Master of Mine: Masters of Haven Book One

by Dark, Raven

  The relatively relaxed bubble around her popped, and tension poured back into her. She shook her head. “He’s all but disappeared.”

  While they ate, she told him about the flowers, the only thing the stalker had done besides the occasional call since he’d followed her in that car.

  A crinkle formed between his brows as he listened to her, his eyes intent.

  “It’s just so frustrating, you know?” She stared at her fork for a moment before looking up at him. “How do you stop someone you can’t see and don’t know anything about? He’s too smart.”

  Empathy filled Archer’s gaze, and for a moment she thought she saw something else there, something much darker. Then he reached across and took her hand on the tabletop.

  “This only makes it more important you learn all you can. The more I can teach you, the better chance you’ll have. Which brings me to what I brought you here to talk about.”

  Gwen cleared her throat and pushed her empty plate aside. When she looked at him, the intensity of Archer’s gaze heated her blood.

  “You remember I had some ideas for your training last night?”

  She leaned forward. Since class, she’d been too nervous to sleep much, imagining what he had planned.

  “Last night made something clear. You have a block.”

  “A what?”

  “It’s like a fear-based wall holding you back from just reacting. Until your reactions become automatic, you won’t be able to progress.”

  “Right. The block only broke when you made me angry.” She grinned at the table.

  “Yes, but we can work with that.” He touched her hand, a light tap that brought her eyes to his. “There is a technique some karate instructors and therapists use. It’s where I would intentionally antagonize you, until you stop thinking and just react.”

  The blood drained from her face. The idea of him deliberately taunting her unsettled her. She already found him intimidating enough that it was hard to look at him.

  “Master Archer, I don’t know about this.” They were in an informal setting, but since they were discussing her training, it seemed wrong not to address him as her sensei.

  He leaned forward a little. “Gwen, look at me.” When she bit her lip, his long fingers tipped her chin up. “I know this is scary for you. Trust me.”

  She swallowed. “It isn’t that I don’t trust you.”

  A block. It was an interesting way of putting it, but he was right. Every time he’d tried to get her to become aggressive, she could feel it, like a tether, holding her back. A voice yammering at her that she couldn’t do it. But if she wanted to save herself, she had to break through that.

  Determination set in, and she nodded more firmly this time. “How do you want to do this?”

  “I think it will help if we aren’t in class. I want you to think of this as a game for now.”

  “Okay. We can do it at my house. I have a room I use for working out.”

  “Not what I had in mind.” The wicked curve of his mouth made her insides quiver.

  “Your house?”

  He shook his head. “I think it would work more beautifully if we did this as a scene.”

  Her eyes widened. She leaned in, lowering her voice. “You mean scene as in BDSM?”

  “Yes.”

  She gulped. “Master Archer, I’m not a sub.”

  “I think you are.” The sparkle in his eyes made her heart jump. It was all too easy to imagine him ordering her to her knees in front of him.

  She leaned back against the seat with a thump. A sub to Archer fucking Drake. A wild heat flashed through her.

  She’d have been lying if she said that over the years working with Nick she’d never considered looking in on the scenes in his club. But with a man that demanding, that harsh… The whole idea made her head spin, but it also filled her with a thrill she could barely comprehend.

  When she didn’t speak, Archer slipped his hand over hears. “Try it for me.”

  Her sensei, and her brother’s best friend. Could there be a worse plan? She stared at his hand, tenderly curled around hers. She met his gaze. The hope in his eyes melted her insides.

  “Oh-kay.” She nodded. “Something’s got to get me over this block, Master. Let’s give it a shot.”

  6

  The Game

  Gwen’s stomach knotted as The Sanctuary appeared at the end of a long, winding road that snaked between thick elm and evergreen trees. It looked different tonight somehow. Built of grey stone, the two-storey structure always reminded her of a small castle, with mullioned windows and sprawling gardens. She swallowed. If anything, she was even more nervous this evening than she had been with Archer last night.

