17. Kyle

CHAPTER 17

Kyle

A s Kyle and his cousin wandered back to his apartment kicking a discarded beer can down the street between them, he wasn't thinking about how the power was out again on their level so they had to use the light of their runepads just to see the ground beneath their feet. He wasn't thinking about the way the air was starting to heat up without working fans to keep it cool, or the stench produced by the growing piles of rubbish on the streets.

Because, of course, he was far too busy thinking about Epsilon. About how good he'd looked on his knees earlier that night, his eyes wide and beseeching, his muscles quivering.

And about how the man had reappeared only a handful of minutes after Kyle had left him bound, striding into the staffroom and barking out orders to his employees. Kyle clearly needn't have bothered giving the competent bastard a knife, because it had taken him no time at all to escape his sexy predicament. He'd even somehow swapped his black suit for a grey one in those few scant minutes, and the Master had looked as unruffled and in control as ever as he coordinated appointments for the following week.

Although the thought of why the clothing change had been necessary made Kyle smirk. His eager slut had leaked pre-cum all over his nice, expensive trousers, had he?

By the stars, knowing that he had a fat plug up Epsilon's ass right now, rubbing against all the sensitive parts of him and-

"You're terribly distracted," Indira accused in a somewhat exasperated tone, and dug her elbow into his ribs. Kyle yelped out a complaint. "It's that House Master of yours again, isn't it?"

"No," said Kyle, entirely unconvincingly.

Needless to say, she had him spilling all of the night's events within seconds.

"So let me get this straight," drawled Indira as she held open the door to Kyle's building and gestured for him to enter ahead of her. "You were about to finally get an explanation for why Epsilon is the way he is with you, and instead you told him to shut up and fucked him stupid?"

"Because he wasn't going to explain," he reminded his cousin. "He was going to freak out and run away again. At least this way I got to be...be with him."

Indira rolled her eyes. " Men ," she said in mock annoyance. "You always make things so complicated."

"It is complicated!"

"No, it's really fucking simple, Kyle. You like him. He likes you. And they lived happily ever after ."

When he accidentally dropped his apartment passcard on the floor while fishing it out of his pocket, Kyle used the opportunity the distraction gave him to shamelessly change the subject. "Have you told Master Rho that you're quitting yet?"

"I did, actually. As soon as I had my weekly pay in my account, I resigned." Indira hummed. "It's such a simple thing, communication. One person opens their mouth and speaks, the other listens and understands."

Not such a great change of subject after all. Pulling a face at her, Kyle crouched to pick up the passcard from the grimy floor.

"You're just-"

"Randall?"

He glanced up to find Agnew, his surly landlord, glaring at him from the doorway of his own apartment. The man was haggardly thin, his face pinched, and his voice tended to raise in pitch when he became irritated.

Which seemed to be whenever he spotted Kyle.

"Oh no, you're not!" he hissed, stepping forward to shoo Kyle off the floor. "Don't you dare go conducting your filth here!"

"Woah," Kyle said amicably, raising his hands and moving out of the man's reach. "What do you think I'm doing?"

"I don't have to think , Randall. I have eyes. I could see you on your knees, ready to..."

Agnew peered at the passcard in Kyle's right hand and faltered for a moment, before turning his suspicious glare on Indira.

"You come around here a lot. Are you one of his clients ?"

She wrinkled her nose. "I most certainly am not."

"She's a Runic Engineer," Kyle told him proudly.

Agnew immediately straightened, blinking fast.

"Oh! My apologies, madam, for the…unseemly implication. I feared Randall was using my premises to make money from his repugnant profession."

Indira gave him a bemused and slightly disgusted grimace. "I accept your apology for wrongfully assuming I would pay Kyle to eat out my pussy, good sir," she said, her tone sickeningly bright amid the crude words. "It's an understandable mistake, but rest assured…"

Indira leant in and offered a friendly pat to Agnew's shoulder.

"…it's him who is paying me for that absolute privilege."

As the man blanched, she spun and headed up the stairs. Kyle tried not to laugh.

"Don't get too comfortable, Randall," Agnew snarled when Kyle moved to follow her. "You're late on your rent."

Kyle stopped, frowning. "I'm not."

"You sure are. You only paid seven hundred this week."

"Yes. That's my rent."

"It went up a hundred credits as of this morning," Agnew said smugly. "As you were notified."

Kyle gave him a flat look.

"So I'll need that hundred now," the other man continued, "or you can find somewhere else to live." He shrugged, almost sympathetically, as if to say what can you do ? As if the position Kyle found himself in wasn't the result of Agnew's own avarice and bitterness.

Kyle sighed. He didn't have an extra hundred credits. He might be able to ask Epsilon for an advance on his next paycheck, but then where would it leave him the following week?

