Temporary Master (2 page)

Three
Months Later

“Dear
God, her mouth is exquisite.” Balin Iranski, one of Ethan Tremaine’s friends
and fellow Dom at New Beginnings, tipped his head back, cupping the
submissive’s dark head as she lapped at his cock, before tugging it deep
between her lips…all without using her hands. Her lack of clothing was a
wonderful contrast to the dark jeans and leather vest Balin was wearing.

“Indeed.”
Leaning against the cabinet on the other side of the playroom, Master and part
owner of the exclusive BDSM club, Ethan, observed his latest success, Sheila.
Kneeling at Balin’s feet, naked except for a small thong, her nipples clamped,
and her hands clasped behind her back, she was beautiful in her submission.
She’d taken his training well.

“Aw,
fuck I’m going to…” Balin’s hips bucked as his frame stiffened in release.

Even
across the room, Ethan could hear the slurping as Sheila greedily guzzled down
his friend’s seed. Other than the small
twinge of arousal at
seeing a well-trained sub service
her soon-to-be Master, contentment was
his primary emotion at the sight. He had helped her find what she needed as
long as Balin agreed with him.

As
Balin finally came down from his orgasm, he brushed his hand over her tousled
hair before gently pushing her head away. Leaning back on her knees, she panted
softly. “Are you pleased, Master Balin?”

Her
request for reassurance, so familiar to Ethan, had Balin chuckling. “Of course,
pet. You blew my world. I’ll have to say Master Ethan has trained you well.
Your form is beautiful.” He lifted her chin, his smile indulgent. “Now, go see
Master Ethan while I clean up.”

“Of
course, Master Balin.”
Rising gracefully despite her hands being restrained, she walked back towards
Ethan. With her eyes no longer on him, Balin finally gave a brief nod of
agreement when Ethan arched an eyebrow in question.

Satisfaction
surged through him. This had to be their thirtieth scene together and like many
of the others over the past month, Ethan had decided to observe, instead of
participating, to see if Balin was ready to take on Sheila. He’d been slowly
shifting the power to Balin for the past eight weeks – allowing the man more
autonomy in his training relationship with Sheila.

At
the click of the door shutting behind Balin, Ethan turned his attention back to
Sheila as she dropped to her knees at his feet.

“Do
you understand what’s happening here, Sheila?” Ethan gazed down at her bent
head.

Her
blonde hair, which had been neatly parted, was now mussed from Balin’s hands.
Peeking up at him from under dark lashes she gave a tentative smile. “Our time
is ending? Master Balin has decided?”

He
wasn’t surprised by her answer. Once more he’d placed himself in the position
of being a temporary Master, but other than the relief from knowing Sheila
wasn’t going to break down and beg him to change his mind, he felt little but
happiness for her.

“Yes.”
He cupped her cheek. “I’ve enjoyed our time together, and while our journey is
ending, it’s now time for you to begin your new one with Master Balin.”

As
her eyes began to tear, he panicked. Had he read her wrong?
Had
she formed more of an attachment to him than was necessary between a training
Dom and his sub?
“Sheila, I was honest with you about…”

She
gave him a watery smile. “I’m just so happy, Ethan.” She jumped up and gave him
an impulsive kiss, before giving him a quick hug. “You did exactly what you
said you would. You found me a Dom who wouldn’t care about my disfigurement.”

He
chuckled as she squeezed him tight. “He’d have to be blind to not recognize the
giving woman underneath.” He traced the slightly raised flesh that ran from the
nape of her neck to between her shoulder blades. It was the result of her
former master attempting to use fire play with no experience. He’d burned her
badly before a Monitor had stopped the scene. “You’re much stronger than you
give yourself credit for, Sheila. You were the one who wanted to move past what
your previous Master did. It was you who walked the path. I was merely your
guide.”

Chuckling,
she pulled away.
“You and your mystic Asian ideologies.”
She lifted his hand to her lips. “Why can’t you simply say ‘you’re welcome’?”

