Her Master's Reckoning Read online

  Beside me, Aiden’s body stilled, and when I glanced up to see his reaction, all I found was the same professional mask he wore on the nights training would begin. He betrayed no emotion, no thought beyond the cold calculation of a man who knew he would drive a woman to her knees.

  “Well, now,” Aiden murmured, his tone so soft as to be a warning, “it appears it’s time for the fun to begin.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  AIDEN

  My initial thought was to toss Rebecca a gun and shovel and tell her good luck. Unfortunately, four Masters watched me with keen interest, three of whom wanted to see Rebecca fail in this, albeit hopeless, task. I’d seen many a broken Courtesans in my day, both male and female, but never had I seen a man so tortured that he had lost all sense of self to become a creature as primitive as I saw now.

  Despite being surrounded by five men, he continued to twist over the once clean marble floors, fresh blood from new wounds seeping from gashes in his skin. Almost every part of his body was bruised and scarred, and even though his body was clearly emaciated, he had the strength of a pissed off bear. I attempted several times to catch his eyes with mine, the task daunting as Christopher continued to look between us, his head rolling over the floor with such fury that there was no doubt he was adding more bruises to his skull.

  When I did catch his gaze for a few seconds, I saw nothing intelligent behind them.

  Anthony was the first to break the hushed tension in the room. “Are you sure about this, Aiden?”

  I almost laughed. “You ask me that now when it was your idea in the first place?”

  Paul shook his head, stepping back from Christopher’s writhing body. “I gave him the tranquilizer, he should be calming down soon.”

  That’s what concerned me. The drug I’d given him to use normally had an instantaneous effect. Refusing to voice the thought, I glanced at the three men who’d carried Christopher inside. “Thank you for bringing him to me. I’ll keep you updated on our progress.”

  I was sure dragging him back to the dark room would prove to be one hell of an adventure.

  Dismissed, all three moved to leave, Paul hesitating in the doorway, his shrewd gaze moving between Rebecca and me. Clearing his throat, he smiled at my Courtesan apologetically. “Good luck,” was all he said before slipping out the front door and closing it behind him.

  It hadn’t escape my attention that Rebecca was practically a statue where she stood.

  “What would you like to do with him first?” Anthony asked, his tone thoughtful. Although I couldn’t detect his concern with the naked ear, I knew it lingered just beneath the surface of his casually spoken words. Anthony had been a Master for too many years to make the rookie mistake of revealing weakness.

  Studying the mess of dirt and blood now marring my pristine floors, my answer was pragmatic. “We hose him down.”

  Turning, I watched a woman who was practically catatonic, her eyes glued to a man still struggling against his bonds. “Were you planning on introducing yourself any time this year?”

  Green eyes lifted to lock with mine, her throat visibly working to swallow. Closing the distance between us, I stood so close that our breath mingled. On a whisper only she could hear, I reminded her, “This is why you need to remember the first night I trained you, Pet. I’m not his Master. It’s not my place to make the introduction to his new life. Only you can do that.”

  “I’m not sure I can,” she admitted, her eyes drifting to Christopher.

  Reaching to touch her cheek, I directed her attention to me. “Remember what I said to you and you’ll do just fine.”

  Terrified eyes blinked several times before she nodded. I stepped aside, stopping once I was near Anthony to watch my beautiful toy reveal the Master I knew was inside her. She would look stunning with a whip in hand, as long as the marks of my dominance were still on her body.

  Never a jealous man, I wondered what it would do to her to train another man. While most Masters would worry they’d lose the Courtesan they had taken time to mold, I saw the rise of strength in Rebecca as a challenge.

  Through all of this, I would never let her doubt to who she still belonged.

  Her heels clicked over the marble floor as she approached Christopher. Eyes sharp, spine straight despite the fear I could plainly see in her eyes, Rebecca transformed in that moment from a woman who doubted herself into a dominant who would teach a man to crawl.

  “Hello, Christopher.”

