“Bring Gabriel home!” The shriek surprised him—most times, she kept her voice down. Adrian winced and tore his arm away from her, then staggered a few feet back. The doe-like look in his mother’s eyes was gone now. All that was left was rage. “Bringhimback!”
There was no reasoning with her now. The light in her eyes was gone. Adrian took another few hurried steps backward, always keeping an eye on her even as he groped for the doorknob to his room. If he could get behind it, then he would be okay. All he needed was a wall separating him from her. Just alittlemore…
His hand met rounded metal. Quicker than he’d ever moved before, Adrian turned the knob and dove into his room. As he did, his mother came at him. The last thing he saw was the whites of her eyes and the hatred twisting her mouth before the door slammed shut and she ran upagainstit.
The collision shook the door against its jamb. Adrian worked his fingers to flick the lock, then pushed himself against the door to reinforce it, just in case tonight was more violent thanusual.
He braced himself for an impact thatnevercame.
A minute passed. Then another. He strained his ears to listen, but heardnothing.
She’dmovedon.
There were no more tears. Not anymore. Adrian blinked the last of the shock away, then ran his hand over the tender flesh of his cheek and tried to cool the burning. With a deep, staggered breath, he let go of the last of his worries and trudgedtobed.
It was just another bad night, one more in a string of hundreds. Tomorrow would be another day, and another step towardindependence.
One day, if he tried hard enough, he might even beforgiven.
6
Adrian
The last shirtAdrian would wear for the next twenty-five days traveled across his torso, then dragged over his head. When it was free of his arms, he folded it and set it down neatly next to his discarded shoes andsocks.
His pantscamenext.
The wide double doors barricading Sterling’s living quarters from The Shepherd watched him strip, their frosted glass accents glowing from the inside, promising that the low lights in The Shepherd would not be Adrian’s reality for the next almost-month.
Adrian folded his jeans neatly and set them beside his shirt. Despite the summer heat, his nipples were erect, and when his arm grazed against one of them, it sent a shock through his body that reverberated in his gut and stirred hisarousal.
The strange tightness was back in his chest, and it wasspreading.
Adrian took a moment to himself, keeping an eye on his folded clothes as though he was afraid they might get up and leave. Then, with a sigh meant to dislodge the strangeness inside, he hitched his thumbs into the broad elastic band of his Calvin Kleins and lowered them down histhighs.
It wasn’t often that Adrian allowed himself to be fully naked while in The Shepherd. During the first year of his membership, when he’d been the fresh, exciting new body in the club, he’d been much more lax about that personal rule. In those months he’d let himself enjoy the public rooms as he explored his sexuality and discovered how kink satisfied his needs, but those days had come to an end when Adrian had discovered the pleasures of assumingcontrol.
Now he’d come full circle—he was to submitagain.
Adrian folded his briefs, then collected the rest of his clothing. He draped the bundle over his arm, then stepped forward and rapped on the door three times. It quivered, and the door crept open asliver.
It had never beenlatched.
With a frown, Adrian pushed the door open. In the room beyond it, placed upon a small, round table that hadn’t been there the last time, was a narrow obsidian box. Adrian glanced at it, then stepped toward it cautiously. Apart from the distant sound of the club downstairs, the room wassilent.
The box waitedforhim.
There was no latch or mechanism holding the box closed, but there was a hinge on the back. Adrian lifted the lid and peered down into the box’s contents. Four items caughthiseye.
Two black leather wrist cuffs, and two black leather ankle cuffs. From each dangled a metal D-Ring, worked into the leather by tightened straps and secured with silver-colored rivets. Sturdy, adjustable belts strapped the objects to the wearer’s body. Adrian was willing to bet money that somewhere in the house, Sterling had ahog-tie.
Howpredictable.
Adrian scrunched up his nose, placed his folded clothes next to the box, and picked up the first of the leather cuffs. The finish was glossy, but the leather itself was tender and felt nice beneath his fingertips. Carefully, Adrian parted the adjustable leather strap from its buckle and fitted the cuff to his wrist. Sterling wouldn’t have left him such an obvious gift if he didn’t want Adrian to wear it. It was a shame that a man who ran The Shepherd should be so boring, but if this was the worst Adrian could expect, he was in for smooth sailing over the next twenty-fivedays.
The next cuff fit to his wrist just as easily as the first did. Adrian tugged the strap tight, then latched it in place. When he was done, he flexed his wrists and held his hands out, examining his work. If Sterling did want to restrain him, he wouldn’t have an issue. Unless the straps were manually released, the cuffswouldhold.
The ankle cuffs were a little more challenging to fit to his body, but only due to the inconvenience of their location. Adrian made sure they were secured, shook a foot just to make sure he’d done it right, then rolled his shoulders back and took a deep breath. There was no going back now. This was to be his reality for the next fewweeks.
