Devoted: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella (3 page)

Frankie turned a nice shade of pale. “Again, not something I needed to hear from you.”

“So you want me to take notes? We could have a sleepover and talk about our sex lives.”

He stood and straightened his suit. “I shudder at the thought. I have to be at the airport in an hour. Unless you change your mind. I could talk to Taggart and have a membership very quickly. I wouldn’t have to be your training Dom. I would merely ensure that the one selected for you understands how he should treat you.”

She shook her head as she rose to hug him. Nope. She didn’t need her ex-husband giving her potential fuck buddy a lecture. No how. No way. She was letting her hair down and forgetting about work and having fun for once in her life. “There’s a very careful vetting process to ensure we’re compatible and not psychotic. I’m fine. Now go. Have fun in San Francisco.”

He held her close. “I’ll call. Be careful, Amy. I know you want to have fun, but be careful around those men. They can be rough but you need to remember that you’re the one in control. And listen to your sister. She knows this world better than you do.”

Her sister wrote about the world of D/s. Bridget was a romance author and had quite a career. Of course, she also wrote what she liked to call mega ménages, where one woman ended up with five or six men all desperate to service her. Bridget lived in a fantasy world and didn’t pay a lot of attention to the one outside of it. She was also super pregnant with her first kid and not playing a ton these days. Still, if it made Frankie happy to think Bridget was watching over her, she would go with it.

She kissed his cheek and watched him walk away. The man was fine either way he went. Coming or going.

“Ms. Slaten, you have a call on line two,” her assistant said, poking her head in the door.

Amy sighed. “Thank you, Val.”

Tonight she wouldn’t be Ms. Slaten. She would be Amy or pet or whatever her training Dom wanted to call her.

Only hours to go before she could spend some time in another world. Hopefully it would be better than this one.

* * * *

John Flynn Adler, Jr. stared at his brother from across the bar that separated Mitch’s kitchen from his living room. Perhaps he hadn’t understood. Maybe having a child had turned Mitchell’s brain soft. “What do you mean?”

Mitchell Bradford was his half brother. For much of his life, Mitch had been a complete mystery to Flynn. It had only been when their father was dying that he’d connected with his brother. Getting close to Mitch and his wife, Laurel, had been exactly what Flynn had needed at the time.

At the time? He needed it now. He might always need it. Mitch was a taciturn son of a bitch, but he was a great brother. Chase, their youngest brother, was now in college and doing better than Flynn would have imagined and it was all because Mitch had stepped up. Chase lived in Mitch’s guesthouse and was treated like a member of the family by Laurel, who ensured the kid ate something other than mac and cheese.

Sometimes Flynn envied his kid brother. His Victory Park condo had amazing views and he’d discovered it meant nothing if he had no one to share it with.

“Amy Slaten is the partner Kai and Wade selected for you to work with. I peeked at the list when I was reviewing some of Sanctum’s business contracts.” Mitch patted his son on his back in a rhythm only he could hear. He carried Johnny around a lot as the boy seemed determined to only sleep on top of other human beings. “I swear if I’d known she was going to be in that class, I would have moved you to another one. I only figured it out this morning. In their defense, they don’t know about the corporate war the two of you are involved in. Both companies have been very careful about keeping it out of the press. So should I talk to Wade or do you want to do it?”

Amy Slaten. His nemesis, according to the man who ran his company. Amy Slaten was following in her father’s very ruthless footsteps by sending spies into his company and hacking in to steal their data.

Oh, she looked all soft and sweet. She was a gorgeous woman. He’d seen her at a few functions but had chosen not to be introduced. Since he’d handed over the reins of the company to a hired CEO and changed his personal focus to R&D and raising Chase, he tried to stay out of that particular war.

He was still listed as the president of the company, still the figurehead, but he preferred to work on the creative side. When he’d left California behind, he’d tried to start over. The new software he was developing would change the way his clients did business.

The last thing he needed was to get involved in a D/s relationship with his business rival.

And yet, they’d had so many security breaches he had to wonder if he wasn’t passing up an opportunity.

