Assumed Master (25 page)

 
"What
are you?
Thirty-five?
Thirty-six?"
Keegan pried before chewing his bottom lip in obvious amusement of the
discomfort Julie caused herself by starting this conversation. And why she had
absolutely no idea.
Comfortable shoes.

"I’m forty-eight."

Well, that was twice he’d looked like someone
had punched him in the gut since she’d met him. If she had to guess what shocked
him more though, her name or this, she’d have to go with her name.

"And what are you?
About
thirty-two?"

"Thirty-four."

"Well, we were both wrong," she
said, reaching into her bowl and shoveling up a handful of her popcorn, wishing
she had a big chocolate malt to go with it.
"Although,
you were more wrong.
Thank you for the flattery but it will get you
nowhere."

"You have more than a bit of a brat in
you, don’t you?" he asked with one eyebrow quirked up. "Too bad we
can’t be more than friends. I find that trait a lot of fun to work with."

Alan snorted from behind them. "Are you
kidding me? She’s tame these days compared to what we all had to endure in her
younger years."

Keegan stood and turned, extending a hand.
"Allen, good to see you.
I’ve been keeping an eye on
her for you."

"I can see that," Allen said, his
eyes running from one of them to the other before finally taking Keegan’s hand
and shaking it. "We’re having a party all weekend. I can count on you
joining us, right? I need to make a few phone calls, but it should be a full
house. Will you be bringing anyone?"

"No, I think I’ll just see who else comes
by," Keegan said, his eyes wandering to Julie’s.

****

Julie was certain it was by divine
intervention only that the weather cooperated and it was a crisp fifty-two
degrees the next evening. Not warm by any standard, but according to Allen it
was warm enough. She thought the subs being subjected to his lawn games probably
disagreed.

There was a rousing game of human croquette
going on in the back yard with subs playing the part of live wickets for their tops.
As she watched from the safety and warmth of the parlor leading out to the back
of the house, Julie spied two subs in quite a precarious position with balls
sitting just under their…privates. She was feeling especially bad for one man
as the Dom who’s turn it was had a mallet placed not so gently beneath the
man’s cock, allegedly positioning his shot but seemingly doing more caressing
of the area with the smooth wood than anything else. The more the Dom aligned,
the harder the man’s cock grew.

"So, naked, kinky croquette,"
Keegan’s voice whispered beneath her right ear. "What other creative games
does Allen come up with? Or is this just a Savannah habit?"

Julie tugged away from him, his breath
tickling her throat becoming increasingly annoying, although whether that was a
bad thing or not was still to be determined. Cold or not, she needed some fresh
air and headed out of the house in a straight line toward a secluded sitting
area she’d discovered a couple of days after arriving. She knew without looking
back Keegan followed and after passing the lewd lawn games, Julie slowed until
Keegan caught up with her then wrapped her fingers around his free arm. As much
as she hated to admit it sometimes, such things probably came as naturally to
her as waking up in the morning did.

"No, it’s not just a Savannah thing,"
she said, making her way through a copse of willows. "You should see his
version of Slip and Slide. He has a mean rendition of Fox and Hound once a
year, too." The pungent odor of decaying winter leaves invaded Julie’s
senses as she found the bench she’d been seeking and took a seat not a few
yards from the creek that bubbled and danced. She wondered what stories the flowing
water there could tell if given a voice. "If you like to play dress up,
he’s got your number as well. He’s always having some theme party or other. I’m
wondering what his July fourth theme will be this year. I’m sort of hoping for
something tropical or maybe Amazon tribal. I don’t know.
If I
even go at all."
She shook her head.
"Anything
that requires less clothing than the French Revolution.
Petticoats get
damn hot in the middle of summer.
Although, that’s probably
his goal.
See how long the subs can stand it before they beg for
reprieve from their Masters by stripping down to their bloomers."

"Sounds like a lot of fun," Keegan
said, taking a seat next to Julie. "The last club I had membership in was
focused much more on the harder core side of things.
A lot of
formality.
Plenty of demonstrations.
Lots of delicious torture going on."

Julie flinched a bit and shivered at his last
statement, remembering the last delicious torture she’d endure.

"I think you’d have fit right in."
Taking her hand, he kissed her fingertips. "Were you aware your Master’s
in residence?"

"Excuse me?" She tugged her hand
away so as to think more clearly.

"Your Master arrived a bit ago with your
brother sub in tow." Keegan smiled at her obvious shock. "You can’t
fool me, Julie. I’m attracted to you and I know you’re attracted to me, but
let’s face it, sweets. You’re in love with your Master."

"You’re occupation scares the hell out of
me," she admitted.

"That’s pretty common. I’ve never had a
relationship that lasted more than a few months. Most of those were causal.
It’s hard finding someone that’s
not
deathly afraid of committing to me because of what I do. It’s even harder
because I move around so much." While he talked, he ran his thumb across
the back of Julie’s hand. "Honestly, it’s just plain hard, period. Forget
my kink preferences. Anytime you live the military life it’s hard to even make
lasting friendships. You never know when you might leave and they might end.
Never know if they mean it when they say they’ll keep in touch…"

"If you think a stable life is any easier
think again," Julie interrupted. "Life is unpredictable. And nothing
lasts forever. I’m sorry I brought it up. Can we talk about something else or
just sit in silence? I’d rather not think about relationships or kink or the
fact that someday you’ll be gone, too. Even if all we are
is friends
.
Loss comes in many forms and they all hurt. Believe me. Have you read anything
good lately? Seen a good movie? Do you like art? Do you eat nachos or popcorn
at the…"

"Just what the fuck did he do to you,
Julie? I don’t mean Dante either. I think whatever this Master you speak of in
title only has something to do with your fear of your current Master."

