Page 31

His delectable doctor looked so perfect, so pretty strung up and at his mercy. Pavel took a moment to admire his work, breathing slightly labored from having to wrestle Zane into position. True to his nature, Zane had fought him every step of the way, but he didn’t mind. If anything, that helped set the tone for the rest of the day.

It helped show Pavel he wasn’t the only one into this twisted game of theirs.

“I’m glad I had the foresight to come here early and set up.” He meandered around the table, taking it all in. The small circular device he’d set into the ceiling had a small orange light blinking on the side of it, showing him it was in operation. “I wanted to use traditional chains, because there’s something sexy and primal about them, you know? But this made more sense. Why have all this advanced technology if we don’t use it, right?”

The chains around Zane’s wrists kept his arms held high over his head and were embedded with a smaller device that connected with the one above them. He’d been pulled up onto his knees and was kneeling in the center of the table, naked and covered in a sheen of sweat that made his skin sparkle in the sunlight pooling in from the wall of windows across from them.

“Have you heard of the Opperate-3F?” Pavel asked absently, talking mostly to key up the tension. Zane wasn’t the overly chatty sort, and the more Pavel dragged this out, the more tense his bashert became. “It’s a nifty Void creation they sell to a lot of companies and chain stores. Originally, it was designed to help with heavy lifting and moving stock—boxes of tools and groceries, that sort of thing. They’ve got a lot of movement.”

He had a thick black ring on his middle finger, and he lifted his hand and pulled it back, grinning when the device followed the motion.

Zane’s chained wrists jerked forward five inches, forcing him to bend with it. He clenched his jaw when Pavel moved him back into place, though with the thick blindfold still obscuring his vision, he couldn’t glare like they both knew he wanted to.

Pavel had replaced the ribbon with a proper collar made of matching chain, around one inch thick. It looped around Zane’s throat, with a long enough leash that he’d set across the table so he could easily grab it when needed.

“I think you’ve overdone yourself,” Zane stated, trying to hide how turned-on he was. He practically hummed with anticipation though, it was apparent in the way he kept shifting on his knees and how his fully erect dick bobbed and dripped between his muscular thighs. “Isn’t the harness a bit overkill?”

“Nope,” he popped the P for effect, stopping at the head of the table so he could run his gaze down the length of him. “I’ve dreamed of dressing you up like this for years. You look so sexy adorned in chains. So…”

“I believe the word you’re looking for is imprisoned,” Zane drawled.

“Thanks, gorgeous.”

“Don’t mention it.” He shifted again and the thin mess of golden chains that’d been draped over his chest and attached to his waist clinked. They were far more delicate than the ones holding him, meant only to look pretty.

Which they did.

“I picked the harness specifically for you,” Pavel told him, moving to the side of the table so he could curl a finger in the middle strand and tug lightly, just enough for Zane to feel it. The decoration had two attachments, the first at the throat, and the second low at the waist. He’d placed the thinner chain beneath the thick collar, so it appeared as though the body chain and the collar and leash were intricate parts of the same piece. “I was going to go with barbed wire and something hard looking at first. Really lean into that whole captive angle.”

He sighed and dropped his hand, circling once more. “But that’s not really befitting a prince. Gold,” he snapped his fingers, “gold is much better. It also happens to go well with your complexion.”

“For starters,” Zane replied, “I’m not a prince. Secondly, you didn’t seem to have that same problem when you were fucking me in the dirt.”

“That’s different.”

“Do tell.”

Pavel hopped onto the table behind him, moving up close to rest his hands on Zane’s hips. “That was about showing you who’s boss. This is about defiling you.”

Zane scowled. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Sure it does. First, I make you all elegant and glittery.” Pavel’s left hand smoothed down the center of Zane’s chest, pressing the thin chain against his skin so he could feel it better. Then he reached for his dick, giving one solid pump as a sort of silent apology for what was about to happen next. “Then I completely and totally wreck you. Before we get to that part though, I need you to soften up for me, Doctor.” He kissed his nape and then sighed, hating what he was about to do.

“Has Lyra ever played with you like this?” he asked, grimacing when Zane’s mood instantly changed.

“What?” His voice cracked and he took a second to wet his lips. “Don’t talk about her.”

“I thought you were into it, you know? Before I saw how angry you were at Kazimir, I thought, as he probably did, that you had a thing for Lyra. That it was mutual.”

