Page 1 of Bartholomew
CHAPTER1
BARTHOLOMEW
Want to know what’s better than wedding planning? Literally everything. But seriously, anything had to be better than this.
Root canal? Sounds good. Writing a five-hundred-page essay? Sign me up. Housework? Why not?
I would happily sign up for any of it because this was absolutely torture.
“Bartholomew, are you listening to your father?” Mother hissed at me. I was sitting at their dining room table, having finished eating and was listening to my father drone on, waxing poetic about the duties of a husband. In particular, the duties of a new husband who also happened to be a Temple. That was the key, at least in his mind. As a son of the one, the only, Titus Temple, I had duties that went above and beyond the call of a normal husband.
“Of course, Mother,” I replied with a smile that betrayed the thoughts in my head.
“If you were listening, then what did I just say?” Father sighed with exasperation. “Bartholomew, it is imperative that you understand these things before your wedding day.”
“Which is tomorrow, mind you,” Mother reminded me brusquely, making my stomach clench in nervous anticipation. These were no pre-wedding jitters, however. These were palm sweating, how-the-fuck-am-I-going-to-manage-this level stresses. Sure, Levi had done the thing, walked the walk, and gotten the damned tee-shirt. He was Levi, and it surprised no one. He came into the world with this… ability to just handle shit in a way that I didn’t. Not that I couldn’t handle my own shit. I just knew better than to get into things I didn’t want to deal with. Levi took it as a personal challenge to overcome such things.
Plus, his match was Ruth. Ruth was hands down one of the most badass women I had ever met. Honestly, if there was ever a reason for me to believe in a god of any sort, it would be because of that match. For Levi to find a woman like Ruth — in Zion, no less — was nothing short of miraculous. That made it beyond unlikely to happen again.
“God will reward you for your faithful servitude, Bartholomew,” Father praised at the head of the dinner table.
“Yes, Father. I look forward to serving the Lord through my marriage,” I touted without a thought, ignoring the swirling dread and doubt that had taken up residence in my gut. “Speaking of, I should probably head home soon. I have much to do to prepare for the wedding.”
“Yes, of course, Son. It is imperative that you prepare your home appropriately for your new wife,” Mother agreed readily. “Do you need any help?”
Her offer was kind, but I did not want my father or my mother in or near my home, especially after how things had gone down with Levi lately. My father had many, many choice words to say about my dear older brother, and most of them were not good. These last few days it had everything to do with the fact that Levi had yet to knock up his new wife, furthering the “blessed Temple bloodline”.
“I appreciate that, Mother, but as a soon to be husband, it is high time I step into the role of head of household as God has commanded.” I could see my father’s widespread grin of pride as I spoke.
“That’s exactly right, Bartholomew. Come, Abigail, let us give Bartholomew his leave and let him do as he has said.” My father’s overly rich verbiage made me want to gag. The formality, the falseness of it, was like tasting plastic in one’s mouth. Cheap, fake, and toxic as fuck.
“Thank you, Mother, Father, for a lovely dinner. I shall see you soon.” I bid them goodnight, heading out to my car, and taking off down the road.
“Fuck!” I screamed as soon as I had left the town line and the wide-open country was in view. My hands gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles were white and my forearms shook with tension. I wanted to rip the steering wheel off. I wanted to punch a wall. I wanted to get the fuck away from this hellhole and away from such toxicity. I wanted to…
I wanted to have a beautiful woman beneath me and make her scream my name until her throat was so sore, she would need to drink hot tea and honey for the next week just to recuperate.
That. That was exactly what I needed.
Changing my plans, I bypassed the road that would lead me to my house and made my way further down the road towards the city.
Abditory was what I needed.
It would give me the release from this weight and pressure.
It would have a beautiful woman who I could make scream. And those screams would help me forget about all of this.
The buzz of the highway running beneath the wheels of my car focused me on the task at hand; helped me to push away the stress of everything back at Zion. The further away I drove, the clearer my head felt. Still, not clear enough.
The lights of the city came into view, calming me further as I steered my car through the winding side roads and bustling nighttime traffic of the city. Under the overly bright lights of the parking garage, my car slowed as I searched for a parking space. Luckily, on a weeknight, it was not nearly as busy as it would have been on a Friday or Saturday night. No, it was a Thursday night, which meant it was a rope night. Sure enough, as I pulled my car into a space, I spotted Gideon’s truck a few spots down.
It wasn’t often that my brothers and I ended up at Abditory on the same night, but it had happened a handful of times. We had an unspoken agreement to not do anything public on such nights and to keep to ourselves where and how we could. In the seven years since Levi had found this place, we had only run into an issue once.
Malachi had a run-in with one of his primal play bunnies a few years ago. She had decided she would bounce her little bunny tail from Temple brother to Temple brother with no genuine honesty about the situation. Needless to say, when Malachi had entered the dungeon one night to see Gideon engaging in a particularly sexual and highly sensual rope scene with the girl, things had gotten awkward. Communication was much better between us now and we tried to let each other have our own individual time at the club.
I made quick work of parking and headed into the discreet club in the back alley. From the outside, the place looked like something more akin to a sketchy pawn shop. Even when you first walked in, it looked like a place of ill-repute. Granted, I suppose that wasn’t far off the mark, but that was not what I meant.
After Levi’s not-so-unfortunate introduction to this place, Abditory had tightened its reins and had added a second set of doors, preventing the outside world from seeing so much of the delights inside until people were properly vetted and verified.
