The Brownstone: Michael

(Authors Note: This is the 6th installment in the Brownstone series. In reading order they are: Michael Ch01,02 Charles Ch01,02,03 Michael Ch03.

Teaser alert...Cecil was not one of the three men this story is about. The third generation man will be introduced soon...)

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

I listened to Charles tell me his horrific introduction to sex way past Thursday night into early morning, almost sunrise Friday. I fell asleep dreaming of rulers, canes and soapy enemas fearful that Charles wanted to do these things to me. When I finally opened my eyes it was past noon and I was alone in the bed. I stretched out relishing the fleeting time to myself.

Up until last night I was so enamored by Charles' indomitable personality and kept asking myself 'why me?'. After his confessions over the past twenty four hours I think I finally figured it out -- he wanted me to submit to him, like he submitted to Cecil. The very thought of surrendering myself to another person not only frightened me but depressed me too.

"Good Morning." I rolled over and saw Charles standing in the doorway. I put on my best smile, which wasn't difficult, just looking at him made me want him, my cock betraying any bad thoughts I had just felt.

"I didn't have the heart to wake you, I hope you slept well."

"I did...thanks..." I said. He walked over to the bed and sat on the edge.

"Would you like something to eat?" His voice was low and sexy and filled with double entrendre. I couldn't help but smile.

He leaned into me and kissed my lips. Right now he wanted me - just me and that was enough for the time being.

*****

"Will you tell me something?" I asked awhile later. I was lying on top of him my cock buried deep his ass. I licked my tongue over his lips ans shifted slightly driving myself deeper into him. There was no rush for me to cum.

"If this is your way of torturing the truth out of me I will tell you anything you want to know."

"What made you finally leave Cecil?"

"Oh...hmmm...this is a serious for real question." He said looking at me. "Well..."

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

Things between Cecil the Master and Charles were never really the same after the 'Dolan' incident. They went through the motions for a few months but after Charles graduated college, Cecil, upon Charles' request, renounced him. Needing his own space Charles took his considerable savings he had squirreled away while living at the brownstone and bought a cozy one bedroom apartment overlooking Central Park. Life moved on.

All Charles, the newly appointed Vice President of Cecil & Company, wanted to do was focus his concentration on work. On the surface there appeared to be no discernible strain between Cecil and Charles. To everyone around them they gave the impression they were still the perfect team but they both knew it was all smoke and mirrors. Underneath everything there were still too many unsaid words.

It wasn't until a business trip to London that they finally broke the silence. Charles had been in London for a week before Cecil arrived unannounced. It was late one evening and Charles had just finished eating in the hotel restaurant and was heading to his room when he saw Cecil walking across the lobby towards him.

"I wasn't expecting you." He said in a why-the-hell-are-you-here tone.

"When we spoke yesterday I got the feeling the negotiations weren't going well..." Cecil stopped speaking and looked around the almost empty lobby. "That's not why. I...came to...it's time we talk Charles. I feel like we left things hanging, important things." He paused and looked around again. "And right now I would prefer that we go someplace more private if you want to have this conversation."

"We can go to my room..." Charles said with mixed emotions. A part of him really missed Cecil George the lover he came to know in Washington.

Charles had had plenty of time to think in the months since he left the brownstone. He had been under Cecil's control for close to two years and in all that time he somehow managed to ignore everything that he did to him. Looking back at those first months with Cecil, Charles' felt it was his own naivety that let him allow Cecil to use him the way he did. Even as he became more educated within the lifestyle and he knew what Cecil was doing to him was wrong and against everything the brownstone stood for, he still allowed Cecil to exercise his perverted ways over him. Why? The answer shocked him -- it was purely out of an all consuming love Charles felt for Cecil and blind faith that in the end he wouldn't do anything to really harm him.

The truth of their relationship hit home after Dolan beat Peter to a pulp and Cecil for all intents and purposes took his side by not firing him that Charles finally saw their relationship for was it was. Charles was simply a submissive to Cecil and he would never feel the same way towards Charles the way that Charles felt towards him.

