by Lexi Blake
Praise for Lexi Blake and Masters and Mercenaries…
“I can always trust Lexi Blake's Dominants to leave me breathless...and in love. If you want sensual, exciting BDSM wrapped in an awesome love story, then look for a Lexi Blake book.”
~Cherise Sinclair USA Today Bestselling author
“Lexi Blake's MASTERS AND MERCENARIES series is beautifully written and deliciously hot. She's got a real way with both action and sex. I also love the way Blake writes her gorgeous Dom heroes--they make me want to do bad, bad things. Her heroines are intelligent and gutsy ladies whose taste for submission definitely does not make them dish rags. Can't wait for the next book!”
~Angela Knight, New York Times bestselling author
“A Dom is Forever is action packed, both in the bedroom and out. Expect agents, spies, guns, killing and lots of kink as Liam goes after the mysterious Mr. Black and finds his past and his future… The action and espionage keep this story moving along quickly while the sex and kink provides a totally different type of interest. Everything is very well balanced and flows together wonderfully.”
~A Night Owl “Top Pick”, Terri, Night Owl Erotica
“A Dom Is Forever is everything that is good in erotic romance. The story was fast-paced and suspenseful, the characters were flawed but made me root for them every step of the way, and the hotness factor was off the charts mostly due to a bad boy Dom with a penchant for dirty talk.”
~Rho, The Romance Reviews
“A good read that kept me on my toes, guessing until the big reveal, and thinking survival skills should be a must for all men.”
~Chris, Night Owl Reviews
“I can’t get enough of the Masters and Mercenaries Series! Love and Let Die is Lexi Blake at her best! She writes erotic romantic suspense like no other, and I am always extremely excited when she has something new for us! Intense, heart pounding, and erotically fulfilling, I could not put this book down.”
~ Shayna Renee, Shayna Renee's Spicy Reads
“Certain authors and series are on my auto-buy list. Lexi Blake and her Masters & Mercenaries series is at the top of that list... this book offered everything I love about a Masters & Mercenaries book – alpha men, hot sex and sweet loving… As long as Ms. Blake continues to offer such high quality books, I’ll be right there, ready to read.”
~ Robin, Sizzling Hot Books
“I have absolutely fallen in love with this series. Spies, espionage, and intrigue all packaged up in a hot dominant male package. All the men at McKay-Taggart are smoking hot and the women are amazingly strong sexy submissives.”
~Kelley, Smut Book Junkie Book Reviews
From Sanctum with Love
Masters and Mercenaries, Book 10
Lexi Blake
From Sanctum with Love
Masters and Mercenaries, Book 10
Lexi Blake
Published by DLZ Entertainment LLC
Copyright 2016 DLZ Entertainment LLC
Edited by Chloe Vale
eBook ISBN: 978-1-937608-49-1
McKay-Taggart logo design by Charity Hendry
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all I want to thank all of you readers who are still here and with me. This is the tenth main story line book in the Masters and Mercenaries series. I’m astounded by that because I’d only planned five. Thanks for sticking it out with me and I hope you’ll be there for all the stories to come.
As always thanks to my crew: Richard Blake, Chloe Vale, Riane Holt, Liz Berry, Stormy Pate, and the best formatter in the business who also happened to emerge from my womb – Dylan.
I would also like to thank OSK (one sexy kitten) for making the sadisticks that inspired a scene in this book.
The genesis of this book happened a few years ago in Seattle when I met two crazy women and became friends with them. They were in the lifestyle, but it was their love of life and their friendship with each other that truly inspired me. So this book is dedicated to Kori Smith and Sara Buell. May you both find your happily and kinkily ever afters, my friends.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Author’s Note
Dominance Never Dies, Masters and Mercenaries 11, Coming June 21, 2016
Devoted, A Masters and Mercenaries Novella, Coming April 12, 2016
Ruthless, A Lawless Novel, Coming August 9, 2016
About Lexi Blake
Other Books by Lexi Blake
PROLOGUE
Seattle, WA
12 years before
Kai Ferguson looked at the rundown house and felt an odd longing sink into his bones. He hadn’t expected this, hadn’t thought for a second that he would look at that shitty two bedroom and feel a sense of nostalgia. After all, most of the bad things in his life had happened there, but suddenly all he could see was his mom. She was all over that damn house. Though it was in a bad part of town, the yard was still neat, the front beds still had petunias blooming. Even from the driveway he could see the wreath she’d always kept.
Just because it isn’t Christmas, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate.
