“Would you?” Liam sounded skeptical.
With a sigh, Austin turned, looking up to meet Liam’s gaze. “We let you tie us up, mark us, make us beg and scream and submit, and we do it because we trust you. So trust me when I say we love you. Not just as our Dom, but as our partner.”
He wondered if he’d reached Liam, if the words even existed that would make Liam see he wasn’t an optional extra but a necessity to them. Liam was so closed off, only slowly recovering from years of denying himself a full expression of his sexuality, still coming to terms with the fact that he was bisexual. He was lonely in a way that made Austin feel cold to the bone. Coming from a large, noisy, loving family, he wasn’t used to solitude, and so much of Liam’s life seemed to be made up of that. He distanced himself from people, and Austin wanted to get closer to those he loved, physically and emotionally. Jay felt the same way, never choosing to sit far from Austin, always happy to touch and be touched.
“I love you,” he said softly, taking Liam’s face between his hands. There was a line here, and it felt like he was crossing it. “I forget that we might not tell you that enough.”
“No, of course not. It’s fine.” Liam was protesting, but the lines around his eyes agreed with Austin. It felt like Austin was seeing him clearly for the first time in forever.
“It isn’t fine. It’s about the furthest thing from fine I can think of. Don’t tell me it’s fine.” Austin tugged Liam down for a kiss, and Liam’s mouth was new against his, lips softer than Austin remembered even though his body was just as solid. “I want you all the time.” He rubbed himself on Liam and slid a hand around to the small of Liam’s back.
Liam groaned and held him closer. “You haven’t any idea how incredible you are. How tempting.”
“I want to tempt you,” Austin whispered.
“You’re succeeding.” Liam’s heart was beating hard enough that Austin could feel it, a steady, powerful beat that reminded him of the way Liam’s hand would drum against his ass during a spanking.
“You told me to stop thinking,” Austin said and kissed Liam’s throat, knowing exactly where to place his mouth so that Liam’s eyes would slide closed for a moment. “There’s a good way to do that.”
“Upstairs,” Liam said, desire roughening his voice, though it wasn’t an order, and for once Austin didn’t want it to be.
They’d all agreed that anything that happened between two of them was fine, the subject not one that could be ignored but not something they wanted to dwell on. Jay had pointed out that he and Austin made love when Liam wasn’t there, within the limits Liam had set, at least, so why would it be a problem if he and Liam, or Liam and Austin ended up in bed?
“We’re together, aren’t we?”
he’d asked, looking at them both with a question in his eyes.
“It’s not cheating on each other. How could it be? So why would it matter?”
Austin had expected it to matter, had braced himself to feel something—not jealousy, no, but panic, maybe—when Jay and Liam had spent the night together. He’d been away for the weekend, helping April settle into her on-campus accommodations.
Instead he’d felt a flush of arousal warm him as Jay shared what they’d done, the pictures Jay painted turning him on so much that he’d tumbled Jay to the bed and they’d stayed there for an hour or more, fucking with a passion that had left Austin exhausted in the best possible way. Of course, that’d been before Liam’s rule about not coming when he wasn’t there.
Now he didn’t want to wait long enough to go upstairs. He would, though, because the thought of being able to stretch out on Liam’s huge bed was appealing. They had to stop half a dozen times on the stairs—two sets of them—to kiss, and by the time they got to the bedroom, any sense of patience had worn off.
“I want you inside me,” he murmured between kisses, pushing Liam down onto the bed. “God, you smell good.” Liam’s aftershave smelled like spices and musk. Austin started unbuttoning Liam’s shirt—even on the weekends the man was inclined to wear business casual—pushing it out of the way so he could taste Liam’s skin. Liam’s nipple tightened to a little point under his tongue.
Liam pulled the hem of Austin’s shirt upward, and Austin lifted his arms cooperatively, happy to shed anything that was between them. “Take these off,” Liam said, tugging at his jeans, and while Austin did, Liam removed his own so that by the time they came together again, they were both naked.
The shock of pleasure as Liam’s cock brushed his made Austin grunt. “Where’s the lube?” he asked, and Liam reacted like this happened all the time and reached for it, hand flailing blindly into the drawer of the bedside table.
“What now?” Liam asked.
