Free Unraveled by Lorelei James Page A

returned that adoration. I’d never felt so . . . complete. I finally
     felt like a man.”
    When he paused to take a drink, Knox asked, “So did she expect out of you what I see
     the Dommes here expecting out of their submissives?”
    “Yes. And no. Did I wear a collar? Of sorts. She gave me anecklace with a tiny charm that had our initials intertwined, and I wore it with the
     same pride submissives wear their collars. Did I spend time on my knees? Yes. During
     the first few months with her, she used that as a way for me to focus on her words
     and her voice. Other times when she demanded I drop to my knees, it was to service
     her.” Merrick glanced up. “Bear in mind all of this happened behind closed doors.
     She was a damn possessive woman. She hated the idea of anyone seeing me naked but
     her. So she never would’ve taken me to a club like this. She never would’ve strapped
     on a dildo and fucked me in public for the amusement of others. She used reward with
     me rather than humiliation. She didn’t care if others knew how well disciplined I
     was; she cared only that
I
showed my impeccable training to her as the ultimate respect for her. When we were
     together in public, it was trickier. Since she was so much older than me, she introduced
     me as her assistant.” He scowled. “Which rankled my young man’s ego big-time. I wanted
     everyone to know that I was solely hers, but I also understood that her business would
     suffer if we were out as a couple. We lived together in one of the bigger apartment
     buildings she owned, but I also had an apartment there—not that I think the ones closest
     to her were fooled.”
    Knox swigged his beer. A million questions raced around in his head, but he waited
     for Merrick to continue.
    “I graduated from college and went to work for her company. That year we bought and
     sold a record number of properties and made huge amounts of money. I had it all. The
     next year I’d almost had Lizette convinced we could take our relationship public when
     she . . .” His voice broke, and he took a sip of his drink. “She was diagnosed with
     breast cancer.”
    “Jesus fucking Christ, man, I’m sorry.”
    “Yeah, it wasn’t good news. She tried to cut me out of her life. She fired me. She
     had the locks changed on the apartment. But I refused to accept that. I wouldn’t let
     my Mistress go through everythingalone. I made her understand that she didn’t need to shelter me because I always had
     been—and always would be—
her
shelter. Her lame-assed argument was she didn’t want me to remember her only as frail
     and dying. And as I watched her suffer through all the medical treatments, I understood
     she was stronger than I’d ever fathomed. I realized that
her
being so goddamn formidable didn’t make
me
a weak submissive or a weak man. It made me a stronger man than I ever would’ve been
     without her.
    “Lizette fought the good fight for a year. Even on her deathbed the crazy woman provided
     proof to her lawyer that we’d lived together for seven years, and that invoked the
     common-law marriage statute. So she left me everything—her real-estate holdings, money
     in the bank. I was set for life, but I didn’t have the only thing I’d ever wanted,
     the only person who’d truly ever been mine. She belonged to me as much as I belonged
     to her.” Merrick pushed his empty drink glass toward the edge of the bar. “Can I get
     a bottle of water, please?”
    “Sure thing.” Knox walked to the far cooler, needing a second to get a handle on the
     emotions going haywire inside him. What he’d just heard didn’t sound like servitude;
     it sounded like a normal, albeit tragic, love story. Maybe even better than what was
     considered normal. He grabbed a bottle from the far back shelf so he could feel the
     cooling effects of the refrigerated air on his hot face. He stood and walked back,
     setting the water in front of Merrick, more confused than