All the Gear

A Kinky Cupid Story

By Kim Dare

All the Gear (Kinky Cupid, Book 4)

Copyright © Kim Dare 2012

Published by Kim Dare

Cover Art by Kris Norris

First Edition – February 2012 (Under the title All the Gear, No Idea)

Second Edition – March 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Kim Dare. Applications should be addressed, in writing, to Kim Dare at the e-mail address available at www.kimdare.com.

The author has asserted her rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All the Gear

McCormack's damned if he'll be the next of Marcus's friends to find himself set up by Bret, and as Valentine's Day approaches, he's especially wary. But, apparently, it's not Bret’s plans for him he should be worried about.

When Mr Tomlinson asks McCormack for a favour, he finds himself going along with it, even though babysitting a novice who has all the gear, but no idea what to do with any of it, is the last thing he wants to do on Valentine's night.

Theo is nothing like the experienced subs McCormack usually plays with, but he soon finds himself captivated by Theo's clumsy yet earnest attempts to please him.

It really does seem like opposites attract, and everything is perfect—right up to the moment when McCormack discovers that one of his friends has a hidden agenda where Theo is concerned.

Table of Contents

Blurb

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Also in the Kinky Cupid Series

Also by the Author

About the Author

Chapter One

“Damn it, McCormack! You had to pick today of all days to be late? I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“No.” Bill McCormack didn’t turn around as he spoke. He’d easily recognised Bret’s voice, and someone not giving him too much attention was exactly what that boy needed. Shrugging off his coat, McCormack put it in his locker in the changing room at The Spread Eagle.

“No?” Bret echoed from just behind McCormack. He sounded so confused, as if he couldn’t quite understand anyone using that word when speaking to him.

“Whatever nonsense you’ve got planned, whatever scheme you’re running—my answer is no. I’m not getting involved,” McCormack clarified, with all the patience he could muster. On that particular evening, it was even less patience than usual.

The place was packed. But it was mostly full of people who were there for some idiotic Valentine’s Day special event the club’s owners had dreamed up. So, almost all of them would probably prove to be people who had no idea what leather was, beyond a fashion statement. Just what McCormack needed tonight.

“I’m not planning—”

“Yes, you are,” McCormack cut in, still not turning away from his locker. “It’s Valentine’s Day. You wouldn’t be you if you weren’t making some poor sod’s life miserable today.”

“Happy, McCormack. None of the men I’ve set up over the last couple of years are miserable. They’re happy. You really should try happiness some time. It’s fun.”

“No,” McCormack repeated once more.

Working from muscle memory rather than anything else, McCormack checked the pockets of his leather trousers—bunch of keys in one pocket, silver chain-style collar in the other. He was just as used to carrying the latter around as the former at this point, although it was more habit than a real hope that he’d meet someone he wanted to collar these days.

Having closed his locker and checked that it was secure, McCormack finally spun around to face Bret. Folding his arms across his chest, he stared at the boy for several long seconds. It seemed like Bret was going to try to outstare him, but after a few moments, he looked away with a huff.

“I just want to ask you about a favour.”

“No.”

“You haven’t even heard what it is yet!” He blinked big blue eyes up at McCormack, as if that might help.

“Is your master here tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Then any trouble you’re in, go to him about it. You don’t need my help.”

“The favour isn’t even for me!” Bret protested. “It’s for Mr Tomlinson.”

A year after their falling out, and McCormack was still tempted to roll his eyes when he heard that name, and he still resisted the impulse. “No.”

“Damn it, McCormack. Even you can’t hold a grudge forever!”

“Not, ‘no, I won’t do a favour for the guy’. I’m saying ‘no, I don’t believe a word you’re telling me’,” McCormack clarified.

Bret’s face was a picture of shocked innocence. He held the expression for several seconds before he realised that McCormack wasn’t going to be the least bit impressed with his acting ability. “Okay, so sometimes the truth isn’t what a guy needs to hear. But this time I swear, I’m one-hundred percent honest!”

McCormack raised a pierced eyebrow at him.

“Anyway, I’m just the messenger. Mr Tomlinson sent me to tell you he wants to see you in the main bar the moment you get here. Well, he put it a lot more politely than that, but that was the gist. And he wants to see you so he can ask you for a favour.”

“I still don’t believe a word you’re saying,” McCormack bit out. But, to be safe, he made his way towards the bar, just in case this was one of the very rare times Bret was telling the truth to a dom who wasn’t his master.

He was aware of Bret stepping into his slipstream and following along in his wake, but he wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. The brat had a tendency to be in the middle of nonsense, and McCormack really wasn’t in the mood for that kind of silliness.

Nudging his way through the crowd, McCormack walked into the club’s main bar room. He had every expectation of finding everyone in the world apart from Tomlinson there. But there he was, at the bar, along with Dan, the bartender, and Steve Lewis, the other owner of the club.

All three men looked up as McCormack reached the group.

“Bret found you? That’s good. I need a favour.”

McCormack could almost feel Bret’s smug expression boring into the back of his neck.

“No problem,” Bret chirped. “I’m always happy to help, and I’m sure McCormack will be too.”

McCormack gritted his teeth, ignored Bret and kept his eyes on Tomlinson. “A favour?”

“Yes.” Tomlinson closed the file he’d been working on while perched on his usual stool at the end of the bar. Ever since he’d started dating Dan, he seemed to spend more time there than in his office. “It seems we have a slight problem with one of the new guys who turned up for the event tonight.”

That’s why you shouldn’t throw events aimed at people who don’t know what they’re doing. McCormack kept that to himself with difficulty. “What kind of a problem?”

“Apparently, he’s some kind of social media darling—the kind of person who can make or break a business with a couple of online sound bites.”

Losing the patronage of guys who were foolish enough to take the word of some vanilla guy, just because he has a lot of followers, didn’t sound like too bad an outcome to McCormack, but he dutifully kept that to himself too. “And this favour you want?”

“Worst case scenario is this boy ends up hooking up with some other new guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing, it all goes badly wrong and the club gets the blame online.” He paused for a few seconds. “You know what will happen then.”

McCormack bit back a curse. Yes, he knew. The moment that kind of rumour got out every predator who wanted to use kink as an excuse for abuse would come tumbling down on them, thinking he could get away with that kind of shit in their club.

“Best case scenario,” Tomlinson continued. “Is that he hooks up with someone who genuinely knows what he’s doing. Someone who I know can show him what leather is really about without screwing him over.”

Tomlinson’s choice of words was obviously intentional. After accusing McCormack of being someone who would screw Dan over last year, this was obviously Tomlinson’s way of trying to prove once and for all that he really did trust McCormack—with a sub, with his business’s reputation, all of it.

Babysitting a newbie wasn’t something McCormack had any interest in, but it also wasn’t a favour he could really refuse.

He was just about to resignedly agree to at least see if this boy was interested in a scene, when a movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

“What exactly does Bret have to do with all this?” he asked.

“It was Bret who recognised him and pointed him out to me,” Tomlinson admitted.

“And you believed him?” McCormack managed to make the words sound vaguely polite rather than completely incredulous.

“Of course not. I looked him up.” Tomlinson indicated his phone and his laptop. “Everything checks out. Theo Rhys. Social media influencer is apparently the current label.”

“Fine,” McCormack said.

“I’ll point him out to you,” Bret offered.

“No. Tomlinson will show me a picture and I’ll find him myself,” McCormack corrected.

A couple of taps on his phone, and Tomlinson turned the screen towards McCormack.

White guy. Early twenties. Pretty. Lots of sculpted muscles. No visible tats or piercings. He might have been hard to spot in a crowd where none of those characteristics were entirely uncommon, if it weren’t for the fact the boy had dyed his hair a whole rainbow full of colours.

He was as far from McCormack’s type as anyone in the club, but a favour was a favour. McCormack bit back a sigh. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks. I reserved one of the private rooms, so it’s free if you want to use it.” He tossed the key to McCormack.

A glance told McCormack that it was his favourite private play space in the club.

It wasn’t really the best set up for carrying out this kind of mockery of a scene, but pointing that out would have seemed churlish at the best of times.

“One more thing?” Tomlinson asked, as McCormack was turning away.

McCormack turned back to face him. Politeness really wasn’t getting any easier with practice. “Yes?”

“If you do end up doing a scene with him, I’d appreciate your opinion on what kind of sub he is and how well he’d work out with someone long-term.”

McCormack shrugged. “Fine.” As additional requests went, it was odd but it could have been a lot worse.

He turned and headed out of the room, Bret once again trailing along at his heels. McCormack ignored him, even though he knew that tactic never did a lot of good with Bret.

The crowd would have been far less annoying if it wasn’t full of idiots and wannabes. The guy in the pic, Theo, had looked to be tall. But no rainbow head of hair peeked over the top of the scrum.

It was always possible that the boy had already found a hook-up for the night and was off in one of the other private rooms. No one could blame McCormack if that was the case, and he could have his evening back. No harm, no foul.

“There.” Bret tugged on McCormack’s arm and pointed across the room.

Right on the far side there was someone with a similar build to the picture of Theo. No rainbow hair though, this boy had a baseball cap on. The cap was red and black, but McCormack doubted the boy was colour coding. The chances of Theo being into either fisting or real S&M seemed remote.

Theo was tilting his head down, as if hoping his face would stay in shadow. Mr Social Media obviously didn’t want to be recognised.

Just then, something seemed to catch Theo’s attention. He looked up briefly. He had a half-mask on. It didn’t make him look kinky, just like someone who’d seen too many superhero films.

As McCormack made his way across the club, he caught glimpses of what else the boy was wearing.

White vest and blue jeans. Unobjectionable, especially when no one could be expected to own a huge amount of leather when they first arrived on the scene.

Jewellery. Most of it was just the kind of stuff that would get in the way during a scene, but a few bits looked more like they could have been variations on a collar theme. Being worn by a guy who couldn’t wear a traditional collar all the time due to his job, they would have been fine. Worn by someone who obviously didn’t have a clue, they set McCormack’s teeth on edge.

Still getting closer, McCormack saw Theo’s belt. Leather with studs—possibly the most club-suitable piece of clothing he was wearing. Unfortunately, the boy had decided it was appropriate to hang a whole host of toys off it. Handcuffs. The kind of leather cuffs that wouldn’t actually work unless he took off all his jewellery. A length of chain. A flogger. A paddle.

There was probably someone running an internet store somewhere, who was very happily counting his profits. The little fool looked like he’d bought one of everything, and probably two of whatever was on sale.

“All the gear, no idea,” McCormack muttered to himself.

He’d been so focused on Theo, he’d forgotten all about Bret tagging along with him until Bret giggled at his assessment of Theo. His humour was probably at McCormack’s expense rather than at Theo’s, but McCormack already found himself feeling more protective over the little fool he’d been saddled with than he should have.

Lifting one hand, McCormack slapped Bret on the back of his head. Not hard enough to really hurt him—nothing Marcus, Bret’s master, would object to.

“Hey!” There was no venom to Bret’s protest.

“Go and find your master. I have no interest in tripping over you the whole night.”

Bret’s hand came to rest on McCormack’s shoulder. Before he could react, Bret levered himself up onto his toes and pressed a kiss on McCormack’s cheek. He stepped back before McCormack had a chance to land another swat on him.

“For luck,” Bret said. “It’s Valentine’s Day, after all!” As quick in his retreat as he had been in his attack, Bret disappeared into the crowd.

“Cheeky little bastard,” McCormack grumbled to himself. Lifting one hand, he ran it over his scalp. There was only a few days’ worth of hair covering his head. Tiny brown strands prickled against his palm as he slid his hand down to the back of his neck.

He supposed there was nothing left to do now but to get on with it. He made his way further across the room. Theo had positioned himself in the least crowded bit of the space. He wasn’t talking to anyone, or showing any sign of wanting to interact with the club’s other customers.

McCormack was just a couple yards away when he noticed someone else was approaching Theo too. He muttered a string of swear words under his breath as he realised that it was another guy who intended to make a play for the boy. From the way he was dressed, the guy had even less idea what he was doing than Theo had. It was just the kind of situation McCormack had promised Tomlinson that he would help him to avoid.

There was no way anyone would believe that he hadn’t sabotaged Tomlinson on purpose if that happened. Speeding up, McCormack arrived at Theo’s side just after the other man. Catching hold of the guy’s shoulder, McCormack spun him around.

“Get lost.”

Even if he didn’t understand leather, the guy at least had some sort of survival instinct. He might have stood a head taller than McCormack, but he took one look at him, realised he was out of his depth, and obediently got lost.

McCormack didn’t turn to watch him go. He had more important matters to attend to.

His new charge didn’t look any less clueless up close. He blinked at McCormack as if he’d never seen a tattoo or a piercing before, and certainly not several of both decorating the same man’s skin.

*

“Good evening, sir.” God he sounded like an idiot. Although, thankfully, Theo was pretty sure he was the only one who knew that, since he’d spoken so quietly he doubted the man in front of him could have made out a single syllable.

The man looked at least a decade older than Theo, and as if he had spent most of those extra years in a tattoo parlour.

Theo swallowed down his nerves, cleared his throat, and promptly failed to say anything. This man was really not part of his plan, or at least not any part of the plan that was supposed to happen tonight.

Tonight was supposed to be BDSM 101 with someone like him, Theo reminded himself, someone who was just starting to find his feet in the shallow end of the kinky pool. This guy, well, he wasn’t a 101 kind of guy.

Theo knew that the sensible thing to do would be to hedge away to find someone more his speed. But his feet remained rooted to the floor, and he had the horrible suspicion that the only movement he was capable of making of his own volition involved dropping to his knees. Was that something he was allowed to do without an order?

Theo suspected the man standing in front of him was the kind of person who would find it easy to issue any orders he wanted someone to obey. So, did no orders mean Theo wasn’t supposed to do anything? Or was he supposed to do something that might inspire the man to want to give him orders?

“Why are you here tonight?”

Theo was so deep in the muddle of his own thoughts, he jumped at the calmly asked question.

He dragged his attention away from the man’s tattoos and met his eyes for a moment, before looking down.

“The advert said the event was open to men who had no experience, but who wanted to find out more about BDSM.” Theo swallowed. “Sir?” None of it came out as confidently as he would have liked, and the honorific hit the air with a tone that suggested he wasn’t sure if the guy was a dom, rather than just not knowing how he was allowed to address him.

One of the men he’d met just after he arrived, Bret Something, had said that sometimes the established doms took an interest in the new guys at events like this and did scenes with them. Theo had found himself agreeing that that would be a great way to find out if he was really into leather or not. Now, when it seemed possible that was actually happening, Theo was pretty sure it would just be a very effective way to humiliate himself.

Until that moment, Theo hadn’t realised that humiliation was one of his kinks. But maybe it was, because none of the very embarrassing predictions running through his head was putting him off in the slightest.

God help him, but he really wanted to do a scene with this guy. Was he supposed to ask, or not?

“The best way to find out if you’re into something is to try it with someone who knows what they’re doing.”

“You know what you’re doing.” It was one of the few things in the world Theo felt completely confident about.

“Yes.” No hesitation. “Do you want to do a scene with me?” Just the bald question—no flirting, no flattery. The guy had a this is what I am, take it or leave it attitude that Theo was already fascinated by.

“Yes, sir.” The words sounded far more confident than Theo actually felt.

The guy nodded, just once.

“I…” And that was all Theo got out before he completely bottled it.

“Go ahead.”

Theo hesitated.

“The point of tonight is for you to get answers to any questions you have—that will be a lot easier for you if you actually ask questions.”

“Even stupid ones?” Theo checked.

“Yes.”

Theo had kind of assumed that everyone in the world answered that particular query with something along the lines of there are no stupid questions. This was much more of an I expect you to be stupid kind of response. But, somehow that felt quite reassuring. Low expectations were much easier to surpass than high ones, after all.

“What should I call you?” Theo asked.

“McCormack. Or sir is fine, too, if you like.”

“Yes, sir.” Theo smiled to himself. He knew something now he didn’t know a few seconds earlier. Progress.

McCormack looked him up and down. “Have you had a tour of the place?”

“Yes, sir.” A wave of relief rolled through Theo at the simple fact he was able to easily answer a question McCormack asked.

“Do you want your first scene to be in a private room or at one of the public stations?”

That question wasn’t so easy. Theo looked around them. So many people. He longed to escape to somewhere it would just be him and McCormack, but… “The man giving the tour said that all the private rooms were reserved in advance, sir.”

“One was reserved under my name. I wouldn’t have offered you the option if I couldn’t follow through on whatever you chose.”

Theo hesitated. “Whatever you prefer, sir?”

McCormack didn’t seem impressed with Theo’s attempt to hand over control to him. “If I give you a choice, it’s because I want you to tell me honestly which option you prefer.”

Theo studied McCormack carefully, but it was impossible to read what answer McCormack would like him to give from his expression. All Theo could do was leap and hope. “A public station, sir.”

“I didn’t tell you to guess what I’d prefer,” McCormack corrected. “Try again.”

Theo felt his cheeks heat up at being caught out disobeying an order already. He really hoped the half-mask he was wearing hid the colour. Theo cleared his throat and tried again. “I’m sorry, sir. I’d prefer a private room, sir.”

McCormack turned on his heel and walked away.

Theo watched him go, cursing himself for not having had the balls to answer a simple question honestly in the first place. He looked down. Hanging around the club seemed pointless now. He had a horrible suspicion that anyone following on from McCormack would be a huge let down, even if he hadn’t managed to do anything more than have a brief chat with the guy.

Theo closed his eyes for a moment. He should probably just go home and—

“Well, are you coming with me, or have you changed your mind?”

Theo jerked his head up.

McCormack had stopped just a few yards away and was studying him curiously.

“Sir?”

“The private rooms are this way. Are you doing a scene with me, or have you changed your mind?”

“Yes!” Theo hurried forward until he was at McCormack’s side.

“Yes to having changed your mind or to doing a scene?” McCormack asked.

“Yes, sir.” Theo winced. “I mean yes to doing a scene, sir. I’m sorry, I thought…” Except he really didn’t want to explain to McCormack what he’d thought.

Silence stretched out between them for what felt like hours before McCormack spoke. “I’ll let it slide this time. But, in the future, I’ll expect you to finish any sentence you start.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

McCormack set off again. This time, Theo stayed hot on his heels. He was so close it was only the kind of rapid reactions that panic could sometimes inspire that allowed him to stop quickly enough not to walk into McCormack’s back when he suddenly halted halfway down a corridor lined with closed doors.

