Sacrifice

Lora
Leigh

Book 5 of the Bound Hearts series

Kimberly has run from Jared for a
year now, sensing the weakness he could be to her future. But she never expected
the sacrifice he would make for her. One that will rock her soul, and destroy
the very foundations of all her beliefs.

Her sexuality, her heart, and all
she's fought for in the last six years will be tested when an assignment takes
her to Jared's farm, and into his bed. There she will learn the true meaning of
hunger, of love…as well as the deception and the lies that have governed her
life for so lsong.

Anything worth having is worth
sacrificing for. Kimberly is about to find out if she can pay the price, and
risk not only the inheritance that should be hers, but also her heart to the
one man who can still the fires that rage in her soul.

Dedication

Thank you so much for all your help and your advice on
Trusts and Wills. I couldn’t have done this without you.

And as always, dedicated to my loving husband Tony who has
taught me the meaning of true love and acceptance.

“Easy, Red. Fuck yes, baby, there
we go, take it all.” Red, or Kimberly Madison, lay back on the walnut table,
her hands tied to the straps attached to the sides of it, her legs elevated by
Sax as he slowly fed his cock up her tight, well-lubricated ass.

Her head thrashed on the hard
surface; beads of perspiration dotted her face, her full luscious breasts and
peaked nipples. It ran in rivulets down her waist, a small amount pooled in the
tiny indention of her bellybutton and her thighs glistened with it and the
added mixture of thick juice that accumulated from her bare, flushed pussy.

Sax had her thighs spread wide,
bracing them with his muscular arms as he slowly fucked the petite little
redhead while she screamed and bucked against him, begging for release. It was
a sight Jared Raddington was certain would be burned in his mind forever.

He hadn’t expected this when he
accepted membership with The Club, and he sure as hell hadn’t expected it when
he left the Madison estate, furious that Kimberly had left before his arrival.
She had been making a habit of it in the past six months, disappearing just
before he arrived.

Why he had taken such an
overwhelming interest in her, he wasn’t certain. She wasn’t the type of woman
who normally attracted him. She was smaller, barely five four to his six two.
She was rounded rather than model slim with full breasts, lush hips and a
delightfully rounded little tummy. He could imagine the pale curve of her
stomach decorated with a jeweled belly ring, perhaps emeralds to match her
beautiful green eyes. And above all else, he could see her in his bed, his dick
tunneling up her ass rather than Sax’s, his hand spanking the soft curve of her
buttocks, her voice screaming his name rather than the other man’s.

Long, fiery red curls fell over the
side of the table, strands of thick silk that would have caressed her hips but
brushed the floor instead. Hair that dared a man to touch, stroke.

“Please, Sax,” she screamed as she
fought the bonds. “Let me go. I can’t come like this. Please.”

Dark male flesh glistened with
sweat as the hard thrusts increased, the bronzed length of his cock powered up
the snug little channel in driving strokes, parting the exquisite curves of her
ass and filling her with every inch of his dark, steel-hard erection.

Jared felt every muscle in his body
tighten at the primal demand in her voice. She was poised on an agonized peak
of need, a peak he wanted to push her over. The sight of another man’s cock up
her ass, stretching that little entrance, tormenting her with the pleasure/pain
of every thrust was driving him crazy. Would she enjoy a ménage with the same
brutal hunger?

Jared rose from his chair in the
secluded corner he had chosen hours ago when he entered The Club. His first
night there he wanted to get a feel for the place and the members, but he
hadn’t expected the shocking scene that had unfolded.

Kimberly had walked in as pretty as
you please, ordered a drink and stepped over to the tall, dark engineer for
Delacourte Electronics. For the first time in the year Jared had known her, she
was without makeup, her expression displaying honest, bare emotion, even if it
was lust, and the thin veneer of cold haughtiness she presented to the world
was gone. This wasn’t the ice princess he had come to know. This woman was
wild, fiery hot, a witchy temptation no man could resist.

“Harder. Please, Sax, please.” She
was nearly in tears now, begging for release. She strained against the bonds
that held her, her hips writhing against the hard penetration of a thick dick
tunneling up her ass in increasing strokes.

Her clit was swollen, peeking
desperately above the folds of flesh that protected it, the little knot of
nerves red and glistening in hunger.

