Masterpiece (The Masters of The Order Book 1)

by Verne, Jillian

  The unreadable expression on her face shook him. His future hinged on what lay behind those mysterious eyes. Eyes that hid more than they revealed.

  But how much more? “I expect that you understand what I am, just as I understand what you are.”

  She nodded, but didn’t speak.

  He waded in deeper. “I embrace my nature as a sexual Dominant and belong to a group called the Order.”

  Julianne’s eyes went wide. “You belong to the Order?”

  Another shock. His innocent Beauty knew about the Order? How odd. He expected that she understood his nature, just as he understood hers. But the Order? That was something else entirely.

  “Yes,” he replied cautiously. “Being a Dom and belonging to the Order, these are fundamental parts of who I am. So fundamental that if you cannot accept these things about me, we truly must say goodbye.”

  Nicolai paused, searching for any glimmer of how his words were affecting Julianne. She offered none, so he said it. “I want you, Beauty. As my lover. As my submissive. As my muse.”

  Julianne yanked her hands away and rushed onto the terrace without a word.

  Nicolai stared into the empty space in front of him. Twisted his head left, then right, trying to relieve the sudden tension in his neck. He could have anticipated several reactions to that statement, but not this one. She turned her back? No woman ever turned her back to him.

  He stood to follow, but found himself unable to move. Surprise, anger and something he hadn’t felt since he was a teenager held him in place. He felt vulnerable and he hated it. Hated that this innocent confounded him at every turn. Hated that despite her disrespect, he had no choice but to chase after her. A thousand questions raced through his mind at once.

  And a thousand doubts.

  Secrets. This woman had so many secrets. He wished he understood her, but had to admit that he didn’t. This turn of events was absolute proof of that fact. But there was no avoiding this moment of truth. Whatever the next few minutes held, he had to go forward. With a long, slow exhale, he willed himself through the French doors.

  Julianne’s back faced him as he stepped outside. The scent of roses filled the air, but her posture did not match the romance surrounding her. White knuckles clutched the railing and tension wracked her elegant frame. He waited in agonizing silence for her to react, but she didn’t.

  “I apologize if I made you unhappy.” The lack of authority in his voice made him cringe.

  Julianne spun around and shoved him with both hands. “It’s too late, Nicolai. I dreamed of you, but my dreams are dead. It’s too late.” She was shouting and slapping wildly at his chest.

  He didn’t stop her. Her fury needed expression. He studied his angry muse, fascinated once again by the depth of her buried passions. The intoxicating lure of drawing those passions to the surface peaked his desperation to have her. In time, he would understand her secrets, but for now, there was only the violent need to possess her.

  He pulled her tight against his chest and pinned her arms. She struggled against him, her breath ragged. Feeling the fight of her fragile body only intensified his need to dominate her. She was genuinely upset, but anger and months of frustration had stolen his mercy. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look into his eyes.

  “No, damn it, it’s not too late. What are you hiding? What’s holding you back?”

  Julianne looked horrified so he continued in a falsely calm voice, his expression conveying none of his thoughts. “Forget everything else and give me one honest answer. Do you want to be mine? Do you want me as your Master? If the answer is yes, Julianne, nothing and no one will keep us apart.”

  A delicate hand pressed against his chest and he allowed her to push away. The urge to grab her again was monstrous, but he held back.

  Waiting.

  Watching those violet eyes.

  *****

  Master. Lover. Submissive. Muse.

  Julianne was dazed. Those words rendered her momentarily deaf. If she hadn’t been seated, they would have felled her. How do you react when you realize the world you thought you knew isn’t quite as it seems? The sudden shift in her reality sent her mind hurtling back to the other times in her life when her world shifted sideways and for a moment, the painful memories overwhelmed her. Hearing her father’s voice crack when he told his little girl that Mère went to live with God. Feeling the first stroke of fire across her back at the Colonel’s hand. Staring at the blood on the foyer floor as her dreams died. She had experienced the unsettling slap of facing a new reality too many times before.

