Anne's Courage [Le Club 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (10 page)

As they cuddled on the couch watching Sally and Harry try to sort it out, he ran his big, talented hand up and down her leg absentmindedly. She warmed under his offhand attention.
He really doesn’t know how he affects me
. It made her a little sad that the weekend was almost over. “You know, babe,” he said reflectively. “You were really good about accepting my little surprise the other night, even though you had some reservations. That made me very proud of you, subbie.”

“I have to say I had some major reservations about it, but it turned out well. I know I’m not always great at this submission stuff,” she said with a sigh. “I do try...well, sometimes I try. For me, it’s just for fun. I think it’s a little more than ‘fun’ for you.”

“Maybe. Really though, I just like it for the fun and the sexy kick. I don’t take it totally seriously, but if you’re going to do something, you might as well put some effort into it. Anyway, who wants to make love in the missionary position for their whole lives?” he asked.

“Not me!” she chirped. “What did you have in mind? Something interesting?”

“Let me think about it for a minute,” he said as he opened the buttons on his Levi’s and freed his straining cock. He pulled her into his lap and positioned her over his rampant erection. She knew her cheerful readiness to play always delighted him. He kissed her deeply, exploring her mouth with his tongue, as she responded in kind. He situated her legs at either side of his lap and brought her down over his ready cock and began slowly pumping into her slick passage. Her tight pussy milked him with every stroke as she leaned forward to take him in as deeply as she could, angling for her G-spot. The sensation was electrifying. Although she didn’t get that many chances, she always loved to be on top. It made her feel like flying—free and unburdened.

They came with a shout as his seed spurted into her waiting pussy, and she trembled with the aftershocks of a really major orgasm.
It’s amazing, really
,
what he can do to me with so little effort
.

As she nestled into his chest and started to come back down to Earth, he reached under a magazine on the teak coffee table and pulled out a black leather box. He said, “I didn’t think you were ready for this before, but I think that maybe now you are.” He handed her the box.

She looked at him in amazement. Except for her birthday gifts, he had not given her any presents since they had been together. They had met after the New Year, so Christmas gift giving had been past. She slowly opened the box and saw a faceted, blue-white diamond heart set in platinum hanging from a braided leather collar. She could see that the heart could be taken off the collar and worn as a regular pendant. “Oh, Trent! This is beautiful!”

He took it from the box and fastened it around her neck. “Are you ready to be my collared slave, subbie? I really couldn’t imagine being without you,” he asked tentatively. “I know we had a pretty rocky start, but I think things have been going pretty well since then. What do you think?”

“I think it’s wonderful, and you’re wonderful! I probably haven’t done a good job of expressing my feelings if you are actually in doubt as to whether I would welcome this commitment,” she said with a huge smile on her face. “I would love to be your slave, Master.” She gave him a huge kiss and hugged him tight. Her heart did a happy dance as light bounced off the diamond at her neck. “Does this mean I have to behave myself?” she asked with a grin.

“Hell no! Be yourself. It’s the challenge I love. Besides, your disobedient behavior gives me the excuse to paddle your cute little butt,” he said with a grin as he gave her bottom a resounding smack.

Monday afternoon, just as Jamie was arriving back at the club from the farm, he received a call on his cell phone from Max. “You’d better drive back here immediately. We had a hit on the surveillance cameras. One of the young stall cleaners, Mark Taylor, was seen going into Jester’s stall with a pitchfork. It’s all on tape. You need to see it for yourself.”

“Is Jester okay?”

“He’s fine,” Max replied. “One of the security team monitoring Jester secured the boy in the barn office.”

“I’m on my way back. See what you can find out about this kid before I get there. Thanks, Max.”

Jamie took some deep breaths and called Anne. “Something’s come up at the farm. Will you drive out with me? I may need the calm voice of reason.”

“Of course. Is Jester okay?”

“He’s fine according to Max. Meet me at the car.”

