On Her Master's Secret Service (Masters and Mercenaries #4)(64)

She felt a deep sense of accomplishment even as the man’s hand came down on her head.

Damn it. She hadn’t thought about the fact that Alex had just pretended to beat the holy hell out of the last man who had touched her. Maybe he wasn’t looking and she could move away.

She brought her eyes up. Alex looked like a bull ready to charge. She had seconds before he completely blew up and screwed with their cover.

Eve crawled to him, the wood floors scraping against her knees, but she didn’t dare leap to her feet. “I was so frightened, Master. Please forgive me.”

She wrapped her arms around his legs. Every muscle in his body was tight with tension. Please let it go. Please let it go.

His hand tangled in her hair. “You aren’t where I put you. Bad pet. That’s fifty. Go through the kitchens to the locker room. Clean yourself up and wait for me. You’re obviously not fit for company, you disobedient brat.”

She would take it. He was banishing her, but it was probably a good thing. She started to get to her feet. When she was in the kitchens, she could process what had gone on and be ready to talk about her observations later.

“On your knees, brat.”

Oh, she was going to give him an earful about that. She kept her face placid and crawled along the floor, well aware that her ass was very likely hanging out. Well, he could just watch her go because after that he wasn’t getting any.

She crawled to the kitchens, resenting the hell out of him even as she knew damn well why he’d done it.

The minute she crawled through the swinging doors, Kristen was practically on top of her.

“I need to talk to you and your Master.” Kristen kept her voice low. Several servers and kitchen staff were moving around, getting the next course ready.

“I have to go to the locker rooms.” And someone so needed to clean this floor. She was going to have to have a serious talk with Sean about the state of his tile. Sure it looked all perfectly clean when one was standing up, but from her vantage point, she could see the dirt. Ick. Another reason to be pissed off at Alex.

She was pissed off at Alex. Like really and truly pissed off at Alex and ready to throw a hissy fit the minute she was able to. She kind of wanted to call him a bastard and tell him that if he ever wanted to see the inside of her vagina again, he better come crawling.

She was mad. A little kernel of happiness lit her up. They had tiptoed around each other for years, politeness their refuge against any strong emotion. She’d hidden her irritation with him and he’d been a frustrating well of patience with her.

It wasn’t healthy. Couples in love fought. Couples in love got irritated and ranted and raved at each other.

She’d told herself years ago that she’d fallen out of love with Alex. She knew she would always love him, but their real passion had burned away in the aftermath of what had happened. Alex had pulled away and she had gone into a cocoon where nothing could touch her, nothing could make her mad.

Crawling on the floor made her mad.

And she was damn straight going to do it.

“Uhm, is there a reason you’re making like a baby?” Kristen asked. “I can help you up if you need a hand.”

Oh, no. She was going to crawl every inch of the way. She wasn’t going to give her Master any reason to say she didn’t comply. It would have been so easy for him to give her a good couple of slaps to the ass, but he’d chosen this. “The Master wants me to crawl to the locker rooms. I am doing my Master’s bidding.”

“Shit. Wow. Well, I’m coming with you because we have a few things to work out. Can you crawl faster?”

Eve turned her head up, frowning at the redhead before restarting her slow crawl without saying a word. She pushed through the backside of the kitchen and into the quiet hall that led back to the lockers.

“This is dumb.” Kristen got to her knees beside Eve, crawling in time.

“You could just go and wait for me.”

Kristen’s voice went low. “Was that Jacob Dean?”

Eve nodded. “Yes. Alex brought him in for the day.”

“And I wasn’t told.”

“Neither was I. I don’t think informing us was high on Alex’s list of priorities.”

“This is my op, damn it. I laid out some ground rules, the chief one being that I approved every member of the team.” Kristen whispered the words, but there was no way to mistake the fact that she was angry. She bit the words out through clenched teeth. She stopped in the middle of the hallway. “This floor is really gross. Is Master A trying to give you Ebola? I think I see some just to the left of you.”

Thank god, she was at the door to the locker room. She got up and entered, walking straight to the sink because while she was pretty sure the floor was hemorrhagic fever free, she couldn’t say the same thing of staph. She washed her hands. Thoroughly.

Kristen walked around the locker room, checking the stalls before coming back and joining her at the sink. “We can talk. I already did my daily bug check and we’re alone now, so it’s safe. I want to know why your husband is trying to f*ck me over?”

It was an interesting reaction. Kristen seemed so calm, so very patient, but Jake’s appearance had her rattled. “I don’t think he’s trying to do anything to you. This is his op.”

She shook her head. “No. It’s mine. I mean it’s my story. I brought you all in to this.”