Tender Mercies - By Kitty Thomas Page 0,1

give James room to work.

The first snap of the whip landed perfectly across her back, eliciting a shriek unlike anything he’d heard from her before. Then the tears started coming, possibly the first real ones she’d cried in his care. His cock twitched as she pulled against the restraints, her fear and pain intoxicating. He’d forgotten this need to possess completely, for a woman to be this helpless and dependent on his kindness. The dynamic with Darcy had just never been that way. Not until now.

A few more lashes had her begging and blubbering. “Please, Master, make it stop. Please. I’m sorry.”

“You’ve learned your lesson?”

She nodded vigorously.

He looked to James who shrugged, seemingly unconvinced that this would make much difference in the grand scheme of Darcy’s misbehavior.

“One more,” Asher decided aloud.

The next strike drew blood and a scream so loud it nearly busted his eardrums.

“Well, that one did it,” James said.

“Indeed.”

They worked together to untie her, and she collapsed in Asher’s arms.

“Go to your room, and don’t come out. I’ll come up for you in a few hours.”

“But Master, I . . . it hurts.”

“I’ve coddled you far too long. Punishment is supposed to hurt. Things are changing between us. Go.” He pointed to the staircase. Her face fell, and she winced as she hobbled across the floor and up the stairs, gripping the rail that ran along the stone wall as if for her life.

For a moment, he considered helping her, but he stayed where he was, watching her, wondering if she was exaggerating her pain now for his sympathy. Once she’d gone, he and James retired to the study for drinks.

It was late into the night when he found her sprawled on the floor in her room, asleep. So like Darcy to be a drama queen. He picked her up and moved her across the hall. She groaned in pain as he settled her under the covers with him. The groan ended his suspicions that she was just being dramatic. Maybe he shouldn’t have let James go so hard on her.

He turned on the bedside lamp to inspect her back. Something looked wrong. Felt wrong. He shook her. “Darcy, look at me.”

She opened her eyes with some struggle, her gaze glassy and unfocused, and the sickening thought came over him that she might not have just gone to sleep. She may have passed out from the pain. Alarm grew as he sifted through all the schooling he’d stopped using when he’d decided to ditch pre-med for business. Internal bleeding.

Possible scenarios presented themselves. Cracked rib? Punctured organ? She was so sluggish. Had she tried to come back downstairs to him? How had she even made it to her room? Had she tried to call out, and he hadn’t heard her?

Her eyes drifted shut, and he shook her again. “Darcy!”

“Master . . . I’m hurt.” Her hair cascaded over her back as she struggled to turn toward him, life slipping out of her more quickly now. There were a million things he wanted to say to her, a million apologies and whispered endearments. What the hell have I done?

“William!” he shouted, “call for an ambulance!” The servant raced into the room, already punching numbers on the phone. It was futile. Help wouldn’t arrive in time; he knew enough to know that. It was far too late for gallant rescue.

He couldn’t look away from her, couldn’t close his eyes to her pain and the gravity of the life he’d just, in effect, taken. The life of the woman he loved.

“Master?” she whispered.

He cradled her in his arms, his thumb stroking over her cheek. His look of regret told her everything she needed to know. “Yes, baby?”

“Sing me to sleep?”

It was the last time he ever sang.

One

Grace Warner logged on to her instant messenger. Lucas wouldn’t be on for another fifteen minutes, but he hated when she was late. Am I really going to do this?

From the time she’d learned of Eleu, she’d become obsessed with it. A real place where it was legal to belong to someone. The independently-governed island was kept secret, even among the kinky set. But she’d discovered it. She felt like Columbus.

How could this place exist? How could she never have known about it? At first, she’d thought her friend Lainey was just fucking with her. She’d laughed it off so as not to give away any clues of her naïveté. Privately, she dug until she found the confirmation she needed. And now she’d met a man