His Canvas [Suncoast Society] (Siren Publishing Sensations) Read online

  “You really have no idea how sexy I think you are, do you?”

  “Not dressed in those,” she muttered.

  He gently turned her chin so she was forced to look at him. His playful grin had fled, replaced by dead-serious Dom face. “Are you saying my opinion isn’t valid to you?”

  “What? No, I’m not saying that at all.”

  “Good.” He leaned in and kissed her. “Then when I say I think something makes you look sexy, that’s all that matters. If you’re going to give your body to me, I get to make the call when it comes to that. When it comes to going to fetish events, I get the final say on what you wear. Understand?” He leveled the force of his brown gaze at her.

  She nodded. This was what she’d wanted. She trusted him. She had to let go of this and move on if she ever wanted to grow as a person, and she knew that.

  The rest of her life needed to be lived for her and her happiness, not for anyone else.

  His smile returned. “Good girl. I know what looks sexy. I’m the only one who should matter when it comes to that. Right?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  One last kiss, and he sat back to buckle his seat belt. “Good girl. You’ll wear the blue one tonight. No panties. When I tie you, it’s going to be with you fully naked.”

  She didn’t know if her nerves would take it, but she wouldn’t safeword for it.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  * * * *

  They swung by and picked up Chelbie on their way to Sigalo’s. Her parents weren’t home when they knocked on the front door and Chelbie let them in and hugged them. When Mallory winced as Chelbie’s hand hit the bandage on the back of her right shoulder, Chelbie noticed.

  Her eyes narrowed as she frowned. “What happened?”

  “I happened,” Kel said, lacing fingers with Mallory. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.

  Chelbie’s gaze narrowed even more as she looked from him to Mallory and back. The grin slowly spread over her face like a spill of honey across the floor, until it lit her eyes and she let out a delighted laugh. “Shut. Up. You did not?”

  He squeezed Mallory’s hand. “Mal, you want to lift your skirt and show her?”

  Her face felt like a supernova had gone off, but she lifted the skirt’s hem so Chelbie could see the line of bite marks along her inner right thigh, up to where the bandage covered her mark there. He’d checked and redressed them before they left. Neither showed any sign of infection, and both were already scabbed over and healing nicely.

  “No. Way.” Chelbie smacked his shoulder with the back of her hand. “Dude, you rock.”

  “May I drop my skirt now, Sir?” Mallory asked.

  “Yes, you may.”

  Chelbie let out a squeal and threw her arms around Mallory again. “I’m so happy for you guys! Oh my god, please tell me I can be there so I can see Slimon’s face when you tell him you’re an item and he can go jump off a dock.”

  * * * *

  Mallory’s nerves fluttered as they entered the club that night. She headed to the bathroom to go change into the blue dress, sans panties, as he’d ordered.

  She also peeled off the bandages on her shoulder and inner thigh.

  Chelbie leaned in to examine them. “Wow. I didn’t know he was into cutting. I mean, I’d heard about needles and piercing, but wow. Did it hurt?”

  Mal craned her neck to look at the one on her shoulder in the mirror. “In all the good ways,” she said with a smile.

  Looking back on it, she honestly hadn’t felt much more pain than she did when getting caned or paddled. It had been absorbed in the sweet flood of endorphins.

  “You look sexeh, girlie,” Chelbie said as she examined the dress. “He took you shopping, didn’t he?”

  She blushed as she shoved her street clothes into the tote bag she’d brought with her. “Yes.”

  “You don’t sound happy.”

  “I don’t feel sexy, even though I’ve been ordered to let him make the call.”

  “He’s right. You do look sexy. If I was gay or bi, girlie, I’d do you.”

  “We need to get you laid.”

  “Side topic, although not entirely wrong, either. I’d suggest you get your tushy out there before he comes in here looking for you.”

  He’d already set up the A-frame and had his ropes ready. When he saw her emerge from the bathroom, he crooked his finger at her from across the room.

