The new paddle had arrived a couple of weeks ago and was still in the box. Angel came up beside him, excited when he saw a package from Kael’s favorite mail-order shop. “Did you get something new, Daddy? How come you didn’t tell me?”
“I like to surprise you.” With a flourish, Kael lifted the instrument from the box. “It’s an impression paddle.” With a careful movement, Kael slapped the paddle onto his palm. “Isn’t it beautiful? Thick black leather. Look at the stitching.”
“I’m looking at the word.”
SLAVE
was cut into the paddle. Angel ran his fingertips over the open letters.
“When I beat you with this, the word ‘slave’ will be imprinted onto your arse. The areas around the word will bruise, leaving a clear impression behind it.”
Something halfway between a smile and a grin lit Angel’s face. “Holy sexy ass. That is so hot!”
“It’s going to hurt though. The only way to get a really clear imprint is to strike once very hard, like striking a coin. So that means no warm-up because all that will do is bruise the surrounding area and the word won’t be clear.” He looked into Angel’s sparkling gray eyes. “Are you up for it?”
All on a breath, Angel said excitedly, “Yes, Sir, Daddy!”
“It really will hurt like hell,” Kael warned him again.
“I can take it, Daddy.”
“Right then. Get your undies off, boy.”
With a grin splitting his face, Angel took off his red Ergos. At the same time, Kael removed his underwear and took a condom from the box on the shelf. There was no question that swatting Angel’s arse would excite him, so he wanted to be prepared.
“Where shall we do this?” Hands on hips, he looked around the dungeon, deciding on the best position for the flogging.
“What about the horse, Daddy?” It was a vaulting horse, and they had used it many a time for a flogging or paddling. Angel took a couple of running steps and vaulted perfectly over it, then looked at Kael, smiling widely. “We do this in the gym in school to warm up before basketball.”
“We never played basketball. It was rugby, football, and tennis at College Grange. Come on, bend over.”
Angel stood at the long side of the horse and bent forward with his arms stretched out to the sides and his head hanging over. He spread his feet to about eighteen inches apart. The horse was above waist-high on Angel. With the paddle in one hand and the condom in the other, Kael stepped up behind him. He placed the paddle and the foil packet on the horse where Angel could see them, knowing they would enhance his arousal. Kael reached between Angel’s spread thighs, rolling the boy’s balls in his hand before grabbing his cock. It was already stiff and sticking out.
“Are you excited already?” he asked in a teasing voice.
Breathing hard, Angel did not answer. His excitement was evident. Kael released Angel’s cock and, with both hands, began a deep massage of his buttocks. “Loosen up, boy. It will hurt more if you don’t. You know that.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Reverently Kael grasped the paddle in his hand and took his stance behind Angel. “Take long breaths, slave boy.”
The sound of Angel’s breath was hypnotic as he inhaled deeply though his nose and blew out long breaths between pursed lips.
“I’m going to count to three and then do it.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Settling the paddle in his hand, Kael began, “One, two…” He raised his arm. “Three!” The loud
crack
of the paddle was momentary, but Angel’s cry filled the air and went on for a long time. For just a moment, his body tensed, then released all tension. When the cry tapered off and stopped, Kael went around the front to hold out the paddle. With pain still showing in his face, Angel kissed it.
“Good boy. Daddy’s boy,” Kael said softly.
After returning the paddle to its box, Kael stepped again behind Angel, who had not moved his position. “Don’t move, boy,” Kael said, tearing open the foil condom packet. He pulled the thin film of latex over his hard cock, and, just to be kind after the pain of the paddle, went back to fetch a tube of K-Y. He squirted a large dollop in his palm, and he slapped it against Angel’s anus.
Taking the boy by the hips, Kael positioned his cock and thrust hard.
Working slowly, he took his time. Every now and then, he reached around to Angel’s cock to find it hard and hot. The boy had developed good control over the last few months.
Bringing his arousal to a slow peak, Kael would either have to come or slow down again, but he was tired from lack of sleep and all he wanted now was Angel in his arms in bed. Gripping Angel’s cock in his palm, he ran his hand fast back and forth over it. “Daddy!” Angel cried, telling him that if he kept it up, Angel would go over the edge.
