Page 17 of Collin, Episodes 7-9 (The Residency Boys #3)

“Upstairs, the attic. That’s where Alice will sleep.”

“And you?”

“I’m with you, sir. And you are not sleeping here, not with an allergy.”

Mr. Reevesworth nodded. “I’ll do the hallway and work my way up the stairs.”

Collin went back to the tub.

He was drenched in sweat by the time he’d gotten through the worst of the bathroom and finished with the refrigerator.

He eyed the kitchen floors, not sure if they would survive a thorough mopping.

The linoleum was so worn away he could see the particle board in some places.

He did the best he dared with paper towels and cleaning spray.

There was so much dust everywhere. He went down and checked the air system.

The filter was completely covered beyond recognition. He should have bought a new one.

But he was in luck. The pack of filters he’d bought last year still had two left, meaning no one had changed them since he had done it last. He popped in a new one and turned on the house system. That would start to help clear out the cleaning smells and kicked-up pollution.

The front door flew open as Collin finished putting the unused filter away in the hall closet.

“Collin!” Alice sprinted down the hall, reaching Collin in a flying tackle before the front door had even swung closed. “You’re here!”

“Careful, I’m dirty!”

“Oh, you are. And you’re wearing things! Like a hazmat suit.”

Collin pushed her back and pulled off the goggles. “I’m supposed to be careful with my eyes for a little longer.”

Alice leaned forward on her toes and peered up into his face. “Hmm. They look okay, a little irritated, but like old irritated. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful. Tea tree oil is not supposed to get into your peepers.”

Collin grinned. “I absolutely do not recommend. Do you have luggage?”

“It’s in the living room. Which looks really good, by the way. How long have you been here?”

“Couple of hours. Mr. Reevesworth is helping me. I should introduce you.”

“I’m here, Collin.” Mr. Reevesworth was descending the stairs.

“Uh, sir, this is Alice. Alice, this is my sir, I mean, my Mr. Reevesworth.”

Alice’s smile widened. “Oh! Oh… So that’s how it is. No wonder Mom flipped her shit.”

Collin flushed. “Alice!”

Alice leaned into Collin’s shoulder and poked his cheek. “Don’t worry, brother dear. I wasn’t born yesterday. Do you have a safe word?”

“Alice!” Collin went to slap a hand over his sister’s mouth but had to stop. Gloves, dirty! “You can’t just say things like that!”

“Hmm…so my sister can know about my proclivities but not yours?” Mr. Reevesworth smirked.

Collin dropped his hands. “Linda is…not my little sister.”

“Collin, bro”—Alice hugged him around the waist and shook him—“you bought me my first set of condoms before Mom was willing to admit I might want sex. Since when do we not talk about this stuff?”

“Okay, fine. You want details, have details. I’m having wild kinky sex with three men.”

“Ohhhh, go you, Collin. I told you you were attractive!”

Collin rolled his eyes and shook his head. “You’re shameless.”

“If I was shameless, I’d ask for a list of kinks and how they felt.

” Alice giggled. “But you need your partner’s consent to talk about that stuff, well, most of the time.

Anyway, good to meet you, Mr. Reevesworth.

Normally, I wouldn’t call Collin’s boyfriends by their last names, but you’re like…

twice my age, so, I’ll call you what you like, within reason. ”

“Mr. Reevesworth is fine. Thank you for asking. You seem remarkably informed.”

Alice smirked and mimed locking her lips.

Collin groaned. “I’m not asking how you know so much. I am not asking!”

Alice giggled. “All right. All right. I think we have like an hour before Mom gets here. What’s left for me to do? Is the kitchen safe?”

“It’s getting there. Can you change out the sheets and remake your bed? Maybe check to see if Mom’s need washing?”

“It probably does.” Alice sighed. “Someday I’m going to buy her a new mattress. That thing is so old it makes clean sheets dirty.”

“Save time to shower and change, both of you.” Mr. Reevesworth consulted his watch. “We’re eating out.”

“Your hair takes longer to dry.” Collin nodded toward Alice. “You go first after you change the sheets.”

“Collin, you and I can share,” Mr. Reevesworth informed him.

Alice snickered. “Oh, I like this one. Bro, you are not allowed to break up.”

