by Maren Smith
She smiled. “Yes, Officer Nick.”
The End
Alyssa Hart
I am a full-time mom to two sassy, strong-willed, loveable little girls. What can I say? They take after their Mama. I’m on the wrong side of 30, and I have been married to my best friend for over ten years and I couldn’t imagine doing life with anyone else by my side. We are Southern California transplants, currently residing in a very rural part of the east coast. I have two crazy dogs that I adore, even though they drive me out of my ever-loving mind most days.
Writing and graphic design consume all of my spare time and I could not be happier. This journey I am on is a crazy one, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
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Rayanna Jamison
Rayanna Jamison has always dreamed of becoming an author. She credits a big move from Oregon to Utah in 2013 as the catalyst that finally began her writing career. She now lives in Southern Utah with her husband, two children, two dogs, and her mother. She writes what she loves to read, which is fun romantic stories about submission in its many forms. When she is not writing, she enjoys reading, cooking, crafting, and shopping, and that's just in her spare time. When the kids and husband are home, she can be found baking with her daughter, watching her son and his friends, and hosting neighborhood block parties. She loves exploring her new area, and finding fun new things to do with her family.
Don’t miss these exciting titles by Rayanna Jamison and Blushing Books!
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Green Valley Brides, Books 1 & 2
Luke’s First Bride, Book 3
Luke’s Rogue Bride, Book 4
Vegas Nights Series
Collared, Book One
Claimed, Book Two
Second Chance Ranch Series
Winterland Daddies, Book 1
Spring Fever Daddies, Book 2
The Corbin’s Bend Series
By Rayanna Jamison and others
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Return to Corbin’s Bend
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A Spanking Good New Year
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Embracing Eden
Maren Smith
Chapter 1
There were twenty of them—newly-hired employees all dressed in civilian clothes, lined up in equal rows of ten to either side of the hallway. Well, not a hallway, per se. More of a dead end with a closed door labeled ‘Security’ on one side and another labeled ‘Janitor Only.’ The third and last closed door was both the entrance and the exit. It also had a self-imposed guard standing sentry in front of it, one dourly-dressed Mrs. Hardwick, who was easily the tallest woman Eden had ever seen in her life and which—now that guards were involved—actually made this less of a dead end and more of a prison. That in turn put a whole new title of authority on the grim and stoic butler standing at the head of the narrow room. Grimsley was his name, Master Butler was his title and yes, it matched his 1800s Victorian uniform. He was warden over them all.
“I can be your best friend,” he started off by saying. “Just know, if you don’t do as I tell you, when I tell you, I can and will make you all wish you’d never met me.”
He was more than a little scary to Eden, and she tried hard not to look directly at him. The last thing she wanted was to find herself pinned in the cool darkness of his unfriendly stare. And yet, as he strolled between the rows, she couldn’t stop herself. She stole a peek—looking up and up and up. God, he was so tall. By more than a foot, he towered over her, a man not yet past his physical prime, with just a hint of salt sprinkled through the pepper of his dark hair. Forced to guess, she’d have said he was in his late forties. And he was lean, trim. So incredibly slender and wiry that it was a wonder he did not live in perpetual terror of a good, stiff breeze.
“I have zero patience for nonsense,” Grimsley said, capturing her wandering attention even as he passed in front of her. “Nor do I have a sense of humor.”
The coolness of his stare found her and damn if her knees didn’t try to buckle. In her nervousness, she tried to smile. And because she did stupid things when she got nervous, she almost waved at him too, except his frown chose that moment to deepen, quelling the urge.
As if he were speaking directly to her, he said, “Give me twenty-four hours and I promise, you will come to hate having me as your boss.”
Eden believed him. Her knees believed him too; they tried to buckle again, but she stiffened herself. Scary as he was, she was a Little Maid now and she was excited. How could anyone not be? She’d been hired by the Castle! A BDSM resort the likes of which her imagination could scarcely comprehend! She’d been pinching herself ever since she got the callback letting her know the job was hers and she could start on Thursday. This Thursday. Today’s Thursday. She squirmed, every nerve dancing with the thrill of just standing here, even if her new boss did look like a slightly older version of the evil butler in Downton Abbey. From the starch of his collar, to the shine of his black shoes, and all the way back up again to the way his big hands clasped the lithesome rattan switch behind his back—the Castle could not have picked a better man to play the part of ‘stern, unyielding butler.’
Oh, yes. Eden believed him.
The lady to the right of her, however, snorted. She immediately rolled her lips, but wasn’t quite successful in muffling her rude laughter.
Startled, Eden looked at her.
