Stolen Flame

by D W Marshall

  Dominic orders room service, and when it arrives, we sit on the bed naked, eating an assortment of post-coitus fare.

  “Our birthday is tomorrow. What do you want to do?” he asks me, his hand absently rubbing my thigh.

  “What we’re doing right now is good for me. How about you?” I ask. I raise my eyebrows up and down suggestively.

  “Spending the day buried inside of you isn’t a birthday gift, Vivian. It’s a dying wish.” My love leans over the food and plants a messy kiss on my face. I try to move back and escape his food-covered advances, but he’s too quick for me. The next thing I know, he’s buried inside of me again.

  Covered in food, we make love until we are numb.

  I don’t remember when we fell asleep, but I wake with a start. I calm immediately when I realize that I hadn’t dreamt my afternoon. I’m wrapped tight in my love’s arms.

  He wakes to my stares, and floods me with kisses. More accurately, he attacks me. What starts out as good clean fun, full of giggles and cries for the tickling to cease, ends with me straddling him. I’m riding the real Dominic, my very own live pleasure pony. I roll my hips in slow, deliciously agonizing circles.

  He looks drunk on me. I move my hips forward and back, my sex completely full of him. I gaze into his eyes through my lashes and increase my pace, going faster and harder. I can’t get him deep enough inside me. I take all that I can, as my body flushes with heat and cold. Electricity surges through me, causing my body to jerk and jolt. I ride the wave of the orgasm, quaking with pleasure.

  “Dominic. Dominic. Oh, fuck! I love you!”

  He follows right behind me.

  After, we lay with him still inside of me until we can finally breathe normally again. “Shower?” he asks.

  “If I can move.”

  “Here, I’ll help you. Stay where you are.” He begins to slide us off the bed. When his feet are on the floor at the edge of the bed I’m still straddling him. He’s still throbbing inside of me. Yes.

  “Wrap your legs around me.”

  I do as I’m told, which pushes him deeper inside of me. He stands and we make our way to the bathroom. He turns on the shower, a beautiful walk-in marble stall with no door and a huge seat.

  “Do you want me to put you down?” he asks.

  I show him my renewed excitement, moving my hips around him. He sits us down on the bench, and I go to work riding him. I lift off of him and slam myself down onto his erection.

  “Ahh…this is all I want.” I repeat this motion until we are only sensations, moans, and proclamations of love.

  I am his Flame. A small part of The Chamber will always be with us. Up and down I ride him until I erupt in an explosion of shivers, contracting around him. He finds his release with me, filling me with warm, delicious fluid.

  I can’t contain my emotions. Sobs that I can no longer hold escape me. I bury my face into my love’s chest and cry as the shower steams and luscious hot water rains down on us.

  “Baby, are you okay?”

  I nod, but I can’t speak. I only sob. My arms grip him as if my very life depends on this moment.

  “Vivian, you’re scaring me. Are you okay?” He pulls me back so he can see my face.

  I stare into his eyes. His face is blurry through my tears. “I’m happy.”

  He looks relieved. “Oh, thank goodness. You silly, beautiful girl.” He floods me with kisses all over my face and neck. “I’m happy, too. The four of us are going to have a fantastic life together.”

  My right eyebrow raises in question. “Four of us?”

  “Of course. You.” He kisses my lips. “Me.” He kisses me again. “Captain Thunderdick.” He floods my face with pecks. “And Fuckingham Palace. Or ‘The Palace’ for short. You know, everyone loves a palace.” He wiggles his hips under me, and I start to come alive with feelings again, especially when I hear his nickname for my sex.

  “Oh, no, greedy girl. I need to get you cleaned up, and you need to call your parents so they won’t worry. Then you’re going to sleep. The Captain is not to be trifled with. I don’t want you bruised up. We have a lifetime together, remember?”

  I do remember. A lifetime of love. I’m ready for that adventure. Only Dominic can stoke my flame that only lights for him.

