Sevastyan
It was a relief to return Rei and Lisa to the Bolthole.
Between the hotel and Ellisandre’s apartment, he thoroughly contained or checked all their items for surveillance devices, using the back of a rented van in a parking garage.
There was nothing on either slave, nor in the luggage.
Sevastyan had not expected any tampering from Alexi, but Jonathan was a wild card.
Even so, Sevastyan kept himself from exhibiting anything softer than a touch on Rei’s head until they were in the Bolthole.
Once inside, with the door shut, Sevastyan murmured, “At ease.”
Rei started to kneel to help Sevastyan with his shoes.
“Not now, my precious,” Sevastyan murmured. “Don’t put weight on that foot.” He helped both Rei and Lisa remove their winter wear, Rei first. When Rei was free of his coats and boots, he crawled to the couch where Sevastyan directed him and waited while Sevastyan helped Lisa.
There were things that had to be said to Lisa. Sevastyan dithered in his head between bringing Rei also, but in the end, he gestured to the laptop he usually let Rei use. “Are you able to work?”
“Yes, master.” Rei sat up straighter, his eyes sharpening. He looked eager.
Sevastyan smiled. “I’m sure we’re both behind. See what you can do to catch us up.”
Rei’s lips moved towards a grin and he nodded firmly. “Yes, master.” Knowing him, he had been anxious without mental stimulation.
Sevastyan gave a nod in return and got a firmer grip around Lisa’s waist.
“We’ll be in the bedroom for a bit.” He helped Lisa limp through the flat into the bedroom and eased him down on the mattress.
Lisa looked shattered. If anything, he looked worse than when Sevastyan had first seen him that morning.
Sevastyan knelt down beside the bed, getting closer to eye level with the other man.
Lisa’s eyes sharpened. He raised his hand, still wrapped in bandages.
“Stop. Whatever you’re going to say, don’t. I can’t take the back and forth. Either you’re my fucking master or you’re not. And . . .”
Lisa’s voice quavered. “I can’t fucking do what you’re going to ask me to do if you’re not. So choose.”
There was so much damnable strength in Lisa. Sevastyan stared at it and at the man. Then he took one of Lisa’s hands in his. Such honesty had to be answered with respect. Even if respect in this instance looked nothing like what another might recognize.
“Your hands have been wrapped long enough. I’m concerned they will weaken if you go any longer without using them. And we have training to start.”
He took his time undoing first one and then the other set of bandages, straightening Lisa’s fingers out one by one and checking the bruises and lacerations. He had healed significantly, but it was high time that the skin had continuous air.
“I would collar you, but Alexi noted in your file that you respond badly to anything tied around your neck, which is reasonable, considering. So I found something else.”
He stood and went to the armoire and came back with a dark paperboard box in his hands.
It smelled faintly of oil and cedar from where it had been stored. He set it on the bed. “Open it.”
Lisa flexed his fingers, giving Sevastyan a wary glance, and lifted the lid slowly.
Inside, wrapped in a cloth, was a pile of leather straps and shapes, linked together with steel.
He lifted it from the box and a harness hung from his hands.
Not a cheap harness, either. The leather was blood onyx red and deep burgundy brown.
There were no buckles beneath the armpits that would chafe and the straps were cut on curves instead of in straight lines.
This was a wearable article meant for regular and continuous use.
Lisa raised his eyes to Sevastyan, his fingers rubbing against the leather. “For me?”
Sevastyan nodded. “For you, if you accept. And then we start. You’ll be under me as surely as Rei. I will own you and protect you and use you, in all things, barring Alexi’s interference.”
“He told me to serve you now.” Lisa blinked fast and dropped his eyes.
Sevastyan grasped the other man by the hair on the back of his head and tilted his face upwards, robbing him of the moment of private fear. “Yes, you do.”
Lisa’s eyes widened, but he didn’t disagree. He held still, like prey, waiting to see if Sevastyan would strike. Instead, Sevastyan stroked his thumb over Lisa’s shoulder and softened his voice. “Let’s get these clothes off and this fitted. I want to see my collar on you.”
Lisa’s stiff fingers went to the buttons on the front of his shirt. Sevastyan brushed his hands aside and started to undress his slave himself.
“Did you know?” Lisa whispered. “That’s not a cheap piece.”
“I knew before I left that Alexi would likely leave you in my hands. But I couldn’t tell you, now, could I?”
Lisa shook his head and grunted in pain as he moved his shoulder, helping Sevastyan get the shirt off.
“Leave the pants,” Sevastyan said. “We can get those off when you’re lying down.”