  But this new reality was different.

  Unhappy. How could Nicolai think he made her unhappy? The elaborate dream of being his woman was her only happiness. All the rest was loss and pain and sacrifice. Her reserve snapped with the weight of her frustration. Years of pent up anger erupted. She wanted to hurt someone the way she had been hurt, so she hit Nicolai. He took her pain. Each strike fueled the next until the anchor of his arms allowed the anger to ebb away and her mind acclimate to the present.

  Nothing and no one will keep us apart. The future had just been rewritten. Everything she thought would happen today had been wrong. In the safety of Nicolai's embrace, the obstacle that had been insurmountable only moments before disappeared.

  Hope bubbled up inside her. She leaned back to focus on Nicolai’s face. The look in his eyes ignited a new ache in her heart that cut into her soul and slaughtered every bit of joy that his revelation wrought. She was made for this dominant and deeply sensual man, but he didn’t know it. He didn’t know the painful journey she had taken to reach him. He didn’t know the masked woman waiting for her lover to set her free.

  She had so much to express, but as always, the words would not come. Still, she knew how to answer his question. She went to her knees and pressed her lips against his hand.

  Just like that, her Master crystallized above her.

  “Stand up.” Nicolai’s voice was empowered, full of command now. “Remove your panties and give them to me.”

  His authority flowed through her body, rousing her to action despite her naïveté. She bent and slid the small piece of silk down her legs. As she rose, he grabbed her wrists and thrust them behind her back, trapping them in one unyielding hand. Her body bowed as he forced her against the railing with his hips. He brought his other hand under her dress and swept it up her thigh. She jerked a little at his intimate touch. But only a little.

  His palm covered her sex. “This is mine,” he growled as he staked his claim.

  The press of his hand sent a pulsating wave of arousal surging through her.

  “There should never be anything between me and what is mine.”

  His palm rocked back and forth over her mound, creating a decadent friction that forced another pounding wave to crash through her. Her head tilted back when he sought her neck and teeth pressed against the exposed skin. A gentle bite. She arched into the nip.

  Offering more.

  Seeking more.

  “You didn’t answer me. Say it,” Nicolai ground out as hot lips devoured her nape.

  When she didn’t immediately give what he wanted, her ferocious lover bit her again. Hard.

  The pleasurable sting plunged her deeper into the passionate swell and the words rushed from her mouth. “Yes, Nicolai. I am yours. Your lover, your submissive and your muse.”

  Nicolai jerked her body, forcing her head up, and pierced her with a raw, possessive stare. “Yes, you are, my Beauty,” he whispered with utter confidence. His expression blazed with satisfaction as he commanded her. “And you will keep your eyes on me while I take you.”

  He parted her hidden lips and skimmed his fingers into her softness, drawing the wetness out. Her body tensed with voracious need when he found the perfect spot and dragged her cream over it. Each touch was deliberate, unequivocal, masterful. Cerulean eyes absorbed every response as she tasted this intimacy for the first time. She struggled to hold Nicolai's stare until
the intensity of his gaze forced her lids to close.

  “No. You will never hide from me again,” he roared and shook her once more.

  Her eyes shot open. Yes. Set me free, Nicolai. I don’t want to hide anymore.

  He spread her legs wider with his knees and began to touch her more aggressively, finding a rhythm with his stroking. As his fingers massaged her, round and round and round, his mouth closed over hers. He kissed her with a passion that bordered on violent, his tongue thrusting into her, taking, controlling, mimicking the power of those talented hands. His fervor left no doubt; she belonged to him.

  Nicolai tore his lips away to capture her eyes again. “You torture me when you hide,” he rasped and tightened the steel hold on her wrists. “Tell me,” he urged. “Tell me you want this.”

