Bared (3 page)

Sweat coated his skin and the scent of their sex engulfed him as he approached her. A flare, hot and greedy, stormed through him.
His
to care for now.
His
to protect in this moment.
His
to hold.

His heartbeat slowed and a pure heat that radiated out of his chest engulfed him. He reached for the leather strap on her ankle and removed the binding, rubbing her ankle before he moved to the next strap.

Once he freed her from the bindings, as she remained on the cross, he massaged her limbs until her circulation returned. She watched him steadily; her pupils were enlarged and she looked messy, pink-cheeked: a well-used and content submissive. He liked that look on her. “Any numbness or soreness?” he asked.

She shook her head, giving him a silly grin. “Soreness? Lord, no, sir. Happy female bits and pieces, yes.”

He winked. “Suppose that means I’ve done my job.” His hands tingled as he cupped her cheek and his smile widened when she leaned into his touch. “We don’t want unhappy female parts, do we?”

She giggled with dancing eyes. “Certainly not, sir.”

Her soft laugh erased dark and icy parts in his soul. He couldn’t look away from her
pretty eyes as he brushed his thumb under her eye. “You look much better than you did earlier.” When she’d arrived at Club Sin, he hadn’t liked what he found. Tension had bled from her, and that made him equally tense.

“No shit.” Cora smirked. “I just came hard enough to see freaking stars.”

Chapter Two

In the center of Club Sin on the black leather couch, Cora lay in Master Aidan’s arms wrapped in a fuzzy blanket. The exclusive, membership-only BDSM dungeon was located in the basement of Dmitri Pratt’s mansion. Each member was chosen specifically by him to suit the type of kink done within these walls; anyone who played at Club Sin had a similar view on limits. If someone wanted more than what was offered, Club Sin wasn’t the place for them.

Dmitri had told her when she joined, “My club. My rules.” Cora never minded. Club Sin’s rules fit her personality, and it was the perfect place for her. She appreciated the mastery of the Doms, and she flourished under Master Aidan’s care.

In the dimly lit room, Master Aidan brushed his fingers over her arm and she smiled at his sweet touches. In his hold, life was just as it should be. She felt happy, and that wasn’t only the result of her orgasm.

She gazed over the couches and tables; the sconces on the walls cast the room in a romantic glow, highlighting the BDSM equipment. From spanking benches to Saint Andrew’s Crosses to wooden tables to large metal hooks on the ceilings and walls for bondage, Club Sin had it all.

Sensual sounds bounced off the flagstone walls, and when she looked for the source, she discovered the strawberry-blond submissive Kenzie Hart. To Cora’s surprise the feisty submissive had her mouth shut during the scene. Normally she’d be sputtering out something rude to receive punishment. Cora never understood Kenzie’s antics—Cora enjoyed obeying Aidan, avoiding his punishments at all costs.

When Master Aidan punished, he did so swiftly. It was the only time he used a cane.
One hit for every infraction will teach you to do better, Cora
. He’d only swatted her once during each punishment, and even though he kept the hits light, they always left a mark. He never allowed her to add up her mistakes. He dealt with them immediately, and she appreciated his method. Some Doms could be quite tough. It’d been so long since she received a punishment, and she didn’t intend to change that as she preferred sensual pain.

The first year in Club Sin, she’d been punished four times. In the second year, it’d
happened only twice. Cora learned Club Sin’s rules quickly—not leaving off the
sir
and addressing Club Sin Masters with the
Master
before their names—so as to avoid future inflictions.

In her old public BDSM club, Chains, where she played before Club Sin, she had to call a man only
sir
, not
Master
, and unless it was
her
Dom, she never needed to finish a sentence with
sir
. It took time to get used to that change and she had messed up, but Aidan’s punishments made her a fast learner.

Cora wondered if Aidan’s scene set a mood for the crowd tonight to follow his lead. Hell, she had appreciated their moment together. His soft touches to his later intensity gave her all she needed, eliminating any tension.

She snuggled into him, relishing the safety of his arms. Here, nothing could harm her. Sometimes she wished she could stay in Club Sin all the time. As if this world was the real one and everything else didn’t exist. That she didn’t have responsibilities. That she could pretend that all she felt in Club Sin was real.

