by Selena Kitt
“I’m sorry,” Elena exclaimed, staring at the mess around her bare feet. “I’m so clumsy!”
“Don’t move.” Don grabbed the broom from next to the refrigerator, sweeping a clean path between the two of them as he went. He was wearing tennis shoes and, when he reached, Elena, he swept her into his arms and carried her to the kitchen table, sitting her on it.
“Well, it looks as if chivalry isn’t dead after all.” Sarah’s eyebrows went up and she smiled at Elena. “You’re a lucky woman.”
“I know.” Elena swallowed, watching as Don swept the floor of glass.
“Oh goodness… what happened there?” Sarah pointed to the bruise Elena and Don had been arguing about before she arrived, the one she’d tried, quite unsuccessfully, to cover with heavy makeup.
“Oh I…” Elena covered her cheek with her hand, face flushing red. “I fell. Stupid.”
Fell? Don stopped sweeping, glancing up at her, furious. She’d told him she ran into a door. Now she was telling this woman she fell? It was a bunch of bullshit. He saw the social worker staring at him.
“Don’t look at me,” Don snapped. “I didn’t do it.”
“Did he?” Sarah asked softly, looking back to Elena, who shook her head, looking miserable. “Well then… who did?”
Elena swallowed, dropping her eyes. “My ex.”
“I knew it!” Don exclaimed, angrily sweeping the glass into a dust pan and dumping it into the trash.
“Well, I’d suggest you call the authorities.” Sarah put her hand over Elena’s on her knee and Don saw tears welling in Elena’s eyes. “It would be good to file a personal protection order.”
“No, I—”
“We will!” Don joined them at the table, putting an arm around Elena’s shoulders. “Believe me.”
“But I wouldn’t do anything stupid, Mr. Hammond,” Sarah warned, a knowing look in her eyes. “The police don’t like violence, regardless of how justified you may feel it is.”
“Thanks for the advice,” he replied dryly. “Can I show you out?”
The social worker took the hint and let him lead her to the door. Once it was closed behind her, he went back to the kitchen. Elena was still sitting on the table where he put her.
“He hit you?” He touched her cheek, his teeth grinding together of their own volition.
Elena nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. Her lower lip trembled and he thought his heart would break. The murderous thoughts he’d been having about Anne had now turned to Elena’s ex.
“When? I thought he was in Albuquerque!”
“He was. I guess…” she said softly, gaze dropping to the linoleum. “He’s not anymore.”
“Do you know where he is now?” He hoped she knew. He really, really did. Because in spite of the social worker’s warning, he was going to pay a little visit to this Rick asshole.
“He didn’t tell me much.” Elena shrugged. “He just wanted money.”
“Money?” Don raised his eyebrows. “Is that all?”
“I got the car in the divorce.” She lifted her eyes to meet his. “He said half of it was his. Wanted me to ‘buy him out.’ But the car is mine. The judge said so. I wasn’t going to let him have the key.”
“So he hit you?” he asked, still incredulous at the fact. He was beginning to understand why Elena had divorced him. This Rick character might have pretended at being some sort of ‘Dom’ and probably got off on the power trip, but he wasn’t anything of the sort. He was a bully, plain and simple, and Don didn’t want Elena having anything more to do with him.
“You’re not going back there,” he decided suddenly.
“Where?” She blinked at him in surprise.
“To your house.” He slipped his arms around her. She was trembling. “You’re staying here. You’re moving in here.”
She stared at him, mouth agape.
“And we’re calling the cops,” he added.
“Okay,” she finally agreed, nodding. The tears that had been threatening finally spilled over and he cupped her face in his hands, wiping them as they fell with his thumbs.
“My god, Elena,” he whispered, hearing the hoarseness in his own voice. The thought of losing her, of something happening to her, stopped his heart. It couldn’t happen. He wouldn’t let it. “Don’t you understand how much I love you? I can’t lose you. I won’t. Don’t ever lie to me again. Do you understand me?”
He was using his Dom voice, without even thinking about it.
“Yes, Sir.” Elena let out a little sob, putting her arms around his neck and burying her wet face there. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he soothed, letting out his pent up breath. “You’re safe. You’ll always be safe with me.”
“Don?” she whispered after a moment.
“Hm?” He stroked her hair, feeling her arms locked around his neck, her legs around his waist. He’d keep her here forever, if he had his way, just like this.
“What did you say?” She lifted her face, eyes tilting up to his.
“Don’t lie to me.” He touched her nose, frowning. “Never again.”
“No, before…” She swallowed, breathless. “You said…”
He stopped, realizing he had. He’d said he loved her. It had just slipped out. It wasn’t how he’d intended telling her, but there it was.
“Yes.” He smiled, touching his forehead to hers. “I love you, Elena.”
“I know what it is now. What I was missing.” She closed her eyes, tears slipping down her cheeks. “You. I love you too.”
And that, he knew, was the truth. Hers. His. Theirs.