Austin flicked the small bottle open and squeezed some of the clear liquid into his palm. He’d ended up straddling Liam’s waist; it was easy to reach behind him and grip Liam’s cock with his slick hand, then stroke it a few times while he watched the reaction on Liam’s face. Liam’s lips parted, and he flushed. “Now I’m going to fuck myself on your cock,” Austin said. That was all he said—he didn’t ask permission, just like he wouldn’t ask if Jay were the one he was in bed with.
Liam inhaled sharply when Austin sank down, then grabbed Austin’s hips to keep him from moving. “You’ll hurt yourself.”
There wasn’t really enough lube, that was true, but Austin knew his own body. “No, I won’t.” He lifted himself slowly to show Liam that he’d be careful, then let gravity pull him down again, the head of Liam’s cock rubbing his prostate and making him shudder. “Oh my God.”
“My feelings exactly,” Liam said hoarsely.
“Is this good?”
“Are you insane? Of course it is.” Liam pulled him down for a kiss, and Austin made an involuntary sound of pleasure as his eager prick made contact with Liam’s stomach.
“I can’t get used to how intense this feels,” Liam said abruptly.
Austin straightened, wanting to feel Liam’s cock slide just a little deeper, the fading discomfort the perfect spice to his pleasure. “It’s still new to you.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re— Ah, God—” Austin shuddered as he rose an inch, then sank down, his ass snug against the tops of Liam’s thighs, Liam’s long, thick cock engulfed by his body, inside him as far as it could go. “You’re dealing with two of us.”
Talking with any degree of coherence was difficult, but he wanted to distract himself or this would end too soon.
Liam grinned up at him, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Always was an overachiever.” His hand closed around Austin’s cock, working it with an elusive touch, maddeningly light.
“And a prick tease?” He glanced down pointedly. Liam was circling the head of Austin’s cock with a fingertip, and everything in Austin felt tight and clenched. He wanted to slap his hands against the bed, scream until his throat ached. He needed release, craved it as if he hadn’t come for weeks.
Liam moved his attentions to Austin’s balls, playing with them as Austin squirmed, his rhythm lost, his movements erratic. He wanted to ride Liam’s cock, slamming down on it over and over until Liam’s expression dissolved into one of pure, agonized ecstasy, but Liam’s fingers were driving him insane.
“If you haven’t realized that I get off on tormenting you…”
“I noticed.” Austin shuddered and reached down, dragging Liam’s hand away from his balls and placing it against his stiff cock. “Touch me. God.”
“I knew you were bossy somewhere in there.” Liam finally did what Austin needed him to and squeezed his dick with just the right amount of pressure. “Don’t come.”
Austin whimpered. “Need to.” He rode Liam faster, feeling the burn in his thigh muscles and not caring at all.
“Not yet,” Liam said, but he didn’t do any of the things he could have to postpone Austin’s orgasm—didn’t squeeze the base of Austin’s cock or his balls or stop fucking him, which somewhere along the line he’d started to do. It wasn’t just Austin moving himself on Liam’s prick; now Liam was lifting his hips in quick, sharp jerks. “Wait.”
“I can’t. It’s too good.” In that moment Austin wasn’t convinced he’d ever felt anything as perfect as Liam’s cock inside him, moving slickly, huge and unforgiving. “Please.”
“Just a little longer.” Liam let go of Austin’s cock and grabbed him by the hips instead, holding him in place. “Think of something else.”
Austin barked out a laugh. “Like what?”
“I don’t know.” Liam paused, then slid slowly back into Austin. “The weather.”
“The weather?” Austin ran his hands up Liam’s chest and rubbed his thumbs over Liam’s nipples.
“It’s remarkably warm for the time of year,” Liam said imperturbably, but he bit his lip after he’d said it, visibly struggling for control. “We need rain.”
“It’s fucking freezing, and we don’t,” Austin said.
“You’re contradicting me.” Liam raised his eyebrows, his hands cupping Austin’s ass, still preventing Austin from moving the way he wanted to, needed to. “And swearing. That’s very naughty of you, Austin.”
The slap his ass got was as light as the caresses to his dick, but Austin, trained to respond to being spanked, moaned anyway, a thrill of desire sending his arousal to new levels. He’d never seen Liam this playful, this loving.
“Harder.”