A firm finger tapped her arm and she leaned away slightly, looking to Master Aidan. His gaze held hers, as his shadowy eyes searched hers. “Tell me why you looked so worn earlier.”

Of course he had spotted her strain. She had expected him to. Since Club Sin was open only on the weekends, she’d been anticipating Friday night all week. She was anxious to play tomorrow night, too. “Nothing serious—just a draining week, is all.”

As a social worker at the Las Vegas Wellness Clinic, Cora’s job could suck the life out of her. She loved helping troubled teens, though, at times dealing with so many adolescents with such big problems took its toll.

The design he traced on her arm halted and one sleek eyebrow arched. “Bad case?”

“A fifteen-year-old abused girl—need I say more?”

Cora tried not to take work home, but every once in a while she’d connect with a teen on a more personal level. Their sad stories would weigh on her heart. Her clients lived real-life nightmares. Her job was to help them, even be a friend.

Sometimes that worked.

Sometimes it didn’t.

When it didn’t she depended on Master Aidan to clear her head. Their play provided a place where she could fade away. Where she didn’t need to think, and where all she had to do
was be in the moment.

“Tough situation.” His fingers swept over her arm in slow swirls. “Those kids are lucky to have you.”

She shivered as the sweat along her body dried and she smiled at his understanding. Doms held a level of intuition with submissives that Cora wouldn’t have believed if she were a vanilla girl. Where some men could be so blind, Doms were the complete opposite. They were what their submissive needed them to be, even if the submissives didn’t know it.

Though with Aidan being a defense attorney he simply got what she went through. He’d seen firsthand the evil that existed in the world. And he’d dealt with it daily, just as she did.

As the stress diminished to the feeling of nothingness, she welcomed it greedily. There, in his arms, her breaths were slow and easy. With a pang in her heart, she rubbed herself against his chest, moving even closer. “Thank you.” Paying no attention to the noise around and with a tightness in her throat, she added, “For tonight, too. Our scene … it couldn’t have been more perfect.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” His eyes warmed with his smile, without any dominance. “I enjoy playing with you.”

Her breath became trapped in her throat as iciness struck her to the bones, stealing the warmth his hold had garnered. The protection he offered, the comfort he gave, and the connection that was so intense would always be an illusion.

Aidan might stir explosive chemistry in a scene, but they weren’t committed. And the sad fact was that Cora loved him. She knew it right down to her bones. In his arms, staring into his eyes, she could love this man forever. Though Aidan had demons and her love was not reciprocated—at least in the way she desired.

The demons Aidan harbored Cora had never been able to banish.

No matter how much his holding her declared his love. No matter that his touch was always so right. No matter that they laughed together and were so damn good together, he could never love her the way she needed him to.

His heart belonged to another submissive.

A submissive who had died.

On a deep sigh, she reined in her emotions as the familiar hollowness filled her chest. He never needed to tell her where he stood in regard to their relationship.
I enjoy playing with you
said it all. A man in love with a woman would declare his true feelings.

In a scene, Aidan gave all of himself to her.

Out of a scene, there was a distance Cora could never break.

She gulped, pushing her thoughts deep into a safe place of detachment. Sometimes the intensity during a scene made reality fade. Now her mind cleared. She didn’t need to be in his arms and she didn’t want the intimacy. No matter that she ached to stay right there surrounded by him, she pushed away and moved to the other side of the couch. She couldn’t get caught up in emotions.

They’d do her no good.

Master Aidan stared at her with a flat expression. “Better now?”

She allowed her gaze to wander from that cold stare, unable to accept it. She didn’t know how he did that—one second so affectionate, the next ice-cold. She looked to the dark tattoo on his forearm. The same design he’d drawn on her. The symbol bore the marking of a Club Sin Master, which declared him an experienced Dom.

Raw emotions stole her every thought. God, she wished such a symbol meant more than her being a good submissive. She wished he’d marked her because she belonged only to
him
. That he declared to the members that he was her Dom. That she was his woman. The world seemed to slow down when she looked into his cold gaze.

