One-Eyed Royals

by Cordelia Kingsbridge

  But that might not happen. It was obvious from the victims’ stories that the kidnappers were hired by a third party. That person had yet to make another move, so it was possible they’d been demoralized by their out-of-date information on Buckner’s policy and had backed off permanently.

  Either way, there was nothing more Levi could do today.

  His phone chirped, and he pulled it out to read a text from Kelly Marin.

  Big March Madness event at Railroad Pass tonight. Confirmed DR planning to attend.

  Levi chewed his lower lip. There were officers in the LVMPD still loyal to him, and willing to help him keep tabs on Dominic’s movement around the Valley. Kelly was the most enthusiastic, but that wasn’t surprising. After she’d leaked the Seven of Spades story last year, she’d been sentenced to work the desk at the evidence lockup; Levi had pulled strings to get her kicked back up to Traffic.

  March Madness . . . that was a terrible idea. Once Dominic started gambling, he wouldn’t stop unless something forced him to, no matter the consequences. The frenzy of sports betting surrounding the college basketball tournament could result in him losing thousands of dollars in a single night and being unable to walk away.

  Levi wouldn’t let that happen.

  Thanks, he texted Kelly. Then he started his car and hit the gas, filled with a renewed sense of purpose.

  “I know, sweetheart, I’m sorry,” Dominic said to Rebel, who was watching him get ready with mournful eyes. “But you’re going to spend time with Carlos and Jasmine. That’s fun, right?”

  She didn’t react, not even to wag her tail. He sighed and continued hunting for his cell phone, which he’d misplaced in the unholy mess that had taken over his apartment. He really should clean all this up, but he was always so busy these days . . .

  Rebel perked up, rising to her feet with cocked ears; seconds later, a knock sounded on the door.

  Dominic frowned and headed over to look through the peephole. He blinked, disengaged the wireless alarm, and undid his multiple locks before opening the door.

  “Levi. What are you doing here?”

  Leaning sideways against the doorjamb, Levi gazed up at him through his eyelashes. Dominic took in the rest of him and inhaled sharply.

  Levi was wearing jeans.

  On the rare occasion Levi was found in something other than a well-tailored suit, he wore slacks or chinos. He only owned one pair of jeans, and the elusive sight was one Dominic coveted.

  “Can I come in?” Levi asked, and then pushed his way inside the apartment without waiting for a response. Dominic was too distracted to protest.

  Rebel raced toward Levi in ecstatic greeting. That meant Dominic was treated to the sight of Levi bending over in tight denim, which only beguiled him further. He was still struggling to regain his bearings when Levi straightened up and refastened all the locks.

  “You haven’t answered my question,” Dominic said.

  Levi gave him a smoldering look that couldn’t possibly be misinterpreted. “What do you think?”

  He seized the lapels of Dominic’s blazer and began backing him up across the living room. Dominic let himself be pushed, mesmerized by the heat in Levi’s solemn gray eyes.

  “Uh . . . I was actually just on my way out—”

  Levi grasped the back of Dominic’s head with one hand and pulled him into a ferocious kiss. Moaning, Dominic immediately surrendered and grabbed Levi’s round ass, greedily feeling him up through his jeans.

  They kissed and groped their way through the apartment, and it wasn’t until they stumbled into the wall of the hallway leading to the bedroom that Dominic came to his senses.

  Levi had two coping mechanisms for stress: violence and sex. Terrible things had happened to him this weekend, things that must have fucked him up emotionally. It was no coincidence he’d turned up here a few days later.

  “Wait,” Dominic panted as Levi stripped him of his blazer and dropped it to the floor. “We shouldn’t.”

  “Why not?” Levi nuzzled the underside of Dominic’s jaw.

  “I know what happened with the Seven of Spades. This isn’t a healthy way to deal with it.”

  Levi yanked Dominic away from the wall only to spin him around and shove him against the opposite side of the hallway. “That has nothing to do with this,” he said before sinking his teeth into Dominic’s throat.

  Dominic gasped, his knees going weak. Levi knew how much he enjoyed being bitten, the cheater.

  “I just want to be fucked.” Levi laved his tongue over the bite mark, then tilted Dominic’s head down to look him in the eye. “Would you rather I find someone else to do that for me?”

