Read Online Initiation (Master Class Book 1) by Sierra Cartwright - Free Book Online

Even Noelle doesn’t know much.”
    “You asked about me.”
    Was that a note of triumph in his tone? “I like to know something about men I might sleep with.” In fact, she generally insisted on several dates before becoming intimate. Yet she found Logan trustworthy, perhaps because of his honesty. He hadn’t promised anything other than an evening of exploration, and she’d found that somewhat refreshing.
    “Yet we just scened.”
    She wiggled away, putting some distance between them before turning to face him. “I know Joe considers you a friend. Apparently there aren’t a lot of people he says that about. I’m guessing the same is true for you.”
    “Friends? A handful,” he conceded.
    “But those few?”
    “I’d risk my life for them.”
    She believed it. “And the scar?” she persisted.
    “Pushy for a sub, aren’t you?”
    “You flogged me, fucked me, said something about giving me some more stripes. I think that gives me a right.”
    “Does it?”
    “Doesn’t it?” she challenged, pulling her legs up onto the couch.
    He was quiet for so long she thought he might not answer. When he did, his voice was low, rough, containing a jagged edge of pain. “It was an explosion.”
    “When you were in the Middle East?”
    “You heard that from Joe or Noelle.”
    “Sort of. Noelle said you’d been in the Middle East, but she doesn’t know how you got the scar. So I’m guessing the explosion happened while you were over there.”
    “It did. There were four of us, going back to our compound. IED.” He traced the scar back and forth with his forefinger.
    The motion seemed so unconscious she wondered if he was aware of it.
    “Joe, Matt made it back alive. Matt wished he hadn’t, couldn’t deal with it. We brought Gary’s body back, but we left Matt’s spirit, his heart…whatever the fuck you want to call it…” He dropped his hand, curled it into a fist. “He killed himself almost two years later. He had a wife. A kid.”
    She sucked in a breath. But since words seemed inadequate, she remained silent.
    He was staring ahead, not paying attention, as if he were lost.
    “At Matt’s funeral, Joe and I made a pact to live fully, our way, no matter how lame, to honor Matt and Gary.” After several tense seconds, he looked at her. “I keep my hair short so the first thing I see every day is this scar. A reminder of that promise.”
    Jennifer felt slightly breathless. “Thank you for telling me.”
    “Sorry you asked?”
    “Not at all.” She shook her head and offered a wan smile. More fully, she understood what he meant about the different worlds. The things that he spoke of, she would never experience. “I wish I were capable of not being nosy.”
    “Don’t apologize for being who you are.”
    The timbre of his voice rumbled through her, and she snuggled closer to him again.
    In the companionable quiet, woven from the sharing of secrets, they watched the fire, saw clouds fill the sky, making it look mysterious outside.
    “I promised you a shower,” he said much later. “But it can wait. I want to get you hotter, wetter, dirtier first.”
    His shocking words shot heat into her cunt, leaving her feeling greedy. “When?” she asked, emboldened in a way she had never been before tonight.
    He plucked the bottle from her hand and the blanket from her shoulders, then said, “On your knees. Present my belt to me.”
    In his tone there was nothing but uncompromising authority. She searched his features and found no hint of the person who’d so tenderly held her moments ago. Instead, he was a Dom who expected to be obeyed. Shocked, she realized she liked both sides of him equally as well.
    Silently—since words would have lodged in her throat—she dug through the pile of their clothes until she found his belt.
    He continued to regard her, his fingers steepled.
    Once she held the leather by the buckle, she was uncertain what to do, how to proceed.
    “You’ve got good instincts. Trust them.