Master No (21 page)

The man with sandy blond hair named Kai strode up and put his hands on Shawna’s shoulders. “Hey, why don’t we go somewhere and talk for a bit? I’ve explained that I’ll help you find a Dom, but you have to be patient. Why don’t you go to the bar and I’ll call your sister to come down.”

Shawna stood, her eyes teary, but there was some anger in there, too. “Of course, Master Kai.”

Master Kai winced as she strode away. “I’m sorry, Ten. She’s a handful, but she’s my assistant’s sister. Kori is an important member of the club, so we allowed her sister in, though she’s obviously got some issues. I hope she didn’t ruin your evening.”

Ten shook his head. “Not at all. We were about to go upstairs.”

There was a tightening to Kai’s face she didn’t understand. It was only for a second and then his face was wiped clean and a blank, polite expression took root. “Enjoy yourselves.”

She started to turn to watch him walk away, but Master T drew her attention back to him.

“You didn’t stay where I left you,” he said, his lips curling up.

“She was molesting you.”

He stared down at her. “And you were going to ride in on your white horse and save me? I think I like that. But it also gives me a very thin excuse to punish you in a way I think is going to please us both, so thank you on both fronts, darlin’. I think we should play a game.”

That got her heart rate up. “What kind of game?”

“The kind where I torture you and you scream for me. Come on. I want you to myself.”

He held her hand as he led her to the elevator. Faith felt her heart beating hard in her chest and knew deep down that this night would change everything.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Faith felt the slightest bit vulnerable as she stepped into the privacy room. Like everything at Sanctum, it looked like it had been designed with care and thought. There was a large, four-poster bed and someone had prepped it. The comforter had been turned down and there were ropes already attached to the ones on the headboard. A crop lay on top of what looked like soft sheets.

She had to force herself to swallow. He was going to tie her up and use that crop on her body.

“What’s your safe word, Faith? I have zero intentions of making you use it tonight, but I need to hear it. I need to know you’ll use it if you feel frightened.”

“My safe word is red, but I’m not frightened. Not really, but I will use it. I have before. I’m not one of those subs who thinks it’s something to be ashamed of.”

His face hardened. “When did you have to use it?”

“My old Dom spanked me a little too hard. When it got too rough, I safeworded and we talked. He apologized, though he didn’t need to. Everything went the way it was supposed to. We found my limit and he respected it from there on.”

“Did he bruise you? I don’t mind some redness, but I prefer not to bruise my submissives. I want to know if you think I’m leaving marks.”

“All right.”

They stood there for a moment. This was the first time she’d been utterly alone with him. No one could interrupt and there was nothing to stop them from taking the next step. This was what she wanted, but now she hesitated. She’d spent three weeks getting to know him, another few days in his actual presence. What had begun as something casual felt more intimate.

“Don’t be afraid of me.” He crowded her, his hands finding her hair and tangling in it. He gently tugged on it, pulling her back so she had to look into his eyes. “I’ll take care of you. As much as I can, I promise you that.”

It sounded solemn, like he was making an oath to her, and she couldn’t help but respond. He was giving her a safe place to play and explore and be the Faith she so rarely was.

It didn’t mean she had to get her heart ripped out. No one could know what would happen in the future, but Faith knew the future didn’t happen at all if she never took a leap.

“I’ll take care of you, too. I want to spend this time with you. I want it more than you can know.” She went on her toes and brushed her lips against his. He had a slight five-o’clock shadow, and she loved how the bristles felt against her skin.

“I want to show you something first. You should know what you’re getting into. You didn’t get a chance to really see them before. I want you to take a good look.” He stepped back and pulled off his vest, turning so she could see his back.

She couldn’t help her startled intake of breath. His back was a maze of scars, a collection of all the ways this man had been abused. Ian Taggart’s words floated back through her head. There was a wealth of pain bubbling under Master T’s calm surface.

He stood there, his back to her. His shoulders slumped slightly as though he’d felt the weight of that gasp, had expected it and was already accepting her choice.

Except she was fairly certain he didn’t understand her choice at all. She moved to him and immediately placed her hands on his ruined back, her fingertips tracing the scars.

“You were burned.”

“Yes,” he replied, his voice gravelly.

He’d likely been young because the cigarette burns looked older than the rest. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen before, but it always made her heart ache. It hurt more because she knew this man. “Foster care?”

“I had some good and some bad. That was a bad one, but if you look a couple of inches down, you’ll see a scar I got when I was trying to get through a barbed wire fence. I got stuck and the man who found me was one of the finest men I ever met.”

“He found you?”

“Like I said, I was stuck and I wasn’t moving. Barbed wire hurts like hell. Papa Jack. He took in kids from time to time. His wife made the best pie in the world. He was a former Marine and I learned more about American history and how to serve my country from that man than I did from years in…the Army. I still miss that old man.”

“What happened to him?”

“Cancer,” Ten explained. “Child services wouldn’t let him keep me when he got sick. I got sent to a group home after that. I just wanted you to know that it wasn’t all bad. I had some good people in my life, too.”

Those good people had obviously served to shape him into the man he’d become. She ran her fingers over some surgical scars. “Knife wound?”

He nodded slowly, but offered nothing else.

She moved down his torso, studying each scar, marveling at the strength of the man that could take such pain and still stand.

Master T’s body was strong, but sometimes even the strongest bodies housed souls in need.

