ReclaimedSurrender

by Riley Murphy

  Shaking his head, he relaxed his shoulders. This was the problem. She always pushed it. That was one of the things he loved best and worst about her. It was a mess and a wonder all at the same time. That’s why he didn’t want to lose her. Why he wasn’t ready to give up. They had a unique relationship. Unlike any other he’d ever had before.

  Alex had entered his life quite by accident and took him by storm. She was smart, sexy and feisty. Just the way he liked his woman, but unlike the women he was used to seeing, Alex was oblivious to the darker side of her passions. He’d immediately picked up on her kink and because she didn’t have a clue, he couldn’t resist the challenge. He’d made it his job to open her up and establish a new and dirty world for her.

  Unfortunately, the demands of real life upset the tenuous balance of that world and now they needed to find a way back to it. They’d somehow drifted out of their respective roles and he needed to reestablish where their limits lay. He needed to readdress the rules and bring her back to where she was the happiest. He wanted her happy again and he was ready to do whatever he had to, to make that happen.

  First things first. He needed to get her in the right frame of mind. Once she was there she would apologize. That was a given. He understood the pressures she faced with the life they’d led behind closed doors. He faced the same challenges and as such he was determined that she not shirk her duty to him.

  He’d had six long months to do nothing but think about what went wrong. He knew it was an issue of trust. As if he’d sink low enough to purposely trap her into motherhood. It was laughable and could have been reasoned out between them if the seeds of doubt hadn’t been so cleverly planted. And to think Michael Kavanagh got involved in their personal lives not to protect her, but to protect himself. That was the kicker. Because if Alex did decide to slow down and become a mother, Michael’s problem solver and workhorse would be put to pasture. Then he might have to do his own job for a change.

  Rene picked up a freshly sharpened pencil and tapped it against the desktop. The fact that her business partner knew intimate details of the stresses between Alexis and him, to even suggest that Rene could do such a despicable thing, was dangerous. It meant that Alexis on some level trusted Kavanagh more than she trusted him, which was really infuriating. But all that was going to change. Oh yeah. The plan was already in motion. Well, one of them anyway. The second one he’d start tomorrow.

  * * * * *

  Alexis had been at the office for no more than an hour the following day when her text went off.

  I want you home.

  She read those words three times and texted back.

  I’m working.

  Now, Alexis.

  Should she? She bit her lip, looked down at her files and then packed them up. A deal was a deal.

  “Hi, Jennifer.” Michael’s office door was closed. “Is he around?” She didn’t wait for an answer as she fully expected to be buzzed right in. Walking around the side of the desk, she stopped when Jennifer didn’t budge. “Is something wrong?”

  “He’s not in.”

  “I see.”

  Jennifer’s expression softened and if Alexis weren’t mistaken she looked relieved. “He’s down in the Atrium with the guys from the lab. They play war during their breaks.”

  Breaks? The first actual break Alexis had ever taken since starting work in this new division was yesterday and only at Rene’s insistence. Breaks. Lunches. Suddenly the idea of leaving these files on her ungrateful partner’s desk was looking pretty damn good.

  “I want to give him these.” She twisted sideways until the whole bunch of manila folders were visible. “But I don’t want to bother him on his break. I’ll leave them on his desk, if I can?”

  Jennifer nodded and buzzed her through.

  “Thanks.” Alexis put the stack down and left a sticky note on top of it that said, I had to go home early. Please make sure these get done by five. The Telcon brothers are expecting the figures today. If you need a little extra time, remember they’re three hours behind us.

  She was halfway home when the inevitable guilt of dumping on him surfaced. At a stoplight she used her Bluetooth to make a call, but Michael’s cell phone went straight to voice mail. Clicking off, she picked up her phone and dialed his office number.

  “Jennifer, it’s Alexis. Is Michael there?”

  “I’m sorry he’s busy.”

  “Busy working or busy playing war on his so-called break? Never mind.”

