Bound Hearts 01-12

by Lora Leigh

  Sacrifice

  other, in my own moralistic, self-righteous belief of right and wrong, I had committed an even greater sin. I had denied the child I accepted on her birth. Shouldn’t have mattered if she had lied to me, or if she had truly cheated me. I accepted you. And I was wrong.”

  He stared straight ahead as he spoke, his hazel eyes a bit watery, his hands bunched in his pockets as Kimberly watched him in shock, uncertain, confused. She glanced back down at the doll. It had taken longer than a few weeks for this creation. He would have to have commissioned it more than a year before.

  “I don’t expect forgiveness,” his voice was rising again. “Don’t deserve it. But I wanted you know. I know what he does, that man you’re marrying. That Club he’s a part of. I know what it means. I don’t like it. You know I don’t like it…” He stopped, obviously attempting to control the volume of his words. “You’re my daughter. What you do in your privacy is none of my business… I just want…” He broke off again.

  Kimberly stared back at him silently.

  “One day…” he continued, “you might have children. Maybe a little boy, too. I want…” He cleared his throat roughly. “I don’t want to lose the chance to know your children, as I denied the chance to know you… Dammit, don’t cry woman. I won’t have those tears,” he yelled then.

  Before Kimberly could respond he had jerked a handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it to her cheeks. A bit roughly, wiping at the tears before pushing it into her hands.

  “Clean it up…” he snapped, gritting his teeth, lowering his voice. “I can’t stand to see you cry. Reminds me of too many things, Kimberly. Too much pain I caused in the past. Please don’t cry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

  “She tried to tell me at the end,” she sniffed. “And I misunderstood.” He nodded bleakly. “I know. I heard what she said and I misunderstood as well.” He patted her head roughly. “I have to get back. I have work to do, girl. I don’t have 131

  Lora Leigh

  time to stand around here. Just…” He swallowed tightly. “Be happy, Kimmie. That’s all I ever really wanted for you.”

  He turned and began to stalk to the doorway.

  “Father.” He paused as she called out to him. “I’m getting married. Carolyn informs me the wedding is in six months.”

  He grunted roughly. “That woman’s a busybody.” Strangely, his voice was filled with a fondness she hadn’t expected.

  “Yeah, she is,” she agreed. “But I’ll need someone to give me away,” she said hesitantly, wondering if she was only hurting herself with the words.

  He turned slowly. It was his turn to be shocked, filled with disbelief.

  His lips opened. Closed.

  “I don’t deserve to,” he finally whispered. “I never expected to be able to.”

  “If you want to,” she said, aching for the years lost, the father she realized she never knew. “Love me, love my husband, Father.”

  He blinked roughly. “He stole my daughter,” he growled. “But I was doing a lousy job taking care of you anyway. And I would be proud…damned proud, Kimmie, to give you to him. I sacrificed your love for my own selfish pride. But I’d be damned proud to give you away.”

  She licked her lips warily. “I never hated you.” She couldn’t say anything more.

  Right now, she was stunned, unable to explain to herself how this had happened.

  He nodded jerkily. “I’m thankful for that. Now, I have a country to try to help slap back in shape for my grandkids. You keep that man you’re marrying in line.” He pointed a finger at her demandingly. “He’s too damned stubborn and sure of himself.

  Gives the rest of us a bad name…” He pressed his hands nervously into his pockets again. “Love you, Kimmie.”

  He turned and left abruptly then, weaving quickly around Jared as he passed him in the hall.

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  Sacrifice

  Kimberly met her lover’s eyes. He stared back at her in surprise, his lips quirking in sudden amusement.

  “Your father has issues,” he said with all seriousness.

  She shook her head, a smile curving her lips as he came to her, his arms wrapping around her.

  “You’re worth every sacrifice, Kimberly. He only realized that,” he said as he pulled her to his chest a second before her tears flowed again. “Every sacrifice. And trust me, dealing with that pious father of yours is going to be a sacrifice…” She laughed tearfully at the teasing tone of his voice, because there had been nothing pious about her father. Nothing self-righteous. He had made a sacrifice she had never expected.

  She held onto Jared tighter, realizing the gift she had been given in his love. The acceptance, the patience and sheer depth of emotion that now bound them. There had been no sacrifice. Even if she had never seen Briar Cliff again. This, this moment in his arms, was worth losing it all.

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  About the author:

  Lora Leigh is a wife and mother living in Kentucky. She dreams in bright, vivid images of the characters intent on taking over her writing life, and fights a constant battle to put them on the hard drive of her computer before they can disappear as fast as they appeared.

