Mastered: Ten Tales of Sensual Surrender (80 page)

She cleared her throat and asked, “Do you have a preference as to where we have dessert?”

His words and tone were totally smooth when he replied, “Not really. You choose.”

And just like that his gaze had her pinned in place. Did he really want her to choose, or was he waiting to see if she would defer to him? It wasn’t something she typically worried about with Burton, but it was a game Marcais played. Often.

Burt tilted his head. “Solie, you okay, hon?”

Ripping her gaze away from his deep blues, she simply said, “Yes, I’m fine. Up to you. Lead the way please.”

And she refused to look at him again until they were seated next to each other near one of the stations where an expert flogger was using a Florentine double-handed technique. He was very smooth and practiced, almost like a martial artist demonstrating how to use a staff or bo. The result of his flogging was even stripes on the back of the women who held onto a pair of large thick rings.

Her arms and legs were spread. Fingers wrapped around the steel attached to the top of the wooden structure. She wasn’t tied or secured in any way, her partner trusting her to keep her fingers exactly where they were.

Their dessert arrived just as the strokes began to fall a bit faster and harder. The volume of the woman’s moans, quiet and barely there at first, rose with the intensity of the strikes.

A part of Solie wanted to be the woman on the receiving end of the flogging. Part of her resented that she wasn’t that woman because the man who should be flogging her was surely laying up with yet another woman by now. Then she felt guilty because she was thinking about the former dude rather than the man sharing her dessert right here, right now.

“Okay, tell me what’s going on.” The words were quietly spoken, but were clearly nothing short of an order, given the steel infused in them.

“What?” she asked.

“You went weird on me after I gave you the choice of where we would have dessert. Tell me.”

Shit. So much for wishing he’d missed that.

She took in a deep breath and looked Burton right in the eye. All she could do was suck it up and be honest. So she told him how she’d slipped back into Marcais-induced behavior, wondering if Burt really wanted her to pick, or if he was just looking for a reason to start a fight and be a dick.

“Are you mad?” she asked.

“Can’t be. That’s where you are right now. And if I’m any kind of a man I have to meet you where you are, not where I want you to be. I told you this morning that I knew you were in the early stages of getting over all this madness and I’m willing to be what you need. Luckily, what you need is a mean old man. I’ve got you covered.”

Oh good grief. She snorted a laugh.

“So, tell me about the phone call from
he who must not be named’s
commanding officer.”

Saved by Burt’s intuition on when to change a subject. She wished she had the man’s gift. But on the other hand, no one was perfect considering Burt had also had his fill of dealing with cuh-ray-zee.

“Marcais’ First Sergeant walked into his office in front of all his co-workers, made him stop what he was doing, and escorted him directly to the medical facility. He was tested and treated on the spot.”

Burt whistled and then grinned like a loon. “Back to that whole karma thing, right? I told you this guy should have been Sméagol.”

Solie looked up at the server and murmured her thanks as a crystal mug of hot tea was set down on their small table. “Smee-who?”

“You know, Sméagol from the Lord of the Rings.” Then in a completely terrible accent, he said, “I told you he was tricksey. I told you he was false. Stupid fat hobbit!”

They both laughed until she was damn near out of breath.

Finally Burt said, “Now, on to us.”

She cleared her throat and jumped in with both feet.

“Okay. I want to put this out there now, up front. After a while…” She paused, took a sip of tea for fortification—this time it wasn’t lava-lip-burning hot—and then laid out her one true desire. “If our relationship is working the way we want, I want a collar out of this deal.”

She watched the blood drain from his face. But she was proud of herself for not taking it personally. Solie knew exactly what was going through the man’s mind. The last woman he’d given his collar to was supposed to become his wife. Burton Khrys didn’t play around when it came to intimate relationships. When he realized that regardless of what he did, said or gave, he just wasn’t what that woman needed, he’d ended it. Tore his heart out in the process.

But Solie wasn’t going to be less than honest. She was tired of trying relationships on for size with open-ended expectations. She wanted something permanent with someone she was compatible with.

