Kinked Kisses (Club Stratosphere Book 1) Read online

  Kinked Kisses

  Formerly published as

  Club Stratosphere: Lexa and Tom

  an inclusion in

  Alpha Fever Contemporary and Paranormal Romance Boxed Set

  First Edition March 2016

  October 2016

  ISBN 978-1-927116-35-7

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  All rights reserved. This book is copyrighted and protected by law.

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this ebook are products of the authors' imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the authors.

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  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  This series is dedicated to Matthew. You, my Darling, have taught me so much and You’ve shown me ‘The Way’. i love You more than could ever be put into words. Thank You for loving me, being my biggest fan and everything i needed You to be since moment one. You’ve made my life happier, set me on the path to success and to achieving my goals.

  You are amazing, and i’m blessed to call You mine.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Slut. Dirty whore. Disgusting. Freak. Deviant.

  Lexa flinched with every word her husband threw at her. Words she’d heard before. They were all endearments used frequently within the circles she traveled. Terms usually uttered with the utmost affection, not the venom with which Barry uttered them. There wasn’t a hint of warmth in his tone of voice, rigid posture, or the words he spat at her.

  Huddled on their couch, a throw cushion clutched to her abdomen, she listened as he paced beside her and railed a veritable litany of obscenities. Bile churned in the pit of her stomach, burning a hole through her focus. He kicked the back of the couch. Lexa jumped, a shudder rushing through her small frame. His blue eyes flashed, red mottled his fair skin from the collar of his shirt to his strawberry blond hair. She turned her face away from him, unable to continue seeing the rage contorting Barry’s handsome features.

  “Please,” she whispered, wiping a tear from her cheek. The skin beneath the back of her hand was warm to the touch. “Stop, Barry. It’s not as bad as you think.”

  Her husband rounded the couch, bending to bring his six-foot frame down to her level. Warm, beer scented breath fanned her face. Lexa fought not to wrinkle her nose and gag as the yeasty odor washed over her. “Not as bad as I think?” he shouted, spittle flecking her cheeks. “My wife just told me she’s a fucking dirty whore. Not bad? Jesus, Alexandra.”

  Barry straightened, his arms flung out to the side as he stared her down. “The woman I’ve known for the last two years—the one I married six months ago—suddenly tells me that she likes to be choked, beaten and humiliated because it gets her off. How is that not as bad as I think, Lexa?”

  “But,” she sputtered, lifting her eyes to meet his. Barry’s face contorted, wrinkling his nose as he turned away. “You had no problem with tying me down before. You’ve spanked me in the past, and enjoyed it when we had rough sex. I… I don’t understand.” Lexa wiped her face on the sleeve of her light pink hoodie. “Our sex life until now hasn’t exactly been what you’d call ‘vanilla’. How is what I’ve asked so different?”

  She sniffled, watching as he paced. Barry pinched the bridge of his nose between a thumb and forefinger, his eyes squeezed shut. His broad chest heaved beneath the thin cotton of the dark blue dress shirt.

  He rounded on her, quickly moving to crowd Lexa’s space, and bent to point a thick finger in her face. “A little slap and tickle is not the same thing,” he growled. She hunched her shoulders, shrinking from the violence of his gestures. “Not even close to the same. What you want,” he hesitated, eyes searching her face. “It’s sick. Twisted. I won’t have any part of it, Alexandra.”

  Barry straightened, peering down his nose at her. Lexa’s eyes widened as she recognized the resolute look on his face—hard eyes, mouth set in a firm line. “I’m moving into the guest room. I can’t sleep in the same room as you, let alone touch you. God!” He shuddered. “You… Get some help.”

  Pivoting on his heel, Barry walked down the hall where the bedrooms were located. She watched him yank open the door to their guest room and slam it shut behind him, the loud reverberation putting a punctuation mark on what, to her, symbolized the end of their marriage as she knew it.

  Lexa laid her head on her knees, heat suffusing her face as fresh tears cascaded from her eyes. What had she done?

  Chapter One

  Lexa sat on the couch, laptop across her knees while she scrutinized the half dozen marketing images on the monitor. The television droned softly in the background and lit the room with a faint blue glow. A quick glance at the forty-two-inch screen showed her an infomercial for some newfangled hair removal product. She rolled her eyes, returning her focus to the laptop screen and the project she’d been working on.

  A soft thump made Lexa turn her head to the right and peer down the hallway. She narrowed her eyes, staring at the guest room door. Barry, her husband, must have fallen asleep with the remote in his hand, again. She waited to determine if the noise had woken him up. Two minutes ticked by on the big wooden clock above their dining table and no sign of Barry. Thank goodness, she breathed a mental sigh of relief. Explaining why she was still up equated to an argument she didn’t feel like having, again.

  Taking a deep breath, Lexa turned back to her computer. She closed her eyes for a moment, rubbing the fatigue from them and nearly jumped out of her skin when her cell phone pinged and a subsequent ping announced the arrival of an instant message on her laptop.

