by Opal Carew
Cool night air struck her. It was October and she was naked. Shivering, she crossed the long yard. A quarter moon offered only a sliver of light. Corinne couldn’t make out more than shapes around her. She felt grateful for that. If she couldn’t see much, neither could she be seen.
The huge property was fenced. The gate. She had to make it to the gate. To the road. To Nate. Nate Stanton had been Steven’s friend since boyhood. Steven and Nate had both bought property on the outskirts of Blake County. Theirs were the only two houses around for several miles.
In the year since she and Steven had known each other, she’d hadn’t seen Nate much. She’d seen a lot of him at the beginning of her relationship with Steven. So much less as that relationship progressed. She’d liked Nate and thought he’d liked her as well. Maybe not and that was why he’d made himself so scarce even when he was home which wasn’t often.
Nate was a Navy SEAL. His tours of duty kept him out of the country but on the times he was home, still, she rarely saw him. She recalled thinking how she would have hated to have been the reason Nate stayed away. She wrapped her arms more tightly around herself. None of that mattered now.
Huddling into herself to stave off the cold and to keep from jostling her body more than necessary, she moved as quickly as she could to Nate’s house. With every step she prayed that he was at home and not deployed. She hadn’t seen him since he’d stood as best man for Steven at their wedding. She couldn’t recall Steven mentioning Nate recently, but then she’d been focused on her own troubles with Steven.
If Nate wasn’t home, what would she do? She pushed the thought aside and closed the distance to his door. She raised her hand and knocked, continuing to knock until she heard footsteps inside the house drawing nearer.
The door was flung open. Nate filled the doorway. She could hear the television in the background. The crowd on the TV gave a rousing cheer. Sounded like Nate was watching a ball game.
He was laughing but his smile faltered when his gaze lowered to her. He frowned. “Corinne?”
Nate was big. She didn’t reach his wide shoulders. He wore jeans. His dark hair was cut military short. He wore a T-Shirt over his powerful chest. The sleeves were short and she could see part of the tattoo on his right arm that extended from shoulder to elbow. His dog tags hung down the center.
“Corinne, you’re not wearing any clothes,” he went on. Something flared in his eyes but then was gone. “Shit, you’re shivering.” He drew her into the house, a much smaller dwelling than Steven’s, and into the hall then kicked the door closed behind her. “Sweetheart, you’re bleeding. What happened?” His gaze lowered to her bound hands. Alarm filled his voice. “Did you have a break-in at the house?” His eyes bore into hers. “How badly are you hurt?” He raised a hand and despite his obvious urgency to get his answers from her, his touch was unhurried and gentle as he smoothed the long brown hair that was matted to her face with sweat and tears back from her cheeks. “Corinne, Steven’s—”
At the mention of Steven’s name, Corinne whimpered. Her breathing hitched. Her pulse ratcheted up. She could feel it pounding above the uncomfortably tight, wide collar she wore that declared her Steven’s submissive. For an instant, Corinne would have run back out the door but Nate took both of her hands in one of his. He frowned. She pulled back from him, struggling against Nate now but if he didn’t choose to release her there would be no getting away from him. And, at the moment, he wasn’t letting her go.
One small part of her brain overrode the panic overtaking her and registered what Nate was doing with the hand that wasn’t holding her. He pulled a knife from an ankle holster and cut the rope that bound her. Nate flung the rope to one corner of the hall. He took in her now red, abraded wrists and gently rubbed his thumb over her sore flesh.
“Corinne, what happened?” He said the words quietly.
The fine hairs on the back of her neck prickled but she brought herself back from the edge. She latched onto Nate with all the strength she was capable of, her fingernails bending against his hard-muscled forearms. “Nate, help me.”
“Easy. Easy.” Nate pitched his voice low, soothing, though Corinne could feel his anxiety. “Tell me what happened. Tell me who hurt you, sweetheart?” He brought her against him, wrapping his arms around her shaking body.
