Bailey had recently admitted to him in a small voice, while staring at the show they were watching instead of making eye contact, that part of the reason he liked humiliation was that it made him nervous. He did not like feeling put down, but he liked allowing himself to feel embarrassed, a little panicky about it, a lot out of control about it. There was a state he could reach where he let go of the mortification, and it didn't matter what a dom said about him or did to him.

Nate would have thought the opposite, since Bailey seemed incapable of tolerating embarrassing situations at any other time in his life, like when his mom and dad made a scene. Well, except when Nate and Bailey fought. Those scenes had, upon reflection, been incredibly cringeworthy much of the time. But Bailey threw himself into them headlong, just as Nate did. A dangerous warmth suffused Nate when he thought of the possibility that he might have inadvertently provided Bailey with a therapeutic experience back then.

With his eyes still fixed on the screen, the lights from the show playing over his features, Bailey had admitted in a barely audible voice that he liked taking that nervousness beyond humiliation. He just enjoyed being straight-up scared sometimes.

Nate had to sit with that a lot this past week and talk over this scene several times with Bailey before he felt comfortable. Not because scaring Bailey was something he could not imagine doing, but because it was something he could too easily imagine himself doing. If he was truly honest about some of his more violent dreams about Bailey, he could admit that they were rooted in something beyond just yanking power from under Bailey. Having him looking up in awe was just a hair's breadth away from eyes wide in fear.

He could see how this kind of thing might be a slippery slope. And it was something he would never have asked for first, because, frankly, the desire to strike fear into someone else was frightening. But if Bailey talked to him about it, that meant he trusted him to be scary but not to harm him. It seemed so easy to get wrong. It was exactly what Tanner had gotten wrong.

And so, as Nate sat and thought on the matter, he decided he wanted to stay away from anything that looked too traditionally abusive. He was not confident enough to walk that line—yet. He decided to stick closer to the types of humiliation they had been doing, with a little flare of something to increase Bailey's anxiety. And they had a safeword now, but Bailey still was not supposed to say no to anything or beg for it to stop. They'd visit that later. If he got to that point tonight, it meant Nate needed to slow things down and check on him.

With all that in mind, he did not say a word as he wrapped the rope around Bailey's ankles and wrists, securing them together. Usually, he talked him through everything, telling him what a good toy, slut, whatever he was or musing about what he might do to him. That helped them both into the headspace and kept Bailey grounded when he was blindfolded.

Right now, Nate did not want him grounded.

He tied the ropes without leaving any of the usual caresses against his skin. He pressed on the back of Bailey's neck to make sure he knew to keep his face and chest planted on the linoleum rather than telling him to do so. He popped the cap of the lube quietly so that when he pushed two fingers past Bailey's rim, it was with no warning. He did not spend any time stretching him, just spread the lube around inside, then popped the dildo on the side of the tub and pushed Bailey back onto it.

His gasp skittered across the floor, startled and shaky already.

Nate looked down at him fondly. Seeing him already shaking apart—allowing himself to shake apart, really—from this little made Nate want to scoop him up and cradle him. He was so sensitive. And most of the time, he acted brash to hide it. Nate wanted to protect him from everything that could ever upset him. He also wanted to be the thing that upset him. It was a strange dichotomy that he was learning to accept.

He stood up and took a step back to make sure everything was set. Bailey lay with his cheek and chest pressed to the ground, spine arched as he hung off the dildo, arms trapped beside his ankles, cock hanging heavy with the vibrator buzzing directly against his glans.

Nate glanced at himself in the mirror, at the flush in his cheeks and brightness in his eyes. A jolt of discomfort swept the floor from under his feet, just as a burst of pride inflated his ego. This was really happening. Bailey really allowed Nate to put him in that position. He looked away from the mirror and left the bathroom.

He made sure to close the door behind him hard enough that Bailey could not miss the fact that he'd been left alone. They had decided not to use a gag so that Bailey could call out his safe word if he needed help, which implied that Nate would be right outside the door to hear it. The door closing, just like this entire scene, was a bit of theatre. Bailey was good at method acting, at letting himself believe what he knew not to be true, but Nate wanted to give him a little extra push

He walked away from the door.

The floors were carpeted, so it was unlikely Bailey would hear his footsteps moving away. To give the impression that Nate had left and was not attuned to what was happening in the bathroom, he turned on the TV. He pulled the lever for the section of the couch that reclined, a sound that would be audible and recognizable from the bathroom. Then he picked up his boots and crept back down the hallway.

Bailey hadn't made a peep, and no noise came from the bathroom except the low buzz of the vibrator as he settled on the floor across from the door. A few minutes would be long enough to make the point. A few minutes more would make Bailey start to wonder. A couple more and maybe he'd start to feel afraid.

Nate tied on his boots while keeping an eye on the time.

It was excruciating to wait. He could not imagine what it felt like for Bailey, bound, blindfolded, hard and stuffed on a fake cock.

When they were learning about telling time in elementary school, a teacher had the class put their heads down so they couldn't see the clock, and when they thought a minute had passed, they were supposed to raise their hand. Almost everyone raised it too early. This felt just like that.

The faintest hint of a whimper came from the other side of the door. Nate immediately tensed to leap to his feet and rip it open. He made himself relax. That wasn't a safe word.

He looked up Bailey's college and started a search for jobs in the area, too distracted to be productive, but it kept his mind occupied while the minutes ticked by. Finally, he stood up and pushed the door open.

