Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 17102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 86(@200wpm)___ 68(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 86(@200wpm)___ 68(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
He would get over it.
It wasn’t a problem. He refused to be one of those cautionary tales they all heard as trainees.
“Troy?”
Troy stopped in his tracks before his head whipped toward the sound of Andreas’s voice.
He swept his gaze over his tall form, hating himself for looking for any sign of sex.
He found none. Andreas looked his normal, self-assured self. He wasn’t wearing his robes, dressed only in black slacks and a soft-looking dark gray sweater that hugged his broad shoulders and leanly muscular frame. Brown eyes were looking at him with something unidentifiable in them.
“You seem perturbed,” Andreas stated, walking over.
Before Troy could stop himself, his telepathic presence was already reaching out greedily and touching his Master’s.
Andreas’s expression didn’t change, but his telepathic aura sharpened, becoming questioning. It enveloped Troy’s, almost as familiar as his own after months of intimacy.
Troy could barely stop a moan, his cock already hardening and his fingers twitching to reach out and touch, run his hands through Andreas’s hair, over that muscular chest, then slip under the sweater. Involuntarily, his lips parted, wanting kisses and then a tongue between them, something to suck on to find an outlet for the want that pulsed under his skin. He wanted to consume this man. Or rather, he wanted to be consumed by him.
Just your employer, he reminded himself sharply, annoyed. Annoyed and a great deal disturbed. Although he’d been well aware of the increasingly strong desire he’d started feeling for his Master, this needy, desperate edge to it had never been more disturbing. The year was up.
The year was up.
“It’s been a year,” Troy blurted out as his Master laid his hands on Troy’s waist and pulled him close. His thoughts were already clouding, his lips trembling with impatience. Kisses. He wanted kisses. He wanted Andreas’s mouth on him.
Andreas gave him a steady look Troy couldn’t quite read. “Indeed it has,” he said, his tone neutral.
“Have you found another pleasure servant already?” Troy said, trying to keep his voice just as neutral—and not at all like there was acid eating his flesh from within.
Brown eyes looked at him in a manner that seemed assessing. “Do you want me to find one?”
Troy blinked a few times, at a loss. “Does it matter what I want? It’s the rule. Masters aren’t allowed to keep the same pleasure servant for more than a year.” He wasn’t even sure why this rule existed in High Hronthar—though no, he did remember now that he thought about it. He could vaguely remember some story from a few centuries ago about a pleasure servant falling in love with her Master and then killing the Master’s apprentice out of jealousy. The rule had been implemented to discourage pleasure servants from getting too attached to their Masters.
“The rule,” Andreas repeated, still looking at him strangely. “I’m not asking about the rule. I’m asking whether you want me to find a new servant.”
“I… I don’t understand,” Troy managed.
Was this some kind of test?
Andreas sighed and stepped back, a flicker of emotion crossing his dark eyes. He clasped his arms behind his back, looking at Troy with an unreadable expression. “The rules exist for a reason. But they can be broken. In fact, they get broken all the time without any consequences by certain Masters.”
“Really?” Troy said, his eyebrows drawing together. “By who? I’ve never heard of it.”
“Castien had kept the same pleasure servant for years before finally dismissing him some time ago.”
“Castien?” Troy repeated, stunned. “You mean Grandmaster Idhron?” When Andreas gave a nod, Troy looked at him intently. “Why? Did he… did he get attached to his pleasure servant?” It was sickening how much he wanted Andreas to confirm it, to confirm that sometimes Masters got attached to lowly pleasure servants, too.
But to his disappointment, Andreas shook his head, his lips curling. “Not at all. I strongly suspect the only reason Castien kept that servant for so long was because of the servant’s strong resemblance to his apprentice. He fucked him because he couldn’t fuck his apprentice.”
“You can’t know that,” Troy grumbled, trying to hide his disappointment.
Andreas’s smile turned wry. “Trust me, I do. I have been in the same room with Castien and his apprentice often enough to know exactly what the supreme Grandmaster of the Order feels for his apprentice.”
Troy laughed. “Your gift must be so weird when you interact with other Masters. How can you look them in the eye when you can sense all their dirty thoughts and urges?”
Andreas shrugged, but his eyes were laughing. “It can be challenging to keep a straight face sometimes,” he admitted before his gaze became serious again. “As you see, there are precedents for Masters breaking that rule.”
Troy’s heart jumped. Was Andreas actually offering…?
He opened his mouth to say that of course he wanted to stay, but he didn’t want to appear too eager. Too attached. Too pathetic.