by Alex Jace
“It’s going to be fine,” Sebastian told him for the tenth time, this time looking directly into those mesmerising eyes. “You’ll be with me the whole time. I’ll be right here. I won’t let anything happen to you. So stop panicking.”
“Hart’s mean. He looks at me.”
“Looks at you?” Sebastian gave Kit a slow smile, letting his eyes run up and down every inch of that delicious body. He was thinking of how Kit felt under him, spread open, sweet and taut with need.
Kit reddened under his eyes. “Like that. Except he’s not allowed.”
Under normal circumstances Sebastian quite enjoyed other men admiring his playthings, but Kit was very special to him, and Hart was definitely not allowed. Hart was a rival sorcerer who lived a few miles to the west of Summerhall, a threatening presence on the edge of Sebastian’s estate. Sorcerers were not known for niceness, but Hart was one of the worst Sebastian had encountered. And Hart wanted a Kit of his own. Once bound to him, an incubus would be helpless to resist him, dependent on his protection, craving his affection. A prized possession who lived to serve him in bed and out.
Much as Sebastian did not care for his rival, unfortunately Hart had now summoned his own incubus, and Sebastian was obligated to meet him and be polite about it. Probably congratulate him. Kit was right, it was going to be a disaster.
“He won’t touch you,” Sebastian soothed. “I keep telling you. I’ll look after you.”
Kit turned his cheek into Sebastian’s palm, pressing even tighter into him. He really was extremely sweet. Sebastian ran a thumb along his lower lip. “You are very tempting, kitten. Any man would want you. But you belong to me. I’d never let anyone steal you away.”
Kit took the tip of Sebastian’s thumb into his mouth. Kit’s lips sealed around it, then his hot tongue flicked out, followed by the slightest scrape of his teeth. Sebastian groaned aloud as his stomach contracted with a sudden surge of hunger. “That’s enough, you little tease. We need to leave.” It would be rude to keep his enemy waiting.
“I could be quick.” Kit lifted those brilliant green eyes to his, speaking around his thumb.
Sebastian suspected this was a delaying tactic, but it was impossible to resist. As an incubus, Kit had very intense needs; Sebastian enjoyed indulging him. “Get on your knees and show me.”
Kit sank eagerly to his knees and nuzzled into Sebastian’s crotch. Sebastian cupped the back of his head in one hand and pressed Kit’s face into his crotch, rubbing gently against his mouth. Kit gave a little moan and pressed harder, hands fisting in his lap.
“What do you say?” Sebastian prompted.
“Please,” Kit said, barely a whisper.
“Please what?”
“Please let me taste you.”
He was adorable. “Take my cock out.” Sebastian slipped his fingers into that warm copper hair.
Kit fumbled with unsteady hands to open Sebastian’s trousers. He took Sebastian into his mouth with another little sound of hunger. The first hot slide into Kit’s mouth stole Sebastian’s breath, the sensation so familiar yet so intense. “Mmm. That’s good.” Sebastian could barely focus, his world narrowed down to that sweet mouth. Kit pulled against Sebastian’s grip on his hair to take him deeper; Sebastian loved him like this, on his knees, flushed and wanting.
“Touch yourself.” Sebastian stroked his hot cheek, cupping his face tenderly. Kit whimpered, but touched himself obediently. “Slower,” Sebastian coaxed, cradling his face in both hands. “You don’t get to come until I let you.” Sebastian had figured out early that Kit enjoyed being made to wait. It emphasised Sebastian’s control over him. Sometimes Sebastian made him wait for hours, dragging it out until Kit begged for relief, but alas, they were already running late.
For once he let Kit come first. Kit clutched at him, his whimpers stifled, as Sebastian finished in his mouth. As always, the rush was intense. It was a primal act of ownership, as powerful as it was intimate.
Afterward Sebastian helped him to his feet. Kit stumbled, and Sebastian steadied him with a hand under his elbow. “Feeling better?” Sebastian ruffled his copper hair, already disarrayed from Sebastian’s fingers earlier.
“Yes. Lots.” Kit snuggled closer with that little smile of satisfied mischief.
Sebastian kissed the top of his head. “You are such a troublemaker. Making us late like this. Let’s go.”
