Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

HOPING to find Alyssa, Tyler, or someone who knew something about

either, Luc persuaded Jack to run him to Sexy Sirens. It was a long shot,

but he couldn‟t leave any stone unturned.

As soon as they pulled up in front of the aged brick building with its

flashy sign, Luc noticed a group forming outside and groaned.

Damn, this sanctimonious bastard really pissed him off. Today was not

a good day to step on his last nerve.

want?”

with their „look at me, look at me‟ mentality. He‟s a boy in a man‟s body

who wants to be God when he grows up.”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, the morality police. Fucker.”

As soon as the car stopped, Luc jumped out. He‟d have gone around

back to avoid Primpton, but he didn‟t have a key to the back door. Alyssa

had given him one to the front, in case of emergencies. This qualified.

As he approached the club, Primpton blocked this path, his curly gray

hair frizzing in the humid afternoon. His jowls shook as he stepped in front

of Luc and wagged a finger in his face.

where the devil is at work. Where sin is king.”

Luc had to clench his teeth and restrain himself to keep from pounding

the jerk into the pavement. “Think about the fact you‟re loitering, and if you

take another step, you‟ll be on private property, and I‟ll have you arrested

for trespassing.”

Primpton‟s rheumy blue eyes went wide. “That‟s devil‟s whore has

swayed you to the side of sin and fornication!”

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is.”

business member of this community who has never lifted a finger against

you. What gives you the right to judge her?”

The councilman puffed up his narrow chest. “It‟s the job of all of God‟s

true believers to lead others to the path of righteousness.”

Vomit. Luc didn‟t have the time for narrow-minded asses, and today

especially, he lacked the patience.

stage. She won‟t be performing again.”

Primpton perked up. “She‟s closing the club?”

performing?” a reporter shouted.

The press. God, didn‟t these leeches ever get tired of hounding people

for nonexistent stories?

No. But in this case, he could give them a real one. “Yes. She‟s

devoting more of herself to the restaurant business, with my blessing.

We‟re excited about the next chapter of our life. But last night, someone

broke into our house and vandalized it. Terrorized my wife. She‟s now

missing, and I need your help to find her.”

about what he‟d do if they were true, if some maniac had actually killed her.

It was all he could do now to keep his composure and not panic.

The press asked a few more questions, and Luc provided details about

when and where Alyssa was last seen.

Satisfied he‟d made the best of a bad situation, Luc turned and stalked

toward the door. Again, the councilman blocked his way.

Primpton sniffed and whispered for Luc only, “If someone returned her

to her maker, it‟s no more than she deserves.”

Luc fisted his hands. It was all he could do not to strangle the shithead.

The fact he felt that way made Luc wonder if Primpton‟s involvement was

more than judgmental gloating.

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my wife‟s disappearance—”

looked eerily excited, too.

Luc‟s skin crawled.

know you wouldn‟t hesitate. You‟d say God told you to do it or some such

crap. If I find out you‟ve been responsible for harming or terrorizing her in

any way, I‟ll—”

The asshole wanted Luc to threaten him. Luc refused to rise to the

bait, no matter how badly he wanted to tell the bastard he‟d love to rip him

limb from limb and describe it in agonizingly gory detail. But he refused to

give the bastard ammunition, especially because he might have Alyssa.

can prove you were involved, you will need God‟s help to save you.”

The reporters out front left, and Jack called one of his buddies to follow

Primpton and see if he knew anything about Alyssa‟s whereabouts. The

guy was on it . . . but who knew how long before he had any answers?

Luc tried not to be disheartened, but worry was an ever-constant drag,

gnawing at his stomach, hollow and knotted. What if . . . he didn‟t find her

alive?

Shortly after they left, Remy called to say they‟d released the crime

scene. Analysis was under way, and Luc could enter the house. Jack made

a phone call and arranged for the cleaning service he knew well to meet

them at the house in thirty minutes.

Then Deke called. He‟d found a contact who might be able to help

them locate Tyler. He refused to say much since he needed a few hours to

work it.

