Bared (30 page)

A woman who had made him live again.

This woman he vowed to always hold just like this, always kiss and touch with passion, and always remind her that she was special and undeniably loved. She’d always know how beautiful she was, how the world was better with her in it, and that no woman other than her mattered to him.

His heart swelled in the same moment moisture sputtered against his sac. The first signs of her orgasm made him growl. “Yes, luv, come on me like this—trapped beneath me, protected by me.” He thrust deeper—harder. She arched into him as her hands gripped his shoulders and her fingernails dug into his flesh.

He welcomed the mark.

She had bared his soul and branded it.

The connection that had developed the moment he’d met Cora spun around him in a magical embrace. A bond so intense it took him time to see it. He’d never be blinded again. There it was, waiting for him to take it.

She had offered him her love and submission.

Now there was no going back.

As he rocked into her, his cock was hard and demanding, rubbing against her sensitive spot inside. He thrust faster … harder. Her loud, feminine moans consumed him as her body stiffened. Her mouth was parted with her lovely moans and her eyes were wide, lost in desire. “Please …”

He increased the speed of his thrusts to give her what she craved. With a harsh hitch to her breath and with glossy eyes, she erupted into orgasm, treating his cock to hard spasms and flooding him with her moisture.

She stared openly at him, and he didn’t look away. As if in this moment they needed to do something together. They no longer fought against the truth or each other, but accepted that somehow they’d made it.

That they’d both changed … for each other, to find love.

He tumbled into the connection that had weaved its way so naturally into his life. He bucked and jerked and roared out his release. His hot semen sputtered from his cock and rushed into her. And her inner walls held tight against him, as if he’d finally given her everything and she greedily welcomed it.

Once they crashed into a state of tangled limbs and sweaty bodies, Aidan held her stare as tears welled in Cora’s eyes. Tears that didn’t break him. Tears that made him rejoice that he was there to comfort her.

He gathered her in his arms and said what he’d always said, “Come closer, luv.”

A rush of emotions filled his heart.

When her sniffles quieted, she gave a soft laugh. “I planned to call you an evil bastard for bringing me that close to orgasm and then refusing it.” She hesitated, snuggling into him. “But now I can’t seem to do that.”

He laughed with her. He never minded her sass. In fact, it was completely part of Cora’s charm. “Things would’ve gone very differently if you had said that.” He trailed his fingers over her back with a long sigh.

All
his
pain had washed away. Cora’s submission had healed him. Her love grounded him. With her in his arms, an undeniable truth developed in his mind. A Dom took care of a submissive, but that Dom was nothing without a submissive who cared for him in return.

As she sniffed again, he pulled her on top of him, and she straddled his waist. Her disheveled hair, matched with her pink cheeks, kept him smiling. “I should punish such sass out
of you.”

She smirked. “You’d never do that.”

“Is that so?” He arched an eyebrow. “Do tell.”

She brushed her hand against his face and offered a soft expression. “Because, Aidan, you’d be lost without me.” She smacked the side of his face lightly. “You love me, sass included.”

“You’re right.” Things were good. She was the reason for it all. And he’d never let her forget that. He’d never stop taking care of her. He’d make her life better, as she had for him. He lifted his head off the pillow, gazing into her eyes. “I’m irrevocably in love with you.” He flipped their positions and narrowed his eyes.

Cora’s expression dropped, and she squirmed to get away. He lowered his weight onto her and pinned her to the mattress. “Have I ended our play, Cora?”

“Err …” Her glossy eyes widened. “No, sir.”

“I thought you had enough punishment.” He lowered his voice. “Since you know better than to smack the face of your Dom, I must be wrong.”

She gulped. “Oh, fuck.”

“Believe me, Cora,” he murmured against her lips, excited for the future and the learning curve that awaited them, “you getting fucked
is
definitely in the plans tonight.”

Acknowledgments

To Sue Grimshaw, I can’t sing your praises enough. I’m the luckiest author to have you by my side, and my stories are stronger because of it. Your ideas make me excited to dive into edits and make rewrites enjoyable. Your amazing support means the world to me!

To my agent, Jessica Alvarez, there is so much I could say. We came together under unusual circumstances, but I’m so glad that we did. I wouldn’t be where I am today without you. We make a pretty great team!

To Lea Griffith and Sidney Bristol, who helped me whip this book into shape and gave me some much-needed tough love. Thanks for making me dig just a little bit deeper.

A big shout-out to Gina Gordon and Sara Brookes, who always listen to me grumble and know how to make me feel better if I’m having a bad day. A girl couldn’t ask for better friends.

To April Flores and Kim Cowser, it’s been such a pleasure to work with you. Thanks for making publishing a book fun!

Huge thanks go out to Chris Garstin and John Tanner for all the rock-climbing information. While it was helpful, it also reminded me how much I don’t want to do it! Your answers to my endless questions are much appreciated.

And to everyone at Loveswept and Random House, from the copy editors to the cover artists to everyone in between, thank you for all the hard work you do!

