Room at the Top (30 page)

Though he’d missed them after a few hours.

They’d changed his house in small ways too, without ever being disruptive. Once uncluttered surfaces were now crowded with odds and ends, and Jay’s books were everywhere. Liam could understand reading in the bath or even on the loo, but halfway up the stairs, wedged between the wall and the railing? The fridge was crammed full of unfamiliar food—very little of it healthy—and Austin had insisted on barbecuing outside one evening, on the grill that Liam had bought and used once. Liam had no patio furniture, but Jay had vanished for thirty minutes and returned with three white plastic chairs from the local hardware store. They’d been uncomfortable to sit on, but Liam had to admit he’d enjoyed his steak, washed down with a peppery Shiraz, even if he’d had to pick a few bugs out of his drink as the night went on.

They’d also presented him with a houseplant, a cactus of some sort. He’d thanked them, and after studying the label, he’d put it in the kitchen, where it’d get the sunlight it apparently needed. It was only as he’d been dropping off to sleep that he realized Jay’s lips had been twitching and Austin’s eyes gleaming with amusement. Pink flowers and lime-green leaves…a good match to the toys Jay had bought and he’d rejected. He’d rolled to his back and stared up at the ceiling, plotting revenge, an activity enjoyable enough that he’d forgiven them long before he woke up.

His room was far enough away from theirs that he didn’t hear any sounds they made once the lights were out, but he’d woken once in the night, ragingly thirsty, and gone down to the kitchen. It’d been earlier than he thought, only one in the morning, and on the way back to his room, he’d heard them making love. The muted squeak of the bed, the low, intimate sounds they were making… He’d stood listening for longer than he should before walking back to his room, wondering if they’d waited until they’d known he was asleep. Wondering what they did to each other, how they’d look as they came.

He was working from home one afternoon when he heard the front door being unlocked. A moment later, Jay called, “It’s me!” Two minutes after that, Jay appeared in the doorway. “Hey, I’m back.”

“Yes, the shouting got that message over, thanks.” Liam sighed. “Please close the door on your way out. I’m trying to work.”

He only had another twenty minutes or so of work to complete, but it felt like longer when he was aware that Jay was probably nursing hurt feelings. Forcing himself to be diligent, Liam gave the paperwork more attention than it required before leaving his office in favor of finding Jay.

Jay was lounging on the couch, his feet up, a can of soda in one hand and a bowl of chips on the floor within reach, watching TV with a book, a form of multitasking Liam just didn’t get. The sound was louder than Liam considered necessary, and he was fairly certain that if he saw one more snow-capped New Zealand mountain covered in elves, he was going to hide Jay’s DVD collection in the trash.

When Jay saw Liam, he got up and carefully placed his can on a coaster. Liam had pointed out that condensation caused rings on wood two days before, and not held back when he did it.

“Work finished?”

“Yes, more or less. Jay—”

“I am so sorry I bugged you when you were busy.” Jay closed the gap between them and gave Liam a hug. “I was just glad to see you.”

The hugs had started on the first morning of their stay. Liam got them at breakfast, before Austin and Jay left for work, when they returned, and at bedtime.

They were friendly, casual hugs and impossible to object to, even if Liam had been inclined. He’d been aware that Austin and Jay touched each other a lot, perhaps unconsciously; it was difficult to miss. They sat close enough that their arms brushed, held hands or bestowed reassuring pats if they were stressed, and hugged, kissed, and snuggled in a way that left Liam watching with a baffled wistfulness.

To be included, if only partially, in that closeness made up for a lot of the minor irritants of having them underfoot.

Possibly not the way Jay’s ancient, rusting VW bug had dripped oil onto Liam’s pale gray driveway.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you. How was your day?”

“Honey,” Jay said and grinned when Liam gave him a blank look. “It should be, How was your day, honey?”

Making him the wife? Not likely. He gave Jay a reproving tap on the cheek with one finger. “Very funny. Don’t make me ask again.”

Jay grinned, unrepentant, though even that one small touch had made his eyes widen, a flash of interest showing. “It was fine. Well, it was busy, but that’s fine. I’d rather be busy than bored.”