“Well it isn’t,” he snapped. “Seriously. Stop talking about her, Pavel. I don’t want—”

“Did she force you, baby? Or just take advantage? Use her position as the Imperial Heir against you? If I’d known that, I would never have left you to her.”

“Pavel.”

He ignored the warning. “What about Professor Diar? I don’t like the way he looks at you. Have you ever—”

“He fucking wishes,” Zane shook, rattling chains but unable to free himself. “Even if Lyra gave him the go-ahead, I would never let him touch me.”

“Don’t worry. That will be dealt with.” He hadn’t known that either, not until Zane had mentioned the deal with his grades. But now that he did, he wouldn’t allow it to go unpunished. The second he’d secured Zane’s hand and they were off this island, he was going to be paying a visit to both Lyra and Wells Diar.

He checked around Zane’s front, silently cursing when he saw his doctor was still slightly turned on.

“Isn’t that the line Lyra used to sneak in with Kazimir?” Pavel didn’t want to bring it up, felt bad for bombarding him with such unpleasant things, but he needed him to soften so they could proceed, and he wasn’t willing to change his plans. “She told Kaz the two of you were already screwing on the side, so he let her in that night he played robber at your apartment, right?”

Zane had one on campus that he sometimes used, or at least he had sometimes used. Looking back on it, Pavel should have known what was up the second Zane stopped staying there after that night Kazimir and Lyra snuck in. He’d assumed it was because things had progressed in Zane’s relationship with the Imperial Heir, but now he was seeing more clearly.

“It was a threat, wasn’t it? A way for her to get you sleeping at the Little Palace again. She’s really obsessed with you, isn’t she?” Pavel didn’t like that.

“She’s not obsessed,” Zane corrected him. “At least not with me. She only wants me when it seems like she can’t have me. The second that changes, she loses interest and walks away. If you’ve been stalking me as long as you claim, then you must have noticed she’s been seeing a new guy.”

“For about a year or so, yeah.”

“She killed him.”

Pavel frowned. “What? Why?”

“Because she realized there’s something going on between you and me. She killed him as a warning to me. To show me that she’s capable of doing anything to get what she wants. That she’s capable of discarding anything that no longer appeals to her.”

Pavel got a sinking feeling and forced himself to ask, “Are you afraid to become her Royal Consort, is that it? Do you want it but fear her too?”

If Zane had feelings for Lyra, Pavel didn’t know what he’d do. He didn’t know what he could do. People like Zane didn’t fall easily, didn’t grow attached. If he’d managed to develop a connection to Lyra, a real one involving emotional entanglements and everything, it’d be near impossible for anyone to sever them, let alone Pavel.

Hell, that was why he was going through all of this trouble in the first place. He was desperately trying to build that connection himself. Trying to get Zane to need him, even if it was only for physical pleasure.

If he ruined Zane for anyone else, the doctor would have no choice but to come to him for his orgasms, and if that were the case, he’d be more easily convinced to marry him for the convenience of it all. More than anything, Zane wanted a home. Wanted a family and a place where he felt like he was needed and he belonged.

Had Lyra beat him to the punch there?

Had she somehow managed to convince him she—

“Pavel, that hurts,” Zane whimpered and Pavel realized he’d spaced out and started locking the cage around Zane’s dick before he was ready for it.

A quick glance showed that little bit of pain had been enough, and paying more attention, Pavel managed to lock the golden cage around Zane’s lax dick even as the other man struggled against him.

Once it was done, Pavel hushed him and ran a hand soothingly down his back. “Relax, gorgeous. Almost there.”

“What—” Zane swore when Pavel flicked his wrist, activating the ring, and his arms suddenly dropped.

Pavel caught his bound wrists and hooked them beneath the cock cage, the metal clicking together magnetically, forcing Zane into a slightly bent angle, unable to do much of anything other than press his fists to the table to steady himself. Ignoring his harsh protests, Pavel grabbed the other objects he’d brought with him, reaching around to clip them onto Zane’s nipples.

Zane jerked, but there was no escape, and Pavel leapt off the table and moved so he could eye his handiwork all over again.

“You can’t see them, but the nipple clamps have little golden daggers dangling from them. Isn’t that cute?” Pavel rested his elbows on the edge of the table and set his chin in his palms, sighing contentedly. “You look perfect, Doctor. Well, hold on, almost perfect.”

Pavel rounded him, taking the end of the leash on his way. He tugged, forcing Zane’s head up, and then slipped the end through the hook he’d screwed onto the surface at the other end of the table.