Taking a key out of his pocket, McCormack opened one of the doors. Theo hurried into the room after him without even looking into the space first.

It was…not at all what he’d expected. No complex arrangement of bondage furniture. No lines of toys on the walls. The stations in the public play area had been at least in the ball park of what he’d expected. This was just an empty room.

The floor, the ceiling, and three of the walls were tiled. There were lots of what looked like eyelets and fastening points on each surface. A drain occupied a central point on the floor. The ceiling had recessed lights that filled the room with harsh white light that bounced off every surface. The far wall looked to be made up of doors or sliding panels.

As far as clues to what McCormack intended to do with him went, the room was entirely useless.

Theo turned to McCormack. He wasn’t sure how long he’d spent just staring at the room, but it had apparently been long enough for McCormack to close the door in their wake and to make himself comfortable, leaning against the wall next to it.

Theo shuffled his feet, sure that he’d been caught out on some form of bad manners but not sure if apologising for it would help or not. A little voice in the back of his mind pointed out that, if he was in porn, this would probably be the point where he knelt at McCormack’s feet. Except in most of the porn he’d seen, doms didn’t wait for subs to do that voluntarily, they put them on their knees whether they wanted to be there or not.

“I’m assuming that you’ve spent some time on leather-flavoured websites before you turned up here.”

Theo felt heat rush to his cheeks again, as if McCormack could see all the porn he’d snuck peeks of flash across those brightly lit walls behind him. “A little bit, sir.”

There was that raised eyebrow again. The piercing gave the impression of being a very sarcastic punctuation mark.

Theo wasn’t sure if he should lie and say he’d actually seen lots, or admit he’d probably seen less than any other guy in the club. Neither response seemed likely to please McCormack.

“Do you know what limits are?” McCormack asked.

“Yes, sir.” He actually risked keeping a screen cap of a glossary of the important kinky terms saved onto his phone for a few days so he could memorise it. He automatically patted his pockets, except he’d made a point of leaving his phone at home.

The reminder that he was safe from anyone using geolocation to find out that he’d visited the club didn’t reassure him as much as it should have.

“Tell me what you know about your limits.”

“I… Um…”

McCormack didn’t say anything, he just waited for several seconds. Oh yes, he’d warned Theo about that. He expected him to finish whatever sentences he started.

“I’d like to keep my options open, sir?” Theo suggested.

“Let me put it another way, what’s the worst thing I could do to you tonight?”

“Be disappointed in me, sir.”

McCormack didn’t raise an eyebrow. He studied Theo for a few seconds instead, apparently caught off guard by the answer. Theo wasn’t sure if that meant he’d just given a particularly stupid answer, or if his answer was surprising because it was better than the one that McCormack had expected from him.

Theo itched to point out that the answer was at least honest and a kind of finished sentence. He felt at this point that he should get points for both facts, if nothing else.

Chapter Two

The answer actually sounded honest.

McCormack wasn’t entirely sure if it indicated a lack of experience on Theo’s part or if it actually demonstrated his instinctive understanding of submission. Either way, it was a hell of a lot more interesting than anything he’d expected to hear from the boy all night.

“What were you hoping for when you came here tonight, Theo?”

“To find out what submission is really like, sir. To see if I’m into it in real life, sir.”

Again the answer sounded honest. It also lacked any kind of useful specifics. I want to get turned over a dom’s knee and spanked, or I want to spend the whole night in isolation bondage would have been more helpful. But they also wouldn’t have given McCormack anything like such free rein.

McCormack wasn’t sure how long he stared at Theo, trying to get a read on him, past the shadow of the cap, the half-mask, and several deep layers of inexperience. But, by the time he looked away from him, he had a plan. Striding over to the sliding panels on the far wall, McCormack pushed one aside and took out a basket.

He could feel Theo watching his every movement, but he neither hurried nor dawdled under his gaze. Returning to Theo’s side, McCormack dropped the basket in front of him.

Theo looked from the empty container to McCormack and back again, probably trying to work out what sort of kink was being offered up to him and failing completely.

“Everything you’re wearing, in the basket, now.”

“Everything, sir?” Theo echoed.

“Everything.” Stepping back, McCormack leaned against the wall.

Somehow, despite the fact he’d already spent at least a little bit of time lurking around the public play rooms that night, and the fact that most of the subs playing were at least partially undressed, it didn’t seem to have occurred to Theo that nudity might be required of him at some point.

Well, if the boy baulked at this point, it would be obvious that he wasn’t quite ready to explore any submissive side he might have. He would soon be on his way out of the club. At that point, McCormack had no doubt he’d be able to find an experienced sub who was far more his speed and…

And that should have been a more appealing prospect than it was, damn it.

Finally, Theo kicked into action. He took off his cap, then hesitated with it still in his hand. His hair was just like in the photo Tomlinson had shown him. Every colour of the rainbow on display—apparently, some kind of trademark look.

Theo shuffled his feet. It seemed less like he was waiting to be recognised and fawned over, and more like he was terrified of being spotted and outed.

McCormack eventually took pity on him. “In the basket,” he prompted.

Theo visibly relaxed. He dropped the cap into the basket. One deep breath later, he dropped the mask into the basket too. It was the first time McCormack had seen Theo’s whole face in real life.

He was just as pretty as his photo. Far prettier than McCormack’s usual type, but there was something about him that still appealed to McCormack, something about his manner.

“Keep going.”

Theo seemed to gain a certain amount of momentum at that point. He stripped down quickly, putting each item of neatly folded clothing in the basket. The idea of being recognised had made him feel vulnerable, but being nude really didn’t seem to bother him.

Either he was better at hiding his nerves than anyone McCormack had ever met, or there was a certain kind of confidence in him. If it was the latter, then that was good, as far as McCormack was concerned.

And Theo was turned on and not trying to hide that fact by covering his erection with his hands. Also good.

“Jewellery, too.”

That did cause a slight hesitation, but Theo didn’t actually baulk. He took off all those bracelets that would get in the way if bondage were to go around his wrists, his necklace, everything.

Finally he stood completely naked next to the basket.

McCormack silently put the basket back in the storage compartment and slid the panel back into place. Theo didn’t complain about his clothes disappearing.

“Since you don’t know your limits, we’re going to work them out as we go along.” As he spoke, McCormack started to walk around Theo.

“Yes, sir.” He tensed, but he didn’t try to turn to keep McCormack in his line of sight.

Theo had a lean, gym bunny build—the kind of build McCormack guessed that guys on the internet would be very impressed by, the kind that would probably photograph well. His chest was either shaved or waxed, his pubic hair neatly trimmed.

“If we stumble on something you don’t like or that you don’t want, you’re going to say your safe word.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The house safe word in most clubs, including this one, is red. That will be your safe word during this scene.”

“Yes, sir.” He was really into the honorific, enunciating it with the over-the-top enthusiasm of a complete amateur. McCormack found he didn’t have the heart to tell the boy he could take or leave the honorific himself.

“Repeat it back to me. Tell me your safe word.”

“Ye—. Um…I don’t want to stop. I want this, sir.”

“Obey the order anyway.” McCormack’s route around Theo brought them back face to face.

Theo met his gaze and held it. “My safe word is red, sir.”

“Good boy.”

And there it was. McCormack saw it instantly—that little spark that responded to praise. That bit of sub psychology that made a man want to please a more dominant person. It was far more attractive than all Theo’s carefully honed muscles.

“Stand here.” McCormack walked deeper into the room and tapped the floor with the toe of his boot.

“Yes, sir.”

Theo quickly moved into position. His hands fluttered for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure what to do with them, but he killed the fidgeting far more quickly than McCormack would have expected. There was obviously nothing wrong with the boy’s self-control on the surface. But, now it was time to see what was beneath that veneer.

McCormack walked back to the wall full of panels. Pushing one aside, he found the controls he was looking for. Twisting one of the taps through several revolutions, he set the first part of the scene in motion.

The scream Theo let out was really rather pretty.

*

Ice cold water attacked Theo from several different directions at the same time. To hell with trying not to fidget under McCormack’s gaze. Theo put his hands out, desperately trying to stop the jets hitting either his face or his cock, but there was no avoiding them.

His erection died a very quick, very cold death. The air rushed out of his lungs. He tried to draw in another breath, only to take in a mouthful of frigid water. Stumbling away from the worst of the deluge, he managed to turn his face away from the spray.

He blinked his eyes open just in time to see McCormack step forward. He grabbed Theo’s shoulders, spun him around, and pushed him straight back under the spray.

Only just staying on his feet, Theo swung back around to face him.

“Stay.”

There was something in McCormack’s tone of voice that made it unthinkable to disobey him. Theo shuffled his feet on the wet tile floor. Ducking his head to avoid a particularly fierce jet of water, he wrapped his right arm around his torso and covered his crotch with his left hand. It did very little to stop the chill seeping straight into his bones.

Rivulets of water ran down into his eyes. Theo blinked them away in an effort to focus on McCormack. The guy stood with his arms folded across his chest, watching him stand underneath the freezing torrent without a trace of emotion in his expression.

Somehow, Theo was sure it would have been easier to take the unexpected punishment, if it looked like McCormack was enjoying watching him suffer, but McCormack’s expression remained blank. It was also hellishly difficult to tell if he was turned on though his leather trousers.

Concerned that he would be caught staring, Theo tore his attention away from McCormack’s fly. It wasn’t easy for Theo to make out the designs on the tattoos that covered McCormack’s arms through the water cascading down around him. They blurred into the kind of rainbow Theo was more used to seeing in his own hair.

A shudder ran through Theo as the frigid water swirled around his feet. He closed his eyes, forcing himself not to move, even while every cell in his body begged him to get out from under the spray.

Eventually, McCormack walked back to the controls. The showerheads, finally, blessedly, cut out. The sound of pounding water was instantly replaced by that of Theo’s chattering teeth.

His whole body shook. He tried to tense his muscles and stop the shivers racking his limbs, but he was helpless in the face of pure survival instinct. All he could do was try to keep his suffering silent while he watched McCormack open another section of wall on the far side of the room and take something from within it.

Theo frowned, wondering if delusions were a symptom of hypothermia, or if he was just going into shock. What the hell would a dom want with a bucket? Theo wasn’t even sure he wanted to know.

Still, he couldn’t tear his gaze from McCormack as he watched him take something else from the cupboard and dropped it into the metal pail. The bucket swung from McCormack’s hand as he walked across to a tap by the shower controls—if it was a figment of Theo’s imagination it was a very persistent one.

As the water quickly filled the container, an especially violent shiver racked Theo’s body. He took an involuntary step backwards, dreading the moment when yet more icy water seemed destined to be thrown in his direction.

McCormack turned away from the tap. Making his way across the room, he walked past Theo without a word.

Setting the bucket down on the tiles in the far corner, he looked over his shoulder at Theo.

Theo slowly lifted the arm he’d wrapped around his ribs and pushed his wet hair out of his eyes. God, his hair had to look appalling. He tried to take a deep breath to calm himself at that realisation, but he was far too cold. He clenched his teeth, but they still rattled.

As Theo continued to shiver and stare, McCormack lowered himself onto one knee next to his bucket. There was some sort of cloth floating in the water. McCormack picked it up and wrung most of the water from it.

“Come here.”

Theo watched a droplet of water fall from the cloth back into the bucket.

“I don’t enjoy repeating myself,” McCormack warned.

Very slowly, Theo tore his gaze from the bucket and turned it toward McCormack. He obviously wasn’t a man who made a habit of waiting around for submissives to unfreeze their brain cells before they obeyed him.

Good boy. Theo wanted to hear McCormack say that again, so badly.

That was the motivation he needed. Theo took a shaky step forward, then another, and another, until he stood next to McCormack—stood over McCormack.

No. That wasn’t right. Still quivering like a tree branch in a gale, he lowered himself to his knees next to McCormack. The tiles were hard and wet beneath him. Worse than that, they were just as cold as the water from the shower had been. Theo stared at his knees, then at McCormack’s knee.

McCormack’s leathers protected him from both the dampness and the cold. There was nothing showy or impractical about them. They looked like the kind of clothes that were intended to be worn and used. There’d been nothing like them on any of the websites Theo had sneakily visited, or any of the porn he’d glimpsed.

Theo saw a movement out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t turn his head to work out what it was. He was already far too deeply in shock to be able to react to any new surprises.

He remained perfectly still as he realised McCormack’s hand was moving closer and closer to his bare shoulder. Something brushed against his skin and Theo gasped. Lifting his gaze, he looked straight into McCormack’s eyes.

The water that had been soaked up by the cloth was gloriously hot. As their eyes remained locked, McCormack squeezed the fabric, letting a little more of the warm water dribble down Theo’s skin.

Lines of heat and comfort rolled down Theo’s arm, then his chest. He’d never felt anything so magnificent in his life. He’d never been more grateful for anything, either. He tried to look away from McCormack, toward the bucket, or even at the cloth, but it was impossible.

His light grey eyes were mesmerizing. McCormack’s hands kept moving, but his eyes never strayed from Theo’s. Gradually, Theo’s shivers started to ease.

“That’s right,” McCormack murmured. Dropping the cloth, he dipped his hand into the hot water before pushing Theo’s hair back from his face. “That’s better now, isn’t it?”

“Y-yes, sir.”

He couldn’t help but lean into McCormack’s hand. His skin was rough—a working man’s hand—but, even though his touch wasn’t exactly tender, there was a strange sort of gentleness to it. It was addictive.

Theo’s eyes fell closed as McCormack dipped his hand back into the bucket before stroking through the hair on the other side of Theo’s scalp.

“Good boy.” McCormack spoke quietly now, but that didn’t weaken his voice in the slightest. Theo still found it impossible to imagine anyone not wanting to obey him.

When Theo slowly opened his eyes, McCormack’s gaze was still on his face. Theo was almost ready to swear the man hadn’t blinked once since they met.

McCormack went back to the bucket. This time, he dipped both hands into the water. Cupping his hands into a rough bowl shape, he carried the water across to Theo and tipped it down his chest. Theo whimpered as the warmth ran in rivulets down his body, crossing over his nipples and winding its way toward his cock.

The hot water caressed Theo’s dick, warming the softened flesh as it ran down to the tip. A very different kind of shudder raced up Theo’s spine as his cock stirred and perked up in sudden interest.

The heat from the water had soaked into McCormack’s hands. They felt glorious when he brought them to rest on Theo’s shoulders. It was impossible to imagine a time when he hadn’t realised just how much he wanted a more dominant man’s hands to move over his body or how wonderful it would feel to have a dom’s hand take the chill from his skin.

While Theo remained completely still, McCormack’s palms stroked down the outside of his arms and over the backs of his hands, until their fingers were entwined together.

McCormack tugged at Theo’s hands.

Theo frowned, unable to make his brain work, but he eventually got the hint. McCormack wanted him to lean forward. As soon as he realised that an order was being issued, Theo obeyed.

McCormack slowly guided him to place his hands on the floor in front of him, his palms flat against the cold tiles. Before Theo realised what was happening, he was settled on his hands and knees with McCormack crouched down next to him.

McCormack ran his warm hands slowly over Theo’s back. As more and more heat was transferred into his body, Theo did his best not to tense up and let his nervousness show. Every caress from McCormack’s hands was a godsend, but it also raced straight to his cock. His shaft began to rise and stiffen, and there was no way in hell he could hide it. Any bravado he’d managed to scrape up the first time he’d undressed in front of McCormack had been washed away. Theo wasn’t in control anymore.

More heat warmed Theo’s skin at the realisation—this time it rushed to his cheeks. He closed his eyes, but he couldn’t stop his blush turning deeper by the moment, and he had no idea how to hide his growing erection without displeasing McCormack.

Pleasing McCormack—that was important.

Theo swallowed rapidly. All logic told him that no one he’d just met could possibly be that significant to him. But logic could go screw itself. Theo was using a completely different section of his brain—one that was far older and more feral than any part that gave a damn about logic.

He arched helplessly under McCormack’s hands, pressing up into his touch.

“That’s good,” McCormack murmured.

Theo whimpered in instinctive response, not really registering anything other than McCormack’s tone of voice.

“This is what submission is really about.”

Theo lifted his head. He was about to peer over his shoulder when McCormack’s hand came to rest in his hair and nudged his head down, encouraging him to keep staring at the tiles between his hands.

Finding himself happy to be freed from any responsibility to look up, Theo closed his eyes and cautiously relaxed a little further into his newfound state of mind.

“It’s not about extravagant clothes and expensive toys,” McCormack went on. ”No matter what the websites try to sell you.”

His voice was deep and serious, with just the hint of an accent that Theo couldn’t quite place. His words slipped past any defences Theo might have possessed, way back in a time before McCormack had taken over his mind.

“Submission isn’t about dressing up. It’s about being stripped down to your bare bones—that’s when real submission starts to come to life.”

Theo nodded, although even he wasn’t sure if he was nodding to McCormack’s words, his tone, his touch, or everything in general.

“When you’ve got nothing, and you have to rely on another man—even for something as basic as warmth or a comforting touch. That’s real submission. You should never be afraid of the man you’re submitting to, Theo, you should never want to hide from him. If you don’t crave his attention, he’s doing something very wrong.”

One of McCormack’s hands stroked down the back of Theo’s leg before curving around to slide up the inside of his thigh.

Theo’s breath caught in his throat. Every muscle in his body knotted as McCormack’s warm hand cupped his balls and rolled them between his fingers.

“Do you trust me?” McCormack asked.

His eyes still closed, Theo frowned down at the floor. A moment passed. He nodded.

“No,” McCormack corrected, quite mildly. “If I ask you a question, I want you to answer me properly.” His hand tightened around Theo’s balls, just enough to make his point. “Speak up.”

“Yes, sir,” Theo said. The last time his voice had been that high, he’d still been in school. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Yes, sir.” At least he sounded like a grown man that time.

McCormack chuckled. “That’s good. But it isn’t easy to trust someone you barely know, is it?”

Theo hesitated. In that moment, it was hard for him to bring to mind a time when he hadn’t known McCormack, when he hadn’t been completely focused on obeying his orders. “No, sir,” he mumbled anyway, because that was obviously what he was supposed to say.

Unexpected pain shot through Theo’s right buttock. He sprang forward with a yelp, only to find himself stopped short by McCormack’s unrelenting hold on his testicles. The air rushed out of his lungs, accompanied by a confused, weak little noise.

Theo tried to twist around and look over his shoulder without moving his hips, desperate to work out what was going on but afraid to tug against McCormack’s grip on him again.

