Their Virgin’s Secret, Masters of Menage, Book 2 (30 page)

“Who is Master Storm?” a low voice asked.

She shrieked like a five-year-old girl. Jake Dean had somehow gotten into her bedroom and behind her when she wasn’t looking. “You have to stop that! God, you’re going to give me a heart attack.”

“He’s good at that. It’s one of his great life skills.” Adam leaned negligently against her doorframe. Mojo sat beside him, their enormous bodies blocking her escape route. Mojo’s tail thumped and his mouth hung open, tongue panting. At least her dog found them amusing.

They were both here in her small bedroom. It was the most straight-man attention this bedroom had gotten in years.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that.” She forced herself to look at Jake. Between the two of them, it was obvious Adam would be easier to deal with. Jake was the hardass. She didn’t deal well with hardasses.

A single brow arched above his model-perfect face. “I didn’t sneak up. You weren’t paying attention to your surroundings. You were far too busy telling your agent to fire us.”

Adam’s face fell. “What? But we just got here. Look, sweetheart, I know the whole breaking in thing was scary, but we did have a point. Your security system sucks. And, in our defense, we did call and ring the doorbell. We can’t do our job standing on your front porch waiting for you to finish with the dancing thing. That was adorable, by the way.”

She flushed. God, she hated the fact that a part of her wanted to believe he wasn’t insulting her. His teasing tone was soft and cajoling. When he smiled the most gorgeous dimples showed up on his face. Adam Miles was just about everything she could want in a boyfriend. He was charming and smart, and he came with a built-in alpha male partner.

Stop right there, Serena Brooks. Your imagination is running wild. The world doesn’t work that way.

“I don’t think this about the break-in. She said we were making fun of her.” Jake’s brows drew together in a serious expression, as though he was working through a problem. “I didn’t make fun of her. I told her to stop yelling. I have excellent hearing. I can’t stand yelling.”

And he apparently thought she was dense. “You know I wasn’t talking about you.” She turned to Adam. It had really hurt coming from him. She’d felt a connection to him from the moment they had met. She’d expected someone like Jake to think less of her for what she wrote, but Adam had seemed more tolerant.

“What? Me? Are you serious? How did I make fun of you?” He seemed to really struggle with the idea.

“You obviously read some of the titles of my books. Look, I get that you wouldn’t read a book like that, but I won’t listen to anyone denigrate the choices I’ve made in my lifestyle. You might not understand or accept it, but I will demand that you respect it.”

Jake actually laughed. “The little sub thinks we have problems with BDSM.”

Adam’s eyes rolled. “Yeah, uhm, you do have some problems, sweetheart. How long have you been in the lifestyle? Or are you a little tourist who likes to rage against the machine?”

“I had to take off my leathers to come here. I was at a club called Sanctum.” Jake’s face had softened a bit. “Adam knows my limits. I don’t like pretty subs spouting filth at me in anger. He has a smart mouth, but he would never ridicule you. Lightning would strike.”

Adam smiled at her. “And the earth would shake. Seriously, we don’t think that way. We’re far too odd on our own. And I haven’t read any of your books, but I would like to.”

Jake’s whole body went on wary alert. “We actually need to. From what I understand, this is about your books, correct?”

She was caught between relief and a dangerous joy. She believed them. They really didn’t care. In fact, Jake seemed to be involved in the lifestyle. About a million questions popped into her brain, but she forced herself to keep to the questions asked. “The man who’s doing this seems to be familiar with my books. I don’t think he likes them very much. At first I thought he was your run-of-the-mill creep, trolling the internet, but lately he’s gotten uglier. He left me a text today.”

“On your cell?” Adam asked. “Where is it?”

“My phone is on the bar in the kitchen,” she said. The minute the words were out of her mouth, Adam took off toward the kitchen.

She was alone with Jake.

“Now, who is this Master Storm?” The question came out on a low, ungodly sexy growl. “Is he your Dom? What the hell is he doing somewhere else when you’re in trouble?”