They headed out into the dusk. The nights had begun to turn cold lately, the air crisp with the scent of autumn, and Kit shivered even in his heavy coat as they crunched through fallen leaves. Sebastian slipped his warm arm around him and squeezed. Kit made a sound of contentment.
It was three or four miles to the nearest village, but Sebastian liked to walk; he had picked Summerhall in part for its countryside, its woods and meadows, its silver streams and peaceful paths. They passed a lake that lay still as a mirror, blazing beneath the sunset arc of the sky. One or two early stars twinkled in the darkness of the east.
Most sorcerers preferred to live alone, like Sebastian on his quiet estate, but Hart lived in the heart of the village of Coldbrook among the no doubt terrified locals. As the night drew in, lights winked on across the village, points of gold scattered across the dark. Shutters had been closed, doors barred; it seemed that nobody in Coldbrook dared come out at night.
Kit sneaked his hand into his. Sebastian gripped tight. He was thinking that the only possible reason to live among the locals like this would be to keep them in constant terror of him every single day.
Hart had a little house with a red tiled roof. Hart met them at his doorstep, where they exchanged icily polite greetings. Hart’s eyes lingered on Kit, who shrank; Sebastian kept his possessive hand at Kit’s back. “Let me introduce you to Ari,” Hart said with a chilly smile as he showed them into his house. And Sebastian froze.
All incubi were supernaturally beautiful, and the one who jumped to his feet from where he had been sitting on the floor was nearly as pretty as Kit. Ari was a little taller, with hair the colour of spun gold, eyes an unearthly shade of amber. He pressed uncertainly into Hart’s side, as if he felt threatened. And he had clearly been beaten. Bruises darkened along his cheekbone, finger marks mottled his pale throat. When Hart put a casual hand on his shoulder Ari flinched even as he pressed closer.
Sebastian very nearly lost his cool. For a second all he could see was his beautiful, perfect, obedient Kit bruised like that, flinching like that. Sebastian was not a wrathful man by nature, but the mere thought that anyone would ever hit Kit brought Sebastian dangerously close to fury.
Fortunately Sebastian was not as stupid as he liked people to think, and he kept his temper, though his jaw clenched. His fellow sorcerers would not be thrilled if Sebastian arrived at a rival’s house only to pick a fight with him. In fact, Sebastian wondered if Hart was intentionally provoking a confrontation with him. If this was a setup.
Sebastian decided not to take the bait. “It’s nice to meet you, Ari. I’m sure you’ll be very happy at Coldbrook.”
Ari hid behind Hart. He was watching Sebastian’s every move warily, as if Sebastian might hit him at any moment.
“Shy?” Sebastian smiled. “My kitten gets tongue-tied too. It’s adorable.” He ruffled Kit’s hair. Kit had gone ominously silent; the stare he was giving Hart was murderous.
“I’m teaching Ari not to speak to his betters,” Hart said.
Sebastian just about choked down his first reply. “As you wish. Personally, I find Kit quite entertaining when he talks.”
“You seem to have better uses for his tongue,” Hart said. “Your little whore does like something in his mouth. I could keep him busy some time. When you get tired of him.”
Kit went scarlet beside him. “I don’t—” Kit stammered into silence. Sebastian had recently coaxed him into an incredibly hot blowjob in front of all of Sebastian’s friends, then rewarded him with much praise and cuddling for braving his obvious fear. Now Kit reddened, his eyes low, and not in t
hat shy way that Sebastian found so sexy. More like he was ashamed.
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. He thrived on Kit’s natural desire to please, his craving for his master. He did not take kindly to another man trying to shame Kit.
Sebastian put a possessive hand on Kit’s shoulder. “He does like something in his mouth,” Sebastian said with a pleasant smile. “Me. And I’m not going to get tired of him. Ever.” He squeezed Kit’s shoulder. Kit inched closer.
“Easy to say now. You’ve only been fucking him a few months. You’ll be bored of him within the year. Total obedience has its uses”—Hart didn’t even look at Ari, who was staring at him with painful longing—“but presenting a challenge is not one of them.”
Sebastian bit his tongue. Hard. Then managed to speak calmly. “If there’s nothing challenging about your relationship with Ari, you’re doing it wrong. Kit is as exciting and rewarding as he was the day he first stumbled into my life.” And Sebastian had no intention of ever letting Kit go.
