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“Are you going to behave, Zane?”

He tilted his head and gritted his teeth, unable to see Pavel with the blindfold he was wearing. He’d woken up with it already secured around his face, blocking out everything, including the light.

The last thing he remembered, he’d been fighting against drowsiness toward the end of their third movie. It hadn’t been as good as the duology they’d already watched, and he’d struggled with keeping awake, not wanting to ask to switch to something else since Pavel had seemed into it. Now he found himself annoyed.

“You have shitty taste in movies.”

“Guess that’s my answer then.” Pavel’s hand around his throat urged him backward, and he chuckled when Zane let out an annoyed growl. “What’s wrong? Going to pretend you don’t like being manhandled?”

“What’s going on?” Zane had stirred awake with the other man’s fingers combing through his hair, but the second he’d sat up and tried to remove the blindfold, all signs of tenderness had vanished. He’d been hauled up by his arms and moved around the couch, but he was so disoriented he was struggling to process the rhyme or reason for Pavel’s actions.

The last time he’d been blindfolded, Kazimir had secretly invited Lyra into his bedroom. Even though Pavel had already told him that would never happen, a part of him didn’t believe it.

“I don’t like a live audience,” he hated the hitch in his voice.

“No one else is here,” Pavel reassured him. “No one else will ever be invited in. They’re just getting a glimpse, that’s all.”

Zane’s lower back bumped against something and he frowned, reaching out to feel the object. “Are we in the dining room?”

“Take off your clothes for me, gorgeous.”

“No.”

“This isn’t the time to fight.”

Zane tried to listen to their surroundings, but with the rain pinging against the windows, it was impossible to make out much of anything. His heart rate was rising, and the panic he’d felt earlier returned, only this time it was different, laced with anticipation and a wave of desire that he desperately grappled to hold onto. It was better than the doubt, after all.

“Remember I gave you a chance to do things gently,” Pavel said, a second before his hands were on him, tearing off his pajamas with fervor. Before Zane could even think of how to react, he grabbed his hips and hoisted him up onto the table, twisting him around until he was kneeling.

Something cold and metallic locked around his left wrist, and Zane tugged on it, hissing when he felt it cinch even tighter from his efforts. His right one was captured the same way, and then he was tugged down. Just before his cheek could connect with the table, his face was cradled by a warm palm and lowered.

“No hitting your head,” Pavel chimed, sounding rather pleased with himself as he wandered around the table, “I remembered.”

“What the hell are you doing?” He pulled at his binds and tried to rise, but there was no longer enough slack for him to comfortably do so. The table shook slightly when Pavel climbed on it behind him, and Zane tried to move away to no avail.

“I made sure the audio was working as well,” Pavel informed him a moment before the sound of buzzing reached his ears. “So feel free to be as loud as you want. Once I hit record everyone will be able to hear the sounds you make when I fuck you.”

“I don’t—Fuck!” Something cold and wet pressed against his taint, causing a jolt to shoot through him. When he tried to close his legs, Pavel retaliated.

He slapped his ass hard enough it had him cursing all over again, then delivered another blow on the same spot.

“Do I have to keep spanking you, or are you going to be good for me?”

“I don’t understand what’s happening,” he admitted. “Pavel, please.”

“We’re playing another game, baby, that’s all. I let you fall asleep with your head in my lap last night, but now it’s time for the aggressive claiming you were so disappointed you weren’t getting yesterday.”

“That’s not true!” Zane growled. “We both know this is not at all what I had in mind. I thought—”

“Don’t worry,” he interrupted, “I’ll still choke you the way you like. But first, you owe me for cutting our hunt in the woods short. I was really looking forward to ravishing you in the mud. Since you made me wait, I think it’s only fair that I return the favor.”

The vibrating toy moved up, circling his hole a second before it was pushed into him. Pavel didn’t give him time to adjust to the intrusion, shoving in inch after inch despite Zane’s howls.

The stretch and burn had Zane moaning despite his protests, his body instantly coming alive.

“This toy is fun, want to know why?” Pavel asked, and then suddenly the toy was twisting inside of Zane, rubbing at his insides in a strange way. “It’s got a crank, isn’t that interesting? And the glass shaft has dull spikes all over it. Can you feel it?”

