Taken in Hand (13 page)

chaise and planned how he would handle Chad in the

morning. Once he’d figured it out, he smiled and settled

down to try to get some sleep before he had to get up.

At seven o’clock, when the alarm went off in the

master down the hall, Adam got up and showered. He

wandered into the kitchen for a cup of coffee, grateful for the

timer he always set the night before on the coffee maker. He

ate some fruit and small bowl of cereal and was almost ready

to leave.

With a small smile playing around his lips, he went to

his room and got what he needed, then walked back into

Chad’s room. He was still softly snoring. Pulling back the

covers, he admired the sight before him. Chad had some

morning wood. That would make this even sweeter. He

reached beneath him and gave his ass a hard pinch, hard

enough to wake Chad right up.

He cried out and came awake sputtering, coughing,

and trying to pull his hand down to rub his ass. “What?

What the hell?”

Adam looked down at him. Chad’s erection had flagged

because of the pain and shock of being pinched, and his

pretty cock lay curled up defenselessly on his thigh. Adam

quickly picked it up, put it into the cock cage, and turned

the key in the lock.

Chad looked down at himself incredulously. “W-What

are you doing?” he yelled.

“Putting you in a cock cage. I believe the punishment

should fit the crime, don’t you? You shared yourself with

some stranger last night without permission. This cock

belongs to me now, Chad, until we end our training. It’s now

under my supervision.”

“You can’t do that!” Chad struggled against his cuffs

and cursed loudly. “Damn it, let me out of these cuffs and

get that damn thing off of me.”

Adam crossed his arms over his chest. “No. We’re

practicing, remember? Drinking and putting yourself yet

again in a dangerous situation with driving in that condition

is not to be tolerated. Since we’re not in a true relationship,

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and I understand how confused you are, I’ll partially excuse

your infidelity—this time. Normally, your punishment for

allowing another man to even touch you would have been

much more severe if not a reason to kick you out.”

“And if I refused to submit to it, you’d call the

relationship off?”

“Exactly. Since I’m about to leave, I’ll consider—if you

can change that attitude and ask me nicely—removing the

cuffs now and the cage when I return home this afternoon.”

The look on Chad’s face was priceless, and the

struggle going on inside his head must have been epic. Adam

enjoyed watching it a great deal. After a great deal of

grimacing and huffing and puffing, Chad managed to speak.

“Would you
please
let me out of these cuffs? Sir.”

Adam pretended to consider it a moment before

nodded. Using one of the keys on his key ring, he loosened

first his ankles and then his wrists. Chad sat up and pulled

at the cage.

“Ow!” he yelled.

“Well, for God’s sake, Chad, if you pull at it like that,

of course it’s going to hurt. I can assure you it’s not coming

off without the key.” He stuck his keys in his pocket and

took a step back as Chad lunged off the bed, looking like he

was coming after him.

“Don’t you dare,” he said sternly. Chad stopped

immediately and even looked horrified at his own actions.

Good. His boy was learning
. “You know what happened last

night was wrong. Out of control. If you refuse to take the

punishment you deserve, and want to use your safe word,

now’s the time.”

Chad opened and closed his mouth several times

before finally crossing his arms over his chest with that

adorable pout again.

“All right. You have my number if you decide to use

your safe word. I can be home reasonably soon if you call.”

“If I can’t stand it anymore and call you? What then?”

“The cage is designed for long-term use, so it shouldn’t

be all that uncomfortable unless you pull at it. If you try to

get it off on your own and don’t take your punishment, I’ll

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call the chief to end this whole thing. I’ll give him the key,

and he can be the one to let you out.”

At the look of horror on Chad’s face, Adam almost

smiled, but that would be cruel, and he really wanted Chad

to learn from this experience. He had no intention of calling

the chief, but it wouldn’t hurt to make him think he might.

Adam turned to go, but he was stopped at the door by

Chad’s plea. “But I-I have to pee,” he said, his face a bright

red.

“Go ahead. The cage doesn’t prevent you from that.

Only from getting an erection.” He turned to leave again and

called over his shoulder. “Be a good boy.” He glanced back at

him. “Don’t worry. Your pants will fit over it.”

“You expect me to go to work like this?” Chad’s voice

was low and tight with anger.

“Why not? Have a nice day, Pet, and I expect I’ll see

you when I get home.” Listening to Chad’s muffled curse, he

smiled and left for the gym.

* * * *

With a mother of all hangovers on top of world class

humiliation, Chad gave serious consideration to not going in

to work at all, but damn it, he had a job to do. Nothing could

free his cock from that cage without inflicting painful injury.

He searched through his clothes for the loosest pair of pants

he’d brought along even though the cage didn’t show at all,

even through his underwear. He just wanted to avoid any

stimulation of even his pants rubbing against his cock.

Meeting the dress code for the day was the least of his

worries.

He’d fucking done it again and made a king-sized ass

of himself in front of Adam again. If his memories were

anywhere near accurate, he’d also told the bastard he

wanted him to make love to him only to be turned down.

