Page 9 of Collin, Episodes 4-6 (The Residency Boys #2)

“Ash is working on your old computer and checking your phone. We’ll likely need to replace them.

They’re out-of-date enough that he’s not confident on making them secure again.

” Mr. Reevesworth knelt down beside Collin with Collin’s backpack, computer, phone, and water bottle.

He set them on the carpet within reach. “I asked him to save your files and a list of programs you would need purchased for a new machine. You can order them tonight on the household tablet when we get home. But he might not have your files scrubbed for viruses and malware until Friday. Will this cause you any issues?”

Collin shook his head. “No, sir. Now that I’m not finishing this semester’s classes.”

“Good.” Mr. Reevesworth stood up and walked around the desk to sit in his chair. He could have stepped over Collin but chose not to. Instead, he stroked his fingers down Collin’s damp cheek after he had settled. “Don’t be strong, pet. If you’re struggling, put a hand on my leg, and we’ll fix it.”

Collin turned his face and pressed it against the back of Mr. Reevesworth’s hand. “Yes, sir.”

Mr. Reevesworth looked down at him for a long moment and smiled, just a little. It was a little sad and a little pleased. Then he turned away, pulling his keyboard toward him. “Tell me once you’ve finished comparing those two quotes for the Concord Street development.”

Mr. Reevesworth didn’t let Collin out of the rope for the toilet, for lunch, or the toilet again later.

Collin sat on one side of his ass for a while, then switched sides.

He had to move frequently to keep his feet from going numb.

But his work flowed more quickly than he was used to.

He was deep inside the plans for the development, one set of proposals open on his tablet and the other on the laptop.

It wasn’t work he had done before, and he had to use internet searches to check terms every few minutes, but it was close enough to the work he’d done before that he could see issues.

One contract was proposing something that was obviously fairly boilerplate with a few adaptations for the specific land plot.

The other one was more original. Neither had done a full neighborhood-integration assessment.

Around two in the afternoon, Collin put his hand on Mr. Reevesworth’s thigh in a quiet space between the man’s calls. After two minutes, Mr. Reevesworth pushed his chair out and leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands folded in front of him. “What is it?”

Collin held up his tablet. “Do you want an oral overview or a written report?”

“Brief oral report now, and I’ll ask for the written if I think it’s necessary.”

Collin flipped his computer screen around and propped up the tablet, facing his dom, using one of the lines of rope around his thigh to keep the screen from slipping down. He started with the artist mockups.

At some point later, he’d truly lost track of time, Mr. Reevesworth held up his hand to stop his speech.

“We’ll scrap the second proposal entirely.

I don’t need to know more. Give me a write-up for all the deficiencies on the first proposal.

We’ll send it back to them and see if they can take the hint and want to try to produce something more in alignment with our vision. ”

“Yes, sir.”

Mr. Reevesworth leaned forward and snagged Collin’s water bottle. “And drink the rest of this. You’re going to be dehydrated.”

Collin flushed. “Yes, sir. Apologies, sir.”

“Don’t go light on the water just because you have to ask for help.”

“I didn’t mean to, sir. I just got wrapped up.”

“Drink, then write the report.”

“Yes, sir.”

At four-thirty, Mr. Reevesworth pushed his chair back and sat down on the floor beside Collin. He tugged him closer and started to unweave the end of the rope.

Collin let the tablet in his hands lower. “Sir?”

“It’s almost time to go home.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Tell me, what have you learned?”

“To go to you first before I panic.”

“My instructions aren’t merely for fair-weather days, Collin.

They’re for dark days and frightening ones.

If you couldn’t reach me for some reason, that would be one thing, but I was just on the other side of that door.

You didn’t have to be alone for that walk, thinking of everything that could be wrong.

You didn’t need to be out there for someone to snap photos of you without your hat. ”

“What if there is a time that I can’t reach you?”

“Then I trust you. You’ve taken care of yourself thus far.

Perhaps not always as much as one would hope, but you did the best you could with your resources and your responsibilities at the time.

” Mr. Reevesworth stroked Collin’s face with his thumb.

“With time, you’ll learn what resources you have now and come, I hope, to value yourself more highly. And then I will rest more easily.”

“And until then, rope, sir?” Collin held up a coil of the blue hemp.

Mr. Reevesworth’s face split into an open smile. “Yes, pretty boy. Until then, rope. And probably even after.”

Collin rubbed the fibers between his thumb and finger. “Do you use this on bare skin?”

