by Lora Leigh
She kept her head down as she entered the room, going straight for the suitcase stored in the large walk-in closet just inside the room. She placed it on the luggage rack, opened it and re-entered the closet to collect the few things she had brought with her.
As she folded the articles of clothing, the tears began to fall. They were hot, blistering with pain, and shook her body as she tried to console herself that at least she had tried. For one time in her life, a very brief time, she was free.
She wiped at the tears, her breath hitching as she moved to the stone dresser to collect the clothing there, then she went to her bed and picked up her robe. The last article Cole had given her. It was then she saw the small, black velvet jeweler’s box. She stopped, clutching the silk robe to her chest.
It was a ring. The diamond glittered with shards of blue and orange, intensifying the gold of the thick, simple band. Her hands shook, her body trembled. Her head raised, her eyes going to the shadows of the opened bathroom door.
“Shame on you, Tess,” Cole chided her gently as he walked from the room where he waited. “To think I wouldn’t come back. I’ll have to punish you for that.”
His chest was bare, his jeans rode low on his hips and fit tightly over the bulge beneath the material.
Tess took a deep, hard breath.
“You didn’t call,” she whispered as she saw the mask of cool determination on his face, the sparkle of warmth in his eyes that was so at odds with his expression. “You didn’t say goodbye.”
“If I had seen you, I wouldn’t have left. And I had to leave or miss the jeweler before he left. You should have known I had a reason.”
Cole’s voice was cool, disapproving. His eyes were patient, wicked and warm. God, she could feel her cunt heating to lava temperature.
“You knew I would worry,” she snapped out, ignoring the hope, the happiness surging inside her.
“Worry, but not have so little faith in me.” There was an edge of hurt in his voice now, as though her tears, and the cause for them, pricked at his emotions. “After taking you, did you think I would let you go easily?”
A sob broke in her chest, another tear fell.
“I enjoyed it,” she whispered brokenly. “You shouldn’t love me.”
“Tess,” he whispered her name gently. “Don’t you think I want it, too? That I didn’t enjoy your pleasure as well? It was the first time, baby, and it won’t be the last time. I love hearing your cries, feeling your pleasure, knowing you’re dominated, submitting to me, no matter what I want. Tess, I love you more for it, not less.”
“How?” she whispered brokenly, shaking her head. “How could you?”
“Do you want Jesse alone, Tess?” he asked her carefully. “Would you let him touch you, hold you, if I didn’t ask you to do so?”
“No!” she burst out, realizing the idea was abhorrent to her. What she had done with Cole could never have been done without him.
He came closer to her, standing within inches of her, staring down at her with heated arousal, and something more. Something she was terrified to admit to seeing. What if she was wrong? What if it wasn’t love she saw in his eyes?
Rather than taking her in his arms, he indicated to her to sit on the bed. Tess did so slowly as he reached around her and retrieved the box on the bed. As her eyes rounded in shock, he went to one knee before her, holding the box in front of her as he stared up at her in adoration.
“You’re mine.” He wasn’t asking her anything. “Taken by me, Tess. Mine to hold and mine to love now.”
He took the ring from the box, picked up her hand and slid the diamond firmly over her finger.
“Is this a proposal?” she asked huskily, incredulously.
“Hell no. I’m not asking you anything,” he grunted. “With that smart-assed mouth of yours, you’d have me tying you down rather than loving you the way I want to.”
“Loving me?” she whispered as he pushed her down on the bed, following her with his heated, hard body.
“Loving you, Tess,” he promised. “With everything I have. With all I am, I love you.”
His lips covered hers, his tongue pushing past her lips with a determination, a heat she couldn’t deny. Her hands grasped his shoulders, her body arching to him as she groaned into the kiss. His lips ate at hers, his tongue plundering her mouth wickedly as his hands worked behind her back at the zipper of her dress, then stripped it quickly from her body.
