Arsen's Rules Series E-Book

Michelle Love

• Herausgeber: Michelle Love
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

One Night with a Billionaire Bad Boy: Can Love Conquer Legal Trouble?

Arsen Sloan, a ruthless lawyer with a perfect record, just lost his most crucial case. Now, beautiful trouble walks in – literally.
With a single glance at the captivating newcomer, Arsen throws caution to the wind. But this isn't just any woman. Law school whispers reveal her connection to his devastating loss. Is she a seductive distraction or the key to unraveling a dangerous secret?
One night of forbidden desire could rewrite Arsen's future, but at what cost?

Keywords: Billionaire Romance, Bad Boy Romance, Suspense Romance, Guaranteed HEA, no cliffhangers, happily ever after. billionaire, bad boy, office romance, steamy romance, contemporary romance, love books, love stories, new adult, alpha male, romance, action, adventure, steamy romance, small-town secrets, hot, alpha hero. free book, free novels, romantic novels, and sexually romantic books.

Leseprobe

Arsen’s Rules Series

A Billionaire Romance Novel

––––––––

By Michelle Love

©Copyright 2024 by Michelle Love - All rights Reserved

In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights are reserved.

Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

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Blurb

FOR HER

FOR HIM

FOR DESIRE

ARSEN

STEELE

ARSEN

STEELE

FOR ACCEPTANCE

ARSEN

STEELE

ARSEN

STEELE

FOR APPROVAL

ARSEN

STEELE

ARSEN

STEELE

ARSEN

ARSEN

ARSEN

FOR HER SAKE

ARSEN

STEELE

ARSEN

GWEN

FOR OBEDIENCE

ARSEN

STEELE

GWEN

ARSEN

STEELE

ARSEN

STEELE

ARSEN

FOR KEEPS

ARSEN

STEELE

GWEN

ARSEN

STEELE

GWEN

ARSEN

FOR LOVE

GWEN

STEELE

ARSEN

GWEN

STEELE

ARSEN

STEELE

GWEN

FOR EVER

ARSEN

FOR FEAR

FOR FORTUNE

GWEN

STEELE

ARSEN

FOR REVENGE

STEELE

ARSEN

STEELE

STEELE

ARSEN

GWEN

ARSEN

FOR FREEDOM

ARSEN

STEELE

ARSEN

STEEL

ARSEN

STEELE

ARSEN

FOREVER AND A DAY

STEELE

ARSEN

STEELE

ARSEN

STEELE

ARSEN

Sneak Peek – Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

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Blurb

One Night with a Billionaire Bad Boy: Can Love Conquer Legal Trouble?

Arsen Sloan, a ruthless lawyer with a perfect record, just lost his most crucial case. Now, beautiful trouble walks in – literally.

With a single glance at the captivating newcomer, Arsen throws caution to the wind. But this isn't just any woman. Law school whispers reveal her connection to his devastating loss. Is she a seductive distraction or the key to unraveling a dangerous secret?

One night of forbidden desire could rewrite Arsen's future, but at what cost?

FOR HER

Cool air hit his face as he left the building he’d been stuck in the last eight hours. His tie couldn’t get off fast enough as his large hands pulled it away from his neck, letting it hang loose.

He’d felt his throat closing in on him as he was accused of things that were beyond him to execute, beyond him to perform, and beyond him to even think of doing.

Arsen Sloan was a thirty-five-year-old criminal lawyer. Tall, at six feet and nine inches, he dwarfed most of his colleagues. To make sure they all had even further insecurities in his presence, he kept himself in peak physical condition. Pecs and abs that most men would die to have and biceps the mere sight of made women wet with desire for him.

Arsen prided himself on his appearance, which he used to his advantage whenever possible. He was a machine of a man, using everything he could to get the results that he was seeking, whatever they were.

In law, he used his well-educated brain to find every last law or case to make sure he won his client’s cases. Arsen Sloan had never lost a case since he began his career as a criminal lawyer ten years prior. Well, there was that one, but it had only been his second-ever case.

Arsen tended to forget about the first few cases, the first two anyway. He never mentioned the first two, as a matter of fact.

When it came to sex, Arsen used everything in his personal arsenal to make sure that he stayed on top of that game. Love had played no role in his sex life.

Love was a word he hadn’t used since he was a naïve kid in his late teens before the girl he thought loved him watched him become broken and near dead.

Arsen kept his shoulder-length waves in perfect order, accenting his dark brown, brooding eyes. Thick, dark lashes surrounded them, giving the slightest hint of a soft side to the hard-as-nails man.

After the day of horrible accusations, Arsen just needed a drink—a stiff drink—to unwind and get rid of at least a little of the tension that filled his muscled body.

As he got into the backseat of his Escalade, the privacy window went down. His driver and long-time friend, Paul, looked at him through the rearview mirror.

The tension Arsen felt radiated off him, and Paul knew better than to ask any questions.

“To the club, boss?”

Arsen nodded and closed the door, then ran his hand over his face and rubbed his temples. He pulled a bottle of beer from the little fridge and took it down in one gulp. The evening sky was growing dark, and a thin fog was already moving as they made their way up the coastline of San Francisco Bay.

Arsen’s eyes followed the lights that were coming on along the edge of the road. He was wondering when it had gotten so bad. When had his world started to rule him rather than he rule it?

After the first five years as one of the top criminal lawyers in California, Arsen Sloan not only managed to gain a reputation as a winning lawyer who would do anything to win his cases but also became a billionaire. His ability to make great investments proved to be yet another thing Arsen did with near perfection.