* * * *
Don thought his daughter would have a fit about Elena moving in, but Diana took it in stride. She seemed to like having a girl around to paint her nails with and watch chick flicks on the weekends. And Don liked watching them together, making cookies in the kitchen, eating half the dough before they were baked. He wasn’t so thrilled about the mascara marks on the bathroom mirror or the pantyhose hung over the shower rod, but that was par for the course living with women, he knew.
Anne had never mentioned the visit from the social worker, although he knew Diana probably told her about it. Diana had asked him if everything was okay the following weekend, telling him “some woman in a suit” had come to talk to her at school.
“I had to tell her the truth, Dad. About the bugs. And the mice.”
“Mouse. Singular,” he reminded her with a shake of his finger. “And the next time a social worker comes snooping around, if it ever, god forbid, happens again, please don’t talk to her. Tell them you plead the fifth.”
“I think you can only do that in court, Dad.” Diana rolled her made-up eyes. She and Elena had been experimenting with something called “smoky eye,” which he very much appreciated on his girlfriend, but not so much on his daughter. “Besides, I told her it was before.”
“Before?” He raised his eyebrows at her.
“Before Elena.” Diana glanced toward the kitchen where Elena was checking on the roast. “Before… before things got better.”
He smiled fondly at his daughter. “They are better, aren’t they?”
“Loads,” she agreed with a look of relief.
He told Diana it was fine. And it was. They never heard from the social worker again. And although he expected and was ready to kick some ass, Elena’s ex hadn’t shown up at her apartment when they moved her out. Much to Don’s disappointment. He really didn’t care about Rick’s biker gang reputation, or how big Elena claimed he was, Don was ready to take him down. Unfortunately, he never got the chance, but it wasn’t until Jeannie called to tell him about his book that he found out why.
“You’re number fifteen on Amazon!” Jeannie exclaimed when he answered the phone.
“What?” He nearly choked on a red potato, glancing over the table at Elena as he crooked his iPhone to catch his wine glass. He’d nearly knocked that over too.
“Dark Matter is number
fifteen on Amazon!”
“In sci-fi? You mean it’s fifteen in sci-fi, right?” He’d published it two weeks ago, a sequel to Black Sun Rising he had planned on submitting to his publisher later this year. Instead, he’d decided to take Elena’s writer friend’s advice and self-publish. Why not give it a shot, he decided. What did he have to lose?
“In the whole store!” Jeannie exclaimed. “Go look for yourself!”
Elena and Diana stared at him like he was crazy when he bolted from the table. He took the stairs two at a time and threw open the door to his office. He flipped open his laptop and pulled up Amazon, typing Dark Matter into the search bar.
And there was his book. Elena had done the cover in Photoshop, a program he didn’t understand at all. It gave him headaches just to watch her. But it was a beautiful design, quite professional. He clicked on the book’s cover and scrolled down, seeing the ranking, clear as could be. Number fifteen. In the whole store.
His last book, Black Sun Rising, the precursor to this one, had done well, reaching Amazon’s top 100, even at the hefty price of $12.99. But this book, the sequel, was priced reasonably at $2.99, as suggested by Elena’s author friend.
And instead of making twelve percent on every sale, he was making seventy percent.
How many had he sold already, he wondered?
“Holy shit.” Don signed into his account and did a double take on the numbers. He dialed Jeannie back—he’d hung up on her without thinking.
“Jeannie! I’ve sold almost twenty-five hundred books in the last twenty-four hours! At two bucks each, that’s… that’s five thousand dollars!”
“I think this is just the beginning. And at this rate, I think you better make it into a trilogy.” Jeannie laughed.
He already had the scenario for the third book rolling through his head.
“Oh, hey, I meant to tell you, guess what I heard?”
“What?” Nothing could top this news, he thought. But he was wrong.
“Rick McKinney’s in jail.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Nope. I guess when he left Albuquerque, he skipped parole.”
“Parole?” He blinked in surprise. Elena had mentioned some trouble with the law, but she hadn’t expounded.
“Is everything okay?” Elena peeked her head around the corner, wide-eyed.
He smiled, waving her over and then pulling her into his lap.
“It’s Jeannie,” he told Elena, kissing her cheek.
“Hi Jeannie,” Elena said, leaning toward the phone. “Can I take him back so he can finish his dinner?”
“Are you going to tell her?” Jeannie asked, laughing.
“You mean, am I going to tell her that my book is number fifteen on Amazon?” Don grinned when Elena’s jaw dropped. “And that her ex is now in jail again for violating his parole?”
And here he thought Elena’s jaw couldn’t drop any further.
“Fifteen!? Oh my god, we’re going to be rich!” Elena showered his face with kisses.
“Jeannie, you always bring me the best news.” Don laughed. “And the best things. After all, it was you who told me about Elena.”
“I know.” Jeannie snorted. “So where’s my finder’s fee?”
“I couldn’t pay you enough to thank you for finding Elena.”
He pressed his lips to hers, forgetting the phone, forgetting everything except this woman in his arms who had changed everything about his life. He didn’t have to worry about Anne and her judgments about what he said, what he wore, what he wrote, how much he made, not anymore. Elena had made all of that disappear like magic. Now he knew what was really important—the things he could hold close.
And what he had in his arms was priceless.
