Hard Limit Read online

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Hard Love

  Other Books by Meredith Wild

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Discussion Questions

  This book is an original publication of Meredith Wild.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  Copyright © 2014 Meredith Wild

  Cover Design by Meredith Wild.

  Cover photograph: Dreamstime.

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic format without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  For the P.S. team.

  For the past ten years…

  the good, the bad, and the ugly.

  PROLOGUE

  E: Meet me at the club in 10 minutes. Please don’t be mad.

  I reread Erica’s text until my brain caught up to her meaning.

  Fucking hell.

  The club she was referring to could only be one. My knuckles went white, as if gripping the phone on the brink of crushing it might stop her from doing this. Drawing in a deep breath that did nothing to calm me, I pulled up her number and held the phone to my ear. I listened to the endless ring, biting back the string of curses that would fly if she picked up. I knew she wouldn’t.

  The warm timbre of her voicemail greeted me. I was stung with missing the woman behind the sound, but I couldn’t ignore the infuriating fact that she wasn’t picking up the fucking phone. I hung up and grabbed my keys. I flew down the stairs to the Tesla and, wasting no time, pushed my way into the rush hour traffic.

  Checking the time, I calculated my journey and how long she’d be there without me. Ten or fifteen minutes if I were lucky. My mind spun over what could go down in that span of time in the exclusive underground establishment I’d known for years as La Perle.

  She’d be prey.

  If I were lurking in the shadows there as I’d done more times than I cared to admit, that’s all I would see in her. A little blond bombshell with just enough fire to make a Dom want to make her his. A man would have to be fucking blind not to want to bring her to her knees.

  I hit the gas and swerved, bypassing a cluster of slowing cars that put precious time between us. As worry plagued my thoughts, so did unwanted memories of the club. I hadn’t stepped foot in there since I met Erica months ago. I’d had no reason to go back to that life. My jaw clenched as I thought of everything that had played out there, countless meaningless moments that I’d kept coming back for, years after I left Sophia. Everything about the place was charged with the promise of sex, the darkest kind of possibilities hanging in the air between every bated breath and less-than-innocent exchange.

  My chest was painfully tight. Anger was there. The teeth-gnashing frustration that only Erica could elicit. But under all of it was love. Love for Erica that set my desire on fire. Though I wanted her far from all of it, my basest desires painted a fantasy of finding her in the club and being the man to tame her—even as I knew how fucking impossible that task was. In the daylight, she never made it easy, but hell if she didn’t submit like a dream at night.

  I hit the brake at a red light. I closed my eyes, and there she was, gazing up at me with those hooded blue eyes, endless oceans. All that hellfire spirit tempered in the name of the pleasure I would give her. And I always gave her more than she could handle. I never let her rest until she was sated. Until I saw the wonder in her eyes that only I could put there, having pushed her to a place no one had ever taken her. Until the only word she could form was my name.

  We were never short on passion. We couldn’t keep our hands off of each other. Adrenaline raced over the fatigue that had settled into my bones after another sleepless night. I could fuck the woman until I was blind, and it wouldn’t be enough. She’d promised me a lifetime, and I had every intention of loving her well every day this life would give me.

  Love was a small word for what I felt for Erica. Maybe it was an obsession, this never-waning determination to make her mine in every way she’d let me. Heath had noticed, even warned me when he saw how she was changing me. He was no stranger to addiction, and no one could deny that she was my vice. The drug I refused to live without, no matter how many times she pushed me away. I’d fought like hell to keep the upper hand between us to protect her, to keep her out of the path of those who would hurt one to destroy the other. I couldn’t lose control and risk losing something more important—the one person who’d come into my life and made it worth living.

  Yes, she’d changed me, as much as a man with my particular affinities could change. She’d pushed me. She’d walked into my life, five-feet-three inches of fiery independence. Her mere presence challenged me, getting under my skin, making me habitually hard until I could find the unexplainable peace that being inside her supple little body could bring. Even now, I could barely take a full breath, knowing she was beyond my reach. I clutched the steering wheel tighter. My bloodless fingertips tingled with the need to feel her body under them, loving her, claiming her, restraining her.

  Fuck.

  I adjusted my inconvenient hard on. Pointless when visions of the night before flooded me now. Her full, swollen lips parting for me and only me. Her nails digging into my thighs as she took all of me in the hot bliss of her mouth.

  I released my tense hold, exhaling an uneven breath. My thumb grazed the worn leather of my belt. The hammer of my heart kicked up. The light turned green, and I sped closer to our destination. A flicker of anticipation took over with a rush of blood to my now rock-hard cock.

  If nothing else, I’d enjoy punishing her when this was all said and done.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Two weeks earlier

  I slid my cold palms up and down the sides of my dress. I’d dressed up to make a good impression. I knew it was foolish. Especially since this wouldn’t exactly be a first impression.

