Sweat poured generously from every pore of my body and pre-cum leaked to the floor as the intense pain morphed into an exquisite bliss. When he ordered me to count out the final twenty, I was a wet, weeping mess of nerve endings that felt on fire. But I’d endured before and I’d do it again. And Jude was breathing hard, grunting himself with each strike.
Counting down, he eased up until the final five when he rasped, “Color, boy?”
“Green, Sir. Please give me what I need, marks that will last.”
Jude dipped his chin and made good on his promise. I counted with each strike even as the tears choked me and streamed down my face. Simultaneously, my mind tumbled intoanother zone—subspace. Or something like it where the droplets of blood that coursed in a thin line down my arm were the satisfying manifestation of freeing the world of reality where love didn’t abandon me.
When I whispered, “Five,” on a pitiful moan, I went limp and my head hung forward.
Liam helped Jude take me down. “Take care of him and I’ll clean up.”
“But it’s my responsibility, Master.”
“No, Jude.” He gestured with his chin toward me. “Your submissive is your responsibility first and always. No exception.”
My cock was so fucking hard, an angry mix of red and purple. But I also couldn’t walk without my legs wobbling. So, Jude held me by the waist, supporting me until he helped me sit on the bed. “I’m only half here. Part of me is still on the cross.”
“Then just listen to me, Daddy.” He held the rim of a water bottle to my lips. “Drink, and then I’m going to take care of the open lacerations.”
I let him continue to hold the bottle while I chugged, draining it quickly. He tossed it into the recycle bin and then toweled me dry from my face and neck, across my torso and down the front of my body. When he saw my dick, he slid onto the carpet. “Lay on your side, Daddy, and I’m going to drain your angry cock of all its cum.” He gazed up at me with hooded eyes. “After I suck you dry, I’m going to patch you up and then I’m going to take you home where I’m going to love you for the rest of the night.”
TWENTY-THREE
JUDE
Little didI know that Saturday night would be the last time Ethan and I would be together intimately. In retrospect, I was glad that I told him I would love him for the rest of the night. And I had. Slow and sure, sucking him off in the aftercare room, bringing him the relief he so desperately needed. And then again at home, leisurely… more lovingly, taking him over the edge with a second orgasm.
Neither had I expected to be sitting in the waiting room outside the maternity ward with Ethan and Frank. Gabby had wanted her mother in the labor room. Ethan wore a solemn expression, a display of nerves in the rapid tapping of his left leg. I’d squeeze his hand or gently rub the top of his leg and he’d give me a guilty smile for being annoying.
As for Frank, he paced around the room and glared at his watch. He dropped to a hard chair every now and then for about five minutes but never any longer before another revolution around the room, the thumping of his cane hitting a pace.
Gabby had been in labor since the night before, but the mid-wife had assured us the delivery wouldn’t happen for another eighteen to twenty-four hours. Thus, Frank and Ethan had gone to work, and I met them at the hospital at five thirty. Mamma had sent an update text to Frank half an hour earlier to say that it would be any minute.
Now she came pushing through the double doors, grinning through her tears, her bellowing echoing throughout the ward. “It’s a girl!”
A baby girl. Ethan had been hoping for a girl, teasing because he wanted my prediction to come through. And it had.
He turned to me, stunned. “You knew all along.” Jumping up, he pulled me next to him and hugged me fiercely. “I love you, Jude.” I couldn’t appreciate him more for taking a moment in his excitement to tell me how he felt. I think he already knew what my plans were; I’d packed my car with my belongings when he’d been at work.
Mamma pulled Ethan into an embrace, then me, grabbing my hand and yanking me along into the maternity room for me to look on the tableau.
Frank kissed Gabby on the forehead. “Did everything go well?”
Gabby let out a sigh of exhaustion. “Yes, Papa. Baby and me are fine.”
Frank stepped aside to stand with his wife, both of them unable to stop smiling.
Ethan also kissed Gabby on the cheek. “You did good,” he said and then gingerly fingered the pink baby blanket in order to take a good look. Bending over, he cooed, “Welcome to the world, little one.” He turned back to Gabby. “Does she have everything she’s supposed to? Fingers and toes and all the good stuff?”
No one asked if I wanted to see the baby and I didn’t offer. I was waiting for my opportunity to slip away quietly.
Gabby locked gazes with Ethan. “Everything she needs—except one vital thing.”
I knew exactly what was coming. I didn’t know how but I did and then Gabby continued, much to Ethan’s confusion.
“She needs someone to adopt her, Ethan.”
“You can’t know already, Gabby,” Ethan said, almost hysterical. “You should take your time. The decision is too important.”
