by Lainey Reese
Dedication
I want to dedicate this book to everyone who has contributed to me being where and who I am today: a full-time author. This is for you:
Bethany, the first editor that I ever submitted a story to. Thank you for not turning me away. Thank you for patiently teaching me and guiding me through that first exciting step. You have my eternal gratitude.
Samhain Publishing. More specifically: Christina, Lindsey, Amanda and Marty. Each and every one of you have patiently and in some cases (Marty) repeatedly answered all my questions and eased all my fears. You are never flippant or cross, none of you have ever made me feel ignorant (which I am in so many ways when it comes to the business side of writing) and all of you have helped me so, so much. Thank you.
Holly. You are the newest and hopefully last editor that has been assigned to me. I have enjoyed working with you so much on this book. You are engaging and funny and enthusiastic. I know that I am exceedingly lucky in you and I want you to know that I know that. It’s been a pleasure and I hope that we can repeat this experience over and over again.
And lastly, my readers. You. I cannot express how humbled it makes me feel when a person takes time out of their life to read my stories…and then takes even more time to drop me a note letting me know what they think. It’s an amazing feeling and I don’t think I’ll ever get over the joy and wonder that it brings to my heart. Thank you all. Thank you for reading and thank you for the letters. I will always be grateful even if it all ends tomorrow, this has been the ride of a life time.
Chapter One
Slap. Slap, snap. There were few sounds Gage Hollister loved more than that of a leather crop hitting supple female flesh.
Snap.
“Ah, darlin’,” he drawled, his Southern accent thickening with arousal. “You’re turnin’ a nice bright pink. This ass looks sweet as a Georgia peach.”
His hand looked too large and clumsy gliding over flesh that was his for the night. This juicy round sub had caught his eye the minute Gage had walked into the private playrooms. The club was exclusive and catered to people like him who preferred kink with their sex. Gage had been here almost every night since he’d moved to New York.
The move was semipermanent, and since his stay would be indefinite, he’d started the search for a personal full-time slave. As he watched his hand play over this particular sub’s tempting flesh, he knew she wouldn’t be the one. She was hot and submissive, but that mysterious element he was looking for was missing. The plump little beauty was the one for tonight, though, and he was going to make sure they both got the most out of their time together. Tomorrow he would continue his search.
“Oh, yeah,” he crooned when he sank two fingers into the delta between her thighs and found her wet and hot. “You are gonna feel so good, darlin’. So damn good.” He reluctantly slid his fingers back out and circled her to check her restraints. He had her in stocks, bent forward with her head and hands secured, and her flimsy excuse of a skirt flipped up so he could play. Her blonde hair obscured her face, so he crouched down and gathered it back to check her expression for signs of distress. He wasn’t the least surprised to see only the glassy-eyed look of a sub dancing on the edge of subspace.
He was a stickler about safety, especially when he was with a sub for the first time. If you don’t know the person on a bone-deep level, you check for yourself for danger signs, and you check often. He gave her a smile and her hair a sharp tug before he walked back to the business at hand.
“You are well and truly primed, sweet sub.” He unfastened his pants and slid on a condom. “Are you ready to take what I got to give?” he asked with a taunt. He swirled the head of his shaft over the lips of her sex, coating himself in her nectar, then tapped himself against her swollen clit. The woman squealed around her ball gag and quivered as she pushed back into him, trying to work herself onto his cock.
Smack. “None o’ that sugar.” He rubbed the fiery print he had left behind on her ass. “No trying to force my hand. You wait ‘til I say we’re ready. Understand?”
When she whimpered and nodded in a frenzy, he resumed teasing her. Sliding and slipping in the wet heat of her pussy. He loved drawing the first moment of penetration out like this. Bumping her clit and watching her pant and moan. Seeing that ass and those pillowy thighs quiver for him as she grew nearer and nearer the edge. It was like the finest food he’d ever tasted and the best wine he’d ever drunk all at once. And knowing her pleasure, her climax, was his to gift or deny? That, that was like no drug that could ever be made and a high he could not live without.
