Nathaniel
THE HOUSE I GREW up in is small and deserted now. The three-bedroom home is covered in graffiti, with the grass overgrown and the chain-link fence crumbling.
“This is where you grew up?” Landon asks from where he stands beside me.
Peering down at him, I am struck again by how incredibly lucky I am to have him here with me. I truly wondered if he’d manage to forgive me, and even though we have a ways to go before he’s healed and fully over everything that happened, I consider his mere presence a miracle.
“Yeah. Up until I found the EP, I lived right here with my parents and my brother,” I explain.
“How did you find the EP?” He turns his attention from the house and onto me, giving me those wide, curious eyes he gets whenever he is truly interested in a topic.
“I met a guy who worked for them. His name is Calum, and he was working as a repressor at the time, so when he came to investigate my family, I sided with him. Eventually, I became a repressor too.”
“What were they doing?” Landon asks quietly, treading lightly around the subject.
Which, to be fair, I did take an entire week to grow a pair and fly us out here to Texas. Reliving this past life, this piece of me I’ve buried, is so difficult it hurts. I’m not used to being weak, to showing weakness.
But if this is what Landon needs to forgive me, I’ll do it. I’ll do anything.
“The short version? They were cruel,” I confess.
“And the long version?” He slips his hand into mine, as if he knows I need the comfort.
It occurs to me suddenly that this is the first time we’ve ever held hands outside of sex. I squeeze his palm even tighter.
“The long version is that my mother and my brother also had illusion. They used it against others, whether it was to get away with stealing or to scare people they hated. Any malicious thing you can think of that illusion could be used for, they most definitely did it.”
“Does that… did that include you? Did they use it against you?” Landon asks quietly.
Memories of that dingy house and my vicious family surround me.
I see myself at nine years old, stuck in a pitch-black room as my brother laughed from outside the door.
I can feel my mother’s hands tightening around my arms as she shows me what would happen to our family if anyone ever saw my bruises.
“Yes,” I murmur, and as my eyes begin to feel a bit wet, Landon’s grip becomes firmer and more demanding.
I turn my head to face him again as he says, “You don’t have to explain anymore. I think I get it. But… how did you stop them?”
A heavy sigh leaves me. “I teamed up with Calum. And while they were sleeping one night, we took the injector gun to their necks and repressed their gifts. They never spoke to me again, of course.”
Something dark and pained crosses Landon’s features as he undoubtedly remembers going through the very same thing.
“Sorry,” I add. “I shouldn’t have—”
“It’s alright,” he interrupts. “They didn’t go to the police?”
“And say what? That their magic powers were taken in the middle of the night by their own?”
Landon chuckles, and that cloudy, agonized expression leaves his features. “Good point. Wait, how did you cover up what happened at the warehouse?”
“That was Calum. He didn’t really explain, but EP knows people at different stations, and he’s pretty used to helping with cleanup if it’s needed.”
“Do you think those people had families of their own?” he asks, and I can sense the sadness in it.
“I try not to think about it,” I admit. “I had to protect what was important to me; that’s all there is to it.”
Landon grins, a teasing twinkle in his eyes. “Important to you, eh, old man?”
I wrap an arm around his shoulders, relishing the way he feels against me. I’m pleased that the sling is gone, or I’d have to be more gentle with him. Gentle isn’t in my nature.
“You looking for an ass-whooping, babydoll?” I joke.
Landon just laughs, shoving at my side as I hold him tighter. “You couldn’t beat me up if you tried.”
I have him pressed to my chest, his heart beating against mine, a mere second later. “Didn’t I tell you to recognize those stronger than you?”
He’s panting now, eyes wide as he stares up at me with so much heat that my skin feels hot. He swallows thickly, squirming in my hold.
“Not fair,” he mutters. “I’m too horny for this.”
“Horny or annoying?” I counter, and he glares.
“Fuck you.”
“Come on,” I prompt, dragging him back toward the bike we rented. “Let’s go back to the hotel. There, I’ll fuck you.”
“Uh, did I say you could?” But he’s slipping on his helmet and fastening it anyway.
“Didn’t you say I could after I explained?” I swing a leg over the bike. “Come. I’m not waiting any longer.”
I get no more argument as he slides on behind me. It’s a teasing thrill, his chest pressed to me, his hardening length rubbing against the small of my back.
I’m going to destroy him. I guess some things never change.
When I thought to myself that I would destroy Landon, I didn’t think he’d comply so easily. But as we got to our hotel room, he reached into his bag and pulled out his very own chastity cage, holding it out to me like an offering.
