Father Knows Best (Chapter 2 added 17-March-2024)

[CurlyJinrlyJin]

Been really craving more muscle envy stuff so cant wait to add this to my infinite re-reads (like every other Dredlifter story lol)

[Shinji86]

Can’t wait for chapter 2

[jujumusclelover717]

Are we getting another chapter?!

[dredlifter]

Chapter 2

The first evening of what she later thought of as her journey of self-discovery was a disaster of nerves for Lacey.  Did Tait find the note?  If he did, what was he going to do?  Was he going to tell Kane?  

She did her best to hide her emotions from her fiance… not that it mattered.  As soon as they got home, Kane went back to what he had been doing for months now - nothing but reading and reading on his laptop.  Only she had no idea what he was reading.  She had tried fair means and foul to find out what he was so obsessed with online, but for the first time since they had moved in together, Kane had locked his cell phone in every way he could.  He had password-protected his computer and the one time he had forgotten to lock it, she found everything she knew to look at had been scrubbed clean.  No history, no cache, nothing saved.  No clue at all.   It was eating her alive… and making her doubts grow.

    Lacey was in the bedroom changing into a nightgown for bed when her phone vibrated a text message.  It was just after 7pm.  She glanced at the lock screen and saw an unknown number had sent a text.  Ordinarily she would have dumped it as spam, but this night.  She had to see. 

Most cautiously, she unlocked her phone and read:

321-555-1234: Hello.  I am responding to a note left in my pocket this afternoon.  If this is the correct response, please reply with my name and yours.

    Upon reading the cryptic message, Lacey was confused. It did seem like it was spam or someone phishing at first read.  But, the coincidence of knowing about a note in a pocket was too much.  She decided to reply as instructed.:

Lacey: Hello Tait, this is Lacey Masters.

Within seconds a long reply came.  

321-555-1234: Hello Lacey.  Yes, this is Tait. Forgive the secrecy, but I keep my personal cell phone number very private.  Just a few family members and now you.  I have puzzled over the meaning of your note to me, but, of course, I am willing to meet you privately.  In fact, I was wanting to ask to meet with you alone myself, but the opportunity never presented itself.   I am planning to speak with Kane alone but having any insights from you before I meet him would help me to help you both.  

If you are willing, please come to Kin Khao Thai Restaurant at Golden Gate Park tomorrow at 1 pm.  I have a lunch meeting there at 11:30, but after that we can go to the park, take a walk, and talk about anything you like.  I will respect not sharing with Kane as long as he isn't in danger unless you give permission.  But should he find out, us clearly being in a public place like the Park should assuage some of the fears he showed at lunch.  If this is agreeable, please let me know.

    Lacey sat back and absorbed the reply with a sigh of relief.  It felt like a weight every bit as heavy as Tait himself had been lifted from her shoulders.  Finally, someone to… just talk to.  Someone that could maybe fix this.   

She returned the text:

Lacey: That’s perfect.  More than I could hope.  I will be there.
    
Tait replied:

Tait: Good.  If I am not waiting on you, just ask the maitre’d for me.  You might want to “dress down” a bit for a walk in the park, despite this being a high end restaurant.  I'll be in business casual but still comfortable.  See you tomorrow.

***

    Lacey arrived at the restaurant fifteen minutes early.  She had done as Tait asked and had worn a nice pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, and a jacket.  Her choices showed her figure off very nicely but still quite tastefully.  She didn’t exactly intend to copy Tait’s simple style from the day before, but what she chose did fit well into that.  As usual, Kane didn’t ask why casual clothes were laid out for work after she packed her gym bag. He just looked at it with apparent disinterest on his way to breakfast, and went on to the kitchen. 

Upon going into the restaurant, Lacey was greeted with the typical hustle and bustle of people who work downtown along with tourists mixing in making the place very busy.  She looked around and did not see Tait anywhere, and with his sheer size, he was a hard man to miss. 

Following her instructions, she walked to the maitre d's podium and addressed the well appointed man standing there.

“Excuse me, I am looking for Doctor Tait Holden.” she said.  This staff member was certainly more kind to her than the one from the day before - and whether that was because Kane was not with her this time or she was asking for Tait, she did not know.  However, at the mention of her future father-in-law, she saw a bit of a shiver go through the man’s face. If she did not know better - the shiver was something akin to fear.  

