Page 38 of Play Hard

“I may never move again.” Liam stared up at the pipeworks on the ceiling, every cell in his body singing a hundred heavenly anthems. “I may, however, have another orgasm in about ninety seconds.”

Robert gestured to the kegs lined up behind him. “I could do your closing-up tasks for you.”

“No, I’m all right.” His head spinning, Liam slowly sat up. How could he have come so hard and still be turned on? “I’ll give you the checklist, though, cos I don’t want to forget anything, as this part up here”—he tapped his temple—“is a bit muddled just now.”

Robert stood up. “Talking of things not to forget, we should add a bit of lube at this point. I can help with that.”

“Such a gentleman.” Liam retrieved the bag with the squishy packet from his pocket, handed it to Robert, then somehow managed to turn over so he was kneeling on the stairs, arse out.

Robert tugged down Liam’s briefs and let out a hard breath. “Fuck, that’s hot…and hilarious.”

“Take a picture so I can see.”

“Good idea. Hold still.” A few moments later, Robert handed over his phone.

“Wow.” Liam zoomed in on the image. “Wait, it’s not a shamrock, it’s a four-leaf clover. So it is like Celtic’s logo.”

“And good luck, to boot.”

Still delirious, Liam waggled his arse. “Don’t you mean ‘good luck to booty’?”

* * *

Westmuir Street was deserted,its shops shuttered and dark, as Robert walked with Liam at a leisurely pace toward his flat. They’d missed the last bus, but it was a fairly warm night for late January, and anyway, Liam had said he couldn’t handle the rattle and vibration of a moving vehicle.

“Tell me everything,” Robert said, dying to know.

“It feels kinda how you’d imagine.” Liam gave a soft hum, swaying his shoulders. “Only…more. You know?”

“Not really.” Robert’s experience with this sort of toy dated back to even before he’d been with Liam—he’d used them, in fact, to help prepare himself for their first penetrative sex. But he’d had one inside him only in private, and for brief periods. “Could you be a bit less vague?”

“So I’m, like, hyperaware of everything my body does, and also everything nearby. See, anything that might come into contact with me could make me move, which makes it move, which makes me…” Liam broke off with a sigh, his gaze lifting far above the steeple of the sandy-brick church on their left.

“It makes you what?”

“Transported,” he murmured.

Robert was intrigued. Usually he was the abstract thinker, whilst Liam spoke in concrete terms. He’d expected Liam to say something like, it makes my prostate feel all big and hot.

“Sometimes for a few minutes,” Liam continued, “I’d start to get used to it. I guess my brain couldn’t handle the intensity without numbing a wee bit, just to be able to carry on with life. So I’d start floating on top of all that pleasure instead of diving into it. But then I’d bend over or stop and change direction, and it would hit me in a new place in a new way. And it was all I could do not to sploodge out screaming in the middle of the fucking pub.”

“Maybe we should’ve used a smaller toy.”

“No.” Liam shook his head, his eyes dreamy. Then his voice dropped an octave. “No.”

They fell silent, nodding hello to an old fellow closing up a pub for the night, securing the painted brown steel door with a pair of padlocks the size of his fists.

When they’d moved on and were alone again, Robert asked, “So what’s it like now after you’ve come?”

“Pretty much the same as before. I thought I’d feel less edgy, but it’s back to where it was.” He swept his hands in a great arc in front of him, palms out. “Everything is, like, crystal clear and hazy at the same time. Does that make sense?”

Not really, Robert thought. “Maybe it will once I’ve tried it.”

“It’s probably different for everyone. You might not fancy it. Or you might fancy it even more.”

“I wouldn’t have the same constraints at my job,” Robert said. “Since I’m my own boss, I could just take the day off and play with myself for hours.”

“Get to fuck.” Liam gave him a glare of mock resentment. “Like you’d ever take a day off even for that.”

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