On Her Master's Secret Service (Masters and Mercenaries #4)(44)

She wasn’t going to lead him on. He needed to know she was the “good girl.” Men would do a lot for a woman they seriously considered to be innocent and pure. Jesse had that look about him.

He smiled, but there was a sadness to it. “So you’re pretty much into him, huh?”

She put a hand on the collar at her throat. “He’s my Master. I would hope I would like him.”

“Sometimes that’s not the case around here.” He was still standing close, but something had changed. The tension was gone. He was just friendly now. “Sometimes a woman stays with a man because they don’t have anywhere else to go.”

She took particular note that he’d called her a woman and not a sub. He hadn’t followed her lead. It could mean nothing or it could mean that he wasn’t as invested in the lifestyle as he wanted them to believe. Jesse Murdoch wanted to be the white knight. He wanted to charge in and save someone. Unfortunately for him, she didn’t need saving. “I love him.”

He sighed a little. “Fine. All the pretty ones love someone else. Anyway, if you need anything, you call for me. If your man isn’t around, you call for me. Can you do that for me, sweetheart?”

“She isn’t going to do anything except to step away from you and get her ass to my side.”

There was that voice that had a direct line to all her pink parts. Alex stood in the hallway, his big body taking up all the space. Jesse was just as big, just as broad, but somehow he didn’t fill the space the way Alex did.

Eve stepped away, and the minute she came within arm’s length of Alex, he pulled her close and forced her behind him as though there was a threat just waiting to take her out.

“I don’t know how this club has worked up until this moment, but I just officially became the Dom in Residence here, so this just became, for all intents and purposes, my club. So I’m going to teach you the first rule of this club. Don’t you f*cking touch my sub. Mine. That collar on her neck was placed there by me. She belongs to me, and this isn’t some happy little office where there are civilized rules and I have to put up with you hitting on my woman with a smile and hope that she doesn’t reciprocate. This isn’t the civilized world and the next time I find you alone with my submissive, I’ll make sure you never do it again. Am I clear?” He was a caveman, a Neanderthal, a freaking possessive maniac, and she kind of wanted to do him hard right then.

“Clear as crystal, boss.” But there was a grin on Jesse’s face.

“It better be.”

Eve wanted to say something, to protest, but this wasn’t the place. Alex turned, grabbing her hand and starting down the hall.

She practically ran to keep up with him. Nothing had changed? She was fooling herself because from the moment she decided to get on that plane, everything had changed.

She just needed to figure out how to deal with the fallout.





Jesse Murdoch watched the ridiculously titled Master A walk away, his shoulders squared off and a possessive arm around his…what did they call her? Submissive? Why did they have to f*ck things up with different names for shit? He wasn’t sure he got the whole BDSM thing.

Scratch that. He was damn sure he didn’t get that shit. It seemed an awful lot like a way to abuse a woman to him.

The first few times he’d had to watch Chazz take a whip to one of the girls had sent him straight to the bottom of a bottle. He still wasn’t sleeping, but f*ck, he never slept. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see the dirty cell that had been his home for so long, smell the shit and piss and blood that had been his life.

The brunette turned slightly, her eyes trailing behind, finding him.

He had to admit, she was a looker. A little thin for his tastes, but there was an almost innocent appeal to her. He gave her a smile and she turned away, disappearing down the hallway with her psychotic boyfriend.

Was Master Asshole the one who had given her those scars on her neck? Fucker.

The new Dom and his pretty punching bag were more than just a curiosity for Jesse. They were a complication he didn’t need.

He glanced once and then twice down the hallway. Empty. By nightfall, the whole place would be buzzing and a mad sort of chaos would take over, but, for now, all was quiet.

Like he liked it.

He slipped inside the women’s locker room. He had to use the women’s locker room because some asswipe had bugged the men’s. No prying eyes or ears in there this time of day. He gave the whole place a quick lookie-loo. No one in the stalls or the showers. He shoved a trashcan in front of the door. It wouldn’t keep anyone out, but it would let him know if someone was coming in.

He moved back to the shower stalls and pulled out his cell phone, the one he kept in his boot along with his knife. He had two cells. This one was utterly untraceable and had only one number programmed in. Jesse hit the button and waited.

“You have something for me?” His contact was always succinct.

“A couple of new players.”

“Names?”

“Anthony Priest and Amanda King. I just met them. Chazz brought them in to, I don’t know, I think they’re supposed to f*ck in front of a crowd or something.” He was still a little hazy on what the dickwad was supposed to do. “He’s forty or so. Buzz cut. A couple of tats. She’s a brunette with some scars. Nice tits. She’s less mouthy than Kris. The dude is Kris’s brother.”