Hard to believe Austin had started the summer lonely and demoralized on a fragmented, middling hockey team, no real friends to speak of, disliked by his roommates and a month away from being kicked out of his place and fired from his job.
Hard to believe, though, what could still be undone in a single day.
August 16th
On the last day of summer semester, Austin walked out of his last, three-hour kinesiology exam nauseated but relieved. For better or for worse, whether he got Bs or Cs or Ds on his transcript, he was glad to be done with his summer schoolwork so he could focus on hockey and the upcoming season. Maybe one day, he’d be in the NHL and his university grades wouldn’t fucking matter. Maybe this was the season he’d get scouted and he wouldn’t even have to finish university.
In the grand scheme of things, the academic side of his schooling was nothing but a distraction from what mattered: the game.
Luckily, not all distractions were as tedious and time-consuming as academic credit hours.
Case in point, the text from Liam burning a hole through his pocket, promising him a reward for finishing the semester.
Austin liked rewards. Bonuses at Rear Entrance Video, nights out for pizza after a good practice or exhibition match, achievements unlocked on Xbox. But he liked rewards from Liam most of all. Last time had been after he’d taken his biggest plug yet without whining or complaining, and Liam had tied him down to a bench and sucked him until he’d shot right down Liam’s throat. Liam had swallowed and it had been the most mind-blowingly hot thing Austin had ever witnessed. Sure, people had swallowed his cum before, but never with such enthusiasm, and never within the confines of a relationship where, by rule, only Austin did the swallowing.
So yeah, he was looking forward to tonight. Looking forward to his reward, looking forward to forgetting about the stresses of the week and of the months to come, looking forward to curling up on Liam’s couch and watching some classic hockey from Liam’s massive collection of vintage games.
Austin hadn’t known reruns of sports could be so enjoyable. Sure, he’d watched games multiple times, but that had been to study them, to analyze them, to figure out what went wrong and what went right and how to apply it to his own game and to his team’s strategy. He’d never watched them for fun, because once you knew how it ended, where was the excitement?
The excitement, it turned out, wasn’t as important when you had the comfort and familiarity and memories of a good game. And it especially wasn’t as important when you were sharing all those things with Liam.
It was nearing five by the time Austin reached Davie Street, so he stopped by Liam’s favourite sushi place to pick him up some dinner on his way. By the time he arrived at Liam’s door, styrofoam containers in hand, buzzing with pleasure at being able to do this small thing for Liam, he’d completely stopped worrying about his test scores.
Liam opened the door with a smile that turned to a full-on grin when he saw what Austin was carrying.
“Is that food?” he asked, letting Austin in. “Did you buy me dinner?”
Austin hunched into his shoulders like a dog about to get a newspaper to the nose, uncomfortable with how big a deal Liam was making. “Uh, well, you know, it was getting on five, so I figured why not?”
Liam took the containers, giving his cheek a hard pinch. “That is adorable! So domestic!”
“Jeez, it’s just takeout,” Austin mumbled.
“I should make you scrub my floors naked next . . .” Liam continued, ignoring Austin’s expressions of discomfort.
Which was okay, actually, because that last bit didn’t make him uncomfortable at all. Perking up considerably, he followed Liam into his kitchen.
“Oh! Or maybe not,” Liam said.
“Huh? Why?” Austin couldn’t keep the puppy disappointment out of his voice.
Liam grinned, not at Austin, but at the opened styrofoam container on the kitchen counter in front of him. “Because I just got a better idea. Hope all that hockey means you’ve got a high tolerance for cold.”
Liam refused to explain what he meant by that. He shoved Austin into his small bathroom, watched him strip, then ordered him immediately into the shower.
“Do I stink that bad?” Austin complained, stumbling into the tub nonetheless.
“Shhh. No talking unless it’s to safeword, got me? Get nice and clean, then towel off and meet me back in the dining room. Don’t dawdle.”
