Read Bound Temptations: Stories of Temptation and Submission Online

Authors: Shiloh Walker

Tags: #romance, #erotic romance, #rape fantasy, #friends to lovers, #bondage play, #bbw adult romance

Bound Temptations: Stories of Temptation and Submission (7 page)

BOOK: Bound Temptations: Stories of Temptation and Submission
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"You heard me." He
straightened up and pushed a hand through his hair, only to have
the thick blond strands fall right back into his eyes. "I broke
things off with Mara the night of the benefit, and just so you
know, it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with Mara
and me. Also, it happened before the auction. Well before. It
happened before I talked to you. And I don't think you could even
consider me a rebounding type. Things between us having
been...hell. Gone. They've been gone for a long time. I just wasn't
seeing it. Mara couldn't, either."

Rocki studied him. "I'm
sorry."

Cole shrugged. "Don't be. It
needed to end."

"Whether it needed to or
not, it always sucks to end something. And that sounds really,
well...sad. You were going to marry her. There must have been
something there." She studied his face, and knew she was right,
even if he didn't say anything. There was the echo of something in
his eyes. She could see it. "You don't strike me as the kind of guy
who'd start a relationship that casually. If you'd asked her to
marry you, you must have had feelings for her at some point. Losing
that, whether it's fresh or not, has to bother you."

She absently worried her
wedding ring with her finger and studied the toes of her heels. "I
still don't think ..."

Hearing the boards creak,
she looked up and saw that Cole had moved around the counter. She
swallowed.

"You know what I think?" he
murmured.

"What?"

He passed a hand down her
hair, tangled his fingers in it. A jolt of longing shot through
her. Hell. It had been so long. Too damn long.

"I think you think too
much." He dipped his head and pressed his mouth to hers.

Oh.

Heat. Hunger. They flooded
through her and she pushed off the counter, pressed her body to
his, her hands going to his waist.

 

 

 

She did think too
much.

And she was wearing that
wedding ring again—here she was worrying about him being on the
rebound and she was wearing her wedding ring, five years after her
husband had died. He should turn around and walk back out—forget
the damn date.

But instead, he had his
hands fisted in her hair, that thick, dark hair.

And she had her body pressed
against his, that lush, warm body...oh, shit, she was like a
fucking drug. Groaning, he tangled a hand in her hair and tugged
her head back. She opened for him, and when he plunged his tongue
into her mouth, she bit him lightly.

Banding an arm around her
waist, he whirled her around and pressed her up against the
counter. Greedy for the feel of her, the touch, he raced his hands
along those ripe curves, palming her breasts in his hands. The
warm, heavy weight had him shuddering. He wanted to see that
amazing, soft body of hers, see it, feel it, cover it with
his.

Instead, he pulled away,
pressing his brow to hers. "You think too much," he said again, in
a remarkably calm voice. "Now, about that date. A nice, friendly,
casual date..."

Her eyes, sleepy and hot,
stared into his. She blinked, and then to his surprise, she started
to laugh. She shifted, resting her head on his shoulder. "Hotshot,
I have a hard time thinking straight when I look at you and you
want me to play nice, friendly and casual...after you kiss me like
that?"


Well. I'm not your type,
remember?" He stroked a hand down her back, absently toying with
the laces of the corset she wore. It was black today, a new sort
that he hadn't seen before, worn over a shirt with long puffy
sleeves. It almost looked more like a cross between a vest and
corset, fitting below her breasts. Again, it did things for her
body that should have been illegal. "You know, you're going to give
me a fetish if I keep seeing you in these things."

Rocki tipped her head back,
smirking at him. "Maybe you've already got one." Her eyes dropped,
lingering on his mouth. Then she sighed and eased her upper body
back. "So. A date. Friendly. Casual."

"Yeah. Friendly. Casual."
Dipping his head, he nibbled at her lower lip. "At least until I
can convince you that maybe I am your type after all."

Chapter Five

 

 

"What do you
think?"