“Take it out.” It didn’t hurt, but it felt weird, and Zane still couldn’t stop thinking about Pavel’s vague comments about being watched. “Are you filming this?”

“Not yet,” he said. “I want to get you worked up first, make you nice and needy for me. Then I’ll turn on the cameras, and you and I will become movie stars. Doesn’t that sound exciting?”

“No.”

“Your dick just twitched, gorgeous. Can’t lie to me from this vantage. I can see everything from back here.” Pavel turned the crank on the toy, rotating it within Zane as he spoke, seemingly enjoying the way it made Zane writhe on the table. “I’m going to fuck you for so long, you’re going to lose your mind before this is over. Maybe I’ll keep you here, chained to our table, for the rest of the week. What do you think? Will that be enough to sway you into saying yes to my proposal?”

“You’re insane!” Zane struggled and then gave up, thumping his forehead against the table as the toy dug into his inner walls. He could feel his dick lengthening and his balls drawing tight, knew without a shadow of a doubt that Pavel had noticed and was most likely watching his junk like the obsessed freak he was.

That shouldn’t be a turn-on.

Having all of his attention on him should not be hot.

“You just dripped for me,” Pavel purred. “Look at you, getting the table all wet and dirty.”

“Untie me,” Zane said. “I’ll have sex with you. You don’t have to take things this far.”

“Of course I do, baby. This is what you need.”

“Bullshit!”

“I’m showing you how badly I want you,” Pavel insisted. “Teaching you that giving in to me is the best way to gain what you want. It’s positive reinforcement at its finest.”

That wasn’t what this was at all, but when something was tied around the base of his cock, Zane forgot all about the poor description.

“What is that?” He really wished he wasn’t blindfolded, it left him vulnerable—not that he wasn’t also at the other guy's mercy bound the way he was. If he had to guess, his wrists were chained to the front legs of the table they were on top of. He hadn’t paid much attention to the furniture quality, but the piece must have been pretty sturdy for Pavel to choose it as the location for this.

“Ribbon,” Pavel answered. “It’s bright yellow. My color. It looks good on you. So good, in fact, I’m debating doing away with the chains I brought and using this on you instead.”

“To do what?” He shivered when the ribbon was tightened. It was uncomfortable, but he didn’t bother asking what was happening there.

Pavel had just created a cock ring of sorts. It didn’t take a genius to realize where this was going.

Zane’s mind instantly scrambled to reevaluate the situation.

“What else?” More of that ribbon looped around Zane’s neck, Pavel holding it slack just long enough to be sure he knew what it was before pulling it taught.

Zane gasped, feeling the wide ribbon pushing against his throat. Breath play like this was dangerous, the kind that got people killed, and when he was lifted off the table, he moved with it in an attempt to keep as much pressure off his trachea as possible.

“Worried, Doctor?” Pavel laughed, pinging between his plethora of nicknames with ease. “Don’t try to answer, I know you can’t.”

With the wrist bindings keeping his arms spread across the table, the pull of the ribbon around his throat had him bending in an uncomfortable angle, his knees slipping on the slick surface, effectively parting his thighs wider. If he could get a word out, he’d curse the guy all over again, but his main focus was on trying to keep the pressure off and his breathing even.

“You know I won’t do any permanent damage,” Pavel reassured, planting a kiss on the curve of Zane’s left ass cheek, signaling that he’d lowered over him. “This is just to help you with that behavior problem of yours.” He tugged on the ribbon lightly then chuckled when Zane made a sound of protest. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to loosen the reigns, so to speak, and you’re going to flatten out and hump the table for me like a good boy.”

Zane scoffed. He wanted him to dry hump a piece of furniture? Like a horny teenage boy?

“I want to watch you thrusting for me,” Pavel stated, as though sensing Zane’s aversion. He planted a palm on Zane’s lower back and then pushed. “There you go. Come on now.” The ribbon slipped through his fingers at the same time, loosening around Zane’s neck, though he didn’t let it go entirely.

Zane’s forehead came back down to the table, and he sucked in a deep breath.

“Spread those legs for me, gorgeous.”

He didn’t really have a say, not with the threat of the ribbon and Pavel’s strong hand urging him. Zane adjusted himself until he was sealed over the table, his legs opened around Pavel at his back. His dick stuck between his stomach and the wood, but he stopped there.

