Keeping Dallas (4 page)

—Edgar Cayce

Dallas yawned as he walked through the front door of the pack house. Exhaustion gnawed at his bones like a hungry beast. His master had put him through his paces and his back still stung from the flogger they’d eventually moved on to using. Luckily, in a few hours he would be completely healed…another reason he never stayed overnight at Laurence’s house. How could he explain the lack of marks after only a few hours? When a week went by between dates, he didn’t have to tell any lies about his fast healing.

“Hello, Dallas. Late night?”

Dallas whipped his head around. Rolf Ballin, the pack alpha, watched him with his icy blue eyes. Immediately Dallas lowered his gaze and tipped his head to the side to show his submission to the other man’s position. He respected his guardian more than any other man on earth, barring Laurence.

The idea of choosing between them kept Dallas up at night, terrified.

“I’d sniff you but you probably reek of that human,” Rolf growled.

Dallas swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the ball of fear building in his throat and threatening to suffocate him. He knew he smelt more like his master than usual. When Laurence had failed to wear a condom the first time they’d made love last night, he’d infused Dallas with his seed, marking him as taken. Dallas didn’t know how long the scent would last but he’d cherish it until it finally faded.

Rolf sighed. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt him.”

Daring to peek up at the alpha, he was surprised to see that the larger man looked more puzzled than angry. Rolf raked his fingers through his thick, black hair as he gave Dallas a frustrated frown.

“What is it your human lover has that none of the other wolves do?” he burst out.

“What do you mean?” He couldn’t have been more surprised if his alpha had transformed into a tabby cat. “I…I’m not sure I understand.”

Rolf walked up to Dallas and tilted Dallas’ head until he was forced to look the alpha in the eyes. “I don’t believe that nonsense about forever mates, but I’ve wanted you to find a mate in the pack since you turned sixteen. I know you’ve fixated on this human, but you can do better than that.”

“B-but I love Laurence,” Dallas stuttered. His heart skipped a few beats as he realised he’d finally admitted out loud the feelings he had for his master.

Crap, he was screwed. How could he fall in love with a human?

Rolf shook his head as if he couldn’t understand Dallas’ stupidity. “I just want you to try out a few members of the pack. Have sex with two or three of them and see if you might be compatible with another wolf. I can throw a party so you can visit with any new pack members who might have joined since last time.”

Dallas convulsively shook his head. The calm he’d gained from his time with Laurence vanished beneath his alpha’s pointed stare. “I-I just told Laurence I would stay faithful.” He couldn’t break his word. He knew his master wouldn’t be forgiving if Dallas let another man have sex with him. Humans were odd about exclusivity, not to mention the thought of anyone other than Laurence touching him sexually made him slightly ill.

“You bonded with him, didn’t you?” Rolf’s voice, soft and mournful, conveyed his disappointment in his ward.

Dallas nodded. “I-I didn’t mean to.” Panic filled him as he thought of what the alpha could do to his lover if the mood struck him.

“Relax, Dallas, I told you I’m not going to harm your lover.” Rolf stroked Dallas’ head, a move reminiscent of his master and that had the same calming effect. “I’m rather impressed you were able to keep him this long. Most humans are too curious to keep a shifter mate. Yours seems to have no curiosity at all—rather odd.”

Dallas shrugged. It wasn’t his place to question his master.

Rolf kissed him on the forehead. “Go and get some sleep, my sweet wolf. Tomorrow I have a job for you.”

“Yes, Alpha,” Dallas said. He automatically bowed to Rolf and headed to his room. Thoughts swirled around his mind as he wondered what tomorrow would bring.

* * * *

Laurence woke up knowing something was wrong. Looking around his enormous bedroom, it took him a moment to place the problem.

Dallas wasn’t there.

Once again, his sub had refused to spend the night and had evidently caught a cab back home the night before. Laurence resisted the urge to throw something as he plotted how to keep Dallas in his home. It was no longer enough to have Dallas visit and submit to him one day a week. He needed his man next to him every night, beside him in the morning, and together everywhere in between. Even if Dallas didn’t want to be a full-time lifestyle sub Laurence was determined to work something out between them. As long as his lover submitted in the bedroom, he didn’t mind if Dallas didn’t want to have Laurence control him anywhere else.