  Fuck. She didn’t remember what I’d said that first night in the dark room. Not if she was beginning this by humanizing him. For the first three days, at least, using their name went against what it meant to break them psychologically.

  In response, Christopher growled, his teeth gnashing over the ball gag as much as they could. Dribble flowed from the corner of his mouth, and while I couldn’t be sure, I believed I heard him refer to Rebecca as a cunt, not that he could form the word properly with his mouth full.

  I turned to watch what Rebecca would do, both Anthony and I completely still as she struggled to make a decision. Finally, when I thought I’d have to step in to take control, fire burned behind her lovely eyes, her shoulders rolling back as she stepped forward.

  The stiletto heel of her shoe was pressed into the hollow of his throat a second later, her gaze unwavering as he continued to writhe beneath her. “Speak to me like that again, Pet, and I’ll teach you what happens when you disrespect me.”

  She could have sliced skin with the razor edge to her words. My dick was hard at the sound of it.

  Pressing her foot down harder, she glared at the son of a bitch beneath her. You could have soaked her voice in liquid nitrogen and it wouldn’t have been colder. “Keep fighting me and I’ll shove this heel through your neck and crush your fucking spine.”

  Christopher went still, his eyes widening at the venom in her voice.

  A slight smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “There, that’s better.”

  My cock was painful against my pants to watch her. Rebecca would be bent over my lap before long.

  “Now that we have a better understanding, the first thing you need to accept is that you are owned.”

  Or up against a wall, her legs spread wide...

  “For now, I am your Master.”

  Fuck it. On the floor worked as well.

  Anthony tapped my leg, waved his hand to request I bend down. Once my ear was close enough for him to whisper, I learned I wasn’t the only man affected.

  “We’re going to need to hurry this along.” His voice was rough despite the low volume. “I need to check on Sera.”

  Silent laughter shook my shoulders. “I’m sure you do.”

  Glancing back at the beautiful woman with her heel still threatening the throat of a rabid man rendered silent, I understood it wasn’t Rebecca’s dominance that turned me on. Rather, it was the thought of forcing her hand, of taking a woman who could be as fierce in her control as me and directing her over my knee, my handprint claiming the creamy skin of her ass, the words that would tumble from her throat as she became submissive to my every whim.

  In that moment I saw clearly that ennui had settled between us over the years, and this side of her had awakened in me the challenge of molding her all over again.

  “From this moment on, I give orders and you follow them. If you disobey, you’ll be punished.” Her heel sank lower, the skin dipping dangerously at the hollow of Christopher’s throat. “Your only job is to be a Courtesan. My happiness is the only thing that will matter to you. Your life no longer exists, nor does it matter.”

  It wasn’t my speech to the letter, but it would do. Gaze drifting down to the man caught beneath her shoe, I noticed his line of sight and laughed. Perhaps I should have given her panties, his eyes trained up her skirt craving what would be mine before this night was through. Look all you want, I thought, but that’s all you’ll be doing.

  “Now, the first thing you need is a bath. You’re disgusting, and
I don’t want to be forced to hurt you so early in our time together. Will you crawl for me, Pet? Or do I need to watch as these two men drag you like the animal you are?”

  Christopher bared his teeth, as much as he could with the gag, a low growl emanating from his chest. I wasn’t surprised and I half wondered if his current state of compliance had more to do with the tranquilizer than the threat Rebecca’s lovely heel posed.

  Rebecca hesitated, her eyes catching mine, her fortitude wavering, but not so much that Christopher would see it. Removing her heel from his throat, she stepped back, rounded her shoulders and with a clipped tone that expertly hid every doubt she was feeling, she ordered, “Take him to the bathroom. We’ll hose him down like a dog.”

  My hands clenched at my sides, a wave of pure debauchery flowing through me. “Anthony,” I murmured, my gaze locked on her. “You heard the woman.”

  Anthony stood from his seat, “I’ll take one arm, you take the other.”

  Positioning ourselves on either side of Christopher’s body, we both winced at the odor. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. We’ll need to hose ourselves down after this.”

