by Lexi Blake
“Like I said before, you’re a stunning woman, Faith. Give me the thong and lose the hose.”
Yep. She’d called that one. She slowly rolled the hose off each leg, taking her time because he didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He seemed determined to take his time, and she was more than all right with that.
“How long has it been?” Master T asked.
She folded the hose and thong and placed them on the corset, leaving her shoes there as well. If he wanted her to wear them, he would ask. Cool air caressed her skin. How long? How long had it been since she’d been comfortable being naked? A long while. She showered and redressed very quickly at the clinic because something was always going wrong. She slept in full pajamas there, too, because she couldn’t be certain someone wouldn’t need her in the night.
She couldn’t be sure a small army wouldn’t show up and drag her off into the jungle either. If that happened, she would rather be dressed.
How long had it been since her skin heated and she concentrated on her body as something more than a simple tool for her brain to use? Almost a year.
How long had it been since she’d felt this way about a man? Never. She wasn’t sure why he called to her. Perhaps it was the mixture of Dominant male and lost little boy that tugged her his direction. Or some odd mix of hormones and pheromones in the exact chemical combination that seduced her. She didn’t want to overthink why she wanted this man more than the others. She simply wanted him.
But she answered the question she was fairly sure he was asking. How long had it been since she’d been with a man? “Almost a year.”
“So there’s no one in Africa? Stop right there. Let me look at you.”
She complied, remaining still and allowing his eyes to roam over her body. She felt nothing but acceptance coming from him, nothing but the sure heat of his gaze. “No one in Africa. I’m the only constant. I have other doctors and nurses rotate in, but they never stay for more than six months at a time.”
“Turn around.” When she did, he continued. “Six months is more than enough time to take a lover.”
She had to chuckle at the thought. “Six months is a blur in Africa. I work twelve-hour shifts, sometimes sixteen depending on what’s happening. When I’m not working, I sleep. I get to know the doctors’ practices, how good they are in surgery, in the field. I rarely know much more than their specialty and why they came out to Africa.”
She always got the speech. Every newbie doctor made it at some point in time. The doctor would sigh and nod his or her head, and Faith would know what was coming. They came in order to give back to the world or because they’d always felt the calling.
And they left, ninety percent of them never to return.
The call didn’t last very long in the face of the reality of Africa.
“Step forward.” The deep command of his voice heated her flesh. She stepped forward and he sat up, studying her like she was a work of art.
One hand came out, tracing the curve of her hips down to her thigh. “So none of the other doctors ever tried to climb into your bed? I find that hard to believe. I would have been all over you, darlin’.”
If he’d been the man McKay-Taggart had sent to be her bodyguard, she likely would have tossed aside all her very important rules about not getting involved with temporary people and fallen in bed with him. She was only now realizing that it had been easy before because she hadn’t found a man who threatened to set her on fire with a single look from his bright blue eyes. She’d never really found a man she lusted after. Oh, she’d thought she had. She’d told herself how good sex had been with Roger and the boyfriends she had before him, but this was a different scale. This wasn’t something a girl understood until she felt it.
She wanted to submit to this one man, to be his.
His hand cupped her breast and then she gasped at the pain that flared when he twisted her nipple. It quickly morphed into heat, flashing through her system.
“Faith, I want you here with me. I asked you a question. Don’t try to deflect me. If I ask you a question it’s because I want to know the answer.”
He had asked her about other doctors. It was funny. She didn’t like to talk about her job when she wasn’t working. That was the point of these months. But he was interested and she wanted to give him anything he desired. Foolish girl, but there was the truth. “A few have come on to me. Only one ever got aggressive about it.”
His eyes narrowed, but his hand softened, a sure sign she was pleasing him with her honesty. “Who?”
Shit. She didn’t want to get into this. She wanted him to make love to her, but he was a freaking chatty Dom. “Does it matter?”
She hadn’t really meant to sound so bratty. She’d meant it more like—hey, I don’t want to concentrate on the bad stuff. Let’s make good memories. It came out more like—God, you’re boring me and I’m rolling my eyes like a sullen teenager. Mistake. Yep. That was a major mistake since his hand withdrew and his whole body hardened.
“Go to the bed, palms flat on the mattress.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“But I did mean what I said. Go to the bed.”
Shit. This was likely going to hurt. And feel good. God, she was a freak but she’d accepted this part of herself a long time ago. It was the hurt she’d seen in his eyes that made her hesitate. She wasn’t going to hurt him more by disobeying when they were playing. She’d already figured out he could handle a great deal when they were in their everyday lives, but like all Doms, he needed some measure of control. He needed it here, and though her infraction had been minor, she intended to give it to him.
She was the impatient one, wanting to move more quickly than he was comfortable with. Damn it. Now he would likely slow down and all because she was trying to avoid intimacy again.
Palms flat on the bed. Spine straight. Calm. Collected. She waited for him this time. Breathe in and out. Accept what was coming because it led to something she loved. Pain could be transformed. It was another miracle of the human body. Endurance was rewarded with endorphins, with pleasure, with satisfaction and a release of tension.
