by Helena Maeve
Table of Contents
Legal Page
Title Page
Book Description
Trademarks Acknowledgement
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
New Excerpt
About the Author
Publisher Page
A Totally Bound Publication
A Smile as Sweet as Poison
ISBN # 978-1-78430-531-4
©Copyright Helena Maeve 2015
Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright April 2015
Edited by Sue Meadows
Totally Bound Publishing
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Totally Bound Publishing.
Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Totally Bound Publishing. Unauthorized or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.
The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.
Published in 2015 by Totally Bound Publishing, Newland House, The Point, Weaver Road, Lincoln, LN6 3QN
Totally Bound Publishing is a subsidiary of Totally Entwined Group Limited.
Warning:
This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Totally Burning and a Sexometer of 2.
Surface Tension
A SMILE AS SWEET AS POISON
Helena Maeve
Book two in the Surface Tension serial
When fiery passion can turn on a dime, how far would you dare to gamble your heart?
When proof of a college indiscretion comes back to haunt her, Hazel’s whole world threatens to crumble under the threat of discovery.
Recently tangled in a three-way relationship with her best friend’s one-time lover and his prickly roommate should’ve turned Hazel’s hair prematurely gray. Sure, it’s not the sweeping fairy tale romance she might have imagined as a little girl, but it might just be the next best thing. Dylan and Ward are not only the right blend of domineering and considerate, they also seem eager to treat Hazel to a comfortable life. Whether it’s in the bedroom or the playroom, they are devoted to her pleasure and enthusiastic to help enact her deepest, darkest fantasies.
But while navigating the uncertain waters of such a complicated arrangement proves easier than expected, other areas of Hazel’s life aren’t so well anchored. As she struggles to keep a shameful secret that could irrevocably change the way Dylan and Ward see her, the tethers of the past call Hazel to home and hearth and the artful lure of an old flame.
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
Volvo: AB Volvo
GI Jane: Buena Vista Pictures
Ford: Ford Motor Company
Bakelite: Momentive Specialty Chemicals
Rebel Without A Cause: Warner Bros
Google: Google Inc.
Don Draper: Weiner Bros, Silvercup Studios, Lionsgate Television, AMC Studios
Red Bull: Red Bull GmbH
Formica: Formica Group
Louis Vuitton: Louis Vuitton Malletier
Eames: Herman Miller Furniture Company
Greyhound: Greyhound Lines, Inc.
Tesla: Tesla Motors, Inc.
Parents Magazine: Meredith Corporation
eBay: eBay Inc.
Chanel: Chanel S.A.
Donna Karan: DKNY
Hermès: Hermès International S.A.
Pottery Barn: Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
BMW: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
Disney: The Walt Disney Company
Richie Rich: Harvey Comics
Durango: FCA US LLC
Wheaties: General Mills, Inc.
Xanax: The Upjohn Company
Band-Aid: Johnson & Johnson
Real Housewives: Bravo
Chapter One
Heels hovering just off the floor and toes curled into the buffed hardwood boards for want of grip. Her wrists, bound with rope, stretched above her head. Most importantly, her eyes tightly shut, amplified the softest breath to the heave of a bellows.
These were the rules of engagement. All that was expected of Hazel was to follow them.
She tried. She couldn’t see them, but she knew they were close, circling like vultures—and she, the only prey. A slice of hair curled around her biceps. It must have slid free of the ponytail she’d attempted before she entered the room. Sloppy. Her throat worked, but no sound made it past her lips.
There would be time to beg later.
Out of nowhere, a sharp swish of leather whispered through the air. It was the only warning Hazel was afforded before liquid fire spread over her shoulder blades.
“Oh…” Hooks and karabiners creaked overhead. Somehow, she held back a startled cry.
Don’t break, don’t break.
Another strike, this time diagonally, drawing a broad welt over the juncture of hip and thigh. Hazel made to pull her knee into her chest, but the ropes secured to the floor would not allow her the range of movement. Her eyes watered as the sting solidified into a dull, throbbing ache.
The cat-quiet shuffle of footsteps arrested behind her.
“Did she—?”
Ward. Two weeks into their arrangement and still he didn’t trust his instincts. It would’ve been insulting if Hazel didn’t know precisely what he feared. She wasn’t proud of herself for digging his insecurities, but the information came in handy. She knew now that he feared the darkness inside him, the blind hunger that had once possessed him to take advantage of a friend.
“No,” replied said friend. Dylan didn’t call it ‘taking advantage’. He didn’t call it anything at all, because whenever they were together, he and Hazel always seemed to find better to do than excavating the past.
Hazel had never seen anyone compartmentalize better than he did. She shivered when he cupped her sopping pussy with a long-fingered hand, then parted her labia to drive a single long digit inside her.