“Lies aren’t acceptable—ever.”

Their eyes met. Theo had thought McCormack looked serious and generally pissed off with the world earlier. He’d been wrong. This was McCormack displeased. Theo quickly dropped his gaze. His elbows bent, dipping his chest toward the cold tiles as Theo’s body took over from his brain and instinctively tried to make him appear smaller and more submissive.

McCormack lifted his free hand. Before Theo pulled together enough brain cells to even think about flinching, McCormack’s fingers made contact.

He gently pushed Theo’s hair back from his face, as if wanting to get a better look at him. “You’re still just learning,” McCormack said. “Making mistakes is natural. I won’t be angry. I won’t be disappointed with you. But I expect you to learn from them and to learn quickly.”

Theo nodded, rubbing his cheek against McCormack’s hand when it came to rest there and glancing up at him through his lashes.

McCormack half-smiled down at him, his expression becoming strangely tender, in spite of the glittering silver piercings that decorated so many parts of his face.

Theo offered a tentative smile back. McCormack was right. Craving his touch and his attention felt so right.

“Try again,” McCormack ordered. “Is submitting to a stranger easy?”

Theo looked down. McCormack’s hand was still cradling his balls. It felt wonderful now, but Theo had no doubt it would quickly morph into something very different if he gave the wrong answer.

“You don’t feel like a stranger, sir.” Theo remained perfectly still as he waited for McCormack’s response.

“Good boy,” McCormack’s hand stroked down his back. “Doesn’t it feel better when you tell the truth?”

Theo nodded. “Yes, sir.” His whole body was warmed by pleasing McCormack.

When McCormack pulled away and stood up, it took all Theo had in him not to reach out and try to pull him back.

“On your feet.”

Theo jumped up at the command, but when he tried to follow McCormack across the room, a shake of McCormack’s head stopped him short half-way. “Back where you were put.”

Theo looked over his shoulder, to the patch of floor where he’d been standing a lifetime ago when the cold water first hit him. A shiver ran through him at the memory, but he found himself obeying the command regardless.

If McCormack’s main kink was giving his sub frostbite, Theo was willing to go along with it, just for the pleasure of being warmed up by him afterwards.

But McCormack didn’t touch the shower controls. He just took something from one of the other compartments behind a different panel and came back to Theo’s side.

Leather cuffs.

Theo’s mouth literally watered at the sight of them. Not only were they something he regularly fantasised about, they were also a recognisable landmark in an unfamiliar landscape. He at least had an idea how they were used.

McCormack was going to tie him up. That meant that, if the first part of the scene had been a test, McCormack must have thought that Theo had passed it.

“Give me your wrist.”

“Yes, sir.”

Theo watched McCormack fasten the leather around his skin, barely even daring to take a deep breath in case he somehow managed to put McCormack off in the process.

“Turn around.”

“Yes, sir.” The words felt both natural and completely addictive now. It was easy to believe they were the only words he’d ever need to say for the rest of his life.

McCormack fastened the second cuff around Theo’s other wrist, trapping his hands behind his back.

Instinct made him want to test the restraints, to move his arms and find out just how limited his range of movement had become, but he forced himself to stay still. Training himself not to fidget when he was making a video had benefits that he hadn’t even considered at the time.

“Good boy.” McCormack smiled and ruffled Theo’s hair.

Theo glanced up at him through his lashes, enjoying the way it felt when McCormack idly petted him. It was like a hundred thousand likes hitting a post all at the same time.

Another tremor ran down Theo’s spine. This time, it had nothing to do with temperature. The room was more than warm enough. His skin had already dripped dry. His hair was almost dry too. The thick rainbow strands would soon be sticking up at all sorts of weird angles.

Anti-fidgeting training be damned. Theo had to clench his hands into tight fists as he realised just how difficult it would be for him to lift a hand and straighten out his hair. He couldn’t do it, but not just because of the bondage. It went deeper than that. It felt like it wasn’t his place to do that now. He wasn’t the one who decided how he looked anymore.

Lifting his gaze, Theo glanced up at McCormack again. Well, at least one of them didn’t need to worry about his hair being messy…

Chapter Three

McCormack ran his eyes slowly over Theo’s body. Stripped down to both his bare skin and his bare instincts, he was a far more attractive prospect than he had appeared out in the public section of the club.

Finally, his gaze reached Theo’s face. The boy quickly lowered his eyes, but not before McCormack caught sight of his expression. “What are you smiling about, hey?”

He slid a hand under Theo’s chin. Tilting the boy’s head back, McCormack turned it to one side, then the other—much as he would a puppy he was teasing. A blush stained Theo’s cheeks, and McCormack knew he’d caught Theo thinking something he didn’t think was proper for a submissive.

“Come on, out with it,” he ordered.

To be fair to the boy, he didn’t try to feign ignorance. “I…You really don’t have to worry about your hair getting messed up, sir,” he whispered.

Theo obviously expected an angry response. McCormack just chuckled and ruffled the boy’s hair again. “You wouldn’t have to worry about it either, if I was collaring you.”

Theo’s eyes opened very wide.

“Oh, so you’re a vain one, are you?” McCormack asked. It was only to be expected, given what Tomlinson had said about the boy’s fascination with social media. He’d done very well so far not to fuss about his appearance.

McCormack twirled a bright blue lock between his thumb and forefinger. Theo’s hair looked strangely pretty in all those different colours, but pretty was very much Marcus’s, and, when he was looking for a sub, Dan’s, thing. It wasn’t something McCormack had ever gone looking for himself.

A shaved head would be far more to his taste. Hell, Theo would probably even be able to carry it off and make it look like a damn fashion statement.

Theo swallowed as if McCormack had actually threatened to cut off something that wouldn’t grow back in a few months. “I…”

It was the most nervous McCormack had ever seen him look and he took pity on him.

“You’re only just learning what submission is all about. It will take time for you to know where you want to take it and how deep you want to go with it. Handing over control of your body and how you look could be completely beyond your limits, or it could be considered just the start of your journey.”

Theo leaned into his hand when McCormack patted his shoulder. Apparently, without even realising what he was doing, the boy shuffled forward and closed the gap between them until they were almost touching.

McCormack reached around Theo and ran his hand down his back. The boy’s skin was warm now, but he still leaned into every touch, and he was wonderfully tactile. McCormack had no doubt he’d be able to spend many happy evenings running his hands over the boy’s body, teasing him until he begged for an orgasm.

“I’m not vain, sir.” He met McCormack’s eye when he said it. He obviously believed he was telling the truth and that it was important to him that McCormack believed what he was saying too.

McCormack smiled. “If you say so.”

“It’s just that looking a certain way is part of my…my work, sir.”

“What word were you going to use before you changed it to your work?”

Theo tensed. “My brand, sir. The work I do, you have to build a brand, and you have to stick to it.”

“So what do you think would happen if you had your head shaved?”

Theo spent several seconds in deep thought.

“If you need to think before you answer, that’s fine. But think out loud,” McCormack ordered.

Theo swallowed. “There’d probably be an uptick in comments at first, while people argued about if it was a good idea or not, if the new haircut makes them more or less inclined to want to have sex with me. It would probably take thirty seconds for someone to start a poll about it.”

McCormack raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t interrupt. He walked around Theo, running his hands over his skin as he went.

“Then there’d be the debate about if I’d shaved my head because I was ill—the chemo idea would mean a lot of people would say cancer. The trolls would say HIV, because they always do. Or if it was a bet—that would lead to a big debate on who it was with and what it involved, and lots of pictures and gifs of people’s best guesses. Or if it was some sort of political statement—at least a couple of hundred people would have me as a committed neo-Nazi before the video finished playing. All three theories would probably get a fair amount of air time. Once someone latches onto something like that, they really go for it, searching through old posts to find proof they’re right.”

Now that he was in the flow of his thoughts, Theo was far more relaxed. He didn’t seem particularly worried about any of the things he was saying. It obviously didn’t seem as crazy to him as it did to McCormack.

“Some people would stop following me because they didn’t want to screw me anymore, because of the illness thing or the neo-Nazi thing.”

Theo took a deep breath and the silence stretched out, but McCormack stayed silent, waiting to see what else Theo would say if he was given room.

“I could probably mitigate a lot of the fallout if I had time to lay the groundwork first,” Theo announced. “Hints to begin with, saying I really admired people who did it, that it was something on my bucket list, that I wish I had the confidence to do it. Then pics of people who pull it off really well. Vids of people who did it to raise money for charity. Give people a reason to latch on to and they won’t worry so much about finding reasons of their own. If I pitch it to them just right, I doubt I’d lose more than a handful of advertisers, and I could probably pick the hair ones back up later on if I was allowed to grow it back…”

McCormack made his way back around so he was facing Theo. Their eyes met.

“It would be easier if I knew it was going to happen in advance so I could plan it out properly. But I could do it, sir, even without notice.” He glanced down for a moment, before making an obvious effort to meet McCormack’s eyes again. “It’s not a limit. I wouldn’t say my safe word for it, sir.”

McCormack couldn’t help but think back to the first thing that Theo had told him he was afraid of—that disappointing his dom was the worst thing he could imagine happening.

McCormack ran his fingers through Theo’s hair. Theo didn’t even tense up. He really seemed to believe that McCormack was going to shave his head right then, without the slightest consideration for what it would mean for him in his life outside the club, and that that would be okay.

As McCormack held Theo’s gaze, he studied him carefully, trying to work out what existed beneath the words Theo said out loud. There was a little bravado in him. There was a lot of determination, and fear of disappointing his dom in there too. But there was also a spark of something else.

McCormack would put money on something about the idea appealing to Theo. Whether it was about handing over that level of control or simple masochism, something about having his head shaved definitely pressed some interesting buttons for Theo.

“You’re out on your social media thing.” It was a statement not a question.

Theo nodded, but his expression turned slightly suspicious.

“No, I haven’t seen you on there, but you have rainbow coloured hair and you said people make cheap cracks about HIV. It’s not a huge leap.”

“Yes, sir.”

McCormack casually ran his knuckles up and down the centre of Theo’s chest as he spoke. “So being gay is part of your brand, part of what you talk about?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What else do you talk about?”

“Lifestyle,” Theo said.

“Meaning?” McCormack smiled slightly. Obviously Theo didn’t mean what McCormack would have meant by the word. He wasn’t thinking about the 24/7 leather lifestyle.

“Fashion, music, pop culture, tech. A little bit of gossip type stuff too—but never the nasty kind. Once I’ve finished my master’s degree, I’d like to move more towards other things. Use my platform to do some more serious stuff, more activism. It’s just…”

“Lifestyle just pays better?” McCormack finished for him.

Theo squared his shoulders, as if he had to work at not being ashamed of that. “Yes, it does. But I won’t be the right demographic for lifestyle for that much longer. If I make enough money out of it now, then once I age out, I can study for my PhD full time without having to worry about money.” His tone made it obvious that he still felt conflicted about wanting money, as if that was an oddity, but he’d mentioned studying for a PhD as if it was something a guy did every day.

“Age out?” McCormack asked.

“I’m twenty-four and a half, sir. My contract with my agent ends when I turn twenty-five. He doesn’t represent anyone older than that.”

McCormack raised an eyebrow at him.

“He says a gay man on social media is like a Christmas cake, sir. No one wants one after the twenty-fifth.”

“Sounds like he’s a complete arsehole.”

Theo blinked at McCormack as if that interpretation of the facts had never occurred to him. He smiled slightly. “If I did sign with another agent after my contract with him ends, I’d pick better next time, sir.”

McCormack ran his fingertips up and down the outside of Theo’s arms. He was tensing up again. Time to pull back to a lighter topic. “Does talking about ‘Lifestyle’ include talking about sex?”

“No, sir.” Theo shook his head, very firmly. “I taught myself not to fidget when I get nervous, but I can’t stop myself blushing no matter how hard I try. And makeup doesn’t help as much as you’d think it would.” Even saying that much brought a touch of colour to his cheeks. “I do talk about dating a little bit, if the guy I’ve gone on a date with doesn’t mind. Posts like that are really popular. But I always ask him first, and I never say anything bitchy.”

McCormack smiled. Theo had a wonderful ability to sound innocent, even standing nude and handcuffed in the middle of a kinky club. “Do the guys you date usually mind?”

“No, sir. That’s usually ninety percent of the reason why they want to go out with me in the first place.” And he said it so casually, as if he didn’t see anything the least bit wrong about that.

“Do you talk about leather?”

“No, sir. I don’t know enough about it, and…”

“And it’s not part of your brand?” McCormack finished for him.

“And it wasn’t part of anything outside my own head until I turned up here, sir,” Theo corrected. “I’ve been really careful not to let anyone know I even thought about it until tonight.”

McCormack smiled at the honesty. The boy really was that new to it. “What do you wear on this social media thing?”

Theo hesitated, looking sceptical now.

McCormack chuckled. “I’m not asking for fashion advice. I’m asking how much of your skin is covered.”

Theo continued to look completely blank.

“The cuffs are well padded,” McCormack hinted. “They shouldn’t leave a mark.”

Theo licked his lips. He swallowed several times before he answered. “I can work with whatever marks you want to leave, sir.”

“Perhaps you could.” Or perhaps you have no idea the range or locations of marks available to a dom with a good imagination. McCormack kept that to himself, and tried not to think about what would have happened if Theo had fallen into the lap of a sadist without a conscience. He’d never suspected he could be this grateful to Tomlinson for asking him for a favour. “But that wasn’t the question I asked.”

Theo hesitated.

“Is it the kind of show where you have your arse on display?” McCormack ran his hands down over Theo’s buttocks as he asked. Just like every touch he received, Theo leaned into it. “A lot of subs enjoy mixing pain into their submission. Is that the kind of submission you want me to show you about tonight?”

Theo nodded, but he had to clear his throat before he could give a verbal answer. “Yes, sir.” He still sounded as enthralled with the honorific as ever.

Sliding his hands back up Theo’s buttocks, McCormack undid the catch between the cuffs.

Theo’s expression morphed into one of complete betrayal.

“If you’re not into that, sir—”

McCormack’s shocked burst of laughter cut him off.

Theo nibbled on his bottom lip, but he didn’t seem offended. “So, you are really into that side of things, aren’t you, sir?”

“Yes.” McCormack didn’t try to make any excuses for that.

Theo moved his hands back in front of his body, with obvious reluctance. It didn’t seem to be anything to do with his arms being sore after his first tiny foray into restraint. For some reason, he still seemed to think that unfastening the cuffs meant McCormack was finished with him for the night, that it meant he’d done something to make McCormack uninterested in continuing the scene.

“Turn around. Put your hands against the wall.”

Theo had been looking down at the cuffs, but he jerked his head up at that. His expression morphed into a smile—not the kind of smile McCormack suspected Theo gave on social media. This was a real grin full of honesty and relief, and it made his eyes crinkle at the sides.

“Yes, sir!” And that was it, he didn’t move at all.

“The appropriate response to an order, especially one you seem to like so much, is to follow it,” McCormack pointed out.

Theo’s eyebrows shot up. “Yes, sir!” He turned toward the wall and put his hands on the tiles.

Stepping up behind him, McCormack tugged each hand a little higher and clipped the restraints onto the metalwork set into the wall just above head height. Tapping his boot gently against the insides of Theo’s ankles, he encouraged him to spread his legs more than shoulder width apart.

McCormack stepped back several paces to admire the picture he’d created. As soon as he took the first step, Theo looked over his shoulder, trying to track his movements.

“Face forwards.”

“Yes, sir.” This time, he remembered to obey as well as reply.

McCormack nodded to himself. Perfect. He stayed where he was for two full minutes, wondering how long it would take Theo to give in to the temptation to fidget or look over his shoulder again.

What had Theo said earlier, that he’d trained himself not to fidget on camera while he was doing his social media thing? He’d obviously done a good job. His self-control was fantastic.

McCormack smiled as he remembered what else Theo had said around the same time. Blushing was something he had never found a way to control.

McCormack selected a flogger and another toy from a selection behind one of the lockable sliding panels that housed new implements that club regulars could purchase from the club. A quick signature on the log, and he re-locked the panel.

It was time to make Theo blush.

*

The floor tiles were cold under Theo’s feet. He pressed his toes slightly more firmly against them, but was careful not to shuffle his feet or tense any of the other muscles in his body.

He took a slow breath, then let it out.

The tiled wall in front of him was stark white and very clean. He wondered if the subs who attended the club were roped into doing all the work it would take to keep everything so pristine. He’d seen mention of something online where—

No. Theo shut down that line of thought, hard and fast.

Stay in the moment. That was always the trick to staying calm. Focus on the here and now. Don’t ever think about what people would say about the vid—not when you’re actually shooting it. Don’t think about what McCormack might choose to do next. Don’t think about all the things he’d seen in porn in the past. Don’t think about what his agent would say if he found out that Theo was at a leather club. Focus.

Theo took another slow breath in and out.

He could hear the muffled sounds of the rest of the club but only slightly. There was almost certainly some kind of soundproofing going on behind the tiles. No one would hear him scream.

Theo swallowed, not sure if that was good or bad. Good, he suspected. Privacy was nice. The last thing he needed was to go online later and find someone talking about seeing him at the club, hearing him when he—

Damn it. Stay in the moment!

It was harder to stay in the present in front of McCormack than it was in front of a million followers. Marks and pain—that could mean so many things, almost all of which Theo suspected to be way out of his comfort zone. Faking confidence online was one thing. But faking it in front of McCormack was going be a completely different challenge, with far higher stakes.

Finally, a sound. Theo strained his hearing. McCormack’s boots on the tiled floor, although it didn’t sound like they were coming closer. The sound of something sliding on ball bearings. He was getting something out from behind one of the partitions. Whatever it was made no sound, which was no help to Theo whatsoever.

The sound of the partition being closed was followed by more footsteps. This time they were definitely coming closer.

Theo shut his eyes and forced himself to keep facing the wall rather than trying to sneak a peek.

“Good boy.”

Damn, but Theo loved those words. They went straight to every important part of his body. His brain. His cock. God help him, but they even went to his heart. He felt heat rush to his cheeks at the realisation and prayed that McCormack would assume that it was because he was thinking about sex.

“Tell me what you’re thinking.” The words came from right behind Theo. He startled slightly, having completely missed the fact McCormack had come that close.

Theo licked his lips.

“Lying would be a very bad idea.”

Theo opened his eyes. His head was bowed. His gaze fell on not just his own legs but on McCormack’s too. And he saw what McCormack held in his hand at his side.

A flogger.

