Mistress's Master: Men in Blue, Book 3

by Jayne Rylon

  Lily shook her hand, attempting to escape Jeremy’s grasp. He clung as long as possible until she slipped her fingers from between his knuckles before the congregation could catch a glimpse of their connection.

  She ignored his glare, studying the gathering instead. Counting the individuals she could distinguish in the glow spilling from the chandeliers overhead, she estimated over fifty people mingled in the ballroom. Sparkles danced over the guests wolfing lavish hors d’oeuvres and the slaves stationed throughout the room on pedestals like the one she’d been imprisoned on, if somewhat less elaborate.

  Men and women clustered around the pieces, admiring them. Some touched, poked and prodded as if they were testing a melon in the grocery store. Lily tensed when Jeremy growled beside her.

  She followed his line of sight to one woman, imprisoned on her back inside a wooden restraint, her legs captured in some kind of stockade that left her completely exposed, vulnerable. The woman stared at the ceiling, her eyes glazed, as a man dipped his fingers in her pussy, taunting her for not responding. When he slapped her mound and shook his head, seeming bored before abandoning her, Jeremy took a giant step in that direction.

  Lily snagged the harness decorating his back. His forward momentum nearly ripped her arm off before he realized what caused the pressure on his lean yet powerful chest. Christ. She’d seen a shit-ton of naked men in her life. None of them had seemed as fine to her as this one.

  The jolt of pain radiating through her shoulder surprised her. She refused to make a sound. Jeremy stopped on a dime. He pivoted slowly, giving her time to release him so he didn’t tug her limb further out of joint.

  “Shit.” He cursed when he examined her pupils, which were probably dilated. She would have used the same gauge on a slave who enjoyed pain to decide when their body had taken enough despite their willingness to proceed. Some things couldn’t be controlled. Certain reactions didn’t lie.

  “You can’t save her.”

  When lines marred the corners of his mouth, she could no longer stand still. Lily banded her arms around his waist and laid her cheek on his sternum. She ignored the prick of the metal studs decorating his gear. “I’m sorry, Jeremy. It’ll be hard, but—”

  She would have whispered reassurance if his hand hadn’t trapped her confession about her league and the benefactors who’d arranged to attend. The funds she’d provided should cover the hostages she’d scanned.

  He nuzzled the hair at her temples then murmured. “I know. Thank God. No more risks. Don’t mention it here.”

  “Well, isn’t this sweet? It seems my new friends are getting along just fine.” The crowd clapped as Morselli climbed a set of stairs to join Jeremy and Lily on the elevated stage. He snaked between them, slinging a flabby arm—concealed by a designer suit—around each of their shoulders. “Dear guests, welcome to tonight’s event. Thank you for all the lovely compliments on our offerings. I realize you’re eager to commence the examinations and bid on our fine prizes. Perhaps find some magic in the meantime. However, I have a special treat for you all.”

  The low-level drone of the attendees diminished as they halted their sidebar conversations.

  “Many of you will recognize the illustrious Mistress Lily. As promised, tonight she joins our fine establishment.”

  A quick nod bobbed her head when she acknowledged the whistles and cheers from both the legitimate submissives and their owners, ignoring the gleam of others in the crowd. Several men near the stage exhibited the odd, excessive blinking she’d come to associate with users of Sex Offender. No doubt they played Morselli’s games to secure more of the drug. Black magic.

  “However,” he continued, “this man is not one of her slaves.”

  Jeremy outright laughed. Several of her plants in the audience joined him. Damn them. Just because the man emitted pride and control from every pore didn’t mean she couldn’t tame him tonight.

  She tried to visualize him kneeling for her, begging. The fantasy refused to coalesce.

  “No, friends, this is truly a rare occasion.” Morselli continued to drag out the anticipation. “It’s my pleasure to present to you a long-lost pillar of our community. Please welcome, Master Jeremy Radisson.”

  A smattering of gasps fractured the dead silence of the room. Then a cheer raced through the hall. Men turned to their neighbors, filling in the few who hadn’t heard the rumors.

