Unleashed: Volume 1 (Unleashed #1) (22 page)

I shook my head. There
was no way I could let myself fall for him again. The first time
around, the crash and burn had been so painful. This time around, I
was pretty sure the damage would be irreparable.

Drawing up to my full
height, I redid my whacked-out ponytail, smoothing it down to the
best of my ability and tucking loose strands behind my ears. I needed
to walk out there and tell him that this was a mistake. It didn’t
matter if he was about to bail out my ranch, this was too much for me
to risk. I would get the keys to my truck and leave the city. Now.

Out in the main room,
Declan stood at his expansive window looking like an ad for some
expensive, imported liquor. The set of his jaw, the black sweep of
his hair, the broad muscle of his shoulders, everything about him
conveyed power. He looked down at the city, the king in his castle,
ruler of all he surveyed.

“I think…” I
began, hating the hesitancy that instantly crept into my voice. “I’m
going to…” Glancing down, I realized I’d need a shirt if I was
going to head down and out of the building. A shirt that hadn’t
been ripped in two.

He looked over, his
dark gaze beckoning. “Come here, Kara.”

I exhaled with
frustration. “Declan, I don’t know what’s happening here. I
don’t know anything when I’m around you. It’s like I completely
lose my mind.”

He continued to watch
me, his eyes smoldering. To a casual observer he might have looked
like a man of leisure relaxing in his den. But I saw the tightly
coiled heat, the animal within waiting, demanding more. My pulse
jumped.

“Come here,” he
repeated, his voice silky with sin.

“Declan,” I reached
internally for the script I’d prepared in the bathroom. “This has
all been a mistake. A big, crazy mistake. I really can’t do this.”

“Kara.” His voice
was rough and deep. I loved the way he said my name, a carnal caress.

“I can’t think when
I’m around you!” I cried.

“You’re thinking
too much.”

I gave a shaky laugh.
“I don’t think that’s my problem.” Caught in the burning
intensity of his gaze, I felt breathless.

“Come here.”

Why did my legs betray
me, taking steps over to him? And why could I already feel heat
building in me, a pulsing throb deep in my core?

He put his drink down
on a table, watching me the whole time. I stood facing him, trembling
and exposed. He stood close, so close I could almost feel him as his
eyes raked over me. I felt stripped naked though I still wore my
skirt and bra. I shook slightly, half with fear, half anticipation.

He didn’t touch me,
but his words stroked me as he whispered in my ear, “You need to
come, Kara. You’re so close. You need it so much.” Then he
brushed a knuckle so gentle, so light against the lace of my bra over
my nipple. My knees nearly buckled from the slightest contact.

“That’s it,” he
coaxed me. “Let yourself feel this. Let yourself have what you
need.” He brought his lips to my throat, kissing and licking me
where I felt so sensitive. Then he stood back, watching me pant.

He appraised me as if I
were his acquisition, his to do whatever he wished for one whole
week. He fixed on the rise and swell of my breasts. Under his
scrutiny, I could feel the ache and pull, my traitorous nipples
peaking again, answering his desire with unmistakable arousal.

Low and controlled, he
said, “We’re going to begin your training, Kara. You’ve been
naughty. Now you’re going to take your punishment.”

His words made me gasp.
And more. My brain wanted to fight, but my sex clenched, growing
slick in response. I’d never felt like such a lunatic, had such a
gulf between thought and action.

Not since six years
ago. Declan made me that way. He captivated me like no other.

“Hands on the back of
the couch. Now.” The intensity of his gaze, the raw power throbbing
through his muscled body made me quiver. This made no sense. I had no
idea what he would do to me.

But I couldn’t
resist. I never could with him. With Declan, my answer had always
been yes. No matter that it didn’t make sense, no matter the risk,
everything in me said,

“Yes.”

The word slipped out from my parted
lips, barely a whisper, stealing out into the space between us,
binding me to him.

