Page 50 of Collin: Episodes 13-15
“Awesome.” Ash hunched over his take-out bowl and stuffed food in his mouth.
Collin cleared his throat and straightened his back.
Ash thumped his fist in frustration against his forehead and sat up. He chewed and swallowed. “Thank you, sir. I can keep up.”
When Collin got home in the early evening, he curled up with Artemis in his lap on the couch. Mr. Reevesworth and Mr. Moreau were at a function. The house felt empty without Damian. Collin texted him:
It took a while. Collin played on his phone with his language app. Damian was probably still working, considering the time-zone difference of two hours. Eventually, Damian texted back.
Lonely, Collin texted Alice. She replied with voice-to-text.
He wrote back:
Two minutes later she answered.
He ate leftovers and fell asleep cuddling Artemis while waiting for his doms to come home. A phone call woke him up.
It was Ash. “How do I buy someone a hotel room?”
“Um…” Collin blinked back sleep and eyed the clock. He’d only been out for twenty minutes. “Credit or debit card and you call them. Or you can do it online.”
“They keep asking me if I’m over eighteen.”
“You or the guest?”
Ash muttered to himself, like he was sorting through webpages. “The guest, I think.”
“Then answer for the guest. Do you have a friend coming?”
“Yes. No. I mean, it’s for a friend. They aren’t coming here. Thank you! Bye.” He hung up.
Collin stared at his phone screen for a good two seconds and then flopped back onto the couch. Sometimes the people in his life were weird.
Wednesday morning, Émeric woke Collin with nibbles to the back of his neck and a hand on his ass. They snuggled, kissing sleepily, until Richard woke and joined them. Then Collin slipped out of bed to go see Nihal. If Richard and Émeric wanted to go late to their workout, that was their call, but he had an appointment to get abs. Or at least that’s what he kept telling himself as he pushed through Nihal’s routine. How could the man be so cheerful so early in the morning? Nihal had to be one of the most positive people in the entire state, but it was a lot to handle when his thighs were burning and he was still yawning.
Get abs. Get abs. He repeated the phrase like a mantra in his head. He wanted abs so he could do more fun things, like rope work with Émeric and predicament bondage with Richard, and maybe even be able to go for a run with Damian and Matthew one day if they promised to go slow. Matthew had legs for days.
Ash was not just distracted during Mandarin class again but downright stressed and constantly checking his phone when Zhou Laoshi wasn’t looking. Collin had a headache by the time they were finished. He followed Ash to his tech dungeon, but for once, Ash said he had to work and didn’t even want help putting the new buttons on the door. Perplexed, Collin moved on to his own office with Eliza, Veronica, and Katharine.
Katharine waved and smiled as he came in, and Veronica chuckled and nodded at Collin’s desk. There was a large coffee cup smelling of mint chocolate by his monitor. The note on the side said, “Hello from CA.”
Collin grinned and texted Damian a picture and a gif saying “thank you.”
About an hour in, the mint mocha hit his bladder with force. He stepped out to see his Master. Mr. Reevesworth was out, but he texted Collin permission to go ahead and use his own key. Part of their new contract had been that during workdays and when apart Collin would carry a key and use it with permission and notify one or both of his doms. No one wanted a repeat of a certain previous incident.
On the way back to his desk, his phone rang. It was Alice on a group call. He answered in the hall.
“Hey.”
“Mikhail is here.”
Ice shot through his veins. “At your school?”
“No. Go see Ash. He has video.
“Door’s open.” Ash’s voice came through Collin’s phone too.
What? Collin beelined it to Ash’s techno dungeon. “Where are you?”