“Yes.” Liam released him, but only so that he could strike Austin’s ass with the flat of his hand. “Move for me, Austin. Show me how much you like being fucked by me.”
“I’ll show you,” Austin said as Liam’s palm struck him again, the sweet heat building. “Show you how much I love you. Liam—”
Liam shook his head, his mouth falling open on a groan, his hands bruise-tight on Austin’s ass, lifting him, then slamming him down as his hips bucked upward, the two of them working together to get each other off, neither interested in holding back now.
If he’d been asked, Austin would have guessed it would take only seconds for him to orgasm, but he would have been wrong. Even with every cell in his body screaming for release, it felt like it took forever to get there. He let himself focus on feeling the stretch of his body around Liam’s cock, the way Liam didn’t hold back, the sensation of his own cock getting harder as he got closer to the edge.
When Liam started to come, Austin knew that was all the permission he needed. Orgasm rushed through him like a tidal wave, lifting him and flinging him down again, leaving him wrung out and gasping as Liam’s prick throbbed a final time inside him. Liam groaned loudly and wrapped an arm around Austin’s waist, providing a lifeline he desperately needed.
Liam murmured something Austin couldn’t understand.
“What?” Austin managed to ask, and Liam stroked his hair.
“I love you,” he said.
Austin pushed himself upright on shaky arms and looked at Liam. “One more time?”
Liam’s eyes softened. “I love you, Austin.”
He knew that. Of course he did. But hearing Liam say it, in that moment, made Austin smile.
Chapter Seven
The online dictionary told Jay that sadism was “a sexual perversion in which gratification is obtained by the infliction of physical or mental pain on others (as on a love object).”
He liked the idea of being a love object, and he didn’t have any problem with the idea of having physical pain inflicted on him when it was Liam doing the inflicting. Mental pain… Well, Liam sure as hell got off on coming up with plans that made him realize that sometimes there just wasn’t a good choice even if Liam had helpfully provided him with options—though in the end it usually worked out that he enjoyed himself.
He thought about writing out “Sir is a kind sadist” a hundred times but decided against it. Liam could get bitingly sarcastic if he thought Jay was being what he called “a cheeky brat,” and that wasn’t fun.
He popped the last bit of sandwich into his mouth and began to write. The processing office was empty, with everyone else either on duty or out having lunch at one of the local cafés or fast-food outlets. He had a book he was halfway through, and it was killing him not to take it out and plunge back into the story, but being punished at work like this was all kinds of hot. Even if Liam wasn’t watching him suffer, his blue eyes warm with appreciation.
After the first few lines, he’d memorized the definition and could write it without concentrating on the words. That probably wasn’t what Liam had intended, but it gave Jay a perverse pleasure to think about something else while he was doing what Liam had ordered. Liam might be able to control his behavior—that didn’t mean he could control Jay’s mind.
The pen tip moved in repetitive loops on the paper. Jay wriggled in his chair, relishing the discomfort caused by Liam’s hand moving in repetitive patterns through the air, ending in sharp smacks on his bare ass. He loved the riding crop, especially the fact that he’d feel the bruises from it for days. Liam using his hand felt so intimate.
God, he was getting hard from nothing but memories. The anticipation in the moment before Liam hit him. The flash of pain when he was struck, followed by the slower burn as the overall pain level crept up. Jay wondered how the burn of actual fire would compare. Not that he’d never burned himself cooking, but it had been a long time and he felt like he needed a reminder. He was pretty sure it wasn’t the kind of thing he could do on his own, just based on previous experience trying to re-create what he got from a session.
Jay paused to adjust himself. The deep ache and throb in his ass as he shifted his weight didn’t do anything to lessen his arousal. How many lines had he written so far? He should have numbered the paper first. He was just about to start counting when his cell phone, sitting on the table, vibrated itself three inches to the right.
It was a text from Austin. Jay hit the button to read it.
How’s work? L and I talked about the basement renovations, and then we went back to bed. (Home now, though.) Was really hot. Wish you’d been there.
His first reaction was one of genuine relief that Austin was in a better head space. Getting fucked by Liam was guaranteed to do that to both of them, and Austin’s mood had been so uncertain that some one-on-one time was probably just what he’d needed. Jay looked forward to getting the details later.