His Only Hope: The Maison Chronicles, Book 2

by Skylar Kade

  About the Author

  Skylar Kade, self-avowed hedonist and princess extraordinaire, started her writing career after throwing aside yet another romance she could not bring herself to finish. The run-on sentences! The purple prose! Oh, the horror of it was just too much. So she sat down to write her own tale. Her favorite part about writing is the extensive research.

  She currently resides in sunny southern California, alternately cursing the polluted air and adoring the often-perfect weather. Skylar spends her time asking the cabana boys to bring her more mimosas and feed her strawberries while she dreams up her next naughty adventure.

  Catch Skylar at her website (www.skylarkade.com), the Nine Naughty Novelists blog (www.ninenaughtynovelists.blogspot.com), or Twitter (@skylarkade).

  Look for these titles by Skylar Kade

  Now Available:

  The Maison Chronicles

  Maison Domine

  His Only Hope

  Taking bonding and exothermic reactions outside the laboratory…

  Maison Domine

  © 2009 Skylar Kade

  Organic chemist Lara Brunner is at loose ends. Since childhood, her life has been focused on work and achieving success in her field. Only now, weeks away from her tenure review, she realizes she’s pushed herself too far. Casting about for a way to release her stress-crazed body from career tension, she visits a BDSM retreat, hoping a weekend of sexual submission will do the trick.

  Inducting her into the lifestyle is her at-work nemesis—Jaxon Greene. But the sinful intent she encounters in Jaxon’s sexy eyes makes her heart race with desire…and fear. Gorgeous men like him don’t go for zaftig academics like her. Once the fantasy weekend is over and real life returns, he’ll forget all about her.

  Jaxon is blindsided by his intense attraction to Lara. The more time he spends with her, the stronger their invisible bonds become. Bonds that are stronger and more permanent than any knot he can tie. He’s not normally into converting vanilla women to his lifestyle, but something makes him want to cast his inhibitions aside and claim her for his own.

  First, though, he has to free her from preconceived notions of proper sex…and love.

  Warning: This story contains bondage and whips and sexy professors—oh my!

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Maison Domine:

  As soon as Jaxon Greene’s hand settled around her neck, Lara was pulled under his wicked spell. It had to be magic. It was the only way she would be shamelessly flirting, and in public nonetheless. She was surrounded by people, and he wasn’t even caressing her, but she was wet. Soaking, actually. What was happening to her? She never let her dates manhandle her, never gave them such control over her body.

  “You…jerk! Let me go.” Lara felt the need to put up a token resistance. Who was he to stalk in and claim her like a caveman? She was a renowned scientist, dammit! And more importantly, why the hell was he interested in her? Lara may have accepted her body, but she was a realist. Jax ran in Hollywood circles, and she would never be that type of woman.

  Jaxon let his fingers slide from her neck. Callused fingertips brushed across her collarbone and down to her hand. She looked down, surprised to find their fingers intertwined. “I can’t let you go.”

  Preoccupied by the delicious texture of his large, warm hand, she didn’t respond right away. And when she did, Lara could tell her voice was…distracted. “Can’t? Or won’t?”

  “Can’t, Lara. I’m shocked to see you here. Although, I’m not too surprised. Had I known you were into the lifestyle, I would have asked you out much sooner.” He lifted their locked hands to his mouth. Warm, damp lips brushed over her knuckles. The caress was brief, but she felt the aftershocks zing through her body and settle in her clit. It throbbed in time to her heartbeat, which had started racing as soon as she saw Jax walk into the room.

  “Why?” she squeaked, wincing at the undignified sound. Chemistry professors of her caliber were not supposed to be unnerved. She was becoming a disgrace to the profession.

  He chuckled, and the vibrations tightened her nipples to the point of pain. She needed to escape, to go back to her room, and bury herself in grading and experiment research until she forgot the feel of him. Or come over and over until this desire went away. The latter was definitely more appealing.

