Reclaiming His Submissive (4 page)

The first night had been an
amazing sexual experience for them both, but it was the tremor in her
voice when she told him she needed to learn how to be a submissive
that cemented his desire to keep her.

Alex stepped out on the balcony
and looked over the city he both loved and hated. Over the months he
learned not only what made his kitten purr, he also got inside her
head, delving into her past relationships, her fragmented family and
the needs that drove her to him in the first place. At first their
desires had been eerily close until over time his beautiful sub began
to change. Their relationship drew her out and she began to flower
much like the roses he sent her every week. It had been both a
beautiful and scary development he loved watching. He’d known
that attachments would form and eventually things would get to this
point and he’d hoped he’d be ready when it happened.

He hadn’t been. Instead of
manning up, he’d frozen in fear and refused to deal with what
was between them until he’d worked through some of his hang-ups
about becoming permanently attached to his kitten. Namely how her
life would change if she became more involved in his fucked-up life.

What a fool he’d been.

Now some of his early judgments
about why she’d spent so much time living a life in a vanilla
marriage began to make sense. Most of his life had been faked. Rich
parents who passed him from one nanny to the next hadn’t
resulted in a strong ability to make attachments to other people. So
he’d relied on his wealth to get what he wanted, including the
string of submissives who’d come before Harper.

He’d worked very hard to
keep his relationship with her away from the other part of his life.
She was so much better than that. While his parents had remained
married for over thirty years so far, it hadn’t always been
pretty. Growing up he’d had plenty of time to see the real
people who lived behind the façade. On the surface it had
seemed that his family did the best they could, but nobody was ever
particularly happy. Himself included. Sure they all had their little
idiosyncrasies they took pleasure in, but real joy seemed to elude
them.

Then Harper had walked into his
life and given him…he didn’t know. Strange things had
happened inside him and he wanted nothing more than to protect that
from his real world. So he compartmentalized for over a year, keeping
his kitten his sacred secret.

Until the night Harper went so
deep all her truths came sobbing out, scaring the hell out of him.
She loved him with everything she had. Unlike him, she’d gone
all in. A gift so special he was afraid to accept it. Because at one
time or another he believed his mother had gifted his father with the
same gift. And their life together had little meaning beyond the
children they created and the wealth they’d amassed. Although
what his mother didn’t realize is that he saw the truth every
so often. Rarely actually. But the sad, dead look in her eyes when
she thought no one saw had burned so deep into his psyche he was
certain he’d never forget. Was that what he would do to Harper
if he didn’t learn how to love her properly?

He grabbed the railing and
squeezed, his muscles flexing until they began to burn. He’d
fucked this one up pretty good. Not telling Harper that he’d
needed some time to clear some of the bullshit from his life and get
through some nasty business dealings that had been hanging over his
head for a while had been a colossal mistake. She also needed to hear
the truth about his whole life and then make a decision.

Fuck.

He’d simply have to sit her
down and make her listen. He almost laughed out loud. His feisty
submissive had fought him hard last night and he imagined when she
woke she’d be just as determined as the night before. He needed
a plan.

“
Alex,” her hoarse
whisper beckoned him back into the room.

He sat down on the bed and pulled
her into his arms. She wore her exhaustion like a cloak. It troubled
him she’d worn herself down this much. He’d have to
insist on a medical check up. “I’m here sweetheart. Let
me get you some water.”

She nodded and slid bonelessly
back to the mattress. He brushed the hair from her face and watched
her slide back into the deep sleep she’d barely come out of.
Reluctantly, he left his bedroom and headed in the direction of the
kitchen. He reached for the light switch and swiped across something
on the small hallway table. It landed on the floor with a thud and
unseen items scattered across the floor. He turned on the light and
saw he’d knocked over Harper’s purse.

He bent over and swept the loose
items into her bag and placed it back on the desk. He’d
dislodged some paper that he shoved into the side pocket.

Wait a minute. He recognized
that envelope
. He
pulled the item back out and opened the familiar airline ticket flap.
Harper’s name was printed on the ticket as was her flight
destination of Miami, Florida. What the hell? He opened it farther,
searching for more details when he hit the jackpot. Her itinerary had
been stapled inside the back of the ticket envelope. She was flying
to Miami later this afternoon where a car would pick her up and take
her to the Tranquility Bay resort in the Florida Keys. First she’d
taken off her collar and now this?

Dumbfounded, Alex continued to
stare at the paper until his vision blurred and the frustration
building inside him boiled over. Not only had she come here to break
up with him tonight but she’d also cemented the deal with a
planned island vacation for one.

It took every ounce of his
willpower not to storm into the bedroom, wake up his misbehaving
submissive and paddle her ass bright fucking red. He’d warned
her long ago about this kind of shit. He’d definitely made a
grave miscalculation by leaving her unattended for so long, but she’d
damn sure made things worse by refusing to talk to him when something
made her unhappy.

Alex winced at the thought.
Harper unhappy made him sick to his stomach. Things between them were
definitely still out of hand. He needed a plan and his mind was
already working one out. First, he needed to make some calls and then
he’d take care of Harper. Before she could walk out on him
again they were going to spend some time hashing this out. Then if
she still wanted to leave he’d have to let her go.

He stepped into his office and
closed the door to ensure his work didn’t wake Harper. He
grabbed the phone and dialed downstairs.

“
Charlie,” he spoke
before the man got in a word edge wise. “I need to go to the
airport in thirty minutes.”

“
Of course, sir. I’ll
call for car service right now. Anything else?”

Alex ran through the mental list
he’d been making since he’d decided on a plan. “No.
I’ve got everything else I need.”

