Chapter 6
The other end of the phone line was completely quiet, deafening so, and Malachi squashed down the bitter taste of fear.
Megan had allowed him to play with other submissives over the past year, but never without her being there.
He hadn’t stopped to think she might be angry with him for enjoying one short game of fairly vanilla fun with the smart ass kid that had managed to squirm his way under Malachi’s skin.
“Meg? Please tell me I haven’t messed things up too badly, too badly to be fixed?” He looked down and saw his hands were trembling.
They had their problems in the bedroom, but their love was unshakable, wasn’t it?
Fuck, but he was seriously turning into a pussy.
“Malachi, you couldn’t do anything that would be unfixable, darling. My love for you will never die or lessen, regardless of what a hard-ass you can be at times. I just…I just don’t know how to say this.”
“What, Meg? You’re scaring me.” And, fuck, he was scared, fucking terrified.
Losing Megan would destroy him.
“I’ve been worried about us…in the bedroom, just as I’m sure you have. Baby, I’ve tried so hard to want to be the submissive lover you crave so badly, but I can’t make myself be something that I’m not. I could fake it, but neither of us wants that.”
“I don’t have to have a submissive, Meg. I’ve told you I can lay this shit down if that’s what it will take to make you marry me. I just…got caught up in the moment. He’s just so fucking annoying, his ass needed spanking more than any ass I’ve ever spanked…and I’ve spanked a lot of asses.” Was he being honest?
Could he lay down the lifestyle he’d loved most of his adult life?
She chuckled softly.
“And then the boy had to go and enjoy it. I bet that totally knocked the high and mighty Malachi flat on his ass, didn’t it?”
“I was surprised. The traits are usually easy to pick up on, but I guess he just annoyed me so badly that I missed the signals.I won’t touch him again if that’s what you want and I would never fuck him without your permission. You know I haven’t been with another person sexually since I laid eyes on you, right?” He heard Megan take a deep breath.
“Susannah has been training me to be a Domme. It was just for fun at first, but I really found myself enjoying it…a lot. Maybe a hell of a lot,” she added softly.
“I’m not submissive, Meg. You know that, but I wouldn’t keep you from playing with some subs if that makes you happy.” How the hell was this going to work?
Were they always going to be sneaking off to play with somebody else instead of finding release with one another ?
“Baby, nobody is ever going to accuse you of being submissive. I don’t think that is anything you need to worry about,” she said with a laugh.
Another deep breath and then, “Justice is very pretty. I can’t stop myself from studying the picture you left behind. You, my dominant stud, are manly handsome. Justice is manly pretty. You both complement each other very well.”
Yea, anybody would think he was pretty until you had to spend some time with him.
An hour in his presence and even Obama would be ready to consider torture as an acceptable means to an end.
Malachi frowned.
WTF?
What was she getting at?
Holy shit!
Was she saying what he thought she was saying?
“What are you thinking, babe?”
“I don’t know. I feel stupid for even thinking it.”
“You want to share him? Bring him into our bedroom as our submissive?” Please let that be it, he prayed.
Why the hell hadn’t he already thought about adding a submissive?
Because there hasn’t been a Justice before now, he answered himself.
“Do you think he would consider it? I mean, you’ve just now told me he exhibited a few slight submissive traits and I’m ready for both of us to have our wicked way with him! How ridiculous is that?”
“I think you are the most perfect fucking hot woman in the fucking world. I’m not sure the kid is ready for that kind of kink, but I’m more than ready to try to convince him of the benefits. If not, maybe we find another sub that is?” Why did only the thought of adding Justice to their mix entice him?
Before meeting the brat, he wouldn’t have even considered allowing another into the bedroom with him and Megan.
Now, he thought it was the best damned idea in the fucking world.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered in an excited voice.
“I can’t believe we are even considering this. I feel so decadently wicked. Holy shit, I’m contributing to the debauchery of an almost minor!” She giggled like a schoolgirl.
“I’m twenty seven, Megan. I hardly call that a minor.” He knew she wasn’t talking about him.
Silence.
Crickets.
Not nary a sound…
and then, “Did you just make a joke?” she asked in disbelief.
“Hot damn, mother fucking, son of a bitch, you just made a joke! This boy really must be getting to you!”
“Ha. Ha,” he said drily.
“I’m not that gloom and doom. Am I?” he asked as his eyes glanced at the television monitor to see the live feed he had of Justice.
The stupid kid was squirming like a fish out of water and his cock still looked painfully hard, but his hand had never once stroked, cupped, or tweaked.
