Rough Road (20 page)

The following Saturday, sitting in the stands of the Lake Lovelace State University gym, sandwiched between Ben and Wish and watching Tina fight her way on roller skates through a pack of chicks in spandex and fishnets, I can’t help but think this is one of the strangest afternoons I’ve ever spent. The smell of old sweat lingers in the air, and the shouts and whistles are far too reminiscent of high school for my taste. But this is important to Tina, so I lean toward Wish and ask, “Please explain what’s happening, one more time?”

“She’s the jammer. She gets points for each of the girls in yellow she passes, so they don’t want to let her through.”

“How can you tell?”

Wish and Ben exchange one of those secret-jock-knowledge glances.

Ben sighs. “The star on her helmet. Plus, she said this morning she’s excited we’re seeing her first bout as jammer. It’s a big deal to her.”

He says that like sports talk is even the same language as English. I sit back in my seat and watch her make a break for the outside of a turn and swing past the group who’d been shoving at her. As soon as she’s clear, she makes a sprint for it, and people start shouting all around us. Wish and Ben stand up and start shouting along with them, so I stand and whistle and add my voice to the crowd, only sitting when everyone else does.

“See, that was exciting.” Ben nudges my arm with his elbow.

“Jocks,” I mutter.

When I start to understand how the game is played, it does get exciting, and I’m thrilled to see Tina take a win in her first bout as whatever-they-call-it. Afterward, she comes up to us and gives us each a sweaty hug.

“Ew, girl sweat,” I joke, and she laughs.

“I’m so glad you guys made it!”

Ben rubs the side of his face with one finger as he smiles at her. “Dave’s sorry he couldn’t come. He’s in Charleston dealing with wedding stuff. You remember how that goes.”

“I do, though, honestly, Lisa took care of most of it. Damn, I can’t believe the wedding is two weeks away.”

Ben gets that little-boy grin on his face again. “Me neither.”

She turns to me. “Well, what did you think, Mr. Anti-Jock? Did you have a good time?”

I give her a sly smile. “I loved watching you have so much fun, but there are more pleasant ways to collect bruises.
Ahem
.”

“It was great, T. You were awesome out there.” Wish takes my hand. “But Eddie and I have an appointment in a half hour, so I’m gonna have to steal him.”

“We do?” I stare at him. “Since when?”

“Since now. It’s a surprise. Say good-bye, Eddie.”

“Good-bye, Eddie,” I parrot.

Tina and Ben laugh and wave good-bye as Wish pulls me away.

“See you at the wedding, T!” I call back over my shoulder.

“Do we really have an appointment somewhere?” I ask. “Or are you unable to resist my considerable charms?”

“While your charms are—” he looks me up and down, making a big show of checking out my ass “—considerable, we actually do have an appointment. Keys.” He holds out his hand, and I drop my keys into it. It turns out, I trust him with my car just fine.

He opens the passenger door for me, then moves around to the driver’s seat. “You can say no, hell, you can safeword if you want. But I wanted to do something nice for you, since you’re always doing nice stuff for me. And well, you’ll see.”

Something nice
and
safeword
? My curiosity is definitely piqued, and never more so than when he pulls up in front of the piercing studio where I got my dick pierced.

Bemused, I ask, “Are you buying me jewelry for my cock?”

He faces me. “Remember when I said I wished I could have been there when you got your Prince Albert done?”

I shudder, remembering the night on the boat. “Of course. But, lovely, what’s done is done.”

He reaches out and pinches my nipple, right through my shirt. “But these aren’t pierced. What do you say?”

Arousal and anticipation swamp me. I love the idea of a nipple piercing. I love the idea of him watching. But before he gets the idea he can just have his way . . .

“You know, some boyfriends cook dinner when they want to do something nice,” I point out.

“I’m a lousy cook. Besides, I’ve jerked off all week thinking about what kind of face you’ll make when the needle goes in.”

Okay, that’s all the sounding out I need. My dick is hard, my mouth is dry, and my palms are sweating in nervous anticipation.

“I love the idea of you watching me get pierced.”

“Do I hear a ‘but’?” He takes my hand, playing with my fingers. “If you don’t like the way it looks, or if you aren’t into the idea, it’s . . . it’s fine.”

“I love the way nipple piercings look. I’m totally into the idea. I’m ridiculously pleased that you thought of it. Here’s the but: I love nipple play—so only one. That way we can still play with the other side while that one heals.”

He grins and kisses me, then says, “I can’t tell you how much it turns me on that you want to do this—you might have noticed I have a kink for marks.”

I roll my eyes. “Understatement of the year, lovely.”

He flashes that dazzling grin at me. “Okay, so a piercing is like that—a mark—but more permanent than a bruise. And to know that when you see it, you’ll think of me. God, that turns me on.”

“You know what turns me on?”

He shakes his head.

“That you wanted to do something nice for me and thought of needles. You’re perfect. Don’t ever change.”

There’s something oddly intimate about a man’s relationship with the woman who pierced his dick. Natasha gives me a big hug and asks how it’s working for me, and I manage to give her a completely rational answer about the state of my cock without it being too much information or creepy or anything.

She leads us back into the private room where she does the piercing. “All right, take off your shirt, Ed. I need to see what I’m working with.”

The air-conditioning is cold, and my nipples harden and pucker.

“Which side are we doing?”

I turn back to Wish. “Do you have a preference?”

“Left, over his heart.”

“Aww, so romantic.” Natasha sticks her tongue between her teeth and wrinkles her nose like it’s the cleverest thing anyone has ever said. Then she pulls on a glove and starts feeling around my nipple.

