A generation ago America passed a law allowing a bankrupt person’s debts to be bought by rich Masters. The debt slaves then belonged to their Masters for the duration of the debt. Cain, a debt slave with the soul of a Master, was bought by the Master of Tucker Industries, Dave.

In each other they found what they had always been looking for. Cain found the perfect submissive while Dave found the perfect Master. Their private relationship has to remain their secret, requiring them to reverse the natural roles while in public.

That’s difficult enough but when the mysterious terrorist Black attacks a party they’re attending, Cain is injured and Dave has to protect his lover and secret Master. The party and its aftermath test their relationship, their acting abilities and their lives. Has Cain trained his lover and Master to play his public role well enough that they can both survive?

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Sound of Obedience

By Meyari McFarland

1. Obedience

“Quiet,” Cain said as he put his work out of his mind, abandoning the numbers and math of his accounting job to focus on Dave.

It wasn’t easy to set aside the role he had to play outside of Dave’s bedroom. If his family’s debts hadn’t been so high, Cain would never have become a debt slave.

The requirement to be servile and obedient grated against his more dominant nature, just as Dave’s more submissive personality ill-suited his position as Master of Tucker Industries. Neither of them was comfortable in the roles society demanded of them.

Not that any of that mattered once they were alone. Here they were both free to be exactly who they truly were. Cain smiled, allowing a long slow breath to slide through his nostrils as he listened to Dave behind him.

The faint creak and slither of rope painted pictures of Dave flexing as he tested the knots tied around his body. Dave’s breath puffed, rapid and shaky with combined excitement and nervousness. This wasn’t a game they played all that often. Nervousness was to be expected, if not acknowledged in his role as Dave’s secret Master.

Dave’s breath had been considerably faster as Cain tied the ropes but now it was slowing, deepening nicely. There was still a good long ways to go but they would get there. Cain had no doubts about his ability to ground Dave, to give them the pleasure they both sought. It was only a matter of how best to achieve their mutual goals.

The faint scratch of his nails over the dresser prompted a quiet moan from Dave. Cain smiled as he considered which of their toys to use. The flogger with its soft leather tresses snapped against his thigh. Dave moaned loudly and then swallowed audibly at Cain’s faint stiffening. Cain waited until Dave had control over his voice again before picking up the cane. Its impact against his palm made Dave wince and flinch, the ropes binding him creaking with the force of his reaction. No, not the cane.

Dave’s breath exploded out of him in a gasp that wasn’t quite loud enough to be a moan when Cain picked up the paddle. The slower pace of his breath disappeared into urgent little pants that made Cain smile. Yes, this should work very nicely indeed.

The bedroom was dim when Cain turned around. He’d turned the lights low everywhere but over the dresser to force Dave to focus exclusively on him. The last few weeks had been hard enough for both of them that Cain knew Dave needed to be taken down harder than normal. Ropes usually weren’t necessary, sadly, as they made a beautiful picture wrapped around Dave’s body. The red silk rope coiled around his body, keeping Dave in the position that Cain had chosen.

Dave knelt in the middle of the room, his arms bound securely behind his back. His knees were spread wide, heels tucked under his perfect ass. As soon as Cain turned around Dave dropped his eyes to the carpet underneath him. Cain smiled. There was nothing more perfect than seeing Dave submit this way except perhaps feeling his strong body quiver underneath Cain’s fingertips.

“Good,” Cain murmured as he slowly walked around Dave, brushing the very tips of his fingers against the nape of Dave’s neck.

Dave didn’t speak, didn’t moan; he managed to keep his shudder to a faint shiver up his spine. Really, he was so good when they played these games.

No one would ever have believed that a major corporate Master would be such a good sub but Cain knew the truth. Wealth and family inheritance didn’t dictate personality. This was what Dave truly needed, not being the one who gave the orders.

“Come here,” Cain ordered as he sat on the comfortable bench at the end of Dave’s bed.

He set the paddle to the side, watching with avid eyes as Dave’s cheeks went red. The blush crept down Dave’s neck, pinking his wide shoulders and warming the broad chest with its pierced nipples. A drop of precome welled up and fell from the tip of Dave’s cock as he slowly shuffled closer. With his arms bound behind his back and his ankles loosely lashed to his thighs, shuffling was all that Dave could do.

Every movement of Dave’s body made the red silk ropes shift around him. Cain could see how the reminder of whom he belonged to calmed Dave, centered him. The desperate pants stilled into calm breaths from deep within Dave’s core. Dave’s blush deepened and intensified until it covered his entire body. Cain could smell Dave’s arousal as he got closer, that mixture of semen and musk, lust and longing, that meant that Dave was nearly ready for what was coming.

Only once Dave knelt directly in front of Cain did Cain bend forward to press a gentle kiss against Dave’s forehead. It made Dave laugh, breath warm against Cain’s neck, but the tension in Dave’s shoulders relaxed even further, leaving him loose and ready for everything.

It only took a moment to remove the ropes binding Dave’s ankles and thighs. Cain made sure the knots came undone but left the rope coiled loosely around Dave’s legs. The sensation of it always made Dave shiver with pleasure.

“Count,” Cain ordered as he helped Dave arrange himself across Cain’s thighs. His cock pressed into Dave’s side while Dave’s cock quickly made a wet spot against Cain’s thigh.

“Yes Sir,” Dave said in a voice so husky that Cain nearly made him repeat it.

The first blow with the paddle was deliberately light to test Dave’s readiness and control. His replying ‘one’ came out shakier than expected when Dave was the one who had requested tonight’s impact play. ‘Two’ was firmer, both for the blow and for the response.

Cain gave himself a count of six before the third blow, frowning as Dave’s ‘three’ was pinched and startled rather than confident or even pained. Two seconds before blow ‘four’ and this time Dave almost sobbed the word.

At ‘five’ Cain stopped to caress Dave’s neck while checking the ropes wrapped around Dave’s arms. None too tight. His circulation seemed to be perfectly fine. Despite that, Dave shook as he lay across Cain’s lap. Cain tipped Dave back to the floor in front of him, ensuring that he landed on his knees. The startled yearning in Dave’s eyes nearly overwhelmed Cain’s worry for his powerful lover.

“Talk,” Cain said.

“I’m okay,” Dave protested immediately.

He winced and flushed at Cain’s stern look. The ropes around his arms creaked when Dave flexed his shoulders automatically. Cain ran his fingers over Dave’s shoulders, traced the ropes and then brought his hands up to fist in the marginally longer hair on the top of Dave’s head.

The move seemed to finally startle Dave out of his thoughts and into focusing on Cain properly. Tonight might not end up to be as energetic as promised but Cain thought that it might be all the better for it.

“Talk to me, Dave,” Cain ordered.

Dave sighed. “It’s just work. I’m sorry. I’ll focus better, I promise.”

“That’s not how it works,” Cain countered. “When we’re here, you give me everything, the good and the bad. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Rather than answer Cain immediately, Dave leaned into his touch to rest his head against Cain’s hand. Cain pulled him closer so that Dave could lean against his thigh. He ran his hands over Dave’s hair, enjoying the soft bristle of short hair rubbing against his palm. They’d talked many times about Dave’s desire to grow his hair out but the requirements of his position had always prevented that possibility.

Dave had to appear strong, powerful, and dominant while in public. He had the physique for it given his height and carefully maintained musculature.

Unfortunately for Dave, he didn’t have the personality. It was a sad thing in Cain’s mind that Dave couldn’t simply be himself. Their society, especially at Dave’s level, demanded so much of him that it simply didn’t come naturally. Every public appearance was a struggle that Cain heard about after the fact, usually after they’d played and Dave had let go of his remaining tension.

“Master Boles is hosting a party for his friend Greg,” Dave finally said once he’d calmed. Granted, his erection was gone now but that was okay. If needed Cain knew exactly how to bring it back. “He won that prize debt slave at the auction and apparently they want to celebrate that tomorrow.”

Cain nodded thoughtfully while rubbing Dave’s hair. As much as he hated to remember his auction, he knew perfectly well how important the auctions were to the Masters running the various companies in the city. Getting control over especially promising young people with debts meant having their intelligence and talent fully at your disposal until their debt was paid off.

Most Masters treated their debt slaves as somewhat expendable resources; most actually were expendable given that they would never settle down and become productive members of society. They continued the same patterns of behavior that had caused their debt in the first place, failing to work hard, save money and be responsible adults.

Debt slavery was the final stop for most people who went bankrupt. If they learned and paid off their debt they would be allowed back into society. If not, they became true slaves who lost all legal personhood and became nothing more than property for their new Masters and Mistresses.

Cain had been a toddler when the debt slavery system was implemented as a way to deal with poverty and rampant debt among the lower classes of society. The rich were able to help the poor by paying off their debts and the poor were given a second chance at life, even if most of them failed to take proper advantage of it.

However, there were always a few people who went into the debt slavery system who were obviously destined for better things. Those were the prizes that Masters fought over. They were the ones that bidding wars were fought over. And there were always Masters who took every opportunity to snatch prize debt slaves out from under their rival’s noses. Master John Boles was one who took pains to do it. Dave had been incredibly lucky to get Cain’s contract.

“Rub it in Mistress Hong’s face, you mean,” Cain said and then chuckled when Dave snorted with amusement. “Arms?”

“Um, sore but no tingling,” Dave admitted in a reluctant tone of voice. “Does this mean no play tonight? Because I really need it if I’m going to that party tomorrow.”

“No, tonight you need something more intimate,” Cain said as he began untying the knots holding Dave’s arms in place. “Tomorrow you need a caning about 3:00 pm so that you’ll be nicely sore for party but able to think. Which can be arranged. My schedule is clear tomorrow afternoon unless you have more duties for me.”

“Nothing that you can’t do in my office,” Dave replied.

His breath hissed through his teeth once his arms were free, telling Cain that the ‘soreness’ was considerably worse than Dave wanted to admit. So many times he underplayed his physical discomfort out of what Cain suspected was a subconscious desire to punish himself for his desires and basic personality.

Dave’s father had certainly done a wonderful job convincing Dave that who he was and what he wanted was perverted. Cain set Dave to stretching the kinks out as he put the paddle away.

With his back turned, Cain could hear the frustration in Dave’s little grunts of exertion. He worked his arms entirely too hard until Cain cleared his throat. Dave’s little sigh was followed by much more gentle sounds of exertion though Cain still shook his head.

There had to be something that they could do to ensure that Dave made it through the party without going into another tailspin of destroyed self-confidence and depression. The last one had lasted months. Cain truly didn’t want to see his lover that depressed ever again.

“Get in bed,” Cain told Dave while lowering the heat in the room from seventy-four down to sixty-five as was normal in Dave’s bedroom.

“We could still do something,” Dave offered. “It doesn’t have to be anything much.”

The way he jerked the covers aside said more about Dave’s frustration and continued inability to calm himself than his very mild and respectful tone of voice. Cain chuckled while deliberately not looking over his shoulder at Dave.

The lack of eye contact usually calmed Dave but when he was on the verge of another depressive incident it made him more agitated. Dave whined and thumped the pillows, his every movement an expression of the pout that Cain knew didn’t show on his face. It never did.

“You’re making an unwarranted assumption,” Cain said.

He turned and met Dave’s eyes, allowing himself to be as intense, as fierce as he wanted to be. As expected, the stare made Dave blush and look away but only for a moment. Soon he turned his face back to Cain, staring into his eyes hungrily. Cain smiled. To be looked at as if he was the most desirable person in the world was always ego inducing.

There were no illusions in Cain’s mind about his attractiveness. While he had no visible flaws, Cain was shorter, slender and rather soft around the middle from his accounting job. It was only his normally suppressed dominant personality that gave his features beauty and only in Dave’s eyes.

“I-I am?” Dave asked hopefully with his hands fisted in the covers.

“Mmm-hmm,” Cain replied.

A slow stalk towards the bed had Dave shaking once more. His cheeks went red. His breath came in little excited pants. By the time Cain pushed Dave back onto the pillows and directed his hands to clamp around the slats of the headboard, Dave was hard once more. Cain smiled down at him with every bit of the possessiveness and love he felt for Dave.

“You’re assuming that I had any intention of letting this night end without some form of release for the both of us,” Cain murmured. “Eyes open. No sound.”

Cain forgave the desperate whine because Dave kept his eyes wide open. So much of the time Dave clenched his eyes shut as if it wasn’t really happening if he didn’t see it. Tonight, Cain wanted Dave to see what happened, wanted him to feel everything. Perhaps if he managed to bring Dave fully into the moment they could avert the impending meltdown brought on by Master Boles’ ill-timed party.

When Cain bent to gently bite the ring piercing Dave’s right nipple it prompted a gasp. Cain raised one eyebrow, smiling around the ring when Dave bit his lip to stay silent. Silence wasn’t what Cain wanted. He preferred those times when he managed to get Dave into the mindset where his noises were a gift to his master but tonight was not going to be one of those nights. With everything that had to be running through Dave’s mind, getting obedience and pleasure was more than likely all that Cain would be able to achieve.

Dave’s breath exploded out his nostrils when Cain increased the pull on the nipple ring to the point his flesh stretched upwards, taunt and straining. Cain held it for a long several seconds, watching as Dave’s eyes locked onto the ring in his lips. His eyes drifted shut for just a moment but a quick jerk of Cain’s head snapped them open again. When Cain released the ring Dave jerked and grunted only to whine again when Cain switched to the other nipple ring.

A hard bite next to the ring made Dave jerk. Sucking on the ring started Dave’s hips rocking against Cain which only increased the pleasure and stimulation for them both. Cain chuckled. He added a series of bite marks down Dave’s stomach, tracing the hard line of his abs until he reached Dave’s groin. Dave shook his head ‘no’ when Cain considered adding a blow job to their activities tonight but a simple kiss pressed to the shaft of Dave’s erection made him jerk and gasp.

“That aroused already?” Cain asked. He laughed at the fierce blush that spread over Dave’s cheeks. “Mmm, I’ll take that as a compliment to my abilities, then.”

Dave nodded agreement with that, energetically enough that he bounced a bit on the pillow. Cain pulled the lube from the bedside table before settling between Dave’s legs. Most nights they didn’t bother with penetration but tonight Cain thought it would help. Every time they’d done it Dave said afterwards that he enjoyed it, that it made him feel owned and protected. With the party looming over Dave’s head, that was exactly what was needed tonight.

“I believe I will cane you tomorrow afternoon,” Cain said in a deliberately casual tone while pushing two fingers slowly into Dave. “It’s been long enough that the marks from last time are gone. Say a dozen marks on your back and the same on your buttocks would be quite nice, I think.”

