Second Chances (Blood Brothers #3)

by Manda Mellett

  “I, er… He’s so powerful; he’s the emir.”

  “Okay, he’s the emir, what power does that give him over you? Only the authority of an employer. If you weren’t a little attracted to him, Zoe, you wouldn’t be bothered where his sexual inclinations lay. The fact you ran, when you heard he might be something more than you think you could handle, speaks volumes.”

  There’s a pause, and then a little voice speaks. “Am I that transparent?”

  Cara laughs. “It’s not only Doms who can read people. I had an inkling you and Kadar would get on from the first time I spoke to you on the phone, it was part of the reason I set up the interview with him, and it worked, didn’t it? He gave you his protection. But, hey, listen, Zoe, Ethan treated you like shit, but it’s time to take your life back. You’re clearly attracted to Kadar, and I think he’d be the right man to help you.”

  “He’s the emir.” I hear the frustration in her voice, “And he’s told me, his marriage is being arranged as we speak.” She seems hung up on my title, and not for the first time I curse my destiny and that I have so little time of freedom remaining.

  “Pah! He knows exactly what I think about that. I’ve tried to persuade him to cancel the whole thing, but of course, he won’t.” After expressing her vexation, Cara heaves a deep sigh, “Okay, so his life is unfortunately mapped out for him. I’d hoped meeting you would get him to change his mind, but no. So you can’t pin your hopes on anything permanent. But what you should think about is that Dominants like Kadar like to fix damaged subs, and you, honey, are definitely damaged. I’ll tell you something that perhaps I shouldn’t. I can see Kadar is attracted to you. He’s done so much, put himself out for you. And he plans to kill the man who hurt you. He’s never acted this way before, never shown any particular interest in a woman. He likes you, Zoe, and I have a feeling he would jump at the chance to have you as his sub. If only for the short time he has left before that darn wedding. And that could help you to start healing, and begin to trust the male sex again.”

  As Cara’s words sink in, I have to wonder what the fuck was that all about? She knew Zoe and I would get on before we’d even met? Had that interview been a setup? I knew there had been something behind it at the time. But Cara’s barking up the wrong tree if she thinks there’s a chance I can cancel my marriage. I have to go ahead with it as part of the bargain I made with the sheikhs. However much she’s argued it with me—and I’ve considered every argument she’s put forward, and I agree with many of her points—the stark truth of the matter is, for the good of Amahad I have no option but to go along with the farce. And as she’s stated, I’ve very little time remaining before I’m hitched to another wagon.

  It shocks me more how Cara’s able to read me so easily, but I suppose I’ve given myself away. She’s right; I’ve never done so much for a woman before. That doesn’t mean I won’t be suggesting to Nijad that a spanking might be in order for gossiping about the emir. There’s quiet for a few moments, and I gather Zee’s considering what Cara’s telling her. I become very interested in what she’s going to say next.

  “I hear what you say, but I can’t believe he would even want to help me. He’s said we can only be friends. And I’m not ready to take it further, I couldn’t!” Zoe’s voice sounds desperate and high. “He’s all but promised to another. And though you keep saying it, I’m NOT submissive! Fuck, Cara! How on earth did we get onto this topic?”

  “Because you ran away when you found out the kind of things he was into, it frightened you. And you wouldn’t have been scared if you didn’t have feelings for him. Friends laugh off one another’s kinks.”

  Zoe’s almost whining as she protests once more. “But Cara, you’ve told me he’s a Dominant. I AM NOT A SUB!”

  “Yes. You. Are!” comes the definite response, leaving no room for argument. “And when you find the right person you’ll let him have control. Remember, you’ll be giving it, a Dominant doesn’t take it from you. I still think you should let Kadar show you what I’m talking about. Let a man you care about show you about submission.”

  As I round the corner bringing myself into their sight Zoe’s eyes widen, and I watch her face flush red with embarrassment seconds before she covers her cheeks with her hands. Her mouth is open in a wide O. Cara hasn’t seen me yet, so I sneak up behind her and whisper softly into her ear. “Quack!” The illusion to her waddling was a dangerous joke for me to make, having got me in trouble before. But I can’t resist, at eight months pregnant, how she walks really does remind me of a plump duck and in my more relaxed moments, I love to tease her.

