6. Joaquin

Chapter 6

Joaquin

Joaquin was hunched over and trying to take as much comfort as he could out of his piping hot black coffee. It was certainly true that smalltown coffee was cheaper than it was in the city, but it remained to be seen as to whether it tasted any better…

‘ Bleurgh ,' Joaquin spluttered, the harsh taste of the coffee causing immediate offense to his tastebuds. ‘What the fuck…'

Joaquin edged the coffee away from him in disgust and instead stared out of the diner's long window. Ridgeback Falls was in many ways the typical small town. It had all the cute little shops and necessities that one might imagine. And just from looking for less than a minute, Joaquin spotted all the smalltown archetypes too…

Happy old couple? Check.

Bullish young bucks in a pickup truck? Check.

Prissy school mistress? Check again.

But there was something undeniably different about Ridgeback Falls too. Amongst the cozy storefronts and smalltown folk right out of Casting 101, Joaquin picked up on a slightly edgier vibe too.

There were bars, tattoo and piercing parlors, and plenty of motorcycles and muscle cars. The atmosphere was still wholesome, and it certainly wasn't a scuzzy neighborhood vibe either. But there most certainly was an edge .

Rather than spending his time analyzing Ridgeback Falls' admittedly unique aesthetic, Joaquin knew that what he should really be doing was working out a plan for how to get out of town and find somewhere that was totally out of reach as far as Rohan Katsen was concerned.

It wouldn't be easy, that much was for sure.

Other than the money that Joaquin had stolen the night before, he didn't have a penny to his name. So foreign travel was immediately ruled out. And the problem was trying to find another town or city to settle in was that Katsen had contacts across the country. He might not have been a mafioso or affiliated with any of the generationally established mobster families, but Rohan Katsen was building a far reaching network – and Joaquin felt very uneasy about the prospect of keeping off his radar for long.

‘I wish…' Joaquin whispered, his mind throwing back to his early childhood, before everything went to shit. ‘ Nah , wishing's for kids…'

After everything that had gone down the night before, Joshua simply wanted to work out what the hell he was going to do and then make it happen as quickly as he could. This wasn't the time for dreaming, and it certainly wasn't the time to open up pandora's box on his childhood troubles.

Joaquin pulled the coffee mug back close to him and took another sip. Unsurprisingly, it didn't taste any better than it had the first time. If anything, the over-roasted beans just tasted more acidic than before.

If it hadn't been so tragic, Joaquin might have laughed.

Here he was, lost and penniless, complaining that his coffee didn't taste as good as the stuff he was used to back in the city.

But before Joaquin could spend another moment bemoaning the quality of his beverage, he felt a dark shadow suddenly tower over him.

‘You?' Joaquin said, his heart skipping a beat and his entire nervous system going into high alert. ‘What do you want?'

‘Cole… you mean like Cole Tyrant ?' Joaquin asked, suddenly realizing precisely where he recognized the strange, gruff man from the bar from. ‘What the hell…'

Joaquin couldn't quite grasp how and why he was sitting across the diner's corner booth from a decorated, if not controversial, former hockey star. The years may have aged Cole's face, but now that he knew who he was dealing with, Joaquin could see that Cole was still something to be reckoned with.

But it was more than simply a case of being slightly starstruck by a faded sports star.

There was an aura to Cole that Joaquin couldn't shake off. Despite the fact that they were far from friends at this stage, Joaquin couldn't take his eyes off Cole as he spoke.

It was like each and every word that came out of Cole's mouth was utterly compelling to Joaquin – and try as he might, he couldn't break the spell.

This is weird.

I don't like it.

He's good looking, but it's not like I'm into guys…

‘Hey, are you listening to me, kid?' Cole asked, impatience in his voice as he leant over and placed his big, heavy hand on top of Joaquin's arm. ‘I'm trying to help you. And I wasn't born yesterday. I know trouble when I see it.'

‘ Ummm …' Joaquin uttered, clueless as to how to respond. ‘I'm not into dudes. Sorry.'

‘Don't flatter yourself,' Cole barked, clearly unimpressed with Joaquin's riposte. ‘This is fucking serious. Tiffany said you were on edge this morning, couldn't wait to haul your ass out of the tavern. Someone's chasing you, aren't they?'

Joaquin was still cringing from his idiotic comment about not being into guys, but it was clear that Cole wasn't going to give up until he got at least some kind of a response out of him.

