Sweet Seduction Read online

  Sean’s lips curled up in an enigmatic grin. “I’ll get you some sauce to go with that. He’s not Special Forces.”

  “Then he’s worse. He’s Agency or something. He’s not a fucking civilian and he’ll hurt her.” Ten was also gorgeous and had every sub panting after him. He was ice cold. So cold that the subs were calling him Master No because that was what he said almost all the time. No. He would be so negative around Ally, and that wasn’t what she needed. She needed an indulgent Master.

  “It doesn’t matter what he used to do. Now he’s a Dom in training and Ian takes that serious, as you know.”

  Jake was Macon’s mentor. Jake had been disappointed he’d started missing sessions. If he didn’t watch it, he would lose his rights in Sanctum altogether, but it didn’t really matter. Did it? “Well, I hope that works out for her. I need to hand in my two weeks’ notice. I know I’m leaving you in the lurch, but I’m going to move back to New York.”

  Sean’s eyes closed but not before Macon saw a wave of disappointment there. His boss sat back and sighed. “Are you really going to do this?”

  Well, he’d known Sean wouldn’t be thrilled. “Yes. I think it’s time I take my life back.”

  A chuckle came from Sean’s throat but it wasn’t an amused sound. He sat back up and gestured to the chair in front of his desk. “Take a seat, Macon.”

  Macon did as asked. He was sure he was going to get a lecture on how Sean had taken a chance on him—and he had. Getting dressed down by a superior wasn’t something Macon liked, but Chef Taggart deserved his pound of flesh. “Of course.”

  “Are you really so angry that you would go back to a life that you hated?”

  “I’m not angry.” Why did everyone think he was angry?

  “Of course you are. You feel betrayed. She lied to you. Everything life has taught you before this moment tells you to cut her off. Excise the wound and move on. There’s only one problem with that. If you excise Allyson from your life, you lose the best part of yourself. You might be angry with her, but are you so angry with yourself you want to self-destruct?”

  Before he could even think about it, his hands were fists and they were coming down on Sean’s desk with a mighty crack. “I am not fucking angry.”

  He stared down at the desk. It now had a neat crack that shot up one side. It didn’t seem deep but he’d made his presence felt.

  Fuck, he was so mad. He was so angry he could barely breathe.

  Sean ignored the state of his desk. He turned around a picture frame. It was a shot of Taggart and his wife, Grace, holding their toddler girl with two young men standing behind them. Grace Taggart’s children with her first husband. They were all smiling for the camera, but it was easy to see who was the center of attention. Carys Taggart had her mother’s coloring but there was no doubt she was a Taggart. “I need you to look at this. This family almost didn’t happen because I lied to my wife. I was undercover. I gave her a false name and background and she fell in love with a man who didn’t exist. Except I did. I became the man Grace fell in love with. I was better, stronger, more open because of Grace Hawthorne. I lied to her. I nearly cost that woman her life and do you know what she gave me?”

  Sean had done those things? He couldn’t imagine it. He didn’t answer, simply shook his head.

  “Forgiveness,” Sean said, his voice hitching with emotion. “She gave me forgiveness and a future and then she gave me a family. None of it could have happened without her forgiveness. This little girl doesn’t exist without the boundless heart of her mother. Is your frame going to be empty, Macon? Will your anger fill it up or will you simply leave it on a desk utterly devoid of life?”

  For the first time since that moment when he realized she’d lied, something cracked inside him. Exactly like that split he’d put in his boss’s desk. He could feel the tear.

  If he went back to New York, he would lose everything that made him who he was today. He could see his future so clearly. He would work for his father. He could find a society wife who would keep putting off kids until they were too old to have them. He would be trotted out now and again as the war hero, but no one would ask him what he wanted. His future would be set and there wouldn’t be a petite sprite of a woman who walked next to him so she could catch him if he fell. Yeah, he knew what she was doing.

  “I wouldn’t return her calls because I didn’t know how to tell her.” She wasn’t alone in the blame. She shouldn’t have lied, but had he forced her hand? “She wanted to know how her brother died and I couldn’t tell her. I should never have told her.”

