by Brynn Paulin
She shrugged, wincing slightly. “I’ll think about it.”
Damn. She was hurting, and he’d neglected to care for her right away as he should have. Alec rolled her to her stomach and examined the pink stripes on her ass. Gently, he pulled a finger along one, feeling the heat rising from the skin. He needed to attend to this before the two of them relaxed much more. Despite his lethargy, he pushed upright and reached for a tub of soothing cream he kept on the bed stand. It would help the marks disappear quickly with little trace other than in their memories. After unscrewing the lid, he dipped his fingers inside and coated them with the thick white salve.
“How long are you here?” he asked. Slowly, he rubbed the cream over the marks he’d made with the flogger, coating each pink streak as his cock rose at the memory of her submission.
She glanced over at his arousal and laughed. “You’re thinking of sex again.” She moaned as he touched her. Resting her head on her arms, she closed her eyes. “So am I.”
“Why not? Eight hundred years is a very long time to wait to be reunited.”
She bit her lip. “I guess it is.”
He didn’t want to think of Ailig or Emma. He wanted to know how long he’d have with this woman who was quickly beginning to replace all the fantasies he’d had about his reunion with this love from the past. “You never answered my question. How long are you here?”
“Until Friday.”
Three more days. Alec frowned. He didn’t have time to waste.
A ringing phone cut off his thoughts. He glanced at the caller ID on the bed stand. Shit. Not now.
“Mum,” he said by way of greeting.
“Hullo, darling. I’m sorry to disturb you but…”
“What happened this time?” he asked when she trailed off. Usually, Vi’s predicaments amused him, but right now he was a bit pressed for time and he had a naked, beautiful woman from his past, and hopefully future too, in his bed.
“Well, I’m afraid—Max, shush! I’m perfectly capable of— What do you mean the Queen should revoke my license. A lot you know—”
“Mum!” Alec yelled. God lord, she’d destroyed another car. It was her fourth in four years.
“Oh sorry, darling. Max is a tad blinkered about this but—”
“Mum, look. Put Max on the phone, will you? You both seem fine, but I need someone to tell me what’s happened.”
“I’m perfectly capable of speaking with you. I’m afraid I’ve lost the car in the moor.”
He closed his eyes. “’Lost as in misplaced?” he asked hopefully.
“Well, no… It’s in a bog. We barely got out the windows before it completely sank. Max’s wallet and all my things…eaten by the mud. Could you come and get us?”
He pushed his hand through his hair and glanced over at Emily. She’d pulled the blanket around her while he’d been on the phone. She’d likely guessed their games were over—for now if he had any say in it. “Yeah, I’ll be there. Where are you?”
A few garbled directions and a phone hand off to Max, and Alec disconnected turning to Emily. “Want to come with me?”
She looked away. “I should go back to my hotel and either work on my book or come up with a new proposal for my editor.”
“I don’t want this to end. Please come with me.”
She shook her head.
Something was definitely wrong. A few minutes ago she’d been ready for anything. Now she was withdrawing like the low tide. “What is it? Vi’s harmless. You’ll love her. She’s the crazy lady down the street…only she’s my mum and Max, my stepdad, puts up with all her antics better than anyone I know. Ran him down with her car while he was riding his bike. She has trouble with cars.”
“She did not!”
“She did. It was love at first sight. Happens a lot in this family.”
“Alec—”
“We know what we want. In business, in relationships, in acquisitions. Call it intuition if you will, but we have a tendency to make split second decisions and know immediately the right way to go. There hasn’t been a person in my family who hasn’t known within a day that they’d met the love of their life.” He’d known when he’d approached her on the beach, before he’d even kissed her—not that he’d tell her that. She’d think he was as crazy as Vi.
“I guess I understand intuition.”
He peered at her. “You have it, too, don’t you?”
She looked away. “Most people think it’s crazy. I don’t talk about it.”
His palm cupped the side of her face. “You’re completely safe with me, love. Is it visions, a knowing, perhaps instant awareness of something that’s happened or will happen?”
“Sometimes I see things,” she admitted. “I just…know things.”
“Emma had visions, you know.”
She sighed and he got the feeling she didn’t want to her about her past persona. Accepting all part of self was difficult. He had the ease born of years. She had hours.
“I wish we could stay here,” he told her, deliberately changing the subject. “I’d like to hold you, just talk for a while.”
“That’s awfully vanilla of you,” she teased, but he saw the desire in her eyes. She didn’t care if they were being kinky of just clinging together—as long as they were together.
“It can’t all be chains and whips even if they are fun.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’ll talk in the car,” she offered. “It will probably do us good to get away from here and the memories anyway.”
Chapter Three
Emily stared out the window while Alec navigated the narrow, twisting road leading into the town where his parents were waiting. Silence had fallen around them after he’d managed to drag the secret of her parents desertion from her. The man was good. She supposed that was part of his power as a Dom. He knew when there was more to a story or an emotion. How many times had he managed to pull more out of her than she wanted to reveal? Even more, there was a mien surrounding him that engendered security—and loose lips.
