Loyalties (6 page)

Not that Dougie hadn’t eaten worse at times. Maybe a little spit wasn’t so bad.

“Don’t just stand there,” Jeremy said, and the knife in his hand was big enough to send Dougie stumbling back a step.
Vegetables. Just chopping vegetables.
“Or should I tell the master you decided to keep him waiting?”

Dougie turned tail and ran.

Well, half ran. Kind of waddled, more like. The plug up his ass might not’ve been quite as big as Nikolai’s cock, but it sure as heck didn’t make walking easy. He went as fast as he dared. Stumbled once halfway up the stairs. Paused on the landing for a moment trying to remember which one of the many closed doors led to Nikolai’s bedroom.

Left. Definitely one of the doors on the left.
Which narrowed it down to . . . three. Great. He’d only ever been up here twice, and the first time he’d been incoherent. The second time, he’d been on his hands and knees.

Which, actually, didn’t seem like such a bad idea now. He dropped to his knees, where the hallway looked more familiar. He remembered crawling fifteen, maybe twenty feet last time.
Second door, then. Has to be the second.

He popped back to his feet again to close the distance. No reason to crawl without Nikolai here to enjoy it. Besides, it’d only make him slower. Keep Nikolai waiting. And that was simply unacceptable.

When he reached what he hoped was the right door, he knocked politely, trying to imitate the perfectly unobtrusive rapping that Roger had mastered.

“Come in, Douglas,” Nikolai called softly from inside. He didn’t sound angry. In fact, he sounded quite happy, genuinely at ease, and the thought of being called to him under these circumstances filled Dougie with sweet pleasure. More than that—warmth, pride,
want
. His cock stiffened, tall and proud as the rest of him, as he opened the door and quietly stepped inside, then shut it behind him. This morning had been a test, then—the waiting, and more waiting, and Jeremy’s brusqueness, and the vague order about the plug, all of it—and he’d done well. He’d chosen correctly at every turn. Anticipated his master’s needs. And now his master was rewarding him with his company. Maybe, if he was very lucky, his master would reward him further with a good hard fuck. Permission to orgasm. A kiss and some kind words.

He couldn’t ask for more. He smiled demurely at Nikolai, tucked his arms behind his back, and presented himself.

From his place on the bed—on the bed with
Roger
, with Roger
in his lap
and Jesus, they were
cuddling
—Nikolai smiled. Dougie’s own smile almost faltered at the sight of the two of them being so intimate, but he forced down the surge of jealousy and disappointment—
Roger’s a good man, he deserves Nikolai’s love too and I’m just an untrained pet I don’t deserve
anything
stop acting like a spoiled child
—and froze his expression in place
.

“Don’t you look lovely and well rested, Douglas. Roger and I were just talking about how very attractive and pleasant you are. What was the word you used, Roger?”

Roger shifted lazily, casting a soft smile at Dougie that made him burn simultaneously with desire and shame for ever being jealous or resentful of this kind man. “Pretty, Sir.”

“I believe you said
very
pretty,” Nikolai corrected, and reached out to crook a finger in Dougie’s direction. Dougie walked toward them both, feeling a little like a mouse caught between two cats. At Nikolai’s nod, he climbed up onto the bed at their feet. “And thoughtful, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Sir. Clever, too. Good heart.”

This close, Dougie could see that Roger’s face and arms were covered in a mottled pattern of bruises, livid and fresh, like they’d still be hot and raised to the touch. Had he been disobedient? Had Nikolai punished him? They certainly didn’t
seem
like there’d been any falling-out between them. But then, maybe Nikolai was quick to forgive, not the type to carry a grudge once the consequences of a bad choice had been delivered. Or maybe it wasn’t Dougie’s place to question and he should just stop thinking about it at all.

“Roger’s been very loyal, Douglas, and deserves a reward. However, you may have noticed he’s a little too tender for the kind of fucking I like to give my slaves. And since I’m a little busy playing chair for Roger right now, I’ve devised a suitable alternative.” He paused, staring at Dougie expectantly.

Oh God, he means me. He means that I should suck Roger’s cock.
And why wasn’t that thought as disgusting as it should have been? Wasn’t Dougie straight? And he hardly
knew
Roger. The thought of having to pleasure a near-stranger—a
male
near-stranger, made his heart race and his throat tighten.

