Later that night Robert showed her exactly how much he enjoyed a good chase when Veronica decided to wear her new leather jacket, a pair of black panties and nothing else. When he demanded she relinquish the coat, she refused and took off running. He had a foot of height on her, but Veronica had been running for years, so she wasn't easily caught. She ran through his massive home, laughing hysterically when he hit the bottom of the stairs and tripped over his own feet because he was too busy watching the curve of her ass."You're going to pay for that, woman!" he growled, righting himself."You'll have to catch me first!" she shrieked rounding the kitchen island and facing off with him as he stalked toward her.Her heart beat with adrenaline and anticipation. He looked so incredibly yummy as he strode toward her, sexual heat radiating from every line of his body. His dark brown-grey hair was wildly mussed and wet from the shower they just had. His strong jaw was hair roughened and h
Two years laterVeronica didn't have many things that belonged to her. Life had taught her too many hard lessons about broken toys. As a child, things that belonged to her got taken away. Either when she moved homes, or in the homes she was moved to. She learned not to care about things, because it hurt too much when she lost them. Sometimes she would be allowed to keep the things, but the other kids would break them. Then she didn't want them anymore.Veronica was a pretty child. It didn't take long before she became the toy. And it didn't take long after that before she became a broken toy. She stopped keeping things for herself. Until one day, a thing started growing inside her. A thing that she desperately wanted to protect, but knew she would never be allowed to keep. Unless a knight in shining armour came along and rescued her. So instead of allowing her new toy to be torn from her and broken, like all the other toys, like her, she'd screamed and cried and banged on the walls o
Book One: Because You're Mine"She's been hurt."The three simple words sent a chill through Jay's heart, dissolving his annoyance at the interruption. He dismissed the two men he'd been meeting with and turned to Greg with a raised brow. Words weren't necessary. Greg had been his right hand for nine years. He understood exactly how much Allie meant to Jay."Allison was taken to the hospital in an ambulance twenty minutes ago. Preliminary reports say a knife wound to the arm and across her side. The cuts don't appear to be life threatening, but deep enough to need stitches."Jay's fury rose with each word. Renowned as he was for icy calm and deliberate control, Allie was the only person that could draw this kind of feeling from him. He struggled to contain the rage so he could ask the requisite questions. It wasn't necessary. Greg knew exactly what he wanted."She was working in one of the addiction offices at the soup kitchen. Apparently a fight broke out among the clients being
Allie pulled her jacket tighter around her shoulders and tried to curl her legs into her chest without pulling on her fresh stitches. She tried to calm the shivers that wracked her body, but they kept coming. She was laying on a cot, tucked into the far corner of one of the wings of the emergency room in the Regina General Hospital. She wanted to ask for a blanket, but didn't want to disturb any of the busy staff that were rushing by her tiny curtained cubicle.She'd been in the hospital for nearly three hours. The first hour had been waiting to get into the cubicle, the next had been waiting to see a doctor and the third had been waiting for her doctor to sign the release forms. She wished she could say it was just an extra busy day at the hospital. She knew better. It was always like this. She'd accompanied people there on more than one occasion. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to suppress another shiver. Sighing she ran her hand lightly over her arm, avoiding the heavy banda
A few cold words to a rushing nurse promptly produced her doctor. Jay was able to ascertain the extent of her injuries and obtain her release. The doctor assumed Jay was her husband. Jay did not correct the man. Jay asked the doctor if Allie was well enough to fly, his hand tightening on her arm when she gasped in surprise. The doctor confirmed that her wounds weren't serious and would mend with a few weeks. The butterfly stitches could be removed in 10-14 days if they didn't come off on their own. Before Allie could protest his actions, Jay gathered her bag and the jacket that had slid from her shoulders during their prolonged hug. "Anything else?" he asked."I'm not going with you," Allie said, her voice higher than normal as he took her good arm and began steering her back through the busy corridors toward the emergency exit.Jay took a breath of fresh air once they were outside. He didn't like being cooped up in any building, but he especially hated hospitals. He led her towa
"Where are we?" Allie asked. Her voice sounded hoarse and dim to her ears after an hour and a half of flying noise droning in her head.The plane had landed on a private runway in the mountains. Jay took her good arm in a firm grip and helped her from the plane. Weariness settled over Allie as warm afternoon sun shone down on her dark head. She looked around her in tired curiosity as Jay ushered her into the back of a waiting vehicle. "We're just outside of Kelowna," he said."Near mom's place?" Allie asked in surprise.Jay smiled fondly. "I bought a small vineyard in the area not long after she married Rob. It's only a few hours from Vancouver making it an easy weekend home for me.""Why didn't she tell me?" Allie asked. He'd been in the area for years and she hadn't known."I asked her not to," he said, his eyes piercing hers. "I knew it would spook you to have me nearby when you visited. You might have come less often."Allie opened her mouth to deny his words, but then stop