  She told herself it really shouldn’t matter as long as he got the work done, but how much work did he get done in the course of a day? A day that had hour-long breaks, two-hour lunches and finished before five fifteen.

  She was still mulling this over when she turned into her driveway and parked. Given the amount of time Michael apparently took off and measuring that against the amount of work he did turn in, she was left wondering where he found the time to do it all. He still didn’t do as much as she did, however, so they’d have to speak about this and come up with an equitable plan. That decided, she dropped her keys in her purse and sighed. Time to focus on other things, namely what her determined husband had planned for her today.

  “Rene?”

  “In here.”

  She didn’t bother to take her coat off and went directly into the living room. He was there seated on the back of the couch. He had on a pair of faded jeans and a camel-colored turtleneck. The width of his shoulders blocked out her view of the fireplace and once again she marveled at his size. She’d always teased him about it. When she’d first met him she’d joked that he would have made a great Viking, if he didn’t have black hair. At the moment he looked so relaxed, so handsome she almost smiled at him. She probably would have if she hadn’t spied the gauzy thing draped in his hand.

  “What’s that?”

  He held up the little bit of nothing and said, “Your outfit for today. Put it on.”

  She wasn’t surprised. She’d been waiting for this. With Rene having carte blanche owning the week as he did, her only surprise was that this bit of dental floss hadn’t come out sooner. But just because she’d been expecting this didn’t mean she was going to agree with what he wanted without even trying to negotiate some quarter in the deal.

  “I’m not putting that on unless…”

  She’d let the words hang in the hopes he’d be drawn in and give up something, but it wasn’t to be.

  “You are putting it on and there’s no unless about it.”

  She shrugged out of her coat and laid it over the couch. “What if I don’t want to?”

  “What you want doesn’t matter. This is all about me. So,” he leaned forward and brushed her bangs to one side behind her ear, “here’s your choice. You can either put this on right now without complaint or I will do it for you and you can complain all you want. Pick one.”

  “Pick one? Either I do it your way or you make me do it your way. That’s my choice?”

  “My week. My rules.”

  She tried to stand strong against his “brook no defiance demeanor” and failed miserably. “Fine, but I’d just like to remind you that you’re supposed to be getting back into my good graces and threatening me like this is not a smart place to start. That’s all I’m saying.”

  He stood and she was nearly nose to nipple with him. This wasn’t good. She didn’t look up at him. She refused to until he growled, “Careful, Alexis.”

  Hating the thrill that coursed through her at his reprimand, she snatched the piece of lingerie from his hand and stepped back. “I’m not the one who’s careless.”

  Crap. When she saw his expression darken she wished she could grab those words back.

  His voice was deathly calm. “I get to be whatever I want this week. Remember that, Alex.”

  Swallowing hard to tamp down her fear, she turned away. She intended to go upstairs and change before she said something worse than she already had, but his voice halted her at the bottom step.

  “Wait.”
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  She stopped and hoped he’d continue to speak from a distance, but no such luck. He came up right behind her and the heat of his whispered words flooded her ear and drained right down to her center. Crashing in delicious tingles and twangs that made her shiver.

  “Do you remember what I said about the britches, Alex?”

  Nodding, she closed her eyes.

  “Good, because for that careless remark they’re coming down. All the way down. Your ten minutes is now eight. Tick-tock.”

  Alexis shut the guest bedroom door and leaned against it. Breathe. She knocked her head on the raised wood panels and mentally berated herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. When Rene was in the zone, and he was in the zone at the moment, she couldn’t compete with that.

  Tick-tock.

  Right. Quickly she stripped off her clothes and told herself it was the excitement of being home in the middle of the day when she should be at work that had her feeling jittery, but it wasn’t. It was the revved-up fear of spending the rest of the day with Rene. The old Rene, who didn’t ask for permission. A man who took what he wanted and demanded more from her most times than what she was prepared to give. Until he somehow talked her into it. Or made her beg for it.

  * * * * *

  Rene waited for Alexis to reach the bottom of the stairs and held out his hand.

