Page 52 of Rock Bottom
But we needed to deal with Billy. I lifted my head and looked at him, and Julian telepathed,I know it isn’t necessary for me to point out Billy is a masochist, but I need to tell you he doesn’t have mind-fucks as a hard limit. Denying him an orgasm under these circumstances is a huge mental thing, a mental masochist’s dream, yes? But we have to give him orgasms sometimes, so he never knows whether he’ll be gifted with one or denied the pleasure, which is also a pleasure because he’s such a masochist.
I scooted so I was on my back looking up at him, but still in his arms.You’re in his head, right? I’ll leave whether he gets one up to you.
Okay. I’ll bite him and inject the cocktail for an orgasm while you pull on his chains again.
He needs more pepper oil for his plug first.
His grin told me he agreed, and we both moved to get up.
Can I see him change?
Yes. I’ll take his cuffs off, carry him to the aviary, and then take the magicked cuff off before I put him in and make sure he has enough energy to make the change on his own. I can help him if he can’t, but I don’t know how to pull his animal from his human body unless he starts the process, which is why I’m restricted to how much damage I can inflict. Follow me when I leave the room with him.
* * * *
Julian
I’m getting better at looking through memories and thoughts, and I saw that Billy’s surface mind was hoping I’d deny him, but deeper down, he truly wanted release. Six months earlier, I’d have just seen the surface thoughts and would’ve given him an orgasm to disappoint him, but today I decided he didn’t deserve one. I drank another six ounces from an artery just below his armpit — easy to reach with his arms stretched overhead, pulsing straight from his heart where it takes the most exquisite, and bonus, I could angle the bite just right to scrape bone beneath the muscle, layering pain on top of pain.
I had to stop drinking before I wanted to since I’d drunk deeply from him earlier, and then I dumped a shitload of hard-on cocktail in, some clotting agent, and I released his muscles so he could writhe and squirm before carefully pulling my fangs from him.
When he realized we were preparing to take him back, he sobbed with need, and yet, his scent was relieved. He needed relief so badly the room was saturated with the scent of it, but was relieved he was going to be denied. More often than not, it’s better not to try to make sense of the needs of extreme masochists.
Silver and I both put pants on before I carried Billy to his aviary. His bedroom has a ten-foot by fifteen-foot section that’s caged off, with easy-to-clean flooring and a few fake trees. He can only open and close the cage when he has fingers, so he can let himself in and out as often as he wants, but only when he’s human.
“Stay ten feet back until I get his cage closed,” I told Silver.
I removed Billy’s final cuff, the one keeping him fromchanging, opened the aviary door, stood him up inside, and then leaned to the side to open the cage with rats. I grabbed one by the tail, closed it and latched it, and looked to make sure Billy’s owl was safely on a branch before I tossed the rat in far enough I’d have time to get the door closed before it could run back to me. I closed the door and took a step back.
Silver stepped to me, and I grasped her hand with the one I hadn’t used for the rat.Do you want to watch him eat, or was that enough?
That was enough. Thank you.
I need to wash my hands after handling the rat.
She nodded, and we made our way out of his room, but she stopped and looked at his door when I closed it.
It’s set up so it can be locked from the outside,she noted.
I can’t remember Billy ever being locked in his room, but Marco has the option. The flock are not welcome outside their section of the underground without an invitation. They can come to our rooms when instructed to, but they never go upstairs, into the common areas of the house.
They can’t go outside?
There’s another way in and out. They’re welcome in the farmhouse when we aren’t housing guests there, if they want to be inside where there are actual windows. They can hang out on the screened-in porch there, which is huge, or they can wander certain sections of the property.
Sections Kirsten rarely goes, so she doesn’t have to deal with them, was what I figured, but no one had actually said those words. She’d mentioned a few by name here and there, so she clearly knew them individually, but Marco had told me not to bring them up to her, but to answer her honestly if she asked about them, so that’s what I did.
We made it back to the teal suite, and Silver asked, “When do I get to see your bedroom?”
“Didn’t Marco explain? You were given a room with windows, upstairs, because most humans prefer that, but this is your room in the underground. You can come and go as you please. The guards will let you through going both directions. My room isn’t in a place we bring guests.”
She furrowed her brow. “Are you locked in?”
I shook my head. I’m on the same hallway as Master. Only five people besides Marco know where his room is. Plus Mordecai, I figure, though he isn’t exactly a person. But I couldn’t tell her that.
Kind of the opposite of what you’re thinking. I’m in close proximity to the Master, and very few people have clearance into that section of the underground.
She nodded. “You’re right about me preferring to sleep upstairs and wake to the sun, but it’s good to know I can come down here without an invitation.”
