Page 5 of Under His Skin

“There’s… enough.” Tracht realized this was going to be a much longer conversation than he wanted, and Alex was standing in the doorway, scowling. “Give me five minutes? I have to get to a more private location.”

He muted the call, but rather than getting dressed and heading to his office, he motioned for Alex to come over and kneel. “Stay there.”

The apprehension in Alex’s posture was palpable and very enticing, which made it a double shame that the call was so important. He waited for Alex to get into position, then he walked over to the cabinet and got the blindfold, earplugs, and a cock-shaped gag.

Alex’s expression turned even more sour when he saw what Tracht had picked out.

“Seriously? We were having a good time. And you know I won’t talk about anything I overhear. And—”

“Shut up,” Tracht said sharply. “I know you aren’t going to say anything because there won’t be anything for you to say. And I don’t need you whining and trying to interrupt either.”

Alex looked so resentful as Tracht plugged his ears and put the gag on him that Tracht couldn’t stop himself from smiling. This was exactly how he liked Alex. He finished with the blindfold, making sure it was all secure, then settled back onto the couch. He did have Alex lay his head against his thigh, forcing him to stay still.

It made the unpleasant conversation slightly more pleasant, even if Vasilis called him on his distraction a few times.

Chapter 2

Alex hated having dinner with Anna’s family.

It wasn’t just that she was a bitch—which she was—but that he couldn’t figure out how he was supposed to act around any of them. Tracht seemed to think it was funny when Anna got mad, so Alex didn’t worry too much about that, but it didn’t help him with the others in the family. It was especially hard to deal with Vasilis, who was just as much a rich douche as the two Tracht siblings, but sometimes talked to Alex like Alex wasn’t the lowest form of dirt.

Also, how weird was it that Alex had a designated “seat”? It was never discussed, but he naturally always sat next to Tracht, with Markus across from him and Johan on his other side. Before Chryssy had gone off to university on Pylos, she’d had the seat next to Markus.

Sometimes he caught the two boys staring at him. Well, not really boys anymore: Markus was tall now, and he’d gotten kind of hot over the years. Not as hot as Tracht, of course, but there was enough family resemblance in the dark hair and intense eyes that Alex idly imagined him naked.

Was that weird? It wasn’t like Markus was that much younger than him. Only around ten years, which was the age difference between him and Tracht. So it was probably normal.

“Hey, I have a favor,” Markus suddenly asked, startling Alex out of his thoughts.

“A favor?” Alex looked over at Tracht, but he was still engrossed in a conversation with Anna, something about the recent news and that douche who’d gone on and on about the evils of whatever.

Markus nodded. “Yeah. Can you sit for me?”

“Uh… I’m sitting right now? And I’m not a dog.” Alex resisted the sudden urge to put his hand on Tracht’s thigh. He didn’t need Tracht to start paying attention.

Next to him, Johan snorted a small laugh, but he stopped as soon as he caught Alex scowling at him.

“Nah. I mean, can I paint you? All you have to do is sit still for an hour or two. You’d get breaks as well. I just think you’ve got an interesting face. And I bet your muscles would be fun to draw too.” Markus tapped on his tablet and handed it across the table. “Like this.”

The screen displayed a picture of Chryssy, except the colors were kind of weird. There was something going on with the lines too, like they weren’t super sharp but everything flowed. The whole picture was eerie, like Chryssy was staring at him directly but also not.

“You did this?” He knew that Markus was into art, but he couldn’t remember if he’d seen any of it before. “You made your sister look really hot.”

Markus grimaced. “Ugh, don’t say that. Bad enough when my girlfriend started drooling over her.” Before Alex could figure out how he was supposed to respond to that, Markus added, “The real Chryssy, not the painting. Oh, Chryssy is sooo pretty. Oh, she’s so talented! Do you think she’ll like this dress? If I wear these earrings—”

Johan made a gagging noise. “Just break up with her if she’s not into you.”

“Nah, I like her and I think she’s over it now that Chryssy is safely on Pylos.” Markus winked at Alex. “My girlfriend is pretty hot. Want to see?”

Alex kind of did, actually, because he was so confused by the entire conversation. He nodded and waited while Markus fumbled with the tablet again and pulled up actual photos, this time of himself and a pretty girl with dark skin and long braided hair. She was bigger than Alex would have expected, both in height and weight, but Alex could dig it.

“Huh, not bad,” Alex said. “That’s a lot of ass.”

Of course he happened to say it right when there was a lull in the conversation, which made his comment ring out loudly in the dining room.

Everybody stared at him. Anna had the most constipated look on her face, which would have made Alex laugh under other circumstances. But Tracht didn’t look amused this time, just pissed off, which had Alex tensing up.

“Would you like to repeat that?” Tracht asked slowly.

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