Empowered [Sexual Magic 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)
Sexual Magic 3
Empowered
A psychotic Domme stalking his partner, Madelyn Girard, makes Enricher Noah Bishop's current assignment—helping ultra-successful businessman Gabriel Fleming embrace his Dom-ness—fraught with danger.
Krista, a former assignment for the pair who wants to break Madelyn beneath her whip, almost killed Madelyn once. Noah has vowed she'll never have another shot.
The real danger could be to his heart…when Madelyn, not just his sub and partner but lover for ten years, falls for Gabriel.
Gabriel isn't sure what he needs to fill the dull ache in his soul. Falling for Maddie is crazy. It's clear her heart belongs to Noah.
Fortunately Maddie's a sub who's not afraid to tell her Doms what she needs—both of them.
When Krista grabs Maddie, the men work together to save her, forging a bond that provides the strength to fight for their sweet sub…and give them all a happily ever after.
Genre: BDSM, Fantasy, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 70,136 words
EMPOWERED
Sexual Magic 3
Jennifer August
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
EMPOWERED
Copyright © 2012 by Jennifer August
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62241-077-4
First E-book Publication: September 2012
Cover design by Harris Channing
All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
For all the strong women in my life. Thank you for your support, your generosities, your strength, your pep talks and your belief in me.
EMPOWERED
Sexual Magic 3
JENNIFER AUGUST
Copyright © 2012
Chapter One
“I’ll get to the point, Noah. I am opposed to assigning you and Madelyn this case.” Clarissa’s face tightened in sorrow and anxiety as she flapped her ever-present manila folder.
Noah Bishop crossed his arms and lifted a brow. “Why is that?”
The usually inscrutable head of the Council looked ragged and worn. New lines etched her porcelain skin.
She snorted. “Don’t play games with me, young man, you know very well why. It’s too soon after what that woman did to you, Madelyn, and Mason. I detest the idea of sending you back to the same place.” She shuddered. “I don’t like it at all.”
Noah sighed. “With all due respect, our last clash with Krista happened over a year ago. She’s not likely to be on Pleasure Isles again.” He studied Clarissa with a narrowed gaze. “Is this why we’re meeting alone? You’re going to try to talk me out of it?” Before she could respond, he shook his head disgustedly. “I appreciate the concern, Clarissa, but we need to get back to work. We’ve only had a few safe clients since last year. Sitting around while everyone else gets plum and challenging assignments is driving us both crazy.”
“Do you speak for me now, chéri?” The lightly accented, gently sarcastic question sounded from behind him.
Noah groaned then turned and met Madelyn Girard halfway across the room. He bent and kissed her lightly. He gave her a tight squeeze as he swept his palm up her lean back and then pulled away. “Of course not, but weren’t you the one bemoaning the fact you’re bored as hell?”
She made a small moue as her exquisite sea-blue eyes snapped a silent reproach. He grinned and eased her toward Clarissa’s desk.
Clarissa rounded the heavy mahogany piece and enfolded Madelyn in a hug. “I do not doubt your abilities,” she said and flicked a glance his way. “But I worry for you. I worry for all of you. The world is increasingly dangerous, and I am the one responsible for sending you into it.”
Madelyn patted the older woman’s hand. “We are well trained and well protected. Do you not remember I have been working with a Krav Maga expert for nearly a year now? I am very proficient. Besides, what happened with Krista was a minor error, nothing more.”
Noah and Clarissa both stared. “Are you crazy, Madelyn?” he roared. “She almost killed you.”
Madelyn waved a dismissive hand. “C’est vrai, things went a tiny bit out of control, but you were there as always. You saved me. Now the Council knows about her and the danger she poses to our society.” She arched a brow at Clarissa. “I’m sure they have taken proper steps to contain her.”
Clarissa’s face pinched and her gaze slid away.
“Clarissa?” Noah pressed.
She sighed then sank back into her chair, rubbing her forehead. “She’s slipped our security posts. We don’t know her current location.” Her head snapped up, and she pinned them both with a ferocious glare. “Which is exactly why I don’t want you to go to Pleasure Isles.”
Noah picked up the file and opened it. Inside, a glossy photo of a very handsome man stared back at him. Despite his model looks, Noah thought he seemed distant. The candid shot was taken at some kind of elegant event, and the man was dressed in a black tux with a green cummerbund. Noah handed the picture to Madelyn and sm
iled at her in-drawn breath as he began reading the dossier.
