Adored: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella (1001 Dark Nights) Read online

  Adored

  A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

  By Lexi Blake

  1001 Dark Nights

  Adored

  A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

  By Lexi Blake

  1001 Dark Nights

  Copyright 2015 DLZ Entertainment, LLC

  ISBN: 978-1-940887-33-3

  Foreword: Copyright 2014 M. J. Rose

  Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.

  Book Description

  Adored: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

  By Lexi Blake

  A man who gave up on love

  Mitch Bradford is an intimidating man. In his professional life, he has a reputation for demolishing his opponents in the courtroom. At the exclusive BDSM club Sanctum, he prefers disciplining pretty submissives with no strings attached. In his line of work, there’s no time for a healthy relationship. After a few failed attempts, he knows he’s not good for any woman—especially not his best friend’s sister.

  A woman who always gets what she wants

  Laurel Daley knows what she wants, and her sights are set on Mitch. He’s smart and sexy, and it doesn’t matter that he’s a few years older and has a couple of bitter ex-wives. Watching him in action at work and at play, she knows he just needs a little polish to make some woman the perfect lover. She intends to be that woman, but first she has to show him how good it could be.

  A killer lurking in the shadows

  When an unexpected turn of events throws the two together, Mitch and Laurel are confronted with the perfect opportunity to explore their mutual desire. Night after night of being close breaks down Mitch’s defenses. The more he sees of Laurel, the more he knows he wants her. Unfortunately, someone else has their eyes on Laurel and they have murder in mind.

  About Lexi Blake

  Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance that she found success. She likes to find humor in the strangest places. Lexi believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome or foursome may seem. She also writes contemporary Western ménage as Sophie Oak.

  Connect with Lexi online:

  Facebook: Lexi Blake

  Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorlexiblake

  Website: www.LexiBlake.net

  Sign up for Lexi's free newsletter here and receive the free novella Sweet Child o’ Mine, the story of Ian Taggart becoming a dad!

  Also from Lexi Blake

  Click to purchase

  Masters And Mercenaries

  The Dom Who Loved Me

  The Men With The Golden Cuffs

  A Dom Is Forever

  On Her Master’s Secret Service

  Sanctum: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

  Love and Let Die

  Unconditional: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

  Dungeon Royale

  Dungeon Games: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

  A View to a Thrill

  Cherished: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

  You Only Love Twice

  Luscious: Masters and Mercenaries~Topped

  Adored: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

  Master No, Coming August 4, 2015

  Masters Of Ménage (by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake)

  Their Virgin Captive

  Their Virgin’s Secret

  Their Virgin Concubine

  Their Virgin Princess

  Their Virgin Hostage

  Their Virgin Secretary

  Their Virgin Mistress

  The Perfect Gentlemen (by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake

  Scandal Never Sleeps, Coming August 18, 2015

  Seduction in Session, Coming November 3, 2015

  URBAN FANTASY

  Thieves

  Steal the Light

  Steal the Day

  Steal the Moon

  Steal the Sun

  Steal the Night

  Ripper

  Addict, Coming Soon

  Author Acknowledgments

  Thanks to Liz, MJ, Jillian, Pam and the whole crew at Evil Eye. It’s always a pleasure to work with truly creative people. As always thanks to my own crew – Chloe, Riane, Stormy, my husband and my son who will likely yell at me because of all the italics in this book. And to the amazing Steve Berry who I owe for the inspiration to make Mitch a lawyer. I also owe him five dollars.

  This book is dedicated to the parents out there. No matter how it happens children change our lives, our marriages, and our souls for the better.

  Sign up for the 1001 Dark Nights Newsletter

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  1001 Dark Nights story

  The First Night

  by Lexi Blake & M.J. Rose

  Table of Contents

  About Lexi Blake

  Also by Lexi Blake

  Author Acknowledgments

  Foreword

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  Also From 1001 Dark Nights

  An excerpt from Master No by Lexi Blake

  Special Thanks

  One Thousand and One Dark Nights

  Once upon a time, in the future…

  I was a student fascinated with stories and learning.

  I studied philosophy, poetry, history, the occult, and

  the art and science of love and magic. I had a vast

  library at my father’s home and collected thousands

  of volumes of fantastic tales.

  I learned all about ancient races and bygone

  times. About myths and legends and dreams of all

  people through the millennium. And the more I read

  the stronger my imagination grew until I discovered

  that I was able to travel into the stories... to actually

  become part of them.

