Her Master's Reckoning Read online

  “Do you believe time has taken you from that room, Pet? That the collar you wear means anything? Have you allowed yourself to believe that I won’t drag you back on any day, at any hour, for any reason...” He laughed. “Or for no reason at all.”

  Breath shuddering, I answered, “No.”

  “You’re lying.”

  His hand slid down the inside of my thigh, stopping just before he touched a place swollen and ready.

  “Why?” I whispered the question. “What have I done?”

  Aiden’s hand was gone, the room deafeningly silent. When he spoke again, he’d placed distance between us. “You’ve forgotten.”

  I thought he would leave. It would be just like him to work me up and trap me in place with no relief. I almost laughed to think this was my punishment for defying him, for daring to open my eyes and glance at a camera. But what he did instead was far worse.

  Aiden crushed me beneath words that I hadn’t heard in over a year.

  “Another person will be occupying that room tomorrow. Training will begin without mercy.”

  My eyes burned, my tears streaming in rivulets down the sides of my face. But he was right, I knew that then. I’d allowed myself to forget who Aiden had always been.

  “Is this my punishment?” I asked, not caring that he could strike out again.

  Refusing to answer the question, Aiden remained quiet for what felt like an eternity. “Remember that night while you lie there. Do not move. Do not open your eyes again. Not until I come back. And while you think about what comes with your rebellion, I want you to relive every word, every action, every emotion I drove through you. I want you to relive the moment you first broke apart, and I want you to remember the way it felt to be molded like clay into the Courtesan you’ve become.”

  The door closed, a quiet click that was more like a cannon firing within the room.

  Heart racing, I cursed every beat, hated every tear that continued to fall to trace accusation down my face and puddle on the mattress beneath my head. Aiden hadn’t trained a new Courtesan in so long that I’d genuinely believed he was satisfied with me. Every night I slept in his bed. Every morning I woke to find myself alone. And every day I spent wondering how my life had become what it was.

  I never regretted him.

  Not once.

  Only because I’d believed I’d finally won.

  My thoughts raced as I lay bound over a mattress he could have used to satisfy the ache inside me. His refusal a brand against my skin, his willingness to take another a knife stabbing and twisting between my ribs.

  I was left to wonder if it had been his intent to take a new Courtesan, or if my defiance in a weak moment when I knew, I could feel, he was watching had led to the decision.

  Aiden didn’t have to remind me of that dark room all those years ago to return me to the pain of it. He’d done so simply by the threat a new woman, a new Courtesan, would become.

  CHAPTER THREE

  AIDEN

  I was still tucking my belt back into the loops of my pants as I entered the kitchen and found Anthony sipping a mug of coffee, newspaper in hand. Pulling the mug away, he smirked, the barest of an expression while his amber eyes locked with mine. “Did you tell her?” Another sip, and he returned his attention to the news, as if he already knew my answer.

  Pouring my own cup at the counter behind him, I stirred sugar into the black steaming liquid. “Of course I told her.”

  “With your belt?” Humor edged his question.

  “You have your methods and I have mine.”

  “How will she handle a Courtesan if you break her spirit before giving her the chance?”

  My body was a heavy weight sinking into the seat at the head of the table. Without bothering to look my direction, Anthony added, “Especially a Courtesan as problematic as the one being delivered to your door?”

  “Rebecca isn’t a doll with her strings cut, a broken, useless toy like your Sera. Her spirit can never be broken, no matter how many methods I try.” Taking a sip of my coffee, I watched Anthony closely for any reaction to what I’d said. There was none. Not even the barest of a flinch to words striking out at a woman he’d married within months of plucking her from a cliff. I couldn’t understand his happiness to rush off into monogamy so soon after his emotional wounds had healed. As if to mock me, the light above our heads glinted off the white gold wedding band on his finger. “Speaking of broken dolls: Where is Sera anyway?”

  The newspaper rustled. “Sleeping. I kept her up late last night.”

