The Breaker's Concubine Read Online Free

She specialized in helping novices and concubines who had
    been physically abused by careless Masters and Mistresses to heal enough to find pleasure in
    making love again. The man standing with his back to them had enough scars to have been
    abused, but their placement and shape didn’t appear to be the result of torture.
    More than that, the arrogant tilt of his shoulders and the way he carried himself spoke of
    great inner strength and confidence. There was none of the cringing, the effort to hide in the
    corner of the room that she associated with someone in need of her special skills. If anything, he
    radiated a dominance that brought an unwelcome flush of heat through her body. When she did
    have the luxury of indulging herself, she always chose males who were dominant and
    commanding. The giving up of control was as much of a rush for her as the actual sex.
    Her gaze followed the curve of his waist, lingering on the heavy muscles of his thighs and
    the strength of his calves. Those muscles weren’t shaped for beauty, but for physical labor. Was
    he one of the lucky workers who had won in the Arena and earned a chance to become a
    concubine?
    Pimina moved next to her and crossed her arms in an uncharacteristic display of nerves.
    The head trainer of the Snowbound Pleasure House had been training concubines for over three
    hundred years. Melania examined her closely, noting the tightness of her still-full lips and the
    way she rubbed her fingertips against her elbows. They both wore the skintight black leather
    suits of trainers, but Pimina’s had gold embellishments on the shoulders and Melania’s had a hint
    of purple shimmer.
    “You’re my best breaker, and Lady Grenba requested you personally,” Pimina said and
    glanced down at her. Small, even for a woman, Melania was used to people underestimating her
    because of her size and her ethereal looks. As a breaker, she counted on it.
    Melania’s lip curled in disgust at the mention of Lady Grenba’s name. “I’m surprised the
    lady”—she spat the word out—“would want me anywhere near one of her novices again.”

    The Breaker’s Concubine
    13

    Not looking at her, Pimina needlessly flipped through various viewing screens, bringing up
    different angles and charts of the man in the room before her. “Yes, well, she seemed impressed
    that you were able to rehabilitate her last novice enough to be resold to another Mistress.”
    Hot and bitter, anger burned in Melania’s gut as she remembered the months it had taken
    to rebuild the shattered man. With a sweet and submissive nature, he had suffered greatly at Lady
    Grenba’s hands. A known sadist, she had hurt him and tortured him until he was almost
    catatonic. She and her trainer claimed they had no idea he wasn’t a masochist and professed
    ignorance that he wasn’t enjoying himself. Melania later learned the novice was kept constantly
    drugged so he was aroused, and gagged so he couldn’t protest. She wanted to tell the regulators,
    but Pimina had warned her Lady Grenba would get a slap on the wrist while Melania would be
    signing her death warrant. Both she and the novice would be long dead before Lady Grenba
    came to any kind of trial.
    Only the intervention of a kindhearted maid had alerted the trainers to his situation. He was
    given to Melania to heal, and Lady Grenba had escaped punishment by virtue of her royal blood.
    The maid had been punished for her intervention—nothing the regulators could have disciplined
    Lady Grenba for, instead, a horrible “accident” that left the maid maimed. She now worked for
    Melania after being removed from Lady Grenba’s tender care.
    “I spent months helping him to relearn the pleasure, the joy of service. Months holding him
    as he screamed and begged for death.” She shuddered and took a deep breath. “Lady Grenba
    tried to have me sold to a whorehouse when I recommended to the regulators he not go back to
    her.”
    Silence settled over the room,