33 Degrees of Separation (Legacy)

by Rain Carrington

  “Pat, as much as it scares me to think of you giving up your life for me, I can’t help it. I want you. I need you and I love you so fucking much I can’t breathe without you.”

  He was brought in to be held, which was good, because he couldn’t stop the stream of tears leaving his eyes. Especially when Pat corrected him, “I’m not giving up my life, Ian, because you are my life.”

  Hearing that, words that could so easily be lies but weren’t, he smiled through his tears and held Pat in a vice grip, refusing to let go until he fell asleep in his arms. He woke several times during the night, each time, there was Pat, breathing shallow beside him. That’s all he needed to see, and he could fall under again, sure in their love and new commitment.

  Pat led him to the bathroom that morning, and they showered together. Pat washed Ian’s hair while Ian’s head was leaning back on Pat’s shoulder. Through the suds that tickled him down his neck, Pat kissed and nibbled there, working his fingertips into Ian’s scalp.

  Pat’s finger grazed Ian’s sore hole, and he yelped, biting his lip from crying out any louder. “What’s wrong?”

  “You fucked me to death.”

  “You haven’t seen anything yet, boy. I’m just getting started.”

  Against the tiles he was pushed, and he winced at the thought of Pat entering him again, no matter how badly he wanted it. Pat didn’t fuck him, though, simply holding him there, biting and kissing over his back and shoulders, roughly grabbing his ass cheek and whispering dirty things to him.

  “You have a tight ass that makes my cock damn happy, Ian. I’m going to be in there a lot, fucking you deep any time I feel. What I’m going to do next though is fuck that beautiful throat.”

  Ian closed his eyes, thinking of that bit of information, knowing he’d find it hard to breathe, his throat would hurt after, and he’d love every second of it. “Fuck my throat?”

  “Yeah, so hard I see the crown of my dick poking out the back of your throat. That’s my only goal for the day is to see my cock from the side of your throat, Ian.”

  He was melting and covered in chills at once. Internally, he was smiling, but his mouth wouldn’t cooperate. It was too stunned and his jaw hanging too low to accomplish that. Pat spun him around until his back was pressed against the tile and he was being kissed.

  Pat’s kisses, Jesus, they were almost as good as the sex. Maybe better. Well, almost as good. He couldn’t decide and he loved that. His mouth felt like it was making love with a firm, delicious cloud and he was floating there, being surrounded by heat and love.

  “Those times we kissed before? I knew I wanted to do it like all the time. All day and night.”

  “Me too,” Pat confided, then kissed him again to confirm it. “But first, I want that throat.”

  “First…let me…let me…”

  Pat grabbed his wrists, though he was gentler with them than the night before, he still held them to the tile and demanded, “Ian, I think I was quite clear on this. When you want something, you ask. When you’re worried, you speak up about whatever it is. No more fucking secrets.”

  “It’s not a secret, Pat. I wanted to wash you. I know we’re not all crazy into the scene, like I’m a slave or something.” Pat let go of his wrists and listened, giving Ian his attention, which in itself was rare.

  “No, we’re not that into it.”

  “I’ve seen it, guys crawling around behind their Masters and yeah, it’s hot to watch, but I don’t want to go that far. But in some ways, I mean we are. I’m letting you have it all, Pat, all my control. I don’t hate that. In fact, I love it and it’s something I know I need.”

  Pat pulled him from the wall, holding him away from the spray of the water, kissing him sweetly. Ian was limp in his arms, as he found himself most of the time. “I think I know what you mean, baby. You want to feel like you’re doing for me too.”

  “Yeah.” He’d never felt so shy. Not once in his life had he been shy or so unsure of himself, but he knew that Pat would continue to do that. He was keeping Ian off balance for a reason.

  “Okay. Get your jollies. You can serve me and touch me all over. Fucking pervert.”

  Although that hadn’t been his original intention, he didn’t mind that part a bit. He’d been lusting after Pat’s body from the first minute. Pat moved himself to the wall and grinned deviously as Ian squirted body wash on the loofa.

