CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ANTHONY
She could have dragged her fingernails down my face and it would have hurt less than hearing her screams fracture the still silence of the house.
With my back pressed against the door, I heard her ask for me, beg to regain the choice she'd been given without her understanding that it was a choice at all. Perhaps it was best she rebelled and caused me to walk away. I would not have been able to hurt her in the ways that Aiden was so adept. I couldn't have brought myself to the decision of abusing a broken woman in order to fracture her completely.
But then, that's how the game had to be played. I understood the truth in what steps needed to be taken in order to quiet the fierce rebellion inside her. However, it didn't mean I had to enjoy those steps.
Aiden was doing me a favor. It went against his nature to help others in such a way. Cold, careless and calculating to a point of heartlessness, Aiden should have seen my refusal to make the initial cut against Sera as a weakness. He didn't. Instead, he focused on what it would take to rebuild me, reshape me, at least until I was strong enough to hold the reins of such a hopeless, broken and feral woman.
Having been reduced to an animal by the men who'd kept her since Aiden sold her off, there were multiple sides and complications within Sera, and I had every intention to learn them all - to determine how those facets could be shaped to heal courtesan and Master both.
I'd walked away after quietly enduring the abuse. My head held low, I'd hidden inside my room, but was unable to stop hearing the screams. They were no longer tearing apart the silent peace inside the house, but they’d lodged in my brain, tearing apart my thoughts as ruthlessly as they’d torn at Sera's throat and vocal chords.
When morning came, I wasn't sure what I would find by wandering the hallways of Aiden's home. I should have known my feet would lead me directly to the devil's favorite door.
How many times had I entered this particular room with no qualms? It was nothing more than a playroom, a space created and maintained for the purpose of our craft. But now, standing before the door, hearing the shutter of a camera click as light flared to life beneath the door - the flash that flared against the tips of my black, leather shoes - I hesitated.
After closing my eyes and dragging in a breath brimming with the strength and determination necessary for the job to be performed, my fingers gripped the handle, and I entered Aiden's lair.
I wasn't surprised by the scene spread out before me.
"Her scars tell a story," Aiden said, his eyes held to the camera he held. Without bothering to turn and look to ensure it was me who'd entered, he gave his explanation. "I want to document them, if for nothing else than to have a reason to wipe her previous owners from the Society. Bastards like that will only leave a pile of bodies leading to my door."
While he spoke, my attention wasn't on him, wasn't on the man who appeared completely put together despite the late hours he'd kept bringing Sera into line. It would have been polite to give him that attention, but I couldn't drag my focus away from the woman chained helplessly to the wall. Her body bare, her expression sullen, she hanged as lifelessly as a forgotten doll, the studio lights trained on her skin drawing the eye to the utter violence written across her body.
Those scars did tell a story. In that, Aiden was correct. I wouldn't rest until I'd read every page, knew every secret, and used every mark to my advantage.
Holding my expression in a mask of disinterest, I shrugged a shoulder when Sera's eyes finally opened to find mine. "She's not dead. I doubt the Society will care much about what's been done to her."
Sera's lips parted as if to speak, her hands struggling to grip the chains that held her arms above her head. She was tired - no. She was exhausted. Aiden hadn't given her the chance to regain her strength, the opportunity to find her particular brand of rebellion within the storm of his style of training.
I would never become like Aiden in the way I mastered Sera, but I could appreciate the manner in which he'd broken the wild beast inside her, leaving an empty, hollow shell for me to fill. I would say he'd tamed what existed inside her, but I'd be a fool to believe such terror and hatred could ever be tamed.
With disinterest in my voice, I pulled my eyes from her face, the struggle to do so surprising me. "Perhaps we should just return her to the men who lost her in the first place. Warn them that they're being watched to see if they can remain clients. We can't have crazed courtesans running free to identify their Masters."
Setting his camera down on a small table, Aiden turned toward me, black smudges beneath his eyes the only sign that he, too, was tired from his long night. Beyond those marks, his face was a polished mask of regal authority. "They had their chance. I'm not sure who traded this woman to whom, nor the identity of the man or men who allowed her to escape. But I intend to find out."
His steps were succinct beats across the floor, his body a rigid plane of prowess and aggravation. Reaching Sera, he gripped her jaw in his right hand, the black, faceted gem set in his thick silver ring gleaming beneath the studio lights. "As of yet, she refuses to tell me their names." A smile tilted his lips. "Perhaps because she so thoroughly enjoyed the punishment for her refusal. Isn't that right, Sera?"
Attempting to jerk her face free of his grasp, she failed after several tries. Her muscles had tensed on his approach, but they withered now, her body going limp, forced acceptance and defeat shimmering behind the blue of her bruised eyes.
Aiden didn't move, didn't react. Instead he watched her as a scientist would study whatever experiment he was conducting. No emotion. No speculation. Just a single man observing the effects of whatever ministrations he'd performed. Disgusted by her refusal, he released her jaw and turned away from her, dismissing her as if she were nothing. "Maybe she'll talk to you. She was begging for you all night."