Lacey lounged on the couch
in the dressing area, munching on Cheetos. Her left eyebrow,
pierced through with a silver hoop, winged up.

"Darling, what I think is
that I was mishearing things. You told me on the phone last night
that this date was just going to be nice and casual, yet here you
are wearing the prototype piece you spent months working on." She
popped a finger in her mouth to lick off the crumbs and then added,
"And damn if you don't look hotter than hell. If I was into girls,
I'd do you."

Rocki snorted. "You are such
a brat. By the way, you get crumbs on that couch, I'm beating you."
She sighed and looked back at her reflection. "Damn it, I'm
changing."

"No." Lacey remained
sprawled on the couch. "You're not. Leave it alone already, you
look amazing."

Rocki groaned and looked at
her reflection. The new piece wasn't exactly a typical corset. It
had the basic look of a Victorian corset with the longer rounded
bottom, but she'd raised the neckline and straps to it, and to the
straps, she'd designed it so she could add or remove sleeves. So
many of the corsets she designed couldn't exactly be worn on their
own in the winter without a jacket over it or a blouse under it,
but this one could. She fingered the necklace she'd added. It was
dark metal, looked like tarnished silver, but wasn't. It was the
only jewelry she wore. She'd taken her wedding ring off and locked
it away in her safe. She didn't always wear it, and she needed to
stop—she sure as hell couldn't wear it on a date.

She ran a hand through her
hair and swore. "Damn it, I'm primping. That's it—I'm
changing."

"Nope."

She made a face at Lacey.
"Am, too."

"If you do, I'm wiping
Cheetos all over your couch," Lacey said, smirking. "And I won't
clean it up. I'll just sashay right out of here, and you'll have to
clean it before it stains."

"You would not." She turned
around and glared at her friend. "And who the hell uses the word
sashay?"

"Wellllll...I just did."
Lacey gave her an innocent smile and reached into the bag for
another handful of the messy, cheesy snacks. She popped them into
her mouth and then waggled her orange fingers at Rocki.
"Change."

Rocki groaned and covered
her face with her hands. She wanted to think her friend was just
bluffing. But Lacey wasn't exactly big on that. Hell, the wench had
hauled her on the fucking stage at the auction. Bluffers didn't do
that sort of thing. "I'm going to get you back for this," she
warned. Then she turned back around and studied her reflection once
more. Rocki didn't bluff, either. "Just wait."

Lacey sighed. "I know. But
it's for a good cause."

Out in the shop, the bell
chimed.

"Well, at least you've got a
customer to distract you," Lacey said cheerfully, licking the
cheese off her fingers. "And if you're distracted, the couch is
safe from me. For now."

"You're so mature." As she
passed by, she kicked Lacey's ankle.

"Bitch."

"Tramp." On her way out in
the shop, Rocki was grinning.

The smile faded as she heard
the bell of her shop and she looked to the door, saw it swinging
shut. Damn it...

Automatically, she looked
around, wondering if she'd let somebody steal from her. Normally,
she didn't leave the store front unattended, but she'd been so busy
worrying about that nice, friendly date...

Her gaze landed on the white
box sitting in front of the door.

It was long and white, the
type of box roses come in. She knew because Brant had loved to send
her flowers. Her heart jumped into her throat. Somehow, she didn't
think it was from Cole. Rocki rushed to the front of the store and
shoved the door open, moving onto the sidewalk. But it was too
late. She saw nothing but the typical foot traffic common on a
Friday evening.

Retreating back into the
store, she stepped carefully over the box and stood there, staring
at it, arms crossed over her midsection.

"Hey, I'm going
to..."

As Lacey's voice trailed
away, Rocki looked up.

Lacey frowned, staring at
the box. She knew Rocki too well to assume the box held anything
good. "I assume you don't think those are flowers," Lacey said
quietly.

"No." She nudged it with her
toe.

Lacey nodded. "Okay. Is
there a reason why?"

