Jake's Thief (7 page)

“That would be wonderful, Sir. I love cats and it could be a companion to me after I leave your home.”

§ § §

Like that’s going to happen. That thought surprises me. I’m usually more analytical about these things. I’m still going to hold back for a while. I have to get to know him better first. First, what do you mean first, first before what? You’ve only known him for three days. But I want him. I’m drowning in him as fast as Bear did with Brian. God help me, I hope he feels the same.

Jake brought Davey to the table and introduced him to the Doms. “This is Caden Donovan, he’s Danny’s brother and Johnny’s husband. Next to him is Bear Drummond of Drummond Realty, who is beginning to make inroads into New York real estate, renovation, and reconstruction, after taking over most of New Jersey. Bear’s specialty is taking old commercial properties and turning them into prime retail space with apartment lofts. He’s made a fortune in New Jersey real estate and is a not-so-silent partner in the club. Bear is married to Brian. Next is Reed, his husband is Jim. Both Reed and Jim are the club owners. They take care of actually running the house. Reed is the front man, the face of the house and Jim runs the back.” Jake took a breath.

“You don’t have to impress him with our awesomeness, we can do that on our own. I’m Bull Raleigh, Dungeon Master, and Jamie, the accountant, is my husband.”

Gary put out his hand. “Gary Sayer here, Danny is married to me.”

“I’m Dr. Cisco de Loria. Dr. Greg Harris is my husband and submissive. I’m Chief of Staff at St. Mary’s Hospital in Trenton, a cause to which Jake regularly donates.”

“There goes Cisco again, looking for money.” Gary groaned.

“How much and what for?” Jake asked.

“Top physicians for the autoimmune lab. This is a nice area, but they think most of the medical action is in New York, North Jersey or Philly. A fat paycheck and the latest equipment to do research could convince them otherwise.”

“Okay, sounds good, I’m in for fifty.”

Cisco smiled.

“Look at that son of a bitch preen. He gets one of us every week,” Bear grumbled.

“Last but certainly not the least of this motley crew, I’m Tom Martino, the Director of Security here. I make sure that what goes on in the house, stays in the house. My sub is Robbie. We’re not rich like the rest of these assholes, but we do okay.”

Jake grabbed Davey’s hand. “There’s a pillow by my legs. I want you to sit on the pillow, lean back against my legs, and I’ll feed you dinner. You can get to know the other subs. You might want to talk with Robbie—he didn’t think he was a sub either.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Friday Evening at the Club

Davey crawled under the table. He wasn’t sure he was okay with that while Jake sat at the banquette but he was immediately greeted by the subs underneath. Brian was the first to speak. “I’m Brian, welcome to the sub club. They…” he pointed up at the table, “they think they run things but they don’t, we do,” he said in a whisper.

“I’m Jim. I’m sure they told you, I take care of the back of the house. Brian and I are the unofficial instigators of all the trouble we get into. Greg is a doctor. Jamie, our accountant; Robbie works with Marcel, our chef and goes to culinary school; Danny is studying botany and runs his own nursery; and Johnny writes software from his home for Adroit Systems.”

“Sit down on your pillow and tell us about yourself,” Brian said brightly.

“I met Jake trying to pick his pocket.”

Jim gave Brian a sideways glance and whispered, so Davey could barely hear, “Two points for honesty.”

“Why would you do that?” Greg asked.

Davey went through the whole story including Danvers, the foster homes and Kyle’s tutelage, how he became a paralegal and what happened after Danvers left.

“So when Jake told you to come home with him, you did. Did you stay with him, because you were frightened of the consequences if you didn’t do what he asked or because once you met him you didn’t want to leave?” Greg asked. Davey knew his answer mattered, but he didn’t know why.

“A bit of both, I’m afraid. As a paralegal I can’t have an arrest on my record and I was actually crying for the first time since I was eleven when I tried to do it. He listened to me, really listened and helped me. Then at the restaurant before he took me home, he offered me a job.”

“Why Jake? Did you know he had money?” Johnny was obviously uncomfortable asking that question.