Perfection was something he made great strides toward achieving in every part of his life. Up until that day, he’d done pretty well at keeping his life near perfect at all times.

The alley was already dark as they pulled up to one of the main clubs that he frequented. Though, if not a member of the exclusive club, no one could tell what type of social gathering was going on there.

People tended to get dropped off at the clubs he went to. Clubs that catered to his tastes some considered to be immoral and worse. The rusted metal door was closed, and only a small sign at the very top of the old door let on that it was a bit more than an old storage facility.

‘Fierce’ was the word etched into a small metal sign, and suddenly, Arsen’s stomach was in knots. He knew he shouldn’t go in there. He knew that was why he was in the precarious situation he was in.

“You know, Paul, I better find another place to go from now on,” Arsen’s deep voice called out to his driver and friend.

Paul was a friend who knew all about Arsen’s past and present, but he was being left out of why Arsen had been so moody when Arsen told him he had a meeting at the main police station in San Francisco.

“Sure thing, boss,” Paul said and pulled out of the alley and headed back to the part of the city where the regular people went to get drinks and socialize with one another. 

“I’ll take you to the club my younger sister likes to go to, but if you see her in there, she’s off limits, bro,” Paul told his old friend. “Lots of young law majors in that place. You should find someone to your liking, boss.”

Arsen’s throat was growing tight again, so he unbuttoned the two top buttons of his stiffly starched white shirt he wore under a black suit jacket. The tie came all the way off, and he stretched his long, lean-muscled legs out.

He grabbed another beer and popped the top. Took a long drink of it but stopped short of downing the whole thing.

“Paul, let the boss shit go for tonight. I need a friend, not another employee. Shit’s coming down on me, and without any family to support me, I’m going to need you to keep me from jumping off a bridge.” Arsen looked out the tinted window and felt his eye twitch.

The first of many physical signs his body was sure to start exhibiting, just like it used to do when he was young, and things were out of his control. Things he worked hard to get under control, and here he was with things beyond his control again.

His stomach hurt, another sign and another thing he’d left behind him or thought he had anyway. Paul pulled along the curb and jumped out to open Arsen’s door. He gave him a clap on the back and said, “Arsen, things will work out, man. You’re beyond smart, and whatever has you this worried, I know you can figure out how to take care of it. You’re good at this shit.”

Arsen wished he had the faith in himself his old friend had, but the truth was his marks were all over the accusations made against him. He’d represented tons of people that he knew were guilty and managed to get them off the charges.

He just needed to figure out how to get himself off charges where the evidence pointed right at him, and he had to tell the men who questioned him things he never thought he’d have to explain to anyone.

“I need a drink, and a piece of hot ass would do wonders for me,” Arsen said with a deep chuckle. “I’d ask you to come, Paul, and help me drown my sorrows, but one of us has to drive, and I think I pay you to do that, so I’ll go in alone and hopefully come out with a wicked little thing on my arm to take home.”

“There’s no doubt you will, Arsen,” Paul said and gave Arsen a smile. “Get in there and get rid of that frown.”

Arsen turned and walked into the door of the nightclub. The dance music was cranked up and a herd of young women were on the dance floor already, though the night was only beginning.

He took a table near the dance floor so he could watch the people dance. Arsen was not into dancing, but he appreciated the way women could bend and move their bodies to the beat.

He preferred a hard rock sound to the bubblegum pop that the D.J was playing in the social norm of a club. A pretty, young waitress came and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“What can I get you, sir?”

His dark eyes looked at the small, pale hand with perfectly manicured pink fingernails that was touching his left shoulder.

In the clubs he went to, no female would ever approach him that way, and he had to fight the urge to grab her and, toss her over his lap and teach her how to act accordingly.

After swallowing hard, he answered, “How about a whisky sour?”

The young woman with red-stained lips and blue eyeliner, her black hair pulled back into a tight and high ponytail, smiled at him and said, “You should try our Eastern Sour. It has bourbon, O.J, lime juice, and Orgeat in it. It’s really popular. I think you’d like it.”

He blinked at the dimwitted thing and thought about what would happen to a female who dared to suggest the thing a man wanted was anything but that. Through gritted teeth, he said, “Bring me what I asked for.”

She removed her hand from his shoulder as her smile quickly turned to a frown. “Touchy! Okay then. A whisky sour it is. Top shelf bourbon, or does it matter?”

His dark and now very moody eyes rolled with her endless questions. “Top.”

She hurried off, and he hoped his attitude didn’t earn him a good bit of her spit in his drink as well. Arsen had a hard time dealing with normal women. He liked women who knew their place. Not that he was chauvinistic.

Arsen knew strong women. Women who were smart and capable of doing anything a man could do. Those women he could respect and appreciate. But the little dimwitted things like the waitress would be so much better off if they let a man take control of them, even if just in the confines of the bedroom, or dungeon.

The song ended just as the waitress brought him his drink. She placed it on the table.

“You wanna pay now or run a tab?”

“I think I’ll run a tab,” he said. He took a credit card out of his wallet and handed it to her. “Keep ‘em coming, and your tip will reflect my approval.”

She laughed and made a low bow in front of him. “Thank you, Master.” She sauntered away, shaking her head as she went.

“Okay, that’s ten bucks knocked off right there,” he mumbled to himself.

He’d sat back one table away from the dance floor and was glad to see a group of about six young women had taken the table in front of him. Now, he had a front-row seat behind a bevy of young beauties to pick from.

