Christopher, Craig & Co.
Part 145: Tête-à-tête.
I turned and faced Scott. “What does that mean?”
He stepped forward and greeted me with a kiss. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” My smile faded. “What’s going on? Where’ve you been?”
“Let’s sit down.” Scott led the way into the living room and we situated ourselves on the couch. Once we were settled, he said, “You looked worried talking to Brad.”
“There’s something off about his responses. I’m concerned about those canned statements about needing control. They didn’t sound like the rest of what he was saying.”
“You think he’s being used against his will?”
“I think somebody is messing with his head. Hopefully it will be easy to fix.”
Scott nodded. “You know, I was going to be jealous about you doing this with these other guys, but now that I see how you help them I think it’s really incredible what you do.”
I reached for his hand. “I appreciate you saying that. But I wasn’t always so altruistic.” I drew his hand to my lips and kissed his palm. “Scott, you have nothing to worry about. You’re the only one for me.”
Scott leaned forward and kissed my lips. When he pulled back, he asked, “What’s been going on around here?”
I considered where to start. “Well, Mike moved into the apartment over Leatherman’s.”
“With Bootboy?”
“Bootboy left town.”
Scott’s brow furrowed, “Why?”
I held up my hands. “I got nothin’. He left a note about wanting a fresh start.”
“Is he all right to do that?”
“He’s a functional adult, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Scott nodded.
“Let’s see. I need to hire a manager for the club ASAP. I have no idea what I’m doing, and I don’t want to ruin the business.”
Scott cocked his head. “I might know somebody.”
“I don’t want an undercover agent. I need somebody longer term.”
Scott grinned. “Long term sounds good to me.” He kissed me again. “Is Wade here?”
“He’s at Kampas.”
“How’s he doing? The last time I saw him he still seemed like he was struggling with everything that went down.”
“I think he’s moving on. Between us, I had a very interesting conversation with him about D/s relationships.”
It was Scott’s turn to look concerned. “Wade was asking you about subbing?”
I shook my head and grinned. “Domming.”
“No shit,” Scott said. “Good for him.”
“I think it might be. But I have to tell you that was not a conversation I was prepared for.”
Scott smiled his million-dollar smile. “I’m sure you handled it with aplomb.”
“I, uh, also picked Craig up at the hospital and took him home today.”
“I know,” Scott said.
“You know? Stalker much?”
Scott raised his eyebrows. “The hospital is under surveillance. There’s a guy at Craig’s building now, too.”
“Why? Craig told me they haven’t charged him with anything yet.”
“Yet is right. The D.A. wants him for kidnapping. I’ve been pushing my boss on this to get a deal for Craig to testify against Richard and plead to assault.”
“Would that be a good thing?”
“Best case—he could get away with a fine and no jail time.”
“Except he has no money.”
Scott looked at me meaningfully but said nothing.
“What about Richard?”
“Richard is a problem. He claims he has no memory of the past twelve years. A department psychiatrist has talked to him and thinks it could be PTSD.”
“...or it could be that drug he injected himself with.”
“The lab is still working on what that was and what it does.”
“We KNOW what it does.”
“Do you want to tell them how and why you know that?”
I bit my lip. No, I thought.
“Medical tests show nothing conclusive that could cause memory loss. Richard is doing very well. He’ll make a full recovery.”
“Damn. But surely after those videos were discovered they aren’t letting him go home.”
Scott patted my thigh. “Not likely. But they’re still deciding what to charge him with. The videos show his character as a brutal top with a temper, but the men in the videos are consenting adults. None of them appear to be coerced to be present; in fact, many of them volunteer in the videos. Even in the one that shows Leatherman’s death, while it’s clear he was involved, it’s obvious Richard wasn’t directly responsible.”
“Are you telling me he’s going to get away with all of this?” I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.
“No. He’s definitely being charged with false imprisonment for holding me in the dungeon. And there are two counts of attempted murder for trying to kill us both. They’re also eyeing aggravated assault, negligence, and manslaughter.”
“What’s the holdup?”
“The memory loss.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“No. It’s not a defense. Whether he remembers or not he’ll be charged and prosecuted. The D.A. was waiting on test results to be proactive for when Richard lawyers up.”
“They told you all of this?”
Scott’s expression grew serious. “People have been willing to share information. They know you and Wade were victims.”
I nodded. “So now what?”
“We’re going to have to wait and see. Richard will likely be discharged on Monday. The D.A. wants everything in place by then.”
“Is that your subtle way of telling me you’ll be working all weekend?”
