Her kisses trailed from his ear to his neck, downward, distracting him from the clamps and the jab-jab-jab of the needle. Various levels of pain buzzed through his body, offset by the pleasure of Min’s mouth on his skin and Severin’s hand on his thigh. Helpless, he just wished someone would take off the clamps or touch him, or both – preferably in that order. Minnow’s mouth inched downward, tongue licking just above the head of his cock. He tried to raise his hips again, to thrust toward her mouth.
“What do you think you’re doing, Miss Korsgaard?”
“Helping?” she said in a small voice, her hand inching toward Rodrigo’s cock.
“No touching that cock.”
Poke, poke, poke.
“You can’t call me Miss Korsgaard anymore. Remember? My identification all says Minnow Solis-Leduc now. And it’s Missus, not Miss.”
Fuck. Was he jabbing harder? Maybe at an angle?
“Yes, you’re a fancy lady now, with your fancy names. I think we need to have a little talk about you correcting your master when I’m done here.”
“No, Mister Leduc! You can call me anything you’d like, of course.”
“Of course.”
“Min, if you piss him off he’s going to maim me.”
“Sorry, Mr. Solis.” Her hair brushed across Rodrigo’s stomach and she flicked her tongue over the head of his cock.
He arched, swearing, and the poking stopped.
“Wife,” Severin growled. “You do realize that sometime very soon you’ll push that baby out and we’ll go back to punishing you properly.”
Rodrigo sighed. “We’ll just end up impregnating her again. She’s figured out the perpetual get out of punishment free card.”
“Maybe you’ll take punishments on her behalf next time, since you seem keen on keeping her out of commission.”
“We could switch to condoms,” Minnow pointed out helpfully.
One of the clamps was unceremoniously ripped off of Rodrigo’s nipple. He yelped, and then swore creatively as blood came rushing back to the area. When he’d calmed down enough to speak, he said, “Nope. I didn’t like that. Not one little bit.”
Severin laughed and jostled the other clamped nipple, opening and closing the clamp a few times before yanking it off when it was closed tight.
He might have yelled.
When the ringing in his ears stopped, Minnow was patting him and making soothing noises. “Poor Mr. Solis. Why are you being so mean to him, Master? He’s been gone for days!”
“You’re too nice to him. When we put you through this stuff, all he does is gloat and jack off.”
“I know. It’s so fucking hot. What are you tattooing on him?”
“You can’t tell?”
“It looks like a dick.”
“Give the girl a cookie.”
Rodrigo realized what they’d said just as he stopped musing about how much it would hurt when Severin took off the last clamp. “You’re tattooing a dick on my thigh?” He should have been concerned, but found it funny.
The clamp on his balls got yanked off. There was a long moment where he thought maybe it hadn’t hurt, but instead it took a few moments for his brain to process the sensation. His mouth opened but nothing came out.
There was a high sound, and Rodrigo hoped like hell that it was the dogs and not him making that noise.
A haze settled over him, and he was vaguely aware of his balls being touched gently. His body raged with need and pain, and his thigh itched and burned. He couldn’t see, and for long moments he forgot he was blindfolded. They were kissing him, stroking him. Their hands and mouths were everywhere. When they did this to Min, she always swore later that it seemed like more than two people, and now he understood. His senses were overwhelmed. One of his balls was sucked into a hot mouth, taking abused skin in with it. The pleasure/pain was so intense his mind kept blanking. Soon, he forgot where he was, who was tormenting him, and all he could do was yank against his bonds and beg for release.
A mouth closed over his cock, sucking sweetly, and he wanted to grab whoever it was and jam his cock down their throat. There was a cry of pleasure, muffled around him.
Girl.
Sev must be fucking her from behind.
Her teeth grazed him as she struggled to suck him while she was being shoved against him again and again. Her hair was pooled on his chest, and tickled his still aching nipples, and her mouth – so fucking good. He came, unable to hold off any longer, feeling like a month’s worth of come surged out of his balls into her mouth. She coughed, dripping come and spit back down the length of him. She sobbed with pleasure, trying to keep going through her own orgasm. Severin bellowed his release.