He never broke the kiss, or lost the heat of his arousal as he stripped his pants from his hips, kicking them from his muscular legs. He didn’t miss a beat as he ripped the silk of her panties from her body.
“Mine,” he growled as his head finally raised, only to rake his lips down her neck in a fiery caress, his tongue licking at her skin, his hands lifting her against him as his lips arrowed to her breast. There, they covered a hard, engorged nipple, sucking it into his mouth with a groan of arousal.
Tess arched to him, crying out brokenly at the fierce thrust of pleasure that clenched her womb and her vagina at the same time. Like a punch of heated ecstasy, her body bowed as he nibbled at the hard little point, his hand smoothing down her abdomen, his fingers parting the lips of her sex.
“Cole. Cole, please.” She was on fire, needing his touch now more than she ever had.
“Say yes,” he growled as his lips moved down her body, his tongue licking sensually, then his teeth nibbling with fierce, hot nips as he parted her thighs.
“Yes,” she moaned, arching against him. “Yes, Cole. Anything. Just please don’t stop.”
He licked a slow, long stroke through the shallow valley of her cunt, his appreciation voiced in a low, long rumbling moan. His fingers parted her, his lips covered her clit with a heated suction that had her hips jerking sharply, arching to his mouth. Her knees bent, her thighs clenching around his head as he sucked and licked at the little pearl of nerves that throbbed almost painfully.
“So good,” he growled, licking at her. “Delicious, Tess. But I need more, baby. Come for me. Come for me so I can love you the way I need to.”
A finger, thick and long slid deep into her vagina, his mouth covered her clit, his tongue flickering in a wicked dance of pleasure as his finger filled her, retreated, then thrust inside her again. Tess bucked against him, her legs tightening around his head, her body heaving. Fire struck her loins, swelled her clit further, clenched her womb. The blood rushed through her body, carrying ecstasy, rapture, until she felt every particle of her being erupt against his mouth.
She was still crying, arching when he jerked her thighs apart and quickly moved between them.
“I love you, Tess,” he whispered as he lowered himself against her, his cock, sliding against the lips of her sex, nudging inside them, then parting the tight muscles of her vagina.
“I love you,” she whispered in return as the head of his cock parted her, slid in inch by inch, easing past the sensitive tissue, allowing her to feel every hard, hot, throbbing inch he was giving her. “Oh God, Cole, you’ll kill me.”
It was too much. He was too slow. The exquisite stretching, the slow stroke across nerve endings so sensitive, so desperate for relief, was taking her breath. Her head tossed on the bed, her hands slid across his sweat-dampened shoulders, then clenched in the silk of his hair.
“I’m loving you,” he groaned. “Enjoy it, baby, it may not happen like this again for a while.”
Torturous pleasure raged through her body. She could feel the clench of her vagina on the thick, hot shaft working gently inside her, the slow stretching, the hot brand of possession as he slid in to the hilt, then paused.
“Tess, baby,” he whispered as he filled her, burying his face in her neck, his lips stroking her heatedly as he groaned.
She tightened the muscles of her vagina around his cock, whimpering at the heat, the searing sensations of near orgasm.
“I love you,” she cried out again, holding him close, holding him tight. “I love you Cole, but I swear to
God, if you don’t fuck me right now, I’ll kill you.”
He didn’t need a second urging. Bracing his knees on the mattress, he pulled back, then slammed inside her. Tess screamed out at the rocketing, agonizing pleasure. Her back bowed, her legs curled around his hips, enclosing him in a vice as she fought to make him move harder, faster. She didn’t have to urge him much.
With a harsh male cry of victory, he began to thrust heatedly, heavily inside the slick heat of her body. Tess trembled at the onslaught of fiery sensations. Her vagina was stretched, filled, repeatedly stroked in hard, long thrusts that drove her higher, closer, strangling the breath in her throat as her release began to tear through her.