  I wish I could say that I listened to my teacher

  and respected my gift, as I ought to have. If I had, I

  would not be telling you this tale now.

  But I was foolhardy and confused, showing off

  with bravery.

  One afternoon, curious about the myth of the

  Arabian Nights, I traveled back to ancient Persia to

  see for myself if it was true that every day Shahryar

  (Persian: شهریار, “king”) married a new virgin, and then

  sent yesterday's wife to be beheaded. It was written

  and I had read, that by the time he met Scheherazade,

  the vizier's daughter, he’d killed one thousand

  women.

  Something we
nt wrong with my efforts. I arrived

  in the midst of the story and somehow exchanged

  places with Scheherazade – a phenomena that had

  never occurred before and that still to this day, I

  cannot explain.

  Now I am trapped in that ancient past. I have

  taken on Scheherazade’s life and the only way I can

  protect myself and stay alive is to do what she did to

  protect herself and stay alive.

  Every night the King calls for me and listens as I spin tales.

  And when the evening ends and dawn breaks, I stop at a

  point that leaves him breathless and yearning for more.

  And so the King spares my life for one more day, so that

  he might hear the rest of my dark tale.

  As soon as I finish a story... I begin a new

  one... like the one that you, dear reader, have before

  you now.

  Chapter One

  Mitchell Bradford stared down at the phone and wondered if he could somehow manage to reach through it and strangle the man on the other end of the line. His office was cool, but he could feel the temperature rising with each word he heard. He was certain Kai Ferguson would tell him he had anger issues and should come in for a session. Then Mitch could kill the fucker in person. “What do you mean you paired Laurel with the new Master? Which Laurel would that be because you couldn’t possibly be talking about Laurel Daley, my paralegal. I believe I told Big Tag that she was to be refused admission to Sanctum.”

  Kai chuckled over the line. “Oh, you know, Big Tag has a soft spot for a well-meaning sub.”

  He took his cell off speaker and pressed it to his ear, as though bringing it closer would make his point more clear. “The only thing Laurel means by joining Sanctum is to push me into a jealous rage. She’s manipulating me. That means she’s manipulating Tag, too. Deny her application, Kai.”

  Laurel Daley was rapidly becoming a pain in his…damn it. Thinking about the gorgeous, not even thirty-year-old brunette made his cock hard. She was stunning. Smart and capable, he’d thought about firing her more than once because his brain shut off the minute she walked in a room. He’d hired her sight unseen because she was his best friend’s sister. She’d needed a job and he’d needed help.

  His best friend. There had been times Will Daley had been his only friend. Will had picked him up and dusted him off and made sure he didn’t kill himself with booze. How did he tell his best friend in the world that he wanted to fuck his sister so badly he dreamed about it every night?

  He might have been able to deal with the entire situation if Laurel hadn’t lost her damn mind and decided she wanted him, too.

  One of them had to be sensible.

  “I can’t deny her application. She’s perfectly sane.” Kai was his other friend. He and Will and Kai had taken to hanging out together. Unfortunately Kai was also the gateway to Sanctum. He was the club’s resident shrink, with the power to approve or disapprove membership applications.

  “You wouldn’t think that if you saw how pissed off she gets at fictional characters. The woman yells at her e-reader. She threw it across the room the other day and her only explanation was that someone named Joshua Lake was being a butthead.” He’d narrowly missed having his head taken off with the damn thing. Luckily, the e-reader seemed pretty tough. The thing hadn’t had a scratch on it and she was right back to reading after she’d finished the first draft of the contract she was working on.

  Kai chuckled over the line. “Those women are serious about their book boyfriends. If that was a sign of insanity, I would have to get rid of most of the submissives at Sanctum. Face it, Mitch. You’re going to have to deal with her.”

  Laurel would soon be running around Sanctum, likely wearing very little.

  Sanctum was his sanctuary. It was a BDSM club, a very exclusive one. He’d had to pay through the nose and give Ian Taggart, the owner, a massive discount on legal services in order to get in. Apparently all his paralegal had to do was bat her eyelashes. His stomach turned and he wondered if he had any antacids. He wasn’t exactly sure what he would do if he couldn’t spend his nights at Sanctum. His friends were there. It was how he blew off steam.

  So take her and train her. She wants to learn about D/s and you want to find out how tight her pussy is and how she’ll whimper when you fuck her hard. You can have her sign a contract. This is actually perfect, dude. Stop thinking so much and let me take over. Have I ever steered you wrong, buddy?

