“Does that mean you’re going back to work?”
Mason frowned. “No. The Master quit for me. Bastard. That’s going to help me out in the long run when I need another job.”
“I’m sure he was very polite about it.” Kitten couldn’t say that with a straight face.
“He was an asshole, though don’t tell him I said that because I will get my ass beaten,” he said in a low voice that let her know he probably wouldn’t mind all that much.
“Well, you know he considered it dangerous.”
“He also had my things moved out of my apartment. He promptly took one look at my things and threw them away.”
“He bought you new things.”
“What if I liked the old things?”
“Did you?”
“No, they were crap, but that isn’t the point. The point is that you should get that lovely swimsuit wet. Come on, love. You know you want to. Better than that, you know I top you when the Master’s not around. Let’s go. We can both use the exercise.”
She sat straight up. Cole had explained that Mason topped her when he wasn’t around, but he hadn’t used that power. In the days since she’d picked up Mason from the hospital they’d settled into a pleasant companionship. Even the Master seemed happier. Mason was a bright light and he seemed to illuminate all the dark places. Dinners were livelier. Mason and Cole would discuss business issues and the news. She’d started watching CNN so she could keep up with them. She didn’t talk very much, but she understood their discussions. They sat together at night and sometimes they played cards, sometimes turned on a movie.
She felt like she was in a real family for once.
But now one of her real family members wanted her to do something unpleasant. She was torn. It was the first thing he’d really asked of her, but it was something she was afraid of.
“Kitten, I might not have the right to punish you, but I can assure you that Cole will hear about this.”
Damn. Damn. Damn. “I can’t swim, Mason. I’m afraid of the water. So I would rather stay out here.”
There was a whooshing sound as he hauled himself out of the water. She managed to stop her gasp. Mason was a lovely man. In just a few days he seemed to have gained a bit of weight and it was all muscle. He and Cole hit the gym twice in the last couple of days. She’d stood outside, watching them as they worked. There had been something beautiful in the way they methodically used each machine or weight. They were strong. What would it feel like to be strong? To not be afraid?
Mason stood in front of her. “You can’t swim?”
She sighed. She’d avoided talking about her past, but he seemed to be pushing her. She preferred to stay in the now. She didn’t like to look to the past. “I never learned. My father thought bathing suits were…tawdry.” His exact words had been more like slut suits.
He would hate what she was wearing. Her father should have been born in the middle ages.
“Well, the good news is your father isn’t here. The bad news is I don’t feel comfortable having a pool on the grounds when you can’t swim. I’ll teach you.”
She heard the door open, and for the first time she was actually happy to see Mrs. Hamilton begin to walk her way. She had a tray in her hands.
Maybe she wasn’t happy. She could see a hint of green. Why did the woman seem to have a need to serve her poorly crafted greens?
Mason followed her line of sight and a frown came over his lovely face. “Mrs. Hamilton, to what do we owe this pleasure?”
Kitten sat up. The last several days Mason had been doing something else at this time of day. He’d had many phone calls about his job and his house. He’d been trying to clean up all the loose ends Cole had left behind when he’d cut ties for Mason. It seemed as though her Master…their Master meant for Mason to stay around for a bit. But it left her with a problem. Mason topped her, but she didn’t like the idea of him knowing her conflicts. Mrs. Hamilton was troublesome. Or rather Cole’s dictates about her nutrition were a problem she’d managed to keep hidden until now. She would either have to eat that crap or let Mason know what a brat she was.
Damn. Damn. Damn. She should have handled this better. She should have thought about the fact that her snack was at this time. Lunch had been better since Mason was around. It seemed like Cole took his preferences into account.
Mrs. Hamilton stopped, seemingly surprised. “I thought you were scheduled for a doctor’s appointment.”
Mason stared her down. “I was. I rescheduled because the Master wants to go. He seems deeply interested in my health, but he had a meeting today. Kitten and I are going into the office at four to meet him. We’ll see the doctor tomorrow. What is your purpose in interrupting our time together?”
The older woman looked a little like a fish out of water. Her mouth opened and closed like she needed extra oxygen.
“I’ll ask again,” Mason intoned. “What is your purpose here?”
“I was bringing Miss Kitten her snack.” She set the tray down and then took a step back.
Mason stared at it for a moment. “That’s not a snack. Ice cream is a snack. Cheese is a snack. I’ll even give you fruit.”
“It’s fine.” She’d choke it down. “It’s what the Master ordered for me.”
Mrs. Hamilton frowned. “Not that you ever eat it, you ungrateful thing. You are the worst submissive the Master has had. With the exception of you.” She nodded to Mason. “You’re just a criminal. Master Cole will wake up and realize what you’re doing. Don’t think I don’t know that you’re using him again.
Mason’s eyes went cold. “I believe we will no longer require your services. Stay out of my way and you are not to have anything to do with Kitten again. Am I understood?”
Her lips formed a flat line. “We’ll see what Master Cole has to say about this.”
She turned on her very functional heels and walked away.