“Oh God, please!” Dave gasped and then winced at having spoken out loud. “Sorry!”

Cain laughed. “Get the cock ring.”

Dave thumped his head against the pillows but he rolled to pull the cock ring out of the bedside table’s drawer with little reluctance. Rather than let him escape the fingers pressing into his ass, Cain followed Dave’s movements while curling his fingers up to massage Dave’s prostate gently. The stimulation made Dave bury his face in the pillow to muffle his moans. It also had him fumbling in the drawer for a long moment. When Cain nodded for Dave to apply the cock ring, Dave’s fingers were clumsy at it. He panted loudly until the cock ring settled into place, blocking him from coming easily.

“Hands back on the headboard,” Cain ordered while pushing a third finger into Dave to stretch him a bit more. Taking his time was definitely in order tonight.

Only once Dave had a firm grip did Cain pull his fingers out. He made a show of applying a condom and lubing it up. As ordered, Dave watched every moment while trembling with anticipation. Dave kept his eyes opened as Cain wiped his hand off on the towel they kept by the bed. He kept them open as Cain pushed his legs back, as Cain rubbed against his hole and then whined at the effort of keeping his eyes open as Cain pushed in.

“Better,” Cain said approvingly as he bottomed out.

He gripped the back of Dave’s thighs and smiled at the way Dave clenched around him. Cain nodded that Dave had the right idea for what he had planned. A moment passed while Dave panted and shifted his hands on the headboard so that he had a more secure grip. Once Cain was sure that Dave was ready, Cain let it stretch a little longer, then a little longer still, before he pulled back and shoved back in sharply.

“Uh!” Dave grunted, his eyes going wide. “Uhn!”

“Quiet,” Cain growled warningly as he continued to pound into Dave.

Once again Dave bit his lip though it slipped from his teeth’s grip two thrusts later. Cain watched Dave’s expression cycle through surprise, the faint edges of pain until Cain shifted his angle slightly. His face shifted into ecstatic joy when Cain hit exactly the right spot. Dave’s face went red. His breath took on the little grunts and gasps that told of his need. Dave’s eyes, while open, dilated so much that Cain was certain that he was no longer aware of the world, his troubles or his duties as the Master of Tucker Industries.

“That’s what I want,” Cain growled as he picked up the speed of his thrusts. “That’s my boy! You know what I want, Dave. Give it to me!”

“Uhn!” Dave shouted.

He flexed against Cain’s grip on his thighs for a moment but when Cain grunted and shoved back Dave’s whole body relaxed. His spine seemed to go liquid from the way he curled up into Cain’s thrusts. Every breath was a moan, a whine, a nonverbal plea for just a little bit more, just enough to overwhelm the restraint imposed by the cock ring. Cain smiled as he kept a firm grip on his own arousal so that he wouldn’t leave Dave hanging.

One of Dave’s feet settled on Cain’s shoulder, giving Cain the opportunity to bite his ankle. That little spark of pain seemed to be exactly what Dave needed because as soon as Cain’s teeth took hold Dave screamed and came. His clenches wrested control out of Cain’s hands, leading to a quick flurry of thrusts that made Dave moan and then smile at.

By the time Cain groaned and let Dave’s legs go so that he could pull out and dispose of the condom, Dave’s eyes had returned to some level of awareness even though his breath still came hard and fast. He didn’t speak until Cain had cleaned them both up and then curled up in Dave’s arms.

“I needed that,” Dave murmured.

“Mmm, I certainly needed it,” Cain chuckled. “But you still have to talk about what’s bothering you.”

“Aaagh,” Dave groaned. “Cain!”

“What exactly about this party is bothering you?” Cain asked with one hand set directly in the middle of Dave’s chest. “Tell me. Now.”

Dave squirmed for a minute under Cain’s gaze but eventually he sighed. “I… They always make me feel as though I’m a fake. Especially Master Boles. You know how he is, all inborn dominance and unthinking control over everyone and everything around him.”

Cain snorted with amusement. “That control is incredibly well thought out, Dave. The man is paranoid in the extreme and obsessive about controlling his environment, business and debt slaves. I’ve worked directly with him. It may look as though he does it without effort but there’s a huge amount of calculated planning behind that façade. I’d estimate that he spends a full third of his budget on security and control measures.”

The total was probably closer to half given Master Boles’ long-running efforts to destroy the mysterious terrorist Black but even without those portions of his security forces, Master Boles was the best armored and defended master on the entire East Coast. Dave blinked, surprise evident on his face as he finally stopped dithering about his worries and began to think.

“Really?” Dave asked. “Could you verify that?”

“Easily enough accomplished, Master Tucker,” Cain said with a grin that made Dave snort. “As long as you’re being the master and I’m being your debt slave. I do work for you until my debts are paid off. Tucker Industries covers all of Master Boles’ accounting needs.”

“I’m definitely not ready to be master yet,” Dave complained. His grumble was undermined by the wideness of his grin. “You can show me tomorrow. Say, right after you cane me. Because that’s a wonderful idea and I’m looking forward to going to the party with my ass and back screaming at me.”

“Whatever my boy wants,” Cain said. “Now get some sleep. Morning will be here soon enough.”

2. Discipline

“Twenty,” Dave said.

He managed to keep his voice clear and even despite the stripes of pain radiating across his back, ass and thighs. The room seemed to drift around him, sound ebbing and waning as he panted through the pain until the euphoria of the caning swept in. Cain’s hand settled on Dave’s ass, his fingers brushing over the welts. Dave shuddered and moaned despite his orders to be quiet.

It took more effort than he expected to keep his position with his hands spread wide on the wood-paneled wall and feet spread far enough open that his balls were open for Cain’s touch. Dave licked his lips, tasting sweat and tears, as Cain murmured something warm and approving. His breath warmed Dave’s back for a long moment that made more sweat break out on Dave’s forehead and chest.

The warmth of Cain’s tongue against one of the welts on his back pushed him over the edge into the orgasm that he’d been fighting ever since he stripped down however long ago. Dave bit his lip so that he wouldn’t shout and alert Lucy, his secretary, to what they were actually doing with the door shut. His breath hissed between his teeth, almost blocking out the sound of his come splattering onto the wood floor.

“Perfect,” Cain murmured, his lips brushing against the skin between Dave’s shoulder blades.

“Thank you, Master,” Dave panted. “Oh God…”

His legs wobbled so sharply that Cain put and arm around his waist and guided Dave to lie down on the padded bench a few feet away. Dave fell in an uncoordinated heap, arms and legs trembling from the twin pleasure-pain of the caning and his unexpected orgasm. For a long timeless moment Dave had no idea which way was up. All he knew was that he was safe, that Cain was there and that he’d done well.

When he slowly blinked his way back to thoroughly fuzzy awareness, Cain had cleaned up the office so that only Dave’s lack of clothing showed what they’d been doing. The cane was put away in its special storage location under Dave’s huge oak desk. His come had already been cleaned up from the birch wood floor. Cain smiled as he came over bearing wet-wipes and a soft warm towel.

His hands were hot against Dave’s sweat-chilled skin, as confident as Cain always was. Dave moved as Cain directed, letting him check his arms and legs, clean his crotch and then roll Dave back over onto his stomach. The welts felt like good ones, the sort that would stay for at least a couple of hours if not for days the way Dave liked. Apparently Cain approved of them as well because he hummed happily while carefully soothing lotion over Dave’s back.

“Only one spot that bled,” Cain commented while rubbing antiseptic ointment on the wound and putting a small bandage over it. “And not in a spot that’s likely to be touched by anyone but me.”

“Good,” Dave snorted. “I don’t want anyone but you touching me.

He blinked several more times before carefully sitting up. His head didn’t swim but the world seemed slightly off kilter, as if Dave was leaning to the side without being aware of it. After a moment Dave adjusted his posture, mostly because Cain was grinning at him, and discovered that he had been leaning. Cain stood to run his fingers over Dave’s hair. To Dave’s surprise, Cain’s pants weren’t filled out at all. Biting his lip, Dave gently rested his hand over Cain’s completely flaccid groin.

“You… didn’t enjoy that?”

“I enjoyed it very much,” Cain said, kissing Dave and moving his hand away from his quickly hardening cock. “There’s just no time to give you the fucking you need. It’s time to switch into your tuxedo.”

“Already?” Dave asked in such a shocked tone that made Cain preen at him. “I didn’t think we’d been at this so long. It’s already five?”

Cain’s wide grin of pride made Dave start laughing. He really hadn’t thought that it had been that long since they’d started playing. No wonder his arms and legs were nearly too tired to hold him up. Dave accepted Cain’s help into his tuxedo with a grateful look over his shoulder. There was no way he’d be able to put it on properly without assistance right now. His fingers shook far too much, though as the pieces of clothing went on he regained more and more control over his body.

Of course, Cain took dressing Dave as an opportunity to brush over the cane stripes on Dave’s back and ass. Every touch made Dave’s heart beat faster and his body shudder. It was good, better than good, really. The more distracted Cain could keep Dave before the party, the better as far as Dave was concerned. He was still really intimidated by the thought of having to socialize with Master Boles. The man made him want to fall to his knees in public, just from his sheer presence.

Fortunately, they were going to the party together. That would make it a lot easier for Dave to cope. When they had woken up that morning Cain had held Dave down while fucking his mouth, all the while explaining that his status and importance as a Master demanded a certain level of presence at the party. It wasn’t appropriate for Dave to go alone. He needed to bring at least four or five of his staff with him.

The lecture was serious enough that Dave had focused even while he tried to swallow Cain’s every thrust. Cain was right, of course. No matter how much he hated it, Dave was a Master. He was rich, powerful and, through his staff, knew the secrets of the vast majority of the Masters and Mistresses in the city.

No one wanted to offend Dave’s employees who served as their accountants for fear of legal consequences. Dave knew that Cain used that ruthlessly when he was doing the books for certain of their customers.

Cain’s hands moved across Dave’s back, cutting off his thoughts before they could become worries about all the ways that he didn’t match up with what a proper Master was supposed to be. Despite the layers of undershirt, shirt vest and jacket between Dave’s skin and Cain’s hands, he managed to hit every single welt, setting off more waves of pain-pleasure-euphoria.

“If you keep that up I’m going to be incoherent,” Dave said as his breath shuddered and his knees threatened to give way.

Cain chuckled as he squeezed Dave’s ass once more. “You don’t need to be coherent yet. There’s still the drive, after all. Pity there will be so much security around us. I’d enjoy fucking you in the limo.”

That mental image made Dave shudder and moan loudly despite the relatively public nature of his office. By the time Cain had finished tying Dave’s bowtie, Dave forced down his nervousness and his submissiveness both. It wasn’t easy. It never was. Instead of remembering his father’s furious lectures, Dave thought about all the things that Cain had taught him about appearing like a Master.

He stood tall with his shoulders held low and firm. It made him feel as though he was as wide as the sky, especially compared to Cain’s slender build, but the mirror on the wall showed him the image of a strong confident Master. Dave raised his chin, squared his jaw and smiled at the strange reflection of himself. It looked confident enough that Dave nodded and headed towards the door. Cain chuckled, catching Dave’s hand so that he couldn’t leave immediately.

“You’re gorgeous,” Cain murmured apparently just to hear Dave’s breath catch and watch his cheeks flush.

“Stop that,” Dave said with his shy grin back in place. “I’m trying to be impressive.”

Cain just grinned. He wiped the expression away before Dave opened the door to his office. Dave did likewise before his secretary could look up at them. The walk to the garage was short enough that Dave barely had time to brush his hands over Cain’s tux to make sure that he looked good, too. Of course it was flawless.

When Dave’s stride faltered slightly at the sight of the others waiting for them Cain touched his back and used just enough extra pressure against Dave’s shoulders directly on the stripes marking his back to anchor him back in the act he was giving.

Six armored limos with fully suited up guards waited along with the other three attendees of the party. Chris Rodarte, Dave’s head of security, smiled and nodded to Cain before bowing slightly to Dave with his assault rifle aimed at the floor. The armored doors to the garage were securely closed, ensuring that they were safe enough at the moment.

“Everyone in separate cars or all together, Master?” Chris asked. He didn’t keep his eyes on Dave but that was normal. Instead he scanned the garage as if he expected Black’s terrorists to spring up out of the steel-reinforced concrete floors.

“Together would be better but you’re the head of security, Chris,” Dave said in the perfectly confident tone of voice that Cain had taught him. “If you think it’s better for us to go separately, then we’ll do that. I do want Cain with me, either way.”

Chris’ eyes narrowed at the requirement for Cain and Dave to stay together. Rather than let the man confirm what he had to already suspect, Cain looked at his feet and swallowed as if that much attention made him uncomfortable. Dave automatically caught Cain’s hand, squeezing it as if to reassure him. From the corner of his eyes he saw Chris snort and then nod thoughtfully as he studied the walls, the doors, the six limos and then Dave.

“Together would work better, Master,” Chris said. “There are rumors that Black’s up to something but we don’t have any confirmation of what. We can protect you better if you’re all together but no leaving the vehicle until we’ve confirmed your safety and I expect that you’ll be careful at the party.

“Of course,” Dave said, nodding his understanding. “I already made sure that Master Boles knows that you’ll be staying on site to ensure our safety in the event of any trouble.”

“Thank you, Master,” Chris said so brightly that Dave would have thought he’d just given Chris a substantial raise and had half his debt forgiven.

The drive from their compound to Master Boles’ party was quiet. None of the others had much to say other than the appropriate greetings to Dave. They spent most of the trip studying their phones and data pads while Dave closed his eyes and pretended to sleep with one arm around Cain’s shoulders.

To Dave’s relief the others took the display of affection in stride. Their carefully deliberate game of swapping roles in public seemed to work well enough or perhaps Cain’s fellow employees and debt slaves felt that it wasn’t worth questioning their relationship.

It still felt strange to see so many armored cars and heavily defended buildings. He opened his eyes and stared at the streets outside. Dave could remember when the buildings had been open and filled with glass, when people walked along the streets hand in hand rather than scurrying from armored vehicle to door in terror for their lives.

The trees that had lined the streets were long gone, cut down to put in concrete barricades that kept suicide bombers from driving into store fronts. Every window and door had at least steel bars. Most had bullet proof glass. The more important buildings owned by major Masters were surrounded by walls with guards, razor wire and security cameras that watched everyone who passed.

“Are you okay?” Cain asked quietly enough that the other occupants of the car couldn’t hear.

“Just reflecting on the way the world’s changed,” Dave said with his best wry but still confident smile.

