Page 51 of Under His Skin

The threat might have worked on anybody else, but Tracht highly doubted that Alex knew what it meant. So Alex just continued with his rant.

“Fuck you too. I get dragged in here just to badmouth Anna and Tracht, and now you want me to be nice about it? No. You want my actual opinion on all this shit? Anna’s a fucking bitch, but she paid me when I saved her nephew, and she gave me gifts on my birthdays. Which is more than my brother ever did for me. And Tracht—” Alex slowed down, apparently realizing he was shouting.

Tracht’s heart started beating faster, and he was suddenly very worried about what Alex would say next. Strange that Alex could surprise him like this, five years in. Shouldn’t Alex have been completely downtrodden, a shell of a man, somebody who had no opinions of his own? And yet.

“Tracht is everything. You can ask anybody who works for him. He’s an asshole sometimes, but I haven’t met any rich person who wasn’t. But Tracht actually makes sure everybody takes their breaks and hands out bonuses like money grows on trees, while the rest of you all pay shit and pretend like you care when the poor people suffer. Yeah right. So fuck all of you if you think you’re better than Tracht, and I’m gonna punch anybody who says another bad word about him.”

For a moment, Tracht couldn’t even breathe. He hadn’t expected—no, that was wrong. He knew Alex was completely tied up with him. He’d worked specifically to that end goal. And yet, hearing Alex declare his devotion out loud affected him much more than he would ever admit. He thought he would never want a willing partner, that it was too boring and too mundane and altogether too much trouble, but that was wrong. Alex knew Tracht, yet Alex hadn’t taken the first opportunity to escape.

“Enough!” The judge slammed his gavel furiously. “Bailiff, remove Mr. Stone immediately. And since he’s so lush in funds from Ms. Tracht’s gifts, we can set an appropriately high fine.”

The bailiff rushed over to Alex and tried to signal for Alex to get out of the witness stand. It took Alex a minute to figure out what the man wanted, but when he did, Alex gave a wide grin. Apparently he had no problem at all with this turn of events.

Tracht watched Alex get escorted out, and couldn’t stop himself from smiling when Alex met his eyes. Tracht really shouldn’t encourage Alex’s idiocy like this, but as Tracht had noticed repeatedly in the past five years, he’d grown increasingly indulgent.

Krantz, sitting next to Tracht, swore. “Did you know he would say something like that?”

“Not really,” Tracht answered smoothly. “But I would have been surprised if he’d behaved himself. He is far from what anybody would consider civilized.”

“How the hell did you convince him that you’re a good person?” Krantz grimaced after he said it. “Never mind, it’s not my business. As long as you pay my fees, I don’t care.”

Alex had not said that Tracht was a good person. But Tracht didn’t point that out. He decided he was done watching these proceedings. Whatever happened, he got what he wanted, in the end.

He got up and headed towards the exit. As he passed her, Franziska gave him the most genuine expression he’d seen from her in years: raw hatred.

Tracht smiled at her in return, and mouthed thank you. She shook her head in obvious disgust and looked away.

Chapter 14

Tracht found Alex in the detainment office, slumped in a chair and looking far too pleased with himself given that he’d probably incurred a stupidly high fine.

“Are you proud of yourself?” Tracht asked mildly, though it took a lot of effort to keep himself from smiling.

Alex grinned. “Yep. Figured if I was free to do whatever I wanted, I might as well just do it.”

The bailiff stood on the other side of the room, speaking with the detention officer. Tracht gave him only a brief glance before sitting down next to Alex. He put his hand on Alex’s thigh, far too high up to even appear innocent, and squeezed hard.

“Given the circumstances, I’ll allow it.” Tracht turned his head to face Alex, with plans to give him a stern look and further chastisement, but Alex surprised him by grabbing him and pulling him into a kiss.

Tracht stayed frozen for a few seconds before returning the kiss, reaching up with his other hand and pulling sharply on Alex’s hair. He felt Alex wince, and that made him pull again. When Alex whimpered in pain, Tracht bit down on his lip.

He desperately needed to chain Alex up. No, first he needed Alex at his feet, kissing his boots, lavishing worship. And then he would chain him up, and mark his entire body, and drink in his pain and humiliation.

“Hey! You’re in public!” the bailiff shouted at them. Another thrill of desire shot through Tracht.

If he wanted to, he was sure he could get Alex to strip naked right there and then, in front of the bailiff and the detention officer and anybody who walked by. They would see Alex humiliated, they would see just how much control Tracht had over this man who was uncouth and uncivilized and truly unfit for society.

Tracht nipped Alex’s lip one more time before pulling away, and he was satisfied with the dazed expression on Alex’s face. “So we are. Really, Alex, what were you thinking? Putting on displays like that. Think of the poor onlookers. Doing something like this in public is quite shameful.”

That made Alex gape for a few moments. Because Alex knew Tracht, and Alex knew how much Tracht enjoyed exhibitionism and public displays of… not affection, but of control, of power. And then Alex lowered his head and smiled. “Yeah, got it. But I’m not sorry I said any of that. It’s their own fault.”

“Naturally. It’s never your fault.” Tracht gentled his grip in Alex’s hair. “Let’s pay off this silly fine and go find a hotel.”

He headed over to the detention officer, Alex close on his heels. He suspected Alex wanted nothing more than to embrace him, even now, but he had the good sense to keep his hands to himself while they were dealing with the courthouse.

“You’re really paying it off for him?” the detention officer asked. “It’s not cheap.”

“The station did save me some money by paying the remainder of his bond, so I suppose that makes us even.” Tracht handed over his credit chip and waited for the transaction to go through. It wasn’t even that much money, in the grand scheme of things.

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