Spring Training (6 page)

Confirmation. If he was out for a team function, Frank would just say so.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“Everything he does, he does for you, for the sake of your relationship. You have no need to be jealous.”

That was supposed to make her feel better about her Master using another woman when it was her job to take care of all his needs? And how could fucking someone else be for her or their relationship? None of it made any sense, but she wasn’t about to question Frank more. She sensed he’d told her all he was going to. “I’m feeling better, Sir. Might I go to bed now?”

“Would you send your Master to bed with one of these?” He drew her attention to the bulge in his pants.

“No, Sir. Never.”

“Then get over here. Take me in your mouth, girl, then you may go to bed.”

Trembling, she made her way to the chair where Frank waited for her, his legs splayed in invitation.

She dropped to her knees and unlaced his leathers. His cock sprang free, the head heavy, the shaft hard. With one hand, he held it while the other wrapped around the back of her head, drawing her down.

Hands behind her back as he preferred, she took him in. Knowing the move would bring him off sooner rather than later, she stroked the broad head with her tongue. Fisting her hair, he immobilized her. His hips rose and fell, thrusting to the back of her throat. He didn’t last long. She swallowed his cum then obediently licked him clean before he released her with instructions to serve him breakfast at nine.

With the expected obedience, she went to her room. Collapsing on her bed, she began to plan her escape.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Todd’s heart skipped a beat, stealing his breath. He forced air into his lungs then questioned the man he’d left in charge of his most precious possession. “What do you mean she isn’t there? Where is she?”

“Brooke wasn’t at the house when I got home from work today. I called the bakery, and they said she took some time off.”

“That was over the weekend. She didn’t go to work today?”

“I have no idea. Her employees don’t know me. They wouldn’t say.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

“Last night. You talked to her before dinner. After she’d cleaned the kitchen, I let her go to bed—thought she’d had enough for one weekend.”

She’s had enough all right.
He still couldn’t believe what Frank had put her through Saturday night. As soon as Todd saw the video, he’d called her. She’d been quiet, but respectful. He questioned her about the previous evening, getting short answers that made him furious.

“I knew something was wrong. She’s never at a loss for words after a scene. Yesterday, I couldn’t drag a whole sentence out of her. You pushed her too hard, Frank.”

“We discussed this, Todd. You wanted me to force her to look inside herself. That’s what I did.”

“I told you to let her come, not force her to.” He raked his fingers through his hair.
What a complete fuck-up
. “None of that matters right now. I have to find her.”

“Maybe you can get something out of her employees.”

“I’ll call the bakery,” he said, disconnecting. After trying Brooke’s cell and getting her voicemail, his next call was to her bakery where the staff knew him and that their employer lived with him.

He was pissed Frank didn’t know where his slave was, but when her staff told him she opened the store that morning, then left on an open-ended vacation, alarm bells went off in his head. Convincing her to let someone else run her precious bakery for a weekend had been difficult. For her to willingly leave it for an unspecified length of time was impossible to credit.

The doorbell chime lifted his spirits. It must be Brooke. Jerking the door open, he scowled at Jason Holder standing on his doorstep. “Whatever you want, I don’t have time for it.”

“Carrie called. She’s worried about Brooke. Is she here?” The younger man brushed past him.

Todd closed the door then faced his guest. “She’s not here. Tell me what you know before I break you in half.”

“All I know is Brooke called Carrie last night, late. They talked for about an hour. Carrie called me this afternoon, said she’d tried to call Brooke to see if she was in a better frame of mind, but the calls all went to voicemail. She thought she might have come here.”

“Why did she think that?”

Jason shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe that’s what they talked about. Don’t hit me. I’m just trying to keep my sub happy. She’s worried about her friend.”

“I want to talk to Carrie.”

“Want to tell me what’s going on? You look like hell, and you’re woman isn’t answering calls from her best friend.”

“Or me.” He sank into the nearest chair. “Everything went to shit, Jace.” He told the other Dom about the session Frank had put Brooke through over the weekend. “When I talked to her yesterday, she was too quiet. I knew I should have gone home or had Frank put her on a plane right then, but I figured she needed more time to process the scene on her own. Her work helps her do that, the baking…. I don’t understand it exactly, but I accept it. She fills the kitchen with every kind of baked goods you can imagine when she has something on her mind.”