“Will you use that on me if I lie, sir?” he asked.

“No. Lying will ensure you don’t get a single touch from any toy, or from me, for the rest of the night.”

Theo was so shocked, he forgot the order to face front. He looked over his shoulder. McCormack was almost nose to nose with him, and he obviously wasn’t inclined to back off in the slightest.

“You’ll have to tell me the truth if you want the flogger, or anything else.”

“I was thinking that I really like it when you say I’m a good boy, sir.” Theo didn’t need a mirror to know if his cheeks flamed red at the admission, but he didn’t look down, didn’t turn away.

“Good answer.” McCormack leaned closer. For a moment, Theo thought that McCormack was going to kiss him. But he put his lips alongside Theo’s ear instead, as if he was sharing a wonderful secret with him. “And because it was a good answer, in a few minutes, your arse is going to be blushing just as red as these cheeks.” He ran a thumb over Theo’s cheekbone before he pulled back.

“Thank you, sir.” It was a silly thing to say, especially since McCormack hadn’t actually done anything yet, but when Theo met McCormack’s eye, the guy just nodded as if it was a perfectly reasonable response.

“There’s only one more thing you need to do before your arse can start blushing for me,” McCormack said.

“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t you want to know what that is, before you agree to it?”

Theo hesitated. He wasn’t sure if it was a trick question or not. He stayed silent, hoping that McCormack would get bored and move on, but it gradually became apparent that McCormack would wait for however long it took to get an answer.

For a few seconds, Theo considered trying to work out what answer McCormack would like him to give, but what had McCormack told him before—he wanted honest answers?

Both possibilities appealed. No warning sounded hot. Placing that kind of trust in someone else, giving up that kind of control, tempted Theo in a way he hadn’t really anticipated it would. But, being forewarned would give him the best opportunity to react well and please McCormack, and that appealed in an even deeper way.

“I would like to know, sir. But not if you don’t want to tell me,” he finally hazarded.

“Have you ever worn a butt plug before?”

“Yes, sir.” Theo blushed at telling the truth, but McCormack wouldn’t like it if he lied.

Theo stared at the wall, wishing he knew if McCormack was glad he wasn’t completely inexperienced with everything, or if he was disappointed that he wouldn’t be introducing him to something new.

“Did you like it?”

Theo nodded. A few seconds later, he remembered to answer properly. “Yes, sir.”

McCormack ran his hand down Theo’s back and over his buttocks. Theo couldn’t help but sway into his touch. When McCormack’s fingers finally slid between his legs and brushed against his hole, it was all Theo could do not to whimper.

The caress was little more than a tease. McCormack’s fingers soon disappeared. There was a sound then that Theo couldn’t place. A second later, something dropped to the floor. Keeping his head still, Theo could just manage a glimpse of it—the packaging off a new butt plug.

Theo took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. He was sure that something that was at least slightly familiar shouldn’t be making him so nervous, but it took more control than ever for him not to fidget.

Years seemed to pass before he finally felt McCormack press the slicked tip of the plug against his hole.

In the past, Theo had only ever put the plug in place himself. He hadn’t expected it to feel much different, but it was. It was the same as the difference between masturbation and sex.

Theo bit his bottom lip to silence a moan as McCormack worked the plug deeper inside him. The temptation to rock his hips and push back against the toy was almost overpowering, but Theo forced himself to remain still and hand over all movement to McCormack.

It seemed to take a lifetime before the larger section of the plug finally stretched him wide, and then slid inside him. It settled into place, filling him completely and pressing against his prostate in a way that Theo knew would have him constantly on edge.

“Good boy.”

God, but Theo really was in love with that phrase—especially when McCormack whispered it in his ear that way.

McCormack stepped back. Theo had to bite his lip again, this time to hold back a protest. But McCormack didn’t go far. He only went a couple of feet to Theo’s right.

Theo heard a swishing sound as the air moved behind him. Of course—the flogger. He’d been so distracted by the plug, Theo hadn’t had space inside his head to worry about the impending flogging.

Another movement in the air behind him but again nothing touched Theo’s skin. Theo frowned, suddenly afraid that McCormack was just teasing him and had no intention of actually flogging him.

Or, perhaps it wasn’t that bad. Maybe there was just something he needed to say to get the flogger to make contact with his skin? Theo was more than willing to beg, if that would help, but he wasn’t sure that it would do any good.

The moment seemed very fragile, as if saying the wrong thing could put McCormack off him for life. He hadn’t had time to rehearse this moment in advance. He couldn’t re-record it if it turned out he made a fool of himself on the first shoot. He was completely exposed, in a way that went far beyond mere nudity.

Suddenly, all the thoughts in Theo’s mind fled as the flogger landed against his arse for the first time.

He’d been waiting for it, tensed for it, ready to beg for it. But it still managed to shock the hell out of him. Not pain. There was nothing sharp about it. It felt nothing like he’d expected. And he wanted more.

A memory from a snippet of porn rushed to the front of his mind. “One, thank you, sir.”

McCormack chuckled. “You don’t need to count, or to thank me for each stroke.”

“Sorry, I—”

“You don’t need to apologise, either.”

Theo opened his mouth and closed it again.

“You’re not on camera, Theo. There’s no script you have to follow here. The only thing you need to do is say your safe word if you want me to stop.”

Theo shook his head very rapidly. Stopping was the last thing he wanted.

“Then just go with it. Relax. Let it happen. Trust me. Accept the fact that I’m in control, and there’s nothing you can do to change that bar your safe word.”

Theo swallowed. “Yes, sir.” He could do that. Hell, he had the suspicion that doing that would actually be the easiest thing in the world.

Theo took a deep breath and stopped looking over his shoulder at McCormack, as if he thought the man needed someone to keep an eye on him. Facing the wall, he let his eyes drop closed.

The flogger landed against his arse again, no harder than it had before. Theo had to bite his tongue to stop himself trying to count and thank McCormack again. Not saying anything made the silence seem very loud. The way he’d clenched his muscles at the sensation of the flogger also made him acutely aware of the plug lodged inside him.

Again. The flogger painted a stripe of sensations across his buttocks. Not pain. Heat maybe? Another kiss from the flogger, then another. Whatever the sensation should be called, it was building up. Theo rocked forward onto the balls of his feet and back. The way the plug danced inside him every time he reacted to a strike from the flogger really wasn’t making it easy to think clearly.

At first, he kept count inside his head, just in case McCormack might suddenly decide that he did want him to be doing that. They were in the low teens when he realised that he’d lost track. The breath caught in his throat, but he didn’t have that much room in his head to worry about numbers.

The heat was really building now. Pain might not actually be the wrong word after all, but it was a good kind of pain. It was still nothing like he’d imagined—it was far better. He clenched his hands into fists and pushed them against the wall alongside where his cuffs were attached.

His breaths were so uneven now that not having to find the ability to thank McCormack for each touch of the flogger was a mercy. But Theo still found himself scrabbling to find the right words to describe it, words that his followers would understand.

No. He shook his head. There was no way they’d understand if they didn’t try it themselves. It was—

Theo rocked his hips back to a rhythm he hadn’t even realised he was following, expecting the next lash to land in time with the tempo McCormack had established. Nothing.

“Do you want to say your safe word?”

“What the hell? Why would I—? No!”

“You were shaking your head.”

“No, I wasn’t. I…” Theo took a deep breath as his brain caught up with his mouth. He wasn’t sure if the silence sounded loud because the flogging had stopped or because McCormack was pissed off with him for speaking to, no for shouting at, him that way.

Theo cleared his throat. “Thank you, sir, but I don’t need to say my safe word. I never meant to do anything that might indicate that I do.” His voice shook slightly. It would never have passed muster for a post. Damn it, this was why he preferred to prerecord rather than go live.

He heard a footstep and closed his eyes very tightly, not sure if the sound indicated that McCormack was coming closer or moving further away. He prayed that it was the former.

He’d much rather McCormack stay exactly where he was and go back to flogging him, but if he had to move, he wanted McCormack to come closer. Closer was always the better option. He wanted McCormack as close as was physically possible and then closer still.

Theo gasped at the first touch to his arse. He jerked and looked over his shoulder. They were once more almost nose to nose. “I wasn’t asking you to stop, sir. I swear I wasn’t.”

McCormack palmed Theo’s arse, squeezing the roundest part of the muscle. Every touch from the flogger seemed to fall against Theo again in response. Theo gasped. He had to swallow several times to stop himself making a louder noise. But he couldn’t stop himself leaning back into the touch.

“You would have only got a few more anyway. You’re done for now.”

“But what about the few more, sir?” Theo rushed out.

“No. I said you’re done for now.”

Theo rocked on the balls of his feet, not knowing how to protest without failing to be properly submissive.

“Pain isn’t all there is to being a sub, you know? I promised to show you everything it’s really about, didn’t I?”

“Whatever you want, sir,” Theo offered.

“For some subs, sex is a big part of their submission,” McCormack mentioned, oh-so-casually.

“Yes!” Theo mentally winced. He really needed to stop shouting at McCormack. He had a feeling the guy was being patient with him because he knew he was new at this, but at some point he would expect him to actually buy a clue and that point had to be coming soon. “I mean,” Theo said, more calmly. “Yes, sir, whatever you want.”

McCormack ran his hand over Theo’s arse again, manipulating the flogged skin, then sliding his fingers down into the cleft between his buttocks and pressing against the plug.

Theo wasn’t sure if he wanted to bring his legs closer together and trap McCormack’s hand there, or if he should spread his legs further apart to make sure McCormack knew he was offering him complete access. He settled on staying very still, sure that McCormack was quite capable of moving him if he wanted him moved.

“And for some subs, sex isn’t part of it at all,” McCormack added, in that same unconcerned tone.

Which, Theo assumed, had to mean that for some doms it wasn’t part of it, either. Or maybe it was a polite way for McCormack to make it clear he wasn’t interested in showing Theo that part of it. Or—

There were lots of possible slight variations in interpretation, but there was one thing Theo was suddenly, heartbreakingly, sure about. He wasn’t going to get laid.

Chapter Four

Theo shook his head, very rapidly. He pulled off the kicked puppy look very well.

McCormack reached up and undid the clasp fastening Theo’s right cuff to the wall.

He expected Theo to drop his arm to his side and probably make a little bit of a fuss about how sore the muscles were after his first time in that kind of bondage, but the boy held his position. He continued to remain completely still when McCormack undid the clasp holding his left hand in place too.

McCormack had to wonder if waiting for concrete permission to move was something else Theo had picked up from watching porn. If so, then at least it was more to his taste than the counting.

“You have permission to move,” he allowed. “Your arms will be sore, but not for too long. Stretch them out quickly and you’ll be fine.”

“No, thank you, sir. I’m fine where I am. We don’t need to stop the scene.”

So, he hadn’t been waiting for an order. Well, at least there was nothing wrong with his bloody mindedness, or with his determination to get laid.

Except, McCormack was well aware that Theo would gladly say yes to anything right then. Usually, that would have been fine with him, but that was because he generally played with guys who had a few decades worth of experience under their leather belts and knew how to negotiate limits in advance.

Theo was too new. He was going too deep and too fast, losing himself in his submission. He was no more capable of making a rational decision about what he wanted to do next than if he was high on something other than adrenaline and endorphins.

McCormack couldn’t help but think back to Theo’s first attempt to set a limit. He didn’t want his dom to be disappointed in him. He really needed a careful hand.

“You’re going to clear your head before we do anything else in this room,” McCormack said, aiming for calm and patient but still allowing no room for argument. “There are a few different ways you can do that, but if you continue to sulk about not instantly getting your own way, you’ll find that cold water is near the top of my list of effective ways to—”

Theo dropped his arms and turned to face McCormack. He didn’t stretch his shoulders out. He stood perfectly still. If he’d been ordered to do that, his self-restraint would have been impressive. Since he’d been ordered to do the exact opposite, it just meant that he was either bratty or new at this.

Their eyes met and it was easy for McCormack to confirm his initial assessment was correct. There was no brattiness in the boy. He was just that—an inexperienced boy who was trying so hard to please his dom, he was getting it all wrong.

“As I said, there are a few ways we can clear your head—”

“Whichever you prefer, sir,” Theo cut in.

“Theo?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I never said I was ending the scene. I said you needed time to breathe. You can do that while still doing as you’re told. And you can sure as hell learn to do it without interrupting me half way through every sentence. Understand?”

Theo waited a few beats, almost certainly because he wanted to be sure that McCormack was completely finished with whatever he wanted to say.

“Yes, sir.”

“And you can do it while stretching out your shoulders.”

Another pause for a few beats. “Yes, sir.”

He really wasn’t used to getting orders. Maybe not even in a non-kinky setting. Again it took him a moment or two to realise actions needed to accompany the answer. But, finally, he started to stretch out his shoulders.

As McCormack mused on just how rarely a social media guy might or might not have someone ordering him about, he went over to the wall panels and pushed one back.

Jeans. Boots. McCormack extracted them from the rest of Theo’s clothes, pushed that section closed, and dropped the selected garments on a dry patch of floor in front of Theo. “Get dressed.”

“Yes, sir.”

The couple of beats he waited to be sure McCormack was finished before answering him grated slightly on McCormack’s nerves. It wasn’t disobedience or reluctant obedience, but it sounded like it was. But, at least the boy hadn’t waited to physically follow the order. He was quick about getting his jeans on and didn’t complain that they couldn’t be comfortable against either his freshly spanked arse or his straining erection.

“May I ask a question, sir?”

“Go ahead.”

Heading for another section of storage, McCormack used one of his own keys to unlock the section where he stored his personal collection of toys. And there was the item he was looking for, right at the front.

“What about my hat, sir?” Theo asked.

McCormack turned back to Theo. “You don’t need it.”

This time Theo’s response wasn’t so much delayed as completely absent. McCormack guessed that Theo was trying to find a polite way of telling him that as far as he was concerned he really did bloody well need his hat, a lot.

McCormack didn’t make him find the words. Instead, he tossed the leather item he’d taken out of his storage cubicle to him. McCormack slipped another item from the container into his pocket, and locked up before he turned back to face Theo again.

Confused was a good look on the boy. McCormack bit back a chuckle as Theo turned the leather around and around in his hands, clearly not even sure which way up it went. The lacing on the back seemed to fascinate him, but he obviously didn’t have a clue what it was.

McCormack took it from Theo’s unresisting grip and turned it the correct way up.

“Kneel down.”

Theo was on his knees in a flash. He was silent for a second before he risked a verbal answer. “Yes, sir.” He sounded really happy about being on his knees.

McCormack looked down at him.

Theo stared straight ahead, eye level with McCormack’s fly now, and licked his lips.

He seemed to be under the impression that McCormack had changed his mind about if they were going to have sex right then. He must have dated some very indecisive people in the past. Which was obviously a pity, because indecisive people weren’t what a boy like Theo needed.

When McCormack started to walk around Theo, Theo tried to shuffle around to follow him.

“No. Stay where you’re put. I’ll tell you when I want you to move.”

Theo stayed. After a few moments of hesitation, he even stopped looking over his shoulder. He faced forward very neatly, just as McCormack had ordered him to do when he was cuffed to the wall.

“Good boy.”

He twitched at the praise, as if he wanted to look over his shoulder and maybe check that McCormack was serious. But he held back the impulse well.

“Are you claustrophobic?”

“No, sir.”

The pause before the answer wasn’t any longer than the one where he just wanted to make sure McCormack was finished speaking. Either he was very sure that he’d never had a problem with small spaces, or he was answering on automatic, still trying to please.

Time to find out which.

“Close your eyes.”

Theo obeyed and McCormack slid the leather over his head. Moving around in front of Theo, he settled the hood into place so that the gaps for both the eyes and mouth lined up just right.

Theo’s breaths were coming faster now, as if he was struggling to hold onto his calm.

“Good boy.”

McCormack ran his thumb over Theo’s lips, through the gap. The boy frowned. He lifted his hand from his side towards the hood but stopped himself short of actually trying to touch it.

“That’s right. Keep your hand down. I’ll tell you when you’re allowed to touch.” McCormack ran a thumb over each of Theo’s eyes, letting him know that they weren’t covered, either—that the only reason he couldn’t see was because McCormack hadn’t given him permission to.

Theo obediently kept his eyes closed, but he opened his mouth slightly and licked his lips. It was impossible to tell if that was nerves or an attempt to confirm his mouth really was uncovered.

McCormack ran a thumb over his lips again, and Theo’s tongue brushed against his skin.

Theo gasped slightly, sounding as shocked as if he had never tasted another man’s skin.

He wasn’t actually that innocent. McCormack suspected that Theo had plenty of vanilla experience. Whether or not that was with people who knew what they were doing was another thing, of course.

But when it came to leather, he was a completely blank sheet of paper…

No, McCormack mentally corrected himself. Not a blank sheet of paper. A sheet that was already filled, but with questions rather than answers.

McCormack had met plenty of people who turned up at the club like empty vessels. Theo might have given a good impression of being that guy out in the public spaces, but he was far more interesting than that.

Theo cautiously ran his tongue over McCormack’s thumb again, carefully investigating the digit until McCormack took it away. Tension flooded Theo’s muscles then, as if he wasn’t sure if he was in trouble or not.

McCormack made his way behind Theo and set to work on the buckles at the back of his neck. Rather than asking if it was too tight, McCormack ran his fingers underneath the base of the hood and checked it like he would the collar on a puppy.

Theo swallowed several times while McCormack’s fingers were tucked in the front, checking the fit as best he could, in the only way available to him.

Satisfied that it wasn’t going to choke the boy, and that Theo was still calm, McCormack moved on to the laces at the back of Theo’s head.

The hood was brand new, and although the leather was soft, it still needed to be used a few times before it would mould itself properly to a man’s head. McCormack methodically worked his way through the lacing, long practice allowing him to tighten it just as easily as he did the lacing on his boots.

*

It was an odd sensation. Theo remained perfectly still and waited it out. He’d realised when it went over his head that it was some sort of hood, and he remembered seeing them briefly online. But he hadn’t paid much attention to them. They weren’t something he’d ever really thought of wearing.

Theo swallowed and felt the base of the hood move around his throat. Behind his head, McCormack did something that made the front of the hood press more tightly against Theo’s face.

He’d thought that the smell of leather was intense when he’d first stepped into the club, but this was a whole new league.

Instinct ordered Theo to open his eyes, but McCormack’s orders won out, and Theo remained in darkness. Biting down hard on the inside of his cheek, he forced himself not to squirm. The biggest temptation of all was to reach for his fly.

