by Lora Leigh
Cool silence greeted her as she entered her apartment. It was dim, perfectly neat and spotless, and so cold. Tally stared at the desert tones of the living room. Despite the warm colors, the room was cold, sterile and unwelcoming, just like her life.
Her fists clenched as she fought back the need to move something, anything. To scatter the potpourri filling the jade vase across the floor. To shatter the crystal against the wall. She wanted to destroy the very essence of what her life had become. Sterile. Unlived and unloved.
“Stop it.” She breathed in roughly, pushing herself away from the door and striding quickly through the room. The dining room was no different. The heavy oak table had never known a spot of food spilled on it. She couldn’t remember the last time she had used the stove in the kitchen.
The dark hardwood floor didn’t have so much as a stain on it and her carpets, even after five years, appeared in flawless condition. Her bedroom… She stepped into the room and stared around it silently.
There was no life here. No memories. Not even sullied ones. She had never brought a lover to her home, had never fouled her bedroom with the unnatural desires that twisted through her mind.
She had never realized how perfectly the good sisters had conditioned her. She had never known how empty her life had become until now. Until she had been forced to walk—no she hadn’t walked, she had run—from something she hadn’t realized she needed. Lucian and Devril.
She walked over to the bed, her hand smoothing stiffly over the white bedspread, fighting to ignore the compulsion to clench her fingers into the fabric and rip it to the floor.
Enough. She straightened her shoulders and turned, forcing herself to walk sedately into the bathroom.
She undressed, stuffed the skirt and blouse into the wastebasket before dropping the demi-bra in after it.
She twisted on the cold water to the shower, watching the pounding spray run into the glass cubicle before stepping beneath it. Her breath caught as ice seemed to envelop her skin, pouring through her hair, over her face, stealing her breath. Washing away the proof of the hot tears that finally fell.
Chapter Eleven
Self-control, that much sought after, often sadly lamented virtue, should not have the destructive, unforgiving undertones that Dev had glimpsed in Tally’s wounded brown eyes. It shouldn’t cause a passionate, vibrant woman to deny the very heart of her sexuality, nor leave her sobbing beneath the force of a shower whose chill could be felt outside the glass cubicle she stood within. But that was
exactly what it had done.
Dev and Lucian had known for quite some time that Tally Raines was unique, a challenge unlike any woman they had known in their lives. The fact that they had slowly, over the past year, fallen in love with her, wasn’t the point. They had seen in her a strength of will that often mirrored their own, and a loneliness that echoed in their chests.
He and Lucian had, despite all appearances, lived a quiet, often lonely life. The bond they shared was more intense than most other twins, stemming, he thought, from the fact that they were fraternal rather than identical twins. The first years of their lives they had been largely separated by their divorced parents, seeing each other only occasionally and even then the visits had been brief. Only with the death of their mother after their tenth birthday had they finally been given the chance to know one another.
From that moment on they had been inseparable.
Dev was the quiet one. The one everyone rarely paid much heed to. He preferred to watch the foibles of men and quietly learn from other’s mistakes. Lucian was the more social brother. He thrived amid the high paced, often stressful career he had chosen and gloried in the challenges they presented. Dev was more content to work behind the scenes, to coordinate and see the projects through rather than forging into the fray and doing battle with competitors who would have taken the more lucrative contracts.
It was for this reason that Dev had stood aside and allowed Lucian to begin the first wave of sensual assaults against Tally. She was attracted to both of them, they had both known that from the beginning, though he doubted at that time that she was aware of the carefully plotted seduction and downfall they had arranged for her.
How easily their plans had blown up in their faces. Dev stood outside the shower, leaning against the wall, head lowered, listening to the faint sounds of her sobs. They had made her cry.
He shook his head at that thought. No, they hadn’t made her cry; she had allowed her demands for self-control to cheat her out of the orgasm that had been building within her body. Those same demands had sent her running from them, sent her scrambling to pull the tattered shreds of her pride around her and retreat as quickly as possible from the two men who had seen her downfall.
He moved carefully, slowly, from the bathroom. He didn’t want to alert her of his presence, that in her turmoil she had forgotten to lock her front door and had given easy access to one of the men, he knew, she considered the enemy.
He paced to the bedroom and began preparing it for her. Lucian would arrive later, but for now, Dev was in control and Tally might have figured out how to handle his brother, but she had no idea how to handle him.
He smiled at the thought as he attached restraints to the four corner posts of her bed. The soft nylon wrist and ankle cables would allow just enough freedom of movement to ensure her pleasure while holding her in place so he could assure her freedom from the strict demands of her self-control.
He put several other articles on the bedside table. A tube of lubrication gel, an inflatable butt plug and a thick vibrating gel dildo were laid to one side. Next came a set of vibrating nipple clamps and a small ball gag.
He glanced toward the door as the sounds of falling water ceased. She would be entering the room within minutes, unaware of his presence, her control shaky at best, off balance. He had a feeling that if he
gave her the chance to renew that control then they would all lose. Tally wouldn’t allow herself a chance to fail a second time. She would pull that cool mockery and cold demeanor around her like a cloak of protection and forever keep him and Lucian at arm’s length. He couldn’t allow that. He wouldn’t allow that.
