by Joey W. Hill
She might have screamed in rage, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was she flew at the young man with nails and teeth. She was a small woman in her forties with no fighting skills, so it would be nothing for him to beat her into the ground, but she didn’t stop pummeling at him, no matter how ineffectually. His second blow caught her on the temple and she staggered. She was vaguely aware of the other one opening her car door to yank out her purse. She lunged at him and the driver shoved her against the gas pump, the handles jamming into her lower back.
“Stop fighting,” he snapped impatiently.
He’d caught her hand, was wrenching at her rings. The engagement ring Roy had given her at a soiree with her family and friends. The twenty-year anniversary band. The plain gold wedding band. His mistake was he was trying to work all three off together, and her knuckles were not the same as they’d been at twenty-one, when Roy had placed two of them there. She screamed in rage, for help, to be noticed, to stop him. She also kicked at him, dropping to the ground so he had to follow her, practically roll with her as she curled around the rings like she was protecting a child.
He grabbed hold of her hair. Again she was struck with the contrast, the way the Master had seized Willow’s hair to drag her head back. This man was going to smash her face against the raised concrete dais. She’d be another NOLA crime statistic.
Instead, he was yanked off her and slung back over her car. He hit the hood with a resounding thump, fell off. The BMW might need body work. A flurry of violent activity ensued, punctuated by male swearing. A cry followed a sound like breadsticks being snapped. Then there was a scramble, the two men running back to their car, one limping and the other holding his arm against himself. The Caddy sped away, the driver shouting obscenities out the window, his eyes wild, spooked.
She was trying to get up, but a large hand closed over her shoulder, keeping her down. “Easy, let’s take this slow. See what’s what.” When he tried to uncurl her hands from her chest, she was too disoriented. She made a noise between angry protest and pleading.
“It’s all right. I’m not going to hurt you or take anything from you, I promise.”
It was his rumbling tone that brought things into focus. The man in the Caddy had tried to take her rings, not this man. This man was trying to help her.
He gently manacled her wrist, using his hold on it and the arm he slid behind her shoulders to help her sit up on the concrete island. He unfolded her legs so they were stretched out in front of her. She blinked, bemused when he guided her calf so one ankle was crossed over the other. A ladylike pose, rather than sprawled ignominy. It helped.
“You okay?”
She focused. “Your eyes aren’t dark blue.”
Maybe it was because she was still fuzzy, but she had an impression of several colors. Green at the bottom of the iris, melding into blue at the top. A center ring of gold around the pupil. She knew it was him, not just because of the black T-shirt and jeans and his build, but because of that unique stamp to him. He barely seemed winded after dispatching the two men.
Her gaze shifted to his hair. It was charcoal colored, with a handsome peppering of gray. She suspected he was a little older than her, maybe late forties. She really had wanted to see his face, and now that she’d been granted her wish, she was having trouble focusing on it. She locked her attention on that granite jaw. That, and his touch, made good anchor points to help her steady. The heat of his palms on her arms was so much better than what she’d felt when she’d slipped her fingers into his glove. She wanted him to keep them there.
“Answer my question, Athena. Are you okay?”
“Yes. Just bumps and bruises.” Her vision had only blurred when she was hit, so she didn’t think she had a concussion. Her cheek had hit the cement, not her skull. She’d have quite a story to tell at the Garden Club luncheon. She’d make them laugh by telling them it was due to an unfortunate run-in with her rebellious rosebushes. She didn’t think they’d laugh if she told them it was because of an attempted mugging outside her favorite BDSM club. “It was just a shock to be hit that way.”
“Yeah. That’s usually the first hurdle in combat training. Understanding you’re going to get hit in hand-to-hand, and you can’t flinch from it. You didn’t flinch at all.”
“I’d like to say it was bravery, but I simply didn’t expect it.”
“Most people don’t expect someone to do that to them. Not if it’s never happened before. If you had some training, I think you’d have kicked that bastard’s ass.”
“Thank you. A nice way of saying I fight like a girl. Would you mind helping me up?”
He rested his hand on her knee, drawing her attention to the fact that one was knocking against the other. Until he touched it, and then it stilled, with an uncertain quiver. “Let’s sit here for another minute or two.”
