“Thank you for the late welcome.” Sevastyan greeted Alexi with a hand clasp and cheek kisses in the French fashion.
“Anything for my favorite apprentice.” Alexi clapped Sevastyan on the back. There were no other slaves or staff in sight, not even the one Rei had passively hoped to see, Lisa.
Rei closed the door and helped Sevastyan out of his coat. They had been here often enough that he knew where to hang it. He stripped out of his own winter layers. The other two men waited, catching up. Rei reminded himself to breathe. Alexi never rushed slaves. He always gave them the appropriate amount of time to complete an assigned task.
Alexi checked that Rei had finished and led the way to his private salon at the back of the house on the second floor.
The old style of the residence had been remodeled with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the well-tended garden full of trees, a miniature pond, and flowerbeds. Privacy fences and tree branches ensured the window was entirely private. The green space was lit with tiny lights and submerged globes in the pond.
Sevastyan looked around the room and held his hand out to Rei without looking back at him. Rei drew the elastics of the mask off his ears and folded the black filter in half, placing the parcel in Sevastyan’s hand. Sevastyan slid it into his pocket. Rei lowered himself by degrees to his knees beside Sevastyan’s feet, hands coming together on his thighs, palms flat. If there was anyone who would see a flaw in his form, it would be Alexi.
He had trained Sevastyan to be a master, after all.
Rei straightened his back to the perfect upright posture with a submissive curve at the shoulders.
Sevastyan’s fingers brushed against the side of Rei’s throat, a flicker of touch, showing approval.
“Did you leave him all alone on that cold island?” Alexi came around and sat facing Rei on one of the baroque-looking couches.
“Only for a little while.” Sevastyan sat behind Rei on the couch facing Alexi.
Rei kept his eyes down but subtly moved to settle beside Sevastyan’s feet.
“Flawless, as always,” Alexi noted. “You are a natural, Sevastyan. You should train more beauties for us to enjoy.”
Sevastyan let out a put-upon sigh. “Perhaps, when I’m old and my time is my own, like you. I barely have the time this one requires to keep in form.”
“May I?” Alexei extended his hand.
“Of course. Rei, you may do as Master Alexi bids. Mind his throat. I brutalized it earlier.”
“Brutalized?” Alexi asked. He made a hand gesture, summoning Rei to kneel at his feet.
On his hands and knees, Rei moved from Sevastyan to the older Russian. He knelt up, keeping his eyes averted. When Alexi crooked a finger under Rei’s chin, he relaxed his posture, letting the man raise his face, but still avoided looking at him directly. “What did you do to him?”
“Yetka questioned whether or not he was a danger to my assignment. I showed them he wasn’t.”
“Oh, and what did you do to your precious flower?” Alexi touched Rei’s throat with the pads of his fingers, exploring it gently. Rei tried to repress a tremble but Alexi noticed it all the same.
“Made him deep throat my gun, and turned off the safety.”
Alexi’s hands stilled. “Sevastyan.”
“I know.” Sevastyan sounded miserable.
“Have you been able to tend to him since?”
Rei couldn’t hear Sevastyan’s answer. It might have been nonverbal.
“Go back to your master,” Alexi said, tapping Rei’s shoulder. “You should have said, Sevastyan. I would never play with your property when the bond is stressed.”
Rei crawled back to Sevastyan. He knelt in front of his master’s feet, facing him, hands on the floor, eyes down. The softness of Alexi’s voice was breaking him. The lack of sleep and stress of being observed was wearing away at his endurance.
Training. Training. Discipline. He forced himself to stay still and not sink to the floor.
Sevastyan’s hand came down, pulling him upward and into his lap. He folded Rei’s head toward his shoulder, hand on the small of Rei’s back. “Yekta wanted me to kill him before I left on the assignment,” he said. “Ruel was on her side.”
Alexi cursed. “Imbeciles. Rei is property. Yours.”
