Celebrate (2 page)

“Yes. He’d be a good choice,” Raynard allowed. “So your final decision is?”

“I think we should try bringing the cages back into operation and see if they would help?” Ori hazarded.

“Good boy.” Raynard stroked the skin alongside Ori’s collar, sending a shudder of pleasure tingling down his spine. All hint of claustrophobia had disappeared when Raynard re-framed the bars as nothing more than another layer of bondage.

But, for better or worse, bondage had become a very good thing in Ori’s mind since Raynard had brought him under his protection. And it wasn’t only his mind that was reacting to it.

Ori moved his weight from one foot to the other. He was so used to being naked when he was alone at home with his master; he wasn’t used to getting turned on while dressed. His erection was pressing against the inside of his trousers. The fabric felt more like bondage than mere clothing.

“Tell me what you think of the cages now,” Raynard ordered.

Ori took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “They…um…They will need to be cleaned before they can be used, sir.” Despite all his best efforts, his voice was breathy. He sounded more like someone half-way through a sex game than a man having a serious discussion about how best to protect vulnerable members of the nest.

Raynard chuckled.

Ori glanced up at him. Raynard knew. He’d known exactly how Ori would react once he told him what the cage should represent to him now. A duckling might have found safety there, but for a swan who had a hawk for a master, it was all about sex.

“I told you before that you’re always supposed to enjoy your bondage with me.”

Ori took half a step forward. He stopped just half an inch from the bars.

Raynard smiled—not the smile that meant he was proud of him, or pleased with him for adding a swan’s voice to those of the other elders. It was far more like the smile that appeared when he’d just come back from a flight and was too busy thinking about Ori being his submissive to care what species he was.

Raynard released his grip on Ori’s collar.

Ori waited for Raynard to open the cage and rush him home, but Raynard didn’t move. He just stood there.

Ori licked his lips.

He felt just like he had over a year ago when he stood on the threshold of Raynard’s bedroom and had to make the final decision on whether or not he wanted to enter, all by himself. There hadn’t been many occasions when Raynard wasn’t inclined to help him out with an order, but each and every one of them led to something memorable.

Ori dipped his gaze. He wasn’t the only one who was hard and straining against his trousers. That knowledge made everything so simple. The decision made itself.

Ori lowered himself to his knees. The bars on some of the other cages had fine wire mesh between them; presumably to prevent small species from escaping when they shifted. However, the cage Raynard had put him in was obviously only for the larger species of shifter.

The bars were too close together for Ori to put his head between them, but they were easily far enough apart to allow a cock through. Ori leaned forward. Each side of his face rubbed against the cold metal bars as he pressed a kiss against Raynard’s fly.

Raynard didn’t correct him. That was just as good as explicit permission to continue. Ori dipped his head, rubbing his forehead against the tenting material. Keeping his hands behind his back, Ori waited with as much patience as he could muster for Raynard to either undo his fly or offer him permission to do that for him.

The bars were inconvenient and made it far harder for Ori to reach out to his master, but that in itself made the cage feel more like the kind of bondage he was used to enjoying back in the master bedroom at Raynard Lodge. It wasn’t dangerous, it was a tease. The frustration went straight to Ori’s cock, making his shaft ache within the increasingly uncomfortable confines of his trousers.

Ori pressed chaste kisses up and down the length of Raynard’s fly. As much as he longed to lick and mouth his master through the fabric, he didn’t dare. He couldn’t risk doing anything that would leave a mark that might be noticeable when they walked through the nest on the way out.

A lifetime passed before Raynard reached down between his crotch and Ori’s lips and undid his fly. Freeing his erection from behind the fabric with one hand, Raynard slid his other hand between the bars and stroked Ori’s cheek.

Ori automatically leaned into the gentle touch and turned his face to kiss his master’s palm. Raynard allowed it, but soon nudged Ori’s mouth back toward his hard-on.

Sliding his fingers down to Ori’s chin, Raynard silently commanded him to keep his chin up and his lips together. With his free hand, Raynard guided his erection between the bars and rubbed the tip against Ori’s mouth.

