Siren in Bloom [Texas Sirens 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (6 page)

If she agreed to sub for Master Wolf, she might know. Some Masters wouldn’t let their submissives wear shoes.

“If you think you would like to try to get through to Leo, perhaps you shouldn’t walk through that door, dear.”

She shook her head. “No. Julian, do you honestly think I haven’t tried? I broke trust with him. I lied to him. I had what felt like a good reason, but it doesn’t matter now. He can’t forgive me, and I need to move on.”

“Trust is important. It’s everything in a relationship like this, but if there’s enough love, sometimes a breach of trust can be overcome. I would have told you that I would dismiss any submissive who broke trust with me. It changes when you truly, deeply love the person. I doubt I could dismiss Danielle and Finn for any reason. I could make their lives miserable, but I couldn’t let them go.”

“Then there’s your answer, Julian. He let me go. It’s all right. I knew what would happen. I knew I was letting him go. But I have to find my own place in this world, and I think it starts by meeting Master Wolf.”

Julian nodded. He opened the door. “Just know, I’ll be watching. If you need anything, you have only to ask.”

Her heart raced just a bit. The door was open. She could see the long conference table and the back of a man sitting at the end. Dark hair cut in a neat military style. His shoulders rose above the chair. He was a big man. His shoulders looked like they went on for miles.

Did she really want to place her body and her safety in the hands of such a large man? Bryce hadn’t been big, but the one time he’d hit her, she’d felt it. She’d been smaller than him, and he’d used it to his advantage. How much worse could it potentially be with a man this big?

And then he turned. And her jaw dropped open.

Master Wolf was absolutely the most glorious-looking man she’d ever seen in her life. She prayed, prayed she wasn’t actually drooling. Dani was right. Finn was right. Holy hotness.

“Hello, Shelley. It’s nice to finally meet you in person.” He stood, his huge body graceful as he moved. He had to be six and a half feet tall. He was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt that couldn’t quite hide the tight muscles of his torso. He really worked out. Like a lot.

God, she felt like she was thirteen and staring at a rock star. She managed to get out a breathy, “Hi.”

He smiled, and his hotness went up twenty degrees. Even, white teeth gleamed from between his impossibly sensual lips.

She was supposed to sub for this man? She was ten pounds overweight. She had cellulite on her thighs. Her eyes were just starting to get fine lines around them. She was a normal, average woman, and he was a Greek god.

“I’m Wolf,” he said, holding out a hand.

She held out her own, and he took it in his. His big palms embraced her hand, making her feel small and delicate. She was enveloped in heat. “Shelley.”

“It’s good to meet you, Shelley. You’re more beautiful than I was told.”

And this was ridiculous. “And you’re so far out of my league, it’s silly.” She turned to the large, rectangular window that dominated the far wall. “Are you kidding me, Julian? Seriously? Do you see him? He’s…oh, my god. I couldn’t handle Leo, and you think I can handle him?”

She slipped her hand out of his. He was too much. There was no way she could do this. She’d thought she could ease into the lifestyle, but Master Wolf was more like jumping off a cliff into the deepest part of the ocean. She had hoped for someone like Julian. Julian was a gorgeous man, but somehow she saw him as a kindly mentor not a potential lover. Master Wolf was an orgasm on two incredibly sculpted legs. She was already thinking about kissing him. There was no way she could hold herself apart, and there was damn straight no way she would ever be able to keep him. He would break her heart, just like Leo.

God, he reminded her of Leo.

“Sit down.”

His previous relaxed manner utterly disappeared. She turned to him, his body seeming to grow larger in front of her eyes. His smile was gone, and in its place was a steely gaze and a frown that had her eyes sliding away from him.

Yep. He was a Dom, and she was responding to him.

“I said sit down. You may sit or you can walk out the door. Those are your choices, and you should make up your mind in a hurry. I drove all night to make this meeting. If you’re going to walk out, I would prefer you did it now so I can get some sleep.”

