Aaron was happy to oblige.

The tiny indicator light on the webcam turned red. Gage, who’d stripped naked, let out a stale breath and shook out his arms. Aaron, also naked, sat in the office chair—they’d returned it to a position near the desk.

“We don’t have to go through with this,” Aaron reminded him gently. He reached forward and slid a hand over Gage’s bare waist, feeling the sparks shoot up his arms and infiltrate his chest. “If it’s too upsetting, it’s not too late to change your mind. I’m here for you. I will always be here for you.”

“I know,” Gage said. He glanced into the lens of the webcam, then looked over his shoulder at Aaron and smiled. His lips had only lifted slightly, but as small as the smile was, Aaron believed that it was genuine. “I’m okay. I want to do this. I was the one who suggested it, wasn’t I?”

Gently, Gage settled on his lap. Aaron’s hardened dick brushed against his ass, and before Aaron could help himself, he set his hands on Gage’s hips and readied himself to help Gage move. His hole was already soaked—Gage had taken care of that with the lube he kept near his desk before he’d turned on the webcam.

“Are you ready?” Gage asked. He woke the screen on the computer and expanded a browser shrunk down in the taskbar.

Aaron kissed the back of his shoulder. He looked at the website, saw himself with Gage in the preview window captured only from the chest up, and nodded.

“Then we’re live in three, two, one…”

Gage clicked a button labeled “Go Live” and let the show begin.

“Hey.” Gage’s voice was fake to Aaron’s ears, but it was only because Aaron knew him so well. The words he spoke were too bright and rounded. Gage was naturally a bubbly person, but not to such an extreme. “So, you’re probably wondering what’s going on, right? No tip goal, no games scheduled, and the hottest guy in the world behind me…” Gage glanced at Aaron and smiled, and there was nothing fake about that. Aaron’s heart fluttered. His hand slid from Gage’s waist down to his inner thigh and started to stroke. Every now and then, his little finger caressed Gage’s cock. Since they were only captured from the chest up, no one could see what was going on. Now that Aaron was home, Gage’s naked body was a pleasure reserved for him, and him alone. “Well, as it turns out, I’m retiring.”

There was a text field on the screen. Comments started to pop up. Gage paid them no attention, but Aaron got a look at what some of them were saying.

U can’t retire

Tilt the cam lower

Is his dick already in ur ass?

Wanna see u take his knot bby. Then cum take mine n lemme nok u up

The comments kept devolving, becoming more crude or irate, until Aaron was on edge. These were the people Gage had been dealing with for the last several years? The men he’d begged money from to keep him going? Like an elastic stretched too tight, Aaron’s calm composure snapped, flinging his protectiveness front and center.

No one would ever speak to Gage like that again. No one. And if they did, they would answer to him.

“So, I wanted to pop by really quick and say that this is it. I’m done.” Gage slouched against Aaron’s chest, making a show of their closeness. Aaron saw them in the preview window on the site. Gage, who was smaller than he was and far more fair, looked ethereal. When compared to the cold bitterness that narrowed Aaron’s eyes and tensed his shoulders, he looked even more unreal. “Goodbye.”

That was all the show was supposed to be—Gage had walked him through the process before they’d gone live. He’d told Aaron that they would start the stream, he would announce his retirement while they were together, and then he would turn it off and make love to Aaron while coming down from the high of knowing that it was well and truly over. But now, seeing the comments streaming in, Aaron didn’t think that was good enough.

There were reputable cam sites, he was sure, and clients who were respectful of the models they watched, but the men who flowed into Gage’s room were treating Gage like he was a piece of meat—their own little plaything to take advantage of rather than a living, breathing human being. It riled Aaron. He’d known that it would be bad—Gage had warned him as much—but he hadn’t realized how much shit Gage had put up with until he read it for himself in the chat window.

Show urself suking his dick and get his cum all over ur face.

If I fucking knew where you lived, I would fuck you until you passed out, then I’d fuck your body until you woke up again so we could do it all over again

Wanna eat your ass like its candy bby. Lemme taste ur slick

Gage moved the cursor to the button that would end the stream, but before he could click, Aaron took hold of his wrist and stopped him. Startled, Gage looked up, doe-eyed. “Baby?”

