Room at the Edge Read online

  ROOM AT THE EDGE

  Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow

  www.loose-id.com

  Room at the Edge

  Copyright © December 2012 by Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from Loose Id LLC. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  eISBN 9781623001582

  Editor: Serena Stokes

  Cover Artist: Valerie Tibbs

  Printed in the United States of America

  Published by

  Loose Id LLC

  PO Box 809

  San Francisco CA 94104-0809

  www.loose-id.com

  This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning

  This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Loose Id LLC’s e-books are for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

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  DISCLAIMER: Please do not try any new sexual practice, especially those that might be found in our BDSM/fetish titles without the guidance of an experienced practitioner. Neither Loose Id LLC nor its authors will be responsible for any loss, harm, injury or death resulting from use of the information contained in any of its titles.

  Dedication

  To all our friends on LiveJournal for their support and encouragement over the years.

  Chapter One

  Jay blinked, his vision blurry. Time to take a break. He set down the tiny flogger he’d been working on, each thin strand tipped with a touch of silver paint to mimic steel, and leaned back in his chair. The change of position had him wincing as cramped muscles protested. Why didn’t it hurt when he was doing it, but it did when he stopped? How did that make sense?

  He massaged not the small of his back—Austin would do that for him later—but his hands, flexing and rubbing them together to loosen his stiff fingers. He needed his hands to be flexible enough for the detailed work on the floggers and cuffs, but the ache radiating from his wrists was a sign he’d reached his limit for the day.

  Damn.

  The small diorama, a dungeon scene, with a Dom and his two subs having one hell of a good time, was intended as a Christmas present for Liam. The figures were capable of being posed, so Liam could play with them if he wanted to—tie them to the Saint Andrew’s cross or over a spanking bench, suspend them from a ceiling hook, make them kneel… It was a Dom’s version of a Barbie Dreamhouse, though Jay didn’t intend to even think that in Liam’s presence.

  It was only mid-October, so there was no rush, but Jay wanted it to be perfect, and perfect took time.

  The creak of the stairs told him Austin was coming up to join him. “Hey,” Austin said. “How it’s going? I was thinking about starting dinner, but I wanted to check in with you first.”

  “Dinner sounds good. I definitely need a break.” Jay didn’t get up because Austin was already behind him, hands settling on his shoulders and beginning a massage. “God. Just do that for the next hour, huh?”

  “Bet you didn’t even know your shoulders were tight too,” Austin said sympathetically, digging his thumbs into the base of Jay’s neck until Jay was whimpering with appreciation. “You’re really working hard.”

  “I want it to be done by early December. Don’t want to be stressing about it.” Jay let his head fall forward and closed his eyes as Austin massaged his shoulders. “Forget dinner. Let’s just do this instead.”

  “You know if we do, we’ll want to take it further.” Austin sounded as regretful as Jay felt.

  Liam had laid down the law about what they were allowed to do when he wasn’t there, and it didn’t include orgasms. They could touch each other, sure. They could kiss, exchange frustratingly incomplete blowjobs, and sleep naked, but they couldn’t come, not unless Liam was there.

  Liam had demonstrated what would happen if they broke that rule, and it wasn’t something Jay wanted to relive. He’d asked what the penalty would be, thinking it might be worth it. Losing the ability to have sex with Austin was a huge sacrifice, and if he had to pay for a climax with a hard spanking, he was willing to do it.

  That was until Liam had brought him to the edge of orgasm dozens of times over the course of a weekend but never let him come. Jay had ended up with the worst case of blue balls he’d ever had, to the point where he hadn’t been able to piss for half a day because his damned cock wouldn’t go down. He’d barely slept the whole time, just lain there staring at the ceiling with his dick hard as a rock and his balls aching.

  Having his cock inside the wet heat of Austin’s mouth felt incredible. Pulling his cock out quickly, yelping with pain as it scraped across Austin’s teeth because he was fighting off a climax as inevitable as a sneeze, was less fun.

  Jay complained more about that rule than any of the others put together, but he got no sympathy from Liam.

  “You’re mine. I get to say when you come, and it’s always going to be with me watching. Get used to the idea, Jay, or I’ll extend the no-coming rule to the next few sessions.”

  “For me too?” Austin had asked, eyes wide with shock as Jay spluttered with outrage.

  “Oh yes.” Liam’s smile had been wicked, his blue eyes lit with enjoyment. “Don’t think I won’t use you to shut him up, because I will.”

  Now Austin’s fingers worked at a tight muscle in Jay’s shoulder, the mix of pleasure and pain as they dug in sending a ripple of mild arousal through Jay. He asked, “Do you mind him controlling us like this? It doesn’t bother you at all going a week without sex?”

  Austin laughed. “You love it. Deep down you get off on it as much as I do.”

  “Do not!”

  Austin leaned in, brushed a kiss over Jay’s cheek, and murmured in his ear, “Yeah, you do. It’s like he’s put you in cuffs. Like he’s watching you suffer. Tell me that doesn’t get you going.”

