Keeping the Faith

My God, the last chapter… my hands are still cramping from inserting all the HTML tags for italicized speech for Leon. It seemed funny, though, so I guess it worked out all right.

I finally got my hands on Billy Joel’s “Storm Front” album, and fell in love with this song almost instantly. I heard it once, and I just knew I had to use it in a chapter. I was going to use it in the previous one, but then I decided that it worked better here. I mean, the feel of the song, and the emotion in it, was perfect for the previous chapter. But right here, it’s great for the lyrics and the raw honesty.

I’m sure most of you would disagree with using a love song in a BDSM scene. Just bear with me, okay? It works, I promise.

That’s right. Speed has finally persuaded Horatio to take him to Club Deviate, but not for reasons you might think. Horatio has a few inner demons that he needs to have exorcised, and he’s just plain tired of thinking for a while.

And, of course, Speed is bored.

And by the way, I’m sorry it took this chapter so long to get out. This is by far the longest one I’ve written for an online story, and it’s nearly 60 pages on a size 12 font. I’ve also been watching my boxed sets of CSI: Miami because I know I’ve had to work more than one Monday night. I’ve got a few more chapters that I’m already working on—I tend to jump around—and some of my later ones are going to get pretty heavy, emotionally.

EDIT 8/25/07: Corrected a very stupid, glaring mistake later in this chapter. No more "suddenly, magically naked!" *headdesk*

SPOILER WARNING: Season 3 episode “Identity”

This chapter’s warnings: M/M, M/M/F (don’t kill me!), BDSM, oral, anal, flogging, D/s, bondage, voyeurism, exhibitionism, angst, soloM… God, did I forget anything?

This chapter’s pairings: Horatio/Speed, with a little light touchy-feely from Mistress Pamela (does that count as a threesome?)


Well, I'm shameless when it comes to loving you
I'd do anything you want me to
I'd do anything at all
And I'm standing here for all the world to see
There ain't that much left of me
That has very far to fall

You know I'm not a man who has ever been
Insecure about the world I've been living in
I don't break easy, I have my pride
But if you need to be satisfied

Billy Joel – "Shameless"

5 ½ MONTHS AFTER SHOOTING

Speed felt the front door slam more than heard it, and he turned down the music in his room. Opening the door and stepping out into the hallway, he could hear Horatio roughly stuffing his gun into the gun safe and dropping his keys on the entrance table, growling all the while.

Padding carefully down the steps, Speed’s ears caught a name that sounded like “Clavo,” and he stopped. That could only mean one thing: Horatio’s arrogant, wannabe nemesis had apparently made a comeback. Clavo Cruz, the next young prince of Baracas, and an egotistical bastard that loved his diplomatic immunity so much that he deliberately broke laws with the express purpose of making Horatio steam.

“H?” he called softly, hoping to distract his lover’s seething rage. To hear Horatio being so rough with his weapon, to hear that much cursing spilling from the redhead’s lips, was the equivalent of less-sturdy men screaming and throwing furniture.

“Speed.” Horatio acknowledged him flatly, without the slightest hint of feeling. If he let one emotion out, he’d have to let them all out, and that could be bad. He paced around the living room with his hands on his hips, looking for all the world to Speed like an angry lion, stalking past the bars of its cage in an endless prowl, searching for a way to get to the other side so it could go on a rampage and maul all the bystanders.

Speed stood there quietly, his hand still on the railing of the stairs. “You want to talk about it?”

Horatio halted, glaring at nothing. “No.”

The younger man stared at him, hiding his hurt. “Fine. Don’t shoot the messenger,” he grumbled with just the right amount of edge, and it worked.

“Wait. Speed… I’m sorry, it’s just…” Horatio tilted his head to one side and the other, little cracks sounding up and down his neck.

“Just what?” Speed asked calmly.

Horatio paused. “Clavo Cruz,” he spat, as though the name was a curse.

So Speed had heard correctly. He finished his slow walk to his lover, laying gentle hands on his shoulders. “Sit down, H, you’re wearing tracks in the carpet. Sit down, tell me about it.”

Horatio sighed and allowed the younger man to lead him to the couch, sliding his coat off his shoulders and laying it over the armrest. Speed settled down on the seat next to him, reaching across his shoulders and working his hands across the too-tense muscles. His right hand was noticeably weaker than his left, but Horatio didn’t complain. He simply closed his eyes and allowed his lover’s calm and sturdy affection to wear down his stress.

Speed finally spoke. “So… Clavo?”

The knots threatened to return to Horatio’s shoulders, but Speed continued to rub them away. “I got him, Speed,” Horatio said softly.

“You what?”

“I got Clavo,” Horatio repeated. “He’s sitting in lockup right now.”

Speed was confused. “That’s great, right? You’ve been after that guy for a while.”

Horatio gave a grudging nod. “Yes, but at a cost that I hadn’t foreseen. Speed, I tore his family apart.”

Speed just waited, one hand sliding from his lover’s shoulder to grasp his hand, clasping it tight.

“I took everything away from him,” Horatio said quietly, his eyes heavy with his own guilt. “I took his brother away, and now I’ve destroyed his family. His mother is the only one that stood up for him.”

Speed wanted to remind Horatio that the little prick had deserved it, but stopped himself. Family was very important to Horatio, and something that the redhead no longer had. Speed didn’t know all the details, but he strongly suspected that his lover’s last moments with his father had been less than peaceful.

“I had to do a DNA test to confirm it,” Horatio continued. “General Cruz is not Clavo’s father… and when I confronted him and got him to rescind Clavo’s immunity, his wife left him.” He gave a heavy sigh, tilting his head toward his lover and feeling Speed tilt his head toward him, their soft hair blending as they rested against each other. “When I told him about his wife’s infidelity, I think he gave Clavo up just to punish her.”

“H,” Speed whispered, squeezing his hand. “Think of how many people you saved, getting that punk behind bars. Miami—hell, the world—is better off with him in a cage. I hate what you had to do to the Cruz family to do it… but think of all the people that’ll live longer now that he’s off the streets.”

Horatio nodded and tried to let Speed’s words comfort him. But, try as he might, he couldn’t get the image of Dona Cruz out of his mind, with tears slipping down her cheeks as she sat in a yellow taxi, while her husband had started up his Bentley. They may have loved each other, once, and had been a proud and dutiful family. But now, “because of me…”

“Because of justice,” Speed interrupted. “You did what you had to do.”

Horatio gave a world-weary sigh. “Sometimes…” he paused, searching for the words. “Sometimes I get so damn tired of making all these decisions for these people,” he finished with a growl, and Speed’s eyelids flicked. Obviously the redhead was even more stressed than Speed had previously thought… and only one solution came to mind.

He sat up, dislodging his lover and earning him an irritated grunt in the process, but he ignored it. “Stand up, and get your coat back on,” Speed said firmly. “We’re going out.”

Horatio shot him a Very Patient Look, the one that left Speed under no illusions as to just how much was boiling under Horatio’s skin. Speed ignored that, too. “Up. Coat. Now.”

Horatio’s eyebrows rose slowly, which was a definite warning. Speed knew that H would never strike him in anger, but it was still no mean feat to hold his ground against that simmering glare.

But Horatio wasn’t the one in control right now. At least, he hadn’t figured it out yet.

Speed stood, turned, and planted his hands on either side of his lover’s hips, their faces nearly touching. “Are you going to make me repeat myself… Cain?”

Horatio blinked, and sudden understanding hit him. When Speed called him Cain—and he knew that his lover had deliberately left out the E—that could mean only one thing. Horatio allowed his features to soften for a moment, in a look of thanks. He needed this… and he’d had no idea how badly. “No.”

“No what?”

Horatio swallowed and lowered his eyes. “No, I’m not going to make you repeat yourself, sir.” He waited for Speed to move so he could stand and grab his sport coat. They tromped through the living room, Speed at the lead, and they’d reached the door when the redhead paused, hesitant. Speed turned.

“Horatio?”

That was Speed’s way of making sure that Horatio wanted it… and he was surprised how much he really did. He’d just said it, hadn’t he, that he was tired of making decisions. Let Speed handle him for a while. “I’m coming, sir.”

Speed leered at him. “You’d better not be. We haven’t even left the house yet.”

Horatio risked a chuckle. “I’ll try to restrain myself, sir.”

“Do that. And hush. Last thing I need is a backseat driver.” Which was Speed’s rather blunt way of telling the redhead to shut up and give him the keys. Horatio took it in good humor, almost smiling. Odd, how his spirits were starting to lift already.

They were going clubbing at last… and not to just any club. This was Club Deviate, run by a Mistress Pamela. For lack of better terms, it was a refuge from sexual persecution, complete with a wet bar, dance floor, and fully equipped dungeon. Everyone used code names, and everyone wore their sexuality openly and for all to see. Other than his home, it was the only place that Horatio and Speed could let loose and enjoy all those dark, twisted, and slightly insane urges that hit them.

Horatio glanced at his lover, who was focused on the road, but the twitching of the younger man’s leg gave his nervousness away. “Speed?”

“Deeps, Cain. Call me Deeps.”

Horatio chuckled. “But we’re not there yet.”

Tim shot him a long-suffering glance. “Can’t you see that I’m trying to get you into the mood, here?”

“Sorry.” Horatio gave a quick snort of laughter, followed by lots of silence, broken only by a soft sigh. “I wanted to thank you, for doing this tonight.”

“It’s no problem, H,” Speed relented. “I just figured that with all the shit you’ve been going through lately, it just might be nice for you to let somebody else do all the thinking.”

Horatio flicked an eyebrow. “You’ve been planning this for a while, haven’t you?”

“Fantasizing.”

The redhead thought for a moment. “Should I be worried?”

Speed gave a casual shrug. “No more than you should’ve been the last time I topped.”

Horatio chuckled. “And what’d you do to me?”

“Tied you up, beat you until you were bloody, and fucked your brains out.”

“Brains I’m fond of, by the way,” Horatio growled without malice.

“Well, obviously they grew back, so it’s time for a repeat operation,” Speed said with a grin. “I’m a scientist. I’m allowed to run trials until I find a solution that works.”

“Too long of a recovery period, probably,” Horatio offered, smiling himself.

“Mm-hmm. We’ll have to fix that.”

Horatio settled back into his seat, letting his lover drive. “That we will, Mr. Deeps.”

Speed glanced over at him. “Good boy.”

I'm shameless, baby I don't have a prayer
Anytime I see you standing there
I go down upon my knees
And I'm changing, I swore I'd never compromise
But you convinced me otherwise
I'll do anything you please

Billy Joel – "Shameless"

“God, I missed this place,” Speed remarked as they climbed out of the vehicle. “I swear, I’m getting hard already just thinking about it.”

“Same here,” Horatio murmured. The ‘club’ was a misnomer; it was actually quite a large building, almost a mansion. It sat in an area of Miami that most of the locals liked to quaintly refer to as ‘the middle of nowhere,’ and for good reason. It was too big, too lewd, and its patrons too high-profile to stay anywhere near the city.

The parking lot was actually a large gravel lot. Due to the frequency of Miami rainfall, Horatio would have to run through a car wash first thing in the morning, but he figured that it would be worth it. Memories were already coming back… dark, beautiful, nasty, loving, and insane memories.

“Has it really been six months since we’ve been here?” Speed insisted in disbelief as they passed through the heavy oaken door.

“Almost,” Horatio confirmed as they caught sight of the bouncer. “Felix!”

The giant turned. He was built much in the manner of an ancient Roman god, complete with Caesar bangs, a square jaw, and muscles everywhere. He wore nothing but brown leather straps crossed in an X across his chest, in the center being a large metal ring. His modesty was protected by what looked appropriately like the sort of armored skirt that ancient Roman centurions had worn. Indeed, give him a crested helmet, a gladius sword, and a bronze breastplate, and he would almost be ready to go to the Coliseum. Around his neck was a studded leather collar with a dog tag hanging from it. The tag read “Felix,” with a blue ring around the edges. A larger, hunter’s orange tag hung behind it.

Hearing his name, the big man locked eyes on them, and those eyes widened. Felix all but bowed as he spoke. “Master Cain! Mr. Deeps! It is good to see you!”

Horatio nodded in greeting. “Good to see you, too, Felix. It’s been quite a while. How have you been?”

“I’ve been great,” Felix responded with a grin, sticking out a big meaty paw for the two men to shake. “And where in the hell have you two been?”

They took no offense. “I got into an accident at work,” Speed fibbed. “So, I had to stay at home to recover, and in the meantime I moved in with Cain here.”

The giant’s eyes widened. “For six months? Goddamn! What’d you do, blow your arm off?”

“Something like that,” Horatio responded with a light smile.

“And he’s been living with you this whole time?” Felix continued, his chest shaking with sudden laughter at Speed’s cleverness. “Deeps, you smart, sneaky son of a bitch.”

“Thanks,” Speed said with a grin. “How are you and Jaelix doing?”

“Oh, we’re fan-fuckin’-tastic!” the giant smiled happily. Felix and Jaelix were some of the club’s part-time bouncers, among other things. They were well known as being an ‘open couple,’ and both were switches, meaning that they had no problems being on top or on the bottom. They were both men, and both absolutely huge. What was interesting about seeing them as a couple was that other than their size, their looks were at completely opposite ends of the spectrum.

Felix looked between the two men, sizing them up. “So, who’s in charge tonight?” he asked with a sly grin, and Horatio ducked his head.

Speed stepped forward. “I am. Is the Mistress available?”

Felix tilted his head. “I don’t know, sir.” He turned to the side, to a young man kneeling almost out of sight. “Syncro, on your feet!” he snapped, and the young slave hopped up immediately, eyes downcast and wearing nothing but short black jogging shorts and a nylon collar, blue ring on the tag. “Syncro, find Mistress Pamela, and tell her that Master Cain and Mr. Deeps are here, but don’t interrupt her if she’s mid-scene. Go.”

The slave spun and darted off without a word. Felix turned back to his guests and hooked a thumb over his shoulder at the already-vanished young sub. “He’s new, but he’s already settling into the mindset.”

Speed gave a one-shoulder shrug out of habit, peering around. “Not much has changed,” he noted.

Felix gave a small shake of his head. “Up here, no, but wait until you see downstairs. We’ve added an entire section to the dungeon. Jaelix is playing Dungeon Monitor by the big racks. Oh, and Tabitha is here, if you’re up for a flogging later.”

Speed and Horatio traded glances. Jaelix was an excellent Monitor, and they felt quite safe under his supervision. It was an added bonus that Tabitha was here… the club’s resident, semi-official Lady of the Whip.

Minutes passed, and then came the sound of bare feet thumping on the carpet; Syncro returning sooner than anticipated. He skidded to a halt in front of Felix, eyes automatically on the floor. “May I, sir?” he asked breathlessly.

“You may,” Felix responded.

Eyes still down, Syncro calmly informed the trio that Mistress Pamela was unoccupied and in her office, and that her favored guests were free to join her there once they’d gotten themselves properly attired.

Speed extended his elbow. “Shall we, Cain?”

Horatio nodded and hooked his arm into his lover’s. “We shall, sir.”