  “Yes, yes.” Morselli held his hands, palms down and quieted the throng. “So you’re in for an amazing show. To prove their dedication to our causes, they’ve agreed…well, what have you decided?”

  Tony looked from Jeremy to her and back. “Who will broaden their horizons tonight? Which of you will bow to the other?”

  The audible turbulence of speculation bubbled through the crowd.

  “Neither.” Jeremy turned inward. “If you respect us, you’ll withdraw your request. We’d be glad to team up and demonstrate on someone who will appreciate our skills.”

  No less than a dozen hands were immediately thrust high into the air.

  “I’m afraid not.” Tony turned a bit purple. “One of you will break the other. I thought you understood when we parted earlier.”

  Lily faced Jeremy. Neither backed down. The force of his compelling stare nearly melted her knees yet she resisted the urge to bend.

  “Since our deliberation ended much sooner than anticipated, we had not yet reached an agreement,” Jeremy stalled again.

  “Then, by all means, continue to convince each other. Don’t let us bother you.” Morselli strode toward the edge of the stage. “Maybe this will help.”

  He reached out and snagged a wicked, braided cat-o’-nine. He tossed the implement in their direction. Lily had the advantage as Jeremy’s stare remained glued to her face. She gave no outward indication of the object’s impending arrival, maintaining her mask.

  At the last second, she launched herself toward the whip, snagging the handle out of midair. The crowd cheered for her though their approval was short-lived.

  Jeremy may have missed the implement, but he grabbed her. His hands spanned her waist, preventing her from escaping his grasp.

  “Put me down,” she commanded.

  With his back to the rest of the room he whispered, “Yes.”

  She blinked. When he didn’t move, she realized he’d initiated their code.

  Yes is no and no is yes.

  “Don’t make me do this.” She offered one last chance. “Surrender now and I’ll go easy on you.”

  He only grinned.

  Lily pulled back her arm and swung the whip. Knots tied in the ends of the leather stung his back, their impact enhanced as the tips gained speed when they folded over the curve of his shoulder.

  He shook his head like a wet dog and his grin spread wider. “You swing like a girl.”

  Oh, fuck him.

  All consideration for his lack of recent conditioning flew out the window. If she came out strong, they could finish quickly—move on. She landed a second blow, this one several times harder. When he still didn’t budge, she continued to build the intensity, working in an uneven rhythm designed to throw him off balance.

  Jeremy held her still, never dropping her, never flinching. His pain endurance impressed her jaded sensibilities. He waited until she reached a little too far before attempting a grab for the implement.

  Lily twisted out of his reach.

  The cheers of the assembly broke through her concentration when Jeremy put his back to her, heading for the stash of tools on the wall. She couldn’t allow him to reach them. She took advantage of the wide-open target. She flailed his shoulders, ass and thighs, careful to avoid his spine and kidneys.

  A well-placed blow would drop him, without doubt.

  She would never stoop so low and risk injuring him permanently.

  Lily chased him in slow motion, since he didn’t actually run. She lashed him over and over. He strode across the stage as though he hadn’t noticed the crimson lines latticing hi
s exposed hide. Matt edged toward her as they neared his side of the stage.

  “Stay out of it.” Jeremy called him off. “This is between Lily and me.”

  Damn him, his voice didn’t hold a hint of strain. Clear command halted his friend.

  She landed several more strikes, the warmed leather snapping against his skin. This time she layered the knots over the brightest of his rising welts. He flinched but didn’t utter a peep.

  “Enough.” He growled as he looked over his shoulder. Instead of the anger, pain or disgust she feared, desire loosed his features. Delicious heat colored his cheeks between the scruff of his beard.

  God damn, did he have to be so fucking sexy?

  “If you stop now, I’ll pretend this didn’t happen. I’ll go gentle on you. I’ll make sure you enjoy your subjugation.”

