The Lady Stole My Heart (The Lady is Mine, #2) Read online

  The Lady Stole My Heart

  (The Lady is Mine, #2)

  Copyright © 2018 Aimee Nicole Walker

  [email protected]

  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 the actual person, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover photograph © Wander Aguiar—www.wanderaguiar.com

  Cover art © Jay Aheer of Simply Defined Art—www.simplydefinedart.com

  Editing provided by Miranda Vescio of V8 Editing and Proofreading—www.facebook.com/V8Editing

  Proofreading provided by Judy Zweifel of Judy’s Proofreading—www.judysproofreading.com

  Interior Design and Formatting provided by Stacey Ryan Blake of Champagne Book Design—www.champagnebookdesign.com

  All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original publisher only.

  This book contains sexually explicit material and is only intended for adult readers.

  Copyright and Trademark Acknowledgments

  The author acknowledges the copyrights and trademarked status and trademark owners of the trademarks and copyrights mentioned in this work of fiction.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Other Books by Aimee Nicole Walker

  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

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About Aimee Nicole Walker

  Only You

  The Fated Hearts Series

  Chasing Mr. Wright, Book 1

  Rhythm of Us, Book 2

  Surrender Your Heart, Book 3

  Perfect Fit, Book 4

  Return to Me, Book 5

  Always You, Book 6

  Any Means Necessary, Book 7

  Curl Up and Dye Mysteries

  Fatal Reaction (Series Prequel found on author’s blog)

  Dyeing to be Loved

  Something to Dye For

  Dyed and Gone to Heaven

  I Do, or Dye Trying

  A Dye Hard Holiday

  Ride or Dye

  Road to Blissville Series

  Unscripted Love

  Someone to Call My Own

  Nobody’s Prince Charming

  This Time Around

  Smoke in the Mirror

  The Lady is Mine

  The Lady is a Thief

  Coauthored with Nicholas Bella

  Undisputed

  Circle of Darkness: Genesis Circle Book One

  Circle of Trust (Genesis Circle, Book 2)

  Standalone Novels

  Second Wind

  This is for all the cancer warriors and those who fought in the trenches beside us. We may be scarred, but we’re still beautiful.

  “FRECKLES, WAKE UP.” EVEN MY sleep-addled brain recognized the urgency in Elijah’s voice had nothing to do with his need for sex. This didn’t stop me from busting his balls.

  “Again, Elijah? Damn, can’t a girl get some sleep?”

  “How the hell are you sleeping through that?” A loud thud finally penetrated my brain. I sat up so fast I knocked my head against Elijah’s. “Fuck! I think you broke my nose.”

  I threw back the covers, grabbed the flashlight out of my bedside table drawer, and marched across the bedroom. “This is getting out of hand.”

  “Where are you going?” Elijah’s words were muffled by the hand he still held over his nose. “You’re naked.”

  “What’s your point?” I asked, whipping open the door. “Have you ever known me to back down from a confrontation?”

  I heard rustling sheets and Elijah’s heavy steps on the hardwood floor as he hurried to catch up to me. “My point is wherever you go naked, I go too, but does it have to be to the attic when our resident ghost is banging around up there?”

  “Elijah, I’m sure you faced far scarier things when you worked undercover.” I glanced over at him and saw a dark shadow cross his handsome features. It was gone so fast I started to think I imagined it.

  “There’s just something more unsettling about ghosts. Why is he suddenly angry? Everything seemed fine until you invited the paranormal investigator here tonight.”

  “Lyric is gay and not attracted to me,” I told Elijah.

  “I know. I saw how he couldn’t look away from Memphis at the barbecue. I’m not threatened by Lyric, but your ghost is.”

  Elijah had a point. We did have a peaceful coexistence until Lyric arrived. It did feel like Anthony was suddenly upset. Jesus. I had zero experience dealing with ghosts and their moods. I had no proof the ghost in my house was Anthony Bliss, the founder of our town who disappeared in 1850, but I knew it in my heart.

  “Stay down here and make sure he doesn’t lock me in the attic,” I told Elijah after I stomped down the hall to the attic door.

  “I can’t let you go up there by yourself,” Elijah blustered.

  “What exactly do you think will happen to me? He’s not shown any violent tendencies. He’s just upset about something. I’m just going to have a few words with him.”

  “You’re going to go up there and yell at the ghost?”

  “Who said I was going to yell? I simply plan on talking to him.”

  “Do it from down here then,” Elijah countered.

  “Then I will have to raise my voice to be heard over the noise he’s making.” I could tell Elijah wasn’t willing to let this go. I either hollered at Anthony from the bottom of the steps, or we risked getting locked in because Anthony seemed to think it was funny. “Fine.”

  “Thank you, Freckles.”

  “Anthony,” I said as firmly as I could without sounding like a shrew. “We’re trying to sleep down here.” The noise inside the attic stopped immediately. Elijah nodded encouragingly at me. “You have nothing to worry about, Anthony. We’re not trying to hurt you or even get rid of you. We’re only trying to find out what happened to you. We think you deserve it. You can ramble around here for as long as you want. Okay?” No response.