The man asked for her ID.  Lacey provided it.  “Thank you, Ms Masters.  Doctor Holden said to expect you and I need to be careful about who is admitted to their private meeting.  If you will come this way -”  

The man escorted Lacey through the crowd and up to a door labeled as a private dining room.  He opened the door, and inside two men looked up.  One man was so big that even with his back turned to the door, there was no doubt at all it was Tait.  

The other man was late middle age and quite large and tall in his own right.  He was much more thickly muscled when compared to a normal sort of person.  Tait made him look like a child of course, but Lacey knew he did that to everyone. 

Tait stood and smiled broadly when he recognized Lacey.  He was dressed quite smartly but very fashionably.  Tait wore a sort of classic black t-shirt over a blazer, a fabulous pair of black jeans, and stylish slide shoes.  A perfect business casual.  The other man was a bit more formally dressed, but wore no tie with his oxford collar shirt and jacket.  

Lacey heard the door close behind her.   As it did, Tait took off his jacket, left it folded on his chair, and came up to her.  He took her hand, and again, Lacey felt the same heady flash of attraction as yesterday… 

Oh My God.  She thought.  Tait again filled her vision with muscle and sheer scale almost beyond imagination.  That t-shirt he had on.  It actually had textured fabric that was a bit stretchy and the collar had a zipper where a polo shirt might have had buttons.  The zipper was partly open and showed what looked to be inch thick pecs with a valley in between… And all of that was above her head.  And his arms… Oh. Wow.  His arms.  The stretchy fabric hugged it all so perfectly.  And then HIS legs in perfect black denim… He was showing off so perfectly.  Basic black for a business meeting, but so stylish and comfortable for such a huge man, he could have walked straight into the most exclusive of nightclubs…

She felt the heady flash of raw sexual attraction again as he took her hand in his giant one and again kissed it — but she had expected it this time.  It was just as strong as before, but she was much more in control of it now rather than it controlling her. She resisted the urge to feel him up this time.

 “Hello Lacey.  Thank you for meeting me here on short notice.  We were just finishing up.”  Lacey ripped her eyes away from his arms and looked up into Tait's killer handsome face and there was just the tiniest wink.  Was that because he noticed her reaction again… or was it asking her silently to play along….  

 Tait then nodded to the other man.  “Lacey, I’d like you to meet Mr. John Lynch.  He went to Stanford as well, played football a couple years before me.  He is in the NFL Hall of Fame as a Safety, and is the President and General Manager of the 49ers.  John and I even played together on both the Broncos and the Bucs, where I took great pride in taking him down a peg or two along with the rest of those uppity guys in Canton.  John, this is Lacey Masters, my soon to be daughter-in-law.”

Lynch smiled as he took Lacey’s hand.  “Don’t let Tait lie to you.  I did take him down a couple of times too.  And he belongs in Canton too.  Will be if I can twist a few more arms.  It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Lacey shook Lynch’s hand as Tait continued.  “Lacey and I are going to talk a bit of wedding plans after we are finished,” Tait said, making her presence alone perfectly believable.  “Although, if you are OK with it, I would like to bring Lacey and Kane with me to the workout facility while I am here.”

“I’ll leave a message with the staff, Tait.  Happy to have you both with us Lacey.  Tait said you live here?”
    
“Yes, just across the bay.”

“Great.”  Lynch looked at Tait.  “You two probably have a lot to talk about if wedding planning is in the mix.  And I think you and I have taken care of everything we need too.  I’ll just take off a few minutes early and leave you both to it.  Again, wonderful to meet you Lacey - and don’t buy into all the tall tales he will spin for you.  Only about 95% of them are true.”  All three laughed, as Lynch released Lacey’s hand, took Tait’s and shook the monster paw.  “And don’t you two bring any cake samples to the facility.  I have enough guys trying to control their weight without wedding cake pieces lying around.  I’ll see you next week, Freight Train.”  There was another round of chuckles as Lynch grabbed his briefcase, and left the room.

Tait waited for several seconds until he knew that Lynch had left.  Then, he embraced Lacey in a hug.  “How are you, Little Lady?”

