Page 37 of Bottoms Up (Mythic Beast #4)

Silver

The leather creaked when Julian sat, but the chair held.

We’d been invited into Lauren, Gavin, and Nick’s penthouse home — and then straight into Gavin’s home office. Leather and old wood, smelling faintly of cigars and pine, like something old money would bottle if it could.

The desk was the centerpiece. Big, solid, and it looked ancient. Venerated. Like maybe it’d been used to sign the Declaration of Independence, or older. Maybe the Magna Carta.

Or maybe I was just being dramatic.

But we weren’t at the desk. Gavin had gestured us toward the sitting area off to the side: curved leather armchairs positioned in a conversational arc around a low coffee table.

I didn’t want to sit four feet away from Julian, so I sat in his lap. Yeah, this was a business meeting, but Julian and I were negotiating as a unit, so we may as well be upfront about it.

Also, his lap’s pretty damned comfortable, and I’ll never tire of having his arms around me.

Atlas stood until Gavin nodded to the chair he wanted him in.

Then he sat, spine straight, eyes steady. Not an ounce of submission. He followed Gavin’s orders because he respects him. Because he understands the chain of command.

“I’ve talked to Marco,” Gavin said. “If we come to an agreement, I will share with Marco what I know of Atlas’s history, the agreement we’ve worked under, a list of Atlas’s personal strong points, and his short list of weak ones.

” He looked to Atlas and back to us. “I will share his strong and weak points regarding his job with all of you, so you’ll know how to best utilize his talents. ”

Part of me was disappointed we weren’t going to learn his history, what had made him the man he’d become, but I understood what Gavin was saying. As Master Vampire over the territory, Marco needed to know, but it wasn’t any of my business, or Julian’s. Atlas would tell us what he wanted us to know.

“That’s fair,” I said, before Julian could argue.

“It is,” Julian agreed. “Atlas will tell us what he wishes us to know. You wouldn’t have assigned him to Silver if she wasn’t safe around him, and that’s all I really need to know.”

Julian looked from Gavin to Atlas. “Why don’t you open the negotiations? What is it you want from us?”

“Four things.” His voice didn’t waver. He might as well have been stating his name, or giving a field report.

“A guaranteed minimum of one extreme pain session per week. Hours of pain, the same level or higher as you put me through in our long session. Whether I’m allowed release or not will be up to you, but I’d like it to be random enough, I won’t know until we get there.

I don’t care how you structure it, or who delivers it.

If neither of you are available, I’ll accept being loaned out — but only to someone you trust, and only for that purpose. ”

“Agreed,” Julian said.

“Two. The once per month scene you alluded to when you last fed from me.”

“Absolutely,” Julian said.

Atlas met my gaze next. “Three. No emotional intimacy. No cuddling, no aftercare unless I’m incapacitated.

No pet names, no grooming. I won’t be your third.

Won’t be part of your relationship. I’ll be part of your lives because I’ll be assigned as your main security, but that won’t make me part of your little two-person family. ”

I pursed my lips. “How about calling you our toy? Is that acceptable?”

“Toy, paintoy, painslut, painwhore, cocksleeve,” Julian interjected. “You are never going to be my darling or my dearest , but outside of that, I’ll call you whatever I damned well please. Also, there will be nominal aftercare following our once-per-month scene, and you’ll deal with it.”

He looked at us a handful of seconds. “Acceptable.” He looked back to me. “Can you avoid demanding intimacy of me? Emotional attachment?”

I wanted to ask him why he was singling me out, but it was fair. Julian wasn’t likely to fall in love with him, but I was going to care for him. No way around it. But I’d known he wasn’t a cuddly guy from the start, so while the intimacy refusal bugged me, it wasn’t a surprise.

“I won’t ask you to show me affec…” I stopped and started again. “I won’t promise something I can’t be sure of. Odds are, you’ll be special to me. I’ll want to make sure you have a chance to eat, that kind of thing. However, I will promise to make no emotional or intimate demands of you.”

A nod. “Four. Give me structure, rules, expectations, but don’t micromanage. I’ll follow orders as given. If you need my presence, I’ll be there. If not, I’ll make myself useful elsewhere. I won’t disrupt your household. I’m not here to be in the way.”

Julian’s voice was low, controlled. “Your requirements are acceptable. In exchange, you’ll protect us. You’ll live full-time at Homewood, on-site. You’ll know what’s in Silver’s jeans and you’ll keep it to yourself, and you’ll be ready to die protecting her if someone comes for her.”

