“Don’t stop.”
“Oh, I won’t.” He rolled his hips, his pubic bone grinding against my ass. He sank in again, keeping me slick and spread with another urge to climax. “Never. I never want to stop.”
His pace hastened, his panting deepened. The rub of his shaft drew cries from so far within me they sounded foreign in my ears. He fucked me harder, faster, and I pushed down over him, my walls rippling and convulsing once more.
“Dean!”
He moaned. He slammed deep, once, twice and then as hard as he could, his breath windy in our tremble.
“Oh my God,” I murmured.
For a while, we stood there—Dean’s hands caressing the rope and my skin. I didn’t notice the nip of the wind, only the heat of his body around mine. Soon, he lifted my coat from the ground and wrapped it around us so we could keep staring out at the silver-tipped waves in the bay.
“Maya?”
“Yes, Dean?” My heart had settled into a steady, happy rhythm. I’d never been more comfortable, more alive.
“I love you.”
I squeezed the arms he’d curled around my torso, smiling at the ocean of possibilities before us. “I love you, too,” I said.
Because this was what it felt like to be free.
* * * * *
Dean and Maya’s adventures in BDSM continue in THE DISCIPLINE,
Coming March 2017 from Carina Press!
Acknowledgments
My respect and gratitude are heaped first on my editor, Rhonda Stapleton, whose insight and enthusiasm for this book have made the process of fine-tuning both exhilarating and fun. Next, a huge thank-you goes to the Carina Press team, all of whom working with has been a dream, and for taking on this little project of mine. I’d also like to thank my agent, Jessica Alvarez, for her patience, support and excitement over Maya and Dean’s journey from day one. A fond debt of gratitude goes to the many writers who inspired me in the genre, and to all the anthology editors I’ve worked with, too—especially Rachel Kramer Bussel, who sent me dancing through my living room the day she said she’d like to publish my first story. I am truly honored to have worked with each of you!
On a more personal level, I wouldn’t have gotten to this place without the love and support of several very dear friends and colleagues. A smooch-filled note of appreciation goes to Tamsin Flowers, talented writer and sassy Beta Babe extraordinaire—for our friendship, delightful DM essays and all your encouraging exclamations over the earliest version of this book. Thank you also to Malin James—not only for your incredible role as part of the Beta Babe Team reading this story more than once, but for inspiring me with your own beautiful stories, hours of advice and the wonderful friendship we’ve shared before, during and since (not to mention all those text brainstorms over the fate of Maya and Dean!). To Nick, I raise a bourbon for keeping me grounded and laughing most of the time. Many kisses go to Molly and Michael, for your warm, sweet cheers from the other side of the pond. And finally, endless love and appreciation to Skye and Erica—you two are the amazing women who have known me longer than anyone and were my anchors back in the days of the storm. Thank you for being the most dedicated, caring friends anyone could ever have.
Also available from Jade A. Waters
and Carina Press
The Discipline
The Reward
About the Author
Jade A. Waters has been writing for almost thirty years, but it wasn’t until the past three that she passionately took on the title of “erotica author and poetess.” Since then, her short fiction and poetry have been featured in over a dozen anthologies, including Best Women’s Erotica, Best Erotic Romance, Coming Together: In Verse, The Big Book of Orgasms and Bondage Bites, with a few of her stories also narrated on The Kiss Me Quick’s Erotica Podcast. Jade’s colorful past includes a math degree, a stint as a semiprofessional aerial acrobat, a short run onstage and a few years laboring in her self-imposed costume shop—but these days, she tends to focus on her love of words, be they on the page, read aloud or shared in good conversation. She has a fondness for sugar, coffee, dancing, karaoke and the entire California Bay Area, which is where she’s lived and worked for most of her life. Currently, Jade is hard at work on the next book in the Lessons in Control series, but she’d love for you to visit her website, jadeawaters.com, or say hello on Twitter or Facebook.
Introducing the Carina Press Romance Promise!
The Carina Press team all have one thing in common: we are romance readers with a longtime love of the genre. And we know what readers are looking for in a romance: a guarantee of a happily-ever-after (HEA) or happy-for-now (HFN). With that in mind, we’re initiating the Carina Press Romance Promise. When you see a book tagged with these words in our cover copy/book description, we’re making you, the reader, a very important promise:
This book contains a romance central to the plot and ends in an HEA or HFN.
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Look for this line in Carina Press book descriptions:
One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!
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Satisfy your desire for more erotic romance with one—or all—of these!
THE DIRTY SECRET by Kira A. Gold
“Interior design has never been as sexy as it is here… Gold packs this story with a wealth of sensory detail, perfectly complementing the emotional and sexual development between the leads, creating a thoroughly satisfying tale.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
THE VENGEFUL LOVE trilogy by Laura Carter
He’s a devastatingly handsome, filthy-rich CEO. She’s a high-flying London lawyer. All it takes is one boardroom pitch. One hostile takeover. VENGEFUL LOVE is darkly suspenseful, sinfully sexy white-collar romance at its very best.
VENGEFUL LOVE (Vengeful Love, book one)
VENGEFUL LOVE: DECEPTION (Vengeful Love, book two)
VENGEFUL LOVE: BLACK DIAMONDS (Vengeful Love, book three)
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JERICHO BROTHERHOOD: a dark, erotic motorcycle-club romance series by Jade Chandler
She wanted nothing to do with me. Well, that’s too f*cking bad.
My MC brothers call me Dare for a reason. I never back down from a challenge. And Lila was the sweetest challenge I ever faced.
ENOUGH (Jericho Brotherhood, book one)
RELEASE (Jericho Brotherhood, book two)
DENY (Jericho Brotherhood, book three)
The FALLING UNDER series by Jeffe Kennedy
The kinkier the sexy, the higher the price tag.
GOING UNDER (Falling Under, book one)
UNDER HIS TOUCH (Falling Under, book two)
UNDER CONTRACT (Falling Under, book three)
“Kennedy handles her subject matter with authority (if you can forgive the pun) and makes the premise and choices of her characters entirely believable, all while grabbing her readers by t
heir hearts. Recommended for fans of the Fifty Shades trilogy.”
—Library Journal
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ISBN-13: 9781459293588
The Assignment
Copyright © 2016 by Jade A. Waters
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
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The Assignment Page 28
