At His Throat, a Promise (64 page)

AT HIS THROAT, A PROMISE

better for everyone to just keep things the way they were.

Ellis got into his car and let the leather seat warmers heat up his bum. He didn"t know much about cars, but William assured him it was among the best money could buy, and he still wasn"t one to question his master.

To question William.

Freedom took some getting used to.

He stopped at the overpriced coffee shop that Harte loved and got his favourite under-caffeinated, over-sweet beverage. He also bought William"s classic coffee and his own decaf—his mind worked fast enough without extra stimulation. After placing an order for a few more drinks on top of those, he finished the drive to work.

He and Harte worked on the thirteenth floor. William was two floors up from them, though he spent much of the day on their floor since he was their boss.

In the elevator, he pressed the eleventh floor button. He still had time before he actually had to be at his desk. The doors opened on the litigation floor, and Ellis followed the familiar path to Fen"s office.

Balancing the coffee tray in one hand, he knocked on the closed door. He knew all too well what the closed door signified, but he didn"t care—he had deliveries to make.

There was some shuffling from within, a throat cleared, and then he was granted entrance.

Fen was sitting on the leather sofa, looking unruffled and elegant as always.

Caleb was standing ostentatiously far away, as if putting a distance between the two could eliminate that obviousness of what had been happening. Fen"s unhurried adjustment of his crotch only 555

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made Caleb blush even more.

“Coffee?” Ellis asked as if he hadn"t interrupted anything at all.

He placed theirs on Fen"s desk and gave Caleb a smile. He was newly free and it showed. Ellis wondered if he"d looked so lost during his first months at the firm. Caleb probably hadn"t even been to his own office yet that day.

“Thanks, Ellis,” Fen said, standing and grabbing up his cup. He gave Caleb a sardonic eyebrow lift, and the younger man took his coffee as well.

Ellis took pity on Caleb and laughed. “It"s not like you"re the only one. We all know where Harte is at this very moment.” Fen laughed and Caleb blushed harder. It reminded Ellis of the first time Carter and Caleb had met—Ellis"s more outgoing and flirtatious slave had kept Caleb pink from head to toe the entire time.

“So, how"s the new meat?” Fen leaned against his desk, crossing his arms over his chest.

“He"s doing well. He"s very bright, and, lucky for him, adaptable.” Ellis came closer to Fen when he crooked a finger at him.

Fen came close to Ellis"s ear like he had a secret. Knowing Fen"s antics all too well, Ellis tried to keep his distance, but he froze at Fen"s words.

“Did you fuck him yet?”

Caleb gave a whimper and Fen smirked at him but seemed to be waiting for an answer.

“I haven"t, and I"m not going to.” Ellis"s plan to treat Carter more like an intern than a slave was widely known in their group of friends, and while he faced derision from some, there was no denying that Carter was both clever and extremely well-behaved—

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in public, anyway.

“Shame,” Fen lamented, shaking his head. “And you won"t let us have a go at him? Man, the things we could teach him. Caleb, you could show him that thing with your tongue—”

“Fen!” Caleb cried, outraged.

Fen seemed to know exactly how far to push Caleb, and he eased up and gave his erstwhile slave a noisy kiss. Ellis rolled his eyes. He wasn"t sure if all former masters and slaves were as close as Fen and Caleb, or him and Harte and William, or even Alastair and Alex, though their situation was different, but he wished he"d known that maintaining a friendship or relationship after slavery was more than just a pipe dream. It might have made his time at first a little less lonely.

“See, Ellis? Don"t you want a nice, compliant little piece of candy, always at your beck and call, willing to do
anything
… ?” Caleb was bright red at this point and Ellis laughed when he kicked Fen right in the shin before turning to leave in a huff. Fen, of course, grabbed him and held him firm against his chest—Caleb wasn"t exactly struggling.

“Did you forget about Harte?” Ellis said, making his friends laugh. He had the best of both worlds, as far as he was concerned.

