by Kim Dare
Their eyes met for a brief moment before Liam quickly lowered his gaze again.
A touch to his cheek encouraged Liam to look up once more. “I’m going to give you fair warning before you even think about saying a single word, Liam. You will not apologize for him. You’re not his boyfriend. He’s nothing to you, and you have nothing to apologize to anyone for.”
Liam closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he saw the concern shining in Marcus’ expression. The vampire’s thumb stroked across Liam’s cheekbone, very gently, as if his touch might really be able to wipe away every backhander Ralph had ever layered onto the skin there.
Somehow, it didn’t take as much effort as Liam had thought it would, to drag a smile to his lips. Stopping his whole body from trembling however, was a very different matter.
Dear God, had he actually said all those things to Ralph? Had he really stepped in front of Diana? Liam’s knees decided that they had been brave enough for one day. He swayed where he stood, not sure if he was going to throw up or fall over first.
“W-would you like a cup of coffee?” Liam whispered. “There’s a staff room.” He couldn’t wave his hand toward it, couldn’t let Marcus see how badly he was shaking. He folded his arms across his chest instead.
Marcus smiled. This time there was no hint of fang visible. “Good boy.”
It took all the strength Liam had in him, to turn away from Marcus and glance toward Diana. It was only then that he really thought about her presence.
A wave of panic rolled through him. She’d seen… She knew about—
“I’m looking forward to that coffee,” Marcus announced.
“So am I!” Diana chipped in, sliding her arm through Liam’s and walking him purposefully toward the staff room. “I love coffee. Actually, I think it’s my favorite thing on the entire earth!”
The animals all became very vocal in their cages as Marcus strode past them, but within a minute, the worst of the noise had died down and the three of them were sitting around the rickety round table in the corner of the little broom cupboard of a staff room.
Marcus leaned back in his seat, so calm, so composed, it was almost impossible to believe that anything out of the ordinary had just happened. He smiled encouragingly at Liam as he added coffee to his cup.
Liam managed to turn his lips upward in return.
“So,” Diana said, her usual good humor only a tiny bit brittle as she added three times her usual spoonful of sugar to her coffee. “Have you told Marcus what we named our new rabbit?”
* * * *
So beautiful, and yet so fragile.
Marcus stared down the hallway taking in every detail of Liam’s profile. Whatever had caught the boy’s attention in the playroom, it appeared to have him completely fascinated.
The minutes ticked by. Liam didn’t move a muscle. Marcus remained as motionless as possible, too. It would have been too big a risk. Breaking the moment could have far too many consequences.
Marcus’ hand slowly curled into a fist at his side. Perhaps he’d been wrong to simply let Ralph run away. If Liam had known the bastard was dead then perhaps…
Marcus glanced down at his fist before quickly turning his attention back to Liam. Then perhaps Liam wouldn’t have wanted to be within miles of the playroom rather than having been willing to approach the doorway without any prompting from his master. Could he have trusted a murderer the same way?
Liam rocked slightly on his heels. His arms were still wrapped tightly around his torso, as if he thought he needed to protect himself from low blows—as if he still didn’t trust his master to be able to protect him adequately. Was that worse than Liam thinking him a murderer?
As Marcus watched, Liam nibbled at his bottom lip. Marcus’ teeth ached at the sight, but it was the way the nervous gesture tugged at his heart that finally made him step forward.
“I was starting to think you might have been abducted by aliens. Have you been standing there ever since you left the dining table?”
Tearing his gaze away from the playroom, Liam blinked rapidly, refocusing his eyes as he turned and looked down the hallway. Marcus stood just a few yards away from him, his approach not having made a single sound to alert Liam to his presence.
A moment passed. Liam turned his attention back to the view through the doorway. The playroom was still relatively dust free, even though they had hardly ventured in there since he cleaned it that first time.
“Tie me up?” Liam whispered, not even glancing toward the other man as he made the request. “Not just cuffs, I mean properly—tie me up in there, like you’ve done with other men. Feed from me at the same time?”