“But she’s not far from it,” Dylan added conversationally. He crooked his finger against her G-spot. “Isn’t that right, slut? You’re drenched. Bet you’d fuck yourself on my hand if I let you. Answer me.”
“Yes.” It came out more ragged than plaintive, but Hazel felt no shame. She’d been squeezing her eyes shut so long—on their orders—that opening them took effort. Pinpricks of light stung her corneas. Her lashes stuck together. She congratulated herself on not wearing any mascara, but self-satisfaction was short-lived.
Dylan filled her field of vision, his jaw set, his inky eyes blazing. Over his shoulder, she glimpsed the door—innocuous, painted wood with a silver handle, black on one side and white on the other, the only
way in and out of the playroom—and the cabinet beside it. All Dylan’s toys were carefully cleaned and stored, and she knew she could veto the use of any implement. Still, despite his suggestions that she take a peek at what was on offer, Hazel had refused. She needed a little mystery. She wanted her boys to surprise her.
It was a perfectly mundane aspiration. Dylan circled the heel of his palm over her clit in either punishment or reward, or possibly simply because he enjoyed seeing Hazel in distress. He didn’t have far to push, if that was what he hoped to achieve.
“Oh, please,” Hazel gasped, hitching herself up as far as the ropes would allow. Her torqued shoulders burned with effort. “Please…”
“Begging already?” Ward clucked his tongue, breath hot in her ear. He snaked an arm around her waist, holding her still as Dylan gently slid another finger into her cunt. “And here I thought we taught you better than that.” As a rule, his accent was barely distinguishable, but when he was angry or nervous—or aroused—it came through clear as day. The vestiges of Afrikaans rasped in his voice.
Sometimes he called her ‘schat’—treasure—and sometimes he settled for whispering filth into her ear without translating. No need. Hazel could read his tone like she read Dylan’s touch.
They had taught her well.
Since Dylan’s return from Shanghai they’d been at it almost every night—sometimes in bed, sometimes in Dylan’s playroom—orbiting around Hazel like celestial bodies. It should’ve been hard to keep up with two lovers, never mind two Dominants, but Hazel’s sex drive had never been in better shape. They had fucked all over the loft. Just yesterday, Ward had bent her over the kitchen island and fucked her until she’d come around his dick, her hands numb from clutching the countertop.
They’d burnt the toast and Hazel had been late for work.
It was worth it.
Ward sunk teeth into the meat of her shoulder, a warning meant to tow her back into the present.
She wished she could see him. She wished they’d keep going with the floggers until she was a helpless, shuddering quivering mess. But Dylan had other ideas. He was relentless. He pressed his palm down over her mound with sharp, rough strokes, offering no reprieve.
Hazel was tethered to his gaze and trapped between their bodies, unable to tell if the heartbeat echoing in the cage of her ribs was hers or Ward’s.
“Please,” she choked out, pathetic and past the point of giving a damn.
Ward dug his fingers into her heaving breast almost to the point of pain. “Please, what?” he growled.
“Let me come,” Hazel whimpered, face hot. “Please, please, oh god… I can’t.” She felt close to tears, didn’t realize they were already leaking down her cheeks until Dylan scraped a thumb through the salty rivulets and brought it to his lips.
He was every bit the swaggering, nonchalant playboy who had walked into Marco’s dinner a couple of months back and left with her heart, when he’d said, “So come.”
It didn’t take much more. Dylan hooked his talented fingers just so and Ward bit down on Hazel’s nape, triggering a powerful orgasm. For all her fears of what she must’ve looked like and how fragile the rigging was, Hazel threw her head back and shook with a guttural cry.
The ropes held. She was ashamed for expecting any less.
* * * *
“Give you a ride?” Ward offered, his dirty blond hair damp and tousled from the shower.
Hazel couldn’t resist reaching up and finger-combing it into some semblance of order. The scent of his body wash and the fresh coffee he religiously insisted on brewing after each session filled her with warmth. “I’m good. Gotta swing by Sadie’s, anyway.”
“Oh.” Ward didn’t quite deflate, but it was a close thing.
“You can come with,” Hazel suggested. “It’s mahjong night at her mom’s.”
He groaned. “My favorite.”
She elbowed him in the ribs before pulling away. Her clothes had been scattered all over the floor once, when her visits to the loft were infrequent and furtive. Now, Dylan took it upon himself to fold everything neatly and align her flats. It was a pleasure to come down from a scene on their watch. If anything, they were almost too scrupulous about making sure her comfort was seen to.
“Not to be presumptuous,” Ward added after a beat, “but you know you don’t have to leave as soon as we’re done, right?”
