Buy One, Get Two and Three... - 23. Chapter 23

Daniel

Daniel walked into the club and sighed as he looked around for his master. He wasn’t sure what to expect and that put him on edge. The last few days had been very tense at home. Silas had been stuck in the middle of the Daniel and Toby, who weren’t talking to each other.

Silas had finally had enough earlier in the day when Daniel had asked Silas, to ask Toby, to please pass the salt at dinner. Okay, so maybe he was being a drama queen, but really, did Silas have to point it out so loudly? And was it really necessary to knock half the food over the table? The stains would never come out of the white tablecloth.

“Boy.” Master Carlos’ voice brought him out of his thoughts with a start. Shit, how had he missed the big man standing right next to him? How long had he been standing there?

“Good evening, Master,” Daniel said respectfully. Maybe Carlos wouldn’t ask about his outburst. Maybe he would…

“We’re heading for my office tonight. I want to talk to you.”

Aaaand maybe not, Daniel thought, as he sighed and followed Carlos. The big man cut a path easily through the early evening crowd.

They reached the office and Carlos led him to a corner couch then pulled him into his lap.

“Now, I know you don’t want to talk, but as your Master I think we need to. I’m not asking you to tell me every detail, and I’m not doing this to upset you. But, I think I need to know at least the cliff notes version of what happened to you. It obviously has a big impact on how you react to things now, and I need to know what will trigger bad memories so that I can be prepared.”

Daniel couldn’t help the shakes that started racking his body. He knew what Carlos was saying made sense, but he didn’t want to talk about his past. He also didn’t want Carlos to treat him differently, or worse, be disgusted with him and take his collar away.

“Please Daniel, I really think I can help if you allow me in.”

It was the use of his name that made Daniel's decision. Taking a deep breath and cuddling closer to Carlos’ heat, grateful when his Master cuddled him close, he started to speak.

“Our parents died when we were fifteen. Toby was at university out of state and already working for the government as a trainee. Silas and I were both attending university online, and seeing as we were still minors in the eyes of the law, we were handed over to a guardian, Kevin. He is our mother’s brother and our only living blood relative. He lived in a large house and we soon found it was our job to earn our keep by cleaning and doing chores.

“After a few months he started having dinner parties, he said it was so we could meet the right people to further our careers once we graduated. But, the men we met gave off a bad feeling to both of us and we didn’t seem to have anything in common with any of them. We may have only been teenagers but we’d been mixing with older people for as long as we could remember. I was thirteen the first time was hit on by an older teen at college. His face when he realized my age is a picture I still laugh about sometimes.” Daniel glanced up to see a small smile on Carlos face before he dipped his chin again and pushed against his Master’s chest.

“Anyway, Silas and I tried to stay civil but apart. Kevin didn’t like that and so started the put-downs and punishments. Then he started separating us saying we were a bad influence on each other. He only let us see each other in his presence. I knew something was going on with Silas but I didn’t know what is was because I couldn’t talk to him privately. We were only able to do our course work under supervision by our new tutors—more like guards of course. All our mail; whether electronic or paper was checked before we were allowed to read it and our responses were monitored. Slowly we were trained to only speak when spoken to, although that lesson didn’t take so well with Silas.” Daniel gave a watery chuckle and was grateful for the soothing hand Carlos was running up and down his back.

“My beatings started when we turned sixteen—I now know Silas was already being beaten. Always on my body, never where the bruises could be seen, just in case of visitors. We were punished for the smallest things; not eating all our dinner, not wearing appropriate clothes, not doing our chores quickly enough, being rude, you get the idea.”

Daniel looked up again. “I know what you’re asking yourself. Why didn’t they report him? Why did they let it happen?” He shook his head as Carlos opened his mouth to speak. “Well, the answer is simple, there was no one to tell. We had no friends by now—not that we had many to begin with, being the youngest in our class by a lot of years really set us apart. We never saw any outsider without someone with us who Kevin trusted and all our conversations were reported back to him. Of course, any perceived wrong-doing was punished.”

Daniel breathed deep to try and control his emotions before he continued.

“Then, the day we turned eighteen Harold came into our lives….”