by J P Barnaby
Kage led the way to the back of the open space. They passed a boy scampering across the floor on his padded knees, wagging a doggy-tail-like protrusion from his jock-covered ass. He picked up a ball in his teeth and carried it back to his Master. Fetch, wow. As they got to the stairs, they found a girl chained to the railing with her mouth bound open and a sign that read since I can’t keep my mouth shut. By the time they reached the basement, Jude wondered why the fuck he was still there. What the hell is wrong with these people?
An attendant greeted them at the bottom of the stairs, deferentially in Kage’s case. Jude rolled his eyes. The only thing special about Kage was that he growled louder than most of the other guys Jude had seen roaming around the asylum. He couldn’t understand why they treated the man like a leather-clad god.
“Hello, Sir, we have room three reserved for you as you requested,” the attendant simpered. A compact but muscular, tattooed man, he looked a bit like Ben except for the tight brown curls. Decked out in a leather harness and tight black pants, he appeared to wear the standard uniform of the club with pride. Jude felt ridiculous in his black T-shirt and jeans. Ben at least had on a leather harness with his jeans. The harness seemed to serve no other purpose than to accent his beautiful muscled frame.
“Good boy,” Kage growled and slipped something to the attendant, maybe a tip, maybe drugs, Jude had no idea. Instead, he decided not to think about it and just follow Kage and his boy, who had been allowed on his feet only to navigate the stairs. Jude hated that he treated the kid at his feet like something less than human. It infuriated him to think that he’d treated Ben that way.
As they entered the room, Jude glanced around at the furniture, which looked like it could have come from some kind of medieval dungeon. A wooden bench sat along one wall, pushed carelessly out of the way. Letting his eyes drift up from the bench, he saw chains bolted into the wall, hanging with clips at the dangling ends. He did have an idea what those were for, but the table to his left he didn’t even have a guess about. There was a narrow padded bench in the middle with smaller attachments on the side and in the front. It looked like some kind of perverted dentist chair, but not as big. A couple of high-backed wooden chairs, the kind his grandmother once had at her dining room table, sat in a corner. Piping with protruding eyebolts covered another wall.
“Justin on the wall, Ben pick out something for your friend to use on you,” Kage said with quiet authority once they were in the room and the door had closed. Kage casually flicked his boot against the big duffel he’d dropped, and Jude assumed they were supposed to use something from it. His quiet baritone voice smacked of arrogance, like there was no question his orders would be followed.
“You can’t order him around anymore,” Jude said, not quite sure where his courage came from to stand up against the Dom in his leathers. Something inside him, something deep in his soul, told him he needed to protect Ben. Ben was more than his friend and his lover. Ben was his boy.
“Then, by all means,” Kage said with amusement and stood back against the wall to watch. Justin knelt next to his Dom’s jackboots and didn’t look up. Jesus, the kid looked like he might cry. Was that what it meant to lord over someone? He didn’t want Ben to be broken. The room started to close in as he looked at Ben helplessly. Jude wanted to be what Ben needed, but had no idea how.
“Hey, we don’t have to do this at all,” Ben said quietly, putting a hand on the back of Jude’s neck and drawing their foreheads together. “We can go back upstairs and watch. It’s your first time here, and that’s all we came to do.” Not wanting to lose face in front of Kage, Jude shook his head.
“No, I want to try. Just tell me what’s going to happen,” Jude whispered and tried to pull what little air was left in the room into his lungs. He didn’t want to be Kage. He didn’t want to degrade Ben, but he wanted to give his lover the pain and pleasure he craved.
“Give us a minute,” Ben said, louder over Jude’s shoulder, to Kage. “We weren’t here to do a session, just observe. Jude is going to plan something, and then we can get started.” Ben’s fingers rubbed a pressure point just behind Jude’s ear. To Jude he said, “Let’s do a little light bondage, cuffs because they’re better for beginners, use an implement for impact play, and then finish off with a nice hot fuck. What do you think?” A twinkle appeared in Ben’s eye that hadn’t been there, a mischievous look that said he wanted to show Kage what he’d left discarded on the dungeon floor.
“Okay, first, what do you mean about an implement and impact play?” Jude asked. If he was going to do it, he needed to be comfortable with everything. That was just the way his analytical mind worked.
