With those words, the limousine pulled into the private backstage VIP entrance to the Rockland concert venue. But to Janette’s surprise, only three members of Tagan’s Beatbox were there to greet her as she stepped out of the black and chrome Hummer limo. And even more surprising, none of her greeters were the man she had traveled so far to see, Ian Tagan.
Chapter 5
Ian glared down at the scene unfolding in front of the black and chrome limousine from inside his temporary prison on the third floor of the Rockland Music Resort.
Hot fury burnt red across his face as he watched, helpless to act, as each of his three older brothers, fondled and caressed Janette’s arms and back when she stepped out of the limo. Not satisfied with only fondling Janette, they turned their attention to her auburn-haired best friend Nancy and caressed her curvy body the moment she stepped out of the vehicle and onto the VIP backstage red carpet.
Ian knew his brothers. Individually, they each had perverted proclivities, but together their deviant desires knew no limits. And he knew what sort of desires had led them to fondle and grope both Janette and Nancy. All three men no doubt had plans to seduce the two beautiful single women and convince them to engage in a debauched orgy after the show.
“Damn it!” Ian screamed as he threw his drumsticks across the room and then apologized to his lawyers for his outburst. He was stuck in his office on an emergency conference call, listening to his lawyers drone on about the urgent need for action. One of his children’s charities’ trusted accountants had embezzled funds meant to help the children and the entire organization, including Ian was in an uproar about it.
But that wasn’t why he’d cursed and lost his temper. He’d thrown his drumsticks across the room because he was furious with himself for not putting a stop to his brothers’ plans to sexually defile his woman and her best friend.
He’d suspected his brothers had devised a strategy to seduce both Janette and Nancy when his oldest brother Malcolm had said to him just nineteen minutes earlier, ‘Hey, little bro, glad to hear you invited a group of sexy MILFs as your special guests to the concert. Huh, I guess you finally grew a pair. Good for you—and us. Let’s all meetup and party hard tonight after the show.’
He would have put his big brother in his place right then and there, but he’d been blindsided by this ridiculous emergency conference call. Damn them! He was finished being reserved with his brothers. And there was no way he would allow them to keep manhandling his woman.
Janette was his, and he was going downstairs to make sure his brothers knew it. He had already claimed her privately in his heart, and he was about to claim her publically with the power of his brute strength. The lawyers could protect the charity from the repercussions of the accountant’s fraud. But only he could protect Janette from the lascivious advances of his brothers.
“Do what you must, to protect the charity. I must leave,” He told his lawyers. “We can resume this conversation in the morning.” Ian abruptly ended the emergency phone call and ran down the three flights of stairs just in time to find two of his brothers with their arms wrapped around Nancy’s waist and his oldest brother Malcolm following closely behind them with his fingers entwined in the fingers of one of Janette’s delicate hands.
“Get your hands off my woman!” Ian yelled and rushed up to confront his eldest brother.
“Did he ask for permission to touch you?” He swiftly turned to Janette, hoping she would say no and give him an excuse to beat his brother bloody for daring to put his hands on his soon-to-be wife. Malcolm knew he was in love with Janette. In fact, all of his brothers knew he had loved her for years.
As far as Ian was concerned, Janette was already as good as his woman, and his brother had crossed an unforgivable line when he’d pulled her close to him and taken her hand in his.
“Yes, I gave Malcolm permission to take my hand,” Janette unexpectedly answered, dipping her head to the side with soft, restrained elegance.
With fierce, protective rage still pumping hot and powerful inside his muscles, but with no excuse to throttle his brother for touching her, Ian nearly lost his nerve and dashed back inside the building. No! His muscles shook and resolved to do his heart’s bidding, which refused to allow him to run away from this battle to protect the woman he loved.
He’d just made himself into a fool by running out to defend Janette’s honor when she clearly didn’t believe it needed defending. So, to hell with caution. He might as well make a fool of himself again by dropping down to his knees in front of her and declaring his undying love.
She was a grown woman and clearly capable of choosing the man she wanted to let hold her hand. And the truth Ian had been denying for so long was— he was a grown man capable of asking the grown woman he loved to love him back.
The entire party of nine adults stood staring at him slack-jawed, obviously amazed by his new and sudden lack of self-restraint. With all four women, his three brothers, his best friend Hale, and Malcolm’s best friend Aston all glaring wide-eyed at him, this was as good a time as any to declare his love for Janette. Ian had a captive audience all eager to watch him either fail or succeed in winning her heart. Goodbye, caution. Hello action—and hopefully hello love.
With the heat of his anger and embarrassment still burning his face fire red, Ian bent down on one knee in front of the woman that he had admired, loved and lusted after for the better part of a decade.
“I know this may seem sudden. But, I’m kneeling before you, because I can no longer hold my fondness and admiration for you inside.”
He spoke his words boldly but struggled to force his eyes to maintain contact with Janette’s piercing golden-brown gaze.
“Every morning I look forward to waking up just so I can run downstairs to greet you.
I race over to the coffee shop, and if you’re not there, I rush over to Fro-yo to see if you’re sitting in your favorite booth eating one of your whipped frozen yogurt desserts.
