Mastering Will

Mastering Will

Amber Kell

How well do you know the man you love?

For five years Will has hidden from his mafia family, keeping secrets in order to live happily with the Dom of his dreams, Lindi Samms. But that life is about to come to a screeching halt. The mastermind of a forgery ring Lindi busted kidnaps Will and exposes his past. Now Lindi must save Will from the criminals determined to keep him. But can he move past Will's deception?

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MASTERING WILL

Bad Boys Series

Copyright © 2014 AMBER KELL

Cover art by Amanda Kelsey

Edited by Trinity Scott

ISBN: 978-1-936387-67-0

All Romance eBooks, LLC Palm Harbor, Florida 34684 www.allromanceebooks.com

This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or business establishments, events, or locales is coincidental.

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever with out written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First All Romance eBooks publication: May 2014

Three Weeks Earlier

“I’m going to take you down, Samms!” Harkinson screamed. The smooth, cultured gentleman who had been all soft words and slick salesman appeal had vanished in the face of his arrest. His true personality was now coming through.

Lindi’s mouth curled in satisfaction as Special Agent Calthers slapped cuffs on the art forger’s wrists. Harkinson made a big mistake when he tried to move his knock-offs through Lindi’s gallery. He had a no-tolerance policy on people trying to rip him off and defraud his clients. He’d called the authorities and agreed to assist them with their sting.

“My guys will get you for this,” Harkinson shouted as the agents dragged him away. “Kiss your little cunt goodbye. My guys will slit his throat.”

Lindi froze. Fear iced along his spine. Harkinson had spent the past three months in and out of Lindi’s galleries and had met Will more than once. No one seeing Lindi and Will together would have any questions about their relationship. The quickest way to get Lindi to do what they wanted would be to get hold of Will.

“You touch him, and it will be the last thing you do,” Lindi shouted.

Harkinson smiled, a cold, ugly expression on his narrow face. “I won’t touch him, but I can’t say anything about my friends. They’d love to get their hands on your pretty boy-toy.”

Lindi lunged only to be jerked back by two agents.

“Don’t let him get to you. It will compromise your case if I have to arrest you for beating Harkinson to death,” the man on his right said.

Lindi had already forgotten the agent’s name. They all pretty much looked and sounded alike. Brown hair cut short, plain suits, appalling shoe choices and hard expressions. Variances in height and ethnicity didn’t appear to change their uniform blandness. Stephen, Lindi’s artist friend, would’ve itched to capture them with his pencil. He’d probably name it “Sea of Brown” or some shit like that. Lindi would probably be able to sell it for thousands.

Harkinson was hauled to an unmarked car, still screaming obscenities.

“You need to go to a safe house until you testify,” Calthers said. “Or at least until we apprehend the rest of his team.”

Lindi didn’t hesitate to answer. “No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?” Calthers spun Lindi around. “If you don’t go into hiding, the gang will hunt you down. You just got their best forger arrested.”

“If that was their best forger, I did them a favor.” Lindi sneered. Stephen could draw circles around them. “Now, I’m going home, unless you want to charge me with something?”

He pointedly waited for their response. No way would he leave Will unprotected for an undetermined amount of time. He had no doubt Harkinson had already given his associates information about Will as backup in case Lindi became resistant to the idea of moving fake art through his gallery.

“We can’t protect you if you insist on putting yourself in plain sight,” Calthers growled. “Maybe you can at least leave town.”

Lindi shook his head. “No, Will gets anxiety in unfamiliar surroundings.”

“Is Will worth losing your life over?” Calthers asked. After he released Harkinson to the other agents, he returned to question Lindi.

The image of Will’s soft gray eyes and tender smile flashed into Lindi’s mind. “Yeah, he is.”

“You’re willing to risk your life for your boyfriend,” bland agent number three asked.

Lindi narrowed his eyes as he examined the astonished trio before him. “I’m going to chalk this up to the fact you don’t know me, not that you’re truly idiots. I refuse to go into hiding and abandon the man I love. I’m sorry if that’s too difficult for any of you to understand. Unless you can guarantee Will’s safety, I’m going home.”

“I can arrange for your place to be watched. That will at least give your man some limited protection,” Calthers offered. “I know you ex-soldier types. You think you can protect yourself, but this is a gang of thieves who’ve fooled most of the art experts in the country. They don’t have a history of harming people, but they’ve never lost one of their members before. They aren’t going to follow a predictable pattern.”

“I appreciate you watching my place, but I’m not leaving Will.” His lover stayed home most of the time. If the Feds were watching their condo, Will should remain safe.

Calthers nodded. “Fair enough. Let me know if you have any problems. We can put you in protection against your will if necessary. We’ve been trying for years to nail this ring, and this is our first solid chance of arresting them.”

Lindi met Calthers’s hazel eyes. “Let me make one thing clear, Agent Calthers. If you kidnap me and leave my boy out in the cold alone, I will have my very good friends in government chew you up and spit you out. There is nothing in this world that will have me abandon my lover, and if you even try to arrange it, I won’t testify.”

With those parting words, Lindi left his gallery. It would be all over the news by evening that he’d stopped a forger. The agents had warned him he would be a target for media attention. Lindi was glad Will didn’t watch the news. His boy didn’t like hearing about all the bad things in the world. Lindi would do anything to keep his boy safe. It was time to pull his guns out of storage.

Although he’d spent the past eight years running a gallery and dressing in expensive suits, that didn’t erase a childhood running with gangs or his years in Special Forces afterward. Lindi knew how to protect his sub, and there weren’t any limits on what he’d do in order to keep Will safe.

Present Day

The club pulsed with a symphony of slaps and groans, a counterpoint to the piped-in background music.

