Chapter Eighteen Los Angeles #2
Jayson closed the door behind him. The click and then the lock, metal sliding, the sound hitting straight into Piper’s gut.
The bass pulsed as shapes passed in the dark, their dead eyes visible, watching him, watching the thing that Piper had become.
Piper became hyper-aware of every fragment of himself. The cool air kissing the exposed curve of his ass, the humiliation real and conflicting. His nipples fully erect under the straps. His thighs trembled from the awkward position in the cage.
He thought he could leave even after the lock, but he stayed because he was programmed to stay. The alternative was far more terrifying.
Jayson stepped up to the cage, close enough now that Piper could feel the heat of him through the bars. The faint scent of his Creed Royal Oud cologne cutting through the club’s musk.
“Look at you,” Jayson murmured, quietly. “You always did understand obedience.”
Piper’s hands tightened on the lower bar, his knuckles whitening as his cock twitched visibly now.
Jayson tilted his head. “You weren’t told to get in. You weren’t told to stay.” Piper did not reply, because a reply would result in the gaslighting.
His breathing had gone deeper, slower, but not calm. The dissociation, the eyes on him, the cage forcing him small and exposed, it all collided deep in his gut and cock.
Jayson’s hand rested lightly against the top of the cage.
“That’s the part you keep missing,” he said.
Piper’s cock strained harder against the jock, a wet spot forming at the tip, as his hips attempted to shift in the cage.
“Say it,” Jayson said, voice dropping.
Piper swallowed, throat tight and finally replied. “I could leave.”
“Yes.”
The space inside the cage felt smaller now or maybe he was just more aware of it, of the sweat gathering under the harness, the throb between his legs, the way every second he remained made the ache sharper, more damning. Piper hated himself for the way his body was reacting to Jayson.
Jayson’s voice was barely above a whisper. “And yet.”
Piper closed his eyes behind the mask. His cock pulsed again, painfully hard, leaking, as he held still.
Behind him, Jayson pulled down his briefs and stepped around to the back of the cage. His cock pushed through the bars and pressed against the curve of Piper’s ass. The head of his cock was warm and slick, sliding up once, then back down slowly, teasing Piper's ass.
Piper’s breath left him in a single shudder. His cock jerked against the pouch of the jock.
Jayson didn’t push, didn’t grind. Jayson rocked, his cock dragging across Piper’s hole and up the small of his back. The bars kept Jayson from going any farther. That was the point, because the bars were the only thing between what was happening and what could’ve been.
“You feel that,” Jayson said, very quietly.
Piper nodded once, because his throat would not produce a word.
“Good.”
Piper’s whole body was shaking now. Not from cold, not from fear, but from something worse.
Jayson let him feel the bars be the only reason the thing Piper’s body was asking for was not happening.
Then Jayson stepped back, slipping his Tom Ford briefs back on abruptly.
“We’re done.” He unlocked the cage.
Piper opened his eyes.
That was it. He stayed there aching, exposed, the denial burning hotter than any touch could have. Then he pushed himself up and stepped out of the cage.
The air felt colder outside it, or maybe that was just him.
***
Outside, the night air hit hard.
Piper pulled the mask off. The harness marks stinging against his skin like reminders.
He looked past Jayson.
In the car, the silence stretched.
Jayson finally said, “You stayed.”
Piper stared out the window. The warehouses blurred past, indistinct. His body still hummed with unresolved heat, shame twisting tight around the arousal.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“That’s not the point.”
Piper knew that. That was the problem.
Jayson’s gaze stayed forward. “The contract remains intact.”
Jayson paused. “For now. I need you to review the amendment and sign,” Jayson said, assuming Piper had read the revisions, which he had not.
“I will get to that at some point.”
Piper felt it. Something now that he hadn’t wanted to. It wasn’t about what Jayson could make him do. It was about what he would do, it was when he would do it.
Jayson turned to Piper. “Oh and Piper, I meant to ask, what happened to your hand?”
***
Piper sat in the Erewhon parking lot. The L.A. heat was brutal for this time of year.
His phone buzzed in his hand. It was Noah on FaceTime. “Noah,” Piper answered.
“You sound off,” Noah said.
“I’m at Erewhon, my safe haven,” Piper replied.
“Why are you wasting your money at that place?”
“Your concern is touching. I can afford it.”
“How was dinner with the billionaire dude?”
“It was okay. He does a lot for me, but expects a lot in return.”
Noah went quiet. “Expects? You okay?”
“I don’t know yet.” The answer sat there collecting assumptions.
“What happened?”
“He wanted me to sign with a new watch brand. I said I would think about it,” Piper said as a pit formed in his stomach as he lied to Noah.
“You don’t seem okay.”
“I will be. I hope.”
“You’re not afraid of him, are you?”
“I am afraid of what he can take.”
Another pause. Then Noah said, softer now, “Come to Seattle. I want to talk more about this.”
Piper stopped walking. “What?”
“Come to Seattle after the game.”
“That is not going to work.”
“We can always make things work.”
“I have obligations.”
“You always have obligations.”
“That is how careers work.”
“Come anyway.”
Piper leaned back against a parked car that was not his.
“Seattle, this time of year?”
“Not as bad as you think.”
Despite everything, Piper smiled. Noah took the smile as a reward.
“I cannot just disappear.”
“I didn’t say disappear. I invited you.”
“That is not helping.”
“Liar.”
Piper laughed. “I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
“You are fucking impossible.”
“That is not a no,” Noah replied. “Go home. Sleep. Win your game.”
“I will try,” Piper replied.
“After the game,” Noah said quieter now. “Come to Seattle.”
Piper paused, then because he was tired and angry and suddenly more honest than he liked being he said, “Fuck, I’ll think about it.”
Piper grabbed his overpriced smoothie inside Erewhon, and headed to his Lexus LX 700h.
“I gotta go,” Piper said.
“What are you so afraid of Piper?”
“Maybe I am nervous some fan will get an iPhone shot of me in Seattle, which would be the exact evidence that social media needs to light our careers on fire,” Piper replied.
“What’s the worst thing that could happen if you come to Seattle? It’s not that?” Noah laughed.
“Bye, Noah. Hope you beat Nashville.”
“Bye sexy. See you tomorrow. Destroy Dallas for me. They have never been good at away games,” Noah said before he hung up.
Piper pressed the start button in his car, the track flooded his car, Jesus Take The Wheel by Carrie Underwood.
Joan, Jesus better take the wheel in Seattle, Piper thought to himself.
He knew he was going to get on that plane tomorrow night.