  Sean got up and walked around the desk, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’ve been where the two of you are. I’ve watched my friends die. I’ve had to rebuild my life from scratch. And I’ve had to stand back and pray the only woman I ever loved could find a way to forgive me.”

  “You never were the reason for your friend’s death.”

  “Of course I was. I was in the military. I had plenty of friends die and I always thought it was my fault.”

  He didn’t understand. “PFC Rowe…”

  Sean interrupted. “Took his own life out of either unbearable pain or because he knew you had a better chance without him. We can’t know which so give the man the benefit. He was a hero to the end. He sacrificed so you could live. He sacrificed so you could take care of the sister he loved. He might not have known it at the time, but that was how it worked out. You didn’t make a mistake by telling her. You made a mistake when you didn’t tell his mother.”

  “I couldn’t. How could she not look at me and ask why I didn’t spare her son?”

  “Maybe, but maybe she would have been proud to raise a child with so much honor. I have a daughter and I want everything in the world for her, but my job as a parent is to raise a good human being. Carla Rowe did that. She seems to have two of them. A woman like that would have seen the beauty in what her son had done. She would have found peace with it. Honor her. Honor him. Find your peace.”

  He was aware of the tears in his eyes. His father would have told him it wasn’t manly, but Sean Taggart squeezed his shoulder. “How do I do that?”

  “You talk to Allyson. You give yourself time. You do not go back to a life that you hated. Do you love her?”

  That was an easy question to answer. He’d questioned a lot in the last week, but never this. “Yes.”

  “Do you honestly believe that she loves you?”

  A much harder question. It was the one that haunted him, made him surly and angry with everyone around him. “I don’t know. I don’t see why she would.”

  “Ask her,” Sean urged. “But you have to let go of the past first or you won’t believe a word she says. Come to Sanctum with me tonight and talk to her. Tell her you won’t allow her to play with Ten.”

  That was the best idea he’d heard in a long time. “I fucking won’t and I’m going to have a talk with Ian. He starts farming my sub out and he won’t see another freaking pie again for the rest of his life.”

  Sean grinned. “I believe you’ll discover my brother carefully laid this plan out to get his pie maker back to form. He says your desserts have gone to hell since you broke up with Ally. He can’t put his finger on it, but they’re missing something.”

  Macon knew what they were missing. And there was only one way to get it back.

  Chapter Ten

  Ally burped Kala with a soft pat of her hand against the baby’s back. Or was it Kenzie? She gently pulled the baby’s left ear back and sure enough there was a tiny mark behind there. Kala. At least Big Tag had switched from a black to a pink Sharpie.

  “You doing all right?” Laurel stepped into the room. She was a lovely woman in her late twenties. She looked a little like her brother, Dr. Will Daley. She had a pack of diapers in her hand.

  Ally nodded. “They’re all sweet kids. I like watching them. It’s peaceful.”

  Laurel’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding, right? It might seem peaceful now. You wait until
Aidan and Tristan fight over a toy. Or Carys. I’m pretty sure those two are actually fighting over Carys. They’re like alpha babies. It’s weird. I hope Kenzie and Kala don’t turn into warrior princesses before my time of servitude is over.”

  Ally looked at the other woman as she placed Kala in the bassinette she shared with her sleeping sister. The twin girls immediately cuddled up like a pair of puppies and slept. “You don’t like kids?”

  Laurel reorganized the changing station. “It’s not that I don’t like them. I’m just pretty sure I won’t have them and I’m trying to get to the point that I’m okay with it.”

  “You can’t have kids? You could always adopt.” She knew the power of having a loving but non-biological family. Alex and Eve McKay adored their son though he didn’t share DNA with either of them.

  Laurel sighed. “I’m in love with a man who doesn’t want them. Of course he also doesn’t want me, so it might be a moot point.” Her lips tugged up. “But I’m hopeful. About the wanting me part. He’s too stupid to know he wants me yet. I don’t think he’s going to move on the whole kids thing though. He had a rough childhood and he’s the tiniest bit damaged.”

