Finding Eden (14 page)

Arty nodded quickly. “I gotcha.”

Hating to leave Paul in Arty’s hands even for a second, Danny leaned back against the door once he and Jason were out of the room and asked, “Who do I have to blow to keep him out of the psych ward?”

“There is no way,” Jason said with a grim laugh. “Masochism is defined as a mental disorder and he’s the most hardcore masochist I have ever seen. They will have to keep him. He’s seeking out severe physical trauma for the fun of it. He’s a threat to himself—a serious threat.”

“Fuck,” Danny groaned, banging his head back against the door as he looked to the ceiling and thought about everything Paul had worked so hard for. His football scholarship, being on the Dean’s list for the past two years, his Pee Wee football kids who were heading to the championship, he’d lose it all if this got out. Losing Eve was bad enough, but to take away everything Paul prided himself on—it’d kill him. “He can’t be committed. It’s not an option.”

“He needs to be in the hospital,” Jason said seriously. “I cannot stress that enough.”

Danny got it. He knew that’s where he should be. He also knew Paul. He would never be able to deal with failure to that extreme. It was outside his programming. His pain fetish was terrifying because a guy who got off on pain like Paul did needed something to live for. Take it away and he wouldn’t survive. Getting Paul committed would be the equivalent to signing his death warrant.

“What kinda doctor are you, Dr. Jason?” Danny asked, making his voice sharp and sarcastic on purpose as he looked down at the handsome doctor whose warm brown eyes and dimples reminded him of Eve’s.

“I-I’m a pediatrician.” Jason’s shoulders slumped, his eyes flashing with the glassiness of submission Danny was starting to spot easily.

“Wow, fucked up,” Danny said, not expecting that, but he went on anyway. “Okay, so in your studies to be Dr. Jason the pediatrician, I’m assuming you had emergency room training.”

“I interned.” Jason’s voice was softer than before, but he shook his head in denial. “I can’t care for your friend. I could lose my license.”

Danny waved Jason over. When he stepped forward obediently, Danny wrapped a hand around the base of his neck, tugging him forward and leaning down to speak to him. “Jason, look at me,” Danny demanded in a gentle but firm voice. When Jason complied, looking up at him, his eyes glassy once more, Danny went on, “I promise I will never betray you.
Never
.”

“Your friend—”

“He listens to me.” Danny stared into Jason’s eyes unblinkingly. “And he’s strong, very strong. We both are. We won’t cave. No one will know.”

Jason took a shuddering breath, obviously looking for sanity. “I can’t—”

“I didn’t mean who do
I
need to blow to keep my friend out of the psych ward,” Danny said slowly, raising his eyebrows deliberately. “I meant, who gets the privilege of blowing
me
.”

“You’d let me blow you?” Jason asked quickly, before a blush stained his cheeks and he pulled back.

“If you take care of my friend,” Danny went on, totally incredulous that this shit actually worked. “I might consider letting you blow me.”

Jason swallowed hard, looking down the hallway before he turned back to Danny. “How do I know I can trust you?”

“If you help me protect him,” Danny started in a voice choked with emotion despite his best attempts to hide it, knowing it was a show of weakness. “I’ll be your friend for life, and I don’t make that offer lightly. As you can see, there’s not much I won’t do to protect my friends.”

Jason considered him, his eyes narrowed. “How old are you?”

“I’m legal and I got a gorgeous cock. What else matters?” Danny asked in a bored voice. “Now tell me what you need me to do to help you take care of him.”

Jason took a deep breath, looking away for a moment as if trying to compose himself. “We need a place to take him.” He turned back to look at Danny petulantly. “You do have your own place, right? ’Cause this will be a little hard to explain to mommy and daddy.”

“I got my own place, smartass,” Danny growled. “And I don’t appreciate your tone, I really don’t.”

Jason ignored him, looking away once more. “I suppose he can be considered a patient. I don’t want to have to write him a prescription, but I can if I don’t have the right samples. He’s in college, right? What is he? A senior?”

“A junior.”

“Christ,” Jason groaned, his eyes closing in a show of misery. “I should not be doing this.”

“Do you need money?” Danny realized with a shock that he would ask his father for whatever this doctor needed. “I will pay you and I’ll pay for whatever he needs.”

