Whatever the Cost (10 page)

Since he’s mentally stoking the fires of his own paranoia for the character’s sake, he manages to make himself so worked up that he has to sit by the toilet bowl for a good fifteen minutes, hugging the porcelain and praying that his lunch doesn’t come chasing up his gullet like it wants to.

Without a drop of product in his hair or bronzer on his skin, he slips on a pair of crisp, white briefs, some snug-fitting khakis and a grass green, short-sleeved polo shirt. Jacen has never seen Liam naked. As far as Liam knows, Jacen has never even seen him without a shirt on, since Liam likes to keep covered when he’s not on the job. This causes Liam to take an extra few seconds in front of the mirror, obsessing over each little detail. The body jewelry is a toss-up. He decides to leave it in. Jacen doesn’t know about the piercings either.

At eight-fifteen, he’s in the driver’s seat in the driveway when bile rises in his throat. Forcing it back down, without time to go back inside and clean up, brush his teeth, use mouthwash, the whole deal, he tempers his panic and wills himself a little calmer. The drive is a short one, and thankfully he doesn’t run into any traffic. Grabbing some breath spray, he squirts two pumps onto his tongue and sets the gearshift in park in the long, winding driveway that curves in front of a grand estate.

A push of the bell at the main entrance brings a butler in a nondescript grey suit.

“William. For Claudia. She’s expecting me,” he says curtly, his hands folded neatly in front of him.

“Of course,” is the polite reply. The servant steps back, opening the door widely. “Please, right this way.”

With a deep breath, terrified, Liam lives the fantasy and steps inside.

They walk through a wing of the house, up a set of curving stairs to the second floor, down another wide hall to a door that is shut tight. Liam’s heart hammers in his chest. Taking a deep, shaky breath when he feels his skin get too hot, then too cold, then too tight, and sweat threatens to break out over his body, he stands back as the butler knocks softly and calls, “Your second guest is here, Ma’am.”

“Show him in, Teddy. Thank you,” a pleasant, lilting female voice answers from beyond the closed door. She giggles and then Liam catches the sound of a deep, male voice murmuring. Jacen. The bones in Liam’s legs nearly turn to jelly.

The door swings open and the butler gestures for him to enter. It’s a large room with dark, fabric-covered walls, some of it hanging in elegant drapes from the ceiling, framing a huge bed with crimson silk sheets. The light is more substantial than Liam would like, atmospheric with candles, but recessed overheads and a few sconces brighten the space considerably.

Liam becomes his character, rubbing the back of his neck, lowering his eyes, flushing pink. Jacen is standing with the woman, who must be Claudia, his long fingers dancing over her fair skin and her pink silk negligee. Focused entirely on her, her cupid’s bow-shaped lips when she giggles, the long sweeping line of her neck, the soft swell of her ample cleavage, Jacen presses close to her, one arm circled around her back, his hand resting at the small of her back, hunching forward ever so slightly so that his lips are in kissing distance. Jacen is barefoot and shirtless, wearing only a pair of worn-soft jeans that Liam has laundered for him countless times.

Sweet Jesus, he’s gorgeous
, Liam moans inwardly. Jacen is sex—his suntanned skin, oiled muscles bulging, veins popping, hair twisted back at the nape of his neck in a leather tie but a few tendrils slipping free, and curling around his face. Liam can’t stop staring at the ridges of his friend’s washboard abdominal muscles, his small, dark nipples, the perfection of Jacen’s belly button, the cut of his hips descending in a V under the jeans, pointing toward his groin.

Claudia appears to be about forty years old, with long strawberry blond hair and a round, doll-like face. Wearing her age well, in amazing physical shape, with creamy skin, her eyes sparkling with her laughter, she quickly puts Liam at ease with only a smile.

“William. Come in. Welcome,” she purrs. “Jacen, look at him. He’s beautiful. This is going to be fantastic, I know it. Now, you’ll be nice to him, won’t you? Look how bashful he’s being. We mustn’t scare him off.”

She leaves Jacen and glides over to Liam instead, slipping a small, delicate hand inside his and guiding him to be closer to the bed. It takes only a few steps and then she’s kissing his cheek, soft as a butterfly’s touch.

“Don’t be scared. We won’t bite. Much.”

“Okay,” he murmurs, catching his lower lip between the points of his teeth.

“Is this your first time?”