Ori whimpered, desperate to lick up the pre-cum that smeared against his lips; but even more desperate to please his master by resisting that temptation.

“Good boy.”

Ori moaned in response.

Just a few seconds before Ori was sure he was going to lose his mind, Raynard finally changed his hold on Ori’s chin and granted him permission to part his lips.

Ori hurriedly reached out to his master with his tongue.

“Not yet. I don’t want your tongue, just your mouth.” As he spoke, Raynard pushed the tip of his erection past Ori’s lips.

Not entirely sure what he was allowed to do, Ori remained motionless while Raynard slid his shaft deeper into his mouth.

“That’s right, fledgling. You just stay as still as you can. That’s all you need to do to please me.”

Ori hummed in the back of his throat to show that he had heard. The concrete information, on what Raynard would be most pleased with him for doing, allowed him to relax. He lifted his gaze to Raynard’s face.

The mixture of dominance and certainty in Raynard’s eyes was like a shot of adrenaline straight into Ori’s cock. He tightened his hands into fists behind his back in a desperate attempt not to reach for his shaft.

Raynard would let him know if he was allowed to touch himself. His master never forgot to tell him whether he was allowed to come and by what means.

Raynard rocked his hips again. He wasn’t pushing deep into Ori’s mouth. He wasn’t even bringing his hips right up against the barrier of the cage. Ori glanced at the bars out of the corners of his eyes. They were just as dusty as the rest of the caged area. Raynard wouldn’t want all that muck on his clothes.

Ori cautiously leaned forward, pressing the sides of his face tight against the bars in an effort to give his master more depth to work with, while still trying not to move so much his actions constituted disobedience.

Raynard would have noticed that he moved. Raynard never missed anything. But no correction hit the air; Ori had calculated correctly. Success mingled with his arousal, sending his pulse racing faster than ever.

Raynard quickly found a rhythm he liked. He never once faltered as he slid his cock past Ori’s lips again and again.

Ori’s lips began to tingle from the repeated friction. His mouth watered with need. Trying to keep his tongue still and not lick and caress the shaft as it rubbed against his taste buds was a lesson in self-control as difficult as any Raynard had ever presented him with.

Ori closed his eyes and breathed deeply through his nose, relishing the scent of Raynard’s arousal. He knew his master’s body well after over a year serving him. Raynard tensed as he got closer to his orgasm. He wasn’t holding back and making it last today. He wanted to get off quick and simple, and in Ori’s willing mouth was the perfect place for him to do that.

Raynard started to push deeper. Ori tilted his head, allowing his master the perfect angle to enter the topmost inches of his throat. Raynard gasped as he came, the tip of his hard-on pushing into Ori’s throat. Lacking permission to pull back and catch the full flavour on his tongue, Ori made the most of being allowed to simply swallow every drop Raynard offered him.

Raynard didn’t make his use of Ori’s throat a test of either self-control or endurance. As soon as his orgasm ended, he pulled back far enough to let Ori breathe.

As Ori quickly pulled oxygen into his lungs, he saw Raynard take a deep breath and let it out slowly. When Raynard looked down at Ori, his smile was far more mellow than it had been before he came.

He caressed Ori’s cheek again, then nodded, giving Ori permission to use his mouth however he wished for a little while. Ori murmured his pleasure as he gently ran his lips and tongue over every inch of Raynard’s cock and balls, checking that every trace of his orgasm was cleaned away; relishing both the taste and the intimacy of the act. He kept going until Raynard finally called a halt by tucking himself back into his trousers, out of Ori’s reach.

Ori remained on his knees, his face still pressed firmly against the bars.

“Perhaps it’s time we started on some home improvements back at the lodge,” Raynard mused.

Ori frowned slightly. He’d thought that Raynard was pleased with the way he ran the house, and with the work he’d done setting so much of it in order.

“You don’t like the idea of adding some bars to one of the spare bedrooms?” Raynard asked. “I can see you now, naked and hard, waiting for me to let you out. Or maybe just waiting for me to come close enough to the bars for you to reach through and beg for my cock.” He crouched down in front of Ori and ran his thumb over Ori’s sensitised lips. “If we were at home now, it’s just possible I’d let you come at this point in the game. I do love watching you come.”

