The Engagement Read online

  Honor / Obey

  Part 1: The Engagement

  D.J. Heart

  Copyright © D.J. Heart

  Contents

  I. The Engagement

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Also by D.J. Heart

  Part I

  The Engagement

  1

  Adam

  Adam was not happy as he stepped out of the car and ascended the stairs to his father’s country estate.

  He made his way down the main hall of the east wing, rapping his knuckle twice on the carved door of his father’s office before pushing it open and barging inside.

  “You summoned me?” he said, walking to the bar in the corner of the room and ignoring his father’s frown at the rude entry. He poured himself a glass of whiskey and drank it down in one go, taking his time and pouring himself another before sauntering over to his father’s desk and sitting down in the plush chair across from the older man.

  Just like old times. Some children were summoned to the principal’s office, while Adam was summoned to talk to his father. For years this room had been the only place he’d seen the man. Woken by his nanny whenever his father finally made it home, he’d been marched across the manor to account for whatever mischief he’d been up to.

  Adam didn’t know why he’d expected the summons to stop just because he’d taken the reins to the family empire.

  “I did,” his father said, leaning back in his chair and studying him. Adam forced himself not to squirm. His father was a tall, broad man, and even at seventy he was imposing.

  When Adam was little he’d seemed like a giant.

  “Well? I was supposed to be meeting with the board today?”

  His father inclined his head. “The board can wait. I’ve come across an opportunity I’d like to discuss with you.”

  Adam regretted the childish way he’d stormed into the room, his stiff shoulders relaxing. He’d thought his father had summoned him to berate him for his most recent acquisition, a risky bet on a failing pharmaceutical company in Japan, and his defenses had been up accordingly.

  “An opportunity?” he prompted.

  His father smiled and tapped a folder on the desk in front of him. “Yes. Cordelia Belvedere is looking to marry off her son.”

  It took Adam a few seconds to connect the dots.

  “Belvedere as in the telecommunications Belvederes?” he asked. His family’s electronics division paid out an obscene amount of money every year in patent fees to the Belvedere corporation.

  “Yes. Cordelia is an old friend. When I heard she was looking for someone for David I called her first thing to discuss the idea of a merger. She’s open to it, contingent on her grandchildren inheriting the company.”

  Adam wasn’t going to fight that. His sister was the de facto heir anyway, and his homosexuality meant that it would most likely stay that way. Her eventual children were always going to inherit.

  “That’s quite the opportunity,” Adam mused, calculating the benefits of having the Belvedere patents in house. It would mean growth in the electronics division of double digits. “Have you spoken to Amy yet?”

  Adam did not want to be the one to convince her. Amy had never been interested in the business, and asking her to marry someone because of it was going to be a tough sell.

  “To Amy? No, you misunderstand. David Belvedere is gay – you’d be the one to marry him.”

  Adam stared at his father in shock.

  “To me?” he asked, managing to keep his tone somewhat normal. He’d never once suspected that his father knew he was gay.

  His father nodded. “Apparently the boy is a bit of a wild one and she needs someone who can keep him under control.” He raised an amused eyebrow and smirked. “From what I understand that seems to be your specialty.”

  Adam blinked, sure he must have misunderstood.

  “Excuse me?” his voice didn’t crack, but it wasn’t far off.

  “Honestly, Adam. Did you think I didn’t know?” His father shook his head and sighed. “You’re my son, of course I knew.”

  Adam didn’t know what to say. His father knowing that he was gay, that was one thing, but how the fuck did he know about Adam’s penchant for bondage and submission?

  This had to be a nightmare. His father never would have let him take over the business if he’d known that Adam enjoyed tying up men and beating the shit out of them.

  “What are you saying?” Adam forced the words out, pushing down his panic and confusion and focusing on the issue at hand.

  “I’m saying that you should marry the Belvedere boy and keep him out of trouble.” His father slid the folder across the desk. “This is everything our investigators found on him. He’s quite the brat.”

  Flipping open the folder, Adam’s cock hardened at the picture of the smirking young man looking back at him. Short blond hair, just long enough to grab on to and pull, David had a surfer’s build and movie-star good looks. He was exactly Adam’s type.

  Browsing through the pages, Adam saw what his father meant. David seemed to make sport out of appearing in the gossip rags, and the appearances weren’t flattering.

  “He’s out of control,” Adam mused, eyebrows shooting up at a picture of David very visibly snorting a line of cocaine at a party. It wasn’t a shot that had gone public and he wondered how much it had cost his mother to keep it that way. “I can see why his mother is desperate.”

  “Think you’re up for the task of taming him?”

  Adam looked at his father, still shocked at how casually he spoke about Adam’s proclivities. He must have somehow found out about his membership to the Blue Room, Adam realized, and drawn his own conclusions.

  He didn’t actually know what Adam got up to.

  “Why didn’t you ever say anything?” he asked, relieved at the conclusion he’d drawn.

  They both knew he was talking about Adam being gay.