Now, Zane was positioned with his head and shoulders back so he didn’t cut off his airway, kneeling with his knees spread and his hands caught underneath his caged cock. His body shook, and it was hard to tell if it was from arousal or anger.

Possibly both.

“One more thing.” Pavel selected the final item from the chair where he’d left it, slathering on enough lube the sticky stuff coated his fingers as well, and then got back up behind Zane.

“Don’t you dare,” Zane growled the second he felt Pavel’s hand on his ass.

Pavel found his hole and then pressed in the toy, working all eight inches in before he pushed the button that would turn on the targeted thumping vibrations.

“Good Light!” Zane instantly began twitching, the chains rattling, the sounds competing with the pattering of rain against the windows, creating a symphony in Pavel’s ears.

“Recognize the feel?” Pavel asked sweetly as he got down a second time. “It’s the same one you used in my penthouse to trick me into letting you go. You seemed to enjoy riding it so much that night, isn’t that true?”

Zane shook his head. “No. No, I—Where are you going?”

“You wouldn’t know this, since you’ve never taken an art class at Vail, let alone an advanced one, but Professor Jewel is sort of a tough audience to please, and I’ve got homework that needs completing I don’t want to miss.”

“Art?” he seemed to struggle with processing that.

“Yeah, I never said before, but actually, I took it up shortly after you left me at the orphanage.”

“I didn’t leave you.”

“How do you know?” Pavel pulled a chair to the head of the table and sat down, lifting the digital sketch pad that was around two feet wide onto his lap. “You can’t remember.”

Zane was silent for a moment, and in response to that, Pavel used the remote to turn the thumping vibrations of the dildo up a level.

Or five.

Who was counting.

The doctor howled and struggled, but that only made Pavel laugh.

“You can’t go anywhere,” he told him. “Those chains will keep you from being able to move even an inch off the table. I said they were fun. I don’t have to cover you in bindings to keep you in place. I don’t even have to tie your ankles down.” Though he wanted to. He’d put chains there as well purely for the aesthetic, and he wondered if Zane had noticed before he’d mentioned it just now. “I know you typically can come from anal, but that’s where the cage comes in. Basically, your orgasms are mine, gorgeous. And I’m not feeling all that generous at the moment.”

“Pavel.” Zane clearly wasn’t a fan of this turn of events.

“You really shouldn’t have brought up Great,” he mentioned. “I was all for forgiving and going easy on you after seeing how hot you looked in those yellow ribbons, but no. It’s always the hard way for you, isn’t it, baby? You’ve always got to push everyone past their limits just to see what will happen. Well, now that you’ve found out, how do you feel?”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Zane swallowed and even though the chains obscured his throat from Pavel’s view, his eyes shot there anyway. “I was wrong. It won’t happen again.”

“No?”

“Of course not. I don’t have any feelings for Great. I never did. I was just using him to piss you off.”

“Mission accomplished,” Pavel drawled, picking up his stylus. He started to draw, beginning with the wide set of Zane’s hunched shoulders. Even bound like he was, the doctor screamed regal grace.

“Hart, please.”

He clicked his tongue. “That won’t work I’m afraid. I know all your angles, Doctor. Now, be good for me and stay still as much as you’re able so I can put them to paper.”

“You aren’t seriously drawing this ?”

“Don’t worry, my skills are miles apart from the ones you had when we were children. But also, I’ll take pictures as well. You’ll get to see yourself later.”

“That’s not at all what I meant.”

“I think making you wait for,” he pretended to check the time even though Zane couldn’t see it, “the next four hours should suffice.”

“You can’t be serious?!”

“Like a heart attack. But you’re right. I was giving you one hour for every week you made me stay away, but I’d forgotten about the punishment for that coffee date with Kazimir and bringing Great—and his mint green bomber jacket—to Concealed.”

“I hate the color green,” Zane floundered. “Hate it.”

He chuckled. “Too late, gorgeous. Let’s add another two hours, shall we? That’s a total of six, since I’m sure it’s a bit difficult for you to concentrate on doing math with your ass stuffed, your cock confined, and your nipples starting to sting. Oh. The dildo doesn’t just thump, remember? It also thrusts. I was keeping the vibration just below your prostate but…”

“Wait,” Zane’s panic was palpable. “Pav, wait. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry, don’t—”

Pavel clicked the remote again and turned the toy up all the way, grinning when Zane threw his head back further and screamed.