Chapter Two

 

Dex thought for sure that his number was up when Melody fell to her knees in front of that huge crowd of people. With his hand on her when she fell, it might have looked as though he'd pushed her down. Hardly violence against a human, but it was arguable, at any rate, and if someone had decided to argue that, it wouldn't have been long before he'd be strapped to a table being euthanized.

Luckily, that hadn't been the case. Now he was being led away by handlers, and papers were being drawn up, transferring his ownership to the one female he'd ever looked at with real affection, rather than contempt.

It was easy for him to feel such things for her, considering they'd been kids together.

Or, as much as a semi-human could be a kid.

He'd been fourteen when Melody's mother had purchased him, bringing him into her house for companionship after, what he had learned, was a bad divorce.

The age thing sounded bad if you thought of it in human years, but, as a stag, by the age of fourteen he'd had the body and mind of a horny twenty-five year old, and was of legal age to be bought and sold. Engineering stags to come of age faster meant they could be sold quicker.

Despite that, the older woman never had sex with him. Even though she bought and sold stags and doe for her living, she was firmly against any sexual activity with one who was not of age in human and stag years. Regardless, when she discovered Dex's engineered ability, she had no qualms about inviting him into her room.

It had been the worst sort of hell for Dex, and probably the main reason he had resented the woman so much. He gave her all the pleasure she could ever desire through touch alone, and in return she refused to have sex with him, always ordering him out when finished. Their clothes were always firmly in place.

She thought she was pioneering some movement for the stag age law, meanwhile, Dex felt nothing less than tortured.

He and the daughter of the house had seen each other, of course. Many times. Though Dex had his own place to eat and sleep that was not included in the family area, it was impossible for them to not come across each other occasionally in the halls or library. The house was of decent size, but not that big, and their rooms were practically beside each other.

He could still remember the confused gaze he got from her at eleven, transforming into an angry glare by twelve when she realized what he was, which in turn became a silent indifference at thirteen, and by fourteen and fifteen, she became curious again, only not in the innocent way it had been when she'd been a skinny little kid.

He still chuckled when he remembered the first time she'd propositioned him. The first time he realized he was attracted to her too, was not a memory that made him smile.

It had been a frightening, and novel concept, at the time, considering he was engineered to be attracted to older women, and not girls his own age, despite how much older he looked compared to her.

Now she was back, in the one place he never thought he would ever see her. In their younger years, he'd never thought she would ever stoop to coming to an auction hall looking for a stag. She'd never seemed the type who would ever need to purchase a stag, but with her mother owning one when she herself was just a young girl, who knew?

To keep his handlers from seeing the fists he was making with his hands, he held them together in front of him. Down, nonthreatening, easy. Everyone he passed in the hall was still giving him that odd look, wondering if he had really done what he did on stage, or whether it was a show to get more money out of the sale.

It was real all right. Dex had two advantages that other stag did not. One of them being the touch abilities, which no other engineered stag possessed, and the fact that no one in a lab coat had ever been able to duplicate it.

Well, Melody should be pleased. He'd finally used the ability she'd always wanted him to use on her. Now he just had to see her.

*****

Melody was brought to meet the manager in charge of seeing to the affairs of the convention. Holding the event in the rented space of an airport, they had to ask to use one of the empty offices of an associate. Transferring a hundred thousand dollars wasn't exactly something that could be done out in the open safely.

They were given fifteen minutes in the space, with no one sitting down in any of the chairs.

When Dex was brought in, still being held in his chains between his two handlers, their eyes met, and Melody had to look away.

She didn't know him any more. She barely knew him then, and now they were strangers to each other.

On the sum she had offered, there was some questioning as to whether she had the funds to make the monthly payments. Again, she pulled up her banking information and got to work on the transaction.

Not cash, as preferred, but for a payment this exceptions could be made to the rules.

She transferred the full amount into the manager's account with little fuss, with everyone staring at her with open mouths. Dex had both brows raised only slightly as he watched the exchange.

Handing over three months of her income for him was worth it, but from now on, she had to keep a low key on the fact that she had so much to spend.

The manager, a blond woman, her hair pulled back into a tight bun with sharp features, was the first to come out of her haze and offer her hand in congratulations for the purchase, and her thanks.