“Don’t fuss over it, Master,” Cain ordered even though the touch of his fingers against Dave’s wrist was coaxing rather than demanding.

“Yes sir,” Dave replied.

Cain smiled as Dave pulled him close and held his hand. After two hours of play, Dave’s fingers still shook a little bit when he tried to squeeze Cain’s fingers. Of course, it wasn’t all that surprising that Dave was tired.

Hopefully Chris’ men and the others would think he was tired from playing with Cain, not from having been quite thoroughly fucked the night before and then caned this afternoon. It wasn’t terribly likely that Dave would actually fall asleep during the drive but a bit of rest would do him good. There was certainly time for it during the drive across town.

The party wasn’t held at either Master Boles or Master Harper’s compounds, unsurprisingly. Given Master Boles’ well-known paranoia about security he wasn’t likely to allow this many people into his compound. Instead, the party was held in a heavily armored and highly protected mansion on the Boles estate at the northern edge of town.

Dave straightened up and watched as they approached the estate, noting snipers posted on rooftops, video cameras at every intersection and a large number of roving armored trucks bearing the Boles insignia. He could feel the tension tightening Cain’s shoulders to the point that felt as though they were made of steel instead of flesh and bone.

As soon as he sat up the others put their pads away and folded their hands in their laps properly. Cain smiled when Dave brushed his lips over his ear, cocking his head just enough to make the gesture look somewhat shy and nervous instead of reassuringly firm against Dave’s lips.

Dave chuckled at the discreet reassurance. His laugh did a lovely job making Marta’s hands relax enough that her knuckles were no longer white. Omar smiled as he looked away, the expression in his eyes approving. Clara’s faint blush said as much about her submissive tendencies as it did anything else.

“Be polite while we’re here,” Dave told the others. “Don’t promise anything that isn’t already written in a contract. If you have any problems with anyone or anything come find me. I plan on keeping Cain by my side. You can always ring him to find where we are in the mansion.”

“I ah, wouldn’t want to interrupt,” Omar said with an understanding nod towards the two of them. “If you were ‘busy’, Master.”

“Trust me,” Dave said with such a wide grin that Cain’s cheeks went red, “we already took care of any private… discussion that might happen tonight. Call. We won’t be busy with anything other than talking to boring people.”

The innuendo made Clara blush far more brightly while Marta made a thoroughly inelegant squeaking noise of amusement. Omar just snorted and nodded though his eyes danced with suppressed laughter. They all went quiet as the limo slowed for the scanners at the gate to the mansion. After the last wave of car bomb attacks Black had inflicted on the city, they all understood the potential for even their limo to have been sabotaged. Dave prepared to dive from the limo if it did turn out that the scanner found something but after several far too tense moments they were waved through the gate.

“Wait,” Dave said to Omar as the line of limos rolled under Master Boles’ heavily armored portico. Chris leaped out of the front passenger seat, already shouting to his people to secure the area and bring out the riot shields.

Omar was the only one who’d moved towards the door. Marta and Clara both stayed firmly in their seats until Chris finished his prolonged shouting match with Master Boles’ security staff about whether or not they were allowed to form living shields along each end of the portico and whether or not they got to keep their weapons. Cain snorted against Dave’s shoulder when Chris won the shouting match with a bellowed taunt about Dave knowing where all the bodies were buried and who had been paid off to hide them.

“One at a time,” Dave told everyone. “Cain and I will go last. Do try to be more polite than Chris, please.”

That made Omar stifle a laugh while Clara giggled and Marta grinned. Cain just leaned into Dave’s side, one hand behind Dave’s back to press against the welts along the small of his back. It took about ten minutes for all of them to be ferried from the limo to the front door, through the metal detectors and then into the windowless ballroom where the party was being held.

Dave nodded approvingly to Chris once they were there, making certain that each of his staff had their own escort of two of Chris’ men, other than Clara. He made sure that Clara had three simply because he could already see some of the other lower level Masters eyeing as if she was easy prey.

Across the room, Dave spotted Master John Boles and his friend Master Greg Harper talking. A pretty young woman with long black hair and Hispanic looking skin leaned on Master Harper’s arm. She had to be Emma Lopez though she displayed none of the quiet reserve, dignity or even obedience that was appropriate for a debt slave who had earned that high of a purchase price. To Dave it looked as though she had no clue whatsoever about how to behave. By the buffet table he spotted Mistress Felice Hong glaring death at Master Harper. Dave sighed.

“Trouble?” Cain asked with one hand placed almost hesitantly on Dave’s forearm.

“Probably,” Dave sighed, well aware that Cain couldn’t see over everyone’s heads the way Dave could. “Hong’s here. I expect there’ll be a screaming match later.”

“Lovely,” Cain groaned. “Well, please do your best to keep me away from her, Master. The last time I audited her books I ended up being attacked by her staff. I swear, I thought they intended to make off with me at the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to grab me here if there was some sort of disruption.”

“Don’t worry,” Dave said as he pulled Cain closer to his side. “I won’t let that happen.”

He looked at Omar, Marta and Clara. They all nodded that they’d stay away from Hong as well. Dave took a deep breath, nodded to them and then strolled into the party with Cain by his side. One way or the other, this little performance was going to be over in a few hours. Dave could handle playing Master for that long when he had Cain by his side.

3. Threat

“Rather intense party,” Cain murmured to Dave as they slowly circled the ballroom on their way by the buffet table to get drinks before greeting Master Boles, Master Harper and Emma Lopez. “Everyone’s quite tense tonight.”

“I noticed,” Dave said.

As Dave slowly strolled into the party he pulled Cain with him in a display of dominance that was actually quite convincing. The hand Dave placed on the small of Cain’s back probably looked controlling to everyone else but Cain knew that it was more for Dave’s comfort than Cain’s. If it had been to calm Cain down, Dave would have wrapped an arm around Cain, allowing him to brush his fingers over the welts on Dave’s back.

No matter who the act was for, it gave Dave the strength to smile distantly at Mistress Felice Hong instead of cringing away from her glare the way he frequently did. Cain studiously avoided looking in her direction for fear of glaring back at her. The woman always brought out his dominant instincts. In Cain’s opinion, Felice Hong was the worst Mistress in the city despite the amount of money she controlled and the number of debt slaves she owned.

Tonight she had a beautiful young man by her side, a debt slave more than likely, dressed in skin-tight white leather pants and a short gold trimmed vest the revealed more of his physique than it covered. Cain’s sniff of disapproval made Dave chuckle quietly. The boy looked desperately uncomfortable to be standing by Hong’s side. If his knees weren’t threatening to collapse out from under him Cain would be shocked.

“Still advertising for those brothels of hers, I take it,” Cain murmured to Dave while firmly reminding himself that he wasn’t allowed to march over and rescue the boy from Hong.

“It is where she makes the majority of her money,” Dave replied in a low voice that wasn’t quite low enough. Chris snorted behind them so obviously he’d heard the comment, too. “Master Harper outbid her for the Lopez girl. I have to assume she was invited strictly to rub the loss in her face.”

“If she was invited at all,” Cain said entirely too loudly for his rank and position while raising one eyebrow and smiling so archly that he heard Hong’s teeth grind even from yards away.

Dave’s laughter made Hong’s cheeks go red. Her boy’s knees finally gave out under him, sending him down to the floor to kneel by her side. The other guests around Hong looked away with smirks at her discomfort.

The vast majority were clients of Tucker Industries’ accounting services so they were logically inclined to favor Dave over Hong. Of those few who weren’t their clients, they were allied with Master Boles, who despised Hong, or Master Harper, who went out of his way to buy debt slaves that Hong had targeted for acquisition. Cain didn’t think there were more than two or three people who would side with Hong in a dispute in the entire ballroom.

The rest of the party guests were more respectable than Hong. Master Boles had apparently invited pretty much every major and minor Master and Mistress in the city. Not all of them were there but they’d all sent representatives.

It wouldn’t do to offend Master Boles. He was the de facto ruler of the city, never mind the mayor and what the laws said. What Master John Boles wanted, he got most of the time. And one of the things he was strongly opposed to was true slavery so Cain wasn’t at all surprised that not one person in the ballroom wore the chains and collar of a true slave.

“We should make our respect known,” Dave sighed as he grabbed a glass of champagne, snagging a sparkling cider for Cain.

“It is expected, Master,” Cain said, sipping quietly while watching exactly how much Dave actually drank.

The cider was excellent, fruity and full of bubbles that closely approximated Dave’s champagne without the alcohol that Cain found so problematic. Dave sipped his champagne, barely allowing the drink to touch his lips before lowering the glass. Cain was tempted to nod approvingly but he didn’t.

Frankly, they both needed to keep their wits about them tonight. Right now it looked as though Dave was doing a better job playing his role of Master than Cain was at being his devoted debt slave and submissive lover. For whatever reason, tonight it was harder than normal to push his desire to protect Dave down until it didn’t show. Perhaps it was the too-brittle laughs and slightly too loud talk of the other guests. Maybe it was Hong’s continuing glares as she dragged her debt slave along in Dave and Cain’s wake. Cain didn’t know; it didn’t really matter.

What mattered was forcing his shoulders to relax enough that he could carefully sway closer to Dave’s side. Dave caught the little move and smiled just as tenderly as if they’d been alone before pulling Cain close against his side.

It gave Cain the perfect excuse to rest his hand on the small of Dave’s back where one strike of the cane had broken the skin. Gentle pressure against that mark made Dave shiver without moaning. Better, Dave’s response gave Cain enough of a thrill to let him calm down.

He shut his eyes and leaned his forehead against Dave’s broad shoulder. No surprise, Dave immediately curled his arm around Cain so that no one could see his face at all. It blocked out everyone else, allowing Cain to focus on exactly what was bothering him because something was certainly disturbing him tonight or he wouldn’t be so tense.

Close by, Cain could hear Hong snap an order for more champagne to the buffet table servants. Her voice was tense enough that it was an automatic signal to worry. She didn’t sound angry.

Cain frowned as he realized that she sounded frightened and worried with a thin veneer of anger to hide her true emotions. A little further away, the other voices he heard sounded frightened as well, though most tried to hide their fear under laughter and too loud gossip about their rivals’ failures and their own successes.

“Problem?” Dave murmured against the crown of Cain’s head.

“Not sure,” Cain said.

He deliberately sighed and sagged slightly against Dave as if he was just a bit too sore and tired to stand by himself. Dave grinned at that, shifting his grip around Cain’s back so that he supported Cain’s weight for a moment. It probably looked incredibly tender from the outside but the real benefit was the approving looks directed their way as Cain stood straight again and brushed his hands down Dave’s suit.

“They’re afraid of something,” Cain whispered to Dave while catching Chris’ eyes over his bicep.

“Noticed,” Dave whispered back. He smiled as Chris moved into his field of vision, glaring at Hong until she moved further away from them. “Any more news on Black’s rumored attack?”

“Nothing yet, Master,” Chris said grimly while scanning the room as if every single person there was a threat to their safety. He probably did think that they were all threats, even the meekest debt slaves. “Still checking around through my contacts and crew for more info.”

“Keep me informed,” Dave said and for once it was absolutely dominant, protective and appropriate for a Master concerned about his staff.

“Will do, Master,” Chris said. “Think it’s time to move along. Don’t like this area.”

His glare at Hong was so scathing that Cain had to hide his face in Dave’s shoulder again in a desperate attempt not to laugh out loud. Cain failed to completely stifle his laughter but at least managed to keep it from being the deep booming laugh that it wanted to be. It came out more like muffled snorts against Dave’s shoulder that made Dave snicker with him.

They moved quite firmly away from Hong, leaving her in a pocket of empty space as everyone other than her poor debt slave followed suit. Chris kept his normal vigilance as they slowly sauntered towards Boles and Harper. Sometimes Cain thought that Chris truly expected every single person around him to be revealed as an assassin at any second. His suspicious behavior didn’t offend either Boles or Harper. Boles, in fact, smiled approvingly at Chris and his men as they took up defensive positions around Cain and Dave.

“Master Tucker,” Boles said, his salt and pepper hair and slightly rounded belly making him look relatively harmless despite the power of his stance and the sharpness of his gaze.

“Master Boles,” Dave said with a little nod that clearly wanted to be a proper bow.

Cain had no doubt that Boles realized that Dave wasn’t dominant but for whatever reason he didn’t draw attention to the softening in Dave’s posture or the way he quailed in front of Boles’ fierce gaze. It took serious effort for Cain to curl his shoulders inward as if he was even more intimidated by Boles’ dominant behavior. He did it, making sure that his feet were close together and that one knee was always slightly bent. Forcing his eyes to stray no higher than the top button of Boles’ jacket took even more effort but playing the part of Dave’s submissive lover required it of him. A quick lick of his upper lip reinforced submissiveness as well as giving him the lingering taste of the sparkling cider.

It didn’t help at all that Emma Lopez seemed to have absolutely no clue how to behave properly. She briefly curled one lip at Cain’s display of submissive posture, straightening her back and raising her chin in defiance of her debt slave status. Only Master Harper’s hand on her back, displaying his authority over her, kept Cain from glaring at the girl. Someone needed to educate her on proper behavior quickly or she was going to embarrass Harper badly, if of course she hadn’t already.

“I think you know Cain,” Dave said after wrapping his arm tightly around Cain’s back and forcing his shoulder back to a more relaxed position when Cain nudged him discretely. They were close enough that Cain could smell the ointment he’d used on Dave’s back.

“Indeed I do,” Boles said with an approving nod. “He’s done good work for me on the pharmaceuticals branch audit. Greg, Cain’s the one who found Pease.”

“Oh, the one who thought he could embezzle from you,” Harper said with a nod and disgusted snort. “Good job there. I may request your help on a similar issue. I’m having some problems with the hospital.”

“Send in a request,” Dave said for Cain because it really wasn’t proper for Cain to speak up while Dave was standing right there. “His time is pretty tightly scheduled but we might be able to shift things around for the right price.”

Master Harper nodded happily enough at the offer that Cain made a mental note to do some research tomorrow on just exactly what issues Harper’s hospital had been having. There should be enough in the public record to give him a place to start even if the full details would inevitably be confidential. Knowing where to start on an audit generally helped Cain keep the audit focused and effective, as well as being less costly.

Both Harper and Boles stiffened while glaring over Cain’s shoulder. He steadfastly refused to glare back at them despite the way he instinctively bristled.

Cain kept his response to a tighter grip around Dave’s waist and a brief clenching of his jaw, at least until he looked over his shoulder to find Chris with his gun halfway to ready while Hong and her debt slave hovered a few yards away. This time when Cain discreetly nudged Dave with his fingertips, Dave snorted with amusement.

