Slave To Love (9 page)

“This is a great size, don’t you think?” Ananda strolled around the table already set with ten settings. “The table itself is big enough to do a formal service with at least ten people, and you can get a camera crew in here.”

“Yes, I think this would work.” Vern spoke up, but quickly turned away when Jace glanced at him.

Jace chalked up the strange reaction to the guy being shy or nervous, although the longer he stared at him, the more he thought he had seen him before. Maybe he’d built a house for him or one of his family members. Jace had done a lot of jobs over the years and had encountered many people.

“Here’s the kitchen.” Jace looked at Ananda. “Will you move out all my dishes and utensils?”

“If you don’t want us using them.” Ananda pulled out her tablet and started tapping over the screen.

“I don’t.”

“Fine. Noted. Along with your furniture and belongings, we’ll move out your dishes and utensils. Can we use the appliances?”

“That’s fine. You’re in luck. Since I knew I would be gone for a few weeks, the fridge is empty.” That sounded like a rational excuse. When he had no one to cook for, he didn’t bother keeping it or his pantry stocked.

“Good. We can fill it with fresh items when the contestants show up.” Ananda kept her stare on her tablet as Jace continued on with the tour.

“Here’s the family room.” The expansive place nearly ran along the backside of the two-story home from one side of the house to the other.

He’d intended for this room to be the one he, his family, and friends would spend the most time in together. The large glass window faced out into the well-manicured backyard that surrounded the in-ground pool. Jace could have gone for a much-needed dip right now if he didn’t have guests and a plane to catch.

“Awesome room.” Kitty beamed and clapped her hands. “I’m sure your dungeon is just as impressive.”

“I don’t have a dungeon.” Jace noticed the confused looks on Ananda and Kitty’s faces.

“I thought you said he was in the lifestyle.” Kitty faced Ananda.

Jace shook his head. “I used to be. Haven’t been for years.” He would have said since his brother did his show, but he would keep that thought to himself.

“The backyard looks huge.” Kitty stood in front of the window with her fists to her hips like a superhero. “Any close neighbors?”

“Not close enough to see in my house. Why?” He strolled up to her.

“We could use this as the play room. We can equip it with our own toys. I’m sure the Doms and Dommes will be bringing some of their own stuff, too. It’ll be fine. We can work around this.” Kitty’s light-brown eyes carried both a sinister and a soft expression all at once, like the woman could kill with kindness.

“I may not have close neighbors, but if people get wind of where you all might be taping, they’ll try to take a peek. My suggestion…” He went over to the fireplace mantle and picked up a slender, black remote. With a click of one button, shades came down in front of the window. “This gives you some privacy.”

“What would you need privacy for if this is not a dungeon?” Vern laughed, coupled with a snort.

“Because sometimes I have sex in this room.” Jace stared at Vern until Vern had to turn away. “Let me show you all the bedrooms.”

He led them through a labyrinth of hallways through his house to show them all seven spare bedrooms. Jace led them upstairs to show the master suite.

At his bedroom, he stopped outside the door. “I want every stitch of furniture in this room moved over to the guesthouse, got it?”

“Agreed.” Ananda typed something on her tablet before reconnecting her gaze to his.

Jace opened the door to his room. With the dark décor and the hurricane shutters closed, the room felt baleful and eerie. His decorator tried talking him out of painting his walls a slate gray, but Jace couldn’t be convinced. Next came the black carpeting on the floor, then the gray and black bed covering and pillowcases. The place had become his cave. He liked it that way.

“What’s behind this door here?” Vern headed toward the door that went to Jace’s office.

“That goes to my private office. You will not go in there. You will not touch anything in there. You will not have cameras in there.” He stared at Ananda. “I don’t want cameras in my bedroom. You can put them down the hallway to the room, but I don’t want this room or that room violated.” He pointed to the closed door that went to his office.

Jace’s words had been enough to scare Vern into backing up from the room.

“Man, we need to watch what the sub does all the time.” Kitty grabbed Jace’s arm. “You’re chopping our heads off.”

“Then film at someone else’s home. I don’t want cameras in these rooms. That’s not negotiable.” He volleyed his attention between Kitty and Ananda since it seemed like they made the major decisions here.