He sensed Marcus step forward until the vampire stood directly beside him. “Do you think you need any more excitement today?”
Liam swallowed and pushed the image of Ralph raising his hand to strike him earlier that day out of his mind. His gaze moved slowly over the cage and the cross, determined not to waste another moment on thoughts of Ralph. “I’m not looking for excitement.”
“What are you looking for?” Marcus asked.
Liam took a deep breath as he studied the rack of paddles and whips. “You. I’m looking for you.”
“And that’s where you think you’ll find me?” Marcus’ voice was softer than ever. “I’m out here, too.”
“I mean the…the part of you that’s the least like him,” Liam whispered. He waved a hand toward the playroom. “That’s where that part of you lives.”
Marcus moved carefully around Liam to stand directly in front of him. His chest completely blocked the view into the playroom. Liam stared at the other man’s shirt for a full minute, knowing he wasn’t making any sense. The idea was so clear inside his head, but the words to express it weren’t there. Finally, he convinced himself to lift his gaze and look Marcus in the eye.
“If he had…When he had the power to do anything he wanted with me, Ralph…” Liam looked down for a moment, before determinedly dragging his gaze back up. Marcus knew full well what Ralph had done with that power. He didn’t need to hear it repeated again. “But now I want to know what you’ll do with me when I’m helpless in that room. I need to know.”
Marcus seemed to study him very carefully for a very long time. “You’re scared.”
There seemed little point in denying it. “Yes.”
Marcus paused and took a deep breath. Liam pulled air into his lungs in perfect synchronization with him.
“For the record, if you’d lied to me about that, there was no way in hell I’d have ever allowed you to step over the threshold.” Marcus took a pace back, then another and another, until he’d backed through the open doorway and stood in the center of the playroom.
For each step Marcus moved back, Liam took one forward. Closing the door behind him, he sealed them both in there. In some strange way, when the door clicked closed, Ralph, and the rest of the world, ceased to exist. Nothing on the other side of the door was important.
“I want to see more of you,” Marcus said.
Liam nodded his understanding. He looked down at his clothes, but for all the response the sight of them prompted inside him, he might as well have never set eyes on them before.
A hand appeared within Liam’s field of view. It took hold of the edge of his T-shirt and very slowly pulled it up.
Marcus was giving him time to tell him that he didn’t want this, he was giving him time to say no—that much was clear. Liam looked up. “I don’t want to say no,” he whispered.
The vampire tugged the material further up and Liam lifted his arms so Marcus could guide it over his head. The garment was set aside upon what Marcus had informed Liam was called a spanking bench.
Liam stared intently at his T-shirt, wondering if his bare skin was going to make the acquaintance of the leather covered bench that evening as well. His attention was brought firmly back to the vampire as Marcus stroked a knuckle gently down the center of his chest. He looked up to meet Marcus’ eyes, b
ut the other man’s attention was all on his body.
Not a single mark remained from Ralph’s last beating. In some stupid way, that let Liam feel clean in a way he hadn’t since that first black eye. Lifting his arms from his sides, Liam looked down at the pale unmarked skin covering his forearms, as if he’d never really seen himself before.
Marcus’ fingertips drew another line over his chest, brushing against his nipple in the process. Every other bit of skin on Liam’s body was forgotten about as he gasped at the sudden rush of pleasure through his veins.
“Sensitive?” Marcus asked, circling the nipple.
It was impossible to tell if he was teasing or really asking. Liam nodded regardless.
“Good.” Marcus bent his finger a little more, the nail scraped at the bundle of nerve endings.
Liam jerked as a jolt of pure electricity shot down his spine. He was so on edge; every sensation seemed to be magnified a hundredfold. Or maybe it had nothing to do with his nerves and everything to do with the man standing before him. A shiver of anticipation rolled through Liam with the idea.