  Groaning to lift Christopher’s upper body, we had just begun to drag him when his legs kicked up. Rebecca, surprisingly, was the first to discipline him. He cried out, his biceps going taut beneath our hold. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that Rebecca had his balls firmly locked beneath the toe of her shoe, her eyes deadlocked on the bastard fighting us tooth and nail despite the tranquilizer.

  “One more time, Pet, and I’ll make you a eunuch. There are other parts of your body just as useful as your cock.”

  His eyes widened, comprehension settling in as his body went slack. The dead weight wasn’t helpful, but it made it less difficult to drag him through the halls toward the bathroom nearest the dark room, a trail of grime left in our path that Rebecca followed with the rhythmic click of her four inch heels. Every beat of those shoes was a pulse in my blood, my need for dominance a hunger that only sensual violence would satisfy.

  I made a mental note to thank Anthony for his fucked up suggestion once all of this was said and done.

  “In the tub,” Rebecca demanded upon entering the bathroom.

  It wasn’t easy lifting him. Even emaciated and tranquil, the son of a bitch must have weighed over two hundred pounds. It worried me what he would become once healthy. We had a week tops to break him down if Rebecca had any hope to come out of this unscathed.

  “Leave us,” she said, my hackles rising at the demand.

  “I don’t think -“

  Anthony’s fingers locked over my arm, his amber eyes meeting mine with caution. Softly, “You heard the woman.”

  Wanting to argue, I bit my tongue with the keen understanding that to interfere with a Master in front of a Courtesan was to challenge their authority and jeopardize the effectiveness of their training. But still, if he damaged her...

  Cursing beneath my breath, I turned to leave the room, the door closing behind us with a quiet click as Anthony and I both took up positions against the opposite wall.

  “I don’t like this.”

  His eyes remained on the bathroom door. “Neither do I, but we can’t interfere.”

  “She doesn’t know what she’s doing. Not yet.”

  A bark of laughter shook his shoulders. “Did we with our first Courtesans?”

  “Perhaps not, but we had the upper hand, physically, at least.”

  “He’s bound and somewhat weak. As long as she doesn’t crawl into the tub with him, she should be fine.”

  “The first noise I don’t like coming out of that room and I’m going in. I don’t give a fuck what you say.”

  “I’ll be right behind you, Aiden. I can promise you that.”

  Behind the door the sound of water spraying caught my ear, a deep throated complaint as I assumed cold water washed over Christopher’s large body. Banging could be heard a second later, but nothing from Rebecca.

  “I’d prefer her to start talking. Just so I can know he hasn’t pulled her head under the water.”

  Nodding, Anthony sighed. “Do you have your phone on you?”

  Pulling it from my pocket, I thumbed the device. “Damn good idea.”

  “This isn’t permission for you to continue spying. But for now-“

  “Of course,” I half-heartedly agreed, “for now.”

  Flipping through the camera views, I paused once the interior of the bathroom was visible on my screen. Rebecca stood several feet from the tub, showerhead in hand, held like a gun toward the man struggling against tight bonds. Confined to the small space of the tub, he couldn’t fight as much as he had over the floor, his body shivering beneath a spray of water I knew was ice cold.

  Proud that Rebecca had the instinct to remain at a distance, I watched with focused interest as she cleaned the grime from his body, more scars revealed once the muck had slipped away to puddle at the base of the tub. Satisfied she’d removed the majority of the dirt and blood, Rebecca set the shower head down on the floor, her body going still.

  She stepped forward, too close for my liking, but when I thought she’d move near enough that he could swing out with his bound arms, she turned instead to grab a towel from the bar on the wall. Rolling it into a thick makeshift rope, her lips parted on a heavy exhalation, her shoulders rolling back as she knelt by his head to wrap that towel over his neck, tighten it at his nape and pull his head back as far as it would go over the lip of the tub.

  Her lips pressed against his ear. Christopher’s body stilled.

  I would have given anything to know what she whispered to him that made his eyes go wide as saucers.

