Room at the Top (29 page)

“I think I saw part of it before on TV,” Austin offered.

The movie was funny, but Jay was snoring halfway through, head on Austin’s shoulder. At one point, Austin glanced over to find Liam watching them.

“He was tired,” Liam said quietly.

When the ending credits rolled, Jay yawned and stretched. “Nap,” he mumbled and staggered off upstairs.

Austin was anything but sleepy. Liam got up and put the DVD back in its case—exactly what Austin did as soon as he finished watching something.

“I suppose neither of you will be hungry for supper until eight or so, after a late lunch and all those chips,” Liam said.

“Yeah.” Austin got to his feet and looked at Liam steadily, studying him. He looked so different in casual clothes, and something about the way his casual pants fit made him seem even more solid and substantial than usual.

“Anything I can get you? Would you like another drink?”

“No, I’m good.” He’d had a glass of sparkling water, embellished with ice and lime, the glass perfectly clean so the water seemed to be held by air, not glass. Their glasses had come with the furnished apartment and were clean but clouded with faint scratches after years of being washed.

Liam sat down on the couch, in the middle, and reached for the remote. “Maybe there’s a game on. Is there any sport you—”

“Spank me,” Austin blurted out and felt his face go warm. “Please,” he added, though he left off the
Sir.

“I…don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Austin drew in a deep breath. Yeah, it was. It was a really good idea. Like Jay, he needed to nap, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to. There was too much still going on in his head.

“I can’t punch the bag downstairs the way Jay did. I need that same…that release, but I can’t get it that way. I need you to give it to me. Nothing really hard or painful, just…just a spanking. So I can go upstairs and sleep and forget about this whole fucking day. Please, Liam.”

It sounded like the kinkiest thing he’d ever asked for when he said it like that. A spanking to send him to sleep, like Liam’s hand on his ass was some kind of security blanket to cling to.

“You’re still angry.”

“With Jay?” Austin bit his lip. “Kind of. I… That’s normal, though. To love someone and want to yell at them too. I feel that way with April all the time. With Jay, not so much. I thought he was perfect.”

“No one’s perfect.” Liam rubbed his mouth with the edge of his thumb, his expression distant. “It doesn’t stop people from falling in love with them, though.” He met Austin’s gaze. “I won’t do this if you’re trying to punish Jay in some way.”

“By getting spanked when he’s not here?” Austin shook his head. “He won’t mind. He’ll understand that I need it because it was probably what he needed too, but he wasn’t in the right head space to ask for it.”

“I was half expecting him to,” Liam admitted, “but I’d have turned him down. He was in far too volatile a mood, and it would’ve been a disaster.”

Austin took a step closer to the couch. “It won’t be with me.” He wanted this so much. Something to take the bitterness out of the day and leave nothing but the sweet ache and burn in his ass.

“All right.” Liam nodded. “Take off your clothes. Put them there. I’ll be back in a minute.” He left, presumably going into the kitchen if the sounds he was making were any indication, and Austin swiftly did as he’d been told, clothes neatly folded and placed on the arm of the couch.

Liam hadn’t told him to kneel, but it was automatic enough that once Austin was naked, he found himself on his knees. Eyes downcast, he let his vision go unfocused and just breathed, trying to get into a space where he didn’t mind waiting because he knew Liam’s word was good and that he’d be back soon.

When Liam did come back, he’d put on his shoes. He sat on the large chair, not the couch. “Over my knees.”

Austin was too big for lying across someone’s lap to be anything but uncomfortable, but that was part of the process. It was good that it was uncomfortable—it added to the experience. His cock, already hard, was jammed awkwardly against the underside of Liam’s knee and the right side of his pelvis felt like it would bruise from the pressure. He braced his hands on the floor for balance.

“I’m going to spank you until you cry.” Liam spoke calmly. “Until you ask me to stop. If you ask very, very nicely, I might stop then.”

The first slap was swift and unexpected, and Austin gasped and let the sting spread through his skin.

“Good,” Liam said. “I want to hear you making noise.”

“Yes, Sir.” Usually Austin went right into his head and was pretty quiet. It worked for him, even though Jay was the complete opposite.

He wondered if Liam wanted Jay to hear them doing this, so there’d be no question of this being done in secret, but that didn’t seem likely. Austin was going to tell Jay about it the first chance he got, not as a confession but as something to share.

