Room at the Edge (21 page)

“I didn’t tell her what we’re into,” Austin said, meeting Jay’s gaze. “The words
kink
or
BDSM
didn’t come up at all. But she thought you’d hurt me and I was being…abused or something, and I couldn’t let her think that, not about me or you.”

“Sure,” Jay said, still looking stunned. “Wait, she thought I was beating you up? Me? Shit, that’s… I thought she liked me!”

“She does! She just…” Austin went over to Jay, hugging him and feeling the tension in Jay’s body. “We’re close, always have been. When Dad died and I had to help her with the family and the house…I grew up fast, and she’s always felt guilty about that, like she let me down. She’s protective of all of us, April especially, but when it comes to me, she’s fierce. I got in trouble at school once when I missed an essay deadline because I was dealing with a broken pipe until two in the morning, and she stormed down there and gave the teacher hell. Scared him to death.”

“Good for her,” Liam said. “We only met briefly, but—”

“You’ll get to see her again soon,” Austin said tiredly. “I don’t know how it happened, but we’re having a housewarming next Saturday or the one after that, and she’s coming over early to help.”

“If I say
fuck
again, do I get a spanking for swearing?” Jay asked. “Because I really, really want to.”

“No, you’ll get to do the dishes by hand and by yourself,” Liam said with a fleeting smile at Jay’s pout. “Spanking you isn’t much of a punishment or a deterrent. Austin, a party is inevitable, I suppose. People will want to see your new home and how you’re settling in. It’ll have its awkward moments, but I’ll make myself scarce as soon as possible.”

“I hate that it’s so complicated,” Austin said. “We’re going to need a list just to keep track of who knows what, and I’m going to spend the whole time following people around, making sure they aren’t having conversations they shouldn’t. It’s like having all these different lives that aren’t allowed to meet.”

Liam looked concerned. “We’ll sort it out. You’ve only just moved in; a few weeks from now, it will be fine.”

“Do we tell our friends about you?” Jay asked Liam. “No, I’m not being rude; I’m serious. Are you a secret from everyone? Or just family?” Austin noted Jay hadn’t said “our” families, since that honestly wasn’t even an issue.

“There are already people who know about us,” Liam pointed out. “It isn’t a secret; it’s…it’s information we share selectively.”

“It kind of is a secret,” Austin said. “I mean, people like us don’t mind the whole threesome deal, but friends we just know from school or work would.”

“So we have two parties,” Jay said. “One kink, one vanilla.” He brightened. “Oh yeah. I know which one I’m looking forward to most. You can keep us naked and on a leash all night, Sir.” He caught his breath. “Oh God, would you whip me with everyone watching? Please?”

“No,” Liam said. “Absolutely not. I’d like to meet up with Laura again, and we can invite her and her partner over for drinks, maybe dinner, but a party with you on display like that…no.” He rolled his shoulders as if trying to shed a memory. “I’ve been to events like that years ago, back in England, and they weren’t as much fun as they sound.” He bit his lip. “Okay, maybe that’s not entirely true…but the potential for disaster is there, and given I don’t know these people…no.”

“We know them,” Jay said, but he subsided when Liam met his hopeful look with a blankly indifferent stare.

Austin agreed with Liam. What they did was private, and though he liked being around people in the scene, the thought of being spanked or whipped in front of an audience was enough to make his toes curl. The monthly BDSM meetings they’d gone to the year before had been sedate, even if the topics under discussion had been anything but. He couldn’t picture those people naked in Liam’s family room at all, and seeing that most of them were straight couples, he didn’t want to.

“This discussion isn’t getting us anywhere,” Liam said. “Austin, I can see it’s been stressful for you, but you handled the situation, so don’t dwell on it. Maybe starting off a load of washing will take your mind off things. Jay, clear the table and deal with the dishes.”

“What about you?” Jay asked, making Austin roll his eyes. God, would Jay just stop
pushing?

Liam smiled and stood. “How thoughtful of you. I’ll have a coffee in the family room. And when you bring it to me, perhaps we can take a moment to discuss your attitude.”

He walked around the table to Jay and tilted Jay’s chin up, studying his face before patting it. “You don’t need to misbehave to get my attention, Jay.”

