by Maddie James
Suzie grinned and drove on. In another five minutes they pulled onto a dirt road and rambled toward the last cabin. She parked and looked ahead.
“I don’t see their car.”
“Maybe they left for a little while?”
“No, I talked to them this morning. They said they’d be here.”
“Maybe they parked out back.”
“Yes. Maybe. Would you go knock on the door while I get the stuff out?”
Katie was glad to help. “Sure.” She lifted the latch and stepped outside, pulling a sweater she borrowed from Suzie snug around her against the mountain chill. Suzie got out on the left.
But as her foot hit the first step up the cabin porch step, Katie heard the car door slam and the engine gun. With a brisk turn of her body, she saw Suzie’s orange Honda Element peel out of the dirt road in a cloud of dust.
“Wha…?”
Behind her, the porch creaked and at once, she felt something cold clamp onto her right wrist.
“Sh, sweetheart. Don’t turn around. Don’t say a word. And do exactly as I say.”
Chris.
Oh, hell’s bells.
Five minutes blurred by in a nano-second. He’d cuffed her, carried her upstairs, stripped her naked, and secured her to the four-poster bed with two sets of cuffs before she could protest.
Although she did protest. A little.
“What do you think you are doing?” she told him.
“Making you come to your senses.”
“I know my senses and they are just fine. Let me go, you bastard.”
“Not a chance, Sweet Pea. Tonight your ass is mine.”
“You can’t hog-tie me and…” Shit. She got it.
Oh, damn. Damn! Bless your ever-loving, matchmaking heart, Ms. Suzie-Q!
She trembled inside a little at the anticipation of what was to come.
Apparently, Suzie hadn’t forgotten what she’d told her last night and apparently, she had somehow communicated those private needs and desires of hers to Chris.
Apparently!
She strained against the cuffs looking up at him. From behind his back, he pulled out a leather riding crop and straight away, her pelvis palpitated.
****
Chris could hear Suzie in his ear. He ran through the conversation in his head one more time. He wanted to be certain he was doing the right thing. He couldn’t afford to screw up at this point.
Here is the plan, she said.
Plan?
Ask her about her dreams.
What? She has dreams?
Yes, dammit, and if you’d asked her about them before this, you might know already. So take these, referring to the cuffs and crop, and use them how you will, order her to marry you, and be sure to ask her about her dreams. That’s the most important part. Do it.
Do it. He had to do it.
You have to take control of this. Get what you want. It is what she wants, too. Trust me.
Looking down at Katie’s wild and wide eyes, he had second thoughts. He put one knee on the bed and laid the crop down. “Katie, I’m sorry. This is a mistake. I don’t want to do anything that you don’t want to do, and…”
She glared at him and jerked forward, her lips pressed and her nostrils flared. The look on her face was reminiscent of something he’d seen in some horror movie with a possessed heroine.
“Chris Marks,” she spit out, “if you wuss out on me and put down that crop and uncuff me, I will make you pay for the rest of your life. And the way I will make you pay is by not marrying you. Get it? Do I have to spell it out? Now, dammit, do what you set out to do. And do it now!”
Then she collapsed back against the pillows.
Stunned, but jolted to his senses, he grasped the crop and stood upright, trying to still his panicking heart. Goddamn, would it not stop beating so fast? “Yes, ma’am,” he said coolly, moving to the side of the bed and snapping the crop in his palm. Then he bent to whisper in her ear. “But let’s get one thing straight. I’m the boss. Not you. And that is the last order you will utter for the next twenty-four hours. Do you understand?”
She shuddered and locked her gaze with his. “Yes, sir.”
****
Heaving in a deep breath, Katie closed her eyes as Chris tickled the tip of the leather crop over her nipples. They rose to the occasion and hardened. She grasped the chain of the cuff in each of her palms and increased the tension as he pulled the crop between her breasts and trailed it lower toward her belly.
Then he stopped.
She peered at him.
“Are you going to glare at me every time I stop doing something?”
“Perhaps.”
“No. No, you will not.”
It was at that point he put the blindfold over her eyes. “Ah, much better.”
Huffing out another breath, she waited.
“What are you doing?”
“You will be quiet.”
“Chris, I…”
It was at that point that he placed something over the third finger of her left hand.
“There,” he said, “and you don’t get to see it until we are finished here.”
“What?” She curled toward her hand.
“No use. You can’t reach it. Don’t even try.” And then he added, “And you don’t take it off. Ever. You understand that?”
The crop was now tickling between her legs, which immediately distracted her from the other…thing. “Oh…”
“Katie, I need a response to my question.”
The tickling again. There. “Wha—?”
“You understand that you never take that ring off your finger, correct? You are mine and you will do as I say. You are marrying me.”
Warmth spread all throughout Katie’s body. Happy warmth. “Yes, Sir!”
“Good. Spread your legs for me.”
Desire flicked through her. “Spread?”
He flicked the crop firmly on her thigh. She flinched. Then shivered in delight.
“Now. No questions. Spread.” The bed shifted with his weight. His palms inched up the insides of her thighs.
