Lured In (Dark Paradise, #1) (25 page)

I pulled away. “Take me there.”

“Where?” He looked perplexed.

“Penn Ave—the fuck-pad.” I looked at him with a straight face.

“No!
Hell no, Abigail! I will never take you to that place.”

“Why?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. “I just want to see it. It’s not like I’m going to pounce all over you as soon as we get in the door.” My frown changed to a pout.

“No, Abigail. End of story,” he replied sharply.

“That’s wasn’t an answer to my question.
Why?”

Trying to alleviate the situation, he put his forehead against mine, kissed my lips gently, and asked, “Can we go back home to have sex there?”

“Maybe,” I replied. “I wasn’t asking you to take me there for that. I wanted to see the condo itself, but given your unpleasant reaction to my honest request, I guess we should get going and head back home now.”

RED FUCKING FLAG! What the hell is he hiding? Why is he so damn adamant about me not seeing that damn condo?

I broke away from his embrace bitterly and hurried away from him. He was quick to grab my waist, schmoozing in my ear, “Baby, wait up. Don’t be upset, love. I hate it when you’re like this.”

“I’m not,” I answered dryly, still walking at a fast pace.

“Then slow down and stop power walking, love.”

I slowed down and faced him. “I’m not upset, Zach. I’m just confused and surprised about how profoundly adamant you are about me not seeing your condo. It scares me to think about what you’re hiding from me.”

“Abi, I’m not hiding anything from you. I just…I don’t want you to have that image of me.”

“What image?”

“Me—my past with different women, Abigail. I took women there only to fuck them how I desired and then sent them home. There were some who I romanced and had face-to-face and oral sex with, but I sent them home afterward just the same.”

Bullshit. That’s not what you’re hiding.

“I know this about you—you told me already, so why is it an issue now?” I arched my brows and waited for him to answer. It never came, and I stormed away, heading back to the car.

Unlocking and opening the car door for me, he growled, “Fuck it! You really want to see how deviant I was? Do you think you can handle it, Abigail?” He got in and asked again, “Do you, Abigail? Do you think you can handle it?”

Oh, no, buddy, you are not sitting here trying to insinuate that I am common—or vanilla, to say the least. Oh, hell no!

Looking intensely at him, I countered softly, “I neither doubt your deviancy nor am I too vanilla to handle it.” I broke eye contact, and he started the engine.

“And for the record, I never said you were too vanilla,” he said, finally breaking the silence in the car.

“I know—I just want to assure you that whatever is in your condo won’t make me turn tail.”

He nodded and gave a tight smile.

Twenty-five minutes later, I was standing in his
Rumpus Room
, which had beautiful, rich plum faux leather walls and a gold glaze finish on the ceiling. An oversized black velvet round bed sat in the center of the room. That room was definitely designed to indulge in, entertain, and please women. On the wall to my right were a Black Label Zeppelin and a Liberator Esse Seat—all bondage furniture. To my left was a large locked trunk. I smiled. That mischievous inner ego of mine thought,
Ooh…and behind door number one is?

Intrigued by what might be inside, I asked, “What deliciously sinful treasures await the enthralled minds of other deviants, who aren’t conservative like me, behind your lock and key?”

“Forget it, Abigail; I’m not opening it,” he said quickly. “You had your look around. Now let’s go.”

“What happened to you showing me your deviant side? You wouldn’t really deny me the pleasure of knowing all there is to Zach Austin McConnallay, would you?” I looked at him with a sad face, pouting.

“Don’t give me that look, Abigail.”

I continued pouting until he eventually gave in.

Is that—oh, yes it is. He’s giving me the golden key. Come to momma.

I smiled widely.

Giving me the key, he said, “Go ahead and open it.” He left the room.

I unlocked and opened the trunk and was face-to-face with blindfolds and restraints of all sorts; pinwheels; lube injectors; beads; butt plugs; floggers; paddles; gag balls; boxes and boxes of condoms; vibrators of all sorts, which put my conventional ones to shame; several other kinky sex toys; and a ton more of condoms, lube, toy cleansers, and wipes. Among the few that caught my attention and got me really excited were the blindfolds, silk restraints, vibrating ice bullet, Form 3 vibrator, and vibrating makeup brush and mascara wand.

Oh my God. So this is the dark side of Zach I sensed when I first met him. He’s yet to ask me to try any of these. Why? I wonder if he’s suppressed this side of himself in fear I wouldn’t want to be with him. I surely hope not…It doesn’t scare me one bit—I was celibate, baby, not a virgin. I know and love Palmer…what other delights could he be keeping from me?

The sight of all of those treasures ignited something deep inside me that I didn’t know existed. The thought of what we could accomplish with those treasures excited the hell out of me, and I declared there that I would try them all.

Now that Abigail has been lured into a dark paradise, she wants to feast on sweet darkness while fulfilling and exploring her fantasies. But Taylor, Zach’s ex, isn’t backing down, and neither will Abigail’s past. With Taylor’s aggressive tendencies jeopardizing their relationship, and Abigail’s past surfacing, what will become of Zach and Abi?

A native Washingtonian, V. R. is a full-time medical billing and business office manager. She is a mother of one and lives in Washington, DC, with her beautiful daughter, Zréa. V. R. started her health care career in 2001 as a trained medical assistant, eventually becoming an administrator for a busy medical practice. Her love of erotica started after reading Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty series. She was only in her mid-teens. With her love of both clinical and administrative health care and erotic romance, it comes as no surprise that V. R. combines the two in her novels. When she isn’t working, V. R. is home with her daughter, cooking and having a blast. Once Zréa is asleep, V. R. is busy at work, writing erotic romances.