“The blindfold didn’t scare you?”
“Not really. Not once I figured out why you did it,” Nick answered.
“Why did I do it?”
“So that I would feel, not think,” Nick said. He admitted, “It was also kind of hot not knowing what you were going to do next.”
Damian chuckled and the vibration was comforting to Nick. “Did you like it when I finger-fucked you?”
“Is that what it was? I didn’t think I would, but I did,” Nick said honestly. He was beginning to see what Damian was up to with all these questions. “It did feel good.”
“And the spanking? I swatted you harder than the first time, and longer, but you seemed to enjoy it.”
Nick hid his face in the crook of Damian’s neck. “Yes,” came his muffled reply.
“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Nick,” Damian said, stroking his back. “What disturbed you earlier in the day?”
“I guess it wasn’t so much Markie taking the clamp off in front of everyone; it was my reaction. I was so close. I didn’t want them to know how much I enjoyed it,” Nick said, struggling to put his feelings into words. “Ashley doesn’t know… know that you’re spanking me, does he?”
“He knows something is going on between us, but not the specifics,” Damian answered, wondering what the right answer was. His boy started to tremble in his arms.
“How? How does he know?” Nick whispered fearfully.
“Babe,” Damian raised Nick’s face with a finger under his chin. “Ashley is a player. He knows I’m a player and a Dom. There’s no way I’d let a boy like you Top me; therefore he knows you’re a bottom. He doesn’t know exactly what we’re doing, but he asked if I was claiming you. He’s afraid you might go elsewhere and get hurt.”
This was all a bit too much information for Nick to process, so he seized on the most important part. “And… and are you claiming me?”
“I already did. Whenever we’re in a scene, you belong to me and you do as I say,” Damian said, his voice dropping into the husky drawl that haunted Nick’s dreams.
He felt a little disappointed that Damian was only claiming him during scenes, but he wasn’t sure that he really wanted more himself. Did he want to belong to Damian all the time? And what would that mean for the rest of his life?
Damian instinctively knew that something was going on in that busy brain, but he just held Nick on his lap and stroked his back.
“What else are you going to do to me?” Nick asked hesitantly.
“If I told you, I couldn’t surprise you, now could I?” Damian laughed.
“Is what we’re doing… gay?”
Damian frowned. “Is that a problem? I’m giving you pleasure, you’re giving me pleasure. Do you want a woman doing any of this to you?”
“No, oh no!” Nick said earnestly, shuddering at the thought of the attractive women who played dominatrixes during the shoot doing… anything to him. “I was just wondering—”
“Does it scare you to suspect that you’re gay?”
Nick nodded and then shook his head. “Yes. No. I don’t know.”
“If you find women attractive also, you’re probably bi. I’m gay,” Damian said. “I only want to fuck beautiful boys like you,” he added, cuddling him. Nick stiffened in his arms.
“You’re… you’re going to fuck me? You’ll never fit!” he exclaimed fearfully.
Damian pushed Nick off his lap and pointed at the floor. Nick scrambled to kneel, gripping his hands behind him. He hadn’t pissed Damian off, had he? The thought of losing all this when he’d only started exploring this side of himself scared him.
“I will do whatever I want to you. I don’t have to discuss it. I will decide what will please me and then you’ll do it. Is that clear?”
Nick nodded, swallowing convulsively.
“Will you submit to me?”
“Yes, sir,” came the soft answer.
“Am I frightening you, Nicholas?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” Damian relaxed, taking in the deliciously submissive lines of the body drooping in front of him. “Do you trust me?”
Without needing time to think, the answer spilled out of his mouth, surprising even Nick. “Yes, sir.”
Damian stood up and stretched, his mouth gaping open in a yawn. “We’re shooting tomorrow, even though it’s Saturday. Are you busy or can you come?” He smirked at the double meaning.
“I’ll be here, sir,” Nick said, his soft voice hopeful.
