Master of the Abyss

Simon smiled. “Relax, pet. We all have our own submissives-well, except for Jake. You won’t be harassed, and no one here minds observers or we wouldn’t play in public.”

“Oh. Good.” She frowned. “But I’m not a pet.”

“No?” He studied her for a minute and then nodded toward a man in black jeans and a T-shirt tying a woman facedown on a coffee table. “You don’t find watching a dom with his submissive to be exciting?”

The woman wore only a bustier and thong. The dom secured her legs open, then touched her intimately. Slowly. The woman wiggled and a minute later was moaning, raising her hips toward him. Smiling, the man stood up. When he patted her bottom affectionately, his fingers glistened.

Kallie released the breath she’d been holding. The room seemed overly hot. “It’s like watching a porn flick,” she muttered, tearing her gaze away. “Anyone would get interested.”

“Somewhat true,” Simon agreed. “However that was only the prelude. What do you think of the main act?”

“Excuse me?”

He tilted his head toward the dom and sub. Kallie turned in time to see the man bring his hand down onto the woman’s bare bottom with a resounding slap.

Kallie jerked as if he’d hit her instead. She couldn’t tear her gaze away as the man thoroughly spanked the woman…the submissive. Dear God. By the time he finished, Kallie was as damp as if she’d sat in a puddle. That was nothing-nothing!-like what she’d tried.

When she finally turned away, the gleam of amusement in Simon’s eyes told her exactly how readable her face must have been. “So, pet,” he said, not adding any emphasis to the word but making his point nonetheless. “Would you be interested in playing this evening?”

“I-” The thought of being the one tied to a table, having someone- Jake-slapping her bottom, touching her… “No. Of course not.”

He raised an eyebrow.

She flushed. “Besides, you told me everyone here is…attached.”

He looked over her head as if thinking, and his lips curved. “I believe I said Jake doesn’t have a sub here tonight.”

She snorted. “He doesn’t like me. He dates Marilyn Monroe types.” Not breastless, fat-assed women with no sex appeal.

“Oh? That seems odd. You have rather the appearance of his old girlfriend-same coloring and height.”

Jake had had a girlfriend? It must have been before Kallie returned to Bear Flat. And they resembled each other? Simon must be kidding.

“I really look like her?” When he chuckled, Kallie grimaced. How about I just stand up and announce that I have the hots for Jake Hunt? She stared at her feet. Maybe she’d just watch the hardwood floor until she could escape-don’t want the flooring to turn soft, right?-and not be looking at any more of this sex stuff.

But a pair of battered brown boots moved to interfere with her view of the hardwood floor. The hems of the jeans were worn to pure white in places. She lifted her gaze. A black T-shirt clung to six-pack abs and a heavily muscled chest. A corded neck. A lean, hard face with icy blue eyes.

Jake.

Chapter Two

“Uh.” Kallie’s face heated. Why couldn’t those floorboards crack open and let her disappear? Where was a good earthquake when you needed one? How much had he heard?

“Yes, Kallie, you do resemble her,” he said in an even tone. He’d definitely caught Simon’s comment. Her face was probably red enough to light the room.

“Oh. Well.” I look like an old girlfriend. Reassuring at first, then rather uncomfortable.

He set his foot on the couch beside her hip and leaned forward, his forearms braced on his knee, studying her until she had to force herself not to squirm. His masculine scent had the tang of a high mountain forest, clean and compelling, but he was intimidatingly close. She edged back against the couch cushions, realizing that after flinging her to the wolves, to Jake, Simon had abandoned her without a word. Her heart thudded inside her chest, more loudly than any spanking or whipping going on.

“I had planned to leave you alone,” he said, half under his breath.

Well, that hurt. “Then go.” She made a shooing motion with her fingers.

“But then you planted yourself in here. Asked questions.”

“I won’t ask any more.” If her heart would only slow down, she’d be able to think. “I don’t want to know anything at all about you or your girlfriend, okay?”

“She was also my submissive,” he said, his voice deep. Rough as a talus slope and as dangerous. “I was her master. Do you know what that means, sprite?”

Mouth too dry to answer, Kallie shook her head. Master?

He stroked one finger along her jaw, slowly enough that she could feel the warmth, the uneven skin of a man who worked with his hands. The strength. “I like the way you heat under my touch,” he murmured, then looked Kallie right in the eyes. “It means she did what I ordered her to do. Always. If I told her to strip and bend over the bed so I could take her from behind, that’s what she did.”

She could feel how his hands would hold her in place, his cock hard between her legs, demanding entry and… The air had completely disappeared from the room.

He gripped her chin, keeping her head tilted up, revealing her face. “I could tell her to lie on the bed with her legs spread, and no matter what I did, no matter how long, she wasn’t allowed to come.”

Kallie felt a burn start in her nether regions. And couldn’t help wondering what he had done. How had he touched her?

His eyes crinkled, and he rubbed his knuckles over her cheek. “You’re flushed, little Kallie.”

“I…” She put up a hand to push his away.

“Don’t. Move.” The command swept over her like a strong gale bending the trees in its path, pinning her into stillness. Her body froze…and yet grew even more sensitive. Awake. In fact, she’d never felt like this before…and he’d not even done anything.

He chuckled. “Little submissive.” With both hands, he grasped the front of her shirt and pulled her to her feet. “Simon was right. You do want to play.” It wasn’t a question.

Her heart pounding, her eyes captured by his, she tried to back away, shaking her head. “No. No, really.”

“Don’t lie to me, Kallie,” he said ever so softly, yet all the spit in her mouth dried up.

She averted her gaze and tried to think. She’d wanted him since the first time she saw him. Now she might have him. But here? How brave was she?

She’d never deliberately done anything really outrageous in her whole life, always tried to fit in and not rock the boat. But right now she wanted to swamp the boat completely. If she did some “you know” with Jake this one time, her cousins would never find out. Her lips curved up. And my dreams will be very interesting. God, yes, I want to try it. But when she looked back at him, at his level gaze, the words stuck in her throat, and she managed only a firm nod.

“Good enough.” His sky blue eyes darkened as if storm clouds had rolled in. “We’re playing together only this one time. Only tonight.”