They were seated in the small living room off the bedroom that had a love seat size sofa and two swivel plush chairs -- Cecil sat in one, Charles in the other. They looked at each other occasionally but neither of them spoke.

It was Charles that eventually took the lead.

"Cecil you came all this way...because you said you need to say something. I'm here...I'm listening."

"Yes...you are right...this just isn't as easy as I had hoped it would be." It was the first time Charles had ever seen a chink in Cecil's armor.

"Maybe I can help you out...you did what you did because it was the right thing for 'YOU' Cecil. It's always been about you. At some point I just needed it to be about us or even about me."Charles finally said.

"Us?" He appeared completely mystified that Charles could even consider what they had to be an US.

"Don't you know Cecil? Are you so wrapped up in yourself that you can't see it?"

For the first time since they met Cecil was stymied...and then he shrugged.

Charles just had to laugh. "All I want is to be with you Cecil, in a regular, normal relationship." he finally said through the laughter, than the tears.

"Normal? There is nothing normal about two men being together" Cecil's convictions filled the room.

"How can you say that? Look at what we shared in Washington, you were so gentle, so compassionate...so normal." Charles said waving his hands in the air to try and make his point.

"But I was able to take it out and punish you later for those transgressions we committed that week."

Charles just shook his head. Cecil couldn't see it. Thinking for a brief moment he decided to try going in another direction. "Do you care for me Cecil?"

"Of course I do." He said without pause and with total honesty.

"Do you want to have a relationship with me...outside of our working relationship?"

"Most definitely yes...I've missed you more than you will ever know...but I didn't think you wanted me to use you anymore."

"I don't Cecil. I will never submit to you again. I will never allow you to inflict your punishments or pain on me again. I want us to be lovers, share the same bed, and express ourselves sexually as equal partners."

"I...I...I'm not sure I am capable of that Charles...I only know how to use men, I don't know any other way."

Charles sighed. That was the crux of the whole matter. As much pleasure as Cecil derived from being with men deep inside he felt it was wrong. The only way he could justify being with a man was to dominate them and use them. Charles looked down at his watch, the watch Cecil had given him.

"It's late. Will you stay with me tonight? Sleep in my bed with me?" Charles held his hand out to Cecil. Without a word they walked into the bedroom together.

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

"We remained lovers, this time on my terms, for close to a year but in the end I knew that Cecil wasn't happy. I think he went through the motions doing things my way with the hope that one day I would submit to him again. I finally understood that Cecil could never be happy in the type of relationship I envisioned. Cecil was too ingrained in his sadistic lifestyle and need for total control."

"But you stayed at Cecil & Company? Even after everything?"

"Yes." Charles looked at me oddly. "Why does that shock you? Neither Cecil or myself would have let our personal feelings get in the way of business."

I had moved away from Charles and was sitting at the end of the bed with my back against the footboard of the giant bed we had been sleeping in. "So... you and Cecil were over and you decided...well for lack of a better word...to go straight and get married?" I don't know why my tone was laced with contempt, but something about Charles' life just didn't seem right.

Charles simply chuckled.

"No...it wasn't like that...and not that it is any of your business...but to put your mind at ease...I have never, and doubt I ever will, slept with a woman. In case you haven't noticed from the past couple of days we've been together, I without doubt prefer men...and right now I would really like to prefer you very much..." He moved over to where I was sitting and pulled me into his arms. I really did want to resist...but...oh...he was so fucking sexy and when that tongue of his licked over my nipple I was gone...

Over a late lunch I asked him about his wife. "Mary is my best friend." He was stumbling over his words until finally he blurted it out...Mary is Cecil's daughter. Nothing could have ever prepared me for that admission.

"When Mary graduated college Cecil made her come to work at his company. She hated it...I mean REALLY hated it. It was the late 60's, the Vietnam War was dividing the United States and within Cecil and Company another war was brewing...Cecil against Mary. Cecil had secured several pro-war government contracts and Mary was against the war. He put me in the middle by having her work as my assistant.

