Jake's Thief (21 page)

“I’m so sorry,
hiccup
. I wanted to ttttt…est myself before, oh my God, tomorrow.”

“I know, but you didn’t trust me.”

By the time he hit number seven, Davey was insensible. He was sobbing loudly, so much so that Bandit jumped on the bed and tried batting at Jake’s hand.

“
Hiccup
, I love you,” smack, “so much…so much.” Number fifteen finally hit and Jake pulled Davey up in his arms and positioned him across the bed. He went into his duffle and brought out arnica cream and rubbed it onto Davey’s sore ass.

“You’re lucky I didn’t have a paddle.”

Davey sniffed then smiled his special smile in the middle of his tears. “I took it.” Jake said nothing. “I was able to be spanked and not try to run away.” Jake was still silent. “Did I ruin us? Please tell me I don’t have to leave.”

“Davey, I can’t let you top from the bottom.” Jake sighed.

“What does that mean?” Davey was frightened by Jake’s tone of voice.

“Remember when you told me not to give the cat any bacon because jumping on the table would become a bad habit?”

Davey thought about what he had done. He’d forced his would-be Dom to punish him. Jake was supposed to be in charge. He had usurped Jake’s authority.

“I can’t have a sub that tops from the bottom.” Davey got off the bed and down on his knees in front of Jake. He started to cry hysterically.

“Please don’t leave me. I haven’t begged for anything since I was eleven, but I’m begging you. I love you. Don’t leave me, please, Sir. I need you so much.”

Jake was still quiet. Davey grabbed Jake’s legs and held on for dear life. “Please, Sir, forgive me…I was wrong to try to test myself. I should have trusted you to take care of me.”

Jake spoke, “Yes, you should have trusted me. Without trust, we have nothing.”

“You don’t understand, Sir. It was me I didn’t trust. I was afraid my past would catch up with me and I’d run or resist. I didn’t want to embarrass you like that. I thought that if I did it with Danny and Jamie there you wouldn’t be too badly embarrassed and I could find out.”

§ § §

“You were wrong. You’ll sleep in here tonight.”

Davey prostrated himself in front of Jake. “Please, Sir— I’ll be a good boy. You can use the whip, or the cane, I won’t even cry, please…I love you so much.”

Jake knew that Davey put a three next to the whip and cane. He was offering complete trust.

“Will you trust me and trust yourself? Do exactly as I say—no deviations?” Jake asked quietly.

Davey thought about that for a moment. “I’ll screw up sometimes, but never ever intentionally again.”

“That’s good enough, boy. But we’re going to try this another week before we make any commitments. You’ll sleep in your own bed tonight.” Davey looked crestfallen, but he nodded his head.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Saturday Morning at the Marriott

Davey got up early Saturday morning and made his madeleines. He made five trays, sixty in total. He dipped some in chocolate, some he filled with raspberry, some with chocolate and nuts, some with chocolate and sprinkles and some just sprinkled in powdered sugar.

He ground beans for coffee with the grinder he brought with him and used the good coffee Marla had purchased at Chelsea Market and made Jake a pot of coffee. He didn’t have a pitcher for the half and half but he remembered to bring placemats and napkins. He went into Jake’s bedroom. He set a tray he snatched from the dining room for one and sat down on the hard floor. It hurt. His bottom was very sore, but he didn’t mind, Jake made him feel this way.

He wanted to wake Jake up with a blow job like Brian did for Bear, but he was afraid to presume. He sat on the floor. Bandit went up on the bed and sat there peering at Jake while washing his already immaculate paws. After about five minutes of Bandit’s unrelenting stare, Jake opened his eyes.

Davey watched him look around then call, “Davey?”

“I’m down here. I brought you your breakfast, Sir,” Davey answered.

Jake sat up and leaned over the side of the bed. “What are you doing down there?”

“You told me to go to my own bed last night. I didn’t think you’d want me in yours.” Davey sniffled.

§ § §

“Come up here, baby. Bring my coffee and whatever you made.” Jake’s eyes followed Davey as he put the tray up on the bed and carefully rose. . He removed the lamp from a nightstand and pushed it over toward the bed so that it would hold the tray. Carefully, he put the carafe on the tray that kept the coffee hot along with a handful of Splenda packages and the container of half and half. “I’m sorry, Sir. I forgot the pitcher.”

