Episode 2 #3
Sevastyan let out a put-upon sigh. “Perhaps, when I’m old and my time is my own, like you. I barely have the time this one requires to keep in form.”
“May I?” Alexei extended his hand.
“Of course. Rei, you may do as Master Alexi bids. Mind his throat. I brutalized it earlier.”
“Brutalized?” Alexi asked. He made a hand gesture, summoning Rei to kneel at his feet.
On his hands and knees, Rei moved from Sevastyan to the older Russian. He knelt up, keeping his eyes averted. When Alexi crooked a finger under Rei’s chin, he relaxed his posture, letting the man raise his face, but still avoided looking at him directly. “What did you do to him?”
“Yetka questioned whether or not he was a danger to my assignment. I showed them he wasn’t.”
“Oh, and what did you do to your precious flower?” Alexi touched Rei’s throat with the pads of his fingers, exploring it gently. Rei tried to repress a tremble but Alexi noticed it all the same.
“Made him deep throat my gun, and turned off the safety.”
Alexi’s hands stilled. “Sevastyan.”
“I know.” Sevastyan sounded miserable.
“Have you been able to tend to him since?”
Rei couldn’t hear Sevastyan’s answer. It might have been nonverbal.
“Go back to your master,” Alexi said, tapping Rei’s shoulder. “You should have said, Sevastyan. I would never play with your property when the bond is stressed.”
Rei crawled back to Sevastyan. He knelt in front of his master’s feet, facing him, hands on the floor, eyes down. The softness of Alexi’s voice was breaking him. The lack of sleep and stress of being observed was wearing away at his endurance.
Training. Training. Discipline. He forced himself to stay still and not sink to the floor.
Sevastyan’s hand came down, pulling him upward and into his lap. He folded Rei’s head toward his shoulder, hand on the small of Rei’s back. “Yekta wanted me to kill him before I left on the assignment,” he said. “Ruel was on her side.”
Alexi cursed. “Imbeciles. Rei is property. Yours.”
“She offered the price of another slave.”
“She can’t pay you enough money to replace a gem like Rei,” Alexi snorted. “That’s your time, your investment. You could train others for another ten years before you replicate what you have now.”
“I proved that.”
“Have you eaten?”
“Not recently.”
“I had the cook make up cold plates before they left for the night. Take some time with your little one, get him out of those clothes. You both look like you need it.”
Alexi took his leave, closing the door.
Sevastyan tapped Rei’s shoulder. “Clothes off, darling.” He didn’t push Rei toward the floor. Rei straightened up, straddling Sevastyan’s thighs, and took off his jacket. His hands shook as he worked the buttons of his shirt.
Sevastyan pushed Rei’s hands aside and took over, helping him out of the suit and the underclothes.
“I must smell, Master,” Rei whispered, as Sevastyan reached for his under layers.
“We’ll shower. Wait here.”
Sevastyan guided Rei to the floor and went out. He came back in a moment. “The green bathroom has been designated for my use. Come.”
Rei rose and followed.
The bathroom was generous in size and the green tile floor heated from beneath.
Sevastyan started the shower. Rei knelt and removed Sevastyan’s leather boots, setting them outside the door away from the steam.
Sevastyan stripped himself efficiently and turned back to Rei.
He pulled Rei close. Rei slumped against him.
Tears he’d been holding back since the Yadro slid down his cheeks.
“Chicago will be better,” Sevastyan whispered. “Let’s get you clean.”
There were so many things that needed to be said. Burning questions Rei needed to ask. All he could do was cling to Sevastyan’s shoulders.
Sevastyan got Rei’s underclothes off him and guided them both into the shower. They washed quickly. When they were finished, Sevastyan turned off the water and just held Rei against his body for a long moment.
“You made me proud,” he whispered. “You were perfect.”
Rei gripped Sevastyan harder.
There were toothbrushes, skin care products, and an electric razor in the drawers and on the shelves.
Rei shaved first, getting rid of the tiny amount of stubble that had collected on his chin.
He tended to his skin and brushed his teeth.
Sevastyan wrapped himself in a house coat like the one Alexi was wearing.
Rei made sure he was completely dry and went out, following Sevastyan back to the salon as he was.
As they left the room, he caught sight of Alexi’s overnight attendant.