  She’d be walking in not as Nick’s assistant but as a participant. What would she say when she got in there? How was she supposed to act?

  “Why the hell are you so nervous?” Archer glanced at her. “You come here every day for work, right?”

  “This is different. I don’t play, and I use the back entrances that lead to the offices. I never see the club itself.”

  “Think of it as a game. Nothing will happen to you without your consent.”

  Cool, matter of fact. The uneasiness in her mounted. Why was he being so distant? She needed… what? She didn’t know, but his distance made every muscle in her contract. She cast around for something to say to draw him out of his aloofness but nothing came.

  God, she had frozen already and he hadn’t done anything. With nothing else to say, she looked out the window. “Yes, Master Archer.”

  A soft grunt left him. Archer jerked the car into an empty parking spot at the front of the club and threw the car into park so hard the gear shift made a grinding noise. Gwen reached for the door to get out, and Archer’s hand seized her arm, stopping her.

  “Wait.”

  The soft, husky sound of his voice startled her more than his sudden grip, which burned through her silk blouse. She looked at him through lowered lashes. That scowl again. Now what had she done?

  “Master Archer, I get it. You don’t like me because I’m green, But I—”

  “Gwen. Listen to me.”

  She scrunched her brows at him. The shadows over his face in the moonlight made it hard to tell, but she swore she saw something raw, something unsettling in them. Like old memories. His eyes asked for something, but what? Gwen sat back in the seat, waiting.

  After a moment, he sighed. “I know. You need reassurance. Considering how long I’ve been a Dom, I should know how to behave with a new sub. But I also haven’t done this in five years. I’m not…” He rubbed his eyes. He looked tired. The scowl lines beside his mouth appeared deeper than usual, his eyelids heavy. He had no right to look so hot, especially with that stubble, with his dark hair rumpled, as if he’d run his hands through it too often. “I’m not good at this part, the feeling thing.”

  She snickered. His awkwardness with opening up somehow endeared him to her. She understood awkward. Oh boy, did she.

  “Don’t laugh at me, woman.” He smirked. “All right, I’ll try to be more patient with you if you do the same with me. Okay? This whole thing is about trust, and you can’t trust me if I pull away.”

  Warmth spread through her. He was trying. Seeing how hard it was for him only made her heart swell more. Damn it, she shouldn’t be thinking of him that way. Still, what the hell happened to him? She could see it in his eyes, something had cut him hard, cut him deep. So deep he didn’t know how to open up.

  Gwen nodded. “Thank you, Master Archer.”

  He reached into the back seat and pulled out a duffle bag. She gave him a questioning look.

  “Toys,” he explained.

  “Ah.” Her stomach gave a funny jolt as she imagined what he’d brought in that bag, what he had planned for her.

  By the time he got out and went around to open her door, she was already standing on the pavement.

  A fierce light entered his eyes. “Don’t you know you’re supposed to
wait and let a man open the door for you? What’s the matter with you?” But amusement in his eyes let her know he was playing.

  She gave him a cheeky smile. “Master Archer, you wouldn’t be treating me like a date, would you?” Her cheeks flamed as she said it and she couldn’t meet his eyes.

  He cleared his throat a little too harshly and shoved the car door shut. “Not a chance.”

  New anxiety bit into her as they made their way into the dimly lit front hall of the club, so much darker than the entrances she usually used. Archer let her go ahead of him, his large palm resting on the small of her back, heating her skin through the silk. When he leaned into her, a pleasant shiver loosened her muscles.

  “Relax, Gwen. Everything will be all right, I promise.” Rich, smooth, his voice washed over her, soothing.

  Gwen loved the look of the club’s decor. Lowered lighting provided by halogen bulbs that glowed bluish white and swaths of black silk draping the walls like curtains gave the place a dark, mysterious feel, and gold accents on the walls offered a hint of decadence without being ostentatious. Tables were scattered here and there, away from the stages where the scenes played out, allowing customers to eat or drink non-alcoholic beverages. Nick allowed liquor on the upper floors only, out of the way of play.