But it was a good fear, he realized. Like riding a roller coaster. Exhilarating and terrifying, but ultimately safe.

Because Nikolai was here, and this was what Nikolai wanted, and what Dougie wanted was to make Nikolai happy. And if this was all it took—Roger was a kind, giving man, and he was undeniably attractive—Dougie could pleasure him. Of course he could. It’d
almost
be like pleasuring Nikolai directly, wouldn’t it? And he’d practically been daydreaming about that all morning.

“Yes, Sir,” he said. “I’d like that.”

Nikolai shifted, subtly spreading his legs. He ran one hand up Roger’s stomach, rucking his T-shirt up to expose hairless abs barely softened by age, and the other down to cup a hard, heavy cock inside Roger’s gray sweatpants. Roger threw his head back onto Nikolai’s shoulder and moaned, spreading his legs until he’d hooked his calves over Nikolai’s own. Utterly wanton. Trusting. Hungry.

Beautiful.

Dougie couldn’t take his eyes from where Nikolai’s lips and teeth had latched onto the exposed tendon of Roger’s neck. If he focused hard enough, he could almost feel that moist heat and pressure on his own skin.

He
wanted
it to be him. Really, honest-to-God wanted it. The gleam in Nikolai’s eyes as they met his told him that Nikolai knew, too. Knew he was transforming. Was pleased with it.

Douglas crawled up the bed, wiggling his plugged ass as he went, insinuating himself like a cat between both men’s legs.

“Very pretty,” Nikolai said.

“Very pretty,” Roger agreed, though his head was back and his eyes were closed as Nikolai laved at his neck. Dougie fixated on that patch of wet skin again, surprised to realize that no matter how much he wanted it, he didn’t begrudge Roger for having it instead. At least he got to watch. That was generous enough. Nikolai hadn’t forgotten about him, hadn’t left him out. Nikolai had specifically
sought
to include him. He could have given Roger his pleasure and reward all on his own, but he hadn’t. He’d called for Dougie.

Little favorite.
That’s what Jeremy had called him. Dougie was starting to believe it might even be true.

“Show me how you undress a man you’re to service, Douglas.”

Douglas dropped to his elbows and crawled in as close as he could. He craned his neck to reach the swath of skin Nikolai had bared, brushed a kiss across Roger’s abs. Then another when Roger made a breathy little gasp and the hard muscle twitched beneath Dougie’s lips. Added some tongue this time. Worked his way down to Roger’s waistband with his mouth while he crept one hand up Roger’s thigh, featherlight in deference to the bruises that might be hiding beneath the fabric. It wasn’t like kissing Nikolai, not exactly, though they both had the same lean bodies that yielded so beautifully beneath a heartfelt caress. Certainly the noises he made were as generous as Nikolai’s when Dougie pleased him, as full of praise and promise, and over Roger’s shoulder, Nikolai’s breathing had sped up too, so it was easy for Dougie to close his eyes and pretend this was Nikolai’s stomach he was mouthing, Nikolai’s crotch he was palming.

And it
was
Nikolai he was pleasing, no question about it. Roger was collateral, just as Dougie was. It was all about Nikolai, and that made all of this okay. Better than okay. Perfect, almost. Their master. They’d work together to please him.

“That’s my good boy,” Nikolai murmured, the sound muffled against some patch of Roger’s skin and how he wished it were
his
skin those words were sinking into, but they were a caress nonetheless, and he set his mind back to the task at hand, to making the act of undressing as sensuous and pleasurable as what would come after. Nikolai hadn’t told him not to tease, or at what pace to proceed, and yeah, okay he was maybe still a
little
jealous so he chose to drag it out as long as Nikolai would let him (and anyway the longer he was here, the longer he was with Nikolai, right?), painting every inch of Roger’s skin with lips and tongue and little love-nips as he exposed it, millimeter by millimeter. Drawing Roger’s sweatpants down with such agonizing slowness he knew he’d have been half out of his head by now in Roger’s shoes, and frankly, he was half out of his head even in his own shoes, with the plug filling his ass and warm skin in his mouth and his cock bumping against his stomach and Roger’s leg and occasionally the bedspread as he moved. But he could do this all day if given the chance, worship at Nikolai’s altar, prove his studiousness and his intent and his worth.

One more tug at the elastic waistband, and Roger’s cock sprang free. It was . . . God, it was
thick
. Thick enough that Dougie wouldn’t be able to wrap a hand around it comfortably.