“He’s not my Dom. He’s someone I talk to. I needed to do a little research. I met him at a munch and we’ve been kind of feeling each other out to see if he wouldn’t mind training me.”

One of the reasons she liked Master Storm was her utter lack of attraction to the man. She wasn’t in danger of falling in love with the man. If she were honest with herself, Master Storm was a bit of a puffed up douchebag, but he did know D/s. She was looking for practical knowledge not a man who made her heart pound in her chest—even when he wasn’t sneaking up on her.

“I don’t know this man. Where did you meet him? On the Internet?”

“I’m not stupid. I met him at a munch. I found a flyer on a fetish lifestyle site, and it invited interested parties to come to a brunch at a local restaurant. First names only. I met Master Storm about two months ago. We’ve been talking on the phone about his philosophies.”

“Have you been talking about what you need?” He was standing way too close. She wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten so close. He was tall, at least six foot three, and he seemed to tower over her. His voice was still deep, but it had lost a bit of command.

“Uhm, we haven’t really gotten around to that. He thinks we should talk about his rules first to see if I can follow them.”

“Drop him. He’s not a Dom. He’s a man who likes control but not responsibility. He’s testing you to see if you’re right for him, but he isn’t thinking about what’s right for you. That should be his first and only qualification. A Dom should find what he needs, too, but what every good Dom needs is to do right by his submissive. If he hasn’t even asked what you need, he’s wrong for you.” His eyes became hooded, and his gaze slid to the floor as though he didn’t really want to look her in the eye. “You should talk to Ian Taggart. He owns Sanctum. He makes it his business to match well-meaning subs with good Doms.”

She shook her head. The last thing she needed was to get more into Lara’s friend’s business. She’d done all right on her own so far. “Thanks, but I can handle it.”

Now his eyes came back up, narrowing. “It’s obvious to me you can’t.”

She was a little offended. He barely knew her, but he was making judgments already? “I didn’t ask your opinion, Mr. Dean. But I’m curious. It’s obvious you can’t stand me. I get that a lot. What exactly is it you don’t like?”

He crowded her just a bit, almost daring her to back away. Serena felt small and a little helpless against him. “I never said I didn’t like you. You’re a beautiful woman.”

“But you don’t seem to like me. You seem to like scaring me.” He wasn’t scaring her now. Fear wasn’t what she felt.

“I did that for your protection. You need to know how vulnerable you really are. You aren’t taking this seriously.”

He said it quietly, as though he actually cared. It brought down her resentment level. It did nothing to bring down her frustration, but still, as she spoke she found herself doing so in a polite, respectful manner. “I don’t understand. I did everything the cops told me to do. I hired a security firm to install an alarm system.”

“It’s not very good.”

“How am I supposed to know that? I don’t know anything about this stuff. I paid for it. I know Mojo isn’t a good guard dog, but he was so sweet, I couldn’t let them put him down. And I have a friend who comes over and walks the house and makes sure there’s no one here before I lock myself up for the night.”

“It’s not enough. Unless there’s something you’re not telling me.”

Humiliation washed over her. She knew what he was saying. “If you don’t believe me, you should leave. I’ll be fine on my own. I’m obviously just an attention-seeking whore.”

He grabbed her elbow. “Don’t you call yourself that.”

“Why not? It’s what you were thinking. It’s what the cops think.”

He stared at her for the longest time. She stood there, feeling ridiculous. Tears pricked at her eyes for the four hundredth time that day. Why, oh why, couldn’t she be tough like Lara and Bridget? They would just spit in this man’s eyes and tell him to go to hell, but Serena stood there.

“You’re really scared, aren’t you? I require the truth.”

“Yes, some man threatened to hurt me. It scares me. But I think you scare me, too.”