  “What the hell?” she muttered to the empty room, and clicked on the chat box blinking at the bottom of her screen.

  The chat box read: Why are you still up?

  She read the name displayed in the upper left corner of the window and blinked. Thomas Daniels. A small avatar beside his message revealed Tom’s familiar smile, patrician nose and green eyes. His dark blond hair was unkempt and his shoulders were bare in the photo. Must be his personal chat account, she wondered. And how had he found hers?

  Why was the hunky Account Manager messaging her at…? What time was it anyway? Lexa glanced at the clock again and jerked, her eyes widening as she noted the time. Two th
irty-one in the morning. Shit. She was going to be craptastically tired for work in the morning.

  Her cursor flashed in the reply box, daring her to answer him. She sighed and typed: Tweaking the images. Colors aren’t right. Why aren’t you sleeping? At least one of us should be bright eyed and bushy tailed for the presentation.

  Ping. His response came almost immediately.

  I couldn’t sleep, his message read. She nodded in understanding and then smirked at her silliness; he couldn’t see her nonverbal response. They were due to present the firm’s biggest client with a new ad proposal at ten that morning. At this rate, they’d both be sleep deprived and liable to bomb the pitch. Perfect. Just what her life needed.

  Another line of text popped up on the screen and her eyes widened, breath caught in her throat as she scanned the lines. It read: Can’t get you off my mind. I know that I’m taking an epic risk by doing this, but… I keep thinking of how you were bent over the worktable on Monday when I walked into your office. You have the most amazing ass I’ve ever laid eyes on, Lex.

  What? She typed and hit enter. Thinking over the day in question, Alexandra recalled the moment where she bent over the table in her office to stretch her achy back. The Saturday night before that she had paid a visit to Stratosphere, the local dungeon, and engaged in a scene with one of the house Doms, Sir Daniel. A master with floggers, whips and paddles, he’d lain it on thick that night and left Lexa spent by the time he was done with her.

  Lexa shook off the memory and frowned at the screen. Tom knew she was married, everyone in the office did. None of them were aware of the state of her marriage; it wasn’t any of their business.

  She and Barry hadn’t been happy together for quite some time. She had tried to make it work for the first six months, to give a traditional ‘vanilla’ marriage a try. Then Lexa confessed some of her long suppressed needs, and realized the true nature of the cruel man she’d married. They’d moved into separate bedrooms and agreed to put a good face on it for the time being. Barry expected her to seek help for what he called her deviance; but, Lexa knew there was nothing wrong with her. The desires she had were completely normal, natural even. That had been two and a half years ago.

  Look at the message on your phone, the chat box flashed with Tom’s reply.

  Lexa picked up her cell phone, flipped to her text inbox and opened the message. Her eyes widened, staring at the picture he’d sent her. She blinked, swallowing the sudden rush of moisture filling her mouth as she let her eyes wander over the details. Heavily muscled pectorals, a lickable six-pack and—holy hell, that had to be a good eight inches of thick, hard cock.

  Her mind flicked back to another hard body, a physique very similar to the one in the picture on her phone. Memories of thick biceps and rippling abs flashed back to her. Memories of Sir Daniel as he brandished a single tail whip, the end of it flying through the air to land on her thighs. Lexa shook her head to dispel the imagery and refocused on the present. Mild mannered Tom, he of the quick wit and devastating smiles, was not the brutally sadistic Sir Daniel.

  Quickly deleting the image, she put the device down and stared at the chat box for the space of several long, deep, thought clearing breaths. Her pulse thudded hard and fast. No way. That wasn’t him in the photo. He’d found it online and was just playing with her. No matter how she tried to explain the reasoning behind it, the image stuck in her mind, burned into her retinas.

  Ping. The chat box flashed on the screen, demanding her attention.

  Lex? It prompted. The cursor blinked, silently imploring she respond.

  She chewed her right thumbnail for a moment, the fingers of her left hand twitching against the keyboard. You know I’m married, right? She typed quickly, hit enter and closed her eyes as she dropped her head back against the large cushion behind her. Was this really happening? The man she fantasized about every night wanted her. She’d achieved some of the best orgasms of her life picturing Tom while she masturbated. Yeah, right. He wanted her, and she would wake up a lotto winner tomorrow morning. Pigs might even begin to fly.

  The soft ping came back almost instantly. Technically, yes. You haven’t been husband and wife for a very long time though. The two of you don’t even share a bedroom.

  She straightened, pulling away from the cushions at her back and shuddered as she took in her surroundings—the dim living room, the sheer curtains covering the open windows and the patio doors just beyond the dining room. A chill ping-ponged its way down her back, and it had nothing to do with the warm breeze filtering in through the curtains.

  How do you know? Have you been spying on me? She typed quickly and hit Enter as she continued to scan the room.

