Chapter 24

“Baby, you okay?” Jensen’s question shook her from her trip down memory lane.

“Yeah, just thinking. It’s been a crazy few years.”

He picked up her hand and kissed it. “I would be lost without you. You know that, don’t you?”

“I love you. I hate how much time we lost.”

“Don’t think about it. It all happened for a reason. We might never have found Las Palmas if things had been different.”

“Is kinky sex really worth almost dying?”

Jensen snorted. “Uh, yeah.”

Anna laughed. She waited at the passenger door for him to open it, then held his arm as she gingerly lowered herself onto the seat.

“I’m sorry, gorgeous.” He kissed her temple as she winced.

“No, you’re not.”

“Yeah, I’m not.”

“Jerk.”

“Nympho.”

Jensen slid behind the wheel. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a slip of paper. Rubbing it on the back of his hand, he then cupped her chin and pulled her in for a kiss. The smell of sandalwood flooded the car. Anna gasped as her nipples tightened and her pussy clenched.

“You bastard,” she breathed. Taking the slip of paper, she sniffed it. The scent of sandalwood made her head spin.

“Damn that’s hot.” He rubbed the back of his hand over her breast. “Why didn’t we do that before?”

“Drive, damn it.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” The engine purred to life and Jensen maneuvered the car out of the parking lot and down the long driveway.

“And the joke’s on you. We’re eating Chinese food for Thanksgiving.” Anna rolled down the window to clear out the scent before she went crazy.

“Huh?”

“Sage. The other scent you used was sage. It’s one of the main herbs in stuffing. Since I’m never getting near sage again, we will be eating Chinese food, or Thai food, for Thanksgiving.”

“Damn it, I love stuffing.”

“You really have no one to blame but yourself.”

“I guess I’ll just have to teach you to love sage again.”

“Remember, we only have two more weekends here before the wedding.”

Jensen’s eyes twitched at the mention of their upcoming wedding. It had been nearly ten months since he’d proposed, assuming they’d get married the next week. Anna was unrepentantly planning a six-

figure dream wedding. Theirs was an epic love story—it deserved an epic wedding.

“I will buy you a house in France if you’d just elope with me.”

“Nope. But you’re going to buy me a vacation house in France anyway.”

Jensen shot her a disgruntled look. “Then how about we move up our bonding ceremony?”

Anna pretended to consider it. “Wedding first.”

“Damn it, woman. Do you realize what I would have done if they’d tried to give you to someone else this weekend?” The primal violence in his voice made her shiver. After all they’d done this weekend, she should have been too exhausted to even think about sex, but when it came to Jensen, it seemed that she could never get enough.

“I was a little concerned,” she admitted. “But I know you enjoyed making me sweat by pretending to be someone else. Besides, if you get lazy with the sex post-marriage, I might have to find a new Dom.

Don’t worry I’ll still have vanilla sex with you.”

“It’s cute that you think I’ll ever let anyone else touch you.”

“Maybe I’ll marry you but get bonded to a different Dom. A husband and a lover. I’d get double presents on Valentine’s day.” Anna fluttered her eyelashes.

“Maybe I’ll buy an island and keep you there naked and chained up.”

***

Master Xavier started walking toward Mae. He didn’t say anything, didn’t run or yell. He just walked.

When he was five feet away Mae took a small step back. Then another. Her shoulders hit the door behind her. In the next breath Master Xavier was there, looming over her.

“Are you criticizing me?” That deliciously rich voice of his had deepened further. Each syllable seemed to glide over her skin.

“I was only teasing, Sir.” Mae kept her gaze focused on the neck of his shirt and reminded herself that he wouldn’t, couldn’t hurt her. They were just talking—they weren’t in a scene, hadn’t negotiated to play.

But as he loomed over her, she felt that strange stirring again, this time accompanied by the urge to sink to her knees, to spread her legs and bow her head in that simplest of submissive postures.

“You’re teasing me?”

The dismissive tone irked her and the urge to kneel disappeared. “Yes. I am. Though it was a little rude to make me wait so long.” Mae pouted a bit as she said it.

Bad idea.

Maybe if she hadn’t had so many glasses of champagne, or been mentally out the door when Gabriela’s arrival yanked her back, Mae would have been able to bite her tongue and play the kind of sub Master Xavier was used to. But she wasn’t feeling submissive. She felt ready to poke and prod this man until she figured out why she felt this inexplicable attraction to him.

Behind the mask she saw his eyes widen at her response. His eyes were green. Not hazel, but a pretty true green.

He leaned closer. “Little girl, you don’t want to play with me. Tell the overseers that you won’t sub for me.”

Mae’s hands curled into fists. “I’m not your little girl.” There’d been a time when she’d reveled in being called that by a Dom, but her tastes had changed.

He reached for her hair, fingers stopping just short of contact. “No, you’re not.” He stepped back.

Mae’s mouth opened in surprise. Was that regret in his voice?

“Tell the overseers you can’t be partnered with me.” He turned his back, apparently done with her.

“Why?”

Master Xavier faced her, clearly surprised she was still in the room. “Is this what you like?” He motioned to the dungeon-like playroom. “This is what I like, and unless you want to be spread open on the floor so I can whip your pussy, I suggest you leave.”

* * *

Anna laced her fingers with Jensen’s. “Promises, promises,” she said with a smile.

As they sped down into the city, she felt the real world closing in around her. She’d work ten hour days the rest of this week, and meet with her wedding planner and bridesmaids in the evening. Jensen was finalizing the bid for a DOD design contract, so she probably wouldn’t see much of him until Thursday.

Despite the fact that their day-to-day lives left little time for emotional or physical intimacy, they’d be alright—the closeness from this weekend would linger, holding them together even when they were apart.

“Back to the real world,” he said as he parked in their garage. He helped her out, then pressed her back against the car. Jensen kissed her slow and deep.

“You’re mine,” he whispered. “Always and forever.”

Anna touched his cheek. “Always and forever.”

* * *

Xavier picked the envelope up from the floor under the chair. “Once you hear the list, you’ll realize you’re not ready for me.”

That brought her chin up, her gaze defiant even as she remained submissively kneeling. “What letter are we?”

“B, as in bondage.”

* * *

Master Leo took the large letter “A” off the board. One letter down, twenty-five to go. His submissive, Gabriela, knelt at his feet. She shifted, the tiny bells that dangled from her nipples jingling. Her breasts were marked by thin stripes from the cane he’d used on them earlier. Watching the people he’d assigned to the letter “B” had inspired him to do some “breast whipping” of his own.

“Come,” he said. “Let’s go see how they’re going to handle ‘branding.’”