On

By Carly Oberon

***The OFF-ON duet must be read in order. Please read OFF before ON

Maysea (Sea) Heston is kidnapped. She finds herself in a foreign country with her captor, Del, an insanely handsome, obsessively attentive man who is mistaking Sea for the love of his life, a woman he calls Baby. When Del uses Baby’s real name, Bayley Beale Tyler, Sea is stunned and confused. She recognizes the name as one she has heard before. But where? Sea’s need to find out the truth about her captivity is complicated by her growing love for Del, a man who savors her, lusts after her, and shows her the sides of life she has never experienced before. But all the while thinking she is Baby. As Sea searches for the truth, will her discoveries bring them together or tear them apart forever?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evernight
• Release date: Oct 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9780369507143

Book preview

Published by EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ® at Smashwords

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2022 Carly Oberon

ISBN: 978-0-3695-0714-3

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Editor: Audrey Bobak

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

To all of you who understand Sea and who know why.

ON

Off-On Duet, 2

Carly Oberon

Copyright © 2022

Chapter One

My Call (Sort Of)

Bayley Beale Tyler. Oh, my god. I now knew Baby’s real name. One I had heard before but couldn’t place. That meant Del didn’t randomly select me off the street as Baby’s replacement. I was connected to her in some way, probably in more than just my looks. But how? I couldn’t link the ghostly echo of her name, playing hide-and-seek in my head, to anyone in my life. Not yet. It was driving me crazy. Bat-shit crazy.

As Del shifted closer on the bed, waiting for an answer to his question about how I saved a man’s life in a pool of blood and gore, I suddenly realized what he wasn’t questioning. He wasn’t questioning my identity as Baby, even when confronted with something she never would have done. Incredibly, after all he witnessed earlier in the day, he still believed I was her. It hit me how staggeringly deep his denial about Baby’s loss went. This was not a parachute moment.

There was no way to figure out an instantaneous response that would make sense to Del as he waited for answers. Productive thinking required planning, facts, and time, none of which I had at the moment. So I did what I needed to do to stall. I felt guilty about my choice, but there were no other options. Throwing his words back at him, I put Del on the defensive, a place where I knew he was the most vulnerable, a place where I held the most control.

No, I said, continuing my head shaking from his earlier revelations while pulling the covers over my nakedness. You don’t get to ask me those things yet. A lot has happened in a year. Terrible things. I’ve changed in ways you can’t possibly imagine. I’m not the same person you once knew. I flinched at the truth of that last statement before looking Del squarely in the eyes. I needed him to get my point and fast. I don’t want to discuss how I saved that man’s life right now. When I’m ready to talk, I’ll talk. You said before everything’s under my control. My call. Or were you not being truthful about that?

Del paused for what seemed like an eternity but was probably just moments. He shifted off the bed and onto his throne chair in the far corner of the room, the one where I spotted his silhouetted figure the first night I awoke from whatever sedative he’d given me.

He rested his chin on top of his long-steepled fingers like he was contemplating the best way to react to my outburst without upsetting me even more. As long as he believed I was Baby, I knew Del wouldn’t risk upsetting me even more.

After some time, he ran his hands through his hair and down over his face, as if he’d finally made peace with the situation. Then, his gaze swept across the room to mine.

If you’re not ready to talk, you’re not ready to talk. It’s just that I wasn’t prepared to see a side of you I’ve never witnessed before. Watching you save that man’s life took me off guard. However you did that, I was shocked. Actually impressed. I’ll assume there’s some logical explanation when you’re ready to give me that.

I nodded and exhaled in relief that he wasn’t expecting anything more than the little I’d just revealed. For now.

Slowly, Del got up and stood at the foot of the bed in my direct line of sight. Keeping his gaze locked on mine, he unbuttoned his shirt in silence and let it drop to the floor. He kicked off his shoes, unzipped his pants, and pushed them and his boxer briefs off his muscular legs with the coordinated precision I’d come to expect. He stood completely stripped, completely still, and watched in silence as I scanned his perfectly sculpted masculine form. God, he was magnificent.

He was studying me studying him. Again. Like the first night I awoke in his bed. After my hungry scrutiny took in his full erection and eventually returned to his face, Del finally spoke in that soft tone he sometimes used when he wanted my complete attention.

You have all of me, Sea. My thoughts, my dreams, my future, my body, my life. Right now, I don’t want to talk anymore either. But I’d like you to remove that goddamn cover from your beautiful body. Your call.

Holy crap. He was throwing his words that I used against him back at me in a way he knew I couldn’t resist, his strangely erotic, controlled reciprocity that made my insides quake. I didn’t hesitate. After pushing the cover away, I watched his gaze rake over my naked form like a sculptor assessing his magnum opus. My insides started to tremble like they always did when he ogled my female parts.

When he finished gawking, he raised his glistening eyes to mine. Now grab the headboard slats with both hands and don’t let go. Your call.

Lord, he wasn’t going to stop. Neither was I. I gripped the slats lightly so my hands wouldn’t go numb.

Del moved closer to the foot of the bed. Now spread your legs as wide as possible. Still your call.

As soon as I opened my legs, his tongue was on my clit, swirling, dancing, and twirling like an orally-choreographed tango, the down-and-really-dirty variety. Hot pulses sizzled through my insides as his tongue scorched its way across my sex. I screamed my climax into the stillness of the night. Electrocution by orgasm. It was divine.

Savoring the aftershocks, I moved my hands from the headboard to Del’s hair, through his short, dark, smooth-layered locks. He pushed his body upward toward mine, licking my nipples on the way. At the same time, he replaced one of my hands on the headboard, followed by the other.

Don’t let go means don’t let go. You made your calls earlier. My call now.

More controlled reciprocity. Damn it. How did he do that? I decided rhetorical questions were okay for the moment.

I gripped the slats more forcefully while Del reached into the nightstand. After sheathing himself faster than usual, he lowered his hard, muscled body on top of mine and adjusted himself in perfect alignment with my entrance.

I’m afraid this won’t take long, he whispered in my ear. His voice had that familiar rasp, signaling he was close. It sounded like a song to me. I leaned up and kissed his cheek before he rose on his powerful arms and fully entered me with a single thrust. He already knew I could handle the pleasure-pain sensation of that. I loved it, actually, and didn’t give a shit why.

His next set of swift, body-jolting thrusts made my hands grip the headboard slats tighter to keep my head from crashing through the wall. My insides ached with desire as I felt his energy gush into my soul like white-water rapids with no barriers. We came within seconds of each other and fell asleep the same way.

The next morning, I opened my eyes slowly, scanned the empty bedroom, and propped myself up against the mound of pillows on my side of the bed. I sensed it was already late. Del had probably accomplished twenty tasks by now and was working on the next ten. Momentous occasions like yesterday seemed to slip off his body, and his reality, like water. Lucky for me. But since recognizing Baby’s real name, I felt a dire sense of urgency to find out why all of this was happening. Who was Prin exactly? How did she die? Still, the number one and two questions on the priority list were who in the hell was Baby to me, and was she going to show up someday and reclaim Del as her own? God, that was always a possibility I didn’t want to think about. But I had to. I needed more facts, not Del’s skewed version of them.

Before I could outline a precise plan of how to acquire those facts, Del sauntered into the bedroom, leaning his body against the doorjamb and casually crossing his arms over his chest. Geez. Did anything faze this man for more than a minute? Well, apart from why he was mistaking me for Baby. Damn it. I had to stop asking myself more questions for a while or my head would explode all over the carpet and walls.

When my gaze hit his, Del’s lips suddenly curved upward a little. Good lord, after everything that happened the day before, was he smiling?