“You really don’t like being bored,” Liam agreed. It was probably an explanation for why Jay tended to be so naughty during a session. He’d rather be punished than bored as well. Definitely something Liam would have to explore in more detail at some point.

“Austin called on my lunch break,” Jay said, suddenly going a bit more sober. “He says we can go home on Thursday.”

Liam felt a pang at the thought of being alone in the house again, even though he knew he’d also appreciate the peace and quiet. “You don’t sound very happy about that.”

“No, I am.” Jay looked down at his shirt and picked an invisible bit of lint from it. “But I like being here too.”

“You can be here on Friday nights.”

“I know.” Left unspoken was that it wouldn’t be quite the same, and Liam couldn’t disagree with that. “Oh, that must be Austin now.”

Sure enough, Austin came in a moment later, already unbuttoning the top two buttons on his shirt. Jay got the first hug, Liam the second. Austin smelled of heat and behind that the vague odor of antiseptic from the clinic. It wasn’t an unpleasant combination. “Whew. Hot one out there. Did Jay tell you the good news?”

“About your apartment being fixed? He did.”

“I had an idea.” Austin bent to untie his shoes, and Liam found himself wishing Austin was facing the other way so that his arse could be admired.

“And what was that?”

“I think—and it’s just an idea, obviously, so either of you can veto it if it sounds like a bad one—that we could, well, maybe have a session at our place. Once we get things more or less back where they belong.”

“Why would we do that?” Jay asked, frowning. “Which is not a veto.”

“It would kind of make it, you know,
ours
again. Except even more ours, because Liam would be there. We could have some new good memories to kind of erase the bad ones.” Austin was studying Jay’s face as he often seemed to, reading the reactions there.

“I’m not averse to the idea,” Liam said as neutrally as possible. He was. He liked being in control, in an environment he owned. On the other hand, what Austin was asking was, in a way, another invitation to get closer, to step into their world.

And it would only be the one time.

“But you don’t love it.” Austin’s face fell, though he tried to hide his disappointment.

Liam surrendered.

“I just want to be sure that you’ve thought about the, ah, limitations? Noise? Neighbors? I’d hate for you to be placed in an awkward situation.”

“Oh!” Austin smiled, reassured. “Yeah, Jay does tend to get noisy.”

“Hey!” Jay elbowed him. “Do not.”

“Do too—”

“
Children
.” It got their attention, though it’d never worked on his actual kids. “Will it be a problem?”

“No,” Austin said with an air of triumph. “Friday nights, Nicole and her son stay at her mom’s. Kind of a standing family dinner. She never misses it.”

Liam nodded. “Then let me know when you’re settled and I’ll be there.” He hesitated, needing to mention something he’d been putting off because he was unsure how they might react. He hadn’t been able to decide if he should mention it casually or have it be the subject of a serious discussion.

Jay had wandered into the kitchen and was looking in the refrigerator. It certainly hadn’t taken long for him to make himself at home. “What are we going to do about dinner?”

“I could make that chicken thing with the pasta,” Austin suggested.

Thus far Liam hadn’t sorted out whether either of them could cook. “That would be nice,” he said, hoping he wouldn’t be proven wrong. “Oh, I’ve been meaning to mention that the weekend after next, I’ll be gone—for five days, actually—but only the Friday night will affect our plans. That should give you time to get your place back to normal before I come over.”

Austin, who had just straightened up and was holding a package of chicken, looked surprised. “You’re going away?”

“My daughter is graduating. I’m going for the ceremony and the party her mother, God help me, is throwing.” He was looking forward to the parts where he’d see Alison, but not particularly to the rest of it. Barbara’s family would be there, of course, and to say they weren’t fans of his would be the understatement of the decade.

“But why do you have to be gone for five whole days?” Austin asked plaintively.

Liam wondered how he’d known this wasn’t going to be a cut-and-dried discussion. “Because almost an entire day each way is devoted to travel. And because I haven’t seen my kids for a while and I want to spend time with them. I won’t be gone for a month, Austin. It’s less than a week.”

“But—” Austin blinked, and his expression went from upset to blank in an instant. “Right, okay.”

Jay had been watching Austin’s face, but now he looked at Liam and smiled. “That’s great that your daughter is graduating. Is your ex-wife’s family nice, or will it be awful?”

