Cora finally arrived home from work shortly after one in the morning. Matt, the evil task master, had kept her late, even knowing she had an early morning class to teach—well, early for her with a toddler to get ready. Mornings were not necessarily her strong suit. Sadistic bastard. He was a good guy but he was testing her after being late to the gym the other day; she knew that. It was just that she had so many balls up in the air there was bound to be something she missed or was late for. She tried to not let it depress her when it felt like no matter how hard she worked, how much she tried to keep her life running smoothly, it didn’t work out that way.

Her life was messy and complicated. She rose at the crack of dawn every day and worked until she could barely see straight. Every day. If money weren’t an issue, she’d rather be home with Milo more.

She was exhausted, her feet ached. Then again, Cora couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t exhausted and tended to run on nothing but fumes. Plus, she still hadn’t talked to Spencer about the damn boots he made the waitresses wear.

She crept inside, hoping she was quiet enough that she wouldn’t wake Milo up, and discovered Garrett relaxing on her couch. The sofa was part of a set that had been a wedding gift from her parents. Jeff had always kidded her about the ‘girly’ couch, but it was better than that plaid monstrosity he’d had. Garrett made the fire engine-red microfiber fabric sofa appear dainty and out of place for such a big man—more so than Jeff ever had but then, Garrett was a larger man than Jeff had ever been. Garrett was taller, bulkier, more broad shouldered. And just the sight of him made the air bottle up in her lungs.

Guilt swarmed her chest like a hive of pissed off bees over her feelings for Garrett. She had loved Jeff with everything she had been, but she was no longer that fresh-faced young graduate just beginning her life. And she would always love Jeff, always miss him, always try to keep his memory alive for Milo. But that made those pesky emotions, the care and tenderness she was developing for Garrett, whose being was such a stark contrast, all the more problematic. Was she doing a disservice to Jeff, to his memory, by allowing Garrett into her heart?

“How was he?” she asked when Garrett’s gaze connected with hers.

“He was fine. Had a nightmare but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. Elmo’s in bed sleeping with him,” Garrett replied, rising from his seat.

“Thank you so much for watching him. I really appreciate it. I’m sure you’re tired after such a long night,” she said, still standing beside the front door. That way she could lock it after he left and stumble up to bed. And if Milo and Elmo were sleeping together, she could potentially get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Garrett prowled her way. It was the only description she could think of and her heartbeat sped up, like the horses she’d seen galloping around the field when they’d gotten Elmo. Cora had nowhere to go, no place to hide as he reached her. Towering over her, he clasped one of her hands and tugged her body up against his, then reached behind her, shut the front door and flipped the lock.

“What are you doing?” she asked a little breathlessly as she placed her hands against his incredibly solid chest. Even though deep down she knew he was going to take her, make love with her, she fought against the need flooding her veins. It was doubly hard because she had to keep her hands from doing what they wanted to do—caress his chest. Undo a few buttons and slip beneath the flannel to the firm silken skin underneath.

“Hush. You don’t want to wake Milo,” he stated with a hint of steel in his voice.

Then he towed her toward the stairs as if it were already a foregone conclusion that she would sleep with him, let him dominate her. Even though desire thickened in her veins, she’d been treated to a Dom’s demands at work all evening and dug her heels in. But the man glared at her, a firm glint in his cobalt gaze, before he shocked the hell out of her by bending down and tossing her over his shoulder.

In the blink of an eye, her entire world had been turned upside down and she stared at his navy flannel shirt as she sputtered, “Garrett, put me down.”

His big palm connected with her rear with a whack that reverberated through the first floor. Pain sliced through her system. The spot where his hand had fallen throbbed in pain. “That’s Sir and you know it. Now do be a dear and hush, or I will be forced to discipline you.”

