How Cassie Got Her Grind Back by Heather Rainier Read Free Book Online

plummet in a manner she hadn’t experienced since before Bill had divorced her. Had she really lost so much appeal? Why did what one man thought of her hurt so bad?
    He’s not just any man. He’s the knight in shining armor of my memories. And I’m older, rounder, and past my prime.
     
    * * * *
     
    Hours later, in a different part of Hazelle House from where the wedding and reception had taken place, Samson hooked Victoria’s padded suspension cuffs to the chains hanging from the ceiling and then flicked the switch to lift her until just the pads of her toes touched the floor.
    He squeezed her upper arms, checking for tension. “Feel all right?” He checked her grip on the bar inside the cuff and made sure she could reach the emergency release snap.
    “Yes. Thank you for doing this on a moment’s notice, Samson. I needed it.”
    Samson patted her tense shoulder. “It’s my pleasure. I’m glad Joseph decided to open the club after the reception was over. Did you hydrate like I asked?”
    She gave him a nod. “Yes, Sir. Taken care.”
    “Good girl,” he murmured, not surprised. When they got together for play, she was usually well prepared. “You’re very tense tonight.”
    “I stretched in the locker room first, but every time I try to clear my mind, I keep reliving this afternoon in the operating room. I just…need your help with it.”
    “I understand. I’ll start out slow.”
    “Samson, you don’t have to—”
    He grabbed on the loose knot of hair pulled up at the back of her head, ready to get started. “What did you call me?” He didn’t personally give a rat’s ass what she called him since they didn’t have a Dom/sub arrangement, but it was important to have her in the proper mindset before the fun started.
    A breath rushed from her lips, and she smirked. “Sir, I meant Sir. You don’t need to go slow with me—”
    “Wouldn’t you agree we’ve known each other long enough for me to know what you need and how you need it?”
    She bit her lip, probably trying to hide a smile judging by the way her lips curled, and then she said, “Well, yes, Sir, but—” She twined her ankles, and he felt the vibration running through her body as anticipation built up.
    “Excellent, I’m glad you agree , and now I know what else you need.”
    She grew still as he released her, and he felt her eyes on him as he reached into his toy bag and pulled the cellophane from the brand-new ball gag before retrieving the spreader bar hanging on the wall nearby. He turned and faced her. “What’s your safe word?”
    Victoria caught herself in mid-eye-roll and snickered. “Red,” she murmured, but her attitude, which was actually encouraging to him, clearly said, as if— with a cocked hip.
    She’d called him a couple of hours before from the OR where she’d just lost a patient and asked him if he was available. When he’d told her he was already at the club, he’d heard the tears in her voice when she agreed to his suggestion that she come right over. A masochist, whose talent happened to be healing the hearts of premature and often as-yet-unborn infants. The losses happened, and when they did, he was around to help her out.
    It was an honor to have any part in helping a woman whose hands were skilled with such a rare gift. Despite the connection between them as sadist and masochist, his interest in her was of a friends-only variety. And she’d made it clear her schedule played hell on relationships and she didn’t want to do that to anyone in her life. Samson respected the hell out of her because she put her patients before her own personal life. It was a sacrifice she said she would gladly pay.
    With the squeak toy slid inside her suspension cuff and her feet spread a couple of feet apart, he adjusted the tension on the chains to accommodate her new stance and then came up behind her again and re-did the knot of her long hair for her so none of it would get yanked out accidentally. “All set now,