He sipped his drink and let his eyes roam over each young woman at the table. One was tall and pretty in a Barbie doll kind of way. Her voice was high and a little squeaky.

He thought about the kinds of sounds she’d make as he took her the way he wanted to. Maybe tied to his bed or the railing of the balcony outside his bedroom.

He shook his head as she laughed, and a snort came out of her mouth.

On to the next girl.

She was dark haired, plump, and wore little make-up. He noted how she could’ve used more and then when she spoke, her voice was deep.

No, he couldn’t take a voice nearly as deep as his. That would make anything hard go soft in an instant. The next girl was intriguing as she had long, red curls that floated down her back.

She showed promise, but he knew from experience that red heads could be feisty and it took a lot to get them to understand what he would and would not tolerate. He watched as a man approached her and asked her to dance.

Her eyes ran over him like he was a piece of crap rather than a decent-looking man who was just being nice to her. “What do you want?” she asked with her nose squished up like he smelled bad or something.

The guy kept his cool and even smiled at her.

“Would you like to dance?”

“With you?” she said and rolled her eyes to look at the other girls who watched her, most likely sure she was about to annihilate the poor guy.

His laugh was getting a little nervous, as was his demeanor as he switched his weight from one foot to the other.

“Yes.”

The redhead’s hand ran over her too-small for Arsen’s taste breast, then down her small waist and landed on her too-skinny ass, according to Arsen.

“Does this look like something you’d like to get into your bed?” she asked the guy.

The guy took a step back with her loaded question and should’ve turned and ran away from the obvious bitch. Arsen had to fight not to get up and take the young man out of harm’s way.

“Sorry,” the poor guy mumbled and turned to leave.

“Wait!” the red head called out.

He turned back with hope in his eyes and Arsen found himself rooting for the poor kid. “Yes?”

“What the hell made you think you could come over here and ask a woman who is clearly out of your league to dance?” The girl, who now Arsen thought looked really ugly, asked the poor guy.

The guy spun around and took off as the table full of young women hooted and hollered at him vulgarities and put-downs. It was more than Arsen could take anymore. The whole lot of them needed their asses spanked until they couldn’t walk, in his opinion.

The waitress arrived with another drink and placed it on the table then picked up his empty one. Just as she began to make another bow, Arsen took her shoulder in his strong hand and stopped her. “Your antics are not lost on me, girl..”

Her face went white, and she hauled ass away from Arsen, who smiled as she fled. It was the first smile he’d made since he got the news the night before that he was a man of interest in some terrible crimes. The smile faded with his thought, and he took a sip of his drink.

The noise of the club faded as he thought about why he had ever become involved in the seedy underworld that he’d become a part of. There was his first and only love at the beginning of it all.

Beth was a sweet young thing. At sixteen, she was fresh and everything he wanted. Arsen had been a young seventeen and not as ready as he thought he was to delve into the romantic world.

After a year of dating, Beth finally gave in to him, and the two lost their virginity to one another one fateful night in her bedroom. Her parents caught them, and her father beat the hell out of him.

As he lay on Beth’s bedroom floor, he saw it in her eyes as she looked at him. Her father had beat him into a bloody pulp. His jaw was broken, and one arm was too. It laid out next to him at an awkward angle.

Beth’s eyes held no compassion for the young man that she had just been claiming she loved, had just given her innocence to. No, the only thing there was disgust.

Her words he could still hear, “Get up, Arsen! Defend yourself or something!”

She held the blanket over her naked breasts as she sat up in the little twin bed they’d just made love on. Her blonde hair fell across her tanned shoulders, and her blue eyes drooped at the outer edges. She looked at him with so much disappointment that he couldn’t believe it.

“Help,” he’d managed to get to come out of his broken mouth.

The same mouth that had lavished her with sweet kisses moments before her father came in and caught him on top of her. Arsen had been pulled away and slung across the room before he knew what was happening.

He lay naked and twisted on the floor, and all he could do was look at Beth and feel like a complete loser who let this happen to himself. She needed him to be so much more than he was.

It was her mother who finally came to his aid. She’d found something and knocked her husband out as he wasn’t going to stop his assault on Arsen until Arsen no longer was drawing breath.

Arsen was confused as Beth jumped off the bed, wrapping the sheet around her naked body, and yelled at her mother, “What did you do to Daddy?”

Her mother shoved her back onto the bed and shouted, “He was about to kill Arsen!”

Beth looked at him with disgust again. “Get out! We’re done!”

His body was in agony as her mother picked him up the best she could and took him to her car. She took him to the hospital and left him in the emergency room alone.

Arsen came back to reality and took the last of his drink, which seemed to be disappearing way too fast. Another drink came, but a waiter brought it and left it for him.

Shame filled him as he realized he’d scared the waitress. He was always doing shit like that. He seemed to have no real filter as to who he could talk to in his dominant way and who he couldn’t. It was a fine line, and he seemed to always be on the wrong side of it.

A popular song came on and the table full of girls in front of him shrieked, making him cover his ears. They all grabbed each other and ran to the dance floor like a heard of elephants.

Arsen looked around and saw table after table of young women doing the exact same thing and he shook his head and mumbled, “This is not going to work for me.”

His drink was new, so he knew it’d take him until at least the end of the upbeat song before he was done with it. The night was still young, and he had no desire to go home all alone. The women in that club were not going to be anything he needed on that night.

“Oh, hell,” he heard a young woman’s voice say as she walked past him.

