22. Akira

CHAPTER 22

Akira

A kira was sore from the plug, but not, as proclaimed with relief by Kyle once he'd thoroughly checked everything out back there, damaged.

It had certainly been interesting to spar with it inside him, and he could only thank Kyle's abject shock at being attacked for not thinking to turn on the vibration function midway through the fight. Although Kyle was probably too sensible to do such a thing, which was a shame. Akira would have adored being teased and tormented as he punished the Carrion thugs for daring to go after what was his.

An increase to the intensity setting for each foe he downed, perhaps, until he had to bite back his moans and squirms long enough to take out his final opponent. A punishment if he came before he won…something painful and drawn out to make sure he really tried his best.

He wondered, if such a fantasy had been made real, whether Kyle would have enjoyed himself too. He hoped so. Because despite the various things Kyle had inflicted and participated in over his years at House Epsilon, it was Akira's opinion that he only really had one kink.

And that was other people's kinks.

Kyle loved what his partners loved, because he adored making others feel good. Giving them pleasure. He was the kind of Dominant who was capable of making a scene all about you and still getting off at the end of it, simply because you had. Or...hadn't, depending on what turned you on more.

Akira shivered just thinking about it.

"I do so enjoy seeing you on all fours, pet," Kyle purred, stroking the back of his thigh. He had Akira on his hands and knees on his bed, legs spread unnecessarily and excitingly wide as he examined his hole after carefully removing the plug, and was now taking his sweet time in letting him back up.

Akira glanced over his shoulder, snagged the other man's gaze, and then looked expectantly down between his own legs.

Kyle just smirked. "That slutty cock of yours wants out of its cage, does it? Did you expect that to come off too?"

Akira let out a warning growl. "I saved your life!"

"And that was very good of you," Kyle agreed cheerfully, swatting his ass and proving that warnings had no effect on him. "Keep being good, sweetheart, and maybe you'll earn your freedom. But right now, I prefer to watch your cock suffer."

Stars, the power this man held over him was intoxicating. Akira would gladly let it sweep him away.

Kyle hummed and trailed a finger lightly up Akira's bare leg from his ankle to his caged dick, which gave a feeble twitch at the attention before encountering the resistance of the bars.

Akira gasped and writhed on the bed. "Sir!"

His trousers and jacket had been stripped from him as soon as he'd followed the younger man into his tiny apartment, and while Akira had winced to see them so casually tossed to the floor instead of properly taken care of, it seemed pointless to demand his suit be hung up as its expense demanded. He didn't think Kyle even owned a hanger, let alone a wardrobe. This place was closer to a cupboard than an apartment.

Yet being left in only his loose shirt and socks was far too much of a turn on to complain about, especially when Kyle kicked off his own filthy jeans and replaced them with tiny dark-grey shorts that hid barely a square inch of his strong, toned legs. Akira wanted to run his tongue along all of that skin. Bite and kiss and lick, and feel the strength of those muscles flex beneath his mouth.

He didn't move. Kyle hadn't restrained him this time, letting him look – or stare – as long as he liked. But he'd been told to remain on all fours, so he did.

"Will you stay with me tonight?" Kyle asked suddenly, a hand cupping the back of his own neck. He looked and sounded so very vulnerable.

Akira wanted to assure him that he'd give the man anything he ever asked for, but the words wouldn't come. He couldn't promise that, and it would only give them both false hope to try. When Kyle found out what he was hiding…he'd lose him entirely.

But he was too weak to walk away like he should have.

Instead of the pleading yes that Akira wished to utter, he forced out a nonchalant shrug. He'd grown far too used to hiding himself beneath a veneer of professional coldness over the years. "Will you uncage me if I do?"

It was a cruel question, he knew, and he regretted it as soon as he'd asked. Because now Kyle would be obliged to agree to get him to stay, and that wasn't what Akira wanted at all. He wanted him to tell him no, that the cage would remain -

"No," Kyle answered, because he was perfect that way, and Akira dropped his face into the bed with a shameless groan. Fuck, yes please. "Whether you leave or stay, I want you thinking of me. I want you so hard it hurts, and I'll take my pleasure from knowing you're unable to reach your own."

By the stars.

"I'll stay," Akira croaked when he was able to recover his voice.

"Thank you." The words were simple, and genuine. Kyle had never thanked him for anything he did for him during their rare – but somehow now increasingly frequent – playtime, knowing Akira would submit to his every whim without needing or wanting gratitude, but this wasn't anything as straightforward or easy as a scene.

"You know, I believe someone promised me a ponyride," said Akira, letting his earlier filthy daydreams about the other man's legs lead his tongue away from the heavy, uncomfortable thoughts. That hadn't quite been what Kyle had offered while believing he was facing imminent death, but it suited Akira's desires nicely.

Kyle pulled a face. "Eh. Fine."

He waved a hand to finally allow Akira up from the debasing position he'd had him in for the last half an hour, and then dropped to his own knees on the threadbare carpet. Kyle's cats immediately swarmed their daddy, weaving between his arms and legs with questioning meows that Kyle answered in kind, and Akira waited until the creatures had retreated, their curiosity satisfied, before getting down from the bed.

He tossed a bare leg over Kyle and seated himself appreciatively on his back, dragging one socked foot along Kyle's thick calf where it was resting on the floor.

"Mmmm," Akira purred, making sure to adjust his seat so Kyle would feel him rubbing himself against his back. From the way the man chuckled, he'd succeeded. "You're a very handsome stallion, aren't you boy?"

