“I didn’t know you could be like this. Sandy kept telling
me
that you were actually a really nice guy, but I just…”
“Couldn’t see it, huh.” Evan winced. “Yeah, well you weren’t alone. That’s part of the reason Dad’s making me take a break. I promise I’ll tell you about it when we’re all back to work. So—Tom?”
“I’ll call him. I’m sure he won’t mind. What happened to Jeremy?”
Evan fumed again. He heard his voice shake as he explained. “A customer sampled him
,
you know what I mean, right? He tore him up. He needed eight stitches. If I had just been there ten minutes earlier...”
*****
Alexa caught her breath. First of all, she had always perceived Evan as an unfeeling robot. She had never heard him say anything at all to her, except, “that’s unacceptable behavior; clean out your desk, you’re fired,” even though she had worked nearly beside
h
im for three years. She had he
ard everyone lament the drastic ch
ange in him since the death of his life partner. She gathered
the death had been long and
ugly. Still
,
she hated him. She couldn’t reconcile her
experience
with the vibrant man speaking
to her over the phone
. A man
so very worried about the well-being of another. A slave no less. She couldn’t have been
m
or
e surprised if she had woken to find a
unicorn standing in her
b
edroom.
“I’ll call Tom right now. It will take him about an hour
“
Tell him I’m trying to keep him hydrated.”
“Okay, Mr. James.”
"
I’m going to call Human Resources right now. When do you want
to start again?”
“Well….I could get there today.”
Evan smiled. She could actually hear it.
“Today it is then. If there’s any problem, I’ll call you back.”
Chapter Eight
Evan immediately called Diana in Human Resources who seemed stunned to hear from him. Even though he was on suspension, Diana agreed to reactivate Alexa immediately. On a hunch, Evan asked her to reinstate her retroactively citing his poor mental state and his lack of any real intent to fire her. Diana hesitated a minute, but then even agreed to that; promising that she could have a check
with
Alexa’s
back wages waiting for her, when she got into work that morning. Then Diana timidly told him that it was good to have him back. Evan wondered what kind of monster he had turned into. He decided that he needed to make amends to as many people as he possibly could. In the meantime, he needed to take care of Jeremy.
He took a quick shower, shaved and dressed before going in to see Jeremy. It didn’t occur to him that he cared about how he looked more than usual this morning.
Jeremy sat up slightly in his bed, pillows piled behind him, poking at some scrambled eggs.
“Those won’t do you any good sitting on the plate.”
Jeremy smiled up at him slightly. “How much of this do I need to eat before I take any pain pills, do you think?”
“I
really don’t know. Did you eat the toast?”
“Yeah. I could get that down.”
“That should be
all right. How bad is the pain?”
Jeremy looked at him. “On a scale of one to ten? I guess about seven.”
Evan winced in sympathy. He approached and touched Jeremy’s forehead gently. “You feel a little bit cooler.” Evan paused. “I know you really don’t want to hear this at all, but you need to use that antibiotic douche. Soon. And then the cream.”
Jeremy cringed. “I …really don’t want to. But you’re right.” He sighed.
“The vet should be here real soon; you can wait until after he leaves, if you want, I guess.”
“Vet? Wow. I thought I heard you say that, but
…
I have to
see a vet, now? I’m an animal?”
Ev
an bit his lower lip and looked at the floor. “Not to me.
But, you know, legally…
.
”
The two men avoided looking at each other for a minute. Jeremy spoke first.
“Evan. I appreciate this more than I can ever show you. I won’t embarrass you, I promise. I’ll be the best personal slave the world has ever seen for you.” Then he laughed.
Evan smiled crookedly at him. “Only in public. This is your home. Our home. I want you just to be Jeremy here, okay?”
“Works for me.”
Marta came to the door. “Dr. Hatcher is here? For your
slave?”
“Thanks, Marta. Could you show him back here?”
Marta nodded. A short time later she returned with the vet.
Evan gave him a brief description of the treatment Jeremy had
gotten in the after-hours clinic. Tom frowned.
“Sounds like the doctor might have missed some damage last night.”
Evan saw Jeremy turn pale at the thought of a repeat examination.
"
I need to take a look.”
“Can you do that without hurting him?”
“Without hurting him at all? No. But I’m going to treat him the most pain free way that I can under the law. It won’t be
exactly
the same way a doctor would treat a human being in the hospital, okay? But I will use all the pain treatment that I can. Alexa said you weren’t into slave abuse.”
“No. I don’t know if I could stand to see him hurt.”
Tom looked at Evan for a minute and then smiled at him. “I understand my wife is getting her job back?”
“Yeah. I’ve been a little, well more than a little, crazy for a while. I think I’m about to come to my senses though.”
