Purgatory Masters(13)

Did she know that Derek used to complain about her in high school? To everyone else she’d seemed aloof; to her then-boyfriend she was a pushover. Derek had let all his friends know that she liked being told what to do. Most teenagers didn’t know what that meant but Tucker had a pretty good idea. The other guys had laughed it off as if she was some sort of doormat. That inside knowledge from Derek may have been what drove Tucker to kiss her that night. He wanted her so bad, he’d ached. Her eager response had thrown him for a loop.

Tucker shook his head and banished the past from his thoughts. That was a long time ago and neither of them resembled the kids of their youth. She’d gone into a structured profession that came with a lot of history and rigid rules. He imagined what she’d looked like in a buttoned down conservative business suit. Or more importantly, what she’d look like with her suit jacket and blouse unbuttoned to the waist, her breasts bound so as to keep them aroused and available to his mouth and hands. Fuck. His fantasies were going to kill him. He’d never spent a day of his life working in a normal office but for a chance at getting Maggie bound and bent over a desk he might rethink his career goals.

Poor Maggie. Her rules had worked for her for a while until she’d pushed at her boundaries a little too hard and it all blew up in her face. He’d be willing to bet none of her fellow professors had cornered her in her office and drilled her for the truth about her sexuality. Why else would she be in trouble now? There was no doubt her history fascinated him. He couldn’t stop thinking about everything she’d been through, and more importantly, where she wanted to go now. Where he wanted to take her.

He turned to the blank canvas and pondered what had driven him to this room. Generally, he spent more time outside in his workshop. He reveled in the heat and power that infused him when he worked with fired glass. What had started out as a strange hobby to distract him from the dark pit he’d fallen into had turned into a secret profession that now afforded him a level of peace his abandoned attempt at club owner never could. Tucker scowled. He hated that the memory of the life he’d walked away from still plagued him. Ten long years had passed since he’d returned home to the nightmare of his father’s legacy and after an extended stint in a hell of his own making, he’d clawed his way back to the land of the living where he hoped to recapture the missing piece of his life.

Yeah, this trip down memory lane was not making his day. He didn’t want Maggie’s visit to be influenced by the things he’d done in the past. She wasn’t an anonymous submissive whose only job was to temporarily smother the resentment burning inside him. Those days were safely behind him. From the moment he’d seen her illuminated in the snow, his thoughts were consumed with various ways to give her pleasure. He turned to the Saint Andrews cross in the far corner of the room and imagined Maggie naked and restrained. He longed to work her to the brink of sexual insanity before he began to capture her image with brush and paint.

It had been a long time since he’d invited anyone into his studio playroom, and the first time he longed to paint someone. The toys in here had gathered dust to the point he’d spent all morning restoring his tools of the trade to their former glory and rearranging the chest he used to keep everything neat. To his dismay he had to throw away more than a dozen floggers that were beyond repair. If things worked out with Maggie, he’d commission some new ones, made specifically for her. His thoughts were immediately drawn back to what her skin looked like. Pale and translucent simply waiting for someone to—

Tucker’s phone buzzed on his hip, signaling someone had arrived at his front door. He dismissed the security app from his cell screen and headed out of his private studio and into the main house. Almost the entire building featured windows, so he easily saw from the back of the house to the front door. His cock stirred in anticipation. Leaving Maggie last night had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done and she’d consumed his thoughts since he left her. Giving them both the night to anticipate was the right thing to do. However, the wait was now over and they could get on with the incredible scene he expected.

At the front entrance he counted to ten. Once he was fully in control, he opened the door.

“I’m so glad you came.” He held out his hand and waited.

“I wasn’t sure I would until I literally got in the car and started driving.” She placed her small hand in his and let him draw her through the door.

“Nervous?” She didn’t have to answer for him to know. The slight tremble of her hand clued him in.