He was sitting next to her, which would ordinarily be pleasant, but the location wasn’t.
“I’d like to at least move to my car,” she said. “This isn’t a very comfortable or aromatic position. The gas smell’s a little overpowering.”
“Aromatic?” His lips quirked, and they were handsome and firm. “No wonder they call you Lady Mistress. All right, then. Point taken. You’re going to lean on me, though. No arguments.”
It wasn’t the only reason they called her that. She was Athena Francesca Summers, born of old Southern money, married to Roy “Rocket” Summers. She’d been at his side for over twenty years as the two of them expanded and increased the success of the company he started, Summers Industries, which was now a multinational corporation that also employed thousands domestically. On top of that, she was practically a professional volunteer fund-raiser for various high-profile New Orleans charities.
Though most at Club Release hadn’t known her true identity in the beginning, it wasn’t hard to figure out as time went on, since photographs of her and Roy regularly showed up in the business and social columns. Club Release was known for its exclusive membership and small size, which was one of the reasons Roy had chosen it, despite more upscale fetish club choices in the New Orleans area, like the nearby Club Progeny.
There was no shame in a Southern lady leaning on a handsome male rescuer, but even if there had been, she would have had little choice. Despite the odd calmness of her mind, her legs couldn’t support her weight. However, he did more than let her lean. When she expected him to open her driver’s side door, instead he bent, slid his arms beneath her and lifted her off her feet. He walked around to the passenger side, letting her down there before he opened the door.
Roy hadn’t been a weakling, but she could count on one hand the times he’d carried her. Worried he might throw out his back, she’d insist he put her down, even though she’d hold on to his neck as she fussed. When he did put her down, she’d compliment his show of manly strength, laughing at the mischief in his brown eyes. Lord, she missed that man’s sense of humor.
She leaned against the frame of the door, swamped by the feeling. A near mugging could do that, remind a woman of the practicalities she faced when her husband was dead and no close family lived in the area. No one was directly involved in her day-to-day well-being. Had she even updated her emergency contact numbers in her purse or at the house? If she’d been seriously hurt, would the emergency room have tried to find Roy?
Oh, for heaven’s sake. She wasn’t going to fall into this self-pitying drivel. She’d update it tomorrow, choose one of her many friends to be primary contact. None of those friends knew about this part of her life, though. They’d have no clue why she was pumping gas in the middle of the night in a part of town none of them frequented. It didn’t really matter, did it? If she needed an emergency contact, she expected discretion wouldn’t be high on her list of priorities.
She noticed her purse was on the edge of the seat, straps dangling to the floorboards, her lipstick a glittering tube of silver on the carpet. It suggested the other man had gotten no further than that in pulling her bag from the car. The one respon
sible for thwarting him stood at her back, close enough for her to feel his heat. His hand was just above hers on the frame as he waited her out.
She had a sudden desire to slide her hand up over his, hold on tight, feel that human contact. If he turned his hand to clasp hers, she’d experience firsthand the restrained strength he’d used when he brought that cane down on Willow’s flanks, and then again when he’d slid his hand down her bare body, fingers decisively capturing her clit, pushing her over the edge. One more small step, and he’d be as close to Athena as he’d been to his bound submissive.
“I’d like to thank you properly,” she said, staring at that hand. “May I ask your name? Or do you prefer Master Craftsman?” She knew Jimmy had meant it as a joke, a teasing nickname, but it was all she had.
“Hardly. Do you feel Lady Mistress is a good fit for you?”
“It was, once.” She spoke before she thought about the wisdom of saying so, but watching him had brought such thoughts to the surface, hadn’t it? Her legs were trembling again, and her grip slipped on the door frame. “Damn it.”
“Ease in there.” He moved the purse to the floor and folded her firmly into the passenger seat. She’d lost her shoes during the scuffle, but he had them. He placed them neatly by her feet. Her toes curled into the rug, the rougher fibers a contrast with the silk of her nylons.
He shut the door, then came around to the driver’s side. He reached beneath the seat to slide it back and accommodate his larger frame before he took the spot. Her purse was still on the console, her keys in the ignition, so he turned the engine over, adjusting the air so a low heat began to fill the car. Though it was a warm enough night in New Orleans, she was shivering. Shock, she supposed, and watched him press the seat warmer for the passenger side. It warmed both the back and backside, and she couldn’t help a small sigh of comfort when it responded quickly. German luxury cars were a gift of the gods.