“I knew that if he worked in that building and carried a messenger bag he would have some money in his wallet, I figured I could at least get enough money to eat. I cried before, during, and after my attempt. Jake said I was the worst pickpocket in the city.” Davey gave a little laugh. “As far as the extent of his wealth, I didn’t know until he got me into his penthouse condo. I saw he drove an expensive Audi, but the lawyers at my old firm all drove Audis and all they had was their salaries. He asked me to come home with him, I didn’t ask him.” He bristled a bit. “I’m not a gold digger. I was grateful for the dinner and the job, but you’ve got to believe I didn’t ask him to take me into his home. I have an apartment. I might have lost it without a job, but with a job maybe I could have asked Mrs. Darcy for an extension.”

“What did you do as a paralegal?” Danny looked him straight in the eye. He didn’t seem as uncomfortable asking questions as his brother-in-law was.

“I worked exclusively for Mr. Danvers doing research and writing briefs.” Out of the corner of his eye, Davey saw Jake peer down at Danny from the table above.

Jake caressed Davey’s hair before entering the conversation. “Davey’s the best paralegal in the city. I heard about him long before I met him. I was impressed with his work. He did everything for Danvers except wipe his ass and as soon as Danvers went on his sabbatical, Davey got fired for his efforts. He was too loyal to Danvers. I gave Davey five briefs that would have taken my best paralegal three weeks. Davey got three of them done in one and a half days. The last two cases are so complicated I thought that it would take a week or longer even with Davey’s expertise. He told me he would have them done by Wednesday and the other three were perfect.”

“I have a photographic memory, so it isn’t that difficult for me.” Davey sat with his eyes down, back on his knees with hands placed on his thighs.

Jamie whispered, “Do you like Jake?”

“Of course I like him. He saved me when he could have had my ass hauled to jail, he paid my rent and gave me a job in my field. At this point, I’d do just about anything for him.”

Their dinner came. Jake had ordered beef stroganoff and garlic shrimp with a Caesar salad. Davey wondered how he was going to eat. He picked his head up and saw Jake take a piece of the beef, run it through the sauce and offer the tidbit to him on a fork with a bit of rice. He did the same with the shrimp.
He’s trying to get me accustomed to eating from his hand.

Davey watched the other Doms feed their subs as the subs licked the sauce from their Dom’s fingers. He envied them. The act was so sensuous—it was like watching two people make love. When Jake finished feeding him, Davey was surprisingly full.

“Do you want dessert?” Jake perused the dessert menu. “Let’s see what Marcel made today.”

“I do like sweets.” Davey wiggled. “I didn’t get them very often growing up.”

The waiter came back. “One piece of pumpkin pie with whipped cream and apple pie a la mode with vanilla bean ice cream.”

§ § §

Davey’s exuberance was obvious on his face. Jake watched as Davey finished all the pie that he gave him with a smile as big as the one seen on a happy face emoticon.

So far, so good…he’s sitting like a submissive, copying the demeanor of the other subs. He agreed to eat from my hand; I used the fork to get him used to it gradually, but soon I’ll have him eating from my fingers.
Jake thought that Davey was a bit jealous of the rapport that flowed between the Doms and their subs as the subs licked the Dom’s fingers.
It seems like he longes for that kind of relationship as much as I do. He wants to love and I want to be in love. Maybe we can make this work. With the help of my friends and the subs I might have a shot here at a real relationship. Now that I’ve found him I’ve got to manage not to fuck it up until I land him.

I could get used to these emotions and the feeling of being close to another human being, I haven’t felt this strongly about someone since my grandmother died. Before today I thought that the only use for a sub was to work out my frustrations by spanking their ass on Saturday nights. I’m beginning to see the advantages of ownership that the others told me about and with Davey in the office I’ll probably be less frustrated by the end of the week and not have to spank his ass so hard.

He started to listen to the boys below again. “Weren’t you afraid to go home with a stranger?” Johnny asked Davey.

“I had no place else to go. I didn’t have any money to pay for my apartment, I sold my computer, stereo and television, everything of any value was gone except my furniture and the pawn shop wouldn’t take that. I had my futon and my bed and kitchen utensils and a dining room table with four chairs. Jake came into my apartment.” Davey blushed. “He saw everything that was missing. I was down to my last twenty and I wanted to keep that so if I got a call back from an interview, I’d have subway fare. It was for that same reason that I kept a burner phone. No one called and I was so hungry. Since the unemployment insurance ran out I’d been living on Ramen.”

