His Absolute Betrayal - Elise's Love Story: The Billionaire's Continuum (#2) (A Contemporary Romance Novel)

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Foreword

His Absolute Betrayal

A Note from Cerys

Sample (Concurrent)

Sample (Sweet)

Sample (Spice)

Other Writing by Cerys du Lys

About the Author

Afterwords

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M
y life was spiraling out of control.  In less than twenty-four hours, my entire world had changed.  When I woke up this morning, I felt regular and happy enough.  I didn't know if I was as happy as I could be, but I liked my life and everything in it.  I had a good job at Landseer Enterprises, working with Asher Landseer's wife, Jessika.  I wrote fiction for a living, or I tried to.  Fortunately, I got paid, regardless of whether my writing was good or not, but that didn't mean that I wanted to write sub-par stories without any interest or meaning to them.

That was then, though.  And this was now.  What was now?  I didn't know how to explain it, but for some reason everything felt better.  Granted, I was tired.  My sleep-addled state of mind hardly helped matters.  I lay on Lucent's chest, comfy and close, content and complacent.  I shouldn't be, and I knew this, but I couldn't help it.

Lucent was asleep.  We were laying on a bean bag chair in the children's section in the public city library.  It was late, though I didn't know what time it was exactly.  Late, later.  Late enough.  Midnight, for all I knew, or maybe even very early morning.  I tilted my tired head and sleepy eyes towards one of the windows high up on the wall and glanced outside.  I saw only darkness, the faint black shimmer of the night sky, with the moonlight reflected on the windowpanes.  Further down the sidewalk, streetlights glimmered, casting a pearlescent glow onto the antiquated darkness of the library and its bookshelves.  I stared at it, losing myself in the calm and quiet.

Outside, a car drove past the library, completely oblivious to Lucent and I.  No one knew we were here.  Or, not a lot of people did, at least.  Just us, me and Lucent, and Asher and Jessika Landseer, too.  They must be sleeping right now.  I didn't know where they were or why they were there or what they were doing.  I realized that I didn't know much about anything else, either.  I knew some things, yes, but I felt like maybe it was all a big lie, maybe a lot of what I thought I knew was an illusion, and I didn't know if I should accept that or question it.  I thought maybe I'd be happy doing a little bit of both.

Beneath me, somewhat next to me, Lucent slept soundly.  I felt his warm breath on my cheeks and my neck.  I twisted and curled around, no longer looking towards the windows.  Instead, I looked at him.  Darkness suited Lucent in a different kind of way.  He looked safe in his slumber, wrapped in blankets made of shadow and night and me.  I kept him warm while he slept, and he kept me safe and close and warm, too.  I was his.  He called me Miss Tanner and I loved him for it, even if everyone else just called me Elise.  I loved him for a lot of reasons, and I hoped he loved me for a lot of reasons, too.

Maybe that was why I wanted to forgive him and accept him.  Love?  Yes.  Love could excuse a lot of behaviors, I thought.  Love was a wondrous thing, a magical emotion, though perhaps fearful and frightening, too.

Before we came here, before we arrived at this exact moment in time, this exact place within the continuum of life and space, a lot of things happened.  The ones I kept thinking of and returning to were the ones that happened only a few hours ago, though.

An unknown man shrouded in dark clothes and hiding his face set the data storage room in Asher and Jessika's mansion on fire.  Lucent stopped him, and I tried to help, but maybe I was just in the way.  That all went well enough, but then we needed to go, to escape.  I took something with me, and maybe it didn't belong to me then, but I felt like it belonged to me now.

It was just a box.  It was only a portable computer hard drive.  I'd seen more than my fair share before that, but this one was the object of someone's attention, and now it was mine.

Lucent wanted it.  I should have given it to him, but I didn't.

I was his, and I knew this.  He wanted me.  He wanted to control me, to command me.  I liked it most of the time.  I liked his need and the look in his eyes.  I knew he didn't treat me like chattel, regardless of the fact that when I first met him he said he wanted a slave.  It was fun and sexy, not scary or debased.  Yes, Lucent wanted to own me, but it wasn't just that.  He didn't just want to have me, or to possess me, he wanted to care for me.  Just because someone owns something, it doesn't mean they don't love it.

I was his, a prize, someone to be honored and cherished.  And... well... maybe occasionally we played at being a bit more forceful.  He chastised me for sneaking into his office when he wasn't there, and then demanded I atone for my indiscretion with something more wicked and sinful.

I liked it, though.  It was fun, and different, sort of like a game.  Not an altogether amusing or entertaining one in a regular way, but it suited Lucent's personality and I enjoyed it.  He'd bade me to kneel in front of him in his office, hidden behind closed, corporate doors, and I undid his pants, lowered them to reveal his erect cock, and wrapped my lips around the head, then lowered my mouth down his length.  He'd wrapped his hands into my hair, pulling near the roots, keeping me close to him, tight and controlled.  He gave me enough leeway to move mostly of my own accord, but he refused to let me think I had any actual control over the situation.

It was his; his scene, his doing, his creation.  I was his.

That all happened before, though.  Now we were sleeping.  Or, he was.  I didn't know if I could sleep.  I didn't know what I should do.  I had the box, the hard drive I'd stolen away from the Landseer mansion.  I didn't know what it was at first, but I knew now.  It contained everything I wanted to know about.  It contained illicit information about Lucent, and knowledge was a type of power.

