He said nothing more as he headed toward the door. He walked slowly, wondering if she was going to question his actions. She was, after all, still tied to the bed. He decided if she was good and didn’t question him that he would send someone to untie her soon after his departure. If she chose to speak to him again, without being prompted, she would suffer the consequence of being tied to the bed all night long.
Derek reached for the door handle. She still hadn’t spoken, and he was actually surprised by her silence. He exited the room and almost raced through the halls to get to his room. His heart was pounding at a rapid speed, and his adrenaline was on overdrive.
Once inside, he picked up a small vase sitting on the dresser directly across from his bed. With a loud growl, he hurled the porcelain item across the room, smashing it into a million pieces as it hit the opposite wall.
He stood there staring at the shards lying on the floor, breathing heavily with his fists clenched so tightly together that they were almost turning purple. He was so focused and lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t even realize that Zach had entered the room.
“Derek, are you okay?” Zach questioned him.
With a quick spin of his head, he darted his eyes at Zach and gave his curt response. “What the fuck is all of this about?”
With a look of confusion, Zach replied, “Excuse me?”
Derek made three quick and long strides across the room to Zach and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and promptly had him pinned up against the wall.
“I’m gonna ask you one more time! What the hell is going on? Why did you invite me here?” Derek shouted the questions as though he was commanding an answer.
Clearly displeased with Derek’s aggression, Zach returned his own icy glare. “I do not know what you are talking about or who the hell you think you are, but I suggest you let go of me this instant before I call in some of the guards who work the rooms.”
Derek knew all too well that the guards in these types of clubs were not the type he wanted to tangle with. That, combined with the fact that he had seen a couple of them since arriving there earlier that night, made him decide not to take his chances on who was the better fighter. He had no choice but to release Zach and turn away with a frustrated sigh.
Zach didn’t give Derek time to calm himself down before asking, “Now what in the hell was that about, buddy?”
Shaking his head, Derek responded with a laugh, “Buddy, huh? Interesting, I haven’t heard from you in years, since high school as a matter of fact. Then you just contact me completely out of the blue, extend an invitation that, not only were you convinced I would be interested in, but you insisted I accept after I tried to politely decline.”
Derek held his hand up to stop Zach from interrupting him. “And then you stick me in a room with a woman, telling me that she wants to be dominated by pain, with absolutely no pleasure whatsoever.”
“Derek, I told you that—” Zach was quickly silenced again.
“You haven’t told me anything, damn it! Sure, you told me bits and pieces, but you never told me how you knew about my lifestyle, and you sure as shit never told me who the woman was.”
A smug smirk formed on Zach’s face. “Ah, I see. I take it you didn’t order her not to turn her head.” Still smiling, Zach continued, “So you know it is Sandi then.”
Derek gritted his teeth to avoid from screaming at the man in front of him. Not wanting Zach to call for the guards, he calmed his nerves the best he could before responding.
“So you knew? You admit that you knew!” Not being able to control his anger, he shouted the last words.
“Uh uh uh, control your temper, Derek. There is nothing here that you don’t want. There isn’t anything here I haven’t presented you with that you don’t desire.” Zach’s voice trailed off as he headed toward the bedroom door.
“Where the hell do you think you are going?” Derek demanded.
With his hand on the door handle, Zach turned and smiled. “Derek, when we were younger, you did something for me. You probably didn’t even realize it when you did, but I swore to myself that one day I would repay you. This is that day.”
“I did something for you? Like what?”
“Let’s just say I’m different than you and most guys that we went to school with. I got razzed quite a bit. One day you stepped in. It may not have seemed like a big deal to you. It was to me though.”
Derek watched his old high school friend leave the room saying nothing more after his cryptic message. He wasn’t just mad now. He was confused. What on earth could he had done for Zach? And even more strange was the question of how Sandi fit into all of this.
“Oh, Sandi, damn you. Why couldn’t you just stay gone?”
Chapter 3
Sandi remained motionless for several seconds after she heard the door close before turning her head to see if Derek had really left. Once she looked over her left shoulder and didn’t see him, she quickly spun her head around to survey the rest of the room.
Was he still in the room with her, but waiting to see if she reacted? She wondered, but as soon as she asked the silent question to herself, she already had her answer. Derek had in fact left the room. She was handcuffed to the bed and alone with nothing else but her thoughts.
Instinct made her want to cry. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs and beg him to come back. Instead, she bit back her tears and tightly squeezed her eyes shut. She knew very well that she wasn’t entitled to her sadness.
There was no one else she could blame for her current situation other than herself. Two years ago, she had pushed Derek away. He was the only man who had ever treated her with respect, kindness, compassion, and love. He was the only man that she had ever loved, and rather than cherish that, she had thrown it away, all for some obsession, some elemental need she thought she had to have.