‘I… I… I…,' Joaquin said. ‘I'm… not going to tell you.'

Joaquin felt adrenalin surge over his body as the words spilled out of his mouth. He knew that he was turning a helping hand away from him, but Joaquin struggled to trust people and had been burned so many times in the past.

As far as Joaquin was concerned, he was going to do what he always did – and that was look after himself.

‘I'm not telling you and I don't give a fuck if you don't like it,' Joaquin spat, standing up from the booth, grabbing his backpack, and marching over toward the exit.

As he walked, it felt like time was slowing down to the point of total standstill.

The more steps Joaquin took, the further he seemed to be away from the exit door.

And even when Joaquin was indeed about to open the door and make his exit, he felt Cole's hand on his shoulder.

‘You're coming with me, boy,' Cole growled, his voice low and commanding.

With that, Joaquin felt Cole subtly march him out of the coffee spot and down a nearby side street. The sounds of passing cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians quickly faded into the lowest of background noise as Joaquin felt Cole spin him and push him up against a large industrial trash can.

‘W-w-w-wait, what's… what are you… what have I…' Joaquin spluttered, his mind spinning and his heart racing.

‘You want to talk, but your pride is getting in the way,' Cole growled, leaning over and placing his hand around Joaquin's neck. ‘I'm going to help you with that little problem. All I need is a single word. I'm talking about your safeword.'

‘I don't… I've never…,' Joaquin said, suddenly conscious that his cock was rock-hard, and all of his senses were tuned up way beyond their normal levels. ‘My safeword is chocolate .'

‘ Chocolate it is,' Cole growled, roughly yanking Joaquin's jeans and briefs down toward his ankles. ‘Now I'm going to spank these cheeks until you're ready to tell me everything . Got it?'

‘Y-y-y-yes, sir,' Joaquin replied, shocking himself at how submissive he felt and how dangerously thrilling the moment felt. ‘But did say, I'm not into guy-'

However before Joaquin could finish his sentence, he felt the first spank landing hard and loud on his right buttock. This was followed by an identical spank on his left cheek.

The pain was immediate, and it was shockingly electric too.

Joaquin didn't know whether he wanted to cry or moan in delight.

This is fucked up.

I'm being spanked down an alley by a man old enough to be my father.

And I'm…

‘Fuck!' Joaquin bleated, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth spanks following each other with unerring rhythm and accuracy.

‘Quiet, unless you want to give up your position to whoever it is might be trying to find you,' Cole barked, landing two more spanks. ‘Remember, when you're ready to talk, I'll be ready to close this damn thing out.'

Joaquin felt his legs tremble as the pain began to spread across his body. Cole was spanking so hard and fast, it was almost impossible to get his breath back enough to talk, but Joaquin knew that he was approaching his limit.

‘I'm… I'm… not telling you anything!' Joaquin said, his pride forcing him to ignore his body and push onward.

‘And I'm not ready to stop turning these cheeks red, you little brat,' Cole countered, grabbing Joaquin's left cheek in one hand and squeezing it while brining two rapid fire spanks down on it with his spare hand. ‘And I've got a lot more tricks up my sleeve too.'

Joaquin let out a cry of pain and felt himself blush intensely as he looked down and saw that his cock was hardening again after the initial shock of the pain had made him go soft.

‘I'm done, I'll talk,' Joaquin said, his voice full of breathless panic as he covered his cock and pulled his briefs up.

‘Not so fast,' Cole replied. ‘We'll talk. But first I need to make sure that this red little butt has its fair share of cooling cream.'

Joaquin gasped and felt his cock press up against his own palms as Cole pulled a tube of cream from his pocket and squirted a thick blast over his flaming hot butt cheeks.

Fuck, that feels good.

So cool, so…

No. I hate it. I hate all of it.

But as much as he was wrestling with his response to the spanking and now the aftercare, Joaquin knew that Cole's hands were delivering exactly what his ass needed.

‘Enough,' Cole said. ‘Pull your pants up, we're going back to mine. And we're going to get to the heart of the matter. And now you know I'm not fucking around, I don't expect a single other problem from you from here on out. You got that?'

‘Got it,' Joaquin said, his voice soft and every inch of his mind and body ready and willing to do whatever Cole told him to.

Joaquin didn't know whether this feeling would last. And he certainly had no idea of what he might be getting himself into. But he did know one thing for sure. He felt safe .

The only question was whether he would still be feeling safe once he was back at Cole's place…