At His Throat, a Promise (11 page)

That was the only thing Harte expressed any sort of restraint in.

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When it came to sex, Harte was needy, demanding, and eager but always fair. Ellis found his bed full of Harte more often than not, and sometimes Harte convinced him to come to
his
room instead.

Ellis soon learned this was because Harte had restraints built into his bed, and he liked Ellis to use them on him. Which Ellis did, a little nervously, though Harte had assured him the master had given his approval. It wasn"t even so much that—he trusted Harte not to push the master"s limits when it came to Ellis. No, he sometimes felt all wrong doing things with Harte when the other boy was tied up. Like he was playing the wrong role in a movie—

he had auditioned for Harte"s part.

But he couldn"t express this unfamiliar urge to William when he didn"t even understand it himself. And more than that, it wasn"t and would never be his place to ask William to do things a certain way. William had Harte to do the rougher things to, and he knew his slave liked it. Why bother with learning what Ellis wanted?

When Harte wasn"t making obvious demands on Ellis or subtler ones on his master, he liked to watch the television. The first time Ellis had seen it, he"d frozen in place. He"d heard of them of course, but growing up, his family hadn"t had the money or inclination to own such a thing, and his previous master thought they were abominations of science. Given the rest of the technology in his old master"s house, Ellis had never understood the sentiment, but William didn"t have any such qualms. William himself didn"t seem to watch it very often, preferring to retire to his study to work if it happened to be on, but Harte adored it and blamed Ellis for making him miss almost a week of his favourite show.

While Harte watched episodes from what must have been the fiftieth year of some low-budget drama, Ellis would open his 87

AT HIS THROAT, A PROMISE

books and try to catch up. Harte seemed to have much more than a year"s head start on what Ellis knew, but he surprised himself with how much he managed to pick up in a short time. Hearing William talk in those terms all the time really helped, and when he mentioned this, William took to letting him sit in the study while he made phone calls to clients, judges, and other lawyers. Ellis picked up on the language much more quickly this way, and William called him an “audio learner” and vowed to get him some tapes that would encourage his learning.

But it only took one night to bring Ellis crashing back down.

His mantra of
remember your place, be a good slave
had slowly faded into background noise as he became more comfortable. He still sought not to break any rules and be obedient and good, but reminding himself that he didn"t belong had become less necessary as he was almost seamlessly fitting into his new—albeit temporary—life.

And so when he fell asleep in Harte"s bed after some lazy mutual masturbation, he was surprised to wake up feeling far from rested.

But the reason for this became clear when he heard a moan beside him. Unbelieving that Harte hadn"t been satisfied by their tryst only hours ago—as it was still dark—Ellis was about to interrupt when he heard another moan.

William"s.

His eyes quickly adjusted to the dark, and he wished they hadn"t. William was lying on his back and Harte was straddling him, raising and lowering himself—painfully slowly—onto William"s cock. His hands were braced on William"s chest, and William"s hands were resting—not clenching, not even guiding—

on Harte"s thighs.

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No words were spoken, only the softest noises through bitten or pursed lips.

Ellis forced himself to watch this lovemaking. For that was what it was, and no mistake. William had
fucked
Ellis halfway to death and back again, and afterward he"d been tender, but there had been nothing like this. William couldn"t tear his eyes away from his slave"s face, and Harte looked equally enraptured.

When they came, they came together, muffling their cries in each other"s mouths, tensing and obviously fighting not to move too much.

Then there were whispers too low to hear, even in the silence of the room. Then kissing sounds, louder than the whispers. Then the weight on the bed shifted and then the door opened and closed.

Harte gave a restrained—for him—sigh that was imbued with happiness.

Ellis waited until Harte"s breathing evened out and then returned to his own room.

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“Ellis, come into my study, please,” William said as soon as he walked in the front door, striding past the kneeling slaves in the foyer. He didn"t even greet Harte, which made the younger slave droop all over.

Following quickly, Ellis closed the stuffy door behind himself as William sat and then immediately knelt beside his desk chair.

William looked tired and a little angry. Ellis tried to go through everything that had happened that day, fighting to remember if he"d done something wrong.

“Do you enjoy being here?”

Ellis looked up in shock and then ducked his head again. “Yes, Sir.”

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“Why do I get the feeling that you say what you think I want to hear and not your own thoughts?”

That was a rather tricky question because he was asking Ellis to explain why William felt a certain way, and that was impossible.

“I"m sorry, Sir,” was the only thing he could really say.

William sighed. “You know, when I first brought Harte home, I thought things were going to be incredibly difficult. His past as a slave is… troubled. But if nothing else, I could always count on him to be truthful.”

Ellis"s shoulder twitched a little with the effort not to speak.

He"d
never
lied to the master.

But William seemed to hear him loud and clear without words.

“There"s a difference between lying and not telling the truth, Ellis.

I appreciate that you don"t lie to me. It"s something I demand because I need to be able to take care of you properly. It comes so easily to Harte, who doesn"t really have any internal censorship.

He says whatever he feels and that makes life very easy for me.

But with you I feel like I"m constantly guessing.” Nodding slowly, Ellis said, “I think I understand, Sir. I"ll try to be better.”

“It"s not a matter of
better
. In many ways, you"re a
better
slave than Harte. You"re very obedient and you"ve never spoken back.

But you"re not a better slave for
me
, do you understand?” Ellis opened his mouth but opted for another nod instead.

“I know you want to say something. Let this be the beginning of better communication between us, yes? Tell me what you"re thinking.”