  She went, her focus only on him, not on anyone else there. They could have had the club to themselves for all she cared.

  He smiled as she walked up to him. When he grabbed her and kissed her, his fingers digging into her ass, she felt his cock harden in his jeans.

  “That’s what you do to me, baby,” he whispered into her ear. “So don’t ever tell me you’re not sexy.”

  He quickly stripped the dress off her and started tying her. She kept her focus on him, not the increasingly large crowd gathering around them. Tony and Seth were spotting and keeping people back, as was Chelbie.

  Although she suspected Chelbie would be a lot scarier to someone getting too close than Tony or Seth would.

  Kel tied her, the chest harness also holding her breasts captive, sticking out and ready for him to torment.

  Then, he suspended her. But unlike other times, he tied her legs, too, so they were spread and she couldn’t pull them together. He also used paracord to tie her hair, holding her head up and back. Then he tied her arms against her sides, totally immobilizing her.

  That was when she heard the click. He stepped in close, one hand reaching beneath her to fondle her breasts while the other slid the humming vibrator between her legs. He gently rocked her, until her body was fucking the vibrator and his hand held still.

  “Come for me, my beautiful goddess,” he whispered in her ear. “Let them see who owns you. Come for me.”

  She closed her eyes, her body giving in, giving up, giving him what he wanted. Everything he wanted. The first orgasm rolled through her as he whispered in her ear all the things he would do to her once they were back home and alone. She wasn’t even aware at first how much he had her swinging back and forth now, the vibrator fucking her deeply with every stroke.

  He nipped the shell of her ear, not letting up until he’d drawn a cry from her. “My marks on you, my ropes on you, my sweet, delicious living canvas.”

  His tone as much as his words drove her hard and deep into subspace.

  Didn’t hurt that the vibrator had her coming over and over again, one long, rolling release, a wave of pleasure that seemed to have no beginning, no end.

  She didn’t know how long she hung there, only that she never wanted it to end. When he finally pulled the vibrator away and turned it off, she wasn’t even sure she had the strength to open her eyes, much less walk under her own power.

  He quickly untied her hair, her arms, her legs, gently lowering her, easing her down onto a towel he had ready for her. He draped a blanket around her and then worked to untie her and put his ropes up. Only when he was ready did he help her up, with Tony and Seth grabbing his bags for him, and guide her over to one of the couches where she curled up with her head in his lap, her back turned to the rest of the room.

  His fingers buried in her hair, gently tugging. “Such a gorgeous girl,” he said. “So beautiful.”

  She closed her eyes, surfing subspace. “Thank you, Sir.”

  He leaned in and kissed her. “My girl.”

  She snuggled closer, a smile on her face. “Your girl.”

  * * * *

  A mix of emotions filled Kel as he scened with her. Pride in her trust in him, pride in the way men and women both eyed her while they scened, and a tiny touch territorial.

  Mine.

  Okay, maybe more than a touch territorial.

  Way more.

  When he got her back home and in his bed, he used the vibrator on her again, knowing she was nearing the point of collapse for the night but wanting to hear her come one more time before he wrapped hi
s cock in a condom and fucked her, hard and fast, with her ankles slung over his shoulders and while biting down on the side of her right breast, hard enough to make her cry out one last time as he exploded and filled the condom.

  Only then did he gather her into his arms, his body spooned around hers.

  “Sleep, goddess,” he whispered.

  Already, his mind was filled with the things he wanted to do to her on Sunday, all day. They both had to work next week, so his time with her would be a little more limited.

  He wanted to make the most of this that he could, while he could.

  All the while praying she never changed her mind about him, or about playing in the shadows with him.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Mallory awoke late Sunday morning sore in all the good ways. Kel wasn’t in bed, and she didn’t hear him upstairs, so she guessed he’d gone downstairs to the office. After using the bathroom and finding her robe, she wandered out to the kitchen.