His lips curved up. He wasn’t as gorgeous as Adam. There was a starkness to his features that kept him from being beautiful, but when he smiled, his face transformed. “You’re a smart girl. You keep on being scared. And when I said you were beautiful, I meant it. You’re truly lovely, Serena. The only problem is I know not to trust a beautiful woman. Now be a good girl and get ready for bed. I’m going to sleep in the living room.”

He stepped away, leaving her a little breathless—and a whole lot frustrated. She’d finally found a man who thought she was beautiful and naturally he didn’t trust her.

Adam strode back into her bedroom like he’d done it a thousand times. He looked at Jake. “You taking first watch?”

Jake nodded and without another word, walked away.

Adam rubbed his hands together. “Well, sweetheart, it’s just you and me.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’re not sleeping alone tonight.” He tossed his lean body into her comfy chair. It was an overstuffed easy chair covered in pink and green flowers. It had been her mother’s, and though it didn’t really go with Serena’s contemporary style, she hadn’t been able to get rid of it. She could still see her mom sitting in that chair, watching over her.

Now Adam Miles made himself comfortable in the chair where Serena read every night. He looked far too masculine for the flowery upholstery, like a sleek jaguar who had stretched out for the night.

“I’ll run a trace on the text tomorrow.” He toed off his loafers and settled into the chair, his longish hair falling over his eyes and making him look years younger.

He was all soft seduction where Jake was one hundred percent alpha male.

“You won’t find anything.” It felt weird to get into bed knowing Adam intended to stay in the room with her. She hadn’t slept with anyone in years. She and Bridget had shared rooms at conventions, but it wasn’t the same. Even that had stopped since Bridget insisted on keeping the room sub-tropical at all times. “Do you need a blanket?”

He closed his eyes. “No. I’m good. Trust me. I’ve slept in far worse places. This is practically heaven.”

“Like where?” The writer inside couldn’t let that go.

“Another time, sweetheart. Go to bed. We have a long day tomorrow. You have to meet with Lara to talk about the book launch. You owe three blogs next week, so you should really get those done, and you haven’t sent your editor back your line edits on
Their Sweetheart Slave
. Oh, and we have to meet with Eve. I scheduled that for the morning.”

“You looked through my day planner?”

“Oh, yes. And we’re going to upgrade you to a PDA. Really, that day planner thing is a mess. Don’t worry. I’ll have you organized in no time at all. Consider it all part of the service.” His eyes came open. “Don’t hide anything from me, Serena. Jake and I are here to protect you. If that means violating your privacy, I’ll do it, and I won’t blink. You can choose to view it in that fashion, or you can treat me like a personal assistant who also happens to know how to kill a man in two point three seconds and not leave a drop of blood. It’s all in your point of view, isn’t it?”

Adam Miles knew how to go for the throat. He might look softer than that caveman currently prowling her living room, but he was no less dangerous.

And she could keep them. For a little while.

Serena climbed into bed, certain she would never be able to sleep. She closed her eyes, and for the first time in weeks, fell into pleasant dreams.

About the authors:

Shayla Black (aka Shelley Bradley) is the New York Times bestselling author of over 30 sizzling contemporary, erotic, paranormal, and historical romances for multiple print and electronic publishers. She lives in Texas with her husband, munchkin, and one very spoiled cat. In her "free" time, she enjoys reality TV, reading and listening to an eclectic blend of music.

Shayla has won or placed in over a dozen writing contests, including Passionate Ink's Passionate Plume, Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence, and the National Reader's Choice Awards. Romantic Times has awarded her Top Picks, a KISS Hero Award and a nomination for Best Erotic Romance.

A writing risk-taker, Shayla enjoys tackling writing challenges with every book.

Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband and three kids. She began writing at a young age concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance that she found success. Lexi believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome or foursome may seem. In addition to Their Virgin Captive and Their Virgin’s Secret, she is the author of the Masters & Mercenaries series. The first book, The Dom Who Loved Me, is available now. The second book, The Men with the Golden Cuffs is coming this spring.