We became friends...more than friends, we had this bond between us, it's difficult to explain but somehow she always knew what I was thinking.

Than one night over dinner she asked me to marry her." Charles just smiled and shrugged. "Mary is a lot like her father in some ways...but the real reason she wanted to get married was that Cecil would let her stop working when she got married.

"Mary was one of those unique women that when we met had never dated, never even had a sexual thought. She's always been very happy in her world. She has her volunteer work and a small circle of friends. From the beginning she told me that she would never stand in my way, never question me or hold me back and if at anytime I wanted a divorce she would grant it to me.

"As crazy as it sounded it really wasn't a bad idea. Mary didn't want to work. Being married solved that problem for her. For me it was a veil. I was an up and coming business executive in a world that men were measured by the women that stood behind them. I couldn't have asked for a better wife than Mary. We eloped the following weekend and have been married for close to eighteen years.

"After we married I approached Cecil about opening an office in Washington. He was having a difficult time accepting that Mary and I married and readily agreed. As a belated wedding present he bought us an obscenely large house that Mary absolutely loves and I can't stand. But I travel a good part of the time and I missed New York to stay away for too long."

"I must say you have led an interesting life Charles." I finally said after thinking that was the only thing I could say.

"Why don't we take a walk and I'll tell you about the rest of my sordid past."

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

It was May 20, 1972. On a rare occasion Charles was spending a few days in Washington with Mary. They had stayed up late talking about her charity work and the business. Charles still cherished these times with Mary and he always felt so lucky that they had each other. At four in the morning they said their good nights and went to their separate rooms. Hours later both their lives came to a crashing halt.

Charles was sleeping so deeply he barely heard the phone ringing but moments later Mary's screams from her room shattered whatever dreams he may have been having. He ran into her room to find her sitting on her bed in obvious shock. He grabbed the phone from her hand and put it to his ear to hear what she had just heard.

Cecil and Marion George were dead.

They had gotten up early and were on their way to their summer home in the Hamptons when an oncoming driver fell asleep at the wheel and hit them head on. The police told them that they died on impact and didn't suffer but all that Charles could think was that everyone suffered. Cecil and Marion because their lives were senselessly cut short, Mary because she had lost the only family, and Charles because he lost the only person he had ever truly loved.

The funeral was small, Cecil had cut ties with the few family members that were left on the George side years earlier and Marion was an only child. It was Charles and Mary, a few family friends and some people from the office.

Cecil, a man of very few words and left a will of very few words. He left everything, the homes, the business, the brownstone and the money all to Charles. There was one brief codicil that Charles was to establish a trust for Mary that would provide for her in the event they ever divorced but Cecil knew Charles well enough that he would never let anything happen to his beloved daughter.

Mary had told Charles about the will even before it was read. She told him that she had been with Cecil when he made it and insisted that he leave everything to Charles -- she had no interest in his money or 'things' he had amassed.

Before he left the attorney handed Charles a sealed envelope. Written across the front in Cecil's handwriting it simply said: CHARLES. He excused himself and walked outside. Holding the envelope for a long time, savoring Cecil's scrawling of his name and the fact that he took the time to say something so secret only his death could reveal it. Slowly and carefully he opened it, not wanting to ruin any part of the letter or envelope.

My dearest Charles,

If you are reading this letter then I have gone to the great beyond, but I suspect in my case it's probably very warm where I am. I couldn't go without telling you two things. I should have been more of man and told you to your face, but sometimes it is easier to take the simple way out.

The first is I need to let you know is that from the minute you walked into my life I have loved you. This love manifested itself in so many different ways. In the office I loved you as a son and I am so proud of all your accomplishments you made in the business world. As your Master you were the best possible submissive I could have ever had and I did love you for that too. It was, however, our time in Washington that I discovered a deeper and different type of love for you. I wanted to freeze every minute of our time together and never have things change but it was my own foolish stubbornness that couldn't allow me to accept these feeling and for that I am truly sorry because not only did I cheat you, but I cheated myself. So now I go to my heaven, or hell, at peace having had you in my life and finally telling you how I truly felt.

