Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/6020463. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Rape/Non-Con, Underage Category: M/M, Multi Fandom: White_Collar_RPF, Misc_RPF, White_Collar Relationship: Tim_Dekay/Matt_Bomer, Tim_Dekay/Tiffani_Thiessen, Ian_Somerhalder/Matt Bomer Character: Matt_Bomer, Tim_DeKay, Ian_Somerhalder, Tiffani_Thiessen, Natalie Morales, Noah_Emmerich, Sharif_Atkins, Hilarie_Burton, James_Rebhorn, Willie_Garson, Skandar_Keynes, Eva_Mendes, Neal_Caffrey Additional Tags: Alternate_Universe_-_Slavery, Rape/Non-con_Elements, past_BDSM, Implied/ Referenced_Underage_Sex, Corporal_Punishment Collections: What_We_Keep Stats: Published: 2016-02-15 Completed: 2016-03-01 Chapters: 13/13 Words: 43509 ****** The Art We Keep ****** by vlwillis Summary Inspired by A Kept Boy by poisontaster. Matt Bomer had a promising future as the heir of Bomer Arts and Designs. Fate did not smile on him. He turned to the life of crime, both home and abroad to survive. But Matt’s luck has run out. He is enslaved for past debts. Tim DeKay is in the market for a new bodyslave but none of the standard bodyslaves on the market appeal to him. Notes This story takes place in poisontaster’s universe she created in A Kept Boy . If you haven’t read this, or any other stories created for this universe, you should give it a try. It’s pretty awesome! Poisontaster has very few rules for playing in her sandbox but remember that this is an established slavery AU. There is no recourse for abolition, so don’t pressure me for it. Time wise, this story dates back to when Matt Bomer was 29 years old, approximately the same age as when White Collar first aired. Other ages are somewhat relevant to his 29 year old self. Ian Somerhalder is in reality a year younger, but here they are the same age. Oh yeah, and father’s names are created by using the actor’s middle names as their father’s first name. I don’t want to offend any real world dads whose names are not in the limelight. Please remember this is fiction. Totally fiction. It in no why represents anyone’s real world life!!!!! This work was inspired by A_Kept_Boy by poisontaster ***** 01 Welcome to Commerce ***** 01 Welcome to Commerce As soon as he signed the paperwork, his world inverted. The appropriation agent, interrogator, or whatever position his tormentor held took the signed document from him and pushed the button on his intercom, “slave #101177-87 is ready for pickup.” He glanced up as a guard came thru the door. The man was muscular and moved forward, grabbing Matt under his arm and pulled him roughly to his feet. “Up, slave.” He took him through the door down the corridor in the opposite direction Matt had entered to a door at the end to begin his new life. It was six weeks of hell. Six weeks of degradation training designed to strip you of all sense of self. Six weeks of training to prove that you were no longer human, just an animal responding to commands. Not even as high as a dog, at least they got pampered. There were always lines to stand in, lines for shots, lines for food, lines for chipping and branding, lines to use the bathroom, the showers, the sinks. If you weren’t in line, you were drilling to jump at commands, ‘kneel’, ‘stand’, ‘kneel’, ‘prostrate’, etc., etc., etc. Sometimes they questioned you or tested your knowledge while the drills were going on. You couldn’t miss a beat; you had to react to every command as you answered their battery of questions. If you missed or even if you slowed down, someone was there with an electric prod, and you weren’t even given time to writhe in pain. If you did, you got zapped again. It was best to work through the pain, function without feeling, obey without question. If you didn’t, they just turned up the amps and zapped you again. Matt understood the psychological principles of what they were doing and he fought hard to hold onto his identity. Occasionally, he would see a fellow trainee,‘--Slave,’ his sub-conscious screamed, ‘say it! Slave!--‘, pulled out of the group and sent to body-slave training. That was one thing he was thankful for; he was almost thirty years old, way too old for body-slave training. Most of the slave owners were getting rid of body slaves by the time they were his age. He had an education and a talent for art; hopefully, some decent home would select,‘--buy--‘, him for his talents. As long as he obeyed the commands, he could let his mind wander. He’d visited several of the greater houses with his dad. Lord Vincent Price had had an excellent art collection and it would have been a perfect placement for his talents, but if he remembered right, Lord Price had died. He briefly wondered what happened to Lord Price’s collection. Lords Affleck or DiCaprio would be good, but then he remembered they lived on the west coast, he was going to be placed,‘--sold—‘, out of the east coast. He tried to think who was on the east coast. Lord Malkovich came to mind and he shuddered. He’d never been to Malkovich’s estate, but the man had come to his dad looking for certain pieces. Matt had been there at the time, and the man had made Matt shudder even back then, when he was free. The man’s body slave…. What was his name? Matt tried to remember and then realized Malkovich never introduced his body slave. The slave had acted like a beat dog too afraid to run. It had been creepy. And the art he was looking for, anything in Kilmer’s ‘Doors’* series. His dad had politely informed the man that that is not the kind of art they dealt with. Matt had seen Kilmer’s art once, just a glance of it. Lord Cruise had commissioned his dad to design a Renaissance room for him, featuring several pieces from that period. But before he showed them the intended room, he lead them into his favorite room of art, he called it the ‘Room of Enlightenment’. They had barely entered when his dad grabbed him and turned his head away from the pieces. But, Matt’s problem with art, it only took a glance to see it. At the time it had shocked him. He was…. He tried to think. He almost missed a command and received a zap. He recovered quickly and resumed his reflections…. He was 16 years old. The pictures had shocked him. He could not understand what they were doing to that slave. He knew now; age had taught him. It was BDSM carried to the max. He had been introduced to that world, but nowhere near the extent that Kilmer had depicted in his works. It was a slave.-Were slaves allowed a safe word?’- Lord Cruise had laughed and apologized to his dad. “Perhaps your son would like to see the Picasso Room?” He had queried. His dad had nodded and Cruise had directed the child slave that was with him, “Escort young Master Bomer to the Picasso Room.” The child had jumped up. “Yes, Lord Cruise.” And he had lead Matt away from the horrific scenes melted into his brain. The Picasso Room had made the Kilmer images flee. Matt was shocked. Whoever had designed the room had missed the whole intent. His dad decorated rooms to enhance the art, and this room detracted from it. He had to look through the chaos to find the pieces and was stunned at what he found. Lord Cruise owned ‘Guernica’, the anti-war painting, ‘Weeping Woman’, an emotional response to ‘Guernica’, and ‘Charnal House’, reminiscent of the newsreel reporting of the murder of a republican family in their kitchen by a slave uprising** that inspired him to create this piece. Some of Picasso’s greatest works lost in the chaos of the room designer. They weren’t there long before Lord Cruise and his dad joined them, “Well, what do you think of my Picasso Room, young Master Bomer?” Matt spoke without thinking, “It’s all wrong!” His dad moved up quickly to shut him up. “I’m sorry, Lord Cruise. My son is…” “Nonsense, Staton, let the boy talk.” Matt had hesitated. He felt his dad’s hand on him, but Lord Cruise looked truly interested. “Sir, your designer has destroyed the intent of Picasso…” He proceeded to explain the problems and how to correct them, Lord Cruise constantly encouraging him to continue. When he was done, Lord Cruise had turned to his dad. “Staton, can you make your son’s changes happen?” “Yes sir, of course sir.” “Make it so, Staton, make it so. Now, let me show you my Renaissance Room. I know you have some pieces I would love to display in there….” It had been a very profitable journey for Matt’s father. Didn’t Cruise also own a home on the east coast? Matt wished he could let him know he was available for hire,-purchase-. He could use his talents at Cruise’s home. He thought about Cruise’s body-slave and shuddered, but he wouldn’t have to worry about Cruise using him, he was way too old for that Lord’s tastes. The day’s drills were finally over and he could go to bed, if that’s what you wanted to call the thin pad laid out on the platform. No springs here; nothing a slave could use to damage Commerce property. Matt lay down with every muscle in his body screaming for attention. He reminisced how he had gotten here.… ------------- *Kilmer by poisontaster, Part 2 of AKB Outtakes, http://archiveofourown.org/ collections/Keptverse/works/677239 or http://poisontaster.livejournal.com/ 385679.html **Actually Picasso's ‘Charnal House’ was inspired by war, not a slave uprising, but being an AU and all that... ;-) ***** 02 Matt’s early years ***** Chapter Notes This chapter contains explicit non-con between a 15 year old and an 18 year old. Also consensual sex between two 16 year olds. Remember in this world, they are of age. 02 Matt’s early years Mat’s grandfather had established Bomer Arts and Designs when he was about five years younger than Matt was now. The artistic and aesthetic abilities ran strong in the Bomer bloodlines. The old man had purchased several art galleries across the country and just before he turned the enterprise over to his son, he added the Guggenheim to his acquisitions. The key to his talent was placement. He didn’t ‘sell’ works of art; he ‘adopted’ them out to suitable homes. It became common practice for first his grandfather and then his father to visit a possible placement site before a piece would be sold. If the intended placement of the piece was inappropriate, the Bomers would either recommend a more suitable piece, even if it meant a lesser sale, or they would advise on how to improve the location to accommodate the desired work of art. Visitors to a client’s home noted the works and a common saying started, ‘Is that a Bomer placement?’ The Bomer name became synonymous with art. Matt’s dad acquired the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met. New York’s most prestigious art gallery. Matt was destined to become the next curator of art in the USNA. But things had gone so wrong. ************************************************************* Matt figured it really started when he was 12. When he had come home from boarding school for Christmas vacation that year, his mother, Janice Dickinson- Bomer, and his father had been fighting like cats and dogs. Matt’s mother, who had once been a model on the cover of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Harper’s Bazaar, had stormed out of the house on Christmas Eve, and he never saw her again. In retrospect, he wondered if his dad ever really loved his mom, or if was she just another one of his art acquisitions. The rest of that vacation, he and his sister had held onto each other while their father vented his anger on all but them. He was ashamed that he could do nothing for the family slaves to protect them. His sister was ten and he had just turned 12. He didn’t know that when they said goodbye to each other at the end of vacation, they would never see each other again. When he came home for summer vacation, his world had changed. His dad told him his mom had left them for good and had taken his sister with her. Matt was left behind because it was his destiny to run the Bomer enterprise. His dad had sold the Hampton estate as well as all the old slaves and then moved into a penthouse apartment in Manhattan. His dad explained that it all reminded him of Matt’s mom and it hurt, so he had needed to start fresh, which included a new brown hairrd, blue eyed sixteen year old body slave, Natalie. His dad gave him more attention than he ever had before. That summer, he went on every business trip with his dad to start learning the family business. His father had shown pride in him; his art instincts followed in the family bloodlines. He had two good years of being his father’s pride and joy. When he was 14 he was sent to the Interlochen Arts Academy in north Michigan. It was a very prestigious school for those talented in the arts, both visual and performing. But it was also outside of his dad’s intimidation factor, and kids talked. His roommate was Ian Somerhalder. They had little in common. While he was happy with the minimal physical education program offered for those who might like to protect their talented hands and bodies, Ian seemed to like more physical contact in his sports. Whereas Matt had a bright outgoing personality, Ian had a darker reserved one. Ian also came from an art family, and he had his own talents, not as a producer of art, but with the aesthetic eye to know how to deal in art. His family was known for its ability to spot and promote new talent. They did not have the status of the Bomers, but they still had a good reputation in the art community. Ian could not reproduce a masterpiece like Matt could, but he did have a much better than average ability to sketch and paint. And he had an eye for detail. He could spot a flaw or a forgery before Matt could. Believing they were mismatched and had nothing in common, they ignored each other until after Christmas vacation. Kids went home during the vacation and talked about their new friends and classmates, and names were passed and stories told. When Matt got back from vacation, the stories reached him. “Hey, Matt. I hear your mom killed herself.” That was Matt’s first fight. He returned to his room with a bloody nose. Ian just shook his head. A couple days later the taunting continued. “Hey, Matt. Is it true your sister is a slave?” Matt got sent to the office for that one. He looked worse than the kid he attacked, but he had thrown the first punch. The staff didn’t have the heart to punish him and he was sent to his room. The fact he wasn’t punished made his skin crawl and he opened his laptop to do online research. He found an article in Vogue commemorating the passing of the world’s first super model, Janice Dickinson, his mom. Three months after she left his dad she had committed suicide. It made no sense. Where was his sister then? Wouldn’t she have been sent home? He found his sister. A couple weeks before his mom committed suicide, there was picture of Lord Charlie Sheen with his newest body slave sitting in his lap, his hand between her legs. It was his sister. Lord Sheen was to girls what Lord Cruise was to boys. Even though her hands were entwined around his neck, he could see her eyes. He knew her eyes. He knew how to read them. The terror, the pain, the belief that daddy would come to rescue her was all written for him to see. Ian looked up when he heard the crash. Matt had thrown his laptop against the wall, shattering it to pieces. Ian had also heard all the stories, but had the sense to keep them to himself, but now Matt had a look in his eyes that Ian had seen before and he moved to intercept Matt as he tried to leave the room. Matt was in destructive mode. He no longer cared. Someone was going to hurt as bad as him. Ian blocked his path and accepted the challenge. Ian wasn’t any bigger than Matt, in fact, he was somewhat shorter, but he worked out and as a result was stronger and definitely had more experience fighting. But Matt was crazed and that added to his strength. By the time Ian finally had Matt secured under him on the floor, Ian knew he would have a black eye as a minimum, and a lot of sore muscles in the morning. And Matt still struggled on. When Matt finally stopped fighting and lay sobbing beneath him, Ian asked the questions. “Talk to me, Matt. What’s happening?” As he expected, Matt renewed his struggle. He held on. It took over an hour for Matt to exhaust himself enough to talk. Only then did Ian carefully loosen his hold. By the time Matt was done, they were both sitting on the floor, Matt sobbing in Ian’s arms. The second half of that school year, Matt and Ian were never seen far apart. It was a constant battle for Ian to stay on top of Matt to keep him out of fights and to complete his school work so he could pass. When they parted ways for summer vacation, Ian wondered if he would ever see Matt again. ******************************* Matt had gone home with a burning fire within him. But when he finally got the nerve to challenge his father, he was rewarded with, “I can sell you, too. You really wanna push this?” Matt saw the truth in his father’s eyes. He would sell him to Commerce. Ian had whispered into his ear over and over again whenever he broke down,‘Vengeance is yours if you take the time and do it right. Take the time and do it right. Take the time and do it right’. He had to believe Ian, there was nothing else to believe in. He forced himself to calm when his father was around. That summer, he and Ian were both 15 and they both had the same and yet totally different experience. Both of their fathers decided it was time for them to learn to be men. Ian’s dad, Joe Somerhalder, sent his 18 year old body-slave, Jason to Ian’s bed. Ian refused and the slave left. But he was a well-trained body-slave and knew how to make Ian happy. Every few days, he came back. With time, he was able to get Ian to let him jerk him off. By the end of the summer, he finally got Ian to fuck him. Ian’s father let him know how proud he was. Matt’s dad thought he knew what Matt needed to calm down, so he sent Natalie to him. Matt refused her and sent her from his room. The next day, Matt had to watch while Natalie got whipped for failing in her duties. The next night, she was sent again. He did not want to fuck where his dad had been, but neither did he want to see her beat again. She told him his dad would check her to make sure he had fucked her and begged him to lie on his back, close his eyes and let her do her job so she wouldn’t be whipped. He forced himself to comply. After Natalie sucked him hard, she rose up to mount him. Knowing his dad had been there, he started softening. Natalie cried and begged him some more as she covered his dick with her mouth to re-ignite it. Finally, Matt managed to let her make him finish by thinking about Ian. Not that Ian turned him on, but remembering Ian’s calming presence allowed him to relax. A couple times a week, Natalie was sent to Matt’s bed and every time, he had to think of Ian to allow her to make him finish. He knew his dad checked Natalie to ensure she had been fucked, he didn’t know his dad got a kick out of fucking her after him. Matt was never more grateful to be sent back to school. ************************************************* Their sophomore year at Interlochen, Matt and Ian became inseparable. His fellow students soon learned that if they teased Matt about his mom or sister, they would have to answer to Ian, and Ian was not gentle with his reprimands. Matt learned to maintain his charming façade with his fellow students, but once inside the safety of his room, he would let the cover go and often break down. Ian was always there to hold and comfort him through these times. After seeing a picture of Lord Sheen with a brand new body slave, not knowing what happened to his sister, Matt had a particularly hard time of it and Ian heard him lay in his bed crying late into the night. Ian crawled in the bed beside Matt to hold him and calm him so he could sleep. A strong bond was forming between the two boys. ************************************************** That summer, both boys were 16 and had totally different experiences. Matt’s summer passed pretty much the same as the one before, Natalie being sent to his bed twice a week, and Matt bringing up the image of Ian to survive the humiliation, and travel with his father on all business trips so he could learn the business. Matt hardly spoke to his father unless he had to, the threat of his dad selling him always in the back of his mind. He had to keep reminding himself of Ian’s words,‘Vengeance is yours if you take the time and do it right’. Now was not the time, he had to wait until he was 18 and safe from his father’s whims. That was the summer they visited Lord Cruise’s mansion and saw the Kilmer collection. ********************************************** Ian’s dad bought a new body slave. He had gone to purchase one for Ian and found 16 year old Geoff. Problem was, he bought Geoff about a week before Ian got home, and spent the time working with the boy. He was Geoff’s first owner and the boy still needed some training. Also, he knew the over 6’ Geoff would need a workout regime to buff out to his full potential, the way he liked them. By the time Ian got home, he decided to keep the new slave for himself and gave Jason to Ian. Ian and his father were close and Ian had laughed at his dad good naturedly as he nodded his head toward Geoff kneeling beside his dad. “Just couldn’t bear to give him up, could you?” His dad had blushed. “You know me too well, boy. But I really do think Jason will serve you better.” Ian had hugged his dad and thanked him for the gift. “Jason is perfect Dad. You know he and I get along fine.” “Just remember, son, you are his master, not his friend.” Ian laughed. “Of course, Dad.” Ian wasn’t old enough to legally own a slave, so his father remained the legal owner of Jason, but otherwise, he belonged fully to Ian and Ian gladly took possession of the slave. Being 16, he used his slave every night, and often during the daytime too, and Jason taught him all the ways a body-slave could please his master. Halfway through the summer, Ian started prompting Jason to top him. He was curious what it felt like to be fucked. Jason managed to distract Ian’s attention from the subject until, toward the end of the summer, Ian ordered the slave to fuck him. Jason knew who truly owned him, and he had been with the household for four years, he knew how Master Somerhalder felt on the subject, and he refused Ian’s order. Ian ordered him again, and Jason got out of bed to leave the room. Ian ordered him to stay, and the distraught slave regretfully disobeyed the order and reported to Master Somerhalder, to report and to beg forgiveness for disobeying an order. Ian got called to his dad’s office the next morning. He could tell right away that his dad was angry with him. “Son, do you know why I have male body-slaves?” Ian thought it was because he preferred them. He’d had them even before his mom died. “Power, Ian. Power. Any man worth his salt can overpower a female, but to have a male that you know can physically whip your ass, kneeling at your feet, gives one a sense of power. It also adds to your appearance of power when out in public. Get the picture?” Ian thought his dad sounded a little chauvinistic, but he understood his point. “Yes, Dad.” “This is a hard world, Ian; you have to stay on top at all times to survive. Power and the sense of power is the key to success. You have to psychologically maintain this power in order to project it. That means you have to stay on top at all times, in public or private. To let anyone penetrate your body robs you of control, of power, especially a slave. Do you understand me, son?’ “Yes, Father. I… I was wrong, and I will never attempt to turn over control again, to anyone.” “Good son, now bend over the desk.” Ian was shocked; his dad hadn’t taken the belt to him in a long time. “Dad…?” “I need you to remember this lesson, son. Now bend over.” Ian slowly turned and bent over the desk. His dad wasted no time in landing several licks on his backside. Ian knew his dad would not be impressed by tears or crying out, and fought hard to take the licking like a man. His dad paused to continue the lesson. “Even though you are clothed, you feel like you have no control, don’t you?” “Y… yes, Sir.” “You have lost all sense of power, correct?” “Y… yes, Dad.” “Remember that feeling, Son. Remember never to give anyone control of your ass or your body. Soon, you will be a man, and even I will lose this control on you. Remember this lesson, Son.” He proceeded to use the belt several more times before he laid it on the desk. “Stand up, Son.” Ian slowly stood and turned to his father. His father saw the tears that Ian refused the shed, he saw the pain Ian refused to express. He was proud of the man his son was turning into and placed his hand on his shoulder and squeezed it proudly but gently. “You are going to be a hell of a man someday.” Ian wasn’t prepared to talk yet, his ass hurt like hell, so he nodded to his dad, accepting the compliment. “Now, son. You need to discipline your slave for disobeying you.” Ian looked at his dad, confusion written on his face. “Did he or did he not disobey a direct order not to leave your room?” Ian nodded. “You can’t tolerate disobedience in a slave, Ian. You are the master and must be obeyed at all times.” He turned to his desk and hit the intercom button. “Jason, report to my office.” Ian knew Jason was close by as he entered the office in seconds and knelt by his dad. Joe placed his foot against the slave and pushed him over. “I am not your master anymore. Report to your master.” Jason scrambled over to Ian and knelt beside him. Ian knew his dad didn’t abuse his slaves and knew if the slave was bruised from the contact with his dad’s foot, it would be minor. “Ian, you need to instruct your slave to get into position for discipline. Since this is your first time correcting this slave, you need to give him exact instructions.” Ian had seen his dad discipline the slaves several times and knew the procedures, he never expected to do it himself, but his ass hurt like hell and it was because Jason had snitched on him. “Remove your clothes and bend over the desk.” His dad nodded, pleased at the firmness in his son’s voice. Jason rushed to comply with his master’s orders and soon was naked and bent over the desk. Both masters stepped up to his backside. He listened as Master Somerhalder instructed Ian on how to properly discipline a slave. “As you know, Ian, we do not abuse slaves or animals. There is no excuse for those who do. But slaves are emotionally just children and must be disciplined as such. Never administer correction in anger. If you are angry, make the slave kneel and wait until you calm down. Waiting on you will add to his anxiety. You must be in control of yourself just as much as you need to control your slave.” He proceeded to show areas it was okay to use the belt, and areas to avoid as it could cause damage. “Never damage your slaves, never break the skin and never draw blood. Those are a sign that you are not in control of yourself and a sign of weakness. It’s also cruel and unnecessary. Go ahead and start when you are ready, son.” Ian proceeded to use the belt to make Jason hurt as much or more than he did. He followed his father’s instructions and avoided damaging his property. Mr. Somerhalder watched a while and knew his son had listened to him. He swelled up with pride, especially when he saw that Ian’s pants were starting to bulge. Good, his son enjoyed the power. He would be a strong man. “I’m going to leave you to your slave. I’m going to lock the door on the way out. Remember son, he is your body-slave and can be used as you please.” He left the office. Ian did feel the power as he punished his slave. He was only 16 and not done developing yet. Jason was 20, 6’ 6” and his dad kept his body slaves on a regular workout routine to buff them out and keep them that way. He knew if Jason was a free man and they got in a fight, Jason could wipe the floor with him. But he was a slave, and Ian controlled him. Ian realized his dad was right. It was emotional power to be able to control physical power. Also, Jason was crying out with the blows. Again, he realized the truth in his dad’s words. Slaves were emotionally just children, Jason was not a man or he wouldn’t cry out like a child. The longer he whipped the slave, the harder he got. Finally, he put the belt down and walked to the other side of the desk and opened the drawer he knew his dad kept the lube in. Jason saw what he was doing and knew what was going to happen. Master Somerhalder had done the same thing enough times. Ian stepped back behind Jason and unzipped his pants, pulling his hard-on out and started lubing it. He remembered his dad’s words about damaging slaves and pushed himself in roughly but not too fast to cause damage. He proceeded to fuck his slave, relishing the power of being on top and knowing he would never allow anyone to bend him over and take his power away. ***************************************************** That fall, a stronger more emotionally mature Ian returned to the Interlochen Arts Academy for their junior year, but he could tell the summer with his father had taken its toll on Matt. He proceeded to give Matt the support he needed to get back on track without the presence of his father hovering over him. They were only back a few days when Ian heard Matt softly crying in his bed. He crawled out of his bed and into Matt’s to give him the comfort he needed. Ian held him tight as he slowly calmed and went to sleep, and Ian followed him in slumber shortly after. Ian had slept with his body-slave all summer and was used to waking up beside the slave. In the middle of the night, he half woke and felt the warm body beside him and his penis started rising as it had all summer. He nuzzled into the neck beside him and started kissing it. That woke him up all the way. The body beside him was not the muscular frame of his body slave, nor did it have the musty smell of his slave. He looked and saw Matt beside him. He rose up on his elbow and looked at the kid in the dim light of the night light. Matt looked beautiful in his sleep. Ian bent down and started kissing Matt’s neck again. He knew when Matt woke, because he suddenly felt Matt stiffen. He bent to Matt’s ear. “Shhh. It’s okay, relax.” And he proceeded to nibble on Matt’s earlobe. “Ian. This is wrong,” Matt protested even as his body reacted to Ian’s touch. Ian stopped and looked at Matt. “What’s wrong?” “Can’t… you’re a… you know.