Axel's Pup (26 page)

When Axel nodded toward the other side of the bed, Bayden went around and got in. It was strange, sharing a bed with another man. As Bayden lay quietly next to Axel in the dark, his whole body felt strange, too.

Prepared but not screwed. Toyed with but not allowed to come. Allowed to help Axel get off, but not permitted to try to really please him. Bayden had had just a touch of everything he wanted—enough to increase his need, but not enough to sate it.

He’d lied when he said he didn’t care what happened. He did care. He cared a lot. All his big talk about not wanting anything for himself, and it had lasted two damn minutes.

It was all he could do not to squirm in frustration—furious with himself for having screwed everything up the one time he was with a man who was important to him.

The only thing that kept Bayden still was the idea that Axel wouldn’t be pleased with him if he woke him up, and pleasing Axel was important.

Bayden closed his eyes. He’d suspected as much for a long time, but now he was sure—pleasing Axel was everything.

Axel half-stretched. When he realised he was unable to move any further, his sleepiness faded away to make room for confusion. He lifted his head. In the early morning light, he was able to make out a head of scruffy brown hair resting on his chest.

That allowed other facts to arrange themselves more easily in his mind. The reason he could barely move was because there was a werewolf pinning him to the mattress.

One of Bayden’s arms lay across Axel’s body, his head rested near the middle of Axel’s chest. At some point in the night, Bayden had hooked a leg over Axel’s thigh, and his knee now rested on the mattress between Axel’s legs. Bayden’s torso was a solid weight against him. Bayden’s cock pressed against Axel’s hip letting him know that humans weren’t the only species who could wake up with morning wood.

Axel had wrapped an arm around Bayden’s shoulders in his sleep and was already holding him close. He absentmindedly stroked Bayden’s back as he ran through the previous night’s brief scene. He still didn’t know if it had achieved the desired effect.

Patience. That requirement hadn’t disappeared the moment Bayden offered him his submission—the need for it was only really beginning.

He trailed his fingertips down Bayden’s spine again, glorying in the amount of bare skin at his disposal. Bayden murmured and arched his back against Axel’s hand. Still mostly asleep, he stumbled on a very nice side effect of that move. Bayden rocked his hips a couple more times, rubbing his erection against Axel’s hip, before snuggling back down so only the very top of his head peeked above the blankets.

He might not complain about being cold during the day, but in the night his desire for warmth had been obvious, not least in the way he’d quickly migrated toward Axel’s body heat and wrapped himself around it.

Axel smiled. Leather, motorbikes, fistfights and
snuggling
. No, this really wasn’t part of the image Bayden worked so conscientiously at projecting to the guys in the pub.

The moment Bayden woke up, tension flooded his body. All attempts at snuggling stopped.

“Sleep well?” Axel asked.

Bayden quickly retreated to the other side of the bed. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t realise I was…”

He’d remembered the honorific. He was nine parts asleep, embarrassed as hell, but he’d still remembered it. Perhaps it didn’t mean anything definitive, but it was certainly interesting.

“Were you warm enough in the night?” Axel asked.

Bayden looked up at him through his lashes, as if he wasn’t sure if Axel was teasing or insulting him, but he eventually nodded.

“Good.” Axel pushed back the blankets.

“Is there anything you want me to do, sir?”

Axel shook his head. Morning sex was not part of his plans, worst luck. He pulled himself out of bed. “You can get a few more minutes.”

When Axel came out of the bathroom, still towelling his hair dry after his shower, he expected to find Bayden tucked back under the covers. Instead, the bed was neatly made. Bayden stood next to it—naked, hard and waiting for an order.

It would have been so easy to topple him back onto the bed and Axel had no doubt that whatever followed that move would be nigh on perfection. He resisted and nodded toward the bathroom. “Your turn.”

“Yes, sir.” Bayden was halfway through the door when he hesitated. “Do you mind if I use the shower, sir?”

He sounded ridiculously wary considering the question. Axel ruffled Bayden’s sleep-mussed hair as he joined him in the doorway. “Go ahead.”

There was no way he could close the door while Axel stood there. Bayden made no complaint. He got straight into the shower, not the least bit embarrassed at having an audience.

