by P Nelson
Martin listened to the breathless voice on the other end of the phone in increasing panic. Barely able to understand everything the woman was saying he only caught a few words before he recognised Delaney’s name. For the second time today, he used his Dom voice, and he hadn’t even spoken with his sub.
“Stop.” His voice was firm as he tried to make sense of what the woman was saying. “First, what’s your name again?”
There was a loud huff on the other end. “I’m Janey Chang. I work part-time as a receptionist at The Feather Flogger.” The woman said over the receiver, clearly annoyed about having to go over information she already gave.
“Hello, Janey.” Martin’s heart was still thumping, and he wanted to know what had happened to Delaney. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?” Silence on the other end of the phone. He bit back frustration. “Or start with why you’re calling me?” he suggested.
“It’s Laney. I knew she wouldn’t call you, but she needs us.” Martin heard a muffled noise and a rapid pounding sound followed by Janey’s voice. “Let me in, Laney!”
“Are you at Delaney’s house?” Martin prompted again. This time Janey’s voice sounded desperate.
“Yes, listen, Mr Thompson. I called you because your boyfriend Mr Argyle scares the crap out of me even though I know the two of you have been interested in Laney for a really long time.” She paused to catch her breath, and Martin wondered if they had really been so obvious. “Now you’re her Doms, and you need to take care of her and help her. That idiot Rex had posted a whole load of revenge porn with Laney in it all over the internet. She is totally devastated and won’t let me in her house.” More pounding from the other end of the phone came over the line.
“That fucking little bastard.” Martin swore, blood pumping in his brain. When he got his hands on that little fucker, Martin was going to make sure he never even thought about victimising another woman again.
“Exactly. You signed a contract with Delaney. You know exactly how she feels about public scenes. She’s never, ever had sex in front of an audience. Plenty of spankings and floggings, but nothing overtly sexual,” Janey’s voice hitched. “You can tell from the angle of the camera she didn’t even know he was recording her.”
“I’m on my way, Janey.” Martin took several deep breaths and focused on the task in front of him. Despite not being in the military, Martin was good in a crisis. His priority was Delaney’s well-being.
“Are you sure she’s home? I’m pretty sure she told me last night she was working today.” Martin started to organise his desk to leave. There was nothing too urgent he needed to deal with.
“Yes, I went by there, but her boss told me she left for the day.” Janey sounded as if she were on the brink of a meltdown. “What if she loses her job? It would kill her.”
“You need to stop focusing on what could happen and what has happened,” Martin barked sharply into his cell. Shutting off his computer, he grabbed his briefcase, keys, and wallet. “Delaney doesn’t need you to go over all the ways her life might be ruined, Janey.” A sharp inhalation met his reprimand.
“Yes, sir,” Janey responded with the honorific title subs used for Doms who were not their Masters.
“Good girl. Do your best to try and get into the house or at least get her to talk to you. I’m coming over there now.” After a moment’s thought he added, “And send me the websites where the videos appeared.”
“Yes, sir.” Sniffling greeted him.
“We’re going to make this OK for her, Janey.” He lowered his voice as he opened the glass door of his office and stepped out.
“Thank you, sir,” Janey said. Martin pressed the disconnect button and looked at Pierce.
“I’m going to be out for the rest of the day for a family emergency.” Pierce nodded at him. “I’ll have my cell on me but don’t expect an immediate response to anything.”
“Yes, Mr Thompson.” Pierce’s face looked sympathetic as Martin turned to walk down the aisle of cubicles towards the elevators. It had felt right to say Delaney was family. For a long time, it had just been Linkin and him. They had taken subs, but they never grew to mean more to them than scene partners. Pressing the button for the elevator he got on and had to wait until reaching the lobby to call Linkin.
It gave him time to go over in his head how to explain what had happened. If not managed properly, Linkin could go seriously off the rails and really hurt Rex. Linkin loathed Doms who took advantage of their subs. The relationship between a Dom and a sub was normally a private matter. Only a Dom with balls would call out another Dom if he thought there was abuse in the relationship. His boyfriend had balls. It was part of the reason he had a good reputation around the scene with most people. The elevator binged, and the door opened. Time was up. He speed-dialled Linkin and almost hoped his lover didn’t pick up.