  Lora’s family, and her writing life co-exist, if not in harmony, in relative peace with each other. An understanding husband is the key to late nights with difficult scenes and stubborn characters. His insights into human nature and the workings of the male psyche provide her hours of laughter, and innumerable romantic ideas that she works tirelessly to put into effect.

  Lora welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at P.O. Box 787, Hudson, Ohio 44236-0787.

  Also by Lora Leigh:

  Bound Hearts: Surrender

  Bound Hearts: Submission

  Bound Hearts: Seduction

  Bound Hearts: Wicked Intent

  Cowboy and the Captive

  Dragon Prime

  Elemental Desires

  Elizabeth’s Wolf

  Feline Breeds 1: Tempting The Beast

  Feline Breeds 2: The Man Within

  Feline Breeds 3: Kiss of Heat

  Law And Disorder 1: Moving Violations (with Veronica Chadwick) Legacies 1: Shattered Legacy

  Legacies 2: Shadowed Legacy

  Manaconda

  Men Of August 1: Marly’s Choice

  Men Of August 2: Sarah’s Seduction

  Men Of August 3: Heather’s Gift

  Men Of August 4: August Heat (12 Quickies of Christmas) Ménage a Magick

  Wolf Breeds 1: Wolfe’s Hope

  Wolf Breeds 2: Jacob’s Faith

  Wolf Breeds 3: Aiden’s Charity

  Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC

  on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.

  www.ellorascave.com

  EMBRACED

  An Ellora’s Cave Publication, November 2004

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

  1337 Commerce Drive, #13

  Stow, OH 44224

  ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-4199-0086-2

  Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned): Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) & HTML

  EMBRACED © 2004 LORA LEIGH

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

  Edited by Sue-Ellen Gower.

  Cover art by Syneca.

  Warning:

  The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. Embraced has been rated E–rotic by a minimum of three independent revi
ewers.

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (Erotic), and X (X-treme).

  S- ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.

  E- rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count. In addition, some E-rated titles might contain fantasy material that some readers find objectionable, such as bondage, submission, same sex encounters, forced seductions, and so forth. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry; it is common, for instance, for an author to use words such as

  “fucking”, “cock”, “pussy”, and such within their work of literature.

  X- treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Unlike E-rated titles, stories designated with the letter X tend to contain controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.

  EMBRACED

  Lora Leigh

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Lexus: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation Japan 1

  Embraced

  Prologue

  It was crazy. The worst possible idea imaginable. She had spent three years denying the desire, denying the truth of her own feelings. If she walked up to that room, then it would change things forever.

  Marey pulled her little car into the parking lot of the motel and stared at the exterior nervously. Was she brave enough to do it? Could she actually walk in there and give in to all the desires she had kept hidden all her life, and then walk away as though it had never happened?

  Her hands gripped the steering wheel, her fingers curling around it in a death grip as she fought the tremors that quaked through her body. She didn’t know if she could do it. She had spent too many years fighting it. Unlike her friends, the merry five who had entered into marriages with infamous Trojans, Marey knew she likely didn’t have what it took to carry this off.

  It was one night, her hormones screamed at her. One stupid night of wild, hot sex, stop philosophizing over it. She could do this.

  Couldn’t she?

  Of course she could. She was thirty-five, not twenty, and she hadn’t been a virgin for a long time. Damned good thing, she reminded herself—Saxon Brogan would terrify a virgin.

  She laid her head against the steering wheel, groaning pitifully as she tried to force herself from the car. Wasn’t this what she wanted? she reminded herself. One hot, wicked night with the man of her dreams before reality came with the rising sun and she went back to the staid, sterile life she lived.

  Why? Something snapped within her then. Why did she have to return to anything?

  There was no husband. No children. No parents to catch her in some naughty act. All 5

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  she had were her friends. Friends that one by one had fallen into the clutches of a lifestyle that Marey might not understand, but didn’t condemn. And it wasn’t as if she was doing anything illicit.

  She ignored the flashing thought of the underclothes she was wearing. Or those she wasn’t wearing, she reminded herself.

  She could do this. She raised her head, nodding firmly. There was no law that said the man who fucked you had to love you, was there? Of course there wasn’t. Besides, she loved Sax. The admission was one she rarely allowed herself to make. One she hid from herself as much as possible.

  Fear had held her hostage for years. The fear that her ex-husband, Vince, would finally slip his hold on sanity and kill her. The fear that she was making another mistake, that her heart would pay the price this time. Her pride had been sacrificed to her ruined marriage and Vince’s fury. But her heart. If Sax broke her heart, could she survive it?

  She breathed in roughly. She would have to survive it. Now, dammit, she had waited too long. Fantasies could only sustain a woman for so long, and toys were a poor second to what she knew was waiting for her.

  Sax, with his quirky little smile, his dark eyes, his voice whispering his need for her.

