Alex didn’t keep count. It took longer and longer to come between each orgasm, and he had to be coming dry. Nothing was left in his balls, yet his body still reacted to all the stimulation. He used his mittened hands to push at the fleshlight, to give his cock some relief from the constant stimulus, but Tracht had hooked it to the same harness that was keeping the plug in place. Without use of his fingers he had no way to undo it.
Fuck fuck fuck. Alex cried and sobbed. His dick felt so raw. Like a layer of skin was missing off the top of it. He tried begging, hoping Tracht would hear him, but no reprieve came.
He had no idea it was possible to come so often in a row. By the time Tracht finally, finally pulled him out of the cage, Alex was ready to say that he didn’t want another orgasm ever again.
“Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!” Alex sobbed when Tracht stopped the vibrations. He ended up clinging to Tracht’s legs and making it difficult for Tracht to remove the fleshlight and plug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Tracht knelt down and took Alex’s face into his hands. “Well, what are you sorry for?”
Alex’s eyes widened. Oh no. This question clearly had a right answer, and Alex had no idea what it was. He was definitely sorry he’d chosen orgasm over eating. But was that what Tracht wanted to hear? He trembled and kept silent, afraid of getting sent back into the cage.
“I’ll give you a hint,” Tracht finally said. “Who has complete control over your body, Alex?”
“You do?” Alex responded quickly. His hands clenched in their mitts. Those were the terms of the contract.
“So, Alex, who has control over when and what you eat?”
Realization struck. Fucking Parsons. “That’s not fair!” Alex blurt out. “You never said—”
Tracht sneered. “I suppose I shouldn’t have expected you to figure it out on your own. You do so fail at critical thinking.”
“That was Parsons!” Alex had to make Tracht see that this wasn’t his fault. “He’s the one who offered it to me!”
“Oh, Alex. For once, take responsibility for your own actions. You could have refused.” Tracht let go of Alex and stood up again.
Alex quickly wrapped an arm around Tracht’s ankle and lowered himself to kiss Tracht’s boot. “I won’t do it again. I swear!”
He didn’t expect Tracht to kick him. Not the worst kick Alex had ever received in his life, but he’d gotten so used to Tracht enjoying the boot-kissing. It was an easy way to put Tracht in a good mood. So to have that foot lash out and catch Alex in the chin felt like a betrayal.
“You’ll have to do better than that, Alex. Quit sniveling and stand up.”
Alex scrambled to obey. He held still while Tracht stepped closer and, ugh, Tracht kissed him slowly, almost romantically. But Alex could work with that, and he returned the kiss as best he could. He’d avoided kissing the chicks he’d slept with because it seemed to give them ideas, but if Tracht wanted proper kissing, Alex would give it to him.
He startled when Tracht’s hands landed on his ass, and he couldn’t stop the hiss from escaping when Tracht’s fingers circled Alex’s sore, abused hole.
“One more orgasm,” Tracht declared. “One more with my cock inside you, and then we can forget this little incident.”
“No. Please. No. I can’t.” Alex shook his head. “Anything else.”
Tracht’s hands stilled, and he gave Alex one of his condescending looks. “Oh, Alex. You shouldn’t say things like that. I might take you up on them.”
“Please. I can’t. I’m... I’m so sore. You’ll break me.” Even the light brushes of Tracht’s trousers against Alex’s cock felt like burns.
“Hmm.” Tracht pushed Alex towards the bed. “All right. Your choice then. An orgasm, or a flogging?”
Alex sobbed loudly. He remembered the porn vid, with the torn up back, but his cock was so abused that there just was no way he could go another round. “Flogging.”
“Excellent. Go lie face down on the bed.” Tracht stepped away from Alex and went to get his flogging instruments.
Alex trembled as he crawled onto the bed and spread himself out. The sheets were thankfully smooth, but he hoped his cock wouldn’t rub against them too much. He hoped the flogging would be bearable. He told himself to stop being a baby. He could endure pain, he had endured pain. He’d had all the hair on his body pulled out; no way a flogging could be as bad. He’d had his tooth pulled out, a flogging couldn’t be anywhere near that level of pain.
Looking at it in those terms, a flogging sounded downright gentle. Alex’s breathing slowed, and he found this weird zen space where it didn’t bother him anymore.
“We’ll keep going until I’m bored,” Tracht announced. That should have scared Alex, but all he knew was that pain had to be preferable to pleasure at this point.
The first crack of the flogger struck Alex right across the shoulders, and—okay, painful, but Alex had been right, it wasn’t anywhere near the level of the worst he’d experienced. He could do this.
At first he tried to brace himself for the impact, but that didn’t work and tended to make the next hit hurt worse. He was also so exhausted that he couldn’t keep his pained moans or cries in check.
The blows were concentrated across his upper back and ass, avoiding his lower back. Something to be grateful for, and Alex found that, yes, he was grateful that Tracht was flogging him instead of fucking him.
