Flesh Cartel, #8: Loyalties

Nikolai’s needs and wants.
    And be happy for it.
    Besides, the fact that Nikolai felt he could leave Dougie alone for a day was just one more in a long list of signs that Dougie was getting closer and closer to what he needed to be. To what Nikolai was grooming him to be. Transformed. His best self. After so long spent afraid of never reaching that point no matter how hard he tried, it was finally happening, and all he’d had to do was trust Nikolai, give himself over. Nikolai trusted him. Nikolai trusted him to make this decision. Nikolai trusted him to please his master.
    The joy of that filled his chest to bursting.
    He didn’t think he could possibly feel happier, but then he was pushing the plug into his body, a little discomfort but no real pain because Nikolai had so patiently taught him how to relax. He fucked himself with it teasingly just as Nikolai had done, picturing that it was Nikolai’s cock inside him, that Nikolai was fucking him and he was so tight and willing, and Nikolai would be so happy. So happy.
    And Dougie was happy too.

    Roger shifted against Nikolai’s chest, settling a little lower between his legs with a contented sigh. The bed was comfortable and Roger sleepy and warm in his arms, the skin of Roger’s stomach smooth against the palm Nikolai had slid beneath the hem of his T-shirt. He had one eye on the laptop balanced atop the comforter in Roger’s lap, but the other firmly on Roger, who’d so willingly given so very much in service to him yesterday. Who’d more than earned this day of pampering—they both had, truth be told—of lounging in bed with lazy snuggles and unhurried affection.
    And a laptop. But then, some responsibilities could simply not be shirked. Anyway, Roger actually seemed more interested in the new pets’ camera feeds than Nikolai was. He supposed the man had earned that too—he’d certainly been instrumental in their growth these last days.
    Nikolai pressed a kiss to the side of Roger’s head, then another—and then one more, why not?—as Roger flipped the primary feed from Douglas’s room (the boy had been staring at his collection of plugs for what seemed like hours now) to Mathias’s.
    “See, Sir?” Roger said—practically purred, in fact, as Nikolai indulged in another nuzzle, this time to that sensitive spot behind Roger’s left ear. Roger shivered and pointed at the screen, and lo and behold, Mathias was out of bed . And more than that, he was eating. Nothing too heavy, just broth and apple juice, but still the first nourishment to pass his lips in ten days. Looking grim and determined, too. “I told you it’d all be worth it.”
    “You did,” Nikolai agreed—out loud, anyway. Secretly, he still wasn’t so sure; certainly, they’d achieved their ends, but the means had come at a steep price. “What would I do without you?”
    “Waste away and die, probably.”
    Nikolai laughed at the playful tone, but stilled himself with a mental kick as Roger hissed. He must’ve jarred something particularly painful. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like a stronger painkiller, Roger? Morphine? I can give you something to take the edge off the nausea too. You can rest.”
    Roger wiggled a little, settling himself more firmly in Nikolai’s lap, ass rubbing hard—but so briefly it might’ve been unintentional—against Nikolai’s crotch. “You’re the best painkiller of all, Sir.” He wrapped both hands around Nikolai’s forearms where they rested on his belly, and added, “I’d hate to—”
    Nikolai wondered for a moment how he meant to finish that sentence, but then Roger blushed clear to the tips of his ears and Nikolai understood: I’d hate to fall asleep through one second of this.
    “I’d still be here when you wake up,” Nikolai tried. He hated knowing that his own workaholic habits had made moments like these so rare and precious that Roger would rather suffer to have them than not suffer and risk missing them. Nikolai might be a good trainer—the best, even—but the hard truth was that he wasn’t a very good master sometimes.
    Roger made no reply to Nikolai’s attempt to sway him, and Nikolai allowed the silence. He buried his nose in Roger’s freshly washed hair, inhaled deeply, and went back to watching the monitor over the top of Roger’s head.
    Despite refusing the stronger painkillers, it didn’t take long for Roger’s breathing to even out and his fingers to go slack on Nikolai’s arms. Nikolai was sure he