They waved to Felix and rounded the corner to the receptionist’s desk, where a middle-aged woman in a skimpy black leather outfit sat applying blood-red nail polish to one slender hand. “Tim Speedle and Horatio Caine,” Speed murmured softly. She nodded and punched up some keys on the computer with her dry hand. She nodded at what she saw, wheeled her rolling chair around, and used her key to pop open a small cabinet. She withdrew a small locker key as well as a small plastic basket. Holding the basket out to her customers, Speed and Horatio dumped all contents of all pockets into it, as well as their phones and watches.

Once you entered this building, your outside persona ceased to exist. They were no longer Horatio Caine and Tim Speedle. They were simply Master Cain, bisexual, and Mr. Deeps, homosexual. Another reason for giving up their personal belongings was to prevent theft.

Once they patted their pockets to assure her that nothing was still inside them, she took the basket to a row of lockers in a back room and locked them safely inside. She returned to them with a smile and a nod, handing them their locker key.

They followed the familiar route to the branching hallway, with “Men” and an arrow pointing one way, and a matching “Women” in the other direction. Between the two was a sign that asked patrons to “Please do not engage in sexual activities in the locker rooms. A second set of locker rooms, complete with showers, has been furnished for this purpose in the East Wing. Thank you for your cooperation.” The two men exchanged smiles and a shake of the head as they followed the “Men” arrow.

They were the only occupants in the rather large room, its walls lined with tall, foot-and-a-half-wide steel doors, numbered and locked. A row of benches ran through the middle of the room, and at the end of the room was a bank of shower stalls. They found their locker and Horatio inserted their key into the lock.

He pulled clothing and other items out of the locker, handing some of them to his lover. For himself, he preferred a tight-fitting black T-shirt and black leather pants with gleaming metal rivets up the sides, with a red leather belt. What few people realized about the pants was that the reason the back seam between the pockets was so thick was that it concealed a zipper, although that saw admittedly little use. Horatio was usually the top whenever they came here.

Horatio stripped down to nothing and stowed his clothing neatly, and squirmed carefully into the black garments. In the bottom of the locker was a comfortable pair of sandals with nylon straps across the top of the foot and around the ankles, with thick rubber soles. Right above the sandals he attached leather cuffs, also dark red, with metal D-rings at four points. Similar cuffs went on his wrists. He pulled out Speed’s ring so that it hung in front of his shirt, and fished around in the locker for his collar.

His collar was a sturdy strip of dark red leather with a small, shining metal buckle. The tag dangling from it said simply ‘Cain,’ and had a rubber ring around the edges—a dog tag silencer, used primarily by sport-hunters—that had been stained blue on one half and pink on the other, indicating that the wearer was bisexual. On the back of the tag was a sticker with a bar code. With their wallets and keys in the possession of the receptionist, they carried no cash. Any service they wanted that the club needed reimbursement for, all the attendant had to do was scan the barcode, and that service would be put onto their tab to be paid at the end of the evening.

Speed’s clothing of choice a pair of tight, hip-hugging jeans with frayed knees that had been obviously patched with thick squares of leather, a soft cotton lining sewn into the denim around the crotch area so he could comfortably go commando, and reinforced belt loops. The pants also had a large split between the back pockets that had been cleverly disguised with Velcro. He wore a heavy leather belt, a tight black leather vest that hung open, and cuffs on both wrists and both ankles that were made of sturdy woven nylon with a silk lining to prevent chafing. The cuffs also had a pair of D-rings for clipping things. Completing the look was a thin leather collar, dyed black, with a tag that read ‘Mr. Deeps’ and had blue rubber ring.

To complete the outfit, Speed pulled on a pair of sandals similar to Horatio’s and attached a small drawstring bag at his left hip that contained a bottle of lube and a string of condoms.

It was such an easy system, Speed thought to himself as he looked at his collar. If your tag ring was blue, you liked men. If your tag ring was pink, you liked women. If your tag ring had both colors, then obviously you played with both genders. It was one of the great things about this place: nobody hid their sexuality here, and nobody was ashamed of it.

Another neat thing were the collars themselves. Not everybody wore actual, buckled collars; those tended to stick with the S&M crowd. Some people wore chokers, or loose beaded necklaces, or jewelry chains, or whatever else they fancied. One guy, who called himself Orvis, wore his tag on a strand of the strongest fishing line he could find on the market. Some sort of neckwear for your tag was mandatory, though, so it gave people a way to express themselves… as well as certain kinks they might fancy.

Speed fingered the tag, grinning over at Horatio. “Been a while since we’ve worn these, huh?”

“Mm-hmm,” Horatio replied, running his eyes hungrily over his lover. “I forgot how good you looked in a collar.”

Speed stood slowly, walking to the older man. “Me? If you kept those pants at home, we’d never fucking leave the house!” He stepped forward until their faces nearly touched, and without turning reached into the locker for the long, thin leather leash. “Ready, H?”

Horatio nodded and tilted his head up, allowing Speed to clip the leash to his collar. To mark himself as a top, Speed took another little charm they’d gotten from the front desk, a small leather riding crop roughly one foot long, and tied it carefully to the belt loop on his right hip, along with their locker key. Horatio offered the loop of the leash, and Speed slipped his wrist through it.

They stood quietly for a moment, the smells and the atmosphere beginning to change them. Horatio stood still, his head lowered, as Speed straightened and took on an air of control. It came so naturally to them, even after their long absence. Risking a glance at his lover, Horatio couldn’t stop the soft sigh that escaped his lips. Standing there, tall and proud, Speed just looked so “magnificent,” he whispered as he dropped to his knees.

“You say something, H?” Speed looked down at the redhead, who was staring fixedly at the floor.

“No, sir,” Horatio murmured contritely.

“I think you did,” Speed said casually. “And you know what?”

“What, sir?”

“Look at me.” Horatio looked up at his lover, who stared back with an absolutely evil grin. “I’m going to teach you a lesson, Cain.”

Horatio’s pupils dilated. “Will you, sir?”

“I will. Now let’s go. The Mistress is waiting.”

Horatio all but leapt to his feet, and Speed gave a quick tug on the leash, headed for the dungeon. Horatio kept his eyes downcast as they walked, like a good slave, and Speed marveled silently at how easily they fit into these roles. In their normal day-to-day relationship, it was obvious that Horatio was the dominant one, but every now and then, the urge hit him and he could do nothing but slave himself out to his lover.

Emerging into the more populated areas, they saw many familiar faces right off the bat. Several of them smiled and waved in recognition, or came over to chat. It was immediately obvious that Cain would not be a Dom tonight, judging by the way he hung back and stared at the floor as Mr. Deeps spoke, but they said hello anyway.

“Mr. Deeps!” a smooth male voice rang out, and they turned to see a tall, oriental man striding to them. He was dressed rather like a Samurai in straw-like sandals and a black silk kimono. A long, rigid leather strap with a handle was held to his hip by his cloth belt, and his collar was a thin black strip of silk, with a tag proclaiming his name “Kurotaka-sama.” The tag’s ring was pink. Tagging along behind him was a slim blonde woman with large green eyes and a skimpy red kimono that barely covered her privates. Like her master, she wore simple straw sandals and a similar black silk choker, only her tag said “Momo” and had a blue ring. She was attached to her master’s wrist by a thin, braided white leather leash.

“Master Kurotaka,” Speed replied, coming to a stop, and Horatio stopped dutifully behind him. “Been quite a while, sir.”

“And to you,” Kurotaka replied with a small bow as Momo fixed her eyes to the floor. “You have been well, I hope?”

Speed gave a polite shrug. “I had an accident at work, which is why you haven’t seen me for a while. But there’s good news; I’m living with him now.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder, indicating his pet redhead.

Kurotaka smiled. “I am pleased to hear that. It always troubled me that you were forced to live apart from each other.”

“Well, we’re doing a lot better now. Hey, you haven’t seen Trance or Hoppy around, have you?”

Kurotaka shook his head. “I have not. Momo?”

“Yes, Master?” Kurotaka’s slave spoke softly.

“Have you seen either of those people tonight?”

“No, Master.”

Kurotaka clicked his tongue. “Thank you, Momo,” he murmured, touching her cheek briefly, and turned back to Speed. “Forgive me, Mr. Deeps, but we have seen neither of those people.”

Speed hid his disappointment. “Well, thanks anyway. I hate to run off, but Mistress Pamela is waiting for us.”

“Ah,” Kurotaka said with another small bow. “Best not to keep her waiting, then. Be safe tonight, my friends.” With that, he turned and left, Momo close at his heels.

“Those two make a good pair,” Speed remarked as he started moving again. “He’s good for her, too. You think so?”

“I do, sir,” Horatio said softly, not speaking until Speed bid him do so. It was an oddly comforting thrill, being in Speed’s complete control.

Speed wondered who else they would see tonight. He was disappointed to miss Hoppy and Trance, and idly he glanced around, seeking more familiar faces. Harker, maybe, or Cyber, or Reno. He saw none of these people, though, and he was disappointed as he passed the bar on his way up the stairwell.

Every patron used a code name at Club Deviate. It was a safety precaution, and one that Mistress Pamela strictly enforced. Only those people with wages paid by the club used their real names, and they were all denoted by a bright orange circle hanging behind their name tags. Those people could be anything from Doms to deejays, or sanitation workers or Dungeon Monitors or bartenders, or anything. Those people were prohibited from engaging in sexual acts with the patrons, but luckily for them, Florida State law didn’t recognize flogging as a sexual act. Yet.

Patrons were encouraged to “donate” time or services to the club, in exchange for occasional discounts. There was no money involved, which gave city employees like them a lovely loophole through their “no moonlighting” policy. Horatio volunteered as a Dom and would occasionally advise the Mistress on the legality of some of her patrons’ activities. He was also, on rare occasions, called upon to give a stern talking-to to an overzealous top that got a little too carried away with administering ‘punishment.’ Speed infrequently took the role of a Dungeon Monitor, or educated the occasional patron or employee with an in-depth scientific study of leather, Latex, general-purpose rubber, certain fabrics, and human pain tolerances.

Horatio was a skilled-enough Dom to be extremely popular with regular patrons of both sexes. His only condition was that Speed—sorry, Mr. Deeps—be allowed to remain present. The only time Horatio remained alone with a bottom was when the bottom was a female, at which point Speed would gladly leave the room and find another male top that was willing to fuck his brains out. Either that, or play Dungeon Monitor for a while.

They finally arrived at the door to the Mistress’ office, where a rail-thin man of upper-East Asian descent sat cross-legged on the floor with his eyes closed and his head against the wall. Upon their approach, he stood. “Your names, please,” he said crisply. His collar was nylon, hunter green, with the name of Kalishnikov and a pink tag ring.

“Mr. Deeps and Cain. Felix sent Syncro to inform you of our arrival.”

“Ah yes. One moment, please.” Nik turned and knocked softly on the door, sticking his head in. “Mistress, Mr. Deeps and Cain are here for you.”

“Send them in, Nik,” a sonorous female voice replied. Nik held the door open and waved them through.

Mistress Pamela stood as they entered. She was a tall, imposing woman, with long strawberry-blonde hair and steel-gray eyes. Her eyes, like her smile, could be warm and inviting one moment, and chill your veins the next. She wore a long skirt made of shimmering black silk, three-inch black heels, a gray scoop-neck shirt that perfectly accentuated her generous cleavage, and a belt that looked like black leather with silver studs. Her collar was a thin strip of black satin with a slight V-shaped dip in the front, meaning that it had a leather backing. Her collar tag was unusually large, in order to fit “Mistress Pamela” on it, and like Horatio, her tag ring was pink and blue.

She was intelligent, friendly, open-minded, honest, a ruthless businesswoman, and hygienic to the point of being nearly obsessive-compulsive. In other words, she was a perfect Domme.

Scarcely had Horatio’s heels cleared the doorframe that Nik ducked back into the hall and closed the door behind him. Mistress Pamela came around the desk to greet first Speed, then his pet. “Timothy, Horatio, so good to see you both,” she said in her smooth tones, giving both of them a peck on the cheek. Speed didn’t mind; Pamela respected his sexuality. She was also pretty much the only female that he’d seen naked that didn’t give him the cold shivers.

Pamela knew their names, of course; they’d been friends ever since they’d started coming to the club. “Please, sit, my friends. Tell me why it’s been so long since you last graced us with your presence.”

Speed picked a chair and sat, and Horatio knelt on the floor next to him without being asked, staring down. “You know,” Pamela said with a smile, “it’s been quite a while since I last saw your face, Horatio. I’d like to see it again.”

Speed ruffled his lover’s hair affectionately. “I know what’s going through his mind, Mistress. It’s been so long since we’ve taken on these roles that I don’t think he wants to get out of it.”

“Be that as it may, Mr. Deeps,” she said firmly, her eyes twinkling, “I would ask you to have your pet come to my side of the desk and look at me.”

Speed sat up in his chair, gazing down at Horatio. “Cain, do as the Lady asks. Crawl to her side of the desk and look her in the face.”

“Yes, sir,” Horatio whispered. Speed slipped his hand out of the leash loop and held it down to his lover, who took it in his teeth and made his way across the carpet to the other side of the massive rosewood desk. Kneeling, he dropped the lead into his lap and looked up at the Mistress.

She put a finger under his chin, smiling softly as she tilted his face this way and that. “He’s put on weight,” she remarked to Tim. “You’ve been taking good care of him.” She stroked his hair back into place and made a little shooing motion. He ducked his head, picked up the leash to put it back into his mouth, and crawled back over to Speed. Speed stuck his wrist out, and Horatio again knelt and slid the loop around his lover’s hand.

“He’s been taking care of me, actually,” Speed confessed, leaning forward to slide his vest off his bad shoulder so she could see the scars. “I got shot, and I had to have the joint replaced.”

Pamela clicked her tongue. “I’m certain that it must have been hard on both of you. Particularly you, Horatio,” she murmured softly. Horatio dared to rest his cheek on his lover’s knee, and Speed responded by running his fingers through the soft red locks. “But as you both know, there is no great loss without some gain. And truly, you have gained much.”

Speed gave a lopsided grin. “How do you know what we’ve gained, Mistress?”

She smiled back at him. “Because I know people, and because I know you two. And because I saw the rings hanging over your hearts. You two seem closer now than any time I’ve ever had you in my presence, and I’m certain that it’s because you two have been living with each other.”

Speed blinked at her.

“You said it yourself, Timothy, that he had been taking care of you. How else, then?”

Speed snorted and looked down at his lover. “You need to hire her, H. She’d make a damn good detective.”

Horatio smiled but said nothing.

Mistress Pamela leaned forward and folded her hands on her expansive desk. “Was there anything I could do for you gentlemen, tonight? It’s been rather slow, I’m afraid, and I wanted to welcome you back.”

Speed inclined his head respectfully. “Thank you for the offer, Mistress, but I think we’re just going to go off and do our own things tonight. Get it all back into our system, you know?”

She smiled. “’Our system,’ I like that. Very well. Just remember, anything you need at all, simply ask one of the Monitors to pass it on to Nik or myself.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Mistress, thank you.” Speed stood and nodded to her again, in deference. “We’ll speak again later this evening, Mistress, if you’re still free.”

“I always make time for my friends, Timothy.” She stood, herself, and waved them away. “Now, off with you. Your pet is sorely late for his disciplinary lessons.”