Fidgeting in the passenger‟s seat, Luc felt ready to explode.

Luc snapped his gaze around. “Because you fucked my wife once

upon a time?”

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As soon as the words were out, Luc wished he could take them back.

Whatever was between them was ancient history, and Jack had been

nothing but helpful today.

Mostly, but not completely. Luc didn‟t miss that distinction.

down years ago. Sorry,” Jack said. “I‟m totally married, man. Shooting

straight? You know about me.”

The fact Jack Cole was a well-known Dominant, who had bondage

down to a fine art? “Yeah.”

we were better friends than lovers.”

Jack couldn‟t be any more honest, and Luc knew he needed to get

over whatever Alyssa had done with the other man before he‟d met her.

Hell, Luc himself had fucked Kimber after spending an incredible night with

Alyssa, so if anyone had done wrong, it was him.

of any man who even looks at my wife. I meant that I understood your

concern about her safety. After Morgan was shot, I thought I was going to

die. Literally, like someone had opened up a hole in my chest and torn out

my guts.”

That described Luc‟s state well. He rubbed a hand across his face.

Closing in on three in the afternoon, and he feared information would start

to dry up. Now what?

They arrived at the house, and Luc vaulted up the stairs, despite

Jack‟s renewed warnings. The destruction he saw in the master bedroom

made him see more red than the paint covering the walls and floors. Alyssa

had walked into this?

Slowly, he wandered around the room, blinking, hardly able to take it

all in. His clothes and the bedsheets were negligible, easily replaced. The

damage to the walls and carpet was also fixable. But the rest . . . Alyssa‟s

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lacy, racy underthings all piled on the bed with some scumbag‟s come on

them sent a fresh blade of panic through Luc. His wedding gift to her

destroyed. The beautiful picture of her in her wedding dress, looking

elegant and wearing a Mona Lisa smile, desecrated with the bright red

threat was another punch to the stomach.

Whoever had done this was serious. And he might have Alyssa in his

clutches.

Luc didn‟t know if this bastard had also written her the WHORE notes

with the knives weeks ago. Possible, though this felt far more angry and

serious. Either way, whenever Luc found his wife and whoever was

responsible for the violation of their home, he hoped he got ten minutes of

quality time with this asshole.

to puke and ready to commit murder.”

Not trusting himself to speak, he sent Jack a hard nod.

A moment later, the doorbell rang. Within a few minutes, they‟d

escorted the cleanup crew to the master bedroom and instructed them to

toss everything. Luc didn‟t want any trace of the crime to remind Alyssa in

case he got to bring her home safely.

with peroxided hair assured. “If you‟ve got some touch-up paint, we‟ll be in

business. Fresh sheets, a little bit of treatment on the carpets . . . good as

new.”

After showing the crew where to find what they needed, Luc followed

Jack downstairs. Hunter awaited them, pacing the kitchen.

you‟re dealing with someone who‟s obsessed with your wife. Your wedding

seems to have infuriated him, since he stepped up his game shortly

thereafter.”

Someone like Primpton? Or Tyler, who had a real reason to be

jealous?

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Hunter raised a tawny brow. “How many stalkers can she have?”

Hunter hesitated, then grimaced. “Good point.”

Pushing aside the thought that yet another male had seen his wife

close to naked, he focused instead on what to do next. “I can‟t sit here. I

need to exhaust all possibilities, and that means finding Tyler.”

But where was the bastard?

Into the pensive silence, his phone rang. Deke. “Find something?”

there in Lafayette. He‟s done a cross-reference of the name Tyler Murphy

to coincide with an initial service date between May and July. We have

three possibilities. There‟s a Murphy Taylor, a T. Patrick Murphy, and a T.

S. Murphy. I‟m e-mailing a list of their addresses to your BlackBerry right

now.”

Thank God. Maybe they were getting somewhere. Luc prayed to God

he‟d find his wife soon. He hoped she‟d simply been scared and gone to

the closest person who made her feel safe. That, he understood.