You know I’m a driven man who wouldn’t dream of wasting a morning. And every morning that I share your kind, spirited company is a worthwhile and productive one. Every morning I spend away from you is a complete waste of love. And I don’t want to waste either of our love any longer.”
Ian paused to gauge Janette’s reaction to his confession and watched as the controlled, demure mask melted from her face and her upper lip began to quiver and twitch as she moistened it with her tongue.
“Laughing and flirting with you over breakfast is how I always want to start my days,” He continued. “And I want to start every day for the rest of my life with you. I want to live a lifetime of shared mornings with you. Because you are the most passionate, inspiring and loving woman I have ever known.”
Ian took a deep breath, steeling his nerves as he reached into his jacket’s side pocket to pull out a black velvet box that contained a ring. This was the same ring he’d been safely hiding away since his birth mother’s untimely murder sixteen years earlier.
It was the very ring that had been the desire of the robber who’d savagely killed his young mother and cruelly made him into an orphan at the too-young age of four. It was also the ring that after the long, drawn-out murder trial had been kept away from him and unsafely stored at the local CPS office.
This was the very same ring that by chance, had caught the eye of Mama Tagan when it was almost stolen from said understaffed CPS facility. It was the symbol of family and love that had ended up delivering him into the nurturing hands of Mama Tagan and a family with seven older foster brothers who had encouraged, infuriated, and supported him for every day of the past fourteen years.
Today, he hoped this ring – his mother’s ring would help to deliver him a wife.
Still knelt down on one increasingly tired knee, he flipped the tiny box open, revealing the antique double French set diamond wedding ring, its large center stone surrounded by a halo of peridot stones that matched the green in his eyes.
“Janette,” He croake
d, then cleared his throat. He strengthened his voice, determined to propose to the woman of his dreams in the fearless and romantic way he had fantasized about doing for so many years. He’d dreamt about this moment for many, many nights while he’d spent his evenings all alone in his bed.
“I promise to love, respect and protect you forever, my lady. Will you do me the great honor of becoming my beautiful wife?”
**
Janette stood in front of her suitor panting. Almost instinctively she pulled her hand away from Ian’s brother Malcolm and handed it to Ian. Her breasts heaved, and her heart pounded against her ribs as she swallowed hard and gulped down large chugs of air.
Could she do this? Could she open herself to a man’s love? She had never truly loved a man before she met Ian. And because of her past, she thought she never could.
She’d always feared she was incapable of trusting a man or genuinely giving one her heart. So, she’d always faked her affection for her lovers.
Her cold closed off heart could only ever give them just enough of herself to sexually satisfy them or to stoke the fire of painful need pushing against their souls. That’s part of why she’d bedded so many men who enjoyed humiliation. She intimately understood the emotions that made people crave pain, humiliation, and sexual usery.
She had become a master at discerning men’s desires and gifting it to them with a firm and determined hand. But in her relentless need to protect herself from more trauma, hurt, and pain, she had never once allowed her heart to genuinely open to a man in love.
But, maybe it could be different with Ian. No, not could. It would be different with Ian because she loved him. He was the first and only man she had ever truly loved.
Perhaps her heart loved him because she’d first met him when he was still a young innocent. And she had experienced first-hand the honest and gentle sweetness of his heart. She knew she could trust him. She knew the tenderness he felt for her and the love and admiration he was expressing were genuine and real.
Whatever the reason she had opened herself to him—her true, loving inner self— she could not deny the fact that she was in love with him. She loved him with the full strength of her heart and the complete passion of her soul.
Because of the power of that love, she knew there was no reason to refuse his offer of marriage, and every reason to accept his pledge to love, respect and protect her forever.
“I—I—I—do! I will marry you, Ian!” She finally forced the words out and then burst into a fit of tears and laughter. She laughed with genuine joy she hadn’t expressed since before her entire family had been murdered seventeen years earlier.
Her powerfully beating heart overflowed with the joy of hope. Her hope for a happy future renewed inside of her. It was the hope she’d all but given up on the day she’d been robbed of her innocence and left for dead, a freshly pregnant girl alone in the world with no loving family to cherish or protect her.
Not so long ago she’d been a girl faking her way through life. But now, at the moment she’d accepted Ian’s marriage proposal, for the first time, she had become a grown woman. She’d blossomed into a hopeful and mature soul who could embrace all the love she’d been blessed with.
And she was the owner of so much love: She held the kind love of her twin daughters, as well as the encouraging love of her foster sisters and the gentle love her friends. And now she even owned the romantic love of her man and new fiancé, Ian. A man who was a good, kind and charitable person.
The joy in her heart bloomed with love and passion for the man whom she knew would fulfill his promise to respect, cherish and protect her forever.
Chapter 6
She’d said yes. Ian couldn’t believe his ears. The woman he had loved, ever since before he had truly understood what the word meant had accepted his proposal of marriage.
She had agreed to be his wife, and soon she would become the mother of his plentiful tribe of daughters and sons. Soon there would be little red or brown-headed ruffians running around. And Mama Tagan would be pleased. She was already grandmother to twelve energetic grandchildren and was eager to see the birth of many more.
