ReclaimedSurrender (3 page)

“Well?” He stood there. An immovable force waiting for her
to seal her fate.
In or out. Marriage or no marriage
.
Say something.
Do something. Nod
!
She did.

Apparently he wasn’t convinced. He wanted clarification.
“For the week you’ll do all that I tell you to do. Say it.”

“Yes.” Even though it killed her to give in to him when
she’d been so strong over the last few months and to fold and accept this
ultimatum, she did. When he gave her that look. The one she’d secretly missed
for so long, her gaze lowered to the floor and she bowed her head. “Yes, I will
do all that you tell me to do.”

The alarm went off but Alexis didn’t need it. She’d been
awake for hours trying to imagine what the next week was going to bring. Rene
was a force to be reckoned with when he was on a mission and right now his
mission was her. He’d been on the warpath with her ever since her career had
begun to skyrocket. Her success hadn’t been part of the future he’d planned for
them. Hadn’t he figured that out quick enough when he announced a year ago that
it was time they tried for a family? After all, the culmination of his
three-year plan was fast approaching and he’d fully expected her to be ready,
but she wasn’t and that’s when things started falling apart.

She had her own opinion as to why things between them had
gone bad. In her mind he’d created the workaholic she was now. He was the one,
with his extended business trips, eighteen-hour work days and seven-day work
weeks, which had inspired her to become just like him. She learned well how to
fill up her life with an all-consuming career to feed the loneliness he’d left
her to in the beginning of their marriage and now that she had, he expected her
to drop it all. Put it aside and make him happy by falling in with his
three-year plan?

She sighed, rolled over and scrunched the pillow against her
cheek. It wasn’t as soft as hers, the downy one in their bed that he’d
commandeered, but she was prepared to accept it. Just as she’d accept
everything else he was going to throw at her for the next seven days. She’d do
it because she agreed to do it. Plain and simple.

Liar.
The thought that the current situation would
break the sexual standoff between them wasn’t far from her every thought. She’d
been dying for him to make the first move and end all this for months and he
hadn’t.

She buried her face in the pillow and groaned.

How could she want this when
said
standoff had
started with her terrible accusation? They were her words carelessly flung that
shattered a good many things in an instant, but the most important was an
intimate trust their relationship needed to survive. The worst part? Once it
was out there, there was no taking it back. And she was still so conflicted,
she didn’t know if she would, even if she could.

The irony of that wasn’t lost on her because the only time
she forgot the whole world was when Rene took complete control over her sexually.
Not that they hadn’t had their share of straight vanilla sex. They had. In fact
they’d had plenty of conventional sex since they’d been together and it was all
good, but it was all those other times. The raw, rock-you-to-the-core
encounters that made her mindless and careless. That was the problem. He had
complete control over her during those sessions and they both liked the Dom-sub
dynamic. But now it was dangerous. He’d proven that six months ago. The last
time they were intimate.

Her business partner, Michael Kavanagh, had warned her about
guys furthering their agendas, but Alexis hadn’t wanted to believe that Rene
would do something so underhanded. Yet? Had he really forgotten the condom that
night? Sure, it had been a frantic scene. It usually was when he controlled her
all evening. That night hadn’t been any different. A dinner out, where he’d
heated her with endless strokes of his hand. Bringing her to the edge only to
deny her and cool her with his look. That sexy, smoldering look that had the
power to melt her insides like ice in a hot oven and had the strength to make
her just as wet without a touch.

She barely remembered getting through the front door that
evening before he’d slammed her against the wall. He’d had her skirt up and her
panties off so fast it had all been a blur. A wonderful, heart-pounding,
blood-soaring, nail-raking blur, until it was over. Then reality sank in and
she realized that her business partner was right about men and their motives.
Rene hadn’t bothered to use protection because Rene wanted a baby. With
Michael’s warning echoing in her mind she’d spoken the words aloud. Going one
step further by suggesting that he’d used the power he had over her sexually to
take advantage of the situation. Worse, she mentioned Michael and his prophetic
prediction and theory of ulterior motives.

