Rye couldn’t sleep. He was doing his best not to toss and turn, because he didn’t want to disturb Dev, but his brain was working too hard for his body to rest. Tansy was spending the night with Fellescend and Zenbaylan, so her room was empty, but it would have been an invasion of privacy to crawl into her bed without asking.
And the thought of her having a say circled him back to her problems with choice. He knew it had something to do with that bastard Lockmehdyhn, but Rye couldn’t work out how having a choice was Tansy’s issue. Surely being kidnapped and raped was all about not having a choice.
He rubbed his head, trying to ease the ache. Then he felt Dev roll closer in the dark. “I know you’re awake—I can hear you thinking from here.”
Rye snorted. “What you’re hearing, my friend, is me driving myself insane.”
“I’m worried about her too.” Dev rolled to the edge of the bed and placed a crystal into a bowl of moss that sat on the bedside table. As soon as the two items connected, they gave off a soft glow that bathed the bed in a mellow light. Dev rolled back, wriggling closer until his chest pressed against Rye’s arm. “How did you know what to do today? How to calm her?”
Rye stared at the ceiling and wondered how best to answer that question. “Do you remember when I used to go to Gloriahna’s?”
“How could I forget?” Dev mooched in and tried to hog the pillow. “That bower house was all I heard about for over a year. You couldn’t tell anyone else because it was off-limits for Enforcers, so you talked my ear bloody about the girls and the decor and the close calls on the back stairs.”
A smile swept over Rye’s face. That had been a great period in his life. Newly bonded to Zenbaylan, establishing a partnership with Dev, finding a place for himself in the den. Battle practice, war games, drinking games, loud parties and total freedom. They’d been wild times.
“I also remember,” Dev continued, “how you bent over backward to ingratiate yourself with the proprietress. And I recall some questionable favors you delivered just so you and your cock could get a discount.”
Rye snickered, rolling his head so he could look at his denmate. “Those girls were expensive. I was young, strong and horny, and I didn’t make enough money to satisfy all my needs. Especially in a place so upmarket only councilors and landholders could afford the rates.”
“What’s this got to do with Tansy?” Dev asked.
“I met a man who worked at Gloriahna’s.” Rye edged over a bit, giving up half his pillow. “One night I was heading down the back stairs when I had to make an unplanned detour. I ended up in an unfamiliar section of the house, and as I crept along a hallway, I heard the sound of a whip and a woman crying out.”
Dev immediately understood a situation that Rye’s younger self had failed to grasp. Dev’s eyes twinkled. “Oh no. You didn’t.”
Rye chuckled. “I did. In my defense, I have to say that despite the amount of women I’d managed to fuck, I was shockingly naive when it came to sex on the fringe. I heard a woman crying out in pain, and being a newly stamped, eager Enforcer, I rushed to her rescue.”
Dev smothered a laugh and his whole body shook. “Bet you got an education in a hurry.”
“Yep. I burst in on a naked woman chained to the ceiling and a man half my size whipping the skin off her back.”
“What happened?”
Rye could almost feel himself back there, heart pounding, blood roaring through his veins, so full of righteous indignation. “The Master turned to me and told me to wait. He said she wanted to be whipped, needed it. He told me that if I could hold myself back I would see her come harder than any woman I’d known.”
“So of course you waited.”
Yes, he had. Rye was a pleasure-seeker at heart, and he loved making a woman come. If there was a way to make them come harder, longer or more often, he wanted to know about it.
“He whipped her until she orgasmed. It was the strangest thing. She was screaming and crying, then she eased out of that and into a state of bliss. She hung from the chains, arching out to meet each stroke, and when he finally dropped the whip he shoved his fingers inside her and it was like he flipped a switch. And he was right. I had never seen a woman orgasm like it.”
Dev heaved a sigh, stirring Rye’s hair. “That’s a great story, my brother, but I’m still not seeing the Tansy connection.”
“Oh yeah. Sorry.” Rye had been so caught up in the memory he’d gone way off track. “When he let the girl out of the chains, he wrapped her in a blanket and sat with her in his lap. Then he invited me to sit down to talk. I don’t know what he saw in me at that first meeting. As I got to know him, I realized he was a very private man who guarded his clients like a she-dragon guards her chicks.”
“What did you talk about?”
“That first night we talked about the girl and those like her. Men and women who need pain to find sexual release. As our friendship developed we talked about other sexual needs, the unconventional and obscure, the mundane and the weird.”
“Were you attracted to any of it?”
Rye shrugged. “I dabbled here and there. Experimented a bit. I even helped the Master out on a couple of occasions.”
“By whipping women?” Rye heard the shock in Dev’s voice, despite the fact he’d barely spoken above a whisper.
“No, I didn’t whip them. I fucked them. The Master liked to keep some distance to maintain his authority, but sometimes a woman needed to feel a man inside her.”
“And you were happy to volunteer.” There was no censure in Dev’s voice, but Rye didn’t want him to think it had only been about fucking.
“Yes, but not entirely for the reasons you might think. The only time I was brought in was when there was healing to be done. I’m good with women and they like me. Despite my size, most of them don’t find me intimidating. The Master would coach me very carefully, telling me exactly what the woman needed. It was about connection more than sex.”
Rye had enjoyed that time for a lot of reasons, and he’d found a deep satisfaction in helping a woman get back to the person she wanted to be. That need to serve and protect was still a large part of him, but that energy was now channeled into his duties as an Enforcer.
Dev edged closer, stealing even more pillow. “Why did you stop?”
Rye shrugged. “You and I were sent off for our year-long rotation in the Topaz den, and during our absence Gloriahna’s changed hands. By then our relationship was rock-solid and I’d become so entwined with Zenbaylan I couldn’t remember a time when there wasn’t a dragon in my head. My friendship with the Master seemed a long way away from who I’d become. I guess I just let it drift.”
Dev reached out and laid his hand on Rye’s abdomen, and Rye automatically covered it with his own. He and Dev were comfortable with each other, but in the weeks they’d shared a bed they’d never touched on purpose. Not like this. But after the experience with Tansy today it seemed natural to touch. To maintain the physical connection that had begun when she’d been pressed between them. And after her flashback, they both needed comfort right now.
“Do you think you learned enough with the Master to help Tansy?” Dev asked.
“Maybe.” Rye linked their fingers together. “Perhaps we could find out if the Master is still around. He has more expertise and experience than you and I can even contemplate.”
Dev tucked his chin against Rye’s shoulder. “Absolutely not. I’m not letting him take a whip to our woman. I don’t care how expert he is.”
Rye didn’t know exactly what Tansy needed, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t that. “Don’t worry, Dev, I won’t let anyone lay a hand on our mate.”
“All right. Let’s forget about the Master and get some sleep.”
And despite the day’s events, it wasn’t long before Rye relaxed enough to comply with his denmate’s demand.