Bad Behavior (Bad in Baltimore) (15 page)

Eli clicked off, leaving Beach sputtering for an answer.

He put the phone facedown on the counter and finished off the list. What the hell was this at the bottom? Essay questions? And he had something else he needed to do—

Fuck all, he’d forgotten the PT appointment again. His doctor had recommended someone, some place. Beach scanned the options a search on his phone turned up. Something with—ah. Sports Science and Rehabilitation. When he dialed, the pleasant man’s recorded voice informed him regular office hours were between the hours of seven thirty and four thirty. Regular his ass. There was nothing regular about a business that opened at seven thirty.

A cold weight dragged at Beach’s gut as he considered
his ass
might be all too apt an expression. He’d been considering a little push, showing up a hair past his five thirty deadline. Wondering how Tai would react to the challenge had given Beach a sweet prickle in his balls, spreading out under his skin.

But not this. He’d honestly meant to make the appointment. He was sick of the limitations forced by the cane and his leg, and if a bunch of exercises would help, he was ready for it. He had honored his promise and called for an appointment, he simply hadn’t gotten one. For once, the rationalization didn’t offer any comfort. In the meantime, he decided he wouldn’t be late.

Chap
ter Eleven

The
knock came at exactly five thirty, and Tai rode a rush of power all the way to the door, opened it and found himself holding David’s face in a kiss before becoming aware of deciding to do it. After a startled breath onto Tai’s lips, David kissed back, instant hunger in the slide of his tongue, the open welcome of his mouth. Tai kicked the door shut with his heel.

Tai didn’t know how long he’d have kept them standing there if Jez hadn’t pushed between them to demand her own greeting. David lost his balance, one palm slapping the wall.

Jez jumped.

“Sorry, girl,” David said as Tai was telling her she was all right.

“Sorry to keep you on that leg.”

“Maybe I just swoon from your kisses, Sir.” David’s words rolled with a thick accent, hands rubbing behind Jez’s ears. His cane clattered to the floor as he went down on one knee to let her nuzzle his hair and neck.

Tai scooped up the cane. Jez dropped to her haunches to watch him, eyes bright like she thought it was a new game. When Tai put the cane on his desk though, she lowered herself with a sigh.

“Did you think about whether you want to keep doing this?” Tai turned to watch David answer.

Without the dog to play with, David’s hands dangled at his sides, but he didn’t get to his feet. With his gaze somewhere between Jez and the bedroom door, David nodded.

“That’s not an acceptable answer, David.”

David flicked his tongue over his lips, head lifting until he met Tai’s stare. “Yes, Sir. I do.”

“Okay. Did you bring the checklist?”

David started to nod then said, “Yes, Sir. Here.” He slid a folded paper out of the pocket of his cargo shorts.

Tai took it from him, drinking in the obedience on offer, the hunger in David’s eyes as he tracked Tai’s every move.

“When I ask you to come here, you will always be on time. After you say hi to Jez, you will remove all of your clothes and put them on this chair, folded neatly.” Tai turned his desk chair out to face the couch. “Then you will put on your cuffs and—” he couldn’t have David kneeling with that bad leg, “—sit on the floor until I am ready for you.”

“Yes, Sir.” David climbed to his feet and stripped off his shirt.

Under his husky breaths of arousal there was something of a pushback.

“What?” Tai asked.

David swallowed. “It wasn’t on the sheet. But I don’t like waiting. I get bored.”

Tai watched him, drawing the tension out, feeling it stretch like a wire between them. David didn’t look away, not even as he unfastened his shorts, dropped them to the floor and then peeled away the briefs underneath. As he folded them between his hands, Tai stepped forward.

“Too bad. You’ll wait if I want you to. But as for you being bored, I’ll take care of that.” Tai took the shorts from David and fished the cuffs from his front pocket. “Give me your hands.”

The light from the blinds could have been the reason, but David’s pupils widened as the leather was buckled over the tender inside of his wrists. Only a hair’s width of blue iris showed as Tai leaned forward to breathe the order across David’s mouth. “Go sit on my bed and wait for me.”

David didn’t answer, but he went, disappearing around the corner. Jez had gone off to stretch out under the air conditioner when she realized it wasn’t her kind of play date. Her ears barely twitched as Tai unfolded the checklist to scan it.

He was relieved to see David wasn’t looking for anything Tai didn’t feel able to deliver. In fact, with the exception of impact play, they were well matched.

Tai wouldn’t say he was a sadist in the way he understood it from Nic’s point of view. If Tai marked a sub, the satisfaction was in the proof of ownership, not the hurting. To him, impact play was about a submissive surrendering to what Tai wanted, demanded. That pleasure and pain came from him. And the sight of a guy over Tai’s lap, upturned ass waiting for the smack of his hand, got him hard enough to cut diamonds.

