Lee chapter fifteen

[maculategiraffe]

"Feel good to get out of the house?" Holden asked Lee the next day on the way to the hospital.

Lee glanced up at him uncertainly. "I like the house, master."

"It's a nice house," Holden agreed, amused. "But you've been cooped up there for a while. I thought it might be a relief to see sky again."

"I can see sky at your house, master," said Lee, smiling a little. "From the windows."

"Yeah, I guess you can," said Holden, glancing sideways at the boy's pretty face. He was fairly happy to be getting out of the house himself, despite his half-embarrassed reluctance to face the hostile doctor again. Robin had been subdued and quiet-- unless, as Yves had remarked, she was just lying in wait-- since her dressing-down by Jer, but having a photographer and a reporter, however discreet, popping in and out of the house for interviews, photo sessions, consultations, and respectful requests for progress reports was still wearing as all hell. Holden hadn't realized how much he valued the sanctity and privacy of his home and his odd family circle until it was disrupted. Plus, he was troubled by the thought of Valor, who'd gone back home alone at the end of the previous week, and of Inga, to whom she'd claimed to be planning to apologize; Holden wasn't too pleased about the fact that his daughter was still addressing Robin as darling when she left.

"You nervous about this checkup?" he asked Lee, focusing on the road and the more immediate problem who sat beside him in the passenger's seat, looking straight ahead at the road, his hands decorously folded in his lap.

"No, master," he said without looking at Holden again. "Thank you for taking me."

"Of course I'm taking you. We need to make sure you're healthy." Holden turned into the hospital parking lot. "Can't say I'm looking forward to seeing the doctor again, myself. I think I kind of got on her nerves, last time."

Lee grinned a little, but said nothing. When Holden parked and got out of the car, Lee sat still, waiting, until Holden came around to his side, unbuckled his seatbelt and motioned him out of the car; when he was on his feet, he stepped as close to Holden as he could without touching him. Holden reached out and clasped Lee's hand in his, and Lee smiled up at him as they started walking.




The checkup proved painless. Bolstered by a good night's sleep and the hope that he was actually doing something worthwhile with the news story, Holden poured on the charm, and while the doctor didn't appear actually charmed, she did seem grudgingly pleased by Lee's obviously improved health and spirits.

"He's in about as good condition as we could expect at this point," she admitted. "You finished giving him all the antibiotics?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Holden as Lee, looking smaller than ever as he perched naked on the exam table, smiled a little. Holden smiled back at him, then asked the doctor, "May he get dressed now?"

"Oh. Yes, he may." The doctor watched as Lee hopped down from the table and pulled his tunic back over his head, then, at a gesture from Holden, scrambled up into his lap, smiling shyly at the doctor.

"And you've been following the diet we recommended?" she resumed after a moment.

"Yes, ma'am. He didn't have much of an appetite at first, but he's getting there, aren't you, Lee?"

Lee smiled again, and the doctor smiled back involuntarily. The boy was a ladykiller, Holden thought with amusement. Maybe Tonia Raskolnikova after all. "Yes, master."

"Well, at this point there's no need for more than ordinary caution," said the doctor briskly. "Keep up the diet, don't let him pick at the scabs, don't do anything that will reopen them, and when you have intercourse, make sure you go carefully. Use plenty of lubricant, insert a finger before you try anything larger, and take it slowly."

"Yes, ma'am," said Holden gravely, amused despite himself at the matter-of-fact, medical tone. "That's exactly what I always tell my wife."

The doctor blinked at him for a moment, then cracked a tiny smile that was gone almost before Holden could register it as she added, "Do you have any other questions?"

Holden considered. "I don't think so. Lee? Any questions for the doctor?"

Lee shook his head. "Thank you, master."

"Oh, wait," said Holden. "I did have one. Nothing important-- just curiosity." He aimed his best smile at the doctor, praying it wouldn't backfire. "Is this the first time you've treated a slave?"

"No," said the doctor, not with any particular hostility, but not volunteering anything more, either.

"I didn't think so." Holden smiled at her again. "In our business-- buying slaves from masters who've found them problematic-- well, this isn't the first time we've had to bring someone in right after we bought him. And I just wanted to say how much I appreciated your patience and professionalism. It isn't easy, is it? Seeing what these kids go through."

"No," said the doctor again, examining Holden with a neutral expression. "It isn't easy."

Holden ran a hand through Lee's hair, and the boy leaned automatically into the touch as Holden added, "Sometimes I wish we had more-- I don't know. Recourse. It isn't as if the law can touch these men."

