Masterpiece (The Masters of The Order Book 1) (12 page)

“Let me hold you.”

She eased onto his lap. Although he recognized the falsity of her gesture, he rocked her, stroking her hair and kissing the top of her head as if she had genuinely given herself over to his care. He wanted to reach her, but knew she was gone for tonight. Whatever thoughts and issues she was struggling with would remain, as usual, unvoiced and hidden. For now, he would have to be content to let her go with a promise for tomorrow.

“Everything will be alright. Tonight is not our night, but I will wait for you. I will earn your trust and you will open to me.”

9

Smashing Barriers

Julianne stayed away, her rejection like a hard slap to the face.

Nicolai wanted her here. Hell, he needed her here. And he was used to getting exactly what he wanted. He’d been a good boy, a virtual saint for God’s sake. Been patient. Given her space. Even enjoyed seeing her lose herself to her artistic awakening. He didn’t expect Julianne to fall into his arms like a mindless puppet, nor did he want her to, but he didn’t expect her to fight him either. He’d used every tool in his arsenal to dismantle her defenses. Each question, each touch, designed to enhance her trust and pull her closer to him. But with every separation, she rebuilt her barriers. As it was, he only convinced her to come to the gallery today by threatening her with false deadlines and demanding her presence.

And so he waited, staring into the empty space where Julianne usually worked. He was a Dom, trained to hone in on a woman’s tells and control them, but he didn’t need any skill whatsoever to understand what was running through Julianne’s mind when he looked at her statue. He understood exactly the kind of need that drove someone to create something so sexual. And the barrier that held Julianne back was equally exposed by her work. Her sex god was virtually complete. Except for his sex.

Before their last encounter, he believed virginity was the only barrier between them. Now he understood that something far greater stood in their way. He shuddered as he remembered the look on Julianne’s face when he asked about her father. She looked scared of
him
and that did not sit well. Her beautiful eyes became shadowed and distant, their usual sparkle and youthfulness completely snuffed out. He watched his masterpiece of a woman cower before him as she relived something horrifying. He’d never felt more impotent.

But more than the look of her, Julianne’s words had his mind racing to places he didn’t want to go.
I must be perfect or he will perfect me.
He knew other members of the Order who used language like that. Given his own kinks, he didn’t judge, but he didn’t indulge the extremes of their lifestyle either.

Could he be interpreting Julianne’s words correctly? Good Lord, he hoped not. If he was, what had that heartless bastard done to her? His blood boiled at the thoughts in his head.

As far as he was concerned, this game of cat and mouse was over. Whatever frightened Julianne in that restaurant was poisoning her ability to trust him. If they were to become lovers - and they were going to become lovers - he needed that trust. To get it, he would have to force her past all of her barriers. Not only the obvious one revealed in her statue, but also the hidden one that clearly scared her far more.

Today they would begin with the barrier he understood best.

As if on cue, the special surprise he planned for his resistant Beauty walked into the studio.

“Guid Mornin’.” Gavrael padded across the floor in his bare feet. He raised a hand to his chin and bent over Julianne’s sex god, wholly unconcerned that his robe had fallen open. Taking his time, he circled the statue. Once and again. Studying each carefully crafted detail.

“Ye canna be serious. This is her first effort at sculpting? Tis incredible,” he remarked as he retied the sash.

Nicolai nodded and muttered, more to himself than to Gavrael, “I find this woman is full of surprises.”

Gavrael crouched next to the face and slanted a playful look at him. “Och, Nico. He looks just like ye.”

“I noticed that.”

Gavrael’s lips curved up. “Except he disna hae a dokey.”

“I noticed that too. That’s why you’re here, bonny boy.”

A burst of laughter. “Are ye tellin’ me that Ah’m the bloody dick model?”

“Yeah. I’m going to make Julianne touch you. Force her to face her fears about what he’s missing. Then I’m going to kick your ass out of my studio while she finishes me, so to speak.”

“Are ye sayin’ ye hinna topped her yet?"

