The Slave (Free Men Book 1)(21)

I raised myself on one arm and reached between us with the other. His  frantic movements hampered me, but eventually I closed my fingers around  the full length of his cock. He was smaller than Master-smaller, I  confess, than I had expected from seeing him naked-but thick, like a  stout club, the usually loose foreskin pulled back tight behind the  flare of the glans. Heat poured off him in waves, branding my palm as I  roughly jerked him. His balls drew up against my thigh, his nails split  my sunburnt skin, and he held his breath between gasps, fighting the  impending orgasm.

I aligned myself with him, took my slimmer length in hand along with  his, dragging my cock over the length of his, both of us fucking up into  the tight fist I had made around us. Words escaped him, in Granthian  but too fast for me to comprehend. It didn't matter. I understood his  sentiment well enough.

He climaxed with a series of rapid thrusts, his abdomen flexing with the  force of the ejaculation. The thick fluid slicked my hand and cock, and  I increased my momentum, heedless of his strangled cries as he grew  overly sensitive in the aftermath of his orgasm. I had already come once  that night, but nothing was going to stop me from doing so again.

I released Kai when his cries turned to pitiful whimpers and continued  to jerk myself frantically, kneeling over him. He watched me, his  emerald eyes liquid in the low light, alive with desire. "Do it," he  whispered, his voice hoarse. "I want to watch you come."

His words tipped me over the edge and with a low groan, I complied,  painting his stomach with milky white seed. I smeared it across his  skin, mixing it with his ejaculate, ran my fingers through it and rubbed  it over his lips. When he licked them clean, the desire which spiked  inside me became a visceral thing. Wherever he went from here, whatever  lovers he took, however long he lived, I would always be the first man  to mark him. It might have been wrong of me, but I couldn't help finding  satisfaction in that thought.





CHAPTER TWELVE





The next morning I woke with Kai in my arms. The sensation was so  unfamiliar, yet one I had longed for so long to experience, that I lay  momentarily stunned, limbs locked. The man sleeping beside me felt, for  the briefest of seconds, like the most precious thing in the world. He  seemed so small, so defenceless, so trusting, I was overcome by the urge  to protect him. I'd have fought Master himself to keep Kai safe.

The feeling subsided almost as quickly as it arose, leaving a wash of  tenderness and affection in its wake. I tightened my arms around him,  buried my nose in the short spikes of his hair, and kissed the top of  his shorn head. Kai stirred and mumbled nonsense, still more asleep than  awake. My lips curved in an involuntary smile.

"Tam?"

Bleary-eyed and sleepy, he was adorable. I thumbed the crust from his  eyes and petted him, recalling my vulnerability the day after Master had  taken my virginity. All the lore and rumours I had heard led me to  believe having sex made a boy into a man, but I had never felt more  unmanned in my life. I hadn't been prepared for the sheer intimacy of  the act, or the depth of my own devotion to the man who now knew my body  better than any other, myself included.

"Yes, Kai?"

"We, uh, we should move."

He wriggled half-heartedly in my arms, but stilled the second I tightened my grip.         

     



 

"It's early yet," I soothed.

We'd fallen asleep quickly the previous night-or he had, at least,  turning his back and curling into a tight ball beside me, our skin not  quite touching. I'd been on my side facing him, fingertips splayed  across the mattress between us, longing to close the distance. Master at  least let me cuddle with him before I returned to my bed. As Kai's  breaths deepened into the rhythm of sleep, I'd crept closer, tentatively  stroking the satiny skin of his back; explored the deep groove of his  spine and the soft, downy dimples above his buttocks, until I too  eventually succumbed and slept.

Now we were both awake, the first sun barely risen over the horizon,  tinting the grimy cream stones of his bare chamber walls a soft  orange-peach, and we had time yet before we were expected to present for  Master at breakfast. I wanted to savour the morning, linger in Kai's  warm bed and renew the connection we had forged so unexpectedly during  the night. It was for my own sake as much as Kai's that I kissed his  temples and snuggled against his lightly trembling body.