Taking his seat in a comfortable chair across the room, he sat back and waited. His cock was throbbing; so damned hard and engorged he was amazed he could walk. If he had ever had an erection so demanding with another woman, he couldn’t remember it.
The shower door opened, closed. Minutes later the sound of a hair dryer could be heard and Dev sat back to wait. Tally’s hair was long and thick, a sensuous silken skein of midnight-black that fell to her hips and made his hands itch to touch it. It had to be hell to dry, though. He would have loved to stand behind her, wielding the dryer, watching the cool strands slowly dry beneath the heat of the device.
Instead, he sat and waited. The fireworks to come would be hot enough; he didn’t have to tempt an early explosion.
Long minutes later the hair dryer flipped off. Dev sat up straighter in the chair, his eyes narrowing as he watched the doorway. Tally walked through it slowly, her characteristic, sensual glide a little less relaxed than it usually was. Her long hair fell down her back, caressing her hips, but the rest of her body was bare. Bare and perfect. Gold glittered at her nipples and winked at him between her perfect thighs as she came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the floor.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Her eyes nearly glowed in furious heat, her dusky cheeks flushing with anger.
Dev’s brows rose in surprise. Her voice was gritty with emotion, her body fairly trembling with it. This was not the cool, self-possessed siren that had haunted his dreams for so long. This was better. More than he could have expected.
He propped his ankle on his knee, leaning back in the chair as she jerked a long, cream-colored silk robe from the smaller chair by her bed table and pulled it on with quick, angry movements. She still had yet to notice the restraints or the sexual devices on the tab
le.
“Leave,” she snapped as she belted the robe around her slender waist. “Now.” Dev sighed heartily. “I’m not Lucian, Tally. Your anger doesn’t bother me as it does him.” Lucian, despite his often sarcastic attitude in the face of her normally cold temper, had that basic male trepidation when it came to prodding at an unpredictable female. Unlike his brother, it was an art Dev had perfected in his youth and had steadily applied over the years.
“Does jail bother you?” She crossed her arms under her breasts as she stared back at him heatedly.
“Breaking and entering is illegal.”
“The door was unlocked,” he informed her, watching in satisfaction as her eyes widened in shock.
He could read her emotions as clearly as a book now. The cold mockery had been stripped away, leaving bare the woman beneath as she stared back at him with haunting, shadowed emotion.
“I don’t care if it was standing wide open.” She showed her teeth in a snarl that made his dick jerk in arousal. “Pick your ass up and get out.”
Oh, now there was the Tally he knew existed beneath the carefully polished exterior. Vibrant, explosive, her temper was more than a match for the dominance that pulsed thick and hot through his and Lucian’s blood.
He came slowly to his feet, watching her carefully.
“You honestly believe that little performance earlier isn’t going to be addressed, Tally?” he asked her, keeping his voice soft, though he did nothing to hide the annoyance that throbbed beneath it. “You should have expected one of us to show up ready to do battle, if not both.” Her gaze flickered. Dev controlled the pleased smile that crossed his lips. She had expected Lucian and had been confident she could turn him away. She had obviously seen his patience as weakness instead, and thought him easier to control than Dev was.
“Poor Tally.” He sighed. “You’ve misjudged Lucian, but you’ll learn that soon enough. Even worse, you underestimated me. I won’t let you run so easily. The game stops here and now.”
“What is with you two?” she snapped, her voice thick with anger, her face flushed, eyes shining with emotion. Damn, he had thought her beautiful before, but now she took his breath away. “Can’t you accept defeat? Can’t you accept that there’s a woman alive that doesn’t respond to you? You tried, you failed, now leave it alone.”
Her voice broke on the last word, hitching as emotion seemed to crackle like electricity within it.
“I don’t think so.” He stepped closer. “I was unaware that you had taken Lucian and myself for fools.
That we would calmly stand aside and allow you to hide because you’re too frightened to reach out for what you want. You can’t keep that indomitable self-control and find the satisfaction you need, Tally. It won’t work.”
He didn’t touch her. Not yet. He stalked around her, watching her carefully, seeing the naked nervousness in her gaze as she watched him warily. She knew Lucian much better than she did him. He had deliberately held himself away from her, stayed on the outside of her circle of friends, rarely giving her the chance to dissect him with those perceptive eyes of hers.
She did that. Watched people, waiting on them to reveal to her their every dark secret so she could use it to hold them at bay, to insure she had every weapon available to keep them from getting close to her.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” She was breathing roughly, though he could tell she was fighting valiantly to control it. “I hate to prick that ego of yours, Dev, but you and Lucian may not be the walking female orgasms you think you are.”
May not be.He noticed she didn’t state it as a definite. His lips kicked up in a grin.
He stopped behind her, not touching her, not daring to. Her shoulders stiffened, her breathing becoming rougher still as he towered over her.
“Had you waited, you would have had what you needed, Tally.” Her arms uncrossed, her hands falling to her sides and clenching at the material of her robe. He could see the hard rise and fall of her breasts, almost feel her fight for control.
