Blake, Abby - Maya's Masters [Viper's Dungeon 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)

Chapter One

Derek watched the sub closely for any signs of discomfort. She moaned as the soft leather hit her over and over, the smooth, hypnotic rhythm pushing the woman toward hyperspace—a place where the sub was only aware of the touch of the flogger and her own body’s needs. She cried out, the arousal obvious in her husky voice as her Dom slowly increased the pace and the strength of the blows. Completely naked she undulated against her bonds, her eyesight glazing over as her entire concentration turned inward.

Derek stood off to one side, supervising the trainee Dom as he learned how best to bring himself and his sub satisfaction. Derek had been flogging subs for many years now, and he’d always gained a huge sense of satisfaction in bringing a woman to a shuddering climax with only the touch of soft leather. He’d lost count of the number of subs who’d been surprised by their own reactions to the stinging bite of pain.

But lately his concentration had begun to wander. And that was a very bad thing. A Dom needed to be totally focused and fully aware of the sub and her reactions to ensure she was properly cared for and brought to orgasm without any damage. A lapse in concentration could cause an injury, and despite the fact that he had years of experience, Derek wasn’t willing to risk any sub’s health.

Thankfully, Viper had agreed with him when he’d explained the situation. Viper’s Dungeon was a very exclusive, and therefore very expensive, BDSM club. On a cop’s salary, being a member was damn near impossible. Fortunately, Derek had started work here many years ago as a dungeon monitor and had quickly graduated to assisting and tutoring Doms and their subs in the art of flogging—quite often demonstrating with subs who had difficulty achieving orgasm in public.

Derek smiled as the sub started to shake with her orgasm, her low moans and guttural grunts growing louder as her Dom turned to stroking her hypersensitive skin with the leather strips of the flogger. She screamed loud and long, her climax robbing her of control and leaving her shivering in her bonds. Her Dom smiled and touched her face lovingly.

Yet, despite the woman’s obvious enjoyment, and her Dom’s grateful thanks for Derek’s instructions, for Derek something was missing.

He’d found himself thinking about Maya more and more often, but, apart from the fact that Derek didn’t want a permanent connection to any sub, it was obvious by her reaction to Derek and Viper that she was aware of the BDSM lifestyle and had absolutely no love for it.

In fact, to say that Maya hated the idea of a Dom-sub type of relationship would be a serious understatement. But it hadn’t poured cold water on his physical attraction for her.

When he’d heard about the break-in at her restaurant, he’d been very close to bundling her into his arms and locking her in his bedroom for safekeeping. Hell, if she’d been into the lifestyle he damn well would have. But with Maya he was fairly certain that type of reaction would get him arrested, and with him being a police officer that probably wouldn’t go down well with his boss.

He was still trying to reconcile his possessive feelings for Maya against the fact that he’d decided years ago against a permanent relationship with anyone, when an old friend walked in the door and headed directly for Jace. The look of determination did nothing to hide the uncertainty in Logan’s demeanor. Derek rubbed the headache growing behind his forehead. At least whatever was going to happen would give him something to think about for a while and distract him from his own internal dissatisfaction.

* * * *

Cam watched the tense body language between Logan and Jace. He hadn’t seen Jace in years and, other than a brief story about a girl named Emma, Logan hadn’t given Cam any real explanation of what might be going on. He stood back, giving the two men some privacy, but the urge to back up his swim buddy was still overwhelmingly strong. Considering that Cam had been given a medical discharge from the Navy, his SEAL days, and therefore his time as Logan’s swim buddy, were well and truly behind him.

His fingers tightened on the handle of his cane as Logan and Jace headed into a private room. Well, at least that answered the question on whether he was needed or not. It seemed that his assistance was not required.

He glanced around Viper’s Dungeon. He hadn’t been here often, had never really had the time or any real inclination to fully explore the lifestyle, but he’d met Viper several years back and considered him a friend. He turned to one of the display stations and watched as a man smacked a naked woman tied to a strange-looking bench. She moaned as he hit her over and over with his bare hand. Personally, Cam couldn’t think of anything more uncomfortable. It seemed more like an interrogation technique than the pleasurable experience the woman seemed to think it was. Her high-pitched scream as she climaxed a few moments later confirmed that she knew something Cam didn’t.

He glanced over just in time to see Logan and Jace, both wearing smiles, heading in his direction. Thankfully, whatever had caused the tension between them seemed to have been sorted.

“I’m going to see a girl,” Logan said with a wide smile. But then his cocky grin faded slightly, and Cam saw his friend’s vulnerability. It wasn’t often that either of them had weak moments, but they knew each other well enough to identify them. “I’ll either be back in an hour or I’ll call you in a few days.”

Cam nodded, shook his friend’s hand, and sent him on his way.

“He won’t be back anytime soon,” Jace said as he stood beside Cam and watched Logan practically run out the door. “Emma loves him. She won’t boot him out.”

“Good to know,” Cam said, genuinely pleased for his swim buddy. Logan was a good guy and deserved to be happy. If he’d found a woman strong enough to be the wife of a Navy lifer, he should grab her with both hands and hold on tight.

“You still on medical leave?” Jace asked with a quick glance at Cam’s cane.

“No,” Cam answered quietly. He’d had months to prepare himself for this. Hell, he’d known the moment he’d been shot six months ago that this was how his life was going to go, but still he couldn’t find it in himself to say the words out loud. He hadn’t even told his parents yet. They’d been so proud of his Navy career that he just couldn’t find the words to tell them over the phone that it was over. It didn’t help his peace of mind that he hadn’t really explored all the possibilities of his post-injury career. He might have been able to fit somewhere else within the Navy, but after six months behind a desk he’d realized that the SEAL teams were the only place he’d truly wanted to be. So with no chance of returning to his squad, he’d taken the medical discharge and walked away. The trouble was he had no idea what to do next.

