Safe Harbor (8 page)

Carefully, he helped Mac off the bench and onto the floor, where Sully sat cross-legged with Mac curled and lying halfway in his lap.

He took the ball from his left hand.

“How are we, slave?”

Mac shivered and rotated his left wrist, too overwhelmed to speak yet.

Sully held Mac tighter, his arms around him, consoling him as yet another round of tears incapacitated him. It had been a long time since Mac needed a session like this.

They were still sitting there nearly half an hour later. Sully thought his ass would go numb on the tile floor even through his jeans, but he wouldn’t make Mac move until he was ready. Finally, Mac sniffled and drew the blanket a little tighter around him.

Sully twined his fingers in the man’s hair. “You okay, Brant?”

“Yeah.” He rolled over. “Did I get the eight?”

Sully’s mouth curled in a playful smile. “Yeah. Early on.”

Mac blew out a long, deep breath before Sully helped him sit up.

“I don’t remember it.”

“I can believe it. You went harder and faster than normal.”

Mac’s eyes searched his. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

Mac arched an eyebrow at him. Sully loved that inquisitive expression. “I’m not so out of it I can’t tell that my ass hasn’t been reamed,
Master
.” He added a pinch of sarcastic tone to the last word.

Sully shrugged. “The weight bench isn’t the right height for me to fuck you like that. You want to have to haul me to the ER while you’re trying to recover from subspace because I throw my back out?”

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With the blanket wrapped around him, Mac sat back on his heels.

“Then let me do something else,” he quietly suggested.

Sully eyed him, trying to decide if he’d recovered enough or if it was just endorphin-fueled bravado. He stood and unzipped his jeans.

Mac leaned forward and pulled Sully’s cock out, which had grown stiff at the thought of finally seeing a little action. Sully closed his eyes as Mac’s hot mouth wrapped around his shaft, slick as satin and knowing exactly where every pleasure point was located. His tongue stroked and teased him as Sully fisted his hands in Mac’s hair and started pumping deeper.

Mac stayed with him, taking him deep into his throat without gagging. The blanket slid down Mac’s back and puddled on the floor behind him as he gripped the back of Sully’s thighs and held on for balance.

Sully fucked his mouth, harder as his release drew closer. Mac added just a little scrape of teeth, which triggered Sully’s climax.

“Now, slave.” Mac sucked him deeply and swallowed every drop while Sully’s flesh throbbed in his mouth until it finally relaxed, softening.

Sully took a few breaths to regain control, then tapped Mac on the head. “Very good, slave. That’s enough.”

Mac released him with a
pop
, then sat back and smiled. Sully read the exhaustion in Mac’s eyes even though Mac tried to put on a good show. Sully held a hand out to him, helped him stand, and retrieved the blanket for him.

“Wait for me by the door,” Sully ordered.

He tucked his cock away and zipped his jeans, pulled on his shirt, then quickly gathered their supplies and Mac’s clothes and jammed it all into the bag. He turned off the stereo and lights, locked the door behind them, and slipped an arm around Mac’s waist to support him up the stairs.

“Let’s get you to bed, buddy.”

Mac didn’t argue. Sully sensed Mac’s post-scene crash setting in.

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A normal play scene made Mac hornier than a college frat boy set loose in an adult theater. A heavy scene like this emotionally and physically drained him, which is why he’d asked for it.

Tomorrow morning, however, Mac would be ready for action.

He got Mac inside, locked the front door, and guided him to their bedroom. He pulled the covers down before Mac carefully crawled, face-down, onto the mattress.

Sully stepped away from the bed. Mac was softly snoring before Sully finished crossing the room. He quickly stripped and decided to deal with the rest of the bag’s contents in the morning. After using the bathroom, he carefully slipped into bed with Mac and pulled the covers over them. After settling his arm over Mac’s back, avoiding the broken flesh, he quickly dropped into an exhausted sleep of his own.

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Sully knew Mac wouldn’t dream that night. He never did after a heavy session. The flood of endorphins sent him into a deep, heavy crash that allowed him to sleep uninterrupted.

And himself too, by default.

He awoke early the next morning to the feel of Mac’s lips wrapped around his cock. Sully smiled and fisted his hands in Mac’s hair. “Did I give you permission to do that, slave?”

Mac made an “uh-uh” sound, but didn’t stop what he was doing.