She didn’t know what she was more shocked by, his overbearing attitude or the fact that Garrett going full on Dom aroused her. He climbed the stairs with her over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing more than a sack of potatoes. It did something to her insides: the manliness of his act, displaying how strong he truly was caused her internal engines to combust. And his scent, that spicy, male scent that was all Garrett surrounded her on their climb. Her hands grabbed onto his waist. She nearly sawed her tongue off at the feel of his sexy as hell obliques. She wanted more than anything to reach around, slide her hands beneath the front of his pants and fill her hands with him.

They entered her bedroom and Cora tried to find some semblance of resolve to send him away. But there were two warring camps inside her. The greedy wanton part of her wanted him, wanted to abase herself before him and let him lead her into illicit temptation. The other was still trying to hold on to the past, in some respects use her deceased husband as a barrier against Garrett, against getting too close and making herself vulnerable.

Garrett closed and locked the bedroom door behind them, sealing them in her room together. And the breath whooshed out of her when he shifted her body from his shoulder and lowered her onto the bed.

“Disrobe and lie on the bed on your back for me,” he commanded, his gaze so dark with lust it was nearly black.

“I don’t know, I’m not sure this is a good idea,” she said, shaking her head, attempting to deny the heat slithering through her veins. To deny the way his husky, deep bedroom voice shivered down her spine to pool in her groin.

He cupped her chin, his long, tapered fingers unyielding as he tilted her head up until she met his gaze, not allowing her to hide from him. “I bet if I slid my hand inside those tiny shorts to your pretty pussy, I’d find you wet for me. I thought we moved past the coy stage. You know I want you. I would like to see where we can take this relationship. So tell me, what do you want, Cora? Because if you don’t want me, us, this, tell me now.”

Surprisingly, Garrett had given her an out, a chance to back away from the flame before it burned. Deep down she knew if she said yes and admitted her desire, that she wanted him, she wouldn’t just be wading in but jumping into the deep end with both feet, eyes wide open.

Garrett was a Dom. If she said yes, she’d have to learn how to be a submissive in truth, at least in the bedroom. What if she disappointed him and couldn’t be the submissive he deserved? Cora had a truckload of baggage and that didn’t just include her son. There were scars on her heart. Would being into kink make her a bad mother? How would she keep this part of her life separate so that her son would never know?

She knew this was a deciding moment for her and Garrett. If she shunned him, his advances, here and now, after he’d been so wonderful not just to her but her son as well, her gut instinct told her she would lose her chance with him.

Did she want him? God, yes. She couldn’t ever remember desiring a man so strongly.

Did she want more with him, a chance to develop a real relationship with him? Yes. But she was terrified. She’d lost everything once and it had left her drowning, struggling against a tsunami of doubt and grief. But looking into his eyes, the sharp cobalt orbs that held such patience as he waited for her answer, Cora realized she couldn’t turn away from him or the burgeoning seed of connection. She wanted him so much she ached with her need. Her body hummed in this heightened sense of awareness and anticipation of feeling his thick shaft inside her once more, joining them in the most elemental way possible.

“Yes, on one condition,” she replied, trying to sound firm, but her words sounded like more of a breathless whisper.

“What’s that?”

She placed her hands on the sides of his face, his beard tickling her palms. She demanded, “Promise me you won’t ever lie to me or make me a promise you can’t keep.”

A shadow crossed his cobalt gaze for a millisecond. But then he smiled, a tempting, carnal grin that made her wonder if she had imagined the shadow. In that gaze she understood she was going to enjoy whatever erotic delight he had planned. Then he rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip, igniting pinpricks of pleasure, and replied, “I promise. Now undress and lie on the bed for me. I plan to teach you the finer points of BDSM.”

“Yes, Sir,” she said, her a voice a breathy whisper as she released his face and he stood.

Sitting on the bed with her legs hanging off the end, she winced as she took off her boots, flexing her feet to work out the kinks. The boots slid out of her grasp. She became transfixed by Garrett, watching his nimble fingers as they undid the buttons on his flannel shirt, revealing his tautly muscled chest. She wondered if she was drooling. He shrugged out of the material, exposing his chest and she swallowed the moan. The man was gorgeous. She wanted to run her hands all over his expansive form, from his shoulders down to the rim of his low slung jeans, followed by her tongue, tracing every line and indent. He winked at her, catching her staring at him like he was dessert.

