by Alex Grayson
“What are you hiding from me, Cookie?”
“Don’t call me that!” she shouts as she begins pacing back and forth like a caged animal. I have no idea what has gotten into her, but she is not the same woman that left me two weeks ago.
“What is it, Morgan? What are you hiding from me or better yet who?” Her head snaps in my direction, I notice nothing but fear in her eyes. “That’s it, huh? You had me come all this way to break my heart.”
I should have known that I could never hold on to her goodness. I wish I had a drink, anything to quell the pain I feel at this very moment.
“Theo.” Morgan takes a step toward me, attempting to comfort me.
“No, call me …” A dark chuckle escapes my lips. “I don’t even know what to have you call me anymore.” I walk past her, brushing her shoulder in the process. An electrical current shoots down my arm, I grip my hand into a fist. Willing myself not to reach out and touch her, to beg her to reconsider.
The lock on the door turns as I open the door, using it as a barrier between her and I. “I have my answers, you are free to leave. Please give Rachael and Liam my congratulations. I am sure they will both forgive me for not attending, given the circumstances.”
“Theo, please. You don’t understand.” Tears are streaming down her cheeks. I want to comfort her, but what could be left to say?
I release the door handle; the door shuts with a slam. “What could possibly be left to say? You don’t love me or quite possibly never did. You came home and now want nothing else to do with me.” I open and close my hands, attempting to keep calm.
All I want to do is rage at Morgan, better yet at the world.
“How could you do something like this to me? You know what I went through, you know everything but still, you led me along. You made me believe that I could love you, that I could have a chance at being in the light.”
Unable to look at her, I turn my head to the side. The pain has begun to consume me, tears collect in my eyes. I will not let her see me crumble.
“Get out,” I manage to grit out through clenched teeth. “Please, Morgan. I just can’t.”
The silence is deafening, only the sound of our breathing can be heard. Unable to hold my anger in any longer I turn and storm toward her. Even with a tear-streaked face, she has never been more beautiful to me, but that beauty means nothing if she doesn’t return my love. Gripping her by the shoulders, I begin to shake her.
“Say something. Anything. Just explain to me what I did wrong, where I went wrong. Why did you stop loving me so suddenly?”
“I love you, Theo. I’m so sorry, but I was scared to tell you. To tell you … I’m pregnant.”
I smash my lips to hers, pouring all my pain and frustrations from the last few days into this one kiss. Luckily, she doesn’t resist me. Releasing her shoulders, I slide my hands down her back and pull her tightly into my chest.
We break apart only slightly, gasping for air. “You are in so much trouble, cookie. I happen to have my paddle in my suitcase. Someone has been a very bad girl.”
Her tinkling laughter fills the room, bringing a smile to my face. I bury my nose into her hair, breathing her scent in. “I was afraid I had lost you.” I begin nibbling down her neck, suddenly more occupied with the way her skin tastes than on why she was ignoring me.
“Did you even hear what I said?” she asks as I back her slowly toward the bed.
“That you love me. There were some other words after that, but my brain short-circuited in relief once those words passed your lips.”
Morgan pushes on my chest gently, halting me in my tracks. “I’m pregnant, Theo. You’re going to be a father.”
I give her a gentle push causing her to tumble back onto the bed. “You’ve made me the happiest man in the world.” I begin to unbutton my shirt. “But don’t think because you are having my baby you get out of getting punished. I just have to get a little creative now.”
Morgan begins to giggle again as I cover her body with mine. “Yes, Daddy.”
About AJ
AJ Alexander is a wannabe psychologist, writer, and author of the recently completed, Odd Jobs Series.
AJ’s passion is writing angst-filled, happily ever afters that have to be earned by her characters. Women with no backbone need not apply. AJ uses sarcasm and an unlimited supply of song lyrics to bring her romance novels to life.
AJ lives in the angst capital of the world, Seattle Washington with her own personal knight in shining armor and her two beautiful girls.
Visit her at www.authorajalexander.com
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Sweetest Sin
Sienna Snow
She's the woman of my dreams.
The one I never should have touched.
The one who owns my soul.
There is nothing I wouldn't do to keep her.
Even play a game, where winner takes all.
1
Hagen
Holy fuck. It was her. The woman of my dreams.
She was gorgeous beyond belief. Golden skin deepened to a darker tanned hue from the Seychelles sun and eyes so green they looked almost artificial. She had a petite frame that barely came up to my chest. She wore a low-cut ocean-blue dress, accentuating her ample curves, something that would be considered too revealing if she’d worn it anywhere else but on a tropical island vacation.
She had no idea of her appeal and was completely oblivious to the attention she garnered from the men in the bar. Men who I wanted to punch for looking in her direction.
She turned to say something to the hostess, revealing an ass that gave me visions of taking her from behind, of holding those luscious curves, of sliding my cock deep inside her.
