Dominic
“Why would I want to?” Onyx crossed his arms against his chest. “What do I get out of it?”
Not yet.
Someday he would be.
Once there, Onyx instantly stripped from the waist down and laid down on the bed. “I guess I’m not allowed to take it out myself,” he muttered.
Dominic leaned against the bedpost, heated gaze lazily taking in the half-naked witch sprawled on the bed. “Take your shirt off."
It didn’t matter that he’d already come that morning, or that he’d already had his hands all over the Rayne witch. Seeing him now, like that in his bed, wearing his plug…
He needed more.
He needed Onyx coming with the plug still in his ass, and he needed it immediately.
Onyx propped himself up on his elbows. “Plug out first,” he insisted. “You promised.”
“Shirt off,” Dominic countered, pushing off from the bedpost and trailing his fingertips over Onyx’s calf as he started to get onto the bed. “Then pleasure. Then plug out.”
Onyx’s gaze darkened as he stared at Dominic. “No,” he retorted. “You told me it could come out after the lessons. You didn’t say there’d be a price for it to come out.”
Dominic made a frustrated noise, some of his ardor cooling at Onyx’s recalcitrance. “This isn’t a price for taking it out. Can I not want to make you feel good before I take it out?”
“You just want to make me come while you have it inside of me,” Onyx shot back. “You like humiliating me.”
Dominic paused, caught off guard, then frowned. “Humiliating you? I haven’t done anything to humiliate you.”
Onyx stared at him. “What do you mean, you haven’t humiliated me?
” he demanded. “You humiliate me every single day, every single time you have your… your fingers in me and you make me come. And now you want me to take lessons with that thing in me, knowing it’s there while I talk to people who already look down on me.
It’s beyond humiliating, Dominic!” His cheeks flushed with heat.
“And you promised—” His voice cracked slightly, and he looked away, yanking the blankets over to cover his bare bottom half.
Genuinely perplexed, Dominic regarded Onyx.
“How does any of that humiliate you? I enjoy bringing you pleasure, and you enjoy receiving it. And who will know if you’re wearing the plug if you don’t say anything about it?
I certainly have no intention of doing so.
You wear it for me, not for anyone else. ”
“I don’t!” Onyx shouted. “I don’t enjoy it!
This isn’t some sex game in the bedroom that we’re both playing and enjoying, Dominic!
” He jerked the blankets back off of him and got up, snatching up his clothes.
“I know. I know what I am, who I am, who I fucking was, and I’m not this picture you’ve painted of me. I’m not.”
Dominic caught Onyx around the waist before he could get very far, pulling the younger witch back against his chest. “Shhh,” he soothed. “Lie back down. Let me take the plug out, and then we’ll talk.”
“Let go of me!” Onyx demanded. He twisted free of Dominic’s grasp, taking a step away from him. “You told me you’d take the plug out after the lesson. It’s after the lesson. But it just wasn’t enough. You have to try to take more!”
Dominic stilled, his body tensing. Their agreement was, in all actuality, based on a very fragile foundation of trust. The one thing that they both needed to be certain of was that the other would keep their word when it was given.
“It was after the lesson, it still is after the lesson, and I am not violating my word,” he said calmly.
“I’m not going to make you keep it in, nor am I requiring you to wear it for any extended period beyond your lessons.
Did I want more before taking it out? Yes.
Did I want to make you feel good? Also yes.
I asked you to wear it for longer. You said no before; I respected that.
There are times when you can say no and it’s allowed. ”
“I said no when you told me to take my shirt off,” Onyx snapped at him.
“I said no because I didn’t want pleasure while this…
this thing is inside of me. You didn’t listen.
You didn’t care because you think we’re in this together or some bullshit, like we’re both doing this because we want to.
I don’t know if you forget that I don’t want to be here or if you’re just getting off on that, but it doesn’t matter. ”
“I have not forgotten anything,” Dominic noted, still every bit as calm as Onyx was heated.