She hated that, after two years, she still hadn’t found a way to fulfill those unexplained desires. No one that she had met over the past two years had even come close, not even Tony, the one she was foolish enough to leave Derek for. Just remembering the man who had introduced her into this world made her cringe. She detested him for making her think she wanted this kind of lifestyle.
If only she knew then what she knew now, she would have never left Derek and their life together for a life she clearly didn’t want.
A gut-wrenching pain tore through her heart when that thought made her realize that, in all these months over the past two years, she hadn’t felt even the smallest amount of pleasure from all the acts she had participated in. She hadn’t gotten any enjoyment from any of it. That was not until moments ago when Derek had been inside of her, taking her from behind, while she was handcuffed to a headboard in a place where she asked for only punishment.
Oh God! she thought to herself. Was Derek the missing piece to the puzzle of her desires? Was he what she had been searching for this whole time?
She knew the answer to the question already. The one man who she had tossed aside so carelessly two years ago was the only man who could ever truly make her happy.
She jerked her mind back to reality when she heard the door open. She spoke before she was able to stop herself.
“Derek?” Disappointment washed across her face when she saw it was Zach.
“No, Sandi. Derek has gone to his room. I came to make sure you were okay.”
She didn’t respond to him as she waited for him to finish unlocking the fur lined cuffs which had her wrists attached to the bed.
Zach’s arm grazed her exposed bottom, and for some reason at that point, she became very aware of her nakedness. Nervous emotions overcame her, making her face flush and heat from embarrassment.
When the last cuff was unlatched, Zach gently took her shoulders and brought her body back down to a sitting position.
“There, you must be sore from being in that position and on your knees for so long. Is that better?” he asked her while handing her a small satin robe which had
been hanging on the bedpost.
She nodded uncomfortably, not really sure what to say to him.
Zach brushed a stray lock of hair away from her eyes and smiled at her. “Please don’t be embarrassed. I promised you when I found you that I would give you happiness.”
Her heart began beating much too fast. “I know you did. But I still don’t understand what that means. Or how…Derek, I know him.”
A robust laugh came from Zach, which almost startled her at first.
“Did you know that I knew him?” She almost whispered the question, but the smile on his face gave her the answer before she had a chance to finish asking it.
He held up his hand in a gesture to silence her. “Sandi, does it really matter if I knew? Does it really matter that you knew him, or he knew you?”
He hesitated for a moment before he continued, “No, Sandi. None of that matters. All that matters is that you are here, Derek is here, and you both want something that I have the opportunity to give you. Just let whatever fate brings your way happen.”
She wanted to say something. She wanted to question his motives, or how he knew of their connection to one another, but she realized that his reasons and the circumstances didn’t matter. He was right. She wanted Derek. She loved him and needed him.
Minutes later Sandi was slipping into a night shirt in her private room. Arriving at Pleasures Club only earlier that afternoon, she hadn’t had the chance to take a look at her surroundings. Sitting at the small vanity, she scanned the room and, for the first time, realized the simplistic beauty of her room.
Across the room from where she sat was a large six-drawer dresser. The wood was lightly colored and reminded her of the pine dresser that sat in Derek’s room back in Oakdale. Just to her right sat a king bed with a headboard and footboard which matched the dresser. The nightstands as well as the armoire also appeared to come from the same set.
Actually the whole bedroom set looked as though it was straight out of a showroom. Even the bedding seemed to match perfectly. With the cream-colored bedspread and different hues of beige throw pillows and sheets, it appeared to be right out of a Better Homes and Gardens layout.
If she were to decorate this room herself, she would have chosen the same style. She had always liked earth tones and simple design. Nothing fancy or gaudy was ever her taste.
That was actually one of the many ways how she had differed so much from her friends and family back home. They had always relished in flashy décor and expensive trinkets. Not her though, the more plain, the better. Derek was much the same way. The thought popped into her head quicker than she was able to react to it.
Her eyes closed and fought against the tears that wanted so desperately to well up inside. God, how she missed him. Derek had been so wonderful to her. How could she have ever thrown that away?
She shook her head, willing the pain away as she got up from the vanity. There was no use crying about it anymore. She was the only one responsible for the choices that she made. The only person to blame was herself. She knew that, and she hated it.
Taking a deep breath, she turned off the lights and slid her body under the warmth of the soft covers. It wasn’t until she was nestled and comfortable that she realized she was shaking. An anxiety washed over her, and she felt her blood start to pump through her body, the sound almost echoing inside of her head.
“Not again,” she whispered in the quiet room.
It had been months, over a year since she had been stuck with this fear and emotion. It was Derek. Seeing him again had reawakened all of her paranoia again.
Unable to stop herself this time, she cried. The tears flowed freely from her eyes, and a gut-wrenching sob tore free from her throat and bounced off the walls.
She rolled to her side and curled in a ball. Reaching for the other pillow in the bed, she clung to it, hugging it tightly and wishing it was Derek she was holding on to.
