CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ANTHONY
Stepping out of Sera's room, I had to force one foot in front of the other. Leaving her was becoming more difficult with every encounter between us, and now that I'd tasted her - had her in ways that were purely carnal and primal in nature - there was no possibility I'd find the ability to walk away from her like she'd never mattered.
The hallway was a sterile white space compared to the dark shadows of Sera's room. The light blinded my eyes as I practically marched down the narrow path.
I wasn't surprised to find Aiden waiting when I turned the corner to exit the wing where Sera was being kept.
"Did you enjoy yourself?"
Walking past him, I ignored his arrogant posture and the smirk stretching his lips. I didn't respond, just continued forward, still too angry to trust myself to speak.
Calling after me, there was humor in his tone. "It's against the Society's rules for a Master to fuck another's courtesan without permission."
"Fuck your rules," I growled back, realizing quickly that I'd slipped the leash and was charging headfirst into whatever twisted game he played.
His laughter chased me, but I didn't care. Something had come to life inside me within Sera's room. While weaving the halls in route to her, I'd convinced myself I only wanted to talk. Looking back, I realized how ridiculous I was for having believed the lie.
I didn't open her door immediately once I reached it. It could have been two or three minutes that I'd stared at the scarred wood, my fingers tightly gripped over the handle.
Curiosity finally forced my hand, and when that door creaked open, the hallway light rushed in to illuminate a fallen angel. Dark hair fanned across her pillow, her sleeping expression serene. Her body was curled up against the cold, but even with that burden, she didn't kick, claw or scream. It was the polar opposite of what I'd seen of her before - what I'd witnessed on the first night I brought her to Aiden's from that cliff.
The marked improvement called to something inside me. Something alive and vibrant that had been buried for far too long.
And after it reared its wondrous head, there was no denying the urge I had to be inside her.
There was really no necessary purpose to the hood. It was my preference to keep her in the dark, to prevent her from knowing it was me that took her in ways I'd not taken a woman in some time.
Watching her when she didn't know it was me, witnessing the level of submission she gave, it was a fascination I'd indulged.
To a man like me, seeing a woman give herself fully, to see her find the sexual creature inside and glorify herself within its power, was the same as seeing God.
The night crept slowly as I tossed and turned over my bed. I craved the warmth of Sera's body against my skin, the sound of her whimpers against my ear. Like a caged tiger, my instincts paced inside me, failing to cease long enough for me to slip away into the ether of restful sleep. Simmering rage hummed beneath my skin, the disbelief that I'd allowed Aiden to pull the rug out from beneath me.
As the morning sun rose over some distant horizon, as the curtains of my windows glowed with the promise of light and warmth, I found myself seated on the side of my bed.
Head in hands, my palms scrubbed over my face as I became lost to the betrayal and frustration I felt.
Yes, it had been wrong to play the game in the first place. After speaking with Rebecca, after the seed had been planted that there might be a way to reach Sera beneath the insanity and fury of a woman abused in soul-crushing ways, I'd devised a plan with Aiden to seduce her to my side.
It worked just how I imagined it would. Aiden's cruelty was the perfect counterpoint to my kindness. Without realizing she was being led down a specific path straight to my door, Sera endured. She showed promise that there was a small spark within her that could be saved from the rubble of her life and born again into the perfect vision of a courtesan.
I'd had her right where I'd wanted her. But then Aiden showed his hand.
If it had been any other Master or any other member of the Society, I never would have agreed to the game. But I allowed my respect for Aiden - our friendship - to overshadow the basic and irrefutable truth that to give a Master even temporary control over a woman was to risk losing her entirely.
I wouldn't lose Sera. And in order to get her back, I needed to change the game.
Getting showered and dressed was a slow process. I wasn't in any rush to step outside the confines of my bedroom, but anger or not, there were still loose ends that needed to be handled. For one, I couldn't leave Sera to the whims of Aiden now that I no longer doubted he'd lost himself within the supposed power he wielded as a Master within our group.
Plus, there were also Sera's previous owners to handle. Ending the lives of two repugnant men would be child's play to Aiden and me, but securing the information we needed in order to sway the Society to our side would take time.
With Claire and Holland gone, it left only four remaining in the house, and given Rebecca's absolute silence over the situation with Sera, that left only three pawns within the dangerous games we played.
It didn't take long for me to make my way to the kitchen. My thoughts were on Sera and my stomach rumbled for coffee and food. That hunger dissipated entirely when I turned the corner to find the evidence of Aiden's nocturnal acts hanging from the ceiling in front of me.
Swinging like a hanged man from a metal hook secured within the plaster ceiling, Sera was stripped naked and left dangling from the leather cuffs that secured her wrists above her head. In this instance, she was lifted so far off the floor, she couldn't use her toes to relieve the strain on her arms, couldn't use a wall to rest her head against its surface.