  “No!” Dominic said, his disgust so visceral that he had no hope of hiding or even downplaying it. Jesus, he and Levi had been broken up for months, and the thought of Levi with another man still made him want to crawl out of his skin.

  They had to stop having sex with each other; it was making it impossible for either of them to move on.

  “Then I don’t see the problem.” Levi steered Dominic into the bedroom and kicked the door shut.

  “I—”

  Levi kissed Dominic again, more languidly this time. When the kiss broke, he stayed close, his lips centimeters from Dominic’s.

  “I’ll let you tie me up,” he said.

  Dominic’s hands convulsed on Levi’s hips. Neither he nor Levi were exclusively dominant or submissive in bed; they both had times when they were in the mood for one or the other, and that dynamic had always been fluid between them.

  Yet while Levi liked being tossed around, manhandled, and even pinned down by Dominic’s superior weight on occasion, he’d never let Dominic bind him. Understanding Levi’s touchy emotional issues about vulnerability, Dominic had been careful to never push, though it was no secret that restraining Levi was a treasured fantasy.

  “Seriously?” Dominic rasped.

  Levi pulled away, hooked his thumb into the front pocket of his jeans, and drew out a pair of dangling handcuffs. He raised his eyebrows.

  “Fuck, yes.” All his reservations forgotten, Dominic scooped Levi right off the ground. Levi locked his legs around Dominic’s waist, wrapped his arms around Dominic’s neck, and kissed him breathless while Dominic backed up until he could sit on the bed with Levi in his lap.

  Levi pushed Dominic flat on his back against the pillows, then moved his mouth to Dominic’s neck, kissing and nipping and sucking. One of his hands smoothed along Dominic’s arm while the other worked at the buttons of Dominic’s shirt. Dominic rolled his hips, frotting their erections through their jeans, massaging Levi’s ass and imagining how good Levi was going to look tied up in his bed—

  Click. Click.

  Before Dominic had fully processed the sound, Levi nimbly jumped off him and away from the bed, moving to the far wall. Dominic tried to reach for him and was brought up short—by the handcuffs chaining his right wrist to one of the wooden slats in his headboard.

  “I can’t believe you fell for that,” Levi said. “Is there any blood left in your brain at all right now?”

  “What . . .” Dominic, whose lust-fogged brain was indeed having trouble adjusting to this sudden turn of events, stared in bewilderment at his cuffed arm. “What the fuck?”

  “You couldn’t seriously think I would trust you enough to tie me up when you’re like this.”

  Dominic’s blood boiled as the reality of the situation set in. Levi had come here to seduce him with the deliberate intention of locking him to this bed. Everything Levi had said and done since he’d set foot in this apartment had been an act.

  “You motherfucker,” Dominic spat. “What the hell do you mean, ‘like this’?”

  “In the midst of a full-blown relapse and completely in denial about it.”

  “I’m not . . .” Dominic made a frustrated noise and yanked on the handcuffs. “This is ridiculous, Levi. Let me go!”

  “No.”

  Dominic struggled against the restraints f
or a few more seconds. Then, loosing an angry, incoherent roar, he jerked his arm forward and strained against the cuffs with every ounce of strength in his body. The headboard groaned, creaked, and made an ominous cracking sound.

  Levi’s eyes widened and he took a step back.

  If this were a matter of life or death, Dominic could break the headboard. It would fuck up his wrist, though, and that wasn’t worth it when he wasn’t in real danger. He slumped back down and let his arm fall to the mattress.

  “This is false imprisonment,” he said. “You’re a cop committing a gross misdemeanor.”

  “So call 911.” Levi tossed Dominic his own cell phone, which Dominic caught with his free hand.

  He’d called Dominic’s bluff without so much as blinking. Irritated, Dominic whipped the phone back at Levi’s face as hard as he could. Levi still managed to snatch it out of midair with his goddamn Krav Maga reflexes.

  “What’s the point of this?” Dominic asked.

  “I may not be into basketball, but I’m familiar with March Madness, and I know you were planning to attend a big sports betting event tonight. I’m trying to stop you from making yet another series of catastrophic mistakes and ruining your life even more than you already have.”

