Unleashed: Volume 2 (Unleashed #2) (19 page)

This was supposed to be
torturing her, not me. I was supposed to be the master, the
experienced one, the one pulling all the strings. Not the one pawing
at the door ready to beg.

“Time to pack it in,
champ,” a guy called out, pointing to the clock. Usually they
turned out the lights around nine o’clock on a Sunday. It was going
on 11. They’d kept the place open for me, but quitting time had to
come at some point.

I grabbed my bag and
nodded my thanks. Then I headed out sweaty into the night air. Back
in the penthouse, I showered in the guest bathroom, avoiding Kara.
Then I fixed myself a drink.

I didn’t like this
feeling, like I needed a drink to settle me down. I watched it around
alcohol. I enjoyed it, drank it, but I didn’t like relying on it. I
didn’t think much of people who needed substances to help them
function. It came too close for comfort, brought up too many memories
from when I was a kid. I’d made a promise to myself early on, I’d
never be like my mother. To this day, I kept it clean, never did
drugs, only drank coffee on the odd day I woke up groggy. I enjoyed a
drink as much as the next guy, but I always capped it at two or
three. I mastered what went into my body, not the other way around.

I took a sip and paced
over to the windows. Every surface in my penthouse screamed of Kara.
Flowers burst out from cold granite countertops. Homey pillows
corrupted the hard lines and planes of my expensive leather
furniture. Give her another day or two here and she’d probably add
posters of kittens and a bunch figurines. I could picture an angel
holding a sign “Home is Where the Heart Is.” Maybe she’d
needlepoint a square she could frame and hang in the entryway
announcing “Home Sweet Home.”

I’d seen a
needlepoint yesterday, in my property manager Brett’s house in
Bozeman. With a baby on the way, his wife had clearly started
nesting, filling their home with cozy touches. She even had a few
frames lying on the table, set up and ready to go to display baby
photos after the big arrival.

Kara was just like her.
That was the kind of life she belonged in. Six years later, she
hadn’t changed at all. Sweet, kind, thoughtful, she’d been a
virgin for God’s sake. She should be with someone like her, eager
to build exactly the kind of happy home she wanted.

I pictured the cabin I
owned in Bozeman. It was nothing like Brett and his wife’s. It was
an investment, a place I typically lent out to various business
partners. I found that staying at my houses gave people a sense that
they knew me. As if my properties reflected who I really was. But my
cabin had the same ‘homey yet rugged’ effect of all of the
property’s main buildings, with a Native American print blanket
here, a couple of antique snow shoes there. I had an army of interior
designers and decorators on my payroll and they did their jobs well.

But my houses didn’t
feel like homes to me. A frown tugged at my mouth. I didn’t like
the feeling that my impeccably-designed properties were somehow
lacking. Leave it to Kara to make me aware of what was missing. She
woke me up to the ache, the emptiness, the part of me left
unfulfilled.

I swore and sipped my
drink. Thoughts like that were bullshit. There was nothing in life
money couldn’t buy. Look, it had bought me Kara Brooks.

But then why did I feel
like the closer I got to her, the less I had her? The tighter I
grasped my fingers, the more it felt like she slipped through. And
the more I craved clutching her to me.

Running my hand through
my hair, I exhaled in frustration. It was only one o’clock in the
morning and sleep sure didn’t seem like an option. It was going to
be a long night. How could I fall asleep with Kara lying next door in
my bed? Maybe she’d have a leg kicked out of the covers, exposing a
hint of her impossibly soft, smooth skin. I could head in there,
begin at her toes and slowly travel up, caressing, massaging, making
her body respond to me before she fully awoke, her eyes fluttering,
her lips parted. She’d look at me glazed with lust, awakening
aroused and needy, just how I wanted her.

Striding over to my
bedroom, I threw open the door. She lay there on my bed like some
sort of storybook princess, sleeping so pink and perfect. She gave a
slight sigh with her next exhale, the gentle play of a smile
flickering across her full, generous mouth. Her eyelids stayed closed
in slumber, her long, dark lashes forming perfect arches against her
pale skin.

