NoBounds by Ann Jacobs Page A

shoulders, her belly, her thighs. Tears stained her
cheeks, mingled with blood where the cane had just struck.
    When Dax raised the cane again, Cole
charged in. “I’m gonna kill you, you sadistic son of a bitch.”
     
    Amber blinked through her tears. Cole had
come to save her. She could hardly believe it. For the past year he had
apparently wanted little to do with her. He’d even quit taking the time to do a
little casual flirting with her when he ran into her and Ciel around his
father’s house.
    What would Cole do if he knew how she
missed those times? She’d replayed those moments over and over in her mind,
pretending she’d seen something more than casual affection for his sister’s
friend in his smiling eyes.
    Could he possibly have known how often
she’d hoped he would someday invite her and Ciel to one of his parties? In the
old days, when his preferred club had been open, she had eagerly gone there
with Ciel just so she could watch him. She’d wished that she could have taken
the place of whatever sub he’d had on her knees, lovingly servicing his big,
rigid cock.
    The two men crashed into the wall, sending
equipment clattering to the floor and slamming her back into the present. Cole
seized a flogger off the wall, then caught the cane when Dax swung it at his
face.
    If only she could get free, she could help
him. She could…
     
    I’ve got you now, you bastard. I’ll flog
you to within an inch of your worthless life.
    Cole slammed a foot into the center of
Dax’s chest, then raised the flogger and laid it across the other man’s bare
thighs. Dax let out a stream of obscenities.
    “You don’t much like it when it’s being
done to you, do you, you sadistic prick?” Cole raised the flogger again but
Ciel came out of the shadows like a madwoman.
    “Leave him alone,” she yelled, struggling
to get control of the flogger just as the door flew open and the chamber filled
with cops. “He’s mine.”
    “Back off, Ciel.” Cole dropped the flogger.
“And try to act like a victim.” There was no chance that he could save himself,
but with luck he’d be able to keep the police from taking his sister and Amber.
“Oh shit, here comes a TV crew.”
    He whipped around and faced Amber, trying
to block her from the reporters’ cameras so they couldn’t get a shot of her
naked, bleeding body. Dax and Ciel both wore concealing masks. His own face,
however, would be out there on the six o’clock news for everyone to see. There
was nothing he could do about that now.
    As a cop clamped the cuffs on him and
dragged him away with Master Dax, Cole tried to imagine a scenario where he
would come out of this smelling like anything but leftovers from last week’s
fish dinner.
    Nothing came immediately to mind.
    * * * * *
    Eight hours later, Cole sat on the hot
seat—a leather chair in front of Federation Commissioner Alan Callender’s desk.
He didn’t blame his scowling father, who had bailed him out of the local lockup
to the tune of ten thousand credits and God only knew how much political
capital. Cole made himself focus on a spot beyond his disappointed parent’s
left ear.
    Since graduating from the university, Cole
had worked hard with Alan at his various businesses. In that way, at least,
Cole was certain he’d made his father proud. In less than five years he had
taken several startup concerns and turned them into successful businesses, as
well as reviving some older endeavors and making them yield profits again.
There was only one thing—his lifestyle—that had always given his father reason
for concern.
    Cole didn’t kid himself. Alan knew he was
into BDSM. He also knew that Cole had given up club play since the council had
declared them off limits.
    Alan probably even had a good idea that
Cole’s sister was the reason he had gone to the illegal club. Ciel had never
made any effort to hide her disdain for the law, and their father often found
it necessary to extricate her from the trouble she