“How did she bypass our people?” Madelyn asked.
“We’re not sure. She appeared never to have left her residence, but after three straight weeks of no in and out, someone finally, uh, figured it out.”
His partner’s laugh was musical. “Broke in, did you?”
“Hush, Madelyn. But yes. No signs of inhabitance, and they could not determine how long. She’s still the owner of record on the property, and her bank account is still showing signs of activity, albeit automatic debits. Other than that, nothing. She’s ghosted on us.”
“How long have you been trailing her?” Noah asked.
“We’ve been watching her since you returned with Mason last year.” Clarissa sighed. “She has taken many trips in that year, including a few to Seattle for some one-on-one encounters.” Clarissa raised her palm. “Before you ask, yes, we made certain her play partners were safe afterward.”
Noah nodded. “I’m certain you did. Where else did she go?”
“DC, Texas, and Africa.”
“She went to Africa for a play date?” Madelyn asked in surprise.
“No.” Clarissa’s mouth turned down even more and stress lines appeared on her brow. “She went on a safari hunt. My reports say she preferred a high-powered rifle for big game.” She shook her head, disgust dislodging the distress. “She also used various things such as bows, slingshots, and even blow darts for smaller game.”
He felt sick to his stomach. “She hunts for the pleasure of the kill.”
Clarissa remained silent.
After a moment, his gaze dropped back to the dossier.
“This Gabriel Fleming is very interesting,” Noah said. He gave Madelyn the folder. “On the surface, he appears quite ordinary. One might even say vanilla.” He pursed his lips. “How does that work with us in particular?”
Clarissa tapped one long fingernail against the wood. “This man has a wealth of untapped knowledge and drive. He is the perfect vehicle for a Dom, but he doesn’t know it.” She looked between the two of them. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
He shared a glance with Madelyn and saw the assent in her eyes. After ten years together, he read her as easily as the morning paper. Most days. He looked back at Clarissa. “No, we’re going to do our jobs. So, tell us what he needs and how we can help.” His gut twisted, and he clenched his fingers below the desk so Clarissa wouldn’t catch his anxiety. “Though I will go on record and state I will never let anything happen to Madelyn again. She won’t suffer like she did with Krista. If this Gabriel guy even tries to pull something along those lines, he’ll answer to me.”
Clarissa nodded, ferocity tightening the planes of her normal placid expression. “Agreed.” She cleared her throat and smoothed a hand over her straight silver-and-black hair. “I assure you, Gabriel exhibits none of her habits. If we’d looked closer at Krista’s past, I feel we would have discovered the atrocities of which she is capable.”
Her haunted glance swept to Madelyn. “I am so very sorry.”
Madelyn waved a hand. “It is of no moment, n’est-ce pas? The past is done, we are on guard. Besides, in the three years since we took on that harridan’s case, I have learned many valuable means of defense. She will not get to me again.”
“Don’t get cocky, Madelyn,” Clarissa said. “It only invites trouble.”
“Did we not diffuse her at Pleasure Isles last year? Without any trouble?”
Clarissa shrugged, but Noah knew she saw the truth. They’d had Krista’s case—a professional Domme careening wildly out of control—three years prior. It had taken exactly two days for both him and Madelyn to realize the woman was completely nuts and unsafe. They’d pulled themselves from the case, reported back to Clarissa, and moved on, but she’d done her damage. Krista’s unnatural obsession with inflicting pain on her submissives drove her to engage in extremely dangerous and potentially lethal acts.
Neither he nor his partner had seen the woman until they ran afoul of her at Pleasure Isles the year before, working her demonic agony on Mason Shaw. Their friend and fellow Enricher had been hanging from his wrists, back bloody, and damn near unconscious.
Noah shifted in his chair as fury once more rippled through him. They’d used Madelyn as a distraction to free Mason, and those twenty minutes had been the longest, worst of his life. Having no idea what his partner was going through while cloistered with a raving lunatic was agonizing.
He would never leave Madelyn alone again.
“Enough of that crazy bitch Krista,” Noah said on a growl. “Let’s get back to Gabriel. I sense you’re hiding something else.”
This time Clarissa’s brows snapped into a sharp vee over her black eyes. “Mind your tongue, Noah.”
