Innocence Defied (New York) (2 page)

As the memories brought a nostalgic smile to his face, he paid no attention to the women who were trying to catch his eye or the men who were sizing him up. Standing six and a half feet tall and packed with muscle, he always drew people’s attention. He was used to it, and if a pretty woman was within a twenty-foot radius, he often enjoyed a good flirt to pass the time.

Today, however, he was lost to his thoughts about a girl he loved like a sister. This summer was going to be stressful with the merger he was heading up for the family business, but he had already moved things around to show Oops the city like she’d never seen it before. Her mother had told him how Zoe was aching to spread her wings as an adult, and Gage chuckled at the idea of the gangly little Oops as a grownup. Last time he’d seen her had been at Cade and Trevor’s wedding three years ago, and she’d looked as pretty as a June bug in her fancy dress and all made-up. He’d danced with her four times, and during the slow one, he’d lifted her ‘til she balanced on his feet the way she did when she’d been younger. His heart had given a little pang when he noticed her head now reached to his chest, when before it’d been only as high as his stomach. Yup, she was growing up, but to him she’d always be a baby.

A crowd was moving around the baggage terminal, and Gage looked up to scan for Zoe when a woman caught his eye. She was curvy in a lush, mouthwatering way that made his palms itch. She had jet-black hair that bounced around her shoulders with every step she took. As he watched, one long lock looped over an arm and curled around her right breast as though outlining it, and Gage started forward without meaning to. All thoughts of his beloved kid sister vanished as he kept his sights on that curl and the gently bouncing breast it cradled. He was going to have those breasts by nightfall, he promised himself, and everything else that went with them. Just as he was drawing close and getting ready to make an introduction, the gentle bounce became a faster one as she started running. He stopped in his tracks, unwilling to disrupt her when she was obviously rushing to greet someone. He hoped like hell it wasn’t a man, because that would seriously ruin his whole “get her naked and devour every inch of her” plan.

She was going to run right by him, he thought as she drew closer and closer, and just when he started to sidestep, thinking he must be in front of whoever she was meeting, she squealed, “Gage!” and launched herself at him.

I’m going to Hell. I’m going to burn in Hell. The devil is going to cut off my cock and then burn me in Hell forever.

It was Zoe. That luscious pair of breasts and all that midnight hair belonged to Zoe. He’d been drooling over his best friend’s baby sister.

“Gage.” Her voice had changed—it was deeper, smoky and sensual, and did not match the trilling little girl voice she’d had even just three years ago. “God I missed you so much.” She pulled back from her hug, and he looked into her face for the first time.

She had that Marshall blue in her eyes, surrounded by a forest of lashes. The eyes were the same, he supposed, swallowing up her face, and heart-meltingly beautiful, but no longer in a little girl way. Her skin was creamy flawless perfection and—God help him—she had a mouth that looked as wanton as her figure.

“What the hell happened to your braces?” As hellos went, it sucked, but he was in shock—she was going to have to forgive him.

Her smile was slow, and damned if it wasn’t also sensual. “They came off over a year ago.” He almost dropped her when her tiny pink tongue came out and licked along the perfectly white, perfectly strait top row. “Mmm, I still can’t get over how good it feels to have them gone.” Then she tugged him down and laid those soft, pillowy lips right on his.

Yup. He was going to Hell.

Chapter Four

Zoe couldn’t believe she was kissing Gage. His lips were firm and closed against hers, and everything in her wanted to just melt into him.

He pulled back and set her on her feet with a shuffle of his own and he cleared his throat before he said, “Oops, darlin’, we should get you your bags and move on. We got us a reservation tonight at your cousin’s place and I don’t want us to be late.”

She nodded and tried to appear unruffled by what had just happened.
This was so going to work
, she thought with a little hop she couldn’t suppress. She was so going to marry Gage.

As she skipped up to the conveyer belt, she pointed. “That one’s mine, Gage.” Then twirled to smile at him, unable to look away a moment longer. She rocked back on her heels, forward up to her toes and back again. The joy bubbling in her tummy made her giddy, and there was also that other feeling. The one deep in her bones that tingled and pulsed from her toes to her fingertips and everywhere in between that she only felt when he was near. He was staring at her with a strange look and she couldn’t decide what it meant. He looked puzzled but also a little mad. She thought he also looked a little like he was seeing her for the first time and maybe—just maybe—he liked what he saw, but she acknowledged that it could just be wishful thinking.

The ride into the city was not what she had wished for—wild and passionate limousine sex. But it was what she had expected: uneventful. He asked how school was going, and if she had decided on a major yet. She answered as maturely as she could, trying hard to come across as urbane and sophisticated. She was starting her sophomore year in the fall, after all, and she made sure to mention things like her philosophy courses and political science so he would see she was mature beyond her years. She still hadn’t decided what she wanted to major in, so she avoided that question. It was important Gage see her as an adult now and she was sure all adults knew what they wanted to do. Since the only thing she knew that she wanted for sure was to be his, she didn’t know how to answer him. There was no way he was ready to hear that yet. She hoped he’d forget that she hadn’t responded to his question and barreled right on past the subject as quick as she could.

“What about bein’ a vet? I thought you wanted to be a pet doc since you were like ten.” Gage looked at her closely, and Zoe could tell he was well aware she’d tried to avoid the question, and was clearly not letting her get away with dodging the issue.

“I don’t know,” she answered with a frustrated sigh. “I love animals, and I was really getting into the science side of it too. You know, all the chemistry and biology classes. They were awesome.” She blushed, certain mature women no longer described things as awesome, but she was getting caught up in the subject and forgot that she was trying to be a grownup for a minute there. “Most of my friends get all grossed out in biology because of all the dissections and stuff. I’m kinda not, though. Is that weird? I mean, it is sad that those poor animals are dead, but once you get past the sad part, it’s fascinating. I love learning how everything is connected, and how each organ and vessel and neuropath all relate to each other and make up the whole.”

