With a Kiss (31 page)

The boy simply looked at it for a second, as if not entirely sure how to make his next move. Then, very slowly, taking more care with his movements than any submissive Marcus had ever known, Liam knelt on the widely spread supports.

It wasn’t easy for a man to fasten the ankle restraints around his own limbs in that position. Marcus knew that. He’d seen enough men struggle to do it after he’d ordered them to make the attempt.

He issued no order to Liam, all he did was observe as the other man struggled, until he finally managed to do them up. Leaning forward, Liam bent over the bench, offering his exposed arse up to be spanked or screwed as his lover wished. Marcus clenched his jaw, not willing to be distracted by anything.

Liam managed to fasten the buckle around his left hand, but there was no way he could do up the right one. After a moment spent waving his hand around like a man who thought he might be able to cast a magic spell on the leather and command the buckle to tighten itself, Liam lay his wrist neatly in the cuff that had yet to be fastened and fell still. His eyes dropped closed.

Stepping forward, Marcus walked carefully around the spanking bench, assessing the arrangement from every angle. He’d imagined Liam there many times. There was only one real difference between his mental images and the reality.

Liam’s cock was completely soft. Whatever Marcus might have imagined happening, Liam clearly wasn’t there because he wanted to be. He wasn’t arranged so prettily because he was turned on by the thought of being restrained or helpless, because he wanted to be spanked.

Out of the boy’s line of sight, Marcus reached out to put a hand on Liam’s back, only to stop himself short. Snatching his hand back, he pushed it through his own hair instead. The strands were getting more disordered by the moment, but he didn’t have time to worry about that.

This was obviously an offering of some sort, Liam was trying to send him some sort of message that he wasn’t able to put into words. If Marcus could just work out what the hell it was…

He walked around to face Liam. For the first time in all his visits to that room, Marcus knelt before another man. Lowering himself down in front of the spanking bench, he sat back on his heels and brought himself eye to eye with his submissive. Placing a hand carefully on each side of Liam’s face, he gave the boy no choice but to look up and meet his gaze.

Marcus studied every line of expression on his lover’s face, but he still found himself no closer to guessing at the truth. Leaning forward, he brought his forehead to rest against Liam’s.

No thought miraculously leaped from one brain to the other through the division of skin and skull. Marcus opened his eyes. Past the blur of the other man’s face, he could just about see where his wrists were fastened. No, not wrists, just one wrist. One was still free.

Pulling back a little, Marcus carefully took hold of Liam’s right hand. The need to know what was troubling his pet overwhelmed everything else. Holding Liam’s gaze he bowed his head and gently pressed his lips against his wrist, letting him know what he was about to do.

He saw no fear flit across Liam’s expression, felt no attempt to pull his hand away from the impending bite. Permission granted, Marcus scraped his teeth gently across the skin over the vein. Blood immediately seeped onto his tongue.

It was all he could do not to flinch as the bitter acrid taste of fear filled his sense. Quickly running his tongue over the wounds to heal them, Marcus remained on his knees in front of the spanking bench for several long minutes.

Fear and panic. Panic and fear. The emotions raced through Marcus veins, threatening to take control of his mind from him. It was almost impossible to believe that such a little drop of blood had contained so much pain.

“You’re safe,” Marcus whispered. “I won’t hurt you. And I won’t let anyone else hurt you either. You understand that?” Marcus stroked his hand through Liam’s hair, clumsily trying to gentle him down from his terror.

Liam tried to avoid his gaze, but Marcus moved his hands to either side of the boy’s jaw and made Liam look into his eyes.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” he ordered.

Liam closed his eyes.

“I won’t be angry with you,” Marcus hazarded.

“You should be,” Liam blurted out.

Marcus frowned.

“You should,” Liam waved his free hand indicating the playroom.

“I should hurt you, punish you?” Marcus asked. His voice surprisingly calm, all things considered.

Liam nodded.

“No.”

Liam blinked.

“I’m not going to punish you in here. I wouldn’t even do that if I knew what you thought you deserved to be punished for!” Marcus said, unable to keep a snap from his words. “That’s not what this room is about. Haven’t you listened to anything I’ve said to you about that?”

Liam nodded. “I just thought…”

That was it. Whatever Liam had thought, he didn’t seem the least bit interested in sharing it with his master. Marcus tensed. The whole situation was completely unacceptable. He swayed away from Liam, as if studying him from a slightly different angle might somehow give him the insight he lacked.

Silently cursing himself, Marcus glared at his pet, willing his brain to work faster and more efficiently as he battled against his confusion. Nothing. He couldn’t even guess what was wrong unless Liam was willing to give him some kind of clue.

He was completely at his pet’s mercy. Marcus’ spine stiffened at the knowledge. Closing his eyes, he took yet another deep breath. What did Liam need from him…?

Marcus had no idea how long he knelt there before he opened his eyes, but when he did, he had a plan. Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss against Liam’s temple in the way that his pet seemed to like so much. “You’ll tell me when you’re ready.”