He didn’t want this to be about Jay, anyway. He needed this to be about him. Taking care of people he loved wasn’t a chore or a burden, not really, but sometimes it came close. Today, the need to be the adult, to deal with most of the decisions, big and small, had come at a cost.

Liam’s hand came down again, jolting Austin free of the thoughts tangling in his head like seaweed floating in the ocean. “You don’t need to think about anything but my hand.”

“Yes, Sir.” He didn’t need to reply, but there was something about saying those two words that took away some of the tension balled up inside him.

Yes. Anything. You decide, not me. Give me what you know I need, just do it.

Liam was marking the places he intended to spank, a subtle way of letting Austin know what to expect. The surface of both cheeks, the underside, the very top of his thighs all got a single slap, warming the skin. Then Liam settled down and began to spank him in earnest. “You really do take my hand so well. I’ve barely touched you, and your arse is red.”

Austin moaned, picturing the view Liam had. Every spanking left a different reminder painted on skin, but the burnished redness, the tiny purple bruises…they stayed the same.

“I never see you until the marks have faded,” Liam murmured, his hand hurting Austin now, the heat building, the impact of his palm a shock every time, driving Austin’s breath out in ragged gasps and moans. “A week’s a long time. This spanking is different. I’ll make you show me your arse tomorrow, Austin. I won’t tell you when it’ll happen, but whenever it is, I expect you to take down your trousers immediately and let me see, let me touch.”

“Oh God,” Austin choked out, knowing he’d be waiting for that command. “Yes. Yes, Sir.”

“If I think you need more color, I might put you up against the nearest wall and give you half a dozen slaps. Ever been spanked on top of a spanking, Austin? Those six slaps will feel like sixty.”

He shuddered and closed his eyes, directing all his focus onto the burning pain spreading across his ass and upper thighs. Each slap hurt more than the previous one because he was already sore and getting more so by the second. If he really concentrated, he could feel the sensation spreading far beyond the area that was actually being struck, like it was traveling along his nerves. It went all the way to his knees and up to the bottom of his rib cage. It was consuming him, setting him on fire, burning him to ashes.

Austin didn’t realize right away that he was crying. The thing that finally tipped him off was the cooling sensation on his cheeks, and then he noticed the back of his throat and nose felt thick and swollen and his lips tasted of salt. God, he hurt. “Sir.” He could barely speak. “Please stop, Sir. I’ll do anything, anything you want,
please
.”

“Yes,” Liam said tightly and hit him once more, so hard he bit the side of his tongue. “You
will
do anything I want, Austin.”

And stopped.

Austin sobbed with relief and slid off Liam’s knees onto the floor. That hurt too, but he was too grateful to care. He turned to lean against the chair.

Liam stroked his hair. “There. Good boy. Do you have any idea how beautiful you look?”

For some reason, that made Austin cry harder.

“After that first meeting in the bookshop, I came back here and all I could think about was how much I wanted to do this with you and how you’d look when you were crying for me, holding nothing back. Waiting for that first Friday was hell.”

Austin remembered that week. It hadn’t been hell exactly, but he’d been so worried it wouldn’t work out with Liam. The meeting had left him certain it would when Liam was sitting next to him, that cool assured voice in his ears, watching Liam’s fingers flex on the coffee cup. But after Liam had gone, the doubts had rushed back.

It seemed a long time ago now. Spring had turned to summer, and Liam was a part of his life, still so closed off in some ways, but never during a session. Liam showed them his control in those hours, without hesitation or doubt, but it was obvious he needed the release as much as his subs did. In that, they were equal.

He felt Liam’s finger trace the path of one of the tears trickling down his face.

“Stay here.”

He rested his head against the chair when Liam had walked away. It felt light, detached from his body, making him feel as if he were floating. He lost himself in the insistent throb from his ass, enjoying the way the cool air felt against it.

Liam came back with a small glass of pineapple juice and a wet washcloth. “Let me take some of the sting out,” he said when Austin had drunk the sweet, tangy juice.

Austin shook his head. “I want to feel it.”

Liam raised his eyebrows and gave him a wicked grin. “Oh, you will. Trust me.” He shrugged and wrapped the cloth around his hand, his breath hissing out. “My hand needs it, even if your arse doesn’t.”

Austin shifted position. He didn’t want to sit on Liam’s furniture with a bare ass, but he did want to lie down. When his legs felt like they could support him, he’d get up and go to bed for a nap. Right then, though, if he stood, he’d fall over.

