Under the Skin (4 page)

Minoru sighed and crouched down in front of Padraic. He had taken off his jacket and his tie, and his shirt sleeves were shoved up, showing forearms that were hard with muscle.

"Has it? It would not surprise me in the least.” Minoru smiled, and Padraic realized that it was a private smile, one that he could never have imagined Minoru using in front of the Inoue company, or even in front of Jenner.

"You have a habit of discrediting yourself before others can do it."

Padraic wanted to laugh nervously, but it caught in his suddenly dry throat. What could he even say to that?

"I imagine it happens to you a great deal in your life,” Minoru continued seriously. “Both professionally and personally."

Padraic attempted a laugh that sounded tinny even in his own ears.

"That's... astonishingly direct of you."

"And true, I imagine."

Minoru reached out a hand and touched the lead running to Padraic's chest. He didn't touch the skin, but he might as well have, and Padraic stiffened at the altered vibration that coursed through his body.

"I imagine,” Minoru said deliberately, following the cord up to the input, “that you have often asked your lovers why they are with you."

The truth hurt, and it was enough to jar Padraic from the sensual spell that Minoru had created.

"So?” he asked, more coolly than he thought he could have.

Minoru seemed to know that he had made an error because he took up Padraic's hand and started nuzzling the palm. The gesture, sweet and surprisingly gentle, made Padraic catch his breath, and that was before Minoru grazed the sensitive skin with his teeth.

What else does he see?
Padraic wondered, trying not to float away on the soft pleasure.

He wondered if Minoru could really sense every wound, every small hurt that had driven Padraic into living underground, only coming up for the latest tech news and spare parts. He wondered if Minoru knew anything about lonely days and even lonelier nights that were as much a part of him as his height or the color of his eyes.

Padraic wondered if Minoru knew what those gentle, soft kisses were doing to him.

Padraic whimpered through gritted teeth. He knew that he should push Minoru away, but he didn't think he could stand it if the other man stopped touching him. He didn't know if he could stand it if Minoru kept it up.

"You should never say such things,” Minoru said, almost casually. “When you invite people, particularly your lovers, to doubt you, they will."

Minoru's hand paused, and then he traced one clean fingertip to the edge of the metal input, where it met flesh. This time, Padraic did whimper, and Minoru smiled a little at the sound.

"If you didn't tell them to doubt you, doubt your expertise, your designs, your good looks, they never would."

"What... what are you doing?"

Minoru's fingers left off playing with the input and started wreaking a different kind of havoc by scratching gently down Padraic's bare chest, leaving pink marks on the fair skin.

"I suppose you could say I'm proving a point,” Minoru mused. “Or you could simply stop doubting me and let me do exactly as I please."

With no more warning than that, Minoru leaned in and kissed Padraic flush on the lips.

Padraic heard a soft moan and realized that it had come from him. His hands were rigidly planted on the bench, but his whole body leaned in for more.

Minoru tasted surprisingly sweet, and he seemed to have no problem taking his time. His inquisitive tongue was exploring Padraic's mouth with a shocking thoroughness, and the thought of that deliberate, careful mouth traveling elsewhere made Padraic squirm.

Minoru kissed the point of Padraic's jaw and then his neck before running soft lips across Padraic's pulse.

Together, or so it seemed to Padraic, they counted out three beats of his heart before Minoru was sucking on the skin there, hard enough to make Padraic flinch, before nipping firmly.

"You're lovely,” Padraic managed to say fearfully. He was terrified of breaking the spell that Minoru had woven, but Minoru only chuckled, grazing Padraic's erect and aching nipples with a gentle sweep of his palm.

"I should be saying the same thing to you,” Minoru murmured between soft bites.

Padraic would have laughed at the idea of anyone calling him lovely, but then Minoru was trailing soft, wet kisses down his chest. Padraic shivered and tentatively reached up to stroke Minoru's hair. It was thick and coarse, and his gentle touch made Minoru growl..

"Oh, you can be much rougher than that,” Minoru murmured. When Padraic tugged timidly, Minoru responded by biting more firmly at his chest, hard enough to make Padraic squirm on the hard bench.

