Dominant Switch
Dominant Focus
Dominant Switch
When Corinne LeBlanc’s former Dominant walks into her life again three months after their big breakup, her stomach churns with nerves but her treacherous heart flutters. His hard body and firm, commanding presence can still make her shiver, but she knows he’ll never put her first above the business empire that means so much to him.
Jack Carder regrets that a business deal caused him to screw up and neglect Corinne. He didn’t let her know how much he needed her until it was too late and she had already lost hope and left him. Sitting in his empty house, heart and body aching for his lost submissive, he comes up with a risky plan to win her back.
But will Corinne be willing to listen to the man who broke her heart? Will Jack’s shocking sexual offer be enough to tempt Corinne back into his bed and bring them back together forever?
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 20,355 words
DOMINANT SWITCH
Dominant Focus
Laina Kenney
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
DOMINANT SWITCH
Copyright © 2012 by Laina Kenney
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62241-725-4
First E-book Publication: October 2012
Cover design by Harris Channing
All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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DOMINANT SWITCH
Dominant Focus
LAINA KENNEY
Copyright © 2012
Chapter 1
Corinne pulled the elastic from her long brown hair and rubbed her scalp. She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. What a relief to make it to closing time once again.
The old coffee shop wasn’t in a high-end neighborhood, but it did a brisk business on weekdays from the office buildings down the block. In Corinne’s opinion, lawyers and their admin assistants lived on nothing but caffeine and sugar.
She looked up from wiping the counter as the door clicked shut. She hadn’t locked it yet, but the sign said Closed, and Rob was already gone for the night.
Every muscle tensed when she saw the broad shoulders, the towering height, and the arrogant stance. She hadn’t seen him for over three months, but she knew him. Anywhere, any time, she would recognize the man.
Lust and adrenaline flashed through her bloodstream, and her muscles tensed for flight.
“No,” she said involuntarily. She wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go now. He had found her.
His eyes, dark and intense, rested on her face as he locked the door behind him and started forward. His charisma and straight-up dominance, as much as the designer suit and polished wing tips, made him stand out from every other man she knew.
“You’ve never said no to me before.” His voice was so smooth it took a moment for the barb to sink in.
Corinne almost winced. It was the precise truth. She had never turned him down in their six-month relationship, and never would have. She had loved him so blindly and so completely it hurt now to think of it, and the unsophisticated innocence behind the expression of emotion. For the time they had been together, he owned her, and he had known it from the beginning.
She tried for a smile, but it wobbled at the edges. Looking at his gorgeous face and taut muscular body threw up memories she would rather not acknowledge.
She said the first thing that came to mind.
“Jack, would you like to order a coffee? Or perhaps a—”
“I’m not here for the coffee, Corinne.”
She looked away. She wasn’t going to fall into that trap. He would tell her why he was in the shop if he felt like it, and if he didn’t feel like it, torture wouldn’t pry the information out of him. It really was pointless to ask Jack Carder questions.
Part of her wanted the hubcaps to be stolen off his precious sports car while he was in the little shop, but the largest part of her just felt pain. If she couldn’t be in his arms, she just wanted him gone. She wanted him out of the coffee shop with its cracked countertop and dingy floor tiles and out of her life.
He leaned one hip against the counter and looked around. His big body was relaxed, but his eyes were clear and hard. She had seen him training in the karate dojo once. He could explode into motion in a heartbeat if the situation called for it, but there was no danger here.
If he was going to make any negative comment about the place where she worked, Corinne didn’t want to hear it. Until she could find something better she needed this job.
She was very lucky that her friend Shelly had been able to get her in because the two girls had worked at a bakery all through high school. When Corinne had appeared on Shelly’s doorstep with only her backpack, Shelly hadn’t asked any questions. Shelly had helped her to find a job and a reason to get out of bed in the morning when her heart was so heavy it felt like just breathing was a monumental struggle. If Jack didn’t like it, he could keep his opinions to himself.
