by Joey W. Hill
"It was rape, but most of it wasn't brutal, except that prick captain with his damned cigars. Just lonely men using a woman they considered the enemy." Yes, it had been worse than that, but as Seth said, she was good at compartmentalizing. He saw it, nodded, didn't pursue it.
"The vampire world is at an odd crossroads. There's a Council of sorts, trying to deal with our on-again, off-again territory wars. Trying to figure out ways for our species to survive our own power games and blood thirst. I could see someone like you being of great use in that world, a stabilizing influence, if you survive your first fifty years. Look at it this way. If you let me turn you, and you change your mind, all you have to do is sit in a doorway like this until the sun rises. Poof, you float away on the wind as ash."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What about my immortal soul?"
"First time I've known you to worry about that." He grinned. "You probably startled the poor thing, asleep like an old friar in the corner. If there's one thing humans or vampires know less than nothing about, it's their immortal souls. Some days I suspect only beasts, trees or butterflies understand its true nature. End of discussion. Your deeds are your map to the afterlife, Kaela. You can only make choices about your earthly life and hope for the best about everything that comes afterwards."
SS
She'd made her decision, hadn't she? She hadn't had any clear sense of whether it was the right or wrong decision. In the end she'd gone on gut feeling.
"Do you want me in your mind, Kaela? Unable to hide any thought from me, no need to speak aloud because I already know what you want and need, even when you can't quite tell yourself?"
She thought of those words Garron had said to her. Was she wrong, not to give Garron the same option Seth had given her? He'd thrown her into a dangerous world, but by that time, she knew all about living in a dangerous world. He'd told her everything he could to prepare her for it and gave her the choice.
If she went that way with Garron, how would she know she hadn't rationalized, serving her own needs and ignoring his? Sacrifice was the only way to keep herself in the clear on that. But maybe that was the point Seth had been trying to make. There was no keeping clear when it came to choices that affected the soul.
Garron had told her it was his choice. Could she look at his scarred face, see the scars in his soul, and really believe she had a better grasp than he did of the consequences of choices? In the end, it was the peace made with those choices that mattered.
She looked along the jagged boardwalk, toward the castle rising high above them. A monument to things that endured everything. Battles, weather, ignorance. It had even persevered when brought God-knows-how to a whole new place, faced with a new reality, a new set of challenges.
"Garron Rand." She said his name quietly to herself. Said it in her mind. Garron Rand. Garron.
She'd been strong for close to two hundred years. She'd survived, but if she wanted to keep surviving, she had to make the right decision here. Vampires usually embraced their selfishness, and just like the human race itself, that self-centered attitude kept them alive, sure of their superiority to everything else. Until something knocked them down and reminded them forcefully what humility was--that they didn't know everything, and sometimes things had to be taken on faith. And what the heart wanted.
Serve me well, Lady Kaela. Lady's Lyssa's voice again. Three simple words. The head of the Council had left the rest to her, how best to do just that.
Garron.
Her heart rate speeded up, along with her pulse. She wasn't speaking his name to keep her company. She was calling him. Garron.
The sudden silence filled her with dread. Had it already happened, that break between their minds? Was he back at Club Sin, lining up his next submissive session? Had she meant so little, that he could dismiss her that way? Bastard. She imagined dismembering the faceless submissive, one lovely long limb at a time.
She was losing her mind. Of course he wasn't doing that. He'd been her Master. He was her Master. He'd left the choker on her, and she put her fingers over the heavy links of the chain she'd refused to remove. She took a breath, inhaled the scent of his T-shirt. With every movement she could feel those two brands, still tender, a dull throb she'd embraced. He hadn't given those things to anyone else.
Master. Please forgive me. Please answer. God damn you, answer me.
Yes, my lady?
There was amusement in his mind voice, and it brought relief, as well as a little exasperation. Were you just waiting, seeing how desperate I would become?
My lady, I'm not a sadist.
Yes, you are. She closed her eyes, smiling as her heart beat faster. Please come home with me. Be my Master...and my servant.
You only had to ask.
Her eyes sprang open, verifying the scent the small crack in her window had brought her. He was walking down the dock, a duffle slung over his shoulder. He was coming to her, but she couldn't wait that long.
"I need out. Let me out. He's coming. He's joining us."
Joely glanced back at her, then out at the dock. She smiled at Kaela. "Just turn the latch, my lady."
As she said it, Kaela was a blink from wrenching the door off its hinges and throwing it to the side. She was out of the plane in a flash, down the docks, not caring who might see her moving faster than a human could move. It was dark, and he was all she could see.