Rene didn’t deny it. All he had done was tell her that an
answer was beneath him. He’d gotten halfway up the stairs, she recalled, before
he’d stopped and said, “Go to the pharmacy tomorrow. They do make pills for
this kind of mistake. Oh, and you’re right to be suspicious of motives, you’re
just dead wrong about whose are suspect.”

Even now her heart ached recalling the expression on his
face. The bleakness in his eyes. This wasn’t the first time she’d tried to
understand what she’d seen there. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

She sighed and growled, “You should have pulled the naked
card before it came to this. Now you have nothing and his deck is stacked.”

Six long months ago. That was the last time they’d had sex
of any kind. And with each passing week the distance between them broadened and
the elephant in the room gained weight until she had no choice but to
emotionally remove herself from it and keep busy. Yet, thinking about Rene’s
words, his demeanor and the look she recognized as fury on his face when he had
laid down the law last night? She knew she’d have no space from him the second
she got out of this bed until his week and this exercise was over. Rene had
always made it clear he wanted more from her than mere sexual submission and
possibly there was a time when she might have given him what he wanted, but—

Buzz.

She sat up and grabbed her cell phone.
Rene
… Pushing
her hair out of her eyes, she braced herself because, freaking hell, she wasn’t
even out of bed yet and already it started? She read,

I want you to bring a change of clothes to the office
with you. Something dressy to wear out after work. Keep your phone with you.
I’ll text you throughout the day. R.

She didn’t doubt it.

Her phone buzzed again.

I also left instructions for you taped on the guest bath
mirror. R.

“Crap.” She dropped the phone and fell back against the
pillows. She’d intended to wallow is some self-pity. Do a little bit of “oh woe
is me” before “woe” really was her, but oddly enough the only thing that stuck
out in her mind was that she’d rather have to deal with Rene and his dominance
than face Michael today at work after what he’d pulled. She stared at the
ceiling. No, she’d deal with Michael on her own. She still wasn’t sure what had
gotten into him. Ever since she’d confided in him six months ago he was
different toward her. More aggressive in an odd way. She’d thought he’d taken
up the role of surrogate big brother, but there was nothing brotherly about the
kiss he planted on her when they were away in Chicago. She still couldn’t
believe it.

Shooting a sidelong glance at her phone, she winced. She had
bigger problems than a misguided coworker. She thought about Rene and
automatically shivered. Bigger and problem didn’t even tip the scale when it
came to her deliciously domineering husband.

Three minutes later Alexis collected the note and
reluctantly read the instructions. Two sentences in and that familiar
exhilaration bloomed in the pit of her stomach and fluttered in tingly waves
between her legs.

Starting at eleven o’clock this morning, I want you to
text me once every hour until five o’clock. I expect you to describe in fifty
words or less something I’ve done to you in the past that has turned you on. I
want more than just kisses and cuddles, Alexis, because we both know what a
dirty girl you are.

She sucked in a breath, reading the last bit again, and
looked at herself in the mirror. “Damn it.” One handwritten note from him and
she was right back into the thick of it. Well, if her glassy eyes and flushed
cheeks were any indication.

I want you to go back to the beginning of our
relationship and tell me when you first connected your special preferences with
mine. I want the truth, Alexis. I’ll know if you’re holding back. I always know
when you’re holding back, don’t I? Please me. Every hour on the hour and don’t
be late. No more than fifty words. I’ll be counting.

R.

A few hours later Alexis was knee-deep in paperwork and,
damn it all to hell, she couldn’t put thoughts of Rene aside for even a moment
to be productive with anything in front of her. If she and Michael were going
to get this stuff off to Texas today she needed some help from him. So, even
though he was the last person in the world she wanted to face right now, she
made the trek to his office.

“Good morning, Jennifer, is he in?”

“Mr. Kavanagh has been in and gone. He did leave you this.”

Alexis carefully unfolded the paper. She wasn’t sure what to
expect after what happened over the weekend. With an inner cringe she read his
note and breathed easier.

Al,

I got the quote to Salenger. Filed those invoices with
the finance department and banged out the estimates to the Telcon brothers (the
others will be done by early afternoon). I need you to do those acquisitions we
talked about and I’ll need those numbers on my desk before the two o’clock
deadline.

M.