A sweet, submissive, fun, and charming little bottom who liked it rough, and an intense, provocative, dominant older man… who liked it rough.

Hmm.

Life was good.

“I have to get going, the coffee"s getting cold.” Ellis gave Caleb a kiss on the cheek and suffered a kiss on the mouth from Fen.

“Drinks after work?” Fen suggested, pulling Caleb against 557

AT HIS THROAT, A PROMISE

himself and nuzzling his hair.

“We"ll be there.” Tuesdays were always spent at the nearby martini bar. Sometimes Alex and Alastair joined them, but with the training of their new slave, they didn"t have a lot of time lately.

Harte usually got smashed and barely made it into the car before he assaulted either William or Ellis, which made William only too happy to indulge the tradition.

Ellis left them to continue whatever he"d interrupted and got back in the elevator. He didn"t even need to check the office Harte shared with another new lawyer; he knew Harte wouldn"t be there.

But he"d gotten coffee for the young woman, so he dropped that off before stopping at his own office.

His officemate, a slightly older man who"d travelled extensively after his slavery had ended, wasn"t in yet. Glancing at the clock, Ellis saw he only had a few minutes left before his day officially started.

Ellis left his officemate his coffee, put his own down as well, and made his way up to William"s floor. All the running around made him actually eager to sit down at his desk and get some work done—Harte was the better coffee boy, that was for sure.

William had his own office. It was massive and the view was stunning—Ellis often thought about himself in that office. He had big dreams for himself. Luckily for him, he also had the patience and perseverance to get there.

He knocked on William"s door—he"d been told he was always welcome to walk in, but if Harte and William were… busy, then throwing the door open to the rest of the office wasn"t the greatest idea.

Harte opened the door. On his best day he acted like William"s personal assistant. Sometimes it was obvious he was struggling not 558

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to get on his knees before William.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” he said, closing the door behind Ellis, who put the coffee tray down on William"s desk, happy to be rid of the thing.

“You could have been a sleepyhead, too, if you weren"t too chicken to drive with me.”

Harte gave an exaggerated shudder. “I"d rather wake up early than get into your car and wake up not at all!”

“Harte, that"s enough,” William chided with a laugh. “I taught him to drive, after all.”

For a moment it looked like Harte was going to apologise for the slight. But then he stuck his tongue out at both of them and took a big sip of his “coffee” and licking the whipped cream off his lips.

Seeing Harte in a suit still took some getting used to. He wore mostly navy, mostly pinstripes. He claimed they made him look taller. He"d never gotten that growth spurt he"d always hoped for, but he didn"t look seventeen anymore, that was for sure. Harte was undeniably male—the women who followed him around the office were proof of that. No wonder he hid in William"s office.

Ellis wore his own suit like he"d worn his slave sheath—

proudly and like he was challenging anyone to claim he didn"t belong. For his first few weeks as a free person, he"d kept his collar on. He"d worked too hard for it to let it go the second the paperwork on him was completed.

Once he"d started at the firm, however, William had insisted he remove it. It was too bulky to hide and Ellis needed to maintain a professional appearance for the clientele.

It took a lot to make Ellis cry. He could remember a few instances from the beginning when things had been so unsure all 559

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the time, and he"d cried from pain a few times, but when his collar had been removed, that had been sheer, hard regret. For that moment, brief and charged as it was, he"d wanted to be a slave forever.

It hadn"t lasted long. Nothing really changed. So he switched out “Master” for “William” and his knees didn"t get as much action… well. That last wasn"t exactly true, but for different reasons. Still, he remained William"s—he was Harte"s. They were his. Some bit of leather wouldn"t change that.

But even though he"d convinced himself of that, it didn"t stop him from feeling relief when William gifted him with a slim black leather cord to wear around his neck. The ends were fused together after he"d put it on—it couldn"t be removed unless he cut it.