“Sir…”

“Trust me to see when you need taking in hand,” Liam said as if Jay hadn’t whispered his name. “Trust me, Jay.”

Austin, close enough that he could’ve touched them, his ass still warm from Liam’s hand, felt excluded, shut out. In that moment it was just the two of them, locked in their ongoing struggle.

Without taking his gaze off Jay’s face, Liam reached out and slapped Austin’s ass, ending his isolation. “Laundry.”

Grinning, his good mood restored, Austin went to obey.

Chapter Twelve

“Jay, do you want me to set up a buffet table along that wall? I think if we move the bookcase over, it should fit. You don’t want to block the doors to the garden. I know it’s too cold to have them open, but if there was a fire, we’d need to get to them.”

“Why do moms always think disasters are about to happen?” Austin asked, saving Jay from replying to Sarah. “Sure, that’d be great. Don’t you move anything, though. Just point us at it, and we’ll do the heavy lifting.”

Jay smiled at Sarah and nodded his agreement, completely tongue-tied. He’d spoken to her briefly when she’d arrived with a car full of party food, but every time she looked at him, he remembered that she knew way too much about his sex life and thought he was capable of hurting Austin. He wasn’t sure which one made him the most uncomfortable, but he sure as hell knew which one hurt.

She’d been shown around the basement apartment—and entered through the external door Liam had told the builders to add, reached from a path leading around the house and opening into a small space with a tiled floor and hooks on the wall for coats. An internal door off it led directly into the apartment, and though it’d cost them some space, it prevented the temperature dropping every time the outside door was opened.

It also underlined the fact that the apartment was separate from the house, though Sarah didn’t seem at all suspicious about that. There was no reason for her to be. Clothes hung in the closets; there was food in the fridge and toothbrushes in a holder in the bathroom. It was incredibly tidy, but any space Austin lived in was like that.

The table in place, Sarah peered up the stairs leading to the upper floors. “Do you use these much?”

“Not really,” Austin said. “Liam put a lock on the door. We’ve all got a key, but if he wants us, he knocks. He doesn’t just walk in.”

“Is he coming to the party?” She gave Austin an impish smile. “I think you should invite him, even if only to give me someone my own age to talk to.”

Jay cringed inwardly. They really didn’t need Sarah thinking of Liam that way. God, she was only five years older than Liam; what if she flirted with him or something, thinking he was up for grabs? In the time Jay had been with Austin, Sarah had dated a few men, but not seriously. It didn’t mean that couldn’t change. Austin’s brothers were talking about moving out, Timothy to live with his girlfriend, and Sean had an offer of a job in a different state. With April at college, Sarah would be in an empty house for the first time in two decades.

“He said he’d stop by for a little while, but I think he has other plans,” Austin said casually, and Jay gave a silent sigh of relief. Austin must have been practicing that sentence for days to have it come out so naturally.

“I’m sure he has a very full life.” Sarah glanced at the clock. “Oh, I should get that Brie into the oven, or it won’t have time to get nice and brown. Are you sure you told your friends six?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” Austin sounded amused. “Are you sure this is our party and not yours?”

“Hush,” Sarah said and bustled off to the kitchen area, where everything was still new and shining despite Austin’s attempts to mess it up and make it seem lived in. “Austin, come put these vegetables out on trays. Jay, would you see if you have a bowl for this dip?”

They spent the next twenty minutes getting food ready; then Austin’s brother Timothy and his girlfriend Kelly showed up with a stack of pizza boxes just as cars started to pull into Liam’s thankfully generous driveway. After that there wasn’t any time to think with the flurry of activity as friends arrived and were given the brief tour and people who didn’t know each other were introduced. Austin’s family took over in the way that they did—not on purpose, but there were so many of them, and they talked like everyone else knew their in-jokes. Luckily for Jay, he had learned most of them over the years, so at least he knew what all the laughing was about.

Jay started his third beer, intending to make it his last. He wanted to end the day with a spanking from Liam at the very least, and if he was tipsy, Liam would raise his eyebrows, shake his head, and keep anything that followed very strictly vanilla.

Jay approved of the way Liam took good care of them, but he didn’t see why he couldn’t get spanked when he had a mild buzz from a few bottles of beer. A spanking wouldn’t push him anywhere near his limits. He took a sip from the bottle, sighed, and set it on a table already crowded with empties. Three beers wasn’t much, but why risk it?