When Nate’s arms touched her sore back, Corinne cried out. He removed his arms from around her at once then his gaze lowered to the traces of blood that now dotted his own arms. Blood and welts that had broken the skin on her back also marked her buttocks. Nate’s body tensed as hard as steel. His voice lowered to a lethal whisper. “Who hurt you, Corinne?”
Corinne shuddered. “Please. Please. I can’t go back to him.”
Her words tumbled out one over the other. Tears fell onto her cheeks, a flood of them that dripped off her face.
Nate shook his head slowly. “Go back to him? Steven? Do you mean Steven? Are you telling me Steven did this to you? Steven hurt you?”
Corinne swallowed back the tears that threatened to choke her. Shame filled her at having to tell Nate the truth about her marriage, about the truth of her submission, but she had to speak up. Her safety depended on it. “Y-es.” Her voice broke.
Nate closed his eyes.
Fear gripped her. What if Nate didn’t believe her about Steven or chose not to? What if she’d made a mistake in coming to him? Nate was Steven’s friend after all and also a Dominant. She’d heard Steven and Nate speaking of Nate’s own dungeon in the basement of this house. What if Nate took her back to Steven? “P-please, Nate. Please. Don’t send me back to him.”
“Nate, what the hell? You’re missing the game, dude.”
Corinne froze at the sound of Steven’s voice. An instant later, her husband sauntered out from the living room and into the hall, a bottle of beer held loosely in his fingers. He was movie star handsome with his tall, athletic body, sun-streaked blond hair and finely chiseled features, but to Corinne he looked like a monster.
Corinne made a desperate mewling sound and flung herself back from Nate and against the door. The impact hurt her back. She could feel fresh blood trickle down her skin but fear overrode the pain. Stupid. Stupid. How could she have come here? She hadn’t thought that Steven might be here with Nate.
Nate’s eyes went to Steven. Darting her gaze from Steven to Nate, she watched her husband and his friend like a cornered animal. Her breathing harsh, erratic, she moved her hands behind her back and clawed at the door knob. Her hands were trembling, and slick with perspiration and the knob slid out of her grasp. She tried again.
Just as she got the door open a crack, Steven crossed the hall to her. He reached out and pushed the door closed.
“What are you doing here, Corinne?” Steven said.
His voice was ice cold. His mouth a flat line. Corinne’s eyes widened on him and she began to shake. Her mouth opened but in that instant she was incapable of responding. Fear squeezed her throat like a vise.
“I asked you a question, you worthless slut.”
Steven’s voice cracked like a whip. Corinne jumped. Tears filled her eyes and fell silently down her cheeks.
Nate’s eyes went dark with rage. “You son of a bitch.”
Nate snarled the words then lunged at Steven, knocking her husband to the floor then hitting the floor with him.
“Nate . . . what the fuck!” Steven shouted.
Nate hit Steven again then again. Though Steven was also a large man and knew how to defend himself, he was no match for Nate. It was all over in seconds. Steven lay sprawled on the tile, unconscious. Blood streamed from his broken nose and gaps where two teeth had been.
Nate looked away from Steven and back to Corinne. The fury in his eyes was replaced by anguish. He took a step to her and reached out to her. Corinne shrank into herself, drawing herself up as tight as she could. Nate halted and lowered his arms to his sides. “You’re safe, Corinne. You’re safe now, I swear it. I won’t let him ever hurt you again.”
Corinne’s body gave out at that, sagging, the last of her strength depleted. She slid down the door to the floor then covered her face with her hands and wept.
Chapter Two
Two Years Later
The parking lot of the BDSM club known simply as “The Club” was full. Corinne wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting but the number of cars at nine p.m. on a week night surprised her. She’d deliberately chosen a night when she thought there’d be less activity, fewer people for her first time back here in more than two years.
Steven had liked the club scene but it had never been her thing. She liked to keep things private where as Steven had been into the theater of the club and enjoyed being seen, enjoyed showing his mastery and dominance over her. She shut her eyes tightly. Don’t go there. Steven was in prison and couldn’t hurt her.