Kyle's shoulders tensed indignantly at that.

Akira grinned wickedly before squeezing his thighs and nudging his heels into the man's ribs to coax his horse into movement. Kyle tried to shake him off, but Akira stubbornly remained in place and did it again, harder. He clicked his tongue in feigned disapproval. "Not very well trained, though."

"What is it you expect me to do?"

"Move!"

"Oh."

Kyle huffed and obligingly shuffled a few inches towards the sofa. Akira, unimpressed, urged him into a trot, only for the other man to start swaying side to side on the spot. It was the most half-assed equine acting he'd ever seen, although he couldn't deny how good the shifting of Kyle's muscles felt between his legs.

When he dared to ask what he was doing, Kyle scowled at him from over his shoulder.

"I've never seen a fucking horse! How am I supposed to know what those things do?"

Akira, who was still sitting astride his back, surprised himself by laughing so much that he fell off. He usually had excellent balance, but there was something so utterly disarming about the blonde that tore apart everything he thought he knew about himself. Akira never laughed like that; polite chuckles, perhaps, but not this raw noise that shook his whole body and hurt his ribs.

It was disorientating, and scary, and absolutely fucking fabulous.

Unburdened by his demanding rider, Kyle slumped bonelessly to the floor and stuck his tongue out at him. He now looked less like a pony and more of a slothful slug. But he was still astoundingly, impossibly gorgeous.

Nerves making his hands shake, Akira crawled over and hesitatingly brushed Kyle's outstretched tongue with his own. The other man made a noise of happy surprise.

He wrapped his arms around him and rolled them over until Akira was straddling him again, this time with Kyle lying on his back. His Sir eagerly deepened the messy kiss and ran his hands through his hair. Akira let himself get lost in it, tasting and feeling Kyle and surrendering to the confident way he licked inside Akira's mouth and demanded more.

And then something soft rubbed against his cheek and Akira opened his eyes to find the black cat insistently trying to press itself between his and Kyle's faces, as though wanting in on whatever they were sharing. Akira pulled back before he could get a mouthful of cat hair, although his Dominant wasn't so lucky.

"‘elp," Kyle said from underneath the cat when it proceeded to settle itself over his entire face and start washing its paws.

Akira considered the contented feline and then the man he was falling in love with, who was waving his arms pathetically as though an immovable boulder sat atop him…and decided some things simply couldn't be helped.

He sat back on his heels and waited patiently for Kyle to rescue himself. Which he did a few seconds later, grabbing the cat and nuzzling raspberries into its belly until it gave its daddy a disgusted look and stalked off. Kyle clawed his fingernails down his tongue, spitting out black hairs.

"Urgh."

"Self-inflicted," Akira told him.

"Show me a horse," demanded Kyle.

Akira didn't understand.

"That fancy runepad of yours, it plays vids, right?" Kyle prompted, reaching for where he'd discarded Akira's trousers and retrieving the runepad from one of the pockets. Akira let himself admire the strain in his arm and neck as he did so. Then Kyle tossed the device to him with the level of carelessness he'd expect from a man whose own runepad was so badly cracked it was a miracle it still worked at all. "So show me a horse vid."

Akira ran a search on the database and brought one up within seconds, and then pretended to still be browsing as he shot off a message.

Akira

Won't be home tonight. Love you.

He received an immediate response.

Robby

Okay. I'll worry about you, but okay. Love you too.

Then he shut down the app so further messages wouldn't show up as notifications on the display, and turned the runepad around to show Kyle his choice of vid. Pale Rider , a Clint Eastwood movie that Akira had seen as a child. He didn't remember much of the decades-old western other than how most of the characters ended up full of bullet holes, and that he'd enjoyed it. Perhaps because of all the bullet holes.

"Eww," Kyle complained, plucking the runepad from his hands and throwing himself down onto the threadbare sofa that didn't look nearly sturdy enough for the workout Akira planned to give it in the near future. Kyle tossed a cushion down onto the floor at his feet, and preening like one of Sir's many cats, Akira obediently crawled closer and knelt upon it. "It's old. "

Akira stared up at him in horror, despite knowing he was being baited. "It's from the 1980s," he pointed out scathingly. "The same as all of your horrid music-"

Kyle reached down and laid two fingers across his lips. "Hush. You're on speech restrictions until this ancient, crappy vid ends," he ordered. Glittering blue eyes regarded him with delighted challenge as he pressed play on the runepad.

Akira swallowed his objections. With difficulty.

"Wait, who's that guy?" Sir asked loudly, frowning at the screen when they were only thirty seconds in. "Is he the bad guy? Or the damsel? Ooooh, is he both?"

Akira bit his tongue.

"I haven't seen any horses yet, Master. You promised me horses."

Akira bit down even harder on his tongue. There were horses. Dozens of them, taking up most of the screen while a group of riders ransacked a camp.

"Did he just die? Why would you tell me he was the bad guy, if he was going to die straight away?" Kyle nudged his thigh with his foot and continued to complain. "Is the horse dead, too? Why would you do that to me?"

Akira shut his eyes.

He wondered if Kyle realised that the vid was nearly two hours long, but when the man stretched out luxuriously on the sofa, positioning the runepad on his lap so they could both watch it from their respective positions, Akira concluded that yes, Kyle knew exactly how long he could torture him for.