Mistress's Master: Men in Blue, Book 3 (31 page)

“
You
abandoned
me
.” She glared at him through slitted eyes. Sharp claws pinched his stomach. “Don’t try to turn this around.”

“Shit.” He hissed at the sting of the slices she’d raked across his six-pack. How sick did it make him that the burn steeled his cock further? “Would you rather they had dug around in my files? Maybe I should have allowed them to poke through all the pictures I’ve collected of you? All the testimonials and evidence I’ve hoarded to fireproof your ungrateful ass when the shit hits the fan?”

“I’m confused,” she whispered. Eyelashes swiped her cheek as she blinked furiously. “What are you saying?”

“That even though you played me like a fool, I’d still never stand for anyone to put you away. Because despite whatever fucking shenanigans you pulled today, I don’t believe for one second you’re in this for the drug. So tell me.
Now.
” He shook her. “Why the hell didn’t you wait for me to handle shit so we could visit Morselli together?”

“I didn’t know there was shit to handle other than him. Steve told me you were gone. That you’d ordered them to hold me until you came back. A prisoner in my own fucking space.”

Oh, shit.
He had. But not without cause. Not to sneak off and do exactly what he’d promised her he wouldn’t. Even, still…“You believed them? Over me? You didn’t ask more questions? Didn’t demand the details? Come on, Lily.”

“I… No, I didn’t.”

“You assumed the worst?” The swirling ball of anger, terror and loss occupying the pit of his stomach shifted, finding a new outlet. “You think I’m like every other man in your life? That no matter what I swore to you when I looked into those sexy blue eyes, I’d lied?”

“Yes.” Her bottom lip quivered.

Through a monumental test of willpower, he resisted kissing the flushed pink curve of her mouth. If he cracked now they might never recover.

“You called me Master, but you didn’t mean it.” He released her, rising to his knees as he angled toward the edge of the bed. “You took back your gift. Your faith in me.”

“Wait!” She rolled as best she could to maintain eye contact. “Don’t leave.”

“You did.”

“So did you.” Some of her vigor returned. Fury painted her cheeks. It was the tiny indentations her teeth pressed into her lip that did him in.

He slumped to the mattress, cradling his head between his hands. If he expected her to believe in him, he had to earn her trust. Over time. Not in one crazy, if intense, day. How could he blame her for wavering when every important person in her life had conned her? Not all of the blame could be laid at her feet.

It had cost her to reach out and call him back. Torn, ragged breaths bordering on sobs pummeled his hunched shoulders. Ego they had in spades.

Riding the line between equity and passion, he considered what Gunther might advise if his mentor had watched their situation unfold. Despite Lily’s contribution to the fiasco, it was Jeremy’s duty to protect her, not just physically but emotionally too. Clearly he’d earned a ginormous fail on that front.

“I let you down today, Lily.” He rotated ninety degrees, shoving off straight-locked arms until his shoulders met the headboard. “You’re right. I should have spoken to you personally before leaving, no matter the emergency.”

“I was in the middle of—”

“That’s not the point. I should have realized the conclusions you’d leap to.” He used the rope binding her to tug her around until her head rested on his lap. The tip of his finger seemed enormous when it traced her meticulously arched brow. “We’re just out of the gate, you and I. In five years, I hope it won’t matter as much. You’ll learn to rely on me as much as I will on you.”

“Five years?” The last of her stony resistance melted.

“Okay, maybe after ten you’ll realize I’m not going anywhere. I’m sorry to break this to you…” Rapt attention focused on his face as he teased her. “You’re stuck with me.”

“You were really coming right back?” Tears pooled, unshed, in her eyes.

“If for whatever reason we’re ever separated, I swear I will always come back to you. For you. Without fail.”

“I’m sor—”

He laid his hand lightly across her mouth.

“Not necessary.” A slow, devious smile spread across his lips. He wrestled the excitement out of his tone, attempting a nonchalant offer. “I was a bad Master. Would you like to take my spanking for me?”

“If you’ll add my strokes to the tally, sir.” The swell of her breasts drew his attention. Lamplight glimmered off her chest, which rose and fell quicker and quicker.