“What’s with her?” Jared finally
questioned one of the other members sitting close to him.

He thought he knew her, had thought
that seducing her into his hungers would take time and finessing. He had been
wrong. But he suspected that the woman he was seeing now wasn’t the total
picture of who and what Kimberly was, either.

“Red?” Lucian Conover’s voice
softened as he glanced at the scene. There seemed to be an odd note of
affection in his voice, distant, sympathetic. “Too much stress usually. She
shows up about every three months, usually after the forced physical to prove
she’s still a virgin, and lets off some steam. She’s a good kid.”

Kid? She was twenty-four years old
and screaming now for release, begging another man to fuck her ass harder,
deeper. If it went much deeper, she’d be giving the bastard a head job as it
came up her throat. She was tiny, barely five four, delicate and as fragile as
a fairytale princess. Or so he had thought. No fragile princess could take a
cock up her ass like that and beg for more.

“Forced exam?” he finally found his
tongue long enough to ask.

Conover grimaced. “That’s Senator
Madison’s daughter. Her mother’s will stipulated that she had to be a virgin on
her wedding night to collect whatever the hell her inheritance was. Evidently
Daddy dearest wants it,” he sneered. “He had a judge order the quarterly exams
to prove she was still eligible to inherit upon her wedding, whenever that may
be. Should she fail the test, the good ole Senator collects it all.”

Jared clenched his teeth at the
information. He knew Madison was a bastard, but even this was more than he had
expected from the man. The tension in the Madison household was always elevated
when Kimberly was there. She had rarely spoken more than a few words in his
presence, and was more often than not arriving late and leaving early to
whatever function she showed up for. Why his mother had married the bastard he
still hadn’t figured out. And though he knew about the exams, he hadn’t been
entirely clear on why.

“Damn you, Sax,” she screamed. “I
can’t stand this.”

Jared barely controlled his own
flinch. Her voice echoed with a dark hunger that he knew the other man would
never quench.

She was being tortured with her own
sexuality. He could hear the dark cravings in her voice, the carnality that
made his loins tighten with his own hunger.

“She needs clitoral stimulation,”
Lucian told him, his voice low. “Sax will have to delay it until he gets her to
the point that he can get her off easily. The only members here today, besides
him, are married.” There was a thread of amusement in his voice. “Except you.”

The Club wasn’t a brothel. It was
just as the name implied, an atmosphere where men whose base desires went
deeper than most. The married men there had never been known to touch another
woman, but the unmarried men were often thirds in occasional ménages with the
other men’s wives. They were drawn together because of their need to dominate their
women’s sexuality, to bring them the ultimate release, the ultimate pleasures.
It was a men’s club, but one created as a support base for those whose desires
often crossed the line of acceptable depravity.

It wasn’t a swinger’s club. The
married members of The Club, so far, had no desire for any women other than
their wives. Fidelity was one of the cornerstones behind The Club’s existence.
Just as female pleasure was.

Jared stared back at Kimberly then.
She was bucking, begging, as Sax fought his own release.

“What does she need?” he asked
then, knowing he was damning himself.

“Not much.” Lucian shrugged. “Smack
her pussy a little and she’ll come like the Fourth of July. After that, she’ll
have a drink, play a few hands of cards and take a room for the night to
sleep.”

That might have been what she
usually did. Tonight though, her schedule was about to change. He would slap
that pretty little pussy, for now. But his cock was raging for more. Soon he
would fuck it just as hard.

As he crossed the room, Sax looked
up; the strain of holding back was clearly reflected on his dark face.

“Help her,” he panted. “Fuck, I’m
not going to last.”

The other man was panting, so close
to his own release that his expression looked pained. Between Kimberly’s thighs
his dick powered hard and thick inside her. Thankfully, it was condom-sheathed.
Jared was honest enough with himself to admit that he didn’t want another man’s
seed inside her body, anywhere. Not yet. Not until he decided who would be the
third in the relationship he was determined to build with her.

“No. No. Don’t stop yet. Please…”
Her voice trailed off as Jared rounded the table.

