Master No

by Lexi Blake

  Praise for Lexi Blake and Masters and Mercenaries…

  “I can always trust Lexi Blake's Dominants to leave me breathless...and in love. If you want sensual, exciting BDSM wrapped in an awesome love story, then look for a Lexi Blake book.”

  ~Cherise Sinclair USA Today Bestselling author

  “Lexi Blake's MASTERS AND MERCENARIES series is beautifully written and deliciously hot. She's got a real way with both action and sex. I also love the way Blake writes her gorgeous Dom heroes--they make me want to do bad, bad things. Her heroines are intelligent and gutsy ladies whose taste for submission definitely does not make them dish rags. Can't wait for the next book!”

  ~Angela Knight, New York Times bestselling author

  “A Dom is Forever is action packed, both in the bedroom and out. Expect agents, spies, guns, killing and lots of kink as Liam goes after the mysterious Mr. Black and finds his past and his future… The action and espionage keep this story moving along quickly while the sex and kink provides a totally different type of interest. Everything is very well balanced and flows together wonderfully.”

  ~A Night Owl “Top Pick”, Terri, Night Owl Erotica

  “A Dom Is Forever is everything that is good in erotic romance. The story was fast-paced and suspenseful, the characters were flawed but made me root for them every step of the way, and the hotness factor was off the charts mostly due to a bad boy Dom with a penchant for dirty talk.”

  ~Rho, The Romance Reviews

  “A good read that kept me on my toes, guessing until the big reveal, and thinking survival skills should be a must for all men.”

  ~Chris, Night Owl Reviews

  “I can’t get enough of the Masters and Mercenaries Series! Love and Let Die is Lexi Blake at her best! She writes erotic romantic suspense like no other, and I am always extremely excited when she has something new for us! Intense, heart pounding, and erotically fulfilling, I could not put this book down.”

  ~ Shayna Renee, Shayna Renee's Spicy Reads

  “Certain authors and series are on my auto-buy list. Lexi Blake and her Masters & Mercenaries series is at the top of that list... this book offered everything I love about a Masters & Mercenaries book – alpha men, hot sex and sweet loving… As long as Ms. Blake continues to offer such high quality books, I’ll be right there, ready to read.”

  ~ Robin, Sizzling Hot Books

  “I have absolutely fallen in love with this series. Spies, espionage, and intrigue all packaged up in a hot dominant male package. All the men at McKay-Taggart are smoking hot and the women are amazingly strong sexy submissives.”

  ~Kelley, Smut Book Junkie Book Reviews

  Master No

  Masters and Mercenaries, Book 9

  Lexi Blake

  Master No

  Masters and Mercenaries, Book 9

  Lexi Blake

  Published by DLZ Entertainment LLC

  Copyright 2015 DLZ Entertainment LLC

  Edited by Chloe Vale

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-937608-41-5

  McKay-Taggart logo design by Charity Hendry

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.

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  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  All books are difficult to write. Don’t let anyone tell you the act of creating a story is a breeze. Putting your heart and soul on the page is always hard, but some books are more difficult than others. Master No was one of those books. Tennessee Smith was a hard nut to crack and I sometimes get cranky when I have to deal with those characters. My husband likes to call me a “method” writer. I often carry the character’s emotions and moods home with me and Ten wasn’t fun to live with through much of this novel. So I would like to thank my family and friends who got through my “Ten period” with tolerance and love and likely a bunch of liquor.

  Thanks to my editor and all around sister from another mister—Chloe Vale and to my beta team. Riane Holt and Stormy Pate, you’re the best!

  And I would like to thank you, dear reader. This is summer marks my fifth year in publishing and I’m still floored every single time you pick up a book and follow me down the rabbit hole. I’m going to warn you, this particular hole is deep and sometimes a bit dark. But it you follow me to the end, I promise there will always be light.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Author’s Note

  An excerpt from Scandal Never Sleeps by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake, Coming August 18, 2015

  An excerpt from Addict by Lexi Blake, Coming September 22, 2015

  From Sanctum with Love by Lexi Blake, Coming February 23, 2016

  About Lexi Blake

  Other Books by Lexi Blake

  PROLOGUE

  Saudi Arabia

  Eight Years Before

  Tennessee Smith took a deep breath, his body aching. At least his lungs still worked. God knew his nerves were still functioning in places. They were firing off like a machine gun, shooting never-ending pain through much of his system. Not his arms though. No, his arms had gone numb long hours before, and he was fairly certain there would be some damage there. Twenty-four hours hanging from a fucking meat hook would do that to a guy. Twenty-four hours of blood and pain and torture. Twenty-four hours of hell.

