Lukas phoned at eleven-thirty.

Matthew went back to see him a couple of times before then. And by this time, Lukas was buzzing. He had had four of the tablets today, and it felt great being in Lukas’ body, apart from the padlock. His cock felt like it was going to explode.

When McCady went to bed, Lukas snuck down to the garage and tried using the saw on the padlock. After he had wrestled with it for an hour or so, Matthew knew that he would phone.

When he did, he was crying.

‘Hey.’

Lukas said nothing, but Matthew could hear that he was sniffling.

‘What’s up?’

‘You’re going to hate me,’ Lukas said, getting control of himself. His voice was high and strained.

‘I’m not going to hate you. I like you.’

‘Really?’

‘Of course I do.’

Lukas gave a big sniff, and then said, ‘I’ve done it again.’

‘Done what again?’

‘Put a padlock on my balls.’

‘What?’

Lukas must have been crying again.

‘Not again,’ Matthew said, drawing the ‘again’ out so that Lukas knew he thought it was a joke.

He supposed Lukas was nodding or something, or it might have been a sniffle, because it took him a long time before he said, ‘It hurts.’ He sounded like a little boy.

‘Well, of course it hurts. What did you do it for?’

‘I don’t know,’ Lukas said. ‘I really don’t know why I did it.’ His voice broke on the it.

‘Have you lost the keys?’ Matthew said, trying to be gentler.

Lukas took a long time to answer. When he finally did, it sounded as though he’d already been castrated. ‘I posted them to you.’ He broke down again.

‘You posted them to me?’

There was silence.

‘Well, what did you do that for?’

‘I – don’t – know.’

‘Hey. Calm down. It doesn’t matter.’

‘Really?’

‘Of course not.’

‘I don’t know why I did.’

‘Well it’s not like I’m going to care. They’re your balls. If you want to do that to them, it’s up to you. Though you’re putting a lot of faith in me if you expect me to give the keys back.’

‘You wouldn’t do that.’

‘I don’t know,’ Matthew said, drawing it all out as a joke. ‘I might just keep them.’

‘You won’t get them till Monday.’

‘Can you wait till then?’

‘No,’ Lukas said, the sound a single high-pitched squeak. ‘Can you help me,’ he said, in the same tone, before he started crying again.

‘I don’t know. It’s pretty late. Can you wait till tomorrow?’

‘No.’ Again, a high-pitched squeak.

Matthew was as hard as a rock.

‘Well have you tried to get it off?’

‘I’ve been trying with the saw.’ All of this high-pitched. ‘But I can’t do it,’ he said, getting control of himself.

‘I’ll come over,’ Matthew said. ‘I’ll catch a cab.’

When he arrived, Lukas’s eyes were as big as saucers. He was wearing a nightshirt, one so small and so faded and thin, that Matthew could see the colour of his skin underneath it. It was stretched across his chest, revealing the darkness of his nipples, and it was only just long enough to cover his groin. His cock was pulling the front of it forward, pulling it out and away from his body like a tent. At the sides, the splits went up so high that they were above Lukas’ hips. When he was six, the thing would have come to his knees. It would have swam on him then. Now, it looked ridiculous. He was practically naked, and all over the front of it were wet patches of precum, the head of his cock sitting in a pool of it so that Matthew could see its pinkness. And it was stuck there, holding the fabric up.

‘I had to put this on,’ Lukas said.

There were black little squiggles all over the fabric, though it was only as they were walking out to the garage that Matthew realised what they were. Little lambs. He supposed the thing had once been blue, though it was all white now, along with the little lambs. The perfect thing for Lukas to be dressed in, all in white, seeing as how he was going to be a virgin for the rest of his life.

As he walked ahead of Matthew, Matthew could see the pert little bottom of his arse. His cock had pulled the back of the shirt up, so that it was all bunched up in the small of his back, the bottom of his arse bare as he walked ahead of Matthew.

‘Here,’ Matthew said. He lifted Lukas up by the waist and sat him on the vice. All of the wood that they had used last time was still there, making a perfect little platform for Lukas to sit on.

When they had reached the garage, Lukas had peeled the nightshirt over his head as they were walking across it, and then, after he had folded it, he had turned to Matthew, his boner jutting up in the air, and with a string of precum dripping from it.

Matthew stared at it.

Lukas looked down. ‘I can’t get rid of it,’ he said.

Matthew shrugged. ‘It probably knows your balls are in trouble,’ he said. And then he said, ‘Here,’ and lifted Lukas up by the waist, putting him on the little platform of wood, where he had been trying to get him to all day.