“Be here at nine. Don’t be late. All right. Get off home and have a good night’s rest.”
Nick stood up, his head awhirl.
On the tube he crossed his legs as he stood, hanging onto the strap, trying to keep his unruly dick under control. There was just too much to think about. Ashley was worried about him getting hurt, even though he was doing things that did hurt. He had sucked a man’s cock for the first time, on his knees. He’d been spanked and had fingers up his arsehole, fucking him while Damian had jacked him off. He’d worn a collar briefly and had clamps attached to his nipples.
And Damian was planning to fuck him! And he’d agreed to it! What was going on with him? The only thing he was sure of was that he was more aroused and yet more satisfied than he’d ever been in his life, now that he’d given himself to this man.
He wondered what the next day would bring.
Chapter 7
“I DON’T think so, dude,” Derek said, shaking his head. “It looks ridiculous on you.”
Nick popped his head into the bathroom and giggled at his reflection in the mirror. The collar he was wearing looked as if it was designed to restrain a ferocious Rottweiler, not him; it was thick and sturdy, studded with silver spikes, ridiculous around his slender throat.
“Let me see,” Ashley called out, while he adjusted another around Markie’s neck.
Nick turned around and Ashley laughed. “No, that one’s not for you, lad. Take it off him, Derek.”
Derek went to unbuckle the collar. “Ashley had some other ones made, lighter ones. He said they were for you. Know where they are?”
“I think Damian has them,” Nick murmured, his face flushing. He didn’t meet Derek’s eyes.
“So, are you two dating?” Derek asked bluntly.
Nick blushed harder but he looked Derek in the eye and asked, “Are you dating Ashley?”
“Nope,” Derek answered cheerfully. He tossed the collar into the box with the others. “We did for a while, but he’s into all this S&M crap and it scares me like fuck.”
“Really? Did he insist on using it on you?” Nick asked, surprised. Somehow Ashley’s sense of humor was such that he couldn’t see him acting quite the way Damian did. Even today, he was a little uncertain around the photographer. Remembering their encounter the night before, with him bent over naked getting his arse spanked and then sucking Damian’s cock, made him feel bashful while still sending shivers of delight through him when he thought about it.
“No, not at all. When he told me he was into all this, I kind of… lost it and screamed at him and dumped him,” Derek mumbled shame-facedly.
“You mean you didn’t even try it?” Nick asked, wondering if he was just extremely weird for agreeing to all that Damian had done to him so far.
“No! Why should I?” Derek asked defensively.
“You won’t know if you like something until you try it,” Nick pointed out. “I thought you were more adventurous than that. You sure talk a good game.”
It was Derek’s turn to flush. “Well, maybe I’m not. Are you telling me you’ve tried this?”
“I’m not telling you anything, but if I really liked a guy, I think I might give him the benefit of the doubt,” Nick said. He watched as Derek’s eyes followed Ashley, who was joking with Markie, leading him to the set on a leash. “He must have thought that you didn’t trust him.”
“Shit,” Derek said. “I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. I just freaked.”
Derek sighed. “Enjoying! Besides, it’s too late now, anyway. He’s all over that blond bloke.”
“If you really want him, if you… love him,” Nick said hesitantly, “maybe you should talk to him.”
“I was kind of hanging around you, hoping he’d get jealous,” Derek said with a laugh. “You’re fuckin’ gorgeous and if he thought I could get you, then maybe he’d… he’d be interested in me again.”
Nick smiled. “Not going to work, Derek. I think he knows about me and Damian.”
Derek’s eyes flew to meet Nick’s and he chortled triumphantly. “So you are dating him!”
Nick glanced at Damian uneasily and the photographer looked up at him at that moment, smiling warmly. “Yeah, I guess I am,” he muttered.
“Cool!”
DEREK NUDGED Nick in the ribs as they stood behind the lights, watching Damian as he set up the next shot. “Dude, have you noticed that you’re never in a shot with any of the girls?”
