“Wrong,” Franci interrupted, striding up to stand over her.
Ana jerked her head up. “Linda, hold on, Franci’s here and telling me something about Ethan.” She faced her friend. “What do you mean?”
“He told me outside before he left—he’s meeting with Chef Siena to turn down the apprenticeship.”
“Wait, what?” Ana shot up to her feet, unable to believe it.
Franci touched her shoulder. “He’s hoping it’ll convince you he’d choose you over anything else. Even his shot at being a chef.”
No. That’s what Ethan had meant that he’d prove it to her. She’d refused to believe him when he told her he loved her, so he was giving up his dream for her. Sick agony pounded in her chest. She clutched the phone. The need to get to him gripped her. “Linda, I have to go save Ethan from a huge mistake.”
“I heard. I love you honey. I’m booking a flight home, I’ll call you later.”
Ana stopped halfway up the stairs. “I love you too, Linda. I called you today because I needed my mom. That’s you.”
“Damn right, and don’t ever forget it again.”
That made her smile despite the urgency beating at her to get to Ethan. “I won’t.”
* * *
He’d let another woman come between him and Ana. That ended now. Siena might be able to give him a career, but Ana owned his heart. He didn’t know if he could ever heal the damage he’d done to her trust. He’d finish the tour and pay off his debts, then go home to San Diego. He’d find a job and work hard to win Ana back no matter how long it took.
After parking, he headed into the building and straight to the conference room.
Siena waited by the window. “Why did you insist on this private meeting before signing the contract?” She strode to the table and slapped her hands down. “I’m not accustomed to demands from my apprentice. Before we do sign, you need to be clear, I expect you to be one hundred percent dedicated and passionate about the job. No distractions.”
He stayed at the other end of the table. “Like Ana?”
“Exactly. I don’t care if you’re screwing random women, as long as they don’t interfere with the job.” Straightening up, she added, “You ever walk out of a meeting as you did last night, I’ll fire you on the spot.”
He narrowed his eyes and stayed silent. From a business perspective she had a point. But she’d been the one to arrange the reservations for him and Ana, making a big deal of reassuring Ana he’d be done by then. “You set it up to make me late or cancel.”
“Damn right I did. From the second I met Ana at the party, I knew that girl was messing with your head. You have a huge future in front of you. The video tests showed you’re amazing on camera. Your cooking is very good, though you need more experience, but that’s something I can give you. You have a fresh, creative flair I’m looking for. But I won’t accept you being distracted or telling me you have other commitments. For one year, you’re mine. Choose—the girl or your career.”
The ultimatum hung in the air. A week ago, cold dread would have filled him at the idea of failing to secure this apprenticeship. And this morning? “Thank you for the opportunity. I’m choosing—”
The door burst open. “Don’t do it!”
Whipping around, he blinked in surprise. Ana stood there, her face flushed, hair wild, and wearing the dress from last night.
She rushed up to him and gripped his arm with her uninjured hand. “Don’t. Franci told me what you’re doing. Please, this chance means everything to you.”
She’d come down here to stop him?
“Listen to her,” Siena interrupted. “I’ll open doors for you all over the world.”
Yeah, she probably would. Ignoring Siena, he smiled down at Ana. His one good thing. “I don’t want it. I want you.”
“I’ll wait. If you really want me, it’s only a year. I’ll wait.”
The impact of her words sank in. Ethan was afraid to believe it. “You’ll give me another chance?”
“Yes, but you don’t have to give up this apprenticeship.”
He pulled her against his side and turned to Siena. “I’m choosing Ana.”
Ana stiffened. “Ethan, no!”
“Yes.” He kissed her forehead. “I don’t want to be away from you for another year. I’ll get a job, I swear. I’ll put in a call to Chef Zane to see if I can get a job as one of his line cooks. Or I can work for Sloane’s security team, or another place. I’m going back to San Diego once the band’s tour is over. I’m going to prove to you—”
“Touching.” Siena cut him off. “But I wonder? Does Ana know all about you? I do. I had you investigated.”
Ethan stilled, a vile taste slicking his tongue as a low drone of fury rumbled like distant thunder. He’d signed papers for a background check. Taking his arm from Ana, he faced the woman he’d once admired. “The steroid scandal is public knowledge.”
“Yes it is. But this…” Siena picked up a dark gray folder, “…is not.” She slid the folder across the table.
He raised an eyebrow, refusing to show a reaction, while his mind blared, “Once a whore, always a whore.” Were there pictures in there? The idea of Ana seeing him that way, a kid servicing women, exploded in his head, nearly making him vomit. All his instincts screamed to grab that folder and destroy it.
But he didn’t move a muscle. To win Ana’s trust, he had to give her his. And that meant trusting her with his worst moments and biggest regrets.
“Go ahead.” Siena gestured to the file. “Show your girlfriend the investigator’s report. You were a—”
“Child.” Ana snatched up the folder, waving it in front of her as she stalked to Siena. “I know Ethan’s truth. And I know this—if there’s one picture, even one so-called testimony of someone who abused that boy, I’ll have you arrested and charged with trafficking child pornography. I’ll ruin you in ways you haven’t even thought of. So tell me, Chef Siena, should I look in this folder?”
