Master No (Masters and Mercenaries, #9)(52)

“Don’t be afraid of me.” He crowded her, his hands finding her hair and tangling in it. He gently tugged on it, pulling her back so she had to look into his eyes. “I’ll take care of you. As much as I can, I promise you that.”

It sounded solemn, like he was making an oath to her, and she couldn’t help but respond. He was giving her a safe place to play and explore and be the Faith she so rarely was.

It didn’t mean she had to get her heart ripped out. No one could know what would happen in the future, but Faith knew the future didn’t happen at all if she never took a leap.

“I’ll take care of you, too. I want to spend this time with you. I want it more than you can know.” She went on her toes and brushed her lips against his. He had a slight five-o’clock shadow, and she loved how the bristles felt against her skin.

“I want to show you something first. You should know what you’re getting into. You didn’t get a chance to really see them before. I want you to take a good look.” He stepped back and pulled off his vest, turning so she could see his back.

She couldn’t help her startled intake of breath. His back was a maze of scars, a collection of all the ways this man had been abused. Ian Taggart’s words floated back through her head. There was a wealth of pain bubbling under Master T’s calm surface.

He stood there, his back to her. His shoulders slumped slightly as though he’d felt the weight of that gasp, had expected it and was already accepting her choice.

Except she was fairly certain he didn’t understand her choice at all. She moved to him and immediately placed her hands on his ruined back, her fingertips tracing the scars.

“You were burned.”

“Yes,” he replied, his voice gravelly.

He’d likely been young because the cigarette burns looked older than the rest. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen before, but it always made her heart ache. It hurt more because she knew this man. “Foster care?”

“I had some good and some bad. That was a bad one, but if you look a couple of inches down, you’ll see a scar I got when I was trying to get through a barbed wire fence. I got stuck and the man who found me was one of the finest men I ever met.”

“He found you?”

“Like I said, I was stuck and I wasn’t moving. Barbed wire hurts like hell. Papa Jack. He took in kids from time to time. His wife made the best pie in the world. He was a former Marine and I learned more about American history and how to serve my country from that man than I did from years in…the Army. I still miss that old man.”

“What happened to him?”

“Cancer,” Ten explained. “Child services wouldn’t let him keep me when he got sick. I got sent to a group home after that. I just wanted you to know that it wasn’t all bad. I had some good people in my life, too.”

Those good people had obviously served to shape him into the man he’d become. She ran her fingers over some surgical scars. “Knife wound?”

He nodded slowly, but offered nothing else.

She moved down his torso, studying each scar, marveling at the strength of the man that could take such pain and still stand.

Master T’s body was strong, but sometimes even the strongest bodies housed souls in need.

“I think you’re beautiful.” She leaned over and kissed his back, moving along his spine. She let her hands move, palms against his skin. She’d thought the wrong words. His flesh wasn’t ruined, merely transformed by pain. There was still such beauty to it. She’d learn to find it everywhere. There was beauty in the worst scars, in places she’d never imagined beauty could take root.

“Thank you, Faith. I’m sure you’ve seen worse.” He turned, obviously happy to have gotten through those moments.

“I have, but I think you’re beautiful. Your body isn’t something I can handle, Master. It’s something I’m coming to crave. Please understand that. Your scars don’t make you less beautiful. They make you more.”

His jaw tightened and she could see he didn’t believe her, but he also didn’t argue. He took a long breath and then the charming smile was back on his face. “I want to see you. Let me get you out of that corset.”

He turned her, brushing her hair off her shoulders. The intimacy that had frightened her before now cocooned them, and she shuddered when he kissed the back of her neck. “You’re the beautiful one.”

His hands began to move, working the laces of her corset with a slightly unpracticed hand. He hesitated as though trying to figure out which thread to pull, but slowly and surely the corset loosened.

She took a deep breath. This was what she loved about putting on her corset. She enjoyed the way it curved and made her look and feel so very feminine, but she always looked forward to this moment when she could breathe again, when she could relax and feel her body shift.

“Lift your arms, darlin’.” When his voice got deep and that Southern accent took over, she couldn’t help but sigh.

She complied and he lifted the corset over her torso, freeing her. She could feel her breasts move, nipples puckering, and then she was standing half naked in front of him. She remained still. Her back was to him, but he would tell her when he wanted her to turn. This was his time. He got to rule in the bedroom. He’d been courteous and kind, allowing her to take the lead in their conversations. It had been odd at first because her old Dom had dominated any talk with his own stories. He’d taken the whole Dom/sub thing seriously, which was why she’d never considered a full-time relationship, but Master T didn’t seem to need it.