Breathe

by Lauren Jameson

  ALSO BY LAUREN JAMESON

  Blush

  Surrender to Temptation

  BREATHE

  Lauren Jameson

  NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY

  NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA), 375 Hudson Street,

  New York, New York 10014, USA

  USA | Canada | UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | India | South Africa | China

  penguin.com

  A Penguin Random House Company

  First published by New American Library,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC

  First Printing, December 2013

  Copyright © Lauren Hawkeye, 2013

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

  Jameson, Lauren.

  Breathe/by Lauren Jameson.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-1-101-62157-8

  I. Title.

  PS3610.A464B74 2013

  813'.6—dc23 2013023715

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  For my wonderful husband, Rob. See?

  I’m finally dedicating one to you!

  CONTENTS

  ALSO BY LAUREN JAMESON

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  SPECIAL PREVIEW OF SURRENDER TO TEMPTATION

  CHAPTER ONE

  The sculpture stood on a small marble table in the center of the spacious resort lobby. A perfect, slender column of emerald green glass rose in a straight line nearly three feet high before overflowing into streams of glass that sparkled like crystals. Some were as thin as a pinkie finger, looking delicate enough to snap off at the slightest breath, and some of the tendrils were as thick as a pillar candle. All varied in tones from the merest whisper of mint to the green of a dense forest.

  This piece had been the manifestation of a desire that had been haunting Samantha Collins’s dreams lately. Dreams that she wasn’t entirely sure what to do with.

  It had been a long time since she’d had sex, true enough, and her stress levels had been through the roof lately. But these needs that had been tugging at her had been growing stronger . . .

  She’d half hoped that putting these urges into her sculpture would exorcise them.

  It hadn’t.

  “Wine, señorita?” An impeccably dressed waiter in a black suit made an appearance at Samantha’s elbow. On his hand he balanced a tray of crimson wine in sparkling glasses.

  “Thanks.” Gratefully she accepted a glass. The flavors hit her tongue as she sipped eagerly, and she recognized it was much finer than any of the wines she was accustomed to drinking.

  “Quilceda Creek Cabernet, 2005.” The waiter beamed as if he had produced the wine himself.

  Samantha pasted a smile onto her face and nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. Very nice.”

  Samantha liked wine, but the ones she tended to purchase came in a box or, if she was feeling fancy, in a bottle with a screw cap. She’d never heard of Quilceda Creek, though it tasted nice enough.

  “Ten-dollar bottle, hundred-dollar bottle, the end result’s the same,” she spoke quietly to herself before lifting her glass in a silent toast. As she sipped, she looked down at her sculpture, still hit by a sense of disbelief that it had been chosen for exhibition.

  Indulgencia was a luxurious resort located in the tourist-saturated town of Cabo San Lucas. It was infamous both for its wealthy patrons and for Devorar, the small BDSM club that catered to the varied sexual predilections of its clientele.

  Once a year Indulgencia held an art exhibit with an erotic theme. The owner of the resort, some wealthy tycoon from the States, flew in artwork from around the world to showcase for the event, and when Samantha had submitted her piece, she hadn’t been hopeful about her chances.

  Though the twists of glass had been created with one of her most erotic dreams in mind, the result was a million miles away from the human-sized copper penis, which was the next sculpture over in the exhibit.

  Samantha hadn’t been sure that the wealthy mogul, who’d organized the show and selected all of the pieces himself, would see what she did, even though it was the most erotic sculpture she’d ever produced. She had put all the sexual frustration she had been feeling in the last few months into the work.

  Being at this show wasn’t helping that frustration. Not at all.

  “Lovely piece, isn’t it?” The voice came from just behind her shoulder, startling her. Samantha whirled around to face the speaker, her wine sloshing in her glass.

  When she saw him, she nearly swallowed her tongue.

  The man was tall, at least six feet, and though he wore expensive-looking black slacks and a dress shirt, she could see enough of his physique to appreciate the muscular body beneath the clothing. Combined with his dark blue eyes, flaxen hair, and sexy-as-hell smile, his sudden appearance made it seem as if all of Samantha’s heated dreams had just come to life.

  That sexy dream man cocked an eyebrow at her, and she belatedly realized that he’d asked her a question.

  “Do you like this particular sculpture?” he repeated helpfully.

  “It’s . . . Oh, yes, it’s very nice.” She wasn’t about to tell anyone here that she was the artist. She wasn’t ready for anyone to ask what had inspired it, especially this man, who discomforted her with his focused attention.

  Deliberately she shrugged, and tried to catch one thin strap of her sundress as it slid down her shoulder. She tugged it back up and caught the man’s eyes following the movement. “It’s such a pretty color.”

