The Innocent (17 page)

“Get off him.”

Ignoring her, Price reached for the fallen knife, raised his hand, and prepared to stab Sebastian again.

Her supple wrist activated the long whip and slashed the knife from his hand.  “I said, get off him.  I’m serious, Price. I can whip the skin off your back, and I will if you don’t get off him.”

“Did you not hear what I just said, Serena?  This bastard’s father killed mine.  I was just a kid, and Kaiser killed my father just like that.”  He snapped his fingers.  “You really think that’s the sort of thing a kid forgets?  Forgives?  Do you really think his bastard son deserves to live?”

“If what you say is true, you need to confront Kaiser.  Sebastian has nothing to do with it.  He’s not responsible for what his father might have done.”

Serena idly twirled the whip so that it danced at her feet.

“Put the damn whip down, Serena.  You're little more than a novice with such a powerful tool.”

“Novice? Don’t you remember the very thorough training you gave me?”

“It wasn’t that thorough.  You could seriously hurt someone.”

“You think?”  She glared at him. 

“I mean it, Serena.  Drop the damn whip now.”

“I mean it, Price. Get off Sebastian, and get your goon off him, too.”

“Damn it, Serena.  I am your master and I order you to put that thing away.”

Serena slapped the whip across the floor just inches from his leg.  “You taught me well, Price.  You taught me better than you think. Do you remember how many times I used a whip just like this on the men who enjoyed that erotic pinch of pain?”  She cracked it again, landing it precisely, but painlessly on the heel of his shoe.

Price muttered then gestured to his bodyguard who lifted his weight off Sebastian.

“I kind of like the feel of this in my hand, Price.”  She looked at him with new interest. “Why did you never allow me to use this on you?  I think it could have been something new and exciting.”

“It simply wasn’t the nature of our arrangement, Serena.  You know that.”

“Right. You dole out the pain, and I sit and bite it.”

“I gave you just as much pleasure as pain.  You enjoyed every moment of it. Admit it, Serena. I brought you to heights you’d never dreamed of.”

“Yes.  Of course you would see it that way, but you know very well our arrangement was one sided.  Our arrangement was that you could do anything you liked and I had no say in the matter.  I didn’t even have the security of a safe word.  You know until Sebastian brought it up, I never even thought about it.  I never questioned your authority, never questioned your decisions. I think I’ve learned something since I’ve been out here… since I’ve been away from you.  You know, for the first time, I really think I can survive without you.”

“You're being silly.”

As she argued with him, she caught a vague movement at her right.  In a matter of seconds, the big and bulky bodyguard lunged at her.  She fell back, but kept a tight grip of the whip.  When he reached out to grab her, she flicked her wrist in warning.  He flashed her a silly, toothless grin and reached out again.  Before he could get his hands on her, Serena slapped the whip in the air and brought the thin long tip around the huge neck of the bulky man.  With a surprisingly powerful tug, she pulled the man off his feet.

He landed on his back with a sickening thud and lay unconscious on the floor.

Epilogue

“The tables have turned, Price.”  Serena lightly tapped the butt end of the whip into her open palm.  The power of the whip was intoxicating.  While she’d taken on the dominatrix role with Sebastian, this newfound power was something entirely different.

She remembered all the various times Price had hurt her, humiliated her, brought her to her knees in the most demeaning ways.  She licked her lips and enjoyed this new perspective on their relationship, this switch in roles.

“I must admit,” she said as she eyed him, “there’s something tantalizing about standing here admiring the fine body you work so hard to keep up.  Your muscular arms and sculpted shoulders. Your strong back, and, of course that big cock.  Everything about you, Price; everything screams of power and strength.  Everything screams intimidation and control.  Yet here I am with the whip in my hand. There’s something exceptionally powerful about standing with a whip in my hand while you cower in fear of what I’ll do with this whip.”

“You have no idea what you're doing, Serena.  You can’t just take control like this.”  Nude, he knelt on the floor at the foot of the bed in the downstairs guest bedroom of Sebastian’s chalet, his wrists anchored to the hardwood flooring with a length of chain.

“I have to give you that… I might not have the hard and uncaring way about it as you did, but I’ll give it my best shot.”