Chapter 2
Kara
Then

Mashing up an old
banana into a chipped mixing bowl, I told myself this was totally
normal. Choosing to stay home on a hot Saturday night in late June to
bake banana bread—that was what most 18-year-olds were doing
tonight, right? I definitely wasn’t losing my mind, blowing off my
boyfriend to bake bread like a 1950s housewife. And I most definitely
wasn’t thinking about walking down to Declan’s cabin—whom I
happened to know was also at the ranch tonight—and using
fresh-baked banana bread as a pathetic ploy to go visit. Definitely
not.

Mandy had called me
a couple of hours ago, pissed off as usual. Seemed I couldn’t do
anything right these days.

“You’re not
coming?” Her voice had reached an octave previously only recorded
from dolphins. “I thought we had a deal!”

She had a lame plan
to try to seduce one of Bruce’s friends who’d been sleeping with
some other girl who was supposedly her friend. I was supposed to be a
decoy in some way. I hadn’t listened too closely. You couldn’t
get too involved with Mandy and her schemes.

“I have a
headache,” I’d offered lamely. Same excuse I’d given Bruce.
He’d taken it fine, told me to take a couple Advil and get some
rest. He really wasn’t a bad guy. And, honestly, he wasn’t all
that head-over-heels for me, either. He was heading off to U Montana
in a month and in his head he was already there. I wasn’t putting
out. Prom night hadn’t gone down as he’d hoped. So really I was
just his hometown girl, expiration date almost passed.

We were about to go
our separate ways, and though we both knew it was ending, neither of
us made the effort to declare it. What was the point? He was only
around for a few more weeks and those weeks were all about hanging
out with our mutual friends. What was the point of upsetting things,
turning over the apple cart when you didn’t have to? It wasn’t as
if I was going to date anyone else anyway.

Declan had
absolutely no interest. I knew that. He’d made that perfectly
clear. I’d seen him in town the other day with yet another skank.
He was a regular skank magnet. Whether they found him or he found
them, I didn’t know, but whenever I saw him out and about he had
some trashy girl draped all over him.

The one I’d seen
him with the other night had spider webs tattooed all down the side
of her leg. Spider webs. Did Declan like that? Well, clearly he did
because he had his tongue down her throat. Mandy plus a couple of
other girlfriends and I had been driving around, living it up like we
did most nights. Declan and the spider web girl had been outside a
local dive, making out against his truck in the parking lot.

We’d all gagged
and pretend barfed like it was the grossest, lamest thing we’d ever
seen. Only I actually wished it was me pressed up against his truck.

I was clearly losing
my mind.

I poured the bread
batter into a pan, then popped it into the oven. These basic tasks I
could still do. It was everything else I sucked at.

I had to forget
entirely about that mortifying, unspeakably embarrassing incident in
Declan’s truck. It had happened a month ago. But I still thought
about it all the time.

Had he actually
taken me over his knee and spanked me? Given me, an
18-almost-19-year-old a spanking? Like I was a toddler?

And here’s where I
made myself blush even standing alone in the privacy of my own
kitchen. My stomach flipped, my hands started to shake when I
remembered how much I had liked it. I’d loved it.

The feel of his
rough, warm palm coming down on my ass. How strong he was, the way
his bicep had bulged under the sleeve of his t-shirt. His smell. The
chafe of his jeans against my bare thighs.

The shock and sting
of that smack, when his hand had first come down. Tears had sprung to
my eyes. My lips had parted, no sound coming out at first. I didn’t
know what was happening. I was furious, ashamed.

And then. Then the
heat built up. I could hear his breathing, rough and ragged. I could
hear the low sound he made when his hand came down on my skin, a deep
huh in his throat. It was just us, inside the cab of his truck, and I
was completely under his control. He had me right where he wanted me
and I was helpless.

Before I could
think, before I could process anything that was happening, my body
started responding. My heartbeat picked up, my breathing accelerated,
my hands grabbed onto the armrest in his truck. As he smacked me full
across the ass, I pressed into him and felt his hardness, the length
of him straining against the crotch of his jeans. I wriggled against
him, wanting to feel more, needing it.

I tried not to think
about it, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. His hand on me,
the pressure of his palm. How his initial act of frustration and
annoyance had suddenly turned into intimacy. The low, throaty moan
that had escaped from my throat.

