Editor’s Note: While your experience will be enhanced by reading all the books in the series, Secrets is a full-length, stand-alone story. The series may be read in any order.

Excerpt from The book

“You want to be fucked, don’t you?” Sir Liam said in a low voice, reading her mind.

“Yes,” Allie breathed. “God, yes.”

“In my dungeon, you have to earn your pleasure.”

All at once, he gripped her throat, his forefinger and thumb digging into the soft flesh just below her jaw. His face was close, his brilliant green eyes locked on hers as he pressed hard, and harder still.

Allie was unable to draw a breath. Unable to move. Her heart thumped and squeezed in her chest, the blood roaring in her ears. Liam moved closer, their faces nearly touching. “I own you, sub Allie. Your very life is in my hands. You do understand that, don’t you?”

Allie was unable even to nod her head. The pressure was building behind her face, and she thought she might pass out. Her eyelids began to flutter shut.

“Open your eyes,” Sir Liam commanded, his voice hard. Allie forced her eyes to open. She saw the power and the lust in Sir Liam’s face and real fear shot through her blood. She jerked hard in her bonds, trying desperately to pull away from his iron grip.

All at once, he let her go. Allie drew in a deep, ragged breath, and then another. “Oh my God,” she gasped when she could finally speak. “You nearly choked me to death!”

Sir Liam only smiled. “Nowhere near to death, sub Allie. You panicked because you don’t yet trust me. This is an exercise in trust. We will try it again.” Without giving her a chance to reply, once again he reached for her throat, pinning her in place with his strong hand. “Keep your eyes locked on mine.”

Allie struggled to do as he said, blinking rapidly to keep from closing her eyes. The vibrating plug and glass phallus inside her, along with the heightened awareness that her life truly was in this man’s hands, had combined to create a fierce, persistent pulsing at her clit. Shit, was she going to come?

As if she’d spoken aloud, Liam, tightening his grip on her throat, growled, “Don’t even think about it.”

A wave of dizziness assailed her, and Allie’s head would have fallen back if Sir Liam’s strong grip hadn’t held her in place. “Keep your eyes on me,” he reminded her. “I’m going to count to five. Then I will let you go.” He began to count.

Allie could barely hear him over the pounding of her heart. “Three, four, five.”

She sagged in her bonds as she sucked in a bushel full of air. She hung limply in her cuffs, as if the bones had dissolved in her body. Sweat was drying on her skin, though at the same time she was shivery, not with cold, but with desire. She wasn’t crying, yet tears were streaming down her cheeks.

Liam brushed them away with his thumbs. “You’re doing really well, sub Allie. You’re almost there. You’ve got a lot of walls erected between you and the complete submission you crave. I will help you break down those walls. I want to continue with this exercise.”

He stepped back, regarding her. “If you can’t speak at any point, you will hold up your index finger like this.” He demonstrated the gesture. “Unless you use your safeword or make that signal, we will continue.”

Allie lifted her head and met Sir Liam’s gaze. She was both afraid and exhilarated, as if she were perched on the edge of the cliff, spreading wings for the first time, ready to soar. “Yes, Sir Liam. I understand,” she said, her voice hoarse.

“You please me.”

His words moved through her like warm, powerful liquor. She found the strength to stand upright, the bones of her skeleton reforming inside her, even as the resolve stiffened in her soul. She drew in a deep breath, and then his hand was on her throat once more, immediately cutting off her ability to breathe.

“Keep your eyes on mine,” Sir Liam reminded her once more as he held her captive in his viselike grip. “This time, I will count to twenty. You will focus on surrender. You will not think about the fact that you cannot breathe. You will give yourself completely to me, not considering the consequences but focusing only on trust in your Master.”

Once again, he began to count. Allie tried to do as he said, but by the count of ten she could feel the panic rising in her gut, a spurt of adrenaline heating her blood.

“Focus,” Sir Liam interrupted himself to say. “Trust me. Trust yourself.”

A strange thought floated into Allie’s mind, barely perceived amidst the roil of panic. The thought was persistent enough that it did eventually penetrate her understanding.

You belong to Sir Liam. Sir Liam will take you where you need to go. Sir Liam will keep you safe.

He was still holding her just as tightly as before, his counting slow and steady. But something changed inside Allie. Her muscles, bunched and tensed a moment before, began to loosen. The panic that had balled into a fist in her gut dissolved. She became aware, once more, of the intense, vibrating pleasure in her ass and sex, but her primary focus was on Sir Liam’s deep, emerald green eyes, which gripped her as surely as his hand.

“Twenty.”

Allie was vaguely aware he had reached the magic number, but he didn’t release his hold on her throat. Instead, he breathed, “Yes. Yes, that’s it. Surrender to me.”

Allie didn’t panic as a blanket of warm, black velvet draped itself over her senses. She wrapped herself in its serenity and drifted peacefully away.