Doctor's Orders: The Complete Series (19 page)

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Doctor’s Orders
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Doctor’s Orders
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Finally…

The Wolf’s Captive
, a full-length BDSM erotic romance set in the world of J’Amel, is now out! It tells the story of how a Duke’s heir finds – and claims – his mate. There’s a hot excerpt included below…

Thanks again! I hope you enjoyed reading
Doctor’s Orders
as much as I enjoyed writing it. ;)

Till the next book!

Chloe Cox

A
N
E
XCERPT
F
ROM
T
HE
W
OLF’S
C
APTIVE

The Wolf’s Captive
is a full length BDSM erotic romance set in the historical fantasy city of J’Amel. I’ve always loved historical romance, but I couldn’t find a historical period that would let me invent a crazy free love holiday like Bacchanal, so I had to make it up – hence the fantasy part. :)

It’s the raunchy, decadent holiday of Bacchanal, and Lucia Lyselle is just hoping to make it through intact. But then her father is arrested, and Lucia is held captive by the brutal Lord Cesare Lupin. She’ll have to submit to Lord Cesare’s sexual domination for the duration of the Bacchanal if she hopes to win her father’s freedom. But she doesn’t expect to fall in love – and she doesn’t expect that she’ll have to choose between her family and Lord Cesare...

Lord Cesare Lupin has come back from war afflicted with an ancient curse. If he can’t find his mate, he’ll turn into a mad, blood-thirsty beast, and the city that is his responsibility will suffer. Just his luck that his mate turns out to be the daughter of a man accused of treason…

T
HE
W
OLF’S
C
APTIVE

She was the traitor.

The anger came upon him. And it felt good. Familiar. Comfortable.

No
, he reminded himself, fists clenched,
that is not proved.
Daughter to a likely traitor, then. Possible conspirator. And it was her who had nearly been raped by Paolo Ramora at the Dance of Seasons. Paolo Ramora, whom he had
ordered
to deliver him the vintner’s daughter.

And now a wave of guilt washed over him, and he was almost grateful for that, too, as it momentarily dampened the fire he felt at the sight of her. What that must have been like, for her, to be compelled to follow the Ramora scum. Under what circumstances would she subject herself to that? How desperate would she have to be?

Desperate…or cunning. Possibly both. It was natural for him to be suspicious of the idea that there might truly be somebody for him, and he hated himself for it. It only made it worse that he knew he was right to be suspicious.

“Is anybody there?” she called out, her voice catching.

Miserable, he watched her eyes dart to and fro beneath her mask, her body tight and ready for flight, like a frightened animal. She was pressing some strange parcel to her belly as though worried someone might try to snatch it away from her, and he wasn’t entirely surprised when she dashed to the shadows at the edge of the cavern and stuffed it into a crevice. He knew she couldn’t see the entire chamber, would only be tormented by the shadows, and the suggestion of what lurked within. Which was him, mostly, but she also had no idea why she’d been left alone. He watched her slowly get her bearings, watched her try to calm her heaving chest — he was ashamed for being distracted by her breasts at that moment — and then saw her turn to the dinner setting.

He’d thought himself so clever when he planned that. Always keep a prisoner off balance during an interrogation. Pain, and then comfort; enemy, then friend. Disorient them enough, show them just a bit of human kindness, and eventually they want to confess. Everyone wants to confess, in the end. It’s human nature.

He smiled bitterly at that thought. Human nature, indeed. He envied them their confessions. It was a luxury he would likely never have again.

This interrogation demanded that he be in complete control of himself, and he knew already that this was not possible. He had to have her. Over and over again, he had to have her, or he’d lose what was left of his mind, right here in this cold underground cavern. The one woman he’d ever found that he genuinely needed, and now he had to discover if she was a traitor who hoped to kill him. He turned his rage to the stone and raked his hand across its rough edges, leaving four long marks, a growl rising unbidden in his throat, and stepped into the torchlight.

She stumbled a few frightened steps backwards.

“Do you recognize me?” he asked, stepping fully into the light.

He could see her mind working furiously behind those beautiful green eyes. Of course she recognized him; the entire city knew what he looked like. She was trying to figure out why he was there.

“I think possibly I’m hallucinating,” she finally said.

“You are not hallucinating.”

“That really seems like the most likely explanation,” she said. He noticed her breathing had become quite shallow. There was sweat glistening between her breasts, and the slight smell of sex. He took a deep breath that he felt all the way to his feet. It did not help.

“Remove the mask,” he ordered.

She did.

“I recognize you, Lucia Lyselle. You refused to tell me your name.”

“I’m sorry.” Her voice was so slight. He stepped towards her and saw how his every motion registered in her body. It wasn’t fear, not of him. It was confusion, and struggle, and…something else. She danced with him, even if she didn’t know it. He gripped the back of one chair and felt the wood give beneath his hands.

She was calling
the beast
forth.

“Why did you come here tonight?” he asked.

“Paolo Ramora asked me to.”

Lucia’s face darkened at this, her mouth tightened. Someone less familiar with the act of containment, of self-control, of hiding in plain sight, might not have noticed. Cesare did.

“The boy from the Dance of Seasons.”

“Yes.”

