The Master by Tara Sue Me Read Free Book Online Page B

feminine. “I’m sorry, is this a bad time?”
    “Kate?” he croaked. He carried the phone to the bathroom and placed it on the countertop while he washed his hands and straightened his clothes. “No, this is fine. What’s going on?”
    He hadn’t talked to Kate in months. She might not have been the very last person he thought would call him tonight, but she was pretty damn close to it.
    “I spent today unpacking,” she said.
    She had finally found a permanent place. Before now, she’d been crashing at a girlfriend’s. Cole had thought he was beyond feeling anything when it came to Kate, but hearing that she’d moved into a new place proved him wrong. Suddenly, he was acutely aware of how lonely the quiet guesthouse was.
    “I’m glad you found a new home.” He forced himself to speak through the tightness in his chest. “You’ll have to e-mail your address to me so I have it on file.”
    “That’s not why I called.”
    “Forgive me, then. You don’t have to send me your address.”
    “Would you stop being an ass and listen to me?”
    He took a deep breath and hoped his tone sounded more civil to her than it did to him. “Why did you call?”
    It was easy to picture her on the other end of the phone. She would be holding it tightly in one hand, anger blazing from her cool blue eyes. He imagined her counting to ten to calm down.
    “I unpacked some boxes today,” she repeated.
    Yes, you said that already,
he bit back from saying and instead replied with, “Oh?”
    “One of your boxes got mixed up with mine.”
    “In that case, I’ll give you the address where I’m staying for the time being and you can post it to me.”
    “I know you’re staying with Daniel, you told me when we closed on our old house. It’s the box containing your mom’s jewelry. I don’t think it’d be a good idea to mail it.”
    He cursed under his breath. He thought that particular box had been put in temporary storage. His mother could trace her lineage back to the fifteenth century. Back to some earl who lost his title and estate when he pissed Henry the Eighth off or something. The jewelry had been hidden at the time and passed down through the generations. He never did anything with the pieces. He’d actually thought about giving them to a museum. Regardless, they weren’t anything he was going to give to Kate and she was right, she shouldn’t mail them.
    “I don’t have plans to visit New York anytime soon,” he said, thinking about his upcoming sessions with Sasha. “And unfortunately I can’t make any plans to visit due to previous commitments.”
    “If it’s okay with you then, I’m driving to Mom and Dad’s in about a month. I can stop by and give them to you on the way.”
    Her parents lived in Florida. When they were together, she’d visit them every few months. “That would be fine. Thank you, Kate.”
    “It’s no big deal.”
    An uncomfortable silence followed. The uncomfortable type of silence that could only be shared by those who had once shared everything and now had nothing to say. The air between them was filled with unspoken history and whispered what-ifs.
    “Thank you for calling.” They were the only words he discovered he could speak. Four fucking words to the woman he had loved and who had worn his slave collar for years.
    “Nice talking with you,” she said, but he didn’t think she sounded like she meant it.
    After he said good-bye, he went back to the living room where he distracted himself with the research he’d been avoiding. It was either that or spend hours thinking about Kate. As it was, he knew she’d be visiting his dreams that night.
    But it wasn’t a blue-eyed woman with long black hair who filled his head while he slept, rather a wounded submissive with nerves of steel who had admitted she liked it when he touched her.
    •   •   •
    S asha rang the doorbell at the Wests’ residence on Monday after work. When she’d called Abby the day before, she