"Dante isn’t my Master right now,"
she argued. "I uncollared myself."

"Yes, and from what I understand, without
so much as a discussion or a proper good-bye. That’s ill behavior and as long
as you’ve been subbing, I know you understand that. So, tell me. What happened?
Talk to me.
Let me be your friend. I want to be that
if nothing else, but I’m not sure how if you won’t let me in."

"Please, Keegan, for all that is good and
holy. Leave this alone. Please." Turning her head, she turned loose of a
long, hard sigh. Why oh why was it so hard for her to bend? It had taken months
of Mason waiting her out and now she couldn’t seem to shed enough of herself to
submit completely to Dante’s will. "What happened still
hurts.
"

"What if I don’t want to leave it alone?
I like you, but damned if you don’t make it difficult. I get that I’m not in
your league, but hell’s bells."

Julie started at that statement. Not in her
league? "What makes you say that? You’re not in my league?" She
remembered feeling
that way years
ago and never in a
million more years would she have willingly made anyone else feel that way.

"Are you kidding me? Look at you? It
still astonishes me you’re really pushing fifty. You’re the crème de la crème,
sweets. And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to you that I've heard through the
grapevine you’re loaded. I live on an enlisted man’s pay.
Hard
to live up to wealth when you’re poor as a church mouse.
What could I
possibly offer someone like you?"

Julie pursed her lips, rose from her perch,
and started walking back toward the house. That struck a nerve. Was that what
Dante was so pissed about? She’d once again deflated his ego by flaunting
herself? Good God. She’d slapped him in the face by offering to pay for the boys’
education and further insulted him by offering him refuge in her dead husband’s
home. Then an unsettled fury started in the pit of her stomach and flamed out
to her extremities. What a slap in her face! Why not let her use her resources
to make their lives better? Weren’t relationships supposed to be equal giving
and sharing of the coffers? Was Dante such a Dom he had to have total control
even if it meant cutting off his nose to spite his face?

She heard Keegan hurrying along behind her and
chose to ignore his presence. Was he in on some conspiracy to convince her to go
crawling back to Dante?

"Get back here," Keegan shouted as
she sped up. "Julie, stop. If you don’t want me around and the olive
branch of friendship is being revoked, at least have the guts to say so instead
of acting like a baby and playing these games."

His admonition was met by one of her middle
fingers flying up over her shoulder while she made a mad dash for the back door
of the house. Before she could fling the door open, he caught up and pinned her
to the glass with both arms around her middle.

"Move again and so help me, friends or
otherwise, I’ll call Dante out here and either he’ll give me permission to bust
your ass or I’ll make him do it himself, regardless of the reasons you’re
running."

"You have no right to do anything to me,
to include calling Dante and demanding he punish me. Good luck with that
anyway, he obviously doesn’t want me back. Apparently I’m too much a free
thinking woman for him. Besides, if he did want me back, why hasn’t he called
for the last two weeks?"

"Maybe he’s as tired of living under the
shadow of someone else as I am," Keegan said, spinning her to face him
then caging her back in. "Either you talk to me or I'll call him down on you.
That's exactly what’s going to happen and I’ll gladly help him lash you to
something. Choose.
Now."

"Why do you have to be so damn nice…Why?"
she shouted. "You make me want to trust you. And if it weren’t for liking
you so damn much, I’d hate your ass for it."

"If you like me so much, what’s the
problem?" he demanded. When she didn’t answer but instead lowered her
head, he tilted her head and looked directly in her eyes, not giving her leave
to avoid him any further. "What. Did. He. Do? Why can’t you trust me to be
your friend and Dante to be your Master?"

Julie’s chest heaved with emotion as tears
began to well up in her eyes. With her breath coming in short gasps, she
managed to answer him before the dam burst.
"He.
Died.
Happy?"

Chapter Twenty-One

"You’ve known the entire time she was
here, didn’t you?" Dante growled, pacing the space between Allen’s desk in
his office and the two King Louis chairs in front of it. Blake had taken up
kneeling not far away with his eyes to the floor. Apparently he knew the
perfect storm was in the making. Nicki sat on a cushion to the side of the
desk, her hands neatly folded in her lap. "And she’s been down here all
week with Keegan, hasn’t she?"

"Yes, she's been here the whole time,"
Allen admitted. "She told me she needed to clear her head and asked for
discretion as to her whereabouts until she felt that was accomplished. As far
as the Keegan accusation, I’m not sure when that started and I’m not entirely
certain what’s been going on, if anything. But if there is anything going on,
who are you to dispute it? You let her leave. You let her uncollar herself and
you didn’t do a damn thing to try to rectify the problem. Did you?"

"Why didn’t you tell me sooner where she
was?"

"Because I didn’t grow tired of
her being here until a couple of days ago."

Dante stopped pacing and walked to the
fireplace where flames cast an orange glow across the rug in front of it. He
placed his palms on the mantle and leaned forward, staring into the embers
piled beneath the grate. No man liked his faults pointed out, but damned if
Allen wasn’t right. He shouldn’t have taken no for an answer, as it were, and
let this thing get so far so fast. He figured if he kept silent, she’d come
back with her heart on a silver platter.
 
He figured he’d take Mason’s method a step further than Mason had when
he waited her out and cut off contact altogether.

"Where is she now?" Dante asked,
ignoring Allen’s questions.

"I believe the last time I had track of
her movement she was headed to the creek with Keegan." Allen had an
innocent, nonchalant look on his face as he examined the fingernails on his
left hand.