  “Let me guess,” my mug thud softly against the table as I sat it down, “you tucked her blanket around her after the meeting? Fluffed her pillows?”

  Lips kicking up into a grin, Anthony set the paper on the table and turned his attention to me. “Getting beneath my skin doesn’t change the fact that in less than twenty-four hours, you’ll have a decision to make.”

  “A decision that was made for me, you mean? Thanks for that, by the way.”

  “You’re welcome.” Snide, the son of a bitch was pleased as punch for having put Rebecca in a position where she could get hurt, where she could potentially fail while I stood by to watch it occur. “And you haven’t yet decided. I know you better than that.”

  My chair creaked as I leaned back. “What do you mean?”

  Staring at me as if I should know the answer, Anthony refused to touch the silence between us. His head shook, expression shifting just enough before he looked away. “Will you help her? Or will you disable her?”

  Anger rolled along my spine, my fingers curling over the handle of my mug. “I wouldn’t have to be worrying about that if it weren’t for you.”

  “It’s time, Aiden.” His eyes met mine again. “Five years you’ve kept Rebecca and for what? So you could continue pretending like she is nothing more than a Courtesan you may one day decide to flick away to another when you’ve grown bored? You brag that she has the will of a Master, yet you’ve never let her prove herself -“

  “She’s my Courtesan to do with what I want. How dare you interfere by even suggesting she train this broken shell being delivered?”

  An arrogant brow lifted. “I thought the issue of interfering had been lost on the day you decided to interject yourself into my training of Sera.”

  I knew it. Payback. That’s what this was. “I would have believed revenge beneath you, Anthony. Are you so bored with your broken doll that you had to find something else amusing?”

  Laughter burst from his lips. Relaxing into his seat, he unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt, rolling the sleeves up to reveal well toned forearms. Such precise movements to a task that was habit only meant that Anthony was buying his time before speaking again.

  “Call Sera what you want, but it won’t change anything. Not now.” His fingers drummed against the table, four heavy thumps before, “Will you go to Adam’s tonight with me?”

  My thoughts went to a woman currently bound in the playroom. I’d left her with tears streaming down her cheeks, with a lie meant to punish her earlier defiance. While I’d hoped to assuage my desire of her after the meeting this morning, anger had gripped me before I walked into that room. I’d allowed my frustration to leak out into my actions against her.

  Reminding Rebecca of the night I’d taken her wasn’t meant to sting, it was meant as the beginning of my first lesson. Too many years had passed since that first night. If she had any hope of succeeding with Christopher, she had to recall the ruthlessness of the man who had stolen her from the world.

  “I have to get her ready tonight.”

  The corner of his lips quirked. “It’s not like you to miss an execution.”

  I paused before answering, a nagging sense of dread overtaking me that I wished to remedy with my fists.

  “You’re worried.”

  Leave it to Anthony to read me so clearly. “If this son of bitch hurts her-“

  “He won’t. Not while you’re here to teach her.” He drifted off, thoughtf
ul. “Although you will need to show her the same respect any Master deserves within the group. I hope you understand that. I hope you’re able to do that. For her sake.”

  My jaw ticked. I wouldn’t have been happy with this situation if Christopher had been a wet behind the ears asshole first dragged off the streets. But to know he was a problem already, to know he’d damaged another woman, I wasn’t comfortable affording Rebecca even a bit of the privacy demanded by every Master within the Society. “I can watch the cameras-“

  “No,” Anthony argued, “you can’t. Not the entire time, at least.”

  Laughter rolled over my lips. “And who will stop me?”

  His grin was my answer, the glimmer in his eyes challenging me to do something about it.

  “Don’t you have an island to return to?”

  “I’d only planned to stay for as long as it took to deal with the situation with Adam, but now that this new development has come about. Well...” Shoulders shaking with his amusement. “I think it’ll be enjoyable watching you squirm for once”

  “I won’t squirm.”

  “We’ll see.”

