[Lock and Key 01.0] Her Debt Read online

  I’m fine. I’m with Tristan Broussard. Those two sentences don’t belong in the same conversation.

  “You said that already in your voicemail, but what the hell have you been doing with Tristan-fucking-Broussard all night long?”

  Tristan forms an O with one hand and thrusts one of his fingers in and out of the hole. Fucking perv.

  “No,” I mouth and shake my head.

  He chuckles and I consider putting my foot against his crotch and crushing the shit out of his balls. To hell with the consequences.

  “He asked security to bring me up to his suite; he wanted to meet me.” Hear what I’m telling you, Adam. Security brought me to his suite. I’m still in the building. Come for me.

  “That rich fucker can probably get laid by just about any woman on earth, but he chooses to meet you?”

  What is that shit supposed to mean? “What’s wrong with me?”

  “Nothing is wrong with you, but card counters and casino owners don’t mix. You’re asking for trouble by spending time with him.” Adam sighs. “Are you sure that you’ve not been made?”

  “It’s cool. He doesn’t know anything.” Adam and I have never had that twin telepathy thing, but I wish like hell that we did.

  “You spent the night with him.” Disappointment. Confusion. Doubt. I hear all of it in Adam’s voice.

  “He likes to talk.” That sounds so dumb. A man like Tristan Broussard doesn’t bring a woman up to his suite to talk.

  “Did you fuck him?”

  “No. I can’t believe that you’d ask me that.”

  Tristan grins and whispers, “Time’s up.”

  This is it. I have to let Adam know that being here with Tristan Broussard isn’t by choice.

  I clear my throat and cough once. “Hmm.” Our longtime signal at the table when something has gone sideways. Please pick up on my distress call, Adam.

  “Breakfast is getting cold. I need to go.”

  “When should I expect you home?”

  I wish that I knew. “Not sure. I’m thinking of hanging out here for a while.”

  “Dad will shit when he finds out that you’re with Tristan Broussard.”

  I consider asking Adam to not tell Dad. I wouldn’t want him to have a setback because he becomes upset. But I keep my mouth shut; I suspect that he may be my only way out of this mess.

  “I’m an adult. Not a lot that he can say about it.”

  “You know better than that. He’ll probably come and drag you out by your hair.”

  Tristan holds his hand at the front of his neck and yanks it to the side in one smooth motion. The cutthroat motion. “End it. Now.”

  Wow. He looks really pissed off. I wonder what set him off.

  “Umm… Tristan is waiting with breakfast on the table. I don’t want to be rude so I need to go.”

  “Okay.”

  “Talk soon. Love you.” I never tell my brother that I love him when we end a casual call. Surely, he’ll recognize that something is up.

  “Love you too, sis.”

  I end the call, and Tristan holds out his hand for my phone. “I wasn’t aware that your father disliked me so much. Why is that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Sure you do.”

  “No. Really. He never told us why we were to stay away from you and your casino.”

  “You were supposed to stay away from me and yet you didn’t? Why is that?”

  “I have a bad habit of not doing as I’m told.” It gets me into trouble more than I care to admit.

  The wicked smile on his face tells me that something about that statement pleases him greatly. But his smile quickly fades when there’s another buzz from the pocket inside his jacket.

  He slams his fist on the table. “Motherfucker!”

  Reaching into his jacket, he takes out a phone. “What?”

  His mouth is a hard line and the muscles in his jaw are fixed. This man has one hell of a temper. And it frightens me.

  “Give me fifteen.”

  He ends the call and sits back in his chair. His hard expression begins to soften as he studies my face.

  “Have somewhere to be?”

  “I have a nine o’clock appointment, and she has arrived early. Which would normally make me happy but not when it steals away time that I had planned to spend with you.” He looks at his watch. “I have about three minutes to talk before I must leave.”

  “Three minutes isn’t very long.”

  “Agreed.”