Like an orgasmic quake it rushed over her body, tightened her muscles and flung her from a precipice of blistering need. Her cry echoed distantly around her as Cole gave one more gasping thrust then groaned out his release. She felt the hot, thick jets of his semen spilling inside her, filling her, completing her until she collapsed, boneless in his arms.
“Mine,” he growled breathlessly. “Now that I’ve taken you, Tess, I won’t let you go.”
“Mm,” she smiled tiredly. “Give me a minute and you can take me again.”
Cole chuckled tiredly, rolled from her and gathered her against his sweat-dampened chest.
“Sleep first,” he grunted. “Then I’ll dominate you some more.”
“Or I could dominate you,” she suggested with a smile. “Wake you up tied down. Torture you a little.”
He gave her a worried look.
“Don’t worry, baby,” she imitated his slow, sexy drawl. “You’ll love it.”
SUBMISSION
LORA LEIGH
I looked up one day, and you were gone.
Your smile, your laughing eyes,
forever dimmed by death. I hadn’t known
when you passed, there was no chance to lay
a rose on your grave, to whisper a tear-filled goodbye.
You were gone.
And only then did I realize the depths to
which I missed you.
Only then did I realize the regrets …
CHAPTER ONE
The house was too quiet. Ella could hear her own footfalls as she walked through it, her own heartbeat as she stared into her coffee. She could feel her fear, closer, stronger, than it had ever been before. The new house was so still, the memories that her New York home had held were absent here.
She had moved to be closer to Tess. To try in some way to make up for the cruel, bitter words she had thrown at her daughter. And she had moved to live again. She had hidden from herself and from the memories of her marriage for so many years that she was feeling the deprivation in ever increasing levels. Her family was here. Her sister, her friends. They were all here. With Tess gone, the New York house was too silent, too lonely. Though this one wasn’t much different today.
She still wore the cream lace dress she had chosen for the wedding, though the matching wide brimmed hat had been thrown carelessly on the embroidered chair that sat inside the front entryway. She felt lost in a way she hadn’t felt in years. A loneliness she couldn’t explain haunted her; needs she couldn’t admit to shadowed her mind and her desires. So she thought of Tess instead.
The wedding had been one of the most beautiful Ella had attended in her life. Her daughter, her baby, had made a gorgeous bride. The pervert she had married had looked handsome and darkly seductive.
She ran her fingers over the careful upsweep of her auburn hair, feeling the pinch of hairpins holding it in place. Her hairdresser had followed her orders to the letter. Not a strand of hair had slipped free of its mooring. Her dress hadn’t creased, and her silk stockings hadn’t dared slip or snag. She looked as well dressed now, six hours after the wedding, as she had when she left that morning.
Thankfully, with the move to Virginia, the damage she had done to the relationship with her daughter was healing. In her shock, in her rage, she had been hurtful to Tess. But, still, she couldn’t believe what she had walked in on.
Her hands trembled as heat flooded her face. It had been Jesse, not James, but the likeness was too great. The twins were identical in nearly every way, even to their sexual preferences. Tall and distinguished, with lean, muscular builds and skin that looked perpetually tanned. Thick, black hair fell along their napes, straight and glossy, tempting the women around them to touch.
Her legs trembled as she sat down at the small, walnut kitchen table. Her fingers trembled as they covered her lips. Her heart pounded with hard, driving beats within her chest. It had been her worst nightmare come to life, except her daughter played the role Ella had played within those dark visions.
Not with Cole, but with James. And there lay the demon that lurked in her mind.
Perverse, depraved. She had walked away from her marriage and the life she had fought to build because of her husband Jase’s perverse desires. The light spankings she had managed to tolerate, though they had seared her with shame. Being restrained had been easier, though even then, whatever pleasure had filtered through the experience had been tainted by the fact that she knew, knew what was coming and she knew she couldn’t bear it.
