Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Piper was an early riser. He had been for so many years it turned into a habit he couldn’t break. He also preferred to be on the road with the dawn, especially since their first stop was nearly ten hours away. But when he woke at five, he watched Juno’s profile as he slept—peacefully for the first time in several nights—and he couldn’t bring himself to wake him.
Slipping out of the bed, Piper did a quick check to make sure they were fully packed, and then he drove to the coffee shop up the road and grabbed breakfast. The pharmacy was just opening as he headed back home, so he slipped into the drive-thru and grabbed his pills.
It was vaguely embarrassing to go over the instructions with the pharmacist, but it was easier to shoulder since he was in his car and not surrounded by strangers listening in. When he had the paper bag in his hand, he felt around for the little bottle and heard the soft rattle of the pills inside.
There were only a dozen—low dose and experimental to make sure they’d actually help him. He still wasn’t used to not being afraid for his heart at every turn, so he had to fight back panic as he headed to his town house.
It was still quiet when he got inside, so Piper slipped into the shower, then stood by the sink and read the instructions on the pamphlet. The effects could last up to five hours. Something that would be great once they were in the hotel, but he didn’t really want to be driving with a hard-on.
And he didn’t have time to spend worshiping Juno’s body the way he wanted to that morning.
But tomorrow…oh, tomorrow would be different. If it worked, if he could give Juno the dicking he deserved, the hike might have to wait a day.
Not that he’d complain. It had been so, so long since he’d been able to get hard and stay hard.
Tucking the medication into his travel bag, he opened the bathroom door and was met with the sight of Juno rubbing at his eye with one hand, the other stuffing a pastry into his mouth. He offered Piper a sleepy grin as he crossed the room and tipped his chin up, stealing a sweet, crumbly kiss.
“You let me sleep in,” Juno accused.
Piper nodded. “I did. It looked like you could use the rest.”
Juno’s expression was vaguely sheepish as he set the pastry down and went for his coffee. “Yeah. I guess so. My sleep’s been kind of shit since this whole thing happened.” He stopped and shook his head. “Before, actually. When I first noticed something was wrong.”
Piper brushed a few curls away from Juno’s face. “Were you alone when it happened?”
“No.” Juno heaved a sigh, then took a long drink of his coffee. “But also, yes. It was at Oliver’s wedding. My eye had been funky before then, but the night before his ceremony, I lost my central vision. I thought it would clear up, but it didn’t. They noticed. The guys—they noticed something was wrong, but I didn’t say anything.”
“And you still haven’t,” Piper confirmed.
Juno shrugged and drew his knees to his chest, hugging his legs. He was not a small man, but he seemed like he was trying to shrink in on himself. “I will when I’m ready.”
“I’m not trying to change your mind, sugar,” Piper assured him. “I want you to do whatever helps you feel safe.”
“It’s definitely not—” Juno cut himself off with a laugh. “Actually, yeah. It is that. I don’t want someone knowing that I’m going to be, you know…”
“Blind?”
Juno winced and swung his legs off the bed. “Not that. I hate using the word vulnerable, but that’s what it is. I’m not going to be able to see, you know? Not like I can now. I won’t be able to tell who a person is by looking at them. I’m going to have to trust strangers, and I have never been good at that. I barely trust the people I’ve known almost my entire life.”
Piper rose with him, but he kept his distance. Juno’s body language was tense, and Piper knew better than to step into his space. He leaned against the wall near the door and folded his arms over his chest.
“Can we not talk about it anymore today?” Juno asked as he grabbed his pants and shirt off the dresser.
Piper held up his hands in surrender. “Consider it pinned to a board and won’t be taken down until you feel like it.”
“And if I never feel like it?”
“Then it’s taboo,” Piper said.
And he meant it. He didn’t think that was entirely healthy, but that didn’t matter. It was more important that Juno saw him as someone who would always respect what he asked for. Even if it wasn’t necessarily what he needed in the long run.
“I like you,” Juno told him.
Piper burst into laughter and shook his head. “Oh, sugar. I like you too.”
They hit the road a few minutes after Juno was dressed. He was a very well-put-together man, but he wasn’t fussy about his appearance. He kept his curls mostly tied in low buns, his face was washed and clean, but he didn’t use products. His clothes were freshly washed but wrinkled from the tumble dry, and he didn’t seem to care.
Piper loved that about him. There was a rawness to him that he wasn’t used to seeing in men Juno’s age. His younger coworkers didn’t have strict grooming routines, but they spent time on themselves. Appearances mattered to them. Juno sort of bashed through life with a fuck-you attitude, as though his existence itself was a rebellion.
It made Piper want to pin him to the wall and fuck him until he was tamed, then let him go wild again so he could do it all over.
That thought lit a fire in him as they hit the road, but it settled into a low simmer when Juno put on an audiobook—a fantasy series modeled after ancient Greece.
“It’s got queer main characters,” Juno explained as he was queueing up the chapter he’d been listening to. “I’ve never been a romance kind of guy, but I’m kind of digging this.”
“ You’re not a romance kind of guy?” Piper asked, surprised.
Juno lifted a brow at him. “Do I seem like one?”
“To me, you do.”
