5. Mammon
FIVE
MAMMON
I can never get a single minute of peace.
I groan as the door to my office swings open, banging against the wall with an annoyingly loud crash. I don’t even have to raise my head to know who it is walking in here like they own the place. I could sense that chaotic, messy energy everywhere. It’s the same kind that makes people uncomfortable, even if they don’t understand why, and forces them to step back for a breather. The presence is just so… intense . Suffocating. Like your mind starts spinning and spinning and spinning when it’s around.
That’s Bel and Gore for you.
“Daddy!” Bel teases as he hops onto my desk, scattering some important papers on the ground. “We need you to take us somewhere.”
“I’m busy,” I grunt, telling myself not to look up at those two different colored fuck-me eyes that always have me running for a quiet space to relieve the raging hard-on they induce.
“We want to go to the pound,” Gore says. Being such a fucking sweetheart, he bends down and picks up the papers Bel disrupted. As he places them beside my hand, his fingers tease the hem of my long-sleeve shirt so innocently I’d think he wasn’t doing it on purpose. “You said we could get a puppy.”
Fuck, that’s right. I only said it because they showed up at my door naked one night—fresh from fucking—and begged me for a ridiculous animal. To stop myself from ordering them both to bend over and grab their ankles, I stupidly told them I’d think about it.
And with these two, when you give them an inch, they take a mile.
I’m about to tell them we’re doing no such thing because I know I’m going to be the one who ends up taking care of the damn dog, just like I’m the only one who remembers to feed Zeus, but Gore’s pretty brown eyes stop me.
He looks so hopeful, standing in front of me with his hands clasped in front of him, so beautifully submissive it makes me want to force him onto his knees so he can warm my cock. When I turn to Bel, the same burning passion fills me. He’s not sweet, not in the slightest, but the challenging look in his eyes lights a fire in my stomach. It makes me want to spank that bratty ass until he cries out that he’ll behave.
I want both of them. I have for years. Not because they’re the same person, but because they're so supremely different, complimenting each other in a way that’s almost unnatural and demented.
And I’d be the perfect missing piece of the puzzle.
Shaking my head, I curse myself for what I’m about to do. My chair scratches against the wooden floorboards as I stand, opening my desk drawer and pulling out my wallet. I walk right by them, not stopping to turn and look, because looking is dangerous. I call over my shoulder. “If you’re not downstairs in the next five minutes, we’re not getting a dog.”
Everything falls silent the minute we walk into the pound. Even the dogs stop barking, sensing that even more dangerous predators lurk right around the corner. I eye everyone warily, always looking over my shoulder for the first sign of attack, never trusting worthless people or their pathetic intentions. Even though Bel is buzzing beside me, I know he feels the same. His is just displayed in a more manic manner that has him itching for someone to try him.
Gore, on the other hand…
“One puppy, please!” he shouts, ringing the small bell on the welcome counter several times. “A cute one too!”
It takes a second for an employee to come out from the back. He hesitates when he sees us, his face growing pale, and he gulps as he approaches. “H-How may I help you?”
“Did you not hear my brother the first time?” Bel barks, although there’s a slight tremor of humor in his voice. “We want a damn puppy.”
Reaching behind the desk for a clipboard, the man nods shakily. “Okay. So, you can fill out this form?—”
“A form?” Gore asks, cocking his head to the side as he takes it. “Why do we need to do that?”
“Well, we have to make sure they’re going to a stable home?—”
Bel’s lips curl as a sudden flip switches in his green eyes. “What do you mean ‘stable’ ?”
I can tell he’s ready to sucker punch the man. Not that I care, but it would take too much time and effort to reel them back in once they smell blood in the air. I place a hand on Bel’s shoulder, pulling him back, and address the man myself. “Forms won’t be necessary. Bring us to the back. Now .”
This man must have at least half a brain cell because he simply nods and gestures for us to follow him. Gore saddles up beside me, fingers twitching to grab my hand, and looks up at me with the biggest brown doe eyes on the planet. “Thank you, Mammon.”
Jesus Christ, kill me now.
I snap my hand away before he gets the chance to twine his fingers with mine. I’d be too tempted to hold on and never let go. He notices this small movement and his face falls. That pretty face. It makes me want to reach out and soothe him, but I know I can’t. This is what’s best.
For everyone involved, I can’t let myself get lost in them. I can’t let myself have a weakness. I can’t let myself think that they can order me around and dictate my actions.
Bel huffs beside me, throwing me an almost irritated glare. Moving around me, he grabs Gore’s hand, dragging him up ahead of me towards the kennels.
We look at dogs for a bit, the two of them ‘ooo-ing’ and ‘aah-ing’ at each animal we pass. I will admit, seeing them so carefree is nice. It makes my heart flutter stupidly in my chest, filling me with warmth every time they each look over their shoulders and smile at me.
We reach the end of the kennel, and I lean against one of the bars, crossing my arms over my chest. “Well? Which one do you want?”
Bel shrugs and looks at Gore. “You pick.”
“I think…” Gore licks his lips, an eager little smile splitting his face as he points to the kennel beside him. “I like this one.”
I raise both my eyebrows as I look at the thing. “Are you sure?”
Even Bel is skeptical, cocking his head to the side. “For real? That’s Satan?”
“You’re not naming it Satan,” I snap.
“Well…” Gore shuffles on his feet, insecure, and shrugs. “I mean… we can get a different one. It doesn't have to be her. I?—”
Fuck, I can’t help it. I stop his rambling with a hand on his shoulder, giving him a squeeze as I jut my chin at the dog. “If that’s the one you want, that’s the one we’re getting.”
The way his face transforms with delight nearly knocks me on my ass and I try my best to hide it. I glance at Bel and see him looking at Gore with the most love-struck expression on the planet, obviously feeling the same as I do about seeing him so happy.
And if it takes something as insignificant as this… creature to make him happy, so be it.
They can be happy with each other and I’ll stand in the background and watch it all unfold, silently protecting without letting them know that all it would take would be a snap of their slender fingers for me to give them the world.
But it’s a world I now control. And if I want it to stay that way, I can’t be part of their pretty picture.