Assumed Master (21 page)

"I can do that. You’re sure you’re okay?"

Julie nodded and gave him a weak smile. She
could hear Dante pacing behind her, the whip zinging through the air every few
seconds as he warmed up his arm.

She
was
okay. Was he?

Allen moved away from her and she heard him
having a few quiet words with Dante before he came back around her and headed
for the corner in which Nicki was still huddled, a gray ring developing around
her lips. As she watched Allen move behind the young, clueless girl and start a
steady kneading of her shoulders, her heart rate slowed a bit more only to have
it speed back up at the low rasp of Dante’s voice in her ear.

"I’m sorry, love," he said, grasping
the nape of her neck, squeezing. "I didn’t mean to scare you, before or
just now. I’m under control. Do you trust me?"

"Yes, Master," she said, knowing she
sounded more confident than she felt. "I trust you."

"Thank you. You’re a good girl."
With that he backed away and the tip of the four-foot sailed by her head,
caressing the air around her temple.

Julie jumped before she remembered there was
nowhere to go and the cuffs bit into her wrists. Fortunately she was able to
stay the cry of surprise from erupting and instead inhaled sharply before
reaching up and clutching the chains to fortify her stance. She heard the whip
sail around her, cutting the air to shreds, twice more before the third time it
landed across her right shoulder, stinging but not brutally so. The now
familiar tingle associated with the hurt settled in her middle and warmed her,
chasing away the chill that had landed there earlier. She was sure if Dante was
still in a bad place, she’d have detected it in his blow. Instead love radiated
from the stripe now gracing her back and she was able to take a full breath in
for the first time since entering the dungeon.

The next blow was more solidly placed on her
left shoulder and elicited a bit of sweat to bead up on her brow, trickling
down her temple. Metering her breathing as she’d been taught, letting the pain
wash over her in increments to turn to heated pleasure, Julie let her mind shut
down and her thoughts float away as she began to anticipate the strikes,
reaching for them, craving more. Just as she began to drift, her eyes wandered
a bit from the spot on the wall she’d been using as a focal point and she found
Keegan had stopped eating, his plate tilted in his lap, the contents now strewn
all over the floor at his feet His mouth was open, eyes huge as he watched her
in obvious lustful fascination. Her last coherent thought was about how
dangerous that man was.

Chapter Seventeen

When Julie woke, her back was on fire even
though she was on her side and nothing touched it. She didn’t even sense the
presence of anyone in bed with her.
Odd.
She thought
she remembered Blake helping her into bed, explaining that Dante was recovering
and would come to bed as soon as he felt better. Did she recall someone
whispering Dom-drop? With that niggling at the forefront of her mind, Julie
knew she needed to get up and see to her Master. Dom-drop was as bad as
sub-drop and he could feel like someone had rolled over him with a tractor for
days to come if he wasn’t properly tended to.

Sitting up was a feat in itself as she
discovered not only was her back on fire, her body ached from head to toe. She
forced her eyes open and started to scoot to the edge of the bed, noting it was
still quite dim in the room, the only light coming from the bathroom doorway,
although she wasn’t sure if it was really dark outside or the curtains where
making it hard to discern the time accurately.

"What do you think you’re doing?"
Blake asked, hurrying to the side of the bed.

"Where’s Dante? What time is it? Is he
okay?"
Julie rapid-fired questions at him as she
continued moving toward the side of the mattress.
"You should be
with him instead of me…"

"Whoa, slow down, pumpkin." Blake
took her by the shoulders and stopped her forward momentum.
"First
of all.
Are you okay? Why are you awake? Are you in pain?"

"Yes. I’m not sure. Yes. Now where’s our
Master?"

"Resting.
He’s in the suite next door and Allen’s
keeping an eye on him. It’s three a.m. Stay," Blake told her, patting her
bare thigh which Julie found to be blazing as well.

"Shit, that hurts," she whimpered,
looking down to find angry red stripes lining her upper legs. She looked like a
crimson and white zebra. There were even welts across the tops of her breasts.

"Trust
me,
you
weren’t feeling it at the time. I lost count of orgasms after five. You were
very brave, pumpkin. Master was so proud. He was high as a kite, too. You
should have seen his eyes…" Blake prattled on. "Then he just sort of
drooped and wilted right there. If Allen hadn’t caught him, he’d have hit his
head.
Never seen that happen to him before."

"So he does have Dom-drop?"

"Yes, but he’ll recover. Not to worry. He
needs rest and lots of fluids. And a hot shower when he wakes." Blake
handed her the glass of water he’d retrieved from the adjoining bathroom and a
couple of ibuprofen. "If this isn’t enough let me know, we’ll try
something a bit stronger. How about you have a warm shower now? I’ll put some
more ointment on your back and these other places when you get out" Blake
ran his cool fingers along Julie’s legs, his touch now soothing. "Get you
something to eat? You were so out of it when I carried you up here all I
managed to get down you was part of a protein bar."

"Can I see him first?" If Julie
thought enduring the whip with Dante in less than a perfect state of mind was
scary, she was a fool. Nothing was scarier than the thought of him sick.

"I don’t think that’s such a good idea…"

"Why not?
How bad is it?" Julie jumped up and
pushed Blake back when he tried to stop her. "Quit! It’s not like I’ve not
seen a sick man before."

"I know that," Blake said in such a
forceful voice it actually stopped Julie dead in her tracks. She’d never heard him
use that tone before. "I'm aware, pumpkin. I don’t want it to scare you."

"Oh…" She hadn’t thought maybe he
was trying to protect her feelings. "Okay. I’m sorry."

Standing in the middle of the floor, naked as
a jaybird, hurting like hell, Julie was unsure what to do next. So she just
stood there, trying to locate true North, and started to cry. Maybe she
shouldn’t have jumped up so quickly. Out of balance was an understatement at
this point.