  “You’re awake,” a familiar voice said. “I told them you had the constitution of a rutting bull. They didn’t believe me. They think you’ll be out for another few hours, but I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

  Oh, but she’d let him down. Months they’d spent working together. She’d been his cover, his “wife” as he traveled through the Middle East. They’d been paired together, and though he’d hated the idea of having a partner, he’d settled into it. Hell, after a couple of times in Dawn’s bed, he’d started to like having regular sex, and then he’d just plain liked her. She was sweet, treated him like he could do no wrong, always listened to his advice. He’d been the senior partner and she the helpmate. It was like the Agency had sent him a sexual partner and backup all in one super-hot, blonde package.

  Over the months they’d worked together, he’d fallen into a relaxing pattern. They would move to a new city and slowly he would work his way into a position where he could start to gather the information he needed. She would talk to the wives, but beyond that, she would turn whatever place they were staying at into a home—into a place where he could relax. She would cook his favorite foods, somehow find his favorite bourbon even in Muslim
countries. And she would fuck him every night.

  Somewhere along the way, he’d stopped thinking about her as cover and he’d started thinking of her as his girlfriend.

  He’d even bought her a ring. He’d known he would never find another woman who suited him, who understood his needs. Dawn had been the perfect wife for him.

  She’d also been a double agent, and now he was in the hands of a terrorist group who wanted to know drone locations and the identity of agents in the area.

  Nice.

  “Go to hell, bitch.”

  “Oh, there’s the Tennessee I knew was always hiding under the surface,” Dawn said with a smirk. “I always knew there was a nasty bastard brewing there.”

  “And I should have known there was a traitorous bitch under your fifties housewife exterior.”

  Dawn simply laughed. “It worked pretty well on you. You think you’re so deep, but you were probably the easiest agent I’ve ever worked over. You were a breeze, Smith. All you needed was a dose of constancy and you gave it all up.”

  She was wrong. He’d given absolutely nothing up. His trust, perhaps that had been given too quickly, but he hadn’t told her anything the reports wouldn’t have told her. And this torture scene wasn’t going to play out the way she hoped. He’d already been worked over for hours, and he’d found a place where the pain couldn’t touch him. Now it was all coming back, but he’d survived the torture. He hadn’t broken and he wouldn’t. He would let them cut pieces off him before he gave up his secrets.

  Secrets were all he had now.

  For a brief moment he’d thought he had something more. He’d actually called Jamie and talked about how to ask Dawn to marry him.

  He should have asked Jamie how to get his damn hands off a meat hook. The trouble was he could barely touch the ground. His toes wouldn’t quite meet the concrete. He needed something to push off of.

  Or something to change the game map.

  He let his head hang low as though he simply couldn’t hold it up a second longer. His shoulders ached. Not more than the holes in his abdomen. Oh, these guys were smart. They cauterized the wounds. Hell, one of them had shoved an actual hot poker through his left side. Minimal bleeding, maximum pain. They’d burned the bottoms of his feet and sent electrical charges through his system that made his whole body twist and turn abnormally. He’d been sure his bones would break, but he hadn’t made a sound.

  He’d been well trained.

  If only he’d listened to his handler about women.

  “You know you’re going to break, Ten,” she said in a low, seductive voice.

  He kept his head down. He didn’t need to see her to know what she would do. She enjoyed his vulnerability. She liked being the one in charge, got off on his pain when he’d never given her anything but his devotion.

  Such a fucking idiot.

  He saw her shoes come into view. Red heels. He’d bought them for her in Dubai. They’d spent a day in the world’s largest mall, walking from store to store, and he’d enjoyed indulging her. He’d saved every dime he’d ever made. Dawn was the first woman he’d spent more than a few nights with.

  How the boys at the Agency would laugh at him. Franklin Grant would be so disappointed. The men he recruited likely wouldn’t ever respect him again. Ten Smith brought down by a woman.

  It would never fucking happen again, he vowed. He’d been an idiot to think he could have what Jamie had. Dawn wasn’t Phoebe. Not even close. Sometime during the night he’d been forced to acknowledge that he was so fucking envious of his brother. So envious that Jamie got the girl, that everyone loved Jamie, that Jamie somehow managed to see all the same darkness and maintain his light. It was exactly why Phoebe had taken one look at the two of them and promptly fallen head over heels with Jamie, never once giving Ten a single glance. No. Not even one.

  Dawn had, but he’d been too stupid to see the predator behind those soft eyes.

  “They’re sleeping right now, but in an hour or two, they’ll be ready for another round. You don’t look like you’re ready, lover,” she said in a low voice.

  He watched, those fuck-me shoes coming ever closer. Just a little bit more.

  “Won’t break,” he said, slurring his words only a bit more than he actually needed to. He was kind of far-gone. The meditation techniques he used only kept the pain and suffering away for so long, and he needed to be in the moment now. She was overly confident that he couldn’t do any damage.

  He was going to prove her wrong.