His shoulder brushed mine as he left the room, the door softly clicking closed, leaving Sera and I alone in the room. It would have been so easy to give in and seduce the pain from her expression, but to do so would only hinder the progress Aiden had made.
"Did you enjoy your night with your Master?" Stepping towards her, I wouldn't react to the anger coming to the surface behind her eyes. It was that anger that built a wall between us, that trapped her in some shadowed cave concealing her from the truth of what she would become beneath my hand. A puzzle to be deciphered - that was this woman hanging helplessly before me. A puzzle I was determined to piece together regardless of how agonizing it would be for her.
Lips parting, she forced her expression into one of feigned defeat. Most men would believe the light crease of skin between her eyes. They'd lose their will at the sight of pain behind the glistening orbs that shone a jeweled tone of blue. They'd cringe at the way her skin sunk sallow, and her muscles lost their strength. They'd believe the lie that was told by the fragility written across her face. But I was not most men, I was a Master, a deceiver, a man who could look beyond the veil to see the fire inside a woman's heart and soul.
Sera's fire still contained the power to scorch my hand, and for that reason, I refused to give in to the character she was attempting to play.
In truth, we were both characters trapped within a deadly web of deceit, but whereas she believed herself the spider, it was my job to render her the fly.
"Did he remind you what it means to submit?" Intentionally keeping my voice placid, I wanted her to believe me unconcerned, bored by whatever answer she would give. Although it was necessary for me to understand her emotional state, I had to make her believe that her response was as meaningless as telling me about the weather.
Her voice shook when she spoke, whether from shock, pain, fear or exhaustion I wasn't sure. "I'm sorry," she breathed. "I didn't know."
"Know what?" Tucking my hands in my pockets, I leaned back against a padded wall before crossing one foot over the other at the ankle. My dark grey slacks wrinkled where my legs touched, my white button up shirt remaining crisp with the buttons at the top unfastened.
"I didn't know I could choose you over Aiden."
A smile tugged at the corner of my lips. "From who? I'm not familiar with a courtesan referring to him in such a way. Would you like to try again, or shall I let him know your disrespect when he's not present in order for him to correct it?"
The facade of a weak willed woman that she'd so carefully crafted was withering before my eyes, rage creeping in as a ghost of who she'd been not even twelve hours before. Her gaze refused to meet mine, but was not directed to the floor in respect or deference. She was hiding, struggling in vain to rein in her feral spirit, to portray a woman who was familiar with her place and my expectations.
She must have considered me a bigger fool than I actually was to think I'd fall for it.
"And you can't choose me," I said, ignoring the obvious flood of thoughts rushing through her head. "Aiden is the man who owns you. Who controls you. It is to him that you owe your body, thoughts and submission."
Her head turned so quickly she winced at having wrenched her neck. Narrowed eyes locked on me seething with the beauty of her wild, intoxicating rage. "Why didn't you tell me then that I could have you as my Master? One word and I would have acted differently."
Pushing up from the wall and pulling my hands from my pockets, I took measured steps in her direction. We were practically nose to nose by the time I stopped, her quickened breath a wash against my face. "It shouldn't have taken that one word. A courtesan submits, and you -"
"Am not your fucking courtesan," she finished for me. Spittle sprayed my face, my eyes closing as my hand wiped it away.
Opening my eyes, I smiled at the picture before me. "There she is. The angry, lost, little girl I've come to know since finding you. I was wondering how long you'd keep up the charade of having learned your lesson."
It surprised me to see the tears burst from her eyes, to understand the red, swollen rims were from misery and not anger. "I don't want to be with him," she confessed softly, her anger dissolving into desperation. "For you, I will behave. Just," her voice caught on a choked sob. "Please, please see if he will let you take me."
Laughter rolled over my lips, slow and deep. "You say that like I'd want to take you. I'm afraid that time has passed, Sera. You've sealed your fate. The blame for whatever humiliation you suffer from this moment forward can only fall on you."
Jaw ticking as her teeth snapped together, she laid her head back against the wall, her long neck stretched before me inviting my teeth, my tongue, my hand. I had to clench my fist to keep from wrapping my fingers over the soft skin, to keep from controlling her breathing until only I could say when she was allowed air. To touch her now would be my undoing, to feel her would entice me into giving her exactly what she asked.
"Give me their names, Sera, the men who scarred you so permanently."
Chest rising and falling, the tips of her breasts were tight buds beckoning for me to taste. Fearing the ambrosia of her skin would seduce me into demanding Aiden release her immediately, I bit my tongue, swallowed down the bitter blood that seeped from the cut I'd caused. My cock lay full and throbbing against my pants, the soft whisper of fabric too jarring for as starved as I'd allowed myself to become. It was cruel for fate to tempt me with such delectable destruction, with a woman who made me feel in ways I'd not felt in so long.
I would have her despite her dissent, would tame her no matter how violently she fought against my efforts. And when the moment came for me to learn what treasures lay within her body, I would gorge myself on her smell, her taste, and the heat of her skin beneath my palms.
Her head swung down, her nose brushed mine, and our breath mingled drawing me in. "No," she whispered, a sly grin tilting her mouth, a look of small triumph glistening behind her eyes. "If I tell you that, then you will just take me back to them."