…” Ian laughed. “A guy? What’s wrong with that?” “My dad….” Ian reached up and rubbed Matt’s temple with his thumb. “And you believe everything your dad says?” Ian knew that was a low blow, but damn, who the hell was strictly het now-a-days? Matt swallowed. “Fuck the asshole.” Ian smiled. “No thanks. Not me.” He covered Matt’s mouth with his, probing inside with his tongue and felt Matt gasp. He nibbled Matt’s lips and rose back up. “You’ve never been kissed before?” Matt shook his head. “Your dad still forcing his body slave on you?” Matt nodded. Ian looked at the beautiful face below him and realized how naïve he was. “Let me show you what it’s supposed to be like.” He kissed Matt again, long and tender. He nibbled on Matt’s lips and then started kissing on his neck again. He had been much rougher with Jason, but he sensed Matt needed tenderness, and that’s exactly what he felt for Matt. He worked his hand down Matt’s torso and then started back up under his T- shirt. Again Matt stiffened. He bent to Matt’s ear. “Shhhh. It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.” He felt Matt relax and moved his hand higher, working up his rib cage and toward his nipples. He ran his fingers teasingly around one as he took Matt’s mouth again. “Why don’t we get this shirt out of my way?” He smiled as Matt allowed him to remove his shirt and lay back down. “You are beautiful. Do you know that?” Matt blushed uncomfortably and Ian covered his mouth with his before Matt could voice a protest. He slowly started working his way down until his mouth was near Matt’s nipples. He ran his tongue around them, teasing, relishing Matt’s body’s reaction to his touch. Finally he took a nipple in his mouth and Matt gasped at the sensation. Meanwhile, he slowly worked his hand downward until he finally worked it into Matt’s pajama bottoms and brushed his cock. He felt Matt jump. He moved his mouth back up to Matt’s face. “Shhhh. Let me make you happy.” As he took Matt’s mouth in a kiss, he wrapped his hand around Matt’s cock and savored his body’s response. He only stroked him a few times before he felt Matt shudder with release. Ian broke off the kiss and smiled down at Matt. “That was fast. Doesn’t take much to set you off does it?” Matt blushed. “I…. Not that fast with Natalie. You just, ah.…” Ian laughed and kissed him. “I’ll take that as a compliment. My turn.” He saw the confusion in Matt’s eyes and pulled his own cock out of his bottoms, then took Matt’s hand in his. He wiped Matt’s hand in his own cum for lubrication and guided it to his cock. When Matt carefully wrapped his hand around it, he started moving Matt’s hand up and down his shaft to show him how. He smiled as Matt grabbed on, and started stroking him on his own. Ian nuzzled into Matt’s neck, enjoying the scent and feel of him as he helped him stroke him. He groaned into Matt’s ear, “Faster,” and started guiding Matt’s hand faster and faster until he released his semen across Matt’s belly. He gave Matt a quick kiss. “God you’re beautiful!” After that he reached for Matt’s discarded t-shirt to clean them up. As he cleaned them, he looked at Matt’s face; he almost looked embarrassed. He kissed his cheek. “You okay?” Matt bit his lip a minute. “That was… was.…” “Great? Is that what you’re trying to say, Matt? Because it was more than great; you were awesome.” Matt’s relieved smile made Ian laugh. “Come here, we need to get some sleep. We’ve got classes in the morning.” He pulled Matt close and wrapped his arms around him and they slept. ******************************** In a couple days, Matt quit wearing his shirt to bed; it wasn’t going to stay on anyway. Ian never did wear one. Another couple of days, and they quit trying to go to sleep in separate beds, they would just end up in the same one anyway. Couple of more days, and they both went to bed in the nude, which had always been Ian’s preference, he only wore bottoms because of Matt in the first place. Ian taught Matt all the ways they could please each other without oral or anal penetration. Ian wanted to fuck Matt, he wanted to fuck him bad, but Matt was destined to be a slave owner, just like him, and he remembered his father’s teachings. Ian wasn’t sure at what point Matt fell in love with him, but his eyes looked at him with that gorgeous puppy dog look of his and Ian couldn’t help but love him back. When Matt went home for Christmas vacation, Natalie of course was sent to his bed, but this time, he wanted to learn from her. He tried to see what she was doing when she gave him oral sex and started asking questions about how she did different things. She was surprised he asked; Matt never talked to her, but she was more than happy to explain what she did. When Matt asked what would happen if he came while she was sucking him, she was shocked. “I can’t do that. Master Bomer needs proof I serviced you, and if you cum in my mouth I won’t be able to prove it!” Matt looked confused. “What happens to the cum if I came in your mouth?” She tilted her head and looked at him like he was an idiot. “I swallow it, of course.” ********************************** Matt returned to school after Christmas vacation anxious to try his new knowledge on Ian. He had tried to move his mouth toward Ian’s dick a few times before, but Ian had pushed him away from it. He thought it was because Ian didn’t think he knew how to suck him right, but now he had a good idea how to do it, and he wasn’t going to let Ian stop him. As soon as they closed the bedroom door, Ian pushed Matt up against the wall and started kissing his neck and working up to his ear. “Missed you, babe.” He covered Matt’s mouth with his, shoving his tongue as deep as he could, wishing he could shove something else into Matt. Matt franticly kissed back and they both tried to pull off the other’s shirt, thwarting each other’s efforts. Finally Ian pulled away laughing. They each pulled off their own shirts and Ian pressed back onto Matt, kissing his neck and shoulders. Matt reached down to unbutton Ian’s pants and pushed them down, freeing his cock. Ian grabbed Matt’s face in his hands and kissed him all over. “Kinda anxious, aren’t you babe?” Matt grabbed Ian’s torso and turned, putting Ian’s back to the wall. “I don’t have a body-slave I enjoy like you enjoy yours, Ian.” He explained as he started kissing down Ian’s torso. He rubbed Ian’s arms while he moved them down against the wall. Ian was a little surprised at Matt’s aggressiveness, it was a little unusual, but he didn’t mind that much and let Matt take the lead for a change. Once Matt had Ian where he wanted him with his back against the wall, his arms straight down against the wall, he moved his hands down Ian’s arms until he was near his wrists. Suddenly, in one fluid motion, Matt pinned Ian’s wrists to the wall, dropped to his knees and took Ian’s cock into his mouth. “Matt, no. Oh fuck…” Ian tried to struggle; it wasn’t right, but he couldn’t struggle hard. His heart wasn’t in it. He didn’t want to stop Matt. He looked down at that beautiful mouth wrapped around his cock and knew Matt was exactly where he wanted him. “God, Matt, that feels so fucking good,” he moaned. Matt could tell Ian had given up fighting and released his wrists so he could concentrate on what he was doing. He ran his tongue around the base of the head, then released the cock and started kissing and licking up and down the shaft before he tried to swallow it again. Ian entwined his fingers through Matt’s hair and held him close. “Where did you learn…? Arggg.” Matt was running his tongue through his slit. Matt might not have been as good as Jason, but damn, he looked so right on his knees in front of him that it more than made up for his lack of experience. When Matt had Ian so worked up and then tried to swallow every bit of him again, Ian knew he couldn’t hold on any longer and again tried to pull Matt’s mouth off his cock. “Matt, I’m gonna….” Matt had him tight against the wall and resisted Ian’s pull on his hair; he tried to take even more of Ian into his mouth as Ian lost control and filled Matt’s mouth with his essence. To Ian’s complete and utter shock, Matt tried to lick and swallow every drop he had spilled. He dropped to his knees beside Matt and greedily took Matt’s mouth with his. Matt was a little surprised when Ian first started kissing him, Ian avoided getting his mouth near his penis at all costs, but Matt figured kissing a penis and kissing a mouth that had sucked your penis must be two totally different things to Ian as he all but raped Matt’s mouth with his as he reached between Matt’s legs to stroke him to completion. ***************************** After that, Ian couldn’t keep Matt from going down on him, and he really didn’t want to stop him anyway, it felt too right. But he did start feeling just a little guilty that Matt would do that for him, and he would do no more than give Matt a hand job. So, one night, he decided to somewhat reciprocate the favor. “Hey, Matt, do you trust me?” Matt smiled that beautiful smile back at him. “Of course.” They were in bed and had already started some heavy petting. “Turn over on your stomach, babe.” Matt gave Ian a questioning look, but rolled over and looked back at him. “What are you going to do?” he asked nervously. “Shhhh. Just relax babe. You’re gonna like this. Trust me.” Ian proceeded to kiss Matt’s back and shoulders while he lubed his finger. He carefully spread Matt’s checks with his free hand and gently started inserting his finger into him. Ian groaned at how tight and hot he was. Matt tensed up and Ian could tell he was going to pull away. “It’s okay, babe, relax. It’ll feel good in a minute.” Matt trusted Ian and tried to relax as Ian’s finger violated his virgin hole. Ian had lots of experience with Jason and knew how to look for the right spot and when he did, he felt Matt’s body shudder as he moaned. “Told you you’d like it.” Matt couldn’t help himself, he rammed back onto Ian’s finger. “Oh my God, Ian. What…?” Ian smiled as he nibbled on Matt’s skin. He loved the way Matt writhed. He wished like hell that was his dick instead of his finger making Matt shudder like that. “Ian, I’m… I’m.…” Ian quickly moved his free hand under Matt to grab his cock, it wasn’t hard to get under him since Matt was bucking back on his finger anyway, demanding more. It only to a few strokes and Matt lay limp and spent. “Oh no, you’re not done yet, babe. Suck me.” That was the first time Ian had ordered Matt to give him oral sex. Always before it had been Matt’s call, but somehow, now, it felt right. And the fact that Matt scrambled to obey his order just added to his validation for doing it. Over the next few weeks, Ian worked up from one finger, to two, and then three, leaving Matt always begging for more, writhing under his probings. Ian thought Matt acted more like a body-slave than a future slave owner, but he couldn’t stop himself from enjoying the pure pleasure of him. Soon, he realized that he would go all the way with Matt, and Matt would not only let him, but beg him. *********************** They were in bed again, relishing the feel of each other’s bodies. Ian worked up to three fingers inside Matt and felt Matt’s body pushing back for more. He knew it was time. He wanted, no, needed, to enter Matt. To feel Matt under him, totally controlled by him. He knew his voice was a little husky when he spoke. “Do you trust me, babe?” He could hardly hear Matt’s answer as he was still moaning from his probing, his head buried in the pillow. “Of course.” “I want to give you more, Matt. I want to fill you.” Matt pushed back on his fingers, trying to get more. “Please, give me more,” he moaned. Ian removed his fingers and rose to position himself between Matt’s legs. He quickly lubed his cock and rubbed it against Matt’s virgin hole. “Ready for more, babe?” Matt had glanced back and seen what Ian was doing. He wanted it. He’d wanted Ian for a long time now. He pushed back on Ian’s cock. “Fuck me, please.” Ian slowly started pushing into Matt. He wanted to plunge himself in deep, but had to control the urge. This was Matt, not his body-slave. This was Matt’s first time and he wanted to make it so memorable that Matt would want to again and again. He slowly pushed in, deeper and deeper. Matt felt the burn, felt the pain, but it wasn’t a bad pain and he could tolerate it. He wanted this, he knew he wanted this. He carefully pushed back, encouraging Ian to continue. Once Ian was fully buried in Matt, he made himself pause to let Matt adjust to him. He was so hot, so tight…. He felt Matt push back, urging him on, so he slowly started fucking Matt. He was in heaven. He looked down on Matt’s back, relishing the beauty, relishing the feel. He was where he wanted to be, where he had dreamed so long of being. When Matt pushed back on him, urging him to fuck him, it was all he could take. He started moving harder and faster, Matt constantly pushing back, welcoming him, needing him. Suddenly, without him even touching Matt’s cock, he felt Matt climax as his muscles tightened on him. That was all he could take as he lost control and released his semen into Matt. Matt collapsed onto his stomach, and Ian followed him down. He kissed Matt’s neck and Matt turned his face to him, and they locked lips together in one long satisfied kiss. Ian finally came up for air. “Did you like that, babe?” Matt blushed so beautifully. “It was great.” “You know I’ve claimed you. You belong to me now, Matt.” He felt Matt laugh under him. “I’ve belonged to you for a long time, Ian.” Ian couldn’t resist the perfect clear unblemished skin below him and started sucking hard on Matt’s shoulder blade. When he finished, he rose up slightly and looked at the hicky he had left. “Now you are marked as mine.” He pulled out of Matt as Matt rolled over and grabbed Ian. “I don’t need your mark to know who I belong to, but I’ll take it.” ***** 03 Tim goes shopping ***** Chapter Notes Use of a riding crop for control and discipline. Mentions of whipping. 03 Tim goes shopping Tiffani laughed as Tim started nuzzling her neck, his need obvious. “Hon, you really do need to buy a new body-slave. You are incorrigible!” “I haven’t found one I like yet. They’re all… all alike.” “Why did you sell the last one? I thought you liked him. You barely had him a year!” “Affleck knew I was getting bored with him and gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse.” He started nibbling on her ears. “But Hon, you know Eva doesn’t like to sleep alone. I can’t keep neglecting her because you can’t find a replacement slave.” Tim sighed. He had been monopolizing Tiffani’s nights, and that wasn’t fair to her body-slave. After all, they were just children and hated being left alone. He hated sleeping alone too, but he was a man and capable of handling it. “Alright Tiff, I’ll go to Commerce tomorrow and see what they’ve got.” She gave him a peck on the check. “That’s my good boy,” and left to go to her own room. *************** Tim Dekay inherited DeKay Security Systems (DSS) from his father, who inherited it from his father. Their bread-and-butter contract was Commerce. DSS designed and developed the microchip technology used in the slaves. Originally, it had been designed to protect pets, but Commerce had realized the potential of using it in slaves and approached Robert Dekay, Tim’s dad, when Tim was in his early 20’s. Although the contract didn’t bring in the big bucks, it opened the door for so many more lucrative contracts. They were currently working on a more secure microchip, one that couldn’t be removed so easily, but that was still in design phase. One of DSS’s biggest sellers right now was their GPS tracking slave collar. Any owner that invested in his system could bring up the position of any of their slaves on their personal computer at any time. No longer did an owner have to wonder or inquire as to a particular slave’s location. The program was accurate to within 25 feet, which DSS was working hard to improve on. Soon, they thought it would be accurate to within 10 feet. They were currently working on a prototype where a distance radius could be set in each collar, limiting the slave to the owner’s property, or even just the house. An alarm would sound on the owner’s PC and cell phone to notify them if a slave stepped outside their assigned perimeter. DSS was also heavily involved in other security aspects. Not building or perimeter security, but for actual items of value that owners have a need to protect, i.e., fine art, paintings, antiques and other pieces of value, where the item’s position or the item itself has sensors attached to alert if the item is moved. This is DSS’s big money maker, since it also includes insurance in case an item is stolen. Tim had established a recovery team to find stolen items, and their recovery rate was 90%, way higher than the FBI’s if he left it in their incapable hands. Tim Dekay was well off, and through his Commerce connection, had some power, not enough to be a Lord, but enough to make him and Tiffani, and any future children, God willing, happy and secure. *************** Tim wandered through the Commerce viewing area looking at the available body- slaves. They all looked alike to him, not cosmetically, but their mannerisms. All perfect, all like dolls. He was bored with dolls. He wanted something different, and had no idea what that was. He sighed as the left the body-slave showroom and entered the other areas. His horses were his pride and joy and he had had to sell two stable hands recently for mishandling his show horses. He wandered through the field hands until he came upon a young slave, 14, with stable experience. The boy had a gentle look about him and might work. He informed a Commerce worker to take the boy to the inspection room for possible purchase and continued looking. He wandered into domestic slaves. He wasn’t sure why he was even looking there, he was happy with the house slaves he currently owned, but then he saw one that made him stop. The slave was beautiful. He wondered why he wasn’t in the body-slave section and looked at the information sheet posted beside the window. New enslavement, late twenties, too old for body-slave training. He tapped on the glass anyway and the slave looked up. For a second Tim saw something in the slave’s eyes, something he never saw in any of his body-slaves before. What was it? Defiance? Irritation? No, he realized what it was. Unbroken. For a fraction of a second, before the slave managed to blank his face, he saw the same look of a young stallion that was only half broke. The slave had blanked his face and turned away, Tim tapped on the glass again, and the slave turned back. He was beautiful, dark wavy hair, vivid blue eyes and cream colored skin. Tim wanted him. He motioned for the attending Commerce worker to take him back to inspection with the other one. ********************* Matt had been put on display for a few days. He was tired of being displayed like a piece of meat. No, not a piece of meat, he was not a body-slave, thank the gods, but it was still humiliating. He remembered going to Commerce with his dad to shop for slaves, remembered tapping on the glass to get a slave’s attention, irritated when they tried to ignore him… Now he was on the other side of the glass… Someone tapped again; he looked up irritated, before he remembered to mask his face. Too late, the man was looking at him with more interest. Crap, if he told the handlers, he was going to be zapped again. Or worse. He turned away when the man checked his data sheet on the wall, but then he tapped the glass again. Matt turned back, the perfect statue, the perfect slave. The man turned away and Matt relaxed, relieved the man had lost interest in him, until he saw the man summon a handler. Great, his defiance would be reported and he was gonna hurt. Again. He waited until they came and got him to take him to another room. He was told to strip and then placed on his knees on a pad beside another naked slave, one much younger than him. He glanced sideways and thought the boy was not a body-slave either, cute but not quite cute enough. ********************* Tim entered the inspection room where his two potential selections knelt, awaiting examination. He went to the stable hand first, he would be the easiest. Tim always carried a riding crop; it was his signature and his statement of his love for his horses. It was also quite handy in handling slaves. He tapped the boy on the shoulder and beckoned him to rise. Once the boy rose, he tucked his crop under his arm and proceeded to give the boy a quick but thorough physical inspection, to include his teeth and genitals, and had him bend over to check his anus. The boy’s use was not for sex, but he didn’t want any unforeseen health problems to catch him unawares. He did see the whip marks across the boy’s back that couldn’t be much over a couple months old and was probably directly related to why the boy was up for sale. He ran his hand down the scars. “Why did you receive these?” The boy dropped to his knees. Tim had to move back around to the front and motion the slave back to his feet. He placed the end of the crop under the boy’s chin and lifted his head to see his eyes. “Tell me the truth, boy. Why were you whipped?” He could see the panic in the slave’s eyes. “I… I…” “You what?” The slave swallowed. “Tell me, boy” “I told him Green Beau wasn’t healed enough to compete. I told him! But…” The slave trailed off. “Told who, boy?” “Sims. The… the stable master. I told him but he made me ride him anyway….” “And?” The boy would have dropped his head again if Tim had let him. “I tried to hold him back…” the boy explained reluctantly, “but Green Beau….“ The slave actually looked up into Tim’s eyes, “Green Beau had the heart of a champion. He would have been great if he had been allowed time to heal!” He cast his eyes back down. “I tried to hold him back, but I failed.” The name brought back a memory. Beau Farms raised race horses. A few months ago one of their promising two year olds had been a favorite for the Triple Crown. Word was, after he easily won the Kentucky Derby, and the Preakness by a nose, one of their slaves had lied about the horse’s injuries and pushed it too far in the Belmont and it had to be put down. “Why did you race him, knowing he was injured?” “I… I didn’t want to, but Sims said if I didn’t, he would put Balfor on him. Balfor likes the whip and GB, he… I never had to use a whip on GB. I thought I could hold him back and protect him, but GB… When GB wants to run, you couldn’t stop him.” “Why were you whipped then?” “Sims told Master I didn’t tell him GB wasn’t ready to race. But I did! I did!” Tim studied the boy’s face and saw his truth and his pain. He could tell the boy wanted to drop to his knees, the only thing holding him up was his crop under his chin. The boy was well trained. “You have felt the bite of a whip. Would you ever whip a horse?” Tim watched with approval as the boy’s eyes widened in shock. “Never Master! I would never hurt a horse! They are too beautiful, too gentle, too…” He cast his eyes back down. “Champions are not made with a whip, Master.” Tim nodded with approval and removed the crop. The slave immediately dropped back to his knees. He turned to the Commerce employee. “Get the paperwork ready on this one. I will take him home with me right away.” The employee gave a slight bow. “Yes Sir.” He went to the door and motioned another commerce employee to come take the slave to prepare him for finale sale. Tim turned to the other slave. The kid hadn’t moved during the other’s inspection, but he had noticed him glancing sideways at the proceeding. Learning? He tapped on the slave’s shoulder with the crop and beckoned him to rise. The slave was even more beautiful close up than he had been behind the dirty glass. As Tim touched the slave to begin his inspection, he noticed the skin flinch under his touch. Again, the slave reminded him of a half-broke stallion, he glanced at the kid’s eyes, almost expecting the see them roll as a horse’s would, but they remained fixed on the wall. The whole inspection, he felt the skin tense under his touch. He almost expected him to bolt and run, but had forced himself to remain still, even when he had to bend over for the anal inspection. Tim wanted to push his finger inside, to feel his interior heat, but controlled himself, as he knew the slave was controlling himself. When he finished and stepped back to the slave’s front, he had to motion for the slave to return to kneeling position, unlike the stable hand, who went there automatically. Tim knew he wanted this slave, this stallion. This unbroken stallion. He turned to the commerce slave. “I want this one re-classified to a body-slave immediately. I wish to take him home today.” Tim did not expect the slave’s reaction. “No! I’m not supposed to be a…” That’s as far as he got before the commerce slave zapped him. The slave went down on his side, but immediately forced himself back to a prostrate position. Tim could see the convulsing muscles and knew it took a major effort to remain still. He turned to the employee. “I have every intention of buying this slave. His discipline is my responsibility. I would appreciate it if you do not do that again.” Tim saw the distaste as the commerce slave ever so slightly bowed his head. “As you wish.” “Now, I want this slave re-classified. Make it happen.” “Sir, I can’t do that, he is too old. He is untrained. It would be impossible!” “Get me your superior.” “Excuse me? What, sir?” Tim was getting irritated. “Get. Me. Your. Superior." When the Commerce slave still stared at him, he added, "Now!” “Y… yes Sir.” The commerce slave hurriedly left the room. Tim turned back to the slave. His muscles were still having minor convulsions. He tapped his shoulder with his crop and beckoned him to rise. He noticed the slave had a little trouble obeying the command, but managed anyway. Commerce training. He used his crop to lift the slave’s chin so he could look in his eyes and saw the latent fear there. “You were told you wouldn’t be a body-slave?” Now the slave’s eyes did remind him of an unbroken stallion as they tried to roll away. “Answer me.” Tim was fascinated as he watched the slave slide his mask of complacency back on. “Yes sir.” “You should know, once you become a slave, you have no choice. You have lost all rights to choice. You will be my body-slave.” The slave did not respond, and Tim didn’t know if that pleased him or irritated him, but the commerce employ returned with another that Tim recognized immediately as someone with authority. He pushed down on the slave’s shoulder, and he obediently kneeled, he pushed again, and the slave rested his head on the floor. He stood beside the slave, resting the tip of his crop on his back, letting the slave know both that he was in control, and that he would protect him. He hoped the slave understood the message. He indicated he wanted the first employee to leave the room; he wanted to talk to the one in authority alone. Once they were alone, the man addressed him. “Sir, I’m sure you understand that this slave is not trained to be a body- slave. He is too old. Slaves at this age are very hard to train, and not worth the added investment as they do not sell that well.” Tim firmed his face into business mode. “I am not asking you to train this slave. I am perfectly capable of training my own body-slave. Being re-classed as a body-slave will make him worth twice your asking price, and all you have to do is change his paperwork. It will only benefit Commerce to do so.” “But sir…” the man started to argue. “Do you know who I am? I am Tim Dekay, owner of Dekay Security Systems. Do you understand how much trouble you will be in if you disappoint me and displease your superiors?” Tim saw the man was still hesitant. “Tell you want I’ll do. If you re-classify him and release him into my custody today as my body-slave, I will give you two and a half times the asking price. I don’t care if you put the body-slave price on his paperwork, or what I actually pay for him.” Tim saw the man’s eyes flicker and knew he had won. “We will be able to provide you with a bill of sale, and temporary paperwork designating his new status. But it will be a couple of days before we can correct his provenance and send it to you. Will that suit you, Sir?” “That will be perfect. Make it happen.” The man went to the door and called the other employee back to prepare the slave for sale. As he approached them, Tim stopped him. “This slave is my property. I know every bump and bruise on his person. I do not expect to see any more damage done to him. Is that understood?” The man nodded understanding and Tim told his new body-slave to rise and follow him. He had to tap the slave again to get him to obey. After they