Nick had noticed it and wondered uneasily if Damian thought he couldn’t hold his own with the beautiful girls, but he wasn’t about to explore that thought with Derek. “Nah, no big deal.”
“Ashley said this shot might end up on the cover,” Derek said, nodding toward the sensuous tableaux.
The way Damian had lit the models twined together, Nick could not actually see what they were doing, but the tangle of masculine and feminine, the golden gleam of light on bare skin shining with droplets of sweat, the hint of restraints and whips, muscles tensed with power or soft in surrender, left plenty to the imagination. He longed to be a part of what he was witnessing, even though the ephemeral emotion created by the glimpses of bodies was just an illusion, nothing real, nothing solid.
Yet it felt real to him. It called to him like a siren of yore as the flash of Damian’s light froze the continuously moving mass of silken flesh into slivers of time, one moment after another.
And then it was over.
“All right. You can take a break now,” Damian called out.
The models giggled and joked as they unwound themselves from each other and became ordinary people again, instead of seductive gods and demons with the power to entice Nick out from his safe position behind the lights.
He looked over at Derek to find that he had been likewise affected by the scene. Derek’s mouth was open and he looked rather gobsmacked as he stared. He swallowed and turned his head toward Nick slowly, as if just coming awake. “Dude, that was… something else.”
“Yeah,” Nick agreed. “Something else.” He couldn’t remember ever feeling jealous when any of his past girlfriends had mentioned other guys to him, but he felt it now as he watched the Bettie Paige girl flirt her way over to Damian, chatting with him and laughing, her eyes wide and innocent. Damian seemed to find her amusing, looking down at her and speaking with animation, gesturing with both arms.
Nick turned away abruptly; he had no right to object to Damian doing whatever he liked. He went into the little kitchen, trying to find some task to distract himself. There were several used mugs left sitting in the sink and Nick began to run hot water so he could wash them.
“Well, well, so you’re the little elf that keeps this place clean,” the Bettie Paige girl said, standing in the doorway with both hands on her hips, clutching a crop in one of them. “Or should I say fairy?”
“I work here,” Nick said, feeling inane and ineffective.
The girl strolled toward him, her sleek hips rolling lusciously in her tight leather outfit. As she drew closer Nick could see it wasn’t trousers after all; she was wearing a bustier with boots that reached to her thigh, with heels so high and pointy that her slow deliberate walk was more of necessity than for effect. “With your looks, I thought you were a model.”
“I model part time,” Nick muttered. Her perfume seemed to take him into a conspiracy of closeness with her and he wrinkled his nose with distaste.
“So are you a homo like all those other pretty boys?” she inquired impertinently. “Or are you only a queer part time as well?” She raised the crop and tickled his chin with it.
Nick lifted his chin to disengage from the crop. “None of your business.”
“What if I make it my business?” she said with a slow smile. “I like to play and you might learn something. Even if you are gay.”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Nick said, scowling at her and crossing his arms defiantly.
“You can’t say no to me. How can you resist me when I’m dressed like this? I give the orders, you follow them.” The girl raised the crop playfully, as if to give him a swat.
Nick stepped forward and grabbed the crop, staring down into her eyes, for even with her six-inch heels, he was still the taller. The tone of command that in Damian’s throaty voice melted him into submission had no effect coming from this girl. They froze in place for a moment, struggling for possession.
“Rawrrrr,” Gabe purred from the doorway.
Mistress Bettie looked up, startled, and let go of the crop, which sent Nick staggering back a step, but in triumphant possession of what had almost become a weapon between them.
“Look at your bad self, bebe, disarming the big, bad dominatrix.”
The girl giggled and Nick suddenly saw the humor in the situation, his lips starting to twitch. “Yeah, that’s me, brave as a lion.”
Mistress Bettie put her hand out. “May I have my whip back? Pretty please?”