Minnow’s face was pressed against his stomach. She panted, her breaths cooling the sweat on his chest. Then Severin’s mouth was on his, whiskers catching on Rodrigo’s stubble, lips and tongue reminding him who owned them both.
“I missed you, puppy.” The words rumbled from deep in Severin’s chest. He tugged the blindfold off his eyes, and although the fabric caught in his hair, seeing the truth of the words in Severin’s gaze made the moment feel frozen. Warmth in the depths of Severin’s commonly frigid eyes. Affection. Relief, as though being apart had been hard on him too.
“I missed you too, Master.”
Minnow kissed Rodrigo’s navel, then pressed her forehead against him, shuddering. “I should go back to bed, but I need to clean up first. What a mess.”
Severin laughed and untied Rodrigo’s wrists and arms. He sluiced his new tattoo with whatever was in the bottle. The tattoo wasn’t of a dick at all. It was Severin’s maker’s mark – the same one he put on the bikes he made and the same one they’d branded on Minnow. He hadn’t done a bad job of it, but then, he was an artist, even if he usually worked in another medium.
“You okay?” he asked Rodrigo as he wrapped his tattoo.
“Better than.” He leaned close to Severin’s hair as he worked, and inhaled. Right then, their Master smelled mostly of come and sweat.
The dogs scratched anxiously at the door, whining as if they hadn’t been fed in days.
“Hang on, boys,” Severin called.
“Wow. Clean up in aisle twelve.” Minnow said, sounding bewildered. “Were you saving up or something? It’s like Niagara fucking Falls.” She laughed. “I’m going to have a bitch of a time cleaning this much come out of the rug...”
Rodrigo glanced at her sharply, sliding off the desk just as Severin’s head came up in alarm.
Severin pushed Rodrigo aside just as he reached her, and swept her up into his arms.
“What are you doing, Mister Leduc? Put me down! You’re just going to make more of a mess if you don’t let me take care of some of this before you move me.”
“No.”
Rodrigo tried to stay calm as he opened the door and settled the dogs. Severin moved past them, down the hall, then started up the stairs with her.
“I’m perfectly capable of getting myself to a bathroom.”
He followed them, the dogs trotting anxiously at his heels.
“We’re cleaning you up, then we’re getting in a car and going for a drive,” Severin said. He’d switched to the voice he used when the dogs got skittish.
“What are you talking about?” Minnow grumbled. “Where are we going? It’s three in the morning! I want our bed.”
“Call,” Severin ordered.
Rodrigo turned and bounded back down the stairs, trying to figure out where the hell his cell phone might have ended up.
Chapter Sixteen
Minnow’s hair was tangled and draped across the pillow, but for the first time since Severin had met her it wasn’t sexy. It made him antsy. He wanted to fix it – to braid it for her – but he was too afraid to go near the bed.
She was small and helpless and in pain. Not the fun kind of pain either. Strangers kept touching her and he wasn’t allowed to growl at them. He clenched and unclenched his fists, trying not to pace. Trying to look calm.
He hadn’t signed on for this ride, and he wanted off.
Anger and despair welled up over and over, but they kept smiling at him like this was a good thing.
She was going to die. He knew it.
He wanted to vomit.
He wanted to smash every machine they intermittently hooked her up to and kill everyone who touched her without his permission.
The beeping was enraging him, and the whooshing. Why did the whooshing sound keep changing? Sometimes it stopped and his heart stopped with it, but Min would move the sensor and it would start again.
If she died, his life would be over.
It was hard to breathe. His heart felt like it was going to pop, and he was going to bleed out.
Unlike him, Rodrigo was helping her through the pain – sitting beside the bed, holding her hand, talking quietly. They’d told him he could wait in the waiting room, but it was full of people, and he was afraid if he left someone would do the wrong thing and she’d die. He had to stay to oversee her care, or at least stay to glare at people so they knew he’d snap their necks if they fucked up.
