Her Master's Reckoning

by Lily White

  I should have known Aiden wouldn’t leave Christopher alone for the night, should have guessed that he couldn’t help his need to punish.

  “What did he do to you?”

  Although Caribbean eyes met mine, Christopher didn’t open his mouth to answer. I sighed, unsure how to proceed after everything that had already happened. I’d be a liar to claim fear wasn’t creeping down my spine on a thousand skittering feet. “I want to feed you and give you water, but I don’t know if you’ll fight me for doing so.”

  Turning to grab the food from the small table where I’d left them, I stilled in place to hear the grit of a deep voice. “I won’t.”

  A quick glance over my shoulder to find that Christopher’s eyes were closed, his chest moving with slow, rhythmic breath. I moved the glass and plate to the table near the bed, stood over him for a few seconds before dragging a chair next to where he lay so still I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined hearing him talk.

  When his eyes met mine again, I demanded, “Promise me.”

  His chapped lips curled ever so slightly, his eyes opening to catch mine. He said nothing.

  “So I imagined that response. Good to know I’m losing my mind.”

  “I won’t hurt you.” It was a whisper that pained my throat to hear, the sound so course I would believe he’d swallowed gravel. “Not for giving me water.”

  Fingernails tapping against the glass I held, I gripped the long tube straw and directed it to his mouth. It was a useful tool to allow him to take in the liquid while lying flat on his back. Anything else, and he would have choked. His lips parted to allow me to slip the end of the tube between them, my eyes catching sight of the bite marks that split the inner skin.

  Christopher’s throat worked to swallow the cool water, his shoulders relaxing after several seconds before he used his tongue to force the tube out of his mouth. “Thank you.”

  Surprised at the polite response, I set the glass on the table beside me. Aiden had to have done something monstrous to him, there was no other explanation for his change in behavior. The thought pissed me off. This was my Courtesan to tame and Aiden’s interference only meant he had no faith in my abilities to pull it off. I had my own plans in mind, and now, with whatever he’d done while I was sleeping, I didn’t know if my plan was working.

  I asked my question again. “What did he do to you?”

  No response.

  Staring at his face, I couldn’t help but notice the ugly bruise where Aiden’s belt had marked him. Reaching out with timid fingers, I traced the worst line of it. It was a mistake, Christopher’s head moving so fast that he caught my finger between his teeth, biting down hard enough that I couldn’t pull away. Instead of jerking my hand again, I relaxed despite my instincts demanding I scream. He didn’t break the skin, simply held my finger between his teeth as his gaze slipped left to lock with mine.

  “You said you wouldn’t hurt me,” I whispered, my heart hammering in my throat.

  The tip of his tongue ran a line down the length of my finger, his mouth relaxing so I could pull my finger free. Gaze drifting down and back up again, he settled his large frame over the bed. “Your nipples are hard.”

  “It’s cold,” I argued.

  “Or you’re like me.”

  My breath caught, denial raging through me, edged by understanding. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Shaking my head, I clenched my teeth. This wasn’t the behavior of a Master. “You need to eat. I won’t take no for an answer. Refuse and I’ll -“

  Soft laughter shook his shoulders, his arms outstretched above his head, wrists shackled to the chains attached to the heavy iron frame. I expected him to taunt me, but his silence was tenacious.

  “You need to eat.”

  Blue-green eyes met mine. His mouth opened.

  “Are you going to bite the hand that feeds you?”

  He didn’t move to respond, simply held my stare with his mouth ready for the first morsel. I hadn’t brought him anything too tasty. Plain bread and a banana. Without knowing how long it had been since he’d last eaten I didn’t want to give him something that would cause him to vomit while stuck on his back. My brows tugged together at his easy compliance, distrust edging my thoughts. I grabbed the banana first since it gave me a modicum of distance from strong white teeth that had already caused damage.

  Christopher took the bite without complaint, chewing slowly while gazing up at me. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw humor in his blue eyes, a challenge aimed at me for a reason I didn’t yet know.

  “Why are you being so complacent this morning?”

  He swallowed and opened his mouth for another bite, his usual refusal to answer my question readily apparent.

  Only a stupid woman would accept that he’d learned some valuable lesson already, and perhaps that was the game he was playing in order to draw me close.

  I was so sick of mind games. They left me spinning in place, unsure which direction I should turn.

  Almost finishing the banana in a few healthy sized bites, Christopher locked his eyes to mine when I was left with only a tiny nub, my fingers no longer protected by distance. I feared him, I realized, and I knew that if I wanted him to accept my authority, I couldn’t hesitate for fear of being damaged.

  His mouth remained open as I pushed the last bite between his lips, shutting so suddenly that my pulse jumped. Rather than biting my fingers, he simply allowed them to slide from his closed mouth unimpeded, the moment somehow made erotic by the implicit danger of this feral man chained to a bed.

  Worried he would easily see the fluttering artery in my throat, I turned as if only interested in preparing the bread for him to eat.

  “Would you like more water first?”

  His response was unexpected. “Do you let him degrade you often?”

  My neck wrenched with how quickly I turned to look at him. “I didn’t give you permission to talk.”

