“You’re welcome. I know how lost I would feel without mine, given the business material it contains.” Jesus, was this how it was going to end? A string of mundane senseless bullshit and then bidding each other polite adieu? He hoped to God not.
“Now a question,” she stated softly with a touch of hesitancy.
If she asked if they could remain friends, Hunter knew they’d probably be taking him out of there in a straitjacket.
“Why ONYX on the envelope instead of my name?”
Hunter very slowly expelled the breath he’d been holding. Why tell her, when he had the gut feeling she wouldn’t be staying?He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re not staying.” He voiced his thoughts.
She mimicked his shrug. “If I were?”
“Are you?” He cursed the acceleration of his heart.
“It depends on your answer.”
He let out an audible sigh. “Don’t toy with me, Kayden.”
“I don’t recall you having an aversion to toys.” A sly little smile crested her lips.
Hope warred with fear, the latter a feeling he wasn’t particularly fond of or familiar with. That went double for his floundering emotional control. An uncomfortable, all too frequent state when it came to the woman standing in front of him.
Determined to end this sooner than later if the only thing she came here to do was return the collar and leave, he decided to tell her the truth.
“I’m good at what I do because I have an instinct for knowing what it is a woman really wants and then using that knowledge to gain what I want. Although I’ve led many women down the road of total submission, it’s not the path I’d intended for the woman I plan to spend the rest of my life with.”
The corners of her silky black eyebrows dipped and the skin above her nose crinkled. “It’s not?”
“No. Not one hundred percent of the time. That’s why the word Onyx.”
The crinkles became more pronounced.
Distracted by how adorable she looked, it took him a few moments to regroup his thoughts. “It would work the reverse of a safe word. Instead of freeing you from submission, it would initiate it.”
The crinkles disappeared. “So any other time, you would lead a fairly normal life?”
The short breath he pushed from his lungs was half self-mocking laugh. “As normal as can be expected, living with a man accustomed to getting his way in everything.”
Her expression gave no insight into her thoughts when she said, “Thank you for explaining that to me. I appreciate your honesty. I know it wasn’t easy. Before I leave…there’s one more thing I need to return to you.”
The hot ball of emotion churning in his stomach since she’d walked in began to froth. He shot a surreptitious glance at the decanter of cognac on the wet bar to his left.
“Goodbye, Hunter,” she whispered softly and, reaching halfway across the desk, set down the black-velvet box containing the collar.
Not a total shock. But it still hurt like hell.
When he didn’t return her goodbye, she gave a tiny, sympathetic smile and turned.
He kept his gaze on her as she walked to the door, taking in every miniscule detail of her unhurried steps, her alluring shape, grace of movement, the slight sway and exact shade combination of her long, luxurious black hair as it whispered softly across her back. All the things he intended to cement in his memory, along with every precious moment he’d ever spent with her. The very last thing he noticed was her small, delicate hand as she turned the knob to let herself out.
A second before the door closed, an image flashed of him groveling on the knees of his two-thousand-dollar Italian suit. How pitifully ironic was it that God had graced him with the unerring ability to read women, yet he had so misread the one he wanted most.
Weary, he let his head drop, only to have his gaze slam against the box she’d left. Hunter reached out his hand then pulled it back.
He’d get his secretary to remove it.
He swiveled his gaze between the small black intercom unit on his desk to the wet bar and the dark amber liquid beckoning him.
After the collar was gone from his sight, he’d work on numbing the pain in his heart. Temporary though the oblivion may be, he sorely needed it at the moment.
Chapter Eleven
Several more minutes ticked by before Hunter summoned the energy to request his secretary to come get the collar Kayden had left and lock it way.
His hand was halfway to the button when the intercom bleeped.
“What is it, Elizabeth?”
“Sorry to disturb you, Sir. There’s a lady here to see you.”
Not interested in any other woman except the one who’d just walked out of his life, he said, “Express my apologies and ask her to make an appointment. Then cancel anything else on my schedule.”
Rather than her usual ready agreement, there was a moment of silence followed by the hushed tones of a conversation. “She’s rather insistent, Sir. She says you’ll definitely want to see her.”
An internal sigh rose and fell in his chest. “Why?” he asked, scrubbing his hand across his eyes. “Who is she?”
“She says her name is Onyx, Sir.”
Hunter’s hand fell away from his face. This time the prolonged silence was on his part. “What did she say her name was?” he asked, with more enthusiasm in his voice than he was comfortable with.
“It’s…Onyx, Sir.” The clear, sultry answer floated across to him from the other side of his office.
Heart expanding in his chest like a dehydrated sponge tossed into the Atlantic, Hunter looked up to find Kayden, eyes aglow, a sultry self-confident smile on her lush red lips, leaning against his door, the diamonds from her ankle bracelet and toe ring drawing attention to the bare foot she had pressed high up on the door. She pushed off and sauntered toward him, one hand hidden behind her back, the other working loose the ends of the belt on her ankle-length, blue winter coat. Halfway across the room, the front of the coat separated, giving him a glimpse of the heaven he’d despaired ever laying eyes on again. One sexy little roll of her shoulders and the garment hit the floor.
