Chapter Twelve

 

 

 

Rowan’s wonderful dream was disturbed when Lorcan began to mumble in his sleep. Rowan turned onto his side so that he could see Lorcan’s face. The curtains weren’t quite drawn and the silver light of dawn seeped into the room, casting the bed in shadows. Lorcan frowned, his forehead creased. Rowan put a hand on his shoulder, which usually helped calm him but this time it had no effect. Lorcan’s voice got louder and he began to pull at the covers as if he felt trapped. He repeated the word ‘no’ over and over again, his voice becoming more strident. Suddenly, he sat bolt upright, eyes open. For a moment Rowan thought he might still be asleep then he gave a shuddering sigh and turned to face him.

“I’m sorry. I woke you.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Rowan said. “I don’t want to waste a minute of the day.”

Lorcan pulled him into a hug. “How do you feel this morning?”

“Good. Relaxed, Sir. Last night was amazing. I felt like I was floating and that everything I’d been worried about disappeared. There was just you, me and sensations I never knew my body could experience.” He sighed. “I hope I can persuade you to use the sling again before you have to leave.” He couldn’t quite bring himself to say before we have to leave. He’d made up his mind, but needed to talk to a few people first. If Lorcan noticed the particular use of words, he didn’t comment.

“I think I’m going to head to the gym for an early work out. Why don’t you come with me?”

“I’d love to swim, Sir. It might stretch out my muscles a bit.”

“Something I’d enjoy seeing.” Lorcan leered.

“I don’t have any clothes here.” Rowan batted his lashes. “I vaguely recall someone ripping my underwear off last night.”

“That might have happened, but I’m admitting to nothing. Besides, you don’t need clothes to swim.”

Rowan giggled. He’d happily run around naked all day if it took Lorcan’s mind from whatever was tormenting him.

Two hours later, he wasn’t feeling quite so magnanimous. Lorcan had tied him to a bench in the gym before delivering his morning discipline. He’d then made him sit on his sore behind while he’d pounded out the miles on the treadmill and, though the view had been good, it hadn’t made up for the pain when Rowan had stood, peeling his arse from the vinyl. The cold water of the pool had been wonderful but watching Lorcan swim naked had kept him so hard it impeded his ability to move around. Then Lorcan had taken him back to the Blue Room and watched from a chair while Rowan jacked himself off. His cock was now imprisoned in a steel cage, much heavier than the acrylic chastity device Lorcan had used before. He was also plugged, and both the cage and the plug were held in place by a leather belt buckled around his hips with a strap that nestled between his arse cheeks, divided either side of his balls and fastened at the front of the belt, where it was locked in place. The acrylic device he’d been able to ignore, to some extent. This was impossible to forget. No doubt exactly what Lorcan intended.

As he knelt next to Lorcan’s chair at the breakfast table in the snug, Rowan was grateful for the cushion beneath his knees. He could still taste the bacon Lorcan had fed him, the salt lingering on his lips.

“Have you had enough to eat?” Lorcan asked.

“Yes, thank you, Sir. The bacon was delicious. You have it much crispier that it’s usually served here and I prefer it.”

“Bacon needs a crunch.”

Lorcan sipped his coffee, his glance straying toward his phone, which lay on the table next to him. “I’ve been avoiding this for three weeks, but I need to check my messages. I’m kind of dreading what I might find.”

Rowan rested his head against Lorcan’s thigh, hoping that he might reveal a bit more of himself.

“I left San Francisco without saying goodbye to anyone, except my best friend Giles. I wanted a clean break from the business and the people involved with it. The constant questions about my plans were driving me mad but I’m not the kind of person that can sit idle.” His fingers strayed toward the phone.

“If you don’t mind me saying, Sir, if you think the time is right to reconnect then it probably is.”

“Gut instinct, you mean?”

“Perhaps.”

“It can’t have escaped your notice, Rowan, that I prefer to be in control of all aspects of my life.”

Rowan gave his imprisoned cock a wry glance. “Yes, Sir, I had noticed.”

“Sarcasm will get you a spanking.” Lorcan chuckled. “Of course, you will enjoy that as much as I will. It’s a far preferable activity to looking at this.” He tapped the phone. “However, it’s time.” He switched it on and, once everything had loaded, glanced at the screen. “Holy crap. I didn’t realize I was so popular.” He held the phone up so that Rowan could see the screen.

“Wow… That’s a lot. I get one or two voicemails a day at most. You have hundreds and thousands of emails.”

Lorcan sighed. “Is your computer still set up in the banqueting hall?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“In that case, today you are a personal assistant as well as my submissive. We have work to do. Of course, that’s if I can concentrate at all with you dressed like that.”

“I could put some clothes on, Sir.”

“No. Absolutely not. I have to get some pleasure out of the day.” Lorcan chuckled. “I wonder what my previous assistant would have thought if I’d ordered him to work naked.”

