AslansDesire-ARE-epub by JenniferKacey Page B

the spa.
    Zeke flirted with her all the time. Every day. But there wasn’t any follow through. Even after their now months of discussion about what she wanted and knew he could provide, he would only slip his self-imposed chain for very short periods of time. Maintaining his impervious control had become something of a religion to him.
    Twice now, he had given more of himself to her than she ever expected to receive.
    Once, when she propositioned him as if he were a stranger, and once in a pitstop not too many miles from their home in Florida.
    And once before that.
    More than a decade before.
    On their honeymoon.
    She’d felt like a princess the day of their wedding. Gorgeous white dress with crystal shoes.
    But in the limo on the way to the honeymoon?
    That was her first glimpse into the delicious monster she wanted to know. He’d ripped her dress to get at her. Torn the tiny white panties from around her hips and taken her with a single-minded, animalistic possession she hadn’t seen since. Not until he was her “stranger.” And even then it was different. It was calculated, a constant tug of war within himself on taking what she truly hoped he wanted.
    Her.
    The night of their honeymoon, she had to wear his tuxedo jacket into the hotel lobby so they could check in. She’d loved it and Zeke had been mortified.
    She’d laughed it off and he’d made slow love to her that night. Several times. Making love to him fulfilled her in ways she never thought she’d be lucky enough to have. Sex really was…more…with an emotional connection.
    Making love.
    She’d only ever done that with Zeke.
    Growing to rely on the physical, mental and emotional connection she shared with him when he made deep, sensual love to her had taken years for her to trust. To need. It made her feel raw and exposed on such a visceral level, and somehow she’d come to depend on it.
    But the other kind?
    The raw, dirty sex like they had in that limo?
    She needed that too. And somehow she had to be brave enough to tell him all of it. Her desire for it and her fear that maybe he wasn’t as attracted to her as she was to him.
    Maybe he just wasn’t that into her.
    Fuck.
    Blowing out a pent up breath, she put her shoulders back. Pasting on a somewhat fake smile rubbed her the wrong way as they stepped closer to their electrical engineers beside the pool. Talk about being the embodiment of “fake it ’til you make it.”
    She had to figure out a way to be brave enough to tell him tonight. Worrying about it anymore wasn’t going to get her anywhere, especially if she expected him to be brave enough to let his monster out to play more often. She had to be brave enough to reveal the little girl inside who wondered the scariest question of all.
    Am I good enough?
     
     

 

Chapter Two
     
    Hours later, sitting alone on the couch at home where the sun had long since faded to black, Aslan took a deep breath. Then another one. With her back against the end of the couch, she hugged her knees to her chest.
    Her chin rested on the tops, which were covered in fuzzy pink pajama pants adorned with sleeping lambs and colorful stars.
    She’d gotten home a few minutes before her husband and had jumped in the shower to wash the very long day away. Nearing the end of the final stages of their newest vessel, the hours were long and the days took their toll.
    They were worth it.
    The hours, the stress, the headaches. All of it. Seeing their business flourish as they continued to make a name for themselves in the cruise ship industry gave her more satisfaction than she could describe.
    Knowing that Zeke and she had built the business from the ground up, hand-in-hand—first with investors and then all on their own—staggered her on a daily basis.
    It also gave her something to bury her nose in, AKA something to hide behind instead of dealing with the needs and fears coursing through her every morning and every night.
    But her time of being a coward was at an