Author: Alexa Land
Category: LGBT
Go to read content：https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/alexa-land/page,10,529414-all_in.html
“New, huh?” the blonde asked me with a smile that looked inexplicably sympathetic. He surprised me by taking my hand, and he said, “I’ll show you where his office is. I’m going there too. I’m Austin, but you probably already caught that.”
“Charlie.”
There was plenty of activity in the big house, lots of people hurrying around. Austin wound his way through the hustle and bustle, taking a few turns and climbing a back staircase. He obviously knew his way around. I was glad that he kept holding my hand, because if I ever lost him in this huge place, I’d probably end of wandering the halls for hours trying to find Dante. “You with one of the agencies, Charlie?” he asked.
I had no idea what that meant. “No.”
“I’m with Prestige. If you ever get tired of independent work, look us up. Maybe if you came to work for them, they’d send us out on some tandem assignments.” He winked and smiled at me. I was totally lost.
Eventually, we stopped in front of a big door. When my companion knocked, Dante called, “Come in,” and Austin pushed the door open and towed me into the office with him. It took Dante a moment to glance up from the computer on his massive desk, and when he did, he looked absolutely stunned.
“Hiya, Mr. Dombruso,” Austin said. “I found your one o’clock out on the steps. His name’s Charlie. And I’m sorry to barge in like this, but I really need to get my equipment out of the playroom. I need it for an appointment this afternoon. I texted you a couple times this morning to ask if it was ok to swing by, but I guess you were busy. Mind if I go grab my stuff?”
“Go ahead,” Dante murmured. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me.
Austin squeezed my hand and whispered, “Good luck,” before letting go of me and leaving through a different door.
“What are you doing here, Charlie?” Dante asked quietly.
“I’m here to tell you I don’t accept.”
“Don’t accept what?”
“Our breaking up.”
He knit his brows and said, “Wait, what?”
“You heard me.”
“This isn’t a subject that’s up for debate, Charlie.”
I crossed the room and leaned forward, my hands on his desk. “I know why you’re doing this, Dante. You’re freaked out because you think you hurt me, and—”
“I don’t think I hurt you. I know.” Dante stood up and crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re not doing this anymore.”
“I disagree.”
“I don’t have time for stubbornness right now, Charlie. I’m getting ready to head out of the country, and I have a lot to do before my plane leaves. And there’s nothing to discuss here anyway.”
“You want this, Dante. Whatever it is that’s happening between us, you want it. I know you do. I make you happy. Just like you make me happy. You want this as much as I do.”
That seemed to make him angry for some reason, and he said, “I’m just the rebound guy, remember? You’re trying to get over Jamie, the love of your life. And I was just supposed to be a fling. You and I both know that. Only, you picked the wrong guy.”
“You and I both know it’s becoming so much more than that.”
His voice rose a little as he said, “Look, we had fun for a couple days. But didn’t you hear me? I was holding back with you. What I did to you yesterday? That was nothing. It gets so much worse than that, Charlie.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Sure it does.”
I paused for a moment, then said, “You know what, Dante? I realized early on that there was only one way I could do this, only one way to be involved with you. I knew I couldn’t date you a little. I couldn’t trust you a little. I couldn’t go to bed with you a little. If I was going to do this, if I was going to be involved with you, I had to be all in. And I’m still absolutely prepared to do that, to do whatever it takes to be with you.”
“But you’re making a huge mistake. You have no idea who and what I really am.”
“Of course I do.”
“What are you basing that on? A couple dates where I was on my best behavior? That’s not the real me.”
“Sure it is.”
Dante glared at me and unbuttoned his suit jacket. He crossed his arms in front of him and pulled a pair of sleek, black handguns out of twin shoulder holsters, slamming them down on the desk. “Charlie Connolly, meet Dante Dombruso.”
“Why…why are you armed?” I stammered, startled.
“Because I’m in the fucking mafia, Charlie.”
“I already knew that.”
