Angel Among Sinners (The Garden Book 1)

by Rachel Blake

  “Um, how do I do this?” Embry stared at his thighs and the way the fabric of his pants stretched over them.

  “You lay belly down on my lap, and from there, I adjust you to where I need you.”

  “Okay.” She shifted uncomfortably a few times, trying to figure out how she was going to lay herself across his lap. Finally, she put her hand on his thigh and instantly pulled it back. “Shit.”

  “Angel.”

  It was a warning, she knew it, but she couldn’t help herself. “I. You. Um, I almost.”

  “Touched my cock through my pants? Yeah, I know. Trust me, I know, but if you’re going to freak out because your hand nearly touched it, what are you going to do when it is poking you in the hip?”

  “That’s different. I wouldn’t be reaching out and grabbing it then.”

  Maverick closed his eyes and groaned.

  “What? It’s totally different, and you know it.”

  He didn’t respond. Taking hold of her wrist, he pulled her over his lap. Another groan rumbled from his chest as he shifted her over his thighs to where he wanted her.

  “If this hurts, we don’t have to do it this way. I can just bend over and grab my ankles or something.”

  “For the love of God, please stop talking.”

  Embry looked over her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  “Angel, you have nothing to be sorry for. My dick just hates me right now, and I’m trying to talk him down with a promise of a long shower later.” He didn’t give her time to reply, simply wrapped his left arm around her middle, and moved the tail of her shirt from over her ass. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The first swat landed over her pantie covered bottom and had her arching off his lap. “Shit!”

  “Be still, Angel.”

  Be still, really? That’s what he wanted from her? To lie over his lap as he bounced his hand all over her ass and not to move while he was doing it? How in the hell was she supposed to do that? “I don’t think that’s possible, George.”

  “Sir.”

  “What?”

  His hand bounded from cotton covered cheek to cotton covered cheek without missing a beat. “You call me sir when being disciplined. You’ve done it a few times before, so I know you’re not completely oblivious to the concept, so you will call me ‘sir.’”

  “Sorry.” His low growl had her quickly amending her apology. “I’m sorry, Sir.”

  The feel of Maverick’s fingers slipping under the elastic of her underwear had Embry screwing her eyes shut.

  This was it. He was going to see her jiggly, round ass in all of its glory. While that thought had her belly pitching the slightest bit, it was her weeping core that had her searching for the safewords she’d been reminded of just a few short minutes ago.

  “Promise not to laugh?”

  “I would never laugh at you, Angel. Laugh with you, I’ll take every chance I get—at you, never.” That was all he said before he peeled her panties from her ass.

  “Shit.” Oh God, she felt the damp gusset of the garment stick to her pussy. There was no way he didn’t notice, hell, she could feel the dampness of the fabric that now rested between her knees. He absolutely knew.

  “You have to breathe, Angel.”

  “No, I’m good. Besides, I’m pretty sure the earth swallowing me whole is more likely to happen if I hold my breath.”

  “And I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to invoke your safeword if you’re passed out.”

  Again, Embry looked at him over her shoulder. “You said you wouldn’t laugh at me.”

  “I’m not laughing.” He took a deep breath. “I’m trying to convince myself your pussy is not mine, and, as it isn’t mine, I need to keep my hands to myself.”

  “So, no more slaps to my ass?” Her smile spread wide over her face.

  “Nice try, Angel.”

  “Shit!” A spanking on bare skin was so much different from when her underwear were still in place. “Okay, I think I learned. I’m good.”

  Her attempt to cover her ass did her no good, Maverick simply caught her wrist in his hand and continued the spanking, never missing a beat.

  “Do you need your safeword?” he asked as he bent her arm and rested it on the small of her back, the swats still not halting.

  “No. No, I just need you to spank somewhere else. That spot’s had enough. I promise it’s good to go.”

  He did chuckle this time. “You don’t get to decide that. I’m the one in charge right now, so unless you are invoking your safeword, I’m going to decide where my hand lands, each and every time.”

  On their own accord, her legs moved, blocking his swing. “I’m sorry, Sir. It hurts.”

  Maverick didn’t say a word, simply pushed her legs back down before throwing one of his own over hers.

  “You do that the next time I have reason to spank you, and you will earn yourself extras.”

  “Extras?”

  “Yes, Angel, and they will not be with my hand.”

  “Yes, Sir.” She knew one thing for sure, she wasn’t going to be blocking with her feet again any time soon. She could hardly take his hand; she knew there was no way she was going to be able to take anything else wielded against her ass. “I’m sorry.”

  “I know. Almost done.”

  A whimper bubbled out of her when he moved his hand lower, catching the underside of her ass with his upward swings. She really hoped he didn’t take offense to her wiggling because there was no way she could stop, especially with how familiar she had become with his pattern. Two to each little crease before he moved to the other, and she flinched with every swat. “Please.”

  “Are you going to speak badly of yourself again?”

  “God, I hope not.” A hard slap had her amending her squealing. “I can’t lie, it’s a bad habit, I catch myself doing a lot.”