He turned his head and watched her take a seat at the table the women had vacated. She watched them for a moment, then took her cell phone out of her back pocket and started looking at it.

Arsen looked her up one side and down the other. She was tall and curvy. Her breasts were exactly the right size, a little bigger than most women’s. Her ass was round, and he liked the way that her tight jeans fit it perfectly. She had on leather cowboy boots that she had her jeans tucked into.

Her hair was long and dark, falling in waves to the top of her plump ass. His mouth was watering already. Looking all over her, he noticed the absence of a drink and looked back to find the waiter near him. He motioned him over and told him to take the same thing he was drinking to the young woman who stood alone at the table in front of him.

He sat back and watched as the waiter took the drink to her and when she asked who had sent it, he pointed to Arsen. She smiled and waved and mouthed a ‘thank you’ to him.

He liked her manners already. She knew how to accept things, and that was a thing he had to have in a woman. He believed in lavishing gifts on them. It had been years since he had a submissive that he had felt enough for to do that.

The women in the last three years had all been people he felt nothing for. Just women who liked things the way he did, nothing more. The fact that three of his previous subs were gone was a thing that made him sad, but he wasn’t given the time to mourn them.

His attention went back to the young woman he’d sent the drink to. She had gone back to looking at her phone and occasionally tapping the screen. She was too far away for him to see the color of her eyes, but the shape of them was like almonds, and she had thick, dark lashes that fluttered occasionally as she smiled at her phone’s screen.

The herd of bitches came back off the dance floor, and the tall blonde Barbie hugged the new girl and started wagging her finger at her, obviously admonishing her for not being on time like the rest of the mindless young women at the little party.

The red head lifted her arm high in the air and the waitress came to them with a lit up cake. It was the blonde’s birthday it looked like and the other women sang happy birthday to her then she blew the candles out. The dark haired beauty looked completely out of place with the mob of air heads.

Another song came on, and the girls made another screaming shriek and ran to the dance floor. Barbie grasped at the gorgeous dark-haired girl, but she shook her head and stayed at the table alone.

Arsen saw his chance and took his half empty glass and glided the distance between the tables, coming up behind her. He hesitated and took in her essence. The vague aroma of lavender wafted past his nose and he leaned closer to smell her hair that was shiny and full.

His hand fisted at his side as he had to stop himself from taking a handful into his fist and pulling it to make her come to him.

“Hi,” he said, and she spun around, nearly knocking his drink out of his hand.

“Oh! Sorry,” she said. “You scared me.”

His first thought was that she was right to be afraid. “You should run.”

She smiled and blushed. “Oh yeah?”

He nodded as he leveled his dark eyes on her deep blue ones.

“I think your eyes are gorgeous. I had to come and say hello. I had to see the color and I have to say I’m not one bit disappointed.”

Her smile sent waves of some unknown sensation through him. She could be dangerous to him, he thought. She could push him out of his comfort zone, and he knew it without any doubt.

“Your eyes are pretty nice too,” she told him, then took a sip of the drink he’d sent her. “Thanks for the drink. I’m not really knowledgeable about alcohol yet. I only turned twenty-one a few weeks ago.”

“I see,” Arsen took a drink as he looked at her. “What is it that you do?”

“I’m in school. I wanna be a lawyer when I grow up,” she said with a giggle.

Her voice was soft and easy on the ears. Her giggle was, too. Not silly, or sexy, just kind of a sweet sound he thought he could listen to a lot.

“I’m a lawyer.”

Her eyes brightened. “Anyone I may have heard of?”

His impending legal problems sprung to the forefront of his mind, and suddenly, his name was not a thing he wanted her to know. Just in case it ends up on the news in the near future.

“Name’s A.C. I’m nothing big, just a small-time lawyer.” He took a drink and watched her reaction.

“We all have to start somewhere,” she said with a smile. “One day, you’ll make it big, I bet. You have the look of a powerful attorney.”

He smiled and thought she had a look about her, too, that showed she was capable of great things.

“You don’t really fit in with the bitch pack, do you?”

Her eyes traveled to the dance floor where the other girls had gone. She shook her head, making the dark waves of her hair move across her shoulders, and one strand fell across her breast, making Arsen’s cock twitch.

“The tall blonde is my roommate. She turned twenty-one today and made me come. I’m not really big on hanging with; what did you call them, the bitch pack? That’s funny, I’m stealing it.” Her smile revealed straight, white, perfect teeth. Pink, plump lips pulled over them and everything about her was genuine.

“Steal it,” he said and stopped himself from telling her the corny words that ran through his mind.

Arsen had thought to himself that she was already stealing his heart, but those were not only thoughts he never had, at least since back in the days of his naïve innocence and Beth. The words would never pass his lips.

His time was limited before the bitch pack would come back so he asked, “Would you allow me to take you home. I have a car outside. I’d love it if you’d let me give you a ride.”

“Sorry, I’m not that kind of girl,” she said and sipped her drink. “You’re a complete stranger, after all.”

The fact she was no easy piece made him thrilled, but he wanted her much too badly to take no for an answer. “Smart girl,” he said.

“Thanks,” she looked him over and frowned. “You’re most likely married anyway. Have a house full of kids you’re here to get away from.”

“What makes you say that?” he asked, as he’d never been told he looked domesticated before.

She bit her bottom lip as she looked him over. “Can’t say, really. You just look like you’re used to getting your way. Not many single guys get their way very often.”

He held his left hand up for her to inspect. “You will not find a tan line around this finger. I’ve never been married.”

