ReclaimedSurrender by Riley Murphy

have black hair. At the moment he
looked so relaxed, so handsome she almost smiled at him. She probably would
have if she hadn’t spied the gauzy thing draped in his hand.
    “What’s that?”
    He held up the little bit of nothing and said, “Your outfit
for today. Put it on.”
    She wasn’t surprised. She’d been waiting for this. With Rene
having carte blanche owning the week as he did, her only surprise was that this
bit of dental floss hadn’t come out sooner. But just because she’d been
expecting this didn’t mean she was going to agree with what he wanted without
even trying to negotiate some quarter in the deal.
    “I’m not putting that on unless…”
    She’d let the words hang in the hopes he’d be drawn in and
give up something, but it wasn’t to be.
    “You are putting it on and there’s no unless about it.”
    She shrugged out of her coat and laid it over the couch.
“What if I don’t want to?”
    “What you want doesn’t matter. This is all about me. So,” he
leaned forward and brushed her bangs to one side behind her ear, “here’s your
choice. You can either put this on right now without complaint or I will do it
for you and you can complain all you want. Pick one.”
    “Pick one? Either I do it your way or you make me do it your
way. That’s my choice?”
    “My week. My rules.”
    She tried to stand strong against his “brook no defiance
demeanor” and failed miserably. “Fine, but I’d just like to remind you that
you’re supposed to be getting back into my good graces and threatening me like
this is not a smart place to start. That’s all I’m saying.”
    He stood and she was nearly nose to nipple with him. This
wasn’t good. She didn’t look up at him. She refused to until he growled,
“Careful, Alexis.”
    Hating the thrill that coursed through her at his reprimand,
she snatched the piece of lingerie from his hand and stepped back. “I’m not the
one who’s careless.”
    Crap. When she saw his expression darken she wished she
could grab those words back.
    His voice was deathly calm. “I get to be whatever I want
this week. Remember that, Alex.”
    Swallowing hard to tamp down her fear, she turned away. She
intended to go upstairs and change before she said something worse than she
already had, but his voice halted her at the bottom step.
    “Wait.”
    She stopped and hoped he’d continue to speak from a
distance, but no such luck. He came up right behind her and the heat of his
whispered words flooded her ear and drained right down to her center. Crashing
in delicious tingles and twangs that made her shiver.
    “Do you remember what I said about the britches, Alex?”
    Nodding, she closed her eyes.
    “Good, because for that careless remark they’re
coming down. All the way down. Your ten minutes is now eight. Tick-tock.”
    Alexis shut the guest bedroom door and leaned against it. Breathe . She knocked her head on the raised wood panels and mentally berated herself. Stupid,
stupid, stupid. When Rene was in the zone, and he was in the zone at the
moment, she couldn’t compete with that.
    Tick-tock.
    Right. Quickly she stripped off her clothes and told herself
it was the excitement of being home in the middle of the day when she should be
at work that had her feeling jittery, but it wasn’t. It was the revved-up fear
of spending the rest of the day with Rene. The old Rene, who didn’t ask for
permission. A man who took what he wanted and demanded more from her most times
than what she was prepared to give. Until he somehow talked her into it. Or
made her beg for it.
    * * * * *
    Rene waited for Alexis to reach the bottom of the stairs and
held out his hand.
    “What?”
    “The robe. Cough it up. It wasn’t part of the outfit.”
    “But it goes.”
    His eyes narrowed as her tiny hand caressed the edge of the
slim lapel, before it slid down the shimmery fabric, over one breast, across her
stomach to her hip. “Alex.” He had no intention of being swayed by her