the look on her beautiful face when she’d finally let herself go and succumbed to her orgasm.
Damn, she’d been stunning. So stunning, in fact, it was all he could do to not fuck her right then. But that wasn’t why he brought her here. Maybe after this, she would keep that smart mouth shut, and he wouldn’t have to give her another punishment. It turned out he was punishing himself more than her.
He ran his hand down his face and pushed away from the wall. He had other things he needed to do today. He didn’t need to be screwing his bait.
Gora turned the corner. She came to a stop and scowled at him.
“What?” he asked.
She took the clothes from him and mumbled something about how she didn’t stick her nose into his personal business.
“Since when?” he called out as she continued on down the hall. “When did I lose control of my house?” he grumbled.
With a sigh he continued to the end of the hall and jogged down the back steps that emptied into the kitchen. Haydrien never even used the main stairs anymore. He usually ate in the kitchen along with everyone else.
“Gora’s in a snit,” Haydrien said as he spotted Lear by the massive kitchen island, picking through fruit someone had gathered from the orchard.
“Yeah, I noticed that.”
“What over?” he asked as he grabbed a berry and plopped it into his mouth.
“Your new sub.”
“What?” he exclaimed.
“She says it’s one thing to bring in a willing sub. It’s another to do this.”
Haydrien rolled his eyes. “Good grief.”
“Jacquelyn will have an ally in Gora. You’ll have to watch the two of them.”
Haydrien growled softly as he plopped into one of the many kitchen chairs. “This is what I get for being so nice to my staff,” Haydrien said with a half grin. “They’re not afraid of me anymore.”
“Please. Like they were ever afraid of you. They love you, and I would rather have their love than their fear any day.” Lear sat down in the chair next to him. “So? How did it go?”
“My damn balls hurt. That’s how well it went.”
Lear chuckled and leaned back.
Haydrien scowled at the man who had become his best friend. “This isn’t funny.”
“Well, you can either keep punishing her or just let her run her mouth.”
“Right now neither option seems appealing.”
“Yeah, well,” Lear said as he lifted a cup of tea that one of the servants had set before him. “You won’t get any sympathy from me. If she were mine, I would’ve already fucked her brains out.” Lear grinned. “I bet she’s a screamer.”
Haydrien smiled softly as the echoes of her screams replayed in his head. Yep, she was definitely a screamer.
* * * *
Jack rummaged through Haydrien’s closet for anything she thought might cover her. Any one of his shirts would, but every one she pulled out smelled of him, and she quickly put it back.
What the hell was she going to do?
“Good morning, dear.”
Jack quickly jumped behind the closet door and glanced around the edge. An older woman stood just inside the bedroom, a warm smile of welcome on her weathered face. Her gray hair was pulled back, making her look older than she probably was, but her eyes were a vibrant shade of blue for someone her age.
Her smile faded somewhat as she stepped into the room. “He didn’t leave you anything to wear?” she asked with just a hint of sympathy.
“No,” Jack replied.
“I didn’t think so. I swear, sometimes I don’t know what that boy is thinking. My name is Gora.”
“Jacquelyn.”
Gora stepped to the bed and laid a white garment across the foot. “This will do until I can get your things off the ship. Lear has promised that he’ll retrieve them for me as soon as Haydrien gives the okay.”
“You’ll be waiting a while, then,” Jack grumbled.
“No, I won’t. I’ll hurry him along.”
“Are you his mother?” Jack asked as she stepped forward and picked up the white material.
It was a dress. Thin and gauzy, it would
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