His Sweet Boy

AN: Hello everyone!!! I am so sorry I have left this for so long. Life has been.....life. Between a year with bad bosses, grad school, mental health, and just not having the energy or desire to write, these boys and their story had fallen to the wayside. I have done both this story and everyone who has read and enjoyed my work a disservice for being gone so long. I hope you all can forgive me, and that you know that I have read EVERY comment that has been sent to me multiple times and they mean the absolute world to me. Without further ado please enjoy chapter 7:

************

Eric couldn't help but watch the sleeping bundle in his lap with both awe and amazement. How had he managed to gain a second chance at true love in one lifetime? Well maybe that was jumping ahead of himself too much, but Ben had come back, that had to mean something. Didn't it?

Shit, he needed to stop thinking too far ahead. He needed to slow this down, think reasonably about all of this.

But it was so fucking hard after making Ben come not once but twice, and seeing the boy wear those panties he had bought for him, it was too much to ask any dom to slow down.

He wanted it all and he wanted it NOW. He wanted to slide his achingly hard cock out of his slacks and into Ben's waiting hole, claim the boy fully as his own. But he wouldn't, couldn't do that. Not yet.

So instead he stroked caressing fingers through Ben's hair and waited for the boy to come out of post-orgasmic bliss.

It took a bit for the discomfort of cum soaked panties to rouse the boy but it did. Ben groaned and shifted in Eric's lap.

"There's my sweet boy. You alright?"

"Noo, you did it again, you asshole. Another pair of underwear, ruined."

Eric couldn't help but chuckle at Ben's whining.

"You're complaining after two orgasms in less than an hour, I don't think I wore you out enough."

"Oh, no I'm exhausted. Just want sleep, but can't, too uncomfortable." Ben moaned, popping joints as he shifted and stretched.

"Ok ok, I get your point. Up you get, back to the bathroom."

"Ehhhh too much effort." the boy said as he half-heartedly tried to rise from Eric's lap.

"Fine, I'll carry you there."

Ben let out a surprised squawk and grabbed onto the man's shoulders as he was suddenly lifted into the air.

Eric couldn't help but let out another chuckle as he walked them the three feet back to the bathroom and deposited the cute little bundle back onto his feet.

"You could have warned me," Ben grumbled as he began to pull the panties off his hips.

"And what would have been the fun in that?"

Ben just scowled back.

"What, no witty retort?"

The boy just shook his head. "Too tired."

"You can sleep in a minute. Here's a washcloth so you can get cleaned up...or I could always do-"

The warm, wet washcloth was snatched out of Eric's hands before he could blink. You could always count on Ben to throw up ridiculous boundaries, about modesty and what not.

"You know I'm eventually going to have my cock inside you." The dom said casually as he leaned against the door frame.

"Yea, so?"

"So, don't you think you should be ok with me wiping your cock with a rag?"

"That is entirely different." Ben sniffed in response.

"Really how so?"

"It just is ok?"

"Not ok, try and explain this to me, I want to understand."

The boy let out an irritated huff as he pulled on a pair of the remaining panties. "It's...one is romantic, and the other is just gross."

"They're both me touching your body, and your body and its functions are not gross. I think they are beautiful."

"You wouldn't be saying that if it was a different kind of bodily fluid."

Eric just shook his head. "You think I wouldn't want to be there if you were throwing up or blowing out mountains of snot?"

"Of course you wouldn't. No one wants to be there when someone is all sick and gross."

"But that's just it. I want to be there when you're feeling sick, I want to be able to take care of you."

Ben froze with his red leather pants halfway up his body.

"Ben?" Eric asked cautiously

"You don't mean that." the boy spoke in a voice devoid of emotion as he stared at the wall.

"I do."

"No, you don't. It's too soon." Ben turned and met Eric's stare with dead eyes after he had fully pulled up those sinful pants. "We've known each other for two weeks, and we're having sex for at least half of the time together. Being there when someone is sick, doesn't match with that. Don't make promises you can't keep."

And before the dom could even begin to process what the boy had said, Ben was shoving past him and out the door of the office.

Eric grabbed the converse that the boy had left on the floor of the bathroom and chased after him. He was determined to fix...whatever had just happened.

Ben made it halfway across the crowded dance floor before Eric could grab him. The dom reached out and latched on with more desperation and strength than was probably necessary to the boy's wrist.