  “Coffee?”

  Blake walked up to where I stood and held out a steaming cup. He was dressed in dark blue jeans and a white collared shirt that made his skin glow. His skin was tanned from our time at the beach house, the place where we went to escape the city life and recharge. Today, like all the others, Blake took my breath away. He could have stepped out of a catalogue, but there was more to the man than his breathtaking good looks. His entire presence had a way of throwing me off balance. Sometimes—when I wasn’t swooning over his perfection—I wondered if I did that to him too.

  “Thank you,” I murmured. Our hands grazed each other when I took the cup, and I let the heat seep into my fingers.

  “Call me crazy, but you look nervous.” He sipped h
is own coffee and cocked his head.

  I stared into the creamy liquid, let the rich aroma fill my nose, and tried to imagine what the next half hour would bring. Being here with Blake by my side should have been a small—a great—comfort, but it wasn’t. “I can’t help it.”

  He chuckled softly. “You have absolutely no reason to be. You realize that, right?”

  Easy for him to say. Across the room, a tall young man was speaking with some of the other investors. I was now on a first-name basis with many of them, but I couldn’t get past the fact that they were the makers and breakers of dreams. They were men, more or less, like Blake. Some were self-made, and others had done well in their professional careers and had taken on angel investing as a hobby, dabbling with fresh new ideas.

  The young man’s jaw was tight, his motions jerky under a tense smile and wide eyes, like he’d consumed all of the coffee in Boston this morning.

  “That was me a few months ago,” I said. “It’s terrifying, and you’ll never know what that feels like. Plus I probably have post-traumatic stress disorder from all the shit you put me through in this room. Twice.”

  Blake’s amused expression lacked all the remorse I was trying to elicit from him. Only months ago we’d come face to face in this very room, a meeting that set off an unexpected series of events—our life together as we knew it.

  “I can see you’re really broken up about that,” I added, trying to sound annoyed as I blew a puff of steam off my coffee.

  “I was a jerk. I admit it.”

  “A complete asshole,” I corrected.

  A cocky grin curved his lips. “Fine, but you couldn’t get me to take a single second of it back, because now I have you.”

  His green-eyed gaze locked to mine as he stood in front of me, his stance wide and casual. He had me all right. As my anxiety slowly melted, I fought the impulse to kiss the smirk off his face in front of all these men in suits. The man drove me wild, in more ways than one.

  “What do you think? Any regrets?” he asked.

  His eyes darkened as if he could read my thoughts, the amused, cocky man replaced by the lover who held my heart in his hands. I drew in a breath of air through my nose, waiting for the touch that often followed that look. A simple reassuring touch that held in it all the love we shared for each other.

  He trailed his fingertips lightly along my jaw, lowering his face to the side of mine. The soft kiss brushed against my cheek could have been mistaken for a quiet exchange between colleagues and filled the air between us with his scent. My breath caught, trapping his essence in my lungs. I wanted to be immersed in it, bathed in that uniquely masculine aroma.

  He retreated, returning to his casual stance in front me. His coffee cup occupied his beautiful lips once more when I wanted them against me again. God, the sensual torture I’d endured at the mercy of those lips.

  Closing my eyes, I shook my head. There were no words. No regrets. He was right. All the ups and downs, however painful, had been worth it. We’d made mistakes. We’d hurt each other, but somehow we’d come through it stronger. He knew my heart, and I knew his. I couldn’t speak for the future, but I couldn’t imagine it beside anyone but Blake.

  “Still nervous?” he murmured.

  I opened my eyes to find his amused smile returned, new warmth in his eyes.

  “No,” I admitted, too aware of our lack of privacy and conflicted by the sudden shift in the air between us. I tried to ignore the way my heart swelled against the walls of my chest, that nameless reminder of how desperately I loved him. I was a slave to this man and the body that repeatedly shattered my ability to comprehend life beyond our bedroom. I wished now that we were alone, that I could be free to touch him. I ached to touch him.

  “Good. This will be fun, I promise.” He moved to my side and slid his arm around me, stroking light circles at the small of my back.

  Maybe this wasn’t casual anymore. Blake had a way of letting the world know I was his no matter where we were. Boardroom or bedroom, he never left much doubt. I can’t say I minded. I wanted to lean into him now, breathe him in, and let the world melt away in his arms.

  “We’re starting in a few minutes. Do you want to eat something? You didn’t have breakfast,” he murmured, his breath warm against my neck.

  I shook my head. “No, thanks.” I paused, unable to ignore the little seedling of doubt that grew within me. “Blake...”

  “What is it, baby?”

