Finding Master Right (5 page)

There’s actually a checklist?
He pictured her eyes wide.

Yes, several.

Figging is off the table, by the way.

Then I’ll leave ginger root off of my grocery list.

Thank you, Sir.

He winced and scrubbed at his forehead in frustration. At some point he should tell her that calling him Sir wasn’t necessary. Worse, though, he wanted to hear that sexy voice of hers say the word “Master.”

Just once.

***

Trev walked into the trendy, upscale coffee shop looking like a douchebag. Between the ratty old T-shirt and the backward baseball cap, he looked thirty going on fifteen. Idiot. He’d been going through a midlife crisis or something since he and his wife split, but Banner kept waiting for the storm to pass. He was a decent guy.

When he sat across from Banner, his expression was unenthusiastic.

“Did I mention she’s hot?”

Trevor laughed. “If she was hot she wouldn’t have trouble finding a date. You’d be banging her.”

Really? “Trev, you’ve known me for years. Would I choose a girl based solely on looks? Fucking a hot girl does nothing for me if our kinks don’t match up.” He pushed an artsy menu at Trev. “As for Kate, if she was into what I was into, I’d never let you meet her. She’s hot, funny, and looking for someone to introduce her to kink without being a jerk about it.”

The server came and took Trev’s coffee order. His friend watched the girl’s ass as she walked away and Banner felt like rolling his eyes. Maybe Trev had been a mistake. He liked hanging out with the guy, and his last sub had adored him until she’d moved to Prague for work, but maybe he wasn’t the right guy for Kate.

“So, if she’s so awesome, why aren’t you training her for yourself? Aren’t you still free of responsibilities?”

A twinge of annoyance set his teeth on edge. “I am, but she’s new and not sure what she wants. Trying to convince her she wants to be a slave this early on doesn’t seem fair to her. I also don’t have the patience to train a new girl for ages only to find out that she finds my tastes disturbing.”

“What about working her up to it slowly?”

Not him too. Had he been talking to Ambrose?

“Stealth training?” Banner smiled regretfully. “That’s not exactly consensual. I’m not going to subtly brainwash her. She seems to have a strong submissive side, but I get the feeling it’ll be a cold day in hell before she lets someone master her.”

Trev’s coffee came along with a refill for Banner. He wasn’t sure if he should stay or let them talk alone, but he was worried Kate wouldn’t be open about what she wanted without moral support. But what did she want? Maybe he should have stuck with meeting her alone at first, until they got her interests sorted out, but the urges he got when he was around her, or even just texting her, were anything but gentlemanly.

Having the wolf guard Little Red Riding Hood had not only been a bad idea, but it was especially hard on the poor, starving wolf.

Through the big storefront window he watched Red as she slipped out of a Kia four door and made her way toward the café entrance. She was wearing a floral sundress that revealed a lot of bare skin and sandals that crisscrossed to her knee, showing her long legs to their best advantage. No tattoos or marks of ownership on her pristine flesh. No collar on her neck.

And this goddess wanted someone to teach her about kink.

Trev wasn’t good enough.

When her gaze met his, she smiled shyly and looked at the ground in front of her—probably looking for the curb, but for today he’d let himself pretend it was a reaction to him.

“She’s here. Be nice.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Trev craned his neck to see who Banner was looking at and then whistled low. “Fuck! Are you sure you don’t want her for yourself? That hair alone would win me over, but with the body and the pretty face. Damn, she’d better have the personality to make that a package deal.”

Pretty? He thought she was
pretty
? Pretty was like a seven. On a scale of one to ten, Kate was a solid twenty-three. Maybe Trev needed glasses.

That morning Banner had finally admitted to himself that he wanted her. He’d caught himself checking his phone more often than usual, half hoping for another text from her, but she hadn’t sent anything. He’d read over the figging conversation a few times, and although it was funny as hell, something about it turned him on. Whether it was that she’d gone immediately to him with her question, or that he’d thought of defiling her in several different ways since then, she’d been lurking in the recesses of his mind and making it hard to focus on work. Or maybe it was that Ambrose wouldn’t stop teasing him about her.

