Whatever the Cost (51 page)

The towering, broad, solid, warm bulk of Jacen’s body presses up against Liam’s back. His breath skates over the side of Liam’s neck.

“How was the run?” Liam asks innocently. “Hot? What is it, like ninety degrees today?”

Sounding like a man who has taken all of the power for himself, a man deadly serious, who’s been pushed well past the limits of tolerance too many times to count, and is sick of it, Jacen growls a threat, “You’re fucking with me. You think that’s funny? Huh? You think it’s cute?”

Liam feels all of the air get sucked from the room. Distantly, he wonders what time it is. The time is important, but it’s hard to think clearly, because he can feel that Jacen is staring at him so hard his gaze leaves scorch marks everywhere it touches. The size difference between them has never been more noticeable and Liam feels small, even frail in comparison. Heart pounding, eyes mostly closed over as he stares at his hands on the counter, shaking slightly now with nervousness, Liam feels Jacen shift fractionally, heat radiating from him.

Liam moves, but slowly. He drops the rag and closes his eyes. He reaches down and lifts the back of the kilt, sliding his boot-clad feet into a marginally wider stance.

“Higher,” Jacen barks. It sends goosebumps shivering out over Liam’s skin, pulling it tight. He draws the kilt up even higher and quickly grabs the edge of the counter for purchase because Jacen doesn’t waste time. He knows that Liam is still loose from taking his husband’s cock earlier that morning. It’s only once Jacen spreads Liam’s cheeks and breaches him dry, pressing just the head of his dick through, then stopping, letting Liam feel the burn and shudder at the obscene way Jacen’s girth stretches him wide, impaling him upon it, that Jacen spits thickly into his hand and rubs the saliva on his shaft. It’s the only lube Liam gets. He white-knuckles the counter and Jacen grabs him by the back of the neck and by the hip, pulling him steadily back, millimeter-by-millimeter, onto him. A hard shudder rips through Liam’s body and he gasps, the sound loud in the stillness.

When he’s fully seated, his balls pressing flush against Liam’s ass, Jacen sighs, then immediately withdraws. His crown catches on Liam’s rim and he thrusts, hard, back in, eliciting a small cry. Liam’s skin flushes pink all at once and he flinches slightly. Jacen soothes him with a downward caress, along his thigh. “That’s my girl. My dirty, dirty girl...
Leah
...” Each word is punctuated by a hard thrust and Liam mewls softly, adjusting his angle as the force of Jacen’s cock, driven into his body again and again, doesn’t lessen one bit.

“Fuck,” Liam hisses, gritting his teeth as Jacen holds him there and pistons his hips at a brutal pace, fucking him dizzy. Breathless, aching, Liam purrs as Jacen uses him, not touching him anywhere but to hold him down to take it. It goes on and on... and then it stops.

Panting, Jacen steadies himself by the root and pulls out. Liam hisses through his teeth, opening his eyes slightly, but knowing better than to turn and face Jacen. “Get in the bedroom. Now.”

Liam walks in front. When they’re inside the bedroom, he feels Jacen unfasten the buckle holding the kilt on his hips. It falls to the floor. “Lay on your back. Grab your knees.”

A little embarrassed by how hard he is, Liam struggles onto the high bed, lies back and draws his legs up, holding them by the knees as instructed. Now he can see Jacen’s face and his eyes are blown black with raging, unchained lust. His thickly muscled chest rises and falls with each heavy breath, and his cock is still huge and full.

With his ass hanging slightly off the edge of the bed, pulled open wide by his pose, Liam relaxes into it as Jacen holds him by the thighs and enters him again. Liam’s mouth falls open around a moan as the position allows Jacen even deeper into his body.

“You can feel that, can’t you?” Jacen says with a pleased, feral smirk. He gives Liam a long, deep dig and then again, hard enough to get him to make a small sobbing cry, his feet flexing and body tensing.

“Y-yeah,” Liam answers, his voice hoarse and wavering.

Jacen bears down on him, and Liam’s breathing chokes off completely in anticipation, tiny frown lines forming in his brow. The next thrust rakes right over his prostate and Liam spasms on the bed, swallowing the shout that wants to burst from his chest. But then Jacen does it again and again and coos, “Come on, baby girl.”

