Axel's Pup (42 page)

When Bayden returned, Axel was peering into the wardrobe where he kept his gear, but it was impossible to tell if it was going to be used for pleasure before it was used in his penance.

Axel was still hard. He still wanted to come. He was still thinking about sex. All Bayden could do was hope that for some reason Axel had decided he wanted to play with him in spite of everything.

“How uncomfortable were you last night?”

“It was fine, sir.”

“Any time you want to try the truth, feel free.”

Bayden winced.

“On a scale of one to ten,” Axel ordered.

“Three or four, sir?”

Axel took an extra item from the wardrobe. Bayden didn’t see what it was.

“Put the blanket down.”

Bayden arranged it on the floor just like the previous night.

Axel moved behind Bayden. “Tonight is going to be more uncomfortable than last night.”

“Yes, sir.”

Axel slid a harness around Bayden’s shoulders and did up the buckles. It wasn’t uncomfortable. The lengths of leather lay neatly against his skin, connected by an O-ring in the centre of Bayden’s chest.

“Remind me what the rules are.”

“No shifting, sir, and I have to say my safe word if I need to.”

“Good boy.”

Axel turned Bayden around. If he liked the way the harness looked on Bayden, he didn’t mention it.

He fitted black leather cuffs around Bayden’s wrists and padlocked the chain that linked the cuffs to the harness’s O-ring, trapping Bayden’s hands in front of his chest.

“Can you reach your cock?”

Bayden shook his head. “I wouldn’t, sir.”

Axel raised an eyebrow. “That was an order to try, not an invitation to argue with me.”

Bayden dropped his gaze. He tried to reach for his cock, but the bondage made it impossible.

Axel nodded to himself and reached for the next item on the bed. It was a spreader bar, but a really short one. “Lie down on your back.”

Bayden obeyed. The reason the spreader bar was so short became obvious when Axel fitted cuffs just above Bayden’s knees rather than around his ankles. Placed there, the spreader bar forced Bayden’s legs wide apart.

There was a ring welded to the centre of the bar. Axel padlocked a length of chain to it and the other end to the harness’s O-ring, pulling Bayden’s knees up toward his chest.

Unable to close or lower his legs, Bayden’s arse was completely exposed. Axel studied him for a long time, but he still didn’t say whether or not he was pleased with the sight.

 “You can test your bondage,” he finally said.

All Bayden could do was squirm a little. He was alone with Axel. Axel’s attention was on him, and the scent of Axel’s arousal hung in the air. Bayden’s cock was hard and leaking pre-cum, it bobbed as he twisted his limbs in an attempt to work out his range of movement.

Axel disappeared to take his turn in the bathroom.

Bayden took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Was it worth trying to offer Axel something when he came back? His bondage did seem to have been set up for sex more than discomfort.

His mind raced as he tried to work out the right words, but he wasn’t quick enough. Axel came back. He stripped down to his bare skin, but he didn’t head for his bed.

He knelt down alongside Bayden. Without saying a word, he tugged Bayden onto his side, then further over. Unable to straighten his body or move his hands, Bayden found himself kneeling on the blanket with his head down and his arse up. His cheek rested against the blanket, his hands unable to support his weight at that angle.

Axel didn’t waste any more time. He slicked his fingers and pressed them against Bayden’s hole.

Pleasure shot through Bayden as Axel found his prostate. Biting his lip, Bayden tried to keep his bliss to himself. Axel’s fingers slid into him again and again.

Bayden didn’t have permission to tell him to hurry up. That gave him leave to simply enjoy Axel’s touch without feeling too guilty.

Rocking his hips, Bayden was soon helplessly pushing himself back against Axel’s fingers. He whimpered as Axel took him to the edge of his orgasm. Not allowed to hold back, unwilling to risk displeasing Axel by doing that, Bayden desperately tried to relax and let whatever was going to happen, happen.

Axel’s fingers disappeared. Bayden gasped with relief. If he was going to be allowed to come, he would much rather it be with Axel’s cock buried deep inside him. He would have shuffled his knees further apart in invitation, but they were already spread as wide as they could go.

Axel had used lots of lube, the air felt cold against the slicked skin around his hole. Bayden heard Axel moving around but he couldn’t feel Axel touching him any more. Bayden frowned and tried to peer over his shoulder.

