Satisfaction Guaranteed (22 page)

"So it hit you in a sore spot." Kane hugged her close and rocked her gently from side to side. "I'm sorry. And amazed. He ditched you?"

"Yes." She grimaced. "I told him what I wanted in bed, and I never saw him again."

She felt his body shake with silent laughter. "Well, hell, kitten, you probably made him feel inadequate. He couldn't handle you. Lucky for you, you've caught the eye of a notorious pirate, and nothing will stop him from carrying you off to have his wicked way with you."

"Nothing?" Sabrina felt a faint stirring of hope.

"Nothing." Kane swept her up into his arms, then paused to look at her shoes. "Those are interesting. Can you wear them without panty hose?"

Sabrina felt her heart skip and her body stir to life. "Why do you ask?"

"I'd like to bend you over my kitchen table wearing those and nothing else. I think they'd put you at the perfect angle." He gave her a heated look, and Sabrina melted. Then she put a hand on his chest to stop him.

"Wait a minute. You still haven't explained."

"You want an explanation?" Kane looked around, spotted a chair, and sat with her in his lap. "Okay. Yes, I intended to use the fulfillment of my fantasy to fuel my fiction. That does not mean I didn't want you or didn't want the fantasy. Although once I had you, I realized it was never about sex or a fantasy, and it sure as hell didn't have anything to do with my career."

"That sounds promising," Sabrina said. "Go on."

He touched her cheek. "I thought I wanted the perfect stranger for the ultimate sexual fantasy encounter, but you made me realize what I really wanted was the perfect partner. I had you, but only for a short time. So I was planning to get you hooked before bringing up touchy subjects like who I was, what I did for a living, and the original reason I became a client of the Capture Agency."

Looked at from his perspective, it made sense. It wasn't fair to blame him for her own oversensitivity or the fact that her feelings had become so deeply involved in what was supposed to be purely sexual.

"You've gotten all quiet again. Do you have anything to tell me? Like why you're here?" Kane asked.

Yes, he was bound to wonder about that. And he deserved the truth. Sabrina took a deep breath. "I was mad. And hurt. At first I thought if you didn't want me, maybe somebody else on my match list would. It didn't take long for me to realize I didn't want that at all, though. By the time I got here, I'd come to my senses. I asked to be removed from the client database. Mark had gone to get the paperwork when you came in."

She looked up into his eyes and gave a little shrug. "You've ruined me for all other men. I don't want anybody else. The thought of being with another man makes me want to throw up, and the thought of never being with you again makes me feel cold and sad."

A look of wonder broke over his face. "You're in love with me."

Damn his perceptiveness. "Well, if I am, it's your own fault." Sabrina tapped his chest with her index finger and its newly repaired nail tip. "You romanced me with your back rubs and cuddling, calling me kitten. You seduced me with world-class orgasms and the most amazing sex I've ever had. And you made me laugh. We had so much fun, and it felt so good to be with you, in bed as well as out. Did you think that would make me hate you?"

"So I get all the credit." Kane looked pleased. "I'm pretty good at being a pirate. I stole your body and your heart. I made you love me against your will."

She scowled at him. "You don't have to sound so proud of yourself, Rebecca. And what about you? Do you love me? And is Kane even your real name?"

Kane hugged her close and worked his fingers into her hair to cup the back of her head. "Kane Woods is my real
name. And Rebecca isn't my only alter ego. There's a guy named Keith who writes science fiction in the bottom of the trunk."

Sabrina groaned. "I'm in love with a man who has more personalities than Sybil."

"Pen names are not personalities. They're marketing tools." He touched the base of her throat and traced a line down, coming to rest with his hand in the valley between her breasts. "To answer the rest of your questions in reverse order, yes, I love you. And as a romance writer, I am proud of myself. I romanced you like a pro. This is even better than
Pirate's Prize
."

"I know. I loved that book," Sabrina admitted. She shifted in his lap, twisting from the waist to encourage his hand to explore more interesting territory. "It's why I wanted a pirate to take me and make me his."

Kane smiled at her and moved to cover one breast with his hand. The warmth of his touch spread through her body, as welcome as the sun coming out from behind the clouds. "So you're a romantic. I notice you're not making a lot of noisy protests about how love at first sight is ridiculous."

"I'm a romantic," she agreed. "I also jump out of airplanes and ski very fast down dangerous mountains in my free time. There's nothing wrong with a little risk as long as the equipment is sound." She wiggled in his lap, feeling his erection pressing into her hip. "I've tested your equipment thoroughly. It's sound."

"Maybe you should test it again." Kane gave her a solemn look and rubbed his thumb over her nipple. "I should definitely test yours."

"Yes. Yes, you should," Sabrina agreed. She did her best to keep her face straight, but she could feel her lips curving in a smile. Her nipple was hardening under his thumb, and she could feel the rest of her body softening and growing ready for him to take.

Kane slid one hand up under her skirt, and she opened her thighs to let him pet her sex. He stroked and pressed lightly into her. Sabrina arched her back and moaned as the hand manipulating her nipple and the one between her legs worked in tandem.

"What about you?" she managed to ask before she lost the ability to think, much less form sentences. "Love at first sight doesn't bother you?"

"Not at all. It's efficient. When you get to be my age, you don't want to waste time. Speaking of which, it's time to carry you back to my ship," Kane said, his voice rough with desire. He stopped touching her to cradle her in his arms as he stood.

"Pirate," Sabrina said in a throaty murmur.

"That's right." He looked big and dangerous and blatantly possessive as his eyes held hers. "And now you're mine."

And she was.

