Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nico and Cooper showed up in separate cars, hiding behind their identities for the night, and found each other just inside by the coat check.
The two had agreed to collaborate on a theme.
Cooper was to be the devil and Nico the angel.
Only one of the two followed through on the premise, but when Cooper looked that fucking good, it didn’t really matter.
Cooper’s mask resembled a fox with ridged metal painted a gunpowder grey. He wore a fur scarf over his bare chest with a pair of dark trousers and dress shoes.
Nico wore a netted white shirt with white suspenders strapped into his white leather pants.
His mask was also white, with wings branching out from the sides of his eyes while a muted pair of angel wings hugged his back.
To cover up the identifiable tattoos on his arms, he wore detached white sleeves.
The rules were simple: everyone must wear a mask at all times, no drugs that required flame, consent was to be respected at all times, and absolutely no photography.
In the packed venue—a forgotten and abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn—the scent of sexual freedom whispered through the thick fog of strobe lights.
Hung above the crowd were four TVs forming a box so they could be seen by everyone but those standing directly beneath them. On the screens was a countdown, the seconds ticking down to the new year.
Nico’s entire body tensed with every step he took. There were probably close to five hundred faceless people all around them. Well, they had faces, but they were hidden behind masquerade masks.
“Relax,” Cooper whisper-shouted in Nico’s ear. “Nobody will know.”
As they made their way through the crowd, Nico found an opening in the middle of the floor—a little space where he could catch his breath as his nerves surged, coating his skin in a sweaty panic.
“It’s just a lot,” Nico said. “We’re really doing this in public, right before playoffs.”
Cooper placed a finger over Nico’s lips. “Tonight is about anything and everything other than football.”
“Our lives are about football.” All the different ways the brackets could shake out ran through Nico’s mind.
He should be at home getting his head on straight, not out partying all night.
The Knights earned a bye in the first round of the playoffs by winning the division.
Assuming the Cobras would beat Portland in the first round, the Knights would then be set for a rematch against the defending champions.
It’s all Nico could think about. “The game is right around the corner.”
“Not here.” Cooper shook his head. “We’re just two strangers in an abyss of strangers.”
In his most panicked moments, Cooper had a way of calming Nico like nobody else could. Like the night in the tent, but here Cooper’s words weren’t enough to ease his mind of the terrifying reality that they could be caught red-handed. “I’m going to need something stronger than a drink.”
“What do you have in mind?”
Nico pulled a rolled baggie out of his pocket. Two pills. One for Nico and one for Cooper, assuming the other man accepted.
Cooper’s eyes bore through the silver openings of his mask. “What the fuck is that?”
“Something to take the edge off.”
Cooper pried the bag from Nico’s hands and stuffed it into his own pocket. “Do you do this a lot?”
“No,” Nico whispered, his heart racing. The last thing he wanted or needed was to be scolded.
Not because it’d hurt his feelings, but because, to be quite frank, it’d scare him.
“Just thought that this being our first time in public, I would need a little push. But you’re totally right. We absolutely should not do this.”
“I’ll keep these little magic pills of yours somewhere safe, like the bottom of a toilet drain. We have the playoffs and the championship coming up. We’re not going to risk that.”
“Yes, daddy.”
Cooper shot Nico a glare, and if looks could kill… they’d find Nico’s body a hundred years in the future, buried somewhere deep underneath the thumping warehouse.
“So…” Nico sputtered. “How about a drink?”
“That we can do.”
By the time they found the bar, Nico was coated in a thin layer of sweat. Cooper slid through a tight space at the crowded bar and pulled Nico to stand right behind him.
To their right were two twink-type men wearing matching thongs and masks.
Because of how sweltering it was in the makeshift club—even in the middle of winter—Nico wished he had the courage to go out in public like that.
He wished he had the freedom to do so, but the tattoos on his body would be a dead giveaway.
To their left, some man wearing a plague doctor mask was on the receiving end of a handjob by a man nuzzled against the side of his throat. Nico glanced down at the man’s sizable cock. It was long, thick, and leaking.
