The Dani Collins Erotic Romance Collection: Mastering Her RolePlaying the Master
Page 35
“Not if it’s just for the company and revenge. I mean, I want to give you that. I probably can, in time, but I don’t want it to be the only reason you want me.”
“I don’t care about revenge. I realized that when I told you at the club that I didn’t love you and walked away from you.” His heart began to pound with something he barely recognized. She was so cute. Innocent yet completely accepting of jaded motives like revenge. The oddest minx to ever walk, and he was crazy about her. “Who chooses revenge when they could have love? Who chooses hate when they could have you?”
“Really? You mean…” She swallowed and tucked a fist into her chest, one slender finger touching her breastbone. “You really want me?”
“When I walked into your room that last morning, Ann,” he said, choosing the name deliberately and leaning forward on the desk so he had her full attention, “I was coming to tell you that I couldn’t marry you, because I’d fallen in love with Violet.”
Her eyes widened and she drew in a pained breath. “Oh dear.”
“Yes. You begin to see why your ass was so hot.” If she only knew what punishment that spanking had been for him. He had hated hurting her, no matter how important it had been for both of them to go down that path. She hadn’t said her safe word, either, even when he had been willing her to. She had put herself completely in his care in a way that had touched him and filled him with hope.
And then she’d left him.
“I’ve been worried as hell about you,” he grumbled. “I don’t care how much money you had, or what you needed to prove to yourself. You’re too damned naive. Anyone could have taken advantage. An email saying you were alive would have been nice.”
“I’m inexperienced, not naive,” she argued.
“You’re impulsive and stubborn and too inquisitive for your own good.”
“You’re bossy and think you know everything.”
“I know a damn sight more than you do.”
“See? You bring worldly knowledge to our relationship. What do I offer? Don’t say sex because you’re better at that, too. Porter, I’m scared that I’m just a novelty for you.”
He could see she was genuinely worried, so he didn’t laugh outright at her completely ungrounded insecurity, but honestly. “Lurid curiosity draws people to peek over the wall into kink all the time. Most find out very quickly it is not for them. How do I know you’re not experimenting with a novelty lifestyle and will change your mind in a week?”
“Because I want to be with you, no matter what you want to do,” she said with the sweet, forthright honesty he had seen in both sides of her personality.
Coming around the desk, he cupped the side of her neck, delighted to find her as warm and soft, as quick to tremble under his touch as ever. She caught his wrist, stilling his caress.
“You told me two Doms don’t work,” she rushed to say. “You’re a natural Dominant, but I’m not a good submissive. That’s a bad mix, isn’t it?”
“If we were planning to challenge each other at every turn, it would be,” he conceded. “But there’s another way to make it work and it’s incredibly simple when you think about it. Every pack has an alpha female to mate with the alpha male.”
“I—” Her lashes flashed up while her chin stayed down. “You want a litter?”
“Maybe. Eventually.” Had those words really come out of his mouth? They ought to feel more wrong, but they actually felt strangely true and right. Deeply binding in a way that squeezed securely. Shibari, he thought. Rope stoned. Bring it on. “I want to be with you. No matter where you want to go, even if it’s a tame little existence of domestic bliss and two-point-five kids.”
“Even if I don’t go in for whips and chains—” He stilled her lips with his thumb.
“I won’t be bored,” he promised, then bared his soul in a way he hadn’t known he could. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Her words flooded him with sunlight, but her tiny frown of uncertainty stole his breath. “But maybe a longer engagement would be a good idea. So you can be sure.”
He trembled with holding himself back from uncontrolled, happy laughter. “Longer than the week we had last time? It was a very entertaining week, all things considered. You have a lot more going on under the surface than you let on, Ann.”
She was incredible. The other side of pain. The relief after enduring it. The reward. His inner fighter calmed and settled, wanting only to be in her presence, to watch over and adore her.
She broke into a mischievous smile. “You don’t know the half of it. Wait until I tell you about the first time I saw Eloisa. Actually, I’ll show you.” She grasped his hand, tugging him into the hall. “I heard everything you said about me that first night, you know, and you can eat that comment about how deflowering virgins isn’t your thing. You enjoyed it,” she accused, loving the light of both amusement and surprise that leapt into his eyes.
“Where the hell were you?” He looked around as they entered the cloakroom. “The closet?”
“Yes.”
His shout of laughter made her laugh as she lifted her skirt and hurriedly pushed her lace panties down her thighs, letting them fall around her ankles.
“Now let’s reenact something called a knee trembler.”
Award-winning author Dani Collins writes sexy and witty romance as seen in her acclaimed Harlequin Presents titles. She’s excited to add “edgy” to the repertoire after signing with Harlequin E for a pair of erotic romances. When she’s not writing, she’s asleep. Follow her on Twitter, @DaniCollinsBook, like her on Facebook (DaniCollinsAuthor) or visit her at www.danicollins.com to join her newsletter.
Also by Dani Collins
Harlequin Presents
Proof of Their Sin
More than a Convenient Marriage?
No Longer Forbidden?
A Debt Paid in Passion
An Heir to Bind Them
eISBN: 978-1-4603-3830-8
THE DANI COLLINS EROTIC ROMANCE COLLECTION
Copyright © 2014 by Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holder of the individual works as follows:
MASTERING HER ROLE
Copyright © 2014 by Dani Collins
PLAYING THE MASTER
Copyright © 2014 by Dani Collins
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