Mistress's Master: Men in Blue, Book 3

by Jayne Rylon

  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 dangl
ed 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.

  When she would have swallowed him whole, he stopped her short and painted the bead of precome decorating his tip across her sinful mouth, enhancing the shine of her lips. “Lick it off.”

  The sight of her nimble pink tongue swiping his taste from soft curves nearly had him shooting the rest of the fluid making his balls ache across her gorgeous face. She gripped his shaft, pressing hard at the base, returning some semblance of control. God damn, sex with her could never compare to the pale imitation of passion he’d settled for post-Karen.

  So in step, they fed off each other.

  A moan vibrated around his cock when he inserted it between her slick lips. Without direction, she began to blow him as though the act soothed her as much as it incited rapture in him. She hummed, her cheeks going concave as she suckled his thick shaft.

  “Fuck.” He buried both hands in her hair, guiding her head in the rhythm he preferred. Scooting his ass to the very edge of the chair, he provided her more room to work. With each pass she consumed more of him until her mouth hugged his full length. The steady clench of her throat around the tip of his cock had him seeing spots. Whoever had taught her that trick was dangerous.

  Even if he could have prolonged his ecstasy, he would not have. Her generosity was enough to please him for the next decade. Rewarding her would be twice as fun as the epic orgasm about to crash through him.

  “Drink it, Lily,” he growled when the first strike of pleasure drew his sac tight to his body. “All of it. Every drop for you.”

  He waited long enough for her to stare up into his eyes before releasing his tenuous hold on the rapture she inspired. Without breaking her gaze, he spurted into her greedy mouth, loving the flex of her throat as she ingested every bit of the offering he had to give her.

  “Yes.” Through the height of the storm, he made sure he didn’t squeeze her too tight. “Lily. Goddamn, perfect.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Come still dribbled from Jeremy’s twitching cock when he lurched to his feet, whisking Lily into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist, clinging to him like a baby koala as he kicked off his jeans and socks. Within two seconds flat, he lowered them to the bed, covering her mouth with his.

  She sighed when her ass met the cool, satiny material. He inhaled the gasp, consuming all her pain and transforming it into something beautiful. Tears pricked her eyes once more. Bliss threatened to block out important realities in favor of keeping her locked in their idyllic fantasy. As much as she longed to be swept away, too much depended on the success of their mission.

  Lily sniffled before whispering, “Master Jeremy.”

  “Hmm?” He tucked her hair behind her ear.

  How could she have forgotten the most important part of her ill-fated adventure? �
��It wasn’t all for nothing.”

  “What?” He levered onto his elbows. His hand stalled in its soothing rub over her flaming cheeks.

  “I found something in Morselli’s office.”

  “You did?” Jeremy sat up, hauling her into his lap.

  She curled against his chest, uncaring how weak it made her to indulge in the security he provided. After the craziness of the day—hell, the whole year—she relished the chance to soak in his strength.

  Hugging her tight suited him too if his sigh gave any indication.

  “Yes. A thumb drive, hidden behind the mirror. I stole it.” A thought hit her suddenly, tensing all her muscles at once. “What if he notices it’s gone?”

  “One step at a time.” Jeremy rocked her in a lulling sway when she grew more agitated. “Let me grab it so we can check it out.”

  He leaned toward the floor, reaching for her abandoned outfit.

  A light touch on his forearm halted him. Confidence had never deserted her before. This time she cared a bit too much about what he’d think of the drastic measures she’d taken. “Look, that thing doesn’t exactly have pockets.”

  “So where’d you stash the drive, Lily?” He cocked his head as he attempted to decipher her hesitation.

  “Uh…”

  “You didn’t.” He chuckled.

  “I might have.” She blushed. When was the last time that had happened? Maybe when she was a kid and bullies had shamed her with explicit descriptions of the services her mother traded for her next drink. “The suit is skintight. I couldn’t risk someone spotting the bulge if they stopped me in the hallway. God only knows what’s on that drive. If it fell into the wrong hands it could spell disaster.”

  Jeremy gritted his teeth as though he imagined her stalking along the corridors alone, where anyone could have crossed paths with her. “And you haven’t…retrieved it?”

  “When do you think I might have had a chance to do that?” She focused on the burn in her ass instead of the acid that had eaten at her as the cops bound her then threw her over their shoulder like a bag of potatoes. “Clint pounced on me the minute I stepped inside. I had to call Ben and Ryan off before their standoff deteriorated into a brawl.”