Whatever Liam had planned, he had Austin’s attention now. But then, he usually did when he specifically brought up Austin’s safeword, because it meant whatever he was about to do was going to test Austin’s limits somehow.
Austin liked that.
Feeling twin prickles of nervousness and eagerness, he moved to turn on the shower taps.
“Oh,” Liam said. “Let me handle that.”
He reached in through the shower curtain and yanked the cold tap to full blast.
Only the cold tap.
Austin yelped and scrambled for the far shower wall, trying to avoid the ice-cold shower stream.
“None of that,” Liam snapped in a tone that left no room for argument. “Come on, you can take it. Can’t you?”
Austin hugged himself, covered in goose bumps and dripping frigid water. He could take it, damn it. It suddenly became crystal-clear why Liam had brought up the hockey/cold-tolerance connection. There was no way Austin could allow himself not to meet this challenge.
With a shudder, he stepped under the stream again.
Liam peeked around the edge of the curtain and gave Austin a mean-but-nonetheless-pleased smile. “That’s my boy. I’m gonna get things ready outside for you now. You make sure to give yourself a good scrub. Don’t be shy of the cold water. I’m sure it sucks, but you’re not gonna get hypothermia or anything either. And the longer you can take being in there, the happier you’ll make me, huh?” He reached into the shower and gave one of Austin’s hard nipples a possessive little pinch.
Touching Austin like Austin was his. Yes, Austin would definitely pass this particular test. To make Liam happy? To solidify Liam’s claim on him? He would.
He did.
After Liam left the room, Austin forced himself to stand directly under the frigid spray, ignoring the way it shrunk his dick and made his whole body shudder and ache. He just had to do it. Just do it. Teeth chattering, he soaped himself off, washed every inch of himself. Paid particular attention to his pits and his dick and balls and his ass, like he always did for Liam.
Motivated by thoughts of pleasing Liam, he was able to stand the cold water a lot longer than he’d have thought. And then, when he thought he couldn’t take anymore, he forced himself to endure a minute more.
Shivering, skin simultaneously stinging on the surface and aching deep down, he finally got out of the shower. Towelled off briskly. Didn’t bother wrapping the towel around his waist, because he knew Liam wouldn’t want him hiding how shrunken his dick was. This was what Liam wanted. Austin accepted it. That was all he had to do, accept it all.
He was still shivering and covered in goose bumps, hair half-dry, when he met Liam in the dining room.
“Gorgeous,” Liam said, when he looked up from the table and saw Austin standing there. “C’mere.”
Austin went.
Liam’s hands cupped his shoulders, then immediately flinched back. “Damn, you are freezing. Good. That’s good. Very good, buddy.”
His words almost warmed Austin, until he realized Liam obviously wanted him cold.
“Arms up,” Liam directed. Austin didn’t think, didn’t question, just raised his arms above his head. His icy-cold skin ached.
Liam turned around and picked up something off the table. A roll of see-through cling wrap?
Austin must have made a questioning look, because Liam smiled that smug fucking smile of his, the smile he got when he was impressed by his own cleverness. The guy sure did have a fucking ego on him. He was lucky he mostly earned it. “Gotta be food safe,
right?” he asked Austin, and began to wrap the cling wrap around his torso. Around and around and around, tighter and tighter, layer after layer, from his nipples right down to his pathetic dick. Austin stood completely still, allowing himself to be captured, to have all that plastic slowly tighten around his body.
At last, Liam reached the end of the roll. He tossed the paper tube over his shoulder. “Up on the table now, kiddo. Need help?”
“Fuck no,” Austin snapped, although he did. The cold shower had made his body sluggish and stiff, and the cling wrap—even wrapped as it was just around his torso—made movement difficult.
Together, though, they got him up onto the table on his back. Liam pushed Austin’s arms and legs spread eagle. Tied off his wrists and ankles to the four legs of the table with lengths of smooth rope.
