I lift the wine glass to my lips taking a tentative sip from the encrusted rim. I smack my lips gently as a floral cinnamon taste explodes over my palate.
"Is it," Ezra crawls onto the bed, tucking his legs under the comforter. "Is it good?" His eyes are wide, and his chest remains deathly still as if he were holding his breath. My lips curl around the glass as I take another sip. A small hum scratches at my throat.
"Yeah...It's good. You did good Ezra."
"Oh?" He squeaks burrowing his face into the soft looking skin of his palms. The held breath finally leaves his lungs in a choppy manner, and a tension I hadn't even noticed bleeds from every pore on his body. His spindly fingers twitch over his eyes.
"I wasn't sure if you'd like it. It's my favorite wine, and usually uh...others don't quite enjoy it," He curls around my legs stroking over the lax muscles in my calves. "An acquired taste, you know?" I shrug with the littlest tilt in my head before downing the rest of the contents of the glass.
"Well it is enjoyable—" A timid knock claws its way into the space of my room, and though its ever quiet, the newly formed sound seems to ricochet off the walls and straight into my ears. I find myself simultaneously wincing with Ezra, We both share this strange look.
"Cover-up Ezra." I shrug my robe off and toss the glittering piece towards Ezra. He looks down at it tracing the material before blinking up toward me. He eventually tugs the cloth around his shoulders and I stiffly nod at him while scooching out the bed. Tugging the door open, I peek out into the hall.
"Oh, hello." I say smiling while leaning into the door frame.
"Hi!" Christian replies while returning the smile down towards his bare feet. I watch as he wiggles his toes erratically. "Um...so I hooked up my gaming console in the social room," He shuffles before snorting to himself. "To the Tv by the pillow-pit, y'know in the sub wing? Well I was just wondering if you'd like to p-play with me?"
Yes! Anything to get me out of here away from prying eyes. I still needed to find out about Ezra's previous Doms, and his major relationship from before. If the boy kept clinging to me, I'd never get the chance.
Without thinking about it, I drag my hand across the top of Christian's head before backing away with a tiny smile. He just watches me go with blown eyes, and this look of purr innocents kissing at his cheeks and brow.
"I'ma grab my slippers, and then we can head out, okay?" He nods once. "And maybe we'll have a little race to see who gets there first!" His big blue eyes sparkle like deep sapphires.
"Okay." Christian giggles rocking on his feet. I back into the room and muster up a look of sheer disappointment. Ezra frowns and winds his fingers into the robe wrapped tightly across his lithe chest.
"I told Christian I'd play with him," I say sparing a glance towards the door. "We've been in this room for quite some time, and I think...I think you're okay to continue with your day."
"You're kicking me out?" He states folding his arms. My eyelids drop slowly, and I take a deep breath.
"We can't stay hauled up in this room all day Ezra." The submissive opens his mouth before clenching it shut firmly, so hard his teeth clink off of each other. He scrambles from the bed
"Fine! Kick me out! Go play with the little baby," He growls tightening the robe around his body as if it were a layer of protection. Armor. "He's oh-so pure and innocent, unsoiled. I bet that's what you really want. What really gets you off. Hmm? Big puppy dog eyes that'll only look at you as if you hung the fucking moon in the sky. You wanna be his mommy? Does that get you off?" What. The. Fuck! I stand my ground, unspoken mostly due to the shock coursing through my body.
"What the actual fuck are you talking about?" He glares towards the door.
"You can't just replace me! I'm not some broken piece of shit that you can just sweep under the rug when something bigger and better comes out. I'm not," He hisses. "I'm not." I'm not sure why Ezra becomes so triggered by Christian, but whatever the reason, this, this hostility geared towards the boy, and the toxic rage which bubbled out of him. It was not okay.
And I'd be damned if he talked to me or anyone like that.
"How about I tell him the good news?" He sneers. "On how he can wh—" I grip his arm quickly baring my teeth as my own anger unfolds like the deadly mass of blackened waves which engulfs the very core of a being. The feeling feels foreign to even myself, almost as if it hadn't come from me, just morphed. Usually, a rage so blackened liked this rarely ever affected me. I wasn't a violent girl, nor had I ever been so deeply consumed by red embers of anger such as this. Foreign indeed.
"Ezra, I expect an apology immediately to not only me but to Christian as well," He twists his arm in my hold. "Because the way you just acted. God, you need to apologize right now." When he remains silent, I grip him by the arm and tug him into the hall, past Christian's big blue eyes, and right against the wall. An animalistic snarl claws from my throat. Ezra bites harshly at his bottom lip and bares his neck as he trails the pattern of the floorboards.