"I didn't get the notice," he pointed out, buying himself time to think.

The fucker smirked. "Not my problem. You have a rental dispute, take it up with the mayor."

A laughable prospect for anyone living in Xexes' lower levels, but he could only imagine the response from the mayoral office if Kyle tried to request Benedict Mackenroth's assistance.

"I suggest," Agnew continued as he returned to his doorway like a gangly spider prepared to leap on fresh, unsuspecting prey, "you come by my apartment after your guest has left, and we can work out an arrangement for how you're going to make up that credit shortfall."

"I'll get you the money," Kyle promised, despite not having the faintest clue how. And from the snicker that emanated from his landlord, he knew that.

"Don't put yourself out, Randall," sneered Agnew, seeming to regain confidence now he was back over the threshold of his own domain. He pushed open his door, holding it unnecessarily wide in invitation. "Although, as you have no qualms in doing so, putting yourself out may be the only currency you're able to offer."

Oh, and there it was. Kyle had caught the man sneaking looks at him from time to time, but that was nothing unusual: it was amazing how his profession seemed to instil people with the presumptuous entitlement to stare – and sometimes even touch – as if he were merely an item for sale on a shelf. Because to them, a sex worker was nothing more than their job.

Kyle kept his expression blank.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," he said politely.

Agnew blinked, the smugness visibly deflating into awkwardness as he gaped at Kyle. He flicked his fingers. "You know what I mean."

"No. Can you explain it to me?" Earnest and gracious, Kyle accompanied the words with his most disarming smile. "Was it a joke?"

His landlord sniffed, now looking gratifyingly red. "No, it was a...uh, yes, a joke."

"I see. Tell it again? This time I'll pay attention and be sure to laugh."

"Get on with you," snapped Agnew. He backed up and closed the door so only his face was peeking through the gap. "And if you don't come up with the money, you'll be evicted, Randall, and good riddance. No one wants your kind here."

"My kind?" Kyle asked coldly. "The kind you wanted to stick your dick into a minute ago?"

The face withdrew and the door snicked shut. Knowing his landlord would be staring at him through the peephole, Kyle took off up the stairs without looking back.

He was relieved to find Indira leaning against the door to his third-floor apartment, the scratched and scuffed paint only serving to accentuate her natural elegance. He'd been worried she might have overheard the conversation.

"A hundred credits will have just found their way into your account," she drawled as he approached, dashing his hopes that she'd been minding her own business for once. "As loathe as I am to encourage the creep with his blackmail, I'd rather not see my cousin out on Xerxes' streets."

"Indy-"

"And when I say cousin, what I really mean is his adorable little darlings," she cooed over his protests, rapping her knuckles on the door she was propped against. Various meowing, ranging from pissed off yowls to excited purrs, sounded in reply.

"You can't afford that," Kyle muttered. She may be on a higher wage as an Engineer than an apprentice, but she hadn't even received her first paycheck yet.

Indira stepped aside to allow him to unlock the door, pointedly ignoring the comment and instead going straight to her knees when it opened. Two balls of fluff immediately pounced on her, rubbing themselves up against every part of her that Havoc and Mayhem could reach. Tails in the face and shedded hair on your clothes were the inevitable hazards of visiting Kyle's apartment.

Chaos, with a reputation for stoicism to protect, maintained a haughty distance from both humans. She kind of reminded him of Epsilon in that way: the grumpiness on show, and a gooey heart hidden beneath.

Kyle refilled the water bowls in the kitchenette, watching Indira tickle Mayhem under his sleek chin before the cat darted around the small apartment in playful dare for her to give chase. There wasn't far for him to go. A battered grey sofa took up most of one wall, with a small fridge, microwave oven, and sink battling for space next to it. Kyle's single bed lay opposite, the messy and tangled sheets suggesting that Havoc had once again availed himself of it...although it was as equally likely Kyle had left it that way himself.

The rest of the room, other than the door to the tiny bathroom, was taken up by the cats' possessions: beds, food, toys, and an overpriced climbing structure that had taken weeks to source but only seconds for the three felines to decide they wanted nothing to do with it. The apartment was run down, occasionally visited by cockroaches, and always held the lingering smell of curry, but it was also home. He'd pay Agnew his money.

"Shit," Indira cursed, yet her tone was delighted. She tore her eyes from her runepad and forced her expression into one of rather unconvincing regret. Kyle snorted. With those acting skills, she really was better off as an Engineer than in a House.

"It's my new boss," she said. "They've asked me to pull some overtime to help fix something..."

It probably wasn't the power on their level.

"Go," Kyle told her, waving away her objections when guilt kept her in place. "I'm tired anyway."