“Stand down, Chris,” Dave murmured. “She isn’t going to hurt us.”

“Don’t like the company at this party,” Chris grumbled more than loud enough for Hong to hear him, much less Boles and Harper.

Hong went red before flipping her hair over her shoulder and dragging her boy back across the room to the buffet table, literally as far away from Boles and Harper as she could get. They grinned at Chris’ comment and Hong’s response while Lopez looked puzzled. She tugged at Harper’s sleeve, recapturing his attention.

“Isn’t that rude?” Lopez asked. “I thought she was important, sir.”

“Don’t worry about it, Emma,” Harper said with the sort of pleased expression that Masters got when they owned the brightest mind in the entire room without thinking about what that brilliant mind was actually doing. “Mistress Hong isn’t someone that you’ll ever need to interact with.”

“No, but your question was quite rude, Emma,” Boles said to Cain’s hopefully private agreement. “A debt slave does not speak first nor does she ask information of her Master that isn’t directly relevant to her work.”

“I didn’t mind,” Harper huffed, puffing up a little in indignation at Boles despite the mild tone that Boles had used for the chastisement.

“She’ll offend everyone if she doesn’t get the appropriate training, Greg,” Boles said with a much more fierce scowl for his friend than he’d had for Lopez. “We can discuss it later but you know I’m right.”

Dave chuckled, the sound of it a bit strained but not badly enough to draw anyone but Boles’ laser-like attention. “I think that’s our cue to continue circulating. Congratulations, Master Harper, and to you Miss Lopez. I’m sure that you’ll be an excellent employee for your Master.”

“Ah, thank you,” Lopez said, her cheeks going red with what Cain assumed was annoyance at having her debt slavery brought up again.

“Enjoy the party,” Boles said in a tactic dismissal that Harper echoed with a quick nod and a politely stiff smile.

It was a relief to walk away from them. Cain scanned the other people at the party, listening to the tenor of their voices and watching the expressions on their faces.

There was entirely too much tension filling the room with brittle laughs, excessive alcohol consumption and twitching limbs. Something was definitely coming. He wasn’t sure if the attack everyone anticipated would happen tonight or in the next few days. Black was rarely predictable other than his focus on trying to kill Boles.

As they made their way to Omar’s side to check in with him, Cain wondered if he’d been wrong about coming to this party. If something went truly wrong, if there was one of Black’s really large attacks, having all of Tucker Industries’ best people in one place might turn out to have been a very bad idea indeed.

4. Dominance

“I really wish I knew what she was up to,” Dave murmured to Cain as Mistress Hong pulled her debt slave closer to them. “She’s been following us all night.”

“Agreed,” Chris growled. “Seventeen confirmed attempts to talk to you and at least five other potential attempts. Still not sure if her target is you or your boy, Master.”

Cain didn’t reply to either of them. His eyes were narrowed in that way that meant that he was figuring angles and mentally creating audit checklists that would let him find out exactly what Mistress Hong was up to. Dave didn’t interrupt his thoughts; little good ever came from that. Instead he lengthened his stride just enough so that their trajectory wouldn’t intersect with Mistress Hong’s path towards the buffet table. She could stop them if she scrambled after them, made it obvious that she was trying to talk to them, but Dave didn’t think that Mistress Hong would do that. Protecting her dignity seemed too important to her for that.

Two and a half hours into the party, Dave was very glad that he’d had the caning before coming. As much as he ached, the welts on his back were doing a lovely job keeping him focused and in character. Omar, Marta and Clara had drifted back to his side several times with tidbits of information about their clients or offers they’d received from other Masters to buy their contracts.

The offers were, of course, nonsense. Legally only Dave had the right to sell their debts to another person. Until their debts were paid in full, all of them, Cain included, counted as Dave’s property rather than as his employees. But it was a common way to try and soften up a debt slave when you were probing them for information.

“Master,” Clara said with a very proper little bow as he arrived at her side. Their guards reformed around them, closing Mistress Hong out. “Is she going to stalk you all night?”

“Seems that way,” Dave sighed. “Any idea why?”

“She’s avoided Master Boles and Harper’s corner of the room other than one near miss when we were talking to them,” Cain commented in an entirely too dominant for public places tone of voice.

“Fuck,” Chris hissed. “She has. The fuck is that bitch up to?”

Dave pulled Cain close, wrapping his arms around him while resting his chin on top of Cain’s head. While Cain hated it when Dave did that it always emphasized Dave’s size versus Cain’s, wiping away any mistakes of presentation the two of them might have made. As he did it, Dave made a point of studying Mistress Hong thoughtfully.

She had avoided the corner that Master Boles had planted himself in. The man hadn’t moved all night, staying in place and making everyone else approach him like a monarch of old.

It emphasized his authority but it might have left him vulnerable tonight. Dave turned to Chris, his heart beating a little faster both from worry about what might happen and from the fact that Cain was actually leaning into the hug as if he needed the reassurance. That was odd enough that Dave’s voice came out tight and harder than normal.

“Have the others come here,” Dave told Chris. “I think it’s time for us to leave.”

“Finally,” Chris sighed.

He covered his microphone with one hand, muttering orders to the rest of his security staff. Within moments, Omar and Marta began to make their way across the party towards Dave’s side. Dave tapped the little comm that Chris always insisted he wear, though he rarely turned it on, and heard the drivers confirming that they were warming up the limos and bringing them around to the portico. He relaxed a little bit, relieved that very soon they would be out of party and on their way back home.

Unfortunately for them, Mistress Hong seemed to realize that they were getting ready to depart. He saw her lips form the word ‘fuck’ as she grabbed her debt slave’s wrist and marched towards them, a determined smile twisting her lips into something unpleasantly threatening instead of reassuring. Dave gestured for Chris to keep her from getting close, ensuring that she had to stop well outside of his arm’s reach, much less hers.

“Mistress Hong,” Dave said in a frosty tone that would have made his father proud. Nervousness made bile rise up, tainting his mouth with acid bitterness that he swallowed down as decisively as possible.

“Master Tucker,” Mistress Hong said with brittle cheerfulness. “I was hoping I could talk to you tonight.”

“I’m afraid we’re just leaving,” Dave replied even more coldly. “If you have a business request you can contact my staff. I’m sure they can arrange everything satisfactorily. Good evening.”

“It’s more of a personal request, actually,” Mistress Hong replied.

Pulling his shoulders tight and raising his chin to glare down at Mistress Hong, for once, came completely naturally. Chris sneered at her, waving at his men to group Omar, Marta and Clara together behind Dave and Cain. There were enough of his security people surrounding them that Dave wasn’t worried about facing Mistress Hong down. She’d always been rather nasty to him, cursing at him whenever he bid against her for prospective debt slaves’ contracts. On more than one occasion she’d shrieked things about him being a ‘fucking pansy joke’ but then she called Master Boles the same thing several times too.

“I have no interest in anything ‘personal’ you might have to say, Mistress Hong,” Dave said. Cain’s arm tightened around his back approvingly. “If you have a business proposition, it can go through the proper channels. Otherwise, we’re leaving.”

To Dave’s surprise, Mistress Hong didn’t immediately protest. She glanced over at the big clock at the far end of the room, stiffening when she saw that the time was 7:42 pm.

Her fingers tightened around her debt slave’s wrist and he saw her begin to push the boy towards the door. Dave looked back down towards the clock under which Master Boles stood arguing about something with Master Harper, the new debt slave Emma Lopez tucked under his arm much like Cain was tucked into the circle of Dave’s.

“What did you do?” Dave snapped loudly enough that Mistress Hong froze and everyone in the area turned to stare at them.

“Move, move, move!” Chris shouted at his staff.

They grabbed Omar, Marta and Carla, hustling them towards the door. Chris moved that way, stopped and then glared at Dave and Cain who hadn’t moved. Mistress Hong took a breath to deny everything, whatever there was to deny, but a wave of heat, light and fire erupted from the buffet table. A second blast came from the chandelier overhead.

Dave had a frozen moment in time where he realized that shrapnel was flying in his direction before Cain shoved Dave towards the door and Chris grabbed the collar of his jacket to fling him to the floor. Something hit his left arm as the pain of impacting the floor when he’d been thoroughly caned a couple of hours before drove the air out of his lungs. He reached for Cain, wrapping him in his arms as Cain dropped on top of Dave in a desperate attempt to keep him safe. A moment later Chris dove on top of them both while shouting orders to his men to get moving.

“Up!” Chris bellowed. “Get up now!”

“Move,” Cain snapped at the same time but his voice was full of so much pain that Dave’s heart began pounding against his ribs.

“Go!” Dave shouted over both of them.

He rolled to his feet, taking Cain with him and knocking Chris away in the process. Chris rolled with it and was on his feet, assault rifle at the ready, before Dave even made it to his feet. Chris’ eyes locked on Dave’s torn sleeve, pure fury baring his teeth. It didn’t even hurt so Dave glared at him. They both went still when Cain sagged in Dave’s arms with a whimper that wasn’t at all faked.

“The Master is injured!” Chris snapped through his comm to his people.

“Fuck my injury!” Dave snarled at him. “Cain is wounded. Make sure Omar, Marta and Clara are okay. I want the first aid kit open and ready when we get to the limos. Don’t fucking worry about me. My employees are more important than I am. We are getting the hell out of here and we’re doing it now! You have full permission to kill anyone who gets in our way, whether they’re a Master or not.”

Chris’ eyes lit up with unholy glee that would normally have made Dave gulp and backpedal on the order. But Cain sagged even further, panting against Dave’s shoulder. His tux was wet with blood in several places and Dave was acutely aware of how hard Cain was shaking. Mistress Hong scrambled to her feet, kicking her debt slave when he cowered on the floor.

“We’re going now,” Dave said. “And if that bitch tries to stop us, kill her as painfully as you can in a short period of time.”

“What?” Mistress Hong gasped. “I had nothing to do with this!”

“I don’t care,” Dave hissed at her as he scooped Cain up in his arms. “I don’t like you and I’d be happy to dance on your fucking grave. Now get out of our way or die!”

As Chris raised his assault rifle with a delighted grin, Mistress Hong backed off, her eyes wide with more anger than fear. Dave dismissed her from his mind. He was far more concerned with the amount of blood soaking Cain’s tux. It was beginning to soak Dave’s arms. No matter what else happened, Dave wasn’t going to let Cain die.

All around them the other guests of the party were standing, moaning, shouting as they checked on their people. On the other side of the room, Master Boles rolled to his feet, shaking his head and brushing debris off of his tux. He spotted Dave and Cain, his expression flashing from fury to worry in an instant. Dave smiled wryly at him and nodded while mouthing ‘leaving’. Master Boles nodded, his stance approving and warm for a moment. Then he turned to start yelling at his staff to deal with the situation.

“This way,” Chris said.

He clamped one hand around Dave’s arm, hauling him away even though it took his hand off the trigger of his gun. Dave went with him, well aware of the armed men surround them. Master Boles’ people parted for them, letting them pass and then closing up behind them.

Away from the ballroom there was far more noise and chaos. It looked as though several rockets had hit the building. Down one hallway he spotted people putting out a fire with hoses while shouting about making sure that ‘the attackers’ didn’t escape.

“Which way are the attackers going?” Dave asked Chris.

“Back into town,” Chris snapped.

“Then we’re going to the retreat,” Dave said. He glared when Chris turned to stare at him. “I will not interfere with Master Boles’ security forces when they’re in pursuit of Black, Chris. We don’t have the armor or the weaponry for that. Make sure the compound is locked down. Don’t call ahead to the retreat. I’m fairly certain either Cain or I was targeted tonight and I want to know why. We’ll only find out if Black has no clue which way we’re going.”

Chris growled but he nodded that he understood. By that point they were at the back of Master Boles’ mansion exiting from the building under a shield wall made up not only of Chris’ men but also of Master Boles’. He frowned at that only to get a reassuring smile from one of the sergeants waiting by the door to their limo.

“Master Boles sent word that you’d be leaving immediately, Master Tucker,” the sergeant said. She was easily six foot tall with a buzz cut and a scar across one cheek that made her look incredibly nasty. “We’ve already got decoys out and will send several outriders to make sure that you make it well away. He said to tell you that he values your services.”

“Tell him thank you and that Hong knew what was going to happen,” Dave said as he carefully slid into the limo with Cain’s increasingly limp body in his arms. “She was starting to move before the first explosion went off.”

“Yes, sir,” the sergeant said with enough rage and determination that Dave almost felt sorry for Mistress Hong when she got her hands on her.

Chris shut the limo’s door before Dave could say anything else. They were moving out before Chris ran around the limo and dove into the front passenger seat. Dave dismissed everything but bandaging Cain’s injuries from his mind. He could. The whole reason Chris was head of security was because he was the best that money could buy, his debt bought by Dave’s father long before Dave took over the reins of Tucker Industries. The man was a fanatic about security. He’d get them to the retreat baring anything other than a nuclear bomb.

“How bad?” Clara asked as she knelt in the middle of the limo with the first aid kit spread open in front of her.

“No idea,” Dave said. “But he’s bleeding badly and increasingly nonresponsive. We need pressure bandages and if the kit has an IV that would help. Pain meds, too.”

He nodded to Omar who pulled his jacket off so that he could help. Marta sat on the seat, out of the way, her hands clamped over her mouth to muffle the frightened whimpers that Dave would have expected from Clara. Instead, Clara was calm and cool as she cut Cain’s jacket and shirt off. Omar passed her bandages while Dave supported Cain in his arms.

“Bad lacerations to his back,” Clara muttered as she worked. “He’ll need stitches. There’s blood on the back of his head indicating he must have taken a blow to the head. You’ll want to get that X-rayed to make sure there’s no skull fracture, Master. I count eight places where crystal is stuck in his back arms and side. Those need to stay for the moment but once we’re wherever we’re going he’ll need surgery to get them extracted. I’ll just bandage them for now to keep them from shifting and to reduce the bleeding.”

“I need to check your file,” Dave said as Clara quickly wrapped Cain in bandages and then gave him an injection of a liquid painkiller that Dave didn’t bother to verify because he had no idea how to tell what it was. “I didn’t realize that you were emergency trained, Clara.”

She blushed and smiled shyly at him. “My parents were EMT’s, Master. I learned from them.”

“Then we’ll have to get you properly certified,” Dave replied.

His calm tone of voice didn’t match the terror and worry turning his stomach into a churning mass of nerves. Cain’s many lessons on how to act like a Master even when he didn’t feel like it seemed to have finally paid off.

