Page 103 of Xerxes Ascendant
Kyle might have regretted the offer once he saw the roguish mischief flash into Akira’s gaze, but he didn’t fear his boyfriend’sdark desires. They knew each other’s limits, and anything up to that...if something made Akira happy, it made Kyle happy.
He waved a hand towards himself in invitation, knowing it was the more experienced fighter’s preference to wait for his enemies to come to him, and refusing to indulge such an advantage.
But stars have mercy, Akira wasquick. Even forced to make the first move, he struck with accomplished precision and speed, targeting a spot on Kyle’s arm that made it go instantly numb.
“Ow,” Kyle said. He’d have to learn to avoid that one.
“Apologies, sweetheart.” Akira’s responding smile held no remorse: he’d been relatively gentle with him, and they both knew it.
“That’s okay,” Kyle said graciously. “I’ve made you hurt worse.”
“Indeed you have.”
He ducked low, aiming for the Master’s unprotected stomach, and when he neatly evaded, settled for landing a glancing blow to his ribs with his other fist instead.
They continued to fight, naked but for the leather circling Akira’s wrists and throat. It made him look stunning.
The pair of them traded blows without taking their eyes from each other, Kyle with the benefits offered by greater reach and weight, and Akira with his nimble agility and snake-like reflexes. Neither of them minded being hit, and because it wasn’trealviolence, Kyle didn’t feel that unpleasant knot in his stomach. It was just a way to blow off steam, controlled and consensual, and-
Akira wrapped a strong arm unexpectedly around his neck. Knowing that if he let himself be secured in a headlock he was absolutely fucked, Kyle used his weight to take them both down to the floor and break his hold. Akira hissed out his displeasureand rolled out of reach, dancing lightly back up onto his feet and coming at him once more. Sweat coated both of their bodies.
Kyle certainly wasn’t the expert martial artist that his opponent was, but he did haveeyes, and he’d been watching his man intently as well as appreciatively. Each of the real-life skirmishes they’d been in had taught him something new about his skilfully capable boyfriend, and now Kyle knew not just what opening move he favoured, but also how he shifted his balance before a feint as opposed to how he moved for a real attack. And it allowed him to dodge Akira’s next strike, turning the fight in his favour by hooking an arm around the Master’s chest and throwing him down to the floor, hard.
Akira dropped to the carpet – gracefully, of course, limbs folding elegantly in on themselves, because he never moved in a way that wasn’t overwhelmingly sexy, at least in Kyle’s eyes. He may have been thetiniestbit biased.
Kyle immediately pounced on him, entwining their fingers and pinning his boyfriend’s hands to the floor.
“Submit.”
Akira looked coyly up at him from under long, dark eyelashes that fluttered in time with his rapid breaths. “Gladly, Sir.”
If Akira hadn’t been holding back the truly damaging strikes Kyle knew he was capable of, he would certainly have won, but Kyle had no intention of letting his sub claim victory tonight. Not when he looked so delectable lying there on his back, flushed and panting, his spine already arching up towards Kyle in wordless need.
Kyle pulled back, grazing his fingers across the sensitive flesh on the inside of Akira’s hipbones and making him shiver.
“Come,” he ordered, hooking a finger through the ring of his boyfriend’s collar and using it to encourage him to his feet.
“Already, Sir? If you insist.”
“Hilarious,” Kyle deadpanned, but his grin spread despite the attempt at a stern Master Epsilon impression. He led his mouthy submissive by the collar to the piece of furniture that he’d had in mind when choosing this room for their play: the height-adjustable metal table adorned with hooks and clasps around its edges. About the size of a desk, it was perfect for strapping a man down until he was helpless to resist whatever he’d consented to have done to him.
But Kyle was planning something a little different.
Sweeping his eyes over Akira’s naked form and taking the time to appreciate the taut lines of his stomach muscles and the dick standing to attention between his thighs, Kyle retrieved a chain that he pinned in place around the back of the table to shorten it. His boyfriend watched patiently, curious but trusting.
Once he’d finished fastening the chain’s clips to the rings on Akira’s leather cuffs, Kyle gave it a testing, exploratory yank. The resulting metallic rattle was a gloriously anticipatory sound: one of potential, of control, and of pleasure.
Akira was left facing the hip-height table with his wrists tethered to either side of it; arms pulled slightly wide, his feet on the floor, but not permitted to rise to his full height because of the restricted length of the chain. Such discomfort would eventually require him to choose between remaining in the stooping hunch he’d been required to adopt, or dropping to his knees to ease the pressure on his back...and forcing him to hold his arms high above his head instead. A deliciously painful predicament Kyle might have enjoyed leaving him in for a couple of hours, but the torture would have to wait.
“Will you fuck me now, Sir?” asked Akira, the words so contradictorily haughty and desperate at the same time.
“No,” Kyle said, enjoying the unhappy scowl that earned him. He brushed his lips against Akira’s bare shoulder and ducked under his arm so he could slip between his boyfriend and thetable. Then, propelling himself up to sit on the table’s edge, he took advantage of being face to face to steal a long, indulgent kiss from Akira’s tempting lips. They were soft and demanding all at once. “But I’ll let you fuckme. Would you like to top?”
“Good morning, citizens of Xerxes. As of this hour, environmental metrics remain within acceptable thresholds. Remember: gratitude is a civic virtue. Contribute to order. Report deviations.”
-Daily Compliance Broadcast | 06:00am
CHAPTER 30
