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  Damien pulled out of the tight, squishy tunnel, liking how it tried to grip his finger and hold it in. “Easy, boy. Be good and I’ll fuck you later.”

  “Yes, please, Master,” the dreamy words whispered out before the boy fell asleep.

  * * * *

  Carter knew that he was in a world of trouble, yet he didn’t care. He was tired of being afraid. That afternoon, Damien Crow had reminded him of what his life should have been like if Carter hadn’t picked the wrong Dom to hook up with. The scary man had sent him flying with that flogger then eased him into sleep with great care. Carter had never felt so safe in his life, even if it had all been an illusion. The fact that Crow had even bothered to do what Winters and the other men he’d given Carter to hadn’t made the man he knelt next to a real master. Calling him that had been a slip, but the most natural one in the world. He had no doubt Winters had heard—the scowl on his face said as much. No matter what he did to Carter when Crow left the next day, Carter would at least have the memory of a perfect day. And it wasn’t over with.

  As he rose with Damien to retire for the evening, his cock twitched. When he’d woken from his nap, his dick had been liberated and soft. Crow had threatened to lock it back up in the cage if Carter got stiff while giving Crow a blow job before dinner. Part of him kind of wanted that. He’d decided to show the man how disciplined he could be, however, and had kept himself in check. Now, he was too eager for what might come of the evening to keep the damn thing down.

  “Looks like someone needs restraining again,” Crow murmured as they walked up the stairs.

  Carter grinned shyly. “Yes, sir.”

  Crow slapped him on the ass, sending a wave of pain and pleasure throughout Carter’s body. He hissed and moaned in one breath. His dick went full flag, tenting his pants. Despite his mounting excitement, he wanted to show how good he could be for this man. Unlike every other man in Carter’s life, this one deserved his submission and control. He waited for permission to strip before kicking off his pants and stood patiently while Crow strapped the cock ring back on.

  The man flicked the end of Carter’s moist rod. “This is going to have to learn to wait. Lie spread-eagled on the bed.”

  Carter jumped to comply, tossing himself onto the mattress and stretching his arms and legs toward the four corners. He watched with hungry eyes as Crow stripped off his own clothing. God, the man was like a superhero, all rigid muscle and hot power. And he was hard. Carter smiled to himself. He’d done that. The guy wanted his body. Wanted him. He tracked every movement as Crow dug into his bag of toys and came up with—a candle? Carter’s belly quivered as Crow approached. Yes, a fat candle that had already seen some use. In Crow’s other hand was a lighter, and he lit the candle while he knee-walked over to Carter.

  Crow studied the flame that flared up. “I could restrain you, tie you to the posts, but I don’t want to do that. I like the idea of your staying put using your own willpower.” He flicked his gaze down to Carter’s face. “Can you do that, boy?”

  “Yes, Master.”

  Crow’s expression turned sharp. “I’m not your master.”

  “Yes, you are.” Arguing with a Dom could earn a sub a strong punishment. He didn’t care. He wanted this night and the fantasy that Crow truly was his master.

  Crow said nothing more. He straddled Carter’s hips, setting his larger frame on his heels. With his gaze steadfastly on Carter’s face, he tipped the candle over. The first drip of hot wax on his pecs barely registered. Carter let out a short hiss, mostly for show. The second one was much like the first—just a small bite of pain, welcome but not very stimulating. With a determined look, Crow kept it up, laying neat rows of wax puddles down one side of Carter’s torso, then the other.

  Soon the pain started to register to greater degrees and there was nothing exaggerated or feigned about the way Carter writhed and moaned. He curled his fingers and toes to keep himself in position. His hips bucked up, though he couldn’t stop that. His hard, restrained dick brushed against his master’s balls. They both groaned at that bit of contact.