  His angry mood seems to have passed as quickly as it came on. “Please let me go.”

  “No.” No consideration. No hesitation. Just a hard no.

  “I can go to the bank and take out seventy-five grand right now. Give me one day, and I can come up with the other twenty-five.”

  Technically I didn’t take a full hundred grand. I had twenty on the table last night that I left behind and didn’t cash out. But I highly doubt that he’s in the mood to have that discussion.

  “I’m not letting you go. At least not yet.”

  I didn’t want to have to go to Dad for help, but I will if it gets me out of this shit. “Let me call my dad. He’ll pay you whatever you want.”

  He pushes away from the table. “I’m not having this conversation with you again.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’ve already told you what I want. And I do not like repeating myself.” He flicks his hand at the food. “Take your plate to the bedroom.”

  “Please don’t lock me in there again.”

  He looks at his watch. “You have ten seconds to pick up your plate and drink and get into that bedroom. If you don’t, I will pick you up and carry you in there just the way that I did last night. Your choice.”

  I should toss my coffee in his face and run. Run like hell.

  And do what when he catches me?

  Now isn’t the time.

  I do as I’m told and go to the bedroom, taking my plate and drink with me. It feels like a concession, and I hate that.

  “I have some things I must take care of. I won’t be back today but my staff will tend to you in my absence.”

  “When will you return?”

  “Tomorrow evening.”

  That’ll be almost forty-eight hours in this hotel suite. He’s going to need to move me. And I’m guessing that tomorrow night will be it.

  “My staff will be instructed to bring you whatever you request for entertainment as long as it’s within reason.”

  “Great. I’ll binge-watch The Black List.” Maybe it’ll give me an idea about how to escape this fucking mess. And kick his ass in the process.

  The clock is winding down. I have until tomorrow night to plan my way out of here.

  5

  Tristan Broussard

  It took most of yesterday to move Claudia’s things out of the room that adjoins mine.

  My submissive’s bedroom.

  Emma Lia’s bedroom.

  Claudia dragged her feet and made everything about the move to the upstairs bedroom a huge pain in my ass. I finally had to chip in—me, Tristan Broussard—and help move her things so she could be out of the room in time for the interior designer to come.

  I was so fucking close to telling her to forget the whole thing and go to a fucking hotel instead. I must have considered it at least a dozen times. But I couldn’t in the end; I’m a man of my word. I told her that she could stay while she finds a new Dom… so she will stay.

  I wanted the designer to begin working on Emma Lia’s room yesterday afternoon, but I was forced to postpone her consultation until this morning. The whole thing turned into a rush job today with the entire staff present to get the work done. But now it’s done.

  Emma Lia’s room has been emptied, cleaned from top to bottom, and filled with all-new furnishings and posh decor. The chifforobe is filled with brand-new sex toys, including every kinky supply that we’ll need for the amazing erotic venture we’re about to take together.

  And I ca
n’t fucking wait.

  Emma Lia. She’s the only thing that I’m able to think about during the drive from home to the casino. I’ve been away from her for a day and a half. I can’t believe how eager I am to see her again. I’ve never been this electrified about reuniting with any of my previous submissives when we’ve been apart even for an extended period of time. But then again, my previous submissives were never untrained and awaiting my guidance.

  When I enter the bedroom where I’ve been keeping Emma Lia, I find her lying on the bed on her side, her hand tucked beneath the pillow. She’s so at ease that she doesn’t so much as flinch when I enter the room.

  Good. The sedatives are already working.

  I sit on the bed beside her, and she opens her heavy eyes. A drawn-out sigh is the only sound in the room.

  “How are you?”

  “Bored. Tired.”

  I’m certain that she has been bored with only the television to keep her entertained. Her only human interaction for the last day and a half has been with Smith when he brought her meals.

  “I’m sorry that you’ve been bored. I wanted to return sooner, but it wasn’t possible. I trust that you’ve been treated well in my absence.”