“Sir, I… It isn"t my place to—”

“I"m making it your place. Speak freely.”
Freely.
What a joke. “With all due respect, Sir, if you train me 91

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to be like Harte so I can be good for you, my next master will probably just beat it out of me. Most masters don"t like that
free
behaviour. Sir.” Ellis"s head was down, his posture submissive, but his words were biting, and he immediately wished they were back inside him, mostly because he hadn"t even realised he thought that way.

William was quiet for a long time. “You"re right, of course.

I"ve been expecting you to adapt to me when really I should be helping you adapt for your next master.” He sighed and touched Ellis"s cheek softly, but Ellis was thinking too much to react.

Would William pawn him off on just any master now? Would William think him inadaptable?

“Ellis, most masters would expect you to offer your body freely for their use, would they not?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“And am I not your master… for the time being?” Ellis looked up at William through his lashes. “Yes, Sir.”

“Then you will be treated like a slave. Tend to me.” Ellis went still for a moment. He, of course, knew what William was asking—no, demanding. He wanted to be a good slave. Had it been any other master, he would have made himself more available from the start, but besides that one night, William had never made any demands on him or implied in any way that he might want Ellis. He had Harte.

But evidently he had Ellis as well. And Ellis wanted to be good. If he was good for William, William would tell any potential masters that, and then a good one would take him in. He hoped.

His hands were shaking only slightly when they opened William"s trousers and pulled his heavy cock from his underwear.

William shifted a little, pulling his own sac free of confinement.

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He wasn"t hard yet, but his shaft was engorging under Ellis"s hand.

Ellis began with a tentative lick, something his previous master had loved. He had liked his slaves looking afraid of his cock, like they couldn"t help but think of it tearing them apart. But William was larger, and Ellis wasn"t afraid of him. That cock had been inside him and there had been no pain at all.

He wrapped his lips around the head and sucked a little, emboldened by the moan William gave.

“That"s it,” William encouraged, his fingers light in Ellis"s hair.

With the fingers of one hand stroking his shaft and the others on his balls, Ellis took as much of William into his mouth as possible, pressing his tongue firmly into the pulsing vein on the underside and flickering his tongue against the head on the upstroke.

“You can take more,” William said, his voice tight.

Ellis did; he pressed on until William"s cock hit the back of his throat, and he tried to breathe through his nose and push on, but he couldn"t. He almost gagged and backed off, trying to make up for it with firm suction.

“Try again,” William said. “Any other master would demand it.”

Ellis was beginning to suspect that William was trying to teach him a lesson, but he didn"t care. It wasn"t fair to try to train him to William"s preferences when another master would resent that. And it wasn"t fair to show him what a nice and good master he was when Ellis had absolutely no hope of ending up with someone like him.

He grew careless in his actions as he thought about Harte and how he took William and his entire life here for granted. He should be more grateful. Ellis would be!

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“Enough,” William said when Ellis"s eyetooth caught the ridge of his cock head. “Are you angry?”

Why would you care?
“No, Sir. I"m sorry. I"ll be more careful, Sir.”

“See that you are,” William said, offering his cock again, though his voice sounded resigned.

Ellis was more careful. He licked and sucked as best he could, keeping his teeth carefully covered as he worked the thick cock.

He redoubled his efforts when William swelled and hardened in his mouth, and then he closed his throat as William came with a stifled grunt. He held the come obediently—his old master had sometimes liked to see it before he ordered him to swallow it down.

William saw what he was doing and leaned forward, gripping Ellis"s jaw with his hand. He stared at Ellis a long time until the come in Ellis"s mouth was joined by saliva and he strove not to reflexively swallow.

Then William said, “Another master might have come on your face and made you wear it for the day. Or shot onto the floor and made you lick it up. I"m not a cruel master, Ellis, and I won"t teach you to do things I don"t think you should be taught. For now,
I’m
your master, and you"ll please me, not some future master. Until I say otherwise, you"re
mine
.” He threw a bag between Ellis"s slightly parted knees, the items inside clunking heavily. “You can swallow.”

William left the room and Ellis swallowed the bitter fluid. He told himself the salt on his lips was come and not tears.

Opening the bag, he saw several tapes of legal transcriptions and audio books on law. There was also a small portable tape player and headphones.

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It was a gift.

* * *

Once he felt he was ready, he ventured out to the dining room where the textbooks were all set up and Harte was diligently highlighting something and then showing it to William, who nodded, which prompted Harte to make a note on his legal pad.

Taking a deep breath, Ellis walked to William"s chair and knelt by his feet, resting his cheek on the master"s knee and holding his breath. He hoped it looked like apology.

“Come up here,” William said quietly, and Ellis stood. He was pulled into William"s lap and two thick arms wrapped around him, holding him against a hard chest. Gentle fingers carded through his hair, and Ellis burrowed his face into William"s neck.

The master
wasn’t
cruel, and Ellis was constantly expecting him to be. He"d been waiting for some horrific demand or senseless punishment, and he"d become unstably on edge when none came. William was dependable, reliable, safe. Ellis had nothing to fear from him—he wouldn"t ask anything Ellis couldn"t give.

“Thank you for the gift, Sir,” Ellis whispered, not wanting Harte to hear in case he became jealous, even though Ellis was certain that Harte was given many gifts.

“You"re welcome, Ellis. I do hope it helps. The transcription tapes are of my own notes on current files, so they"ll overlap with some of the things we"re working on here.”

“You… you"ve been so kind… ” Ellis wanted to apologise, but he wasn"t sure if he needed to, if it was wanted. And after all, he 95

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hadn"t done anything wrong, really.

“Oh, Ellis,” the master said, sighing heavily and kissing his forehead. “It"s a strange halfway place for a slave, I know. But we"re all doing our best, even you.”