Speed gave a dark smile. “Well, I intend to fix that. Thank you, Mistress.” He turned and tugged up on the leash, and Horatio climbed to his feet. “Come along, Pet, it’s time to abuse you.”

Horatio ducked his head. “Yes, sir.”

You see, in all my life I've never found
What I couldn't resist, what I couldn't turn down
I could walk away from anyone I ever knew
But I can't walk away from you

Billy Joel - "Shameless"

Speed led Horatio down the stairwell and back across the dance floor, heading for a sign over a doorway that was clearly marked “Dungeon.” One of the nice things about Club Deviate was that it sat at a high enough elevation to have a shallow basement. Not a full story underground, but some of the “cells” had high, tiny barred windows, perfect for the truly immersive roleplaying session.

Speed wasn’t headed that way, though. No, he was heading for a large open room with five A-frame racks, each large enough to restrain a grown man, sat arranged in circle. On two sides of the room were three niches in the wall, each with another rack, for more… private beatings.

This was the only area in the club where full-scale flogging was allowed, and it was always supervised by at least one Dungeon Monitor. The Monitor’s purpose was to oversee all potentially dangerous activities, making sure that all precautions were being followed and no safewords were ignored. Some of the private rooms might have racks, but no flogging was allowed without a Monitor or a Club-employed top. The back rooms did have all kinds of straps and riding crops, though.

Mistress Pamela prided herself on running a safe, clean club… which was ironic, considering how dangerous and dirty some of the acts they practiced were.

Speed glanced around. Only one of the racks was in use, one in the circle. A man had restrained a woman and was laying into her naked back with a heavy leather strap. The woman’s face was a picture of exquisite agony, and Speed knew that she was definitely floating on an endorphin high. She was facing in Speed’s direction, and he couldn’t help but lock on to her naked breasts; unfortunately, as much as female genitalia turned him off, his brain was still hardwired to admire the bouncier aspects of the female figure. It was a vicious circle.

Apparently Horatio had noticed, even looking at the ground as he was, because he gently ‘bumped’ into Speed’s shoulder as he came to a halt, distracting him. Speed almost thanked him until he realized that to do so would be to reward bad behavior, so he settled for tousling his lover’s hair. Horatio hated that, but he submitted meekly to the gesture. “C’mon, Cain, let’s go find Tabitha.”

A few moments later, Speed thought he noticed his quarry. Seated in a chair against the wall, actually reading a magazine with the aid of one of the spotlamps despite the thrashing going on across the room, he spied a gently overweight woman in a black PVC tube top, a matching short skirt, and lace-up boots that came to mid-thigh. Her hair was a shoulder-length auburn, and apparently she wore no makeup. Though she was too far away for them to read the tag on her white leather collar, they couldn’t miss the pink ring around the tag and the second orange tag hanging behind her name. Speed thought he recognized her, though.

“Hey, Tabitha!” Speed called, and the shapely woman looked up. “You involved in anything?”

“Not at the moment, Mr. Deeps,” she replied, standing. According to Speed’s memory, Tabitha was a die-hard lesbian but an equal-opportunity flogger, and very strict about master-and-slave roles. They exchanged pleasantries, completely ignoring Horatio, until evidently something bugged her enough that she finally deigned to notice him. “Oh, you’re taking your sub for a walk?”

Speed glanced to his side, suddenly noticing that Horatio was still standing and looking her in the face, rather than looking down like he was supposed to. Speed growled and shot his hand out, grabbing a fistful of Horatio’s hair at the base of his skull. The redhead let out a watery moan and his knees buckled. “You forgot to kneel, Cain,” Speed snarled.

“Forgive me, sir,” Horatio whispered, eyes to the floor. If Speed would just let him go, he would gladly have kissed his boots. It had been far too long since they’d been here, and he was embarrassingly out of practice. “I forgot my place, sir. Won’t happen again.”

Tabitha looked on with interest. “How’d you get him to drop so fast?”

“It’s his sweet spot, on the back of his neck. Depending on how you manipulate it, you can get him in all kinds of moods.” Speed’s tone was calm, almost dry, ignoring Horatio’s mortification at how his lover was giving away such a secret. Speed let go of Horatio’s hair and smoothed it back into place as he leaned in to whisper almost conspiratorially, “Grab his hair like I did, and he’ll do damn near anything.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said with something very near a giggle.

Speed glanced back down at his slave. “Now, Cain, I want you to apologize to Lady Tabitha for being so out-of-order.”

Horatio placed his palms on the floor and crawled to her, kissing the toe of one thigh-high boot. “I beg your pardon, Lady,” he said quietly.

Tabitha looked only at Speed. “I’ll forgive him this time, Mr. Deeps.”

Speed nodded. “Appreciate it.” He watched as Horatio backed up until he was kneeling next to his master again. “Tabitha… could you do me a favor?”

“I suppose.”

Speed tossed a glance at her before looking back down at his kneeling lover. “Would you mind tying him up and beating the hell out of him?” He saw Horatio twitch, saw the trembling in the older man’s shoulders, and reached down to lay a hand on one. “Cain, would you like Tabitha to flog you?”

Horatio’s voice cracked. “Only if it pleases you, sir.”

Tabitha gave a wicked grin. “Oh, I think he wants it, Deeps.”

“I think he does, too. I’d do it myself, but my arm’s busted.” He pulled his vest to the side far enough for her to see some of the scarring. “Besides, I heard you were in the house, so…”

She smiled modestly. “Who told you? Felix? News travels fast.”

“Good news, anyway.”

She paused a moment, thought, and nodded. “All right. Have him take off his shirt and take the third rack off to the side. I’ll be over there in a minute; I just need to speak to the Monitor.”

“Thank you.” Speed tugged on the leash and went close where he was indicated. “All right, Cain, you heard the lady. Get ready for her.” With that, he unclipped the leash, and Horatio stood.

Speed noticed a bit of apprehension in the redhead. “You ready for this?”

Horatio looked at him, smiling softly. “I’m more than ready, sir. I want it.”

“Well, good.” Speed took a moment to smile evilly and casually tweak a nipple underneath Horatio’s tight shirt. “Now get that off.”

“Yes, sir.”

Horatio peeled off his shirt and laid it on a nearby padded bench. Speed took a moment to admire his lover before beckoning him over to the large A-frame rack. To the redhead’s surprise, a pair of young women in matching white-leather outfits and no tag rings had already put the bars into place, and stood quietly to wait for their Mistress. To have no tag ring was unusual; it indicated that either the wearer had no interest in sex, or was a trainee for the Club’s employment.

The rack itself was interesting. It wasn’t a true A shape, as it was only wide enough near the top for a six-foot man with average arm span to reach fully out at any angle. Several large ringbuckles were drilled through the steel at various points along that general height, for whichever angle the victim’s arms were most comfortable.

The top of the A wasn’t enclosed and pointed, either. The sides were rather steep, though. Ringbuckles were there near the floor, as well, for the ankle restraints. Alternately, on the floor and directly between the sides of the rack was a huge steel ring bolted to the floor.

In several places along the rack were slots for support bars, which could were fastened into place with pinhole screws. The number of bars depended on the gender; for males, an even number of bars was placed onto the rack. One across the ankle-region, two across the thighs, two across the belly and one across the upper chest. A permanent-mount bar was mounted at forehead height—but was, of course, adjustable—with a soft padded cup.

The bars themselves were padded PVC pipe with a steel bar through the middle, and as Speed beckoned Horatio into position, the two quiet women began going to work. They knelt at his feet and silently persuaded him to spread his legs, clipping double-headed leads—small-gauge chain with dog-leash clips at both ends—to the rack and to his ankle cuffs. A second set of leads went from the other D-ring on his cuffs to the ring in the middle of the floor.

Speed stood behind his lover. “Raise your arms, Cain,” he said softly, and Horatio did as asked. “Find a height you’re comfortable with, and don’t lie about it.” Horatio knew better than to lie about it, but Speed felt the need to say it anyway. It was important for the ‘victim’ to be comfortable and relaxed for the endorphins to do their job.

Horatio tested a few different heights before settling on one and nodding, and Speed attached the short double-leads from his wrist cuffs to the ringbuckles. Tabitha appeared beside him, and clipped short, thick strings of chain to his wrist cuffs as well. “For the dungeon effect,” she explained. “And also so I can hear how bad he’s shaking.” Speed nodded; it made sense.

Finally Horatio was properly restrained. Speed took a moment to admire his captive, bound like some gaudy display, and the thought made him chuckle. He walked in a slow circle, noting his lover’s respiration rate, and as he paused by Horatio’s side he lifted his hand to barely ghost a fingertip down the redhead’s spine. Horatio shivered and moaned.

“You’re so responsive,” Speed said quietly, running his fingertip back up and feeling his lover vibrate under his touch. “Normally that’s a good thing, but you know that you need to relax.”

“I know, sir, but it feels like so long ago that we last did this. And you were the one holding the whip, remember?”

Speed snickered. “I remember. But you need to calm down if you’re going to enjoy this.”

Horatio snorted. “If I may, sir, think about what you just said.”

Speed did, and saw the humor. “I’m telling you to relax and enjoy yourself while a man-hating lesbian thrashes you so hard with a bullwhip that you’ll be in screaming pain before the endorphins hit.”

“Exactly.” Horatio gave a heavy sigh, attempting to work out some of his nerves. “May I ask you for something?”

“Anything for you, Pet,” Speed whispered, firming his touch to give more of a comforting rub to one shoulder.

Horatio sighed at the contact. “Kiss me, sir?”

“Be glad to.” Speed removed his hand and stepped in front of his lover, their bodies separated only by the bars of the rack. With Horatio’s legs spread the way they were, they were at nearly eye level, so Speed had no problems stepping forward and brushing his lips against Horatio’s.

No problem with height, anyway, and Horatio snorted into the kiss. Speed didn’t need him to explain; the stupid headrest bar was in the way. He made the most of it anyway, tilting his head and deepening the contact, and Horatio made a soft noise in his throat as he followed suit and matched Speed’s angle, enjoying the soft skin that danced across his mouth.

Speed’s hands slipped between the admittedly widely-spaced bars and ran teasing fingers up and down his sides, and Horatio grunted. “No fair,” he muttered.

Speed leaned back, staring into the clear blue eyes that he loved so much. “You say something, Pet?” he asked quietly, gentle emphasis on the title.

Horatio remembered himself. “Sorry, sir. I just wish I could touch you right now.”

Speed gave a truly devious smile and stepped back, giving his lover’s sides a last caress before crossing his arms over his chest. “Oh, believe me, you’ll get plenty of opportunities later.”

A feminine throat cleared, and Speed looked over Horatio’s shoulder to see Tabitha standing there, her arms crossed in something that wasn’t quite impatience. “I’m glad that you’re relaxing him, Mr. Deeps, but would you like to go ahead and get started? I’ve been told that there’s going to be another couple coming by in about half an hour, and I promised them last week that I’d be the one to work them over.”

“Sure. Sorry.” Speed reached up to brush his lover’s cheek with a gentle hand before stepping back and letting Tabitha stand in his place. To his surprise, he noticed that her two so-far silent assistants had walked up, watching her.

Tabitha double-checked their work with the restraints, reaching out to occasionally give a bar a firm shake and nodding at the fit. She noticed Horatio’s look but turned to Speed to explain. “They’re my apprentices. Normally I’d let them have a go at your slave, but Jaelix told me that tonight is going to get pretty heavy between you two.”

Speed nodded, turning to glance at the massive man, who gave a small wave before turning back to observe the other couple already hard at play with leather straps. Jaelix was an old friend, and apparently he remembered that matters usually got serious when Horatio was on the bottom end of the leash. Speed didn’t appreciate frivolity when he topped.

He knew that trainees had to practice on somebody, but he would rather that it not be himself or Horatio. He preferred to put his safety in the hands of trusted professionals.

Finally Tabitha pronounced their victim to be securely restrained, and beckoned to Speed as they stepped toward her chair and her supplies. “So how do you want me to hurt him?” she asked with a mischievous grin.

Speed considered that seriously. “Normally I’d say to give a hard start and see how he is, but it’s been a while since we’ve been here, and he almost always topped, anyway.”

She nodded. “How long since he’s been on the rack?”

Speed actually had to think about it. “About seven, eight months,” he responded finally.

Her eyebrows lifted slightly. “No wonder he was out of practice,” she wondered, and Speed gave a rueful grin. “All right, I’ll warm him up and give a hard ten, and then I’ll let you read him.”

“Sounds good to me.”

She stepped over to what looked like a large rectangular guitar case, undoing the snaps and revealing several coiled floggers. “You have a shoulder tonight?”

“Huh?”

She blinked at him. “A backup, a Second. Jeez, he’s not the only one that’s been out of the loop too long.”

Speed looked sheepish. “No. I was thinking about maybe getting Jaelix to do it, but he’s busy watching them,” and he hooked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the man strapping the woman, and a larger black man behind them. Jaelix had extremely dark skin, making him hard to pick out of the shadows sometimes. “And besides, this is the only really painful thing I was planning on doing to him tonight. I was going to spend the rest of the time just owning him, ya know?”

Tabitha nodded. “Now, what do I need to know about him?”

Speed thought; God, it had been so long since they’d done this, and Horatio actually seemed calmer than Speed. “He shakes a lot at first, and he has this annoying habit of twitching down and to the right. It’s normal for him to rattle his hands, but if he starts yanking, that’s a warning sign. If he yanks and his head starts flopping, he’s going into shock.

“I’m going to stand in front of him while you’re whipping, and every now and then I might jump behind him and tease him. Most of the time I’ll keep watch on his eyes; if they start to cloud over, he needs to stop.”

“Depending on how far he can go, do you want me to draw blood?”

He shook his head. “Nope, no blood. Neither one of us is into that kind of thing.” Speed wasn’t bothered by blood; he was bothered by people bleeding from odd places. Horatio wasn’t really into it, either. Perhaps he could have at one time, but their careers had guided them into a mentality that seeing blood was a bad thing.

She nodded. “And his safeword?”

“Allen.”

She paused. “What did you mean, tease him? Does he get off on this?”

Speed gave a faint smile. “He’s kinda funny when it comes to pain. I mean, emotional pain, he just kinda swallows it and turns it into fuel. Regular physical pain, like if he smashed his hand or something, he hates that as much anybody. Something like this,” and he indicated their victim, “gets him hard as fucking hell.”

“Hmm.” The sound revealed nothing as she picked out one of her floggers, a long eighteen-tailed monstrosity made completely of leather. It actually had six long strands, composed of three inter-braided small strips that were roughly five feet long, at which point there was a knot on each braid, and the flogger itself ended with three feet of the unbraided strips. Looking closely at one of the ends, Speed noticed that each individual tail had a two-inch slit in it, doubling the number of contact points. It wouldn’t be very accurate, but it would sting like a bitch.

Tabitha hefted the flogger, swinging it through the air without a sound, getting a feel for its weight. Noticing Speed’s look, she gave him a dark smile. “Relax, Mr. Deeps. I’m very good at what I do.”

He swallowed and nodded. “I’m sure you are. I’m, uh… gonna go stand over by Cain now.”

“You do that,” she said calmly. Speed stepped over until he was standing next to his lover, and she moved into position. “All right, Cain. I’m going to start slow, all right? Just relax, Pet, and I’ll have you flying high in no time.”