“Will the pain ease your guilty conscience?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you understand that if I give you this punishment, the rest disappears?” He circled her mouth with one finger, pleased when she opened and drew it inside. “We’ll erase today from our memories and start over. Without betrayals. Without doubt.”

“Please,” she whispered.

The tiny supplication affected him like a gunshot. A flurry of motion had her bindings unknotted at record speed. She didn’t attempt to move from where he situated her.

“Please what?”

“Please lay your palm on my ass. Burn away all the pain and fear we caused each other today and leave only the heat behind. Spank me. Please, Master Jeremy.”

A roar built behind his sternum and his knees went weak. Her supplication rushed to his head faster and more potent than the expensive bottle of Merlot the men in blue had pitched in to buy for his birthday last year. “I’d be honored to.”

He bent at the waist to cover her mouth with his. The caress of his lips started slow. It quickly built from tender nudges and gentle licks until they ate at each other. When it became a matter of lifting his head for oxygen or passing out and crushing her, he was surprised to find himself already on his feet beside the bed.

“Bare.” He growled. “I need you naked. Now.”

She held her hands out to him, and he stripped off first one than the other of her gloves. The soft skin at her wrists bore purple ligature marks from where she’d thrashed in her bonds. He pressed a light kiss to each one, liking the pretty color on her. She wore it well.

“Give me more.” Her moan drew his heavy-lidded gaze to her wide eyes. “Something to remind me of you—of this—when you’re not beside me.”

“You’ll always be imprinted on my heart, Lily. I’ll take you everywhere I go as part of me.” Next he unbuckled her boots.

Some preferred to rip the paper from a gift instead of meticulously unwrapping it. Less fuss and more of the good stuff. Anticipation was more his style. He delighted in every lace he untied and every zipper he released. Pale porcelain skin peeked between the components of her outfit, driving him insane. The only good news was that she was so engrossed in his touch she didn’t seem to notice how he toed the edge of his control.

He didn’t dare remove his clothes. If he eliminated the last barrier between them, he’d forget all about her punishment and fuse them with one desperate lunge. Forced abstinence sounded pretty hellacious to him. Accepting his own punishment for disappointing her earlier, he tugged the leather pants off her shapely legs.

Lily wiggled, lifting her hips to aid him.

With her ass completely exposed, he could have flipped her over and laid his hand to her naked flesh. Except she still wore the top of her suit and he couldn’t stand to have an inch of her veiled from his view. He rolled the pliant material from her, wondering at the all-over hug it had wrapped her in.

“You like wearing these…things.” He considered the latex version she’d showcased at Black Lily or the corsets he’d spotted her in when he hid in the shadows on Main, watching over her as she walked through deserted streets to her club, when he could manage it. “The constriction, the structure, the slight discomfort. You get off on it, don’t you?”

“Mmm…” She purred as her breasts were released from the confines of her outfit. “Yes, sir. Right now I like
not
wearing them more.”

“Same here.” He plumped her surprisingly stacked chest in his palms. “You’re gorgeous, Lily.”

“I’m glad I make you happy.”

“You have no idea how much.” He plucked her from the bed. A wry grin tipped up the corners of his mouth when she yelped, unused to someone manhandling her. With two or three giant strides, he carried her to a large leather chair. The low, arched arms made it perfect for what he had in store.

Jeremy sat, turning her until she stretched facedown over his lap with her legs extended to his right and her chest supported by the elegant sweep of the chair on his left.

“Comfortable?”

“No, sir.” Her thighs and ass flexed as she squirmed. “Too empty and I want the release you promised. I need you to replace all my doubts with something hot. Please.”

His cock nearly destroyed his favorite pair of jeans. She fit over his lap as though she’d been made especially for him. Maybe she had.

He expanded his massage of her ass, rubbing his hands in broad circles up her back until he reached her thick braid, which dangled down to the ground. The silky mass passed through his fingers as he lifted it. When he unwound the elastic at the base of the long tail, she stirred.

“Even this, so tightly arranged. You couldn’t stand to let one single part of you free, could you?” He released the woven plaits one fold at a time until a lush mane of soft waves tumbled across her shapely back. The softness pillowed his left forearm when he lowered it across her shoulder blades, pinning her in place. “Count them, Lily.”