  He called up to her. “You awake?”

  She smiled at his hopeful tone. “Yes, Sir.”

  “Good. I was about to come play with you if you didn’t wake up soon.” He joined her upstairs, kissing her good morning, fisting her hair as he did. “Good morning, gorgeous.”

  “Good morning, Sir.”

  “If there’s anything you want to do before I start having my way with you again,” he teased, “I suggest you do it.”

  “I need to go online and check my bank balance,” she said. “And I want to look at my student account. I need to see if he’s paid my tuition yet or not.”

  If he hadn’t paid it, she really didn’t want to think about what that might mean, the fight that would incur.

  He patted her on the ass. “Then get your laptop and hop to it. I’ll make us breakfast.”

  She retrieved it from downstairs and set it on the coffee table. Opening it, she logged on before going to get herself a cup of coffee from the kitchen.

  “So are you really okay about last night?” he asked.

  “I won’t deny I was nervous, but you seem to have a way of distracting me so I don’t notice it.”

  “I know. I’m tricky like that.”

  She grinned. “Yes, you are.” She poured herself a cup of coffee and realized for the first time that morning how light her soul felt.

  “And do you know what I’m going to do with you today?” he murmured in her ear.

  “I can only hope.”

  He set her coffee mug down on the counter and wrapped his arms around her again. “I’m going to…” His voice trailed off and didn’t continue.

  She giggled. “To what? Keep me in suspense?”

  His voice sounded different, guarded, when he finally spoke again. “Mal, what’s up with your laptop?”

  “Huh?” She looked over the counter, to where it sat on the coffee table in the living room area. “What do you mean?”

  He let go of her and circled around the counter. “The webcam’s on. The light’s blue.”

  Now she saw it.

  “Oh, fuck!” She followed him around as he sat down in front of it and started working on it. Then, he slammed the cover shut. “How long has it been doing that?”

  “I hadn’t ever noticed it before!” But there’d been plenty of times it’d sat on her dresser, open, or on the coffee table, or…

  She swallowed hard. “Shit.”

  “How long have you had it?”

  “Two years. My uncle got it for me for school when I needed an upgrade.” She jumped onto his train of thought. “My uncle is a moron, a complete IT idiot. He can barely work the coffeemaker, for chrissake. There’s lots of ways to get malware.”

  “You have pretty good antivirus software. And you keep it up to date.”

  “He’s a techno-idiot.”

  “Any idiot can pay someone to install malware for them.”

  “Fuck.”

  “I need to call Tony.” Kel got up and raced for his cell phone.

  * * * *

  So much for their sexy Sunday.

  After eating, they showered, dressed, and headed to Tony and Shayla’s, with Mal’s laptop and charger in the backseat. Kel didn’t know what the hell was going on, but something deep in his gut told him Mal’s uncle was behind it. That was confirmed when Tony, after putting a piece of masking tape over the webcam, powered the laptop up and started working on it.

  “You want the good news or the bad news?” he finally announced.

  “Bad,” he and Mal both said.

  “Looking at the file dates, whoever did this installed it when the computer was new. This isn’t some random malware you picked up surfing the Internet. It was deliberately installed when the computer was purchased, or shortly thereafter.”

  “That’s the bad news?” Kel asked. Actually, it confirmed his suspicions.

  “Well, there’s worse news.”

  “Crap,” she muttered.

  “It’s also got a key logger program, and has been sending copies of files offsite.”

  “Can you figure out where?”

  “Done. It’s been e-mailing them to a N-mail user. [email protected] Sound familiar?”

  “Son of a bitch,” she said. “My uncle?”

  “It gets better,” Tony warned.

  “And by better, you mean worse,” she said.

  “Yep. A large batch of image files were sent a couple of weeks ago. Your shoot with Jaymzon.”

  She groaned, dropping her head into her hands. “Fuck. Me.”