  God, she knew all about damaged men. “Do you think you can fix him?”

  Laurel frowned thoughtfully. “I like him the way he is. That’s the crazy part. He’s gruff and a control freak and I’m still attracted to him. So I don’t necessarily want to fix him. I want him to open up a little so I can see his softer side.”

  “And if there is no softer side?” Or if his softer side had been locked away forever?

  Now Laurel looked sure. “There’s always a softer side. Always. My guy’s is buried super deep though. But I love him so it’s going to be all right, right?”

  She wasn’t so sure about that. She was proof positive that sometimes love wasn’t enough.

  Was she really going through with this?

  “I heard Master Ian is going to let you work with a Dom tomorrow night,” Laurel said as she sat down on the floor. She picked up some blocks and started stacking them, letting the toddlers help her. Sure enough, Tristan was all over Carys and Aidan looked like he wasn’t too happy about it. “Are you nervous? I heard it’s the new guy. I’ve worked with some of the married Doms. They rotate in and out until they decide we’re ready to mix with the singles. At least that’s what they tell me. I suspect someone is pulling the strings and keeping me away from the single guys. I think it’s either my brother or my boss.”

  She found the other sub trainee’s lives endlessly entertaining. “Your brother and your boss are both Sanctum members?”

  “Yeah,” Laurel admitted. “It can get weird at times. My sister-in-law is cool, but Will claims Lisa and I are going to make him go blind.”

  “And your boss? Is it weird to see him here?”

  Laurel kind of sighed. “I haven’t actually seen him here. I’m not entirely sure he even knows I joined. I’m afraid to bring up the subject. I train on Thursdays. He never comes in on Thursdays. I really want to see him in his leathers.”

  “Oh, so he’s the one who doesn’t want kids.”

  A faint tinge of red flushed her cheeks. “Mitch has a very skewed view of the world. He’s been married a couple of times, and to say they didn’t go well would be like saying Pompeii was a just a little explosion. So I think he likes me, but he’s leery of getting involved with anyone. From what I can tell, all his very short-term relationships happen here at Sanctum.”

  And now Laurel was here at Sanctum, prepared to force her man to make the choice to watch her go to another Dom or take her for himself. “Wow. Even I know that’s topping from the bottom.”

  Laurel smiled. “I know. Smart, right?”

  Wasn’t that what she was doing? Ally told herself this was all about finding herself and she meant it. Besides, Macon had asked her to leave. She’d packed her crappy belongings and was staying on Deena’s couch until she could find a place of her own. But she wasn’t going to let him shove her out of Top or Sanctum. The question was would she want to be here without him?

  Ally wasn’t so sure. She also wasn’t so sure about the man Master Ian called Ten. She’d met him earlier and while the man was past gorgeous, he’d also seemed cold. Even when he’d smiled and called her “darlin’” in a slow Southern accent, she’d felt a chill from him.

  But she was going to trust Master Ian. Macon had shown her this world and she liked it. Just because he no longer wanted her didn’t mean someone out there wouldn’t. And if he came back, she would know more than she’d known before. She’d looked over the training contract and there was a strict no-sex policy until Master Ian and Master Kai were sure she was here for the right reasons.

  That clause in her contract had given her security. She could breathe easy. She had her safe word. She had her contract. She had mentor Doms and subs who would look out for her.

  She simply didn’t have her Master anymore.

  The door came open and Lisa poked her head in. “Ally, tap out and get into the kitchen. Serious drama going on. Master Macon showed up with Master Sean and he’s yelling at everyone. I mean everyone. He’s especially pissy with Master No. I mean Master T. Don’t tell anyone I called him that. We all get spanked when we call him that and not the fun kind of spanking.”

  Macon was here and he was going after her training Dom? Ally raced down the hall, secure that Lisa and Laurel could handle the kiddos. What was Macon thinking? Fighting another Dom could get him kicked out. And why would he care? He’d made himself plain earlier in the day.