  Jay exhaled slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, it does. I…I think about it, you know? What it’s going to feel like when he finally lets me come. If it’s going to be his hand or your mouth.” He shivered as Austin slid a hand across his collarbone and over his chest. He was wearing one of the thin T-shirts he saved for working on his dioramas and knew the smooth skin of Austin’s palm was catching on the smears of dried paint that didn’t wash out. Jay wondered what it would be like to paint on Austin’s bare skin. Not the craft paint—that would be a bitch to scrape off afterward—but body paint might be fun to play with.

  Austin’s hand slid over to put steady, arousing pressure on Jay’s nipple through the worn fabric. “Should I tease you? At least it won’t last days.” They had plans with Liam that night.

  Jay considered the idea, then sighed and shook his head. “Liam will be pissed if we don’t have time to eat before we go over there.”

  “Yeah.” Austin patted his shoulders and stepped back to give him room to stand. “So what do you think for dinner? Chicken or salmon?”

  “Salmon if we have that teriyaki glaze,” Jay said as they started downstairs.

  Another of Liam’s rules was that they eat a light meal before a sessi
on so they’d have energy but not be loaded down by too many calories. “Yeah, we’ve got some. And there’s that leftover rice we could split. If we don’t eat it tonight, we should throw it out—it’s been in there a couple of days.”

  “But no dessert allowed,” Jay said with a pout. “God, I’m starving too.”

  “No, you’re whining.” Austin gave him a sidelong glance. “You’re not working tomorrow?”

  Jay shook his head. “I’ve got Saturday off. Sorry, thought I’d told you.”

  “No, you got in and went straight upstairs to work on your diorama.” Austin gave him a forgiving smile. “I’ll take you to Pattycakes for breakfast if you behave tonight. Coffee and one of those giant cinnamon rolls with the raisins and inch-thick frosting.”

  Jay adored those rolls, and he liked Pat, the owner of the café, who often dropped in to the library in search of the kind of murder mysteries that made Jay’s stomach lurch. Serial killers freaked him out. The prospect of a sugar rush didn’t mean he was going to let Austin’s comment pass unchallenged, though. “Sure, but I always behave. Liam doesn’t give me any choice.”

  He didn’t add that he loved it when Liam went all sternly inflexible on him. Austin knew. Liam knew. Hell, he might as well wear it on his T-shirt and tell the world he’d lick Liam’s Italian leather shoes without being asked. Not that Liam ever would, because it’d ruin their polish.

  Austin headed for the fridge. “Set the table. And there’s behaving and behaving. When you two go head-to-head, Liam takes it out on me too, and he’s been working out or something. That last paddling I got hurt.”

  “It’s supposed to.” That paddling had been hot as hell. Liam had put Austin over Jay’s lap and told him to hold Austin in place, then stood over them, giving himself plenty of room to swing the paddle. Jay had felt every shudder running through Austin, watched the pale skin of Austin’s ass and thighs blush pink, then flame bright and hot. His forearm had been wet from Austin’s tears by the time the paddling was over, and he’d been so turned on he’d come close to crying himself when he had to wait for release until Austin had sucked Liam off.

  Because that had been hot too, with Austin’s breath hitching, his hands behind him on his bruised, stinging ass, Liam fucking his mouth with arrogant assurance, completely in control of the scene.

  Jay had slid from the chair to his knees, desperate to join Austin, but Liam had shot him a glance that promised retribution if he moved another inch. Obedience had been worth it, though. Liam had pulled out of Austin’s mouth and snapped his fingers, beckoning Jay over. Jay hadn’t even gotten to part his lips before Liam had jerked off over him, the first warm splash of spunk on his cheek triggering Jay’s climax as much as Liam’s snapped-out word of permission.

  Austin closed the fridge with a nudge from his shoulder, the packaged salmon in one hand, the bowl of rice in the other. “I don’t like it when it hurts that much.”

  “I do.” Jay didn’t always speak so bluntly, but not because he worried about how Austin might react. More because Austin already knew him, inside and out, so there was little need to say certain things out loud.

  “You always want to take it further,” Austin agreed. He turned on the broiler and adjusted the level of the oven shelf.

  Jay opened the freezer and started shifting stuff around. Brick of frozen chicken, brick of frozen hamburger, brick of frozen ground turkey. A bag of some kind of premade stir-fry thing that had looked good at the grocery store months ago but terrible in their freezer ever since. “Oh, here. Green beans? Or these carrots with cranberries?”

  “Beans,” Austin said. “April called.”

  Jay knew immediately that Austin had tried to slip that in casually, anticipating the reaction it would get. “Nice try. Did you hang up on her?”

  “I considered it.” Austin slipped the salmon under the broiler and straightened. “But no. I was curious to hear what she had to say.”

  “I hate to ask,” Jay said. He sorted through April’s usual demand list—wish lists were for losers as far as she was concerned—and picked the most likely. “Did she want money?”