“You don’t really get it, though. I know you don’t.”
“I may not know the details of your job, but I know who you are, Dante.”
“Do you know why I’m rushing off to Sicily on short notice?” he asked. “It’s so I can catch a son of a bitch I’ve been after for years and fucking kill him.”
“There’s no way that’s true.”
Dante threw his head back and ran his hand up his forehead as he growled, “What is it going to take to get through to you?” Apparently an idea occurred to him then. He came around the desk and grabbed my arm, and dragged me out the same doorway Austin had gone through.
As he towed me down a long hallway, I told him, “You don’t have to drag me, Dante. I’m going willingly.”
“Christ,” he muttered.
We’d reached an open doorway at the end of the hall, and Dante pulled me inside as he announced, “This is my playroom, Charlie.”
I blinked at the huge room. There were chains and ropes and whips and things I couldn’t even identify. Austin straddled a bench in one corner of the space, sorting through a metal suitcase. He stopped what he was doing and watched us, his eyes wide.
“This is who I am,” Dante said, more quietly now.
I turned to him and raised my chin as I met his gaze defiantly. “I hope you use each and every item in here on me.”
“Fuck!” Dante yelled. “You just won’t listen! I’ve got to leave for the airport in about five fucking minutes, and I am just not getting through to you!”
“I know who you are,” I said. “I know there’s this wild, dangerous side of you. And I know there’s another side as well, one that’s sweet and gentle and kind. And I want all of you, Dante, both sides, every part of it. I want to be with you.”
He sighed in exasperation. And then he pointed across the room. “See that boy over there, Charlie? That’s Austin. He’s a prostitute. I’ve been beating him and fucking him a couple times a week for almost a year. Austin understands what I am, even if you don’t. Why don’t you talk to him? You sure as hell won’t listen to me, but maybe you’ll listen to someone who’s been where you’re trying to go.”
“You want me to think you’re a bad person, so I’ll stay away from you. But I’m still not convinced. I’ll never be convinced.”
Dante seemed to have a flash of inspiration, and let go of me and crossed the room to the blonde boy, saying, “Can you clear your schedule for the next forty eight hours, Austin? I’ll pay you triple your usual rate.”
“Of course, Mr. Dombruso. The agency won’t have a problem with that. You know you’re their number one client.” He pulled out his cell phone and fired off a quick text.
“Good. Thank you, Austin.” Dante went to a cabinet against the wall and pulled open a drawer and rooted around in it. He then brought a set of manacles over to the skinny blonde, and snapped a wide metal cuff on the boy’s wrist as he said, “Your time starts now.” He tugged on the chain, and Austin leapt up and followed him like a puppy.
He brought this guy right up to me. And then, before I realized what was happening, Dante grabbed my arm and snapped the other end of the manacle onto my wrist. “Ok, that’s weird,” I said.
“Austin, your assignment is to explain to Charlie in excruciating detail exactly what I do to you, and exactly how much you hate every single minute of it.”
“I don’t hate it, Mr. Dombruso,” he said with a reasonably con
vincing smile.
“Bullshit. Just be honest with Charlie. You know better than anyone what he would be in for if he kept going out with me.”
Austin looked at me with surprise and murmured, “You were going out?”
“These cuffs don’t open with a key,” Dante continued. “There’s a trick to them. It’ll take you a day or two to figure it out, because it’s really not obvious. That should give Austin enough time to talk your ear off.”
“Seriously?” I said.
“I’m sorry to do this to you, Charlie. But I need you to really, truly understand why we can’t be together. I know it’s really shitty and kind of insane to chain you to a rent boy and then flee the country. But, well, I’m doing it anyway. Don’t let him follow me, Austin.” Dante kissed my forehead and left the playroom quickly, and I actually burst out laughing.
I called after him, “Have a safe trip! See you when you get back!” I heard him swearing somewhere down the hall.
“You’re not planning to run after him, are you? Because just so you know, I don’t run,” Austin told me.
