couldn’t tell if he was trying to convince himself, or psych himself up, or push away the nerves, or something entirely different. He despised being uncertain, but it was hardly the boy’s fault and Nikolai would not take it out on him, not when he’d been so open and honest today.
Instead, he stood, went to the drawer where he kept the plugs, and selected a slim curving one, perhaps two fingers wide, with a flush base that would nestle comfortably in the crack of the boy’s ass.
“Come here,” he called, and Douglas obeyed, remembering to watch his posture, his stride. Very pleasing, the whole of it. Nikolai smiled. Held the plug up for Douglas to see. The boy blanched but didn’t try to move away. “There now. I know you’ve come to associate these with discomfort, but that needn’t be the case. Quite the opposite in fact. Come, spread your legs and I’ll show you.”
Again Douglas obeyed without hesitation, draping his upper body over the bed and spreading his legs out wide behind him. Nikolai lubed up the little plug and teased Douglas with it, stroking up and down his crack, pressing gently at his hole, rocking and thrusting in tiny increments until at last it breached him, slipped inside an inch at a time. Douglas gasped and wiggled, just a little, breath coming a touch faster, fingers curling in the sheet. Nikolai fucked him with the plug for a moment, just long enough to make the boy’s hanging cock twitch, then seated the plug inside him fully, watching Douglas’s hole clench around the narrow neck, pulling the base in tight.
“See?” he said when he was done. “Tell me how that felt.”
“N-nice, sir,” Douglas said, voice taut, as if the admission had been ripped from his throat. “Scary at first, but then nice.”
“That’s right. The plug has no inherent meaning or value. I’m sorry I had to build a negative association in you at all, but now is the time to correct it. It’s just a tool, Douglas. A tool to teach you an important and painful lesson, and now a tool to teach you a pleasant and reassuring one. Because for now, no man but me will fuck you, and when I choose to fuck you, your hole will be hungry and ready for me.” He grabbed Douglas by the hip and pulled him upright, then back, until he was nearly off balance. Pressed his lips to the curve of the boy’s lower back. “For me and only me,” he whispered huskily against Douglas’s skin. “And lest you get too worked up before I’m ready for you . . .”
He stood, returned to the chest of drawers, and retrieved the little silicone cock cage he’d locked the boy in for so long before. This time upon seeing what Nikolai had in hand, Douglas actually did take a step back. But he caught himself, stammered an apology, and returned to where Nikolai had put him. “A-also ‘just a tool,’ sir?” he asked, and he looked like he was trying so hard to soothe himself that Nikolai didn’t have the heart to chastise him for speaking out of turn.
“Indeed.” He squatted down again, locked Douglas into the cage. Not as easy as he’d have liked, given the boy’s half-formed erection. “Do you remember what happened the last time you came without my permission?”
Douglas’s full-body shudder was answer enough.
“Then I’ve no doubt you’ll be grateful that I’ve thought to protect you from making such an error again.”
Understanding lit the boy’s eyes, and he nodded. Nikolai had seen enough boys by now to know it wasn’t because he thought Nikolai expected him to, but because he really was grateful. To be protected from his own weakness. To be guided so kindly to the correct behavior.
Nikolai met those big blue eyes and said, “I promise I’ll not leave you locked away if you don’t give me cause. Be a good boy for me today.”
Douglas nodded again, but there was no missing the flicker of . . . something in the boy’s eyes. Some darkness, some worry, some fear.
“What is it, Douglas? It’s all right,