The Master Read online

  She took another step back. “I’m sorry, Price. You’ll have to finish without me.” The dual sense of her statement didn’t escape her.

  “I’d rather finish with you.”

  “I gotta…”

  “Serena,” he whispered, holding an imploring hand out to her. It was such a submissive gesture. “Please don’t go.”

  She met his gaze and was struck by the pain in his eyes. Gone was the strong, self-assured man who’d had such complete control of her for so many years. She couldn’t detect an ounce of the dominant role he’d played for so long. Looking at him now, he was simply a broken man begging for the touch of the woman he loved.

  “Can you honestly tell me it’s not hard for you to let go, too?” he said.

  Taking a small step closer, she felt her heart slowly cave in.

  “We’ve been through so much together. Each in our own way, we helped the other. I’ll admit there was a time I may not have been as good to you as I should have. I even knew it then, but I guess the demons that haunted me kept me from being the man you needed. I should have backed away from you then, let you go. I wanted to, several times. I’d make love to you and tell myself it was the last time; that I’d release you after. But I couldn’t. The more I told myself I had to cut you loose, the more I wanted you.”

  His eyes glistened with tears and Serena couldn’t believe what she saw. He’d never been so emotional, so open.

  “If I hurt you… ever, I’m so sorry. Maybe I just had a clumsy way of showing you how much I love you. I’d never met anyone like you before, and I’d never felt the way I felt about you. For the first time I was with someone who knew how I felt, someone I could relate to. You knew what it was like to be left by the curb like a bag of trash. You knew what it was to be cold and hungry. And despite the hardships you’d faced, you still had a fighting spirit. I saw it in your eyes that night in the alley.”

  “I guess we were kind of compatible.”

  “Compatible? We were a perfect fit. We were made for one another.” His hand slipped to the small of her back. “I know you see it, Serena. You feel it. We were meant to be together. This latest episode is just a setback, but now…”

  “As compatible as we were, I always felt you were unattainable, that you were too high above me and I’d never be able to reach you. I was always your inferior. You were untouchable.”

  “Then how do you explain how profoundly you touched me? How do you explain doing the impossible? No one has ever gotten as close to me as you have. No one. That’s why I’ll never find anyone to replace you. No one will ever understand me the way you do.”

  His lips were parted, just enough to show how hungry he was. Mirroring him, she parted her lips and could almost taste him.

  When he dropped his gaze to the floor, then slowly met hers again, she felt the weight of his emotions. He seemed so profoundly distraught and broken, nothing like the man she’d first met.

  “I know you may not believe my story about Kaiser Sorensen, and I don’t blame you. I guess I haven’t given you much reason to trust me, but why else would I go through all the trouble I’ve gone through? Just for the hell of it? You know I’m not that idle a man. When I do something it’s with purpose, with a reason, and with just cause. I’m not going after the Sorensens just to occupy my time. I need to set right the wrong he’s done. He’s been enjoying his success for far too long while I’ve had to live my life without my father, without my mother, without a home. He took away everything I had in the world, Serena, everything. And now his son is taking away the only woman I’ve ever loved.”

  Tears streaked down her cheeks as she reached out to wipe the tear falling from his eyes.

  “I’m sorry for the pain you’ve had to endure.”

  He leaned his forehead against her and closed his eyes. “Watching you with him…” He pulled in a long hard breath. “Seeing you involved… in love with the man whose family destroyed everything I ever had. It’s like losing everything all over again.”

  Her heart swelled with the desire to relieve his pain. Her lips brushed against his and her body was instantly in flames, heated with the need to touch him.

  “Please, Serena.” His whispered plea beckoned her. “In all of this shitty life that’s just heartache after heartache, you're the only person who can make me forget; who can make me feel something other than the pain.”

  She raked her fingers through his thick hair, eager to comfort him. Was it just a force of habit after so many years? Was the submissive in her reacting to him?

