I grabbed it, moved to my desk and made sure the screen was turned so no one else could possibly see it before I checked the message.
Sorry it’s late. Bit more complicated to put on than it looked.
Okay, I could cut him some slack for that.
I glanced around to make absolutely certain no one had materialized behind me and then tapped the attached image.
Oh, sweet Jesus.
He may have struggled to put it on, but he’d succeeded, and now his cock was fully contained by the rings and leather. He’d be cursing my name all day long. I’d worn a similar device before so that I’d know what I was putting my subs through, and while it wasn’t particularly painful, it was annoying as all hell. He was going to be acutely aware of it from now until the moment I gave him permission to take it off.
I grabbed my water bottle and quickly took a few big gulps. Fuck. Why was it suddenly so hot in here?
“You okay, McNeill?” Cal nearly made me choke.
I forced the water down the right pipe, and as I cleared my throat, capped the bottle again. “Yeah. Just got a text from your mom about—”
“Fuck you, dude.”
I just laughed and put my phone away so no one would see anything. As I got back to work, it dawned on me just how much everyone in this room would be shocked if they knew the truth. They would’ve been surprised if I’d really been talking to Cal’s mom, but getting cock cage pics from Rick Pierce? There was no telling how they’d respond. Hilariously, I was sure, but…no. This was a card—hell, a whole hand—I needed to keep close to my vest.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, only that it was quickly sinking in how bizarre this arrangement was. Everyone in this room talked about everything. Almost everything. They knew about the women I dated, but I wasn’t ready to explain bisexuality to anyone on the same payroll, so I’d hidden my past boyfriends from them. I never breathed a word about being kinky.
This was different, though. It was one thing to have a male lover wandering the same hallways and attending the same meetings. It was another thing, I was beginning to realize, having that same male lover walking those hallways and attending those meetings while actively wearing a device I’d ordered him to wear as a form of kinky punishment.
The rational side of me knew this was a bad idea on a number of levels. The side of me who couldn’t stop thinking about being balls-deep in Rick also knew this was a bad idea but didn’t give a shit. So what if I couldn’t say anything? No one needed to know that the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen was waiting impatiently for me to remove a torturous device from his penis so I could reward him for stoically enduring his punishment. It was no one’s business if I planned to bend him over the bed in a few hours and ride his ass while I told him how badly I wanted to tie him up and—
Focus, Jon. Focus. The last thing you need now is to have to explain away a hard-on.
Just to be on the safe side, I went back to my desk to check and see if anything pressing had wandered into my e-mail inbox in the last five minutes.
At least thoughts of Rick had kept my mind off sweating over my kids’ college funds. Funny how plotting and scheming an evening with a new, eager submissive could put decidedly less pleasant thoughts on the back burner.
Not surprisingly, there was nothing new in my inbox. Just to kill a few more seconds and give myself a chance to completely calm down, I went into my personal webmail. Nothing new there, either, except something Scott had sent to all of us. He must have sent it from his phone, since the subject header announced it wasn’t safe for work. Of course, I didn’t open it. I never opened anything any member of my crew sent to my personal e-mail while I was at work.
I got up and went to get a bottle of water out of the communal refrigerator. As I closed the door, the picture that had been taped to the front for the last few months caught my eye. Scott had pasted his own face over that of a bodybuilder who obviously had a very close relationship with a needle. I snickered to myself and rolled my eyes as I unscrewed the cap on the water bottle.
“You know, Scott,” I said, gesturing at the picture. “I’m really glad you put that there.”
He looked up from his screen. “Oh really? Why’s that?”
“Because I’ve dropped a good ten pounds just from losing my appetite every time I see it.”
“Jackass,” he muttered.
“Actually, Jon’s got a point,” Bianca said. “Think I can get a copy to put on my fridge at home? Might help me stay away—”
“Shut up, all of you.”