Beyond Eden (9 page)

considering it. “Eve hates dresses, she always has. But I bet she would enjoy wearing a

nice pair of tight leather pants for you. With all that pretty, red hair hanging down her back she would look incredible in a corset and a really expensive rhinestone collar around her neck.”

“She would,” Danny rasped, his breath hitching. “And you could cook for her every day.” “Yeah, I would. I’d feed her every day.”

“Like a pet,” Paul offered.

“Yeah,” Danny said wistfully. “She’s so cute. I just want to pet her and play with her forever.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” Paul growled, reaching out to shove Danny’s chest roughly. “I’m not saying yes!”

“I’m still drunk,” Danny said as he stumbled back from the force of Paul’s shove. “You tricked me and you knew I was still drunk.”

“You’re not drunk, you twisted motherfucker,” Paul snapped at him. “You are the biggest fetish whore ever and you don’t even know it. I will never agree to let Eve fuck you.”

“Okay, I confess I have a mild kink with domination. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like other things,” Danny admitted with a reluctant shrug.

“A mild kink?” Paul repeated in amazement. “You did it as a profession for the last five years when your parents left you a fucking millionaire. You charged two thousand dollars because it got your dick hard to know they were paying homage to their lord and Master for the privilege of serving you. In the faraway land of leather, slaves and dog collars you are a god and you like it that way.”

“I played as a submissive while I was training,” Danny said as he folded his arms over his chest sullenly. “I can still bottom. You want me to bottom for you?”

“No, I don’t,” Paul growled at him. “The thought of you bottoming for anyone is horrifying to me.”

A smile tugged at Danny’s lips as he looked Paul over. “Really?” “Yes, really.”

“Why?” Danny rasped, his voice breathy. “Tell me why, Paul Guy.”

“Is this the part where I admit I don’t want my Master to bottom for anyone?” Paul asked in a low, husky voice as he gave Danny a sultry look. “Can I tell you that in my eyes not even God would be good enough to command you?”

“You can admit it if you want,” Danny said with a grin, his eyebrows raising as he looked down at him, his eyes running over his body in a way that made Paul’s cock swell. “I liked that. You said it nicely.”

“You’re fucked up, Danny Boy,” Paul said dully, falling out of character easily. “Your mother dying made you angry at the world. The only reason you want Eve as badly as you do is because you know you’re going to lose your favorite plaything and you want a new one.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is true,” Paul said as his heart clenched for Danny who was much more unhappy than Paul or Eve could ever be. “Go to the clubs. You’re the best at what you do and everyone knows it. You’ll have your pick of pretty pets. Find one of them to amuse you, find a whole harem because you can’t have Eve. I’ll never agree to that.”

Paul closed the hood of Eve’s car and wiped his hands on his shorts once more. The car was completely worthless. Paul couldn’t believe her father allowed her to drive it. But he was planning on washing it like Danny had asked if for no other reason than it gave him something to do rather than face Eve knowing she had agreed to fuck Danny. It felt like a betrayal he would never recover from.

“I’ll tell her,” Danny cut into the silence. “If you don’t say yes and be enthusiastic about it I’ll tell her about us.”

Paul felt as if an ice-cold bucket of water had been dumped over his head as fear slammed into him so violently his back went stiff from the force of it. He turned around, looking at Danny in shock, expecting to see the bluff in his features. What he saw was cold determination and a glint of defiance in Danny’s eyes that told him he would actually do what he threatened.

“You do that and you’ll ruin my trust,” Paul said as the back of his neck burned and his cheeks flushed in hurt and anger.

“Then don’t make me do it,” Danny countered. “Your trust means more to me than anything in the world but you have to know I would never, ever let you hold this over me. I’m your Master. Everything you have belongs to me because you are
mine
.”

“Don’t do this, Danny Boy,” Paul whispered as a collision of emotions shook him to his core. He was beyond furious with Danny and completely incredulous that he wanted Eve to the point he was willing to break one of the most cardinal rules of their world. But his cock was hard and throbbing anyway, because Danny hadn’t been this dominating, this sadistically cruel for what seemed like ages and it made Paul hotter than he could remember being for a very long time. He pulled from years of conditioning to hide the impact from Danny because he had a genuine desire to protect Eve. “You don’t wanna do this to me. You don’t wanna hurt me this badly.”