  “You never brought it up, and you were discreet in your relationships. I thought you wanted it kept private.”

  For the first time his father sounded uncomfortable.

  Adam decided to let that be that. His father knew, and nothing had changed.

  “What about heirs?” he asked. He kept browsing through the file on David, imagining all the ways he could bring the boy to heel.

  “Your sister had her eggs frozen for this purpose. It was part of the deal to let her cash out her trust early. David would be the biological father and the two of you would get custody.”

  Adam was shocked again, though when he thought about it he should have known that his father would have made arrangements once he realized that Adam was gay.

  Above all else, Lloyd Wentworth was a practical man.

  “I’ll have to think about this,” he said at last, closing the file. “And I want to meet him.”

  His father nodded. “Of course. I’ll call Cordelia and set something up.”

  Tucking the folder under his arm, Adam bid his father goodbye and left the office. As he walked down the hallway toward the front door, he found himself smiling.

  His father knew, and everything was okay.

  It was a week before Adam heard back from his father. He was set to meet David at a restaurant downtown, the kind of trendy establishment he usually avoided when at all possible.

  For the occasion he’d dressed up in one of his flashier three piece suits; a black silk-wood blend that hugged his wide shoulders and showed off his trim waist without being too obvious about it. He’d paired the suit with a classic white shirt and royal blue tie, the final touch being a pair of dress boots that added another inch to his already tall six-foot-five frame.

  He looked good.
>
  Arriving ten minutes early, Adam was shown to a secluded table in the back. He ordered a gin and tonic and took the seat facing the restaurant and settled in to wait for David.

  He still wasn’t sure what he was going to do. His family had a long history of arranged marriages – wives scouted for their money and assets – and Adam wasn’t above doing his duty to his family.

  But if Adam was going to be married, it would be a marriage on his terms. There would only be one person calling the shots, and it wouldn’t be David.

  Sipping on his gin and tonic, Adam considered his potential husband. David was twenty-seven, eight years Adam’s junior, and he was far too old for the kind of reckless behavior he was indulging in. Getting drunk at parties and having obnoxious affairs in the public eye was the kind of thing that was tolerated at twenty, but once you hit twenty-four you were expected to calm down.

  What David needed was a firm hand, and Adam found the idea of wielding that hand exceptionally tempting.

  Spankings, corner time, the belt… David would experience them all if he were to agree to become Adam’s, and that was just the beginning. Adam’s tastes were varied and extreme, and he’d expect his new husband to indulge them all.

  There would be no pussyfooting around once Adam’s ring was on David’s finger.

  Finishing his gin and tonic, Adam declined another and asked for sparkling water. One drink was fine, but he didn’t want to be buzzed when he first met his potential husband.

  The waiter came back with Adam’s sparkling water, giving Adam’s body a discreetly appreciative once over before retreating. It was nothing Adam wasn’t used to. He had the kind of face that garnered looks – with his quarterback jaw and razor-sharp cheekbones – and a body that wouldn’t be out of place in a fitness magazine.

  Checking his watch, Adam was annoyed to see that David was five minutes late.

  Adam despised being made to wait.

  Squeezing the wedge of lime balanced on the glass into the sparkling water, Adam tried not to let his irritation get the better of him. He’d inherited his father’s intimidating manner, and he didn’t want to scare David off first thing.

  Intimidating David could wait until he got to know the boy.

  Thirty minutes later, Adam was still waiting and his irritation had transformed into the kind of bubbling rage that made him want to hurt somebody. His shoulders were tense, his fists clenched, and if the waiter came back to ask him if he wanted something one more time he was going to smack him.

  Taking a deep breath, Adam forced himself to calm down. Getting angry at the waiter helped no one, and given what he knew of David he should have expected something like this.

  It still infuriated him.

  Twenty minutes later, Adam’s rage growing hotter with each second, David sauntered into the restaurant with his hair a windswept mess, dressed in casual jeans and a rumpled button down shirt. He locked eyes with Adam, his expression faltering before he plastered on a grin, taking a seat without offering a handshake and flagging down the waiter. He turned to Adam and looked him over.

  “So you’re Adam, huh?” David tilted his head and studied him. “It’s nice to meet you, I guess.”

  Adam blinked, and then a slow smile crept over his face. In that moment he decided that David was going to be his, and the boy would never, ever speak to him with that insolent tone of voice again.

  Adam was going to fucking break him.

  “And you’re the fuck-up,” Adam said, still grinning his wolfish grin. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

  David didn’t seem to know what to say to that. He was saved from answering by the appearance of the waiter, and in a shaky voice ordered a vodka on the rocks.

  “He’ll have a water,” Adam said when the waiter looked at him. “Flat, and I’ll have another one of these.”

  “Like hell I will,” David sputtered, glaring at Adam indignantly. “I’ll have a vodka on the rocks.”

  Adam gave the waiter a look, and the poor man swallowed nervously. “As you say, sir.”

  He hurried away, leaving David looking like a petulant child and Adam still smiling.

