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A View to a Thrill
Master and Mercenaries, Book 7
By Lexi Blake
Coming August 19, 2014
Synopsis
A Spy without a Country
Simon Weston grew up royal in a place where
aristocracy still mattered. Serving Queen and country meant everything to him,
until MI6 marked him as damaged goods and he left his home in disgrace. Ian
Taggart showed him a better way to serve his fellow man and introduced him to
Sanctum, a place to pursue his passion for Dominance and submission. Topping
beautiful subs was a lovely distraction until he met Chelsea, and becoming her
Master turned into Simon’s most important mission.
A Woman without Hope
Chelsea Dennis grew up a pawn to the
Russian mob. Her father’s violent lessons taught her that monsters lurked
inside every man and they should never be trusted. Hiding in the shadows, she
became something that even the monsters would fear—an information broker who
exposed their dirty secrets and toppled their empires. Everything changed when
Simon Weston crossed her path. Valiant and faithful, he was everything she
needed—and a risk she couldn’t afford to take.
A Force too Strong to Resist
When dark forces from her past threaten her
newfound family at Sanctum, Chelsea must turn to Simon, the one man she can
trust with her darkest secrets. Their only chance to survive lies in a mystery
even Chelsea has been unable to solve. As they race to uncover the truth and
stay one step ahead of the assassins on their heels, they will discover a love
too powerful to deny. But to stop a killer, Simon just might have to sacrifice
himself…
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Excerpt
Chelsea looked at the bed that dominated
the room. The only bed. Somehow she’d managed to find the shitty motel that
didn’t have two queens. No. It was way worse. It was a single queen and there
was no couch. And she was pretty sure the floor was covered in disease. “I
think I should sleep somewhere else. We need to find another room.”
Blue eyes stared a hole through her.
Somehow his eyes managed to be cold and hot given his mood. The color shifted,
lighter, icier when he was angry. As warm as the Caribbean when he was happy.
They often seemed so cold when he looked at
her. “Your contact said to meet here. We’re staying here.”
“He told me to meet him here. I’m sure they
have another room, Weston. You don’t have to sit up all night.” Because there
was no way they could share that bed. It was too small. He would take up all
the space.
He locked the door and set down his duffel
bag on the table. He shrugged out of his jacket because the man wore a
three-piece suit on the run. She couldn’t help but stare at his broad shoulders
and the way his dress shirt tapered down to perfectly pressed slacks. He tugged
at the silver tie he was wearing, pulling it free and working the buttons at
his throat until she could see the start of his truly impressive chest.
God, she hoped she wasn’t drooling.
The shoulder holster was the next to go in
his inadvertent striptease. “You should get settled in. We have to be up early
in the morning. I’ll take the side closest to the door.”
He couldn’t be serious. “Simon, there’s not
enough room on that bed.”
He threw that gorgeous body down, making
the springs squeak. “Of course there is, love. You Americans just like to take
up an enormous amount of space. When I was a child, my brother and I slept in
beds much smaller than this.”
“I’m not your brother, Simon.”
“I understand that fully. Believe me.”
She needed to take charge or she would make
a complete fool of herself. “Look, Weston, you turned down my offer.”
He turned lazily, one hand coming up to
balance his head. He looked like a pinup in a women’s magazine—all lean and
predatory lines. She could see the write-up in her head. Simon likes tea,
Scotch and eating subs for breakfast. His turn-offs include everything that
comes out of Chelsea Dennis’s mouth. “Are you talking about your very charming
offer to use my body to lose your virginity?”
She hadn’t put it like that. “You don’t
want me. I get it. So let’s keep things simple. I hired you. I’m the boss. I’m
going to see if I can rent the room next to this one and that can be yours.”
He didn’t move. He didn’t have to. She saw
the way his eyes narrowed and then his voice came out, low and in that perfect
upper-crust British accent that made her nipples hard. Her nipples were really
stupid and she wished they didn’t like him so damn much. “You’re under a grave
misapprehension, Chelsea. You are not my boss and you did not hire me. You came
to me with a problem and I told you I would solve it. I believe I also mentioned
that I was in charge and that was the only way I do this for you. So you will
take off your clothes and you will get into this bed and you will sleep beside
me tonight. I explained this to you when you signed the bloody contract. Do I
need to explain what the word submissive means?”
Tears pricked her eyes. He was so damn
unfair. She had to wonder if she would ever find a man who didn’t want to
punish her. “You forced me to sign that contract.”
Now he moved, rolling to the side of the
bed and getting to his feet with pure predatory grace. “I did nothing of the
kind.”
He seemed very willing to revise history.
She wasn’t about to let him forget. “If I hadn’t signed your contract, you
would have let me die.”
He sighed, a long-suffering sound. “I
certainly would not and if you think that’s true then you don’t know me at all.
Perhaps I should do exactly what I should have done in the first place, what I
would have done if you hadn’t signed the contract.”
That was worse than letting her die.
“Please don’t call Ian.”
His shoulders weren’t so straight as he
turned and stared at her. “You’re reckless, Chelsea. If I give up even a
moment’s control, I’ll lose you and I can’t stand the thought of that. The only
way to save you is to be your Master and the only Master you’ll accept is not
the kind I want to be.”
“And what kind do you want to be?”
“Indulgent. Loving. Kind. I want a sub who
obeys me in the field because she understands I would never let anyone hurt
her. I want the play to just be play. I want a sub who trusts me with her body,
who wants me and not just some faceless Dom who’ll work her over and then walk
away. And I certainly don’t want to be a curiosity.”
She felt embarrassment flash through her
system. If she could take back that first night’s utter idiocy she would. She
should have known he wouldn’t want her. Not like that. “I get it. I got it when
you turned me down the first time. I can get into bed with you because you
won’t touch me.”
He was suddenly in her space. He’d moved so
quickly she wasn’t sure how he’d gotten there. One minute there was a bed
between them and the next she was backing up until she hit the wall because he
was stalking her. She’d gone as far as she could go, but he kept coming. He
loomed over her, using every one of his six feet two inches. “I’ve tried to be
polite about this, but you don’t want that, do you? You don’t want me to be a
gentleman about this. You want me to take you because then you’ll bloody well
get it over with and you can put me in the same box with all the other men who
hurt you and used you and cast you aside. I would be just one more villain who
did something to you.”
“I never said that.”
“You don’t have to. I understand you,
Chelsea. You can’t comprehend that, but I do. I understand you like no other
man will. So I understand that I have to explain certain things to you.” He
moved closer until his mouth hovered above hers, his heat sinking into her
skin. “I’m going to tell you how this is going to go. We’ll get into that bed
and I’m going to put my hands on you and I’m going to put my mouth on you. I’m
going to taste you. I swear by the time you get out of that bed in the morning,
you’re going to know what it feels like to come against my tongue. That
screaming you heard as we walked in, you’re going to make that girl’s orgasm
sound like the squeaking of a mouse. But the one thing you won’t get is my
cock. You won’t get that because I’m not going to take your virginity because
you’re curious. I’ll take it when you can’t think about anything but me. I’ll
take it when you cry out my name and tell me there’s no other man you’ll ever
love the way you love me. Then and only then will I take what belongs to me. Am
I understood?”
She managed to nod.
He took a step back and she immediately
missed his heat. His hands went to the buttons on his shirt. “Then take off
those bloody clothes and get in bed.”
With shaking hands, she started to undress.
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