If she had known it would take her this long to get home, she would’ve stayed on the damn ship.

Everything that could’ve gone wrong trying to get from Croatia back to Los Angeles did.

She’d had the taxi stop by the police station as she got off the ship to make sure it was okay for her to leave the country. The police — in their broken English — had been very kind and understanding. They sympathized with her need for getting home after what had happened.

It ended up since all the parties involved with the crime were American, and the murder attempt had not taken place on Croatian soil, Mike would be arrested and tried back in the United States. So as far as they were concerned, she was free to go.

She breathed a little easier when the flight attendant pulled the airplane door closed in Dubrovnik. She’d half expected Jackson to come charging after her. Not necessarily because he really wanted her but because it would be hard for him to just let her go when it wasn’t on his own terms.

But he hadn’t.

Her flight from Paris to Atlanta had been delayed. Then going from Atlanta to Los Angeles they’d had to re-route midair due to overcrowding at LAX, landing instead in San Diego. She’d had to wait another extra six hours before catching a small puddle-jumper home. She could’ve driven there in less time, and it would’ve been a lot less hell on her broken pinky.

She wasn’t tired. It seemed like all she’d done on every single flight was sleep. Hours. She was thankful for her body shutting down the way it had. It meant less time she had to think. She very much did not want to think. Not for a long time.

Her fingers had finally stopped reaching for the necklace that had been around her throat since the moment he had given it to her. It was gone forever.

She let herself in the front door of her apartment and almost tripped trying to avoid the square envelope that had been slid under the crack of the door. She dropped her suitcase and it landed with a thud.

The envelope was exactly like the ones she’d used when she’d written the scenes Jackson. Thick, square with gold trim.

How the hell did one of them end up here? It wasn’t like she had mailed them and they could be returned to her. She’d had them delivered or had handed them to him herself.

She picked it up tentatively as if afraid it would bite her and turned it over.

Lexi

Her name written in bold script across the front. Her hands began to tremble slightly as she opened it.

* * *

For Lexi. Though I’m not nearly as talented at writing as you.

The Submissive Fantasy

I've always known who I was. I was never a man who doubted himself or his decisions. Like the Ram, symbol of the Aries, I forged ahead without looking back, often with little thought for those who have been pushed out the way by my horns.

It has served me well my whole life, except for very few times.

Those few times have tended to surround one small woman. My beautiful Submissive.

I didn't recognize her for what she was at first. I couldn't see she was meant to be mine. I could only see her youth, innocence and generosity of spirit. I, on the other hand, was the opposite: older, jaded, callous.

I thought I knew what was best when I walked away from her.

It took me a long time to realize I had been a very bad Dom.

I had let my beautiful Submissive's needs go untended for four years. When I think back on all the time I missed... The things she could've learned at my hand rather than someone else's... I want to go back and kick my own ass. To tell myself, young and innocent or not, to never let her go.

And yet I didn't think we would ever be together. I thought the stars would never align for the two of us. I convinced myself I was over her.

I even let myself become fascinated with another. A woman whose face I had never seen but whose words and mind had enthralled me. The things she wrote were like something out of my deepest fantasies. I allowed myself to believe that this new woman, this fantasy-writing woman, although she would never be my sweet Submissive, could at least keep me engaged. Which was more than any other woman had done.

My cock was deep in her hot pussy when everything in my world shifted.

When I found out the fantasy woman and my sweet Submissive was the same person.

Has ever a man been so lucky as me?

I had everything I ever wanted: my sweet Submissive that had always owned my heart and the Fantasy woman who had more recently enchanted my mind. They were the same person. And obviously more than a match for me.

My Submissive Fantasy. Everything I could possibly want.

For the next few days I had her. Under me, over me, in front of me. I spent more time in that sweet pussy and mouth and ass than could've been believed.

And I loved every fucking — literally — second of it.

But moreover I just loved being with her. Talking to her. Laughing with her. Experiencing places in Europe through her eyes. Place and things I had long since stopped looking at in wonder.

Yes, I was supposed to be keeping her close to keep tabs on her in case she was stealing from me. But really, I was keeping her close because there was no way I could live without her.

Once my mind, my dick, my heart truly had a taste of my Submissive Fantasy, there was no way I was ever going to be able to go back to the cold empty life I'd led without her.

So stealing from me? Honestly, it didn't matter if she was or if she wasn't. It was all hers anyway. I would give her every single cent.

Don't get me wrong, if I had found out she was stealing from me, she wouldn't have sat down easily for months because of all the spankings I would've given her. And I probably wouldn't have let her out of my sight for the next fifty years. We would've just had to stay locked away together much like we had for the last few days.

Part of me hoped she was stealing from me, hoped I would have justification to keep her close to me for as long as I wanted. Even if it was forever. Even if I had to resort to blackmail to do it: jail or life with me.

I blame my Aries star sign again. When I want something, nothing gets in my way.

I wanted her. I should've just come right out and said it from the very beginning. But I let my pride get in my way. Didn't want to be tricked. Wanted to make sure I had the upper hand.

It took my brain quite a bit longer to recognize what my heart had known for years: my beautiful Submissive Fantasy had always had the upper hand.