Reluctantly, yes, but . . . If she had simply been shaken, why hadn‟t she

called in all these hours?

The three hopped back in Jack‟s SUV, agreeing to hit Murphy Taylor‟s

house first, since it was less than a mile away. Luc darted out of the vehicle

as they rolled to a stop in the man‟s driveway and pounded on the door. A

pretty brunette answered. After they identified themselves, she said that

her husband was in the UK on business. Her pretty brown eyes soft with

sympathy, she showed them a picture of her husband, just to be certain.

Definitely not the Tyler they were looking for.

Cursing, his stomach twisting, they pulled out and headed to T. Patrick

Murphy‟s residence. It was an apartment on the northwest edge of town.

Again, Luc knocked impatiently on the door. A moment later a young man

answered, maybe all of twenty. Tall, lanky, and exhausted.

After blessing them out for waking someone in the middle of his sleep

who worked graveyard shifts, the men muttered their apologies and left.

Luc‟s stomach sank. One more possibility. Luc didn‟t want to think about

what he was going to do if the last lead was a dead end. It almost certainly

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meant she‟d been abducted, and he couldn‟t think about Alyssa being

afraid or in pain at the hands of a madman. Or dead.

In grim silence, the trio made their way to the southwestern edge of

town, to an upscale apartment building. It looked new, gleaming. They

drove past a sleek new swimming pool that looked more like a tropical

oasis than a man-made water hole. Multiple spas, jogging trail, Wi-Fi

included. Definitely more upscale than Tyler could afford on a bouncer‟s

salary.

Luc‟s heart sank, and given Jack‟s and Hunter‟s grim faces, they had

done the math as well. But they continued on until they reached apartment

314 and knocked.

A scuffle and a grunt and a long minute later, the door opened. Tyler

stood there. Shock transformed his square face. “What the hell are you

doing here?”

Tyler raised a brow, then smiled. “Follow me.”

Relief crashed Luc‟s system. “She‟s here? Is she all right?”

The big tawny bouncer threw a glance over his shoulder, his

expression somewhere between confused and annoyed. “Of course.”

Biting back his impatience, Luc trailed Tyler, then registered the fact

the other man was walking down the hall of a designer-decorated

apartment . . . to the bedroom.

At the end of the hall, Luc came to a stomach-lurching stop. There,

Alyssa lay sprawled out across the man‟s bed, curled up with his pillow,

wearing one of his T-shirts that rode up around her waist, a thong, and

nothing else. She was out cold.

Was this really what it looked like?

What else could it be, idiot? If she‟d simply been scared, why hadn‟t

she called to tell him where she was and that she was safe? Why did she

need to get undressed and into Tyler‟s bed?

Betrayal slammed him, so deep he almost couldn‟t breathe. The sight

of her so relaxed and tangled in another man‟s sheets gouged his heart out

of his chest. For a fleeting moment, he acknowledged that her infidelity was

better than her death. But they‟d been married less than two weeks. What

the fuck did he do now?

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Luc whipped a glare around to the other man. “Didn‟t you? How did

this work? She came home to find the house vandalized, and called you to

protect her, giving you the perfect opportunity to help her out of her

clothes? Or did you hit the house to scare her and hope she‟d call you,

then let you fuck her again?”

What is there to “get” except the fact my wife is fucking another man?

Tyler shook his head. “Take her home; make sure she rests. And get

the hell out of my face.”

His words were dismissive, as if . . . well, as if Tyler knew he‟d see

Alyssa—and have her—again. Whenever he pleased. Luc gritted his teeth.

He ought to leave her here with her lover. He‟d been stupid enough to fall

for her—hard—and now he was going to pay the price. He‟d married her

because she carried this man‟s child. Now he was getting an inside look at

what it had taken for these two to conceive. And didn‟t it hurt like a bitch?

But if he‟d married Alyssa for this baby, then by damned, he was going

to take her home for this baby. She might share her body with Tyler, but

Luc planned to dig out a place in her heart and make it his, find some way

to make her care so that her every betrayal became a rending ache on her

conscience.

