She leaned against him, embracing his strong hold. “Many good memories happened there.”
His arms dropped and he immediately began approaching the front of the house. Taking a step forward to stop him, she called, “What are you doing?”
“Important things,” Porter replied, dodging her.
A second later, he reached the door and knocked. The door opened to an elderly woman wearing a flowered dress and apron. Kenzie saw them exchange words, but she couldn’t hear what was said. All she could do was stand there and frown at Porter, wondering what he was up to. Then she noticed the woman looked at Kenzie and smiled, giving a nod.
The door closed and then Porter returned to Kenzie, offering his hand. “Come.”
Her hand shook as she accepted his, but her trembling settled a bit as he led her into the backyard. The moment they reached the swing her heart fluttered. Porter grabbed the swing and said, “On you go, kitten.”
Unable to stop herself, she laughed, sitting down on the seat and gripping the rope. Porter gave her a giant push and the hot Vegas air brushed across her face, fluttering her hair. For a long time he stayed silent, and Kenzie’s soul warmed, feeling like that little girl she’d once been when Joslyn had pushed her.
When he finally broke the silence, his voice was soft. “I see why you like this. It’s oddly relaxing.”
Her stomach dipped as he pushed harder, sending her higher, then she looked back to him. Surprisingly, her thoughts went straight to having children and how incredible a father Porter would be. Images of him doing just this with his little girl flooded her mind. “Thanks for bringing me here.”
His smile stopped the world from moving. “I’m happy to experience it with you.”
She scanned over the backyard, remembering all the times they had picnics out here. Mom never had a lot of money, but Porter was right, she did her absolute best with the situation she’d been given. Kenzie wondered now if maybe Mom had met someone like Porter, things might have been different for them all.
Her mother had no one for a very long time. Not that Kenzie thought a woman needed a man, but somehow sharing one’s life with someone did make things easier. Definitely a lot less lonely. Mom must have felt so alone.
Emotion welled in her chest as Kenzie dragged her feet against the grass, coming to a stop. Tears formed in her eyes as Porter came in front of her, grabbing the swing and placing his legs around hers. She glanced around the backyard, suddenly struck with the realization that things weren’t really all that bad anymore. She had thought if she came back to the house that created so many haunting memories, she’d be destroyed, but that wasn’t the case…Only happiness existed now.
She angled her head back, regarding Porter’s eyes, which held a soul so kind and giving. So full of life. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re kind of perfect?”
His head dipped, his potent eyes reaching right down into the depths of her soul. “Someone just did.” He pressed his lips so gently against hers, then whispered across her mouth, “And you are the only someone that matters.”
For Kennedy Layne, Shayla Black, Carrie Ann Ryan, Lexi Blake, Carly Phillips, Jenna Jacobs, Mari Carr, and Angela Payne. Thanks for being the best writing buddies a girl could ever ask for!
Acknowledgments
To my readers, thank you for your continuing support of the Club Sin series. It means the world to me.
Sue Grimshaw, it’s hard to believe we’re nearing the end of the Club Sin series. Can’t wait to see what our next adventure together brings.
My agent, Jessica Alvarez, thanks for being your fabulous self.
Lea Griffith, who always takes time out of her busy schedule to critique me, thank you.
Gina Gordon, who’s always there for me whenever I need her to be, I love you, girl.
To everyone at Random House, thanks for all that you do.
BY STACEY KENNEDY
Club Sin
Claimed
Bared
Desired
Freed
Tamed
Commanded (coming soon)
Magic & Mayhem
Witches Be Burned
PHOTO: PAIGE RICHARDSON
STACEY KENNEDY is the USA Today bestselling author of the Club Sin series. Growing up, Stacey wandered the path less traveled, and that path most often led to love. She has always broken rules, and she continues to feed off emotion—always staying true to her heart. Those traits are now the bones of her stories. She lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, who puts any of the heroes in her books to shame, and their two young children. If she’s not on mom duty or plugging away at a new story, you’ll find Stacey camping in the summer, hibernating in the winter, and obsessing over Penny Dreadful, Game of Thrones, and Sons of Anarchy.
www.staceykennedy.com
Facebook.com/authorstaceykennedy
@Stacey_Kennedy
The Editor’s Corner
March into romance this month with Loveswept—our authors are savvy, and their hot books will warm up the cool winter evenings.
