Blanketing her with his body, he slid his hands against the mattress to rest upon the top of her head. He shifted the tip of his cock in and out, releasing a low moan. “Tell me why you think I use a condom in the dungeon?”
Her mouth slackened, gaze searched his. “I thought you preferred it.”
He understood her surprise, as he never needed to use condoms but always had. STD and HIV tests were done quarterly at the dungeon. If anyone played with an outside member, not only did they need to tell Dmitri, they needed to go for another test immediately after if they wanted to go bare.
Aidan, though, had always used them.
He brushed his nose against hers, enjoying her being there, so close to him. Cora showed him that night in the dungeon that she’d given her soul to him. He hadn’t realized she’d stolen his, too. Nothing would come between them. Whenever she was right there, in his arms, she’d be safe, loved, and protected.
Though words could explain that, as he told her, actions proved so much more. Cora needed to believe him. All of this, everything step he’d taken since his talk with Kyler and his dream had put it all into perspective. Sense had been smacked into him. He needed to prove he was ready for this, ready to commit to her. He needed to show her how he treated her now was different than before. “Bare skin is for my woman.”
He stared at her intently, watching her eyes widen farther, showing the whites. He pumped the tip of his cock in and out and added, “It’s the one thing I can do with a submissive that belongs to me personally that I won’t do to others.” He gave her a soft kiss, licking her bottom lip in a slow flick. “It’s a statement that I am committed to you—and only you. It’s a show that if you ever became pregnant, it wouldn’t disappoint me.”
“Aidan …” Tears welled in her eyes. “I love—”
With his cock straining to push in deep into her tight heat, he pressed a finger to her mouth. “You’ve said that enough—without words—and I never heard you.” He thrust forward with one quick stroke into the depths of her. Cora arched up into him with a seductive moan. “This is more than love, Cora. What we have …” He swirled his hips, gyrating against her clit. “It’s so superbly special that I feared it.”
Pumping his hips twice, Cora’s mouth dropped open. She lifted her head, drawing closer to him, as he added, “You healed me. You saved me.” Pleasure swept through him, pulling a groan from low in his chest. “You gave me all I needed. You supported me. You brought me back from a dark place.” He rubbed his pelvis against her clit and her face flushed bright red. “You loved me at my worst and became what I needed, because that’s what I needed you to do.”
Her soft sigh rushed across him as her arousal thickened on his cock. He gritted his teeth against the surge of sensations. “Now it’s my turn to take care of you. To love you. To appreciate you. To be what you need me to be.” Her inner walls squeezed his cock, and his breath deepened, naturally speeding up his thrusts. “To make love to you until you don’t remember anyone’s touch but mine and until my body is branded on every inch of you.” He grunted. “Christ, you’re so wet.”
“Holy hell, stop talking.” Her eyes were crazed with pleasure and her sweet cunt spasmed. “Fuck me. Now.”
Aidan frowned in disappointment. He withdrew his cock and lifted on his hands, peering down to the woman on the brink of orgasm. “Come again?”
Cora blinked, and blinked again. Then she cringed. “Oh, shit.”
“Indeed,” he muttered.
Though it nearly killed him to do so, he flipped her over on her knees, probably too fast for her to fully process the mistake she’d made. Never ask for anything. He pushed her head to the bed, angling her perfect ass high in the air with her legs spread wide. Rubbing her cheek with the palm of his hand, he said, “State your mistake.”
A long paused followed. “I asked you to fuck me, sir.”
He squeezed her bottom, feeling Cora relax beneath his hand. A smart submissive she was, as tensing only made the swats more painful. In the dungeon, he had been stricter with a cane punishment, because it was necessary for her to learn appropriate behavior. He never wanted her to fail in front of Club Sin members. Looking back, he realized he’d done so because he cared about her.
He had wanted her to shine in Club Sin.
At Club Sin, his punishments were quick, swift, and to the point. In his house, his punishments were on his terms. He loved giving a good and hard spanking. He relished seeing an ass bright red to give the reminder of an error. And he further enjoyed a woman who both hated and loved that form of punishment. Cora was one of those women—it might hurt a little, but it also aroused her. “Count them.”