Clara relaxed slightly as she carefully hooked Cain up to the single IV in the first aid kit. Marta finally dropped her hands from her mouth though she still looked terrified as the limo rocked and swerved through traffic. Even Omar looked as though he was calming down.

“Omar, I think Marta could use a few hugs,” Dave said. “Clara, see if you can hook the IV bag to the strap here. I’ll hold Cain until we get there.”

“Yes, Master,” all three of them said, Marta with tears starting to fall down her cheeks again.

Dave ended up on the front bench seat, looking back the way they’d came while Clara and Omar cuddled Marta and soothed her tears. Master Boles’ mansion was already out of sight behind the other buildings but he could see a plume of smoke that had to be from it. Two more explosions went off in the center of the city, followed by sirens all around as the security systems in the area went off.

This had to be another of Black’s waves of terrorist attacks but Dave found that he didn’t give a damn about that for once. All that mattered was getting Cain somewhere that his injuries could be treated. His awareness of Cain’s breath against his shoulder was the only thing that kept him from falling apart as badly as Marta.

“Be okay,” Dave thought as he checked Cain’s pulse. It fluttered a bit but didn’t falter under Dave’s fingertips. “Just stay with me until we make it here, Master. I don’t know how long I can keep this act up without you.”

5. Reward

Pain dragged Cain back to awareness, pulling him out of drug-enforced sleep into a body that ached in so many places that he was afraid to move at first. His arms hurt. His back was a mass of pain. Something had happened to his side that was painful enough that he feared for a moment that his ribs had been broken. A shaky breath told him that no, it wasn’t his ribs. He could breathe properly even if it was painful.

“The surgeon said that he should be fine,” Cain heard though he couldn’t quite open his eyes or recognize the woman’s voice due to the drugs muddling his mind. “Everything came out without any problems, Master. There shouldn’t be much scarring either, not that I think he really cares about that.”

“Good,” was the reply and this time he could recognize the deep man’s voice as Dave. “Go get some sleep, Clara. I know you haven’t rested yet. We won’t be able to head back in town until late tonight at the earliest, possibly tomorrow.”

Clara. The name took a moment to filter through Cain’s mind until the memory of the party and then the explosion came back to him. He remembered the confrontation with Hong and then the first explosion from the buffet table. There had to have been a second explosion from somewhere but Cain’s memory of where it came from was too muddled for him to figure it out. All he remember was impact, pain and then the realization that they had to get out of Boles’ mansion.

“You haven’t slept either, Master,” Clara said just cheekily enough that Cain wanted to glower at her even though his face wasn’t responding to him yet.

“No, and I won’t until he wakes up,” Dave said so confidently that he truly sounded like a Master. “Do sleep, please. You can always go find Marta and tell her that you can’t sleep for fear of nightmares. It would probably do her some good to have someone to comfort.”

That set off giggles from Clara and brushing sounds that had to be Clara’s hair against her shoulders. “I’m pretty sure that Omar’s got her covered tonight, Master. I’ll check on her later in the morning after she wakes up.”

“Do that,” Dave said.

There was a patting sound, another giggle from Clara and then the faint creak of a frequently unused door being opened and shut. The lock tumbled over in a click-thunk that Cain actually did frown at. It wasn’t the sound of the locks on Dave’s bedroom door at the compound. That sounded far heavier and older than the very modern, very well oiled locks back home.

“Where?” Cain said or at least he tried to say it. The word came out more like ‘wha?’ as a dry mouth and continuing exhaustion defeated Cain’s physical control.

“Cain?”

“Mmm,” Cain mumbled as he blinked his eyes and then wiggled his fingers to see if he could actually move his arms.

His right arm had something wrapped around it. After a moment of blinking and squinting that cleared his eyes, Cain saw that he had an IV in his arm. Several bandages were wrapped around his upper arms, as well as a thick pad of them across his back and side. The room smelled antiseptic, unusual for a place Dave frequented, though Cain honestly thought that might be because of him. He probably looked like an abuse victim, wrapped in bandages and sedated so completely that he couldn’t move. Dave loomed over Cain with such a worried, tender expression that Cain huffed at him.

“Where are we?” Cain croaked.

“At the retreat,” Dave replied. He disappeared from Cain’s field of view only to return a moment later with a small cup of water that had a straw in it.

“Drink. You’ve been unconscious for almost six hours now. There’s a small cut on the back of your head that the doctors say is pretty mild compared to all the rest of your injuries. I was worried that you’d have a concussion.”

Cain drank, grateful for the water moistening his mouth. “No, no concussion. Far too strong of drugs though. I feel like my mind is wrapped in wool.”

“I’ll tell them to drop the dosage,” Dave said with so much relief that Cain had to smile at him for sheer reassurance’s sake.

If they were at the retreat, and now that his eyes were clearing Cain could see that yes, they had to be, then they were safe. Dave’s family retreat was almost seventy-five miles out of town, set on a hundred acres of marshy wooded land.

The last time they’d visited had been after Dave’s father died, leaving him alone in the world. Instead of staying indoors with the investors and other Masters who had come to mourn, Dave had wandered around outside, showing Cain the places he’d played as a boy and where his mother’s ashes had been scattered, his grandparents’ little burial plot.

“Is everyone else okay?” Cain asked.

“Marta panicked but she’s more or less calm now,” Dave said. He sat on the edge of the bed, taking Cain’s left hand and gently squeezing his fingers. “Omar was solid, not too upset by it all. I need to get Clara recertified though. She’s got EMT training and was a rock through the whole thing. I expected her to fall apart and she was the one who kept us together. She should be reclassified and given a higher pay grade given her skills. And I think I can send her on different assignments now that I know she has a cool head in crisis situations.”

“That’s my boy,” Cain said, grinning in spite of all the portions of his anatomy complaining about the night’s activities.

The pride in Cain’s voice made Dave blush and smile shyly though his eyes looked troubled enough that Cain was sure that there was more that Dave had left out. If everyone else was okay, then it either had to be Chris running wild on security or something that Dave had done while Cain was out. He squeezed Dave’s fingers, privately appalled that doing it hurt but not letting the pain show on his face.

“Chris?” Cain asked.

Dave started snickering. “He’s having so much fun. He’s got his crew running patrols around the wall and around the house. When I gave up on getting him to sleep he was on the secure phone with the compound making sure that there was no possibility of anyone getting through the walls.”

Cain’s suspicion that Dave felt guilty about something was confirmed as Dave’s snickers rapidly died into nervous petting of Cain’s hand and an absolute refusal to meet Cain’s eyes. He wanted to sigh. Now was hardly the time for Dave to have a crisis of confidence, especially since he appeared to have been doing so well, but Cain knew perfectly well that seeing his Master and lover in this condition was probably what had set Dave off.

Rather than letting himself be annoyed, Cain took a deep breath and let it out slowly. There was no possibility of his having sex right now. He wasn’t entirely certain he could sit up without assistance, frankly. But that was no excuse for not taking care of Dave’s needs. Cain squeezed Dave’s fingers until he finally looked up and met Cain’s eyes. As expected, Dave’s cheeks went blotchy red with shame over something, whatever it was that he hadn’t confessed yet.

“And you?” Cain asked.

He used his most confident, in control tone of voice he could manage at the moment. Sadly it was a pale shadow of his normal command voice but the effect on Dave was the same as always. Dave’s blotchy blush turned into a much brighter one that spread across his whole face. A little smile made Dave squirm as if he was feeling the cane welts on his back.

“I um, guess I did okay,” Dave said in entirely too small a tone of voice. “I sort of… lost it when they took you into surgery. I mean, it wasn’t real surgery, not at a hospital or anything. Dr. Knosp up the way came over at my request and removed the shrapnel from your back and arms. He stitched up your injuries. Um, he had a portable X-ray that he uses for emergency cases in the field. That’s how I know your skull isn’t fractured.”

“Lost it?” Cain asked since that was the only important bit of information in Dave’s babbling.

“Yeah,” Dave sighed. “I waited until I made it to my rooms here, until I was in the shower getting cleaned up but… I kind of ended up curled up in a ball in the shower for a while.”

“Did anyone see you that way?” Cain asked. He didn’t think it would be a problem if they had. Dave had just carried his injured lover out of a major terrorist attack. Anyone would be emotionally overwhelmed after that.

“No,” Dave said but he looked even more ashamed of himself. “No, but I still fell apart, Cain.”

Cain snorted. “Behind closed doors after a highly traumatic experience when your lover was very publicly injured protecting you. Dave, I doubt even your thankfully departed father could be upset about that. You did wonderfully at the party. You held it together long enough to get us to safety. You made sure to set Chris loose on defense. You kept track of how your employees were doing and made sure that they were okay. You even managed to pull yourself back together while I was out. That’s wonderful and you should be proud of yourself. Frankly, I think you did better than I did at that party.”

Dave stared at Cain with his mouth dropped open for a long moment. He shook his head sharply before standing up to pace beside Cain’s bed. To Cain’s relief, he could see that Dave wasn’t clenching his fists or hitting his thighs as he walked.

When they’d first gotten together Dave’s palms had been a mess from his nails cutting through the skin and his thighs had been covered with self-inflicted bruises. He did hug himself but it wasn’t for long, just a couple of seconds as he turned and came back, turned and walked to and fro.

After a minute of pacing, Dave stopped and stared at the door as if he was actually reviewing everything that he’d done in the last day. Cain hoped that he actually was but letting Dave get lost in his thoughts was not productive. It was far too easy for him to cycle down into past recriminations and undeserved punishments from his parents. When Cain raised his left hand Dave spotted it instantly. He came back to Cain’s bedside to take his hand.

“You did well,” Cain said. “I know it’s hard for you to see but I’m proud of you.”

“I didn’t,” Dave started to say only to stop when Cain frowned. “I don’t. Don’t deserve praise. I just did what I was supposed to.”

“Yes, and you did it very well despite your lover being unconscious and terribly injured,” Cain said. “Trust me, I can tell that I must have been bleeding all over the place. You did well. Repeat it.”

“I did well?” Dave asked only to wince at Cain’s glower. “Sorry, Master. I did well.”

“You did very well, Dave,” Cain said. “You did exactly what you were supposed to do. You’re allowed moments of weakness when you’re safe.”

Dave laughed shakily, tears welling up in his eyes as he bit his lip at the continued praise. The worst thing that Dave’s father had done in Cain’s opinion was to convince Dave that he was an unmitigated failure who deserved nothing but scorn. No parent should ever treat their child that way, not that Cain could do anything other than deal with the aftermath of the emotional abuse and help Dave get stronger.

“I did very well,” Dave said at Cain’s nod. “I did exactly what I’m supposed to do and I’m allowed to be weak when it’s safe.”

He followed the tug of Cain’s hand, lying on the bed next to Cain without putting his head on Cain’s shoulder. That little bit of discretion was heartily appreciated. Cain didn’t think he could endure proper cuddling right now, not with the way his back felt. The position was close enough that Cain could feel the heat of Dave’s body and smell his shampoo instead of the antiseptic and bandages.

Cain ran his fingers over Dave’s thigh, tracing the strong muscles under his expensive wool slacks. That little touch seemed to relax Dave further, allowing him to sigh and nuzzle Cain’s cheek until Cain turned his head for a kiss that was flavored with coffee and the wild apples that grew on the property. The kiss didn’t last long. Unfortunately, Cain didn’t have the breath or the strength for it, but it seemed to be long enough for Dave.

“I really did do well,” Dave said with enough wonder that Cain laughed despite all his injuries screaming at him.

“You did incredibly well,” Cain said. “I’m sure I’ll find a thousand other things to praise once I can sit up long enough to check the surveillance footage. Remind me to ask Master Boles for copies of his footage. I would swear that Hong had something to do with it all.”

“I think she did,” Dave said quite seriously. “Master Boles already told Chris that he’s sure of it but he can’t prove it.”

“Well, at least he’s aware,” Cain sighed.

He let himself sag against the pillow. As much as he would like to stay awake and ask a thousand questions about everything he’d missed, Cain was simply too tired. He must have lost more blood than he’d thought because even this short interaction had him feeling as though he’d run a marathon while being beaten with sticks.

Dave seemed to see his tiredness. He rolled off the bed to fuss over Cain’s blankets. His fingers slowed and his eyes went troubled as he brushed against the spot where Cain’s debt slave implant was buried under the skin.

“Cain?”

“Yes?” Cain asked, fairly certain he knew what the question haunting Dave was.

“Will… will you stay once your debt is paid off?” Dave whispered.

Cain laughed as he wrapped his fingers around Dave’s wrist so that he could tug him down for another kiss, one as dominant as Cain could make it at the moment. When Cain let Dave go, his pupils had expanded and his cheeks were red once more.

“You’re mine,” Cain murmured. “I won’t ever leave you, Dave, no matter what games we play in public or private. You’ll always be mine.”

Dave sighed as his shoulders sagged with relief. He straightened up, his chin coming up as his shoulders went back and down in a pose that made him look ten miles wide and hundred miles tall. It was the best Dominant posture that Cain had ever seen out of Dave and it made him smile proudly even as sleep dragged

him under.

“Thank you, Master,” Dave said. “Get some more sleep. I’ll be in and out checking on you.”

“Do,” Cain said.

He let sleep catch him as Dave strode out of the bedroom. As unpleasant as the injuries were, at least something good had come from it all. Dave seemed to have finally found his stride as Master of Tucker Industries. Cain fell asleep to the sound of Dave’s deep voice reassuring someone that Cain had woken up and was okay. Everything was okay now.

The End

That’s all!

*goes back to work*

ETA: The Smashwords edition is also being updated–hopefully it will be up within the day too!

Fitting In
By Meyari McFarland

Chapter Two: Boarding Ship

Cadfael did his best not to whimper as Gwen walked down the gangplank, leaving him and Annie onboard the Wave Dancer. She’d stayed until the very last instant, one arm around Cadfael’s shoulder to protect him from the sailors surrounding him. Annie, of course, had clambered up the rigging to chatter with the sailors getting everything ready to go. If it weren’t for Gwen waving goodbye to him from the dock Cadfael would have already run for his cabin so that none of the women could get close to him.

“Drop sails,” Captain Ula called. “Release the moorings!”

“Aye-aye, Cap’n!” one sailor called out directly behind Cadfael.

He hadn’t realized that she was so close to him because he’d been so focused on watching the sailors in front of him and to the side so he jumped and whirled to stare at her. She grinned back at him, wagging her eyebrows as if she found his fright amusing. As Cadfael curled inward on himself, clutching his shawl tighter to his chest, the sailor laughed and clambered up the rigging. Everywhere Cadfael looked there were other women staring at him, glancing at him from the corners of their eyes or just grinning with that look that said they were looking forward to getting a taste of him.