Jennifer Chance’s Rule Breakers series turns up the heat in Risk It as a wealthy playboy and a beautiful con artist engage in a high-stakes game of seduction. USA Today bestselling author Lauren Layne revisits her salacious Sex, Love & Stiletto series with The Trouble with Love, where a jaded columnist discovers a steamy way to get over an old flame: falling for him all over again. USA Today bestselling author Stacey Kennedy returns to the tantalizing world of Club Sin with Tamed. In Cecy Robson’s latest urban fantasy romance, A Curse Unbroken, the search is on for an unholy grail, while evil is licking its wounds—and looking for revenge. Another of our Loveswept USA Today bestsellers, Jamie K. Schmidt, revisits Club Inferno, the erotic playground where glitz and glamour mix with leather and whips in, Fever. Seduction returns to Violetta Rand’s Devil’s Den, a Texas strip club where hearts can’t hide when the chemistry is right. In the latest Disgraced Lords novel from USA Today bestselling author Bronwen Evans, A Touch of Passion, a vivacious thrill seeker clashes with her dutiful defender—causing irresistible sparks to fly. Then Maeve Greyson unleashes a thrilling tale of magic in My Highland Lover, as a feisty Southern gal falls into the arms of a rough-hewn Highland chieftain. And in Sharon Cullen’s steamy historical romance Sebastian’s Lady Spy, love is a hazard best avoided—until an unforgettable affair exposes their undercover hearts.
But there’s more!
Come Flirt with us—Saying yes has always come easy for Fallon. Now, as Renita Pizzitola’s steamy, poignant Crush series continues in Just a Little Flirt, winning her dream job means Fallon must say no to the guy she wants the most. And in the new Extreme Risk novel, Slashed, from New York Times bestselling author Tracy Wolff, a burned-out underdog and a vulnerable tomboy defy the pressure to be perfect and go after what they really want.
Until next month ~Happy Romance!
Gina Wachtel
Associate Publisher
Read on for an excerpt from the second book in Lea Griffith’s All or Nothing series:
More
Available from Loveswept
Prologue
THREE YEARS AGO
Excitement thrummed through Ruthie’s body, matching the rhythm of the music coming from Tobias’s house and setting fire to her blood. She could taste him in her mouth, feel his hands on her skin, and smell him with every deep inhale. He was a part of her now. She wasn’t going to be able to shake Tobias Edwards.
She’d had Stanton bring her here tonight. Tobias had asked her to wait for him, told her he had business to attend for her brother, Jeremiah, and then he’d come to her. He’d called her on his way home, so she knew his approximate arrival time at her apartment, but Ruthie was so primed to tell him her decision she’d been unable to wait for him to come to her.
So here she was, walking up his drive, Stanton at her side. She prayed he couldn’t feel her trembling. Tobias’s house sat on a large wooded lot about thirty minutes outside Atlanta. She
’d fretted the entire drive, worried about how she’d decided to put her plan in motion.
The wind blew the treetops, leaves crinkling beneath her feet. It was autumn, and the nights cooled quickly. She drew in a deep breath, letting the crisp air soothe her.
There was so much she had to show him tonight; so much she wanted to give and take in return. She was determined to push past her own fears. She craved Tobias with a bone-deep conviction. It was time to show him she was everything he needed. It was time to submit to him on every level.
“Here we are. You’re sure you want me to leave, Miss Copeland?” Stanton asked with a catch in his voice.
She cocked her head, trying to decipher the hesitation in his voice. “Stanton, that’s my man in there. I think I got this,” she murmured.