With condom already in place, Gage held his breath as he drew out that first delicious glide. Slowly, inch by glorious inch, he slid into wonderful wet heat until he was flush against that glowing soft ass and her body trembled against him. With a tight grip on her hips, he spread her wide and proceeded to pound them both into heaven.
Chapter Two
“Are you out of your mind?”
Zoe Grace Marshall was prepared for this response. She had a long list of possible objections her parents could come up with, and an answer for each one. Before she could answer about her sanity, her mom continued, “Oopsy, you are just a baby. There is no way your father and I are letting you go to New York.”
“Mom.” Zoe tried not to roll her eyes at her nickname. Her whole family called her Oops—Mom was the only one that “cuted” it up even more by adding the “y”. “I am not a baby anymore. You never let me go to the city alone. Please? I wanna spend the summer there and be there for my birthday.” She pulled out her best big-eyed look that always worked on Dad but was only a fifty-fifty chance on Mom. “Mom, it’s my twentieth birthday. I’m all grown up and I’ve never been in the city by myself before. I want this. I want to celebrate like a grownup.”
“Baby.” Mom’s sigh was sweet and soft, and made Zoe all but bounce up and down. That sound was always followed by a yes. “I know you think you’re all grown up, but you are so far from being an adult. You have never been anywhere by yourself, let alone New York. Can’t you wait until after the summer? Then your father and I can take you.”
“Mom,” she said, this time unable to stop the eye roll, despite knowing that doing so underlined her mother’s belief that she was still just a kid. “The point is the alone part. I want to go to the theatre and restaurants, and shop and come and go as I please and not have to answer to anyone about it.” She stepped close enough to wrap her arms around her mother and finished in a soft whisper, “I know I’m the baby. I know you and Daddy love having me close and I love being close. I never minded that I didn’t get to go to school abroad like Brice and everybody else. I liked being here with you guys. But I’m gonna be twenty. Twenty and I’ve hardly even had sleepovers, Mom.”
“Yes you have, Oopsy,” her mom said as she hugged a little tighter. “You’ve had more than I can count. This house has been flooded with girls since you were little more than a baby.”
Zoe shook her head affectionately at the wistful note in her mother’s voice. “No, Mom, I mean when I slept over at one of their houses. It’s time. I need to go.”
It took another twenty minutes of memory lane with Mom and the rest of the night with Dad, but in the morning Zoe was packing for her first grownup trip. Her parents had relented, and Zoe felt only a tiny bit guilty about the way she had led them on. They thought they had negotiated her down from a free-for-all in the big bad city, to agreeing instead to a stay with a trusted family friend. What they were completely oblivious to was the fact that staying with Gage had been her plan all along.
She had first offered them a show of backing down when she offered to stay with her big brother, Brice. Knowing he was a newlywed, s
he was sure they would squelch that idea as fast as she said it. When they did, she almost did a victory fist pump.
The next step—and it was a tricky one—was her cousin Cade and his family. They would take her in a heartbeat. Since she loved them and usually jumped at any chance to visit, it would have been suspicious if she’d turned down an offer to spend her time there after agreeing to stay with family already. Fate was with her, though, when her mom told her Cade was out because they were planning to spend two weeks in Uganda to build a school. They were then off for another two weeks in France before ending their trip in London. Since they were leaving in a matter of days and would be gone for most—if not all—of the summer, there was no way to make it work.
Zoe’s shoulders all but slumped in relief, and offhandedly offered, “I heard that Gage is living in the Wellingtons’ townhouse now, while he oversees some new merger for his family.” She said it as if it couldn’t matter to her in the least. “Maybe I could stay in one of the guest rooms there?” Then just held her breath. The townhouse technically belonged to Trevor. Cade and Trevor shared everything—including their wife. And since she preferred Cade’s penthouse suite, it was a simple decision to let Gage stay in the townhouse, since it would otherwise sit empty.