Stress was the enemy. Acceptance her weapon of choice.
She relaxed as the first stroke of the crop hit her flesh.
It flamed along her skin and she tensed once more, every cell tightening before it came—acceptance. She breathed in and the flame turned to warmth.
“I asked you a question. Why wouldn’t you answer?” The crop came down again, but she was ready for it this time. This time she opened herself to the pain, knowing where it led. The crop stung against her flesh, the leather slapping. She took in the sound, the pain, the scent of leather.
Honesty was easy when she was in this place. There wasn’t a reason to hide here. Here she was naked and vulnerable, but it was all right to be both of those things. “I thought it would be different. I thought we would be play partners and not much more. Talking about my past makes me feel vulnerable.”
Another slap, this one softer, as though even the crop was pleased with her answer. “You thought we would have sex and play and go our separate ways when the time came? I did, too. I don’t know that still isn’t what we’ll do.”
He found a rhythm, but after the first few, he seemed to lose interest in the punishment portion. The strokes of the crop seemed to be more about keeping her with him in the moment than truly teaching her a lesson. Master T, it seemed, didn’t need to prove his point.
“We might,” she agreed. The thought of never seeing him again hurt, but she couldn’t be the girl who threw out her whole career for a guy she’d known for all of a month.
Even though she’d already started bargaining with herself, trying to find some way to keep him. God, her friends from med school would be beside themselves. The great and mighty Faith putting a man in front of her precious cause. Her sister would have a laugh.
And none of that mattered if she decided this was what she wanted. All that would
matter was the two of them, and that was scary.
“I’d still like an answer to my question,” he said as the crop hit the backs of her legs.
She had to think to remember exactly what he’d asked her. He’d asked if there had been anyone who got handsy with her. “One doctor. He was slightly older than me. He thought he knew a lot. One particularly long night he showed up on my doorstep. He said he wanted to talk to me about the new shipment of supplies. I let him in.”
She felt his palm cup one of her cheeks. “Did he attack you?”
“He was aggressive. Said something about how much I could obviously use a good lay. Then I explained that he could use a good urologist and kicked his balls into his body cavity,” she admitted. “The sad thing was we didn’t have a urologist on staff. I had to fix the jerk. Sometimes it’s hard to be a doctor.”
He stopped and she was pleased with the deep chuckle that came from his chest. “Do you want more? I didn’t give you a prescribed amount and I’m satisfied with your answers, but I can also smell your arousal. Do you want more?”
“God, yes.”
“Then get on the bed and let me tie you down,” he commanded in that dark chocolate voice of his. “I’ll give you what you want as long as you play my games.”
“Games?” She could play some games with the gorgeous Master T. Lots of games. Games that involved his mouth and hands and lovely parts of the man she hadn’t explored at this point.
His hand caressed up and down the length of her spine, reminding her of what he’d done. Every inch of her skin felt sensitized to this man’s touch. “Sure. Pleasure for information. I want to know more about you. I know you would rather we simply enjoyed each other’s bodies, but I don’t play that way. I want to know you. I want to know your history, how your mind works. So please me and I’ll pleasure you.”
That was a bargain she was perfectly willing to make.
* * * *
As Faith climbed onto the bed, Ten was well aware of what a bastard son of a bitch he was. Let’s play a game? Pleasure for information? It wasn’t a game for Faith, not really. She was trying to please him because he’d told her lie after lie.
Would she believe him for a second if he explained that giving him this information would help him protect her? Fuck no. She was a smart girl, his Faith.
Not his. Never his. The best he could hope to get out of this was to be the bastard who left her one morning because he’d gotten all the information he needed out of her. If he was lucky, she would think he was an asshole who used her for sex and then dumped her. If he screwed up, she would figure out how bent his soul was and she would hate him for the rest of her life.
God, he didn’t want her to hate him.
“Like this?” Her voice was soft as she looked up at him.
She was his wet dream, lying on the bed like she’d been placed there with no thought beyond his pleasure. He could definitely see why this called to Tag. A smart woman, strong and secure in herself, and she was submitting to him and only him. It made a man feel about ten feet tall.
And as small as a little piece of shit because he was going to damage that lovely security.
“Yes,” he said, unable to take his eyes off her curves. Faith was built on generous lines. Her breasts were a sweet handful, her waist flaring into hips he could hold on to, and a truly spectacular ass. Round and juicy, those cheeks were meant to catch a man’s eye. His eye. He kind of wanted everyone else to keep their damn eyes to themselves.
Would she understand if he stopped everything right this instant and explained what he was doing and why? Would she forgive him? Or would he be in need of a good urologist like that fucker who’d tried to hurt her?
She would choose her father. She would choose her family. She would choose anyone but him. If there was one thing he knew in the world, it was that truth.
The least he could do was give her pleasure, give her his true and honest praise. “You’re beautiful, Faith. You might be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Her lips curled up. “Thank you, Master. You make me feel that way.”
