“Do you need some cash?” Hammer asked, all too aware of her debts.
Cora waved him off. “Don’t be silly. You’re my guest and bodyguard all in one. I couldn’t afford your services, so the best I can do is feed my protector.”
She walked out with a sway of hips, yet all Hammer could think of now was that she was leaving the premises. Leaving him alone with Dex. He could turn off the cameras and… do what?
He thought back to the night they’d met and how Dex had attempted tokisshim. If they ended up fucking at some point, would Hammer want to kiss the boy, or just push his fingers inside that eager mouth hole so he could feel it tremble?
His instinct told him to do the latter, because it wasn’t like he was interested in romance. Not with a man.
Otherwise, he’d have to re-evaluate everything about his life, and if the club accepted him back, having a male partner would become a hindrance and yet another barrier between him and the others.
Sex was a different matter though. Nobody would have to know.
His cock tingled when he returned to the sight of pink buttocks jiggling under his paddle. He wasn’t even that much into the whole punishment thing, but that motion? The juiciness it betrayed? He wanted to see Dex’s ass move like that against his hips.
Had he really just thought that?
With his mind in chaos, he willed down the beginnings of arousal and walked past the cat house, where Dex’s cell was, to the other side of the large enclosure adjacent to it. Despite the shade provided by trees and many enrichment items, during mealtimes, Cora’s two tigers, Bandit and Rogue, sat in front of special cages meant for the safe delivery of food.
Two pairs of bright eyes followed Hammer’s every move as he divided the meat in two massive portions. Bandit, the source of Cora’s financial struggles, had cancer and had been slowed down by his illness, but his younger companion was full of life and paced in front of the feeding compartment so impatiently Hammer felt an itch of discomfort when entering the small space. The tigress had enough weight and muscle to look threatening even from behind two sets of bars, but eventually he left the bowls in the appropriate spaces, locked both the cages, and pulled the levers letting the two big cats in from the other side.
Feeding time offered the best opportunity to clean the cathouse, since both tigers were temporarily locked out of the building, and while sweeping was hardly a job of choice for Hammer, it needed to be done. Just like in his actual profession, delicious violence necessitated a tedious clean-up.
Dex had been quiet from the moment Hammer entered, but not being acknowledged must have finally pushed him to speak.
“Can a person die of boredom?” he asked, glaring at Hammer from behind bars.
“They can go mad from boredom. Get hallucinations and all that,” Hammer said and grabbed the keys to Bandit’s enclosure. He unlocked it and stepped inside.
Dex jumped to his feet with wide eyes. “Don’t! The tiger’s just walked out! He could come back at any second.”
“I know. There’s doors at the other side of this wall, and I closed them for now. They are both feeding,” Hammer said and opened a closet to get the broom out. Fortunately, both the cats did their business outside. “Why? Are you worried about me?” Hammer asked, peeking at Dex, who stood behind bars, grabbing them with hands that could surely work a dick so well.
Dex pouted, leaning against the bars. “I’m just being a decent human being. But maybe you’d deserve a mauling for torturing me with this solitary confinement. I think I know all the tigers’ stripes by heart now. Also, Bandit has thirty four whiskers, and Rogue has seventy. If I spend one more day here without my phone I’m gonna go mad.”
“You could read a book,” Hammer said, sweeping bits of old hay out of the enclosure. “Maybe it would help you with focusing on one thing rather than following each cue of your two brains.”
Dex raised his hands over his head then poked it with his thumbs in frustration. “Well, it’s not like I’m gonna fuck the tiger, but leave that broom with me, and I might just consider if I’m bored enough to use it. And it’s not like you brought me a book either. It feels like I’m rotting,” he said as if he wasn’t being dramatic enough already. He’d be an awful cellmate in prison.
Then again he would suck dick, so—
No. Hammer wasn’t about to think aboutthatagain.
“How does Frank manage you if you run off all the time?” he asked, deciding to change the subject.
“Huh?” Dex straightened his back and frowned, his trim young body stretching by the bars. “What’s there to manage? I’m my own man. I just don’t have a place of my own at the moment. Like those tigers, right? You let them out to feed, but they’re content coming back to sleep in here. And they’re still tigers, claws and all. Why would I try to leave Frank’s when I can do whatever I want anyway?”
Hammer stared at Dex. “You’re not a tiger, and Frank is clearly your boss, so what is this tangent? If you don’t want to be tied down, how did you end up living at his place? You are an adult, as you said yourself.”
Dex sighed and rolled his forehead against one of the bars. “How, how, how! How did I end up here? I didn’t ask to be trapped! Things just happen sometimes, okay? Mom kicked me out, Frank took me in. Not much of a story. Fuck, take those cuffs off me, hm? I can’t take off the jacket, and it’s warm in here.”
Was this Dex’s attempt at changing the subject or some weird new way to flirt?
Hammer smirked. “Fine, give me your hands,” he said and pulled out the key he always had in his wallet.
Dex was all too eager to follow the request. Just like when he’d stupidly uncuffed Hammer back at the junkyard. He had so much to learn if he was to stay alive in Frank’s line of business, becausethatmistake could have ended in both Dex’s wrists broken if Hammer hadn’t been playing the long game.
“Those hammers are so cool,” Dex said, pointing to the tattoos on both of Hammer’s forearms.