She flung herself in his arms, forgetting her strength, forgetting everything but him, but fortunately he'd dropped the duffle and she only knocked him back a few steps. He rocked on his heels but kept his balance, holding her tight against him, cupping the back of her skull.
"I'm here, my lady. I'll always be here."
"I won't be able to bear it if they hurt you. I won't."
"They can't hurt me past bearing if you're mine." He let her slide down to the dock, though he kept her in his arms as he gave her his steady look, the one that calmed her and made her want to beg for his mouth at the same time. "Do you understand that?"
I want to. But if the worst happens...
"It's the risk we take," he said, matter-of-fact. "The only question worth answering is, is the risk worth it? Is it something we can't live without?"
"I already know my answer to that."
"Yeah, you do." He gave her a cocky grin and she pushed at his chest. She didn't budge him, a testament to the bull strength of the man.
"And I guess you being here is your answer?" she demanded.
"Yeah." He touched her face. "I told you it was my choice. I was waiting you out, just out of sight and down wind, but if you'd waited one more second, I was going to be down this dock and on that plane. I was going to camp outside your door until you agreed it was my choice to make." He frowned. "Where did you say you live?"
"I didn't. California."
"Christ. Crazy liberals and overpriced coffee. The sacrifices I make."
She snorted at that. "If you camped outside my door, Fran would call the police. We'd file restraining orders."
He smiled, slid his fingers into her hair. "I'm coming with you, my lady. Everything I face in your service will be my choice. Everything you face from me behind closed doors will be your choice. Agreed?"
She nodded, and her heart hammered up in her throat again as he bent and captured her mouth with his, a hot, fully invasive kiss where he made it clear who belonged to who, his hands roaming down to grip her buttocks, knead with bruising force as she spoke her pleasure in his mouth, little unintelligible noises of need.
He kept one possessive arm around her even after he broke the kiss, bent and retrieved his duffle. As they proceeded to the plane, Joely shot him an amused look.
"Wondered when you were going to show up," she called out over the idling engines. "Figured starting her up would light a fire under you."
"Mess with me, I'll tell Roan to put you over a spanking bench next time he's here."
"Yeah, not going to happen. Too into Miranda now." Joely smirked at him and turned
her attention to the controls. As she revved up the engines again, Garron tossed his bag into one of the empty seats behind her and helped Kaela in, directing her toward the back of the plane with a firm pressure against her lower back. He gave her the window seat as he slid into the seat next to her, his thigh intimately against hers. The plane rocked as he settled, making Kaela smile.
While Joely verified they'd put on their seatbelts and reminded them of basic safety instructions, Kaela thought about the heat of his thigh against hers, his arm around her shoulder, his scent in her nose, not from the T-shirt but from the actual man.
The plane started to taxi over the water, the engine noise increasing to the point conversation was no longer possible. Garron leaned against Kaela, glanced meaningfully downward.
Why aren't your legs spread so I can play with your pussy, my lady? I intend to make you come at least three times on this trip. The first time before Joely levels the plane out.
Her lips parted as his strong hand settled on her knees. When she spread them, she swallowed a needy cry as he put his hand under the skirt and began to stroke her with capable fingers. Every nerve surged toward that touch, as if how often he'd brought her to climax last night had become muscle memory, such that her body merely needed his command for her to climax again.
That's my vampire. Bending his head, he dropped a kiss on her shoulder. Not a sound. I know you're a screamer, my lady, and we don't want to offend Joely's delicate sensibilities. Or distract her from piloting the plane.
She'd faced a lot of challenges as a vampire and as a human, but she wasn't sure if that was one she could surmount. She didn't think any woman could stay silent when overwhelmed by an orgasm at Garron Rand's hand. But she'd be more than willing to take the punishment for failing to follow a direct order.
He pushed her over that edge in twenty seconds, his fingers playing with her clit, stroking her labia, his arm tight around her. She pressed her face into his broad shoulder as she shuddered against him.
Beautiful, my lady. He brought his fingers out from between her legs, touched her lips, let her smell her musky climax on them. All for me.
She realized she had tears on her face, her throat thick, but for once, for all the right reasons. He traced a track, put his mouth against her ear.
"You know, that fantasy you have about waking up in a Master's arms? I have my own part to add to that." He cupped the side of her face, tilting it up to him with an insistent thumb, the pressure just enough to make her eyes spark and her body still, attuning itself to whatever her Master desired.