She didn’t argue with him. She took his words as the gift they were. It made him like her even more. He could look at her all day. He liked the low light of the room. It made everything seem slightly unreal, like if he could simply keep his eyes on her, he might be able to forget he was here to do anything but make love to her.
He grasped the rope and began working it around her wrists. It was better this way. She wouldn’t be able to touch him. There would be distance between them. He could still give her everything she needed, but he wouldn’t have her arms around him. He wouldn’t wake up with her tangled around his body like a vine climbing up a tree.
He would be in control and that would remind him of what he needed to do.
“So you worked with this man for six months?” The idea of some doctor pawing her in the middle of the fucking jungle made him want to wrap his hands around the asshole’s throat. “Where was your bodyguard?”
She wasn’t giving him a name so he had to figure out a way to narrow the time frame down. If he asked again for a specific name, she might grow wary—might think he was going to do something he shouldn’t. He was really trying to figure out who would potentially want to hurt her. If that near assassination had been about a pissed-off rejected suitor, he could at least handle the problem for her.
It was becoming harder and harder for him to buy that she was really dirty. He might be an idiot, but he had to admit to himself that she was potentially innocent in all of this.
She glanced up at him as he tied her left wrist to the bedpost. So trusting. There wasn’t any fear in her body. She expected him to take care of her. “I didn’t have a bodyguard then. That was only after what happened in Ghana. And no, Doctor Hines left as soon as the swelling in his testicles went down. I was on my own for a good three months.”
Excellent. Now he had a name and she was looking luscious, a treat secured and laid out for him. His cock was already erect, but looking at her like this made him stiffen painfully. She wasn’t staring at his scars with revulsion. She was looking at him like she could eat him up. It was time to make her feel good, too.
He took the crop in his hand. It was a flexible one, the leather at the tip soft. He brought it lightly down on her right nipple, the sound worse than he suspected the sensation was. Of course when he’d had a crop taken to him, it had come from that bastard Taggart, who’d had a field day holding Ten to the Sanctum rule that no Dom got to play with toys that hadn’t been used on him.
There was a reason he didn’t have an anal plug ready for her. There was only so much a man would do for a mission.
Besides, he was really only interested in her pretty pussy at this point. Pretty, likely tight as hell, definitely aroused. He could see the signs glistening in the low light.
“But now you have bodyguards,” he continued. “You should have had them all along. That’s a dangerous part of the world. I’m surprised your father didn’t insist on it.”
She winced as he tapped her left breast. “My dad and I had a falling out, and I kind of wasn’t talking to him at that point in time.”
Oh, that was interesting news. He dragged the crop tip down her body, brushing it over her pussy and enjoying the way her toes curled. He was going to taste her tonight. He was going to get inside of her in more ways than one. “I thought you were close to your father.”
Her eyes were on the crop. He’d left it directly on her mound, covering it with the leather. “We’ve never been really close. He’s always been closer to Hope. They think alike. My father was always working, always on the road. He didn’t agree with my decision to open a clinic in Ghana. He would have preferred I went the same route as my sister.”
Her sister, who was connected to a suspected Collective company. He gave her the lightest tap and loved how her whole body shivered. “He still paid your ransom. He must have been very angry when you went back. But you’
re still talking, obviously. You come home once a year and you told me you always see him. Aren’t we supposed to go to his place in the Caymans?”
A harder tap this time and she was writhing. Faith was well disciplined though. Her voice was hoarse but she answered his questions. “Yes. My dad and I are all right. He’s always making a deal, but he loves me. Oh, god. That feels so good.” Another rougher slap. “He wasn’t happy when I decided to go back, but he made amends. He threw a fundraiser when a fire destroyed my only operating facility. Fifty thousand dollars. It was a godsend.”
He moved to her thighs, tapping them with force. The skin went a light pink. Fifty thousand was nothing to a man like Senator McDonald. He could probably shit out fifty K in his sleep and not notice. If he threw a fundraiser, fifty thousand would be a disappointment.
There was something to look into. He would look into the fundraiser and see if there was anything hinky about it. Finances were something solid he could deal with.
“It’s good to have family to depend on. I’m glad you got close to your father again.” A lie. He wished she was far away from the man, but then he wouldn’t have an easy way in. He doubted Hope would be as pleasant to spend time with. Faith’s sister had a chill to her he’d seen in some of the most ruthless people he’d ever met.
He smacked at her breasts again, twice to each in rapid succession. Her nipples were rigid as hell.
“It’s been nice the last few years. After what happened in Ghana, we had a huge fight about opening the clinic in Liberia. I used the last of what my mother left me to do it. I couldn’t have kept it open without his help, and now my sister’s company is pledging vaccines and supplies. Please, please do that again.”
He raised the crop again and brought it down a bit harder, watching the blood rush to her chest, giving her the sweetest rosy flush. So her sister and father had recently shown an interest in the clinic. That was intriguing. He would take a second look at the clinic’s finances when it came to fundraising and the connection to Kronberg. The vaccines had come from there. Even though it seemed like there was no longer a connection between the clinic and the mob, he was still interested.