  Pat reached over and plucked the loofa from his hand, letting it fall to the floor of the tub and he purred, “Use your hands.”

  After he could breathe or swallow again, he gulped down the boulder that had lodged in his throat and nodded slowly. “O-okay.”

  Chuckling, Pat ran his hand over his face to brush off the water there. “Get started.”

  After his hand was filled with the soap, Ian rubbed his hands together, then begun with getting the lather spread over Pat’s fine, barrel chest. He was so hard, firm, ridged, Ian’s palms felt like they were on an adventure, roaming over mountains and dipping into secret valleys no one had dared to tread.

  Over his stomach, every ripped bit of his eight-pack. His hips were narrow, and didn’t seem hefty enough to carry his heavy meat, his round, full balls. Ian was groaning through the process, getting every inch of Pat soaped and slicked, the shining flesh of him in that shower making Ian’s mouth water.

  “Jesus, Pat, you’re perfect.”

  “No, you are. You’re my perfect baby.” A soapy kiss before he turned, and gave Ian access to his back, his globed cheeks and thick, beautiful legs. Running his finger tenderly through the crack of his ass, he had a fleeting wonderment of how amazing it would feel to make love to Pat. Having those muscled cheeks clenching around his cock.

  By the time he was finished, he was panting and dizzy. Pat held him as they rinsed the soap off their bodies, and they took extra care in drying one another when they got out of the shower.

  Pat was smiling at him, and Ian knew he had a question playing on his lips. Sure enough, once Pat led him out of the bathroom, he asked it. “Was that what you were talking about?”

  “Washing you? No. That was definitely all for me. It saved you a little work, but that was all for me.”

  As he laughed at that, he argued, “No, baby, I enjoyed it very much. Your hands all over me? What wasn’t to love?”

  “Pat, I know the real world is going to crash in on us, and I have got a few things I need to talk to you about, but is it okay that I’ve held off on them, so we could…I don’t know…honeymoon?”

  “Yeah,” Pat said, growing serious, which Ian didn’t like. He could drown in the beautiful way they’d been the previous hours. “But we really do need to talk. And we should let Denny and Javi know we’re okay.”

  “I think they know we’re fine. If they didn’t hear at least a little of that, then they’re deaf.”

  Pat chuckled, glancing at the door. “Yeah. Didn’t think of that.”

  “I’ll get dressed, we’ll head out and talk. Okay. This is going to suck, Pat.”

  “Speaking of sucking…I think I need your mouth, so once we’ve talked, we’re coming back in here and I’m going to fuck your mouth.”

  His own question came then, and he was scared to ask, but he did. “I’ve only been with one Dom guy that withheld stuff. No one else was ever, well, there was no time to withhold anything. I guess you’re one of those. You know, that withhold orgasm.”

  Pat was pulling his jeans over his hips and didn’t so much as glance over at him. “You’d be right about that.”

  “Oh.”

  Pat finished buttoning the jeans and pulled Ian over, growling that way he did when he was serious, but also wanted to arouse Ian. “I told you, I don’t reward bad behavior. You, last night, trying to push me out of your life by bringing another man in your bed and throwing it in my face…Ian, fuck. You could have gotten that man beaten half to death. I was so angry, at him, and at you. You’re lucky I fucked you at all. If it weren’t for the fact I wanted to, you would
still be tied to the bed and I’d be jacking off on your face for the tenth time.”

  Dueling reactions to that had him cringing and breathing heavily at once. It turned him on so much his cock gave a lurching throb that actually hurt, and the other part of him felt humbled by the thought. “Damn, Pat.”

  “Yeah. So don’t piss me off anymore.”

  “Never! Jesus, that’s…that’s harsh, man.”

  After Ian was fully dressed, Pat pushed him to the door. “Let’s talk to them and then go for a drive and figure some things out.”

  “Okay.” He wasn’t thrilled at the thought of being confronted by the others. Pat could fuck him into seeing the error of his ways, but Denny would lecture, and a lecture from his best friend could take hours, and always made Ian feel an inch tall.

