Past Unbound (House of Doms Series) (2 page)

Chapter
Two

Present
Day

Alia Ward sat on a barstool at Tradewinds, her favorite night club with her two best friends as the music pumped and people moved around them.  The dance floor was packed with single people, young and old as well as couples moving to the beat.  The variety of people and music made this one of her favorite places to hang out.  Sheila and Jamie were her life lines.  The first few years after Darius left her had been pure hell, and if it hadn’t been for them and her sister Pam, she would have fallen into a hole big enough to swallow her up.  Lia downed her tequila shot, almost wishing she hadn’t.  Damn near choking on it, she turned when Sheila spoke.

“Lia, did you go to the new BDSM club right outside of town?”

Well, that was Sheila.  The woman never did have a filter.  She was beautiful with her long, dark hair and petite figure, but the woman just didn’t know how to censor her mouth.  After a few seconds, Alia recovered then nodded.  “Well, now that you mention it, yes, I have.  I checked it out last Saturday when the two of you went on your dates.”

Lia’s mind drifted eagerly to her first visit to the House.  According to reports it was becoming one of the best clubs on the East Coast.  She’d been to BDSM clubs in the past, but the sights and sounds of this one had been music to her ears.  She remembered sitting at the bar, looking around at the dark wood paneling with deep reds and greens spread throughout the room.  The sounds of a whip striking a submissive’s back with the resulting whimper made her wish to change places.  Still, she hadn’t stayed long enough to really get a feel for the place.  There was one Dom that just creeped her out, one that reminded her way too much of Darius.  She’d just as soon never remember Dare.  While her body had sang and heated at the sight of the Dom, her mind roiled too much for comfort so she left after only being there an hour.

“Well don’t keep us in suspense.  Spill,” Jamie yelled over the blaring music.

Her head snapped up to look into Jamie’s pretty green eyes.  Where Sheila didn’t have a filter, Jamie was the firecracker.  She lived up to that fiery red hair of hers.  “Nothing to tell really.  From what I saw of it, it looks like a nice place.  I didn’t stay very long.”  She looked over at Sheila.  “I certainly didn’t get the spanking you keep telling me I need.”

“Then you’ll just have to go back and get it,” Sheila said as she nudged Lia’s stool.  The three of them shared a laugh and another shot.

Lia started to feel the hairs on the back of her neck rise and turned to look around the room.  She felt as though someone was watching her.  It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

“What’s the matter?”  Sheila’s voice brought her attention back around. 

Shaking her head, she dismissed the feeling.  “Nothing.
Let’s dance.”  Grabbing her friends’ hands, she pulled them to the dance floor and tried to shake the feeling creeping up her spine.

****
*

Darius knew he had seen her at the House last week.  His Lia
—with
all that butter caramel skin encasing a bevy of lush curves.  She’d let her dark brown hair grow longer in the six years since they’d parted.  It now hung long and straight down her back.  He had run into her friend Sheila a few days ago and wondered if she had mentioned to Lia that she had seen him.  After some coaxing Sheila had told him about this night club and the fact they came here a couple times a week for drinks and dancing.  He’d taken a chance and showed up tonight.  Now he sat in the shadows of the club watching her and her friends.  Nursing a beer at one of the small tables in the back, he’d felt her presence even before he’d seen her.
The lighting was dim, but the strobe lights around the place made it easy for him to watch her.  He probably would be considered a stalker as he’d never let his eyes leave her.  Damn, he’d missed her.

He was sure she’d seen him when she suddenly scanned the room, as if she knew he was watching her.  Lia and her friends moved from the bar to the dance floor and he swore he would come in his pants just watching her move.  The way her hips moved to the sensual beat of the Latin music the DJ had switched to had him picturing her riding his cock in the same fashion.  The way she put her hands in her hair, lifted it while rotating her hips and ass made him squirm in his seat.  His groan was loud enough for the couple at the other table to glare at him.

Control.  He needed to regain his control.  Adjusting his massive hard-on in his jeans, he tried to stop the images of burying it deep within Lia once again.
He had stayed away six years
—six
long years of hell.  He’d learned much about himself and his craft in the time he’d been away.  It was time to reclaim what was rightfully his and fill the gaping hole in his heart.