“I'll be wanting to take him home immediately,” Melody said.

The manager bowed her head only slightly. “Of course, I'll have the package delivered at your convenience.”

A slight tinkling of chains had her looking over. Clenched in front of him, she caught sight of Dex's hands gripping the chains, his shoulders tight.

“Wear this,”

Dex stepped back, eyes wide and mouth open. She could see the whites all around his blue pupils, and the healthy color of his tongue as he stared in horror at the button-down shirt she held. “I can't wear that!”

She looked down at it, and saw absolutely nothing wrong with the blue cotton plaid shirt she'd snatched from her best friend's brother's locker. She'd only done it because he was on the air ball team, and looked about the same size as Dex, and also that he was constantly throwing his clothes around, leaving them on the sidelines for a game and always forgetting to take them back. He wouldn't miss it.

And it matched Dex's eyes.

“Why not?”

“Because,” Dex's tongue came out as he wet his lips. He looked away from her, at her too-pink walls, and threw his hand into his hair. This was the most anxious she'd ever seen him, even in the beginning when she started commanding him to her room.

"It's inappropriate,” he finally said.

“You walk around all the time without a shirt on,” she said. “Why is it bad to wear one?”

She thrust the garment at him, but he pushed her hands back.

“Do you know what can happen to me if I try and pass myself off as human?”

She didn't. Nor did she care if they slapped his wrist and called him a bad boy. She wanted him to look normal, and not like a stag who was having sex with her mother when they thought Melody was asleep.

Luckily she'd had a bit too much to drink again after her time with Dex, and would be passed out until morning. Didn't mean she slept like the dead, however.

“Put this on, or I'll scream,” Melody threatened, holding the shirt out to him.

For the first time since he'd come into her house, she saw real anger in his eyes, right before his hand snatched out like a striking snake, taking the shirt. "Fine, Princess."

She'd blushed at the familiar name he sometimes called her. Usually it was playful, coming from him, but now it sounded more like an insult.

He put it over his shoulders, but didn't button it up. Probably couldn't even if he'd tried. It was too small for his bulging muscles, and the seams stretched under the strain. Melody had thought it would be a tight fit, but hadn't guessed it would be that small.

“Better?” Dex asked, sneer never leaving his face.

Melody's face was hot, and she turned around before he could see how red it was becoming. “Much.”

She sat on her bed and faced him when she felt herself coming back under control. She patted the spot beside her on the bed. “Sit,”

He didn't move.

“I gave you an order.”

“I heard it.”

She tilted her head; searching for something on him...she didn't know what. It was easy to forget he wasn't human in that shirt. The collar covered the bar code on his neck. His feet were still bare, but she doubted she'd be able to get him into socks and running shoes.

“You're different from other stags.”

His brow raised high at the observation. “You've been around other stags to know?”

“No, but all the commercials say you're supposed to be this obedient thing that does what he's told, when he's told to do it. You don't act like that.”

“You're right, I'm not like other stags. And I'm not a thing.”

Melody looked down, watching the way his fists clenched tightly, hidden by the fact that he was holding his hands together down in front of himself.

Smart too, she thought.

“That won't be necessary,” Melody said to the manager. “I'll drive him home myself.”

The manager kept her face the same, but she did give the slightest tilt of her head before consenting. “As you wish, he has no previous history of violence against handlers or owners. I see no reason to delay your journey with...details.”

“I do have two other stags I would like to be delivered,” she said.

“Of course, our transpo trucks are at your service, madam. They are designed for a safe and comfortable transaction for your packages.”

No kidding. After the amount Melody paid, she wouldn't doubt it if the woman in front of her would hand deliver Dex to her front door wrapped in a pretty blue bow if Melody asked her to.

Instead, she just nodded pleasantly, shook the hands of the people in the room, and allowed the handlers to put Dex's chains into her hands.

They were heavy in her fingers, and she turned her eyes up to Dex. The air around her was humming like there was a live electrical wire in the room. Did he feel that too?

“Let's go,” he said, and turned around and began walking, as though not on a leash with Melody holding the other end.