Ori swallowed. It had been over a week since he’d last been allowed to orgasm. He could have easily sold his soul to be back at their home and in a position to receive that permission, if his soul hadn’t already belonged to his master.

“Up on your feet.”

Ori obeyed, never taking his eyes off Raynard. Unlocking the cage door, Raynard allowed him out.

“You really are a magnet for dust, aren’t you?” Before Ori had time to work out what Raynard was teasing him about, his master bent down and brushed the dust off Ori’s knees himself.

Ori had thought about Raynard’s clothes, but he was so used to being naked in his master’s presence, he hadn’t given his own clothes a thought.

“Sorry, sir.”

“There’s no need to apologise. If it bothered me, I know an easy method for keeping dust off a man’s clothes. It’s far easier to clean skin, isn’t it?” With that, Raynard straightened up to his full height.

“Perhaps, if you don’t need me for anything else, when the cleaning flock comes down here to put everything in order, I could help them, sir?” Ori asked, desperately trying to focus on something as un-erotic as possible.

“Only if you remain dressed while you clean,” Raynard said, gently rubbing at a line down each side of Ori’s face and across his cheeks, where Ori had pushed his skin against the bars.

Ori glanced up and met Raynard’s eyes for a moment. Raynard smiled at him.

“Good boy,” he whispered, before brushing their lips together.

Ori closed his eyes, glorying in Raynard’s praise. He’d been a fool to worry about anything as inconsequential as his master getting his date of birth wrong. That would never be as important as Raynard’s willingness to praise him, or to kiss him. Ever since he’d come under Raynard’s protection, Ori had been quite inclined to think it was his birthday every day anyway.

* * * * *

The lights in the great hall dimmed. Hamilton stood up and tapped his knife against his wine glass. The entire party fell silent. A door opened near one corner of the cavernous space.

It had already been a ridiculously long day. Ori wasn’t sure he could cope with any more surprises. He leaned forward in his chair, looking past Hamilton in an effort to work out what was going on.

Three of the shifters serving at the party entered the hall pushing a trolley that supported the biggest birthday cake Ori had ever seen. With the lighting turned down low, the mini candles on the cake shone brightly. They flickered as the three men carefully navigated the trolley around the corner of the raised platform the elders’ table stood upon, but none of the candles went out.

Eventually, the trolley arrived in front of the little set of steps leading down from the elders’ table. The men who had been pushing the trolley stepped back.

Ori stared down at the cake for several seconds. If he’d put less energy into wondering if there was any special significance to Raynard getting his date of birth wrong, and more effort into working out what the nest’s celebrations for his birthday might include, he probably could have guessed that there might be a cake. It never would have occurred to him that the cake would be bigger than him.

Creating it must have taken days and produced a true mountain of washing up for the servant who occupied Ori’s old role in the nest.

Raynard put his hand on Ori’s elbow, letting him know he wanted him to stand up. Once more the uncomfortable centre of everyone’s attention, Ori walked around the table with Raynard. Acutely aware that hundreds of pairs of eyes rested upon him, Ori moved closer to his master’s side. It wasn’t the first time that day he was glad of Raynard’s supportive presence. Raynard might not have shown any interest in getting involved in the celebrations, but he’d been right there at Ori’s side through every minute of them.

Hamilton also joined them alongside the cake. “If you would like to make a wish when you blow out the candles, sire?” he suggested.

Twenty-two candles. Ori took a deep breath and blew across each wick in turn. He remembered doing the same thing once before—when he was very little. One of the foster families he’d stayed with had been really big on birthdays; they’d even had a party for him. He’d made a wish then, too.

Applause erupted through the room as he managed to blow out the last candle without having to pause and take another breath. Startled by the unexpected response, Ori tensed. Raynard settled his hand on the small of Ori’s back, silently reminding him that he was there.

Ori smiled. It had taken a while, but the wish he’d made while blowing out the candles all those years ago had come true. Perhaps his permanent family didn’t contain the mother and father he’d hoped for back then, but now that he was older, he’d found out that having a master could be just as wonderful—if in a very different way.