Juno’s cheeks went pink, and Piper indulged in looking until the light turned green and he had to hit the freeway. The rest of the drive was him stealing glances whenever he was safe enough to take his eyes off the road and basking in quick touches and easy kisses when they stopped for food, or gas, or a piss.
The hours flew by in a sort of quiet ease Piper wasn’t expecting, and he was startled to realize they were ten minutes away from the little rental he’d booked. It was about thirty minutes outside of Buffalo, secluded and quiet, which seemed appropriate for what they were doing.
Normally he would have pulled out all the stops—a fancy hotel, room service, a spa with massages—but Juno didn’t seem to need all of that right now. At least, that’s what Piper hoped. He hadn’t mentioned where they were staying, and Juno hadn’t asked.
“I try not to be picky,” Juno said, facing the passenger window, “but we’re not booked in some creepy roadside motel, are we?”
Piper snorted as he followed the GPS directions, turning down a low-lit street. It was only eight, so the sun wasn’t quite down yet, but it was getting there. He saw small, flickering lights in a few yards, and he realized the fireflies were out.
“I tried to get us homes instead of hotels as often as I could,” he confessed. “I like the privacy better. I’d rather not have neighbors hearing what we’re up to. And I want you to be noisy.”
Juno swallowed heavily. “That’s…yeah. That’s a good point.”
Piper found himself grinning widely as he pulled into the driveway. It was a small cottage-looking thing. Dark wood paneling and a landscaped front yard. The houses on either side of them were just as well put together, but there were no lights on. He wondered just how alone they actually were.
He found Juno brave then. He wasn’t young by any means, but Piper still would have been shit-scared to do something like this when he was Juno’s age. Then again, he’d never had much courage. Not the way others did.
He wondered if he’d get braver the longer Juno was around and the more Juno let him in close.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw his lover fumbling with his bag, but before he could reach out to help, Juno slung his duffle over his shoulder and yanked the suitcase until it was upright. He gave Piper a stunning smile—cheeks concave with the smallest dimples—and he squared his shoulder.
“Well?”
Piper turned and walked to the door, punching in the code. He was instantly hit with a strong scent of pine cleaner, enough to make his eyes water. Behind him, Juno coughed, so he walked to the front windows in the living room and wrenched them all open. There was a beep somewhere far off in the house—the alarm, he thought. He hadn’t been given instructions to turn it off, and it didn’t make more noise, so he dropped his carry bag on the couch and turned in a half-circle.
The place was as small as advertised, and a little less cozy than the pictures had promised, but it was still nice. The furniture looked well-worn, and at the very least, it was clean.
“Imagine having a whole house you could just rent out,” Juno mused as he walked past a bookshelf. He trailed his fingers along the books. They were all the classics he’d had to read in college. Moby Dick, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, Dracula. He wondered if they were real or just for show. “Like, I’m still freaking out about losing my studio and being homeless.”
Piper’s stomach twisted. “You’re not going to be homeless.”
“It’s not that big of a deal. I mean, I’ve been homeless, and it sucked, but I learned all the tricks. I’d figure it out.”
“Your friends would never let you. I would never let you.”
Juno walked up to him and tugged on his wrist playfully. “I know. I’m just being salty about rich people having property for funsies or whatever.”
Rolling his eyes, Piper pulled him close. “It’s bullshit, I know. But for now, we’re going to take advantage of these morally corrupt people and fuck in a room where you can be as loud as you want.”
Juno swallowed heavily. “Yeah? Not even going to wine and dine me first?”
“Oh. There will be plenty of that.” He pushed his fingers gently into Juno’s curls, careful not to disturb them too much. “In fact, rumor has it there’s a jacuzzi tub and a spa kit for you to relax in while your loving new sex-friend cooks for you.”
Juno’s brows flew up. “Sex-friend?”
Piper felt a blush prickle across his cheeks. “That’s what my brother called you since, you know, we don’t have labels.”
Juno’s cough sounded suspiciously like it was trying to cover up a laugh. “Wow. Okay. That’s not going to be mortifying when I meet him or anything.”
Piper wanted to ask if maybe Juno wanted to call this something—which was better than nothing. But he wasn’t going to push it. Instead, he took Juno by the chin and kissed him softly. “About that bath…?”
“You sure you don’t want to join me?”
It was tempting. It was more than tempting, and he might actually give him a hand—so to speak—in a little bit. But he had plans first. “I thought I might take a little pill. It needs about an hour to kick in.”
Juno’s eyes darkened. “Oh. Yeah, okay.”
“If you want.”
“I want,” Juno said in a rush. He pushed his body against Piper’s, going up onto his toes so he could kiss him. It was deep, full of wet, hot tongue. Piper loved how messy Juno was—how indelicate he was at times. Juno had never put on a show. He was almost unaware of how his body moved, taking up space wherever he was, and Piper was starting to become obsessed.
He forced himself to take a step back when Juno broke the kiss. “I had a grocery delivery ordered ahead of time,” he said. “Do you want steak or chicken?”
“Steak,” Juno said, then hesitated. “Can you cook a steak?”
Piper grinned at him, then leaned in and nipped at his chin. “I can cook a steak. Go pamper yourself. I’ll come get you when it’s almost ready.”
Juno only hesitated for a moment, and only to steal another kiss before he turned and rushed off, leaving Piper simmering with a new kind of heat he couldn’t wait to explore.