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author
S
TACEY
K
ENNEDY
is an urban fantasy lover at heart, but she also enjoys losing herself in dark and sensual worlds. She lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, who gave her a happily-ever-after. Together, they have two small children who can always make her smile and who will never be allowed to read Mommy’s books. If she’s not plugging away at a new story, you’ll find her camping, curling up with the latest flick, or obsessing over
Supernatural
,
True Blood
,
Lost Girl
, and
Sons of Anarchy.

The Editor’s Corner

Welcome to Loveswept!

Love is in the air this month – and no, I’m not talking about
that holiday
. I’m talking about all our fantastic Loveswept releases coming up, and I’m so excited to share them with you.

Tina Wainscott’s red-hot
Wild on You
introduces the Justiss Alliance, an elite team of heroes out to do right. This is one book that will be hard to put down, as one untamable SEAL meets a woman who handles the wildest sort of animals—until she herself becomes the hunted. Another book that I keep raving about it Sally Eggert’s electrifying romantic suspense,
In the Dark
, where passion raises the stakes when a woman is drawn into a dangerous game with a man who may not be what he seems. Intrigued? I was! If you’re a fan of historical romance with tons of sensuality, adventure and intrigue, look no further than Sharon Cullen’s
Pleasing the Pirate
, where a ruthless pirate and a Scottish lass are wrenched between love and duty. And if you were sucked into Stacey Kennedy’s
Claimed
like I was, you’ll be happy to hear that the oh-so-sexy Club Sin returns in
Bared
– a wicked and wild tale of submission, seduction, and love.

Of course, we can’t forget about those classic romances that have made us fall in love time and again. This month we have two fantastic books from two beloved authors: Sandra Chastain’s irresistible reads:
Joker’s Wild
and
Lean Mean Loving Machine
, and Ruth Owen’s wonderful historicals:
Midnight Mistress
and
Gambler’s Daughter
. Then there’s Karen Leabo’s tale of hot pursuit and hotter passions,
Hot Property
, and Linda Cajio’s
Earth Angel
, where a boardroom hotshot discovers heavenly pleasure with an unlikely angel. And a sensuous historical tale from #1
New York Times
bestselling author Iris Johansen,
Wild Silver: The Delaney’s
– who doesn’t love a story with a wicked prince and a beautiful, willful captive?

Be swept away with Loveswept!

Gina Wachtel

Associate Publisher

Don’t miss the next novel in
Stacey Kennedy’s Club Sin series,
Desired
Coming in July from Loveswept

At Las Vegas’s exclusive Club Sin, Kyler Morgan is the Master, skilled at making a woman submit. When he sets his sights on a vanilla woman, Ella Snow, he will stop at nothing from getting her under his control. The challenge she sets forth is the excitement he’s been lacking in his life. And the temptation of being able to train a new submissive to embrace the BDSM lifestyle brings forth desire he cannot control.

Ella arrives at the BDSM club as a dare to live life to the fullest. Kyler’s teachings through his dominance are slowly forcing her secret past with an abusive husband to fade. Every touch he offers, every lesson in submission, is stirring desire that knows no bounds. But as she falls deeper under Kyler’s command, the abuse in her past is revealed. Submission alone may not be enough to save her, leaving Kyler with only one question:
How can he help Ella heal while unlocking the darkest pleasures she craves?

Read on for an excerpt from

Ruined

An Ethan Frost Novel

by Tracy Wolff

Available From Loveswept

No one told me that the reason my brand-new pair of Christian Louboutins are called killer is because they are
actually
going to kill me before the day is over.

Oh, I know what you’re thinking. What else should I expect from a pair of five-inch ruby-red stilettos? Even ones that come with the promise of comfort? After all, every woman knows that after a few hours and a few miles, even the most comfortable heels become instruments of torture.

Even I know that, and that’s saying something considering I spend most of my life in old jeans and older T-shirts. And ballet flats. I’m a big fan of ballet flats. Right now I’d pretty much sell my soul for a pair of them.

Which is why I’d planned to wear a totally sensible pair of shoes today. Navy, open-toed pumps with a two-inch heel that perfectly match the five-hundred-dollar suit I’m wearing. It’s the same suit I scrimped and saved for for the better part of last semester, and it’s the same suit that helped get me the position I started this morning. My dream job. Technically, I suppose it isn’t
actually
a job, as I’m not getting paid for it—a salary
is
the defining quality of being employed, after all—but it is an internship. In the intellectual property department of the most innovative and fastest-growing biomedical corporation in the country. The world, even. If that isn’t a job and a damn good one, I don’t know what is.

But when I laid the whole outfit out on my bed last night, checking the individual pieces for any stains or tears or wrinkles or scuffs—anything that might give me away as the poor college student I am instead of the ambitious and hardworking future lawyer I intend to be—my best friend and roommate was horrified by my choice of footwear. She’d insisted that a suit as kick-ass as this one deserved shoes just as kick-ass. That’s when she’d pulled out the Loubies with a drumroll and a flourish, her gift to me on the first day of the rest of my life.