Welcome to Stealing Serenity, a stand alone, erotic contemporary M/M romantic suspense. This novella is releasing one scene/day (weekdays) on the blog ahead of publication. All chapters will be available for free until the book is published, then they’ll be removed. If you simply can’t wait, the complete ebook is available now on the webstore. Paperback and Subtle Cover alternate coming soon. Expected publication: July 5th
July 20, Wednesday—6:15 p.m.
428 Magnolia Ln, Seaside Court
Gated Community, National City
At the doorway to Kearin’s studio, everything appeared the same. And yet things were different. He knew Kearin wanted him, knew they both were going to enjoy what followed. He didn’t know if Kearin would let the night end the way Daniel sincerely wanted. He hadn’t touched himself, and two days had never been so impossibly long. He was wired like a junkie: breath short, twitchy, everything on the sharp edge of anticipation.
Totally unhinged in Kearin’s presence.
Kearin walked away, deeper into the studio, and Daniel watched him move—all long lines and total confidence. Like a big cat. He turned, pulled his hand out of the pocket of his slacks, and put it down on the flat gleaming surface of a steel table. It wasn’t just Kearin’s hand ruining the line of those slacks.
Daniel burned. He was honestly surprised he didn’t just fall to ash on the spot. He’d never felt this kind of desire before. But then, he’d never let anyone tie him up or tell him what to do, either. God, the photo he was after, the amount of work he’d put into this; none of it mattered when faced with the kind of force Daniel knew the two of them could be together. He just had to make Kearin see it too.
Daniel approached the table. Kearin watched him with hunger naked in his eyes. When he spoke his voice was rough like gravel. “Your clothes.”
Daniel stripped and folded them on the stool as before. He sat on the cold table and when Kearin instructed, stretched out on his stomach. Oh, it was nice. The chill brought his arousal away from the brink; it let him focus a bit. When he looked up at Kearin it was with a bit of distance, the weight of his true goal hanging beside the deeply personal desire to win Kearin. The drive to find and steal one of the most expensive photographs on the planet was a strong one. But what kind of master thief would he be if he couldn’t steal into a man’s bed on the way?
Kearin held a length of rope in his hands. “Nothing in this room happens without your consent.” They were the same words he’d used last time, words that helped calm Daniel down when he’d thought about turning tail and running. This time they felt more like ritual. “Are you ready?” Kearin asked.
Daniel met his eyes and hoped he would be more difficult to master than Serenity. “Yes, sir.”
Kearin walked to the back of the table and dragged one hot hand down the back of Daniel’s calf. His firm fingers stood Daniel’s feet up on their toes, and a brief pressure told him to hold that position. Daniel resisted the urge to look back. He lowered his head to the steel table and closed his eyes to focus. The table shuddered under the weight of the rope Kearin dropped on it. When the line crossed Daniel’s skin it felt smooth. The wrap started just below his knees. Kearin’s focus filled the air with even breaths that Daniel felt himself following. Slow, like meditation.
Daniel couldn’t be sure, but this knotwork felt different than the pattern Kearin had used for his arms. Last time the first pass from his fists to his biceps had been fairly quick, but this progress from knees to ankles took much longer. The rope passed around his calves and through itself several times in rhythm. Daniel felt himself drifting. The empty space in the room made them feel isolated, and the entire world shrunk down to a line of rope, a single steel table, and the two of them. When Kearin finally tied the rope off and tucked the ends, Daniel knew he had found that space of calm. A not-really-here but not-really-asleep state where his stress and worries floated about, real but disconnected. Kearin looped a rope over his wrists that tugged slightly when he ran it over the edge of the table. He tied it off on the underside.
Kearin touched Daniel’s shoulder softly. “Lean up on your forearms. Put your elbows directly under your shoulders to take your weight. Clasp your hands.”
Daniel shifted so he knelt on elbows and knees, but only barely. The rope kept him stretched out. There wasn’t enough slack to pick himself up. His arousal hung down far enough to lie along the steel, but the table had warmed with his body, and it no longer kept him focused. Daniel knew he was spread like a feast, and the idea had his whole body throbbing with heat.