“Well,” she said, “looks like you’re the one that needs to give it some thought, eh?” she said with her typical sass.

“Smart ass,” he grumbled.

“Damn right.”

“You know you’re going to pay for that at some point right?”

“Of course I do.” But they hadn’t negotiated anything yet, so she knew it was safe to be as much of a brat as she wanted. It felt damn good considering she typically spent her days being a hard ass.
Not
being in control,
not
making all the decisions was like a refreshing cool breeze on a hot summer day to her. And right now, she was basking in it.

“Let’s get the negotiations out of the way. I’m suddenly eager to get started,” Burt said.

Out of the blue, Mac appeared and sat down with them.

“Am I late?”

“Late for what?” Solie asked before the shock could truly register.

“I, my dear girl, am going to mediate your negotiation with Mr. Thuddy here.”

“Excuse me?” Solie gasped.

“Not forever. Just for tonight,” Mac clarified.

Burt grinned until Solie was sure she saw little horns start growing out of his forehead as he said, “Let the games begin.”

* * * * *

The negotiations went smoothly as they both laid out what they would and wouldn’t tolerate as they explored this new facet of an old relationship. As soon as limits were set, Landon walked over. The whole crew smiled her way as Mac’s husband sat an oversized piece of seven layer chocolate decadence in front of her, along with a steaming hot pot of aromatic jasmine tea.

Being surrounded by people who cared for her made Solie feel as if the sun had risen over her little spot at the table. She knew this was a safe place where she could say any and everything, and it would remain in confidence.

“So what’s your poison tonight?” Mac asked with a fairly wicked grin.

With a tired sigh, Solie simply replied, “Nothing.”

Mac took both her hands while Burton sat back and let the moment happen. Energy hummed off of him and she knew he was up to something. The man was so good at being unobtrusive yet bossy at the same time. And how did he manage to pull that off, anyway?

“Solie, listen, you can’t be so hard on yourself,” Mac said as Landon handed her a fork and poured her tea as his wife tried to set her straight. “There’s no way you could have known what he was. Sociopaths are experts at concealing the truth. Pros at charming people out of anything and everything. For them there’s no empathy. It’s not about emotions. It’s about winning.”

“But I think I did know. I just didn’t stop long enough to really analyze what I was seeing, hearing and feeling. Instead I just went ahead and jumped into it, choosing to believe him rather than stepping back to think for a minute.”

“Well, you know, or rather you know
now
, that sociopaths move in fast. They push the relationships quickly for a reason—while they’re lying on the charm and manipulating you, they get you addicted to their special kind of attention. You’re in it before you know what hit you. I mean, look at the other women who’ve come forward. And the one that’s still involved with him, even though she knows she was his little secret.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that he pretty much told me what he was and I walked into the shit anyway.”

Burt sat forward now, humming with an energy that was a bit more on the darker side. Edgy. And focused. “Solie, what are you saying?” he asked in that super calm voice of his—the one that
sounded
nonchalant but was deadly serious and non-nonsense to boot.

“I’ll tell you like I told Marcais. He once told me that his ex-wife hated his flirting, but he kept right on doing it. His wife was the woman he was supposed to love, cherish and protect more than anything. And if he didn’t stop flirting for her, what the hell made me think he would do it for me? He told me that he used to lie to his wife about everything, and I mean everything about himself. So if he lied to her, a woman he was with for eight years, why would he tell me the fucking truth?

Mac’s eyes went wide in surprise. “Wow, you dropped an F-bomb? All righty then.”

Solie let the words continue to rush out. “He once even told me I was expendable.”

“What?! I’ll kill him.”

“No, that’s not what I mean, Mac. And sit down and eat some more cake, woman.

Anyway, he once told me that the way to get over one woman was to get another one. Well, he basically all but told me that I was nothing but a distraction to help him get over his ex-wife. And whenever I asked him about his feelings for me, his answer was, ‘Well, I don’t know you yet.’ Yeah, that’s key for, ‘I don’t have deep feelings for you, Solie.’ What’s worse is that he would tell me that his co-workers at the Army base would ask him where he always found so many quality women. But he’d only been divorced for a few months when he and I got together. So when did he have time to find all these girls?”