Okay, maybe Adam was only
not
taking advantage of his

drunken state, like he said, and yeah, maybe Chad would

never have had the guts to said it if he hadn’t been drunk.

He’d probably never have gone into that backroom with a

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stranger either. Was it bottled courage or did drink deaden

inhibitions based on lifetime prejudices?

Right now, he was sober, madder than hell at Adam

for the embarrassing cock cage, and still wanted him like

he’d never wanted anybody before. The result was more than

discomfort. The cage was actually a misnomer in that it

wasn’t a big bulky box that fit over his groin, as the name

implied. This one, at least, was simply a device that fit

snugly over his penis and locked at the base of his shaft, so

that every time he tried to get an erection, he swelled up

against the restricting bars which hurt like a bitch and killed

his erection. Of course, he was very aware of the device and

why he was wearing it as well as who was
making
him wear

it, and his cock constantly tried to get a hard-on.

All in all, it didn’t put him in a very good mood. He

barely sat down at his desk to catch up on paper work when

the captain called him to his office. Fighting the urge to

adjust his
cage
and hoping he wasn’t walking funny with

how strange it felt, he braced himself for censure, certain his

condition the night before had been noticed and reported.

“How did the weekend go?”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Made a showing at the funeral and the club and met

some of the others who received letters. He’s got a thing

planned to introduce me to some more of them this week,

after he gives me some more training.”

“And how is that going?”

“I’m going to survive it,” he said, clipping his words off

more than he meant to. Catching himself, he admitted, “It

could have been better when we went to the club. I screwed

up, embarrassed him in front of his friends, and he sent me

away. He covered my blunder telling them I’m in training.”

“You’re having trouble with it?” he asked, looking like

he was braced for an explosion.

“I don’t get the concept, at least not entirely. I am

learning how to behave the way he wants me to. He’s got me

practicing while we’re alone so I can perform properly when

we’re out.” God he hoped he wasn’t blushing. He did squirm

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before he could stop himself. At least he didn’t reach for his

caged cock. In self-defense, he changed the subject. “I

haven’t had a chance to ask Philips or Johansson yet if

they’ve found any connection to Jeremy Rubin and any of

the hate groups?”

“We’re getting search warrants to force them to turn

over their member lists. None of them will willingly talk to

us, and if they knew we were onto someone specific, they’d

warn the bastard. None of the confidential informers

recognize the name, either.”

“None of them are responsible for the letters?”

“If they are, the general membership doesn’t know

about it. Everything indicates he’s doing this on his own.” He

drew a deep breath and added, “If it’s him.”

“He looks good for it to me.”

“It’s the best lead we’ve gotten so far, but still the only

real connection to the University is that some of the

professors and students attend his brother’s church. We

haven’t been able to locate any work history, meaning he’s

either never worked a steady job or has worked all of his life

taking his wages in cash under the table. No bank accounts,

either, at least not locally. If he has a cell phone, we can’t

find any record of it.”

“Sounds like you’re going ahead with a deep search.”

“Because I’m desperate. We’re just being damned

careful not to tip him off.”

“Eyes on him yet?”

“Yeah, I put a team in place. They caught up with him

leaving the house last night, after dark so no decent photos.

He headed toward the Atlanta highway, and they lost him.

Did Morrison mention the fact the brothers fight like cats

and dogs?”

“No, but I’m not surprised from the conversation I

overheard. Jason talked about reforming him. Adam did say

Jeremy is unpleasant. He also said they look enough alike

that he at first mistook Jeremy for Jason. Are they sure they

had the right guy?”

“No doubt. They preacher came home, all spit and

polish. They yelled at each other for half an hour, the scum

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came out, hair spiked, jeans hanging off his ass with holes in

the knees. He shouted back that he was taking his car and

hoped to hell he was asleep when he got back. Laid rubber

going out in his brother’s car, too. Sounds like your

professor was being nice when he called him unpleasant.”

“What were they arguing about?”

“They weren’t close enough to understand the words.”

“Where did he go?”

His boss grunted. “Good question. After they lost him,

they set up back at his house. He didn’t go back until nearly

dawn. We don’t have any idea where he went or what he

did.”

Chad shot to his feet. “How the hell did he ditch them?

He knew he was being followed?”

“No, it wasn’t anything like that. Calm down. A truck

pulled out between them. Before they could get around it,

he’d disappeared.”

“There weren’t any murders last night.”

“No, but he could be stalking his next target.” He

flopped back in his chair. “I know this is hard for you, but if

you think of anything to bring more attention to you, let me

know. Right now that’s the only hope we have.”

“You’ve got people on any others who might have

received letters, don’t you?”

“Those we know about. Not everyone is as open as

your professor.”

Spinning for the door, Chad retorted, “I’m going

through all the notes in the files, every fucking interview,

and see if I can find something they missed. As he walked

out he added, “And he’s not
my
professor.” He was pretty

happy about making that clear, until he walked away and

some pubic hair got caught in the cage so he had to adjust

himself.
Shit, more like the other way around.

* * * *