“Oh, but I do,” Danny taunted, his voice velvety. “Are you going to cry when you hand your Evie Girl over to me? You never cry for me. I think I’d like to see it.”

“Oh my God,” Paul rasped, looking away from Danny when the taunt of his voice caused white-hot desire to roll down his spine. “You’re not doing this.”

“I am doing it,” Danny said as he pushed away from the car and invaded Paul’s personal space so their bare chests could feel the heat from each other. “Look at your Master, Paul Guy. I want you to look at me.”

Paul’s mind was screaming at him not to do it, but his head tilted back to stare into Danny’s dark eyes that were glowing with malice. It was a mistake. He should have never done it because that glint of evil had his knees weak and his cock throbbing. The intoxicating clash of fear and desire burst inside him, slipping through his veins like a drug.

“You’re mine—I want you to say it.”

“No, I don’t wanna say it,” Paul choked, finding it was one of the hardest things he had done since he let Eve go to New York without him. “I’m not saying it.”

“You’re going to be punished for that,” Danny growled in a low, furious voice. “After Eve leaves, I’m going to whip you until you bleed. The marks are going to run so deep you won’t be able to fuck Trisha for a month.”

Paul closed his eyes, wavering where he stood as his breath became rapid and shallow with pants of desire and fear. He had forgotten what an aphrodisiac real pain was, how badly he could ache for punishment. And he had forgotten how good Danny

really was at it. The two of them had become domesticated and vanilla since Danny had retired. Their sex life bordered on mundane. God, if Danny had been like this, Paul wouldn’t have been able to stay away from him for three minutes, let alone three weeks. This was like ambrosia to his fetish. The nectar of the gods spiraled through him, making him ache and yearn in a way he hadn’t thought possible again as the darkest, most deviant sides of his soul started blooming for Danny as if they had never wilted.

Paul was an idiot for thinking he could deny him anything. This was Danny he was dealing with and Paul had openly defied him. He was going to be punished within an inch of his life. He was going to bleed when it had been so long since Danny had hit him anywhere near hard enough to actually break the skin.

Paul thought he might actually come in his pants right there thinking about it. “You want a chance to say sorry?” Danny asked in a soft, coaxing voice as he

reached over and ran a finger down the curve of Paul’s neck, making him shudder

against his will. “Of course, I’ll still have to punish you. You wouldn’t trust me if I didn’t keep my word. Slaves are punished when they disobey their Masters. Even beautiful, special slaves like you.”

Paul looked around the yard of the house he had shared with Danny for the past four years frantically, his eyesight going hazy in desire, his mind shutting down under the waves of longing.

“You want to say sorry to your Master for disobeying?”

Paul nodded silently, still blinking frantically to keep his eyesight focused.

“Go ahead,” Danny said and then suddenly reached up, fisting his hand in Paul’s hair and tugging his head back viciously. Paul blinked up at Danny in shock as the pain from the grip he had on his hair made his balls tighten in the agony of denial. Danny smiled down at him when Paul’s knees gave out slightly, his bad knee cracking painfully, making it hard to stay on his feet. “Tell me you’re sorry before sweet Evie walks out here and finds out you’re my bitch!”

“I’m sorry,” Paul said instantly as the fear of Eve finding him at Danny’s mercy made the desire inside him unbearable. “I’m very sorry.”

“I’m so disappointed in you,” Danny whispered sadly, still holding Paul’s hair in a vise grip. “You were my shining star, my most cherished slave. Now you’re worthless to me. I might as well go get some bubblegum twink who thinks getting a hard dick from a spanking means he’s got a fetish.”

“I’m sorry,” Paul choked out again, feeling a fresh surge of panic rush through his bloodstream as waves of fury at himself crashed over him, making his stomach lurch to the point that he was nauseated. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I made a mistake.”

“Yeah, you did,” Danny said with an evil laugh. “I don’t think you’ll ever earn back the privileges I’ve been giving you. I may just toss you aside and look for someone a bit tougher than you because you disgust me. I don’t even want to look at you.”

“No,” Paul rasped, feeling a wild, frantic panic clench his heart. “I can do it. I’ll make it up to you, Danny Boy. I’ll do anything.”

“What do you cherish most in the world?” Danny asked curiously, as if he didn’t already know the answer. “What can you give your Master that will appease him and make him believe you’re worthy of serving him?”