  She thrashed against the railing, torn between pain and pleasure. Pain as the grip on her wrists forced her hands higher against her back. Pleasure as expert fingers danced over her slick flesh and toyed with her opening. The decadent combination was fabulous and frightening at the same time.

  “Tell me.”

  Eyes wide, voice halting, she told him exactly what she wanted with an honesty she’d never given to anyone before. “I want the fire of your touch on my skin,” she said, remembering the feeling of rebirth when he lashed her palms. “I want you to burn me, reduce me to ash and create me again. Only stronger, more beautiful, more sexual.”

  She felt her words consume him. Saw the awe on his face as they touched his soul. His beautiful artist’s soul.

  Her mind swirled, faster and faster. Her breath rushed in and out through parted lips. She felt dizzy. Tried to focus, but, Mon Dieu, what Nicolai was doing to her body. The way he controlled her. The astonished eyes. The talented hands. She was on overload. The sensations were extreme, so unlike the self-induced pleasure she knew.

  But this is no fantasy. It's the real thing.

  She wanted to be a woman for him, but fear suddenly threatened to eclipse her ecstasy. “I’m afraid,” she cried out and tried to escape him.

  Nicolai held tight. “Trust me, Beauty. Let me create the woman.” Unwavering command echoed in his voice as he continued working between her legs.

  Harder.

  Faster.

  Demanding that she concede to his mastery, guiding all of her attention to his fingers and how they seemed to know the perfect way to pleasure a woman. Her body shook in quick trembles against his. He whispered soft commands to hold back her fear until his unrelenting focus lured her back to him.

  The way he took her with such savage abandon invited her to unfurl her own dark, unexplored desires. Enmeshed in his powerful hold, she couldn’t move, couldn’t think and for the first time since she stepped into his office all those months ago, all she could do was feel.

  Feel the hard body pressed against her.

  Feel the heavy breath.

  Feel the hands touching her. Trapping her.

  Nicolai created an inescapable current and the seduction of being powerless swept her away. Arousal flowed through her body like rushing water, welling up between her thighs to fill her until she throbbed.

  “Nicolai, I ache.”

  “Patience, my Beauty. I will take care of what is mine.”

  The undertow of the coming orgasm pulled her along. Nicolai controlled every sensation, drawing her closer and closer to the crest, then dragging her away. Suspending her on the edge without allowing her to tumble into satisfaction. Drowning her in a sea of pleasure.

  A long, slick finger slid into her and the world narrowed to the silken feel of his intimate possession. There was nothing but Nicolai. There would never be anything but Nicolai. She convulsed against the railing and her upper body fell hard against his chest. His thumb swirled over her swollen nub as the probing finger withdrew and entered her in a slow, sensual rhythm.

  “Open to me, Beauty.”

  Another seeking finger joined the uncompromising slide into her body. The pressure was overwhelming, almost painful, but not quite. His thumb repeated its endless glide. With each pass, the momentum built. She bit her lip to hold back the carnal sounds that threatened to escape her lips.

  “C’est come toucher le ciel,” he murmured.

  She heard something in his voice she’d never heard from anyone before and raised her gaze. The look in his eyes stopped her heart.

  Adoration.

  Devotion.

  This gifted, dominant man, the man she adored, was worshipping what was his.

  “Like touching heaven,” he said again and venerated her with the perfect touch.

  *****

  When his muse knelt at his feet, the gesture sent Nicolai reeling.

  There it was: the path to his happily-ever-after. The one he didn’t expect or deserve, but that he was sure to follow. In all his life, he’d never felt emotion like that. The perfection of the moment topped everything. Until he touched Julianne and realized why it didn't.

  He’d yet to live.

  La femme exquise in his arms brought him to life. A life he would dedicate to loving her. He stroked her with slow, possessive sweeps. She was trembling and clutching his waist while the aftershocks of her orgasm rocked her. He smiled at how sweetly she…his hand ran over something taped across the skin. He froze, swallowing hard against the sick feeling in his stomach.

  Her secret.