"LET GO OF ME." the boy was screaming over the music.

"No."

"I MEAN IT! LET GO!"

"I can't do that Ben."

"YES YOU CAN! RED OK RED! THAT MEANS YOU HAVE TO LET GO!"

Eric couldn't repress the flinch at the safe word. The man's grip loosened and Ben pulled free, racing out of the building.

The dom followed.

The second time Eric caught up with Ben, the sub was on the edge of the parking lot, and now running in just his socks.

This was one of those times that the dom was really happy he still did a cardio workout at least three times a week. He wasn't as fast as he used to be in college when he played basketball, but he was still faster than Ben and caught up to the boy easily.

This time he wrapped an arm around the boy's waist.

"GET OFF ME!!!"

"No." Eric grimly answered as he held on to the struggling boy.

"RED! RED! RED! RED!" Ben screamed at the top of his lungs.

"That doesn't apply here. We're not in my club. I need you to calm down."

"FUCK! HELP SOMEBODY HELP!"

Ben was tearing his nails into Eric's skin and biting savagely into the man's chest, literally fighting tooth and nail to get loose, but the dom remained externally calm and implacable in his determination to hold on.

Eric could feel it as Ben's struggling slowed and the boy's form was wracked with sobs. It hurt so much to see the boy like this, but the dom had no idea how to fix it except hold on.

Finally, Ben's sobs slowed and all that was left was the occasional sniff.

"You alright?" Eric asked.

Ben remained unresponsive.

"I'm sorry I grabbed you, but you weren't wearing any shoes and I was worried for your safety. Not because I'm a dom but because I care about you."

Ben stayed silent, but his shoulders dropped half an inch.

"I'm not sure what I said that scared you so much, but if I can fix it, I will. It doesn't change how I feel, or the fact that you probably don't believe me. Only time will tell if what I'm saying is true."

The boy's shoulders slumped completely, the tension leaving him.

"Now my question for you is are you willing to stick it out and see if what this is, is real. I'm giving you one more chance to walk away with no consequences I won't chase after you or bother you ever again but if you stay I will fight tooth and nail for us, ok?"

Eric held his breath as he finished his statement and let the iron bands of his arms drop from around Ben's body.

"What if I walk away now, then decided in two weeks that I made the wrong choice and came back would you still be here?" Ben's voice was quiet as he stared down at his sock-covered feet.

"Ben," Eric huffed out the name on a gust of breath. "I don't know, I honestly don't know. I can only do this emotional roller coaster for so long without some guarantee from you that what I'm doing matters. It wouldn't be healthy, for either of us."

"That's just it, I can't promise that I won't freak out again."

"That's ok, sweetheart, you don't have to be perfect, nor does this relationship. I just need to know that you also think it's worth fighting for."

Ben finally turned and faced the dom "But it isn't fair to you. You're so perfect and I'm just a screw-up."

Eric couldn't help the mirthless chuckle that left his lips. "I'm far from perfect. I have my own flaws and struggles that I deal with; we just haven't hit them yet."

Ben let out a disbelieving snort. "Yea like what?"

"Well, I'm possessive and can be controlling of others. Something I work on and help regulate through being a dom. I'm also very stubborn and independent. I have a hard time leaning on others."

"That sounds like a lot of people and very easy to manage."

"You're right, I'm not dealing with anxiety, but that does not mean I am immune to trauma. I lost someone very important to me about ten years ago and I still blame myself for it."

"Oh yea, how could you be responsible?"

"Because the man in question was my submissive and the love of my life. I was supposed to take care of him and protect him from the world and I couldn't" Eric cut himself off when he felt the lump growing in his throat.

There was a pause before Ben asked very quietly "What happened?"

The dom swallowed around the lump that had grown even larger in his throat before speaking "He died, in a car accident. It was right after an argument we had. The last thing I said to him was I didn't care if I ever saw him again."

"Oh Eric," Ben's voice gasped out and he wrapped his lanky arms around the dom's middle. "I didn't mean to-"

Eric cut the boy off by wrapping his own arms tight around the boy, struggling to keep his heart from cracking once again.

The man had thought he was over this. It had been so long ago, he had made his peace with his actions and his past. But it all came rushing back.

