Reluctant Surrender (31 page)

That was the last of her mini-tirade he heard before he opened the front door and left, ready to meet with Jade and find out for himself what she was up to.

She was leaning against her SUV, talking with Ted when he joined them and the moment she confidently looked him in the eyes and said, “Hello Ethan,” he knew there was going to be trouble.

“I’ll catch up with you later,” Ethan told Ted before focusing on his ex.

“Let’s go up to The Carlyn so we can talk.”

Jade didn’t budge. “What’s wrong with the boathouse? She’s in there isn’t she? That Reneaux woman.”

Ethan took her by the arm. “Yes, Colin is staying with me.”

“Is this why you decided against participating in the open theater event?”

“Yes.”

Jade laughed, but it sounded hollow. Desperate. “Proper Ethan White. Sticks to his honor even at the expense of those who love him.”

“Jade.”

“That tone doesn’t work on me anymore, Ethan. That part of me died when you let me go.”

He kept his pace steady with hers. Determined to stick to the truth he said, “As I recall you were the one who left me. It was you who almost died at the hands of the sadist you trusted over me.”

She stopped and when the wind caught her jet-black hair and swept it off her face, Ethan wondered what he’d ever seen in her. Not that she wasn’t beautiful. She was, but her kind of beauty was cold. Flat, as if she had only one dimension. He couldn’t help thinking about Colin. She was full of fire and so many different dimensions he had a hard time keeping up with them all.

“I made a mistake out of desperation. You denied me for so long I had no choice. I couldn’t help myself.”

Ethan put his hands in his pockets and rolled his shoulders. He was more than a little disappointed that nothing had changed with her. She was still blaming him for the choices she’d made instead of doing as he’d directed. “I denied you because I wanted you to help yourself.”

“You denied me so I’d go to counseling. I wasn’t ready. I needed—”

“To be nearly beaten to death before you’d go get help for your problem?”

“Maybe, yes. Maybe I had to stare the tiger in the eye before I could wrestle with it. Even still, that was no reason to have me blackballed. I went to therapy and I’ve wrestled the tiger to the ground. I want to get up, Ethan. I want back in and the only way I can do that is to have you accept me in front of the people who matter.”

“No.”

“Why? Because of some little vanilla bitch who wants to play dirty slave girl for a few days? I’ll teach that little cunt a thing or two about—”

Ethan tried to remain calm, but hearing Jade speak like that about Colin infuriated him. So when Jade turned to head back to the boathouse he wasn’t gentle when he grabbed her arm. “Leave Colin out of this.”

All the tension in her drained out and when Ethan saw her smile his heart sank with good cause.

“Is she that important to you, Sir?” She mocked the honorary title.

Ethan saw the gleeful venom in her eyes and swore under his breath.

Fuck.

He’d just given Jade a powerful weapon. Distraction is what he needed.

“Let’s go up to The Carlyn. We can sit in the comfort and you can outline what you have in mind. I’m sure we can work something out.”

* * * * *

Colin was out of breath by the time she finished and when her rant was greeted with silence she shot a look over her shoulder.

“Well I’ll be damned. He left.” She blinked and stared at her laptop for a moment. “Hell no!”

By the time she got to the set of windows that faced the front lawn and mansion in the distance, Ted was pulling out of the driveway and Ethan and Jade were walking toward The Carlyn. She peered through the blinds and squinted. Were they arguing?

Yes. Suddenly Jade stopped and pointed back toward the boathouse. Colin could tell by her hand gestures that she was furious. Ethan on the other hand, stood there without moving a muscle. He let Jade sound off until she turned as if she were going to head back to the house. The last thing Colin saw, before she stepped back from view, was Ethan taking hold of Jade’s arm.

What if they came back here? She looked down at herself. She wasn’t going to be stuck between them wearing this outfit. Besides, she thought as she raced to her bedroom, he hadn’t told her she had to wear this until he got home. So she was going to be prepared.

Ten minutes later she was dressed and back at the window but they were gone. She was relieved and upset at the same time. Jade was a beauty. Tall with black hair that fell poker straight down her back. Colin would have given her eye teeth to have hair that straight.