“I’m sorry, Cam,” Jace said with a tight nod. He glanced over his shoulder at Viper. “I’ve got to get back to work, but if you need anything…” He let the words trail off, perhaps realizing that Cam wouldn’t ask. Jace shook his hand, mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “stubborn-ass SEALs,” and headed back to his post as dungeon monitor.

Viper joined Cam a moment later. “I was about to take Bianca for coffee. Would you like to join us?”

Cam nodded. He was probably a little old for hero-worship, but Viper was the one man he knew who would be able to give him a glimpse of life after the SEAL teams. Not only did the man own this BDSM club, but he was quite wealthy and a well-respected businessman in the area. Anyone who could make kinky sex seem almost mainstream had to be doing something right.

“Sure, coffee sounds good.” Cam followed Viper over to a small grouping of comfortable chairs. Bianca was sitting in one but didn’t seem to be involved in the lively discussion the barely dressed women were having. When he and Viper got closer, the conversation stopped mid word and all of the women lowered their eyes to the ground.

A little disconcerted by the collective reaction, Cam stood back feeling uncomfortable and definitely out of place. Viper stepped over to Bianca, unlocked the chains holding her to the seat, and lifted her into his arms. He carried her into the change rooms, and a few minutes later the pair returned with Bianca wearing much more clothing.

Cam glanced at the other women. They all seemed happy—even though they, too, were chained into their seats. His instinct was to be polite and maybe introduce himself, but he didn’t really understand the lifestyle everyone in this club seemed to enjoy. He glanced at the woman walking beside Viper and amended that thought to
almost
everyone.

Despite his friendship with Viper, he’d only met Bianca a few times, and each time she seemed to be just a little more sad than the last. She’d always been a beautiful woman—rounded and curvy with a graceful movement that seemed a natural part of her rather than something she’d learned in the BDSM world—but she wasn’t the contented sex slave he’d met many years ago.

Viper wrapped his arm around Bianca’s shoulders as they stepped into the quiet street. They walked several blocks before stopping outside the front of a closed restaurant. Viper rapped his knuckles quietly against the glass window, and after a few moments a woman hurried into the area, unlocked the door, and gave Bianca a radiant smile.

“About time you two dropped by. It’s been nearly a week.” She grabbed Bianca by the hand and practically dragged her into the empty restaurant. Viper turned, locked the door, and followed the two women.

“Maya makes the best coffee in town.”

Cam didn’t really know how to respond to that, so he nodded and smiled at the woman. She was dressed casually in jeans, a sweater, and comfortable shoes, but even that couldn’t hide her delicious curves. She was tall and fit looking with generous breasts and, from this angle, what looked to be a heart-shaped ass. Despite being surrounded by near-naked women in the club, this was the woman who made his cock twitch in his pants. Her confident demeanor with Viper also suggested that she wasn’t part of the BDSM lifestyle—something else that, in Cam’s mind, was another tick on the plus side.

“Maya, this is a good friend of mine, Elijah Cameron.”

“Cam, this is my sister, Maya.” All the blood that had been quickly draining south to his cock suddenly reversed back to his brain, leaving him with a roaring headache. It didn’t matter how beautiful the woman was, friends didn’t think those sorts of things about their friends’ sisters.

Maya must’ve seen his reaction because she laughed and leaned over to smack Viper upside the head affectionately. “He’s not my brother,” she said to Cam as he watched the man laugh like a big brother teasing a younger sister. “He’s my sister’s brother-in-law. My sister married his brother. Why she’d want to marry into such a strange family is beyond me.” She grinned, threaded her arm around Cam’s elbow, and whispered conspiratorially, “But apparently love can’t be stopped.”

Cam grinned widely, enjoying her simple, platonic touch way more than he probably should. It was true that he hadn’t had a woman in his bed for a long time, but it didn’t quite explain his off-the-chart reactions to this one.

“How do you have your coffee?”

It took a moment for the words to make sense, but he finally found a part of his brain that was still working and answered, “Strong, sweet, and black.”

“SEALs,” she said affectionately with a roll of her eyes. She grinned impishly and turned to Viper. “I’ll get you your usual—decaf caramel latte with extra cream.”

Viper roared with laughter, but simply settled his big frame into a comfortable-looking sofa and pulled Bianca onto his lap. She curled into his embrace and closed her eyes. Cam watched the woman for a moment and nodded slightly in approval. It seemed that whatever was making Bianca sad, Viper wasn’t the problem.

Unsure what to do with himself, Cam lowered into a chair and tried not to wince at the familiar pain pulling at his knee. It was damned frustrating, the ache almost mocking him for the years of peak physical fitness that he’d taken for granted.

He ground his teeth together and tried to ignore the fact that he only had himself to blame for tonight’s stiffness. He’d ignored his physiotherapist’s advice once again and overdone things. If he played by the rules, his leg didn’t ache.

The trouble was he’d never been much for playing by the rules.

* * * *

Maya watched Cam try not to react to the pain in his knee. She’d recognized him as a SEAL the moment she laid eyes on him. Being raised a Navy brat and surrounded by men like him all her life made it easy to spot them. Although, she suspected by the cane that he carried and the slightly lost look in his eyes that he was no longer on the active duty roster.

She poured two black coffees, sweetened them the way both Cam and Viper liked, and carried them, and two cappuccinos with extra chocolate for her and Bianca, back into the main area of the closed restaurant.

She served the coffees and took a seat opposite Cam. It was probably a silly move—she’d vowed never to get entangled with a military man again—but she couldn’t quite keep her distance from this one. There was something intriguing about him. He called to her in ways only one man had done since her divorce.