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, a smile in his voice as he stepped aside.
Ruthie reached up, feeling her way along the brick exterior before she found the alarm pad and punched in the code. The locks disengaged. Anticipation raced over her skin, heightening the tension between her legs and beading her nipples.
There was a tremor in her thighs, and she pressed a hand to her stomach as she took a deep breath. Tobias had waited for her, telling her over and over that kink wasn’t something he had to have. He loved everything about her, insisting he would never demand submission—he was content to simply be with her any way she’d let him.
His admission voiced that she was enough. But always in his tone was a thread of need, a profound resonance that told her he was lying to them both. He needed more. His muscles would lock around her, protective and loving, but even as he was deep inside her body he held a piece of himself back. Ruthie wondered if it was because Tobias doubted she could be as strong as he needed her to be.
She stopped at the edge of the foyer and listened. The bass of the music hit her ears and slid into her body, riveting her nerves and making the fire in her veins slither along her skin. They’d danced around his needs for far too long. Ruthie was blind, not stupid. She knew her man, felt the desire in him to let loose on her body and demand she give him all that she was by submitting to his dominance.
Ruthie had talked to Candace for weeks now, trying to determine if that echo in her heart and mind was submission. Could she give over everything when she’d worked so hard to become strongly independent and not need anyone?
The answer was simple—with Toby she could. It was instinct. That longing to hand him everything and let him carry her body, her needs and wants, in his hands had turned pressing. Candace told her being a submissive wouldn’t make her weak, it would make her stronger, and that within that strength lived a lust to give over to her Dominant and let him rule her pleasure. Silence her mind and take her places she dared not let herself go alone. Toby was strong enough to do that for her. The knowledge had always been in her heart; it had just taken her brain a while to catch up.
Candace assured her Tobias was an experienced Dominant, well versed in the ways of BDSM play. He’d studied the lifestyle under Candace’s husband’s tutelage and had been a practicing Dom for many years. She’d laughed when Ruthie growled. Damn but Ruthie hadn’t liked hearing her man had played others. Yet she recognized she had no true claim to that irrational anger and called it what it was: jealousy.
Her conversation with Candace had validated her thoughts and eased her fears. Vanilla sex with Tobias was amazing, but there was more to be had, and damn it, Ruthie was going to demand it. And here she was.
Tobias was going to fight her on it—but he wouldn’t win. He might be a true Dom, but she held the power in her submission. Once the idea had taken root, it had been a no-brainer to take what she wanted and give him what he needed in return.
The music began to fade, and the CD changer hummed as it switched disks. Ruthie heard water running in the kitchen, then the thud of the refrigerator closing, and she took a deep breath. Soft footfalls announced his arrival. Heat at her back, a muscular arm wrapping around her waist, pulling her into his hard body, and then his lips on her neck had her heart skipping a beat.
“Hey, baby,” he murmured. “Told you I was coming to you.”
“I couldn’t wait,” Ruthie said with a sigh. “I missed you. Jeremiah said you’re going out of town this weekend, and I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time with you before then.”
His lips nipped at her skin, teeth sinking into the flesh beneath her ear and biting just enough for her to gauge his mood. Her man was wound tight tonight. “I’m heading to Italy Saturday—shipping business. Jeremiah wants to secure space in the Port of Naples. I’ll be gone about a week or so.” He squeezed her and chuckled. “You’re impatient, but I can’t fault you—it’s the same for me,” he told her as he tilted her head with his free hand and began nuzzling her jaw.
Ruthie shivered and relaxed against him. She was a tall woman at five eight, and he towered over her, well over six feet of solid temptation. It was no small thing that his every move seemed protective and geared toward ensuring her comfort.
“Tobias?”
“Mmm-hmm,” he hummed as he continued to lick and nuzzle her skin.
“I want you.” It came out a breathy whisper when what she wanted to do was shout it to the rafters.
