Claiming Her Heart
CLAIMING HER HEART
UNDER HIS COMMAND BOOK THREE
By Lili Valente
All Rights Reserved
Copyright
Claiming Her Heart
© 2015 Lili Valente
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. This erotic romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with, especially if you enjoy hot, sexy, emotional novels featuring Dominant alpha males. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work. This book was previously published as Skin Deep by Anna J. Evans in 2009. It has been extensively revised and reworked before being re-released in serial romance format. Cover design by Violet Duke. Editorial services provided by Leone Editorial.
Dedicated to Lauren Blakely, Monica Murphy/Karen Erickson, and
Sawyer Bennett. Honored to have the readership of such amazing, talented women!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Claiming Her Heart
Under His Command Book 3
*Warning:
Dominant alpha hero Blake Roberts will own your nights and forever ruin you for lesser men*
Blake has what he thought he wanted—Erin’s submission, her trust, and the woman he loves back in his bed. But with her submission comes protection of her secrets. Erin is in trouble and an innocent life hangs in the balance. Blake knows he can help her break free of the past, but he doesn’t know if a man like himself belongs in her future.
How can he swear to protect her from danger when he has a dark side of his own?
CHAPTER ONE
Blake
Erin was nearly naked again, wearing nothing but tiny black panties.
Her jeans had been soaked through or he wouldn’t have taken them off. Blake needed her shirt off to get to the tattoo, but not her pants.
It certainly would be easier to concentrate if she were wearing more clothes and didn’t look so damned sexy spread out, face down, on the bed in his room. He still wanted her as much as he always had—probably always would—but the time for making love or fucking or whatever they’d been doing was over.
From this point on, he was all business.
Too bad this business had a lot in common with one of his favorite pleasures…
Bondage had always been a huge turn-on, even before he discovered the BDSM lifestyle. Either binding his lover or being bound himself, it didn’t much matter. Both made Blake hard enough to shatter rock.
It was no surprise that his cock swelled uncomfortably within the confines of his jeans as he cuffed Erin’s wrists to the mission-style headboard of the bed. He couldn’t help being aroused, but he should have kept his hands to himself.
But he couldn’t seem to resist tracing the column of her spine with his fingertips, past the small of her back and down both of her legs. He couldn’t keep from gripping her just above the knees, digging his fingers into the soft flesh with the perfect amount of pressure, the kind he knew made Erin’s pussy gush.
And then he pulled her thighs apart.
Wide.
Wider…spreading her open for him before he moved his fingers to her ankles.
A soft moan of excitement escaped Erin’s lips as he knelt between her legs, making Blake’s breath rush out softly in relief. Ever since he’d thrown her over his shoulder at the diner, he’d felt like a monster, a feeling that had only gotten worse as she continued to fight him all the way up to the cabin. With every passing second, he’d become increasingly convinced that he’d gone too far, crossed the line between consensual power exchange and being a goddamned bully.
But that sigh of arousal helped calm his fears.
No matter what she’d said in the diner or on the road up to the cabin, Erin hadn’t been faking her physical responses to his touch.
Her emotional response, however, was clearly another story. A story that made him so full of hurt and rage he saw red every time he thought about how easily he’d been played.
“See there, Erin. Aren’t you glad I caught you in time?” His voice was as rough as the rope he used to secure first one ankle and then the other to the baseboard near her feet.
He’d only brought the one pair of cuffs so rope would have to do. At this point, the idea of rope burns on Erin’s delicate skin didn’t bother him as much as it would have two hours ago. It was amazing how badly it hurt to realize she’d been lying to him from the moment they’d arrived at the cabin.
He’d been a fool to believe the woman he’d
kidnapped
could have real feelings for him again in less than a day. No matter how much he cared for her, no matter how right it had felt to pick up where they’d left off eight years ago, it had been pure stupidity to drop his guard. He should have stuck to his original plan from the beginning and spared himself the heartache.
And avoided abducting Erin from a public place.
Again.
You’ve really lost it, asshole, and chances are good you’ll be facing criminal charges.
His inner voice was channeling Rafe this evening.
It was a pain in his ass and, unfortunately, probably right on the money. Even if the people in the diner didn’t call the police to report what they’d seen, Erin now had several witnesses to corroborate her claims of being kidnapped.
