He climbed up next to her and grabbed the remote, turning off the music. The only sound in the room was them both trying to catch their breath. Then Steele’s hand slipped into his as they laid side by side.
She rolled over on her side and kissed his cheek.
“I love you, Arsen.”
He turned his head to the side and ran his hand over her cheek and pressed his lips lightly to hers.
“I love you, Steele.”
He ran an arm around her and she snuggled into his side. She felt like home. More so than ever before, Steele felt like the other part of him which had been missing for so long.
But can she take the man I am becoming?
GWEN
The sun was shining through the large window of Gwen’s hospital room as she watched Steele come into her room.
“There she is,” Steele said as she carried in a large crystal vase full of roses. “These are from Arsen who had some pressing business to take care of this morning or he would’ve been here too.”
Steele sat them on the window ledge where Gwen could look at them from her bed. “They’re beautiful. Tell him thank you for me.”
“I will,” Steele said then went to sit on the bed beside Gwen. “I heard Detective Fontaine came to visit you early as shit this morning.”
Gwen nodded.
“She did. I gave her all the details, and she told me they arrested that other guy who was the man who got them the drugs that killed those girls. He and Anne Sinclair had a little dom-sub thing going on. He’ll get less time than Anne, but he’ll get some.”
“It’s good to see some color back in your pretty face, Gwen,” Steele said as she ran her hand over her cheek. “I was sick with worry over you. You have no idea how happy I am to see your face.”
Gwen sighed.
“Yours too. It was all I could think about, getting to you before Allen got you and killed you.”
“You’re quite the hero, Gwen. Just so you know, Arsen has told the hospital all bills for your care are to be sent to him and they are to spare no expense on you.” Steele pushed back a lock of her blonde hair which had been washed and looked a lot better but nowhere near as pretty as Gwen usually had it.
“That was nice of him. Tell him I really appreciate it. A poor college student is what I am after all.” Gwen smiled.
Steele looked around the small hospital room.
“He has another surprise for you when you get out. I think you’ll be pretty happy about it.”
“I can’t let him do any more than this, Steele,” Gwen said with a frown.
Steele patted the top of her hand.
“It’s too late. It’s already taken care of. Since you’ve suffered such a terrible ordeal he wanted to make sure you felt secure. He got you an apartment one floor under his penthouse. Some movers are moving your personal things as we speak. He had a designer pick out the furnishings and everything to go in it.”
“He did not!” Gwen threw her hand over her mouth as tears filled her eyes. “Steele, I can’t…”
Steele shook her head. “You can. I’m not even finished yet, so just be quiet and stop saying you can’t. I snooped through your purse and got your check book so I could find out your bank account information. Arsen put some money in there for you. He paid all the bills we had at the apartment too.”
“Steele!” Gwen shook her head as tears spilled over her cheeks.
“He gave you enough money to get you through without having to have a job for this year, anyway. You can go to school and focus on that and not worry about anything else. Plus, he set up a little investment under your name and you’ll receive the dividends on that for the rest of your life.”
Gwen wrapped her arms around Steel and cried like a baby. It had all been so hard and she thought she might die at times but it was all going to be okay. And she had the best friends in the world at the end of it all.
“I love you, Steele.”
“I love you too, Gwen.”
ARSEN
After visiting the graves of all his submissive partners who’d been murdered and leaving flowers on them, Arsen made his way back to the penthouse to set Steele straight.
The time had come for him to let her know how things were going to be different and see how she took the news. And see if she thought it would be something she still wanted with him.
He was nervous to say the least. The doors to the private elevator opened, and he stepped inside. Steele was curled up with a book on the sofa and sat up as he came in. “There you are,” she said with a smile.
“Wait here,” he told her and walked back to his office.
She looked a little surprised. Her eyes went really wide when she saw him come back into the room with the contract in one hand and the book he’d written her with the rules in the other. He placed them on the coffee table then went to the kitchen, coming back with a small metal trash can and a box of matches.
“Arsen, what are…?”
“Sh. Let me talk please. This is hard for me to say. So please just let me talk then you can talk after that.”
Steele nodded and sat back.
Arsen picked up the dom/sub contract.
“I don’t want this anymore.” He tore it in half then dropped in in the trash can.
Tears sprang up in her eyes as she watched the pieces fall. She gulped and looked up at him.
He took the book and said, “This isn’t a thing I want to have around anymore. This is over.” He tossed it into the trash can as well.
The tears amped up and ran in rivers down Steele’s reddened cheeks. She watched Arsen light several matches and toss them into the trash can as well.
Smoke came up in small spirals as the things which had bound them together went up in flames.
“I want you to understand me clearly, Steele,” Arsen said as he looked at her with no smile, no sign of any emotion at all. “This is over.”
She nodded but didn’t say a word. Steele got up and left the room.
Arsen stood there. Still as a statue. He watched the fire burn away what he had made so Steele would feel like she was part of the life he led.