"No, it can't," said the doctor, still neutrally. "If you have no more questions about Lee's treatment--"

"No, I don't. Sorry to ramble on. Come on, Lee." Lee stood, and Holden rose too; Lee stepped close again, curling a hand around Holden's arm just above the elbow.

"That's all right," said the doctor, and, as Holden opened the door for her, "Mr. Larssen?"

"Ma'am?"

"I wish more of them were like you," she said crisply, and passed through the door and into some inner sanctum too quickly for Holden to react.







"Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Holden said to Lee as they crossed the parking lot.

Still clinging to Holden's arm, and walking as close as he could without tangling their feet together, Lee shook his head. "No, master."

Holden reached up and put a hand over Lee's where it curled around his bicep. "Tomorrow we'll go out again, to a friend's house."

"Lord Andrei Taganov," Lee volunteered as they reached the car. "And Mona."

"Exactly." Holden opened the passenger side door for Lee. "You don't say much, but you take it all in, don't you?"

Lee smiled a little as Holden buckled his seatbelt for him, then shut the door gently and went around to the driver's side.

"You nervous about going to Lord Taganov's?" he asked.

Lee hesitated, glancing sideways at Holden, before he said softly, "No, master."

Holden started the car. "It's okay to be nervous, you know. New places and new people can be scary even when a person hasn't been through all you have."

"I'll be okay, master," said Lee quietly. "But--"

"But what, kid?"

"But--" Lee swallowed. "I'm sorry, master, but-- now that-- now that the doctor says it's okay-- will you--"

"Will I--" Holden glanced sideways at him again as they turned onto the road. "Fuck you?"

Lee blushed painfully.

"Are you pretty anxious to get that over with?" Holden asked curiously. Considering his repeated attempts to reassure Lee that his master didn't mind waiting indefinitely for sexual service, he couldn't imagine why else the kid kept bringing it up when he so obviously hated and feared the idea.

"I-- I just want to serve you, master," Lee stammered. "I could use my m-mouth-- or-- anything-- any way I could please my master--"

Holden didn't know what to make of Lee's strained tone when he talked like this-- half urgent, half terrified-- but he did know he wasn't about to stick his cock in the boy until he'd figured it out.

"You already please me, kid," he said for at least the fourth time.

Lee bowed his head, looking unhappy. "Yes, master."





That night, Holden woke slowly with his hands curled around two palm-sized breasts and one leg thrown over a warm, curving hip, while someone kissed his ear and whispered, "Master?"

He opened his eyes and saw blond hair, then turned his head to see Bran leaning over him; stirring, he heard Alix murmur a faint and incoherent protest.

"What is it, love?" he asked Bran softly.

Bran grimaced apologetically. "I'm sorry to wake you, master, but-- could you just tell Lee it's okay to jerk off?"

Holden blinked and eased his arms from around Alix to sit up; Alix made an irritated noise, then settled back into sleep. "I'm sorry. Say that again?"

"He thinks he's not allowed," Bran explained in a low voice as Holden got up and took the boy's hand, leading him from the room into the dimly lighted hallway, and closing the bedroom door behind them. "I should have realized sooner. With Lord Dunaev, we weren't allowed-- I wasn't allowed to get myself off, and neither was Lee. I never asked you, because you started-- um-- playing with me-- right away, so I didn't need-- and then later Yves told me it was okay. Not that I've needed to, much," he added, grinning. "Since then."

Holden laughed softly. "No, I wouldn't think-- but Lee-- oh, gods, I'm such an idiot. So that's why he keeps asking if he can serve me."

"Exactly," Bran agreed. "He's been hoping for the chance to earn an orgasm. But I'm the idiot, master. I knew Dunaev didn't-- That was one of the things he got angriest about. He'd--" Bran shook his head as if shaking something out of it. "I don't really like to think about it, so I didn't-- but anyway, I finally figured it out. What it was that was making Lee so tense. He won't even sleep touching me any more."

"No wonder," said Holden ruefully. "Sleeping naked and cuddled up with you for two weeks without permission to come? If Denys gets his way I think that will be prohibited by about three different statutes."

Bran giggled, then sobered. "Yeah, so I told him it was okay, but he doesn't believe me. I mean, he doesn't think I'm lying, but I think he thinks I'm confused. He believes I have permission, but then, I'm--"

"My pet?" Holden finished, grinning.

"Yeah," said Bran, grinning back. "I think our secret's out, master. Anyway, can you please tell him it's okay? He needs his sleep."