  She stuck out her tongue at him then placed a harder strike on his ass. The leather absorbed some of the impact. It seemed a shame to ruin a garment that fit to perfection, cupping his tight butt as though it’d molded to the solid muscle. A frayed rip slashed diagonally across his left cheek.

  “Have it your way.” He selected a long bullwhip from the pegboard. He tested the grip in his right hand as she continued to pepper him with a barrage of short, light, unrelenting blows. When she paused, expecting him to turn, cautious over striking him in an unsafe location, he surprised her by plucking a soft, doeskin flogger from the rack.

  The thick mass of wide strips would have almost no sting yet tons of thud. She lost her balance as she considered the contrast he could paint with both implements.

  “Good news.” He smiled. “I’m a righty by nature, but I practiced until I could use my left hand even more accurately. It took years to be comfortable double fisting.”

  Her eyebrows rose.

  Jeremy took advantage of her temporary distraction. He led with the bullwhip, not granting her any quarter. The tip sliced across the upper swell of her right breast, where it plumped above the line of her corset.

  Fire spread through her chest, igniting her instincts. She traded impacts with him, feeling less like a boxer counteracting a punch than a lover alternating caresses. The same desire infusing her with raging arousal radiated from his hungry stare.

  He’d sacrificed for so long. She accepted the force of the flogger over the more severe marks he’d left, dulling the sting, replacing it with soothing pressure. The longer she held out the more she could allow him to indulge his lost pleasure before making him hers for the night.

  She owed him that at least.

  Lily lifted her chin, accepting the kiss of his whip on her inner thigh.

  The crowd roared when Jeremy stepped forward, forcing her to retreat to stay out of his long-armed reach. He twirled the whip in his palm.

  “Show-off.” She snatched the opening to land a blow to his bicep, twisting her wrist at the last instant to splay the knotted ends of her implement across a wider swatch of his body.

  “Are you impressed yet?” He snarled as he shook off the zing caused by the knot that had landed on the sensitive underside of his arm. “When you beg me to take you, you’ll know you’re requesting the best.”

  She snorted, ladylike or not, then treated his other arm to similar strikes. Maybe a little harder since his hand holding the bullwhip started to drive beyond her comfort zone. Fuck, that thing hurt. “Arrogant bastard. More likely I’ll know how valuable my new slave is.”

  Patches of heat seared her legs from her calves to her hips. At least her skirt and corset protected her most sensitive regions. The thought of the whip landing directly on her crotch inspired a curl of dread in her gut. She’d be lying if she denied the tingle of wonder that accompanied her trepidation.

  Lily continued to inch backward, driven by his assault. She cursed herself when her eyes closed for a moment after the soft strips of the flogger danced over her chest.

  “You liked that?” It wasn’t really a question.

  “Hell no.”

  He grinned at her use of their yes-is-no edict.

  Why deny it? She didn’t have to lie. If she did, he wouldn’t take her seriously when she ended this ridiculous game.

  “Good girl,” he murmured then repeated the action a dozen times at least.

  Whistles from the audience shook her from the trance he’d initiated. When had her shoulders come to rest on the opposite wall?

  Jeremy closed in for the kill. He crowded her, preventing her use of the whip as she could no longer swing her arm to gain enough momentum.

  “Too bad, Lily.” He groaned as he buried his face in the crook of her neck, sucking until the tightness on her throat guaranteed he’d marked her. “Maybe next time you’ll put up a better fight.”

  He dusted a kiss over her lips. She indulged in the sweet taste of him for a second or two before dropping the whip and raking her nails down his back. When they passed over the ridges she’d left on him, he jerked.

  Clint called out a warning too late.

  She’d snatched a device off the board behind her. Her fingers had frantically inspected the handle while she lulled him with tenderness. When he recoiled, she flipped the switch, hoping she held what she thought and not one of the more extreme implements she’d spied earlier.

  Lily whipped her arm in between their bodies. She touched the tip of the neon green stick she held to Jeremy’s abdomen and pressed the trigger. He flinched then stumbled backward, allowing her to escape his grasp.

  A chorus of ohhs rose from beyond the stage.