This was it. If her parents said no, she’d be out of luck. They would probably make her stay in some stuffy hotel, where she’d never even get a chance to see Gage and everything would be ruined. But a miracle happened and the two of them leapt at the idea—as though she asked to stay in a convent and not a big, sprawling love nest with the man of her dreams.
“I can’t believe it worked,” Nancy, her very best of best friends said over the phone. “I can’t believe they are letting you go at all. Let alone go to stay with him.” She sighed out the last word like the star-struck teenager she was. Both she and Zoe had had a crush on Gage as long as they could remember. Zoe, being the sister to his best friend and having seen him first, had dibs.
“I know,” Zoe replied. “I’m telling you it’s meant to be. It’s all gonna work out and I’ll be married to Gage in a garden in the spring, just like Cade and Trevor married Riley.”
“So, Oops.” Nancy’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Are you really gonna let him do it to you?” Nancy was a year and a half younger than Zoe and still a virgin too.
Zoe felt that year and a half made a world of difference. As she packed, she felt worldly and wise. “I am. Women do, you know. It’s so old-fashioned to wait. It’s not like I’m losing my”—here she whispered too—”virginity to just anybody. It’s Gage, and I’m going to marry him so it’s all okay.”
“I don’t care if it’s old-fashioned—I think it’s romantic to have your first time be on your wedding night. Dreamy and perfect. You know, after you do it with Gage, that’ll be it. I’ll be the last one who’s still a virgin out of all of our friends. But I’m okay with that. I’m proud of it, even. I hope when I get married, he’s a virgin too. That would be really perfect.”
Her sigh was so heartfelt Zoe had to smile.
“Well, it is romantic when you put it that way. And I’m proud of you too. It’s what you believe and it wasn’t easy for you, but you stuck to it. I’m just not sure I want romance.” She had shared a lot with Nancy about her dreams, but not all. Some of her dreams were so decadent she never dared say them aloud, even to herself.
“Well?” Nancy asked. “What do you want then?”
The images that question had streaming through her mind caused a funny kind of tingle in her tummy and a blush to prickle her cheeks. All she answered was, “Passion.”
It was the most she was brave enough to say aloud.
Chapter Three
Gage waited in front of the baggage claim where the luggage from Zoe’s plane would be unloaded any minute. He couldn’t believe her parents were letting her come to New York alone. She was the Marshalls’ pride and joy. Not just her parents’ pride and joy, but the whole extended clan. Zoe was fussed over like a princess and guarded just as heavily. She was the youngest child, a surprise baby they had thought they were beyond having, and the joy the entire Marshall clan took in her was touching.
Gage remembered when she was born. He’d spent a week at the Marshalls’ summer home during school break when he was thirteen, and she’d been the sweetest little thing. All pink and wrinkly and pretty in her frilly clothes. Being a teenage boy, he hadn’t had much use for babies under most circumstances, but she’d always stared up at him with those big round eyes and smiled. Everyone said it was gas, but he knew different. If it were gas, why did she only smile at him?
As the memories brought a nostalgic smile to his face, he paid no attention to the women who were trying to catch his eye or the men who were sizing him up. Standing six and a half feet tall and packed with muscle, he always drew people’s attention. He was used to it, and if a pretty woman was within a twenty-foot radius, he often enjoyed a good flirt to pass the time.
Today, however, he was lost to his thoughts about a girl he loved like a sister. This summer was going to be stressful with the merger he was heading up for the family business, but he had already moved things around to show Oops the city like she’d never seen it before. Her mother had told him how Zoe was aching to spread her wings as an adult, and Gage chuckled at the idea of the gangly little Oops as a grownup. Last time he’d seen her had been at Cade and Trevor’s wedding three years ago, and she’d looked as pretty as a June bug in her fancy dress and all made-up. He’d danced with her four times, and during the slow one, he’d lifted her ‘til she balanced on his feet the way she did when she’d been younger. His heart had given a little pang when he noticed her head now reached to his chest, when before it’d been only as high as his stomach. Yup, she was growing up, but to him she’d always be a baby.
