David. A chance to get to know his boy. Who was today hell-bent on making Tai crazy by ignoring him. “Oh?”
“For a one-percent motherfucker, he’s been all right. Shows up for his meetings, tests clean. Today he calls, all polite and proper, asking about how he files a change of address.”
The headache turned into red-hot spikes being driven into the back of his brain. Where the fuck was David going?
“He can’t leave the county.”
“Don’t snarl at me, Fonoti. I ain’t your probie. Yeah. He knows. Says he’s been having problems with his lease and landlord. Thought those rich bastards were the landlords. But the point being, he called me. How many addresses you been to, chasing Meade’s other girl juvie around the fucking county?”
“Fuck. You.”
Tai shut off the phone and threw it in the footwell. Jez nudged at his armpit with a whimper, and he reached back to reassure her. David was going to be goddamned lucky Jez was there. She was the only thing making him keep control of his temper.
DAVID ANSWERED the door, then folded his arms and leaned against the frame, lashes dropping in that lazy way he used to piss Tai off. “Did we have an appointment, Sir?”
There was nothing remotely respectful about his tone.
“Do I need one to come over?” Tai swallowed back the boy he wanted to use to finish his question. Safer to keep this way out of D/s space.
Jez was looking anxiously between David’s kitchen and back over her shoulder to plan a retreat.
David bent to her. “Hi, sweetheart. I’m very pleased to see you.” He rubbed her head. “I got you a special toy today.” He grabbed a long, furry squirrel-shaped chew toy off the counter.
Jez sat as she’d been taught, her eyes bright and fixed on the toy.
“Catch.” He tossed it up in front of her, and she lunged, jaws snapping on it and head violently shaking any remaining life from her prey. She flipped it in the air, then caught it, delighting in the squeak from inside, and trotted off to rend it to pieces.
Tai let out a frustrated breath. “You could have run it by me.”
David stepped up to him. “Is there an approved-toys list? I need your permission for that?”
“You need my hand on your ass.” Tai squeezed the back of his neck. “What the fuck is going on, David? When were you going to tell me you were moving?”
David’s shock and surprise was the worst kind of answer. He retreated to the other side of the counter. “Do you check up on me at work?”
“No.” And thank God he hadn’t run that background check. “Your PO said something to me.”
“He knows about us? I thought that would be very bad.”
“No. He—Never mind. I think the point is you planning to move and keeping it from me. Christ, it’s the only thing I’ve asked you for. To be honest with me.”
“And when the hell have I lied?”
“Running and hiding isn’t very honest.”
“For your fucking information, you opinionated asshole, me moving was all about you.”
“What?” The headache spread into Tai’s jaw. He interlocked his fingers behind his head and tried to stretch the agony out. He’d never seen—heard David so angry. Never had it directed completely Tai’s way.
David stomped over to the small bar near the balcony, ran his fingers over one of the bottles, and then came back and poured himself an orange juice. “Want something?” As quick as the explosion began, it was over, David’s voice mild as he held up a glass.
“An explanation.” Tai planted himself on one of the stools at the counter.
David paced on the other side, his orange juice untouched. “The management company here has a very selective policy regarding pets.”
“You said they were allowed.”
“They are. Except those that become a nuisance or are perceived as a threat, which means”—David made air quotes—“such dog breeds with a reputation for violence, including but not limited to American pit bulls, German shepherds, Doberman pinschers, and rottweilers, are not permitted.” He sighed and stopped to wrap his fingers around his glass. “Nothing about that rabid dachshund on the third floor who goes berserk in the elevator and tries to make off with my Achilles tendon.”
“So it’s about Jez?” The headache eased back from a ten to a nine and a half.
“Apparently if you both continue to visit, I’m facing a sheriff eviction in fourteen days. That probably won’t look good to the court.”
“They can’t evict you with just one notice.”
David took a sudden interest in his orange juice, his words half swallowed by the glass as he drank. “Ah, they can when it’s the third notice.”
“What?” The skull pressure ratcheted back up to eleven.
“I had an email. And a voicemail message. The certified mail today was a bit more peremptory. I guess we shouldn’t have let her piss all over the tires of that prick’s Mercedes.”
Tai’s fingers itched to grab David and haul him across the counter, but he slammed an open palm against the sealed granite as his next best option. “You ignored the first two notices?”
“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it. Another is that their policy is asinine and prejudicial.”
“That was irresponsible. Now you have to—”
“How is it irresponsible? I know I have to keep an address on file with the probation office, and I damned well knew it couldn’t be yours.”
“You should have—”
“I found a hotel that will, for an exorbitant deposit, allow Jez as a guest. Your Officer DiBlasi didn’t think highly of my plan to take up residence on the Nancy.” David turned to the sink and began washing out his glass.
“David—”
“If you’re going to say my name with that amount of disgust in your voice, call me Beach,” he said to the running water. “I thought you’d—I wanted to present it as a done deal. Something I took care of the right way. On my own. Something you’d approve of.”
Tai wanted to wrap his arms around David, ease the protective hunch in those shoulders. But Tai had come over here furious, and that wasn’t a good time to start a scene. Telling himself that didn’t do a damned thing to ease the need to get his hands on his—David. Tai stepped around the counter.