“His tongue is fine, Clarissa,” Madelyn said with a chuckle.
“The two of you are incorrigible.”
“We know. So what’s not written in there?” Noah pointed to Gabriel’s dossier.
The Council leader blushed and Noah’s eyes widened. He refrained from meeting Madelyn’s gaze, certain he would find a similar shocked look.
“If you must know, the Council feels Mr. Fleming could prove very beneficial to us. In an administrative kind of way.”
Noah shot upright. “What? You’re not leaving the Council, are you?”
“No, no,” she assured him. “Nothing like that. But, well, we’re a bit old.”
She glared to forestall any smart comments, and he wisely kept them to himself.
“Or perhaps it’d be better to say we’re set in our ways. Mr. Fleming is a billionaire three times over at the least. He’s made his money in myriad, creative ways and was on the board of two very large and dynamic corporations. It is our hope he can help guide us safely into new technologies and systems so we may better serve.”
“What does he do now?” Madelyn asked.
“Nothing, and that is also a bit of the issue. When his marriage crumbled, he was at loose ends for a long while. Only went out with male companions, only to sporting events. The rest of the time, he sequestered himself in his home. When we learned of his impending trip, the Council took it as a very positive sign.” Clarissa picked up the photo and studied the image before laying it back down and steepling her fingers. She peered at them in turn. “I will give you my blessing for this case, but please, by the Goddess, be extremely careful.”
“Of course,” Noah said. “Now, what do we need to know about his sexual preferences?”
* * * *
Head reeling and cock rock hard, Gabriel Fleming sat on the rattan barstool and sipped a vodka martini. He fished out the skewered olives and sucked one from the plastic sword as he thought about what he’d just witnessed.
Pleasure Isles’ brochure certainly alluded to a hedonistic mindset where everything goes, but he’d not expected to see a nubile young blonde being whipped by a powerful man in his hotel lobby.
Gabriel flipped another olive from the sword and slowly chewed. The expression on her face was what fascinated him the most. Utter lust coupled with a hunger for more.
As he and about twenty other people watched, the collared girl took a multitude of strokes from the man’s flogger. Upon a barked command, she’d come like a firehouse siren—long, hard, and loud.
Something he’d like to do right about now.
“Buy you a drink?”
The soft, musical tones of a woman interrupted his musing, and Gabriel pulled his mind out of the salacious gutter and looked at her. His breath hitched.
She was incredibly beautiful. Though she stood only about five three, her eyes were turquoise powerhouses dominating her small, elfin face. They were huge, the color of warm Caribbean seas and framed in the darkest, most lush set of lashes he’d ever seen. Her mouth was full with lips like crushed cherries.
He wondered if they’d be as delicious.
As he stared at her mouth, he noticed a tiny scar just below her lower lip. Th
e small imperfection added a layer of instant intrigue to the woman’s beauty. Ebony black hair tumbled in waves down her shoulders and back, the ends curling over a set of full, round breasts.
The red sundress she wore showed her ample cleavage to perfection and enhanced her smooth ivory skin.
He gave her a slow-spreading grin and gestured to the seat next to him.
“No thanks, Snow White, I do the buying, not the other way around.”
One perfectly groomed brow arched upward and a cool look of amusement crossed her face. She settled onto the stool. “That is fine with me, monsieur.” She looked at the bartender. “Chocolate martini, s’il vous plaît.”
The guy flicked a glance at him, and Gabriel nodded, more interested in the woman by the minute.
She winked and nodded past him. “And one for my friend, as well.”
Gabriel looked over his shoulder. A tall, muscular, dark-haired man had taken the stool flanking him. He nodded slowly, his green gaze sharp and assessing.
“Afternoon.”
Gabriel leaned back a little to study the striking pair. The hair on his nape rose, a sure sign something was up.
He gave each a wary look before holding out his hand to the man. “Gabriel Fleming.”
“Noah Bishop,” the big man said and clasped the proffered hand.
The grip was strong but not crushing. Obviously Noah knew how to control his strength. Gabriel spun to the woman and introduced himself again. She tipped her head, making more ebony waves tumble around her face like a surging sea. “Madelyn Girard.” Her soft whoosh on the g and the delightful way she rolled her r’s made him smile. He loved a French accent and how it made every word sound sensual and alluring.