The Men With the Golden Cuffs (18 page)

Ian shook his head. “This shit had better work out, Dean. I don’t want a lawsuit. You make sure she’s taken care of. And try to think with your brain and not your dick. Did she sign a contract?”

Jake could feel Serena behind him, her head peeking from behind his shoulders.

“I did, but they wouldn’t let me take a copy with me. I should get a copy, don’t you think?” Serena asked as though the man hadn’t just threatened to spank her ass.

Ian stared down at her. “So I could see it written into your next book? I don’t think so. Tell me something, Serena. Are you interested in the lifestyle because BDSM sells books, or are you interested for your own sake?”

“She’s interested, Ian,” Jake explained. “She’s been trying to find a mentor. Unfortunately, she found Dom Douchebag.”

“Yeah, I heard he turned out to be Stinchfield. I didn’t like the way he handled the subs I tested him on. He showed no real emotion toward them. There should be more there than mere service between a Dom and a sub. There should be some excitement. Some emotion. He was very interested in service from the submissive’s end. He wanted a total power exchange, but I didn’t think he would handle that in a way that served the sub.”

“I think you were right to turn him away,” Jake admitted. “But it doesn’t make me want to let you flirt with my sub.”

“Our sub,” Adam interjected.

“So you screen everyone?” Serena asked, her cheek against his bicep. “Do they sit down with Eve? Is there a form they have to fill out? Does everyone sign the same contract that I did? I have Jacob acting as my Dom. What happens if a sub doesn’t have a Dom? Do you find one for her?”

“Down, sub,” Ian barked. Jake had no doubt that if he wasn’t standing between them, Ian would be towering over Serena.

“She’s very curious.” Jake felt an irrational need to defend her. “But she’ll hold her questions for me.”

Ian’s eyes narrowed. “She can ask her questions, but I would rather she submitted them in written form, and I’ll decide what I will and won’t answer. There will be no negotiations about my answers. You will follow your contract and obey Jacob. If Adam has anything to say that is meaningful and helpful, you will obey him as well.”

Adam huffed behind him.

Ian ignored it. “And if this works out and you prove you truly are interested in this, then we can talk about giving you greater access to Sanctum, and I’ll speak with the other Doms and subs about talking to you.”

“Really?” Serena asked.

Ian nodded. “Yes, really. I’m not some monster. Well, not most of the time. I started this club to help little subs like you. And, hey, those excerpts I read were hot. You might want to tone down the whole ‘pussy Dom’ crap, but otherwise, I know a lot of the subs here would love your books. Maybe you could do a signing or something.”

Jake sighed. That would go an enormously long way to settling Serena down.

“I could totally do that. And I would love to talk to subs and Doms. I have a million and one questions. Like when did you know you were a Dom? What were your first indications?”

It was time to take control of his sub. “Serena, stop.”

She had the good sense to go quiet.

Ian looked back at Adam. “Do you need backup?”

He shook his head. “I have it. It’s a simple trace, and I need to go through the tapes I got from the libraries. I have hours of footage from the two libraries with CCTV. I think I found a way to use facial profiling technology to compare the two. I’m looking for some connection, and the time stamps should help me. It shouldn’t be difficult, just time consuming. I could actually do it in the morning.”

“Do it now, Adam,” Ian barked and then walked away.

Jake turned and looked at Serena. “You’re going to be trouble.”

Adam’s hand found her hip. They were crowding her, her half-naked body in the middle. “Which is precisely why I should stay. She needs two Masters. She’s too much trouble for just one.”

“Or we could all go home and you could do the job we’re getting paid to do.” Jake stared at his partner.

 
After everything that had happened today, how could he possibly be thinking about putting off the case? Jake had looked at those books, and they had turned his stomach. Whoever had sent that package had a deep need to hurt Serena. Every dirty word, every pussy, fuck, cock, cunt, even damn had been marked through. There was no note. No words on the page. The books had simply been cleaned of anything the reader thought of as filth. Nothing this stalker had done before had scared Jacob the way this little stunt had. The attention to detail had made his hair stand on end. How long had he sat at a desk with his marker, decimating Serena’s books? How far would he go to hurt the woman herself?