He could also hear the hitch in Minoru's breathing. That sound, almost more than the touching and the kissing, made him hard. Minoru wanted him, and that halting breath told him that fact more clearly than anything else had.

"Data upgrade's done,” Jenner said casually, and Padraic pulled away.

Padraic might have dislodged the cable entirely, but Minoru held it in place as he rose gracefully to his feet. Before he turned away, Padraic saw an unmistakable bulge in the other man's pants and blushed with desire and arousal.

Somehow, Jenner had gotten back into the apartment without either of them noticing and was wedged between two stacks of comic books, flipping through something that featured a lot more tentacles than Padraic was comfortable with.

"I'll let Yuuka back in,” Jenner said, putting the comic book back carelessly. “I just figured I'd wait until the two of you were done."

"We're done here,” Minoru said with a finality that was oddly crushing. Padraic watched as Minoru shrugged back into his suit jacket, checked the glowing screens on the desk, and essentially did everything except meet Padraic's gaze, even when Jenner was answering the door.

There was nothing in the younger man's manner that even hinted at what a good kisser he was, or that just moments before, he had been on his knees.

The disappointment that Padraic felt irritated him, and he drummed his nails against the bench impatiently.

"So that's all that I need, huh?” he asked. Yuuka detached the lead from his chest, and Padraic flinched. It hurt more than he was used to, and he rubbed the area around the input absently, jerking his fingers away when he found skin that was still damp with Minoru's spit.

Yuuka nodded and spoke a few words to Minoru.

"I think we'll be all set to show you off to the company tomorrow,” Minoru said with satisfaction. “Just make sure that you get some sleep."

Minoru escorted them back to their suite without a word. Jenner said that he had some calls to make and disappeared into his room.

For few moments, Padraic contemplated taking a drink from the restocked mini-fridge before pushing the thought away with disgust. Though it might serve him right to drink himself maudlin and earn a hangover, the thought simply did not appeal.

He realized that some small, silly part of him still wanted to remember Minoru's kisses instead of blotting them out, and he could have slapped himself.

How many times did he have to go through this before he learned? How many people had to walk all over him before he stopped lying down for it?

His dreams that night were darker.

As he had in Yuuka's apartment, Minoru brought Padraic in for a kiss, his fingers lightly pressed over Padraic's interface. This time, though, he dug his clean fingernails into the plastic edges, at first just pressing, but then tearing.

"We'll get rid of this,” Minoru was saying, “and then you'll be fine."

No, no, Padraic wanted to say, It's the only damn thing that makes me any good at all..

"Stop doubting me,” Minoru muttered. He tore out the interface entirely, making Padraic's body arch with pain and wringing hoarse sob from his body.

"There now,” Minoru said, pushing Padraic onto his back. “Now we'll get to what we really want..."

"So are you ever going to get up?"

Padraic jerked up, aware of a low, dull heat that threaded through his body like veins of tin, and a thudding in his head that would not stop.

Jenner stood there, fully dressed, hair still damp from the shower, with a speculative look in his eyes.

"I... um, yeah."

Padraic started to step out of bed until he realized that he was still naked, and he wrapped a sheet around his hips instead.

"Funny,” Jenner remarked. “I mean, you don't mind shouting the house down, but you won't flash a little bit of skin."

"I was what?"

"Shouting. Moaning. You know, fuck me, fuck me harder, that kind of thing.” Jenner smiled gamely. “You're kind of a one-man show."

"Christ, I'm sorry.” Padraic pressed his hand against his throbbing temple hard. “I slept really... badly."

Jenner took a closer look at him and lost the smile.

"You look like shit."

"Well, thank you..."

"Go look in a mirror."

Something about Jenner's tone made Padraic look up, and he staggered to the bathroom. The harsh fluorescent light in the bathroom wouldn't have done anyone any favors, but it washed his skin out until it was just a few shades more lively than the minty green toothpaste.

"Oh hell."

"Say that again,” Jenner agreed tersely. “Crap, and we've got another meeting with the Inoue today."