He wasn’t sure what it was that had him right on the edge of coming, but he knew that once he undid his jeans, it would only take him a few strokes.

The scent of the leather, the tightness around his head, the complete lack of control he had over what was happening to him—it all combined to make him thoroughly desperate.

Or, maybe it was just McCormack that had him on edge. McCormack had chosen the hood. McCormack was putting it on him. Yes. Hoods had never appealed in themselves before, but McCormack in general seemed to be able to have him on the verge of coming just by existing.

The tugging at the back of Theo’s head stopped.

“You can open your eyes.”

All Theo could see of the hood was a line of leather right on the edge of his field of vision. Theo held his breath as McCormack came around to face him, hoping that McCormack would be pleased by what he saw.

For a few seconds, McCormack stared down at him, his expression unreadable. Then a slight twitch of the lips. He smiled slightly and nodded once.

Theo remembered how to breathe. He dropped his gaze away from McCormack’s face and found himself staring straight at McCormack’s fly. McCormack was hard too.

Licking his lips, Theo had to tense his hand into a fist to stop himself reaching out to touch.

“Do you want—?” Theo blurted out, before cutting himself short.

McCormack raised an eyebrow. He was obviously waiting for Theo to finish his sentence. Damn. At least the hood would make it impossible for anyone to see him blush.

Knowing that McCormack wouldn’t move an inch until he spoke up, and not wanting to kneel there forever, unless he could do so with his lips wrapped around McCormack’s cock, Theo forced himself to speak.

“Do you want me to suck you off, sir?”

“Later, perhaps. Stand up.”

Theo pulled himself to his feet, trying to see the perhaps as a positive step forward. It wasn’t an outright no. If he did well from here on, he might yet get what he wanted. Standing up caused the plug to shift inside him, but even more importantly, it caused his jeans to rub against his flogged arse. He wasn’t sure if he loved or hated the sensation, but he did remember seeing a dom in a porn shoot ordering his sub not to rub his arse to try to sooth the sting, not without permission, so Theo didn’t. He didn’t try to adjust his erection either.

However, for better or worse, brushing off his knees after being on the floor was too ingrained a habit for him to deny. It wasn’t until that moment that he realised the bit of floor he’d been kneeling on had been slightly damp. There were wet patches of both of his knees. The moment anyone saw him, they’d know that he’d been down on his knees for McCormack.

Theo blushed even more fiercely within the privacy of the hood. In a strange way he was pretty sure he would have been far less embarrassed if he’d actually been doing what everyone would assume he’d been doing. At least then the emotion might have been mitigated by pride in a job well done.

Without a word, McCormack headed over to the door leading out of the room.

Theo shifted his weight from one foot to the other, not sure if he was supposed to follow or wait for an order.

McCormack looked over his shoulder as he opened the door. “Come here.” He didn’t sound disappointed that Theo hadn’t followed automatically.

As Theo stopped in front of him, McCormack took something from his pocket. Theo had been so intent on studying McCormack’s face, and trying to work out how to please him, he didn’t see what it was until McCormack had already clipped one end of it onto the base of the hood.

McCormack stepped back. A lead made out of black leather connected him to Theo.

“When we’re not in this room, you stay to heel unless I specifically order otherwise.”

Once Theo was sure McCormack didn’t intend to add anything else to his statement, he answered. “Yes, sir.” He wasn’t sure if his relief was as obvious to McCormack as it sounded to his own ears, but damn he’d never thought a leather lead could look so much like a security blanket.

The club was much busier now than it had been when they’d gone into the private room. The music was louder, so were the men’s voices. The hood completely covered Theo’s ears, muffling everything slightly, but instead of making the noises quieter it just seemed to just blur them all together so they turned into a wall of sound.

Theo automatically stepped closer to McCormack’s side.

“Put your hands behind your back.”

Theo obeyed. “Yes, sir.”

When McCormack moved behind him, Theo remained perfectly still, desperately wanting to show that he had learned. One click and McCormack had the cuffs Theo was wearing connected together.

He moved around to stand in front of Theo again. He looked him up and down. “Perfect.”

Theo barely had time to relish the praise before McCormack turned away and set off.

Stay at heel. Theo didn’t need another reminder to do that. He kept as close to McCormack as he could without treading on his boots. Dressed as he was, Theo knew he should have felt vulnerable, especially with his hands behind his back. He suspected that was exactly how he would feel if McCormack wasn’t there. But, with McCormack, he was safe, protected, invincible.

They seemed to be attracting quite a lot of attention as they moved through the crowd. Theo wasn’t sure if people were staring at him or McCormack, but it was probably McCormack. He couldn’t imagine anyone not being inclined to stare at McCormack.

And, since there was no way anybody could recognise Theo while he was wearing the hood, he found he really didn’t care if the odd guy or two decided to stare at him. If that happened, it was almost certainly because they could see that he was submitting to McCormack and wanted to be in his place. He couldn’t blame anyone for that.

Walking a pace behind McCormack and a pace to his left, Theo kept ninety percent of his attention on McCormack, and spared just enough attention for their surroundings to make sure he didn’t walk into anything or anyone. He only blinked and took notice of the view in front of him when McCormack brought him to a stop at the front of a crowd gathered around a play set up.

McCormack took all the slack out of the lead, and moved around so he was standing behind Theo’s shoulder.

“You wanted me to show you what real submission is all about,” McCormack reminded him. His mouth was close enough to Theo’s ear the words came through clearly in spite of the hood.

Theo parted his lips, then closed them without saying anything. It would probably be rude to point out that he’d enjoy it a lot more if they went back to the private room and McCormack showed him personally.

Logically, Theo knew he should be relishing this opportunity.

He’d been so careful about looking at stuff online ever since one of the other influencers on his platform had been hacked and had his search history, geolocation info and everything else published on the internet. After so long barely glimpsing porn, a live floor show should be fascinating, but he found he had little interest in watching strangers.

He wanted to turn his back on it all and face McCormack, but the grip McCormack had on his lead didn’t allow for that and—

“Pay attention,” McCormack ordered. “There will be a test later. Passing it would be in your best interests.”

Panic rushed through Theo, and he focused on the men in front of him for the first time. There were three men involved in the scene. It was set up around a low table. One of the men was already bound to the table. The other two were free to move as they pleased. So, Theo had to assume that made those two guys doms?

They didn’t look anything like McCormack. Not just in physical terms—they didn’t have the same sort of attitude, the same sort of presence as McCormack. But, there again, Theo doubted many doms did. Certainly, none of the other men in the club called to him the way McCormack did. And while that realisation was interesting on a personal level, it wasn’t going to help him in his test later.

One of the possible doms lit a candle and held it above the bound man’s body. After a few seconds, a droplet of wax fell. The sub gasped. A few more droplets landed on the sub, then Theo noticed that the other dom had been doing something in the background while he’d been busy watching the first one.

Dom number two had a lit candle of his own. The first candle was black. This one was red. Peering past the scene, Theo spotted a small table. There were other candles on it. White. Blue. Possibly a purple one? It was hard to be sure from that distance. Were the colours significant?

What were the important points here? What was McCormack going to ask him about? One of the doms moved down the sub’s body, trailing wax droplets over the sub’s abs as he went.

The sub was shaved completely free of body hair. His cock was hard. He was wearing a blindfold, so he had no idea where the next drop of wax would land.

But what did Theo need to notice? What did he need to remember? Theo clenched his hands into tight fists behind his back. It was like one of those quiz shows where they showed a clip of video and the contestants had to memorise everything they saw. God, but Theo hated those shows. He never got the answers right, never seemed to focus on the right details. And those were just vanilla videos where he had no trouble naming the actual things he saw.

He took a deep breath and tried to swallow down a rush of nerves, but the air seemed to lodge in his throat. The base of the hood hadn’t seemed tight before. Now it was impossible to breathe past it.

He closed his eyes for a moment, but only for a moment. He couldn’t risk missing anything happening in the scene playing out before him.

Was it called wax play or candle play? Fire play sounded appropriately dramatic, but the fire was nowhere near the sub, so it didn’t feel all that accurate.

Theo felt his breathing speed up now. He bit down hard on the inside of his cheek, but the sharp little burst of pain didn’t help centre him.

The sub was tied down with rope rather than leather. Theo didn’t know what any of the knots were called. Was that something that McCormack might ask?

Clenching his toes inside his boots, Theo shifted his weight very slightly, doing all the things that always worked so well to hide his nerves in videos. He jerked when he felt a hand come to rest on his side, but stopped himself just short of turning to face McCormack.

*

Leaning forward, McCormack closed the gap between them until his chest was pressed against Theo’s arm. It let him put his lips even closer to Theo’s ear, so he could talk to him through the leather of the hood, without needing to speak so loudly all the men around them would overhear. And, even more importantly, it meant that Theo would be able to feel every breath he took.

Reaching around Theo, McCormack settled his other hand on Theo’s skin, just above his solar plexus.

“Can you feel when I take a breath?”

“Yes, sir,” Theo said, automatically matching the volume he spoke at to McCormack’s.

“Good. When I breathe in, you breathe in. When I breathe out, you breathe out.”

“Yes, sir.”

McCormack let him do that for a minute while he watched the scene over Theo’s shoulder.

He’d thought it would be a mild enough one to start him off with. Either, there was something specific about the scene that pressed all the wrong buttons for the boy, or McCormack needed to find a lighter level again.

Theo kept breathing in time with McCormack and it seemed to be doing the trick, helping him to relax.

“Good boy,” McCormack whispered to him.

He glanced around the room, wondering if there was something suitable to show Theo next.

He soon spotted a familiar face in the crowd. Jack was over by the pillory. Even if he couldn’t see him, McCormack was sure that Ricky would be there too. The dynamic between them was a gentle one. That could work.

McCormack tightened his hold on Theo’s lead and took up the slack. “Turn around.”

Theo obeyed. That put them almost eye to eye, with Theo just an inch taller than McCormack. McCormack held eye contact with him for a few seconds.

He’d been wrong. Theo wasn’t calmer. He was just hiding his anxiety more effectively.

“Come along.”

There weren’t going to be many quiet spots in the club on a night that busy, but McCormack knew the building well. The corridor leading toward the staff break room was empty enough and much closer to hand than their private room.

“Do you remember me asking you about your limits?” he asked, as he brought Theo to a stop in the corridor.

“Yes, sir.” He sounded wary now.

“And saying that we were going to work out what your limits are as we go along?”

“Yes, sir.” The penny still didn’t drop. Theo obviously had no idea what he was prompting him towards.

“Did anything occur to you when we were watching that scene?”

Still nothing. Theo looked completely blank. Since prompts didn’t seem to be helping, McCormack just remained silent and waited for Theo to put the pieces together himself.

Finally, a light bulb went on.

“No, sir!”

McCormack raised an eyebrow at him.

“I mean, no, what they were doing isn’t a limit for me, sir.”

“You were on the verge of hyperventilating.” McCormack stated it like the fact it was. There wasn’t any accusation in his tone, but there wasn’t any inclination to sugar coat the truth either.

“I…”

Not inclined to help him out this time, McCormack waited, confident that Theo would find an end to the sentence eventually.

“You said to pay attention. That there’d be a test. But I wasn’t sure what the important details were, and I don’t know what anything is called and I…”

And he didn’t want to fail, didn’t want to disappoint his dom. And, damn, but the boy really did take things literally.

McCormack steadied Theo with a hand to his shoulder and Theo immediately leaned into the touch.

“The point of tonight is for you to find out what submission is like, what it can be like, what you want your submission to be like.”

The pause before Theo answered seemed longer than the one that just wanted to make sure McCormack was definitely finished. But he did eventually speak. “Yes, sir.”

“So the thing you should have been paying attention to was if you liked what you were watching. Does that kind of scene appeal to you? Have you spotted something that would be a limit for you? Do you want to do something like that in the future? Is it hot, frightening, confusing? No sub likes every kind of kink. Some of them you might have to try before you can say for sure, but with others you can tell as soon as you see it being done, providing you’re paying attention.”

Theo took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“The candle thing, it isn’t a limit, sir. I can’t quite imagine what it would feel like, but it looked…interesting?” It was a perfectly acceptable answer, but it clearly wasn’t a complete one. The sudden flood of tension in Theo’s muscles made it obvious that he was holding something back.

McCormack waited a few seconds, but Theo didn’t continue. For a man who tended to over-obey any order tossed in his direction, that was significant.

McCormack nodded slowly, accepting Theo’s incomplete answer for the moment, but damn sure that he was going to get the full answer by the end of the night.

Releasing Theo’s shoulder, McCormack tightened his grip on the lead again. As he turned, he realised that they had an audience of one at the end of the short corridor.

McCormack met Marcus’s eye for a moment, and Marcus beckoned him closer.

“I told you earlier that you stay to heel unless I specifically tell you otherwise,” McCormack said to Theo.

“Yes, sir.”

“This is me telling you otherwise. Stay where you are. I won’t go out of sight.”

“Yes, sir.”

McCormack was aware of Theo’s eyes tracking him to the end of the corridor, but the boy didn’t actually try to follow him.

“I thought you were supposed to be babysitting some internet guy for Tomlinson?” Marcus said, as McCormack reached him.

“He is the internet guy.”

Marcus glanced over McCormack’s shoulder towards Theo and chuckled. Apparently, he’d seen him before he’d started to submit to McCormack and found the rapid alteration amusing. “Is he any good? You’ve certainly got him looking like he knows what he’s doing.”

“He’s very new to it all,” McCormack said, more to remind himself of that than Marcus. “But he’s definitely a sub. There’s real potential there.” He was just about to ask Marcus what he actually wanted, or why the hell he’d pulled him away from his sub for small talk, when Marcus spoke again.

“Well, don’t get too attached. If he is any good, I’m pretty sure Tomlinson has plans for the boy.”

McCormack instinctively tensed up, but he forced himself to consider the accusation logically. “No. He’s not Tomlinson’s type. Anyway, Tomlinson hasn’t played with anyone else since he collared Dan.”

“Yeah, but Theo is definitely Dan’s type, and it’s Dan who has a birthday next month.” Marcus chuckled. “What else would a dom get for the switch who has almost everything?”

“No,” McCormack repeated. “Tomlinson didn’t say anything about—” McCormack stopped himself short. He had—Tomlinson had asked him to let him know if the boy was any good and if he had the potential to be a good sub.

But, he hadn’t specified if he meant a good sub for any particular type of dom, let alone one specific dom. Those were all very different questions.

One thing was sure—Theo was exactly Dan’s type when it came to subs. He liked them pretty. If McCormack remembered correctly, Dan had a bit of a thing for models. Fashion models, fetish models, whatever. Social media influencer was probably not a million miles away from that in the grand scheme of things, was it?

Chapter Five

McCormack looked pissed off. That is, even more pissed off than seemed to be his baseline. Theo couldn’t hear what McCormack was speaking about with the other guy, but it seemed like it had to be bad.

Theo stayed very still at his end of the corridor. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

The new man’s arrival was a reminder that other people didn’t just exist in the world, but that they might also be able to push their way into his and McCormack’s space and interact with them.

Theo couldn’t help but think back to the two guys doing candle play with the same sub. Maybe he should have bitten the bullet and made it clear that he didn’t want that. Maybe he should have said that playing with any dom other than McCormack was a limit. Except, if he had set that as a limit, maybe McCormack would have already lost interest in him.

Maybe sharing a sub with another dom was McCormack’s favourite thing in the world. Maybe he was already disappointed in Theo for not picking up on that aspect of the scene and making it clear he was really into it too.

Maybe that’s what McCormack and the other guy were talking about right now. McCormack had his back to Theo, and he was standing between Theo and the other man, but the other guy kept glancing past McCormack towards him. He was smiling and seemed a lot more cheerful than McCormack was.

Theo was careful not to meet his gaze. He kept all his attention on McCormack. There was a tattoo of a snake that was just visible on the back of McCormack’s neck, beyond the leather waistcoat he was wearing over his T-shirt. Theo didn’t take his eyes off it.

If McCormack was really into sharing his sub with other guys, if he had no interest in a sub who wasn’t okay with that, then Theo was going get okay with it really quickly. It wouldn’t be so bad. McCormack would be there—McCormack would be in charge. The other guy would be more a prop than anything else, just a toy, just another bit of the scene that McCormack commanded.

Theo would be okay with that. If the alternative was McCormack losing interest in him, he would make sure he was very okay with that.

Finally, McCormack turned and came back towards Theo. The other guy didn’t come with him, but wandered off out of sight. Theo breathed a little easier at that.

Don’t speak unless you’re spoken to—except Theo’s self-control completely failed him. “Is there a problem, sir?” he blurted out, as McCormack picked up the handle on his lead.

“No problem at all.” McCormack didn’t offer any more information. He just started to guide Theo back towards the play area.

He still seemed angry about something. Theo walked a little closer to him, ducking into his slip stream when it became clear that, while guys were quick to move out of the way of a pissed off McCormack, they weren’t so worried about bumping into a hooded sub.

McCormack stopped them at the edge of a different play area this time. Once more, people allowed McCormack through to the front of the crowd, and being attached to McCormack by a lead seemed to mean that Theo was allowed through too.

They took up the same arrangement as before, with McCormack just behind Theo.

“Remember what I told you,” McCormack ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

It wasn’t about paying attention to the physical details of the scene, it was about paying attention to how he felt about what they were doing. Theo could do that. He took a deep breath that filled his lungs with the scent of leather and let it out slowly.

There was something disconcerting about McCormack being better at reading him than any of the people who knew him on social media. But, there was something reassuring about it too. No pretence would get past McCormack, so there was no point in lying about anything.

“Concentrate.” McCormack growled in his ear. He really didn’t miss a damn thing.

Theo pushed his thoughts aside and dutifully concentrated. The scene was around a set of standing stocks—a pillory, was that the right word?

Theo mentally shook his head at himself. Vocabulary wasn’t important.

The sub was young, blond and cute. He looked like the kind of vanilla guy who might like his posts. The dom was older than the sub, but maybe quite a bit younger than McCormack. He wouldn’t be that out of place among Theo’s fans either. He looked far easier to please than McCormack, but less dominant, too.

The most important thing as far as Theo was concerned was that there was only one sub and one dom in the scene. That was good. The fact that the sub who was there was trapped in the pillory and the dom was spanking him with what looked like a pretty substantial paddle, was just a footnote in comparison.

But, Theo had enjoyed it when McCormack used the flogger on his arse. And he was more than happy to try a paddle. The skin across his arse was sensitive now, but he was still willing. He’d liked it when McCormack connected his cuffs to the wall and a pillory probably wasn’t that different, so no problem there, either.

