“And you use this on their naked skin, as if they were animals.” His tone was fascinated but detached, as if he were an observer, taking inventory. He really knew how to ask for it.

He looked up at me with those deep brown eyes. “Is that what you want to do with me, Bill? Cuff my hands behind my back, clamp my nipples? Make me crawl after your big cock, beat me, fuck my ass?”

His deep voice, low and soft, reverberated in my head. I felt the rush of a perfect moment. “That’s right, Michael. Now hand me the crop.”

He held it horizontal, offering it with both hands. I took it by the handle and ran the tongue through my fist. I touched the tip against his chest and gently tapped his nipple. Then I drew it up and cracked it across my thigh to make him flinch.

But he didn’t flinch.

Instead his face seemed to harden, to become steady and purposeful.

He rose to his feet and stared down at me. Suddenly my whole left arm went limp, as if the nerves had been severed. The riding crop slipped from my hand. I didn’t hear it hit the floor. I tried to look down, and found that I couldn’t take my eyes from his.

“Stay.” His quiet voice boomed deeply in the silence.

And I stood, my body relaxed but paralyzed, as he walked to a casket across the room. I couldn’t turn my head to watch him. I was forced to stare straight ahead into the mirror. It reflected the fear and astonishment frozen on my face.

Michael returned. Several lengths of thin chain were looped over his forearm.

He slowly circled me, examining my naked body. I felt like an insect paralyzed in a spider’s web, waiting to be eaten alive. But I didn’t panic. My mind seemed to be slowing down, shifting into neutral, losing touch with reality. I should never have smoked that weed, I thought, then remembered I hadn’t.

I tried to open my mouth to ask him what the hell he had done to me. But I couldn’t speak. My jaw was frozen.

He had said he was into some sort of martial art. Paralysis with a touch? But he hadn’t touched me. There was no way he could have drugged me.

He ran his hands over my body, exploring my back and arms, cupping my pecs and buns. He inserted his middle finger into my mouth to wet it and slid it gently up my ass. My mouth stayed open, as his finger had left it.