She didn't live far, only about an hour's drive away from the convention itself in a town house in New-New York City, renamed thus after the great floods reshaped the island so many years ago.

She had to call her assistant with the news so that she could have a room prepared for Dex's arrival.

He'd sat next to her in the car, silent as the grave, just looking out at the houses and trees as they passed.

Was he angry with her? For lying and allowing her mother to sell him all those years ago? For buying him now? For how she'd grown up to become a handler? She wished he would say something. He'd always been smarter than other stags, more alert of things beyond what he was engineered for, almost human. Was it possible he'd been worked on since he'd been away? Could somebody have gone into his head and re-programmed him to behave more like a normal stag? Was that even possible?

The two homosexual males held hands when being shown into the back of the transpo truck, but Melody had Dex ride up front with her. He raised his brow at the invitation, as did the pimple-faced teenager who was helping her with the loading, but otherwise she did as she wished.

"We'll have no interruptions for the drive," she said, turning off her phone.

He didn't say anything to her for the entire trip.

Very telling, that was.

Melody called her assistant to prepare two rooms for when she arrived. Stag rooms were small, about the size of a walk in closet, and usually fit nothing more than the bed itself, a small dresser with which to keep the few clothes a stag needed, and some sex toys to keep them occupied when there were no humans around for them.

The males in the back she figured would keep each other busy enough and be able to share a room. Melody would prefer it if Dex were to stay in her room but didn't want to seem presumptuous.

Presumptuous to a stag! She was losing her frickin' mind.

“Make sure they get bathed and settled, Leah," she said to her assistant when they arrived. Leah, a college girl with a blond ponytail, was currently trying to get the two males up and about. They'd tired each other out it seemed.

"Yes, ma'am," she replied.

"Good. You,” she nodded to Dex, who stared at her with undisguised indifference, “come with me.”

She immediately went for the stairs knowing Dex was behind her, even though she couldn't hear the sound of his feet against her carpet.

Leah took hold of the two males and gently led them through the kitchens and to the Servant's quarters where they would be staying.

This is a bad idea, Melody thought. Having sex with your own male was a bad idea, not good business. Especially when the stag was angry with the handler.

She needed this, though. She couldn't just have that touch alone and not have the real thing. No one could be that strong, have that much willpower. No one.

“This way,” she said, directing him to her bedroom. She would show him to his own room herself later.

He didn't answer. She had to look behind herself to be sure he was actually following her.

He was, and keeping an even pace with her too, even though his strides were longer.

When they made it to her master bedroom, she turned, shut and locked the door, twisting the light dial just enough to produce a dim glow around them. Even she was restricted on the amount of power she could use, regardless of the solar panels on her roof.

She couldn't help herself. She put her hands on the plains of his chest, touching, stroking, and feeling.

Dex seemed to be taking it all in stride. “What is it you wish me to do, mistress?”

He sounded about as excited as though she were going to make him do math problems instead of enjoy the occupation of his species.

"I want you to tell me what happened after my mother sold you."

"You want to know what happened?" His eyes flashed, sharp and angry as they met hers, "what do you think happened?"

He said it through clenched teeth, and Melody winced.

She could only imagine what was done to a stag accused of coming into the bedroom of the owner's daughter against her wishes. The fact that he was even alive was a miracle.

"I—I was fifteen, I didn't know what would happen to you."

"I was eighteen, and I promise it wasn't fun."

Her guilt took over, and she had to look away from him. Only through sheer willpower could she force her eyes back onto his angry face. He deserved that much. To be looked at as she apologized.

Not fun. No kidding. Back then, she hadn't known the consequences for a lot of the things she'd made him do. Coming into her room, wearing shirts that would cover the bar code on his neck, and she hadn't cared either. It wasn't until she got into the business herself did she start to learn the rules, and eventually realize that Dex might very well have been put down because of her actions.

"I am so sorry," she said. "I'll do anything to make it up to you."

His hard features went from angry to interested, in point nothing of a second. "Anything?"

Uh oh. She was going to regret this. The excited tingle in her body urged her on, however. She swallowed hard over the sudden rock in her throat, and nodded. "Anything."

His grin was wicked. "Get out of those clothes, and get onto the bed, my little doe. You're going to know what this feels like."