Kearin left him there and spent several minutes adjusting his camera and the stands to reflect light. He fiddled with the lighting for a while, adjusting the bright white to a more subdued tint of tan. Then he reached out and let his hand come to rest on the small of Daniel’s back. Daniel’s breath left in a rush.
“I want you to hold a plank for as long as you can. Lift your knees off the table and keep your back completely straight. Tighten all your muscles here.” Kearin’s hand drifted lower, his fingers brushed across the crack of Daniel’s ass.
Daniel tightened every muscle, and not because the photo would look better that way. His knees came up off the table.
“Good.” Kearin stepped back and Daniel heard a dial change on the camera. “A little higher. I want to see your cock off the table.”
Daniel gasped his air in a surprised rush, and it was as much the pulse of his arousal as the tension in his muscles that gave Kearin what he wanted. The camera snapped. It took Daniel all of five seconds to realize this pose was nothing like the relaxation of the first one. Holding the flat plank required total engagement of every abdominal and ass muscle he had. His arms fatigued in the next heartbeat, and he realized his entire back would need to hold him up if this were to last even a full minute.
Thankfully Kearin seemed to realize what kind of effort he demanded. The camera’s shutter clicked like a car blinker, image after image all the way around Daniel and then around a second time. Just when Daniel’s thighs began to shake, Kearin stood back. “Take a rest.”
Daniel knelt on the table and let his arms fold in relief. His cock throbbed against the steel, trapped under his body. He breathed in big sighs until he realized the tension was as much his arousal as muscle fatigue.
The rest didn’t last long, but that was probably best. Daniel brought his knees off the table, engaged every muscle down the full length of his spine, and breathed deeply through his nose. Keeping his breath slow and even was the perfect thing to concentrate on and the next break came sooner than he expected.
The third plank put Daniel perfectly deep into that meditative headspace where things felt like a dream. With his back fully engaged, the weight of his torso didn’t fatigue his arms. Between abs and ass, his toes were simply a contact point on the table. Daniel’s breath kept him centered. He heard the camera at a distance, and the pleasure of being watched—of being on display and wanted—made his body flush with pride. He let his head fall forward and saw down the entire length of his own body.
Kearin stood at Daniel’s head and said tightly, “You are beautiful.”
Daniel hadn’t ever considered himself in the context of beauty before. Beautiful was for complex irony or masteries of art. But in Kearin’s voice, Daniel heard awe of beauty, and in that moment, Daniel saw it too.
His entire body throbbed. They watched a pearl of liquid bead at the tip of Daniel’s erection and slide forward. It fell to the table, a single perfect dot.
Kearin’s hand entered Daniel’s line of vision. It hovered just under his chest. Slowly Kearin lowered his palm over that single drop and wiped it up with his thumb. He retreated without touching Daniel’s skin. Daniel tracked that hand up until it was a breath from Kearin’s mouth. Kearin’s eyes, wide and dark, all pupil. His other hand held the camera down at his thigh, forgotten. Daniel stared hard at Kearin’s thumb.
Kearin said, “Call me sir.”
“Sir,” Daniel voiced in a breath.
“Say please.”
“Please.”
“Please, what?”
Daniel trembled. “Please taste me, sir.” Oh god, please. He couldn’t look away.
Kearin pressed his thumb to his lips and took the digit in. His eyes flickered like the taste was more than he expected.
Daniel’s entire body tensed, squeezing a whine from his lungs he couldn’t suppress. He’d seen absolutely nothing more erotic in his life.
From low at his hip, Kearin snapped a picture. The sound broke Daniel’s headspace, and he blinked at the camera like he’d never seen it before. The plank exhausted him all of a sudden. He let his hips fall to the table and groaned. Kearin looked at the camera, back at Daniel, and frowned. He set the device’s strap around his neck and pulled the knots holding Daniel’s hands together. The ropes fell over themselves with freedom. Daniel lay down fully on the table and relished the warm stretch in his arms.