Not for me.

He rose to his feet as she approached and held out the chair beside him, so that she and Trev were facing each other, but not directly. Hopefully it would make it easier for them to talk but with less pressure than sitting directly across from each other.

As she took her seat, his fingertips accidentally brushed the silky skin of her bare back. The buzz it sent through his fingers made him flinch as if he’d been burned. A small shiver ran through her, and for a moment her gaze found his before sliding demurely away. Without artifice, she tilted her head slightly and exposed the side of her neck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Would it be so wrong to drag her back to his place and find out what else made her shiver?

When they’d settled into their chairs, Trev turned to her and smiled widely.

“Pleased to meet you, Kate. Banner has told me a lot about you.”

She smiled back at Trev, and a spark of jealousy shot through Banner. Silently, he told his possessive urges to shut up. This was about her, and her future, not about his whims.

“He told you how clueless I am?” She scrunched her nose and laughed.

“You’re new. There’s nothing wrong with being clueless.” Trev sipped at his coffee. “I’m sure any number of people would be glad to show you the ropes, so to speak.”

Ba-dum ching.
Banner groaned inwardly.

The server came and took Kate’s order. Tea. He watched how she fixed it, the smooth movements of her hands speaking to how often she drank it.

Kate and Trev chatted for a few minutes. Although they got along at first, Banner could see that as Trev continued to talk about himself and what he wanted, Kate started to lose interest. Some subs liked guys who were somewhat self-centered, but apparently that wasn’t one of Kate’s turn-ons.

“. . . so that’s why I prefer a sub that’s good at reading me. Are you good at reading people?”

“When I choose to be.” She raised her chin and the subtle challenge made Banner shift in his chair. How would Trev respond to her stubborn side?

“Well, generally submissives choose to be good at reading their Doms. It makes for a happier relationship.” He beamed at her and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms.

“And Doms try their best to read their subs, too, of course?” She turned her head to look at Banner. He saw the mischief in her eyes and the smile for him alone and wondered if she was deliberately flirting with him, or if she just thought it was funny to goad Trev.

“I generally know what my subs need.”

“As a result of getting to know them or from assuming you know what they want better than they do?”

The girl had a point.

“It’s not hard to figure out what a woman wants most days, as long as you don’t let them put on airs. If a sub is a diva, it means the Dom isn’t doing his or her job.”

If Trev couldn’t figure out how to take Kate’s sense of humor as well as stop being a douche bag, this was never going to work.

“Wanting to have your needs met is different than being a diva.” She shook her head in disgust. “Thinking you know what a woman wants without talking to her isn’t always going to work. I can’t see how that would make for a good relationship.”

“Women are simple creatures. I haven’t had any complaints,” Trev said smugly.

Her brows went up in disbelief. “Did you take the ball gag out long enough to check?”

Trev’s mouth tightened.

Great.

“Hey, you two. I think you’re getting a little off track.” Banner laughed, hoping to cut the growing tension.

“No, she’s not mine.” Trev waved a hand. “There’s no reason to mince words here. It’s better to know we’re not compatible now instead of finding out later.”

“Yeah, I doubt this’ll work. It was nice to meet you, Trev.”

That was it? What a waste of time.

Trev snorted and stood when she did. “You’re a bit of a brat, Kate. Brats aren’t my thing, but you seem like a nice girl. Good luck finding someone ballsy enough to take you on.”

Kate smiled and shook his hand with the calm assurance of a businesswoman. “It would take quite the man. It was a pleasure.”

After a mock salute, Trev headed out the door.

Kate lowered herself primly back into her chair, still bristling.

“Well, that went . . .”

“Terribly? Sorry, but that guy is a total jackass.”

Banner grimaced and turned toward her. “Part of that was you, Kate. You’d hardly exchanged two words, and you were already challenging him. I’m not saying Trev handled that well at all. He was an idiot, but you need to own the parts that were yours.” He narrowed his eyes at her speculatively.

