Love in the Land of Fire (9 page)

Josiah needs to know, to hear out loud once again, that Rafe wants this just as much as he does.

“Beg me. If you want it beg for it.”

Rafe doesn’t miss a beat and in the next second he is practically mewling, begging Josiah in that beautiful husky voice of his to give him what he wants. Josiah feels his own cock give a hard twitch, pleasure flooding through him unexpectedly at seeing Rafe comply with his demands as if he’d been made for them. Josiah wastes no time. He bends back down and takes Rafe’s cock back into his mouth, running his tongue along the shaft and swallowing around the head.

Rafe cries out again, the sound cutting through his steady stream of begging and pleading for more, and Josiah smiles as best he can around the submissive’s shaft. He starts working Rafe in earnest, licking, sucking, and swallowing down the younger man’s cock in a steady rhythm that drives him ever closer to the brink. Still he keeps the circle of his fingers tight around Rafe’s base, not willing to end things right yet, wanting to draw out the beauty of Rafe’s pleasure for a while longer.

He plays with him for a bit, swallowing down the slightly bitter pre-cum that’s weeping from Rafe’s slit with a pleased smirk. Finally when Rafe’s voice is hoarse and breaking, when the skin beneath his hands is damp from sweat instead of oil and Rafe’s own fingers are almost clawing at the tabletop, he relents. He pulls back and straightens almost to his full height, raking his gaze over Rafe’s panting form as he slowly relaxes the tight ring of fingers from around the base of the submissive’s cock.

“Come, Rafe. Come now, for me.”

Rafe does. He arches his head back, baring his throat and the glinting silver of his collar to Josiah’s hungry gaze as he comes. He spills himself all over Josiah’s fingertips, coats his hand as he shudders and shakes from the sharpness of his completion. Josiah looks on in fascination until he finishes and slumps back down, panting and breathless against the surface of the table. Josiah raises his cum-covered hand to his mouth and without breaking eye contact with Rafe proceeds to lick it clean, a small grin curling his lips.

When he’s done, when his fingers are pristine and glistening from the wetness of his mouth, he leans down 4and kisses Rafe. He pushes some of the submissive’s own cum into his mouth, sharing with Rafe the taste and texture of his own pleasure for a moment before he breaks the kiss. He looks at him silently for a moment, at the still heaving chest, flushed skin, and hands still perfectly in place and smiles softly.

Rafe shifts like he’s going to try to move or stand, to reach for Josiah or something, but he waves him down and is satisfied when he settles back without a protest. Rafe takes orders perfectly, never second guessing only trusting Josiah to have his best interests at heart. For them to be so in tune right here at the beginning, with all that’s happened and is currently happening, is a miracle and Josiah knows that things will only grow to be better as time passes and they truly learn one another.

Josiah turns and strides into the bathroom, ignoring the way his still rigid cock presses against the material of his pants. This interlude was about Rafe, about rewarding him for the trust he’s placed in Josiah and not about Josiah’s satisfaction. Besides he got so much more out of watching Rafe, out of knowing that he was the cause of his pleasure and seeing him come undone, that his own orgasm was almost forgotten. There will be plenty of time for that kind of satisfaction later. Now is about building trust and showing care.

He comes out with a warm damp cloth and makes his way to Rafe’s side quietly. He swipes the cloth across Rafe’s exposed skin gently, carefully cleaning the sweat, oil and cum from his body. This is important he knows. This aftercare builds trust between a dom and a sub, shows that their relationship is about affection and trust as well as pleasure, that it can be nurturing on top of everything else. So he cleans Rafe gently, takes care when he cleans the sensitive skin of his now soft cock and the creases of his thighs. Rafe watches him the entire time, eyes still half-lidded but mouth curled in an almost confused half smile.

When Josiah’s done he motions for Rafe to stand, steadies him with a hand on his arm and then leads him around the table to sit down in the chair in front of the place setting. Rafe tries to protest, tries to take his place on his knees beside the chair but Josiah stills him with a firm hand on his shoulder. He makes short work of gathering the laid out plate, going to the kitchen, and returning with a plateful of the food Rafe had prepared. He’d mainly chosen things like the cut cheeses and fruits the other man had prepared, things that could be eaten by hand and weren’t terribly messy.