Rowan giggled. “I don’t imagine it was in his job description, Sir.”

“Perhaps it should have been. It will be in yours, if you decide to come with me at the end of the week and no, I’m not asking for an answer now.” Lorcan poured himself a fresh cup of coffee. “Go and check that everything we’ll need is in the banqueting hall. Make sure it’s nice and warm in there. Then let the kitchen know that we’ll have a working lunch in there too. I want to get through this lot today so we can enjoy the rest of the week.”

Getting to his feet, Rowan winced. He was a little sore.

“Do you need the plug removed?” Lorcan asked, resting a hand on Rowan’s hip.

“That’s not the bit of me that’s sore, Sir. My shoulders ache a bit—from the sling, I think.”

“I should have given you better aftercare last night.” Lorcan stood. He massaged Rowan’s shoulders, his touch soothing.

“Given that I don’t remember much about it, Sir, I don’t think there’s a lot you could have done. I had a wonderful time and this is nothing serious. The stiffness will be gone in a day or two, I’m sure.”

“Other parts of you won’t be getting stiff for a while.” He gave Rowan’s arse a pat then tapped the steel cage around his cock.

“No, Sir. Will chastity be a part of the role description too?”

“Oh, definitely.”

“Then I’ll need to consider my options very carefully.”

“Brat. Get going, before I bend you over my knee.”

Rowan didn’t think that was much of an incentive to move.

 

* * * *

 

“God damn it! This is why I sold the business in the first place.” Lorcan shoved his chair back from the banqueting table to pace the room. “These people think they have the right to every detail of my life.” The stress he’d left behind in the U.S. threatened to ruin his day until he caught sight of Rowan wriggling on his chair. His cheeks were flushed, his hair tousled where he kept running his fingers through it. When he caught sight of Lorcan staring, he stilled.

“I forwarded my messages to Giles while I traveled,” Lorcan explained. “Then took off the redirect when I arrived. He has enough to deal with. Then I turned off the phone and it has been bliss.”

“And it will be again, Sir. I’ve deleted all the spam and sorted the rest of the email into personal, business and not sure. That’s just going on the subject lines, so I might have a few wrong. You’ll need to listen to the voicemails, but that won’t take long.”

“Fine.” Lorcan knew he sounded like a petulant teenager but he didn’t care. “I’ll do that now.” He gave each call exactly five seconds before deleting it if it had anything to do with his old business. Two calls from his parents were just them checking in with no real expectation of a response. “Make a list, Rowan. One—call my parents.”

Rowan tapped away on the keyboard.

“Two—get a new phone number.”

Giggling, Rowan added that to the list.

Lorcan listened to a few more messages. Ninety-five percent of the callers wanted something from him. There were a couple of thank yous from charities he had supported and he got Rowan to add them to the list so that he could do a bit of research into them. “I want you to know the kind of causes I’m interested in,” he explained. “I like to know where my money is going and I’ll expect you to make recommendations based on sound evidence.”

“I’m sorry, Sir… I don’t understand.” Rowan blinked.

God, he has the most beautiful, distracting eyes. Lorcan realized he was staring. Rowan must think he was crazy.

“One of my assistant’s responsibilities is to screen my calls and email. I intend to set up a charitable foundation and there will be an application process for organizations seeking grants. The initial research is important because I’ll have limited time to do more in-depth investigation and I will want to limit that to causes with a realistic chance of being accepted. That means careful, meticulous, initial desk research, clear reports and recommendations. I’m being presumptuous, I know. But I’d like you to know the kind of things you’d be expected to do if you decide to work for me. Unfortunately, I can’t spend twenty-four hours a day in the nearest dungeon, enticing though that idea is.” That put another idea in his head. “Something else for your list. See if you can find some craftsmen who make high-quality dungeon furniture. Once I’ve decided on a property, creating a state-of-the-art playroom will be top of my priority list. Carey Hoffman or someone else at The Underground will be able to give you some ideas, I’m sure. I’ve also heard on the grapevine about a carpenter working in Cornwall who creates unique pieces.”

“I’m sure I can find him online, Sir. And there is some amazing equipment at the club. I went there once for an open day.” Rowan shifted on his chair.

“I’ve been a member for several years,” Lorcan said. “But I only ever got to London once or twice a year so I haven’t been that often. That’s something else I want to change about my life.”

“Did you always know you were a Dominant, Sir?” Rowan asked. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be asking personal questions.” He rocked a little.

“You realize that by moving around, you are just tormenting yourself.” With Rowan’s cock encased in metal, Lorcan imagined the plug must be administering a unique form of torture, especially if it was pressing against Rowan’s prostate. “And I don’t mind you asking me questions, though I can’t guarantee I’ll always answer them. Some things are best left in the past.”