“Do you remember how good it felt last time I fed from you?” Marcus asked, his fingers still toying with Liam’s nipple.
Somehow Liam managed another nod.
“Even when I’m not trying to feed, I still have teeth—I can still bite, even places where I know there are no veins.”
Liam closed his eyes as possibilities careered wildly through his mind. He opened them again just in time to see the taller man bend down and bring his mouth level with his chest.
Lips caressed, an agile tongue swirled around Liam’s nipple, making the skin tingle. He waited impatiently for the sharp scrape of teeth, but Marcus pulled back.
Liam frowned.
“But just because I can do something, that doesn’t mean I will.”
That statement shouldn’t have sent a rush of pleasure to Liam’s cock, but it did. The sheer confidence Marcus had in his control of the situation made him harden.
“Do you like the idea of knowing that all you can do is tell me if you don’t want me to do something to you—that you want me to stop?” Marcus asked, dipping his head and blowing gently against Liam’s damp nipple, making it peak. “Whenever we’re in this room, everything else is up to me. I’ll be the one to decide if I want to put you in bondage, or if I want to let you come.”
Their eyes met as Marcus straightened up. Liam blinked. “Yes.” The word was barely a whisper, it was also a lie. He didn’t just like knowing that, he loved it.
There were no mistakes to be made now, no decisions to worry about. Liam smiled slightly. Giddy with bliss, he stared down his body and watched as Marcus took away his trousers, his shoes, his socks and last of all his boxers.
The panic he expected to race through him when standing naked and vulnerable before the other man failed to materialize. Liam could never remember being calmer in his life. He couldn’t recall ever feeling so right inside his own skin either.
Marcus threaded his fingers into Liam’s hand and guided him toward the diagonal cross that occupied the far wall of the room. As the other man stepped into the small gap between it and the wall, Liam met his eyes past the upper limbs of the restraint.
“Reach up, hold on to the rings,” Marcus ordered.
Liam somehow pulled his gaze away from him. A large ring did indeed hang from the top of each support, forming inviting hand holds. He wrapped his fingers around them, willingly arranging himself to make it easy for Marcus to tie him in place.
“I want you to keep hold of them. Don’t let go unless you want us to stop. Understand?”
“But, I thought…”
“I fully intend to tie you up in the future, but today—today I want you to know that you’re making a choice, that you’re choosing to stay right where you are just because it feels so good to be there.”
Liam nodded, even if he was pretty sure he’d have been willing to sell his soul for the pleasure of feeling leather wrapped tightly around his wrists. He looked up at the rings again. There were leather cuffs hanging from eye-bolts next to them. It wouldn’t have taken Marcus more than a moment to fasten them in place.
Liam twisted his neck, following the other man’s progress as Marcus walked away. It soon became impossible to track the vampire as Liam’s own hold on the restraints stopped him turning any farther.
“Spread your legs, and line your feet up with the bottom supports,” Marcus ordered.
Liam shuffled his bare soles into position.
“Perfect.”
Strong hands came to rest on Liam’s shoulders and stroked slowly down his back. Pure instinct demanded that Liam arch into the other man’s touch. The mental image of one of the stray kittens at the shelter rushed to the forefront of his mind. Suddenly, he understood how it felt to be that desperate to be petted.
Marcus’ palms slid down farther, until they settled on Liam’s arse. Long fingers kneaded the layers of muscle there, examining his buttocks, parting his cheeks slightly as they played with him.
Liam’s head dropped forward as he closed his eyes, all the better to concentrate on the feel of Marcus’ hands. His cock was so hard, he was sure he could come just from Marcus palming his arse. When Marcus’ touch suddenly disappeared, he was almost ready to cry out in protest.
The skin Marcus had cupped felt cold, until a new warmth covered it. Marcus’ body pressed against Liam’s back from shoulder to thigh. The other man’s clothes prevented Liam from enjoying real skin to skin contact, but at least he could be sure that Marcus was enjoying himself now—his erection pressed firmly against Liam’s arse through his jeans. A wave of relief mingled with the pleasure already bubbling inside his Liam.
