by Nina Pierce
Dressed only in stiletto heels and an intricate set of chains and leather that left none of her feminine assets to the imagination, the woman smiled down at Jonny. The spark in the submissive’s eyes said she recognized Claire’s breakfast companion before she quickly shifted her eyes to the tiled floor.
Though she’d taken in the whole exchange, Jonny’s focus never left Claire’s face and she found herself inexplicably pulled into the crackling energy of his attention. He cleared his throat and turned his cup over with the quiet deliberation of a man in charge of his surroundings. “I’ll have some of that.” His full lips curved in a predatory smile that had Claire’s heart skipping a beat or two.
If only I were a decade younger.
She had speculated back in Indiana how this friend of Ryan’s had come to recommend such an interesting vacation spot. Now she was curious to know how many times he’d been here.
“May I get you anything else, Ma… Sir?” the pretty blonde asked, color rising in her cheeks.
“I’ll take a steak medium rare, a couple of eggs over hard and a bowl of fresh fruit sliced thin,” Jonny said evenly. Ordering breakfast had never sounded so sensual, but with his magnetic gaze focused so completely on her, Claire couldn’t help but shiver at the command in his tone. “Claire, do you want anything else?”
His question snapped the connection between them and she looked up at the waitress. “A bowl of fruit sounds wonderful, thank you.”
The submissive nodded at him and walked backward a few steps before turning to leave them alone. Oh yeah, they definitely know each other. Claire’s stomach did a slow roll imagining Jonny as a Dom. The waitress had definitely wanted to call him Master, but she’d stopped. Claire had no doubt he’d answer any questions she asked, but she had no desire to push the subject since it would mean sharing with her baby brother’s best friend exactly how she’d passed the hours last night. And that was definitely not going to happen.
“Do you have plans for today?” he asked over the rim of his cup.
Grateful for the change of subject, she forced herself to release the tension in her shoulders. “I’ll probably just hang out and relax on the beach.” She lazily lifted her hand, trying to pull off an air of nonchalance. “You know, go for a swim, maybe sneak in a nap.”
“You came all the way to Key West in the dead of winter to nap?” He set his cup down and leaned forward on his elbow. “Please tell me that’s a euphemism for hot, sweaty sex with some Dominant male.”
“Are you offering?”
Slowly, with intense concentration, he removed his sunglasses and tucked the earpiece in the open collar of his shirt. He leaned forward until he was only an inch from her face, the chocolate pools of his eyes boring into her. “Claire, there’s nothing I’d like more.”
Her mouth worked, but she couldn’t push air past her astonishment. The words had tripped out uninvited. She’d been caught off guard by Jonny’s brazen audacity, and it raised her hackles. Claire had responded with her usual sarcastic banter that somehow seemed very inappropriate in these surroundings.
He continued to pin her with his gaze, his voice dropping low and even. “Let’s face it, Claire, we’re both adults. We’re in paradise.” He sat back, giving her room to breathe, and lifted his hands to indicate the palm trees and sugar-white sand. “Who’s going to know?”
She toyed with her napkin. “We’d know. I mean you’re not… And I’m definitely not…” Claire tried to laugh off his absurd suggestion despite the hot curl of hunger clenching her gut.
“Claire, do you remember the day Dominic got stuck in the tree?”
She wasn’t sure how he’d jumped from an absurd proposition to a question about her son, but she went with it and simply nodded.
“The day you thought you’d overcome your fear of heights?”
The day he referenced had been one of the scariest days for her as a parent. She’d come home to her mother’s house to find her five-year-old dangling precariously from one of the highest branches. Dominic had scrambled up wooden slats hammered into the trunk by her brother years earlier. She’d started up the old oak, white-knuckling every grip, trying to focus on getting her son to safety.
“Your brother and I arrived right behind you.” He put his hand over hers. “Your mother was crying and apologizing. Dominic was screaming, but you were stubbornly working your way up to protect your son.”
“You called me down.”