  “Shit! Kadar! Jesus H Christ, you made me jump! Do you want to bring on the birth early?” she swings around and slaps me on the arm. Violence against the emir’s person was a punishable offence in my father’s day, but I love Cara as though she was a sister of my blood, and she’s allowed far more liberties than other people.

  I pull her into me and give her a hug and a peck on the cheek. “I think Ni would thank me if I did.” I know my brother’s anxious to see his first child make its safe entry into the world.

  “Mmm. Actually, I wouldn’t mind either. Want to try sneaking up again?” I love the way she laughs at me; never letting me take myself too seriously. Then, pulling out of my arms, her eyes narrow in suspicion, “Just how long have you been standing there?”

  I smirk. “Long enough to tell Zee my answer,” I pause, directing a long look at the woman in question, “I’d be delighted to show her how pleasurable it could be to submit to a man.”

  “No!” An anguished shout.

  But a tinkling laugh draws my attention back to Cara as she tells us, “I think that’s my cue to leave!” Then, adding nothing else, Cara leaves the harem as elegantly as the mother of a rather large unborn child can, and leaves me alone with Zoe.

  I watch her look this way and that as if trying to find an escape route, trying to conjure up any excuse to leave.

  “Er, I’ve got to be going as well…” she turns, and fuck it; she’s literally running for the door.

  “Zee! Stop!” I use my most dominant voice which halts her in her tracks. As she waits frozen, her back towards me, I command, “Come to me.”

  She hesitates, but I repeat the order and as if I’ve got her on an invisible string, she rotates, and her feet move in my direction, walking mechanically, like an animated doll. She halts a couple of feet away from me, her face furrowed in consternation.

  “Talk to me,” I demand. I watch as she swallows a few times.

  “How long were you listening?” I hear a tremor in her almost inaudible voice, and her eyes can’t hold mine. She looks like she’s replaying the conversation in her head.

  “Long enough,” I admit, folding my arms and looking at her thoughtfully. “You feel the same attraction to me as I do to you, don’t you, Zee?” Is she going to come clean and confess? Or try to wriggle her way out of it.

  There’s a long pregnant pause before she answers, and then I can only just hear the whispered denial, “No.” But her face is still flushed, her eyes open wide, and her pupils are dilated.

  I study her, as a Dominant I’ve learned to read people well. She’s not telling the truth, but only because she’s scared. And underlying that, there’s something she can’t quite conceal, she’s excited and intrigued. But first I’ve got to make a few things clear.

  I take a step towards her, wanting to reduce the physical distance between us. She shuffles back. “Habiti, we’ve had a lot of conversations here in the harem. This one’s no different. Just relax.” I can almost hear her heart frantically beating, her breathing erratic. I decide to lay it on the line for her, “I’m a Dominant, Zee, I was born that way, it’s in my nature. Shush!” She’s about to speak, so I hold up my hand silently asking her to let me finish. “I take charge. I need to be in control. And I have an inbuilt desire to protect and nurture. I’ve been doing this a very long time, and it’s true, when I have a submissive, I like to push her to her limit
s, whatever they are, to achieve her utmost pleasure.”

  “So that’s how you could condone what Ethan did to me? Push me to endure more than I ever thought I could?”

  She’s shrinking into herself, as though remembering the pain. I rush to correct her, “Limits are what you, as a sub would set, habiti. And I appreciate yours would be set at a very low threshold. I would certainly push them, but not walk all over them. I’d drive you to enjoy the pleasure your body was made for. What St John-Davies did was abuse, pure and simple, he had no regard for what you liked and what you didn’t. You might not know this, but he was, at one time, a member of Jasim’s club, Club Tiacapan.”

  She nods her head, “Sean told me he was banned. But the fact he was there, means he is a Dom, doesn’t it?”

  Shaking my head emphatically, I put her right, “No, not in any sense of the word. He was banned from the club, permanently, and as a result, from most other clubs which have anything like a selection procedure, both in the UK and abroad. To protect other subs, something like that isn’t kept quiet.”