The pain of seeing him again tore through her heart. Having him touch her brought back so many memories of his kisses, the way he would tease her with his tongue. As wonderful as those memories were, it reminded her of all that she had lost.
“I love you, Derek. I love you so much.” She choked the words out between her cries.
Startled by a noise at the door, she turned her head quickly to see the door close.
“Hello? Hello, who’s there?” Sandi asked as she rose and got up from the bed.
She got to the door and, when she reached out to touch the handle, hesitated. Was it Derek? Had he been in here watching her, listening to her cry and pour her heart out over him?
Pulling away from the door, she knew that she didn’t want to know the answer to that question. If it hadn’t been Derek, she’d be disappointed and worried, wondering who it could have been.
If it had been Derek and he had been there, hearing the emotions that were pouring from her soul, listening to her tears and still he left her here without a word. The pain of thinking that he could witness her in such sorrow and still not do anything to comfort her cut deeper than she thought possible, but it seemed that just when she thought the pain of losing Derek was so strong that it couldn’t possibly get worse, it almost always seemingly got much worse than she ever could have imagined.
Slowly, she turned and walked away from the door. Walking back toward the bed, she was reminded of the intense sensation of fullness she felt not just in her body but in her heart when she had experienced the hardness of Derek enter her body.
It was Derek that she needed, Derek that she wanted. Everything else was nothing, meant nothing without him. No man could ever hold a candle to him. Even what she thought were her deepest desires and fantasies never seemed to satisfy her.
Those few moments though when she had Derek throbbing inside of her body, everything had been so right, so perfect. All the pain that she had buried and ignored for the past two years suddenly came floating to the surface in a wave of the most scary and yet wonderful emotion, and in that single instant, there was no more sadness, only joy and complete happiness.
Now back under the covers, Sandi blinked her eyes tightly shut, refusing to let the sadness come back. With a few calming breaths and a deep sigh, she made a promise to herself. A promise that she refused to break.
Derek Travis was the most amazing and wonderful man she had ever known in her entire life. She lost him once due to her own selfish stupidity. Who said that she couldn’t change that though? Who was to say that they couldn’t still have a future together?
There was no way she was going to take this chance for granted. One way or another, she would have Derek back. If it was the last thing she did, she would have his heart, his body, and soul, and this time, she would cherish him and never let him go.
Chapter 4
Derek opened his eyes when he heard the laughing coming from the hallway. He blinked a few times, not at first remembering where he was. It took a moment, but then he glanced over and saw the empty bottle of whiskey.
He closed his eyes again. The empty glass sitting next to it reminded him exactly where he was. It reminded him of why he needed that damn bottle in the first place.
Concentrating on the laughter, he wondered if it could be Sandi. He dismissed that thought though. The woman giggling so freely in the hall outside of his room had way too high of a squeak to be Sandi. Her laugh was soft, sweet, and sexy.
A frustrated groan came from him when he realized how much pounding was happening inside his head. He glanced over at the empty bottle of whiskey again and had to smirk at a memory of a night a few months back when he had gotten drunk with his now-sister-in-law, Anne.
The similarity to that night with last night was he had gotten drunk all those months ago because of Sandi. Two years ago, a few months ago, and last night all proved to him one very real fact.
He was still in love with Sandi. God help him, but he still hadn’t gotten over her. Two years later, and she was as much in his heart as the first night he made love to h
er.
Oh, how he wished he hadn’t just remembered that night. It had been just weeks after they first met. She was so young and naïve back then.
He laughed at the memory of their first meeting. After catching her with a fake ID while working the door of the Roadhouse, the bar he owned with his brother Quinn, he had inadvertently embarrassed her in front of a group of people that she had gone there with that night. It was a group of popular young natives from town. A group that she was trying to fit in with, trying to impress. Being that she was an eighteen-year-old, young woman in a town full of strangers, she was almost desperate to fit in and make friends.
He remembered how angry she got with him when he treated her like, what she called at the time, a child. Little did she know that even then, even when she had waited for him until after the Roadhouse had closed, even then, he thought she was the opposite of a child. She was hands down the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
They sat on the tailgate of his truck all night long just talking that night. Not until the morning had he even laid a hand on her. Something magical happened when the sun started to rise though. The different shades of the sun’s rays as they hit Sandi’s blonde hair caused the most beautiful glow to surround her.
In that moment, he fell for her. He was completely lost to her. Hook, line, and sinker, that sweet, naïve, young woman had stolen him off the market. No woman would ever have a chance at him or his heart. It belonged to her.
That was when he wasn’t able to control himself any longer. After staring at her beauty in the morning light, after being utterly hypnotized by it, he leaned over, placed his hands on either side of her face, touched his lips to hers, and tasted the sweetest kiss ever known to man.
That morning was the beginning of the happiest time of his life. From that moment on, they had spent all their time together, whenever and wherever they could. Every chance they had, they used it to be together.
Morgan, Nicole - Intimate Confessions [Intimate Temptations 2] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 2