This scene was definitely something that Theo could do! The only difference was the audience. Hood firmly in place and doing a far better job of hiding his identity than the hat and half mask, Theo didn’t mind an audience, as long as they didn’t get involved.

As they watched, the dom in the scene set aside his paddle and moved up behind the sub. The dom was obviously hard. He unzipped his fly and it was clear what was going to happen next.

McCormack stepped back. Theo went with him, but he had to bite his tongue to stop himself asking why they were leaving then. Was McCormack not interested in watching the men have sex? Was that because he wasn’t actually into sex himself? Maybe he only liked kinky things and what had looked liked being comparatively vanilla sex bored him? Was that the real reason that McCormack didn’t want to have sex with him earlier?

Theo didn’t worry too much about where they were going. He let himself get lost in his thoughts, sure that McCormack would guide him safely through the world.

Theo was still trying to work out how McCormack might feel about sex when he realised they were stopping again.

This scene was taking place around a metal frame. If anything, being bound to that would be even more similar to being bound to the wall in the private room. And there were only two guys in the scene again, so that was a definite point in its favour.

Theo relaxed slightly. The dom in this scene had his shirt off, displaying several tattoos. He looked like the kind of guy who might turn into McCormack in twenty years. As the crowd watched, the dom knotted the rope tightly around the subs limbs, stretching him out towards the frame in every direction.

The sub was standing on a small, square stool to put him in the exact centre of the frame. He kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other, unable to hide his emotions—although it wasn’t obvious if he was nervous or excited.

Theo couldn’t help but imagine himself and McCormack taking their places.

He knew what leather felt like around his wrists. But, what would rope feel like? Did McCormack have a thing about rope? Was that why he’d chosen to stop at this particular scene? McCormack stepped slightly closer to Theo and tightened his grip on Theo’s side.

Theo risked a quick glance over his shoulder.

McCormack’s complete attention was on the scene. He was frowning even more deeply than usual.

“Sir?”

“Do you need to say your safe word?” McCormack murmured back to him, placing his lips close to the hood so Theo could hear him clearly.

“No, sir.”

“Then I want complete silence until I tell you that you’re allowed to talk again. If I move, you stay exactly where you are, until I come back to you, no excuses.”

Theo was about to say yes, sir, when he realised he couldn’t do that when he didn’t have permission to speak. Something was wrong. Theo glanced from McCormack to the scene and back again.

The dom had wrapped rope around every point on the sub which could be bound and had stepped back. As Theo watched, the dom picked up a toy, which Theo tentatively identified as a bull whip, and moved into position.

He was just raising his arm when two men detached themselves from the crowd. One grabbed the doms arm, the other went to the sub.

McCormack relaxed. His grip on Theo’s side eased slightly, and he stroked the skin there. The dom was shouting now. It wasn’t easy to make out what he was saying despite the volume, not with the hood in the way, but he was obviously not happy about his scene being interrupted. Two more guys came out of the crowd. The one who headed to the dom didn’t seem to care if he was happy or not.

The sub from the scene looked confused, but the two guys who’d gone to him were speaking calmly and quietly to him as they began to untie him.

McCormack turned them away from the scene. “You can speak now.”

Theo wasn’t sure what to say. In the end, he settled on “Yes, sir.” Just an indication that he’d heard what McCormack had said. That seemed the safest option.

“That means you have permission to ask questions, too.”

Damn. “The scene we were watching…” Theo began tentatively.

McCormack found a quiet spot for them in an out of the way corner. It wasn’t private, but with McCormack standing between him and everyone else, it felt like it was.

“…Did you know the men in it, sir?”

“No, they’re not regulars here, or at any other club, I should think.”

“But the men who stopped it, they are…” ‘People who know what they’re doing,’ sounded wrong. “Regulars, sir?”

“Yes. There are always guys in the public areas who keep an eye on everything and make sure that no one gets hurt in a bad way. Some people call them dungeon monitors.”

“You do that, too, sir.”

It wasn’t a question, but McCormack nodded. “Yes.”

That was why he’d told him to hush and said he might have to leave him there. If someone else hadn’t been there to step in, McCormack would have done it himself.

“What the man said on the guided tour—all the private rooms weren’t actually reserved tonight, were they, sir?”

“They’re always fully booked if someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing wants to access one.”

Theo nodded. He was in the ‘doesn’t know what he’s doing’ category, along with all the guys who’d been on the tour with him.

McCormack was in a whole other category, a much better category.

“What did they do wrong, sir? The men in the scene.”

McCormack blinked at him. Obviously he’d thought Theo would have known the answer to that without needing to be told, but he didn’t seem angry at Theo’s ignorance, just surprised by it.

“The sub didn’t do anything wrong,” McCormack said firmly. “He made a poor choice of dom, perhaps, but nothing else.” He paused then.

It took Theo a few seconds to realise that McCormack was waiting for him to agree. “Yes, sir.”

“The guy trying to be a dom didn’t know what he was doing. He put the sub at risk. Maybe he wasn’t malicious about it, but he was clueless and trying to bluff his way through and that’s a bloody stupid thing to do when it comes to leather.”

“Yes, sir.” Theo trusted McCormack’s judgement implicitly, but he still didn’t see it.

“Close your eyes. Picture the scene he set up.”

“Yes, sir.” Theo did as he was told.

“The whip he picked, do you think a novice sub would be able to stand perfectly still when struck with it?”

“No, sir?” Theo hazarded. He knew he wouldn’t have been able to.

“Do you think he’d have stepped off the stool he was standing on?”

It was a small stool. “Yes, sir?” If a man jerked away from a painful blow, he’d have been bound to fall.

“Do you think having a rope wrapped around his neck would be a good thing in that situation?”

Theo jolted his eyes open. There had been a rope around the guy’s neck. He hadn’t given it much consideration—there had been ropes everywhere, after all—but looking back he could remember it.

“That’s why there are always guys who know what they’re doing in the public areas. Every dom has to start learning somewhere, most of them are going to make mistakes. We need to make sure the subs don’t pay for them.”

“That was my plan.” Theo blurted out, as the reality of it hit him hard, like a gut punch.

“What?”

Theo’s stomach turned over. He blinked at McCormack. “I…”

“Finish the sentence,” McCormack prompted, when Theo trailed off.

“When I came here tonight.” And, damn, didn’t that feel like a lifetime ago now. “I thought the best thing to do would be to meet someone else who was new here, someone else who didn’t know what they were doing, so we could learn together.”

“What changed?”

“You.” Theo cleared his throat. “I met you, sir. You’re the kind of guy I was going to avoid at first and then, sort of, work my way up to. But…”

McCormack raised a pierced eyebrow.

“But I couldn’t say no to you when you asked if I wanted to do a scene with you, sir. I couldn’t turn down a chance like that.” Theo actually managed to hold McCormack’s eye as he said it. He only looked away when a yell on the other side of the room caught his attention.

McCormack glanced over his shoulder too.

There was a blond guy. He’d let out a shout of surprise when an older man had scooped him up. The older guy was the one McCormack had been talking to in the corridor earlier. The blond guy looked slightly familiar, as if he might have been someone Theo had spoken to at the start of the night.

McCormack didn’t rush across the room and stop what was going on, and neither did any of the other doms who knew what they were doing, so it couldn’t have been a problem. Everything was apparently fine.

Except when McCormack turned his attention back to Theo, his expression very serious and fine felt a million miles away. Even if they weren’t doing anything wrong, something about seeing his friend and the blond boy seemed to have annoyed McCormack.

“You said before that you intended to hook up with a novice, but who did you actually meet here before we met?”

“Sir?”

“Answer the question.”

“I didn’t do a scene with anyone else tonight, sir.” Theo was aware of his cheeks flushing beneath the hood. “I’ve never done a scene with anyone else, sir.”

“I don’t mean scenes, I mean met at all. Who did you speak to?”

There was something in McCormack’s tone that was off. It didn’t sound like casual curiosity. It sounded like it was important to him. The only thing Theo could think of was that McCormack sounded jealous, except he didn’t seem the type.

Possessive—that seemed far more possible. A dom who wanted to own his sub, right down to the core. That sounded like McCormack, and, like the man himself, the prospect was hot and scary in equal measure. But not jealous—that would require a kind of insecurity that McCormack didn’t possess.

“Does the name Tomlinson mean anything to you?”

Theo frowned as he racked his brain. “I think the man who did the tour said that a Mr Tomlinson owns the club, sir?” he offered.

“Have you met him?”

“No, sir.”

“Dan Stephens?”

Theo shook his head. “No, sir.”

“He works behind the bar.”

“I never made it to the bar, sir.”

“Bret Daniels?”

“That’s the blond boy’s name!” Theo remembered. “He came to talk to me just after I arrived.”

“And?” McCormack sounded less than happy, but Theo couldn’t think why that would be.

“Um… At first I thought he might have recognised me from the internet. There was something he said that rang a bell from a post, but it was just a coincidence. He asked if it was my first time here, if I had a boyfriend, and lots of other questions. He was kind of hyper. He said he was here with his dom? Mark?”

“Marcus,” McCormack corrected.

“Yes, sir.”

“What was the thing that rang a bell?”

Theo met McCormack’s gaze, trying to get a better read on him, but it was no use. It took him far longer than it should have for him to scrape together an answer, but McCormack just waited him out.

“There were two guys talking in the comments on a few of my videos. They were talking about the club and this event. It’s where I first heard about it. One said it was much safer to meet someone here than online, and that there were lots of great doms, and switches, and—”

“What were their names?” McCormack cut in.

“Um, screen names? Jack’s Boy, I think, and Kinky Cupid.”

The vein in the side of McCormack’s jaw was visibly throbbing.

“When we were chatting earlier, Bret said he’s a sub, sir,” Theo pointed out. It seemed the politest way to make it clear that he hadn’t been flirting with another dom before they met.

“Well, he’s not,” McCormack bit out.

“He’s a dom, sir?” Theo asked. That didn’t seem to fit.

“No, he’s just a brat.” McCormack growled. “But he’s not getting his own way this time!”

Before Theo had a chance to try to work out what that meant, or what it could mean for things between him and McCormack, McCormack had turned away from him and was leading him through the club. All Theo could think about then was keeping up.

*

No. The word kept going around and around in McCormack’s head. Forget how many of the boy’s posts he had watched, if Bret had spent even a few minutes talking to Theo in person, he should know that Dan would be an appalling match for him.

Bret might have succeeded in matching people up the last few years, but not this year.

Theo needed certainty, and rules, and structure. And he needed it from a person who didn’t care if Theo was young, or pretty. He didn’t need the kind of person who had worked his way through a whole string of models who were in their early twenties before settling down with a dom of his own. Theo had enough of a god damn complex about that already.

A switch like Dan could be a good dom for some subs, but not Theo. He didn’t need to be thinking that he was competing for someone’s attention with a dom.

The door leading into the back room Marcus habitually booked for the night of the club’s Valentine’s party was closed. McCormack was in no mood to knock. He pushed the door open, really not caring what he was interrupting.

Marcus was there, sitting in one of the leather armchairs flanking the fireplace. Bret was sitting at his feet, talking nineteen to the dozen, as usual. He fell silent as the door banged back against the wall behind it. Both he and Marcus turned towards McCormack.

“I thought you said you were going to keep him under control after last year’s nonsense,” McCormack snapped, completely ignoring Bret in favour of addressing his master.

“He is under control,” Marcus said, with a pointed look down at where Bret was kneeling neatly on a cushion at his feet.

“He has no business trying to set anyone up after the mess he made last year. You gave your word it wouldn’t happen again.” Somehow McCormack managed not to shout the words at the top of his lungs. In fact, over-compensating kept them far more quietly and politely spoken than his normal tone of voice.

“True,” Marcus allowed. He stroked his fingers through Bret’s hair, so damn calm.

“And yet here we are, with him setting Theo up to sub to Dan. And, I guess, to Tomlinson, too?”

“There is no problem with—” Marcus cut in.

“So you think it’s okay for Tomlinson to screw over a complete novice, just because he’s besotted with a switch?” He turned his attention to Bret. “You know that’s what would happen. Is it your idea of a joke? You really expect me to turn Theo over to sub to Dan and Tomlinson?” Aware that his volume was increasing with each word, he made a conscious effort to pull it back under control. “You said before that you’re always careful with subs, but you have to know that Dan would be the worst possible kind of dom for him, especially with Tomlinson at the top of the pyramid.”

“I’m starting to understand how you managed to remain pissed off with me for an entire year.”

McCormack jolted slightly at the unexpected voice and looked over his shoulder. Tomlinson stood in the doorway, and he stepped inside as their eyes met.

Dan was right behind him and he closed the door after them. They were the last people in the world who he wanted to set eyes on, and McCormack instinctively took a step to his side, putting himself directly between both of them and Theo.

“It presses some pretty deep buttons when a dom who should know better accuses you of being willing to screw over a sub,” Tomlinson went on.

“Then perhaps you should have had more sense than to fall for Bret’s bullshit,” McCormack said, forcing his tone into entirely icy politeness.

Tomlinson looked from McCormack, over his shoulder to Theo, and back again.

“Tonight certainly isn’t working out the way he told me it would,” Tomlinson allowed. He turned to Bret. “Do you have anything to say?”

“Actually, it’s working out kind of perfectly,” Bret said. The touch of smugness in his voice would have earned him a right hook from McCormack, if Bret had been a dom. Instead, McCormack turned his attention to Marcus and simply glared at him until Marcus spoke.

“I had my doubts, but he’s right. It is working out quite perfectly,” he sounded slightly amused rather than smug, but that was only slightly less annoying.

“His running around behind your back, screwing over—”

“He had permission.”

“What?”

“He hasn’t done anything behind my back. He had permission,” Marcus repeated. “After last year, I told him there had to be new rules for Valentine’s Day. He wasn’t allowed to do anything without asking me about it, in detail and in advance.” His smile grew then. “And I said he could only set someone up this year if he found a way to do it that would convince you two to stop squabbling at the same time.”

“So you decided to turn the tables on us?” Tomlinson said, moving to sit opposite Marcus. Dan followed along behind him and perched on the arm of Tomlinson’s chair.

The fact that McCormack now had no idea what any of them were talking about was doing nothing for his temper. He tightened his grip on Theo’s lead and turned to Bret.

“It’s easy to jump to conclusions when someone tells you that another dom is interested in your sub. Especially if you know that dom would be all wrong for them. Especially if it’s a sub you’ve started to care about, that you don’t want to share. The idea of seeing him sub to another guy can be enough to make anyone lose his temper.”

Slowly, past the waves of anger rolling through him, McCormack started to see where this was heading.

That little bastard…

He ran the evening back through his mind. He’d been so careful, not believing a word Bret had said to him directly, and double checking everything that Bret had told him with someone else. It had never occurred to him that the people he was checking with might be in on Bret’s scheme.

McCormack looked back and forth between Marcus and Tomlinson.

Tomlinson and Dan might have been conned just as thoroughly as McCormack, but Marcus had been one hundred percent in on it.

Convince you two to stop squabbling…

McCormack knew that an extra tidal wave of fury should be rushing through him, but it was dampened down with relief that no one had ever been out to screw over Theo.

“Dan and Theo doing a scene together now,” Bret began. “Would be—”

“Red.”

Chapter Six

The word was softly spoken, but it cut cleanly through every thought in McCormack’s head and silenced Bret more thoroughly than any gag could have. Forgetting all about the men in front of him, McCormack turned to Theo.

Their eyes met. Theo was biting his bottom lip, hard enough that he risked drawing blood. For a boy who was as good as he was at hiding the usual obvious signs of nerves, it was probably the equivalent of shouting his distress at the top of his lungs.

McCormack had the door open and Theo out in the corridor within three seconds. This corridor was a busy thoroughfare compared to the one McCormack had slipped into for quiet conversations with Theo earlier.

“I’m going to take you back to the private room we were in earlier before I take off your bondage. Are you okay with that?”

Theo waited a beat, but it was hard to tell if that was because he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go back to the room with McCormack, or if he was just being sure he wasn’t interrupting again.

“Yes, sir.”

For the first time in years, McCormack found he genuinely loved hearing a sub calling him sir. It might have just been habit on Theo’s part, but it implied that Theo hadn’t pulled away from the scene completely and that meant there was still a way to fix whatever the hell had gone wrong.

It didn’t take long to get the boy back to the private room, but each second stretched out like nails on a chalkboard for McCormack.

The moment the door was closed behind them, he unclipped the lead from the base of Theo’s hood. Every instinct he had yelled at him, saying that it had taken far too long for him to do that.

Every bit of bondage should have come off the moment the safe word hit the air. But that would have meant the hood coming off where it would have exposed Theo’s identity. This was the quickest he could do it without breaking Theo’s own limits, but it still felt like he’d let Theo down.

“I’m unfastening your cuffs now.”

“Yes, sir.” His hands were tightened into fists behind his back, his nails digging into his own palms, but he kept his arms still, making it easy for McCormack to undo the connection between the cuffs.

“Your shoulders might be sore when you bring your arms forward, but that shouldn’t last too long.” With a boy he knew better, McCormack would have rubbed his shoulders to ease his discomfort, but the safe word stopped him short. Until he knew just how far Theo wanted to pull away, he had to keep his distance as much as possible.

He came around to stand in front of Theo. “Look up, Theo, look me in the eye.”

“Yes, sir.” It took him longer to actually obey than it did for him to answer, but he managed it.

His eyes were full of emotion, too much emotion for McCormack to have any chance of reading him. Something had obviously spooked the boy, but it was impossible to guess what.

The hood didn’t seem to be the problem. Theo wasn’t tugging at it or making any attempt to take it off himself the way McCormack had expected him to the moment the cuffs were disconnected, and he wasn’t experienced enough for that to be down to ingrained protocol.

Still it had to go and, now that Theo’s hands were free, he needed to make a choice about how that should happen.

“Do you want me to take the hood off, or do you want to try to do it yourself?”

He peered back at McCormack from the eye holes in the hood, but didn’t seem to have an answer.

“It will be quicker if I do it, but I can talk you though it if you prefer,” McCormack expanded.

Still no response.

“There’s no right answer, Theo. It’s just a choice you can make for yourself.”

Theo bit his lip. “Will you take it off, please, sir?”

“Yes.” McCormack moved around to stand behind Theo. Without McCormack issuing an order, Theo knelt down to make it easier for him. McCormack didn’t comment on that as he began undoing the fastenings that held the leather tightly in place.

