Stay (His Command Book 3)

by Piper Scott

  As Sterling shot him a look, trying to see what was going on, Clarissa dropped her hand and blinked in surprise. “It gets worse?”

  Adrian returned Sterling’s look with quiet joy and mischief, and Sterling knew what he was about to say before he said anything. Sterling nodded to express his consent, and Adrian looked Clarissa in the eyes and dropped the bomb. “I’m pregnant.”

  Clarissa paused. She looked between the two of them, then chuckled. “Right. Gorilla Glue makes you do crazy things, right?”

  Neither Sterling nor Adrian replied. The laughter faded from Clarissa’s face and was replaced with doubt. “…Right? This is where you laugh, guys. Ha ha, it’s funny…”

  In response, Adrian tightened his t-shirt until it exposed the bump that would soon be impossible to hide.

  “…and now you’re going to tell me you just ate monster burritos for lunch, or something.” Clarissa’s confidence was rocked. She met Sterling’s eyes, searching for answers. All Sterling could give her was the truth.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I wanted to wait until I was sure we were going to see the pregnancy through, and—”

  “Sterling!” Clarissa’s voice quivered, it had risen so high. “Oh my god!”

  Sterling barely had time to release Adrian before Clarissa was on him. She locked her arms around his neck and hugged him with such ferocity that he had to take a step back to brace himself. He hugged her in return, grinning.

  “I didn’t even know you were dating anyone. You’re going to be the best father. That baby is the luckiest baby ever to have you as a dad. Ask me how I know.”

  “How do you know?” Sterling chuckled.

  “Because you raised me, and look how excellent I turned out.” Clarissa pulled back and beamed at him. “You’re not kidding, right? This is real?”

  “Very real.”

  “Then I’m happy for you. I really am. And one of these nights, you’re going to have to sit me down with a beer so you can tell me all about the, uh…” She looked at Adrian nervously, then back to Sterling. “The abridged version of what happened, because I know him, and I know you, and that’s honestly gross.”

  Sterling laughed, letting it out from deep inside. No matter what happened in his life, there would always be constants he could count on. If there ever came a day that Clarissa didn’t call him gross, he knew he’d be in trouble.

  “So what’s going on with you two, then?” Clarissa looked between them, directing the conversation all on her own. “Are you dating? Engaged? Is this some sort of baby pact? I have so many questions.”

  “And the answers to all of them are complicated.” Sterling glanced in Adrian’s direction, but Adrian didn’t look like he was ready to volunteer any information or clarify how he felt. In Sterling’s mind, they were a couple. He’d fallen for Adrian in the small moments they’d shared. The transition had been so seamless that Sterling hadn’t even noticed until he was head over heels. But Adrian? Sterling didn’t know his side of the story. They’d never talked about it, and he would not put words in Adrian’s mouth.

  Although they loved to play with power dynamics, he was not Adrian’s Master any more than Adrian was his.

  “What are you doing this Monday night?” Sterling asked. “I’ll take you out for that beer if you aren’t busy.”

  “My schedule’s free.” Clarissa looked between them once more and shook her head. Then she met Adrian’s eyes. “You know, I don’t know the circumstances behind what’s happening, but what I do know is that it takes a hell of a lot to make Sterling not show up at the club. One time he cut off the tip of his finger while making dinner and he still came down. So you’re a bigger life-changing event than minor amputation, and that means that I’m happy you’re in his life. Even if this is kind of out of the blue, you obviously mean something to him, so you mean something to me, too.”

  “Thank you.” Adrian leaned Sterling’s way, so Sterling wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close. Sterling hadn’t realized how much how much those small moments meant to him, but the way Adrian fit so well against him stitched the void in Sterling’s chest closed.

  After his mother’s death, he’d done his best to preserve the integrity of his family, but now family had found him. Sterling vowed to never make the same mistakes his father had—he would be there for his child as he’d been there for Clarissa, and as he hoped to be for Adrian and Gabriel.

  “I’m going to jet.” Clarissa stepped around them, heading for the street. “I’ll text you later about that beer, okay, Sterling? We’ll set something up. Even if all you have to give me are vague non-answers, we can at least get down to business and talk about other things—like when the baby shower’s going to be, or when the due date is, or if I’m going to be an aunt to a little boy or a little girl.”

