Page 40 of Prior Claim
“Fair and fairly spoken,” Alexi agreed. “There’s a reason I am no longer a director. Who wants to spend their days covered in a stupid costume sorting out problems?”
“Yekta is interested in your training. She has aspirations.”
“Yekta would ruin any slave she got her claws on. She can lust after what she sees all she wants. She couldn’t replicate your instincts, not even if I were to train her for a decade.”
“She asked how long it took to train Rei to the level I demonstrated yesterday. I told her she could know when she had your approval.”
Alexi laughed outright and slapped his knee. “Well played, my young graduate. You told her to fuck off and dropped my name to make it stick.”
“They’ll be questioning my loyalty tenfold now.”
“To themselves, perhaps, but not for general ears to hear. They won’t make a move against me. I have hooks in all of them.”
“I should go soon, make my delivery,” Sevastyan sighed. “Can I impose on you to watch Rei for me? Perhaps I’m paranoid after earlier, but I don’t want to leave him alone in a hotel.”
“My dear man, of course I would be happy to watch your precious pet. I’ve seen so little of him these last few months. We can while away the time together here and wait for you. How long will you be gone?”
“Two hours, at most. Is Lisa here?”
“He just finished a long assignment in Morocco. I gave him some down time. Don’t hurry on my account. Two hours is still well before my bedtime,” Alexi said.
No Lisa, then. Rei swallowed back mild disappointment. It was good that he’d barely allowed himself to even think of seeing Lisa. Being a slave meant surrendering hopes and desires.
Sevastyan tapped Rei’s shoulder. “Go to Master Alexi.”
Rei crawled around the table and settled himself facing Alexi. The man reached out and stroked the unblemished side of Rei’s face.
“He’s lost a little weight.”
“He always does when I have to leave him alone for a while.” Sevastyan poured a drink and brought it around the table. “Please make sure he gets some water. We’re flying tomorrow and that’s always dehydrating.”
Alexi took the water from Sevastyan and held it to Rei’s lips. Rei drank until Alexi pulled it away. Alexi continued his examination, reaching Rei’s wrists. He held them up, noting the rope marks. “You let him fly like this?”
“He has his bracelets. Everyone thinks they’re from those.”
“I should have thought of that.”
Rei didn’t need to look at Sevastyan to know he was smirking.
Alexi laughed. He stroked his thumb over Rei’s pulse point.
Rei closed his eyes, relaxing into the man’s touch and the sound of Sevastyan’s voice. Anyone else and he could fake ease, but Alexi never watched mere posture. He always went deeper, demanded more. True surrender.
Give. He had to give. It was the only way to pass Master Alexi’s perception. Willingness. Alexi trained not for obedience, but for actual want. His own slaves, even if offered the chance, would never leave him. He only kept those who could give up any thought of a different life and embrace the one he dictated for them. Unlike many masters Rei had experienced, men and women who enjoyed the anguish and struggle of an unwilling body beneath them, Alexi desired only slaves who enjoyed their service. His greatest victory was to bend a formerly free soul and craft them into a slave who would never again be anything else. Lisa was his most recent acquisition, a dark success of his methods perhaps yet unfinished.
Rei let himself sway the smallest fraction of a motion toward Alexi.
“Precious,” Alexi murmured. He dragged his thumb across Rei’s cheek. “Have you let anyone else touch him?”
“No.” Sevastyan’s voice came from behind Rei, dark and foreboding, as if offering violence at the very idea. “No one touches but me. And you.”
Neither of them counted Lisa. But Lisa didn’t want Rei for body use, only for touch. For breathing.
“I’m honored,” Alexi murmured.
Sevastyan sank back down on the couch. “He knows you. And I trust you.”
“Again, honored.” Alexi’s voice sounded like he was smiling. He tapped Rei’s thighs, ordering them apart.