  CHAPTER SIX

  REBECCA

  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t fully channel the cruelty of the man who had once held me in this very tub, my head beneath water. I wanted to impress him, to become him, but when push came to shove I couldn’t completely divest myself of humanity in order to bring Christopher under strict control.

  It’s why I asked that Aiden and Anthony leave the room. Because if I were to succeed as a Master, I had to find my own methods of doing so - even if Aiden wouldn’t approve.

  “I know what you’re feeling right now,” I confessed into Christopher’s ear. The towel was sufficient to hold his head in place, the rest of his body going still as I allowed my warm breath to wash across skin that was bruised and battered. “I’ve been where you are before.”

  Whether he believed me or not, I wasn’t sure, but I knew how his heart raced, knew the pain that comes with being forced to succumb to a controlling hand and an abusive tongue.

  “One of the men standing just outside that door had me in this very tub five years ago. He held my head under water, touched me and made my body come while tears rolled from my eyes. He made me crawl, Christopher, and laughed to treat me like a dog.” I paused, giving him time to react. When he didn’t fight, I convinced myself he was listening, hoped he wasn’t so far gone that he couldn’t understand what I was telling him.

  “I know your pain, even if I have no clue what’s already been done to you.” The scars, dear God. They were all over him. Thin white crosshatch marks across his chest and back, red angry lines down his arms and thighs.

  There wasn’t an inch of his body that hadn’t been injured in some way, all that was, except his face. Whoever owned him before he was brought here had left that part of him alone. I could see why, could imagine how beautiful he would be with a healthy weight chasing the shadows from his sunken cheeks. This man wasn’t just trained, he was beaten within an inch of his life. Was it even possible to repair him?

  “I don’t want to hurt you. And I especially don’t want that man standing outside to view you as a threat. He has no conscience. Not like me. But you’ll have to work for it, Chris. You’ll have to behave for my protection.”

  Several seconds beat in silence. “Can I release this towel and trust that you’ll let me help you?”

  I could see the
indecision in his eyes, his fingers curling into his palms as the muscles beneath his skin flexed. He wanted to fight. Not knowing if he was lucid enough to make an intelligent choice, my heart kicked against my ribs when he finally nodded yes.

  Releasing a shaky breath, I smiled against his ear. “Good choice, Pet. Remember to play along. I promise I’ll make you like it.”

  Striations remained on my fingers after releasing the towel. I hadn’t realized how tightly I’d wrapped it over my hand, hadn’t understood how I’d cut off my own circulation until pins and needles shot beneath my skin. Dropping the towel to the floor, I rounded the tub to look down upon a man bathing in his own filth. “We’ll need to do this again. You’re practically lying in mud.”

  Crouching at the side of the bath, I reached forward to pull the plug and drain the water. As soon as my arm brushed his cheek, his head spun as if to bite, noise coming from the other side of the bathroom door as soon as Christopher moved. I paused, refusing to pull my arm away because he couldn’t think I feared him.

  A thud against the door was followed by a hushed argument. I knew that it was most likely Aiden that had attempted to rush inside, Anthony wrestling him back. Once they quieted, I trained my attention on my Courtesan.

  “Were you trying to hurt me just now?”

  He didn’t respond except to blink his eyes, such gorgeous gems set within a face I wanted to see without bruises and clean shaven. Heart hammering, I pushed my arm forward, my fingers gripping the chain of the plug beneath him. The water gurgled out slowly, the dark water lowering to reveal a body that was in sore need of bandages and food.

  Lowering my voice, I asked, “How long has it been since you’ve had something to eat or drink?”

  He couldn’t answer me, not with the gag, but I could see longing in eyes that had earlier been filled with hatred.

  “I’ll use warm water this time. We need to clean your wounds.”

  After replacing the plug, I pulled my arm free. Christopher didn’t move his head to make it easy, the slide of my skin against his sending chills down my spine. Watching me with patient eyes, he was so still that it felt like a was facing a snake coiled to strike.