  “It’s actually an octopus.” Adrian smirked. “One night, we were getting really kinky, and—”

  “Aaand I’m out.” Clarissa danced back, her steps wide and hurried. “Have fun, you two. See you soon, Sterling. I’m happy for you.”

  Sterling said his goodbye, but he had no idea if Clarissa heard. After Adrian’s remark, she was in a hurry to leave.

  “An octopus?” Sterling asked as they climbed the stairs to the penthouse door.

  “I figured it wasn’t a stretch, with the tentacles and everything.” Adrian shrugged. “She works at The Shepherd. It wasn’t like I could talk about something vanilla, like caning your balls.”

  “Hmm?” A twinge of arousal twitched Sterling’s cock. “Caning my balls? That’s something we haven’t explored yet.”

  “I was honestly waiting until we had an empty house.” The mischief in Adrian’s eyes wasn’t tainted by sorrow or emotional pain. He put a hand on Sterling’s ass and pushed him through the door. “The second we bring toys into the bedroom, I guarantee it’s going to get loud. You’re not going to be able to help yourself.”

  “Is that a challenge?”

  “I hope it is.” Adrian shut and locked the door behind them. “Why don’t you come with me into the bedroom and find out?”

  30

  Adrian

  The sound of Sterling’s suffering echoed through the bedroom in time with the swish of the cane through the air, and each rasped pant afterward sounded all the more sweet as Adrian spoke over them, reminding Sterling of how far he’d fallen, and how much further he had left to go.

  While Sterling contorted on the bed, knees curling to his chest to protect himself, Adrian pushed his legs open and slotted his knee between them, bringing his thigh right up against Sterling’s tortured balls.

  “Do you know what they’ll think of you?” Adrian asked. He let his knee caress Sterling’s sac as his hands flattened on Sterling’s shoulders and pushed him flat on the bed. Sterling’s body struggled, but the submission that lidded his eyes and glowed behind his skin told Adrian that he hadn’t pushed too far yet. He knew Sterling well enough to read the signs of his body. If Sterling ever needed to use his safe word, Adrian would feel as though he’d failed. Knowing Sterling’s limits was important to their relationship, and Adrian got to know them a little better every day. “Do you know what they’ll say when they see your balls are swollen and your ass is striped red?”

  Sterling’s hurried gasps fueled Adrian onward.

  “They’ll know that the shepherd himself has fallen to one of his flock,” Adrian whispered. He leaned close so his lips brushed against Sterling’s, even as Sterling struggled to regain his breath. “They’ll know that the man in charge has been overpowered—that he’s so weak, that anyone can take advantage of him.”

  Adrian’s knee pushed forward, creating pressure only hinting at pain.

  Sterling squirmed, eyes closed and head thrown back.

  “Do you want that, Sterling?” Adrian moved from his face to his neck, speaking against the underside of Sterling’s jaw where the scent of his alpha was strongest. “Do you want them to ravage you? To pass you back and fort
h while they fuck you senseless? While they knot your ass, because of how far you’ve fallen?”

  The whimper he received in response was accompanied by a twitch that made Sterling’s cock tremble.

  “You want to be fucked, don’t you?” Adrian’s teeth grazed Sterling’s neck, and as his knee threatened Sterling’s balls, his fingers traced patterns up Sterling’s shaft. “You dirty little slut. You rule The Shepherd—you're its Master—but all you want to do is be pushed facedown into the pillows and filled until you can’t take any more.”

  The whimper turned into a moan, and Adrian’s heart leapt into his throat. The idea of topping didn’t appeal to him most of the time, but right now? With Sterling like this?

  Adrian pinched his knees against Sterling’s balls, and Sterling let out a sharp breath that should have been a bellow had it not been so starved.

  “Get on your stomach, bitch,” Adrian uttered. He bit the crook of Sterling’s neck, rough enough for it to leave a mark without breaking the skin. “If that’s what you want, that’s exactly what you’re going to get.”