  His tongue delicately swept into her mouth, testing the waters, but when she received him, invited him in, he became bolder, sweeping his hungry tongue through her mouth.

  The hand at the small of her back tightened and pulled her to him, pressing her up against his hardened shaft. His quick fingers worked to pull her dress up over her head, tossing it across the room.

  Her body was instantly flooded with desire. No longer thinking about right and wrong, she followed Price’s lead as he laid her on the bed and covered her with his body.

  She’d forgotten how hard and toned his chest was, how strong his shoulders, how powerful his biceps. He grabbed her breasts, his feverish fingers squeezing her flesh and making her cry out for more.

  “How many nights I’ve dreamt of tasting your flesh again. You’re like a drug, Serena.” He brought his lips to her nipple and sucked until it was tight and erect, then brought the same pleasure to the other nipple. “Let me taste you again, Serena.”

  She arched her back, guiding his lips further down, past her navel. She was on fire, burning up with the need to be sated. His tongue painted circles around her clit, taunting her.

  “Tell me you’ll let me taste you.”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?”

  “Taste me, Price.”

  He ran his tongue up her heated lips and she let out an enraptured sigh. She tilted up her hips, eager for another touch. But his lips were no longer there.

  She looked down at him and met his hungry stare.

  “Tell me what you want, Serena.”

  The old master was there, taking the reigns, taking control, though in a softer, more subtle way. She needed to fight him, but her body wanted release.

  “Take me there, Price. Just take me there.”

  He pressed his lips over hers and let his tongue play with the folds of skin that were so ultrasensitive.

  He brought his finger to the moistened opening, poked and prodded until she was virtually thrashing on the bed, eager for the sensations to come.

  Her whole body went silent and numb just seconds before the explosive orgasm shook her. Like an endless wave, it crashed over her, filling her with exquisite pleasure and leaving her breathless,

  Just as Price licked the last throbbing pleasure of her clit and came up to position himself over her, ready to drive his cock deep inside her, Serena heard a movement out in the hall. In a surreal moment, through the fog of arousal, pleasure met pain, and joy collided with sorrow as she saw Sebastian, leaning in the doorway, his hand over his aching ribs.

  He groaned with pain, but his eyes spoke of the true pain he was in. He’d come out here, seeking her help, but had found her…

  Sickened, she gagged.

  Damn.

  There was no use trying to deny what had just happened, what he’d just seen, but she nonetheless shoved Price off her, jumped out of bed and ran after him, as he turned and stumbled away.

  She threw a hateful glare back at Price. “Now look what you’ve done.” Though inside, she knew very well what she had done.

  Chapter 4

  Sebastian

  Sebastian never thought he could hurt so much. Anytime he’d been with a woman, he was always the one who ended it. He was the one who broke their hearts.

  But seeing Serena with Price, her face contorted in lust, ecstasy, pleasure. He could have handled the fact that Price had taken advantage of her and pinned her down, but that s
he would enjoy it, that she would lend herself so easily to his touch, it left him sick to his stomach.

  Worse than the physical wounds that had kept him in bed recently, this new and profound pain would take an eternity to heal. Wandering aimlessly through the house, he sought a corner to be quiet with his thoughts, to erase from his mind the vision that haunted him; Serena’s lips pouted and her eyes closed with desire as Price set his tongue and lips on her skin.

  Damn it. How could she have let herself be taken by such a low life?

  He turned to the patio doors and pushed them open, hoping the fresh air would do him good. He had to calm himself down before he did something drastic.

  A few good breaths of air brought new light to the situation.

  Serena wasn’t herself when she was with Price. Clearly he still had a hold on her. He still managed to keep control of her, and she was only a pawn in his stupid little game. Price was such a master manipulator. He had trained Serena to be the ultimate submissive, being able to hold ultimate control over her. It was like he was Dracula or something who held some kind of hypnotic power over her.