He wasn't; he was wired after playing with Epsilon earlier, but he refused to get in Indira's way. Not only was this a fantastic chance to prove herself so early in her career – or risk it all by turning the opportunity down – but the excitement as she sprinted from his apartment showed in every step.

Kyle kicked off his boots and threw himself down onto the sofa so Mayhem and Havoc could crawl all over him too. When that got boring for them, they rolled over for belly rubs, tails twitching happily. It was another few minutes before Chaos inched her way over, and after she hissed at the others to back off, Mayhem turned pleading amber eyes on Kyle.

"Sorry," he told the younger cat, shrugging. "We all know who's boss here."

Chaos purred in determined satisfaction, stroking herself on Kyle's fingers. If he dared to move, he got bit or scratched, so he held his hand still while the feline arched her back beneath it.

It had become their unbreakable routine whenever Kyle came home, and even though Mayhem – the most hard done-by cat who ever lived, although if you asked him why he surely wouldn't be able to tell you, because he just was – knew he'd be allowed more snuggles once Chaos was finished, he still insisted on wailing loudly as though worried he might be forgotten about.

"Come here, you," Kyle said, grabbing the black cat around his skinny middle and nuzzling his face into his fur. Mayhem complained about that, too.

Havoc seemed content to be scratched with Kyle's foot, both of them too lazy to move any closer to each other, and Kyle idly stroked Mayhem while he pulled his runepad from his trousers with his free hand.

His fingers brushed against the unfamiliar shape of something else he'd slipped into his pocket earlier that night, causing a thrill to rush through him.

He shouldn't…but he would.

He pulled out the small remote, considered it for a moment, and then turned on the device it was connected to. He watched his runepad screen patiently for a reaction.

The message that came through a few seconds later didn't disappoint.

Epsilon

I am in. A. Fucking. Meeting.

Kyle grinned. He turned up the anal plug's vibration setting another notch.

Then two.

Kyle

I know. Weekly Coterie briefing on Level C, right?

Epsilon

I'm removing your access to my calendar.

Kyle

Hush. You're clearly fine if you can message me *and* keep your composure in front of the other Masters

...or maybe your composure is not being kept?

Epsilon

You've got me. I'm currently in the middle of an orgy, being fucked senseless by seven Master Dominants.

Kyle's breath caught. That was one fantastically hot image.

So why did he feel nothing but jealousy?

Kyle

Tell them to keep their hands off my property

Epsilon

It's not their *hands* they have on me.

Yep, definitely jealousy. He now wanted to rip apart the entire Coterie for nothing but a flirtatious joke.

He took a deep breath and swallowed the urge down.

Kyle

I meant the plug. You'll be in for a severe punishment if it's been removed

Epsilon

It hasn't.

Sir.

Kyle instantly relaxed, the stiffness in his body transforming from tension to arousal with that single word. Epsilon may have been winding him up – including by showing how utterly in control of himself he was by holding up their banter despite what the vibrating plug must be doing to his ass – but he knew who he belonged to.

At least for the time being.

Kyle

Good.

Epsilon

I mean, they stretched me wide enough to fit in alongside the plug, so...

Kyle

...so I need to use one twice as big next time, got it

Epsilon

How presumptuous of you to assume there will be a next time.

By the stars, this man. He gave off such mixed messages, and Kyle couldn't keep up. Epsilon seemed eager for him one minute, only to push him away the next. What was he supposed to do with that shit?

He began to type out a response, only to delete it. Started another, and deleted that one too. Eventually his finger jabbed down on ‘send' before he could overthink it.

Kyle

That one still has to come out of you. I suggest you adjust your attitude

Damn it, when written down that just came across as bitchy. It was the worst reply he could have made...why hadn't he thought about it more? Scowling, Kyle jabbed his thumb down on the stop button on the remote, and tossed it away in disgust.

Master Epsilon's response came through exactly a minute and a half later. Not that Kyle had been counting the seconds. Not that he'd been staring so intently at his runepad that the crack across its display was now imprinted on his vision.

Epsilon

Please turn it back on, Sir. I'll be good.

Kyle blinked. His fingers itched to do as he'd been asked, but there was rewarding begging and then there was being led by the dick. The remote remained out of reach.

Kyle

I'll decide if you're good

Epsilon

I'm a fucking angel.

Weren't you meant to be spending the morning with your cousin?

Kyle

She got called away. Some Runic emergency

Epsilon

Ah. So now you're looking for someone else to harass?

Kyle

Don't worry, I found him.

He wriggled over to where the remote had fallen and folded his fingers around it. Switching the plug back on, he let Epsilon squirm for a few minutes before turning it off and resuming his teasing.

Kyle

Comfortable, sweetheart?

Epsilon

Why don't you come see for yourself?

Kyle was out of the door and down the stairs before he had even taken a breath, let alone remembered all the reasons why that was a very bad idea.