The lashes suddenly got harder, each one marking Alex’s skin as hotly as a flame. Not as bad as getting his tooth ripped out, but worse than cigarette burns on his shoulder.
Alex lost track of time. Breathe through the pain, cry out, repeat. His entire back felt like a mass of bruises and burns, and all of his thoughts centered on that pain. He heard only the sound of the flogger whipping through the air, felt only its lashes on his back, saw nothing but white. He wished his hands weren’t still trapped in the mitts so he could clench them on something.
It shocked him when the next sensation wasn’t sharp leather across his back, but a soft hand tracing his new welts. He sucked in breath and hissed through it.
“Very nice,” Tracht murmured. “Though I suppose it’s of no surprise that you can take pain like this.”
Alex didn’t answer. A few moments later, Tracht sat down next to Alex’s head and tilted Alex’s head so he had a clear view of Tracht’s crotch. With his other hand, Tracht was beating off.
Thank god he wasn’t expecting Alex to help him with that. He could barely find the energy to breathe, let alone coordinate his arms or mouth.
At the last moment, Tracht angled his cock so his come splashed onto Alex’s hair and the side of his face. That would have grossed Alex out at one point. Now it was so inconsequential that he couldn’t get himself to care.
Tracht slumped back and breathed heavily for a few moments. He wiped his hand off on Alex’s scalp and began to strip the rest of his clothes off.
The mild shifting of the mattress made Alex’s muscles bend, sending a flare of pain up his spine. He keened through it, and when it passed, he had Tracht lying next to him, stroking his back gently.
“Ss good?” Alex mumbled, and Tracht laughed.
“Yes, Alex. You’re forgiven. Mmm.” He crowded closer and licked a tear—or maybe that was cum—from Alex’s cheek. “Very, very nice.”
Tracht was still petting Alex when he fell asleep.
===
Alex woke alone, sore and hungry and needing to piss. A quick glance showed Tracht on the couch, reading on his tablet.
Alex gently tried to rise, and hissed in pain as his muscles protested. But—and this was a surprise—there was no blood, and a quick glance at his ass didn’t show any open cuts. His hands were no longer in the mitts either, and he flexed his fingers to get rid of the linger cramps.
“Feel free to use the washing facilities,” Tracht said, absently. “And I left you breakfast on the table.”
Uh, okay. Good mood then. Alex could deal with that. He moved gingerly to wash and relieve himself. He wasn’t sure if air and suction hurt more or less than water would have on his wounds, but he definitely didn’t enjoy the process.
He did, however, very much like what Tracht had laid out for him. A cheeseburger, with tomatoes and lettuce and grilled mushrooms and some kind of sauce that made all the flavors dance along his tongue. Thick fries seasoned with curry powder were on the side. Alex scarfed it all down in under ten minutes, all without sitting down—his ass was way too sore for that.
“If you’re done, come sit with me,” Tracht said, and he motioned to his bare feet. Actually, Tracht was wearing casual clothes, which meant the ship had to be on its evening cycle.
Alex ran his finger over the plate to get all the crumbs and juices and licked those clean too. Maybe he was stalling a bit. If he knelt, he could maybe keep his ass and back from touching anything, but then his knees would start to hurt.
Another thought occurred to him as he sucked on his fingers. “Did you send Parsons to do that on purpose?”
“Hmm?” Tracht looked up at him with his eyebrows raised, which meant he’d probably seen through Alex’s stalling tactic. Alex walked over and stopped in front of Tracht.
Tracht stared back. And then he sighed. “On your stomach across the couch. Put your head on my lap.”
Was that Tracht being nice? Alex wasn’t sure, but weirdly intimate was better than being in pain, so he gladly took that option.
Once he was positioned, Alex’s face turned away from Tracht’s crotch, he asked again, “Did you send Parsons to test me with the food?”
Tracht stroked Alex’s head. “No. Mr. Parsons, from my interactions with him, appears to be fully ‘vanilla,’ as they say.” His intonation on the word ‘vanilla’ made it sound distasteful. “I would never involve somebody who didn’t enjoy it on some level.”
“Hah! What about me then?” Alex countered. He tensed, but Tracht laughed again, and he figured he was probably okay.
“You signed the contract, Alex. It is hardly my fault you failed to consider the implications of it. But you are correct: your lack of enjoyment is certainly a perk. Mr. Parsons, on the other hand, is an employee and must be treated with respect.” Tracht’s hand wandered down to skirt across Alex’s sore shoulders, digging in on a particularly bruised spot. Alex breathed in and didn’t make a sound, not this time.
When Tracht eased off, Alex continued, “So if you didn’t send him, why the f— why does he keep trying to talk to me?”
Was it weird to be having a conversation with Tracht? Probably. But he kind of remembered Nick always talking, always talking. Getting people to open up so he could get all the information possible to screw them over later. This was pretty much the same thing.