Horatio nodded and leaned into his headrest, sagging into his bonds, making a conscious effort to relax. Over his shoulder, he heard the hissing noise, and a loud crack! snapped in the air next to his ear, and he jumped. He waited, and there came another hiss-crack! beside his other ear, making him jolt again. The third snap came from just above his head, and he did his best not to startle, failing miserably. Silence came from behind him as he stood there in his bonds, his ankles vibrating with adrenaline.

He heard the soft hiss, but no whip-crack sounded, and he felt the tails swish harmlessly across his back and slide to the floor, and he jumped even worse. The muscles in his lower back knotted fiercely, subconsciously trying to protect his kidneys, and he made a determined effort to make the muscles go slack. Seeing his reactions, Speed stepped close and ran a gentle hand over his back. “Why so nervous, Cain?” Speed murmured huskily into his ear. “We’re only going to hurt you.”

Horatio swallowed. “It has been a while, sir.”

Speed stepped back, and after a second the tails swished through the air again, raining over his shoulders and making little tickling sensations down his back. Tabitha’s next strike was another bluff, but a damn good one; she put power into it, and although the leather didn’t touch his back, he could still feel the wind disturbed by the wicked snapping noises just behind his shoulder.

And then she hit him, hard, all eighteen strips connecting with an ear-splitting crack! as he felt the sudden burst of red-hot pain against his left shoulderblade. Horatio jolted and snarled, his wrists shaking.

“You all right, Cain?” she called.

Horatio nodded, unable to speak as all the moisture seemed to have left his mouth.

“Here comes your ten!”

Scarcely had she finished speaking then her flogger impacted off his other shoulder and he jolted against his bonds, making a noise that wasn’t quite a scream. “One!” she called calmly.

“Two!” Horatio gritted his teeth and forced himself to meet the impact rather than duck away from it, much to Speed’s approving nod, but Tabitha apparently had other ideas. “Hold it,” she ordered, although she was the only one actually doing anything. “I see what you meant about him ducking away, Mr. Deeps.”

Horatio shot a glance at his lover, who glanced back. “You have a solution in mind?” Speed asked with a raised brow.

She nodded and beckoned to one of her apprentices, who brought over a long and very wide nylon strap with clips on both ends. Tabitha allowed the girl to hold her flogger as she stepped over to Horatio and laid the strap across the backs of his thighs and secured it tightly to the ringbuckles on the rack. Horatio realized that his thighs were pressed firmly against the bars of the rack, and there was no way he’d be able to duck now.

“Does this meet with your approval, Mr. Deeps?” Tabitha asked calmly.

Speed flicked another glance at his lover, who gave a slow nod. “I think he’ll be fine with it,” Speed replied.

“Good. Shall we continue?”

Speed nodded and moved back into position. Tabitha hefted the flogger, snapping it expertly and causing Horatio to roar again. “Three!”

Speed watched his lover buck and scream as the fourth strike hit. He stood impassively, his arms folded, his internal dilemma evidenced only by the pain in his eyes. Horatio had wanted this. Horatio had asked for this. And Speed was giving it to him. Seeing the redhead in pain always bothered Speed, but he knew that the rewards were going to outweigh the drawbacks.

“Five!”

Speed and Horatio had many reasons for wanting to get restrained and flogged. A lot of it was the trust they had in each other. There was also the whole master-slave thing, and enjoying the submission of each other. And then there was the endorphin high.

Horatio and Speed had a deep-seated hatred of illegal drugs, but when you took flogging into consideration, you could almost call the two men ‘habitual users.’ Endorphins were the body’s natural response to pain, and gave the injured person an incredible buzz. Horatio and Speed liked to get stoned, but only from getting flogged like this, and very infrequently. They earned their high, paying with every lash of the whip.

“Six!” Horatio groaned, his arms shaking and making the chains rattle. His body was starting to respond to the pain, and Speed carefully watched it happen. They had to be careful, because a beating like this was way too easy to screw up.

“Seven!” she snapped, the bullwhip cracking again, her target marked by another bright spot of crimson. “Eight!” The flogger struck the same place twice, and Horatio howled as the pain shot straight through his system. “Nine!” With an extra flick of her wrist, Tabitha made the whip seem to drag across his back rather than just a straight snap, and the redhead could almost feel the heat rising from his scores.

There was an expectant pause. Without warning, what felt like the entirety of his back exploded in a burst of white-hot agony and he gave a scream that must have echoed throughout the dungeon. Every sense in his body was alive and on fire, the pain nearly overwhelming for brief seconds.

“Ten,” she said in a calm, almost anticlimactic voice.

Horatio shuddered into his bonds, panting. It hurt—God, it hurt—but underneath the pain was a sleepy, almost drugged feeling that began circulating through his body and lodging pointedly in his brain. Endorphins began to coat his sensibilities, and an unreasonable streak of giddiness broke through his frantic gasps for air.

And then he giggled. He actually giggled.

“You enjoying yourself, Cain?” Speed asked drolly, noting the slightly stoned look beginning to haze his lover’s eyes.

“Yessir, very much sir, thank you sir,” was Horatio’s somewhat rushed reply, the redhead unable to wipe the idiotic grin off his face. It was a look that was undeniably odd on the face of Horatio Caine.

“You want to keep going?”

“Yes I do,” Horatio said with a snicker. “Please, sir, I’d like some more!”

Speed stared at him, then sighed and shook his head. “You get so weird when you’re ‘dorphed up, Cain.”

“I know.” The redhead’s expression said that at the moment, he really didn’t care, either.

Speed leaned around the rack to look at Tabitha. “How about another five?”

“Works for me.” She handed her flogger off to one of her apprentices and went back to her case, choosing a different weapon. Speed’s eyes widened as she pulled out a black leather bundle that had to weigh at least ten pounds. The handle looked like it should require two hands, but when Tabitha beckoned him to come and look, he realized that the handle was actually simple wood cork with oiled, dried cords wrapped around it for grip and a thin steel rod through the center to prevent bending and give a counterweight. The tails themselves were insanely long—to Speed’s eyes—and extremely thick.

This one wasn’t designed to sting. It was designed to leave bruises. “The harder I swing, the less it’ll tear him,” she told him. She took an experimental shot at the air behind Horatio’s back, and Speed’s keen eyes noted that due to the length of the nine thick tails, a harder swing also meant greater momentum and greater arc.

Except for the sound, Horatio wasn’t going to think he was being whipped. He was going to think that Tabitha was throwing rocks at him.

“This is my Hammer,” she said with a truly evil smile.

Yes, Tabitha was one of those that named her whips. He’d even heard her talking to them, on occasion. He was just glad that they didn’t answer her.

“Give him another five, would you?” Speed asked politely. “He’s already getting the buzz, so try not to overdo it.”

She nodded. “How are his eyes?”

“Still pretty clear. I think he can take more.”

“You’re the Dom,” Tabitha said primly. “You want to tease him first?”

Speed cocked his head. “Sure, why not? I’ll check his wounds while I’m over there.” He turned and headed toward his lover, who had sagged into his restraints, panting. Speed reached out, his fingers hovering just above the skin of Horatio’s back, and he could feel the heat rising from the angry red scores. Tabitha hadn’t broken the skin, but there were still some hefty welts on the pale back. It almost looked like Lady Tabitha had tried to draw feathered wings on Horatio with a red marker.

Tabitha’s aim was good, especially considering how un-accurate her first weapon had been. She’d stayed entirely in the ‘safety zone’ of the upper back, and avoided anything that didn’t have a ribcage underneath it. Some floggers liked to occasionally strike the backs of the thighs, or the buttocks, but neither Horatio nor Speed was fond of that. Besides, he didn’t want to shred Horatio’s leather pants.

Speed knelt down and pressed his palms to the tile floor, cooling his skin, and then stood and gently pressed both hands to the over-heated flesh. Horatio jerked and groaned at the new sensation, but Speed shushed him gently. “It’s just me, Pet,” he soothed.

“Oh, God, sir,” Horatio moaned.

“You like this, don’t you?” Speed murmured, his hands sliding down to take two firm handfuls of Horatio’s ass and giving a hard, sensuous squeeze.

“Yes, sir,” Horatio agreed as he tried to press into Speed’s touch, his movements hampered by the strap across his thighs.

“You want another ten?”

“God, yes sir, please,” Horatio moaned as Speed ground himself into Horatio’s leather-clad ass.

Speed leaned forward to nibble on the back of his lover’s neck, feeling the older man tremble beneath him. “Good boy,” he whispered. “I’ll tell her to give you a reward.”

“Thank you, sir,” the redhead whispered back as Speed withdrew.

Returning to his place in front of his lover, Speed waited for Tabitha to begin lashing out. Her first impact came almost without warning, and what an impact it was—Speed could hear nine small thumps against Horatio’s ribcage, and he cringed inwardly as Horatio roared and jerked against his bonds.

“One!”

Tabitha’s Hammer cracked again, the leather thudding against Horatio’s back. As Speed watched, Horatio began to change. He still shook and shouted as the Hammer pounded him again, but his face… he was flying high on the endorphins, and Speed couldn’t help a little smile as his lover just floated away.

All too soon, Tabitha had given her five and stood waiting for Speed’s next suggestion. Horatio was definitely buzzed, so Speed just took a slow walk around the restrained man, checking the wounds and keeping an eye on his lover’s condition.

An appreciative whistle caught his attention, and his head turned to see Jaelix standing there with his arms crossed, watching them. Glancing to the side, Speed saw that the other couple had finished their beating and were now watching casually from their places on the bench next to the rack they’d used. Behind the woman was a man in a clean white shirt with a red cross over the left breast, treating the wounds on her back. On the floor was another man, this one in an orange shirt with a white cross, cleaning up the little puddles of blood.

“Hey, Jaelix,” Speed said by way of greeting, moving out of the way and motioning to Tabitha to give Horatio another five.

“Hey, Deeps. Been a while.” The man was every bit as huge as his big lover out front, but the only differences were hair and color. Where Felix looked like a muscular Roman god with little curls between his pectorals, Caesar bangs, and easy blue eyes, Jaelix was just smooth and dark. He was completely hairless—not voluntarily, but actually a medical condition called Alopecia areata universalis, in which the body grew no hair—and his skin was black. Not dark, or coffee-colored, or even virgin-earth-colored. The man was space black.

Jaelix had once mentioned that being “blue-black” was common to people in Barbados, from whence his family descended. Indeed, the glare on his skin from occasional spot lamps seem to shine blue.

Like Felix, Jaelix wore only leather shorts on the bottom, although his were stained a dark red. More red leather was strapped across his chest in an X and held together by a large circular metal ring. Most striking of all was the jewelry: both nipples were pierced with large hoops of solid silver, the effect of which was striking against his smooth, shadowy skin.

Speed moved to stand next to the jolly black giant, who pointed to the rack just in time for Speed to see Tabitha’s next strike land. Horatio jolted and howled, the chains rattling. Speed watched him for a moment before glancing at his old friend. “What’ve you been up to?”

“Same old things,” Jaelix replied, wincing as Horatio took another strike. “Damn woman’s crazy,” he muttered, meaning Tabitha, and shook his head. “Or maybe you people are crazy, lettin’ yourselves get whipped like that.”

“Flogging’s not for everybody, Jaelix,” Speed said with a grin. “How are you and Felix doing?”

“We’re good. He’s training a new bottom, did you meet him?”

“Syncro? Yeah, we met him.” Speed watched as Horatio snarled and pulled hard at the restraints, eyes rolling back in his head as the flogger slammed into his shoulder again. Frowning, Speed stepped forward until he was almost nose-to-nose, holding up a hand beside Horatio’s head so Tabitha would pause for a moment. “You doing okay, H?” he asked his lover quietly.

Horatio panted but didn’t respond, his body vibrating, eyes closed. “H, lemme see your eyes,” Speed commanded, and Horatio cracked them open. The normally clear blue eyes were starting to cloud over, and Speed cursed. “That’s enough, Tabitha! His eyes are clouding!”

“I’ve got blood, too,” she called back, handing her flogger off to one of her apprentices, who immediately took it down to the sanitizing room. Speed circled around to see that yes, a few of the angry red streaks were actually weeping tiny crimson droplets. “Want to take him down?”

“Not yet. No more flogging, but he can stay up for a little while longer.” He stepped behind his lover, placing his hands on the trembling hips.

“Why?” Tabitha asked, confused.

Jaelix answered for him, grinning, his teeth startlingly white against the living shadow of his skin. “Because I’m about to invite Cain over to my house to help me nail some shingles to my roof!”

I have never let anything have this much control over me
I worked too hard to call my life my own
I made myself a world and it worked so perfectly
But it's your world now, I can't refuse
I never had so much to lose

I'm shameless
Shameless

Billy Joel – "Shameless"

Seeing Tabitha’s confusion, Jaelix beckoned her over, and she stopped dead at the sight of Horatio’s leather pants stretched to what had to be an extremely painful proportion. Speed had his hips pressed firmly against his lover’s ass, grinding slowly.

“Did you enjoy that?” Speed hissed in the redhead’s ear

Horatio gave a watery groan. “Yes, sir.”

“You want me to fuck you, don’t you?” Speed whispered smoothly, reaching around to cup Horatio’s erection, which was straining against his pants and threatening to pop the seams. “Oh, damn, you’re hard. Want me to take it out?”

Horatio’s tone bordered on a whimper. “Please, sir.”

Speed tossed a glance at Jaelix, who shrugged. The rack they were using wasn’t exactly in a specified “sexual-acts-approved area,” but at the same time it wasn’t ruled out, either. Jaelix was a Dungeon Monitor, so it was up to him to approve it. The dark man gave him a nod, and Speed unzipped his lover’s pants in the front.

Horatio gave a relieved moan as his cock sprang free. Tabitha gasped, and Jaelix just grinned wider. Speed grasped it and shot an incredulous look at his audience. The big man hadn’t been kidding; Horatio could probably drive nails through concrete. “Jesus, Cain, save some blood flow for the rest of us,” Speed gasped quietly.

Horatio made a low hissing noise that eventually formed into “Sorry, sir.”

Speed paused. “Cain, what’s your safeword?”

It took the redhead a moment to answer. “Allen.”

“How bad does it hurt?”

Horatio gave a dreamy smile, the product of all the endorphins coursing through his system. “Hurts just fine.”

“You want to stop for a while?”

Horatio moved his hips slowly back and forth, stroking himself in Speed’s hand. “God, no, I want you to fuck me.”

Speed shot another look at Jaelix, who grinned back at him. Tabitha the rabid lesbian couldn’t stop staring at the diamond cutter that was Horatio’s cock, and that made Speed grin at the both of them. “All right, Cain. As soon as the medic works you over, I’ll fuck you.”

“Thank you, sir,” Horatio moaned, his length painfully hard in Speed’s hand.

Speed waved at Jaelix, who unclipped a walkie-talkie from his rather skimpy belt-strap. “Flogging Monitor to Medical, we’ve got a guy that can use some bandages. Nothing serious. Little blood but nothing’s hit the floor. Identify patron Cain.”

“Understood, Flogging Monitor,” the device crackled back. Jaelix nodded at Speed, who nodded back. Within a few minutes, a redheaded woman with a small medkit came strolling up, wearing an outfit similar to Tabitha’s except for lower-cut boots and a busty white shirt with a red cross in the front and back.

