6. Parker
PARKER
“Ow! Fuck, fuck, fuck!!” I hissed when my shin connected with the coffee table.
So much for suave. Instead of crawling on the couch with Phoenix, I wound up hopping around on one foot, rubbing my throbbing leg, until my hip hit Aspen’s easy chair and I tumbled into his lap.
“Oof,” Aspen groaned when my elbow caught him in the side, while Phoenix laughed at the calamity.
“You’re not as graceful as you used to be,” Aspen grumbled and shoved me off his lap.
I landed on the floor at his feet, grateful for the fluffy carpet beneath it and the thick padding I could feel under that. He’d never been a fan of the cold, so every time I stepped foot on a rug in his house, I knew to be prepared to sink at least an inch.
“And you two say I’m not nice,” I grumbled as I propped myself up on one arm to peer up at Aspen, while Phoenix laughed into the couch cushion he held.
“You’re not,” Aspen declared, snickering, “which is why this is considered justifiable payback.”
“Uh-huh, sure, any excuse to be mean to me,” I said as I sat up and rubbed my shin a few more times before I stood.
“Dude, you did that to yourself,” Phoenix said.
“And you can forget about help with your little problem,” I said, turning to go back to my seat.
Leave it to Aspen to completely blow my ruse and leave me scrambling around that dangerous coffee table again when he declared, “Not on my watch!”
His valiant war cry kicked off a footrace between us that was going to end badly for someone, probably me and my poor shin, but dammit…
Aspen slid, I didn’t stop fast enough and careened over his head to land face first on a couch cushion. To add insult to injury, he slapped my ass so hard I yelped, then bit my tongue when he slapped it again.
“What was that for?” I yelped, wiggling off the couch and out of range, not that it helped my poor ass, since I landed on it again.
“Trying to be a smartass,” Aspen declared while I sat there glaring at him. “Now where was I? Ahh, yes, how might I be of service?”
He winked at me before grinning up at Phoenix, ever the showman, while I decided to get comfortable, watch the show, and wait for an opportunity to join in.
“Someone offered to blow me, then went off on a side quest,” Phoenix complained. “Think you could help me out?”
“It would be an honor,” Aspen declared, bowing when Phoenix slid out of his sleep pants.
Talk about laying it on thick.
Fine. Two could play at that game.
“Alright, you varmint!” I snapped. “Step away from the pretty boy and face me. I’m calling you out.”
“Really,” Aspen said, tone completely dry and expressionless as he straightened up to his full height before pretending to remove a glove from one hand.
When he motioned like he was slapping me with the invisible glove, I whipped my head to the side like it had connected, while Phoenix lay there laughing at us and squirming the rest of the way out of his sleep pants.
Did we get bonus points if he was naked by the time our act was through?
Damn, I hoped so!
“Challenge accepted,” Aspen declared.
It was game on, only I didn’t know what was supposed to come next. I hadn’t done improv in so long. Shit, it was my move too.
“You may only blow him after covering his cock in whipped cream,” I declared when an image of the can I’d seen in the fridge earlier popped into my head. “And you may only stop after all the cream has been removed, but under no circumstances can you make him come.”
“Come on, how did I get dragged into this challenge?” Phoenix grumbled.
“Collateral damage?” I remarked, winking at him.
“You think you’re funny?” Phoenix replied. “You just proved my whole point about you not being a nice human.”
“If it’s whipped cream you want, it’s whipped cream you’ll get!” Aspen declared and headed for the kitchen.
“This shit’s gonna be cold as fuck!” Phoenix groaned as he sprawled on his back, one hand thrown over his eyes. “Be prepared for shrinkage!”
“Now you’re getting the point.”
“Evil!” he snapped. “You, sir, are a vile, disreputable human being with no redeeming qualities, so you’d better have a redeeming tongue when it’s your turn.”
“Damn…it’s like that, huh?”
“You know it.”
“Game on then, pup. We’ll see who’s squealing for mercy in the end,” I shot back.
“If you last that long.”
“Did I hear yet another challenge issued by the rogue of the hour?” Aspen asked when he returned with the can.
“You did,” Phoenix replied. “He can’t seem to stop stirring up shit tonight. Maybe it’s time to rethink that whole proposal you made earlier, about a gag.”
Had he just…
That smirk matched the one on Aspen’s face when he paused to stare at me, whipped cream in one hand, the other stroking his chin.
“I do have a small purple one shaped like a thumb,” Aspen offered. “Still in the package. It’s all yours if you want it.”