“Good boy. Do it!” he told him. With overwhelming sensations streaking through his body, Kael pumped harder, his pleasure soaring at the same moment that Angel’s warm, milky sperm spilled over his hand. Gasping for air, Kael fell over Angel’s back, panting hard for long moments.
When at last he got his breath, Kael stood, looking down at Angel’s arse. “The bruise is starting to show.”
“May I look at it, Daddy?’
“Yes, go on.”
Looking tired but sated and happy, Angel skipped to the mirror and turned to look over his shoulder at his buttocks. Kael got the jar of arnica salve from the shelf, and coming up beside Angel, he ran his hand over the welt. “Slave,” he said quietly and kissed the top of Angel’s head. With a dollop of cream, he massaged the welt very gently. “There. That will help.”
“I’ll clean up my mess, Daddy.” Angel got a cloth and cleaned up his shot from the floor.
Kael was standing at the sink in the bathroom flossing his teeth when Angel joined him. Following the prescribed ritual, Angel followed suit, brushing and flossing meticulously. Kael went to sit naked on the chair, watching him.
“You know, Daddy, I thought you were a bit psycho when I first came here.”
“Because you saw me kill your stepfather?”
“He was a piece of shit. I’m glad you killed him.” Looking at him in the mirror, Angel went on. “It was that everything was so perfect and this drawer was full of new toothbrushes in the packages and enough floss to stock a dentist’s office.”
“It still is.”
Tossing his floss in the bin, Angel opened the drawer and laughed. “You’re not a psycho, Daddy. You just like good dental hygiene. But it was how you always wiped the sink after you used it. And you’re still always looking under furniture and stuff.”
“I’m checking for listening devices and cameras.” Kael had never told Angel that before.
“You are? Who would put them there?”
“MI6. They keep men like me under surveillance. I should show you how to do a sweep. But not now. It’s bedtime.”
In bed Kael waited with his arm stretched out for Angel. Flipping off the bathroom light, the boy stood looking at the bed. “Do not do it,” Kael said firmly, wagging a threatening finger.
“Yes, Sir,” Angel said soberly, dropping the smile from his face. Then without pause, he took two long strides and leaped onto the bed.
“What did I tell you?” Kael burst out, seeing the victorious grin on Angel’s face.
On his hands and knees, Angel leaned over him and kissed him a big slurping one on the mouth. “Yer gotta have some fun, Dad-dad!” he said in a funny accent that made Kael laugh despite himself.
“Don’t you have enough fun?” It was a rhetorical question as far as Kael was concerned. Angel had a good life with him. He definitely wasn’t short of love and attention.
“Between school, the gym, hours of running, hours at the firing range, the school chess club, and language practice with you every week? Yup, I have a ton of fun.”
Taken aback by Angel’s inventory of his life, Kael fell momentarily silent until anger began to niggle at him. “We have weekends away. I admit we avoid Paris.” He expected Angel to chuckle at the joke, but he didn’t. “I take you to the pictures and the occasional opera.” For weeks Angel had gone on about wanting to see
Billy Elliot
in the West End and Kael had bought tickets for when they got back from his mum’s. It had been a great night. “You liked
Billy Elliot
.”
“Yeah, it was great, except when you kept saying, ‘I hope these people don’t think all queers are ballet dancers.’”
“That would be when you said, ‘No, some of us are assassins.’”
“Daddy, if anyone heard, they thought it was a joke.”
Feeling resentful, Kael said, “You make your life sound like pure drudgery. I only want the best for you. Put the light out.”
Reaching across him, Angel pressed the button on the bedside console, sinking the room into darkness, before snuggling in beside him while Kael drew him close. “I know that, Daddy. But sometimes a weekend away means walking on the beach at Brighton holding hands and eating ice cream till you throw up. Our last weekend away, you took me to Edinburgh. We had a historic tour of the castle and a visit to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. In Rome we spent hours examining churches in Vatican City. I wanted to wade in the Trevi Fountain and drink Fanta till my tongue turned orange.”
“Maybe you need some young idiot like yourself to play with instead of a boring old fart like me.”
“Oh, I didn’t know I was an idiot,” Angel said quietly, his head on Kael’s shoulder while his hand strayed over Kael’s nipples.
“Angel, I’m sorry. You’re not an idiot. I just want to make up for all you missed out on with your education. That’s what a daddy does, remember? I remember you telling me that when you first got here. A daddy teaches his boy things, and that’s why you wanted a daddy.”
