Anne's Courage [Le Club 3] (Siren Publishing Classic)

Le Club 3

Anne’s Courage

Bad boy businessman Jamison Devereau attends the wedding of his brother, Justin, a member of the luxurious BDSM club known as Le Club Laurel Oak, located in a Victorian mansion in the historic district of Ocala, Florida. There he meets the beautiful Anne Sutton, manager of Le Club.

Jamie moves into the club to keep an eye on Devereau Plantation South, the brothers' Florida horse farm, while his brother is honeymooning in Europe. Jamie finds Anne to be attractive and just the type of woman he is looking for.

Anne is a few years older than Jamie and has serious body image issues to deal with due to her breast cancer. Although she is not involved in the BDSM lifestyle, she is not opposed to it. Jamie makes Anne confront her demons and stretch her horizons. He must get through the barriers to her heart, and must deal with his own dark baggage.

Genre:
BDSM, Contemporary

Length:
31,635 words
 

Le Club 3

Skye Michaels

EROTIC ROMANCE

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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IMPRINT: Erotic Romance

ANNE’S COURAGE

Copyright © 2012 by Skye Michaels

E-book ISBN: 978-1-61926-590-5

First E-book Publication: June 2012

Cover design by Jinger Heaston

All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

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All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

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Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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Anne’s Courage
 
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Life happens. Enjoy the journey.

With special thanks to Patricia Walker for her help in editing this book.

ANNE’S COURAGE

Le Club 3

SKYE MICHAELS

Copyright © 2012

On Saturday morning, Anne Sutton looked up from her desk in the executive offices of Le Club Laurel Oak—Ocala, and there, leaning against the doorjamb of her office, was the most stunning man she had ever seen. She looked him up and down more boldly than she meant to before her gaze settled on his face. She felt herself swirling into the depths of his brandy colored eyes. Was this what they meant by “swooning”?

Jamie Devereau’s dark, wavy hair, much shorter than that of his brother, Justin, was windblown, making him all the more attractive. His worn jeans fit his long legs and great butt like comfortable skin. He wore a black T-shirt, motorcycle boots, and aviator sunglasses pushed up on his head. A day’s scruff of beard darkening his face emphasized the strong bone structure and added tantalizingly to the bad-boy image. The resemblance between the brothers, however, was amazing. The men could have been twins although two years separated them in age.
The Devereau gene pool is apparently very strong
. She could see the gleaming black, custom-made Ducati motorcycle that had been shipped to the club from New Orleans parked in front of the house, his helmet balanced on the seat.

“Mornin’, cher. I’m Justin’s brother, Jamie. I’ve come in for his wedding tomorrow, and I’m going to be using the Ming Suite while he’s on his honeymoon in France,” he said in a New Orleans drawl that oozed charm.

“Yes, I know. I’m Anne Sutton, the manager of Le Club. I’ve had the suite prepared.” She stood to shake his hand. Anne was tall, and she liked her generous curves. Today she wore her shoulder-length light-blonde hair in a sophisticated chignon which she hoped would emphasize her sparkling baby-blue eyes. Her black silk Armani suit fit her like a glove, and she knew her black Christian Louboutin pumps with the bright-red soles highlighted her long legs.

“So, Ms. Sutton,” Jamie said with a wicked bad boy grin, “I’d like to peel you out of that suit, bend you over this desk, and plant my cock between the cheeks of your really fine ass. The shoes can stay.” He added the last part as an afterthought. Apparently, Mr. Devereau preferred the direct approach, for shock value if nothing else.

“That’s not going to happen, Mr. Devereau,” she responded tartly. “That is totally inappropriate.”
Oh God, I think I just creamed my panties
.

“I can be very inappropriate,” he responded.

I bet you can
.

“Are you afraid to explore your wild side, Ms. Sutton?”

“No, Mr. Devereau, I’m not afraid. I’m just not so inclined,” she said, trying to maintain a stern demeanor, although she secretly wanted to grin.
He really is a “bad boy”! He could be really irresistible.

“Call me Jamie...or Master. Want to bet? I’m going to make it a priority to change your mind,” he said quite seriously but with a devilish gleam in his eye. “Just so you know. I’ll see you at the wedding tomorrow.”

* * * *

He had to admit, this woman really got his juices churning. She was gorgeous, but that wasn’t really it. There was something about her, maybe a certain vulnerability hidden by her glossy surface. She was just the type of woman he liked, tall and cool on the surface, but with unplumbed depths hiding a molten hot center. He was just the man to help the volcano simmering inside blow! Justin had mentioned in one of their phone calls that the manager of the club was very attractive and apparently unattached, which had immediately peaked his interest.

You’re definitely on my wish list, cher.
He grinned to himself as he strode from her office, down the front stairs of the mansion, and out to the parked bike.
I want to get you out of that suit really bad!
He threw his long leg over the motorcycle and tore out of the front gate, the Ducati growling in the quiet morning on Fort King Street.

As he looked back over his shoulder at the enormous white mansion, he couldn’t help comparing it to the darker, more dangerous atmosphere of the club in New Orleans, of which he was now a member.

Le Club Laurel Oak–Ocala was a
very
private BDSM club, catered to only ten members. The acronym “BDSM” stood for Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sadomasochism, an alternative Lifestyle as varied as the people who practiced it. It spanned practices including spanking to whipping, blindfolding to bondage, role-playing, dominance and submission, all in varying degrees and extremes. The purpose was to increase sexual tension and pleasure for all participants.

When the rundown Laurel Oak Estate had come on the market, Jason Steele and Trent Redding, friends since college days at Harvard, had put together a consortium of like-minded BDSM aficionados of the Lifestyle to purchase the estate and renovate the house and grounds for Le Club Laurel Oak–Ocala. It had been a dream of theirs since they had been introduced to the Lifestyle while seniors in college by their classmate, Justin Devereau, Jamie’s older brother. Their father, Devereau Sr., had been a founding member of Le Club Beaudelaire—New Orleans located in the French Quarter.

I wonder if Ms. Sutton is into BDSM. It will be interesting to see her around the club since I’m going to be here for a while and find out.
Jamie found the ambiance of the Ocala club much lighter and less intense than that of the New Orleans club. It was a new facility compared to Beaudelaire which had been on Chartres Street for probably over fifty years.

The Laurel Oak Estate was perfect for a club patterned after, and loosely affiliated with, the New Orleans facility of which Jamie was currently a member. He had taken over his brother’s membership position in the New Orleans club when Justin had moved to Ocala. The club was located just at the edge of the historic Ocala residential-business district. Each member had contributed a sizable initial investment and paid hefty annual membership fees which were calculated to cover the substantial operating expenses and generous salaries of the many employees. Some of the employees participated in the activities at the club, and some did not, but all were extremely loyal and discreet due to the excellent working conditions and high salaries paid at the club—not to mention the confidentiality agreements signed by one and all.
 

Anne Sutton smiled as she enjoyed the beautiful weather and took in the gorgeous setting for the Anderson-Devereau wedding, one of the biggest social events of the year. Anne waved to Paula Greenley, one of Kelly’s attendants and the editor of the
Ocala Country Life
magazine, who was doing double duty as she was orchestrating the magazine’s coverage of the event, which was scheduled to be the main article in the June issue.