“Awful,” Liam said, “but I’ve known them all for so long that it’s a familiar awful and I can handle it. We got on fairly well before, but they blame me for the divorce and the effect it had on Barbara and the children. The fact that she asked for the separation and is enjoying life very much these days doesn’t seem to count.”

Jay asked a few more questions about Alison and Ben, Liam’s son, but with Austin now chopping vegetables with the precision of a surgeon, his back to them, pointedly not joining in, Liam was happy to let the subject die a natural death.

* * *

“He’s not really worried that you won’t come back,” Jay said when Austin was in the shower, leaving Jay and Liam in the family room. The pasta dish had been edible, but Austin had alternated between silence and talking too much, too fast, so it hadn’t been the most relaxing meal Liam had ever had. “I mean, you will, and he knows that. And he knows your daughter graduating is important. He’s just—” Jay wiggled his hand. “He likes people he cares about being where he can see them. When I go to see my parents, he closes down on me. Not because he’s angry, it’s just…” Jay shrugged.

“So Patrick going must’ve been difficult for him to deal with?”

“Oh God, yes. For both of us, though, so I wasn’t much help. I went to pieces too.” Jay smiled at him. “Though it worked out just fine in the end. We spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, by the way. He says to tell you hi.” Jay bit his lip, worrying the skin until Liam reached out and stopped him with a finger laid across Jay’s mouth. “I used to wish he’d come back. I still want to see him again, but…he’s not our dom now. You are.” Jay stared down at the book in his lap. “You push us more. You hurt me better. I think…Patrick needed to do something, but he didn’t really need
us
. You do.” Jay glanced up, his expression begging for reassurance. “You do, right? Need us, I mean, not just any subs?”

“Yes.” It was a simple answer, but Jay’s face lightened immediately. It was also an honest reply. Liam couldn’t picture being with anyone but the two of them. He had so much he wanted to do with them. They’d barely scratched the surface, but exploring their kinks and his wasn’t something he wanted to rush. “I know what it was like, not having such a badly needed outlet, Jay. I needed this as much as you both did.” It was an important thing to admit, even if it made him feel uncomfortable to do so. “And it really is just a few days. I’ll be back before you know it.”

“I guess we’ll have to make the most of you while we’ve got you.” Jay smiled at him again. “Sir.”

* * *

Getting Austin out of his bad mood with an unplanned session had seemed like a good idea with the memory of Jay’s smile heating Liam’s body, but he had to admit it wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped. For a start, he’d sprung it on them when they were halfway through a movie they’d rented that needed to be returned that night. They’d agreed to it, but the dynamic had been all wrong from the start. Liam wasn’t a fan of impromptu at the best of times, and without his usual preparations and mental planning, he’d found himself struggling to get the session running smoothly.

With Austin and Jay living in the bedroom that they’d been using for the sessions, he took them back to the den—only to discover that most of the equipment was upstairs and a large part of the den floor was taken up by a board game Jay and Austin had tried to get him to play. Liam remembered playing Risk as a student, but he also remembered that the game could go on for hours. He’d turned them down, despite being told that playing with two people wasn’t as much fun. Walking into the den to check it out, he’d trodden on a pink piece of plastic with sharp edges and yelped as it dug into his bare foot.

Making them clean up the game naked while he administered some well-aimed slaps at their arses and the back of their thighs with a long, narrow paddle that had a wicked bite had soothed him a little—even if Jay had pouted throughout.

Liam didn’t give a fuck that Jay had been about to take over Asia.

Ten minutes in, with Jay over his knee, yelping through a spur-of-the-moment spanking he’d earned for going to his knees with all the grace of a sack of potatoes—deliberately—the doorbell rang.

Liam paused, aware that Austin, kneeling in the corner, wearing a cock ring, nipple clamps, and a pout, was giving him a startled look of inquiry.

“Ignore—” The bell rang again, followed by a polite but insistent rapping. “Oh, for God’s sake!”

Liam tipped Jay off his lap. Neither of them was tied up, but leaving them during a session went against the grain. He pointed at the opposite corner. “Jay. Crawl over there. Hands and knees, facing the wall. Don’t talk. We’re far from done here.”