“Shouldn’t you be a little more concerned with your rich friend?”

Sebastian had been awake and alert when his security team had arrived. Though he’d lost an impressive amount of blood, the medic in his team had assured her he was in no danger.

“He’s in good hands and I think he’d be happy to see I’m taking such good care of you.  Besides, I have a lifetime to spend with Sebastian.  I’ll only have this one night to show you what it’s like to be on the other end of a bullwhip.  I’ll show you what it’s like to feel pain, Price.  So much pain you want to cry out.”

She cracked the whip and it barely touched his hunched shoulder.

“You don’t know what you're doing.”

With soft and amused laughter, she cracked the whip again, leaving a painful looking gash on his back.

Price hissed and glared up at her with eyes that were darker and harsher than she’d ever seen.

“Wish you had a safe word now, don’t you?”

“Serena stop this nonsense before you go too far.”

“Give it a chance, Price.  Maybe you’ll come to like it.  Remember what you always told me?  Pain is pleasure.” She brought the whip to his forearm and drew blood.

He hunched down more, almost kissing the floor as he winched from the pain.

“Feel the vulnerability of being weak and at the mercy of a woman, Price.” She idly cracked the whip at her side. “Look at me.”

He stared at the floor.

“Look at me!”  She landed the cutting edge of the leather whip across his shoulders.

Raising his head slightly, he looked at her.  His jaw was clenched tight while he tried to veil the fear in his eyes.

“What do you see?”

He shrugged and shook his head.

“Don’t you see it, Price?  Look into my eyes.  Don’t you see it?”

Again, he shrugged.

She knelt before him and bent down to whisper in his ear.  “Freedom, Price.  It’s freedom you see in my eyes.  Freedom.”

Price looked up and stared into her eyes, a confident and cocky stare. “It may be freedom, Serena. But in the end, you will see that you that despite having your freedom, you will still choose me.”

The Master (Volume 3, The Protege)

December 2013

Excerpt from BOOK 1 of the

MASTER CHEFS SERIES ™

Devour Me

kailin gow

Prologue

Taryn Cummings bit her lower lip as an excited thrill shot through her.  Her taxi pulled up in front of the apartment building she`d be calling home for the next little while… if all went well.

Just around the corner was the International Institute of Culinary Arts, and her future, her dream of joining the ranks of top chefs.

“Taryn?  Are you still there?”

“Oh, Mom,” Taryn shouted gleefully into her phone as she pulled a few Euros from her wallet.  “Yes!  Yes!  Oui! Oui! I’m just now arriving at my apartment.  I’m so excited, Mom. Paris, can you believe it? This is more than I ever dreamed of.”

“I know,” Samantha said.  “And I’m happy for you, honey.”

Taryn heard the strain in her mother’s voice.  While she knew her mother was indeed happy for her, she also knew she desperately needed a helping hand back home.

“Mom, I won’t let you down.  When I`m through here, I’m going to come home a great chef and you’ll see what I’ll do with our little East Side restaurant.  I’ll turn it into the greatest place in all of New York City.   Errol King is the best chef in the world and I hear he’s a pretty good teacher, too.  I’m going to soak up all the knowledge he has to offer.  ”

Samantha chuckled. “Yes, I’ve heard he is quite the teacher.”

“Mom, just because the guy is young and good looking doesn’t mean he can’t be a good teacher.”

“No, but it does mean a lot of young and impressionable young female students are going to have a hard time concentrating on cooking… a meal, that is.”

Taryn grinned. Chef King was certainly charming.  He’d even taken to showing off his charms in a recent print add wearing only his very brief briefs.  Fanning her face, Taryn tried to put the heated image aside.  “I’ve seen cute guys before, Mom.  I’m here to work and nothing else.”

Samantha let out a warm laugh.  “That’s funny.  I could have sworn I saw a few magazines that talked about the young chef; a lot of interesting photos, too.”

The sexually charged photos came back to Taryn’s mind.  “There were some very interesting articles with those photos, Mom.”

“Hmm, yes, I’m sure there was.  Look, don’t worry about the restaurant for now, sweetie.  I’ll do just fine.  You have fun in Paris and call me once you’re settled in.”

