Episode 5
Sevastyan met their gaze steadily. “I spent the price of an expensive car on it. I don’t know how much time is left. I don’t know how much of me is left. One month. Two months?” He shrugged. “I’m tired, Elli.”
Sevastyan
Sevastyan eased himself through the door to the condo. It was quiet inside. He pulled off his shoes and hung up his coat. The suitcases he left by the couch in the living room. Barefoot and with his hands empty, he padded into the bedroom.
Rei and Lisa were in bed together, Lisa wrapped around Rei from behind. Their legs were tangled under the covers. As if he could tell he was being watched, Rei’s eyes fluttered open. He sat up, blankets sliding down his chest as he blinked. “Master.”
Sevastyan held up his hand. “Stay.” Rei blinked and nodded, sinking back down into the sheets. Lisa stirred, half lifting his head. He didn’t rise, though, taking his cue from Rei.
A bit more of the tension went out of Sevastyan.
He wasn’t going to think about what he’d given Ellisandre, about what would happen when his deux chose to use the drugs to pull the truth out of him.
There was this moment and nothing more. He wrapped it around himself, memorizing the shape of Rei in the blankets.
Rei would survive this.
Sevastyan went to the bathroom, stripped off, and got into the shower.
He brushed his teeth while the water flowed over his head, and shaved by touch.
A bone-deep weight settled into him. It was done.
He’d set the trap for himself, handed the person he trusted most after Rei the very weapon he had promised himself to never be subjected to again.
The beginning of the end. Except it felt like the beginning of the end had been the beginning itself. His thoughts were fragmenting.
This moment. Just this one moment. No past. No future. Sanity was dependent on standing still exactly where he was at.
Rei was here. Rei was his. Rei was safe.
His cock hardened. He stroked it once, then twice, then left himself hard and wanting.
He dried off and raked leave-in conditioner through his hair. Naked, he returned to the bedroom. Rei’s eyes fluttered open, watching him. Sevastyan lifted the covers on the free side of the bed, opposite Lisa.
“Master.” Rei rolled out of Lisa’s arms and onto his belly, spreading his legs.
Sevastyan braced himself on his elbow and covered Rei with his larger body.
Rei groaned. A touch between his buttocks proved that he was already wet with lube.
Sevastyan pressed his lips against Rei’s shoulder.
His slave arched his back, rubbing his buttocks against Sevastyan’s hips.
Sevastyan’s chest ached. He nuzzled the arch of Rei’s spine and stroked Rei’s side, warning him that he was about to enter him.
Rei groaned softly, pushing back. Sevastyan grabbed his shaft and found Rei’s hole.
Entering Rei was coming home. It was sunrises and sparkling wine, swirling color on an impressionist painting, and the pleasure burn of guiding a kayak down white-water rapids.
One moment. No past. No future. Just this single instance. Sevastyan hid his face against Rei and gathered the smaller man beneath him, grinding into Rei’s body, feeling the clench of Rei holding him deep inside.
A gift. Every time was a gift. One he did not deserve.
He kissed Rei’s neck and across his shoulder down to his arm.
Warm golden skin. The smell of sleep, sweat, and languidness.
The scent of his person. Ellisandre was the deity for which he went to his knees.
Rei was the warmth in his chest that made him roar.
Rei stretched out his arm, found Sevastyan’s hand on the mattress and slid his beneath, tangling their fingers together and giving him more points with which to hold him down.
Sevastyan rolled his hips. Rei trembled, breathing through the burn as Sevastyan sank deeper and settled fully inside.
Sevastyan lifted himself higher, drawing out his cock. “Breathe, little one.”
Rei’s ribs expanded. Sevastyan pushed in, slowly, steadily, and all the way to the end, forcing air out of Rei’s lungs and replacing the space with himself. Rei’s hips tilted towards him.
He wanted to come now, to just spill into his slave and then hold him and sleep.
He fucked in and out, holding himself up on one hand and one elbow, fingers still tangled with Rei’s.
His boy had his eyes closed, his whole focus on where his master was joined with him.
His insides rippled as he worked to give pleasure.
Now and then his fingers tightened around Sevastyan’s.
Sevastyan rested his head against Rei’s arm and pumped hard, his body tingling and pressure building in his loins for the first time since he’d left. He came with a hitch in his breath, Rei’s channel becoming suddenly flooded. He caught himself before he completely crushed Rei into the mattress.
The other side of the bed dipped. Sevastyan kept his eyes closed, staying in the moment. He’d sort Lisa out in a moment.
Rei wiggled softly, his foot stroking up Sevastyan’s leg, offering silent affection. He hadn’t come, but that had not been the point of this.