“I would’ve done so at any moment this week,” Atlas said simply. “But yes. Agreed.”

Gavin reached into a folder and withdrew a single sheet of paper.

“This is Marco’s formal offer,” Gavin said.

“I’ve negotiated it on Atlas’s behalf.” He met Atlas’s gaze.

“It’s generous, laying out salary and benefits.

Standard security agreement with a few additions.

This is the short version with the main points; the one you sign will take a while to read through. ”

He slid it across the table toward Atlas, who took it with a nod, lifted the fold, glanced at it, and nodded to Gavin. No smile. No frown. Just quiet agreement, like the deal had already been made in his head and the paper was just a formality.

Atlas looked at Julian.

“I’d like to hear the rules you have in mind.”

Julian shifted slightly. Kissed the top of my head.

When he spoke, his tone was firmer. A little colder. Not unkind, but firm. Resolute.

“When we wish to make use of you, we’ll arrange for someone to relieve you if you’re on shift. All activity will happen in a secure room, so you can let the security mindset go and be our toy for the duration.”

Atlas didn’t move. Just listened.

“I need to hear a verbal agreement,” Julian said.

“I understand and agree with this protocol, Sir.”

Julian continued.

“You will strip before you are three steps into the downstairs playroom. If we invite you into another room in the house for the purposes of hurting you or fucking you, the same applies. However, you will strip in the hallway outside our private suite, should you be invited into it. You will never, not once, be clothed while in it.”

“Understood.”

“No questions asked,” I added. “You’ll go where you’re instructed, take up the position ordered, and wait if we aren’t there.”

Atlas nodded. “Again. Understood.”

“Once orders are given and we’ve transitioned into scene mode,” Julian said, “you don’t speak unless asked a direct question.”

“I have something to add, a slight change from earlier,” I said.

“Should you disobey, and I get that if you think there’s a security issue you’ll probably step out of your role and we’ll have to be okay with that, but for any other reason, if there are obedience issues, we reserve the right to skip a pain session.

Make you go two weeks between. Three if it’s egregious. ”

“He will agree to this,” Gavin said.

Atlas gave a sharp nod. “It’s fair.” He clearly didn’t like it, but he wasn’t going to argue against something he saw as fair.

“You will not approach either of us for sexual use,” Julian said. “We will summon you. You may request a pain session on the back end of the seventh day, but not before. The decision and timing will be ours.”

Gavin lifted a finger. “Let’s allow him to let you know of his needs once per month, with a guarantee of pain in the next six hours of your waking time, at a maximum, upon notification, even if it’s merely binding him uncomfortably and having someone inject the cocktail di dolore e sofferenza when they feed from him, and then leaving him in place for hours, until it fades. ”

What does that mean? I telepathed.

It’s Italian for the cocktail of pain and suffering. The venom that creates unbearable pain. Like acid in your bloodstream.

To Atlas, he said, “I can work with that.”

Julian kissed the top of my head again, and asked me, “Anything else you want to add?”

“Yeah. It kind of feels like it’s a given, but it feels important to say it and get it out there.

No safewords. Julian will know if something is truly wrong.

” I looked at Gavin. “It would be nice if we had a list of triggers, things not to do, but if we stumble on one…” I looked up to Julian.

“You’ll know it isn’t normal pain, normal fear, right? ”

“I will.”

I looked back to Atlas. “I need feedback.”

“What honorific should I use with you, ma’am?”

“Let’s go with Sir, no matter how I’m dressed.”

“Sir. I would not agree to this arrangement if you insisted upon giving me a safeword. It’s important that, once a scene starts, I have no escape. No way to stop the pain.”

“Then we’re all in agreement,” Julian said.

“When not in a scene, you’ll be dressed in standard clothing.

Marco and Cora have requirements for Homewood security personnel, and you’ll choose your clothing when off duty.

You’ll be referred to by name unless we are using you, when you’ll be Muscles, toy, or some other name that will be totally our discretion.

You’ll speak freely when not in a scene. ”

“That’s acceptable, Sir.”

“You’ll have private quarters, which you may lock. We won’t invade your space unless there’s a safety or security concern.”

Atlas’s expression didn’t shift, but I felt the silence settle deeper — that quiet acceptance of structure. Of being used the way he needed to be.

“We’ll also establish a protocol,” Julian said. “Verbal and nonverbal, for when orders mean the relationship has changed from equals to… not .”