by Lily White
With a solemn voice, he answered, “Then your fate is up to Aiden. He can keep you as a Courtesan, or…”
“Sell me?”
Another nod of his head. “I want you to understand that if something such as that were to happen, I would be the person bidding on you. I’ll pay whatever it takes to give you your freedom.”
“Thank you,” I answered on a breathless whisper.
“It’s time, Rebecca.”
I let him walk away, watched as he entered the room to say a few greetings to the Society members in attendance. It didn’t escape my notice that Anthony took care not to greet Aiden or even make eye contact. The easy friendship those two had always enjoyed had been destroyed as easily as my relationship with Aiden over the past few days.
I’d wanted to give Aiden his freedom from the type of life he led, and it seemed that I’d only succeeded in chaining him. He wasn’t just the man I’d met in that art museum years ago; he devolved into something far darker, far colder than the man I used to know.
He had nobody left.
Nothing but his status as a Master within the Society.
It broke my heart to see it.
Turning, I walked to the Courtesan wing to retrieve Greyson and Sarah, reminding them that their behavior during the presentation had to be perfect or they would be punished.
It was show time, my nerves frayed and painful as I walked at a leisurely pace toward the dining room, Greyson and Sarah following at my feet.
The room went silent as I entered, hesitant applause a light sound filling the space when my Courtesans entered behind me. I enjoyed the surprised expressions on the Society member’s faces to see I’d trained not one, but two.
The only person refusing to take pleasure in the moment was Aiden.
His face was an implacable mask, stern and unforgiving. Focusing his gaze on the two people crawling in behind me, Greyson’s nose tight to Sarah’s ass as I’d taught them, he refused to lift those gorgeous blue eyes to look at me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
AIDEN
It was amusing to see the nervousness in Rebecca when she walked in the room. While most Masters would have strolled in without worry, her muscles were tight with tension, her eyes darting about the room as if searching for something that would give her the confidence she was seeking.
She wouldn’t find what she was searching for, would in fact fail this presentation due to the secret I was keeping.
It was all a matter of timing on my part to tear apart the sham of a game my lovely pet was playing.
“Good evening, Gentlemen.” Her voice shook, not enough for the men around me to notice, but enough for me to pick up. Fear edged her every word, the threat of failure an acrid taste on the back of her tongue. Three seats to my right, Anthony sat silently awaiting what she would do, a strong presence she could rely on for support. It was too bad even he didn’t know that truth I’d discovered over the past week.
He’d sided with Rebecca over me in her desire for freedom. They would both be disappointed in the end.
“As many of you know I’ve spent the past few weeks training my first Courtesan, Christopher. However, in the course of that time, another woman arrived who I’ve had the opportunity to train as well. I hope their performance tonight is enough to prove that I, much like yourselves, have earned the title of Master.
Shaking my head, I wondered when it would be best to reveal what I knew. Only one other person in this room was prepared for the information I would deliver. Paul, with his black hair tied back in a neat ponytail at his nape, waited patiently for me to reveal the truth about the man Rebecca had finished training.
I wasn’t sure of the whys or hows of it, but what I did know was that ‘Christopher’ was not the man he claimed to be. The ruse didn’t make sense, a piece still missing from the puzzle of how he ended up in my home. I intended to discover that reason tonight.
Rebecca carried on explaining how Christopher was such a wild man when first brought to her home, reminding the audience that he’d damaged the woman she also claimed to train.
Now, when it came to Sarah, I would relent a little and admit she’d managed to wrangle the girl under control, a feat neither I nor any of the other men who’d used her had been able to do. But still, Sarah’s compliance wasn’t enough for me to simply sit back and believe Rebecca had truly earned her freedom by managing to present both Christopher and Sarah this evening.
She continued to talk prior to beginning the demonstration, my stomach turning every time she used the wrong name for a man I now knew was actually Greyson Keith Gillian. Apparently Jake did have a son, although the facts regarding his birth and life weren’t exactly clear. Why? I wasn’t fucking sure and I didn’t really care too much about them. All I gave a damn about was why the son of bitch was pretending to be a Courtesan in my home.
Remaining still in my seat, I managed to make it through the first demonstration, Rebecca ordered her pets to put on a sensual display. Sarah sucked a little cock. Christopher ate a little pussy without biting it off and I was edging to a point where my teeth were clenching shut and my hands were fists on my lap.
Something had to give, and unfortunately for Rebecca, that something was me. While she was strapping Christopher onto a cross much like what she’d done that night in the playroom, and while Sarah waited patiently to be positioned in a swing, I was one more use of the name Christopher away from standing up and stopping this entire charade.
Rebecca cuffed his wrists and closed the shackles over his ankles, his fake name falling from her lips for the last time.
“That’s a good boy, Christopher, you’ve made your Master very proud.”
I was on my feet before she could get the last word out.
“Don’t you mean Greyson?”
Rebecca’s body froze in place, her emerald green eyes meeting mine when she turned at the question. Fidgeting in place, she eventually rolled back her shoulders as if to carry on with the fake Courtesan she’d trained. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
Beside me the Society members were exchanging glances, their expressions interested yet weary to learn that perhaps not everything was as it appeared.