Collin rolled his eyes. “Just you wait until you start dating.”

“Who says I’m not?” Alice fled up the stairs.

Mr. Reevesworth delicately hung a clean towel over the shower rod after checking the rod for filth. “Why does your mother live this way?” The edges of the towel were frayed and dangling half a dozen inches of loose thread. The color was seventies green.

“I don’t think she really sees it.” Collin stripped off his dirty pants and put them directly in a trash sack he had designated for very dirty clothes. He leaned into the shower and turned on the water. “This is probably the worst place you’ve showered in a long time.”

Mr. Reevesworth pressed his lips together. “I don’t think I’ll be doing anything adventurous, let’s say that.”

Collin grinned, not quite happily. Mr. Reevesworth made the bathroom look small.

His head was too high for where the mirror was hung.

The Pepto Bismol–pink toilet looked miniature, as if the large man had tried to fit himself into a half-abandoned doll house.

“I tried to clean it but, yeah…I don’t really feel it, sir. ”

“Tonight. At the hotel,” Mr. Reevesworth promised. “I know money is an issue, but surely, on her salary, she could sell the house and get something small now that you two are in college and not here all the time.”

Collin tested the water. The hot water heater was sure taking its time.

“It’s the house she bought with dad. I don’t think she’ll ever let go of it.

And she drowns herself at work, so…it’s not like she’s here all the time.

Alice and I do bring it up, but she always tells us that we’ll understand when we have families of our own, that the grandkids will love it here. ”

“She thinks you two are coming back.”

Collin grimaced. “She does. She has this idea that both Alice and I will move back in. That we’ll all live here together.”

“What does Alice think about this?”

“Alice doesn’t say much.” Collin shrugged.

“Mom wanted her to study at the same university where she teaches, but Alice picked a major that wasn’t provided there.

Mostly just to escape. She didn’t want to live here and go to school.

She wanted to see more of the world. I’m really not sure she thinks she went far enough. ”

“Why didn’t you stay here for school if money was an issue?”

“Mom was sleeping with the dean of the engineering department. That just felt…weird. He was trying to act like my dad, and he wasn’t.”

“I thought your mom swore off men.”

“She did. After him. I think the water is warm. We better hurry.”

Mr. Reevesworth stepped into the shower and promptly hit his head. He was taller than the shower spout. “We’re bathing again when we get to the hotel.”

“Gods, yes. Please. I think you’ve spoiled me.”

There was nothing sexy about soaping up in his childhood bathroom with his dom. The water was tepid, the drain was slow, and the walls seemed to be everywhere, hitting his elbows and bruising his knees.

After he hit his elbow for the fifth time, Collin snarled, “I don’t remember growing since the last time I was here.”

“You haven’t. You’ve just changed your motor movements.”

“What?”

Mr. Reevesworth stepped out of the shower and started toweling off.

“You can tell what kind of environment people are used to by how they move. People who live in small, cramped spaces are used to making small, careful movements, keeping their arms and legs tucked in. People who expect space around them take longer strides and make wider sweeps with their arms and legs. Since you moved out of your cupboard and this house, you’ve gotten used to having enough space to move freely.

You’ve gotten faster because you’re not navigating. ”

“Oh.” Collin turned off the water and unfolded his towel.

“It’s a sign of wealth and freedom or poverty and restriction that people don’t realize they are communicating to those around them. Some people purposely make their movements bigger to intimidate, but when it’s an act, it shows.”

“How did you learn this?”

“My all-but-dissertation was in psychology. Physical movement and nonverbal communication were a large part of my research.”

“Is this part of me becoming fundamentally unsuited to what I was before?”

“Yes. And no. Eventually, if you want to, you could learn to switch between body movement here and body movement in The Residency. Much like émeric and I have learned to switch between body movement in various places.”

Dr. Ryker was running late. Collin had time to fully dry his hair and fold a load of towels after his shower before her car rattled up outside.

Alice ran down the stairs wearing a little black dress and a pair of combat boots with anime swords hanging from her ears.

She’d done her makeup to match with blue lips and blue eyeshadow.

“You look great.” Collin waved at her outfit. “I know someone who would adore that look.”

“Oh? Is it that vampire person Mom met?”