  The sight of his hands, so much darker than her pale flesh, coasting over her body, bringing her a pleasure she had never known before. Dominant, commanding, he was part of the exclusive men’s club that had been nicknamed Trojans. They were dominant, forceful, but even more, they practiced sharing their women, bringing them to heights of arousal that were rumored to leave their women weak for days.

  Her friends had married into the club. And though getting details was like pulling teeth without anesthesia, she had managed to pry out enough to fuel her own midnight fantasies.

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  Was she brave enough? If she could fantasize about it, then surely she had the courage to do it. To go to Sax and take the pleasure she knew awaited her. To see if a future was possible, if the fantasies were a pale excuse for reality, or vice versa.

  She pried her fingers from the steering wheel, grabbed her small purse and opened the car door before she could change her mind. She was a grown woman. A mature adult. And if there was one man in the world who could trip her switches, it was Sax.

  So what if he didn’t love her, if he was miles out of her league. He wanted her. For tonight at least, she could be the woman she wanted to be, with no fear of gossip or reprisals.

  Squaring her shoulders, she moved across the parking lot and up the stairs to the second landing. Room two twenty-nine. She pulled the key card from the side pocket of her purse and gripped it with tense fingers. Nerves shook her body, pounded through her bloodstream. Adrenaline was a crashing crescendo in her ears as she approached the door and drew in a hard, deep breath.

  She could do this. She had waited years, lusting after a man she feared she couldn’t keep. Besides, it was almost Christmas—well, almost Thanksgiving anyway. She could treat herself to something a little different this year. Something hot and wild, something she could carry with her forever, no matter what the future might hold.

  She slid the card into the electronic lock, waited until the light flashed green, then turned the handle slowly.

  See, she could do this. She pushed the door open slowly, and stepped in before coming to a shocking, mind-numbing stop.

  * * * * *

  “What the hell happened?” Sax Brogan was enraged as he entered the ER, coming to a stop as James Wyman rose from one of the plastic seats and moved quickly to meet him.

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  He wanted to hit something. Someone. Every muscle in his body bunched, tightened with the impulse as the other man approached.

  An hour at the police department hadn’t improved his mood. Being suspected of physical assault and attempted rape had been more than shocking. When he learned who he was accused of assaulting, he had nearly lost his mind.

  His only thought was to get to her, to make certain she was okay, to see with his own eyes the damage done.

  “She’s conscious now,” James murmured as he reached him, then waved him toward the elevators. “They have her sedated, though. The injuries aren’t that bad, the concussion is mild. The doctor thinks she’ll be fine.”

  “That crazy ex of hers?” Brogan clenched his fists, fighting his fury. He couldn’t believe this. It was inconceivable.

  “Unfortunately,” James sighed as they entered the elevator. “The detective called a few minutes ago. They have him in custody now, but I don’t know if that’s going to help Marey when she faces you.”

  Sax glanced back at James with a frown. The investigator had told him Marey called the station herself, giving a statement over the phone and securing his release.

  “She knows you’re aware of what happened. That you know she thought she was meeting you in that motel,” he explained patiently. “You know how she is. She’s fought this thing between you two for too long. This isn’t going to help things.” Sax remained
quiet. He stared at the elevator display panel, ticking off the floors until the muted bell sounded and it came to a stop.

  The bastard ex-husband had found her weakness, just as they had all known he would.

  “She’ll get over it,” he finally said, reining in his need for violence. “Starting now.” 8

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  He had stayed away from her out of respect for her, because she had asked him to.

  Her soft voice, her gentle gray eyes had pleaded with him not to press her, and he hadn’t.

  Squire Port, Virginia, home base for Delacourte and Conover Electronics was a small little community. Everyone was at least acquainted with every one else, and many knew each other well. Delacourte Electronics promoted a friendly, casual atmosphere with its employees and their families, and because of that, Sax had known Marey for years. Before the messy divorce and her withdrawal from all but her closest friends. He also knew her ex well enough to know that any relationship he began with her would be marred by the man’s possessive insanity.

  “How did he know to use me?” He stopped at her hospital door, keeping his voice low as he glanced at James once again.

  Sax knew he had been careful, very careful over the past years, to heed Marey’s wishes and stay away from her. He hadn’t liked it. Hell, he hated it to his back teeth, but he had respected her wishes. So how had Vince known she would drop her guard for a secret assignation with him?

  “We don’t know.” James shook his head, shoving his hands in his pants pockets and staring back at him somberly. “We just don’t know, Sax. The police found a note, signed with your name, asking her to join you in that room. Her screams alerted a couple in the next room who called the cops. When they found her, she was unconscious. I think he meant to kill her.”