He grinned. “Nope. You’re stuck with me all day tomorrow.” He leaned in and smothered my mouth with his.
When we came up for air, I said, “I could get used to that.”
Scott chuckled.
“Do you really know someone who could run the club?”
“The manager at Kampas would know enough to train someone. He’s been really good to me. I could ask him for a favor.”
“But who would we train? You’ve got a career. And between teaching and my freelance work I’m not exactly looking for more to fill my days.”
“You could place an ad but then you don’t know what you’re getting.”
I frowned and ran through a mental checklist of all the people I knew. “What about Mike? He’s starting back to college this fall to finish his business degree. And with him living right upstairs it might be perfect.”
“It’s worth talking to him about.”
“I have one other question and then I suggest we go upstairs and you can show me how much you missed me,” I said with a grin.
Scott laughed. “I thought YOU missed ME.”
“I did,” I said. I didn’t add that it was getting harder to sleep at night without him beside me in our bed. “What’s going on with the website investigation? Any idea who’s behind it?”
“I’m working on getting more involved in that aspect of the investigation. The website is being used worldwide apparently. The higher ups think it’s tied to human trafficking.”
“I hate to say it, but they’re probably right in a way.”
“That’s made it more of a priority. The guys tracing ownership are stymied. The domain was registered to a shell company. They’re trying to trace it.”
“Do the people in your office at least understand what the site is?”
“About that,” Scott said, then stopped.
I narrowed my eyes at his tone.
“The hope is to get someone on the inside so that they can track down what is happening to these guys. They’re going to need a volunteer to login.”
“You’re not considering it.” It wasn’t a question.
“I haven’t decided. I mean, I trust you to be there and monitor things. Chris, I’m worried if I don’t do this, someone else will get hurt.”
I grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes. “I’m begging you not to do this.”
Scott looked surprised. “Think of how much we could find out and how many people we could help.”
“And think of what you’ll be like if someone mindfucks you as bad as Craig or Brad.”
Scott’s voice was steady. “You know my job can be dangerous.”
“That doesn’t mean you jump off the ledge on purpose. Please, listen to me. You are the only one of all of us who hasn’t been used by a hypnotist. I need you to understand how important this is to me.”
“I understand why you’re afraid.”
“No, I don’t think you do. If you truly did, you wouldn’t even give this a passing thought.”
Scott looked torn. “This means that much to you?”
“More than you’ll ever know.”
“Chris, you’re asking me to let another agent do it. I don’t see how in good conscience I can stand idly by while someone else goes in without knowing as much as I do about what’s really going on.”
“Aren’t you asking me to let you do it?” I waved my hand. “Not let you. But support you while you put yourself in harm’s way.”
“I don’t know how else to proceed.”
I stared at the floor for a minute. “What if someone volunteered?”
“Who?”
“Well, Craig, for one. Could that get him out of trouble?”
“I don’t think anybody would go for that deal.”
“Ok. Then what about Brad?”
“Brad?”
“Sure. I bet he’d help if I asked. He said he’d gotten into trouble because he’d been trying to help others on the site. He wants to help.”
“Would he freely volunteer? Or would you be making him?”
“Scott!” I feigned insult. “I’d never force him. The decision will be his.”
Scott got to his feet and pulled me to mine. He wrapped his arms around me and looked into my eyes with his dark eyes glittering. “Let’s worry about this tomorrow.”
“Will you promise me you won’t log on to Masteredslave.com?”
Scott pulled me closer to him. “I can’t promise you I won’t put myself in danger with my job, Chris. I’ll always be careful, because I want to come home to you.”
“Scott, you know this is different. I respect what you do, and I try not to get involved, despite the fact I’m dying to know a lot more about it. But I’m asking you, as my lover, to please listen to me this time.”
I could see a range of emotions playing out on Scott’s face in rapid succession. “I trust you more than I’ve ever trusted anyone, Chris. Are you absolutely certain you’re right?”
“Yes.”
“Then I promise I won’t log into the website.”
I blinked back tears that were threatening to escape my eyes. “I’ll do everything I can to help you. You mean the world to me, Scott. I’ve been thinking all week about how close I came to losing you last week because of Richard.”
Scott kissed me. “You didn’t lose me. You rode in to my rescue like some sort of crazy cavalry. I’m not going anywhere. We’re a team.”
I started to say something but stopped myself. The timing wasn’t right. Instead I kissed him long and hard.
Scott smiled at me, his eyes glittering again. “Let’s go upstairs.”
