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Look away…
I yank myself free from Edouard’s hold, regret slipping through the cracks of my defences. And then I run.
CHAPTER 6
EDOUARD
Romain was mine for two years and five months.
Oh, how we fought each other those first months—his pride and reluctance was the ambrosia I never thought I needed. Even chained to my bed, he’d do anything to disobey me like the untrained pet he was, though that was only at first. I was a popular guy from a powerful family, with friends aplenty. Manuel proposed finishing him off many times and gifting me with someone else, someone more willing. But training Romain was the most exciting, time-consuming yet gratifying challenge I’d ever had.
Those first weeks his leash around my bed pillar didn’t give more than two meters. He had to ask permission to use the bathroom—something he eventually, politely did despite his clenched jaw and fuming glare. I often left him alone, stewing in my room while I’d go downstairs and have lunch or dinner with my family. Every night, I let him go home, because I couldn’t bring myself to disrespect his wish to stay with his piece of shit mother.
And every morning he was back. Countless times I thought that this time I had crossed a line and he wouldn’t be back. He always was, while knowing that I would tie him up to my bed and let him sit there by himself until Manuel would take him to school. The truth was I wasn’t sure what to do with him. Oh, I knew what I wanted to do with him already, but I wanted him to come crawling and beg me for it. Wanted him to rub his face against my thigh like he had done that very first time, and surrender.
It took me four months before he finally did that again.
It was late spring, a Saturday night, and the day had been hot and dry. After the sun had set and the wind had picked up, we finally had some time to cool off. Romain had been in my room the entire day. He refused to wear the clothes I gave him, so instead he’d knelt on my floor wearing his usual tattered jeans and Nike hoodie, the fabric covering most of his dark hair and light features. He sat glaring at the floor when I came in after dinner. He’d finished his own meal, judging by the empty plate, which was another improvement. When he heard me come in, he looked up, and the whiff of a breath caught in my throat when he stared right at me with those piercing eyes. Proud, angry, with a subtle touch of insecurity.
Despite it all, he wanted to be here. I could just fucking feel it.
By his side, he’d left his homework discarded, the pages folded and begging for my gaze to give it a thorough sweep.
“Did you finish?” I asked. He shrugged, grunting, meaning “no”. Approaching, I took a look at the books. It was English. We both sucked at modern languages, but he needed the grade to pass the year. I needed him to pass the year. I had graduated last July and I didn’t want him to stay too much behind. Romain shrugged once more and sighed, looking away. He muttered something, the words rushed in accusation, but I caught them.
“You’ve got me caged here like an animal.”
“Yeah.” I slid down to my knees until we were the same height. Tilting his chin up with my ringed forefinger, I inhaled his undignified glare. “I do. Now…” I didn’t take my eyes off of him, but dipped forward and reached over, ignoring how his pupils dilated and his shoulders flinched, and grabbed his school book. “Let’s finish this, shall we?”
We did. And the day after we did that too. And the day after. By the time we finished the week, I changed his leash. This one was made of pure gold that I had melted from a collection of French Francs we’d stolen from an indebted collector. It had a reach of over three meters, allowing him to walk around in my room.
I started bringing him breakfasts, and he begrudgingly accepted after a few days, most likely too hungry to refuse. The moment he broke and gave in, my chest had clenched at the sight of his shaking hands as he wolfed down the food, leaving me thinking how his own mom was clearly incapable of looking after him.
I was.
I. Was.
That realization altered everything. The way I looked at him, those serious, blue eyes, the small nose adorned with golden freckles, that messy, dark hair. His mouth was wide, made to smile, which he so rarely did. His lips plush and firm, yet so easily pressed into that fine line of disappointment. I might have been barely an adult on paper, but I’d made Romain mine. And I’d keep him.
Nine weeks after Dad had given Romain to me, we shifted into something different. We’d start our mornings with breakfast together, before my kitten was brought to and from school by Manuel or one of his peers. He refused to eat at the dining table with the rest of my family, but he’d finish the plate I'd leave him.
I knew my dad sometimes came up to talk to him, knew that my sister sometimes came inside my room when I wasn’t there, for a chat.
They liked him.
“Attention!” I call out when the group of rogue brothers fall into me. Romain takes off like a maniac. I keep my outstretched hand against my brother’s chest that’s heaving from their little push and pull game just before. Since we’re all masked, I don’t know who he is, which is definitely part of the fun of being part of the Alpha Fraternarii. These privileged kids love to wear their masks for no particular reason and walk around disguised during most of the evenings we spend together, as if their anonymity makes up for the devilish things they do.
He knows who I am though, since I’m wearing the golden mask tonight. Therefore, he knows whoever he has been chasing is important to me.
“We wait,” I say, pointing my knife toward the torches. “Let’s give him the illusion that he can get away.” Turning around, I use one of the torches to light another cigarette while I watch Romain run. Fuck, the flickering shadows offer the most beautiful light inside the building, dancing around my pet’s lithe, sculpted frame. I hate our school uniform, but on Romain it looks good, tight around the places where it matters, making it a feast for my eyes to watch him, even when he’s running away from me.
I’ll soon catch up with him anyway.
It isn’t until he reaches the staircase that Romain realizes he’s heading the wrong way. That side of the building houses dorms. I don’t mind the party taking place there, even I enjoy a little foreplay like the kind we’re having right now. This entire night has been one big prelude, building up to to when I can take my boy home and go rule my empire. Having to manage the family business from within the walls of Monterrey Castle was a little challenging at times, but knowing that I was close to Romain made up for the impracticalities.
Cat and mouse.
Angling the bait, only to leave it there for a bit and see how Romain would take it, right before I’d pull it up, was one of my favorite ways to pass the time. To watch him get chosen for that position as film boss man for the monthly movie night was fun, the look on his pretty, surprised face priceless.
