition and then there were the privacy issues involved with the Dom/sub lifestyle.
I doubted her little sister would appreciate Allison walking around naked all the time or sitting by my feet. I hoped that maybe one day Allison might be able to talk intelligently to Bree about all of this, but the girl was still just a kid and I agreed that exposure to this should come a little later, if at all.
And I would leave that clusterfuck entirely up to the girls.
“How about this one?” I asked, showing Allison a picture of a large condo with two bedrooms and a very
nice kitchen. “It even has a balcony,” I told her, swiping my finger to show her the next picture.
She eyed it suspiciously. I could tell she liked it, though she was trying to hide it. “And how much is it a month?”
I waved away her concern. “Don’t worry about it. I have it covered. I wouldn’t have suggested it otherwise.”
“Jules,” she began, but I cut her off by leaning down for a kiss on the lips. She leaned into it.
When I pulled away, I told her simply, “This is closer to my house and puts Bree in a good school district. Besides, I won’t have you living in some rundown hell hole like you were. That place was bad news and I thought I was going to kill that punk in the office. Seriously, the least they could do was lock the damn doors.”
She looked up at me with those wide brown eyes, appreciation shining in them. “Thank you, sir. But it’s too much.”
“It’s not. I’ll take care of it. You just worry about taking care of Bree.”
She smiled at me then dropped her gaze. “Thank you, Jules,” she whispered again, using my real name. She only did that once in a while and I let it slide, because I liked hearing my name on her lips.
“Only the best for my girls,” I murmured.
We looked through several more apartments and Allison was a lot warmer to the subject. She seemed to feel better with letting me take care of her, though it was a struggle. She was so used to fending for herself that it was a large leap for her to suddenly just hand the reins over to me. I reminded her that that was what she did in bed every night, which always made her blush.
I’d had her in bed a dozen more times since she’d made up. Her days were spent at the hospital with a recovering Bree, while I was at work, and when I got home she’d be there, waiting for me. I’d make her strip and bathe and then I’d play with her until she came half a dozen times. We were slowly making our way through the apparatuses in my play room, putting off the ones she shied away from. It was important to me that she was comfortable with everything we used in bed and she promised me that if she ever didn’t like something, she’d tell me to stop immediately.
“You like the condo, don’t you?” I asked her. She nodded and I smiled. “Good. Then we’ll go with that one. Now, it’s time to play a little, don’t you think.”
I watched as her skin flushed eagerly and she nodded her head, her gaze still poised downward. “Yes, sir.”
I grinned. Sitting up, I jerked my shirt over my head. I caught her looking at my bare chest from beneath her lashes, but didn’t call her on it. My hands went to the fly of my leather pants and I unfastened the button. Then I undid the zipper. Looking at her, I said, “Stay on your hands and knees, pet, and come over here. I want you to practice swallowing me.”
She crawled on her hands and knees so that she was positioned at my middle. I pulled my cock out of my pants for her, the length already hardened and bulging. I gave myself a couple of strokes for good measure, then waited.
I saw her lick her lips as she moved so that she was sitting up on her knees instead of on her perky ass. This put her closer to my lap and as she leaned her face over my crotch, I saw her lick her lips. I felt her breath against the head of my cock and tensed.
When Allison and I first met, she hadn’t done anything like this. She was a blank slate sexually, with the exception of touching herself and watching the occasional porn. After all, she was only human. But since agreeing to try a permanent relationship with me, she’d confessed to her personal curiosity on things.
Giving head happened to be one of those things.
“I want to practice,” she’d told me, blushing furiously and I couldn’t help but laugh.
What man was going to tell a girl that he didn’t want her to suck his cock?
So I made a point of giving her ample time to practice. The rules still applied and I still told her when it was okay and when she would just have to wait, but I also made sure that she got what she wanted.
“Go ahead,” I told her tensely, my dick aching with need.
