No Good Terribly Bad Day at The Asylum (Part Ten)-Danny DiMarco

So...It's been one hell of a weekend!

After some celebrations, I figure now we can all take a breathed and enjoy an escape. Meaning?

You get two parts tonight!

Happy Reading!





Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine


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Naps were weird. When Danny was in the band as a kid, their handlers implemented nap times whenever the schedule allowed—probably for their own sanity. The quiet time was a nice break from Trevor and Jamie sniping at each other, but he always woke up without a clue where he was.

This time was no different.

The steel corded, muscular arm around him was too big to be Shea’s. Lightly tanned skin over a wide chest had scars and tattoos unlike any of his Dom’s. Danny blinked, rising up to find dark gray eyes watching him with a hint of amusement in them.

“I was wondering how long that would take you.” Rhodey’s gaze traveled over him, stopping at the scar on Danny’s arm, where his first tracker had been cut out when he’d been grabbed by mercs with Matt about two months ago. Tracing his fingers over the scar, Rhodey’s jaw ticked. “We’re going to work on your reaction time. I could’ve killed you a few times now.”

Danny instantly pictured those big hands around his neck. Or a pillow pressed to his face. Or a silent bullet piercing his skull. He shuddered, then wiggled closer to Rhodey to tuck his face against the big Dom’s shoulder. “I hope you’d have made it quick. Or will make it quick if you ever decide I need to die. But...you could only kill me once, sir.”

Making a thoughtful sound, Rhodey stroked Danny’s back. “If your heart stopped, you’d technically be dead. If you were resuscitated, I’d have to find a more efficient way to finish the job.”

“Do we have to talk about me dying first thing in the morning?”

“It’s not morning, Mickey Mouse, it’s almost four.” Rhodey trailed his fingers down Danny’s spine. “But if I ever decide to keep you overnight, we won’t talk about it. Not until after coffee. Maybe breakfast.”

A laugh bubbled up from Danny’s chest as he peeked up at Rhodey. “That’s generous of you, sir. Thank you.”

“Cheeky.” Rhodey landed a sharp smack on his ass, the sting making Danny’s hips jerk. Trying to wiggle out of reach got him lifted and flipped over Rhodey’s lap as the Dom sat up. Another smack followed, Rhodey effortlessly trapping his wrists at the small of his back as he kept the spot hot by palming Danny’s ass cheek and squeezing. “I like a sub with spunk. Doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences when it’s aimed my way.”

Uh oh.

Sounded like the ‘consequences’ would be painful. Danny squirmed, which didn’t get him very far under the Dom’s firm grip. “What if I swear never ever to do it again?”

A harder slap connected. “Then you’re missing the point. Bad boy.”

“The point?” Danny breathed through the pain, bracing himself for more. “Is this...is this one of those situations where I need to prove I’ll be good before you’ll believe it?”

“No.” The next smack was jarring, Rhodey’s tone conversational, as though he didn’t hear Danny’s whimper. “Come now, smalls. You’re smarter than that.”

Eyes tearing, Danny gave up struggling. He could use his safeword, but he didn’t need it.

Not yet, anyway.

Shea’s shown me I can survive a spanking. Several times.

More than anything, he wanted to impress the Dom. That had become more important than almost anything today. The feeling of Rhodey’s approval was addictive and he needed it so much he couldn’t think of much else.

He forced himself to, though. To think of Keiran, how he’d even shout at Rhodey or throw things at him when he was upset. Rhodey encouraged it. He’d turned Keiran’s urge to toss things around the kitchen into training, but there was more to it. Keiran didn’t react that way as often anymore. When he did, there was a damn good reason.

But he still answered for it.

Danny’s lips parted as it hit him. He didn’t try to avoid the next smack, speaking in a rush. “It has to be worth it. Whatever I do, I have to be ready to stand by it, because your response isn’t mine to control. Only my actions are.”

“There we go.” Rhodey squeezed Danny’s ass, his thick dick hard against Danny’s side, a tempting distraction, but Danny forced himself to focus on Rhodey’s words. “You’ll know the difference between a corrective punishment and me just being consistent. And I’ll know when something like this would damage rather than settle the balance. Either way, I don’t tolerate manipulation from a sub.”

Brow tensing as Rhodey loosened his hold, Danny waited a few beats before rising, turning to straddle Rhodey’s lap and search his face for an answer to his question before he went ahead and asked it. “What I did in the dance club… That was manipulative.”