  “It’s been… hunky-dory.”

  “You’ve had dinner?”

  Another drawn-out sigh. “Yesss.”

  “Tell me what you ate.”

  She closes her eyes and tucks both hands beneath her head. “Filet steak… potatoes… asparagus… and a very nice glass of… red wine.”

  “Did you drink the whole glass of cabernet sauvignon?”

  “Of course. It was… delicious.”

  Perfect. “That’s my good girl.”

  “The wine is making me warm. And very relaxed.” Her voice is soft. Barely even audible.

  “Not the wine. The sedative cocktail—that’s what’s making you feel so calm.”

  “What’s a sedative cocktail?”

  “That’s not for you to worry about. Just enjoy your sleep. And when you wake, you’ll be in your own bed in your own bedroom.” In your new home. My home.

  “Mmm… that sounds… wonderful. I want… to go… home.”

  I rub my hand over her forehead, pushing away the hair that is covering her face. “No worries, sweetheart. I’m going to take care of everything, including you.”

  Dr. Catherine Miller enters Emma Lia’s bedroom and stills when she sees her lying on the bed. “This is my patient?”

  “Yes.”

  She looks at me. “Tristan… what have you done to this woman?”

  “Don’t worry, Cat. She’s just a little sedated.”

  Cat has been on retainer with me for years. She’s the only OB-GYN that I trust to care for my submissives. The only doctor that I know who understands what it is that I do. Because she participates in the same alternative lifestyle. Because we once enjoyed this lifestyle together as Dom and sub.

  “Why is she unconscious?”

  It goes against my Dom nature to allow my former submissive to interrogate me.

  “You know our policy. Don’t ask questions that you don’t want to hear the answers to.”

  “Is she here against her will?”

  “Do you really want to hear the answer to that question? Because I will tell you the truth. But if I do, you become involved at that point. Probably more deeply than you’d like to be.”

  “I’m pretty sure that I’m already more deeply involved than I’d like to be by just being here.”

  Cat and Emma Lia will come to know one another well. We will frequent the same dungeons. Attend the same play parties. They could become good friends—unlike she and Claudia.

  Claudia was jealous of Cat. She only went along with being her patient because it was my demand.

  “How did Claudia take your ending the relationship?”

  “Just as you would expect her to take it.”

  Cat chuckles. “That one is going to be trouble, Tristan.”

  “She won’t; she’s too obedient to be a problem.”

  “She’s no longer yours to order, and you shouldn’t forget that.”

  Cats sits on the bed beside Emma Lia and lifts her arm, letting it drop on the bed like a rock before turning to look at me. “She has zero tone. Nothing but dead weight. I’m going to need your help moving and positioning her.”

  “Just tell me what you need me to do.”

  Cat opens her bag. “I assume that she needs STD testing? A complete panel?”

  “Yes. Everything. I need one too since this is a new relationship.”

  Easton is the only person that Claudia fucked while she was my submissive. I don’t think that he’d purposely put either of us at risk but Easton does what Easton wants. I have to know that I’m clean so that I don’t put Emma Lia at risk.

  “You told me when you called that she needs an IUD placed as well?”

  Abso-fucking-lutely. “Yes.”

  “I’m assuming that you asked me to place it because she wants an IUD? Otherwise it would be completely unethical to place a birth control device in someone who hasn’t consented.”

  My subs have always been conscious and consenting in the past. We’ve never had to address this bullshit about unethical practices. “I’m consenting on her behalf.”

  “Tristan… you know that I can’t do that if she hasn’t given permission.”

  I’m going to ease Cat’s conscience and shoulder the burden of this one on my own. “Of course, she wants the IUD. She’s my submissive and wants to make me happy. Neither of us want a pregnancy.”

  Cat lifts a brow. “You’re such a fucking liar. But I’m going to place the IUD because I actually do believe the part about neither of you wanting a baby. And an IUD is easy enough to remove if that should change anytime in the near future.”

