Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 7

want to wrap you up and make you feel safe, not pain. Do you understand?"
    Levi nodded.
    Love. That word from anyone else in his shallow world would've elicited laughter, perhaps even disgust. Feral seemed to radiate it like only something wild could.
    Levi remembered going camping with friends when he was just a boy. The other boys picked on him so he'd wandered off alone and gotten lost. Though he was scared, there was something calm and soothing about the breeze through the trees. Even the flashing predatory eyes that hunted him in the darkness seemed to do it with a dangerous love, a respect for Levi as prey and opponent but also as a being to which all was connected.
    Feral could seem alien at times. He had a gift for languages, for music, art, and painting. In a wild fit of fantasy, Levi had wondered if Feral was a vampire, but he had a pulse. He kept food and a steady supply of wine. Who he was and what he did in the days and nights between their meetings, Levi wasn't sure he would ever know. Feral suggested that the mundane reality would break the fantasy.
    "The grand romance is bigger than the banal reality. Belief is far more powerful and intriguing than truth."
    Levi had so many stories he'd painted around Feral until he had finally given up. So what if Feral was a trust fund baby who owned all of this? What if he were the son of a dignitary who was only in town on occasion? Did Levi want to live with him? To fight over who did the dishes and took out the trash?
    No. Not particularly. Who Levi was outside of this place was unimaginably sad. Who he was when he was here was supernatural, superhuman. If Feral knew who Levi was outside of this building, he never let on. Levi wasn't sure he could admit to the vainglorious creature he was in the real world. Out there he was what he had to be. In here, he could be who he was.
    Another light flickered into being on the other side of the loft, illuminating Feral in a long, blood red kimono. He stood before a large, black metal suspension frame with hooks.
    "Come," Feral said. He held out his pale hand and folded his long, spindly, red-nailed fingers one at a time to beckon Levi.
    As Feral lit more candles and set them around an unmarked perimeter, Levi walked over to him, still holding the piece of rope he'd been working and meditating on.
    "Are you ready, Levi?"
    Levi nodded and knelt on the floor.
    "Very good."
    On a side table was red wine and a pitcher of water. Feral would not allow Levi to drink more than droplets of wine from his fingers before and during his bondage. He did not want Levi to dehydrate.
    The first time that Levi had been tied, Feral demonstrated the breaks in the complicated set of knots that he had executed over Levi's body. They were strategically aligned so that Feral could quickly untie any portion of the piece to alleviate stress to joints or problems with circulation. These precautions made Levi feel a tenderness he hadn't felt before for another person. The sheer consideration, the worry, the beads of sweat that broke out along Feral's hairline as he executed what he called "the art" upon Levi made him feel not like he was restrained, but that he was being worshipped.
    Already the rope was looping around him, holding him if not tight, then in place. They wound over his chest, squeezing gently around his nipples. They peeked out, excluded from the delicious friction of the rope, perked and begging for touch.
    Feral's fingers were soft and cool against Levi's skin as he tied each knot, moving in a diamond shaped pattern, looping on one side to leave a break, then winding at the base of his cock and around his ball sack. Again, the most sensitive parts of him, those wanting the most touch, were excluded and grew flush and firm.
    The ropes held him in place, growing slowly tighter and more certain. Levi started to squirm. Feral stopped.
    "Do you need water?"
    "No."
    Feral cracked a soft smile then drew his finger along Levi's shaft. "You need this?"
    Though Levi tried to restrain himself, just that simple touch sent a thrill through his entire body. He moaned and rocked against the bindings like he could get more.
    "Soon."
    Soon. Levi's skin itched to be touched. Air currents, barely perceptible before, felt like they were buffeting the exposed parts of his body. Even Feral's sleeve brushing against Levi's nipple was enough to make him writhe. Still the ropes held him steady in a loving embrace.
    Feral smiled and traced his finger along