It was a familiar process and it was far quicker to take the hood off than it was to put on. Soon, he was able to lift the leather completely away from Theo’s head.

Theo immediately reached up to his hair, but stopped himself half-way.

“You don’t need my permission to move however you want,” McCormack said, putting the hood aside. Stepping around to face Theo, McCormack crouched down in front of him.

Theo didn’t look reassured. He jerked as if he’d been slapped. He still didn’t reach up to his hair.

Cautiously, making sure Theo could see his hand and have plenty of time to pull away, McCormack reached out to slide his fingers through Theo’s hair himself.

*

Theo couldn’t help but lean into McCormack’s touch.

It felt more like McCormack was petting his hair rather than trying to straighten it out the way Theo would have, but Theo couldn’t bring himself to care about that. He hadn’t realised just how much he would miss McCormack’s casual caresses until McCormack had stopped touching him.

“Good boy.”

Theo jerked his gaze up and met McCormack’s eyes. “Sir?” McCormack hadn’t sounded sarcastic, but it was hard to believe he could be anything else. Theo looked down.

“You don’t think you’re good?” McCormack asked.

“I said my safe word, sir,” Theo whispered.

“Yes, I know. That’s one of the reasons you’re good.”

Theo risked another glance up at McCormack. He still looked serious.

McCormack pushed his fingers through Theo’s hair again. “I told you to say your safe word if you wanted to end the scene or if we ran into a limit you didn’t know you had, didn’t I?”

“Yes, sir,” Theo whispered.

“You’re good for saying it.”

Theo wasn’t sure about that. He didn’t feel good. He felt like he’d failed at the worst possible moment, and that his failure had lost him the chance at everything he wanted from life. A shiver ran through him. He hadn’t felt this sort of chill inside even when he’d been under the cold shower.

“Tell me why you said it.” It sounded like McCormack was trying to make his words sound like an invitation rather than an order, but he was a man who was much better at giving orders than anything else, so it just sounded odd.

“I thought I was into this, sir, but I’m not.” His shoulders were sore when he brought his arms too far in front of him, but he wrapped them around himself anyway. Knowing how weak that kind of gesture made him look in pics couldn’t stop him. “I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to go home.”

He sounded stupid, and childish. What was worse was, even knowing that, he found himself unable to make any effort to put on a braver face and try to make a better impression.

McCormack didn’t seem to mind, though. He kept stroking his fingers through Theo’s hair as if he wasn’t babbling nonsense.

“When did you realise that?”

Theo met McCormack’s eyes for a moment. “Sir?”

“When did you realise that you’re not into all this?”

Theo shrugged. Then winced, more at lapsing back into fidgeting than the discomfort in his shoulders.

McCormack took his hand away from Theo’s hair. Before Theo could frame an apology for whatever he’d done wrong, both of McCormack’s hands came to rest on his skin. With one hand on each of Theo’s shoulders, McCormack started to work his fingers into the knotted muscles.

“You haven’t answered my question.” It was that same tone. McCormack was still trying not to make everything he said sound like an order.

“I…” Damn it, now that he started, he had to finish, but he didn’t know how. Theo swallowed rapidly. He had a horrible inclination to cry, and he never cried.

“Was it before or after we left this room?”

Theo swallowed again, so grateful to McCormack for breaking down the question into smaller chunks. “After, sir.”

McCormack smiled, obviously pleased with the answer. A little of his tension left him. “Before or after I took us into Marcus’s side room?”

Theo met McCormack’s eyes. It was immediately obvious that McCormack could read the answer in his expression, but he still waited for Theo to answer properly.

“When we were in his room, sir,” Theo whispered.

“Did you recognise any of the men there? Had you met any of them before tonight?”

Theo shook his head.

McCormack just held his gaze and waited.

“No, sir. I spoke to Bret when I first arrived at the club, like I said, but nothing else.”

McCormack nodded that he’d heard. He was silent for a moment and it seemed like he was replaying everything that had happened in that room in his mind.

“You heard someone say something that scared you.” It was a conclusion, not a question. “Tell me what it was?”

Theo felt heat rush to his cheeks, and there was no hood to hide his increased colour now.

What had freaked him out clearly wasn’t obvious to McCormack. That meant it must seem so natural to him that it didn’t even occur to him that anyone else would be bothered by it. Theo closed his eyes. If McCormack had asked him about it at the start of the evening, Theo would have told him that it wasn’t a problem for him, either. It certainly didn’t bother him when he saw it in porn or read about it on the internet. In the abstract the idea had been kind of hot.

McCormack didn’t say anything more, but he didn’t need to. This wasn’t one of those times he was willing to rescue Theo. He wasn’t going to blink until Theo answered his question. He’d sit there all night if that’s what it took.

Technically, Theo was sure that he could stand up, find his remaining clothing in the cupboards and leave. McCormack wouldn’t try to stop him, not now that he’d said his safe word. He’d probably even help him and make it as easy as possible for him to walk away.

Except that Theo knew he wouldn’t walk away. He had no intention of doing anything except staying as close as he could to McCormack, until McCormack sent him away.

Maybe that was the solution. Maybe he should just stay silent. It would let him remain with McCormack, right there, forever. Except, he still wanted to obey McCormack, and not having answered McCormack’s question itched at the back of his mind.

He really didn’t want to fail McCormack any more than he already had.

“I didn’t think I would mind, sir. Before tonight, I even thought it would be hot,” Theo whispered, leaning into McCormack’s touch even more firmly now that he was scared that it would be taken away.

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

“I thought it would just be you, sir,” Theo blurted out.

McCormack held Theo’s gaze. He didn’t seem angry with him, but Theo gradually realised that was probably because he still hadn’t answered the question clearly enough for McCormack to have any idea what he was talking about.

“I don’t know the right term, sir.”

“That’s fine. Give me a wrong term, and we’ll work from there.”

“Sub swapping?” Theo hazarded. “Except with the keys to handcuffs rather than the keys to cars?”

McCormack studied him very carefully. After a few seconds, he lifted his hand away from Theo’s shoulder, but that was just to stroke Theo’s hair back from his face.

“How clearly could you hear what was going on through the hood, Theo?”

“Clearly enough to hear how all the subs get swapped around between you and your friends, and—”

“No.”

Theo blinked. He’d thought he’d heard McCormack sound serious before, but this was a whole new level of seriousness. It sent a shiver down Theo’s spine and straight to his cock.

“No, that doesn’t happen, not with us.”

“You said I’m going to do a scene with Dan. That I was going to submit to him and—”

“No,” McCormack cut in. “I said you’re not going to do either of those things.”

Theo hesitated. It had sounded very clear to him in the other room. At least, to the extent that anything that wasn’t said near his ear sounded clear through the hood. Being able to hear McCormack speaking close to his ear and being able to hear what anyone said feet or yards away from him weren’t the same thing.

Theo tried to think back to whole ideas rather than individual words and phrases, past the pure panic that had flooded him when he caught those few snippets of what they were talking about.

“Someone said Dan is a switch.”

“True,” McCormack said.

“And he’s Mr Tomlinson’s sub.”

“Also true.”

“And Dan submitted to you last year, after he and Mr Tomlinson got together. And you did something to him that pissed off Mr Tomlinson.”

“False.”

Theo hesitated. He managed to hold McCormack’s gaze for a few moments.

“Last year Tomlinson got his knickers in a twist because he thought I was interested in Dan, but I’m not, and I never have been.” He didn’t hesitate, he didn’t look away. He said it so simply it didn’t feel like it could be anything other than the truth.

“You and Bret, sir?” Theo asked.

“I am frequently tempted to throttle the little sod, but not because either of us is into breath play. He’s a brat and Marcus gives him way too much freedom.” He stroked Theo’s hair again. “We’ve never had sex, he’s never submitted to me. Actually, he’s never laid a hand on any dom in the club bar his master.”

“That’s allowed, sir?”

“For a sub to not play with anyone else but his master?” McCormack checked.

Theo nodded.

“I can’t speak for every other dom on the planet, no doubt some of them do like open relationships. But if a sub belongs to me then saying no to scenes with other doms isn’t something that he’s allowed to do, it’s something he’s required to do.”

The breath caught in Theo’s throat as his relief was washed away as quickly as it materialised. “I don’t belong to you, sir.”

McCormack smiled slightly. “Not yet. But the same rule would apply as soon as we both agreed we want you to belong to me in the future.”

Theo swallowed rapidly.

“We weren’t in that room so I could share you with other guys, Theo. I was there to tell them to stay the hell away from you. I didn’t do that because I don’t want you.”

For the first time in what felt like years, Theo remembered how to take a full, deep breath. Then, as quickly as they remembered how to breathe easily, his lungs stopped working entirely. “That means I said my safe word for nothing! I screwed everything up for nothing!”

“No. It means you found a limit,” McCormack corrected. “That’s good. You were right to tell me about it. And you were right to say your safe word.”

“You’re not angry, sir?”

“I’ll never be angry with you for saying your safe word, or for setting a limit. That’s not the way this works.”

Theo was aware that it wasn’t the first time that McCormack had needed to repeat himself on that point. He was also aware that McCormack probably wasn’t someone who liked repeating himself. But he didn’t sound annoyed, so perhaps the only exception was when it was a very important point.

“Can I un-say it, sir?”

McCormack smiled, slightly. “No. But you can learn that saying it doesn’t have to mean everything is over forever. It can just mean you needed to press pause for a little while.”

Theo had never heard anything more beautiful in his life. All at once an entire lifetime of feeling the way he felt kneeling there in front of McCormack stretched out before him. It was a heady possibility and he wanted to get started on it as soon as humanly possible. “Can we un-pause now, sir?”

McCormack chuckled. “Soon. First, is there anything else you want to tell me? Any other limits you can think of, now that you know I won’t be angry?”

McCormack’s tone was as light as Theo had ever heard it. He was in a good mood, an indulgent mood even. The shaved head, tats and piercings made him look as intimidating as ever, but…

Theo took a deep breath. Taking in McCormack’s appearance had pulled something important to the front of Theo’s mind. Logically, he knew that, if it was going to be a deal breaker in the long run, it was best that he know now.

As deeply as he felt about McCormack after barely a few hours of knowing him, he could only imagine what it would be like to be found not up to standard after knowing him for days, weeks, or even months.

If he was going to get his heart broken, it was far better for it to be now, when it would still be possible to stick the pieces back together. That still didn’t make it easy to say the words.

*

“Limits just for what you might want us to do in this scene, sir? Just for tonight?” His tone couldn’t have made it any clearer that he wanted to talk about something that might apply in the future. McCormack felt something inside himself relax at the confirmation that they were both on the same page.

“No, not just for tonight. If you’re going to belong to me, you need to start thinking about long term limits, too. You should always tell me as soon as one occurs to you, even if it doesn’t seem relevant at the time. Any limits at all.”

Theo glanced up to meet McCormack’s eyes, pure relief filling his expression. Then he glanced slightly higher, towards the top of McCormack’s head.

The boy really was more worried about his hair than his hide, and McCormack wasn’t sure how much of that was actually inexperience. Vanity wasn’t the end of the world, especially in a boy who’d been doing a job that made his appearance really important to his livelihood.

McCormack waited, with not entirely faked patience, to hear Theo state that shaving his head was a limit.

“I’m afraid of needles, sir. Not just a little bit, like hyperventilating and passing out kind of afraid. Really, I’m—won’t go on holidays to places where I’d need shots before I go—level scared.”

McCormack was just about to wonder where he got needle play from when he realised that Theo hadn’t been looking at his shaved head, he’d been looking at his eyebrow piercing. And now, Theo’s attention had moved to the tattoo on his neck.

McCormack bit back a chuckle. “If I wanted someone who looked like me there are half a dozen guys who work at the mechanic’s shop I run that would fit the bill. I’m not looking for someone who is identical to me, or who I can turn into a replica of myself, pet.”

Theo smiled slightly at the label, but he still looked nervous. “I just find it hard to believe that someone like you was actually looking for someone like me, sir.”

“I wasn’t.” McCormack watched as Theo swallowed rapidly. “I didn’t think you were my type at all,” he went on. “When I saw that belt full of toys you were wearing I almost wrote you off as someone who would always have all the gear, but no idea what to do with any of it.”

“Oh.” Such a sad little sound.

“I usually play with subs who are older and more experienced,” McCormack continued. “I only approached you because Tomlinson found out from Bret that you’re a big deal on social media and he asked me to do a scene with you, so that you didn’t end up doing a scene with someone who didn’t know what they’re doing and bad mouth the club on the internet.”

Theo closed his eyes. He nodded his understanding.

“I thought it would be a very boring evening,” McCormack added.

Theo nodded again and closed his eyes even tighter.

“But, even if he is a little sod, I can’t deny that Bret does have one hell of an instinct for who will click with who.”

Theo’s eyes snapped open. He jerked his head up.

“I don’t take on a sub lightly. In fact, I haven’t had a regular sub for well over a decade. But I want you.”

“Yes.” For once, he didn’t wait a single moment after the last word left McCormack’s mouth. He was so focused on the answer, he didn’t even remember the honorific.

His need was so obvious, so was his insecurity.

McCormack reached into his pocket and took out the collar he’d been carrying around for much of that last decade. The moment Theo caught sight of it, he whimpered.

McCormack ran his fingers over Theo’s throat, but he shook his head rather than fasten the silver around his neck. “Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, pet.”

Theo tore his eyes away from the collar and met McCormack’s gaze.

“This won’t go around your neck until we come to a formal arrangement, until you belong to me permanently.”

“Yes, sir.”

“But, until then, you’re going to keep hold of it. You can carry it in your pocket, or wrap it around your wrist, or your ankle, but I expect it to be with you every second of the day. That should be quite doable no matter what you get up to on the internet.”

“Yes, sir.” Theo paused for a moment, as if deep in thought, then tentatively offered McCormack his wrist.

The leather restraint McCormack had put on him earlier that evening was still in place. Rather than try to fasten the silver chain above or below it, McCormack removed the cuff entirely.

Bondage was nice, but it would never be as important as a collar—even if the collar wasn’t worn on the neck.

Wrapping the chain around Theo’s wrist twice, McCormack clipped the fastener to a link a few from the end, so it fitted neatly in place.

“Good boy.” McCormack pushed his fingers through Theo’s hair. Regardless of how precious the boy was about how he looked, he leaned into McCormack touch as firmly as ever. “Good boy,” he repeated.

Theo didn’t look up, he was too busy staring in fascination at his own wrist.

“There’ll be a lot of work to do before that goes around your neck, for both of us,” McCormack warned him.

“Yes, sir.”

“As far as getting settled into the club goes, Bret and Ricky will help you get to know the other subs. They’re good at that kind of thing. You’ve already heard a bit from them under other names.”

Theo frowned slightly.

“Apparently they go by Jack’s Boy and Kinky Cupid on the net.”

Theo’s mouth formed a pretty little O as he nodded.

“When we go back to Marcus’s room, I’ll introduce you to them properly.”

Theo hesitated before he answered. The “yes, sir,” he said, obviously hadn’t been his first instinct.

McCormack caught hold of Theo’s chin and made him look directly into his eyes. “Do you have any doubts about what I said earlier? No one will lay a hand on a man who is submitting to me without my permission, they wouldn’t dare. And they’ll never have my permission.”

Theo blinked at him. “I believe you, sir. No doubts.”

The answer was honest enough, so there was something else there, something McCormack wasn’t seeing. “Tell me why you don’t want to go back to that room.”

Theo cleared his throat. His cheeks heated. “You said we couldn’t do something before we left this room to clear my head, sir. But we did leave this room, and we came back, and my head is clear, and we still haven’t, sir.”

McCormack managed not to chuckle somehow. “Sex, Theo. The word you’re looking for is sex.”

The colour on Theo’s cheeks darkened. He had obviously been telling the truth about not being able to talk about sex on his social media thing. He couldn’t talk about it in real life either.

*

“Yes, sir. Sex.” Theo only hesitated for a second before he pushed on. “You said for some guys it isn’t part of all this…”

“True.”

Theo waited to see if anything else might be forthcoming, but McCormack just waited for him to speak up instead. “The scenes you stopped us at out there, none of them were guys having sex, sir,” Theo hinted.

“Also true.”

Theo had no idea what else to say at that point. He had no moral objection to begging, but he had the horrible suspicion that McCormack wasn’t the kind of guy to be moved by begging, and who might even be turned off by it.

Finally, McCormack relented. “I was showing you things I was pretty sure you hadn’t tried, so you could learn more about your own limits, see things you hadn’t experienced before.”

“Sex isn’t a limit for me, sir,” Theo rushed out.

“And?” McCormack prompted.

Theo drew a complete blank. “Sir?”

“You didn’t say whether sex fitted in the category of things you have or haven’t experienced.”

Well aware he was blushing more deeply than ever, Theo managed to say. “I’m not a virgin, sir. But...” Oh, God, he had to say it, didn’t he? “I’m probably not as experienced as most of the guys here either.” He paused to clear his throat. “It’s…um…been a while.”

“Because?”

Theo met McCormack’s eyes.

“You’re pretty, twenty-something and out, in the middle of a city. You’re not short on offers.”

Theo longed to make an excuse, but he was pretty sure that it wouldn’t do him any good with McCormack. “Because going on a date with someone who knows me off social media is stressful enough without having sex with them,” he admitted. “Most of them said we did anyway, but at least…”

“At least they didn’t have video evidence to post on the internet?” McCormack finished for him.

Theo nodded. He didn’t care what his agent said. A sex tape was not the kind of publicity he wanted.

“My phone probably does do video by default, but it’s in my locker and I’ve never used it to record anything in my life. Definitely not my kink,” McCormack said. “And, as far as talking about stuff on social media goes, I don’t even have a Facebook account.”

Theo was about to protest that he hadn’t been accusing McCormack of anything, when he realised that McCormack’s tone was, for him, mellow. He wasn’t offended. He seemed to think it was a perfectly normal thing for a guy to say on what amounted to a first date.

A second later, it clicked for Theo. As far as McCormack was concerned, all Theo had done was state a perfectly reasonable limit. There was nothing he could say he didn’t want that would freak McCormack out. At worse it would probably just amuse him.

Theo knew that stating what he wanted would probably be just as well received, but it was far harder for him to get the words out.

“I really want to have sex with you, sir.” He tried to sound like McCormack, as if discussing preferences, wants and limits was natural to him.

McCormack smiled. Moving his hand from Theo’s hair, he slid it down to his cheek and rubbed his thumb across Theo’s mouth.