It had been easier when she’d been allowed to walk around. He could pretend she was fine. But now the doctor had said her blood pressure was high and she had to stay put. Was he making her blood pressure high? Making her worry?
He smiled at her and she grimaced at him.
“Maybe you should take a break, Mister Leduc,” she said, voice tight with discomfort. “You look like you could use a walk.”
“No. I have to be here.”
The doctor had said everything was fine, but she’d sounded as if she was lying through her teeth. And she kept leaving. That didn’t seem safe. Minnow could die if the doctor wasn’t monitoring things. What if the beeping was all wrong and they didn’t know it? No one had told them what to listen for. Or what if the baby came when she was out of the room? He didn’t know anything about delivering a baby.
This time the nurse had left too. Five centimeters sounded like a lot. They shouldn’t be wandering off.
“It’s hard for you, feeling like you can’t fix this,” Minnow said.
He froze. Nodded.
“You’re afraid, and it’s making you angry.”
God, had she been talking to his damned therapist? He didn’t dignify her comment with a reply.
“Women have babies all the time, with much less support,” Rodrigo reminded him. “We’re just here as a precaution. Minnow could have had the baby at home with a midwife, but you decided it was too far from the hospital, remember?”
They’d wanted to do this at Rodrigo’s house, but it was a fifteen-minute drive from the hospital, and if there was traffic...
He’d read the statistics about women dying in childbirth. Why would anyone choose to take this kind of risk with their woman?
And they were forgetting. He fell in love with Minnow and lost Sutton. He didn’t get extra people. When this baby came, he’d lose someone, and he was terrified it would be someone he couldn’t live without. But hey, no one had asked him. Now he just got to live with the fallout. Some kid he’d never asked for was a threat to everything that made his life worthwhile. The kid was going to be just as messed up as him and Loïc. Endangering someone as perfect as Minnow to bring a flawed child into the world was a ridiculous risk.
“Come here,” Minnow said, holding out a hand to him.
“I’m fine here.”
“If you’re staying in the room, I would like you over here please, Mister Leduc.”
He stalked over, hovering near the bed but not touching her outstretched hand.
“If you die, wife, I’m burning all of your shit.”
She gave a half-hearted laugh, and her eyes shone with tears. “You love me enough to do that?”
“I’ll burn down the whole goddamned house.”
“No.”
“With me in it.”
“No. Bad,” she growled, eyes narrowed. If only she’d talk to her silly dogs that sternly once in a while. “You’d have to live so you could help Rodrigo take care of the baby.” She dropped her hand, apparently giving up on him taking it.
He shouldn’t have passed up the opportunity to have her touch him. Remorseful, he crouched beside the bed and grabbed the hand she’d offered. He pressed her palm against his face, holding it there, and kissing it but not letting go. One of her fingertips was almost in his eye and he didn’t care.
“I’m fine,” she reassured him. “I said until death do we part, remember? You’re not getting away with such a short commitment. Now stop being a weirdo.” She pulled her hand away and stroked his hair back from his face.
He grumbled, “I’m trying.”
“Go for a walk. Clear your head.”
“No.” He kept holding her hand and pulled a chair over with his foot, then sat and did his best to copy what Rodrigo was doing.
Another contraction came. This was so stupid. Why were women designed to feel this much pain while they did what their bodies were designed to do? How were there so many people in the world if women had to do this to make every one of them? He’d pushed for a planned C-section, but Minnow had refused. Her body was his, and yet it in this he didn’t get to make the decisions. He wanted her pumped full of drugs, but she wouldn’t take a thing. Stubborn little shit.
“Breathe,” Rodrigo said. He was looking at Severin rather than Minnow. “Her contraction is over for now, Sev. You need to relax.”
Rodrigo came to his side of the bed and kissed him, but Severin pushed him away.
