Do what I say and keep your mouth shut, boy. Tell anyone and I’ll beat your mother every week for raising such a stupid cunt. I’ll sell your father to an overseas mine. He won’t last more than a couple of years and you’ll never see him again.
Danny had believed every threat and had forced a smile to his lips and acquiescence even though he wanted to cry and flee. Fear still ruled him, only now he’d lost the only power he’d had to protect his parents. Maybe Big John would be safe enough as a slave of the lumberyard. Master Ben made the decisions there as far as Danny could tell. But his mother still worked in the house where the old master could get to her. Danny had to keep the secret, and yet he knew he’d never be able to lie to Paul. The man would see through it or worse, believe Danny lied when he said he wanted Paul’s touch. Either way, he knew Paul wouldn’t beat him for the lie or disobeying. He’d just end the lease. Danny would lose the best thing that had ever happened to him. If that was the price he had to pay to protect his parents, then so be it. He had only himself to blame.
“Almost home,” Paul murmured into the silence.
Closing his eyes, Danny tried to calm down. He opened them again abruptly when the truck stopped moving and the engine kicked off. They were in the garage of Paul’s home. Danny had hoped it would truly become his home, but now those hopes were dashed. Sniffling back the next round of threatening tears, he got out of the truck before Paul came around to his side. Then he silently followed his master inside the house and over to the living room couch.
“Sit,” Paul ordered with more sternness than he’d ever used before with Danny.
Danny obeyed like a good little slave, but he couldn’t bear to look his master in the eye. Instead he stared down at the carpet between his feet, his fingers clutched around the edge of the sofa. Paul didn’t stand over him or even sit beside him. He sat on the coffee table so that he faced Danny, his arms leaning on his thighs, hands dangling in the V of his legs. A few very long seconds ticked by before Paul sighed heavily.
“Okay, Danny, you need to tell me everything. Who hurt you?”
His master’s voice was so gentle, it made Danny want to weep all the more. The man’s obvious concern made this so much harder. Except he’d asked a question Danny could answer fairly honestly. “No one, Master.”
Another heavy sigh. “Don’t lie to me, Danny. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure lying is something slaves are trained not to do.”
“I’m not lying, Master.” He flicked his gaze up so that the man could see his sincerity. “No one hurt me.” That was the God’s honest truth. Although what he’d been forced to do had been uncomfortable and disgusting, it had not hurt. Beatings hurt and he imagined being penetrated without care would hurt a lot. Those things hadn’t been done. He could tell this much of the truth.
Paul held his gaze with narrowed eyes for a beat or two before rolling them. “Jesus, it’s like talking to a lawyer. Let me put it this way—who forced you to do something sexual that you didn’t want to do?”
Danny tried to avert his gaze. He couldn’t. Paul held him in place without so much as lifting a finger. The compassion of the man showed clearly through his eyes, as did encouragement. Danny wanted to tell him, he really did. He opened his mouth and nothing came out. Fear held the words back. Paul lifted a hand and cupped Danny’s face, tracing his thumb gently across Danny’s lower lip.
“Please trust me with the truth. I promise I’ll protect you from whoever it was. I won’t let them touch you again.”
Danny let his eyelids droop and he turned into Paul’s palm. Oh, God, he wanted to do as Paul asked, to trust him. But it wasn’t Danny who needed protection. “It’s not me I’m worried about.” The words popped out of his mouth in almost a whisper before he could bite them back. His eyes flew open, and he sat up straighter with alarm.
Paul moved his hand away from Danny’s face in order to clasp both of their hands together. “Whatever you tell me stays between us. I promise I won’t tell anyone else. You can trust me with the secret.”
Trust. That word kept looping around and at the end of the day, it was what Danny had to do. Trust Paul and trust his own judgment that Paul would keep his word. Who was he fooling anyway, keeping his mouth shut, hiding information demanded of him by a freeman? Having been born and raised a slave, Danny had never had any illusions about control over his life. He’d accepted his role of servitude because he’d been told to by his parents and because he had no choice. This was his life and no amount of effort on his part would change that fact. Here he sat, his master’s stare drilling a hole into his head, being told to obey. He had no choice and pretending otherwise would only lead to trouble.