  “It won’t change. At least not while she is my submissive. She can do whatever she likes once she moves on.”

  Cat peeks beneath Emma Lia’s dress. “Those will have to come off before I can do her exam. Help me.”

  We each tug on the waistband of the thong and drag it down her legs. When it’s free, I fist the silk and stuff it into my pocket.

  “I saw that, you kinky motherfucker.”

  “Just a little something to hold me over until I can have the real thing.”

  Cat grabs her ankles and pulls, but Emma Lia’s body barely budges. No surprise there. Cat is a very small woman. “Help me pull her down in the bed until her buttocks are nearly hanging off the edge.”

  Buttocks. Doctor lingo.

  I grasp her ankles and do as Cat instructs. A first. “What now?”

  “Cup your hands around the bottom of her feet and push her legs back so her knees fall far apart.”

  Most people would feel some kind of discomfort or remorse or guilt for doing this—looking at her pussy while she’s unconscious—but the only thing that I feel is the rush of blood to my dick.

  I’ve looked at a lot of pussy in my time, but I swear that I’ve never seen a prettier one than hers.

  Cat inserts a metal speculum, twists a knob to crank open her vagina, and collects the samples that she’ll need for that part of the STD testing. I look away while she inserts the IUD. Not a turn-on.

  “Look down here over my shoulder. I want to show you something.”

  I stoop lower and Cat repositions the speculum. “See the string there?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’ve probably never felt this on any of your other subs but you will on her because her string is hanging out a little more than most women’s. That’s not a problem. It’s just that way because of her anatomy, but I’m showing you so you won’t freak the fuck out and blame me for putting in a faulty IUD when you feel the string.”

  “Are you sure that it’ll keep her from getting pregnant?”

  “It’ll work… as long as you don’t pull the string.”

  “There’s no fucking way that I’m pulling on that string.”

  “I w
as never worried that you would, Tristan. I just wanted you to be aware.”

  Cat and I move Emma Lia up in the bed and Cat completes her full exam.

  “She’s healthy?”

  “She’s unconscious, Tristan. It’s impossible to do an appropriate exam in this state, but she looks healthy as far as I can tell.”

  “Thank you for coming.”

  Cat gathers her supplies and returns them to her bag. “I’ll call once I have the results. Until then, don’t fuck her without a condom.”

  There’s no way that I’d ruin our first time with a fucking condom.

  I can wait.

  6

  Emma Lia Grant

  My eyelids are heavy. So damn heavy. I want to open them, and I try, but each of them feels like they weigh a ton.

  My brain sends the command for them to open and they fail miserably… until they finally obey. A little. But then they close again when they see the bright light coming through the windows.

  The sun is incredibly bright, but low, which could only mean that it’s late afternoon. And I’m still in bed.

  Why?

  Pound. Pound. Pound. The drummer inside my head doesn’t miss a single beat.

  What the hell went down last night? Did Avery and I party too hard?

  Last night’s events are fuzzy. And then the fuzziness begins to fade a little.

  I was inside that bedroom where I’d been held captive… for how long? Two days? Three?

  The man in the black suit with the ginger hair and beard—the one who called himself Smith—brought dinner to me. And then things get fuzzy again.

  I peek through slits and discover that I’m no longer in that hotel room, but in a different bedroom. And I have no memory of how I got here.

  I rise and prop on my elbows, taking in my surroundings. Luxurious bed and bedding. Wood flooring covered by a thick, plush rug. Tall ceilings that must be at least fourteen feet in height. Exquisite medallions on the ceiling. Marble fireplace mantel. The finest millwork that I’ve ever laid eyes upon. Opulent. I’m in the home of a very wealthy person.

  Tristan. Broussard.

  The softest linens that I’ve ever felt in my life are against my body. All of my body. Shit, I’m naked. Completely naked.