Page 38 of Sugar

There were only a dozen—low dose and experimental to make sure they’d actually help him. He still wasn’t used to not being afraid for his heart at every turn, so he had to fight back panic as he headed to his town house.

It was still quiet when he got inside, so Piper slipped into the shower, then stood by the sink and read the instructions on the pamphlet. The effects could last up to five hours. Something that would be great once they were in the hotel, but he didn’t really want to be driving with a hard-on.

And he didn’t have time to spend worshiping Juno’s body the way he wanted to that morning.

But tomorrow…oh, tomorrow would be different. If it worked, if he could give Juno the dicking he deserved, the hike might have to wait a day.

Not that he’d complain. It had been so, so long since he’d been able to get hard and stay hard.

Tucking the medication into his travel bag, he opened the bathroom door and was met with the sight of Juno rubbing at his eye with one hand, the other stuffing a pastry into his mouth. He offered Piper a sleepy grin as he crossed the room and tipped his chin up, stealing a sweet, crumbly kiss.

“You let me sleep in,” Juno accused.

Piper nodded. “I did. It looked like you could use the rest.”

Juno’s expression was vaguely sheepish as he set the pastry down and went for his coffee. “Yeah. I guess so. My sleep’s been kind of shit since this whole thing happened.” He stopped and shook his head. “Before, actually. When I first noticed something was wrong.”

Piper brushed a few curls away from Juno’s face. “Were you alone when it happened?”

“No.” Juno heaved a sigh, then took a long drink of his coffee. “But also, yes. It was at Oliver’s wedding. My eye had been funky before then, but the night before his ceremony, I lost my central vision. I thought it would clear up, but it didn’t. They noticed. The guys—they noticed something was wrong, but I didn’t say anything.”

“And you still haven’t,” Piper confirmed.

Juno shrugged and drew his knees to his chest, hugging his legs. He was not a small man, but he seemed like he was trying to shrink in on himself. “I will when I’m ready.”

“I’m not trying to change your mind, sugar,” Piper assured him. “I want you to do whatever helps you feel safe.”

“It’s definitely not—” Juno cut himself off with a laugh. “Actually, yeah. It is that. I don’t want someone knowing that I’m going to be, you know…”

“Blind?”

Juno winced and swung his legs off the bed. “Not that. I hate using the word vulnerable, but that’s what it is. I’m not going to be able to see, you know? Not like I can now. I won’t be able to tell who a person is by looking at them. I’m going to have to trust strangers, and I have never been good at that. I barely trust the people I’ve known almost my entire life.”

Piper rose with him, but he kept his distance. Juno’s body language was tense, and Piper knew better than to step into his space. He leaned against the wall near the door and folded his arms over his chest.

“Can we not talk about it anymore today?” Juno asked as he grabbed his pants and shirt off the dresser.

Piper held up his hands in surrender. “Consider it pinned to a board and won’t be taken down until you feel like it.”

“And if I never feel like it?”

“Then it’s taboo,” Piper said.

And he meant it. He didn’t think that was entirely healthy, but that didn’t matter. It was more important that Juno saw him as someone who would always respect what he asked for. Even if it wasn’t necessarily what he needed in the long run.

“I like you,” Juno told him.

Piper burst into laughter and shook his head. “Oh, sugar. I like you too.”

They hit the road a few minutes after Juno was dressed. He was a very well-put-together man, but he wasn’t fussy about his appearance. He kept his curls mostly tied in low buns, his face was washed and clean, but he didn’t use products. His clothes were freshly washed but wrinkled from the tumble dry, and he didn’t seem to care.

Piper loved that about him. There was a rawness to him that he wasn’t used to seeing in men Juno’s age. His younger coworkers didn’t have strict grooming routines, but they spent time on themselves. Appearances mattered to them. Juno sort of bashed through life with a fuck-you attitude, as though his existence itself was a rebellion.

It made Piper want to pin him to the wall and fuck him until he was tamed, then let him go wild again so he could do it all over.

That thought lit a fire in him as they hit the road, but it settled into a low simmer when Juno put on an audiobook—a fantasy series modeled after ancient Greece.

“It’s got queer main characters,” Juno explained as he was queueing up the chapter he’d been listening to. “I’ve never been a romance kind of guy, but I’m kind of digging this.”

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