The stunned look that crossed Gavrael’s face left no doubt about the thoughts that crossed his mind. Nicolai’s prowess was legendary, even within the Order, and Gavrael couldn’t believe that he’d spent months with a woman without seducing her into his bed. Hell, he couldn’t believe it himself. Women succumbed to his any and every dominant desire. Always. He shook his head.

The sound of Julianne entering the gallery halted their banter.

“Speak o’ the devil.”

As she descended the stairs, Nicolai stepped forward. Two sets of male eyes watched her as she came down one slow step at a time. As soon as she was within reach, he put out a hand and cupped her elbow to help her down the rest of the way. Her eyes questioned the stranger’s presence, but she didn’t say anything.

Gavrael dropped his robe, completely at ease with his nudity, and moved to the dais next to Julianne’s statue. Positioning himself in the exact pose of her clay man, he raised his eyes to meet hers.

Julianne tried to back away.

Nicolai moved in to coax her forward. “I want you to touch him.” The voice wasn’t commanding, but the hard body behind her certainly would be.

He took her to her knees next to Gavrael. Clasping both wrists, he trapped one against her waist and outstretched the other. Julianne didn’t initiate, but she offered no resistance to what he intended. He held her wrist loosely above Gavrael’s chest, not touching, but close enough to feel the warmth and whispered, “Don’t feel the clay. Feel his skin.”

She lowered her palm.

Nicolai tightened his grip and guided Julianne’s hand up to stroke Gavrael’s hair, then traced the handsome planes of his face with her fingertips. Her living model teased with a playful kiss as they ran over his lips. He moved her fingers over the light stubble of whiskers, lingering on the hard line of Gavrael's jaw, then down the exposed line of his throat to his Adam’s apple. He pressed them against the side of Gavrael’s neck to make Julianne feel the heartbeat pulsing beneath the skin.

At his direction, her hand slid along Gavrael’s breastbone, back and forth across the silky grace of his chest. He circled her fingers around one nipple, then the other, until her resistance at touching Gavrael intimately melted away and she caressed the skin rather than simply feeling it.

Gavrael’s sex reacted and his eyes met hers. The full intensity of his pleasure blazed in their emerald depths. Even with his many other enticing attributes, Gavrael’s eyes were what made him unique and their effect on Julianne was obvious. Her breathing became heavier and Nicolai could feel her whole body soften with the seduction. When he tried to withdraw Julianne's hand, he felt a slight pull.

So, my Beauty is enjoying the feel of a man’s chest.

He indulged her by splaying her hand across Gavrael’s hard pectoral muscle. Julianne leaned over Gavrael and pressed her palm flat. Her fingers flexed until her nails dug into the skin. Gavrael moaned and her body arched with subtle fluidity at the sound. Her subconscious and provocative response rippled through Nicolai and made him as hard as Gavrael. Not wanting to scare her, he eased his erection away from her backside before the sexy exploration resumed.

Nicolai guided her hand away from the smooth swell of Gavrael’s chest, down over the tight ridges of his stomach, and dipped her finger in and out of his navel. Gavrael closed his eyes, his hands clenching into fists, and breathed out on a shuddered sigh. Julianne replied with her own sigh and leaned her head back onto Nicolai’s shoulder.

He squeezed her wrist. “No. Look at him while you touch him.”

Her head snapped up.

Nicolai eased her hand to the side and trailed a path along the vertical ridge of Gavrael’s perfectly defined abdominal muscle, around his hipbone and back again. After several rotations, he brought her hand to rest in the nest of curls above Gavrael’s fully erect penis.

Julianne’s whole body shook when he pried her other arm away from the tight press against her waist and laid her hand over Gavrael’s ankle. He dragged her fingers over the fine hair on Gavrael’s calf until they reached the firm, muscular strength of his thigh. Placing one hand securely on top of hers, Nicolai began to knead the muscle, inching slowly upward. He stopped the erotic massage high on Gavrael’s leg just below his testicles.

For a moment, he held Julianne in that position. One hand rested just above Gavrael’s sex; the other, just below it. The sound of heavy breath surrounded them. He could feel her arousal. Feel how much she wanted to touch Gavrael. How much she wanted to
know
.

One more small movement would smash this barrier.