Tait sort of heard her say, “OK” as he enveloped her and pulled her in.  But what he actually felt was Lacey almost dropping to dead body weight in his arms the moment he closed them.  And then he certainly heard words through his t-shirt.  “No, Tait, I’m not alright.  Not alright at all.” 

Tait pulled her back to see that her eyes were wet to the point of tears.  The emotions were right on the surface - sadness, worry, frustration.  Such pain.  “Lacey, what is–?”  The concern was clearly evident on his face.

Lacey interrupted a mix of both embarrassment and sadness coming through her voice.  “Oh Tait, I’m sorry for yesterday.  I guess… I don’t know.  Can you forgive me for acting the way I did?  For coming on the way I did.  It’s just been so hard these last few months.  Harder than I can say, and then there you were - getting Kane to speak more words in an hour than I heard in the last month.”  The salty drops began to slowly steam down her cheeks.

Tait’s heart exploded for the petite girl.  He looked down at her earnestly, powerfully. Had he not been holding her, Lacey swore she would have been physically moved by that look. “Lacey-” he said,  “you did nothing to apologize for.  Especially not when you are feeling like THIS.”  Tait reached into his pocket and pulled out a clean handkerchief - another one of those old-fashioned midwestern male things he had never given up.  He dried her tears from her cheeks before handing her the white cloth.  “I was going to suggest we leave, but clearly, we need to stay here for a while.”  Tait took Lacey to the chair Lynch had been sitting in, guided her into place, and then pressed a button on a wireless unit.  “Can you bring some water please and – Lacey would you like anything?”

“Water is fine,” she said.

Tait concluded the call to the staff, moved his chair next to Lacey, and sat holding her hand, comforting her.  “Lacey, please what’s wrong?  What is happening?”  Tait asked.  The young woman sat dabbing another tear running down her cheek, trying to bring her emotions together long enough to speak.  Just as she was about to, the staff came in with water and glasses.  Seeing a clearly emotional situation, and being familiar that Tait was a mental health professional, the employee quickly left, pulling the door shut.

Then Lacey began, “I… I don’t know Tait.  I wish I did.  But I don’t.  It’s Kane.”  She turned to look into the giant man’s eyes.  “I need your help.  I need your help to hold my relationship together.”

Tait sighed and decided it was best to open up to the striking young woman.  “Lacey, I think you know that I am not actually here because of work.  That is just a formality.  I am here because of Kane.”  Through her tears, she looked at Tait and nodded as she gathered that from his text.   Tait quickly said, “I don’t know what is happening to him.  Believe it or not, his golf coach called me and told me something was wrong, and that he was about to lose his place on the tour because he isn’t showing up to play.  I asked for lunch with you two to try and gauge him.  I can tell something is wrong, far beyond our - I guess normal rivalry - but I don’t know what.  I was hoping you could help me.  But… no matter what I will do all I can for you and my son.”

The heavy burden seemed to rise again, the final piece of what started to lift the day before when she got the text.  She was about to not be alone with the secret anymore.  “Kane just came home one day several months ago from the gym.  Well someone or something came home in Kane’s body from the gym… but it isn’t him.  That person who was sitting across from you yesterday is not the man I know.  It is as if he is possessed.  He never leaves home unless he has to.  He just sits and reads on his computer in the living room.  Or he will lock himself in the office at home.  All day, every day.  His phone and computer are always locked.  And… Tait, he barely speaks to me.  When he held my hand yesterday, that was the first time he had touched me in any meaningful way in three months.”  

She hesitated before he nodded for her to continue.  “This is a bit embarrassing and tell me if it is too much information.  But you are a psychiatrist and you said you wanted to know everything.   Tait, Kane and I have not had any sort of intimate contact at all, not even a kiss, this entire year.  Almost five months now without anything at all even remotely intimate before yesterday.  And that was just the intimacy of holding my hand.  He has been having these occasional mysterious chats online.  He has cut us off from affection, ignoring me…” 