“You had a twenty in your pocket and you had the strength not to spend it on food?” Robbie asked incredulous.

“I needed a job more than I needed the food. I was praying something would come up. God was looking out for me when he picked Jake to come out of that elevator in the garage.”

Jake leaned down and caressed Davey’s hair again. “I think I got my money’s worth.”

§ § §

Jim shot Brian a look. It was time. Brian’s head popped up from under the table. “Papa, can we take Davey to show him the sub’s room?”

“If it’s all right with the other Doms, it’s okay with me.”

Brian peeked over the top of the table again and said, “Please…Sirs.”

The other Doms laughed and nodded. Brian watched Jake move and helped Davey up. “Are your hands or legs asleep?”

“No, Sir, I’m fine.”

The other subs came out from under the table and went en masse to the sub room.

While they were walking, Greg took Brian a little bit away from the group. “He’s definitely a sub and desperate for friends. I say we give him our support.”

Brian looked at each of the subs in turn and they all gave him an imperceptible nod of their heads.

“Let’s all sit down at our table. We have a table for eight but we are only seven. Davey, we’d like to make you number eight.” Jim sat, waiting expectantly.

Davey stared at the subs with a look of confusion on his face. “Number eight what?”

“The eighth sub in the sub club, of course. What do you think?”

§ § §

“I think that you guys are very protective of those you care about and Jake numbers among them. I got that from all the questions you asked me. Jake took me in for three months, if we get along, but only until Mr. Danvers comes back. Then I can get a letter of reference and proceed to look for a job or stay and work for Jake at the office.” Davey shook his head. “I’m not his sub.” It was obvious that they didn’t know what they were talking about.

Jim sat up straight and addressed Davey. “Jake wants you to work for him. He also wants you to be his submissive. As far as work goes, working for Jake is fine. But you can’t become his submissive until at least one of you is in love with the other. We generally do the matchmaking for the Doms—most often we do it without their permission and get in trouble.” Six pairs of eyeballs rolled. “But this time, Jake asked us to help. He wants you but we know he can’t love you yet. It’s too soon.”

Brian turned to Davey who sat beside him. “If you don’t want a relationship, we can give you a job here as a waiter until your Mr. Danvers returns.” Brian gave a look to Jim who nodded his head.

Jim took Davey’s hand in his. “You’re not alone anymore, we’ll help. You can refuse Jake. We’ll support you if that’s what you want to do. You can stay at the sub house and you’ll make more than enough to pay your rent in Manhattan. But if you’re the least bit interested in Jake, you have to put yourself into our hands. We made seven out of seven love matches. Well, except for Brian who was the only one who fell quietly. His problem was Bear’s enemies and his own family, but we’ll get around to that.”

“I like Jake, I really do, but he’s looking for a sub and that means a beating. I took too many beatings in the group home to ask for a life of them,” Davey answered firmly.

“Jake isn’t into giving out beatings. He doesn’t even use any of the implements. He spanks his subs, really warms their bottom.” Jamie chuckled. “I’ve played with him but he doesn’t give out the kind of pain I need. I’m a pain slut. That why I chased Bull Raleigh until he caught me.”

“Every one of them is different,” Robbie chimed into the conversation. “Tom likes the Japanese art of Shibari. He ties me up in beautifully colored ropes and there is one rope he can pull that releases me immediately. I don’t get spanked unless I’m being punished.”

“Do you know about safe words?” Danny asked.

“No, what’s a safe word?” Davey was more confused by the minute.

“If, let’s just say Jake spanked you and for some reason you wanted him to stop you have a word you can say and everything ends right away, even punishment. Most subs use red, yellow and green,” Brian said. “Mine is different, it’s china.”

“So yellow would mean go slow, and green, go for it?” The boys nodded and ordered water with lemon and when it arrived Davey took the opportunity to take a sip.

“Exactly, do you think you would like to be spanked?” Brian rubbed his finger around the rim of his glass.

“Brian Murphy, if you start making a squeaking nose with that glass I’m going to get up and throw you out of this room.” Jim lifted an eyebrow at Brian. Brian took his finger off of the glass.