Chapter 7
They looked like perfectly ordinary clothes, at first.
It only clicked after Austin put on the shirt. It was an off-white button-down that was so uncomfortably tight the buttons threatened to pop off whenever he moved. He was about to undo the top button when he realized.
“What the fuck,” he whispered.
For a second, he just stood there, frozen. Then he whirled to stare at the remaining clothes on the bed: another too-tight pair of slacks and a pair of silk boxers he thought he’d lost months ago.
Six months, to be exact. He had dug these clothes out of storage for the sole purpose of trying to make his bodyguard look at him while they were out. He’d preened all night, letting people do body shots off his abs and finding excuses to flex.
Dominic hadn’t looked at him once. Which only made Austin drink more.
By the time they made it home, Dominic had to carry him through the door.
Austin’s memory got hazy at this point, but he definitely remembered Dominic making him brush his teeth.
He also remembered Dominic kneeling to take off Austin’s shoes.
Austin thought he said something embarrassing to him. A confession of sorts. But his memory was so spotty it could have been a dream.
Apparently not. There was no other reason Dominic would want him in these clothes. Right?
Austin suddenly remembered his time limit and wrenched his jeans off, sliding on the clothes Dominic had brought for him as his mind reeled.
Austin hadn’t even noticed the shirt and pants missing; he had just assumed they’d gone back into storage after being at the dry cleaners.
The boxers, he’d been annoyed about. They were some of his favorites.
Did Dominic take them out of his laundry basket?
He hadn’t made a move on Austin for a year, but he’d take the clothes Austin tried to seduce him in?
Austin grinned to himself and climbed on the bed. He wanted to splay out, drape his body into something sexy. But Dominic had said to kneel, so he knelt. He watched the door, trying not to feel like a puppy waiting for its owner to come home. Although maybe Dominic liked that.
Austin wondered if Dominic was going to make him bark. He didn’t love the idea, but he would do it. He would do a lot of things to be Dominic’s puppy.
He fiddled with his top shirt button, trying to remember how he’d worn it that night.
He’d undone a few buttons in the bar, right?
He remembered it being hot. Remembered sweating through his awfully tight shirt, getting progressively snippier with each hour that passed without Dominic looking at him.
He undid the first two buttons, his fingers clumsy with excitement. Dominic had been looking. Dominic had stolen his fucking clothes. It had taken six months, but the seduction had worked!
The door opened. Austin dropped his hands and tried to look mysterious and alluring, like his old instincts told him to, but he couldn’t stop grinning. Which absolutely ruined any mystery and probably most of his allure.
“You stole my clothes,” he said, delighted.
Dominic smirked at him from the doorway. An honest-to-god smirk. What else had his bodyguard been hiding from him?
“I can’t believe this,” Austin laughed. “There I was, all sad and pathetic, thinking you didn’t want to look at me. And then you stole my dirty clothes! Please tell me you sniffed them while you jerked off like some sort of creeper.”
Dominic shrugged those big, beautiful shoulders. “Figured it was only fair. Since you spent all night teasing me.”
Austin sat back on his haunches, ignoring the twinge in his thighs. Maybe Dominic was right about needing to stretch more.
“I remember you put me to bed,” Austin said smugly. “Very gentlemanly. I never would have suspected you of stealing my dirty boxers.”
Dominic said nothing. He tucked his hands into his pockets—a move that Austin had never found hot until now—and stalked forward, slow and calculating.
He looked Austin up and down, and Austin couldn’t help but flex against the tight fabric.
It was just as uncomfortable as last time.
But with Dominic’s dark gaze on him, he hardly noticed.
Dominic stopped at the edge of the bed, staring down at him. Even kneeling on the bed like this, Dominic was still taller.
“Do you remember what you said to me when I put you in bed?” Dominic asked, his voice silky, smooth, and full of promise.
Austin went over the embarrassing memories of that drunken night. He didn’t remember what he’d said. He had been grabbing Dominic’s tie and trying to look sexy, but the actual words were gone.
“No,” Austin said, trying to sound teasing instead of nervous. “What’d I say?”
Dominic pinched Austin’s shirt collar. Just the tip, wedged between his thumb and forefinger. Austin leaned in hopefully, but Dominic didn’t slide his hand under his unbuttoned shirt like he wanted. He only stood there, running his fingers curiously over the small patch of fabric.