“We’re actually not done yet,” Aaron said. His voice was deeper than he’d ever heard it before, and the low notes of his words rumbled like thunder in the distance. “We’re not done until every single one of you understands this: he’s mine.”

The comments exploded. Aaron had no idea how many people were watching, and he didn’t care enough to follow up with what was being said. He got the gist of it—more degrading comments, more assholes showing their true colors, and more disrespect toward the man he loved. The fact that this torture had been Gage’s only option pushed Aaron to his breaking point. How many nights had he endured deprecating comments? How many times had he cried from what was said to him, and from the things he was forced to do? If Aaron had known, he would have found a way to circumvent this. He would have sacrificed his future in a heartbeat if it meant he could have rescued Gage from this hell.

But there were very few things in life that could be redone. Choices had been made for him, and he’d been denied the chance to change the course of Gage’s life.

That didn’t mean that he couldn’t set things right now—that he couldn’t stand up for the man who was his world.

Aaron couldn’t let this go.

“Every night you spent with him, every time you degraded him, and every single fucking time you touched yourself while watching him, he was mine. I may not have been there then to defend him, but things are different now. I’m here for him. This is over. All of it is over. I hope you enjoyed what you had while it lasted, because you will never see him again.”

“Aaron,” Gage whispered, partially in shock, and partially in awe.

But Aaron wasn’t done. He tugged the chair closer and reached up, wrenching the webcam down sharply at the same time as he rolled the chair back from the desk. The image blurred, obscuring their bodies as the camera struggled to refocus, then became clear again. In the preview window on the website, all that could be seen was the floor and their legs from the knee down. The stream continued. Messages kept pouring in. They weren’t Aaron’s focus anymore—Gage was.

He pressed a hot kiss to Gage’s neck, then nipped his earlobe. The hand that had once been on Gage’s thigh returned, then slipped inward. His palm caressed Gage’s semi, hoping to stroke it back to life.

“Oh... f-fuck,” Gage uttered. He shivered, then pressed into Aaron’s hand. “Baby…”

“I’m so sorry, BP,” Aaron replied. As enraged as he was with the behavior of Gage’s viewers, he was angrier at himself. Who was he, to leave his lover for years on end for something as trivial as a lab grant and a PhD candidacy? Who the hell was he to leave Gage when Gage needed him the most? “I didn’t know it would be like this. I didn’t know you’d have to suffer.”

With a shuddering sigh, Gage pushed his hips forward. Aaron stopped teasing him—he palmed Gage’s cock and started to stroke. In the preview window on the web browser, Gage’s legs stretched and his feet angled sharply downward, tense with pleasure. The sight was totally innocent, but not a single person watching wouldn’t understand what was going on.

Aaron would taunt the men who’d treated Gage like garbage. He’d hold everything they wanted just beyond their line of sight.

And while he did it, he’d make Gage come on his knot. He’d chase the negative associations of the room away.

He would make this right.

Aaron’s stiffened shaft slid between Gage’s cheeks. It stroked and tempted, and as it did, their legs moved on camera to reflect what was going on.

“I promise, it’s never going to be like this again,” Aaron said. He continued to work his hand, bringing Gage to arch his hips and squirm. Each time he did, new pleasure arrowed through Aaron. The way Gage’s ass rubbed against his cock robbed him of breath and left him wanting more. “I love you, and I’m going to take care of you.”

“I know you will.” Gage lifted his hips up from Aaron’s lap. The space between their bodies was just enough so that Aaron could guide himself to Gage’s hole. They’d planned to have sex after the stream—to take the high from the announcement of Gage’s retirement and expend it all over Gage’s office in order to reclaim the room—but the invitation couldn’t be clearer.

Gage wanted Aaron to take him on live stream.

He wanted the world to know he was spoken for every bit as much as Aaron did.

“We’re still on stream, baby,” Aaron reminded him, just in case he was reading Gage wrong. “They can see our legs.”

“Yeah.” Gage tilted his head back and kissed Aaron’s cheek. “That’s all I want them to see.”

Then, with a gentle sway of his hips, Gage sat on Aaron’s cock, and Aaron’s world narrowed itself to a singular point of importance.

Gage.

Always and forever, Gage.