Gritting his teeth, Luc approached the bed and lifted his sleeping wife

into his arms. She barely stirred. “What the hell did you do to her?”

Meaning Tyler often fucked her into a near coma? The bastard was

trying to piss him off.

Luc jerked Alyssa closer to his chest. And he couldn‟t lie—even

knowing what she‟d done, he was glad that she was safe and whole and

close. “Stay the fuck away from my wife.”

And whatever needs she has.”

Bullshit. Luc had loved her furiously, desperately, the morning he‟d left

for Los Angeles. Could she really have had needs so overwhelming in

three days that she‟d turned to another? Or did she have such feelings for

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Tyler that Luc‟s absence made hopping in the other man‟s bed both more

convenient and a necessity?

He couldn‟t stay here and listen to Tyler say another word or he‟d turn

homicidal. Luc could feel the rage boiling up in his gut, starting to bubble

over. As much as Luc hated him, Tyler wasn‟t worth prison time.

Then again, if Alyssa was voluntarily fucking her bouncer so soon after

their wedding, neither was she.

Jack and Hunter backed down the hall quickly, leaving a path for him;

then they exited Tyler‟s apartment, emerging into the late-afternoon sun.

Luc clutched Alyssa to his chest, purposely avoiding the pitying looks the

other men shot him as he climbed into the back of the SUV.

As he settled Alyssa into his lap, he wondered, now that he‟d found

her, what was he going to do with her?

ALYSSA woke with a headache and a moan. Her limbs seemed to

weigh a thousand pounds each. Her mouth felt stuffed with cotton. Putting

two thoughts together in her sluggish brain wasn‟t happening.

Gingerly, she lifted her lids, stunned to find it nearly dark in the

shadowed room. Her room.

Everything inside her snapped to attention. How had she gotten here?

And when? God, it had to be . . . what? Five thirty? Almost six? If Tyler had

brought her back, he should know that she should have been at Bonheur

hours ago. With a gasp, she rolled over to peek at the clock.

Instead, she found Luc sitting on the edge of the bed, stone still and

silent. If his sudden appearance here didn‟t tell her something was

dreadfully wrong, his face said it for him.

Tyler‟s T-shirt.

In fact, now that she looked around, everything had changed. The last

time she‟d seen this room, it had been all but destroyed. Now the bed was

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made with fresh sheets and blankets. It smelled faintly like paint. The mess

was gone. “What—what‟s going on?”

He looked grim, and she had the distinct impression he was holding in

his fury. “I think it‟s time I asked you that question. Someone broke in the

house, and you didn‟t call me. You called nine-one-one and Tyler, then

disappeared for nearly twelve hours. You never called to tell me you were

alive. You never answered your phone.”

her, like a well-aimed laser.

Her stomach pitched and rolled when she realized how this must look

to Luc.

psycho who‟d broken into the house hadn‟t abducted you? Oh, that‟s right .

. .” He snapped, the sarcasm thick and biting. “You were too busy letting

Tyler fuck your brains out to tell your husband where the hell you were and that you were alive. I woke Jack up at an ungodly hour, walked away from

the taping of my show to hop a plane, and flew across the country. I told

the press you were missing. And where do I find you but Tyler‟s bed.” He

stood, fists and teeth clenched. “Goddamn you!”

Alyssa closed her eyes. Yes, Luc would jump to this conclusion. He

must have retrieved her from Tyler‟s apartment. From his bed. She winced.

But why couldn‟t he get it through his thick head that, despite her

She blanched. “No!”

me?”

How could he believe that for a second? It was probably his anger and

residual fear talking, but . . .