“Can I ask you a question?” She looked up at him, and he found himself loving her basic character. She would be able to be what he wanted in a sub, he saw it in her.

“Sure.” He moved a little closer to her, feeling the warmth that came from her.

“How old are you?”

“Thirty-five.” He moved a step closer and touched her waist. “Old enough to teach you things that you’ve never thought about knowing before.”

Heat came off her body as her face turned pink. “I bet you could.”

“You should let me take you home.” He leaned into her, his hand moving from her waist to the small of her back, gently moving her body to his, their hips touching.

He knew she’d fit him perfectly, and his dick stretched the giving fabric of his slacks. Her body trembled with the contact, and he knew she’d be fantastic in bed, in the living room, in the hallway, and in the backseat of his Escalade.

“I’m really not that kind of girl. There are plenty of easy ho’s around here though.” She peered up at him as she tried to take a step back, but his hand on the small of her back stopped her retreat.

“I don’t do easy,” he said and found his mouth moving to take hers.

She licked her lips, and for a second, he thought that he was home free. “Don’t.” Her voice was but a whisper, but her words stopped him.

He moved back a little. She would be begging him soon enough. “Smart girl.”

“I am and you, sir, I dare say seem a little bit dangerous,” she took in a deep breath and backed another step away from him.

Arsen shook his head. “A little dangerous, no.” He was very dangerous, and he knew it. A young innocent thing like she was didn’t stand a chance under his expert hands. He’d bend her to him as easily as a young sapling to a post.

She surprised him as she leaned back in close to him and whispered, “I have to tell you that you are the first man who actually made me think about doing what you asked, though.”

He smiled without realizing he was doing it. She was a bit dangerous herself. He felt a pull like he never had before. It was a thing he couldn’t even afford to have at that time in his life.

There were no guarantees he’d even be walking the streets the next day. He could be scooped up by the authorities and placed in custody at any moment. The detective had made that abundantly clear to him just that afternoon.

The other young women were coming back to the table, and he wasn’t about to exchange pleasantries with any of them. He kissed his fingertips and placed them on her lips. “See you around then.” He turned and left before she could say another word.

After paying the tab and taking care of the bill for the party that the young woman was a part of, he took his credit card back from the bartender and went out to get in his car.

Paul jumped out and opened the back door for him. “No, girl, boss?”

“Not yet,” Arsen said as he sat in the back. “Give her time. She’s coming; she just hasn’t realized it yet, and I don’t want to hang out with her idiotic friends.”

He took a beer and sipped on it as he contemplated his day and all he was up against. His mind wandered off to how it was he got involved in the life he led.

All the way back to how he was living out of his car in Los Angeles after he got out of the hospital. His mother had left him there, leaving him alone after Beth’s father’s beating had put him in the hospital.

It was her chance to have a valid excuse to finally abandon him the way he knew she’d wanted to for years. She said the hospital would make her pay if she stuck around. It was in his best interest if no one could find her, then the state would have to pay his hospital and doctor bills and he’d only have to live six months in a foster home after that.

She told him she was doing it all for him. He’d be eighteen in six months, and a month after that, he’d be out of high school, and being in the system would ensure that he could go to college like he always said he wanted to do.

Yes, she was sacrificing all for him.

He frowned at the thought. After a long drink from the tall bottle, he nodded and thought that at least he was able to go to college and make something of himself.

And physically, with the help of Beth’s mother, he made sure his body toughened up as well as his heart. It was she who set him up in a small apartment near Stanford University where he got his law degree and learned about the life of a sub under her tutelage.

Under her firm hand, he learned to turn pain into something else. Power and pleasure. While the professors in law school worked his brain out and made it work in a way that would take him into a productive future, Mistress Sinclair taught him how to take his power in his own hands.

The apartment was where she had taught him all there was to know about BDSM. She was a closet case who had to hide her obsession from her family. Her husband would have been a terrible Dom, she’d told him. He was too mean-spirited and lacked self-discipline.

She taught him to be strict and to dole out the proper punishment when it was called for to get the sub to do what made the Dom happy. She taught him that what she would later tell him was a little too good as he quickly outgrew his desire to be submissive to her.

He was made to be a Dom, and when he sought out the underworld where people went to find others who wanted the lifestyle, he had begun to enjoy Mistress Sinclair, who tried hard to punish him back into submissiveness to her. All the lashings in the world would not see him spend a lifetime in that role.

Arsen’s back still carried the scars from the whips she used to try to subdue him, but the lashes healed eventually, and she came to realize he was not going to bend to her will any longer. He’d grown into a huge man, muscles on muscles, and a determined spirit that refused to follow anyone.

He held the reins. He held the chains, He held the whip, and she had no want to be at the stinging end of it. That’s when he moved out to his very first place and found his very first sub at one of the clubs he’d found. Kyla was his first, and now she was gone.

They’d spent a year together. He never loved her, but she was good at doing what he wanted. In the end, it was her entire devotion to him and what he wanted that soured their deal. One couldn’t call what they had a relationship.

He took her on no dates, sent her no flowers, and called her no sweet names. He did take care of her. Gave her a car, kept her in a nice place, though not the same place that he lived in. He gave her money so she didn’t have to work. She was to be available to him whenever he wanted and she did have to come to his office many times to give him what he needed there as well.

People asked about her and him and what they were to each other, but Arsen only told them they were acquaintances who occasionally fucked. He thought about the one legal aid he had. She was an older woman who’d helped her lawyer husband before he died.

