When Matthew Logan offers a homeless young woman a bed for a few nights, he expects the girl to eat, sleep, recover from the flu, and then move on. Instead, in no time at all eighteen-year-old Beth Harte has captured his affections completely. Though Matt wants only to protect her and has no intention of sleeping with her, Beth has other ideas, and she proves to be very persuasive.
But after Beth is attacked by a friend of Matt’s and subsequently learns for the first time that Matt is an experienced dominant, she is unable to separate the man she is growing to care about from her hateful memories of previous exploitation. Confused and frightened, she runs away.
Almost six years pass before Matt sees Beth again, and in that time his vulnerable little waif has reinvented herself as an artist. Now she has a stunning proposition for him and his environmental engineering company: to collaborate on a project fusing art and science to promote one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world. But when Matt demands to know what went wrong before, she tells him the truth, both about her childhood and about his friend’s actions.
Matt is determined to make Beth’s abusers pay for their crimes, but he’s also not about to let her run away from him again. Can Beth bring herself to trust Matt despite her fears and give him the chance to love her and show her the pleasures of being his submissive, or will the wounds of her past keep her from trusting anyone ever again?
Author: Ashe Barker
eBook Price: $4.95
Length: 71,500 words
Excerpt
“Take these up to the bedroom…” He hands me a small, clear bottle which he had in his pocket, and a butt plug. This is the peppermint oil. I clutch it in one fist while I peruse the butt plug in my other hand. It’s one we’ve used before, the largest one I’ve managed to tolerate so far, and that with difficulty.
“Go upstairs, grab a towel from the bathroom on the way. A large one. Spread it on the bed, then kneel in the centre of it. While you wait for me I want you to smear some of the oil on your nipples, a generous coating, as much as you can manage. Then coat the butt plug in the oil too.”
“I understand. Do you want me to lubricate my arse as well?”
“No. I’ll do that. When I come in I expect to see you leaning forward, your face on the bed and your bum in the air ready for me. Your knees need to be as wide apart as you can manage. When you’re nice and comfortable place your hands in the small of your back and I’ll tie them there.”
“Why are you tying me up? I won’t try to move.”
“Ah, baby I think you will. You’ll be wriggling and screaming something delightful. If you don’t, I’ll know I need to put more peppermint in the oil. Somehow I don’t think it’ll come to that.”
“This is strong stuff, then?” I shake the contents, sending them splashing around the small bottle.
“Of course. I wouldn’t want to disappoint you, now would I?”
“I don’t believe you ever would, sir.”
He drops a kiss on my forehead, and pats my bottom. “Go, girl. I’ll be there in a minute.”
In the bedroom I do as I’ve been instructed, draping a large bath towel over the bed, then another for good measure. I scramble into the middle and unscrew the top off the bottle. I pour a little oil onto my fingers and smear it across my right nipple. The chilly heat of it warms the swelling bud instantly. I repeat on the other side, then take a moment to rub the oil in. It smarts, the sensation increasing as the oil penetrates the delicate skin. I stiffen, allow the tingling to build and sear, then subside slightly as my body accepts what is happening. At that moment I tip up the bottle again and re-apply it.
The scent is delightful, filling the room, in sharp and cruel contrast to the ferocious prickling now seeping right into my pebbled nipples. I practise breathing deep and evenly, allow my body to adjust again. This is enough.
I pour a little of the oil into a saucer I grabbed from the kitchen on my way upstairs, and drop the butt plug into it. I roll it around, making sure there is no part of it which is not covered in the oil. My gut twists, the pain in my nipples is nothing compared to how this will feel inside me. Matt knew I would realise that, make the comparison, and this is why he instructed me to apply it and wait for him. He wants me to have time to sweat, to let my apprehension build. It’s working.
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