Davey sat perched on the edge of the bed with his hands on his thighs, eyes down, Jake noticed, just as Bull had taught him. Jake took a sip of his coffee and sighed. “The relationship between a sub and a Dom is complex, dynamic and different for every couple as I’m sure you learned this week. But the main element, the most essential element of that relationship is trust. You didn’t trust me and you didn’t trust yourself.”

“Please, don’t send me away.”

“We need more time. What I promised you is not going to happen tonight. I need both of us to think about what you did and why. Plus, we need time to build up trust again. We don’t have any between us now. You showed me your lack of trust last night. You partially redeemed yourself offering up your body to the cane and the whip, but then again, deep inside you know I would never use those implements on you. I need to see more and I don’t mean more of your ability to take pain, I mean more trust in me, in you, in us. Until I do, I can’t trust you enough to continue on the road we were on before last night.”

Davey swallowed a sob and began to rise. He turned toward the door of the bedroom. It was obvious he was keeping a tight rein on his feelings. “I’ll go pack my suitcase.” He seemed unable to hold in his tears. “Sir, c-an can I continue to work for you?” he asked between hiccups.

All Jake could think about was eleven-year-old Davey sitting on the front step of his foster home waiting for the social worker, with a broken arm and nose with his suitcase packed, crying and begging to be given another chance.
I wonder if he still has the same suitcase.
He considered his options, he couldn’t do it, couldn’t let him leave without trying at least one more time.

“No, don’t pack your suitcase. You still work for me and we have work to do down here. As far as the other is concerned, we’ll see. As I told you, I’ll give it another week. Go to see the subs this morning as planned. Talk to them about what happened, maybe if we give it time and work we can salvage this situation.”

“Thank you, Sir. I’ll do better for you, I promise. I’ll show you that I can be the best sub of any of them. Please just give me another chance.”

Jake considered carefully what Davey had to say. “This week will be as difficult for me as it will be for you because I have feelings for you, Davey, and you let me down. If last night never happened, we would have gone ahead with what I had planned for tonight and you would have easily taken the mild spanking I planned. What you did made it impossible for me not to give you the full force of my hand. You didn’t trust me enough to know I’d take care of you. Now go and get ready, the subs expect you at ten.” He picked up a chocolate dipped madeleine from the plate and took a bite. “Davey,” he added, “These are very good. I’m very proud of your cooking skills.”

Davey gave him a sad little smile and went to get dressed.

“Davey,” Jake called.

“Yes, Sir?”

“Did you get the locks changed on your apartment?”

“Yes, Sir, and the keys are with Mrs. Darcy.”

“Good boy. I have to do something about Harry next week.”

§ § §

Saturday Morning, Jim’s House

The subs were at Jim’s this morning and things were a little crowded. Davey handed Jim the madeleines. “I love the house,” Davey said, showing a little of his sadness.

“What’s wrong?” Jim asked.

“I screwed everything up.” Davey started to sob. “I topped from the bottom and didn’t trust him to take care of me.”

The other subs gathered round him giving him hugs. Jim, ever practical, took the tray of madeleines and said, “Let’s have some tea and eat, then we talk. Davey brought us madeleines.”

“I sent some with Jake for the Doms.”

“That was good of you, Davey,” Brian said, worry evident in his eyes.

Jim poured the tea and passed around the tray while Davey explained what had happened.

“I hate to say this, but you did the worst thing a sub can do.” Brian reached out to hold Davey’s hand. “It may not be recoverable.”

Davey got hysterical, bent in two, sobbing so hard he couldn’t speak. Jim elbowed Brian.

“He didn’t know. He is completely new to this life. It was only easy for Robbie because he found out that all Tom wanted to do was tie him up,” Jim said to Brian.

“That’s true. I would have had a hell of a hard time if he wanted to beat me, no matter how much I loved him.” Robbie picked up a madeleine with raspberry and bit into it. “I have to get this recipe, these are so good.”

Greg, who hadn’t said anything up to now got up and walked over to his new friend and said, “He thinks you were testing him and not yourself. Testing him to see if he would take care of you is a very bad idea. This whole Dom/sub thing is built on trust. Groveling isn’t going to work. You have to get him to trust you again and I don’t know how you can do that.”

