Essence of Time (7 page)

Rob fiddled with the cufflinks he’d bought just for the fancy shirt Jack insisted he wear tonight. “Uh, likewise.” The space in his brain where he allowed erotic ideas to enter his consciousness was burning, bright and clear.  He hadn’t been with anyone since returning from France and part of him still ached for René. He shifted, tried not to cover his embarrassing, middle-school-ish hard on too obviously. Jack stared at him a minute, then focused on Kyle.

“Yeah. So. This is Rob, I told you about him. He’s interested, but not enough to participate tonight. Or so I thought.” Rob realized Jack was staring at him but he could not rip his eyes from the vision in front of him. A pure, visceral pulse of desire shot through him so fast, he had to shove his hands in his pockets to keep from shivering. Impossibly broad shoulders, a bright white smile and a sudden knowing sparkle in Kyle’s eyes, all combined to make Rob ready to pounce, or run screaming out into the Detroit streets.

“Yes, Rob.” A deep rumbling voice matched the large persona. “I assume Jack told you about the process?” Jack shifted a little.  Rob had almost forgotten the guy was in the room. Kyle held out a hand, indicated the two men should lead the way into the next room. “Jack, you know the drill.” Jack nodded and turned to Rob.

“I have to head this way. You stay,” he jerked his thumb at Kyle, “with him. You good with that, brother?” Rob nodded, still speechless. Kyle chuckled, put a hand on Rob’s shoulder. The spark that shot between them made even the tall suave club owner gasp. Jack smiled. “Yeah. Okay. You boys behave. I have some work to do.”

“Don’t be cocky Gordon or I’ll pull you.” Kyle took a step away from Rob, putting well-needed space between them.  Jack shrugged, shot his cuffs and walked through a huge, wooden set of double doors. Rob took a deep breath, tried to recover some equilibrium. “Come,” the single word from the other man’s mouth made his entire body pebble with anticipation, “with me. Can I offer you water? Juice? Tea?”

Rob shook his head. Swallowing hard, he followed Kyle’s impossibly large back down a softly lit corridor. Subtle music oozed around them. He was aware of several attractive, well-dressed men and a couple of women milling about. Kyle greeted them all by name, shared a few jokes, slapped shoulders and hugged the two very attractive, older looking women before guiding Rob through another door. Rob wanted to ask him to please remove his hand from the small of his back. He needed no guidance. But the heat there pleased him, and terrified him at the same time.

He opened a door to a small room with a large, what Rob assumed was one-way glass. There were several sweating bottles of water on the low glass table, a bowl of fresh fruit, and some expensive chocolates. Rob took a deep, cleansing breath.  “I don’t like to be tied up.” He blurted out, apropos of absolutely nothing. Kyle sat, stuck a chocolate in his mouth and stared at him. Rob felt his face flush red. “I mean, just trying to make conversation here.”

“No, I don’t think you are actually.” Kyle picked up an apple, tossed in the air and caught it without looking, over and over again. “Have a seat Rob. Relax. I don’t bite.”

Rob shut his eyes a second, opened them, shocked to see a deep well of desire in the unique gray-green stare of the man seated in front of him. 
Oh fuck.
He sank into the luxurious leather chair on the other side of the table and tried to relax, but the extreme hardness under his zipper would not allow it.  He watched the five women and two men enter the front of the room, all in some form of restraining get up. The were all blindfolded and led by someone, guided down to their knees and all of them kept their faces trained down to the floor.  Rob caught sight of Jack and his friend Evan and about ten other men and the two women enter the opposite end of the room.

“Why…I mean…”

“Submissives have all the power.” The man’s casual attitude irritated Rob for some reason. He leaned forward and watched as one by one, the “Doms” made their way to the front, stood in front of one or two of the kneeling “subs.” Then, they would abruptly walk away and take their seats.  Puzzled, he turned to look at Kyle.

Big mistake.

The man’s gaze was locked in on Rob like a laser. He gulped. “So, um, what now?” He pointed to the window, grabbed a water bottle for something to do with his shaking hands.
Dear god if he could just taste those lips.
He shook his head to clear it.

“The subs choose. They can look down and see enough to see the color or make of footwear in front of them. Then…oh look big surprise, your friend is chosen first. Happens a lot.” He pointed and Rob watched, mesmerized as Jack made his way down to the front. He stood in front of a slight, black-haired beauty in a bustier and choker collar. Put his hand on her head. “Now, he gets to make a call. He’ll ask her to do one thing, in public. The public display is a big step for many subs. Some aren’t up to it, which is fine. But…” he nodded toward the window again. “Our man Gordon can convince anyone of anything it seems.”

