LOST & BOUND is the second book in my Dream Dominant Collection. The series is currently four stand-alone contemporary erotic romance novels featuring sexy Alphas and the smart, strong redheads they can’t resist, all with a healthy dose of light BDSM.
In Lost & Bound, spoiled Hollywood actress Shasta Pyke is sent to the wilderness of northern Ontario for a few weeks following a brush with the law. When she encounters bush pilot Blake Walker, she assumes she can manipulate him the way she does everyone else in her life.
But this Daddy Dom’s not falling for her act. In fact, as Blake spends time with her, he begins to see the frightened little girl she hides from the world. Could she be the baby girl he’s been looking for?
Here’s a teaser from Lost & Bound.
Blake went outside, needing space, needing to breathe. She followed along behind him. “What do we need to do now?”“Are you hungry?”
She frowned slightly. “I guess I am. I hadn’t thought about it until now.”
“How about I catch us some fish for lunch?”
Her expression was doubtful. “Just like that, you can catch some fish?”
“Just like that.” He winked at her and headed for the plane to get his rig.
While Blake took his fishing rod a few yards down the shore, Shasta sat tailor-style on the dock and watched him. He flicked his wrist and she heard a whirring sound as his line flew out over the lake and plopped into the water. Then he slowly reeled in his line, the lure bobbing along the top of the water as it moved closer to him.
His open tackle box sat beside her on the dock and she began to look through all the items it held. There were lures of all sizes, shapes, and colors. In the bottom was a clear plastic box full of lead balls of various sizes. And one small compartment held a pink rubber worm that sparkled in the sunlight.
Curious, Shasta picked up the pink worm and grinned as she squeezed it.
From the shoreline Blake called to her.
“Hey! Are you touching my tackle?”
She looked up at him, surprised. While the aviators hid his eyes, there was no mistaking the smug curve of his lips. She matched it with a sassy smirk of her own. “Do you want me to touch your tackle?” Her giggle echoed across the water, and he grinned broadly.
“Here we go,” he murmured, reeling halfway through his third cast. He jerked up on the line and reeled faster.
Shasta jumped up. “Did you get one?”
“Yup. He’s not a huge one; we’ll need at least one more.” He reeled the fish closer to the shallow water and scooped it up with a blue net before depositing it into a large bucket filled with water.
Shasta ran over to look. The fish in the bucket was pond-scum green, mottled with streaks of brown. “Ooh, he’s kind of ugly.”
“Ugly? That’s a smallmouth bass right there. He’s good eating.” She eyed him skeptically. “Would you like to try?”
“Really?” she grinned, wide-eyed.
“Really. Go pick out something from the tackle box and I’ll put it on a line for you.” While Shasta returned to the tackle box, Blake retrieved another fishing rod from the plane.
“I don’t know what to pick. What if I pick the wrong thing?”
Guilt gnawed at his gut as he remembered the way he’d criticized her earlier in the day. “You can’t get it wrong. Pick anything you like.”
She grinned up at him, and he felt his heart melt. “I like the sparkly ones. I think I want the pink worm. He’s nice and squishy, plus, he sparkles.”
Blake nodded. “The pink worm it is.” Quickly he attached it to her line and handed her the rod. “Now, all you do is…” He stood behind her, reaching around to help her hold it properly. “Just bring it back and flick it forward, holding your thumb on this button on the reel.”
Shasta watched as the pink worm sailed out over the water. “Now just slowly reel it back in.”
She did as he said. Blake stepped back to watch as she concentrated, absently chewing on her bottom lip as she turned the reel. When the worm lifted out of the water, she turned to him, frowning. “I didn’t catch anything.”
“Just keep doing it,” he chuckled. “It takes time.” He returned to his place on the bank and cast out his own line again.
On her fifth cast, Shasta felt a tug on her line. “Ooh, I think I have something.”
Blake dropped his rod and hurried back to her. “Good. You’re doing fine, just reel him in.” She gripped the rod like her life depended on it, reeling as quickly as she could, her rod bending dangerously toward the water. “You’ve got it, bring him a little closer and I’ll get him in the net.”
As soon as the fish was within reach, Blake used the net to scoop up their second smallmouth bass. He took it off the hook and placed it in the bucket with the other one. Shasta peered into the bucket before grinning cheekily at Blake. “My fish is bigger than yours.”
He laughed out loud. “Yes, yours is bigger.”
She nodded proudly. “Yep, me and the sparkly pink worm, we rocked this.”
She circled her fists around in front of her, performing an impromptu “cabbage patch.”
“Do you want to clean yours by yourself?”
Shasta immediately frowned. “No.”