I spread my slave as I desire, to fuck her or use my mouth on her. Maybe both. I want to start the day, or the night as it were, with her begging. After she comes, after she's nice and wet, I take her to the bath, get her cleaned up and dressed for the day.
"Then I take my place behind her, watching her back, serving her, keeping her sane and safe." His voice rumbled against her ear again.
Her eyes darkened as he raised his head and met her gaze, brushed a kiss over her mouth. A Master serves, my lady. As I said before, it's just a different form of it, but we get to the same place with our sub--a complete understanding of what we each need and desire. I take the breath and you exhale it, without even thinking. We're that close.
If we can remember that, he added, dark eyes burning fire into hers, and keep working toward it, it won't matter what the world demands of us. We'll be okay together.
"Maybe better than okay," she whispered. He answered her by pressing his response against her mouth.
"Absolutely."
###
Elusive Hero is part of the Invitation to Eden series and a book of the Vampire Queen series. If you'd like to know more about Joey W. Hill's work or that series, visit her website or the Vampire Queen series page at: www.storywitch.com or www.storywitch.com/series-vqs.
Have you read Invitation to Eden's other November releases?
Falling or Flying by R.G. Alexander
Joely knows the island well. A pilot for its most exclusive clientele and one of the few employees who has ever spoken to Eden's Master face to face, she has finally found a place to bury her troubled past and her personal fantasies where no one will ever find them...but the island still has a few secrets left to share.
Austin Wright is a regular visitor, and though his first invitation was meant to mend his spirit after the accident that changed his life forever, each time he's returned his desires have remained stubbornly unfulfilled. He wants Joely. She's resisted him for years, but when a moment of weakness turns into a week of wicked debauchery, there may be no going back. She'll have to take a leap of faith, and hope the landing doesn't break her heart.
Master of Pleasure by Lauren Hawkeye (The Island)
Billionaire Theodosius Vardalos has lived on the island of Eden for over ten years. Though his horrific scars have made him a recluse, he has turned Eden into a resort where the lines between fantasy and reality blur... A place where he sees no one face to face, not even his staff, who have dubbed him "Master of the Island". Even as Theo helps fulfill the fantasies of his guests, he waits... Waits for the mysterious woman who was shown to him when he first arrived on Eden. He recognizes Noelle Davis the second the nosy reporter steps foot in his castle... But the dream woman is nothing like he anticipated. He yearns for her submission. But he wonders... can a woman as beautiful as Noelle truly be happy with a beast?
Her Desert Heart by Delilah Devlin
Aislinn Dupree always prided herself on living in the present, free of her family's dark predilections for magic. However, after losing her partner and lover in a shootout, Aislin is tormented by her memories of the past and the day she lost Marc LeBrun. Her nights are haunted by vividly erotic dreams of them together, and of that painful day her life changed forever, subtle changes occurring each time she dreams, but which never change the painful outcome. At her darkest hour, she's gifted with a decadent island getaway she hopes will help her shed her sorrow. Instead, she meets a man so like Marc, he makes her ache for what she once had. With her waking hours consumed by him and her nights spent roaming her dreams in search of Marc, she begins to lose herself, to dream of another reality where dreams do come true.
Want to Know More about the Invitation to Eden series?
Like what you just read? Sign up for our mailing list to receive new release alerts! For more information about the island of Eden, check out our website.
Make sure to check out the rest of Invitation to Eden series, as follows at your favorite e-book retailer or book seller!) March Master of the Island by Lauren Hawkeye (FREE Prequel) April Random Acts of Fantasy by Julia Kent Yours Truly, Taddy by Avery Aster Escape From Reality by Adriana Hunter May Hydrotherapy by Suzanne Rock
Fight for Me by Sharon Page
June Breaking Free by Cathryn Fox
Hold Me Close by Eliza Gayle
Queen's Knight by Sara Fawkes
July Dare to Surrender by Carly Phillips Ivy in Bloom by Vivi Anna writing as Tawny Stokes Second Glances by Elena Aitken August Rough Draft by Mari Carr
Blurring the Lines by Roni Loren Return to Sender by Steena Holmes September Pleasure Point by Eden Bradley Wild Ride by Opal Carew
October The Capture by Erika Wilde
November Elusive Hero by Joey W. Hill
Falling or Flying by R.G. Alexander Master of Pleasure by Lauren Hawkeye Her Desert Heart by Delilah Devlin December Delicious and Deadly by C.C. MacKenzie Pleasure Games by Jessica Clare How to Tempt a Tycoon by Daire St. Denis
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