“Dammit …” His hand landed on the round part of her ass and she flinched. “One.”
Two and three he issued without hesitation, and Cora cursed with each one. A loud slap echoed in the bedroom and the redness in her cheeks darkened. “Ouch. Four.” Five, six, and seven, she said through gritted teeth, and his hand burned.
Making the last few count, he increased the speed and force and delivered them right after one another. Cora whimpered, and then all but growled, “Eight. Son of a … Nine. Ten. Fuck.”
Aidan chuckled, running his hands over a stunning red ass. She might curse him. They might have hurt. She might even appear to hate a spanking, but her body betrayed her. Arousal coated her inner thighs, and it glistened off her folds. Not giving her a chance to catch up, Aidan squeezed those red cheeks and settled in behind her. With one thrust, he buried himself inside all that wet, hot pussy.
“Mine to fuck, Cora,” he told her. “On my terms.”
He positioned his hands against the top of her buttocks, finding the perfect angle. He did exactly what she wanted—he fucked her roughly. Under his primal thrusts, her slick arousal spread between them and her inner walls tightened as her panting became sharp gasps.
“Yeeeeeesssss!” she screamed.
His gaze zeroed on how her ass jiggled under his hard thrusts. Her lips parted with her scream and her inner walls clamped against him, indicating the rise of her climax. The moment her scream cut off, he yanked out.
He slapped her ass with a hit that stung his fingers. “That cunt is mine to make come, only when I allow. To make wet and achy when I like.” She roared with a sound of sheer desperation, her entire body quivering. He added, “Your orgasms are my gifts. To give to you in whatever manner that pleases me.”
Her voice thickened. “Oh, God.”
Aidan swore he heard her teeth chattering with the hard, sensual shakes of her over-aroused body. He rubbed her bright red bottom and gave it a final slap, which had her screaming. Then he flipped her over onto her back and moved on top of her. Without pause, he slid his cock inside her and grunted at her soaked folds. He lowered his mouth and kissed the warm and hot woman beneath him. He brought her leg up and tucked it under his arm, thrusting deeper.
Now he showed her this was on his terms, always on his terms. Part of his punishment was the spanking, but that also aroused Cora. The firmer part of the punishment was increasing her need to orgasm by the spanking and then refusing it. The wild look in her eye told him it worked—she was quite uncomfortable now. She might’ve wanted to beg him to finish her now, but he worked her slowly … drawing out the rise of her climax.
She cupped his face, her lips following his every move. He shifted his hips in a steady pace, devoured her neck, and rubbed his chest against her hard nipples. Her inner walls clamped against him and she was so deliciously wet. Every thrust made her more so. Every pump of his hips tightened her heat. Each move he made darkened her eyes to a stormy blue. Yet Cora needed hard thrusts to orgasm.
Aidan was never past having a slight evil side. Now he drew out her orgasm until she possibly couldn’t bear it. Pinning her beneath him, he placed a hand on top of her head, and moved swiftly. He dropped a kiss onto her puffy lips and her breath became ragged. Her moans were desperate, yet the hitch he heard was filled with emotion.
Pure affection shown in the simplest primal form, he poured all of what he felt for her into his kiss. Each move he made wasn’t out of domination. It wasn’t out of expectations, or requesting submission, he made love to her. Which was what he wanted, if he wanted to take her roughly he would have.
No toys. No ropes. No wax. Only a man consuming a woman in the most primal form.
She was his.
He was hers.
They were connected, consumed with each other.
This moment, with them together in such perfection, equaled something so exquisite. His lips rested against hers as their moans deepened. He stared into her eyes, consumed by a soul he’d never hurt again; a woman who was patient, kind, and loving.
A woman who had made him live again.
This woman he vowed to always hold just like this, always kiss and touch with passion, and always remind her that she was special and undeniably loved. She’d always know how beautiful she was, how the world was better with her in it, and that no woman other than her mattered to him.