Rob watched as Jack helped the woman to her feet. She was all leg, something Rob knew Jack preferred. Her nearly flawless hourglass shape enhanced by the tight leather get up she wore. He watched as Jack leaned in, lifted her blindfold and kissed her with such intensity Rob had to remind himself to breathe.

Kyle chuckled. “That’s his MO, ‘She has to kiss me like she means it.’  It’s well played, actually. Not in any way humiliating. Gets them every fucking time.” He crossed one well-shod foot over the other in front of him.  Rob watched, realizing it for what it was. A connection, for Jack, meant a kiss. He didn’t bestow them often. As a matter of fact he could hardly remember his friend kissing any woman.

“So,” the deep, gravelly voice of the other man in the room hit him smack in the libido. “Robert.” He managed to draw the simple name out in his odd, English-yet-not accent.

Rob kept his eyes trained on the activity below, trying like hell to ignore the signals coming from the incredibly compelling and intimidating man in the room. He did not need this now. Jumping into something so fresh from René.  He rubbed the bridge of his nose. Willed his body to stop reacting to whatever chemistry the guy in the expensive suit was throwing at him.

“You are very attractive.” Rob glanced over his shoulder. His looks were something he took for granted, didn’t even give much credence to. Not after what he’d been through. He was happy to be breathing, much less in a supposedly attractive collection of skin, bones and muscles. The eyes that met his were narrowed.

“Thanks.” He kept watching as the people below paired off and disappeared. Jack first, Evan second then the rest of them. “Jack is…”

“A natural at this.” Kyle’s voice stayed neutral. “But he does not have his heart in it, just his body, that much is obvious. I’ve seen it all, trust me. Our mutual friend is headed for a serious melt down unless something changes for him.”

Rob scoffed. “Jack is probably the least introspective guy on the planet.”

“You might be surprised.” Within seconds, in the proverbial blink of an eye, the massive form of Kyle was in his personal space. He stood, grabbed Rob’s hand and pulled him up. The touch set off alarms, and jolts of pleasure in him he had no frame of reference for. “But for now, I think I need to educate you.”

Rob started to pull away but Kyle had one hand on his hip and the other curled around his neck. “I don’t know what you, oh.” He gulped as the other man’s hand drifted down to touch his straining zipper. “Shit.”

“Yes. Well,” Kyle took a deep breath, leaned in and whispered in Rob’s ear. “I don’t usually do this but…,” Rob shut his eyes at the touch of Kyle’s lips to his skin. “I am incredibly attracted to you, Robert.” His voice stayed low, reverberated around Rob’s skull. 

“So, educate me then.” He gasped as the man captured his lips, dove into his mouth with a strong, invasive tongue. At that moment he would have done anything to get closer to Kyle. As his head buzzed with need, his chest tightened with a different sort of want. One he was afraid he’d found; one he knew he would have to reject.

****

Later that night, more sexually sated than he'd been in his life, Rob went up on an elbow to observe the man who he had let tie him onto a bed and give him a lesson in orgasm denial he would never forget. He touched Kyle's full lips, startling the other man out of a light nap. He smiled at Rob, his odd colored eyes twinkling. 

"Well? Was it what you thought it would be?" He stretched, and Rob tried hard not to stare at the man's utter physical perfection: A full chest, cut abs, and amazing, still half-hard cock.

The words burst from his lips. "When can I move in?" 

Kyle chuckled deep in his chest and Rob had an alarming moment when he realized he may not have been kidding. The man had touched something deep in him, something primal, by taking complete control and forcing Rob to relinquish it. He had fucking loved it, too much.

"So tell me, how does a guy get to Detroit to open one of the hottest BDSM clubs around and sound like a bloody English butler anyway?" He deflected, rolling onto his back and closing his eyes. 

"You mean how the hell did I end up looking like this, right?"

"Well, that too." He shivered when Kyle put a hand on his, pulled it to his lips for a soft kiss.

"Well, my mum was a real African queen. All the way down to her three thousand dollar weaves. Me da', was Irish. They met in London working at a television station. I was born and raised in London. But they were artists, actors, getting by on odd TV jobs, waiting for the big break that never came. My father finally left after he caught her in bed with a producer. He and I, we moved to Atlanta, Georgia when I was twelve. He ended up running a local TV station. Quite the eye-opening experience I assure you." He ran a hand across Rob's bare chest, bringing on goose bumps.