Sitting up, he snatched his cell phone off the bedside table and dialled Dallas’ number.

“Good morning, Master.” Dallas’ voice came across the line low and smoky, like a really good jazz singer. For such a slight man, he had a deep voice. Laurence knew from experience that he could get hard listening to Dallas read the business section of the paper.

“You left me.” He hadn’t meant to sound so accusatory, but it hurt. He wanted to wake up with the smaller man in his arms—surely that wasn’t too much to ask.

“I had to get home,” Dallas explained.

“I wanted to spend the day with you.” He couldn’t stop disappointment from colouring his voice. Waking up beside Dallas every day couldn’t come too soon. A quick confession about his magic then they could live happily ever after. Laurence had no doubt his wolf would accept him—he just had to get up the nerve to confess all.

“Sorry, Master.”

Dallas’ apology settled Laurence some but it didn’t change the fact his sub didn’t currently lay beside him on the bed. Excuses weren’t going to cut it this time.

“I’ll come and pick you up at ten this morning. I want to take you to breakfast—be ready.” He didn’t generally do mornings, but damn it—he wanted Dallas by his side the entire damn weekend. He wished he could just tie the man to his bed and keep him there.

“N-no. I’ll come to you.” He could hear the panic in his sub’s voice.

“Dallas, if I’m going to be part of your life. I have to meet your family sometime,” Laurence insisted. “Don’t they know you’re gay?”

For the first time he wondered if Dallas hadn’t come out to his family. That would explain a lot of things.

A soft sigh came across the phone. “Yes, Master, they know. I’ll be ready for you when you come.” Dallas rattled off his address.

Laurence’s eyebrows rose at the location. He knew people who owned houses in that part of town—rich people. Maybe there was more than one reason his lover had fears about introducing Laurence to his family. He made good money as a judge, but even he didn’t have the funds for that neighbourhood.

Shaking his head, he went to get dressed. Laurence wouldn’t shame his sub with a shabby appearance.

* * * *

An hour later, Laurence pulled up in front of a mansion that appeared to take up most of the entire block along with several acres of land. A set of ornate iron gates blocked the drive and a guardhouse squatted by the entrance, manned by a large, uniformed guard.

He felt an insane urge to snatch Dallas away from the cold mansion. Pulling up beside the guardhouse, Laurence looked into the emotionless grey eyes of the guard.

“State your business,” the man demanded.

“I’m here to pick up Dallas.”

The guard looked him over critically. “You’re Dallas’ man?”

“Yes.” There were several things he wasn’t sure about in his relationship with Dallas, but belonging with his sub wasn’t one of them.

“Hmmm.”

Without another word, the guard went back into the guardhouse and flipped a switch.

The gate swung open.

With a nod to the guard, Laurence followed the road to the enormous house. There was no sign of Dallas. Laurence shook his head. Of course Dallas wouldn’t be sitting there, waiting for him outside like a lost puppy. His lover would be inside somewhere.

As he climbed the steps then rang the doorbell, Laurence wondered who else he might encounter in the mansion. Was Dallas one of several beautiful, well-behaved children? Or was he a lonely, unloved, single child rambling around in the huge house? Funnily enough, Laurence couldn’t come up with any scenarios in between.

He certainly didn’t expect the hard-eyed dominant who opened the door.

The man gave him a thorough onceover as if he were measuring Laurence for his coffin and was dubious about the fit. “I don’t know what Dallas sees in you but he’s packing a bag for the weekend. Make sure he gets home on time. I hate it when he runs late for class—it makes him a wreck.” The stranger waved Laurence inside without any sort of introduction. He wondered if the man thought Dallas had told him about his life and the people in it. Everyone certainly seemed to know who Laurence was.

“And you are?” Obviously someone who knew about Laurence’s nervousness, maybe even took advantage of it.

“I’m Rolf, his al…guardian. I’ve watched over him since he was sixteen.” The tone had a challenge in it Laurence couldn’t let slide.

“I look out for him now.” The words slipped out before he could stop them but he didn’t take them back. Laurence wouldn’t be cowed by this dangerous looking man. The more he thought about it, the more he considered keeping his lover. Dallas didn’t belong in this sterile mansion with its scowling inhabitant. Dallas belonged with him. Laurence had never been so certain of anything in his life. Now he only had to convince Dallas to stay with him and never leave.

