Page 29 of Xerxes Ascendant
He startled when he felt something brush against his left hand. Kyle’s fingers tightened around his wrist, keeping him still.
“Shush,” the blonde murmured. “I want to help.”
Holding his breath, he watched as Kyle unfastened the leather cuffs from his own wrists and buckled them around Akira’s. Then Kyle reached for the collar.
Akira let out a soft noise as the leather was secured around his throat.
“It’s still warm,” he whispered in explanation, feeling his cheeks heat, but Kyle’s answering smile was exceptionally pleased.
“Off the furniture, pet,” he ordered. The thread of easy dominance in his tone had Akira slipping from the sofa to the floor without further thought, willingly kneeling and lowering his head in deference. He felt his shirt being unbuttoned and slipped free from his arms, before his wrists were secured behind his back by the locking of the clasps on the leather cuffs.
Kyle didn’t draw attention to the burn scars lacing his torso. He’d been there when they were forged.
“This is your choice, Akira,” Kyle said quietly from behind him. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”
Akira swallowed at the use of his given name. Kyle had reverted to calling him Master Epsilon upon his return to the House, and he hadn’t realised how much it would mean to hear his real name grace the blonde’s beautiful lips once more. It felt...intimate.
But Kyle had made his feelings clear. They were colleagues only, and any Dominant at House Epsilon would do this same thing for a submissive struggling to stay grounded. This was…a favour, that was all.
“We’re still keeping it professional between us, right?” Akira whispered, hoping Kyle would disagree.
Hoping he’d declarefuck that, I’m claiming every part of you. Heart, soul, cock…you’re all mine, Akira Miyasaki.
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst.
Kyle nodded stiffly, looking awkward. Akira’s heart sank. “Correct.”
It would be fucking painful to have Kyle in this way without getting to haveallof him, but even without his masochistic tendencies, Akira would have struggled to say no. He needed it like he needed air.
And even this – his position at Sir’s feet, his shirtless state, the restraints around his wrists and neck – was already helping his thoughts to clear. His mind and body began to settle.
“Are you comfortable?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Good.” The blonde adopted Akira’s previous position on the sofa, spreading his legs with compelling masculine confidence and tugging Akira’s kneeling self between them. Despite the weight he’d lost while in the hospital, Kyle manhandled his employer’s smaller form with ease.
“You’re going to repeat each word I say to you that begins with the letter W,” Kyle instructed. “And for every wrong answer you give, you’ll find your position becomes significantlylesscomfortable.” He deftly twisted his wrist to show him the cattle prod he held in his palm, and Akira’s pulse fluttered in fear. Out of all the toys in the training room,thatwas what he’d chosen?Fuck. “Do you understand, pet?”
“Yes,” Akira said quickly, eyeing the two electrodes at the end of the rectangular plastic device. He thought for a moment, replaying Kyle’s direction in his head. “Word. With. Wrong.”
Kyle raised an eyebrow. “And?”
Stars, that bossy, strict side was immensely attractive.
“That’s all, Sir.”
“You missed W.”
Indignation overcame self-preservation. “W is aletter,” Akira reminded him scathingly, “not a word.”
Despite being absolutely, indisputably correct, he really should have known better than to argue. All the grammatical accuracy earned him was a sharp, startling bolt of pain when the cattle prod was casually brought to his bare chest.
Akira’s entire body jerked as his muscles contracted, the suddenness of the pain shooting through his body. He couldn’t scream despite wanting to,needingto, for he was bathed in red-hot agony.
Stars!
Then it stopped. He gasped and shuddered as the pain rapidly dissipated – that was the one good thing about this kind of device, for its effects didn’t linger – and heaved out short, shallow breaths from where he was bent over on his knees.