  Chapter Thirty

  The Spirit of Love

  Our wedding day was beautiful. We didn’t have the traditional, yearlong engagement. We couldn’t start our lives together soon enough. We waited four months, and only because the planning took that long.

  My folks weren’t too thrilled about me being engaged. Especially since they always expected me to marry Liam. I definitely broke Liam’s heart.

  Liam didn’t talk to me for a while. Even though we’re on better terms these days, deep down, I believe he’ll always feel as though I betrayed him. He couldn’t make the wedding. He told me he didn’t want the vision of me walking down the aisle for anyone but him.

  I wept for us after that conversation.

  Maddie informed me that he’s been dating someone from UNLV for the past couple of months. I really do hope he’s happy. He’s a good guy, and good guys deserve happiness.

  Our day was wonderful—just as we wanted. Our wedding took place in August, in a secluded area on the beach in Malibu. The sky was the bluest I’d ever seen. The wind blew whisper-soft and glorious, just like we like it. The ocean fragrance danced on the breeze and brought with it the calm and serenity that I needed.

  It was a small ceremony, just close family and friends. I got to meet Dominic’s family from Hawaii. He has two beautiful younger sisters.

  Speaking of sisters, all of my sisters made it. They had to—they were my bridesmaids. Maddie was my maid of honor, and Ivy, Sapphire, Sunshine, Sky, Raven, and Violet were all in attendance wearing the most beautiful scarlet red gowns They all looked sexy, even though we had to do some last-minute alterations for one of them to accommodate her six-month pregnant belly, but that’s another story.

  I will just say this: what happens in The Chamber, doesn’t always stay in The Chamber.

  My father walked me down the aisle in my snow-white gown with splashes of red in the corseted back and trim along the bottom. My bouquet was red and white roses. I’ve decided to embrace red. It is a part of me, just as Flame is.

  My love was at the altar waiting for me in a white suit with subtle touches of red.

  Our vows were simple—to live in the spirit and moment of love. Isn’t love what it’s all about?

  For our honeymoon, we decided to take a private cruise around the Hawaiian Islands first, then the Marshall Islands, New Zealand, and Australia. Who knows where we’ll be after that?

  I put school on hold indefinitely. At this point, we don’t even know where home is for us yet. I guess, like all the other bridges, we’ll cross it when we get to it. With our combined nine million dollars in the bank, we don’t have to rush back home too soon. Dominic says moving around makes us harder to track, just in case someone decides to come looking for us.

  He hasn’t given up his quest to bring down The Chamber, but he doesn’t discuss the details with me. Instead, he tells me only what I need to know. I know that he’s making gains. Something’s going down because two months ago I was introduced to Declan, the new man in my life. He’s in his mid- to late thirties, I would guess. He’s tall, dark-haired, well-built, and all business. Declan is a highly trained military badass who has become my new security and shadow. Wherever I go, he goes. There were even security guards at our wedding who were dressed as wedding guests.

  Dominic says that he can’t take any chances with my safety until Mason is behind bars. Only then will he feel like he redeemed himself. He says it’s the only way that he’ll know real peace. It’s because of me that he found the light, but The Chamber’s existence will always create dark spots in his vision. I don’t fight the new added security because I want The Chamber to cease to exist as much as he does. The idea of any woman experiencing what I did haun
ts my dreams at night. If this is what it takes for my love to see with one hundred percent clarity, then it is worth it to me.

  Dominic and I won’t go into our future forgetting about our past. He says my embracing that part of us is another demonstration of my strength. I just tell him we can’t leave it behind. The Chamber will always be a part of us because that is where we met and fell in love.

  Epilogue

  Dominic

  I can’t believe that out of the darkness someone so unbelievably perfect as Vivian came into my life. A lot has changed in the last year and a half. I’m married. I never in my life thought I would want to be married, but somehow, being in Vivian’s presence makes all things possible.

  I remember the first time I laid eyes upon her.