His hand had frozen.
I’d frozen too, barely breathing. It was as if both of us could
still hear my moan, like it was echoing in his truck. And then he’d
thrown me away like I repulsed him. The moment was over before it had
even begun. He’d driven us back to the ranch, not a word exchanged
between us.

We’d barely said a
word to each other in the intervening weeks other than a cursory
“hello.” And even that was only when he was with the other guys.
Even then he wouldn’t really say a full hello, just an infuriating
nod underneath the big cowboy hat he always wore. Damn it, I wished
the strong silent type didn’t have so much sex appeal.

In a sane universe,
I wouldn’t have enjoyed getting spanked. I wouldn’t still be
thinking about it, about Declan all the time. I would be out with my
perfectly normal, perfectly boring high school boyfriend doing
something dumb I found perfectly engrossing.

But this was not a
sane universe. Everything had tipped on its axis since Declan had
arrived in my life. The only thing left to do was cling on and try to
find new footing on this entirely new surface.

And bake banana
bread.

Checking on it, I
found it was already time to take it out. I set it down on a hot pad
and took out the cooling rack. Taking a butter knife, I nestled it
gently between the edge of the bread and the pan. It felt loose
enough. Small things, routines, calmed me. Baking bread. I did it
well, I’d done it for years. I could still do it now.

And now maybe I’d
bring a loaf down to Declan? I’d seen his truck parked outside of
his cabin. Unusual for a Saturday night, he almost always went out.
But tonight he’d stayed home. Like me.

Before I could stop
my train of thought, I ran to my room and changed clothes. I didn’t
want to overdo it, so I just grabbed a t-shirt and short shorts. As
if I could wear anything that would make me not look ridiculously
obvious and lamely hopeful, knocking on his door on a Saturday night.

But obsession was a
powerful force and it clearly had me in its grip. It was Saturday
night, hot and sticky in late June, and I had to see him. Maybe he’d
have his shirt off? Dear God, I might not make it. I’d have a heart
attack. What an incredible way to go.

At the last minute,
I made a thermos of lemonade, too. So dumb, like I was asking him to
go on a church picnic. I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t stop my feet
from walking out the door.

My heart just about
beat out of my chest as I made my way in the darkness down to his
cabin. Daddy was out tonight playing poker with some neighbors. The
light was on in Declan’s cabin. His truck was still parked there
outside. Would we finally have a moment alone, just the two of us?

I heard the moaning
a few feet away from his front door. It was a woman and she was
really enjoying herself.

“Oh yeah!” she
yelled, breathy.

I didn’t hear
anything after that. Maybe he was watching TV?

I noticed that the
door was ajar. I guessed that was why I could hear things so loud and
clear. I inched toward the doorway, the light peeking through. Should
I knock?

Without thinking, I
put my hand to the door and pushed. It opened slowly, silently, and I
saw what was making all that noise.

Declan sat on the
couch, shirtless as I’d imagined. He didn’t have his pants on
either. He had his eyes closed, his head tilted back as a woman
kneeled between his legs and took his cock into her mouth.

“That’s it.”
He groaned in pleasure, bringing a hand to the back of her head.

She made a deep
purring noise, running her hands up and down his thighs as she
sucked. “Mmm.” She enjoyed herself as she took him in deep.

I stood, frozen to
the spot, banana bread in one hand, thermos of lemonade tucked under
my arm. My jaw must have dropped to the floor. But I didn’t move.

Eyes closed, Declan
leaned back with his throat stretched out and a dusting of stubble
across his strong jaw. His shoulders were so broad, so defined, his
chest a pure wall of muscle. He looked like raw, potent power with
his thick thighs spread. A groan came out of his throat.

He cupped the back
of the other girl’s head and pushed her down on his hard cock. All
male domination, in a deep, throaty voice he told her, “Suck it.”
The girl moaned, loving every second of it.

A shudder traveled
up through my body. My core tightened and heat pooled deep within, my
pussy starting to throb. I’d never seen anything so dirty, so
erotic.

Hand on her head, so
controlling, he said, “Yes, like that.”