“What’s that?” she asked with a small nod at the unfamiliar black leather duffel bag near his feet. She tugged her tank top over her head.

A wicked, carnal grin spread over his face as he undid the buckle of his belt. “That, sweetheart, is my goody bag and something you’re about to become very familiar with.”

“Huh. I didn’t see you bring it inside when you arrived, that’s all.”

He toed off his boots and unzipped his jeans, shoving the material down his legs until he stood in nothing but a pair of dark gray boxer briefs. Her mouth watered as she stood and removed her shorts.

He said, “I had it in my truck. Retrieved it when I took Elmo out to do his business.”

“So you were planning to… to…”

“Fuck you tonight. Yes. Absolutely.” His gaze caressed her form, like she was a rare filet he couldn’t wait to savor.

“Oh.” She had no other answer because she’d never had anyone talk dirty to her the way Garrett did. It was a total turn-on. It also made her feel guilty, like it was an affront to Jeff’s memory that she preferred Garrett’s hot, tempting, dirty lovemaking more. She had to mentally shove that thought aside. If there was anything Jeff’s death had taught her, it was not to waste a moment, to be present in the here and now because that was all people had.

She inhaled a few steadying breaths, then removed her bra and panties. She pulled the lavender covers down to the foot of the bed, leaving on the cream fitted sheet, and climbed onto the mattress. Cora lay back, getting herself comfortable. The king-sized bed was rather whimsical in design. She’d purchased it after Jeff died, needing something different, and had carefully selected the silver wrought iron frame. The bars of the headboard and footboard were thick and sturdy with graceful curves.

As tired as she had been when she arrived home, the exhaustion had evaporated. In its place was a humming of anticipation. What did Garrett have planned?

From her position, she had an unobstructed view of Garrett as he finished disrobing. He was handsome when he was fully clothed. Naked, the man took her breath away, from his broad shoulders, to his narrow waist, to his groin where his erection jutted long and thick, to his sculpted thighs and tapered calves. The light dusting of dark hair over his pectorals narrowed into a single line over his defined six pack to the dark nest shrouding his cock. She loved that his chest wasn’t shaved like so many men had theirs these days. A man should be a bit hairy—not like Sasquatch, but enough to define that he was a man and not a boy.

Her heartbeat accelerated when he grabbed the duffel bag and approached the bed. Her nipples beaded. And she knew if she touched herself, her fingers would come away slicked with her essence.

Garrett set the bag down on the bed.

“All right, sweetheart, I’m going to restrain you to the bed with these Velcro ties,” he said, withdrawing black lengths of rope from the bag. He moved about her bed, attaching the restraints to her headboard and footboard before fitting her ankles and wrists into the soft loops and tightening them. The material was soft against her skin, but as the last loop was fastened around her ankle she had a moment of panic. She was completely restrained and at Garrett’s mercy.

“Easy.” His hand caressed her calf. “Tonight is about pleasure. I’ll wait to flog you until I can get you up on a horse at the club or in my private dungeon.”

Okay, good, she thought, because she didn’t know if she was ready for that. She bit her lip and nodded.

“Good. Now, I need to know, have you ever had anal sex?”

Cora felt heat bloom as a blush spread over her chest and up her neck. “Yes.”

“And did you like it?”

“Yes,” she said. She’d always felt extremely naughty and decadent every time she and Jeff had done the deed in her back channel.

“Good. Then I want you to relax for me,” he said, climbing up on the bed and positioning himself between her spread legs. He withdrew a tube of lubricant and a black conical butt plug that was a good five inches in length.

He coated his fingers with clear lubricant, then ran them through her folds to her back hole. He teased her anus, coating it with lube then he pressed a single digit inside. Her muscles quivered, refusing him entrance at first. He laid his free hand low on her abdomen and, using his thumb, he circled her clit. Sparks of electrified pleasure pinged through her body, causing the muscles in her bottom to relax and allowing Garrett’s finger to slide deeper in her back channel.