Kearin began the slow process of unknotting Daniel’s legs with the kind of detached interest that signaled he was lost in his own head. He wasn’t rough, but his hands were nothing but practical. When the final tie gave Daniel up, Kearin turned from the room. “Follow me when you’re ready.”
He didn’t have to ask twice. Daniel hopped off the table and followed as he was, his half-arousal bobbing along. There were marks on his wrists and legs. Not painful, but red and different. Daniel pressed the back of his wrist against his lips and enjoyed feeling the ridge of the rope, the different texture of his unmarked skin beside the smooth compression left behind.
Kearin led him to the office. He half turned in the doorway and did an abrupt double take at Daniel’s nakedness. His expression rapidly flipped from surprise to arousal then shut down entirely. He’d expected Daniel to get dressed. Daniel smiled against his wrist.
“I wanted to go through the photos with you right away.” Kearin lingered in the doorway for a second longer than strictly necessary.
Daniel let his wrist fall and followed Kearin into the office. His thief’s eye scanned the space in the breadth of a second, but nothing appeared he hadn’t seen already. One window, one door. The walls covered in photographs, completely wallpapered with push pins holding black and white images of every size. A long file cabinet under the window was his best bet for information short of the computer. The entire space, like most of Kearin’s life: minimal.
He turned his back on the desk and peered at the photos on the wall. They were chaotic, just pinned where there was space and minimal overlap on other photos. Daniel lifted one with a finger and saw a title and date, just like every other photo Kearin had ever brought into the office.
Hundreds of them.
None were erotic. Daniel wondered if this was a new interest. The way Kearin tied him up said it wasn’t. So the question was where did he keep those photos?
“Here.” Kearin turned the flat monitor.
Daniel was not shy about leaning on the desk. Time had made his erection flag, but the pictures reminded him of Kearin making him beg, of Kearin licking his thumb to taste Daniel for the first time. They hadn’t even kissed yet.
Daniel pointed at a photo. “That one.” Kearin had taken it just as Daniel lowered his head. His eyes were half-closed, and his position was a perfectly straight line. The photo itself was tilted, though, as if Kearin had hit the shutter without looking through the lens. Daniel liked the slightly off-balance effect it had.
“I agree,” Kearin said. “Although, I really like this one as well.”
The last photo. The one where Daniel looked up and watched Kearin taste him. Daniel saw raw desire in his own eyes and remembered exactly how that felt. His blood throbbed. He had to clear his throat to speak. “Put it with number twelve from the previous set.” The photo of his own dripping cock.
Kearin turned the monitor back toward himself. Daniel saw his nose flare with the next breath out, the only sign that he was pleased with the idea.
Daniel turned back to the photos on the walls but they didn’t hold his interest like before. His head was full of other things. Did Kearin keep the photos in his bedroom perhaps? Where he could page through them and… take his time?
Daniel let his breath out in a rush and captured his hands behind him to keep them safely away from his renewed need. Kearin made a soft noise like standing. Daniel turned. He raked Kearin from bare feet up, saw the bulge in his pants, saw the dilation in his eyes. The tension between them was like red wine—as enjoyable to see and smell as it would be to taste. Eventually.
“Don’t expect what I won’t be giving you,” Kearin said.
“You don’t ask your other models to call you sir,” Daniel said quietly, enjoying the small widening of Kearin’s eyes and increase in his breathing. Kearin could hide the biggest signs of what he felt, but Daniel had years of practice reading the details of a person. Kearin wasn’t getting away with it this time. “So, please, don’t pretend you don’t want this to go where I’m expecting.”
They stared at each other. Daniel decided there wasn’t enough air in the room with both of them burning like this.
But Kearin spoke first. “We’re done for today.”
Daniel smiled. “Yes, sir.” He turned away from the fire he’d ignited in Kearin’s eyes, and it was the hardest thing he’d ever done. His steps felt shaky, but Daniel had to repress a giddy laugh. Being under Kearin’s rope was very nice. Turning the tables on him made things even more fun.
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