“But you wouldn’t come. You focused on Dominic and not your own fears.”
“You came up after me. Guided me to Dominic. Protected me. Then made jokes about squirrels and nuts and bird parties. You had us laughing so hard he forgot how scared he’d been. I still blame you for his love of climbing.” She hadn’t thought of the incident in years. “Dominic never knew how frightened I was.”
“But I did.” His thumb rubbed across her knuckles. “I fell hopelessly in love with you that day. Even at nineteen, I knew you were something special.”
“Don’t be silly, Jonny.” She dropped her gaze and slipped her hand from his grasp. “It’s nothing every mother on Earth wouldn’t do for her child.”
“I’m not in love with any other mother on Earth.”
“Seriously, Jonny. Setting aside the whole age issue, there’s still the fact that I seem to disappoint every man in my life. And you don’t want any part of that.” She hadn’t intended to, but her eyes flitted down to the computer, her mind back to the man who had laid claim on her.
He followed her gaze. “Checking up on someone?”
She forced a laugh. “The computer? No, I was just checking my email to be sure no one needs anything at work.” Claire hoped he believed the lie.
Jonny sat back again. “Claire, I doubt Maid in a Minute will collapse with its CEO on a much deserved three-day vacation…if this weekend can actually be considered a vacation.”
“I know.” The flame of uneasiness spread up her neck to sit hot on her cheeks. She’d been surfing the internet, looking for answers. Her inbox had barely been skimmed. “But you know how I am.”
“Yeah, I know how you are. You worry too much about what other people think of you.” His gaze wandered her face, and Claire had to work hard not to shrink once again from the potency of his scrutiny. How had she never noticed the intensity of his gaze?
“Seriously, just checking work emails,” she said, miffed that her voice cracked on the lie.
“No, you weren’t.” In one swift motion Jonny had the computer out of its bag, open and in his lap. “I bet…”
“Don’t—” She tried to get it back before he could see what pages she had open, but he twisted his shoulder to block her. A couple clicks of the keys and Jonny no doubt would have the truth of her steamy explorations.
“Please tell me you’re not thinking about him.” He flashed the screen at Claire, relief flooding over her as he displayed the social media site she’d looked at earlier.
I wasn’t thinking of him. She had finally had the guts to confront her fiancé last week about their relationship. He didn’t love her—not in the deep, last-forever, to-die-for love she wanted. Settling was no longer in her vocabulary. They’d both decided to end the engagement. Instead of saying as much, she simply shrugged, hoping to steer Jonny in the wrong direction.
“Seriously, Claire.” He shook the computer at her. “You didn’t actually think he’d be regretting his decision and be posting broken-hearted updates, did you?”
She’d been looking at the social networking site, but it had been nothing more than morbid curiosity as to whether her ex-fiancé was missing her. In reality, his pitiful blathering no longer concerned her. Any more than the email he’d sent yesterday, begging her to come back to him, had even caused a slight flutter of her heart.
Jonny peered at the profile in front of him. “Nope. Still says single, looking for a relationship.”
It did hurt a little that the man who’d courted her for two years could walk away so easily.
They weren’t right for each other and Claire had known it all along. The fact that her fiancé had asked her to give up her business had sent warning flares flying all over the place. At this stage in the game, she wasn’t about to give up anything in her life for a man. Been there. Done that. Had the empty bank account to prove it.
She was all about controlling her own destiny. But two days ago, when they’d both decided to end their engagement, it hadn’t been relief flowing cold through her veins, but a massive case of self-doubt and insecurity.
Don’t go there, Claire. She lifted her chin even as she wrapped her arms around her chest to protect her heart. Jonny loved her like a sister. She understood that. Still, Claire thought it would be nice if she could avoid the heartache all together and find a man who appreciated what she brought to the relationship rather than trying to mold her into his idea of the perfect woman. She was becoming increasingly convinced it would never happen.
All she ever seemed to do was disappoint. She’d proven that three times over.