There’s a hopeful note to the question, so, with a quick glance to Jacen’s towering form a few feet away, Liam ducks his head and answers, “Maybe, ma’am. Depends what you’re asking, I guess.”

“Call me Claudia. Please.” Liam gives her a vulnerable, shy grin and holds her hand a little tighter. “What I would
love
, William, is to introduce you to my good friend Jacen. Would that be okay? He’s a big teddy bear, I promise, don’t let the hard body fool you.”

“Yeah, that’s okay,” he says with another nervous glance to his intended. Jacen is staring right at him, like he’s seeing Liam for the first time, like he’s absolutely starving for him. There’s a wicked, heady, naked lust in his cool blue eyes as they grope over Liam’s form, one that Liam’s never quite been at the receiving end of before, not even when he was Leah, not in all the many times they rehearsed in the downstairs of their home.

Stomach swooping, breath catching, Liam turns his attention back to Claudia when she asks, “William, have you ever been with a man before?”

“B-been with—” After a sharp exhale, his blood rushing under his skin, roaring in his ears, making him dizzy, he sees from the corner of his eye as Jacen makes his way over.

“Guess I have my answer,” she smiles wickedly, completely enthralled.

“Hi, William,” Jacen says, his hands slipping easily around Liam, one around his waist, the other around the junction of his neck and shoulder. Never before in all of the thousands of times that Jacen has said Liam’s name has it ever sounded as filthy as it does then. A hard shiver races through Liam’s body. Jacen feels it. His thumb skims over Liam’s skin at his neck, making the spot tingle.

“H-hi,” Liam echoes, not knowing what to do with his hands, or at least pretending he doesn’t.

“I’ll let you two get acquainted. Don’t mind me,” she giggles, lounging on a chaise with a tall glass of champagne, watching with rapt attention.

Jacen’s hand slides up under Liam’s green polo shirt, caressing over the skin above his hip at his waist. It tickles a little, causing Liam to reflexively suck in his stomach. Blood rushes to his head, making it swim, making him feel overheated. His heart is beating so hard and fast that it’s louder than everything else by far, knocking against his ribs.

Jacen moves them to the edge of the bed, backing Liam up to it. Taking hold of the hem of his shirt, Jacen tugs at it and says, “Let’s take this off, okay?”

“Okay,” Liam murmurs very softly, blushing a fierce red as Jacen tugs it up over his head for him, letting it fall to the ground at their feet. At first Liam can’t look at Jacen at all, staring out into a point in mid-space instead, because Jacen is staring right at Liam’s pierced nipples, a lot of Jacen’s ‘character’ falling away purely from shock.

Jacen’s hand comes up. The pad of his thumb rolls over the titanium bar embedded in the small, dark, sensitive nub of flesh that hardens instantly at the touch. Brushing again over the impaled nipple, Jacen’s fingers close up around the bar, pulling gently. A surge of blood shoots down to Liam’s cock. Tensing, pressing ever so slightly into Jacen’s hand, Liam exhales an audible breath.

“Mm, seems William’s a naughtier boy than we thought, Jacen,” Claudia observes from her seat. “I’ll bet you want to suck on those piercings....”

“Yeah,” Jacen moans softly, honestly, twisting the nipple slightly, getting hard at the way it makes Liam react, his breath roughening.

“Why don’t you take his pants off, then get onto the bed,” Claudia instructs, taking a deep sip and then chuckling, drawing one leg up onto the chaise, exposing the creamy skin of her thighs all the way up to her matching pink panties.

“Just relax,” Jacen tells him as he pops open Liam’s fly and tugs down the zipper. Bringing the khakis down over Liam’s hips, easing them over the pert swell of his ass, Jacen pushes them down Liam’s legs, helping him step out and tossing them aside. He runs his fingers over the waxed-smooth skin of Liam’s legs, usually covered in golden blond hair, as he stands. It’s perfectly clear to Jacen how very much Liam is truly overwhelmed, that most of it is not for the sake of the character anymore, it’s all him. So Jacen takes control, deciding to do what he needs to in order to make this as quick and as good for Liam as he possibly can.