He puts the food down and then urges Rafe to stand so that he can take his place in the chair. When the submissive once again tries to kneel Josiah stops him and instead maneuvers him around until he’s sitting comfortably in Josiah’s lap. It’s awkward at first because neither of them is small by any stretch of the imagination, but they shift around for a moment and finally find comfortable positions.

Josiah picks up a square of cheese and places it against Rafe’s lips. He waits patiently for Rafe to take it from him, careful of his teeth, and lets himself smile at the sight of
his
sub eating from his hand. They sit in silence, Josiah alternating between feeding Rafe small bites of food and feeding himself.

It’s not actually perfect. There are still too many things that need to be dealt with, but Josiah thinks that maybe it might be one day. That it has the potential to be the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

4
Chapter Eleven

They have three days of blissful peace before it all comes crashing down around them. They have three quiet days that they spend learning bits and pieces about each other, not doing any scenes just getting truly comfortable with one another. It starts when Josiah undocks his p.a.t.c.h and sets about filling out the paperwork that will bind them into a contract. Rafe will have to file a second set as soon as Josiah’s is accepted and processed, but Josiah wants to get things underway as quickly as possible.

He signs off on the documents with a bit of a flourish and then keys in his personal identification code to verify its authenticity and presses send. For a moment things go as planned, the screen showing its customary request that he wait a moment while his file is processed but then it cuts out. The page that’s normally pale beige in color turns dark blue and tiny white text scrolls its way across the top.

Bad idea, Vanguard. It wouldn’t be wise to file that at the moment. Information packet in route and will
arrive on an encrypted chip in three…two…one…

Josiah starts when the chime at his front door goes off at the same time the countdown that’s obviously Gar’s doing hits one. He’s on his feet and moving, p.a.t.c.h laying abandoned on the couch, hand reaching out and plucking his pistol off of the side table, which has not been far from him at any time since this all started, and creeping cautiously towards the door. He waits for a moment but the chime doesn’t sound again so he moves forward silently and keys up the visual screen to look outside. The small screen shows him nothing but he’s still cautious, fully aware that
peepers
, the small cameras that serve as peepholes, are easily fooled.

He flips the lock on the door and then eases it open all of the way with a booted foot, making sure that he’s otherwise hidden from view. Nothing happens. There’s no shuffling on the other side, no one tries to enter, and there’s no sign that anyone’s there at all. Weapon still in hand, Josiah ducks a quick look around the doorframe and sees only a small box, black lacquered and beautifully carved. Feeling vaguely foolish Josiah lowers his weapon and steps over the threshold to bend down and scoop the box up in the palm of his hand before heading back inside.

He flips the lock on the door and walks back to his chair. The still blue screen of his p.a.t.c.h blinks up at him mockingly.

Understandably paranoid, Vanguard, but I told you it was coming. Open it and if there are any
questions…well, I’ll find you before you find me…Skirmisher out.

Josiah scowls at the screen that’s now showing his normal personalized menu for a moment and vows silently to try and beat an actual sense of humor into Gar the next time they see each other. He rolls the black box around in his hands for a moment before he makes up his mind. Rafe’s still asleep so he’ll have plenty of time to go over whatever it is that Gar has sent him. He opens the box, pulls out the data chip that’s inside and inserts it into the port on the underside of the arm cuff that acts as the dock for his p.a.t.c.h.

Immediately the screen turns black and then document after document pops up, showing Josiah just how much information Gar has compiled in a relatively short amount of time. His stomach is uneasy because he knows that Gar would have only included things that were important, things that stood out. For there to be so much on that small data chip is actually a bad sign. Still it’s something that has to be done, something he has to do in order to get to the bottom of what’s going on, so he picks up his screen and pulls one of the documents up to full size with a flick of his fingers.

The document turns out to be a death certificate and the name on it causes Josiah to breathe out a low curse.