  The spanking stopped, and the tips of his fingers grazed over the heated flesh. “It’s all you’ve heard your whole life, but we’re going to replace those hateful words.”

  “One spanking at a time?”

  Maverick chuckled. “No, one compliment at a time. The spankings are only for when you slip up, and a firmer reminder is needed. As a person who loves and cares for you, my job is to drive those thoughts from your head by showing you how amazing you really are, every single day. Up you go.”

  She allowed him to help her from his lap, his words playing over and over in her head as he moved the two of them to the head of the bed. “Love. You guys can’t love me.”

  “I don’t know about them.” He settled against the headboard before pulling her to cuddle into his lap. “But I have always loved you.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. You saw past the nerdy, pimply-faced kid I was in high school. You saw the potential I had pushed down for so long.”

  “Oh, I can see that.” Embry pushed the hurt away. He loved her as a friend, of course, that’s what he meant. He hadn’t seen her in years, she couldn’t expect the man to harbor those feelings forever.

  “If it wasn’t for you pushing me to apply to all the schools I was convinced were out of my league, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I owe you for that.”

  “You don’t owe me for anything. As you said, you were my friend.”

  “We were more than that back then.”

  Deciding that changing the subject was the best course of action, she rested her head on his shoulder and snuggled into his chest before she spoke. “How do you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Talk and spank without missing a beat? I would forget what I was doing on one end or the other.”

  “I haven’t been a saint since the last time we saw one another. I’ve played with my fair share of women.”

  “You mean spanked your fair share.”

  “Yes, I mean spanked.”

  Embry looked to her bare legs. “Where did my underwear go?”

  “When you used your legs to block my swing, they flew
across the room.”

  “Of course, they did. Um, any idea on where they landed?”

  Chuckling, he tapped her hip before helping her from his lap once more. It took him all of five seconds to locate the wayward panties and return to her side. “I believe these are yours.”

  She pulled them roughly from his hand.

  “Did I not spank you hard enough?”

  The question had her eyes instantly going to his, “What do you mean?”

  “Usually, a submissive with a sore ass has a bit more manners than that.” His brow rose toward his hairline.

  “I’m not a submissive.”

  “Want to try that again?”

  A hot blush spread over her face. “Thank you.”

  “Sir.” He held her eyes in challenge, daring her to step out of line.

  “Thank you, Sir.”

  “Good girl.” Maverick leaned into her, his lips going to her ear. “Besides, being rude didn’t accomplish anything for you. I saw exactly how turned on you were the second you laid over my lap.”

  “I… um… I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to point that out.”

  “And I’m pretty sure you’re a submissive, whether you want to acknowledge it yet or not.” Straightening, he headed for the door and issued his last command. “You have ten minutes to get dressed. We need to figure out what we’re going to do now that he knows where you are.”

  When the door finally closed softly behind him, Embry collapsed onto her back.

  What in the fuck was she getting herself into?

  Chapter Seven

  Maverick swallowed down the last of the water before setting the glass on the counter with a little more force than necessary. What in the hell had he been thinking? He had no right to drag Embry into the bedroom like that. He should have stopped and thought about it, but no, he’d moved before he thought better of it, and by the time his brain had finally kicked in, it was too late. Fuck, he needed something stronger than water.

  “It’s times like these, I wish The Garden didn’t have a no-alcohol policy,” James said from behind him.

  “Yeah, I could really use something stronger than water right about now.”

  “She may have some apple juice.”

  “Yeah, give it a couple weeks for fermentation and we’ll have something strong enough to silence the voice in the back of my head.”

  “It’s not your fault, Mav.”

  “Isn’t it? I knew something was up in that house, knew something was wrong, but I chose not to see it.”

  “Of course, looking back, you see all the signs, but you were a kid. Even if you had picked up on the cues, there’s a very real chance any attempts to make it better for her would have made it worse.”

  Maverick finally turned to face the man he had respected for a lot of years. “I should have fought harder when she broke up with me, demanded an explanation. Hell, I should have seen something was amiss when she insisted we could only talk via letters. She had a cell phone.”

  “But he could have tracked that easier. She was trying to protect what the two of you had from the monster in her life.” Eden joined the guys in the kitchen. “Do you know why she broke it off with you?”

  “Something about not wanting to hold me back from all the college experiences. I don’t know, it’s been a long time.” Maverick rubbed the back of his neck. With what he’d recently come to know, he was pretty sure that was bullshit.

  “You need to ask her. Make her tell you the real reason.” Eden patted him on the shoulder before turning back to the living room. “Care to join us women folk, so we can come up with a plan of attack?”

  Maverick got all of three steps before a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.

  “Are you going to be okay with this conversation?” James questioned.

  “Yeah.”

  “No, I’m going to need a little more than a ‘yeah’ on this one, Mav. There’s a good chance some hard decisions are going to have to be made, and I need to know you aren’t going to let your love for her get in the way of making those hard decisions.”

  “My love for her?”

  “It’s written on your face every time you walk into a room. You seek her out like a lost sailor looking for a lighthouse.”

  “As a close friend from my past.”

  “No, as a man who’s finally found his missing piece.”

  “You’re wrong, I can’t love her like that.”