  “What the fuck was that?” David asked, slouching back in his chair. He glared at the waiter’s retreating back and then at Adam.

  “You’re not drinking tonight,” Adam said, smile sliding off his face. He stared David down until the boy looked away.

  “Why not?” David mumbled, crossing his arms and looking down at the table.

  “Because I’m going to beat your ass for being late, and I want you to be sober for that.”

  David looked up, eyes going wide with shock before he pulled himself together and let out a derisive laugh.

  “Yeah right. Like I’d let you-”

  “Cut the smirk or I’m using my belt,” Adam interrupted.

  David’s lips pressed shut and he stared. He was no longer smirking, breaths coming a little faster, and Adam was delighted to see that his pupils had expanded into inky pools of black.

  “You can’t do that,” he said at last, though this time the words were subdued and uncertain. “I’m not going to let you.”

  Adam chuckled. “You’re not? How exactly are you going to stop me?” When David didn’t answer, Adam continued speaking. “Here’s how this is going to go. We are going to have a nice meal, during which we’ll talk and you will be on your best behavior, and then we’ll get in my car and go back to my apartment where you will pull down your pants, crawl over my lap and get the spanking you deserve. Is that clear?”

  David shook his head, though there was a flush crawling up his neck. “That’s not-”

  “Or we can just leave now and I can string you up by your wrists and beat you with my belt. It’s your choice.”

  David stared at him, mouth slack and breaths labored. He licked his lips.

  “I’m not-”

  “You need this,” Adam said, his voice dripping into a low growl. He leaned forward. “You’re nothing but a spoiled brat, and you need someone to take control of you. I’ve decided to be that person, David. It’s out of your hands. Now make the choice.”

  For a minute Adam wondered if David was going to start hyperventilating, but the boy pulled himself together and swallowed. “The first one.”

  “What was that?” Adam was going to make him say it.

  “Dinner first, and then… the spanking.” David’s voice was an almost inaudible whisper by the end of the sentence, a blush coloring his cheeks, but Adam was satisfied.

  “Good boy.”

  Adam leaned back, cock hard against his thigh and his balls feeling full and heavy. David was still looking at him like a wide-eyed cornered animal, and when the waiter showed up with his water he startled so bad that he knocked his fork to the floor.

  “I’ll get you a new fork,” the waiter said while David blushed. They both sat in silence as the waiter walked over to the empty table closest to them and retrieved a fork, putting it down next to David’s plate before scurrying away.

  “Are you hard?” Adam asked, licking his lips at the way David’s blush deepened at the question.

  “Answer me,” Adam demanded when David just sat there. Scooting forward, Adam lifted his foot and pressed his boot between David’s legs.

  The boy was definitively hard.

  “Feels like you like this,” Adam teased, his voice dark as he pressed down on David’s erection. “Don’t you, boy?”

  David tried to squirm back in his chair, but Adam let his booted foot follow. He ground his heel down on the mound of David’s balls, making him cry out and then clamp his mouth shut with a wide-eyed look behind him.

  No one had noticed the noise.

  “Answer me, David,” Adam growled, pushing down harder.

  “Yes,” David hissed, bent over and clutching Adam’s boot with both hands trying to push it away. “I’m hard, okay? Now would you please stop that?”

  “Well, since you asked so nicely.” Adam grinned and withdrew
his foot, letting it rest next to David’s ankle.

  David looked deliciously flustered and disheveled, and Adam had to resist the temptation to take him home right away, tie him up and fuck him senseless.

  “I can’t fucking believe this,” David muttered, taking a gulping sip of his water. His hand was shaking and some of the water sloshed down his chin.

  “What exactly?” Adam prompted, earning himself a glare.

  “You, with your whole…” David didn’t look like he knew how to finish that sentence.

  “My what?” Adam asked, amused. Though tall at about six-one or six-two, Adam was taller, and considerably wider around the shoulders. He’d figured out by sixteen that he was an intimidating person, and in the years since he’d learned how to use that.

  He liked to be intimidating. It was an essential part of his sexual identity, not to mention it was fun.

  “Your caveman thing,” David blurted.

  Adam reached his other leg forward under the table and trapped David’s feet between his own. “You like the caveman thing,” he growled.

  David swallowed, not doing anything to free his trapped feet. He looked away and Adam smirked.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?” Adam asked, leaning back in his chair. “You’ve never been this turned on in your whole life.”

  David kept silent, and Adam narrowed his eyes.

  “Not answering my questions is disrespectful and will get you punished,” he said calmly. “Do you understand?”

  David nodded.

  “Verbal answers or you’re not going to like what happens,” Adam warned. Then he grinned and tilted his head. “Or maybe you will.”

  “I’m turned on, okay?” David said, looking anywhere but at Adam’s face. “That doesn’t mean I like it.”

  Adam considered him. It was a valid point. David might respond well to being dominated, but if he wasn’t in the right mindset the fact that he enjoyed it might only make him more miserable.