Her dashboard GPS came up, and he glanced at it, pressing the icon programmed for home. Just like that, he had her address. She wasn’t that concerned about it, because he didn’t feel like a threat. Not that way. Her gaze fastened onto his forearm, that dark sprinkle of hair. Lifting her attention to the silver hair at his temples, she reached out, touched it.
Those intent eyes locked with hers in a way that made her close her hand, lower it with only a brief impression of the soft texture. He held her gaze, unsmiling, until she put the hand back in her lap. She could almost hear the click, the connection made, a mutual understanding of their behavior. His wasn’t a surprise to her, not after having watched him in the club. But his reacting that way now told her he wasn’t simply a bedroom Dom, one demanding those terms in the boundaries of a defined session, a sexual scenario. Few men had the confidence to pull it off believably outside a structured environment.
That intel, rather than suggesting she might act with more caution around him, gave her far more unwise thoughts and desires.
If her reaction had surprised him, given that she was classified as a Domme, he didn’t show it. “I’m taking you home,” he said, “and then I’ll call a cab to get me back to my place. I came with a friend tonight, so I don’t have my truck here. Take a hot shower tonight and a couple aspirin. It’ll make you feel better tomorrow.”
“Voice of experience?” Her tongue seemed to be too thick in her mouth. “That didn’t seem like your first fis-fisticuffs.”
His lips quirked again. “Fisticuffs? Really? Are you a librarian?”
“Do I look like one?”
“Depends.” His gaze covered her, head to toe, and he took his time about it. “I’ve had some interesting fantasies about librarians. The kind where I bend them over a stack of books and discipline them with a nice flexible paperback for shushing me one too many times.”
Was he trying to steady her with the teasing? Giving him a silly smile, she leaned forward and put her finger to her lips, trying to summon a suitably stern librarian expression. “Shh.”
He closed his hand over hers and brought the one finger to his lips, brushing a kiss over the pad. They knew what type of animal they each were, and they’d met through a sexually focused club, so this type of flirtation was meaningless. Two Doms teasing one another with no intent to engage. Except as he continued to hold her wrist, his eyes became more serious, while her fingers loosened, becoming more pliant.
“The name doesn’t fit anymore, does it?” he asked. “That’s what you were saying.”
She swallowed, sat back. As she did, he let her slide free. She looked out the window. She’d been maudlin earlier. Sad, Jimmy had called it, but still dangerously mawkish. Now was not a time to make impetuous decisions. “You don’t need to take me home. Use the car to go back to your own place, and by that time I’ll be steady enough to drive. No sense in inconveniencing you by trying to get a cab out to my place this time of night.”
When he said nothing, she settled deeper into the seat, closed her eyes, and crossed her arms over herself. “All right?”
“You’re no inconvenience. And I’ll see how you’re doing when we get to my place. My name is Dale. Dale Rousseau.”
“Rousseau.” She smiled, eyes still closed. The warmth of the car was making her drowsy. Her trembling had stopped. Things were slowing down again, the fog returning. “ ‘Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding, we are forced to obey it.’ ”
“Intriguing choice. ‘To live is not merely to breathe; it is to act; it is to make use of our organs, senses, faculties—of all those parts of ourselves which give us the feeling of existence.’ ”
“A Master who knows his Rousseau. Thank you, Dale.”
She wasn’t sure if she was thanking him for knowing Rousseau, for driving her home or for rescuing her from the two thugs, but it didn’t matter. A lady always offered her thanks for a kindness, and so far he’d been nothing but kind.
It just showed the depths of her capricious mood that she yearned for the part of him she’d seen earlier in the evening—when he’d been far less kind.
Joey W. Hill is the author of the Knights of the Boardroom series, including Honor Bound and Controlled Response, the Vampire Queen series, including Taken by the Vampire, and the stand-alone novel, Unrestrained. Having received multiple Top Reviewer Picks from RT Book Reviews, Night Owl Romance, ParaNormal Romance Reviews, TwoLips and others, she has also been awarded the RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award in Erotica.