Her eyes widened, her face paled
then hard, violent shudders began to rack her body as she suddenly exploded,
Jared’s name a keening cry on her lips as Sax suddenly thrust inside her hard
and heavy, before pausing, his expression twisting with his own release.

Jared leaned close, one large hand
framing her face as she gasped for breath. He could smell the scent of her
lust, wild, sweet and subtle, making him long to get closer, to taste every
spicy drop of her need. And he would. Soon.

“Next dick up your ass will be
mine,” he swore forcefully. “No more, Kimber, not without me. Never again…”

A rare, unknown rage gripped Jared
as he released Kimberly from the wrist restraints and pulled her quickly from
the table. He managed to stay silent, just barely, by clenching his teeth and
jerking her robe from a nearby table.

She was pushing him though. Before
he could wrap it around her shoulders, she jerked it from his hands and
shrugged it on with deliberate provocation. A slow, teasing move that made him
want to growl with the need rising like a hungry beast in his loins.

“Well, well, well, and here I
thought the saying ‘farmers like it dirty’ was just an old wives’ tale,” she
said with cool mockery. “Shame on you, Jared. Just think how disappointed Daddy
will be.”

He was aware of the silence of the
room, the eyes that watched them. Under different circumstances, he really
wouldn’t have given a damn, but this wasn’t sexual. To be honest, he felt like
turning her over his knee and paddling her ass in a way that had nothing to do
with pleasure, and everything to do with asserting his control over her.

“Considering my daddy helped found
this little home away from home, I can’t say he would be disappointed,” he
quipped as her eyes widened in surprise. “But I doubt yours would feel the
same.”

Her eyes narrowed then, the dark
green color sparkling with a surge of anger as he gripped her arm and began to
pull her from the room. Reminding her of her father wasn’t guaranteed to garner
any points in his favor, but at the moment, he didn’t give a damn. He had
played her game for a year now, and it was time to change the rules, as well as
the balance of power.

“I’m not one of your stupid cows,”
she snarled as she tried to dig her bare heels in and fight his hold on her.
“Let me go, dammit!”

“Even my stupid cows know better
than to argue with the bull in charge, Kimber.” He tightened his fingers around
her slender wrist and headed for the stairs. “Keep balking back there and I
might show you
why
they know better.”

She paused for just a second but
seemed to resist a little less until he crossed the threshold to her room and
slammed the door behind them. God help him, he was in such a state of arousal
it was all he could do to keep from throwing her to the bed and fucking the
hell out of her now.

A fucking year she had danced just
out of his reach, her teasing green eyes laughing at his attempts to corner
her, her pouty lips curving into a smug “dare you” smile every time he warned
her that he wasn’t going to let her escape him forever.

The smile was gone, the laughter in
her eyes was dimmed by the anger, and the freckles across her cheeks and nose
were readily apparent beneath the pale flesh of her face.

“You have no right to drag me
around like that.” She faced him with her hair falling in disarray down her
back, the spiral curls tempting his fingers to clench in them, to drag her to
him…

Wrong direction, he chastised
himself. Thoughts like that would get him zero answers and likely end up
hurting his cause right now, more than helping it.

“I took the right,” he growled,
crossing his arms over his chest to keep from touching her. “Like I should have
taken a year ago.”

Her upper lip lifted in a silent
snarl that had his cock reacting with a fierce throb of hunger. She had kept
him so damned hot over the past months that the hard-on was almost constant.

“Oh, get over yourself, Jared.” She
waved a hand negligently before tightening the belt of her robe with a
controlled jerk. “The he-man attitude is long out of style. Didn’t you know
that?”

He could see the anger trembling
through her body though, the glow of it in her eyes. Just as he could see the
hard little nipples beneath the silk of their covering and the flush of arousal
on her face. She might be pissed, he had no doubt, but she couldn’t hide the
lust now, either.

“That never goes out of style,
Kimber,” he reminded her with deceptive gentleness. “Otherwise, sweet little
ladies like yourself would have no place to let off all that steam.”

He locked the door slowly, watching
her carefully as it clicked securely into place. The pulse beat with sudden,
renewed speed in the side of her neck, as her pupils dilated just enough to
assure him that she wasn’t unaffected. She wasn’t frightened in the least; he
could see that in the sudden, stubborn set of her chin. She was excited though.
Her breasts were rising and falling at a faster rate, her face flushing a soft,
delicate blush that entranced him.