  She almost bit her tongue as she said it. She knew, of course, the painstaking effort that had gone into creating the gradation of hues in the sculpture, the hours she had spent gathering the molten material on her blowpipe, rolling it into finely ground glass of different shades, then setting the colors in by sweating over the smaller of her two glass furnaces—but she wanted to take care not to tip her hand that she was more than a casual admirer of the artwork.

  She assumed the man would simply nod in agreement. Instead, he reached out and ran one slender finger over a curling tendril of glass, much as she had done. The care and attention of his touch over the smooth surface made Samantha think of those dreams she’d been having lately, the ones that had produced a constant ache.

  In fact, last night’s had featured a man running his hands over her body exactly the same way this man was
doing to the sculpture. The memory made her shiver.

  “Would you like to know what I see?” His blue eyes pinned her with their intensity, and Samantha lifted her glass to her lips to give herself something to do with her hands.

  “Yes, I’m curious.” She nodded, her breath catching in her throat as his fingers closed around hers where they rested on the stem of her wineglass.

  The man captured the glass from her fingers and handed it off to a passing waiter. He secured a fresh one and had it in her hand without ever once taking his eyes from her.

  “I see a meeting of male and female.” She felt herself getting lost in the deep, husky tones of his voice as he continued. “But more than that, I see a balance of two opposites, each feeding a need in the other.”

  Samantha’s lips parted in surprise, and her heart began to pound.

  That was exactly what she’d intended. How on earth had he known? No one else ever saw what she’d intended in her art.

  “That’s what I— I mean, yes. Yes, I see that as well.” She worried her lower lip with her teeth as she spoke, afraid he would ask her about what she had started to say.

  With her heart still beating double time against her rib cage, she turned from the sculpture to look up into the man’s face. He looked vaguely familiar, as if she’d met him once a long time ago.

  More than the familiarity, though, there was a sense of connection. He’d understood the meaning behind her art, and with that came a tug on an invisible rope that seemed to stretch between them, pulling them ever closer.

  And God, he was sexy. There was something in his demeanor that attracted her, made her want something she couldn’t quite articulate.

  Liquid heat pooled between her legs and she held herself back from reaching out to touch him.

  “What are you thinking?” The man’s voice was low, but Samantha could hear him as if he were the only other person in the crowded room. His sharp gaze made her feel like the only woman in the world, and she had the insane urge to spill all her secrets to him.

  If she did, would he understand that—more than anything—she yearned for a man who would be strong enough to take control for her?

  Samantha started to speak, then shut her mouth tight as the rational part of her brain took over. She couldn’t even admit these desires out loud to herself . . . she certainly wasn’t about to tell them to a stranger.

  No matter that the stranger was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen.

  “I’m Samantha.” Swallowing back everything she wanted to say, she gave him the big smile that she used on the rare occasions when she poked her head outside her studio. Her name seemed to break the heavy tension between them, but the slight cock of his eyebrow hinted that he knew there was something else she wanted to say.

  Then he took her hand in his, encasing her fingers in the heat of his palm, and she forgot all about trying to keep her thoughts to herself. The simple touch, the way he rubbed his thumb over the curves of her own palm, sent sizzles shooting through her arm.

  If he wanted her, he could have her. It wouldn’t even occur to her to say no. Wait—where did that come from?

  “Elijah Masterson,” he said, continuing to stroke his fingers over her hand, his eyes telling her that he wanted exactly the same thing she did. Overwhelmed by his sensual touch, she didn’t register the name right away. After a beat, the light went on in her mind.

  Elijah Masterson. His gorgeous face, with that devil-may-care grin, had been on the front page of the local paper several weeks earlier, for an interview about the erotic-art show he’d been putting together for his resort.

  His resort. Indulgencia.

  Good Lord, this man owned the entire place.

  “Oh, ah, I mean . . .” Samantha tried to tug her hand free. She should escape this encounter while she could. But she felt she should thank Elijah for accepting her piece into his show, although that would mean admitting it was hers.

  “What brought you here tonight, Samantha?” Elijah gave her fingers a firm squeeze that spread through her body before he let her tug her hand away. Those bright blue eyes stayed focused on her as if she were the most interesting woman he’d ever come across.

  “I . . . I don’t know.” The lie left her feeling uneasy. The sculpture had just been the first piece to the puzzle. Once her work had been accepted into the resort’s exhibit, she’d longed to know more about the erotic-art scene. From there she had made some subtle inquiries, asking around to see if anyone knew what exactly went on at Devorar, the club inside the upscale hotel. She’d looked online to educate herself, entering every search term imaginable, since she wasn’t entirely certain what it was she was looking for.