Chapter
Three

It was late evening; the bakery was empty except for her and Kim, her perky pastry intern.  She was making peach and blueberry pies for the next day when she heard that familiar voice.  Looking out the open doorway of the kitchen into the seating area of her small bakery, Lia couldn’t believe he stood there.  The space could only hold three small round tables with two chairs each and the display cabinet with the register at one end.  His huge frame was taking up what extra space there was.  It had been six years since she’d last seen him.  In an instant her mind and body ran the gamut of emotions, but settled on indifference.  Or at least that’s what she told herself.  Sheila told her just yesterday that Darius was back in town and that she had seen him a couple days earlier.  As she looked at him standing at the counter, she remembered that Darius had always been huskily tall, but now he’d developed into pure brawn.  He still towered over her at six-three, yet was now a good two
hundred
fifty pounds of solid muscle.  He took her breath away.  God he was gorgeous.  His sun-kissed flesh matched his gray eyes and dark hair.  Hair that looked like living silk that he’d let grow to his shoulders.  The button up shirt and slacks he wore fit him perfectly, like they were made for him.  He looked like walking sex.  The years had been nothing but good to him.  She could see that Kim had already fallen under his spell from her spot behind the counter.

Turning away from the imposing sight of him and the memories he brought to the forefront of her mind, she went back to kneading the dough for her pies.  Six years ago, he’d left her.  She’d given him her heart and he’d broken it into pieces.  In all th
at
time, she still hadn’t put the pieces of herself back together.  He’d told her he’d loved her.  That he’d never hurt her.  He’d lied on both accounts.

“I think your dough is ruined.”

Startled by his deep baritone voice, she jerked her hands and the dough between them.  “Shit!”  So lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t heard him come into the kitchen.  The ball was ruined for what she needed to do.  Tossing it to the side, she wiped her hands on her apron before turning to him.  “Darius.  I heard you were in town,” she said with a lazy shrug as if she didn’t care.  But she did.  Just his nearness was making her heart beat erratically. 

She watched as he stood with his hands
fisted tightly at his sides as if willing himself to keep them there.  “I got in a few days ago.” 

Her body came to life at just the sound of his voice and damn she didn’t need that.  She nodded her head.  “I heard about your dad.  How is he doing?”  She had heard through the grapevine that Davis McKade had suffered a heart attack, was resting at home.

“Lia, I didn’t come here to talk about my father.”

“Then what did you come to talk about?”  Her mind started racing, it felt as though she couldn’t breathe as they stood alone.  His presence after all this time was a shock to her system.  She didn’t know how or what she should be feeling with him standing right in front of her.

“Precious…”

Her anger rose as he dared to call her that.  “Don’t call me that!  You don’t have that right any longer!”  She all but spat the words at him.  Sometimes she could still hear him whispering it in her ear as he made love to her.  His deep sigh brought her head back up to meet those beautiful gray eyes.

“Lia, I came to see you.  Talk to you.”

“About what, Darius?  I’ve got pies to make, so please get to it.”  Her tone was beyond bitchy
,
and she really didn’t care.  The kitchen of her bakery was just as small as the lounge and with him standing so close plus the two ovens on, the room started to feel even smaller…all the more hotter.  Even with the late summer breeze blowing through the open windows of the kitchen
,
she began to sweat.  The t-shirt she wore under her apron began to stick to her body.

She looked like a hot mess, and he looked so calm it made her anger rise even further.  How dare he be calm and collected when she was dying inside.  The remembered pain and loss of the way he left almost brought her to her knees.  She didn’t want to face those memories.  Lia thought she had put it all behind her. 
Well
you
haven’t
,
she told herself
.
  Turning away from him and grabbing another ball of dough, she began kneading as she waited for him to speak.

****
*

She was more beautiful than he remembered; a vision that had never left him.  He wanted to reach out and touch her, wrap her in his arms and hold tight.  Those dark brown eyes that always took his breath away were filled with pain and anger.  How could he tell her all the things he needed to say?  She would probably hate him more.

“Precious, I…”  He began to speak only to stop at the look she threw him over her shoulder.  She was still his Precious whether she liked it or not.  “I need to tell you some things, and this really isn’t the place to do it.”  He remembered her assistant in the front of the bakery, didn’t think Lia would want her to hear all he had to say.

“What?
You want to tell me how the wife and kid are doing?”

He could hear the bitterness in her voice that she didn’t even try to hide.
He couldn’t blame her.
 
“There never was a child and Tracy is dead.”  The words came out with a growl when they left his mouth.  His anger at the injustice of what Tracy and his father had put them both through came to the forefront.

Lia almost dropped the bowl of peach filling she had been putting into the pies, but he moved quickly and caught the bowl.  Dare watched as her mouth kept opening and closing as she turned to face him.  Dare knew he had shocked her.
He hadn’t wanted to blurt it out like that.