Despite that, he was exceptionally good at hiding his own feelings. Most of the time. When she’d told him about the people who had produced her—she hated to give them the honorific of ‘parent’—his lips had pressed together so tightly, the edges had turned as white as the tight knuckles that had gripped the steering wheel. His nostrils had flared and she’d half expected to see flames emerge.
And his indignation on her behalf had settled snugly in her heart. His protectiveness alone made her want to give him anything he wanted. Especially the submission he liked. When they were alone again, she fully intended to show him that, too. She’d read enough that she had a fairly good idea of what to do.
As the road finally widened, he reached over and slipped his hand over her leg, tucking his fingers close to her pussy. She knew he’d feel the warmth emanating from her body, but she wondered if he’d feel the dampness. In her haste to dress, she hadn’t searched out her panties. Now between going commando and the way he aroused her, she was paying the price.
The thick seam of her jeans, damp with her cream, rubbed against her clit driving her tension higher.
“Spread your legs a bit,” he said. Instantly, she complied. Why not? Dark had fallen over and hour ago. His fingers lightly ran over the seam which tormented her. “Hmm…this won’t do. Open your jeans and push them down your thighs.”
“Alec!”
“Excuse me?”
She swallowed. “Yes, my lord.”
Her fingers trembled at the closure at her waistband. It was one thing to let him stroke her through her clothes, but quite another to push down her pants. It wasn’t that dark.
Well, hell. She released the button and slid down the zipper. If anyone saw her, they’d never see her again. She was on a plane home in less than a week. Hastily, she thrust the pants to her knees and spread her legs as far as she could while still partially inside the constraining garment.
“Good girl,” he said. Reaching over, he dra
gged his fingers over her slippery folds. “Oh love, you’re so wet. Are you perhaps thinking of my cock driving into you again?” His fingertips dipped inside her, circling and stretching her opening.
“You know I am.” Her hand strayed to his thigh. All her thoughts were consumed by him. She had a feeling that all her future characters would resemble him.
“Rub my cock, love.”
Instantly, she complied, running her palm over the hard ridge behind his fly. The linen pants he’d donned stretched around his engorged arousal, barely containing him. The long column throbbed against her hand. She traced the head of his cock, her body responding to the shape of it beneath her thumb. As he touched her, she imagined this head ploughing the path to her release, scoring over her sensitive tissues and knocking against that elusive spot that would send her chasing the stars.
She groaned and lifted her hips as he pushed two fingers deep inside her. Reflexively, she grasped him. Her hand travelled his length, pushing up and down, his clothing providing extra friction.
Suddenly, he pulled the car to the side of the road. After jerking the hand brake on, he leaned over and captured her lips with his, his free hand tilting her head to give him the best access. His tongue thrust in time with his fingers. The scent of their musk filled the small interior of the car, driving her arousal higher. She breathed it in, wanting to remember this stimulation and the feel of him over her and in her long after she returned home.
Oh God, she didn’t want to go. The thought of leaving him stabbed through her so viably tears pricked her eyes. I’ve searched for him for so long. How can I leave? She knew the voice was not hers, but Emma’s, an etheric memory invading her space and time. Ruthlessly, she shoved it away. Her time with Alec was about here and now, not something that had happened nearly a millennium ago.
Her body prepared to receive her lover, flooding Alec’s fingers with her cream. Lifting her into his arms, he shifted onto her seat and settled her on his lap. A few manoeuvres later, he’d shoved down his pants. She straddled him, her jeans completely off. He pushed up the tail of her shirt, splaying his hand on her back.
“Ride me, love.”
She sank on to him, every wide inch of his cock stroking her as it plunged into her sheath. “Yes, my lord,” she gasped. Her fingers dug into his shoulders. Slowly, she rocked her hips forward. Her clit rubbed against his pelvis. Reaction cartwheeled through her and she screamed when Alec reached up and pinched her nipple.
“Ride,” he urged. And she did, moving up and down his shaft while he guided her.
The headlights of an oncoming car illuminated them and a naughty thrill soared through her. Whoever was coming would be able to see exactly what they were doing if they glanced over. And what if they stopped thinking she and Alec had had car trouble? She pressed her face to Alec’s neck as her body screamed out of control, taken by the danger of discovery and shoved into the chasm of release. Alec groaned as her orgasm clenched around his cock and she jerked with the sensations taking her. His fingers dug into her hips while he thrust upward and joined her, his seed exploding from him.
The lights bore down on them. Shit, this wasn’t good. All he needed was the locals finding them au natural. Working quickly, he helped Emily to quickly don her pants. She lifted away from him so he could yank up his own. A moment later, the car stopped in front of them. Alec pulled her into his embrace, kissing her frantically and holding her tightly on his lap to hide his open fly.
Something metal clicked on the window beside his head. “Sir? Are you alright?”
Didn’t he look alright? For the love of God, he had a gorgeous woman on his lap, kissing him.
“I told you something must have happened. Alec would never take this long to come and get me.”
Great. The local authorities and his mother. Alec rolled down the window. “Mum,” he said sadly. She blinked at him, her eyes otherwise wide. Seeing Emily on his lap, she slapped a hand to her mouth.
“Alec,” she exclaimed. “What is this?”