She’d kept a wreath for every season. She would make them with crap she’d bought at the craft store—whatever happened to be on sale. Cheap pieces of junk that she somehow turned into something lovely. The same with the flowers in the front beds. She bought the cheapest she could find, the ones that looked half dead at the nursery, and brought them back to life.
That was his mom. God, he missed her.
Though now he supposed the flowers were being kept up by whatever chick his brother was sleeping with. His younger brother had recently turned nineteen and dreamed of Hollywood stardom, though mostly what he’d managed was to look ridiculously good in a series of ads for the local gym he spent way too much time at. He was two years younger than Kai, but Kai was fairly certain his brother had started romancing women at the tender age of five when he’d charmed a kindergarten teacher into not holding him back a grade. Jared had started young and never gone long without a woman in his bed.
It had been almost a year since Kai had made love to his fiancée.
His gut clenched at the thought of seeing her. He had to though. He had to figure out if there w
as anything at all to come home to when it came to Hannah.
Thanks to a stray piece of shrapnel, he’d gotten unexpected leave. One week. He had one week before he had to report to Fort Bragg, and then he’d be on his way back to the Middle East. He had another year of enlistment and then he could come home and finish up what was left of his degree. Jared had made it through high school. He’d made it plain that he wasn’t going to college. Kai had done his duty to his baby brother. He’d put off his own dreams in order to keep Jared in school. Kai had put off his last two years of college and his wedding in order to go into the Army after their mother had lost her battle with breast cancer. He’d fulfilled his mother’s dying request and now it was almost time to come home.
Whether he had a fiancée when he came back was definitely in question. He couldn’t stop thinking about how angry she’d been when he’d left. She’d begged him not to go back and when he’d explained he couldn’t leave his unit, couldn’t just walk away from the damn Army, she’d sworn he’d never loved her and that she would have her revenge.
Two days later she’d called and begged his forgiveness. She’d explained it was only nerves about him being so far away, but Kai had started to think that asking her to marry him had been a mistake.
Maybe everyone was right and they were too young.
He parked his rental in the driveway behind Jared’s beat-up old Jeep and a late model Ford. Likely that belonged to whoever Jared was sleeping with. Jared never mentioned women in his letters. Mostly he’d talked about his audition for some local TV show about physical fitness or asked questions about how to do simple things like pay the water bill.
Kai groaned. His little brother’s letters had taken on a tone of desperation. The kid was nineteen. He should be able to write a damn check. Kai sent him all the money he had. Their aunt had lived with Jared until he’d turned eighteen. She’d certainly taught him how to run the house, but his brother rarely listened. No. He expected the rest of the world to take care of him because he was so damn beautiful.
Kai hopped out of the car, eager to get inside, get cleaned up, and go over to Hannah’s. He might be able to avoid Jared for a while. It was still morning and his brother liked to sleep in.
He stepped onto the porch and found his keys in his pocket. Hannah. What the hell was he going to do? They’d met in college, about six months before he’d gone into the Army. They’d been at a frat party together.
God, that felt like a hundred years ago. Now the thought of partying at Sigma House made him sick to his stomach. He’d seen so much, knew what the real world was like now. This whole place seemed like a dream.
He wanted to see her, hold her. Maybe once they were together in the same place, Iraq would be the dream. Nightmare. Although he’d also met some of the best people he’d ever known. It was what he couldn’t get her to understand.
He sighed as he stood outside the door to the house he’d grown up in. Once he’d seen her again, everything would fall into place and all these horrible cravings he had would go away. He would see Hannah and remember how much he loved her.
God, he hoped that was what would happen.
What the hell was he going to do if it didn’t?
With a long sigh, he opened the door. A weariness set in. Maybe he’d grab some sleep first. He’d been traveling for almost two days. He didn’t sleep well on a plane. Or in a damn airport for that matter. His leg was aching. He was a fucking mess.
Yeah, a couple of hours of sleep and he would be ready to face her.
“I made you some coffee,” a feminine voice said. He could barely hear her.
“Look, I’m not trying to be mean.” That was his brother. It sounded like they were in the kitchen. “What happened between us was a horrible mistake and I need you to leave. It’s not going to happen again.”
There was a familiar husky laugh. “Oh, I think it will.”
Was that? No. She wouldn’t. He wouldn’t.
Kai moved toward the hall that led to the small kitchen and family room. There was a tiny table where he’d sat and helped his brother with homework. He’d been the one who had to watch his brother while their mom had worked two jobs. He’d had to figure out how to cook dinner and get his brother to bed and try to help around the house because she would be so tired when she came in at midnight.
“It won’t. I was drunk that night. I…I want the keys back. You shouldn’t have them. You need to leave.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Jared. If you think I’m giving you up after that night, you’re crazy. We were good together.”