A day ago, he would have said that it didn’t matter, that he wouldn’t have denied the charges anyway. After all the lies and deception he’d had to deal with growing up, he was more than a fan of the truth—he was a devotee. But now a part of him would be tempted to insist this weekend trip had been a consensual affair. He was
that
angry about being taken for a ride.
Or that devastated; take your pick.
He preferred angry. It hurt a hell of a lot less.
“Tell me, Erin,” he whispered, his voice thick with anger. “Now.”
He finished up at her ankles and moved over her prone form, bracing his hands on either side of her shoulders, hovering close enough that he could feel the heat of her body but not the silky softness of her skin. He moved his mouth just the barest bit closer, letting his lips brush softly against the back of her neck as he spoke again. “Tell me what you want.”
Erin shivered, but he could tell it wasn’t from the cold. She was aroused, he would bet his hands on it. If he let his fingers slide into those tiny black panties, he’d find her wet and ready, no matter how much of a fight she’d put up as he carried her up the stairs and wrestled her onto her stomach on the bed.
“Fuck you,” she whispered, anger clear in her tone.
So she was pissed as well as turned on. Good. That made two of them.
“I don’t think so. No more distractions. We’re going to finish this,” he said, reaching over to where the tattoo machine sat beside the bed.
Blake flipped the switch on the motor then pulled on his latex gloves. He’d already prepped the gun with black ink and Erin’s shoulder with an alcohol swab, so they were ready to go. All he had to do was put the needle to her skin.
He’d planned how he would modify the tat if Erin refused to give him her input, so there was no reason to stall. In half an hour, he could be finished and they could both be getting ready to head back to L.A. He should get on with it.
But for some reason, he couldn’t force his hand to move any closer.
“Tell me what you want, Erin. This is your last chance,” he said, hoping she heard the resolve in his voice. If she didn’t talk now, she would lose the opportunity.
But she didn’t say a word, only pressed her face into the quilt beneath her, every muscle tensed, bracing for the feel of the needle piercing her skin. The position only emphasized how small she was. Her wrists were tinier than ever, and her shoulder blades and the knobs of her spine were clearly visible through her skin, once more inspiring the desire to get to work fattening her up.
Fuck.
He should forget this insanity and go down and reheat the pasta, bring it upstairs, and they could eat it together in bed. They could feed each other tortellini and sips of red wine, then have each other for dessert. After all, who needed cheesecake when you could have your tongue buried in something as sweet as Erin’s pussy?
The imagined scene made his cock twitch even as his throat grew uncomfortably tight. Nothing like that was ever going to happen again.
It had all been a lie, every touch, every word.
Blake’s anger sharpened to a knifepoint. Erin had let him think they had a future together and made him happier than he’d been in years, only to tear him down hours later. She’d
cried
in his arms, for God’s sake, wept because she was so overwhelmed by what she was feeling.
Except now he knew she hadn’t been feeling anything at all. It had been an act to trick the asshole still stupid enough to be in love with a woman who couldn’t give less of a shit about him.
A second later, Blake dropped the tattoo gun to her pale flesh, tracing the edge of the wing he intended to expand. He’d add enough feathers to cover the angel’s body, then go to work on the face, covering the ethereal features with wild strands of black hair. By the time he was finished, no one would recognize his tat and Erin’s as similar, let alone matching in every detail.
And when the resemblance was gone, he’d finally be free of this obsession that had haunted him his entire adult life.
“Stop,” she sobbed.
“Sorry, I can’t.” He clenched his jaw, refusing to acknowledge the guilt that whispered through his rage. Screw guilt. It wasn’t going to get this job done.
“Stop it. Stop!” The words started as a whisper but ended in a scream. Erin’s shout echoed off the walls of the bedroom, followed closely by the horrific sound of a woman crying.
No, she wasn’t simply crying. She was wailing like her heart was breaking, weeping so hard her shoulders shook as the sobs wracked her body, ensuring there was no way he could continue the tattoo. She was shaking too badly, but more importantly, she was obviously in serious emotional distress.
He might be angry with her, but he wasn’t a monster.
You’re not? So, you’ll strap a woman down, but not sit on her to force her to hold still.
What a fucking gentleman.
Shame swept through Blake’s body like a blast of cold air, shocking him to the core.
Jesus. What was he doing?