It was none of his business now where she worked or what she did, and she would have no qualms about telling him. And considering their former relationship, wouldn’t that just shock his socks off.
Jack wasn’t a snob exactly,
but his office was designed by an award-winning team of an architect and an artist, and his home was an immaculate masterpiece. His house even had a name. Money was never a consideration.
For Corinne, who had grown up in a kind but shabby foster home, it had been like walking into another world.
Corinne had almost been afraid to sit on the furniture at first, not because of anything Jack had said, but because of her own consciousness of the vast financial difference between them. At the time, Jack had assured her that the disparity didn’t matter at all to him, but in the back of her mind she still wondered.
“Whoever you left me for, he doesn’t take very good care of you if you have to work in this place.” His observation was unexpected. “Who was it, that baby-faced boy you almost pushed out the door earlier? What is he, twenty? He wouldn’t know what to do with a woman, particularly a woman like you. He could never begin to give you what you need.”
Corinne couldn’t hide her shock. She shook her head. Was that what Jack thought of her?
“I didn’t leave you because some other man came along. I just left,” she said in a clipped tone, ignoring the obvious reference to Rob, her manager. “I’m single.”
His head swung around, and his dark eyes pinned her in place.
“You expect me to believe you left me so that you could be alone?”
His tone was disbelieving, and she could hardly blame him. Her body still ached for his touch. The chemistry had been so hot, so good between them she could hardly believe it herself some days.
She felt tears welling up, but she blinked them back.
“I was alone when I was with you, Jack. You were so busy with work. We spent a day together maybe twice in the last few weeks we were together, and it was only for—” She stopped, feeling the flush rise in her cheeks. “Never mind.”
She really didn’t want to start a conversation about sex with him. He pushed her buttons so effortlessly he would have her right back in his bed in no time if she gave him even the slightest opening. This conversation was a minefield, and she needed to be careful.
“What is the real problem, Corinne?”
“Jack, it ended between us months ago. It’s practically ancient history. I don’t see any point in talking about it now.”
“I do. I intend to get some answers.”
His tone and the determined look on his face worried her. Jack could be a difficult man, tough and tenacious. He dressed with a devastating masculine style, but the well-cut clothing couldn’t disguise the sharp instincts of a street fighter underneath. If Jack truly wanted something, the rest of the world had better step aside or prepare for the fight of a lifetime.
“It’s been months,” she repeated. “Whatever the problem was, it doesn’t matter now. I solved it the best way I could. The only way I could. My reasons are my own.”
“It matters.”
She shrugged again.
He dragged a hand through his perfectly cut hair. It was clear that he was frustrated, but why would he be frustrated? He hadn’t even cared enough to let her know his plans before he left on a business trip. His frustration now was not her problem.
“Corinne, you know I had a multinational deal going on at that time. I was working with a broken business plan, a failing management team, and analysts arguing in three time zones. Every moment I was with you was stolen from work. That deal was important, damn it.”
She smiled and felt like crying.
“Yes, I know it was important.”
And didn’t that just say it all.
Corinne was well aware the deal was important, not only to Jack and his employees, but to the Michigan economy. The newspapers and television anchormen had talked of nothing else for the past couple of weeks since the details had finally leaked.
It certainly ranked higher in the grand scheme than the needs of one introverted submissive. Deep inside where the shy girl with the secondhand clothes still dwelt, Corinne didn’t really expect things to be any different. She had always taken second place, but it would have been nice to be wrong just once.
She reminded herself that just because she was in love with Jack didn’t mean that he would love her. No one had loved her since her parents died. Her mind accepted it as truth, but her heart still wept.
Corinne picked up her cloth and finished wiping down the counter. Maybe if she just went about her closing duties, he would get the hint and leave.
“Aren’t you even going to ask me if the deal was successful?”
She had to laugh a little at that, but it didn’t come out right.