The words came out in a staccato barrage, but there was a current underneath them that she detected.

He’d driven all night? She certainly would have waited until tomorrow. “I wasn’t going anywhere. You could have rescheduled the meeting.”

His mouth was a flat line. “I didn’t want to. I wanted to be here. I wanted to meet you. Now I’m not so sure. When Julian described you, he talked about your sweetness and your vulnerability. He didn’t mention what an egregious brat you are. Do you have a checklist for the Dom you require? Will you dismiss every one he finds for you until you get exactly what you want?”

“Isn’t this supposed to be about finding what I want?” Shelley asked, but the tone of his voice was sinking in.

“It is supposed to be about exploring the lifestyle. I can plainly see we have two different visions of how this works.” He sat down, slumping into his chair and running a hand through his hair. He took a deep breath and rubbed a place on his forehead.

When he finally looked back at her, she could see the weariness in his eyes. “You may leave. I’ll explain to Julian that you would prefer someone else.”

He closed his eyes again, obviously dismissing her. It hurt, but he’d been a bit kinder to her than she’d been to him.

“He knows. He’s watching.” And Julian was probably horrified at the way she’d reacted. She’d been exactly what Wolf had said. A brat who saw what she wanted to see. She’d seen a gorgeous body, and not once had she thought about the man inside it. She’d never considered his feelings as though no one who looked like that could possibly have feelings.

“Well, naturally. I’m sure he’s not the only one.” His mouth turned down, and a grimace came over him.

“Are you all right?” Shelley asked. She should probably leave, run away and tend her wounds. She wouldn’t try this again. She couldn’t handle it. But she didn’t want to leave him like this.

“I’ll be fine. It’s a little headache. If I handle it now, it won’t turn into a full-blown migraine.” Wolf ground the words out. “If you don’t mind, turn off the lights as you leave.”

She got up and turned off the front light, bringing the brightness down. A single line of illumination was left, and she stared for a moment at the man who could have been her Dom. He was just a man with all the troubles that went with being just a man. She was so tired of being afraid. She really wanted to find the woman she’d been before Bryce, and that Shelley would never have treated anyone the way she had.

She walked behind his chair. “Let me.”

She touched his scalp, running her fingers all along it with a firm pressure. She ran her hands across his skin, feeling the silkiness of his pitch-black hair and a raised, puckered scar that wove across his head.

“Took some fire a while back on an op.”

The scar felt somewhat new, probably not more a few months old. “It feels bad.”

“No, love, it feels really good.” He groaned a little and gave over to her. His shoulders relaxed and a deep sigh rumbled through him. “The wound, on the other hand, was really bad. They had to crack my skull open. In the field. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. Luckily, I don’t remember a lot of it. They say I never will, and I’m okay with that. I woke up in Ramstein and was told I would live, and some bureaucratic asshole was handing me my walking papers.”

Her heart went out to him. “Did you like the Army?”

“The Army sucks.” He chuckled. “I was Navy.”

Again, just like Leo. But this man wasn’t Leo Meyer. Leo would never have allowed her to comfort him like this. Leo was always strong. Wolf seemed sweeter, the tiniest bit lost. “Did you like it?”

Leo had left the Navy on his own, and when she’d asked about it, he would always turn the conversation to something else.

“I loved it. I guess I’m still having a hard time reconciling myself with the fact that my career is over.”

She took a deep breath. God, she knew how that felt. She ran her hands to his temples and rubbed, feeling a deep connection to this man who had terrified her. Men were just men, even the beautiful ones. His good looks hadn’t spared him from heartache, hadn’t ensured that his life had turned out perfectly.

“So they just dumped you because you got injured?”

He groaned a bit as she rubbed the top of his head. “Right there, love. Yeah. That’s it. I can’t tell you how good that feels. Yes, that’s what the Navy does. I was no longer useful. In addition to my head injuries, they had to put a titanium rod in my leg. I can’t make it through a metal detector. That makes me useless in undercover work. I wasn’t cut out for a desk job, so I went home and then came here.”