"But I thought that—"

"Open your mouth."

He did, but Jenner didn't bother looking into it. Padraic realized that Jenner was just getting him to shut up without saying so for the microphones, and reddened with embarrassment.

"I'm worried about that hardware of yours."

"Well, we all are..."

"No, seriously worried. It's been acting up since you tried to do that Japanese language download."

Padraic thought back and remembered the sparks that had filled his head.

"My head's been aching on and off ever since,” Padraic admitted. Not all the time, his mind amended, but Jenner didn't have to know that.

"You're lucky it didn't hollow you out,” Jenner said bluntly. “We've got to tell Inoue."

"Minoru... wait...” His head was aching badly enough that his vision was trying to double, but he still managed to grab Jenner's sleeve.

"It can wait. I can take some time, look at it. I can fix it before Minoru has to hear about it..."

Jenner gave him a rather prim look.

"We need to be honest about this,” Jenner said clearly. “His reputation's on the line, and he needs to be able to decide whether he wants to keep pushing this one. The Inoue aren't a nice family, okay, Padraic? Nice bites, by the way. Inoue does good work."

Padraic looked down and noticed that the sheet was puddled around his ankles. By the time he looked up, Jenner was out the bathroom door, closing it gently behind him.

"Get cleaned up as best you can, and whenever you're ready, meet me and Inoue at the door."

Padraic sighed and wished the throbbing in his head would go away. He slumped against the door of the bathroom and quickly became aware of a different kind of throbbing. His whole body was sore, and all he wanted to do was go back to bed, but he already knew that the adrenaline in his system wouldn't allow it. If only his head would stop hurting.

He brushed his teeth, turning off the lights because they were too bright for him and simply standing for a moment in the darkness. Now he could feel but not see the inputs that were planted in his chest. Placing them on his chest had allowed him to work on them without reaching awkwardly for ports on his neck or in his skull, but there were drawbacks.

Hesitantly, he brushed his fingers over them. For such new implants, they had healed fairly well, but he knew that if he tried hard enough, he could dig his fingers into the hard plastic edge and tear it out, dragging out the half a yard of connection that was connecting it to his brain. Of course, when the pull got to the cerebral net that was in place, that would be...

"Fatal,” he whispered.

Padraic shook his head and stumbled into the bedroom, finding his clothes by feel and practically tripping into them.

He knew that he was pissing off both Minoru and Jenner, but when push came to shove, he flat-out refused to let either of them handle his tech.

"I cannot believe that you expect to handle this yourself,” Minoru said with frustration. “If something should go wrong, you'd be dead in a matter of minutes."

"I can,” Jenner said in exasperation. “Fucking techies, love their toys, love getting their fingers into ‘em, can't wait until they short themselves out."

Jenner had given up talking any sense into Padraic, and now he just seemed content to stare into space and growl.

Minoru had taken them to a small hotel in a slightly seedy area of Nagoya. Padraic briefly wondered how Minoru knew the place, but then another sharp pain coursed from his chest to his head and he forgot to ask.

"I'm sorry,” Padraic said doggedly. “You aren't going to open it up. That's final, and you're going to have to accept it."

"Of all the fucking things,” Minoru said with disgust. “You come to Japan, you do as you're told, you're meek as a child, and now you simply dig in your heels."

Padraic found the spirit to smile wanly, peeking up at Minoru through his hair.

"Sorry,” he said again. “I think it's a tech thing. It's... it's really me, you know?"

Minoru shoved one hand through his own hair, which actually seemed to be losing some of its rigid discipline. Padraic realized that this was an altogether inappropriate time to enjoy that fact, and managed to turn the small, appreciative smile into something much more appropriate. What was Minoru saying?

"If I didn't know better, I would actually say that you were enjoying this,” Minoru said accusingly.

For some reason, that cheered Padraic up even more.

"Maybe a little,” he said, this time knowing that he was enjoying the look on Minoru's face more than he should.

"It's a hardware problem,” he hastened to explain when it looked as though Minoru was going to explode. “I'm a hardware guy. This is something I can fix."