It is my dying wish and hope that one day you will find the ability to love someone as much as I have loved you.

The second thing you need to know concerns Dolan. I need you to understand why I didn't let him go that awful night. Dolan and I grew up together. I discovered my 'proclivity' for sadomasochistic sex with him. I wasn't an angel and did some very bad things that could have easily come back to haunt me. Unbeknownst to me Dolan took pictures of one of the worst offenses I committed. I am still haunted by the things I did that one awful night. Both Dolan and I knew I could have very easily been sentenced to a lifetime in prison, and I would never have wanted my wife or family to know what an awful human being my perversion had turned me into. Because of this Dolan successfully has blackmailed me all these years.

So Charles, judge me however you want to, I'm dead now and I know that in death I will pay for the sins I perpetuated in life.

I know that with everything I put you through it wouldn't be fair of me to ask one last favor of you but I am going to anyway. I would be forever grateful if you could find the pictures and negatives and destroy them and then with my whole hearted permission PLEASE destroy Dolan.

I go to my grave loving you and will love you for an eternity... Cecil

******

Mary returned to Washington shortly after the funeral but Charles remained in New York. The brownstone had become his major concern and fulfilling Cecil dying wish.

Two years earlier Charles, after having gone without for close to a year, discovered his dominate side when Cecil suggested he become a member.

Cecil, who never minced his words, said it so aptly "I knew the moment you asked me to renounce you that one day the Master in you would come out."

Charles quickly learned to appreciate fucking a nice tight ass and to command respect, without being sadistic, from a submissive to the point of garnering the admiration of the other Masters around him. He was totally ingrained in the brownstone and understood completely why Cecil wanted it to be solely owned and not membership owned. The structure, the philosophy of dominance, dictated that there can only be one Master who reigns over all.

For the first time in the history of the club, out of respect for Cecil, Charles closed the club for seven full days. The submissives and trainers were shipped up to White Plains for rest, relaxation and mourning. The main floor remained open and the members were allowed to access the restaurants and gym facilities, but the elevators were shut down and there was no access to any of the other floors. Dolan requested to remain behind but Charles was insistent that he take a few days away also. In the end Dolan agreed to take a four day trip to South Beach.

Charles, with the help of Peter, started the dubious task of searching every square inch of the brownstone looking for the blackmail material. For two days straight barely taking time to eat of sleep they covered every nook and cranny of the place but finally their hard work paid off when they found a secret room off the staging area on the lounge level. In the small room, no bigger than an oversize closet they found a cornucopia of Dolan's sick ways. Besides several 35MM cameras and an expensive 16MM movie camera they found two file cabinets filled with pictures, negatives and reels of movies. It took them hours to sort through everything and it wasn't until they found Dolan's sizeable bank book and statements that they realized it wasn't only Cecil he was blackmailing, it was also a high percentage of the membership.

Charles just shook his head. "I can't believe he got away with it for all these years."

"Ya know what worries me now?" Peter said.

"Where did he get all this blackmail stuff developed? What if whoever developed the stuff made copies for themselves?"

"Let's just pray we find that he developed that stuff here." Charles said more determined to put this nightmare past them. Deep inside he knew that Cecil knew what Dolan was doing and couldn't do anything to stop him.

After clearing the lounge level they headed up to the sleeping floor. Having found the false wall one floor below they now had a better understanding of how Dolan's mind worked. It only took them a short time before they found the labyrinth of passageways that gave Dolan behind the wall access to all the private sleeping areas. They followed what seemed to be never ending pathways through the floor until it dead ended at what appeared to be a solid wall, but as Charles looked more closely he found it was yet another false wall and after pushing on it they found what they were looking for...Dolan's darkroom.