“What seems to be the problem?” she cooed at Jaelix in a surprisingly husky voice. Jaelix just pointed at the rack, where Speed knelt in front of Horatio and was massaging his lover’s iron-hard erection. She nodded and stepped behind her charge, opening her kit and snapping on Latex gloves. “Want some anesthetic?”

“Naah,” Speed responded. Inwardly he had to smile; only here would a medic ask you if you wanted the pain to go away. “Just patch him up, please. He’s got a lot stuff planned for him tonight.”

“You got it.” She pulled out a gauze pad and some antibacterial spray, spraying the can over the flesh and wiping up the few oozing blood droplets, ignoring her patient’s hiss at the new pain. When he was properly sanitized, she pulled out some thin white bandage strips and laid them over the wounds, securing them with medical tape. “I’ll let you guys peel that off when he gets home tonight. Maybe pour some isopropyl on the wounds.”

“Thanks,” Speed said brightly as she handed a small plastic bag to Jaelix. He held it open while she dropped her gloves and the bloody gauze in it. When that was done, she snapped her kit shut and grabbed the bag from him.

“Have a safe night, guys,” she said as she strode back to Medical, in order to drop the bag in the Biohazard bin.

Speed shook his head and grinned. “Gotta love the efficiency of this place.”

Tabitha nodded. “And the cleanliness. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe you have a slave that needs your attention.”

Speed shot her a dirty look. “Who made you Domme?”

“I did.” Jaelix crossed his arms and smiled evilly. “She Flogger, me Monitor, you Dom. That means we outrank you. Now make with the fucking.”

“Yes, sir,” Speed replied with a grin. He reached into the drawstring pouch at his hip, pulling out the lube and a condom. “Cain?” he whispered at his slave.

“Sir?”

“Would you like to get fucked, right here on the rack?”

Horatio took only a few seconds to respond. “Yes, sir,” he whispered back. Speed knew that Horatio rarely minded fucking in front of an audience whenever they were at the club, but only when he topped. When he bottomed, he tended to become extremely shy, to the point of being unable to maintain an erection. Mistress Pamela had once mentioned that it was probably a side effect of him keeping his relationship with Speed in the closet, while in public.

Speed thought a moment. “Would it make it easier if I blindfolded you?”

Horatio stiffened, and Speed noticed the redhead’s cock twitch. It seemed to the older man that every time Speed blindfolded him, all sorts of wonderfully perverse things happened to him. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Speed suddenly realized that he didn’t have a blindfold, but that turned out to not be a problem as Tabitha offered him a black silk bandana. “You staying to watch?” he hissed quietly at her.

She shrugged. “Nobody else for me to beat. And besides, I think it’s kinda hot to watch men fuck. I just don’t like them fucking me.”

Speed broke into a grin without really knowing why. “You know, I kinda know the feeling. My brain’s still hardwired to appreciate breasts and a pretty female face, but everything below the waist on a woman is just… ugh.”

The corners of her mouth flipped down, trying to frown instead of laugh. “Care to declare truce?”

“I could go for that,” Speed nodded. He turned to his victim, who was watching them with his bleary-eyed, slightly stoned gaze. “Such a shame to hide those eyes,” Speed murmured as he laid the black silk over Horatio’s eye sockets. His face was inches from his lover’s as he reached behind the skewed red hair to tie the cloth. When the knot was secure, his hands slipped down the neck, across the shoulders, and back up to gently cup his slave’s chin as he pressed his lips to the panting mouth for a gentle, insistent kiss.

Horatio responded instantly, moaning and opening his mouth, begging for tongue. Speed chuckled and gave it to him, one hand pulling back and reaching down around the chest bar for a nipple, and Horatio vibrated gently in his grasp.

But the stupid headrest was still in the way, and Speed leaned back with a frown. “Tabitha, any way we can make this top bar go away?”

She nodded and stepped up to the rack, fiddling with something, and one end came loose; the thing was on a hinge! “Nice,” Speed muttered as she returned to her previous spot. He now had full access to Horatio’s face and he took advantage of it, his tongue diving between Horatio’s lips without a hint of warning, and Horatio groaned and sucked on the soft muscle.

“You wanna get fucked, don’t you?” Speed growled softly. He pulled back his tongue and ran it along his lover’s jaw, finding the redhead’s earlobe and nipping at it.

“Oh, God,” Horatio moaned. “Please, sir, fuck me.”

Speed sneered and pulled back, moving around the rack to grind himself into Horatio’s ass again. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to the ultra-sensitive nape of the older man’s neck, and Horatio shivered. Speed sucked gently on the spot, marking it, as he moved a hand to the rear of Horatio’s leather pants, finding the concealed zipper and sliding it slowly open. One might think that fucking something surrounded by a zipper was not the smartest idea in the world, but the zipper was actually quite recessed into the thick leather surrounding it. When Speed pulled it open, the slit went pretty much from two inches below Horatio’s waistband all the way to his inseam.

Speed reached for the drawstring bag on his hip, pulling out the lube and a condom. He slid the Latex over himself and dribbled some lube on his fingers, reaching between the leather to find Horatio’s needy opening, teasing it with a slick finger before sliding in. Horatio groaned and squirmed on his feet as that maddening finger pumped slowly, pointedly ignoring his prostate. A second finger quickly joined the first, and Horatio strained against the strap, trying to press himself against those fingers.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” Speed growled sensually as a third finger came into play, slowly twisting and stretching. Horatio was in no condition to reply as the fingers abruptly withdrew, and he outright whined. “Easy, Pet. Don’t want to fuck you dry,” Speed murmured as he slicked up the Latex covering his dick. He capped the lube and dropped it and the empty wrapper back in the bag, aiming with one hand. Horatio threw back his head and gave a shuddering moan as his younger lover slid slowly inside, driving home in a single, agonizingly slow push.

Horatio made wordless noises of pleasure as his lover filled him, then emptied him, then filled him again. Quickly Speed built up a rhythm, grasping the redhead’s hips with both hands and pulling himself into his captive love. Speed was cursing quietly, words of vulgar praise spilling from his lips as began bucking into the older man, harder and harder.

“That’s it, Cain,” Speed growled. “Take every inch of me, take it hard!”

“Yessss,” his lover hissed, pushing against the rack, trying to fuck himself harder onto Speed’s pounding cock. “Please…”

“Please what?”

“Please, Speed, I need—“

Speed buried himself into the bound man and halted, bringing one hand up to scratch warningly against the bandages. “What did I tell you about calling me that here?”

Horatio could only give an incoherent groan and buck his hips, trying to rub his aching cock on the support bar, but the strap stopped him.

“Answer me!” Speed snarled, pulling away slowly.

“Here, I’m to call you… call you… oh, please, Deeps, please fuck me!”

Speed gave a little sigh of relief; Horatio could remember his dungeon name, which meant that he was okay. But the little slip of ‘Speed’ was a warning sign that he needed to back it down a notch. “Are you telling me what to do, Cain?”

“No…” Horatio licked his lips. “No, sir.”

“Good. All the same, though, I think I’ll make you sit here with my dick in your ass until you remember your manners.”

Horatio made a mewling noise and twitched his hips again, finding no way to gain any friction.

“Cain, are you trying to get yourself off without my permission? Jesus, you’re all kinds of disobedient tonight!”

Horatio became as still as he could, but he couldn’t halt the trembling. “Please forgive me, Mr. Deeps, sir.”

Speed leaned in close until the hairs on his chest started poking Horatio’s fresher wounds, the ones without the bandages, and the redhead hissed at the sudden sting and itch. “You know, Cain, I think you’re screwing up on purpose. I think you want to get punished some more.” He stretched out and found Horatio’s trigger point below the hairline on his neck, nibbling gently. “Don’t you?” he demanded softly through clenched teeth, and a shudder ran through his lover’s body.

“Sir, I-I need…”

This was going nowhere. It wasn’t about the ‘punishment’ anymore; something was distracting his lover and he needed to figure out what it was. Speed sighed and began pulling out. “Cain, don’t make me ask you again.”

Horatio couldn’t even remember the question. All he could think about was a desperate, overwhelming need for his lover’s presence, for his bodily contact, for his approval. “Please, sir, don’t…”

Speed backed up so that the only contact between them was his hands on Horatio’s shoulders. “I think I’ll give you a moment to think about it.”

“Sir, no,” Horatio whispered desperately, and when Speed’s hands slipped off, leaving Horatio blindfolded and restrained and exposed and alone, something snapped in him. “Oh, God, no. Please, come back.”

Speed didn’t answer, and Horatio pulled hard on his restraints. “Deeps, I’m sorry. I’ve been rude and I can’t remember how to act, and I’m distracted. Don’t be angry with me, please, sir.”

No response.

“Deeps, sir, don’t be angry. Come back, please. Please, sir!”

Nothing.

“Deeps, please!” Horatio twisted around frantically, searching ineffectually, not finding. With the extra strap keeping his legs flush with the bars, he couldn’t twist all the way around, and even if he wasn’t blindfolded he still couldn’t have seen Speed standing in his extra-large blind spot. “Please, sir, don’t do this to me!”

Tabitha walked quietly up to Speed, who stood there with his arms crossed, watching. “Deeps,” she hissed. “What are you doing, breaking him?”

“Not quite,” he whispered back. “Just testing a theory. Just waiting for him to say one specific thing.”

She tossed a glance back at the bound man, who was shaking and actually seemed to be on the verge of tears. “Well, it seems pretty cruel to me. It looks like he has abandonment issues.”

Speed’s features softened. “Yeah… but he’s almost there, I promise.”

Horatio reared his head back. “Deeps, please sir!” he howled. “Don’t leave me!”

“That’s my cue,” Speed hissed quietly. He stepped quickly forward and pressed himself to his lover’s body, his flagging erection nestled firmly in the cleft of his lover’s ass. He put his fingertips on Horatio’s hips and ran them firmly up his sides, feeling the bumps of his ribcage and sliding up to grasp the tops of his shoulders, holding him so Speed could press his chest into his lover’s abused back. “I’m right here, Cain,” he growled, hooking his chin over the redhead’s taller shoulder.

Horatio sagged noticeably, seemingly not feeling all the cuts on his back. “Oh, thank God…”

Speed made his voice light and casual. “Come on, did you really think I was going to leave you like that?”

The redhead tilted his head back, resting it on Speed’s hand without asking for permission. “May I speak, sir?”

“Go ahead, I’m listening. Tell me what’s bothering you, H. Tell me what you’re feeling.” Speed could feel his lover relax at the use of his street name. He could be honest, here.

Horatio’s voice dropped to the barest of whispers. “I lied the other day, about that nightmare. I still have it every now and then. Usually on days where I’ve had to use my weapon.” He paused. “Let me look at you, please.” Speed reached up and tugged the blindfold high enough that Horatio could twist and see him with one startling blue eye, rimmed with tears. “Speed, I don’t know if I can handle losing you. Just the thought of you not being there anymore, it just…” he stopped.

Speed kept his voice just as low as the redhead’s. “H, I’m not going anywhere. We’re tied to each other, you and me.” His hand dropped back to Horatio’s chest and gave a tug on the leather cord of his ring, for emphasis. “And I promised I wouldn’t go anywhere, remember?”

Horatio nodded. “I remember.”

“Replay that conversation. Word for word.”

Speed felt the tremor in the older man’s legs. “Speed, please—“

“Do it,” Speed said quickly. Realizing how harsh it sounded, he softened his voice with effort. “Do it for me, please.”

Horatio took a deep breath. In his mind, he saw the blood, saw the flashing bullets. His mind heard the popping of gunfire. He heard the hideous noise of Speed hitting the ground, the sounds of flesh and bone striking tile. He saw Speed lying there, bleeding. Memory nudged into nightmare, and suddenly he couldn’t decide if his lover was hit in the heart or the shoulder or both. He was injured, he was dying. He was leaving.

Leaving Horatio all alone.

His mind insisted that Speed was the injured one, but Horatio felt the tearing pain in his heart as well… the feeling of abandonment, that some force was tearing Speed away from him, ripping his lover out of his heart.

“Stay with me, Speed,” he whispered. “Don’t leave me.”

“I’m right here, H. I’m not going anywhere.” Speed was trying to reassure his lover, and at the same time he realized that their roles had somehow switched in the redhead’s mind, matching their current situation so that Speed was the one that was in control, that Horatio was the one that was desperate and helpless. Fact, fiction, and façade were blurring into a blinding, confusing mix. If I’m having this much trouble sorting it out, Speed thought, what the hell is he seeing? “I’m staying right here, you hear me?” He put his hand firmly on Horatio’s ribs, digging his fingers between the bones enough that the pain registered in his lover’s mind, cutting through the memory. “I’m. Right. Here.”

Horatio coughed at the pain. “Speed,” he gasped. “I don’t want to be anywhere else but here, because you’re here.”

“Remember that, H. I’m right here, and so are you. You hear me?”

Horatio finally nodded. “Loud and clear, Speed.”

“You want down?” Speed asked, referring to the rack.

“Please, yes.”

Speed reached down for the cuffs around Horatio’s ankles, then the strap around his legs. The redhead’s legs were trembling by the time he got to one wrist. “Deeps,” a female whispered, and he turned to see Tabitha reaching for the redhead’s other cuff. “Catch him. He needs to fall on you.”

Speed nodded and wrapped his arms around Horatio’s waist as the final restraint gave way, and the older man sagged onto his lover. They sank to their knees, Horatio burying his face in the younger man’s neck, heavy sobs wracking his body. Speed just held him and whispered in his ear. Standing behind the redhead, Tabitha caught Speed’s eye and rubbed the back of her neck. He nodded thanks at the reminder and moved one hand to that spot on his lover’s body, massaging gently, and Horatio relaxed noticeably, shifting to sit against the floor, Speed still kneeling over him.

A tap on Speed’s shoulder made him turn, and to his surprise he saw Mistress Pamela kneeling with a glass of water, which he took. She leaned in close enough that only he could hear her; Horatio was hardly in a state to notice. “Master him,” she whispered. “You need to control this fear of his, before it takes him again.”

She leaned back, and Speed gave a quick nod of thanks. “Hey, you want some water?” he asked his lover. Horatio nodded and started to look up when Speed tugged the blindfold back down. “I didn’t say move. I asked you if you wanted some water, Cain.”

Horatio slipped back into his role instantly. “Please,” he whispered. Please keep going, please don’t make me think anymore.

Speed nudged the glass to Horatio’s lips. “Go on, take a drink.” He held the glass as the redhead tilted his head back, and as Horatio drank, Speed could feel the tremors finally going away. “I’m glad you finally told me what was bothering you. Do you feel better now?”

“Yes, sir,” Horatio said quietly as the glass disappeared from his lips.

Speed waited. “Do you think I was right to do it?”

Horatio had to think about that one. Then, finally, he nodded. “Anything you do to me has always been for my own good, sir.”

Speed gave a relieved smile, but his voice never changed. “Good to see we’re on the same page, Cain. Now what do you say?”

Horatio smiled, the tears drying on his cheeks. “Thank you, sir.”

“Very good,” Speed praised, running his fingers through his lover’s wildly askew copper hair, trying to straighten it. “And I’m not mad at you. You’ve been a lot worse than tonight.”

