THREE
They walked the two blocks in a downpour of freezing rain. The ice coated Marcus’s jeans, then thawed from his body heat, then froze again. His legs felt wet and raw. Aiden looked just as miserable. His knit cap became covered in a crust of ice and his cheeks and nose were bright red.
“I’m going to go change, I’ll find you some clothes,” Marcus said, fighting to get his boots off in the entryway of his small apartment.
He went to his bedroom just big enough for a queen size bed and a small dresser.
He stripped off his wet jeans and wet socks and pulled on a clean pair of sweatpants.
His nose and eyes were still burning from the cold outside.
He found another pair of sweatpants and a fresh t-shirt and brought them out to Aiden.
Aiden disappeared into the bathroom to change and Marcus filled a small pot with water and put it on the stove. He riffled through his cabinets looking for the old box of tea he knew he had bought years ago.
“I left my clothes in the tub,” Aiden said, appearing from the bathroom. “My jeans were really wet.” Aiden’s face was still red and his hair looked damp from the melted ice on his hat.
“Mine too. Do you drink tea? Or I can make coffee. Or I have a bottle of whiskey, I usually just drink it with ice and water, but I think people put whiskey in tea, right?”
“That was my grandmother’s cure for a cold,” Aiden said. He stepped into the galley kitchen and leaned against the counter. Marcus’s t-shirt rode up and Marcus could see a stripe of bare skin. Marcus may have offered him one of the smallest t-shirts he had.
“But tea sounds great,” Aiden continued.
Aiden looked rumpled and damp and cold and suddenly Marcus didn’t care about the tea anymore.
He closed the space between himself and Aiden and put his hands on the counter, boxing Aiden in.
He pressed closer, his hips nearly touching Aiden’s.
He looked at Aiden’s red nose and damp hair.
Aiden didn’t lean away. Still, Marcus waited.
He let his eyes wander down Aiden’s neck to Marcus’s shirt, tight across Aiden’s chest and inching upwards on Aiden’s belly.
He felt Aiden’s eyes on him. Marcus waited for Aiden to give a small nod before he closed the gap and kissed him.
Aiden’s body was warm, but his face was still cool, and Marcus was overcome with the urge to warm him up. He opened his mouth and pressed his tongue against Aiden’s, then gripped the back of Aiden’s head and pulled him deeper. Aiden melted underneath him, body going lax against the counter.
Aiden moaned into Marcus’s mouth and his hands found Marcus’s waist, then his ass. Marcus had hoped his invitation would lead to this, but he had left a lot of room for other possibilities in his mind, just in case.
“Wait. Here,” Aiden pushed Marcus back enough to switch places with him. Marcus found himself with the kitchen counter digging into his back as Aiden sunk to his knees.
“Oh!” The word was both startled out of him and a sudden understanding of why Aiden had moved him. Aiden pulled Marcus’s waistband down enough to pull out his cock. He didn’t hesitate. The moment Marcus’s cock was free, Aiden sunk down on it.
Aiden sucked frantically. Marcus dropped his head back and groaned loudly, hand cupping the back of Aiden’s head.
He wanted to tell Aiden he didn’t have to go so fast, that he didn’t have to come right now, but Aiden’s mouth was too good.
He gripped the counter behind him with one hand and held on to Aiden’s hair with the other.
“Oh, oh shit,” Marcus cursed, lurching forward and curling over Aiden. “Hey, hey, I’m going to…” Marcus tugged Aiden’s hair to get his attention, but Aiden didn’t stop. Marcus curled tighter over Aiden’s head as his climax rushed at him.
It hit all at once. It was impossible to keep from shouting, and he didn’t care if the whole floor heard him. Aiden swallowed and sucked as Marcus shot into his mouth. As the last of the shocks faded, he felt Aiden digging his tongue into his slit, licking out the last of his release.
“What the fuck…” Marcus rasped, letting go of Aiden’s head and steading himself on the counter. Aiden pulled back and tucked Marcus back into his sweatpants. He carefully pushed himself off the floor and leaned against the counter next to Marcus.
“Water’s boiling,” Aiden said, looking over at the stove.
“Uh, yeah, fuck. Give me a second,” Marcus said.
“I got it,” Aiden said. He opened the box of tea and pulled out two teabags. Marcus watched him open a few cabinets before he found the mugs. Aiden carefully poured boiling water into the mugs before dropping in the teabags. Everything felt surreal. He should be…
“Do you not want me to…” Marcus said, finally pushing off the counter and pressing against Aiden. He ran his hand over the front of Aiden’s sweatpants and Aiden stepped back, pressing a mug into Marcus’s hands.