“That’s it, sweetheart. Fuck, the way your ass is gripping my finger… I can’t wait to feel you around my dick.”

She panted as he drew her body into a miasma of desire, mewls escaping her lips. Straining against her bonds, she tried to rock her hips against his thumb while it strummed in steady circles over her swollen nub like he knew just the right amount of pressure to exert on the sensitive flesh without giving her release, only driving her out of her mind. That, combined with his finger thrusting deeper and deeper into her bottom, stretching her rear, made Cora surprised her body didn’t go up in flames. Anal had always put her body on this heightened plane of awareness. It electrified every nerve ending.

As she was used to participating more, being unable to do nothing but accept the invasion of his hands intimately teasing her body ratcheted her pleasure level up to an eleven. There was something inherently feminine and erotic about giving Garrett complete control.

And, oh god, his finger in her ass. It was gliding unobstructed and deep. Then he added a second, working it into her anus, stretching her.

“Sir,” she cried at the exquisite torture.

“Hush now, you don’t want to wake Milo up. Be silent or I will spank your gorgeous ass until it glows red from my hand.”

Her pussy and her rear throbbed at the thought of him spanking her. She’d had love taps before but never full on discipline. She bit her lower lip to contain her moans. Garrett’s thrusting fingers in her ass were driving her wild. When he added a third, she strained against her restraints.

Pleasure consumed her, turning her nerve endings raw, and she was perilously close to begging him to screw her brains out. The rhythmic strumming of his thumb over her clitoris caused the bud to swell and elongate. It was so hyper sensitive, she knew if he applied just a tiny bit more pressure she would explode.

But he didn’t. She gasped at the next lightning bolt of pleasurable fire streaking through her body, yet the infernal man just kept up the same unhurried pace that was driving her out of her ever-loving mind. Garrett added a fourth finger, stretching her anus to near painful proportions. Then the pain bled into pleasure so intense it nearly blinded her.

When his fingers were gliding in and out of her ass without resistance, her body near the precipice of ecstasy, he withdrew them. She whimpered at the loss.

“Relax, sweetheart, it’s just temporary,” he murmured, giving her clit a few fast flicks that left her vibrating with need.

He picked up the butt plug and coated it with lube, then pressed the tip of the cone-shaped device at her entrance.

“Deep breaths for me,” he commanded, then began working the plug into her rear.

The plug widened toward the base, broadening her taut sheath as he thrust and withdrew over and over, delving deeper with each thrust until her rear muscles relaxed, allowing him to fully embed the plug in her bottom. Her tissues gripped it, pulsating around it in time with his teasing flicks against her clit. It was as if her ass had a direct line to her pussy, causing it to tighten and flutter.

Then Garrett lifted a remote and pressed a button. The vibrating began slowly and then increased steadily, only to repeat the crescendo again and again. Cora’s mouth dropped open on a moan. She couldn’t help it. She’d never had a vibrator in her ass before. She’d thought the pleasure intense before… Her skin was enflamed. Her blood pumped lava. And she feared she would never be the same after tonight. At Garrett’s dark chuckle, she glanced at him.

“I had a feeling you would like that. It will make sure that pretty rosette of yours is all ready for my cock.” His deep, lust-filled bedroom voice was like a caress across her sensitized flesh.

He wiped the lubricant from his fingers on a dry wash cloth he pulled from his bag.

She couldn’t stop her moans. The vibrations from the plug zinged an unending cascade of pleasure-filled starbursts through her. Cora was so aroused at this point, she could feel the moisture dripping from her pussy to the mattress beneath her.

“I think your mouth needs something to occupy it,” Garrett murmured. Then he moved up the bed, straddling her body. The sight of his erect shaft, that perfectly smooth crest dark and seeping pearlescent drops of pre-cum, bobbing between her breasts made her moan and lick her lips.