So did Grimsley. Having almost returned to the head of the room, he came straight back to them. He stopped directly in front of both the woman and Eden. His gaze did not warm, and he absolutely did not smile.
Gradually, the woman beside Eden lost all trace of rude amusement. She rolled her lips again, but her unease became palpable the longer he stood there. Was he waiting for something? To Eden it looked like he was waiting.
“What?” the woman finally said, when it became clear he might intend to stand there forever if something didn’t happen.
Frowning, as if his silence had been a test and the woman had just failed it, the Master Butler turned away. “Mrs. Hardwick,” he said, summoning the tall woman from her sentry post at the main entrance.
The crisp echo of that tall woman’s shoes as she came down the aisle to join them made all the fine hairs on Eden’s arms stand upright. “Yes, Mr. Grimsley.”
“Terminate this woman’s employment and see her removed from the premises.”
Jaw dropping, the woman gasped. “What? Are you serious?”
“Come along, dear.” Taking her by the arm, Mrs. Hardwick pulled her out of line, despite the instant show of resistance the other woman made when s
he dug in her heels.
“Now wait just one minute!” The woman’s brow furrowed, her shock giving way to anger. “You can’t do that! I didn’t do anything!”
“Come along, dear,” Mrs. Hardwick said. “You signed the paperwork. You know we have the right to revoke your employment at any time, for any reason, during your probationary period.”
“But this isn’t fair! I didn’t do anything!”
“Next time, don’t laugh.” Mrs. Hardwick escorted her from the dead end hallway, and the door softly closed on the other’s continuing protests, growing softer the farther they receded.
Grimsley cleared his throat.
Snapping her eyes from the now closed door, Eden found herself once more pinned in the stone of the Master Butler’s stare. He was standing so close to her, right in her bubble of private space. Him and that switch, the one still clasped behind his back. Her bottom clenched, an involuntary squeeze that had never in the history of domestic discipline ever succeeded in making the target area of anyone’s behind smaller or safer from harm.
Eden held his unyielding stare, determined not to look away. Or fidget. Fidgeting would be worse. She wanted this job. She’d wanted it from the moment she’d learned a place like the Castle existed. To be able to live openly as a submissive, in just about any fantasy scenario that she could dream up, constantly surrounded by other submissives and experienced, knowledgeable, take-no-sass Masters (just like this one; be still her beat-skipping heart), Eden just could not imagine life getting any better than that.
She couldn’t bear to lose it now; not to a momentary slip of inattention.
“I’m so very sorry, Sir,” she blurted, fingers twisting in the folds of her jeans. Locking her attention on him, she was determined to keep it there from now until he dismissed them… if he didn’t fire her first.
Grimsley tipped his head. “For what are you sorry?”
Eden’s chest felt too small, too tightly constricted. Her heart was struggling to find its rhythm. “Because I got distracted. It won’t happen again.”
“Won’t it?”
Eden couldn’t tell if she was supposed to answer or not, so she kept her mouth shut. She didn’t relax until Grimsley turned away.
Addressing the rest of the group now, he continued with their orientation. “You are not guests. You aren’t here on vacation. When you misbehave, break the rules, defy my commands, or brat me, I won’t put you over my knee and spank your naughty bottoms.”
Just the thought of it sent a peculiar fizzling sensation, like soda pop, spreading under her skin, out all across Eden’s backside. It was all she could do not to rub, if only to stop that distracting feeling from spreading any further.
“I am your supervisor. For the next ninety days, it is my job to make sure you learn what you need to know in order to work here in a safe, sane and responsible manner. If you fail to follow protocols and procedures, I will fire you. Act like a troublemaker and I will treat you like one—meaning, you’ll be gone. Annoy me and don’t bother re-applying. I will have you banned for life. Raise your hand if you are at all confused about what I’ve just said.” Grimsley put one hand in the air, but no one else moved.
“Splendid,” he said, and Eden could all but hear this chapter in their orientation process closing. In the silence that followed, it was as loud as the slam of a metal gate. Strolling up the hallway, he opened the door Mrs. Hardwick had exited through some moments before. Though she had not yet returned, when Grimsley stepped aside, four men and two women filed in around him. “Show of hands, who are my Masters-in-training?”
Four of the nine men raised their hands.
Without being asked, one of the men who had just entered stepped forward and Grimsley introduced him. “This is Master Brody, he oversees the Stables here on the Castle grounds. This is where you will start your training. You will answer to him, he will answer to me, and whether you advance your training by proceeding to a different program later on will depend entirely upon how well you apply yourself to this one. I should think it goes without saying that mistreatment of any Pony in our Stable, or any submissive anywhere on the property, is grounds for immediate dismissal.”