  “Sorry.” She nibbled her lip, ingesting the last of his lingering flavor. “That had to hurt. Especially without warning.”

  “No.” He grunted. “Fuck.”

  She couldn’t help it. She laughed.

  When had she ever had this much fun?

  “I see it didn’t bother you that much.” She cocked her head as she measured the hard length of his erection, which reached toward his hipbone despite the constriction of his pants.

  “I’ve never needed to fuck someone as badly as I do right now.” He wiped his forearm across the beads of sweat beginning to dot his forehead.

  “I’m sure there are plenty of women here tonight who’d beg for the chance to serve you.” Her stomach lurched at the thought even as delighted shrieks filled the air.

  “Only you.” He encroached on her space again. “Tonight, only you will do.”

  The coercion of his tone, his bearing, his innate dominance had her frozen as he approached. At the last second, she dug her willpower from the clutches of her libido. She shocked him again, this time on his arm.

  Lily had tested this exact brand of slave prod on herself. She owned two or three of the popular devices. The jolt it caused would have brought her to her knees. Jeremy’s tall, solid-though-not-bulky frame shouldn’t have withstood the blast of electricity. Still, he kept coming.

  Coming for her.

  “Do it again and I’ll punish you, Lily.” He strengthened rather than wilting beneath the pain. It seemed as though he harnessed the energy and used it to his advantage. “I’ll put you over my knee in front of all our friends. I’ll make you come as you squirm in my hold until you can’t deny to anyone here, including yourself, that you need what only I can give you.”

  She stumbled beneath the ferocity of his conviction. Still she held the neon green shock stick before her like a vampire hunter with a cross. “Stay back.”

  “Yes.” He spoke softly, for her ears only despite his use of their reverse denial. “Nothing could take me away from you now. Surrender. Let me have you.”

  Was he pleading with her?

  Her sense of up and down, right and wrong, good and bad all jumbled. Was it submission if the person you knelt to needed you so badly? Didn’t it give her control of him to grant his wishes? Who was more powerful when they both craved the same thing?

  They would be equals, wouldn’t they?

  “Yes.” She couldn’t do it.

  She pressed the button once more,
electrifying his hip.

  “That’s it.” He snapped his wrist, slinging the tail of the bullwhip he still clutched along the floor. The end of the lash spiraled around her ankle, stinging as it ensnared her.

  Jeremy yanked her feet from beneath her. Wind rushed from her chest as her back slammed the ground. Before she bounced, he was there, cradling her head to keep it from smacking the floor. He knelt over her supine form.

  The gathering cheered his name over and over. Rowdy shouts and clapping rolled past them.

  Until her hand lifted—somehow she’d maintained her grip on the stick—and shocked him directly on the balls.

  He rolled on the floor in agony, his tools abandoned.

  Lily flung the device far enough away that his flailing hands wouldn’t land on it then scrambled to her knees. She settled his head on her lap and cradled him close. The string of soothing nonsense pouring from her lips as she rocked him surprised them both. He quieted as she stroked numb fingers through his hair, horrified at the destruction she’d wrought.

  “Mistress Lily.” He cleared his throat before trying again, louder this time. “You’ve earned a privilege I’ve never before granted another.”

  She looked up into the audience and caught sight of Ben and Ryan watching the spectacle side by side. Suddenly, she knew exactly how they’d felt earlier.

  This was the Twilight Zone.

  Not at all how things should be. A tiny piece of her convictions wavered. She glanced from the expectant crowd to the gentle eyes peering up at her. She could survive one night under his domination. But maybe he wasn’t strong enough to tolerate the same from her. Not one single submissive molecule belonged in his constitution. She stared into his eyes and whispered, “Yes.”

  “What?” He blinked. When she didn’t answer he continued, “Mistress, will you please—”

  Lily clamped her fingers over his mouth to prevent him from sealing their fate. She needed a second. Maybe a couple of them. She couldn’t think.

  Everyone held their breath as they witnessed the impending power exchange.

  Was she strong enough? Could she do it?