“We’re supposed to be helping her. I’m not the one in labor.”
“She’s managing better than you are.” His dark eyes gleamed with humor. Trying to tease him out of his foul mood again?
“Watch it, puppy.”
Rodrigo bit back a laugh and got closer again, looking for another kiss.
“Go help our wife!”
“Mrs. Solis-Leduc is more than happy to be distracted by hot guys making out right about now.”
“See? We’re helping.” Rodrigo brushed a kiss over his lips and Severin took control of it, splaying a hand over the back of Ro’s head to hold him still as he coaxed him into taking his tongue.
“Oh!”
Severin broke the kiss and turned toward the door. A young woman in turquoise scrubs stood frozen in the doorway, watching them.
“Sorry...I...” She shut her mouth, which had been hanging open, but her gaze was traveling from them to Minnow and back again. “I don’t mean to interrupt a personal moment, but I need to do a manual check of Mom’s blood pressure.” She gave a little laugh. “Although after that maybe I should wait a few minutes.”
“They were just getting to the good part,” Minnow said conspiratorially.
The young woman laughed at that, and came into the room, then wrapped the manual blood pressure cuff around Minnow’s arm. As she started to inflate the cuff, she said, “It’s so nice what you’re doing for these two. So many people wouldn’t let two men adopt their baby, but I bet they’re going to be great fathers. They seem to have such a great relationship.”
“Um,” Minnow replied, but paused when the woman held up a finger then listened to the inside of her arm with her arm with her stethoscope.
“Good. It’s high, but it’s not terrible.” She smiled comfortingly.
Another contraction started and both Severin and Rodrigo moved back to Minnow’s side. They helped her as much as they could, but they seemed to be getting closer together and far more painful, if her tortured expression was any indication.
When it passed, Minnow glanced over at the nurse, who was still hanging around fiddling with things.
“They’re not adopting my baby,” Minnow explained. “They’re the fathers.”
“Oh,” she said nodding sagely. “Well that’s even better. Surrogacy is such a nice option.”
Severin was grumbling under his breath, but Rodrigo laid a staying hand on his shoulder to hold him back from bar
king at the twit.
“Minnow isn’t our surrogate,” Rodrigo said smoothly, giving the woman the charming false smile he usually reserved for business. “She’s our wife.”
Rather than apologizing or retreating, the woman’s brows shot to a higher latitude on her forehead.
“Like that sister wife show?”
Rodrigo snorted. “Yes, except Mr. Leduc and I aren’t sisters.”
“So are you and him, are like, gay together, but then with her too?”
“It’s called bisexual and polyamorous.” Even Rodrigo was starting to look annoyed, but the nurse didn’t know him well enough to tell.
“Wow.”
“Wow?”
“You don’t look bisexual.”
Severin arched a brow at her. “Do you need more definitive proof than what you walked in on?”
“Mister Leduc,” Minnow said in disapproval, as though she knew what was coming next. He’d spank her if she weren’t in labor.
“Should I lean him over the bed and drill him in the ass so you can watch?” Severin suggested.
The woman stood there with her chin dragging on the floor, looking like an idiot.
“Get out!” he barked.
She fled and he stalked down the hall and stopped at the nursing station.
“You,” he pointed at yet another young nurse. The girl had two brow piercings, a tattoo behind her ear, and a backpack with bats on it. She looked like the kind of person who had an open mind.
She arched a brow at him.
“You’re a nurse?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you easily shocked?”
She snorted. “No.”
“Are you going home?”
“Yeah. It’s shift change.”
“Perfect. I’ll give you fifty grand, cash, to be my wife’s nurse until the kid is out.”
“Only fifty?” she said, laughing as if she didn’t believe him.
“Get down there without asking me another question and I’ll give you an extra ten.” He reached in his back pocket and pulled out a folded stack of bills.
Her eyes widened, but she said nothing and headed down the hall.
Tragic King (The Dominant Bastard Duology Book 2) Page 28