“I don’t have to ask that question. It was in all the papers, on the radio, on CNN. Some of the regulars in here talked about it. They said it was worth hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars a year in pure profit.”
“True. But it cost too much in the end,” he said.
She looked up.
Jack was staring straight at her and his eyes were fierce. A shiver chased up her spine, and her traitorous nipples peaked and tingled.
“Why did you leave me, Corinne? Did you have doubts about being my submissive? Did I move you too quickly into that role?”
She shook her head slowly. No, exploring that side of her nature had been wonderful. But she had fallen in love with her Dominant, and the fact that he didn’t need her that way, didn’t feel the same way she did tore at her heart daily until it ached and burned like an open wound.
“What was it, then?” His voice gentled. “Can’t you tell me?”
Corinne knew she wasn’t good with words, but she could never refuse the naked appeal in his voice. It was so rare that he asked for anything.
“I needed more.”
“More sex?” He sounded incredulous. They hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other from day one. The idea was ludicrous.
“No,” she snapped, “I needed more of you.”
She could see on his face that he didn’t understand. Her suppressed emotions bubbled to the surface and came spewing out in a torrent.
“I needed you to return my calls when you were traveling. I needed some indication that I wasn’t one of a crowd of women you serviced. You said you would call, but you never did. You said you would give me your private number, but you never did. I left messages at your office with Angela because it was the only way I knew to reach you, and that’s how I found out you weren’t even in the country and wouldn’t be back anytime soon. After that, there was no point in staying. I left.”
“I was in the middle of the deal to—”
“I know all about the precious deal,” she snapped. “Angela finally took pity on me and told me where you were.”
Corinne thought from the look on his face that it must be the first time anyone had dared to butt in when he was speaking. Well, a new experience would do him good.
She stepped around the end of the counter and turned off the main lights. When she turned back to Jack, the glow from the display case of desserts illuminated their faces.
“I’m finished for the day and I’m leaving.”
“Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry? Is that it?”
He caught her arm as she pushed past him. The heat of his hand on her flesh sent delight shuddering through her. Her traitorous body swayed toward him, and she knew she had betrayed herself.
His eyes narrowed, and he pulled her closer to his big body, his other hand rubbing soothing circles on her back.
“Have dinner with me.”
“No, thank you.” Corinne hoped her near-panic didn’t show.
Having dinner with Jack would be disastrous for her self-control. Spending time with him would be torture when just the simple touch of his hand was destroying her, breaking down her resolve until all she could think about was him. His predatory instincts were so good he would know it, damn him.
“Corinne, I’m only asking for dinner, nothing more.” His soft tone said she was being unreasonable, and annoyance surged through her.
She gathered he
r control and shrugged off his hands.
“No. No dinner. Thank you for the offer.”
“How about dinner tomorrow, then?”
“No, thank you.”
“You’re so polite when you’re refusing me.”
“Just so long as you take no for an answer, I’m willing to be polite.”
His hand dropped from her arm and he stepped back a pace, his face unreadable.
“I have never given you reason to think that I would find the use of force acceptable. I’ve never used my strength against you.”
Corinne didn’t mean to make him think that she was afraid of him physically, but she firmed her lips against the apology that was trying to escape. She would not apologize. If insult and irritation got him out the door faster, then that was better for her.
She inclined her head toward the door, but he didn’t move. Could the man not take a hint?
“Where is this stubbornness coming from? This is a side of you I’ve never seen.”
He sounded thoughtful, and her heart picked up speed. He was so damn clever. If she gave him another five minutes he would pick apart every bit of her reasoning and find ways to win every argument.
If he ever knew she still loved him she’d be back on his arm and in his bed in no time. He would be perfectly satisfied, and she would die a little each day because nothing would be resolved for her.
“Time to go,” she said with false cheer, and started for the door herself.
He could stay all night if he wanted. She was going home to open a bottle of wine and cry.
Chapter 2
Jack followed Corinne out into the cool evening. He watched as she locked the door and walked to her old car.