  “I’m taking his silence as an agreement,” Elijah whispered.

  “Me too,” I replied. “Let’s go back to bed. We don’t have to be up for a few hours still.”

  Elijah slipped his arm around me and pulled my naked body flush against his. I felt his dick respond to my nearness, and I relished how much this man wanted me. “Now that we’re both wide awake…” Elijah let his suggestion trail off.

  “I could use the assistance of a killer orgasm to help me fall back to sleep.”

  “I live to be of service to your every need,” Elijah said. “I could plunder your…”

  “Just fuck me, Elijah.” I broke from his embrace and ran down the hall, knowing he would catch me then love me until I was too physically exhausted to stay awake.

  Three weeks later…

  “WAKE UP, SLEEPY
HEAD,” I whispered in Elijah’s ear. He was sprawled naked across our bed on his stomach with nothing but a sheet covering him. Our central air-conditioning was working overtime to keep up with the oppressive mid-July heat. Even though our unit was new and efficient, hot, humid air rose to the second story and seemed to hover there. Both Elijah and I tended to kick off the duvet and only cover up with the sheet.

  “I don’t want to get out of this bed. My heart is happy, and my dick is satisfied in ways we never dreamed possible. What more could I possibly want?”

  I climbed onto the bed and straddled his hips, feeling his firm ass between my thighs. I couldn’t resist grinding my bare clit against the fine cotton sheets separating our flesh. “We?” I asked. “You do know that you and your dick don’t have two separate personalities, right?”

  “He does have a mind of his own at times,” Elijah said, stretching his arms and tucking them under his pillow.

  “How about now?” I asked, leaning forward, grinding in earnest. “Are you both thinking the same thing? Something about being satisfied and wanting to be left alone?” Elijah arched his back, pressing his ass tighter against my clit. I could’ve gotten off from the friction alone, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I relaxed my thighs, and he rolled over beneath me. The sheet shifted so the head of his cock and its first three inches peeked out from beneath it. “Your cock looks neither sleepy nor satisfied.”

  “Every part of me wakes up craving you, Freckles. I’m always hungry for more,” Elijah said, slowly sliding his hands up from my spread knees while staring up into my eyes. I saw the truth in his soulful, brown eyes, and it never failed to make my breath catch and my pulse race. I wanted him more with every breath I took. “I will never get enough of you.” Words every woman longed to hear were made better by the sincerity with which they were spoken. Elijah made me feel cherished, adored, and wanted. “I will reach for you until my last breath.” His hands didn’t stop their upward glide until his thumbs reached my bare lips, and even though I saw his naked desire to be inside me, Elijah took his time running his thumbs up and down the silky skin until one of his thumbs got impatient and pressed firmly against my clit.

  “Oh,” I said because he knew the perfect pressure to use while circling the sensitive nub. He knew how to make me writhe, moan, and groan. Elijah had turned me into a sex-starved beast. Maybe I was that way all along, but it took the right man to bring my true sexual self to the surface. He stroked his other thumb along my core, teasing and taunting, while he continued to circle my clit. I wanted to close my eyes and let my head fall back, but I couldn’t look away. He’d ensnared me in his dark, lusty gaze. “Elijah.” His name was a whispered plea to both slow time and speed it up. I wanted the feelings to last forever at the same time I wanted the waves of pleasure to wash over me right then and there.

  “I’ll make you feel so good but not yet.”

  I raised my hands and pressed them against the silk and lace bodice of the short, teal nightgown I wore. My breasts felt so heavy and ripe, my hard nipples were extra sensitive as they pressed into my palms, sending a jolt of pleasure to my clit. A sexy growl rumbled through Elijah, and for the first time that morning, I felt like I had the upper hand. I loved driving him crazy and testing the tenuous leash he kept on his lust.

  “Show me your tits.” His already gravelly morning voice had become animalistic and primal. He was moments away from giving me what I wanted.

  I slid one spaghetti strap down my left shoulder, revealing only one of my girls to his hungry gaze. I massaged the full, firm flesh and pinched my nipples, one hidden beneath silk and the other exposed to his lusty gaze. I knew he wouldn’t be satisfied until both tits were bared. He sure as hell enjoyed teasing my pussy, so why couldn’t I enjoy teasing him too. I glanced down and saw his cock was dripping precum onto his taut stomach, but he wasn’t at the level of desperation I wanted from him. I pushed the other strap down my arm then licked my thumbs before teasing my turgid peaks.

  Elijah slid just the tip of his thumb inside my pussy, and just that little bit of friction was enough to set me off. “Lean over me, Freckles. Give me those pretty tits.”

