Page 37 of Xel: Broken Bond

“Yes, sir,” I repeated. He didn’t seem particularly happy with my response, but what else could I say?

“Okay. So, um… I’m going to start making breakfast,” he said, seeming to take that as the end of the conversation. “I’ve alreadychecked the animals and everyone’s fine. Yesterday was a long day, so I thought I’d let you sleep in a bit. I’ll see you in the kitchen.” He ducked out of the room, face bright red, leaving me standing there in my boxers, my cock still enthusiastically begging for attention, while my two four-legged companions continued to dance around my feet, hoping I would hurry up and feed them.

More annoyed than I could remember being in a very long time, I pulled on my pants, gritting my teeth as I tucked my disobedient erection inside. It responded even to such a pragmatic touch and I fought the urge to pull it out again and do as my master had suggested. But my annoyance was due to more than being given permission to jerk off. My master had somehow decided that I was too tired to help him with the early morning chores, regardless of the fact that he’d had just as long a day as I had yesterday. We were three days into this new routine, and he was already of the opinion that I was failing to keep up.

But as I’d said to my master two days ago, dimari were not helpless. Yes, I was required to obey him, but where there were grey areas in his expectations, I was perfectly willing to exploit those loopholes.

And so I refrained from putting on a shirt, even as I admired the maroon colour of one of the shirts I’d chosen with Leesha’s help. And even that was one more source of frustration and guilt. I loved the new colours and styles my master had bought for me. But they were also a vibrant reminder of how much nicer it was here than with my old master, and how inappropriate it was for me to be thinking that.

I took a moment to close my eyes and take a deep breath. My temper was fraying due to my insistent and unrelenting arousal, but I could take care of that issue soon enough. For now, I strode down the hall to the kitchen, my chest and arms on full display.

I plastered on a smile as I turned the corner – which actually wasn’t that difficult to do, with Mr Beans and Bribie shadowing my every move. “Yes, yes, you both get breakfast,” I said to them, feigning nonchalance as I meandered about the kitchen fetching their tins of food and their bowls from the floor. I noticed my master watching me out of the corner of my eye, and I discreetly flexed my muscles a few times. Then, still chattering nonsense to the two animals, I went over to the corner and set both bowls on the floor, making sure to create a clear opportunity for my master to ogle my backside as I bent over. I stood there, hand on my hip, while I waited for them to finish eating, then I turned around, gratified when my master hastily looked away from me, his face flushed pink. “I’m going to take a quick shower,” I told him. “Do I have time before breakfast?”

“Uh… yeah. Yes. Absolutely. That’s fine. No problem,” my master stuttered, trying to avoid my gaze. “You go right ahead.”

Good to know he was okay with the plan, I thought, suppressing the urge to smirk.

In all honesty, there was no real reason for me to be showering again. I’d had a thorough shower after we’d got home last night, rinsing off a day’s worth of dust and a million scraps of straw. But there was something else that I urgently wanted to do in the shower, and from the way he was turning red, all the way down his neck and up to the tips of his ears, I was very sure that my master knew it.

I sauntered off down the hall and shut myself in the bathroom… and then I made a point of listening for any telltale sounds out in the hallway. Surely my master was too shy to come and listen at the door? But just in case, I resolved to not betooquiet about it all. I didn’t want to sound like I was deliberately seeking attention, but I also wasn’t aiming for total silence.

I stripped off my clothes and turned on the shower, a little disappointed that the noise stopped me from hearing what wasgoing on in the hallway. There was only about a fifty per cent chance he’d leave the kitchen, given how shy he habitually was, but I found it arousing to imagine him with his ear pressed to the door, listening.

I didn’t need to do any more fantasising than that to have my cock at full attention again. I stepped into the shower, my hand immediately moving to grip myself. I’d done this a disappointingly large number of times over the past three years, since my master had almost never allowed me to climax while he was fucking me.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t still enjoy it. I began to stroke myself, and immediately, a low moan rose in my throat. Stars above, that felt good. In my mind, I could see my master standing at the door, a little startled by the sound. I could imagine the studious frown on his face, and the way his shoulders would tense. I stroked myself again, then let my head fall back, the water cascading down over my face. My fist moved quicker, and I pictured my master, outside the door, reaching down into his own pants as he reacted to the soft sounds I was making. I was breathing quicker now, and my legs trembled just a little. I’d been trained for stamina, but at the same time, it had been years since I’d had to go longer than forty-eight hours without some kind of release. We were currently sitting at three and a half days, and I moaned louder as I felt my climax gathering in my balls. I closed my eyes and imagined what it would feel like to have my master slide up inside me…

“Oh fuck!” My release splattered all over the tiled wall of the shower, quickly washed away by the flow of water. I moaned again as a few aftershocks rocked me, and then stood with my forehead leaning against the cold tiles, my fist still gripping my softening cock. I’d expected it to be quick, but my release had come even more easily than I’d thought.