His heart swelled in the same moment moisture sputtered against his sac. The first signs of her orgasm made him growl. “Yes, luv, come on me like this—trapped beneath me, protected by me.” He thrust deeper—harder. She arched into him as her hands gripped his shoulders and her fingernails dug into his flesh.
He welcomed the mark.
She had bared his soul and branded it.
The connection that had developed the moment he’d met Cora spun around him in a magical embrace. A bond so intense it took him time to see it. He’d never be blinded again. There it was, waiting for him to take it.
She had offered him her love and submission.
Now there was no going back.
As he rocked into her, his cock was hard and demanding, rubbing against her sensitive spot inside. He thrust faster … harder. Her loud, feminine moans consumed him as her body stiffened. Her mouth was parted with her lovely moans and her eyes were wide, lost in desire. “Please …”
He increased the speed of his thrusts to give her what she craved. With a harsh hitch to her breath and with glossy eyes, she erupted into orgasm, treating his cock to hard spasms and flooding him with her moisture.
She stared openly at him, and he didn’t look away. As if in this moment they needed to do something together. They no longer fought against the truth or each other, but accepted that somehow they’d made it.
That they’d both changed … for each other, to find love.
He tumbled into the connection that had weaved its way so naturally into his life. He bucked and jerked and roared out his release. His hot semen sputtered from his cock and rushed into her. And her inner walls held tight against him, as if he’d finally given her everything and she greedily welcomed it.
Once they crashed into a state of tangled limbs and sweaty bodies, Aidan held her stare as tears welled in Cora’s eyes. Tears that didn’t break him. Tears that made him rejoice that he was there to comfort her.
He gathered her in his arms and said what he’d always said, “Come closer, luv.”
A rush of emotions filled his heart.
When her sniffles quieted, she gave a soft laugh. “I planned to call you an evil bastard for bringing me that close to orgasm and then refusing it.” She hesitated, snuggling into him. “But now I can’t seem to do that.”
He laughed with her. He never minded her sass. In fact, it was completely part of Cora’s charm. “Things would’ve gone very differently if you had said that.” He trailed his fingers over her back with a long sigh.
All his pain had washed away. Cora’s submission had healed him. Her love grounded him. With her in his arms, an undeniable truth developed in his mind. A Dom took care of a submissive, but that Dom was nothing without a submissive who cared for him in return.
As she sniffed again, he pulled her on top of him, and she straddled his waist. Her disheveled hair, matched with her pink cheeks, kept him smiling. “I should punish such sass out of you.”
She smirked. “You’d never do that.”
“Is that so?” He arched an eyebrow. “Do tell.”
She brushed her hand against his face and offered a soft expression. “Because, Aidan, you’d be lost without me.” She smacked the side of his face lightly. “You love me, sass included.”
“You’re right.” Things were good. She was the reason for it all. And he’d never let her forget that. He’d never stop taking care of her. He’d make her life better, as she had for him. He lifted his head off the pillow, gazing into her eyes. “I’m irrevocably in love with you.” He flipped their positions and narrowed his eyes.
Cora’s expression dropped, and she squirmed to get away. He lowered his weight onto her and pinned her to the mattress. “Have I ended our play, Cora?”
“Err …” Her glossy eyes widened. “No, sir.”
“I thought you had enough punishment.” He lowered his voice. “Since you know better than to smack the face of your Dom, I must be wrong.”
She gulped. “Oh, fuck.”
“Believe me, Cora,” he murmured against her lips, excited for the future and the learning curve that awaited them, “you getting fucked is definitely in the plans tonight.”
Acknowledgments
To Sue Grimshaw, I can’t sing your praises enough. I’m the luckiest author to have you by my side, and my stories are stronger because of it. Your ideas make me excited to dive into edits and make rewrites enjoyable. Your amazing support means the world to me!
To my agent, Jessica Alvarez, there is so much I could say. We came together under unusual circumstances, but I’m so glad that we did. I wouldn’t be where I am today without you. We make a pretty great team!