Tom asked Jeremy to take off his scrub pants and put his feet flat on the mattress. Blushing tomato red, Jeremy complied. “I’ve gone from nobody ever seeing this particular part of me, to everybody I meet taking a good long look,” he remarked.
Tom smiled, but looked worriedly at Evan, tensing up. Evan saw it and looked back questioningly at Tom. Tom relaxed. “Most masters would have made me stop the examination to discipline their slave for speaking without permission.”
Evan blinked. “He’s supposed to get my permission to speak? No. Not here in our home. I’ve never owned a slave before, so I guess I have a lot to learn
...
but then
Jeremy’s never been
one
before."
Tom’s jaw dropped. “You mean, this is your first slave, at your age? I’m sorry; it’s none of my business.”
Evan sighed. “It’s a long story. I don’t need or want a personal slave, but for reasons too long to go into right now, I have to have one. I’ve been looking for a while. I know Jeremy. I’ve known him for years. He was in one of my sections of advanced microeconomics until Justin
…
my partner, got sick.”
Tom stared at Evan and then smiled. He continued to root around in his bag and finally came up with the tool he needed and turned to Jeremy with the dreaded anal speculum in his hand. He probed at Jeremy’s puffy red anus and frowned. “This shouldn’t look like this. Are you sure you haven’t been….”
"
I
haven’t touched him.”
Tom looked up at Jeremy who nodded agreement. “Well, Jeremy, brace yourself. This won’t be fun.”
*****
Tom lubed up the speculum as well as his latex gloved right hand and inserted it deftly. Jeremy hissed and arched his back; turning dead white. Evan couldn’t help going to him. He took Jeremy’s hand and let him clutch at his arm. Tom hid a smile. Evan might not think he wanted a personal slave, but apparently he really needed one. If they were both free they would soon be in a consensual relationship he
mused. He turned on the
lights embedded in the speculum
and whistled. “Damn.”
“What?” Jeremy and Evan asked simultaneously.
“Well, your vet last night stitched up the most obvious tear, but I see three more that need stitches. One of them has already gone septic. Evan, my hands are sterile; can you come down here and hand me some things out of my bag?”
Evan gently dislodged Jeremy’s fingers from his arm and got Tom the supplies he needed. He then promptly went up to stand by Jeremy’s head again and took his hand.
T
om
got a syringe out and injected Jeremy without warning.
“This is some valium. I don’t have any versed or other anesthetic with me, but I w
ill lean heavily on the topical
numbing cream and go as fast as I can. Evan, do you have anything he could bite down on?”
Evan stared at Tom briefly, but then left without a word coming back with a belt. Tom nodded and Evan folded it once and put it between Jeremy’s teeth. “I feel like I’m in some kind of combat movie,” Evan remarked unsteadily.
Tom pursed his lips as he swabbed a huge amount of numbing agent on the affected area. He was going to have to
debride
the infected lesion. He decided to do that first. “Evan. If you could, I need you to sit on Jeremy, please.”
Eva
n blinked at him. “Sit on him?”
“Yeah. I’m going to have to remove some infected tissue. The numbing cream won’t be effective as deep as I have to go. He could be the bravest man alive and that wouldn’t keep him from trying to jerk away from me when I start. I need his ability to move minimized so I won’t accidently cut him.”
Evan got up on the bed and stared at Tom.
“Straddle him and sit on his stomach for me.”
Evan really didn’t want to do that, but Jeremy needed him. He reluctantly threw one leg over Jeremy and gently lowered his weight
onto his abdomen, facing Jeremy. He looked at Jeremy
looked at him
without fear.
“
Are you okay? Am I too heavy?”
“It’s fine, Evan. Thank you.” Jeremy replaced the belt between his teeth. Evan leaned forward and held Jeremy’s hands down against the mattress, soothing his wrists with his thumbs.
Tom shook his head.
They really have a lot of work to do before they can be together out in public.
*****
The vet took a deep breath and went in with the scalpel. Jeremy tried to arch and scream. Evan managed to hold him still. Tears streamed down Jeremy’s face as Tom scraped away the infected tissue. It took less than a couple of minutes
,
but the pain rivaled the pain of the rape. Jeremy felt something wet on his neck and looked up to see that Evan wept in sympathy with him. Suddenly he longed to reach up and kiss Evan.
He had never been attracted to any man before he met
E
van. The response had been immediate. The minute Evan made eye contact with him for the very first time, Jeremy had been hooked. He had fought the feelings desperately—he already had his life planned. He had been engaged to a brilliant and beautiful woman and had a wedding planned in six months. But he had to admit
t
o himself that he wanted Evan more
intensely than he had ever
wanted anyone before.