He stilled, muscles tensing under her palms. Ruthie twined her hands with his, turning in the circle of his arms before she lifted her face and smiled up at him. He pushed a stray strand of hair off her face before he traced her lips with the pad of his thumb.
She flicked a tongue out and licked the digit. His breath hissed in, and she was back to smiling. She wielded so much feminine power in that moment, it was an aphrodisiac all its own.
“I ache for you,” she murmured as she braced her hands on his chest, went on tiptoe, and licked across his lips.
He remained a rock, unmoving, but his heart beneath her hands threatened to beat out of his chest.
“I want to give you all of me, Tobias. I’m ready,” she affirmed, unable to quell the tremor in her voice.
“Ruthie—”
There was a warning in his tone, and she hastened to cut him off. “I know who you are, Tobias. I feel you holding back—even when you’re wrapped around me, touching me, inside me, I feel your restraint. I know you’ve sacrificed a big part of who you are to be with me. What I don’t know is why.”
“Baby, now’s not the time—”
He was going to try and shut her down. Not today, she told herself. “There is no better time,” she said as she stepped back and slowly unbuttoned her calf-length cashmere coat.
She shrugged it off her shoulders, reveling in the chilly air kissing her exposed parts. Her hair slid down her back, the cool strands against her heated skin making her shiver anew. She’d worn an emerald-green corset that laced in the front and cut deeply in the back. Candace had helped her pick it out—telling her the color looked amazing against the backdrop of her creamy skin. Thong, thigh-highs, and stilettos completed the ensemble.
Tension radiated from Tobias, and it was affirmation. He needed this as much as she did. Instinct guided her now. Submission. The flavor of the word hovered on her tongue, sweet and ambitious.
Ruthie lowered to her knees.
Every move should be a symphony, Candace told her, a prelude to the gift she was giving her Dom. A thrill sliced through her abdomen, making her pussy clench. She locked her hands behind her back, spread her legs, and sat back on her heels as she lowered her head.
“What the fuck, Ruthie,” he ground out.
“I am yours to do with what you will. But do not deny me, Tobias. Do anything but deny me.”
Her voice reverberated in the room. Even the music complied with the demand in her tone, the song ending as another disk slid home and the strains of “I Want You” by Marvin Gaye began floating through the air.
Tobias stepped back, and her heart stuttered. What if he denied her? What if she took this step and he didn’t take it with her?
Ruthie had long ago decide
d no half-measures. Her blindness prevented many joys, and she would be damned if she’d let anything or anyone steal a moment from her. Now that she recognized what she needed and desired to give him, Tobias would reciprocate or she’d step away and take nothing at all.
He walked around her slowly, his steps a dance of seduction. Ruthie shivered, and he laughed, low and sexy.
“I don’t think you know what you’re asking for, Ruthie. I don’t know that you understand what I want to do to your body, to your soul.” His voice was rough and infinitely deep.
Still he circled her, a taunt. This was about control, dominance. His intent tingled over her skin, brushing her mind and softening her body.
So many things she wanted him to do to her. She could only imagine the places he would take her—the heights she could scale in his arms. He already played her body expertly, but the thought of going even higher through a Dom/sub dynamic? She swallowed hard and then stilled when Tobias trailed a single finger down her throat to the top of her breast.
Candace had introduced Ruthie to floggers, whips, crops, hoods, and clamps. As Ruthie stroked the leather of the flogger, her stomach had somersaulted, and she’d been forced to breathe through her desire. Her friend had laughed knowingly. That’s how she’d finally made her decision—touching the flogger, she’d known it could bring her peace in the hands of the right man.
Tobias was that man. She wanted the thud of his flogger on her back, her thighs, and her breasts. She craved the feel of his hand, or his paddle, on her ass. She needed the sting of nipple clamps, the brush of his ropes. She had to have Tobias deep inside her body, taking her apart and putting her back together. She wanted to fly. Ruthie desired all the things she couldn’t see but needed with a bone-shredding intensity. This was the beginning.
Tamed Page 20