“Caddie!” Anwyn called. “Heads up!”

“What?” Cadfael asked.

A rope swung right past his nose, nearly smacking him. It did briefly tangle with his kilts but the sailors on the deck caught it and pulled it away from him, four of them hauling on the rope at once. Cadfael shuddered and edged around them, heading for the cabin that Gwen had said would be his. He had to stop twice for sailors running towards the bow or stern, and once he had to duck for the boom swinging around as they tacked to catch the wind. Eventually he made it to the door to his cabin, heart pounding and breath coming entirely too fast. The further they got from shore, the more Wave Dancer rocked, making Cadfael’s stomach warn of impending upset.

“Heh, already heading inside?” one of the sailors asked. “Need company?”

“No!” Cadfael snapped at her. “Leave me alone!”

She jerked back, glaring in offense. As she straightened up, her lip curling on one side, Cadfael shrank back against his cabin door and wished for the size and courage to be able to tell women to back off without feeling like they were going to break him in two for it. Even though the ship was just setting sail, even though everyone should be busy, it looked to Cadfael like the sailor was going to grab him or yell at him or something.

“Hey!” Anwyn bellowed. “Back off Caddie!”

The sailor jerked again, this time turning to find Anwyn glaring down at her from the rigging. “Just talking to him.”

“Get your tits back to work,” Anwyn growled loudly enough to be heard over the entire ship. “Caddie’s off limits and you know it.”

That made the sailor’s cheeks color but she moved away from Cadfael’s side and back out to do whatever it was she was supposed to be doing. Cadfael sighed with relief and nodded to Anwyn before slipping into his cabin. He leaned against the door, counting to twenty in every language he knew until his heart finally slowed down. Only once he could breathe without shaking did he look around the cabin.

It was a good size for a ship with the Wave Dancer’s draft, easily four paces by four when you included the bunk built into the wall on the far side. He had a window, a luxury he appreciated, a very comfortable looking bunk that he knew he was going to despise by the time they got to Ntombi, and a nice clean bucket in the corner for when his stomach finally decided that all the shifting and moving that went with being at sea was unacceptable. Cadfael had no doubt that he’d be using it in the next half hour. He could already feel it coming.

“I wonder how long it will take before I’m sick enough of this room to leave it?” Cadfael whispered as he went to rescue his embroidery from his trunk.

He was fairly sure that it would take at least a week or so before he would venture out for more than a few minutes at a time. As much as he loved Anwyn, and he did despite her maddening habit of only protecting half the time he needed it, he knew that she wasn’t going to be there constantly. With months of travel to get to Ntombi, Cadfael knew that the sailors would have many more chances to try to steal a grope before Anwyn could stop them. All he could hope for was that Captain Ula would actually do as Gwen had suggested. Having two protectors on board would keep him much safer than having just one.

***

“You planning on staying in your cabin the entire trip?”

Three days later, Cadfael looked up from his embroidery to find Captain Ula staring at him from the doorway. She wasn’t bad to look at, honestly. Tall, nearly six feet tall, with skin burned brown by the sun and wind, Ula had sun-bleached hair cut short enough that it stood up in spikes. Her Captain’s coat was a lighter brown that worked well with her coloring. She smiled at the way he stared, taking his attention as an invitation to enter the room.

“I get sick when I watch the horizon,” Cadfael said, fingers trembling on his embroidery needle.

“You get sick a lot,” Ula said as she settled on the end of his trunk. There was nowhere else to sit other than Cadfael’s bed. “Has Anwyn been making sure you get enough food and water?”

He looked up at her, a little glance through his eyelashes, as he started sewing again. “She tries.”

Ula laughed quietly, watching his face instead of his fingers. The longer she watched him the warmer his cheeks got. By the time the blush had spread to his ears, down the back of his neck and under his high-necked shirt Cadfael had to set his embroidery aside. If he didn’t, he was going to have to tear out everything he did. He let out a breath as he folded his hands in his lap. When he met her eyes Ula grinned.

“Did you want something?” Cadfael asked. He could hear the hostility in his voice but didn’t apologize for it. She was the one who’d come in and interrupted him, not the other way around.

“Just to make sure that you’re okay,” Ula said. “And to lay claim, at least as far as the women are concerned. They’re pestering your sister with questions about how much it would cost to get some of your time and attention. I don’t want her breaking bones so I thought I’d make it clear that you’re mine for the trip.”

Cadfael couldn’t help but shrink back into his bunk at the sheer thought of that. As bad as the thought of being sold like a common street whore was, the thought of actually servicing Ula’s needs for months was worse. It wasn’t that he hated women’s bodies. He didn’t, or at least he wasn’t completely repulsed by them. He just preferred to be left alone. His response made Ula glower as if she wanted to do some skull cracking of her own. She glared at the door of his cabin and then looked at Cadfael with the sort of solicitousness that he was used to getting only from his older uncles.

“Did someone hurt you?” Ula asked. “On the ship, I mean. If they did, tell me and I’ll make sure that they never do it again, Cadfael.”

“No, not here,” Cadfael admitted with a shamed little shrug. “I’ve always gotten a lot of attention and it makes me uncomfortable. I don’t know how many women have tried to ‘sample the wares’ when they thought my family wasn’t watching.”

“…Used to Aravel, I take it,” Ula said after staring at him for a moment.

That comment made Cadfael laugh out loud despite his nervousness. “Everyone loves Aravel. He’s so bright and open. I’m… not. And women get annoyed when I’m not him, which makes them do things that, well, I like to think they normally wouldn’t do those things to me. Or to anyone.”

Ula sighed. She came over and sat on the bunk next to Cadfael, far enough away that he didn’t feel like she was about to attack but close enough that his already nervous stomach took one big step closer to vomiting up his breakfast. Three days at sea and he already knew that this was going to be a long, hard trip. Throwing up after every meal was horrific enough without the surges of nausea he’d been having between meals. It felt like every time the wind shifted he had to throw up.

“All right,” Ula said. “This is what we’re going to do. You can stay put as much as you want. I’ll tell Anwyn to back off on making you go outside. I do want you to get out of the cabin at least a little. No wasting away inside if you can help it. I’ll make it known that you’re mine for the trip. I’m a married woman, Cadfael. I’m not about to demand things you’re not willing to give me. When we hit port along the way I’ll make sure that you get time off the ship to settle your stomach. Sound good?”

“Very good,” Cadfael said warily enough that she grinned at him. “What do I have to do?”

“Pretend that there’s more going on then there actually is,” Ula said with a shrug. “I want the girls to leave you be and I want Anwyn to stop picking fights to defend your honor. If you’re the Captain’s boy, no one else will dare touch or even comment. I might not be as vicious in a fight as your brawler of a sister but I am the Captain. Even Anwyn respects that.”

Cadfael bit his lip, studying his hands. They’d clenched so tight that his knuckles were white but that was partially because of the rising nausea that had his head swimming and his stomach lurching. He looked back up at Ula who sat patiently, waiting for Cadfael’s decision. Nodding made him whine and put a hand over his mouth.

“That’s making you ill?” Ula asked.

“No,” Cadfael said through gritted teeth. “Just sea sickness.”

He kept control for a few moments longer before the nausea won. Cadfael hurled himself off the bunk and into the corner where Anwyn had left a bucket for him. The entire ship seemed to roll and pitch in time with his heaving stomach. On the second heave Ula’s arm wrapped around his shoulders while a blessedly cool hand supported his forehead. By the time he managed to stop throwing up Cadfael was all but curled up in Ula’s lap.

“No wonder you hate travel,” Ula murmured as she carried him back to his bunk. “I didn’t realize that you got this sick.”

“Every day,” Cadfael said even though his mouth felt like it was lined with flannel and his throat burned from vomiting. “Every single day, usually several times a day.”

Ula pet his hair and made him drink a little water. When she left, quietly, a few minutes later, she took the bucket with her only to return it empty and clean. Cadfael smiled at her as he drifted off to sleep. Maybe Gwen was right. This might not be as bad as he’d been expecting if Ula would stand between him and the rest of the crew. Now all he had to worry about was Ula keeping her promise and Anwyn being a pill about Cadfael staying in his cabin all the time.

The next day proved Ula quite reliable on that front. He woke nauseous, a common enough event every time he’d ever traveled by sea, but unusual for Cadfael, the cabin seemed stuffy to the point that he could barely breathe. Opening his window helped a tiny bit but not enough that Cadfael felt better. After fighting with his reluctance to go outside Cadfael finally dressed and poked his head out of his cabin door.

The main deck was more or less clear. There were three sailors up at the bow coiling rope and several in the rigging doing some sort of maintenance on the blue Dana sails but no one was close to his cabin. Cadfael left the door open to air out his room and focused on the mast so that he wouldn’t watch the shifting horizon line. It was a gray morning, with fine haze overhead so the movement of the division between blue seas and gray skies was entirely too clear for his stomach to handle.

“So you do come outside,” one of the sailors said as she came down the stairs from the wheel to the main deck. She was a little taller than Gwen, about half a head taller than Cadfael, with long dark hair that she kept in a tight braid on the back of her head. “Nice to see that. Though you do look a little green about the gills, little one. Need someone to help make it all better?”

“No,” Cadfael snapped, trying to move away from her. “I’m fine. I don’t need anything. I just wanted some air.”

She blocked him from entering his cabin and slamming the door, a smile that might be considered gregarious and kind if it weren’t for the way her eyes watched his lips moving with entirely too much eagerness. Cadfael shivered, looking around desperately for Anwyn but she was nowhere to be seen and the other sailors on the bow apparently didn’t see what was happening. More accurately they all whistled and looked away as they worked, pretending that Cadfael and the sailor were invisible.

“Roisin!” Ula bellowed from the wheel.

The sailor jerked and backed away from Cadfael, smiling brightly and innocently up at Ula. “Yes, Cap’n?”

Ula appeared at the rail, glaring down at Roisin with enough ferocity that it made Cadfael cringe even worse. When she looked at Cadfael cowering in the corner of the port stairs up to the wheel what she saw there made Ula’s expression go black with fury. All the sailors went silent. Roisin straightened up, her smile fading away into pale blank seriousness.

“I gave orders, sailor,” Ula said. Her voice had the sort of cold threat that promised beatings and worse punishment when it was Mother speaking. “What did I say of Dana Cadfael?”

“That he was to be untouched, Cap’n,” Roisin promptly replied. Sweat beaded up on her forehead. “Begging the captain’s mercy, but I haven’t touched him.”

“I said,” Ula said even more coldly, “that he was not to be bothered, sailor. Not touched, not spoken to, not cornered, not leered at like a common street whore, not interfered with in any way. My ship is not a brothel and you’ll not be treating one of our employer’s boys as a tart! I catch anyone making the boy cringe like that and I’ll take the hide off the offender and those who stood by and let it happen.”

Her glare swept from Roisin out over the other sailors at the bow. They all snapped to attention, saluting to her even though Cadfael saw one of them glare at him as if it was his fault. Ula waved Roisin back to her post and then nodded at Cadfael to go back in his cabin. He did, slamming the door with relief. Fortunately, his cabin was much less stuffy now. Having the door open had made a difference even if it had come at the price of nearly being cornered by yet another too friendly sailor.

Half an hour later Anwyn poked her head in the door. “You okay?”

“Mostly,” Cadfael sighed as he set his embroidery aside. “I hate sailing, Annie. I hate it. I hate everything about it.”

“Yes, I know,” Anwyn said.

She came over and plopped on the bunk next to Cadfael, pulling him into a one-armed hug. Cadfael sighed, letting her comfort him even though she’d obviously been down in the hold checking the goods. He could smell tar and sea salt on her. Anwyn chuckled as she pressed a kiss against the top of his head.

“So, you and Ula?” Anwyn asked.

“Ah, yes,” Cadfael said as he pulled back and wished desperately that his cheeks would not go flaming red every time he was embarrassed. “We’ve… come to an agreement. She protects me and I keep her company when she wishes to visit my cabin.”

“Company,” Anwyn said just flatly enough to make it everything from a question into the most lurid of innuendo.

“Annie!”

“You’re my twin brother and the most you’ve done is let a woman touch your fingertips to say hello, Caddie,” Anwyn huffed. “I think I’m entitled to make a few things clear. I don’t want to have to break Ula’s skull in the middle of a trip but I will if I have to.”

“Don’t you dare!” Cadfael snapped, smacking her shoulder. “Not sex-company, just company-company!”

“Really?” Anwyn asked, this time with both of her eyebrows heading for her hairline.

This time Cadfael smacked her hard enough that Anwyn winced and dove off the bunk, pretending to defend herself with his pillow as a shield. Cadfael glared at her, prompting Anwyn to laugh over the top of his pillow. She eased back onto the bed, passing Cadfael his pillow when he held out one hand imperiously.

“She doesn’t want you breaking the crews’ bones,” Cadfael explained. “So I pretend to be the Captain’s boy and the two of you land on anyone who tries to get handsy. It should work. She seems nice enough and I didn’t get the feeling that she was all that interested in me.”

“And you’d know how to tell?” Anwyn asked, amused.

“I am not Aravel,” Cadfael said while glaring at her. “I’m not constantly astonished and delighted that women find me attractive. I’m constantly horrified that they find me attractive and I’m very good at seeing it, thank you very much.”

The mention of Aravel made Anwyn break into belly laughs. She hugged Cadfael, rocking him side to side until he jabbed her in the belly to make her stop. When she let go Anwyn was grinning approvingly. Cadfael relaxed a little bit. Maybe this would work out. With both of them defending him he certainly had more of a chance of making it to Ntombi and back with his virtue intact.

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Also available as a 5″x8″ Trade Paper Back for $18.99 via CreateSpace: here, Amazon: here and Barnes and Noble here.

Or you can just wait and I’ll post the rest week by week.

A generation ago America passed a law allowing a bankrupt person’s debts to be bought by rich Masters. The debt slaves then belonged to their Masters for the duration of the debt. Cain, a debt slave with the soul of a Master, was bought by the Master of Tucker Industries, Dave.

In each other they found what they had always been looking for. Cain found the perfect submissive while Dave found the perfect Master. Their private relationship has to remain their secret, requiring them to reverse the natural roles while in public.

That’s difficult enough but when the mysterious terrorist Black attacks a party they’re attending, Cain is injured and Dave has to protect his lover and secret Master. The party and its aftermath test their relationship, their acting abilities and their lives. Has Cain trained his lover and Master to play his public role well enough that they can both survive?