A part of her felt ashamed to be at The Club, to be seeking to resume this lifestyle, as if she’d been asking for what she got from Steven and was now setting herself up for more of the same.
She wasn’t sure why she even came here tonight. No, that wasn’t true. She knew why. Something vital was missing from her life—her submission. She felt the loss more keenly lately. The lifestyle wasn’t a novelty for her. It was her way of life. Without it, she felt unfilled, empty.
She hoped acknowledging that meant she was ready to let go of her past with Steven. Finally ready to take that step out of her past and move forward. She felt as if she’d been standing in place the last two years, held there by fear.
She was still afraid. She’d been parked for twenty minutes and hadn’t left her car. Wasn’t making any move to do so. She had a death grip on the steering wheel.
Telling herself to move on and actually doing it was easier said than done. She didn’t know what she would have done that horrific night if not for Nate. She swallowed hard. Nate had stood between her and the world, protecting her, shielding her, sheltering her. Keeping the media away, shielding her from those who would seek to sensationalize the story of a successful businessman and his wife in a BDSM marriage.
He’d made sure she received the medical treatment she’d needed, contacted her parents and sister in California, and because she’d been so messed up, he’d gone with her on the plane, escorting her to her family himself. He certainly didn’t deserve to have her problems become his but he’d taken them on anyway. She closed her eyes recalling how tender he’d been with her, how protective.
And his care hadn’t ended once he’d delivered her to her family. When he wasn’t deployed, he’d called and flown out to California to visit her. She hadn’t wanted him to feel obligated because he’d been the one she’d run to. She hadn’t wanted to be a burden to him, to drag him deeper into the mess her life had become. She’d told him that the last time they spoke and she’d put action to her words. That was why when she’d decided to move back here, she hadn’t even let Nate know. It was time she stopped leaning on him. It was time she let him get back to living his life rather than living around her life.
She needed to get back out in the world, to stand on her own two feet again. To get back what she’d lost with Steven.
Moving out of her parents’ house and returning to Blake County had been the first step to doing that. The house she’d lived in with Steven had been sold. It hadn’t been her house but his, as was everything else. She’d gladly signed an agreement before the marriage that made sure Steven kept what was his should they divorce. She’d never wanted anything from him other than his love. But even if the house were still available to her, she could never live there again.
She’d rented a small apartment near the university campus. Steven hadn’t wanted her to work and he hadn’t permitted her to finish pursuing her business degree. She had one year left to graduate and she was now back in school. She’d found a job waitressing at a diner that was close to home and school. With the diner being close to the college campus, it made it easy for her to accept shifts right after classes without needing to factor in time to commute. That enabled her to keep her schedule flexible for classes.
And she’d come here, to The Club, tonight. Was she ready to take this step? She didn’t know for sure. But if she didn’t try, she never would be.
She hadn’t given up on finding love, on finding a man, a Dom she would love and who would love her. She swallowed hard. She wouldn’t let Steven crush that, take that away from her. He’d taken so much already.
But she’d be lying to herself if she said the notion of putting herself out there again didn’t terrify her.
She closed her eyes fighting back terror. She didn’t want what happened with Steven to continue to control her. Corinne slowly released the steering wheel and left the car.
* * *
Nate Stanton’s cell phone rang. He reached for the TV remote, muting the game he was watching, then picked up the phone from the coffee table. Caller ID read: Lazarus Dean. Lazarus was a friend and owner of the exclusive BDSM club known only as The Club where Nate was a member.
“Hey, Laz,” Nate said.
“Nate, want to give you a heads up. Corinne’s here.”
Nate shot forward on the couch. He’d asked Laz to keep an eye out in case Corinne showed up there. Part of Nate rejoiced that she’d found her way to The Club. The times he’d visited her in California had broken his heart. She’d been so broken, inside and out, a shell of the fun-loving, exuberant woman he’d remembered.