“I, um—well, we stopped and—Mum, this is Emily.”
“Em…Em-ily? The Em-ily?” she asked. “As in—”
“Yeah.”
Vi’s eyes lit up and she smiled, completely disregarding the situation in which she’d found them. “I am so glad to finally meet you, Em.” She turned to the man who’d driven her—and God alone knew how she’d managed that—and waved him back to the car. “Apparently, I’ve made a mistake. My son is fine. Let’s go.”
“But ma’am—”
“Sir, do I need to walk—”
Alec rolled up the window to drown out his mother’s speech. Reaching between them, he fastened his fly before his mother returned, and she would return. “That was Vi,” he said.
“So I surmised.” Emily frowned. “She thinks I’m Emma.”
Alec shook his head, smoothing a hand over her hair. Waiting for Emma had taken up so much of his life. How could he explain that all of them would have to undertake the exercise of separating the past from now?
Carefully, he moved back to his side of the car. “She knows the difference between past lifetimes and this one,” he finally said.
“But you all expect me to be her.”
“I don’t. And neither will Vi. I know you’re a different person, even if we haven’t known each other long.” He grinned. “In this lifetime.”
“Not helping.”
“But I know you. Let me tell you what I know about you.”
She looked out the window, pushing her hair from her face. Alec fought the urge to reach out and pull her back into his embrace. She looked absolutely forlorn and through it, he saw the abandoned child she’d once been. God help him, he wanted to pummel the pair who’d given birth to her.
“Nothing… You haven’t had a chance. All we’ve done is have sex.”
“And earth shattering sex it is. It’s a good start.”
“Not good enough,” she replied.
“You’re a writer. Creative, dedicated, self-directing. No one’s cracking a whip after you. You write because you need to get out the story inside you. You must have a good grasp of language. You’re committed. You cared enough about what you are writing to travel here to make your story better. Have I missed the mark on this?”
She made a face. “No.”
“You’re self conscious. It turns me on to look at you, yet I can see you’re not completely comfortable with yourself—until I’m loving you. And then you forget. Let’s see… you have visions and you have an infallible sense of intuition. Your parents were self-absorbed dimwits and you spent your formative years in foster care and state homes, yet you’ve made something of yourself. Determination. A backbone of steel. And yet you submit to me so sweetly.”
She bit her lip, and her eyes were shiny when she turned to him.
“It’s not a lot, I’ll admit,” he said. “But it’s a really good foundation.”
“It’s more than anyone else has ever had.”
Starting the car again and pulling back onto the road to town, Alec vowed that he’d know more about her than anyone. Everything. Emily was his, whether she’d admitted it yet or not. He’d chase away the sadness that lurked inside her and show her all the happiness that should have always been hers and now always would be. She might naturally submit to him, but she’d be his princess, showered in his love and the best of everything.
His hand settled on her thigh again. “Let’s go get Vi and Max so that we can go home and I can hold you.”
Forever and ever.
* * * *
Emily adored Vi and was charmed by Max and his long-suffering endurance of Vi’s flighty behaviour. His love for her was obvious. And when Vi looked at him…sparks flew, even after the years they’d been together.
Laying in bed and looking at Alec the next morning, Emily had wondered if they’d have the same sort of love. Quickly, she shoved away the illogical thought. Of course they wouldn’t. She was going back to the United States
in two days.
“I should get up and work,” he said. They rested on their sides, facing each other and caught in a warm, gauzy web of serenity. Though they hadn’t made love since the night before, an afterglow surrounded them with a tenderness that bound their hearts together. She was reluctant to break the close connection they had here. In the golden beams of the sun filtering through the thick curtains, the world beyond them ceased to exist.
Leaning forward, Alec captured her lips in a leisurely kiss, exploring her mouth with lazy strokes that matched the quiet of the morning. Languid streams of desire meandered through her, waiting for the deluge of passion that would engorge them later when they came together again. This was enough for now. They both knew the cataclysm that would overtake them later.
“I’d like you to stay,” he said. “I have to attend to non-bed and breakfast matters this morning. Investments and other financials. This afternoon, I’d like to take you to see the area and out to dinner at the pub. Sound okay?”
“Perfect. Maybe we can stop at my hotel. I need some clothes. It was nice of your mother to lend me a skirt and shirt to wear today, but I’d like my own panties.”
He nipped her shoulder, his hand cupping her bare pussy. “Go without. I command it.”
“Yes, my lord,” she sighed, her arousal at the thought surely dampening his hand. It would be dangerous for her to traipse around bare beneath the floaty skirt Vi had lent her. A stiff breeze would reveal her nakedness. Alec would have an unobstructed path to her folds whenever and wherever he pleased. And darn if that didn’t just turn her on. She grinned. “Do you have any other commands for me?”
He made a face while he thought, his forehead wrinkling. “Hmm…think of me.” His finger dipped inside the outer lips of her sex to rub her clit.
“Definitely,” she replied. On some level, she wondered if she always had.
“Good, then you are allowed to leave this bed.” Both of them, however, were loathe to leave the cocoon of the blankets and the warm glow surrounding them, and it wasn’t until a business call dragged Alec from bed that they finally moved.