Ashley and Damian came up behind Gabe, crowding the doorway, and Nick felt a little foolish to be caught this way. Ashley smirked when he took in the scene, but Damian’s eyes lit up with creative fervor.
“Technically that’s a crop, but hold that thought. Gabe, get Nick ready, would you?” Damian directed. He didn’t enjoy watching Nick laughing with Mistress Bettie, but he was torn; once he’d seen them struggling for possession of the crop, he had to capture the dynamic image. He would deal with his own feelings later.
“Pretty please with a cherry on top?” Bettie pouted prettily at Nick.
“I don’t know. I might feel better hanging onto this myself.” Nick grinned. “I might need protection.”
“We’re waiting for you for the next shot, Bettie,” Ashley said deliberately.
Bettie pouted prettily for the two men. “Nick and I were just getting acquainted. Where have you been hiding him? He’s a very cute boy and I haven’t noticed him in any shots.”
“With you?” Ashley laughed.
“Yes, with me. We’re the best two models you’ve got. I think we belong together.” Bettie gave Nick a sidelong, appraising look, as if she was still trying to figure out his sexuality.
“That can be arranged,” Ashley agreed silkily. He seemed amused, glancing between Nick’s face to Bettie’s flirtatious one. “It could be very interesting.”
“Nicky sweetie, come give mama some sugar,” Gabe said, grabbing Nick’s wrist and dragging him bodily into the makeup room. “Sorry, bebe, it took me a minute to get in there. What was that bitch saying to you?”
Nick stared at him in disbelief. “What are you? The cavalry, coming to the rescue?” He giggled at the image of Gabe, who was wearing a purple silk poet shirt with ruffles today, prancing about in the role of hero, even though he was touched by the other man’s concern. He’d no idea that Gabe felt anything toward him other than a desire to taunt him until he blushed and ran.
“Why did you let her get to you like that?” Gabe asked, serious for once.
Nick couldn’t bring himself to confide in Gabe that he didn’t like watching her flirt with Damian. “I don’t know; she just got to me.”
“She calls herself Mis
tress Bettie but don’t get misled by the window dressing,” Gabe said, starting to powder Nick’s face. “Where’s that eyeliner?”
“I don’t wear eyeliner.” Nick spoke absently, his mind consumed with the new information. “I just assumed that she—”
“You will for this shot, honey.” Gabe pulled the skin taut near Nick’s right eye with his thumb and started smudging the liner into the lash line. “Just because she wears that fetching leather bustier and those killer heels doesn’t mean a thing. She’s a wannabe.”
“How well does Damian know her?” Nick could have bitten off his tongue at how that came out. Jealous didn’t even begin to describe it. He found his fists clenching around the forgotten crop.
“He doesn’t have to know her; he knows how to read people.” Gabe smiled as Nick writhed uncomfortably, remembering how well Damian had read him. “It comes with the territory.”
“Are you into this S&M thing too?” Nick asked before he could stop himself.
Gabe smiled secretively. “Maybe it’s better that you not know.”
“Maybe,” Nick muttered. He suddenly remembered that if Gabe answered his question, perhaps the stylist might be asking the same thing of him. And Nick was quite sure he was not ready to share.
WHEN NICK came out to the set, Mistress Bettie’s face was prettily flushed as she flirted outrageously with Ashley, who was being most courtly with her, considering his lack of interest in the fairer sex.
Damian took in a quick breath when he saw Nick, his eyes dark and mysterious ringed with the black liner. Nick was still a bit uncertain about being hauled out here to be in a shot with Mistress Bettie. He wasn’t afraid of her; she wielded none of the erotic power over him that Damian did. But that didn’t mean he had to like her ragging at him or having to pose with her.
“Come over here, pretty boy, and get on your knees,” Bettie called enticingly to Nick.
Nick opened his mouth to retort but Damian forestalled him. “If anything, I might put you on your knees to him.”
Dreamspinner Press Year Three Greatest Hits Page 10