Read Bound and Determined Online
Authors: Jane Davitt,Alexa Snow
decision was too much to make. Owen helped him into bed, wincing inwardly
at the grunts of pain Sterling made as his shoulder was jarred even a little, and
arranged the pillows from his side of the bed around Sterling.
“How's that?”
“It's okay.” Sterling's lips were pinched, the skin around them bleached
white, but his eyes were sliding closed as Owen watched.
He waited, but Sterling's breathing had evened out and he seemed to be
asleep, so Owen placed the ice pack on his shoulder and went downstairs to
lock up. Once everything was locked and the lights turned out, he went
upstairs again, undressing as he stood in the doorway, and dropped his clothes
to the floor, something he almost never did.
Sliding in between the sheets with the extra pillow he'd taken from the
guest room, Owen did his best not to make the mattress shift, but he didn't
completely succeed and Sterling murmured softly, reaching out for him.
Bound and Determined
205
“Shh, I'm right here,” Owen told him. The ice pack slid off Sterling's
shoulder, but it'd been on for a while, so Owen decided not to replace it. “Go
back to sleep.”
“Can't,” Sterling said peevishly, even though Owen was sure he had been
sleeping. “Hurts, and I missed you.”
“Do you want a painkiller?”
Sterling tried to hitch himself closer and whimpered. “No. You.”
“Okay—just stop moving. Let me come to you.” Carefully Owen slid closer,
resting a hand on Sterling's hip so he wouldn't risk jarring Sterling's arm. “Is
that better?”
“Mm.” Sterling opened his eyes, which looked half unfocused. “I love you.”
That wasn't something that Owen wanted to hear when he felt that he'd
failed Sterling and let him down. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, and it wasn't a
familiar one. He was good at his job, he was good at being a Dom; his life had
felt solid, built on a firm foundation. Sterling had brought that house of cards
tumbling down, and Owen was as lost as Sterling had been when he'd gone
looking for comfort in all the wrong places.
Pointing any of that out to Sterling right then was impossible. Hell, by the
morning this conversation would have been sponged from Sterling's memory,
wiped away by pain and drugs, forgotten.
So Owen kissed him, the lightest brush of his mouth against Sterling's,
and said, “I love you too. Now go to sleep.”
It wasn't a lie; it hadn't been for a long time, but Owen still felt guilty
about saying it, even if Sterling's mouth did curve in a contented smile as sleep
took him again.
206
Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow
Chapter Seventeen
Sterling woke up to an incredibly stiff shoulder and an equally stiff cock.
Probably the result of being in Owen's bed, he told himself as he sat up,
wincing, and leaned against the headboard. That wasn't comfortable, either—
Owen's headboard was awesome for being tied to, but not so much when it
came to leaning. Still, once he was there he didn't want to move again, so he
just stayed.
He could hear sounds of movement downstairs and wondered what Owen
was doing. Having coffee? Trying to figure out where to send Sterling for the
rest of the semester break? Owen was too responsible to kick him out when he
was hurt, not to mention probably feeling guilty about him getting hurt in the
first place. Not that it was Owen's fault, because it wasn't, but Sterling couldn't
remember if he'd told Owen that the night before—everything was a definite
blur, and he actually wasn't sure how he'd gotten to Owen's house at all.
His ass was sore too, he realized, but nowhere near like his shoulder was.
Having it pop out of its socket like that had been sickening and even more
painful than the original injury.
Sterling looked down at his erection and glared at it.
So
not appropriate
under the circumstances. Hearing Owen's footsteps on the stairs, Sterling
quickly yanked up the sheet and blanket to his waist to cover up his dick.
“I thought I heard you moving around.” Owen was holding a cup of coffee,
which was the perfect accessory as far as Sterling was concerned. “Here, take
this for now and if you like, I'll bring you up some breakfast. Or do you want to
get up?”
Owen glanced down as he handed over the cup. It was only two-thirds full,
which was a detail Sterling appreciated; spilling hot liquid over his crotch
might take care of the problem of his erection refusing to subside, but there
were less drastic ways to do that. “Hmm.”
It was a noncommittal sound, but the amused glint in Owen's eye made it
pretty clear that sheets and a blanket could only do so much.
“Oh, great, make fun of the guy with the useless arm,” Sterling said,
sighing. “Look, I know you must not want me here, so you don't have to
pretend, okay? If you'd feed me something and help me figure out how to get to
my car, that'd be more than I deserve, and I'd be grateful.”
Owen looked at him with a serious expression. “Sterling. I
do
want you
here, so stop being ridiculous and drink your coffee. And your car's in the
Bound and Determined
207
driveway—Alex dropped it off last night and put the keys through the mail
slot.”
That was enough of a surprise that Sterling stopped sipping his coffee.
“You told him to, didn't you?”
“I told you I'd take care of everything last night, but you probably don't
remember much.” Owen sat on the edge of the bed very carefully, so that only
the slightest of jolts went through Sterling's arm. That put Owen really close,
which did nothing to help his dick get the message that now wasn't the time to
be insisting on saying hello. “Let me refresh your memory before we move on to
other matters at hand.”
Sterling took another gulp of his coffee to give himself something to do.
None of that sounded good, but he wasn't going to argue with Owen about
anything today. He owed him too much. “Uh, sure. Whatever you want to say,
just say it.”
Owen patted his leg reassuringly and left his hand there, high on
Sterling's thigh, his strong fingers kneading it absently. He raised his eyebrows
inquiringly. “Why are you so tense? Do you think that you're in complete
disgrace and I'm furious with you? That any moment now I'm going to launch
into a lecture, yell at you, kick you out? I hope not, because it's not the way I'm
feeling at all.”