“He is yours now. Love him well,” Nicolai invited with a silky voice and began to move her hands together.

Julianne gasped and jerked out of his hold to flee up the stairs.

*****

Lying was a bad idea; lying to a Dom, just plain stupid.

Jacques took a last sip of his soda before joining Jerard and Sarah. He needed a clear head for what he had planned. For the past several weeks, he’d taken Jerard under his wing. Not initially by his own design. After tracking Jerard down at the Dungeon, Nicolai asked him to help keep “the damn troublemaker” away from Julianne. Jacques cozied up to Jerard, and what a shock, Jerard took to him like white on rice. They went to a few private parties, hung out a few times, and surprise, surprise, Jacques really started to care about the guy.

Underneath the hip tough-kid façade, Jerard hid a gentle spirit. He had the same artist’s sensibility that Nicolai and Julianne shared, but having grown up in rougher circumstances, he was more slick. Compassion, intelligence and a few hard knocks combined in him to create a man with true character. He also had a great sense of humor, but that didn’t apply in this situation.

Jerard fashioned himself a Dom, but the more time Jacques spent with him, the more he doubted Jerard’s posturing. Sure, Jerard “dominated” when he was told to, but never on his own. What seemed to get him going was obeying another Dom. To Jacques’s mind, Jerard was clearly a switch, someone who could play top and bottom, but Jerard wouldn’t admit his submissive desires. And that was anything but okay.

No more bopping blindly along.

When Jacques entered the room, Jerard and Sarah were kissing. Sarah sat, naked, atop a wooden table with restraints at each corner. Behind her, a variety of toys hung against a stark stone wall. Medieval ambiance aside, the pair looked like two teenagers necking on a first date. That was so like Jerard. Taking what some may call a perversion and making it appear somehow sweet.

“Do you want to help?” Jerard asked.

“It’s your scene. I thought I was supposed to watch.”

Jerard grinned wide, which Jacques interpreted as a show of happiness at having permission to enjoy himself. He laid Sarah back and positioned her limbs to cuff each wrist and both ankles to the table, all the while dusting her with kisses. Poetic words fell from Jerard’s lips - the glow of her milky skin against the brown leather, her turquoise eyes, her rose lips – as he rechecked each bind to make sure nothing was too tight. He lifted her head with reverence and fanned out her auburn locks. Just like Nicolai, little details seemed to fascinate Jerard and he stared as he let the tresses flow between his fingers.

Turning to inspect the items hanging on the wall, Jerard removed a flogger from its hook and moved back to Sarah with absolute lust in his gaze. He began to brush the beaded tips over her skin. She undulated her body, obviously aroused by everything he was doing.

“Just think about the lovely shade of pink this will leave on her ivory skin, Jacques.”

Again with the color
, Jacques laughed to himself. This guy really was so much like Nicolai, but he'd keep that little observation to himself. Nicolai was hell bent on hating Jerard because Julianne loved him so much. Such a poignant comparison would only piss his pigheaded cousin off.

Truth time.
“You know what, man? I hate flogging. It is a huge turn off for me. Would you mind if I turn around so I don’t have to watch this?”

A lie. A big, fat one. Just like the raging erection Jacques hid between crossed legs. But the lie would show whether Jerard was turned on because he was pleasing Jacques or because he enjoyed dominating Sarah despite Jacques.

Jerard couldn’t mask the confusion in his eyes as Jacques turned around.

Silence filled the room.

“Something wrong, Jerard?” Jacques asked without turning.

“No.”

“Then get on with it so I don’t have to stare at this fucking wall all night.”

Then Sarah said, “Please, sir, I want this.”

The nervous voice made Jacques turn. Sarah didn’t understand what was actually happening and he wouldn’t allow her to be upset.

She stared at Jerard with desire burning in her eyes, the expression telling him more clearly than her words what she wanted him to do, but Jerard didn't move. Jacques saw the emotions playing with his psyche. He felt sorry for the guy, but getting to the truth would do more good than coddling him. Flogging a willing sub obviously turned him on. After all, it was his choice.

“You really don’t like this?” Jerard raised the flogger.

“Nope, but this is about what you like. You’re the Dom, right?”