The bed dipped again. Sevastyan raised his head.
Lisa held out one of two warm, wet towels.
Sevastyan took one. “Спасибо.” (Spasibo.) Thank you.
Lisa didn’t meet Sevastyan’s eyes or respond. He put one knee on the bed and waited. Sevastyan pulled out of Rei gently. Even so, Rei let out a soft gust of air that was almost a whimper. Sevastyan wiped himself off and accepted the second towel to clean Rei.
Rei wiggled against the bed and hid his face. Sevastyan finished and patted his rear, then handed both towels back to Lisa. The other slave took them to the bathroom. Sevastyan lay down, pulling Rei into his arms.
Lisa returned. He stood by the bed, looking uncertain.
“Lie down,” Sevastyan mumbled into Rei’s hair. He was so ready to sleep. Orgasming had drained the last of his wakefulness.
Rei held out his hand to Lisa and the other slave moved, gripping Rei’s hand in return and pushing back under the covers. Rei adjusted, his rear perfectly slotting into the bend of Sevastyan’s hips as he lay on his side cradling his boy.
“Sleep,” Sevastyan said. He closed his eyes.
Sevastyan
His phone ringing was the first thing to bring him back to consciousness. Rei was still in his arms. Lisa’s eyes were fluttering, but he too appeared to have been sound asleep, sprawled across the other half of the bed. He still held Rei’s hand.
Sevastyan reached behind himself and grabbed his phone. Alexi. Fine. He could take this call.
“Sevastyan.”
“Alexi.” Sevastyan smothered a yawn. “What’s on your mind?”
“Apologies. Did I wake you?”
“Long flight.” Sevastyan rolled onto his back and rubbed his face. “Just getting in a few hours. What can I do for you?”
“How’s my slave?”
Sevastyan pulled the phone away from his ear and changed the call from voice to video. He turned the camera towards Lisa and Rei. The two slaves were face to face, both adorably mostly asleep.
Alexi sighed, then murmured, “He looks thin.”
Sevastyan switched the call back and put the phone to his ear. He put a hand on Rei and motioned at Lisa to stay as he swung out of bed. The covers slipped down Rei’s back. Sevastyan pulled them back up, making sure both slaves were covered, and found his robe. “One moment.”
He put the phone down to wrap the soft robe around himself, belted it, and then went out to the living room with the call, shutting the bedroom door as he went.
On the couch in the living room, he returned the connection to video.
“He was thinner when he arrived, before he was sick. Rei is supervising his diet.”
Alexi grimaced. “I received only good reports on his health in Morocco.”
“Then fire someone.”
“Noted. How is he? Details.”
“He’s put more than half a kilo of weight back on already, as of his weight check last night.
I’ve only been back a few hours and we were all sleeping.
I can call back in a while once I’ve checked him over again.
He’s been so tired, I didn’t pull him out of bed early this morning when I arrived, still sleeping about twelve hours a day. It’s helping.”
“And you're certain you’re happy to have him?” Alexi sounded pensive. “You’ve always kept your bases private.”
“Rei’s been alone too much,” Sevastyan answered. “He did better on this trip with your boy to fuss over.”
“Perhaps your boy can tame mine in ways I cannot.”
Sevastyan gave his mentor a gentle look. “Lisa is never going to be like your others.”
“I know.” Alexi ran his fingers through what was left of his hair. “I should have sold him on, but he’s . . . he’s my lisa. Untamed, ill-mannered, and somehow utterly beautiful. I can’t bring myself to end things. Watch him, will you? Perhaps it’s time for a new perspective.”
“Morocco was bad,” Sevastyan said.
“The managers had nothing but praise for him.”
Sevastyan glanced towards the bedroom. “And perhaps that’s exactly what went wrong.”
Alexi held a moment of silence, eyes looking away from his phone. “You think he stopped fighting.”
“Rei pulled him out of the snow. He was lying there in nothing but a jacket. Played it off as a ploy for attention but . . . I’m not sure that’s the full truth.”
Alexi ruminated for several long seconds. “I’ll send funds to cover his upkeep, if you’ll look after him. I always said that I wanted you to train another slave but . . .”
“What rights do you wish to grant?”
“Full rights, no long-term modifications. You have my trust, you know that. Tell him he’s forbidden from traveling without our permission. Not till he’s stronger.”
“Understood. Can I send him on errands in the city?”
“Of course, or let him travel with you. Just don’t . . . send him off to another place on his own for a while. Who knows what might get into his head.”
“Right now, Rei is grounding him. As you saw. They work well together, they always have.”