As he’d predicted, Mac woke up hornier than hell. He always did after a heavy scene despite his body being sore and achy. Sully wished their boat trip hadn’t been interrupted. He’d been looking forward to letting Mac top him and still had an erotic itch their normal activities didn’t scratch.

Mac kept him on edge, holding him back, reading his body, and not letting him come. Finally, he crawled up the bed and kissed Sully.

“Shower?”

Sully hooked a leg around Mac’s and rolled him onto his back, pinning him beneath him with his arms over his head. “What do you want,” he growled. “Tell me and quit dicking around.” He suspected he already knew what Mac wanted.

Mac’s stiff cock rubbed against Sully’s hip. “Just for this morning? Please, Master?”

“Maybe I should make you beg for it.” It’d been a long time since he’d let Mac top him anywhere but on the boat.

“If that’s what you want, I will.”

Sully smiled and sat up. He grabbed Mac’s nipple rings and

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twisted them. “I should make you pay for asking out of turn.”

Mac eagerly nodded.

Sully laughed and swung off him. “Go get the shower ready, you horny slut.” He waited for Mac to walk into the bathroom. Then he rummaged through his dresser drawer and found one of Mac’s old play collars—one that could get wet. When he walked into the bathroom, Mac was examining his ass in the mirror. Clearly delineated black and blue lines crossed his cheeks and upper thighs.

“Damn. You got me good, Master.”

Sully handed him the collar and went to use the toilet. “You ask, you receive.” When he finished, he faced Mac. “Well?”

Mac grinned and crooked his finger at Sully. Sully smiled and turned, dropping his chin so Mac could fasten the collar’s buckle at the back of his neck. Sully grabbed the key from the counter, unlocked Mac’s collar, and removed it. “Happy?”

Mac grabbed him and kissed him deeply, his tongue plunging into Sully’s mouth. “Not yet, but I will be once my cock is buried in your sweet ass.”

Sully closed his eyes and took a deep, sated breath. He wouldn’t deny he enjoyed this, being able to trust Mac enough to let him take over for short periods. Mac spun him around to face the mirror.

“Hands on the counter,” he growled.

As steam drifted through the bathroom, Sully complied. “Like this?”

Mac shook his head, then nudged Sully’s feet farther apart. “Like that.” He reached between Sully’s legs, palmed his sac, and gently squeezed and rolled the soft weight along his hand. He pressed his chest against Sully’s back. “You want my cock inside you?”

Sully, his eyes still closed, let his head drop. “You know I do.”

His stiff cock wouldn’t let him lie about it anyway.

Mac’s hand slid up along the seam of his ass, one finger pressing against the puckered ring of flesh without penetrating. “I had a lot of plans for you this weekend.”

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“I’m sure you did. You’re pretty creative.”

Mac snickered and swatted Sully on the ass. “Shower. Now.”

Sully didn’t bother concealing his smile as he stepped across the bathroom. Mac grabbed a bottle of lube and followed him into the shower.

“Against the wall.”

Sully complied.

Mac slicked his cock with lube and then worked some into Sully with his fingers to loosen him. “You like that?”

Sully’s eyes dropped closed. “Would I let you if I didn’t?”

Mac chuckled. “Nope. You’d make my life miserable.” He pressed his cockhead against Sully’s dark hole. Both men groaned as Mac slowly seated himself inside Sully. With his cock buried to the hilt, he grabbed Sully’s hips and slowly thrust. “I hadn’t even got started,” he whispered in Sully’s ear. “Had a lot more I wanted to do.

What am I gonna do if she’s on the boat with us, hmm?”

“You want to fuck or talk?”

With a hard bump of his hips, Mac thrust deep. “What do you think?”

Sully tried to hold back, his own cock throbbing with every stroke of Mac’s shaft along his gland. After a few minutes, Mac slowed his pace and reached around Sully’s waist. He wrapped his fingers around Sully’s cock and stroked. “Make it fast, man.”

Pushed past the point of conscious will, Sully worked his hips back and forth, between Mac’s talented fingers and his lover’s stiff cock.

“Come now!” Mac growled.

It pushed him over the edge. His hands clenched into fists against the tile wall as his climax washed over him. Mac took that as his cue.

He grabbed Sully’s hips again and pounded into him until he came with a cry, his cock pulsing inside the other man. Mac didn’t move for a moment, leaning against Sully for support and trying to catch his breath. Then he withdrew, turned Sully around, and embraced him as

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they stepped under the water.