left, the man had one more question. “Do you need temporary collars, or did you bring your own?” “Thank you for reminding me. I have my own.” Tim called his chauffer to tell him to bring in two collars. He could feel the slave’s surprise, but he was too obedient to question him. “Yes, Master.” When he hung up his phone, the commerce employee spoke again, “Why don’t you step into my office so we can finalize your purchases.” ********************* After the paperwork was done, and money changed hands; Tim did notice the price listed was the regular body-slave price; Tim was escorted into a waiting room to wait for his new slaves since Closing was already complete so Escrow wasn’t needed and Tim had no interest in using the hostel. Tim didn’t have to wait very long before they brought in the stable hand. The boy immediately knelt to his side and put his head to the floor. Tim was pleased with his purchase and left the slave that way, as was his right. It took longer to bring in his body-slave. The handler had to push on his shoulder to get him to kneel. Tim rose and stood in front of the stable hand. “Rise to your knees.” The boy did without hesitation. Tim placed his collar around the boy’s neck. He turned to the other and saw the defiance in his eyes as he stepped to him and placed his collar around his neck. He immediately turned to leave the building, expecting his slaves to follow. The boy did, but the other had to be pushed by the Commerce handler to get the message. Interesting. When they reached the limo, the stable hand dropped to the ground again. “Master, I can’t….” “My horses need a gentle hand now. I do not have time to wait for proper transportation for you. Get in.” The boy obeyed and the other followed. Once inside, the boy dropped to prone position again. Tim tapped him with his crop. “I will not have my property damaged in an accident. Sit in the seat and fasten your seat belt.” The boy reluctantly obeyed, and the other followed. As they rode, the body- slave met his eyes, willfully, demandingly. Tim matched his stare until the slave conceded and looked down. He, more than ever reminded Tim of an untrained thoroughbred stallion. He did not break his horses, and he did not want to break this slave. He gentled his horses and wondered how you gentled a slave. *********************** Matt didn’t understand what had happened. He was not supposed to be a body- slave. He was all but promised he would not be a body-slave due to his age. He was supposed to be a specialized slave trained in the arts. And this man, this man had paid two and a half times his price to make him a body-slave. Why? He was confused and scared, but he refused to show that. He tried to maintain his mask, but for a few moments he forgot as they locked eyes. The man should have punished him, but he didn’t. Not yet. Maybe when they got to his house. He remembered the other body-slaves he had run into. He remembered what Ian had tried to do to him. He remembered Kilmer’s works and broke eye contact. He wondered if there was any way he could run and hide, and reached his hand to the brand on his neck. No, there was no hiding that. This one didn’t wash off as Ian’s did. He was a con. He could do this. He could play the game, he’d done it before. His mind was muddled and he couldn’t think. No, this wasn’t a game. This was real. He masked his face totally to hide his need to cry. When they arrived at the mansion, he was surprised. The man didn’t dress like he owned this kind of place. It was expensive and immense. He tried not to laugh when he realized this man, his owner, dressed well below his means. When they parked and got out, the other slave was met by an outdoor slave and lead away. Matt was signaled to follow Tim into the house. He couldn’t help but look around as he entered the mansion. It was tastefully decorated.Was that a real Renoir?It was well placed, as if his own dad had placed it. He quickly shut those memories down. A beautiful lady came to great them. Tim tapped his shoulder with the crop a little harder than before, reminding him to kneel. “Hi Hon. I see you finally got a new body-slave.” She kissed Tim and then circled around Matt. “Kinda of old for your tastes, isn’t he? But I can’t deny that he is pretty.” Matt tried not to panic. Tim was married! A wife! Was he expected to service her, too? Since Natalie, he couldn’t get it up around a female. Their vaginal smell turned his dick into the Incredible Shrinking Worm. Damn his father! He didn’t even realize that he had started shaking. Tim saw Matt’s shaking and put his hand on the slave’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. Matt thought he sounded embarrassed as he answered his wife. “He caught my eye. He’s not trained. Can I borrow Eva to help train him?” Tiffani laughed. “Untrained? You bought an untrained body-slave! Sometimes I wonder about you, Hon. He’s pretty, but not that pretty. Tim, what am I going to do with you?” Matt saw the two come together and kiss. They did not act like his parents did. They acted like they really cared, maybe even loved, each other. He wondered who Eva was. They pulled apart and Tim queried, “Where is Eva?” Tiffani chuckled. “You’ve been gone all day; I knew you’d be hungry. I sent her to inform the cook to make dinner ready.” Tim pulled Tiffani close again, “You know me so well.” She smiled as she pulled back and looked at Matt. “Not as well as I thought I did.” They headed away and Matt stayed where he was until Tim yelled, “Matt!” Matt slowly rose up to follow. ******************************** When they entered the dining room, Matt was introduced to Eva, not like freeman introductions, but slave intros, and he was informed to watch Eva and follow her example. Eva knelt beside her mistress and Matt followed her example and took his place beside Tim. Matt quickly ascertained Eva was a long term spoiled body-slave to Tiffani. Not that she acted inappropriately, she was perfect, but anyone could tell she was secure in her position and didn’t go that extra step to please her mistress. Of course, Matt didn’t let on he knew as much or more than Eva. He was already an unofficially trained body-slave, something he tried hard to hide. When Tim tried to hand feed him, he refused. To accept food from his hand meant he accepted Tim as his master and that he was no more than a dog. Tim had to fight the urge to grab Matt’s hair and pull his head back to force him to comply, instead, he explained. “Matt, when we are out in public, you will be expected to eat from my hand, it is best to practice now.” Before Matt could control himself, he yelled, “I know what the fuck I’m supposed to do!” He realized too late what he had done. He was a slave now, a real one, he had to control himself, he bowed his head and waited for the blow. He waited several minutes before he felt Tim’s hand on his head, and was surprised when he realized it didn’t hurt, but instead was gentle. “How do you know what you’re supposed to do?” Tim asked too gently. Matt tried not to shake. “Matt?” Matt thought Tim’s hand was deceptively gentle and he couldn’t respond. “Matt, have you been a slave before?” Matt could almost hear the fear in Tim’s voice. Matt had heard about stolen slaves that were resold into the system as new slaves, but Commerce never recognized a stolen slave, they were listed as runaways. “No. No, I’ve never been a slave before. Not a real one.” And then wanted to kick himself in the ass for that last statement. “Not a real one?” Of course Tim would jump on his last line. Of course Tim would hear it. “Explain yourself.” It had been a hard day for Matt, he was tense, he had been sold, he was exactly the slave he didn’t want to be and he couldn’t cope anymore. He dropped his head to the floor and tried to retreat into oblivion. “Matt?” Tim noticed his slave was shaking, the kid was seriously stressed. He hadn’t wanted to push him that hard. He hadn’t meant to. But now the kid was shaking pretty bad. “Matt, rise up.” He said it firm, he said it precise, and yet the kid didn’t move. He reached down and touched the slaves back. “Matt, rise up.” He never thought he would ever speak that gentle to a slave, it was almost like a request. Matt shakily rose back to his knees, still waiting for the blow to land. Tim felt the fear. “Tiff, would you mind if Eva escorted Matt up to my quarters and showed him the bathroom so he can shower and change. Please ask her to find something for Matt to wear, my sweats or something as I haven’t had a chance to purchase anything for him yet.” “Of course, Hon.” And Tiffani nodded to Eva as an order to comply. Eva rose and walked around the table to Matt. She touched him and he rose to follow her, head down, afraid to make eye contact with anyone. Once they left, Tiffani turned to Tim. “Interesting.” Tim tried to avoid eye contact. “Hon, in all the years I’ve known you, you never would have put up with that kind of disobedience out of a slave. Why is this one different?” Tim hesitated before he answered, “Commerce didn’t break him.” He sighed “He’s not broken.” Tiffani raised her eyebrows and laughed. “I never would have thought you’d want an untrained slave.” Tim fiddled with his glass of wine. “Neither did I, Hon. Neither did I.” ************************** Eva guided Matt up to the master suite and showed him the bathroom. Matt noted the luxuriousness of it, in spite of himself. Eva got out towels and then went to find some sweats and a t-shirt for Matt to wear when he got done with his shower. When she came back, she noted Matt slumped on the closed toilet seat. “Relax. This is not a bad house. While you are here, you will not be unfairly punished. Master uses his crop freely, but only when you deserve it.” She did not understand why that did not make the new body-slave feel better and she left him to himself. By the time Tim got upstairs to prepare for bed, Matt was still sitting on the closed toilet. “Matt? Why haven’t you showered?” He watched as Matt bonelessly slid from the seat to the floor, not so much in supplication, but in defeat. That was not what Tim wanted. He reached out and touched the slave’s head. “Matt, stand up.” He watched as the slave slowly stood. “Undress and get in the shower. You smell like Commerce.” Matt slowly, unwillingly, undressed in front of Tim and stepped into the shower. He did not turn the water on. Tim sighed and undressed to follow his slave in and turned on the shower. The shower was big enough to handle four, so there was no crowding, and yet Matt still huddled against the wall. Tim controlled his desire to reprimand the slave, to make him bow, to make him bend to his will. He reminded himself that he did not want to break Matt, but gentle him. He turned on the water and set it to temperature. When the temperature was right, he pulled Matt to him and started washing him. He knew it shouldn’t be this way, this wasn’t right, Matt should be washing him, but Matt seemed so lost that he couldn’t help himself as he babied the slave. When Matt was clean and rinsed, he released him. “Get out and dry yourself.” He watched the slave leave and continued cleaning himself. By the time he got out of the shower, he found Matt in the middle of the room, standing, dressed in his sweat pants and t-shirt, frozen. The slave was still unresponsive. He walked up behind him and wrapped his arms around him. The sudden stiffness of Matt’s body surprised him, and yet it didn’t.Unbroken.He let go of Matt and went to climb into bed. Matt still stood. “You have a choice, Matt. Crawl into bed with me, or sleep on the floor.” Tim tried not to act surprised when Matt went to the foot of the bed and curled up on the floor. No pad, no pillow, no blanket, just the rug on the floor. He tried to ignore the recalcitrant slave as he rolled over on the bed and tried to sleep. After an hour or so, he gave in and went to check on Matt. The slave was in an un-restful sleep, and shivering. Tim sighed and pulled the spread off the bed to put on the slave. He very carefully, so he did not wake the slave, ran his fingers through Matt’s hair and whispered, “You will learn to trust me.” ***** 04 Matt begins his new life ***** 04 Matt begins his new life Matt looked up and saw Ian. He was obediently kneeling beside him. He realized what drew his attention, and dutifully accepted the bite of steak Ian was offering him. He was pretending he was Ian’s body-slave again. He hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation; he was still a little pissed at Ian. Before, they had only played this game at nightclubs, but this time it was an official gathering and it scared Matt. He glanced at the other body-slaves, the true slaves and questioned why he had let Ian talk him into this. Because Ian could. Ian always could. He felt Ian rub his hair and he leaned into him, not because it is what he was supposed to do, but because that’s what he wanted to do. He loved Ian. He trusted Ian. And he owed Ian. Ian would have had his own body-slave, a real body-slave if it wasn’t for Matt’s dad. His dad had found out that Ian was fucking him, and even worse, that he let Jason, Ian’s slave, fuck him. His dad had been furious. He was thankful he had been 18 by then, or his dad would have sold him to Commerce. He remembered his dad’s words, “I should have sold you instead of your sister! I bet she would have more balls than you have!” His dad destroyed Ian’s dad business and sent him into debt, and therefore into slavery, in retaliation. That’s one of the reasons he was pretending now, for Ian. He loved Ian unconditionally, and if he had to pretend he was a body-slave to make Ian happy, he would do so and be happy doing it. He was thankful Ian had also turned 18 before his dad had destroyed Ian’s dad, if he hadn’t been 18, he would have been sold to help cover his dad’s debts. But he had been 18, and his dad had had the foresight to prepay all four years of college, and had transferred Jason into Ian’s name on Ian’s 18th birthday. Ian’s college was bought and paid for, but not his room and board. He had to sell Jason to help cover his living costs. And even with that money, and a part time job, things were rough, and he said he had to sell his last asset, some bank bonds. Matt had asked to see the bonds, and then asked to borrow them. Matt perfectly reproduced the bonds, and then established some underground connections to sell the Atlantic Bank Bonds, and gave the money to Ian. Forging the bonds became a regular source of income until Ian graduated. He’d do anything for Ian, and he was playing Ian’s body-slave again, because he loved him, and that’s what made Ian happy. Matt realized he’d really been daydreaming when Ian tapped him to rise and follow. Matt submissively did so, ‘good, they were leaving’. They left the building with another master and his slave and instead of going around the block, to get out of sight before they hailed a cab as they normally did; Matt watched Ian and the freeman talking together until they reached a limo. Matt hesitated. Ian was pushing it too far. Ian loved to share him, to watch other’s fuck him, to watch other’s hurt him, but always before it had been friends or some nobody Ian met at a club. This was a real slave owner! What if he could tell Matt was not really a slave? Ian was pushing it too far! Ian noticed his hesitation and indicated for him to enter the limo. Matt did, and knelt beside Ian for the ride. He had tried to look into Ian’s eyes, to plead with him, to get him to change his mind, but Ian’s eyes stared back with no softness to them. He was in full master mode and Matt wasn’t going to change Ian’s mind. Matt wanted to scream out and tell the other man he was not a slave, he was free but he would never embarrass Ian that way. He laid his head on Ian’s lap and let him stroke his head to calm him. When they got into the hotel room, in an expensive suite, Ian had watched while the man tied Matt’s hands to the headboard. Ian had placed a gag in his mouth because, he explained to the other, Matt was a screamer, but what it really was, is he didn’t want Matt screaming the truth. Matt hated pain, and Ian knew that, but he had grown a darkness within him after his father had been enslaved, and it was Matt’s father’s fault, and Matt felt Ian’s anger at times like this. The man had started with nipple clamps and Matt had tried not to scream, he always tried and failed and he screamed around the gag. Ian watched him contort with pain as the man continued hurting him while Ian lovingly kissed and licked Matt’s tears that flowed freely, telling him how beautiful he looked. ********** “No! Ian, no! Please stop! Please!” The screams woke Tim up and he rushed to the new slave. The kid was thrashing about, locked in some terrifying nightmare and Tim knelt beside him to gather him in his arms to wake and comfort him. As soon as he touched him, Matt pressed into him, trembling. “Ian…” Tim held the slave tight to him. “Wake up kid; you’re having a bad dream. It’s okay now. You’re safe with me.” Matt woke up when he realized the voice wasn’t Ian’s and looked up to see who it was, his sleep slowed brain couldn’t register the face. “Who are…?” Tim watched as Matt’s brain kicked in and memory ignited recognition. He jerked away from Tim, but the foot of the bed prevented him from going very far. Matt broke eye contact to look down and try to pull his knees into his chest. Tim grabbed Matt’s arm to pull him with him as he stood up. “Come on,” and started guiding him to the bed. When Matt balked, he turned the slave to face him. “I am not going to let you sleep on the floor and get sick, and I don’t like crawling on the cold ass floor to take care of you when you have nightmares. You are going to sleep on that bed where I can keep you warm and safe.” Matt hesitated a minute before he turned and reluctantly climbed into the bed, he tried to pull himself to the far side, but Tim crawled in right behind him, wrapped his arm around him, pulling Matt’s back tight to his chest to sleep spoon fashion. Tim felt Matt’s tension. “Relax Matt. Go to sleep. Let me keep you safe.” *************** The next morning, Tim woke up at his normal time, in spite of the broken sleep. He was careful not to wake the sleeping slave as he crawled out of bed to get ready for the day. He knew he should wake the slave up, make the slave perform his duties, but the slave had had a very stressful day yesterday, and he let him sleep in. Besides, the kid looked so much younger, innocent and even more beautiful as he slept. He found Charlie, one of his house slaves after he quietly left his chambers. “Go sit in my room and wait for my new slave to awaken on his own. Make sure he has something to wear and then take him down to the kitchen to eat before you bring him to my office.” He saw the question in the slave’s eyes, ‘letting your body-slave sleep in?’, and said, a little more firmly than he had meant to, “You have your orders. Move!” He went to his office and, of course, his Agent, Sharif was already there at his small desk tucked in the corner of the office. He noticed Sharif was still looking at the door, waiting for someone to follow him in. He looked at Tim, the question evident in his face. “I let him sleep in.” He saw the frown on Sharif’s face. “Why is everyone questioning how I treat my body-slave? If I want to let him sleep in, I have that right.” “Yes, Boss, it is your right, but I’ve never seen you let a slave lax before.” Tim sat behind his desk and reached for some paperwork. “I give you a lot of leeway, Sharif; I don’t see you complaining about that.” Sharif smiled as he shook his head. “He must be really pretty for you of all people to spoil him. I can’t wait to meet him.” Tim sat back and rubbed his eyes. “You are not going to be impressed. He’s not a trained body-slave.” “Not trained…?” Sharif looked ready to panic. “Why the hell did you buy an untrained body-slave? And how? Is he a registered body-slave? We have Lady Carroll’s birthday gala in less than two weeks! It’s imperative you attend and you have to have a body-slave!” Sharif was the only one of his slaves allowed to talk to him that way. He was a good agent, the best he’d ever had, and part of the reason for that is he was never required to act overly submissive. Tim had had some business dealings with the corporation Sharif worked for before he was enslaved. He had been a highly talented CPA. The man’s wife had been in a debilitating car wreck and had taken her over a year to die, a year of bills Sharif couldn’t cover and his insurance refused to. When Tim had found out about his enslavement, he had used his contacts at Commerce to guarantee Sharif would be sold to him. He was Sharif’s one and only master, but in some ways, also a friend. “Relax Sharif. I’ll get him trained up. Eva is going to help me, and there is nothing pressing going on with the business right now, so I can concentrate on Matt.” “Yeah, I bet you wanna concentrate on Matt. I guess at least he must be good in bed.” Tim’s face reddened. “I don’t know yet.” Sharif sat back in his chair with a thud. “You don’t know?” He shook his head, what the heck had his boss gotten into this time? “Have you read his provenance at least?” That reminded Tim and he sat up and started searching his desk for the stable boy’s provenance. “No. I saw him. I wanted him. I bought him. They had to change his status to body-slave, so we won’t get the provenance for a couple of days.” He found the stable boy’s provenance and opened it, hoping Sharif would take the hint and drop the subject. Sharif did get the hint and went back to his own duties, shaking his head. Tim noted the new stable boy’s name was Skandar. He sat up when he noted the boy had dressage experience. Not just race horses, but a dressage rider. He could always use another rider for the competitions. He opened his slave tracker program and noted Matt was in the kitchen area. He stood up to leave. “I’m collecting my body-slave and heading to the stables to check on the new boy.” Sharif looked up briefly. “Yes, Boss. Can you hand me the boy’s provenance so I can at least get his information in the files.” Tim caught the cut and picked up the file, tossing it on Sharif’s desk on the way out. He found Matt in the kitchen picking at his food. He reached over his shoulder and grabbed a piece of bacon. “Eat up; we’re going to the stables.” Matt flinched. “Stables?” “Yep, gotta check on the new boy.” Tim grabbed a piece of toast, and watched as Hilarie, his cook brought him a cup of coffee. “You gonna eat or just sit there playing with your food?” Matt laid his fork down. “I’m done.” Tim frowned. He knew Commerce didn’t feed the slaves the best food, he knew Matt didn’t eat last night, now he was picking at breakfast. “Matt, you need to eat.” “Is that a fucking order, Master?” Tim heard the vehemence in the word ‘master’ and had to control the urge to backhand the slave. Instead he grabbed Matt’s chin and tilted his head to look at him. “You will not talk to me that way. Yes, I am your master and you need to get used to the idea, slave.” He stared into Matt’s eyes until Matt dropped his gaze. He released Matt’s chin and sat down beside him, pointing to the food. “Now it is an order. Eat.” He watched as Matt hesitated, and then picked up his fork and tried to eat. Tim could tell he was forcing down the food, but that was okay, the kid had to eat something. He reached and grabbed another slice of bacon, he didn’t see any harm in helping him eat, and he hadn’t had any breakfast himself. He looked around for Hilarie and realized she probably disappeared when Matt back-talked him. Once the both of them managed to finish Matt’s breakfast, Tim got up and headed for the door, as he started to head out, he glanced back and noticed Matt was still sitting. “Matt, I know you’re untrained, so you wouldn’t know, but, unless I tell you to stay where you are, when I move, you will automatically follow me.” He watched as Matt rose to follow. “Stay on my left side, and a step back. 24 inches between me and you is the Commerce prescribed distance for you to maintain.” Matt didn’t give a verbal response, but moved into position with his face masked, so Tim headed on out to the stables. Matt hadn’t seen the outdoors the whole time he was in Commerce, and the little bit he was outside yesterday, he had been too stressed to notice. But today, he enjoyed finally being outside again. The DeKay’s kept their grounds nicely landscaped, and he saw a flower garden that he would enjoy visiting, if he was allowed. It was a nice comfortable walk to the stables. The stables scared Matt. He had never been around horses and they looked dangerous to his inexperienced eyes. He followed Tim until he stopped by an older man who immediately dropped to his knees when Tim approached him. Tim motioned for the slave to rise. “James, what did I tell you about kneeling? One of these days you’re not going to be able to get up anymore, and I don’t want to have to pick you up. No more kneeling for you. Now, I’m here about the new boy Skandar. How is he working out?” “Quite well, Master. He has a talent with the horses. They respond well to him.” Tim nodded. “Good. Where is he now? I want to talk to him.” “Grooming Bullet, Master. Would you like me to escort you?” “Yes James, lead the way.” Tim watched the boy as he neared the paddock; he was handling the horse properly and gently, and opened the gate to talk to him. Once he reached the horse, he reached out to pet Bullet’s neck, the boy saw him and dropped to his knees and buried his head in the dirt. Tim had to grab the startled horse. “Get up, boy.” The slave rose up slowly. “Rule number one, my horses come first. Never, ever neglect my horses to bow to me. A simple head nod would work. Understood?” He could see the boy wanted to drop to his knees again, but he had handed him the lead rope, so the horse was his responsibility again. He nodded his head. “Yes, Master. I understand, Master.” Tim reached out and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Better.” He glanced to his left and realized Matt was not where he was supposed to be. He turned around to see Matt standing outside the gate. “Matt, what did I tell you about staying beside me?” He watched as the slave swallowed and hesitated. “You want me in there?” “I want you beside me, Matt. Yes, in here.” He was really trying to maintain a calm voice. “But… but the horse…” Matt didn’t enter the paddock. “Matt, get in here.” Tim saw that Matt’s fear filled eyes wouldn’t leave the horse and couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of horses?” “They’re, ah… big.” Matt stopped several feet away, and Tim had to point to his assigned spot to get Matt to get closer. He turned back to Skandar. “It says in your provenance you’ve ridden dressage.” The boy nodded. “Yes, Master.” “Are you any good?” “I… I won a couple of events, Master.” Tim turned to James. “Get Sandy ready to ride. I want to see how well the boy can do.” Matt was more than happy to get away from the huge beast as they headed back to the arena to watch the boy ride. Matt was impressed that the young boy could handle such a large animal so easily as he watched them go through maneuvers in the arena. He could tell by Tim’s reaction that he was more than pleased with the boy’s performance. “Looks like we’ve got us a new rider.” He patted Matt on the back. “Once you learn how to be a body-slave, we’re going to have to teach you how to ride.” Tim laughed at Matt’s panicked reaction. He was always in a better mood when he was around his horses. Matt was grateful when they finally left the stables and headed for the house. ************************* Matt followed Tim back through the house to his office and stood in the middle of the room while Tim sat down behind his desk. Tim looked up and saw him and pointed to the floor beside him. He couldn’t believe how much defiance one person could show in eyes and body movements without really crossing the line until he watched Matt move to kneel in the proper position. Then Tim hesitated and looked hard at the slave, he had not knelt in common slave fashion, knees together and hands at your sides or behind your back, but in a perfect body- slave kneel; knees spread comfortably, palms on thighs, back perfectly straight. He didn’t think Matt was even aware of what he had done, and thought it best not to say anything about it right now as he didn’t want a repeat of last night’s episode. He decided to give Matt more adjustment time. Matt knelt there, bored to death while he watched Tim work, until a new person entered the room. “Well, I finally get to meet your mysterious new body-slave.” The man looked Matt up and down. “He needs clothes, and I don’t have his provenance to get his sizes.” Tim sat back in his seat. “He’s not ready yet to take out in public to shop.” He turned to Matt. “Any chance you know your sizes so Sharif can order a couple things to get you by for now?” Matt looked at Tim. He knew Tim was looking for standard sizes, but he was insulted they thought he was so dumb he might not even know that. He started spouting off the measurements a tailor would use to make a new suit. He knew all the details; he’d had enough suits made for himself before. He also included his shoe and hat size. Matt tried to keep a straight face as Sharif scrambled for pen and paper to start writing. Once Matt was finished Tim sat awhile tapping his pen on his desk and watching the slave. “You knew I just meant basic sizes, right Matt? But you had to show off. What knowledge do you have that I could use? Show off with something that I can use, Matt.” Matt blanked