“Yes, sir.” Her affirmation took the form of a keening whimper.

Music to his ears. Almost as good as her cries of sensual pain would be. “Relax.”

“Yes, s—”

Jeremy didn’t wait for her to finish before connecting with the firm muscles of her pert ass. The adorable jiggle that resulted mesmerized him nearly as much as the pink outline of his fingers that developed.

The only sound she made was a sharp inhalation. To her credit, she stayed still as a statue. Accepting—no, welcoming—all he chose to impart. He soothed the impact area.

“Forgetting something?”

“One.” She whispered, “Thank you, Master. Please, may I have another?”

“You’ll have plenty more before we’re through. Don’t make me remind you again.”

This time he spanked her harder.

“T-two.”

The smack of his palm on her lush curves rang through the room again and again. He half-expected Matt and Clint to ram through the door and rush to his damsel’s rescue. To their credit, they didn’t intervene. They probably still couldn’t fully appreciate his lifestyle choices, but they trusted him not to hurt Lily. Or any innocent for that matter.

Escalating numbers accompanied his steady barrage of rough touches. At a dozen, she began to struggle with focus. By fourteen she double counted.

Jeremy granted an intermission as he soothed the pain with kneading pressure. If she had been a beginner, he would have stopped there. He knew better than to quit early on her. “Five more. Harder ones. A spank for every minute I suffered, wondering if you were okay, while I tracked Morselli to his office.”

“May I have another on your behalf for the knot in my guts when Steve told me you’d caged me in?” Her teeth chattered. “The hardest of all. Please. Take the pain away.”

“Feed it to the fire.” He aimed carefully then swatted her with enough force to set her legs kicking as she struggled against his arm for the first time.

“Fifteen.”

“Such a good girl.” The next spank landed on her opposite cheek, balancing out the rose shading.

“Oh, shit. Yes.” She moaned. “Sixteen.”

He held her tighter, containing her squirming, which would have dumped her onto the floor had he not cradled her close.

“Seventeen.”

The smell of her arousal hit him a dozen times stronger than the careful force he applied to her ass. He couldn’t wait to reward her for her supplication and beautiful suffering. After they expunged the last of the horror they’d inflicted on each other.

“Eighteen.”

“It’s okay to cry, Lily. You were scared. Alone. Let it out.” She never would have released the pent-up emotion if he hadn’t provided her with a justifiable outlet. Her wrenching sobs broke his heart, driving him to end her agony. “Never again. I’m here. Do you feel me?”

Tingles spread across his hand when it connected with her radiant ass. He considered stopping short. Swallowing hard, he annealed his heart. She needed this.

“N-nineteen.”

He rubbed his target, aligning his palm just at the base curve where her thighs swelled into her ideal ass. The classic placement. “This one’s for me. It’s going to sting. It’s going to hurt. And then it’ll all be over. Behind us. Harness the pain. Push it outside of you.”

“Twenty,” she screamed.

Jeremy shifted, intending to smother her with affection while buried in the deep pile of pillows and blankets on the enormous bed, his favorite thing about the haven they’d created behind enemy lines. She surprised him again when she wrenched off his lap, kneeling on the floor between his spread legs.

He automatically cupped her tear-stained cheek in his palm when she scooted closer, resting her head on his thigh. The stark splendor of her cascade of midnight hair against pale skin was only outshone by the bright red splash of her parted lips and the impossible blue of her eyes. A single tear clung to her lashes like a precious diamond.

“Lily—” A lump formed in his throat, preventing him from sharing the awe in his heart.

“Let me.” She lifted her hand to the swell of his cock, tracing the bold line it made from his groin to his hip. “Please, Master.”

He couldn’t deny his own need for release—a channel for the overwhelming relief following his adrenaline high. Besides, he hoped to show her what he seemed incapable of putting into words. Neither of them could deny how desperately he needed her or how much her submission appealed to him when she unbuttoned his pants and his ultra-hard cock unknitted a solid inch of the zipper constraining him.

“Yes.” He ripped the rest of the closure open then guided her head toward his erection. Had he ever been this hard in his life? He doubted it.