A crowd was moving around the baggage terminal, and Gage looked up to scan for Zoe when a woman caught his eye. She was curvy in a lush, mouthwatering way that made his palms itch. She had jet-black hair that bounced around her shoulders with every step she took. As he watched, one long lock looped over an arm and curled around her right breast as though outlining it, and Gage started forward without meaning to. All thoughts of his beloved kid sister vanished as he kept his sights on that curl and the gently bouncing breast it cradled. He was going to have those breasts by nightfall, he promised himself, and everything else that went with them. Just as he was drawing close and getting ready to make an introduction, the gentle bounce became a faster one as she started running. He stopped in his tracks, unwilling to disrupt her when she was obviously rushing to greet someone. He hoped like hell it wasn’t a man, because that would seriously ruin his whole “get her naked and devour every inch of her” plan.
She was going to run right by him, he thought as she drew closer and closer, and just when he started to sidestep, thinking he must be in front of whoever she was meeting, she squealed, “Gage!” and launched herself at him.
I’m going to Hell. I’m going to burn in Hell. The devil is going to cut off my cock and then burn me in Hell forever.
It was Zoe. That luscious pair of breasts and all that midnight hair belonged to Zoe. He’d been drooling over his best friend’s baby sister.
“Gage.” Her voice had changed—it was deeper, smoky and sensual, and did not match the trilling little girl voice she’d had even just three years ago. “God I missed you so much.” She pulled back from her hug, and he looked into her face for the first time.
She had that Marshall blue in her eyes, surrounded by a forest of lashes. The eyes were the same, he supposed, swallowing up her face, and heart-meltingly beautiful, but no longer in a little girl way. Her skin was creamy flawless perfection and—God help him—she had a mouth that looked as wanton as her figure.
“What the hell happened to your braces?” As hellos went, it sucked, but he was in shock—she was going to have to forgive him.
Her smile was slow, and damned if it wasn’t also sensual. “They came off over a y
ear ago.” He almost dropped her when her tiny pink tongue came out and licked along the perfectly white, perfectly strait top row. “Mmm, I still can’t get over how good it feels to have them gone.” Then she tugged him down and laid those soft, pillowy lips right on his.
Yup. He was going to Hell.
Chapter Four
Zoe couldn’t believe she was kissing Gage. His lips were firm and closed against hers, and everything in her wanted to just melt into him.
He pulled back and set her on her feet with a shuffle of his own and he cleared his throat before he said, “Oops, darlin’, we should get you your bags and move on. We got us a reservation tonight at your cousin’s place and I don’t want us to be late.”
She nodded and tried to appear unruffled by what had just happened. This was so going to work, she thought with a little hop she couldn’t suppress. She was so going to marry Gage.
As she skipped up to the conveyer belt, she pointed. “That one’s mine, Gage.” Then twirled to smile at him, unable to look away a moment longer. She rocked back on her heels, forward up to her toes and back again. The joy bubbling in her tummy made her giddy, and there was also that other feeling. The one deep in her bones that tingled and pulsed from her toes to her fingertips and everywhere in between that she only felt when he was near. He was staring at her with a strange look and she couldn’t decide what it meant. He looked puzzled but also a little mad. She thought he also looked a little like he was seeing her for the first time and maybe—just maybe—he liked what he saw, but she acknowledged that it could just be wishful thinking.
The ride into the city was not what she had wished for—wild and passionate limousine sex. But it was what she had expected: uneventful. He asked how school was going, and if she had decided on a major yet. She answered as maturely as she could, trying hard to come across as urbane and sophisticated. She was starting her sophomore year in the fall, after all, and she made sure to mention things like her philosophy courses and political science so he would see she was mature beyond her years. She still hadn’t decided what she wanted to major in, so she avoided that question. It was important Gage see her as an adult now and she was sure all adults knew what they wanted to do. Since the only thing she knew that she wanted for sure was to be his, she didn’t know how to answer him. There was no way he was ready to hear that yet. She hoped he’d forget that she hadn’t responded to his question and barreled right on past the subject as quick as she could.