“Don’t even think about keeping him,” Rolf said as if reading Laurence’s mind. “I expect Dallas here Sunday night. If he’s late, I’ll come and find him.”

The temptation to cast a spell and make the man forget Dallas had ever existed tingled Laurence’s fingertips. He could do it. Only a small thread of ethics prevented him from acting upon his urges—a thread he felt tempted to snap in order to claim his sub.

Laurence stepped up to confront the man but a change in Rolf’s expression grabbed his attention. The hard look vanished to be replaced by a look of such love that Laurence turned around to see who could’ve caused the expression. His heart slammed against his chest as Dallas scurried down the stairs.

“Hey, you made it.” The nervous look Dallas shot between Laurence and Rolf enforced Laurence’s silent vow to rescue his sub from the mansion. His boy should never look that nervous outside a scene while waiting to see what Laurence would do next.

Laurence watched carefully as the brutally cold man of moments ago transformed into a concerned mother hen, quickly moving to Dallas’ side and interrogating him. “Did you get a change of clothes and your study books? You know you need to work on your Irish history paper this weekend in order to raise your grade to an ‘A’.”

“Yes, Rolf. I even packed a toothbrush.” Dallas’ amused tone told Laurence that Rolf didn’t make Dallas nervous—the situation did.

Rolf’s arctic blue gaze settled on Laurence. “See that you bring him home in one piece.”

The man deserved to be punched, he really did. Laurence resisted the urge…barely.

“Umm…” Dallas stepped closer to his guardian and messed with the zipper on the man’s expensive cashmere pullover. “I was hoping I could spend the week with Laurence.”

Laurence watched with more than a little amusement as Dallas used obvious manipulative ploys, ones that would have resulted in his master tanning his ass, on his very susceptible guardian.

“Why?” Rolf spoke like he was shoving the words through gritted teeth.

“Because I thought you’d want me out of the way while you’re finalising your wedding plans.”

Dallas’ logic worked for Laurence.

“Excellent idea, Dallas.” A female voice spoke from the stairs. “I know the details bore you and you’d be much happier with your man.”

Even Laurence, who wasn’t an expert on females, could see the tension in the woman’s eyes when she looked at Dallas standing next to Rolf. It didn’t take a genius to see that the woman would like to yank Dallas away and scratch Rolf’s eyes out for looking at him, but maybe he was projecting.

“Really?” Poor, oblivious Dallas gave the woman one of his sunny smiles.

“This is Mila Strand, my fiancée. Mila, this is Laurence Campas, Dallas’ man.” Rolf introduced with an obvious lack of enthusiasm over the both of them.

Mila nodded to Laurence like a queen greeting her unworthy subjects. An aura of animosity surrounded her as she gave him a polite smile.

“Nice to meet you,” Laurence said coolly. He couldn’t think of anything to say to a woman who had just seen her future husband fawning over another person. Although he didn’t think Rolf saw Dallas in a romantic light, it still had to hurt to see his obvious affection for someone not his future spouse.

His empathy for the woman vanished when their gazes met and the cold calculation in Mila’s eyes made him want to snatch Dallas away to safety. She had the look of someone willing to remove anything or anyone in her path, and right now her path ran right through Dallas.

“I could keep him for a few weeks if it would help,” Laurence offered. Maybe if he delayed enough, Rolf wouldn’t notice when he never returned Dallas. How his slim sub got ‘in the way’ in a mansion this size Laurence didn’t know, but if it helped keep Dallas in his bed, he would support the obviously scheming woman.

“No,” Rolf snapped. “One week is enough. He has obligations next week. I’ll need him home. As it is, I’m letting him out of some wedding stuff to go with you.”

“Yeah!” Dallas turned and threw himself into Laurence’s arms. Luckily, he was used to his lover’s impulsive behaviour and caught him. Any other submissive would’ve received a lecture on decorum. He couldn’t force the words past his lips as Dallas said giddily, “You get to keep me for a week.”

“One day I will get to keep you always,” Laurence whispered, setting his lover back on his feet. Apparently his brain-to-mouth filter had broken.

A shadow passed across his lover’s beautiful face. “That would be nice.” From his tone, Dallas didn’t sound as if he thought that the time would ever come.