“Deal.”
To be continued in Part 146...
Christopher, Craig & Co.
Part 146: Puppy Love.
“I still can’t believe you talked to Chris about this stuff,” Austin was saying as he paced in front of me. He kept saying it.
“Why? He was cool about it.” It was Saturday morning and we had just finished a run. Really, Austin had finished the run and now he was cooling down. I had sat on a bench and ate two donuts and drank my coffee while he ran around the track.
“Because now he knows what we’re doing. He’s like your dad. How am I supposed to look him in the eye?”
I grinned at him. “You will because you’re a good pup.”
Austin smiled immediately. “If you keep that up everybody on the way back to the dorm is gonna see I’ve got a boner.”
I grinned wider. “Good pup. While you hit the showers, I’ll think about what to do about that boner.”
“You are such a tease,” Austin said.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“Nope.” He laughed.
We started walking across the campus. “Anyway, Chris isn’t judgmental about this kind of stuff. And he knows a lot.”
“You don’t think he and Scott—”
I cut him off. “Eew. I don’t want to think about that.”
Austin shrugged. “Scott is pretty hot for an older guy.”
“I don’t want to hear this,” I said. “And Scott’s not that old.”
“How old is he?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I still think he’s older than us.” Austin scrunched up his face. “I’m not into older guys at all.”
“Good. Cause if you move in on Scott you’ll have to deal with me AND Chris.”
Austin laughed. “You’re cute when you’re jealous.”
I stuck my tongue out at him.
Austin let me into his dorm room then left to shower. I pulled out my phone and started googling for ideas for playing with a pup and that sort of stuff. A link called How To Train A Sub came up. I tapped it and it opened.
“Congratulations!” I read. “You have found a sub who has chosen to obey you. The following is a list of methods to train and control your sub. Limits should always be discussed before engaging in a D/s relationship. Have fun!”
I scrolled through the page. A lot of it was stuff Chris had told me. A couple things were interesting. “You must absolutely take total control of his orgasms! He should never be permitted to have any kind of orgasm without your permission.”
Hot. I could see where that would make a guy want to keep you happy to get a chance to orgasm.
“Keep him sexually aroused as much as possible. Learn his fantasies and what turns him on. Talk sexy to him, touch him, or send him texts with orders to do something that will arouse him.”
I hadn’t thought of that. I could text him stuff when we weren’t together. Cool.
Austin opened the door wearing a pair of black basketball shorts, with his towel hung around his neck. He hung up the towel and set down his shower stuff then flopped on the bed.
“So what are we doing today?”
I pocketed my phone. “What do you feel like doing?”
“I don’t know.”
“We’re going to Leatherman’s tonight, right?”
“I’ve never been there.” Austin rolled onto his side and propped his head on his hand. “How have you? I thought it was over 21.”
“Long story,” I said. I didn’t want to tell Austin that one. “But Chris owns the club now.”
Austin sat up. “What?”
“Leatherman left the club to Chris. They were friends for a long time. So we can go. I just can’t drink.”
“That’s awesome. How do we dress?”
“Most guys just wear regular clothes.” I shrugged. “You can wear your collar if you want to. Nobody would say anything. Some guys might be more interested in you.”
“You know more about this stuff than you let on,” Austin said.
I stood up from the desk chair and sat on the bed next to him. “Not really. I’ve been reading stuff and trying to figure it out.” I reached over and pinched his nipple lightly. “But you know what? Tonight, at Leatherman’s, I’m making a rule for you.”
“Oooh,” Austin said. “Hot. What’s the rule?”
“You can only speak when you’re spoken to. From the time we get there ’til we leave.”
Austin’s mouth was open. “That’s really hot.”
I could see the outline of his hard on through his shorts. “You should be glad that chastity device we ordered didn’t get here yet.”
Austin pulled me back onto the bed and pinned me down. “You’re driving me crazy teasing me like this.”
He looked happy. I knew I must too. “Good!”
Austin bent down and kissed me.
I reached up and tickled his sides and he started laughing and fell off me to the side. I got up on my knees and straddled him. I tickled his sides some more and he tried to curl up into a ball.
“I give! I give! Uncle!” he shouted between laughing.
I sat back and smiled. “Are you good with all this?”
“You can’t tell?”
“I just want to make sure.”
Austin sat up and threw his arms around my neck. “You’re sweet. That’s why I love you.” He looked embarrassed.
I felt warm all over. That was the first time Austin had ever said the L word. “I love you, too, Austin!”