David spun the faucet off but spoke with his back to Tai. “I like you spending the night. The evenings are short. And even on the weekends, well, I know you have Sammie this Sunday, and that is really important, and I have to do this thing for Gavin. I owe him. I really do. He may be milking it for all it’s worth, but he saved my life and—”
Tai lost the fight with his better nature and reached out to drag David against him. “Take a breath.” He brushed a kiss behind David’s ear. “I already have a headache.”
David pulled free, moving to the end of the counter. “Wow. That’s a new one. I’m usually much too incompetent to inflict anything more serious than fleeting frustration.”
“That’s a pretty big jump from what I said.”
“At least you won’t have to come in after me.”
Tai rubbed his forehead. “Exactly what are we talking about now?”
David shrugged. “I’d just as soon forget about it all.”
The pressure inside Tai’s skull was nothing compared to the boulder slamming into his diaphragm. His nuts hiked up tight and hard. Over. Like that.
“I think there’s an Orioles game on again, if you want to watch it.” David started toward the couch.
Tai’s lungs stopped seizing and a bit of oxygen reached his brain. Forget the conversation.
Okay. That was fine. It didn’t seem to be doing them much good anyway. “Baseball’s like that. Pretty much every night for six months.”
David nodded, picking up the remote. “What channel is it, then?”
“You pick something.”
David arched a brow, blue eyes wide, then nodded, flicking around to some kind of mysteries-of-the-supernatural documentar
y, if you could call that bullshit documented. He didn’t join Tai on the couch but bounced around, filling the water bowl he had for Jez, playing with her and her new squirrel toy.
“Do you want to watch this?”
David threw the toy for Jez and then came over to the couch. “I’m fine with baseball.”
“C’mere.”
David walked around to Tai’s side, lowering himself to kneel on the floor.
Tai stopped himself from the instinctive stroke of David’s hair. Things were too unsettled to go there right now. “No. I meant sit here with me.” He patted the couch.
“Are you tired of us doing that?”
“No.” Tai’s voice had so much force Jez stopped shaking the soggy strip of fur. He softened his tone. “I’m not tired of it. Or of you, if that’s what you’re asking.”
David sat next to him but still felt miles away. “The hotel is right downtown. You can park in the garage for free.”
“Do you need help moving?”
“No, I’ll take a suitcase. My stuff can stay here since I still have a lease. That is, if you want to see me there.”
“David—” Tai pulled him in against his side. “—yes. I want to see you there.” After running a hand down David’s arm, Tai closed his fingers around the cuff on David’s wrist. “You’re my boy.”
As they settled on the couch to watch, Tai tried not to mock the overly serious tone the narrator was taking about the dramatized events that took place in the Richardson home over the course of “one mysterious summer,” confining himself to a deriding snort when the word mysterious was also applied to a figure, a sound, a room, and a clock. The program might have been stupid, but the company wasn’t. His fingers wandered around on David’s arm, rubbing the cuff, stroking his fingers, massaging the hard, muscled shoulder. Tai rolled his head on his neck, the tension melting into the comfortable cradle of David’s sofa.
By the time wild theories were being flung around in summary, Tai’s headache had faded to a faint pulse, though the muscles of the arm and back resting against him were still rigid with tension. Tai would see what a little making out on the couch could do about that, but before he got started, David pushed to his feet and went into the bathroom.
Tai switched the channel over to check the score of the O’s game and then stared as David came back out with a bath brush that he put in Tai’s lap.
The internet could be a hell of a dangerous place for information, especially on D/s.
That was one serious escalation, from a limit forbidding spanking to an implement that easily bruised even toughened, hard-to-mark sub asses. Had David discovered a masochistic kink? No, the crotch of his cargo shorts was untented, though his eyes were dark and his breath came fast.
“Sit down.”
David folded stiffly onto the couch.
Tai turned the brush over in his hand, feeling the weight in the flat-backed wooden head. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“Last night you said if I broke silent mode, it wouldn’t be your hand. I wondered what—then I saw this.”
Tai had meant his belt, maybe a ruler if he could find one, something short where he could control the impact.
“You said I’d be sore, and when I looked, this seemed pretty serious.” David’s eyes tracked the motion of the brush as Tai swung it and tapped it lightly against his palm.
“That doesn’t explain why you brought it to me now. You didn’t break your silence last night.”
“You told me I needed to trust you enough to ask for what I needed.”
Point for David there. “Did something happen you haven’t told me about?”
David shook his head.
If he got off on it, if he needed it to calm down, it would be one thing. Yes, Tai was pissed David hadn’t come to him about the problem with the lease, that David had ignored the first two warnings, but after a shitty day, how much frustration would Tai be venting on David’s poor ass? Tai let the brush rest across his knees again and made his voice as soft as he could get it. “I don’t feel in the space for this.”
“Oh.” David got up and walked to the balcony, slid the door open, and stepped outside.
Tai dropped the brush on the couch and followed.