She wanted forever.

He wanted tonight.

While at first his distance formed heaviness in her chest, it also helped her recover from the emotional drop after a scene. His faraway expression reminded her no matter how much she loved him and wanted to stay in his arms, she couldn’t allow herself to get lost in that desire.

It’d only break her heart later.

He couldn’t give her more than he already had, she knew that.

In her job, she read people and understood the ghosts haunting them. She’d been trained to spot hidden agony. Aidan’s pain was glaringly obvious and his distance made even more sense. He didn’t put space between them out of coldness. He naturally shut down his emotions because his heart belonged to another woman.

How could he hold Cora with pure affection and with an open heart?

She wasn’t his love, Lily was.

“Yes, I’m good,” she said.

He leaned in, erasing the distance she’d put between them. His woodsy scent engulfed her and she pulled the blanket tighter around her. Lord, this man stopped the world from spinning.

Master Aidan was a man’s man, just thirty-three—eight years older than her. His black T-shirt hugged muscles that layered muscles, and he looked smoking-hot in a pair of blue jeans. With his stylish dark hair, there was no denying he was drop-dead gorgeous.

He was a hundred percent beautiful, a confident, irresistible man.

His chiseled face tilted to the side, his eyes searching hers. “You sure?”

To avoid the oncoming feeling of sadness if they stayed in aftercare too long, she needed him to leave. She needed a breather from his intensity. She needed to remember that the emotions she experienced could never become more than what they were. She couldn’t forget that what she felt for him wasn’t reciprocal.

Years ago, that truth shattered her. She’d told herself a thousand times not to play with him, that his pain and avoidance of closure over Lily’s death could ruin her. Yet her heart had always betrayed her; she just couldn’t stay away.

Now her heart and her head compromised. Drown in his love for as long as she could get it, and then allow him to walk away. She couldn’t have all of him. She knew that. She had accepted that. He wasn’t capable of giving more. Even if her heart bore the bruises every time separation slid between them, what she experienced with Aidan she couldn’t run from.

She didn’t want to.

Cora forced a laugh, sliding into friend mode. “I’m satisfied to my bones. Trust me, I’m great.”

“Oh, there you are.”

At the sweet, soft voice, Cora glanced to her best friend, Presley Flynn, who wore lacy black lingerie. A fellow submissive who had apparently had a scene, too, since her blond hair was ruffled, her emerald eyes glossy, and her cheeks pink. “Hi.”

Presley turned to Master Aidan. “Do you mind if I sit?”

“Not at all.” Smiling at Presley, he stood and stepped away from the couch. “We’re done tonight.”

Cora’s heart clenched as Aidan began to leave. To most, Presley’s interruption wouldn’t
be a big deal. Though if Cora had been in a committed D/s relationship what Presley had done would warrant punishment. Interrupting a Dom and a submissive during aftercare wasn’t tolerated in Club Sin. The physical distance Cora had put between her and Master Aidan told outsiders they weren’t in aftercare.

They were, she forced herself to remember, two friends sitting on the couch together. Her throat tightened and she bit her lip, not allowing that thought to affect her. God, she hated herself after a scene. She was a freaking emotional mess. She knew where she stood with Aidan and she had accepted being with him in this way. Sometimes it was just hard to remember that.

Sometimes her heart wanted a little bit more.

To ignore her flip-floppy stomach, she focused on Master Aidan as he strode around the glass coffee table and approached. Which wasn’t a difficult task, when Master Aidan moved, time stopped. He held his head high, shoulders equally strong and his lengthy stride contained arrogance. Cora might love a man incapable of loving her beyond friendship, but this Club Sin Master who’d dominated her for two years aroused the living shit out of her.

Aidan was smart, wealthy, and sexy, but he never flaunted it. In a scene, he cared deeply. He’d never misled her. He was always honest, kind, and considerate. As her Dom, she trusted him. He sent her into unfamiliar sexual adventures. He pushed when she needed him to. He also held her when she was in need. Cora had bonded deeply to the Dom, but she reached to know the man outside of Club Sin.