  “What?”

  “The robe. Cough it up. It wasn’t part of the outfit.”

  “But it goes.”

  His eyes narrowed as her tiny hand caressed the edge of the slim lapel, before it slid down the shimmery fabric, over one breast, across her stomach to her hip. “Alex.” He had no intention of being swayed by her little tease. And every intention of seeing her wicked little body wrapped up tight in the skimpy bit of lingerie he’d bought for her. “I’m not going to tell you again.”

  The moment the buff-colored silk poured off her shoulders he wanted to order her to put it back on. Fuck, holy fuck, the see-through lace and near-transparent netting showed off each of her assets and he was taking stock.

  The nude-colored negligee gripped her tits like a pair of hands squeezing on her while the netting attached to the bottom of the bra hugged her torso to her hips where it knitted into a sexy high-cut panty that begged to be touched. Torn. Ripped open and unwrapped.

  Easy. He sucked in a deep breath and managed to say evenly, “The shoes are a nice touch.”

  “You like them?”

  He knew she was purposely over-modeling the come-fuck-me pumps for his benefit. Pointing that long leg of hers, stretching her calf and angling her ass out just to get him hot. “Sure, but I would have preferred to see you wear the red ones.”

  She scrunched her nose. “The red ones? My sandals with the wedge heel?”

  He didn’t bother answering. Instead he stepped aside and motioned for her to go in front of him. “We’re going to my office.”

  She made a face that said interesting and slipped between him and the banister to head down the hall. Rene let her get four paces ahead, for no other reason than to be able to watch her sweet round ass sway.

  “Getting a good look?”

  She didn’t bother to turn when she spoke, so he didn’t bother to answer her.

  Instead, he watched her push open his study door and disappear inside. Only to lean out a moment later. Now she looked at him. “Seriously?”

  “Absolutely.” He pulled her reluctant form with him as he went inside and brought her directly to the ironing board. “You’re going to do this and I’m going to watch.”

  “You,” she yanked her upper arm out of his grip and dropped her hand down on the stack of shirts, “expect me to iron these.” She patted the shirt on the top of the folded pile. “While I’m half dressed, in heels… While. You. Watch?”

  “Yeah and when you’re done with that you’re going to put all those books away.” He pointed to the table in front of his massive bookcase. “And then you’re going to polish my wood with lemon oil.”

  She glared and he casually shrugged, adding, “Hey, don’t blame me. I wasn’t the one who decided on the shoes. And as far as the outfit goes? I’d say you’re stretching the point when you say half-dressed. It’s more like a quarter.”

  She brought her other hand down so hard on the board the iron teetered. “You could strip me naked and I still won’t do it.”

  “Hmm…?” He pursed his lips in thought and then shook his head. “Are you sure about that?”

  “Oh yeah, you want me to—”

  “Alexis.” He cut her off before she got some momentum behind her. “Be a good girl. Heat up the iron and get started.”

  Seating himself on the edge of the desk, he had to hide his amusement. She was as transparent as her lingerie when she quickly switched gears and tried a different direction. Clearly she was ready to heat up something, but it wasn’t the iron.

  “Rene?” She came at him using the kittenish approach. All wide-eyed and innocent. He let her push his thighs apart for no other reason than he was a masochistic son of a bitch while he let her slip between them and lean her curvy hip against his inner thigh.

  Fucking torture. “What?”

  “I’ve been thinking about us.”

  He followed the hand she placed on his shoulder, watching as she splayed her fingers and dragged them in a hard and sensual taunt, over his collarbone. When she stretched forward to curl her fingers around his nape, he had to hold back a sigh because she had a way of touching him that instantly made him think of raunchy sex. And when her other hand landed on his knee his stomach muscles clenched.

  “Thinking, huh?”

  “Yes,” It wasn’t even a whisper, more like a sigh. “And I’m thinking— Oh!”

  He caught her hand as it drew one too many circles up his thigh. Staring down at her, he drawled, “About ironing?”

