Free Oak, Sophie - Siren Beloved [Texas Sirens 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Sophie Oak

snare like a cobra waiting to strike at a pretty little bird he’d caught in a trap. But Lucas understood. He was the one who was really trapped. He could take his girl and leave this world they had come to love. He and Lexi had played at the edges of this particular ocean, but they’d never waded into deep waters. He could scoop her up and walk away and never know if they could have been happy if they had only learned how to swim.
    Or he could do what every switch had to do from time to time. He could gamble and give up control and hope that he found paradise for his trouble. Lucas Cameron might have grown more stable and settled in the past few years, but he hadn’t forgotten what it meant to take a risk.
    “I’m in.”

    * * * *

    Lexi realized she was in serious trouble the minute the words left Lucas’s mouth. Hell, she’d realized she was in trouble the minute she opened her own damn mouth. What was she thinking? She knew damn well how to behave in a dungeon, but something about this Master made her want to push him. Damn it . She’d been this way all of her life. She just had to push. She thought about taking a step back, but before she could make her feet move, Master A had her in a fireman’s hold.
    “Hey!” Lexi shouted as her world upended. She turned her head up to throw a desperate look Lucas’s way.
    Lucas stood there, a stony cold look on his face. In that moment, he was all Dom, and Lexi had never seen him look hotter. There was a confidence about him Lexi had rarely seen when he was around her. Lucas was utterly in command at work, but his confidence faltered when she walked into the room. Even when he performed a scene with her, she knew he worried about her comfort. He didn’t look worried now. He looked ready.
    Lexi’s heart started to pound as Master A turned, and she lost sight of Lucas.
    “I need a chair, Lucas.” The words came out of the Master’s mouth like a judge delivering a sentence.
    “Yes, Sir.” Lucas’s words were silky smooth. There was not a hint of hesitation now. Lexi could hear him moving to do Master A’s bidding.
    “What do you think you’re doing?” Lexi asked, though she was a bit less hostile now. She’d fucked up. She was just glad Julian wasn’t around to witness it, though Leo would probably tell him. Tears pricked her eyes. Damn, she was proving to Leo she couldn’t handle it. “Look, Sir, I’m sorry. It was very wrong of me to be rude to you, but I was just pointing out that Lucas and I had a plan for tonight.”
    Reason . She could reason with him, surely. It worked on all the men in her life. Of course, usually she was looking at them instead of trying to plead her case to a group of back muscles. The muscles were unbelievably tight, but his skin—oh, his skin had been decimated in his lower back. It was a mess of white, puckered flesh, and she could see both neat, surgical lines, and jagged edges. Lexi reached out to touch the mass of scars, but she was jerked back over his shoulder and set on her feet before she could make it. She wobbled on her heels, but Master A’s big hands held her shoulders.
    “I don’t think you understand how this is going to go, sub. I am the Master, and you are the one being punished. I won’t put up with a spoiled little princess telling me how her punishment will go. It will go the way I say it will go. First, you will pay for the insult to me, and then we’ll proceed to the sawhorse.”
    “I don’t like the sawhorse.” The words came out breathy and small, because she was beginning to understand that this was serious.
    Master A didn’t look like he was planning on giving in. And she hated being called a spoiled little princess, but a part of her worried that he was right. The last few years, she had allowed herself to become that. She’d fled from everything that hurt her. She’d hidden. She’d let her stepfathers and Lucas coddle and provide for her so she didn’t have to face the truth.
    “I don’t