“Yes, Sir. But maybe a boy needs to teach his daddy to chill once in a while.”
“Yes, all right.” Tenderly Kael kissed Angel’s forehead, running his fingers through the boy’s soft, long hair. “So where did you put your blanket?”
“It’s in the closet.” There was a pause before Angel said, “But don’t throw it away, Daddy.”
“I’ll never do that again, sweetheart.”
Angel nudged closer to Kael’s nipples, playing with the right between his fingers and thumb. The left he took in his mouth, sucking gently until he fell asleep in Kael’s arms.
Chapter Five
At ten minutes to five, Kael met Angel inside the entrance of Redmond Independent College and was instantly provoked. Instead of his smart school uniform with his blazer and tie, he was wearing the German paratrooper boots he loved so much, those skinny jeans that hung off his arse in that ridiculous way, and a lavender shirt under his black leather jacket. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he had pulled his long hair into a ponytail.
The boy’s face lit up as soon as he saw Kael. “Hi, Daddy.” Reaching round behind him, Kael snatched the black elastic from his ponytail. “Ow! Daddy!”
“We’re getting that hair cut.” Kael walked past him along the corridor, expecting Angel to follow. “And don’t call me daddy in front of the headmaster.” Inside the waiting room for the headmaster’s office, Kael sat down.
“Mr. Saunders, you’re in at five,” the secretary said.
“I know,” Kael said abruptly. Why the hell was he so anxious? He’d been terrified of the headmaster at College Grange when he first got there, but he’d never let the man know it. He was acting now as if he’d been ordered to the office as he was so often in his first year at the boarding school.
When Angel didn’t appear, Kael got up again and went back into the corridor to find him at the water fountain. “Stop dawdling and get in here.”
“We still have five minutes.”
“Why did you go home and change?”
“I wanted to.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have. Get in here and sit down.” By the time they walked into the headmaster’s office, Kael was more on edge than ever and Angel looked decidedly rebellious.
“Mr. Saunders.” The headmaster shook his hand vigorously. “Mr. Button. Please sit down.”
“Hi, Mr. Staynton,” Angel said.
The headmaster clapped his hands together. He wasn’t that old, but he was extremely nerdy and wore glasses on the end of his long nose. “So! What do you have in mind for your future, Angel? Where would you like to study next?”
“I want to take a gap year and then decide.”
Suppressing the desire to slap the boy, Kael said, “I don’t know where he gets these ideas. I want him to go to Cambridge. I think he should get a history degree. That’s always a good place to start.”
“Most of the young people take a gap year these days. It’s not such a bad idea. But why Cambridge?” Mr. Staynton asked.
“That’s where I went,” Kael said.
“And where did you go before that, Mr. Saunders?”
“College Grange.”
“Yes, an excellent school. That’s the thing, you see. For the big ones, Oxford and Cambridge, you either have to be quite brilliant or have gone to one of
the
schools.”
“Kael was both. Brilliant
and
went to one of
the
schools,” Angel said.
If he was not already nervous about this and annoyed with Angel for being uncooperative, he might not have taken such exception to Angel’s tone, which was probably not as sarcastic as it sounded in that moment. “If you have nothing useful to add, then be quiet, Angel.”
With a little cough, the headmaster went on. “Whatever people might say to the contrary these days, Oxford and Cambridge do reserve places for the young people coming out of the best schools, and while Redmond has an excellent reputation, Angel’s prior school record is nonexistent.”
“But he gets top marks,” Kael said. “He did extremely well in his GCSEs, and he’ll pass all his A levels, won’t he?”
Nodding, the headmaster said, “Yes, Angel will get his A levels and will move on to university. But while he is a good student, he is not in the top five percent in the country, which would get him into Cambridge automatically.”
“Kael was in the top five percent, weren’t you?” Angel looked at him.
“Yes, I was.” He had told Angel not to call him Daddy, but there was something about his sub calling him Kael that pissed him off royally.
“What do you do, Mr. Saunders?” Mr. Staynton asked.
Tense and increasingly annoyed, Kael said, “I’m a security consultant. I also do some translating and teaching languages. Are you saying Angel’s not going to get into Cambridge?”