“Nah. I’m not going to try to prevent him from leaving the country. I’m simply going to be waiting for him when he gets back.”
“Well, good,” Austin said. He tried to reach into his pocket for his vibrating cell phone, but was stopped short by the chain that linked us. I let him pull my hand over, and he took out his phone and read the screen, then said, “Ok. My employers approved the change of plans in my schedule, so I’m yours for the next two days.” He grinned at me pleasantly.
“Sorry you got dragged into this,” I said. “I’m sure this isn’t your idea of a good time.”
“On the contrary, I think this is hilarious. And of course, it’s obviously not the first time someone’s paid me to chain me up. Though being chained to another person is new.” He thought about that for a beat, then amended, “Ok, that’s not new. The fact that we’re not fucking while we’re chained together, that’s new.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, then said, “Let’s go check the drawer these cuffs came from for a key, just in case Dante was lying and there really is an easy way to open them.”
Chapter Eleven
I was still wearing manacles and my new blonde accessory when I returned home an hour later. Austin remained amused as hell by this whole thing, which was good. It would have been no fun at all to be chained to a cranky rent boy for hours on end.
There had been no key, and on closer inspection of the cuffs, no lock either. I’d tried to figure them out and failed miserably. So until I either discovered the secret to opening them or located some sort of industrial grade metal saw, Austin and I were inseparable.
We were already adapting to our situation. Driving home had given us a crash course (thank God not literally) in teamwork. I’d driven with my right hand, my chained left arm crossed over my body, and Austin had shifted with his free left hand. Which had been interesting, since he’d never actually driven stick. But he learned fast as I talked him through it.
Somehow we actually made it home this way, and as we stepped through the door of my apartment, Austin said cheerfully, “Any time you’d like me to begin my lecture on what a terrible person Dante Dombruso is, just let me know.”
“We’ve got time, Austin. Pace yourself.” We went through to the kitchen, and he stopped short when Peaches started growling at us from inside his pen.
“What the fuck is that?” he asked.
“That’s Peaches.”
Austin burst out laughing. “Of course it is.”
“Want something to drink?” I asked as I pulled the refrigerator open and grabbed a soda, popping it open with my thumb. Since Dante had fastened my left hand to Austin’s right, I still had the use of my dominant hand. Which was something at least.
“I’m good. Thanks, though.”
I regarded Peaches, who showed me his teeth when he saw me looking at him. “I need to take the dog for a walk. He probably needs to pee.”
“Ok. Let’s go,” Austin said agreeably.
“There’s a problem. He won’t let me pick him up. I need to put on those big leather gloves over there on the counter so he doesn’t bite me, but I can’t do that with my wrist chained.”
He chuckled at that. “Wow, and you seemed so normal when I first met you.”
“What does that mean?”
“You look like the archetypal all-American boy – clean-cut, wholesome.” I noted that my rent boy had an impressive vocabulary. And then I chastised myself for having automatically assumed he wouldn’t be that bright. He was saying, “But it turns out, you date mob bosses and keep rabid vermin as pets. You’re a total freak.”
I grinned at him. “Thanks.”
“So, what happened between you two that led to this?” He jingled the chain that linked us.
“Dante got freaked out about hurting me and broke up with me. But I told him I didn’t accept our break-up. Not when I know for a fact we both want to be together.”
“How did he hurt you?”
“Um….” I blushed embarrassedly. But come on, I was talking to a prostitute here. This guy had heard, and probably done, it all. There really wasn’t a reason to be embarrassed around him, so I admitted honestly, “He spanked me so hard that he bruised me. And when he realized that, he got really upset and withdrawn. Right after that, he broke up with me.”
“Now why the hell would that bother him?” Austin mused. “He bruises the hell out of me all the time, and doesn’t bat an eye.” But then a look of understanding appeared on his pretty face, and he said, “Oh.”
“Oh what?”
“Oh, he’s in love with you. That’s why it upset him that he hurt you.”