Find this book:

On Amazon (cover #1), Smashwords (cover #2), Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Deisel eBook Store and finally Sony Reader eBook Store for $3.99.

Also available in 5″x8″ Trade Paper Back (with cover #1) for $6.99 via CreateSpace here! You can also buy it on Amazon here, iBookstore, and Barnes and Noble here!

Special Edition

There will not be a special edition of Hide and Seek due to the amount of time it takes to generate each one. I will be offering signed copies later in the summer for those who are interested. Check back later for an announcement of when the signed copies will be open for order.

First the cover for my next story, Sound of Obedience:

And second, the cover for my next story, The Hole Inside:

Both are erotica, though (hopefully obviously) Sound of Obedience is much more hardcore than The Hole Inside.

I’m so looking forward to getting these out for everyone to read!

However, if you want to read the story for free, I will be putting up a chapter every Monday so all you have to do is be patient and you’ll be able to read the whole thing over time. I hope everyone enjoys the story–feel free to leave comments and let me know what you thought!

Fitting In
By Meyari McFarland

Ntombi Naming Conventions
Prefix – Meaning

ash – female high rank relative
ish – female high rank non-relative
osh – female same rank relative
oosh – female same rank non relative
ush – female low rank relative
uush – female low rank non relative
vla – male high rank relative
vli – male high rank non relative
vlo – male same rank relative
vloo – male same rank non relative
vlu – male low rank relative
vluu – male low rank non relative

Suffix – Meaning

bli – adored, beloved, practically perfect
bra – strong approval
slo – fond of, worth cultivating them
vsa – mild disapproval, shrug-worthy
vyu – some disapproval, not worth the effort
zi – absolute disapproval, horrible person
wu – neutral, no opinion either way

To designate whether they’re in-group or out-group:

m – add to end of suffix for in-group
q – add to end of suffix for out-group

Example:

Vli’Aravel’ziq = male high rank non relative named Aravel who is a horrible person that I hate
Vlu’Umar’slom = low rank male relative named Umar who I’m fond of and who is part of my family

Chapter One: Unexpected Journey

“You can’t be serious,” Cadfael said, staring at his father in horror. “I’ll spend the whole trip throwing up!”

His embroidery dropped into his lap, unnoticed for a moment. Cadfael’s father Deverell chuckled at him, sitting down in a rustle of petticoats and bright blue kilt. The early morning sun brightened Deverell’s sandy brown hair to a color reminiscent of gold. For the room to be so cheerful felt like a terrible betrayal, given the horrible news his father had delivered.

“Quite serious, dear boy,” his father said, patting his shoulder fondly. “I’m sure you won’t get that sick. It would be quite the adventure for you to travel all the way to Ntombi. You should get out and see more of the world. As a member of the Dana Clan it is expected that you travel and interact with people. How in the Tripartate Goddesses’ names do you expect to attract a wife if you stay inside all the time?”

Cadfael shuddered. He wouldn’t go near that one with a ten-foot barge poll. “I don’t want to find a wife if it means that I have to travel all over the world with her, Deverell. I don’t want to go out and interact with people, especially people that I don’t know. I like it here at home.”

That wasn’t strictly true. Cadfael had never felt comfortable with his family’s expectation that he be as wild and ad-venturous as his twin sister Anwyn. While she had gladly started traveling on the Dana Clan trading ships after their ninth birthday, Cadfael resisted going anywhere even after he was old enough to travel widely at fourteen. It was so much more comfortable in their warehouse turned home where he knew all the stairways and hallways, nooks and crannies.

“Like it or not, you will go,” Deverell said.

“Gavin could go,” Cadfael offered without any hope that it would be accepted. “He’s oldest.”

“He’s engaged to be married right in the middle of this trip,” Deverell said with one hand flapping at how ridiculous that suggestion was. “You know perfectly well he’s not available for trips anymore. You’re sixteen, the perfect age for this sort of thing.”

“There’s got to be someone else,” Cadfael whimpered. “Please, Father. I don’t want to go.”

Deverell sighed and patted Cadfael’s shoulder while shaking his head no. Cadfael should have expected that response. It was the same one he’d gotten for the last several years whenever he objected to leaving the house. His reluctance to travel had increased once he grew up enough for women to notice that he was maturing physically.

From the time he was twelve, women had gone out of their way to comment on his appearance, usually with lustful looks that terrified him. Random women in the street found it perfectly acceptable to walk up and talk to him. Since he turned sixteen and became an adult the advances had gotten more forward.

Many of them thought that they could touch without asking, taking his arm, caressing his neck above the high collars he preferred or even attempting to kiss him. A few had tried to slip their hands under his kilt when he’d been caught away from Anwyn or his other sisters. They’d only laughed when he protested and fought, calling him ‘as fiery as his hair’ or ‘cute when he tried to be fierce’.

Even the sailors that worked for his family thought they should have the right to talk to him and touch him at will. The few times that Cadfael had complained to his mother, Anwyn or Gwen, they’d told him he was being oversensitive and that he should enjoy the attention. Cadfael was still angry about the time Mother had rolled her eyes and walked away rather than helping him get rid of the overly pushy sailor.

At home, he could hide when someone he didn’t want to deal with bothered him. There were books to read and embroidery projects to work on. The family always had treaties and trade agreements for him to review for hidden problems, which let him spend time in the family library where it was quiet and safe. It was his specialty in the family, specifically chosen because it kept him out of the public eye.

He had his brothers and male cousins to stand between him and the women who thought they could take advantage of him. His sisters Gwen and Anwyn were always ready to beat up women who went too far, even if they did tease him about being dramatic afterwards. Home was safe.

The family knew to avoid him when he got in a temper over the many indignities of being an eligible young man. None of the women associated with the family’s warehouse business tried to kiss or grope him, unlike the women outside of the family. Even going to the store for lace and embroidery floss was a challenge. Cadfael had lost count of how many times strange women had blown kisses at him and followed him as if they had some right to his attention and company.

He would never understand how his older brother Aravel could enjoy going out, but then Aravel loved women’s attention and drank up their comments and touches as if they were the Goddess Chin’s blessings delivered straight to him.

“You’re sure Andros can’t go?” Cadfael asked plaintively. “He’d probably like it. He said last week that he wanted to go on a trading mission. He’s almost old enough.”

“Andros is only thirteen, Caddie,” Deverell said with a huff of dismay that made Cadfael wince. “You know perfectly well he’s far too young to spend that much time with rough sailors. The Great Goddess Tahira knows that he’d probably crawl into some woman’s lap and get himself raped. At least you know how and when to defend yourself unlike your brothers. I despair of Aravel every learning to be wary of strange women. The boy’s old enough to marry and he just cannot seem to understand that not every woman in the world is his friend. No, you’re the one the Clan chose out of all the men in the family for the trip so you’re the one who goes. This trade mission is far too important to give to someone too young or too casual to understand proper behavior. No back-talk now. Go pack your things. The ship is leaving with the next tide.”

“Why so soon?” Cadfael whined even though he could see that there was no getting out of it. “Shouldn’t I have had more warning? I don’t even know what the mission is!”

“Certainly not,” Deverell snapped as he took the embroidery from Cadfael’s lap. “Not when your mother and I know how you react to promises of traveling. None of us wanted to deal with your temper for longer than we needed to. Up. Go pack your things.”

The entire thing was massively unfair. Granted, Deverell was quite right that he would have leveled the sharp edge of his tongue against everyone in the family if he’d known about the planned trip. Cadfael was somewhat infamous in the family for his explosive temper. If only they would stop bothering him and do more protecting then he’d have fewer reasons to be annoyed with them.

Cadfael snatched his embroidery away from his step-father. It was already wrinkled from Deverell’s grip on it though he hadn’t put any fingerprints on the fabric, thank goodness. The familiar mixture of fear and anger shivered through Cadfael as he headed for the stairs to the upper levels of their home. He kicked his kilt and its many petticoats more out of emotion than worries about stepping on them. This wasn’t fair. They could have sent a cousin if Aravel was too casual and Andros was obviously too young yet. As large as their family was, there had to be someone who would be happy to go on the trip. Just the thought of being away from his familiar routine and the protection of his family made Cadfael want to cry; not that he would where people could see him.

Tears were enough of a threat that he thought about taking one of the quiet less-traveled staircases. He scowled ferociously, determinedly not rubbing his eyes as Gwen came out of an office room and froze. Her expression was so fearful that Cadfael snarled at her. (She’d always been one of his best protectors.) Still, all of the women in the family would have had to have voted to send him given that Deverell said that ‘the Clan’ had decided he needed to go. Which meant she was responsible just as much as his less supportive sisters and cousins.

“I forgot something,” Gwen said while gesturing aimlessly over her shoulder. “I’ll just…”

Cadfael growled. “I’m not an idiot, Gwen! I can tell you’re avoiding me.”

“Right.” Gwen’s eyes snapped with anger that Cadfael simultaneously enjoyed having caused and feared because he never wanted his sisters to turn on him. “Forgive me for not wanting to pick a fight, Caddie. I know how much you hate traveling.”

“You could have warned me about this!” Cadfael wailed.

Her snort was as derisive as possible. The way she slammed the door in his face told him that no one else in the family would have any sympathy for his unhappiness with this trip. Cadfael bit his lip at the urge to burst into tears. Even if someone had been there to see his tears they wouldn’t have comforted him.

No, Cadfael would have been told to dry his tears and look at the trip as an opportunity. That it was anything but ‘an opportunity’ to him would never occur to his travel-loving family. Instead of crying, he squared his shoulders and stomped up the stairs, lifting his kilt out of his way with a grip tight enough to crush the crinoline of his petticoats.

The main staircase was suspiciously empty. At this time of day there should have been dozens of women running up and down it with records from the warehouse below. The offices above should have been filled with his uncles and male cousins as they worked to verify the inventory of what was going on this ship. His younger cousins, nieces and nephews would normally be rampaging through the missing crowd. With a ship about to go out there were no lessons. The female children were expected to help load the ship and learn what they could about the family business while the boys stayed in the offices and learned how to account for everything. Training for the kids started when they were five and six years old so that they would be ready to take their place in the business when they came of age at sixteen.

Deverell must have warned everyone before he came to find Cadfael that he was off to tell Cadfael about his trip. There was no other reason for the stairs to be so empty right now. That meant that everyone was using the back stairs that riddled the warehouse or they’d switched over to using the heavily decorated formal stairs on the other side of the house. The work still had to be done, even if they were avoiding Cadfael.

Two stories up, the house was even quieter, as was expected this time of day. The upper levels held a complicated warren of passages between the apartments that had been added to the building. Four generations of Dana women had built apartments for their husbands and children. Cadfael knew that someday the woman he married would do the same. He couldn’t see his family allowing him to marry into another clan when he was so good at treaty work and his temper was so bad that it would sour relations between the clans.

Aravel would probably end up marrying out once their mother found a wife who would love and care for him as he expected. No one, including Cadfael, expected that there was a woman alive who would endure his temper with joy. His wife would probably end up being someone brought in for alliance purposes instead of a love match.

“It’s not fair,” Cadfael grumbled. “I don’t even know what the weather is like in Ntombi.”

Cadfael glared at the dark, narrow hallways. With his fashionably voluminous petticoats, his kilt brushed against the walls on either side. Cadfael grimaced at the lace decorating the hem of his kilt and sleeves. Being excessively fashionable at home ensured that his clothes functioned as armor against random touching.

On the ship he wouldn’t have that option. It would just be Cadfael. He couldn’t wear so many petticoats or so much lace on board–there wouldn’t be any way to properly care for them. While Anwyn would be free to climb the rigging and explore the ship, Cadfael would be terrified to leave his cabin. Whenever he dared to step outside the sailors were sure to take advantage of his presence on the ship with rude comments and furtive touches. Anwyn would undoubtedly beat up anyone who groped him but that didn’t stop the molestation before it happened. He was going to spend several months practically trapped in his cabin on the ship.

The bedroom he shared with his brothers Gavin, Aravel and Andros was unsurprisingly empty. His brothers had obvious decided that they wanted to be anywhere but here while Cadfael packed. His trunk had been pulled out of the storage closet and someone, probably Gavin given how neatly everything was arranged, had laid out all the clothes he was likely to need. Aravel’s touch was obvious in his knitting and embroidery case being pre-packed and waiting. Andros had to have gone through Cadfael’s collection of jewelry because it was all arranged in sets next to his jewelry case in the same way Andros arranged his jewelry every day. Even his combs and brush had been cleaned and set out for him. Cadfael tossed his embroidery project next to the jewelry, his breath catching in his chest.

“You packing?” Anwyn asked from the doorway as Cadfael stared at it all while fighting tears.

“No,” Cadfael said.

“Caddie,” Anwyn sighed. “Come on. You’ll have fun, I promise. I really wanted you to help me on this one. It’ll be a wonderful trip, I promise.”

She came over and hugged Cadfael despite having to push past his voluminous petticoats. Anwyn didn’t even make a face at the petticoats pressing against her legs despite the fact that she often said that she thought his fondness for the latest, frilliest fashions was silly. In fact, she hugged him so hard that she nearly tugged him off his feet.

He leaned into the hug, desperate for reassurance after everyone else had avoided him. Despite the way they usually fought, Anwyn’s hugs were comforting. Cadfael would have preferred if she offered to let him stay, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen. When Anwyn finally let go, she put her hands on each side of his face so that he had to meet her eyes. It was almost like looking into a mirror save for the fact that Anwyn wore her hair short and Cadfael wore his long, though even that difference wasn’t always obvious since he wore his hair coiled into a bun on the back of his head.

“I really don’t want to go,” Cadfael whispered as he put his hands on top of hers.

“It will be fine,” Anwyn promised.

“I’m going to be seasick the whole way,” Cadfael complained half-heartedly.

“You get seasick looking at a ship,” Anwyn countered with a grin that shouldn’t be half as infectious as it was. “Once we get there it’ll be fun.”

“Your idea of fun does not match mine, Annie,” Cadfael grumbled as he sat down on the floor next to his trunk to fold and pack everything.

Anwyn rolled her eyes, but she helped Cadfael fold everything. Granted, he had to refold most of them because Anwyn’s version of folding had more to do with mashing something into a ball than with actually folding them. She seemed to approve of most of the clothes that their brothers had laid out. The only things that she put back into the closet were two of his favorite sweaters.

“I like those,” Cadfael said as she put them away.

“You won’t need them, Caddie,” Anwyn said with a grin over her shoulder. “Ntombi’s on the equator. It’s warm enough that you’ll be hot most of the time.”