  “Damn, your body was already scarred. Now you’re pretty much one massive scar. It’s unattractive, you know. You’re quite good in bed, but I had to close my eyes and pretend you’re not a monster. You’re ruined. I honestly don’t know how anyone looks at you after this. At least they’ve left your face alone.”

  She wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t know. He was scarred, his body bearing the marks of long years of abuse, neglect, and accidents. Now he had burns from electricity torture and that damn poker they’d put through his side. That would be a beauty if he managed to survive it.

  “All you have to do is give my group the information they need and this will all be over, Tennessee.” She’d softened her voice, and he felt her hand on his back.

  He tensed but didn’t move. He couldn’t do anything but hurt her in this position. He wouldn’t mind hurting her, but breaking a couple of bones wouldn’t solve his problem. Physics. He needed height and momentum to get out of this situation, and he couldn’t get it where he was.

  She needed to feel safe around him. Needed to forget that a wounded predator was often at his most dangerous right before death.

  He let out a shuddering breath and allowed his head to fall back.

  She chuckled and traced the new scars. “Poor Ten. All you needed was a little affection from a woman and you caved. I was told you were the hardass, the mighty Ten Smith, Agency golden boy. A few kind words, some regular sex, and you’re a man like the rest of them. Tell me something. Where is your meet with Taggart scheduled for?”

  Shit. She was after Ian Taggart. Well, naturally. Tag was one of his latest recruits, a man who was already a damn legend due to his years with the Green Berets. Tag was working another side of this operation and they were scheduled to meet…how long had he been here? God, he couldn’t remember but it couldn’t be more than a night. So he was supposed to meet Tag this morning in a teashop on the edge of Riyadh.

  “I’m not meeting Tag for a few days,” he managed.

  He bit back a scream as she pushed a finger against one of the wounds on his back.

  “That’s a lie, Ten. I know you’re supposed to meet him some time in the next few hours. We’re not far from our apartment. You wouldn’t have scheduled a meet more than thirty minutes away. I’ve learned all your habits.”

  He’d kept the meetings close because he hadn’t wanted to leave her for long. They were in a dangerous situation and she was his partner, his lover. He wouldn’t call it love. He didn’t get that dumbass grin on his face the way Jamie did, but he was fairly certain he wasn’t capable of the emotion. But Dawn had been his to take care of, and that meant something to him. Or rather it had. “Tag couldn’t make it this morning. He’s got a meeting with a man who can lead us to an arms dealer. I told him to take it.”

  How long would Tag wait before he called it in? Tag was smart. He was probably the best operative Ten had ever trained. He would still likely be too late. Even if Tag called Jamie and Jamie started looking for him, there was no way they found him. The first thing Dawn had done was to remove the subcutaneous tracking devices they had both accepted. A surgeon had removed hers. She’d simply torn his back open with a knife to get his. Another scar.

  No. Taggart would be too late no matter how good he was. It would take him days to get the kind of crew they would need to track and find him.

  If the Agency came after him at all. More than likely they would put his name on the wall and forget Tennessee Smith ever ex
isted. He would be one more cautionary tale told to junior operatives. Jamie would take over Ten’s post and the world would keep right on turning.

  If he was going to live, it was up to him. He was alone, but then he’d always been alone.

  “Should I tell you what they’re planning for you today?” Dawn asked.

  “Nope. I like surprises.” She was moving behind him. He was hyperaware, as though time was slowing and he was waiting for that one perfect moment.

  “Such a liar.” Her shoes thudded against the concrete. She came into his peripheral vision. Thank god he still had that. At one point his vision had been so fuzzy he would have sworn it wasn’t coming back. Now the adrenaline was pumping again and he was clear. “Let me make this plain to you. I don’t get paid if you don’t give these assholes something to work with. Give them Taggart. He’s gotten too close to their base of operations. These are men who don’t like their ties to terrorism to be published. They like the dark. If you give them Taggart, I think I might be able to save you.”

  He was the liar?

  “How much?” He had to get her in the exact right position. Everything had to be perfect or he would miss the chance. God, could he even make his body move the way he needed it to?

  She stopped in front of him. Not close enough. “How much? How much are they paying me? More than the Agency did. Way more. There’s a whole world out there, Tennessee. Countries are so blasé. I like to consider myself an independent woman. You know, it wasn’t so bad. Like I said, you’re good in bed.”

  He’d spent more time in Dawn’s bed than any other woman. He tended to keep his relationships shallow, sexual. He forced his head up and looked at her. Beautiful. She was a stunning woman with a slender figure and nice breasts. Platinum blonde hair curled around her jawline, and he’d never seen her without perfectly done makeup. He’d thought she did it all for him, but now he could easily see it was nothing but a mask. There was nothing underneath it but greed and vanity. He hadn’t loved her. He’d simply wanted what Jamie and Phoebe had. He’d been willing to lie to himself to get it.