“How like a man,” she sneered. “Perhaps I’m frigid. Isn’t that the standard male excuse?”
“Or perhaps you’re too stubborn, too intent on being in control, on being the Mistress, to ever admit there could be a Master,” he suggested softly. “I know what you need, Tally. I know, and I’m going to make certain you have it.”
She seemed to freeze, stiffening in response, not just to the words, but also the underlying promise that came with them. When she started to run, he was ready for her. He was determined Tally was not going to run anymore.
Chapter Twelve
Tally was in shock. This was not the gentle giant she had always thought of Dev as being. This was a man in his prime, far stronger than she, and determined to have his way. He caught her as she moved to run from the bedroom, a chuckle sounding in her ear as his arms went around her, holding her close. A second later she felt her robe loosen as she struggled against him, fighting to tear herself from his muscular arms as he stripped the robe from her body.
“You bastard!” she raged as he picked her up and tossed her to the bed.
Her fingers curled into claws as fury overwhelmed her. Hot, blinding rage burned in her stomach like acid as she snarled and flailed out at him.
She gained little more than a dark laugh as he straddled her body and within seconds, to her complete horror, had her arms spread and her wrists shackled with soft, padded nylon restraints.
“Let me go.” She jerked at the restraints, staring up at her wrists in disbelief as the slender chains running from the nylon refused to give way.
Instantly his weight was removed, but it wasn’t to release her. She shrieked in disbelief, attempting to jerk her foot from his grip as he began to shackle her ankles. She was now spread eagle, held naked to the bed as he watched her in amusement.
“You son of a bitch!” she screamed, outraged, terrified. No matter how desperately she fought she couldn’t release herself, nor could she stem the rising anger building inside her. “I’ll kill you for this. I’ll carve your dick from your body if you don’t let me go.”
“Such naughty language, Tally,” he chided her in amusement as he sat down on the bed and removed his boots. “Just settle down, baby, and save your breath. You’ll need the energy to scream from pleasure later.”
“Oh, now haven’t I just heard that one before,” she sneered, jerking at the restraints that held her wrists again. “A little overconfident, aren’t you, Dev?”
“Overconfident?” he mused as he stood and unbuttoned the snowy white shirt he wore. “Merely confident, I think.”
Snarling, cursing, Tally fought the restraints, desperately trying to ignore the fact that Dev was undressing
beside her bed. His muscular chest shouldn’t have looked so inviting and when he shed his jeans and the snug boxer briefs, the hard, thick length of his cock shouldn’t have caused her to catch her breath in hunger.
“Damn you, Dev, you can’t do this,” she denied hoarsely, knowing any chance she may have had at rebuilding her defenses was being shot to hell. “Let me go!” He stood at the side of the bed watching her quietly, his eyes going over her body, pausing at her breasts, taking in the hard, fiery points of her pierced nipples. His gaze went lower and Tally closed her eyes in shame, well aware of the thick, glistening juices that coated the plump lips of her shaved pussy.
“Say ‘shoes’,” he said, smiling, his eyes coming back to her. “In every dominant/submissive relationship there’s a safe word. One word that halts any further action and calls a stop to whatever’s taking place.
But I’m warning you, Tally, if you say it, then it’s over. It doesn’t matter how much Lucian and I care for you. It doesn’t matter how much we need you, it’s over. Say ‘shoes’ and I release you and walk away now. If you don’t say it, then you can fight until hell freezes over and as long as your body responds, as long as you find pleasure, there will be no stopp
ing.” The throttled growl of rage that escaped her throat surprised her, and Dev as well, if the flaring of his eyes was any indication.
“Go to hell,” she cursed him furiously. “I’m not begging you for anything, you hulking Neanderthal. Kiss my ass.”
“I’ll spank it instead.” His words had her stiffening in shock a second before she began to fight again.
He released the restraints on her ankles, quickly flipped her over and secured them once again. There was just enough length to the chains at her wrists to allow them to cross and adjust to the new position.
She was panting in surprise and fury, not to mention the excitement beginning to snake through her body.
But it didn’t stop her from fighting as he adjusted the restraints, once again spreading her out.
“Do you have any idea how I’ve fantasized about spanking that curved little ass?” he whispered at her ear, his hand smoothing down her back, then over her buttock. “Watching it blush and burn, then spreading those soft little cheeks and fucking my cock up that tight little hole it hides.” Her head snapped around, her eyes widening in shock and surprise. It wasn’t that she had never had anal sex. Or even a ménage. It was the tone of his voice. Rough, carnal, sinful. His expression matched the tone of his voice. He looked like a fallen angel, his black hair falling over his forehead, his brilliant green eyes glowing with lust.
“It’s going to be so good, Tally.” He smoothed the hair that had fallen to her cheek back from her face.
“I can’t wait to get my cock inside you, no holds barred, fucking you with everything I’ve dreamed of giving you for so damned long.”
His hand landed on the curve of her ass as he finished. It wasn’t a small blow, it wasn’t a timid tap; it stung. It pierced into her womb, flamed through her pussy and had her gasping out in pleasure. And still he watched her, his eyes holding hers, his face close to her as he delivered a similar blow to the other side.