His thundering heart shot a deluge of blood straight to his cock. Hunter gripped the edge of his desk to brace against the sudden aching fill.
She was wearing every present he’d given her—nothing else.
His gaze narrowed on the shimmering gold chain dangling from her creamy breasts, held there by the nipple clamps that clung tenaciously to her pouty, engorged nipples. The mesmerizing, shimmering sway of the chain, the result of Kayden’s enticing, loose, long-legged strides.
The devious little witch. Had he known she was naked beneath her coat before she’d left, she would’ve never left this room unfucked.
Shoring up his declining restraint, he slowly rose to his feet and came around the desk to meet her.
She stopped directly in front of him. Her clear, bright gaze held his for several seconds before she bowed her head, brought forward what she’d concealed behind her back and sank gracefully to her knees. “I should never have left the club…you, the way I did, Master.” Stretching the flogger between her hands, she presented it up to him. “I’m ready to accept whatever punishment you feel justified.”
Deeply touched by the revealing gesture, Hunter made no attempt to contain the smile that claimed his lips.
Taking the flogger from her hands, he flung it aside. It hit the wall with a light slap.
Kayden flinched but otherwise held her head-bent position.
The last thing he wanted to do right now was beat her. Especially when all he wanted was to answer his escalating need to yank her up and wrap her in his arms. But before he did that, there was something he needed to know.
“Stand,” he said, cupping her shoulders and gently pulling her to her feet. “Look at me.”
She raised her head.
“Why did you give back the collar? You�
��re wearing everything else.”
“Permission to be Kayden, Sir.”
“Granted.” An easy request to fill since it was Kayden’s free-willed answers he was looking for.
“Are you so sure I’m wearing…everything?” she asked, a devilish sparkle springing from the depths of her beautiful blue eyes.
Holding her gaze, he relaxed his control enough to allow her a glimpse of the lust raging through him.
Her eyes widened and then she smiled.
Looping the back strap of her thong around his index finger, he gave it a sharp tug. The resultant gasp when she came up on tiptoes and canted her hips to relieve the pressure on the butt plug made him grin. “I’m sure. But on the off chance I’m wrong…” He tugged again, eliciting a soft squeak. “I have every intention of checking later. Now answer my question.”
“I gave you the collar back because,” remaining up on her toes, she wound her arms around his neck, “it would mean more if you put it on me. I read somewhere it’s a symbol of a Dom’s pledge to protect, love and cherish. And my accepting it symbolizes my willingness to surrender, be devoted and loyal.”
“Similar in meaning to an engagement or wedding ring.” He reached into his pants pocket to pull out the little box he’d carried around since the day she’d left, flicked up the lid with the tip of his thumb. “Like this one.”
“Oh…my…God.”
He eased his grip on the thong’s strap to accommodate her descent to flat feet.
She tilted the box for an admiring look at the red diamond. An exact match to the one on her collar. “Are you asking me to—” Her stunned gaze swung to his.
“Marry me?” he helpfully supplied. “Yes, I am.”
“Why?”
He chuckled and, untangling his finger from the strap, used that arm to give her a brief squeeze. “Because…I fell in love with you before I even met you. I knew from your e-mails you were destined to be mine. Meeting you only confirmed it. And because with Onyx wearing my collar and Kayden wearing my ring, there will never be any doubt as to whom either belongs to.”
“Oh Hunter.”
The soft, warm emotion gleaming from her eyes nearly melted him into a puddle.
“You won’t need any physical proof to be sure of that. You’ll find the answer here.” Bringing his hand from around her back, she pressed it over his heart. “And here.” She moved his hand to the identical spot on her chest. Removing her hand, she cupped the back of his neck. “And here.” Levering back up on her toes, she pulled him down to meet her lips and whispered, “I love you,” just before sealing her pledge with a passionate, soul-melding kiss.
About the Author
Tiffany Bryan lives in a suburb of Cleveland, where the only thing more fickle than the weather is her imagination. A late-life baby, born in the year of the Dragon and the youngest of three girls, she found boundaries were something to be tested instead of adhered to. Since she is happily married to a man who provides an inexhaustible amount of support, it was a fate-driven step from reading romances to writing them.
A staunch believer of including children in your life and not wrapping your life around them, she celebrates being an empty nester with the same enthusiasm she delegates to any new adventure. After her son and daughter left, Tiffany took the opportunity to do a little wing-spreading of her own and has since attained her scuba diving certification in the deep blue waters of Hawaii and filled the space in the garage where her daughters’ car once sat with a shiny new Harley.
Her creativity, coupled with her dare-to-try anything attitude, ensures when you delve into the pages of her books you are guaranteed an entertaining and steamy read.
The author welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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