“I think you’re beautiful.” She leaned over and kissed his back, moving along his spine. She let her hands move, palms against his skin. She’d thought the wrong words. His flesh wasn’t ruined, merely transformed by pain. There was still such beauty to it. She’d learn to find it everywhere. There was beauty in the worst scars, in places she’d never imagined beauty could take root.

“Thank you, Faith. I’m sure you’ve seen worse.” He turned, obviously happy to have gotten through those moments.

“I have, but I think you’re beautiful. Your body isn’t something I can handle, Master. It’s something I’m coming to crave. Please understand that. Your scars don’t make you less beautiful. They make you more.”

His jaw tightened and she could see he didn’t believe her, but he also didn’t argue. He took a long breath and then the charming smile was back on his face. “I want to see you. Let me get you out of that corset.”

He turned her, brushing her hair off her shoulders. The intimacy that had frightened her before now cocooned them, and she shuddered when he kissed the back of her neck. “You’re the beautiful one.”

His hands began to move, working the laces of her corset with a slightly unpracticed hand. He hesitated as though trying to figure out which thread to pull, but slowly and surely the corset loosened.

She took a deep breath. This was what she loved about putting on her corset. She enjoyed the way it curved and made her look and feel so very feminine, but she always looked forward to this moment when she could breathe again, when she could relax and feel her body shift.

“Lift your arms, darlin’.” When his voice got deep and that Southern accent took over, she couldn’t help but sigh.

She complied and he lifted the corset over her torso, freeing her. She could feel her breasts move, nipples puckering, and then she was standing half naked in front of him. She remained still. Her back was to him, but he would tell her when he wanted her to turn. This was his time. He got to rule in the bedroom. He’d been courteous and kind, allowing her to take the lead in their conversations. It had been odd at first because her old Dom had dominated any talk with his own stories. He’d taken the whole Dom/sub thing seriously, which was why she’d never considered a full-time relationship, but Master T didn’t seem to need it.

Which was likely why she was considering staying with him past their prescribed expiration date.

His hands came around from behind, cupping her breasts and making Faith sigh. Her skin felt electrified. Every molecule of her body seemed to come alive for him.

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for someone like you?” His breath was warm against her ear.

She leaned back into him. “At least as long as I waited for you.”

He chuckled as his thumbs ran over her nipples, stiffening them further. “Not at all. You’ve had a Dom before. How long did you have a Dom?”

“A couple of years, but only for a few weeks at a time,” she answered honestly. And then what he’d said really penetrated her brain. “How many subs have you taken?”

“Not a one. You’re the first, sweetheart. You’re absolutely the first woman I’ve desperately wanted to top.” His tongue ran along the shell of her ear.

How was that possible? And yet it made a kind of sense. “I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. Why did you get into the lifestyle?”

His hands moved down over her shoulders and to her waist before moving up her torso again. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry, preferring to take it slow and easy. “I’ve been surrounded by it for a long time, but I kind of resisted it. What can I say? I’m stubborn.”

She sighed back against him as his big palms cupped her breasts. His warmth surrounded her. “What made you change your mind?”

He breathed her in, his thumbs rasping over her already stiff nipples. “I think watching Tag get so invested in building this place made me think I should give it a try. It wasn’t like I had tons of control in my relationships before. And none of them worked. I’m like every other man in the world. I’m looking for something that works. Now turn around and let me look at you.”

His hands were gone, his warmth taken away as she heard him move behind her. When she turned, he was sitting in the lone chair in the room—a comfy-looking thing she could imagine straddling him on. He was truly delicious with his strong chest on display while leather pants and boots covered the rest of his body.

He was clothed and she wore nothing but her heels, fishnets, and a tiny thong she was sure she was about to lose. She wasn’t sure why, didn’t care to delve deep into her psyche, but this feeling of vulnerability did something for her. It only worked when she wasn’t really vulnerable. She knew what it meant to have her life hanging in the balance, but this fantasy always got her blood pumping.

“Like I said before, you’re a stunning woman, Faith. Give me the thong and lose the hose.”

Yep. She’d called that one. She slowly rolled the hose off each leg, taking her time because he didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He seemed determined to take his time, and she was more than all right with that.

“How long has it been?” Master T asked.

She folded the hose and thong and placed them on the corset, leaving her shoes there as well. If he wanted her to wear them, he would ask. Cool air caressed her skin. How long? How long had it been since she’d been comfortable being naked? A long while. She showered and redressed very quickly at the clinic because something was always going wrong. She slept in full pajamas there, too, because she couldn’t be certain someone wouldn’t need her in the night.

She couldn’t be sure a small army wouldn’t show up and drag her off into the jungle either. If that happened, she would rather be dressed.

How long had it been since her skin heated and she concentrated on her body as something more than a simple tool for her brain to use? Almost a year.

How long had it been since she’d felt this way about a man? Never. She wasn’t sure why he called to her. Perhaps it was the mixture of Dominant male and lost little boy that tugged her his direction. Or some odd mix of hormones and pheromones in the exact chemical combination that seduced her. She didn’t want to overthink why she wanted this man more than the others. She simply wanted him.

But she answered the question she was fairly sure he was asking. How long had it been since she’d been with a man? “Almost a year.”

“So there’s no one in Africa? Stop right there. Let me look at you.”

She complied, remaining still and allowing his eyes to roam over her body. She felt nothing but acceptance coming from him, nothing but the sure heat of his gaze. “No one in Africa. I’m the only constant. I have other doctors and nurses rotate in, but they never stay for more than six months at a time.”