With a few deep breaths to steady his nerves, Danny told his story in halting words. He couldn’t look at Paul while he did, so he fixed his gaze on the floor once more.
“It started back when the mistress got sick.”
“Mrs. Tanner?”
Danny nodded. “She got chemo. I don’t know what that is exactly, but it made her even sicker.” He took another deep breath and let it out again on a rush. “I asked my mom why that was and she just said sometimes medicine has to make you sicker before it can make you better. I thought that made no sense, especially because the mistress didn’t get better. She got worse and worse and then she died. Everyone felt sad. She’d been pretty nice to all of us.”
“She wasn’t the one who forced you then?”
Danny shook his head, surprised at the idea. “No. She would never have done anything like that to me.” He swallowed past a sudden lump in his throat. “It was.” He shuddered. Trying to get the words out after having buried them down deep for so long was almost physically painful.
Paul squeezed his hands. “It’s okay. You can tell me.”
“The old master. He loved her, you know? Everyone knew that and felt just as bad for him having to watch his wife die. We understood when he got angry over small things, and we really did try extra hard to make things as smooth for him as possible.
“Anyway, one night after the mistress came home from her treatment and was sick up in her room, the master called me into his den. My mom was helping with the mistress, so I figured he wanted me to get him something from the kitchen.” A tear escaped and he hunched a shoulder up to wipe it away.
“He didn’t want food. He sat on his couch, drinking and he made me….” Danny took one more deep breath and pushed the rest out. “Suck his cock.”
He couldn’t manage to say any more right at that moment. Desperate to see the effect his story had on Paul, yet afraid to see it too, he glanced up and away. The look on Paul’s face was fierce and a bit scary. The fingers holding his squeezed convulsively.
“How old were you?” Paul demanded in a voice harsh enough to make Danny flinch.
“F-fifteen, Master.”
A few seconds ticked by. “Was it just the one time?”
“No, sir. It happened a couple of times a week for a few months. Then the mistress got really sick and the master spent every second by her side. I got sent to the lumberyard when I turned sixteen anyway.”
Dropping Danny’s hands, Paul jumped up and paced away. He worked the back of his neck with one palm as he walked in circles around the room. He reminded Danny of a tiger he’d seen on television roaming around its small cage. Tension radiated off the man and for a moment, Danny worried that his master blamed him for what had happened. Maybe he thought Danny was contaminated in some way.
“I’m sorry, Master.”
Paul whirled to face Danny and pointed a finger. “You don’t say that! You don’t apologize. You did nothing wrong.” He ran fingers through his hair, making the strands stick up. “That fucker! That God-damned, son-of-a-bitching asshole! That mother-fucking prick!” The hyphenated colorful language continued to spew out in ever inventive ways.
Danny tossed himself back against the couch, not sure what to do or how to respond. His master had certainly expanded Danny’s knowledge of ho
w swear words could be put together. Not even the guys at the lumberyard said things like this.
The man stopped suddenly with his hands on his hips. “He threatened your parents if you said anything about this to anyone, didn’t he?”
Not trusting his voice anymore, Danny nodded.
“And you’re worried that if he learns you told me, he’ll follow through on his threat?”
Again, Danny nodded. “Especially my mom. He can do anything he likes to her.” This time when the tears came, he let them fall. He hadn’t spent much time in the punishment room, but the idea of his mother strapped naked to that awful pole, being beaten bloody made him want to scream.
Paul suddenly slid onto the couch. He gathered Danny up in his arms and buried him in a tight hug. “Shh, it’s okay, baby. I won’t let that happen. He’ll never know that you told me. I promise.”