“As much as I would love to fuck your tits—and I will add it to my list—tonight I want to fuck your mouth,” he said.

Her mouth watered at the prospect. She loved giving head, feeling a man’s shaft fill her mouth, the scent of his musk invading her nostrils. Together they propped her head up with pillows, elevating her enough to take his cock.

Garrett knelt up, grasping his dick in one hand, and with the other he cupped the back of her head. “Open up and suck my dick.”

God, she loved his dirty talk. She’d never considered it a turn-on before, but now it only seemed to add fuel to the flames. Cora didn’t hesitate, she dropped her jaw open, reached her tongue out, swiped it over the crest and caught the white bead of pre-cum seeping from the slit. Garrett hissed, then fed his shaft into her mouth. He tasted salty with a hint of sweetness. And she loved it. Loved the feel of his big dick sliding in and out of her mouth. She moaned around his thrusting cock.

She watched his face darken with lust. Cora wasn’t able to move her head much with her restraints, but that didn’t stop her from trying. And Garrett rocked his hips, thrusting and withdrawing his shaft. He leaned forward, propping himself up on his hands, and began to truly fuck her mouth. She opened her mouth as wide as she could, sucking his length down as he plunged deep.

The dual sensations were almost too much pleasure. She mewled around his thrusting dick. The vibrations in her ass flowed throughout the entirety of her body, her nipples ached and her pussy pulsed in response. And she watched Garrett’s face as he thrust, his strokes becoming more fervent and demanding as his pleasure increased. She loved the way his stomach muscles flexed and bunched as he moved.

She wanted him to climax in her mouth. She’d never wanted that with any man, she’d always finished with her hand when they were about to orgasm.

But this time, with this man, she wanted to swallow every drop of his seed and she wanted it with her entire being.

His cock lengthened, swelling in her mouth. He grunted. His musk surrounded her. Then he threw his head back, the muscles in his corded neck straining as he pumped his cock inside her, nearly bruising the back of her throat but she didn’t care. She reveled in the fact that she could make a man normally so controlled this wildly abandoned in his passion. His cock juddered and poured hot semen, filling her mouth. She drank him down, working her throat so that she didn’t miss a drop.

“That’s it, drink it all down, sweetheart,” Garrett grunted through his climax, still thrusting inside her mouth until he’d emptied himself inside her. When his shudders slowed, and his breathing had returned to a less frantic pace, he withdrew his softening shaft.

While she bemoaned the loss, her own pleasure had increased tenfold, and her body was standing on a precarious ledge, desperate for release. Garrett shifted his body until he was back kneeling between her thighs. He leaned down and gave her a hungry kiss, a hot tangle of tongue and teeth.

He growled, “Fuck, I love tasting myself on your lips. Now, no noise, no matter what, or I will spank your ass.”

She was about to reply but then he pinched her nipples and it took every ounce of control inside her not to make any sound. He flicked his tongue over the rigid peaks before he moved south to the promised land. He swiped his fingers through her pussy.

“You’re fucking drenched,” he murmured and lowered his mouth to the vee of her sex.

He drew his tongue through her labia lips, parting them with his hands as he feasted on her cunt—all while the butt plug hummed in her rear. Garrett ate at her flesh, flicking his tongue back and forth across her clit. She compressed her lips together when he thrust two digits inside her channel and began finger fucking her. The combined sensations of his mouth sucking her tiny bud, his fingers plunging in her pussy, and the plug in her ass were all too much. The climax arched her back.

“Oh god,” she keened.

Garrett lifted his mouth, his beard coated with her dew. “I thought I told you to be silent.”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it.” Her body vibrated, still quaking from the force of her release.

“Tsk, tsk, then someone has earned herself a spanking,” he replied.

Garrett withdrew his fingers from her pussy and licked them clean of her juices. Then he released her ankles and her wrists from the restraints. He shifted her body until she was on all fours with her ass canted in the air.