That life was over and he wanted no part of it any longer. All that needed to be erased. And by what Steele had just done, he had no idea if she could take it.
Should I even ask her now?
For Freedom
By Michelle Love
STEELE
Steele’s hands shook as she pulled her clothes from the closet. Not taking any of the new clothes Arsen had bought for her. Only her old clothes, the one’s she’d come there with.
Tears flooded down her cheeks but she managed to hold back the sobs which were threatening to bust out of her.
His footsteps coming into the bedroom had her trying to hide in the closet from him. She didn’t want him to see her face. Sure it was streaked with tears and red as well.
Arsen was done with her. She supposed he wanted to move on to a new life. One with no old memories of the bad times. One without her in it.
His hands ran around her from behind and his lips pressed against her neck. “What are you doing, Steele?”
“Packing.” Only one word could come out of her mouth while holding back the cries which longed to escape her.
“You don’t want something new and different then?” he asked.
She blinked and wiped her eyes.
“What?”
“I meant by burning the book and the contract that I don’t want that life any longer. That is behind me and I want it all to stay in the past. None of that has a place in my future. You do, though. You will always have a place there. If you want it.” He turned her in his strong arms.
Her eyes were rimmed red with her tears and he kissed her tear-stained cheeks. She looked up at him.
“I don’t understand, Arsen. You will have to be a bit more communicative and let me know what it is you want.”
“I want you and me to have a normal relationship. Free of contracts and
punishments and control,” he said. “Normal, Steele. What do you say? Want to be normal with me?”
“Normal? You, normal?” A laugh came from her and she sniffled. “Is that even possible?”
He frowned. “I was a normal guy once upon a time, Steele.”
“You want that man back?” she asked.
“I’ll never be that kid again. No matter how hard I might try, I’d never get him back. People grow no matter how hard they might try not to. It just happens.” He kissed her cheek. “I have something to give you. If you want to move forward with me, that is.”
Steele looked into his dark eyes and found a new man there in them. They shone brightly and had lost so much of the sadness she’d thought was a permanent part of him.
“I love you, Arsen. All I want is to be with you every single day of my life.” Her arms ran around his neck and she pulled him to her and kissed him.
He moaned with the kiss and ran his tongue through her lips. Then he pulled back and smiled at her. “I have something for you, then.”
Arsen pulled her out of the closet and into the bedroom. Guiding her to sit on the edge of the bed, he had her sit down as he went to the nightstand beside the bed.
A leather-bound book he pulled out and placed it on her lap. “You seemed to love the book I made for you so I made you another one. One that our children can see. The other was never what I really wanted, anyway.”
Steele ran her hand over the cover. The title was hand written in calligraphy. “This is beautiful, Arsen. You are a true artist.”
“What do you think of the title, Baby?” He sat down next to her and looked over her shoulder.
“No Truer Love Has Ever Existed, The Arsen and Steele True Life Series,” she read out loud. She looked up at him with a smile. “I love the title.”
“Good. Open it up and see what else I have written in our book.”
Steele opened the book and on the first page, she saw the words he’d written there and she read them to him, “On April eleventh in the year two-thousand-sixteen Arsen Sloan and Steele Gannon married at the Paris Chapel at Paris, Las Vegas at noon.”
She turned to look as Arsen as she felt him moving and found him pulling a black box out of his pocket. He moved to get on one knee in front of her and held out the box then flipped the lid up.
Her eyes went wide with the size of the single diamond cast in platinum. She looked at him and the tears started flowing again.
A smile crossed his lips.
“Steele Gannon, you are a rare find. The night I saw you for the first time changed my life. You’ve been my rock, a thing I never realized I needed before you came along. You’re tenacious, feisty, and hard to handle and I love every part of you. You keep me guessing and on my toes and I can’t imagine a life without you right by my side. Would you consider becoming my wife?”
He pulled the ring out of the box and she stopped looking at him as the light glanced off the large stone, making her look at the ring. After taking in a deep breath, she let it out and said, “Arsen Sloan, I would love to become your wife.”
He slipped the ring on her finger and she noticed his hand was shaking. She pulled his hand up to her mouth and kissed his knuckles. Arsen stood up and eased her back onto the bed and moved his body over hers.
Taking her lips with his, he kissed her long and hard. Steele ran her arms around him and held him to her as they kissed and held one another.
Their time, though short, had been intense and full. She’d learned so much about the man who held her. And now she’d learn so much more about him as they spend their lives together.
Then the date in the book ran through her mind and she pulled away, stopping the kiss.
“Arsen, April eleventh is tomorrow!”
“It is, Baby. Tomorrow, your name will change.” He tried to kiss her again.
She turned her head. “Arsen! There’s so much to do! We have to get ready! Let me up!”
“I’ll let you up in a little while. Right now I’d like to seal this deal with you. If you don’t mind that is.” He nudged her cheek with his nose and made a low growling sound.
