Free DragonMaster by Jory Strong Page A

level
of trust that transcended any she could find in a vanilla relationship. It
confined her world, blocked out the worries that came with caring about so many
other people, and allowed her to be fully attuned to her own needs as well as
her master’s.
    She wanted that with Jubal, yearned for it.
Craved not only the sense of belonging that would come with the joining of his
body to hers, but with wearing his collar and being subject to his demands at
home.
    She stopped in front of the cross. Jubal’s
firm hand tangled in her hair kept her from turning to face him.
    His arm went around her waist, the flogger
touched to her belly with its tails streaming downward to settle against her
cunt. “I’d prefer to be inside my mate’s body, showing her a lover’s care
instead of a master’s discipline. Name the object, Summer.”
    Mate . The
word rippled through her in a shiver of pleasure, became a temptation of hope
colliding against loyalty and fear.
    Be careful, Summer. Please be careful. Kei’s words as he touched his forehead to hers, telling her that a
kitsune’s star ball was a prize and dragons would stop at nothing when it came
to acquiring treasure.
    Did Jubal not know what Miles had? Or was
he merely testing her?
    My word is law. My decisions final.
    “I can’t tell you,” she whispered, aching
when that answer brought loss of contact except for what was required to lift
and bind her wrists to the cross before he crouched behind her to secure her
ankles, delivering a spank to her ass when she tried to distract him with the
rub of it against his cheek.
    She shivered in anticipation of feeling the
lash of the flogger. Managed a glance in Miles’ direction.
    Panic swelled at seeing him check his
watch, then say something to his sub that sent the other man toward the
changing rooms. He meant to leave.
    The rustle of clothing behind her drew her
attention. Her panic intensified at the sight of Jubal’s tie being brought toward
her eyes to become a blindfold.
    “No,” she gasped, fighting the restraints
in a hopeless attempt to avoid the silky darkness awaiting her.
    Her heart thundered in her ears with the
touch of the material to her skin. Her chest constricted, making it nearly
impossible to breathe as the tie tightened, locking her in blindness.
    The safe word erupted from her subconscious
like a beacon illuminating a terrible path. Enos .
    “Use it and we are finished.” And she’d
heard in his tone a complete ending instead of merely an end to the scene.
    “Please don’t do this, Master,” she said,
renewing her jerks against the restraints.
    “You’ve left me no choice, beloved.”
    Want and need coiled in her belly at
hearing the endearment. She trembled with it, cried out as the flogger struck
her, creating trails of fire that had a voice.
    Decide.
    Decide.
    Decide.
    A silent command followed by the press of
his chest to her back, the shirt between them symbolic of the secret keeping
them apart.
    She knew Miles’ routine. He’d dress in his
street clothes then come in for one last look. She had five minutes, tops,
before he’d be gone, and any chance of recovering Kei’s star ball tonight gone
with him.
    Enos. But
that wasn’t what left her lips.
    “Master, I don’t want to lose you.”
    A touch of his mouth to neck and shoulder
were the entirety of his answer before he removed heat and comfort to deliver
more punishment, a demand for her to give him what a master was entitled to,
what she would have gladly surrendered to him any other night. Her trust.
    Fire streaked across her back, and though
the flogger didn’t circle to land on breasts or pussy, it might as well have.
She burned, ached as though she’d felt the hot, sharp sting of the lash on
those parts of her body.
    He stopped. Once again touched his shirt-covered
chest to her back, trapping the heat and inherent demand of his discipline
against her naked skin, offering the promise of true intimacy if she would
relinquish what she