way and that, and she wasn’t even getting regular sex for it. “I think I can handle you.”
“So young. So naïve.”
So full of shit. “Bring it on, Talbot.”
Something hard flinted across his face. “Fine. Show me your
breasts.”
Jen threw the covers off and had that tank top over her head in a
heartbeat. The room was still chilly, but the cold wasn’t what had her
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nipples puckering. She was finally in bed with Stef, and she hadn’t
had to force him there.
“And your pussy.”
She pushed the pajama bottoms she had on off, along with the
bikini panties she was wearing.
“Spread your legs.”
His voice had lowered a couple of octaves, and it poured over her
skin like thick, rich honey. She complied, though it felt awkward. Stef sat up and looked down at her. He didn’t say a thing, just sat there.
His stormy eyes took in every inch of her skin. Jen wondered if she should put on a show, but thought better of it. He was staring at her
the way he looked at a piece of art. Just his eyes on her was making
her skin heat up.
Why this man? Jen asked herself as she lay still under his
considering gaze. Life would be so much easier if she could love
someone simple. Stef was beyond complex. He was outrageous,
kinky, sexy as hell, and the most loyal man she’d ever met. He’d
helped out just about everyone in Bliss. Everyone knew he was the
world’s worst sucker for a hard luck story. Didn’t have health
insurance? See Stef. He’d pay for your medical bills. When drought
had threatened the local ranchers, they didn’t go to the bank, they
came to Stef Talbot. When Zane and Callie and Nate needed a loan to
start their tavern, they had gone straight to Stef. He really was the
king of Bliss, but sometimes he held himself apart. He needed to
know that the people he helped loved him, too. Jen was pretty sure he
never thought about that.
While Stef stared at her, his eyes fastening on her pussy, she
stared back at him. He was a work of art. His jaw was a strong line.
She would use a single, thick brushstroke to capture its stony grace.
His skin was smooth and sun-kissed, gold and tan, blended with
cream. His hair was longer than usual, falling just over his eyes in
midnight locks. And his eyes. She’d always loved his eyes. They were
ever changing with his mood. They went from flint gray when he was
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angry to a warm, almost misty tone when he softened. When he was
aroused, there was a storm in those eyes that always pulled her in.
Her whole body flushed with desire, and he hadn’t touched her
yet.
A slow smile creased his perfect face. “Very good, Jennifer. Now
get dressed. I want to show you something.”
Jen sat up. “What?”
He gracefully rose and stretched his long limbs. “I said get
dressed. My father is running around here. I don’t want him to see
you naked. He already thinks you’re a felon.”
Jen felt her eyes narrow. “I don’t really care what your dad thinks.
What game are you playing that you think you can get me all hot and
bothered and then leave me this way?”
A low growl came out of his throat, and suddenly his body was
pressed to hers. His weight held her down, and the menace in his face
did all kinds of things to her heart rate. “I am not playing a game. I am the Master, and you are the sub. That means you do what I tell you
to do when it comes to sex, love. I know I can’t expect you to listen to me when it comes to anything else, but I am the Master in this room.
Now, you have a choice to make, accept my will or tell me no and this
is done.”
Jen clenched her fists. It wasn’t fair, but this was the way it was
with Stef. If she wanted a chance to prove they belonged together, this was what she had to do. In return, he would coddle and protect her.
He would lavish her with affection. The fact that he was willing to
cede that he didn’t have the final say outside of sex was actually a
win, she decided. She knew that wasn’t the deal with his other subs.
He was in control of every aspect of life during their time together.
She was different. It would have to be enough for now. “I can’t get
dressed with you on top of me, babe.”
He got up and held his hand out. Jen let him help her up. She
tossed on the tank and her PJ pants. He’d picked up her panties and
shoved them into the pocket of his sweats.
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“You don’t need them,” he said almost defensively. “No panties
for you.”
His kinks made her smile. She imagined what he’d do with her
underwear. She doubted he would simply toss them in the laundry.
Not her Stef. He’d carry her underwear around with him all day. He
wouldn’t pull them out and show them to his friends. He would keep
them in his pocket. Every so often he would put his hand in his pocket and caress them and remind himself that she’d said yes. “I don’t need
them, Stef.”
He flushed as though her acceptance of him pleased him on a
fundamental level. When she was properly attired, she took his hand.
He led her through the gorgeous manor house his father had built. He
was silent as he moved from the west wing to the east wing. Jen had
spent enough time there to know where he was going. His studio.
Most of the east wing’s second floor had been transformed into the
most amazing studio, with big bay windows to catch the early
morning light.
