The 30 Day Sub (7 page)

My
dearest Cate,

I
have enclosed an outfit, along with toys for your use. You are to wear the
outfit tonight as you meet up with Michael at Wet Dreams. Your trainer is to
show you off for me. Michael knows to give me a report in the morning. Tell
your trainer I want plenty of pictures sent to the email at the bottom. That
goes for at the club, as well as you––

She paused
.

––with
the toys.
I
expect them in my inbox by first thing in the morning.

Sir

P.S.
I’ve set you up with an email account. You are to write me daily and tell me
how your training is going. I’d like to know more about my submissive, so be
sure to add in details about your interests, etc. I’m enjoying the pictures
that Michael sent me of you at the holiday parties. Can’t wait to see how your
progress is going. By my calculations you should have dropped about 7 lbs. by
now. Keep up the hard work. It’ll pay off.

The fear on Cate’s face turned Torrance’s stomach.
There was no way he was sending pornographic pictures to her master. And what
was it with him and weight? Torrance clenched his jaw so he wouldn’t say
something to make the situation worse. He was definitely talking to Michael
tonight about who this guy was.

She pulled the short black dress out. “I’ll be right
back.” She grabbed the box and headed for her room. Torrance set there for over
an hour, waiting for her to return. The sound of the door opening made him look
up. Slowly, Torrance rose from the couch. The black dress hugged her curves
perfectly. She’d applied make-up and had her hair up high on her head. The
stiletto heels she wore had his hand coming to his mouth.

“You look…beautiful.” And she did.
Absolutely gorgeous.

“Are you sure? I didn’t think it would fit at first,
but it does. I guess my master was right. My hard work is paying off.” She
smiled brightly. Seeing her happy definitely made him feel better about the
letter. He still didn’t like this guy, though. Not one bit.

Torrance ran his hand through his hair. “You have
been working hard. I can definitely tell the difference.”

“Awesome.” She turned to leave and stopped, facing
him again. “Tor?”

“Yes, doll?”

She smiled.
“Never mind.”
Cate walked back to the room. When she appeared again, she was wearing a new
pair of workout clothes and had her laptop. “Can you help me set this up? I’d
like to check my new email real quick.”

Great.
Now
he’d never get to spend time with her. She’d probably be on
there
checking the damn thing nonstop.
“Cate, about the pictures.”
He put in the code and handed the computer back to her.

She blushed and quickly looked away. “No worries,
Torrance. I can take them on my own. You don’t have to subject yourself to
that.”

The email was quickly brought up, but Torrance
couldn’t stop staring at her. “You’re actually going to send him the pictures
of you with toys?”

One message awaited her in the email and she clicked
on it and started downloading the attachments. “That’s what my master wants.
Are you saying I should deny his orders? Torrance, you know better than that.”

A picture of a man with dark hair appeared on the
screen. Torrance leaned forward and his hate grew by the second. This whole
time he’d been expecting some fat, middle-aged, balding guy, but Cate’s new master
was far from that. He looked to be in his early to mid-thirties and very
attractive, for a man. Cate was smiling as she flipped through the different
pictures of his trip to Brazil. Most of them were with fighters––
MMA
, by his best guess.

“He’s very handsome. I guess he’s mixed in with this
sport?” The last picture of him was from the waist up. The muscle on the man’s defined
body had Torrance clenching his fists. She closed out the screen and started
reading through the email. “Oh, he’s a strength and conditioning coach! It
makes sense now. He’s coming home after the big fight.”

Torrance pushed from the couch as she re-opened the
pictures. He couldn’t stand to look at the guy for one more second. The
possessiveness he felt over Cate surprised even him. He’d already claimed her,
dammit. She should have belonged to him.
 
The masochist inside of him made him take one last glance at the man’s
face. His appearance shouldn’t have mattered, but to Torrance, it did.

“Hey, you want go for a walk downtown? We can browse
in some of the shops if you want.” He grabbed bottled water from the fridge and
noticed she was still glued to the computer screen.

Cate turned after a few seconds. “I was actually
going to work out a bit more. If you want we can go after I finish. Maybe we
can catch lunch at the new vegan restaurant in town. I’m sure if I got to look
at the menu I could find something I liked.”

A groan came from his mouth. “Don’t you just want a
big, juicy steak instead? Maybe with some steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes?
Or how about some ribs, or a hamburger? Come on, Cate.” He laughed as her eyes
closed. “You know you want to.”

“You torture me, Tor! That’s not fair.”

He scaled the back of the couch and landed next to
her. “Give in to temptation, Cate. It’s a delicious act.”

The atmosphere changed when he saw her looking at
his lips. Her eyes rose and met his. “Temptation usually has consequences. It’s
good while going through the act. What happens after that?”

“Only one way to find out.”
Torrance gently brushed his finger over her full lips. The strength behind
Cate’s hand as she grabbed his to still the motion was surprising. The silence
as they stared at each other was about to take a good turn, or one hell of a
bad one.

Cate stood. “Give me an hour of hard training.
Vegan food, afterward.”
She walked away and Torrance
collapsed back to the couch.
Bad turn,
indeed
. His sub was, for all intents and purposes, no longer his sub. For
the first time he’d lost control.
Lost the girl.
The
rejection was an eye-opener. There wasn’t anything he hadn’t been able to get
if he wanted it badly enough. Yet Cate was more determined than ever to obey
her real master. Where had he gone wrong? He was growing soft.

He needed to come up with a plan…something to bring
Cate around to being his sub again, in all ways. The sound of his phone ringing
had Torrance more agitated than ever. The number threw him off––he had no idea
who was calling. Torrance hit the button.
“Yeah?”