“Linkin.” His lover’s voice came over the line, and Martin stopped walking and squeezed his eyes shut for a minute. “We’re going to make this right.” Martin started out as he continued to walk out of the high rise building in downtown Vancouver and make his way towards the parking garage.
“Explain.” Linkin’s voice barked over the receiver. Not all of Martin’s attempts at managing Linkin had the desired results. “We’ve had another problem with that Rex guy. I’m on my way over to Delaney’s place right now. She’s safe but upset. Apparently, he’s uploaded a bunch of videos of them playing onto the internet without her permission. It looks like she never even gave permission to have them recorded in the first place.”
“I’m going to strangle him with my bare hands.” Linkin’s voice was cold enough to give Martin’s ear freezer burn over the line.
“Listen, we need to help our sub first.” Martin pushed the heavy door of the high-rise car park open. “We need to focus on her needs. Her friend Janey is at Delaney’s house, but Delaney refuses to open the door. Yes, Rex and the videos are a problem, but Delaney is in crisis.” He waited for Linkin’s response with his heart thumping. Martin couldn’t abandon Delaney in her time of need while going after Linkin because he was going to kill Rex.
“I’m on my way,” Linkin replied, and Martin sighed his relief as he found his car.
“Janey is sending me the websites where the material is. I’ll forward it on to you.” The car alarm on his Mercedes beeped, and Martin juggled all the stuff he had in his hands to open the door. “I’m serious. Do not do anything about Rex until we have a chance to talk. Delaney is my sub, too.” This was something Linkin would understand: shared vengeance.
“Send me the website addresses.” Linkin paused for a minute. “Delaney is ours.” With that, he hung up, and Martin threw his briefcase onto the passenger seat and got in. That was the best he was going to get from Linkin under the circumstances. Flicking through his phone, he saw Janey had been as good as her word and forwarded the website addresses to Linkin.
Placing the phone into the docking station in case someone called while he was driving, Martin fished around in his suit pants pocket for the keys and started his car. Both hands on the steering wheel, he stared out the windshield for a minute and wondered if he ripped the whole thing off the steering column it would make him feel any better. Probably not, and then he’d have to explain to the dealership what happened, not to mention never living it down with Linkin. Delaney was his priority. Martin put the car into gear and punched Janey’s number on the phone. It rang throughout the car speakers until she picked up.
“Master Martin?” Her voice was small, and she had given up on using his mundane title Mr Thompson.
“Yes, Janey, I’m here, and I’m on my way right now. Master Linkin is also coming so keep an eye out for his black SUV,” Martin reassured Janey.
“Oh, good, sir.” Janey hiccupped. “I can hear Delaney crying on the other side of the door, and it’s breaking my heart.”
“Mine too, Janey.” Martin pulled out of the garage and headed towards Janey’s house. It was true. His heart was in pi
eces thinking of what Delaney must be going through right now.
&
Linkin hated it when Martin tried to manipulate him. It didn’t happen very often, which is why the problem was normally a minor inconvenience, but when it did occur, his blood boiled. What did Martin think? He couldn’t accomplish the task without the authorities finding out? His cell beeped a minute later, and Linkin pulled into a parking spot at the side of the road. Opening the first address, Linkin scrolled down until he found the videos. His anger mounted as he watched his beautiful Delaney submit to Rex. Rex had conveniently blurred his face leaving Delaney painfully exposed.
Already there was a conversation thread going. There would be no way to erase the damage already caused by these videos, but it wouldn’t take Linkin long to hack into all the systems and purge the images. Then, he would do exactly what he wanted to do last week and hack into Rex’s private files. If Martin hadn’t been so concerned over respecting Delaney’s need to deal with this asshole on her own, Linkin could have destroyed them before they ever hurt Delaney. Hell, he probably wouldn’t have even told her they existed.