Siena’s eyes rounded, and she stepped back. “Are you threatening me?”
Ana smiled. “Consider it an ironclad guarantee. You can’t imagine the misery I’ll rain down on you if you release this stuff. And I won’t stop there. I’ll rip your world apart until I find who took any pictures or told any stories of child abuse. Those women were all adults hiring a child. I’ll destroy them too.”
Ethan couldn’t tear his gaze from Ana. She all but stole the words from his mouth, but coming from her? Defending him? It was a thing of beauty and filled his throat with so much love, he grabbed the back of the chair to keep upright.
“It’s just a report,” Siena blurted out. “No…no pictures. I—”
“Ethan, check.” Ana held out the folder to him. “Let’s see if we have the chef dragged out of here in cuffs today or not.”
She didn’t want to look for herself? He took the folder and flipped through the three pages. “No pictures. Only rumors and bullshit.” He couldn’t even be relieved, there was no room with so much love and amazement filling every one of his cells. It finally hit him—his past was just that, his past.
But Ana was his future.
“We’ll take that copy as insurance.” Ana turned from her stare down with Siena and walked out.
Ethan faced Siena. “You want to come after me, bring it. But you try to fuck with Ana in any way, I’ll destroy you before she gets to you.” He strode out and caught up with Ana in the parking lot.
She had her uninjured hand pressed against the side of the car, leaning over, panting.
He set his hand on her sweaty back. “You okay?”
She looked up, her eyes fierce. “I almost killed her. I could actually visualize myself doing it—leaping over that table, grabbing her throat and slamming her head onto the table. I was so mad. You were a child, and she tried to use that to hurt you. I hate her.”
He kept rubbing her back. Her reaction wasn’t surprising given her past. Ana had run, but she never got to face down her abuser. T
oday she’d faced down a woman that represented the ones who’d abused Ethan. “I’ve never seen anyone as amazing as you were in there.”
Sucking in another breath, she stood up and touched his chest. “What about you? I’m so sorry. I know that was your worst nightmare.”
The concern in her eyes reached into his heart. “I thought it would be. But seeing you go all Rambo on her ass, standing there defending me, no one’s done that.” How did he tell her what that meant? “For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel dirty.”
“I’ll defend you. Every time.”
He believed her. “I have to ask you something though. You handed the folder to me. Why didn’t you look for yourself?”
“I don’t need to. You told me what happened, and I didn’t know what was in there. If there were pictures, why would I need to see those?”
This was what love felt like—this clean acceptance. He’d never known how freeing it was. He stared into the eyes of the woman who’d stood up for him. “I’m in love with you, Ana. You’re my brave, beautiful and bad girl. If you need more time, I’ll wait. I’ll spend years proving myself to you if that’s what it takes. I love you too much to give up.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t cry. I never cry. I can’t—”
“Yes you can.” He pulled her against him, stroking her hair. He didn’t care that they were out in a public parking lot and people might see or hear. Ana was his, and she’d been too perfect and alone for too damned long. “You’re mine now, sunshine. Let go, baby. You can always let go with me.”
He held her close, the gift of Ana’s love and trust seeping in to heal his heart. Once he was nothing more than a commodity to women, but to Ana?
He was the man she loved enough to defend, fight with, surrender to and trust with her most vulnerable moments.
Once Ana had been his one good thing, but now? She was his everything.
Chapter 11
One Month Later:
“Are you really okay with the plea deal?”
Ana shifted in the passenger seat of the car to look at Ethan. She’d returned to Florida to meet with the District Attorney’s office regarding the case against Gregory. Refusing to let her handle this alone, Ethan had flown in first, picked her up from the airport and went with her to the meeting where they’d learned the DA was offering a plea deal to Gregory for probation and mandatory treatment to be served in California. “I’m glad it’s over, so yeah. Gregory’s family lives in Los Angeles. He’ll be settling there, and that’s three hours away from us, depending on traffic.”
Us. Ethan had been on the road for the last few weeks, but she flew out for long weekends with him. Next week he’d be coming home for good.
“How about you? Are you excited to start working for Chef Zane at Stilts?” Zane had offered Ethan a position as his apprentice. It would be long hours and hard work, but Ana was delighted for him.
“I can’t wait. I like this job, and it’s taught me a lot. But cooking is what I love.” He took her hand. “Not as much as I love you, though.”
She knew that. True to his word, Ethan had flown home to San Diego with her after her vacation ended last month, stayed a couple nights until Linda got home from Italy and demanded Ana stay with her a few nights. Turns out the two of them had anticipated Ana would have some nightmares in reaction to her attack, and they were right. Franci and Chelle were there too, along with Kat and Sloane.
She opened her mouth to tell him how much she loved him when he pulled up to a gate. “Bayside Manor? But I made reservations at the Marriott.”
“I cancelled them and changed our plans.”
“But…” Why was she surprised? Ethan had powerful friends. He just so rarely used them, and when he did, well it was almost always for her.