  Sanctimonious prick. Dominic was gearing up to raise hell when a quiet whine outside the door caught both their attention.

  “I think Rebel’s worried about you,” Levi said as he opened the door.

  Rebel bounded inside, jumped on the bed, and sniffed Dominic from head to foot, seeming particularly interested in but not concerned by his cuffed wrist. Though she was an incredibly intelligent and well-trained dog, even she wouldn’t be able to fetch him a pair of handcuff keys. And since he’d never turn her against Levi, no matter the provocation, there wasn’t anything she could do to help him.

  Apparently deciding he was in no danger, she licked his face and then flopped down beside him with a contented whuff.

  “Hey!” Dominic said when Levi headed for the door. “Where the fuck are you going?”

  Levi shot him a contemptuous look over his shoulder. “I’m going to clean your filthy pigsty of an apartment. It drove me crazy the last time I was here.”

  He left the bedroom, ignoring Dominic’s repeated and increasingly angry shouts. Eventually, Dominic just gave up. Yelling obviously wasn’t going to change Levi’s mind, and Dominic was confident that at the very least, Levi wouldn’t leave him alone in the apartment while he was bound.

  Snuggling closer, Rebel propped her head on Dominic’s chest and looked at him adoringly. His heart melted despite the circumstances, and he scratched her ears with his free hand.

  “I love you too,” he said. “I’m sorry I’m such a shitty dad.”

  She closed her eyes and sighed in doggy bliss.

  Petting her helped him calm down. He continued stroking her head while he lay there quietly, analyzing his predicament more strategically. There was no way he was going to be out-manipulated by Levi Abrams.

  He guessed it was about an hour later when he called out, “Levi!”

  “What?” Levi shouted back.

  “I’m thirsty.”

  Levi returned to the bedroom and threw Dominic a bottle of water from the doorway. Dominic gave him an annoyed glare.

  “I’m going to be very insulted if you thought I was stupid enough to come within range of your limbs,” Levi said.

  He hadn’t, though he’d had to try. But that was only plan A. Dominic shifted himself into a sitting position against the headboard and managed to clumsily uncap the bottle. “You know, Carlos and Jasmine are expecting me to bring Rebel over.”

  “I figured. I already called them.”

  “Seriously? Did you tell them—”

  “That I had you handcuffed to the bed?” Levi said dryly. “No. I didn’t give them any details. I just . . . let them draw their own conclusions.”

  A slight blush stained Levi’s cut-glass cheekbones, and he looked away. Entranced, Dominic momentarily lost the thread of the conversation and just stared.

  Giving his head a little shake, he sipped some water to cover up his pause. For fuck’s sake, why was it so easy for Levi to lead him around by the dick even without trying?

  “What if I have to use the bathroom?” he asked, indicating the water bottle.

  “I’ll be happy to empty that bottle out and give it back to you.”

  “Gross.”

  Levi shrugged.

  Struggling to keep his frustration in check, Dominic said, “You’re gonna have to let me go eventually. How long are you planning to keep me like this?”

  “Until the basketball games are over. Maybe longer. I haven’t decided yet.”

  “You can’t stop me from gambling!” Dominic snapped. “You’ve been trying for months, and I always find a way around you. I don’t need a special event to gamble. Even after the games are over, the casino is open twenty-four hours a day.”

  Levi lifted one eyebrow. “Spoken like a man who’s truly in control of himself.”

  Dominic clenched his jaw. His hand spasmed around the plastic bottle, sloshing water onto the bed.

  “Where’s your television, Dominic? Your computer? Your microwave?”

  He kept his mouth shut. The truth was, he’d pawned them all over the past few weeks—which had particularly sucked because they’d been brand-new replacements for the items the Seven of Spades had wrecked while ransacking his apartment in November.

  Levi snorted out a humorless laugh and shook his head.

  This debacle was going even further off the rails, and fast. Dominic had to get back on track. He had one more tactic he knew would work, though he’d left it as a last resort.

  “That was a pretty slick plan you came up with,” he said. “Wearing clothes you know I like, offering me something you know I want so much it would keep me distracted while you got me in here and locked me up. You’re not usually so manipulative.”

  “Yeah, well, I learned from the best,” said Levi.