his face and stared straight ahead. Tim leaned forward. “Let’s start simple, Matt. Where did you go to school?” “It’s in my provenance.” “You know I don’t have your provenance yet.” Matt turned toward Tim and he could see the anger in the slave’s eyes. “You would if you hadn’t changed my status.” Tim sat back and forced himself to smile. “But I did, Matt. You are my body- slave and the quicker you accept that, the easier things will be.” Matt turned back forward again and Tim watched his jaw twitch in anger. He thought Matt even looked cute when he was pissed. Sharif shook his head at the exchange, wondering why Tim never once used his crop on the slave. “You really think you can get him ready in time? Look at him; he’s got defiance written all over him for anyone to see. They’ll eat you alive if you show up with a slave like that.” Tim reached out and ran his fingers through Matt’s hair, ignoring the stiffening of Matt’s body. “It’s just his first day, Sharif, give him time.” When lunch time came, Tim sent Matt with Eva, instructing her to make sure he ate something, and to give him some training after lunch. He thought he and Matt both could use a short break from each other to ease the tension. In the afternoon, the clothes for Matt arrived and he was instructed to put them away, select something to wear, and be ready for dinner, as they would resume the training that had been interrupted the night before. The dinner at Lady Carroll’s was to be a formal affair, and that’s were Matt had to be the most proficient in his duties. Tim went up to his quarters to collect the slave. Matt was sitting in a chair reading a book, and when Tim walked in, he glanced up, and then returned to his reading. Tim crossed the room to stand in front of the noncompliant slave. He stopped in front of Matt. “Matt, I know Commerce trained you to show proper respect for your master when he entered a room.” He watched as the slave slowly marked his place, closed the book and set it on the table. Then he carefully lowered himself to the kneeling position. Tim counted to ten and then took the chair Matt had been sitting in, set it in front of Matt and sat down facing the slave. He took the time to notice Matt’s appearance, he’d picked him up in the Commerce drab scrub-like uniform, and then Matt wore his personal sweats and T- shirts, both much too big for him. This was the first time he saw Matt in decent clothing; slacks and a buttoned shirt; and it only added to his appeal. He had an urge to grab the slave and cover his mouth with a kiss, but withheld the desire. He took Matt’s chin in his hand, forcing him to look at him. “Matt, I have been more than lenient with you to give you time to adjust and you are taking advantage of my benevolence. Accept your life, Matt. You are a slave; you will always be a slave. You are my slave and you will obey me. You will learn to be my body-slave and you will learn to accept my touch without flinching.” He ran his thumb across Matt’s cheek and felt the flinch. “You will learn to trust me to take care of you, Matt.” He let go of Matt’s chin and stood up. “I well start using the crop tomorrow if you act out anymore. Enough is enough. Now, it’s time to eat, let’s go.” Tim turned to leave the room and noticed Matt hurry to follow. He didn’t let Matt see his smile. Once Matt took his place kneeling beside Tim at the dinner table, Tim informed him he would have his own plate, he would give him a couple days before he had to start learning to eat from his hand, as long as he ate what was on his plate. He also touched him often to get him used to it. What Tim really wanted to know, is why Matt automatically preformed many of his serving duties without being prompted or even thinking. That night Matt changed into pajamas Sharif must have ordered, and stood in the center of the room, just like the night before, awaiting instructions. “In the bed, Matt.” Matt glanced at Tim, hesitant, afraid, and Tim knew he wasn’t going to get laid that night either. He sighed as Matt crawled into bed. Problem was, as soon as he saw Matt in his bed, his penis started rising. He tried to talk it down as he curled up to Matt, but it only made him worse and the slave jerked away when he felt it probe him. Damn. Tim threw off the covers and got out of bed. He pointed to Matt. “Stay right there!” and left to go to the bathroom. He considered going to Tiffani, but he knew she would laugh at him, so he pulled his cock out and started stroking it by himself. That really pissed him off. He had a wife and a body-slave and here he was jerking himself off. What the hell was wrong with that picture? He thought about how he should just go back to bed, roll Matt over and take what belonged to him, what he had a right to take. The picture of Matt under him did the trick, and he was able to bring himself to orgasm. An unsatisfying one, but an orgasm none the less. Matt knew what Tim was going to do as soon as he left and he was surprised he actually felt a little guilty. Whether he liked it or not, he was Tim’s body- slave and Tim had every right to use him for sex. He couldn’t think of anyone he’d ever known who would have jerked off, rather than taking the body-slave they were entitled to. When Tim finished and crawled back into the bed and pulled him to him, he managed to squeak out a very small, “I’m sorry.” Tim sounded surprised. “For what?” Matt swallowed hard before he forced himself to respond. “I guess the least I could do is give you a hand job, I mean I am… I just…” Tim brought his hand up to rub Matt’s hair. For the first time, Matt barely flinched. “Well, yeah, it is the least you could do, but we can talk about that tomorrow night, if the offer stills holds. Right now, you need to sleep.” Tim pulled Matt tighter to him, and went to sleep content that Matt was slowly but surely coming around. Matt didn’t have a nightmare that night, but Tim did notice at one point he snuggled up tighter to him and murmured, “Ian….” Tim liked the snuggling part, and didn’t want to wake him, but wondered who Ian was to Matt as he drifted back to sleep feeling a little jealous.   ***** 05 Matt’s training begins ***** 05 Matt’s training begins The next morning, Tim made sure Matt got up when he did. He had to tell him to shower and change, hoping just a little that Matt would hesitate again so he could shower with him and wash him once more. Since Matt did what he was told, and seemed to want his privacy, Tim reluctantly gave it to him. For now. After breakfast, it was back to the office and Matt started wondering what Tim really did for a living. Where he had to kneel, he couldn’t read the paperwork, or quite see the computer screen. He wasn’t even sure who Sharif was or his job. He was so bored that he almost appreciated the times Tim reached out to touch him to break the monotony. Tim watched the slave as he worked. He knew the kid had to be half bored to death and his knees had to be hurting, but Matt needed to learn to kneel silently for long periods of time and this was part of the training. The fact the kid was doing it without complaining, or even shifting around, pleased him immensely and he tried to project his satisfaction in his touch. The kid was barely flinching now when he reached out to stroke his hair. After lunch, Matt was again sent to train with Eva for a few hours before being sent back to the office. Dinner and the evening passed pretty much the same as the night before, but when it was time to go to bed, Tim again watched Matt crawl into the bed, watched the curve of Matt’s tight ass as he slipped it under the covers and knew he wasn’t going to last much longer. He told Matt to stay in the bed and went through the door into the adjoining room. He came back a few minutes later, looking somewhat embarrassed. “Eva is going to sleep with you tonight.” The shocked look in Matt’s face almost made him laugh, almost, if those perfect lips didn’t distract him so much. “You will not have sex with her. Period. No exceptions. Don’t even try to touch her inappropriately or I will whip you. Do I make myself clear?” That calmed Matt’s initial panic, he relaxed when he realized he didn’t have to touch Eva, but then he felt maybe he should settle the fear in Tim’s eyes. “It won’t be a problem at all. I’m not attracted to her in the slightest.” Tim tilted his head quizzically. “She’s a beautiful body-slave. Why not?” “I’m gay.” Tim hadn’t even considered the possibility that Matt might have a sexual preference. Body-slaves were bi-sexual. They were trained to have no preference, and then his ignorance dawned on him, Matt was not a Commerce trained body-slave; he would have to stop comparing him to trained ones. Then, the full realization dawned on him and he started laughing. He had to explain himself to Matt’s puzzled look. “I never even considered you having a sexual preference when I bought you. Thank god you’re not heterosexual or I’d have to do some serious training with you!” He was still laughing as he left the room. Shortly after, Eva entered the room and crawled into bed with Matt and gave him a dirty look. “If you would do your job, I wouldn’t have been kicked out of my own bed.” Matt threw his head back onto the pillows in frustration. He did not understand this house. “They’re man and wife. They should be allowed to sleep together whenever they want to. And why do you have to sleep with me?” Eva picked at the edge of the blanket. “Because I never sleep alone, I have trouble sleeping by myself.” Matt turned toward her and lifted up on one elbow. “How long have you been a slave?” “Since I was eleven.” Matt tried not to choke up as he remembered his sister. “How has it been?” “What do you mean?” “Being a slave that long, how has it been for you?” Eva shrugged. “Like for any other slave I guess. It’s the way it is.” “How long have you been with Tiffani?” She glared at him. “You’re a slave; she is Mistress DeKay to you.” “Fine. How long have you been with her?” “Since we were both twelve. Her parents bought me for her.” “Is she good to you?” “You ask a lot of stupid questions. Of course she’s good to me, she’s my mistress. And Master DeKay is good to you. Too good if you ask my opinion.” Matt lay back down frustrated. She was non-communicative during instructions, and she wasn’t much better now. He rolled over to go to sleep. She snuggled up to him and he jumped out of bed. “What are you doing?” “Going to sleep.” She answered, confused. He pointed to the other side of the bed. “Can’t you sleep on your side?” She looked pouty. “I can’t sleep alone, and that’s the same as alone. They put us together so we could have a warm body to sleep next to.” Matt ran his hand through his hair. “Maybe they should get a dog.” He could see that went right over her head, so he laid back down and let her snuggle up to him until she fell asleep. He then got out of bed, took his pillow and the comforter and curled up on the floor at the foot of the bed so he could sleep. ************************** “Matt!” Matt sat up quickly and pushed backward somewhat noting the foot of the bed that had stopped his movement. He noticed another figure prostrating themselves as he looked up into Tim’s angry face. He stood above them, hands on hips, hair damp like he had just showered and looked very menacing. Matt tried to think what he had done wrong. “Why are you two sleeping on the damn floor?” ‘You two?’ Matt looked over and saw the other person was Eva. ‘What was she doing on the floor?’ Eva explained rather quickly that she had woken up and she was alone. She found Matt on the floor and lay down beside him so she could go back to sleep. Matt noticed how much Tim softened his tone when he spoke to her. “Come here Eva.” Eva scrambled over to Tim on her hands and knees and tried to prostrate herself, but he placed his palm under her chin and guided her to a standing position and tilted her head to face him. Knowing once placed, she would remain there, he moved his hand to the side of her face and gently ran his knuckles and thumb down her cheek. “I’m not angry with you. You have done nothing wrong, Eva. Now, go to your mistress, she could probably use some TLC after last night. Run her a nice hot bath and baby her for me. Okay?” “Yes Master.” He released her and she rushed through the door to take care of her mistress. Tim turned to Matt, all softness gone. “Why are you sleeping on the floor?” Matt swallowed and tried to lick his lips with a too dry tongue. “I did go to bed with Eva like you said. I stayed there until she went to sleep, and then I moved down here.” “Why, Matt?” Matt’s eyes flicked away, and then looked back at Tim. “Because… Because I’ve never slept with a female before.” The confusion was evident on Tim’s face. “What difference does it make whether she’s male or female? You’re not going to fuck her.” Matt looked down and picked at the edge of the spread. “She didn’t smell right, and she felt too soft. I wasn’t comfortable.” Tim sighed and shook his head. The kid looked like just that, a little kid nervous that he had messed up again. He sat on the foot of the bed beside Matt and reached out to touch his head, when Matt tried to pull away; he entwined his fingers and grabbed his hair, making him stay in place. Once Matt complied, he started gently rubbing his head again. “I gave you a simple order, sleep with Eva, but I guess I have to be more explicit with you. You will not sleep on the floor. Period. I am responsible for your health and wellbeing, and I will not allow you or any of my slaves to put their health in jeopardy needlessly. You will sleep in one of two beds with one of two people. The majority of the time it will be in this bed with me, but on those occasions where I choose to spend time with my wife, you will sleep with Eva in this bed or my wife’s bed. You will remain in the bed all night and you will let Eva cuddle up to you.” He felt Matt tense on the last statement. “Is that clear now, Matt?” Matt nodded his head and Tim grabbed his hair. “No Matt, you will give me a verbal response from now on followed by ‘Master’, or if that is too hard for you to say, ‘Sir’. Now, are we clear on the sleeping issue?”  Matt tensed but felt the hand in his hair, ready to reinforce his warning. “Yes, sir.” The hand relaxed and started playing with Matt’s hair again. “Now, I’m going to give you instructions for this morning, I want you to pay close attention so there will be no misunderstanding. You will straighten up this room; my chambers are your responsibility to keep neat. Then I want you to take a shower and get dressed. After that, you will go to the kitchen and request nicely that Hilarie make you something to eat, and you will eat what she serves, and then you will report to my office. Do you think you can manage all that without screwing up?” Matt stiffened at the insult that he was too dumb to follow simple commands. “Yeah, I think I can manage that all by myself,” he responded a little more sarcastically then he had intended. He felt the hand tighten threateningly in his hair and corrected himself. “Yes, sir.” Tim patted Matt’s head and stood up. “Good, see that you do. I expect you in my office as soon as you finish.” He went to his dresser and picked up the riding crop, turned to Matt to insure he saw it, and left the room. Matt sat on the floor for a while longer. He felt the collar on his neck and fingered the lock for the umpteenth time. It was a simple lock, one he could pick fairly easily, but then his hand wandered to the Commerce freeze brand in his neck. There was nothing he could do about that. If one could find a plastic surgeon willing to risk being enslaved himself to do the surgery, it would cost an arm and a leg, and Matt knew his connections and the majority of his assets had long disappeared into the underground. He was just another penniless slave. He sighed and got up to follow his last instructions. ******************* Matt took his time getting ready, he saw no sense in rushing to the office just to kneel and be bored. He explored the house just a little on the way down to the kitchen. The upstairs doors were all closed and he didn’t dare open them, but downstairs he checked out a couple of the open rooms. He studied the Renoir he had seen when he first arrived and discovered it was an original, as best as he could tell with the naked eye. They had some other nice pieces, both art and antique and he unconsciously cataloged them as if he was casing the place. By the time he got to the kitchen, the cook made some comment under her breath about spoiled body-slaves as she set a warmed breakfast plate in front of him. He saw no sense in aggravating her, so he flashed her a warm smile and thanked her. She gave a somewhat reserved smile back. By the time he finally arrived at the office, it was empty. He looked for a note and didn’t find one, and realized you don’t have to let slaves know what you’re doing. His last order was to go to the office and there he was stuck until given further orders. His curiosity got him to start checking around to see if he could figure out what Tim did for a living, but couldn’t find anything evident on Tim’s desk, and had just spotted some financial reports on Sharif’s desk when the door opened and he froze. He was trying to figure out an excuse for being at Sharif’s desk when Charlie, the house slave he met when he first awakened in Tim’s bed, walked in and set a packet on Tim’s desk. As he turned to leave he spotted Matt and nodded. Matt smiled back and gave a quick hi. When the slave left, Matt moved back to Tim’s desk to see what the packet was and saw it was from Commerce. His provenance. Matt wasn’t sure why, but he slipped the packet under a stack of files on the corner of the desk and moved to the rear of the desk, close to his assigned spot, just in case Tim was the next one to walk in. He glanced at the door, and then the computer. It was blank so he touched a key and it came on, obviously it was just in sleep mode.  He was just about ready to open one of the minimized documents, when the door opened. He quickly moved to his assigned spot and knelt. Tim caught the movement as he entered the room, and saw the guilt written on Matt’s face. “Glad to see you could join us before lunch, Matt.” He greeted sarcastically as he went to sit in his chair and check his computer to see what Matt had been up to. Sharif had followed him in and sat at his own desk. “What were you looking for on my computer, Matt?” He asked as soon as he learned Matt hadn’t accessed anything. “Excuse me?” As Tim turned to Matt, he placed his hand on the riding crop on the desk. “Don’t play dumb with me.” Matt’s eyes darted between the crop and Tim’s eyes as he stumbled over his words. “I… I didn’t have time. You came in… I ah… I was just curious what you do. I mean, if I’m ah… a ah… then aren’t I supposed to kind of be aware of what you do so I can help. If… um… I can.” Tim was on the verge of laughing by the time Matt finally got done. “You can’t even put you and the word body-slave in the same sentence yet, can you Matt? Or are you still tripping on the word slave?” He rubbed Matt’s head when he looked down, verifying Tim’s observation. “But you’re right, you, as my body-slave, should be aware of my business. Let me show you some of what we do.” He turned back to the computer and punched up a few buttons and studied the screen. “Interesting. Get up here Matt so you can see the screen.” Matt rose and saw what looked like a blue print with a wandering blue line drawn on it. “That collar you’re wearing has a GPS tracking system put out by my company. And this is your data for this morning. It’s hard to tell for sure, what with the accuracy of that collar, but it looks like you made a little side trip into the entrance hall and the reception room this morning. And possibly the drawing room for a minute.” He turned to Matt. “Is this going to be an ongoing problem, you do what I tell you, but you do it your way?” Matt was fingering the collar. “I ah… didn’t know it could ah… do that…” “So that makes it okay?” Tim turned to Sharif. “Sharif, don’t we have one of the new proto-types here?” “Yes, Boss, right here.” Sharif opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a collar. “Get that for me, Matt.” Matt had a feeling of foreboding as he walked around Tim’s desk to retrieve the collar and bring it back to Tim. “Kneel and bow your head, Matt.” Matt did as instructed and saw out of the corner of his eye as Tim pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. He unlocked the first collar from Matt’s neck and replaced it with the second one. “Bow to the floor while I set this collar, Matt. I don’t want you ‘accidently’ seeing any codes I may punch up.” Matt put his head to the floor for several minutes while Tim worked on his computer. “Okay Matt, I want you to go upstairs to my quarters and come right back down here. Do exactly as I say, no ad-libbing.” Matt did as instructed, and Tim motioned him over to see the computer screen. A different type of image than before appeared on the screen, this one a 3- D blueprint, with a different blue line. “Matt, you said you wanted to help in my business, and now you are. This is the first working proto-type of my new GPS collar. It not only tracks latitude and longitude more accurately then the old one, but also altitude. The program allows the owner to set a certain point as zero base, in this case, this office. I can turn the image…” He toggled the image from a bird’s eye view to an image from the side, “360 degrees to view the house from any angle. This one has a five foot accuracy with a five foot margin for error, in other words, it will never be more than ten foot off from your exact position on any floor in the house. You can see where you went up to my room and back.” He turned the image to show Matt’s trip upstairs and back. “Now, granted, the altitude away from the home will be warped because it is set to the house, but I can use my phone, which also contains a limited program, to tell how far you are above or below me if we are at the same horizontal position. This program won’t work as well in, say, San Francisco, but works fine for this area.” He turned to Matt and saw he was unconsciously fiddling with the collar and white faced. “Is the collar uncomfortable?” “Yes!” Matt realized what he had said. “I ah… I mean, no, it’s okay…” He sighed. Tim smiled as he reached out to check the fit of the collar. “Feels fine to me. Anything else you want to know about my company? Like the fact we make the microchip in your back?” Matt wanted to sit down, but there was no chair for him, instead, he dropped to his knees. Tim went on. “No? Well, I guess you heard enough for the day. Don’t worry; I’ll be keeping a close eye on the tracking info on that collar to see how well it does work.” Tim smiled deviously as he went back to work. ************************* That afternoon Tim took Matt for a walk around the grounds. This served two purposes, one was so Tim could test the tracking data on the new collar’s program, and the other was to train Matt in the different verbal and non- verbal, both hand and crop, signals. A single crop tap or a slight push down with the hand meant ‘kneel’. A double tap or a shoulder squeeze meant ‘kneel, bowed with head to floor’. Matt remembered one of his dad’s friends when he was a kid that was into training dogs, and those two signals became ‘sit’ and ‘down’ in his head. Tim also had signals to ‘follow’, which Matt thought of as the dog command ‘heel’, and ‘stay’, which had same meaning for dog and slave. There were other signals for more subtle actions, but those were the main ones Tim wanted him proficient on right now. At one point Matt got frustrated and woofed, that earned him a sharp rap with the crop. When that happened, the words ‘bad dog’ flashed through Matt’s brain, but he decided it was best not to voice his opinion. By the time they got back to the house, Matt felt like he had been through dog obedience school, and Tim felt like he had made some serious progression in the training of his slave. ********************** The first time they had gone out clubbing after Ian had had to sell Jason, Matt could tell immediately it wasn’t going to work. Ian hated sitting with the ‘common’ people, as he called them. He looked longingly at the tables reserved for slave owners. Ian had gotten drunk that night and he had to practically carry him home. Ian’s words hadn’t helped the situation either. “It’s your fault my dad’s a slave, you never should have let me fuck you.” “It’s your fault…, you should have stood up to your dad.” “It’s your fault…” Matt couldn’t call the sex they had that night ‘making love’, it was more like rape as Ian forcibly took him and bitched that it was his fault because he was so damn pretty. So when Ian proposed Matt pretend he was a body-slave so they could sit in the owner’s section, it hadn’t taken too much to talk Matt into it. It was not the best of clubs, and not the highest quality of owners and slaves, so they managed to fake it quite easily, and Ian had made such sweet love to him afterwards After that, Ian started working with Matt to get his role down right. Ian had been around more body-slaves than Matt had, and had paid more attention to all of them. He wanted slaves; Matt didn’t care one way or the other, so never really paid attention, if any, to them. Their training sessions had been fun, often breaking down with laughter when Matt tried and failed to perform some simple slave action. They both found out that the movements slaves made with such ease and grace does not come naturally, but is a learned action. But Ian’s constant instruction and encouragement soon had Matt moving as gracefully as a practiced slave. As Matt improved, they started going to nicer clubs, and Ian always let Matt know how much he loved him for doing that for him. ****************************** Tim woke up when Matt snuggled up and held him close. “Ian…” Tim decided that was better than a nightmare, he guessed, for the kid, but he would sure like to make him forget this Ian character. He tried not to groan when he felt Matt’s dream induced hard-on press against his leg, and tried to think about his quarterly reports to keep his own reaction at bay. ***** 06 A clash of past and present ***** 06 A clash of past and present On the fifth day, Matt was getting super bored with the whole deal. Not only did he have to kneel in the office half of the day, but he couldn’t even wander and explore with the new collar. He ran his hand along the collar, at least the old one had been a somewhat aesthetic metallic, but this one was a black plastic ring with no discernible lock. No discernible anything, to his fingers it felt like one continuous loop. He figured cutting it would set off all kinds of bells and whistles, not that he would, he just figured alarms would sound. “Sharif, did Matt’s provenance come in yet? Commerce said I would have it by yesterday.” The words shocked Matt out of his daydreaming. “No, Boss. Want me to give them a call and see what the holdup is?” “Yes, please. I swear those guys would lose slaves if it wasn’t for my microchip.” A knock on the door halted the conversation, much to Matt’s relief. Matt watched as someone new came in the office, and Tim stood up to greet her. “Hope your trip went well, Marsha.” “Fine Tim.” She looked at Matt. “I see you got a new body-slave while I was gone. You need to find one like Moran that you want to keep awhile.” Tim laughed, “If I ever find one as useful as Moran, I might.” It was kind of crowded in the office with the five people so Tim turned to Matt. “Matt, why don’t you take Moran out to see the gardens.” Matt looked at Tim, and then stood up, finally something was happening, and he was sent out of the room like a little kid. “Yes, sir.” He barely remembered to say as he saw Tim’s hand lingered toward the crop. He nodded to Moran and they left the office. Once they got out to the garden, he started questioning her. “What does Marsha do?” “My Mistress works for your master.” Matt wondered why slaves were so possessive of their owners’ titles when they weren’t even in earshot. “Doing what?” “That is your master’s business to inform you if he wants you to know.” Matt rolled his eyes, he thought he might finally find out something, but Moran was one closed mouthed slave. As they continued strolling, he tried to make small talk about the flowers, but that didn’t get him anywhere either. It seems all Moran was doing was marking time until she could get back to her mistress. *********************** As soon as the body-slaves left, everyone took a seat and Tim got down to business. “What’s so important you had to stop by here before going home?” “We got a hit on Neal Caffrey.” Tim sat up. “Is he active again?” “Not that we can tell, just a picture in a gallery came up for sale. Don’t even know if it’s new or old, but it’s not a forgery, it’s an original. It would be good to have, Tim. We could compare the Neal Caffrey original to the NC forgeries to verify they’re the same painter.” “What gallery? I want to take care of this myself.” Marsha gave him the particulars, and they continued discussing other cases she has been working on. When they were finished, Marsha texted Moran to return. After Marsha left with her body-slave, Tim got ready to visit the gallery she had mentioned. Sharif looked up at him. “Are you taking him?” He nodded his head toward Matt. Tim considered while he let out a long slow breath. Sharif prodded. “He’s only got a few days to be ready for the gala. This is a small non-descript gallery, none of your