  With a new resolve, he turned and went back into the house, determined to help Serena get over Price once and for all. He also had to consider the fact that Price could easily convinced Serena to let him go, to unlock the collar that kept him in place.

  “And he could easily seduce her again,” he muttered to himself. For the time being, she was still vulnerable.

  Marching back to Price’s room, he was torn between the pain of Serena’s betrayal and the desire to finally rid her of Price altogether. He entered the room to find Price slipping into one of his shirts while Serena was searching for her own hastily discarded clothing.

  His need to overpower Serena suddenly took charge. He wanted to prove to her he was the more worthy lover. He wanted to prove it to himself. And he wanted Price to see how much Serena desired him. Glaring at Price, who looked back at him with his arrogant smirk and victorious gleam in his eye, he wanted to show him that he could please Serena without having to control her.

  “Sebastian,” Serena called out when she spotted him. With her dress in hand, she ran up to him, but stopped just short of touching him. “I thought you’d run out of the house.”

  “I can’t very well leave you alone with him,” he growled.

  “I can’t tell you enough how sorry I am. I don’t deserve you, Sebastian. I don’t have the control and willpower I need to be good enough for you, and I hate myself for it. You don’t deserve to be treated like that.”

  Seeing his angry scowl, she looked down at the floor. After a moment’s silence, she pulled her dress over her head.

  “Don’t.”

  In mid motion, she looked at Sebastian.

  “Don’t get dressed.”

  Confused and unsure, she glanced up at her dress and back at Sebastian.

  “You're beautiful just the way you are.”

  She glanced back at Price.

  Suddenly determined to put Price in his place, Sebastian looked back at his nemesis who gazed upon them with aloof curiosity. “Don’t get dressed either,” he ordered.

  Shifting her gaze from one man to the other, from one lover to the other, Serena fidgeted uncomfortably. “Sebastian?”

  “Seeing how you still seem confused as to who you belong to, who to share your body with… I want to try something.”

  Price cocked his brow while his lips twitched with the hint of an intrigued smile. “I like the sound of that.”

  Serena’s eyes widened with shock. “I don’t.” She pulled her dress on, but before it could fall to cover her body, Sebastian stopped her, grabbed the garment from her hand and tossed it aside. “Now look here, Sebastian, I don’t know what silly games you have in mind, but…”

  “It’s clear you’re still under Mr. Turnsby’s spell, Serena. Surely you’ll admit to that much.”

  Pressing her lips together, she hesitantly nodded.

  “Then we have to find a way of breaking that.”

  “Good luck,” Price sneered. “I’ve had years of preparation, of molding her, of making her what I want. She just smells me and she knows what I have to offer her will be good. She knows I have the touch she craves, the touch she needs. In a matter of minutes or hours if she likes, she would experience a mind-shattering orgasm without fail.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  “I’m eager to see you try. This could be very interesting.”

  Sebastian took a menacing step toward Price. “Silence,” he shouted as he snapped back his hand and landed it firmly on Price’s cheek.

  While Price winced in pain, Sebastian looked at Serena. “See that? Control. I want you to take control. Every time Price utters a sound, every time he questions your authority, every time he makes you feel the least bit uncomfortable, you do as I just did.”

  Serena looked at Price then back at Sebastian and nodded, though clearly she had no idea what Sebastian truly had in mind.

  “If he protests, you slap him. If he suggests anything, you slap him. If he so much as groans in discomfort, you slap him.”

  “Okay,” she whispered.

  “Now,” Sebastian said as he gripped her shoulders. “Seems like I’m not doing enough to keep you satisfied, Serena.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not that at all.”

  “Sh,” he whispered. “I want to set that right. I want to show you just how much you mean to me.”

  “But, Sebastian, you’re injured. I don’t want you hurting yourself.”