He slipped his mother’s ring on Janette’s dark, daintily-formed finger. His muscles trembled powerfully with the excitement of finally claiming the woman he loved as his. Successful in slipping the vintage wedding ring on her finger, Ian stood and swept his fiancé up into his powerful arms and kissed her.
He kissed the tears streaming from her eyes then allowed his lips to trail down the soft, tear-stained curves of her cheeks. When he reached her mouth, he captured her lips with his before promising again to love and protect her forever. She was his now. She was now his woman. Janette Jensen was Ian Tagan’s woman to love, cherish, protect—and enjoy.
“Let’s get out of here,” Janette suggested as she rained kisses down on her lover’s neck. “Let’s move this celebration to my apartment upstairs.”
“But, um, but,” Ian stuttered, “but, we’re not married, yet.”
“The ring on my finger tells a different story,” Janette replied. “We don’t need a marriage certificate to say we’re a committed pair. You asked me to marry you; I accepted, and then you claimed my finger with your ring. As far as I’m concerned, we’re already married. The marriage ceremony is simply a formality.”
“Um, it’s only a for-mality?” Ian stammered. “For years, he had dreamt of giving Janette the gift of his virginity, but now that it was about to happen, he felt apprehensive. He wanted to do it in the right way. And he wanted the two of them to be husband and wife before they cemented their love bond with sex.”
“Yes, the ceremony is simply icing on the cake. It’s the way we declare our commitment to the world, but it’s not our actual pledge of marriage. We’ve already confessed that eternal bond to one another, just now,” Janette replied and then swatted Ian playfully on the arm as she said her next words. “But don’t get it into your head that I’ll accept some rushed overnight elopement.”
She turned to face Trina and Heather. “No offense, ladies.” Then she turned back around to gaze up into the lush green meadows of Ian’s eyes. “When we officially wed, I want a grand ceremony fit for a queen. I want a huge party and a vibrant, energetic, showy display of our love.”
“That’s good news,” Ian cleared his throat, temporarily putting aside his fears about engaging in sex before marriage. “Even if you wanted a small, intimate ceremony, I don’t believe Mama Tagan or the band’s publicist would allow it. Rockstar publicity responsibilities, you know. Plus, I’m a drummer who’s partial to hard-rocking parties. Believe me, baby, I fully intend to celebrate our wedding vows in a big way.”
“Phenomenal,” Janette clutched Ian’s muscular arm and wiggled her nose at the bulge in his pants. “A big celebration is exactly what I’m hoping for—”
“Go on—enjoy a romantic evening with your soon-to-be bride,” an unexpected voice called out from behind them. “I’ll take over your drum set at tonight’s concert.” It was Aston, Ian’s good friend and his older brother Malcolm’s best friend in the world.
“Thanks, man. I owe you one,” Ian held up one hand, and fist pumped the air before bending down, lifting his fiancé into his arms again and carrying her up the red carpet and over the threshold of the Rockland Music Resort’s backstage VIP entrance.
Chapter 7
“Damn, you’re one fine woman,” Ian hollered then growled out his animal passion from somewhere deep inside his chest and throat. His fiancé was indeed beautiful when she danced.
Watching her round ass bounce and jiggle right in front of his face wasn’t helping to ease the throbbing in his cock or the painful tension in his balls. Instead, the hypnotic swaying of her wide, shapely bottom stoked his rawest, most feral passions.
Every muscle in his body ached with the agony of his denied release. He so wanted to reach out and touch his woman’s powerful curves, but she wouldn’t allow it. And she was clearly, purposely exaggerating
the womanly sway and roll of her hips as she danced, determined to tease and torture him with her every sensual movement.
Since he’d made the mistake of making a big deal about the two of them not being officially married, she’d told him that he couldn’t just reach out and touch her. He would have to beg her for the privilege of caressing her perfectly proportioned frame.
So, he sat as instructed in one of her straight-backed chairs with his ass firmly seated on top of his hands and allowed his fiancé to tempt and torture him while she danced seductively with her beautiful, untouchable body.
Despite being a well-partied celebrity and a rock star, Ian had never received a lap dance before. He’d always been too virtuous a man to allow a woman who wasn’t his wife to shake her tits and ass in his face.
But now that the woman who was practically his wife was working her assets right on top of his lap, grinding the front triangle of her bikini bottom dance uniform into the hard length of his cock, he finally knew what he’d been missing. He should have asked Janette to dance for him sooner—so much sooner.
Ian flung open his mouth and panted, trying to control his body’s excitement. His dick was throbbing so hard and thick he feared it might split in half. That’s how aroused his fiancé’s gyrations and his inability to touch her while she danced had made his cock.
Without warning, Janette bounced up and down on his lap, propelling her ass cheeks back toward his face and making them slap together loudly. With the new auditory and the increased physical stimulation, Ian’s nine-inch cock stretched so long and thick, he feared it would burst free from the confines of his leather pants and spring up on its own, fully determined to impale Janette’s fragrant, dancing pussy without permission.
Taboo Desires: Dirty Forbidden Secrets Bundle (The Complete Miranda Cougar Collection) Page 16