To his credit, Rowan didn’t allow his curiosity to get the better of him. He remained silent. Lorcan rested his backside on the table next to him. He was a bit conflicted as to whether he should tell Rowan anything, but decided it couldn’t hurt to share a little bit about himself. If he wanted Rowan to take a leap of faith then he owed it to him to do the same.

“I suppose I knew I wanted to be in charge from an early age. Not that I recognized it as dominance at the time, but all through high school I had brushes with authority. Not because I wanted to make trouble but because I didn’t like having other people in control of my life. My parents always told me I was too intelligent for my own good. I got bored easily. Rules and regulations were fine as long as I was the one setting them.” He glanced at Rowan, taking in his near nudity, the leather around his hips and the metal encasing his cock. Rowan’s condition was at his command and it gave him no end of pleasure. He brushed Rowan’s bare shoulder with the backs of his fingers. “Something happened that made me doubt what I wanted, what I needed. You don’t need to know the details, but it took me a long time and years of therapy to come to terms with my nature. I hid behind my work, only venturing into the world of Domination and submission on rare occasions. Then, a couple of years ago, the iron grip I had on my life started to slip. I thought more and more about how short life is and how we shouldn’t waste what little time we have. I didn’t want to reach my thirties full of regrets so I decided to take the steps needed to get the kind of life I really wanted. Accepting my Dominant side was a catalyst for change. It took two years to plan how I would divest myself of the things that stopped me living life my way. Selling a multibillion dollar business is not straightforward.”

“I can’t tell you how much I admire what you’ve done, Sir.” A delicate blush rose on Rowan’s cheeks.

“But you’ve done the same,” Lorcan said. “You could have stayed in your old job, safe and secure, but you took the brave step to come here because a life of submission called to you.”

“It’s hardly the same thing, Sir,” Rowan protested.

“The scale may be different, but I think we are more similar than you might like to admit.”

Rowan shook his head. “I like to look after people and I like to be told what to do, that’s all.”

“It’s a good job I like ordering you around then, isn’t it?” Lorcan didn’t push him any further. “I hid behind my work, you hid in a country hotel but now there’s no more hiding for either of us. What do you look for in a good Dominant, Rowan?”

Rowan stared at his computer screen for a full minute without speaking. Lorcan held his tongue, resisting the urge to break the silence.

“Someone who is firm, but kind. Someone who sees what I can’t articulate, sees me, knows what I need even when I don’t. A man who appreciates being served and doesn’t take advantage. Someone who is comfortable in his skin and can make me feel the same in mine.”

“You have high standards, Rowan.”

“I’m handing over control of my body and to a certain extent my mind. That kind of trust has to be earned.”

“I agree.” Lorcan wondered if he was anywhere close to being what Rowan needed. A rare moment of uncertainty struck him. He covered his unease by listening to some more messages.

“Hmm. That’s a surprise. My friend Giles is going to be in London tonight for a brief visit. He and his father are on their way to Amsterdam on business. He’s asked if I want to come and meet them for dinner.” He checked his watch. There was still plenty of time to get to the city.

“Rowan, could you please go and ask Mr. Redding if Rayne is free to drive me. He’ll need to stay late to bring me back.”

Rowan got up and made his way to the door. Lorcan kept track of every step, every movement of Rowan’s buttocks as he walked, the flex of each muscle. He shook his head. Rowan captivated him. He was torn between not wanting to leave him behind and not being ready to share him, even with Giles. It could be a moot point if Rayne wasn’t available. He should have checked his messages sooner.

Rowan was gone no more than a minute or two.

“It’s fine, Sir. Mr. Redding sent Rayne into town this morning, but he’s back so it’s no problem for you to use the car. Rayne will wait in London while you have dinner.”

“I’ll text Giles now to let him know I’m on my way. He and his father are staying at the Ritz. I…don’t want to share you, Rowan.”

“I understand, Sir. There’s plenty for me to do here.”

“Let’s go upstairs. You can help me get ready then have the rest of the afternoon off while I’m away. You’ve had hardly any time to yourself since I arrived and it only seems fair that if I’m off enjoying myself, you should too.” He took Rowan’s hand, brushing his thumb across the smooth palm as they walked to the stairs.

“What will you do, while I’m gone?”

“I think I’ll have a long soak in the bath with lots of bubbles and my book. I’ll call my aunt and Ed then spend some time recovering from the ear bashing they’re both likely to give me. They are both way too interested in my life and want to know every detail of what goes on here. They know I can’t tell them but they keep asking anyway.” He laughed. “I’ll miss you.”

“Don’t worry, I’m going to give you something to remember me by while I’m gone.” Lorcan pushed open the door to the Blue Room. “Hands and knees on the bed.”

“Yes, Sir.” Rowan scrambled into position.