Hazel turned to face him, the buttons on her print shirt halfway done. She’d been trying to dress better since this thing with Dylan and Ward had become somewhat official. She didn’t want to stand out when she was with them. There was nothing she could do about her stubborn Midwest accent or the proportion of her hips, but in every other way she wanted to be their equal. Or at least pass as such.
“I know that. I’ve stayed the night,” Hazel recalled, hating that she was already on the defensive.
Ward held his ground. “Not in a while,” he pointed out gently. He had inherited the chairmanship of a rickety multinational. Arguing a difficult case against people far shrewder than Hazel was his bread and butter. Sighing, he crossed to the dresser and slid two fingers around a small silver knob. The drawer slid open, empty. “In case you ever want to leave stuff here…”
Hazel finished buttoning her shirt. “Is this you worrying about my mental health again? I told you, I’m fine.” Coddling had never worked for her. Even in her more vanilla relationships, pre-Ward and Dylan, she had always preferred to be in and out, to sleep in her own bed when it was all said and done.
Through the open bathroom door, they both heard the shower cut off.
Hazel thinned her lips. It was a matter of time before Dylan joined the fray, his vote of confidence always going to Ward, first, before he admitted Hazel’s point of view. “I have to go,” she insisted, preempting another shot at persuasion.
Ward sighed, but to his credit, he didn’t press the point. “I’ll walk you.”
“Leaving already?” Dylan pouted from the bathroom door.
The sight of him bare-chested and dripping shower water onto the white carpet nearly made Hazel reconsider. She firmed her resolve as she crossed the room and clasped a hand behind his nape. The humid ends of his short black hair tickled her fingers.
“I don’t trust you two not to rope me into another scene.”
“Oh, the puns…” Dylan’s smile was warm against her lips. It faded quickly into a slow, passionate kiss that all but melted Hazel’s knees.
She pulled away with a sigh. “You got me all wet—shut up, Ward.”
“I didn’t say anything!”
Dylan chuckled, but he let her go when she made to disentangle herself from his arms. She felt his eyes on her as she made her way to Ward and rose up on tiptoes.
“Thank you,” Hazel whispered.
A flash of confusion edged its way onto his pale, angular features—there and gone in a heartbeat. “You know me. Always looking out for Dylan’s best interest.”
“Uh-huh.”
It wasn’t Dylan he plied with coffee and tea—occasionally sweetened with a splash of something harder. It wasn’t Dylan he surrounded with blankets when they were done messing around. Yet not for the first time since they’d fallen into bed together, Hazel wondered if there wasn’t some truth to that. She kissed Ward lightly on the lips before stepping back and scooping up her shoes. “See you later, boys.”
The teeming bookshelves that lined the hallway echoed with their answers, but Hazel didn’t let herself turn back at the sound. She had to keep moving forward. She needed to negotiate the time she spent at the loft carefully. The more attached she became, the more it would hurt when Dylan and Ward finally decided they wanted nothing to do with her.
She found her handbag by the door and pulled it over a shoulder. Then, as she did every time she left the loft, Hazel turned and took one long, final look at the sprawl of concrete and exposed red brick, the cattle skin rugs and clear glass side tables. She committed the details to memory as best she could.
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The heavy door slammed in her wake, same as always.
* * * *
The battered Volvo creaked as Hazel eased to a halt. She didn’t relish the thought of taking it for an oil change. Money was tight since she’d stopped taking extra shifts. The shopping sprees she’d gone on with Sadie weren’t helping her wallet, either. Determined not to let worry snare her just yet, Hazel slammed the car door shut and locked it.
A cool breeze rolled over her, seeping under the thin fabric of her silk shirt. She shivered.
Four-seven-one Aulden Way might have warranted dressing up, but coming home always made her feel as though she was prancing around in costume. The projects rose up on either side of the street in all their concrete glory, flanking her. Somewhere in the deserted parking lot, a cat meowed and darted out of the light. Hazel hugged her sides.
She’d lived in sketchy neighborhoods since she first moved to LA. But even here, the rent climbed every year and basic utilities were becoming prohibitive. She entered the building with a brisk step, knowing that she was an easier target if she flinched and jumped at shadows than the reverse. Hoping, anyway.
The elevator wasn’t out of order for a change. She hummed to herself as the cabin juddered and groaned on ascent. Her keys were already out when the doors opened. She clutched the chain in the palm of her hand, the silver points peeking through the gaps between her fingers.
It made her feel better to imagine that she had a weapon she could use, should she need it. She’d never had to. Catcalls were best ignored. Purse snatching was preferable to mugging at gunpoint. Tonight wasn’t the night she transformed into urban GI Jane.
Barricaded behind a heavy oak door with three separate chains and two latches only moments later, Hazel let out a sigh of relief. Her apartment was no one’s idea of a safe haven, but it was the only place she could go to be alone. It wasn’t so long ago that she would have greeted the thought with a sinking heart.
