Surrender 01 - Surrender

that you own me. I will find other employment.”
    He paused with a knowing look on his face. Her stomach fluttered as she waited for him to hit her with whatever it was he had to say. Nothing could make her change her mind…
    The longer he waited, the more her agitation grew, which he could obviously read in her eyes, for his own face reflected his confidence in victory.
    “Your mother gets released from the hospital on Tuesday, Ari. I happen to own your childhood home now. It’s your decision whether your mother discovers you sold off everything and she has no place to go, or whether she can heal in the comfort of her home. I also happen to own her floral shop. Do you give her back her life, or do you remain as self-serving as you’ve always been and take all you can at the expense of the woman who raised you?”
    Ari stood frozen. The one thing that had been eating her alive when her mom talked about returning home and getting back to work was what he held against her. She’d underestimated his desire to win.
    Rage filled her as she looked into Rafe’s burning eyes. He wasn’t even human. How dare he put her in this position! How could he live with himself? It might kill her mother to find out that she had nothing left after surviving a car crash that should have taken her life, and then beating all odds and surviving the cancer that had tried to finish her off.
    “It looks like you have a choice to make, Ari? Do you choose love or callous self-respect?”
    “You’re a bastard, Rafe. Do you care for no one other than yourself?”
    “Ah, I hope you choose love, because it will be a great pleasure for me to break your spirit — and leave no doubt about it, Ari — I will break you.”
    Her stomach lurched as she looked into the eyes of a stranger. This wasn’t the same man who’d rescued her, laughed with her, and adored his family. This was indeed a monster — one who wanted nothing less than everything — her pride, her self-respect, her very soul.
    “If you choose self-pity, you’re free to go, with no one to worry about but yourself. You can feel sorry for yourself about the situation you’re in and try to put back the pieces of your shattered life, or you can choose love — love for the mother who raised you. I neither want nor need your love, so don’t ever get the idea that this will lead to more than what it is. You will be my mistress and nothing more. I tried love once, and got nothing but affliction for my efforts. Make your decision quickly because I have a long flight ahead of me and work to do.”
    “I need time…”
    “Your time is up. You can exit the way you came in. Or you can take yourself back to my bedroom and strip. Your training will begin immediately.”
    Ari held back the tears of anger as she turned away from him. She was faced with an impossible choice. She couldn’t sign her life over to him — but she couldn’t leave her mother to die.
    Maybe he was bluffing. She could walk out the door and find out. She retreated a step while still looking into his eyes. He showed absolutely no emotion as she wrestled with the hardest decision she’d ever had to make. He really didn’t seem to care one way or the other what she would decide.
    With a firm resolve, Ari turned from him and took a step toward the aircraft’s open door...

    THE END

    Book Two: Submit, Expected May 31st of 2013

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    If you enjoyed Surrender , take a look at these excerpts from other bestselling authors:

Emily: Sex and Sensibility
    by Sandra Marton
    copyright 2012
    Sandra’s Website

    Sandra at Facebook

    CHAPTER ONE

    It was Saturday night at the Tune-In Café and the only person inside its dingy walls who wasn’t drunk was seriously starting to wish that she were.
    Unless you’d had a couple of beers too many, it was hard to endure the raucous laughter and the sharp stench of whiskey. Add in the 1950s décor and the sticky wooden floor and the only thing Emily Wilde—whoops, Emily thought quickly, Emily Madison—wanted was to Tune Out.
    Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.
    Emily sighed as her fingers flew over the yellowed keys of a battered upright piano.
    She worked here.
    There wasn’t a way in hell she’d have been in