“I suspect he may, for some reason, be trying to befriend you.”
“Befriend?” Alex frowned. “Like, what, he wants to fuck or something?”
“Alex—and I say this with only the nicest intentions—have you ever had a friend?”
Alex actually twisted his neck so he could look up at Tracht, who had a condescending look on his face again. Alex could feel anger bubbling up inside him again. “I had Nick.”
“No.” Tracht ruffled Alex’s hair. “I meant a friend, not your manipulative brother. Somebody who cared for you.”
That again. Alex wanted to protest, but lately he was having a hard time convincing even himself that Nick had been looking out for him. He didn’t like Tracht’s implications either. “I had a couple of girlfriends.” Alex reflexively shrugged and hissed when the movement set off another round of pain.
“So, no. Your brother kept you isolated from others to increase your dependence on him.” Tracht set his tablet down and picked up a small jar that was lying next to him on the couch. When he opened it, a strong minty scent wafted out.
“Like you’ve got friends?” Alex snarled and then yelped when Tracht started rubbing something cool across his back. The mint stuff. Once the shock of the cold wore off, it started feeling really nice. Alex relaxed into it.
“Admittedly,” Tracht said, “I find it hard to form close friendships. Dr. Singh and I will occasionally go out for drinks when we are docked. If I have free time at Cadmus station, I will from time to time seek out a few of my likeminded peers. I suspect that at least one of them would help me in a time of need, but I have worked hard to avoid such circumstances.”
Tracht continued spreading the cream over Alex’s skin, relieving some of the soreness and sending little shocks of pleasure down Alex’s back. Thankfully, Alex’s cock didn’t stir, because he really didn’t want to think of coming for a long, long while.
The silence stretched out. Alex went over what Tracht said, about friendship and not fucking people, and Parsons—who had definitely been coming on to Alex, now that he thought about it. “I bet Parsons does want to fuck me,” he declared.
Tracht chuckled. “You would lose that bet.”
“How are you so sure? You think I’m not hot enough for him?”
“You are not nice enough for him, Alex. He strikes me as the type who believes sex and emotions must invariably be intertwined. Though I suppose I could be wrong—certainly there have been others who look perfectly boring on the outside and have a kinky streak a mile wide.”
“I could be nice.”
“Really? The next time you see Mr. Parsons, what would you want to do?”
Punch him in the face and break his nose in at least three places, because fuck Parsons for giving him those protein bars. But saying that out loud would just prove Tracht right, so Alex kept quiet.
“Hmm. Your silence does speak volumes.” Tracht’s fingers danced up Alex’s neck and started massaging his scalp.
“I could.” Alex sometimes bought his girlfriends things because he knew it’d make them appreciative. He made sure to tell them they were good in bed and that they looked pretty. “I bet I could turn the charm up real high and Parsons will like, fall to his feet, ready to blow me.”
That got Tracht laughing for real. “Unlikely. I would like to see you try, though.”
Alex actually didn’t want anybody, let alone Parsons, blowing him right then, but he would put up with it just to prove Tracht wrong. “For real? I’ll do it.”
“Oh yes. This should be an interesting show.”
It felt like a trap. Tracht couldn’t really be okay with Alex sleeping with somebody else, not if he was so mad about the protein bars and the jerking off. “You’re not gonna punish me for it if I succeed?”
“I’m sure my word means nothing to you, but I promise, in the very, very unlikely chance you convince Mr. Parsons to fellate you, I will not consider it a punishable offense.”
Shouldn’t be too hard then. Alex was pretty sure he could do it. “What do I get if I win?”
“If you win?”
“It’s a bet, right? So I should get something if I win.”
“Are you sure? You have a very bad track record with gambling.”
No, that was—Nick was the one who sucked at gambling. And that was just at Cadmus, he’d been lucky before then. Alex had nothing to do with the gambling stuff.
“I want—” He didn’t actually know what he wanted, but it had to be something good.
Tracht chuckled. “How about: if you succeed, I shall allow you one day of rest. An entire day without catering to my whims.”
Yeah. That sounded really nice. Alex really, really wanted that. But… “What if I don’t win?”
“Alex, I assure you there is nothing I need to gamble out of you that I can’t get in some other manner. I will simply enjoy your failure for its own sake.”
Alex shook his head to dislodge Tracht and sat up—which was a mistake, because his ass did not like the texture of the couch against its welts. F– frick.
Tracht smiled at him like he knew what Alex had done to himself. “Very well. Let’s get your cock caged up again.”
“Wait! How is he supposed to blow me?” Alex stood, wincing at the soreness in his thighs.
“Oh, he isn’t. But you said you could get him willing to do it. So, you’ll have to get him to agree to fellate you, and then, I suppose, back out or explain the cage to him.” Tracht reached out and wrapped his hand around Alex’s cock. “This is for my use only.”
Alex whimpered at the touch, still too tender. He was almost glad that he was getting caged up again.