“Carrie said Brooke wasn’t at the bakery. She went in to see for herself.”

“I don’t know where she is. I’m going out of my mind, worrying about her.”

Jason claimed the chair across from him. “I don’t know much about the kind of relationship you two have, but something tells me leaving your slave for weeks with someone, no matter how skilled, might not be wise.”

Todd glared. “Shut the fuck up, Holder. I told you why I left her with Frank. It was for her own good.”

“Somehow, I don’t think she agrees.” He held up his hand, stopping Todd before he could argue. “As a slave, perhaps it isn’t her place to agree or disagree, but she’s also a woman. She loves you, man. It would take a lot for her to walk away from your relationship without a word. Sub, slave, whatever, she’s still female. If she’s breaking it off, she’ll have plenty to say about it.”

“I can’t imagine my life without her.”

Jason stood. “I know how you feel. Carrie is my life.” He headed toward the door. “When you hear from her, tell her to call Carrie.”

“I will.” Todd joined his friend at the front door, where they shook hands. “Thanks for coming by. And tell your sub thanks, too. I’m glad Brooke has her for a friend.”

He tried Brooke’s cell phone again. Getting her voicemail, he left a message, ordering her to contact him immediately, then he pulled up the videos from the early hours of Sunday morning again. There must be a clue somewhere. Something sent Brooke running from their home.

“Where are you, babe? What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”

***

Brooke stared at the blank television screen. The silence in the hotel room wrapped her in a cocoon, isolated her from the world.

After driving the seemingly endless loop of I-635 around Dallas for nearly an entire day while trying to figure out her options, she ended up at a hotel near the airport. That was three days ago, and she hadn’t left her room.

In all that time, she’d only come up with one option. She could go home, strip off her clothes, get down on her knees, and beg Frank to forgive her for disappearing. His punishment would be swift and severe, but even that wouldn’t insure Todd would forgive her for her breach of discipline.

My Master is with another woman in Arizona.
She couldn’t put that out of her mind as if she hadn’t heard it.

Every time she closed her eyes, images of her Master fucking another woman popped into her head, making her stomach cramp and her heart ache. She’d been naïve to think she could be enough for a man like Todd Stevens. Women practically threw themselves at him. Hell, she’d thrown herself at him in a way no Dominant could ignore. But out of that encounter had grown respect and love, at least on her part. Up until Frank dropped his bombshell on her head, she’d believed Todd loved her, too.

But he’d left her in the hands of another man so he could fuck some woman in Arizona.

Curling into a ball under the covers, she shuddered as memories of her time spent with Frank flooded in. He was a hard taskmaster, demanding she give more of herself physically and mentally than she had been prepared for. Being Todd’s slave had seemed like the perfect arrangement when she proposed it to him, but living Frank’s version of the lifestyle had shown her how shallow her and Todd’s daily routine had become.

They’d been playing at being Master and slave. Todd had tried his best, but she’d had little idea what would really be demanded of her; thus she’d made a mockery of their relationship, misbehaving like a toddler in order to gain more of his attention when she should have been content with whatever he gave her. It was a slave’s duty to serve, and now that she looked back on the last week, she was surprised at how good it felt to serve Frank in the way he demanded. She’d performed more tasks for him daily than she ever had for Todd and been rewarded with affectionate touches, comments, and smiles that made her eager to do more for him.

If she’d submitted to her Master in that way, things would never have gotten to the point where he felt compelled to leave her in the hands of a trainer.

No wonder Master Todd was fucking someone else. No doubt he’d found a sub who kissed his feet just for the honor of kneeling before him while she’d taken his love and his dominance for granted.

Brooke sat up. She’d shed her clothes the day she arrived, donning the plush robe provided by the hotel when room service delivered her meals. Naked, she felt more in touch with her slavery. It was as if clothes were costumes she wore to go out in the world, and in removing them, she stripped down to who she really was. No artifice. Only truth.