“Use a toy and hit me with it,” Ben said with a cheerful grin, as if he had just asked for ice cream rather than to be beaten.
“Where do we get cuffs and the toy?”
“Kage will have them. He always carries all that stuff in his bag. I have some equipment, but I didn’t bring it because I didn’t want to freak you out completely. I figured just watching would be enough,” Ben said.
“But you didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to stick it to Kage for breaking your relationship,” Jude observed, and Ben flushed. “Well then, let’s take the old dog down a peg or two.” A swell of emotion nearly hid behind the smirk he gave Jude, but disbelief colored it. Smacking him a few times with a belt in the heat of the moment was one thing, but taking the time to calculate strikes, to mean it—that was something else entirely.
“Do you want me to get what we need from Kage’s duffel?” Ben asked, again in that hot deferential voice. The voice made something rise up in Jude, something that wanted to strap Ben down and fuck him hard. He just wished that something would make him want to whip Ben like he wanted. That particular voice inside his head seemed to be very quiet as he nodded for Ben to get what they needed from Kage’s duffel. His hands shook as he watched Ben stride over to Kage and kneel next to the bag. That same voice in his head roared to see Ben kneeling in front of another man, but he chose to ignore it, at least for the time being. Ben pulled out two leather cuffs with big silver rings, two silver clips, and the same kind of toy they’d used on the girl upstairs, with a braided leather handle and long strips. Without any kind of instruction from Jude, Ben untied and removed his boots then reached for the button on his jeans.
“What are you doing?” Jude asked, panic getting the better of him. He wasn’t going to fuck Ben in front of two strangers.
“I’m stripping down to my jock so you can flog me,” Ben said calmly. “Then I’m going to show you how to use the flogger on my ass, put on the cuffs, and be a very good boy while you attach them to the wall.” He batted his eyes at Jude, obviously in a great mood despite Jude’s lingering discomfort. “The two words I want you to remember are yellow and red. Those are slow and stop words. If it’s too much and I need you to slow down….” he paused for a second to throw a glare at Kage, who had snorted, “I’ll say yellow. If I need you to stop for any reason, I’ll say red. Understand?” Jude nodded and sucked in a breath as Ben pulled his jeans down over slim hips. Naked Ben never ever failed to turn Jude on. God, he loved the lines of Ben’s body. As Jude tried to collect himself, Ben put the boots back on, now in nothing but a jock and harness.
“What?” he asked when he found Jude staring at him.
“You’re fucking gorgeous,” Jude said quietly and pulled him into a quick but satisfying kiss. Kage rolled his eyes as he stood off to the side next to his kneeling boy.
“With the flogger there are a few things to remember. For this session, only hit me on the ass. We’ll go over safe regions on other parts of the body later, but you’re likely to do less damage on my ass if you hit too hard. Also, make sure you’re far enough away that the tips hit my ass square on and don’t wrap around my hip. They’ll accelerate exponentially around curved flesh and that hurts like a bitch. Okay?” he asked with a test swipe of the leather-fingered device on his own thigh. It made a slapping sound, and Jud
e swallowed hard.
“Okay.”
“Let’s get the cuffs on, and we can start,” Ben said, and the elation in his voice sounded more like he’d gotten a pony for his birthday than he was about to get his ass beaten. He handed Jude the first cuff and then held out his left wrist.
“I’m worried about your injuries. Why don’t we skip the cuffs this time? You won’t move, not if I tell you not to, right?” Jude asked, apprehension filling all the tiny cracks in his confidence. Ben looked at him for a long minute, meeting his eye. He must have seen Jude’s resolve because he tossed the cuffs back into Kage’s black canvas bag of tricks. Instead, he went over to the wall with all of the piping and held on to one of the bars, pushing his ass out to give Jude a solid target.
“Start slow, and build up,” Ben advised over his shoulder. He looked fucking gorgeous, bent slightly at the waist with the jock framing his ass. The lines of his back were strong and sculpted as he held onto the bar and his muscles flexed. God, couldn’t we just skip the beating part and just fuck?