“How did you get it so fast?”
“It’s mine. Ellisandre had it made for me, back when we were first seeing each other. I was skinnier then. It wouldn’t go around me now, but they still had it. It seemed fitting.”
“You shouldn’t use it on me,” Lisa whispered. “It’s special, for the two of you.”
Sevastyan spread his hand across the steel and leather.
“It’s a mark of protection and a sign of trust. Every time I met Ellisandre was a risk. They worked for the other side. At any point they could have arrested me or locked me away. I knew that, and I knelt for them anyway. Each time, they let me go. I want you to be thinking of that,
when you wear this. I will be your master. There’s no faking what we will do, but I want you to remember that I am your master in the moment. And that means I also protect you, that you are under me, my guns, my shield, my care, as well as my will. And when this is over, I will release you,
like Ellisandre has always released me.”
He wrapped the leather harness around Lisa’s shoulders.
There was one leather strap over each shoulder, falling to the cross band over Lisa’s chest which extended out to curved underarm bands that wrapped around to the back, connecting to the cross band over Lisa’s spine.
Nothing was near the neck. There was a second set of cross-bands over the ribs lower down.
Once locked, the harness could not be pulled off over the head or pulled down over the arms.
It made for strong handholds to grab onto.
In the center front and on both arms were also D rings for attachments, such as leashes.
Sevastyan ran his finger under each of the straps, adjusting the fit and locking them down. “You can’t bathe in it. I will unlock it each time. You can wear this over a shirt when we are out and against your skin in training.”
Lisa swallowed and looked down at the leather across his chest.
Sevastyan stood, removing the bandages from the bed and setting them on one of the dressers.
He came back and pushed Lisa onto his back, his head against the pillows.
With deft movements, he plucked apart the waist of Lisa’s pants and stripped them off the slave’s legs, taking the under layers and socks with them. Lisa lay bare on the comforter.
He watched Sevastyan’s face, tracking every move.
Sevastyan started folding the clothes. “Your chip is reset for three more months. Alexi left me the codes and device to reset it. We’ll do it in two months to be safe. If something happens to me, Ellisandre will have backups. They’ll be able to buy you time, even if they can’t remove it.”
Lisa blinked once. He was barely breathing.
Sevastyan forced the ache in his throat down into his belly. He set the clothes aside and came back to the bed, leaning over Lisa, one hand on the mattress. “I’m going to speak to Rei. Then I will return.”
Lisa’s eyes searched Sevastyan’s. A myriad of questions swirled there but not one left his lips.
“It’s time,” Sevastyan said, answering what was not spoken. It was what he would want to know, if he were in Lisa’s place.
Lisa swallowed. He nodded just once. Sevastyan withdrew his weight from the bed.
Heaviness pressed down on his shoulders as he returned to the living room. Rei was on the computer, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
“Little one,” Sevastyan murmured.
Rei looked up. Sevastyan crossed to him and went down on one knee. He brushed the loose strands of Rei’s hair back from his face. It was getting long but it also suited him. “I’m taking Lisa.”
Rei blinked.
Sevastyan stroked Rei’s face. His boy had that blankness in his eyes that spoke to acceptance overriding an undercurrent of shock. Not surprise exactly, but a deep quake within Rei’s world.
Rei lifted his hand, then dropped it. He was reverting to his hardcore training, not the softer rules of their own internal world. By those rules, the privilege of touching a slave’s master had to be given in each interaction.
“Finish your work,” Sevastyan said. He cupped Rei’s cheek and kissed Rei’s forehead, then drew back and emptied his pockets on the coffee table beside the computer Rei was using. His phones, his IDs, his weapons.
He kissed Rei again. “Watch these for me.”
Rei pointed to the phone that was linked to Ellisandre.
“Ellisandre,” Sevastyan explained. He picked up the phone and typed in the code to unlock it. Rei watched his fingers, memorizing the sequence. “If they call, answer.”
Rei bent his head in acknowledgement. Sevastyan stood. His gut felt wrong. Something was left undone. What he was about to do to Lisa was the right choice. Holding it over Lisa’s head when it would eventually have to happen was cruel. Making Rei watch also felt cruel, to both Lisa and Rei.
Sevastyan dropped back to one knee in front of his slave. “Rei.”
Rei’s eyelashes fluttered. His face was still a mask.
“What am I doing wrong?”
Rei blinked once, slowly. “I’m still yours. When all this is over, I’m still yours, right?”
“Yes,” Sevastyan said.
Rei nodded, a little tension leaving his body.
“I’ll come back, when I’ve finished.”