Rob sighed and put his hands behind his head. His body still thrummed with residual erotic tension. The guy was good, no doubt about it. He repressed an image of his friend Jack, doing the same for a woman. 

"Anyway," Kyle leaned in and let his lips touch Rob's flesh, just close enough to his nipple to make him react. He kept speaking between taking small nips at Rob's skin. "Even then, the one thing I was, was large. So I played middle school, then high school, basketball. My senior year the football team's tight end broke his leg right before the season started.  Football coach took one look at me and that was essentially that. My one-year as varsity tight-end for the Georgia state champions earned me a full ride to Michigan to play. I missed the round ball though, so played that too. Graduated in five years with a three point five in business. But by then, I'd found a calling." He licked the hard peak of Rob's nipple, making him flinch and his cock get instantly hard. Kyle fisted it, kept up his monologue as if they were at a banal cocktail party and not surrounded by spanking benches, leather straps and a giant St. Andrew's Cross. "There always was a robust scene in Detroit, just no permanent place to partake. I started throwing house parties, at other people's houses of course. The leadership part came pretty naturally."

Rob grunted as Kyle's hand left his shaft, blew out a breath as the man’s fingers trailed down, beneath his balls, rubbing there, just enough, making him reach down for his own cock.

"No." Kyle's deep voice rumbled in his ear. "Not until I tell you. Remember?" Rob nodded, his breathing ragged.
What was it about the guy anyway?
Rob was ready to let him slap a leash on him and lead him around. He gritted his teeth.  Tried to focus.

"What about your team?  Did they know?"

Kyle laughed, as he simultaneously pressed against Rob's ass, rubbing in circles, making him moan and spread his legs as his cock jerked and dripped onto his belly. "What that I was bi-sexual or a Dom? Keep your eyes closed. Got it?"

"Fuck." Rob groaned as the other man's teeth found his nipple again, biting, just enough to make him grip the tight curls on Kyle's head. Then, nothing.  The sharp smack of flesh on flesh made his eyes fly open. Kyle had crawled up between his legs, had his lips poised over Rob's aching cock and one hand had just smacked him, hard, on the hip. It stung.  "Do it again," he croaked.

"You don't tell me what to do, Rob. I know what you want. I'll give it to you when I'm damn good and ready." His gray eyes darkened. Rob lost himself in them. He had to bite his lip from crying out when Kyle flipped him over, jerked his hips up and started licking under his balls, sticking his tongue in and out of Rob's now achingly empty asshole. He smacked his ass again, and again, bringing a rush of blood to his skin, and the sweet sting of pain and pleasure that he had no idea could be such a fucking rush.

Then, the huge nothing closed in on him again. Kyle was gone, his lips, hands, tongue. All of it. Vanished. But for a whisper: "You are truly beautiful." Kyle's voice ghosted through his brain. "I think I need you to fuck me, Rob. Now." And then he was on him, and the tangle of arms, legs, chests, cocks, tongues and teeth made his head spin as he gripped and groped his way along the amazing real estate of Kyle's body. Unsure how to proceed, he let his body guide him, easing Kyle over onto his belly, licking his way down the mocha skin of the other man's back. He pressed his cock against Kyle's tight ass.

"Condom?" he managed to grind out. 

"Reach behind you, in the basket, a variety to choose from. But hurry up my blonde god, I need you inside me."

Rob rolled latex down over himself, grabbed a tube of lubrication from another handy basket at the foot of the bed and spread Kyle's channel with a slickened finger, easing up high, finding his sweet spot as he reached around to grip the other man's huge erection. "Yes." Kyle whispered, arching his back further. "Now. Fuck me now, Rob."

Chapter Six

The perfection of the sun rising over the Detroit River was the same as always. Clouds tinged purple, pink and orange never changed. The water looked choppy today, Kyle mused, sipping his espresso, as if nothing were different. As if he could look out onto his once orderly world and expect it to be the same. He sighed, closed his eyes and tried to force thoughts of the tall blond man out of his head. It would lead to nothing but heartbreak. Like every other person he let himself get close to. But…he smiled, leaning back in his zero gravity seat on the large balcony. The man was pure perfection on two legs, truly. The way they’d connected, so quickly and with such heat, he refused to deny that.