She went to the office and pulled up her blog. She published another post before she checked on recent comments in the previous two she’d written about The Carlyn’s history.

Ms. R, Have you been inside the mansion? Are there whips and chains?

Yes, Bill, I have been inside the mansion and I would have been surprised if there weren’t whips and chains.
That’s all she was going to say to that.

Ms. R, Are you dating Ethan White?

She rolled her eyes. Again, nothing to do with the painstaking facts she’d plugged into her post.
No, Debbie, Mr. White assures me we are not dating.
She was just about to press publish and realized that would be a mistake. She was supposed to be swept off her feeble feminine feet. “Right.” She backed that comment out and took a deep breath.
I certainly hope so.

Ms. R, Does Ethan White look as good in person as he does in the magazines
?

Another deep breath.
Better.

Ms. R, Do you find his melt-worthy eyes and to-die-for physique hard to resist?

Freaking hel— she was in the middle of mentally swearing when it hit her. Clicking on her blog dashboard she searched. “Gottcha! I knew it.” Even though Ethan posted under the name Frank Enstien his real name was in queue. She laughed. Frankenstein, that was a good one. Now how to answer…

Hello, Frank, I must say I do have a time of it. Why, if not for his Elmer-Fudd-type lisp I’d be completely swept away.
That would teach him.

She moved on to the next post and faced more unrelated comments.

Ms. R, What kind of modifications have they made to the mansion to cater to the BDSM lifestyle?

Even though this was nothing about her piece on the McQuine family who owned the place for a hundred and twenty years before Ethan bought it, it was a legitimate question so she’d answer it.

On the first floor the mansion is set up like a modern-day spa on one side. With indoor pool, sauna, hair and nail salon as well as a fitness center. On the other side there are a series of…
She dropped her hands to her lap and thought. Play rooms? Nah, too juvenile sounding. Scene rooms? Bedrooms? She hunched forward and stared at the ceiling. Thinking. Fantasy rooms.

Fantasy rooms where people are free to act out their desires in an environment that’s conducive to them.

There was one question pertaining to her post so she answered that one in-depth and then another one asking about the interior of the mansion again. For this one she put,
See comment answered above
.

Ms. R, Is Ethan White as smart as they say he is? Or, is he all beauty and no brains? On a scale of one to ten with one being not smart and ten being very smart where would he rate in your opinion?

Colin grinned. Ethan was a riot to use her monster theme against her.
Well, Mr. Moe May, I’d have to say he’s a solid seven on that scale of yours because he’s not too quick on the uptake. I clearly told him I didn’t like kale and he served it to me anyway. Yes, he definitely needs some fine tuning in the listening department.

With nothing else to do she wandered into the kitchen and checked the fridge and pantry. She was feeling kind of bad about her earlier spurt of jealousy. He’d been right about that. Maybe she could make it up to him. Yup, he had all the ingredients she needed to make one of her specialties and if she hurried she could make it a surprise. One batch of creampuffs coming up. She’d just finished when he returned.

“Colin?”

“Oh!” she exclaimed, leaning around the opened fridge door. Closing it, she pushed her hair out of her eyes and said, “I didn’t hear you come in.”

He took one look at her flushed face, flour-speckled t-shirt and wary eyes and frowned. “What are you doing?”

Her flush deepened. “Nothing.”

He stared at her. “I think you were doing something.”

She let out a huffed breath. “All right, if you must know, I was hiding a surprise.”

“For me?”

“No, for me. Of course for you, but you’re so nosy you wrecked it.”

“Come here.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me what it is?”

“No, it will keep. Come on.” He waited until she was standing right in front of him, then he leaned down and whispered, “It looks like it’s got some good ingredients.” He trailed a finger over the white smear on her t-shirt. Right over her breast. Loving how she trembled at his touch. “What happened to my shirt?”

“I changed. Did y-you have a good meeting?”

He continued rubbing the flour smudge, bending his knuckles and dragging them to tease her hardened nipple through the slim jersey fabric. “No.”