“Now, be quiet or I will have to gag you.”

The first crack of his hand against her bottom made her eyes widen and tears spring into them. Pain radiated through her body. At the second whack across her butt, she bit her lip to contain her cry. She was about to blast him and tell him that his treatment was barbaric and to stop. But at the next slap across her rear, the pain melted to combine with the vibrations in her ass from the plug. And instead of pain, the most profound pleasure ignited in her body, spreading throughout her limbs. It was as if with every swat to her butt, he poured liquid fire into her veins.

Over and over he spanked her, each swat causing heat to explode across her bottom. It was as if there was a direct line to her pussy with his spanks.

It came upon her like a tidal wave. She came. Hard.

She pressed her face into a pillow to contain her cries. It seemed that her climax went on and on.

The ripping of a foil pack cut through her bliss-filled haze and then his cock prodded her pussy entrance. As he thrust, filling her, stretching her with his shaft, she nearly lost her mind at the dual penetration. Garrett wasn’t gentle as he plunged inside. He fucked her; hard, brutally, and she used the pillow to help silence her pleasured cries.

The slap of flesh filled the room. Their lovemaking was raw and elemental. It was everything. Her orgasm ripped through her like lightning slicing through water. Her pussy quaked and clasped at his cock. But before her release ended he withdrew his cock and switched off the butt plug. She mewled as he removed the plug from her ass. When she felt the head of his cock prodding her back channel, her eyes nearly rolled in the back of her head. Then he was pressing forward into the over sensitized tissues.

She gripped the bed, her hands digging in to the mattress. When his entire shaft was embedded in her rear, she moaned, loudly. Garrett leaned over her back. One of his hands cupped her chin and turned her mouth toward his. “Hush, sweetheart, and let me fuck your ass.”

He claimed her mouth as he began shuttling his dick in and out of her rear. It had been so long since she’d had a man in there, she’d forgotten how good it could feel. And Garrett glided his thick cock in her back channel like a sailor who’d gone without a proper lay in years.

He drank her moans and pounded her ass. Sweat slicked their bodies. The scent of their sex filled her bedroom. And Cora knew she’d never been so thoroughly made love to as she was tonight. The part of herself that she’d held back from him, had been closed off to him, fell away with every stroke inside her. She could feel her body being physically altered by his touch, by his naughty lovemaking, by his domination. The etchings of another orgasm was building inside her core.

Over and over he rammed his dick inside her. And she took every inch of him. Between one breath and the next, her body simply imploded. She keened into his mouth. Her body trembled. Her pussy quaked with the reverberations from her ass as it clenched and shuddered around his plunging staff.

“Cora,” Garrett growled as his body stiffened and he fucked her faster as he came. He continued to rock his hips until the last tremors of their combined orgasms ended. She whimpered as he withdrew his cock. Her eyes fluttered and she fought to keep them open but she was fighting a losing battle. She collapsed onto the bed and rolled onto her back, forcing herself to keep her heavy-lidded gaze slightly open and focused on his movements.

Her body was floating on a blissful plane while Garrett moved around on the bed. In a daze, she watched him pad naked into the bathroom. Her eyes must have closed because she yelped when he parted her thighs and cleaned away the fluids between her thighs with a warm wet washcloth.

“Easy, sweetheart. Just rest,” he murmured, his touch uber gentle, lulling her into a hypnotic state. He left her on the bed once more and moved around her bedroom, putting the Velcro restraints back in his goody bag before placing it on the small corner chair. Then he shut off the lights and finally joined her in bed.

He drew the covers up over them and pulled her into his arms. She went willingly into them, clinging to him. Garrett kissed her then, just a slight, tender brushing of his lips against hers. But as he kissed her, her heart tumbled and fell into the abyss, feeling protected and cherished, feeling as if tonight he had staked his claim on her, heart and soul.

Surrounded by him, by his indomitable strength, she laid her head against his shoulder. Nestled in his arms, safe and thoroughly pleasured, she fell into a deep slumber.