She often told Arsen he was wandering down a path that would never make him happy. He found it odd the woman in her sixties had even an inkling into what he was really doing.

She never came out and told him she knew; she only hinted that she did and let him know it would grow old one day, and he’d want someone to love and cherish. Not bend to conform to his will and dominate with his authority.

So far, Arsen had found no one who made him want to open his hard and dark heart to allow to come in and possibly hurt him or take control of him. But the young woman who was inside the club with her friends had nothing in common with what had made something twitch not only in his pants but also in his heart.

Now was not the right time for any type of relationship. It's definitely not one of the traditional means. No normal woman would understand the things that were most likely about to become public knowledge about him.

The young law student certainly looked like a girl who’d run if she knew his dark and troubled secrets. His eye twitched as he thought about her pretty, little face that was so full of life and hope falling as she heard the things he’d done.

She’d hate him for sure. He should just leave and stop waiting for one more chance to get her to let him take her home. She wasn’t the type he usually went for. She wasn’t one of the girls from the club who was looking for that sort of thing.

She was a nice girl in a normal club. She wore cowboy boots and jeans, not stilettos and ripped stockings. Her blouse covered her ample breasts, not torn and leaving nothing to the imagination.

She stood tall and held herself with confidence even though she was young and had yet to start her law career. He envisioned her in a tiny leather corset, a collar around her long and slender neck, with a chain he held as she made her way through a dark room on her hands and knees.

The men in the clubs he went to would be so fucking envious of him if he took her to any of them. She was a true woman of great beauty and confidence. Having her do what he wanted would be a big feat.

Arsen shook his head to clear it. What in the hell was he thinking? Women should be the last thing on his mind. They were the reason his freedom might be taken away.

Everything he worked so hard for might be gone in a flash because of women and how he chose to have sex with them. He needed to go home and be alone. Contemplate his case and his whole damn life.

But just as he was about to tell Paul to take him home. The door to the club opened and out she walked. “I’ll be right back,” he told Paul as he got out of the car.

He followed her as she walked down the busy sidewalk of downtown San Francisco. She was all alone, and he found himself thinking that she was too pretty to be walking alone. Something bad could happen to her.

Arsen slowed his pace as he thought about what he wanted to do to her and that it wasn’t entirely good for her either. He wanted to hold her down and make her beg him to fuck her after all.

Some young guy took notice of her as he walked towards her.

“Hey, baby, where you off to?” he asked as he approached her.

Arsen’s body filled with tension as the guy spoke to her. She turned her head, ignoring the guy, but the idiot had the balls to reach out and grab her arm, making her stop. Arsen stopped only feet behind them, his hands balled into fists.

“Too good for me, or what? Not even a, fuck you, can you be bothered with saying to me,” the guy said as he glared at her.

“Let me go.” Arsen watched as her hand slipped into the purse she had hanging from her shoulder.

The bottle she was pulling out had Arsen stopping and falling back to be sure he got none of the pepper spray near him. A little doorway offered him protection from the stuff which was about to fill the air, but he could still keep an eye on her.

“Who do you think you are, bitch?” the man slurred at her and yanked her arm hard.

Arsen had to cover his mouth to keep the laugh quiet as he watched her pull the pepper spray out of her purse in one swift motion and spray the fucker right in his baby blues.

He screamed and let her go. She turned around and went right back into the club she’d just left. Arsen smiled all the way back to his car and climbed in, telling Paul all about the tenacious young woman and how much more her actions had him intrigued.

Paul turned around and leveled his eyes on his long-time friend.

“Okay, Arsen, give me the news.”

Arsen stopped smiling and looked at his friend turned employee.

“My ways have caught up to me, Paul. That’s all it is.”

“Your ways, while questionable, are not illegal. So how is it they’ve caught up with you?” Paul asked with a frown.

“I’m not sure how much I really want you to know. You see, as a person who is aware of almost all of my comings and goings, you’re sure to be brought in if they decide to make a case against me. It’s best you only know what it is you truly know, not what I can add.” Arsen leaned his head back on the leather seat and looked at the ceiling.

“So, I can expect to get called in myself. Fantastic!” Paul groaned. “Crap! The shit I’ve seen you do are not things I ever wanted to talk to anyone about, Arsen.”

“Sorry,” Arsen said as he continued to look up. “As far as a friend to you goes, I haven’t been the best, have I?”

“Don’t think like that, Arsen. I love you, man. I’m not judging you by any means. So you should tell me what I say and not say. If they ask me if I’ve seen you hit a woman, how would I answer that?”

“Fuck if I know,” Arsen said with a moan. “Maybe something like everything he did was mutually accepted by all parties he engaged in those types of activities with.”

“That’s a fucking mouthful, isn’t it?” Paul asked and had to laugh. “What about that time you had me hold that chick for you while you took your tie off? I tried to get the hell out of the room before you got started but I saw you tie her up and hang her up on that door and smack the shit out of her with your belt. I remember her begging you to stop.”

Arsen ran his large hand over his face, which had gone ashen with the memory his friend had brought up.

“It’s part of the act. Our safe word was rose, and she knew that. She wanted to beg, that’s all. Man, that’s one of the girls this shit is about. This is bad, Paul. This is really bad.”

“Not that chick!” Paul ran his hand over his face as well. “Man, Arsen, she was into that crazy violent shit. There was the time she begged you to choke her. Then another time when she came out to the car completely naked, and you two went to one of the clubs, and when you two got back in the car, her body was covered in bruises.”