  She had visions of Jax looming over her, his hard cock filling her. Or of his mouth, his tongue, teasing her to the brink over and over, before filling her perfectly with his long fingers to send her careening into an explosive orgasm.

  Lara came back from her wet daydream to see Jax smirking at her. The rat bastard. He knew she’d been thinking about them having sex. How dare he not offer to help her out of her misery, to take her over and over until she blacked out from the pleasure, instead of just offering to train her? As Sam had told her before she left, orgasms were not part of the so-called training sessions unless offered by the Dominant.Maison Domine www.samhainpublishing.com 19

  Damn, she was not the kind of woman to swoon for a man the second he looked her way!

  He brought her hand to his mouth again, this time scraping his teeth lightly across the pad of her palm. Shivers zipped across every nerve ending in her body again. She let out a little whimper before she could bite off the sound.

  “Because you are different from the others,” he said in between little nips and licks to her skin. “There is something seductive about seeing a woman submit for the first time. Especially one as controlling as you are. I can see it in your eyes, in the lines of your body. You don’t know how to revel in your sexuality, and you’re afraid of embracing it, for fear of losing yourself beneath the intense feelings you would be opened to.”

  He, the famous Jaxon Greene, PhD, wanted her. The mousy little nerd. It was a sign of the Apocalypse, for sure. She opened her mouth to protest his assessment of her, true though it might be, but his mouth covered hers, shutting her up.

  Oh, the taste of him! It was like sweet mint and sin, simultaneously cool and blistering hot. His tongue reached out to lick across her bottom lip, silently begging entrance. Who was she to deny him, especially when he was making her knees oh-so-weak? She forgot she was not that kind of girl.

  Her fingers tangled into the lapels of his jacket, bringing the intoxicating scent of leather closer to her. Lara’s head swirled and her knees buckled under her. But Jax was there with an arm around her waist, holding her up. The other twisted into her hair, pulling on her scalp with little pinpricks of pain. It only served to turn her on more.

  Lara distantly heard a throat clear. The second “ahem” was a little louder, a little more forceful. With great difficulty, she pulled her lips away from Jaxon’s and looked over his shoulder. Kat stood there, hands on her slim hips, and a smug smile on her delicate face.

  “I’ll take the tonsil hockey to mean you’ll work with her, Jax?” She looked like she was barely suppressing her laughter.

  He groaned, rolling his forehead across Lara’s in a gesture of part frustration, part tenderness. He looked into her eyes and smiled wryly. “I lost track of where we are.”

  She smiled back. “I did too.” The spell he wove around her was broken and she could feel the blush creeping up her neck. She was in a room full of strangers, and she was practically climbing all over the most gorgeous man she had ever met like she was one of his model/actress floozies—a man she had to see on a regular basis when she returned to the real world on Monday.

  Awkwardness descended between them like an avalanche. The skin around his eyes tightened, letting her know he could feel it too.

  “Oh, no, you don’t, Dr. Brunner. I’ve got you where I want you, and I’m not letting your embarrassment get in the way. We should go make nice and socialize, but I don’t want to give you the opportunity to close up again. Instead, you are going to begin your first lesson with me.”Skylar Kade 20 www.samhainpublishing.com

  She opened her mouth to protest, and he silenced her again with a short, albeit sweet, kiss. “Obedience, L
ara. We will sit and discuss specifics in a little while, but for now, trust me. Trust I’ll be here to catch you when you let go.”

  Dammit, those words again. Let go. First dream-Jaxon, then Samantha, now real-Jaxon. Lara guessed the universe was trying to send her a message. She looked into his eyes, feeling the sparks between them coalesce into something stronger, an invisible thread tying her to him. It scared her even as it made her heart race in anticipation.

  “Okay.” She flashed him a tentative smile. Although she didn’t know Jaxon well, she trusted him. And not only because both Samantha and Kat vouched for him. Besides, she didn’t want to make a scene. They had attracted enough attention as it was.

