Authors: Anitra Lynn McLeod
Tags: #Romance
“Come clean up with me.”
They showered, and Ferris learned how to program the cookbot. Bailey seemed determined to keep him within the walls of his mechanical house for as long as he could.
“I beg you not to lock me up.”
Bailey flinched back. “I’m not going to lock you in my house all day.” He pulled Ferris into his strong arms. “I would never chain you up like a slave. What makes you think I would do such a thing?”
“You seem reluctant to let me go outside.” And several times Bailey had referred to the house as
his
house not
their
house. Ferris looked out the window toward the rolling fields of
tallos
. “McBride said if I helped I would be given a percentage.”
“He did?” Bailey was astonished. “But then I would be less in your eyes.”
“Less?”
“It’s my duty to care for you.” Bailey stood very tall, and Ferris realized his mate was an extremely proud man.
“It’s my duty to care for you, too.” Ferris hugged him hard. “I had always hoped to find a relationship where me and my companion cared for each other.”
Bailey didn’t outright dismiss the idea, even though it was clear to Ferris that he’d never considered such an arrangement. In the thrall house, Ferris had encountered many who thought he was foolish for thinking he would ever be anything more than a source of blood and sexual pleasure to his companion, should he be lucky enough to get one.
“I must think about this.” Bailey seated himself at the table once the cookbot placed their food on the battered surface. “I appreciate that you wish to contribute to our household.”
Ferris sat down and thought about how sometimes Bailey spoke more formally than he did at other times. Unsure if it meant he was angry, Ferris simply accepted his words and hoped Bailey would honestly give his wishes all due consideration. If they could not come to agreement on this most basic manner of living, Ferris saw potential troubles ahead.
“Do you wish for me to be happy?” Ferris sprinkled salt over his eggs and then proceeded to eat. He was stunned at how well the bot had cooked them. Most bots were so mechanical everything they created tasted flat, but this was amazingly good.
“Of course I want you to be happy.” Bailey frowned at him as he sampled his bacon. “Why would I not?”
“Some companions are cruel.”
Bailey dropped his fork, which clattered against the plate. “You think I will harm you?”
“No!” Ferris was quick to explain. “You and your master have been nothing but kind. Truly, I am blessed.” Ferris wanted to say more but feared he would only make a mess of things. It seemed to be his curse that he was unable to explain himself without bothering or offending someone. They ate in strained silence for so long Ferris scrambled for something to say.
“I worry about letting you go into the fields.” Bailey kept his attention on his plate.
“I wouldn’t run.”
His head came up so fast that droplets of water flew off the ends of his still-wet hair. “I didn’t say you would.”
Ferris struggled to understand Bailey’s concern.
“I don’t worry about you.” Bailey’s gaze wandered to the window and stayed there.
Waiting for him to continue almost drove Ferris to speak again, but he refrained. He feared if he did he would only anger or frustrate Bailey more.
“I don’t trust my brothers.”
Ferris thought he understood, but he refused to jump to another conclusion. It seemed to him if he simply let Bailey talk in his halting, thoughtful way, he would eventually explain himself in detail.
“My brothers—most of my brothers”—he corrected himself sharply—“would honor the bond between us.” He turned his attention to his plate. Bailey took a bite, chewed thoughtfully, then continued, “But not all of them would be able to contain their lust.”
Ferris understood that if Bailey’s brothers had even a tenth of the lust for him that his companion did, he would be in trouble.
“You are extremely beautiful.”
Ferris blushed but managed to hold his mate’s gaze.
“I saw the hunger in their eyes when McBride brought you to me yesterday. I saw the bulges in their trousers. They went to bed with that lust filling them, and they had no outlet but for their own hand.” Bailey looked down as if he were suddenly ashamed. “Touching yourself is not very satisfying. I know because until you that’s what I had. And that is all that they have now.”
Ferris knew that well. “In the thrall house we were electro-ejaculated.”
“What?”
“We were milked.”
Bailey tilted his head, a look of confusion on his face. “Like a cow?”
“In a sense.” Ferris ate another bite of his breakfast. “We were lined up before a row of horizontal metal bars. We were instructed to bend from the hips, grasp the bar in our fists, and then…” Ferris remembered the curious sensation and thought how to describe what was done to him and the others. “They inserted a small metal bulb into our bottoms.”
“Did it hurt?” Bailey had forgotten his meal.
“No. It was small. Much smaller than the dilator we used last night.” Ferris lifted his hand and extended his pinky finger. “It was about the size of my smallest fingernail.”
“Smaller than a grease pellet?”
“By far.” Ferris nodded. “Anything larger would have broken what they call our factory seal.” Ferris didn’t quite understand the derivation for that saying, but he understood it meant his bottom had not been penetrated.
“Did you enjoy it?”
“You mean having the device inserted?” Ferris thought back. “It was so small as to be almost unnoticeable.”
“What happened next?”
“They did something, flipped a switch, I think, and current”—at Bailey’s horrified look he quickly amended—“a very small amount of electricity—was sent into the bulb.”
“Why?” Bailey looked disturbed.
“After several jolts it caused us all to climax.” Ferris remembered standing there with his fellow thralls in a long line as they all spurted almost simultaneously.
“But what was the point?”
“To keep us healthy.” Ferris looked down at his meal and found he wasn’t that hungry anymore. “It also kept us from engaging one another sexually. The best I can explain is it kept us drained as if we were satisfied.”
“But you weren’t.” Bailey pushed his plate aside.
“No.” Ferris slid his plate to the side as well and the cookbot retrieved them for cleaning. “It is one thing to have a physical release. Quite another to be emotionally satisfied after a climax.”