Damn if she wasn’t pretty as hell.
Not really beautiful, but damned pretty with her pert little nose, slanted
cat’s eyes and all that glorious red-gold hair falling around her shoulders.
She faced him like a little enraged goddess, certain of her own power and her
determination.

“My ‘steam’ as you call it, is my
business,” she reminded him with an attempt at her past icy hauteur. “I don’t
need your interference.”

Of course she didn’t. From what he
had seen downstairs, he was a weakness she was determined to keep to herself.
But he had seen the heat, the hunger—hell, the lust that glowed in those
brilliant green eyes when he caught her unaware, fighting for her release. He
had been the trigger. The hunger had been for him. The need whipping through
her body had been for him.

Jared wasn’t untutored in either
the ways of lust, or of women. He had known since their first meeting a year
before that Kimber was different, special. At least to him. She had drawn him
as no other woman had, despite her shield of aloof disinterest; he had known
something was there. He was certain of it now.

“You needed my interference
downstairs,” he pointed out as he pushed his hands into his pants pockets.

His palms were itching with the
need to touch her, to pull her against him and taste the silky texture of her
skin. The desire was raging through his blood, tensing his body and reminding
him just how long it had been since he had taken any other woman. The need for
this one had surpassed even the interest in taking another.

“You surprised me.” She shrugged in
an attempt to hide her earlier reaction. “It turned me on. We are after all,
family.”

She cast him a wicked, mocking look
tinged with a bitterness that ate at his soul. He wanted to wrap her in his
arms. Wanted to shield her from the pain he could see in her eyes. The sudden
urge to protect her, rather than fuck her, was overwhelming.

Jared snorted. “Be damned glad
we’re not family, Kimber,” he warned her. “Because if we were, I’d be breaking
more than one damned rule before this night’s over.”

Something flashed in her eyes then.
Regret? Pain? It was so fleeting he couldn’t quite pinpoint the cause of it.

“You won’t be breaking any rules,
Jared.” Her voice firmed, the edge of steel that always dared him to see how
far he could make her bend, echoing in her voice. “Whatever thrill you got
downstairs will be all you get from me.”

There was the pain. It was almost
hidden, nearly overshadowed by the cold edge of purpose. She wasn’t willing to
give an inch. Jared smiled with slow, easy confidence. That was okay though,
because he had a hell of a lot more than an inch to give to her.

“Oh, I don’t think so, Kimber.” He
advanced on her then, narrowing his eyes as she swallowed tightly and began to
back away. “You see, baby, I’ve waited almost twelve full months to figure out
exactly where your weaknesses were and how to use them to my own advantage. I
found them tonight, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let you run from me now.”

“Stop, Jared.” Something in her voice
had him doing just that. He stopped no more than a foot from her, staring down
at her silently. Waiting.

“This can’t happen,” she told him
then, trying to cover the regret in her voice with steely demand. “You have to
understand that. What you saw downstairs, that’s all I want. All I need.
Whatever you’re offering, I can’t accept, I won’t accept. You don’t have a
choice but to let it go. Now.”

Jared shook his head as his lips
tipped mockingly. He stepped to her, backing her into the wall she had retreated
against as his hands framed her face. It amazed him, how small and delicate her
catlike face was beneath his hands. His fingers slid into the sides of her hair
as he held her still before him, the tips relishing the cool, silken texture.

“There are choices, Kimber,” he
told her. “And then, there is determination. You may as well stop fighting,
because I won’t let you go now. My name was on your lips when your body bucked
in release. I saw the hunger in your eyes and felt it in the shudders that
racked your body. You can’t hide from it anymore than I can.”

“No.” Her hands gripped his wrists
as she stared up at him, her eyes no longer filled with anger, pain or regret,
only weariness, and the weariness pierced his heart. “I can’t, Jared. Even if I
wanted to, even if what you say is true, I can’t accept it. Because if I do, I
lose everything. There is nothing or no one worth the risk I would be taking.”

Her father. Jared wanted to curse
the man for his unjust treatment of his daughter, for the pain, the anger and
that damned weariness. But she was going to have to learn that there was more
to dreams, more to needs, than the empty satisfaction she was allowing herself.