  Every push forced Sterling to climb that much higher, and every time, Adrian soared with him. To feel Sterling respond to him like he did—to hear the pain and the pleasure tangled as one in his voice—left Adrian’s excitement open-ended. He was doing this to Sterling. The pleasure he took from inflicting pain was received by a partner who loved it.

  Adrian needed him, and he needed him now.

  Once their bodies were untangled, Sterling rolled onto his stomach and laid still for Adrian. There were cane marks on his ass from an earlier beating, and they were still red and well-defined. Adrian smoothed them with his palm, showing Sterling kindness in order to make everything he felt that much more poignant. He wanted Sterling to reach subspace. Even as he wished pain onto Sterling, he did so with the intention of giving him unparalleled release.

  Adrian parted Sterling’s cheeks with his hands, then ran his thumb over the puckered flesh between them. Sterling shuddered.

  “How many men have had your ass?” Adrian asked. He worked his thumb in teasing circles, putting just enough pressure so Sterling squirmed. “How many have you let inside of you?”

  “None.”

  “And that’s about to change, isn’t it?” Adrian grabbed the lube and let it drizzle down Sterling’s valley. When it met his thumb, he worked it in small circles while Sterling moaned. The tight pucker relaxed, and Adrian’s pulse shot up as his arousal spiked. “Look how hungry you are for this. You want someone in your ass. You want to be used.”

  Sterling only moaned.

  More lube slicked his ass. This time, Adrian changed the position of his hand so he could work his index finger around Sterling’s hole. When he put pressure, he didn’t hold back. His finger slipped into Sterling’s passage.

  Sterling gasped. His body went rigid, then he lifted his hips and pushed back against Adrian as Adrian let his finger sink into Sterling’s body. He stroked Sterling’s walls, hunting for the spot that would turn Sterling to mush.

  And when he found it, Sterling’s shocked cry was the prettiest yet.

  “Look what I found,” Adrian murmured. He curled his fingers again and again, toying with different levels of pressure to see what Sterling preferred. “Do you like it? It looks like you fucking like it, Sterling. You’re such a slut.”

  Arousal burned in Adrian’s cheeks and made his neck hot. He needed in, but more than that, he needed to see Sterling worked into a state of unparalleled bliss. His fingers curled again. And again. And when he felt as though pleasure had been properly established, Adrian hummed as he picked up his discarded cane.

  This time when he curled, he let the wood impact Sterling’s back.

  Sterling howled. He tightened around Adrian’s finger and pushed back against him only to find his reaction to pain was reinforced by ecstasy. Adrian stroked the sore spot with the cane, then pulled it back and brought it back down in a new spot at the same time as his fingers pushed against Sterling’s prostate.

  The sounds Sterling made were too pretty to be real.

  Achingly hard and out of breath, Adrian kissed the back of Sterling’s head as he stroked the cane over his reddened skin. When he spoke, he did so quietly, so that his words disturbed the tiny hairs on the back of Sterling’s neck. “When I’m done with you, your body won’t be able to tell pain and pleasure apart.”

  Another curl of his fingers. Another whack of the cane.

  Sterling strained against him, all of his muscles tense even as his entrance squeezed against Adrian’s fingers and begged him for more.

  “When I’m done with you, you’ll stub your toe and get hard. You’ll be rewired from the inside out to please me.”

  Pressure. A swish of Adrian’s wrist. Sharply drawn breath.

  “Are you ready for it?” Adrian asked. He smoothed the cane one last time over Sterling’s back, too riled to continue. When it dropped amongst the sheets, Adrian moved into position behind Sterling. He slid his cock between Sterling’s cheeks as his finger toyed with Sterling’s prostate. “Are you ready for me?”

  “Yes.” The word was thin and panted, but it was there.

  “Good.” Adrian grinned. “Because I’m ready for you.”

  Adrian’s finger withdrew. He guided his cock into place, then pushed forward with his hips. Sterling gave way to him almost immediately, and he sank home.

  Nothing was as good as Sterling felt. Adrian hissed out a startled gasp and dropped his head, pushing farther. Sterling’s body was tight, but it didn’t fight him. He pushed in without opposition.