Mason moved his focus back to Kitten. “Explain what’s been going on here while Cole’s away.”
He switched very quickly. One minute he was all charm and the next he transformed into a Dom, his shoulders back, his eyes like steel.
Kitten averted her eyes.
“Don’t you dare. You can pull that crap on Cole, but that’s not how it’s going to go with me.” His fingers touched her chin, raising her face until she had to look him in the eyes. “I am not the bastard who hurt you. I am the man who will take care of you and you will honor me by not lumping me in with him. Cole treats you with kid gloves, but I know you’re made of sterner stuff than this. You are a brave woman who survived something terrible. You can look me in the eyes and tell me what’s been happening and then you’re going to tell me why you haven’t taken this up with the Master because he will be horrified when he finds out how she’s been talking to you.”
He didn’t understand. “She isn’t nice to me, but I haven’t been following Cole’s orders. He leaves a menu for my breakfast, lunch, and snack. I am to receive oatmeal for breakfast. I have some form of salad for lunch and then a healthy snack.”
“And Cole told you this?”
“He told me I needed to eat my meals.”
“But he didn’t sit down and tell you what those meals would be?”
“He left a list with Mrs. Hamilton. Why else would she…” Sometimes she could be very naïve. “You think she’s attempting to punish me.”
“I think Cole expects you to eat what you want to eat. He expected you to tell Mrs. Hamilton what you would like to eat for those meals. She’s here to serve you and she’s paid quite well to do it.”
Kitten bit her bottom lip. “It seems rude for me to order her around.”
“It’s her job. She doesn’t top you.” Mason took a deep breath and stepped away. “You do understand that only two people in the entire world get to top you, right? Cole, because you signed a contract with him, and me, because we’ve all agreed. No one else. To allow someone else that power over you dishonors our Master. Your submission i
s a gift that is not to be taken lightly. Do you want to be known as a sub slut?”
Kitten felt a smile start. “A sub slut? Somehow I don’t think you’re talking about sex.”
When he grinned her heart nearly stopped. “Smart girl. I’m just saying that if you want Cole and me to take your submission seriously, we need to know that you aren’t giving it away to anyone on the street.” He got serious again. “I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to think about it for a while. Is this who you want to be? The girl who won’t get in the water because she’s too afraid to learn how to swim? Do you want to be the girl everyone steps on because you won’t defend yourself? Do you want to be the girl who hides or the girl who figures out her place? You think about that and give me an answer in a couple of days.”
She didn’t need a couple of days, but when she opened her mouth he put his finger there to stop her.
“I want you to think about it. Now, I think I saw some cookies in the pantry.”
He was going to be difficult. She shook her head. “I don’t want cookies.”
His eyes widened. “That’s the first time I’ve heard you say what you want.”
She shrugged a little because if he was surprised about that, then he might be a little shocked by what she was going to do next. What he’d said had gotten to her. Ever since she’d gone to live at The Club, she’d been treated with gentleness. Oh, there had been plenty of spankings and fun floggings, but now she could see that they had treated her like a victim. She couldn’t blame them because perhaps that was how she’d acted. Maybe at the end of the day, that was how she’d always acted.
She stepped to the pool and looked down at the water. She liked looking at it because it was pure and blue. She could see to the bottom.
What if she was like that water? Her real self. What if she’d spent years and years being afraid to know herself?
“My mother did what my father told her to.”
Mason stepped up beside her, his hand tangling with hers. “Always?”
“Yes.” It was funny how moments crept up on her. It wasn’t the big moments that changed a person. People could take pictures of prom and their weddings, but for Kitten it was always the little moments that she knew would change her life, and another one was on top of her.
“I was at the school Hawk took me from because my father decided where I would go and what I would do.”
“Why do you think he was so controlling?”
“He was always controlling, but I had a brother.” She’d seen a few pictures of him, the ones her mother had hidden away, the ones no one was supposed to know she had. Her brother. Jerrod. “I wasn’t even born when he died. Overdose. He was seventeen. Supposedly that’s when my father went into overdrive. My mom was so broken, she did what he told her to. He wanted another son. He got me. He decided he would do it right this time. He would make sure I never strayed from the prescribed path. I wonder what my brother was like. They won’t talk about him. Not ever.”
“What do you want to do, sweetheart?” His voice sounded tight.
She was so falling in love with Mason. It was typical that the man who opened up her heart would never be hers, but love was love and she would take it in any way she got it. “I want to learn how to swim, Mason. I don’t want to be afraid anymore.”
He was right. She was hiding, but it was all she knew to do. She was so attracted to Cole, but she didn’t know how to ask him for what she needed. Watching him with Mason had been a revelation. They were still wary around each other, but sometimes they seemed to forget and then there was a beautiful ease to their relationship. It was like Julian and Finn. When she’d first come to live with them, she’d expected to see a more consensual version of what Hawk had done to her. She certainly hadn’t thought Finn would be locked in a cage at night, but she hadn’t expected that Finn would seem so…normal. Finn asked for Julian’s advice, but he was a well-respected lawyer who made tough calls at his job all day. He simply liked to play and preferred to let Julian make the decision on where they would eat at night or what they would watch on TV. Julian’s wife, Dani, was also submissive, but she ran part of Julian’s businesses and all three of them took care of a child.