Her lack of submission to Jase’s needs had finally broken their relationship. She hadn’t been able to give him the trust, the control he needed. She had been terrified, knowing instinctively what would come next, who would come next. And she knew she would never be able to maintain her control, her sanity, if James touched her.
He had been at Tessa’s wedding. He had watched her with knowing eyes, so green, so wicked, her body had pulsed with depravity. He had shaken her hand, the heat and pleasure of his touch nearly taking her breath. And all the time he had watched her, knew her, tormented her.
She stalked to the glass door that led to the cool, foliage-sheltered area of the garden. The slender heels of her shoes created a hollow, lonely tap against the wood of the porch as she moved to the end of the vine-covered roof. Her hand gripped the thick post, her nails biting into the wood as she fought her anger, her fears for her daughter.
Tess was too much like Jase. Ella had always been afraid of that, especially after the books she had found years ago, hidden in Tess’s bedroom. Her desires were extreme, and evidently she had no fear of them.
Unlike her mother, who fought the demons, the knowledge of her own needs.
She couldn’t get the image of it out of her mind. She couldn’t fight the dark nightmares of James, holding her, taking her as another did. She never knew, never cared who joined them in those nightmare images, all she saw, all she knew, was James.
One day, Ella, you’ll have to stop running. When you do, let me know.
“Like hell,” she bit out, turning and moving purposely to the house. She wasn’t running, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to let him know anything.
Jase’s sexual tastes had nearly ruined her life, and now they would ruin Tess’s. No man could truly love a woman, truly respect her, if he allowed another to touch her, to take her.
She fought the ripple of response between her thighs. The creamy moisture that she fought to ignore, the desires she kept carefully banked, always hidden. Controlled. She couldn’t let him break her, couldn’t let him see her response to him. If anyone had the power to break her heart, it was James Wyman.
She couldn’t ignore him; she couldn’t pretend he didn’t exist. Due to her own foolishness, he would soon be a daily part of her life. But she could handle it, she assured herself. She had spent her life practicing the careful control that had sustained her over the years. She could handle James Wyman, easily.
It was all a matter of control.
CHAPTER TWO
It was all a matter of control. James watched as Ella Delacourte led him up the carpet-covered stairs to the bedroom he would be using while he stayed in her home. He was still amazed that she had given into Tess’s request that she allow James to stay in the house until the home he was buying was ready to move into.
Her slender waist and gently flared hips drew attention to the delicate, perfect curves of her ass as she moved in front of him. Dressed in gray silk slacks and a pearl gray blouse, she was the epitome of grace and elegance.
Calm, controlled … so perfectly controlled it made him itch to hear her scream. To hear that perfectly pitched voice ragged and hot, begging him to fuck her deep and hard, to take her however he wished. He wanted, needed, to break that control.
And Ella knew it. She had been well warned years before and he wasn’t a joking man. But he was a patient man. He had waited five years for the chance at the only woman he knew that could make him think of forever. The only one he knew would challenge his mind, as well as his sexuality. If he could manage to keep from getting kicked out of the house.
He hid his grin. He knew Ella was desperate to make up for the painful words she had thrown at her daughter when she caught her sandwiched between Cole and Jesse. She had been furious, outraged, and if Jesse was right, certain at first that it was James rather than Jesse who had participated in Tess’s first ménage.
Tess, too, wanted that relationship repaired, but she also wanted her mother happy. She had been more than happy to participate in James’ plot to get closer to her mother. Especially after he convinced her how long he had been waiting for the opportunity.
“You can use the kitchen and the washroom if you do your own cooking and laundry. The living room is okay for entertaining, but I have to ask, that if you need overnight female companionship you rent a motel room. I won’t have it in my home, James.” She pushed open the bedroom door before turning to face him.
She wore only a minimum of makeup today to accentuate her eyes and her graceful cheekbones. Her lips were colored with a soft dawn shade, and at the moment the lower lip appeared slightly swollen, as though she had been biting at it as she walked upstairs.