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Alyssa took a deep breath. Then another. Hadn‟t they had this

conversation—or one remarkably like it—before Luc had left Louisiana and

she‟d discovered she was pregnant? Yes. He‟d accused her of being

Tyler‟s main squeeze and fuck buddy for nearly two months. Couldn‟t Luc

see that she loved him? Granted, she‟d never said the words, but God,

she‟d given herself to him in every way, let him into her life, her house. Let

him plant his seed in her body. Been thrilled to know she‟d always have a

part of Luc. And he just kept insisting that she was a whore.

She couldn‟t keep living like this.

Rolling away from him, Alyssa found the edge of the bed and stood,

making her way to the door.

Luc glared at her. “Where the hell are you going?”

Damn it, she wanted to strangle the man for breaking her heart. “Fuck

you.”

As she stormed out the door, his hand clamped around her biceps and

he hauled her back to the bed. “Oh, you fucked me. Totally. You‟ve got me

coming and going so much I don‟t know my name half the time. I‟m twisted

and tied up in you, so goddamn addicted. And you know the sad part? If

you took the other man‟s T-shirt off your gorgeous body right now, I‟d

stupidly fall to my knees and be ridiculously grateful for the chance to fuck

you again.”

His words hit her like a sledgehammer. Luc had feelings for her, but he

was terrified to trust her. Because of who she was. What she‟d become. If

she told him now that she loved him, would he embrace her and tell her

that he loved her, too? Or just laugh in her face?

She was too afraid to find out.

Tears flared at the back of Alyssa‟s eyes, stinging. She blinked them

away, refusing to cry over this man again. “No, the sad part is you married

me believing the worst about me. You never let me tell you what happened

today. And now it doesn‟t matter. I agreed to this marriage because you

seemed to have feelings for me and claimed to want this baby. God, I‟m so

stupid. You probably even think the baby is Tyler‟s.”

His dark eyes drilled her with anguish and fury. “Is it?”

Two words, and she felt as if he‟d punched her in the stomach. This

wasn‟t going to work. Ever. She‟d always believed rose-colored glasses

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were pointless, but when she‟d agreed to marry Luc she‟d worn them. At

the cost of her heart.

She wrenched her arm away from his grip. “Like I said, fuck you.”

Alyssa stormed out the bedroom door and down the hall. Before she

reached the stairs, Luc grabbed her from behind and slung her against his

chest. He swatted her ass with a broad, hot palm. Fire ran across her skin,

down her legs. Why? Even when the man infuriated her, insulted her, her

body still responded . . .

Before she could absolve him of the notion that she was going to get

naked with him, he dropped her to the mattress and ripped Tyler‟s shirt

from her body. Now the only thing standing between him and his angry lust

was her lace thong.

As Luc had always done with her barriers, he ripped this one away, as

well. The thong fell to the ground.

His control was unraveling. And she knew what would happen then. If

she was going to stay, they needed talk now, not sex. She must convince

him that the baby wasn‟t Tyler‟s. But Luc‟s demanding stare, the one that

told her he was going to fuck her in every way possible, be more thorough

than ever, dissolved her arguments. Instead, heat sparked low in her belly.

A breathless need to touch him consumed her.

like her body.

Luc ignored her, trailing a pair of fingers down her abdomen and

dragging them over her hard clit. She tensed and tried to push his hand

away. But she was no match for his determination.

His fingers sank deep into her pussy.

think you‟re lying.”

Damn it, he knew her body too well. He took her nipple in his mouth

and pumped her full of his fingers. Sensation sparked immediately, and

against her better judgment, Alyssa arched to him. She shouldn‟t, but . . .

This was Luc.

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No way was Luc going to take her seriously.

He laved the heavy curve under her breast; then his teeth nipped at

the hard tip. “After you come for me, and I remind you how hot everything is between us.”

As if she‟d ever forget. Before she could protest, he plunged his

fingers deeper and sought out her G-spot. In seconds, Luc began to ply it

mercilessly. Oh, my . . . Yes! Grabbing desperate handfuls of his shirt, she moaned.

She shouldn‟t. They should be talking about his assumption that she

was fucking Tyler, had become pregnant by him. But damn it, Luc was

overwhelming her, her body was on fire, and she loved Luc too much to

say no. “Yes . . .”

