Kenzie kept her eyes shut tight, but she couldn't keep out the violent flashes of memory of everything that had happened tonight. The gun barrel aimed at her head back at the office, which already felt like a lifetime ago. The escape through dark and wet streets to the Gilded Cuff, uncertain if anywhere would be safe. And then the shots, the shattering glass and wood of the pantry door exploding above her.I could have died. The panic filled her with an unexpected rage, and she shook all the harder beneath the hot water."Kenzie, honey" Royce's rough voice drew her slowly out of the depths of her thoughts. She didn't look up, not at first. She was too ashamed, too mortified he was seeing her like this."Honey, please." The shower door opened, and Royce stepped in, still in his clothes, but without his boots. He knelt beside her, then eased onto the tile floor, his arm touching her bare shoulder. He reached his arm around her shoulders, holding her close to him.Kenzie watched his o
Royce stood beside his bed, quietly watching Kenzie as she slipped into sleep. Her breathing slowed and became deeper, and her hands unclenched for the first time in hours. The worry lines that framed her eyes smoothed as she slipped into dreams.Damn, he had to be careful. She was his, but she could never truly be his. And not just because protecting her meant not letting her ruin her career for him. No, it was because life was a cruel bitch.Whenever he thought of loving someone, he was overwhelmed with thoughts of the loss of his parents. The night they died and what had happened to them became a recurring nightmare as his imagination played out what their final moments must have been like. He was watching the runway through a small plane window. The blinking lights of the plane flashing and fading in the thick fog. The white dashes of the runway vanishingthe sudden flash before everything went dark.After the accident, waking up became a routine: His chest constricted until he c
He had to be sure she knew what he meant to do. "Do you understand what you're saying? You were at the Gilded Cuff""I am going to Russia."Emery and Fenn laughed. Hans rolled his eyes. "I'm going to secure the perimeter. I do not want to see whatever you're going to do that poor girl. But considering I found leather cuffs under her bed, I'm guessing she'll be into it." He left the billiard room."Cuffs, huh?" Royce grinned.Kenzie glanced at Fenn, Emery, and finally at Royce. She gulped and didn't respond to his question about the cuffs. Royce nodded at his friend. Emery reached under the pool table and flipped a switch. Two panels by the end of the table opened on the felt surface and two silver rings appeared with handcuffs attached. Perfect restraints to keep a woman bent over the pool table.She stared at the rings, her eyes wide. "What are those?""It's not too late to back out, Little Mac. No hard feelings." Royce prayed she would give in and go back upstairs. Who knew whe
My ass hurts.That was the first thought that crept into Kenzie's head when she woke up. Bright sunlight shone through the windowpanes where the curtains had been pulled to the sides. She winced as she sat up and pushed the covers back. The sheets were heavy and softtoo softand the room she was in was lavishly decorated with antique furniture, not the cheap IKEA stuff from her apartment. A trickle, then a flood of embarrassing memories came back to her. She covered her face in her hands.Oh my God, I let my professor spank me last night. In front of his friends.She peeked between her fingers, checking to make sure the room was in fact empty. It was. Then she slipped out of bed and dashed to the bathroom. Her toiletry bag sat on the counter. Hans had been really thorough when he'd retrieved her stuff. She hastily brushed her teeth before she had the courage to tug down the pajama pants and look at her ass in the mirror.It was a light-pink shade and still incredibly sensitive. Ever
Royce hated planes. He didn't used to, but since he lost his parents, he'd viewed them as giant deathtraps. The pilot announced their flight time and the weather conditions on the way to Moscow, and Royce's stomach knotted. He'd flown often over the years but had never gotten over the ache of his memories of that tragic night.He would sit frozen in his first-class seat of the Boeing 747 and not be able to breathe. The engines would come to life and the flight attendant would walk the length of the cabin, calm and casual, but nothing could distract him from his fear. He would grip the armrest until his knuckles were white, even before takeoff.Every time the memories of losing his parents came back, they were as dark and heavy as a midnight sea, drawing him down into their depths.Royce grinned as he, Wes, and Emery raided his dad's liquor cabinet and sat in the den watching TV. His parents wouldn't get home until late tonight, and they could hide the empty bottle of Jack Daniel's l
Moscow was a strange mix of the past and present. Kenzie stared at the sights from inside the private cab that took them from the airport to the hotel. The famous multicolored onion domes of Saint Basil's Cathedral shimmered in the distance, accented like a castle in a foggy world, backlit by snowy skies. The streets were full of tourists and locals bustling along the icy streets, coats clutched tight with woolen scarves blowing in the wind.Beside her, Royce leaned back in the cab, seemingly at ease, his gaze distant. He'd been silent for much of the long flight, and she was afraid that spending most the time cuddled against him asleep had been a mistake. What if he was regretting letting her come? What if he didn't want her here? That led to worse questions.What if he doesn't want me at all?When they'd been together in the shower, he'd come so close to kissing and then after he punished her, he'd said things that had given her hope. Not that she should hope. They couldn't go dow
"So, are we going to talk about it?" Hans asked as he and Royce climbed in the back of their hired SUV.Royce leaned back, resting his head on the headrest as he stared straight ahead. "Talk about what?" Hans had the most amazing way of making him feel like he was a ten-year-old boy and not a man of thirty-three."About the fact that you basically told your grad student you want to fuck her brains out. Are you fraternizing with students now?""No. There's a fuck ton of paperwork involved, for one thing. And I would have to stop working with her. If it's handled wrong, it could damage the academic integrity of any research we did together.""Jesus. Why didn't you send her somewhere safe if she's such a temptation to you?" Hans asked. "She would have been fine at Fenn's ranch in Colorado."Royce watched the streets of Moscow blur as their driver sped up when the street cleared. He didn't want to admit it, but he'd told Kenzie the truth. As a Dom, he had a natural urge to protect his
Royce glanced at Rurik. The man was flexing his hands and curled them into fists, a growl barely audible. Dimitri's words sank in, and Royce felt his stomach heave. His blood began to boil."You mean human trafficking."Dimitri slipped his hands into his pockets. "Yes. He's one of the biggest traders in the flesh markets."If there was one thing in the world that could change Royce's mind about killing a man in cold blood, it was sex trafficking. The monsters who did that to women, who stole their freedom, their bodies, their livesit was a fate worse than death. It was hell. Royce stared down at the vial of ricin in his hands, and made his decision."Then he's a dead man," Royce said. He wasn't going to let someone like Vadym continue breathing if he had a say in the matter. It wouldn't stop human trafficking in general, but he was going to stop this bastard if he could.Hans looked to Dimitri. "Guess that's that. Where can we find him? You mentioned the club he gets into?""It's