The evening went about as badly as expected from then on. The worst part was when Ari spilled the drink he was pouring, his hands unsteady, and Hart hit him. Just casually struck him across the face. Ari stifled a yelp; Kit froze. Sebastian’s rage flashed white hot at the sudden intense image of Kit being hit like that and he was out of his seat without thinking as his fury demanded vengeance.
His heart beat very hard against his ribs. He stared at Hart for a long, lethal moment, right on the edge of killing him.
Finally he choked down his fury. He had to tell himself over and over that it wasn’t Kit, it would never be Kit, nobody would ever hurt Kit like that. But looking at Ari’s flinch, all Sebastian could think of was the way his own little incubus used to flinch away from everything. That flash of fear triggered Sebastian’s protective instinct, the urge to make it all better.
Sebastian took several deep breaths. Forced down the last of his anger. He was going to take his kitten home and hug him very tight tonight. Because there was absolutely nothing he could do for Ari. Sebastian could only protect Kit.
#
“We have to do something.”
Kit was pacing the little library in Summerhall where a fire crackled low in the hearth. Kit normally found the library soothing, with its many books and its comforting paper scent; he had spent many a happy hour cuddled up with Sebastian here. Now he seethed. “Did you see the way Hart looked at him? Touched him? We have to help him.”
“No,” Sebastian said.
Kit turned to stare at him. Sebastian leaned against the hearth, looking unfairly gorgeous, his intense blue eyes on Kit. Kit felt the familiar urge to kiss him, to press into his broad chest, to wind his fingers in his black hair. “No?”
“We don’t have to do anything. And we’re not going to.” Sebastian drank his wine without a flicker of expression.
“Are you serious?”
“Deadly,” said Sebastian, over his wine glass.
“He hit him!” Kit’s voice went up a notch.
“Yes, he did.”
Kit kept staring at him. Sebastian was a sorcerer, he drew his power from enslaving people like Kit. It was occurring to Kit that Sebastian might have more sympathy for the captor than the captive. A slight shiver went through Kit as he realised how utterly defenceless he would be if Sebastian ever turned on him. “How can you be so calm about this? How can you do nothing?”
“Because I’m not an idiot.” Sebastian said it so shortly that Kit flinched. “What do you think I’m building here? Why would I throw it all away?”
“What do you mean?” Kit’s brow furrowed.
“Kit.” Sebastian sighed. “We sorcerers are not nice. Actually, we tend to hate each other. Conventional wisdom is that you need to kill every other sorcerer within a twenty-mile radius to be able to sleep safely at night. That kind of infighting isn’t good for anybody. I’ve been trying to live quietly here. I don’t start wars with my neighbours—I invite them over for drinks. Hell, some of them I even like. I don’t know if there’s anywhere else in the entire country where sorcerers get along. And after years of peace, I’m not going to start a war.”
Kit had never wondered before why Sebastian spent time with the local sorcerers even though they did not seem especially close. “He hit Ari. Isn’t that reason enough?”
“Not by our standards. An incubus is a possession. An object. You can do whatever you want to it. It’s not worth war.”
“Would you say that if it was me?”
Sebastian gave him a look then that tightened Kit’s throat. “If anyone hit you,” Sebastian said, “I would kill them. Nobody will ever touch you. Ever.”
“Then why…” Kit had to swallow hard. His voice tightened with pain. “Why wouldn’t you protect Ari?”
“He’s not you.”
Kit could not understand how Sebastian could be simultaneously adorable and harsh. “But—”
“Drop it.”
“But the—”
“Don’t talk back to me, Kit.”
“I’m not talking back!” Kit said loudly.
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed, his expression hardened and Kit knew immediately that he’d crossed a line. Kit’s stomach tightened with mingled fear and excitement. “You need to be taught a lesson,” Sebastian said.
Kit dug his heels in. “I don’t need to be taught a lesson.”
“Yes, you do. Come here.”
Kit should probably refuse, but the instinct to obey ran so deep. Kit slunk toward him.
Sebastian took him very lightly by the throat. Sebastian had never hurt him this way, but it was such a dominant grip that Kit swallowed against his fingers, his pulse starting to flutter; it reminded him that he was deliciously, terrifyingly defenceless against his master. “You are not treating me with the respect I expect from you, kitten. Remind me again which of us is the master.”
