Room at the Top (9 page)

“I promise you.” Liam looked directly into Jay’s eyes and spoke with the utmost sincerity. “Always.”

He could feel a connection between them all building, lines thickening steadily, with moments like now when another thread was added to the twisting rope. Jay wanted to believe him. Liam could see it in his eyes. Well, it was up to him to give Jay no choice but to trust him.

Jay licked his lower lip. A nervous gesture or habit? Liam didn’t know yet. He wanted to know everything about the two of them so the smallest movement or sound sent him a clear, unmistakable message.

“I’m the same when it comes to visible marks on my face, but my arms…” Jay circled one wrist with his fingers. “I can always wear long shirts. And if I get bruises or rope burn on my wrists, I’ve got these wide leather bracelets I can wear. Kind of cuffs, I guess. That’s why I like—”

“You can’t wear those at work!” Austin interrupted.

Jay turned to look at him. “I have before, and no one ever said anything. Nancy asked if I’d made them and when I—”

Enough. Amusement vied with annoyance, and Liam snapped his fingers, the crisp sound bringing their attention back to him.

“Austin, don’t interrupt. Jay, eyes on me, please.”

He waited a beat until they were both giving the impression of squirming uncomfortably, though in fact they were sitting very still. “You two have got away with far too much, you know. That kind of disrespect isn’t something I’m prepared to tolerate. I’m not impressed, but I’ll give you that one bite at the cherry. I suggest you both make an effort to show me you can follow simple instructions.”

He gestured at Jay. “I don’t leave bruises or rope burn on wrists when I restrain someone, so that won’t arise. Go on.”

He didn’t add that he loved holding a sub’s wrists tightly as he spoke to them, standing behind them, his mouth close to their ear, feeling their body tremble and sway toward him. That left bruises, dark smudges he loved to trace afterward, but he supposed…oh well.

“I like—” Jay broke off. “How good are you at this?” he asked.

Liam sighed. Okay,
that
wasn’t amusing him at all. “Are you deliberately trying to push me into losing my temper? It’s not a good idea. Pissing me off is more likely to have me showing you the door than my hand.”

“No!” Jay looked horrified, but he didn’t back down. Beside him, Austin stirred, obviously dying to leap to Jay’s defense. To his credit, he stayed quiet. “I wasn’t… You told us that you’d taken a break from this, a long one, so it’s not like you’ve been doing this for years and years.” He took a breath, visibly steadying himself. “What I want to know is, if we ask you for something we want, and it’s something you don’t know how to do safely or just the way we need it, will you tell us? Not go ahead and try it because you think you’re not supposed to admit you can’t do stuff?”

Liam noted the way Jay was still speaking for both of them, but it was a passing thought. Relieved there’d been a valid reason for Jay’s question, he gave him a small smile.

“Fair question, and no, my ego’s not as important as your safety. I’d be a bloody fool to think I know it all. I don’t. If you want to try something esoteric I’ve never even heard of, I’ll tell you it’s not possible right then and go away and do some research and practice it if it’s something that appeals to me.” Curious, he tilted his head. “Anything specific in mind?”

Jay didn’t blush. “Nothing out there, no. I like my face being slapped. Not deliberately—no, that’s not right. I mean, if we were doing a scene, role-playing, and it worked to slap me, I’d want you to do it. I don’t want you to do it often or when I’m expecting it, but I’d want
you
to know you were going to do it, not just lash out… Shit, I’m sorry. I’m not explaining it well.”

Austin’s hand was on Jay’s leg again now, stroking it reassuringly, but Austin was looking at Liam, not Jay, which was progress of sorts.

“I’d like you to tell me what you want with more clarity than that in the future. Don’t worry, though. I understand what you mean, I think.” And now he was going to be talking with his cock half-hard. Maybe it was just as well he was across the room. His handprint blazing across Jay’s cheek, the added spice of the small humiliation… “You want to be sure I can do it hard enough to count in the moment, but without leaving a lasting mark or bruise for the next day?”

Jay sighed, his eyes closing for a moment as if he was picturing it. “Yeah. Because sometimes I have to work over the weekend, so it’s not like I always have two free days after a session, you know? Thank you.”

His deep voice had slowed, reduced to a quiet murmur Liam had to strain to hear.

