Chapter Fifteen

The hazy stage of sleep drifted from Mason’s mind, taking with it the cloudiness of his dreams. His head held a fog over it as if he had spent last night at the bottom of a bottle. That’s funny, He didn’t remember having anything to drink. His lashes fluttered open a few times trying to get his eyes to focus in the dark room around him. As if a window had been left open, a cold chill caressed his bare back and shoulder.

Turning his head against the pillow, his gaze searching the bed next to him for Stella but the mattress at his side lay empty and cold. An uneasy feeling crept into his mind. Turning over to face the other side of the room, his body froze with horror. Stella sat motionless in the chair by the wall. A blanket wrapped around her shoulders hiding what he knew was her naked body underneath. But it was the look of utter fear on her face that made him feel his own blood pulse inside his ears.

Moving his body to the edge of the bed, he swung his feet over the side to the floor. His eyes drifted closed as a dizziness overtook his mind as he sat up. Something wasn’t right with him.

“Baby, what’s the matter…” His words fell and he stiffened with alert as a shadowed figure shifted behind her. It took him no more than a second to realize they were no longer alone in the room. His back stiffened and his gaze darted back and forth between Stella and the figure behind her.

Looking back at Stella, he needed to make sure she hadn’t been hurt. “Are you okay—”

His words were cut off as the silent figure spoke. “I haven’t hurt her. She’s not the one standing in my way.”

That voice. He had heard that voice before. His mind raced to put a face to it. So her stalker had found her, and if he had to guess, he wasn’t too happy about finding Mason in her bed. But that was too damn bad. He would have to take that up with Mason himself.

“Who the fuck are you? What the hell do you want?”

The shadowed intruder didn’t answer so he tried something else.

“Are you saying I’m the one that’s in your way?” His gaze dropped back down to Stella but she sat stiff as a board, frozen to her chair. Something had her terrified. Had this guy threatened to hurt her?

“You have been in my way since you first stepped foot in the club,” the dark figure said, breaking his silence. He paused before continuing. “I know now you’re not going to leave on your own. I have to say I was quite surprised when I found out that our little jewel here was back in town. And even more surprised to see that she tried to fool me into thinking she had gotten rid of you and yet, here you are. So that leaves me needing to figure out what to do with you.” The last part he said as a soft whisper. Stella’s eyes grew wide pleading with him to behave himself and not make the man mad. She knew something he didn’t.

He forced his gaze away from hers and to the shadowed figure behind her.

“If your problem is with me, then leave her out of this and come after me. Or are you the kind of man that always hides behind women as you run your mouth?”

Stella’s eyes drifted closed and she slumped a little in her chair with disappointment. He wanted to piss the guy off in the hopes that he would free whatever hold he had on her. As long as he could get her out of this room and away from this creep alive and unharmed, he would consider that good enough.

The man stepped cautiously to the side taking care to avoid the light coming in from the window but not far enough to give Stella enough space to be able to get away from him.

“Your mouth is going to get you in trouble. For once, you won’t be able to sweet talk or charm your way out of this. I knew you were going to be a problem as soon as I met you. You’re a stubborn one but guess what, so am I. All I have to do is figure out how to get rid of you for good.”

Mason heard Stella gasp for air but thanks to the darkness of the room, he couldn’t see what had caused her pain. A hand reached out to grip her upper arm and tugged her to her feet next. Hell, no. She wasn’t going anywhere with this lunatic.

“Then you need to deal with me. Leave her out of this.” His fear for her safety rolled into anger.

The intruder stepped toward the bed but stayed shy of what light streamed in from the window. Damn it. He still couldn’t put a damn name to the voice.

“She’s the whole reason I’m here. She’s the reason I’ve been coming here day after day, week after week. I told myself she would come around. That she was just playing the tease she likes to be, and I almost had her too. Then you showed up. You weren’t supposed to stay. Had I known you would, I never would have…wait. You still have no idea who I am, do you? That speaks volumes for the business we’ve done together.”

He knows this nut job?

“Your voice doesn’t sound familiar to me. Step away from the woman and let me see who I’m dealing with.” His daring words did the trick. Stella’s body jerked to the side as the man behind her stepped forward. With the light peering in from the window, he could finally make out the face of the man holding onto his Stella. Onto his woman.

Jeffery Howett.

“What the hell are you doing, man?” He had just signed the papers to get an account with Jeffery. The man was a little eccentric, but this was beyond fucking crazy.

“What do you think I’m doing? I’m taking back what you stole from me. I’ve tried for months to get Mistress Stella to take me on as her submissive, and all she would tell me was that she no longer could take any on. Then you showed up.”

“That’s not his fault, Jeffery. It was my decision to take Mason on not…ouch.” She whimpered as he yanked her head back by the fist in her hair.

“I know that, you little slut. Don’t think for a minute that you’re not going to be punished for your lack of judgment. I have plans for you. You’re not going to be able to sit for a month after I get done with you.”

Mason had heard enough. “You’re not going to touch her, you sick son-of-a-bitch. You’re not going anywhere but to jail. Then you can be as submissive as you want.”