Bailey frowned as he toyed with his fork.
“I didn’t know what it was to be completely satisfied until last night.”
At his words, Bailey lifted his head. Hope turned his sage-green eyes bright. “Really?”
“Truly.”
Bailey extended his arm, and Ferris reached across the table to clasp his hand.
“The only way I could be any happier is to know that I had fed you well.” Ferris squeezed Bailey’s fingers. “Have you ever drunk from someone?”
“Of course not. I mean, no. I’m a slammer.” Bailey stroked the scar on his neck.
“With only McBride as your master?”
“There was a man before him. Jonas. He fed from me and my brothers in order to feed McBride’s father.”
They were silent for a moment as Ferris considered. “McBride’s father never…” To Ferris, he thought alphas needed lots of blood and the only way to have that need met was to have a strong stable of slammers at the ready.
“Never.” Bailey looked through the corner of the kitchen as if he could see the massive house on the other side of the wall. “Always in that big house. He hardly ever even came out.”
“You didn’t even see him?” Ferris couldn’t help but have his interest piqued. Telling tall tales was one of the only ways to pass the time in the thrall house. It was a skill Ferris lacked. His stories never made sense. “Didn’t he oversee his lands?”
“He was a curious kind of man. McBride’s father was afraid to come outside.”
“Afraid? Of what?”
“I don’t know. One of my brothers might. When we came here, it was late at night. There was no moon to light the way, no electric lamps this far out from civilization.”
Ferris had noticed how remote the farm was as he rode with McBride.
“I felt his cock.” Ferris couldn’t believe he’d just confessed that to his companion.
“What?” Bailey hung on to Ferris’s hand a little more firmly.
“When we rode back from the platform. I sat in front of him on the
dressiter
. He was hard.”
“Did he…did he touch you?” Bailey lowered his voice and leaned across the table as if he were afraid of being heard.
“No!” Ferris waved away his concern. “He was very honorable.”
“Oh. Then why tell me such a thing?”
“Because he was big.”
“That I know. Even before I saw him last night I knew he was well endowed.” Bailey grinned. “When he feeds from me, he likes to stand behind me while I’m seated, but once he was in a hurry and had me stand. I felt him against my buttocks. But last night was the first time I’ve actually seen him.”
“Do you find him attractive?”
“I suppose so.” Bailey shrugged. “I mean, he’s a landed gentryman. What man on the planet would be repulsed by him?”
“Very few?”
They laughed.
“Are you attracted to him?” Bailey asked, concern etching deep lines around his mouth.
“In a way.” When Bailey stiffened, Ferris soothed, “But not the way I am to you.”
Clearly, it was exactly what Bailey needed to hear. “With both of us getting a percentage, we could do more sooner. And I really want to work. It matters to me that I am more than a thrall spending my days in bed.”
Bailey’s frown disappeared. “I would like to have you by my side in the field. However, I do not have a
tallos
-picking suit that will fit you. But I’m sure McBride has thought of that.”
“Probably.” Ferris smiled, pleased that they were able to quickly resolve their first bit of strife.
“I’m going to go up to the big house and see if McBride has a suit for you.” Bailey looked Ferris over and sighed.
“What?”
“Just, I realized that after today, you will be dressed.”
“Only if you wish me to be.”
“If I had my way, you would be naked and in bed.”
“All the time?” Ferris asked coyly, knowing that Bailey was not serious. He knew this by the way Bailey flashed him a hesitant smile.
“Always.” Bailey moved close and then tilted Ferris’s face up. “I would have you ready for me all the time.”
After a bit more love play, Bailey dressed and moved toward the front of the house. He returned very quickly, frowning.
“What’s wrong?”
“The door is locked.”
“Unlock it,” Ferris suggested playfully.
“If I could, I would, but it locks from the outside only.”
Ferris was not surprised that McBride could lock his slammers in but they couldn’t lock him out. It was the same way at the thrall house. “Well.”
“Well what?”
“Since you can’t go to work, it looks like I’ll have to keep you entertained here.”
A big, welcoming smile transformed Bailey’s face as he stripped back out of his clothes.
McBride awoke in a panic. He was completely bound and couldn’t move. At first he had no idea where he was because it was pitch black. Fear gave way to chagrin when he realized he was home alone in his own bed. The only thing holding him were the blankets that he’d managed to twist around himself. He must have been having one hell of a terrifying dream to do that, but he couldn’t remember anything in particular about it.
“Lights.”
The lights came on, and he realized what had caused his confusion was the fact he had the shields activated. Rarely did he use them because they blocked out all the light, but he’d wanted to get in a few decent hours before he started another day.
“Shields up.”
Rolls of metal retracted back into the house. He winced when he realized how much of the day was gone. A glance out to the fields showed him his slammers were working, but a quick headcount made him realize two were missing.
“Ah, damn.” Hastily, McBride pulled on fresh clothing. Everything he’d been wearing yesterday had been burned at the scene, including his favorite pair of boots. After getting a distance away, he had stripped out of his temporary paper clothing and burned that, too. He’d arrived home in the wee hours of the morning totally nude. Utterly exhausted, he’d barely gotten into bed when he’d fallen asleep.
He dressed hurriedly, and after yanking on his second-favorite pair of boots, McBride rushed across the yard and unlocked Caleb’s door. He knocked once, sharply, but he moved swiftly away to Bailey’s door. He didn’t look back to see if Caleb got up and got to work. For all he knew or cared, Caleb could be making a series of rude hand gestures behind him. Today, McBride had much bigger issues to deal with. Whatever had happened out at the Larsden house was bad, and it was probably only going to get worse.