She looked at him and saw the desire in his dark eyes and ran her hands through his silky, dark waves. “Well, if you’re feeling frisky, I guess there’s time for that.”
“There’s always time for this, Baby.” His mouth took hers again.
I’m going to be Mrs. Arsen Sloan!
ARSEN
Steele’s body felt good under his hands. He ran them over every inch of her after he’d undressed her. She was about to become his wife in the matter of one day and he could hardly believe it.
His lips grazed over her stomach as his hands roamed over her perky breasts. He felt her hands go through his hair and her stomach twitched under his lips.
Arsen nipped her stomach, and she groaned.
“Again.”
He nipped her flesh again, and she wiggled a little. As he moved up her body, he bit her place after place, leaving little red marks on her pristine skin. Arsen moved up until his hands ran into her hair and he fisted large chunks of it.
Her face was so close and he let his lips barely touch hers. By the way her body was moving under his and her lips were pursed for his kiss, he knew she was more than ready for him.
Arsen didn’t settle on her lips. He moved around and took her neck with his teeth. She arched up.
“Please, Arsen.”
“We’ve discussed little about what you want for the future, Steele.”
“For the immediate future, I want you, Arsen. I want you all over me. I want you inside me,” she said with a moan and a wiggle.
His laugh was deep.
“Do you want your family flown in for the wedding?” he asked.
“If you want.” She raked her nails over his back. “Come on, Baby.”
He smiled at her want for him. But didn’t give in to her yet.
“How many children should we have, Baby?”
“As many as you want,” she moaned and moved her mouth to his neck and bit him. “Baby, please.”
“Do you like dogs or cats, Steele?” He bit her neck and sucked it.
“For the love of God! Arsen, please!” She writhed under him. “I’m on fire here.”
“Dogs or cats, Baby. What kind of family are we going to be?” His hands moved over her sides.
“A dog family, Arsen. A salt water fish tank and a cockatoo named Bentley who will have a cage in the corner of the living room. There, our life in a nutshell. Now take me, Baby, before I implode.” She ran her hands to grip his large biceps as he laughed.
“Are you saying that you want me, Steele?” he growled in her ear as he ground his erection against her soft core.
“I want you bad, Baby. So please stop asking me questions about the future and let’s get going with right now.” She arched up to him and he gave into her.
Sliding his erection into her, her sigh of relief filled his ears.
“There you go, Baby.”
“Yes,” she said as she breathed out. “Yes, Baby. That’s what I wanted.”
He smiled against her neck then moved to take her lips. Nipping at her bottom lip with his first, slow stroke. She placed her hands on either side of his head and held him tight in them. Her mouth opened, and she kissed him hungrily.
She was on fire. He could tell that and she was making him heat up as well. Her hot body gyrated with each one of his strokes. She arched up just as he pulled out and made him stroke her more quickly.
Arsen moved his hands down her arms and took her hands in his and pulled them up over her head and held them to the bed. He held them with one hand and took the other hand and moved it up and down her side.
One hard thrust he gave her, knocking the breath from her. He felt it shoot into his mouth and he eased their kiss. Pulling his mouth from hers, he looked at her.
Another hard stroke he made and her breath puffed out of her mouth. He felt it on his lips which hovered near
hers. He took in a deep breath and made another hard thrust.
She opened her mouth and let the air come out and he breathed it in.
“I cannot wait to call you mine, Steele.”
“I am yours, Arsen. I always have been.”
He growled and kissed her hard and wanting. Moving hard and fast inside her, he claimed her as his. Every last inch of her was nearly entirely his, and his alone.
The fact she was about to be his wife had him feeling wild and free. She bucked under him and he let her.
Their ragged breathing filled the room along with the sound of flesh smacking against flesh. Arsen’s body began to shake with his need to release. Steele’s words fell soft near his ear. “Just do it, Baby. Let it all go.”
So many years holding himself back, stopping the normal urges had him forgetting he didn’t have to or even want to do that any longer. He whispered in her ear, “Come.”
Her body blasted with his words and she fell apart around him. He released her hands, and they moved over his back, raking it over and over as she pulsed around his cock, taking him along with her.
His heart pounded as he spilled inside her. He lay still on top of her. Their bodies wet with sweat. Their hearts pounded loud and hard. Their breathing was rough.
One soft kiss he placed on her sweet lips. The next day she would be his in name as well.
I cannot wait!
STEELE
A white dress, a white bouquet of roses, and a bottle of white wine sat on the table in their hotel suite. The Paris theme of the place was gorgeous and Arsen told her the honeymoon would be a surprise.
Since he told her to bring her passport, she thought it was safe to say he planned on taking her to Paris for that.
Steele’s family was there. In several rooms a few floors down. Though not the most expensive place in this city, the hotel had a charm all its own.
Arsen picked the place out because he’d always wanted to visit France, but never made time to do it before. He told Steele he was going to make time for so many things he never did before.
Dirty Money Page 59