He tucked the list in his back pocket and went into his bedroom.

David had followed orders—insolently. He was sitting on the bed, barely. His legs were wide apart, and he leaned on one arm as his other hand made a lazy stroke on his half-hard dick, as if he wouldn’t mind waiting until August to get off.

Tai leaned back against his closet door and folded his arms. It would serve the brat right to make him wait that long. “Are you challenging me, David?”

David’s hand stuttered in its stroke, his voice husky and low as he answered, “No, Sir. I get bored.” He looked away. “I’d rather you put me in the shower again than make me wait.”

“Better negative attention than none? I think you should learn patience, boy. Get up on the bed. On your back. And get your hand off your dick.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Spread your legs. Wider.” Tai buckled on ankle cuffs and attached them to the restraints he had under the bed. Kneeling at David’s side, Tai studied David’s face. There was the quick slide of his tongue he did when he was nervous, but no fear in his eyes. “You will tell me if your leg hurts from this.”

“Yes, Sir.”

After licking a kiss across David’s palm, Tai attached the left hand to the corner restraint. David’s breath came faster. His head turned to look at his wrist.

“I can take a picture for you,” Tai offered.

He wouldn’t mind having that picture. David with his Abercrombie looks, spread out and pinned down with dark leather and steel clips. Held open for anything Tai wanted to do.

David’s eyes widened. “Um, I— Not this time.”

“You trust me to tie you up but not with a picture.” Tai smiled.

“Ah, well…”

Tai ran his finger along the forearm of David’s unbound hand, drawing a shiver.

“What’s your safe word?”

“Red. Or—” He flexed his fingers. “I don’t think I could reach anything to tap.”

“I won’t gag you.” Tai used his teeth and lips on each of the fingertips, then clipped the restraint onto the cuff. “Because we’re going to talk.”

“Talk?” David arched up, and the cuffs pulled him down again.

“Yes. About patience. Lie flat. You challenged me, and I will punish you, David. When I tell you to wait, that is part of you submitting to me. Concentrate on that. You’re not only waiting. You’re giving me obedience. And in waiting you have my attention.”

Tai pushed off the bed, backing away.

“Tai—Sir?”

“Yes?”

“Are you leaving me like this?”

“Close your eyes.”

The soft lids were almost convincing.

“All the way, David.” Tai moved around the bed. “I’m still here.”

Eyes still shut, David nodded then stammered, “Yes, Sir.”

“Is your leg okay?”

“As much as it ever is.”

“When is your physical-therapy appointment?”

This time David’s tongue made a full sweep of his lips. “Ah. I called.” When Tai didn’t answer, David kept rolling. “But they’d left for the day so I didn’t get an appointment. But I did call, and I’ll call them back tomorrow.”

Tai moved to the window and peered behind the blinds. “You had time to go get your car from the impound but not to call for an appointment.”

“I forgot.” For the first time, David’s voice held genuine regret. “I meant to.”

Tai turned back to watch his throat bob with a swallow.

At last in the silence, David whispered, “I’m sorry, Sir.”

“Why?”

David blinked, his eyes unfocused for a minute, and then he looked at Tai.

“Why are you sorry?”

“Because I—” The apologetic tone vanished, replaced with something stronger. “I made a promise. And I like to think I’m a man of my word.”

Tai leaned down and brushed a thumb across David’s lips. “Think about that, David. Do you like displeasing me?”

Tai watched understanding crash over David like a bucket of ice water. Shock, a sharp intake of breath, the strain in his immobilized muscles to protect himself from the knowledge. Then the relaxation of acceptance.

“No.” David’s voice was as hoarse as if he’d been under a cold shower.

Tai bent to kiss him. “Good boy.”

Damn. If he’d known, he’d have started there. It would have been a perfect time to pull David onto his lap, reinforce that yielding, the recognition of his desire to please.

David shifted, squaring his shoulders against the mattress, and the moment, along with his vulnerability, slipped away.

“How do you feel?” Tai asked.

“Comfy. I could sleep like this.” David closed his eyes again.

“I want you to practice patience, not fall asleep, so I have something special for you.”

Tai had made a quick stop on his way home from work. Even without the checklist, he’d been pretty sure David would take to light cock-and-ball torture. He’d nodded at the clerk at Studs and Satin and gone right past the bachelor and bachelorette party stuff and into the back room where the serious stuff was. He’d eyed a triple crown of metal rings, but then remembering how David had loved the leather cuffs, Tai had bought a five-stud leather band with a ball separator.

Now he took the band out and trailed it down David’s chest, watching the skin prickle in reaction. David lifted his head to peer down.