What if that was the type of relationship Cole really wanted? It seemed like such a simple thing to do, to choose for herself, but she’d never done it before.
Mason stepped into the water and held his hand out. His hair was so black that in the sunshine parts looked almost blue. “Come on. I want to get you used to the water first. Hold on to me. I won’t let you go.”
She hesitated. At the end of the day, she’d known him for only days and yet she was supposed to trust him with her life. Everything that the world had taught her said he would more likely drown her than teach her.
Kitten took that first tentative step into the water because she’d just figured something out about herself.
“Sweetheart, you’re crying. You don’t have to do this.”
She took a shaky breath. “I just figured out what I’m good at.”
The water was crisp on her skin as she stepped down the stairs and it came to her knees. He pulled her into his arms. “Wrap yourself around me. We’re just going to float for a while.” He rubbed their cheeks together as she did what he asked. “You’re good at a lot of things.”
She shook her head and held on. It was nice. The water was cool, but she wasn’t cold because his skin warmed her. He bounced as he walked and they talked. She felt weightless, oddly unburdened. “No, I’m not. I like to think the people in my life have their superpowers. Like Finn is really smart and Chase can figure out any mystery and Nat is the bravest person I know, but I have something I do better than any of them.”
“What’s that?”
“I can get kicked and hurt and tossed away like a piece of trash and I still believe that someone is going to love me. I still hope that someone will. I believe, Mason.”
He stopped and then he was staring at her, his hands clasping, holding her so tight that there was no way he would let go, no way he would leave her. “No matter what happens between me and Cole, I need you to understand that I will always take care of you. I know I haven’t known you for long, but sometimes we meet special people and we form connections that can last. I feel that way with you. I won’t willingly leave you. I will hold your hand while you go through this and I will be with you on the other side. I’ll stay as long as you let me.”
It was easier to act on her instincts with Mason. He was so open, so honest. She leaned over and brushed her lips against his. It wasn’t wrong. She didn’t mean anything past love and friendship. Until her lips met his and her whole body came to life.
She’d meant it as a sign of affection but heat flared through her.
She pulled back, utterly startled.
“Hey, that’s not wrong. We’re allowed to play a little as long as it doesn’t go too far. When the Master’s more comfortable, it can go as far as we like. Do you think you might want to play with me, too, gorgeous girl? Or is everything you have for the big guy?” He was so close. His lips were right there, hovering above hers.
“Mason, I…I…” How did she put this? She didn’t want him to think he had to return her affection. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
He groaned a little and suddenly she felt something against her belly, something big and hard. “I have been uncomfortable since the minute I set eyes on you.”
He was erect. Really quite erect. And it wasn’t a small erection. “But you’re gay.”
His laughter filled the space and took what had been an almost grave moment to something joyous. He twirled her around, but she wasn’t scared because he wouldn’t let go of her. “I am perfectly bi, love, and when the time is right, I will prove it to you. But first we have to get the Master on board and I have a plan. Do you want to hear it?”
He wasn’t gay. And he liked her. She hugged him again, loving the way his cock felt against her. “Yes, Sir.
I do.”
She relaxed as Mason began to talk. She let the water and the words flow over her and vowed to not forget this feeling.
For the first time, she felt as though she’d chosen correctly.
* * * *
Mason was of two minds as he walked into the gorgeously decorated offices that housed Cole’s executives. He was sure it was in the best of taste since he’d been the one who consulted with the designer. Like Cole would even care. He rarely thought about things like design, though he tended to have his preferences. Mason had watched Cole for years, learning him in a way he’d never known another human being. He knew Cole found certain colors of green soothing but he hated to be surrounded by browns and beiges. He liked clean lines but needed sturdy furniture because he worried he would break something that looked too fragile.
It was precisely why Cole was taking his sweet time with Kitten. He didn’t realize how strong she was. Cole couldn’t break Kitten, but Mason was starting to worry that he would. And there was the rub.
He was starting to love the girl. He was beginning to need her and not just for revenge.
He was starting to get comfortable again and that was one thing he couldn’t do.
“It’s lovely.” Kitten turned, looking at the reception area with that joyous air that seemed to follow her. She loved everything, walked around commenting on all the paintings and how plush the rug was.
While Kitten was oohing and ahhing, Mason stepped up to the receptionist. “Could you tell Mr. Roberts that Ms. Taylor and Mr. Scott are here to see him?”
The receptionist smiled up at him. She was a pretty thing who took excellent care of her looks. She was likely much older than her face would tell. Botox. When she smiled, it didn’t come close to her eyes. “Are you here for business, Mr. Scott? I haven’t seen you around. The boss usually only sees the same people over and over again.”
She was looking him up and down. Sizing him up and he could easily see that she liked what she saw. It made him feel like a piece of meat. He was glad Kitten had started talking to someone across the room.