Chapter 23
Diane
“I told you I had a surprise. What do think? Will it do?”
I spun around the living room of the furnished apartment, smiling. As I stopped back on Jaime, I walked over, kneeling at his feet. It would be the last time. I had technically been free for over a week, but tonight, I did it out of respect.
“Thank you so much. For everything.”
“No reason to thank me. I’m only giving you the key. This is a gift from Master. He says congratulations on finishing your refresher and he wishes you the best in your new life. Plus, you’re only a few stories under me. We can visit each other anytime.”
My smile faded and I rose to stand. “Master? I can’t take this,” I said softly. “I—”
“Will take it,” he said, cutting me off. “This isn’t a gift you can return. It’s yours. Besides, he wants to see you happy after everything that happened. This is his way of saying he’s sorry.”
I didn’t want real estate, I wanted words. I wanted…him.
“I’ll call and thank him, personally.”
“Good girl. You do that. He’ll enjoy hearing from you. He asks about you all the time, even if he refuses to walk through my door.”
My eyes closed at the memories of the last time I saw him. They all came rushing back and no matter how hard I tried to push them away, they just kept coming. He’d said he’d never touch me again, and he hadn’t lied. After Jaime had returned, seeing the mark on my neck and the slight bruising from the teeth marks, I was afraid of what would happen. I shouldn’t have been. Master was the one in control, no matter whose house I resided in. Jaime knew that. He had stayed quiet as he bandaged my hand and neither of the men said another word. Dinner went by quietly and I was sent to bed afterward. Sevastian was gone when I woke up.
“He doesn’t want to be around me. That’s why he stays away.”
Jaime grabbed my wrist as I started to turn. “He loves you, Diane. Surely you see that.”
My head shook. “Feelings for me, yes. Love…no. When you love someone, you don’t let anything tear you apart. He didn’t even try to make us work. Not when I left, not even now.”
“You don’t know what he goes through or how many people depend on him. Since you’ve left, he’s gotten a new slave. A man in his fifties. The guy just showed up at his door, gun in hand. Master never turns anyone away if he can help it. He’s determined to make up for his past; for not seeing what he now realizes as clear signs of a suicidal person. That guilt destroys him with every slave he tries to save. Don’t fault him for what he does. Just support it. Support him. He needs it, Diane. He has no one. Not really.”
My hands came up to push the hair out of my face. My heart ached for Sevastian and not just because of how much I missed him. He’d been through so much and he just kept living it over and over. He would never heal if he kept repeating this residual life of Master and slave. There had to be a way to help not only him, but others.
“Besides,” he continued, “It goes both ways. You say he didn’t fight, but did you?”
Defensiveness shot through me as Jaime pinned me with that dark stare.
“I told him what I thought.”
“But did you fight?”
No, I basically told him to leave me alone because I knew he’d leave me, regardless.
I stepped back, turning to head to the large room-length windows. “No. I guess I didn’t.”
Would it have made a difference? I didn’t think so. Master was set in his ways. He felt he didn’t have a choice. A million questions began assaulting me at once and I let them roll through as I stared at the city lights. “You said he has a new slave?”
Footsteps echoed in behind me. “Yes, but not for much longer. I think the guy is coming around. It’s been close to four weeks. Why, what are you thinking?”
I turned, clasping my hands. “A meeting, just so we can talk. I’m not going to make him choose, Jaime. If Master wanted me, he knew where I was. And truthfully, I don’t blame him for his choice. I’ve had a long time to think over everything and if he wasn’t helping those people, they very well might be dead right now. They need him. I’d just like to see him and go over where our feelings rest for one another. Maybe it’ll help. Maybe he’s already over what we shared. You say he asks about me, but a friend can do that. Taking the next step is quite different, and he has yet to do anything remotely close to that. I don’t think he ever will. Hell, I’m not even sure if I can. It’s probably for the best that things played out this way.”
“Well, time will tell. In the meantime, I’ll call him and let him know you want to meet at his earliest convenience to thank him for the place.”
“That sounds good.