Arsen’s stomach was hurting again, and he felt like he might throw up. He grabbed another beer and downed it.

“I’m in so fucking deep, Paul.”

“And why are we waiting out here for yet another female, Arsen? I can’t tell you what a bad idea this is. Does the word ‘stalking’ ring in those ears of yours?”

“I fucking know! Fuck!” Arsen balled up his fist and hit the back of the seat next to him. “If this girl was one of them, I’d tell you to take me home and lock my ass up until I came to my senses. But she’s not into that at all. Well, I don’t think she is, but she seems like she might like some aspects of it.”

“Stop! Do you hear yourself?” Paul asked.

Arsen took in a deep breath and let his mind work like the lawyer he was. Was he that self-destructive that he was on the verge of the end, and still he was consumed with sex?

“Drive away, Paul,” Arsen said finally. “This is ridiculous. Drive away.”

Paul turned around and pulled his seatbelt on, and turned his blinker on to pull away from the curb.

“Good decision, Arsen.”

The sound of metal smacking against metal made the men look out the left side of the car, and Arsen moaned as he saw there was no way they’d be leaving and getting him away from what would surely be part of his downfall.

A truck had run into a car right next to them. The wreck had them sandwiched between the mangled cars and the sidewalk full of people making their way to the various clubs and restaurants along it.

“Fuck me,” Arsen swore.

“Just stay in the car,” Paul said. “Don’t even look over there to see if she comes out of the club again.”

Arsen laid his head back and tried not to think, but the other woman who was no longer around, his second sub, filled his mind. Her dark skin had always been a thing he thought beautiful about her. Meagan was tough at first. A real spitfire.

He’d broken her down until she was a shell of her former self. Arsen had thought it was up to him to teach her that her place was where he said it was. He wanted her home all the time. He had her order the groceries instead of going out to get them.

When she went out, her beauty had other men gawking at her, and it made him insane. She was his. They’d drawn up a paper which said so. He wanted no other eyes falling on her.

One night as she laid in her bed in her apartment he had her in, she asked him to stay the night with her. She was alone too much and was beginning to hate it. She asked him to please stay with her and he hadn’t wanted to start that kind of thing.

He’d been taught that was not what people who lived that lifestyle did. It made them weak, and that was a thing he didn’t want to be. And look where that had left him. Alone and accused of things he could’ve easily done.

No alibi for any of the things he was accused of and the fact he’d recently met with each one of his old subs. One last go round he wanted with each one as the lifestyle was beginning to grow boring, just like the older lady who used to work with him said it would.

Arsen wanted to see if any one of the women made him feel like they had a spark. Like the life he’d been living was something maybe one of them could spark an interest in again.

Work and more work had been filling his days and nights. Random hook-ups weren’t filling the emptiness that had begun to grow in him. He gave each woman one last shot to see if it was one of them who could fill him or begin to at least.

The last sub he had was named Lacy and their contract was short-lived. Her quiet nature, he soon found out was due to her being a complete air head. Arsen knew she didn’t really have the brains to decide if she really wanted what he dished out or not.

And when she even forgot their safe word, and he went on with his spanking of her until she was sobbing uncontrollably, he knew that she wasn’t cut out for that kind of sex life.

But for reasons that made no sense he took one last shot with her anyway and now she was another who was gone and he might stand accused of that too.

Policemen began to show up to the scene of the accident and as the two drivers’ of the wrecked cars argued over who was at fault, one cop knocked on the driver’s side window and asked Paul and any other witnesses in the car to please step out so they could talk to them.

Paul and Arsen stepped out of the car and Arsen quickly told them he hadn’t seen a thing and had no idea of who was at fault. Something brushed up against his arm and a voice filled his ears, “What happened?”

He turned to find the deep blue eyes of the girl he should be avoiding for not only her own good but his too.

“They wrecked. Um, they hit each other; I mean, they smacked into one another. Fuck, you know what I mean, right?”

His stammering made her giggle, and he had to ball his hands into fists to stop himself from grabbing her hair in his hands and pulling her mouth to his. Her lips, plump and pink, formed a smile.

“Nervous?”

“Me?” he asked and found his voice going high.

That was not like him. She did make him nervous, and that was odd.

“Do I make you nervous?”

“Hell no!” He slipped his arm around her waist.

Paul came to his side after telling the cops he had no idea who was at fault either.

“Hi,” he said to the girl who would be running away from Arsen if she knew what he really wanted with her. “I’m Paul.”

Arsen gave him a look that told him to go get in the car. The wreckers were pulling the wrecked cars away, and they’d be able to leave in minutes. Paul walked away and got in the driver’s seat.

“As you can see, that’s my driver, Paul. So you won’t be completely alone with a stranger if you allow me to drive you to your home.” Arsen told her as he moved her along with him, his arm tight around her waist.

“I don’t think so. It’s very nice of you, don’t get me wrong.”

“It’s really not safe for you to walk. Please, just get in. I swear we’ll take you straight home. If anything happened to you and I saw you were hurt or, God forbid, something worse, it would haunt me forever,” Arsen told her as he opened the door and gently pushed against her.

“I’d hate it if I haunted you. I think that would mean bad karma for me,” she said and looked into his dark eyes. “Promise me something.”

“Anything,” he said. “I think I could promise you anything?” His finger trailed over her collar bone, and he looked deep into her eyes.

They were full of trust, even though they shouldn’t be. If she only knew what he wanted to do to her beautiful porcelain skin, watch it turn a nice shade of pink after he had paddled it well.