Slavery was her weakness—the one thing she couldn’t deny or purge from her system. But Frank wanted some other truth from her. No matter what he did to her, she didn’t think she would ever find what he insisted lay inside her.

She’d avoided the mirrored closet doors, but now she stood before them, gazing at her nude body. Her fingertips tingled with the need to touch her pebbled nipples or her swollen pussy. If she closed her eyes, she could see Todd watching her from across the crowded bar where she first saw him. She’d touched herself that day, had brought herself to orgasm while imagining his hand working her pussy, his body pleasuring her.

The reality of him touching her was better than anything she could ever conjure in her brain, and yet her childish behavior had driven him into the arms of another. Then in a fit of jealousy, she’d run away, probably destroying any chance remaining to repair the damage she’d done to their relationship.

“You don’t deserve him.”

She sank to her knees in the subservient pose her Master preferred, only this time she had no one to bow to, so she stared at her reflection. Her skin bore no marks to indicate she belonged to another. Every reminder of Todd and Frank’s touch had faded within hours of infliction. She longed to wear some symbol of possession, a collar, a tattoo, a piercing, or a scar, but her Master had offered none of those things.

“Why would he? You have to earn them.”

You have to earn them.

Tears formed in her eyes, spilling over her cheeks when she blinked. She hadn’t earned the badge of slave because she didn’t understand fully what it meant to be one. Frank had helped her, but, deep inside, she knew there was something more she still didn’t comprehend about this facet of her personality. However, days of soul searching had brought her to one conclusion.

“I want to be Todd’s slave.” Her breasts rose and fell with the deep, steadying breath she sucked into her lungs. “You’ll never earn him by being a sniveling mouse. You’ve got to fight for what you want.” And the only way to do that was to confront her Master about the other woman. She was a slave, not a doormat. She belonged to him, and it was her duty to serve his needs. If he needed a woman, that woman should be her.

Squaring her shoulders, she sniffed back her tears and faced herself square on. “Todd Stevens is my Master. I won’t lose him to anyone else.”

It was time to own up to her faults and her misdeeds and suffer the consequences of her decisions.

She spent the next day primping. She washed and styled her hair, had her clothes cleaned by the hotel’s valet service, and, having shaved her mons to suit Frank, she reshaped the returning growth into the landing strip style her Master preferred.

By the time she boarded a plane to Phoenix, she’d regained her self-respect, if not her confidence. He’d find no reason to fault her physical appearance, but running away from the trainer her Master had provided for her was a serious offense. If Todd took her back, there would be a price to pay for her actions.

In the last few months, she had pushed her Master’s buttons on many occasions, using disobedience to force his attention. In the weeks before he left for Spring Training, it seemed the only time her Master touched her was to punish her for something she failed to do or had done wrong. Yet, he insisted the fault in their relationship was his.

It took her a while, but she knew better now. A few days alone made her realize she’d been using her behavior to control the relationship, topping from the bottom. If her Master had punished her as severely and as often as her behavior warranted, she’d be a walking bruise.

Her task was to submit to his will and to serve him. If she did that well, she would have all the attention she craved from him—and very little would come in the form of punishment.

She would do better, but first she needed to convince him to take her back.

***

“Have you heard from her?” Jason asked on Thursday as they walked side-by-side to the outfield to begin the morning stretch.

“She sent a text on Tuesday. Two words. ‘I’m fine.’”
Two fucking words
. He’d even resorted to calling her parents, adding her family to the list of people worrying about her. He’d texted back, asking her to contact them. If she did, they hadn’t bothered to tell him. Maybe she asked them not to.

His friend clapped him on the back. “Carrie will be glad to hear that.”

Late leaving the clubhouse, they began their own row behind everyone else and joined in the toe touching exercise already in progress.

“She hasn’t talked to your girl?” he asked.

“Nope. Carrie wouldn’t be so worried if she’d heard from her.”

“Tell her to stop worrying…for now. When Brooke decides to come out of hiding, that’s when she should start worrying.”

“Need I remind you that you need to give her a chance to explain before you decide on her punishment?”