Free Hurt Me So Good by Joely Sue Burkhart

breaking the fierce bond he’d formed as the Master. Cut free so suddenly, she wavered, dizzy and sick, too deep into the mental zone he’d already created.
    She ducked her head and gripped her thighs, digging her fingers into her flesh as hard as possible. She couldn’t function for the show like this.
    “Come here, baby.” Hands gentler than she expected, he gripped her upper arms and pulled her up to sit in his lap. She clung to him, hiding her face against his throat. His skin was hot, his pulse thudding as hard as hers. “Give us a minute. She’s all right,” he said to someone. “She’s still deep in the scene. It’s hard to shift her mind back from the game and focus on business.”
    His left hand stroked her buttock, unerringly locating the stripe he’d given her. His fingers danced along the welt and her breath caught in her throat.
    “What’s your safeword, Shiloh? That might help bring you back to the present a little quicker.”
    “I don’t know,” she mumbled against his neck.
    His fingers stilled, and she felt his sudden intensity in the tensing of his thighs beneath her. “How can you not have a safeword?”
    Talking helped return her clarity. She sat up straighter, curious to see why he was so annoyed—or alarmed?—by her answer. “I haven’t needed one.”
    His eyes were smoldering midnight coals in the harsh planes of his face. “You’ve done a scene before. You’re too well trained and comfortable with play to not know the basics. Every sub has a safeword, Shiloh, or they shouldn’t play. No Dominant who gives a damn would even consider playing with a sub who couldn’t tell them when to stop.”
    “I know the rules,” she replied defensively, stiffening her shoulders. “I was taught by a very caring Dominant years ago.”
    “And he never gave you a word to stop him?” Victor made a disgusted sound. “Then he wasn’t so very caring.”
    Her cheeks heated. She glanced about to ensure most of the crew had stepped aside, giving them a little space as he’d requested. “I had a word with him but we never used it. There was no need. Besides, I don’t want to use the same word with you. It’d be like wearing another woman’s engagement ring.”
    A muscle ticked in his jaw at her deliberate jibe. “Why did you have no need for the most basic beginning rule of the scene?”
    “He couldn’t hurt me enough to make me use it.”
    His fingers prodded the sore spot on her buttock. “Couldn’t, or wouldn’t?”
    “Couldn’t. That’s why we mutually agreed to part ways. Besides, he was much older. We never planned to have a future together. He was merely teaching me what I needed to know to protect myself.”
    Victor muttered beneath his breath. “From men like me.”
    She jerked away and stood up, staring him in the eye proudly. “I don’t need protection from you, Victor Connagher. I can take whatever you dish out.”
    With menacing grace, he stood, towering over her with a fierce scowl on his face. “You will have a safeword.”
    “Fine,” she snapped, whirling away only to jerk to a halt.
    Sweet and pure like an angel, Kimberly stared, her perfect bow mouth falling open into a delicate O.
    Tears clogged Shiloh’s throat, but she kept her head high. If he wanted to hear her whining and crying out a safeword like the white flag of surrender, then maybe he really would prefer to have the fragile woman. She’d certainly beg and sob prettily.
    Deliberately cocking her hips in a blatant dare, Shiloh paused and glanced back over her shoulder at him. She reached back to lightly stroke the fading welt he’d given her. Her eyes burned and her lips trembled, because the pain was already gone. His mark was fading, and now he wanted something that she feared she wouldn’t be able to give.
    With a little jerk of her chin, she marched off set. “My safeword is chutzpah.”

Chapter Seven
    Changing into her jeans, Shiloh struggled to regain her balance. Even though Victor was