“Well, don’t go getting too big for your britches, then.” Blake carried the bucket to a board wedged waist-high between two birch trees. “How about I build a campfire and clean the fish? You can go get the skillet and some plates?” He nodded toward the cabin.
When she returned from the cabin carrying a large cast-iron skillet stacked with a pair of white-dotted blue enamelware plates and a variety of utensils, a fire was roaring in the stone ring and Blake was filleting the first fish. Shasta placed everything on a stump near where he was working and sank onto a log close to the fire.
Neither of them spoke. Somewhere further down the lake, a loon called and they heard it echo across the water. Blake’s attention was on the fish but out of the corner of his eye, he watched her assessing him.
“Have you always been a mountain man?” Her expression was earnest.
Blake’s head dropped back as he laughed out loud. “A mountain man? Is that what I am?”
Shasta smiled sheepishly. “Aren’t you?”
“Well, I grew up at the lodge. My grandparents built the place. My grandmother was Miranda. The lake is named for her. But I haven’t always lived here. I went away to college. After graduation, I worked for a while as a wilderness counselor. I was in the woods a lot, but I was based in Toronto.”
“A wilderness counselor,” she repeated thoughtfully.
“Yeah, you know, we worked with troubled city kids, took them out and taught them survival skills and self-reliance, that kind of thing.”
“You worked with bad kids?” she wondered.
He shook his head. “They weren’t bad, really. Just…lost. They needed help to find their way.”
“Why did you stop?”
Blake shrugged. “My folks ran the lodge for years until my dad’s stroke. They retired to Florida. My sister and her husband started running the place full-time. When that asshole bugged out, I came to help her.”
Shasta watched him appraisingly. “That was really nice of you.”
“She’s my sister. I’d do anything for someone I love.” He placed a grate over the fire and set the skillet on top. “Besides, I’m happy to be home. I drive past my old school every time I go into town. There are a lot of great memories. I don’t really miss the city.” He sat opposite Shasta on another log.
She laughed lightly. “It must be odd to come back to live where you grew up. I imagine you were the big football hero around here.”
He shook his head. “Football is for sissies. We played hockey.”
“Oh, excuse me, hockey,” she laughed.
“That’s right. Hockey. A man’s sport.” He reached into his mouth, and to her surprise, removed his right front tooth and the one beside it. “Where I come from, if you have all your teeth, you weren’t really trying.” He laughed at her shocked expression as he refit the teeth into his mouth.
Shasta grinned smugly. “I’ve got you beat, mountain man.” She stood and leaned toward him, parting her lips and baring her perfectly straight, whiter-than-white teeth. She ran her forefinger across them. “All of these are fake. I had them all capped. Can’t have uneven or discolored teeth in Hollywood. Nope.”
She sighed as she sat back down. “Nothing about me is real,” she murmured.
He eyed her curiously. She gave him a sidelong glance, then ran a finger down her nose. “Nose job.” She waved a handful of hair. “Extensions.” She grabbed her tits. “Boob job.” She looked down at the dirt. “Even my name is fake.”
Blake had been watching her with interest. “Your name isn’t Shasta?”
She snorted. “Who would name their kid Shasta? Eddie gave me that name when I was five. He told my parents that nobody would hire Amy Malone. I needed a name with pizzazz.” She waggled jazz hands. “I think he has a list of names in a drawer someplace and you just get the next one on the list.”
“So your name is Amy.”
Shasta nodded. “But nobody’s called me that since my grandpa died. He thought all the acting stuff was stupid. He kept telling my parents to let me just be a kid.” She laughed. “He refused to call me Shasta. My grandpa was a pretty stubborn guy.”
His expression was soft. “Why would you get a nose job? Or breast implants?”
She shrugged and pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes. “Eddie said the boobs would help me transition between being a child actor and an adult.”
Blake could feel his protective nature surging. “Eddie’s that guy who brought you here? He made you get a boob job?”
“He didn’t make me. But I knew he’d be disappointed if I didn’t.” She used her toe to push a patch of pine needles back and forth.
The fish was done, and Blake was glad for the distraction. He plated the fillets, handing one to her and taking the other for himself.
“Oh, my god, this is amazing,” she moaned through her first bite.
He grinned. “Nothing like fresh bass, right out of the lake. Unless it’s fresh trout, right out of the lake. That’s pretty good, too.”
They enjoyed their lunch without conversation, appreciating the quiet of the wilderness. The silence was broken only by the crackling of the fire or the occasional call of a loon. Once again, Shasta felt a sense of peace settle over her.
Blake took her plate when she was finished. “Now, we’ll see about washing up these few things and then we’ll blow this pop stand.”
LOST & BOUND by Pandora Spocks
Pandora Spocks 