Emma Michaels halted in the doorway to Rachel's office, frozen in place by a conversation that had nothing to do with business and was all about pleasure. Forbidden, erotic fantasies and a way to fulfill them through a unique dating agency. The Capture Agency, specializing in matching up the men and women who wanted to experience capture and bondage sexual encounters.

She was riveted, imagining a man holding her captive. A forceful stranger bent on seduction and determined to have her. The very idea of being the focus of a man's attention when she was so tired of settling for the crumbs that came her way thrilled her. And the promise of sexual fulfillment made heat rush through her body.

How long had it been since a man had wanted her, really wanted her? Emma felt a twist of pain at the thought of how different it had been in the early days with Gage. It wasn't fair to judge a mature relationship by the heady, hormonal rush of teenage years, but there had been a time when they couldn't keep their hands off each other. And
then slowly other things had begun to take precedence. Education. Career.

Time had moved on, and sex had ceased to be a thing of impulse and become something that happened when time and energy permitted. They'd both become more skilled, more experienced with each other over the years, but Emma longed for the time when leaving one button undone on her shirt was enough to drive Gage wild and guaranteed that he would undo all the rest.

Although as it turned out, it wasn't just his career that was now absorbing all of Gage's drive and energy. Emma wondered if his assistant left buttons undone and enticed Gage to finish the job in his office, behind a closed door, after hours when everybody else had gone home and his wife waited with more than dinner growing cold.

She didn't know what hurt more, that she'd lost her husband's interest or that he'd found another outlet for it. She'd never been exciting. She'd been the classic good girl, shy, innocent, and utterly unprepared when she'd drawn the attention of the high school's star football player.

Emma knew Gage hadn't been a virgin when he'd persuaded her to go all the way in the back of his car, and she'd also known that she wasn't sophisticated and had no idea how to please him. She'd tried, but she'd worried about how she measured up. And she'd worried about the fact that no matter what she did, she always seemed to be ten pounds overweight with curves that no amount of dieting affected.

It hadn't seemed to matter at first. Gage had always wanted her, always seemed to find her naked body a thrill. And then, well, they'd grown up, she supposed. Work and responsibilities and other things began to take precedence.
Gage was less interested in spontaneous sex outside the bedroom and then less interested in bed, too. Finally, the gradual habit of working late and business travel had eroded the time they spent together. Even before she'd found out her husband was cheating on her, she'd begun to believe she was losing him.

Infidelity was the last straw, however. Emma had packed some clothes and moved into a hotel, and a month later she was still there, in limbo, unable to move forward or go back. She couldn't bring herself to call a lawyer, and Gage hadn't, either. She also couldn't resign herself to remaining in a marriage that was so much less than what she'd wanted, to taking last place in her husband's list of priorities.

Sixteen years together. So much time. Her whole adult life. From high school sweethearts to lovers to college students and newlyweds to thirtysomething professionals. How was it possible that after so much time it was over? How was it possible that she'd been blind for so long? That was another good question.

She didn't stir Gage's fantasies anymore. But maybe she could stir a stranger for one night. A stranger who wouldn't care if her body was unfashionably shaped or that she wasn't eighteen anymore because he'd have no basis for comparison with her younger self.

The idea held so much appeal, not just because she longed to feel sexual pleasure again, but because it might be the action that would help her get unstuck from this awful place she found herself in. She knew she couldn't continue to simply avoid decisions about the future, but whenever she tried the grief overwhelmed her.

Signing up to have kinky sex with a strange man was
something that shy and well-behaved Emma Michaels would never do. But being well behaved hadn't kept her husband's interest, hadn't kept her marriage together. She was heartily sick of the good-girl role she'd always been stuck in, and it was time to break out. Do something wild and wicked. Throw away her goody two-shoes and trade them in for fishnet stockings and what Sabrina would call "come fuck me" shoes.

"Satisfaction guaranteed," Emma heard, and something inside her turned and clicked like a lock in a key.

"Or a full refund?" As she asked the question, both Rachel and Sabrina turned to look at her.

"Um, Emma, I'm not sure—" Rachel broke off mid-sentence, and Emma could just imagine the cool blonde's mind racing as she tried to figure out how much Emma had overheard. "Thing is, it's a dating agency, Emma."

"For people who want to act out captor and captive fantasies. I heard."

Rachel blinked. "I don't think your husband would approve of you signing up."

"I don't think it's any of his business if I want to date. He lost the right to disapprove when he slept with his assistant," Emma said. The blunt words coming out of her mouth shocked her but also gave her a sense of relief. There. It was out in the open. She was a failure in bed, a failure at marriage, and now the women she worked with knew the truth. It felt much better than coming and going each day pretending that nothing had changed and her world hadn't collapsed in the space of an instant.

Rachel and Sabrina looked at each other, then back at her. The concern on their faces made Emma sorry she
hadn't said anything sooner. They cared, and by keeping her problems buried, she'd kept herself isolated instead of reaching out for the support she needed.

"I'm sorry," Rachel said, her voice soft with sympathy. "But Em, you don't need to be hasty. You've never been with anybody else, and this might not be the best time for you to jump in at the deep end of the dating pool. You could start smaller, take a baby step."

Emma felt herself flinch at the word
baby
. No chance of that now. She'd always wanted children, but she'd waited and waited, let Gage put her off with arguments and sound logic, all the reasons why it wasn't the right time for a baby. And the years had passed, and now she knew he would never give her the child she wanted. She could almost hate him for that, and herself even more, for all those wasted years.

"No, thank you. I'm done waiting. I'm done asking for permission instead of asking for what I want. I may have failed in bed and in my marriage, but I don't have to fail myself. I don't have to repeat my mistakes." Emma took a deep breath and got a firm grip on herself. This was not the time to break down. She'd have more than enough opportunities for that later. She struggled to put her impulse into a logical explanation.