Luc again rubbed her G-spot, now thumbing her clit. “Who do you

want?”

mewling for more as pleasure ramped up in her belly. Need burned

between her legs, multiplying, building.

How could he alone do this to her, shove her so quickly to the ragged

edge of restraint and sanity?

He shimmied down her body and bent to her. Alyssa‟s anticipation

soared as she felt Luc‟s hot breaths all over her wet, swollen flesh. Yes,

please. Now. Sooner than now.

His dark eyes blazed across her face, anger warring with lust and

possession in a tangle that made her catch her breath. “Make me believe

it.”

He suckled her clit into his mouth with a hungry snarl, putting his

shoulders—his whole body—into it. From his first lick, pleasure seized her

unlike anything she‟d ever felt. His clever tongue ruthlessly drove her up,

along with those long, probing fingers. He pushed her to the brink of

orgasm with long, liquid swipes of his tongue on her clit. Then he drew it

into his mouth and sucked.

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Alyssa arched, grabbed the sheets, and screamed as ecstasy

coalesced and exploded, setting her entire body on fire.

God, only Luc could do this to her.

While she still pulsed with aftershocks, he parted her folds with his

thumbs and delved inside again with his tongue. She gasped, spread her

legs wider. Luc knew exactly how to make her need him again.

He fastened on her clit once more, blowing her mind, ramping her up

toward another orgasm that shouldn‟t have been possible, but was instead

imminent. The slope up was faster, steeper, more wrenching.

She was drenched now, dripping. So swollen, she could feel her

nipples puckering, her folds engorging. But this time, Luc kept her on the

knife‟s edge, orgasm just a heartbeat away. Arching, wriggling, she tried

everything to make his wicked tongue send her straight into bliss, but he

anchored her to the bed with a hand on her hip. “I say when.”

Everything inside her clenched in denial. She needed it—needed

him—now. “What are you doing to me?”

determined glint smoldered in his dark eyes.

She was no man‟s possession or toy. But . . . desire racked her. It had

become eloquent torture knotting her belly as he plunged his fingers inside

her again. Alyssa cried out as he teased her clit with his tongue. The man

wanted her to lose her mind. And he was about to succeed.

When he replaced his finger with his thumb and eased his drenched

digit into her anus, she clenched around him and moaned.

simultaneously. The wild sensation scorched her, and every nerve ending

begged for climax.

He sucked on her clit again, this time harder than the last, even as his

fingers filled her up. And it was . . . Oh, God, a madness of pleasure that

threatened to implode her. Where was her determination to leave now? Her

will to resist him until they worked through their issues? Like the perfect

storm, demand raged inside her, fueled by anger, fear, love, need. It grew

into a fathomless, sucking swirl. His every touch sizzled like lightning.

Ecstasy, pure and white-hot, was upon her. Alyssa‟s eyes flew open wide,

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connecting with Luc‟s commanding gaze. Wide shoulders, insistent hands,

haunted eyes.

Mine, his stare said.

Yours, her soul silently answered.

The floodgates of pleasure burst open in a torrential flood. As

satisfaction crashed over her, she felt dizzy, couldn‟t breathe. Black spots

danced at the edge of her vision. She cried out, thighs tense, womb

pulsing. What Luc gave her was brilliant and endless. And should give him

absolutely no doubt that he owned her.

Damn him.

And as soon as he let up, eased away, she also realized that what

he‟d given her was one-sided. As he stood and tore into his own shirt,

Alyssa knew that, in his mind, they were nowhere near done.

Now that the need to come wasn‟t pressing down on her, she saw that

he‟d derailed their discussion and sought to control her using sex.

Oh, hell, no.

She grabbed the sheet and wrapped it around her. “Stop. We are not

doing this now. There‟s too much to discuss, and I‟ll be damned if you‟re

going to accuse me of fucking Tyler in one breath, then demanding I fuck

you in the next.”

he snapped, straddling her, flattening her back to the mattress. “Like hell.”