Bailey froze in the middle of rocking on the dildo.

Nate clomped across the floor in his boots and stopped when they were on either side of Bailey's head. A flush had spread down Bailey's neck and over his shoulders. He twitched in surprise when Nate put a hand on his ass and pulled aside one cheek to inspect where he was stretched around the flexible fake cock.

"Keeping yourself entertained, I see," Nate observed, before landing a harsh smack to his skin. It immediately bloomed pink in the shape of his hand. Nate stood and nudged Bailey's chin with the tip of his boot, making him crane his neck at an awkward angle as if to force him to look up, except he was blindfolded. "Looks like you are happy enough with toys instead of Daddy. Did you cum on that fake cock?"

"No, Daddy!" Bailey cried, "I..."

Nate nudged his chin again to shut him up.

"This was supposed to make sure you were all hot and ready for when I was ready to use you, but it looks like you are enjoying yourself too much," he sneered, knowing that was nonsense, but rolling with it. "My plans changed and I need to run out, but it looks like you'll be fine if I just leave you here all night, won't you?"

Bailey gasped, shoulders squirming. The tendons and veins in his neck bulged against his skin due to the awkward angle. It must be difficult to take a full breath like that. Nate rested the sole of his boot over his exposed neck, not pressing down, but enough that Bailey stilled instantly, not daring to breathe.

"Would you like that?" Nate asked.

"Daddy..." Bailey pleaded, knowing that both yes and no were incorrect answers.

Nate pressed down just a hair more with his boot. Bailey's entire body twitched.

"Please, Daddy, I..." He tried to swallow, throat clicking beneath rough sole. "I want whatever you want."

The correct answer. Nate would have to get more creative about finding reasons to punish him, because disobedience wouldn't be handed over on a platter. Bailey was good, and somehow Nate had to get him to make a mistake without turning it into him being bad. What a challenge. Good thing he'd already planned everything out. He couldn't imagine all the mistakes he would make if he tried to wing this kind of shit.

"I would like it if you could tell me what you like," Nate said. "Do you prefer that fake plastic cock or me?"

"You!"

"Prove it," Nate ordered, lifting his boot. "Fuck yourself on that fake cock and show me how it's not enough to make you orgasm. You only get to cum on my cock, isn't that right, sweet thing? Go on."

Bailey tilted his chin back down by a fraction and started working himself back and forth on the dildo. The vibrator on his cock still buzzed insistently. His knees had to hurt where they were pressed wide into the floor. His thighs trembled. After a bit, he had to hitch himself back up because his legs had slid apart a little too far. His fingers curled around his ankles. His face grew red from effort, lips pressed together to try to muffle the little sounds stuttering out of his chest.

He wasn't rolling his hips at the angle that would bring him to completion, because he was a good boy who would follow orders perfectly, unless Nate intervened. His rhythm faltered when Nate nudged his lips with the toe of his boot, the first little break in his concentration.

"Maybe I will stick around tonight. Untie my boots," Nate ordered, smirking so that it would come through in his tone.

Bailey's bared neck bobbed as he swallowed. His hands were bound to his ankles, which left only his mouth for him to work with. They'd played this game with Nate's fly before, and he thought it would translate well to his shoelaces. He'd tied them loosely to make it possible.

Without his hands, reaching the laces was a challenge, especially since he was blindfolded. His hips nearly came to a stop as he worked out how to brace his shoulders to lift his head and feel along the side of Nate's boots with his mouth, searching for the laces.

Nate leaned down and smacked him harshly over the mark he'd made earlier. Bailey's forehead thunked down on the toe of his boot as he cried out in surprise. Message received, he resumed rocking on the dildo. He managed to get one boot untied and shifted to get after the other. Nate couldn't decide whether to look at the way his rim clung to the dildo or the way he parted his lips and sought out the boot laces without question.

Usually, Nate would be milking this for all it was worth to humiliate him, telling him how good he looked down on the floor and such. Now, he just watched him in silence, giving him no indication whether he was pleased with his efforts or not.

Once the final knot was undone, Nate knelt in front of Bailey's face and fisted a hand in the back of his hair. He lifted him with that painful grip until his shoulders came up a bit off the ground and then positioned his mouth right over Nate's fly. He no longer had any leverage to fuck back onto the dildo. Nate watched as he paused, trying to work out how to keep fucking himself as ordered and also undo the fly pressed to his lips. In the end, he went with taking the zipper between his teeth and letting out a pathetic, confused whine to try and appeal to Nate's mercy. There was none of the usual mercy tonight.

He also didn't have the leverage to undo the zipper, not with the way Nate was holding him.

Nate lowered his head. Another nice thing about the blindfold was that Bailey couldn't see him dealing with logistical stuff like holding the fabric of his jeans tight so that this would undo the zipper instead of just tugging at it.

Like this, Bailey was literally just a tool that Nate was using, his favorite headspaces to be in. One where he tended to let go on his own anyway. Which was precisely where Nate needed him.

He drove the point home a little more by using his grip on Bailey's hair to shove his body back and forth on the cock. Not the most effective but did not need to be. Bailey whimpered into his crotch. His fingers twisted restlessly by his ankles.

Then Nate reached below him to wrap a hand around his cock, ready to make a play of checking to see if Bailey was still hard or not. His plan for the scene branched depending on what he would find. And Bailey did not disappoint. As soon as Nate touched him, he wailed and came all over Nate's fingers and the floor.

Nate wanted to crow in triumph.

But that would break the immersion.