Seth’s blood ran cold, but he remained silent.
She walked over to Kaden and knelt before him, offering it up to him.
“The four-footer?” he said, almost sounding amused. “You don’t want to take it easy on poor Seth tonight, do you?”
“Please, Master. I need to feel the bite.” Her voice sounded choked, and her eyes looked red, like she was near tears again.
His face softened. He nodded and took the whip from her. “Of course, love,” he said, his voice incongruously gentle. “Set of twenty?”
“Yes, Master. Please.”
“Take your place, love.”
She stood and walked over to the bench and lay across it, her arms and legs falling near the attached cuffs. Kaden walked over to her and stroked her ass. Seth, who felt he was now an outsider in this tableau, remained silent and still.
“Do you want the cuffs, love?”
Leah’s eyes were closed. Seth had seen her tightly peaked nipples.
“Master’s choice.”
“Do you mind if we don’t use them tonight? I think this will be intense enough for Seth without seeing that right now.”
“I understand, Master.”
Seth looked up as Kaden uncoiled the whip. He realized the ceiling in this room was higher than in the other bedrooms. While the living room and dining room had tall, vaulted ceilings, the other bedrooms were standard eight-foot ceilings. During the planning stage, Kaden had asked for this room to have a vaulted ceiling and no ceiling fan.
Now he understood why.
Kaden backed away from the bench and shook out the whip. He stretched his neck and rolled his shoulders, loosening up. His tone changed, firm, authoritative, sounding totally unlike Seth’s soft-spoken friend. “Do you need to feel the bite, slave?”
From the bench, it looked like Leah actually wiggled her ass and hips at Kaden. “I need to feel the bite, Master.”
“Set of twenty, love.”
“Twenty, Master.”
“Count.”
Seth flinched, unprepared as Kaden nailed her with the whip, striking her squarely in the middle of her left ass cheek.
“One, Master.”
His face a mask of concentration, Kaden slowly worked through the set, Leah keeping count with each strike. It was obvious Kaden knew what he was doing, making it look effortless and apparently striking his intended spot each time.
It was also equally obvious that Leah was…enjoying wasn’t perhaps the best word, but she definitely wasn’t upset about it despite the tears running down her face by the time he finished.
Kaden coiled the whip. “Where are we, love?”
“Green, Master.”
“Very good, love.” He walked over to her and knelt beside her, touching his forehead to hers, whispering to her. She nodded and cried. He pulled her into his arms and sat on the floor, holding her in his lap for many long, tender minutes as she sobbed, her agonized screams echoing through the otherwise silent house. Kaden remained silent as she clutched him, his face buried in her hair.
Now Seth felt even more uncomfortable. He wanted to get up and walk out and give them privacy, yet felt that would disturb them more than him just quietly sitting there.
Kaden nuzzled the top of her head, and that was when Seth spotted his friend’s tears.
Leah eventually composed herself. Kaden whispered something to her, then tenderly kissed her temple. She nodded, stood, and left the room.
From his place on the floor, Kaden wiped his eyes and looked at Seth.
Taking a deep breath and knowing he could not refuse his friend, Seth softly said, “I’ll do it.”
Chapter Three
Kaden stood and turned his back to Seth for a moment as he wiped his face. He finally took a deep breath and then turned and nodded. “Thank you,” he quietly said. “I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate this. It takes a huge burden off me.”
Seth felt emotionally drained. Not only from his own feelings, but from what he’d just witnessed.
He also worried he might not be able to step up and take over. Could he deal with that responsibility?
He was the perpetual fuck-up. Could he ever truly be strong and steady Kaden?
“You won’t let her down,” Kaden said as if reading his mind. “You’ll do fine. I know you will.”
Seth shook his head. “What am I getting myself into?”
“Let’s go talk. Give her a few minutes to recover.” He grabbed his shirt and glasses and led Seth back to the living room where they settled on the large sectional sofa. “Do you have early classes tomorrow?”
“No. I have one at eleven.”
“Why don’t you spend the night? I’m taking off the rest of the week for Leah. I need to finish up some things at work over the next few weeks, and then I’m going to stay home for her. I still have some projects going on that I need to wrap up or hand off. I can mostly work from here until they’re taken care of.”
Here he was, dying, and still talking about doing things for Leah.
Seth’s eyes flicked to the hallway. “I don’t know if I should spend the night tonight, dude. I mean…” He didn’t know how to finish, so he didn’t.
“Get used to seeing her naked. It’s how she usually dresses. Unless it’s chilly or she’s not feeling well, she’s usually wearing only her collar. I mean, how many times have you dropped by unexpectedly and caught her ‘just out of the shower’ and wearing only her robe?” Kaden used finger quotes around the phrase.
Seth mentally reeled. He’d joked with her that his timing always sucked and that she needed a new bathrobe. He caught her wearing it fairly frequently, always pulled high around her neck…
He closed his eyes. “Shit.”
“Yep. Makes sense now, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Come on, I mean, really. Did you honestly think she manages to take showers just when you show up?” Kaden laughed, amused. “That’s why it’s usually hanging behind the front door.”
Seth flushed. He had noticed that on more than one occasion but hadn’t thought anything about it. He assumed she left it there to put on in the morning when she walked down the drive to get the paper.
Kaden continued. “There’s plenty of times when she thought you might be stopping by, or if she suspects anyone might be coming by, she’ll keep a pair of shorts and a T-shirt by the door so she can slip them on quickly. Then she’s usually wearing her day collar, not the one she’s wearing now.” He worked his wedding band around his finger. “Call your brother and tell him you’re spending the night. You’ve stayed here before. That way he won’t worry. We can talk, have breakfast in the morning.”
“How am I supposed to get used to seeing your wife walking around here naked?” Seth didn’t want to voice the last part of his statement.
Kaden smirked. “Buddy, you have to. Kind of hard to make love to her with her clothes on.”
Horrified, Seth recoiled from his friend’s words. “Dude! She’s your wife! I can’t…I can’t ask her to have sex with me!”
“Why not? You’re going to be her Master, her husband. She’ll want it. I damn sure know you’ll want it.”
Seth tried to reconcile what Kaden had told him earlier. He dropped his voice to a hoarse whisper. “Dude, after what you told me—”
Kaden shook his head. “This isn’t the same. You won’t be forcing her, trust me. She likes you. She’s attracted to you.”
Seth fell silent, trying to process this information. He didn’t know which shocked him more, the matter-of-fact tone Kaden used or his friend’s obviously well-thought-out plans. Just when Seth thought he’d hit the high-water weird mark, Kaden raised the bar yet again.