He nodded. “Okay, then. Well, here you are. Your stuff is already in the closet. The fridge is stocked with food.” He pulled me in his arms, catching me off guard with the hug. “You know where I am if you need anything.”
“I do. Thank you.”
“You bet.” He winked, heading for the door. For the first time, I noticed the black box he stopped to reach up to.
“I’ll just set this for your protection. If you want to turn it off, the instructions are just inside the flap.”
A smile came even though my heart skipped a beat at seeing the same alarm he and Master had at their place.
“Goodnight, Diane.”
I waved, still not able to shake the weird feeling. “Night, Jaime.” Seconds after the door closed, the lock slid into place. The echo sounded loudly in the quiet room. I immediately walked forward, pulling the flap open that hid the keypad. Blank. My eyes flew open and before I could spin around, a hand slammed over my mouth while an arm wrapped around my throat. My feet dangled, barely touching as I was dragged toward the hallway.
“You’re not sure you can take the next step, huh?” Master’s voice sent a thrill racing through me. “I guess I’m just going to have to try to convince you the only way you seem to respond to.”
His hand left my mouth and fabric ripped at my neckline. A dim light from a lone candle revealed we were in a bedroom. Dark outlines of what looked to be furniture barely registered as I was spun around and slammed to the bed, facing up toward him. My hands shot out defensively as he lunged forward. Pressure from his palm flattened at the top of my chest, holding me down. The click of the blade springing free from his knife left me frozen.
“Did you miss me, slave?”
The bottom of my shirt was jerked up and my breaths turned shallow as I waited for what I knew would come.
“Answer me,” he snapped. “Did you miss me?”
“You know I did.” I couldn’t hide the longing or pain in my voice. He’d hurt me by pushing me away and I wasn’t so sure I was ready to forgive him for that.
The tip of the blade made a path around my bellybutton, only to head higher. My body shook for multiple reasons — lust, excitement, anger, and even fear.
“Am I going to have to retrain you all over again? It looks to me that someone forgot how to address their Master. Let me refresh your memory. “When I ask you a question, you answer immediately, with…” the knife reached the thin middle section of my bra and the blade flattened, sliding underneath.
“Master,” I said softly. “But—”
His hand was back over my mouth so fast that I couldn’t get anything else out. With a pull of the knife, my breasts spilled free. It didn’t take much work for him to cut off the rest of my shirt and leave me topless.
“No buts, slave. I am your Master. I have been from the moment you stepped through my door, and I always will be. You’re ready. There’s no more escaping the truth for either of us.”
With a lean, he reached over, further onto the bed, dropping the knife. My eyes widened at the roll of duct tape. His teeth held one end while he pulled and moved down, tearing the piece free.
“Right now, you’re not allowed to speak. If you’re not saying you love me and you want this to work between us, the tape stays on. Only when you come to the decision I want to hear, are you allowed to take it off. I have all the time in the world.” His hand pulled at the button of my jeans while he flatted the tape over my lips. “Oh, and slave, feel free to start fighting me any time.”
His words melted the shock of what was happening. I knew I loved him, but I also wanted to release the anger I held inside. This would do that. I was determined to give him the fight of my life to begin our new one.
I twisted, trying to plant my feet against his stomach to push him away, but he was already settled between my legs rendering the task impossible. My shoulders rocked back and forth, as I tried to push his arms away from me.
“That’s my girl. I thought you might like this. Let’s see how much you really missed your Master.” My ankles were grabbed and lifted in the air. With skill that impressed me, he managed to remove my shoes and wrestle my jeans and panties free. I used his angle to roll and make it to my stomach. Before I could clear the width of the mattress, he was back on me.
“No running for you, baby. I won’t let you. From now on, it’s just me and you.”
The power of his arms locked under my bare breasts while his chest fitted against my back. “God, you wouldn’t believe how much I’ve missed you. Just holding you feels like the best thing in the world.” The embrace tightened until I grunted from the pressure. Sounds muffling behind the tape was my only response.