After the cool of the apartment, stepping through the hot night air felt like moving through soup, a soup of marine diesel and dead fish given the smells from the harbor. Then a breeze came, chasing it all away, and it was only the sparkling lights out on the water, summer air moving over them, lifting the hair from Tai’s neck like a kiss. And David was ready to give this up so Tai and Jez could spend the night with him.
David had one hand on the rail as he turned to face Tai. “Is there some kind of safeword for Doms?”
Tai let out an amused breath. “Not usually necessary. Though some people do switch between the roles.”
David nodded. “It’s just—I don’t—It’s how I know to be around you. It feels like I’ve done something wrong, that you don’t want it. You told me it was who you are.”
Christ, Tai had been one epic asshole tonight. He dragged David close, wrapping him in a hug until David let out a long, shaky breath. “You’re right. I’ve been giving you some majorly fucked-up signals since I got here, and that’s wrong. Maybe you should try out the brush on me. Did you go buy it today?” The nod rubbed against Tai’s chest. “How did that feel?”
“Terrifying. But—” David turned his head so that his mouth was aimed near Tai’s ear. “Right and exciting. I felt so stupid when I opened that letter. Then pissed-off enough to stomp into the management office and tell them where to shove their bigoted ideas about dog breeds. Getting a matched pair of Dobermans as a fuck-you didn’t seem fair to the dogs, so I ended up buying the brush. I felt somewhat less crazy after, so then I found a hotel and called Officer DiBlasi.”
Tai lifted David’s chin. “And how do you feel now?”
David’s gaze flicked away until Tai tightened his grip. Barely meeting Tai’s gaze, David blurted, “Like there’s a thing hanging over me. I need to do something. Go somewhere. Try something.”
David needed. Tai wanted. A connection deep and satisfying and as certain as when Sammie first focused on his face and closed her tiny fist around his finger.
A gentle suggestion in Tai’s grip, and David sank to his knees on the balcony with a shudder that echoed through them both. David rubbed his face against Tai’s groin. He knew, deep down in his gut, not only would David kneel for him out here, yield under the sky, with the risk of eyes watching from neighboring balconies or the dark windows on the next wharf, but with the slightest encouragement, David would suck him off. Power surged under Tai’s skin. He could light up the harbor with it.
He dragged David to his feet. “Inside, now.”
Once the balcony door was closed behind them, Tai tipped David’s face up and kissed him hard. With a groan, David opened his mouth and took it, answering the rough thrust of Tai’s tongue, pushing to flatten their lips against teeth and bone. Hand tight in David’s hair, Tai yanked David’s head back and licked a line up his throat.
“If you think you need to be punished, go get that brush and bring it to me.” Tai released him, letting David find his balance, letting him decide.
After a few shaky breaths, David walked over to the couch and picked up the brush.
Then—damn, but he was perfect—he knelt and offered the brush, resting on open palms.
Tai ran his fingers over David’s hot, swollen lips before grabbing the handle. “Take a piss first. Then go into the bedroom. Take off your clothes and wait for me.”
“Yes, Sir,” David whispered.
Tai caught his breath as David walked away. When he was out of sight, Tai checked over the brush. The back was varnished, sealing away any rough spots that could drive in a sliver or break the skin. The heft of it, concentrated in a six-inch-diameter-circle head, would be a lethal enough impact. Tai never used an implement he hadn’t tried on himself first—or with
a single tail, let Nic try on him. Tai took a few practice swings on the top of the sofa, wincing at the dent, then choked up on the long handle to shorten the swing. He smacked the side of his thigh, sucked in a pained breath, then aimed for his ass and jumped a little at the impact. Christ. David was going to get more than he bargained for. Tai had topped for heavy-sensation bottoms and pain sluts, learning from Nic how to dole out the impacts, timing, and placement. He’d punished service subs who craved the correction and brats who couldn’t stop themselves from pushing. David might go the brat route sometimes, but that wasn’t what he was asking for now. He wanted this—he’d made the choice clear—but what drove him wasn’t like anything Tai had seen.
David had taken to D/s like he’d been waiting for it his whole life. There were bumps and adjustments, but he was always straining for more with a half-frightened, half-hungry look in his eyes. Tai started to smooth his gauntlets only to realize they were still at home, that he hadn’t planned on any of this. Now David was waiting for Tai to give him the release he needed. Tai remembered his own eagerness, wanting to discover everything, try everything. Taking a firm grip on the brush, he locked down the fear that he couldn’t, wouldn’t be enough for David. At least not enough to keep him.
As Tai came into the bedroom, David looked up from his seat on the bed. Anticipation had him licking his lips and rubbing his hands over the bedcover while his feet circled in opposite directions. Tai switched on the lamp and drew the curtain over the balcony.
“Stand up.”
David bounced to his feet, and Tai selected a seat where he could angle David across his lap.
“Come here.”
David stood in front of him. There was a jump in his muscles, a fine vibration like a tremble. It reminded Tai of the horses headed for the gate he’d seen when he worked summers at Pimlico. The sharp edge of expectation, an explosion waiting beneath the surface. David’s body might have been excited, but his cock was soft, balls loose and heavy, though a deep breath brought Tai the smell of sex in the sweat from David’s crotch. “Did you jerk off today?”
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