“Dismissal nothing,” Brody growled. “I’ll fucking skin you alive.”
Brody beckoned, the Masters-in-training followed, and Grimsley summoned the next group. “Who are my Mistresses?”
Several women raised their hands, coming forward when he beckoned and gestured to a very submissive looking woman in a drab grey, head-to-toe maid’s uniform. Her head was bowed, her hands clasped loosely before her.
“Mrs. Hardwick will be responsible for your training, but as she is busy with another matter at the moment, Miss Evelyn will show you to your rooms and then to Wardrobe. Again, you will answer to Mrs. Hardwick, who will answer to me, and whether you continue to work here or not will depend on how studiously you apply yourself to learning how we operate and how well you treat those around you. We haven’t much patience for those with queenly attitudes.” Turning to the silently waiting submissive, he said, “Evelyn.”
“Please follow me,” the maid said. She led them away, leaving twelve people including Eden behind with Grimsley, three other men and a woman.
“Submissives?” Grimsley asked, raising his hand.
Eden’s hand was in the air before the thought fully occurred to her that, being as the dominants were already out of the room, who but the submissives could be left? She startled when she looked left to find the two people standing there were the only new-hires who had not raised their hands.
Eden was still trying to puzzle through what came after Dominant and submissive—switch, maybe; did that deserve its own course of training?—when she heard Grimsley clearing his throat. The harshness of the sound was heavy with disapproval. When exactly the Master Butler had come back down the hallway, she didn’t know, but once more he was planted directly in front of her, frowning that dark and dangerous scowl. The tip of his rattan switch could be seen, bobbing out a silent warning behind his back as he adjusted his grip on it.
She swallowed hard. “Sorry.”
He tipped his head, studying her with the kind of intensity no submissive wanted from any Dominant.
“One more time,” he said slowly, “for the hearing impaired.” He pointed and, following the direction of his finger, she realized she was the only submissive still in the hallway. Everyone else was gathered just outside the now open door with the last newly-arrived woman assigned to be their escort.
Dressed in an overtly sexy French maid outfit, the woman stared at Eden as if she’d lost her mind. Just inside the door were the three remaining men. The burliest stood with arms folded across his bulging chest and the black t-shirt that declared him to be ‘Chief of Security.’ His eyebrows arched as he waited for her to get her act together. The shortest of the men had his hand clapped over his eyes. He was laughing at her. And the third… oh, hell, the third was Master Marshall himself. She recognized him from the Castle’s online brochure.
Oh crap, and she’d just missed her cue. Again.
“I swear, girl…” Grimsley growled, snapping Eden’s attention back to him. She clung to her own fingers, her knees shaking, her stomach dropping all the way to her toes.
The Master Butler directed her gaze to his, pointing at his own eyes and the growing impatience snapping in the dark brown depths. “Focus,” he warned, then pointed toward the other submissives. “Go.”
Blushing furiously, positive the moment she turned her back he was going to swat her with that switch, Eden nevertheless reached the others unscathed.
“This way,” the woman said, beckoning her to join them in the outer hallway.
“She’s going to be fun,” the chuckling Master said.
As the door was closing behind her, she heard Grimsley answer, “She’s not going to last the probationary period, I guarantee you that.”
As the door bumped shut, Eden’s heart sank. She wanted to cover her burn
ing face with both hands. What was wrong with her sometimes? Why did she let herself get distracted like that? Instead of impressing her new employers, she’d left them with the impression that she was a bubblehead, at best, and at worst, an idiot. Either way, the only impression she’d left on the Master Butler was to get rid of her!
She had to make amends. She had to apologize and somehow make him believe she was serious about being here. Otherwise, all she could see was herself spending whatever time she had left here making mistakes under Grimsley’s microscope. The very next one could send her home, too. Oh, the pressure!
“Miss?”
Jumping, Eden found herself once more standing alone. The Little Maid who’d been charged with the submissive group had relocated everyone farther up the main hallway. The rest of the group was gone, presumably they’d filed through the door she was now holding open while she was waiting for Eden.
“Are you coming?”
“I have to use the bathroom,” Eden said quite truthfully. That always happened when she got into trouble. It was like her bladder lost all track of itself the second she got scolded.
“Oh.” Half turning, the Little Maid pointed further up the hall. “Go all the way to the corner and take a right. The nearest guest bathrooms are across from the Medical Play offices. But then you have to come right back here, okay? Otherwise I’ll be in trouble, too, and you know how everyone says the bark is worse than the bite? Yeah, well, anyone who says that hasn’t felt Master Grimsley’s switch. I guarantee his ‘bite’ is ten times worse than his bark ever could be. Trust me.”