“Not quite.” Rhodey hooked his arm around Danny’s waist, bringing him close enough that his own hardening erection pressed against the Dom’s. “If you’d tried to control how I’d respond, what you’d get from me and when? It would’ve been and I wouldn’t have wasted my time. But you weren’t sure. You put the ball in my court, where it belongs.”

“I prefer it there, sir.” Danny wet his bottom lip with his tongue, resisting the urge to circle his hips to get more stimulation. First, he needed to come clean. He wasn’t sure how much Rhodey knew—maybe everything—but it wouldn’t feel right until he laid out all the facts. “This whole thing, the challenge? Shea...Shea said I could wait until tonight for...you know. Or ask someone else.”

Rhodey braced his hands on the mattress behind him, lips slanting as Danny shifted and hissed at the tease of motion over his sensitized dick. “I’m aware. I’m also aware you made it as complicated for yourself as possible, which was entertaining to watch. You would have waited, but you knew he didn’t want you to.”

Tugging his bottom lip between his teeth, Danny nodded. “He thought I’d be too scared to ask you. I thought so too, but... Being afraid wasn’t all bad. And the way you’ve been with me...I like it. A lot. I like you.”

“I like you too, smalls. And like I said, I have my own challenge. I cut myself off from letting anyone close for a long time. One man changed that. Then two more.” Rhodey’s tone changed, losing the slightly detached edge he often spoke with. “I won’t suddenly become a nice guy. Most of the fucking subs here bore the fuck out of me. You don’t.” The half smile returned. “Don’t make too much of it, I won’t be easy on you. But I want you. And there’s nothing to stop me from having you.”

Danny was sure his face was red from the heat gathering, but he kept his eyes locked with the Dom’s, needing to understand exactly what he was saying. “Just tonight or—?”

“I doubt I’ll ever be able to watch you dance again without wanting you, smalls.” Rhodey framed Danny’s face with his hand, leaning up to claim a soft kiss. “Don’t look at me when you do it unless you’re offering. And expect me to make sure none of your imagined disasters are self-fulfilling.”

Humming quietly with pleasure, Danny licked along the seam of Rhodey’s lips, enjoying the taste of whiskey still there.

Shifting back, Rhodey reached down, grabbing a pair of black jeans from the floor and setting them on the edge of the bed. He freed the belt, took out his wallet, then latched onto Danny’s wrists. After binding them together with the length of leather, he brought Danny’s arms around his neck.

The restraint made Danny’s heart stutter, and his breaths became little pants as Rhodey slipped a small pack of lube and a condom from his wallet. He’d mentally slipped away from where fear was almost an aphrodisiac, back to where uncertainty had all the worst case scenarios running over him.

When he trembled, Rhodey made a soft hushing sound. “One of these days, we’re going to have fun seeing how far we can push that wild imagination of yours before it actually fucks with you.”

Rhodey slid his lips over Danny’s, claiming his breath, adding enough pressure to ground him before biting his bottom lip hard enough to leave it throbbing. A lave of his tongue soothed the pain, changing it to a deep pulse that went all the way down to Danny’s core. He gasped, undulating against the Dom, not resisting as Rhodey’s tongue dipped into his mouth, leading his own in a slow dance of pure sensation.

“This time I’m going to take what your body said you’d give me.” Rhodey’s fingers, already slicked up, pressed into him. Two at first, the pressure tested his ability to relax, and the burn had Danny pressing his forehead to Rhodey’s shoulder and going perfectly still. Rhodey’s free hand stroked up and down his back. “Give it to me, little mouse. All of it.”

The command flipped a switch, the one that made surrendering to anything and everything so much easier. He couldn’t reach this place with just anyone. It was tempting, sometimes. He liked it when others took the lead. But there was only so far he would go before it felt wrong.

He’d experienced that in the club when Doms he didn’t know well tried to get too close. Usually, one of his Doms was around, or someone like Reed, who could be so submissive, but held on to control himself unless someone earned the right to take it from him. Danny didn’t have to resist then. He could let someone else take charge.

This thing with Rhodey? It was his choice.

He didn’t have to be in control. Didn’t want to be.

But he had to let go of the little bit he clung to on instinct.

So he did.

“That’s my boy.” Rhodey rewarded him with a curve of his fingers, grazing over Danny’s prostate, drawing out and adding another finger, stretching him as he drove him to the very edge. “I want you to breathe now. Like you did before you pulled that trigger— No.” Rhodey’s hold on him tightened when Danny stiffened. “Stay with me. You’re not going to let what happened sink in and weaken your ability to react. You saved a life that’s precious to you. And you will fucking remember that every time you think of it.”