“You,” Kit said reluctantly.
“Say it.”
“You’re my master.”
“Strip and give me your belt.”
Kit froze. His master had never hit him in anger. Had he really been so badly behaved that Sebastian would beat him? He had heard of sorcerers abusing their captives, Hart obviously, but he hadn’t thought Sebastian would ever—
“Kitten?”
“Why do you want my belt?”
“What?” Sebastian gave him an extremely strange look. “To tie you up with. What were you thinking, that I’d hurt you? Why on earth would I ever do that? You’re precious to me.”
“Oh.” That made Kit feel warm inside.
“I would never hit you to punish you. Only when you enjoy it.”
That was comforting. Kit stripped and gave his master his belt.
“Turn around,” Sebastian said.
Kit forced himself to turn around. Prickles of nerves ran up and down his spine. Sebastian bound his hands with the belt, and Kit took a deep, shuddering breath, intensely aware of how helpless he was. There was no point even trying to resist.
“All right?” Sebastian rubbed his bare shoulder; Kit leaned into him helplessly. “Say it, kitten.”
“I’m… I’m fine.”
“Good. Get over my knee.”
Oh, God. Kit practically moaned just at the thought. Sebastian was spectacularly, wickedly good at spanking him; the sheer power Sebastian had over him was thrilling. “No,” Kit said, just to be contrary; he had the delightful feeling that Sebastian would spank him more the harder Kit resisted.
“Get over my knee.” Sebastian’s voice dropped into a threat.
A shiver of longing went through Kit. He got over Sebastian’s knee.
The slightest friction against Sebastian’s broad thigh made Kit whimper aloud, achingly hard. Kit shifted, trying to get comfortable with his bare ass in the air. Sebastian swung a leg over his to trap him in place, and this time Kit did moan even as he reddened with embarrassment. He was captured and he liked it.
“You’re beautiful.” Sebastian kept soothing h
im, stroking his bare thigh, which only tantalised Kit with the promise of more. “Squirming around in my lap wanting me to spank you. Ask for it, kitten.”
“N-no.” Kit squirmed some more, trying to rub himself against Sebastian’s thigh.
“The naughtier you are, the more I will make you beg me.”
“No! I won’t.”
Sebastian pushed Kit’s thighs apart then, and Kit shuddered, another moan spilling out of him. He could not resist his master’s touch, it was unbearable. Sebastian cupped his bare ass, squeezed and kneaded, telling him in that low, rough voice how perfect he was, how irresistible. How inviting his spread thighs. “I’m going to spank you here first. Make you cry out.” Sebastian laid his hot palm against the curve of Kit’s ass. “Then keep spanking you while you beg for more, until you’re so worked up you’d let me do anything to you.”
Kit cracked completely. “Yes. Please.”
“Oh, now we’re on the same page?” Sebastian was smiling, Kit could hear it in his voice.
“Please.” It was the only word Kit could get out.
“You’re sure you want to be spanked? Because I’ve been getting mixed messages.”
“Please!”
Sebastian slapped his ass. The crack of his palm rang out even as Kit jolted with a flash of hot sweet pain that melted into pleasure. “Ah!” His ass stung, his heart beat so hard he could barely breathe. “Master! Again.”
“You’ll get what you’re given, kitten.”
“I need—”
Sebastian stuffed a sleeve of Kit’s discarded shirt into his mouth to keep him quiet. “Ah, peace at last.” And Sebastian proceeded to spank him senseless. The slaps rained down while Kit twisted helplessly under his hands, his ass throbbing. Sebastian slipped one wicked finger into him and Kit jolted again. That finger felt so thick inside him, so hot. Every time Sebastian landed a slap on his ass Kit clenched reflexively and it felt so delicious Kit moaned again, silenced by the cloth in his mouth.
Only when Kit was trembling on the edge did Sebastian finally take him to bed. Kit ached so badly he would have done anything Sebastian wanted; he could not seem to stop steadily whimpering as Sebastian eased into him from behind. It felt so unbearably good that Kit nearly came right there and then. His whole body shuddered with the intensity of that sensation. His master could make him feel so owned, so possessed, safe in his control.