Master of Desire by Lacey Alexander (read out loud books .TXT) 📕

but I can promise you this—she’s made a fool  of me for the first and last time.”

Above him, Shaena let out a heavy breath. “Made a fool of you? Is that all you can see that happened here?”

He looked up at her, met her gaze. “You knew.”

As one wrist came free, he folded his hand  into a fist, trying to get the feeling back into it. Shaena broke the gaze and made  her way around to where his other  hand wasbound. “I knew you wouldn’t  like it, and I told her that—but yes, I knew her plan. And  I hoped maybe I was wrong, that maybe you would be more charitable to the idea of permitting Teesia to have a little control in your relationship.”

He swung his gaze around to look at  her in her new spot. “Control in our relationship, she could have had— did  have. Control in this bed, like  this —” he motionedto his bindings, “—no, that just isn’t in me.”

Shaena nodded as she fought  at the knot. “Even so, she was simply tryingto…surprise you.”

“It worked,” he grunted.

“And ultimately to  please  you,” she went on  pointedly. “She thought that  since she  enjoyed submitting to  you so deeply that  you might discover you enjoyed submission,  too.”

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“Clearly, I have given her too much freedom,”  he said as his other hand came loose.

“Clearly, you’re taking what happened here tonight far too seriously.”

It was as the two of them finally succeeded in untying the last knots and  Ralen  reached for his pants that Laene burst in  the room—looking surprised to  see Ralen  naked with Shaena, given the recent  developments in all their lives.

Ralen was in no mood to humor him—he only snarled. “Don’t worry—your  beloved hasn’t betrayed you.” Then he sighed. “Mine  has betrayed  me.”

Laene’s pale eyebrows knit. “Then maybe that explains…”

“What?” Ralen jerked his head up.

“One of the guards said he saw Teesia go  racing up the beach on  horseback. I was  certain he must’ve been mistaken, but came to make sure.”

Ralen pushed to his feet. “No, the man wasn’t mistaken—my dear wife tied me up here, made a mockery  of our sex,  then apparently went haring off into the night.” He reached for the black leather vest on the floor, then raised back up.  “Let me guess. She  was heading north, fleeing home to Daddy.”

Laene confirmed it with a nod. “Exactly.”

“Well, she won’t get there. Bring Charger around.  Now.”

“What are you going to do?” Shaena rounded the bed, her voice filled with worry. Worry for the woman who had betrayed him. He shook his head, disgusted—since  when did Shaena’s loyalties shift so quickly?

“I’m going to find her,” he said simply.

“And then?”

“Then she’ll learn that punishment is not always a game.”

* * * * *

Ralen slapped the reins against Charger’s  neck, driving him up the beach at breakneck speed. His wanton little wife might think she had escaped, but she didn’tride  that  well and Charger would catch Vixen with ease.

His chest still burned with anger—anger and…hurt. He didn’t like to admit that,even to himself. It had been a long time since he’d allowed someone to get close enough to him to hurt him. But Teesia had succeeded, and it was ripping his heart out.

Rounding a bend along a narrow stretch of  sand, he caught sight of her in the moonlight, her black hair streaming behind her  in the wind as she raced north. The very sight of her pummeled him inside, made him want to wound her as badly as she’dwounded him, made him want to punish her  more severely than either of them could even imagine.  Why did you have to do that to me, Teesia? What did you have to do that to  us ?

He drove Charger on, faster, faster, hooves  beating against the sand, until he was bearing down on her. When she  looked over  her shoulder to find him directly behind

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her, her gaze filled with fear.  Well you  should  fear me, vixen, he thought, and drew his horse alongside the sorrel as the expanse of sand widened around them.

She’d turned back ahead now, but in his mind he still saw her  eyes. Love, hate, pain—it all mingled inside him, building,  building, as the sea winds slashed through  the night.

I love you, I hate you.

He despised the fear in  her eyes, despised—suddenly—being a man who made her  feel that way. And yet—was he to simply let her rule him? Hurt him? Take him back to  those awful days of helplessness with his father? How could he feel anything  but brutal anger toward her, the need to punish, the  need to make her obey—once and for all,  forever.

He rode near enough to grab the reins at  her mount’s neck, wrenching them from her grip as their legs crushed together between the horses’ bodies, slowing them both,  until finally he latched fiercely onto her arm and pulled them both off the horses’ backs.

They tumbled roughly to the soft sand, their limbs mingling, and when she pushed to her feet, ready to run, he yanked  at her leg, dragging her back down.

Their gazes met, hers a vibrant blue beneath the light of the moon and still filled with pure terror. He wanted to kill her.

Instead, he kissed her.

He didn’t know why, but he bracketed  her face with his hands  and brought his mouth down hard and demanding on hers. He kissed her so hard he wondered if hewere bruising them both, but he didn’t stop,  couldn’t  stop. Something deeper than even his fury drove him.

He pushed her to her back in the sand and  covered her body with his, tearing at theties on her vest, needing to get to her. She whimpered beneath him, her hands in his hair, clutching at his shoulders until he sank his mouth hungrily to her  breast. He suckled her harshly and she cried out—pleasure-pain, that blessed, cursed pleasure-pain that  seemed to rule them—then kissed  her other breast just as vigorously, drawing his hands from the lush mounds only to  work at the opening on