Love in the Land of Fire, Brochu, Rebecca [best free novels .txt] 📗

that, Marcy. You know how much I hate it.” He smirks tiredly at the displeased moue he gets in return.

1“Point taken, sweetness. Now no more changing the subject! You’ve gotten yourself all twisted up about this delicious little morsel like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Not that I blame you really, he’s exceptional from what I’ve seen.”

Josiah doesn’t even bother to bristle about the way Marcel speaks about Rafe like he knows he will if others are so casual in their speech. Marcel is a fourth tier dominant who’s been Bonded to a fourth tier submissive from Air named Isaac for the past three years, and Josiah trusts her more than almost anyone else in his life at the moment. They’ve known each other practically their entire lives and Josiah knows that despite her bluster and sometimes entirely too frank manner of speech she’s just as dedicated to the protection of submissives as he is.

He’s not the only one with skeletons in his closet and a deep hatred of dominants who abuse their positions and tier.

“There’s just something about him that grabs me, Marcel. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before and I don’t even know him, not really. We’ve had one conversation and that was only because he was trying to distract me from finding out that he was trying to commit suicide. So even if he was free we still wouldn’t be able…it still wouldn’t be right.”

Marcel drops a comforting hand on his shoulder and when she speaks to him again her voice is a sweet soothing tone that’s rare to hear directed to anyone who isn’t Isaac.

“You’re the last dominant I’d even accuse of mistreating someone in your care, regardless of the circumstances of your meeting. Let me give you some friendly advice, Josiah. When you find someone that speaks to you on so deep a level without ever really saying anything you don’t let them go without a fight.

You grab them with both hands and tear your way through anything that tries to keep you two apart. Trust me when I tell you that if you let this opportunity slip through your fingers you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

“You can’t tell me that, Marcy. You can’t come in here and tell me that I need to keep him when we both know I can’t, that it’s not that simple.”

Marcel regards him for a moment in silence, her gaze going sharp and cool as she arches a brow at him.

“I never took you for a coward, Marx.”

Anger shoots through him despite the exhaustion that lingers around him like a cloud. If there’s one thing he isn’t in this world it’s a coward. Marcel knows how he feels about the word and the fact that she’s dared to cross such a line with him lets him know that she’s serious but it doesn’t change the fact that it pisses him off.

“We’ve been friends for a very long time, Marcel, and I would hate for that to change over something like this.”

“Oh please, like you’ll ever actually get rid of me. Face it, sweetness, you’re stuck with me until one of us breathes our last and then if there’s a way probably after that as well. Now smooth down your feathers and let’s get back to the point.”

Josiah rolls his shoulders and surges to his feet, hands clasped behind his back as he begins to pace the room restlessly, eyes rarely actually leaving Rafe’s still form even as Marcel begins to speak to him again.

“You remember what I was like before Isaac, don’t you? I went through the pleasure houses like I was racing against time, never staying with one submissive more than once and rejecting everyone who wanted a chance to vie for my attention. None of them were what I wanted; none of them could satisfy me. But when I met 1Isaac. The moment I saw him, all I could think about was how beautiful he’d look for me, about how much I wanted to own him.”

Josiah hears her, knows what she’s talking about and knows that he’d had the same reaction to Rafe, that instinctual urge to dominate, that drive to conquer and own. It’d been deep and dark and unlike anything he’d ever felt before and he knows with a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach that she’s right.

“What do I do then, Marcel? How do I make this right? How do I make it work?”

He can hear the uncharacteristic edge of desperation in his own voice and it hits him all over again just how much Rafe has affected him in such a short amount of time. Just how tied up in knots this wounded submissive has him without even trying.

“You do what we’ve always done, Josiah. You gather information, you control the situation, and then you conquer your objective. And this time you’ll have something on your side that Frisch and Zweil’s Head of House will never see coming.”

“What?”

Marcel’s gaze is cold and sharp and Josiah sees the steel and ice that made her a fourth tier in the almost cruel smirk that graces her deceptively delicate features.

“Me.”

1Chapter Six

It’s another two days before anything changes with Rafe but Josiah’s been busy so the time is almost appreciated even though he wants nothing more than for Rafe to open his eyes and look at him again. He’s actually left Rafe’s bedside for once, making a quick journey home for a few hours of decent sleep, a shave and a shower, and some truly edible food. He’s left Marcel and Isaac with Rafe, trusting the other dominant to keep anyone who wasn’t supposed to be there out of the submissive’s room while he was out handling his business.

Still the urge to return, the need to be the one overseeing Rafe’s care