Bayden looked up to the ceiling and allowed the hot water to slick his hair back from his face. His expression was damn near blissful. It had never occurred to Axel to wonder if a species that spent half its time in a fur coat, spent the other half of its time struggling to stay warm.

Bayden never dressed as if he was trying to keep out the chill. But did that really mean anything?

Bayden glanced toward the bottles of shower gel and shampoo, but he didn’t reach out to take what he wanted. He didn’t ask for permission either.

“Use whatever you want,” Axel offered.

Bayden glanced across at him, apparently both pleased and surprised by the offer. “Thank you, sir.”

“There’s plenty of hot water. Take your time, if you like,” Axel said, finally turning away. “But, Bayden?”

Bayden stopped vigorously scrubbing his skin and gave Axel his full attention.

“You have permission to shower—not to jack off, and not to come. Understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

Axel closed the door behind him and wandered into the kitchen. By the time Bayden joined him, breakfast was ready.

Axel handed a plate to Bayden. He took it, apparently on autopilot. The plate held a bacon sandwich, the same as Axel’s did. Bayden couldn’t have looked more shocked if it had supported a tarantula.

“You don’t have to keep feeding me all the time, sir.”

Axel pointed to one of the chairs at the table. “Well, I don’t intend to starve you.”

Bayden sat down. He was still staring at the plate as if breakfast was a strange and alien concept to him.

Axel had wondered how much Bayden ate when he wasn’t at the pub. This clue wasn’t to his taste. “Eat,” he ordered, more gruffly than he’d intended.

Bayden did as he was told, but his mind was obviously elsewhere.

Axel swallowed his reservations. “Tell me.”

Bayden glanced at him.

“There’s obviously something on your mind. Tell me.”

 “If I offer you money for the extra food, will you be offended, sir?”

“Very,” Axel said, with slightly false cheerfulness. As he joined Bayden at the table, he stroked his cheek to soften any rejection.

Bayden stared at his sandwich for a few moments. “I should have thought it through before I agreed to stay here all the time.”

“Thought about what?”

“How much trouble it would put you to.”

“You could have thought as much as you’d liked, but where you’d live while you’re submitting to me was never up for debate,” Axel said. “Stop feeling guilty about something that wasn’t your decision.”

Axel watched Bayden through breakfast. Part of him wanted to chuckle at the silliness of the boy’s concerns, except they obviously didn’t seem silly to Bayden. A comfortable bed for the night, a hot shower and a solid breakfast, they were all things that meant something to him.

Axel bit back a sigh, wondering exactly how much trouble Bayden had got himself into since he moved into his own place.

* * * * *

Bayden didn’t mention the scene the previous night. Axel didn’t really expect him to. He’d long since accepted the fact that Bayden wasn’t someone who’d start any conversation that he could avoid. As they cleaned the pub and got it ready for opening that afternoon, Axel kept a careful eye on him.

Technically, Bayden wasn’t on shift, but he still worked like he was afraid of getting fired if he paused for a moment. Axel didn’t once catch the boy looking in his direction. By the time the pub was as clean as it could get, Axel had had enough of being ignored.

“Last night you mentioned sleeping in your wolf form,” Axel said.

Halfway through lifting the chairs down off the tables and placing them back on the freshly mopped floor, Bayden turned his complete attention to Axel. “It’s not a problem, sir. I can sleep human. And I can make sure I stay on the right side of the bed. I mean, if you decide you want me to sleep in your bed again. I—”

Axel held up one hand, stopping Bayden before the offer became tangled beyond all sense. “I don’t do guessing games. If I have a problem with something, I’ll tell you. And you’re about half my weight, I’m quite capable of picking you up and moving you if you’re in my way.”

Bayden nodded. He lifted another chair down.

“You’re used to shifting every day.” Axel didn’t make it a question.

“I don’t need to. I can go six weeks human, sir,” he promised. “I won’t shift without your permission.”

“No.”

Bayden stopped fidgeting with the chairs. “Sir?”

“You don’t need my permission to shift.”

Bayden made no comment.

“Unless we’re playing or screwing, you can shift whenever you want.”

Bayden still didn’t say anything.

Axel rounded the bar and closed the gap between them.