4Miguel Zweil died almost ten years ago, the apparent cause being suicide, something that Josiah doesn’t believe for a moment. There’d been such affection in Rafe’s eyes the day he’d talked about Miguel, affection that Josiah’s sure had been returned wholeheartedly. There’s no way someone who could inspire such care in Rafe after so many years without contact would have committed suicide without saying goodbye to Rafe first. It seems as if Zweil House has more than one thing to answer for if Josiah is reading the signs correctly.

He closes the document out and pulls up the next one, resolving to break the news to Rafe gently as soon as he gets the chance. The next document is a compilation of financial records outlining a series of credit exchanges between Zweil House and Frisch House. Josiah sets them to the side to be forwarded to Marcel after he’s done. They’ll be of far more use to her than to him.

He goes through a few more files of the same kind, things that are important but will have to be forwarded to the proper channels or handled later before he finds something that makes him curse viciously.

It’s a contract, signed by Frisch and Jean Zweil around the time Rafe turned twenty-one, binding Rafe into Frisch’s care on the understanding that they might one day Bond. He now knows why Gar had stopped him from sending in the paperwork that announced his intention to enter into a contract with Rafe and Josiah curses himself for not thinking ahead. It seemed as if Eagan had been correct when he’d called Frisch Rafe’s future Bonded despite not being able to find a contract on record. It had been done in-house, obviously without Rafe’s approval or knowledge, and it makes Josiah’s gut clench in knots. If he had sent in those documents he and Rafe both would have been found in direct violation of a previously established contract and would have been immediately subjected to questioning and a heavy fine. Even though Frisch was being investigated on charges of abuse the contract still stood for the moment and unless it was dissolved Josiah and Rafe would be unable to enter into a legal contract of their own. Added onto that were the possible ramifications it would have on the case itself.

Contracts were designed to protect both parties and there are normally heavy consequences to breaking one, especially on the count of what could be considered infidelity. If it weren’t for Gar, Josiah would have ruined everything with a single document. He closes the contract, putting it aside to look at later even though he knows deep inside that it won’t matter. He’ll have Rafe no matter what he has to do, how long he has to wait, or who he has to pay off.

The screen of his p.a.t.c.h blinks and goes blue again with an incoming message and Josiah knows that the person behind it is Gar.

Document NFJ-2234 will take care of the contract. Have patience and stay calm.

Intrigued Josiah types in the file name, curious as to what Gar has found that he believes can be used to dissolve the contract so easily. His entire body goes tense when the file opens and Josiah realizes that Gar has managed to get his hands on a copy of Frisch’s personal video diary. Almost nervous, Josiah cues up the first file, dated some ten years back, and watches as Frisch’s younger but still familiar face comes on screen and his voice spills out into the room around him.

“That bitch Jean owes me for pulling her ass out of the fire. If it weren’t for me she would have lost
everything. She’ll give me what I want or I’ll make sure it all happens anyways. She owes me and I intend
to collect.”

It’s ominous and doesn’t explain much, but Josiah knows that Gar has included it for a reason so he flips to the next clip, this one dated almost a full year later, to see if things become any clearer.

“I think I’ve found exactly what I want in return. I saw him around the compound and he’s perfect. The
fact that he’s his son makes it all the sweeter. It might take some doing since Jean seems fond of him but
4
she’s fonder of her position. He’ll be mine. It’s just a matter of time.”

A nasty suspicion begins to form in Josiah’s mind, a cold dread filling up the pit of his stomach even as he clicks on the next file.

“She’s finally given in, after relentless perusal and reminding her where she’d be right now without me
she’s finally agreed to give him to me. He’s of age now, twenty-one and fully capable of entering into a
contract. She’ll sign him over or I’ll make an anonymous tip off to the Enforcers and let them know just how
the boy’s parents really died.”

Josiah drops his p.a.t.c.h on the cushion beside him and scrubs his hands violently over his face. It’s what he thought it was, what he hoped he’d been wrong about when the suspicion first unfurled in his breast. Rafe had been
sold
, forced to enter into a contract against his will and even without his knowledge in order to appease Frisch. Bartered as payment to a blackmailer who apparently knew the real truth behind how Rafe’s father and his Bonded Miguel had died. He has to resist the urge to pour himself a stiff drink, knowing that it’s entirely too early and that he needs to be sober and clearheaded when Rafe wakes up.