He supposed he would have to try with the saw first.

He closed the padlock in the vice while Lukas made some faces. It was a lot tighter than the last padlock had been and it had to twist Lukas’ balls forward, once it was in the vice, so that they were sitting on the front of it.

‘How much have you done?’ Matthew said, reaching forward and pushing Lukas’ balls out of the way, letting his hand slide along Lukas’ cock as he did it and looking at where Lukas had been cutting into the padlock.

Lukas’ cock jerked uncontrollably, jerking five or six times and quivering, as though it was on the verge of coming. But nothing happened.

Matthew picked up the saw.

‘Can you put your leg up?’

‘Ow!’ Lukas said, as he leaned over to one side, feeling his puckered little hairless sack stretching, feeling the pressure on his balls.

‘Did you take something?’

‘I took some Advil.’

‘Is it bad?’

‘Not too bad,’ Lukas said. ‘It’s better now than it was.’

Matthew nodded and pushed his balls out of the way, squeezing them far to one side, so that he could get the blade against the loop of the padlock.

Lukas hadn’t done too badly. If he’d kept going, he probably would have got it off. It would have taken him hours, and he probably would have cut into sack, but he would have been able to do it.

Matthew sawed for five minutes or so, moving the blade around in the groove, so that he wasn’t really making any headway.

He stopped, looked again, and started sawing away again, all the time watching Lukas cock which kept jerking.

‘Er!’ Matthew said, as a pool of precum dripped onto his hand. He stopped, and wiped it into Lukas’ hair.

‘Can you wipe it?’ Matthew said, looking down at Lukas’ cock.

Lukas reached beside him and picked up the folded nightshirt. He wiped it around his head, and squeezed his cock, milking it.

Within a minute or two of Matthew starting again, there was precum on his hand. He paused, wiped it into the side of Lukas’ hair, above his ear, wiping some over his ear, and then waited each time while Lukas milked his cock again.

‘I can’t help it,’ he said.

Matthew shrugged, and went back to sawing.

‘Hang on,’ he said, pulling the blade out and looking at it. ‘The blade’s coming out.’

He put the hacksaw down behind Lukas where Lukas couldn’t see it, and reached up onto the wall behind the bench. He picked a pair of pliers off.

He leaned forward, working right beside, and behind Lukas, where Lukas couldn’t see him. In a moment or two he had managed to snap the blade.

‘Shit!’ he said, getting angry.

‘What?’

Matthew picked it up to show him. ‘I snapped it.’

He threw the saw on the bench and let it clatter.

‘Fuck!’ he said, folding his arms and leaning back against the car, biting his lips with his head down.

Lukas said nothing.

‘Fuck!’ Matthew said, and threw the little bit of blade that he still had in his hand against the wall behind Lukas.

Lukas jumped.

‘Fucking cunt!’ he said. He reached forward and picked up the longer piece of blade. He snapped it in his hands.

And threw both pieces against the wall.

Lukas jumped again.

And then he put his foot down, so he was sitting, straddling the vice, with his legs hanging off the bench. He looked down at his balls, and sat there, with his head down, looking at them, one hand pulling his cock toward his body so he could see past it.

Matthew pushed himself off the car. He reached forward and grabbed Lukas balls in one hand, squeezing them together and pulling them away from the padlock, so that he could see how tight it was. He put his head down, turning it on one side, and looking.

‘You know,’ he said, ‘the only way you’re going to get your balls out of there is if you fuck ‘em up.’

He let go of them and unwound the vice until it was wide enough to put Lukas’ balls in it. He tucked the body of the padlock under Lukas’ body and pulled him forward, not looking at him, but putting his balls in between the plates of the vice. He kept one hand on the small of Lukas’ back, holding him there, and started to wind the plates together, having to keep the handle centered so he could turn it between Lukas’ knees. The plates of the vice were deep, about three inches deep. There would be plenty of room in there to squash Lukas’ balls flat, and he had decided it was the best way.

‘What are you doing?’ Lukas said, pulling himself away and rocking his body back so that his balls came out of the vice.

Matthew stood up and looked at him. ‘I was going to crush your balls,’ he said viciously.

Lukas looked at him and shook his head, afraid. ‘No,’ he said.

‘It’s the only way you’ll get them out of there.’

Lukas stared at him for a moment. ‘Can I get down?’ he said, trying to move forward himself, though he couldn’t put his hands down beside him because he was up on the wood.

Matthew reached forward and picked him up roughly. He put him on the ground.

‘Can you drive me to a hospital?’ Lukas said, picking up his nightshirt from the bench.

