His hands started to slide over my body possessively, making me immediately aroused. But his eyes never left mine.
"I meant what I said, Elle. You are coming back with me."
I stared at him. I was going to give this a try. I’d promised him that.
“I told you I would.”
He squeezed me in approval.
"No more running."
"No more running."
"Promise me."
"I promise."
That seemed to appease him because he smiled for the first time since I had woken. But it wasn’t a nice smile. It looked… predatory. He wasn't looking at my face now, anyway. His fingers were trailing over the hard tips of my breasts. I gasped at the sensation.
"Are you hungry, Elle?"
I was ravenous. But I wanted him more. And judging from the torpedo in his lap, he wanted me too.
Maybe for longer than I’d imagined a bad boy like Jake Delancey ever would.
I smiled at him.
"I can wait."
The serious look lifted from his eyes for the first time since I saw him on the plane. The cocksure smile was back.
"Good. I'll try to take less than an hour this time."
He lifted me up and carried me back to bed.
He took more than an hour.
By the time we ordered room service, it was time for lunch.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jake
"Easy boy. That's it. Nicely done, Thunder.”
I eased the bridle off the exhausted stallion. I was working with the new horse again this morning, just like I’d been doing twice a day, every day since I got back from New York. I found that wearing the stallion out was the best way to teach him. When the animal was exhausted and well ridden, his resistance was much lower. The natural urge for independence dropped.
Eventually it would be second nature to the ornery creature to follow my lead.
I was sort of doing the same thing with Elle.
Not sort of.
I was doing exactly the same thing with her.
Each night I kept her up and busy. So busy that she could not even think about running. I worked her thoroughly all night, with a firm and practiced hand, until she fell into a satisfied slumber. I made sure she was too tired and sated to even think about leaving me again.
Of course, I ended up pretty fucking satisfied too.
I was satisfied in a way that felt real, deep, and lasting. More so that I’d ever been in my entire life. All the way down to my bones.Bone satisfied. No pun intended.
I grinned and patted the stallion.
Taming Elle was a difficult job, but somebody had to do it.
I was brushing Thunder down when one of the workmen I’d hired came to find me.
"Mr. Delancey? It's ready."
"Thanks Steve."
I held out an apple for Thunder. A special reward only offered on days he was agreeable. It was gone in the blink of an eye. I gave him one last affectionate pat and followed Steve to the former tack shed. From the outside it still looked like a hundred year old stone and beam building. Well kept and serviceable, but old. But inside, it was something else entirely.
Padded walls, retro looking furniture and a glass wall that separated the equipment from a small room set up with studio instruments. Concert posters on the wall. Funky lights. Soft chairs and couches in electric blue.
I’d built my woman a recording studio.
“What do you think? Will she like it?”
I grinned and slapped Steve on the back.
"It's perfect."
Chapter Twenty-Four
Elle
I bent over the figures, entering each into the software that Mrs. Garret had taught me to use. The woman was getting on and needed help with the household expenses. It was just one of the things that I had learned to do to help in running the estate. Jake had insisted on it. He refused to let me stay on as the hired help. Helping him and his brothers run things was apparently a different matter. He kept hinting at a possible marriage proposal. That I was part of the family now, and would always be. But I doubted he would actually ask me anything.
Knowing Jake, he would inform me of our upcoming nuptials, the time, the place, even what I would be wearing.
He insisted on a lot of thing lately. Not that I minded. After all, he looked damn good giving orders.
I looked up to see him standing in the doorway watching me. As usual he looked supremely relaxed on the outside, but there was something tightly coiled inside him. A drive. A need. And like he wanted to have his way with me. I felt an answering warmth spread through my body.
"You're as sneaky as a cat,” I said, hiding the flutters he gave me.
He just smiled at me, looking a bit smug. That was usual too. I adored my arrogant young man though. Just the way he was. Prickles and all.
I was a bit prickly myself.