  Carter whimpered in protest when Crow wiggled farther down to prevent that from happening again. He cried out when a splatter of wax hit his cock head, and clamped his eyes shut tight. Shit, that was something right out of his fantasies. The searing pain would have made him come but for the cock ring. A whiff of smoke had him opening his eyes again. His master had snuffed out the candle. Disappointed that the wax play was over, yet feeling deliciously languid, Carter watched with heavy-lidded eyes to see what Crow had in store for him next.

  “Close your eyes, boy.”

  Carter instantly complied despite his curiosity. He heard rustling and clinking. The bed depressed again, proof that his master had joined him once more. Cool wetness hit the tip of his cock. His master wiped it with something soft. Then fingers were wrapped around the hard rod, holding it perpendicular to his body. Carter was so tempted to peek at what was happening.

  “Keep your eyes closed, boy.”

  Damn. Doms always seemed to know a sub’s thoughts. He did as told, and when he felt pressure on the very top of his cock head, he was confused. Then the pressure continued on the inside, moving slowly down the shaft. He knew what this was.

  “Yellow!” He couldn’t keep the safeword from popping out of his mouth.

  “Open your eyes.”

  Carter responded to the soft command and peered down his own body. Crow once more knelt across him, one hand holding Carter’s cock still, the other holding a fairly small metal sound. Half the thing was embedded in Carter’s dick already. He started to pant with fear and struggled to get himself under control.

  “Easy, boy. Easy.” Crow’s voice was low and calm. “I’ve got it stopped. No more will slide in unless you say so. I’ll take it out if this is a red for you.”

  It was on the tip of Carter’s tongue to say, ‘Hell yes, it’s a red’. He’d been sounded before with things that were too big and rough. He’d even bled. But this was different. He could see that Crow had used lube, and while the fullness felt strange, it didn’t hurt. He could let the memories of the past ruin this experience for him, or he could let this experience banish those old memories.

  With a lick of his lips, he nodded once. “It’s okay. Go ahead.”

  Crow nodded back. “Keep your eyes open now.”

  He pulled the sound up a fraction before letting it go. It slid farther down into Carter’s dick. Once again, the master pulled it up and let it go, allowing gravity to do the work, not forcing it in like others had done. Carter evened out his breathing and concentrated on the sensation of being filled up. It was almost like being fucked, although not quite as pleasurable.

  With a grunt, Crow pulled the sound all the way out. “I don’t know about you, baby, but I’m getting tired of sticking other things in you. Time for my dick to get some action.”

  After wrapping the sound in a tissue, he tossed it onto the nightstand and grabbed up a packet of lube and a condom lying on the bed.

  Carter couldn’t help grinning widely at the announcement. He wanted to lift his legs, open himself up to his master. Staying in position was killing him. His master had trusted him to keep it, though, so he would.

  Damien surprised himself with the way his fingers shook a small amount as he fumbled to tear open the condom and sheathe his cock. He recognized that his clumsiness was due to eagerness, something that he hadn’t experienced in longer than he could remember. He wanted to fuck this boy. Maybe it would have made it easier for him, a straight man, to get it up and keep it up if he couldn’t see Carter’s maleness. He could have turned the boy around to hide it and allowed himself to pretend his bed partner was a woman. But that struck Damien as a cowardly thing to do. He wanted to see whom he joined his body to, and was both surprised and weirdly happy that he was hard and leaking and in need of sliding his dick inside the sub’s hole. Part of it came from the stimulating play. Turned out he was a Dom underneath, no real su
rprise there. The other part, though, was that he did feel attraction for this boy. He wanted Carter specifically.

  He coated a generous amount of lube all around his dick before squirting more on two fingertips. Scooting closer to Carter, he nudged the boy’s thighs with his knees. “Raise your legs and bend your knees, boy.”

  The sub obeyed instantly, and the look on his face showed how much he wanted Damien to fuck him. With that encouragement urging him on, Damien stuck the two fingers into the now exposed hole.

  He’d intended to go slowly, opening the boy up with more finesse than he was showing. Knowing how much Carter got off on pain, and satisfied that the kid would use his safeword if Damien became too rough, he went bold. Carter hissed as he was breached, yet grabbed the undersides of his thighs to open himself up even more to Damien’s efforts.