I need…
An image of Michael bending over her
muttering those exact words shot through her brain and sank to her stomach
until a wave of nausea roiled and churned.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded, realizing she’d been standing in front of
Jennifer’s desk staring down at the note for far too long. “Yes, sure, I’m
fine.”

Turning, she walked away and decided she was far from fine.
Because even though she’d told Michael she’d forget about what he did, that
she’d consider it a bout of temporary insanity on his part, brought on by her
unwisely confiding in him, she couldn’t push aside the image of him kissing
her. Nor could she blot out the echo of the words he’d spoken before he swooped
down and took what wasn’t offered to him.

I need a woman like you.

When he pulled her against him she hadn’t participated.
She’d been too shocked to do more than blink in stunned disbelief. When he’d
finally released her, he didn’t say anything else. He just turned and walked
off.

Now today he was leaving notes, as if nothing had happened?
Crapatola. She had enough problems to deal with, she didn’t need this. She
crumpled and tossed the paper into the stainless can under her desk. Collapsing
in her chair, she let the guilt rise up and strangle her. If she hadn’t
unloaded on him about her relationship troubles after dinner that night, maybe
he wouldn’t have—

Her phone buzzed and she jumped. She knew it was Rene. She
was tempted not to look, but she’d promised him she’d see her way through the
week. Now, more than ever, she was prepared to do it.

Get a bottle of water and go down to the north end of the
atrium for thirty minutes. Sit in the sun and relax.

She stared down at his instructions.
Relax?
There was
no relaxing in her current state of mind. Her cell went off again.

Alexis?

Oh for crying out loud. She answered,
“’K.”

Ten minutes later she seated herself in one of the puffy
leather chairs that were nicely heated by the sun streaming through the
glass-domed ceiling in the atrium when she heard it. A deep and familiar
laughter. That was Michael, she was sure of it. Was he purposely avoiding her?
Hiding out down here? Strangely that gave her a little comfort. She took a sip of
water and leaned back in the chair, listening to the distant exchange of
voices. It sounded like a crowd had gathered. Not that she could see them
through the foliage wall.

Taking another sip, she sighed and rolled her shoulders. As
the tension began to ease, she closed her eyes and relaxed just as Rene had
instructed.

Rene.

She concentrated on him and thought about his other
instructions. Warmed by the sunshine, she leaned back, sinking deeper into the
couch and mulled over what she could text to him about the beginning of their
relationship.

The first thing that came to her was the movie theater. She
tried to envision that night. To recall the power of it. So innocent now that
she was able to view it through the distance of their rawer experiences together.
Even still, when the images began to surface she thrilled with the brief but
poignant chills that zipped through her.

They’d sat side by side in the theater that night. He’d let
her pick the movie. In the beginning, Rene was careful to let things evolve at
her pace and this was right at their very beginning, only their fifth date. It
was a time when she did nothing but think about him every minute of the day.
Watch her phone and wait for him to call and later lie in bed alone and imagine
him touching her. Even now she could practically smell his cologne. That unique
blend that he’d let her pick out for him on their third date, which turned out
to be the exclusive scent he wore during their intimate sessions. At the time,
she hadn’t known how solidly she’d connect with it or how much it would come to
mean to her. How she’d crave it. Thinking about it now made her restless.

With a deep breath she focused on the two of them in the
movie theater that night.

“Are you comfortable, Alexis?” he’d asked in that authoritative
tone of his. The one that made her insides melt and her heart race under her
rib cage.

“Yes.” She remembered she’d leaned toward him, until her
shoulder was pressed against his biceps. “Are you?”

He never answered. He just pushed his elbow out at an angle,
wordlessly directing her to slide her arm around his. When she had he’d
readjusted until she was captured and happy. Not wanting that moment to end
because she was sure that it didn’t get better than that, but Rene blew that
position out the water a few minutes later when he’d dropped his big hand to
her knee and squeezed her as if he knew all her secrets. The very idea had sent
blazing shots of electric tingles up her thigh, through her skin and penetrated
muscles deep into her core. That was the first time she’d felt anything in that
part of her body without actual physical stimulation being applied and the
realization had made her jerk. She probably would have made some excuse for the
sudden movement if Rene hadn’t reacted.