He was being such a good boy.
“Ah, baby. I wouldn’t call you gloom and doom, more like fucking hot intense…all the time.”
“Shit. I’m pretty sure that’s just the sugar-coated version of gloom and doom,” he countered.
Was he that fucking bad?
“Enough talk about shit that doesn’t matter. I love you just the way you are and I’ll love you if you change, too. Now, let’s talk about what you have planned for the boy tomorrow so that I can get myself worked up into a frenzy and you can talk me through my orgasm, okay?”
“Skype,” he growled.
“I’ve got to see this.”
At precisely five in the morning, Malachi’s eyes opened wide and he slung his legs over the bed to begin his morning routine.
Every morning of his adult life, he woke up at five am, exercised for an hour, showered, prepared his breakfast, and then read the world news on his iPad as he ate his one piece of toast, two strips of bacon, and fried egg.
He knew the brat down the hall made fun of his need for schedules and plans, but it was simply how he did things, how he’d always done things.
He certainly didn’t see the need to change something that had been proven to work damned well.
A muffled thump sent his body into high alert.
His eyes immediately went to the monitor as his hand scooped up his gun.
Squinting, he saw what the problem was, the kid was having some kind of nightmare and was about to strangle his sexy neck with the chains and collar hooking him in place.
Slipping his gun back into place, he hurried to Justice’s room before any serious damage could be done.
Hell, the kid couldn’t even sleep without being a pest…
a fucking sexy pest, but a pest nonetheless.
By the time he reached the room, the nightmare had Justice in a frenzy of flailing arms and legs.
His head jerked from side to side, tugging the collar tightly with each wild movement.
Malachi straddled his chest and grabbed both his upper arms and held them tightly to the bed.
“Justice! Justice, wake up! It’s a nightmare,” he said in the loudest, calmest voice he thought would be best to handle the situation.
Lean muscles flexed beneath him as Justice continued to struggle as he fought to wake up and Malachi couldn’t help but admire how lovely it felt to have him squirming beneath him, regardless of what was causing the sexy gyrations.
The kid’s hard cock was bumping right up against his ass…
which he didn’t like at all.
A bottom, he was not.
Releasing one of his arms, he gripped the boy by the chin and forced his head to stay perfectly still.
“Justice, I need you to wake up. Now,” he growled in his Dom voice.
Pretty pale blue eyes popped open obediently.
They were groggy and the pupils were slightly dilated, but he’d responded immediately.
“What are you doing? Why are you on top of me? Did you sneak in here to ride the pony express?”
His boy was annoying even when he was sleepy and his heart was thundering from whatever nightmare had been tormenting him.
A horrible thought just dawned on him, what if Justice was a Travis?
Could he deal with that all the time?
Please don’t let him be a Travis.
Karma couldn’t be that big of a bitch, could she?
Oh, and his sleepy voice was sexier than fuck.
He rolled off him and began unlocking the latches that hooked to his thick leather collar.
“You were having a nightmare and about to choke yourself with all your ridiculous girlie thrashing. Do you have nightmares often? Is this yet another thing I have to worry about when dealing with your annoying ass?” As soon as the locks were opened, he stood up, putting some safe distance between them before he rolled the kid over, raised that ass up in the air, and fucked it good and hard.
A good morning fuck was not in the plan he and Megan had made last night…
and they had a really good plan.
“Shit, I need to piss,” Justice grumbled as he tumbled from the bed, nearly tripping as his legs got caught up in the cocoon of blankets he’d somehow managed to burrito himself in during the night.
Righting himself, he then slammed right into Malachi’s chest as he tried to make his way to the bathroom.
“What? Please don’t tell me you like to watch people go to the bathroom because that’s just creepy, dude. I’ll usually try anything once but I don’t think I even want to give that one the one-chancer opportunity.”
“I asked you a question. Answer me,” Malachi said coldly.
He was furious that they hadn’t told him that Justice was having nightmares.
He could have really hurt himself last night.
He couldn’t fucking keep him safe if he didn’t have all the information.
Justice shrugged.
“I’ve had a few since the shit show I witnessed at the shit house. No biggie. Now, can I piss? It’s already bad enough that you won’t let me take care of this cock-sucking hard on I’ve been sporting since last night. Surely you’ll let a poor kid take a morning pee?”
“Was your father or other handlers aware of the nightmares?”
“It isn’t anybody’s business but mine. Anyway, they were babysitters, not handlers. Pee is seriously about to run down my leg. I’ll probably even get some on you, collateral damage.”