  She gasped and pulled her hand out of his grip. Going the extra mile by rubbing her palm as if he’d hurt her when he knew for a fact he hadn’t. “You’re a bully.”

  “And you’re wasting time.” He pointed at the board.

  “I don’t think this is what Dr. Anderson had in mind at all when she suggested a rediscovery exercise.”

  Rene ignored her grumble and waited until there was the ironing board and a good five feet between him and her sexy little rack. “How do you think the exercise should be arranged?”

  She snapped out the first of his dress shirts and ironed as she spoke, “Well, I know it sounds corny, but like the examples, I see flowers.”

  “Interesting.”

  The last time he’d tried the petal brigade to soften her up after they’d fought she’d thrown them at him. She may have even called him a chauvinist, he couldn’t be sure. Damn, she had exquisite tits. Every time she angled the iron this way or that, they jiggled and bounced. He couldn’t seem to look away, so he figured he’d better put something more between him and those soft mounds, just in case.

  Shoving off the desk, he went to sit behind it. Careful to hide the hard-on he had going that generously filled out the denim fabric down his right pant leg. The material strangled him like a vise.

  “Romantic dinners too. Maybe a movie or a Broadway show.”

  Okay, now he knew she was making shit up. He’d taken her to the most popular show on the planet and her major complaint with it? They sang every word.

  He swung his legs up onto the corner of the desk and stacked one ankle over the other, asking, “So where was my dinner and flowers? You had a whole week.”

  She stopped pushing the iron and scowled. “Your flowers? I’m not the one who’s in the wrong here.”

  Wrong answer. Taking a deep breath, he clasped his hands back behind his head and snapped, “Keep ironing.” She did but it wasn’t pretty. If there weren’t some serious holes in the fabric of that shirt he’d be surprised. “And don’t forget the starch. I like my collars stiff.”

  Chapter Four

  “Careful.”

  Alexis was being as careful as she
could, considering she wanted nothing more than to press her cheek against the cool leather-bound books in front of her and close her eyes. This was heaven. With one of Rene’s hands wrapped around her naked thigh and the other one digging into her lace-covered hip, she was hot as hell and breathless.

  For the past twenty minutes he’d been keeping her steady on the rolling ladder attached to his bookcase. At first she’d balked about having to play librarian, but that all changed two books into the job when he put his big hands on her. The recollection of what those powerful hands could do to her wasn’t far from her every thought.

  “Here,” he passed her the second to last book and murmured, “top shelf, left.”

  She stretched and extended herself, clutching the book against her breast, when his warm palm slid intimately down her inner thigh and stopped by her knee with a squeeze. That firm but gentle claim sent sensual shockwaves rippling along her nerve endings from her toes to her temples. The sensations melted her insides as she pushed the book quickly in place and grabbed hold of the shelf for support.

  “Last one, Alex.” His voice was husky. Dark and tinged with authority. “Finish the task.”

  “Okay.” Was that her sounding all breathy and quiet? She came down a step and went completely still. His one hand remained curled around her hip, but the other one, the one that had squeezed her, now rode up. Softly, slowly. His fingertips trailed along her skin with promising pressure. Teasing her flesh and encouraging goose bumps to peak. Butterflies tickled her stomach as her nipples hardened like tiny stones and spiked through the delicate lace of the lingerie. She arched forward and let them graze the wood frame of the ladder. Mmm…that supersensitive part of her connecting with that much cooler surface got her quaking all over.

  “The book. Focus, Alexis.”

  Trembling, she slipped the last book in its place and took a moment before she righted herself on the rung. Silently groaning as Rene’s hand directly connected with her center. His knuckles brushed against the core of her, making her inner muscles squeeze up tight. The heat sizzled as he deliciously held that intimate contact for a few hold-your-breath seconds. Good Lord. Blood pounded in her ears and adrenaline rushed and surged, spiking so high she got lightheaded. Wanting and waiting for him to do more.