It hadn’t occurred to Cailan that there was anything special between Tris and Roope. Not until they returned to the tent after exploring the camp shortly after Liam had left to fetch dinner for himself and Cailan and they laid their sleeping mats out side by side and started aggressively kissing one another.
Cailan averted his eyes and laid still, his heart hammering hard in his chest. These were Liam’s friends and he trusted them, but they were strangers to Cailan. He trusted Liam’s judgement, of course, but Liam had been wrong before. After a few incidents with school friends, he had mostly resigned himself to keeping everyone away from Cailan.
But perhaps that was simply a good reason to trust him now. If he was putting his trust in these two men after trusting nobody for so long, surely he had good reason.
By the time Liam returned the two men were half naked and grinding on top of one another. Tris grabbed at Liam’s pant leg as he walked past.
Liam shook him off and held up the tray of food he was carrying. “I appreciate the invitation, but this food looks barely edible warm. I don’t think I could stomach it cold.”
Liam continued over to Cailan, sat down with him and set their food out, and then started eating as someone’s pants were tossed across the tent. Cailan followed his lead and did his best to ignore what was happening on the other side of the tent. It wasn’t a tiny tent, but it certainly wasn’t large enough to feel uninvolved in the intimate moment.
Cailan had been scared at first and even Liam returning hadn’t truly dampened the fear, but the more things heated up the more his fear ebated. He had witnessed sex or the aftermath of it in various ways on various occasions, and it had always been a profoundly negative experience for one of the parties involved.
Intellectually Cailan had known that mutual enjoyment was possible, of course. He knew Liam had sex with other men and he had never seemed harmed by it, and Cailan couldn’t imagine him hurting someone else in that way. But seeing it — or hearing it, mostly, because he didn’t dare look too much — leant a whole new sense of reality to it.
It made it hurt more that this was something Liam wouldn’t share with him. If he thought of sex as something painful and scary then he could consider his virginity a kindness Liam had allowed him, but these two men stifling moans as they enjoyed one anothers’ bodies was the truth of things. Liam simply didn’t desire him.
#
Around two weeks later Cailan was alone in the tent, sitting on his sleeping mat reading a book. He had already cleaned everything in the tent that needed to be cleaned. He wished he had more work to do. It was hard to feel like he earned his keep when he did so little, but Liam didn’t seem to think it was an issue.
Cailan startled as the tent flaps opened and Tris, Roope, and Hamish stumbled inside, clearly drunk. There was a wine bottle still clutched in Hamish’s hand. Hamish gave Cailan a smile and a polite nod and then turned his attention to groping Roope’s ass.
Cailan turned his back to them to give them their privacy and pretended to keep reading. It was impossible to focus with what was going on behind him.
“Is it okay to do this with Cailan in here?” Hamish asked.
“Mm, yeah, it’s fine,” Tris said. “He’s in here literally all the time, so it’d be a problem if we couldn’t. Liam says it’s fine as long as we don’t touch Cailan or involve him in any way.”
“What does Cailan say?”
“Not much, usually.”
At this point Cailan was mostly used to hearing Tris and Roope have sex, although Liam was usually there when it happened and Hamish hadn’t been involved before. Tris occasionally tried to get Liam to join them and Cailan got the feeling he had done so in the past, when Cailan wasn’t there, but so far he had always declined.
Cailan heard someone approach and startled when he looked up and found Hamish standing at his side. He started to shrink away, but then Hamish held the wine bottle out to him.
“Can you hold this for me?” Hamish asked. “Don’t want to spill it everywhere.”
“Oh, um, y—yes, sir,” Cailan said as he took the bottle.
“Thanks!” Hamish said as he headed back over to join the other two men, who were already half naked and vigorously grinding on one another.
Cailan returned his eyes to his book.
Cailan didn’t quite know how three people had sex with one another, and he still didn’t know by the end of it because he didn’t look. From the sounds of it, though, they all enjoyed themselves.
Silence fell afterwards and Cailan assumed they had all fallen asleep, but after around ten minutes someone got up, put their pants on, and approached Cailan. Hamish sat down next to Cailan and held his hand out for the bottle of wine.
“Thanks for holding onto it for me,” Hamish said as Cailan handed the bottle back to him.
“You’re welcome, sir,” Cailan murmured.
Hamish took a swallow of the wine. “Did you have any?”
“No, of course not, sir!”
“Are slaves not allowed alcohol?”
“You gave me the bottle to mind. I wouldn’t drink from it without permission, sir.”
“Ah, I guess that is good manners,” Hamish said. “And where are mine? Would you like some wine, Cailan?”
“No thank you, sir.”
Hamish nodded. “So, how have you been settling in?”
“Liam is still learning his way around, but he much prefers being able to share a tent with his friends and he appreciates the community here. He’s grateful for your help in all of this.”
“That’s nice, but I asked about you, not Liam.”
“I, um… there haven’t been any incidents, sir, if that’s what you’re enquiring about?”
“That’s good to hear. Have you—” Hamish started to say, but he was interrupted by the tent flap pushing open.
Liam entered the tent, a tray of food in hand and a smile on his face that quickly faded as he took in the scene in front of him. He gave Tris a firm jab in the ribs with the toe of his boot.