Axel moved into Bayden’s line of sight. He walked across to the bed and lay down on his back. Bayden’s face was turned toward the bed, he had a perfect view as Axel relaxed against the pillows and took his erection in hand.

Axel looked toward him. Their eyes met. Axel had never intended to screw him. Suddenly, that was obvious. Bayden tugged against his bondage. Axel calmly stroked his cock.

“Sir…”

Axel didn’t tell him to shut up, but he didn’t stop jacking his cock. His hand moved determinedly in long even strokes. There was still lube on his fingers from where he’d prepared Bayden. Pre-cum slicked his touch further. Axel reached down with his other hand, playing with his balls as he got closer to the edge.

Bayden shook his head, rubbing his cheek against the blanket beneath him. Axel took no notice.

He came in just a few minutes but didn’t stop stroking his cock as his cum slipped in long ropes against his abs. Axel thrust up against his own palm and moaned in pleasure.

Bayden whimpered. Shaking with need—not for his own orgasm, but to be involved in Axel’s. He was overcome by the horrible urge to sob at the sheer injustice of being so close to Axel and yet still so far away from him.

Axel closed his eyes and rested.

His satisfaction filled the room. Bayden crammed air into his lungs as if absorbing enough of Axel’s scent might somehow make him feel closer to him. It didn’t help. It made him feel emptier. It made him miss Axel’s touch all the more.

Axel rolled his shoulders and sat up.

He walked the few paces to Bayden and sat down on the floor next to him. Gripping the harness and the spreader bar, he rolled Bayden onto his back.

“You’re not allowed to come unless I make you come—those are the rules you agreed to follow. But I don’t have to wait for you to do anything. I’m allowed to jack off whenever I want—whether you’re under penance or not.”

Bayden closed his eyes. He knew he should feel grateful that Axel hadn’t brought someone else to his bed in his place, but in that moment, it wasn’t in him.

“I’m not going to screw another guy to punish you—even if you still haven’t got the hang of stating your limits.” He stroked Bayden’s cheek. “But remember this, pup. Half the time you spent lying to me, I spent watching you get screwed by dozens of different men.”

Bayden opened his eyes. “I…”

“I know why you did that now but, at the time, all I had was lies. I hated it just as much as you’d have hated seeing me play with someone else tonight, but I hated the idea of you getting hurt even more.” He cupped Bayden’s cheek in his palm. “When I tell you that I’ll look after you even when it’s not easy, when I tell you that I’ll accept you no matter what, it’s not a vague idea. I’ve already proved I’m as good as my word.”

Bayden turned his face into Axel’s hand and pressed a kiss against his palm. Axel didn’t snatch his hand away. He left it there within easy reach, allowing Bayden to kiss and lick his fingers until a little bit of Bayden’s panic eased.

When Axel finally took his hand away, Bayden still didn’t have the right words. “I…”

“Hush.” Axel pressed a kiss against Bayden’s temple before heading into the bathroom to clean himself up.

Bayden squirmed. It only made him more uncomfortable. Even breathing seemed to pull at his bondage, making him all the more desperate to stretch his limbs. It was going to be impossible to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time.

Axel returned. He took something off the bed, where all the bondage equipment had been piled up. He attached it to the chain connected to the spreader bar.

Bayden stretched his neck to see what it was. A jingling noise immediately filled the air. The thing was silver and it looked like a small bell.

Bayden frowned up at Axel. All he got for his trouble was a raised eyebrow. Axel would hear every movement he made in the night. Every time he failed to accept the bondage with absolute stillness, Axel would know he’d screwed up.

Bayden swallowed. “Yes, sir.”

Axel went to bed in silence. He didn’t say another word until he checked on Bayden in the early hours of the morning.

“We’re six weeks in, pup. If you’d told me the truth when you started working for me, you’d have been able to be comfortable from this point on.” He slid warm hands over Bayden’s body, making it impossible for Bayden to hide how knotted his muscles were.

Axel had been right about that night’s bondage being far more restrictive and uncomfortable than the previous night’s had been. Bayden closed his eyes. He’d never wished he could go back and fix a mistake more fervently, but that had nothing to do with relief from physical pain. He’d never wanted to share another man’s bed more desperately.