She took a step away from him, but stopped as if catching herself.  Dare walked closer and stood right in front of her.  He had a furious need to be as close to her as he could get.  He lifted a hand to touch her face only to have her turn away.
Another growl rumbled from his chest before he could stop it.  He watched her eyes go wide as she stared back at him.  His dominance started to come to the forefront; he could see how it affected her.  Her eyes glossed over as she started to bite her bottom lip.  Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides.  She was getting fidgety, shifting from side to side as if trying to bank the arousal in her body.  A low rumble left his mouth, and her eyes fell to the floor before she caught herself and raised them to stare into his eyes.  A smirk crossed his face at her defiance while he grew hard as stone.  A vision of her tied to his bed crossed his mind, and he had to shake his head to clear the image.  He would not let her avoid him much longer.

“Darius, w-what did you just say?”  Her voice shook, taking her a moment to get the words out.

His need to comfort made Dare take a step forward, backing her into the counter behind her.  Her eyes grew wider as he invaded her personal space.  Bracing his hands on the counter on either side of her, he gave her no space to run from him.  “Precious, you have to understand that the things I’ve done have always been to protect you and your family.”

Chapter
Four

He was too close.  She couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe with him so near.  Why did he have to stand so damn close?  She needed to think, but the heat coming off of him made that impossible.  And his scent…oh God, his unmistakable scent…it drove her wi
ld and rendered her motionless.

Lia looked up into the eyes that had always set her body on fire, immediately wishing she hadn’t.  Her body began to heat as she remembered all the things he used to do to her, all the magic he’d made her feel.  She also felt the dominance rolling off him, and in a strange coincidence, thought of the Dom at the House.  Why the hell had she thought of him right now?  Could it really have been Dare?  Shaking her head clear of the thought, she focused again on what Darius had said.  “What are you talking about?  How in the hell were you protecting me or my family?”  Her breathing turned harsh all of a sudden
.
P
ain lashed at her chest and she couldn’t breathe. 
Not
now
. 
God
,
not
now
.
  She would not have a panic attack and give him the satisfaction of seeing what he had done to her.  She was stronger now and would never let another man destroy her as he had.  Pushing against his chest, she struggled to put some space between them.  He stepped back, but she could tell he did so reluctantly.  She saw his eyes turn a smoky gray before she side-stepped him and moved back to the center island.

“Alia, dammit!  I need you to listen to me!”  His voice had turned much deeper, the command she heard there had her head whipping back around to face him.  Lifting her chin and pushing away the chills that raced down her spine, she gave him a steady glare.

“Alright, what Dare?”  She realized what she’d said when his sinful mouth lifted on one side.  Closing her eyes and blowing out a deep breath, she turned and started to fill the pies again before slipping them into the ovens.  “Your time is running out.  What do you want after all this time?  And what did you mean by there never was a child?  Tracy was pregnant when you married her.  She flaunted the test results in my face with glee.”

****
*

He blew out a harsh breath and ran his fingers through his hair, but Dare didn’t know where to start.  Looking into the face he’d always loved and never stopped dreaming about, he finally started to spill his guts.

“Tracy lied.”  He held up his hand when she went to speak.  “Unfortunately
,
I did sleep with her.  It was a mistake I wish I could take back.  But, she was never pregnant.  I was never going to be with her.  She went to my father.”

“What does that evil old man have to do with this?”

He knew she had never liked his father, and she was going to hate Davis even more when he got finished.  She would have every right to.  He just hoped she wouldn’t continue to hate him as well.

“He threatened to make sure your dad lost everything he worked for if I didn’t leave you and marry Tracy.”  Dare watched her face go from anger, to shock, to disbelief
,
and back to anger.

“You don’t have to make up a story, Darius.  You can tell me daddy wanted you to get rid of the chubby black girl from the wrong side of the tracks, and you did exactly that.  You followed daddy’s order as you always have.” 

She was right not to believe him, since he’d always done what his father wanted and expected of him, except when it came to her.  Moving quickly, he didn’t give her a chance to move before he caged her against the counter again.  “Shut up, Precious.”  His temper skyrocketed along with his arousal at the glare she gave him.  He remembered all too well her feisty side.  His command went straight to her core.  He could see it, even as she tried to hide it.  Her face flushed, her eyes glassed over and the slight tremor of her body were all the signs he needed.  His own body tensed, he wouldn’t have thought his cock could have gotten any harder, but it did.  He could feel the sweat roll down his back.

“How’s your father’s construction business, Lia?”  Dare almost didn’t recognize the sound of his voice; it had deepened to a snarl.  He saw the flare of her eyes at the question.  “I know how good it is.  How much better it got after I left.  My father was going to take that away from him because of the stupid mistake I made with Tracy.”