“We’ll worry about that later,” Jason said, still appearing very uncomfortable. “You take him home. I’ll stop by the office and get some supplies and meet you there. I just need directions.”

“Okay,” Danny said, narrowing his eyes at Jason. “I’m trusting you to show up. “

Jason huffed, lifting his eyes to glare at Danny indignantly. “I will attempt to heal your friend, but if it gets to the point that I feel his life is truly in jeopardy, you have to agree to take him to the hospital. That’s the best I have to offer.”

“Works for me,” Danny said with a smile. “I really do appreciate this.”

“I’ve been watching your friend for months. I’ve never seen a sub draw Dommes to him like he does.” Jason gave Danny a calculating look. “If you’re the one he wants at the end of the day, when he can have
anyone
, I wanna find out why.”

Danny snorted, unable to believe the twisted turn his life had taken. He opened the door to Arty’s bedroom, desperate to get Paul back to his place, deciding he’d ponder Jason’s observations later.

* * * * *

Danny sat on the floor cross-legged, staring at Paul who had fallen asleep once they had gotten home. His knee bounced in nervousness and he longed for a cigarette, but he didn’t dare.

He didn’t dare do anything. Even breathing felt like a crime.

Dragging air in and out of his lungs seemed a thousand times harder when he sat there staring at Paul’s back, torn up like it was. This was Danny’s fault. He knew it with absolute certainty. If he hadn’t pushed Paul away he would have been in control of the situation and this would have never happened. Refusing Paul had caused more pain for both of them than anything they could find together.

He was distracted from his thoughts by a knock at the door and he scrambled to his feet. It felt as if twenty years had passed waiting for Jason. Danny hated not knowing how to help Paul. He needed to do something to repair the damage his rejection had caused and Jason was his ticket to the control he needed.

He opened the door and reached out, jerking Jason into the house so quickly he stumbled with a surprised gasp. “Has something happened?”

“Yeah, some cunts at a party fucked up my best friend,” Danny snapped in disbelief, seeing Jason had a large box full of supplies in his hands. “Will you teach me how to fix him?”

“Excuse me?” Jason looked around the house, pulling a face of disdain. The box in his hands blocked his view of the floor. His foot landed hard when he stepped from wood flooring that ended without warning, hitting the thin plywood that stood between them and the lake. Jason snorted in disbelief. “You have to be kidding me. Do you even have permission to live here? This place has squatter’s paradise written all over it.”

“I’m fixing it up for my father,” Danny lied, because he hadn’t fixed shit since he’d moved in. “That’s what he does, buys old houses and fixes them up. This is temporary.”

Jason looked at him, his brow furrowed in suspicion that made the hair on the back of Danny’s neck stand on end. He wasn’t used to people questioning him. Perhaps it was the spoiled rich boy in him, but being considered a squatter was highly annoying.

“Not that I owe you anything…” Danny pulled out his wallet. He flipped to where his driver’s license showed. “See, Carlow. As in Carlow Realty. He’s got signs everywhere. I’m fixing this place up for my father, that’s it. I’m not a criminal.”

One dark eyebrow quirked, the suspicion still heavy in Jason’s gaze. “How do you know Arty so well?”

Danny looked away, his eyes on the hallway, his thoughts on Paul. “Are you gonna help my friend or what?”

Jason considered him for a long moment before he looked down at the open box in his hand and sighed. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

Deciding it was better than nothing, Danny showed him to the bedroom, feeling his cheeks burn when Jason cursed under his breath as he tripped over some of the bottles running down the hallway.

“There is a medical journal article just begging to be written about you two.”

Danny turned around to glare at him. “I had a party.”

“If you say so,” Jason said, giving Danny the uncomfortable feeling that he saw everything and understood more than most. He stopped at the bedroom door, looking to Paul lying on Danny’s mattress on the floor. He took a deep breath, shaking his head slowly. “This is a horrible mistake. This house is a hazard to him.”

“I’ll clean it,” Danny said instantly. “I’ll do it tonight. I’ll clean the whole thing.”

“It’ll take weeks to clean this house.” Jason walked into the room and set the box on the floor next to the bed. He reached out, running a tender hand over Paul’s forehead, his face showing more than compassion. There was an eerie look of empathy glimmering in his eyes. “Adam.”

“His real name’s Paul,” Danny interjected.