And then a bratty sub had given him more hell. God, would she ever stop screwing up? “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d really like to start this meeting over again, Sir.”

He would probably toss her out, but at least she would have tried. “I don’t know that that’s such a good idea, sweetheart. I might me a dumb grunt, but I can put two and two together. Leo mentioned he’d been friends with you. It was more, wasn’t it?”

“Sort of,” she said, a little confused. Why did he care about the fact that she’d been involved with Leo? “We didn’t have an affair or anything. I was married. He helped my brother, Trev. My brother spent a couple of years here in this club after he lost his career.”

“Julian,” Wolf called out, never once opening his eyes. “Did you bother to tell her anything? You knew I spent the last couple of weeks working with Trev. You didn’t mention that to her? You really are a manipulative bastard.”

He knew her brother? Wolf had mentioned he was in Colorado, but not that he’d been in Bliss.

The intercom came on, and Julian’s voice came over. “Or perhaps I am simply smarter than everyone else. Make your decision, Wolf. If you won’t do it, I’ll have to find someone else for her.”

His eyes came open, and his hands came up to cover hers. “It’s up to her, but she should know.”

“Know what?”

“Well, at least you should know my last name. I don’t suppose Julian told you that.”

“What’s your last name?” But she had a sneaking suspicion.

“Meyer. Leo is my brother. I know yours. He bought into the ranch I was working at before I came here. He’s a good man.”

Yes. He was a good man. A much better man for having known Leo Meyer. Wolf turned his chair around and took her hands in both of his, warmth enveloping her. Now she could really see it. Wolf was different than his brother, but the similarities were unmistakable. It was there in the long, cut line of his jaw, the cheekbones any male model would kill for, the beauty of his eyes.

But this man seemed more…vulnerable than Leo. Much more open. He obviously needed something, someone, where Leo was a citadel. Leo Meyer was a castle with fortified battlements. Wolf had let down his drawbridge.

“And Leo knows?” She was certain of that. If Leo had wanted to block this, he would have.

Wolf nodded.

Leo Meyer had brought her brother back to life. He’d shown her a world outside the narrow confines of her small town and a bad marriage. She’d burned him. She hadn’t meant to, but she had and it couldn’t work between them now. She owed him so much.

What if she could help his brother? If Leo didn’t care, why should she turn Wolf down?

Especially when she was so deeply intrigued.

“Okay. What do we do now, Sir? If you’ll forgive me for my tantrum from before.”

A slow, ridiculously sexy smile crossed his face. “With hands like yours, sweetheart, I think I can forgive a lot. Now sit down and let’s go over a few things.”

Her heart actually fluttered in her chest. It occurred to her for the briefest of moments that this was still a horrible idea. He was too gorgeous. He was Leo’s brother.

But Leo had basically thrown her his way. Wolf himself had told her that Leo was perfectly okay with it. If he didn’t have a problem, why should she? Perhaps this was actually what Leo wanted for her. Leo could be just as manipulative as Julian.

But in the end, it all came down to one thing and one thing only. Was she ready to move on?

Shelley took a seat across from Wolf. “I’m ready, Sir.”

* * * *

Fuck it all, she was gorgeous. He had no idea what his brother was thinking allowing this woman to get away, but Wolf wasn’t going to make the same mistake. No one had bothered to tell him that the woman his brother had been involved with was the same woman he would be topping. No. No one had thought that was at all important until Leo had made his announcement. Julian had allowed him to fall half in love with a woman who had been involved with Leo.

Julian Lodge was definitely a manipulative bastard, but he wasn’t willing to walk away from her. Leo had said it hadn’t worked out, that they had only been friends. Wolf wasn’t sure he bought that, but it got him thinking. Maybe he could be just as manipulative as Julian Lodge.