“Oui, oui!” Taryn paid the fare, grabbed her coffee and stepped out of the taxi.  “I’ll call you tonight.”

She slipped her phone into her purse as the taxi driver pulled her bags out of the trunk and set them on the curb.  He nodded and mumbled as he made his way back into his cab.

“Thank you,” Taryn called out.  “Merci!”

As she turned to negotiate getting her bags up into her new apartment, a rambunctious chocolate Lab came around the corner and slammed into her.  With her warm and sweet coffee splattered across the front of her dress, she looked at the dog with affectionate reproach.  “And where are you going at such a speed?”

The big dog sat and looked woefully at her, his big, dark eyes begging her forgiveness.

“
Ah, mon Dieu.  Javier, mais que fait tu la
?”  An older man came up to Taryn, an empty dog collar hanging from the end of a short leash.  “
Milles pardons, Mademoiselle
.”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm, sir.”  Though she understood little French, it was easy to see he was dismayed by his dog’s behavior.

“
Mais, il à tout renverser votre café
.”  He quickly slipped the collar around the dog’s neck then took Taryn by the elbow.  “
S’il vous plait.  Laissez-moi-vous acheter un bon café chaud.
” 

Taryn politely disengaged herself, but the man persisted.  He took her by the arm, chattering all the way as he led her to a nearby café. 

“
Le moindres que je peut faire c’est de remplacer votre café
.”

Frustrated by her inability to understand him and confused by his actions, she struggled to free herself.  “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t really understand French very well, but I’m fine.  And my bags… my luggage is there on the…”

The gray haired man relented and released her arm, but put his hand to the small of her back and gently pushed her toward the coffee shop.  “
Vous aller voir.  Ici c’est le meilleur café du quartier
.”  The man pointed to the waiter.

“Really, sir, I have to get my things into my apartment and I have to register at the Institute.  Please…  What do you want from me?”

“He just wants to buy you a cup of coffee.”  The deep, velvety voice held a hint of humor.

Taryn turned to face the source and instantly blushed as she faced the young man who smiled at her so many times in all those magazines.  In person, he was even more impressive; tall, strong and imposing.

He glanced down at her soiled dress.  “I imagine he feels bad for his dog’s faux pas.”

“Oh.”  Taryn could think of nothing else to say.  As the blush that heated her face intensified, she hoped he’d simply think she was embarrassed by the situation and not flushed by his horribly, terribly, debilitatingly excruciating proximity.  He stood so close to her, she could smell him.

Damn, she thought.  He even smells good; like a man who worked hard, but took meticulous care of himself.  His sultry smile exposed perfectly aligned teeth that gleamed.  His dark hair fell in thick curls to his shoulders and it wasn’t hard to understand how he’d landed the brief brief’s ad campaign.  Dark, sexy and talented… perhaps even a spark of danger in his eyes; tempting danger.

Without realizing it, she’d leaned in closer to him and when her knees buckled slightly, he quickly took a hold of her arm and held her steady.

“You okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”  She got control of her emotions and straightened up.  “I’m sorry.  I should have studied a little more French, but…”

Errol looked at the older man.  “Ca va aller, Monsieur.  Merci.”

“Il n’y a pas de quoi.”  The gentleman nodded at Taryn and turned to speak to a waiter, while holding his dog close to his hip.

“American, I take it.”  Errol looked pointedly at Taryn.

“Maybe.”  Taken aback by his question, she looked at him with a slightly defensive scowl.  “What of it?”

“Nothing,” he said with a chuckle.  “I heard you mention you’d be a student at the Institute.  It’s been a while since an American has studied there.  Most students are from Europe, some from Asia a few from Africa and the Middle East.  We barely get a handful of Americans, and they’re mostly men.”

“Oh.”  For a moment she wondered if her American status was an asset or a bad disappointment.

“Having an American woman at the Institute is a delightful surprise.”  Heat smoldered in his gaze as he took her in.  “I’m Errol, Errol King.”  He shook her hand.  “I’ll be teaching a class this semester.”

“Really?” Taryn said, sounding more surprised than she ought to.