"Come on.
Back on the
bed.
I’ll get that shower started…"

"I thought I heard voices," Allen
said, coming in from the adjoining room. "What the hell is she doing up?"

"I hurt like hell, I’m thirsty, and I’m
worried about my Master," Julie informed him, sniffling, feeling like fool.
Still unsure of which end was up, she took a seat back on the side of the bed,
wincing when the cold sheet hit her ass which felt like it was on fire now as
well.

"You’re Master is going to be okay.
Although I have to tell you, you both gave all of us a good scare." Allen
leaned down and put his hands on his knees, looking at her. "How are you
other than hurting and thirsty?"

"I feel a little off, but can’t really
place my finger on it." What she really wanted to do was go back to sleep,
but not without Dante. "Oh shit…is Nicki okay?"

"Well, she’s asleep in my room, after
crying herself that way. I wouldn’t let her drive. And, I think I need to have
a little talk with her about what she saw. I’m pretty sure what scared her most
was the fact she was as turned on as you were when it was over. Keegan isn’t
quite as big an ass as we might have initially thought and when we realized
what was wrong with Dante, he stepped in immediately. He’s over there now with
him, been trading places with me between Dante and Nicki all night."

"Does Dante need a doctor?" Julie
let Allen help her stand when Blake came back into the room, motioning for her
to come. Apparently her shower was ready.

"No, he’ll be fine. I promise. He woke up
for a while earlier and ate, drank a couple of bottles of water, took something
for the aches and pains, and went back to sleep. He said he feels like a train
hit him, but other than that he’s okay. I wouldn’t suggest driving tomorrow…"

"We have to go back. The boys will be
home the day after for Christmas Eve."

"We’ll figure it out in the morning,
sweetheart," Allen told her, handing her into the shower.

She gasped as the water beat down on her back
sending thousands of tiny needles to pricking her skin.

"Turn away from the water." Julie
did as she was told and let the water assault her front as Allen carefully
washed her back while Blake took care of her front. "Now out. That’s
enough of that."

A half-hour later, after eating and letting
Blake smear more ointment on her, Julie lay on her side and drifted off.

****

Allen had his way and they didn’t leave for
home until early Christmas Eve morning. Julie just hoped they beat the boys
home so they could get their gear unloaded, the house in order, and the
evidence of their weekend hidden from view before the kids arrived, which meant
creative concealment on her part for a few days. She'd promised the boys prime
rib for dinner, but that was now totally out of the question. She had no idea
what to do.

While Allen approved their leaving after Dante
insisted he was fit to travel now, Blake exerted a bit of command himself and
took the keys, putting him in the back seat to rest and Julie in the passenger
seat so she could lay her seat back and sleep as well.

"What are we going to tell the boys?"
she asked from her reclined position.

"About what?"
Dante said, his voice still sounding like he
could sleep for a week.

"About why we’re late and there’s no
prime rib." Julie felt like the most irresponsible mother on the planet. "I
still have gifts to wrap and the turkey for tomorrow is still in the freezer.
Will there even be a store left open by the time we get there?"

She covered her eyes with one hand believing
at any moment she would burst into tears and upset everyone again. It seemed
she and Dante had caused enough worry with their whipping demo to last Blake,
Allen, Nicki, and Keegan a lifetime. The phone had
rang
several times yesterday with many of Allen’s friends worried and checking on
them.

"We’re going to tell them we were having
such a good time we decided to stay one more day. It’s not a lie," Dante
said, leaning up to pull her hand away, rub her cheeks, and kiss her forehead. "It’ll
be fine."

"Yeah, Jules," Blake said, setting
the cruise control as he hit a stride once back on the highway. "Remember
that first Christmas we were fresh out of grad school? I lived in
an efficiency
and you had that little hole in the wall dump
downtown. We were poor as church mice and couldn’t even afford a tree. I
remember you fixed mac-and-cheese and we had bologna sandwiches because it was
all we could swing." Blake reached over and squeezed her knee. "Best
Christmas ever. Want to know why?"

"Why?" Her voice hitched remembering
how sad her existence had been at one time.

"Because I was with you and that was all
that mattered. That’s all that matters now. We’re all together and we’ll eat
mac-and-cheese if need be. Except now you make it with four cheeses and tomato.
I’m sure the boys will feel the same. As long as they’re with their family and
their mom is present, they won’t care what we eat or if the gifts ever get
wrapped."

As the car lulled her to sleep, she thought
back over the texts she’d exchanged with the boys over the last few days. Blake
was right and Julie was thrilled to be seeing her boys again. What made her
even happier was the fact they were coming home virgins.
Smart
boys.

"Holy Mother of God,"
were
the words that drew Julie out of her shallow sleep.

"What’s wrong?" she said, rising up,
her eyes squinted against a glaring, white-gray sky.

"Don’t look, turn your head," Dante
said, pressing her back against the seat.

"Is it an accident? How bad is it?"
Julie asked, trying to wriggle free when she realized they were stopped and the
trees above in her line of sight were the trees in their own drive-way. "What’s
wrong? Is the house gone?"

"No. It’s still there." Dante sighed
and rubbed his forehead while Blake just stared ahead as if he’d been struck
dumb, his knuckles white he gripped the wheel so tightly.

"Would someone please tell me what’s
going on?" Julie asked, getting more agitated by the second. "Are the
neighbors naked? Have we been egged?"

"I wish. That’d be easier to clean up,"
Blake said, finally letting go and flexing his fingers.

Julie darted up before Dante could stop her
again and immediately felt sick. She pushed her door open just in time to
litter the pavement with the remnants of her lunch then heaved until there was
nothing left. By the time she stopped, Blake and Dante had her propped up by
each shoulder, steadying her.