Their Virgin Concubine, Masters of Ménage, Book 3 (36 page)

She was alone with Jake.

“Now, who is this Master Storm?” The question came out on a low, ungodly sexy growl. “Is he your Dom? What the hell is he doing somewhere else when you’re in trouble?”

“He’s not my Dom. He’s someone I talk to. I needed to do a little research. I met him at a munch and we’ve been kind of feeling each other out to see if he wouldn’t mind training me.”

One of the reasons she liked Master Storm was her utter lack of attraction to the man. She wasn’t in danger of falling in love with the man. If she were honest with herself, Master Storm was a bit of a puffed up douchebag, but he did know D/s. She was looking for practical knowledge not a man who made her heart pound in her chest—even when he wasn’t sneaking up on her.

“I don’t know this man. Where did you meet him? On the Internet?”

“I’m not stupid. I met him at a munch. I found a flyer on a fetish lifestyle site, and it invited interested parties to come to a brunch at a local restaurant. First names only. I met Master Storm about two months ago. We’ve been talking on the phone about his philosophies.”

“Have you been talking about what you need?” He was standing way too close. She wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten so close. He was tall, at least six foot three, and he seemed to tower over her. His voice was still deep, but it had lost a bit of command.

“Uhm, we haven’t really gotten around to that. He thinks we should talk about his rules first to see if I can follow them.”

“Drop him. He’s not a Dom. He’s a man who likes control but not responsibility. He’s testing you to see if you’re right for him, but he isn’t thinking about what’s right for you. That should be his first and only qualification. A Dom should find what he needs, too, but what every good Dom needs is to do right by his submissive. If he hasn’t even asked what you need, he’s wrong for you.” His eyes became hooded, and his gaze slid to the floor as though he didn’t really want to look her in the eye. “You should talk to Ian Taggart. He owns Sanctum. He makes it his business to match well-meaning subs with good Doms.”

She shook her head. The last thing she needed was to get more into Lara’s friend’s business. She’d done all right on her own so far. “Thanks, but I can handle it.”

Now his eyes came back up, narrowing. “It’s obvious to me you can’t.”

She was a little offended. He barely knew her, but he was making judgments already? “I didn’t ask your opinion, Mr. Dean. But I’m curious. It’s obvious you can’t stand me. I get that a lot. What exactly is it you don’t like?”

He crowded her just a bit, almost daring her to back away. Serena felt small and a little helpless against him. “I never said I didn’t like you. You’re a beautiful woman.”

“But you don’t seem to like me. You seem to like scaring me.” He wasn’t scaring her now. Fear wasn’t what she felt.

“I did that for your protection. You need to know how vulnerable you really are. You aren’t taking this seriously.”

He said it quietly, as though he actually cared. It brought down her resentment level. It did nothing to bring down her frustration, but still, as she spoke she found herself doing so in a polite, respectful manner. “I don’t understand. I did everything the cops told me to do. I hired a security firm to install an alarm system.”

“It’s not very good.”

“How am I supposed to know that? I don’t know anything about this stuff. I paid for it. I know Mojo isn’t a good guard dog, but he was so sweet, I couldn’t let them put him down. And I have a friend who comes over and walks the house and makes sure there’s no one here before I lock myself up for the night.”

“It’s not enough. Unless there’s something you’re not telling me.”

Humiliation washed over her. She knew what he was saying. “If you don’t believe me, you should leave. I’ll be fine on my own. I’m obviously just an attention-seeking whore.”

He grabbed her elbow. “Don’t you call yourself that.”

“Why not? It’s what you were thinking. It’s what the cops think.”

He stared at her for the longest time. She stood there, feeling ridiculous. Tears pricked at her eyes for the four hundredth time that day. Why, oh why, couldn’t she be tough like Lara and Bridget? They would just spit in this man’s eyes and tell him to go to hell, but Serena stood there.

“You’re really scared, aren’t you? I require the truth.”

“Yes, some man threatened to hurt me. It scares me. But I think you scare me, too.”

His lips curved up. He wasn’t as gorgeous as Adam. There was a starkness to his features that kept him from being beautiful, but when he smiled, his face transformed. “You’re a smart girl. You keep on being scared. And when I said you were beautiful, I meant it. You’re truly lovely, Serena. The only problem is I know not to trust a beautiful woman. Now be a good girl and get ready for bed. I’m going to sleep in the living room.”

He stepped away, leaving her a little breathless—and a whole lot frustrated. She’d finally found a man who thought she was beautiful and naturally he didn’t trust her.

Adam strode back into her bedroom like he’d done it a thousand times. He looked at Jake. “You taking first watch?”

Jake nodded and without another word, walked away.

Adam rubbed his hands together. “Well, sweetheart, it’s just you and me.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’re not sleeping alone tonight.” He tossed his lean body into her comfy chair. It was an overstuffed easy chair covered in pink and green flowers. It had been her mother’s, and though it didn’t really go with Serena’s contemporary style, she hadn’t been able to get rid of it. She could still see her mom sitting in that chair, watching over her.

Now Adam Miles made himself comfortable in the chair where Serena read every night. He looked far too masculine for the flowery upholstery, like a sleek jaguar who had stretched out for the night.

“I’ll run a trace on the text tomorrow.” He toed off his loafers and settled into the chair, his longish hair falling over his eyes and making him look years younger.

He was all soft seduction where Jake was one hundred percent alpha male.

“You won’t find anything.” It felt weird to get into bed knowing Adam intended to stay in the room with her. She hadn’t slept with anyone in years. She and Bridget had shared rooms at conventions, but it wasn’t the same. Even that had stopped since Bridget insisted on keeping the room sub-tropical at all times. “Do you need a blanket?”