Rocki stared at Lacey. Lacey
knew. She knew all about what had happened years earlier.
Swallowing, she edged around the box, keeping a good eighteen
inches between them, like she thought a viper might
strike.

She had the cards locked up
in her office. "Watch the store for a minute?"

Her mouth tightened, but
Lacey nodded, her gaze returning to the box. "Just one thing—am I
going to kick your ass in a few minutes?"

"Possibly."

 

 

 

Okay
.

This was unexpected, Cole
thought, pulling up behind the unmarked car parked in front of
Rocki's shop. He was an attorney, after all—he'd seen plenty of
unmarked police cars.

Although, hey, he had to
think calmly—her husband had been on the force. She probably had a
lot of friends...

Shit, if she'd been hurt, he
was going to fucking kill somebody.

Okay, calm just went out the
window, he admitted as he made it inside in under sixty seconds
flat.

To his surprise, he knew the
cop he found there, too.

It was Clayton Morgan,
standing close to Rocki, his expression surly, his russet hair
standing on end. "Okay, Rock. One more time, and damn it, if you
leave anything out, I'm paddling you."

Fury punched through Cole,
hot and vicious. He kept his voice level, though, as he said,
"Unless I'm mistaken, I'm pretty sure cops generally don't get to
paddle citizens. Or did they redo the law, Detective?"

Three heads turned his way,
two redheads and one brunette. He glanced at the beautiful brunette
but kept his focus on the cop, one brow lifted.

Morgan raked him with a
quick look and snorted. "Hell, what is the DA doing here, Rock?"
Then he shook his head. "I'm not yet here officially-Rocki's a
friend, Stanton, so don't get your boxers in a twist."

"Not yet?" He shifted his
gaze to Rocki then, saw the strain in her eyes, and the pallor.
Concern wrapped a tight, brutal grip around his heart. Closing the
distance between them, he reached up and cupped her chin. "What
happened?"

The shop looked okay. She
looked fine—other than pale and unhappy. He stroked a thumb over
her satin skin and waited for her to look him in the
eye.

A tight smile came and went.
"Ugly shit. I...well, I don't want to..."

He looked past her then. Saw
the white box sitting on the counter.

The lid hadn't been put all
the way back on. It wasn't the blooms that bothered him, in and of
themselves. They were brightly colored, and beautiful—and he'd
spent enough money on flowers in his life to know that they weren't
cheap flowers, either.

No, the disturbing fact was
that every last one of them had been cut from the stem, carefully
placed away from it in the box. Carefully, he reached inside his
coat pocket and pulled out a pen, using it to nudge the lid
completely out of the way. Once he had, he counted the flowers. Two
dozen in all. And all of the blooms had been removed. Shifting his
gaze to Rocki, he saw that she was staring determinedly at his
chest, like she'd been intent on not looking at the flowers. "I
take it you didn't do the snip and clip there," he said.

She swallowed and gave him a
game smile. "Not much for horticulture."

"Don't see the fun in it
myself." He looked at Morgan. "So...what's the deal?"

Morgan raised his eyebrows.
"I'm curious why it's your business, Stanton."

"Clayton, yank the stick out
of your ass. He's here to pick me up for a date. He sees you, and
apparently you know each other." Rocki rolled her eyes. "Do the
math, genius."

The cop stiffened. "Hell,
you're dating a lawyer."

Rocki sighed. "Well, not
officially. Not yet. You see, we haven't had the date." Then she
shifted her gaze to Cole and added, "Besides, I didn't know he was
a lawyer."

"Does it matter?" Cole asked
softly.

"Hell, yes," Clayton
snapped.

Rocki smiled. "Not so much."
Then she looked at the flowers. "Clayton...what do we do
here?"

He glared at her, then
abruptly groaned. "A lawyer. A fu...a lawyer, for crying out loud."
He sighed and shoved a hand through his hair before studying the
flowers again.

BOOK: Bound Temptations: Stories of Temptation and Submission
14Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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