The ride was tense. When they pulled up to the barn, they were met by Max and Manuel. “Jamie, calm down. I know you’re upset, but we need calm heads here,” Max said in a reasonable tone.

“Tell me what you know, and then I want to see the tape,” Jamie said tersely.

“Apparently the boy, Mark Taylor, is fifteen. He told Manuel he was eighteen,” Max said.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Jamie. I had not gotten around to checking his paperwork,” Manuel said, chagrined. “He said he had worked at other farms cleaning stalls. It’s not skilled work after all, and he did a good job the first day, and then I just got busy and forgot about it.”

“We’ll talk about that later. Why was he handling Jester? What else do you know?”

Max continued, “He and his mother are homeless. They were deserted by Mark’s father and recently lost their home. The mother works as a maid at one of the motels off the highway, and I think sometimes they sleep in their car if they can’t get space at a shelter. He recently quit school and has been working here, riding his bike out from town.” This story somewhat tempered Jamie’s anger, but he was still furious.

“Let’s go see the tape,” Jamie said.

The tape of the incident in Jester’s stall was telling. Jamie could see the kid was scared to death of the big horse, but he was determined to clean the stall. He feinted at Jester with the pitchfork and started to edge into the stall. “Get out of my way, you big bastard,” Mark said. “I have to get in here. I have to.” At that point, Max and one of the security guards arrived at Jester’s stall and took the struggling boy to the office where they locked him in, and Max called Jamie.

Anne looked horrified. “The poor kid,” she said. “He’s apparently had a tough time.”

“Max, see if you can get his mother on the phone,” Jamie said as he paced. He was trying to control his anger and think of what was the best thing to do. He couldn’t let it go. That was for sure. There had to be consequences. This was a very serious matter after all. Fear morphed into hatred and spread out, doing damage in every direction. The situation had to be handled in a positive manner immediately.

“Jamie, Mrs. Taylor is on my cell,” Max said, as he handed him the phone. Jamie walked outside where, sparing none of the details, he told Mrs. Taylor all that had happened.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Devereau. Please don’t report this to the police. I don’t want Mark to have a police record. I’ll try to pay for the horse’s medical expenses. Mark is having a hard time as it is, what with his father taking off and all. I haven’t been able to control him, and he’s been hanging out with some kids I don’t like. Then he quit school. The other kids were giving him a hard time about being homeless. To tell the truth, I’m at my wit’s end.”

“I know you don’t know me, Mrs. Taylor, but if you will trust me to handle this problem the best way I can, I’ll see what I can do for you and Mark. However, you have to know there are going to be consequences for him. This was an extremely serious matter. Not only did he injure a very valuable horse that is my brother’s absolute pride and joy, but Mark could have been killed if Jester was a more aggressive stallion. If he had not lied about his age, he never would have been allowed to handle the stallion in the first place. My barn manager should have checked his papers more carefully, but it slipped through the cracks since Mark was doing a good job otherwise.”

“What consequences are you talking about?” she asked with a tremble in her voice.

“I don’t know yet. That depends somewhat on Mark’s attitude. I haven’t spoken with him yet. I wanted to talk to you first. Do you give me permission to do what I think best?” he asked.

She seemed to hesitate. Jamie knew it was a leap of faith for her to put her son in someone else’s hands, but he suspected she had not been able to control him or provide for him properly herself. “Please do what’s best for my son, Mr. Devereau, but please don’t be too harsh,” she said.

He noticed Anne had walked up behind him and had probably heard his side of the conversation. “What did she say?”

“She said to do what I think is best. I’m going to go and see what young Mr. Taylor has to say for himself,” he said, walking back toward the barn. “Why don’t you wait in the house with Max and the security team?” When he opened the door to the office, he saw a tousle-haired young blond boy slouching on a chair in the center of the room.
In no way does he look eighteen. Manuel is going to have to answer for this one
. The boy’s expression was rebellious, but Jamie could see the fear underlying his defiant expression. “I’m Jamie Devereau. You can call me ‘Sir,’” he said, letting that famous edge of steel sound in his voice.

