Page 131 of Xerxes Ascendant
Time:11.00pm
Assigned to:Sanjay or Casey, depending on availability
Client request:"dont mind whho any domniant will do plz cos id like sum fun times with a cane . and are u aloud to cry during the apoiytment asking 4 a friend"
-Extract from the records of House Epsilon's client bookings
CHAPTER 41
Akira
Shifting lightly from foot to foot as he adjusted to the sensation of fullness, Akira rinsed the lubricant from his hands in the small basin sink in the corner of their bedroom. It had previously been the House’s thirteenth client room, but now they’d permanently made a home here, the cameras had been removed...to give our cats their privacy, Kyle had agreed, nodding with such sensible sincerity that Akira hadn’t been entirely sure if he was joking.
Mayhem weaved through his legs now, meowing weakly, but Akira wasn’t falling for the wholeI-haven’t-been-fed-yetroutine again.
The first six times had been bad enough.
“No,” he said firmly, and Mayhem narrowed his eyes into accusing slits. Akira would find another dead mouse on his office chair by morning, he was sure, but if the cat really was that hungry, he’d eat the rodent instead of displaying it in macabre threat, right?
Akira glanced around, suddenly unsure.
Chaos was nowhere to be seen, but Havoc waved a fat, lazy paw from where he was lounged across the bed. It was possible he’d eaten Mayhem’s share of the food...
“Just a little,” Akira muttered, fishing out a handful of dry pellets from the cupboard. Mayhem immediately pounced, greedily burying his silky black face into Akira’s palm. Whiskers tickled his skin, followed by the cat’s rough tongue only seconds later as the last of the pellets were polished off.
“If I get in trouble for this,” Akira warned, but he had nothing to finish with. Threatening one of Kyle’s beloved felines, on a day Sir had already threatened to deliver the not-fun kind of pain, seemed...unwise. Kyle was not a strict Dominant, but he didn’t make false promises.
He also didn’t make a bad singer. Drawn by the sound of pre-Ascension music and his boyfriend’s voice singing about a world that sounded much like theirs – made of steel, made of stone – Akira returned to the staffroom to find Misha pirouetting and lunging his way through Irene Cara’sWhat a Feeling. Flashdance? Clearly, Akira hadn’t been the only victim forced to watch the old vid on repeat once Kyle had discovered the extent of his new runepad’s capabilities.
At least Akira hadn’t been expected to dance.
Misha was doing an enthusiastically impressive job of it, his lithe and flexible body mesmerising the rest of the room, but Akira only saw Kyle. Eyes alight and foot tapping in time with the music he was belting out the lyrics to, he was the embodiment of physical happiness.
It reminded Akira of when he’d taken Kyle up to Level B the other day so that his man could enjoy the wind in his hair and the sun on his face. Kyle had somehow managed to persuade him to lose the tie –who wears a suit to a fucking picnic, Master?– and they’d spent an enjoyable morning celebrating being alive and free andtogether.
Now, with only Akira watching the blonde amid Misha’s exuberant performance in their Level E staffroom, he expectedno-one else noticed how Kyle subtly side-stepped and kicked a pair of discarded high heels beneath the fridge.
Kyle winked playfully at Akira, enfolding him in whatever crime or prank he was committing, and then sang the final line directly at him.
An impressed silence fell, broken only by the heavy breathing of the two performers. Then the audience swarmed them both.
“Woo, Mish!”
“Go Sirs!”
“Encore!”
“That was exceptional,” Akira told his boyfriend quietly, perpetually in disagreement with his staff about the need for loud exclamations. “Youwere exceptional.”
Kyle beamed happily at him, although he looked unusually shy. “I was a little off-key...”
“Not at all. Better than the original,” he assured.
“You’re just saying that so I won’t make you watch the Flashdance vid again, aren’t you?”
“You can’t beat perfection,” Akira agreed.
Kyle laughed. “Would you like a personal rendition?”
