Protector: Doms of Mountain Bend Book 1

by BJ Wane

“With a K and an i, yes.”

  He barely refrained from rolling his eyes and almost laughed at her obvious struggle to keep from griping again. “I said you would be given a pass at several rules tonight, but whatever made you think you could use me, or any other member of our club, to add a kinky notch to your dorm-room bed? Get up, and I’ll escort you out.”

  Kandi jumped off the bed, tossed her head in disdain, and glared at him. “You can’t speak for other people. I want to hang out for a while.”

  She likely had in mind to show him what he was missing by turning her down. He was almost tempted to let her have her way. It would be funny to watch her humiliating failure, but he had neither the time nor the patience to mess with her any longer.

  “Wrong, I can speak for any member or guest in my club.” Shawn jerked a thumb toward the door. “Out. Now.”

  She flounced by him with an exaggerated huff, and he followed her out to the second-floor landing and down to the stairs wishing he could keep on going once he saw her to her car. He doubted Clayton and Dakota, or any of the other Doms assisting with the membership activities, would appreciate him dodging his responsibilities. Until he figured out what was driving his sulky moods of late, he would have to suck it up and do his part, even if his heart wasn’t in it.

  Shawn waited until Kandi with a K and an i drove off before returning inside and heading to the bar. A cold beer would go down real nice about now. He stopped to say a few words to patrons along the way while scanning the room to see who was doing what and with whom. Even though the three of them knew the members well and trusted them, it was always good to keep an eye out for a potential problem.

  He came to a sudden halt as his gaze zeroed in on the blonde at a chain station, his body jerking in stunned surprise seeing Lisa bound in his club. The somewhat evasive schoolteacher hadn’t projected any submissive vibes the two times they’d met, but looking at her face etched with discouragement, her slim body and soft breasts arching forward in silent supplication, there was no denying she’d found something she needed by indulging in alternate sex at least once before. Simon, a Dom he knew well, seemed to temper the stroke of his flogger as he aimed for the fleshy undercurve of one breast.

  Shawn frowned as Lisa opened her eyes, and, even from this distance, he could see the frustrated ache reflected in the green depths. That undisguised longing added to the questions crowding his head about the last woman he expected to see here, the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about. As obsessed and confused about her as he’d been since their first encounter, he hadn’t dared to imagine her bound and naked, succumbing to his control.

  As puzzled by Simon’s uncharacteristic restraint, given Lisa’s clear body language, as he was by his slightly miffed feelings toward the other man, he veered their way. As if sensing his approach, her gaze flew toward him, rounding in disbelief, her breasts rising with her startled gasp.

  Without taking his eyes off hers, Shawn asked, “Master Simon, would you mind if I have a word with this guest?”

  “Not at all, since she’s not happy with me.”

  Lisa winced. “Oh, but I am, sir. I’m sorry, I was just hoping…” She paused in consternation, looking away from both men.

  Simon used the flogger handle to lift her chin and turn her face up to his. “You were hoping for a fast scene, some quick burns to distract you from whatever is on your mind, and a just-as-fast orgasm, right?”

  Lisa shuffled her feet and clenched her hands, her face turning pink under their unrelenting gazes as her jaw tightened. “If you’re so good at reading people, why did you stall?”

  He raised an arrogant brow. “My scene, my way. Master Shawn, let me know if you need me to return.”

  “Will do, thanks.” Shawn nodded, grateful for Simon’s insight. He should have known Simon wasn’t oblivious to Lisa’s needs.

  He waited until they were as alone as they could be in a room holding over seventy people before giving Lisa his full attention. Taking in the damp ends of her hair clinging to her neck, he stepped close enough for her nipples to brush his chest. “I’m usually a pretty good judge of character, but gotta admit I never pictured you here at Spurs, Ms. Halldor.” He smirked when she narrowed her eyes at the sarcastic inflection he’d used in saying her name.

  “Then we’re even, Deputy McDuff, since I never imagined you here, either. If you’ll release me, please, I’ll be on my way.”