Kitty cursed under her breath. “Are you sure you’re not still a Dom? Fuck, man.”

Ananda sighed. “Fine. Done.” She turned to Kitty. “Keep her out of the bedroom as much as you can. If she’s in her room, she’d better be sleeping.”

“She’d better be doing that anyway.” Jace headed to the door. “I’m not running a brothel. And if I can’t have sex with you,” he pointed to Kitty, “or the contestants, no one will have sex under my roof.”

Kitty hung her thumbs from the belt loops on her worn jeans. “Okay. Is there a story behind that?”

“I asked Jace not to interact with the sub or any of the Dommes or crew members.” Ananda followed Jace out of the room.

“Wow. Hypocritical much?” Kitty shook her head. “We all saw the first show.”

“No,
we
didn’t.” Jace led the group back to the family room where he went to a back door that went to the pool area.

Kitty pointed to Ananda. “You and Eagan—”

“Master Eagan,” Ananda corrected.

Kitty rolled her eyes. “Fine. You and
Master
Eagan did it all over the place. It all worked out for you.”

“We’re an exception. I don’t want the contestants in this next show to think that it’ll be okay to have sex during the show.” Ananda stepped out onto the patio area around the pool along with the group. “There’s a clause in the contract that if anyone is caught having sex they’ll be immediately ejected from the show, no questions asked.”

“Wow. That’s rough. But lack of sex will make them interesting.” Kitty raised her eyebrows.

Jace walked over the brick pavers toward the guesthouse. “You won’t have any problems from me. I won’t be here the majority of the time, and I have absolutely no interest in sleeping with anyone associated with this project.” He glanced at Kitty. “No offense.”

Kitty shrugged. “None taken. You’re not my type.” She winked.

Jace opened the door. “Take this furniture out and put my bedroom furniture in here. The space is big enough. It should all fit.”

Ananda scanned the room. “Yep. That’ll work. And you’ll be gone for—”

Jace quickly supplied, “At least four to six weeks.”

“We won’t be completed with filming by then, but we should have a lot of ground covered. We should be out of your hair within a few weeks after you get back.” Kitty followed Jace back in the main house.

“I want my life to go back to normal by the time I get home. Feel me?” Jace stared into Ananda’s eyes.

“We’ll do what we can.” She peered behind herself. “Mind if I use your bathroom before I go.”

Jace nodded toward the powder room off the family room. At that time, Vern mumbled something and made his way to the living room by the front door.

“Okay, what’s up with that guy?” Jace whispered to Kitty.

“He’s cool. He was chatting up a storm before we came here.” Kitty scratched her armpit before crossing her arms over her flat chest. “So what name did you go by when you were in the scene? Master what?”

“It’s Jace. Just Jace.”

“Why did you get out of the life? You’re too young to be going through a mid-life crisis.”

“Is that what middle-aged guys do, buy fancy cars, date younger women and change their names?” He laughed. “No, it has everything to do with pop culture.”

Kitty blinked. “What the hell?”

“A character from a popular book series has the same name I do, and happens to be into the thing I’m into, or rather was into.”

“Dude, so you changed your name and life based off some book? Are you sure you’re a Dom. Oh, wait, you
used
to be a Dom. Got it.”

Jace wagged his finger at Kitty. “It’s a good thing I like you.” He turned to get the rest of his bags from his room when something, or rather someone, caught his attention.

He peered down at Ananda’s tablet on the table and saw the face of an angel, the same angel who invaded his thoughts and dreams for the last couple of weeks. It looked like the picture had been taken in a restaurant. He saw waiters behind her and patrons sitting at various tables. The way she looked into the camera and smiled, he felt like
he
had made her happy, that
he
caused her to smile.

Her brown-eyed stare, even in the photograph, connected to his. Her full mouth curled into the sweetest grin he’d ever seen. Her light, chestnut-colored hair held big, loose curls that surrounded her face. He wanted to touch her glowing, light butterscotch-colored flesh.

“Is she one of the house slaves?” he asked without removing his stare.

Kitty tapped her knuckle against the screen, which expanded the picture even more. “She’s
the
slave, or rather the submissive.”

“This is Meadow?” Jace held up the tablet. His senses hadn’t been off when he nearly told her that she would make a good submissive.