A pained sound escaped Danny as he tugged at his wrists, seeing everything all over again. That one moment where he expected to see the bullet hit never came. He knew the hot rain hadn’t been rain. He saw the blood.

Pleasure confused everything. He inhaled roughly, lifting his head to stare into Rhodey’s eyes. The gray of storm clouds, intensity, an unrelenting demand that didn’t let him hide. He remembered Shea, alive and whole. Rhodey, standing there after taking down the other attackers with his Dom, making sure there were no more threats.

The stretch within changed and Danny breathed through it. Slick, hot, filling him until he wasn’t sure he could take anymore.

He could. Rhodey wouldn’t make him if he couldn’t.

Eyes tearing, he kissed Rhodey, only a brush of his lips over the Dom. A request for what he needed.

And Rhodey gave it to him. He braced Danny with the arm still around him, letting him sink down as his mouth and tongue swept him away from every thought and brought him back to the present. The lack of air made Danny dizzy. It was a kind of high he’d rarely experienced and he let it consume him.

“Move for me. I want to feel you, like you were on the dance floor, all for me.” Rhodey loosened his hold, bringing his hands to Danny’s waist. “You can come when I do.”

Nodding, Danny used the restraint around his wrists and his knees against the mattress to give him leverage, rising up almost all the way off Rhodey, then grinding down. The music came to him and he moved with the rhythm. Everything within clamped down, Rhodey’s length lighting up every nerve, only the natural flow of the beat keeping him from stopping as it became almost overwhelming.

Faster, hips going up and down, tensing and relaxing at a steady pace. He faltered at Rhodey’s groan, the sound shooting right through him, like a tight grip on his dick sending him speeding right toward the one cliff he wouldn’t shy away from. Lips parting, he licked at the beads of sweat above them, smiling when Rhodey’s tongue joined his.

Rhodey raked his fingers into Danny’s hair, letting out a rough sound as he thrust up hard. He tugged, his mouth against Danny’s neck. Bit down.

Crying out, Danny dropped, thighs clenching against Rhodey’s hips as pleasure accelerated like a racing car with a foot jammed on the gas and the break obliterated. Careening over the cliff, Danny wrenched at his wrists, pressure bursting out from the base of his spine. He shook as he came, his body so close to Rhodey’s everything became slick, nothing separating them, heat and moisture everywhere. His pulse pounded in his ears, matching the Dom’s, which it seemed to need to lead it.

There wasn’t a single part of him left solid, but Rhodey somehow found parts of him to move, lifting him up and laying him back on the bed. He dozed a bit, and a soft damp cloth cleaned him before Rhodey rejoined him on the mattress, petting his sweat slicked hair away from his face.

“You really are too precious.” Rhodey let out a soft chuckle. “Jared will have my head if I broke you, so how about you open your eyes and let me know I won’t have to fight off my best friend.”

Danny slit his eyes open and shook his head. “Don’t fight Jared. He’s awesome. I don’t want him mad at you. I’m not broken. He can check.”

“Mhm.” Rhodey smiled, shaking his head. “With all his lecturing Quint about wanting to take care of every fragile man he’s ever met, and keeping too many of them… What he has with you is different. I can see why he wants to protect you, but I’m not into that platonic shit. I’m too selfish and you’re too fucking tempting.”

Rubbing his cheek against Rhodey’s palm, Danny gave a little shrug. “You look out for Jamie and it looks platonic to me.”

That got him a dry look. “He’s my nephew’s husband. That would be awkward as fuck. He makes Noah happy. Keeps him level for the most part. Why wouldn’t I protect him?”

“Maybe that’s how Jared is with me?” The idea made Danny kind of sad, but he pressed on anyway. “I’m part of Jamie’s old life. Maybe someone important to him. I guess there’s always a reason, but...it’s nice. Having that from someone.”

Shaking his head, Rhodey gave him a hard look. “Don’t you go fucking doubting people’s motives. Or why they care about you. Doubt everything else, but not that. Jared cares about you for you.” He pressed his lips to Danny’s forehead. “You’re right, though. It’s not all about Noah. I like that boy. He’s grown into something other than a liability, which I always appreciate.”

“And you’d fuck Jared, so...it’s not really about Noah at all.” Danny yelped at the wack on his thigh, not really surprised, but still pouting at Rhodey. It was really his fault his brain wasn’t working right. “It’s true. And you’ve destroyed my filter, sir. Beating me won’t change that.”

Rhodey grunted, then got up, gathering clothes from the dresser and taking a dark blue hoodie from the closet. “Maybe, but it’s too soon in whatever we’ve got going on for you to start testing me, Tiny Tim. You’ve got to get to work so I wouldn’t be able to beat you properly.”