“Everything’s already cuffed.”

As the edge approached David’s cock, Tai flicked it up and then let it lightly snap against the inside of David’s thigh, provoking a flinch and a hiss.

“Not everything.” Tai dragged it up from thigh to groin.

“Oh. Oh, shit.” David’s dick filled as Tai watched, lengthening and thickening.

“Relax. It’s easier if you’re not fully hard.”

Tai’s words had the opposite effect. He grabbed David’s shaft. “Don’t make me jerk you off.”

David laughed. “That is the most peculiar threat I’ve ever heard.”

“Trust me.” Tai breathed the words into David’s ear. “You won’t enjoy what I’ve planned if you’ve already come.”

“Damn. You telling me that is not likely to make me less—ah—tumescent.” David’s voice leapt from baritone to tenor as Tai fastened the leather tight around the shaft and behind his balls.

Tai chuckled as he checked the fit.

“Ah—I think it’s too tight,” David complained around a high, fast breath.

“It’s going to get tighter as you get more
tumescent
.”

“You told me to— Even saying hard is—shit—making me harder.”

“Are you bored?”

“No, Sir.”

“Good.” Tai smiled. He lifted the T-strap and drew David’s balls up close, carefully checking the snaps to avoid pinching hair or skin.

“Oh, sweet Jesus.” David shuddered. “I— Don’t— I—”

Tai ran his finger up the throbbing vein on the underside.

“T-Tai, Sir, please.”

“What do you want, David?” Tai crawled up from the foot of the bed to crouch between David’s shivering legs.

“I—don’t know.” Desperation grated through David’s clenched jaw.

“Good. Don’t think. Don’t anticipate. Take what I give you.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Tai flattened himself, dropping his legs off the mattress to reach David’s balls with tongue and lips. One long lick of the velvety skin stretched tight by the straps, and then he gently tugged one side of the sac in to cradle the soft roundness in his mouth, nose buried in the sweat and sex pouring from David’s skin.

The body around him jumped and twitched, harsh groans following David’s breathing. A little harder on the other side, a firmer tug of lips, more pressure as Tai traced the shape with his tongue. After a row of wet kisses along the underside of David’s dick, Tai slid backward off the bed.

David’s panting got shallow and fast to the point where Tai stopped stripping his clothes to put a palm on David’s chest.

“Shhh.”

David’s eyes had been screwed shut. They popped open, and he twisted his head back and forth for an instant.

“Still with me?”

David nodded then blew out a long, steady breath. “Yes, Sir.”

“Good boy. If you hyperventilate, you’ll pass out, and I have plans.” The tightness under Tai’s palm eased. “That’s it.”

Tai stepped out of his shorts and dropped them on the chair, watching David’s breathing even out. He leaned to brush his lips across David’s neck. “I’m proud of you.”

David turned his head, and the surprise in his eyes made Tai have to kiss him. At first, David tried to push frantic hunger into it, but when Tai’s hand landed on his cheek, the stroke of tongues became slow and deep.

Right then it wasn’t a scene, didn’t feel anything like playing. It was more than an eager sub, obedience on offer. The familiar buzz was there, connecting them in this space, but it was different. A dizzying pull that kept him matching his breaths with David’s as they kissed, kept Tai stroking the cheeks and rough jaw under his fingers, kept him there, forehead pressed against David’s when the kiss ended.

“I’ve got you.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“I want you to remember this when I ask you to wait. Remember it’s for me. It’s being good for me like this. Taking what I give you.”

“Yes.”

Tai stared down into David’s eyes and wasn’t sure which of them was deeper in.

Dragging himself away, Tai took out the checklist and gathered other supplies from the nightstand drawer.

“You skipped the last two questions.” Tai held up the lube and the curved steel wand, slicking the heavy ball at the end.

David licked his lips. “I did answer them.”

“Hmm.” Tai moved around to the foot of his bed again and knelt on the mattress. “Lift your hips a little.”

When David did, Tai slipped the bulb on the wand up against David’s asshole and pushed, barely enough to let him feel the pressure. With the other hand, he held the checklist out for David to see.

“Are those really answers?” He rocked the tip of the wand, stretching the rim of muscle. David’s thighs started shaking. “
How were you punished as a child?
Answer:
Same as everyone.
” Tai studied David’s face.

He groaned, jaw and lips tight. “If I answer, what do I get?”

“It doesn’t work like that, David. You answer because I ask. But we’ll come back to that one.
What nonphysical elements of D/s do you like the most?
Answer:
Can’t I just tell you?
Yes. You can tell me now.” Tai nudged the heavy steel ball deeper, so the full width of it stretched David’s hole.