Bound by Lies (43 page)

“You’re amazing,” Jenner whispers to him.

Brayden holds on tightly and never wants to let go.

A few blocks away, Ruth Clare hangs up her phone and glances down at her granddaughter’s big-eyed face. Emma adjusts her glasses on the bridge of her nose and scans her grandmother’s expression. “Well?” Emma asks. “Did he tell you they’re boyfriends?”

Ruth
tsk
s and moves past the girl to find a seat. The nagging aches in her bones are bothering her again but not as much as the dread in her heart.

“Not exactly, hon, but your suspicions seem to be correct. He sounds happy. That’s all I care about.”

“He looked happy when he was here with Jenner. I’ve never seen him so happy as that. Jenner’s cute. I can see why Brayden likes him. He’s got tons of muscles.”

“Emma Leah,” Ruth scolds, chuckling. “You’re too young to be thinking such things. Lord have mercy.”

Thinking of Brayden, working every day in that bar for a man who clearly has had an impact on his life, she wonders why it never occurred to her before to go and see it for herself. She could call up some of her girlfriends and make a night of it, maybe on the night of the Pub’s famous annual Halloween celebration. Emma will be spending the evening trick-or-treating with a friend, since Ruth isn’t able to accompany her from house to house for hours on end. Another benefit to visiting the Pub on Halloween night is they’ll likely be more than busy enough with customers that Brayden won’t have to worry about working with his grandmother watching, either. It’s perfect.

Ruth has always lamented that she doesn’t have the closeness she desired with her daughter, but maybe, if she makes the effort to show an interest in things Brayden cares about, she can have that closeness with him.

Brayden’s exhausting, unending day is capped off with a slow, luxurious, fantastic blowjob from Jenner who then proceeds to fuck Brayden’s spent, utterly relaxed body into the mattress while he dozes off. After that, Brayden is out for the night and wakes up in Jenner’s arms the next morning, smiling.

Breakfast is eaten standing by the counter instead of seated on a sore ass in a hard chair. Brayden multitasks, eating cereal while texting back and forth with Andre to check on how the flight home was. He also thanks Andre again for making the trip. Then, it’s off to the gym with Jenner for a morning swim. Brayden wears the collar, but leaves it in his locker while he’s in the water. He makes sure to ask Jenner to put it back on him as soon as they’re done with their workouts.

The car ride is the worst part. Jenner sets a fluffy pillow on the passenger seat to cushion Brayden’s thoroughly paddled ass. As embarrassing as it is, Brayden appreciates the gesture. Even when he tries to stay seated on the side of his butt, facing sideways, it doesn’t really help. When Jenner keeps shooting sly, crooked smiles of amusement at Brayden’s discomfort, Brayden restrains himself from voicing the complaints that sit ready on the tip of his tongue.

“There a problem, slave?” Jenner asks, grinning.

“Nope. No, Sir. No problem here.”

“You’re not
lying
again, are you? Because I’m sure the last thing you’d want is for me to take you over my knee when we get home. However, if your butt isn’t as sore as I’d hoped it would be, I can always rectify that.”

Brayden glares at him. They pull up to their building and park. Jenner cuts the engine and palms the keys.

“Well,” Jenner sighs, “Lets head up. I’m assuming you don’t have an erection you don’t have permission for. I think I’ll give you a choice between my hand and the paddle for the lying, and—”

“My ass hurts,” Brayden blurts, loudly. “Sir. That’s the problem. But it’s… it’s not a… oh, fuck it.”

Exasperated, Brayden gets out of the car without another word. But Jenner moves faster than him and simply steps into Brayden’s path as he makes for the door. Massively muscled arms like pythons are crossed over Jenner’s broad chest. Brayden can see that he’s pumped up and vibrantly energetic from the workout. Jenner smirks confidently down at Brayden, saying, “Excuse me? We’re not done.”

Ignoring this, Brayden glances up and down the road for onlookers.