  My life was at an all-time low, but I became Mason’s right-hand man. My disinterest in the women made him trust me more. I hated myself for so many reasons. Mostly, I hated myself for not saving my mother. My father told me over and over that I was just a kid, and that he was thankful to God that the thugs didn’t take us both from him that day. In a lot of ways they did, though. I was in the hospital for a week after my mom died. I underwent surgery to remove the bullet that the fuckers left in my shoulder.

  I wasn’t the same when I was released from the hospital. I went through the motions and barely finished high school. When I enlisted in the marines, my father gave me his blessing. I wasn’t fit to be around him or my little sisters. I brought everyone around me down.

  My military life went by in a colorless blur. I did what was asked of me without thought or explanation. I didn’t care about what happened to me or whether I lived or died. I certainly didn’t care about anybody else. I made the perfect government weapon.

  By the time Mason found me, I was deadly and highly trained. Nothing and no one mattered, especially me. Then Vivian’s image came up on the screen. It was the first time I’d felt anything in a long time. Everything around me came to life. I knew that Vivian was special. The sight of her and the sound of her voice brought me back to life.

  I didn’t cry when my mother was killed. I was just a kid, and my anger kept me from crying. There was something about Vivian that lit me from within, and I wept for my mother for the first time. I realized that participating in The Chamber in any capacity was wrong.

  I never wanted her to come to The Chamber. My plan was to move to Las Vegas, enroll in UNLV, and find a way into her life. I begged Mason to pick someone else, anyone but her. No matter how much I pleaded with Mason, he would not relent. He had to have her, and I hated him for it. Instead of being my boss, he became the enemy.

  The thought crossed my mind to take her and not bring her to The Chamber. I’d take her to safety—anywhere where Mason wouldn’t be able to find her. But as well as I believed I knew her, she had never laid eyes on me. I knew that would never work. She would always see me as a villain, not a savior. Thinking this way, even now, solidifies why I have to stop Mason. No one else should feel the pain of losing someone they love to him.

  I am lost in memories as I sit on the balcony of our cruise ship headed to Sydney, Australia. That’s not too far away from Brisbane, Australia, which is the location of this year’s Chamber. It’s not too close, either. I risk so much bringing Vivian with me, but I can’t be far away from her. My intel tells me that Mason is holed up in some fortress. My security is scouting out the location while we travel in post-wedding bliss.

  I have two unlikely allies on this journey. Scarlet…Raven, and Lewis Patrick, Liam’s father. Scarlett and I crossed paths on more than one occasion during my early research. She has also made it her life’s quest to bring down Mason, and we decided that it would be better to work together than jeopardize each other’s plans. We both also decided that the less Vivian knows of Scarlet’s involvement, the better.

  Liam’s father, like me, has a lot to atone for. He has a great deal of influence and that has proven to be very helpful in our quest. Between his contacts on the outside, and my knowledge of the security and inner workings of The Chamber, our chances are good.

  “Hey. Earth to Dominic.”

  The sweetest voice breaks my reverie. I open my arms to Vivian, as she walks around me then folds into my lap.

  “You were daydreaming,” she says.

  “It’s easy to get mesmerized by this.” I gesture toward the beauty and bounty of the ocean before us. “And by you.” I smother her with kisses.

  “It’s gorgeous,” she says.

  “It pales in comparison to you.” I’m not exaggerating. Her beauty brought me to the light. Everything around me is brighter and more detailed because of her. I will do everything in my power to protect her and the world around her.

  We don’t discuss the details. Vivian has been enjoying what she calls “blissful ignorance.” She knows that even during our honeymoon, my plot to find Mason will not halt. She didn’t fight the security detail that has accompanied us on every step of our journey. She was relieved when I told her that I even hired someone to keep an eye on her family.