Her fingers toyed with the gold band on her arm, reminding her there was at least one man who wanted her—even for a short while. Jonny had misinterpreted the tears she’d swept away when he’d sat down. They weren’t for the man she had left but for the one she would leave behind when this weekend ended.
“Claire.”
He said her name softly, but it was enough to pull her back to the present. A smile curved his mouth but didn’t erase the pity she saw in his eyes.
“Stop thinking of him,” Jonny said. “You need to forget that little weasel and move on.” He leaned closer, his hand resting on her forearm. She was acutely aware of the heat of his thigh brushing against hers as he spoke quietly. “That man isn’t worth all the tears you’ve given him.” The deep timbre of his voice sent shivers skittering down her spine. “You deserve so much more than he could ever have given you. Count yourself lucky.”
“Jonny.” Claire dragged his name out slowly. He’d said everything she’d been thinking. When had this kid become a man with such a tender heart and a surplus of insight?
She’d first met Jonny Brierton as a gangly teenager who’d joined her baby brother at the Calderwood family dinners, right after her first romantic dreams of marriage had imploded and reality kicked her straight back home. And now, all these years and a whole lot of crap later, she was a divorcee, mother of a college senior, and two-time loser in the relationship department while little Jonny had only grown taller, more handsome and very wealthy in some lucrative land development deals. Yeah, sometimes life sucked and then went downhill from there. Claire wondered when she’d hit the bottom.
She mentally shook herself from those foolish thoughts. If anything, last night had shown her how much a man could desire her. Jonny was right. She deserved so much more than what the men in her life had offered. If she took nothing else from this weekend, Claire promised herself she’d carry her pride and a new sense of self-worth back home.
“You didn’t really think he was back in Indiana wishing he’d actually come on this vacation, did you?” He held up his hand to wave off her reply. “Let me answer that…he’s not.” Jonny tapped the keys a couple of times before closing her computer and tucking it back in its case. “Any guy who would let another man join his lover on a secluded tropical island is an asshole, Claire. Just be grateful you found that out before…”
She stared at him, willing him to finish the thought. When he didn’t, she spat out the truth. “Before I made another colossal mistake?” It galled her after the pep talk and tender words that he would throw that in her face.
“I was going to say…before he broke your heart.”
* * * * *
Jonathon dropped the cell phone into the oak drawer of his desk, grateful for the interruption. He’d been sitting in his office below Paradise Cove’s main club for the last hour trying to figure out how to handle Claire. No—not handle—men had been doing that her entire life. The woman needed someone who loved and respected all sides of her—the devoted mother, the caring daughter, the submissive lover as well as the corporate executive with an advanced business degree.
He could be that man—wanted to be that man.
Guilt and fear knotted cold in his gut. He’d come close to confessing everything this morning at breakfast. Seeing the gold band winding delicately around her biceps had sent his heart into overdrive. He wasn’t sure how Claire would react when she woke this morning in one of the staff lounges and found he wasn’t there. He had feared she’d feel abandoned once again and throw it all away. Thank God she hadn’t.
He’d tried to steer her toward the idea of the two of them together, but even his heartfelt confession of love hadn’t been enough to open her eyes to the possibility that there could actually be something between them. The disappointment had wrapped tight around his heart and he’d grabbed her computer, looking for a diversion.
Jon had fully expected to see that Claire had been pining over her ex-fiancé, which she’d done. But a few clicks of her internet history had brought up the XTC Resort website and its staff photos. His heart had skipped several beats knowing she’d been surfing their website. Of course he had no way of knowing exactly what she was trying to find, but he’d hoped she’d been looking for him. Well, not him but Master Xavier, the Dom who had held her last night as she’d allowed herself to purge the anxiety and discontent blinding her heart.
Jon understood how little she valued herself. Knew she believed she didn’t deserve to find a fulfilling relationship. Claire’s life had been nothing but one compromise after another.
Well, he planned to change all of that.