****

"YOU CAN'T FUCKING CONTROL ME ERIC!" Nick screamed across the kitchen, throwing ceramic plate after ceramic plate at the dom's head.

Eric ducked away from the barrage of flying dishes.

"WOULD YOU STO-FUCK" Eric cried out as a Bowl shattered on the floor beside him and embedded some shards of ceramic into the bare skin of his left leg and arm.

The dom let out a growl of pure rage and charged out from behind the couch he was hiding behind, dodging 2 more bowls before he tackled Nick to the ground.

The sub let out a banshee screech as he clawed at the larger form pinning him down. Eric growled and bit at the tendon that stretched on the left side of Nick's neck, hard enough to draw blood.

"SACRIFICE!" Nick gasped out.

Eric immediately released his hold and released the sub. Nick scooted out from underneath the dom and glared up into Eric's face.

"See I have all the control, you can't tell me shit, Fucker."

"Yea well see if I care, go lick your wounds like you always do but don't come crawling back. I'm done taking care of you."

Nick let out a humorless laugh, as he stood and dusted off his pants, "Like I'm the one that needs to be taken care of, I don't need you, I'VE NEVER NEEDED YOU."

"Then LEAVE!" Eric roared back now on his feet as well.

Nick stormed away shoving into his flip-flops and grabbing his keys off the hook before slamming the door behind him.

******

The dom wrenched himself away from the horrible memories of his past. He focused on the wonderful feeling of having Ben's arms wrapped around him, holding him close.

Eric lifted one of his hands from around Ben's waist to rub at his face and was surprised to find his cheeks wet with tears.

"I'm sorry," Ben whispered into his chest.

"It's-" Eric cleared his throat, "it was a long time ago."

"Doesn't make it easier."

"No, it doesn't. I miss him, a lot. But he's gone, and I want to move on, hopefully with you."

"I...can't promise that I won't run again, but for now I'm staying."

"That's all I can ask," Eric replied with a watery smile. "Now come on, I think we've been through enough for one night, let me drive you home."

"Ok." Ben agreed.

*******

The rest of the night after that had been surreal. Eric had helped Ben put on his shoes and they had used the back entrance to get back in the club so the dom could grab his phone and keys. Ben texted Harley and was not surprised when he didn't get a reply back with the way she had been eyeing up Darryl like he was a fresh piece of juicy meat and she was a starving lioness.

Ben gave Eric directions to his home and the dom drove with experienced ease. The drive was quiet due to them both being emotionally exhausted.

Eric had parked in front of Ben's apartment and turned the engine off then just sat back in the driver's seat. Ben also leaned back in his own seat staring at nothing.

The dom broke the silence "so we have a trend where every time we get together we seem to end up having super deep emotional moments, which is great and all, but I'm also cool if you're down to just chilling together sometime and having fun. And you know not being emotionally wrung out by the end of the night."

Ben laughed at that, a hysterical note entering into the sound near the end.

"Yea, that sounds better than what we've been doing."

Eric sighed at Ben's words. "I think it has to do with the intensity between us. Every time you're around I feel like all my built-up patience, and experience just slip through my fingers and I'm floundering."

"Floundering? You? But you're always so...in control."

"Ben, I'm really not. The very first thing we should have done was go over boundaries before ANYTHING else happened, and we're both suffering because I didn't take the necessary steps."

"What do you mean boundaries? Isn't this what you do in a relationship for the first year? Stumble around feeling confused and lost. Constant drama and miscommunications followed by compromise? That's how it's always been described in every movie or book I've ever read."

"Uh, preferably not. Those sound like some pretty unhealthy relationships, to be honest. What have you been watching?!"

"Seriously that's like every soap opera anywhere."

"Well yea cause they want to sell you drama and they aren't real."

Ben folded his arms over his chest and shrunk into himself "well what do you want me to say, that's what I know ok."

Eric sighed. "I'm not judging you, Ben. I'm judging those horrible examples of what a real romantic relationship is supposed to look like. A romantic relationship-frankly any relationship should lift you up and make you feel better about yourself."

"Well then what do you call what we've been doing for the last two weeks cause it's certainly not that."

"Umm, I would call it a work in progress relationship that could be really good if we talked about what bugs us instead of overreacting?" The dom ended with a question in his voice.