“You know, I’ve debated where I wanted to go with this. Each time I let the scene roll out in my head, I could never get past having you. I guess that goes to show that no matter what we do in life, as long as I have you and we’re together, that’s all that matters. Do you think you could be happy committing yourself to me, slave?
He lifted, rolling me over. As his weight settled back on my body, he shifted, pulling off his black, long-sleeved shirt.
“Answer by shaking your head. Will you be happy with me?”
Still, I fought, thrashing and twisting. There were still so many questions and I wasn’t planning on saying yes to anything until I got my answers. I’d come so far since he’d kicked me out. What would it be like going back under his command? Would it turn out like before? Or would we have an actual working-style life surrounding what we’d come to love?
“I knew you wouldn’t make it easy.” He grunted, grasping my wrists and pinning them above me with one of his own. At his shift, I looked up in time to see him grab a cuff that was resting on the pillow. It was attached to the bed like the ones at his home. Panic and lust flared, making my adrenaline spike. I jerked my arm, breaking free for the briefest moment before he recaptured my forearm with his other hand and managed to get me strapped in. Within seconds, he had my other arm buckled, too. A moan slipped free at him tightening the restraint. My arms extended out until the slight stretching of my muscles left me with a heightened sense of awareness.
“Pretty panties. I forgot your love of these things. Did you buy them or did Jaime get them for you?” His finger traced along the lace lining, breaching underneath to tease my stomach. “Nod if it was you.”
I obeyed, letting him know I bought them.
Deeper, he moved under the adjoining silk, until he slid to one side and yanked the fabric. The force sent a burn over my hip. Where I thought he’d do the other side, he surprised me by pulling them off. “You know this is mine, don’t you?”
My legs tried to draw up. The sting from his slap to my inner thigh was followed by three more as I continued to fight. When he didn’t seem to get what he wanted, my feet were pushed nearly to my face and the spanking had me crying out into the tape.
“That answer I won’t wait for. Tell me, slave.” My feet were lowered and my knees pushed opened wide.
“Answer, now. Whose pussy is this?”
Contact over my slit made me rock against him, anything to give him entrance. I nodded, not denying him the truth.
“Yes,” he said, lowering. “This sweet cunt of yours is mine.”
The first lick traveled from my opening to my clit. A sob escaped as I felt myself submitting. I wanted him more than anything. Still, the questions overpowered and I shook my head viscously. Concern flashed across his face. He sucked my clit, lifting his hand to pull off the tape.
“I’m going to ask you a question. The wrong answer and I put it back on. Nod if you understand.”
My head moved a little too anxiously.
“Good.” His tongue flicked over the sensitive bud and I gasped, clutching to the straps that held me locked into place.
“Simple question. Do you love me?”
There it was, raw emotion. Sevastian speaking. Master was lurking in the depths of his eyes, hiding in the shadows, waiting for me to say the wrong answer. I knew as silly as it was for me to think of them as two people, I couldn’t quite look at them yet as the same person. I was still learning who he was. Throughout our time apart, I’d done my research on Sevastian Tyler. Newspapers bragged about his generosity. He was the perfect man in the eyes of society. It was his secret that put the spin on his true identity. It was his secret that I had fallen in love with.
“I do…love you.”
“Enough to want to spend your life as my slave?”
The contact to my pussy had my words leaving me for the briefest moment before I remembered the question.
“I want nothing more, but there are some things I need to know first.”
His tongue pushed into my opening and my head lifted even more, watching as he fucked me with the tip.
“What about the other slaves? We both know that won’t work.”
The speed increased and I moaned, wanting to pump my hips to make him go faster. He didn’t give me time as he broke away for the briefest moment.
“It’s taken care of.”
As he went back to teasing me, I wiggled, trying to make him stop. This was too big of a deal to leave it at that short of a response.
“Master, please tell me. I can’t continue until I know. I feel like I’ve waited too long already. I can’t take it anymore.”
My plea had his head lifting and features softening. He crawled up and covered my body with his. “I will no longer be anyone’s Master but yours. I’ve given up my home to my replacement. It’ll have a new Master.”
“But, who?”
His lips pressed into mine, softly. “Who do you think?”