To Lea Griffith and Sidney Bristol, who helped me whip this book into shape and gave me some much-needed tough love. Thanks for making me dig just a little bit deeper.
A big shout-out to Gina Gordon and Sara Brookes, who always listen to me grumble and know how to make me feel better if I’m having a bad day. A girl couldn’t ask for better friends.
To April Flores and Kim Cowser, it’s been such a pleasure to work with you. Thanks for making publishing a book fun!
Huge thanks go out to Chris Garstin and John Tanner for all the rock-climbing information. While it was helpful, it also reminded me how much I don’t want to do it! Your answers to my endless questions are much appreciated.
And to everyone at Loveswept and Random House, from the copy editors to the cover artists to everyone in between, thank you for all the hard work you do!
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author STACEY KENNEDY is an urban fantasy lover at heart, but she also enjoys losing herself in dark and sensual worlds. She lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, who gave her a happily-ever-after. Together, they have two small children who can always make her smile and who will never be allowed to read Mommy’s books. If she’s not plugging away at a new story, you’ll find her camping, curling up with the latest flick, or obsessing over Supernatural, True Blood, Lost Girl, and Sons of Anarchy.
The Editor’s Corner
Welcome to Loveswept!
Love is in the air this month – and no, I’m not talking about that holiday. I’m talking about all our fantastic Loveswept releases coming up, and I’m so excited to share them with you.
Tina Wainscott’s red-hot Wild on You introduces the Justiss Alliance, an elite team of heroes out to do right. This is one book that will be hard to put down, as one untamable SEAL meets a woman who handles the wildest sort of animals—until she herself becomes the hunted. Another book that I keep raving about it Sally Eggert’s electrifying romantic suspense, In the Dark, where passion raises the stakes when a woman is drawn into a dangerous game with a man who may not be what he seems. Intrigued? I was! If you’re a fan of historical romance with tons of sensuality, adventure and intrigue, look no further than Sharon Cullen’s Pleasing the Pirate, whe
re a ruthless pirate and a Scottish lass are wrenched between love and duty. And if you were sucked into Stacey Kennedy’s Claimed like I was, you’ll be happy to hear that the oh-so-sexy Club Sin returns in Bared – a wicked and wild tale of submission, seduction, and love.
Of course, we can’t forget about those classic romances that have made us fall in love time and again. This month we have two fantastic books from two beloved authors: Sandra Chastain’s irresistible reads: Joker’s Wild and Lean Mean Loving Machine, and Ruth Owen’s wonderful historicals: Midnight Mistress and Gambler’s Daughter. Then there’s Karen Leabo’s tale of hot pursuit and hotter passions, Hot Property, and Linda Cajio’s Earth Angel, where a boardroom hotshot discovers heavenly pleasure with an unlikely angel. And a sensuous historical tale from #1 New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen, Wild Silver: The Delaney’s – who doesn’t love a story with a wicked prince and a beautiful, willful captive?
Be swept away with Loveswept!
Gina Wachtel
Associate Publisher
Don’t miss the next novel in
Stacey Kennedy’s Club Sin series,
Desired
Coming in July from Loveswept
At Las Vegas’s exclusive Club Sin, Kyler Morgan is the Master, skilled at making a woman submit. When he sets his sights on a vanilla woman, Ella Snow, he will stop at nothing from getting her under his control. The challenge she sets forth is the excitement he’s been lacking in his life. And the temptation of being able to train a new submissive to embrace the BDSM lifestyle brings forth desire he cannot control.
Ella arrives at the BDSM club as a dare to live life to the fullest. Kyler’s teachings through his dominance are slowly forcing her secret past with an abusive husband to fade. Every touch he offers, every lesson in submission, is stirring desire that knows no bounds. But as she falls deeper under Kyler’s command, the abuse in her past is revealed. Submission alone may not be enough to save her, leaving Kyler with only one question: How can he help Ella heal while unlocking the darkest pleasures she craves?
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