Normally after he tied Austin up, he liked to stand back with his hand on his chin, admiring his own work like you always saw artists do in cartoons, but today he moved economically, single-mindedly. “Time is of the essence,” he explained as he bustled around the room. “Take this.” He pressed a cloth napkin from his cupboard into Austin’s hand. “I think I’m gonna be keeping your mouth busy, so you drop that if you need to safeword, okay?”
Austin mutely nodded, mentally preparing himself for the sensation of being gagged. It was the one thing he hadn’t quite gotten used to, having his mouth taken over and used and silenced. It was almost more intimate than anything Liam had ever done to his dick or ass. And Austin didn’t think he was that big of a talker.
Liam didn’t gag him, though. Not with the ring gag or the ball gag, not with his own socks or underwear—which Austin loved best of all—not with tape or a handkerchief. Instead, he took a small round dish and had Austin balance it on his puckered lips.
“I’ve always wanted to do this,” he said, and that was when Austin felt the first cool, soft piece of sashimi come to rest on his plastic-wrapped abdomen. “Ever since I saw it in some shitty old yakuza movie, and you bringing me sushi tonight reminded me of it. Human furniture Japanese-style, except I think more people in Vegas do it now than anyone ever did in Japan. I could never ethically justify going to a restaurant that serves sushi this way, though. But with a sub, knowing he’s consenting? Knowing I’ll take care of him after?” He cast Austin a reassuring smile as he continued to lay out the pieces of sashimi in orderly lines on either side of Austin’s torso “Not to mention knowing he’s clean and well wrapped with a month’s worth of cling wrap?”
At last, he poured a splash of soy sauce into the dish Austin still had on his lips.
Now he stepped back.
“Gorgeous,” he breathed, again. “Can I take a picture? I won’t share it anywhere—” He flashed Austin a rakish smile. “Unless you want me to, that is. Blink once for yes and twice for no.”
Austin, drunk on Liam’s loving expression and unabashedly eager voice, gave him one solemn blink. He kinda wanted to see this for himself, too. He could always ask Liam to delete the picture after, once he came down from this frigid-cold high.
He closed his eyes, breathing slow and deep through his nose. He heard the artificial camera shutter sound from Liam’s phone, then the sound of a scraping chair.
The cling wrap made it a little hard for Austin to really breathe. The stuff was thin in one layer, but in the multiple layers Liam had used, it slightly limited the movement of his ribcage. It felt like a tight, firm hug. Consistent. Safe.
Liam rubbed his bare upper thigh with a warm palm as he ate, delicately picking up one piece of sashimi in his chopsticks at a time. He dipped them in the soy sauce. Continued touching Austin absently as he ate.
Most of all, he took his time. He didn’t talk to Austin, didn’t look him in the eye, just treated him as the human plate he was.
Gradually—very, very gradually—Austin began to warm. With it, his dick tried its damnedest to get hard. The cling wrap kept it pinned down in position. Liam had laid his serving of pickled pink ginger right over the head.
When he’d finished everything else—absolutely every slice of fish from Austin’s prone body—he finally went for the ginger. The tips of his chopsticks pinched Austin’s swollen dick through the plastic. Liam didn’t react to any of it. He ate his ginger with slow, lizard-like satisfaction, then leaned back in his chair with a sigh.
Austin didn’t move. Couldn’t move, but didn’t want to. Liam wasn’t acknowledging him now. He wasn’t important. His purpose wasn’t to demand attention or affection, it was to be still and quiet and wait.
It felt like hours, although it was probably more like the ten minutes it typically took Liam for his stomach to settle after a meal. At least he wasn’t a stickler for the half-hour rule, because then the wait might have felt like days.
Somehow in the process of warming up from the cold shower and cold fish laid out all over him, his body actually felt the remaining cold more keenly. He couldn’t help it—he moaned miserably around the heavy porcelain dish that weighed on his lips and twisted in his bonds.
Liam didn’t jump up to free him; he still had the handkerchief safely clutched in his hand.