That we had succumbed and become lovers was not surprising, given the  pressure Master was putting us under, but at the moment of initiation,  I'd felt nothing save my own curiosity and desire. We were at but the  barest cusp of all the things we could do together, and my mind raced  with wicked thoughts of what else I could show him.

I had been wrong, thinking we could share sex without feeling, without  love. Master might be first and last in my heart, but there was room for  Kai in there, too. I didn't know if I did love him, but I understood  completely I could.

Master sensed the change in us at once. We had not resumed the night's  activities that morning, but I felt it in myself, a softening in my  affection which Master, perceptive as always, spied immediately,  although he waited until he was done eating and Sasha had cleared the  table and vacated the room before speaking.

"Tam, is there something you wish to tell me?"

"I did not sleep in my own bed, Master." I hoped the euphemistic  response would be enough. In the cold light of day, I wasn't sure how  Kai would react to the plain statement of what we had done.

"Oh?" Master quirked an eyebrow and steepled his fingers below his chin,  elbows resting on the table and the wide sleeves of his plum-coloured  robes billowing loosely.

"No, Master. I slept with Kai." Despite my efforts, from the corner of my eye I saw my fellow slave flinch.

Master smirked. "And how much sleep did you get?"

"A little," I admitted, fighting the urge to blush.

He tutted, although without irritation. "Two men in one night? You are growing... adventurous."

And there was my blush, rising full force across my cheeks in an  unstoppable wave of heat and shame. He hadn't meant to be cruel, but  he'd made it sound so... sordid.

"It wasn't like that," Kai snapped.

I sucked a breath at his audacity.

"Oh?" Master fixed him with a dark stare. "Tell me what it was like, then."

It was Kai's turn to flush and stammer. "We hardly did anything," he admitted in an undertone.

"Tammy?" Master looked to me for confirmation.

I hung my head. "He's telling the truth."

"Well...." His gentle smile encompassed both of us. "Far be it for me to  pass judgement. Although I will say I'm pleased to see the two of you  getting along so well."

Kai snorted but otherwise remained quiet, and Master let the transgression go with only an arched eyebrow for comment.

"I hate this," Kai fumed after we were excused, storming back along the corridor to his chamber.

"Hate what?" I asked, skipping a step to keep up with his swifter pace.

"This. All of it!" His outstretched arms encompassed the whole compound,  the whites of his eyes showing. "We're people, Tam. Not dumb creatures  put here for his amusement."

"I think we're both," I admitted softly.

"Well, it's not fair!"

Old anger welled in my veins. Even after all I had told him, all his  time here, he still refused to accept his new position. "Come with me." I  took his hand as we reached his doorway and led him to mine instead.

I kept my room neat, my possessions laid out carefully just so on their  shelves, displayed with pride. Here, the first book Master bought me,  when I was still but an innocent child; there a brilliantly coloured  silk scarf, a gift from his journey to the mountainous Outlands, our  first real separation. I had hardly entered my chamber for several days,  save to wash and dress, and the air felt damp and stale. Nevertheless I  closed the door behind us, shutting out the curious gaze of the  household guards.         

     



 

Kai stood in the centre of the room, speechless and motionless save for  the movement of his toes in the thick pelt of the bearskin covering the  floor. I watched his slim foot flex against the bright white fur, the  sinuous ripple of tendons suddenly the most fascinating thing in the  entire room.

"What is this?" Kai demanded.

"My chamber," I replied simply.

"All of these things are yours?"

I nodded and he pivoted on the spot, taking it all in. When he finally  faced me again, I was startled to see a flush of what could only be  shame.

"What is it?" I asked, taking half a step closer.

"This is all yours?" he repeated, his voice a cracked croak.

"Yes. This is what I've been telling you. He's a good man, Kai. You'll  never want for anything under his roof if you will only obey his  commands and treat him with respect."