  “Mitch, is your penis talking to you again?”

  He should never have admitted that to a shrink. He tried to move the conversation back to the point. “Why did you pick Master T? He’s obviously wrong for her.”

  He wasn’t going into the fact that his libido was sometimes a voice inside his head. And fuck you very much, penis, but yes, his dick had led him astray on numerous occasions leading to two disastrous marriages. Twice he’d been forced to start his life over again with nothing. He’d had to build not one, not two, but three businesses from scratch, and he wasn’t doing that again. No matter how well intentioned he would be going into a casual relationship with Laurel Daley, he knew how it would end up. It would start with amazing sex and end in divorce because the only thing stupider than his dick was his heart.

  “Master T has become quite proficient at all aspects of D/s. I think he’s a good match for training Laurel,” Kai explained in a very logical voice.

  Master T. They were all using the alias, but Mitch happened to know that Master T was actually Tennessee Smith, disavowed CIA agent in deep cover. He didn’t have all the specifics of Ten’s new mission. He only knew that the handsome agent was dangerous and that meant Laurel should stay away from him. Ian was planning to use Sanctum to run some kind of operation in the next couple of months, and Mitch didn’t want Laurel anywhere near Smith when he got to work. Hell, he didn’t want her anywhere near the handsome ex-agent for any reason.

  “What about the married Masters?” It was how things were done at Sanctum. The married Masters tended to be the most experienced. They and their submissives often trained both Doms and subs for several months.

  There was a pause on the line. “She’s worked with Ian and Liam for six weeks. They think she’s ready to move on and so do I.”

  He stopped, the phone heavy in his hand. “She’s been going to Sanctum?”

  “She comes in on Thursday nights for training and works the nursery on Saturday nights.”

  Well, that explained it. He didn’t go in on Thursdays and there was no reason for him to ever visit the nursery. “And no one thought to tell me my paralegal has joined the club I attend?”

  Kai’s voice went a bit hard. “I’m only telling you now out of courtesy because Master T prefers to train on Friday nights. The confidentiality of our club members is very important, as you would know.”

  “But she’s Laurel. You know what she means to me,” he rasped into the phone. Laurel was all he could think about half the time.

  “Then you should have claimed her, Mitchell. She’s done waiting for you and I think it’s the healthiest choice she’s made in the time I’ve known her. I applaud her for taking control of her life and deciding what she wants. She wants to explore D/s. You won’t train her.”

  “You know why I won’t train her.” He’d already fucked up his life beyond repair. Twice. He wasn’t about to screw up hers, too. He was too old for her. He was too rough and hard for her. She was a kid starting out and he’d run through all his chances.

  “Yes, I fully understand all of your psychological reasons for pushing her aside. That is your choice. This is hers.”

  “She’s trying to manipulate me. She thinks if I have to see her with another man, I’ll come around.”

  A long sigh came over the line and Mitch could practically feel the weight of Kai’s disappointment. “Then this is your chance to prove her wrong, Mitch. You should thank me. Master T will be ta
king responsibility for her. I believe they’re signing a month-long contract. If it doesn’t work out, I’ve got a couple of Doms looking for permanent partners. You don’t have to worry anymore. She’ll be taken care of. She won’t bother you once she’s found a proper top.”

  She wouldn’t bother him? Seeing Laurel was the best part of his day. He’d hired her six months before and every second of every day since had been about catching sight of her or arguing some point of law with her or trying to keep his hands off her. The idea of her with another man…

  “Let me find her a Dom. It can’t be Master T. He’s too old for her. He’s too cold.”

  “He’s too much like you?” Kai’s voice had softened, was almost sympathetic.

  “She deserves better.” He was ten years older than her and about a hundred years wiser, though much of his wisdom was made of things a sane person would avoid. “She’s a bright light, Kai. She’s one of those people you can’t help but adore. She shouldn’t be with a Master who will grind her under his boot. She needs someone young and positive.”

  “Does it help if I tell you her contract forbids sex for the first three weeks? They can decide afterward if they want to take the relationship further.”

  Did it help? Not really. “She needs more. Even during training. Have you thought about Theo Taggart? I know he’s in the program. Or Michael Malone?”

  He hated the idea of either man laying hands on her, but he had to stop being a selfish prick. She was lonely. He wanted her to be happy. Theo Taggart had a ready smile and a positive outlook on life and Malone came from a wealthy, loving, completely functional family. Neither man had been married before so they didn’t have three tons of baggage they dragged through life.