He locked eyes with his partner, felt Serena tense beside him.

“I’ll go get changed.”

“No,” Adam said quickly. “Stay. Enjoy the club. Have a good time with Jake.” Adam leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I’ll still be here. I set up my gear in the conference room. I can work from there so if you need anything at all, I can be here.”

That was what Jake wanted to hear. The whole computer search thing was Adam’s stock-in-trade. And tonight, Jake’s job was to keep their sub’s mind off all the bad shit. Client, he corrected himself. Client. She didn’t belong to them. He had to remember that.

Adam winked at her and walked toward the conference room.

“We don’t have to do this,” Serena said after a long moment of silence. “We can go and help Adam. Or we could just go home. I know this wasn’t your idea.”

Jake took a deep breath and really looked at her. Despite the sexy clothes, there was still an air of innocence that clung to her. And there was definitely an air of self-doubt. Her husband had turned her away for wanting to be dominated sexually. She’d written down her deeply held fantasies, and yes, they involved sex, but more than that all of her fantasies involved true love and acceptance. She’d been looking for that acceptance for years, and if she didn’t find it soon, she might stop looking altogether. It might occur to her that it would be easier to shove that part of herself away, to bury it deep down where it no longer mattered. He didn’t want that for her. She was beautiful, and it went bone deep. He wanted her to be free.

“You don’t want to play? I thought you would at least want to watch a few scenes.” He still found it hard to simply say what he wanted.

She smiled, a wan little thing. “I want to try it all. I want the whole experience, Jacob, but I know you don’t think of me like that. It’s okay. We can just watch. I promise not to be too obnoxious with the questions.” Her eyes trailed after Adam. The longing there made Jake jealous. “Adam said he would help with the rest of it.”

Had he? How very fucking nice of Adam to offer to help with “the rest of it.” Something nasty took root in Jake’s gut. It wasn’t fair. He knew it. He’d been the one who’d tried to push her away in the beginning, but living with her these past few days had made him draw close to her. He couldn’t help it. He’d watched her, grown to care. And now Adam wanted him to stand beside her, watching scenes while he plotted and scheduled her training? Adam wasn’t half the Dom Jake was. He wasn’t as vested in the lifestyle, but he thought he would train the sexy little wide-eyed natural sub?

Fuck no
.

“What exactly is the other stuff, Serena?” The words came out in a harsh grind.

Serena flushed, her fair skin pinkening prettily. She would look so fucking good draped over his knee. His cock settled into a deep, throbbing rhythm.

Her eyes slid away from him. “The protocol stuff.”

He cupped her neck, his palm on her spine, forcing her gently to look up. He slipped the collar around her neck, adjusting it to a comfortable length. He touched the collar as he spoke. “I’m responsible for you. Not Adam. I’m the one with rights here. If you want to learn something about the lifestyle, you’ll go through me. Let’s start at the beginning. Show me how you greet your Master.”

He couldn’t resist. He knew he should just nod and walk her through the dungeon, but the temptation of seeing her kneel at his feet was too much. She bit into her bottom lip, looking around the area as though trying to decide if it was safe. But that wasn’t her call.

“Now, Serena. On your knees. You want a Dom for the night? Well, that’s my collar around your neck. You will obey me, or we’ll do exactly what you said. We’ll go home and sit and wait for Adam. Hell, we’ll watch some incredibly boring TV and you can sink into your safe-as-pie vanilla life, and you never have to really know what it means to submit. You can just write about it.”

A fire lit her eyes, and she fell to her knees. Yes, that was what he wanted. She wasn’t thinking about the fact that her skirt was too short or that people might see her. She was thinking about him and proving him wrong. It wasn’t the exact place he wanted her. He would rather she was merely thinking about pleasing him, but he would take it.