She had a basket with Rei’s suit in it and was coming to collect the rest of their clothes.
From experience, he knew their clothes would be steamed clean for them within a few hours.
Sevastyan asked for his to be pressed and sprayed only, and returned within the hour for use.
Alexi was waiting for them in the salon, a spread of food laid out on the coffee table. It was a mix of cuisines, from cold cut meats and French pastries to kimchi and grapes.
“Thank you. I think the humanness is coming back,” Sevastyan joked as he resumed his seat on the couch facing Alexi. Rei folded himself down beside Sevastyan’s feet, facing his master, his back to the table.
“Nonsense,” Alexi said. “This is nothing. I never wake before noon without a good reason. This is hardly late.”
The two men spoke together as Sevastyan started to eat. Now and then Sevastyan offered Rei food from his fingers. He turned Rei sideways so Alexi could watch Rei eating from his hand.
“Is your mother still riding you?” Alexi inquired casually as Sevastyan slowed down, focused more on getting food into Rei than eating himself.
Sevastyan snorted. “When does she not? You’re familiar with Raska. Bring her a profit, she’s suddenly suspicious you’re gunning for it. Fail to bring whatever fantastic bounty she dreamed up without checking a single source, now you’re an abject failure.”
Alexi groaned. “You should be running the Eastern branch or the North American region.”
“That does not appear to be in the cards. Some fear that would give Raska too much power by proxy. And Raska worries that it would give me enough power to challenge her. For once they’re in agreement in outcome, if not principle.”
Alexi chuckled ruefully. “You know what I think of all that. The day you decide you want either position, tell me.”
“The day you need me to be in the position, give the word,” Sevastyan countered. “For now I’m content to build quietly. Those are headaches I don’t need, not yet.”
“Fair and fairly spoken,” Alexi agreed. “There’s a reason I am no longer a director. Who wants to spend their days covered in a stupid costume sorting out problems?”
“Yekta is interested in your training. She has aspirations.”
“Yekta would ruin any slave she got her claws on. She can lust after what she sees all she wants. She couldn’t replicate your instincts, not even if I were to train her for a decade.”
“She asked how long it took to train Rei to the level I demonstrated yesterday. I told her she could know when she had your approval.”
Alexi laughed outright and slapped his knee. “Well played, my young graduate. You told her to fuck off and dropped my name to make it stick.”
“They’ll be questioning my loyalty tenfold now.”
“To themselves, perhaps, but not for general ears to hear. They won’t make a move against me. I have hooks in all of them.”
“I should go soon, make my delivery,” Sevastyan sighed. “Can I impose on you to watch Rei for me? Perhaps I’m paranoid after earlier, but I don’t want to leave him alone in a hotel.”
“My dear man, of course I would be happy to watch your precious pet. I’ve seen so little of him these last few months. We can while away the time together here and wait for you. How long will you be gone?”
“Two hours, at most. Is Lisa here?”
“He just finished a long assignment in Morocco. I gave him some down time. Don’t hurry on my account. Two hours is still well before my bedtime,” Alexi said.
No Lisa, then. Rei swallowed back mild disappointment. It was good that he’d barely allowed himself to even think of seeing Lisa. Being a slave meant surrendering hopes and desires.
Sevastyan tapped Rei’s shoulder. “Go to Master Alexi.”
Rei crawled around the table and settled himself facing Alexi. The man reached out and stroked the unblemished side of Rei’s face.
“He’s lost a little weight.”
“He always does when I have to leave him alone for a while.” Sevastyan poured a drink and brought it around the table. “Please make sure he gets some water. We’re flying tomorrow and that’s always dehydrating.”
Alexi took the water from Sevastyan and held it to Rei’s lips. Rei drank until Alexi pulled it away. Alexi continued his examination, reaching Rei’s wrists. He held them up, noting the rope marks. “You let him fly like this?”
“He has his bracelets. Everyone thinks they’re from those.”
“I should have thought of that.”
Rei didn’t need to look at Sevastyan to know he was smirking.
Alexi laughed. He stroked his thumb over Rei’s pulse point.
Rei closed his eyes, relaxing into the man’s touch and the sound of Sevastyan’s voice. Anyone else and he could fake ease, but Alexi never watched mere posture. He always went deeper, demanded more. True surrender.