"I'll go you one better," said Holden. "Where is he now?"





Lee, naked and seated on the very edge of Bran's bed as if poised for flight, blushed crimson at the sight of Holden and bowed his head so deeply he looked as if he were trying to bury his head in his own chest to hide from view.

"Lee, sweetheart." Holden sat down and put an arm around him, pulling the trembling body gently into his lap. Lee gasped as Holden reached down to weigh the boy's balls in his hand, feeling their heaviness, then wrapped his hand around the half-erect penis. Lee stopped breathing.

"You're such a good boy, Lee," Holden said, gently stroking the silky flesh with his fingertips. "You've been so good and so patient. You haven't touched yourself without my permission once, have you?"

Lee shook his head frantically, his cheeks still crimson, his eyes filled with tears. "No, master, please--"

"I know you haven't," said Holden firmly, and leaned in to kiss Lee's lips, probing for the first time with his tongue. Lee opened his mouth automatically and somewhat mechanically to his master's, and Holden deepened the kiss, carefully, lingering over the taste of the boy's lips and tongue, the small frightened flutterings as Lee struggled to accommodate him, feeling the boy's cock softening in his hand. Interesting. The kid either had major performance anxiety, or felt as little lust for Holden as Holden did for him-- probably the latter, if he'd been avoiding cuddling with Bran but not with Holden. Well, that certainly made things simpler.

"You don't have to earn permission to bring yourself off," he said softly after breaking the kiss. "But waiting all this time-- I think you've earned something exceptional."

Tears spilled down Lee's hot cheeks as Holden added, "Bran says you haven't wanted to sleep close with him lately. I bet it's made it harder, touching him, being so close to him. Hasn't it? He's very beautiful, isn't he?"

Lee's eyes darted involuntarily to Bran, who was still by the door, watching. He smiled at Lee as Holden reached with his free hand to brush the boy's tears away. "Bran, come here."

Bran came swiftly and knelt down on the floor at Holden's feet while Holden shifted Lee gently forward till he sat on the edge of the bed between Holden's legs. Bran waited for his master's nod before cupping his friend's balls in one hand, wrapping the other hand around Lee's cock, and leaning down to take the slender shaft into his mouth. As Lee cried out, Holden wrapped his arms around the shaking body from behind and leaned forward to speak in his ear.

"Come when you're ready, Lee. I want you to, and Bran wants it, too, he wants to taste you, wants to know how good he's made you feel. His mouth feels good, doesn't it? Come on, sweetheart. Come for us."

Tears streaming down his face, Lee arched suddenly with a strangled cry, and Holden watched Bran swallow and keep sucking as the warm young body shuddered and shuddered and finally went slack in his arms. His own cock was hard from the look on Bran's face, the sight of that practiced mouth milking the orgasm from his friend. When Bran finally pulled back, Holden hugged Lee close.

"Such a good boy," he said again.

"Thank you-- master--" Lee managed between sobs for breath, as Bran, sucking traces of Lee's seed from his flushed lips, got up and sat down next to Holden on the bed, leaning his head against his master's shoulder and putting a soothing hand on Lee's arm.

"Thank you, master," he echoed as Holden rocked Lee gently, feeling his breathing grow slowly steadier. He added after a moment, mischievously, "But now how am I going to get to sleep?"

Holden laughed and laid Lee carefully down on the bed before slipping to his knees between Bran's legs and taking the boy's hot flesh in his mouth; the soft, astonished cry he heard then wasn't in Bran's voice, and the knowledge that Lee was watching his mouth around his slave's cock, seeing Bran's back arch in ecstasy as his master sucked him, made his already intense pleasure in satisfying Bran electric. Bran lasted longer than usual, and Holden savored it, bringing all of the boy's favorite tricks with his tongue and teeth to bear before Bran groaned and spilled down his throat.

Holden pulled back, wiping his mouth, and smiled at Lee, whose eyes were like saucers. Bran let himself fall backwards onto the bed, and Holden laughed again at the expression on his face. He lay down himself between Bran and Lee, gathering both boys in with an arm around each. Bran nuzzled sleepily closer, while Lee lay very still in the crook of Holden's arm.

"You okay, kid?" Holden asked him quietly, and Lee nodded, his eyes pensive as he looked into Holden's. "Taking it all in?"

Lee examined Holden carefully for a moment before he smiled.

"Yes, master," he said, and moved closer, pressing his cheek against Holden's shoulder. "I'm taking it all in."