  “Why not?”

  All the excuses Maverick came up with were crap. “I just can’t.”

  “Did you love her in school?”

  “Well, yeah, the way a teenage boy loves.”

  James’ laughter split the air. “You loved her with more than just your dick.”

  “Sure, but it was still a young, naive love.”

  “Love, nonetheless, and it is still there, for both of you.”

  “If you two hens are done clucking, we have shit we need to get done,” Eden called from the living room.

  “I don’t think you beat her enough,” Maverick stage whispered as he made his way to the small gathering of women.

  “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to fix that,” James shot back, the look on his face giving away exactly how much he loved Eden’s spirit.

  “What are you fixing?” Prim asked from her spot on the floor in front of Eden.

  “The sass from my girls.” James laughed as he settled into the corner of the couch.

  Prim tipped her head back to look at the woman behind her. “I’m pretty sure he’s talking about you, I’m never sassy.”

  Eden’s hand tangled in her hair. “Are we going to lie now, too?”

  A small moan escaped Prim before she remembered where she was. “No lies.”

  “I didn’t think so.” Eden released her hair before turning to Maverick. “Shouldn’t she be out here by now?”

  Maverick looked at his watch. “She has a few minutes left.” As he finished talking, the bedroom door opened and a confident, but still blushing brightly, Embry stood in the doorway. “Speak of the devil.”

  “Um, I’m sort of new at this whole walk of shame thing, so I’m going to need some help.”

  Embry’s shaky voice had Maverick at her side before he could think better of it. “First off, this is not a walk of shame.”

  “It’s exactly that, George. They all know I got spanked.” Embry’s eyes fell to the floor.

  Nodding, Maverick tipped her head back, so their eyes met. “Each of these women know what it’s like to have to face the world after a correction, and both James and I know the strength it takes to do exactly that because we’ve seen it in others. No one here is going to judge you for having that strength.”

  “You promise?”

  Fuck, she was going to break him. Taking a steadying breath, he forced as much truth into his words as possible, “I promise.”

  Her nod was the only response he got, but it was all he needed. Taking her hand, he pulled her to an empty spot on the sofa, sat down, and pulled her onto his lap.

  Embry sat stiffly for a few minutes before slowly looking around the room. When she wasn’t met with judgment or disapproval, she relaxed into him.

  “Maverick, you’re first. Her father contacted you?” Eden asked as she ran her fingers through Prim’s hair.

  “He called me about an hour ago. Stated he knew my client had his daughter and demanded I set up a meeting between him and Embry.” Maverick, squeezed the woman in question. “Don’t worry, Angel, it isn’t going to happen.”

  Embry stiffened all over again. “No, we have to give him what he wants.”

  “No way in hell,” James growled, his eyes narrowing.

  “We have to do it.” Embry’s eyes filled with tears.

  “I’m not letting you go anywhere near the fucking lunatic,” Maverick growled as his fingers flexed into her thigh.

  “Enough.” Eden’s voice cut through the emotion as she stood from her chair and carefully stepped around Prim to move
to Embry, crouching in front of her. “I need you to look at me, Em.”

  “George?”

  The woman in his arms locked her eyes on his, silently begging him not to make her do exactly what she knew she had to do. Maverick shook his head, “Look at her, Angel.” God, the final pleading glance was enough to fracture his heart in two, but she did as she was told. Good girl.

  As soon as her request was fulfilled, Eden started talking. “You need to tell me why you’re so adamant this needs to happen. Why do you want us to allow you to see him so badly?”

  “I don’t want to see him. Shit, if I never saw him again, it would be too soon, but we have to.” The fear in Embry’s voice was evident.

  Eden took the other woman’s hand in hers. “Why, Em? Why in the hell should I let you anywhere near the asshole?”

  “Because if you don’t, if you don’t let me go, it will put everyone here in danger.” Embry’s voice broke. “If you don’t let him see me, he’s going to come after this place. Shit, there’s a possibility he’s going to do that, anyway, but if allowing me to go see him, in a controlled environment of our choosing, will buy us some time, we need to do just that.”

  “Time for what?” James questioned.

  “Time for the trial to start, time for us to devise a plan.” A sob broke up Embry’s words. “Time for me to run if I have to.”

  Catching her chin in his hand, Maverick turned her to look at him and growled in her face, “You will not run, do you hear me, Embry Grace? If I hear you so much as think about it, I will paddle your ass.”

  “You would have to get in line,” James rumbled.

  “I’m pretty sure I outrank both of you,” Eden stated smoothly, the slight hitch in her eyebrow the only indication of just how unhappy she was.

  “If I were you, Em, I’d make sure to heed this warning,” Prim called from her spot on the floor. “I’ve been paddle by both James and Eden within a couple of minutes of each other. Trust me when I tell you, you don’t want to have to experience that, let alone have someone waiting to give you another round after they’re done. I doubt that Mav is a softy.”

  “No.” Embry’s hand moved to her ass. “He’s certainly not a softy.”

  “And that was just my hand,” Maverick allowed his own brow to move, hoping against hope she would take Prim’s advice.