They stayed that way, wrapped together, Paul rocking Danny slowly and murmuring the occasional comforting word. In the face of such obvious affection and concern, the tension within Danny couldn’t help but ease. He felt lighter somehow now that he’d let the terrible secret out to Paul. Blurting it all out to Oliver the previous summer hadn’t had the same effect. Perhaps it had something to do with Paul being his master, someone who could actually help him. He certainly had no doubt that Paul would keep his promise and not confront Master Tanner. Maybe now Danny could really just forget the whole thing.
Paul kissed the top of Danny’s head and pulled back to look at him. “Are you okay?”
Danny sniffed one more time and nodded. “Yes, Master.”
Paul shook his head, a frown marring his face. “I really wish you’d go back to calling me Paul. When you call me Master, it makes me think you’re afraid of me.”
“I’m not,” Danny quickly assured him. “I think of you as Paul in my head, mostly. I promise I’ll try to do better.” He paused and licked his lips. “It’s just weird. In a good way,” he added. “Different than what I’m used to. Lots of things are different with you. Paul.” He gave the man a tentative smile, hoping he’d made some progress in trying to fix the emotional mess he’d created.
Paul sighed and pushed even farther away. The movement made Danny nervous. He might have been hasty in thinking things had eased between them. The funny thing was, Paul looked a little nervous, too. His gaze slithered around the room before landing on Danny once more.
“Look, Danny, I’m sorry. We probably should have had this talk right from the beginning. I’ve already told you how when I saw you at Tanner’s, I decided I had to have you.” Danny nodded encouragingly because now that he wasn’t worried about his parents being hurt, the idea that Paul had wanted him that badly for so long gave him a hot kind of tingly feeling.
“Yeah, so I had this crazy idea that I could buy you, then after talking to Ben, lease you. But we could actually live together as if we were boyfriends, or something. I didn’t think of you as being a slave so much as being this hot guy living with me.” He barked out a laugh that didn’t sound very happy. “I’ve been trying to take you out on dates, for God’s sake.”
Danny gave him a shy smile, thinking of the things they’d done together. “I didn’t know to call them that, but I had an awesome time. I love going out with you. Paul.” He really needed to get more comfortable with using Paul’s first name. It wasn’t much for the man to ask and Danny did want to make him happy.
Paul returned the smile. “Yeah? That’s good. Really good. I just don’t know if it’s realistic to expect you to feel like you have a choice in anything with me. Because you do, you know? If I want to have sex and you don’t, it’s okay for you to say no. I should have made that clear from the start, and I’m sorry that I didn’t.”
Danny raised his eyebrows. “Why wouldn’t I want to have sex? I pretty much want to have it all the time. It’s been torture living in the barracks. I sleep above my father, so jerking off has to be done really quietly when I can muster up the courage. It’s really tough when I can hear other guys doing it in the room or doing each other.”
He paused, remembering the sounds of men panting and groaning once the lights went out. His dick hardened. “Being with you is the best thing ever because we can do it anytime we want. I love being with you, Paul.”
Paul stared back at him, his gaze piercing Danny as if trying to see inside his head. Finally, Paul said, “You know what? I believe you.” Danny sighed with relief. “But.” Uh, oh. “If this thing with us is to become more of a relationship, then we need to make some changes.”
“Whatever you say.”
“No, see, that’s one of the changes. I expect you to stop and think about what I’m asking you to do. If you don’t like something, I have to trust that you’ll speak up. Understand?”
“Yes, Master. Paul,” he amended quickly. Trust, apparently, could be a two-way street.
Paul frowned at him. “We’re both going to have to work at this. I’m going to have to try to remember to ask, not tell. And then there’s this.” Paul reached over and slid his hands around to the back of Danny’s collar. “When we’re in this house, this comes off.”
With a quiet snick, Paul pulled the collar away from Danny’s neck. For the first time since he’d needed to be fitted for a bigger collar years ago, the skin around the base of his neck was naked. Danny lifted a hand tentatively to stroke the area so long hidden.
Paul tossed the collar onto the coffee table. “I hate this piece of shit. It’s like plastic or something and stiff. They could at least give you a soft leather one.”