Ethan guided the car through the gates. “No one else is here at the manor, no staff or security, just us for the night.” He turned off the main road that led to the house.
Ana recognized where they were headed and her heart started to thump. Her pulse jumped. “We’re going to the casita.”
“Yep. I made you a promise of capturing you, holding you down and taking you so hard you’d never again doubt who you belong to. I didn’t make good on it, and that’s unacceptable. I don’t break my promises to you, ever. So I hijacked your cute little romantic night of dinner and sex for this, Operation Savaged Surrender.”
Ana took off her seat belt, went up on her knees and braced a hand on his shoulder. “You did this for me?”
“For us.” His blue eyes burned with intense love, filling Ana. “When I promise you something, it will happen. You can count on that.”
She realized that now. “Why Savaged Surrender?”
His mouth tilted up. “Because we’re giving in to our savage sides and surrendering to each other. Totally surrendering, even me. What’s the one thing you’ve been asking me for?”
Hot excitement shuddered between her legs. “Bare. I want your cock inside me without a condom.” In the beginning, she’d wanted a condom in addition to her birth control as another layer of protection. In the last month, Ethan had shown her a love that was about true trust. If her birth control failed, the two of them would handle it together. But it went deeper for Ethan—taking her bare, especially in forced seduction, meant she accepted all of him, including his past.
“When I catch you tonight, you’re mine. You’re going to get all of me, sunshine, right down to my unsheathed cock.”
His trust wrenched her heart and ignited her desire. Both of them were letting go on the deepest, most intimate levels. Ethan had feared his past while Ana had feared her inner bad girl. Tonight, they would truly surrender the last of their fears to an all-consuming love. Ana took his face in her hands. “I’ll run and fight. You so sure you can catch and tame me?”
One of his hands curled around her hip. “I’ll always catch you, but I never want to tame you. I love you exactly as you are.”
Had anyone ever loved her this way? Before they lost themselves in this moment, she wanted to tell him how she felt. “For years, I got it in my head that people would leave me if I was bad.”
Ethan closed his eyes for a second, then opened them with so much love it floored her. “You’re not bad, sunshine.”
“But I’m human. I just didn’t realize people would love me even if I wasn’t perfect. You gave me that. You showed me that I could relax and be myself, and you’d still love me.”
“Every damned day.” His fingers glided over her cheek in a reassuring touch, but one that sank into with her the knowledge that this was what love felt like. Safe and free to be herself.
“You’re the strongest man I know. You survived a life I can’t even bear to think about to become the man who is my friend and lover.” She kissed him and added, “I love you.”
“I love you too. So much.” His jaw hardened, and a wicked gleam flashed in his eyes. “You have five seconds. Run.”
A sense of freedom and joy exploded through her, propelling her out the car door and running full bore. It didn’t matter how tonight played out.
She’d already won because she had Ethan.
~The End~
Dear Readers,
Thank you so much for taking a chance on Savaged Surrender. I appreciate that you are choosing to spend your precious time with the characters and world I created. I’m truly grateful and honored.
This long novella is special to me because it links two of my series, The Plus One Chronicles and my upcoming Savaged Illusions Series. The hero and heroine of this book, Ethan and Ana, first appeared in The Plus One Chronicles Series as beloved secondary characters. After many reader requests, Ethan and Ana now get their own story in Savaged Surrender, and at the same time, give you a small taste of my forthcoming Savaged Illusions Series about a sexy rock band. I’ll be releasing the first book in that series, Savaged Dreams, very soon.
I hope you enjoyed Savaged Surrender!
~Jen
Acknowledgements
I’m incredibly appreciative to so many people for their help on this book. First a shout out to Rebecca Zanetti for being the catalyst for this novella. I met Rebecca years ago at a writer’s conference, and we became friends. Rebecca is hugely supportive and if you haven’t read her books, I highly suggest you check her out. She’s awesome!
Thank you to my friend and critique partner, Marianne Donley. There’s a point where Marianne saves my butt on every single book by doing emergency reads and critiques for me. This book is no exception and I couldn’t have written it without her help.
I need to say a heartfelt thank you to my editor, Sasha Knight. Sasha works tirelessly to shape my books into the best possible read while protecting the heart of the story. I love how she pushes me to develop the plot and characters to their fullest potential. Yet for all her amazing talent, she still can’t break my Bad Comma Habits. I’m wild and reckless with those little guys.
A big thank you to my copy editor, Kimberly Cannon. You’re my last line of defense in ferreting out mistakes and I’m so pleased to have your eagle eye go over the book.
Of course, all mistakes that get through are my own.
Other Books by Jennifer Lyon
The Plus One Chronicles Trilogy
The Proposition (Book #1)
Possession (Book #2)
Obsession (Book #3)
The Plus One Chronicles Boxed Set
The Wing Slayer Hunter Series
Blood Magic (Book #1)
Soul Magic (Book #2)
Night Magic (Book #3)
Sinful Magic (Book #4)
Forbidden Magic (Book #4.5 a novella)
Caged Magic (Book #5)
Writing as Jennifer Apodaca
Savaged Surrender: A Novella Page 13