But he did run a slow, absent hand up Austin’s inner thigh, slipping into the triangle made by the cling wrap and Austin’s legs. “Shh,” he said softly. “Shh. It’s okay, buddy. You’re doing good.”
That praise, so genuine, so freely given, so completely fucking commonplace and subtly stated, rocked Austin back into a safe, patient lull. He stayed there, silent and still and accepting, until Liam got up and finally took the dish of soy sauce from his mouth.
It was a little hard to move his lips, thanks to the combination of the cold and having held that position so long. He flexed them wordlessly, trying to soften them.
And Liam . . . Liam stared. Stared at Austin gaping like a fish, his expression soft, but other than that unreadable.
Then he gave his head a shake and moved to untie Austin’s wrists and ankles.
Didn’t do Austin much good, though. He was way too stiff to consider closing his legs or lowering his arms. Liam gave him a cautious look, eyes on his mouth, eyes on the handkerchief, waiting for a signal that wasn’t coming. At last, he got a pair of scissors and cut Austin free.
Of the cling wrap, at least.
In all other respects, he’d cut Austin free already.
Austin was way too big for even a guy the size of Liam to carry, but Liam sure did try his hardest. He got Austin off the table, got him mostly upright, threw one of Austin’s arms around his big shoulders, wrapped his own arm around Austin’s naked, chilly waist, and together they hobbled down the hall.
Not to the living room. Not to the couch, with the fuzzy Canucks blanket. Not to the TV with its vintage games.
To Liam’s bedroom.
Austin was too woozy to really grasp how big a deal this was, to finally see the inside of Liam’s personal space for the first time.
It wasn’t all that interesting of a room, anyway. It was dark without the full-length windows, and small, most of its square footage taken up by a massive unmade bed, which Liam helped Austin into.
“There you go, kiddo,” he murmured in that gentle voice he always used when the games were through. Austin curled up on his side and hugged himself, gritting his teeth to keep them from chattering. Strange how the further away in time he got from that ice-cold shower, the more frigid he felt. He drew his knees up to his chest and tucked his head. It didn’t help that he always felt cold and shaky after coming down from the soaring highs Liam brought him to.
Think warm. Think warm. Think warm.
Which turned out to be easier than might be expected, because the mattress creaked and then Liam was curled up naked behind him, spooning his body.
They must have looked ridiculous, two buff, manly guys snuggled up like a needy couple.
And Austin playing the girl, of course.
Fuck it, he didn’t care, not when Liam’s body was radiating waves of musky heat, not when Liam w
as pulling his heavy duvet over them both. Austin pressed back, seeking that heat, and ignored the way their bodies fit together.
Liam gathered him in close.
Wrapped a big arm around Austin’s shoulders. Toyed with the hair at Austin’s nape with his other hand.
Austin didn’t fight any of it. He’d given up fighting. He didn’t see the point anymore, not when not fighting felt so damn good. If that was taking the pussy’s way out, then fine, Austin was a pussy. He and Bobby could become a two-man army of pussies.
Liam made him feel good. Made him feel safe and wanted. Wanted him for him, all of him, flaws and all. Hockey player and cocksucker together.
The longer he lay there, though, and the warmer he got, he realized he must have taken this session hard for Liam to have brought him back here instead of their usual routine on the couch. Liam had been rough with Austin so many times in this apartment, had pushed Austin to the brink over and over, but it had never been anything that couldn’t be salved by some time on the couch together. To be brought to the bed . . . It was abnormal. It was too much.
Austin squirmed in Liam’s arms. “I’m okay now,” he said, keeping his voice light to prove he really, really was.
“Mmm,” Liam replied.
Was that a yes? A no? A yeah right, kid?
Of course Austin’s brain went to the most offensive option. He twisted in Liam’s arms to face him. “Seriously, I mean it!”
Liam looked like he was in pain. His jaw was tense, and his eyes were narrowed in a flinch. “That’s the thing,” he said, voice strained. “I know you are. It’s me who’s not.”
Straight Shooter (Rear Entrance Video, #3) Page 18
