Page 22

A park. Night. Paths empty. Lawns dark.

I have the boy naked on all fours on the grass, leash in my fist, the paddle tucked in my other hand.

He crawls because I told him to crawl.

His ass is red.

His cock is hard, lubed, and glistening under the illuminated park lights and open to the cold air and anyone who might pass and have the poor judgment to look.

I lead the boy. He follows.

The city keeps its polite distance because it knows my name.

I pump my cock faster under the water. I see him look back at me over his shoulder with those killer eyes furious and hungry.

That’s all I need.

I cum hard. The sound I make is low and animalistic and satisfied. It leaves me braced against the tile with water hammering my neck and come washing off my fist and down the drain.

I stay there until my breathing evens.

Then I wash… soap, hair, the last of him off my skin.

But Elias is not truly off me. Far from it, in fact.

I shut the water. Towel. The bedroom is dark except for the city. I drop onto the bed naked and let the mattress take my weight.

“Music,” I say. “Classical. Low.”

Suddenly, strings fill the room. Old. Controlled. No words.

I close my eyes. Sleep comes faster than it should for a man with the Lucci still breathing.

I allow it. Tonight I will rest, ready for the morning.

On the edge of sleep I smile…

The paddle in his bag. Small. Leather. Innocent enough if Steven glances in a locker.

And of course inside the handle, set so deep a curious boy would have to destroy the thing to find it, a micro tracker that will tell me where he sleeps, where he walks, and whether he is foolish enough to leave my gift on a bus or at home.

Elias thinks he took a souvenir home.

No.

He took a leash.

I sleep with that knowledge warm in my chest and the sound of violins carrying me under.

Elias doesn’t know what’s coming his way any more than that sonofabitch Lucci family does…

Morning comes clean and cold through the glass.

I wake already knowing I am not alone in the penthouse.

Call it a sixth sense. But I just know.

However it’s not Hardy. He’ll be out picking up fresh fruit and vegetables and arranging my laundry at this hour.