“He’s not in love with me. We’ve only gone out a few times.”
“So?”
“So people don’t fall in love that fast.”
“Not always. But it absolutely can happen.” He looked surprisingly wistful as he said, “I’m not sure about love at first sight. But I wholeheartedly believe in love at first date. It can be real right from the start.”
“Wow, you’re a total romantic.”
He grinned at me. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Oh, it’s not. I was just thinking that it must make your job kind of difficult.”
“Why? Because, as a romantic, I must forever be falling in love with my clients? Believe me, that’s not a problem.”
“How do you date in your line of work?”
“I don’t.”
“At all?”
“Why would I? I get more than enough sex on the job. And I’m not looking for a relationship, so what would be the point of dating?”
As I was mulling that over, my phone rang in my pocket. When I fished it out, I didn’t recognize the number on the screen. “Hello?”
“Is this Charlie Connolly?” a woman’s voice asked.
“Yes.”
“Charlie, this is Stana Dombruso. Dante’s grandmother.”
“Oh. Uh, hello, Mrs. Dombruso. How are you?”
“Fine, thanks.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Um, out of curiosity, how did you get this number?”
“I copied it down from the call log on Dante’s cell phone when he wasn’t looking. Now enough chit chat! You need to get your butt down to this hospital where they’re keeping me. And I mean pronto.”
My eyes went wide, and I stammered, “I’m sorry?”
“You heard me. I’m in Rosewood Memorial in Russian Hill, room one-oh-eight. Do you know where that is?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Get down here, Charlie,” she demanded. And then she hung up on me.
I looked at Austin and asked, “Could you hear her on the phone?” He grinned and nodded. “What do you suppose she wants?”
“No clue. But we’d better hurry up and find out. You really shouldn’t keep the woman who raised Dante Dombruso waiting, because I’m guessing she’s probably a real badass.”
“He was raised by his grandmother?” I asked.
“Yeah. Didn’t you know that?”
“Nope.”
Austin bit his lip and said, “There’s a problem with going to meet Dante’s grandmother.”
“I know. But maybe if we drape a coat over our hands she won’t notice that we’re chained together. Because really, how do you explain this to someone’s grandma?”
“A problem in addition to the totally obvious one.”
“There’s another problem, besides having to meet Dante’s grandma while in handcuffs?”
“I really can’t go into a hospital dressed this way, Charlie. And I don’t see how either of us can change our clothes, not with our wrists linked together.” He looked self-conscious for the first time, and lowered his gaze.
I thought about our conundrum for a long moment. And then I peeled my new Forty Niners sweatshirt off my free arm and my torso, turning it inside out in the process. I rolled the remaining sleeve inside out as I pulled it down my chained arm and up onto his, then popped the sweatshirt over his head. He ran his free arm through the other sleeve and happily declared, “Genius!”
“It’s inside out and absolutely enormous on you, but at least you’re covered,” I said, reaching over and rolling back the sleeve on his free arm for him. He was a very slender five foot nine, and the sweatshirt, which had already been oversized on my six-two frame, completely engulfed him, extending almost to his knees.
He reached around to the back of his neck and awkwardly unfastened his necklaces with one hand, and set them on the kitchen counter. “This is so much better. Maybe now hospital security won’t immediately boot us out.”
“I wish I could put on a nicer shirt,” I said, gesturing at the plain navy blue t-shirt I’d had on under the sweatshirt. “Something with a collar. But oh well.” To the dog I said as we headed for the door, “Sit tight, Peaches. We’re going to have to deal with you later.” He didn’t even raise his head from his paws as a low growl rumbled in his throat.
It didn’t take long to awkwardly team-drive our way across town. We parked in the little lot behind Rosewood, a sleek, two-story private hospital and care facility, and signed in at the front desk, then went and found room one-oh-eight. When I knocked tentatively on the closed door, a voice called out, “That damn well better not be that son of a bitch Doctor Michelson again. Because I told that cocksucker I’m not taking any more fucking tests!”