Marcus wanted him.
Liam pressed back against the other man, blatantly rubbing his arse against the vampire’s crotch in invitation. Marcus’ fingers slid around his body in response, stroking over Liam’s side as he went, always letting him know exactly where his hands were.
Each movement slow and deliberate, Marcus’ hand caressed its way down to Liam’s cock. His fingers wrapped around the swollen shaft. His thumb rubbed against the head.
Gasping, Liam dropped his head back until it rested on the taller man’s shoulder.
“So much blood pumping through you,” Marcus whispered in his ear. “So much pleasure…”
Liam whimpered. If the other man took some of his blood, he knew that would just make room for more pleasure to dance through his veins.
“I want to make you blush for me.”
Liam frowned slightly, not sure what the other man was asking for, not sure how to best please him—and his need to please his lover was stronger than ever now it came from desire rather than fear.
Marcus wanted him to be embarrassed about something.
Marcus’ hand released Liam’s cock to slide between their bodies and palmed his arse again. It left his skin for a moment, only to come quickly back and tap very gently against his right buttock.
“Spanking,” Liam realized.
“Yes.”
Liam nodded. “Yes,” he echoed.
Marcus dipped his head and kissed his neck. “I’ll know if you lie to me about what you want. Blood doesn’t lie—I don’t want your lips to lie either.”
Liam tilted his head to one side, inviting the vampire to check any time he wanted. Marcus chuckled slightly, but he did nothing more than press another kiss to Liam’s throat before pulling away and separating their bodies.
A shiver ran down Liam’s spine. For the first time since his clothes had been removed, he felt naked, exposed. Marcus’ hand soon came back to caress his arse, but it wasn’t the same as that brief pleasure of full body contact. When Marcus’ palm left him once more, it returned swiftly, tapping lightly against his left buttock this time. Liam twisted his neck, trying to look past his own arm and meet Marcus’ gaze.
Moving back to the right buttock, the vampire’s hand tapped very lightly against him.
>
“You can…”
He trailed off as Marcus’ lips twisted into a very self satisfied little smile. “I can do whatever I want with you?” he suggested. “Yes, I realize that.” He stroked his fingers over the skin he’d just struck. “I’ve given you the right to say stop, because I want you to be able to say it if you need to. As and when I want you to be able to say hurry the hell up and spank me properly, I’ll give you leave to say that too.”
Liam couldn’t help but smile as he bowed his head. He really was Marcus’ now. It wasn’t just a vague mental concept. He felt the truth of it right down in his bones.
Once more, the other man’s slightly cupped hand made contact, but it was no more painful than a polite tap on the shoulder. Closing his eyes, Liam concentrated hard, determined to extract every sensation he could from the mild touch if that was all he’d be allowed.
The taps gradually came quicker, heat slowly building beneath them as they were layered over his skin. Liam instinctively pushed his backside out, looking for more, not yet able to get all that he wanted from it. The other man’s touch was still too mild. Liam needed more from him.
Rising up onto his tip toes, Liam supported himself against the rings as he tried to coax Marcus into offering him what he suddenly wanted more than anything in the world. He needed to hear a slap as flesh met flesh, needed to feel the other man’s touch deep beneath his skin and not just on the surface.
“Please…” It was impossible for Liam to keep the word back.
“Go ahead,” Marcus invited, his voice as cool and calm as ever. “Speak up. Say whatever you want. But remember—there’s only one word that will change anything that happens between us in here. Anything other than a loud clear no is only going to make me enjoy having my own way all the more.”
A noise escaped from the back of Liam’s throat, as close to a growl of frustration as he had ever made, but he couldn’t deny that the reminder went straight to his cock, too.
His complete lack of control coiled and writhed around the intense feeling of safety already firmly knotted inside him, until the two were almost indistinguishable.