Kai pushed through the swinging door because he had to see it with his own two eyes. He had to face it and understand what was happening. Perhaps his ears were faulty. Maybe the chick only sounded like Hannah.
Nope. There she was. She was standing in his kitchen looking smoking hot in tight jeans and a tank top that showed off her breasts. Well, he and Jared always had the same taste in women. Curvy, gorgeous women. And like all women, apparently Hannah preferred his younger brother.
“Kai.” Jared was wearing a pair of pajama bottoms and nothing else, as though he’d rolled out of bed for this confrontation. “What are you doing here?”
Hannah laughed. “He’s on leave. He got his ass shot up.” She turned cold eyes his way. “One of your teammate people called me. They thought I should know you were wounded. I believe I told you what would happen if you went back.”
“Yes, you did. So the make-up call was an act?”
She shrugged. “Well, I’d already decided what I really wanted. Jared is going places. He’s got an audition for a TV show. He’s going to be a movie star one day.”
“Kai, I am so sorry.” Jared had gone a nice shade of pale. “She came over and offered to help with some stuff. I didn’t know how to get into the old bank accounts.”
Kai shook his head. “Yes, poor Jared can’t figure out the world on his own so he finds a woman to do it for him. My fiancée. You slept with my fiancée.”
“Aunt Glenna changed the passwords and wouldn’t give them to me. I didn’t know what to do and you didn’t have time. She took all the money, Kai. I didn’t want to worry you, but it’s been rough here. Hannah offered to help me and then one night…”
Hannah moved to Jared’s side. “Nature took its course. He’s more of a man than you, Kai. He knows how to take care of a woman. And I sent you a letter breaking up with you. It’s not my fault you didn’t get it.”
He turned. There was nothing else to do. His brother was still a shit. He was still the kid who took everything and gave nothing back.
“Kai, please.” Jared moved behind him.
Kai didn’t stop. “You can have her. I wish you both the best of luck.”
“Kai, this isn’t what it looks like. Please, I need you.”
He made it to his car and shoved his pack back inside, his gut rolling with anger. Betrayal. It bubbled up and made him want to put his fist through something, but he was in control. He would turn around and head to Iraq and not look back.
His brother didn’t need him. Maybe he never had.
Jared stood outside, a lost look on his face, but Kai wasn’t buying it anymore.
* * * *
Los Angeles, California
Five years before
Kori Williamson strode through the elegant doors that led to her Master’s office. She didn’t come here often, tried not to use the connection she had to him in order to further her own career. She might be submissive, might need the connection, the pain and pleasure that came from D/s, but in the real world she wanted to stand on her own two feet. That’s what she told herself anyway. With every day that went by, she wanted it more than ever. To be more independent than she’d been the last couple of years, to have work that was hers and hers alone.
Now it looked like that would be difficult since she’d just taken a knife to her back.
Lydia looked up from her laptop, her perfect platinum hair in a bun. The thirty-two-year-
old was California perfection from her hair to her already Botoxed face, to those perfectly done breasts the Master had paid for.
No matter how hard Kori dieted, she would never match Lydia’s perfection. Damn it, she wanted a fucking ice cream. A big old sundae from Farrell’s, but she hadn’t been there in years because she was trying to fit in with the crowd. She wasn’t a sad sack, look-at-me, look-at-me actress. Why was she desperate to be so thin? She was a writer with a vision. A vision her Master couldn’t possibly have stolen. It was all a mistake. Her mentor wouldn’t do that to her.
Of course, she’d also told herself that her Master couldn’t take a whole harem of women either. She’d definitely told herself that she wouldn’t put up with that shit, but here she was four years later making excuses.
“He’s in a meeting,” Lydia said with a frown. “And I happen to know he told you he would talk to you when he got home. You’re going to get in trouble.” She leaned forward. “You’re going to get all of us in trouble.”
Lydia was the Master’s latest project. How long was she going to turn a blind eye to this shit? She’d been the one to help him with the screenplay that made his career. He’d been a hack B-movie director before she’d taken one of his shitty scripts and turned the horror genre on its head.
He’d given her a screenwriting credit and the best four hours of her life. The night they’d debuted and he’d been called the new king of horror, they’d spent hours playing. They’d gone to the club and he’d shown her off, and they’d even talked about getting married.
She’d found the pure beauty of sinking into complete submission. It had been a real high and she kept trying to get back there. It had worked for a while, but lately she couldn’t do it. There was no subspace for her anymore and she was worried it was because she’d lost all faith in the man she’d once cared for.