Page 48 of Hard Count
“I’m not asking for one.”
Jayson handed him a black pup mask. Then a jockstrap. Every instinct screamed to drop it and walk out. He took it anyway.
“You can leave,” Jayson said, almost casually.
Piper exhaled deeply through his nose. He knew this game. The only way to keep Jayson from suspecting how deep the crack with Noah had gone was to play along, and leaving was not an option.
He stripped and the air hit his skin cooler, sharper. The jockstrap rode high on his hips, the pouch barely containing him, the straps framing his ass, leaving nothing to the imagination. His cock pressed against the fabric as Jayson started to put a harness on Piper, the thick straps crossing tight over his chest and shoulders, buckles biting his skin.
He hated every buckle, but he let the buckling continue anyway.
The touch sent heat licking down Piper’s spine despite himself.
“You’re hesitating.”
“I’m fine.”
“No,” Jayson said quietly, voice low against his ear. “You’re deciding. And your body already has.”
Piper took his time as he stayed still while Jayson finished adjusting his straps, his breath warm against his neck.
Jayson removed his own shirt and slid on a similar mask, then pulled off his pants, handing them off to one of his bodyguards.
They moved deeper into the room.
The watching eyes were immediate. Eyes that gave themselves permission to look. Eyes that didn’t need names, sliding over Piper’s harnessed chest, the tight pull of the jock, the way his thighs flexed with each step. The men watching did not know who they were watching and Piper was grateful for that.
Jayson led him toward the center of the room, where a cage sat.
It was big enough for a large dog, but anyone with a large muscular frame like Piper, would struggle to get inside.
The door hung open as Piper stopped in front of it.
He could feel his pulse everywhere, his throat, wrists, the growing ache behind the jockstrap. His skin prickled with awareness, cock half-hard from the humiliation and the heat of being watched.
Jayson stopped beside him. “You don’t need to be told.”
Piper let out a shaky breath. He knew what this was, a lesson.
He lowered into a crouch and maneuvered inside the cage. The metal was cold under his skin. The space forced him smaller and tighter, his shoulders pulled back by the harness, ass ondisplay through the bars, the jockstrap now straining visibly against his growing erection. The bars pressed against his skin.
Jayson closed the door behind him. The click and then the lock, metal sliding, the sound hitting straight into Piper’s gut.
The bass pulsed as shapes passed in the dark, their dead eyes visible, watching him, watching the thing that Piper had become.
Piper became hyper-aware of every fragment of himself. The cool air kissing the exposed curve of his ass, the humiliation real and conflicting. His nipples fully erect under the straps. His thighs trembled from the awkward position in the cage.
He thought he could leave even after the lock, but he stayed because he was programmed to stay. The alternative was far more terrifying.
Jayson stepped up to the cage, close enough now that Piper could feel the heat of him through the bars. The faint scent of his Creed Royal Oud cologne cutting through the club’s musk.
“Look at you,” Jayson murmured, quietly. “You always did understand obedience.”
Piper’s hands tightened on the lower bar, his knuckles whitening as his cock twitched visibly now.
Jayson tilted his head. “You weren’t told to get in. You weren’t told to stay.” Piper did not reply, because a reply would result in the gaslighting.
His breathing had gone deeper, slower, but not calm. The dissociation, the eyes on him, the cage forcing him small and exposed, it all collided deep in his gut and cock.
