Be Mine: A Valentine’s Collection of Sexy Short Stories by Six NYT Bestselling Authors
Page 11
And, of course, the bigger question of sweet romance or soft-core porn. Because if I let my mind wander to Mason while I’m getting my massage, I just might be in the mood for the latter.
A girl gets lonely after two years, and I’m not the type to stray. Not as long as I believe he’s out there and that he’s coming back to me.
I take a sip and sigh.
Maybe I’ll mix it up. A bath and an orgasm. Then bed and a sweet movie as I fall into my dreams.
I’m thinking that actually sounds pretty good when the doorbell chimes. I hurry that direction, and open the door to a fifty-something woman in a severe white uniform. “I’m Melisse,” she says. “I’m here to get you prepped.”
My brows rise. Prepped? It sounds like a surgical procedure. And when she rolls in a high-tech looking massage table, I wonder if maybe I’ve misunderstood what Ryan and the gang planned. “Trust me. The Master is the best. You will be very relaxed.”
“The Master? I’m not sure this is—”
“Trust me,” she says firmly. “There is no pressure. You can terminate the session at any time.” She finishes setting up the table, then spreads the sheet over the top.
“Should I go change?”
“In a minute,” she says, passing me a spa robe from a duffel she brought with her. “The massage package that was selected for you is the sensory immersion experience. So when you return, we’ll put on your aromatherapy blindfold.”
“Blindfold?” I’ve spent too many years in intelligence. I’m not sure that I like the idea of being naked under a sheet and blindfolded. Even if it is for an incredible massage experience.
“Please. Mrs. Stark and Mrs. Hunter selected this package. I assure you, it is a favorite.”
I take a deep breath, then nod. I trust Nikki and Jamie completely. If they say this is the way to experience a massage, then who am I to argue?
Melisse hands me the robe, then nods toward the bathroom. Dutifully, I head in that direction. I strip, slide on the fluffy robe, take a deep breath, and return. The last time I had a really good massage was from Mason, who has the best hands of anyone I know. We’ll see if this Master can top him.
Melissa turns to give me privacy, and I climb onto the table and cover myself with a sheet. She adjusts it, then ties the blindfold over my eyes. I can’t say I like the sensation of being so vulnerable, but I take calming breaths and remind myself that this encounter was orchestrated by my friends.
I hear a tap on the door, followed by Melisse’s footsteps heading that direction. The soft exchange of a conversation, and then the heavier tread of a man’s footsteps.
“Melisse?”
I feel the pressure of a large hand on my back through the sheet, and then the brush of air as it’s pulled down, exposing my back and shoulders. “Shh,” a man says. “Melisse is gone.”
My breath freezes in my throat. I know that voice. Oh, God, I know that voice.
“Mason?” His name is barely more than breath. I must be wrong. Surely I’m wrong. But he doesn’t correct me. And when his large hands spread out on my shoulders, a rush of memories overwhelms me, so palpable I’m surprised I don’t pass out.
I lift an arm, determined to rip off the blindfold, but he holds it down. “No.”
“Please. Please,” I beg. “I have to see you. It is you. Isn’t it?”
“Relax. Just relax.” He takes my arm and moves it to the edge of the wide massage table. Before I realize what’s happening, he’s cuffed my wrist to the bed. I struggle, but he’s too quick, and soon my other wrist is bound as well.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “The blindfold is important, and I can’t risk you removing it. But if you don’t like it, I can unstrap you and leave. It’s up to you.”
“Is it really you? Your voice. Please tell me. Mason, is it you?” I hear the desperation in my voice. The growing need. I want to know, and yet I also understand. If it is him, he must have learned of Ryan and Damien’s efforts to locate him. He couldn’t come officially, and so he came surreptitiously. I’ve worked in intelligence long enough to know that he could have learned of the massage gift and twisted the appointment around to his advantage. It wouldn’t be hard at all
If it is him, he’s breaking all sorts of rules to be here.
And if it’s not him … well, maybe just for tonight, I need to believe the fantasy.
I draw in a breath. “I don’t want you to go.”
“Good,” he says, and then focuses those miraculous fingers on the tight muscles of my back, working and kneading. Warming me. Exciting me.
Lower and lower his hands go, until he’s so close that I’m certain he’s going to trail his fingertip down the crack of my ass. He doesn’t, though. Instead, he comes just close enough to tease, then moves down the table to my ankles.
I gasp when he ties them to the table as well. “What are you doing? I can’t take off the blindfold with my toes.”
He slides his hands up my body, then brushes his mouth against my ear. “You’re beautiful,” he says. “I want you open for me. I want to see you when I touch you. I want to watch your cunt. I want to see your arousal. I want you wet for me, and I want to know that you want me, too. That you crave me. Crave this.”