  Oh, no, he wasn’t letting her off that easy, not while gripped with the urge to erase the prim façade that replaced the stark desire she’d exhibited a moment ago by giving her what she’d come here seeking. Testing her, and himself, he slid his hands behind her neck then spread his fingers as he pushed them up under her hair to cradle her head in his palms. Watching the pulse jump in her neck, he could almost hear the rapid pounding of her heart.

  “Not yet, and here, it’s Master Shawn. You don’t want to leave with your body still vibrating for the touch that will ease the strain from whatever is bothering you, do you? No, keep your eyes on me,” he insisted when her attempt to pull free of his hold ended with that telltale shifting of her gaze, leaving no doubt she knew of her inability to shield her emotions.

  “You want to continue with me? Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  He found himself wanting to appease her straining needs as much as he needed answers about this constant tug of vague recognition. Again, he discounted the possibility she was the young girl he’d rescued so long ago despite the same coloring and soft voice that kept triggering the memory. That much coincidence was too farfetched to believe.

  Shawn waited until her desire overrode her caution and she gave him a reluctant nod to continue. “Good, girl.” He was never stingy with his praise when warranted. Dropping his hands to her shoulders, he caved to the temptation to touch her and drew his palms down her chest and over her nipples to cup the soft mounds. “So dainty, much like the rest of you. But you’re tough on the inside, aren’t you, Lisa?”

  “When I need to be, Sir.” She bit her lip as he squeezed her breasts before releasing them.

  “Let me assure you that you don’t need to be tonight, not with me. Let go whenever you’re ready.” Turning away, he walked to the wall of implements and chose a flogger with three short, wide straps and returned to stand behind her. “Do you wish to keep your skirt on?” he asked, snapping the strands on the back of her right thigh just below the hem.

  A groan slipped past her compressed lips, a shudder rippling down her smooth back. “On, please.”

  Her slight hesitation told him she was tempted to reveal more of her body, and, with it, her needs, but he wouldn’t push her past her comfort zone. Not until he knew more about her, not only where and when they’d connected before, but about what was causing the stress that drove her here tonight. As a new teacher in a small town, she should be aware of the risk to her reputation and job if the wrong person saw her here. Not that something like that had ever been a problem since he, Clayton, and Dakota had been members, or that they would care if it had. But, as sexist as it sounded, women were always held to a different moral standard, and, as an educator of young children, she was walking a very narrow line.

  Shawn tickled the red marks on her thigh with the ends of the flogger, liking the way she shivered at the light touch on top of the lingering burn. With a flick of his wrist, he snapped the strands against her other thigh, leaving matching red stripes behind.

  “How long have you been involved in the lifestyle?” he asked with a strike to her lower back.

  “Not long. A little over a year. Oh God.” Lisa arched her back into his next swat, this one a little higher.

  “What you don’t reveal in words, you say in body language. That can work for now in here, Lisa, but not outside these doors.” Shawn teased her by caressing his way up to her shoulders before drawing back and delivering two rapid slashes to the lily white soft skin.

  “We don’t…” Turning her head to look at hi
m, she said, “Outside these doors, my life is no one’s business. Sir.”

  Shawn moved to stand in front of her, her head following him. “As long as you’re not in trouble, I can respect that. If I discover otherwise, I will make your life my business.”

  Her eyes flashed with anger, but she held her tongue, he assumed in favor of finishing this scene.

  ****

  Closing her eyes, Lisa set her worry over that vow aside and braced for the slice of prickly pain as Master Shawn lifted his arm. If he hadn’t moved so close to her, so fast, allowed her to lean against that rock-hard body and look into the concern in those pewter eyes, she would have demanded her release and run away from the shocking revelation of his presence. She wasn’t prepared to see him in this club, his eyes hot on her bare breasts, his broad shoulders rigid with the same disbelief that had clouded her thinking, or for the comforting security of his unbreakable hold.