“You don’t think I should go through with it? Maybe it would be a good way to get to know my enemy.” And to see if she’d planned it this way. It was too coincidental to think they would be in the same club at the same time and get partnered up in an intimate pairing.

Slaten was known for dirty dealings. Maybe this was her next play. He would never know if he backed off.

Besides, she really was a beautiful woman.

Mitch stared at him in a way that let him know big brother thought he was a dumbass. Flynn wasn’t sure how Mitch had perfected that particular stare. It might have come to him naturally when he’d become a dad. “Are you serious?”

It would be better to back off. The trouble with Amy Slaten was her connection to Laurel. Laurel’s brother, Will, was married to Bridget, Amy’s sister. God, sometimes he was fairly certain any Sanctum family tree would be the weirdest tree, with branches that wound around each other in a stranglehold. He’d managed to stay away from that side of the family. From what he understood, Bridget Slaten, now Daley, took next to no interest in her family company, though she had taken on a voting share when her sister had commandeered Slaten. She would be nothing but a guaranteed vote at a board of directors meeting. He would actually be surprised if Bridget knew who he was and how he was connected to her sister.

“I think it might be interesting to see what happens.” And if she’d done all of this so she could play Mata Hari. How far would she go?

Mitch was silent for a moment. A little too silent.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Flynn knew when his brother was holding back. Mitch had an incredible poker face, but he rarely used it around his family.

“She might have come in on an assumed name. Not exactly assumed, but she’s not using Slaten. She’s got her membership under Amy Lyndon. It was her married name, but legally she’s gone back to Slaten.”

“So she’s trying to hide her last name,” he mused. “I find that interesting.”

“I do too, Flynn.” Mitch used his name with a pointed stare. “It’s not like you’re going in as John, Jr.”

Flynn waved that off. “I only went by that at the office. I’ve always used my middle name since I discovered that chicks dig Irish sounding names. Also, might I point out if I was still using my legal first name, the baby and I would get very confused.”

Johnny’s head came up at that moment and he yawned as though telling his uncle he didn’t have to be confused. He was the center of the universe and he knew it.

Sometimes Flynn kind of envied the kid. He’d never had that kind of attention lavished on him. Not even when he was a baby. He’d had a succession of nannies who came and went. His parents were all right, but they’d led very busy lives and hadn’t had time for their children. His father had mellowed over the years and he’d been a much better dad later in life.

Flynn had to face the fact that he was lonely. He’d changed up his life and it had been for the better. He enjoyed his job more now. Chase was happy and healthy. But he’d also isolated himself.

It had been an easy thing to do after how his engagement had ended. He never talked about it. Only Chase knew how he’d screwed up. He hadn’t even told Mitch. That was how ashamed he was of not seeing through her lies. After he’d figured out how bad it was, he’d taken a step back and devoted himself to work.

Gaining Master rights at Sanctum had been his way of getting back out there. His brother had introduced him to the lifestyle and he’d realized very quickly it suited him.

That was when he’d started to think about taking a submissive.

It was a logical thing to do. He would look for a woman who wanted the same things he did. They would discuss their relationship up front and work out a contract between them. No more of that shitty go-with-the-flow dating that inevitably ended in him getting his ass kicked. This time he would do it right.

“I thought you were going into this because you were serious about finding a sub.” Mitch didn’t seem to notice the fact that his son suddenly found his father’s nose deeply fascinating. Johnny giggled and he poked at it. “Now you want to play spy?”

“I’m not the one who likes to send in the spies. That’s her MO.”

“That was her father’s MO,” Mitch corrected, gently shifting his son so tiny fingers didn’t go up his nose. “He and your dad apparently liked to go at it hard. Our dad. Sorry, it’s still hard sometimes.”

“It’s okay.” He’d gotten used to Mitch distancing from their father. In some ways, it was a miracle they were so close. Mitch was hard to get to know, but he was loyal once a man was in his circle.

Flynn had earned that. He’d changed his nephew’s diapers on occasion. That had to buy him loyalty. Johnny was a cute thing, but he was squirmy and did not skimp on the poop. He was also going to drive his father crazy. Flynn stood and held his hands out. Johnny gleefully went to him.