My eyes dropped to the flutter of her chaotic pulse beneath her skin, dragging back up again to level her gaze. Matching her grin, I fought not to take her mouth with mine. "I have no intention of giving you back. They were the ones who lost you in the first place. It seems silly to think they wouldn't repeat the same mistake."
With every draw of breath she inhaled, the tips of her breasts rubbed against my shirt. So close that I could see every striation of purple that cut through her blue eyes, I held firm not to inch even closer, not to act on the warning and invitation in her gaze. No. To invite me she would have to want me, and we hadn't yet reached that point. She dared me with her eye contact, challenged me to teach her how to behave.
I couldn't begrudge Aiden for his timing as he reentered the room. Yet, even with his presence, I didn't give an inch in my proximity to a woman who was technically his. Still, my attention was on him in every aspect but where I trained my gaze. With his presence, I regained the ability to deny her the feel of my kiss.
"We have company arriving," he announced. "How Holland was able to arrive so quickly is beyond me, unless of course, he's been in the United States all along. If so, I'll be sure to question his intelligence."
Eyes still locked with Sera's, my voice was far huskier than I liked. "How long do we have until they arrive?"
Behind me, Aiden opened a closet door, items crashing against each other as he searched through his sensual tools. I expected Sera to break the stare-down between us, but she bit her lower lip instead. Moisture welled in her eyes that she refused to blink away. And still, her chest rubbed against me, her lips tempting me with every subtle movement they made.
"A little over an hour," Aiden said before he sighed. "If you two are done eye fucking, I have a job to do and I'd like to get back to it."
"It seems the moment has passed," I answered on a bare whisper, a response meant more for the woman who so courageously faced me down than for the man standing impatiently behind me. The wrinkling of Sera's brow brought a smile to my face. Allowing it for only a second, I forced my expression back to blank.
Leather slapped against skin behind me, the sound drawing Sera's attention away from me and towards the man upon which it should have been focused the entire time he was in the room. I was able to step away now without feeling like I'd given in to her rebellion, able to distance myself from the woman who kept me chained within her secrets and pain.
Turning, I found Aiden testing the weight of a crop against his palm. Absent from his eyes was excitement for what he had planned. The task had become nothing but a job to him and I wondered if it was the years and countless women he'd trained that had drawn away the heady anticipation - or if it was, in fact, the simple truth that the only woman who excited him was a strawberry blonde with whom he'd helplessly fallen in love. It was useless to ask him such a question. He would only lie with the most cutting of explanations.
"You're welcome to stay for this, Anthony. Perhaps you can learn something beyond the compassion I see boiling inside you."
Laughter boomed from my lungs, the sound so startling that even Aiden couldn't hold his expression. "I'd indulge you, young pup, but I want to prepare for the visitors that are on their way. Once you've finished, meet me in the kitchen."
His grin caused a dimple to indent his cheek. "Young pup? You're only a few years older than me."
"Ten to be precise," I answered. "And in those ten, I learned tricks that you have yet to discover."
His laughter chased mine for only a few seconds before he focused his attention on the task at hand. There was the echo of amusement in his tone, "Hello, Sera. I hope you've rested up."
The crop slapped against the palm of his hand. Sera didn't so much as flinch. That told me a lot about her, more than any man wanted to know about the torture she’d endured.
"I'll let you get to it," I said, excusing myself from the room. The last thing I wanted to witness was Sera receiving another mark - no matter how impermanent it would be.
That's not to say I wouldn't mark her myself, but it would be my brand she bore - a mark that told a story of me on her skin. Watching another man claim her, it was more than I was willing to stomach.
I'd crossed the room and had my hand on the doorknob when Sera spoke softly. "Wait." As if in afterthought, she added, "Please."
Aiden continued slapping the crop against his palm like a metronome counting down the beats of my departure. Without turning, I waited to hear what Sera was brave - or stupid - enough to say.
"I'll give you the names," she whispered, her voice becoming stronger with each word, and with her brave demand. "But, only if I can correct the mistake I made last night. I want Anthony as my Master. I-" she breathed out heavily. "I need him."
Where her words inflamed my heart, they only served to draw morbid laughter from Aiden's lips. He didn't need to voice his opinion for me to know what line Sera had crossed - what truth she had yet to discover.
For a courtesan, there was no choice. There were no demands. No tricks. No bargaining in order to strip a Master of his absolute authority. Submission is never give and take. Aiden didn't want her. He would never care to keep her as his own. But that wasn't the point. Sera had to learn the one simple truth that her desires meant nothing - that her life meant nothing - in order to move beyond what Aiden was now teaching her.
It wasn't like a Master to shatter along with the courtesan he trained. And although she wasn't technically mine, I would shatter nonetheless. Maybe that was the one simple truth I had yet to learn - that for the beat of compassion in my heart, I had never been a true Master at all.
"You'll give me the names," Aiden spoke into the silence, "whether you receive something back for the confession, or not."
Exiting the room on that note, I winced when I heard the sharp crack of leather against skin...even if I knew Sera didn't.