Page 3 of Master Cordell

The third floor housed a gym, several conference rooms, the day spa, a few more offices, including the HR and accounting departments, and a nightclub—Club 69—that gave everyone an additional option for evening entertainment. The fourth, fifth, and sixth floors were where all the guest rooms and suites were located. Room keycards were needed to access those floors via the elevators and stairs.

Back on the ground floor, behind the grand staircase, was the entrance to the resort’s two-level dungeon in the west wing. Around the perimeter of the first floor were fourteen themed playrooms, most of which had large viewing windows so voyeurs could watch the action. If the occupants of a room preferred privacy, there was a switch that would tint the windows to prevent anyone from seeing in. Four other rooms had been designated for aftercare.

The interior setup of the vast main room was similar to The Covenant. There would be numerous sitting areas surrounding a round stage which could be used for collaring ceremonies and demonstrations. The stage at the resort, however, had been designed to slowly revolve with the flip of a switch. A full rotation took approximately four-and-a-half minutes to complete, meaning anyone standing on the stage would barely feel the movement. Guests observing whatever was happening on stage would eventually be able to see it from all angles, instead of having to move around. Above the stage was open space so people on the second floor could also see what was going on below.

The ground level had already been dubbed the “pit,” just like its counterpart in Tampa. In all four corners, there were circular staircases leading to the upper floor which would be filled with different stations and equipment, such as spanking benches, St. Andrew’s crosses, spider webs, stockades, sex swings, cages, and the like.

After giving Sasha the big tour of the first three floors, Sloan and Tiffany took her up to the penthouse level and showed her one of the ten executive suites, which were all devoid of furniture at the moment. The beds, mattresses, nightstands, dressers, couches, loveseats, tables, chairs, etc. for the entire resort were arriving in two weeks. An army of movers had been hired to bring the furnishings to the dedicated areas, offices, and guest rooms. It still amazed Tiffany how much went into opening a new resort.

As they took one of the elevators back down to the lobby, Sasha said, “Tori mentioned that, in addition to having the dungeon open to hotel guests, locals can also become annual members. Have there been a lot of applicants?”

“Holy cow,” Tiffany replied, widening her eyes for effect. “I can’t believe how much interest we’ve generated. Master Cordell has about two-hundred-and-fifty applications to go through. People from Miami all the way down to Key West want to be members. Apparently, it’s the first private BDSM club of this size in the Keys. We had to put a hold on applications until we could catch up, because we’re limiting it to three hundred, not including the employees who are free to play if they wish. One of the perks of the job.”

When the elevator reached the ground floor, the doors slid open, and Tiffany felt her knees go weak and a lump form in her throat. Standing there, looking more handsome than ever, was Sir. He was wearing dark-gray Bermuda shorts, a red polo shirt with the MKR logo on the left side of his massive chest, and black sneakers. He’d gone to physical therapy that morning and must’ve just gotten back.

His eyes lit up at the sight of her, but they quickly dimmed again, and her heart sank. Things had been more than slightly off between them ever since she’d blurted out she loved him when he’d offered her the assistant manager position. To everyone else, the couple appeared happy and normal, but in reality, they weren’t—at least Tiffany didn’t think so. How she wished they could go back to the day before she’d fucked up, because she didn’t know how to fill the chasm she now felt between them. Sir had assured her he hadn’t taken her words to mean she’d fallen in love with him, but she thought that’s exactly what’d happened and that he wasn’t happy about it.

It really sucked. Tiffany was hopelessly in love with the man who’d warned her from the beginning that their relationship was temporary, even though it now included sex. And what was worse was that she felt the way Sir had distanced himself from her—not physically, but emotionally. Most of their conversations now had to do with the resort. They still played, but it always seemed like Sir was holding himself back compared to before the “I love you” incident.

Thankfully, Sloan and Sasha didn’t seem to notice the tension that filled the air between their two bosses, because when Sir moved to the side, they exited the car with bright smiles. Sloan gestured to Sir. “Sasha, this is Master Cordell Roberts, the manager of Master Key Resort. Sir, this is Sasha Lewis, our new boutique manager.”

“We met once before, during our visit to Tampa several months ago.” Tiffany was surprised Sir had remembered the other woman because she hadn’t. Sir gave Sasha a welcoming smile and held out his hand. “It’s nice to see you again, Sasha. How was your move?”

She shook his hand. “It’s a pleasure to see you again too, Sir. As for the move, between the packing and unpacking, I never want to do it again. I don’t think my cat, Flash, would want to go through it again either—he wasn’t happy about the road trip. But as for me, I’m already loving the Keys. The resort looks incredible, and I can’t wait to start organizing the boutique.”