“You must be Torrance McLaren. My name is
Christopher. I’m Cate’s master.” Heat poured from Tor’s skin. Why in the world
was he having this reaction? The guy hadn’t necessarily done anything wrong. He
continued when Torrance remained silent. “Did she get my package?”

“Sure did.
Got it this morning.
She just read your email, too.”

“Excellent. Can I talk to her?”

Torrance gripped the countertop. “She’s actually in
the gym working out, right now.”

He made a sound. “Yeah, don’t interrupt her, then.
She needs to focus and stay in the zone. Well, listen. I have some downtime
today. Can you just get her to call me back later? I’d have called sooner, but
the fighter I work for keeps me pretty busy.
Especially so
close to fight night.”

Torrance looked toward the hallway to see if Cate
were nearby and then headed for the balcony. Once he got outside, he sat on the
lounger. “Listen, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Sure thing.
What’s up?”

The grey clouds covering the sky couldn’t have gone
better with the mood he was in. “What are your intentions for Cate? Because I
have to admit, she’s a hell of a sub. If this is just a new thing for you, or
you’re at all iffy, I’d love to take her as my own.”

A laugh came through the phone. “This isn’t my first
sub, Torrance. I’ve been living this lifestyle now for over ten years. Cate is
exactly what I’ve been looking for. And I’m keeping her. Thanks for your
concern, but your job is to train Cate.
Nothing more.”

Fuck
.
Torrance felt his heart sink. Well, that hadn’t been the answer he was hoping
for. “I’ll tell Cate to call you when she’s done working out.”

“Sounds good.”
The
line disconnected and he closed his eyes. It was time to face reality. Cate
didn’t belong to him, and the sooner he faced this fact, the easier things
would become. The warmth was perfect outside and it wasn’t long before Torrance
felt himself drifting off to sleep. Although his mind tried to push Cate away,
his dreams were all for letting him master her.

Chapter
Seven

Cate looked at herself in the mirror.
Holy shit
! She couldn’t believe what she
was seeing. Excitement rushed through her. She needed to buy a scale and really
keep tabs on this weight loss thing. Her master would be so proud by the time
he returned. She was going to put everything she had into getting in the best
shape she could over the short period of time. Although she knew he wanted her
fit, she also couldn’t deny that she was mainly doing this for herself.

The sound of the blow dryer filled the guest bathroom.
She had a date with Torrance tonight and she couldn’t wait. Not for the going
out part, but just because they hadn’t really connected lately. They were on
day fourteen, and the last few days had been a bit rough. Supposedly, Torrance
was trying to land a new client. She had no idea how his business worked, but
it seemed important to him. Although she offered to help in any way she could,
he didn’t seem interested.

Cate bent over and dried the back of her hair. Her cleavage
was practically falling out of the new dress she’d bought to go to the club. At
least when she stood, it wasn’t as bad, but she had to admit, she liked the
small tease of what it did show.

The music came in clear once she turned the hair
dryer off. As Cate applied her make-up, she thought about the talks she’d had
with Christopher. He seemed like an okay guy. They never lacked for conversation,
that much was certain. Sometimes, he never shut up. His story was truly inspirational,
though. He’d been overweight his whole life, but once he took control, he never
looked back. It had turned him into the successful man he was today. Now he was
looking forward to molding her into the woman he wanted her to become. At least
that’s how he’d said it. What he had in store, Cate had no idea.

Knocking had her shutting off her music. She opened
the door and smiled at Torrance. He was dressed in a button-down white shirt
and a pair of dark jeans. His hair was gelled in a messy style. Butterflies
immediately took over Cate’s stomach.

“Look at you.” He smiled and held his hand out,
spinning her around. “Wow. I’m going to have to beat the men off with a stick.”

Cate rolled her eyes and laughed.
“Yeah,
right.
You’re the one who’s going to attract all the attention. Maybe we
should walk in separately, that way I don’t scare them away. We wouldn’t want
them thinking we were together or anything.”

His brow creased. “But we are.”

“Yeah, but not like that,” she said, shaking her
head. “Don’t let
your
training me get in the way of,
you know…” Cate didn’t want to say it. Just the thought of him being with
someone else made her nauseated. It was stupid, but she couldn’t help it. She
missed the way they’d been at the beginning. Couldn’t they try again? No. She
had a master, and although sex was perfectly okay for training, she knew she and
Torrance were already past that part. There was no going back.

“No? What happened to you not wanting to get mixed
up with my ‘drama’, as you put it?” Torrance leaned against the doorframe, and
Cate focused on fixing her hair.

His steady gaze felt like it was actually caressing her
skin. “Things change, I guess. As long as I’m not brought into it, I don’t
care. You’re free to bring home whomever you want. Just pretend I’m not even
here.”

A sound came from his mouth. “Did you send your
pictures to Christopher?”

Cate cut her glance over to him. A mix of emotion
pushed through her. “I couldn’t do it.” She turned to face him and noticed he’d
stood up straighter. “I told him my camera was broken. And that you didn’t have
a camera, and my computer didn’t have a webcam. Let’s just say that he wasn’t
very happy at all. He’s sending me one in the mail, or something.”

Torrance laughed. “You lied to your master. I can’t
believe it.
You
,
the perfect sub?
No way.”

“Perfect sub?”
Cate
gave him a look.
“Yeah, right.
I’m like the worst sub
ever. I can’t even send a few pictures. Wait until I tell him
no
on the videos he wants to do. I’m
never going to please a master.”