Theo snuck his tongue out and tentatively lapped at McCormack’s skin.

No correction was forthcoming.

Theo parted his lips and McCormack let him suck his thumb into his mouth. Theo would have preferred it to be McCormack’s cock, but even this felt like huge progress.

“I want you naked. Now.”

Theo went to pull away and answer, but McCormack kept his thumb where it was.

It wasn’t an elegant process, scrambling out of his jeans and boots while distracted by his own efforts to continue to work McCormack’s thumb. Theo pushed that realisation aside. He wasn’t on camera and he was confident that the only thing McCormack wanted him to look was obedient. It was a wonderfully freeing idea.

And now, Theo was nude again, and McCormack was, once again, fully clothed. Part of Theo loved how vulnerable the differences between them made him feel, but another, equally vocal, part of him just wanted to see McCormack naked too.

McCormack had stayed crouched down on the floor, at the same height as Theo, as Theo scrambled out of his clothes. Now, McCormack stood up.

Theo remained on his knees, sucking gently around McCormack’s thumb as McCormack towered over him. Unable to say anything out loud, he repeated silent pleas inside his head. McCormack stepped back, but he didn’t take his thumb away. Theo shuffled forward on his bare knees, only for McCormack to step away again.

Slowly, giving Theo plenty of time to keep up, McCormack backed up all the way to the cabinets on the other side of the room. Still keeping his one hand where it was, McCormack used his free hand to push one of the sliding doors back. There was a half-height cabinet inside, but McCormack didn’t take anything out of it. He just leaned back against it, looking as calm and as relaxed as Theo felt desperate.

McCormack took his hand away from Theo’s mouth then. Theo didn’t try to speak, he just peered up at him, licking his lips as he continued to recite those silent pleas. His mouth felt so empty.

“Good boy.” McCormack nodded once.

Theo hoped like hell that meant what he thought it did. Reaching up, Theo undid McCormack’s belt and moved on to his fly.

McCormack was going commando. All Theo had to do was tug his leather trousers down a few inches, and he was completely accessible, his hard cock pointing straight out, straight towards Theo’s mouth.

The head of his cock was pierced.

Theo stopped short when he saw it. He probably should have guessed that McCormack hadn’t stopped at facial and ear piercings.

Theo had planned to ask, to wait for permission like he suspected a good sub would. But the temptation was too great. He leaned forward and circled the piercing with his tongue. There was no real flavour to the metal. All he tasted was McCormack, and he was instantly enthralled. He leaned further forward, taking the head between his lips.

It was only when he tried to take more and realised that there was no way he would be able to take a cock that size completely into his mouth that it occurred to him that McCormack was probably used to guys who could do that.

A little voice reminded him that this was why he should have stuck to other guys who didn’t know what they were doing either. He didn’t even know enough about vanilla stuff to keep up.

Theo pulled back slightly. Better to confess him limitations now than have McCormack think he just wasn’t trying. “I don’t know how to deep throat, sir.”

“I didn’t order you to deep throat me. But, if I want you to obey that command in future, I’m quite capable of teaching you how to do that.”

So simple. So straightforward. Theo felt something settle inside him. Once McCormack was making all the decisions, everything was so easy.

And maybe it wasn’t lack of experience that had made him wary when he was going down on McCormack. Maybe it was actually the fact that McCormack wasn’t overtly calling the shots that made it difficult.

Theo took a deep breath, reached up and caught hold of McCormack’s wrist.

McCormack raised a pierced eyebrow at him, but he allowed Theo to move his hand so it rested on the back of Theo’s head.

Theo let go then, hoping that McCormack understood what he was asking for.

McCormack smiled and took a tight hold on Theo’s hair. Guiding him forward, he had complete control of how quickly and how deeply Theo slid his lips down the length of his dick.

He didn’t try to make Theo take more than he had before, but the fact that McCormack had taken over all of the decisions made everything different.

Theo’s cock jerked. He had to curl his hands into fists at his sides to stop himself reaching for his own erection.

It was pure bliss. But, after letting Theo bob his head forward less than a dozen times, McCormack stopped him short. The grip on his hair prevented him from moving at all.

Theo looked up at McCormack. The tip of McCormack’s dick still rested in his mouth and excused him from asking what he had done wrong. Then, he realised that he must have actually done something incredibly right, because McCormack started to rock his hips. Holding Theo still, he thrust into Theo’s mouth. Again, it wasn’t deeper or harsher than before, but it was another layer of perfection.

Theo moaned around McCormack’s shaft. He wasn’t sure if McCormack could come from this, but he was sure he could, even if the only bits of him McCormack touched were his hair and his mouth.

Theo let his eyes drop closed. He knew he was rocking his own hips in time with McCormack’s thrusts. There wasn’t anything for his cock to rub against, but each movement made him tighten his arse muscles and caused the plug to rub against his prostate.

Without any warning, McCormack stilled again. His grip on Theo’s hair tightened even further, and he pulled Theo to his feet. Before Theo had time to protest, to apologise, to remember that his mouth could be used to form words rather than just suck cock. McCormack spun him around so his hands were braced against the countertop that McCormack had been leaning against just a moment before.

McCormack was behind him now. He leaned forward and his hard cock rubbed against Theo’s arse.

“As wonderful as your mouth feels, it’s not what I want from you right now, pet.”

“Yes, sir.” Theo had never been more certain about an answer in his life.

McCormack had the plug removed and tossed aside within seconds.

Theo bit down on his bottom lip. He’d been filled for so long, he’d expected it to be a relief when the plug was gone. But, the empty feeling that spiralled through him made him more desperate than ever for McCormack’s cock.

He really wished he knew if begging would encourage McCormack or if it would put him off. Unable to risk it, Theo bit his tongue, both literally and figuratively. Closing his eyes, he just leaned against the counter and tried to remain as still as possible as he waited for an order.

*

McCormack had a condom out of a packet and onto his cock in record time. Slicking his fingers, he worked them inside Theo. The plug had done its work and Theo immediately pushed back against him, looking for more. He was ready.

When McCormack took his fingers away, Theo gasped, but he didn’t look around, he didn’t speak. Lacking any new orders, he fell into obeying the orders that he’d been given earlier when he was facing the wall.

“Good boy,” McCormack whispered, as he added some extra lube to his condom-covered dick.

Theo visibly relaxed at the praise.

“So good.”

McCormack steadied Theo with one hand on his side as he pushed into him for the first time. Just like with his fingers, Theo instantly tried to push back and get more. McCormack quickly moved both his hands to Theo’s hips and held him still.

Enthusiasm was great, but it wouldn’t do to let Theo think that he could call the shots. It wasn’t up to Theo how quickly McCormack buried himself in Theo’s arse.

Theo squirmed, not against the penetration, just against the restraint.

“Not your choice,” McCormack whispered into Theo’s ear. “You have your safe word, but there isn’t a limit in the world that will allow you to take control of the details when I screw you.”

Theo groaned. “I’m s—”

“Don’t apologise,” McCormack cut in. “Just don’t think you’re going to get your own way with this.”

He had stopped all movement on his own part when Theo started to try to take control and he still wasn’t entirely buried in Theo’s arse. When he finally did start moving again he made a point of moving more slowly than ever.

Theo whimpered. His grip on the edge of the countertop threatened to leave deep fingertip impressions. Years passed and, finally, McCormack slid home.

Theo gasped, tipping his head back. As magnificent as McCormack felt buried inside him that way, there was one downside to the position. It was impossible for him to see Theo’s expression. But, happily, that was a very easy problem to fix.

He nudged Theo forward so that he could reach past him, over the counter, to the back wall.

Pushing the screen there, McCormack slid it to the side. Theo gasped as he saw his reflection revealed in the mirror behind the panel.

He’d never seen himself having sex. Nothing could have been more obvious. He’d said he wasn’t a virgin, and McCormack believed him. But it was clear that neither Theo nor his previous partners had been inclined to experiment or try even the mildest kink. The boy was still full of first times.

McCormack rocked his hips. Theo’s eyes opened very wide as he held his own gaze in the mirror.

Moving his hands away from Theo’s waist, McCormack stroked over Theo’s shoulders and chest. Theo followed every movement in their reflection, so obviously shocked by it all.

For a man who McCormack suspected spent hours looking in the mirror every day, making sure he looked pretty for social media, Theo was completely blindsided by seeing someone else join him in his reflection.

Theo shifted his weight and pushed back into every thrust, but he didn’t take his hands from the edge of the countertop. He might as well have been in bondage. That just made the freedom McCormack had to run his hands all over Theo’s body more of a contrast.

Sliding one hand up to Theo’s hair, McCormack took a tight grip on the long, colourful strands. Tilting Theo’s head back, he exposed the boy’s neck and ran his lips along the firm curve of muscle.

Theo licked his lips in the reflection, arching his back and tilting his head to expose his neck even further. It was pure submission. Not so much an invitation to bite down on the skin there as a plea to.

No. No marks. Not yet, not until he knew for sure exactly where Theo’s limits lay in that regard. McCormack trailed his lips over the boy’s neck again.

One day he’d have the opportunity to leave whatever marks he wanted. But by that time, he wouldn’t be able to follow the line of Theo’s throat without interruption, because there would be a collar there, blocking his way, marking Theo out as belonging to him far more than a bite mark ever would.

Theo gasped, squirming, so on edge. “Please.” It was several seconds, several thrusts, before he managed to finish the request. “Sir.”

“What do you want, pet?” McCormack didn’t alter his rhythm at all.

“Do I need permission to come, sir?” Theo eventually managed to ask.

McCormack kept hold of Theo’s hair with one hand, but let the other move from where he’d been teasing Theo’s nipples, down to Theo’s dick.

Theo let out a cry at the first touch.

“From now on, you always need permission to come,” McCormack growled in his ear. “Every time.”

Theo whimpered. “Please?”

McCormack wrapped his hand more firmly around Theo’s cock. Every thrust pushed Theo forward, forcing him to thrust his dick into McCormack’s hand and tease himself even though he knew he couldn’t come yet.

“Please, sir.”

He repeated it over and over again. Eyes closed, head tilted back toward the ceiling, his grip on the edge of the counter as white-knuckled as ever.

McCormack altered his hold on Theo’s hair, tilting his head so he looked forward into the mirror. “Open your eyes.”

Theo just repeated his plea.

“Open your eyes, and you’ll be allowed to come.”

Theo didn’t obey for several seconds. It apparently took him that long to translate the words into something his brain could process. When he understood, his eyes flew open.

Their gazes locked in the mirror. A second later, Theo cried out as he came. His hands stayed on the counter as McCormack thrust into him faster and more roughly than ever, riding him through his orgasm.

All the energy seemed to leave Theo as his orgasm drained him dry. By the time McCormack finally allowed himself to come, he was supporting more of Theo’s weight than Theo was supporting himself.

McCormack held Theo tightly against his body as he studied his expression in the mirror. He gasped as he sensed McCormack come, and locked eyes with him.

When they both stilled, the only sound in the room was their ragged breaths. McCormack continued to hold Theo’s gaze, but as Theo recovered, he looked down. McCormack watched as Theo ran his attention over every bit of their reflection. For a while, he was full of afterglow and so relaxed, but gradually tension built up in him.

“Okay, pet?”

Theo nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“There was only one right answer to that question, only one right answer to any question I ask you, and that’s the truth.” McCormack didn’t try to soften the statement.

In the reflection, Theo’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

“You look…” Theo hesitated, but his tone alone was enough to make it clear that whatever would have completed the sentence would have been positive. “In comparison, I look…”

McCormack studied their reflection again. He wasn’t someone who worried too much about how other people thought he looked, but he did his best to try to see himself through Theo’s eyes, to make the comparisons that Theo seemed to see so easily.

Theo was young and pretty. Even naked bar his wrists and with his hair all messed up, he looked somehow, neat, fashionable, polite. Polished.

Yes, that was it. Polished. Theo looked like he’d carefully removed every hard edge and awkward facet of himself to make himself as palatable as possible for his audience.

In comparison, McCormack could see how Theo would see nothing but hard edges when he looked at his new master. But, it didn’t seem to make Theo wary of McCormack, just more critical of himself.

“I can get less…”

McCormack caught his eye. A look alone was enough to make it clear the sentence would be finished.

Theo released his grip on the countertop and pushed his fingers through his hair. “Less rainbows and more leather, sir?”

Finally separating their bodies, McCormack discarded the condom and turned Theo to face him.

“What makes you think I have a problem with a little bit of colour?” McCormack asked.

Theo hesitated, seemingly incapable of seeing what was right in front of him.

McCormack shrugged off his leather waistcoat and then the T-shirt he wore beneath it.

Theo reached out to him, but hesitated at the last second.

“Go ahead.”

Theo tentatively traced one of McCormack’s tattoos with his fingertips. That particular design was a twisting length of rope, knotted around chain, all in tones of black and grey. He glanced up and met McCormack’s eyes for a moment. He looked wary, as if he wasn’t quite sure whether or not he was being made fun of.

McCormack just held his gaze.

Finally, Theo nodded, very slowly. He moved on to a leopard design with gold highlights on its fur. Across further and he reached an intricate depiction of a Japanese fish—its scales showing a dozen different colours. Theo swallowed.

As he moved his fingers over McCormack’s chest in the other direction he finally found the prism design and the refracted light passing through it. A rainbow. He smiled then.

McCormack reached out to Theo in return, but he didn’t run his fingers over his chest, he caught hold of his wrists. One wrist was still wrapped in leather, the other was encircled by the collar.

“Yes, sir,” Theo whispered. It wasn’t clear what he was saying yes to. Yes, he understood. Yes to everything in the whole damn world.

“There’ll be a formal collaring for you at some point, but I’m a patient man when it comes to important things. You’ll have plenty of warning and time to prepare for it however you need to.”

Theo’s hand twitched as he instinctively moved to run his hand through his hair again when he remembered their conversation about shaving his head.

McCormack half expected an objection, or at least a look of horror, but there was something else in his eyes, that same something that McCormack had thought he’d seen last time they spoke about it. At least some part of Theo loved the idea, craved it. And that was the moment McCormack made his final decision on the matter.

“Yes,” McCormack confirmed. “You’ll be allowed to grow it back later, if you want to, but for the collaring, you’ll be shaved. Not just your head, all over. Everything but your eyebrows.”

“Yes, sir.” He was probably aiming to sound neutral, but fascinated would probably be a more accurate description. McCormack had no doubt Theo would get nervous and have his doubts before it actually happened, but the fact that the boy was already getting hard again, even though he had only just come, definitely confirmed that there was something about the idea that really appealed.

“Good boy.”

Dipping his head, McCormack brushed their mouths together.

Theo gasped as if McCormack had just done something unexpected and shockingly kinky.

McCormack chuckled as he trailed his lips over Theo’s check. “Didn’t you know kinky people kiss too?” he whispered in his ear.

Theo shook his head, eyes still wide with shock and awe.

“You really do have a lot to learn, don’t you?”

Theo nodded, his eyes glued to McCormack’s lips as he waited in obvious hope for another kiss.

McCormack smiled. “Don’t worry, pet, I’m a good teacher.” And, dipping his head to bring their mouths together again, he gave his new sub exactly what he wanted.

Also in the Kinky Cupid Series

Once a Brat

Experienced dominant Marcus has a stalker. On the plus side, the boy who follows him around every time he visits his local leather club is both gorgeous and a self-professed submissive. On the other hand the boy is also inexperienced, bratty and liable to drive Marcus insane within his constant chatter.

Bret fell head over heels with Marcus the moment he saw him. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to get Marcus’s attention and prove his own worth as a submissive. Just because he isn’t a traditional sub, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a lot to offer a dom who can handle his quirks.

When Marcus gives in and agrees to do a scene with Bret, sparks soon fly. But, will it be a case of once a brat, always a brat?

Find out more about this title.

Base Over Apex

It’s Valentine’s at The Spread Eagle leather club, but the only sub Jack’s even spoken to belongs to his best friend, Marcus—and all Bret did was con him into taking a stupid bet. It is not going to be a good Valentine’s night…

The moment Jack sees Ricky walking naked through the bar, he wants him. When Ricky kneels at his feet and offers him the keys to his restraints, it’s obvious that his interest is returned. It might just be the best Valentine’s Jack’s ever had…

Ricky is sweet, and eager to please, and obviously new to leather. He’s the kind of guy who actually makes Jack wonder if “something at first-sight” might really be possible. But, when it suddenly becomes apparent that everything is not what it seems, the only thing Jack knows for sure if that this Valentine’s night is going to get very, very complicated.

Find out more about this title.

Sticks and Stones

As the owner of The Spread Eagle, Mr Tomlinson has told himself that the only reason he keeps a watchful eye on his bartender, Dan, is because he doesn't like his employees slacking off when they're on the clock. What other interest could he have in Dan when they are both confirmed doms?

Finding out from the club's resident brat, Bret, that Dan has switched in the past, opens up a whole new world of opportunities for Mr Tomlinson. And, discovering that Bret is trying to set Dan up with a dom who is completely unsuitable for him means that Mr Tomlinson has to act quickly.

But was everything Bret told Mr Tomlinson the truth? And, if Dan really is a switch, why has he been lying about that ever since he came to work at The Spread Eagle?

This title will be released in February 2019 – find out more.

Other books by Kim Dare

Series

Werewolves & Dragons

The Avian Shifters

FIT Guys

How I Met My Master…

Hearts and Handcuffs

Thrown to the Lions

Rawlings Men

Sex Sells

Sun, Sea and Submission

The Whole A-Z

Pack Discipline

G-A-Y Lust Bites

Perfect Timing

Collared

Stand Alone Novels

Pushing the Envelope

With a Kiss

Kim Dare has also written a number of free short stories.

You can find these on her website.

About the Author

Kim is a bisexual submissive from Wales (UK). First published in 2008, she has since released over 100 BDSM erotic romance titles ranging from short stories to full length novels. Having worked with a host of fantastic e-publishers, she moved into self publishing in 2013.

While she occasionally enjoys writing other pairings, most of Kim's stories focus on Male/Male relationships. But, no matter what the pairing, from paranormal to contemporary, and from the sweet to the intense, everything she writes will always feature three things - Kink, Love and a Happy Ending.

You can find out more about Kim's books on her website, follow her on Twitter and Facebook, catch up with her blog, and email her directly using the links below.

Website: www.kimdare.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/KimDareAuthor

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/kimdareauthor

Blog: www.kimdare.wordpress.com

E-mail: kim@kimdare.com