Not wanting to move, Danny took his time sitting up. He stumbled as Rhodey pulled him to his feet where the Dom sat on the edge of the mattress and began to dress him. This time, in some of Avery’s clothes.

And another of Rhodey’s hoodies.

Everything ached, but in a good way. Danny gave Rhodey a sleepy smile. “Thank you for not beating me again, sir. I’m going to have trouble making my legs work as it is.”

“Good thing you’ll be in the DJ booth.” Rhodey pulled up the hood to the hoodie, a smile playing at his lips. “I’ll make sure everyone knows who wreaked you. That’ll keep the asshole Doms from giving you a hard time or getting too close.”

Danny frowned, lowering his gaze. “Shea...might not like that, sir. He can protect me.”

Rhodey slid two fingers under Danny’s chin, forcing his gaze up. “Yes, he can. But he shouldn’t have to. The man’s smart, my boy. He knows he and Jacks can’t always be here. He might not like the sway the core has here sometimes, but he’s not above using it when he needs to. When it’s important.”

“But—”

“No. There will be no misunderstandings, I don’t play that way.” Rhodey stood, his hand still under Danny’s chin so his gaze went up with him. “He wouldn’t have pushed you in my direction, not if it would be too much for you. But once you made the decision yourself? He made sure I knew he approved. Because he saw the benefits and he knew you’d be safer here. He’s not too proud to admit he can’t do it alone.”

Looking back, Danny reflected on all the times both Shea and Jacks encouraged Danny connecting with different members of the core. It wasn’t calculated. They saw how much the people who’d come into his life mattered to him. And how much he mattered to them.

Anything less? They wouldn’t allow.

Which felt good. He might be making some choices, might have to give that kind of trust on his own.

The final decision?

Was out of his hands.

“You look after him too. You like Shea.” Danny grinned, wrapping his arms around Rhodey’s shoulders and rising on his tiptoes to steal a kiss. “That makes me happy.”

“You’re a silly little thing.” Rhodey lifted Danny up in his arms. “Yeah, I like him. And Jacks. I like how they don’t take any shit. They’re good for this place.”

It wasn’t until they’d left the loft and were headed downstairs that Danny realized how it would look, Rhodey carrying him like this. One look at Rhodey told him there was no use trying to discuss it. The claim would be loud and clear.

In the bar music played quietly, Wren prepping the stock while Reed sprawled on the bartop, sucking on a lollipop and chatting with Pike, who was in Quint’s lap. Lawson was in his regular spot, writing in one of his ledgers.

A barely noticeable flick of Rhodey’s gaze to the rafters drew Danny’s attention and he looked up to where Avery was doing a one-handed handstand.

The other sub gave him a broad grin, winking at him before doing a flip and disappearing out of sight.

Danny smiled, a bit of the worry he’d held onto fading at the clear approval he’d gotten from Rhodey’s first sub. Avery was not an enemy he wanted to have. He’d heard plenty of stories from Wren. Who still had one of the weapons Avery had planned to use to kill him.

This place was awesome. But very strange.

Very very strange.

That Danny was starting to understand it made him question his own sanity.

But not too much.

Setting Danny on his feet, Rhodey paused to cup his cheek, giving him one last kiss, his voice low. “Go do what you have to do. Shea will be here soon and I’ll be checking on you. I expect you to handle whatever else comes at you before we do.”

“Yes, sir.” Danny wasn’t sure what Rhodey meant, but he was still riding the high of the time he’d spent with the Dom.

He wasn’t that tough, wasn’t like Avery or Keiran, but something in him suited Rhodey just fine. And that was...incredible.

In the dance club not long after, Danny saw what the Dom had been preparing him for.

Looking a bit irritated, Noah indulged Atticus in what sounded like a lot of talk about his ideas for what the club should do with renovations and how much money he was willing to put into making it happen. By the DJ booth, Paris was on the phone, his lips sliding into a sly smile as he spotted Danny approaching.

“That’s awesome, Jamie. No, no need to thank me, it was my pleasure.” Paris breathed out a laugh. “Oh, I know. I felt the same way the first time I met him. Enjoy your dinner and tell Jacks I said ‘Hi’. The coat he made me had everyone talking at Atticus’s party in Moscow. He’s going to have orders from across the globe. You better get some in before he’s too busy for either of us.”

Swallowing, Danny slipped into the DJ booth. He thought back on all the times Jamie and Trevor hadn’t been at each other’s throats.

