bringing numbness and frustration in place of release.
‘Bastard!’
‘Yes, yes, that’s right.’ He releases his fly and palms the rosy head of his cock. ‘Repentance before absolution.’ He draws back a little way, and slumps onto an ancient sofa. His legs stretch out before him, the tips of his mighty boots almost touching the toes of my shiny red stilettos, and his hand and wrist work.
He’ll come, and I won’t. I’ll be forced to rouse him from a state of slumber after the fact.
‘Don’t do this,’ I plead.
Does his gaze soften a fraction? Perhaps. Perhaps it’s just a trick of the light, or desperate wishful thinking, for when I look again there’s only glassy hardness and an irritable, unfathomable, sense of restraint.
‘My hands are tied. I can’t do you without permission and I don’t have that permission.’
‘What? Permission – what permission? What are you talking about?’
‘I’m not the boss, Freya, just the understudy.’
Of course, I should have realised. This is Jason’s house. He has to be aware of our presence. He’s probably around somewhere. That somewhere is far closer than I thought. I catch the faint trace of his aftershave and realise that he’s here with us in the room, watching. Saul’s gaze slips over my shoulder to the inky shadows beyond. With a series of ungainly jerks I somehow manage to shuffle the chair around.
Jason is slouched in a chair beside a tripod-mounted video camera. His long legs are hooked over the arm of the chair.
‘I can’t let Saul fuck you. That wouldn’t suit his punishment at all.’ Jason’s voice is silky but there’s a purr of strength behind his soothing tone, which for some reason further sets me off balance.
‘Why is he being punished?’
Jason’s smile lights his whole face. ‘You might not be able to keep your fingers out of the cookie jar, Ms Thief, but Saul here has a rather more severe habit. He thinks it’s OK to fuck on company time. He seems to see my desk as the perfect trysting spot. How many secretaries have you shagged there this month?’
‘One or two.’ Saul mutters the reply. From the slick sounds I can hear, he’s still working his cock.
‘More than one or two.’ Jason meaningfully rests a hand upon the camera. ‘I think I have at least six on tape.’
‘If you do, it’s your fault.’
‘How is it my fault?’ The boss flicks aside his hair, which is long and dark but streaked with strands of silver.
‘You wouldn’t let me have her.’ Saul jabs a finger in my direction.
That impossibly bright smile of Jason’s further widens. ‘Oh, yeah,’ he says as if that detail had somehow slipped his thoughts. ‘Couldn’t have you enjoying yourself too much.’
For a moment we do nothing but stare at one another. I want to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. Instead I wait, but Jason seems content to leave us all hanging.
‘Why?’ I eventually ask. ‘Why wasn’t he allowed to have me?’
‘Ah … Why don’t you tell her?’ Jason says.
The sound of Saul’s wanking grows faster. ‘Why don’t you? Maybe I’m about to do it again.’
‘Stop,’ Jason snaps, and the sounds of Saul’s cock-stroking immediately cease. Instead, he sits grimly on the sofa, his fingers curled into the upholstery and his teeth gritted. He gives an inarticulate cry as Jason sweeps towards him and draws a single lick over the ruddy helm of his cock. ‘Tell her.’
‘Wanted you,’ Saul hisses through clenched teeth.
‘He had the temerity to call your name while we were having sex.’
I have to smile at that. What else can I do? We all have our fantasies, and sometimes they win out over our physical lovers. Frankly, the dream is often a more effective turn-on than all the subtle endearments fed to us by our partners. I look at the two men anew. I’ve heard the rumours, I’ve seen the evidence, but I still brand them both as straight in my own mind – curious, since they’ve no hang-ups about touching one another.
While Jason returns to the camera, I leapfrog my chair backwards to where Saul rests upon the sofa. ‘Did you really?’
‘I fuck you in my dreams every night.’
‘Silence!’ Jason swipes a lantern off the table beyond the tripod, leaving speckled dots of blood-red wax across the floor. The shattered glass crunches beneath his boots as he turns to us again. ‘No consorting among prisoners.’
‘So I’m a prisoner too now, am I? Are you going to tie me up?’ Saul holds out his wrists.
‘No. You’re going to sit there and sweat while I fuck your dream lover.’
‘Hey,’ I protest. ‘Don’t I get a say in this?’
Jason shrugs off his leather coat, beneath which he’s wearing black jeans. He’s shirtless, his torso ripped with hard-earned muscle. His smoothness is the perfect opposite of Saul’s hairy ruggedness. He cradles my chin in the V between his forefinger and thumb. ‘You took without permission. I’m going to take without permission. Later, you’re going to make Saul come, and you’d better make sure that it’s my name he screams when he does, or we’re going to be here a very long time.’
‘You’re insane.’
‘I prefer to think of it as mildly delusional.’ He presses his lips to mine, slowly building the pressure, to which I willingly yield.
‘I’ll cry out,’ I warn him.
‘Fuck, I do hope so. I hope you scream.’
‘Someone will hear. You can’t just take what you want.’
‘Saul will hear. The camera will hear. Beyond that …’ He brushes his lips against mine again. ‘I don’t think you’ll call out. I don’t even think you’ll run.’ He unfastens the knots that bind my wrists and ankles. On shaky legs, I stand. And he’s right: even as the blood floods back to my limbs, I don’t run, not even when he gives me the space to do so. I’m too intrigued, too excited by the idea of what’s to come. Besides, I’m free now. I’m in control. And running into the street with my clothing ripped up and my body exposed will likely gain me a whole lot more attention than I bargained for.
‘Suck him.’
Saul’s gaze fixes upon me as I drop to my knees between his legs. ‘This is my fantasy,’ I say, and it’s the absolute truth. ‘Why didn’t you want me to suck?’
He breathes hard through his nose. ‘I was supposed to be punishing you, and it’s not a punishment if you’re enjoying it.’
Jason shoves me towards my target. ‘Less chatting – suck!’
He can think whatever he