“He’s giving me a week. I don’t know how to prove myself in a week.”

Jim patted his hand. “We’ll think of something. He still wants you to work for him?”

“Yes,” Davey said in a small voice.

“If all was lost he’d give you a letter of reference, pay your bills for the next six months, and wash his hands of you.”

“He was thinking about Harry and the apartment this morning. I think he means for me to go back there,” Davey said, tears still running down his cheeks. “Pretty soon you guys are going to think I’m as weepy as Danny.”

Danny smiled at Davey and poked him in the ribs. “You have to cheer up, you can’t take my title.”

§ § §

Brian slipped outside under the pretext of giving Junior and Aubrey some madeleines. He took his phone out of his pocket and called Bear. “Papa, can you slip away for a minute? I know you guys didn’t go play golf because it’s raining outside.”

“You’re right, cub. You sound upset. What’s wrong?”

“It’s Davey and Jake, this one can’t be fixed from our end. Davey is afraid, almost mortally afraid, of pain. He provoked Jake last night so he would spank him hard. He did it with the best of intentions. He didn’t want to embarrass Jake tonight in front of all of you by running out screaming from one of the private rooms.”

“Jake feels that there is no trust between them,” Bear said rather sternly.

“Robbie told me he gave him the idea. Robbie is as new to this life as Davey is and Tom doesn’t beat him. Robbie told him to stick his toe in the water before doing laps around the pool and Davey took it to mean he should try it out
before
he embarrassed Jake. He didn’t know any better. He trusted Jake, Davey didn’t trust himself.”

“Explain to me, cub, why I should interfere in Jake’s business when Jake is right.”

“He loves Jake very much but to take what up until last night he considered a beating required him to face all of his feelings about being hit for all of his childhood. It was as bad for him as it was for me. I forced myself to forget. He wasn’t able to do what I did. He had to live with his memories. He couldn’t even trust the social worker because she gave up on him when he was eleven.” Brian knew his emotions were reflected in his voice. He was really unhappy. “Davey trusted Jake enough to let him spank his bottom without anyone else around that could help him if he got in trouble. He faced all of his demons without Greg’s help, unlike most of us, except you.”

“I’m not perfect, far from it. I had my turn with a psychiatrist, before we even met. I had demons to face and if I didn’t do that I wouldn’t have been ready for you.” Bear confessed.

“Papa, Jake has to give him another chance, tonight, not next week, or Davey will be broken forever.”

“You’re right, cub. I’ll try talking to Jake.”

§ § §

Saturday Morning at the Master’s Bar at Indiscreet

Bear walked back into the Master’s bar. “That was Brian. They have a hysterical Davey over at Jim’s. You need to listen to me, Jake, without prejudice and I know you can do this because you’re a lawyer.” Bear continued… “A few days ago Robbie—”

“What’s my Robbie got to do with it?” Tom blustered, having already heard the whole story from Jake.

“Robbie told Davey to stick his toe in the water before he did laps around the pool. It isn’t what Robbie said, it’s what Davey took it to mean. He was literally paranoid about being hit. He had more than a few broken bones from his foster homes and especially the group home. He was small, effeminate and a submissive, what do you think happened to him when quartered with a bunch of hardened delinquents for seven years?”

“I know this. Go on…” Jake said.

“All he could think of was that he’d let you down in front of everyone—that he’d embarrass you by not being able to take even the lightest of blows,” Bear continued.

“He didn’t trust me enough not to hurt him,” Jake said flatly.

“I’m mortally afraid of spiders. If I see one, I make Brian or Mrs. Santorre take care of it. I don’t know what I’d do if confronted with a room full of them for my lover even though I love him with my whole heart. I couldn’t be sure. I’d have done the same thing, try to face one by myself. Davey didn’t know what he was going to do, he had to find out or he thought he’d lose you. You know he’s only a week into our lifestyle. With any other lover, taking that hard spanking would have been the right thing to do. He didn’t know enough about BDSM to know that with you, it wasn’t.”

Jake stared at Bear with hard eyes. “And if Brian had done that to you?”

“Brian was in the life before he met me. He was a paid sub at one of the roughest clubs on the Shore. It was the protocol that scared him. But Brian didn’t have an abnormal fear of protocol.” Bear finished.