Squashing the desire to throw his cell phone and smash it against something, Linkin put it back in the holder. It was a good thing he had been on his way to a job and had his laptop and various pieces of tech he needed to hack those systems. Linkin checked the traffic and pulled onto the road. Martin had been right about one thing; Delaney needed them, and after he comforted her, Linkin was going to make sure she understood who was in charge from now on.
Martin was standing in front of Delaney’s modest one-story house with a woman Linkin recognised from The Feather Flogger. Rummaging through his mental files he put a name to the face as he pulled up to the curb. Linkin grabbed his black case and got out of the car. Obviously, Delaney wasn’t in the mood for visitors.
“Thank God, you’re here. She won’t let either of us in.” Martin’s face was a mixture of relief and worry as he greeted Linkin.
“We’ll fix that.” Linkin nodded at Janey. “Thank you for informing us about Delaney.” The girl only nodded and continued to stare at him. A flicker of fear went through her eyes, but she pushed it down much to Linkin’s approval. He understood most people on a fundamental level, and a great many of them were subs who found him frightening. He accepted this, but it didn’t make the situation any less irritating.
“She needs us.” Janey’s statement was simple and filled with a wealth of emotion Linkin was simply too preoccupied to riddle it out. He walked up to the front porch and instead of knocking, pulled a small tool kit out of his cargo pants. Twisting around, Linkin scanned the quiet street. The three of them huddling outside Delaney’s house probably looked suspicious, but at this point he hardly cared.
Linkin punched in the master code for the alarm system and listened to the device as it beeped off. Squatting down in front of the door, it took him half a minute to pick the lock using his little tool.
“Wow, are you a secret agent?” Janey whispered from behind him.
“I used to think the same thing.” Martin admitted, and a warm feeling went through Linkin. He was angry with Martin for arguing with him over whether it was right to neutralise Rex, but they still loved each other. In fact, Linkin could do a lot of things that made other people nervous, and Martin still loved him. Standing up, he opened the door without responding to either of them.
The house was still. Linkin saw Delaney had dropped her purse on the floor as she came inside. He didn’t bother going down to the kitchen, instead he headed straight for his favourite room in the house. The bedroom would always hold special memories for him. It was where Delaney had first submitted to them and sucked his cock into her mouth. Fuck. He had to get his thoughts back in order.
All it took was seeing Delaney’s small figure curled in on herself lying on the bed. She looked so small in the position with her face hidden behind her arms and hands.
“Hey now, little sub.” Martin’s voice was quiet as he slipped around Linkin, who watched his boyfriend with envy as he walked over to the bed and started to comfort Delaney with the ease of knowing what to do. Linkin stood in the doorway and contemplated his next move.
“How did you get in?” Her tiny voice broke Linkin’s heart, and he automatically took a step forward, his mind not needing to analyse every angle of his next actions.
“I broke in,” Linkin admitted, knowing it would rile her. He would rather an angry Delaney than a broken Delaney. His admission had the necessary effect, and she uncurled enough for her face to be visible. Her nose was red, tears streaked down her face, her hair was a mop, and she still wore her apron from work. Linkin’s heart constricted. He could never love anyone as he loved her. The need to protect and cherish was so different from the way he loved Martin. Different, but symbiotic.
“You called them,” Delaney accused.
“Someone had to tell us, little sub. You should have told us.” Martin placed a hand on Delaney’s back and started to rub in soothing motions.
“I’m not ready for anyone to know what happened yet,” she whimpered and pressed her face into the bed.
“It’s too late for that,” Linkin admonished, and Martin scowled at him. “I’m not going to lie to her.”
“Easing into hard discussions isn’t lying, Linkin.” Martin sounded exasperated, and Linkin knew they were going to have another argument. For once he was the voice was reason. “We need to be here for Delaney,” he reminded his boyfriend. The room was silent for a full minute until Delaney sat up on the bed and looked at the three of them.