Everything from the texture of the handle to its weight to the leather tails hanging against his leg felt foreign to Jude. Just to stall for time, he crept up to Ben and put a hand on the sweet, supple skin of his ass to feel a connection with him. Ben let his feet slide a bit further apart and arched back into the touch. He was turned on. Flogging him would turn him on more. Jude needed to man up.
Taking a step back, he swung the flogger gently to judge distance. He didn’t want to hit Ben wrong and let the strips of leather curl around his hip. The tails fanned out over Ben’s ass with a barely audible snap. He put a little force behind the next strike, and Ben didn’t even flinch. Since they had the whole night, he kept the next few slaps of the flogger light. After the fifth or sixth time, Ben looked back over his shoulder and nodded. Jude put more force behind the next blow. In fact, he put more force into it than he’d intended and Ben cried out. Jude nearly dropped the flogger. He hesitated, not sure what to do next.
“Yeah, God, Jude…. Like that…,” Ben moaned. Jude glanced back and saw Kage watching him. With a slight nod, Kage indicated that he should continue. With both reassurances, he swung the flogger again with the same application of force. Ben hissed, but didn’t cry out. That helped Jude’s state of mind, and he felt like he could continue. Blow after blow landed on Ben’s ass until angry red lines began to form over his skin. Each line etched itself onto Jude’s soul, and he bore their pain.
With one, final, agonizing strike, harder than all the others, Jude tossed the flogger to Kage, who caught it deftly. His arms were around Ben’s waist before anyone in the room could say a word. Ben stood up, his ass grinding against Jude’s crotch.
“Please, Sir…. Please fuck me,” Ben begged, and it took Jude a second to realize that Ben spoke to him, not Kage. Ben had called him Sir. He heard a laugh behind him and turned to see Kage taking hold of Justin’s leash. The Dom tossed a pillow packet of lube to Jude and, with a smirk, led his boy from the room. Not stopping to try and figure out what Kage found so amusing, he ripped open the lube and used slick fingers to get Ben ready. A groan that sounded like it rolled up from the bottom of Ben’s feet made Jude’s cock throb. He’d started to get hard during the flogging but became rigid when Ben begged for him.
Jude stroked Ben from the inside until he pushed back, almost humping Jude’s fingers.
“Shit, wait, you’re too short like this. Come over here to the bench,” Jude said, prying Ben’s hands off the bar and pulling him toward a wooden table next to the bench along the wall. Ben hopped up on the table, his ass all the way at the edge, and lay back as Jude opened his jeans enough to get his cock out. He threw one of Ben’s legs over his shoulder and pressed the head of his cock against Ben’s slick opening. One slow, controlled thrust and he slid past any resistance into the tight, wet heat.
Ben moaned, a harsh throaty sound, as his head fell back against the table with a quiet thud. One of his hands landed on top of Jude’s where it lay on his hip, the other wrapped around his hard cock.
“I love how your jeans scratch my sore ass. God, it’s so fucking good,” Ben said, so as Jude thrust harder, he made sure to scrape the material against Ben’s ass. Turning his head slightly, he kissed the inside of Ben’s calf and Ben’s answering smile melted his heart. Ben jacked his cock faster as the fucking went on, and his body trembled against Jude.
“Please, Jude, can I come?” Ben begged suddenly and circled his balls with his fingers, pulling down hard to stop himself. Jude’s mind, fogged by the arousal and heady feeling of power, closed around Ben’s request. He controlled Ben’s body. They’d slipped into new and scary roles, and while Ben embraced his like a pair of broken-in jeans, Jude’s felt more like a confining suit. Loosening the tie, he spit into his palm and grabbed Ben’s dick, jacking it slowly.
“You wanna come for me, boy?” he asked, trying to mimic the low harsh tones Kage had used. It sounded wrong on him, but Ben’s eyes rolled back and he pushed up into Jude’s hand.
“Please, Sir. It’s so good,” Ben cried, spreading his legs wider. The small room smelled like sex and sweat with a hint of old socks, and the temperature had spiked since they entered it. Sweat beaded on Jude’s back under his T-shirt.
“Please, Jude,” Ben whispered, and the breathless plea destroyed Jude’s control. He twisted his fist around the head of Ben’s cock, jacking it hard as his own orgasm crashed into him with a force that stole his breath.