  “What did he do?”

  I don’t want to tell her too much, “He went too far. It was my brother, Nijad, who’d gone to the club that night and who was first on the scene and stopped him. He ignored a sub’s safeword.” In fact, while whipping the woman he ignored it three times, and she’d ended up needing stitches. Once I’d connected the names I’d reminded myself of the details. She’s silent, and I let her digest that information.

  “Ethan had a playroom—I called it my torture room. It had all the equipment, spanking benches, a St Andrew’s cross…”

  “Because he couldn’t play anywhere else by then, habiti. But just because he had the equipment, that doesn’t make him a Dom. You didn’t have a safeword, did you?”

  She shakes her head then tells me, “Whether I did or not is beside the point. Kadar, what’s important here is that I accept you’re a Dom, and maybe you’re right, Ethan wasn’t, but the fact of the matter is, I’m definitely not a sub.”

  I move forwards again, and as though we’re in a dance she takes a pace back, bringing her up against a wall. There’s nowhere left for her to go. When she realises, her eyes flick up to mine in panic. “Relax, habiti; we’re just talking,” I remind her then wait until her breathing again starts to even out. At the moment I avoid touching her, content to let my voice do the work. I deepen my tone.

  “You’ve never had a man who wants only to pleasure you, have you, habiti? You’ve only had vanilla sex before. Perhaps they got you aroused, perhaps not, but when they took you, they fucked you until they came. Did you pretend, Zee? Did you fake your orgasm?”

  Her face flushes bright red, and I know my words hit the mark.

  “Did you lie and tell them how wonderful it was?” Her eyes look down, proving again I’m right on target. Putting my finger under her chin, I gently force her to raise her head, so she’s staring at me, “A Dom would never be fooled, a Dom would be looking to every reaction of their sub’s beautiful body and would know exactly the point she reached her peak. She wouldn’t have to pretend.” I haven’t taken my hand away, so I move it up, and gently caress her cheek. “A Dom would know if his sub was aroused, and would see her erect nipples,” I glance down, and don’t bother hiding my grin as I see hers peaking through the top she’s wearing, “By the flush on her face,” my fingers stroke her burning flesh, “Her heart rate would speed up, her breathing would become fast…”

  “That would be from fear.” She tries to deflect me, “I don’t want a Dom. I am not a sub.”

  “What if I touched you in all the right places; used my tongue and my hands on your sweet body, aroused you to levels you’ve never known before, and then, as your Dom, ordered you to come?”

  I can smell her arousal from here, but she still denies it. “I’m not taking orders from any man, ever again.” Challenge flashes in her eyes, “If, and it’s a big if, I ever want a man in my life again, he’s not going to have any control over me.”

  “Then you’re destined to be disappointed, habiti.” Sadly, I shake my head, “In your bed, you need someone to take charge, someone who knows your body as well, if not better than you know it yourself. Someone who knows what you need to reach the pinnacle of pleasure.” Pushing forwards again, I trap her against the wall, then place my hands either side of her head on the brickwork behind her. “Just say ‘red’ if it gets too much.”

  “Kadar, what are you doing? I said I don’t want this. Please let me go.”

  But every physical reaction of her body is telling me something different from her words. Her pupils are so enlarged her eyes appear as dark as my own, her breath is erratic, and she’s making no effort to escape me. I know if I placed my hand in her underwear she would be drenched. She must know it too, and that she’s lying to me.

  “Just let me take charge, habiti. Trust me.”

  “You want to have sex with me?” The tone of her voice makes it sound as though she expects me to take her simply for my pleasure. Has she genuinely never enjoyed any aspect of sexual intercourse?

  My glare stops her from going there; going to that place where I would never, ever go. Never have I, nor ever will I, take a woman by force. I school my features to show calmness I don’t feel as I seek to reassure her, “No, Zoe, I’m not going to have sex with you. In fact, I’m not even going to take off my clothes. But I am to show you how much pleasure you can find when you let a Dom take charge.”