The hostess pointed in the direction I sat. With sure, confident strides, the woman worked her way to the bar. As she neared, her emerald gaze caught mine.
There was a flash of heat and interest, followed by a slight glance away, telling me she was a bit shy.
She came up to where I sat, stopping behind the barstool next to me, and asked, “Is this seat taken?”
“Not at all.” I gestured for her to sit. “I’d love the company.”
The second she slipped into the seat, a bartender approached.
She gave him a brilliant smile, one that had me feeling a bit jealous.
“Kihineh, Steven.”
Steven set a napkin on the counter and a glass of water on top. “Would you like the same as yesterday?”
“Yes. That would be perfect.”
When he stepped away, I offered my hand. “I’m Hagen.”
“Penny.” She slid her palm across mine, and I could have sworn sparks flared at our contact.
One thing was for sure, I wanted this woman. Maybe if I was lucky, I’d get a taste of her.
“What are you doing in the Seychelles all alone?”
“Who says I’m alone?” She thanked Steven after he placed her drink in front of her.
“Then why are you here at the bar? Shouldn’t you be having a five-star experience with your companion?”
“I’m having a five-star experience right here. I have you to keep me company and a nice pour of one of the most sought-after whiskeys in the world.”
I studied the reddish-gold liquid touched by elderflower in her glass. She’d selected the same drink I was enjoying, Firewater Reserve Black. It was nearly forty-one thousand Seychellois rupees, or three thousand dollars an ounce.
“You have expensive taste.”
“Are you referring to yourself or the whiskey?”
“I’m just a simple man—nothing expensive about me.”
She lifted her tumbler to her mouth, taking a sip of the alcohol. She closed her eyes, savoring the taste, and then licked her plump lips, making me want to groan.
“I doubt that very much. Nothing about you says simple.”
“What you see is what you get.” I lifted my arms out.
; She touched her pink tongue to her teeth. “I do like what I see.”
I had no idea how to respond to her. So instead, I picked up my own whiskey, swirled the amber liquid, and took a deep gulp, letting the whiskey heat my belly and clear the haze I’d been in since I saw Penny walk into the bar.
She glanced at the ring I wore on my left hand, the one I’d wear until the day I died. Symbolizing everything I’d come from and everything I wanted for the future, a gift I’d treasure forever.
“That’s very beautiful, unique.” She ran a finger over the laser-etched platinum.
“Thank you. It means the world to me.”
She traced the Greek letters wrapped around the metal. “What does this say?”
“Starlight’s heart.”
“That’s unique.”
“It is. Starlight illuminates the dark.”
Her fingers slid along the skin on top of my hand. “Are you saying you have a dark soul?”
“I did until Starlight entered it.” I set my other hand over hers, stilling her movement.
She pulled her hand free from my hold, and instantly, I missed the feel of her touch.
“Are you here for pleasure or business?” I asked.
“Pleasure mainly, but this resort carries some of my products so I can do a little business as well.”
“What’s your business?”
She tapped my glass. “This is my business.”
“The glass?”
“No. What’s in it. You’re drinking my product.”
I studied her face and the way she waited for my next words. Whatever I said seemed pivotal in how the rest of the evening would go.
She was the heiress who’d used her genius brain to create a whiskey in a lab that tasted as if had been aged for decades. She was extremely private, and the last thing she’d want was anyone exposing who she was.
“Then I guess I need to thank you for allowing this resort to have exclusive access to your fine whiskey.”
Amusement touched her lips. “If I recall, you were very instrumental and convincing during negotiations.”
“Then I take it you know who I am?”
“I know quite a bit about you and your brothers, Hagen Lykaios.”
My brothers and I had created a real-estate empire based out of Las Vegas but reaching across the world. With the resort we were in now as our newest project. I was here on a much needed vacation with a little business mixed in.
“I feel as if I’m at a disadvantage,” I said. “I know very little about you outside of what’s reported in the press.”
“Then get to know me. I’m sure I can surprise you with how different I am in person than on paper.”
“I doubt it. You’re as wholesome in person as you are in the report I read on you.”
She frowned. “You really have no clue.”
“Try me.” I took her unspoken challenge.
“What if I said that I wanted you to follow me back to my bungalow to do with me anything and everything your eyes have been telling me since I walked into the bar? No strings, no thinking about anything beyond our time on the island. Would you accept? Or would you decline?”
I clenched my glass. There was nothing more I wanted to do than spend the night lost in her, but I wasn’t the type of man to take advantage of anyone, and especially not a woman who had such an innocent aura about her.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Try me,” she countered, making my cock jump at the prospect she was posing.
“Why would you pick me out of all the men here on the island? A good girl like you should want someone opposite to me.”
She scanned me from top to bottom and then back. “Have you looked in the mirror?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Then you should know, you’re like sex on a stick. A woman would have to be stupid not to want a taste of you.”
I nearly choked on my drink, coughing a little. That wasn’t the response I expected. “I don’t think I’ve ever been referred to as sex on a stick.”