  “Can you scrub the computer?” Kel asked.

  “Yeah, but it can’t call back anything that already went out. When I get it scrubbed, you need to go in and change all your passwords to everything. Once he realizes the honeypot’s dried up, no telling what he’ll do. What’s going on with all that, anyway?”

  “Ed’s still gathering info,” Kel said.

  The attorney didn’t want to get Mallory’s hopes up, but he’d confided in Kel that it looked like the uncle might be sitting on a pile of money, if Saul hadn’t embezzled it from the trust. That her parents had set up a trust for her in their will, and her grandfather had left her his entire estate as a trust, comprised of several millions of dollars, as well as property, cutting Saul out in the process. Ed was hoping to get the case to a point he could file an official motion against the uncle within a week or two to force him to comply with the way the trusts were laid out.

  “So the fucker has proof of what she’s been doing?” Kel asked Tony. “Can you tell if he’s been perving on her through the cam?”

  “Yeah, there were some screenshots here and here, but they mostly look like they were taken by accident when the camera came on. There was one of you from this morning, leaning in and looking at the webcam.”

  “Then he knows.”

  “Or soon will,” Tony confirmed. “When he can’t access her computer or get log files anymore, he’ll know it’s been discovered. Frankly, I would suggest completely wiping the computer and starting over.”

  “I need to get new backups of my stuff,” Mallory said.

  “I can do that for you. But I wouldn’t trust a system restore on this machine because the malware might be embedded in it or one of the partitions. Only a full wipe and reinstall will take care of that.”

  “Do what you need to, Tony,” Kel said. “I really appreciate this.”

  She looked absolutely miserable on the ride home. “That fucking asshole,” she said. “He’s still a pain in my ass, and I don’t even live there anymore.”

  Her weekly allowances were still being deposited. Ed had posed to Kel that it was likely a stipulation in the trust agreements, and her uncle maybe didn’t want to press his luck and risk running afoul of any explicit trust guidelines he was supposed to adhere to as the executor. Although, there was a better than good chance her uncle was already in violation by not turning the trusts over to her.

  Kel also hoped it meant the bulk of the money was still there, not missing. That the u
ncle was simply trying to force her to go to grad school as a way to bypass the trustee issue and live off her for a while longer, maybe by not having to pay his own living expenses or something. Her car and the house were both owned by the trust, free and clear.

  Kel reached across the seat and took her hand. “We’ll face this together. Remember, I don’t give a shit if he tries to out me or not. I’m out. There’s nothing he can do to us if we don’t let him.”

  “He could make life miserable for our friends.”

  “And you saw how Tilly reacted to that. I strongly suspect he’s only using that as a threat, that he won’t really do it.”

  He hoped. Then again, there were people assholish and selfish enough out there who didn’t care how many lives they ruined in the process.

  He prayed Saul wasn’t one of them.

  Although considering some of their friends, if Saul dared fuck with them he might wish he’d never been born by the time they finished with him.

  * * * *

  Kel tried to distract Mallory the rest of the day, but knew this latest development had hit her hard emotionally. Instead, they curled up in front of the TV and enjoyed a zombie marathon.

  The next afternoon, Mallory was out at work when someone knocked on Kel’s office door. He opened it to find a process server standing there.

  “Mallory Ann Weaver?” the guy asked.

  “Seriously? Dude. Do I look like a Mallory Ann to you, buddy?”

  “Does she live here?”

  “Yes.”

  He made Kel sign for it. After locking the door behind the guy, Kel ripped the envelope open and read the contents.

  An emergency competency hearing, to be held first thing Wednesday morning.

  Fuck.

  His first call was to Ed. Kel used his iPad to scan the documents and e-mail them to the attorney, who called him back minutes later.

  “Is this a joke? It’s a joke, right? The guy thinks he’s going to win based on this bullshit?” Ed laughed. “I wonder what cut-rate paralegal he’s got helping him.”