Jay’s eyes opened, and when he spoke, his voice was conversational again. “Me, I like marks. Between sessions they remind me. I can look at them, press down on them, and get an echo of the pain. I like more pain than Austin. I
need
more to get that safe feeling.”

Jay reached for Austin’s hand without breaking eye contact with Liam, lacing their fingers together. “If this works out, and you’re still around, we’re both off work for two weeks in June. I’d love it if you could see us at the start of that and give us a really intense session, maybe a full day. Nothing that would scar. I wouldn’t mind getting one or two, but that’s something…that’d be special, like a tattoo, and I’m not ready yet. But I’d love to push my limits,
really
push them.”

Taken aback but careful not to show how much the idea appealed, Liam nodded. “We’ll see.”

“You don’t think it’s freaky, me liking the bruises so much?”

Jay didn’t look worried, Liam decided. It was more a case of Jay checking Liam’s limits. He shrugged. “I’d be stupid if I did. I like putting them there. I’m looking forward to putting plenty on both of you. Anything else?”

When Jay just shook his head, Austin looked at Liam for permission to speak, and Liam gestured that he could. “May I use your bathroom, please?” Austin spoke the words carefully, as if he was conscious of behaving well.

“Of course. There’s one through there, second door on the right.” Liam indicated the direction, and Austin thanked him and disappeared. Once he’d gone, Liam asked Jay, “Is there something I should know about?”

“He’s probably just nervous. He’s been nervous all week. We both have. Is it rude to ask if you were too?”

“Yes, it’s a bit rude, but I’ll answer you this once.” Liam knew this would make him appear magnanimous. “No, I wasn’t nervous. I’ve been looking forward to it. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t enjoy it, and I’ve been particularly anticipating spending some time with the two of you. I take it Austin doesn’t have to work tomorrow, but what about you?”

Jay glanced in the direction of the bathroom, even though Austin had barely been gone a minute. “No. Next Saturday I do, but I have this weekend off.”

“That worked out nicely.”

“I know. The library is open on Saturdays, and I have to work one or two of those a month, usually, unless someone is on vacation or something. There’s a rotating schedule. On the weeks I work on Saturday, I get a half day off on one of the weekdays. Sometimes Austin and I can sync our schedules up so we have a free afternoon together to go to the movies or whatever, but if that doesn’t work out, I usually put in some time on whichever diorama I’ve got going.”

Liam nodded. “How did you get into that?”

“I had an uncle who was into model trains when I was a kid. This is sort of an offshoot of that, I guess. It’s the same scale—well, one of them. There’re about five different scales for model trains, and I actually use two different scales depending on what I’m making. Sometimes it makes more sense to use HO, which is the most common scale for trains, but sometimes I use one-twelfth scale, which is what people who are into dollhouses use.” Jay was adorable like this, earnest and passionate about his hobby. Liam could have listened to him for hours, which was probably what it would have taken for him to make sense of the subject matter.

He heard the sound of the bathroom door opening, and Austin came back and stood at the entrance to the room, looking uncertain.

It would probably have calmed him if Liam had skipped ahead to the spanking, and it was certainly what Liam’s body was in favor of, but he controlled his impulse. He’d always held the belief that it was impossible to effectively impose discipline on anyone else if he couldn’t control himself, so he gestured to Austin to take his seat again.

Keeping his voice unhurried but covering the ground as quickly as possible, he ran through more of the basic information he needed from them, equally unsurprised by Austin’s traditional choice of
yellow
and
red
for his pause and stop safe words and Jay’s decidedly individual ones of
Mordor
and
Sauron
. Liam was vaguely aware of the books they were drawn from, but he’d never read them. He was getting the impression that for Austin, simplicity and efficiency were important.
Yellow
and
red
worked, so why spend time dreaming up an alternative? It intrigued Liam, but he reminded himself they didn’t want him to get involved with them beyond this limited interaction, and he brought the conversation to a merciful end.

“I have what I need to begin,” he said and stood, bringing them to their feet with a flick of his fingers. “If anything occurs to you that you think I really need to know, tell me, but I’d prefer as few distractions as possible once we begin. Oh, cell phones; turn them off, please.”