I looked down on her,
hard as a goddamned pistol, the demon hovering over the angel. I
could feel her lush curves draped all over my body, her pussy
squeezed tight around my shaft. I brought a hand down to my steel
length and cursed.

This woman was like an
infection coursing through me, cooking my brain and body in a raging
fever. My prick throbbed. Solid and at the ready, I knew I could take
care of myself, jerk myself off and come hard in sixty seconds. Hell,
this horny I probably could do it a few times over. My balls ached
and I needed the release.

But I knew it wouldn’t
help, not really. It would feel all right for a second, a blinding
flash when my mind went blank. But then everything would return to
me, the hunger, the unquenched thirst, maybe even stronger than
before. My cock needed one thing and one thing only and she was
asleep in my bed. My hand would only end up making me more frustrated
in the end.

Still she slept,
unaware of the inferno racing through my blood. Too comfortable in my
bed. Trusting the monster.

I swore under my
breath. I walked out of the room again, closed the door and paced.
What the hell had I gotten myself into? Why was I playing with this
kind of fire?

I hadn’t felt this
messed up, not in a long time. Not since six years ago. Nothing had
changed. Kara might be 24 now, but she was still the same girl. Hot
as shit but with hearts and rainbows dancing around her head.
Unicorns and fairies and all that Hollywood movie bullshit.

I’d fallen for her
hard back then, with all the idiocy of youth. I could still remember
how Kara used to make me feel, like I was a king, like the world was
my oyster. I’d been 21 and street smart and tough-talking. But
inside, that was a different story. She’d fulfilled my fantasies in
more ways than one. And I’d let myself start blending the two,
allowed myself to enter into the dream of what it would be like with
Kara, really be like if she were my woman. I’d felt such blinding
happiness that night she’d come down in my cabin, when I’d
thought I was so close to calling her my own.

Nothing turned you into
a sucker quicker than that. I’d let my guard down and Harlan had
sucker punched me good. It had all crumbled like dust, blown away
quick and fast and left no trace.

I should have learned
my lesson, but Kara did something to me, messed up my brain. Made me
start thinking about things I shouldn’t. Yearning for the types of
things I never thought about in day-to-day. Home, family. What would
it be like to have it all? That was a myth, especially for a man like
me. When you tried to reach for that apple, that’s when all hell
broke loose. Better to be satisfied with what you had than torturing
yourself over what you never would.

Now the world actually
was my oyster. Richer than I’d ever dreamed and now Kara had walked
back into my life and agreed to give herself to me for a week. I had
everything I’d ever yearned for. I should be licking my chops,
satisfied as a rich man at a lavish Christmas dinner. But here I was
all worked up, unable to sleep, forced out of my apartment, torqued
up and pacing, all over some girl? Any second now, I could feel it, I
would start dreaming of her and me. I’d start smiling and humming.

I’d hated Harlan at
the time. But he was right. He’d been back then, and he was right
now. I wasn’t the man for her.

Even now that I had the
money, I wasn’t the full package. I was a broken man. I’d never
be the picket fence dad fussing over the BBQ with the neighbors and
their kids over for Sunday after church. I didn’t play that way.
And the way I actually played, real down dirty and nasty? Kara might
pretend, but she didn’t play that way either. We were still living
in different worlds, her and me. Kara belonged married and tucked
away in a snug little cabin, wrapped in sweetness and love, expecting
a new baby to make three. And here I was spanking the fuck out of her
and planning to do more, much more.

Six years ago I’d
done the right thing. I’d cut things off, left her without hope and
without a trace. It had been hard. It had torn me up, if I had to be
honest about it. But what had got me through was I knew it was the
best thing for her.

There was no getting
around it, ending it would be the best thing for her this time
around, too. I didn’t want to give her up. I wanted to keep her
with me, hold her tight. But even now I could tell one week wouldn’t
be enough. I was a possessive madman and I’d drag this thing out,
beat it into the ground until she was dying to get away from me. I’d
ruin her, dragging her into my dark world of submission and
domination for pleasure.