"Your attitude is atrocious," He squirms in my hold, but I push him again until he grows slack, his mouth falling open slightly. "And it's..." Toxic. Ezra's eyes widen and his bottom lip trembles. I push on, crowding his space, our nose bumping against each other.
"I am your dom. You sent me the contract therefor I am in control."
"I'm—"
"I was not finished!" He muffles a sound, and I feel the warmth of his breath ghosting over my skin.
"Now if you want any semblance that this could work," I motion between me and him. "Then you need to not only respect me and my decisions, but you need to respect those around you as well. No more jealous outbreaks, no more hurtful comments. And we need trust, start trusting me. I won't abandon you; I physically can't so stop thinking that every situation will lead to that outcome. Ezra Wellington you are my submissive, and nothing could change that." Nothing...
My mind takes a short detour to yesterday and it screams liar. I did try to leave him. I had wanted to leave him, but I couldn't. I was stuck between a hard place and a bolder, suffocated by something so glorious it was disastrous, chaotically beautiful. Something I couldn't fix and never would be able to. Ezra Wellington.
"Now you need to go over there and apologize," His sighs seem to tug through my core discomforting and detached. I have to clench my jaw to stop an almost exact sound from tumbling out to soak in the air loosely. "Ezra, you need to apologize." Christian makes this strangled mewl and wrings the bottom of his graphic tee-shirt. Ezra tracks the motion of the boys fidgeting fingers and his bottom lip curls before he has to clamp down firm to stop the expression from fully forming.
"I-I..." His head rolls up to meet the baffled look on Christian's face, and something primal ignites in the surrounding area. As if a nonverbal language was being spoken amongst the two of them. Christian's pupils flutter before he squeezes his eyes shut, firmly shaking his head once to situate himself. "I'm sorry." Ezra finally mumbles pressing himself farther into the wall. He's pressing so harshly I fear the wall will consume him whole, leaving me awestruck with the lingering warmth of his body, and the left behind tension in the air.
"I don't think he heard you." I egg on nudging his arm. I want the gesture to hold authority, a firmness, and it should with all the doubt being built in my mind. With all the second-guessing, wondering who this person is, and what they're hiding from me. But there's this engraved crater and Ezra fills it. He fills it perfectly. So, that 'firm' nudge, that tiny bit of coldness I tried to produce to try and soothe the ever-growing bond. Well, it wasn't quite as harsh as I intended. In fact, the movement was hardly even a firm nudge. More like a feather caress dragged along his arm encouraging, burning hot like embers. And I know Ezra can feel it, feel the gesture for what it truly is because his eyes light up and his body stops trying to mold together with the wall. He holds my gaze with the tiniest crinkle in his brow.
"I'm...sorry." He drawls out loud and clear. But this apology, however genuine sounding it is, is not meant for Christian. Never would be. This was specifically for me and only me. And this apology was something altogether different. Bigger. I twist my lips to keep from pushing the matter any deeper than it already was, and I finally release the supple skin of Ezra's arm. I take one step back, then another and another, until the twinge between us is faint, and the urge to touch is easier to suppress. Was this the bond? Overriding the bad which was ever so clear in the submissive? Was this the bond keeping me ever so close to Ezra, even when I hadn't the clue of who he was or what he was capable of? Would it be the bond that would bring me to my ruin?
"It's okay." Christian says glancing at the end of the hall for the closest escape route. He twiddles his thumb and I take a long-needed deep breath until my stomach fills with air and my lungs hurt from the stretch.
"Now I'm going to play with Christian." I say.
"Okay mistress." Ezra replies docilely. I back into my room without looking away from either of the boys, backing until my feet bump against the silken material of my slippers. Sliding them on, I shuffle back into the hall. Ezra wastes no time in slipping back into my room, sifting through the mess of blankets and pillows on the bed before retrieving a rose-golden phone from the cresses of the bed. Ezra's phone? I watch as he sits on his knees biting at his nails as he taps furiously with the other hand. It only takes a brief second before a shrill ping fills the room, and then Ezra's clenching the robe closer and sliding out the bed with this sense of finality. He looks at me and I lurch back at the brief turmoil which flashes across his face.
"I forgot I had a client today." He offers laughing stiffly. He looks down at the phone again analyzing the screen and its contents before squeezing it tight. I tilt my head in wonder.
"Who?" I ask.
"A regular." Is all he says before gathering his ruined shirt scraps. He locks eyes with me and then in a matter of stiff seconds, he's gone. Christian frowns at this.
"Where is he going?" Christian squints his eyes and tugs at his shirt.
"To find a little piece of Nirvana."
"Oh?" And it feels like forever as we watch the empty hall. As if the submissive would come back and stay for good.
~~~~~
Are you guys still in school? Or graduated?