Chapter Seven
Ravi
When I crawl back through the window at Liam’s place, it’s nearing three in the morning. After the party ended, I had to get Adam and Troy to take me to their place so I could pick up my car and my stuff.
My body’s buzzing from the party, but what I really need is a solid few hours of rest.
How tired I am is probably why I miss it until it’s too late—that the lamp I left on by my bed is off now.
I’m halfway through the window before something prickles at the back of my skull. I pause, straining my eyes and ears, but I can’t figure out what I’m sensing.
A moment later I hear Liam’s voice.
“Good of you to finally come home.”
Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit.
“What are you—” I topple the rest of the way through the window. Shaking my head, I pick myself up and straighten my glasses before flipping on the lamp. I should have realized he’d check up on me at some point.
In hindsight, maybe I should’ve crashed at Adam and Troy’s place.
“What are you doing in here?” It’s Liam himself who taught me that a good offense is the best defense.
“I think the better question is what were you doing out there?”
“Sorry, I must have missed the part where I was grounded. Oh, wait, you can’t ground me because I’m an adult.”
He stands from where he’s been sitting on my bed, tossing Mr. Bear onto my desk.
“Are you really?” he asks as he stalks forward. “An adult wouldn’t be so stupid as to put their ass on display for a bunch of drunk old men. An adult wouldn’t parade around in booty shorts like a cheap fuck toy.”
Fuming, I glance down at the shorts, which I’m still wearing. I am not cheap. I bought these custom from a dancer on Etsy. I like to support small businesses.
Liam stops right in front of me, using his finger to tip my chin up to meet his gaze. “An adult wouldn’t do something as stupid and dangerous as serving up his virginity to a pack of wealthy jackals for the highest goddamn bidder.”
Every syllable is quiet and controlled. The quieter Liam gets, the more enraged he is. And also?
“How did you know where I was?” I glance at my phone, which is still sitting where I left it on the bed. Understanding dawns. “I figured you were tracking me. I guess it wasn’t with my phone.”
He doesn’t answer. I shouldn’t be surprised. What he does do is walk over to my bedroom window.
He brushes past me, his aftershave assaulting my nostrils when he’s so close. The heat of his body, the quick brush of his pecs against my shoulder… Maybe if Dean hadn’t gotten me so horned-up at the party, I wouldn’t be so sensitive. But right now I’m kind of on the verge, you know?
The click of a lock makes me jump. “Wait. What the hell are you doing?”
When I turn around, he’s securing a padlock that definitely wasn’t there before. I’m suddenly freezing cold. The urge hits me to shove him, to try and wrench open the window, but it’s too late. It’s already locked.
“Installed it while you were out. I had plenty of time while you were shaking your ass for old men with Benjamins.”
My chest is tight. Too tight. “Liam, you can’t do this. I came to stay here because you said you wanted to keep an eye on me after being in the hospital. Why did I think it meant you actually gave a shit?”
His face softens, which kind of makes me want to punch it more.
He settles himself on the edge of my bed as if we’re having a friendly chat.
“You have no idea how much I give a shit. Why do you think I’m trying to protect you?
What do you think your parents would say if they knew their baby boy was auctioning off his virginity to the highest bidder? ”
The way my throat gets tight forces me to pause. The backs of my eyes are burning, and I refuse to give Liam Masters the satisfaction of crying in front of him.
My feet are rooted to the floor, but I glance again at my phone. I can only guess how he found out about the auction, but Brennan’s been sending texts with information. Should’ve known a little thing like a password wouldn’t keep Liam out of my business.
“They wouldn’t say anything, because they’re dead.” I wouldn’t be doing this if they were alive. I wouldn’t be here at all. “You wouldn’t understand.”
His expression goes hard again. The next thing I know, I’m swept off my feet, landing face down across Liam’s lap. “What I understand,” he growls from above me, “is you insist on continuing to act like a brat, so you obviously need to be treated like one.”
In one swift motion, Liam yanks my shorts down to my knees. Cool air hits my backside, making me gasp. I squirm in his grasp, but he’s got me trapped. “What the fuck are you—”
The smack of his hand against my ass ricochets around the room, even before the sting registers. “Hey!” I kick my legs. “Is this some kind of—”
Another swat lands against my skin, and then another.
Every touch heats my entire body. My protest dies in my mouth when I realize two things: After being kissed and groped and teased all evening, I’m reeealy turned on.
Also, Liam pulling down my shorts freed my dick, which is now trapped between his thighs, my foreskin getting abraded by the rough nylon of his tactical pants.
I squirm again, not sure if I’m fighting for him to stop or keep going.
This is obviously supposed to be a punishment. To be fair, it hurts. I also can’t seem to hold back the decidedly non-punishment ways my body is reacting.
The horror dawns slow, and then fast, as my dick gets harder. And harder. I’m desperate to pull away. Desperate to get closer.
Not that Liam seems to notice. He’s so wrapped up in his anger that he rains blows one after another until my ass is throbbing. It’s not the only thing. Every flinch and jerk causes friction, an awful, delicious heat building with each swipe of my sensitive cock on heavy ripstop fabric.
Every blow forces the air from my lungs.
I gasp, dizzy and confused as my blood tries to decide whether it should rush to my head or my hard cock, and my brain tries make sense of how the humiliation only makes me burn hotter.
It’s not until drops of water land on the thin blue blanket covering my bed that I realize I’m crying.
About to come. But crying. Does that make sense? I’m burning with shame, and too desperate to care.
I need to research humiliation as a kink. Because I think I’ve got it.
“You keep trying my fucking patience, kid.” There’s a dark grittiness to Liam’s voice. “What the fuck—” Another swat. And then another. “—is it going to take—” Smack. “—to realize I only want what’s best for you?”