“Well, you’ll be able to start that next week. It’s an honor to have you on board. If you need anything, just let Tiffany or me know. If you’ll excuse me, though, I need to talk to one of the contractors upstairs.”

“Of course, Sir.”

Sir’s gaze shifted to Tiffany, and when he raised his brow at her, she realized she was still standing in the doorway of the elevator, blocking his entrance and preventing the doors from closing. She quickly stepped into the lobby, out of his way.

He gave her a nod before walking into the car and pushing one of the buttons. “Ladies, have a nice day.”

His gaze never left hers until the doors shut, and the tension Tiffany had felt finally dissipated. Her shoulders relaxed, and she could breathe normally again. Would she ever stop feeling like there was an elephant in the room with them.

Chapter4

When the elevator door finally shut him in, Cordell dropped the friendly smile he’d pasted on his face for the three women. It still hurt that what he felt for Tiffany wasn’t reciprocated. Out of all the female submissives he’d help recover from abusive or unhealthy D/s relationships, she was the only one he’d ever fallen for.

She didn’t seem to realize how beautiful she was—the contract workers sure did though. Cordell knew more than one of them had asked her out on a date. He hadn’t wanted to devalue her status as the resort’s assistant manager by staking claim to her in front of everyone, so he’d seethed in private and watched from afar in case any of the wannabe suitors wouldn’t take no for an answer. So far, Tiffany hadn’t seemed to have any trouble politely declining the offers. However, none of those men had come off as the dominant types she was still clearly nervous around, like Milo Brooks the owner of the construction company building the resort. Despite the Dom treating Tiffany with the respect an assistant manager deserved, it was obvious there were times she was walking on eggshells around him. And he wasn’t the only one.

Two members of Dante’s team had started working at the resort, helping him get the security system up and running. Both were retired Marines and Dominants in the lifestyle. While Tiffany had never shown any signs of wariness around Dante—she got along great with him—her meekness showed with Masters Troy Richardson and Jared Payne, despite their pleasant and polite demeanors toward her.

The huge strides Cordell had made with her had come to a grinding halt after their day of taste-testing with Chef Adley. Unfortunately, Cordell wasn’t sure how to get his relationship with Tiffany back on an even keel. He was in unfamiliar territory with her at the moment. The last thing he wanted to do was express his true feelings for her, knowing she didn’t feel the same. That would just screw things up even more between them. While their contract had an open end date—not a specific one—he knew, one day, he’d have to let her find a Dom she could love. For now, though, he was going to be selfish and keep her close.

They still slept in the same bed and played often. He also remained strict about the rules he expected her to follow. However, the only time she seemed to flourish and be genuinely happy was when she was working—well, at least when she didn’t realize he was observing her. When that happened, she was stiff and wary. How he was going to help her overcome that was beyond him. When Mitch came down in a few days, Cordell would confide in him and see if the other Dom had any ideas for how Cordell could fix what was obviously so terribly broken.

As the elevator door opened, he pushed the thoughts of his sweet submissive to the back of his mind. After finding out why Milo had wanted to meet with him on the top floor, Cordell had a stack of mail and tons of emails to go through. Then he had to sit down with the two reservation agents that’d been hired a few weeks ago and go through the scheduled bookings.

When Mitch, Ian, and Devon had opened The Covenant in Tampa several years ago, they’d coordinated a network with other owners and managers of both private and public BDSM clubs, that eventually spread throughout the US and Canada. Three weeks ago, an announcement about the new resort had been sent to every private club on the list, and a pre-grand-opening booking rate for rooms and suites had been offered to generate business. They hadn’t included the public clubs on the invitation list, since many of them didn’t vet their members. While they couldn’t guarantee every hotel guest was fully trained in play and protocols, each one would receive an email prior to their reservation date with an explanation of what play and activities were and weren’t allowed at the resort. A list of other information and club protocols would also be attached to the email.

Once the resort was officially open for business, the room rates would go up, and hopefully, with word of mouth, MKR would be booked solid for months to come. In fact, they were already completely booked for the first six weeks following the grand opening, with more reservation requests coming in every day.

He strode down the hallway of the top floor of the West Wing with a slight limp. His therapist had shown him some new exercises earlier, and Cordell was feeling the additional strain they’d put on the muscles around his repaired hip.

At the end of the long corridor, he entered the three-room suite the head contractor had asked to meet him in. Milo and Jared were there waiting for him, and Cordell didn’t like their grim expressions. “What’s up?”

Using a latex glove-covered hand, his security man held up a small device with wires attached. “Milo found this in the air-conditioning vent in the bedroom.”

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