  “You asked me a question, so in a way you did.”

  “Then answer the damn question and leave it at that.”

  Tense silence before, “No. I don’t want more water. Unless you’re willing to release these chains,” he rattled them against the bedframe, “so I can pee.”

  Averting my eyes, I knew I’d have to call Anthony and Aiden for help, a favor I wasn’t yet willing to ask. “After your behavior in the bathroom yesterday, I’m not sure you deserve to be treated with such kindness.”

  “After yours, I think you deserve more than you’ve been given.”

  Thankful that my hair hid my face, I allowed the corners of my lips to tug up. It was better that he thought he saw me so plainly, better that he believed I was nothing more than a victim. This was just another dance I had to undertake. A game and nothing else.

  “You tried to drown me,” I reminded him, intentionally softening my voice.

  “You took something that wasn’t freely given.”

  I turned, our eyes locking. “That’s my right. I own you. I can take it again now and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  He swallowed, the fissures in his lips cracking open as they moved. “Did you like it when they did that to you?”

  “No.” An honest answer. “Not at first.”

  “Then why do it to another?”

  Despite the heartbreaking truth of his question, I played along, one purpose in mind. “Because that’s what I’ve been told to do.”

  Resettling on the bed, he closed his eyes while I allowed my gaze to travel over him. This man was truly beautiful, strong despite the abuse to his body.

  “Do you always do what you’re told?”

  No, I thought, not always. “No, but you will.”

  He grimaced, his eyes remaining closed. “Whatever you say, Princess.”

  “It’s Master to you.”

  Lips twitching with amusement. “Master.”

  He didn’t mean it, didn’t much care that he was trying my patience. I had no choice but to show him otherwis
e.

  Standing from my seat, I walked to the closet where I knew Aiden kept his tools of the trade. I’d never actually been in the closet before, the wide selection surprising me, leather whips, crops, and other cruelties bouncing against the wood as I pulled open the door. Selecting a thin cane that would slice the air with each swing, I spun on my heel to glance back at Christopher.

  It wasn’t like the man I’d beaten in this room before, the man Aiden had gifted me five years ago. Tanner had been my ex-boyfriend, a person I’d hated with everything inside me for the way he and his father had so easily destroyed my life.

  I didn’t feel the same hatred toward Christopher, and it took effort to wrap my fingers tightly around the cane, close the distance between the closet and the bed, and lift the cane over my head before slamming it down across his stomach.

  Large body jerking in response to the strike, his jaw ticked over clenched teeth as a pained grunt escaped his throat.

  “Say Master like you mean it, Christopher, or I’ll be forced to do it again.”

  An inhalation of breath hissed over his lips, a long exhalation as he blew it out. “There’s two things you should know before doing that.”

  The edge of the cane tapped against my leg where I held it. “What should I know?”

  His body shifted over the mattress. “The first thing is that my name isn’t Christopher.”

  The admission was a surprise I hadn’t expected. Still, I refused to take the bait. He wanted me to ask his real name, wanted me to follow his lead instead holding the reins myself. “And what’s the second?”

  One eye opening, he glanced at me, closing it again when he confessed, “The second is that I happen to enjoy pain.”

  I froze in place unable to respond because I wasn’t sure what to say.

  Taking the silent opportunity, the corners of his lips curled with contempt. “Maybe before striking me, it would have been smarter to find out why there are so many scars on my skin. Hasn’t it occurred to you that any normal person would have buckled long before every inch of their body was marked?”

  The cane slipped from my hand to clatter against the floor. What the hell was I supposed to do with a Courtesan who enjoyed abuse?

  “I guess,” he said, emphasizing his words with a patient speed that mocked me, “since you’re the Master and all, you’ll need to figure out another way to punish my disobedience.”

  Another beat of silence, his eyes opening to meet mine. “I hate to break it to you, Princess, but not even your boyfriend is scary enough to make me cry.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  AIDEN

  The son of a bitch was talking to her and I couldn’t hear a damn word he said. Not a single fucking one despite having the volume on my phone turned up. I couldn’t tell if they were intentionally keeping their voices soft, or if there was a faulty wire in the camera to that room. Livid that I couldn’t listen in on their conversation, I threw my phone across my office, the useless piece of crap falling to the floor with a heavy thump as Anthony strolled through the door.

  A questioning brow arched. “Is there a problem?”

  “He’s not insane,” I answered with a tone so fucking sharp I cut my tongue on it.

  Anthony blinked, once, twice, “And I’m assuming you find that to be a problem.”

  “Of course it’s a problem. It means the asshole has been playing us from the second he was dragged in here.”

  Bending to grab my phone from where it landed, Anthony thumbed the button to turn it on. “I also assume the camera is set to the dark room.”

  “Fuck off.”

  He laughed, his eyes studying the screen. After several seconds of silently watching whatever was occurring between Rebecca and that miserable, lying bastard, Anthony’s brows tugged together, a line of focused interest forming between his amber eyes.

  “What?” My pulse pounded beneath my skin. “Has he somehow grabbed her again?” I was halfway out of my seat before he lifted a hand to stop me.

  “No, he hasn’t. Rebecca just slapped him across the stomach with a cane, actually.” He paused before adding, “It’s his reaction that concerns me.”