“It—it's not?” Sterling's fingers tightened on his mug, studying Owen's
face. It was such a good face—strong, handsome, understanding. Without a
doubt, Sterling knew that it was the best face he'd ever see in his life. No one
else would ever measure up to Owen.
“I was—still am—angry with Kirk. He didn't take care of you. He shouldn't
have even agreed to—never mind.” Owen gave him a wry grin. “You're
persuasive enough to get me to take you on, entirely against my better
judgment; Kirk never stood a chance.” His smile faded. “I'm very sorry you were
hurt. Even sorrier that you felt that desperate and didn't come back to me,
didn't know that you
could
, that you always can. I'm not done with you,
Sterling. We haven't even started—but we need to be sure it's what we both
want.”
All the time that Owen was speaking, his hand was warm against
Sterling's leg through the sheets. It was hard to concentrate when Sterling
wanted that hand higher, over the throb of his cock, but he made an effort. If
Owen spotted that he was distracted, he'd probably say
Focus
in that stern,
kind voice, and Sterling wasn't sure, but that might be all it would take to
make him come.
“I want you as my sub,” Owen said and that got all of Sterling's attention.
“This time,
I'm
asking
you
, without being pressured or coerced or manipulated
or seduced—and, yes, you did all of that and you know it. I want it understood
that you're
mine
. I can keep you on a much tighter leash if it's what you want,
or we can take it slowly for a while; we'll need to work out the details, but that's
what I would like. You, belonging to me. My boy.”
208
Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow
Sterling's heart was hammering in his chest, and he parted his lips to say
something—he wasn't sure what—but nothing came out at first. He knew he
was staring at Owen with wide-eyed, open longing. What Owen had said was
still sinking in, still hovering at the edge of being real. If it was real, and he
hadn't imagined it—
“Yes,” Sterling blurted out. “Is that—was I supposed to answer? Because
that's what I want too. Pretty much the only thing I want. I—” He had a vague
sense that he'd said it last night, so he might as well jump in at the deep end—
Owen wouldn't let him drown. “I love you. I want to be yours, just yours.
Please.”
“I told you I loved you last night,” Owen said, which had to be a lie
because there was just no way that Sterling would have forgotten that. Not that
Owen had ever lied to him before, but he'd been high, not dead, and he would
have remembered something like that. “You weren't really listening then, but I
don't mind saying it again. I love you. You're just impossible
not
to love,
exasperating though you are at times. I pretty much stopped trying a while
back.”
Sterling found himself smiling; it felt like a wide, goofy smile. “So does this
mean you're not kicking me out?”
“I am most definitely not kicking you out,” Owen said. “I'd like to do the
opposite, actually, if we can figure out how to arrange it.”
Not sure what that even meant, Sterling dismissed it because he cared
more about making sure Owen knew how happy this made him. “This is—it's
what I wanted, for a long time. Are you sure?”
That got him a narrow-eyed look that sent a sizzle of heat through him.
“Very sure.” Owen tilted his head thoughtfully. “So where were we? Oh, yes.
Matters at hand.”
Sterling was torn. He didn't want Owen to go anywhere; staying this close
to him for the rest of the day would be ideal, and he knew that they had a lot to
sort out. Shit, he had to get his suitcase and other things from the hotel, and
make time to talk to Alex who was probably freaking, and make appointments
with a doctor and all kinds of stuff. No, he didn't want Owen to go, but the
longer Owen stayed this close, his hand caressing Sterling's leg, the more
impossible it got to ignore the fact that Sterling was so turned on he was close
to begging for something he knew he wouldn't get. He told himself to focus—big
mistake as that sent a jolt of pure lust through him—and tried to look
attentive.
Owen's hand finally moved, flipping back the covers in a smooth, sudden
movement, and exposing Sterling's dick, hard, darkly flushed, slick-wet at the
tip, his balls drawn up snugly. His lips twitched in a smile. “Urgent matters, by
the look of it.”
The breath Sterling drew in was shaky. “Is—are you—you're going to tell
me I can't come for the next year or something, aren't you?”
Bound and Determined
209
“That wasn't what I had in mind,” Owen said and closed his hand around
Sterling's cock just below the head.
Sterling moaned. “Oh God. Owen, please.”
“Be careful with that cup of coffee,” Owen told him. “You wouldn't want to
spill it. And don't move—if you chance hurting your shoulder, I'll stop. And I
don't think you want me to stop, do you?” Owen's perfect, beautiful hand
stroked Sterling's dick, tugging the skin over the ridge and then back down
again. Sterling's toes curled.
“No. No, don't stop.” God, it was so hard not to move.
“I won't unless you spill the coffee or move,” Owen said, his hand moving
smoothly, his fingers flexing, teasingly light, then a tight tunnel Sterling
wanted to thrust up into. “You see, for this once, it's completely in your hands.
If you obey me, the way I know that you can, the way I expect you to be for me
always, perfectly, beautifully obedient, my good boy, then you'll get to come,
Sterling. I won't stop until you come or unless you move. I'm going to keep on
doing this until you—”
“Oh,
God
,” Sterling choked out. Sweat prickled his forehead and the back
of his neck. Owen's hand, his fucking
hand
, working him with so much
assurance, his thumb flicking over the slippery head now and then, a quick,
firm circle that made him whimper every time, helplessly, fruitlessly pleading