Wanna Be Yours Read online

  Wanna Be Yours

  Megan Hart

  Copyright © 2018 by Megan Hart

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  ISBN: 978-1-940078-59-5

  Created with Vellum

  Dedication

  Thank you, Tricia Viands Hamlett for helping me name U4ia!

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Bad at Love

  Also by Megan Hart

  About the Author

  One

  It had been a long time since Madeline had tied anyone up, but there are some things the hands will not forget, even if the heart has tried.

  “The demonstration will start around seven, once everyone gets here.” Andy waved a hand toward the play space.

  With all the lights on and no music playing, the space looked stark and unwelcoming. That would change with dim lighting and a soundtrack, but for now, Madeline nodded and acquainted herself with the layout. She’d been here twice before, once to observe before deciding if she wanted to become a member. The second time, she’d also simply watched. While it lacked the extravagant décor and sheer size of The Veil and Crown, U4ia was warm and inviting, clean and well-kept, and she’d been made to feel welcome from the first moment she’d stepped through the front door.

  She wasn’t supposed to be here tonight as a demonstrator, but apparently Andy’s usual rope expert had been called out of town at the last minute, and he’d promised the group coming in that they’d be able to see someone get tied up.

  “We should have about thirty guests tonight,” Andy continued. “It’s a local writer’s conference. Most of them write romance.”

  Madeline had read a few sexy romance novels in her time, although she’d stopped believing in real-life happy-ever-afters years ago. “Terrific. I’ll just go and make sure I have everything I need and get myself set up. When will my partner be here?”

  Andy glanced toward the door. “He texted to say he’s running a little late, but he’ll be here in time.”

  Madeline had never met Eric Garcia, and she was less than thrilled at the idea of him sliding in at the last minute, but she could hardly complain. He wasn’t hers to command. She was going to tie him up to show a group of writers interested in BDSM how it was done, and that was all. If, in fact, he did arrive late or didn’t show up at all, it wasn’t anything for her to worry about.

  “I’ll send him over to you when he gets here. And Madeline, really, thank you so much again for stepping in. Rope work was the most requested scene for tonight. When I found out Kurt couldn’t make it, I was pretty stuck.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Madeline told him with a small smile.

  Andy, a tall, lean giant of a man, gave her a deferential nod and took his leave to help the other demonstrators. He paused to kneel as he passed his lady Catriona, kissing her boots quickly. She acknowledged him with a stroke of her hand over his head, but other than that, barely looked at him as she continued her conversation. Madeline pressed her lips together against a giddy grin at the sight.

  God, it had been so damned long.

  She made her way through the large, open area toward the section that had been set aside for rope play. Throughout the room, several stations had been set up to display fire work, hot wax, knife play, and of course the St. Andrew’s Cross and various types of other bondage equipment. A slow warmth uncurled low in her belly as Madeline checked out the equipment that had been laid out for her.

  Long coils of rope. Soft hemp. Brightly colored nylon. She ran her fingers over the different sorts. The warmth in her belly got hotter and filtered up through her body to her throat and higher, to her cheeks. She put both hands flat on the table and took a deep breath.

  Carefully, she ran a length of nylon rope through her fingers, testing it. She tried a few experimental knots to remind herself of how the rope worked, how it felt, how it would lay against skin. Above her, several heavy-duty hooks and eyebolts had been screwed into the ceiling beams. She’d never been one for suspension work, preferring instead to focus on intricate patterns of cord and knots. She wouldn’t be attempting to hang up her partner tonight, but she liked that the space was set up for it.

  She liked almost everything about U4ia, and that was a comfort. She liked Andy and Catriona, and she liked the few other club members she’d met so far. It would be good to have a place where she could feel like herself again. She’d spent the past ten or so years moving, never staying in one location more than a year or two, and although she’d always lived in one of her own houses wherever she landed, none of them had felt like home.

  Her last house had been in Greece, a cottage overlooking the ocean. Small compared to the other houses she owned, but it had been her favorite. She’d left it only because her mother’s great-aunt had passed away. Auntie Ethel had been living in a nursing home in New York state here in America, and Madeline had been her sole surviving heir. The estate had been small and swiftly settled, but once he’d learned she was in the country and a short plane ride from him, her dear friend Alex Kennedy had insisted she come to stay with him and his wife Olivia. The two of them had moved to Dayton, Ohio, a few years ago so they could be closer to his family.

  “But not too close,” he’d told her with the grin that had always turned the heads of men and women both. “Come stay with us, Mistress Kobayashi. It’ll be good to see you again.”

  She’d laughed and scolded him about calling her Mistress. They’d been friends for ages and had been there for each other in some dark times. Nothing romantic had ever happened, certainly not of the sort that would require him to call her Mistress, but it had been a long-time joke between them. Alex knew her better than almost anyone ever had. Although circumstances had taken them out of each other’s orbits, whenever they did connect it was as if no time had passed.

  Of course she had come to visit…and so far, she had not yet managed to leave. Olivia had helped her find a charming forties-built Cape Cod with arched doorways and built-in cabinets and a few hidden rooms that probably had never been used for nefarious purposes, but which had been fun to speculate about. It had a lovely bedroom for her and several other guest rooms that would do for Kenji and Mitsoku. Her children were adults now, living their own lives with careers and partners, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t make a place for them, wherever she made a home. Madeline had written the check for the precious little house without too much thought. It would would do her some good to live in the States for a while. Although Ohio was far away from where she’d grown up in Seattle, there was still a familiarity about the Midwestern state she hadn’t expected, but enjoyed.

  Madeline had been used to moving to new places, knowing nobody, but somehow settling in Dayton, where she had some friends, had left her more restless than usual. She’d sought out U4ia based on recommendations from friends of friends of friends. Those of the kink world did have a way of looking out for each other, and it would be the fastest way she could think of to become part of a community. She wanted that, she’d decided. To belong to something again, even if