OPEN UP

Darrel

The pizza slice in my hands falls from my hand to the ground. Aiden's gaze is down at the slice on the floor.

Standing up from his chair, he picks up the pizza slice.

“You shouldn't waste food, Doc,” he warns sternly. “One thing I hate most is waste.”

That wasn't the bane of my issues right now. What did Aiden mean by "he wasn't planning on letting me go"?

“Aiden, please listen to me—”

Aiden shoves the pizza slice in his hands into my mouth, forcefully.

“You're the one not listening to me, Darrel,” he growled. “I clearly said to you I don't like wasting food.”

I struggled to remove his grip from my mouth, but it was to no avail. Aiden was just too strong.

Coupled with the fact that Aiden was forcefully shoving the pizza slice he'd picked from the floor down my throat, I couldn't breathe.

Reaching out for his hand pressing down against my mouth, I scratched at it, tapping as I hoped it would bring Aiden to reduce his grip. But the fucker never did.

Just when I thought I was about to pass out, he let go.

I retched, throwing up the pizza slice as I tried to catch my breath.

“You really don't listen, Darrel,” Aiden declares, clicking his tongue. “You're going to be much harder to tame than I thought.”

Coughing, I wiped my mouth with the back of my palm. “What do you mean—”

Aiden cuts me off with a hot smack against my cheeks. “You keep doing things I hate, Darrel. I really don't want to hurt you, but you—you keep pushing my buttons. Would it kill you to eat what I feed you?”

Tears blurred my vision. “I'm sorry. I won't do that again.”

“You're going to be living with me for a couple of days, so let me tell you the rules if you truly want to return to the life you once had after this,” he says carefully. “Obey me to the letter. Kiss my feet. Please me. Any other thing contrary to this will only get you hurt. Do you want to get hurt, Darrel?”

I shook my head. “I don't.”

“Then will you be a good boy?”

“I will.”

“Much better. You're so adorable when you don't put up a fight, you know. It makes me want to chain you up sometimes.”

I drew in a sharp breath, tensed. Aiden seemed to have noticed my reaction as he burst out laughing.

“Don't worry; I won't chain you up. I'm not into that type of kink,” he assures me. “But my brother might be.”

My eyes widened. “Your brother?”

Was he planning on handing me over to his brother? Fuck. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I'd rather be with this creep than someone who was into bondage and chains.

“Yes. My twin brother, Aston,” Aiden clarifies. “But don't worry; I won't let him lay as much as a finger on you. You're mine—and mine alone, Darrel.”

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

“Does that make you relieved to hear, Darrel?” Aiden asks with a smile plastered across his face. “That I won't share you with anyone?”

I wasn't in a situation where I could defy him.

“Yes,” I admit. “It makes me feel relieved to hear that, Aiden.”

Aiden blushed. Reaching out to me, he embarrassed me. “You don't know how happy that makes me to hear you say that, Darrel.”

Refraining from me, he asks, “It's been a long day. Should we take a shower together?”

A shower? Then I remembered something—my dead neighbor in the bathroom.

“Are we taking a shower in the bathroom?” I asked.

Aiden chuckled as if I'd just asked one of the stupidest questions he'd ever heard. “Yes, we are.”

“Didn't you say...” My voice trails off as bringing this up was awkward, “My neighbor?”

“Oh,” Aiden says with realization. “Your former neighbor's body is still there. I nearly forgot I was yet to get rid of it. You being here got me all excited. Would you lend me a hand, Doc?”

I blinked. “A hand in?”

“Getting the body out of the bathtub.” He paused. “Or is that too much to ask of you?”

Shit.

“No, I can handle it.”

Aiden's face breaks into a smile. “Really? You're the best, Doc. Although, you might want to get a nose mask from the bottom desk drawer over there.”

I followed his instructions. Donning the nose mask over my face, I strolled behind Aiden as he clicked the bathroom door open and walked in.

A strong, pungent, irritating smell of formaldehyde fills my nostrils.

“Fuck,” I cursed softly under my breath. Despite wearing the nose mask, I could perceive the stench so strongly.

It made me wonder how Aiden was coping at all without the nose mask. The smell became the least of my worries when I spotted Mr. Higgins, my previous neighbor's dead body, afloat in the bathtub.

His body was leaned back against the tub, head raised high as if looking at something, but the irony of it all was that both his eyes were plucked out.

I threw my hands over my mouth, stopping myself from making another foolish mistake that would only anger Aiden.

“Grab his legs; I'll grab his hands,” Aiden orders.

Nodding, I moved toward the other end of the bathtub to do as ordered. With my bare hands, I pulled Mr. Higgins’ legs as Aiden grabbed his hands.

In unison, we got his body out of the bathtub.

Damn. The man weighed a ton. I felt like I was going to drop him at any moment.

“Where to?” I asked.

“The rug in the living room.”

Moving carefully out of the bathroom, Aiden and I reached the living room. Then we slowly lowered Mr. Higgins' body down on the rug.

Aiden covered the body properly with the rug. “Now, I'll—”

The front doorbell rings, cutting him off. We shared a glance at each other.

“Are you expecting someone?” I asked.

Aiden shook his head. “My brother isn't supposed to be here until tomorrow.”

A knock followed.

“Mr. Higgins, are you in there?” a feminine voice asked. “Open up. I want to talk to you.”