He just needed to move slowly. No one understood better than him what could happen if a Dom pushed a new sub too hard. He’d done it in his early days, not knowing a submissive was too damn stubborn to use her safe word. He’d ended up severely hurting her and it had taken the careful guidance of a more experienced Dom to help her through the trauma.
He still worried when he worked with a new sub. That’s why he was so damn careful about safe words and consensual play. Jon didn’t want Claire to suffer from his mistakes and perhaps run from something that was as much a part of her as her copper hair.
He had tried to get her to talk about last night, but she’d cleverly dodged him at every turn. Finally he’d given up and turned to her computer. Opening her browser history to find the social media site of that scum-sucking asshole who’d thought he should hide his homosexual penchant for floggers and leashes from his fiancé had nearly been his undoing this morning.
When Claire’s fiancé had shown up at his BDSM club in Chicago two weeks ago, Jon hadn’t faulted the guy his fetishes. But the fact that the prick had conceded his marriage to Claire would be nothing more than a façade for a proper college professor had Jon seeing red. Much to his relief, Claire had finally come to her senses and dumped the asshole before Jon had been forced to expose the prick to the academic community.
This vacation for the engaged couple had certainly been Jon’s suggestion. He had hoped Claire would discover what he already knew about her submissive desires. Years of being her friend had confirmed his suspicions. Not a wimpy, whiny, damsel in distress kind of submissive, though that’s what the men in her life had believed. No, his Claire—the one he’d fallen in love with—was a strong, independent woman capable of pulling herself up from the ashes of failure and making a life for herself and her son. But sexually, he’d just known she’d blossom under bindings and a paddle.
He just hadn’t expected that he’d have the privilege of wielding it.
When limp-prick had backed out, it had been a simple maneuver to convince Claire to let him tag along on her trip. What wasn’t so simple was convincing his staff, especially the well-trained submissives to ignore him this weekend. Thalia had nearly given him away this morning. He was sure Claire wasn’t quite ready to know the real Jonathon Xavier Brierton. This weekend was about taking one small step at a time.
/> “Yeah, and last night was one hell of a baby step, Brierton.” Jon turned to the antique full-length mirror in the corner that fit the dungeon décor of his office. Even without the blindfold, he doubted Claire would recognize this persona. With his soft curls slicked dramatically back, his boyish features took on hard edges. His eyes became impenetrable dark nuggets of intense strength. His mouth, even curved in a smile, held a sensual air of solemnity. Of course the cleft in his chin and day-old stubble certainly added to his commanding aura.
He’d feared she might recognize his voice this morning, but Claire didn’t see little Jonny that way, so she hadn’t really been listening. Well, he intended to change that. He’d already planned out his next move.
Turning to the pendulum clock on the wall, he knew he should be getting ready to meet his clients in the public dungeon for a two-on-one scene. A long sigh of exasperation escaped. Though it was a service offered to guests of Paradise Cove that he usually enjoyed, Jonathon wasn’t much in the mood for training a new Dom and his submissive. But the trainer in residence had come down with some flu bug last evening, and Ethan had talked him into this last night before he’d gone down into the playroom with Claire. Jon had almost begged off this morning until he realized the unsteady pinch of adrenaline-induced anticipation coursing through his system might best be worked off with a short session with guests other than Claire.
Claire. The woman had been even more responsive than he’d anticipated. He was sure she would walk away after the paddling, but she’d found her strength through the discipline, just as he’d hoped. Jon hadn’t paddled her long enough for the endorphins to float her to subspace, he wouldn’t do that the first time with any sub. But if her orgasm was any indication, the pain had certainly given a new dimension to the foreplay and only magnified her pleasure.
But being a submissive wasn’t about humiliation and punishment. It was the honest exchange of power relinquished and given as a gift without reservation. The courage to let the pain open one’s heart and heal the brokenness. He wanted desperately for Claire to find the strength to let the bondage set her free to give up her failures of past relationships and open herself to a future with him.