“Ellisandre, yes.” Collin hurried to the door at the sound of footsteps and opened it. Dr. Ryker was on the other side.

“Hello, son.”

“Hi, Mom.”

She stepped inside, looked around the living room, over to Mr. Reevesworth, and then to Alice. “That dress is too short.”

Alice pulled up the hem, showing a pair of biker shorts in dark green. “I’m covered.”

“Everyone is going to think you’re a hooker.”

Alice pressed her lips together.

Collin swallowed and stepped forward. “Hey, Mom. Let me take your bag.”

Dr. Ryker pulled her shoulder back. “I’ve got it. And since I see you all decided to dress up, I guess I need to change. How much time do I have?”

Embarrassment, the bad kind, crept up Collin’s cheeks. “Reservations are for seven. We should leave in about fifteen minutes.”

Dr. Ryker shook her head. “Collin, how many times do I have to tell you ask before you make commitments for other people? Excuse me, Reevesworth, I know I should say hello, but I don’t want to make us late.”

She pushed past everyone and clomped down the hall to her room.

Collin’s eyes fell to the floor.

“Well, that went well,” Alice hissed. She stomped past Collin and out the front door.

“Let’s get some air,” Mr. Reevesworth whispered. He nudged Collin around and out the door after Alice.

It did smell better outside. If only he never had to go back in, then he would be able to breathe.

“You can always safe word, Collin. And I will always get you out.”

Collin wrapped his arms around himself. “I don’t think my mother will listen.”

“She doesn’t have to. But neither do we have to stay.”

“I won’t leave Alice to deal with the mess that happens if we walk out.”

“We can take Alice with us.”

Collin’s lips tried to lift in a smile. “All the way back home?”

“Yes, kitten. All the way back home. Though I shudder to think of her meeting Ash.”

That made Collin laugh.

Mr. Reevesworth touched Collin on the shoulder.

“I’m trying to respect that this is not my domain, precious boy.

But I have limits of what I will tolerate and standards for what I allow to have happen to my submissives.

Your mother is already crossing that line.

I’m not willing to stand by and watch you be hurt, and I will step in unless you safe word to stop me. ”

Collin shuddered. “And what if I don’t?”

“Then your relationship with your mother might look very different by the time this trip is over—if it even survives.”

“I don’t want to hurt her.”

“She’s hurt whether or not you stand your ground. That’s why she’s hurting you. Because she’s not dealing with her own hurt. And you’re enabling it.”

Collin swallowed. Tears stung his eyes.

“I can’t abandon Alice, sir. And I do love my mother, so what do I do?”

“If we had more time, I’d instruct you, but for tonight, trust me.”

“Yes, sir.”

Alice ran back up the stairs, a grass stain on one knee and some leaves stuck strategically in her hair. “Think Mom will like this any better?”

Collin laughed. He reached out and stroked his sister’s flyaway hairs behind her ear. “Absolutely not, but you look wonderful.”

Alice smiled, wide as the sun. “Perfect. Now where are we eating? I’m hungry.”

Collin grinned, then sighed, and turned to his dom. “Let’s save the Korean place for another day. Do you mind if we go somewhere else?”

Mr. Reevesworth studied Collin’s face for a moment. “My assistant sent me a backup list. There’s a Mexican place with a heated open patio on the roof.”

Collin fished out his phone. “Do you have the number? I’ll call and reserve a table. Maybe we should make it seven fifteen instead of seven.”

Alice huffed “But I really wanted to try Korean.”

“And I want it to be special.” Collin wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “How about I fly you out to Chicago, and we go out with Damian?”

Alice’s mouth fell open. “Are you joking?”

“No. Tell me the next weekend you can get away, and I’ll buy you tickets.”

Alice tapped her fingers together in front of her face, jumping up and down. “OMG, you’re serious!”

Collin punched the number to the Mexican place into his phone and made the call. He’d barely finished when the door of the house opened.

“Well, I’m ready.” Dr. Ryker stomped down the porch in a pantsuit with an oversized blazer.

She looked…good. And cranky.

Collin forced a smile on his face. “Awesome. Do you want to drive or join us in the SUV?”

Collin’s story continues in Collin: Episodes 10–12…