“Oh, you want to be funny. Let’s see how funny you think this is.” His hand stayed wrapped in Stella’s hair but his free hand moved from behind her and Mason caught a glimpse of the pistol that he held.

He had been holding a gun to Stella’s back this entire time? That was why she hadn’t fought him. His girl was too strong and willful to not have struggled or fought against her attacker. The gun’s barrel turned toward Mason with nothing but five feet of air separating them.

“I could take care of you right now. That would solve half my problem.” The wicked grin spread across his lips like he had lost his mind. The cold look in his gaze was that of an insane person enjoying the pain of torturing others.

His gaze caught the movement of Stella’s hand as she lifted it to grip the fist in her hair. With her arms raised, her elbow perched a few inches from his face. He stared at her. Fixing his gaze to hers in the hope she would somehow magically read his thoughts. He needed her to get Jeffery to move his eyes from him for only a second allowing him to step out of gun range. Something had to be done with this crazy bastard.

“So it was you that sent all those pictures to her? I have to tell you, you covered your tracks perfectly. Our crew is still trying to locate where the monitor pinged from.”

“I got good at computers as a teenager. There’s nothing better than plotting revenge on the school bullies when you’re fifteen. People are too trusting with computers these days, and they have no idea how far I can reach inside them. That’s how I got the pictures of you two. You really shouldn’t have your security cameras feeding live to a computer. Because anyone with more than an eighth-grade education can tap into that feed and watch it.”

“How did you get the pictures of us on the beach?” Stella asked with her hands stilling over her head.

“Same way. Your little boy toy here likes to show off by buying property next door to celebrities. Funny thing about stars, they all think people want to stalk them so they deck their homes out in the best security money can buy. But again, it’s no match for me.”

“What’s your reasoning behind the pictures? Who do you think you were going to hurt with them? Me?”

Jeffery’s face lite up with amusement. He seemed to be having too much fun with this. The sick bastard.

“I overheard you talking in the club about how you didn’t want anyone to see you there. You didn’t know I was around the corner, but I thought what a great way of getting back at the man who took my Mistress from me. Blasting your identity for the world to see. Then when my plan started tearing the two of you apart, and Stella all but begged me not to release your pictures, I knew I had something I could hold over her. My plan was working sweeter than I could have imagined. When Stella left the club to visit her grandmother in Georgia, it was like a relief she had finally came to her senses. After she had some time to get you out of her system who do you think would be here to welcome her home?”

“That wouldn’t have happened anyway, Jeffery. I had the girls pull your membership before I left. You aren’t allowed in the club,” Stella said, biting her lower lip as she groaned with pain. The asshole was going to rip her hair right out of her head.

“I was working on that. Piper’s a good enough Mistress but she’s dumb as hell. I could have worked my way back into her good graces easy enough. But then you had to ruin all my plans by going to see Stella and worming your way between her legs. When you’re rotting in hell, you remember, you brought this on yourself.” Jeffery raised the gun into the air again.

Mason had to work fast. Before the gun made it high enough to aim, Mason made his move throwing his body toward the two of them. Stella brought her elbow up to connect with his Jeffery’s face sending the man’s head flying back and forcing him to step back to regain his balance. A tormented scream pierced the air as he dropped his hold from her hair so he could grab his nose.

Mason throw his body toward the couple knocking all three of them to the floor in one pile. Stella rolled to her side and out of the way as Mason got the upper hand. Straddling Jeffery’s hips, he pressed his weight to the middle of the man’s stomach as he grabbed the front of his shirt hauling Jeffery’s head off the ground.

Mason’s weight held him down as his fist came down to meet Jeffery’s face. The psychotic man laughed as yet another bash of knuckles made contact, but this time the force split his eyebrow open letting blood splatter over his face. For all the pain and fear he had caused Stella, Mason punched harder again and again without hesitating for a second.

Mason heard Stella rush to the other side of the room and fumble with the keys on her phone.

Minutes that seemed like seconds passed before hands gripped the tops of his shoulders sliding down his arm to stop him from drilling into Jeffery. He had no idea how long he had stayed there punching before Stella pulled him off the man who no longer moved on the ground. His hand hurt like hell, but Stella was unharmed. It had all been worth it. Behind her, he could hear footsteps moving toward them quickly.

“Jesus Christ, what the hell happened here?” Master Cullen asked coming around the corner of the bedroom. The massive Dominant demanded attention every time he stepped into a room. Angel and Piper raced into the room behind him.

“He’s the one that has been sending the pictures of us. Jeffery is my stalker.”

“Asshole,” Angel said, taking the moment to kick the man in the gut. “You piece of shit. Snuck right under my radar. That pisses me off.”

Angel had been the one to talk Stella into extending membership to him even after Stella hadn’t felt comfortable doing so.

“It’s not your fault the man’s crazy. At least he will be off the streets now before he has a chance to really hurt someone,” Stella told her friend, moving up next to them.

“Stella, go put some clothes on. The cops are on their way and I know your comfortable being naked in front of people but they might not be as okay with it as you are,” Cullen told her. Mason watched as she bowed her head in a nod. There was no argument. She turned toward her dresser dropping the sheet from around her body. Everyone in the room could see her perfectly shaped ass before she pulled on a thong and a pair of jeans. Mason looked around to the others in the room but no one was paying his naked woman any attention except for him.