She again sighed, but it was partly done.  If he was going to help, she needed to finish.  “Tait. if I didn't know better I would suspect him of having an affair.  Except he never leaves home to see anyone.  If he does leave, which is almost never, he is gone all day long, but… Dammit, I feel awful about doing this, but I used the find your  phone app on him a few times to track him.  He is always, and I mean always, in the hills on hiking trails or out at the shore or something.  Not anywhere where he could be… I don’t think… meeting up with anyone.  It isn’t much that he is gone though.  At best once a month.  And I’ve asked but he never wants me to go with him when he is doing that.  He barely will go with me to the grocery anymore, and that lunch is again, the first time we have been out to eat for anything all year long, I just don’t know…”  Her spilling words of anguish drifted off to a tearful silence as the beautiful, normally powerful lady was reduced to a mass of pain. His handkerchief had become stained with the small amounts of makeup that she wore.  Tait looked horrified, shaken, at these revelations.  What the fuck is wrong with my son, he wondered to himself.  

Lacey gathered her strength and continued, finished.  “Tait, you are an extremely good looking man.  So strong… and I don’t just mean physically.  Though you are.  I see so many things about Kane in you.  I saw so much of the Kane I love who is gone right there in you.  Little things that make me smile that I know now where he inherited them.  And on top of that, you have other things just physically that attract me to a man that Kane doesn’t.  So, when you touched me after all this time with no physical contact with anyone… without having those parts of Kane that I love so much…I became intoxicated by it.  I guess you could say that touch is my love language, and Kane has cut me off.  His companionship… he has cut me off.  It’s like I live with the Grim Reaper.  You didn’t cut me off as strong as you are, confident.   I guess… The confident man I thought Kane used to be and more.  I became attracted to that and craved it.  So badly attracted that I made a fool of myself.”

Tait jumped in immediately, “Nonsense. Don’t you ever think that way.  You didn’t make a fool of yourself.  Now that you have told me this… you did what anyone would do.  Better and more controlled than most people ever could truth be told.  LOOK AT ME.”  The power of Tait’s words acted as if he had grasped her chin and pulled her head to focus on his eyes.  “YOU ARE A LOVELY, STRONG WOMAN. A SUPERIOR WOMAN.  In mind and body and spirit.  All of it.  And you are in pain.  You reached out for support.  You called out for help.  There is no sin in that.  In fact, that is yet another strength of virtue in you, not vice.  I certainly take no offense - then or especially now.” 

Tait focused on her more, but she saw a shift in that powerful look.  Across his monumentally handsome visage came a sight of his own pain.  Pain she saw yesterday when he spoke of Kane’s mother.  “And… part of your reaction was me.  I’ve no doubt of that.  You remind me so much of Jess.  Maybe the only person who truly has since she passed.  They say that men marry their mothers and… while you are not Jess, you have so many of her best qualities that drew me to her in the first place all those years ago.  When you touched me for a few moments - well it was sort of like being with her again.  You accidentally touched on my feelings for Kane’s mother.  I got intoxicated by that feeling as much as you did with yours.  I am trained in this stuff.  I should have known better than to allow my own emotions to get in the way of my son and daughter-in-law's needs.  So it is me who needs to beg your pardon, not the other way round.”

At that revelation, both sat quietly for a moment.  Lacey just looked at him while he looked across and down at her.  There was something there between them.  Both of them felt it.  There was the love they both had for Kane, and there was the love Tait had for Jess, but something else… something familiar that was yet unique.  Just a seed.  But it was unique and new but familiar and old.  Both instinctively knew what it was, but shied from it.  They could not acknowledge it.  

After what must have been a full minute of silence, Lacey finally said.  “There is no offense where none is taken.  I will accept your apology, but you are only a stronger man in my eyes now.  But Tait, I have to be honest.  Fully honest.  The stress of it all.  Kane is like -  he is so obsessed with whatever it is.  And he will not give me one peep of a hint.  But being so starved for simply companionship.  I… I can’t take this much longer.  I love him so much Tait, but I have found myself wondering about leaving him for someone else.  I guess that initial feeling I had for you and acting the way I did proves it.  I would have… done something terrible if you were not you and he was not right there.  Tait, I can’t live like this.  Not forever.  And feeling caring from you yesterday… It just reminded me of who Kane used to be.  I don’t want to leave him.  But one day soon I will not be with as strong a man as you are, as honorable, and I will feel even worse and I will weaken and I… I will betray him in a moment of just wanting to feel human and loved again.  I know it.  I don’t want it, but I can’t stop it unless Kane does.  And I’ll leave him, even though I don’t want to leave him… Can you help me, Tait?  Please help me get my man back.”