He closed his eyes. “No. I’m good. Trust me. I’ve slept in far worse places. This is practically heaven.”

“Like where?” The writer inside couldn’t let that go.

“Another time, sweetheart. Go to bed. We have a long day tomorrow. You have to meet with Lara to talk about the book launch. You owe three blogs next week, so you should really get those done, and you haven’t sent your editor back your line edits on
Their Sweetheart Slave
. Oh, and we have to meet with Eve. I scheduled that for the morning.”

“You looked through my day planner?”

“Oh, yes. And we’re going to upgrade you to a PDA. Really, that day planner thing is a mess. Don’t worry. I’ll have you organized in no time at all. Consider it all part of the service.” His eyes came open. “Don’t hide anything from me, Serena. Jake and I are here to protect you. If that means violating your privacy, I’ll do it, and I won’t blink. You can choose to view it in that fashion, or you can treat me like a personal assistant who also happens to know how to kill a man in two point three seconds and not leave a drop of blood. It’s all in your point of view, isn’t it?”

Adam Miles knew how to go for the throat. He might look softer than that caveman currently prowling her living room, but he was no less dangerous.

And she could keep them. For a little while.

Serena climbed into bed, certain she would never be able to sleep. She closed her eyes, and for the first time in weeks, fell into pleasant dreams.

Coming Fall 2012 from Eliza Gayle

Purgatory Masters:
Tucker’s Fall

Scandalized professor Maggie Cisco returns to her hometown to lick her wounds and reconsider her future. Her years of personal and professional research into the BDSM lifestyle has landed her in jail, in divorce court and now in the headlines of more newspapers than she cares to count. The worst of all? The entire debacle is being blamed on a bestselling book she hasn’t even read!

Just when she thinks her only solution is a tell all memoir, a snowstorm puts her in the path of stunningly handsome, insanely rich and equally intense, Tucker Lewis.

Tucker remembers Maggie well. They once shared a mind-numbing kiss at the annual St. Mary’s carnival when her boyfriend wasn’t looking. No stranger to scandal, he looks past public opinion to the submissive craving a master’s touch and decides then and there what he wants. He’s going after Maggie and her heart’s kinkiest desires.

Unfortunately, no amount of money can change the sins of the past and when they’re certain they know everything there is to know about each other, one discovers a secret they aren’t prepared for.

*  *  *  *

Tucker Lewis stared into the crowd and wondered when it would all end. He tightened his grip on the shot of Jamieson and brought the glass to his lips. Across the bar and generous play space, fake smoke, dancers in chains, and throngs of half naked partiers filled the club. The intense edge of the Lords of Acid music pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat and the occasional scream of a submissive from the far side of the room fit right in with his dark mood. For better or worse this was the place he’d needed to be tonight.

Purgatory had come to be in a different life and the longer he sat here watching the scene around him; the less he believed he belonged. Of course his self-imposed exile hadn’t helped much. He’d been riding high on life on borrowed time and didn’t even know it. All it took was a simple house fire to bring his world crashing down.

“Wow, as I live and breath. Is that you, Tuck?”

Yanked from his mournful thoughts, Tucker focused on the man standing in front of him. Tall and imposing he wore black leather that emphasized a gleaming bald head that drew women of all ages. It didn’t surprise him his old friend from better days and one of the best damn rope riggers on the planet, stood there with a smug grin.

“Fuck you, Leo.”

“C’mon, Tucker. You know I’m not your type. But maybe this one is.” Leo tugged on a leash he’d been holding and a very pretty redhead cautiously stepped out from behind him. Even with her eyes cast down, it didn’t take much for Tucker to recognize her nervousness. Her hands intertwined with each other repeatedly as she shifted her weight from foot to foot.

Long, thick hair brushed the tops of ample breasts that were barely hidden by a thin, black nightie that stopped before her thighs began. But it was the thick leather collar at her neck, branded with two names that stood out to him.

“I see things have changed for you since I last visited.”

“Tends to happen when you disappear from the face of the earth.” Leo clapped his shoulder and took a seat on the bench next to him and his lovely submissive went to her knees on the floor at Leo’s feet.

Tucker tried to ignore the slight pang inside him. It had been a long time since a submissive had caught his eye but that didn’t mean the desire to have one of his own had completely disappeared.

“Will you introduce me to your lovely?”

Leo beamed. “Katie, say hello to Master Tucker. He’s an old friend of mine.”

With what looked like some reluctance, the little subbie lifted her head and met his gaze. “Hello, Master Tucker. It is nice to meet you.” Immediately her eyes lowered back to the floor.

“You’ll have to excuse Katie this evening. She’s had a tough time with her commitments lately so Quinn and I have decided to devote this entire week to her correction.” Leo stroked his pet’s hair and brushed her cheek when she turned toward him.

The pang inside him clamored louder. The affection between Master and submissive was so obvious it was difficult for Tucker not to experience some degree of jealousy. Although settling down had never been in his previous plans. “No need to excuse her. I completely understand.” Maybe it was time to get back into the scene. He could meet a willing submissive here at the club and work out some of the kinks that had plagued his art this week.

“You thinking about rejoining us? Maybe some play tonight?”

Tucker shrugged, amazed Leo had read his mind. Tucker’s body warred with his mind for control. Part of him definitely needed to move on, but the other—well, he wasn’t so sure.

“I’d be happy to offer Katie for service tonight. I think it would do her some good. She needs to get her head in the right place for everything she will be put through this week. What do you say?”

Tucker considered the offer while staring at the top of the pretty sub’s head. She’d not uttered a word or made a move except for the tiny shudder he’d detected along her shoulder line when Leo offered her services. She impressed him and that wasn’t an easy thing to do these days.