  She cried out with the hot sting of leather hitting her breast, the lovely burn it left behind making a beeline straight down to her pussy. The sudden, startling return of her response shook her, adding to her confusion over her conflicting feelings toward a man she barely knew. As much as she welcomed the slow build-up of arousal his takeover of this scene initiated, it didn’t bode well for her to keep her distance from either Master Shawn or Deputy Sheriff McDuff. She was still working her way through the hurt his lack of memory produced, an unexpected emotion he didn’t deserve the blame for.

  Gathering all her wayward, unexplainable thoughts together, she shoved them aside, determined to hold onto the pleasant euphoria slowly taking over her senses, just like she remembered before coldness had seeped in to take over. Master Shawn treated her other breast to a searing stroke, her sheath spasming in quick response to the pain.

  “I prefer your eyes open and on me, Lisa.”

  Unable to help herself, she obeyed, even though she was more comfortable with her shields in place. She should have remembered that was almost impossible in private clubs such as this, and in front of such astute Doms.

  “Better. Since you’re cooperating nicely, I’ll give you permission to close them again as long as you show me those pretty green eyes the second I insist.”

  Right now, with her body vibrating as close to normal for her as she could recall, she’d agree to anything. With a nod, she lowered her lids, his deep, commanding voice washing through her with his growled reprimand.

  “Verbal answers, Lisa.”

  “Yes, sir.” She thrilled to his willingness to alter strictness with leniency as he saw fit, even if she found his accuracy in reading her bothersome.

  Stars lit up the blackness behind her closed eyes as fiery pain engulfed her right nipple with the next strike. His accurate aim had centered on the tender bud and left it throbbing in tune with the pulsations rippling along her vaginal walls. The low murmur of nearby voices fell away as she arched forward for the next blow, turning her torso just enough to entice a similar aim toward her other nipple.

  Master Shawn didn’t leave her aching, treating that tip to the same blistering heat as she quaked in the restraints, praying for the one strike that would free her from months of disappointments.

  “Tell me,” he whispered seductively close to her ear, “have you ever climaxed from breast play?”

  His warm breath in her ear upped her arousal another notch, along with the light brush of a calloused finger over one tormented nipple. “No, sir.” Her heart sank at that admission and the odds of achieving the bliss of a mind-enveloping orgasm tonight despite the dampness coating her thong.

  “Let’s see what I can do about that, shall we?”

  He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, she heard the flogger drop as he dipped his head to draw a turgid tip into his hot, suckling mouth. Lisa cried out at the strong pull on her sore nipple, and the sparks of pleasure the enhanced discomfort produced. She swayed closer to his bristled face, keeping her eyes sealed. The scrape of his whiskered cheek and jaw against her sensitive flesh added to the burning need throbbing between her legs, an ache she kept praying would burst into a wildfire.

  Master Shawn took his time gnawing, sucking, and licking her nipple, one second intensifying the lingering pain, the next soothing it. One hand held her breast up for his mouth, the other reaching under her skirt to palm her bare buttock. The press of his long fingers into her soft flesh, so close to her aching, empty pussy, made her quiver with a longing she dared not succumb to at this point, not with the secret of who she was standing between them.

  “Sir, please,” she pled on a groan, hoping the tiny fluctuations starting in her pussy would continue toward an orgasm.

  “Please what?” he asked, releasing her nipple and sliding to the other side. “Torment you some more? Okay.”

  To Lisa’s astonishment, all it took to topple her over that climatic edge was the tight clamp of his mouth around her other nipple coinciding with the deep kneading of her buttock he initiated. Basking in the pain-induced, unexpected pop of pleasure, she flung her head back and sobbed with the release of pressure even though it was still less than what she’d achieved before she shut down. She didn’t know how long she basked in her breakthrough and the ripples of warm undulations spreading up her core and through her straining body before her head cleared enough to realize he’d returned his hands to cup her skull and his insistent voice registered.

  “Open your eyes, Lisa.”

  Remembering his instructions, she blinked until his tanned face came into focus, shivering from the cool air drying her still-quivering, perspiration-damp body. “S-sorry, I…” She blew out a breath and opened her mouth to start again, but he stopped her with a quick, somewhat chaste kiss.