“I won’t let you go,” he told her
again.

Before she could respond, he
lowered his head, taking her open lips in a kiss that surprised them both.
Flames shot through his body at the speed of light, making his muscles draw
tight in hunger as his erection threatened to burst the zipper that held it at
bay.

And Kimberly wasn’t unaffected.
After her first surprised gasp, her nails bit into his wrists, but her tongue
met his with a speed and hunger that had him throttling a savage growl. His
fingers threaded into the long curls of her hair, feeling them twine around his
hands as he tipped her head back further and began to drink from the passion
erupting through her body.

It was like a narcotic, ambrosia,
it was the most sensual, most erotic dance of lips and tongues that he had ever
known. They ate each other, both ill-prepared for the sudden fires erupting
through the other.

She could spout her denials until
hell froze over, but here, she couldn’t hide. Beneath his lips she couldn’t
lie, couldn’t refuse the pleasure that burst through their bodies like a
firestorm of the senses. And he wouldn’t let her if she tried.

Jared forced one hand free of her
hair, lowering it to her back and lifting her against him as he pressed her
into the wall. Instantly, her knees clasped his hips, a startled cry erupting
from her throat as he pressed his cock against the hot, wet pad of her pussy.

“Feel that,” he snarled against her
lips, staring down at her fiercely. “You’re so damned wet you’re soaking my
slacks. So hot you burn me alive. And you expect me to take no for an answer?”

Shocked, drugged with passion, her
eyes widened as he ground his erection against her.

“No.” She swallowed tightly,
shaking her head in denial despite the flow of heated liquid that damped his
pants. “I can’t, Jared…”

“Oh, but you will,” he assured her
darkly. “I’m warning you now, baby. The next dick that slips up that tight
little ass will be mine. The next man to touch you, taste you, hold you, will
be me. Only me, Kimber. Until you admit to the fever burning us both alive, no
other man will touch you.”

Her fierce shove against his chest
had him stepping back. Reluctantly, he released her, seeing the simmering fury
pulsing in her gaze as she faced him now.

“You do not own me.” She was
fighting to even her breathing, to still the desire pulsing hard and hot inside
her, as it was him. “I won’t let you dictate to me this way.”

“Oh won’t you?” he asked her,
almost wincing at the dark, rough tone of his voice. “Too late, sweetheart. I
know your weakness, and I know your hunger. And Kimber…” he watched her closely
now. “I know your secrets. Don’t think for a minute I won’t use every weapon I
can find to have you. That would be a mistake you don’t want to make.”

She drew in a deep, hard breath,
the flush of arousal receding as she realized that now, he most likely knew far
more than she had ever wanted him to.

“I’m still a virgin.” She drew
herself stiffly erect as a little painted smile of mocking triumph curved her
lips. But her eyes were dark with pain. “And unless you’re into rape, you won’t
win, Jared. You or Father.”

The bitterness in her tone tugged
at his heart. He could see the suspicions in her eyes, the fear that he was
somehow working to aid her father’s triumph. Nothing could be further from the
truth.

“Your father can go straight to
hell. And no, Kimber, I’m not into rape,” he finally said gently. “But I will
be into you. Sooner or later, one way or another, that I can promise you. You
can keep your virginity, but I’ll be damned if you’ll continue to run. Not
anymore.”

He turned away from her, knowing if
he didn’t leave now, then he may do something both of them would end up
regretting. His control was shakier than he had ever known it to be, his hunger
deeper than he could have imagined.

“Jared, this won’t work,” she
warned him again as he opened the bedroom door, pausing in the doorway. “You have
to forget what you saw tonight.”

He turned back to her, smiling with
a bit of mockery himself now.

“Do I, Kimber?” he asked her, his
tone musing. “Tell you what, when you can look at me and not let me see the
memories in your eyes, then we’ll discuss whether or not I can forget. Then
we’ll discuss just how the hell I’m supposed to fucking let you go.”

Because despite the obstacles he
suspected he faced in possessing her, Jared had a feeling he would never manage
to push her out of his head now. And if he did manage that, how was he supposed
to break the threads weaving around his heart?