“The one who —”

“
Yes.
”

It had been a long time since anyone had cut Lord Cesare Lupin off in conversation, longer still since anyone had used such a tone to do it. He couldn’t help but marvel at her. So unlike any woman he had ever met.  The sight of her determination, and the smell, now, the unmistakable smell of desire, was overpowering. His cock was growing, waking like a hungry animal.

“May I sit down?” she asked, and began to pull out the heavy chair opposite him. She
asked
. The suggestion of her obedience to him, wrapped around the steel she so clearly carried within herself, was irresistible. He gave an order just to see it obeyed.

“No.”

She froze. He licked his lips.

“I want to see you. Stand where you are, and face me.” Her chest heaved rapidly up and down, up and down, and a red flush had begun to spread out from her bosom, but she did as she was told.

“Do not move unless I order it.”

He walked out from behind the chair, and watched as her eyes fell to his groin. She bit her lip, and the thing inside him howled for a taste of her. He paused for a moment, knocked back by the image of her on her back, legs spread, arching those beautiful breasts towards him. It was all he could do to remember to breathe.

She stood motionless, waiting. Breathing. He could
hear
her breathing.

Slowly he tested one foot, then the other. He was able to move without giving in. He must remember: she could be a traitor. She might make a fool of him. She might be tricking him right now. It would be the tragedy of his life, but it wouldn’t surprise him. It would only fit with everything he had ever been taught about himself.

He had to find a way to get at the truth. This was always something he’d been able to do, to play the pliant minds of enemies until they sang for him, until they willingly gave up their secrets. He could always find a way in.

He could always make them submit, in some way.

“Why listen to Paolo Ramora, after they way he treated you? Did you want to go with him?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t…I don’t particularly like him. No.”

“Then why follow him?”

“Because I need his help.”

Cesare walked slowly around, studying her from every angle. If she were lying…well, this wouldn’t even have to be a lie, would it, if she were part of the plot. She would have needed help. He darted towards her, stopping inches away. She closed her eyes, and sighed, and Cesare looked down to find her nipples poking through her thin dress.

It was incredible. Everything he felt for her — the way he felt his need for her in his very blood, the way she focused him into a fine, single, clear edge, the way her smell brought him back to himself, the way she was simultaneously maddening and calming — it was all reflected back to him, in her. She felt it too. He was sure of it.

But the body and heart need not be one
, he reminded himself.

“Why do you need his help?” he said, his voice hoarse.

“My father,” and here he saw her swallow, had to remind himself again that it might all be a ruse, that he could not simply take her in his arms, “my father is in trouble. He has been arrested.”

“Why? What has he done?”

Cesare saw a tendril of her copper hair fall across her face as she nodded forward, in grief or deception, he no longer cared, and without thinking he reached out to tuck it back behind her ear.

She leaned into his touch.

He nearly took her right there.

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

He forced himself away from her and stalked back to his chair, falling into it with something akin to relief. She still hadn’t moved. She had remembered his order. That she might be so complimentary to his own extreme tastes made it all the worse. His mind buzzed with an animal awareness that she was his, and he, hers. No matter what had come before, no matter what women he had known, there would be no others for him, after her. Even the memories of his many conquests were obliterated when he thought of her. He never expected to feel this way, and felt grateful for the chance to feel it now, even once. He would even accept her hatred, as he expected he would have to do.

But he had to know. For both their sakes.

“No one is arrested without cause in J’Amel,” he said slowly.

“It’s something to do with the Vintner’s Guild,” she blurted out. She sounded angry; she was not one to cry easily, then. “The soldiers came after his still, asking about his vintages. And that’s why I came here with Paolo, his father is the Guild’s banker, and I thought he might know, maybe he would help if I agreed…”

One of Cesare’s skills as an interrogator was knowing when to stay silent. He did so now, but Lucia seemed unable to finish that thought.

“My father is not good with figures and records, and with…paperwork,” she continued at last, the anger draining away, leaving only sadness. “Taxes, and import duties, and…I help him, with things like that. It’s possible…”

“Yes?”

“It’s possible that I made a mistake,” she said quietly. Cesare watched the horror of that possibility play out on her face, as though it were occurring to her for the first time. If she were innocent, he was a monster, to do this to her. To the woman he inexplicably knew owned his damaged heart.

If she were not…well, they were both doomed, in that case.

Of course she could never care for you
, a voice inside his head sneered, a voice he remembered well.
Of course she would rather see you dead. How could she care for a monster like you?

Even if she were innocent — the voice inside his head laughed — even if she were innocent, he’d still have to prove it, or watch her hang with her father.

“Why am I here?” she asked him directly, and there was that flash of steel again. Of intelligence, and resistance. And yet he was certain he’d felt the desire to yield in her. The beast in him had delighted at her quick obedience; had
felt
the thrill run up her spine. The two traits, opposed and yet twinned, putting her at war with herself: that, he understood. He wished to tell her that he understood. He wished to
show
her.

And suddenly he thought he saw the way in.

“What did you think of the Severille festivities?” he asked.

She jolted. Her eyes flew wide open, and her hands clutched at her skirt, bunching the fabric in her small hands. The scent of sex — of her — grew heavier, and the blush crept up her neck.