Right as I’m sure it’ll only take one last hard spank to make me come, he abruptly stops. My hips buck and thrust, seeking that last little bit of friction. I’m so close. So fucking close.
My needy squirming is stilled by the heavy press of his hand on my lower back.
I can’t see him from this awkward angle, but I can picture the way his nostrils flare when he’s mad, and the heavy puffs of breath tell me his chest is rising and falling with every breath.
Something tells me he’s finally fully aware of what he’s been doing to me.
It’s all I can do to hold in my needy whine. If I let him know how badly I want him to touch me again, it’ll only make things worse.
His hand comes down again. Gently, this time.
His palm smooths across my burning flesh, and it’s all too much—the highly sensitive skin on my exposed ass and my chafed cock, which is already on a hair-trigger when as his leg shifts against it.
The too-gentle brush of his fingers over my hole is the last straw.
A loud cry rips its way out of my chest as my body betrays me. My fingers clutch at the blanket on my bed as my body shakes. As I soak Liam’s leg with my cum.
Even as some small voice in my head tells me how embarrassing this all is, I’m too lost in sensation to pay it much attention. My body twitches. My nerves sing. The relief flooding through me is so, so sweet.
I’m still floating down from the high of an orgasm a thousand times more intense than anything I’ve done with my own hand when I’m unceremoniously dumped onto the bed.
Liam stands above me, hair mussed and face red.
His gaze flicks down to the cum on his pant leg—my cum.
He tries to school his features, but there’s something on his face he can’t wipe away.
His chest puffs. His nostrils flare. He looks…haunted.
“Help me understand about this auction, Ravi.” He clears his throat.
I guess we’re both going to simply ignore the straining bulge in his pants? The cum on his leg?
Wincing, I pull my shorts up slowly. I’m shaky and spent, forcing myself to stand tall when my body wants to collapse on the bed. Mental note: research what to do after getting a spanking.
Ohhh, even thinking it sounds dirty.
“Help me understand what the hell made you think this ridiculous scheme was a good idea. How would you even think of something like that?” Liam demands.
“I spoke with Brennan. He mentioned you wanting to leave Belle Argo. Why in the hell would you want to get away from the place where you have your college paid for and a safe home to live in? You have no idea what the sort of men who would bid on an auction like that are capable of. What they would want to do to someone innocent like you.”
There’s a tremor in his hand as he runs it through his short hair. The same hand he spanked me with.
I’m still struggling to catch my breath. But this? This is where I’ve had exactly enough. More than enough.
I force myself to stand, putting us toe-to-toe. Yes, it means I have to kill my neck to look up at him. It is what it is.
I’m about to poke the bear. But what else can he do to me?
“I know exactly what men like that are capable of,” I tell him, “because I’ve seen it.
I’ve seen what you do when your ‘poker buddies’ come over and you think I’m not here.
I’ve seen the special setup you have in the garage.
I’ve seen the women, and the young men, you bring in to pass around your circle of friends.
So, how about you spare me the hypocrisy and let me make my own decisions?
Because you are exactly where I got the idea from. ”
He doesn’t realize it, but Liam Masters is responsible for the vast majority of my sexual awakenings.
Well, he’s aware of it now.
My chest is absolutely heaving while he stares me down. His jaw clenches. His fingers twitch. For a second I think he might throw me over his lap again.
There’s that vein bulging in his temple for the zillionth time.
Is it a vessel? A vein? Artery? Shit, I’m awful at biology. I really need to change my major.
He lets out a heavy breath, saying, “What you’re too young to realize is the world is a hell of a lot more fucked up than you’ve got any clue about. Whatever you think you’ve seen, you don’t know the half of it.”
Is he trying to suggest I don’t know what I saw? Is he going to tell me next that I didn’t come while lying across his lap?
Instead he says, “It’s my job to keep you safe, and I take that job as seriously as the one I get paid to do. Since you can’t make good decisions on your own, I’m going to have to protect you from yourself until you can.”
Then he tosses something into the air, like a ball. The cash I’d been saving. It was hidden in my desk drawer, secured with a rubber band. “What, you’re stealing from me now? I earned that money. It’s mine.”
My fear rises with every toss of the bundle he’s holding. There’s almost five thousand dollars in there. Right now, Liam is holding my only ticket out. He’s holding my freedom.
“You really think I need to steal from you, kid? I’m going to hold on to it though. I don’t think you’d use it for anything worthwhile right now.”
Like buying a gun and shooting you? Like a train ticket? Like getting you a prescription for the sedative you desperately need?
“You can’t make me stay here. I have an appointment tomorrow.”
“You mean your appointment with Brennan? That’s not happening. While we’re at it, you’re not going to that auction in two weeks, either.”
“You can’t stop me. And are we even going to talk about the fact that we just—”
I’m cut off by the slam of my bedroom door.
I’m still struggling for breath when I hear a loud click, exactly like when he closed the padlock on my window.
Emotion swirls through me, a mix of confusion and frustration.
How does he give someone an orgasm and walk away?
Maybe it wasn’t anything to him, but it was something to me. He has to know it was.
It’s not until I sink onto the bed with exhaustion that I realize my phone is gone. He must have taken it with him.
In a last-ditch effort, I get up to test the door, but I already know what I’m going to find. He’s locked it from the outside. He’s locked the window. I have no phone. My laptop is gone, too.
Mr. Bear is still here, his empty sideways stare aimed at me from the top of my desk.
Fear creeps up my spine. The auction is in two weeks. “He can’t keep me in here for that long, can he?”
But I heard Liam. He thinks he’s protecting me.
And that’s exactly what he’d do.