I know he likes it; I just didn’t think he liked it this much.
But I fastened it over his cock and balls anyway, admiring the way it clung to his skin and made him mine again.
And now, as he stares at himself in the bathroom mirror, his eyes tracing the lines of his own body, I’m awestruck once more.
The lengths to which we’ve come together can only be called a miracle. So long ago, I hated this man like doing so was my only nutritional source. Sure, we had sex, but it was a means to an end.
Now? I can’t imagine a day without him, even if he does irritate me more often than not. And I think he feels the same, if the look he’s giving me now is any indication.
“Get on the bed and lie down,” he commands, looking at me through the mirror.
“Why?”
“Just fucking do it, Nate.”
I shrug, turning and stripping my clothes off on the way to the queen-sized mattress. Whatever it is he has planned most likely ensures I come, so it’s fine.
As I situate myself, Landon comes in and reaches back into his bag. He pulls out two sets of handcuffs.
“You’ve come very prepared for someone playing hard to get,” I tease, watching as he hooks one cuff to my wrist and the other to the bedpost. He repeats it on the other side.
“Keep running your mouth, Nate,” he says lightly, “and things will only get more difficult.”
“Difficult?” I repeat.
“Yes. This is your punishment. You want me to forgive you? Well, if I remember correctly, I never fully got my revenge the last time I had you under my thumb.”
He’s talking about the vibrating cock sleeve. The sleeve that was, arguably, the worst and best thing I’ve ever experienced.
“I can’t exactly give you two slaps this go around.” I shake my wrists, making the chains rattle.
Landon smirks, grabs a bottle of lube, and settles over my thighs. “Then suffer.”
Before I can respond, he’s pouring the lube onto his fingers and reaching behind himself. A moment later, he’s gifting me a long, loud moan.
“Fuck,” I mutter. “What exactly is my punishment here?”
Landon clenches his jaw, working himself open as he grits out, “You’re going to fuck an orgasm out of me with my cock locked up. And if you come before I do, then you’ll be punished for real.”
That doesn’t sound so bad, aside from the fact that I haven’t had sex in over two weeks, and having him like this—and not as my enemy—is turning me on so badly that I might come right now.
“What’s the real punishment?” I ask, squirming under him.
“Come and find out,” he demands.
And then he’s moaning again, falling forward and onto my chest as his fingers work. His chest rubs against my hard length, sending sparks of pleasure down my spine as I pant through the sensation.
“Aw fuck, Nate,” he groans. “I have to tell you something.”
“Right now?!”
“Yes, right now. No more secrets.”
Uh, that doesn’t sound good at all. In fact, I think my dick is wilting.
He continues. “I had a plan too. One to break your heart.”
“You… what?” I ask, and it’s a breathless and disbelieving sound as I stare at the top of his head.
His cheek is pressed into my chest, and I think I might feel him drooling.
“After you came to California the first time, I decided I’d seduce you and then, fuck! God, I found it. I found my prostate.”
“Focus, Landon,” I demand.
“Right,” he breathes out, rocking back onto his own hand. “I planned to seduce you and then leave. That was how I’d get you back for being so mean to me.”
Oh. Is that what he had meant by making my life a living hell? I’d completely forgotten about that.
And if I’m honest, it was kind of a shitty plan. Not only because it wouldn’t have worked, not in such a short period of time, but because I never intended to toy with his emotions. I just wanted him to stop using his power for bad things.
But I also can’t judge him. Not when my plan was much grander, much more dangerous.
“You’re a fucking brat,” I spit out anyway, bucking up to rub my cock against him.
“I know,” he pants. “And I… I don’t plan for that anymore. I don’t want to leave you.”
My heart fucking soars. I know I should be madder than I am, that I should throw a fit or something. But hearing that? That he doesn’t want to leave me? That feels like enough of a consolation prize.
“Are you mad?” he whispers, pulling his hand from his hole and wiping it on my discarded shirt as he sits up. “Do you hate me again?”
“No,” I admit, looking up and into those big green eyes. “I get it.”
Landon grins, so bright and beautiful. “Great. Now I get this.”
He crawls up and over my cock before notching it to his hole and plopping down, taking me inch by inch.
I bite back a groan, watching as my length disappears under him. “There may be a problem with your current plan.”
“What?” he asks, his eyes hooded as I bottom out.
“I don’t think I can… I’m too worked up to last very long.”
“Oh, yeah?” he presses.