Kiss Me Twice Part 1

by Lauren Hawkeye

“What’s the problem, sweetheart?” He grinned down at her, his expression deliberately cocky. He needed to keep his defenses up from the start around this one, to keep her from sneaking too far into his psyche.

  He waited to see if she would dismiss him immediately for his rudeness.

  She arched an eyebrow at his term but didn’t comment on it, which left him mildly disappointed. Instead she nodded at his feet, looking like nothing so much a wet dream of a stern schoolteacher.

  “Bottoms go barefoot in Veritas, sub. Remove the boots.”

  Her voice was whiskey smooth with an undercurrent of sin, at odds with the girl-next-door face. Logan found himself wanting to fall to his knees and obey, to please her, and despite how much he wanted her, the notion didn’t sit well with him.

  A mistress had to work much harder than saying a few words and looking pretty to earn that kind of response from him.

  He’d felt the punch of attraction when their eyes had first met, but now he was wary. What kind of hold did she have on him already, to make him want so badly to please her?

  Shaken by the notion, he grinned insolently and shook his head. “Make me, baby.”

  Logan watched as heat flickered in her eyes which, upon closer inspection, were stormy grey rather than the expected blue.

  He watched as she shrugged one shoulder, a simple gesture that was nevertheless full of innate grace.

  “We’ll do it the hard way, then.” So caught up in the siren’s song of her voice, Logan was caught off guard when the little minx kicked her leg up with the smooth flexibility of a trained dancer and pressed her sharp stiletto heel against the thin denim of his crotch.

  He froze when the perfectly positioned boot heel dug into the tender sac of his testicles, just enough to catch his attention.

  “No need to get nasty, sweetheart.” Though he wasn’t overly concerned that she was one of those mistresses who took joy in cock and ball torture, he was still uncomfortable enough from the feelings coursing through him to be a smartass.

  “Take off your boots.” Damn her, she looked completely calm and in control. Like she knew he would do as she said, simply because she had said it.

  Their little standoff had drawn an audience, too, and the press of bodies around them made his throat constrict with the beginnings of claustrophobia.

  “A hundred bucks on the little blonde.”

  Logan flicked his eyes around the gathered crowd to find the speaker and glowered when he saw that it was Luca, the only acquaintance he had at In Vino Veritas. He would have snarled if Mistress S hadn’t chosen that moment to dig that stiletto in just a bit harder.

  “I warned you.” She shrugged and smiled at him, and the smile made Logan’s entire body clench with pure, undiluted need. She leaned forward, a calculated move, he knew, but still he found his attention caught on the creamy swells of her breasts, offered up as they were in the almost indecently low neckline of her black lace corset.

  He wanted to get his hands on those breasts more than he wanted his next breath.

  His attention was still caught on them when she lowered her leg, and he grinned as he hoped, prayed, that she would lean forward a bit more, just enough for him to see a hint of nipple that he knew would be rosy pink.

  “I’d still be happy to give you the ride of your life—” Logan’s words were cut off when the slender woman whirled behind him, her movements precise and controlled. He felt the sharp toes of her boots dig into the backs of his knees, and then he landed on his knees on the floor, his breath leaving his lungs in one uncomfortable jolt.

  “What the—” He threw his hands out in front of him to protect his face when she pushed him down further and straddled his hips backwards. Despite the surprise and the uncomfortable position, his cock pushed against the thin denim of his jeans as his body registered the heat of her naked legs, pressing tightly into his torso.

  Her ass was sweetly rounded and close enough to touch. Her skirt had ridden up when she moved, and he caught a hint of the sexy panties she wore beneath.

  With firm hands, Mistress S tugged off one of his well-worn cowboy boots, and then the other. His socks followed. Standing, she caught his eye as she very deliberately stuffed a sock inside each boot, then handed the pair off to Luca, to tuck out of reach behind the bar, he assumed.

  “What’s your name?” She asked, her voice steady, certain he would answer... and he did, though he hadn’t intended to.

  “Logan.” He could hear the wariness in his own voice, and rightly so—this woman was nothing like he’d expected.

  “Well, then. Logan.” Her words were stern. “I told you. Subs go barefoot here.”

  Logan felt twin desires pulling inside of him. He wanted to apologize, to earn her favor.

  He also wanted to wipe that smug smile off of her face. She’d won this round—and he hadn’t seen it coming, so points for her.

  But he wasn’t tamed that easily.

  “You going to punish me now, baby?” He ran his tongue over his lips, deliberately provoking her. He knew what would happen now, and he was looking forward to it.

  She would take him to a private room, or to one of the many pieces of equipment set up around the massive play area of Veritas. She would try to dig deeper, and he would deflect. She would flog him, and he would be able to lose himself in the pain.

  They would fuck, and then they would go their own ways. He’d head back to Montana until his needs could no longer be assuaged with his imagination and his own hand.

  The fact that he didn’t care for the idea of leaving her was just a signal that he needed to do exactly that. She looked like she could draw out all of his secrets, and that just wasn’t going to happen.

  Still, he thought he just might die if he didn’t get a taste of that creamy flesh spilling out over the top of her corset.

  “Yes,” Mistress S replied, her face calm, though those grey eyes of hers reflected more than a hint of the turmoil that he was feeling himself. “I am.”

