Master Me by Brynn Paulin Page B

property?” Tyler snarled, giving the leash another ineffectual yank. He glared at Ana, sending another shot of pure terror down her spine. “I want you off him and on your knees now, slave.”
    She twisted sideways on Max’s lap and looked up at him. “Master?”
    He smiled as his arm tightened almost painfully around her waist. “This sub is not your slave and she never has been. She’s been mine for years.”
    Tyler’s eyes narrowed and she saw the distrust in his glare. He didn’t believe Max.
    Great. “She agreed to be mine,” he spat. “She signed a contract and I’m holding her to it.”
    Oh man…she had… Could he hold her to it? Did he have a legal leg to stand on?
    Max’s laugh was mocking. “She was not free to do that. She belongs to me. And only to me.”
    “But—”
    Max’s eyes narrowed and Ana buried her face in his neck, ignoring the pull of the leash. He yanked it from Tyler’s hands. “It was a grave mistake on her part, a mistake for which she’s been severely punished. She bears the bruises.”
    Tyler’s bruises, however Ana certainly wasn’t going to point it out. Despite her hopes, Tyler wasn’t backing down to Max’s dominant stance though it was apparent that Max held the upper hand over the man. Tyler was small in her lover’s overwhelming presence.
    Gaining strength from Max, she looked back to Tyler and raised her chin, letting him see that she would not submit to him. Since she’d been here at the club, she’d done everything necessary to show her deference to Max. She always would. Now as she stared at Tyler, she straightened her shoulders and gave him her most superior look. He was a worm and unworthy of her submission. She wasn’t a weak, spineless woman who would wallow at the altar of his faux power. Tyler was a fraud. And a bully. He didn’t know the first thing about being a true Dom.
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    Master Me
    His lip nearly quivered as he fisted his hands at his hips, a foot stomp away from being an overgrown toddler. “I’m the one she wronged. It’s my right to mete out her punishment.”
    “You will not touch her,” Max replied in a confident, matter-of-fact tone. His lack of reaction startled Ana but she carefully gave no sign of it. He stroked his hand, still looped in the leash, down her bare back, both reassuring her and reminding her of her position. She was his. He’d do whatever was necessary to protect her.
    Who would protect him?
    She’d researched enough to know that each D/s community adhered to strict rules when it came to ownership and behavior. She didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize Max’s position.
    “I demand to see her punished,” Tyler snarled loudly. “She must be publicly beaten for lying and misleading me. She will be punished now or I will take my right later.”
    Ana didn’t miss the whispers rising around them. She couldn’t make out the words or whether those at the neighboring tables sided with Max or Tyler. Fear curled through her like thick, acrid smoke, filling every pore. Fear for herself. Greater fear for Max.
    Whatever happened to her, she’d be leaving in a few weeks. Conversely this was his community. Max would still be here, functioning in a society she’d flawed for him.
    “I mete out my own punishments. In private,” Max said evenly.
    “She owes me the lashes.”
    Lashes?
    Max’s hand tightened infinitesimally. “No.”
    The murmurs around them increased.
    “Ma-Master, let him do it,” Ana said under her breath with more bravado than she’d ever come close to feeling. Terror was more like it. If Max was punishing her, she’d worry about taking the pain. She trusted him. She didn’t trust Tyler. She never 83
    Brynn Paulin
    had. In spite of her fear she couldn’t let Max take the fall for her stupid decision. She took a deep breath. “Let him be done with it.”
    Pain filled his eyes but he showed no weakness to anyone except her. Only she could see the torment inside him. His face hardened to an