  “Don’t apologize for letting go, Lisa.” Holding her face up, he subjected her to a close scrutiny before nodding, apparently satisfied with whatever he saw. “Excellent. Get ready for me to release your arms.”

  She knew what he meant and held her breath for the tingling of blood rushing downward, eliciting tiny pinpricks as he lowered her hands to her sides. Releasing her breath on a whoosh, she fell against him with one more shudder. He held her without words, giving her time to get herself together. When she was tempted to linger, she pulled away, ready to leave and sort through the night’s revelations by herself.

  “Thank you, Master Shawn, but I really must get going now.”

  Shoving her hands aside as she reached to button her top, his closed face didn’t reveal a clue as to his thoughts. “Next time, you’ll do better for me. I’ll walk you out after you put my number in your phone so you can get hold of me if you have trouble driving home.”

  Lisa wanted to argue about his confident assertion and assumption there would be a next time, but that would only delay her departure, and the sooner she got her head on straight about where to go from here with him, the better.

  Shawn didn’t want her to take off without seeking more answers, but he was learning to read her accurately, and her shuttered expression and tight jaw meant he’d pushed her enough tonight. Handing her her bra, he clasped her elbow and led her into the foyer.

  “Tell me we haven’t met before,” he demanded, using his sternest Dom voice as they stepped outside. She tried to draw back, but he refused to loosen his hold. In a perverse way, he got a kick out of watching the wheels turn behind those emerald eyes as she whipped her head up, floundering over what to say.

  Her attractive, smooth face hardened, and regret kicked him in the gut one second before she answered, “If you’re so sure we’ve met before, when you come up with when or where, tell me, and we’ll both be enlightened. I’m parked at the very end.”

  Shawn waited until he’d seen the last of Lisa’s taillights before returning inside, chafing from unappeased curiosity and an engorged cock. He could still hear her whimpering cry upon climax, the way it had rung with a variety of pent-up emotions despite the signals it wasn’t exactly a mind-blowing orgasm. The needy glaze still lingering in her eyes raise
d his protective instincts along with his lust. There was no denying he wanted the petite schoolteacher, or the fact she was hiding something, and he wondered if it was the reason she’d accepted a temporary, out-of-state job.

  Dakota swiveled on the barstool as he approached, eyeing him with a raised dark brow as he took the seat next to him. “Did a newbie rub you wrong?”

  “Why?”

  “Because the look on your face is one I’m usually accused of, and I don’t like the competition.”

  Shawn grinned, his tense muscles relaxing as he lifted a finger to their bartender, Ben, for a beer. It was always good to see Dakota’s rare sense of humor make an appearance.

  “Yeah, but not in the way you’re thinking. She wasn’t new to the lifestyle but not real experienced, either. I put a dent in some block holding her back, but not much, and only physically. The girl has secrets that are bugging me.” Not to mention that nagging sense of having met her somewhere before.

  Dakota shrugged and took a long pull of his brew before replying, “Next time, push her harder.”

  “That’s your style, not mine. And you drive away more than you hang on to, so I think I’ll muddle my way past her defenses my way. Thanks, Ben.” Shawn nodded to the Parks and Wildlife ranger whose only concession to indoor work was the two weekend nights he tended bar here at Spurs.

  “Suit yourself, but my way is easier, and less taxing.”

  Ben smirked, having heard enough to get the gist of their conversation. “Your size alone intimidates even the not-so-timid ones, let alone that cold shoulder you like to fake subs out with.”

  “Look at that. Ben’s got your number already, and he’s only known you a fraction of the time Clayton and I have.” Shawn gave Ben a thumbs up, ignoring Dakota’s scowl as he stood.

  “Bite me, both of you.”

  Dakota stalked off, but Shawn knew he wasn’t pissed. His friend could take it as well as he dished it out. “I guess I better circulate and make sure all our new guests are taken care of, unless you want a break.”