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Chapter One

The house was too quiet She could hear her own footfalls as she walked through it, her own heartbeat as she stared into her coffee She could feel her fear, closer, stronger than it had ever been before The new house was so still, the memories that her New York home had held were absent here

She had moved to be closer to Tess To try in some way to hter And she had ain She had hidden froe for sothe deprivation in ever increasing levels Her family was here Her sister, her friends They were all here With Tess gone, the New York house was too silent, too lonely Though this one wasn’t much different today

She still wore the creah thewide brimmed hat had been thrown carelessly on the embroidered chair that sat inside the front entryway She felt lost in a way she hadn’t felt in years A loneliness she couldn’t explain haunted her; needs she couldn’t adht of Tess instead

The wedding had been one of the hter, her baby, had eous bride The pervert she had married had looked handsome and darkly seductive

She ran her fingers over the careful upsweep of her auburn hair, feeling the pinch of hairpins holding it in place Her hairdresser had followed her orders to the letter Not a strand of hair had slipped free of its s hadn’t dared slip or snag She looked as well dressed now, six hours after the wedding, as she had when she left that

Thankfully, with the e she had done to the relationship with her daughter was healing In her shock, in her rage, she had been hurtful to Tess But, still, she couldn’t believe what she had walked in on

Her hands trembled as heat flooded her face It had been Jesse, not Jareat The tere identical in nearly every way, even to their sexual preferences Tall and distinguished, with a lean muscular build and dark toned skin that looked perpetually tanned Thick, black hair fell along their napes, straight and glossy, te the women around them to touch

Her legs trembled as she sat down at the sers trembled as they covered her lips Her heart pounded with hard, driving beats within her chest It had been her worst nighthter played the role Ella had played within those dark visions

Not with Cole, but with James And there lay the demon that lurked in her e and the life she had fought to build because of her husband Jase’s perverse desires The light spankings she had h they had seared her with shah even then, what pleasure had filtered through the experience had been tainted by the fact that she knew, kneas co and she knew she couldn’t bear it

Her lack of submission to Jase’s needs had finally broken their relationship She hadn’t been able to give him the trust, the control he needed She had been terrified, knowing instinctively ould come next, ould come next And she knew she would never be able to maintain her control, her sanity, if James touched her

He had been at Tessa’s wedding He had watched her with knowing eyes, so green, so wicked, her body had pulsed with depravity He had shaken her hand, the heat and pleasure of his touch nearly taking her breath And all the time he had watched her, knew her, tormented her

She stalked to the glass door that led to the cool, foliage sheltered area of the garden The slender heels of her shoes created a hollow, lonely tap against the wood of the porch as she ripped the thick post, her nails biting into the wood as she fought her anger, her fears for her daughter

Tess was too much like Jase Ella had always been afraid of that, especially after the books she had found years ago, hidden in Tess’s bedroom Her desires were extreme, and evidently she had no fear of thee of her own needs

She couldn’t get the iht her as another did She never knew, never cared who joined thees, all she saw, all she kneas James