  Then the woman did something Logan never could have seen coming.

  She turned on her slender stiletto heel and walked away.

  Linger, available now!

  Hollow Excerpt

  Copyright 2014 by Ava Conway

  Girl, Interrupted meet Beautiful Disaster in this thrilling and sexy debut novel, in which a college student learns her perfect life is a lie and finds new love where she least expects it—a mental institution.

  Freaks, misfits, and psychopaths. Those are the kinds of people found at Newton Heights Psychiatric Hospital, and high-society girl Lucy White’s new home.

  Freaks, misfits, and Jayden McCray. Jayden has his own set of rules for life at Newton Heights, and in this enigma, Lucy finds a way to live with the events that left her cheating boyfriend and best friend dead—and Lucy in the middle of the investigation into their demise.

  The problem? Jayden makes her want things she’s not supposed to have, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality and making Lucy feel more at home in Newton Heights than she ever did at home. But this isn’t how her life is supposed to be...

  ***

  "You planned this," I said.

  Jayden looked up from his case. "I plan everything."

  "You had Flynn create a distraction."

  He grinned and looked down at the croquet balls. "What color do you want to be?"

  "What did you slip that security guard?"

  "Did anyone ever tell you that you worry too much? Yellow would work, I think." He straightened and held the canary-yellow ball out toward me. "It's a bright, cheery color, and I’m in a celebratory mood."

  I looked at the ball, then at him, trying to process everything that had happened. "We are going to get in so much trouble."

  He twisted his lips into a half-smile. "My little worrier. If you keep dwelling on the future, you'll have no time to enjoy the present.” He inched the croquet ball closer. "Take it."

  I hesitated, then grabbed the ball from his hand. "I
n the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I'm pretty good."

  Jayden took the red ball and grinned. "Like I said, you haven't played with me."

  It didn't take long for me to realize that Jayden wasn't lying. He was not only good but also a master at distraction. He would jump from topic to topic as I aimed my shot, timing his questions so that I'd hit the ball too hard or soft and miss the target.

  "You're cheating," I accused him after he won the first game.

  He waved his hands to the sides in mock surrender. "How?"

  I opened my mouth and shut it again. The truth was that he wasn't breaking the rules, just bending them. I glanced at the last rays of sun as they settled over the horizon and considered my options. Well, if he could bend the rules, then I guess I could, too.

  I was a quick learner. With practice in the timing of my random questions and comments, I was able to rattle Jayden’s confidence. I had to admit that it was fun getting him all riled up. Throughout the second game we were neck and neck. I remembered the Ping-Pong tournament and felt a little sorry that our only audience were the crickets, fireflies and other night life that had come out to play. If the psych ward liked Flynn’s banter with Jayden, then they would have loved the one-liners we hurled at each other.

  Finally, it was time for Jayden to take his last turn. If he hit the stake, he'd win. If he missed, then I'd win.

  I was determined to win.

  I positioned myself next to a large bush behind the final stake and waited until he started to aim.

  "Don't think you can distract me with questions this time," he said as he lined up his shot. "I'm totally focused."

  "Oh yeah?" My mind raced. This was do or die. I had to do something big or I was going to lose. Suddenly, I felt something land on my neck. "Oh my God, Jayden. Something's on me." It was a bug, a big bug, with legs.

  "Not working." Jayden pulled his mallet back for the stroke.

  "No, seriously." I began to fidget. The creepy-crawly wiggled under the collar of my shirt and was making some sort of chirping noise. Its prickly legs dug into my skin, making me want to itch. I dropped my mallet and clawed at my clothes, trying to find whatever the hell was crawling over my skin. "Shit, it's in my bra!" I shrieked and tore off my shirt and bra, then slapped at my skin. A cricket jumped off my chest and landed in the grass.

  Jayden glanced up and widened his eyes at the spectacle I was making. He straightened, causing his mallet to tap the ball. It rolled forward the length of his foot.

  With the cricket gone, my heartbeat quieted, and I turned back to the game. "I won!" I said, pointing at his ball. "That counts as a stroke. I won." I couldn't believe it.

  Jayden didn’t bother looking at the game. “Good job.” His gaze became more heated and hungry by the second. It was then, in that moment, that I realized my breasts were completely naked. I had exposed myself to him.

  I yelped and grabbed my clothes. I kept my gaze averted from his and started babbling to cover up my embarrassment.

  "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. A cricket crawled down my shirt, and those legs were gross, not to mention those wings . . . I probably shouldn't have been standing so close to that bush."

  Once I had my bra and shirt in place, I risked a glance at him. Our gazes met, and my entire body heated with awareness. The air around us crackled with energy as I dragged my gaze down his body and saw that he liked the little distraction I had provided. He liked it a lot.

  I decided that I liked his reaction to my half-naked body. It had been a long time since I had felt desirable, but here, under the moonlight and Jayden’s hungry gaze, I felt like a goddess.

  A slow, seductive grin spread over Jayden's lips. "Now, that was impressive."

  "Jayden, I—"

  Jayden cleared his throat and picked up his croquet ball, breaking the spell. "I thought I played dirty, but man . . . that was epic." He chuckled and swung his mallet over his shoulder. "You're right. You win. You absolutely deserve the win."

  Hollow, available now!