“You have nice nipples for a piercing. Should be super easy on you. I recommend using a barbell at first to make sure it doesn’t tug at the nipple as it heals. But you can switch to a ring once it’s healed up.”

She peels off the glove. “I’ll go get your jewelry ready; you sit down and get comfortable.”

I settle back in the chair and glance over at Wish—half-hard and dying to kiss the smug look off his face. “Come here.”

He leans in and kisses me, and I can practically taste the anticipation humming between us. His hand runs up my bare chest and he slides it around behind my neck.

“Oooh, boys, settle down or sell tickets. Shit, that’s hot.” Natasha returns with her tools and the jewelry on a stainless steel tray. “Everything has been autoclaved.” She sets the tray down and crosses to the sink. She washes her hands, puts gloves on, and approaches me, smiling. “Gotta clean you and mark a little dot where the needle goes through. Your nipple will probably get erect from all the handling, so we’ll wait a minute so I can check the placement on an unerect nipple. When we’re ready to go, I’ll put a clamp on your nipple, have you take a deep breath in and let it out slowly. As you let it out, I’ll pierce the nipple, then pull the barbell through. Any questions?”

“Will it hurt, Tash?” I make my eyes huge and put a tremble in my voice.

“You’ll love it,” she promises.

While she gets my nipple ready, Wish watches her with a fascinating mix of curiosity and arousal on his face. He catches me staring at him and laughs. “What?”

“Nothing. You’re freaked out and turned on; it’s surprisingly hot.”

“I’ve never seen anyone get anything pierced before. I’m like a kid in a candy store trying to play it cool.”

I laugh.

“You can hold his hand while I do it. Putting the clamp on now, it might pinch a bit.”

It does pinch, but no worse than the clothespins or a nipple clamp. I take a few deep breaths. Even though this was his idea of doing something nice for me, it feels right, somehow to show him a permanent sign of my affection.

“Deep breath in,” Natasha says, and I look up at Wish’s face.

As the needle pushes through me, there’s a moment of agony that makes me gasp and pinch my eyes shut, then a rush of blood in my ears, and Wish smiling down at me, his eyes dark with lust.
Holy shit.

“Jewelry.” A quick tug, then Natasha steps back to admire her work. “Nice. It’s a good look for you. Can you stand up?”

I nod, but Wish helps me anyway, and he leads me over to the mirror, where he stands behind me, rubbing my arms and studying my face in the mirror.

“That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” he whispers.

It was definitely the most intense piercing experience I’ve ever had. With him watching, it was like foreplay. Judging by the bulge prodding my ass, he feels the same.

“Let’s settle up here and go home.”

“Fuck, yeah.”

The morning of Ben’s wedding, I wake up on lush hotel sheets with late-fall sunlight streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows and Wish wrapped around me like a blanket.

I roll to my side to find him already awake, staring at me.

“That is so creepy,” I tell him, a smile twitching at my lips. He grins back and kisses me, rubbing our hips together.

“Hmm. Never mind, that’s not creepy, not creepy at all.” I gasp as he slides a hand down to cup my ass and pull us closer. His motions are jerky, rough and quick. There’s an urgency to his frotting, a sort of desperation I’m not used to first thing in the morning, and no lie, it’s hot in its enthusiasm. Who doesn’t love to be wanted like that? I push harder against him, tilt my hips to change the angle, and hold tight as he comes against my belly. He reaches down and uses the warm slickness of his cum to jerk me to my own orgasm.

In the aftermath, my head on his shoulder, his hand resting on my stomach, I ask, “What was that for? I mean, it was fun, but intense, you know?”

“I thought you might wake up stressed this morning.”

“Uh-huh.” I tease, “You wanted to make me smell like you. Staking your claim.” I sit up and toss a pillow at him. “Shoulda waited until after the shower.”

He laughs, his face flushing with pleasure. “Who says I won’t?”

The hotel shower is one of those big glass enclosures with three different showerheads. I pull him in behind me and start to wash him under the spray, pausing to kiss and nibble and lick all my favorite parts of his body, and then he does the same, careful not to bump or prod the barbell in my nipple as he washes around it. Neither of us gets hard again, and it’s a different intimacy, washing each other, appreciating each other, without sex as the endgame. It catches at me, the poignancy of it, and I find myself shaking as I rinse the shampoo from his hair.

“You okay?” he asks, grabbing my trembling hand and nibbling at it.

I nod, a lump forming in my throat. “I was standing here, thinking how nice it is to be with you like this, and how good it feels, and it just hit me that I’m crazy about you.”

He runs his hand through my wet hair and wraps an arm around my waist, like we’re dancing. “I’m crazy about you too.”

The wedding ceremony isn’t until 6 p.m., but there’s brunch and photographs, and I can’t seem to get Ben alone until right before the main event. He’s like a stranger in his gray suit with a peach-colored tie and a sea grass rosette pinned to the lapel, but then he smiles at me, a big goofy grin, and we both start laughing.

“I’m really, really happy for you, Brawny.”

“Thanks, man.” He opens his arms, and I walk into them and give him a huge hug. “That means a lot to me. Did you ever think, back when we were kids, we’d be able to do this?”

“No. I still can’t believe it’s real, actually. Big queer weddings. I never.” I clutch my tie like it’s a string of pearls, then sober up. “But I’m so glad. Because I don’t think you’ve ever been this happy, and it thrills me to see it. I really want you to know that. After everything, you being this happy—it’s awesome.”