  Damien thrust his fingers in with deep, rapid strokes, opening the hole with ease. He knew Carter was doing his bit to relax and accept the intrusion, and before long, Damien figured the boy was ready for something much bigger. Pulling his fingers out, Damien took hold of his cock and pressed it against the loosened ring.

  He surged in with one long stroke. Carter cried out, his eyes closed and his head flung back. The tight heat of the boy’s channel clutched at Damien’s dick with a power he’d never felt before. Carter clenched his hole, sucking Damien in farther, welcoming him with an unmistakable enthusiasm. Damien pulled his hips back slightly and shot his rod home again, right to his balls.

  Carter arched his back with another cry. “Please, Master, please.”

  Damien gritted his teeth in an effort not to move. God, it felt so good. But he worried he was being too rough. “Do you need to say something, boy?”

  “Please fuck me, Master. Please.”

  Okay, not a safeword, no yellow or red. No slow down or stop. Just the opposite, and Damien trusted the boy to know what he wanted. So, Damien gave it to him. Placing his palms over the boy’s hands, Damien cocked his hips to pull his dick out until only his head remained inside. Then he slammed it back in, surging forward with his entire body. He bent Carter almost in half and plastered his own pelvis against the sub’s ass.

  Carter howled and writhed and clenched his hole again to grip Damien’s dick like a vise. It sent shock waves of pleasure right down to his nuts. With a growl, he pulled out and thrust home again. He didn’t wait to repeat the process, just started jackhammering Carter’s ass. He clawed his fingers over the boy’s hands and into the creamy skin covering the slender thighs. His fingerprints would mark the boy for days. Knowing that sent another primitive wave of possessive need through him. He drilled his cock into the boy’s body until he couldn’t hold back his climax.

  At the moment that his cock convulsed within the hot glove of flesh, he found the presence of mind to reach between their straining bodies and unsnap the cock ring. The instant Carter’s dick was freed, it pulsed ropes of cum up and onto the boy’s wax-covered torso. Damien focused his gaze on the sight while shuddering through his own orgasm. The way Carter’s ass milked Damien’s dick, they came in tandem. It was as if Damien watched his own cum spurting out of the boy’s cock.

  When it was over, the two of them wrung dry, Damien collapsed on top of Carter and rolled them so that the boy lay against his side. With more tenderness than he’d shown anyone in a long time, Damien kissed the sub’s forehead.

  “Such a good boy.” He wanted to say more about how he’d take care of him, keep him safe. But there were eyes and ears on them. He was so close to completing his mission, and he couldn’t do anything to screw it up now. So he held the boy close, rained light kisses on his face and let them both drift to sleep.

  He thought he heard the boy say ‘Master’ once more before his breathing evened out. He couldn’t be sure, and it didn’t matter anyway. By this time tomorrow, everything would have changed.

  Chapter Five

  Damien had his game face on. The culmination of many years’ worth of work was upon him. He followed Winters down a flight of stairs leading to a basement. A couple of the guy’s goons trailed behind him. Carter was with them too, collared and leashed, except now Winters held the tether. Damien had resisted the urge to fight with the man when he’d held out his hand to take it from Damien, saying he hoped the boy had pleased him. Not that Winters seemed to care one way or the other. He did yank a bit viciously on the leash, causing Carter to choke. Damien had wanted dearly to punch the guy, but had to satisfy himself with the knowledge that this whole operation would be done and over with soon.

  Winters stopped by a door at the bottom of the stairs and punched a keypad to open it. “Come in and see what your client’s money will buy.”

  Damien stepped in and got a good look at the mother lode. This was what he’d been waiting for—proof that Winters had amassed arms he was willing to sell to any terrorist on the planet for the right price. Damien took a moment to look over the inventory, inspecting bits here and there, the way a real buyer would. He made a point of not looking at Carter, who stood with a miserable expression on his face, his eyes averted from the weapons. Yeah, the kid had never been a willing player in all of this.