Thick and hard and a deep, dark color, the head straining out of a stretched-taut foreskin. Dougie tore his eyes from it, looking to Nikolai for permission.

“Do you like my man’s cock, Douglas?” Nikolai asked with a wicked smile.

Not as much as yours.
“Oh yes, Sir,” Dougie purred. Even if he wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it, how that foreskin would come into play in the pursuit of Roger’s pleasure. It didn’t seem
too
different, and anyway he had one of his own, didn’t he?
Just touch him the way you like to be touched, that’s all.

Except, no touching at all until Nikolai gave him the go-ahead. Roger might be a slave too, but Dougie sensed he was an avatar today, a virtual extension of Nikolai’s own flesh. And you never, ever touched your master’s cock without permission.

So he leaned in close instead, licked his lips and took a tentative sniff. Partly to encourage Nikolai to let him begin pleasuring them both in earnest, but partly for his own curiosity as well. Roger didn’t smell like much, though—he was freshly washed, smelled like Nikolai’s soap with just a hint of warm skin and salt and sex beneath, leaking fresh from the slit of his very hard dick.

“Tongue out,” Nikolai said, his own hands working Roger’s nipples, tweaking them gently and making Roger grunt. Dougie stuck his tongue out but didn’t touch, not yet. If Roger could sit so still and patient beneath his master’s stroking fingers, Dougie could wait too. “Now lick,” Nikolai ordered, then amended, “Just the tip. Taste him. Nothing more.”

Dougie closed the final inch between them with a gratified moan, and licked one shallow stripe across the crown of Roger’s cock. That earned him a little gasp from Roger and Nikolai both, and Roger’s cock jumped nearly up to his stomach.

“Good,” Nikolai breathed. Dougie pulled his eyes from Roger’s crotch and sought out his master’s satisfied smile, the sparkle of pleasure in his eyes. “Just like that. Again.”

Dougie obeyed, looking at Roger just long enough to find his target, then turning his eyes back on Nikolai as he teased Roger’s cock with the tip of his tongue.
I’m sucking his cock but it’s only for you. Only for you.
He sighed happily.

“You must learn to pleasure an uncut man. Run your tongue under his foreskin.”

“Can I touch him, sir?”

Nikolai nodded.

“Thank you, sir,” Dougie and Roger said, nearly simultaneously. Dougie wrapped a hand around the thick base of Roger’s cock, and just like he’d predicted, his fingers and thumb didn’t touch. So thick. Unbidden, the thought of that girth stretching his hole flooded his mind and made him blush. Was that what’d first caught Nikolai’s eye when he’d bought Roger?

No matter. He was thinking too much. He
always
thought too much. Less thinking, more doing.

Pointing Roger’s cock at his mouth, he tilted in and traced his tongue along the line of Roger’s foreskin, teasingly slipping underneath that ridge every so often as he went.

“Now. Roger’s foreskin is quite tight to his cock, especially when he’s fully erect. In fact, sometimes it pulls back so far that he doesn’t appear any different from a cut man, although I think you’ll agree he
feels
much different in the hand. Some men have much more give and the heads of their cocks are only revealed if you purposefully draw the skin back. They may want this. They may not. Uncut men can be very sensitive, as I’m sure you know.”

“Yes, sir,” Dougie said.

“The foreskin itself can be a source of pleasure, too. Suck it into your mouth, worry it between your teeth—gently, of course—or slide your tongue underneath it as you’re doing now.”

This time, Dougie only nodded because his mouth was too busy for a reply. Sucking, licking, working that circle of exposed head that, yes, was so
very
sensitive. Or maybe Roger had just been that well-trained to perform for his master whether things felt amazing or not—he was squirming and panting in Nikolai’s lap, hands fisting the sheets beside Nikolai’s legs as Dougie worked his cock and Nikolai worked his nipples. It didn’t
seem
like he was faking it, though, not with all the pre-cum leaking onto Dougie’s tongue and the way his cock was twitching in Dougie’s hand. Dougie gave it a little pump, and the foreskin glided over the shaft so smoothly it made Dougie’s own dick twitch with jealousy. He had a hand free, wanted so badly to touch himself, but he didn’t dare. Didn’t even dare to ask. The best he could do was look up at Nikolai—who was too busy nuzzling Roger’s neck to look back at him—and whimper.