“Usually on bare skin. It feels like nothing else. Leather has its place, and I use it often. So do chains and shackles, but rope is more meditative than any other form of bondage, both for the dominant and the submissive.”

“Will you think less of me if I like it?”

Mr. Reevesworth laughed softly, reaching out and tangling his hands with Collin’s in the rope. “A boy who can surrender to his dom and to the rope is a beautiful thing. I would treasure that if you have the inclination.”

It took time for Collin to be able to walk on his leg. Mr. Reevesworth insisted on checking for any abnormal bruising, though there were beautiful marks in the shape of the rope up and down Collin’s leg. He ran his own hands over them several times before replacing his pants.

“Are you going to the gym tonight, sir?”

“Yes. Though I’m taking Damian. émeric plans to cook dinner. You may join him, if you would like, or take some time to yourself.”

“I’d rather join him. Could I check on Ash before we leave?”

“He’s gone back to his lair.”

Collin made a face. “Do you have any snacks?”

Mr. Reevesworth pressed his lips together. “Not here, no, but there are some in the break room.”

“Can I go there first?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

On impulse, Collin leaned forward and pressed his lips against Mr. Reevesworth’s cheek, then fled out the door.

Armed with an only slightly stale Danish wrapped in a napkin, Collin knocked on the door to Ash’s tech dungeon. There was predictably no answer. Collin rapped on it again. “Come on, Ash. I thought my favorite necromancer liked treats.”

The door opened a crack, and one eye and a streak of red hair appeared in the aperture.

“What kind of treats?”

“Unfortunately, not the blood of your enemies, but it’s red. Raspberry?” Collin held the Danish up.

Ash eyed it, then flung open the door, and snatched the Danish from Collin’s hands. “This is sufficient toll.”

“Why thank you, your awfulness.” Collin bowed at the waist as if he were an old English butler.

Ash stuck his nose in the air. “You are welcome, peasant. What brings you to my door?”

Collin straightened up. “Wanted to check on you. When do you get off?”

Ash shrugged and threw himself down in his favorite chair. “Whenever I want to be off. But now that I’m investigating what got into your laptop, I’ll probably be here all night. The hunt is fun.”

“Better you than me.” Collin scowled at his old laptop. “How bad is it?”

Ash joined Collin in a glare at the device in question. “You were an open door. Anything on there, they could have. They probably copied your machine. So, I hope there wasn’t anything terrible on it.”

“Some sappy journal entries and some financial records.”

“No taxes?”

“And taxes.”

“Well, you’re not that much worse off than a lot of people. But you’ll want to watch your credit and change all your bank passwords.”

“How do you know about credit?”

Ash waved at hand at his multiple monitors. “I might be young, but I can read. I know what sells on the dark web. You can lock your credit so no one can open lines of credit in your name. That can really screw you over. As soon as I was emancipated, I locked mine.”

“I’ll do that. Should I do it right now?”

“Sure.” Ash spun around in his chair and rubbed his hands together. “We should check your credit and change your bank passwords while we’re at it. Do you care if I see your numbers?”

“You’ve already seen my private machine.”

“True.” Ash smirked. “I could probably be you at this point. You have enough voice memos in there I could deepfake your voice. Your own mom wouldn’t know the difference.”

“And that’s all I need to know about that.” Collin shivered and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I do not want to think about that.”

Ash cackled. “You need a pass phrase. Make it something cool. Or you can do what I do.”

“What’s that?”

“Never talk to anyone on the phone.”

The Residency kitchen already smelled of wine and spices when Collin stepped through the archway. Mr. Moreau stood at the counter, leeks, garlic, and fresh ginger laid out in front of his hands. He was slowly grinding dried herbs with a mortar and pestle.

“Sir?”

Mr. Moreau turned. “Ah, Collin. Here to join in?”

Collin nodded. He smoothed a hand down his casual T-shirt. “I changed.”

Mr. Moreau smiled. There was something though, just in the edge of his eyes. “Let’s see you with garlic and ginger. We’re having roast with tender greens, quinoa tossed with herbs, and lotus root soup.”

“I’ve never had lotus root.”

“Then you’re in for a treat.”

The roast was in the oven and Mr. Moreau had just finished telling Collin the history of quinoa when Mr. Reevesworth stopped in the doorway.

“Richard.” Mr. Moreau put down the pot of quinoa and crossed the kitchen to kiss his husband. “You still have time to shower.”