Which was a mistake.

Pavel’s hand came down on his ass again, followed quickly by his teeth. He dug into Zane’s flesh, going all out in a similar fashion to how he’d bitten him in the lab back at university, though without almost taking a chunk out of him.

Zane cried out and struggled to move away, but the ribbon was pulled and Pavel’s teeth sunk in even deeper, causing him to instantly still.

He gasped the second the ribbon came undone again. “Bastard.”

“If you don’t want it to hurt, do as you’re told,” Pavel warned. “You’ve already learned I like causing pain. Don’t act like this is new. Now, fuck the table like a good boy. I want to see you work for it.”

The humiliation was palpable, but Zane found himself doing as he was told. He rolled his hips, grinding down against the solid surface beneath him in hesitant movements. It wasn’t as comfortable as, say, a hand jerking him off, but the friction was there, causing him to pick up the pace with every press of his aching dick.

A moan slipped past his lips and Zane turned his head to rest his cheek down, panting as the sensations of his dick being rubbed and the turn of the glass toy in his ass sent him higher and higher.

When the toy was suddenly ripped out of him, he froze and growled at the same time. His hole clenched around air, the empty feeling settling in his gut, making him almost want to beg for it back.

But he couldn’t be that easy to manipulate.

Could he?

Another whack across his cheek made him hiss, and then Pavel threatened, “I didn’t tell you to stop, did I?”

Zane went back to humping the table, the empty feeling only growing despite the way his dick leaked and his balls drew up. The other ribbon, the one wrapped around the base of his cock, was still cinched, and he realized with a whimper that most of the pleasant sensations he’d been feeling had come from the stimulation to his ass.

He wasn’t going to be able to come like this.

“Stop.” Pavel held him still with a hand on each of his ass cheeks. “Time to settle down a bit.”

“Why?”

“So you can cool off, and I can heat you up again.”

Zane groaned. “You didn’t seriously mean it. You can’t plan on edging me—”

“I did and I can. Unless you can offer me something better?”

“What—”

“Your hand in marriage should suffice.”

He rolled his eyes behind the blindfold but didn’t bother ordaining that with a response.

“Last I checked, you’re still waiting to be punished for leading me on all month. I really didn’t like having to stand there and watch you chat up your ex, gorgeous. Don’t even get me started on that sham of a date you went to at my club. I think I’ve been too nice to you lately. You’ve forgotten the most important rule in these games of ours.”

Zane couldn’t help the shudder that rushed through him. “What rule?”

“You belong to me. To me, and only me.” He moved up and pressed a finger against the spot behind Zane’s ear. “You didn’t remove the tracker.”

“You already know I didn’t.”

“Why?”

“So I could be sure you’d find me when I went to talk to my ex and on that date with Great. Obviously.”

“Not so obvious, Doctor,” Pavel disagreed. “In fact, I don’t think that’s even really it.”

“Sure.” He wasn’t going to argue with him over this. “Rest assured, once we’re through here, I’ll be cutting it out.”

“Try.” Pavel draped his body over his and breathed against the curve of his neck. “Try, bashert. The more you run from me, the more desperate to own you I become. Today, I’ll mark you up all over. I’m going to leave physical, irrefutable proof of who you belong to. You can try to stop me, but you can’t. I’ve hit my limits. I have you where I want you, captured, naked, and alone. You’re mine to do with as I please, no matter how loudly you protest.”

Zane held still beneath him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of a struggle so early on. “If that’s the case, the jokes on you. I’ve always been alone, Pav. You didn’t have to wait so long.”

“Kazimir would say otherwise,” he drawled. “And Lyra? How many times have you fucked her? How many times,” he eased off enough to slip a hand between them, tracing a line down Zane’s spine, “did you let her put her disgusting hands on this delectable body?”

“I didn’t let her touch me any more than I’m letting you do so now.”

Pavel paused, and Zane realized his mistake too late. “Is that so?”

He inhaled slowly. “Pav, please. Remove the blindfold. Let’s talk.”

“Talking gets us nowhere.”

“Talking is how I get to know you,” he corrected. “I have to know you to know whether or not I want to marry you. Last night was nice. Wasn’t it?”