I swallow, telling myself again that this must be Mason. But damn me, part of me doesn’t care. I’m too aroused by his touch and his raw, evocative words. And too lost in the fantasy. Even if he’s only a shadow of my memory, a manifestation of my desire, I want the touch he’s offering.
I feel a tear trickle down my cheek. Sweet and melancholy. I miss being touched like this. I want Mason, yes. But I need this.
Slowly, he strokes me. Warm hands moving over my calves. Fingertips teasing my inner thighs. My body responds. My sex throbbing. I know I’m wet. Desperate. And when his fingers gently part my folds, I gasp with both surprise and pleasure.
He slips a finger inside me, then another and another. He fills me with slow, sensual thrusts, then teases my clit with one hand as he traces a path from my pussy to my ass, making me writhe with desire, longing for a rough touch along with the sweet caresses.
“Please,” I beg. I shouldn’t want it. I don’t even really know that it’s him. But I do. I want him inside me. I want to feel the weight of him above me and his cock filling me. I want his mouth on my breast, his teeth scraping my nipple. I want the man, the fantasy, the sensation. I want to lose myself in pleasure. And so help me, I’m not to proud to beg.
“I shouldn’t,” he says. “It’s too risky.”
“What is?”
“You. Seeing me. It’s not safe.”
I bite my lip, trying to make sense of those words. Is he in disguise? Has he changed his appearance? Is he no longer dark-haired with deep-set brown eyes accenting a face highlighted with a cleft chin? It would make sense. How else could he get so close without anyone recognizing him? And how better to stay deep undercover for two years, getting lost from even the likes of Damien Stark’s exhaustive resources.
“Plastic surgery?” I ask, and am not surprised when he stays silent.
“I need your word,” he says. “The blindfold stays on.”
“Yes.” It is him. It must be him.
He moves quickly to release my wrists and ankles, and I think that he must be as eager as I am. I’m true to my word, and I don’t touch the blindfold as he gently lifts me, then carries me to the bedroom. I’m not expecting it, but he ties my wrists to the headboard, and when I murmur a protest, he says only, “It’s for your protection as well as mine. If you see me—if they find out—then you’re a liability.”
I want to ask what he means. I want details of what he’s doing. But the questions don’t come. They leave my head like so much fluff as his mouth closes over mine, and we kiss, hot and wild and with such familiar abandon that my doubts fade almost entirely away. This must be Mason. It must. It must.
“Dear God, you taste like Heaven,” he says. “Like sweet memories and warm chocolate.”
I laugh, because isn’t that just the kind of thing Mason would say?
But the laugher dies in my throat as his mouth closes over my breast. His teeth scraping my nipple, making me arch up toward him. “That’s it, baby. Tell me what you want.”
“Fuck me,” I say boldly. “Please, I want you inside me.”
His fingers cup my sex, thrusting slowly in and out. “Like this?”
I shake my head. “I want your cock. Please, Mason. I want to feel you explode in me.”
Thank God I don’t have to beg. I hear the rustle of material as he strips, then the weight of him above me. His cock rubs against my belly and I writhe against him, anxious. “Please. Now. Hard.” I haven’t been fucked in years, and I want it wild. I want to be taken. I want the full fantasy that this night is giving me.
He understands—when hasn’t Mason understood me?—and I feel the pressure of his cock against my entrance, then the sharp sweet pain as he thrusts inside, forcing my body to yield to him.
I cry out, and as he moves rhythmically inside me, he muffles my cries with his mouth.
I wrap my legs around him, using my muscles to push him in harder, deeper, until I don’t know where he ends and I begin. All I know is that right now, in this moment at least, he is Mason. He has to be. Because no one but my husband could make me feel this good.
I’m unprepared for the force of the orgasm when it finally takes me. I arch up, my muscles squeezing him tight so that he explodes inside me. Finally, my body goes slack, the tension easing out of me as every muscles turns soft and heavy.
“That was perfect,” I say, as he spoons against me.
“You’re perfect,” he replies, and I smile sleepily as I snuggle my back against his chest. Gently, he strokes my arm. “Sleep now.”
I don’t want to, but I can’t fight the heaviness in my eyes. “Will you be here when I wake up?”
He kisses my shoulder, but he doesn’t answer, and I know that means he’ll be gone.
I want to beg him to stay. I want to tell him we can run away. Hide somewhere. Be together.
I want to ask him if this fantasy was real. If he is real.
But I don’t. I’m too tired. Fading too fast.
And maybe, just maybe, I’m afraid of the answer.
3
As I’d both feared and expected, I wake alone.
I explore the penthouse, but he’s not there, and the massage table is gone, along with the robe and other paraphernalia.