customers should even be there. It might be a good trial run for him, Boss.” Tim picked up his riding crop and tucked it under his arm. “Have you ever been to a gallery, Matt?” Matt wondered what was going on and hesitantly answered, “I’ve been to a few.” “Do you like art?” Matt fearfully glanced at the stack of files on the corner of the desk. He was starting to think they found his provenance and these were test questions, but no, there was the barest bit of the corner of the Commerce packet at the bottom of the stack. “Matt?” “Ah, yeah, a little.” “Matt…” Tim almost sounded like a growl. “That is two answers you have given me, and neither time did you use master or sir. What did we discuss this morning?” “Ah… Yes, sir. Sorry sir.” Matt replied quickly, glancing at the crop to make sure it was still tucked under Tim’s arm. Tim smiled. “Better. Now, we are going to go to visit an art gallery, and I want you to remember what you have been taught. Matt, do not embarrass me in public. I will use my crop without hesitation. Is that understood?” Matt swallowed. “Yes, sir.” Then he looked at Tim’s blue jeans and faded shirt. “You’re not going dressed like that, are you? Sir?” “And why not?” This was Matt’s area of expertise, and it gave him a little confidence. A little. “Because if you are going to buy, or even thinking about buying, they won’t give you the time of day dressed like that.” Sharif spoke up. “He’s right, Boss.” He doesn’t know how many times he tried to tell Tim the same thing. Tim glared at Matt. “I dress the way I want to.” Matt wasn’t about ready to give up that easy, he didn’t want to go to a gallery with someone dressed like Tim. It was demeaning. “Sir, I am ah, you know, and part of my job is to make sure you are dressed properly.” Tim smiled at Matt’s continued refusal to say body-slave, even if he was trying to be one. “Fine, we’ll go up to my chambers and see what you think is ‘appropriate’.” Once they arrived at the wardrobe and Matt saw the selections available, he had more questions. “Are you going as a buyer? Is it an expensive piece or average?” “Yes, I want to buy a painting, and it shouldn’t be that expensive, it’s a small new gallery.” Matt rifled through the clothes. “This should be perfect. It shows you have some money, but doesn’t indicate how much. A relatively expensive, and yet casual attire. It should be perfect.” Tim looked at Matt curiously, the normally shy kid suddenly acted like he was in his realm. “And how do you know this?” Matt suddenly looked down, the confidence gone. “I… I’m sorry. What you’re wearing should be fine.” He started to hang the clothes back up and Tim reached out to stop him. “No, Matt. You’re right; one of your jobs is to make sure I’m dressed appropriately. I’ll wear what you picked out.” He sounded almost as gentle as he had with Eva that morning. As Tim changed, he again wondered what Matt’s background was. He was waiting for the provenance so he wouldn’t have to question him from scratch and he wondered why Commerce was so slow in sending the paperwork. ************************** They stopped by the office on the way out. Sharif took one look at Tim and smiled. “Well, the new kid can do something right.” Tim looked down at his clothes. “These okay then?” “They’re perfect, Boss. By the way, I called Commerce; they said the provenance had been delivered.” Tim looked up sharply. “I’ll question the household slaves and figure out who misplaced it while you’re gone.” Tim nodded and left, Matt hurrying to stay in place before someone looked his way about the missing provenance. Noah was waiting out front with the limo and opened the door to let them in. As they rode, Tim thought about all he knew about NC, who he believed to be Neal Caffrey. ************************** He first heard about NC about seven years ago, when Staton Bomer was charged with selling forgeries. Bomer was the name in art, and Tim never could understand why he had sold over a dozen forgeries as originals. DSS had insured eight of those paintings through their security systems, and out of those, only three of the originals have been recovered. DSS had, of course, used their own authenticators to insure the paintings were original before they guaranteed their protection, but it wasn’t really much more than a cursory inspection, the Bomer’s were known for their art. Why would anyone question the integrity of the Bomer name? Tim believed the first forgery was found at the Price estate, not one of his customers, but soon the art world was in turmoil as all who had bought from Staton Bomer rushed to have their art authenticated. After four of them were found, Staton, of course, came down on charges. It didn’t help when the art provenance’s false authentications proved to be in Staton's own handwriting. By the time all was said and done, Staton had a dozen counts of art fraud under the RICO Act, conspiracy to defraud, and money laundering. He was found guilty and sentenced to enslavement. The night before he was to be turned over to Commerce, he committed suicide using the sheets on his bed. But for DSS, it didn’t stop there; they were stuck for the insurance covering eight of the twelve forgeries. They put their best forensic and digital authenticators on the pieces and all of them were discovered to have the initials NC somewhere in the artwork, in a couple it was just in the painting swirls, but once found, they could not be denied. DSS had lost over a million dollars. Tim put his best agents on search for NC. It took a couple of years, but they finally settled on the possibility that Neal Caffrey was NC, and they concentrated on him. The Neal Caffrey they suspected was eventually a prime suspect in bond forgery, counterfeiting, securities fraud, art theft and racketeering. But three years ago he disappeared, his name dropped off the charts. They had several aliases, of course, but all of them seemed to have died in their tracks three years ago. Now, this gallery, recently purchased, was selling a piece proposed to be painted by Neal Caffrey, an original. Like Marsha explained, to have a Neal Caffrey original to compare to the NC forgeries could be a legal tie to the two, if Caffrey was ever caught. And that was another problem, Caffrey was as slick as greased owl shit, he slipped away before you even knew you were close. ********************* The limo pulled up to the gallery and Matt followed Tim out of the vehicle once Noah opened the door. Matt hid his disappointment, it was a small, non-descript gallery, just as Tim said it would be. He followed Tim inside and was soon distracted by the art portrayed. It was good. Nothing was by known artists, but Matt saw the potential and could not help but admire the artist behind the art. Tim saw Matt’s distraction. “You like this stuff?” “I, umm, yeah…” Tim was in public and could not tolerate an inappropriate response. Matt jumped at the sting of the crop. “Yes, sir, I do like what I see.” “Can I trust you to enjoy the art while I look for the proprietor?” “Yes. Yes, sir. I… I’ll just look.” Tim nodded. His body-slave really seemed to be entranced by the paintings, so he chose to leave him as he searched for the new gallery’s owner. “Can you behave long enough for me to do what I have to do?” Matt tried not to act like a kid. “Of course I can.” The sting of the crop made him rephrase his words. “Yes, sir. “ “I won’t be gone long. Behave yourself.” Tim stated as he left to search for the proprietor. Matt wandered the gallery, enjoying the exhibits, whoever owned the gallery had good taste.  Suddenly, he was grabbed and hugged. “Matt! Where the hell have you been? Come to my opening? Of course you would! God, I’ve missed you! Come on; let’s go where we can talk in private.” “No. No, I can’t…” Matt tried to freeze, tried to protest, but no matter how hard he tried, Ian still had control.  Ian always had control. He tried and couldn’t even protest as Ian guided him through a curtain to another room. “Where have you been? I’ve missed you, babe. Let me look at you.” Ian exclaimed as he pushed Matt to arm’s length to look at him, and froze. ************************* Tim found the manager, but was told to talk to Mr. Somerhalder, as he was the actual owner of the gallery. He left the manager’s office in search of Somerhalder, but also to check on his body-slave. He halted as he watched an unknown person guide his body-slave behind a curtain, and his slave allowed it. He shook his head and rushed to correct his body-slave. Again. Just before he swept the curtain aside, he heard words that made him halt and listen…. ********************** “You’re wearing someone else’s collar?” “Ian, I….” “That was our game! Just between you and me! And now you’re wearing someone else’s collar? What the fuck are you thinking, Matt? That was our special thing!” “Ian…” “Fuck you, Matt! Did you tell him who trained you? Did you tell him I was the one who taught you? Of course not. Damn you, Matt! That was special just between you and me!” Ian stepped close, close enough to make Matt lose his breath. “Cut it off. You’re mine, you have always been mine. Cut it off and come back to me, where you belong.” Matt was falling, he always fell when Ian was there; Ian always got his way… “I… I can’t…” “Of course you can. Cut it. Cut his collar and come back to me. You belong to me, you know you do. Cut his collar.” “Ian …” “Damn it, Matt! Neal! Whoever you are today, cut it! I’ll get the scissors, I’ll help you. Hell, it’s an ugly collar anyway. Cut it and come back to me.” “I…” Tim had heard enough, this was Ian, the one. The one who stopped Matt from being his, and he was ready to steal Matt right out from under him. He strode into the room, proud, strong, and intimidating. It usually worked. “You do know it’s a felony, punishable by enslavement to attempt steal someone else’s slave?” He reached out to Matt and gave him the ‘kneel’ prompt, and Matt complied. Ian laughed. “Fuck you. I know the game. I invented the game. I know he’s not your real slave, don’t even fucking try it with me. Matt, come to me. You know where you belong. Come to me, baby.” Matt wanted to go, needed to go, that’s the hold Ian had on him, but he felt Tim’s crop on his shoulder and he hesitated. “What’s your problem?” Tim queried. Ian glared at Tim, his nemesis, his competitor for Matt. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a sterile wipe, opened it and then walked up beside Matt, rubbing the wipe on Matt’s brand. “I know what you’re doing. I’ve been there. He belongs to me.” Ian seemed confused when the brand didn’t smear, and tried again. Tim scowled at Ian’s attempts. “Are you satisfied?” Ian was not satisfied.  “Matt?” Matt tried to answer, needed to answer, wanted to answer, but the crop was there. Ian realized the truth. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you call me? You know I would have covered your debt, or at least bought your contract! Matt, why the fuck didn’t you tell me!” Matt did think. Matt did know, now, if not before. He felt the crop on his back, but he also felt the pull of Ian. He knew what he had to do, for once, for himself, even if it meant Tim had to hurt him. He slid out from under Tim’s crop and stood up to Ian. “You never would have covered my debt; you would have waited and bought me! Bought me so you and your buddies could hurt me! Over and over again! Do you remember the last time, Ian? Do you remember! I hurt so bad, I couldn’t even climb the stairs, and you still fucked me! Do you remember? You left me downstairs… You left me! I could barely move… I could have died… and you fucked me and left!” He swung and hit Ian full in the face, he had a brief glimpse of the blood sprouting from Ian’s nose… A force pulled him back, pushed him to his knees, pushed his face to the floor, and he knew Ian couldn’t hurt him anymore. The force was greater than both of them. Matt heard him, heard the power, heard… “I apologize for my slave’s actions. I guarantee he will be punished.” Ian paced, fumed, thought. “Is he for sale? I’ll buy him. What’s your price? I’ll buy him.” “He’s not for sale. Even if he was, you couldn’t afford him.” “What’s your price? I’ll find a way.” “He’s not for sale. But, I guarantee, he will be punished. Do you want to make a formal complaint?” Tim watched as Ian paced and thought. “Are you going to punish him? Can I watch?” “I guarantee I will discipline him. His actions will not be tolerated. But my punishments are private, in my home. No, you can’t watch.” Ian paced some more. “If you decide to sell him, call me. Here’s my card.” Tim accepted the card, politely, but he had no intentions of selling this slave to this being.  But, he did have business…. “You are Ian Somerhalder?” “Yes.”  “You do have a piece I am interested in.” Ian paced some more. “What piece?” “Your Neal Caffrey.” Ian stopped. He looked at the owner and then he looked at the slave. “That piece is no longer for sale.” Tim hesitated. “Why not?” Ian looked Tim in the eye. “Because it is all I have left of him.” Tim tilted his head, trying to understand. “It’s all I have left. You want an original Neal Caffrey? Look at your feet. That’s where you’ll find him. My piece is no longer for sale, you have the creator.” Ian spun on his foot and left the room. Tim tried to breathe, but then he realized Matt hadn’t exhaled.  “Matt, breathe.” Tim didn’t want to, he really didn’t want to, but… A sharp sting of the crop got Matt breathing again. Tim let the crop rest on Matt, feeling, listening for Matt to settle. Once satisfied with his own control, Tim spoke, “When I remove my crop from your back, you will stand up. You will not speak; you will keep your eyes down. You will not look at anyone or attempt communication with anyone.  I am going to guide you out the door and to the car. Do you understand me, Matt?” Matt tried to nod, but the crop bit into his back. “Yes, sir.” A couple more minutes passed before Tim lifted the crop and Matt stood. Matt kept his head down; he didn’t want to see anything anymore anyway, as Tim guided him out the door and to the limo. Once in the limo, Tim started to relax, a little. He had Matt out of there, but he still had to deal with Matt. Matt? Neal Caffrey? He had to think, had to regroup. Once in the safety of the limo, Matt started allowing his body to release from the tension. But with the release, came the shaking. He knew what he needed, knew what he wanted, but what if Tim rejected him? What if Tim wouldn’t give him what he needed? He unbuckled his seatbelt and slid to the floor of the limo. He placed his head in Tim’s lap, hoping, praying, Tim would accept him. Tim was surprised when Matt unhooked his seatbelt and sat on the floor. He didn’t allow his slaves to travel unprotected, he knew a lot of owners did, but his slaves were his responsibility, his job to protect. A slave traveling without a seatbelt was asking for problems. But Matt slid to his feet and rested his head on his lap, expressing a need, a desire. Tim hesitated just a few breaths, and then rested his hand on the slaves head and started running his fingers through his hair. He felt the slave immediately start to relax at his touch. “You know this is not going to get you out of your punishment, don’t you?” “I know.” Tim felt the truth in the slave, knew he accepted his future and still wanted his touch. He played with the slave’s hair as he felt him slowly stop shaking, relax, and then fall asleep at his touch.   ***** 07 Corporal Punishment ***** Chapter Notes As the title indicates, this chapter includes corporal punishment of a slave. 07 Corporal Punishment Tim woke Matt up when they arrived home. “In the office.” Tim’s orders were brief and precise; he didn’t want to leave any room for interpretation. Once they arrived at the office, Tim again gave Matt another simple command. “Strip.” It wasn’t simple to Matt. He fell to his knees and prostrated himself to Tim. “No, please. I’m sorry…” Matt had seen slaves whipped bloody before and the fact he was about to become one of them scared the hell out of him. Tim reached down, grabbed Matt’s arm and lifted him up. “Matt, I have no choice. You struck a free man today. If he reports the incident to Commerce, they will want to know what corrections have been administered. If they don’t think I have properly punished you, they’ll have the option of taking you back for corrective training. I don’t want you going back to Commerce. This is the only way. Now, strip.” Matt took his clothes off and stood naked. Tim turned him toward the office wall, and guided his hands up to some rings on the wall. “Hold these.” He tapped his feet with his own to get Matt to spread his about shoulder wide. Tim stepped over to his desk and opened a drawer to retrieve something and came back to Matt. “Open your mouth.” Matt opened his mouth and Tim pushed a mouth piece in. “Bite down.” Matt did as instructed. Tim gave a quick check to make sure everything was ready, he felt the fear emanating from the slave, and patted his shoulder. “Concentrate on holding the rings, Matt. It will keep you upright and in place, as well as give you something to focus on. You will get through this.” He stepped away from Matt and picked up the leather strap. “Do you want me to leave?” Queried Sharif. “No, I need you to stay. I need a witness. Think twenty should be enough?” “Twenty is the minimum Commerce would accept as punishment.” Tim got in position and took a second to admire Matt’s perfect back, and swung the strap. Matt would have screamed on the first hit if it wasn’t for the mouth piece. He grabbed tight to the rings as he felt the fire blossoming across his back and buttocks. He hadn’t felt this kind of pain since his last night with Ian. He held on as long as he could, but his hand started slipping, just as he let go, Tim was there and grabbed his arm, guiding his hand back up to the ring. “You’re almost done, Matt. Just five more. Hold on just a little bit longer.” Tim said gently. Matt looked in Tim’s eyes and saw that, unlike Ian or his friends, he was receiving no joy in what he was doing. Tim’s mouth was set in grim determination to do what was required. Matt grabbed the ring and held on tight. Tim stepped back and finished his job. When he finished, he threw the strap on the desk and stepped up to Matt and reached for his mouth. “Spit it out.” Matt spit out the mouth piece and Tim tossed it on his desk with the strap, he then took Matt’s wrists. “You’re done now, Matt. Let go.” Matt released the rings and Tim helped him sink to the floor and then Tim released his wrists. Matt got on his hands and knees as he tried to gulp for air. “Do you want your shirt?” Matt tried to answer between gasps. “No, it’ll just get bloody.” Tim lowered himself to one knee and took Matt’s chin in his hand. “I do not abuse my slaves. There is no blood. You are covered in red welts, and that’s all. In a few days, all signs of this whipping will have disappeared.” He released Matt’s chin and stood back up. “Come on, Matt, stand up.” Matt reluctantly got to his feet, with a little help from Tim. “Clothes are probably the last thing you want right now, anyway, they’ll just hold the heat in, so why don’t you go to your spot and stay there?” Matt started to comply when Tim spoke again. “But first, I want you to hand me your provenance.” Matt halted and then went to the desk and pulled out the Commerce packet from the bottom of the file stack and handed it to Tim, as he turned away, Tim slapped his back. It wasn’t hard, but it didn’t take much to fire the nerve endings back up to screaming. Matt sucked in air to stop from screaming himself and turned back to Tim. “Don’t ever try to pull something like that again.” Matt swallowed. “Y… yes, sir.” He turned away again to go kneel in his spot. He soon realized that kneeling wasn’t going to work as his ass checks had been whipped also, so he placed his head to the floor so his ass could have air. Tim glanced at the prostrate naked slave and wondered if he shouldn’t have made Matt put clothes on. If it wasn’t for the crisscrossing strap marks, he wouldn’t have been able to control himself. He opened the provenance and tried to concentrate on that instead of the naked slave. It didn’t take long before he sat up in his seat and stood up. “Sharif, keep an eye on him for me, I have to go talk to Marsha.” And he quickly left the room leaving Sharif wondering what the hell that was about. Matt wondered somewhat also, but he was more concerned with the fire on his back. Marsha had an office at the far end of the house. It had both interior and exterior entrances so Marsha could keep her peculiar hours without disturbing the household.  Tim stormed in and tossed Matt’s provenance on her desk. She reached to pick it up. “What’s this?” “Matt’s provenance.” She opened it to see what had Tim in an uproar. “Ah, Staton Bomer’s son. Interesting. Three years at the New York Academy of Art, honor student but dropped out. Ah, I see why, after his dad was found guilty, they called in his student loans, no one left to guarantee them. But that was seven years ago. Where has he been for seven years, there is nothing in the record, not even an income tax return?” “I was told today that he might be Neal Caffrey.” That got Marsha’s attention. “Neal Caffrey? What did he say?” “I haven’t had time to question him about that.” “Why not?” “He struck a free man, I had to discipline him.” Marsha sat back in silence a couple of minutes and then started laughing. “You’ve had him what, all of five or six days? I’ve never seen one of your body-slaves give you this much grief, and still you keep him? He must really be good in the sack!” Tim looked down, red-faced. Marsha knew the look and laughed harder. “You haven’t even had sex with him yet?” Her eyes started tearing from the laughter. Tim cleared his throat to get her attention. “I’ve been thinking about this Bomer thing. What if he is Neal Caffrey? Was he an accomplice then? Staton was known for his integrity, I never understood why he did what he did. He was ‘art’, why the hell would he sell forgeries? He didn’t need the money.” “What are you thinking, Tim?” “What if Matt set him up?” “Why the hell would Matt set his own dad up?” “I don’t know.” “I think you need to have some serious conversations with your slave. But I bet his back’s too sore right now, though. Tim, we can use him. He knows art and if he is NC, then he knows how to steal art, and therefore, how to help us find the thieves. Are you going to keep him as a body-slave? He’d make a great Agent with some training.” “He is my body-slave. I’m not giving him up right now.” Marsha couldn’t help but smile. “Then you might wanna try fucking him.” *********************** By the time Tim got back to the office, it was time for dinner. He considered giving Matt a break and not make him perform his duties, and realized he was getting soft. He never would have considered that with any other slave. He told Matt to get dressed. Tim was impressed that Matt performed perfectly for the meal, as perfect as he could if you ignored the sharp intakes of breath when his shirt rubbed across his back, or he reached too far. He even accepted food out of Tim’s hand without protest. Tiffani raised her eyebrows in approval of the slave’s actions. That night, Tim told Matt to get undressed and then lay on his stomach on the bed, before he headed into the restroom and started rifling through the medicine cabinet. He found what he wanted, and came back out, to find Matt dressed and standing in the far corner. Tim sighed in frustration. “Matt, I gave you simple instructions. Why can’t you follow them?” “I ah… Why do you have to wait until you whip me to ah… you know…” Tim face almost looked comical as it went from total perplexity to understanding. He showed Matt what he carried. “No Matt, I have no interest in sex right now, well, nothing I can’t handle. I wanted to rub some anti- inflammatory cream with aloe vera to help alleviate some of the pain in your back. And, I brought you a couple of pain killers.” Matt looked embarrassed. “You weren’t going to…” Tim sighed. “No, Matt. If you were a masochist, I might consider it, but obviously you’re not. Now, are you going to follow my orders?” Matt tried to move out of Tim’s sight as he stripped, Tim turned his head to give him privacy. Who ever heard of a shy body-slave? When Matt finally lay naked on the bed, Tim sat down beside him, and showed him the tube. “See, it’s just cream, Matt. Now relax and let me take care of you. Here, take these pills first.” Tim handed him two over-the-counter pain killers and a glass of water. “By the way, Matt, was it worth it? Was this worth hitting Ian over?” He shook his head. “You did knock him a pretty good one.” Matt considered the question.  He had come back to the States to get closure but got Commerce instead. But then, when he did see Ian, he had fallen straight back into the deep well that was Ian. Until Tim arrived. Tim claiming him had all but broken Ian’s hold.  He had finished the break with his own hand. He gave an affirmative nod. “Yes.” “Then I hope you don’t have any other Ian’s out there, because next time, I will be forced to double it.” Tim shook his head and started gently rubbing the cream into Matt’s back, realizing this is the first time he actually got to spend any time with Matt’s body up close and personal. He struggled to hide his growing hard-on. Matt relaxed with the unexpected attention. Relaxed a little too much and asked the question that was always there and he never intended on voicing. “Why not?” Tim continued working, “Why not what?” Matt hadn’t realized he had actually spoken out loud and held his silence. “Matt?” “Why haven’t you…? You bought me as a, you know… and, well, I would have thought…” Tim laughed. “Why haven’t I fucked you?” Matt hid his face, which wasn’t hard to do, considering his head was already buried in the pillows. Tim’s hand never changed its gentle motion rubbing the cream into Matt. He was enjoying what he was doing too much to stop it. “You know what, Matt, I have wondered that myself. I fully intended that first day to bring you home and fuck the hell out of you, but something stopped me. It took me a few days to realize why I wasn’t taking you.” He paused in his back administrations. “Look at me, Matt. I need you to understand what I am saying.” Matt turned his head to face Tim, and Tim sat back, to make sure he could see Matt’s eyes. “I have owned a few body-slaves, and had a lot more. In all of them that I have known, never had one of them said ‘no’. I always assumed that Commerce only picked out those sexually willing, that they all wanted sex before Commerce trained them, but since I bought you, I have started wondering. Everyone sometime, no matter how promiscuous, says ‘no’ sometimes, but never a body- slave. Never.” He paused, trying to organize his thoughts. “If they can’t say ‘no’, then how can their ‘yes’ be real? Does that make sense? It doesn’t to me, but still, I wonder. Of all the dozens of ‘yeses’ I’ve heard, has even one been true?” He reached out to run his fingers through Matt’s hair. “You have the ability to say ‘no’.” Matt protested. “But I have never said you couldn’t… You haven’t tried.” Tim smiled. “Your body has screamed ‘no’ so many times in so many different ways.” Matt looked embarrassed. “I guess I should apologize for that.” “No, Matt. No. The fact you can say ‘no’, means that you can give me a true ‘yes’. When you say ‘yes’ to me Matt, it will be real. It won’t be because of your training or your fear. It will be because you truly want me. That’s what I want Matt. When you come to me, I want it to be because you want me with your whole mind, body and soul. Because you want to give yourself to me.” Tim stopped and studied Matt’s eyes, hoping Matt understood his need. Matt thought a couple of moments. “You do know that’s not a normal slave owner’s attitude?” Tim laughed and roughed up Matt’s hair. “Well, do me a favor and don’t tell anyone. Now relax, and let me finish your back.” Matt did relax, but then a new idea hit him. “If that’s what you want, why don’t you just date a free person? They have choice.” Matt could tell he’d hit a nerve as Tim all but growled back. “I would never cheat on my wife.” Matt decided not to follow that thought any further, as he allowed Tim to baby him. Now that he knew how Tim felt, he was able to let himself fully relax and enjoy the sensation. Tim poured more ointment on, and continued working it into Matt’s back. He had spent more than enough time necessary to do the job, but he was enjoying himself too much to quit. His hard-on, which had subsided during their conversation, came back with a vengeance. By the time he reached Matt’s ass, he was hurting, but he also realized Matt had fallen asleep. He reached down to rub himself as he gently ran his fingers on the perfect tight ass, wishing he could do to that ass exactly as he wanted to. He looked at the sleeping slave and knew he was out, so he rose up on his knees, admiring, needing, wanting the prone body spread out before him. He freed his manhood and started stroking himself harder and harder until he came on Matt’s back with a silent releasing moan. He reached out and rubbed his cum into the cream that covered Matt’s back. As he lay down to sleep, pulling Matt to him, he smiled with the knowledge that he had marked his property. Not claimed yet, just marked, like a dog pissing on a tree. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold out before he claimed full ownership of Matt.   ***** 08 Questions and some answers ***** 08 Questions and some answers The following morning, Tim, as was becoming usual, got up first, showered and changed, and then woke up his body-slave to get him moving. Matt was surprised at how much the pain had subsided in his back, what had felt like a raging forest fire yesterday, felt like a smoldering embers today. He got in the shower and had to slowly work up the heat, although he couldn’t get it near as hot as he normally liked it. After he ate and reported to the office, Tim rose and told him to follow him. They went down a hallway Matt hadn’t been in before, since with his collar, exploring was out of the question, and Tim stopped outside a closed door. Opening it, he guided them well within the room, before he switched on the light switch. Matt caught his breath. The rear wall, which he was facing, had about a dozen paintings on it, five of them where his NCs. The NCs he had painted to frame his dad. He noticed a couple more of his forgeries, but they weren’t NCs. He only used those initials on the pictures used to take down his father. He looked around at the other walls. There were over a dozen pictures on those walls, three more NCs and a couple more of his unsigned ones. He was trying to understand why Tim had brought him here; several of these were his forgeries, did Tim think they were original’s? What was he going to tell Tim? Almost a dozen of the paintings in his collection where fake? He identified a few others he believed were also fake, a couple he even believed he could identify the creator, but he would need to get closer for a better inspection.  There were several of them that were definitely forgeries, not even good ones. He turned to Tim, trying to figure out how to play this game. What did Tim want? What was he looking for? What was the game? “Recognize anything?” Matt shrugged. “You’ve got a nice collection. I’ve always been fond of Raphael’s ‘Saint George and the Dragon’.” Tim smiled; it was one of the NCs. “Yes, it is a nice piece. Too bad it’s a forgery.” Matt did his best to keep his face blank. “It is?” Tim turned to Matt. “Of all the paintings you could have picked from, you commented on one of your dad’s forgeries. You would have followed Staton’s case. You would have known it was one of his, real or fake. And yet you stand there and profess total innocence.” Matt looked away. Of course Tim knew who he was now, he had the damn provenance. That was a stupid mistake, one Neal or Nick never would have made. But he wasn’t either one of them anymore, they were never real. He was just Matt. Tim studied the slave, watched his actions and reactions. He wanted Matt’s cooperation. “Matt, this room is nothing but forgeries or reproductions. The dozen paintings you see on the rear wall are our failures. We have yet to recover the originals, so we’re stuck with the loss of these.” He swung his arm to the two side walls. “These are my successes, the originals have been recovered and returned to their proper owners. On that wall…” He pointed to the one on the right. “…the perpetrators have been tried and convicted, whereas on that wall…” He indicated the one on the left. “…all the criminals involved have not yet been caught.” Matt noted none of his works where on the right. Tim turned back to Matt and looked him full in the face. “You are Neal Caffrey?” Matt wanted to deny it. He looked away, he looked at the floor, and he looked at the art. He wasn’t Neal anymore, hadn’t been for three years. “Matt…?” Matt turned to look at Tim, his fear evident. “Matt, you can’t be charged anymore; you are a slave. Besides, if you could be charged, what is the worse they can do to you? Make you a slave? Too late.” He sighed and stepped closer to Matt and put his hand on his shoulder. “Matt, I could use your help and your expertise. These…” He pointed to the unsolved wall. “…have cost me a couple million. You have cost me almost a million, at least. Now answer me. Are you Neal Caffrey?” Matt gave a reluctant nod. “Good, that’s a start. Can any of these originals be recovered?” Matt hesitated a few moments. “I’ve heard rumors that ‘Saint George and the Dragon’ might be in the private collection of the McCarthy family. But it’s just rumor.” “Any of the others?” Matt fidgeted a couple more seconds.  “No.” Tim sighed. He had hoped that Matt would be more forthcoming, but he could tell he was holding back. “Come on, let’s go to the office. I want to know all about Neal Caffrey.” ********************** As Matt knelt on his pad beside Tim’s chair, he tried to understand why Tim was interested in the art, he made collars and microchips. Tim had to explain the company was started to protect high dollar valuables. Their technical expertise branched out to slave protection, but art was their main business. The way Tim stated it was, “Commerce is our bread and butter. The rest is the icing on the cake.” Matt tried not to scoff at the words ‘slave protection’, although he realized that’s how Tim saw it. Suddenly, it hit him. “Dekay Security Systems? You do the DSS devices?” Tim nodded as he sat back in his chair. “Speaking of which, how did you thwart the DSS 3000? We still haven’t figured that one out.” Matt sighed and looked away. “Matt?” “There’s a flaw in the computer programing. It was a backdoor thing.” Tim leaned forward, this was news to him. “Can you show me the flaw?” Matt shook his head. “Matt?” “I’m not the computer expert.” “Who is?” “Gone. They’re all gone.” Matt looked up at Tim’s questioning look and figured he better explain. “Once someone disappears, it is assumed the law or Commerce got them. If it’s the law, Commerce will get them later. Everything, all friends, contacts, numbers, stash; everything is dissolved and disappears back into the underground. Say, I wasn’t enslaved, but had just disappeared to be by myself and didn’t tell anyone; all of it would be gone by the time I got back. My name; or names; are blacklisted. I would have to start anew from scratch. Maybe with time I would run into my old friends again, maybe not, but they would all have new names, new lives, sometimes even new looks. It is the rule of the underground, to protect each other. When slavery is the penalty, we have a tendency to get pretty paranoid. I never knew anyone’s real names and they didn’t know mine.” “So, you can’t contact any of your old friends?” Matt shook his head. Tim thought this was good and bad. Bad in that he can’t find the criminals either, but good in that Matt had nowhere to run. “You mentioned a stash? But you were enslaved for non-payment of your student loans.” Matt laughed cynically. “I was damn near a multi-millionaire when Commerce picked me up. Grabbed me right out of the airport. I had more than enough to pay off my damn student loans, but it was all illegal and hidden. Nothing in my name. I couldn’t access it from Commerce and they wouldn’t release me for one lousy hour to get the money.” Matt picked at his pants. “They knew who I was.  You know, Neal Caffrey and, well, others.  The Assessor, Mark Sheppard”, Matt snorted, “I swear he could talk you out of your very soul.”  He hesitated, “I guess he did…  Anyway, he said I had a choice.  I could sign myself into slavery on forfeiture of my loans, and be treated like any other new slave.  With my talents, I’d probably be picked up by a gallery, a museum, or even one of the greater houses for the same reason.”  He scoffed, “He even complained that I hadn’t been picked up seven years ago as I would have been a good body-slave if caught young enough, but I was too old now to worry about it.”  Matt rocked back a forth a couple times, then continued, “But, if I didn’t sign, they would hold me for three days as my case was processed, then sentence me into involuntary slavery.  Meanwhile, Sheppard would notify the FBI so they would be there to grab me the second the paperwork was signed.” Tim guessed where this was going, “And being a slave, the FBI could use truth drugs on you.”  “Yeah.  My friends needed more time to disappear.  At least a week.  Preferably two.” “You weren’t allowed to call anyone?” “Well, yeah, but who?  Sheppard, knowing who I was, said anyone covering my loan had to pay in person.  Of course, that meant he intended on investigating anyone who showed up.  I only had one legitimate friend left by that point.” “Let me guess, Ian?” Matt ducked his head, “Yeah.” Tim considered the slave for several minutes. “You had seven years to pay off that loan.” Tim could see Matt’s growing frustration and had to reach out a hand to calm him. “I became Neal Caffrey. I forgot I was Matt Bomer; by the time I had the money, Matt wasn’t even in my thoughts anymore. I forgot about the stupid loan.” Matt dropped his head to the floor to escape Tim’s touch. Tim didn’t really have a lot of sympathy for the slave. He was a criminal and immature. He had proven incapable of living a decent life and remembering his financial obligations. He should have been enslaved seven years ago. But now Matt was his, and he would take care of him. “Matt, kneel back up and face me.” Matt obeyed. “Now, start from the beginning. Tell me about Neal Caffrey.” *********************** Matt didn’t want to talk about his dad or Ian, so he started from the student loans becoming due and payable. He disappeared into the underground to avoid enslavement. He had friends there and they helped him set up his new life. He was a good forger, a damn good con, and because of his background, knew how galleries worked and was able to learn the art of stealing by starting with them. For four years, he worked out of the New York area, and Tim had him detail a few of the crimes that he had committed then, but three years ago, he and his friend moved to Europe. He couldn’t leave the USNA under the name of Neal Caffrey, or his other known aliases; they had gotten too hot; so he took the new alias of Victor Moreau and disappeared out of country. They continued their life of crime in Europe. There were too many holes in Matt’s story. Too much he skipped over, and Tim knew it would take more than a couple of days before Tim could work some of it out. Getting Matt to talk about Ian was like pulling teeth. Tim finally did ascertain that Matt and Ian were high school boarding roommates, and went to college together. Matt still wouldn’t talk about his dad but Tim did find out that Staton took down the Somerhalders, and wondered if that was a factor in Staton’s fall.  Matt would not admit to being NC. Matt continued to see Ian under the Caffrey name, and Ian used it to protect Matt since he was a known friend. Something happened three years ago, something that made Matt run to Europe, and Tim felt it was not because the law was moving in on him in New York. Matt would not say why he came back to USNA except; “I was stupid.” ***************** After spending most of the day questioning Matt, Tim decided they both needed a break; none of the information was immediately usable anyway. He had a lifetime to question Matt, and Matt was getting antsy. There were too many gaps in his story, too many things he still wanted to hide. He reminded himself he didn’t buy Matt for his knowledge, he needed a body- slave and they had a gala to prepare for. He decided to concentrate on his training and worry about the rest later. He did notice Matt quit trying to hide the body-slave knowledge he did have; he mainly needed basic everyday training. That night, Tim told Matt to strip again so he could put the cream on his back. He noticed the cream the first night had helped a lot, and Matt didn’t really need it tonight, but he wanted to. He wanted the excuse to touch his slave’s naked body. Tim was disappointed when Matt didn’t fall asleep this time so he could secretly enjoy his body, Matt even jumped when he started to rub the cream on his ass. “Relax Matt.” Matt glanced fearfully back at Tim and saw his hard-on. He shivered and turned back forward; if Tim wanted him, there was nothing he could do to stop him. He just hoped Tim meant it about waiting until he was ready, because he wasn’t ready. He didn’t know if he would ever be ready. Tim finished and observed his slave. It was getting harder and harder to resist him, but he noticed the tension in Matt’s body, and fought temptation. He put the cream up and lay down beside the slave and pulled him close. “I wish you’d learn to trust me, Matt. I’m not going to hurt you.” He pulled Matt’s hair out of his face. “I want you, Matt. I want to make you mine.” Matt’s silence made Tim sigh and he cuddled up to go to sleep.   ***** 09 Confusion ***** 09 Confusion Matt found out he could turn up his morning shower as hot as he wanted it, he barely felt the heat on his back. The shower was running, hot and steamy, just as he liked it.  The shower door suddenly opened and Tim came in, Matt backed to the wall but then Tim planted his hands on the wall, one on each side of his head. Matt gasped for air as the heat of the man competed with the heat of the shower. Tim leaned down to his ear. “Once, you told me that the least you could do is give me a hand job.” His voice sounded gravely with desire. “Does that offer still hold?” Tim thrust his hips forward, pushing his cock against Matt’s abdomen. “Please.” Matt tried not to shake as he reached for Tim’s penis; he made contact with his thigh and moved up to the heat rising from between Tim’s legs. Tim sucked in air when Matt’s fingertips touched him and ran up his thigh. He felt like Matt’s fingers were leaving a line of molten lava in their wake. He didn’t dare touch Matt, couldn’t touch him, or he wouldn’t be able to stop, so he forced himself to leave his hands on the shower wall as he thrust his cock into Matt’s lower abdomen with the urgency of his need. When Matt’s fingers finally circled him, he groaned with the sensation. Matt took Tim’s cock in his hand. It was hard and ready, and bigger than he had expected. He started stroking him as Tim thrust himself at him, his cock seeking entry into Matt, willing to create a new hole if that’s what it took. Matt started stroking harder to quench Tim’s desperation. When he felt Tim was close, he reached his free hand under his testicles and gave a slight tickle, Tim moaned in release as he shot semen on Matt’s front that was washed away by the shower as soon as it hit. Matt lightly held onto Tim’s cock as Tim regained control, almost afraid to let go of it, afraid to move. Tim gave Matt a quick peck on the forehead. “Thanks.” He turned and left the shower as suddenly as he had entered, leaving Matt dizzy in his wake. Matt gulped for air as he watched the shower door; afraid Tim might come back and wishing he would. He knew Tim could have had him right then, he had wanted Tim to take him, wanted Tim to claim him. As he settled down, he realized he was hard and wondered when that had happened. He reached down to take care of himself and stopped. He tried again and groaned because he realized he couldn’t. It had taken almost a year in Europe before he had been able to masturbate, almost a year to convince himself it was okay to touch himself. Ian had claimed his cock as his and in all their years together, he hadn’t been allowed to touch himself without Ian’s permission. But Ian was gone now, it wasn’t Ian’s anymore, and he tried to understand why he had regressed and then understanding dawned on him. He was a body-slave. Body-slaves were trained by Commerce that their body belong to their master, just as Ian had trained him. His body, all of it, including his penis, belonged to Tim now, and he didn’t know Tim’s rules. He didn’t know if he was allowed to relieve himself, and it wasn’t something he could just come out and ask. He groaned with the understanding, and the knowledge that his body had accepted what his mind couldn’t. He turned down the hot water and turned up the cold to give himself the only relief he was allowed. ********************* When Matt entered Tim’s office to go kneel at his assigned spot, he realized Tim had changed. No, not Tim himself, but his perspective of Tim. Tim had been the bully slave owner that forced him into a position he didn’t want and then had been his protector when he had confronted Ian. But now, he realized Tim wasn’t a bad looking guy. He knew Tim was at least a decade older than him, but he maintained his body quite well. He tried not to blush when he remembered how Tim had looked in the shower. When Tim reached out to touch him, Matt flinched at the shivers it sent down his spine. Tim felt bad about losing control earlier. He was the master. He was supposed to maintain control at all times, and yet he had pushed himself on his slave, begging like a kid for relief. He reached out to Matt to stroke his head and knew when the slave flinched that he had messed up. Matt had been coming along so well and now he had caused this backslide. He almost apologized and caught himself in time. One does not apologize to slaves. Or beg them. “Matt, you’ve been pretty much stuck indoors since I bought you. Would you like to take a walk in the gardens or around the premises? Maybe visit the stables? But stay clear of the horses, you’re not used to them.” Matt looked up, he hoped it wasn’t for more obedience training, but he would like to spend some time with Tim out of the office and off his knees. “Yes, I’d like that.” Tim frowned. “Yes what?” Matt ducked his head back down. “Yes, sir.” “Go. Enjoy yourself.” Matt was confused. “By myself?” Tim raised his eyebrows. “What? You can’t walk by yourself? Don’t worry, if you get lost, I can find you.” Matt unconsciously touched the collar and rose. He glanced at Tim to be sure it was what Tim wanted, and then left the office. He went out to the gardens, found a bench and sat on it to think. For the first time, he wanted to spend time with Tim and he had been sent away. Did he disappoint him in the shower? Should he have done something more? It had all happened so fast, he didn’t have time to think. “You must be Matt?” He looked up and saw a short bald somewhat geeky looking slave dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, both with streaks of dirt on them.  He held out his hand to Matt. “My name is Willie. I’m the head gardener and grounds man around here.” Matt shook the hand, surprised at the man’s friendly attitude. All the other slaves have been pretty much non-committal in their treatment of him. “Come on…” Willie coaxed Matt. “…walk with me.” Matt had nothing better to do and Willie seemed like a breath of fresh air after the last week; hell, the last couple of months, so he stood up to walk with the short man. “How come this is the first time I’ve seen you out here? Usually the body- slaves are out here every day.” Matt looked confused. “They are?” “Yeah, you guys gotta keep in shape, you know. There’s a running path right over there…” Willie pointed off a short distance. “…that you guys use.” “I… I guess no one told me.” And Tim has hardly let him out of his sight. Willie glanced sideways at Matt. “Didn’t you ask?” “Ask?” Willie stopped and studied Matt several moments. “You’re new, aren’t you?” “Well, yeah. I’ve only been here about a week.” “No, I mean a new slave. How long have you been a slave?” Matt looked down and then across at the gardens. “A couple of months.” “Is Master DeKay your first master?” “Ah… yeah.” “That explains it.” “Explains what?” “One of the hardest things for new slaves to learn is to ask, you’re so used to doing things without thinking. You’re never going to know what a new master allows or doesn’t allow if you don’t ask him. Master DeKay is one of the better ones; he is very tolerant of new slaves until they get to know his rules. Except with the horses, of course; he has no tolerance for mishandling his horses.” “How long have you been a slave?” “I was born a slave.” Willie started walking again and Matt moved to keep up with him. “You used to think we were different, didn’t you?” “I… ah…” Matt stuttered, looking for the right words. “You never dreamed you’d be walking and talking to a slave like an equal, did you?” “No…” Willie smiled at Matt and Matt saw there was no animosity in the little man. “Welcome to the other side, my friend. Learn while you are with Master DeKay, so it won’t be so hard on you when you’re sold.” Matt stopped dead in his tracks. “Sold?” “Didn’t you check the board?” “What board? What are you talking about?” Willie frowned. “Someone should have told you while you were in Escrow. We have a… private internet communications board.” “I never went to Escrow.” “Ah, leave it to Master to bypass standard procedure.” Matt was still wondering about Willie’s words. “What do you mean sold? Is Tim going to sell me?” Willie shook his head and started walking again. “Big newbie mistake. He is Master. You need to forget masters have a first name.” Matt grabbed Willie’s shoulder to stop him and turned him to face him. “Is he talking about selling me? He just bought me!” Willie sighed, he didn’t want to be the one to tell Matt, but someone had to. “Master rarely keeps a body-slave over two years. The last one he barely had a year. He’s not going to sell you for a while yet, relax and enjoy your time here.” Matt suddenly turned away and strode swiftly toward the running path Willie had pointed out to him. He started running, distancing himself from Willie, from the house, from Tim. When the path curved back toward the house, he left it and walked toward some woods, needing time and space to think. Tim was going to sell him. Fuck him for a year or two and then sell him to someone else to fuck. He wasn’t supposed to be a body-slave, but Tim had forced it on him just so he could play with him for a little while and then dump him. Now it was on his records, his provenance. Anyone could buy him and use him as a body-slave. Anyone. And he knew what some of those ‘anyones’ were like. He had travelled quite a distance when he felt a shock in his neck and jumped backward. He reached up to the collar expecting some kind of after pain, like with the electric prod they used in Commerce, but there was none. He stepped forward again, felt it, and stepped back. He realized it wasn’t a shock, it was just a vibration. There was no intent to hurt, just warn that he has reached the boundary. He started walking parallel with the line and kept turning into it to map out the perimeter. He felt like he was in a cage, a big cage, but still a cage. He had gone to an animal safari when he was young and remembered how the animals were confined in large areas so that they thought they were free. But in reality, they were no freer than he was now. His hand reached up to the collar and fingered it, again, trying to find the seam. Sometimes if he ran his fingernail against the surface, he could feel the barest of a crack, one on each side. The lock and the hinge, he assumed, but not big enough to even stick a needle inside. He felt it, his collar, his leash, his cage and suddenly he needed to get it off. He grabbed it with both hands and pulled as hard as he could, when that didn’t work, he jerked it hard several times until he realized the only thing he was hurting was his own neck, and slumped to his knees defeated and sat in the grass under a tree. ************* The alarm on Tim’s computer sounded. He brought up Matt’s collar program, as he was the only one with that program right now, and saw that Matt had wandered to the edge of his range. He watched as the tracker moved a few feet and then set off the alarm, and then repeated the procedure over and over. He sighed; Matt was testing his radius. As he called down to the stables, he wondered what Matt was doing that far away. He didn’t like Matt being out there alone, it wasn’t safe, he could get injured. James answered the phone. “Yes Master?” “My body-slave has wandered down to the southeast perimeter; send Alex out there on the ATV to retrieve him before he hurts himself.” “Why would he wander way out there?” Tim rubbed his temples, he wished he knew. “Just get him and bring him back to my office.” “Yes, Master.” ********************* When Matt first heard the sound of the engine, he considered running and hiding. He laughed at himself at the audacity of the idea. He had the fucking collar. The great new fucking proto-type collar. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. He sat and waited as the sound drew closer. ************** Tim was relieved when he saw Matt come through the door, apparently unharmed, and came and knelt beside him on his pad. He reached out to touch his head, to run his fingers through his hair to verify he was alright. He felt the sweat. “You’ve been exercising. Good.” Matt stiffened as soon as he felt Tim’s touch. Tim felt the stiffening and again chastised himself for losing control that morning. “Matt, why don’t you go take a nice hot shower and put on some clean clothes.” Matt started to get up, and Tim tightened his fingers in his hair, even if he felt bad, he would not accept bad conduct from his slaves. “I expect a verbal response, Matt.” Matt briefly wondered if Tim considered ‘Fuck you’ a proper verbal response, but quelled the impulse and bowed his head, trying to make sure his voice sounded steady. “Yes, sir.” Tim released his grip and rubbed Matt’s head again, letting his eyes travel to see that perfect, unblemished… “Matt, what happened to your neck?” He rubbed his fingers across the bruising and then moved the collar out of his way to see the extent of the damage. There was a perfect crescent bruise, the shape of his collar. “Matt…?” Tim grabbed Matt’s chin and made him face him. “Did someone hurt you?” He watched Matt’s eyes and knew that’s not what happened. “You tried to remove my collar?” The idea was imperceptible to Tim. The collar was to keep Matt safe, to protect him, and to prove to all that he belonged to him. That Matt would try to remove that was beyond his comprehension. He had to quell the fury in him that wanted to grab his crop and punish Matt for damaging his property, for rejecting his ownership. “Go. Get. A shower. Now.” Matt felt Tim’s wrath and could barely squeak out the words. “Yes, sir.” And left quickly to follow his orders. At dinner that evening, Tim noticed Matt remained stiff and his face blank as he almost flawlessly performed his duties. Often, when Matt wasn’t needed to serve him, he would push his head forward so he could run his thumb along his bruised neck and thought about the implications. Matt wasn’t happy there, maybe he had made a mistake in buying him. He wondered if he should look around for a home Matt would be happier in, maybe drop the body-slave from his records. He thought about that, yes he would have to have that removed, he couldn’t stand the idea of someone else having Matt when he couldn’t. He thought maybe at the gala he would put in a couple of queries to try to find a good home for Matt, one that would use him for his talents. Matt did his best to take care of Tim, to make sure he had every dish he wanted before he asked, made sure his glass never emptied. He didn’t want to be used and dumped, but neither did he want to be sold to another stranger who might be even worse. He tried to keep his thoughts and feelings hidden as he kept his face blank. The problem was, Tim kept running his thumb across his neck, causing shivers to run up and down his spine. He had to maintain a stiff pose to prevent himself from slowly melting at the touch. Matt crawled in bed that night with trepidation; his body was beginning to betray him, to want Tim in spite of his reservations. He remembered how Tim looked in the shower that morning, and his cock started to rise. But when the door opened, it wasn’t Tim that came into the room, it was Eva. She crossed the floor and climbed into bed with him. “Master said to remind you about last time and what your orders are.” Matt couldn’t believe how disappointed he was that Tim wasn’t coming to bed with him. He wanted Tim next to him; he wanted his warm body holding him, keeping him safe. He sighed. He didn’t want to disappoint Tim again. “What position do you and your mistress usually sleep in?” “We spoon up to each other. She holds me.” “Okay, roll over.” Eva did and he spooned up to her. He felt her tense as he did. “Don’t worry, you’re safe.” He said soothingly as he put his arm around her.   ***** 10 Know when to hold ‘em ***** 10 Know when to hold ‘em When Tim entered his chambers the next morning, he saw the two body-slaves curled up to each other, sleeping peacefully. He didn’t want to disturb them just yet, so he carefully sat down on the edge of the bed and very lightly ran his fingers through Matt’s hair, admiring the peaceful beauty of his face as he slept. He then reached to Eva and stroked her hair, he was ready as her eyes flew open and she tried to get up to kneel at his feet. “Master!” He held her in place. “Shh, Eva. Relax, it’s okay.” He continued stroking her hair, relaxing her. “I need you to take extra special care of your mistress today. I might have gotten a little over-zealous last night, and, well, you know how it is. She’s going to need all of your attention today. Can you do that for me, Eva?” “Yes, Master.” “Good girl. Now go.” He released her and she scurried off the bed to go and take care of her sore, worn out mistress. After she left, Tim turned to Matt and noticed he was awake, watching the interaction. “You did well, Matt.” Matt was torn between screaming that he was not a little kid that needed praise like Eva did, and feeling pride with Tim’s approval. Tim reached out and patted Matt’s hip. “Come on, Matt, get up. You’ve got to go shopping today.” Matt moved to sit up, hoping it wasn’t obvious that he was trying to avoid Tim’s touch before it affected his previously flaccid penis. “Shopping?” Tim removed his hand, again chastising himself for making the slave afraid of him. “Yes. All you have right now is casual attire, you need nicer clothes for social events, and we have the Carroll affair coming up. Sharif will take you shopping today.” That got Matt’s mood up, shopping and out of the house! “Sharif picks out what I wear?” Tim smiled at the slave. “Only if you prove to have bad taste. No, I want you to choose what you’re comfortable in, and Sharif will approve or disapprove. He knows what is acceptable.” Tim stood up. “Get ready and get down to the office.” He turned and left. Matt waited a minute, and then got out of bed and made it. He quickly straightened up the room and then headed for the shower. During his shower he realized he was a little jumpy, and then recognized it was because he was worried, or was he hoping, Tim would burst in on him. ************************ Matt and Sharif left in the late morning to go shopping. Sharif lead the way to a silver Taurus parked in the garage and they climbed into it. Matt was hoping they didn’t go discount shopping; he was praying they would at least go to a decent quality department store and was pleasantly surprised when they ended up in some of the most expensive shops in town. Once inside, Matt headed straight for suits and Sharif stopped him. “No, Matt, nice slacks and an open collared shirt.” “Why? I’ve seen body-slaves in nice suits.” “Not our Master’s slaves. He doesn’t like the tight slave collars it takes to show above a closed-collared shirt. He wants our collars comfortable, so we wear open-collared shirts to let them show.” Matt looked at Sharif. “Our Master? You’re a slave?” “Of course, what did you think I was?” “You’re not wearing a collar.” “Sure I am.” He showed the fine chain that Matt thought was a necklace. Matt was immediately jealous. “Why can’t I wear one like that? He’s got this ugly black ring on me.” “I don’t have the GPS system in mine, just the standard ID microchip. My phone has GPS. Master doesn’t want me to look slavey so I can do my job better. And that ‘ring’ you have on, Master will want to show off at the gala. It’s his newest proto-type and he wants to make a good impression. Now, let’s find you something to wear. Master wants you to look good.” Matt was perturbed; not only did Sharif not have to wear an obvious collar, but Tim treated him different, like he was free. Hell, Sharif even called Tim ‘Boss’ instead of ‘sir’ or ‘master’. But he was here to shop, something he loved to do, and he let himself enjoy the moment. He concentrated on shirts that would stand alone. He found a shiny blue satiny silk shirt that he knew that particular shade of blue would set off his eyes and it also hugged his body, showing it off. Sharif nodded his approval. Sharif let him pick out about six different shirts in various colors, and then he went to check out pants. He found some black stretch slacks that would snug up to his hips and still allow him to kneel comfortably. Again, Sharif approved and let him pick out several different pairs. When he went to ties, Sharif halted him. “I’m picking out a tie for Tim. As a body-slave, I’m supposed to accent him. If he wears a tie that matches my shirt, it shows I’m with him.” And he showed a Sharif a blue silk tie the exact same color as the shirt. “You do not call him by his given name.” Sharif corrected him, and then continued. “Master doesn’t usually wear bright colors.” Matt sighed. “Well, it’s not that expensive. Can’t I at least try?” “For whom?” Matt gave in and added his puppy dog look. “For Mister DeKay. Please…?” Sharif shook his head at Matt’s mixed acceptance and denial of his situation, but he did have such a way of pleading his case. “Fine, but don’t come crying to me when he refuses to wear it.” Sharif tried not to laugh at the brilliant but childlike smile that Matt flashed at him. Since they had shopped through lunch, Sharif took them to a restaurant after they stowed Matt’s purchases in the car. Time and shopping and the feeling of almost being normal again had given Matt time to adjust his perspective of Sharif’s situation, and now he was ready to ask questions over their meal. “So, if you’re a slave, how do you own a car and a credit card?” “I don’t. They belong to Master.” “What do I have to do to be allowed to use them?” Sharif laughed. “Our jobs are different. Some body-slaves are allowed, but rarely Master DeKay’s. He likes to keep you guys close.” “What is your job? Why can’t I have a job like yours?” Matt asked as he took another mouthful. “I’m an Agent. I am in charge of household finances, and also a kind of a liaison between Master and his holdings. He has several companies under his control and I am his personal contact with them.” “I could do that.” Sharif laughed. “You were an artist and a thief. I don’t think that qualifies you.”  Matt flashed his most charming smile. “But I was a con, too. I know how to work with people.” The burst of laughter out of Sharif made several patrons turn their head. “That might help. But sorry, the job’s taken. It’s not like I can quit and find another position. Besides, Master wants you for a body-slave, and that’s what you are.” Matt slumped in his seat. “Yeah, a fuck-toy.” Sharif frowned. “It’s my belief that Master hasn’t been able to play with his toy yet.” Matt’s red face confirmed Sharif’s belief. Sharif had an urge to confront him about it, but knew this was not the time and place. Matt was too new a slave and a public outburst could be devastating. He knew Matt was totally unaware of all the times he had to unobtrusively step between Matt and some free man intent on copping a feel from the handsome slave. Not that Sharif could have confronted a free man outright, but his unobtrusive collar and his bearing led the unaware to think he was free and Matt was his property. After they ate and got in the car to head back to Tim’s, Matt realized he wasn’t ready to go back, he started cajoling Sharif to just drive for a while, see the sights. He was on the verge of pleading when Sharif called Tim and asked if it was okay and explained that it would be a good way to check the collar’s accuracy around the city. Tim agreed and Sharif drove. Matt was torn between being happy he got his way, and pissed it was just because he was part of their collar experiment. Sharif hung up the phone. “Any particular place you want to go?” Matt thought a couple of minutes; no, there was no place he could go that he was known. Not now that he was a fucking slave. That particular mix of words made him laugh at himself; he was a non-fucking fucking-slave. Sharif glanced over at him. “What’s so funny?” Matt straightened up quickly. “Nothing. Just drive, I haven’t seen the city in a while.” They drove a while before Sharif spoke up, “Matt, I know what you’re going through. But you need to understand that this is your life now. Your fighting it only makes it harder on everyone involved and will change nothing.” Matt flashed angry eyes at Sharif. “How the fuck do you know what I’m going through?” Sharif pulled around a parked car and continued, “Because I’ve only been a slave about five years myself.” Matt looked at Sharif. “But you don’t act like a slave.” Sharif chortled. “I had to learn how to act like one before I was allowed to act like I do now. Master had to make sure I knew how to behave correctly in public if and when it was needed. You have to understand, Master and I knew each other before I was enslaved, it’s different.” “Then why didn’t he help you? Why did he let you get enslaved? So he could own you?” Memories of Ian flashed through Matt’s head. Sharif was trying to remain calm. “I didn’t ask Master for help, he didn’t even know there were any problems. I said we knew each other, I never said we were friends. As soon as he found out, he made arrangements to buy me.” Matt looked out the passenger window. “Why did he buy you?” “Because he needed a good Agent and one he could trust. He knew me. He knew what I was capable of. And he knew he could trust me.” “So, you were never a body-slave.” “No.” “Then how the fuck do you know what I’m going through?” “Matt…” “Don’t Matt me. You were never a fuck-toy. I wasn’t supposed to be one!” Sharif gave a deep sigh and drove for a few minutes, trying to let Matt calm down. “Matt, you’re a slave now. You are whatever your master wants you to be. Master is a good man; you could have done so much worse and never have been a body-slave.” He saw Matt start to retort and held up his hand to shut Matt up so he could continue. “When I was in Commerce, I was scared to death. I know a lot of slave owners out there and how they treat their slaves. When I found out Master DeKay was going to buy me, I didn’t care why or what for, if he had bought me as a body-slave, I would have been grateful and spread my legs and my lips to thank him. I’m lucky. I have to admit I’m damn lucky, and I’ll serve Master any way he wants me to, as long as he will allow me to.” The fervency of Sharif’s little speech shut Matt up. Sharif drove for a while longer, and then spoke again. “Matt, your best bet is to forget the life you had. Forget who you were. Accept that you are a slave now and you belong to Master DeKay.” Matt slumped down in his seat. “Easy for you to say; you’re not going to be sold in a year or two because he gets tired of fucking you and wants a new toy.” Sharif tried to figure out how to address that one; he knew Tim’s fickleness with body-slaves. “You do have other talents he might be able to use. Prove that you can help with the knowledge you have. Maybe, just maybe, he might keep you around to possibly help Mistress Thomason or something. It’s worth a shot and what do you have to lose?” My sanity.“There’s nothing left to lose.” They continued the ride in silence and Sharif decided it was time to go home. ****************  Once at the house, Matt was instructed to take his clothes upstairs to the room and do whatever he needed do to make sure the new clothes were ready for use. When Tim went to collect him for dinner, he found Matt in the back of the huge walk-in closet with the iron and ironing board kept there for last minute detailing. Matt looked up and saw Tim, hesitated only few seconds, and then, much to Tim’s surprise, set the iron in the safety holder and knelt. The bedroom chambers have thus far been Matt’s most defiant place for proper obedience. Tim couldn’t resist the urge to walk up to Matt and rub his head. “Sharif said you were well behaved out in public today.” Matt resisted the urge to bark. Tim noticed Matt didn’t flinch, but neither did he lean into the touch, and he stepped back. “You may resume whatever you were doing.” Matt gracefully glided up from his knees and went back to work ironing one of his new shirts. “As soon as you finish that, it’s time to go eat.” Tim instructed Matt and Matt nodded acknowledgement. Tim continued as Matt worked. “Tomorrow is the gala. I expect you to be on your best behavior, Matt. Don’t embarrass me in public. I know you know what to do, how to behave, but don’t forget, Matt, this is not a game. In the past, you’ve played games. This is for real, please don’t forget that.” He watched as Matt’s body tensed up, and then willed itself to relax. “Do you understand me, Matt?” Matt started to nod, and corrected himself. “Yes, sir.” “Good, now finish up, I’m starved.” At dinner, Tiffani and Tim spent most of the meal talking about tomorrow’s gala at the Lady Diahann Carroll’s estate. It was her yearly birthday celebration and considered one of the east coast’s premier social events. Tim kept a close eye on Matt’s performance. Matt knew the proper procedures for a body-slave at a social event, but each master had his own idiosyncrasies, and Tim tried to make sure Matt was familiar with his. Tiffani saw his nervousness. “Tim, honey, relax, he is doing an excellent job. Everyone knows you’ve owned him less than two weeks and he can’t be expected to be perfect.” She looked at Matt. “You’ll do your best and do nothing to embarrass your master, won’t you Matt?” Matt glanced at her, she rarely addressed him. “Yes, ma’am.” He noticed Eva’s quick disapproving glance at having used the word ‘ma’am’ instead of the title ‘mistress’. Tiffani turned back to Tim. “See, Hon, he’s going to be a good boy.” Matt chocked back the urge to bark. He swore Tim could feel his reaction as the fingers in his hair quit petting and gripped for just a moment in warning. Tim was nervous. He had queried Sharif about their trip today and, although he got a good report about Matt’s actions, Sharif was not forthcoming about their discussions. It was unlike Sharif to hold back on him, and he was a little worried as to what they had talked about and if Matt had revealed something to Sharif that made him hold back. That night when Tim crawled into bed and spooned up to Matt, he couldn’t help but ask one more time, “You are going to be a good boy tomorrow, aren’t you?” It came out before Matt could stop himself. “Woof.” The slap on his hip came quicker and harder than he expected. “Oww!” The hand still rested where it had struck as a warning. “What was your answer, Matt?” “Yeah.” Matt felt the hand start to move. “Yes, sir. I meant ‘yes, sir’.” Tim gave a quick rub where he had smacked him. “That’s better.” Then put his arm around Matt to go to sleep.  **************** “Matt, wake up.” Matt woke and saw Tim pulling on an old faded pair of blue jeans. “I’m going for a long ride. I hate these social events and a ride beforehand always calms me down so I can handle the bullshit better. I usually take my body-slave with me, but, well, you know that’s not going to work this time.” He grabbed a navy blue cotton shirt and started putting it on. “I want you to make sure whatever we’re wearing today is ready, take a walk, read, do whatever it takes for you to relax. But do make sure our clothes are ready.” Matt had sat up as Tim talked. “You want me to pick out your outfit?” “Yes, that’s your job.” Tim paused. “Shit, damn it, I forgot you’re not trained for that. Get Eva or Sharif to help you decide.” “I do think I’m capable.” Tim looked up at Matt and considered Matt’s background. “Okay, pick out what you think is appropriate, and ask Sharif to verify.” Tim smiled at Matt’s frown. “If I do remember right, Neal Caffrey had a peculiar taste in clothes. I don’t want to look like a cartoon.” “It was classic rat pack, and it wouldn’t look right on you. You don’t have the right look for it.” Tim glanced back on his way out the door. “I’m not sure if I should take that as a compliment or an insult.” And then left. Matt sat in bed for some time. He had all morning to himself, which was something new for him. He used the time to consider Sharif’s words, Tim, his new life and all it implied. Maybe he was going about this all wrong, Sharif was right, he had no choice in the matter, so why make it worse than it was. But then there was the gala this afternoon and evening, and he was worried about that. There were bound to be people that recognized him, his dad’s old customers. Heck, Lady Carroll had been one of them and he had visited her mansion a few times… as a free man.  It’d been almost a decade since he had been around his dad’s customers, but he wasn’t sure how he would take it if they remembered him, not only as his dad’s son, but the son of a felon. Heck, they’d probably think he had deserved to be enslaved. He guessed, technically he did. He got up and followed Tim’s orders. Once he picked out a nice expensively cut light grey suit that would really accent the tie he had purchased he sought out Sharif for approval. Sharif informed him which tie Tim preferred to wear with the suit and informed him to have that one ready also. “Yes, sir!” Matt responded sarcastically, which earned him a dirty look from Sharif. “Matt, you know how important this event is to Master. You need to decide right now how you are going to handle yourself. If you mess up, if you embarrass Master today, you might force his hand in selling you right away. And then you will have a blemish on your record, making the good houses avoid you.” He paused, “You like to gamble right? Do you want to take a chance on drawing a flush, or maybe four aces, or possibly a dead man’s hand? Or do you think maybe it’s time to fold them? You’ve been dealt your cards, throw them away and draw more or fold, Matt. Make up your mind before you go to the gala.” The two men locked eyes for a couple of minutes before Matt looked down and around the room, thinking. He looked back at Sharif. “I don’t think it’s time to fold ‘em, but maybe I should just play the hand I’ve been dealt.” Matt didn’t know Sharif had that bright of a smile. “Good call, Matt. If you have any questions, if you need any help, you can come to me. I’ll do what I can.” Matt nodded. “Thanks Sharif.” And left to put the suit away and go for a walk in the gardens. Matt wasn’t out there long before Willie caught up to him. “Hey, Matt. I’m sorry about the other day; I just thought you should know. You still mad at me?” Matt grinned; there was something about the little guy that made him easy to be with. “I wasn’t mad at you Willie, just your news. Don’t shot the messenger, right?” Willie smiled back. “Well, it would be nice if you didn’t. Hey, why don’t you walk with me to the hedges, I was just heading that way to trim them a little bit.” “Sure.” He walked with Willie and watched as the man continually checked his plants. “So, how long have you been with Ti… Mister DeKay?” Willie smiled at Matt’s self-correction. “About fourteen years. And I hope for fourteen more.” Then he remembered what he had told Matt. “Sorry.” “No, it’s okay. You said nothing wrong. And besides, I plan on being here longer than you think.” Willie didn’t want to burst the kid’s bubble. “Oh, yeah? How you gonna manage that?” Willie doesn’t think he ever saw such a charming grin on a man’s face. “I got my ways.” Willie laughed. “With that smile, you might just buy you some time.” They had reached the hedge and Willie started trimming them. Matt wasn’t sure what he was cutting off, they already looked perfect. But then he figured that was why Willie was the grounds keeper and he was… was what he was. They fell into a comfortable conversation, as Willie gave a little, but not harmful, information about the other slaves on the estate. By the time Matt got back, he discovered Tim was in his office and went in to kneel beside him. He could tell Tim was in a good mood after his ride, even though he smelled like horse. Tim reached out to stroke Matt’s hair and Sharif watched him smile when Matt didn’t flinch or stiffen. “Did you enjoy yourself, Matt?” “Yes, sir.”  Tim noticed there was no hesitation, and wondered what brought that on as he glanced up at Sharif. Sharif just shrugged as he smiled at him. Tim shook his head, he often wondered what his slaves got up to in his absence, but as he ran his fingers through Matt’s hair and felt Matt almost imperceptibly lean into his caress, he decided whatever it was, it was good. “Matt, you’re going to be doing enough kneeling once we get to the gala, and I don’t want you sore before we even start. So why don’t you go relax and read a book or something until it’s time to get ready?” “Yes, sir.” And Matt rose to leave. “Before you get too comfortable, would you check in on Tiffani and Eva and see if they need any help?” Matt gave a slight bow of the head. “Yes, sir.” And left the room. After Matt had left, Tim turned toward Sharif. “What did you do to my body- slave, and where are you hiding him?” Sharif burst out laughing at the old joke. “We just had a little talk, Boss. He needed some guidance.” Tim looked back at the door Matt had disappeared through. “Thank you.”   ***** 11 The Gala ***** 11 The Gala Matt was reading a book when Tim entered his chambers to start getting ready. Matt set the book down, and dropped to his knees. Tim didn’t really like the formality in his chambers, but first a slave had to know the rules before he can tell them which ones they can relax on. “Have you showered yet?” “Yes, sir.” “Good, I’m going to grab mine now. Relax.” Matt rose back up and wondered if he was allowed to sit on the chair when Tim was in the room, but he still wasn’t ready to ask for permission to sit. He watched as Tim disappeared into the shower before he sat back down. He waited until he heard the shower running, and then sighed and did what he knew he was supposed to do. Tim was surprised when he stepped out of the shower and a fresh warmed towel was sitting there ready for him. As he dried off, he noticed fresh undergarments had also been laid out for him and his soiled clothes removed; he smiled. He really preferred to wait until he got into the bedroom to dress, but Matt was trying. He was really trying, and that pleased him. Matt rose again when he entered the bedroom, he wasn’t sure if he should kneel again because technically Tim hadn’t left the chambers. “Would you like me to blow-dry and style your hair for you, sir? I assure you, I do know how.” Tim hesitated and realized he missed the ornery Matt. This new Matt was acting like all the other body-slaves he’d had. But he had to remind himself this is what he was aiming for, and the gala was today. Today he needed this Matt. “Yes I would like that.” And went to sit in the chair Matt indicated. Tim was glad he’d brought the towel out with him, because as soon as Matt touched his head, he started reacting. He casually placed the towel on his lap to hide his arousal as he closed his eyes to enjoy Matt’s touch. After Matt used the blow dryer, he gave him a scalp massage that he was about ready to tell Matt to cease and desist on before he lost his resolve, when Matt stopped on his own, and started styling his hair. Once finished, Matt handed him a mirror. “Is that acceptable, sir?” Tim looked in the mirror and, although his hair was not hard to style, not a hair was out of place. “Yes, Matt. Thank you. Guess it’s time to get dressed?” Tim wasn’t sure how he was going to get up and get dressed until he had some softening time. Matt had noticed Tim’s dilemma, hell he had a minor one of his own, so he replied, “Just sit and relax a minute while I get you clothes together.” He disappeared into the dressing room/closet to give them both room to calm themselves. Matt wondered if he should change first or bring Tim his clothes first. He had never ‘played’ this part of being a body-slave. Finally he decided to get Tim ready first, just in case he had to kneel for some reason; he didn’t want mess up his pants before they even left the house. He got Tim’s clothes and returned to the bedroom with them, hanging the jacket and shirt on the hooks provided there, and held out the pants. “Umm… am I supposed to help you get dressed?” Tim laughed. “No, I’m perfectly capable of dressing myself. Go ahead and get yourself ready.” Matt stepped back into the dressing room to put on his clothes. Just about the time he finished, he heard Tim call for him. “Matt, get me my navy blue tie with the maroon designs on it.” Tim turned to Matt as he heard him coming to verify he had the right tie and caught his breath. Matt looked stunning in the blue silk shirt and black slacks, both of which hugged his body, accenting every line. When Matt looked up into Tim’s face, Tim saw the shirt enhanced the vivid blue of his eyes. He held his breath as Matt walked up to put the tie on him. He caught a faint glimpse of the tie and tried to respond. “Th… that’s not the right one.” “This one’s even better. Your other tie is good for board meetings and such, but this one is perfect for birthday galas.” Matt said as he reached up to put the tie around Tim’s neck and started tying it. “Trust me. This one is perfect.” Tim was too busy controlling the urge to grab Matt and cover his mouth with his own to argue about a tie. When Matt finished, he nudged Tim to turn toward the wall mirror. “See, you look good.” Matt made sure he stood just to the side and back of Tim so Tim couldn’t miss the way they accented each other. Tim swallowed as he fought to regain control. “Yes. Yes, that looks quite good, Matt. We need to go. Are you ready?” “Yes, sir.” Tim hurried out the door and downstairs to avoid ravishing his slave. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long for Tiffani and Eva to make their appearance, and Tiffani in her elegant black evening dress that enhanced her every curve distracted Tim from his body-slave for the time being. ****************** Once they arrived at the gala, which at that time the festivities were still located in the huge central courtyard, Tiffani rushed off with Eva to join some of her fellow activists that she had noticed, and left Tim and Matt alone. Tim leaned into Matt’s ear. “Stay with me at all times, unless I tell you otherwise. Understood?” Matt nodded. He was too nervous to wander around anyway, it was crowded. As Neal, he had to attend some fancy functions for the con, but he didn’t really like them. He liked a quieter, more laid back atmosphere. He stuck close behind Tim as Tim glided through the crowd, talking and socializing as he went. Tim had snagged a glass of wine off of a passing server tray, handed it to Matt and informed him that one of Matt’s jobs was to hold his wine for him and to make sure that glass never ran empty. Again he leaned into Matt’s ear. “Remember, that’s not for you to drink.” The first time Tim got in a serious conversation about his new collar proto- type and pulled Matt forward to show it off, Tim had kept a firm grip on his shoulder, even as rubbed his thumb across Matt’s collarbone to try to relax him. When Tim told Matt to go up the stairway to the balcony, cross to the other side and back down so potential customers could see how the collar tracked on Tim’s phone, Tim felt Matt stiffen. He leaned close to Matt’s ear. “I swear if you bark, I will beat you to within an inch of your life.” Matt quickly sucked back the bark that begged to escape from his lips and took off to follow the course he was instructed to take. While he was traversing across the upper balcony, he thought he recognized.… He rushed back down to Tim and stood as close as he was allowed. Tim felt Matt’s shaking. “Are you alright? Did something happen?” Matt gave a smile Tim knew was false. “Nothing happened, I’m fine.” Tim’s glare made Matt finish his statement. “Sir.” Matt didn’t know how many times he heard, “Tim, I see you’ve got a new body- slave! He is cute, isn’t he?” Or other similar remarks that made Matt want to crawl in a hole and disappear. Every once in a while, one of the admirers would reach to lift Matt’s face and turn it side to side to admire his features and Tim had to squeeze Matt’s arm to remind him to allow polite inspections. Several of them Matt recognized as his dad’s old cronies or customers, but none of them seemed to recognize Matt, for which he was eternally grateful. A couple of them even remarked to Tim that when he got tired of this one, let them know. They wouldn’t mind taking him out for a ‘test drive’. Tim felt the tension in Matt when these remarks were made and wondered why. Did Matt really want to stay, or did he just not want to be passed around? He tried to reassure the slave that he was nowhere near ‘tired’ of him yet but that didn’t seem to help calm him down. Eventually, they ran into the hostess, Lady Carroll and her body-slave, who Matt noticed, like many other body-slaves was dressed in a nice suit. Matt focused on the high, tight collar to help contain his jealousy.  