A
smile tugged at his lips, but he managed to suppress it. “Lift your hair, little
sub.”

She
obeyed without question. Brushing his fingers over the raised flesh, he still
wanted to commit murder when he thought of her former Master. It was a good
thing the fool was serving ten years in Folsom Prison on both money laundering
and tax evasion charges.
Evidently Uncle Sam didn’t look too favorably about
hiding your wealth. It’s too bad we couldn’t have pressed assault charges to go
along with it.

Unbuckling
the dark black leather collar, with its simple silver tag sporting the Japanese
characters of his name, he slipped it free of her neck. Laying it on the
counter, he brushed his hand through her hair one final time as Balin reentered
the room, with his bag and outer jacket on. Sheila’s new Master was ready to
leave for the night. Ethan forced a smile. “It’s time to go, little one. Your
new Master is waiting.”

She
nodded, standing slowly. “Thank you, Master Ethan.”

She
was half way across the room, when Ethan finally forced himself to speak past
the sudden tightness of his throat. Soon he’d be alone once more. “You’re
welcome, Sheila.”

* * * *

Moving
away from the security monitor as his friend’s former submissive left the room
with Balin Iranski, Davis Clayton scowled. He wanted nothing more than to wring
his best friend’s neck. Ethan’s vicious cycle of playing the temporary Dom had
to stop.
I know Tamiko is dead but Ethan is still alive. He needs to get
over it and find a submissive to keep.

He
was drawn from his thoughts when his partner entered the security office
several minutes later. Ethan picked up the clipboard from the hook next to the
door, skimming its contents. Rocking in his executive chair, Davis glared at
him. “When’s this gonna stop, Ethan?”

Looking
up from his reading, Ethan seemed unfazed. “When we can afford to hire a fulltime
staff, or at least one to run security?”

Even
with Ethan contributing the collateral for New Beginnings and Davis’s small
trust fund, the club had the usual start-up costs. The club was fast
approaching its second year anniversary, but was barely running in the black.

“I’m
not talking about our financial issues – let alone our staffing issues.” Davis
raked his hand through his dark hair.

It
was the only thing he had in common with Ethan. While he was over six and half
feet of muscle, his buddy barely topped five ten and was whipcord lean. In
fact, if he hadn’t been friends with Ethan since they met as teens, he’d have
tried to kick the smaller man’s ass for what he was doing to himself. But he
was Ethan’s friend, and knew all too well what the half Asian man could do with
his fists and feet. Twenty plus years of training in Jujitsu gave Ethan the
skills to not only hurt him but kill him if he so chose.

Sighing,
Ethan finally returned the clipboard to its hook. “Look, I really don’t want to
get into this again.”

Anger
surged through Davis.
Fucking stubborn fool!
“Fine.
You want to be miserable for the rest of your life–”

Ethan
stared at him coolly, nothing showing on his face. “I’m not miserable. In fact,
I’m very happy with my life.”

“Bullshit.”
Davis crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re just going through the motions.
Tamiko is dead. You need to quit letting her rule what you do from the grave.
She may have been a deceitful bitch, but surely she’d want you happy. She might
have had issues with your marriage, but she always said you were a wonderful
Dom. She’d be irked to see how you’re acting…”

“Enough!”

Ethan’s
near shout was so out of place, Davis’s tirade died in his throat.

His
chest heaving and his green eyes icy, Ethan seemed on the edge, but then it was
as if a switch had been flipped. His eyes cleared, he took a deep breath, and
when he finally spoke again, it was in his normal soft, well-modulated voice.
It wasn’t the first time he’d witnessed it, but his partner’s ability to turn his
emotions off at will, still managed to freak Davis out.

“I
understand your concern but there’s really no need, Davis-san. Obviously you
just saw me release Sheila to Balin, but believe me when I say I understand my
wife is dead, and the fact has no bearing on how I act as a dominant. While you
may not believe it, I do know she isn’t coming back. I’m the man – the dominant
I choose to be. And what I do in my private life is just that…private.”

