Masters 02 Master of the Abyss (14 page)

“That sounded very nice.” He pulled a black piece of material out of his pack. Uneasiness ran through her when he held it up with the ribbons dangling from the sides. A blindfold.

He fitted it over her face, tied it snugly, and sat her on the log. “Enjoy the darkness for a minute until I return.”

Another sliver of insecurity slid across her nerves. “You won’t leave me?”

“Hey.” His hands closed on her face, ever so gently. “I’m not going anywhere, sprite. I’ll be right across the clearing talking to Andrew and Steve. I want you to simply sit here and wait. Can you do that for me?”

What a wuss
. She made her voice confident. “Of course.”

She heard his footsteps walking away. The low buzz of conversation grew fainter. Had he left? No, he wouldn’t. She knew that. He… Doubt crept into her, eating away her certainty like ice eroding a mountain, crack by crack.

Apprehension kept tensing the muscles Jake had massaged, until her body ached. She tipped her head to listen, but her pounding pulse drowned out any sounds in the clearing. Maybe they’d gone. All of them.

Her breathing increased. Her brain tried to reason out why she was wrong, but her thoughts had tangled into a knot. All she knew was she’d been left. Again.

The fabric covering her eyes absorbed her tears—but she never cried. That didn’t seem to matter in the sadness swamping her mind. She’d known he wouldn’t stay with her, and now it hurt… She’d known it would hurt when he left.

She pulled at the cuffs, needing the blindfold off, and couldn’t move. How would she ever get out of this stuff? But it didn’t seem to matter. He’d left her alone. She’d always be alone.

Suddenly the blindfold was yanked off, and she looked up through her tears at Jake. His face resembled granite as he reached around her and undid her cuffs. He picked her up effortlessly and carried her across the clearing. With his foot, he shoved one of the fireside logs sideways, perpendicular to the fire, then sat on the ground and leaned on the log. He didn’t put her down, merely cradled her like a baby with her back against his right arm, and her bottom on his hips. She’d been a baby.

But he hadn’t left her. Relief trickled upward, barely making it through the dam of emotions.

“Are you hurting, Kallie?” he asked. His face was in the darkness, the fire burning brightly behind him.

She shook her head, her throat still constricted.

“Then why the tears?” He rubbed her shoulder, easing the tenseness out of her muscles.

She swallowed and edged away from the blackness inside. “I thought you left,” she whispered and realized how pitiful she sounded. She tried to swallow, but her throat was too constricted.

“Shhh.” After a second, he asked, “You think I would leave you cuffed and blindfolded?” Anger threaded through his deceptively mild voice.

“I’m sorry.” She stared down at her hands, seeing the rich brown leather cuffs still around her wrists. He’d never do such a thing. How could she have thought it?

“When you and your boyfriends played games, did one leave you alone?”

She shook her head and hauled in a shuddering breath.

What the hell had happened with her? Jake wondered. She’d never left his sight. If she hadn’t been crying so quietly with the blindfold concealing her tears, he would have caught her distress sooner. But she hadn’t moved, hadn’t made a sound.

She hadn’t expected him to return. He pushed aside his outrage and focused on the problem instead. Something had created such an expectation, but apparently not a past BDSM experience.

Scrubbing away the tears, she said in a stronger voice, “I’m sorry, Jake. I never cry.”

And why was that? He’d deliberately turned the log before sitting down so the firelight would light her face. He studied the tight muscles around her eyes, the lips compressed to hide the trembling. “Who left you?”

She tried to turn away, and he gripped her shoulder, keeping her in place. A tremor shook her. Damn. Sometimes sex, especially with an overwhelming orgasm, could expose a woman’s emotions as thoroughly as he had exposed her body. Apparently he’d triggered a land mine, all unknowing. Now he needed to dig it up and identify the problem—without blowing them both to pieces. “Look at me.”

The vulnerability in her liquid dark eyes made him want to simply hold her and comfort her and tell her it would be all right. In fact, he wanted more than that. He wanted to uncover those walls hiding her inner self, to be more than a top in BDSM play for one night—he wanted to be her dom.

He couldn’t.
One night, Hunt. No connections, remember?

But something had caused her reaction, and he needed to find out what.