“It was, but so is this. Talking right now isn’t necessary. Your wants don’t matter here, baby. Only mine do. And I want you. I want you so badly it hurts.” His hand pinched Zane’s ass and he moaned when that caused Zane to jerk beneath him. “If I did remove the blindfold, you’d be frightened. Be glad I’m leaving it on.”

“Frightened…why?”

“My eyes are glowing.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen them do that.”

“Yes, well, this time it’s happening because I’m losing myself a little. If I were a better man, I’d free you and tell you to lock yourself in a room away from me. But I’m not a good person, and there was never a chance of you escaping this.”

Zane thought about all the information he’d gathered on the Yurn and D’vitar. “You don’t have a heat or a rut cycle, but being close to your bashert when turned on can cause your mind to fracture, right?”

“It’s more like I lose self-control,” he said. “And I’m also not the one who needs to be turned on for it to happen. It’s you. It’s when you’re turned on that my natural instincts kick in like this. The need to satisfy you. To breed you and complete a mating bond. That’s what clouds my judgment and causes me to go a bit insane. You were sporting morning wood, baby. I tried not to notice, but clearly, I failed. It’s not the first time you’ve made me lose my mind.”

“Like in the pool?” He’d touched Zane and Zane had gotten hard for him, he wasn’t above admitting that. It wasn’t like either of them didn’t know the truth.

It’s not like either of them believed he wasn’t turned on right now, pinned under him, forced to take whatever he wanted to give.

But that was just what Zane was into. He’d gotten hard for Kazimir and Lyra whenever they’d dominated him as well. It wasn’t real. It didn’t mean anything, and it certainly didn’t mean he was better off choosing to marry Pavel over the Imperial Heir or any random stranger off the street.

Which was an option.

There were plenty of people who would kill to sign a contract with him, one that allowed them to get married and divorced within a certain timeframe. Lyra would grow bored of this whole thing within six months, a year at best. Zane could find someone easy to control, to manipulate, and have them—

Pavel gripped him by the hair and yanked hard enough to pull a few strands free. “I have no idea where your mind just wandered off to, gorgeous, but I’m warning you, whatever it is you think you’ve schemed up, let it go before I find out what it is and get really angry. I might be genetically programmed to want to take care of your sexual needs, but there’s nothing keeping me from making you suffer in the process. I can make it hurt. I like delivering pain. I’ve only been holding myself back all this while for you.”

“I want to see you,” Zane said, pushing those thoughts about other possibilities aside for now.

“You want to come,” he corrected, sliding back down Zane’s body until he felt his breath warm against the globe of his ass. “Too bad for you, I’m not done playing yet. Thanks to someone sleeping the morning away, I skipped breakfast, and you? You’re the main course, gorgeous.”

His tongue dipped into Zane’s needy hole and Zane gasped, wiggling as best he could when Pavel’s hands settled on his lower back to keep him still. He lapped at him languidly, as though that comment insinuating he was hungry hadn’t been made.

That skilled tongue would push past his ring of muscle, but stop before jabbing too deep, pulling back out to lick around the area instead. Over and over again. Frustration began to build, and it wasn’t long before Zane was making whimpers of protest and trying desperately to angle his hips for better penetration.

“Am I being too soft on you, gorgeous?” Pavel teased, moving to run the flat of his tongue across Zane’s taint. He spread Zane wider and planted an almost chaste kiss on his balls that had Zane growling.

“Yes.” He didn’t care that he was playing in to the other man’s hands. If there was one thing Zane had always hated, it was edging. Lyra did it whenever she was cross with him. It was her personal way of putting him in his place, of reminding him where he belonged in the social hierarchy.

Beneath her.

But he wasn’t beneath Pavel. His position was higher and once he became the Royal Doctor he’d have even more power.

“I don’t think the punishment fits the crime.” Zane didn’t want to think about her here. Not when he was with Pavel. He didn’t want their techniques to overlap in his brain. Despite his annoyance at having been brought here against his will, there was still a connection he was willing to further explore with the other man. One he didn’t want to sever over something as stupid as memories of Lyra tainting things. “Are you forgetting about the date I took to your club?”

Pavel tensed up, and Zane seized his moment to push things further.

“I haven’t,” Zane continued. “Great was wearing a mint green jacket. It looked so good on him. Fit super well. And—”

“All right, gorgeous.” Pavel loomed up behind him. “Chains it is.”