Jay could hardly bring himself to believe that Allie was finally here with him, sleeping in his bed. If he was a better man he would have given her one of the other rooms until she was used to the idea of sharing his. He had spent a lifetime yearning for this woman. Even if her injuries ensured that he couldn't yet touch her, she would sleep in his bed from now on.Her beautiful silky hair, so dark it was almost black, spread across his pillow like a halo. It was much longer than the last time he'd seen her. Of course, he had seen photos, but the reality was even more lovely. The texture was incredibly soft to touch. Her skin was as soft and flawless as he remembered, darker than his. Her mother was Aboriginal and her father's ancestry wasn't known, though Jay had his suspicions given the majority of Vancouver's Eastside population. It didn't matter to him though. He'd always thought Allie was the sweetest, prettiest thing to come out of that cesspool.Allie had always been somewhat
Allie leaned back against the stone wall and glanced moodily at the approaching quad as it made its way over the dirt track toward her. She was hoping it would take longer for Greg to come pick her up this time. Digging her bare toes into the cool blades of grass under her feet, she plucked at the silver and gold cuff bracelet that had been attached to her wrist for the past three weeks. She had quickly deduced that it was used to track her whereabouts and there was no way to get it off.She hadn't seen Jay since she woke up from her doctor's exam. He had explained to a groggy Allie that he needed to tend to business in Vancouver and while he was away she could adjust to her new home. She had quickly discovered her new home was actually a charmingly impenetrable fortress with no way out except through the front gate, to which Allie was routinely denied access, though she tried on a semi regular basis. While she saw other guards on the estate, Allie's only regular companion was Greg.
Two years laterVeronica didn't have many things that belonged to her. Life had taught her too many hard lessons about broken toys. As a child, things that belonged to her got taken away. Either when she moved homes, or in the homes she was moved to. She learned not to care about things, because it hurt too much when she lost them. Sometimes she would be allowed to keep the things, but the other kids would break them. Then she didn't want them anymore.Veronica was a pretty child. It didn't take long before she became the toy. And it didn't take long after that before she became a broken toy. She stopped keeping things for herself. Until one day, a thing started growing inside her. A thing that she desperately wanted to protect, but knew she would never be allowed to keep. Unless a knight in shining armour came along and rescued her. So instead of allowing her new toy to be torn from her and broken, like all the other toys, like her, she'd screamed and cried and banged on the walls o
Later that night Robert showed her exactly how much he enjoyed a good chase when Veronica decided to wear her new leather jacket, a pair of black panties and nothing else. When he demanded she relinquish the coat, she refused and took off running. He had a foot of height on her, but Veronica had been running for years, so she wasn't easily caught. She ran through his massive home, laughing hysterically when he hit the bottom of the stairs and tripped over his own feet because he was too busy watching the curve of her ass."You're going to pay for that, woman!" he growled, righting himself."You'll have to catch me first!" she shrieked rounding the kitchen island and facing off with him as he stalked toward her.Her heart beat with adrenaline and anticipation. He looked so incredibly yummy as he strode toward her, sexual heat radiating from every line of his body. His dark brown-grey hair was wildly mussed and wet from the shower they just had. His strong jaw was hair roughened and h
She was with another man.He could see the pair easily through the diner window. They sat in a booth next to the glass, oblivious to the stream of people passing on the sidewalk, oblivious to the pair of dangerous men observing them. The guy was big and mean looking. Every bit as rugged and confident as Rob. He was tall and muscular with a full head of hair and a dark beard. Every visible inch of the guy's skin was tattooed. He looked like a biker. Someone Rob might hang out with if he didn't intend to kill the guy first chance he got. Veronica's small hand was sitting casually on top of the stranger's hand, as though touching was the norm for these two. The guy looked enthralled with whatever she was saying. Not that Rob blamed him, Veronica would be enchanting while reciting a cookbook.Every muscle in Rob's body vibrated with the need to crash into the diner, tear them apart and then make the man bleed. For a long time. Then murder him, slowly and painfully. Jay chuckled and smack