“I hate that it bothers you,” Mitch said, turning back to the dishes and finally making some headway with them. Laurel was working late and Mitch had planned a nice evening for them that included his wife not having to clean the kitchen. “You know I consider you and Chase family. Not consider. You are my family. It’s just weird to have gone from having no family to kind of being surrounded by it twenty-four seven.”

“Is Daddy feeling suffocated?” Flynn asked Johnny, who drooled and looked ridiculously adorable.

“No,” Mitch said with a sigh. “I’m not very good at the advice stuff.”

Flynn kept his eyes on the bundle in his hand and shook his head. “But Uncle Flynn didn’t ask for advice.”

Except he kind of needed it.

“Oh, you asked for it by being a dumbass. I know that much. I’ve been around enough brothers to know that the first rule of brotherhood is to not let your brother make an ass of himself,” Mitch explained.

He had to admit, when Mitch used that tone of voice, he really did feel like the little brother. Sometimes it made him feel oddly welcome. Today it put him on edge. “If she’s so innocent, why did we catch a Slaten employee trying to hack into our system?”

Mitch stopped and turned, drying his hands on a towel. “You can prove it?”

Beyond being his brother, Mitch was also a hawk of an attorney. He liked to fly around, looking for places he could swoop in and sue.

“My CEO says he believes it beyond a shadow of a doubt, but you know I can’t sue them. I can’t even bring the cops into it.” The weight of the baby in his arms was soothing. He found himself bouncing on the balls of his feet as Johnny yawned and laid his head on his shoulder.

“Because your stock would tank and we would be viewed as soft.” Mitch hung up the towel. “I’m surprised she would do that. You know I advised her on the takeover. I can’t talk about it, but I liked her. She seemed very stable and unlike her father. Are we certain this isn’t her father still trying to cause trouble? He would likely have people on the inside at Slaten.”

Flynn knew well enough that a woman wasn’t always as she seemed. “All I know is in the last year, Slaten has come after us and hard, so I find it interesting that a woman who, according to rumors, hates me and my company would end up as my training partner. Oh, but she’s not using her real name and she doesn’t know I know what she looks like. Does she know I’m your brother?”

“I don’t think it’s been brought up,” Mitch replied. “She only recently moved here and she hasn’t done much socializing. Laurel met her briefly at her wedding, but I don’t believe they’ve talked since. Laurel isn’t particularly close to Bridget, though they’re friendly. We see her at holidays. I assume we’ll see Amy with her this year. We’ll certainly invite her, but I doubt she’s been told anything about you by Laurel.”

But Amy knew something. It was the only explanation. “I think this is all one big plan by Slaten. They haven’t gotten what they want and now they’re sending in the big guns.”

“You think they want the code you’ve been working on?”

Of course they did. “I think they’ve figured out that I’m working on it remotely so their hackers can’t touch it. I’ve got it on a system with no Internet connection.”

He couldn’t be too safe. He kept two hard backups, but otherwise he had the only copy of his work.

“As your brother, I’m going to advise you to step back.” Mitch walked up and put a hand on his shoulder. “No matter why she’s doing it, this isn’t business. You can’t go into this training relationship without honesty.”

That seemed unfair. “I’m not the one who hasn’t been honest.”

“But you make the choices and decisions when it comes to who you are and what you do to other people. You joined this group to find yourself. Don’t turn this into something ugly. Go to the club tonight and explain the situation to Wade. He’ll get you into another class and you’ll have done the right thing. You can find the relationship you really want. You do the training right and put your heart and soul into it, and I can assure you you’ll enjoy yourself. You’ll take your time and find the right sub for you. I meant what I said, Flynn. You’ll find a lot of peace in the lifestyle if you let it work for you. Laurel and I have.”

Yes, Laurel was so submissive. Laurel had actually softened his brother and turned him from a hard-core, full-time Dom into an indulgent husband. He wasn’t so sure he was looking for that. The whole marriage ship might have sailed for him. He couldn’t trust a woman enough to make that kind of commitment to her, but a contract might do. A well thought out and executed contract with rules and guidelines might bring him some peace.