  Austin shook his head. “Shockingly, no. I don’t know what she wanted. Just to talk, I guess, but the whole time we were on the phone I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.” He leaned against the counter, and Jay studied his face, trying to figure out what was going on in his head. “She was nice.”

  “Which means she wants something.”

  “I know, right? But if she did, she never asked for it. And she’s not usually that subtle.”

  No, subtle wasn’t a word Jay would have used to describe Austin’s sister, who was the baby of the Fisher family and had been spoiled beyond words. It had been a weight off Austin’s shoulders when she’d gone away to college at the beginning of September. “Maybe she was drunk?”

  Austin laughed. “She didn’t sound it. She sounded happy. She met someone.”

  If he’d been drinking, Jay would have choked. “Met someone as in more than another sucker to use as a cab and walking bank account?” April’s boyfriends were numerous and short-lived; even the serious ones were more accessories than love interests.

  “I got that impression, yeah. Weird, huh?”

  “I don’t want to think about who she’d pick as a real boyfriend. Or who’d be into her.” April was such a selfish, amoral bitch that Jay couldn’t picture anyone taking her on long-term unless they were terminally stupid. Or as much of a masochist as he was, except that was different.

  The pain April dealt out was emotional and left scars.

  “He’s a year ahead of her and wants to be a pediatrician. His name’s Ryan and—brace yourself.” Austin widened his eyes and said dramatically, “He goes to all his classes.”

  The green beans were making his hand go numb, but Jay was snickering too much to care. “Is he an alien? He’s got to be. Into studying and April? Those things just don’t go together. And since when did she go for the geeks? I’m not sure her last one could even read. When I said I worked at the library, he thought it meant I’d read every single book on the shelves.”

  “I know! It’s really weird. But it sounded like she admires him. She’s going to all her classes too because she doesn’t want him to think she’s lazy.” Austin finished filling a pot with water and put it on the stove. “And he asked her to go home with him for Thanksgiving. She’s e-mailing me some links so I can help her pick out clothes.”

  “There we go.” Jay knew April had some ulterior motive. “And she wants you to pay for them.”

  “Nope. Apparently she got a job on campus, and she’s saving her money.”

  “Okay, so maybe she’s the alien. Or some faeries came and stole her and left a changeling in her place.”

  “I thought that was just babies.”

  “She can be kind of an infant sometimes,” Jay said and giggled. That made Austin laugh, and they spent the next ten minutes finishing dinner and poking fun at April. It was so hard to imagine her changing her life around that Jay couldn’t manage it.

  “Eat fast,” Austin told him as they picked up their forks. “I’ll drag you out the door with half your meal still on your plate if I have to.”

  “Are you going to tell Liam about April?”

  Austin shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

  Even after four or five months with the three of them working on building a relationship outside their sessions, it was difficult for Jay to accept that Liam was interested in the mundane details of their lives and not just being polite. Austin’s job at the doctor’s office and Jay’s at the library weren’t boring to them, but why would Liam care that the near-mythical Alison Brearton, who’d had a book checked out for twelve years, the fines building until they’d reached the maximum the library could impose, had finally wandered in one day and returned The Murder of Roger Ackroyd?

  April, though… Liam didn’t like April at all. Bringing her up would probably sour the mood before the session started.
r />   “Because you want Liam in a good mood. Tell him afterward but not before. Or in the morning right before we leave.”

  The Friday sessions used to end with Liam shooing them out the door, their asses glowing, but now they usually slept over, keeping a few clothes in one of Liam’s closets and a complete set of toiletries in the spare bathroom.

  Liam hadn’t gone that far with them, but he didn’t stay over at their apartment often. The three of them in a queen-size bed was a tight fit; Liam’s king-size worked much better. Jay sometimes wished he could have an out-of-body experience and float up to the ceiling to watch them use every inch of that bed. The logistics of them all trying to get off could be complicated, physically and emotionally. Liam had once strained his shoulder trying to fuck Austin and get his mouth on Jay’s cock at the same time, and there were inevitably moments when someone felt left out of the action. That was an ongoing issue they didn’t discuss as much as push past it.

  Complicated, yes, but when it worked, the three of them joining to create something passionate, tender, or just erotic as hell, it left Jay feeling as euphoric as a whipping would.

  “It’s not even that much to tell,” Austin protested. “I mean, it’s good news more than anything. But yeah, you’re probably right.”

  “Probably?” Jay pouted and fluttered his eyelashes, resting his chin on his hand. “Probably? I’m offended. Of course I’m right. I know exactly what I’m talking about, and you should be hanging on my every word.”

  Austin gave him an amused look. “Okay.”

  “I mean it,” Jay told him. “In fact, you should just let me make all your decisions forever.”

  “Are you on crack?” Austin asked, his grin wide enough that Jay felt his own face mirroring it. “You would hate that so much.”

  “Yeah.” Jay snickered. “Guess my chances of becoming a famous actor are pretty low. I’d better stick to being a librarian.”

  “Good. Now eat your fish.” Austin pointed his fork at Jay’s plate. “You mean you aren’t going to start taking acting classes?”