The older man dared a cheeky grin. “But I’ve still been a poor slave tonight, haven’t I, sir?”

“Oh yes, horrible.” Speed leaned in, his breath falling on his lover’s ear. “I’m going to have to correct that, and soon. Before it becomes habit.” Horatio’s mouth fell open just a little when Speed clipped the leash back on to his collar.

Another voice cut in. “I have to say, that was one of the most intense scenes I’ve seen in a while,” Mistress Pamela remarked, and Horatio froze.

“Mistress?” he said incredulously, and Speed gave a pointed tug on the redhead’s leash. Quickly Horatio pulled himself together, kneeling with his legs spread as he put himself back into his pants and zipped up, and then placed his hands palms-down on his thighs. Casually Speed reached behind his slave and zipped up his ass.

“Forgive me if I interrupted your scene, Mr. Deeps,” she said smoothly as Speed rose, self-consciously stuffing himself back into his pants. “Jaelix told me that you had Cain crying. I simply wanted to make sure everything was all right.” Indeed, standing behind her was the huge, living shadow, who smiled sheepishly.

Speed gave a crooked grin. “And to see it for yourself, huh?” He leaned his thigh against Horatio’s shoulder, and the redhead automatically shifted to rest his head on his lover’s leg. “Sorry if it pulled you out of anything, Mistress. He just needed to get some stuff out of his system.”

“I was unoccupied, Mr. Deeps.” She looked down at the kneeling, blindfolded man. “I’m impressed with the bond you have with him. Tabitha told me that she’s never gotten him that far. Even I have never been able to push him to that point.”

Speed raised an eyebrow; for the Mistress of the Club, that was saying something. A dirty little thought pushed its way to the forefront, and he grinned. “Want to do a little pushing of your own, Mistress?”

She tilted her head. “What did you have in mind, Mr. Deeps?”

He gave a casual shrug and a wink. “I still need to punish him for something he did earlier. He was trying to rub himself on the bars when I told him to stay still.” He could feel Horatio stiffen against his leg, and he grinned again.

Mistress Pamela restrained a laugh, her face smiling. “I would be more than happy to assist you, Mr. Deeps. Care to join me in my private quarters?”

You know, it should be easy for a man who's strong
To say he's sorry or admit when he's wrong
I've never lost anything I ever missed
But I've never been in love like this
It's out of my hands

Billy Joel – "Shameless"

Pamela led the way up through the club to her office. Jaelix flanked her, putting on his ‘Monitor behavior’ to keep people out of their way as the quartet climbed the stairs. Kalishnikov was nowhere to be seen, so Jaelix posted himself at the entrance to the office as Pamela and her guests stepped inside.

Once the door closed behind them, Speed beckoned Pamela close, pressing his lips so close to her ear that he didn’t use his vocal chords at all; he simply let his lips shape the exhale. “I want to fuck him in your window. Pretend it’s your mirror.”

She drew back, showing no reaction other than a slight lifting of her pencil-thin eyebrows. But there was a definite twinkle in her eye as she nodded at him. “Mr. Deeps,” she began, “when you were in here earlier, you failed to notice my new acquisition.”

He paused as though looking to where she was ‘pointing.’ “Oh, nice mirror.”

“Thank you. Take a closer look, if you would.”

Speed placed a hand on Horatio’s head. “Stay put, Pet,” he murmured as he walked over to the blank wall nearby. “Mistress… Are those handprints?”

“Mm-hmm.” Her reply was entirely too self-satisfied. “It was beautiful, to be able to stare into his eyes as I ordered him to take me from behind. Perhaps you would do the same thing to your pet? Be able to see every look that crossed his face as you take him?”

“Sounds like a good idea.” He looked down at Horatio, who had his brows furrowed in confusion. Funny, Horatio didn’t remember a mirror being in here. Speed knew that Horatio had an impeccable sense of direction, as well as a close attention to detail that would put some photographic memories to shame. Horatio could take a glance at a children’s book and, several hours later, remember which library had been printed on the barcode sticker.

This one was going to be a little tough to pull off.

An idea was forming in his head, but to make it work, Horatio would have to disobey him first, and he was getting deep into the submissive headspace, which would make that difficult. He thought hard about how to make it work, and suddenly… he had it. “Cain?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Come here.” He paused, seeing the top of Horatio’s head move behind Pamela’s massive oaken desk. “Watch your head!” he snapped, just in time. “Sorry… you can’t see. Guess you’ll just have to feel your way with your hands. Come on, follow my voice.”

Horatio stumbled around the desk, looking for all the world like a nearly blind man searching for his glasses as he crawled across the floor. Finally he must have done it right, because he felt Speed’s hand on his head. “Good pet,” Speed praised. “I want you to do something for me.”

“Anything, sir.”

“I thought you’d say that,” the brunette said smugly. “I want you to unzip your pants and start playing with yourself.”

Horatio froze. He’d almost rather be fucked in public than get caught masturbating, and Speed knew it. “Something wrong, Pet?”

The redhead’s voice cracked. “No, sir.”

“Then get to it. I want to watch you pleasure yourself, but don’t you dare come. Good things will happen if you obey me, Pet.”

Horatio swallowed and dutifully unzipped his fly, reaching in and pulling out his limp cock. “Cain, is there a problem? You’re barely even hard.”

“Sorry, sir. I’m…”

“I know, I know,” Speed soothed. “You’re not used to somebody watching. Well, maybe I can give you something to work with.” He stepped over to his kneeling lover and squatted down. “Just imagine what I’m going to do to you. I’m going to bend you over and take you standing up. I’m going to be staring into your face while I put my dick in you, and I’m going to be watching every move you make while I fuck your brains out.”

Horatio’s cock began to swell; he loved it when Speed talked dirty. “Touch yourself, Pet. Think about me fucking you.”

A slight flush began to creep up Horatio’s neck as he took himself in his hand and began stroking slowly. “That’s it,” Speed crooned as he reached over to take gentle hold of one nipple, rolling it between thumb and forefinger. “Make some noise for me, pet. Tell me how much you like the idea of feeling me slide into you, fucking you hard and slow.”

Horatio bit off a moan as his hand slid loosely up and down his hardening shaft. “Get your hand wet, Cain. Play with your balls.” The redhead did as he was told, stifling a moan as he rolled his sac in one palm. He licked his palm and gripped his cock more tightly, squeezing the head and maintaining pressure all the way down to the root, and back up. “Make some noise, Cain.”

Horatio gave a choked groan. He usually wasn’t very vocal unless he was being fucked. Very little about dick stimulation made him feel the need to make some noise, so unfortunately he would have to fake his moans.

A hand landed firmly on Horatio’s upper arm, and the redhead’s dark world went spinning as he rolled onto his side and then his back, having been spun so that he’d lost his sense of direction. “I told you to make noise, Cain,” Speed said with a definite edge in his voice. He reached down and pinched both of his lover’s nipples, hard, and Horatio made a sound that was halfway between a moan and a grunt. “I would have figured that the thought of me bending you over and fucking your brains out would be a lot more stimulating to you than that.”

It took Horatio a moment to find his voice. Speed had never really shoved him around before. He wasn’t hurt, but it had definitely startled him. “I meant no disrespect, sir. Please forgive mmmmph.” His words were cut off by Speed’s mouth descending to his own, capturing his lips, forcing his tongue into Horatio’s mouth, claiming him. A genuine moan worked its way up Horatio’s throat.

“That’s it, Pet,” Speed whispered as he drew back for air. “Make some noise for me.” He leaned back down to reclaim his lover’s mouth, one of his hands reaching for Horatio’s dick and pumping it with smooth strokes, and Horatio groaned and writhed. "Let's get you out of these," Speed murmured, tugging at Horatio's shirt, pants, and sandals. He bent down until he hovered above the redhead's erect cock. "Strip, Pet," he growled as he swallowed the rod. Horatio groaned and did his best to pull his clothing off. Speed was merciful and helped him out with his pants and sandals.

When Horatio was naked, Speed began going to work on his own clothes. Thankfully he wore the leather vest which meant that he didn't have to take his lips off Horatio's dick. It was a bit awkward to tug his pants off while he was kneeling, but he froze when he felt Mistress Pamela's hands on his hips, helping him tug his pants down. He swallowed, remembered that it was Pamela, and allowed her to help.

Once Pamela had stepped back, Speed let go of the redhead’s cock and grabbed his collar, bodily hauling him to his knees and almost trying to drag him across the room. Horatio, slightly blindsided by the sudden change of action, quickly struggled to comply as Speed pulled him to his feet and tugged him forward until he felt smooth glass against one hand.

“Hands on the mirror, Pet,” Speed murmured. “I want to watch myself fuck you.”

Horatio groaned and pressed his palms against the glass, bending over as he did, offering himself. Speed gave a dark chuckle and traced a finger along the curve of one tight asscheek, moving up to the skin stretched taut against the tailbone. Speed flattened his hand on that firm patch, sliding down to press against the tight pucker with his thumb.

“You want it, don’t you?” Speed growled.

“Yes, sir. Fuck me, sir, please.”

Speed gave an evil chuckle. “In front of Mistress Pamela?”

There was an almost imperceptible pause. “Wherever you wish me, sir. However you wish me. Take me, sir, however you see fit.”

“Good pet,” Speed praised, pressing more firmly against the tight ring of muscle. He could feel it clench and relax in response to his teasing, and he hid his laugh at the situation. If only Horatio knew…

His eyes traveled past his lover, to the window and the people on the other side. Only a few people had noticed them, but several of those that hadn’t were following the gazes of the ones that had, trying to figure out what they were looking at. Oh, H is going to kill me for this.

Pamela tapped him on the shoulder, holding out a bottle of lube and a condom, and he took it with a nod of thanks. He’d like to fuck his lover bareback at least once tonight, but Horatio had been bleeding earlier, and Pamela was a hygiene nazi. He rolled the condom onto himself and covered his length and two fingers with lube, handing the bottle and the wrapper back to the Lady. She smiled and went back to her desk, seating herself with a smile that was entirely too self-satisfied.

Speed stuck his slick fingers into his lover without any warning, finding the passage still open and slick. He gave a wicked grin as he gripped Horatio’s hips, steeled himself, and plunged home in a single buck of his hips. Horatio bit back a shout as Speed immediately started to fuck him hard.

By now, lots of people were looking on with interest. Speed would’ve liked to say that it was because of him, but that was only partly true. Master Cain was one of the most sought-after Doms in the club, but the only man he would sub to was his lover, Mr. Deeps. And Mr. Deeps was a fine Dom in his own right; several people had fantasies about him topping them. Too bad for them, because he didn’t want to; the only man he was interested in, when it came to dominance or submission, was Master Cain.

True, they had physical fun with other slaves from time to time—Speed would never forget the time that Felix and Jaelix had both joined them for a romp—but Master Cain had always been the one in control. Truly, Mr. Deeps was the only man capable of making his lover beg.

He leaned forward again, capturing Horatio’s ear. “I have a confession to make, Cain. Would you like to know what it is?”

Horatio’s breath hitched. “What’s that, sir?”

The redhead could feel Speed grinning like a maniac. “You’re on display. Half the club is standing around, watching you get your brains fucked out.”

Horatio’s breath caught in his throat, and he froze. “I thought we were back in the Mistress’s quarters.”

“Not quite.” Speed savored the moment before whispering, “We’re in her office.”

Horatio paid special attentions to his hands, and the hard, glassy surface beneath them. “This isn’t a mirror.” It wasn’t a question.

Speed drew his hips back and thrust hard, causing the redhead to brace against the glass more firmly. “Nope. It’s her window.”

Horatio gave a choked moan as Speed reached up to tug off the blindfold. When his blue eyes opened, he was exactly as Speed had said: naked, standing in the window, pressed against the glass with his lover buried balls-deep in his ass. Through the nearly inch-thick pane, he could see the bar area and dance floor, and indeed there were a lot of people observing them.

An electric jolt ran through Speed’s body at the sight of so many people watching Horatio take him from behind. Horatio had the opposite reaction, and Speed realized it instantly. His redhead still had his damn aversion to public displays, especially when he bottomed, and he had to correct that. “Know what the best part is, H?” Speed whispered evilly, grinding his hips hard.

“What’s that?” Horatio asked, unable to tear his eyes from the crowd. He was shrinking, and they both knew it. Hell, now the whole crowd knew it.

“They don’t care.” Speed reached around to grasp his lover’s flagging erection. “You’re not Horatio here, you’re Cain. Nobody’s gonna hate you. Nobody’s gonna arrest you.”

Pamela made a noise small enough for Speed to hear, and he turned enough to see her mouth the words ‘may I?’ at him. Speed nodded. “Cain,” she said smoothly, and the redhead twisted around in shock at her presence. “Mr. Deeps knows what he’s doing. Give in to him.” She stood and walked over to him, her posture and voice saying she was in complete control. “You’re being a very bad pet, you know.”

Speed made his voice growl, trying to contain a laugh. “Tell me about it. I go and rig all this up for him, and now he gets stage fright.” His hand on Horatio’s cock gave it a few pumps, and he could feel the blood inside hesitate on its way to the rest of his body. “Don’t make me tie you up again, Cain.”

Pamela clasped her hands in front of her. “Mr. Deeps, if I may offer some assistance? I don’t want to overstep with your slave.”

Speed released Horatio’s dick with a frustrated sigh, coming to a stop in his lover’s body. “Go ahead. Maybe I should give him to you for a little while.”

That did it. The words hit Horatio, and he finally cleared his head. Screw the people watching him; he was becoming a very large disappointment to the one person that really mattered. “Please don’t, sir.”

Speed put his hands on Horatio’s hips. “Why shouldn’t I? You’re not even pleasing me anymore.”

Horatio ducked his head, his voice cracking. “It’s all the people, sir. I don’t think I can come with them watching.”

Speed was disappointed, but he had to accept it. “Fine. I’ll give you one more chance. After that, the Mistress gets you for the rest of the night.”

“Whatever you will, sir.” Speed pulled out, and Horatio instantly dropped to a kneel, turning around to kiss his lover’s feet. “Don’t send me away, sir. I want to please you.”

Speed looked at Pamela, who drew the blinds. Even through the thick glass and the insulation of the walls, they could hear a disappointed groan coming from the crowd below, and it made him grin. “Cain, you really want to please me?”

“Yes, sir.” Horatio sat on his heels, face lowered.

Pamela stepped over to Speed, whispering in his ear. He listened, nodded, and reached down to put a finger under Horatio’s chin, tilting the man’s head up to face him. “Pet,” he said softly, “Mistress Pamela has asked me for a favor. She wants to watch me fuck you again.”

Horatio’s eyes flicked involuntarily to the Lady, but Speed’s hand on his chin jerked him back. “Don’t make me remind you that this is your last chance tonight,” Speed growled. “She’ll be the only one in the room besides us. She has clearly expressed desire to see you get off, and I’ve promised her that I can make that happen.” He leaned down for emphasis. “Are you going to make me a liar?”

Horatio’s face took on a hurt expression. “No, sir, I would never—“

“Then what are you waiting for?” Speed interrupted, straightening and dropping his hands to his sides. “Get this condom off me and get me hard again.”