  Javi would laugh, of course, but he’d also give him a few words that would make Ian feel like shit. He had to face it, however, and try to make them understand it was because he cared about them that he’d pushed them away.

  Sure enough, Denny made him sit on the couch and lectured him on friendship and how he was going to be there for Ian no matter what, that they were brothers, and none of the rest of it mattered.

  Javi went with Pat when the Denny lecture was over, and they drove him to an abandoned home in one of the suburbs that had a For Sale sign in front.

  Walking through the old ranch style didn’t ring any bells for Ian as far as restoration or renovation, so he couldn’t even get lost in those thoughts as he was read the riot act by the two of them.

  “Ian, mijo, it ain’t just about you anymore, but even if it was, we care, man. You’re a good guy for being a brat.”

  “Brat is right,” Pat agreed. “Baby, we would figure something out. That’s all we’ve been doing. If we couldn’t take the Grail down, at least we could save you from that life that you’d hate. We spoke about several ways, and I think Javi brought up making it appear that you died.”

  “Faking my death?” The thought intrigued him, but he soon dismissed it. “It would have to be really good to fool the Grail. I mean, we’d have to spend a ton of money, find a body double…” He trailed off as his mind began to spin around, thinking of the things he’d seen and felt over the last few weeks with his father.

  The moments between he and James. It was obvious Ian Junior had no close friends in the Grail, but he and James looked close despite that. Their eyes met, and hands lingered in one another’s.

  James didn’t look the part of a lamenting father, mourning his dead son. On the other hand of that, if he was fully into the Grail and its traditions, he also didn’t have the pride that his son’s sacrifice would bring to his face.

  His face…he’d seen that face before, and not only on Cameron. He couldn’t place it, but Ian had thought it looked familiar, like he’d known it all his life. Before he could put his finger on it, Pat gripped his shoulders and shook him a little. “Where’d you go?”

  “I don’t know, exactly. I mean…I have a weird feeling, and I can’t prove a fucking thing.”

  “Mijo, what the fuck are you talking about?”

  “My father, Cameron’s father, I don’t know. I can’t describe it.” He faced Javi fully and pled, “Can you tell me everything that could possibly be involved with faking someone’s death?”

  “Sure. Done it a few times. Best way to stop running and live a life, you know, even if it’s not yours.”

  Pat grabbed his arm and forced him to spin around, facing him instead of Javi. “What else, Ian? I can tell this is a new thought, whatever the hell it is. What else did you need to tell us?”

  “Oh! Yeah, there were a few things. One, now don’t get mad. I couldn’t figure out how to tell you anyway.”

  “What?”

  There was no room to mess around or try to find a gentle way to tell Pat. His drawn brows and thin mouth told him that. “Pat, don’t get mad.”

  “I think you’re past that, mijo.”

  Javi, of course, was laughing, and Ian wanted to punch him, but he may need his help. “Okay, well, the other day when I saw my father, the day before the memoriam, he gave me something. It was a flash drive, and on it, well, on it was what I needed to learn for the Grail.”

  Pat stared at him, and he couldn’t read his face at all. Javi stood by Pat, demanding, “What was on it?”

  “The first lessons, I guess you’d call them. A little about the traditions, the names of the men who started it, how it grew as an order. The main principles, if you can call them that.”

  “The good of the few over the many,” Pat recited. “Got it.”

  “Can we see it? There might be something in there we can use against them, figure out some things we don’t know, something!”

  “No, Javi, they have made several precautions for just that. It explains it in one of the chapters. I guess the secret societies from centuries ago had traitors that let secrets out, so the Grail could learn from that, making rules and procedures that would keep that from happening. I this case, they’ve used the newest technology to assure that no one can be in the room while the computer is on with the drive inserted, no recording devices can be used, anything. The most I could possibly do is memorize portions I think may be pertinent and tell you.”

  “We may have to do it that way then but let me talk to a hacker chick I know. She’s so fucking amazing with the computers that the FBI and CIA subcontract with her and pay her not to work for foreign agencies.”

  He was as shocked as Pat looked. “Javi, you’re just telling us about her now?”