Danny couldn’t hold back his grin. Sometimes his master’s lack of experience with slaves made him say funny things. “We have to wear it all the time, even when we shower. It needs to be washable and dry quickly. Otherwise it would really irritate my skin.”
Paul hmphed at that point. “Yeah, well, I don’t like it. I want it off when we’re home. Okay?”
Danny recognized a test when given one. Paul wanted Danny to think about whether he was comfortable taking off his collar in this house. In all honesty, he wasn’t sure how it would feel. Already, his neck itched as if missing the collar, and Danny had a sudden urge to grab it back and snap it on. Slaves learned from birth that you never take your collar off. Never. He raised one hand to touch the back of his neck. He couldn’t feel it and had never seen it, but he knew he touched a small tattoo that marked him more permanently than any collar as a slave. He could even remember being held down at the age of five by his father as the tattoo had been carved into his skin. He also remembered the grape lollipop the government official had handed him with a smile and quick petting of Danny’s head for being such a brave boy. The memory made him realize it was like the master giving him ice cream after the blowjobs, like a treat would make everything all better.
“It feels strange,” he said tentatively. “It’s not that I like having to wear a collar, it’s just I’ve never been without one. It will take some getting use to. I’ll try. Please help me put it back on when we leave the house, though. I don’t want to get into trouble for having it off.”
Paul’s wide grin told Danny his answer had pleased the man. “Don’t worry, baby. I won’t let that happen.”
Paul then leaned over and placing his hands on either side of Danny, pressed his lips lightly against Danny’s Adam’s apple. Danny tilted his head back to expose his neck for more attention. His erection hadn’t flagged and he hoped the day could end on a better note than could be expected given the last hour. Paul got the hint and indulged Danny by placing a series of quick kisses across the area the collar had covered. A moan escaped Danny’s mouth which had the effect of encouraging Paul’s attentions. The man quickly trailed his kisses up to Danny’s jaw. He took his time, but eventually he landed where Danny wanted him to all along. Danny shifted his head back down to greet Paul with a kiss that deepened into a wrestling of their tongues within seconds.
Now they both moaned and sighed and grappled to get closer. Danny somehow
found himself enveloped in Paul’s arms and half sitting on his lap by the time they came up for air. A hard length of cock pressed against Danny’s thigh, so he shifted to give it a rub. Paul gasped and pushed Danny just far enough away that Danny could no longer do it. Danny frowned and fluttered open his heavy eyelids. His gaze latched onto Paul’s shiny lips before lunging forward to claim them. He’d barely made contact when Paul again pushed him away, this time placing Danny on the couch beside him.
Danny opened his eyes up wide. “Did I do something wrong?”
Paul cupped Danny’s head with his warm, calloused palms and shook his head. “No, baby. I just want to make sure this is what you really want. It’s been a long weekend and an emotional day. I don’t want you doing this because you think you need to please me.”
Danny bit back a grunt of frustration. As much as he loved how Paul wanted to give Danny rights and freedoms he’d never dreamed of, at this moment those ideals were a pain in the ass. Instead of trying to convince Paul how much he wanted to have sex, he simply reached up and clasped one of Paul’s hands. He forced the hand down to his lap and ground it against his hard dick. The pressure was so delicious, he opened his mouth and groaned long and loud. Paul’s sharp intake of breath gratified Danny enormously.
“Can you feel how much I want you?” he asked in a breathless voice.
“Oh, yeah,” Paul replied in a strangled voice. “Let’s have our own little party in bed.”
Danny all but skipped beside Paul as the man led him down to the bedroom. He didn’t have to do much to undress because Paul did most of the work for him. He had them both stripped within seconds and tumbling down onto the bed. Danny found himself on his back, legs spread wide and with Paul kneeling between them. Danny stretched out his left arm to reach for the lube on the nightstand. He held it out to Paul, who took it. Instead of uncapping it and greasing up Danny’s hole, however, the man tossed it down beside him. Danny didn’t have time to ponder why because all thought fled as Paul sucked Danny’s cock into his mouth.
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