Tender Mercies - By Kitty Thomas Page 0,39

enough master, although he found himself being more firm with Grace. She called something deep inside him that even he hadn’t been aware of. He’d always known his own nature, but the nuance his newest slave called forth was at times both baffling and scary.

It was hard not to compare the two women. They were so different. One dark. One fair. One playful and disrespectful, the other so utterly broken that it caused both his chest and his pants to tighten for contradictory reasons.

Each time he found a way in which Darcy was lacking but Grace excelled, he felt guiltier. As if he were betraying his former pet’s memory. He’d loved Darcy. More than life. Yet Grace stirred him out of his preoccupations with the past.

He finished his breakfast and made a list of exactly what he wanted to do with his pet for the day. Her first day had gone better than he’d expected. He’d decided being weak with her would be a greater mistake than being weak with Darcy had been. He was sure at least this time it wouldn’t end in anyone’s death.

Asher let her sleep for a couple more hours then climbed the stairs, wondering where she was. He found her in his bed, sitting against the headboard.

“How long have you been awake?”

“An hour,” she said. She’d wrapped herself in the blankets, shielding her nudity.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“Yes, Master.”

It hurt his heart to think she’d been sitting in his room, scared to leave or do anything without direct permission. If he’d just left her to come downstairs when she felt like it, she might have spent the whole day in the room. Though at some point William or he would have sought her out and at least fed her.

“You’re allowed to leave this room, kitten. No one is locking you in. You need to stay on the property so someone doesn’t try to run off with you, but you can go outside and down to the beach or the garden. And in a few days I’ll take you out somewhere.”

She tensed at that, and he remembered. The only times she’d been out with her former master had been when he’d paraded her around naked at those showings or when he just wanted to go to a club and show her off.

Asher opened the drawer in the bedside table and retrieved a platinum collar. The collar had Property of Asher Collins engraved in heavy block letters around it. He locked it around her throat.

***

Grace sat perfectly still, barely breathing as he slipped the collar around her neck and the lock clicked into place. She’d caught a glimpse of the engraved letters. She’d never had a real collar before. She hadn’t known she was missing something until she’d seen other slaves wearing them when Lucas took her out. Sometimes he’d put a collar on her simply so he could attach a leash, but it had been black leather and buckled in place. It didn’t lock. Not like this one.

Other girls had platinum bands locked around their throats, and Grace had felt somehow that, right or wrong, not having one of those platinum bands with her owner’s name engraved on it was some sort of mark of shame, telling the world she was bad. As if Lucas didn’t want to truly lay claim to her and didn’t want others to know who she belonged to.

That desire had been mutual. She had never been proud to be owned by Lucas. She’d mostly just been afraid and hoping for it to somehow end, but still, she’d looked at those other slaves with their expensive collars and she felt they must have something better. Something she didn’t have and would never have.

Now one of those collars was locked securely around her neck with Asher’s name on it. Her fingers moved tentatively to run over the smooth metal and engraved lettering. “Thank you, Master.”

“I should have put it on you yesterday, but there were so many other things going on. Would you like to talk to your friend before breakfast?”

She looked up at him. Did he mean Lainey?

“The one you spoke with yesterday on the computer.”

Grace wasn’t sure if she wanted to talk to Lainey or not. She felt bad that her friend had worried and mourned, but all further communication would bring were questions and more questions. Questions she didn’t want to answer now. Or ever. Like what Lucas had done to her. And questions she didn’t yet know how to answer. Like