I didn't know I was starving until I tasted her. But that didn’t mean I wasn't starving.

I gave her a collar. It was truly only a necklace, but both of us knew what it signified without saying the words. With that piece of jewelry I was announcing to her, to me, to everyone who could possibly understand, that she was mine.

Which is why she felt so betrayed by the tiny tracking device I'd allowed to be placed there. I could tell her that it had only been turned on one time, when she was in the most desperate of situations, but I don't know if she would believe me.

I can't be sorry for the tracker. If I hadn't had the bad judgment enough to place it in the first place, my Submissive Fantasy would have died at the hands of a madman.

I will never, for as long as I exist in this world, regret placing that tracker.

But I will always regret that it hurt her.

And I can only hope that my beautiful Submissive Fantasy, the woman my mind, body and heart desires above all others, will give me another chance.

That when I knock, she will open.

* * *

A knock at her door had her spinning around.

It could not possibly be.

Tears from his words had already been blurring the pages in her hand. Now they blurred the door in front of her. Had she imagined the knock? Some sort of version of her own submissive fantasy?

A knock again.

She couldn't seem to make herself answer it, more afraid that it wouldn't be Jackson — that she was setting herself up for another heartbreak — than it would be.

He couldn't be here.

Of course, that letter shouldn't have been here either.

“Lexi.”

The tears in her eyes spilled onto her cheeks.

“Lexi, please open the door.”

It was one of the few times in her life she could remember Jackson Calder not sounding perfectly sure of himself. He really didn't know if she was going to open the door.

She really didn't know if she was going to open the door.

“I broke several laws and bribed a number of airline officials so I could get back here before you did.”

She walked to the door and put her hand on it. More than anything she wanted to open it. Was he just here because she had walked away? How could she know this wasn't just all part of the chase? Part of his nature?

“Whatever you're thinking right now, you're right to think it. I'm hard to live with, Lexi. My dominance isn't just in the bedroom. My nature is forceful, powerful all the time.” His voice got deeper. More husky. “But the flip side of that nature is that I know myself. You're it for me, Lex. Whether you open this door right now, or I have to come back every single day for the next ten years to plead my case, you're it for me. Hell, you've been it for me since you were eighteen years old.”

Her hand moved to the doorknob.

“I can't promise I won't do something stupid again. As a matter of fact, I can guarantee I will. But everything I wrote in that letter is true. I didn't know how much I was starving until I tasted you, Lexi.”

She knew it was just a matter of time before she opened the door. She loved him. She knew he loved her. But she couldn't seem to make herself do it.

His voice got louder. “And the way we are together, Lex. Nothing could be more perfect than that. God, I could eat your pussy all day. And the way you look with my clamps on your nipples and how your ass turns such a beautiful shade of red when I spank it.... How you scream my name and call me Master when I'm fucking you from behind.”

She threw open the door and dragged him inside.

“I have neighbors you kn—”

She didn't even get the rest of the sentence out before his lips were devouring hers. His arm reached out and shut the door before the entire weight of his body had hers pinned against it. His hand fisted in her hair at the nape of her neck.

“I fucking love you and you will never leave me again.” His mouth plundered hers, his hands moving down to cup her ass, pulling her legs around his waist. If it hurt his shoulder he never so much as flinched.

She fisted his hair, pulling his face back so they could look eye to eye. “I love you too, and I don't mind your dominance — hell, I love your dominance — but we will be honest with each other from now on.”

“Deal. How's this for honest: by this time tomorrow you're not going to be able to walk straight. I'm going to fuck your mouth, your ass and your pussy — not necessarily in that order — tie you to the bed and spank you. You're going to scream until you're hoarse.”

Her pussy got wetter with every word. Knowing he was completely capable of backing up those promises had her legs tightening around him. This was her man. Her Aries.

“And you should know,” he continued between nips at her neck with this teeth and thrusting his tongue in a blatantly sexual way in her ear, “every single scene you wrote me, you and I will be acting out. I can't wait to spank you with the Bad Girl paddle I bought, or fuck you while you have your kitty outfit on.”

She ground her hips against him. “Will you make me come in public with a vibrator you control?”

His fingers clutched her ass. “I'll even make you wear one to work and I'll turn on the vibrator when you least expect it. As a matter of fact, maybe I'll find a dual penetration chastity belt. Keep both your pussy and your ass stuffed and controlled by me.”

She groaned as he kissed her again, his tongue taking all the time he wanted, fucking her mouth with deep, hard strokes. He was right, living with him wouldn't be easy, but it would be everything she'd ever wanted.

He pulled back, allowing her legs to slide to the ground as he pulled something from his pocket.

The necklace.

“No more transmitter inside. But you'll wear it, until I can get you a permanent one, and a ring on your finger. You'll wear it so we'll both always remember to be honest with each other. And so when I take you to the club people know you're off the market.”

“Good.” She smiled, her joy bubbling out of her.

He cupped her face and kissed her tenderly. “I am yours, forever.”

* * *

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Don’t miss the next Zodiac Alpha story on board the Celestial. Donovan’s story is the Taurus novel in May.