“It’s my business,” Malachi growled as he shoved the smart-mouthed asshole toward the bathroom door.
“Everything about you is now my business. Don’t keep secrets from me.”
Justice stood in front of the toilet and Malachi stood at the bathroom door, glaring his usual glare.
A full minute ticked by.
Justice took a deep breath and started talking.
“Okay, here’s what you need to know. For reasons that I can’t begin to understand, I think it is fucking hot that you are declaring that I’m your business and that I’m not allowed to keep secrets from you. So, I’m giving you a big fucking ‘yes, sir’ to your demand to not keep secrets, but I am not pissing in front of you. It’s just weird.” He glanced at the thick watch around his wrist and continued, “You’ve got some serious shit problems that you need to deal with, so I think you can put humiliating me in the bathroom a little lower on your bucket list. It is already five nineteen in the morning and you haven’t done the first sit up, push up, or all that other shit you do before you hit your shower at precisely six am. If you don’t shake your pretty little ass down the hall, you’re going to get so far behind that you won’t be able to catch up…ever again.”
Malachi literally had to bite the inside of his jaw to keep the grin from freeing itself.
“I’m going to take a ruler to your cock tonight for that smart ass comment, pretty. Be prepared,” he warned and then stalked out of the room before he wasn’t able to hide how easily he could be manipulated by something so pretty and submissive.
Glancing at his watch, he picked up his pace.
The cute little bastard was right, he’d have to hustle if he was going to be able to perform an adequate workout and still make it to the shower at six.
Almost two hours later, Justice sat on the couch, in the exact spot where his head had been crammed face-down into the cushions while Malachi had spanked his ass last night, and flipped through one of the boring business magazines that had been left behind by some poor Christian Grey wannabe.
Business and finances, boring beyond words.
The magazine in his hands was slowly sucking the life out of his body until there would be nothing left but an empty shell.
Across from him, Malachi thumbed through his iPad, probably reading something as equally boring as the magazine sucking the life from him, and sipped his coffee…
one fourth a cup of creamer and two teaspoons of sugar.
As best he could tell, this one cup of morning coffee was probably Malachi’s only vice.
Smiling, he bet it pissed the shit out of him that he needed that one cup every morning…
at exactly six thirty am.
They had spent four mornings together in Boringsville, USA and every morning had been exactly the same.
Malachi had eaten his same breakfast and ignored every question or comment he sent his way.
If he was lucky, there might be an occasional grunt for a response.
He wasn’t sure what he had expected this morning, but it wasn’t this, not this same cold indifference that greeted him every morning.
Hell, he’d let the guy spank his bare ass and jerk him off last night!
If he did that to a girl, he had to at least buy her dinner and pretend to be interested in the latest reality television show.
The arrogant fucker had even fingered his ass last night.
Sure, he hadn’t gone all the way in, but there’d been some definite fingering.
Backdoor action with the chicks meant at least three horrendous hours of shopping, listening to her babble about what she wanted and watching her try on shit that he was going to have to buy if he was going to nail that ass.
Surely fingering called for something north of a grunt but south of a shopping trip, didn’t it?
“Sooooo…about last night? Weird, huh?” What the fuck else could he say?
Dude, I totally loved getting my bare ass spanked and thank you very much for rubbing one off for me.
By the way, could we do it again tonight?
And tomorrow?
Maybe the night after that?
“Not weird, no.”
Not another word followed.
He didn’t even look up from his stupid iPad.
The fucker could have at least complimented his ass and how well it took a spanking.
Hell, he’d complimented a many of asses in his day…
just to get to touch that ass again.
There wasn’t one damned thing to do while trapped in the house in the middle of nowhere…
without his cell phone or the internet.
Yes, Malachi could use the internet with his iPad, but he hadn’t been allowed to bring anything.
Annoying Malachi was all he fucking had left.
“Is that your real eye color? Because I bet it isn’t. I’ve never seen another living person with violet-colored eyes. Are they real?” Maybe he could irritate him enough to make him spank him again?
Now that was a plan he could work with.
Violet eyes didn’t even flicker up from the iPad.
They were real and they were fucking awesome, but he wouldn’t let Malachi know he thought that.
The hot bastard probably had people falling all over themselves to be with him anyway.
Like he needed another boost to his ego?
“Do you want to play some video games? I don’t know whose house this is, but they’ve got a pretty sweet selection of games. I bet I can beat your ass at any game you pick out. How ‘bout it?”
