Page 67 of Reforging Onyx

Onyx had no fucking idea how to do that, but admitting that would make him look stupid. He should’ve been used to that by then but… he wasn’t.

Maybe he sort of understood. Maybe. If Dominic wanted him to use him for pleasure…

He stepped in closer, pushing Dominic’s legs apart to step between them. “If you’re the only source of pleasure and relief I can get, then it doesn’t matter how much I hate you,” he summarized. “I should take it. Even if it means it pleases you too? Should I give you that satisfaction?”

“Why should I be the only one getting satisfaction?” Dominic countered.

Onyx’s eyes lingered on Dominic’s. “You’re trying to trick me so you can get what you want.”

“I will get what I want anyway." Dominic's words were terrible in their truth. “I want you to take your due.”

Onyx breathed out slowly — then grabbed Dominic by the hair to pull his head back so he could lean down and kiss him hard, demanding, forcing his tongue past his lips.

Dominic hissed in pain at the grip in his hair, but didn’t resist Onyx pulling his head back, or his kiss. His hands lifted to Onyx’s hips as he opened his mouth under the force of the kiss.

As quickly as he’d initiated the kiss, Onyx pulled away with a gasp. Fuck. Fuck. What had he been thinking? This wasn’t what he wanted.

Was it?

“I need… I need time to think." Onyx faltered.

Dominic didn’t try to hold Onyx in place as he pulled away, just watching him go. He studied Onyx for a couple of moments before nodding. “Very well.”

Onyx went back to the crate, leaving the door open but staying on the opposite end. He needed to think. Quietly. By himself. Without hands on him.

So help him, he didn’t know what he’d do if he didn’t get that break.

Chapter 28

Dominic

In the heartbeat of time between sleep and awake, there was one overwhelming truth that Dominic became aware of: his arms were empty, and Onyx was missing.

Gone.

Again.

Fear and shock reverberated through him as he immediately checked his wards. Not fear for what Onyx might do, or could have done. He was alive, so whatever the Rayne witch had done, it hadn’t been to kill him. Unless he’d tried and Dominic’s own magical defenses had kicked in but hadn’t woken him?

Dominic bolted upright in bed, even as the results of his check came back. The wards were all intact. None of them had been breached in any way, and all of his monitoring spells were intact. What had happened? Had⁠—

He finally woke up enough to recall the events of the night — and day — prior, and the fact that Onyx had demanded “time to think” and then had gone into his crate. Assuming that Onyx was — again — rejecting his company to sleep in the crate, Dominic had locked it up and gone to bed. He’d been too irritated and frustrated to continue with their discussion, especially given how he’d bared himself in an attempt to get Onyx past this ridiculous point of being ashamed of his responses to Dominic’s touch.

Onyx was his slave, in the end, and Dominic had to question why he was coddling the boy as much as he was.

But his goals remained the same; if he could not have Onyx as his Sword of Damocles, his omnipresent threat hanging by a thread, then he’d have the younger witch at his feet and in his bed. The only way to do that without breaking him to the point of compliance was to get him there with some — albeit coerced — willingness.

The more fool he, Dominic hadn’t used the trip to the warehouse in order to leverage further obedience and willingness from the Rayne witch. He’d thought… What, that Onyx would appreciate it in some way? He was too soft on the boy.

He laid back in the bed, alone with his musings. He’d become accustomed to the younger witch’s presence in his arms and it was the second time in — what, a week? Just under? — that he’d gone to bed without Onyx in his arms and in his bed. It was a state that he was unwilling to continue to tolerate.

Tossing the covers back, Dominic got out of bed. He paused briefly to unlock the crate door before going into the bathroom and turning on the shower. Typically he used magic to clean himself, or took a quick and expedient shower, but this time he stepped into the spray and closed his eyes as he let the hot water wash over him.

Dominic washed himself slowly, lingering in the heat of the shower before shutting off the water. He hadn’t expected Onyx to join him, but he wouldn’t have been displeased if the younger witch had. But no matter. His wards hadn’t alerted him to anything, so the boy hadn’t attempted to leave the bedroom, at least.

He toweled himself off before returning to the bedroom, pausing at the doorway as he took in the sight of Onyx in his bed — in the very bed that he’d reiterated quite clearly that the Rayne witch could not deny him from, as he’d evidently forgotten that part at some point.

What was Onyx doing?