“What?” Tris mumbled as he stirred awake.
“What’s this?” Liam asked, nodding towards Hamish and Cailan.
Tris rubbed at his eyes. “That’s Hamish. You know Hamish.”
“Not well enough for him to be with Cailan, unsupervised.”
Roope sat up, fully naked, and rubbed at his temple. “I’m sure they were only talking, Liam. Hamish wouldn’t do anything inappropriate.”
“I suspect you’re quite right about that, but I need to be the one to make that decision. Every time. I told you it was okay for you to bring people back here and you promised me your guests would never have unsupervised access to Cailan.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Roope said. “We had an agreement with you and we broke it. We apologise.”
“Yeah, shit,” Tris said as he sat up as well. “I didn’t think anything of it because it’s Hamish, but you’re right. We made you a promise.”
Liam let out a long, slow breath and nodded. Cailan could tell he was still upset, but he was a reasonable man and he wouldn’t keep an argument going after a sincere apology had been given. He turned his attention to Hamish. “You were just talking to him, yes?”
“Of course,” Hamish said. “Or trying to, anyway. He doesn’t say much.”
“Companions are trained not to gossip behind their masters’ backs.”
“I didn’t realise I was requesting deeply privileged information when I asked him how he was.”
“He’s not stupid, Hamish, and neither am I. There’s a lot that could be gleaned from a truly honest answer to that question. Now, I don’t necessarily object to you having that information, but I do disapprove of the methods you’ve used to try to obtain it.”
“That’s fair,” Hamish said. “Tris, Roope, why don’t you go finish your nap in my tent so that Liam and I can talk?”
“Yeah, because if there’s one thing that’s going to make this day better it’s waking up to Simon finding me sleeping in his tent,” Tris said as he started to put his clothes back on. “No thank you, but we will fuck off so you can talk. Might as well go get some lunch while they’re still serving it.”
“Thank you,” Hamish said as he watched them dress. He waited until they were gone and had left the tent, and then he got up and sat down on their sleeping mats instead.
Liam did his best to offer Cailan a reassuring smile, and then he went and joined Hamish on the other sleeping mats.
“So,” Liam said as he sat down, “did you simply see the opportunity to have a conversation with Cailan and decide to take it, or was this a situation you set out to create?”
Hamish laughed. “Listen, Liam. We have a community here and I consider it my responsibility to make sure that everyone who lives here is safe and taken care of. Cailan may be a slave, but he lives here too so I take responsibility for his wellbeing.”
“I think you’ll find that Cailan’s wellbeing is my responsibility. I’m sure your intentions are good, but you know nothing about him or what his needs are.”
Hamish nodded, took a drink of the wine, and handed the bottle to Liam. “I agree, actually, but I can’t help but wonder if that level of social isolation is good for him. Even if you’re absolutely perfect and do everything you can for him, surely having just a single person in his life isn’t ideal.”
Liam took a long swallow of the wine. “I used to try to include him in activities with my school friends, but it never went well. The more they felt like I was allowing them access to him, the worse it went. I learnt not to trust anyone with him.”
“You trust Tris and Roope with him.”
“I do, yes.” Liam took another drink of the wine. “They’re a different breed of men. I believe you are too, but understand that I’ve known Tris and Roope for years and I didn’t introduce them to Cailan until we made the move here. I do not trust easily when it comes to Cailan’s safety.”
“I respect that, really,” Hamish said. “You’ve done what you’ve needed to do, and if you’ve kept him safe in a place like this I can’t say you’ve done a bad job of it. But Liam, I’ve tried talking to Tris and Roope about Cailan. Asking them about him. They tell me they know nothing, that they have nothing to do with him, and I don’t think they’re just being tight lipped for the sake of your privacy.”
“Well— no, that’s accurate.”
“Why?”
“He’s timid. He doesn’t like to talk to others.”
“Of course. From what you’ve described, other people have only been unkind to him.”
Liam finished off the wine and then lay down. “Mm…”
Hamish lay down next to him. “What happens if something happens to you? I assume you have an inheritance plan.”
“Tris and then Roope.”
“You understand the issue then, yes?”
Liam nodded. “He needs to know them.”
Hamish stroked a hand over the top of Liam’s hair. “That’s right.”
Liam shut his eyes and pressed into the touch. “Thank you for caring. I must seem like an imbecile, but this is harder than it seems.”
Hamish continued petting his hair. “I can imagine it would be quite difficult.”
It was Liam who wrapped an arm around Hamish, Liam who pulled him closer and pressed their lips together. Hamish kissed him back, slow and deep.
Cailan squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face into the pillow. Liam had never done this in front of him before, but he had known it was only a matter of time. He bit down on the inside of his cheek and scolded himself. It wasn’t right for him to feel this way. Liam was not his. A good slave did not get upset when he did not get what he wanted and Cailan was a very good slave. At least that was what Liam always told him.
“Ah,” Hamish said. “I think I should go.”
“What? Why?” There was a moment of silence and then Liam said, “Oh.”
“I’m not a homewrecker, Liam,” Hamish said, and then Cailan heard the sound of a short, light kiss being planted somewhere on Liam’s body. “I’ll talk to you later.”
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