  Yes, she’d been curious to see what her sculpture looked like on display, wanted to see if its sensuality still shone when surrounded by the more overtly sexual pieces that made up this showing. But more than that, she’d thought she might get a glimpse into the lifestyle that had started to fascinate her so much.

  Apart from the wildly suggestive art, however, there was nothing there that suggested anything other than opulence and luxury. She wasn’t sure what she’d been hoping for—waiters in leather chaps? some whips and chains?—but none of Devorar’s secrets were revealed in the posh lobby of Indulgencia.

  “Don’t lie.” Elijah’s tone was stern. Startled, Samantha looked up into his eyes. He didn’t appear angry, but the look on his face made her feel guiltier than if he had been. “Tell me why you’re here.”

  Samantha couldn’t quite work up the courage to speak. She began to tremble with nerves, thinking about what to say, and was exasperated with herself for the anxiety.

  With it came an unbidden memory, a face from her past. The man in her mind’s eye was old enough to be her grandfather, with salt-and-pepper hair and cold, dark eyes. But he too had been rich, and commanding.

  She was her own woman, and wanted to think she was strong enough to live her life the way she wanted, without painful memories overshadowing things. But the truth was, she just didn’t know if she’d wind up hating herself for what she wanted.

  “You won’t find any judgment from me, kitten.”

  Samantha gaped for a moment. Kitten? He’d called her kitten?

  She’d just been insulted. She should have felt insulted.

  She didn’t.

  “I . . . I’m curious,” she finally admitted, feeling her cheeks flush the same color as the wine she was drinking. “I’ve heard about Devorar and I . . . I thought someone here might have some answers for me.”

  “Answers to what questions, Samantha?” As he’d promised, there was no censure in Elijah’s tone. Instead there was heat—enough that Samantha felt herself start to burn as the flush spread from her cheeks through the rest of her body.

  But she froze as thoughts of her mother came wending their way into her mind. Another reason she had held herself back from going after what she wanted.

  Her mother’s . . . vices . . . had nearly ruined her daughters’ lives. If Samantha weakened, gave up control, was she any better?

  “I . . . I think I’d better go.” Closing her eyes against Elijah’s penetrating stare, Samantha pressed her hands to her temples and turned away. It was tempting, so tempting, to give in to what she was quite certain she wanted.

  But the memory of her mother’s mistakes was a reminder that giving in to temptation could lead to disastrous results. No matter how much she felt this need, deep in her very core, she shouldn’t have come here.

  “Samantha.” Elijah’s voice was firm as Samantha began to walk away. She turned back halfway, not enough to see the gorgeous man again, but enough that she was confronted with her own work of art.

  The sensual visual overwhelmed her senses and made her ache.

  “Come back anytime.” There was a note of concern in Elijah’s voice that made Samantha hesitate. Not all men were like the ones who’d flitted in and out of her mother’s life. Rationally she knew that.

  But this man w
as gorgeous, wealthy as sin, and likely into some very kinky things, given that he had opened a BDSM club in his resort. That was enough danger to send Samantha running, even as she nodded, acknowledging his offer.

  Even though, rather than walk away, she found herself wanting to tangle her fingers in that messy golden hair. Wanting to tilt her head up to receive his kiss.

  She said nothing, though she felt his penetrating stare on her back as he watched her. It caused heat to simmer low in her belly, a sensation she’d never felt before.

  The sensation didn’t abate, not even as she exited the resort and walked to her car, a ramshackle bucket of bolts she’d purchased two years earlier, when she’d first moved to Mexico. She sighed as she slid into the driver’s seat, the image of Elijah’s sexy-as-sin face and his interest in her warring in her mind with the memories of that other man.

  Samantha twisted her lips together as she put the key into the ignition and turned.

  It was going to be a long night.

  • • •

  Elijah was puzzled and horny as hell.

  He had been part of the BDSM lifestyle for a long time, and over the years he had become incredibly adept at reading people, especially women. The slender goddess of a redhead walking away from him had looked him directly in the eyes, then had steeled herself and walked away.

  Elijah wasn’t overly caught up in himself, but he had never lacked for a woman when he wanted one. That woman, Samantha, had clearly come here looking for something. Yet the fact that she had walked away from him was not suggestive of someone with a naturally submissive personality.

  And yet something about her pulled at him, made him yearn. He’d learned the hard way that he needed someone who was truly submissive to make him happy, and in the years since his divorce he had trained himself not to even look twice at a woman who didn’t meet that one particular criterion.

  But the combination of sass and fragility in this particular woman—Samantha—very nearly had him running after her.