Tears spring to Liam’s eyes and his back bows, his hips bucking again, fucking blindly up into the air as Jacen triggers the bundle of nerves again and again. Liam cries out, roughly, and Jacen twists one of Liam’s pierced nipples, praising him with, “That’s it. Tell me what you want, Leah.”

“
Fuck
,” he cries shrilly, then composes himself with effort, his eyes rolling up into his head as he croaks, “More. Harder.”

It’s sweet torture to be used with such force and passion, his body throbbing, and with no promise of relief of his own. Jacen is careful not to touch anywhere near his husband’s dick, leaving him painfully erect and weeping pre-come steadily. The cradle of Jacen’s hips beats against the curve of Liam’s ass and he’s close now. Liam can tell, so he bears it and moments later, Jacen is gasping through his climax, pumping every drop deeply into Liam.

“Jesus,” Jacen exhales, sweat and pool water alike dripping from the gently curling tendrils of his dark hair, hanging in his equally-darkened eyes, blue made black with lust. He thrusts in and tugs out more gently, more deliberately, and Liam knows what this is too. If Jacen thought his husband couldn’t flush any pinker, he was wrong. Liam blushes fiercely and closes his eyes tightly. “Good. Stay still. Stay right there.” Carefully, he frees his cock from Liam’s ass and, with both hands, pulls Liam’s cheeks apart. When he decides the come isn’t leaking from him as quickly as he likes, Jacen inserts the first two fingers of his right hand, swipes them around and sweeps out some of the fluid. “Better.” The spend he smears all around Liam’s tender opening, into the slightly swollen rim, over his balls and the inside of his thighs.

“Jace....”

“Go on. Up on the bed,” Jacen coaxes, like Liam should know better.

Liam glances at the clock.

“You heard me,” Jacen says, sounding like that’s the end of the discussion. Liam averts his eyes as he shifts up the bed to the headboard and obediently extends his arms to either side of the bed. He waits like that as Jacen moves around the bed and ties his wrists to each of the bed’s posts, his head propped on a pillow. “Comfy?”

Lips pursed, his dick hard as granite, desperate for relief, knowing he’s not getting any soon, Liam can’t quite stop himself from glancing at the cabinet where they keep the sex toys. When Jacen notices and laughs, Liam grunts, “Shit.”

Restless energy and anticipation screams through Liam’s body, lighting it up like electric current as he plants his booted feet on the bed—he’s naked except for those—and tucks his legs up snug to his sore hard-on. Jacen goes to root through the cabinet. A moment later, he turns with a thick, long purple dildo in his hand. Liam protests with a whine, “It’s too big.”

“Oh, I think I can make it fit,” Jacen hums.

“
Jace
.”

“All right,” Jacen sighs. He throws the dildo onto the bed. Liam scowls at it. Jacen turns back to the cabinet and finds something else. He takes it to the bed and doesn’t let Liam see it, even though he tries to crane his neck to get a peek. Setting it down momentarily out of sight, Jacen sets to the task of unbuckling the boots. One by one he gets them off and puts them on the floor by the bed. Then he waits patiently and nods at Liam’s legs. “Okay, come on.”

Rolling his eyes, Liam curls his legs up against his chest, preferring that to going spread eagle. He bites his tongue and stays nice and still as Jacen presses a small, tapered plug into Liam’s anus, then flicks on the switch. Immediately it begins to vibrate and Liam puts his feet back down.

“Straighten ’em. Flat to the bed,” Jacen instructs.

“No.”

Jacen raises his eyebrows at that. “I do have more rope, you know.”

“Goddammit,” Liam curses, straightening his legs. The toy’s vibration sends jolts of white fire directly to his already painful erection, which bobs tightly, flushed dark red, up to his belly. After a moment’s thought, Jacen returns with two metal clamps for Liam’s nipples. He attaches them behind the piercings and Liam looks like he’s drowning in the barrage of stimulation by the time Jacen gathers a pair of clean boxer briefs and takes them with him, along with his phone, into the adjoining bathroom to shower.

