Rough Canvas (Nature of Desire 6)

"You might get punished for that later. "

"I don't think you'll be able to hold out that long. " Marcus curved his hand over Thomas'. "Look in the living room. " Lauren had gotten her wine and was standing next to Josh, her hand on his nape as he sat on his heels, looking at the music choices. When he turned his head and kissed her just above the knee in her short skirt, her hand tightened on his neck. She murmured, "Behave", earning an unrepentant heated smile from Josh as he curved his fingers around the back of her knee, his thumb coursing along the upper part of her thigh.

The pose, him on his knees, the way it changed the look in her eyes, the intent look in Josh's that said he knew exactly what it did to her, was so familiar that Thomas couldn't help but get more aroused himself at the sight.

As Josh's hand climbed higher, he and Lauren still not cognizant of Marcus and Thomas' regard, she watched him, a soft look in her

eyes. But her mouth firmed and she reached down, grasped his wrist to stop him. He kissed the back of her knuckles, caressed her with his cheek, brushing his hair against her bare skin and the soft gleam of the wedding band on her finger.

Devotion. Utter. Permanent. It was like much of the subject matter of Thomas' paintings. The shape of it could change, yes, but not the fundamental things that were the foundation. It was in the way they looked at each other.

"Perfect timing," Marcus said quietly. He caressed Thomas' back, that lingering touch just over his buttocks, easing him back into the room.

Lauren's head lifted. Josh merely rested his temple against her knee, his hand still firmly wrapped around her leg while her hand teased the strands of unruly brown and blond hair beneath her touch.

"I'd like the two of you to hear something. " Marcus gestured Thomas to a chair but remained standing. Josh rose and took the sofa, reclaiming his drink as Lauren settled in under his arm with her wine.

"It means a lot to me, the three of you being here tonight. " Marcus took a position at the fireplace, before the mantle. He cleared his throat, lifted a shoulder. "I haven't had many people in my life I've truly loved, that stuck. I'd forgotten what it means to have people who care enough about you to give up things for you. Be there when you need them. "

He'd captured their attention fully, for certain. Thomas glanced over to see Lauren and Josh both intently watching him. Thomas turned his attention back to find Marcus' gaze specifically on him, and when his voice lowered, became somewhat more unsteady on the next words, Thomas leaned forward, his brows drawing down.

"Once, a long time ago, I gave you a chain, and I told you if you broke it, we'd go our separate ways and I'd wish you well. You remember? You mailed it back to me after you left, for Rory. "

Thomas nodded. "I remember. "

"That wasn't about being magnanimous. I was being a cowardly asshole who wanted to make sure I didn't let you get too close, even as I was doing everything I could to pull you inside me. So it's no wonder when you left, I felt ripped apart. You asked why I didn't come after you for so long. I was angry that I'd allowed myself to get that vulnerable again. That I'd set all the rules in place and it didn't make a damn bit of difference.

"Every day you were gone, I just missed you more, and I went ten rounds every one of those days, making sure I didn't call, didn't do all those desperate bullshit moves people stupid enough to open their hearts do. "

Thomas swallowed. He heard Lauren say softly, "Oh Marcus," but Marcus pressed on, his eyes locked on Thomas'.

"I'm saying this in front of them, because it was Josh and Lauren who made me go after you. It's hard, especially for a Dom, to realize that to get what you really want you have to give up control completely, just hoping to hell that Fate doesn't kick your balls into the back of your throat. I've been there, one too many times, and I wasn't ever going to do it again. "

A grim smile touched his mouth. "But I figured out that it's worse to do without you than to take that risk. So I hatched my strategy to sell your paintings and come back to get you, to deal with what we had.

"I don't want to be magnanimous anymore. " His expression changed, that stern Master look, so unexpected that Thomas almost rose out of the chair, but something in Marcus' look kept him pinned to it just as effectively. "You're mine, Thomas. With your family, without your family, wherever we need to be, whatever we need to do, we need to be together.

"I will take a lifetime of you, good, bad, terrible, to anything without you. I love you. And as much as you're mine, I'm just as much yours. Maybe more, though until the other night I was afraid to admit that to you, or to myself. " He was not going to get teary-eyed like Les over some Hallmark commercial, but damn, if Marcus wasn't making it tough. He wasn't done yet, though. Jesus.

Marcus turned, slid a box out from behind the framed print propped on the mantle and extended it to Thomas.

Thomas rose now, feeling at a loss for words. He had no idea where this was going, or what it meant, but he knew from the stunned look on the faces of the couple on the couch, he wasn't the only one who was nonplused.

Thomas opened the box and blinked despite himself. "You changed it. " Marcus nodded. "I took the originally broken gold chain, had silver welded in as a decorative inlay. This chain, as small as the links are, is an unbreakable alloy. Once you put it around your waist and lock it with the fastener," his green eyes gleamed with that light that could spin Thomas' brain to his groin in a blink, "only I can get it off you. " He reached into the box, touched the loop that was pinned to the velvet base. "And instead of a tail of chain, this goes around your cock. You'll wear my collar at all times, pet. " Thomas touched the slim chain, the same metal disk lock. Mine. Looking far more like something that would be put on a prisoner. A willing one.

He pressed his lips together. "When did you do this?"

"Before I came down to buy the farm. I'd brought these with me as well. " Thomas raised his gaze to find Marcus holding a second box. When he slid the top back, Thomas could only stare at the matching pair of men's rings. One gold, one silver, a single etching on each, a bold line like a lightning strike.

Thomas blinked. Blinked again. He thought either his senses had all been incapacitated or Josh and Lauren had become statues. Because everything was suddenly so still Thomas was as unaware of their presence as any other inanimate objects in the room. He wasn't including those rings as inanimate objects, though, not with their ability to inject this hot flood of feeling through him.

"I want you to marry me, Thomas. " Marcus' attention had weight and heat on every exposed, raw part of him. "We can get a license in a state where it's legal, have a ceremony wherever you want, however you want. And I don't care if there's no law for it on the books, it will be the law between you and me and whatever God there is. I want it to be impossible for us to leave each other without a hell of a lot of paperwork, ugly custody battles over furniture, whatever.

"I want to marry you," he repeated. "I want you to know that every morning when you wake up and see me that I want to be there, that I made an oath to be there. To stand by you. And that there's no one else for me. Not ever. " Thomas swallowed. "I've never thought of it. Never even considered it possible. " He gave a husky chuckle. "Marcus, Jesus. . . "

"Yes or no, pet. That's the only thing that matters. " It was the urgent note in Marcus' voice that pulled Thomas away from his own reaction. He raised his gaze to Marcus' face. When he saw the look in his eyes, the tautness around his unsmiling mouth and the tension in his face, Thomas was reminded of what had transpired over the past few days, his own thoughts when he was with Lauren in the kitchen.

Though Marcus wouldn't see it this way, he'd given Thomas the best possible opening for the conversation he'd intended to have with his Master later tonight. What Thomas was going to do to prove himself to Marcus, to win the trust Thomas knew would be required to love each other for a lifetime of ups and downs, good times and bad.