My brain searched through the people I knew and only one seemed possible. “Jaime.”
Sevastian nodded. “He’s good. Better than I thought. When he offered, I couldn’t very well give in unless I saw him in action. He’s ready.”
“But he said…” I wanted to groan in frustration. That man had lied to me more times than anyone I knew. First was when he said I could leave Master’s if I didn’t want to kill myself. Now, tonight, when he said he was living upstairs and we’d see each other whenever we wanted. Then, about the Sevastian’s new slave and the fucking alarm. Perhaps he did make a good Master. Hell, he’d had me trained by the end. And he was sneaky as hell. Sadistic. Yes, he’d do well in taking Master’s place.
“Are you sure you’re okay with this, though? I know how much you needed the slaves.”
He kissed me harder. “You’re the only one I want or need. I love you, Diane. I think I have from the moment I met you. It was the reason I couldn’t fail. To have you, I needed you strong. To thrive in the new person I’d created. You’ve done that and made it clear that you choose life.” His forehead wrinkled from his pained expression. “Now, all I need is for you to choose me.”
All these lessons, all the heartache he’d put me through, and the brutal punishments. It all came down to him building me up to be the person I was in this very moment. Time slowed as I stared up to him and processed how far I had come since we’d first met. Not only had he taken me from death to wanting to life, but he’d given up the existence of his own for me. Was there really even a reason to make him wait for my answer? I didn’t think so. There was no one else I wanted to be with. “I do choose you, Master. That’s all I’ve wanted for months, now. It nearly destroyed me being under Jaime’s rule when all I wanted was for it to be yours.”
“To hear you say that...”
The underside of his cock slid over my slit and I moaned, meeting his tongue as it pushed into my mouth. The slow movements of his thick length took our kissing from gentle to heated within seconds.
“I’m going to make love to you now,” he breathed out. “My way.” His hand gripped behind my knee, pulling my leg up next to his hip. His fingers pushed into the hair at the nape of my neck and I moaned at the tug that left my head angled back.
“Can I call you Sevastian?”
The bite on the junction of my neck and shoulder had me moaning.
“I don’t have to be Sevastian to make that connection, slave. We have a lot to learn about each other, but at our foundation, I’ll always be your Master.” His hand slid down to my ass, bringing me in closer as he rotated his hips, moving along my pussy even more. “Now, address me right. Tell me who you’ve chosen.”
Breath brushed against my cheek while he began kissing his way down my jawline.
“You, Master.” My eyes closed as he dipped down to my throat, sucking and nibbling the sensitive skin. The mattress shifted and he brought his hand to my folds, massaging in the wetness. I gasped, arching as one of his fingers pushed into my opening, deep. The slow, steady rhythm increased as he added another of his digits.
“That’s right, and I’m about to show you a whole new side of our relationship. One that I hope you enjoy just as much as the other.”
His fingers disappeared and the sound of his belt filled the room. I felt myself try to move down in my impatience as he rose to his knees.
“At your insistence,” he stated, pulling a condom from his pocket, “I’ve decided to bring this. Although, I have to admit, slave, it really is unnecessary.”
My eyes traveled from his, to the package. I knew kids weren’t something I wanted in the near future, if at all, but it came down to trusting him. “When was the last time you were checked to make sure you were sterile?”
He unzipped his pants and moved to pull them off. “Last week. I had to be positive before I came back to you. You don’t have to worry, but if it’ll put you at ease, I don’t mind.”
Trust.
My head slowly shook. “If you say we’re okay, I believe you. I just needed to know for sure.”
“You never have to worry about me hiding anything or lying to you, Diane. I never will. The same goes for you. We’re in this together. Honesty at all times. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” I repeated.
A smiled tugged at Master’s mouth and he lowered his nude body back onto me. “Nothing will stop us from being happy.” He tossed the condom over to the side. “You watch, baby. Our life from this day forward will be what we’ve both longed for. No more pain,” his smile grew, “unless it’s combined with pleasure.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Yeah? Why wait? I think maybe it’s time I introduce you to our new room.”