Maybe it was the chill or the unrelenting ache in his muscles, or maybe it was seeing the distance between himself and Axel not in vague terms of truth and honesty, but in the physical feet and inches between him and Axel’s bed. His mind screamed out that he needed to be wrapped in Axel’s arms and completely accepted by him.

In that moment, Bayden would have sold his soul for the ability to go back and tell Axel the truth when he’d first started working for him.

Axel glanced at the clock above the bar when Hale strode into the pub looking even more pissed off with the world than usual. It wasn’t even noon. They weren’t supposed to be open for hours. Hale was still in his work suit. Last time Hale had started drinking that early in the day, it had been a triple murder, and not one of the victims had hit her teens. “Bad day at the office?”

Hale pulled himself onto a stool opposite Axel. “Like you give a toss. Where’s the puppy?”

Axel lost all interest in stocking the shelves behind the bar as he realised Hale wasn’t there to drink away his woes. “Bayden’s out back. He’s too busy to eavesdrop.”

Hale dropped two books on the bar.

Axel picked up the top one. It looked official. “The anti-pack laws?”

“You want to know what they are.” It wasn’t a question.

Axel flicked through a few pages.

“I’ve never arrested a wolf for anything that I wouldn’t have arrested a human for,” Hale said, all his usual sarcasm absent.

Axel looked up.

“I may handcuff men and order them onto their knees, but not while I’m on the job,” Hale said. “And not unless they ask nicely.”

Axel flicked through a few more pages. It wasn’t a thick book. It felt heavier in his hand than it should.

“I’ve been asking around. Granger’s a sadistic bastard whenever he thinks he can get away with it. He’s coming up for retirement in two years, but the rumour is that he won’t make it there. He’s under investigation.”

“For the way he treats wolves?”

“No.”

“No?”

Hale sighed and rubbed a hand over his shaved scalp. “Two reasons. One—wolves don’t complain, they’d never report a cop. Two—it wouldn’t do them any good if they did. Nothing he did to Bayden is against the law. It’s screwed up, but that’s the way it is.”

Axel’s grip on the book turned white knuckled.

“I’ll only say it once but it has got to be said,” Hale announced. “I was right.”

“About?”

“Your puppy was lying. He is trouble.”

“He was lying,” Axel allowed.

“And he’s trouble,” Hale pushed.

“Because all wolves are trouble, right?”

Hale laughed. “Because he’s a brat, and he’s got so far under your skin you’re stuck with him.”

You only think he’s a brat because he thinks you’re a sub.
Axel smiled to himself and picked up the other book.

“There’s some sort of campaign to get the wolf-laws overturned,” Hale offered. “The guy who wrote that—Kincade—is one of the top guys in it. I think the publisher sent one to every damn police station in the country.”

Axel looked at the spine. It hadn’t been cracked.

Hale shrugged. “Cops aren’t big readers.”

Axel turned it over. Kincade Wolf. “The man who wrote it’s a wolf?”

“Yeah. A few guys at my station were sent on a course he runs. Community outreach, minority whatever. They all said he scared the hell out of them. A proper—” He cut himself off.

Axel stared at him, waiting for the rest.

Hale shrugged again. “A proper wolf in sheep’s clothing. Looks innocent—dressed up in a suit, with posh accent, and all that. But he’s still a wolf at heart. It still felt like he was ten seconds away from tearing someone’s throat out. Just like your puppy.”

Axel looked down at the book again.

“I’m off. Caught a new case. Haven’t slept yet.” Hale got off his stool. “You look like you haven’t slept either.”

“I didn’t,” Axel murmured, absentmindedly.

“So there are some benefits to keeping a tame werewolf around the place?” Hale asked.

Axel chuckled. Screwing Bayden would have been a far more enjoyable way to pass the night. As Hale headed out, Axel rolled his shoulders.

Bayden having spent a second night in bondage shouldn’t make Axel feel like he was the one who’d been stretched on a rack, but it did.

With all his senses on high alert, the bell he’d used to make sure he’d have woken up if Bayden panicked or cramped up had actually woken him up every time Bayden had twitched.

Bayden had to be sore as hell, but hadn’t complained once. He’d thrown himself into his work that morning as if he’d had a full eight hours and—

The sound of the pub’s backdoor closing made Axel look up.