  Gwen’s gaze lifted to the back wall of the club, taking in the symbol emblazoned on a black silk curtain hung there. She focused on the symbol, letting it distract her from her nervousness. A circle of wine-red, it was split into three sections, each separated by a sinuous pearl white line, and each section had a small white circle within it. The insignia for The Sanctuary.

  Archer steered Gwen calmly through the throng of people gathered to watch stages spread out over the main floor, some with scenes already in progress. Her anxiety returned with a vengeance.

  Relax? Easy for him to say. A few feet away, a man led a woman across the floor to a stage by a silvery collar. She was stark naked, red marks crisscrossing her ass and legs. The crack of a whip cut through the noise of the crowd, and a woman cried out. Something hot unfurled in her belly and the feel of Archer this close, his masterful hands on her, took on a whole other meaning. The atmosphere crackled with a potent sexual energy she’d never felt before, and it heightened her awareness of him to a primal level.

  Her sensei, Jesus, could this get any more complicated?

  “Archer, I don’t think…” She moved to turn around for the door, but Archer took her shoulders, keeping her back to him.

  For a moment, her eyes widened and she was caught off guard by the scene on the stage ahead of her. A man stood over a woman strapped to a bed, a long whip coiled in his fist. The woman looked like one lash would make her explode in a climax. Crap. Had Archer stopped her there on purpose?

  “Just give it a chance, Gwen. It’ll work.” His hand ran up and down her arm and then gently closed his hand around hers. “And stop fidgeting. I’m going to have to do something about that.”

  Oh, hell. The threat of punishment sent heat straight to her core. She imagined him yanking her arms behind her back hard, holding them there while he bent her over. Damn it.

  His hand held hers in place until she relaxed. His mouth brushed her ear. “Good girl. Now come on. Let’s go find Nick.”

  On the way down the hall, Gwen threw a look at him over her shoulder. How the hell could he say it so casually? He spoke as if Nick weren’t her boss, someone she’d see every day after this, and as if what she’d do with Archer while within these walls was as mundane as the winter weather.

  “Trust me, Gwen. You’re nervous now, but it will get easier.”

  Yeah, right. She shook her head at him, and he chuckled.

  “You’ll understand when we talk to Nick. We’ll go over everything in detail before the scene.”

  Nick looked up from his desk when he saw Archer and Gwen enter, and his face lit up.

  “Archer, you’re back, eh? Finally.”

  “Sort of.”

  The muscles in Gwen’s shoulders visibly tightened and Archer put his hand on the small of her back. She relaxed a little, but he swore her face darkened with a blush, though it was hard to tell in the low lighting Nick preferred.

  Nick glanced at her and stood up from his seat. “Ah, Gwen. I wondered when you might decide to cross over to the dark side.”

  Gwen’s manicured, thin brows winged down. “What?”

  The corners of Nick’s mouth turned up. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Doms like me see a sub a mile off, even if she doesn’t know what she is. I would have offered the club’s services, but I could tell you weren’t ready.”

  “I’m not sure that “ready” is really the word that I’d use.” Her gaze flitted up to Archer and she twisted her hands.

  Archer quirked a brow at her. The slight defensiveness in her tone made him want to challenge her resistance to the notion that she was a submissive. He set the duffle bag down, crossing his arms to keep from slapping those soft little hands apart.

  She cleared her throat. “I’m not here to…um. We… we…”

  Archer fought a chuckle. She really was adorable when she squirmed.

  Nick looked at him. Questioning.

  “We need to borrow a stage for a few hours, Nick. I want to do a karate exercise with her, and the club is a better learning environment than the dojo for what I have in mind.”

  Curiosity lit Nick’s eyes, but he nodded. “That’s fine. You can use the middle stage, it should be free.”

  “Perfect. But you need to know, this scene will be a little… unusual.”

  “How so?”

  “The objective here is not to make her submit to me.” When Gwen kicked idly at the leg of a chair in front of her, he set a hand on her shoulder. She cleared her throat, setting her feet together. “It’s to make Gwen become aggressive. I’m teaching her assertiveness.”

