Surrender To Me

Grabbing the keys from the hook by the door, I said over my shoulder, “Lock up the windows and door when you leave, please, and for fuck’s sake, don’t go getting yourself into any deeper shit.”Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

When I got downstairs, I turned to the right to walk the two blocks to my dog grooming shop. From memory, I had at least ten dogs coming in for a wash and another three for clipping. Then when I was done, I could look forward to going out with Darcy.

As I rounded the corner onto the street of my shop, I stopped dead and blinked. Bane Rivera was standing against the front window dressed in an expensive black suit and crisp white shirt. Sunglasses shaded his eyes, but I knew the moment when he saw me. I could feel his gaze on me like it was a visible caress. I began walking again, approaching him with my keys out.

“What are you doing here?” I pushed the key into the front lock and opened the door, not waiting to see if he would follow.

As I flipped on the lights, he sauntered into my shop, looking all sorts of misplaced while I turned off the security alarm.

“So this is where you work, huh?” he asked, amusement coloring his tone.

“If you’re here to make fun of this place, you can fuck right off now.” I went to move around the counter to drop my bag, but Bane stopped me by wrapping his fingers around my wrist. I glared at the offending digits and then back at him. “Are you sure that’s what you want to do?”

His mouth turned up into a cocky smile. Like he was used to getting everything he wanted. Like the world would drop its panties for him. And why was I thinking about dropping my panties in his presence?

“What would you do to me if it is?” His question was a bare rumble of a purr, a buzz deep down in his chest. I stared up into his dark eyes, my gaze tracking from his mouth to the tattoos on the side of his neck, back to his eyes.

I swallowed, praying my voice sounded strong when I answered, “I don’t know.”

His brows rose. “You don’t know?” Jerking me closer, I was forced to drop my bag and place my hands on his chest to stop me from crashing into him. He wrapped his arms around me, pinning my arms to my sides. Dipping his head to my ear, he whispered, “Don’t tease me, Little Bird. You will not enjoy the punishment, although I know I will.”

Shoving free of his arms, I tried to get my breathing back under control. My brain was firing a thousand different thoughts in a thousand different directions. Slowly, I scooped up my bag and walked behind the counter. I took a few minutes more than necessary to stow it, and by the look on his face when I stood back up again, he knew. He knew he’d messed with my equilibrium. “What do you want?” I asked again.

“You.”

I blinked, sure my hearing was on the fritz. “Me?”

He leaned against the counter, folding his arms across his chest. The movement revealed the gold Piaget watch on his wrist, which winked in the overhead lighting. “Last night, you came to beg me to let your brother’s debt go. Not once did you offer me an alternative to the money.”

I frowned. “Alternative?”

“An alternative.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a business card and handed it to me. I took it, finally glancing down at the thick stock. It was black with his name embossed on one side and a number in gold on the other.

“What’s this?” “An offer.”

My heart lurched into my throat as the implications of what he was saying hit me with all the finesse of a semi-trailer careening out of control. “You want me to work for you?”

“Clever girl,” he murmured, his eyelids lowering. “Come and work for me, Little Bird, and I’ll wipe that debt of Hawk’s away. Forever.”

I rubbed my thumb over his embossed name, committing the shape of the letters to memory. This was one of those times in your life that changed shit forever. “And if I say no?”

Straightening, he stalked toward me behind the counter. I backed up a step, slamming into the wall. Bane crowded me against it, caging me in with his hands on either side of my head. He leaned in close, placed his nose at my neck, and inhaled. Then his words, words that trickled like a lover’s promise, found their way into my ear. “You love your brother too much to say no.”

My chest pumped as I tried to drag more air into my lungs. All I caught was the scent of his cologne-something deliciously spicy and dark. I swallowed raggedly, tilting my face up to meet his. “No,” I said the word with as much conviction as I could muster, but given his proximity, I was struggling to even perform the most basic functions like breathing and blinking. There was something so magnetic about him. He was savagery contained in a suit, an animal tamed only because he was in public. I did not doubt that when it came to sex, he would own my body. And I would give it to him.

He must’ve seen that realization in my eyes. Flexing his hips into mine, I had to bite my lip as his erection pressed into my pelvis. “Still thinking about me bending you over my knee?” “No,” I whispered.

He clicked his tongue. “When you submit to me, Little Bird, I will make your ass red raw, and you will love every second of it.”

“I highly doubt that.” My words came out weaker than I’d anticipated, but Bane was twisting everything around in my head. I’d never had such a visceral reaction to a man before.

“Think about my offer, Wren Montana.” He stepped away from me and left the shop. I stared at the door, unable to catch my breath.

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

Diving into my bag, I called Darcy.

She picked up on the second ring. “Babe?”

“Hey. Ah… you’re never going to believe what just happened.”

There was a thump like Darcy had put something down-probably her coffee cup. “Spill it.” “I just got offered a job.”

“A job? Why would you need a job? You have a job. A job where?” Her questions came out rapid-fire, just like they always did when she was multitasking.

“What else are you doing?”

“Huh? Oh, trying to type out this report for my boss.”

I picked up the card and looked at it again. “I’ll call you back then.”

“Pfft… no, babe. We’re talking now. I got this.”

I smiled. Darcy always knew when I needed her the most, and right now I needed her. And not because of Bane coming in here and offering me a way out of Hawk’s mess, but for everything life had ever thrown at me. “It’s a long story.” “Stop stalling and tell me already.”

I inhaled deeply, then let the breath out slowly. I had about twenty minutes before my first appointment would arrive. “All right, here’s the long and the short of it, Hawk was an asshole and did something stupid. Now, that something stupid has come back to bite him in the ass.”

“Ooh, I love it when you’re all cryptic, but knowing your brother as I do, he probably pissed off

the wrong person. And now you feel obligated to help him because he’s your baby brother, and that’s what you do. Am I right?”

Fuck, she was so right about that. “Pretty much.”

“Also knowing you, you also know how to fix it.”

My heart lurched in my chest because I didn’t know how to fix it, but as I looked down at the black card on my counter, maybe I did. The question was, what else was it going to cost me?