Assumed Master (4 page)

"It’s what you do?" Did she have
some weird obsession with cooking to relieve stress that no one knew about?

"I cook every morning for Mason…cooked,"
she said over a sniffle. "I need to do this."

He watched as the same look of anguish that
had overtaken her the day before at Drake’s announcement seeped into her
features. Pools of tears welled in her eyes and she blinked them back, clearly
trying to keep them at bay.

"I understand. I do." Dante
approached her and palmed the back of her head, pulling her so close her heart
tapped his chest with every beat. She needed to latch on to something normal.
Anything that might help set her world right again if only for a moment. "But
damn, woman, does it have to be before the sun comes up?"

"For today, yes," she managed.

"Okay. What can I do?"

"Go back to bed with your husband,"
she told him, pulling back and turning in his arms, facing away from him.

Dante didn’t fail to notice she said the word
without the hate that lingered on it the night before.

And there it was again.
The
urge to fuck her.
God damn it.

Against his better judgment, he leaned in and
kissed the arc of her shoulder where her t-shirt had fallen down her arm baring
her creamy skin before turning and leaving. If he didn’t, he might do that very
thing.

Dante crept into his own bedroom, shut the
door, and locked it behind him. It seemed odd to have to do that without the
kids in the house, but he wasn’t entirely sure how Julie would react to seeing
him with Blake. Sure, she’d seen them having sex at parties, but everything struck
him as different now. They were in the confines of their own home and Julie was
now part of them. It was at least a dozen ways wrong what he was about to do,
starting with the fact he just plain needed relief and he knew in his heart
this wouldn’t be making love like they’d come to do the older they got. This
act would be purely fucking at its most basic level.

Standing beside the bed, he stripped out of
his sleeping shorts and fumbled in the bedside table for a bottle of lube.

"Why are you back here?" Blake
murmured over a yawn.

"I need you," Dante said as he
slicked up his dick. "Roll over."

"What if I say no?" he answered,
pushing up on his elbows.

"Don’t push me, Blake" Dante
growled. "Roll over."

Blake did as Dante demanded, sending his hips
into the air as Dante made his way between his legs on his knees. Without
warning, without even the slightest tender touch, he shoved the head of his
cock past Blake’s balking, puckered tissue and didn’t stop until he was seated
fully inside him. It must have just about split Blake in two, as he buried his
face in his pillow and suppressed a hissing whimper.

Knowing what he was doing wasn’t right and not
caring, Dante pulled back and slammed into him again and again, gripping his
bottom lip between his teeth. When his groin tightened, he grabbed the back of
Blake’s neck with one hand and firmly clasped his hip with the other and
without giving a damn if Blake came or not, Dante emptied himself deep inside
him and slumped over, heaving for air.

When the world stopped spinning, he pushed off
Blake and immediately wanted to throw up. In all the years he and Blake had
been lovers, not one single time had Dante used him the way he did now.

He eased out of him and pulled Blake to his
side, curling around his body, trying to come to grips with what he’d just
done.

"I’m so sorry," he whispered over
Blake’s back.

"No. You’re not," Blake answered
with quiet resolve. "But I can forgive you. I know you want her and I have
no problem sharing, but don’t ever fuck me because you can’t have her again."
With that he eased away from Dante, leaving him cold, and went into the
bathroom. The lock clicked like a gunshot in the darkness.

Chapter Four

Julie stopped short of knocking on the closed
bedroom door, the sounds of the men having sex muffled behind the wood that
separated them halting her movement. She should have known. Did Dante actually
think she’d sleep at all with the feel of his cock stabbing her in the back?
For that matter, did she not think he’d go to his husband for relief? Of course
they’d be having sex while she lived here. She had no idea what was going
through Mason’s mind when he made this ludicrous decision, but the only reason
she was agreeing to stay for now was because she refused to disgrace his still
too fresh memory. If she was being honest, she didn’t want to be alone.
Alone scared the hell out of her.

 
With
one hand on her hip and her fist in her mouth, she pressed back the new wave of
hurt that threatened to erupt. If Mason hadn’t been torn from her, she could be
in her own home right now making love to her husband before making him
breakfast. Grief swamped her as she made her way back to her room and shut and
locked the door behind her before landing across the bed to cry. As quickly as
the tears took over, Julie willed them to stop. If they found her like this,
they’d never leave her alone.

She watched the clock on the night stand, the
red numbers slowly changing until bright streams of sunlight made their way
across her damp cheeks. At a quarter of seven she heard a door open down the
hall then one of the men tapped on her door.

"Jules, are you okay?" Blake called
softly.

"I’m fine. Getting ready to take a
shower," she answered with as much cheer as she could muster.

"Do you need anything?"

"No, thank you."

"I have to go to the office for a while,
but I’ll be back before noon," he said. "Dante will be here until I
get back then he has to teach this evening."

"Okay." There would be no escaping
today. They apparently were taking shifts.

"Alright then."
He sounded like he had no idea what else to
say or do. "Love you, pumpkin."

"Love you, too," she said over a
knot in her throat.

For a few moments there was quiet then Julie
heard him walk down the hall and out the front door. Not long after that she
heard Dante coming down the hall. Again there was a soft tap on her door before
he tried the knob.

"You okay?" Dante’s voice was
strained.

If he thought she was any happier about being
left alone with him for half the day than he was, he could think again. She
glanced at the window and almost laughed at the image of her slipping out like
a con escaping some cartoon jail rolling through her mind’s eye.

"I’m fine," she called. "I’m
going to take a shower."