  Some women were highly offended by tits, cunt, and pussy talk, and I felt the same way before Elijah came along. He made me revel in my femininity and celebrate my womanhood. I didn’t need secret gardens and gentle lovemaking. I wanted to fuck, grunt, groan, and come like the animals we truly were. He reached me at my basest level, and I was whole for the first time in my life. I was so much more than a woman who’d survived cancer, a woman who couldn’t give him children of his own, a woman who was incomplete because her ovaries no longer worked. I wasn’t broken, dammit. I was who he wanted—needed—in his life. I was the one Elijah cherished and loved with every fiber of his being. I wasn’t ashamed of my needs; I fucking embraced them. Right then, I needed to ride his cock until I came.

  Elijah didn’t try to prevent me from inching the sheet down until he was fully exposed, nor did he pretend he wasn’t ready to sink into my heat. He was a gentleman though and held his lady’s free hand while she lined up his erection to her core with the other. One snap of my hips buried him to the hilt, just where I wanted him. The sounds tumbling out of me were similar to a kitten’s purr but edgier. There was nothing cute about the way we made each other feel.

  I leaned forward as I began to move, bringing my breasts closer to his face. At first, he seemed content to watch them bounce and sway over his head, but then his patience evaporated in a puff of smoke. He reached for my breasts, massaging them and flicking his thumbs over my nipples at the same time he lifted his hips and drove his cock deeper inside me. Teasing time was over and the chase to orgasm ensued. The friction of my clit against his pelvis and the broad head of his cock pounding my G-spot so deliciously had me crying out his name and coming in no time. I stilled my hips, letting my inner muscles milk his orgasm from him. Elijah arched his neck into his pillow and gritted his teeth as he tried to stave off his climax, but I wasn’t about to allow it. I reached behind me and firmly squeezed his balls.

  “Fuck!” he roared, rolling me to my back and rutting between my thighs until he spilled inside me. Elijah collapsed on top of me, and I wrapped my arms and legs around his damp back to hold him against me. “Now my dick is satisfied,” he said, nuzzling his nose against my neck.

  “How about your stomach?” I asked.

  “A few minutes ago, I would’ve said it was doing fine.”

  “And now?”

  Elijah lifted his head and smiled down at me adoringly. “I need carbs and protein to nourish my muscles and brain after you fucked me senseless.”

  “Good because we’re due at Milo and Andy’s house for Sunday brunch in thirty minutes.”

  Elijah’s smile grew even broader. “I started to think those two would never get together. The stubborn asses held out during the months of renovations at the stores and apartment remodel above your businesses no matter how much you or anyone else meddled.”

  “Until good ole Anthony locked them up in the attic the night Andy performed his home inspection for my mortgage company.”

  “Or maybe they accidentally pulled the door closed, and locked themselves up there. I don’t want to think about why the door automatically locks when it’s closed. It feels like a scary movie where the homeowners are trying to keep an evil entity locked up.”

  My heart squeezed painfully in my chest. It was probably ridiculous to feel so caught up in the history of my new home, especially the ghost residing with us, but I knew Anthony wasn’t some evil spirit. I had never felt any animosity from him. My cat and dog, Rascal and Lulu, weren’t afraid to live in the house, and pets were known to be sensitive to paranormal activity.

  “Anthony isn’t evil, Elijah. He’s lonely and restless. I want to help him find peace.”

  “I know, Freckles. I wasn’t trying to put your spectral buddy down. I just meant it’s very odd to have that kind of lock on an interior door. It makes p
erfect sense to have exterior doors lock automatically when they shut, but not an attic door. Something very wrong happened in the attic.”

  A shiver of dread snaked down my spine. “Hopefully, Lyric will arrive soon and solve the mystery once and for all. I’d expected him to be here by now.”

  “Me too,” Elijah said. “Maybe you’ll hear something from him shortly.” Then he slid from between my legs and kneeled between them, smirking when he saw the mess he left behind.

  “You should just go ahead and pound your chest like an ape.”

  Elijah pounded his chest and did his best Kong impersonation, making me laugh. “We’re down to twenty minutes now,” I told him.

  “Quit lying there looking all sexy and satisfied then. You make me want to forget about food and stay in bed all day.”

  I sat up, removed my nightgown, and tossed it aside, loving the way Elijah’s appreciative glance felt like a caress on my bare skin. I slid off the bed knowing damn well he’d follow and join me in the shower.

  I heard his phone vibrating against his bedside table and looked over my shoulder when I reached the bathroom door. Elijah scowled when he looked at the caller ID then declined the call.

  “Not feeling chatty?” I teased when he got off the bed and walked toward me.

  “Unknown number. I never answer those. Whoever it is will leave a message if they’re legit and really want me to call them. Now, let’s get in the shower so I can rub soapy hands all over your gorgeous body.”

  “I was just about to say the same thing to you.” I glanced at the clock. “Fifteen minutes.”

  Elijah answered by swatting me on the ass.

  “You’re late,” Milo said when we walked inside the little house he and Andy were living in until the remodeling was finished on the place Andy bought on Lover’s Lane. The home and the name of the street were perfect for my brother and the only man he’s ever loved.