That hadn’t been an issue when he’d first done this years ago, but he’d been blazingly furious when a sub he’d been about to spank six months back had wriggled off his knee to answer her phone—then started texting back a reply. She’d argued with him, apologizing with a complete lack of conviction as if she didn’t know why he was so annoyed. He’d given her two minutes to dress and kicked her out.

He led them into the den, with thick curtains drawn over lowered blinds ensuring their privacy, and closed the door.

“Two of you at once could be a challenge in some ways. I don’t want either of you to feel neglected.”

“We’re used to waiting our turn,” Jay began, then closed his mouth quickly when Liam gave him an icy look.

“Get undressed and put your clothes there.” He indicated a small table, and they started to take off their clothes. Jay was quick and casual about it, as if nudity was unimportant to him. Austin seemed more hesitant and took his time folding each item as he removed it. He even picked up Jay’s balled-into-a-wad T-shirt and started to fold that as well.

Liam shook his head.

“Don’t do that for him. It’s his responsibility.”

Jay gave him an apologetic look and took over.

Liam took his time in studying them once they were naked. It would probably make them feel uncomfortable, being scrutinized, he thought. However Jay seemed relaxed despite his lack of covering. In fact, the closer they got to actual play, the more comfortable Jay acted. The question was,
was
it an act or was it genuine?

He’d find out soon enough.

Jay was tall and slender, all of him. His pale skin had a slight olive hue to it that went well with his long dark hair and somewhat pointed ears. He didn’t have a great deal of body hair. Liam suspected he was stronger than his build would lead one to believe. Jay’s cock was standing up at attention, moving a little with every breath Jay took. When Liam looked at his face, Jay dropped his gaze and put his hands behind his back.

Good.

Austin was obviously less comfortable being naked than Jay was, but had moved instinctively into position with his hands clasped at the small of his back. This pulled his shoulders into a slightly unnatural pose that made the muscles in his upper arms stand out. In this light, his blond chest and arm hair were nearly invisible, and despite his clear discomfort, he also had an erection.

Stepping closer to both of them, Liam said, “I’m going to touch you now.” It was a courtesy, nothing more, and certainly not necessary, but this was new and he wanted to ease into more serious activity.

He touched Jay first and could feel the young man trembling. Goose bumps sprang up on Jay’s warm skin almost immediately as Liam ran a hand along his wide shoulders and down his back to his ass. Then Liam moved over to Austin, who flinched ever so slightly at the brush of Liam’s fingers along his side.

“Ticklish?” Liam asked.

“No, Sir,” Austin said, his voice soft but convincing even though it was a lie.

“I am,” Liam said conversationally, moving to stand behind them, “but that’s not really a problem because I’m the one doing the touching.” Without warning, he pinched Austin’s arse, delivering a quick flash of sensation, more startling than painful. Austin couldn’t have known it was going to happen, yet he didn’t break position. Instead he made a sound deep in his throat, muted, pleading.

“Go and lean against the wall, both of you, hands against it, legs spread.”

He’d made sure one wall was clear, no pictures hanging on it, no furniture up against it. Walls were more useful than they appeared for a dom with imagination, and with a rigid loyalty to his wife keeping him from doing more than imagine, Liam had had years to dream up some interesting scenarios. None of them had featured two subs at once, though. He was going to need to adapt some of his pet fantasies a little.

Positioned like that, so close he couldn’t have walked between them, their arses upturned, pushed out shamelessly, begging to be spanked, they presented a picture arousing enough that, unseen by them, Liam permitted himself a smile of pure satisfaction and anticipation.

His voice cool, he rapped out some instructions, making Jay spread his feet wider, Austin arch his back a little more. They’d been fine as they were, but he wanted to see how readily they obeyed him and make them realize that for him good enough never was.

He wanted perfection.

When they were exactly as he wanted them, he let them hold the position for long enough to remember it, then stepped forward. Giving way to his earlier desire, he wrapped the long fall of Jay’s hair around his fist and tugged at it, bringing Jay’s head back so his throat was a taut curve, ready to be licked or kissed—or maybe just waiting for Liam’s hand to close around it, a firm clasp, lasting long enough for Jay’s eyes to tell him so very fucking much. He ran his hand down to Jay’s left nipple, scraping the edge of his thumbnail over it as hard as he could, leaving it stinging if the hiss of breath from Jay was any indication.