Smiling, I was practically crooning to blow this out of the water, my ability to keep calm all but forgotten. “Do you mean to tell me you spent weeks training this man and didn’t dig far enough into his psyche to learn his real name?”
Rebecca blinked, a shimmer at the bottom of her eyes that I knew would form into tears. I was an asshole for what I was doing, could have confronted her privately rather than calling her out in the middle of a display, but I was too hurt and angry to do something so polite. I hated her for making me care and then telling me she wanted to leave.
I’d never hated anything more in my entire life.
And I hated having to admit that to myself because it meant what Anthony and Rebecca had always believed to be true.
I loved Rebecca as more than just a toy.
I’d loved something and it was being taken away.
Which is exactly why I would never feel the bullshit emotion for the rest of my god damned life. It left me empty to realize I’d weakened myself for her and she didn’t appreciate it enough to stay.
Fuck giving her freedom.
I would make her regret this entire fucking charade once everything was said and done.
Steeling her spine, Rebecca turned to the audience fully. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but his real name doesn’t exactly matter. As long as he performs for me and whomever I choose to sell him to, his name could be Alfred or George and it wouldn’t mean a damn thing. Are you accusing me of something, Aiden?”
Aiden…
It was the first time she’d used my name in front of the Society members, the first time she’d disrespected my status as her Master in the entire time that I’d owned her.
I’d make her regret that as well.
“Actually,” I answered, tugging my sleeve cuffs into plac
e, “I am.” Stepping away from my seat, I turned to face the Society members. “This man’s name is Greyson Keith Gillian. You may recognize the last name as that of his father’s, Jake Gillian, also known as the supposed Master that trained him originally.”
Surprise lifted the brows of many of the men in attendance, the only person not reacting being Paul. He already knew what we’d discovered about Greyson’s origins.
“If you men don’t mind, I’d like to know why Greyson is pretending to be something he is not. His actions against Sarah while in Adam’s care threatened the Society. His actions now make me believe my Courtesan may be involved in a plot to earn her freedom.”
Anthony stood from his seat, his amber eyes blank and unassuming when he countered, “How could Rebecca be involved in anything? Prior to his arrival at your house none of us knew his actual name. Speaking of which, how did you discover this information, Aiden? How do we know that what you’re claiming is even true?”
The son of a bitch was pissing me off. Leave it to him to stand in my way when it came to the claim I would obviously be making on my Courtesan. Rebecca wasn’t leaving me. There was no way in hell I would let her.
“Paul and I both confirmed the information with an older Master, Kenneth Larkins. He was a contemporary of Jake’s and had known Greyson as a child. He was surprised to find out that Greyson was now acting as a Courtesan when it had been Jake’s intention to raise him as a Master.”
“And that involves Rebecca how, exactly?” Anthony stepped closer to me, anger finally bleeding into his face. “Tell me just how Rebecca played any role in this other than to train the man once he arrived at your estate. I’d be interested to know what you discovered about that.”
With that question, he had me cornered. I didn’t know the answer as to how Rebecca could have been involved. In truth, she didn’t even know she was going to train a Courtesan until the moment of Greyson’s arrival.
With my silence, Anthony nodded his head, turning to the men in the audience. “Regardless of the true identity of the man Rebecca trained, she’s demonstrated her skills in bringing a person into compliance. I think you all can agree that it’s impressive on her part to have taken a woman who attempted to blackmail us all and within two shorts weeks have her behaving as a Courtesan within the Society. Even if Greyson is someone other than he claims, how can anyone here contest that Rebecca has successfully Mastered Sarah?”
My eyes closed to hear what he was saying. If it hadn’t been for me, if it hadn’t been for my need for justice and violence, Sarah wouldn’t have been in the house for Rebecca to control.
If the Society went forward tonight with granting Rebecca her freedom, only I could be blamed for handing them the reason to do so.
I should have put a fucking bullet in the bitch’s head when I had the chance.
One by one, the Society members agreed, their eyes refusing to meet mine as they conferred and decided that Rebecca would be titled a Master.
Anthony approached her, his hand touching her hip as he leaned in to explain what the title meant.
Instead of the smile I was sure would stretch her beautiful face, only sorrow filled her emerald eyes.
Anthony turned to us. “As of tonight, Rebecca is no longer Aiden’s property. She has agreed to travel with me to my island and will live there for the next several years. If anybody has any objection to this, now would be the time to say it.”
All eyes were on me.
I should have objected.
Should have begged her to change her mind.
But the only thing I could bring myself to do was to smile and walk from the room.
If Rebecca didn’t want to be in my life anymore, who the fuck was I to tell her I wanted her to stay?
Keeping her five years ago had been my first mistake. Falling in love with her, my second. The idea of the useless emotion was like holding a loaded gun to my head just waiting for the moment I’d be brave enough to pull the trigger.
I didn’t need the entanglement.