And then I knew what
would happen. Inevitably, our differences would surface. I’d get
frustrated. She’d get hurt. We were cut from different cloths and
she might want to make a quilt out of it all, but it wouldn’t work.
It would end, slowly, painfully, with massive damage and wreckage.
This time around the crash-and-burn would be of epic proportions.

But there was no way it
would work between us, not the way she’d want. I wasn’t the
Christmas sweater, baseball in the backyard with our kids type of
guy. I’d never known my father. My junkie of a mother had passed
away two years ago. An overdose, no one there to help her, she’d
died alone. I had no brothers or sisters, at least that I knew of. I
literally had no family and no experience of it, either. You didn’t
grow up like I did and then just flip a switch. You learned things
over time, commitment, responsibility, intimacy, the sacrifices
parents made to create a stable, loving home. Or you learned the
opposite. Once you’d seen all the darkness life could bring, I
didn’t see any way over into the light. I simply wasn’t capable
of it. I’d gone through the last 27 years a lone wolf. I’d go
through however many more stretched out in front of me the exact same
way.

Playing games with Kara
was too fucking dangerous. I didn’t play with fire. I did
controlled burns, when I could see the exact path it would take and
knew precisely how and when I could put it out. You had to know when
to let the beast out of the cage. I wouldn’t do it anymore, not
with Kara. My hard, aching cock? I’d find someone wet, willing and
ready to take care of all of my needs. Someone who’d walk away the
next morning and I wouldn’t give her a second thought.

I would end this now,
terminating our agreement. I would write Kara a check and leave it
out on the kitchen island. Later in the morning, by the time she woke
up I’d already be out at the office. She’d take her money and
run.

Because Kara was only
sticking around for my money, anyway. If I didn’t have that, she
wouldn’t be here. I’d be a forgotten memory, some ranch hand who
got her off one summer.

I was used to women
wanting me for my money. It made things simple. They liked the money
first and foremost, and they liked my power inside and outside the
bedroom. It was enough to keep a steady stream of them coming,
literally and figuratively. Somehow with Kara, though, the thought
twisted in my guts. It made me feel scooped out and hollow.

Since when did I care
about shit like that? My innermost thoughts and feelings? Fuck that.
Too much depth dragged you down. Shallow was just fine for me.

The solution was always
there, you just had to have the balls to find it. And stick to it
once you had. We weren’t going to New York tomorrow. I was ending
this bargain.

Six years ago I’d
done the right thing. Now, I’d do it again. It would be hard, but I
could do it. Hell, people cut off their own limbs and lived to tell
the tale. Life was pain.

I’d end this arrangement. I’d
give her the money she needed, no strings attached. It had to end
with Kara. Because that girl was kryptonite.

THE
END

Thank you so much for reading
Unleashed:
Hot Alpha Romance, Volume 2
! I hope you loved it, and stay
tuned for the next installment of the story! In New York City Declan
and Kara take this arrangement to a whole new level of hotness…

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Keep reading for a
sneak peek at the next book in the Declan and Kara story,
Unleashed:
Hot Alpha Romance, Volume 3
. Both volume 3 and the final
volume 4 of
Unleashed: Hot Alpha
Romance
are
available
now for sale or for preorder here
.
Unleashed: Hot Alpha
Romance, Volume 3
will be released February 1st.

New York City. The
city that never sleeps. Especially when you’re there as part of a
no-holds-barred bargain to serve your master.

Declan

I have her now, right
where I want her. Mine, for the week in New York. The ultimate city
to play in and the one I’d always wanted to play with.

And now I have the
money to give her everything, VIP at the hottest spots in town,
waited on hand and foot at the poshest restaurants and spas,
lavishing her with jewelry and a custom-made gown for a gala at the
Met. I want to surround her with every luxury.

But not because I’m a
good man. I’m not good at all. It’s been six long years since I
lusted after her as a penniless ranch hand. I haven’t just grown
rich over those years. I’ve also become a master at domination,
experienced in all of the wicked ways to wield power.