“Where’s the crop?” she whispered.
“No questions. We’re doing this my way.”
“Wha…?”
He kissed her. Right at the juncture of her leg and pelvis. Just a breath away from…
“Oh…yes.” She slithered downward.
Chris hooked his arms under her legs and tilted her lower body. She felt herself rise a bit.
“Don’t move,” he whispered, his breath hot on her pussy. “I have you.” Dragging his lips along her inner leg, she clenched her thighs and waited. The prickles of his unshaven beard raked along her tender skin. His tongue left a sweet, moist trail toward her lips.
Then he paused.
She waited. Patiently.
For like, eons.
Then she felt the slightest sensation on her clit. First, it was like a breath, followed by the tip of something rough and wet at the same time.
Tickling. Circling.
Moaning, she strained against the cuffs.
The pressure increased as his tongue bore down harder.
Flicked.
Danced.
Sucked.
She jerked and shuddered. “Oh, God.”
Chris released her and swooped down, taking her more fully into his mouth. Claiming her pussy for his very own. Laving his tongue over her most tender parts and making sweet love to her with his tongue.
Her libido swelled from deep inside. Heat gathered under his tongue. Her clit was hard, engorged and erect. Every time he swept his tongue over it she sailed up off the bed, and he put her right down on it.
She would erupt. Knew it. Was so close to exploding. And then he…he….
Stopped.
“Not yet,” he breathed. “Not yet.”
He moved on top of her. “Damn you,” she uttered. His hot body covered hers and she relished in the feel of his searing skin. Her body hummed with orgasmic antic
ipation. He glided along the length of her, his cock branding heat against her hip. “What are you doing?”
“Quiet.”
He grasped her right hand and she heard a clinking. Her hand was free.
Finished? No!
“Turn over.”
She lay there.
“Katie, turn over. Now.”
Gulping, and twittering deep inside with expectation, she did, laying slightly on her left side and tummy, because of the other cuff.
He straddled her legs, right about the knees.
“You been really bad, disobeying my wishes.”
He flicked the crop over her ass. The sting both shocked and excited her.
“You’ve been holding out on me. Making me wait for your answer.”
“I know. I didn’t mean to upset you. I was so…
“So what?” He lightly slapped the crop over her ass again, this time on the right cheek.
“I know. I’ve been difficult.”
“Difficult what?”
“I’ve been difficult, Sir.”
“Yes, you have.” He paused for a moment. “But we’re coming to an agreement tonight.”
Her heart did a little butterfly dance. “Agreement?”
“Yes.”
“But what if I…?” The crop again. This time on the left cheek. Why she craved that sting, she didn’t know.
“I know what you want. You just don’t know that you want it, too. So, I’ll have to take matters into my own hands and convince you.”
She squirmed. Waited.
“You will marry me, Katie Long.”
Twitching, she tried to glance over her shoulders, but of course she still had on the damn blindfold. She wanted to see his face. “I will not.”
The sting was slightly more intense this time. Dammit, she was so turned on!
“You will.”
“And why should I?”
“Because I love you, and because you love me, you stubborn little vixen.” He moved and she heard something skitter across the hardwood floor. “I could throttle you for making me do this. Do you think I like slapping your ass with this thing? Do you think I want to hurt you?”
“You’re not hurting me. Do it again.”
“Katie?”
“Chris. I love the sting. Oh my God. I’ve never felt anything so erotic in all my…”
Movement again on the bed. One side gave way and it felt like he was reaching for something on the floor. Then, she felt the slap on her ass again and moaned in relief.
“You will marry me.”
“I don’t know…”
Again.
“I said, you will marry me.”
Excitement thrilled up inside of her. “I may need more convincing.”
“I’m going to turn you over my knee and let the palm of my hand do that convincing.”
“Oh, yes. Do that. And I will marry you.”
This time she knew that he’d thrown the crop because she was pretty sure it bounced off the wall beside of them.
He uncuffed her other hand then and pulled at her hips until her ass was up in the air. He ran his palms over the smooth skin of her buns and massaged. Katie moaned. The deliberately, one after the other, he delivered three firm swats to each cheek.
Beneath his hands, Katie quivered and gasped, her entire body shaking.
“I am so turned on,” she whispered.
As was he. Turned on and throbbing hard.
He grasped her buttocks and the rigid, hot length of him penetrated her from behind.
Groaning, he pumped in and out and all the while, the pressure building inside her was no more intangible than the ring she knew was on her finger.
“Oh my God, Katie…” he murmured.
The notion that she pleased him sent trills over her spine as his hands snaked up her back and reached around to grasp her breasts. He pinched her nipples and that one act sent her over the edge, bucking and exploding with the release of pent-up emotion. She rolled with it until it over came her and then brought her back down to earth.
Gripping the sheet, she let him ride out the ride, and very soon, he shouted and trembled, tumbling over her and holding her close.
A few blissful minutes later, Chris untied the blindfold.
Still hot and ready, he rolled back over and plunged into her, while kissing her face and threading his fingers through her hair.