“And when it comes to being in my bed, there are requirements there that are still set as they are and have been. There are places that you can deny me, Onyx Rayne, and there are places that you cannot. Or have you forgotten that?”
Onyx swallowed hard as the fight went out of him all at once. “How could I?” he whispered.
But it seemed as though he had.
“Come here.” Dominic held out his hand.
Onyx’s jaw clenched, but he went to Dominic anyway, stopping just within his reach, as always, without closing the distance completely between them.
Dominic caught Onyx by the hips, tugging him closer. Onyx let him, but he didn’t press against him.
“Nothing I do is with the intention of humiliating you, Onyx,” Dominic said softly.
“Not in my bed, nor out of it. I cannot order you to stop being humiliated, but the humiliation exists because you are clinging to things that are no longer true. I cannot fight that battle for you, but nothing I am asking of you or requiring of you is to harm you, humiliate you, shame you, nor belittle, nor mock you.”
“You act like that’s easy,” Onyx muttered. “I just wanted the plug out, like you said you’d do. That’s all, Dominic!” He looked up at him, his expression pleading.
“I’m not claiming it’s easy, Onyx. I can only tell you the truth. Nothing is intended to humiliate.” Dominic lifted a hand to brush Onyx’s hair away from his face. “There are places that you cannot deny me, Onyx. My bed is one of them. But lie down, and I’ll take the plug out.”
“So what am I supposed to do? Bend over in your sitting room so you can take it out before I go back to the bedroom?” Onyx retorted, but he drew back so he could lie down on the bed, still clutching his clothing tightly as he spread his legs.
“I can tell you I want it out until we’re back in here? How does that work, Dominic?”
“Bend over in the sitting room, in the office, in the grand ballroom, wherever you so prefer." Dominic sat on the edge of the bed and drew the plug slowly free from Onyx’s body. “The moment you sprawl half-naked on my bed, plugged and sulky, the game changes and the rules have altered.”
Onyx scowled at Dominic. “You could’ve told me that before,” he muttered. “I didn’t know you were going to change the rules just because I got onto the bed. If it had been up to me, I’d have just gone to the bathroom and taken it out. But I was trying to play by your rules.”
“I wasn’t aware that you needed a reminder,” Dominic said, his voice droll.
“So, let us be perfectly clear to avoid future misunderstandings.
Outside of this bedroom, there is a measure of decorum that I expect we both will hold to, which will include courtesy, honesty, and a lack of any overt displays, whether in front of staff or guests.
“Within this bedroom, a separate set of rules apply, in which aforementioned overt displays may well be a part. And within my bed, I am bound by what word I have given you, that I will not harm you nor intentionally hurt you, among the others I have given, and you might well argue with me or contradict me, but you cannot deny me. Understood?”
Onyx grabbed the blanket and pulled it over himself from the waist down. “Yeah,” he said unenthusiastically. “I understand.”
Dominic sighed. “I have work to finish." He stood up. “Get dressed.”
Onyx got up and quickly obeyed. “Can I stay in here while you work?” he asked.
Dominic frowned. “I have another meeting, so I can’t work from here.”
“You can leave me in the crate,” Onyx said quietly. “Please.”
Dominic paused. “You wish to stay in the crate while I work in the office?” he asked for clarity. “Why?”
“Because you’re not going to let me go to the rec room alone,” Onyx replied. “And I really want to be alone right now.”
And there it was. Onyx was trying to put more space between them again, after he’d said he wouldn’t. But Dominic supposed that was to be expected, really. “Very well."
Wordlessly, Onyx went over to the crate and got inside.
Dominic kept his face dispassionate as he watched Onyx get into the crate, only moving to latch and lock the door once the witch was inside. That done, he turned and headed out of the bedroom to get back to the office and finish working.
He was tempted to cancel his final meeting of the day.
He was certainly in no mood to be sitting listening to business updates while seething on the inside about disrespectful pets, but it was something that really couldn’t be put off.
He’d canceled this particular meeting once before due to unfortunate circumstances.
So, needs must.
He would permit Onyx to have this distance — for now.