I’d gone soft over the years I had her.
If anything, this moment had reminded me of who I should have been all along: A bastard with no conscience, no heart and no soul.
Her freedom became my own, and with that thought in mind, I walked to my office to begin planning for the next woman I would find and bring home.
CHAPTER THIRTY
REBECCA
They say if you love something you should set it free. If it comes back, it’s yours. If not, it was never meant to be.
Every night I struggled on that last part, on believing that Aiden and I were never meant to stay together, on believing that I’d spent five years loving a man who would never be able to love me back.
Aiden had set me free, but only because it was demanded of him. I had set him free as well, but only to see what he would do if I left him.
Nothing.
He did absolutely nothing, except make himself scarce in his office while Anthony and I spent the entire next day collecting my belongings that I would be taking to the island. Aiden never emerged to say goodbye, to ask me to stay, to beg me to remember I was meant for him.
I flew away that night on Anthony’s private plane, unable to enjoy the ride because my tears wouldn’t stop falling.
In the two months I’ve lived on Anthony’s island since the night I became a Master, the tears continued, breaking only when I was in the company of Sera or Anthony, often traveling around the island in search of the space where I would build my home.
My home…
Without Aiden I feared I would never look at it like that.
A home is just a house if it’s empty of the people you love.
I spent my days pretending that I wasn’t broken, and my nights wandering the cliffs trying to remember who’d I been before becoming a Courtesan. I wasn’t sure I liked the girl Aiden had stolen so many years ago, but I also wasn’t sure I knew how to reinvent myself either. I was stuck in an in between place, a lost soul with no direction, a star that had fallen from its place in the sky only to be swept away by the changing winds, no longer beaming with illumination, yet not quite dying.
It was a good thing the island prevented me from returning to Aiden’s estate. I wasn’t sure that without the distance between us I could have stopped myself from running back and falling to my knees while begging him to forgive me.
How pathetic is that?
I knew I’d done the right thing to stand strong.
So why was it slowly ripping me apart?
On this night, I’d enjoyed an early dinner with Anthony and Sera, the food wonderful as usual, the ambiance pleasant. Sera had begun to show, her pregnancy no longer questionable. A bulge in her stomach was enough to make Anthony’s expression glow, the love between them so infectious that it hurt my heart more and more to feel it.
Sera was enough for him
Their family would be enough.
It was a knife in the spine to realize I would never be the same for Aiden.
After finishing our meal, I’d asked to be excused, claiming I wanted to go for a walk to breathe some fresh air. In truth, I couldn’t stay around them much longer without hating myself even more. As soon as tears pricked my eyes, hot and angry, I’d left the house to walk the cliff like I always did, my eyes watching the water break on the rocks a hundred feet below me.
Instead of attempting to convince me to stay, Anthony had simply wished me a good night, a glimmer in his eye that wasn’t typical. I didn’t stick around to ask what it was he was thinking, deciding instead that I needed to be alone for the early and late evening hours.
Walking out his door took me instantly to the shoreline. There was something magical about this place, and something deeply disturbing. Often I walked the edges looking down wondering where it had been that Anthony’s previous Courtesan had ended her life.
That wasn’t the disturbing part, however, more the thought I often had about whether she felt it when she hit
the rocks below my feet.
Would I feel it?
Would the end of my life even matter?
Would I be just enough star who’d lost her shimmer falling endlessly until the moment she was swept away?
Strength. Anthony believed I had it. The truth was I couldn’t manage to find anymore within my body now that my heart was crushed and destroyed.
“Excuse me, Miss, but I think you may have dropped this.”
I startled at the sound of the deep voice behind me, a memory of the first night I met Aiden Oliver, the words he’d first spoken to me. Knocked off balance by what must have been my imagination, I gasped when my feet slipped on a loose pile of rocks, my forward motion prevented by the strength of an arm wrapping around me.
His scent lifted to my nose, my eyes closing with disbelief.
A mouth pressed to my ear, warm breath trailing down my neck, the whisper of a memory I no longer had the right to dream. “Careful now, Rebecca, we wouldn’t want you falling. It would break Anthony completely to lose another person he cared about because of these cliffs.”
Pulse in my throat, I had to struggle to breathe, Aiden’s arm still wrapped around me, warm and protective.
“Is Anthony the only person who would mourn me?”
Silence, the pause pregnant with every emotion I’d felt over the last few months, the heartache, the regret, but also the passion and love. It’s not possible to simply turn off your heart even when what you want will only destroy you.
“I’m here, aren’t I? That has to count for something.”
A few months ago and those words would have been enough. Now they were just another of Aiden’s attempts to give as little as it took to lure me back to him.
Pulling away, I crossed my arms around my abdomen, turning to look at a man who had always been so controlled, so put together. To say I was shocked by his appearance would be an understatement.
This wasn’t Aiden Oliver; not this man with face that hadn’t seen a razor in weeks, his usual suit replaced by a long sleeve t-shirt and jeans. My brows tugged together, my mouth opening to comment on his appearance, but closing again when I thought better of it.