  She was brave when she went through the emergency kits. I told her it was important that she familiarize herself with its contents: cash, disposable debit cards, and a list of the locations of our hidden cash in every country we have visited in the past two months. I even had the forethought to have money stashed in a few accounts across Europe. Each kit includes multiple alternate identities and passports, should they become necessary. There are also disposable phones with each other’s numbers pre-programmed. I don’t plan on us being separated, but I can’t take any chances. When dealing with Mason, one can’t be too prepared or paranoid. With everything that’s at stake, I know that I only have one shot at this. If I fail, Vivian and I will be on the run. So failure is not an option.

  “Tell me again,” she asks, straddling me.

  Our current position has possibilities. “What?” I feign ignorance.

  “My Malay nickname.”

  Her steel-gray eyes hold mine, and I am her prisoner. I will do anything and everything for her.

  “Cahaya saya,” I say the words. They dance off of my tongue and the truth of them float on the Pacific breeze. “My light.”

  “I don’t know why, but those words sing to my soul,” she says. “I learned one for you.”

  “Really,” I say and kiss her perfect lips. Her long, dark hair is blowing in the wind. She doesn’t know the things she does to me.

  “Stop kissing me so I can tell you.” She giggles.

  “Okay, fine.” I relent. Still, I smother her with a few more kisses.

  “Hati saya. My heart. That is what you are and what you have.”

  “I love it! Maybe I should have those names on our identification. The Sayas. Hati and Cahaya Saya.”

  Vivian just smiles. She puts on a very brave face, but I know that she is worried. Mason is the cloudy sky in our otherwise perfect days, but not for long. I will be successful, because the future of the woman who holds my cahaya and my hati, is depending on me. No matter what, I won’t let her down.

  Read Weeping Violet, the next sinfully delicious book in The Seven Chamber Series, and one of my favorites!

  Weeping Violet Excerpt

  Chapter One

  How can I be afraid and excited at the same time? On one hand, I’m free. Mason kept his promise and let us go. In style, too. I’m sure the private plane and escort to our front doors had more to do with him and his control than it does with concern for us. But here I am, rolling down the road in the back of a luxury sedan on the way to my house. I missed my mother so much while I was gone. I’m almost more afraid to see what my disappearance did to her. She already suffered the loss of my father, and now this. Maybe calling her first would be a better option?

  I’ve been counting the minutes, hours, and days to my release, but I never thought about what it all means for me or for her. Shit. What about my best friends Tabitha and Taron…and Logan? What about him? Did he move on and find someone e
lse? Could I blame him if he did? No, I can’t. I’ve been gone a whole year.

  The closer we get to my destination, dread and fear replace my excitement. I have to remember my new mantra. I open my journal that has been sitting on my lap this whole ride and I scrawl the ten words that have given me strength since I boarded the plane home. I am safe. I am strong. I am a survivor. I close my eyes and take deep breaths; we are close to home.

  “Miss, we’re here,” the driver interrupts my attempts at calming myself down.

  I glance up at him and offer a tight smile. My heart is racing and slamming against my chest.

  I turn and look at my home. It’s small and sweet, just like I remember it, with bright spring flowers and a neat, manicured lawn. I stare down at the words I have written in my journal—my salvation during the last year. I filled it with my fears, my secret wishes, and dreams, and my growing inner strength is revealed between the lines. I can do this.

  This is it. I am going to hit the reset button. Home.

  It’s time to forever shed the label of Violet the sex slave…the Chambermaid…whatever I was during the last year, and become me again.

  Once I ring that doorbell, I step back into my life as Brinley Avery Bishop—college student, daughter, and aspiring actress. Girlfriend? Maybe I should follow my agent’s advice and dye my naturally blonde locks. I could do a vibrant red, or even a deep brown. The color doesn’t matter. The point is, if I look less like me, I will feel less like her.

  My legs are lead as I climb out of the car and make my way up the short path to the front door. With sweaty palms, I reach for the bell. My only thoughts are for the woman on the other side and what her reaction to my arrival is going to be. Mom must be out of her mind. I can’t imagine what she suffered—waking up one day to learn that her only daughter is missing. I’m sure by now she believes I’m dead. How else could she mentally survive?