Horatio’s eyes widened and he reached for Speed’s cock, peeling off the Latex. For a moment he was unsure as to what to do with it, but Pamela rescued him by holding out the small trash can that stayed under her desk. He dropped it in, his hands returning to Speed’s cock, and the little bin disappeared back under her desk. Horatio leaned forward, nuzzling his lover’s balls, one hand pumping Speed’s already-hardening dick while the other ran a worshipping palm up his thigh.

“It’s a shame you don’t like females, Mr. Deeps,” Pamela cut in with a sigh. “I would love to touch you right now.”

Speed gave a little grin and indicated his lover, who had gently sucked both balls into his mouth. “He has a theory on that one. He thinks a woman could still get me hard; it’s how men are wired up, after all. It’s just the thought of fucking one that turns me off.” And true to his words, his erection flagged noticeably. Horatio made a growling noise and abandoned the balls to capture Speed’s dick in his mouth.

She tilted her head at him, eyes playful. “May we test that theory?”

Speed made a face, snorted, and shook his head with a grin. “Maybe some other time. Right now, I’m still waiting on him to distract me.” The moment he said the word ‘waiting,’ Horatio took a breath and took Speed all the way in, relaxing his throat and suppressing the gag reflex. Perfect timing; Speed’s voice cracked on the word ‘distract,’ and Horatio smiled into his lover’s pubic hair.

Speed’s eyes closed. “Smartass,” he whispered, hands coming down to tangle in Horatio’s hair as the redhead pulled back for air.

“I didn’t want to keep you waiting, sir,” Horatio murmured with a twinkle in his eye, deep-throating his lover again before Speed could reply.

“Oh, you’re gonna pay for that one,” Speed growled, holding Horatio’s head firmly still. He reared his hips back and began fucking the redhead’s face, gently.

Behind the kneeling slave, Pamela held up a small riding crop, and Speed nodded. Without warning, she tapped it hard on Horatio’s shoulder, and he jumped. He tried to look back but Speed held him still, hips never ceasing. “She’s punishing you for all the handprints on her window, Cain,” Speed said with a laugh that was completely at odds with the arousal on his face. “If you want to call safeword, tap me on the leg, okay?”

Horatio’s response was to grasp Speed’s thighs firmly with both hands, tightening the suction on his lover’s thrusting cock, and Speed nodded at Pamela. She lifted it again, bringing it down on his other shoulder, and he gave a low growl that sent vibrations coursing through Speed’s groin. “Keep going, Pet, but don’t you dare make me come yet,” he hissed, stilling his hips.

Speed stood there with his hands threaded through Horatio’s hair as the older man resumed sucking his lover’s roaring erection, growling noises emanating from his throat at every solid whack! of the Mistress’s crop. There was no way she was going to break the skin, especially not with the bandages in place, but she was still doing an excellent job of aggravating the wounds he’d already received that evening, and his brain returned to the dark, warm fog of submission.

Horatio no longer cared about his orgasm, or the crowd, or problems at work, or anything. All he cared about was letting the pain take him away, floating away on the calm until there was nothing but himself and Speed. All that mattered was making Speed happy. His lover. His master. He could feel his eyes welling up with tears; he did that whenever he reached this point. It was his body’s physical indication that he was completely submissive. His world had closed down to one tiny thing, and that was Speed’s wishes.

They built a rhythm, the crop falling across his back every time he pulled away from his lover, and tears began to spill from his tightly closed eyes. Speed properly read the signal, knowing it to be the redhead’s involuntary response to complete and total submission, and he nodded at Pamela. She nodded back and grasped the tip of her weapon with her off hand. “That’s enough, Cain,” Speed ordered, releasing his deathgrip on his lover’s hair.

Instantly Horatio released him, his palms returning to his thighs, eyes to the ground. Small shudders wracked his body, and Pamela could see the red circles oozing to the top of the bandages.

“Stand up, Cain,” Speed said calmly, ignoring his raging hard-on, and his lover wasted no time climbing to his feet. “Stand still, and put your hands out to the sides, 45-degree angle.” Horatio did as he was told. “Look at me.” Slowly the blue eyes locked onto his lover’s deep brown ones, reading the love and approval there. “I want to give you a little reward, before you perform for the Mistress.”

Horatio dared to lift his eyebrows slightly as Speed reached for him, tweaking a nipple. Horatio made a small noise in the back of his throat, eyes starting to close. “Cain, keep looking at me,” Speed growled softly. The eyes returned to him. “I want you to keep your eyes on me, and don’t you dare move.” Both of Speed’s hands were on Horatio’s chest, threading through the wiry red curls, as Speed leaned forward and placed a light kiss on his lover’s lips. When Horatio didn’t respond, Speed gave a little grin. “You can kiss me back, ya know. Just don’t move anything else.”

That was all the signal Horatio needed to open his mouth as Speed claimed his lips again, the redhead hungrily devouring his lover’s tongue as Speed’s hands slid over his chest, possessing him, teasing his nipples. His arms were rigid and stiff as he kept still, fighting the urge to respond, to wrap his arms around the younger man and hold him close. Speed’s hands roamed lower, to his hips, and one hand snaked behind him to grab a firm handful of his ass, and he groaned into the kiss.

He fought to keep his eyes open, to keep looking at Speed, but pain and lust had made his eyelids so heavy and it was all he could do to keep them from rolling back into his head as Speed’s other hand roughly grabbed his throbbing length, pumping it with firm strokes. Horatio groaned again and Speed broke the kiss with a gasp, his own eyes heavy. “Don’t move,” he reminded as he slid slowly to his knees.

Horatio couldn’t have moved if he wanted to; his arms ached from being held so rigid, and now Speed was on his knees, staring up at him. Speed gave the head a teasing little lick, feeling his lover’s legs tremble. “You’re so responsive,” Speed whispered wonderingly as he licked again. “I love that in you,” he confessed as he took the head in his mouth, and Horatio’s legs shook.

Pamela stepped to where Speed could see her, her hands empty. “May I touch your pet, Mr. Deeps?” she asked softly, and he nodded as he slid his lips slowly down his lover’s cock. Horatio’s entire being was focused on keeping his eyes on Speed as the younger man sucked him at a maddeningly slow pace, and now Pamela stepped behind him to reach underneath his arms to his chest, finding his nipples and teasing him. “I’ve been wanting to try this on him for a while,” she admitted, being tall enough to press her lips against the back of Horatio’s neck, just above his collar.

One leg gave a firm twitch as his eyes finally closed against his will; the Lady started nibbling on the sensitive skin, and Speed took the redhead completely down his throat. Mindless noises vibrated from Horatio’s windpipe as he simply stood there, letting the other two pleasure him. Possess him. Master him.

“Mr. Deeps,” Pamela murmured sensually. “The door on the other side of my office leads to my private playroom. Would you like to take this in there?”

Speed released his lover with a loud sucking noise. “I think I would,” he replied as he climbed to his feet. Horatio made a noise not unlike a whimper, bemoaning the loss of sensations, and Speed reached out to grab another fistful of the redhead’s hair on the back of his neck. Horatio gave another shuddering groan and dropped to his knees without a word. “Good Pet,” Speed praised, tugging on his lover’s leash, and Horatio followed him eagerly.

Pamela lead the way, holding the door open as Speed and his pet redhead passed through it and into the room beyond. There was a table, a few overstuffed chairs, a rather comfortable-looking loveseat, and a massive four-poster bed with sleigh-style head- and footboards. Speed guided his lover to one side of the bed, allowing the redhead to stand in order to climb onto the high mattress, and the brunette shot a devious look at Mistress Pamela. The lady had settled on the loveseat, one elbow on the armrest and her chin in her palm, watching with hooded eyes but otherwise not moving.

Speed encouraged Horatio to kneel on the bed while the younger man climbed up behind him, lying on his back. “Mistress, you have condoms and lube in here?” Speed asked.

She nodded. “The drawer to your pet’s left,” she replied, and Horatio reached over without a word to grab the necessities.

Speed stroked himself idly. “Pet, you may suck on me a little more.”

Horatio swooped down and swallowed his lover’s cock without a word, and Speed hissed as the talented mouth went to work on him with wild abandon. All too soon, Speed had to push the redhead’s shoulders back lest he shoot off prematurely. “Easy, lover,” Speed growled softly. “Get my dick ready for you.”

Wordlessly Horatio tore the little foil square and unrolled the condom on his Master’s aching erection, slicking it up with the lube. “May I ride you, sir?” he murmured eagerly.

Speed snickered. “You’re damn right you may. Sit on this dick, Pet.”

Horatio moved quickly, straddling the younger man’s hips and aiming with one hand as he sank carefully down. Speed slid home with a sigh, gripping the redhead’s hips to hold him still, grinding into that tight heat and making his lover’s hands twitch. “You wanna ride this cock, don’t you?” Speed growled, reaching for the older man’s dick. Horatio groaned as Speed’s other hand encouraged the redhead to rise up a little, and Horatio did.

Speed pumped him hard, whispering wordless things about what he would do to him, such great and terrible things. Horatio’s eyes were clouded with lust, mouth moving but no sounds coming out as Speed manhandled him, quickly building momentum until he was slamming into that dark, hot crevice that gripped him and stroked him with every thrust.

Horatio bit his lip, fighting back orgasm. This was the third time he’d been fucked tonight and he was desperate to come, but to do so without Speed’s approval was unthinkable. He fought to stay in his submissive headspace but his body had other ideas. “Sir,” he choked out, half begging, half warning.

Speed gave him a knowing look. “Would you like to show me your appreciation for all I’ve done for you tonight?”

“Oh, yes sir, please sir!”

“All right, then, Horatio!” Speed thundered. “I want you to come!!!”

Horatio reared his head back. “Yes, SIR!!!” he roared, gripping the edge of the headboard with enough force that he could feel his knuckles protesting. The order snapped through Horatio’s consciousness, lodging in his brain and sending signals down his spine to his aching cock. His entire body became one clenched muscle, gripping his lover tight, and then Speed nudged his prostate one more time and he was coming hard, shaking, incoherent words spilling from his lips as his length quivered and spurted, shooting thick white streamers into the polished wood that spattered and dripped down to the mattress next to the younger man’s head. His entire world went dark, silent, and the only things that existed were Speed’s words and Speed’s hands and Speed’s dick inside him, and his entire body shuddered.

“Good boy,” Speed snarled, unexpectedly bucking his hips and swinging his legs to roll a started Horatio backward, and suddenly Horatio was staring up at his lover with his legs wrapped around the sturdy waist, and Speed held his legs apart and began pounding him again. One of Speed’s hands moved to grab his dripping cock, wringing the last few drops from it, and Horatio gave a mindless scream as Speed buried himself to the hilt, a wild shout tearing from his lips as he came inside the overwhelming tight heat of his lover, his cock spurting and coating the walls of the condom with his seed.

Speed hovered above the redhead, gasping, studying his pet. Horatio’s eyes were closed, glorying in the post-orgasmic aftershocks, so he didn’t see Pamela nod to Speed and slip back out into her office. Carefully Speed pulled out, ignoring the whisper of loss from his lover as he sat on the edge of the bed and peeled off the condom, locating the wastebasket and baby wipes in the nightstand. He cleaned off himself and his lover, and as an afterthought, did his best to wipe up the white spatter on the headboard.

By this time, Horatio seemed to have mostly recovered. “Sit up for me, Pet,” Speed ordered softly, and Horatio wearily pulled himself upright. He’d really been jumping through hoops all night, and Speed was ready to give him a rest. “You may kiss me freely.”

Horatio leaned forward on his knees, capturing his younger lover’s lips, thanking him wordlessly for everything he’d done. Speed allowed himself to be momentarily swept away by the sensations, but finally, regretfully, he pulled back.

I'm shameless, I don't have the power now
But I don't want it anyhow
So I've got to let it go

I'm shameless, shameless as a man can be
You can make a total fool of me
I just wanted you to know

Billy Joel – "Shameless"

Speed pulled Horatio down onto the bed and wrapped his arms around him in a crushing hug. “That was very good, Pet.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Would you like to touch me?”

“I would, sir, thank you.” Horatio rolled in Speed’s embrace until they were facing each other and ran his hands along his lover’s body, giving silent thanks for all that Speed had done for him tonight. “May I rub your shoulder, sir?”

Speed thought it was a wonderful idea and rolled onto the appropriate side so Horatio could get to his right shoulder. The slim hands gripped the joint with gentle strength, easing the soreness that had accumulated during the evening. Speed sighed and sank into the bed as Horatio worked his magic. “Cain?” Speed mumbled into the pillow.

“Yes, sir?”

“You keep that up, you’re going to put me to sleep.”

With Speed facing away from him, Horatio smiled broadly. “Sorry, sir.”

“Lay down and cover up. I wanna lay here for a while.”

Horatio was most agreeable, leaning up to grab the bedsheets and pulling them over their bodies. He snuggled close to the younger man, pressing into Speed’s back and draping an arm over his waist, pressing a gentle kiss into the brunette’s neck. “Thank you, sir,” Horatio murmured. “For everything.”

A quiet knock on the door startled them, and Speed looked up. “Yes?”

The door cracked open and Kalishnikov appeared, kneeling to lay two neatly folded piles of clothing on the floor and adding the sandals. “Mistress Pamela says that these are yours, sirs, for whenever you wish to get dressed. No rush, she said.”

“Tell your Mistress that I said thank you, Nik,” Speed told the man, who nodded and backed out into the Mistress’ office, pulling the door closed behind him.

They lay there quietly for a few minutes more. “Cain?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Go grab those clothes and bring them over here, would you?”

“Yes, sir.” Horatio slid out of the bed and darted to the doorway, picking up the two bundles. He brought them back over to the bed, where Speed had sat up.

“Dress me, Pet.”

Horatio selected Speed’s bundle of clothing and grabbed the leather vest, sliding it over his lover’s arms and bringing it snugly to rest. The pants were next, and Horatio wordlessly encouraged the younger man to stand so he could step into the jeans, hands on the redhead’s shoulders for support. When Horatio finished buckling the belt and zipping him back up, Speed sat back down so Horatio could put on his sandals.

“Good, Pet,” Speed praised. “Now dress yourself.”

Horatio did so quickly, struggling to squirm into the tight leather pants. He gave a quiet hiss as he slid his shirt over his head and ran over the bandages. Adjusting the shirt, he absently straightened his hair as he bent to put his sandals on.

“Kneel for me, Cain.”

Horatio dropped to his knees.

“You may thank me.”

Horatio kissed the tops of his Master’s sandals. “Thank you, sir.”

Speed tousled his lover’s hair for a bit, and finally moved to unclip Horatio’s leash with a sigh. “All right, H, level out.”

Horatio looked up. At Speed’s nod, he stood and stretched, wincing slightly at the tenderness in his back. “I’ll be feeling that in the morning,” he muttered, smoothing his hair back into place.

Speed grinned up at him. “So how’d I do tonight?”

Horatio turned to look at him, eyes darkening with pure affection. Swiftly he fell upon his lover, raining kisses all over his face, and Speed couldn’t decide whether he wanted to laugh or moan. Finally they settled down, Horatio still on top. “You were perfect, Speed, absolutely perfect.”

“Thanks. I figured you needed this.”