“I see what you’re saying.”

“I knew you’d get it. He was either messing around on his wife, which she confirmed he did for eight years, or he was messing with a bunch of women while he was scoping me out, which also turned out to be true. Basically, he waved some pretty big red flags in front of my face, and I was so caught up in his charm, I just didn’t see them.”

“I see what you mean. But knowing it wasn’t personal should make that particular pill a bit easier to swallow.”

“True, but it’s still a bitter pill, you guys. Cod liver oil mixed with crushed aspirin bitter. I mean,
dayum
.”

Burton rose to his imposing height and held out his hand to her. “Well, if you’d like a bit of medicine that’s a tad bit sweeter, come on up to the third floor. I think I have something you might appreciate.”

“Should I be scared?”

“It’s me we’re talking about here, Solie,” Burton said in mock outrage.

“Yep, scared. Definitely scared,” she said, voice deadpan with mock fear. She even threw in a little shaking and wiping of non-existent tears from her eyes. Inside, she squirmed, wondered if he would ask…no. He wouldn’t ask. Had no need to.

Negotiations were done. It had taken next to no time. In fact, he’d simply slid a piece of paper across the table right after Mac had shown up. Listed were the things he believed would be hard limits for her. He’d hit them all dead on, except for one—and that’s because while it might have been a no-go with others, she trusted Burton to introduce her to edge play in a way that wouldn’t break her.

She looked over at Burt and caught him and Mac passing a certain look.

“What are you two up to?”

“Do you trust me, Sols?” Burt asked. Forced herself to relax though inside she squirmed, anxious to experience what Burton would do to her. All she had to do…was say yes.

“Of course.”

“Then finish your dessert and head up to the Ice Palace. Five minutes.” He rose, took her hand and kissed it, keeping his eyes on hers the entire time. Then he turned and walked the hell away.

Solie forced herself to relax though inside she squirmed, anxious to experience what Burton would do to her. All she had to do…was say yes.

Mac sat there and sang a song she called “Ode to Mr. Thuddy Paddle Hands” while grinning like a nutball. Solie wanted to smash what was left of her chocolate decadence into her friend’s nose. Instead she took her time finishing her yummies and dallied. Well, she dallied as close to five minutes as she could with just enough time to grab her heels from the foot locker and book it upstairs.

* * * * *

The proprietor who’d dreamed up Twilight Teahouse was brilliant. The entire five-story club was private, except for the restaurant. Solie had inhaled a perfect dinner on the public side of the first floor, and a delectable dessert on the private side. The second floor held a full-service spa, complete with traditional Japanese baths and massage space.

Each floors had its own particular theme, from hot Egyptian nights to sultry Caribbean days. But now, it was time for the icing on her particular cake—The Ice Palace on the third floor, Solie’s absolute favorite.

As the elevator moved, she held her own gaze in the mirrored walls. This morning after Burton had left her, she’d washed and braided her hair. Once dry, she took it down to reveal a mop of glossy, dark brown, wavy locs that swung with health every time she turned her head. The bit of gloss she’d worn on her lips was long gone, courtesy of her chocolate dessert and a linen napkin. A touch of waterproof eyeliner finished her off. It was next to nothing in the makeup department, but she never wore much when coming here. It squicked her out to see other people’s sweat, tears and makeup streaked over the furniture, so she made sure she didn’t leave anything for anyone else to clean up.

Her brain zoned out at the thought of the many spray bottles of disinfectant and clean towels that dotted the place.

The elevator slowed and thoughts of Burton’s handsome face pushed the squick from her mind. That edgy smile he’d given her along with his “you’ve got five minutes” declaration set a different kind of shiver skating over her skin.

“God, girl, you are in over your head.” Funny thing was…she liked it. “Maybe you’re just as nuts as Marcais?” Laughing at herself, she shook her head and smoothed down her already smooth dress.