I didn’t get a verbal response. Instead, her lips touched my head and she opened them as she went down. She began to swallow me, using her tongue to slide along the soft skin there. I held back a groan at the same time that I resisted the urge to jerk my hips upwards and bury myself in her mouth.
She couldn’t take me very far yet and I didn’t want to scare her off of trying to.
My hands went to her silky dark hair and my fingers tangled up in it. I got a good firm grip and pushed just a little, making her take a little more. She let out a muffled moan, telling me this was good, but I paid close attention to the hands settled on my leg. If either of them began to tap, I’d release her immediately.
Trust.
Her lips moved down my shaft and when she got about halfway down, she stopped. That was about her limit. It drove me crazy, but I didn’t push her any farther than she was ready to go. Not with this. She couldn’t give her safe word and that meant I was a little easier on her.
My cock pulsed as she began to pull back, her tongue sliding along my length as she did so. She paused at the head and sucked, making me grit my teeth in pleasure.
She hummed a little, then went back down. She did this over and over again, driving me a little crazier each time, until I finally couldn’t take it anymore. I used her hair to jerk her off of me. She looked up at me with those innocent doe eyes, her mouth a little wet and a little parted.
God, she drove me fucking nuts.
“Get up,” I ordered her.
She obeyed immediately, showing me her full, naked body. I let my eyes rake over her, devouring the sight of her flushed skin. Fucking sexy.
I got up off the couch, leaving my pants unzipped. I turned her to face me, though she had dropped her gaze once more. I grinned wickedly, lifting her chin up with my finger so that our eyes could meet again.
“Meet me at the red door. I think it’s time we had some real playtime.”
She let out a shuddering breath, then quickly nodded her head. “Yes, sir.” She turned to head quickly down the hall toward the play room.
I stopped her before she got too far. “And don’t touch yourself until I get there, or I’ll have to punish you.”
She worried at her lower lip, then got brave. She lifted her gaze and smiled at me. “I’d rather have you touch me anyway, sir.”
Then she turned away and I watched her bare ass as it swayed out of the room. Oh, the things I was going to do to her.
THE END
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Don’t Ruin My Baby: The Predators MC
By Zoey Parker
I RUINED HIM ONCE. HE’S ABOUT TO RETURN THE FAVOR.
Michael is not the boy I used to know.
Jail made him harder. Hotter. Crueler.
Gone are the days when he used to care about me.
Now that he’s back, he wants me to stay the hell away from him.
But I need him more than ever.
Some dangerous men are after my blood, and Michael’s the only one who can keep me safe.
Maybe these horrible circumstances will bring us back together.
Or maybe…
He’ll find out what I’ve been hiding from him.
And all hell will break loose.
Prologue
Michael
He was at it again. Lauren’s stepfather stumbled up the stairs. I could smell the whiskey from her bedroom, just down the hall from where he fell on his face. The yelling started soon after that. Screaming for someone to get him to bed, to pull off his goddamn boots. No one went, though. Everyone stayed in their rooms, too nervous to move. It was th
e one time of day they were safe from his flying fists and his careless words.
Her mom didn’t get him either. She knew better. Trying to pick him up after he face-planted would only make him pissed. He’d blame her for making him such a pissy man. Accuse her for having no faith in him. Faith was lost a long time ago. The first time he raised his hand to Lauren, the only thing I trusted was that he’d do it again. And again.
“He’ll be asleep in a minute.” Lauren tiptoed to the door and shut it, holding it steady until the silent click assured her it was closed.
“You need to get the fuck out of here, Lauren.” I clenched my fists, wanting badly to get to that fucker and kick his ass down the steps and out of the house. Lauren’s mom traded one asshole for another when she married that clown. Better to have an abusive man than no man, I supposed she felt. But Lauren deserved better than that. She deserved a warm house to go home to after school. Somewhere she didn’t need to deadbolt her bedroom to keep her stepfather from wandering in during the night, thinking he was climbing into bed with his wife.