The blade slashed him and Taiga kept perfectly still, his eyes reflexively closing a moment later to keep the blood out of them. He hissed but made no more signs of pain than that.<br/><br/>Taiga followed his instructions to the letter, woodenly, his lips pressed tight to keep every unwise witticism in his head off his tongue where Mashi could hear it. You bait a bull when you can get out of the way of its horns, and Taiga most resolutely can't.<br/><br/>Taiga stops, confronted with a cage, but it isn't as horrible as it could be. No instruments of torture or brutality lining the walls. Just a cage, and who knows when he'll get out of it.<br/><br/>But he didn't balk or cower, only stripping out of his custom suit and ignoring the puffy flesh around his eye, burned by the cauterization and starting to swell up.<br/><br/>He melted out of his clothing. He had stood naked before men he hated, men who terrified him, men who disgusted him. Mashi was nothing special. Not yet, at least. Maybe he'd become something more.<br/><br/>Certainly, there was a limit to how much a client could hurt him that Mashi didn't have.<br/><br/>Each article of designer clothing he shed, down to black silk boxers, was carefully folded and put to the side. That was a long habit as a high-end hooker. You didn't make a mess. You had to be inhuman to a client, though still trapped inside your own stinking, aching corporeal flesh.<br/><br/>It wasn't an easy job. He'd been widely considered one of the best in the world at it.<br/><br/>His eyes never left Mashi's, daring him to look away. He came over and smoothed the flat of his hand down Mashi's arms, feeling the belled muscle. His touch was unerring, perfect. Like a well-trained masseur's, his thumbs moved over the muscle to release knots and tension.<br/><br/>"Do you have oil?" Taiga asked. "Lube, at least, I hope. For your pleasure, darling, more than mine—cocks were designed for pussies. They want slickness, wet. Unless you want rugburn on your genitals."<br/><br/>Underneath his clothes, Taiga was perfect, smaller without his armor, but with a presence that was hard to look away from. He cocked his hips and drew his nails down Mashi's back, embracing him to do that, while nipping up the stubble on Mashi's neck to his ear, which he bit so perfectly Mashi would likely feel goosebumps start up on his body, a shiver run down his spine.<br/><br/>They were close. Taiga was enchantingly soft, made for grabbing and holding, as if aeronautically engineered to be perfectly fuckable.