“That’s good.” He grinned and she blinked. “I mean, that’s too bad.”

“I missed you.” He wasn’t grinning now. He was very serious as he thought about how different she was from any woman he’d known. Especially Jade. Unlike his ex, Colin was vibrant and strong. Curvy and sexy. Funny and totally what he wanted in his arms, in his bed…and most definitely in his life.

“I missed you too.”

He reached out and using his free hand, he twined it in her hair, slowly pulling her in, bending to lower his mouth to hers until just a single breath’s span separated their lips. “What should we do about that?” he whispered, gazing into her eyes.

“Anything you want. Anything.”

He wasn’t sure if it was the naked honesty he read in those blue depths, the way she melted against him as she spoke or the words themselves that had his blood traveling south, but his cock filled thick, heavy and tight.

“Anything?”

He kissed the smooth skin of her cheek, her forehead, each eyelid before he dipped to taste her mouth. That beautiful mouth. And when she groaned, he was instantly reminded of how talented it was and how nicely she had wrapped it around his dick with loving care.

She groaned again and her hands fisted in his shirt as she came up on tiptoe to seek more from the embrace. She was telling him without words that she meant what she’d said. She’d do anything and if he weren’t careful that anything might require her to strip where she was and present on hands and knees.

Fuck.

“Colin?” He pressed his lips against her lobe and sighed. “I want you to go to my room. Take everything off. Everything. When you’re completely naked I want you to kneel on the floor in front of my bed. I want your hands spread shoulder width apart, grasping the highest curve of the footboard.”

She shakily nodded while her silky hair brushed against his jaw. When she went to step away he grabbed her by the arms and tugged her back to him.

“I want your knees spread too. Wide enough for my hand to be able to explore you. Is that understood?”

“Yes.”

“Is your heart racing, baby girl?”

“Yes.”

“Let me feel it.” He let go of her arm and fitted his hand under her left breast. The rapid staccato he found there pleased him. “Do you want me to fuck you, Colin?”

She was staring at a point on his shoulder as she solemnly nodded. “Yes.”

“Will you beg for it?”

She closed her eyes and he saw her swallow. “Yes.”

He released her. “Beautiful. Now go and do just as I’ve instructed.”

* * * * *

Colin was in that naked and vulnerable position for five full minutes before Ethan entered the room. She was nervous. Excited. And ashamed of herself for all the filthy thoughts she’d had while she waited for him. Mortified that she was actually hoping he’d just come into the room and take her as she was. Without a word or a care—

“Why are the blinds closed?”

So much for guilt-free ravishment. “I look better in shade. Actually I look better—” She gasped at the snap of the drapes being opened. Collecting herself, she took a deep breath and continued louder, “Tanned. I look better tanned. Better would be if I was both because then I’d really look good. Well, not really good but passable, you know?”

“Shh, Colin, relax.” His voice was quiet yet firm. The timbre of it flowed through her like fire-warmed honey on a cold day as he said, “You’re nervous. Don’t be.”

“I’m—”

He peeled her hands off the carved wood footboard. “Look at these hands. They’re sweating.” He rubbed his large palm over one, then the other. “Tell me why you’re so nervous.”

As to the why, he had her speechless at the moment, so she had no idea what to do. He was standing behind her. Totally dressed. Totally together. Totally perfect.

Oh my God, did she just whimper?

“Relax,” he ordered again. This time he replaced her hands on the footboard and stalked over to the bay window to grab a chair. When he returned she felt a breeze against her backside as the substantial piece landed behind her with a heavy
whoosh
. “Talk to me.”

Talk to him? She could barely breathe. “Don’t y-you want to get undressed too?”

“No.” He sat on the chair. His powerful legs, bent on either side of her hips, caged her in. She was trapped between him and the footboard. “I thought you were ready to do anything for me?”

His voice sounded low and close to her ear. She cringed and bit her lip because she had said that. Had somebody turned the heat up? Suddenly she was hot. Blistering. And when the chair creaked she gauged he was leaning back. Relaxing. Maybe even reclining and with the distance between them she should have felt some relief, but she didn’t. She burned hotter instead.