Then he ripped Tyler‟s T-shirt into long strips of material, wrapping

them around her wrists and knotting them securely.

What the fuck was he doing? Was he . . . No!

sick spike of adrenaline. “Let me go!”

you‟re married to. Then we‟re going to talk until I get the whole goddamned

ugly truth.”

Scowling, he dragged her wrist to the headboard and grabbed the

edges of the cotton bracelet, knotting it around the iron.

He meant to tie her down. Put her at his mercy. Oh, God.

bucked beneath him. He didn‟t budge. “Please don‟t!”

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He completely ignored her. His body was an anchor pinning her to the

mattress as he reached for her other wrist and tied the material to the

headboard. She struggled, but Luc was a hundred times stronger.

Alyssa began to sweat. Cold fear again crashed to her stomach, and

she feared she was going to throw up. As he secured her other wrist,

immobilizing her arms, pure terror scraped her system.

Alyssa thrashed and screamed, “Luc, please! Don‟t do this. Don‟t . . .”

She tried to hold in her sobs, stay calm, but with each second she was

immobile and at his mercy, terror grew.

me? You can‟t spend the day with your lover, worry me sick, then tell me to

fuck myself. Refuse me your pretty body that drives me insane with need

every damn day and night.”

me, but please . . .” That fact, along with her edge of fear, crushed her

defenses, cracked her heart open. “Just let me up. Let me go,” she sobbed.

Alyssa forced herself to look up into his face and flinched when she

saw the barely restrained wrath and bleak determination tighten his angular

face. “We can‟t stay like this. Let me go. Please.”

Her pleas didn‟t affect him. His eyes burned her face, trailed down to

her breasts, rested on her abdomen. When his stare returned to her face,

he seethed with possessive anger that made her pulse jump with dread

and fear.

toward her. “You‟re my wife, damn it. That‟s going to mean something to

you.”

What? That he could force her to have sex anytime he wanted? “Luc,

no!”

Alyssa barely got the sound out before he slanted his mouth over hers.

His tongue plundered, his lips crushing hers, and she tasted herself on his

lips. Desperation, fury, intent all swirled in his kiss. He wanted her. She

feared he wouldn‟t take no for an answer.

His hands tightened on her wrists, his grip biting as he took the kiss

deeper.

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The defenses she‟d built up over the months and years to block out

the worst of her memories fell out from under her. She was fifteen again,

too trusting. Too innocent to understand that her life was about to change

forever.

She shivered and struggled, doing anything, everything, to throw the

hard male weight off her, smothering her, hurting her. The agony was

coming, she knew. God, how would she survive something that horrific all

over again?

Panic chilling her to her marrow, Alyssa bit Luc‟s lip. He pulled away,

clutching his mouth.

her will, she dissolved into sobs. “Don‟t hurt me.”

Her pleas broke through his rage. Luc leapt off her instantly, all lust

gone from his face. Concern replaced it. “Hurt you, sugar?”

Tears stung her eyes, scalded their way down her cheeks as she

turned herself on her side, as much as her bound wrists allowed, and

curled her legs up to her chest. “Please let me go.”

She hadn‟t even finished the plea before Luc‟s fingers were at the

knots, releasing one, then the other. And she was free.

Shooting him a stare full of accusation, and pain, she ran to the

bathroom.

When she didn‟t respond, she heard the frightening rush of his

footsteps behind her and kept running.

Finally reaching the bathroom, she slammed the door before he could

barge his way in, and she locked it behind her. Safe . . . for the moment.

What would she do if he didn‟t go away?

Leaning against the cold wood, she panted, her past still flashing in

her head, reminding her of horror and pain. But this was another day,

another man. Would Luc really have hurt her?

Maybe she‟d overreacted. She‟d certainly shown him her weakness.

And if he hadn‟t already, he‟d quickly figure out just how damaged she was.

Sliding down the door until she huddled against it, Alyssa put her face

in her hands and sobbed.

232

Shayla Black