When they’d found their rhythm. Known exactly how important they were to the band. And that his place wasn’t...up there with them. The invitations where he was included at the last minute, if at all. The conversations he walked in on, when the subject was changed abruptly, those fake smiles he’d brushed off as him being paranoid rather than seeing them for what they were.

“What the fuck is this?”

One of the rare times he was alone with his father, in the big house the man had bought, the morning after a huge party. No one had cleaned up yet. A few of the servants had been dismissed, others coming in only once a week.

Danny’s fifteenth birthday party had been huge. Danny was still fighting a hangover that had him feeling pathetic because he’d gotten so sick the night before he’d begged his father to bring him to the hospital. It had been fun when the grownups kept offering him drinks, but then his lips went numb and he couldn’t stop throwing up.

His father hissed at one of the caterers to get him out of the way. Thankfully, the man took pity on Danny, bringing him to a bathroom upstairs and calling in one of his coworkers to bring up some strange mix that eventually had Danny settled enough to sleep.

Danny couldn’t bring any of that up without having his father yell at him again, so he stared at the magazine his father had slapped down on the kitchen table in front of him. “It says Jamie will be the next Justin Timberlake. Dad...everyone knows that. He’s made a huge impression. I’m happy for him.”

“That’s so fucking sweet. Keep reading.” His father paced away from the table, not giving him a chance to read another word. “Trevor’s mentioned. They think he can have a career after the band. You? Your name isn’t there. Why is that?”

“But…” Danny inhaled slowly. He knew his father got like this after he drank a lot. The man hadn’t slept. That was all. He was tired and coming down hard. “Dad, they’re supposed to get this kind of exposure. Do you want me to change how I do things? You said—”

“I know what I said and it’s too fucking late now.” Glaring at him, his father yanked the magazine away. “I hoped someone would notice you, while you did your job and didn’t stand out too much. They’ll move on and forget you. Both of them. You’re forgettable.”

Danny’s face heated as the cook they still managed to pay stopped at the doorway. The sympathetic look the man gave him had him wanting to make excuses for his father, but he couldn’t. Because he had to make excuses for himself. “I got that new contract for the Gap ad. Trevor’s manager turned it down.”

A bit of hope filled his father’s eyes. “Did you? Well, that’s something at least. It was nice of him to make sure you could still have it. I’m sure he did, he’s a good boy. Friendships are important. You keep that in mind, you hear me?”

Danny had kept his father’s idea of what friendship was in mind for years. His worth revolved around what other people thought of him. Around the scraps he was left. Trevor never really hid that he pitied Danny. That he felt better about himself because he had more and he controlled a lot of what Danny got. It was his own form of charity.

With Jamie, it wasn’t the same. He was swept up in his bigger role and, looking back, Danny wasn’t sure he’d ever noticed what was going on.

Neither of them had seen who Trevor was. They did now.

But Paris...he was just like Trevor in so many ways. How could Jamie not see that?

Was Danny going to lose him again?

No. I’m not that kid anymore. Our friendship...it’s real now. It’s worth something.

“Oh, I almost didn’t notice you there.” Paris leaned into the DJ booth. “I was just talking to Jamie. He’s thrilled about the opportunity I set up for him. Berney Sinclair’s older brother went to school with Atticus. When I heard how much Jamie admired him...well, when you have those kinds of connections, you put in a good word for your friends. I’m sure you...wait, no, you haven’t had that experience, have you?”

“What do you want, Paris?” Danny looked up from the soundboard. “I’m happy for Jamie. If you’re the kind of ‘friend’ who needs to gloat when you do something for them, it’s not about them at all. I was in Hollywood long enough to see right through that. So was he.”

“Are you sure about that?” Paris made a sympathetic sound when Danny lowered his gaze. “He’s mentioned how insecure you are. How rough you’ve had it. But your Doms are doing well. They can take care of you.”

Danny’s lips parted and he cut off the words that wanted to escape. Jamie had talked to Paris about him? And...saw him that way?

This wasn’t new territory. He’d gone through this with Trevor. All the things Trevor had said to him about Jamie, or Jamie about him?

All lies.

But that didn’t stop the doubt from seeping in.

He’d learned, finally, not to trust blindly.

Now?

In a few words… Paris made it hard to trust anything at all.

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Part 11
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As always, comments welcome! At the end of each month when a serial like this is running, I'll choose one commenter to send merch from The Asylum to. This month, it'll be either a face mask or socks, winner's choice!

Winner will be chosen at random and announced before the first segment of each month. All comments made before then will be entered.

Good luck!

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