“Promise that you won’t hurt me.” Her words hit him hard.

“Why would you say that?” he asked as he pulled his hand back and searched her eyes.

“It’s just that I don’t go places with strangers. I don’t do stupid or dangerous things,” she said as she looked at him with such innocence. Too much innocence.

Arsen took a step back. “You should run, little girl.”

“Should I, really?” she asked as her eyes danced. “A little while ago, I tried to walk home, and a guy grabbed me. I had to empty my pepper spray on his ass. So I’m quite defenseless, and a nice, strong lawyer seems a safe bet. A hell of a lot better than taking the chance the prick I sprayed may be waiting to get even with me.”

“You know I saw you do that. You seem quite capable of taking care of yourself in situations you feel threatened in.”

“I know a little self-defense.” She watched his reaction carefully. “If you did something I didn’t want you to, for instance, you could be sure I’d take your balls in a vice-like grip and make you beg me not to rip them from your body.”

His laugh came from deep in his chest. “You’re pretty sure of yourself. And what if I did something to you you wanted me to? What then?”

“I’m a big girl; I can take care of things. So, are you going to give me a ride, or should I catch a cab?” Her arms crossed over her chest, and he knew he should put her sweet little ass in a cab and move on without looking back.

“I should definitely put you in a cab. To be honest, I’m a bit afraid of you,” he said with a smile.

“I’m a bit afraid of you, too,” she smiled back. “But what’s the fun in always playing it safe?”

“By all means, climb into my lair, little girl.”

He held her hand as she lifted one leg to place her round ass on the leather seat. Arsen sucked in his breath as he pictured that ass beneath his palm.

He balled his hand into a fist again to stop himself from making a swift smack to it as she lifted it some to scoot over so he could take the place next to her. She stopped just short of moving all the way to the edge, staying in the middle.

His arm draped over the back of the seat, and she leaned back and took a deep breath. “I love the smell of leather,” she said as she let the breath out.

“Good,” he said, thinking that she’d really like the good amount of leather he kept in a closet in his penthouse.

“Good?” she asked as she turned her face to look at him. “That’s an odd thing to say.”

Paul turned and looked at Arsen.

“Where to, boss?”

Arsen looked at the young woman.

“Your place or mine?”

“Take me to my house, scoundrel. 555 Bayview Drive.” She looked at Paul. “Please, Paul.”

“Yes, my lady,” he said with a laugh, and the privacy window between the front seat and the rest of the large SUV went up.

Arsen’s arm moved down off the back of the seat to touch her shoulders. He felt her shiver and pulled her closer.

“Cold?”

“No, just out of my comfort zone,” she answered and ran her hands over her bare arms as she wore a sleeveless shirt.

“You know, it’s okay to get out of that boring old comfort zone every now and again.” His mouth touched her neck for just a moment, and then he pulled it back.

She turned to face him, and he found that her breathing had increased and that she was a bit heavier than normal. She was getting ready for him; he knew it, but was she ready for all of him?

Slowly, he ran his fingertips over her lips as he gazed at them. His cock went hard in an instant as she parted her plump lips and pulled his finger into her hot mouth.

She sucked it gently and ran her tongue around it. He watched her and took one of her hands, placing it on his growing cock. Her eyes went wide, and she pulled her mouth off his finger and looked at the lump he held her hand to.

Her eyes darted up to his as she put her fingers on the button of his slacks. She seemed to be silently asking if she could let the beast free, and he nodded.

His stomach tensed as he knew he’d be taking her any way he pleased in just a little while. He watched her open his pants up, and his large erection sprang out at her.

She gasped and sprang back; her eyes went wide, and he was pleased with her reaction. His big male member was a thing of beauty, and she seemed to realize that.

Her eyes went to his again, and she licked her lips. He gave her a nod of approval, and she lowered her head to his lap. The touch of her lips sent shivers through him.

His hands moved through her dark waves, and he groaned as she moved her mouth over his throbbing cock. Her mouth moved over him so fluidly that he knew her innocent demeanor had to have been a farce.

She stopped and looked at him.

“Why’d you stop, baby?” he moaned as he pulled at her hair.

“I wanted to know if I was doing it right. It’s my first time, and if I’m doing it wrong and you’re up here laughing at me, it would make me very upset. So, am I doing it right? Is there anything I should be doing better? Do you think I should just stop even trying?” 

“Seriously?” he asked in disbelief.

She nodded, and he pulled her hair, making her face come to his. He took one deep, hard kiss and then released her mouth.

“So, should I continue?” Her face was full of innocence, and he knew she was telling him the truth.

“You’re doing a fantastic job. Please, get back to it.” He let her go, and she resumed her position, placing her hands on his massive member and her mouth on the tip of his dick.

Arsen had been given so many blow jobs he couldn’t even keep count of them, yet never had one sent the sensations through him this young woman’s sweet mouth was doing.

He laid his head back on the leather seat and tried not to think about a thing as she ran her tongue up the underside of his cock and sucked gently as she pulled her hot mouth back up his long length.

All he could think was this was not going to help his situation at all. Red and blue lights lit up the back window, and Paul slowed the car down and pulled to the side of the road.

Arsen’s heart stopped as he knew his time was up, and they must be about to officially charge him for the murders.

FOR HIM

A thin vein of light fog rolled in under the barn door. Steele Gannon had just finished brushing her horse’s mane after taking an evening ride to clear her mind from the long school day.