Before she heard his answer, Julie left the
bed and skirted into the bathroom, throwing on the water in hopes of cutting
him off completely. As she stood under the spray, she realized how much relief
there was in simply letting hot water hit her and wondered if she’d ever sleep
again.

"I’d like it if you’d eat with me."
Dante voice echoed all around her and Julie screamed and jumped, nearly losing
her footing, the only thing stopping her from landing on her ass were the arms
that fell around her waist.

"What the hell do you think you’re doing?"
she gasped, pushing a mop of wet hair out of her eyes. "How the hell did
you get in here?" Anger overtook her at the fact not only had she lost her
voice, apparently she had no privacy either.

"I took the knob off," Dante
explained calmly. "I don’t mind you having time to yourself, but we don’t
hide around here and we sure don’t lock each other out."

"You asshole.
I cannot believe Mason left me in your care."
Julie pursed her lips and pushed at his arms, trying to escape.

"Want to go for the whole door?"

"I’m not a fucking child."

"I’m perfectly aware of that, Jules,"
he answered, his breath tickling her throat as unwanted involuntary heat spread
from the point of contact. He made sure she was steady before turning loose and
handing her a towel before leaning back on the counter. "I just wanted to
have breakfast with you. You worked so damn hard at it this morning I figured
we might as well enjoy it, even if it is cold now."

Julie’s eyes darted to the floor as she nodded
unable to form words because quite frankly, they escaped her.

"Get dressed. I’ll be waiting for you."

"What do you want me to wear?" The
words flowed out of her as naturally as rain falling and Julie wished she could
recall them. It was force of habit. That was all. She didn’t want to bend to
this man’s will. She simply found herself without direction and no one else to
answer to but him.

"What do you want to wear?"

Her heart thumped an unsteady rhythm at his
answer. This wasn’t the Dante she knew. The Dante she knew didn’t give a shit
what his slave wanted. Was this a trick? Was she being paranoid? Had she
finally lost it and maybe she was somewhere in a straight jacket dreaming all
this?

"Jules?"

"I don’t even know what to call you,"
she admitted, a fresh round of tears erupting as she sank to the side of the
tub, the towel clutched in one hand, the other on her forehead. "I don’t
know what you want. I don’t know the rules. I’m not even sure where I fit. I’m
afraid."

"
Jules,
love,"
Dante said, kneeling and pulling her chin up with his thumb. "Listen to
me. We’ll figure it all out. I know this is…strained. Tell me what you’re
afraid of?"

"Everything."
She hesitated then pulled free of his grip to
stare at the wall.
"You."

"I know. And I don’t really blame you.
But you’re not Blake and the same rules don’t apply. You’re as different as
night and day. We’ll figure out what works." Cradling her jaw in his palm,
he moved her to look at him again. "We’ll figure this out. I promise you."

Julie’s breath hitched as she wiped a few
tears from her face and managed a nod.

"I think we need to establish what you’re
going to call me," Dante said, rubbing her arms.

"Not Master," she choked out,
shaking her head. "I know…" Fingering the collar Dante had put on her
as soon as they’d come home last night, she pleaded with her eyes for him to
understand as her lips trembled, fighting back the wave of despair on the cusp
of exploding.

"Shhhh…Love,
it’s
okay. I know. I understand. I suspect Mason will have quite a grip on you for
quite a while in that respect. I get it. I wouldn’t expect anything less."
He stood and pulled her to her feet, turned the water off, and moved to the
vanity where he retrieved another towel and started squeezing water from her
hair with it. "But you need an anchor. Do you understand that? You need to
get settled into a routine. It’ll help bring you back to center."

"I know," Julie whispered.

She didn’t know how this could ever work.
Dante wasn’t the emotional Master Mason had been. He was a more physical Dom
and very stringent. That he was being so easy on her right now defied reason. It
was almost more confusing than being here to begin with. If anything, she expected
Dante to turn her over his knee immediately for back talking and shutting him
out.

"Let’s just use
Sir
for now," Dante told her, tossing the wet towel into the
hamper. "Yes?"

"Yes," she said, still clutching the
towel around her middle and peering up at their shared reflection in the foggy
mirror.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Good. As far as what to wear, I don’t
expect you to go naked. Blake only does that when Gavril and Lucien aren’t
home. He’ll be doing that this week, but once the twins come home, it’ll be
back to clothing not optional. You can wear whatever makes you comfortable."

As much as they all knew about each other, it
seemed very odd to Julie how much they didn’t know. Negotiating with Dante was
going to be like getting to know him all over again. And although she knew the
twins had the basic concept of how their parents’ relationship worked, she
really had no idea how they dealt with it or just how much they actually knew or
understood. How did they plan on explaining her presence to them?

"We can discuss this some more while we
eat." Dante turned to go. "And when Blake gets back, we’ll go over
household responsibilities. Obviously for now the question of cooking is
answered. You enjoy that and need it, so it’s yours and Blake can help as
needed or wanted."

"Sir?"
Julie said before he made it through the
door. "Thank you."

She thought Dante looked a bit defeated as he
stuffed his fists into his pocket, nodded once, quirked up one side of his
mouth in a half-hearted smile, and left her.

Grooming complete, Julie thumbed through the
things Blake packed for her. She had to smile at the fact Blake had known where
to even look for her normal "everyday" underwear. She didn’t own much
of it as she went naked for Mason every day, all day. The only time the need
arose for anything less than party worthy was when they had vanilla company and
Julie had to put on clothes. Her smile was quickly replaced with a frown when
she plucked her purple slippers from the bottom of the suitcase. They were the
only piece of clothing she wore around the house as Mason didn’t want her feet
to get cold or dirty. Clenching her jaw, she tucked them back under a pair of
jeans and dug out a pair of socks.