  She doesn’t understand. Her fluttering hands showing her confusion. “But sex is about the man; you have needs.” Her eyes meet mine but only for a brief moment, “I don’t understand what you’re saying. Isn’t having sex what being a Dominant is all about? Having a sub to serve you, so you can take what you want? Sex without the obligations of a relationship?” Now she turns her head away, biting her lip so I can see something else is worrying her, “I don’t turn you on, do I?”

  When she at last voices her concern, I’m astounded, “The fuck, Zee? I’ve been rock hard since the day I met you. You turn me on, habiti, like no one ever before.” I rub my hand over my brow, frustrated that I can’t get through to her. Sighing, I try again, “Zee, I’ve known my destiny since my birth. I’ve gone through many long periods of self-enforced abstinence as I don’t play on my own fucking doorstep. When I’m out of the country, yes, I admit I do, but at home? I have a reputation to uphold so I assure you I can control myself. That I don’t need to have sex with you, doesn’t mean I don’t fucking want to.”

  “So your reputation would be tarnished if we sleep together? So we can’t do anything?” She sounds almost hopeful as though she’s found a way out of this.

  I laugh, keeping my voice soft and gentle, “I’ll not be taking you to my bed, Zee. You’re right; that option is not open to me; but here, in the harem? Whatever we do, no one need know.”

  Now she looks panicked, “What, what are you suggesting we do?”

  I grin, “I’m going to show you how gratifying it can be to submit to your Dom.”

  Her tongue comes out to lick her lips. I can read her like a book. Her body, clearly showing her arousal, is at odds with her brain, which is telling her to run. I decide the time for discussion is over; it’s time to take control. “Do you know why I followed you here? Why I came to the harem?” After her eyes open wide and she gives a little shake of her head, I continue. “I was angry, little one.” My voice grows stern, “You left my office without explanation, without giving me a chance to talk through what had concerned you.”

  “I, er, I’m sorry. I thought the conversation was over, that you were just catching up with Ben.” The words fall out one after the other. Again she’s lying to me, and the blush that reappears on her cheeks shows me she knows exactly what she’s doing.

  Sadly, I shake my head, letting her know her excuses don’t wash with me. “You got scared when you realised I was a sexual Dominant, Zee. Don’t deny that was what upset you, but along with your fear, I think
it excited you too. Don’t keep fighting it, Zee, let me show you what it can be like if you just accept your submissive leanings. Give yourself to me, trust me to know what you need.”

  Taking a step back I bring my arms down, so she’s no longer trapped, and hold out my hand. “Come.” I wait for her to take her first metaphorical step in accepting me as her Dom. Holding my breath in anticipation and hope, wanting to feel her small palm touch my own. She hesitates, and then does exactly that. I give her fingers a gentle squeeze, showing my appreciation.

  “Eyes on me.”

  She was looking down at our joined hands but now lifts her eyes to meet mine. “Communication is vital between in a D/s relationship Zee. You should have waited and talked to me, not just run away. You displeased me. There should be a consequence to that, but this time, I’ll let it go.” When I mention my displeasure, her gaze dropped to the floor. When I say there’s a consequence, she looks back at me again, her fear plain to see.

  “You know about safewords?” I need to make her understand that she holds the power to stop this, at any time, so want to ensure she knows the tools at her disposal.

  “Only from what Cara said, and Sean mentioned it before.” Her voice shakes.

  I quell the heat that rises through me as I wonder how the fuck safewords had come up in conversation with Sean and am proud when I’m able to continue with an even voice, “The only word you need to know for now is ‘Red.’ As soon as you say that I will stop whatever I’m doing.” There’s no point asking her to trust me; I’ve still to demonstrate I’m worthy of that.

  “What are you going to do?” Her voice is breathy, still scared, but there’s more than a hint of arousal in it. The thought of my domination turns her on, however much she doesn’t want to admit to it.

  Knowing helping Zee overcome her fears is at this moment more important than any of the business waiting for me in my office, I explain to her, “I’m going to show you what it is that you’ve been missing.” I take a deep breath before I continue. “Unless you say your safeword out I’m going to take you over to the bed, and show you the beauty of submission.”