  “I don’t go to her unless it’s directly computer related. Sure, she could have found info on the Grail, maybe, if there was anything to find, but why do that when we have Ian, who is in the fucking thing to do that? And I don’t count on her for everything. She’s expensive and she’s busy.”

  Ian didn’t grasp the concept of expensive well, but he did get the busy part. “I can pay, so that’s not a problem. The thing is, we have to be so careful. If it’s monitored in any way and the Grail knows, it not only gets shut down, but a squad of Grail security will be there in seconds to take the drive, the computer and the Grail member, dragging them off to one of the hundreds of places they own across the country, or maybe a different country.”

  “Of course, they would. If it was me, and I was holding those secrets, I’d do the same, mijo. Let me give her a call and see what we can do there. What else?”

  Ian leaned on the wall, sliding down to sit on the floor. Exhaustion was taking its toll on him. “So much. Sorry I kept it all from you.”

  “Babe, tell us now. We can’t dwell on the past shit any longer.”

  After taking a deep breath, he told the two of them about his father getting him the drive, but halfway through the story, it came to him. “Jesus, that’s it!”

  “What’s what?”

  Javi was kneeling by him and Pat loomed over him. Ian was shocked to his core, but still trying to talk himself out of it, even as he explained his thoughts to them. “The safe.”

  “What about it, mijo?”

  “What I was going to tell the two of you was how my father showed me how to open it. There’s a plate on the front where the number pad or fingerprint pad normally is. It’s got indentions that fit the jewels of our family grail, and in those indentures are lasers that read those jewels. It’s brilliant, you see, because like a person’s pupil or fingerprint, a jewel is unique in its color, clarity and cut. There would be no way to simulate it, so it’s a pretty perfect key for a safe.”

  “Why would he show you that?”

  Ian blinked up at Pat, feeling nervous and excited at once. “I can’t believe I hadn’t put it all together. See, I was surprised he showed it to me too, but I thought, well, I’m a member now, maybe it’s okay to let me in on a few of the family secrets. Who knows? But it’s not the key and lock, Pat. It’s the painting.”

  “The painting? What does that have to do with anything?”

  “It
doesn’t! Not about the Grail, anyway. The painting is unique and beautiful, of course, like all the art my family owns, but it’s not the most expensive of pieces. In fact, it’s relatively cheap, which is just unheard of for my parents. Their jewels, art, clothing, cars, everything is the very best and most expensive. They don’t settle for less. This painting is by an artist that is, well, he’s known, but he’s no Monet or Renoir. We have three Picassos, for Pete sake! This painting, by Lord Frederic Leighton, well, it’s nothing like those works. It probably wouldn’t go for a half a million, but I’m no art expert.”

  “Still not understanding, baby. What does that have to do with anything?”

  “The painting is Icarus and Daedalus. From the story of the same. The younger man in the painting, Icarus, is just beautiful. He’s mostly naked, with a wisp of cloth covering his dick and balls, but it’s his face, his hair…Jesus. They could be twins. Triplets, I mean.”

  “Who?” they yelled in unison.

  “James and Cameron Kent.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Javi was the first to say it, but Pat followed up, telling him, “Slow down, Ian. You’re not making a lot of sense. Start from the beginning and tell us what you’re talking about.”

  Getting right in his own head was going to be hard enough, but to express it, that would be much harder still. “Okay, okay, I know. It’s only coming together in my head, so let me figure this out a minute.”

  “Take your time, baby.”

  Ian looked up at Pat, then grabbed his hand and pulled him down to sit close to him. Feeling him there, that gave him so much clarity. Everything in his mind focused and he was able to figure things better.

  “Um, well, first, my father showing me how to open his safe. That was weird to me right off the bat. Sure, I’m a Grail now, and all that, but still, it was not normal. It didn’t feel normal. He went to that painting, the one that I now know looks damn near identical to James and Cameron Kent. The painting, not normal, my father showing me how to get into the safe, not normal, but even if there is no hidden message behind it, those things, built up with the others, I guess I may be grasping at straws, but I don’t think so.