When he was secure, I fondled my boy all over, teasing him until he was panting and squirming. “Please, Daddy?”
“My perfect boy, what do you need,amorino?” I leaned over him, kissing from his jaw to his nipple, lingering there. “Kisses?”
“No, please,” Basil panted, arching off the hard, leather surface when I sucked one pink bud into my mouth before letting it go with a pop. “Hurt me. Mark me. Make me yours, Daddy.”
“Anything for you,” I cooed, reaching for the bag I’d left beside the bench. I got out my elk-hide flogger to warm him up, my Wartenberg wheel to rub it in, and then my favorite cane to make my marks last.
By the time I was done, Basil wouldn’t be able to sit or wear pants for at least a week without remembering who he belonged to. It was what we both wanted, and I was looking forward to babying him. I laid into his flesh, focusing on his chest and upper thighs before turning him to have a go at Basil’s upper back and ass, having made sure the lingerie left those bare. As he whimpered until he fell into subspace, moaning and crying at once, I imagined how I’d feel bathing him gently before rubbing lotion into his skin at home, mixing care with a bit more pain.
“Such a good boy, for me,” I cooed in his ear as I removed the restraints. Basil had a dreamy smile on his face, completely at odds with his reddened flesh, blood drops raised in a few places. “Can you walk?”
“No, Daddy,” Basil managed, and I lifted him in my arms.
I’d already arranged with Q and A’s sub, Cielo, that they would clean up so I could focus on my boy. He stayed leashed and on my lap as I socialized with Felix and the others, talking about how good it felt to claim the boy as my own.
The full claim would come at home. Our home. And I would never stop claiming my would-be enemy as my own.
EPILOGUE
BASIL
Three and a half years later
“Welcometo the Berkeley graduation of twenty-twenty-eight,” a burly co-ed greeted, handing me a program with the same words emblazoned in the school colors. Blue and yellow Cal banners were waving along with balloons around the stadium. It had to be as big as my graduation, if not bigger.
“Josefina and Santo are in section three-A,” George put his hand on my back and steered me toward the blue sign with a yellow A on it. “They certainly have a lot of school pride.”
“It’s almost more than at Pino’s track meets,” I agreed. We made our way to the seats Santo was fiercely guarding for us and gave them both hugs. We had a side view of the stage, where we could see them walk off with their diplomas. “Ready to watch them walk the stage?”
So proud of George’s children, I felt like a step-parent to them on days like this. But I was more a friend to Pino, as I called him, than parental. He and I had become fast friends, both navigating being queer and introverted in the very accepting Bay Area, but also from strict religious and family upbringings. I was also proud of George for raising such amazing, centered children. He was a good dad as well as Daddy.
Fidgeting with my hands, George placed his over them to still my movements. “Stop tugging at your ring finger,ragazzo.”
“But it already feels too naked,” I whispered, looking up at him through my lashes.
He wasn’t budging. “Not yet,amorino.”
“Boo.” The ring he’d put on me the night before was burning a hole in my pocket. “Then you shouldn’t have given it to me the night before their graduation.”
“We don’t need to overshadow their day. And I thought I’d taught you some patience.” Daddy leaned in close, his lips brushing my earlobe. “But I’d be happy to strap you up again and not let you finish. You can go a few days without coming after last night. It might teach you more about how to wait.”
Biting my tongue, I shook my head. I needed another release after his proposal left me wrung out.
Putting the ring on me while I was strapped to a St. Andrew’s cross, having my cock and balls tortured until he made me cum so hard I blacked out, wasn’t really a proposal. I’d woken up in bed when he tucked me in, and we kissed until my lips were swollen. He told me I had to put it away this morning, and that my sore dick in his cage and my day collar would have to suffice as his claims on me. Somehow, they didn’t.
A ring was a sign to the world that I was taken. His.
An engagement was happy news, and I was anxious to get the announcement over with, especially with Angie. She’d been the toughest to get close to. Angie had come around, though, and we’d bonded over our fierce protectiveness of George and Pino. She finally trusted me with her father’s heart, and I cherished the respect we had for each other.
“Look, the twins are seated together,” Josefina pointed out, though it took a minute to find them in the sea of faces in matching caps and gowns. They had similar features to their father, so I eventually saw them a few rows back near an aisle.
Both were graduating with honors in Law, though with different minors. I had been fielding a lot of tears as they were about to live apart for the first time. Angie was going abroad for her Master’s work in Law & Diplomacy. Pino wanted to stay in the Bay with his new boyfriend, and was doing a dual Master’s of Energy & Resources as well as studying Law for a Juris Doctorate.
They wanted to change the world in different ways.
Bryan, Pino’s boyfriend, texted that he found seats with their friends on the opposite side of the stadium. They would be joining us at the house later. We were throwing a graduation party, though Angie insisted it was also her going away party, since she didn’t want a separate one just for her. They were the only twins I had ever met who wanted joint birthday parties, or nothing at all. She loved her brother more than anything in the world.
“I brought tissues,” I told Josefina, who had already started crying silently, soaking Santo’s handkerchief.