The End
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ABOUT SELENA KITT
Selena Kitt is a NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestselling and award-winning author of erotic and romance fiction. She is one of the highest selling erotic writers in the business with over a million books sold!
Her writing embodies everything from the spicy to the scandalous, but watch out-this kitty also has sharp claws and her stories often include intriguing edges and twists that take readers to new, thought-provoking depths.
When she's not pawing away at her keyboard, Selena runs an innovative publishing company (excessica.com) and in her spare time, she devotes herself to her family--a husband and four children--and her growing organic garden. She does belly dancing and photography, and she loves four poster beds, tattoos, voyeurism, blindfolds, velvet, baby oil, the smell of leather, and playing kitty cat.
Her books EcoErotica (2009), The Real Mother Goose (2010) and Heidi and the Kaiser (2011) were all Epic Award Finalists. Her only gay male romance, Second Chance, won the Epic Award in Erotica in 2011. Her story, Connections, was one of the runners-up for the 2006 Rauxa Prize, given annually to an erotic short story of "exceptional literary quality," out of over 1,000 nominees, where awards are judged by a select jury and all entries are read "blind" (without author's name available.)
She can be reached on her website at www.selenakitt.com
If you enjoyed POWER PLAY: THE COMPLETE SERIES,
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BONUS EXCERPT
MODERN WICKED FAIRY TALES: THE BOXED SET
By Selena Kitt
Do you love fairy tales? Then don't miss these happily ever afters! Get ALL EIGHT modern retellings of fairy tale classics in Selena Kitt's Modern Wicked Fairy Tales: Complete Collection--Alice, Beauty, Briar Rose, Goldilocks, Gretel, Rapunzel, Red, Alice and Wendy--for one GREAT low price!
ALICE
In this modern version of the fairy tale classic, Alice is madly in love with a man who taps into her naturally submissive nature and introduces her to the pleasurably painful delights of the BDSM world. When her Wade Knight sends a car to take her to a strange and wonderful new place, Alice finds herself in a very sticky situation where everything is upside down and nothing is as it seems.
BEAUTY
When a terrible accident ends her husband's plan to kill her, Jolee wakes up alone in a cabin in the middle of the woods, rescued by a masked man they call "the beast," with a husband who wants her dead, and miles of state forest between her and civilization.
BRIAR ROSE
When Rose confesses a string of faked orgasms to her fiancé on the eve of their wedding, she finds herself alone, abandoned and suicidal--until her aunt gives her a business card with the name of a special clinic. Desperate for a solution, Rose finds that Dr. Matt's methods are very different, and he's determined to get to the bottom of her problem--one way or another.
GOLDILOCKS
The three Behr brothers have stolen something too precious for words and Goldie, safecracker extraordinaire, and Campbell, their head of security, have hatched a foolproof scheme to get it back, but the long, involved plan may just complicate their relationship beyond repair.
GRETEL
When their stepmother insists that Gretel and her brother, Hans, go on a cruise with a rich candy-heiress grandmother neither of them has ever met, their world is turned upside down. Hans is seduced by their grandmother's riches while Gretel resists, but by the time the real reason for their voyage is revealed, it may be too late for either of them to escape their grandmother's greedy grasp.
RAPUNZEL
Rachel runs Rapunzel's, a high-end salon on the lower level of a downtown Chicago high rise and lives happily in self-imposed exile in an apartment at the top of the towe
r--that is until Jake Malden walks in with his teen daughter, Emma, and presents Rachel with a dilemma.
RED
Aside from Griff, a drifter recently orphaned Mae has befriended, she is alone in the big city during the Great Depression. She's grateful when she meets Lionel, a charismatic real estate agent who arranges the sale of her grandmother's New York apartment so they can get out of the city. But is Mae's luck too good to be true--who is the big bad wolf lurking in the shadows?
WENDY
Peter finds his Wendy while looking for a rare book on "shadow" in the library. After hearing Wendy's tale of woe, he invites her to come live at his house. But although a large cross-dressing blonde named Tink, who lives with Peter and his band, The Lost Boys, isn't happy about Wendy's arrival, it's Peter's nemesis, James Hook, who proves to be the new couple's greatest challenge.
EXCERPT From ALICE:
“I need to go home.” Alice saw the Red King flash by out of the corner of her eye. He was behind her now but not touching her. “Have you seen my driver?”
“What driver?” His voice, behind her. “What do you want your safe word to be, Alice?”
“He had white gloves on. And a hat. He was very tall,” she explained. His hand moved over her shoulder, his touch light, but his palm huge. “My safe word?”
“The white rabbit?” the king inquired. She gasped when he cupped her breast, kneading the firm flesh in his fingers. “Yes, dear, your safe word. You do know what one is, don’t you?”
“White rabbit?” Alice asked, confused, trying to ignore the tingling sensation from her nipple to her crotch as he manipulated it between thumb and finger.
“Well, it’s strange, but it will do,” the king said with a laugh. “White rabbit it is.”
“Wait—” Alice said again, but it was too late, far too late. Behind her, the king had disrobed. She felt the heat from his body and the press of his cock, thick and huge, against her hip. “What are you doing?”