Dear Lord, he was going to die of boredom before Marcus’ father was able to find him and kill him. Was dying of boredom painful? It had to be. It felt like it.
“It wouldn’t kill you to say something, you know.”
“It wouldn’t kill you to be quiet, you know,” Malachi dead-panned.
Violet eyes never left the iPad though.
Maybe the dude was looking at porn?
“So, all this submissive and dominant shit, maybe you could let me use your nifty iPad and I could research what it’s all about and see if it is something I might be interested in .” Oh, he was fucking interested in it.
“I’ll teach you everything you need to know. I certainly don’t want you looking shit up on the internet and thinking what you find might actually have any merit to it. I don’t need your wandering mind clouded with nonsense.”
Uh oh.
Internet research, already done.
How did he think he ended up at the Victorian house, anyway?
By accident?
Selling Girl Scout cookies?
Looking for his lost puppy ?
“Soooo. Did you want to play those video games?”
Malachi sat the iPad aside.
“Did you know that I have the skills to kill you around fifty different ways? Right now, because of your endless chitter-chatter, I’m contemplating trying out at least ten of them. You know? Take you right to the edge but not shove you all the way over?”
Justice sat there, blinking.
Malachi probably did know fifty ways to kill him.
The very fact that his father trusted his safety with the man told Justice just how adept he must truly be.
He never smiled, joked, or, God forbid, laughed.
He probably had to follow a schedule on when he would take a dump or get laid.
He was also all Justice could think about.
He’d never wanted anybody so badly in his entire life and the threat that he might fuck this up terrified him beyond words.
His feelings terrified the shit out of him…
for many reasons.
“Okay, okay. You can teach me how to fight, all that cool shit like how to kill people fifty different ways. Unlike you, I’m not driven to be an over-achiever so you can teach me…like ten different ways and that will be enough for me to choose from if the opportunity ever presents itself.”
He expected Malachi to either grunt or glare, and then leave him alone, disappearing into the basement like he did about this time every single day.
What he didn’t expect is what happened next.
“Put on some sweats or shorts and come down into the basement.”
Holy fine fuck!
He was getting to go to the basement !
Justice looked around the room, shocked at the amount of gym equipment available for him to work out with.
He wished he’d known all this shit was down here.
There were punching bags, pull-up bars, treadmills, elliptical machines, weight machines, and free weights.
An area was set aside for what looked like wrestling or kick-boxing workouts.
Three walls of the gym area were covered with floor-to-ceiling mirrors.
He thought for sure he’d just walked straight into Heaven.
“Holy shit, this is some set up for a basement in a vacation home. I see now what’s been keeping you so busy during the day.”
Malachi arched a brow.
“Mmhmm. What did you think I was doing down here? Crocheting?”
“Eh…waterboarding boy scouts? Drowning puppies? Pulling the fingernails off little old ladies?” He flashed Malachi a big fat teasing smile.
Instead of seeing him do all that, he was busy envisioning the guy shirtless, muscles flexing and dripping with sweat.
Shit, he was so fucking turning gay.
“Ha-ha. Very funny, smartass.” He waved a hand toward the free weights further back in the room.
“How are you with free weights, kid? Comfortable with that or would you rather work the machines?” He glanced around in the direction of his pet, eye-fucking him…
just because he could.
Damn, but the kid looked fucking hot in his baggy gray sweats and absolutely nothing else.
Bless those sweats, they accented that tight bubble ass perfectly.
“From the looks of your body, you must spend some time in the gym.”
“MmmHmmm,” Justice murmured.
Malachi’s intense gaze was making him feel all kinds of hot in all kinds of places.
Strutting out a boner in the gym would definitely be against Malachi’s workout rules, he guessed.
Shit.
He was going to get kicked out after only one workout session.
“Ah…actually not a lot of time working out with weights. I usually run or swim,” he finally added.
“Dad’s made sure I’ve been trained in all sorts of martial arts. He’s terrified that I’m going to get myself ‘iced’ one day.”
Yep, swimmer’s body, gorgeously lean, tapered at the hips, trim waist, long legs, and hairless.
Malachi bet the kid could rock a Speedo but guessed he probably opted for a more modest pair of trunks.
Pity.
“No problem. We’ll get you comfortable with these bad boys really quick.”
Justice arched a brow as he watched Malachi start stacking weights onto a bar over the bench press.
He thought he was adapting to everything the man had tossed his way pretty damned well.
He loved every new sensation pretty damned well too.