He studied her for a moment. She had the basics down. Her brunette head was bent submissively toward the floor. Her hands were on her knees, shoulders back. If she had been naked, her breasts would have been on full, glorious display.

“I prefer the palms up position, Serena.”

She turned her palms up. “I read about it the other way.”

“There are many ways to practice, Serena. It’s something you and your partner decide on. I prefer palms up. I can’t really explain why. It’s merely what turns me on.” And it did. She looked lovely, but there was a certain perfection that could only come with long training. “Spread your knees further apart.”

She hesitated a second before moving her knees a fraction of an inch to the side.

“Wider, Serena.” Jake was well aware of the impatience in his voice.

Serena huffed a little, and her knees spread further. The little skirt Adam had given her rolled up and showed off a spectacular view of something Jake was pretty damn sure Adam hadn’t included in her clothing options.

“What is covering your pussy?” Jake asked, putting a hand in her hair. He tugged lightly, aware of the flush that stole across her skin. Her breathing had picked up, too. She was becoming aroused. He was sure of it.

“Underwear, Jake.”

He tightened his hand in her hair and gave her a little growl.

“Sir,” she corrected quickly. “It’s my underwear, Sir.”

“Did Adam include plain, white cotton underwear with your clothes for this evening?” Jake damn straight knew the answer to that question. There was no way Adam had included it. Adam loved lingerie. Whenever they had a woman, Adam would buy box after box of expensive lingerie and fetish wear to dress her. Jake would laugh and tell Adam he was looking for a Fuck-Me Barbie.

Her eyes got wide as though realizing she was in trouble. “No. He left something else. It was too small. It didn’t cover me. It was a thong, and I don’t really like those.”

“You don’t like thongs? Are you kidding me? Serena, pet, I’ve read your work. Tell me what Joshua Lake would do to a submissive who blatantly violated her Dom’s orders regarding clothing.” He would use her work against her, though in this case it really was proper training material.

That sexy lower lip trembled, making him want to kiss her until she couldn’t move. “He would probably just tell her to not do it again.”

She wanted to play it that way? He pulled her hair gently, forcing her to look him straight in the eye. “He’s not a pussy Dom, Serena. You didn’t write him that way. Of all the characters you’ve written, he’s the most vivid, the most alive. He’s your fantasy. Now you tell me what he would do.”

Her breath escaped in shallow pants. “He would say I gave up the right to underwear at all.”

Jake smiled, releasing her hair. “Excellent. We’ll start there. Remove those panties. They offend me.”

“But Jake, if I take them off, the skirt is so short people will be able to see me.”

“That’s ten swats.”

“But I didn’t know,” Serena tried to argue.

Reality seemed to be setting in for the little sub. It was odd, but Jake found himself actually enjoying the push and pull. He’d spent the last several years with perfectly trained subs who got off on showing their bodies and displaying their pure obedience. But it hadn’t been earned from Jake. And he also got that this was Serena’s fantasy. Serena’s fantasies weren’t about everything going perfectly. Her characters had to fight. This would be a little fight, but they both could win.

“You didn’t know your Dom would discipline you?” Jake asked. “That’s another ten, by the way.”

Her fists clenched. “I didn’t know it would be you.”

The words hit him like a bucket of ice cold water. “You thought it would be Adam. Of course.”

She cared about Adam. She wanted Adam. Adam was the one with all the smooth moves. Adam cooked for her and took care of her schedule. Jake was just the meathead whose job was to throw his oversized body in front of any bullet that came her way. Yeah. He should have gotten that by now.

“I just thought Ian was making you do it because you did the course thing.”

He heard the words, but his head was somewhere else. “It’s fine, Serena. Come on. I’ll show you around the club. Adam is going to be a couple of hours. We can look around, and then I’ll take you home. What do you want to see first?”