Lucent stalked me, he obsessed over me, he possessed me and controlled me.  That was him, it was who he was.  I understood this, and I wanted to accept it.  I did accept it, almost always, but I didn't know if I should.  I didn't know if that was safe or dangerous or what it was.

Yes, I might be Lucent's obsession, but I was his love, too.  He didn't scare me, he protected me and he guarded me.  His love might seem untoward and frightening to someone else, but I liked to think of it as extreme and intense.  It was
more
.  That was the only way I could think to describe it.  His love for me was more powerful than anything I'd ever known before.  I thought it was more powerful because of who he was and what he did.

I wanted to love him in the same way.  I wanted to stalk him, and obsess over him, to possess him and control him.  I wanted him to understand this and accept it.  I wanted him to love me and I wanted to love him, too.  I wanted to protect him and to guard him, and maybe I couldn't do any of these things in the same way that he did them to me, but I wanted to do them in my own way.

I wanted my love for Lucent to be so extreme, so very powerful, stronger than anything he'd ever known before.

I closed my eyes and succumbed to the darkness surrounding us.  I listened to his soft breath and the pervasive sound of nothingness filling the rest of the library.  I moved my head to his chest and tilted to the side, just so.  I listened through the cloth of his suit and his skin, his bones and into his body.  I listened to him, to his soul, his strength, his very self, his essence and his being.  His heart thumped, rhythmic and steady, sure beyond belief.

I nuzzled against him and wrapped one leg around his.  My hand moved to his cheek, caressing the soft stubble on his face.  I breathed in deep, content, and then sighed.

I fell asleep like that, listening and feeling and knowing.  I didn't know what the sounds were, or what my emotions were, or what my thoughts were, but they all seemed good.  Everything seemed perfect and right.

Lucent watched Elise as she slept.  The faint light of morning illuminated the outskirts of the library, sneaking in just far enough to leave a radiant glow on her cheeks.

Every second he looked at her, every time she inhaled gently, then exhaled, every moment she remained in slumber in his arms, every time he thought about her, or even on the rare occasions when he wasn't, he fell a little more in love with her.  He didn't know if he could stop, or if it would ever stop.  He never wanted it to stop.

She was his sun and he was a mere peasant, growing a garden of love beneath her gentle rays of light.  He would cultivate it, perfect it, and become more because of it.

He needed to.  He needed her.

I stirred, waking from my nap.  It didn't feel like I'd slept more than a few minutes, but I felt refreshed and nice.  A little fuzzy, but in a good way.  I stretched my arms and legs and opened my mouth wide in a yawn, before finally blinking my eyes open and looking around.  It was morning, but I didn't know exactly what time it was.  Not too early, I thought, because no one else was here.

Or, no one but Lucent, at least.  Lucent and I, together.  He was awake, watching me.  One of his arms lay wrapped around my waist, holding me tight.  I smiled at him and snuck in for a kiss.  He obliged me, and kissed me back.  We lay like that, oblivious to our surroundings, just him and I, together.

He wore his suit from the night before.  I wasn't sure I liked that.  I stayed overnight at Lucent's house sometimes, and when I woke up in his bed, I got to see his gloriously muscled torso, nude from the waist up.  He wore pajama pants most of the time, and those covered his lower body, but it only took a quick tug to lower them enough to reveal anything I might like.  It was nice, and I enjoyed it.

When I slept over Lucent's, I wore whatever I wanted when we went to bed.  Sometimes I didn't wear anything, or sometimes I wore pajamas, or sometimes I liked to be a little sexier and wore a flimsy negligee.  Not that any of those were better than the others, because nothing I wore (or didn't wear) seemed to deter Lucent's love and lust.  Sometimes it was more about me, though, and what I felt like wearing.  I felt different in different things.  Sleeping naked wasn't anything at all like sleeping in pajama pants and a tanktop.

Unfortunately, because of strange circumstances the night before, I'd slept in the dress I wore to the Landseer company party, which wasn't altogether comfortable sleeping attire, nor what I wanted to wake up in.  I was in the mood to have woken in something sexy, but my life hadn't deemed it fit to work out that way.

Still...

I moved in to kiss Lucent again, but this time I had a plan in mind.  He smiled and kissed me back.  While I distracted him with my lips, I moved my hand to his crotch and massaged.  His cock welcomed my attention, twitching in anticipation.  I liked that.  I liked it a lot.  I squeezed slightly and teased my fingers lower, trying to find his balls hidden behind the fabric of his pants.  It took me a second, but I did find them.  I held him like that, feeling his arousal growing hard in my hands.

Lucent grinned.  "Miss Tanner, what do you think you're doing?"

"I want you," I said.  With a pout, I added, "I don't think I can have you, though.  This isn't really a good place."

We were in a library, so of course it wasn't a good place.  We probably shouldn't have come here, either.  It wasn't like libraries were good hideouts in most circumstances.  First off, we could only stay here for the night, and then we needed to leave.  Also, Lucent parked his car nearby, so if anyone wanted to find us, and they saw that, they'd know we were in the area.  Presumably they'd likely think us hidden away in Landseer Tower before they considered the library as an option, but still.