  “You’re full of me, Sterling.” Adrian’s mind was flying, his thoughts detached from a body that operated on its own schedule. It thrust into Sterling, his hips setting a constant pace. The sound of their bodies meeting filled the quiet of Sterling’s master bedroom. “You’re full of my cock. You’re taking it. All of it. What would they think if they knew?”

  “I—” Sterling struggled to speak. Adrian had never heard him this way before, but he loved it. “I don’t know.”

  “It doesn’t matter what they’d think, does it?” Adrian smoothed a hand over the ass he plowed, then pulled it back abruptly and slapped the rounded flesh. Sterling cried out. “It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks, because I’m the only one whose opinion matters. I’m it, Sterling. All you have to worry about is what I see, what I do, and what I think of you.”

  Sterling buried his head in the pillows. He arched his back, presenting himself to Adrian, and Adrian almost went blind with lust. He used the opportunity to grip Sterling by the hips, fucking him like he deserved to be fucked.

  “So hot. You’re so fucking hot. I’m going to come in you. I’m going to mark you as mine, just like you marked me as yours. Do you want that? Is your ass thirsty for it?”

  Just like his body, his mouth was on autopilot. All the filthy things he said only made Adrian harder, and he felt the clench build behind his balls. Sterling was gone now, and in his place was the submissive Adrian had teased out of him, flying so high that he gave Adrian his ass without question.

  Adrian was gone, too.

  In his altered state of mind, the cerebral and the physical were divorced. Sterling’s tight ass and the heat of his skin brought Adrian enjoyment, but it was his mind that turned that pleasure into otherworldly bliss.

  His Sterling. His lover. His slut.

  Sterling had given every inch of himself, every molecule, in order to pleasure Adrian. Adrian intended to return that pleasure tenfold.

  “Come in me,” Sterling rasped. His voice was broken, too gritty to belong to the man Adrian knew. “Fucking come in me.”

  “Only if you come first.” Adrian’s hand slid down to find Sterling’s shaft, and he pumped it in time to his thrusts. “Come in my hand, Sterling. Come in my fucking hand.”

  Adrian didn’t have access to his cane anymore, but he’d always have his palm. He released Sterling’s hip and smacked his ass, and St
erling shuddered for him.

  “Come,” Adrian demanded. His hand clutched Sterling’s hip again, and he thrust into Sterling with abandon. “Come, Sterling. Fucking come.”

  A mangled cry broke from Sterling’s lips. He jerked back against Adrian, and Adrian pressed into him as hard as he could.

  Cum hit Adrian’s hand.

  As it flowed, Adrian wrapped his fist around Sterling’s cock and collected it. Each spurt was a sign of satisfaction—an indication that he’d given Sterling a gift. It was all Adrian needed to let go.

  He shot into Sterling, grunting. As orgasm struck, he ground against Sterling’s ass, emptying himself deep. Adrian lacked the ability to knot, but as he came, he slipped a finger into Sterling alongside his shaft and curled it, weakly mimicking the swelling that would have occurred if he’d been born an alpha.

  Sterling shuddered, then fell lax upon the mattress.

  “I’m knotting you,” Adrian murmured as he curled his finger. “Fuck, I’m knotting your ass, Sterling. You’re so hot.”

  He pushed his finger into a tight ring and held it for a moment before relaxing it and sliding out of Sterling. When their bodies parted, their play session ended, and Adrian fell onto the bed, exhausted and mentally drained. His mind crash-landed back in his body, and he curled up against Sterling and kissed him until Sterling melted against him. For a while, all they did was cuddle.

  “You were so good,” Adrian whispered. He closed his eyes, unable to keep them open any longer. The world was too much. “You were so, so good. I’m so proud.”

  “I’m proud of you, too,” Sterling whispered. His voice was still broken, but even as he recovered from subspace, he had the presence of mind to help Adrian come back down, too. “That was different than it was before. It was healthier.”

  “I think so, too.” Adrian smiled. He rested half on top of Sterling and half on the bed. “As long as it wasn’t too much for you, I want to do this again sometime. Is that okay?”

  “It’s more than okay. I want that, too.”