“So, you still haven’t explained how you came to sleep at the end
of my bed,” she said as they passed the grand staircase.
“I told you, I wanted to check on you. And it’s not really your
bed, is it? It belongs to me.”
She chuckled. In Stef’s mind, everything belonged to him. He
firmly believed the whole damn town was his. She wasn’t an idiot.
“Well, you shoved me there, so I’ll call it mine. And really, where
was I going to go?”
He stopped, his handsome face frowning down at her. “As you so
rarely stay where I put you, I will have to decline to answer that. I
really don’t know. It could have been anywhere.”
Jen groaned, but followed as he continued walking. “Are we
going to talk about last night?”
“I thought we had, and really, why bother? We could just read
about it in the paper this morning.”
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“Is that what’s bugging you? It’s no big deal. Everyone would
have known anyway. I was totally going to tell Callie, and she would
tell Nate and Zane and…well, she would tell everyone. Really, it just
saved Callie a whole bunch of phone calls.”
His brows came together in the middle of his forehead. “I didn’t
like it. It was private. I’m thinking about sending the health inspector to Trio. I’m also thinking about buying a bunch of rats and releasing
them in Trio about twenty minutes before the health inspector gets
there.”
“Don’t, babe. Once the Hollis
ter-Wright clan came crying to you,
you would just end up paying for the exterminator. Save yourself the
expense.”
“Maybe not,” he replied, stopping in front of the door to his
studio. “Maybe I’ll tell the bastard to go to hell, and that he’s not welcome in my town anymore.”
“Oh, they won’t send Zane to talk to you,” Jen said. “They are
way smarter than that. Callie will come to your door with those sad
puppy eyes, begging you to save her livelihood. She’ll talk about her
future children who will starve, and it will be their Uncle Stef’s fault.”
He moaned a little and then opened the door. Early morning light
flooded the studio, a vibrant, clean light that had Jen gasping. Stef had redone the studio. Before it had been stark and masculine, with
nothing in it but art supplies. It had been a refuge for him. He’d once said he liked it because there were no distractions. Jen had
complained there was no comfort, either.
Tears pricked at her eyes. There was a big, comfy couch in one
corner, and a small fridge and table. Two easels sat side by side in the perfect spot to catch the light. The big bay windows, once bare, now
had gorgeous, gauzy, white window treatments. The room was still
stark, but femininity was encroaching, like something inevitable.
He really was dumb.
She turned and threw her arms around him. “I love it.”
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He stood there for a moment, but finally his arms came around
her. His voice was gruff. “I’m glad, but I didn’t do it for you. It was just time to change.”
So dumb. He could talk about how their relationship was all about
sex, but he’d never done this for a sub before. He’d practically rebuilt the room to her specifications. She decided to let it go for now. She
pulled away reluctantly. “Well, it’s beautiful.”
He stepped back, awkward for once as he turned a hand out.
“Your supplies are over there. This is just the stuff I managed to get boxed up before we left. It will be a couple of weeks for the rest of it.
These arrived this morning, along with your work. I had it all crated
and shipped overnight. I opened it, but I haven’t taken them out yet. I thought you would like to do it.”
She shuffled over to the lovingly crated box that contained the
three works she hadn’t been able to sell at the gallery. The gallery.
Her stomach churned, but she put aside the bad stuff. If she told Stef she’d had a bad dream about that place last night, he’d have that
doctor back checking her for signs of PTSD. She concentrated on the
good stuff. “I sold some paintings while I was in Dallas.”
She hadn’t sold anything while she was in Bliss. Stefan was a
world-renowned artist, but she was just starting out.
“Really? That’s great, Jennifer. I told you that would happen
when you concentrated,” he murmured, a little smile on his face.
“You have a great eye and a way with colors.”
Jen pulled out the first of the three paintings she had left in her
apartment. She set it on the easel. It was the last one she’d finished, with its glorious rushes of green and that shadow of a man. It was the painting she’d redone because she wasn’t happy with the colors.
Funny, they seemed perfect to her now.
“I’m going to give this one to Rachel.” Jen had decided that
Rachel needed a baby gift from her. Callie said Rachel had been
inundated with baby clothes, and Max and Rye had purchased every
safety item known to man. Maybe Rachel would enjoy something to
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brighten the house. “I missed her shower. This has to be better than
what Nell gave her.”
Nell and Henry had given her a gift certificate to offset the baby’s
carbon footprint for the first year of life. Nell had purportedly
explained that Rachel was on her own after that and had given her a
lecture on green diapering practices.
