Page 34 of Wickedly Played (Checkmate #1)

Chapter Thirty

SERENA

Sandwiched between two hot bodies, I stretched like I just took the best nap.

Max is typing away on his phone with his arm wrapped around me.

I’m resting my head on his hard chest, with Stella’s hand resting on my hip.

I feel her hardening nipples against my back, but the deep breathing tells me she’s asleep.

I’m thankful I installed a double king-sized bed in my playroom for this exact purpose. At the time, I wouldn’t have thought I would be the one sandwiched in the middle, but I love it.

“Hey, baby,” Max murmurs against my forehead.

“Hey, yourself,” I whisper back. I purr when I feel his lips caress my head. “How do you feel?”

Usually, I’m the one holding my sub after giving them the orgasm of their life.

I should hate how good it feels to be held like this.

Being wrapped up in Max’s arms gives me a sense of security…

. Which is something I don’t think I have ever had.

My ex wasn’t the best comforter, and my father only cared about two things- money and power.

Having a daughter threw a kink in his chain. His men often would comment on how hard it was for made men to have daughters, as others would interpret fatherhood as weakness. I have been to several battles he’s been in, and he decimated the rivals with his brutality.

Max burrows me closer to him. “Well, now that you admitted you’re mine, I’m doing well.”

I roll my eyes. “Don’t get too hung up on that, sparky.”

He chuckles. “Nah, sweetness, I heard it with my two ears. You said you are mine. I’m holding you to it.”

“So, what does that mean? Are you going to give me your letterman’s jacket? Maybe give me a promise ring?” I sass.

He pinches me on the boob. “Just because Stella is asleep, doesn’t mean I won’t bend you over this bed and swat your heart-shaped ass with a flogger.”

“I would wake up for that,” Stella mumbles. “In fact, I would love to see it.” Her voice is still husky as she clings to sleep.

“Is it just pick on Serena today?”

Both of them laugh at me, and I can’t help it, but I laugh, too. It feels good to let go. It feels good to give the weight over to someone else.

“Mistress,” her voice is quiet against me. “Don’t get mad at me.”

“What did you do?” My body tightens with anticipation of punishing the little brat.

“I love your laugh. I wish you did it more.”

Max clicks on a couple of screens on his phone, but the way his breath catches, I know he heard her.

“Thank you, lover.”

“Oh shit,” Stella blurts out, jumping out of bed.

I pull the sheet up to my neck since it slid down after she got up. “What the fuck?”

“Deacon… He’s here!”

Max slides out from under me to get dressed. “Was he supposed to come here?”

She’s shaking her head. “No. I told him I was coming to do content, though.”

After my bodyguard has switched from being my lover back to my bodyguard, as he steps into his jeans, I feel the shift in the air while he stuffs his pistol in the back of his pants. “I’ll be back, baby,” he throws over his shoulder.

“What is going on?” I ask Stella.

She’s pulling her shirt over her head, and I do the same. “Deacon has been acting more and more jealous lately. I don’t know why he’s here today, though.”

“Come on, Stel,” I hold my hand out for her to grab.

We are walking to the front door to hear them.

“I want to know why I got a fucking video of my girlfriend in bed with you fuckers!” Deacon’s voice rings out.

“I want to know why you think you can come up to Serena’s house and start demanding shit,” Max demands.

Deacon is thrusting his phone into the other man’s face. “I received a video today of you guys hooking up. Who recorded the video?”

“I wasn’t recording,” I tell him confidently. “If something was recorded, it didn’t come from me.”

“Sweetness, get upstairs!” Max orders.

Instead of following directions, my hand reaches out to link my fingers with Stella’s. Squeezing them, I hope to offer her some comfort. Even though I have no idea what I’m doing with Max, I’m still her Domme. And I’m still her friend.

“My girlfriend was naked with Max in the bed! I have a problem with that!” Deacon stammers out. “Fuck! She’s still naked!”

I fight the urge to say something cocky. I truly try to fight it. That doesn’t mean it worked. “Are you more jealous of the fact that she was recorded or that she was in bed with me and Max?”

Max gives me a deadly look that promises retribution for when we are alone together. “Deacon, we didn’t record it. I’m just as pissed as you are that Serena’s house is bugged and now, they are leaking her fucking.”

Stella clears her throat. “Serena and I have been doing this longer than we have been together. You knew I was her sub. You know we filmed content together. Why are you so jealous now?”

Deacon’s eyes widen as he tries to reach out for Stella. She clings to my hand like a lifeline. “Baby, it isn’t like that.”

I knew he had been jealous before because I saw a side of Stella he didn’t get to see. “This is a one-time offer,” I bite out. “Since you have a problem with Stella being with us, do you want me to come into a scene with you?”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Serena?” Max’s voice cuts through the air, shaking me to my core.

“I’m not kidding,” I clarify. “This will be a one-time offer.”

Max spins on me, placing his big hand on my throat, tilting my head back, and looking down at me. I see the way his eyes are crackling with fire as he controls what to do with his anger. Is he angry I’m inviting someone else to scene with Stella and me? Is he angry that I didn’t ask him?

He brings his mouth next to my ear so I can hear the growl. “Your house just got bugged, and you’re offering to do a scene with someone else? Are you trying to get yourself hurt?”