“Hey. Sweetheart, eyes on me. Trust me; I’m the
only
one you need to worry about.”

With effort, Brayden wrenches his gaze up to Jenner’s face and, with only a little bit of prideful defiance, asks, “Can I have the harness when we go inside, Sir?”

With a nod, Jenner agrees, “Yes, you may. What did you start to say in the car?”

“I was just…” Brayden scratches restlessly at his head, then strokes the leather collar around his throat. “You know… saying that it’s not a problem.”

“What’s not a problem?” Jenner asks, feigning ignorance.

“Goddamn it,” Brayden groans. “My ass being sore isn’t a problem.”

“No? Good. Move it, then. Go upstairs. Now.”

Brayden frowns as he hurries through the door and up the steps. As soon as he’s inside the apartment, he starts to disrobe. Jenner watches avidly while closing and locking the door behind them.

With an exasperated gesture, throwing his arms widely open, Brayden faces his Master, naked.

“I can’t help it! I’m sorry. It’s
your
fucking fault, you know. Stop being hot,” Brayden says with plenty of frustration.

Jenner works to hide a smirk and purses his lips with a pensive expression as he decides what to do. He tilts his head slightly to the side, staring at Brayden’s rigid, upraised cock, which, funnily enough, only makes it swell even more.

Striding quickly, Jenner crosses to the bedroom to retrieve some things from it. Once this is done, he walks up to Brayden, grabs him by the end of the dick, and leads him by it to the couch. “C’mere. You know you want it.”

Brayden’s face flushes as Jenner sits heavily on the couch, spreads a towel over his lap and immediately draws Brayden down to lay draped over his legs.

Freshly showered, hair still wet, coming down from his post-exercise high, Brayden wriggles slightly as he tries to get comfortable. His bare ass is squarely over Jenner’s thighs, with the rest of him stretched out on the couch cushions. The apartment is warm, the heat cranked up. Jenner turns on the TV, tosses the remote aside and begins to examine the healing welts decorating Brayden’s poor ass. Stroking over them with the pads of his fingertips and the heels of his palms, Jenner gauges Brayden’s reactions. With flinches and bitten-back pleasure, Brayden endures the scrutiny as his stiffened cock nudges insistently at Jenner’s leg.

Grabbing the lotion that he’d brought from the bedroom, Jenner uncaps it, and squirts plenty of cream onto his hand. With rolling, kneading strokes, he begins to work it in to Brayden’s enflamed cheeks. The roughness of the touch ignites pain in the bruised flesh. Brayden inhales sharply through his nose, his lips sealed tightly against any noises that might want to come out.

“That hurts?” Jenner asks.

Brayden nods.

“You have anything to say?”

Brayden shakes his head.

Jenner draws back a hand and slaps the moistened flesh. It makes Brayden cry out.

“Hands behind your head. Lace your fingers together.”

Immediately, Brayden obeys with a small grunted sound of nervous anticipation. Lazily, with irregular, drawn-out smacks, Jenner peppers his slave’s throbbing ass. Brayden’s hips twitch against Jenner’s thighs with each blow as he clenches.

“Relax your ass, slave. If you want to hump my thigh, you have to ask first or else I’ll make this hurt more.” To prove his point, he delivers a much harder slap than any he’d given yet, or even the day before. Brayden shouts with the pain, his fingers clawing at his scalp.

“I’m sorry! Sorry, Master.
Fuck
that hurt. M-may I, um, hump your leg? And climax? Please?”

“Yes, baby, you may.”

Freed by the permission, Brayden begins to rock his hips in a steady rolling movement that gains strength and speed. Jenner keeps kneading Brayden’s ass, fondling it, smacking it lightly, tracing through the crease with a finger and playing at his hole by swirling his finger around the spot and rubbing over it lightly. After a few minutes of this, Brayden is thrusting sharply, breathing hard. His body tenses. With a shudder and a grunt, he comes over the towel and Jenner’s leg beneath.