“Now answer me. Who left you, Kallie?” He tried to recall what he’d heard of her past. Lived with her cousins, involved in the guide business her uncle had started. No parents? “Where’s your father?”

She shook her head. “I… He stayed long enough to name me and then returned to India.”

“Ah.” Didn’t sound like an emotional tie, not enough for tears from this tough little sub. “How about your mother?” She tried to get up, and he simply set his arm over her legs. “You’re not going anywhere, sprite, and neither am I. Your mom; tell me.”

“She died. A long time ago, when I was eight.” She frowned at him. “I’m sorry I wussed out on you. It won’t happen again.”

Sure it won’t
. “That’s a rough age to lose a mother. So who did you live with?”

She jerked as if he’d slapped her instead of asking a question, then answered in an unemotional voice, “My stepfather, but he didn’t want me. I lived with different relatives.” She stared across the clearing, not meeting his eyes.

“But you ended up with Harvey?” Jake remembered the old guy. Tough as granite up to when he had died of a heart attack last year.

A sweet smile appeared. “I was fourteen.
He
kept me.” The note of wonder in her voice made Jake’s heart constrict. God, how could the assholes have left her so insecure?

He frowned. This was nastier than could be dealt with in a night, but he could reduce one minor worry. “Kallie.”

Her eyes met his.

“I never, ever leave a sub who is restrained. I was just on the other side of the fire. In fact, if you hadn’t been blindfolded, I’d have realized you were crying sooner.” And damn him for not checking more closely. “I’m sorry you were frightened.”

She shrugged, although her lips still quivered slightly. “I’m sorry for being such a wimp. I don’t know why…”

Why it hit her so hard. But restraints, pain, even orgasms could dissolve layers of defenses, leaving a sub vulnerable. Old emotions could surface without warning. He’d work on this insecurity of hers more in the future—no, he wouldn’t. No ties. What the hell was he thinking? In fact, what was he thinking when he’d blindfolded her, doing something that increased dependence and deepened trust—he never used blindfolds with play subs. He scowled and saw her worry double.

Damn, he sucked as a dom tonight. “Sugar, you haven’t done anything wrong. I’m angry with myself, not you.”

Her gorgeous, big eyes searched his face, and her muscles slowly relaxed. Good.

“But, Ms. Show No Fear, you need to tell your dom if you’re nervous. Not being omnipotent, we don’t always catch the signs.” He rubbed his knuckles over her cheek, feeling the slight dampness remaining. And damn him for missing the clues. “A dom might still go ahead, but he’ll watch more closely if he knows something worries you.”

Her brows had drawn together, but she nodded.

“And you have that safe word for a reason, sprite. It’s not just for physical overload, but for an emotional one as well.” He paused again. If she went further into the lifestyle—and the thought of someone else topping her bothered the hell out of him—she needed to be able to communicate. “I don’t want you to forget that again.”

“Yes, Sir.” Her tense little body had relaxed into the snuggly one he had trouble resisting, so he sealed the discussion with a long, gentle kiss.

When he’d taken his fill and her arms had crept around his neck, he pulled back and glanced around. The others had left to get dressed and returned to talk quietly by the fire. “Heather, could you bring me a cup of hot chocolate?”

“Sure, Jake.”

A minute later, she handed him a cup, and he sipped. Just right. “Here you go, pet.”

Kallie squirmed to an upright position on his lap and took the cup with steady hands. She took a drink, smiled, and had some more, then tried to hand it to Jake.

“No, I don’t want any more tonight. Rebecca insists chocolate is a remedy for all woes, but for me it’s just a nice campfire drink.”

Her husky chuckle lightened his evening. Then she tilted her head. “But you drank some…”

“Just testing to make sure it wasn’t too hot for you.”

The look she gave him held outright disbelief.

He laughed, then sobered. The sprite suffered from a serious lack of pampering, dammit. And damn him for wanting to fix that.

* * *

Early Friday evening, Kallie hopped out of her Jeep and trotted into Serenity Lodge. Although the air outside was hot and dry, her hands were cold. Her skin felt itchily sensitive. A little voice inside her chanted
maybe Jake will be here, maybe Jake will be here
until she wanted to thump her head on the door frame.

She wandered across the empty main room and spotted Rebecca setting the table in the dining room. It was almost a relief not to see Jake. Almost.