Jealousy stirred inside his gut. He needed to get all these feeling in check once and for all. He needed to get his mind made up about how his future with Stella was going to play out. If the bullshit from tonight had shown him any indication of how his future with her would be, then his mind was already set.

****

Stella watched as the police handcuffed Jeffery and placed him in the back of a cop car. It was the best place for a man like him and only what he deserved. The officer told her and Mason they were needed at the police station to give statements. She just wanted the whole thing to be over. She never wanted to see Jeffery again. She didn’t need to remind everyone that she had been creeped out by him from day one. The others girls felt horrible for the way things had worked out. She read the guilt on each of their faces.

There was nothing like the fear she felt waking up in the middle of her darkened room to see Jeffery standing above her pointing a gun in her face. She couldn’t have screamed if she wanted to since he had quickly turned the gun toward the back of Mason’s head. At least he had let her pull the sheet around her body before he forced her out of bed. Thankfully it only took Mason a few minutes before he woke up.

“First thing in the morning, we’re going through every single client file we have. I think we need to start screening better.”

Stella laughed at Piper’s concerned statement. Not that she found anything funny about the events that had just happened tonight. They couldn’t let this one crazy incident change the way they did things. Better screening was a great idea, but she wasn’t going to let him scare them off welcoming in new members either.

“Better screening, yes. It probably won’t hurt to do some re-screening on current members either. Maybe make it a yearly thing.”

“I’m starting tomorrow. We might have to hire someone since that will take a full-time weekly shift and with you going back to Georgia, we might need…”

“You’re going back?” Mason asked coming up behind her.

She turned and looked over her shoulder at him. “I’m not sure yet. I mean, I’ll go back to visit. My grandma is the only family I have other than everyone here.”

“No more games, Stella. Just give me the truth. Are you thinking of moving away?”

It was quick and to the point and very much putting her on the spot. It was time she to be honest with him.

“I had thought of moving there to be with my grandmother. She’s getting older after all, but the truth is, I like it here. I want to open a studio here where I can still enjoy the club I helped build, and I want to continue to see it grow. I only thought about moving because…of you. You hurt me when you accused me of blackmailing you. At the time I tried to convince myself that I was done with you and the club.”

“Stella, I…”

She put her hand up to stop him. She needed to get it off her chest. “Hold on a minute. Let me get this out. You hurt me when you thought I could blackmail you. Then you went all the way to Georgia to make it right. I get that you want to continue our relationship as we are, but I think I want something more. Not just exclusive while we play but exclusive in all areas of our lives.”

His blue eyes sizzled with a light sparkle and his lips curled into a sexy smile. “Are you saying you want to be a couple with me?”

She lowered her head glancing at the ground at their feet. His question took her off guard. Why did she feel so nervous? She was a powerful female Dominant. Not this meek small-willed woman.

Pulling her head back up, she straightened her shoulders and stiffened her back. She was good at demanding and taking from others, she wasn’t about to ask.

“I’m saying, I want you, and I know you want me. We’re good for each other. Either we move this relationship to the next level or we’re done here completely.”

She kept her gaze on his face searching for any sign that she had pushed too far. His smile stayed in place but his hands moved to the sides of her cheeks cupping her face in his giant but caring hands.

“Only if we can jump to a whole new level all together. I love you, Stella. I love everything about you. I love your soft, playful side. I love the black-leather wearing Domme who takes her sick pleasure from punishing me.”

She smiled because it was true. She had enjoyed his punishment but he did too.

“What I’m saying is, I want you to marry me.”

It wasn’t a question. But a demand. A demand she was more than willing to obey. She threw herself into his arms. Wrapping her arms around his neck as she pulled him closer until her lips landed on his. “I love you, so much.”

He didn’t give her a chance to say anything more as his mouth took hers. Hungrily eating at her. He sucked her bottom lip between his teeth, drawing it into the warmth of his mouth. “God, I love the taste of you.” Sucking on her lower lip she didn’t have a chance to respond other than letting out a deep throated moan. Slowly, he released his hold on her but she didn’t move out of his embrace but stayed in the warmth of his arms.

“We might be moving a little too fast, but I want you to know that I would love to marry you. I love you, too.”

“Thank God,” He said, bending down to place an arm behind her knees as he lifted her into his arms. Hoots and hollers of approvals filled the air of the private parking lot behind the club. All her friends and family from Sublime watched as Mason carried her back inside her apartment.

“One more thing, sweetheart. If I ever catch you bowing submissively to another man again, I’ll make sure your punishment isn’t as fun as mine was. Cullen seems like a great guy, but your mine now. The only person you will submit to is me.”

She smiled at his jealousy. “You and only you. But don’t expect me to call you Master.”

His smile widened as if he heard the playfulness in her voice. “Challenge accepted, baby.” He kicked the door to her apartment closed as he started off toward the bedroom but he stopped suddenly, turned, and locked the door. She smiled before leaning in to seek his mouth with hers. She was where she wanted to be. In the arms of the man who was hers to control.