  It was meant as an insult, but Dominic wasn’t offended. If he weren’t a skilled manipulator, he would never have become a successful bounty hunter or private investigator.

  “Not all of it was an act, though, was it?” He scanned Levi lazily from head to foot. “I could feel how hard you were, hear how fast you were breathing. Your face was all flushed the way it gets when you need me inside you.”

  Levi took a sharp breath, his blush darkening. He enjoyed being gently embarrassed—though Dominic had to be careful, because he wasn’t sure how the boundaries had shifted since their breakup.

  “You can tell yourself you came here to protect me. But we both know there’s something you want even more.”

  Levi regarded him, unblinking, for a moment. Then he said, “Rebel. Out.”

  She lifted her head and looked at Dominic. He nodded, and she hopped off the bed and trotted out of the room. Levi shut the door behind her, prowled toward the foot of the bed, and put one knee on the mattress.

  Dominic set the water bottle on the nightstand, which was just barely within reach. He would need his unbound hand free—

  “You must be fucking kidding me,” Levi said silkily. He crawled up the bed, slow and predatory, until he could put both hands on Dominic’s ankles and pin them to the mattress. “You think you can outmaneuver me with sex?”

  Dominic hesitated. This wasn’t what he’d expected—he’d intended to lure Levi onto the bed, then use his legs and free arm to wrestle Levi into a submission hold uncomfortable enough to force Levi to surrender the key. But Levi wasn’t acting like he’d been lured anywhere.

  “I won’t deny you’re good at manipulating me.” Levi dragged his hands up Dominic’s legs, over his thighs, and into the crook of his hips and groin, prompting Dominic’s cock to give an interested twitch. “God knows you have a long and illustrious track record of doing exactly that. But you can’t do it with sex, Dominic. You want me too much. You’d much rather I suck you
r cock than let you go.”

  Dominic grunted as Levi palmed his growing bulge. Levi was right between his legs, perfectly placed to subdue, but Dominic was paralyzed with the longing to see what Levi would do next.

  “In fact, all I have to do is tell you how much I love feeling your big cock fucking my throat . . .” Levi smirked when Dominic was racked with a full-body shudder. “And you wouldn’t leave this bed if I set it on fire.”

  “Are you gonna do it or just talk about it?” said Dominic, who knew when he’d been beaten.

  Levi shifted backward, but Dominic only had time to feel a twinge of disappointment before Levi tugged on his ankles. Getting the hint, he lay down on his back again.

  The expression on Levi’s face was one of pure hunger while he yanked Dominic’s jeans open and pulled Dominic’s boxers down to free his cock. Dominic had been right—Levi wanted this. The problem was that Dominic wanted it just as much, even if it meant spending the night chained to his own bed.

  Levi spat on his palm and began jerking Dominic to full hardness. As Dominic’s cock swelled in Levi’s hand, Levi’s eyes glazed over and his jaw fell slack.

  “Size queen,” Dominic said.

  Though Levi gave him an arch look, he didn’t deny it. He shifted flat on his belly between Dominic’s legs and rubbed his face along Dominic’s shaft, making Dominic hiss at the slight rasp of stubble. Gazing hotly up at Dominic the entire time, Levi pressed a kiss to the base, nuzzled his way up, brushed the head back and forth across his mouth, and worked his way down the other side.

  “Levi.” Dominic managed coherent speech with his last two remaining brain cells. “Put it in your mouth.”

  Levi lapped delicately at the tip, then took just the head into his mouth and sucked hard. Dominic yelped as his hips levitated right off the bed.

  With a laugh, Levi slid his mouth down Dominic’s shaft and began blowing him in earnest, setting an aggressive pace right from the start. Dominic moaned in mingled pleasure and relief.

  “That’s it.” He twined his free hand in Levi’s curls, wishing they were longer. “Get down there.”

  Watching Levi struggle to take his cock never got less exciting. Even after months of practice, Levi couldn’t handle the whole thing—but that never stopped him from trying his damnedest. The first few times the head of Dominic’s cock pushed into his throat, he gagged a little, but he continued applying himself with characteristic resolve. Soon, Dominic was gliding smoothly in and out of that tight wet clutch on every pass.