  “Okay,” he said with a nod. “I’m ready to deal.”

  He turned to leave the room, at the same time activating the beacon cleverly worked into his thumb ring. As he returned to the main part of the house, he could already hear the faint sounds of his backup team moving in.

  “What the fuck!” Winters and his guards had little time to react when the first wave of operatives descended upon them.

  Damien struck, quick as a snake, taking the guards behind him out before they had a chance to raise their weapons. Then he grabbed the leash from Winters’ distracted hands and swept a startled Carter up and out of the way. He kept him pressed behind a nearby chair, covering his body with his own just in case any stray bullets came their way. In the end, the takedown occurred within minutes, leaving Winters and his crew tied and face down on the back lawn. Damien stood up when one of his colleagues approached.

  “You okay, Crow?” the guy asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Hard to believe this finally happened, though.” He shook his head and reached down to pull Carter to his feet.

  The boy trembled and his eyes were round as saucers. “Wh-what’s going on?”

  The operative stepped forward with a zip tie in his hand. “I’ll take him.”

  Carter shrank back and used Damien’s body as a shield. “Please, Master, I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  The operative’s eyebrows shot up. “Master?”

  Damien curled his lip. “Go help round up the rest of the staff. I’ll take care of the boy.”

  The man shrugged. “Sure, Crow. Whatever you say. This is your show.” He stalked off.

  Damien pulled Carter out from behind him and changed his expression to a soft smile. “Hey, it’s okay, boy.” He punctuated his reassurance by running his palm down the back of the sub’s head. “I’m not who I appear to be. I work for the U.S. government.”

  Carter tried to smile back. A weak effort. The poor boy was probably terrified. “Like you’re a spy or something?”

  “Or something. I’ve been after Winters for a long time. I hope you’re not upset that he’s going to spend the rest of his life rotting in a dark hole.”

  A shudder ran through Carter. “No,” he said in a low voice. “I hate him. He was supposed to be my master, but it wasn’t like what I’d read about on the Internet. He never let me use a safeword.” He looked up at Damien with shiny, pleading eyes. “I didn’t know what he was, about the weapons and the drugs he sold, until it was too late. He wouldn’t let me leave.” Tears started to run down both cheeks.

  Damien hugged him close. “Hush, now. It’s okay. I know what he did. We’ve known for a while that you were here, and I can tell how much he hurt you.” Cupping him by the shoulders, Damien pushed him back enough to make eye contact. “Carter, if you tell us what you know, everything you’v
e seen and heard these last few years, I can promise you that we’ll help you get resettled in a place you’ll be safe. And hopefully happy.”

  Carter’s smile was more heartfelt this time. “Really? I can start over? I’ll tell you everything you want.”

  Damien kissed the boy’s forehead. “You’re a good boy, Carter. The only thing is, though, you can’t go back home again. Your family can’t know where you are without putting your life in danger. What you tell us might make a lot of Winters’ business contacts mad.”

  Carter stepped back and swiped at his tears. He stood up straighter, too. “It’s okay. I understand. My family disowned me years ago anyway when I refused to stop being gay.” With a roll of his eyes, he looked away a moment before returning his gaze to Damien. “There is one thing that will be hard to give up.”

  Damien furrowed his brows. “What’s that?”

  “You.” Carter gave him an impish grin. “You were the best master I ever had.”

  “I’m not your master, or anyone’s actually. I was just playing a role, Carter.” Even as he said it, part of him disagreed. He’d become far more emotionally invested in his play with the sub than he would have ever imagined.

  “You can’t fool me. I may have been a lousy judge of men where Winter was concerned, but you were magnificent. If I never have another master again, I’ll remember my time with you for the rest of my life, and it will have to be enough.” He gnawed at his lower lip with one pearly tooth. “I don’t suppose sometime when this nightmare is truly over we might meet again. I mean, you must have a way to come see me without anyone ever knowing. Right?”