From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(31)

How soon could she get away? She felt ungainly standing between these two gorgeous, ridiculously tall men. Did they have to be so freaking tall? She barely came up to Kai’s chin. She would fit neatly against him, her head easily resting on his broad shoulder. She barely made it to Jared’s collarbone. Maybe she should rethink wearing stilettos. Of course, then she would do that horrible ankle rolling walk chicks who never wore heels inevitably ended up doing when they finally put a pair on.

“I set up the scene in the back of the dungeon,” Kai was explaining. “I thought we’d try to be discreet. I know Big Tag gave everyone the speech, but I’m sure there will still be gawkers. We should go ahead and start moving that way. You can watch and then I’ll walk you through a scene yourself.”

Jared smiled down at her. “What do you say, pretty girl? You want to watch the scene with me? Maybe after Kai’s done, you can be my test subject.”

She tried not to watch Kai scene. In the beginning she had, and she would watch utterly fascinated with how hot the man was when he got his freak flag flying high, but lately it made her want to be the woman he was lavishing all that pain and pleasure on.

Lately she’d started dreaming about being the woman he tied up.

It would be easy to ask him. She doubted if she was open with what she needed that he would turn her down. In that case, he was a lot like his brother. If someone came to Kai and explained that they needed a scene in order to cry or relax, he would give the sub what he or she needed. The trouble was she wasn’t sure she could hold back with Kai. The minute he put his hands on her, she was worried she would dissolve and go back to her old habits, needs she hadn’t fed for years. It was easy to shove them down normally, but Kai moved her.

She was about to tell Jared that she needed to go find her friends when she felt a firm hand on her elbow, pulling her close.

“She can’t watch the scene. She’s in the scene,” Kai said. “You’ll have to find your own sub, Jared. This one is mine.”

Kori felt her jaw drop. Yes, it was going to be an interesting evening.





What the hell had he done? It wasn’t like he’d planned for that to happen. No, he’d planned something else entirely. He’d set up his scene and walked off to find a sub and he’d found Jared and Kori instead. He’d just walked up to his brother and heard the sorrow in his voice and it had thrown him off.

Jared was a better actor than Kai had given him credit for.

Or he’d been really upset to find out Kai had nearly died and no one had contacted him. Kai felt like a total dick. He hadn’t even thought about calling his brother. The first person he’d wanted to talk to was Kori. She was always the first person he called.

Then Jared had moved in on Kori like he had a right to touch her and Kai had lost his damn mind.

“What are you doing?” Kori asked the minute Jared stepped away.

Yes, that was the question of the hour. He shrugged, trying to make it look like this was no big deal. “I need a sub. Do you have a play partner for the evening?”

He’d been intending to ask Charlotte to find him a sub. He didn’t even want to make the decision. He’d known going into tonight that this was an academic exercise. He wasn’t going to get what he needed tonight. Another issue he could lay at his brother’s doorstep. He certainly wasn’t going to relax knowing his brother was watching him. Judging him. So he simply needed a sub who wouldn’t mind taking a spanking and answering some questions about it.

Maybe one of the training subs.

That wouldn’t work now because he’d seen the way baby brother looked at Kori, like he could eat her up, and his inner caveman had started grunting and dragging his knuckles on the floor.

“I don’t have a partner,” she replied, her blue eyes wide. “I haven’t had time to find a partner because the minute I walked out into the club your brother found me.”

“Well, then you’re free to bottom for me.” Found her? Yeah, Kai bet Jared had run from the locker room looking for Kori. She was exactly Jared’s type. Curvy, pretty, round breasts and an ass he could grab and hold on to.

He turned to the prep table. He didn’t need to look it over. He’d prepped it himself. He’d used the time to psych himself up to not murder his brother’s friends. It was so obvious to him that they were hanging on Jared like parasites, and his brother didn’t see it. He never saw things like that and when Kai tried to point it out to him he got called out for being pessimistic or dragging everyone down.

He’d show Jared dragging someone down. Little * didn’t know what the phrase meant.

“Kai, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

He was definitely losing his mind because Kori’s soft words made him angry. It was irrational. He knew it even as the questions floated through his head. Did she think it wasn’t a good idea because she wanted Jared? Had she gotten a good look at the man she’d known at some point and realized she wanted him? Had she already had him and now Jared was back and she wouldn’t even look at another man?

Irrational. Emotional. Out of control. He hated it.

“Hey.” A soft hand moved over his bicep. “I was only saying that because we’ve never played before. We’ve always kept a certain distance between us.”

Had they? Maybe a physical distance, but now that he thought about it she was the person in the world he talked to the most, relied on more than any other. He fixed breakfast for her because she would eat crap if he didn’t. She would show up before work and they would sit together and have a nice breakfast and coffee and talk about what they would do for the day.