Bound and Determined (52 page)

pleased me, and I know you will.” He sighed and ran his fingers through

Sterling's hair. “You always do. My Sterling.”

He let his voice get rough, commanding, needing to hear Sterling's voice,

so aroused by the picture he'd painted that he knew he'd have to do this soon.

He couldn't wait. “Whose boy are you, Sterling?”

“Yours, Owen.” Sterling's eyes were bright, his expression transcendent,

like he'd been waiting all his life for this moment. It made Owen feel

indescribably good that he'd been able to give it to Sterling, his beautiful boy

who so deserved to get what he wanted. “I'm yours. God, please. I'll do anything

for you, you know that. Anything.”

“I know.” Owen bent and kissed Sterling's mouth, his tongue flicking

against Sterling's lip, a signal that Sterling could kiss him back, which he did

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223

with a passion that made Owen decide they'd be leaving the club early. There

was so much that he wanted to do with Sterling, and the club had limits, rules,

about what could happen in public. “It's time.”

Sterling quivered like an eager puppy but didn't stand up until Owen had.

He shadowed Owen out onto the floor and sank beautifully to his knees as

soon as Owen stopped and turned, wrists crossed in front of him, head bowed.

Owen knew almost everyone in the club was aware of Sterling's shoulder

injury, but even if they hadn't been, different Doms had different preferences

and this might just as easily have been one of Owen's. Sterling couldn't have

looked any hotter or more submissive even if his hands
had
been behind his

back, and Owen was aware of the buzz of voices quieting around them as the

attention of Doms and subs alike was drawn to the picture they made.

Sterling hadn't asked questions when Owen had left the house that

morning, busy with a paper that had to be handed in the following week.

Owen's preparations hadn't taken long; he'd known exactly what he wanted.

Without a word, Saul, the man in charge of the bar at the club, and two

male subs, both redheads—which was one more than Owen would have taken

on, but Saul seemed to thrive on the challenge—came over to his side, his subs

trailing behind him, one carrying a small table, the other a silver tray. With a

smile for Owen, he snapped his fingers and the table was set down beside

Owen, and the tray placed carefully on top of it.

“Thank you,” Owen told Saul. Saul's subs exchanged glances and smiled

at Sterling, who wasn't looking at them but at what lay on the tray.

Clamps, a flogger—and a collar, plain black leather, dark against the rich

gleam of the polished tray.

Sterling's lips parted like he was about to speak, then closed again

without him making a sound. His eyes were wide as he stared at the tray, and

the tip of his tongue wet his lips before disappearing back into his mouth.

Finally he turned his gaze to Owen, disbelief coloring his cheeks in the flush of

pink that Owen so loved.

“Your neck looked a little bare,” Owen said, “and I don't want anyone to

have any doubt about the fact that you're mine.” He looked away from Sterling

with some reluctance and found that he was surrounded by smiling faces, their

approval plain. His gaze was caught by one sub, a woman in her thirties, her

neck as unadorned as Sterling's, tears bright in her eyes as she looked up at

the man beside her. Her Dom, a younger man, no more than Sterling's age,

glanced down, his lips shaping a single word: “Soon.”

Attention back on Sterling, Owen gestured at him to stand up, which

Sterling did. The movement seemed to bring back some of his earlier calm, and

he kept his eyes down respectfully as Owen reached to uncross his wrists,

bringing his arms to rest at his sides so he could unbutton Sterling's shirt.

He usually had Sterling undress himself, but tonight he wanted to do it as

part of his laying claim to his boy. One by one he slipped the buttons free of

their buttonholes, tempted by the bare skin he was revealing and anticipating

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Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow

later in the night when they were home and he could explore every inch of it

with his mouth and hands. When the shirt was fully unbuttoned, Owen slowly

pushed it back over Sterling's shoulders. “Don't move,” he said, not wanting

Sterling to drop his arms into a position that might cause strain, and Sterling

went utterly still.

The shirt off, folded neatly and placed on the small table, red on silver, a

splash of color, Owen picked up the collar and turned back to Sterling. He held

the collar up where Sterling could see it.

“This goes on first. Everything that's about to happen to you is because

you're mine and I want you to have it: the pain, the submission, all of it from

me to you. Because you are mine.” He separated the last words out,

emphasizing them. “The collar doesn't make that true. It
is
true.” He tapped

Sterling's shoulder. “Kneel and I'll put it around your neck.”

Sterling went to his knees so quickly that under any other circumstances

Owen might have thought he'd been shot; he felt the floorboards vibrate under

his shoes. They weren't the only things vibrating—as he stepped behind

Sterling and lowered the collar to fasten it around the boy's neck, he could feel

the fine shiver that was running through Sterling.

Sterling wasn't the only one affected by the moment, of course; the

watching people were silent, completely so, a silence more emphatic than

cheers or applause, and Owen found that his hands, for a moment, until he

controlled them, were shaking.

Once the collar was fastened, he adjusted the fit and placed his hands on

Sterling's shoulders, letting him feel touched by more than just leather and

metal. Skin on skin…a connection running between them, as it always had

from the day they'd met.

Sterling had been restless then, unhappy. Searching, like Owen, for

someone to complete him.

Owen leaned down, his mouth close to Sterling's ear. “Ready, Sterling?”

He knew what the answer would be.

Bound and Determined

225

Other Loose Id(R) Titles by Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow

The LAYING A GHOST Series

Laying a Ghost

Giving Up the Ghost

Waking the Dead

About the Authors

Jane Davitt

Jane Davitt is English, and has been living in Canada with her husband,

two children, and two cats, since 1997. Writing and reading are her main

occupations but if she ever had any spare time she might spend it gardening,

walking, or doing cross stitch.

Jane has been writing since 2005 and wishes she'd started earlier. She is

a huge fan of SF, fantasy, erotica, and mystery novels and has a tendency to

get addicted to TV shows that get cancelled all too soon.

She owns over 4,000 books, rarely gives any away (but is happy to loan

them), and is of the firm opinion that there is no such thing as 'too many

books'.

Alexa Snow

Alexa Snow is an emotional person who appreciates practicality in others.

She's prone to crying at inconvenient times, drinking too much coffee, and

staying up too late playing with words (either reading or writing.) A background

of schooling she wasn't all that interested in resulted in a Bachelor's degree in

Sociology and a vague sense of wasted time. Alexa lives in a tiny, ancient house

in New England with her husband, young son, and two little-old-lady cats.

• About this Title
  
• Chapter One
  
• Chapter Two
  
• Chapter Three
  
• Chapter Four
  
• Chapter Five
  
• Chapter Six
  
• Chapter Seven
  
• Chapter Eight
  
• Chapter Nine
  
• Chapter Ten
  
• Chapter Eleven
  
• Chapter Twelve
  
• Chapter Thirteen
  
• Chapter Fourteen
  
• Chapter Fifteen
  
• Chapter Sixteen
  
• Chapter Seventeen
  
• Chapter Eighteen
  
• Other Loose Id(R) Titles by Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow
  
• About the Authors