“You’ll move in here, if you’d like. The room you had before will be yours. You’ll be paid a fair wage for your work. The house will be your responsibility, maybe a few other things we’ll discuss, and you’ll take care of some of my personal needs too. I’ll discipline you when you need it—spanking, taking away privileges, or whatever I feel is necessary. I’ll help lead you in the way you need, guide you and care for you. And you’ll also work on getting your high school diploma—”
“Wait. What?” Finley jerked his head up.
“Nonnegotiable if you want to move forward with this. It’s up to you. Now, put your head back down. I wasn’t done.”
Finley nodded. “Yes, Sir.” He laid his head on my thigh, and I continued to card my fingers through the soft strands.
“But I won’t fuck you. No sex. You’ll be my houseboy, domestic servant or however you want to put it, in all other ways, but I won’t give you that. If you need it, I’ll help you find someone I approve of, someone I can trust. My friend David from the other night, likely. But I have to admit, I’d like you to wait for a while. You have so many things to sort out about yourself.”
He was so inexperienced and vulnerable. I didn’t want him to feel tied to me, to know that his livelihood was tied to me and then feel obligated to fuck me. My mother had married my father when she was eighteen years old, and he had ruined her, broken her, made her feel like she had nothing without him, and I wouldn’t ever do that with anyone.
Plus, there were too many lines we were crossing already; they were already blurred, my rules getting broken. I had no desire to have someone permanently, I never had, and certainly not someone as young as Finley.
“And when I want to fuck, I’ll go elsewhere too.” It needed to be said. I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. He could be my houseboy. I would be his…Master, for lack of a better term, but there would be no sex.
Finley nodded against my thigh before slowly raising his head to look at me. “You won’t change your mind, will you?”
“No, precious boy.” And he really was that.
“But I can do this? Kneel for you this way?”
“Yes.”
He smiled. “I don’t have anything to sort out, and you’ll change your mind eventually.”
Why did that not surprise me? He was a blend of innocent and worldly, insecure and confident. “No, I won’t.”
“Okay,” he said, but I could tell he didn’t believe me. “When do I start?”
I chuckled, fearing he already had me wrapped around his finger. “Today, if you’d like.”
“I’d like,” he replied, laying his head on me again.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Finley
It was a whirlwind from there. Aidan was going to be paying me more than I’d ever made in my life. I still couldn’t believe it. Maybe it wasn’t much to some people, but to me, it felt like I’d hit the jackpot. I definitely still planned to help Ian, even though he said he didn’t want to accept it.
Aidan drove me back to the apartment and, to my horror, actually came up with me. It was so odd seeing him there. He didn’t fit at all, but he didn’t seem uncomfortable, and he was friendly again with Ian. He got Ian’s number as well and told my friend he could visit me anytime; that if there was anything he could do for Ian, he would.
I wondered if he knew what a caretaker he was. Maybe that was typical of Doms. It made sense, but I had no experience and didn’t know what to expect. Even if it was, I still thought Aidan was special. He was a good man who’d helped a boy in need when he didn’t have to.
Aidan helped me pack. I didn’t have much anyway, and no luggage. He seemed horrified when I threw my clothes into a trash bag, but like, what harm could it cause? It wasn’t as if I had fancy things like he did.
Before I knew it, he was driving me back to his home, and I would never tell anyone this, but I felt like a prince who’d been saved and was now being taken to my castle. Princes could be saved too, damn it.
There were things I was obviously upset about—the high school diploma and the no sex, because…why? What good was a stupid piece of paper going to do for me? I wanted to serve the way I would with him, and if I wasn’t doing that, I’d work fast food or wait tables like I did before. Not that there was anything wrong with those things. I just knew what I was cut out to do.
And I really didn’t understand why he didn’t want to fuck me or let me serve him sexually. I would have thought it was personal if I hadn’t noticed the shake in his limbs and seen his cock get hard.
Aidan explained his work schedule to me—the set hours he worked but that sometimes he was on call.
We were back at the house now, my bag of clothes over my shoulder. “What kind of doctor are you?”
“A trauma surgeon, and I have routine surgeries I do as well. It’s mostly abdominal stuff. I don’t do head or bones.”
He said that as if it were nothing. As if he only did certain kinds of surgeries, so it wasn’t as special. “Holy shit!” I gasped. He was… “You’re amazing. You save lives.”
His forehead wrinkled. “You knew I was a doctor.”
“Yeah, but…I guess I didn’t let myself think about it much.” He’d spent how much time in school, and he worked long, crazy hours sometimes without sleep in between. He operated on people, sometimes in emergency situations. I both wondered what he was doing with me there, was so incredibly thankful, and…I felt a sense of pride because I would get to serve him. Because I would care for a man who saved the lives of others, even if I did that in the most simple of ways.
“You’re a hero.”
He waved me off as I knew he would. “Do I also wear a cape and have a lair?”
“No, but you save lives. Do you not think firemen or police officers are heroes? I thought surgeons were supposed to be conceited assholes.” I rolled my eyes and went to take a step. One tsk from him, and I stopped where I stood.
“You’re being disrespectful. Am I going to have to punish you already?”
Yes, oh yes, please do! What came out of my mouth, though, was, “But how will you spank me? I mean, if there’s no sex, will you still spank me with my pants down?”
He stepped closer to me, tall and imposing, making my pulse race. I wanted him to devour me, to punish me, to possess me in every way, but he was intimidating too.
“Precious boy, you’re in for a world of surprise if you think the only way I have to punish you is to spank you. And you’re also in for a surprise if you think you can manipulate me. Unless that’s a limit for you, if I want to spank your bare ass, I will. I can do that without fucking it…and if I don’t want to, I won’t. Now go to your room, nose in the corner for ten minutes—there’s a timer on the dresser—and then put your clothes away.”
I gulped, something heavy and round in my throat, refusing to be swallowed down. Aidan cocked a confident brow, and I longed to drop to my knees for him right then and there, beg him to take possession of my body and soul.
Then it hit me what he said. “Nose in the corner?”