“Does it hurt you a lot? Spanking us, I mean?” He’d sometimes wondered if it did, but during a session there was no opportunity to ask. This spanking had felt different, as casual as Liam’s jeans. A friendly spanking. “I mean, if my ass is burning, your hand must be too?”

“Hands are meant to be tools,” Liam said, as if that was an explanation. “Yes, it will be sore for a few days, but I won’t regret having done it. It’s a different sort of satisfaction, using my hand on you instead of a paddle or a whip.”

Austin’s erection hadn’t faded much even now. He hoped when he went upstairs, he could persuade Jay to fuck him. Jay preferred to be the receptive partner but knew Austin liked being penetrated too, and was usually happy enough to oblige if Austin asked.

“Do you think—” Austin started off spontaneously, then paused and tried again. “May I ask a question?”

“Yes.”

“It’s pretty personal.”

“If it’s too personal, I won’t answer,” Liam said.

“I think we’ve crossed lines we didn’t originally plan to,” Austin said carefully. “The lines…moved, I guess. I wonder if the one, um, the line of fucking—oh God, that sounds stupid. Do you think you’ll ever fuck us?”

“That…yes, that’s fairly personal.” Liam was quiet. “But since it involves you, I suppose you deserve an answer. I…haven’t made any decisions about that particular line just yet.”

“That’s not really an answer,” Austin pointed out.

“Jay isn’t here.”

“He’s wondering too, but yeah, okay, I guess this is something we need to be three for.”

“And it would be three, wouldn’t it?” Liam smiled, the barest twitch of his lips. “I’ve enjoyed my one-on-one time with you both, but the two of you together… I thought you’d be a challenge, and you are, but I never realized how heightened the experience would be. To be spanking you and see Jay’s face as he watches, or have both of you tied, waiting for me to touch you, not knowing who I’ll touch first… It’s a rush.”

“You don’t sound straight.” It was a risk, pushing Liam like this, but Austin needed to take advantage of Liam’s receptive mood. “Do you still think that you are?”

Liam shook his head. “No. I’d have to be incredibly lacking in self-awareness not to realize that I’m physically attracted to you both, though I do think it’s down to what we’re doing to a large extent. I…when I was younger, I had a friend. He—” Liam paused. “God, this is difficult to talk about, even with you. We were teenagers, randy as hell, but friends, nothing more. I suppose it’s the time of one’s life when experimentation is normal, but we never took it far. I spanked him, though. Loved it. God, I loved it so much. I… Women, I like them. I was happy with my wife for a long time, but this, what we do…it’s so much better for me with a man.”

Austin didn’t think Liam had ever shared that much about himself in all the months they’d known each other. He wet his lips, unsure of how to reply, then found himself yawning. “God, I’m sorry. I’m just wiped out.”

“Well, that was the intention, wasn’t it?” Liam smiled at him easily, but the barriers were coming back up, Austin could tell.

He got to his feet, muscles protesting. “I’m going to tell Jay about this, all of it, when he wakes up, if that’s okay?” Liam nodded, just the barest hint of reluctance showing. “Thank you,” Austin added. “For the spanking, for sharing that with me.”

With a sense of having reached a destination—or maybe a crossroads—he moved closer to Liam and kissed his lips. Not lingering, but trying to make it mean something.

Liam held still for the kiss, though he was passive under it, but his eyes were wide, startled, when Austin stepped back.

“Should I say I’m sorry?” Austin asked, wondering if he’d just blown it.

“No,” Liam said. “No. Don’t be. That was…unexpected, but not unwelcome.”

Austin turned that description over in his mind as he walked upstairs to the guest room. Unexpected but not unwelcome? Well, he supposed there were worse responses to a first kiss.

Chapter Seventeen

Liam had to admit he was beginning to find having Jay and Austin staying at his house tiring. It wasn’t that they were annoying or ill-behaved. In fact, they were apparently on their best behavior, helpful and polite. It was just that he was so used to having the house to himself. On one level he enjoyed their company, but on another they made his home seem crowded. They’d left him alone one night and met up with some people Austin had been at school with, going to see a movie Liam had never heard of, followed by pizza. It’d been amusing to see them hesitate over leaving him, asking him to join them without thinking it through. The introductions would’ve been supremely awkward if truthful, though that didn’t seem to have occurred to them. He’d made it plain he really didn’t mind them going and hustled them out of the door with a sigh of relief.