Davis
gritted his teeth. He didn’t know which was worse: Ethan pissed or Ethan hiding
behind his mask.
And sure as shit, that’s what he’s doing.
Drawing in a
deep breath, Davis forced his shoulders to relax.
“Fine.
We won’t talk about your private life. But tell me, all knowing one, what the
hell we’re supposed to do now for the upcoming Kinkfest? The one you promised
to do a demonstration in kinbaku? You’re going to have a helluva time
demonstrating without a sub, and I’ll be damned if I let you use me again. I
was so stiff and sore the last time, I was barely able to walk when we
finished.”

Ethan
rubbed the back of his neck. “Fuck, I forgot about that. I was so wrapped up in
work and Sheila’s training…perhaps if I talk to Balin, he might do it…he has
some experience with rope bondage and would probably be willing to demo for the
club if we give him a discount on his membership dues.”

Davis
shook his head and stood to join him. “Even if we could afford it, you can’t do
that to Sheila, Ethan. You know as well as I do she needs to settle into her
new relationship with Balin before you can even think of asking. Six weeks
isn’t long enough for a new sub – especially one like Sheila, to acclimate to
Balin. Christ, you had her as your sub for nearly a year, before deeming her
ready. Besides even if she could, we don’t know how she’d react to having
another bind her, let alone how comfortable Balin would be.” He clapped a hand
over Ethan’s shoulder. “In the end it’d be like any other rope demonstration.
Balin may be good but he’s not you. He didn’t live in Japan for almost thirty
years, nor did he receive the training you did. He’s not a
nawashi
–you
are.”

“Fuck.”
Ethan sank into Davis’s vacated chair, suddenly looking defeated. “What do we
do?”

“I
don’t know, Ethan. We can’t afford to pay a professional submissive, nor do we have
any members currently who are into your particular type of rope bondage. So
unless you pull a sub out of your ass, we’re screwed.”

Rubbing
his hands over his face, Ethan groaned. “I’ll call Ryouko.”

Panic
pumped through Davis’s veins at the mention of Tamiko’s younger sister. “No!
Not even for our club are you going to put yourself at the mercy of that viper.
You know what she’ll demand in exchange.”

Ethan
nodded. “I suppose I could do worse for a wife. At least with her, I’ll know
she’ll be faithful.”

Unlike
Tamiko.

It
was left unsaid but Davis knew it was echoing through his friend’s mind. “No. I
can’t let you do this. Let me put some feelers out. Maybe I can…”

“Find
a woman who’ll be willing to let me tie her up at a BDSM convention, and won’t
mind the long hours we’ll have to put into before it happens?” He shook his
head. “You’re asking for a Christmas miracle. I need at least a month to
practice with a new sub before I do this and the convention is only six weeks
away.”

He
slowly stood as if an old man. “We can’t afford to cancel the demonstration. We
need the publicity to help bring up our membership numbers. I’ll stop by
Ryouko’s tomorrow.”

Davis
grabbed his friend’s arm as he walked past. “Give me a week! If I can find you
a sub–”

“An
experienced one.
I
won’t have time to sooth a newbie’s feelings or ease her into it, Davis. Ryouko
may be a bitch, but she’s an experienced submissive who’s been suspended
before.”

Gritting
his teeth, Davis took the opening. “If I can find you an experienced submissive,
you’ll forget this idea of shackling yourself to Ryouko?”

Ethan
stared bleakly at him, his eyes flat, before finally giving an abrupt nod. “I
have an early appointment in the morning.”

Without
saying more than that, Ethan shrugged off Davis’s hand and walked out of the
security room. Sinking into the chair, Davis didn’t know whether to weep with
joy or sob in despair. While he may have gotten a small reprieve, he had no
doubt Ethan would do as he said. He would marry the distasteful woman to save their
club.

And
that’s too high of a price to pay. I’d rather see the club close than have my
friend trapped in a marriage from hell like his first one.