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But then I considered that part. I wanted to follow Master’s orders, but I didn’t want to do more ab work. Both things were true.

“What’s going through your head, my beloved slave?”

“Two things are true despite the fact they contradict each other, Master. I want to follow your orders, but I also don’t want to have to do more intense ab exercises. I will, of course, I’m not saying I won’t do them, just that I’m not looking forward to it, and yet I very much want to follow my Master’s orders.”

He chewed his food, clearly considering and thinking. He took a couple of bites before finally swallowing and saying, “It’s about what I want, not what you want, and I want my slave to have ripped abs. I fell in love with you when you didn’t have them, and having them won’t make me love you more, but it’s a visual I want. I’m pleased with your progress so far, and I know what it takes to get them — a lot of work and pain and discomfort, but it’s healthy pain, building and shaping muscles.”

“I assumed you had a personal trainer, Master, the first time I saw you without clothes.”

“I used to, and when I’m not feeling especially motivated, I pull someone in to push me, and to help me tweak my workout routine, but mostly, I prefer to be my own motivation, with only the beat of the music to keep me on target.”

I nodded. Master often told me what song to work out to, and I’d worked out enough with him standing over me, I knew he intended me to do reps to the beat of the music. Some days were a little slower, other days a little faster. Some days he gave me a choice of songs, all with a similar beat.

“Do you have a chart that lists the beats per minute of a bunch of songs, Master?”

He chuckled. “As a matter of fact, yes I do. Sometimes I feel like a particular song with a faster beat, and then I do two beats up and two beats down, or even three and three, rather than working out directly to the tempo.”

I nodded. We’d done that plenty when working out together.

He hadn’t brought up Micca yet, but I had questions. “So, you like Micca, Master?”

“We had kind of the opposite situation of you and me — she knew who I was but I didn’t know who she was. We didn’t get around to exchanging names until after we’d fucked.” He sat back in his chair, took a swig of his beer, and set the bottle down.

“Until after we’d fucked twice, actually. You should hear the whole story, I think. Or at least most of it.”

I breathed in relief. “Thank you, Master.”

When he got to the part about her discovering she needs a partner and a submissive, I put my fork down and took a drink of my beer, and then another before I said, “She bosses Matty around when Razor has to be gone for a few days. I mean, mostly reminding him to go to bed, making sure he isn’t skipping meals, that kind of thing. I gather she kept him on an even keel when he was between Masters. I’ve heard the story of her telling Razor the limits for his first night with Matty — no blood, no watersports, stuff like that.”

“Good to know. We’ll have to figure out how much control she’ll have over you. Your contract with me says that’s my call, and I’m not interested in changing that, but I’ll ask for your feelings about it as we go. This has to work for all of us, and if something isn’t working for you — I mean truly isn’t working, to the extent you’re thinking of leaving — I expect you to ask to go to the storage room. Normal conversations about day-to-day issues you can bring up without stepping outside of our powerexchange, but something serious, I need to know as soon as it rears its head. Don’t put it off and hope I’ll fix it, because I can’t fix it if I don’t know there’s a problem.”

The storage room is what Master figured would be the only room in the house where Master and I aren’t likely to be at the same time. Mostly, he has people who come change things seasonally and who set up for parties. The storage room has lots of Christmas stuff, party tables and chairs, extra lightbulbs, filters for the HVAC unit, leftover paint with labels saying which room each can was used for, and lots of other stuff. So, if I want to talk to Master outside of our power exchange, I can ask to go to the storage room. I’ve never done so, and honestly hope I never feel the need, but it’s good I have the option.

“I expect there to be some growing pains, Master. I told you about my last ride home on the plane, when Heather told me about her poly group a little, and how she never thought a fourth person would fit into their home, but then one of the Doms found their fourth, and she was perfect from the start. It helped me relax a little about adding another person. You won’t bring someone in who completely upsets the apple cart.” I thought about what I’d said. “What does that even mean? Why are apples in carts?”

“I believe they were sold out of carts that moved around the city at some point, before we had fruit stands. If you’re finished, let’s go get a shower and then go shopping. I feel the need to buy you some shirts to show off your abs.”

Chapter 8

Will

The private investigator got back to me with more on Micca. She made excellent grades in high school and even better grades in college. She waitressed her way through college at a super-high-dollar restaurant. She lived with Matty for several years, and the investigator had included some info on Matty. His gay boyfriend had been killed in Afghanistan, and the boyfriend’s will had left a decent amount of money to Matty, who used it to get himself through college. I already knew about Matty’s racing history. There was some info about her parents. She was officially listed as an employee for a lab that wasn’t Drake Security, but I already knew that. Nothing else stood out, so I saved the pdf with a name I could search for and find, and put it out of my mind.

It was time to take my boy shopping.

We’d need to be in disguise for the day, and we were back to having Ranger and Mac again. The gossip-mongers are used to seeing Panda and Mira with me, so when I’m home and going incognito, I need a different security team.

Mac and Ranger are with me during the twelve hours I’m mostly likely to be awake and out of the house, and another team is with me when I’m most likely to be home. It isn’t a perfect system, but they’re pretty good about keeping it so I’m used to the people who go out with me.

I was in a man bun and a college professor outfit that hid my muscles, but we had Davy dressed as a little twink wearing sexy blue jeans low on his hips with heavy eyeliner. I took scissors to his shirt so it showed a few inches of his belly.

I try not to be seen in Chattanooga too often. The idea is that if I let them see me a lot, more people will show up to cash in on the pictures. So, I’m seen a lot on tour, and when I’m out of town and want to be seen, but I work to stay out of the public eye in my hometown. When I first moved to the city, I was way out in the sticks, where we could be sure we lost a tail before we got home, and no one ever found that house.

The cat’s out of the bag with the Beast Castle, and I couldn’t help but think of it that way now that Davy had put it into my head, but my security runs people off when they try to park on the side road, and there’s no place to park on the main road. The police in this district also have instructions to run anyone off who’s loitering on the side road, and they go through every couple of hours, according to my security guys.

I explained this to Davy on the way to Warehouse Row, our first shopping destination, and he caught what I meant right away.

“So you want our first public outing to be somewhere else, Master?”