“What about on the ship?” Cadfael asked with just enough whine in his voice to make her roll her eyes.

“We’re traveling along the equator most of the way,” Anwyn explained. “Once we’re past Minoo you won’t want anything warm. Besides you’ve got four shawls laid out already. They’ll work.”

As much as he would have liked to take one of the really big trunks that were twice the size he was so that he could have every comfort of home (other than home itself), he didn’t get that. The one that Gavin had brought out was one of the smaller ones about a yard long by a foot tall. When Cadfael grumbled about needing a large one Anwyn huffed and looked at her pocket watch. Cadfael glared. They could have at least given him enough time to prepare properly.

Packing everything would be difficult but Cadfael thought it was possible if he was careful. All his kilts and petticoats just fit in the base of his trunk. The shoes, vests and underthings went on the tray along with his brush, combs and what seemed like a thousand different sashes (it was only a dozen). Anwyn loaded the tray in for him since she was stronger than he was. Only then did he pack his embroidery, knitting, and a few of his favorite books. The jewelry was simple enough to load, though the small jewelry case felt like it weighed several tons once he was done. That was more his reluctance to go than reality, though.

Cadfael hesitated before latching the jewelry case. “Why me, Annie? You know I hate traveling. Why would the Clan choose me? You could have spoken up to keep me from having to go.”

“Oh Caddie,” Anwyn groaned. “What’s the problem? Everyone likes seeing new things from time to time.”

“I don’t,” Cadfael snapped at her. “You know I don’t. I’d rather stay home than go see new places like you do.”

He glared at her, not at all surprised to find that she was glaring back at him. It was stupid to pick a fight right before they left, especially when Anwyn had been so nice. She’d helped him pack and reassured him. Maybe she really did think that this trip was a treat, but to Cadfael it was just another example of how little his family listened to and understood him.

No one else believed him when he said that he truly was happy staying home all the time. He’d told Anwyn hundreds of times that he had absolutely no interest in seeing the world. Cadfael felt safest when he was in a familiar environment with people he knew and trusted. Every time they forced him to go somewhere it was excruciating. New people, new places, and strange customs made Cadfael’s heart beat faster and his fears run away with him; travel was torture, not a reward.

“The whole Clan agreed that you’re the right choice, Caddie,” Anwyn said, her jaw working as she glared at him. “This is a huge opportunity. The two of us were chosen specifically. It’s not a casual whim or punishment. We have the skills the trade deal needs. No one else can do what the two of us can, especially after Aravel’s presence on the last mission was such a disaster.”

“But why didn’t I get a vote?” Cadfael demanded, well, no, that was a whine, not a demand. “Why wouldn’t anyone tell me that I’d been chosen?”

He already knew the answer to that one. Sadly, over the last year or so home had gotten nearly as bad as being away. His sisters and brothers all thought that they knew better than Cadfael did about what he liked. When he expressed an opinion everyone ignored it at best and laughed at him at worst. About the only thing he had left that he got to get his own way on were his clothes.

Mother didn’t particularly like Cadfael’s insistence on wearing the most fashionable trends, but it did display the family’s wealth when they dragged him out of the house, so she let him do it. Even their mother and the many aunts and uncles in the house seemed to think that all Cadfael needed was to get out and away from the same old thing.

“We need to get going,” Anwyn growled. Her jaw worked as she held in whatever snappish words were tangling on her tongue. “The decision has been made and there’s no arguing it now, Caddie. You’re going.”

“Fine,” Cadfael growled right back at her.

Anwyn hefted his trunk, balancing it on her shoulder with some difficulty. It seemed nearly as big as she was, but Anwyn had never cared about being too short and slim to do things like that. She grunted, managed to get the trunk in a secure grip, and stomped out of the room and back towards the main stairs. Cadfael followed, his jewelry trunk heavy in his hands.

This time the hallways were crowded with people getting ready for the trip. All of them looked away when he glared at them, from Grandmother Treva on down through to his littlest sister Erlina who clung to Deverell’s kilts as Cadfael walked by. His cousins at least called good wishes. Great-Uncle Jarmon stopped Cadfael for a hug that he leaned into desperately.

Once downstairs, Anwyn led the way through the family’s frenetically busy warehouse to the exit closest to the docks. Cadfael practically walked on her heels. The workers eyed him like he was one of the frosted sweet buns sold up the street, one licking her lips and smirking as he blushed. Several Dana sailors stood outside the main door. They whistled at Cadfael until Anwyn shouted something that had to be rude in a language that sounded vaguely like a dialect from Ingeborg. He couldn’t be sure as he’d never learned their language, much less their curse words.

They did come over and carry his trunk for Anwyn so maybe she’d been demanding help instead of scolding them. All he could be grateful for was that his oldest sister and best protector Gwen was waiting close to the door. She came along, one hand on Cadfael’s elbow as if she expected him to trip. The visible claim did keep other women from whistling or coming up to talk.

“Who’s the Captain?” Cadfael asked Gwen. As the oldest daughter she should know. Hopefully she’d even tell him.

“Ula,” Gwen said. She squeezed Cadfael’s elbow gently. “Her family has been allies with ours since Great-Grandmother Anwyn’s days. Do be nice to her, please.”

“Should be nice to me,” Cadfael muttered quietly enough that Anwyn hopefully wouldn’t hear it.

“If you play the game with her,” Gwen muttered just as quietly, “she’ll probably keep the sailors off you, Caddie. Really, do be nice. Ula’s about our mother’s age. She’d take good care of you if you let her.”

When Cadfael stared at her, wondering if Ula’s choice as Captain had been deliberate, Gwen smirked and winked at him. He blushed and ducked his head, grateful for the sailors carrying his trunk blocking Anwyn’s line of sight.

It was nice to know that they had considered his comfort at least a little bit. There was no guarantee that Captain Ula would be anything other than a horror to him but at least they’d tried. Gwen stopped Cadfael at the gangplank of the ship while Anwyn climbed up and the sailors passed the trunk over to one of the crew to put in his cabin.

“Try and have fun, Caddie,” Gwen said, fond exasperation in her voice. “This wasn’t meant as a punishment, you know.”

“I know,” Cadfael admitted. “I just wish I could stay home.”

“As miserable as you are with how you’re treated here,” Gwen said, startling him that they’d realized why he was so unhappy, “I’d have thought that getting away for months would be a relief. Sometimes you have to leave home to find happiness, Cadfael. Just give the trip a chance, okay?”

Cadfael nodded and hugged her, leaning into her for support as he and Anwyn always had. Gwen was oldest, most likely to take over as the family’s official leader after their mother Laoise passed on to the Tripartate Goddesses’ paradise. As such, she’d always been very serious about taking care of her siblings. She pressed a kiss against Cadfael’s forehead and then gestured for him to board the ship.

“Introduce me to Ula?” Cadfael asked in a panicky little whisper.

“Of course,” Gwen laughed while patting his back. “I’ll be on board until the ship sails. Everything will be fine, Caddie. Don’t worry.”

“Come on, Caddie!” Anwyn called from the main deck. She waved so cheerfully that Cadfael felt better despite the sure knowledge of how sick he was going to be over the next couple of months. “Let’s go see the world!”

Cover for Fight Smarter ebook & TPB

On the matriarchal world of Muirin, thirteen-year-old Gavin of the Dana Clan was painfully aware that he was being groomed for a powerful position in the family despite his gender. He wasn’t sure that he wanted it until he caught his younger sister Gwen helping their little sister Anwyn through the back hallways of the Dana Clan House, both of them injured and covered with blood.

Anwyn’s injuries and how she got them threatened to destroy the fragile peace their mother had brokered. The other powerful clans in Aingeal barely supported the Dana against their rivals the Delbhana after Anwyn’s adventure in the city of the Ladies. Between the threats the Delbhana posed and the rising violence Anwyn’s rival Siobhan had visited upon her, though, Gavin saw an opportunity.

If he could ride the tides of the confrontation correctly, Gavin thought that he could beat back the Delbhana and save his little sister’s life. If he failed everyone in the Dana Clan would pay the price, starting with Gavin himself.

(This story is appropriate for young adults and adults. It contains off-screen bullying resulting in severe injuries, matriarchal societies and one thirteen-year-old boy who takes on a very angry adult who’s trying to hide things. This is the second in my series of planned stories following Anwyn and her rather unconventional family.)

Fight Smarter

“You know you’re not supposed to get in fights right now.”

Gavin looked up from his job of sorting invoices, absently smoothing his kilt over his knees. His younger sister Gwen’s voice carried along the back hallway that ran past his little office. There was only one person she could be talking to about fighting: Anwyn.

Of the entire clan, his little sisters Gwen and Anwyn were the ones most likely to get into a brawl, so when Gwen slowly hobbled into sight a moment later it wasn’t a surprise that she was with Anwyn. What did surprise him was that Gwen was supporting Anwyn with an arm around her waist. It was clear Anwyn resented it from the way she tried to lean away from Gwen.

Both of them were filthy, covered in mud from the cobblestone streets. More worrisome, they both had blood on their clothes. Being covered in mud from a fight was normal enough for girls of the Dana family. Well, fights were common all over Aingeal, but even more common for Dana’s combative women. What was unusual was the amount of physical damage Anwyn had taken. Normally she won her fights easily.

Anwyn was cradling her ribs as if a few might be broken, but the scattered bruises and scrapes showing from under her short sleeved tunic and calf-length pants didn’t appear to be too serious. Unfortunately, her ankle wasn’t supporting her weight properly; it was swollen to the point that the laces of her sandal were cutting into the purpling flesh. Gwen actually appeared far more seriously wounded, given all the blood on her, but she moved easily enough that the blood soaking her vest and shirt had to be someone else’s.

“I didn’t start it,” Anwyn protested, full of seven year old petulance at being told that she taken the wrong tack yet again. “Siobhan started it! She was picking on the other kids. I just made her stop. Besides you hit her too, Gwen.”

“Well, yeah,” Gwen snorted. “She had you down, Annie.”

“I would have gotten up,” Anwyn grumbled, her cheeks going as red as Gwen’s bloody shirt. “As soon as I got her off my ankle I would have been fine. I didn’t need your help then and I don’t need help now.”

Find the rest of this story:
On Amazon, Smashwords, iBookstore, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Diesel eBook Store and finally Sony Reader eBook Store.

Now Available in 5″x8″ Trade Paper Back for $5.99 via CreateSpace: here! You can also buy it on Amazon here!

My mother’s visiting for a week. I’ve been very reluctant to tell her that I’ve been writing for years. For a long time I didn’t feel that my writing was that good and frankly, we have very, very different tastes in reading material.

Well, I finally told my mom about my stories and gave her the Muirin short stories and Fitting In, my novel, to read.

So she read The City of the Ladies. And this morning she told me that she “really wanted to know what happens to those kids”.

8D

Yay for being good enough to suck my mom into a story that she’d never in a million years read otherwise! *happy dance*

I feel better, I do. XD

Valerian’s intent had been to enjoy the Festival of the Goddess Inina’s Blessings to the world with his daughters and young son. It was a day of joy, a day to celebrate family and loved ones both there and gone on to Inina’s arms.

However evil intent lurked inside one heart, tainting the festival with his anger and resentment. Valerian stood between Mayolo and his daughter, between Mayolo and Faustine, his daughter’s best friend, arranging their hand fasting as a way of saving Faustine and her mother from Mayolo’s abuse.

The village stood beside Valerian and his family but as the day progressed, Mayolo reached out to attack Valerian in the most painful way possible. Only Inina’s blessings on his soul could save his family from Mayolo’s dark magic.

Inina’s Blessings of Joy

1. Home

VALERIAN SMILED as he sucked on his finger. The cinnamon and sugar that coated the tip slid over his tongue. His daughters Aliberta and Calida’s cooking always pleased. They had learned much from their mother before her untimely death four years ago, birthing his beloved son Lucius.

To his joy, they continued to learn as they took over the maintenance of the household, crafting hearty meals full of peppers and spices, as well as desserts that delighted the tongue with mango, honey and Calida’s favorite cinnamon.

“Papa, stay out of the sauce!” Aliberta huffed at him.

When he reached another finger to sample the sauce a second time he was left with a sticky spot on the back of his hand redolent of honey and hot peppers from their friend Faustine’s spoon. Both Aliberta and Calida gasped as if Faustine had committed an unforgivable crime by striking him lightly but Valerian laughed. Faustine had always been bold and assertive, unafraid to face challenges directly.

“It’s too tasty to stay away from,” Valerian said, grinning as his daughters rolled their eyes. “It’s a compliment to your cooking, my dear.”

“Papa,” Calida sighed while rolling her eyes. “That’s not a compliment. You’re in the way. You could help by keeping Lucius busy.”

“Please!” Aliberta agreed.

Lucius ran around the corner of the house and into the outdoor cooking area, waving his arms in excitement. He dashed around the three girls and then squealed when Valerian caught him by the waist and blew a raspberry on his cheek. He tasted in equal measure of mango and mud, prompting Valerian to splutter and hold Lucius slightly away from his body.

“This cannot be my son,” Valerian said, grinning at the way Lucius squealed and laughed at the swinging motion. “I’m quite certain that my son would not be this messy when there’s a party to enjoy this afternoon.”

“Hugs Papa!” Lucius said, waving sticky fingers at Valerian.

Valerian caught the fingers of one of Lucius’ hand in his lips, pretending to nibble on them. They tasted even more strongly of mango, with the addition of honey, which might explain why Lucius was running about that way. Treats instead of more filling food would make the boy as energetic as Haraldr on a hunt.

Find This Story:

On Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and finally Sony Reader eBook Store for $3.99.

Also Available in 5″x8″ Trade Paper Back for $6.99 via CreateSpace: here and Amazon here.!

Valerian’s intent had been to enjoy the Festival of the Goddess Inina’s Blessings to the world with his daughters and young son. It was a day of joy, a day to celebrate family and loved ones both there and gone on to Inina’s arms.

However evil intent lurked inside one heart, tainting the festival with his anger and resentment. Valerian stood between Mayolo and his daughter, between Mayolo and Faustine, his daughter’s best friend, arranging their hand fasting as a way of saving Faustine and her mother from Mayolo’s abuse.

The village stood beside Valerian and his family but as the day progressed, Mayolo reached out to attack Valerian in the most painful way possible. Only Inina’s blessings on his soul could save his family from Mayolo’s dark magic.

You can find this story on Amazon and on Smashwords for $3.99 and on CreateSpace as a 5″ x 8″ 110 page TPB for $6.99. It will be coming soon to other retailers.

I hope that you read and enjoy!