Kate’s mouth opened and closed a few times, her glare communicating the words that seemed reluctant to come. Finally, she shut her mouth and pulled her gaze from his. She’d gone from defensive to embarrassed in the span of a minute.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I know what I want—at least partially. But when a guy says he wants to control me, it makes me want to fight. Growing up nowadays, girls are told that submitting to a man is wrong and bad, and that they’re supposed to be strong and independent. No one respects a woman that gives up her power to a man, at least not in the vanilla world.”

Banner sighed and smiled grimly when she looked at him again. “I get what you’re saying, but that’s something you’re going to have to work through if you want to be a submissive. It’s not an easy road for someone that’s fiercely independent, but you have to curb your fight-or-flight impulses around Doms or you’re going to scare them all off. BDSM power exchange is consensual. That’s the point. Most Doms won’t try to fight you for it.”

Her pretty green eyes were troubled, and it bothered him that this wasn’t something he could fix for her. As he watched her silent struggle, she slowly seemed to become aware of his focus.

“What?”

“Shh. I’m reading your mind.”

Kate laughed and playfully smacked his arm. Deep down inside, an answering growl tried to respond, but he shoved it away.

Think vanilla thoughts.

“I don’t have to read your mind to figure out what you’re thinking. You wouldn’t normally let a girl get away with hitting you, am I right?”

“Not if she was my girl.”

Her eyes went round and shone. “What would you do?”

Banner leaned in closer and whispered. “Punish her to remind her of her place.”

With interest, he watched as her breathing became deep, hypnotic. Imagining something interesting just from a small cue? Her submission was there, running just below the surface, so close that he was certain he could draw it out without much effort. He had the strong temptation to test his theory.

Kate blinked several times, came back to herself, and took a sip of her tea. “I think I need to decide what I want before I talk to another one of your Dom friends.”

She’d snapped back to business mode so fast that if he hadn’t seen it himself, he might have doubted whether she’d respond to dominance at all.

“We should go over a BDSM checklist to nail that down, then. Do you want my help with that, or do you want me to e-mail you one?”

Worrying at her bottom lip, she looked lost again. All of his protective instincts and his need for control warred with the knowledge that she wasn’t his to direct.

“Why don’t I bring one by this week so you can ask questions if you’re confused? That is, if you’re comfortable with me.”

She nodded slowly. “That would be good. And if you could give me some pointers on how not to run Doms off, that would be good too.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he started, then gave her a mock-stern look, “but you have to cooperate or it won’t work.”

Her eyes narrowed with mischief. “Yes, Sir.”

It was hard not to laugh, even if she was being cheeky.

“I’m starting to think you’re going to have a hard time being a good girl for anyone.”

She leaned closer, and her scent made him crazy. “Who’s going to make me be good?”

You have no idea what I’d like to do to you, bad girl.

He tried his best to look indifferent. “That’ll be up to whoever you choose. If you’re worried you won’t be able to mind your manners long enough, I could help you remember.”

“You think
you
could teach me to behave? I don’t know.” She arched her back, which made his gaze go directly to her cleavage. “You seem too nice. I’d probably walk all over you, and the next thing you knew,
you’d
be begging to be
my
slave.”

Sassy girl. She needed a few of his handprints on her ass.

“I could teach you to behave, Trouble,” he growled.

Bravado apparently forgotten, Kate ducked her head, but not before he saw the pink in her cheeks.

And not before he’d needed to fight the urge to kiss her pretty mouth.

Chapter 3

“You were a bad girl,” the man with the baritone voice said.

Her knees trembled as she took a step backward.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

She looked left then right. How had they ended up in a concrete, windowless room with no door? A bed appeared behind her. The backs of her legs rubbed against it.

She gulped. Trapped.

“Bend over the bed, little slave.”

The command in his voice made it hard not to comply. Shaking, she turned around and gazed down at the pristine white bedcovering. She could feel him move in behind her. His body brushed against her back, setting every nerve on fire. Chills raced up her spine. Her knees felt like buckling, but she stayed standing, hesitant to make herself more vulnerable to this stranger.