“I’m not ordering you to shift, but I want you to.”

“Why?” Bayden blurted out.

“Why won’t I make it an order, or why do I want you to?”

Bayden swallowed. “Both. If you don’t mind, sir.” The desire to trust was obvious, but so was the fear that Axel wouldn’t prove worthy of that trust.

“I won’t order you because it’s not some sort of party trick that I expect you to perform on command,” Axel said, stopping just a yard away from Bayden. “But when you agreed to submit to me, you agreed not to hide anything from me—that includes the lupine side of you.”

Bayden’s hand rested on the back of a chair. His gripped tightened and released several times in quick succession. “Now, sir?”

“Yes.”

Bayden indicated his clothes. “Can I?”

“What would happen if you didn’t?”

“Sometimes the jeans survive. The top usually doesn’t.”

It wasn’t a complete run down of Bayden’s entire life, but it was information that was offered up without obvious reluctance. Axel was pleased with it. “You can take off whatever you want.”

Bayden stripped. He put his clothes neatly on the chair. He didn’t look at Axel as he crouched down.

The process was just as seamless as the first time Axel saw him shift. It was so much less dramatic than Hollywood always made it seem. No writhing around in agony—no popping and twisting of joints. One minute there was a naked man there, the next there was a wolf in a fur coat.

“Does it hurt?” Axel asked, without thinking.

The wolf shook its head—his head. Bayden shook his head. Axel smiled. Damn, but this was going to take a bit of getting used to. He crouched down. “Come here.”

Bayden padded forward, his nails clicking against the wooden floor. He dipped his head and hesitated a little way off.

“All the way, pup.”

Axel stroked Bayden’s ears when he came within reach, just like he was saying hello to a dog rather than a wolf. Bayden accepted the gesture, the same way he accepted a caress in human form, but it was dangerous ground. Getting the balance wrong would break any trust Bayden had in him.

“I’m going to have to be careful to remember who you are, aren’t I, pup?”

Bayden made a soft sound in the back of his throat, halfway between a whine and a whimper.

“It wouldn’t do to forget that you’re a wolf rather than a dog.”

Bayden offered no comment. It was difficult to put that down to him having a lupine voice box. In his human form, Axel probably wouldn’t have got more than a shrug out of him.

“What do you usually do when you’re a wolf?”

Bayden blinked big amber eyes at him.

Axel chuckled and scratched Bayden behind the ears. “I should have asked you that before.”

He straightened up. Bayden watched him with apparent curiosity.

“Anything you particularly want to do?”

Bayden shook his head. He obviously still understood every word Axel said.

Axel rubbed his fingers along his jawline as he considered his options. “If I treat you like a dog rather than a wolf, I’m going to get bitten, aren’t I?”

Bayden shook his head. He stepped forward. Dipping his head, he nudged at Axel’s knee and whimpered.

“Hey.”

Axel caught hold of his muzzle and held Bayden’s head still as he looked him in the eye. “That wasn’t an insult, pup.”

Bayden shook his head again, but he didn’t pull away from Axel’s touch.

“Okay,” Axel said, as he reached a decision. “I’m going to make lunch. You can rest in your wolf form until it’s ready. That’ll give you a little while to…stretch your paws.”

Axel carried Bayden’s clothes up stairs. It was still hard to think of the wolf that padded along in his wake as being Bayden. It felt more like he was pet sitting Bayden’s dog while Bayden was somewhere else.

In the flat, Axel glanced around. What would a wolf need to know? “You’re allowed on the furniture.” Nothing else came to mind.

Axel headed into the kitchen, leaving Bayden to it. He’d barely got food out of the fridge before he realised he was being watched. Bayden stood in the doorway, all four paws on the other side of the threshold, only his nose inside the kitchen.

“Want to keep me company?” Axel guessed.

Bayden hesitated for a second, then nodded.

Axel glanced at the floor, it was tiled and, he guessed, not the most comfortable thing for a wolf to lie on. “Stay there.”

There was a stock of thick cushions in one of the pubs back rooms, for subs who were allowed to be comfortable even if they weren’t given permission to use the furniture. Axel retrieved one and put it in the corner of the kitchen.

Instinct took over, he whistled. “Here, pup.”