Fractured Crystal: Sapphires and Submission by M. J. Lawless Page B

current woes — for nearly an entire day. When she compared Mark’s podgy body to Daniel’s powerful frame, and her boss’s pseudo-alpha status to the stranger’s undoubted confidence, she burst out laughing like a maniac in the car.
    There was no one around when she returned to Dalrigh, which suited Kris just fine as she felt a complete wreck, though in the very best sense. Pouring herself a glass of wine, she went immediately to the bathroom and began to fill it with hot water. Stripping off as the steam curled up from the rising water, she looked down at her body. Shit! Her breasts were covered with love bites and, when she observed herself in the mirror she saw several of them like bruises on her neck. And those actually were bruises on her thighs where Daniel had smashed his body into hers — and she, to be honest, had more than willingly reciprocated. Turning her arm, she saw that the flesh was marked with a series of fingerprints where he had gripped her more tightly than anyone ever had before.
    For any sensible woman, those signs would have perhaps been markers that this, after all, had been a very enjoyable one night stand (or one day, at least). Kris herself was a little concerned at the battering her body had taken, but immediately at the thought of Daniel holding her down and penetrating her so deeply her legs began to tremble and she had to sit down on the edge of the bath. Feeling somewhat flustered, she raised one thigh and placed her foot in the hot water before easing in the rest of the body, grateful at this moment for a soft as well as sensual embrace.
    She did not even bother to dry herself when she had finished her soak (and also the wine that was much appreciated). Instead, dripping wet, she went to the bedroom and lay down on the bed, enjoying the sensation of the water from her body drying in the warm air and the damp sheets beneath her. She had not felt so good in months, she realised, probably years — not since the death of her father at least. The thought of her father inevitably made her feel somewhat sad but... but today she could take it.
    She let her fingers run along her collar bones and down her sternum before parting her hands along each of her breasts. They felt comforting and heavy in her fingers, and when she squeezed them she felt a warm, soft thrill in her loins. She immediately moved one hand down to her sex, sliding her finger to her clitoris but it was burning and too tender. This evening was for a different kind of exploration.
    Instead, while massaging her left breast gently with her fingers, she let the other hand rest for a moment on her belly. She thought of the contrast between Daniel’s body — older than hers, certainly, but also harder, leaner, firmer — and her own. Like too many women she thought herself fat, though in her objective moments she realised it was more the case that she wasn’t so much fat as simply not a size zero, stick thin model. There was so much about herself that she would change, given the chance, but tonight she was simply happy to be herself. She idly raised one leg, letting her thigh fall outwards while she lazily pulled at the tuft of dark, pubic hair, enjoying the tickling sensation in her abdomen and loins.
    Her mind started to drift, going over aspects of their lovemaking, making herself horny in a sluggish and indolent way. For a moment she had an all-too-familiar moment of self doubt and anxiety that almost ruined her mood, wondering what on earth it was that a hunk like Daniel Logan saw in a small, o rdinary woman such as herself. T hen she remembered the photograph. Although he had changed considerably, the photograph was clearly of a younger Daniel (unless, by some chance, it was a brother perhaps). And the woman? Was she his wife?
    Despite the fact that she had only been able to glance at it very briefly, Kris’s visual memory was literally photographic, and the shades and lines of the image had been engraved in her mind. As