  Julianne didn’t notice as he struggled to hide his horror. She was deep in a place in the mind where submissives go and he didn’t want to destroy the peace he’d given her. He tried to distract himself with the feel of her body melted with sated ecstasy against his. It wasn’t working.

  Maybe if I say something romantic. “I want to give you everything, Beauty. I want you to give everything to me,” he forced the words. They sounded hokey.

  “I want chocolate,” she purred and nibbled at his neck.

  Julianne may be a mystery to him, but she certainly knew when he was sinking into a dark mood.

  “And so you will have it.”

  He drew her back into the dining room. After a waiter left them alone with the most decadent looking confection imaginable, he pulled the plate toward him, sliced off a large chunk with his fork and held it out to her.

  “Open."

  He slid the sweet sin through her waiting lips, savoring the delight on her face at the indulgence and the dreamy look he’d put into her eyes. As much as he didn’t want to, he had to shatter the moment. He had to affirm his control over her before her father’s dominance reasserted itself.

  He mustered all of his command and said, “Tell me about the Colonel, Julianne.”

  She blinked at him, the joy draining from her face as reality came back to her. “What am I doing?” she murmured.

  Her Dom looked her hard in the eye. “No withdraw, Julianne. Answer my question. Right now.”

  She shifted uneasily in her chair, clearing her throat a few times before speaking. “He told me never to talk about him.” She lowered her eyes and took a deep breath, looking so ashamed.

  Julianne obviously needed his command to disobey her father and he certainly wasn’t afraid of that responsibility. Beginning today, he was the only man she would obey.

  “And now, I’m telling you to do the opposite.”

  He watched her struggle to find the courage to open that part of her life she kept so well hidden. To break free of the Colonel’s control. She looked so lost and confused. He swore to himself that after she did this, she would never look that way again. Ever.

  She started slowly in a voice barely audible. “You don’t understand who I am, Nicolai.” Her hands were shaking.

  He fought the instinct to protect his muse from her demons and forced her to face them instead. “I do,” he insisted, taking them into his to steady her. “You are mine, Julianne, and together we are going to figure out who you are as opposed to who your father tells you to be.”

  Tears welled in her eyes, but she spoke without letting them fall. “My father
is a good man. His military service molded him…made him strict, demanding…then my mother died…he wants to protect me…that’s why he…that’s why I have to obey."

  Julianne was babbling as she tried to justify the Colonel's behavior. On some level, she recognized the kink in her logic, but couldn’t admit the abuse even to herself. They had to go deeper, so he cut to the chase.

  “Your obedience belongs to me now and I will never abuse it.”

  A single tear slipped down her cheek and dripped onto her skirt. The dark spot of wetness on the pale silk was like a spark to his powder key, but the explosion was hidden behind a practiced calm.

  “He loves me, Nicolai. He only does what’s best for me.”

  She was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince him and he wouldn’t let her.

  “No, Julianne. What he did to you is not love.”

  Her voice broke and her body folded in on itself. “He didn’t do anything, Nicolai.”

  He pressed his hand against the bandage on her back and she winced.

  “Don’t lie, Julianne. I know what this is.”

  She cowered and tried to move away. He held fast.

  “I know your secret, Julianne. You don’t have to hide it anymore. Tell me why he did this to you,” he said with quiet authority.

  She met his gaze and for the first time, he saw a flicker of anger cross those violet eyes. “I have to obey him.”

  “And if you don’t?”

  “He punishes me.”

  “How, Julianne? Say it out loud so you can hear the ugliness of the words when they are taken out of the shadows and brought into the light.”

  “He whips me.” Her voice got stronger as the secret she’d kept hidden for so long burst free. “In the foyer.” Tears marred her beautiful face. “He punishes me by whipping me in the foyer.”

  The words cut him and the anger spiked. He hugged her hard against his body to hide the absolute fury on his face. Despite the ferocity of his emotion, he forced himself to remain calm.