  “Believe me, there are far worse pains than an aching rib.” He pulled her to him and immediately grabbed a breast, kneading it with his fingers. “I want my touch to be the only one you crave, the only one that turns you on.” Dipping his head to her chest, he seized a nipple in his mouth and sucked and nibbled it to firm erection.

  She groaned and pushed her weight into him.

  “Does my touch please you, Serena?” he said as he kissed his way up her neck. With one hand firmly on her ass, one finger deftly entrenched between her cheeks, he brought his other hand to her swollen clit, circling it until she squirmed in an attempt to get him to touch her where she really wanted. “Tell me you want my touch, Serena.”

  “Yes. Yes, Sebastian.”

  His finger continued to circle her clit.

  “You want more?”

  “Yes,” she growled. Her fingers raked up through his hair, urging him to touch her more, urging him closer.

  He dipped his finger inside her, just enough to hint at what he wanted, but not enough to satisfy her.

  “More?”

  “Please, Sebastian.”

  Grinning with pleasure, Sebastian turned her around, forcing her to face Price. He came up behind her, one hand on her breast, the other plying the moist folds of skin that begged for him.

  “You like watching another man’s hands on her, Price? A man who wants more than just her body? A man who loves her and would do anything for her?” He slid his fully aroused erection between her butt cheeks and thrust it up inside her.

  She let out a satisfactory moan of pleasure and Price instantly growled like a possessive dog who’d had his bone taken away from him.

  “You're not used to seeing her get pleasure from this angle, are you Price? You didn’t think she would moan and groan like this for me.”

  Serena panted her desire as her orgasm built up, clamping on his cock and making it difficult not to come. But he didn’t want to come too quickly. He didn’t want to come before she did. It was important Price see her, in all her ecstatic glory when she came at the hand of another man.

  As he drove his cock forcefully into her, his fingers played with her clit, stroking it until it throbbed under his touch. She was almost there.

  She took in a big breath of air and held it for a long silent moment; that moment just before her orgasm took over her. He felt the first shudder of her oncoming orgasm, a sure sign she was going to explode.
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br />   “Oh, my God,” she screamed out. Hungry and tight, her cunt seized him, pulled on him and squeezed out an earth shattering orgasm. Her cries echoed in the room.

  Sebastian glanced at Price before burying his face in Serena’s hair.

  “Bastard,” Price grunted.

  Serena slowly recovered from her orgasm, pulled away from Sebastian and walked to Price, her back straight and her chin high. Without saying a word, she slapped him in the face.

  Proud of this first step she was taking, Sebastian smiled to himself and turned away for a moment to washed himself off.

  “You stupid cunt,” Price spat.

  Another slap.

  “You ignorant slut.”

  Another slap.

  “Horny bitch.”

  Slap.

  But Sebastian noticed something disturbing in Price’s tone, in his choice of words.

  Price wasn’t offended by what he’d seen or by Serena’s repetitive slaps. He was turned on by it all.

  Shit.

  Sebastian turned around and was startled to see the aroused expression on Serena’s face. She, too, was aroused by the violent exchange.

  “You made me the horny bitch that I am today,” she moaned as she ran her fingers down his chest to his hard cock.

  “And I’m happy that I did.”

  She slapped him with one hand while grabbing his cock in her other hand. His head whipped back from the slap, but remained so as Serena pumped his cock.

  “Baby, you’re making me feel all kinds of good.”

  “Serena,” Sebastian called.

  But before he could cross the room to come to her, she slipped Price’s cock in her mouth and greedily sucked on it.

  “Serena,” he muttered in disbelief.

  Completely engrossed in what she was doing, she didn’t even glance at him, but continued to hungrily suck on Price’s cock.

  To his surprise, Sebastian was aroused by the sight, but simultaneously disgusted.

  Price chuckled. “Seems she prefers the taste of my dick over yours, old Bash.” He shot an amused glance at Sebastian’s deflated erection.

  “Oh yeah.” Sebastian pulled Serena away from Price and directed his cock to her face.