His heart clenched for a different reason and he closed his eyes, hiding from Danny rather than answer him. Giving Eve to Danny would be like turning her over to the devil. And what if she somehow fell into his good graces, what if he started caring about her more than him?

What if Eve became Danny’s favorite slave?

Nausea washed over him at the thought of Eve being tied up and abused by Danny, of him hurting her the way he hurt Paul. It wasn’t even the jealousy that gave him the strength to look back at Danny defiantly. It was the idea of Eve bleeding the way Paul loved to bleed.

“Promise you won’t hurt her,” Paul whispered in anguish. “You can’t ever make her bleed.”

“I would never make Eve bleed,” Danny said instantly. “I hate when you force me to make you bleed. I’m so mad at you for making me punish you. I’m going to have to hurt you so badly, Paul Guy. That makes me sad. Say sorry for making your Master sad.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Now give me your Evie Girl,” Danny said in a soft, coaxing voice. “You know you don’t deserve her.”

“You can’t ever hurt her. No whip can touch her skin, not ever,” Paul whispered, closing his eyes in misery. “If you agree to that, then she’s yours.”

“I won’t whip her,” Danny assured him. “I’ll save that for you.” “Thank you,” Paul choked out, feeling a surge of gratitude.

“Okay,” Danny said, letting go of Paul’s hair and stepping away from him. He leaned down, rubbing his hands against his jeans as he turned to look at Eve’s car once more. “I want you to wash her car. It looks horrible. She’s my first real girlfriend. She can’t be driving around in a filthy car. Clean it inside and out today.”

“I will,” Paul said, shaking his head to clear it and fight the ache in his groin that was nice and excruciating.

“I’ll let you tell Eve the good news.” Danny said brightly, as if Paul was reporting to Eve on the state of the weather. Then he turned around to walk back toward the house with the predatory, long-legged swagger of a man completely in control of his universe. Paul’s pulse raced as he admired him, his body tight with desire. “Don’t jerk yourself off, Paul Guy,” he called out as he stepped onto the porch. “You’ve lost the privilege for a very long time.”

Wearing the jeans she had worn the night before and Paul’s old football jersey she had slept in, Eve walked outside barefoot. She tried to ignore Paul’s scent that still lingered on the material and the memories that came from walking around without a bra in only Paul’s shirt.

The truth was, her feelings were hurt that Paul had agreed to her dating Danny. That meant he really had moved on when she hadn’t. There was a reason why her fiancé in New York had been sleeping with her first and only female best friend. Eve’s heart had always belonged to someone else and she had never been capable of loving anyone like she loved Paul. Even if she never admitted it, the detachment still showed.

She found Paul washing her car, which seemed like a pointless task. Washing a car that old and ugly was a complete waste of time. But she didn’t complain because Paul was standing there with the hose in his hand, wearing nothing but a pair of running shorts. Her eyes grew wide as she stared at him. She took in the lines of hard muscles on display, the broad set of his shoulders, the defined six-pack of his stomach and the small line of light brown hair that dipped beneath his shorts, pointing to something Eve had spent ten years missing and fantasizing about. He was really something to look at with his wet, sandy-blond hair pushed away from his face, showing off strangely angelic features as his warm, tawny skin glistened with sweat. The rainbows of water spray from the hose made him seem surreal and Eve found herself gaping at the beauty of it.

“Hey, Evie,” Paul said, casting her a sideways glance. “Nice shirt.”

She smiled, but couldn’t find anything witty to say as she stared at Paul, her entire body tight with need for him. “How much do you weigh, Paul Guy?”

He frowned, dropping the hose to the ground, churning up sand and mud as he walked over to turn it off. “That’s off topic.”

“I was just curious,” she mumbled, still staring at him, watching the way the muscles on his back shifted when he leaned down to turn off the hose.

Paul grabbed a bucket near the hose that he had already filled and walked back to the car. When Eve continued to wait silently for an answer he finally said, “Two-thirty give or take.”

“You look like a professional bodybuilder,” she said, still staring at him in shock because he was far more muscularly defined than he had been before she left. The suit had hidden a lot. Like this, it was hard to imagine him as the clean-cut lawyer from last night. He looked like he should be paid for being gorgeous. Hiding all that male beauty behind a suit was a crime against nature. “You could be. Did you know that?”