Finding Master Right (Masters Unleashed 1)

Bethany laughed harder. “Hey, I’m just trying to look out for you. It’s clear something is going on with you. I think I know what.” A knowing smile touched her lips, making Kate frown.

“And what’s that?”

After looking from side to side, she leaned in close and said, “You’re in love.”

Kate recoiled. Love? Her and Banner? No fucking way. She was in lust, through no fault of her own. Who wouldn’t be in lust with a tattooed sex god in a suit? He was like a present—pretty on the outside but when you unwrapped him, it only got better.

“I’m not in love,” she snapped, making her sound guilty. With a sigh, she picked up the files she’d been staring at and turned from the table. “It’s complicated. Don’t ask questions.”

Bethany looked positively impish. “‘It’s complicated’ is another way of saying you’re in love.”

Kate shook her head emphatically. “There are shades of relationships. It’s not just love or not love. There’s a lot of in between.”

“Uh-huh.” She looked Kate over. “So, who’s the guy?”

Her face flushed. A sexy, wealthy man who’d been tying her up in his dungeon and fucking her senseless with no strings attached. “You don’t want to know. Trust me.”

Bethany pouted. “Fine. Be all mysterious and cryptic, then. It’ll only make people curious.”

Had other coworkers noticed? She peered around her, but nothing seemed different. She shot Bethany a dirty look. “Quit messing with me.”

She giggled. “I’ll find out, eventually.” Walking backward, she said in a creepy voice, “I’m watching you.”

Kate rolled her eyes. “Bitch.”

Laughing, her friend disappeared around the corner. Kate took her files and walked to her office. Two days after sex with Banner and she was still sore. God, that man fucked hard. She felt a tingle down there just thinking about it.

At her desk, she lowered herself into her chair, glad it was cushiony. The belt marks had faded the next day, along with the pain, but her pussy hadn’t quite recovered yet. Maybe that was something her body would get accustomed to.

She gave her head a shake. What was wrong with her? She had no right to think about getting accustomed to Banner Jennings. Why couldn’t she just pull back and stay objective? Why did her body seem to become a slave to his commands whenever she was with him?

She froze. Slave?

Shit. She was in too deep. First, she’d called him Master. Now she’d very nearly called herself a slave. And she was nobody’s fucking slave.

She rubbed her temples, wishing she could fake an illness and leave early. It was too hard to focus today. Maybe she should go to Banner’s that night and end things.

No. Bad idea. Being in the same space with him would only end in her naked, tied to something, orgasming over and over. Plus, he’d told her that if she set foot in his house, she was his. And there would be sex.

His.

The thought sent a shiver through her body. She forced it away. Belonging to somebody, in the way he wanted, was just . . . wrong. For her.

Maybe she should end things by text.

Ugh. No. That was lame. And he deserved better than that.

Growling, she grabbed hold of her hair and pulled it to ease her tension. God, this was hard. And waffling back and forth like this so wasn’t her. She was a decisive person who always knew what she wanted. But Banner had somehow changed that. He’d turned her inside out and upside down and every which way that made her practically dysfunctional. As evidenced by more staring.

A knock sounded at her door.

“Come in.”

The door opened, and Sean walked in.

She smiled. “Hey there!”

His shoulders drooped as he took a seat on the couch. With a heavy sigh, he looked at her.