There’s nothing left but my memory. That, and a single rose on the dining table, laying across a sheet of white paper.
The note is written in block printing, and I can’t tell if it’s Mason’s handwriting or not.
But I smile as I read the note:
* * *
Lovely Denny,
* * *
Thank you for the night. For fueling my heart with new memories. For reminding me that there are things to live for and fight for. Things that burn hotter than a shooting star and last longer than eternity.
* * *
We will, I think, see each other again, though I cannot say when or where. But I will hold onto last night and the pleasure we shared.
* * *
Don’t look for me. Don’t try to find me. Don’t ask questions to which you don’t truly want the answers.
* * *
For the time being, last night was enough.
* * *
Yours,
* * *
The Master
* * *
I pick up the note and press it against my heart, holding the memories close. I think he was Mason, the man who always spoke to me of stars and eternity. I hope he was. But in the end, it doesn’t matter. The man—The Master—gave me back hope, along with a fresh taste of joy.
* * *
And for now, I think, that is enough.
Charismatic. Dangerous. Sexy as hell.
Meet the men of Stark Security.
Coming March of 2019
Stark Security, a high-end, high-tech, no-holds barred security firm founded by billionaire Damien Stark and security specialist Ryan Hunter has one mission: Do whatever it takes to protect the innocent. Only the best in the business are good enough for Stark Security.
* * *
Men with dangerous skills.
* * *
Men with something to prove.
* * *
Brilliant, charismatic, sexy as hell, they have no time for softness—they work hard and they play harder. They’ll take any risk to get the job done.
* * *
But what they won’t do is lose their hearts.
Shattered With You
Broken With You
Ruined With You
Also by J. Kenner
Click here for a printable booklist
* * *
The Stark Saga Novels:
Only his passion could set her free…
Meet Damien Stark
The Original Trilogy
Release Me
Claim Me
Complete Me
And Beyond…
Anchor Me
Lost With Me
DAMIEN
* * *
Stark Ever After
(Stark Saga novellas):
Happily ever after is just the beginning.
The passion between Damien & Nikki continues.
Take Me
Have Me
Play My Game
Seduce Me
Unwrap Me
Deepest Kiss
Entice Me
Hold Me
Please Me
Indulge Me
* * *
The Steele Books/Stark International:
He was the only man who made her feel alive.
Say My Name
On My Knees
Under My Skin
Take My Dare (includes short story Steal My Heart)
* * *
Stark International Novellas:
Meet Jamie & Ryan-so hot it sizzles.
Tame Me
Tempt Me
* * *
S.I.N. Trilogy:
It was wrong for them to be together…
…but harder to stay apart.
Dirtiest Secret
Hottest Mess
Sweetest Taboo
* * *
Stand alone novels:
* * *
Most Wanted:
Three powerful, dangerous men.
Three sensual, seductive women.
Wanted
Heated
Ignited
* * *
Wicked Nights (Stark World):
Sometimes it feels so damn good to be bad.
Wicked Grind
Wicked Dirty
Wicked Torture
* * *
Stark Security:
Charismatic. Dangerous. Sexy as hell.
Meet the men of Stark Security.
Shattered With You
Broken With You
Ruined With You
* * *
Blackwell-Lyon:
Heat, humor & a hint of danger
Lovely Little Liar
Pretty Little Player
Sexy Little Sinner
Tempting Little Tease
* * *
***
* * *
J. Kenner KU Titles
(At the time of publication, the following titles were in Amazon’s KU program. There is no guarantee that they will remain there continuously.)
* * *
Because books are constantly being added to KU (and sometimes leave KU for a period of time) you can always find an updated list of JK’s Kindle Unlimited books here!
* * *
Man of the Month
Who’s your man of the month …?
Down On Me
Hold On Tight
Need You Now
Start Me Up
Get It On
In Your Eyes
Turn Me On
Shake It Up
All Night Long
In Too Deep
Light My Fire
Walk The Line
* * *
Man of the Month Box Sets
Winter Heat (books 1-3)
Spring Fling (books 4-6)
Summer Love (books 7-9)
Fall Fantasy (books 10-12)
* * *
*Bar Bites: A Man of the Month Cookbook(by J. Kenner & Suzanne M. Johnson *not in KU)
* * *
Extraordinarily Yours
Sexy paranormal rom-coms!
So (Very!) Much More than the Girl Next Door
The Charmed Affair of an Invisible Bodyguard
The “Super” Secret Life of an Accidental Daddy
Never Trust a Rogue on a Magical Mission
Mayhem, Matchmakers, and a Bit of Bewitching (novella)
How a Sexy Hero and a Marvelous Makeover (Sorta!) Saved the World (novella)
The Seductive Charm of a Sexy Shifter (prequel)
The Extraordinarily Yours Collection #1