Read King of Spades for Free Online Page A

her, and it was like she was lying on a soft bed of velvet instead of grass. Weird.
    Time to take stock and formulate a plan.
    She was staked out and naked (thigh-highs and stilettos did not count as clothing), and entirely vulnerable to man or beast…or men who were both. She was in the middle of a meadow filled with trees, flowers, and bushes that didn’t look like anything she’d ever seen before. Not that she’d ever been into wildlife—she was a city girl and a lawyer for crissake. What did she know about rural anything?
    Good thing she’d peed before she left the restaurant and that she hadn’t had much to drink with dinner. But what would she do if he wouldn’t let her up later?
    Her knuckles still throbbed from slamming her fist into the bastard’s eye—Darronn he’d said his name was. Although he’d insisted she call him Master. Goddamn asshole. She’d show him who was Master.
    Obedience my ass.
    Even though she didn’t give a damn what he’d said, his words echoed through her mind. “You have come to a world you do not understand, my firecat, and you have met a man you cannot command.”
    A world she didn’t understand…he’d gotten that part right. She didn’t understand how any of this could be real, or even how she knew it was. Was this a world full of men who tied up women who refused to call them Master? Great.
    The part about not being able to command him, well she could certainly see that—no man she’d ever known was like him, and damn him, but he turned her on more than she wanted to admit.
    What he was going to find out, though, was that he’d just met a woman whom he couldn’t command. Yeah, they’d kill each other in no time.
    She couldn’t help but picture the sincerity in his eyes when he’d said, “For your own good, you must learn the desires and fears of your heart…”
    Asshole. As if there was anything that he could teach her . She always knew what she wanted, and when she found it, she went for it. She didn’t need some tattooed, green-eyed, gorgeous Neanderthal to teach her anything.
    As far as fear, she feared nothing when it came to her heart. Long ago she’d learned her lesson, and she didn’t let any man come close enough to hurt her. So what was there to fear?
    “…and you must learn to trust and respect the one person with the skill and power to make you whole. Me.”
    Oh, yeah, sure. As if she’d trust and respect a brute who’d yanked her through a mirror, turned into a tiger and tackled her, then left her staked out, alone, in the middle of nowhere. Hot and horny at that.
    Bastard.
    Damn, but it pissed her off to want him so badly when she should hate him. What was it about him? Something told her there was more to him than just an arrogant prick who liked to order women around. Even in his domineering manner, he’d seemed somehow sincere and caring.
    Alexi rolled her eyes and sighed. Well, that made lots of sense. She was staked and bound and at her captor’s complete mercy, and she thought he’d seemed caring. Once she got back to San Francisco, she’d have to visit a shrink for sure. Maybe Alice’s disappearance had affected her more than she’d realized. She would just close her eyes, go to sleep, and hopefully wake up in her own bed.
     
     
    Darronn shifted into a tiger and paced the edge of the Tarok Forest, his gaze focused on the maid staked out in the meadow. He would never leave Alexi, or any of his subjects, alone and vulnerable. He would stay with her as long as it took for her to learn what it would take to heal her heart and soul.
    He had no doubt that when she gave into his wish, that at first it would be merely as a way to be free of her bonds. But it would be a start, and she would soon learn to bow to all his demands.
    Wind ruffled his fur as he quietly continued his pacing. She would be comfortable on the grass for the night as he had used his magic to place a black velvet cushion at her back. Air remained still within the