Easing Liam down to the bed, getting him seated first, and then manhandling him back further up the bed, Jacen lays him out, bringing him down with a hand behind Liam’s neck, rubbing over Liam’s stomach. Jacen plants a knee between Liam’s legs to ease them apart and leans down over him, bracing a hand on the bed. Claudia stands and walks around for a better view, leaning against a wall at Jacen’s side. Caressing down Liam’s taut stomach, Jacen rubs over the stark white cotton of Liam’s briefs, rolling his palm and fingers over Liam’s genitals. Liam is barely half-hard. Glancing up, Jacen sees Liam squeeze his eyes closed, a small, delicate frown line appearing between his eyebrows at the intimate touch. The real anguish in the expression, not pleasurable, just heartbreaking, knots Jacen’s gut.

Grabbing lightly at Liam’s flesh, manipulating him to get him hard, Jacen realizes he needs to distract and move this along faster when Liam lets out a broken half-whimper, half-sob that makes Jacen feel nauseous, like he’s molesting Liam against his will.

Surging downward, Jacen seals his lips around Liam’s right nipple, suckling both the metal bar and the erect flesh while he begins stroking in a steady rhythm along Liam’s shaft through the cotton of his briefs, coaxing him stiff with gentle, constant stimulation. His fingers catch on a hard but small protrusion under the head and Jacen moans against Liam’s skin as he realizes what it is.

Liam arches into the touch of Jacen’s lips to his chest, shivers of pleasure rippling out from the spot. The tip of Jacen’s tongue flicks the nipple over and over again. His lips kiss around it, his tongue drags over it. He closes his teeth behind the titanium bar and tugs. Then he shifts to the other side and gives it the same treatment. His hand begins to ease the underwear down, inch-by-inch, over Liam’s hips. Breaking away from Liam’s nipples, leaving both wet, erect and pinker from the attention, Jacen uses both hands to slide the briefs down just enough to expose him, letting the elastic pull tight around Liam’s upper thighs.

Panting, turning his cheek into the bedding, eyes still tightly closed over, Liam makes a small, helpless sound back in his throat as Jacen touches him for the first time, fingertips skittering up his swelling shaft to the glinting jewelry fed through the tip of Liam’s cock and out through the piercing in his frenulum, just under the divot in the crown on the underside. Jacen’s index finger and thumb pinch around the tiny silver ball nestled snugly against Liam’s slit and play with it, tugging gently on it, rubbing around the edge of the metal.

Liam grunts and hums, biting the side of his lip and canting his hips, chasing up into the touch to relieve the intense tickle it sends shivering down through his dick, but Jacen doesn’t ease up, fingering at him.

“Good. Play with it. He wants you to. Just look at him,” Claudia marvels.

Jacen stares down at his fingers for a long moment, trying to memorize the gorgeous sight of Liam’s body, every inch, every vein. But he still has to hurry, and not torment Liam longer than he has to, so he goes back to his left nipple, teasing it with the tip of his tongue, stroking very slowly up and down Liam’s shaft. Circling his fingers loosely around it, Jacen squeezes up and down, feeling Liam thicken. Leaving Liam’s nipple dark pinkish purple and oversensitive, Jacen begins to suck little kisses in a trail down the center line of Liam’s body, over his sternum, down through his six-pack abs, over his navel, across to the side and covering the velvety smooth skin of Liam’s pelvis, inside his hip, around the root of his cock.

Groaning softly, Liam rocks gently into Jacen’s loose fist, riding it. Jacen squeezes tighter up to the tip and milks a few drops of pre-come that dribble downward from the slit. All Jacen wants in the whole world in that moment is to taste that, to lick Liam’s cock and suck his flesh and his piercing clean. Somehow he restrains himself and slips a hand into his pocket for the rubber.

Nuzzling between Liam’s legs, placing tender, open-mouthed kisses to the inside of his thigh and hip, Jacen moans and breathes in the heavenly, heady scent of him. He fills his nostrils with it, his lungs, his every pore. Discreetly, he tears open the foil and extracts the condom, rolling it onto Liam.

On the bed, Liam’s eyes shoot open, feeling Jacen sheath him in latex. “Jace-Jacen?”

“Just gonna taste, you, okay? I’m dying for a taste of you. I’ll make it good. Suck you so fucking good, William....”

A few ragged breaths rip from Liam’s chest and he makes a slight, shocked sound as Jacen opens his mouth and cradles Liam’s dick on his tongue, tapping it lightly against it, the ball on the end of the stud smacking against the wet muscle. Liam shudders and bucks. Jacen goes with it, closing his lips around the girth, behind the ridge, and feeds Liam back into the eager heat of his mouth.