“Here you go, sir.” A skinny kid in shiny shorts and nothing else set a glass of scotch and a bottle of water before Lindi, with an unnecessary amount of eye fluttering and smiling.

“Thank you.” Lindi tossed a tip onto the tray.

“Your food order is on the way. Anything else I can do for you, sir?” The server’s eyes insinuated anything else was on the table.

“As my sub is obviously sitting beside me, I find your behavior disrespectful. I’d suggest you go help someone else before I decide to talk to your boss.”

The sub paled. “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”

He fled with impressive speed, considering the tightness of his outfit.

“You’re in a pissy mood today, Lin,” Carlyle commented before taking a sip of his dark beer.

Lindi adjusted his cuffs. “I don’t like people disrespecting Will.”

He cracked the lid of the water bottle and handed it down to his sub, sitting on the pillow beside his chair.

“Thank you, Master,” Will’s soft voice smoothed over the harsh edges of Lindi’s temper.

“You’re welcome, Pet.” Lindi slid his fingers through Will’s hair, brushing down the bits that always tried to stick up. Will hated disorder.

“I’ll talk to Greg for you if you like,” Victor Jones offered. “I’m having dinner with him and Stephen later.”

“No, that’s all right. The waiter is correcting his behavior, he just needs to learn some manners.” Lindi frowned. He didn’t want to get the waiter in trouble with Greg Carter, the club’s owner.

“Any problem at your galleries?” Carlyle asked. “Did your reputation take a hit?”

“No. Luckily, I was able to tell everyone I detected the fakes before any of the paintings left my gallery. Now I’m sort of an art celebrity. Business has never been better.” He smiled at Victor. “With all the increased traffic, Stephen’s pen-and-ink drawings sold out in a day.”

“That’s because he’s incredibly talented.” Victor had every right to look pleased. His sub, Stephen, had an insane amount of artistic skill.

Last month, Stephen had signed an exclusive contract for Lindi to carry Stephen’s work. Even though Victor and Lindi were longtime friends, Victor wouldn’t have let Stephen sign with him if he didn’t think Lindi would do a good job representing his sub. There was only so far friendship went when their subs were involved.

“How late is Ralph working?” Lindi asked Carlyle. Carlyle’s sub worked as a bouncer at the club they were sitting in.

Carlyle took a sip of his beer. “Until midnight, then he’s all mine. I’m trying to get him to quit, but he’s determined to earn his own way.”

Lindi smiled at the mixture of annoyance and pride in Carlyle’s tone. “You two will find your niche together. If working is important to him, you’ll have to learn to be flexible.”

His leg shook from his sub’s movement. Looking down, he saw Will’s laughing face before his sub ducked his head to hide his amusement. “Do you have something to say, Pet?”

Will shook his head, then took a sip of water.

“He’s probably contemplating the irony of you of all people recommending someone to be flexible. He’s just too well behaved to say it,” Carlyle said.

Lindi stroked Will’s head. “He is well behaved. I should probably reward him for that later.”

Will nodded his approval of that idea, grinning up at Lindi, his gray eyes warm with love. Lindi would do anything to keep that expression on Will’s face.

“How long have the two of you been together now…three…four years?” Carlyle asked.

“Five. Five amazing years.” Lindi had never considered himself an emotional man. Before Will, Lindi only had his friendships with other Doms. Now, he didn’t know how he would cope without his beautiful sub. Will was more than just his partner, he was everything.

Will rested his head on Lindi’s thigh, his cheek brushing Lindi’s leg like an eager cat.

“I hope Stephen and I last as long,” Victor said, watching Will and Lindi interact.

“Why wouldn’t you?” Lindi hadn’t heard the two men were having any problems.

Victor shrugged. “No reason. Relationships don’t always last, even when you give it your best shot. I plan on being with Stephen for years, but I know a lot of people who thought the same thing, and their relationship fell apart.”

“They just take work. It’s not a magical process.” Every day, Lindi started the morning by giving Will his entire focus. Without their routines, Lindi’s busy day would eat up all their time. He’d been a workaholic when he first met Will, and he had no interest in returning to that mindset.

The food arrived, and the sparkly server from before had toned it down several notches. He didn’t so much as flutter one flirtatious eyelash in Lindi’s direction.

He set the platter down precisely in front of Lindi with a short bow. “Is there anything else I can get for anyone?”

“No, I’m good.”

The other Doms nodded.

“I’ll be around. Let me know if there is anything else I can bring you.” The server gave another bow, then rushed off.

“I think you scared him,” Victor said, amused.

“Serves him right, hitting on me when my boy is here,” Lindi grumbled.

“So if Will wasn’t kneeling beside you, it would be all right?” Carlyle teased.

“No. Everyone has seen me here enough to know I belong with Will. I don’t respect poachers.”

“Speaking of poachers, how did Will’s cooking class go?” Carlyle asked.

Will’s soft noise of amusement had Lindi smiling despite his annoyance. The Dom teaching Will’s class showed way too much interest in Will for Lindi’s taste. If he didn’t know he had Will’s complete devotion, he’d be more concerned than irritated.

“It went well. Will made an amazing pasta dish last night. Lopez might be a bastard, but he does know how to cook.”

“That’s good at least.” Victor grinned.

His friends got an inordinate amount of joy over teasing Lindi about his possessiveness. A bit hypocritical to Lindi’s way of thinking, considering how they guarded their own subs like they were precious jewels.

Lindi carefully dipped a shrimp in sauce, then offered the food to his sub. Will lapped at the shrimp, then sucked in the meat, along with Lindi’s index finger. The suction of Will’s hot mouth on his skin jerked a moan from Lindi.