Kitty snickered. “You really didn’t watch the show? Meadow refused to do it. This is a friend of hers. She practically begged Ananda for the chance to do this show.”

“Really?” Jace set the tablet back on the table.

Maybe being away during taping would be good for him. Or maybe he needed to make a surprise trip back home. Cute or not, this woman had no idea what she agreed to put herself through. It would be good to prove Ananda and Eagan that finding love on a reality TV show only happened in special circumstances.

“So who are the Doms, Dommes, and house slaves?” He mustered enough strength to break his stare from the picture. “Anyone I might know?”

“I don’t know who you know. And I didn’t pick them.” Kitty shrugged.

To hear that news made Jace blink. “How did Ananda get you for the project?”

“Ananda, Eagan, and I all go to this exclusive dungeon in the Beach. She recognized me and knew my work. I did that hour drama show about a BDSM dungeon run by all women on that online streaming station, Hubbub.” Kitty leaned against the kitchen counter. “Ananda and I got to talking, and she convinced me to come on board with this project. She didn’t want to go with the last director because he and Eagan are still friends and he would have told him about this project. Not me. I can keep a secret.” She simulated twisting a key at her closed lips and tossing it away. “All she told me about you was that she knew someone with a great house.”

Someone. So he didn’t even rate as a brother-in-law. Fine. If she wanted to treat him like a stranger, he would do the same to her.

“So who’s securing the talent?” Jace asked.

Kitty shook her head. “Believe it or not, Vern is doing that.”

Jace craned his head around to stare at the chunky man standing by the front door. “Him?”

“Yeah. Dude is also in the lifestyle.” Kitty moved closer to Jace and lowered her voice. “He’s known as Piggy. He’s normally naked with a butt plug that has a curly tail on it like a little pig. And he wears a snout and pig ears. He crawls around the floor making the noise and doing just about anything you ask him, and I do mean
anything
.”

Christ, now Jace remembered him. He imagined the nervous and sweaty man wearing a pig nose and ears and without his glasses. Piggy stood there in the flesh, or rather in chinos and a light blue shirt with sweat stains under both armpits.

“Really?” Jace cocked a smile. “I think he and I need to have a talk.”

Before Ananda returned, Jace had a small window of opportunity to get to the jittery young man. Jace put his hand on Vern’s shoulder, which caused Vern to yelp and jump.

“Oh, it’s you, sir. I mean, Master, uh, Chris, I mean Jace.” Vern wiped the back of his hand over his head.

“Yeah, Kitty told me who you are. I remember you from the parties.” Jace leaned in close to Vern. “Here, piggy, piggy, piggy.”

Vern gasped, and even that came out as a snort. “I didn’t think you remembered me. It was a long time ago when you made me wallow in that kiddie pool full of chocolate pudding.”

Damn. Jace had forgotten about that. He had made the man do that and more. That type of humiliation play hadn’t been his scene, even though Vern seemed to love every minute of it.

“I hear you’re picking the Doms, Dommes, and house slaves.” Jace put his arm around Vern’s shoulders and drew him in close.

“Uh, yeah. I know a lot of people in the lifestyle, so not a big deal.” He shrugged. His double chin jiggled when he moved his head.

“Good.” Jack looked over his shoulder and saw Ananda had come back from the bathroom and headed toward him with Kitty. “Make sure you find some good Doms, the hard ones, the sadists.”

Vern blinked. “What? Ananda wants sadists?”

“I don’t know. I saw the submissive and I think she needs a hard Dom or Domme. Plus, it’ll make for interesting TV.”

Vern scratched his head full of tight curls. “Oh, okay. If that’s what she wants. Maybe I should check with Ananda though.”

Jace shook his head. “You’re the executive producer. You make that decision.” He patted him on the shoulder. “Trust me. It’ll make the show great.”

Vern smiled and nodded. “Okay. Yeah. I’ll do it.”

Ananda stepped up to the men. “Thanks so much for letting me use your home. I promise to put it back in the condition we found it.” She looked like she wanted to hug him again.

From the way she shrank back, she must have caught his cold vibe. She shook his hand instead.

Jace pulled his hand away as quickly as he could. “Yep, not a problem. Can’t wait to see the final product.”