Deciding to clear away some of the debris, he grabbed a trash bag and went around the room, tossing in paper plates and crumpled napkins. He put the plastic cutlery into the sink to be washed. No sense in wasting it. Christmas was coming up, and they’d probably have another party then. Moving between people, shouting over the music someone had turned up too high, he made steady progress, filling his bag and leaving the surfaces ready for more plates and glasses. The food was disappearing rapidly, and as he passed by the table, he snagged a piece of crusty bread laden with mozzarella, a slice of tomato, and fresh basil, sinking his teeth into it with an appreciative moan.

When he’d put the trash bag out, he headed back to the food, but halfway there he saw Liam walking down the stairs and changed direction.

Liam looked good, dressed casually—for Liam—in dark gray chinos and a thin black sweater, the sleeves pushed up to reveal tanned, muscular forearms.

Jay wanted to go to the foot of the stairs, drop to his knees, and wait, head down, for a command. Wanted Austin to join him, the two of them ready to serve Liam, wait on him, but it was as much a fantasy as the ones he’d had in class at high school, daydreaming about being hauled up to the teacher’s desk and bent over it for a caning.

He sighed, pasted on a polite smile, and joined Liam.

“Hi! Are we making too much noise?”

“Well, I did knock a few times before giving up and using my key, so maybe,” Liam said with enough amusement in his eyes that Jay relaxed. “I’m not here to complain, though—at least not if there’s some food left and maybe a glass of wine? I worked through supper, and I’m starving.”

“Liam, there you are! I was starting to wonder if you were really coming,” Sarah Fisher said. It was like she had appeared out of nowhere.

Please, please may she not have designs on Liam
. The thought of it was enough to make Jay squirm.

“Can I get you something to eat?”

“You don’t have to play hostess for me,” Liam said, reaching to take the hand she’d offered him and clasping it briefly. “Just point me at the food. Or make one of these younger ones do it.” He indicated Jay, who nodded.

“Sure, come on. I’ll show you,” Jay said.

As Jay led Liam over to the table they’d set up, Liam asked, “How’s it going?”

“Good. You’re sure we’re not too loud? We were going to kick everyone out around ten, anyway.”

Liam shook his head. “It’s fairly muffled; it wasn’t bothering me. It seems everyone is well behaved.” He looked around as Austin walked over to join them. “Ah, there you are. Having fun?”

“I was starting to think you weren’t going to show,” Austin said, then frowned when Jay grinned—like mother, like son. “What?”

“Nothing,” Jay said. “Liam, try the lasagna. It’s great.”

“Yeah, and that’s something I made,” Austin said.

“You’re a good cook,” Liam said a moment later after swallowing a mouthful.

“He gets that from me,” Sarah said, appearing beside Jay and reaching past him to scoop up a handful of salted cashews. She popped one into her mouth and washed it down with a gulp of white wine. A big gulp. With dawning horror Jay realized she was well on the way to being drunk. Motherly, warm, efficient Sarah Fisher, unsteady on her feet and definitely ready to flirt was more than Jay could cope with, but she had an arm around him now, the glass of wine tipping at a dangerous angle. Luckily—or not—there wasn’t much in it. “These nuts are all I’ve eaten in hours. Too busy talking.”

“Mom, how much wine have you had on an empty stomach?” Austin seemed amused, not anxious. “You know you’re a lightweight when it comes to drinking. Okay, hand over your keys. No way are you driving home.”

Sarah gave him an exasperated frown and flapped her hand at him, sending cashews flying everywhere.

Maybe they should’ve had the party before the new carpet was fitted.

“Silly. I’m fine. And Tim’s already said he’d drive me home. He came in Kelly’s car, so he can take mine, and I’ll come back tomorrow for the dishes and help with the cleanup.”

“There’s no need for that,” Liam said. “I’m sure Austin and Jay will find time to return them in the morning. Washed, of course.”

“Yes, Sir,” Austin murmured automatically, the words so familiar coming from him to Liam that it took Jay a moment to react.

Shit.

He held his breath, but Sarah gave Liam a puzzled look, as if she was trying to work out why he was giving her son orders, then began to laugh. “Austin, don’t be rude. Liam was just being considerate, weren’t you, Liam?”