“You can’t keep me here. I want to leave,” Mark said, his youth and uncertainty creeping into his voice.

“That would be ‘I want to leave please, Sir.’ Actually, I can keep you here. Your mother has given me her permission to deal with this situation as I see fit, so you had better adjust your attitude right now, young man.”

“I don’t believe you...”

Jamie took the phone out of his pocket and replayed the conversation he had recorded. Mark looked stunned.

“Now, do you want to try that again?” Jamie said.

“I want to leave,
Sir
,” Mark said almost rudely.

“A smart mouth is not going to be to your best advantage here. Now sit up straight, look me in the eye, and tell me what happened. Why did you hurt Jester? When you saw he was hurt, why didn’t you get one of the grooms to call for a vet?” Mark seemed dismayed and tears started to form in the corner of his eyes. “I’m waiting for your answer. Every time I have to wait or repeat myself, you are adding to your punishment.”

“I’m sorry...”

“I bet you are. Now. That is not the answer to my question,” Jamie said in a hard voice.

“I needed to clean his stall, and I guess I was afraid of him. He’s so big...and he wouldn’t back away, and he was pushing me...not like the other horses.”

“Jester was just looking for sugar cubes. He’s everyone’s friend, and everyone in the barn gives him treats, so he expects them. He was not trying to hurt you,” Jamie said. “He is big, so you should have had some training before being allowed to handle him. If you had not lied about your age to Manuel, you would not have been permitted to go into his stall. If Jester had a more aggressive nature, you could have been killed in that stall. He could have reared up when you cornered him and crushed you. Do you understand that?”

“I needed the job,” Mark said. “I just wanted to make some money to help out my mom.”

“To help your mom? Or to hang out with the bad crowd she didn’t want you to be friends with?” Jamie asked.

Mark had an ashamed look on his face, and he seemed to realize he wasn’t going to be able to bullshit this man. “I guess...”

Jamie picked up the phone and dialed the cottage. “Max, can you see if you can find a place for Mrs. Taylor on the household staff and see if there’s a vacant cottage available? Call me back.”

After several uncomfortable minutes while Mark watched Jamie with a terrified look on his face, the phone rang, and Jamie picked it up.

“We have a vacant cottage, and I can make a place. If you would rather, Anne said she can give Mrs. Taylor a job as well.”

“No. I’d rather have control of the situation here, and I wouldn’t want Mark exposed to the club at his age...but thank Anne. Please call Mrs. Taylor and discuss it with her and make the arrangements to have her things moved in tonight if she’s agreeable. I don’t want them spending another night in their car.”

Jamie thought for a few minutes as he tried to control his anger. He turned back to Mark.

“Here’s what I am going to do, and then you and your mother can make your decisions accordingly. First, I’d like to beat your butt, but I’m going to give you one more chance to make this right, which I hope is not one more chance than you deserve. You had no business putting yourself in such a dangerous position, and your bad decisions injured a really valuable horse, who just happens to be the apple of my brother’s eye. Justin is going to want to know the disposition of this matter, and he is going to have to be satisfied with it.

“Second, I am going to offer your mother a position on the farm’s household staff which will include a small cottage where you and she can live. You will go back to school, a parochial school of your religious denomination. If you don’t have a religious denomination, you will go to Catholic school. The Devereau Foundation will pay your tuition. You will get the best grades of which you are capable, and you will do your school work. You will work cleaning stalls after school until Jester’s vet bill is paid, and after that, you can keep your earnings.

“Third, I am going to be your mentor, or your boss if you like, while you are here. If I am not here, you will report to my brother Justin or to Max. You will straighten up. You will be respectful and helpful to your mother, and you will not hang out with those gang kids. If I am not satisfied with your behavior, believe me, your ass will know about it. Manuel will see that you get some training in handling the horses, and you will help with Jester’s medical care until his wounds heal. You have to make it up to him as well.”