“Milky,” Dex muttered, unable to meet her gaze knowing she was aware what happened to him at the dungeon.
She filled a large mug labeled with the wordSUBhalfway with coffee before finishing it with milk, and then put in a metal straw. She then approached them from the kitchen and offered Dex the beverage.
“He can stay next to Bandit. You know, where I used to keep Mr. Buns?” she asked Hammer, who poured a splash of milk into a mug of coffee before taking a sip from it.
“Yeah. I assume the key’s in the door?”
Dex ignored their conversation, comforted by the smooth texture of the familiar drink. He couldn’t comprehend how aspanking could haveleft him rattled on so many different levels when it hadn’t even lasted very long. He’d experienced a broad spectrum of violence in his life and usually brushed it off or plotted retaliation, but this was different and he couldn’t pinpoint why.
He remained quiet and meek as Hammer guided him down another corridor, but despite the humiliation he’d been through, Dex couldn’t force himself to hate Hammer. And not just because the cedarwood cologne mixed so well with his natural scent. Normally, when someone wronged Dex, he’d get revenge in brutal fantasies, but whenever he attempted to imagine Hammer, he always appeared disheveled, flushed, and dick deep inside Dex. As if in some fucked up way Dex was sorry he’d disappointed Hammer and wanted to make up for it on his knees.
“I’ll bring you your coffee later. It’s cold anyway with all that milk in,” Hammer said as they left the house and faced a barn-like structure painted a deep green, similar to the shade of the trees surrounding the property on all sides. To their left were plots of vegetables and fruit, which Cora likely cultivated for her own use, and beyond it—what looked like animal pens, but he didn’t have much time to take in the details, because they entered the barn, which did contain some gardening tools, but also… a massive cage with thick bars, divided into three sections. Only one of them featured a mattress and other items reminiscent of the cell Hammer had been locked in a day back.
There was a funky scent in the air, and Dex spotted some hay in the two cages on either side of the one with the bed, but he didn’t have the courage to question Hammer about it
“Karma, huh?” he muttered, trying to pretend he was his old jokey self, even though something he couldn’t name had snapped within him. “Hope I’m getting some tortilla chips too.”
“You will be fed whatever’s at home,” Hammer said and pushed him into the cell. Dex didn’t have the will and strength left to attempt an escape and listened to theclangof the lock. “I’ll get you something soon.”
Dex wasn’t sure if it was the bars between them that made him feel bolder, or just the time passing since his punishment, but he gathered the courage to meet Hammer’s eyes.
“I need at least ten minutes to jerk off. Just saying. If you come back sooner, it’s on you.” After all, Hammer did say it was the phone stealing not the gay flirting that got Dex in trouble.
Hammer watched him from behind the bars and glanced over his shoulder, then up. “Be my guest, but there are cameras here,” he said, leading Dex’s gaze to a small device attached under the ceiling.
Dex’s face fell, because he didn’t even have a blanket here to hide under. “I was nicer to you. I took your cuffs off.”
Hammer stared at him, his face tensing with the effort not to smile. “I’d rather not make your mistakes. So be a good hostage, and if my club comes to their senses, you will be back home, cruising for men in no time. In the meanwhile, let me be nice by fixing a decent breakfast. You need vitamins after all that spanking.”
Dex’s face exploded with heat that went all the way to his ears. The last thing he needed was a reminder of what had happened earlier. He wouldn’t acknowledge Hammer’s words, because what hewantedto say could earn him another spanking. Instead, he dropped to the mattress with an unhappy grunt, only to roll to his hip, sputtering curse words. His asshurt.
He could swear he heard Hammer chuckle to himself as he left the barn.
What did Dex do to deserve this? So maybe hewasa fuck up, and a piece of shit, but wasn’t he owed a bit of dignity?
A swooshing sound made him look into the cage to his right, but terror froze him in place when a creature of orange, white, and black stripes entered through a hole in the wall, which featured rubber flaps.
It was a tiger.
A massive fucking tiger, which now stared Dex’s way with disinterest, as if he wasn’t the first morsel of food it’d had to room with.
This had to be Bandit. Any interest in jerking off was now gone. He’d survive and learn from this experience.
Somehow.
Chapter 7 – Hammer
Hammer’s skull was a pressure cooker about to explode. What the fuck did food have to do with anything? He wasn’t ignorant of stereotypes and knew some of the options had more of a soft male connotation than others, but liking avocados or sprinkles didn’t have anything to do with sexuality, and neither did the previous question. So maybe straight men were less likely to prefer Lady Gaga over Taylor Swift than gay men, but that was beside the point.
This wasn’t a serious test.
And yet he chose shakshuka, because who didn’t like nutritious eggs and a healthy portion of vegetables with their morning meal?
The online test jumped to results, informing him that he was forty-six percent gay.
Whatever that fucking meant.