“Let’s sit for a second,” Aiden said. Marcus nodded, agreeable, but worried he’d ruined the mood somehow. He hoped if he had done something to turn Aiden off that he would get a chance to repair it.
Marcus led Aiden to his little living room. Aiden took a quick detour back to his coat he’d left by the door and fished out his phone before joining Marcus in the living room.
Marcus’s apartment didn’t have a sofa. A loveseat would have worked, but instead, Marcus had two large chairs with fat ottomans.
If he scooted the ottoman against the chair, the two were roughly the size of a twin bed.
Two people could easily share a chair, but they would be pressed hip to hip and thigh to thigh.
Aiden saw Marcus sitting in one chair, and he chose the other chair. Marcus was a little disappointed, but he tried not to take it personally. Some people liked having personal space. Although he would have felt better about it if Aiden had let him blow him.
“Hey, sorry, I need to return a text,” Aiden said.
He set his mug on a coaster. Marcus watched him read the screen, then type with his thumbs.
He typed for a while, a little smile on his lips.
Marcus sipped his tea and reminded himself he didn’t know this person and didn’t have any right to be jealous.
It was difficult advice to take. Aiden put his phone down on his lap and picked up his mug.
“Sorry,” Aiden said. Marcus shrugged and tried to look like he wasn’t feeling offended. “So, I just need to tell you,” Aiden continued. Marcus felt his stomach drop. He was cheating.
“I’m in a… situation.” Aiden held up his hand and modified: “an open situation. Well, kind of. I’m seeing someone and he knows I’m here, and I texted him about it before we left the bar.”
“Are you cheating?” Marcus imagined some jealous guy showing up at his building in the middle of an ice storm.
“No, definitely not cheating.” Aiden paused.
Marcus felt some of the tension in his shoulders release.
“We’re a new thing, and it’s not really defined, but there’s kind of a big rule, and that’s why I need to tell you.
Sorry, this doesn’t happen a lot like this, so I’m not used to having this conversation. ”
“Okay?” Marcus needed whatever it was out in the open.
“I’m in a, um, chastity cage?” Aiden said, voice lifting at the end like it was a question. His face pinked a little and he looked at the corner of the room. Marcus waited, and a few seconds of heavy silence passed.
“That’s it?” Marcus asked, trying to clarify the situation.
“Yeah,” Aiden said. He darted his eyes back quickly to check Marcus’s face.
“I’m not sure I know what that is,” Marcus hedged.
“It’s, um…” Aiden went pinker and seemed to shrink down into the chair. “Do you want to know? I don’t want to bring you into this if you don’t want to know.”
“There’s a cage on your dick?” Marcus asked. It was his turn for his voice to go high. Aiden’s recoiled almost imperceptibly, but Marcus saw it and rushed to amend himself. “Sorry, I’m just trying to get my head around it. Like, all the time?”
“No, not all the time,” Aiden said, indignant. Then, “a lot of the time.”
“How does it come off?” Marcus asked.
“Bryce has the key,” Aiden answered. Marcus thought about it. He took a swallow of tea. He had a lot of questions, some of them probably too intrusive. He tried to prioritize them.
“So what exactly are we allowed to do that’s not cheating?” Marcus asked.
“Anything we want,” Aiden answered. “If you want.”
“Anything,” Rag repeated.
“Except cut it off. The cage. Obviously. Not my dick.” Aiden said.
“And this is a kink thing,” Marcus clarified.
“Correct,” Aiden said. Marcus narrowed his eyes.
“I wanna see it,” Marcus decided.
“Oh, that’s… are you sure? We can fool around and I can leave my shorts on, if you’re not sure.” Aiden looked back at the empty corner of the room.
“I want to see it.” Marcus stood up from his chair and pushed the footrest of Aiden’s chair back to make space for him to sit in front of Aiden. From his spot on the footrest, he had a clear view of Aiden.
“Okay. Um, I should uh…” Aiden squirmed. “It’s a small one, because it keeps me from getting hard at all. I had a bigger one, but I’d get a little hard and it would hurt a little, so…” Marcus waited for Aiden to get to the point. “It looks really small.”
Marcus laughed out loud when he realized what Aiden was trying to say. “You’re worried I’m going to think your dick is small. Your dick that I can’t do anything with.” Aiden laughed too.
“Yeah, maybe. Okay.” Aiden took a breath and pushed himself up enough to slide Marcus’s sweatpants off his hips, and he pushed them down to his ankles. He pulled them off completely and dropped them on the floor out of the way.