Free Unraveled by Lorelei James

it interesting she didn’t apply for membership as Ronin’s sister.
     She used her club references in Tokyo. Only after she and I met in person did she
     tell me who she was.” He took a drink. “Will her being here be a problem for you?”
    Not in the way you might think, because the damn woman makes me think
. Annoyed by that thought, he said, “She and I constantly butt heads at the dojo,”
     a little testily.
    “You worried because of her martial-arts skills and being a Domme she’ll take punishments
     too far here at the club?”
    Knox frowned at him. “That’s the last worry I’d ever have with her. The only person
     I’ve ever seen with more control is her brother.”
    “So is it the idea of seeing her in a sexual situation that’s causing your concern?”
    He thought back to last week when she’d made Dex come just by commanding it. That’d
     been hot as hell. But she hadn’t demanded reciprocation. What if she had? Could Knox
     have stood there watching Dex get Mistress B off with his hand or his mouth?
    No. And fuck if that feeling of . . . possession didn’t annoy him too. As much as
     he’d like to witness She-Cat losing control and see what she looked like lost in passion,
     he knew he couldn’t stand watching it happen at the hands of another man.
    I’d want it to be
me
getting her off. Watching her writhe on
my
tongue,
my
fingers,
my
cock as she comes unraveled.
    “Knox?”
    He met Merrick’s gaze. “I don’t know. I talked to her after her scene with Dex. I
     wasn’t surprised to learn that she’s a Domme. What I can’t wrap my head around are
     male submissives.”
    “She tried to explain it to you?”
    “Tried and failed.”
    Merrick studied him in depth.
    “What?”
    “You’ve been part of Twisted for five years, Knox. My trust in you is implicit. So
     I’m going to tell you something that very few people know about me.”
    When Knox grabbed himself a beer, Merrick laughed.
    “You may need that when I tell you I was a submissive for seven years.”
    Knox choked on his beer. “No shit? But you’re so . . . Jesus, Merrick. You know how
     goddamn formidable you are.”
    “And there’s where your problem originates. You see male submissives as weak, probably
     as pansy asses with mommy-pleasingissues, the need to be coddled, but I assure you that’s a dead-wrong assessment. Dead
     wrong,” he repeated.
    “So how’d you meet your . . . ?”
    “I met Lizette when I was eighteen. I’d moved to Denver to attend college. She was
     this beautiful, dynamic woman twenty years older than me, who owned my apartment building
     and ran her own successful real-estate-development company. She’d come by the apartment
     complex to check on something and I just happened to be in the manager’s office. Somehow
     we ended up in the courtyard talking for hours. My college education, my family life,
     the girls I’d dated. Then we discussed business and the difference between setting
     goals versus having dreams. She firmly believed strong discipline on one side of your
     life would automatically bolster the other. So she began to train me.”
    “Did you know what she was?”
    Merrick shook his head. “I’d never heard of a woman calling the shots in all aspects
     of her life being called anything except a cold, calculating, ball-busting bitch.”
     He smiled, but it held a hint of sadness. “Lizette was anything but cold. She was
     warm, giving, loving, and unashamed of her needs. I was young and so very green. She
     taught me everything I know about how to please a woman. Which meant I spent a lot
     of time learning mental and physical discipline at her feet and occasionally tied
     to her bed. I learned to please her not out of a sense of obligation, but because
     anticipating her needs gave me a sense of pride and purpose.
No one
knew her like I did.
No one
could give her what I did. When she trusted that I’d given her my all without boundaries
     or exceptions, she