“Better?” Jenner asks, caressing up Brayden’s back to his neck, rubbing that instead.

“Yeah,” Brayden says woozily. “Do you have to leave and go downstairs or can we stay here a while?”

“We can stay. I’ve got time.”

“Good,” Brayden sighs contentedly, relaxing into the position again. He hums happily as Jenner pets his heated skin.

“Comfy?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Oh, there’s something I keep forgetting to mention. With everything going on with Andre, and dinner with my parents, it hasn’t seemed as important and I keep forgetting you’re new to the bar, so you wouldn’t know to expect it,” Jenner says idly. “Anyway, there’s this tradition at the Pub. It’s been going on ever since my parents ran the place. The whole town usually comes out for it.”

“What are you talking about?” Brayden murmurs.

“Halloween,” Jenner grins. “Two nights from now. You don’t get served if you aren’t in costume. A very strict rule, and not my idea, by the way. I just do the enforcing.”

“You’re kidding, right? Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“Am I ever kidding?” Jenner retorts.

“This doesn’t mean I have to wear a costume, too, does it?”

“Oh, not only do you have to wear one, but it has to be
amazing
. I realize this doesn’t give you a whole lot of time to find something, but I can give you a few phone numbers and some websites to check out, places that do overnight delivery. You can charge it to my card. This is important, you know. We set the standard. The costumes are the main reason people come out for it. It’s our biggest night as far as profits go. With the right costume, you can make more in tips in one night than you will for the rest of the
year
.”

Glancing back over a shoulder, Brayden asks, “What are you wearing?”

“Oh, if I told you, that’d be cheating. It has to be a
surprise
.”

“I hate surprises,” Brayden frowns. “You know what this feels like, don’t you? It feels like some ‘trick the new guy into wearing a dorky outfit so that we can all laugh at him’ prank. I don’t do Halloween. My mom didn’t give a shit about taking me trick or treating, so Dad took care of it. It was something we always did together when I was little, touring the neighborhood, collecting candy. He was the one that always helped me with my costumes and made sure to always hold my hand when we crossed the streets. When I got too old for that, we would order in Chinese food and watch scary movies together on the couch instead. Then my
life
became a scary movie, and he was dying, he was
gone
and my mom still didn’t give a shit.”

The pained grief in Brayden’s eyes is so acute that Jenner has to look away. Head bowed, he hears Brayden say again, softly, “I don’t do Halloween.”

“You can have the night off,” Jenner tells him. There’s no option, even though he loves the thought of spending that time with Brayden, having him there so it’s not as lonely an experience as it usually is for Jenner. He can’t put Brayden through anything that will cause him such heartache.

Brayden nods and turns his face away, settling back down.

“I’m sorry,” Jenner sighs. “I just thought it would be fun. All of the pairing up that goes on at these things… it can be a little depressing for those of us who can’t indulge so easily, and the idea of having you there with me… But I won’t ask you to be a part of anything you aren’t comfortable with, or that will bring back painful memories.”

Running a hand over Brayden’s back, Jenner tries to caress some of his tension away.

“Thanks,” Brayden says.

For a while, they stay there, in silence. No matter how much time slips by or how gently Jenner massages Brayden’s body, tension lingers, stubbornly.

“You’re supposed to be asleep,” Jenner murmurs groggily. Brayden peers at him from the next pillow.

It’s late. Brayden had the night off, spending most of it on the couch or lying in bed. Jenner worked until well past midnight. Brayden hasn’t been able to stop thinking about the Halloween party at the Pub. Slowly, after hours of introspection, memories had surfaced of his mother, who had always liked to go out rather than stay home for that particular holiday. He remembers glimpsing her in costume as she was on her way out, alone. In that year or two before his father passed away, Brayden can recall mentions of a town party.
That’s where Mom is
, Dad would explain.
She’s letting down her hair.