  My shoulders ached, tension running over every muscle. Only one stress reliever would cure it, a beautiful woman still waiting for me on a bed. Idly, I toyed with my phone, finally turning it on to check the camera. She waited just as I’d left her; eyes closed, legs spread. I knew if I left her in that position much longer she wouldn’t be able to walk properly in the morning.

  “What do we know about Christopher?”

  Accepting the change of direction in conversation, Anthony grew serious. “If you’d remained in the meeting rather than storming out, you would have been privy to the details Adam gave us.”

  Another tick of my jaw. “Just tell me.”

  He met my gaze, his expression steadfast and unwavering. “She’ll need your help for the first few days. Christopher has been starved it seems, his physique depleted, but from what Adam said, his strength is most likely more than Rebecca will be able to handle...initially. Once his spirit is crushed, I’m sure she’ll be able to take over on her own for rebuilding. That’s when you’ll need to step back and allow her to show us what she can do.”

  It wouldn’t be Rebecca’s first, but nobody beyond Rebecca and me knew that truth. I’d tested her many years ago by bringing her the man - boy, I guessed was the proper term - who had wounded her and videotaped the moment. It was an injury inflicted on her before I’d met her, a boyfriend who had used her and tossed her aside.

  What she’d done to him after I helped force him to his knees had been glorious. It was the moment I’d confirmed that despite the submission of Rebecca’s body, her mind, her soul, could never truly be tamed.

  “What was done to Christopher?”

  Anthony sighed. “When first taken, he was kept in a dark basement for months, chained from what the scars on his wrists and ankles reveal. It wasn’t until Jake fell ill that he gave Christopher to Adam. Apparently, when handed over, there were open wounds on his back and chest, most likely from a whip slicing the skin. All were infected and Adam hadn’t recognized the problem at first. The Courtesan had been too sick to fight. It wasn’t until recently that his misbehavior became apparent. Adam didn’t understand the extent of it until allowing that woman to attempt to ride him. Had Adam not been there to help, Christopher would have bitten off her nipple entirely. Who knows what else.”

  “Fucking hell -“

  I looked away in disgust, but Anthony drew my attention back by tapping his palm against the table twice. Our eyes locked. “She can do this, Aiden. Especially with you guiding her in the beginning.”

  “Why?” Speaking through clenched teeth, I glared at a man who was the only person I considered a friend. “Why would you risk her like this?”

  Regret filtered through his stare. His confession soft spoken. “If I had known the extent of it, I wouldn’t have made the suggestion. But by the time I knew how severe this problem was, the other Masters already had it in mind to test your claims about Rebecca. For that, I apologize.”

  “He needs to be put down. Sounds like nothing better than a rabid dog.”

  A burst of soft laughter. “I seem to recall you saying the same thing about Sera.”

  Grinning, “I’m still on the fence about that one. The woman has a mouth on her.”

  “I happen to like her mouth.”

  My shoulders relaxed while my mind continued to race. No, Anthony would never have suggested Rebecca attempt her hand against a man who, by all accounts, was a lunatic had he known the extent of the damage inflicted. He was too fond of my Courtesan, too much of a gentleman to risk the life of a woman who had learned her place. I wouldn’t hold this against him. “I’ll give her the first three days. If he hasn’t sufficiently calmed by then, I’ll have no choice but to make a drastic decision.”

  Nodding, Anthony stood from his seat, walked his cup to the kitchen sink, and turned to look at me. “I have an execution to attend. You should take as much time as you can today to prepare Rebecca for what’s to come.”

  Inclining my head in agreement, I watched him leave the room with a fluid, yet masculine grace. It was good to see him strong again, to recognize the quiet assurance in a man who’d almost lost himself entirely to grief after his first Courtesan had died.

  Settling back in my seat, I took some time considering how I would prepare Rebecca, took some more considering how I would go about repairing the fractured mind of a man reduced to a feral animal.