  His voice was soft as his pet name for me rolled off his gorgeous lips. And the way he looked at me... I could ask for the Hope diamond on a silver platter and I had little doubt he would figure out a way to bring it to me.

  “Are you sure you want me here?”

  He winced, marring his beautiful features with a small frown. “What do you mean? Of course I do. I put you on this board for several reasons, and they weren’t all selfish. You deserve to be here as much as any of these guys. ”

  I rolled my eyes. “I doubt that.”

  “You have your own experiences—failures and successes—that you’re bringing to the table today. You know that.”

  The reassuring presence of his palm on my back disappeared, replaced by a gentle caress up my arm and back to my cheek. He tilted my chin up until he was all I could see, all I could think about.

  “Don’t doubt it, Erica. Don’t ever doubt your value.”

  I shook my head slightly. “I guess I’m worried those reasons have more to do with...us, than me deserving to be here. What if I don’t have anything to contribute? I don’t want to embarrass you in front of all these people.”

  He pivoted his impressive body, squaring with mine. “Listen to me. This is your first pitch as a prospective investor, so it’s okay to be a little nervous. Just ask the questions that come to mind. If none do, it probably has a lot more to do with the poor guy over there who’s about to toss his breakfast than you. He’s the one with his ass on the line, so do yourself a favor. Drink your coffee, waltz over there like you own this fucking place—because in a few weeks, when you’re my wife, you will—and do what you do best. Be a boss. Look for talent and decide if this guy’s venture is worth a second look.”

  I swallowed over the emotion that burned in my throat. How he could have that kind of faith in me blew my mind. Then again, not much about Blake wasn’t completely overwhelming and mind blowing. “You’re incredible, you know that?”

  His serious expression softened into a smile that met his eyes. Blake’s happiness meant everything to me. I wanted to hold onto it, bind it with my own, and stay that way as long as we could. Hopefully forever.

  I closed my eyes, cherishing the brief moment between us. His lips met my forehead with a soft kiss.

  “Now, let’s go find our seats before I send everyone home and make passionate love to you on that table. I’m having a hard time keeping my hands off of you right now.”

  I looked up, trying not to let my thoughts run away with the fantasy. “It’s a little early in the morning for idle threats,” I teased with a half smile.

  His tongue slid out, traveling a sensual path across the bottom of his teeth. “Not an idle threat, and I think you know that. Now get your sweet ass over there and impress me.”

  I waited a second for the heat to fade from my face before I led the way to the long conference table where the others were now taking their seats. We sat down and Blake cleared his throat, glancing down at a paper in front of him.

  “Everyone, this is Geoff Wells. He’s here to present on his venture, wearable technology applications.”

  Geoff was young, early twenties. He was thin, his skin pale, and his dark blond hair fell long and untamed on his shoulders. He had all the earmarks of a programmer. His bright blue eyes were wide, darting from face to face, and his Adam’s apple worked on a swallow as he waited for all the people seated across from him to get settled. God, did I feel for the man. When our eyes met, I smiled. Maybe I could be a friendly face in the crowd. He smiled back, seemi
ng to relax his posture some.

  “Thanks for coming, Geoff,” I said. As nervous as I was for him, wanting him to feel more at ease launched me out of my shell. I nodded toward the stack of papers in front of him. “Tell us about your idea.”

  He straightened and drew in a deep breath. “Thanks for having me. I have been programming most of my life, but the past few years I have been focusing specifically on application development. As many of you might already know, we will be seeing a new market emerging in the technology space over the next year. Software—specifically applications—for wearable technology.”

  Geoff launched into the details of his project. He spoke animatedly, the way Sid and I sometimes spoke about our business to each other and others. All of us—Sid, Blake, James, and I—lived in another world, our own high-tech bubble. We spoke a different language. I wasn’t a codeslinger, but I loved the business side of technology and I reveled in our weird little microcosm. Geoff clearly lived in this world too, and possibly not much outside of it based on his complexion and unkempt hair.

  The next fifteen minutes were filled with all the high-level details of Geoff’s plan to expand on the applications he’d already created. He hit all the checkpoints I’d drilled into my mind when I was preparing my pitch to Angelcom months ago. As Geoff spoke, I recognized his passion and talent. Beyond that, I thought the idea was pretty neat. I jotted notes down onto the legal pad in front of me, eager for a chance to ask him questions and secretly hoping that Blake was as excited about it as I was.

  Blake’s phone silently lit up, distracting him from the presentation. I shot him a glare. When he didn’t notice, I jabbed him with the toe of my shoe. His frown met my own, and a small knowing smile replaced it. He looked straight ahead, his focus trained on the only person who should have had his attention in that moment.

  “What applications have you built so far?” Blake asked when Geoff hit a pause in his presentation.