  She was stuck there for the weekend, so she may as well make the most of the opportunity. Treat it as an experiment. The geeky part of her wanted to take notes and measurements of their time together in order to quantify how different a Dominant could be from an average guy.

  And since Jax had decided he wanted to train her, she guessed sitting back and watching or hiding in her room with a book was out of the question. The idea of participating, of physically experiencing some of what the BDSM lifestyle had to offer, excited her. Way more than she thought it would. Maybe there was something to Sam’s belief that Maison Domine would shake up her life. She could feel the beginning tendrils of change unfurling in her already. Dr. Lara Brunner, giving up control of her life—who’d have seen that one coming?

  Jax reached for her. His hand opened, waiting patiently for her own. For her silent acceptance of his offer to train her for the weekend. Having decided to throw her staid professorial persona to the wayside for the weekend, she took his hand. The question was, would two days be enough to sate her craving for submission, or would she be unable to return to her staid existence?

  She has the right to her pleasure…any way he wants to inflict it.

  Miranda’s Rights

  © 2011 KyAnn Waters

  Jase Ralston gets hot under his very blue collar just thinking about his friend and neighbor, Miranda Carlucci. Yet she can’t possibly be interested—not when she could have champagne, caviar and her pick of Vegas high rollers.

  The bruises change everything. She denies she’s in an abusive relationship, but his cop instincts won’t let him rest until he finds out the truth. When he follows her to a BDSM club and finds her writhing under a flogger’s stinging kiss, his Dom instincts kick in.

  Jase takes command of the scene—and Miranda—at Club Creed. This is what she’s always wanted. Pleasure, pain…and rough-around-the-edges Jase. Yet after his domination transports her to a level of subspace she’s never known, he leaves her—unwilling to continue the scene.

  Confusion gives way to hurt…then anger. He’s claimed her and Miranda wants more. Even if it means confronting Jase and making demands of her own.

  Warning: This submissive woman has the right to be silent. Anything she says could result in being tied up, flogged, and spanked. Law enforcement has never been hotter.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Miranda’s Rights:

  Was this what Miranda yearned for? There was a ribbon of fear coiled around his heart that Miranda would want more than he could give her. She had bruises, hid this part of her life from him, much the same way he hadn’t divulged his desire for control. But he could never hurt her, not without pleasure, not to the point of mutilation.

  With renewed determination, he turned away from the erotic performance and walked with purpose down the corridor. The place was too large, had too many rooms. The closed doors were a problem. If he was going to find Miranda, he needed in these rooms. He approached the next door cautiously, wrapped his fingers around the knob, and turned. The door opened and he peered inside. Empty. He released a breath and leaned against the wall.

  “Where are you?” he whispered. Miranda was somewhere in the club, and Jase hated to think of someone else pleasuring her, of restraining her, of controlling her release. In the time they’d known each other, he hadn’t an inkling she was into BDSM, fetish or anything remotely kinky. Hell, she was from small-town Nebraska. Had he known, would the knowledge have made a difference? Hell yes. He wouldn’t have hidden his predilection for domination. Unless he was wrong, and the intuition that made him a good cop said he wasn’t, not this time. Miranda required that he demand her submission.

  The crack and snap of a whip sounded from behind the closed door across the hall. He hesitantly approached and listened. His own heartbeat thundered in his ears and his ragged breath heightened his awareness.

  Muffled voices sounded from the room. A male and a female. He couldn’t discern what was said but the woman’s voice had a familiar tone. Cop instinct kicked in: assess the conditions, move with caution and control the situation. Jase turned the knob, opened the door and stepped into the room. Chills broke along his flesh. A flogger snapped, the leather tassels delivering a stinging blow to pale skin.

  The master pivoted, the flogger poised to strike again. “This is a private room.”