Nico knew exactly what he was getting himself into, and yet it still dawned on him that he hadn’t considered the extent of what exactly that meant.
Thus the need for something to take the edge off.
Something strong. He had every intention of letting Cooper fuck him on the dance floor, but his stomach twisted into tiny knots.
Cooper passed him a shot in a clear Solo cup.
It looked to be a double or even a triple, and when he raised it to his nose, the smell of tequila hit him like a singed match at the back of his throat.
He threw his head back and swallowed it in one go, and by the time Cooper twisted to cheers him, the shot was already gone.
Nico wiped the back of his lips as Cooper passed him a disappointed glare.
“Cheers to the end of a great year and the start of an even better one.” Cooper raised his cup filled with what Nico assumed was also tequila and gulped it down.
Cooper grabbed both cups, set them on the bar, and spun back around with two drinks in his hand. Nico expected a vodka soda or something else similarly clear, so it was a shock to the system to realize it was only water.
Nico eyed Cooper suspiciously.
“We have all night to party. Let’s at least try to make it to the ball drop,” Cooper said with a grin.
After finishing their water, Nico and Cooper disappeared into the crowd and found a spot with enough space to breathe between them.
Nico glanced upward at the catwalk that wrapped around the entirety of the warehouse.
It was sparsely filled with spectators, voyeurs, and those looking for a reprieve from the crowded space.
Nico wondered how Cooper was handling all of this, knowing of the other man’s claustrophobia.
Blue and white strobe lights flashed above, lighting up the obscured faces of the people surrounding them, but only for brief moments at a time.
Nico watched Cooper in the dark and then in the light.
Only for his face to be lost in the darkness again.
This was an all-too-familiar show of the life they shared together.
He shook the thoughts from his mind and closed the distance between them.
It was time to dance, and Nico took the lead.
He placed a palm on Cooper’s shoulder and began to sway to the beat while Cooper remained still.
Nico had danced with Cooper before, but he’d never seen him dance to anything other than a slow beat in slow circles.
This was going to be different, and he wasn’t sure Cooper had the feral moves this kind of environment required.
Cooper grabbed Nico by the waist and spun him in a quick circle. He pulled Nico’s body close to his, held Nico by his hips, and began to sway.
Nico hated being proven wrong and he would never say he was wrong out loud. But he was wrong. Cooper could dance. He had rhythm. The kind of rhythm that synced with the music, and when Cooper loosened his grip, Nico realized it was he who had a lot to prove.
He took control, pushing his body against Cooper’s. Already, he felt Cooper’s cock hardening beneath his trousers. He leaned his head back, cradling it on the crook of Cooper’s shoulder.
Cooper breathed a trail of hot air over the side of Nico’s throat and then landed with his lips pressed against his ear. “You’re mine.”
“I’m yours,” Nico whispered into the air.
“Everyone on this dance floor will know you’re mine.” Cooper nibbled at Nico’s earlobe. “I’m going to fuck you in front of everyone here.”
Nico cocked his head to the side, catching Cooper’s gaze. He reached around and located the zipper attached to the back of his leather pants. He pulled it down and felt the hot club air pass over the flesh of his ass. “Then what are you waiting for?”
Cooper stared a little too long, almost long enough for Nico to feign laughter. Enough time for Nico to change his mind. Cooper let go of Nico and dug into his pocket, grabbed a packet of lube, and ripped it open with his teeth.
Nico stole the packet from the other man and squeezed it into his palm. He reached back to find Cooper had already freed his cock from his pants, and so he slicked the other man’s hardness. Gave it a few strokes, and lined it up against his opening.
Cooper batted away Nico’s hand, grabbed him by the throat, and held him still as he pushed his way into his hole. The exhale of hot breath was hot on Nico’s flesh, almost as hot as Cooper’s cock that sank into him.
One song melted into the next as Cooper reached the hilt and stilled himself there. As Nico waited for Cooper to move, he popped the button of his pants and unzipped. He reached inside and pulled out his half-hard cock and stroked it with his slick hand.