  The coming weeks wouldn’t be easy, but Rebecca had a job to do.

  Standing from my seat, I moved quickly in route to the playroom where she lay waiting, hoping like hell this entire situation wouldn’t blow up in my face.

  . . .

  Waking early the following morning, I went for a four mile run around my property as the sun first rose over the horizon painting the sky in red, orange and gold ribbons. I needed space to think, the brisk bite of cold air against my skin and within my chest, my body finally coming to a stop below the branches of the willow tree outside my office window. Hands on knees, I bent over, my lungs fighting to drag in air, every muscle tense despite the exercise.

  In front of me stretched a serene lake, the surface like glass as the day hadn’t yet kicked up enough wind to drive ripples though water. Beneath my feet lay the remains of several people who’d thought to defy me or challenge me in other ways.

  Included in those remains were those of the men Rebecca had killed, a father and a son, both of whom had thought to strike out at her in ways only I was now allowed. I’d delivered them both, wrapped in a pretty red ribbon, a gift to a woman who had somehow managed to wrap perfectly manicured claws around a part of me I’d long considered dead.

  Rebecca was the only Courtesan I’d never been able to let go, and although she believed it was love that kept me from selling her and moving on, I knew better. She had yet to stop amusing me, each day a new rebellion that was as surprising as it was aggravating.

  By the time I’d showered and walked into the kitchen for coffee, Anthony was seated at the table again, his hands all over the damn newspaper I’d planned to read for the next hour before waking Rebecca and preparing her for Christopher’s arrival.

  “You’re up early.”

  “I couldn’t sleep,” he answered, his voice distracted.

  “Such a shame. Did Sera keep you up whining and blubbering about all the horrible things that have happened to her in life? Weeping about that mean, mean Aiden who-“

  Soft laughter interrupted me. “Sera is very happy with her life now. So no, it wasn’t her that kept me up...well, not entirely. A few hours could be blamed on her, but once she fell asleep, it was another issue bothering me.”

  Taking the same seat from the last time we talked, I watched him closely while taking a sip from my mug. “Are you worried about today?”

  “No,” he answered without lifting his eyes from the finance section of the paper. Several s
econds passed before he finally admitted, “He cried, Aiden. Like a child, snot and all. To see a man who’d considered himself a Master reduced to such a pathetic display-“ Pausing, Anthony shook his head and folded the paper in half to look at me. “It makes me wonder why any of us feel we have the right to consider ourselves beyond humanity.”

  A bark of laughter shook my shoulders. “Adam was always weak.”

  “I met Christopher.” The change in subject was jarring, but I followed without problem.

  “And?”

  The paper collapsed to the table, stocks and bonds forgotten. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if they delivered that man in a cage or strapped to a board with straitjacket and mouth guard in place.”

  I groaned. I didn’t train men for two reasons. The first being they didn’t excite me, not in a sexual way. That reason meant nothing within the Society. Our job was to profit through the creation of Courtesans, but still, it was a weight on my decisions. The second reason was more inline with the problem facing me now: testosterone could go one of two ways when a man’s spirit was broken. If done properly, it was a quiet strength beneath his submission. But if done improperly, it was a beast awakened, one better handled with a bullet than further training.

  “He growled when we first entered the room.” Anthony’s confession had a touch of surprised laughter. “Actually bared his teeth and growled.” He sighed. “Ah, I do not envy you at all in this, Old Friend. And I worry for Rebecca.” Silence, and then, “Have you prepared her?”

  My lips curled, a memory of the previous night assaulting me with breathtaking clarity. Humor in my tone, I answered, “If you mean pissed her off to a point of bloodthirsty focus, then yes. I’m sure she’ll want to remove the balls of every man within a ten mile radius by the time she wakes up.”

  “Aiden.” Anthony’s voice was soft with concern.

  “How else did you think I’d prepare her?” Arrogance cocked my brow, my halo held up by a set of horns polished to a gleaming shine and sharpened into razor points.