  She passed through the back of the house, managing to avoid the larger areas where the scenes would play out. Even from the hall she could hear Macon.

  “I swear to god you touch my sub and we’re going to have trouble.”

  “I was unaware she was your sub,” came that sexy voice that belonged to Master T. “She sure isn’t wearing a collar now, is she?”

  “I’m warning you,” Macon said as she entered the kitchen. His back was to her, but she could see his threats hadn’t made a dent in Master T’s demeanor.

  The big Southern Master stood beside Master Ian while Master Sean was beside Macon. The tension was so thick she couldn’t breathe.

  Ally was about to speak when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

  “Don’t say a word. This is what I like to call a Dom Standoff.” Charlotte Taggart sounded genuinely amused. “Watch them. They’ll get the ruler out soon and compare dick sizes. I turned down the air conditioner just in case. It’ll be icy cold in here soon.”

  Macon had realized she was in the room and was frowning her way. “Go back to the daycare, Allyson. I’ll come and get you in a moment.”

  He thought he could boss her around now? “Uhm, Master T is right. I’m not wearing your collar, Macon. You kicked me out so I don’t have to do anything you say.”

  Master T smiled, though it was really more of a smirk. “That’s right, darlin’. You give him hell. I picked out a sweet training collar for you. Why don’t we go somewhere private and see if it fits.”

  Before Master T could say another word, Master Ian’s fist came out and popped him right in the nose.

  Master T groaned but rolled his eyes and strode across to the fridge. “You know, Ian, one of these days you’re going to run out of those.”

  Ally was fairly certain they were all insane.

  “Ten, I told you not to fuck with the pie maker. You’re about to give him a heart attack. Do you see that tic over his left eye? I can’t lose the pie maker,” Ian explained. He turned to Ally. “You want to fix him?”

  Macon was staring at her. “Come here, Ally.”

  Did she want to fix him? Yes. Did he want to be fixed? She wasn’t so sure about that.

  “Go on. He’s on the edge,” Charlotte whispered in her ear. “He can go one of two ways. You fight him and he’ll probably go insane. But if you submit, I think he won’t be able to help himself. Your choice, Ally. Decide if you want him right no
w.”

  There was no decision to be made. She walked to him and then pointedly chose his right side. She sank to her knees, clinging to his damaged leg. She needed him to know that she loved every part of him.

  His hand came down and she felt him sigh. His palm covered her scalp. “Master Ian, I know I’m still in training, but I would prefer you didn’t pawn off my submissive to other Doms.”

  Master Ian gave him a thumbs-up. “Done. She’s all yours, buddy.”

  “So I take it you won’t be heading back to New York,” Master Sean said and then whistled. “Wow, I think my brother loves you. He just went pale at the very thought of you leaving.”

  Charlotte took her husband’s hand. “Come on, baby. Let’s get you a drink. I know this breakup has been rough on you, but it’s all right now. The pie guy is staying. Right?”

  There was a definite “or else” to Charlotte’s tone.

  “I’m staying, but I need to talk to Allyson alone.” Macon’s hand stroked her hair.

  “Use one of the guest rooms. They’re set up as privacy rooms for the evening,” Charlotte explained. “Come on, Ten. I’ll get you a drink, too, and we’ll find you a girl to spank tomorrow.”

  “Laurel. I think he should definitely work with Laurel.” Ally offered up her new friend. Hey, the threat of being with Master No seemed to have worked for her.

  Ian Taggart got to one knee. He was a big, gorgeous beast of a man. “You wouldn’t happen to be attempting to help Laurel make Mitchell Bradford jealous, would you?”

  He was also intimidating as hell. The hand on her head stroked, letting her know Macon would protect her. “I only know Laurel is very ready to start her journey, Sir.”

  One side of Big Tag’s mouth tugged up. “I like the way you think, mini pie maker. You two should fuck regularly and have a bunch of pie-making babies.” He stood up. “Ten, let’s go introduce you to Laurel.”

  “Am I going to get punched again?” he asked, his voice tight.