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He finished loading a clip, locked it back in, worked his way through the same course, moving backward this time. When he was done, he stood with his back to her, breathing hard. She watched perspiration roll down his nape and the center of his back.
The moisture was stopped by the waistband of the shorts in a way her gaze wasn't. She continued to let it travel down the curve of his ass, the long lines of his thighs. What would it be like to steal up behind him, kiss between his shoulder blades, taste the salt of him? Need was wound tightly in her. She knew that her intent to come down here and catch him unaware had created as much of a handicap for her as she'd intended for him.
He turned then, as if he sensed her. Met her gaze in the glass. His surprise turned to something else. Wariness. He really hadn't meant her to come here. She straightened, walked deliberately to the door and pressed the buzzer, cocked a brow at him.
It took him a moment but then he moved. Opening the door, he leaned on it, not necessarily an inviting pose. The draft brought her the sharp smell of gunpowder, of sweaty male.
"I thought your tea time was two hours. I intended to take a shower before coming to collect you. "
"You intended that I wouldn't see this. "
She took an assertive step into the room with a casualness she didn't feel. He drew back abruptly, avoiding any unintentional brushing of their bodies, surprising her. The evidence of the violence he'd exhibited lingered in her mind, stirring up more questions than she wanted to have. Stopping before a target, she reached up and touched the holes in the center of the silhouette's torso. After a thoughtful moment, she removed her ear protection and laid it down.
"Who did you work for in the government? And don't come back with some diversionary quip like 'I could tell you but I'd have to kill you'. " He winced. "I'd never do that. For one thing, it's been overdone. " He put the gun down on the counter in front of the glass viewing screen, next to an open gun case and four cardboard boxes of bullets, two of which were empty. "The CIA. I was a field agent. I did script writing for the erotic film industry off and on for most of that. A talent that, thanks to my college friendship with Michael Atlas and our mutual interest in seeing erotic film separate itself from porn, resulted in a fairly successful side business that helped maintain my cover. And I came from a great deal of family money, so finances have never been a problem. "
It didn't surprise her, for the man's style and mannerisms had always fairly screamed Georgia old money. "So did you retire early or late for the type of work you did for the CIA?"
His gaze shifted to hers. "What are you fishing for, Marguerite? These are waters you don't want to be in. "
"Why?" She faced him. "It's okay for you to drown me in my memories but I can't even put a toe in to stir your waters?"
"You stir me up plenty, angel. " He unloaded the clips and she noted there were two guns sitting on the platform, one much larger than the other. "Why don't you ask me the moronic question everyone feels compelled to ask?"
"Did you kill people? I know you did. I can see it in your eyes. I didn't recognize it for what it was until Sarah told me about your job. " He raised his head, locked gazes with her. As she looked into his eyes, she wondered herself at what she was trying to accomplish here. He had unsettled her, so there was some quid pro quo going on. But this was more. She wanted his shadows.
Perhaps she not only wanted more of him, she wanted all. It was a compulsion no true Mistress could resist.
"How did it feel?"
From another person, Tyler would have considered the question vulgar curiosity and met it with the cutting disdain it warranted. But Marguerite Perruquet didn't ask idle questions.
"I can't tell you that. But not because I'm not willing to tell you. " He looked down at the guns. A Desert Eagle and a Sig Sauer nine millimeter, and he'd killed with both of them. "When you take a man's life that's between you, God and that man's soul. It's a personal conversation you work out your entire life. I can't talk about it because there are no words for it. "
"There are some things there are just no words to describe and understand. " She nodded, simple understanding in her eyes that eased the tension in him. It also raised his curiosity, but she went on. "I'd like to ask you one more question. "
"I don't know how to say no to you, Marguerite. "
"That's not true," she responded. "You didn't want me to know about this, see it.
You hold a large part of yourself back and I'd like to know why. " She raised a hand.
"But now's the wrong time. I know that. My question is different. How did you get into D/s, Tyler?"
He could not conceal his relief and he knew by showing it he'd just given her a tactical advantage, provided a doorway to his own vulnerabilities. There was too much raw expression lingering in this room to prevent it, which was the reason he hadn't wanted her here. But she was here now and she deserved her answers.
"In this country, men have to be very careful about exploring their Dominant side. " He shrugged. "It wasn't until I spent time in Asia and South America that I got into venues where I realized it fully in myself. Where men could be alpha, Dominant and it wasn't considered a taboo. "
He reached out now, deliberately, brushed her hair over her shoulder. Ran his thumb along her collarbone, studying that part of her, making Marguerite's breath hold in her throat at the sensual scrutiny. The lingering residue of gunpowder burned her nostrils.
"To restrain a woman, bring her to pleasure over and over, see her obeying my commands, spreading her legs when I order her to do so. . . " He shook his head. "It's not something I can explain. "
"Maybe it's beyond us as Master and Mistress to explain or understand it. We just know. "
He held her gaze a long moment. "Yes. We do. "
"Was it that way with your wife?"
"Don't do that. " His grip tightened on her shoulder close to her neck. Marguerite swallowed at the dangerous flash in his eyes, the instant reaction of her body to his strength at that vulnerable part of her.