“Women may not verbalize it, but we’re definitely thinking it.”
“You’re nothing like you seem.”
She laughed. “Hagen, I may look like a good girl, but it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a walk on the wild or dark side.”
“Which am I?”
“A little of this and a lot of that.” She batted her lashes in an exaggerated flair.
Until this woman, I’d never enjoyed this type of teasing banter. There was something about her that drew me to her, made me want things I could never have imagined a year ago.
“You’re a shameless flirt.” I resisted the urge to cup the back of her head and pull her in for a kiss, knowing a move like that would probably get me a punch in the throat. “If you keep this up, I may decide to keep you.”
“Then, are you turning down my proposition?”
“I thought it was a hypothetical proposition.”
“No, Mr. Lykaios, it was very real. The decision is up to you. Am I going back to my bungalow with or without you?”
This woman was going to be the death of me. No sane man on earth would resist an offer like hers. But she wasn’t the kind of woman anyone could walk away from. She was the type to keep, the type to grow old with, the type of woman a man like me would never deserve.
“I’m waiting.” She tapped her sandals on the footrest of her chair.
I shot back the rest of my whiskey and turned her stool to face me. “If we do this, know that I will own you, possess you, and you won’t ever want any other man again.”
She swallowed and said in a voice that was much more confident than I expected, “Is that a threat?”
“It’s a promise.”
“Good.” She slipped from her stool and then looked over at me with a seductive smile. It was a move that had me wanting to throw her over my shoulder and claim her. “Then I expect you to deliver.”
2
Penny
What the hell was I doing? I’d never seduced a man before. My experience with men, in general, was limited at best.
But then again, this was the only man I’d ever had such a visceral reaction to. From the moment our gazes touched, I wanted to lick every tattooed inch of him. He wasn’t the type to ever be tamed, to ever let anyone control him. I should be scared, should know better than to tempt the caged beast I sensed while at the bar.
But there was something about the way he watched me as if he were a man starved and waiting for me. I was drawn to him and couldn’t help myself. And I knew without a doubt, with him I was safer than any other place in the world.
I’d come to this resort to relax, explore a different side of myself. To be carefree, uninhibited. To leave the planned, regimented girl at home. To do what my mood decided.
I guessed telling a man I wanted him to show me a night I wouldn’t forget counted.
“You still with me?”
The deep rasp of his voice washed over me. It eased the nerves dancing up and down my spine. Then, when he set a gentle hand on my lower back, not only to calm me but to claim me, I almost sighed.
“Yes.”
“Then when we get inside, know I’m calling the shots. You do what I say, when I say, how I say.”
My sex grew slick with arousal from the images his words conjured in my mind.
Hagen slid an arm over my stomach, stopping my steps and pulling me back against his aroused body.
“Are we clear?” His stubbled beard rubbed along the sensitive skin of my neck, causing my nipples to pucker and my pussy to throb.
“Y-y-yes.”
The rest of the walk to my bungalow was in silence but filled with desire and a need I couldn’t understand.
Using a chip on a bracelet I’d received at check-in, I opened the door, walking in with Hagen close behind me. He engaged the lock and then moved to lean against a nearby wall.
The wicked promise in his dark blue gaze had me wanting to squirm where I stood.
“Nice place.”
“Yes, it is.”
The oceanfront bungalow was an unexpected surprise when I’d arrived yesterday. As was the seclusion from the rest of the resort. It was as if I was in my own private island oasis.
Something perfect to share.
With the right man.
With Hagen.
As if sensing my thoughts, Hagen took slow, measured steps in my direction. My heartbeat accelerated as he got closer and closer.
When he stopped in front of me, he cupped my face, tilting it up. “Let’s get one thing straight before we begin. You aren’t a no-strings kind of woman. You’re the kind of woman a man will happily get tangled in knots over.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but his grip tightened. “There is no getting rid of me. You threw down the gauntlet, and I picked it up. Now you have to accept the consequences.”
“But, Hagen—”
He cut off my words with a thumb to my lips.
“These are the only things you’re allowed to say unless I ask you a question.” His mouth brushed mine.
“Yes, Hagen.”
Kiss.
“More, Hagen.”
Kiss.
“Right there, Hagen.”
Kiss.
“Please, Hagen.”
He nipped my lower lip with his teeth, sending a delicious mix of pleasure-pain to my core.
“Do you understand, Penny?”
I knew there was no way I would comply with his demands. I wasn’t the type of woman to stay quiet or hold in my thoughts and opinions.
However, I found myself saying, “Yes, Hagen.”
Something about Hagen made me want to comply with everything he wanted of me. And I knew without a doubt, I’d willingly suffer the consequences when I eventually broke his rules.
His mouth crashed down on mine, and all thoughts left my mind except for the need to let this man consume me. My arms wrapped around his neck as he deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue against mine.
God, he tasted like heaven, like I’d come home.