Yeah, part of Nate rejoiced that she’d ventured out to The Club while another part of him tensed. Laz made sure the safety of his patrons was his number one priority, but Laz couldn’t guarantee what happened once people left his club. Nate had made a promise to Corinne’s father, and to himself that he’d watch out for her. Never would what happened with Steven happen again. Never again would she be hurt.
Nate would carry the memory of that night when she’d come running to him to his grave. If he closed his eyes, he could see her again, bruised, bloody, terrified.
He would carry the guilt for his part in her being hurt for the rest of his life, for not seeing what Steven had been doing to her. Nate had been focused on keeping his distance from Corinne, deploying on as many missions as he could get to separate himself from her. Nate hadn’t wanted her or Steven to know that he was in love with her.
He’d made sure at times when he couldn’t avoid or decline another invitation from Steven to keep his feelings for Corinne hidden. He would never have put his feelings on her for her to deal with. Not only because she was married to a man Nate had then considered a friend, which had its own code, but because he’d believed her to be happy.
And, he’d been wrong, missed any signs. She hadn’t had the idyllic marriage he’d thought, hadn’t had her wants and needs fulfilled as she should have, as a loved, cherished submissive.
Instead, she’d been betrayed, hurt in the worst possible way by the man sworn to love and protect her and to keep her safe in her submission. Nate couldn’t undo the past, but he could and would make sure that past never repeated itself with another man. And he intended to do that by being the only man in her life.
She hadn’t let him know that she was moving back to Blake. Nate had learned of that from her father. She had the idea in her head that she was a burden to him, something to be endured. He blew out an impatient breath over that. He’d bided his time over the last two years and not told her how he felt about her. She was so hurt. He knew she was desperately struggling to get her feet back under her and he had no intention of undermining any budding confidence she was regaining but he wouldn’t be forced into the background. Her going to The Club gave him hope that she was getting ready to move on—with him.
“Laz, I’m on my way,” Nate said. “Don’t let her leave—or leave with anyone.”
“That’s the thing. She’s been parked outside for some time. Hasn’t come in yet. I can go out there and invite her in. I just don’t want to spook her, Nate, by bringing her inside if she isn’t ready. She’s
had way too much fear.”
Nate couldn’t argue with that. “Yeah. Leave her where she is. If she drives away before I get there, call me.”
“You got it.”
Nate ended the call. Grabbing a jacket and his car keys he ran out the door.
Chapter Three
Shoring up her courage, Corinne pushed open the double doors to The Club. The main floor was an area designated for patrons to gather and mingle, set up as a lounge with comfortable couches and chairs and a bartender on hand to prepare drinks.
A winding staircase led up to the open play area and private rooms. All was done under the watchful eyes of The Club’s excellent security staff. She was acquainted with the club owner, Lazarus Dean, through Steven. She knew Lazarus made safety the number one priority and that was why Corinne felt secure in coming here.
She wasn’t here to play tonight. She wasn’t ready for that. Tonight she was only here to observe. To reacquaint herself with the lifestyle she hadn’t been part of for so long. Telling herself that, repeating it, she worked to take the edge off her nerves.
She was really here to see if she could ever be ready to play again. If a man approached her with a pair of handcuffs, no matter how mild-mannered he may be, she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t run away screaming. So much for taking the edge off.
But that was why she’d come. To gauge her responsiveness. To overcome her fear. A waiter bore a tray with glasses of wine. Corinne took one, took a sip of liquid courage and then wrapped her hands around the glass, desperately needing something to hold on to. She was going to have to go upstairs to observe any play. Up there were benches, bars, a suspension hook that Steven had modeled the one in his dungeon after and so much more. All manner of items designed to enhance play, items that used to give her a delicious shiver and start her core pulsing just from looking at them, the suspension hook in particular. But that was before Steven had subjected her to his version of suspension. Corinne shuddered. Now, she looked at the steps, kept looking but couldn’t bring herself to mount them. Moving quickly, she turned away.