Yup. Phoenix had just tossed me under the bus, and I was about to ask Aspen to throw it in reverse and back over me.
“Grab it,” I growled.
It was like we were playing truth or dare without the questions, upping the ante with every challenge. Speaking of which…
“If you’ve got clamps, grab those too. I’ll wear them if no one else wants to.”
“Fuck that, those are mine!” Phoenix growled.
“Demanding pup,” I said while I still had the chance to talk to him.
“You’re damn skippy,” he replied. “Besides, the longer that can sits there, the warmer it’s gonna get, so I’m down for whatever he wants to hunt up in there.”
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” I said and picked up the can.
I took it back to the kitchen and stuck it in the freezer, making sure to rattle the ice tub around so he’d know where I put it. Sure enough, he was glaring at the doorway when I came through it.
“Now that was uncalled for!” he declared, pouting.
He’d shed his t-shirt while I was gone and lay with the blanket half over him, one leg sticking out.
I hoped it wasn’t because he was trying to hide his scars; there was no need for that, not around me.
I loved getting to be in the same room as him, laughing and giving one another shit.
Whatever marks had been left on him by his attacker were just proof of what had molded him into the viciously protective man I knew him to be.
No one was hurting the people he cared about, especially not when he could do something to prevent it. I got why he felt like he was obligated to work there. He was driven by a need to see that what had happened to him didn’t happen to anybody else.
Aspen returned before I could say anything, which was probably for the best, before I blurted something that inadvertently killed the mood.
While I hated to see Phoenix get hurt, I knew from my own stubborn past that harping on the same point over and over just led to the other person digging their heels in and maybe even getting hurt worse in the process.
“For contestant number one, we have a neon-purple thumb gag with adjustable straps,” Aspen declared as he unwrapped it and then held it up like he was showing off a prize on The Price Is Right, hand gestures and everything.
“Let’s see how it fits, shall we?” he asked as he stepped in front of me. “Still good?”
“Still as green as lime skittles,” I replied, before parting my lips and allowing him to fit the gag in my mouth.
He took his time adjusting the straps, occasionally moving my hair out of the way until he was certain it wouldn’t get caught on anything.
“And for contestant number two, we have these pear-shaped, weighted clamps guaranteed to provide a bit of pain with your pleasure, especially when you’re on all fours.”
“Yes, please,” Phoenix replied.
Aspen made sure the pear-shaped weights hung to the side once he’d positioned them. He licked the tip of each nipple, making Phoenix groan and raise his hips.
“Oh, we’ll get to that in a minute,” Aspen promised, pinning his hips to the couch as he straightened up.
Aspen shoved the coffee table against the other couch, making more space beside the one Phoenix lay on. I straightened it out and sat on the edge with the perfect vantage point to witness what was about to take place.
“Now where did the whipped cream go?”
“Some heartless individual stuck it in the freezer after I mistakenly mentioned how much warmer it would be after sitting out while you were hunting for things,” Phoenix declared, pouting.
When Aspen looked at me, all I could do was shrug, because yeah, I did it.
“We’ll have to see that he’s taught a lesson before the day is through, won’t we?” Aspen said as he headed for the kitchen.
“Nothing would bring me greater joy,” Phoenix replied, laughing so hard he ended up gasping as the weights swung and tugged at his nipples.
If I weren’t gagged, I’d have been a smartass and suggested that he wait until later to celebrate, but my mouth was currently occupied, so snarky thoughts would have to do.
There was extra swagger to Aspen’s steps when he returned to the living room, bottle in hand, to kneel on the floor beside the couch. Grinning, he tilted his head back, sprayed whipped cream in his mouth, then proceeded to tongue-fuck Phoenix until I feared they’d forgotten about our game.
Phoenix sat up enough to lick the cream from the corner of Aspen’s mouth, and that’s when the sound of the nozzle filled the room.
“Oh…oh shit, that’s cold, fuck!”
He tried squirming backward on the couch, which was going to be a mess if it wasn’t already, though knowing Aspen, he already knew how to get every kind of stain out of any kind of upholstery.
The gag meant I couldn’t chuckle, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t laughing watching him wiggle around that way.
Aspen got it on Phoenix’s abs and thighs, as well as his cock. There was even a glob dripping off Phoenix’s chin when Aspen stepped back to survey his handiwork.
“Not a bad look on you,” Aspen declared as he set the can aside. “Could use a little tidying up, though.”