“I’m enjoying spending time with her, Master Deke,” Serena replied. “We were going over proper form when greeting one’s Master in a formal setting.”
“You should have gone over proper presentation in a formal setting. The corset is lovely, but what the hell, Maddie?” He’d dropped the deep tone and sounded more like the Deke she knew.
She brought her head up now because no amount of protocol would stop her from defending her sad-sack undies. “I wasn’t planning on getting half naked and…”
Yup. She shouldn’t have looked. She should have kept her head down, eyes closed, and then she wouldn’t have the sight of Deke Murphy—former high school goofy jock—looking like a decadent sex god in leather pants and a vest with no shirt on. It showed off his chest. The man had not let himself go. Not in any way. She’d been in love with the boy.
The man was even more devastating.
“And?” He stared down at her.
She’d been saying something. “And I hadn’t done laundry in a long time.”
His lips quirked up in a smirk that shouldn’t be so freaking appealing. “So you have a bunch of sexy underwear at home?”
He would probably look through her drawers. He seemed way more nosy than he’d been before. “Not really.”
“You will when I’m done. I understand you want to be comfortable in the normal course of your day, but when we’re playing, I dress you. You’ll be dressed to please me, to show off every inch of your beauty.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m not…”
Serena hissed in a way that told her not to finish that sentence.
She didn’t. Just sat there and tried to figure out what the hell to do next. The lifestyle was pretty clear on one thing. Every body was welcome. Slim, fat, disabled, scars, or perfect skin. They were all to be considered beautiful and worthy of worship and pleasure. It was one thing she wanted to actually take away from this. “I’m sorry, Sir. I was about to say something I shouldn’t. I’m trying to wrap my brain around the fact that my body is beautiful, but I’ve got a couple of decades of societal norms pressing down on me.”
“Your boyfriend doesn’t tell you how gorgeous you are?” The deep voice returned.
He kept going back to her not-exactly boyfriend, who she hadn’t even kissed yet and never would now. “We haven’t slept together. He doesn’t know.”
Deke knelt down, his hand going to her chin, lifting it so she had to look him right in his gorgeous eyes. “You look amazing, Madeline. You’re sexier than you were in high school, and I thought you were the sexiest, most beautiful thing I’d ever seen back then.” He let the moment hold, their eyes locked on each other before that smirk was back. “But the panties are going to go as soon as possible.”
“I apologize, Master Deke,” Serena said with a chuckle. “We have corsets and fet wear for guests, but undies are a bit more personal. I’ll have someone go by a store and buy something more suitable for tonight.”
“You don’t have to do that. I can run by a Target.” She didn’t want to put anyone out.
Deke stood again. “Nope. First of all, the garments she’s talking about can’t be bought at a big box store, and second, you’re in hiding. I don’t like the fact that you came from the airport to my place alone. Any number of cameras could have caught you. You stay with me while we’re in Dallas. I don’t want to chance someone seeing you and reporting back to Nolan Byrne that you weren’t where you said you were.”
“How would he see me here?”
“Oh, any number of ways,” a new voice said.
Maddie looked in the mirror and saw the door had come open again.
Serena gracefully dropped to her knees, her form exquisite. A dark-haired man in similar leathers to Deke stepped up next to her, placing his hand on her head with a gentle touch.
“You are perfect in every way, my love,” he said before turning his gaze on Maddie. She recognized the man as one of Serena’s husbands. Adam Miles. “Depending on how paranoid Byrne is, he could have systems that sweep across the country scraping CCTV cams for data. It’s certainly what I would do if I suspected you of anything.”
“I don’t think he suspects me. If I had to guess, he thinks I’m quite naïve.” She didn’t like it, but it worked in her favor this time. “I know he can make ruthless business decisions, but he’s good to his employees. At least he seems to be. That’s what I need to find out—if this is Nolan or if there’s someone else pulling the strings at Byrne.”
“Well, now Mr. Byrne isn’t the only one who thinks you’re a bit naïve.” Adam was staring at her in the glass of the mirror.