‘They’ll make a fool out of you.’

Lukas pulled his nightshirt over his head and stretched it down, trying to flatten his cock against his body.

‘And they’ll probably fuck up your gear.’

‘You know that’s not true,’ Lukas said, looking up at him, and letting go of his nightshirt so that his cock popped forward.

‘You’d have to wait for hours.’

‘Well you can leave me there.’

‘Why don’t you just let me crush them?’

‘You sound like you want to do it.’

‘Any guy would,’ Matthew said, after he had turned his head to look at the vice. He grabbed the handle and pulled on it, keeping his face averted.

‘But you can’t really do that.’

‘Why not?’

‘They’re my balls.’

‘So?’

Lukas said nothing.

‘It’s not like you need them.’

‘I wouldn’t be able to have children,’ Lukas said, his voice cracking into a high-pitch on the final word.

Matthew felt like smiling. ‘Were you going to?’ he said, and then cast a glance at Lukas. Lukas had his head turned down and was staring at Matthew’s feet.

He shrugged his shoulders weakly.

‘I know you’re gay,’ Matthew said.

Lukas nodded.

‘So you’re not going to have kids then, are you?’

Lukas was frozen, staring at Matthew’s feet, as though he had been hit with a mallet.

‘Why don’t you just let me do it?’

‘Why do you want to?’ Lukas said, looking up at him suddenly. There were tears in his eyes. Their eyes met briefly, and he turned his head down again.

‘Hey,’ Matthew said, letting go of the vice and putting his arms around him. ‘It’s no big deal. I don’t have to do it.’

Lukas started sobbing, wrapped in his arms.

‘Why would you want to?’ he said, as though he didn’t understand at all.

Matthew cupped the side of his head with one hand and put his mouth against his ear, holding him in the small of his back with his other hand and knowing he had pulled Lukas’ nightshirt up over his arse.

‘It’d turn me on,’ he said.

Lukas struggled free. ‘I’m going to call a cab,’ he said, and started to walk across the garage.

Matthew rushed up behind him and put his arms around his chest. He raked him in toward him and held him tight, putting his head beside Lukas’ and burying his face in his neck.

‘Don’t, Matty,’ Lukas said, struggling, though he was keeping his voice down so that he didn’t wake McCady.

Matthew held him tight and felt his resistance begin to weaken. All of Lukas’ nightshirt was rucked up over his hips, and Matthew had his mouth open on Lukas’ neck. He moved his mouth up to Lukas’ ear, breathed in it and began to bite it gently, his whole mouth open over his pale little perfect ear.

Lukas turned to jelly.

Matthew reached down with one hand and wrapped it around Lukas’ balls, squeezing gently, very gently, so that it didn’t hurt at all.

Lukas’ thighs collapsed together, clamping loosely onto Matthew’s hand. Matthew lifted him so his feet were off the ground.

‘Please, Lukey, can I?’ he said.

Lukas shook his head weakly, moving his ear in Matthew’s mouth. His body was trembling.

‘Please,’ Matthew said, tickling Lukas’ perineum with a finger, and tickling his tight little corrugated sack.

Lukas groaned.

Matthew moved his mouth down and opened it on Lukas’ neck, swamping it with his tongue. And then he moved his mouth back to Lukas’ ear.

Lukas groaned again, his legs hanging loose now, his toes off the ground.

‘Please, Lukey?’ Matthew said, speaking into his ear.

‘Can I think about it?’

‘What was that?’

‘Can I think about it?’

Matthew put him down and unwrapped his arms. He took a step or two backwards.

Lukas turned around and looked at him like he wanted more, like he wanted to step forward and put his arms around Matthew, though Matthew wasn’t about to let him do this. And wasn’t about to put his arms around Lukas again.

Lukas looked down at Matthew’s cock. It had been trapped in his jeans, held downward, though it was hard, and it had been pressed right into Lukas’ crack. Matthew had come while he was holding him.

He put his hand down and adjusted it, untucking it and turning sideways so that it could angle out to one side.

Lukas stared at it.

‘I’m not gay.’

Lukas nodded. He looked up at Matthew, looking him straight in the eyes. He looked afraid. And swallowed.

‘So…Can I do it?’

‘I have to think about it,’ Lukas said. ‘I can’t just let you do that.’

Matthew made his mouth hard and stared back at him. He nodded, barely moving his head at all.

Lukas turned away and started to walk towards the door.

‘Where are you going?’

‘Can we go upstairs for a while?’ he said, turning mid-stride, though he was still walking towards the door.