Lorcan went straight to the toy chest. He selected a rectangular paddle, its rubber-coated surface covered in dimples. He swiped it through the air a couple of times, flexing his wrist. The weight felt good in his hand. Four sharp blows, two to each cheek, and Rowan’s ass glowed pink.

“Now you’ll be reminded of me every time you sit down,” Lorcan said, satisfied with his work.

“Thank you, Sir.” Rowan’s tone was wry. He collapsed onto his belly, face buried in the pillow.

“Turn over.” Once Rowan had executed an uncoordinated roll, Lorcan inserted the key to the padlock holding his belt closed. He removed it, and the plug, with care. “Much as I would like to leave you stuffed full for the rest of the day, I don’t know what time I’ll be back.” He gave Rowan’s metal-encased cock a pat. “I want you to sleep in this bed tonight. Don’t wait up for me. Just be here.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Rowan’s shy smile melted Lorcan’s heart. He almost changed his mind about going into London but decided that it would be good for Rowan to have some time to himself. He needed to think through his options without the pressure of Lorcan’s presence.

Once he was primped and dressed, Lorcan gave Rowan a chaste kiss goodbye before heading down to the main hall. The front door stood open, letting in a mild breeze and Lorcan could see Rayne leaning on the car, waiting for him. He didn’t go outside straightaway however but tapped on Luke Redding’s office door.

“Come in.”

Lorcan wondered if Luke ever relaxed. He always seemed to be working.

“Luke, do you have a moment?”

“Sure. Come in and take a seat. There’s no problem, I hope?”

“With my stay, not at all,” Lorcan reassured him. “Everything here has more than exceeded my expectations. This place really lives up to its name.” He hesitated, uncertain how to put his next words.

“I sense a but.” Luke smiled. “And, if I haven’t completely lost my intuition, I’d guess it has something to do with young Rowan.”

Lorcan stretched his legs, crossing his ankles in a semblance of relaxation he didn’t feel.

“I’ve asked him to come with me when I leave.” He held Luke’s gaze.

“Do you mind if I ask in what capacity?” There was no challenge in Luke’s tone, no aggression.

“As my assistant and my submissive.” Saying it just reconfirmed to Lorcan that it was what he wanted. More than anything. “He’s scared.”

Luke steepled his fingers. “He worships you. Of course he is.”

“He…wait… What?” Lorcan wasn’t sure he’d heard Luke correctly.

“You’re not just a job to him. That’s blatantly obvious to everyone here. He’s in love with you, Lorcan.”

“But…”

“I’d guess he doesn’t know that what he’s feeling is love. He’s young and you’ve rocked his world.”

“He’s only known me a few weeks.”

“A few very intense weeks. You have to remember that Rowan gave up his old life to move here. He wanted it badly and now you’re asking him to make another huge change. His emotions must be scrambled.”

“I should stay here tonight.”

“No, I don’t think so. Some time alone will be good for him…and I have an idea.”

“Care to fill me in?”

“Not yet. I need to make a call first but I will say this—Rowan was made to serve one man. Whether you deserve to be that man is yet to be proven…and that’s not an insult, by the way. You need to prove it to yourself, not just to him.”

Lorcan closed his eyes. “You are one hell of a scary guy, Luke.”

“I try.”

Lorcan opened one eye to find Luke grinning.

“You need a sub of your own. I’d bet good money you could tame the most incorrigible brat.”

“It’s true that no real Dominant is complete without a sub. The right man for me will come along one day. But we’re not here to talk about me. Go to London. Enjoy yourself. I’ll be here if Rowan needs me.”

Lorcan drummed his fingers on his thigh. “Convenient way to change the subject, Luke. We should revisit this topic. Soon.”

Luke could give the Mona Lisa a run for her money when it came to enigmatic smiles and Lorcan knew when he’d met his match. He pushed his chair back, feeling a bit like he’d been out-gunned. It was almost as if Luke had been expecting him, had known what he was going to talk about and had already considered every potential outcome. Lorcan guessed that The Retreat’s manager was even more of a control freak than he was. He’d love to see him in action at The Underground, wielding a whip or a flogger. He imagined Luke would be able to deliver a masterclass in any and every form of domination.

“Have a good trip,” Luke said. “Take care of Rayne.”

Lorcan caught the smile that Luke tried to hide.

“I have earplugs, but don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on the brat.” Still a little reluctant to leave, Lorcan headed outside. It was a glorious afternoon and he sucked in a lung full of fresh air. Rayne waved, holding the car door open for him.

“It’s a conspiracy,” Lorcan muttered. “They can’t wait to get me out of here.” He shook his head. Perhaps a long conversation with Giles was what he needed. Some advice from a neutral party might help. “Boardroom negotiations were never this bad.”

“Would it be disrespectful to point out that you’re talking to yourself, Mr. Wilder?” Rayne affected wide-eyed innocence.

Lorcan sighed. It was going to be a long car ride to London.