The first time Jacen tried this, leaving Liam to stew in his own juices, as it were, while he took his sweet old time getting cleaned up, he made the mistake of binding Liam’s wrists together above his head rather than out to either side. When he came out of the bathroom, he found Liam quite satisfied and already asleep, having twisted around to his belly to rub off on the bed. Ever since then, the pre-bondage fucking Jacen gives Liam has been rougher, like he’s still taking it out on Liam’s ass that he had the gall to get himself off. But it has occurred to Jacen that that might have been the point all along, because Liam loves bringing out the animal in Jacen. That wild, clawing, possessive lust is the quickest way to turn Liam on, every time. All he ever wants is to feel like he belongs to Jacen, and no one else, and that Jacen would do anything to keep it that way. It’s also the reason why he wears the kilt. It’s been a long, long time since Liam has been able to wear it outside of their home, as Jacen usually has him bent over and ass-up before he gets anywhere near the door.

A few eternities pass as Jacen takes his shower. Liam tries everything to get comfortable, but each time he moves, the vibrating plug gets jostled inside his body, making it worse. At one point, the phone Jacen brought into the bathroom rings. There’s a brief, muffled conversation then silence once more. By the time Jacen emerges, not only is he showered, but his hair is blown dry and Liam swears that his nails look freshly manicured as well.

Jacen tosses his used towel into the hamper, sets his phone on the dresser and Liam sobs, “Jace!
Please!
”

Holding up one finger, Jacen mutters, “Just a sec,” before leaving the bedroom entirely.

“JACEN TIMOTHY!” Liam bellows.

“I love you too!” Jacen calls back.

“It’s my own fault,” Liam sighs, miserably, trying to curl up around his erection. “It’s my own goddamned fault. Fucking kilt.”

It’s no surprise at all when Liam hears the low rumble of a motorcycle from somewhere nearby, just outside their small house. The blood pounding in Liam’s ears muffles the noise, though. Gut-churning, dizzying nervousness floods his system. His whole body begins to tremble, so he takes a deep, filling breath, holds it, and then lets it out.

In all of the varying spans of his life, all of the people he has been, the names he has used, the men he has been with, the person that now is Liam—belonging only to Jacen—has never been self-conscious about sex. He’s had innumerable partners and been observed having sex with countless others. Privacy is a foreign concept. Even when he was very young, sex was an all-inclusive activity, not something secret or sacred.

Somehow, though, sex has become something like that. Liam treasures his intimacy with Jacen, who knows him better than anyone ever has. Jacen loves Liam entirely, without judgment or conditions. Jacen understands what it is to become someone who gets paid for sex, who lives with that choice for years and, eventually, fights to move beyond it. Jacen understands, too, Liam’s many-layered spirit and loves him for it in ways Timothy might never have. They have, each of them, known loss and survived it. They are stronger for their struggles.

Yasha, Liam knows, is just outside, with Jacen. His visit has been planned. The initial apprehension Yasha’s presence stirred fades back as Liam reminds himself how completely he trusts Jacen. Jacen is safety, stability, freedom. The excitement that comes from loving only him, with devotion and without reservation, is all of the thrill that Liam will ever need.

As his heartbeat slows to a more normal pace, a small thrill lingers in knowing that Yasha is nearby. It feels for Liam like he’s getting away with something, and has tricked himself into, finally, enjoying a third, outside presence while he’s submitting to Jacen’s sexual whims. Jacen will keep Yasha from getting too close without Liam’s permission, though Yasha might also suspect what’s happening only feet away, in the bedroom where Liam is bound to the bed. It’s not terrifying like it was with Claudia. Then, everything was out of Liam’s control. The Company was pulling the strings. Claudia was a client. She called the shots. The danger in that is what caused Liam’s panic. Now, Liam is in control, even while shackled and naked.
He
decides how far things go. No one can take from him what he’s unwilling to give. This revelation infuses him with a heady sense of power and contentment. For possibly the first time in a life filled with sex, he’s finally making choices not for money or out of a sense of obligation, but only for himself, and the man he loves. The satisfaction of finding happiness on his terms, freed of subjugation, is greater than he could have ever dreamed.

The bedroom door inches open. Jacen slips inside, closes the door behind him, and crosses to the bed. He leans down to press a soft, loving kiss to Liam’s forehead. “He’s outside by the pool.”

“Okay,” Liam mutters.