I shake him off of me. “Stop!”

“Can I talk to you for a second?” Max barks.

Shaking my head, I look back at them. Before I can say anything more, Max has me thrown over his shoulder. “We’ll be back,” he yells. Once my gym door closes, he slams me against the door.

“What are you doing?” I demand.

His body is flush with mine, allowing me to smell the fresh scent of the body wash he used. “My fucking problem is my woman is willing to allow for a man to watch her fuck his girlfriend.”

“That is literally my job, Max!” I yell back. “You knew I am a Domme. You knew what I did for a living!”

He growls. “God damn it!”

I shove him on his shoulders. “What the hell is the matter with you? This is who I am. Just because you press some stupid button in my brain that makes me subservient to you, doesn’t mean you can treat me like I’m your sub. I am still the mother fucking Domme.”

He bounces away from me before swinging back in my face. His mouth descends on mine in a punishing kiss. His tongue slips through my lips to plunder my mouth, causing me to melt against him. I’m so pissed at him for acting like this.

But I want him.

I push him away again, breaking the kiss. “I’m mad at you.”

Max gets a deviant look in his eyes. “You are?”

“Yes!” I hiss at him. “I hate how you are so back and forth with me. I hate that I’m falling for you, and I don’t know anything about you.

I hate that you make me question things.

I hate that you don’t even seem to care that you are messing with my mind.

I fucking hate that despite knowing this is a terrible idea, I still really like giving you control!

” My breathing is ragged from yelling at him.

“What could be so wrong with giving me control?”

We are in a stand-off. That is the only way to describe this. Neither of us is going to win this argument, despite both of us wanting to win.

“Don’t act like you don’t already know,” I retort defiantly.

“Tell me anyway.”

I’m trying to fight off his hands that are holding me against the door. I need space. I can’t tell him how weak I am. I can’t tell him the truth of who I am and what I have had to do to get to this point in my life. I can’t tell him shit.

“For once in your life, open up your mouth and tell me!” Max yells.

“Fine!” I scream. “Right after I graduated high school, I got married to a man my father forced me to marry. It was a marriage for our parents to gain something that I still don’t know what it was.

We got married, the marriage was bad, I wanted to get out, I couldn’t leave, my husband cheated on me, and then we got divorced. ”

I don’t tell him about how I begged my father to let me out of the marriage.

I don’t tell him how much I wanted to die after the beatings my ex doled out to me for whatever reason he had at that moment.

That is how I know that bitch, Glenna. She had to patch me up several times after he got mad at me.

I also had to go and see her after I bled so much I thought I was dying…

Turns out it was a miscarriage, and I didn’t even know I was pregnant.

I also don’t tell him how my father practically sold me to my ex to expand his reach and ports.

I also don’t tell him how terrified I am of giving myself to another person because every single man in my life has let me down.

Hurt me.

“You don’t know the first thing about what I have had to do to get to where I am at right now,” I seethe.

“Serena,” he whispers near my face. “Stop fighting me, baby.”

I slap his hands away from my face. “Max, I think you need to go.”

His hand slams the door next to me. “I’m not going anywhere. Stop this bull shit. I’m not them.”

Shaking my head, I look up at the light to try to calm my breath. “Every time I open up, I get hurt. Max, I can’t survive that again.”

“Sweetness.” His lips kiss my cheek. “I’m falling for you, too.”

There is a small knock on the door behind me. “Mistress? Are you okay?”

“Yes, Mistress, are you okay?” Max taunts.

I get a mischievous idea as my blood warms in my veins. “Pet?”

Stella is opening the door and peeking her head in. “Yes?”

“Please bring me my clothes, pack me a bag, and then meet me in the foyer in ten minutes. We are going to Alpha,” I instruct.

Max is pulling me away from the door. “Baby, what the fuck? We just had a security breach in your house. I have shit I have to do.”

Smiling at him, I place my hands on his shoulders to pull him down. “You will kneel in front of me, pet.”

The look of realization on his face is priceless. “That’s how you want to do this?”

“I suggest you get a bag packed, too. We have a long night ahead of us.”

Max leaves the room with me standing in the middle of my gym.

With everyone distracted, I walk into the surveillance room to see if I can see anything being messed with.

My stalker hasn’t been so abrasive or risky in a while, and I’m beginning to wonder if this is a scare tactic.

If he’s the one who recorded us hooking up and sent it to Deacon, he has a way of hacking into my cameras. I feel so violated.

Each of the cameras’ feeds is up on the screen, and I click on each to see if I can see anything out of the ordinary. Every room looks to be about normal. Damn.

I’m about to leave when I see a file on the desk with the name McGuire on it.

What the actual fuck? Why is there a file with my family’s name on it?

My head feels fuzzy as I consider what could possibly be in it.

Does Max know who my father is? Has he figured it out all along and hasn’t said anything to me about it?

“Hey, sweetness. You ready? We need to go,” he snaps through the door.

Grabbing the file, I put it under my shirt to look at later. If what is in the file proves he’s known about my father all this time, why is he still here? Throughout high school, boys avoided me because their parents warned them to stay away from me due to my dad's reputation.