“I did, Speed, I really did. Thank you.” Horatio fastened his too-blue eyes on his lover, bending down for another sweet kiss.

“I love you, H,” Speed whispered.

Horatio gave a tender smile. “I love you, too, Speed. And now,” he sat up, making a grab for the leash, “it’s your turn.”

Speed’s eyes widened. “Oh, no you don’t. No more floggings tonight.”

Horatio almost pouted. “Please, Speed? At least go walking with me. I’ve seen so many unfamiliar faces tonight, and the ones I did recognize, I mostly haven’t seen for the last six months.”

Speed sighed. Pouting was another thing Horatio did so rarely, but when he did… it was impossible to say no. “Fine. Just to say hi to all our friends, and then we’re going home. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Speed grinned. “Then by all means, please dominate me, Master Cain.”

Horatio gave him a look in return, one so full of lust that Speed was surprised he didn’t catch fire. “With pleasure, Mr. Deeps.” With that, the redhead took the leash and clipped it to his lover’s collar, and they stood. Before Speed could kneel, Horatio cupped his chin gently and kissed him.

Speed gave a little moan and opened his mouth, inviting his lover’s tongue, but it didn’t come. He cracked open one eye, seeing Horatio watching him. The redhead pulled back, a gentle smile on his face. “That was for this evening,” he explained. “I’ll give you a moment to get into the mindset.”

Speed eyed him for a moment. “May I?”

“You may.”

A pause. “You’re gonna make me crawl, aren’t you?”

Horatio smiled broadly. “You bet your ass I am. Now,” and he pointed to the floor, “on your knees, Deeps.”

Speed gave a sheepish grin and dropped to the carpet. “Yes, sir.”

They re-entered the Mistress’s office, at which she gave a short laugh and a clap of her hands. “I had a feeling that was coming,” she said, indicating Speed trundling along behind the redhead.

Horatio gave a shy smile. “He deserves it.”

She nodded. “He deserves a lot of things, and you’re just the man to give them to him. And by the way…” She pointed to the window and its re-opened blinds, to which Horatio stepped with Speed kneeling next to him. Below them, somebody in the crowd noticed and pointed up. From the crush of people came laughter from some, cheers from others, as Horatio made a show of tugging on his lover’s leash to leave the office.

Jaelix was standing in the stairwell, and upon the sight of his old friends he couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Damn, Deeps! Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it?”

Horatio chuckled back; Speed was too busy crawling down the steps. “Thank you for looking out for us, Jaelix.”

The big man gave a friendly shrug as Speed finally reached the landing. “No problem, Cain. Or should I say ‘Master Cain,’ now?”

Footsteps echoed, and Horatio turned to see Felix climbing the stairs. “Ask the bitch who’s master!” Felix called with a grin.

Horatio waited until Speed regained his balance. “Well, Deeps?”

Speed looked up at him. “Yes, Master Cain?”

Felix gave an evil laugh. “Good boy!”

Horatio knew what his lover wanted, without even asking. “Go ahead, Pet.” Immediately Speed twisted his upper half to face Felix, giving him a dark glare and flipping him off with both hands. Horatio chuckled and laid his hand on Speed’s hair, ruffling the dark curls affectionately, and Speed returned to his submissive posture.

“Thank you, sir,” Speed muttered to the floor. Felix had stumbled at Speed’s ‘outburst,’ but Jaelix had doubled over and was laughing hard.

“You shoulda seen that one comin’, Felix my man!” Jaelix howled.

Horatio tugged at the leash. “You may walk, Deeps.”

Speed gratefully climbed to his feet. “Thank you, sir.”

“So where are you two headed now?” Felix inquired.

Horatio gave a too-casual tilt of his head. “Oh, we’re just going to walk around for a while.”

Jaelix shrugged. “Well, whatever. You guys are gonna start comin’ back once a week, right?”

Horatio nodded. “Our schedules permitting, we will.”

“Good,” Jaelix replied. “Now get his bitchy ass back out there. You gotta pay him back for that little stunt he just pulled.”

Horatio gave a dark smile. “Oh, I’m going to. Come along, Pet.”

Felix and Jaelix gave casual waves as Horatio and Speed headed down the stairs. Rounding the corner, Horatio led his pet to the edge of the dance floor, and Speed halted. Mercifully, Horatio halted as well.

On his little pedestal at the head of the dance floor, one Deejay held one hand to his oversized headphones as he worked his synthesizers while the other Deejay backed him up. Despite the fact that neither Speed nor Horatio were avid listeners of techno music, they’d been here enough times to recognize Darude versus Robert Miles, doing ‘Children of the Sandstorm.’

The dance floor and the nearby bar/lounge took up most of the lower story of the club, and was the main reason that a good two thirds of the club’s patrons came to the place. Not everybody was a hardcore S&M player like Horatio or Speed. Most of the club’s ‘casual appeal’ came from the fact that it was an ‘all couples welcome’ establishment. Intolerance of any sexual preference was prohibited. Violators were warned, and repeat offenders were barred from certain places in the club if not outright blacklisted.

The dance floor itself so large as to be almost cavernous, with generous helpings of platforms for the more daring dancers. The only illumination came from lights mounted on hidden brackets along the platforms, the walls, and the ceiling. There was actually a disco ball, too, with various colored lights aimed at it, and multicolored whirls played across the pulsing crowd in eye-catching spirals.

“We’re going dancing, Deeps,” Horatio said firmly, and he saw his lover’s shoulders droop.

Speed hated dancing.
Truly, utterly hated it.

“What’s the matter?” Horatio asked with an amused smile. “Would you rather I tie you up and beat you?”

“Honestly, sir?”

Horatio sighed. “No, don’t answer that, I already know. But I would like to dance with you, at least for a little while.”

Horatio led his lover out onto the dance floor, where they were immediately swallowed by the thronging crowd. Couples of all gender pairings—and a few that were more than couples—pressed against each other, swaying and grinding, lost in the music. Overhead, the lights flashed in time to the music, and Horatio noticed some Monitors roaming through the crowd, checking to make sure that nobody was doing drugs. Getting caught with anything illegal in the club was grounds for immediate blacklisting… with the chance of ‘parole,’ which amused Horatio to no end.

“Dance with me, Speed,” Horatio whispered, letting the leash go slack. “Please.”

Speed looked at him, his expression unreadable, and finally he sighed and gave a little grin. “All right, but just this once. I did put you through a lot tonight.”

Horatio smiled. “Thank you.” The leash slack, Horatio’s hands persuaded Speed to turn his back so Horatio could move closely behind him, holding him as the next song started. Speed recognized it as a fairly good rendition of ‘Blast The Speakers’ by the Warp Brothers.

Speed spread his arms slightly and closed his eyes, leaning his head back and shifting to the music as Horatio stood closely behind him, grasping his hips and grinding sensually into his ass. The redhead ran lips over his lover’s shoulders as they dipped and swayed in time with the pulsing beats.

Despite the exertion of their earlier scenes, Speed felt himself getting hard again as Horatio ran possessive hands up his sides, along his shoulders, down his arms, slowly grasping his wrists and raising them over his head as he pressed himself firmly against Speed’s denim-clad ass. Speed responded by slipping his hands down to grasp Horatio’s head from behind, running fingers through the damp copper locks as Horatio hooked his chin over Speed’s shoulder and ran teasing fingers back down his sides to rest at his hips again. It never failed to surprise Speed, what a lithe dancer Horatio was. The song changed, smoothly mixing into Crystal Method’s ‘High Roller.’

Horatio, Speed realized, was a man of so many hidden talents, so many wonderful qualities that nobody else saw but him. He was a Dom and a tender lover both, a brilliant scientist and a dedicated cop both, so intelligent in the ways of the world and yet so utterly simple in his innocent love of Speed… It gave him a sudden burst of pride, and love, in his chest, and he gladly tossed away his hatred of dancing and allowed his lover to possess his body as solidly as he’d possessed his soul.

All too soon, the song ended, and Speed found that he was disappointed as one of the Deejays picked up the microphone. “All right, folks, take a half-hour break while we scrub the floors.”

As ultra-hygienic as Mistress Pamela was, every surface in the club that got a lot of body fluids—like sweat dripping from a crowd of dancers—was given a good disinfecting scrub-and-mop every four hours. She was also firm about letting people rest from physical exertion. Horatio thought it was a good rule, and another reason that he liked this club so much, but he wished that it hadn’t happened on only the third song they’d started dancing to. It took quite a bit of effort to get Speed to dance… or what he called dancing, anyway.

Horatio and Speed stepped regretfully off the dance floor, accidentally bumping into another pair of men. They turned and started to apologize, and stopped. One of them was a man that looked roughly fifty, his hair dark with a heavy dusting of gray, tall and distinguished-looking. He was also very familiar.

“Judge Haskill?” Speed couldn’t stop from sputtering, albeit quietly. Horatio managed to remain silent, although his eyebrows were high.

The judge’s gray eyes went wide. “Lieutenant Caine? And…?”

“Speedle, CSI level 3,” Speed replied quietly.

Judge Samuel Haskill was quiet, considering both the ramifications of being recognized and the shock of Horatio’s relationship, when Horatio rescued him by stepping in front of Speed and giving a tug on his slave’s leash, the surprise jerk causing the younger man to stumble forward and land flush against Horatio’s back. “Hey!” he protested.

Horatio looked at him over his shoulder. “Quiet, Pet.”

Speed’s eyes dropped. “Yes, sir.”

The judge watched them quietly. Horatio stuck out his hand, as though meeting the man for the first time. “Pardon his manners. I’m Master Cain, and this unfortunately rude slave of mine is Mr. Deeps.”

Haskill blinked, and suddenly laughed. It was the beauty of the atmosphere, that once you walked into this building, your outside reputation ceased to exist. “They call me Roe-ver,” he smiled, shaking Horatio’s hand. Horatio’s keen eyes noted the blue ring around the judge’s collar tag, as well as the unusual spelling, and he realized with amusement that it was the same spelling as His Honor’s pet Chesapeake Bay retriever.

Haskill had run once for mayor and done poorly, partly because he was thought to be too young for the position—albeit a few years younger than Horatio. The main reason that his campaign had been rather unmemorable was his outspoken criticism of Roe versus Wade. “And this,” Roe-ver said with an embarrassed smile, indicating his dance partner, “is Desi.”

Desi—and the judge pronounced it “Dezzy”—was a slim Hispanic man that Horatio recognized as being a prominent member of the Miami Chamber of Commerce, with the first name of Richard. Horatio chuckled. “I get it.”

Roe-ver furrowed his brows. “Get what?”

Speed was snickering in Horatio’s ear. “May I, sir?”

“You may,” the redhead replied.

Speed grinned at them. “Richard, Ricky, Ricky Ricardo played by Desi Arnaz… Desi.”

The middle-aged Desi scratched his neck, the light flashing off his collar tag with the identical blue ring. “They said you CSIs were smart, but I didn’t figure you for an ‘I Love Lucy’ fan.”

“I’m not,” Horatio admitted with a smile. “But that’s what we do. We make connections.”

“I can see that,” Roe-ver said dryly, nodding at the leash that Horatio still held taut, keeping Speed firmly pressed against him. “So, you two are here for the leather thing, hmm?”

Horatio nodded. “All sorts of leather.” He let the leash go slack a little. “Deeps, try not to dig into my wounds with your chin next time, all right?”

Speed fought down a snicker. “Sorry, sir.”

Roe-ver blinked. “All kinds of leather… right.” Desi looked puzzled, so His Honor explained. “They stay in the dungeon.”

“Ah.” Desi looked at them with the slightest hint of trepidation, and Horatio sighed inwardly. Despite the overwhelming tolerance of this place, there were still some people that just didn’t get it.

He turned to unclip Speed’s leash and hand it to him. “Level out for now, Deeps.”

Speed nodded understandingly and took the leash, slinging it over his shoulder and clipping the lead to the loop like a bandolier. “The dungeon’s one reason why we come here,” he confirmed. “Another one is the same reason that you two are probably here: nobody cares if you’re fucking another guy.”

On a normal day, Horatio would have acted embarrassed, apologized, and later berated Speed for his use of such strong language in front of officials of the City of Miami. Here, he simply gave his lover a firm swat on the ass. “Be polite.”

“There you are!” A female voice called, and the group turned to see two attractive women making their way toward them. One of them, Horatio recognized as His Honor’s wife. She also had a pink ring on her collar tag. She noticed them, recognized Horatio—Speed didn’t do nearly as many public appearances—and halted. “Oh, I didn’t realize…”

“It’s all right, Hera. Master Cain and his slave were just making conversation,” Roe-ver told her reassuringly.

She still looked unsure, so Speed stuck out his hand. “Mr. Deeps. I, uh, work for Master Cain, here. Don’t worry, we’re all here for the same thing.”

“Which is?” she replied archly, her brow rising and ignoring the hand. Horatio’s mouth twitched; Hera was another anti-leather personality to deal with, and by far the most militant lesbian he’d met all night.

Horatio smiled soothingly. “Because, as my partner pointed out earlier, nobody cares if I do this here.” And he turned and roughly grabbed two handfuls of Speed’s ass, and the younger man yelped.

“Easy! I’m gonna get you back for that,” Speed growled when Horatio let go.

“Oh? And how’s that, Mr. Deeps?” Horatio asked in a husky murmur. “Are you going to blindfold me and plaster me to the window again?”

His Honor coughed. “You know, I thought that was you up there, but I didn’t believe myself.”

Horatio gave a modest shrug, fighting down his embarrassment. “Normally I’m the one holding the leash, but I let him have it tonight. And you see where it got me.”

Roe-ver smiled. “You know, I’ve been thinking about taking Desi down to the dungeon, just to see what you people do down there.”

Desi turned to his lover. “You were?”

Horatio clicked his tongue. “It’s not for the faint of heart, I’ll admit.”

Hera cut in. “I’m sure that’s all very fascinating, Master Cain, but I simply came to remind my housemate of the time.”

Roe-ver’s eyes widened, and they all glanced at the glowing clock with its foot-tall luminescent numbers, mounted above the bar. It was late. He turned back to Horatio and Speed with an apologetic smile. “Hate to cut this short, gentlemen, but she’s right. I have to go back to being important now.”

Horatio chuckled. “The price we pay.” The four men shook hands, and Speed eyed Hera warily. Neither he nor Horatio attempted to shake her hand, and she didn’t offer.

“Jesus,” Speed muttered when the two pairs left. “She’s an even colder lez than Tabitha.”

“I have to say that I didn’t see that coming,” Horatio agreed with high brows. “They seemed like such a nice couple in public.”

Speed gave him a funny look. “Doesn’t this place count as public?”

Horatio had to think about it. “You know… I honestly don’t know how I would answer that. It’s more like a separate, private sect of the public.”

Speed blinked. “It’s a club, H. Try saying ‘separate society’ next time.”

Horatio nodded. “That does sound a bit more accurate.” He sighed, glancing at the clock again. “Unfortunately she’s right. You know how early we get up in the mornings.”

“How could I forget?” Speed grumbled.

Horatio smiled and hooked his arm around Speed’s elbow. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

“I like the sound of that. Lead on, H.”

And he did.

That I’m shameless

Gone down on my knees
I’m shameless
Way beyond my control
I’m shameless

Billy Joel – "Shameless"