He disconnected and punched in
the next number. Twenty minutes later all the arrangements had been
made and he had nothing left to do except grab his personal items and
one perfect, albeit stubborn as hell submissive.

Alex walked back into the master
bedroom and shook his head at the sight in front of him. Harper had
managed to roll the silk comforter around her like a moth making a
cocoon. Well, fine. It was time to show her how to become the
butterfly she was born to be and it would not be without him.

With the barest of necessities
packed, Alex scooped her from the bed and headed for the front door.
Charlie would follow behind with the sparse luggage he’d thrown
together for their impromptu trip. Everything else would be awaiting
when they arrived at their destination.

Harper barely stirred in his arms
all the way to the lobby. It took little effort to ease her into the
back seat and settle her on his lap. He loved the hell out of the way
she felt in his arms. All soft curves and sweet smells.

Not long after, they pulled up to
the jet his pilot had prepared and he carried her aboard. She stirred
in his arms and he grabbed his duffel bag.

“
Alex, what the hell?”
Harper struggled in the blanket and tried to break free. “What’s
that noise? Where are we?”

“
You and I are going on a
little trip.” He dumped her into one of the plush cabin chairs
and whipped out the leather cuffs he’d had the foresight to
grab before they left. Before she could build up enough steam to
fight him, he’d clipped each wrist to the built-in D rings in
the side of each chair. His kink knew no bounds and even his private
plane had been equipped for play if that’s what he was in the
mood for.

“
Wait—What—What
are you talking about?”

“
A trip, kitten. I know you
get the concept since you were planning to take one anyway. I’ve
just changed the itinerary a bit to suit me.”

“
Changed the—? What
the hell is that supposed to mean?” She yanked on the cuffs.
“I’m naked and cuffed to an airplane seat. This is more
than a bit, Alex.”

She glared at him, her eyes
narrowing with each passing second. He wisely clamped his lips closed
with the thoughts her ire created. She probably didn’t want to
know that her angry and fighting his restraints had his dick getting
hard.

“
How did you know I was
taking a trip? We’ve barely spoken for weeks.”

“
Plane ticket in your
purse.”

Her mouth dropped open and her
face went pale. “You went through my personal belongings?”

The fear in her voice surprised
him and set his teeth on edge. “Jesus, Harper. Why would you
think I
need
to go through your purse?” He stepped closer to her chair and
leaned down to bring them eye-to-eye. “If there’s
something I want to know, I’ll simply ask. I accidentally
knocked over your purse on the way to the kitchen and the ticket fell
out along with a bunch of other junk.”

The fear in her eyes changed to
what looked like stark terror. “Where’s my purse. Oh my
God.” She started yanking against the cuff clips and even
bumped her head into his nose.

“
Dammit, kitten.” He
stepped back, holding his face. “Calm down.”

“
Don’t tell me to
calm down,” she cried. “Why are you doing this? Where’s
my purse? I need it right now.”

“
Excuse me,” the
voice of the copilot broke through the panic whipping through the
cabin. “We’ve been given the go for takeoff so you’ll
want to take a seat now, Mr. Woodman.”

“
No. no. No. I need to go
home,” she cried.

To his employee’s credit,
the man kept a straight face and only made eye contact with him.
“Thank you, Stephen. We’ll be ready momentarily.”

He turned his attention back to
Harper to find her staring at him with her mouth agape. “Don’t
look so shocked, my dear. Desperate times call for desperate measures
and since it’s a matter of the rest of our lives, I’m
feeling pretty desperate.”

“
Normal men don’t
treat women like this. I can’t believe
you’re
doing this,” she said, her voice lowering to a whisper.

The small hitch at the end gave
him just enough pause for him to consider she might be right. Until
he saw her pulse jump in her throat and noticed the scarlet flush of
her neck and cheeks. All telltale signs of an excited kitten. His
resolve solidified.

“
Since when am I a normal
man, kitten?” He stalked closer and watched her tongue dart out
to lick her lips moments before her teeth sank into the soft flesh.
“Yes, I made plans for a trip without consulting you.” He
took another step in her direction. “And yes, I took advantage
of the fact you were sleeping like the dead.” He leaned forward
until their faces were a breath apart. “But if I truly believed
for a minute that you didn’t want to be here with me here on
this plane, I’d let you go.”

Her breathing grew faster and the
soft puff of her exhales caressed his face. He couldn’t deny
that her automatic arousal fed his ego and made him want to throw
caution to the wind. To fuck with the right thing according to anyone
else. In his house he lived by his rules alone and this was his
goddamned house.

“
Alex,” she breathed,
the edge of desperation bleeding through.

“
You know I prefer Sir when
your pussy is wet. And it’s soaking right now, isn’t it?”

Chapter
Four

Oh hell. She’d gone from
half asleep to desperate for his touch in too few seconds to count. A
part of her really wanted to storm off the plane and out of Alex’s
life if only to prove that she could do it, but the deeper, darker
side of her secretly thrilled over her Dom’s He-Man behavior.
She’d waited so long for a reaction from him she didn’t
know how to react. As usual, the man had a knack for throwing her off
balance at every turn. He might not be a sadist when it came to
wielding a whip or a crop, but the man had getting deep into her head
down to a fine art.

While Harper got lost in her
thoughts, Alex had worked the blanket from around her legs. Cool air
brushing across the moist lips of her sex brought her back to full
attention.

“
That’s right, baby.
Eyes on me.” He coaxed her legs apart by insinuating his thigh
between hers. “Now answer the question. Are you wet?”