Rebecca smiled. “Kallie. Are you guiding someone today?”

“Nope. I think Heather left this in the gear.” She held up the flat electronic reading device. “Is she here?”

“They decided to run into Yosemite Park for the day.” Rebecca waved off Kallie’s attempt to hand it to her. “Nah. I don’t have time to deal with it right now. Jake’s in the rec room. Give it to him.”

Kallie opened her mouth to reply and noted the smug expression on Rebecca’s face. Nothing like being set up. “Now that’s just mean.”

“I know.” Rebecca pointed to a door at the far end of the main room. “Put on your big-girl panties and go on in.”

That did it
. “City girl, I’m looking forward to that trip to Little Bear Mountain with you.” Not waiting for an answer, she continued. “You’ll discover the wilderness is full of life: bears that steal your food, cougars that attack the horses, rattlesnakes looking for a warm sleeping bag to crawl into.”

Rebecca’s mouth dropped open.

“If the goddess—and that would be me, by the way—is displeased, you’ll get bats in your hair and mice in your boots.” Kallie gave her a thin smile and then stomped across the room.
She thinks I’m a coward? Just because Jake and I have done…kinky stuff…doesn’t mean I worry about facing him. Or how he affects me.

She stepped into a room that would have her cousins drooling with envy. Dart board, pool table, foosball, and Ping-Pong tables.

Jake leaned against the wall, drinking a beer, while Logan racked the balls and the massive dog sprawled off to one side. When the men smiled at Kallie, her cheeks turned hot. Dammit. “I—”
Not affected, remember
? “Heather left this in the gear. Can you get it back to her?”

When the dog padded over, she bent to pet it for a few seconds, hopefully hiding her blush.

“Not a problem.” Logan took the electronic device. “Thanks for bringing it out. How ’bout you stay for supper as a reward? We’re eating in half an hour, and Becca’s a fantastic cook.”

“No, but thanks for the offer.” She took a step toward the door. Jake hadn’t said a word. Wasn’t he even going to greet her? “I need to get back.”

Jake tilted his head and studied her. “Do you really have something planned?”

“I—” Hell. “I always have things that have to be done.”

As one half of his mouth quirked up, that tantalizing crease appeared in his left cheek. “In other words, no.” He set his beer on a card table and glanced at Logan. “Tell Becca one more for supper.”

Kallie pulled up straight. “Listen, I—”

He advanced on her, as unstoppable as a forest fire in a strong wind. When she held up her hand in protest, he chuckled and used it to haul her over his shoulder. “We’ll be upstairs, bro,” he said. “I have a craving to play dress-up.”

“Damn you, Hunt. Put me down.”

Ignoring her orders and her fists pounding his back, he hummed a tune and blatantly fondled her butt. They crossed the main room, going past Rebecca—not that Kallie saw her, but the snicker was evidence enough. An electronic keypad beeped, a door opened, and Jake started up a flight of stairs.

Kallie gave up. She hadn’t expected to be hijacked, but face it: she’d hoped for…something. If Jake Hunt wanted his hands on her, she wasn’t about to argue. She laughed and thumped him one more time with her fist…just because.

He wasn’t even breathing hard when he entered a door down the hall and dumped her on a couch. “Stay put for a minute, sprite.”

As he disappeared into another room, she struggled to a sitting position. How did he do this to her? She’d dated before, made love before. And yet the man made her feel like a teenager out with a guy for the first time.

She rose to her feet.
“Stay put?” Dream on, Hunt
. She strolled around the room, trying to ignore how snug her bra had grown and how each step scraped her jeans over her increasingly sensitive clit.

Nice place, she decided. Cream-colored walls with original paintings of Yosemite…signed by Rebecca. Kallie checked the signature again. Rebecca had mentioned she painted. She was really, really good.

A chess table stood in one corner. The shelves over it held seashells and coral. The next wall displayed framed photographs of family and friends in settings that ranged from a cattle ranch to tropical beaches. Apparently he not only liked to travel, but he also had a lot of friends. Mr. Sociable himself.

A wide-screen TV—of course—on the far wall. Considering the decor downstairs, she’d expected more leather up here, but his oversize furniture was upholstered in a dark blue fabric. Rag rugs in a mingling of blue, green, and white covered the hardwood floor. The room had a homey atmosphere.