“You said you’d let me fuck you,” Dominic said. “That I could do whatever I wanted to you. Hold you down. Fold you in half. Anything I wanted. As long as you didn’t have to be in control.”
Austin’s cheeks heated. He looked away with a nervous laugh.
“Shit,” he said. “Really? I must have been pretty fucking wasted…”
He trailed off as Dominic took his chin again, forcing his gaze back up.
“Do you know,” Dominic asked quietly, “how hard it was not to fuck you that night?”
Austin held back a moan. He could imagine it. Dominic finally snapping and dragging him into a bar bathroom, pushing Austin to his knees. Or flipping him over on this very bed and taking him just like Austin asked.
Austin swallowed. “You should have.”
“I wanted you to remember it the next day.”
“And yet it took you six more months.”
Dominic’s mouth quirked. His grip tightened on Austin’s jaw, and Austin’s pulse jumped. Was Dominic going to punish him for saying it?
But Dominic only pulled him closer, until Austin had to shuffle forward on his knees.
“Tell me what you wanted when you wore this for me,” Dominic said.
I wanted what you did to me last night, Austin thought. But I wanted to wake up with you the next morning.
“Apparently, I was pretty clear,” Austin muttered.
He squirmed on his knees, trying to conjure up that calm confidence he usually projected during sex. But this was uncharted territory. All his calm fled when Dominic looked at him.
Dominic rubbed at the hinge of his jaw. “Have you ever been fucked before?”
Every guy Austin had been with just assumed Austin wanted to top.
In the few times Austin dared to ask to bottom, most of those guys would get disappointed.
The two guys who didn’t get disappointed and had seemed perfectly happy to top him had spent the whole time expecting Austin to take the reins.
So, Austin had. Couldn’t have them walk out of his bedroom unhappy. He had a reputation to uphold. If someone wanted him to lean into the Austin Wayne persona, who was he to deny them? Even if it made him feel like he was missing something afterward.
“Not like I want,” Austin admitted.
Dominic hummed. He ran his fingers up Austin’s collar until they finally met skin, sliding under the tight fabric until the buttons almost popped.
Dominic leaned in close. Austin tilted his head up longingly, but Dominic didn’t kiss him. He hovered just out of reach, his fingers moving slowly under Austin’s shirt.
“Want to wrestle?” he asked.
Austin blinked. “Is that an innuendo?”
“No,” Dominic said. “Every time I catch you working out, you make a joke about winning a wrestling match. Want to try?”
Austin laughed. Dominic was so much bigger than him; he could pin him without even trying. But Dominic’s expectant expression didn’t change as he stroked Austin’s smooth chest, his big fingers straining the fabric so much it made his torso ache.
“Okay,” Austin said. “But I warn you, I wrestled in high school.”
“I know,” Dominic said.
With that, he climbed on the bed. His hand slipped out of Austin’s shirt, and Austin tried to feel relieved at the lack of squeezing pressure. But he’d take it if it meant Dominic touching him.
“So how do we start?” Austin asked as Dominic knelt in front of him. “Do we just—oomph!”
He cut off with a grunt as Dominic slammed into him.
Both arms around his torso, like they were kids in their first match.
Austin struggled against him with a giddy laugh.
He was going to get pinned no matter what.
But it still felt good to let the fight go out of him after a few moments of grappling.
“Oh no,” Austin said, letting Dominic pin him to the mattress by his stomach. “You got me.”
Dominic huffed a low laugh against Austin’s neck. “I know how bad you want to get fucked, baby. But actually try this time, okay?”
He hauled Austin up and knelt at the head of the bed.
Austin took the foot, crouching low and wishing that they weren’t on a mattress for this.
Or on their knees. And that he had actually wrestled since he left high school.
He might actually have a chance if he hadn’t gone without a single match in over a decade.
Austin struck first, reaching for Dominic’s head. Dominic dodged him with shocking speed, wrapping his arms around Austin’s shoulders.
Austin squirmed and bucked. He managed to twist Dominic’s arms away, only for Dominic to immediately grab him again and shove him down on the bed.
Austin writhed. His clothes felt like they were legitimately going to rip off his body. He could feel the seams straining along his biceps. A button flew off his shirt and pinged Dominic’s broad chest. Austin laughed, breathless and horny.
“Focus,” Dominic told him.
Austin opened his mouth to tell him it was difficult when Dominic was towering over him like this. Then Dominic flipped him over like he didn’t weigh anything, and Austin’s next breath puffed out against the sheets.