“Then, when I’m so hard I can’t think straight and I can’t last another second, I’m going take your ass and ride you to completion.” He bit back a moan as her lips tightened around him. “And only then are you allowed to come. Only then, when I’m buried deep inside your ass, will I let you come.”

   He had to pull out of her mouth or else he’d lose it right then and there. She fell back to rest on her knees while he finished undressing. Once he was naked, he motioned for her to get on her back and he pressed his body down on hers, holding himself up slightly so his full weight wasn’t on her, but enough that she could feel him.

   He bent his head and gave her a kiss, noticing when he pulled back that there were tears in her eyes. “Meagan?” Had he hurt her? Or been too rough? “Are you okay?”

   She gave him a smile that melted his heart. “Perfect, Sir.”

   He brushed a tear away with his thumb. “Why are you crying?”

   “I’ve spent my entire life feeling like something was missing and that I didn’t belong. And tonight I realized I’ve been looking in all the wrong places.” She ran a hand up to cup his face. “It’s been right here all along. I found it in you.”

   “Meagan,” he whispered. “You’ll never feel lost again. Not while there’s breath in my body.” And then he kissed her with enough passion to take hers away.

Epilogue

   ABBY

   Six months later

   Luke’s New Jersey club was packed. It wasn’t surprising that I didn’t know most of the people in attendance. What was shocking was the number of vanilla people who crowded into the kink club for the party marking the release of Luke’s book. Of course, it was Meagan’s, too, but she had requested her identity not be revealed. Even if you knew her, you would never know she was the model unless she told you.

   Just like you’d never know she now considered herself primarily a submissive.

   Tonight she looked stunning in a glamorous pale pink gown, standing beside her Dom as he signed copies of The Muse. Every so often, Luke would look her way and the two of them would share a smile that increased the temperature of the room by several degrees.

   “I’d tell him to get a room, but since he owns the place . . .” Nathaniel said, coming up beside me and slipping his arm around my waist.

   “Right?” I leaned into him. “She looks beautiful, doesn’t she?”

   “If you go for the tall blond type.”

   I laughed. “Smart man.”

   “I’ve been married long enough to know the proper answer to that question.”

   “She’s blissfully happy,” I said, thinking back to how she’d changed in the last few months. Being with Luke grounded her. She was more mellow and not as high-strung. She was also no longer my boss, as a result of a promotion she took. Though I hated not reporting to her anymore, I knew she was thrilled with her new job as a morning news anchor.

   “I’m happy for her,” Nathaniel said, and I knew he was telling the truth. “Who’s that beside her?”

   To her right was a man I’d never met, though I’d heard a lot about him. “That’s her brother.”

   Nathaniel lifted an eyebrow. It wasn’t a secret Jake had recently been released from rehab. I’d been wary when Meagan told me he was coming, but she assured me he’d done a one-eighty in therapy.

   “He’s applying for a job at Luke’s downtown gallery.” Meagan had told me hours ago when she pointed him out to me shortly after he arrived.

   “Not here?” Nathaniel asked.

   “I doubt Meagan wants her brother to see her here with Luke, when they aren’t as . . . put together.”

   “Put together?” he whispered in my ear. “As opposed to when he has her naked and tied up for being a mouthy brat and is working on her ass with a flogger or two?”

   “Yes,” I choked out. “That exactly.”

   In fact, we had been at the club the night before and he’d been doing just that.

   “I see your point.” He looked around the club. “Have you seen Lynne?”

   Lynne had approached us a few weeks ago, asking for a recommendation for joining our BDSM group. We had agreed, with a provision that she attend tonight’s party first to meet Luke and some of the other members. We explained she needed to meet everyone first in an environment that wasn’t a play party.

   I stood up on my tiptoes. “She was over at the bar the last time I saw her. I don’t know if she’s still there or not.”

   “She is.” Nathaniel had a better view of the bar, being so much taller than me.

   “Is she alone?”

   “Looks that way.”

   I sighed. “I’d really hoped she’d meet some people. I worry about her. Especially since she spends so much time with Henry and Elizabeth. I mean, it’s not like she has a happening social life.”

   “I hope we haven’t done her a disservice by hiring her.” Nathaniel spoke the fear I’d been hesitant to voice.

   “Me, too.” But she was so good with the kids. I didn’t want to lose her. And she’d already made plans to attend some classes online in order to work toward her teaching degree. “Maybe we should make more of an effort to get her out.”

   “As long as we keep in mind she’s a grown woman, capable of taking care of herself and making her own decisions.”

   I rolled my eyes at his warning. “I have no intention of being her mom.”

   “It’s not your motherly instincts I’m worried about.” He must have seen someone he recognized because he nodded at them.

   “It’s not?”