  No. The word stared at her, short and sweet.

  The breeze through her living room windows carried in the sound of a door opening and closing outside. One of the neighbors must be letting a pet out, she thought.

  Come outside, Lex. Leave the laptop on the couch and go out the patio doors.

  Lexa cocked her head at the odd request. She set the laptop aside and padded quietly across the carpet to the set of sliding doors leading to her backyard. She slid the screen door open, flinching as the motion detectors lit up the patio when she stepped out onto the wooden planks.

  Barely discernible beyond the bright light in which she stood, Lexa noticed a figure on the deck across the expanse of lawn separating the two houses. The general proportions of the shadow matched those belonging to a male. Tall with broad shoulders, her neighbor waved casually. She returned the gesture and scanned the yard. Why had Tom sent her outside?

  “Lexa,” the man across the way spoke. “It’s me.”

  “Tom?” she gasped, squinting at the figure across the way. “How long have you lived there?”

  His soft laugh floated across their shared yard. A shiver skated down her spine and goose bumps bloomed on her skin courtesy of the deep, melodious sound. She blamed the reaction on the coolness of the wooden planks beneath her feet but, deep down, she knew Tom was the cause. The deep tenor of his chuckle had soaked more pairs of her panties than Lexa cared to admit, even to herself.

  “I moved in two years ago,” he replied. “You’d know that if you spent time out here.”

  A blush heated her cheeks at his teasing. She rested her hands on the railing, her left shoulder rising in a half shrug. The backyard was Barry’s domain. Beer, barbecue and boisterous behavior. She avoided him, and it, as much as possible. “I prefer the front yard. There’s more shade.” And silence, she thought, but left that part out.

  “I know,” he admitted. Tom stepped back from the railing, opened the gate and started down the stairs. He glanced at the hedges lining either side of the yard and turned back to her. “More privacy back here though. The neighbors can’t spy through those.”

  Lexa stared as he moved closer and the motion detector lights revealed more of him with each step. She couldn’t help but gawk at the squares of his chest, the six-pack of abs and the deep grooves curving into the waistband of his dark boxers. Every part of him bulged with muscles. The pic had certainly been of him and her mind instantly recalled the other detail, the one barely concealed by his shorts as he drew closer.

  “Tom?” she squeaked when he reached the bottom of her steps. He smiled and held out a hand for her.

  “Come on,” he urged. “Barry’s room is at the front of the house. He’ll never know you left.”

  ***

  She glanced over her shoulder at the patio doors and Tom thought for a moment Lexa might say no to his request. Her small, white teeth worried at the full sweep of her lower lip when she looked back at him. He smiled encouragingly and waited to see what she would do.

  It had come as a surprise when he’d started working at Page and Butler, Inc. and found out the luscious Junior Account Manager was his backyard neighbor. The biggest shock had come when Tom discovered her husband barbecuing one Sunday afternoon. They’d gotten to talking. After a few beers, Barry had been all to
o happy to spill the beans about the state of his marriage, and his wife’s deviant preferences, over medium rare steaks and potato salad. The man really was a jackass, and an even bigger fool for not seeing the treasure a woman like Lexa was, the rarity of a woman like her.

  Tom glanced up at Alexandra. Long, straight hair hung down her back in a gorgeous curtain of chestnut brown. A light blue camisole covered high, perky breasts and a trim, flat stomach. His cock twitched against the soft silk of his boxers; she wasn’t wearing a bra and the pebbled tips of her nipples pressed against the thin cotton of her top. He could almost make out the dark circles of her areolas through the fabric.

  “I can’t,” she finally replied. “We can’t. We’ve got a huge presentation in less than eight hours, Tom. Not to mention,” Lexa glanced over her shoulder at the house and Tom cursed the man sleeping inside of it.

  He laughed softly and climbed the first step up to her. “The presentation is perfect and we’ll do fine. You’re obsessing when there’s no need to. Come to me,” he pled. “Let me kiss you? If you don’t feel it, or don’t want to come with me after that, I’ll leave you alone. We’ll be work buddies, and nothing more.”

  Suddenly, the light turned off and plunged them into inky darkness. Tom climbed another step to kick it back on and then decided if he was going that far, he might as well go all the way up.

  Standing on the ledge of the deck, the gate separating them, he smiled down at Lexa. Her wide eyes, filled with uncertainty in their chocolate brown depths, stared up at him. She was such a petite thing, so delicately built. He lifted a hand to cup her left check. She pressed into the caress and he took it as her agreement to the terms he’d offered.

  Heart pounding in his chest, Tom lifted his other hand to her right cheek, bent and gently pressed his lips to hers. The kiss started out as a hesitant, shy caress. A chaste brushing together of mouths. Her lips, soft and supple, moulded to his. Testing, Tom slid his tongue over the seam of Lexa’s lips. She opened on the second pass and he swept inside, a soft groan escaping from him.