Ben snorted.

"Hey, you can't deny that there have been some really good moments between us, wouldn't it be nice if that could be us most of the time." Eric defended himself.

"You can also agree that we've had some pretty shitty moments too where either one or both of us has gotten hurt."

"Hence the need for a boundaries conversation." The dom reasoned.

"What if....I don't know what my boundaries are anymore?" Ben mumbled as he stared down at his legs.

Eric cautiously reached a hand out and placed it on the boy's left thigh.

"I know I've been pushing you, and I know that can be hard so I'm giving you all the control now. You decide how we move forward."

Ben vigorously shook his head. "I don't want control...just... it gets so overwhelming ya know."

"I'm not talking about control in the bedroom, or necessarily all the time, but I obviously have hit some pretty strong nerves a couple of times that have hurt. I don't want to keep doing that, or trying to avoid them by second-guessing every move I make. So how about instead of continuously hitting land mines we talk about it?"

The boy sucked in his breath before blowing it out through pursed lips. "I don't know how helpful the talk will be when I'm not sure what could set me off but I guess it's worth a try."

"As long as you promise to tell me what's going on then it's worth a try don't you think?"

Ben nodded then nodded again feeling more sure. "Yea it is."

"Soooo with all that being said, could I get your number?" Eric asked.

"Oh, yea forgot about that. Here." The boy pulled his phone out of those too-tight leather pants and unlocked it, he opened the contacts app and passed it over to the dom.

"Thanks" Eric replied as he typed on the phone quickly and handed it back.

Ben looked at his phone and there it was. The dom's contact info. Sitting innocently on his screen and yet it held so much weight.

"Text me tomorrow sometime and we can set up a time to hang out. Sounds good?"

"Yea, I can do that. I have work tomorrow so it might be a bit though."

"That's fine."

"Ok." Ben rubbed the back of his neck.

He wasn't sure how to end the night after everything that had happened. He couldn't believe that just five hours ago he had been in Harley's apartment getting ready to see the dom after two weeks. It felt like a lifetime ago now.

Eric took care of the awkwardness for him. The dom leaned over and placed a chaste kiss on Ben's left cheek. "You should go get some sleep."

The boy nodded before popping the door open and attempted to step out of the car. Of course, this was the instant where he remembered that he has completely forgotten that his seatbelt was still on.

The seat belt strap yanked Ben back in the car. Causing the boy to look down then blush a bright red after he realized what had happened.

The sub heard a somewhat suppressed snort of laughter from beside him which caused all of that embarrassment to turn into righteous anger as he turned and glared at the dom.

"Sorry." Eric choked out before he couldn't contain his laughter anymore. It burst out of him as his head rested back against the headrest.

"It's just," the dom forced out between chuckles. "It was such a serious moment and then it wasn't"

Ben yanked the seat belt off and stormed out of the car. He wasn't actually that irritated, it had been embarrassing and he was upset that Eric had laughed, but it was kinda funny.

The giant of a man sprung from the car and made his way quickly around it to approach the sulking boy. "Ben you know I wasn't laughing at you right?"

"Yea, I know." the boy sighed out as his shoulders dropped away from his neck.

The dom took the available opportunity to wrap his large, muscled tree trunks around Ben's waist and pulled the boy back into his embrace. The sub couldn't resist leaning into the solid weight behind him.

Ben felt it when Eric bent his head and buried his face in the riot of curls that never behaved on the subs head.

"I should let you go so you can get some sleep and go to work tomorrow, but now that I have you in my arms again I am finding it rather difficult to let go." The dom mumbled into Ben's hair.

The boy had to agree, being held felt good. He had always wondered whether he was touch starved or not, and this seemed to confirm that yes he was.

He usually fought this feeling of being weak and leaning on someone else, but maybe. because he was too exhausted emotionally from earlier, he gave himself permission without a fight to just be.

Eric's hands were resting with almost a feeling of reverence on the lower half of Ben's belly which was only covered in that thin mesh. The boy couldn't resist putting his own hands on top of the dom's and pushing them harder into his skin to ground them both.

The man tightened his grip pulling Ben more firmly into the hold. The boy let out a sigh at the solid connection surrounding him.

One more squeeze was given before Eric sighed and released his hold. "Go get some sleep Ben, we have all the time to figure this out"