  “Let me guess: he’s not fighting her.”

  Amber eyes lifted to mine. “And let me guess: you discovered that would be the case last night when you snuck back there to hurt him first.”

  My mouth snapped shut and he laughed again. “It’s scary how well I know you.”

  “Somebody had to evaluate him, Anthony. A Master with experience.”

  “I’m not disagreeing with you. I would have done the same thing.” Dropping his weight onto the leather seat facing my desk, he slid the phone over the surface to me. “What did you to him?”

  Fingers closing over the phone, I admitted, “Tested his pain threshold. Determined his trigger.” The screen lit up, an image of Rebecca standing with cane in hand drawing my attention. She was beautiful with hair that swept down her back in loose waves. Even in jeans and a simple shirt, she appeared well put together. My thumb traced the strong line of her body. “Pain isn’t what sets him off. Sex is.”

  What was he saying to her? The second the cane fell from her hand, I tensed, everything in me screaming that I run back there. Her green eyes lifted to the camera.

  “That doesn’t bode well for Rebecca.”

  “No,” I agreed, my gaze meeting his, “it doesn’t.”

  “I bet that pleases you.”

  “Why would it?”

  “Because then you know she won’t be fucking another man by choice.”

  If there’d been a bullseye in the room, Anthony had struck it dead center. But I wouldn’t be the person to admit it. “She just left the room,” I said instead, the change of topic a perfect deflection. “She didn’t bother returning the cane to the closet either.”

  From one camera to the next, I watched her progress through the house. “She’s coming this way.”

  Rebecca rounded the corner to enter my office a few minutes later. “I need the key to his shackles.”

  That wasn’t going to happen. Without outwardly reacting to her demand, I took my time setting my phone on my desk, relaxing back against my seat and shifting around to look at her. “Have you forced him into submission so quickly? One whack and that was all it took?”

  Expression souring, “You’ve been spying.”

  “Actually, it was Anthony who told me.” It wasn’t a lie, but Anthony’s eyes narrowed on me in silent warning that he would one day return the favor.

  “I would have expected better of Anthony. You, on the other hand, I knew were watching.”

  My neck ached from lack of sleep, a night spent in my office staring at a wall wondering how my life had reached this point. Stretching the muscles from side to side, I asked, “How did you know?”

  “My body knew.”

  The same words she’d used when I caught her peeking in the playroom, the same promise that despite the wedge driven between us by the passage of time and a challenge neither of us had wished to undertake, she was still connected to me on every level that mattered.

  “I don’t think releasing him is a good idea, Pet. You can’t hope to control him.”

  “That’s not your call,” she answered, her voice stern. “He’s my Courtesan to do with as I please.”

  Straightening my neck over my weary shoulders, I met her unblinking stare. “Release his bonds, and you’ll be a body for him to do with as he pleases.”

  “That’s the plan.”

  Stilled by her admission, I almost laughed at how ridiculous it was. “Are you saying you’re purposely giving him the chance to kill you?”

  “You have your methods and I have mine.”

  Anthony choked on a bark of barely restrained laughter. I eyed him with every intention to bruise that pretty face of his with my fist.

  Feigning innocence, he brushed his hand down the leg of his pants as if to straighten a wrinkle. “Sorry, it’s just that I think I’ve heard that phr
ase from someone else before.”

  My attention returned to Rebecca dismissing him and his commentary. “You have no idea what you’re doing.”

  She didn’t answer. Arms crossing over her chest as if she had somehow become my equal, Rebecca stared at me with eyes absent of the desire I’d always witnessed in them. It woke something in me, a need to stake my claim, an itch to turn my palm red on skin that displayed my every touch in a rose tinted outline over cream perfection.

  “Anthony, if you wouldn’t mind. I need a moment alone with my Courtesan.” Intentionally emphasizing the title, I kept careful watch of her reaction. There was nothing in her expression to betray her response, but her eyes - the slight rounding in size, the barest sharpening of color - it spoke volumes.

  She thought to challenge me. I thought to take her up on the offer.

  How long had it been since such exquisite excitement ran a jagged pulse through my body?

  Gaze drifting to a friend who hadn’t yet answered my request, I saw keen understanding flicker behind his eyes. With a polite smile, he stood from his seat to leave the room, pausing at the doorway to touch Rebecca’s shoulder in silent apology.

  Anthony had nothing to apologize for. She’d done this to herself.

  “Close the door behind you, Pet.”

  Stepping fully into the room, she did as she was told, but not without a second’s hesitation that seduced me even more.

  My voice was so tender, it was a warning interlaced with the most gentle of caresses. “Haven’t you yet learned your place? Must I always remind you?”

  She met me stare for stare. “I only closed the door out of respect. Anthony doesn’t need to listen to what I have to say.” Her shoulders rounded, pride straightening her spine. “Give me the key, Aiden, and I’ll go back to what I was doing. You are not the Master in this situation.” A pause as she gathered her courage. “I am.”

  Like a mouse tapping dancing in front of a lazy, fat cat, she thought herself safe from me because of a few feet of distance. As if she could ever hope to outrun me.