Her head hung down, her hair falling forward her shoulders, matted in knots until one would wonder if she'd ever used a brush or comb. Blotchy and red, her skin displayed the evidence of a light beating with a flogger and what I guessed had been a cane.
The marks weren't so violent that they'd become permanent scars, but they ran the length of her body, starting at her chest and ending at her toes. With the manner in which her body continued to swing slowly, I wondered how long it had been since Aiden left her alone in the room.
My first instinct was to pull her down, but I stopped myself after the first step, refusing to set off whatever trap it was that Aiden set.
"They liked to display me as if I were some stag they'd shot in the woods behind their house. They chained me and hanged me beside whatever animal carcass they were skinning. I always wondered if I'd be next..."
Her confession of the abuse she suffered prior to the night I found her echoed in my head, the words a menacing nuisance that snuck up on me as I stared at the way she was chained now.
Shaking my head, I tried to clear the memory from my mind, tried to convince myself that Aiden hadn't taken her confession of the past and used it to shape her present reality. That level of cruelty had to be beyond him, unless it had lingered there all along just waiting for the day he lost touch with his sanity.
I wouldn't intervene, not until I decided how to do so in order to gain the advantage. But that didn't stop the fury inside me, didn't stop the passionate storm I hated to admit was like rolling thunder across my bones.
Only a liar could deny that the skillful marks against her skin weren't as tempting as they were beautiful. My hands itched to spin her around just so I could see even a hint of my handprint on her ass.
I chose to avoid touching her, casually pouring a cup of coffee and seating myself at the table instead. A newspaper sat unread at the head of the table. I pulled it across the wood surface to read as I waited for Aiden's return.
It didn't take long for him to stroll back into the room, for him to pour his own cup and take his usual seat at the head of the table and ask me to hand him the business section of the news.
We sat unspeaking while reading whatever interested us, the silence in the room only broken by us sipping from our mugs or the light creak of the chains when Sera attempted to find comfort in the manner in which she'd been hanged. Neither Aiden nor I paid her any mind as we met on our own field of battle - two Masters refusing to give ground in the psychological warfare of our games.
It was a point for me when Aiden finally spoke and broke the standoff.
"She's beautiful in that position, don't you think?"
Without flicking a glance in Sera's direction, I sipped from my mug, slowly, before rolling the coffee over my tongue to savor the flavor. "Where's Rebecca this morning?"
Aiden grinned, but didn't question the change of topic. "Sleeping. She stayed up late last night waiting for me to come to bed, but I was busy tending to our wayward kitten. Sera was quite accommodating when I walked in her room. Strangely docile, really. Purred like the kitten she is. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
I knew exactly what he was saying, but I wouldn't grant him the satisfaction of admitting it. "Have you made any further progress with obtaining the information we need to convince the Society that certain owners are in need of expulsion?"
Phrasing the question so that I wouldn't utter Sera's name, I held his stare, my expression unwavering from the stern look of a concerned businessman.
Aiden, however, smirked like a devious child ripping the wings off dragonflies. "No. Unfortunately, I was quite busy last night enjoying the absolute submission of Sera."
He feigned a yawn, but I could see him smiling behind his hand. "I'm sure you know how it is, Anthony. But then again, maybe you don't. It's been a long time since you've trained a woman."
Sera's chains rattled again and I had to fight not to look over to ensure she was okay. Spending too much time in that position could separate her arms from her shoulders, or cut off her ability to breathe easily.
Downing what was left of the coffee in my mug, I placed it down on the surface of the table with exaggerated care. "It's been years, Aiden, you know that. But even for that duration of time I haven't forgotten what it means to be a Master."
Every syllable in my words was meant to be a warning, my tone a fine razor edge that sliced the thin air between us. "If you're not careful, you'll damage your new pet. Wouldn't that be a waste of time and effort?"
No emotion, no concern, nothing but a factual truth of the human body. She could only hang for so long before injury occurred.
"I'm not concerned," he said on a low voice.
My eyes met his. "And neither am I. If you prefer making the stupid mistake only a novice would make, that's on you."
Standing from the table, I stepped toward the doors leading out to the main foyer. Stopping just as I reached the threshold, I glanced back, taking care not to catch sight of Sera. "Enjoy your day, Aiden. If I'm needed for any reason, I'll be somewhere on the property enjoying mine."
With those parting words I forced myself through the doors and out into the main house, my muscles tense and my teeth clenched tightly together. I wasn't sure to what lengths Aiden would go to dangle his plaything in front of me as a means to irritate me further - and that thought scared me for the woman who had just started believing that her living Hell would finally be over.