  “Ah.” Light wrinkles creased Nick’s cheeks on a smile and he looked her over. “Yes. Our Gwen isn’t much for standing up for herself. The only time she takes a vacation is if I order her to.”

  “I believe it.”

  Gwen gave a barely audible sigh and annoyance flashed across her features before she lowered those stunning green eyes. Archer exchanged a look with Nick, whose eyes shone. He would have loved to play with her, getting Nick to talk about her like she wasn’t there. Push her until she snapped, until she fought him. But he’d save it for the scene. Then he would really see what she was made of.

  “I realize this scene isn’t normally the sort of thing people would come here to see, so I’ll pay you for the stage time, Nick.” Archer drummed his fingers on the back of the chair Gwen had been kicking at.

  “What is it you’re planning to do?”

  “I’m going to do or say thing to Gwen to push her buttons until she learns to stop me.”

  Gwen gave him an inquiring look, and Archer kept his face deadpan.

  “I see,” Nick said. “So when it looks like you’re pushing too hard, I’m not to step in. Got it. Paying for the time isn’t necessary. I think this is an intriguing concept, enough to garner interest. I’ll make an announcement at the stage before the scene so anyone who doesn’t care to watch can move on.”

  “You’re welcome to watch, Nick.”

  Gwen shot a look at him, eyes wide, face flushing. Well, with that look, now he really wanted Nick to watch. The woman needed to learn some damn confidence, and it would serve her right to have to suffer through her boss watching her first scene.

  But Nick shook his head. “I’d love to, but I’ve got to get to the hospital in a bit for a shift.” He turned and took a paper from the disarrayed desk. “Since this is your first time here, you need to fill this out, Gwen.”

  When she looked questioningly at both men, Archer explained. “They’re limitations forms. They have a list of things a sub or Dom might do in any given scene, and you mark off the ones you are willing to do, and ones you aren’t.”

  “Oh, right.” She took t
he form her boss held out to her. “I’ve had to file those for Nick before.”

  “You and Archer will need to discuss his limits too.”

  Gwen and Archer both nodded.

  “The club safeword is red. You know what a safeword is, right Gwen? Anytime the scene becomes too much, or Archer does something and you need him to stop the scene, you say ‘red.’ Or you can choose your own safeword”

  “I understand.”

  “Good. If you need anything, don’t be afraid to ask,”

  When both acknowledged his words, he nodded them toward the door and Archer picked up his duffle.

  “Have fun, both of you. And Archer?” When Archer turned, he grinned. “Nice to have you back in the game. Gwen, you’re in good hands. Trust me.”

  Archer shook his head. “I’m not back, Nick. Not really. This is just a one-time thing, for her training.”

  “Right. Of course.” Nick’s eyes danced.

  Irritation grappled at him, but he sighed. He’d argue with him later, when Gwen wasn’t there. “Later, Nick. Come on, Gwen, let’s go.”

  When he set a hand on her back again, he swore he felt her tremble in response. Those soft cheeks turned pink. He studied her face. Was her reaction fear or attraction? Her cheeks went even pinker and she bit her lip. Definitely attraction. A thrill raced through him. Oh, this was going to be a fun night.

  A million questions swirled in Gwen’s head as Archer led her up to the promenade that surrounded the main room of the club. What had happened to Archer that he stopped being a Dom? Was it the same thing that made him swear off beginners? Gwen wanted to ask, but couldn’t bring herself to do so.

  Archer led her to a set of leather couches and ordered a cola for each of them before he set his bag down and sat in the corner of a couch.

  “I thought we were using a stage?”

  “We will. Sit.”

  Man, he was all Dom, wasn’t he? Gwen seated herself and crossed her ankles. Archer leaned back in the crook of the couch. Looking relaxed, utterly at home. His white silk shirt shone in the lowered light, the dark black slacks he wore clinging to his powerful frame in all the right ways. She looked away.