Page 103 of Just Business
Justin squirmed against the cross, creating the friction that would drive him higher. Eli slid his hand between Justin’s ass cheeks and brushed his hole.
Like lightning straight to his balls and brain. He pulled against the ropes and tried to pull air into his lungs. They’d fucked plenty of times since they’d gotten back together. Tenderly. Hard and furiously. Everything in between. But not like this, not while Justin was bound and helpless. “Please.”
“Patience.” Eli stepped back, taking his warmth with him. “First things first.”
The first strike of the cane didn’t register until the pain of it flooded into his brain. Which was about the moment the second blow landed against his ass. The cry that ripped from his throat was half pain and half shock. The third blow rattled his bones to his fingertips. Then Eli paused.
Fuck, he’d missed this, the burn, the way it spread into his head, the way his skin tried to crawl away. His balls ached for more. Justin pushed back, waiting for the next strike, dreading it and wanting it.
The fourth strike fell sharp and hot against his right shoulder blade, stealing his breath and hazing his vision. The fifth mirrored the fourth, and sparked starbursts before his eyes. Then Eli repeated both blows, and fuck, did it hurt.
Right on the edge between what he liked and what he could endure. And beyond that? Bliss. Pure bliss.
The next blow struck slightly lower and took away his ability to count. The rest fell like fire and turned his throat raw from sobs and pleading and cries. More. Less. He didn’t know and Eli didn’t stop.
Time bent and the agony flamed upward, pulling him toward heaven. Blow after blow until he hit the top and screamed as the world around vanished into one single pillar of fire.
He was pretty sure he didn’t pass out. Still, it took a while for the world to creep back in. When it did, it was a wonderfully achy place, full of bright light, freedom, and skin that felt like ice and fire at the same time.
“Eli?” His voice sounded like broken glass.
“I’m here, love.” A warm kiss to the back of his neck. “I’m going to take you down.”
Justin’s ankles came free first, before he could even formulate the words for a protest. “We didn’t fuck.”
Eli stood again, so quickly. Or maybe time was still screwed up. He couldn’t tell.
“It’s all right.” Eli untied Justin’s left wrist.
“But you didn’t get anything.” That wasn’t fair, for Eli to do all the work, give all the pleasure and pain.
“But I did.” Eli kissed top of Justin’s right shoulder. “You gave me more than you can imagine.”
“But—”
“Shh.” Eli freed the other wrist. “It’s okay. You’re in no shape for anything else.”
Justin slumped against the cross. Tired, so very tired. And light and... “But—” Eli picked him up, and for a moment, Justin was back in the night they’d first played. How long ago that seemed. “I’m sorry for everything.”
“I’m not,” Eli said. They were in the hall, then in the bedroom. A lot fewer steps than in that big mansion. “Some things, yes. But not everything.”
Yeah, come to think of it, a lot of their time together had been good. The bad bits? They were fixing those.Hewas fixing those. When Eli set him down on the bed, the sheets turned Justin’s back into a pile of stabbing pins. He rolled over. “Did you use that stupid little cane?”
“The carbon fiber? As a matter of fact, yes.” Humor in Eli’s voice.
Justin cranked his head and looked up. Eli still wore his collar. His shirt was unbuttoned now, torso covered with a sheen of sweat, but his face—his face was radiant, full of a wide, natural grin, Joy spilled into his eyes and into the tiny crinkles in his forehead.
“That explains a lot.”
Eli snorted. “I’ll be right back.”
When he returned, it was with the familiar tub of slave. Justin groaned when the cool cream touched the flaming stripes on his back. “I finished my capstone.” It came out as a whisper.
“Thought you might have.”
“Why?”
“Ends and beginnings.”
