Divine Solace (Nature of Desire 8)

When Elias hit him this time, Gen heard a bone crunch. She cried out. Noah staggered backward, but this time he didn't fall. Instead, he shook his head to clear it of the pain and stepped up once more. When he lifted his head, his nose was bleeding. Lyda had her arm banded over Gen's chest, Gen straining against the hold.

Elias was looking a little uneasy, even if the expression was mixed with an unhealthy dose of satisfaction at his display of power. As Lyda had intimated, Noah was his drug of choice. Gen felt sick.

"Noah."

Thank God, Lyda spoke. Her tone bore that severe edge Gen knew meant she was at the end of her tolerance. Glancing up, Gen saw her silver eyes had gone to ice. From his startled glance, it was clear Elias realized she'd included him in her displeasure.

The only one who hadn't changed expression was Noah. Except for the brief, involuntary reaction to pain, he was as dispassionate as Lyda in her most ruthless moment. "Once more," he said softly. "And then it's done."

Though Gen felt like he was speaking to Lyda, he was looking at Elias.

Elias's jaw tightened. "You've asked for punishment before."

"The punishment should fit the crime. That's what you always told me."

"I'll do one more, and that's it. If she's letting you go, then you come back with me to New Orleans as promised. Tonight. I have plans for that bleeding mouth."

Noah said nothing. He waited. Despite the power of that last punch, he didn't even appear to brace himself.

It happened so fast, Gen couldn't follow it. Elias threw the punch, but it never connected. Instead Noah was holding his fist in a tight grip, having caught it like a pitcher snagging a line drive straight from the mound.

Finally, his expression changed.

Dispassion became all about passion. Lips peeled back from his teeth and he twisted the arm, stomping the back of Elias's knee as his former Master's body spun from the force and Noah drove him to his knees. Gen heard a crack and knew she was hearing some portion of Elias's arm break, his hoarse cry confirming it. Noah followed him down to the ground, landing on one knee behind him, holding his head to the dirt, pressing it there. Keeping him still, immobile. A shudder ran through his body, a quiver of energy that Gen saw translated to his calloused palm, the strength he held there, the force. Noah would crush his head with only the power of what boiled inside of him.

"Noah."

Lyda's tone could have pierced a full force gale. Which was what was needed to bring Noah's head up. As his eyes found her, Gen saw that terrible, deadly rage. "Stop," their Mis

tress said. A simple, not-to-be-disobeyed command.

When Lyda squeezed her shoulder, Gen picked up on the cue. "Noah," she repeated. She put all her feelings into it, everything she'd felt when she'd raged at him before, the same passion for a different purpose. To save him from himself. "Noah."

As the scale teetered, Noah on the verge of a life-altering decision, Gen clung to the memory of Dot's words, how he'd never hurt a living being, and prayed for that to win out against the fury, a lifetime of suppressed anger that now pulsed off him like poisonous radiation.

God help her, if they couldn't stop him, if he crushed Elias's head, she knew she would dig the hole herself to bury the body, cover up that crime, protect Noah. Even knowing, with despair, he'd never allow her to do that.

His gaze shifted between them. After a tense moment, he eased Elias' face off the ground. He stepped away from him, stared at the man in the dirt for another weighted second before he at last moved toward him again. Gen held her breath, but this time Noah eased Elias up, back into a sitting position on his heels. As he steadied him, then helped him to his feet, Noah was as gentle with him as he'd been brutal moments before.

"I'll take you to the hospital," Noah said. "We'll get your arm and my nose fixed at the same time."

Elias was blinking at him like an animal stunned by a glancing blow from a car. "I belong to them now," Noah said. "I choose them. I don't want to be with you again. Now or ever."

Gen's relief was so strong it was dizzying. Lyda's steadying hold was still on her shoulder, so she gripped her fingers, drew strength from the return pressure.

Elias cradled his arm, his brow creased. "Why did you let me hit you?"

"Punishment. For allowing you to mistreat her property. Her guest house, the bed." Noah paused, shifted his gaze to Lyda's. "And me."

*

Gen wanted to drive them to the hospital. She was terrified this new side of Noah would disappear and he and Elias would disappear together. But Lyda said it had to be this way. That they had to trust.

It told Gen she'd never make a good Mistress. She didn't have the will power to be that hands off. She was a middle ground. Under Lyda's direction, she had a touch of Domme and a lot of submissive. However anyone wanted to define it, it didn't really matter.

Lyda made her come to the nursery office with her. Though they were closed today, Lyda had her work up some invoices, do paperwork with her. It kept them busy, but there wasn't a lot of conversation. Gen nursed a hope laced with fear, because it didn't seem quite finished. It wouldn't feel done until Noah came back. Gen knew they were both listening for Noah's return. Noah carried a cell phone while on deliveries, one that Lyda had insisted he carry. When Lyda let Gen call it, it rang under a stack of papers on top of the file cabinet.

"He's always forgetting it." Lyda sighed. "I've threatened to put a collar on him and lock the cell phone to it like a dog's license tag so he'll remember it."