“Paul.” Jason stroked his hair once more. He was patient, as if not overly pressed for time. When Paul’s eyes finally opened, they were still dazed with fever as Jason asked, “Do you know who I am?”

“I know I don’t like you,” Paul whispered back, his eyes narrowed in a surprising show of maliciousness. “So fuck off. I don’t want you touching me.”

“Paul Guy!” Danny shouted, feeling stunned to the core of his being because he had never heard Paul being hateful to anyone. The fact that it was a doctor who literally held Paul’s life in his hands made Danny want to punch him. He chose a hell of a time to get aggressive. “What the fuck?”

“Actually, this is a good sign,” Jason said, his voice losing its compassion as if suddenly being reminded of something unpleasant. “He’s more himself than he was at Arty’s.”

“He’s not like this.” Danny felt a wild need to make up for Paul’s bad attitude. “I swear, it’s gotta be the fever. Everyone likes him. He’s the nicest guy in the world.”

“Really?” Jason asked nonchalantly, picking up a bottle of soap out of the box and walking to the bathroom. He turned on the water and started washing his hands as if he were preparing for surgery. “I’ve known him for a year and he’s never been anything less than a complete and total asshole to me.”

“That’s not true,” Danny denied, having a flashback to the conversation with Tony at the hotel, another time when someone said something truly unbelievable about Paul. “There is no way. He’s fucking golden. I could give you a long list of references.”

“How charming.” Jason sounded anything but charmed. He shook his head again, doing detailed work of scrubbing his fingers one at a time as he spoke under his breath, “I really hate this prick. I have no idea why I’m helping him.”

Danny couldn’t help it. He stiffened, feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as Jason continued to bitch about Paul.

“Call him a prick again, I dare you,” Danny growled, using a voice he reserved for intimidating Tony’s less-than-honest employees. His eyes narrowed, every muscle in his body tight with the urge to fight. “I want you to apologize.”

“Please don’t do that.” Jason’s breath hitched as he scrubbed at his hands more furiously. “I was in pretty deep subspace before your friend decided to ruin my weekend. I need you to be levelheaded to keep me focused. I wasn’t planning on working until Monday.”

Danny was amazed. No one had made that simple request of him. Paul was the levelheaded one, not him.

“Okay,” Danny said, trying to suppress the anger that made him desperate to lash out at anyone as an escape from the fear and stress over Paul. “What do you need?”

“Gloves out of the box.

Jason breathed a sigh of relief as Danny turned to walk out of the bathroom. Danny came back with a box of gloves in hand and turned off the faucet, knowing Jason wouldn’t want to touch it after spending that long disinfecting his hands.

Jason took another deep breath and looked up at Danny. “I’m sorry for calling your friend a prick. He’s lucky to have a Master who cares about him. I wish I had that. Maybe it’d keep me from thinking with my dick and ending up in an abandoned house risking my medical license on a Friday night.”

“I already told you no one will know,” Danny offered calmly. “If something happens I’ll say I tried to patch him up myself. I’ll take the fall for you.”

“Hopefully we won’t have to test your word.” Jason pulled on the gloves. “We need to disinfect his back. Do you think he can stay on his feet? Otherwise we’re gonna ruin your mattress.”

“Actually, that mattress is new. It’s the only good piece of furniture I got and he needs a place to sleep. Let’s get him into the shower.” Danny walked back into the bedroom. Though Paul’s eyes were closed, Danny knew he was awake and just enjoying whatever buzz he got off the pain. He leaned down, stroking Paul’s hair. “You can stand up, right? We need you in the shower.”

Paul blinked up at him and asked, “Is he still here?”

“The doctor?” Danny frowned. “Yeah.”

Paul groaned. “Can’t I go to the hospital instead? I hate that guy.”

“Are you crazy? No,” Danny said, still shocked by Paul’s hostility. “What the hell’s your problem with him?”

“He thinks he’s better than me.”

“You want me to admit you’re better?” Jason asked as he came from the bathroom, giving Paul a bored look.

“Yes, I do,” Paul said petulantly, sounding his age. “Admit I’m tougher than you.”

“Fine, I admit it,” Jason said with a snort of annoyance. “You win the hardcore award. You’ve nearly killed yourself and now you have your Master bartering blowjobs in exchange for medical care. Congratulations. Really well done.”