  Jase vaguely heard the words. He couldn’t focus on anything but Miranda. She knelt naked on the floor, chest rounded over the top of her trim thighs and her forehead resting on her knees. Her blonde hair softly fell around her narrow shoulders and shielded her face from his view. Behind her back, braided rope restrained her arms. The rope wrapped her forearms, bound her wrists together and tied her wrists to her ankles. Her ankles were tucked tightly under her bare rounded buttocks.

  “Do you have a problem?” The man tightened his grip and took a step toward Jase.

  “Yeah.” With his first word, Miranda visibly trembled. “Were you with her two nights ago?”

  “How is that any of your fucking business?” He tapped the flogger against his thigh. The tassels swished and Miranda whimpered. Red marks crisscrossed her bared back where the man had thrashed her with the flogger.

  Jase slowly dragged his gaze from Miranda. “Oh, I assure you, she’s my business.” He grabbed his badge from his waistband and flashed his detective shield to the bare-chested man.

  The guy cocked an eyebrow. “I guess that makes her your problem.”

  “I asked you a question,” Jase repeated.

  “Wasn’t me.”

  “Then get out.”

  “Whatever.” He tossed the flogger to a small bench. “Don’t be gentle. She likes it rough.” He crossed to a small closet and grabbed his shirt. He pulled it over his head and strode to the door. His voice softened as he spoke to Miranda. “Sorry, love, but I don’t need trouble.” His gaze met Jase’s. “In case you want to know, I haven’t fucked her. Sex wasn’t part of the contract.” He slipped out the door.

  Jase squatted down on his haunches to see her face in the restrained submissive pose. “Are you okay?”

  She didn’t speak.

  “Miranda, answer me.”

  “I’m fine.”

  Jase sighed and clasped his hands together between his widespread thighs. “I don’t know what to say to you. I’m full of questions, yet I don’t really need you to answer. Finding you here tells me everything I should know, doesn’t it?”

  Her heavy breaths seeped into his psyche. Heated flesh released the scent of her perfume. Beneath the subtle fragrance was the musky hint of her arousal. Still, she didn’t speak.

  “When I ask you a question, I expect a response.”

  She nodded.

  “A verbal response,” he said a little more sternly. “This is what you want?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “I worried about you. You should have told me.”

  “Jase—”

  “The reasons no longer matter.” He stood and stripped off his shirt.

  Her head snapped up. “What are you doing?”

  “You aren’t in any position to question.” His palms sweat. Would she ask him to go? She wanted a rough bout of sex, to be told what to do and when to do it. Hell, part of his job was enforcing the law. The time and opportunity had come for her to
acquiesce to his rules.

  “Jase, are you sure you understand?”

  He paused. Oh yeah, he knew exactly what he was doing. “If you want me to leave, say so now.” He glanced around the room. The flogger waited on the table. Tempting, but not tonight, not after the man who just left had flogged her. He let his eyes rest on her again. The ropes were sexy. Those would stay.

  “I know what I want and I know what you need.”

  His Only Hope

  Skylar Kade

  This time, he’s not giving her up without a fight.

  After two grueling years caring for her terminally ill mother, Hope O’Shea is eager to start fresh. Except her first interior-decorating job is for a popular BDSM club—part of her kinky past she misses, but had to leave behind.

  Worse, she somehow ends up in the arms of her ex-Dom, Gabriel Cassidy. The one man who could strip her emotions bare, so bare that rather than reveal her painful history, she ran.

  Gabriel never understood why Hope left without even a goodbye. Determined to get answers, he entices her to Maison Domine for a weekend on the promise of meeting the owner for another decorating job. Except being with her again reminds him why he loved her in the first place—and why she shouldn’t trust him as her Dom.

  As their attraction reignites, Hope is transported back to the sub-space bliss she felt only with Gabe. Then a nightmare from her past shows up at the club, and with no other safe place to turn, she has no choice but to trust Gabe with her shame. Leaving Gabe with a devastating choice—reveal his last secret…or lose his Hope.

  Warning: This book contains a feisty interior decorator, a dominating leather worker, heart-wrenching sex and redemption.

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