“I think this is the most people I’ve ever had in my bedroom.” She picked at the comforter on the bed.
“And it will be the last time,” Linkin interjected.
“She doesn’t need to be topped right now,” Martin snapped.
“It’s exactly what she needs,” Linkin argued back.
“I’m going to make a pot of tea,” Janey announced, and Linkin felt the other sub move out of the room.
“Can’t anyone have a nervous breakdown in peace anymore?” Delaney asked, as Linkin was about to continue his argument with Martin.
“No, sweetheart.” Martin leaned over and picked Delaney up in his arms and held her to his chest as he sat on the bed. “You don’t get to do anything alone anymore. It’s the bonus of having not one but two Doms.” Linkin heard a tiny huff come out of Delaney and felt better. She was a fighter, and now she was fighting. Linkin sat down next to his lovers on the side of the bed and reached an arm around Martin. He brought his face down to nuzzle Delaney’s neck, and he heard her sigh.
“It was so awful,” she finally said to the quiet room.
“I know, sweetheart.” Martin held her closer as Delaney stumbled over the next words.
“What’s going to happen to me?” The question made Linkin’s heart pound because he knew asshole Rex wasn’t suffering at all right now. In fact, he was probably gloating.
“Where’s your cell phone?” Linkin asked as he continued to nuzzle the side of her face. She froze.
“Are you mad at me?” Delaney sounded as if she was going to start crying all over again.
“Yes.” Linkin couldn’t force a lie out. “I love you, and right now you’re hurting.” The confession freed a part of Linkin he hadn’t known he’d bottled up. Backing away from Delaney, he stared into Martin’s astonished face. In all the years they had been together, Linkin had never said the words. Never thought he needed to say them. Now he knew better. “I love you too, Martin.”
Martin’s lips met his an instant later, and they devoured one another with a hot fierce passion only they could give one another. A gentle nudge and Delaney was with them, offering her sweet surrender kissing any part of their necks and skin her position would allow.
“Holy fuck that is hot as hell,” Janey said from the doorway.
“Watch your mouth, sub,” Linkin growled at her.
“He has never been averse to punishing subs with
naughty mouths and not in a funishment way, either,” Martin added.
“He’s not joking around with his spankings,” Delaney nodded her head.
“I get the idea.” Janey smiled wide and was clearly unworried about Linkin punishing her ass. “Kettle is on. You have nothing in your cupboards but cereal only my nephew would touch, Delaney. So, there are no snacks, but tea will at least get us started on fixing this mess.”
Delaney allowed Martin to help her undress and get into a hot shower with him after Linkin gave her a very sexy kiss and a swat on the ass. There was zero sex in the shower as Martin washed her down and massaged her shoulders and neck. Not that he wasn’t sporting a massive hard-on and Delaney’s body pulsed with need, but they both needed Linkin with them. The emotions of the day were running too high.
Martin wrapped her in a towel as he dried her hair, careful to brush out all the tangles. Neither of them spoke, but Delaney relaxed a bit with every small caress, little smile and kiss pressed to her warm skin. She had never had a Dom take care of her as if she were the most precious thing in the world. It made tears tickle at the back of her eyelids, but none came. She had cried herself dry today thinking of Rex and all his shitty games.
Dressed in her flannel pink pyjamas that Martin promised to burn one day soon, they emerged from her en suite bathroom. One step in front of the other Delaney reminded her worn-out brain and body as she entered the dining room. Linkin had spread all sorts of equipment on the large table, including her battered laptop. Janey was sitting next to him, her feet up on the seat and her arms around her legs watching Linkin with wide eyes.
“Should I be worried you got into my laptop? It’s password-protected.” Delaney didn’t have the energy to put any actual heat behind the words. Linkin looked up from his small black laptop and flashed her a smile that should be illegal. Her stomach flipped over, and her nipples already hard and needy from the shower pulsed against the fabric of her pyjama top.
“I can get into anything I want.” Linkin studied her for a minute before going back to his work, fingers flying over the keyboard.