“God, I love you,” he moaned.
“I love you, too, Chris Marks.”
“Marry me?”
“Oh, yes. On one condition.”
He arched a brow. “And that is?”
“Don’t lose the crop.”
Grinning, he sat back and grasped her hips, pulling her closer. “Let’s make another baby.”
“I don’t think it’s possible to make another one while I’m already pregnant.”
“Oh, yeah…”
But that didn’t stop them from trying.
Epilogue
The next morning, Katie fingered the gorgeous platinum diamond ring on her left finger.
Staring at the thing, she realized she had no clue having it there would make her so happy.
Exhaling long, she glanced at Chris, sleeping beside her. He was exhausted. They had played all night. Smiling, she reached over and tugged at his too-short hair. She could barely get a pinch of it.
“Wake up, sleepyhead,” she whispered.
Without opening his eyes, he dragged her under the covers and pulled her into a bear hug.
“There was something I forgot to ask you last night,” he mumbled into his pillow.
“What’s that?”
“Suzie will kill me.”
“Suzie? Why?”
He was silent for another moment, then maneuvered so they were face to face on the pillow.
“Dreams.” He touched her lower lip, his eyes following his movement.
“Oh?”
Nodding, he continued. “What are your dreams, Katie Long?”
She studied his face and for the first time in her life, she really and truly knew that her dream had come true. She’d just been too stubborn to know what her dream was.
“Somehow, what I thought was a dream, seems rather insignificant at the moment. I have everything I ever needed right here.”
He shook his head. “Dreams are important. And whatever yours is, I want you to have it.”
“I have you.” Nuzzling closer, she kissed him.
“And I have you. But whatever you want in your life, Katie Long, whatever your dream, I want to know what it is and I want you to pursue it. And through it all, know that I’m not going anywhere. I’m right beside you.”
“Okay. I will tell you.” Tears stinging her eyes, she reached for his hand and laid it on her belly. “Later,” she breathed.
“Yes. Later.”
DATES DU JOUR
Speed dating? Speed eating is more like it.
Suzie Matthews is getting quite the reputation as the Matchmaking Chef, in and around the small town of Legend, Tennessee. When she sets up lunch date after lunch date for Lyssa Larkin, Legend’s homegrown homecoming queen of 1997, she knows she’s about bit off more than she can chew. Lyssa inspects and rejects her dates in two bites and then sends them on their way. Suzie wonders if she really wants to date or just eat two lunches, and worries that soon Lyssa’s hips won’t fit on her dainty chairs.
That is, until Suzie is contacted by a potential suitor who is falling for Lyssa hard and fast, and she just can’t help but work some of her matchmaking magic behind the speed dating scenes....
Chapter One
“I give up. I think I’ll just marry the first man who pops his head into Sugar High, just so I can get a divorce and get it over with.”
Lyssa Larkin daubed at the sugar rim gracing her upper lip and dipped a cinnamon-powdered doughnut into her heavily-creamed coffee. Sydney Schul, owner of Sydney’s Sugar High Coffee Stop and Bakery, frowned and watched Lyssa dunk, dunk, dunk the thing and th
en lean gingerly over the coffee cup. Her long brunette pony tail slid over her shoulder while she stuffed the rest into her mouth.
Sydney handed Lyssa a napkin. “Your chin,” she said.
Lyssa nodded and swiped again.
“And why would you want to go and do something like that?” Sydney added.
Lyssa rolled her big brown eyes. “I’m an old maid, Sydney. And no one wants an old maid. Men expect that a thirty-six-year-old woman has had some experience with men. Most men assume that you’ve already been married and divorced by my age. Had kids even. Me? I’ve only had sex with two men and have never been married, no kids, and no stinking divorce! Men just don’t understand that. They wonder what is wrong with me.”
“There is nothing wrong with you, Lyssa. You’re beautiful, smart, and a catch.”
“Tell that to the guys who look at you cross-eyed when you say you’ve never been married.”
“That’s ridiculous. Women older than you marry for the first time all the time.”
“Maybe in the big cities. But Sydney, this is Legend. Population 6,232. Small, southern, Bible-belt and all that. It’s weird here.”
“Hm.”
“So now you get it?”
“Let me get this straight.” Sydney braced herself against the counter, her palms flat on the Formica top. “You’re out to get married just so you can get a divorce? How very Bible-beltish of you.”
Lyssa shrugged and reached for another sugared treat.
Sydney put her palm over her hand. “That’s three. Don’t you think…?”
Lyssa’s baby brown’s narrowed and Sydney jerked her hand back. “Listen to what I am saying. I don’t have sex, Sydney. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke pot or do drugs. I don’t even drink diet soda laced with artificial sweetener, although some would say that I should. So let me have the damned doughnut, you hear me?”
Sydney nodded. She would give her that.
Poor thing.
The bell over the bakery door tinkled and she glanced away from the sugar-coated disaster. Sighing, she moved around the counter and rushed to take a box from the woman struggling with the door.
“Give me that.”
Suzie Matthews blew out a breath. “Thank you!”