Since Lady Carroll and Tim only had a working relationship and really didn’t know each other personally, it should have been a brief exchange of greetings and congratulations, but even at her age, she still appreciated an attractive body- slave when she saw one. “Nice, Tim. This is one of your better buys, if I do say so myself.” She stated as she reached out to lift Matt’s chin and admire his facial structure. “Why thank you, Lady Carroll, I am rather pleased with him myself.” Tim politely responded. Both Tim and Matt noticed Lady Carroll’s sudden questioning look as she turned Matt’s face and studied it in more depth. “Why you look like…” She hesitated. “Are you Staton’s son?” Matt jerked his chin out of Diahann’s hand. Tim, ever alert to his jumpy slave’s actions, felt Matt’s need to run and immediately pushed on his shoulder with the ‘kneel’ prompt. The training paid off as Matt instantly dropped to his knees and Tim held him there with a firm grip on his shoulder. Tim abashedly looked at Diahann. “I apologize Lady Carroll for my slave’s inappropriate reaction. He shall be disciplined, you can be assured.” Diahann reached out and ran her hand through Matt’s hair affectionately. “Newly enslaved, isn’t he?” “Yes, ma’am, but that is no excuse…” “Nonsense, Tim, he’s just scared right now, aren’t you sweetie?” She continued playing with his hair as she looked back at Tim. “He is Staton’s son then, isn’t he?” “Yes, ma’am.” “However did you manage to score him? Do you realize how much talent this boy has?” She looked back down at the slave affectionately. “I knew this boy’s grandfather and he was an absolute genius when it came to art. He was bound to follow in his grandfather footsteps. Too bad his father spoiled that for him. His father didn’t have half the talent his grandfather did.” She looked back up at Tim and crooked her pointing finger in a ‘come hither’ gesture. “Follow me, please.” Tim didn’t have much choice, when Lady Carroll requested your presence, you went. He prompted Matt to get up, but held on to his arm as an assurance as they followed the Lady and her body-slave into the mansion. They wove their way through the house and entered a room. Tim felt Matt catch his breath when he saw it. “Recognize it ahh…?” She turned to Tim. “I apologize but I don’t remember the young man’s name.” “Matt.” Tim answered somewhat confused because he knew he had never given her the name for her to remember. She turned back to Matt, who Tim had placed on a kneel as a precautionary measure. “Do you recognize it, Matt?” Tim squeezed Matt’s shoulder to indicate that he needed to answer. “Y… yes Ma’am.” “Is it how you had envisioned it?” Matt looked around, fully taking in the room and sighed. “Yes, Ma’am.” She walked back up to Matt and again started running her fingers through his hair as she addressed Tim. “This boy designed this room by just standing here and envisioning it. I have a particular fondness for the old impressionists and his imagination created the perfect room to display them. He was only about… How old were you, Matt?” Tim’s squeeze prompted a quick answer. “Seventeen I think, Ma’am.” “Seventeen, and already had more talent than his father.” She affectionately looked at Matt. “I know this is rude Tim, but would you consider selling him?” Tim shuffled slightly. “No, Lady Carroll, he’s not for sale at this time.” Diahann sighed, “When you do decide to sell him, would you give me a call? I promise I will match, or exceed anyone else’s offer.” Tim gave a slight bow. “Of course, My Lady, you will be the first to know. She gave one last affectionate pat on Matt’s shoulder. “Well, I must get back to my guests. It’s about time for dinner.” She faced Tim. “I hate to be rude and run off, but there are things I need to attend to. “She petted her body- slave, “Charles will show you the way back.” Tim gave a slight bow of his head, “Thank you, Lady Carroll.” She left and Tim turned to Matt, gesturing for him to rise. “Don’t let this go to your head.” ******************** By the time they got back to the crowd, most of them had already moved inside to the dinner tables and Tim searched for their assigned spot. He spotted Tiffani already seated and worked his way to her “Hi, Hon.” He bent down and kissed her cheek. “Having a good time?” She indicated for him to sit in the seat to her right. “Great, Hon! How about you? How many advanced orders on your new proto-type did you connive your friends into?” Tim looked at the chair confused; it would put Matt between Tim and Tiffani. Usually they put Eva there to ‘protect’ her. Tiffani patted his thigh. “This is Matt’s first time; I think it would be better for him.” Tim kissed her harder this time. “Thank you.” He sat down, and indicated Matt kneel on the pads between Tim and Tiffani. Matt glanced around the table quickly before he kneeled and again saw… He knelt quickly, trying to slow his heart. He couldn’t be him, he was imagining things. He kept his head bowed low. Tim looked around to his table companions. Lady Carroll always had a way of mingling interesting mixes at each table.  Most of the faces he knew by name, but the aloft looking gentleman almost straight across the table from him was a complete stranger, as were a few further away. The ringing of crystal caught everyone’s attention, and they all turned toward the head table for the opening speeches and congratulations… Matt did his best to keep his head down and still pay attention to Tim’s needs during the meal. The man was across the table and several seats to the side and they rarely caught sight of each other due to the people seated between them, so Matt started to relax. It’d been three years, even if it was the same man, he wouldn’t remember a particular slave, he’d probably seen a lot since Matt. Tim placed his hand on Matt’s shoulder and started running his thumb on Matt’s neck, sending shivers down Matt’s spine. Instead of stiffening, Matt remembered that he had wanted to impress Tim at the gala so Tim wouldn’t sell him, so he leaned into him. Tim kept up his conversation at the table as he ran his fingers through Matt’s hair, enjoying the feel of the slave relaxing into him. The next time Tim feed him a bite, Matt lingered just a second with his lips on Tim’s fingers. Tim knew that was his imagination, so he feed Matt another bite, and felt Matt give the slightest of sucks on his finger. Tim almost lost the train of the conversation as shivers ran down his spine. He waited a couple of minutes and then selected a juicy slice of meat and fed it to Matt. He fought hard to keep a straight face as Matt delicately took the meat, and then licked the juices from his fingers. He finished by taking each finger individually into his mouth to suck it clean. Tim grabbed his glass of wine to try to hide his reaction from his fellow diners. As the meal went on, whenever Tim got the nerve to try, he would feed Matt and Matt would respond with some of the most sensuous lip and tongue responses any of his body-slaves had ever given him. In between feedings, Matt would lay his head against his lap, oh so close, that it was all Tim could do to stop himself from whipping out his cock out right there and shove it in Matt’s face to lick and tease like he did Tim’s fingers. Tim eventually noticed the man across the table was showing an unusual interest in Matt’s actions. He had found out the man’s name was Andrew McCarthy and he owned several slaves. He seemed to be very interested in Tim’s new proto-type and was a potential new customer. But his study of Matt made Tim a little nervous. During desert, Andrew turned to a man toward the end of the table; one Tim had learned was named Ross McCall and who only had a few slaves, one of which was his beautiful body-slave, Alexandra. “Ross, isn’t that your friend’s old body- slave?” Ross leaned forward to get a look at Matt, who was currently taking a bite of sticky dessert from Tim’s fingers and working to clean up the mess, not paying attention to the table conversation. Ross smiled at the site of the body-slave. “Yes, that is Ian’s old body-slave. I wish I’d known he was for sale, I would have bought him in a heartbeat.” At the sound of Ian’s name, Matt’s head jerked up and saw Ross looking straight at him, he quickly bowed his head as low as he could. Tim noticed Matt’s reaction and the slave’s sudden uncontrollable shaking. He looked up to pay attention to the conversation. Andrew was speaking, “Yes, I wouldn’t mind owning him myself. He was an interesting experience. Low pain tolerance can be so enjoyable sometimes. Unlike Kirk here…” He grabbed his body-slave’s hair and shook his head. “…who has a high pain tolerance.” Tim noticed Andrew was looking straight at Matt as he spoke. Ross laughed. “Yes, and the way his body jerked as he screamed. So sweet.” Andrew turned to Tim. “Tell me Tim, has he learned he is truly a slave yet? He screamed some of the craziest things.” Matt suddenly recognized the man’s voice. He had been blindfolded at the time, and… Tim felt Matt jerk and shoved his face down to the floor, keeping firm pressure on his back. The last time Matt had been this upset, he had struck a free man, and that would not do here. Tim looked up and Andrew caught his eye again. “You wouldn’t consider selling him, would you?” Tim glared at the man. “He’s not for sale.” Andrew laughed. “Then how about a little fun and games? I sure wouldn’t mind having another go at him.” Ross smirked. “Just like old times.” Tim was trying hard to control his temper. “I don’t share.” Andrew’s smugly responded. “Sure you do, Tim. Every time you get bored with your body-slaves you pass them around like candy. Come on, what’s a little fun between friends?” Tim was trying to figure out how everything had gone so wrong so fast. One minute Matt was all but seducing him, and the next, he was on the verge of convulsions on the floor. These men had no sense of decorum in their conversation at the dinner table. He wanted nothing better than to stand up and teach them manners, but he didn’t dare let go of Matt. Tiffani came to the rescue. “Honey, Eva is sick. We need to get her home before she loses her supper.” Tim glanced over at Eva. Reliable Eva who more than once, on cue from her mistress, could turn several shades of green and everyone just wanted her gone before she tossed her cookies. “Yes, Hon. I’ll have Noah bring the car out front.” He took a deep breath and leaned low to address Matt personally. “Matt, we are leaving now. Same deal as before. Do you remember your orders?” Matt couldn’t speak, so he nodded his head ‘yes’. Andrew smirked as he reached across the table toward Tim. “Here’s my card. Give me a call when you’re ready to let him come out and play.” Tim glared as he took the card, partially out of politeness, and partially because he wanted to check on the background of this man. He got a firm grip on Matt’s arm and pulled him up, turning him away from the table as he rose. Matt kept his head down, and concentrated his existence on Tim’s hand guiding him away from the memory of terror. Tim didn’t relax until he had the four of them safely tucked away in the limo and headed toward the sanctuary of home. On the ride home, Matt again unhooked his seatbelt and dropped to Tim’s feet, head resting in Tim’s lap. He was shaking so bad, Tim didn’t have the heart to correct him and informed Noah to drive extra careful. Just like before, he rubbed Matt’s head until he started calming, but unlike before, he wouldn’t have to punish Matt when they got home. As they rode, Tim thought back to the conversation at the table and with Ian. He wondered if these men and Matt’s last experience with Ian were one and the same incident. Matt had been a free man back then, and treated… Treated worse than Tim thought a real slave should be treated. And these men obviously thought Matt had really been a slave back then. He had hoped by Matt’s actions during the meal that he would finally get to experience his body-slave, but he cast those thoughts aside. Matt needed to be cared for tonight, not used.   ***** 12 ‘Master’ ***** 12 ‘Master’ Matt didn’t fall asleep on the trip home this time. His mind was running a hundred miles an hour. He knew he needed to stay with Tim; he was relatively safe with him, at least for now. He knew what he had to do to stay, and had worked himself up into the mood earlier, but those men had destroyed it. He didn’t want to think about them, he didn’t want to remember the terror. He tried to recapture the mood by concentrating on Tim’s hand as it gently massaged his head. Matt remembered Sharif’s lecture. He had to accept the hand dealt him and he now knew Tim was his Ace card. He considered all the slave owners he had run into that evening and knew, somehow, he had gotten the best hand. Lady Carroll would have been nice, but Tim was more protective of him then she could ever be and let him get away with more than any other owner would have. Tim alone would allow him to say ‘no’. He knew it was time to say ‘yes’. When they got to the mansion, Tim turned to Matt and Eva, “You two, go to bed.” Matt hid his disappointment. He figured Tim staying up to talk to Tiffani only meant one thing; the married couple would sleep together that night. He went to the room and after taking a shower to try to wash away his discontent, he crawled into bed in his pajamas. ****************** After the slaves left, Tim went to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a shot of Johnnie Walker Blue. After taking a sip, he turned to Tiffani. “Hon, Lady Carroll wants to buy Neal. She would be good to him, and he can do what he is trained for with her.” She studied Tim for a few moments. “I thought we discussed this. I know you don’t want to lose him, why are you considering selling him again? Didn’t we both agree to give him a minimum of six months before considering anything else?” Tim considered his whiskey and then took another swallow. “No, I don’t want to sell him, but he’s so unhappy.” Tiffani walked up to Tim and put her arms around his neck. “He’s a new slave, Tim. Remember when you first bought Sharif? He knew you and was thankful you bought him, and yet he was still depressed for several months. Oh, he hid it well, but he was down for a while.” She gave him a kiss. “I’m going to bed, I’m exhausted. I suggest you do the same thing, and hold Matt tight and let him know you care.” Tim circled his free arm around her waist. “Too tired to play a little?” He asked teasingly as he kissed her neck. “Since when has it ever been just ‘a little’ with you?” She slapped him playfully. “I’m going to bed. I suggest a cold shower for you.” He gave her one last kiss goodnight and watched her head up the staircase. He finished his whiskey, considered a minute, and then poured another shot before putting the bottle away. ******************** Matt expected Eva to walk in when he heard the door open. He sat up in the bed, surprised when he saw Tim walk through the door. He watched as Tim crossed to the closet as he started taking his suit coat off. Matt hurried out of bed and reached for the coat. “Let me get that.” He took the jacket to hang it up. When he was done, he turned around, Tim had his tie off, and Matt removed that from his hands also and hung it up carefully. He then turned back to Tim again and stepped close to him and started unbuttoning his shirt. Tim hesitated, Matt was close, too close and he took a half step backwards. Matt followed him and unbuttoned another bottom, moving close enough so Tim could feel his breath on his neck. Tim took and deep breath… “Matt…?” Matt continued and Tim knew for certain now what Matt’s intentions were. He grabbed Matt’s wrists to stop him. “Are you sure?” Matt looked up at Tim. “Yes.” Tim’s eyes narrowed as he studied Matt. “Why?” That threw Matt off guard; he hadn’t expected to be questioned. He just figured once he said yes, Tim would take what was offered. “Because… because it’s my job, it’s what I’m supposed to do. It’s what you want from me.” Matt couldn’t believe Tim shook his head no. “That’s not good enough.” Matt licked his lips, trying to understand what Tim wanted. “I….” Matt tried to think “I don’t want you to sell me. I need to…” Tim pushed Matt away from him. “No, Matt. That’s not how I want you.” Matt never expected Tim to reject him and suddenly realized he wanted Tim, really wanted him. Not because he was rejected, but the need was there all along, he just didn’t see it. He stepped back up to Tim to try to unbutton his shirt and again Tim grabbed his wrists again, studying him with darkened eyes. “Why, Matt?” Matt sounded stronger this time. “Because I want you. Because I want you to claim me. Because I need you.” Matt saw the growing need in Tim’s eyes. “Matt, you have to be sure because in about two seconds I won’t be able to stop myself. Tell me Matt, are you sure?” Tim saw the pleading in Matt’s eyes as well as in his voice. “Please make me yours.  I need you to claim full ownership of me. I need you.” The sound emanating from Tim’s throat was half moan and half growl as he released Matt’s wrists and placed both hands, one on each side of Matt’s head, tilted it, and covered Matt’s mouth with his own. Matt was taken aback by the intensity of the kiss before he caught his bearings and tried to kiss back, but Tim’s tongue was already deep inside, exploring. Matt sucked on Tim’s tongue and felt the vibration of a moan as Tim moved closer to him, pressing his body against Matt’s. Matt’s heart started beating rapidly and he tried to control his fingers as he reached to finish unbuttoning Tim’s shirt. Tim released Matt’s mouth and started running his lips down Matt’s neck. He grabbed the bottom of Matt’s top and started frantically pulling upward. “Get this off.” He growled. Matt hurriedly pulled the top off before Tim tore it in his haste. Somehow he finished unbuttoning Tim’s shirt and started sliding it off his shoulders. Tim slowly crowded Matt back toward the bed as he placed one hand on the back of his neck keeping their lips together and shook off the shirt with the other. He exchanged hands and repeated the procedure, his shirt dropped to the floor. He grabbed the elastic band of Matt’s bottoms. “Get these off.” He moaned as he nibbled Matt’s earlobe. Matt grabbed the band and pushed his pajama bottoms down to his thighs just as the back of his legs hit the bed and Tim pushed him backward, pulling the bottoms off all the way as Matt fell back on the soft mattress. Matt scrambled backward, not sure if he was giving Tim room to follow, or because the intensity of Tim’s desire was almost frightening. Tim watched as a now naked Matt scooted back on the bed, admiring what he saw as he unbuckled his belt and dropped his own pants and drawers to the floor, the proof of his desire standing proudly out front. “God, you’re beautiful,” escaped his lips as he crawled toward Matt. He paused when he reached Matt, still on his knees, and ran his hand down Matt’s torso, admiring the perfect specimen spread out before him.  Matt could barely breathe as Tim seemed to tower over him, a symbol of strength and power. Suddenly, Tim dropped down half on, half off Matt and ravished his mouth again with his tongue before gently biting his bottom lip. He slung his leg over Matt’s thigh rubbing his burning manhood against the slave as Matt pushed his own member upward to rub against Tim’s thigh. The two men explored each other with their hands, Matt’s hesitant shy hands running down Tim’s back, and Tim’s stronger, surer hands exploring Matt’s front. He ran his fingers around Matt’s nipple, then took it between thumb and forefinger and gently rolled it. Matt moaned as his body twisted with the sensation. Tim raised his head to look into Matt’s eyes. “You are sensitive, aren’t you?” He asked as he moved his hand to the other nipple and did the same thing, enjoying the slave’s uncontrollable reaction to the stimulation. He grinned at Matt’s half glazed eyes as the slave nodded in affirmation. “I like that.” Tim hissed as he covered Matt’s nipple with his mouth, teasing Matt’s body to twist with the sensations flowing through it. Matt’s senses were flooded with Tim’s attentions to his body. He tried to hold still, tried to control his reactions, but Tim was like a furnace burning above him, his heat radiating over and through him. Every place Tim touched him felt like a fire scorching his nerve endings. It had been so long since he felt the passion, so long… After Matt thought he could take no more, Tim’s hand wandered down Matt’s belly, down his outer thigh and started back up running inside his thigh. Tim loved the whimpers he evoked out of Matt as he neared Matt’s manhood, teasing just a breath away from making contact, Matt’s hips trusting sporadically seeking his touch. He moved his hand downward, and between Matt’s legs, under his sack and rubbed his finger across Matt’s crack. When Matt spread his legs wider granting him access, he teased the entrance as he sensuously kissed Matt’s lips. “I’m going to take you on your back so I can watch your face as I enter you.” Tim whispered between Matt’s lips and cherished the mewling sounds emanating from Matt in response. Tim separated himself from Matt and rose up, enjoying the slave’s groans of disappointment at his departure, and grabbed a couple of pillows. “Rise up.” Matt lifted his hips so Tim could slid the pillows underneath, lifting him for easier access, then Tim reached for the dark oak nightstand drawer to retrieve the lube. He saw the mix of excitement and fear in Matt’s eyes. “Relax; I’m not going to hurt you.” Tim murmured as he lubed his fingers. He tried to calm Matt with one hand while he reached the lubed fingers back to the place he so longed to enter. As he ran his fingers around the opening, he had to use his free hand to hold Matt in place as he lurched at Tim’s touch. Tim slowly inserted one finger, surprised at how tight Matt was. “Been a while, hasn’t it?” He queried, not really expecting an answer. Matt responded before he even considered what he was saying. “About three years.” Tim stopped, surprised at Matt’s answer, but the writhing body beneath him begged for him to continue, so he slid in further, gently stretching the long unused channel for himself. As he did so, he thought of what that meant, three years dated him back to Ian. Ian, the only one Matt had ever truly given consent to. He had others through Ian, but Matt had been faithful to Ian even as he rejected him. He was only the second person in Matt’s life that Matt truly wanted. His sweet, gentle, beautiful Matt wanted him. Tim couldn’t believe that he felt honored to be wanted by his body-slave. He pulled his finger out, and reinserted with two fingers, twisting and scissoring to relax the tight muscles.  He watched Matt’s face as he readied him, Matt’s eyes were glued on his, unshielded desire mixed with trepidation as his body moved of its own accord pushing against Tim’s fingers for more even as his mouth contorted slightly at the pain. Tim inserted three fingers. When Tim had prepared Matt as far as he possibly could, he positioned himself between Matt’s legs and Matt spread them wider to give him admittance to his inner body. Tim bent over and to kiss Matt once last time running his tongue deep, searching, questioning. Matt sucked on his tongue begging Tim to enter his body anyway he chose. “Ready?” The voice was gruff with want and Matt nodded in response. Tim rose back up and guided his aching manhood to Matt’s entrance and started pushing in. It had been so long; Matt had almost forgotten the initial burn and tensed up at the intrusion. “Relax, Matt. You have to relax.” Tim coaxed as he ran a hand down Matt’s body slowly, comfortingly. Matt remembered to breath and willed himself to relax and allow what he wanted as bad as Tim did. Tim felt the muscles relaxing and slowly pushed in and kept pushing as Matt stretched and accepted him in until he was finally balls deep. He moaned with pleasure of the heat wrapped around his cock as he waited for Matt’s muscles to relax to accommodate all of him. Tim looked down at Matt, his body trembling in anticipation, his own manhood hard with desire. He slowly pulled out almost all the way and Matt pushed at him, willing him back inside. He brought a hand up to Matt’s nibbles teasing them; twisting them, and watched Matt’s body contort from his touch even as he tried to make him plunge back in. Unlike Tim’s other body-slaves, Matt had no control over his body’s reaction to him, and that was something else he could wrack up as special with Matt. He pulled all the way out of Matt and held his cock against the opening, teasing him, smiling as Matt’s eyes flew open and he whined with the loss. “What are you, Matt?” Matt’s eyes squinted in confusion even as his body thrust at Tim, demanding Tim re-enter him. Tim slipped the head of his cock in, but no more. Matt threw his legs around Tim’s back and tried to bring him inside with his legs. Tim bend down and kissed Matt’s lips and moved down to his neck, licking and nipping, he reached his earlobe and asked again, “Tell me Matt, what are you to me? I want to hear you say it.” He rose back up to look Matt in the eye. Matt was in turmoil, he wanted Tim in him and he wanted him now, and Tim was… It dawned on him what Tim wanted him to say and he swallowed. “I’m… I’m your slave….” Tim grinned. “No, Matt, you are more than that. Say it.” Matt knew he had to say the word he’s been fighting, avoiding, and... suddenly... it dawned on him; it’s what he wanted to be. “I’m your body-slave.” Tim pushed in all the way as he beamed down at Matt. “Yes, you are my body- slave.” He started thrusting in and out, slowly at first, then increasing speed as Matt pushed back at him. Tim watched as Matt’s hand slid toward his own rock hard cock dripping with pre-cum and then moved away. “Am… am I allowed to…?” He tried to ask. The surprise was evident in Tim’s voice as he stopped pummeling Matt’s ass. “You mean he trained you not to touch yourself without permission?” Matt nodded and Tim grinned with satisfaction. “Or climax without permission?” Matt nodded again. Tim leaned down and gave Matt a quick kiss before he started moving again. “You may touch yourself, but you do not have permission to cum yet.” Matt sighed with relief as he grabbed his own cock and started stroking it, trying to stay in time with Tim’s thrusts when his own body would let him. Both men were on the verge, they were ready but Matt needed permission. “Can I cum?” He begged. Tim thrust harder, knowing he was hitting Matt’s prostate with each thrust now, driving him toward release. “Ask me right.” He grunted as he grabbed the base of Matt’s cock, squeezing and preventing an orgasm. Matt was sweating, he needed relief and he needed it now. “Can I cum, sir?” Tim growled. “Ask me right, Matt and I’ll let you cum.” Matt groaned but gave in, “Please, Master, can I cum now? Please.” Tim released the base and stroked Matt himself, it only took a couple of times and Matt’s body went rigid as he shot cum over his own chest, Matt almost screaming at the intenseness of it. Tim only lasted a couple more thrusts himself as he felt Matt’s muscles tighten around him and watched Matt’s face contort with pleasure. He filled Matt with his essence. Tim all but collapsed on top of Matt as he latched onto Matt’s neck sucking hard as he finished pumping his seed into the slave. His slave. When both men caught their breath, Tim raised his head to look down at the face below him. “You are mine, Matt.” He ran a hand through Matt’s sweaty hair. “All mine. Consider yourself claimed, because you belong to me.” The angelic smile Matt gave in return caused a lump in Tim’s throat as Matt responded, “Yours.” *************** *************** This is the end of what I wrote years ago.  I do have some timestamps in my head, if there is and interest and I decide to try writing again.  One long one, would be the college+ years before Matt escaped to Europe. A PWP would be a horseback riding with Tim. Then there is a discussion of Tiffani’s radical ideas for slave reform and Tim’s counter-arguments. Or, we can just let it die with Matt accepting his lot in life…. Thank all of you who have read and/or commented and/or left kudos on this fic, and if you haven’t yet, read ‘A Kept Boy’ by poisontaster, then read it, she is awesome!!!!!   ***** The Art We Keep – Pictorial ***** Chapter Notes Just a pictorial to help readers visualize the characters. I know I like one, so figured others might like it too. I will update it as: #1 I figure out how #2 As new characters appear The Art We Keep – Pictorial First line and later, the second line is the real person, last line is who they are in my fic; nothing in real world is on last line. WC = White Collar, the USA series the majority of my characters are taken from. "Matt"- Matthew Staton Bomer (Neal Caffrey / White Collar) Eventual body-slave to Tim DeKay [Matt Bomer]  [Matt Bomer - shirtless]  [Matt Bomer - suit] Ian Joseph Somerhalder (Damon Salvatore / The Vampire Diaries) Matt’s school roommate / friend / first lover [Ian Somerhalder]  [Ian Somerhalder - shirtless]  [Ian - leather jacket] "Tim" Timothy Robert DeKay (Peter Burke / White Collar) Owner of Dekay Security Systems, eventual owner of Matt [Tim DeKay - grey suit]  [Tim - riding]  [Tim - casual] Tiffani Amber Thiessen (Elizabeth Burke / White Collar) Wife of Tim Dekay [Tiffani Thiessen]  [Tiffani - black dress]   [Tiffani - full shot]   TIM DEKAY’S SLAVES:    Noah Emmerich                    Sharif Atkins                     James Rebhorn      (Fowler/WC)                    (Clinton Jones/WC)            (Reese Hughes/WC)         Chauffer                                Agent                         Stable Master [Noah Emmerich]  [Sharif Atkins]  [James Rebhorn]  Charlie Hewson                  Hilarie Burton                    Willie Garson   (Agent Blake/WC)              (Sara Ellis/WC)                      (Moz/WC)  Handy-man Slave             House slave, cook         Gardener/grounds keeper [Charlie Hewson]  [Hilarie Burton]  [Willie Garson]     Skandar Keynes             Gloria Votsis                Alex Kruz  (Chronicles of Narnia)    (Alex Hunter/WC)           (FBI Agent/WC)    New Stable Boy           House slave, maid          Stable boy [Skandar Keynes]  [Gloria Votsis]  [Alex Kruz]   Eva Mendes (Actress and Supermodel) Tiffani’s body-slave [Eva Mendes] [Eva - almost nude] PAST BODY-SLAVES: Natalie Morales                Jason Taylor, 6’6”             Geoff Stults, 6’4” (Agent Cruz/WC)             (former NFL)                      (Actor, football player) Staton Bomer’s                Ian Somerhalder’s              Joe Somerhalder’s  [Natalie Morales]  [Jason Taylor]  [Geoff Stults] PERSONS OF INTEREST: Marsha Thomason           Moran Atias                       Janice Dickinson  (Diana/WC)                      (Christie/WC)                (Super model in 70’s-80’s) Tim’s DSS Investigator     Marsha’s body-slave         Matt's Mom [Marsha Thomason]  [Moran Atias]  [Janice Dickinson]  Mark Sheppard                Diahann Carroll            Charles Malik Whitfield (Curtis Hagen/WC)          (June Ellington/WC)       (Ryan Wilkes/WC) Commerce Assessor        Lady Carroll                  Diahann's body-slave [Mark Sheppard]  [Diahann Carrol]  [Charles Malik Whitfield] Andrew McCarthy     Kirk Acevedo            Ross McCall             Alexandra Daddario  (Vincent Adler/WC)  (Agent Ruiz/WC)      (Matthew Keller/WC)     (Kate/WC) Rich man                 Andrew’s body-slave  Business Man         Ross’s body- slave [Andrew McCarthy] [Kirk Acevedo] [Ross McCall] [Alexandra Daddario]  Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!