“I think she’ll love it,” Stef said with an indulgent smile on his
face.
A sense of satisfaction poured over her. Maybe if she told him
more about her sales, he would see that she was really concentrating
on her work. “And, who knows, maybe it’ll be worth a lot someday. I
got five thousand for the three I sold. Let me tell you, that came in
handy.”
Stef’s face got a bright, brilliant red. “That fucker. I swear if he
wasn’t already dead, I would kill him myself.”
Jen turned to him. “What are you talking about? Who’s dead?”
Stef stopped, a red flush spreading across his face. “Renard. I’m
sorry I didn’t tell you until now.”
“Whoa.” She didn’t like the man, but she was surprised he was
dead. He’d been a halfway decent mentor until he’d thrown her in jail.
A chill went through her. “Is it over the painting?”
Stef nodded and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“Probably. The police found his body yesterday. They think he was
involved in a drug deal gone bad. He was apparently paying for some
cocaine with the painting. I don’t want you to worry. You’re safe
here.”
As she had no idea where the painting was, she wasn’t terribly
worried. But something else struck her. “Why are you upset that
Renard sold my paintings?”
Stef sputtered, his normal grace deserting him as he seemed to
realize he’d made a mistake. “Nothing. I was just surprised.”
Her smile slipped away completely. “You bought them.”
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It felt like a crushing defeat. She’d gone about in a haze after the
sale of the first one. After the second two, a confidence had settled
over her. Now that was stripped away. She hadn’t really
accomplished anything. Stef had merely stepped in and played god
again. Deus ex machina. That described Stef. He played god and then
left her alone again.
She slid the painting back into the crate. “Maybe I’ll just get her
something else.”
“Jennifer.” He strode across the space between them, filling her
senses. “It was the only way I knew to take care of you. And I paid
way more than five thousand. I gave him twenty because I wanted
you to be okay. I wanted you to have the things you needed.”
Those damn tears were back. She fought hard not to shed them.
She crossed her hands over her chest. “I needed you, Stef. You
weren’t about to give me that. You won’t give me that now, either,
will you? You’ll follow me across the country and pay way too much
for paintings no one gives a damn about. You’ll move heaven and
earth to get me out of jail, and you’ll toss me over a desk when you
get a little horny, but you won’t tell me you love me.”
His jaw hardened. “Jennifer, don’t make more of last night than
there was. And don’t make more of our relationship. I’m attracted to
you. You’re submissive, and I’m a Dom. It’s inevitable that we would
be together when we’re living so close together. But this is a D/s
partnership, not a love affair.”
A weariness stole over her. Could she really fight him? How long
and hard would he fight before he got ove
r his fear? Maybe he
wouldn’t ever get over it. He loved her. She felt it, but it didn’t matter if he never accepted it. It didn’t matter if she wasn’t good enough to risk his heart for. “Fine. It’s just sex. Got it.”
He sighed, the hardness flitting away. “Jennifer, does it have to be
like this? Can’t we be friends? I like you. I think you’re an amazing
artist. I think you have a bright future, if you concentrate. You don’t have to be stuck here. You could be in New York selling in galleries.”
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He was always pointing out the future he thought she should have.
He didn’t ask her opinion. He merely stated what he considered the
best possible future for her and pushed her to take it.
“Great, I’ll look forward to it,” she said, stepping away from him.
He really did treat her like a child. He’d told her he wouldn’t
mentor her then did it at every opportunity with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. It didn’t matter that she didn’t want to go to New
York. It didn’t matter that she could see herself being perfectly happy selling her stuff to the tourists who came through Bliss. Stef had
decided what her future should be, and he wouldn’t let a little thing like the fact that she loved him mess that up.
His dark hair was shaking slightly. It was just the tiniest bit
overgrown, curling a little around his ears. He was so masculine
compared to the metro guys she’d been around in Dallas. “I wish I
could help you settle in, but I have to meet Rye. I have to help him set up the pony rides for the kids. And I should probably take a shower. If you need anything, talk to Mrs. Truss. If you’re hungry, there’s
probably a little buffet set up since we have so many guests. When I
get back, we’ll talk, okay? Maybe later I’ll take you into town. Would you like that?”
“Sure,” she forced herself to say.
He ruffled her hair like he would a kid. There was an affectionate
smile on his face, like he’d never tied her up and forced his dick
inside her body. He turned and walked out.
Jen shivered and wished she’d put on a robe. He’d taken all the
warmth with him.
She looked around the gorgeous studio and saw it for what it
was—a pretty little cage. He would keep her here, and then he didn’t
have to deal with her in any way he didn’t control.