And on the heels of that thought came another realisation. Never, in all my time at the hotel, had I fantasised about my old master when I was finishing myself off after he’d left the room. Three years with him hadn’t roused any noticeable interest, but three days with my new master had me almost coming in my pants.

A new wave of concern gripped me. But this time, it was less like guilt and more like… confusion? Resentment? It seemed to be a dozen different things at the same time, and I couldn’t quite get a handle on what all these emotions should be called. The instant I came up with a name for one of them, it would slip away, to be replaced with something else.

I felt sorrow – not for the loss of my master, but for the fact that I hadn’t been allowed to live the life I’d been promised while I was in training. There had been no affection, no love, no joy. Just cold repetition. I felt anger that my previous master had bought someone so unsuitable to his needs. I felt a deep and glorious joy that I’d found somewhere so much more pleasant and interesting to live, and a dark fear that it would somehow all be ripped away from me. I felt a baffling blend of determination to turn the old barn into a project that my master could be proud of, and annoyance that he was being so unbearably difficult about so many very simple things. I felt…

I stopped to consider it, trying to wrap the whole thing into one simple explanation.

I felt… scared. I felt scared at not knowing who I was, or where I belonged, or what any of this meant. I felt scared about how quickly my moods were shifting, when I’d been trained all my life for consistency and diligence. I felt adrift, like a tiny boat caught in far too large a storm.

Making sure the last remnants of my release had been washed away, I turned off the shower… and the instant I had, I caught the faint scuff of a bare foot against floorboards outsidethe bathroom door. Just that little sound was enough to bolster my mood again, and a grin lit my face. Despite my very recent release, I felt my cock twitch. So he had been listening after all.

◊◊◊

“Could you go and clean out the kennels and cattery this morning?” my master asked me, as we finished a fairly routine breakfast of porridge and toast. I’d decided to stop tormenting him after my shower, and I’d dressed in loose grey trousers and a maroon t-shirt – nicer colours than my beige uniform, but still comfortable enough for physical work. “I’ll do the animals in the barn,” he went on, “and then, if all goes well, I’d like to spend another couple of hours cleaning out the lower level of the old barn. After we get the rubbish out, I can call in an electrician to check the wiring and have a plumber go over the water tank. Once we know the basics are working, then we can use power tools to start working on replacing the planks.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, pleased with the plan. I’d liked working in the old barn. For all that it was dusty and dirty, it was also easy to see the progress we were making, and I was looking forward to the more precise work of replacing the floorboards and repairing the roof. “Shall I take Bribie with me? By the time I’ve finished in the kennels, Bo should be here, and I can leave Bribie in reception with her, rather than him causing any problems in the barn.”

My master nodded. “Yeah, good idea. Thanks.”

“What about Mr Beans?” I asked next, feeling a touch more trepidation at the answer I thought I would get. He’d been allowed to stay in the house for one night, and though he’d behaved well and hadn’t been a bother, I was fairly sure my master was going to say he had to go back to the cattery.

Right on cue, Mr Beans wandered into the kitchen. He rubbed his head against my ankle, then sat down at my feet andput a paw on my leg. In response to the entirely polite request, I leaned back in my seat and he jumped up into my lap, purring loudly as he rubbed his face against my arm.

I rubbed his ears, then looked up at my master, waiting for his decision. He was watching Mr Beans with a pensive expression on his face, and I held my breath…

My master sighed. “He can stay in the house today. He may as well…” He paused, then rolled his eyes, though he was smiling as he did so. “He may as well move in here full time,” he said, and I couldn’t help the wide grin on my face. “He’s too old to get adopted so… Yeah, he can live here now.”

That had been far easier than I’d thought it would be. Nothing at the hotel had ever been that simple, whether it was changing a shift for one of the workers, or needing to order new buckets for the cleaning, or even just requesting a new towel for my room. Every single change was questioned and interrogated and scowled at. And yet here, with just a little nudging, I’d been allowed to adopt a pet. Well, okay,wehad adopted a pet, since I was entirely sure that my master would enjoy Mr Beans’ company as much as I would. But even so.