“Sounds to me like you found yer callin’, Oops. What’s the holdup?”

His question caught her off guard. She looked up into his handsome face and didn’t know how to answer. How could she put into words that even her love of science and animals couldn’t hold up to her need to belong to him?

“I’m just stalling, I guess. I want to make sure I’m sure before I settle in and commit myself.” She shrugged and tried her best to look contemplative and not clueless. From the look on his face, she wasn’t sure she was pulling it off.

He stayed focused on her for a long time after that, and Zoe kept stumbling over her words because he still had that strange expression and she still had no idea what it meant. He had the most beautiful steel-gray eyes she’d ever seen. The blue in them was so light she couldn’t really call them blue—to her, they were gray. They were so intense when he focused on her—like now, with the little squint at the edges. It made something deep inside her want to do anything—absolutely anything—he asked of her. His shoulder-length blond hair was pulled back like always and, like always, when she wasn’t obsessing about his eyes, she was obsessing about that hair. She knew firsthand it was thick and silky from all the times he’d let her play with it as a child. She longed for the day she could get her hands on it as a woman.

By the time they got to the townhouse, she was all quivery inside and had spent a lot of time worrying her thumb between her teeth, and Gage had spent a lot of time looking out the window.

“You have about twenty minutes before we have to head out if you want to change,” Gage said as he set her suitcases on her bed and turned to leave.

When the door was just about to close, Zoe rushed over and wrapped her arms around him one more time. She felt him jolt at the contact—something he had never done before—then he hugged her back and she whispered, “Thank you again for letting me stay here with you.” She looked up into his stunning gray eyes and told him words she’d also been saying her whole life, only now they meant so much more. “I love you.”

Then she slipped out of his embrace and closed her door before he could see the true feeling behind those words. She knew he still saw her as a kid, and it was going to take a lot to prove to him that she was more than that, and more than ready to be his.

Gage didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to do now. He had a hard-on the size of a Louisville Slugger and the more she looked at him with those giant blue eyes, the harder it was to remember it was Oops he was staring at and having this reaction to. It was freaking him the hell out. That was a baby. Even if he hadn’t known her since she was born, and even if her brother wasn’t his best friend, he would never date a girl that young. He was a man. He liked women. Experienced women. Not girls. He was also a Dom, and looking for more than just a sub—he was looking for a full-time slave. A woman who would be willing to commit to him fully for her every need. It took a person of extreme tastes and specific desires to be a slave.

A slave gave up everything. Career, self-will—everything. His plans for his slave involved her being naked and chained to his desk as he worked. He’d keep her in his office with him. At times even on the floor between his feet, waiting on his will, whether it be a blowjob, spreading herself on his desk so he could eat her for lunch, or even having the gratification of sharing her with a special client or friend so he could enjoy the pleasure of watching her get fucked.

He wanted a slave that wanted nothing else in this life than for him to take care of her. He would select her clothes and meals, feed her from his own hand and bathe her every night before tucking her into his bed. Every part of her body would be his for the taking and his for the giving. The type of sex he enjoyed was not for the faint of heart, and it was not, under any circumstances, for a woman-child who still went by the silly nickname
Oops
.

He poured himself a scotch, and then choked on it when Zoe came down the stairs. She had on mile-high heels of black that strapped around her dainty ankles with little crystal buckles. Her legs—God, when had they gotten so long?—were bare and tanned and glimmered like she rubbed them with some sort of glittery oil. What there was of her dress was short and black. It was a halter style that left her shoulders bare and cut low between her breasts.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she twirled for him and asked, “How do I look?”

He almost choked again, this time on his own tongue. Her back was bare to the middle, and that little twirl had flared her flimsy skirt up. He thought he caught a glimpse of a miniscule thong with a tiny red bow nestled below a pair of dimples between her ass cheeks. When she turned back to him, waiting for his answer, her pretty face was full of beautiful innocence and charm. He mumbled only, “I’m going to Hell.” Then grabbed her by the arm and marched out the door.

Chapter Five

“What the hell are you wearing?” Brice Marshall looked at his baby sister and thought his head would explode. She was dressed like a Hollywood starlet and he knew for a fact she was anything but the starlet type.

“Brice.” Terryn—his blushing bride of seven months—elbowed his ribs with surprising accuracy and strength. “Pay no attention to your brother, Oops, you look amazing.”

While his sister and wife embraced, he looked at Gage and demanded in a hoarse whisper, “How in the hell did you let her leave the house dressed like that? Did you even look at her? My God, every damn bastard in this place is drooling right now.”

Brice noticed that Gage was glaring down the more blatant offenders, but it did little to ease his mind.

“Hey,” Gage shot back, “I was just as shocked as you. Why the fuck didn’t y’all tell me what happened to her?” When Brice just lifted a brow in question, Gage added, “Look at her. She ain’t no little kid no more. What am I supposed to do with that?
 
When the hell did she grow up?”

Brice chuckled a little and said, “That’s right.
 
You’ve been M.I.A the last few years at our family events. Your own fault, dude. Maybe if you would’ve come for Christmas gatherings or one of the summer parties, you wouldn’t be so shocked right now.”

Gage’s voice lowered and he said, “You still should have warned me. You should see the stuff I had planned. The zoo, and Mary-fuckin’-Poppins on Broadway, for cryin’ out loud. This ain’t no little girl no more. What the hell do I do if she tries to bring some shithead home with her?”

Brice looked square into his best friend’s eyes and said, “Kill him. I’ll make sure you get away with it.”