Rob stopped beating Jay the moment he realized the younger man wasn't fighting back. Well… Rob stopped punching him a few seconds after he realized Jay wasn't fighting him, remembering the look on Veronica's face after Jay had asked how much Rob was paying her for sex. The hurt and devastation in her eyes was almost more than he could bear. He knew he screwed up by attacking Jay instead of going to her and helping her through the hurt. But he'd never had to deal with these types of feelings before. Never cared enough to want to help a woman in emotional distress. The only way he knew how to deal was by beating the shit out of the source of the problem.He turned back to Jay, fire leaping into his eyes and a growl on his lips. "What the fuck is your problem, man?"Jay was doing his best not to double over in pain from the blows he'd taken to his jaw and torso. Rob hadn't been messing around. He knew how to floor a guy in seconds. Fortunately, Jay knew how to take a hit. He grew up on
Was it theft if you're screwing the brains out of the owner of the car? Veronica asked herself, as she stomped on the brakes of Robert's car and ground the gears. She glared at the gearshift and decided it definitely wasn't stealing when it was a stupid standard transmission, something she hadn't driven in years. She was in a damn hurry and she had to re-teach herself how to drive stick shift. She sighed and put the Porsche in first gear before attempting to floor it off the line again. Some guy in a sports car next to her was grinning in amusement.Veronica grumbled and made her way angrily down to the dockyard, hoping that Jay would be there. If he was with Allison last night he might be either at his apartment or still out of the province. Still, she had to try. If he wasn't at the dockyard, she'd try his home next. She hadn't bothered calling him. He'd know that daughter would've called mother by now and mama bear would be on the warpath."You better duck and cover, asshole," she
Veronica squinted around Robert's bedroom. No alarm clock. She wasn't too surprised. She guessed most people just used their smart phones these days. She was old-fashioned and still used an alarm clock. She liked having the radio. She glanced at the grey light filtering through the floor to ceiling bedroom windows and guessed it was probably around 7:00am.She smirked at his sprawled form as she crawled carefully off the bed. This time she was ninety-nine percent certain he was actually asleep. He was on his back with his arms flung out to the sides, snoring his head off. He should be exhausted. They'd made love twice more during the night before finally collapsing in a tangled heap and sleeping off the sex hangover. After their first encounter, they'd gone searching for an evening snack. Robert found her a tub of ice cream and then insisted on feeding her in front of a roaring fire. After eating, he'd explored every inch of her body with both tongue and fingers on top of the rug in
It took her a moment to realize that Robert was on his knees next to her, urging her to breath slowly. She looked him in the eyes and followed his instructions, even though she couldn't hear them through the rushing in her ears. She watched his lips form words. Such beautiful lips. She wanted to trace them with her fingers and her tongue. Would he still want her after watching her have a meltdown?He flashed her a grin and said, "Fuck yeah, I'll always want you, sweetheart."She groaned. Had she said that out loud?He carefully gathered her into his arms and pulled her onto his lap. She went without protest, feeling a little weak and shaky from her freak out. She stared up at him and finally indulged herself by reaching up to touch his full lips. She let her fingers drift to his unshaven cheek and chin, touching the rough, masculine face that fascinated her so much.He squeezed her against his chest. "I would never treat you like something that could be bought," he said in a voice
Veronica grinned under the visor of her brand spanking new pink and black helmet. Never in a million years would she ever have imagined herself on the back of a motorbike, clinging tightly to her very own bad boy, sex god. Pulses of need vibrated through her body as the bike moved underneath them, making her wish she had a little more room to squirm on the leather seat. She loved riding on top of Robert's Harley!She'd just about melted when Robert presented her with the helmet earlier and then pulled it gently over her head, adjusting the fit. Though nervous, she'd stood docilely, excited for her very first ride. While he was busy tucking her hair back, she'd stealthily pulled the receipt that had fallen out of the brand-new leather helmet bag toward her. Her jaw fell open. It was dated and timestamped for two hours after he met her in Jay's office at the dockyard. His eyes met hers and she saw a fierce burning possession in their depths. She also saw a hint of worry. He was afraid o
He slept on his back with an arm flung over his eyes as though trying to stop the light from streaming in the window. She always kept her blinds open, feeling more secure when her room was filled with light. She'd noticed that he always kept the curtains firmly closed in the spare room and that he liked sleeping in. Definitely a trait they didn't share. Veronica was unapologetically a morning person. It used to drive Allie nuts when Veronica was in her room at the crack of dawn on the weekends, demanding she wake up and accompany her down to the beach or someplace else. She wondered how Robert, a former soldier of fortune or mercenary or whatever he used to be, slept so deeply. Weren't these guys supposed to sleep with one eye open and a giant serrated knife under their pillows, ready to cut the throat of the bad guy sneaking up on them? Not that she was complaining. The knife she envisioned didn't go with the frilly purple pillow he was resting against. But seriously, how was this g