“Come for me, baby,” Jude grunted as his dick erupted deep inside Ben’s body. It took a minute for Ben to obey. Jude’s legs shook, and he panted as he kept sliding wetly into Ben’s ass. He stayed hard long enough to bring his lover over the edge, and Ben’s spunk landed over his stomach in thick white spurts.
“I feel like I can fly,” Ben said with a huge smile at Jude. The smile warmed the lingering cold fear in his heart as he wondered if he could truly be what Ben needed.
IT DIDN’T take long for them to dress and head back up to the main part of the club. Jude was over the club scene and wanted to take Ben home and fall asleep in his arms, but Ben wanted a drink before they left. He stood at the bar and ordered something Jude didn’t catch as he surveyed the activities around him. Some of the players or the activities had changed in their absence, but everything else was the same—everything except Jude.
“Can I get a shot of raspberry Stoli?” Jude asked the bartender, ignoring Ben’s surprised look. He waited, avoiding Ben’s gaze by watching a weird scene next to the bar. A boy was strung up by his arms, holding himself above two small blocks of wood. At first, Jude didn’t understand. But, as the bartender set his shot glass next to the boy’s hand, the boy just couldn’t hold himself up anymore and his bare feet touched the wood, then jerked back into the air. Looking more closely, Jude saw that the top of the wood reflected light. As the boy touched it again and jerked his foot up, Jude noticed the wires. Jesus, they’re electrified. What the fuck is wrong with people? And I want to join them—what the fuck is wrong with me?
Jude downed the shot in one long, burning swallow.
He was about to ask Ben if they could leave when Kage came up the stairs, followed by his boy Justin. They surprised Jude when Justin didn’t go back to his knees after they were upstairs. He simply walked quietly behind Kage. Well, limped behind him might have been a better way to describe it. When they stopped next to Jude, Justin turned slightly, showing off his welts and bruises. The shot turned in Jude’s stomach.
“Here,” Kage said and handed Ben a slip of paper. With a nod to Jude, he put a hand on the back of Justin’s neck and led him to the other end of the bar.
“What is it?” Jude asked as Ben’s face broke into a smile.
“It’s a phone number for Giovanni. He’s a respected member of the community, and the one Kage goes to when he wants to learn things. Apparently, Kage thinks Gio can teach you to be a Dom.” Ben looked over with mild interest when the guy on the blocks screamed.
Oh holy fucking Christ.
Twelve
“YEAH, MOM, everything is pretty much healed. I’m off the crutches and everything,” Ben said into his phone as he rolled his eyes. His upturned lips betrayed him, showing how happy he was that his mother cared. “The scarring is a little better, but I still kind of look like Frankenstein’s monster.” The smile faded a bit, and it hurt Jude’s heart to see it. Ben was still beautiful to him; the scars didn’t matter. He kissed Ben lightly on the lips. “Jude is doing just fine, mom, and he worships me just as you said any good boy should.”
Jude snickered before going into the kitchen to open a bottle of wine. They’d hosted dinner earlier for his sister and Ronnie upstairs. The turkey had browned to perfection, and even the potatoes were smooth. Susan had brought the stuffing because he’d always sucked at making stuffing. Their mom had made it until the cancer ravaged her to the point she couldn’t anymore. Ben had shouted Ronnie down, restricting her to some kind of green bean concoction because she’d already done so much for them over the last few months. When Jude came back into the living room, Ben started to wrap up the conversation.
“Jude’s sister and the lady from upstairs… yeah, we even had a turkey. Don’t worry, mom, Jude takes good care of me. I love you and dad too. Merry Christmas,” Ben said slower, each of the words full of emotion. “Let me see when Jude can get time off and we’ll come down, I promise. Bye, mom.”
“You’ve never talked about going to see your parents before,” Jude noted, sitting on the arm of the couch with a hand on Ben’s shoulder.
“She said they finally packed away Juliette’s room. I think they finally figured out that’s what makes me uncomfortable, and they thought it was time. Mom said they planned to turn it into an office, but leave a few of her things up on a shelf.” Ben’s eyes clouded for a moment, as they always did when he talked about his sister, but they cleared much faster than they used to.