Liam closed his eyes again.

“And I’ll stay here until you do.”

Unable to kneel any longer, Marcus gave in to the temptation to check that there was no physical injury on the other man. “I’m not leaving,” he promised as he pulled himself to his feet.

Walking slowly around the spanking bench, Marcus ran his palms over each inch of Liam’s skin, analyzing, testing, reassuring himself that whatever was hurting Liam, it wasn’t causing him physical pain.

He wasn’t trying to turn the other man on, but he didn’t fail to notice when Liam’s body slowly began to respond to his touch. Muscles relaxed under Marcus’ hands. Liam’s pulse sped up. His breathing turned ragged. He was hardening, even if he wasn’t talking.

Between the supports of the spanking bench, Liam’s cock began to rise. A droplet of pre-cum gathered on the tip. Marcus resisted the urge to taste it—even if that meant living with the taste of his lover’s fear on his tongue for even longer.

Completing his circuit around the bench, Marcus traced the line of Liam’s collar, gently caressing his way around his pet’s neck before checking that the padlock was still securely fastened.

“It should be enough,” Liam whispered.

In one movement, Marcus was back on his knees in front of the bench. “What?”

“The collar,” Liam whispered. “It should be enough. The way you… You’ve been so kind to me, so patient. It should be enough. It’s been weeks since I even set eyes on him, and I still…”

Liam closed his eyes very tightly. Marcus could only kneel there and wait for more words—for words which he prayed would make more sense.

“The collar should be enough. Belonging to you should be enough,” Liam repeated.

“To stop you from being scared of Ralph?” Marcus asked, frowning as he desperately tried to put the fractured pieces of the sentence together and form them into one complete idea.

Liam nodded.

Poor little sod…

Leaning forward, Marcus rested their foreheads together again. Relief rushed through him as a dozen far more terrifying possibilities faded away and reverted into nightmares that would never actually happen. “It doesn’t work like that,” he said.

“But it should! I shouldn’t be scared,” Liam insisted, squirming and twisting his head away from Marcus’ touch. “I promised I wouldn’t be and—”

“I don’t want you to be scared of
me
,” Marcus corrected, pulling back and catching the other man’s gaze.

Liam looked down.

Their positions were insane. Any sort of physical distance between them at that moment was insufferable. Within moments, Marcus had the restraints around Liam’s limbs undone. In no mood to hold back and pretend that vampires weren’t a damn sight stronger than any human would ever be, he picked the boy up.

Liam’s eyes opened very wide. As Marcus pulled the naked submissive down onto the floor with him, to sit on his master’s lap, Liam stared up at him in some cross between shock and awe but Marcus dismissed that as unimportant.

“Did you really think I’d punish you for being afraid?” Marcus demanded, as he cradled the other man closely.

It wasn’t as easy an endeavor as humans made it look. Liam’s limbs didn’t seem to be designed for it. They were too long to be folded up into a suitable shape. Giving up on that, Marcus turned his attention to smoothing his hands across his pet’s skin, but he had no idea if he was doing it correctly—if his actions were something a human could really take some sort of comfort from.

“Would have deserved it,” Liam mumbled into his shirt as he snuggled in closer to Marcus. “Let you down.”

Marcus shook his head. Looking up at the ceiling, he rested his head on the cold bars of the cage behind him and cursed Ralph.

“I keep thinking that I can feel him following me.”

Marcus jerked his head away from the bars. “What?”

“Ralph,” Liam whispered. “I keep imagining that he’s following me, that I can feel someone watching me whenever you’re not there.”

“Ralph, or just someone?” Marcus asked. No one could have been more amazed than he was that the question sounded perfectly calm.

Liam lifted his head from Marcus’ shoulder and peered up at him. “What do you mean?”

“Do you feel like it’s Ralph in particular that’s following you, or do you just get the sense that you’re being—” Marcus only just stopped himself from saying stalked—hunted by a vampire searching for prey. “Followed,” he finished lamely.

Liam frowned as if it had never occurred to him that it might be someone else that was tracking his movements, biding his time and waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Marcus’ heart raced faster and faster. He should have considered the possibility before, should have known what would happen if someone had spotted him with Liam. “Ralph hasn’t been following you,” he said.

Liam frowned slightly. “I know there’s no reason why—”

“No,” Marcus cut in. “I’m telling you that I know for a fact that he hasn’t been within five hundred yards of you since that day at the animal shelter.”

“How would you know?” Liam whispered.

“Because I’d know,” Marcus said, very simply.

For several long seconds, Liam remained perfectly still. He didn’t even blink. Marcus held his breath as he waited.

Finally, Liam gave one slow nod. “Okay.”

Marcus stared down at him. There was so much trust in his expression it damn near took his breath away all over again. “I told you I’d keep you safe, didn’t I?”

Liam nodded.

“Did you really think I’d leave you alone at the shelter without knowing you’d be safe there, that that bastard wasn’t coming anywhere near you?”