Perfectly Paired
Series: Masters and Mercenaries: Topped #3
Genre: Contemporary, BDSM Romance
Author: Lexi Blake
Release Date: November 29, 2016
A table for two
Waitress Tiffany Hayes knows what she wants and she wants Sebastian. Top’s grumpy sommelier calls to her in a way no man has before. She simply needs to show him that they belong together. Finding an opportunity to spend some quality time with him turns out to be the easy part. Convincing Sebastian to look beyond his damaged heart and soul is far more difficult.
A thirst he can’t deny
After losing everything he held dear, Sebastian Lowe has finally rebuilt his life and the walls around his heart. Tiffany is a sweet temptation he struggles to resist. She’s bright and complex, but he’s sure she can’t handle his dark desires. When they’re thrown together on an assignment, he can’t help himself.
A perfect pairing
As passion builds, the new lovers are both forced to face their pasts. To have a future, they must find a way to heal the wounds they thought would haunt them forever.
Damn but she was a beautiful woman. She was also something he needed to keep his hands off of. No matter what Big Tag said, he did not date women he worked with.He didn’t really date anyone. He played with subs. When the need got too great, he found a partner for a brief time. He didn’t sleep with anyone. He fucked, and that was starting to get very old. Empty.
“So you said something about house rules?” Tiffany leaned forward, her elbows on the bar. “Are these housekeeping rules or like big bad Dom rules?”
“I don’t suppose I differentiate.” He couldn’t let those big eyes of hers soften him up. It had almost happened at her apartment. When she’d stood up after he’d spanked her and there had been tears running down her face, his impulse had been to reach for her. He’d wanted to draw her in the way he had that night when she was drunk and she’d cried on his shoulder. He’d wanted to smooth back her hair and promise her everything was going to be all right, that he could fix things for her. It was a path that was sure to lead to discomfort for her and humiliation for him. “I prefer a clean living space. I don’t like for things to be messy. I expect that you will keep your things in their proper place.”
Because no matter how hard he tried, he could still trip. The legs he now walked on were only a year old. He’d spent the first two years in a wheelchair.
The Garden’s Wheelchair Dom.
He still wasn’t completely comfortable in the prosthetics.
“I can try,” she said with a frown. “I’ll be honest, I’m not the world’s biggest neat freak.”
He’d been able to tell that from the state of her apartment. It had been cluttered, a bit dusty. With the exception of her easel. That had been perfectly taken care of. He rather wished he’d taken the time to ask to see her art.
He’d seen one painting that night he’d taken her home. It had been a painting of three laughing girls, the swirling colors so vibrant he could hear them giggling as they splashed in a puddle on a rainy day. The figures had been more impressions than photographic reality, but he’d known what she was trying to convey.
“If you cook I’ll clean, and the other way around.” He’d started a list in his head on the long drive. The drive that would have been considerably shorter had they left at the proper time. As she’d sung along to sugary pop songs after she’d changed his radio, he’d sat and considered how to proceed.
With caution. Lots and lots of caution.
“I’m not the best cook in the world,” he continued, “but I can manage. Most nights, of course, we’ll be eating at Top as our training sessions for the new restaurant will last long hours, but I would prefer to eat breakfast here rather than skipping the meal or picking up fast food. Eric made sure the fridge was stocked with a few items I requested.”
“Breakfast.” She gave him a little salute with her free hand. “I can manage that.”
“In addition to our duties at Top, we will now be taking on the additional task of appearing to be a long-term D/s couple, and we need to talk about what that should look like.” Another thing he’d been thinking about ever since that moment the trap had closed around him. “You know you probably could have gotten us out of this assignment. It’s much more difficult for the Dom to say no. The sub always holds the power. Is there a reason you didn’t use yours today?”
“I didn’t want to,” she replied simply. “I don’t have a full-time Dom and I thought it would be interesting to see what that’s like.”
Was she thinking at all? “You know nothing about how I function as a dominant partner.”
“And now I do,” she replied. “You like rules and schedules and you tend to be very fair.”
“I can be quite exacting in my standards.”
“I can be quite flexible,” she shot back as the sexiest smile crossed her face. “I’m serious about that. I can still do the splits and everything.”
“You’re far too reckless, Tiffany.” He didn’t appreciate recklessness so why was she like a siren calling to him? If he listened, he would end up wrecked.
“You’re far too uptight, Sebastian.”
A smart girl got what she wanted. A good girl made sure her Dom got what he needed, too.
Lexi Blake brings the feels with this one. Big time. So sexy and swoony. I adore everything this woman writes. She has a knack for writing a romance that not only scorches but packs an even more solid punch of emotion. It’s perfectly balanced. It’s perfectly written. It’s has a couple that’s perfectly paired.
Tiffany Hayes isn’t afraid to go after what she wants. And what she wants is the perfectly mannered but grumpy and standoffish sommelier, Sebastian. These two are polar opposites. Tiffany is fun loving and sunny while Sebastian shies away from any attention and prefers the shadows. Losing everything you ever held dear may do that to a man. Now he feels like a shell of a man he used to be, a monster. He doesn’t understand why a bright ray like Tiffany may be attracted to someone like him. But Tiffany isn’t above manipulation to get what she wants. And suddenly a flooded apartment and a few other “occurrences” and Tiffany is the only sub available for a Dom/sub training that Ian Taggard asks Sebastian to do…well…in his own Ian Taggard way.
Can I just say how much I love Ian? Because I swear the man is the perfect comedic intervention in every single book he appears in. I will never, and I mean EVER get enough of him.
As for Tifanny and Sebastian? I couldn’t get enough of them together. I loved the way that Tiffany was determined to break down all Sebastian’s walls. She doesn’t bow down or run away when things get difficult. She pushes his and forces him to see things the way they should be. She gives as good as she gets, if not better, and man but I loved her for it.
And Sebastian? Holy mother of swoons but I adored this man. Watching the painful struggle of him still trying to deal with his past and his present was absolutely gut wrenching. I hurt for him. I cried for him and everything that he’s been through. The man was just so perfectly imperfect.
This book was everything I love about romance; an endearing and strong heroine, a broken alpha that just needed the right female touch, a perfect balance of swoon and steam, and all with the spice of Lexi Blake’s BDSM to top it all off. It’s the perfect book to warm you up on a cold winter’s night. Simply delicious.
NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog int eh world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.
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