Invitation to Ecstasy by Nina Pierce Read Free Book Online Page A

it
feel like anything’s broken?”
    “Derek.” She gripped his hands, her icy fingers stopping his
nervous search. “It’s not me. I’m fine.”
    “No, it’s everywhere. You—”
    Her finger shook and his gaze followed where she pointed.
The outside of his right thigh was gaping open just below his swim trunks.
Blood dripped on the floor in a watery pool. The adrenaline coursing through
his veins had kept him from feeling the pain.
    Sara stood, urging him to change places with her. She
grabbed a folded white towel from the pile on the edge of the hot tub beside
him. “Keep pressure on it.” Laying the towel over the wound, she put his hand
on it and pressed. He clenched his teeth against the pain surging up his leg.
    “Let me see what they have for first-aid supplies.” She disappeared
into the bathroom, flicking on a small bedside lamp as she went, pushing away
the gray shadows of the storm. “Don’t move.”
    “Wouldn’t think of it.” Derek wasn’t sure what he’d been
planning when he’d realized she was at the lagoon. But plucking Sara from the
depths of the ocean and ripping open his leg definitely weren’t on his dance
card. He lifted the towel, now soaked with his blood. The gash was definitely
deeper than anything created by even the strongest Dom whip but by no means
life threatening. He’d simply get them back to the main lodge and have someone
patch him up with a couple of stitches.
    He shot a look over his shoulder, dismayed that the storm
had intensified.
    “You’re not driving that machine back to the main lodge in
this storm,” Sara said as if reading his mind.
    He lifted his hands in surrender. “Wouldn’t think of it.”
    “Though I’m definitely not getting out of here the way I
came in.” She knelt before him, a white fluffy robe now wrapped around her
petite figure. “Was that the kayak we nearly hit on our way in?”
    “Seems Mother Nature is in cahoots with Ethan.”
    Sara’s expressive face scrunched in confusion.
    “Doesn’t matter,” he said, brushing hair out of her eyes.
“But we do need to get me patched up before I pass out from blood loss.”
    “You’re hardly going to bleed out,” she said, laying out a
small medical kit next to him. “But I’m sure this will clean you up
temporarily. I found it in the bathroom cabinets.” Sara smiled. The gesture lit
up her face and sparked in the blue pools of her eyes. “Sometimes being part of
the BDSM community comes in handy.” Gently lifting the towel, she let out a
long, slow whistle. “Damn, you did a good job on that. Fortunately we’ve got
everything we need to patch you up.”
    “I can do it myself.”
    “I’m a nurse, Derek. I tend wounds every day.” She dabbed at
the gash with a wet towel she’d brought from the bathroom.
    Air whistled through his clenched teeth at the unexpected
quick stab of pain.
    The corner of her luscious mouth lifted with her eyebrow.
“Though not usually on such big babies.” The cocky Sara who’d challenged him in
the hall last night had returned. “Don’t you trust me…”
    Master?
    She may not have finished the sentence, but they both felt
the power exchange the moment it happened, and Derek had no intention of losing
the momentum. Ethan had offered him another chance with Sara. He’d be foolish
to turn from it now. If he could get her to bare the pain bruising her soul, he
could surely reach in and help her heal.
    Derek leaned forward, crowding her space, his nose nearly
touching hers. “I don’t think I’m the one with trust issues, Sara.” He held her
gaze as the wind howled and rain lashed the windows.
    She didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Didn’t blink. But the pulse
quickening at the base of her throat proved to Derek that he’d hit upon a
sensitive nerve. Now he just had to wait her out and hope she chose to open
herself to him.
    He sat back, giving her the option to run if that’s what she
chose. “Have at it.”
    Derek forced himself to breathe