Like the collar, it was a promise.

Now, William ran his fingers over it, having risen to snap Ellis out of his reverie. “All right?” he asked in that quiet voice of his.

“Fine.” Ellis"s fingers met William"s. “Just thinking.” They shared a look—William knew him inside and out. Then Harte said, “It"s drinks tonight, isn"t it? Has anyone talked to Alex or Alastair?”

“I spoke to Alex last night. He and Alastair are bringing Railey to the Lounge tonight. They think he"s ready.” Ellis raised an eyebrow. Railey was the slave Alex and Alastair were experimentally co-mastering. He was very difficult and Ellis personally thought he"d benefit from the same treatment he was giving Carter, but they swore he was improving under their tutelage. Having two such dominant men as masters had to be difficult for any slave.

“Ellis doesn"t think so,” Harte said in a teasing voice. He nudged Ellis with his bony hip and laughed.

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“Ellis thinks too much,” William said. He eased his words with a kiss. “And that"s why we love him.”

Love. They"d gone so long, after getting Harte back from Develyn, without saying the words. After Ellis had been freed, Harte was still a slave for another six months, and Ellis and William hadn"t spoken it between themselves out of fairness to Harte. After that, though, they hadn"t seemed to be able to
stop
saying it, Harte especially. William was a little more sparing with the words, and Ellis…

Ellis still had trouble saying it. But he thought it all the time.

Ellis had to laugh when Harte pressed himself against his back—pushing Ellis"s front against William. Harte kissed the nape of his neck, sinking his teeth in for a moment before taking the leather cord between his lips and tugging it gently.

Taking advantage of the proximity, Ellis kissed William. There was something so taboo about kissing him in his office when he"d just returned from some important meeting.

“I think you two need to get to work,” William said, clearing his throat after the kiss broke.

Harte whimpered and then tried to hug them both at once.

“Mine,” he said, a declaration oft made between the three of them.

“Yours,” William said indulgently. He shared a smile with Ellis. “Yours, too.”

Ellis nodded. He knew that. Of course he did. But being reminded was pretty nice, too.

“Let"s go,” Ellis said, squirming out of the sandwich hold. “We have work to do.”

Harte feigned a yawn and William gave his bum a spank.

“Don"t make promises you can"t keep,” Harte admonished with a silly grin, standing on his tiptoes to give William a kiss.

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That was the thing, Ellis knew. William didn"t. He touched the leather at his throat—his collar didn"t define him, it just reminded him. He belonged to someone, to something—something important. Finally, it was enough.

Mine.

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LILITH GREY

Lilith Grey is a Canadian author who writes character-driven romance and erotica. She prefers to write stories where she can delve into the psychology and motivations of the characters, and she works hard to make her characters relatable and interesting—

and real.

Sex plays a large role in Lilith"s writing. Whether the characters are intimate from the start or they build up to it throughout the story, Lilith explores sexuality just as one might explore setting.

She especially enjoys writing about the nature of BDSM, specifically dominance and submission.

Lilith graduated from university in the top ten percent of her class with a Specialized Honours BA in English Literature. She writes for several online lifestyle magazines as well as literary newsletters for her alma mater.

* * *

by Lilith Grey,

available at AmberAllure.com!

Gabriel Langdon is the typical university senior slacker. After
coasting by for four years, Gabriel’s mother decides to intercede
just as his final summer course begins. Her interference comes in
the form of high school graduate, jock-genius tutor named Justin
Freely.

Gabriel, gay and out to everyone but his persistent ex-girlfriend
Jessica, wants Justin—and goes about getting him in all the wrong
ways. Justin has been burned before, and he isn’t readily willing to
let Gabriel into his life. With the more time they spend together,
however, Justin comes to see there is something more than a
student/mentor relationship emerging. Can Justin let go of the past
to give Gabriel a chance, or will Gabriel’s often-deluded attempts
at seduction only hurt them both?

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