Mac rested his head on the shorter man’s shoulder. “You didn’t have to put a collar on,” he softly said, reverting to gentle Mac.

Back to slave.

Sully closed his eyes and held Mac. “I know you like it.”

After a moment, Mac grabbed the soap. He sank to his knees and, working the soap around Sully’s groin and ass, lathered and washed him before taking care of himself. Once satisfied, he reached for the collar. “Maybe we should take that off.”

“Why?”

Mac shrugged, but wouldn’t meet Sully’s gaze.

Sully grabbed Mac’s chin and forced him to look at him. “Why?”

he quietly but firmly asked.

“It doesn’t look right.”

Sully let him remove it and toss it out of the shower. “But it’s right on the boat?”

“That’s different.”

“It didn’t used to bother you before.”

“I’m not used to seeing you like that at home anymore.”

Bless his heart, Mac was a creature of habit. It didn’t matter that he was a “strong” man. He was, in his heart, a slave. He’d embraced it, eagerly, and enjoyed living for his Master. Mac liked clearly defined rules and roles, enjoyed his limited time in charge because it felt natural to him to be in charge on the Dilly.

At home, however, it was a different matter since their routine had changed over the years.

“Turn around,” Sully commanded. “Let me look at your ass.”

Mac snorted in amusement even as he complied. Sully skimmed his hand down Mac’s flesh. The welts he’d opened last night were healing over. While bruised, he saw no sign of infection. “When we get done, let me put some ointment on that before you get dressed.”

Mac stepped under the spray to shampoo his hair. “Thank you for that, by the way.”

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“Anytime.” He poked him in the stomach. “You’ll have to bank your punishment strokes over the next couple of days. I don’t want to give you new ones until you’ve healed more.”

Faltering only a little, Mac barely missed a beat in his reply. “You too chicken to hit me?”

“No,” Sully growled. “I don’t like to break my toys.”

Mac froze, then burst out laughing. “Yes, Master.”

“You don’t have to take them, you know. You can renegotiate that boundary so there’s no punishment.”

The expected answer. “No, Master. Thank you, but I’ll take them.

I don’t like to change the rules.”

“I thought you’d say that.” Mac was, if nothing else, sweetly predictable.

It didn’t hurt he was a masochist.

* * * *

After their shower, Sully retreated to his office. Mac brought him coffee.

Clarisse still slept.

Mac cooked Sully breakfast and brought it into the office for him.

Sully was already engrossed in his latest manuscript. “Thank you,” he mumbled as he studied his laptop screen.

Mac hesitated, then knelt beside Sully’s chair, waiting.

Sully hoped his sigh wasn’t audible. He saved his file and twined his fingers in Mac’s hair. “Yes, slave?”

“What do you want me to do today?”

Poor Mac, he really felt out of sorts with their plans upended.

“Chores around the house, take Clarisse to see Tad, stay there with her. Maybe take her out to dinner if she feels up to it.”

Mac looked up, startled. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Leave you alone all day?”

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He moved the breakfast plate out of the way and tapped the corner of his desk. “Talk to me, Brant.”

Mac perched on the corner of the desk. The forced equality when in slave mode always knocked Mac mentally off balance. “I’m trying to wrap my head around it. I admit I need to let you be in charge of this, but it’s hard for me to not think about Betsy.”

“I know. Clarisse trusts you. She needs that in her life and I don’t begrudge it. I’m not jealous. I trust you.”

Mac laced his fingers together in his lap. “Thank you, Master,” he quietly said. “For helping her.”

“Why would you think I wouldn’t?”

He shrugged but didn’t respond.

“Brant, she’s Tad’s niece. There’s no way I wouldn’t help her, just on that basis alone. Yes, it pisses me off she’s scared of me, but I understand why and don’t blame her. I still wouldn’t walk away from the situation.”

Mac took Sully’s hand, lifted it to his lips, and kissed it. “Thank you, Master.” He slipped off the desk and left the room, quietly closing the office door behind him.

Sully leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head. What a mixed bag. Why
was
he doing this? He could have easily contacted the police yesterday morning as soon as they returned to port, helped her file a report, and got her set up at a cheap motel nearby within walking distance of Tad. That would have been more than generous. And Mac’s life wouldn’t have been completely upended, nightmares from his past returning to haunt him.

He closed his eyes and thought about her terrified blue gaze. He’d be lying if he denied he wanted a chance to erase her fear.

He’d also be lying if he said he wasn’t attracted to her.

Too late to back out now.