Tait smiled at the young woman, a warming, powerful smile.  A smile that immediately boosted the spirit.  “My son and his fiance are in trouble.  I was raised to take care of my own, to help my own, and you both are that.  As much as Kane is my own, so are you now.  OK?  I will do ALL I can to help.  ALL I CAN.  Do you understand me?  

“I will work on Kane, of course, but I want to help you too.  Privately, one on one if you want.  We can even have some “formally” informal talks that are sort of like professional sessions I have with clients.  Or I can just be a safety valve for you or I can be both.  Just like this.  You have so much stress, Lacey, you are almost to the breaking point.  You just told me that.  What you said was happening would have happened to almost anyone a long time ago, and the fact that you have not left yet - my son has no idea of the caliber of person he has.  

“You need anyone to talk with. I am here for you.  Any time, day or night.  I can’t formally work with you as a client, as that is unethical.  But, I can help you as a friend - a friend and family member who has a LOT of training by the best minds locked up here in mine.   I want to help you… become who you were meant to be.  Just like I said yesterday.  Who are you, Lacey Masters?  What do you want?  Where are you going?  If it helps to sort out your feelings or direction in life or just a shoulder to cry on or a new TV show you binged you need to share about.   I am offering - if you are willing.  But rest assured - I am here to help Kane, and we will find an answer.  OK?  You are not alone anymore.”

Lacey smiled through her tears.  “Thank you.  I can’t say how much I am.  How… How long are you staying?  How long do you have?”

“Don’t worry.  Let me take care of that.  I will stay as long as it takes to help you both fix this if it can be fixed.  Or to help both of you individually find your way if it cannot.  I have… well a LONG time in built up paid leave.  A very long time.  And I will spend every day of it right here if I need to.  I have a proposal to make along those lines.  Will take Kane saying yes of course, but if he does and you do, I can stay for quite a while.”

Lacey’s tears stopped and she slowly smiled.  “Then is it too bad to ask if I can hug you again?  And no feeling your ass and slipping in notes this time?”

    Tait laughed hysterically.  “Baby girl, for you, that is one question you never have to ask.  Consider me always wearing a “free hug” t-shirt.”  Lacey laughed herself as Tait again said the perfectly charming, corny, disarming thing that just lifted her mood.  She threw herself into Tait’s arms.  The giant man closed the massive peaks and forearms around her tiny waist, raised up, and lifted the fit woman into mid-air as if she weighed nothing at all.  

Tait understood her desire now - what it was she was feeling when she felt him.  Why he was feeling as if she were drawing strength from him.  Because she was drawing strength from him, strength to stay in a terrible place in her and Kane’s life.  Lacey was a strong woman - a powerful woman in every aspect of life.  And she wanted a strong man to share life with.  It was not too far off the mark to say she needed one.  An equal.  Tait knew he had raised Kane that way - to be that sort of man.  But for whatever reason right now he wasn’t.  Kane had never been as dominant a force as he was - but few people were.  Kane didn’t have to be.  Whatever had happened - Kane was slowly drawing the life from her.  And she couldn’t lose her life for long before she bolted for her own self-preservation.  

    Tait felt fiercely protective of her in that moment of realization.  Until their relationship was repaired, if it could be repaired, Tait decided he would be that strength she needed. The strength she needed to be able to stay with Kane.  She could lean on him until she and Kane could stand on their own again… or until she could stand on her own without him.

    As after the lunch the day before, Lacey’s hands explored Tait in the hug, feeling his strength.  His body, his mind.  But she understood, in a way, she was making sure this giant man and his offer were for real.  Making sure through every sense she had that he was really there and was really going to help.  As she did, her weeping stopped all together.  Tait felt it, felt the change in her emotions from a sea of black storm clouds to having a small ray of sunshine piecing them.  He said softly, deeply, “Go ahead.  I am strong enough for both of us until Kane gets through this.  OK?”

Tait’s words were like magic.  Sight, touch, smell, even taste somehow though her lips were far from him - and now hearing the perfect words.  She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to.  Tait felt her surrender the burden to him - felt the tension leave her and come onto him.  He could bear it as easily as he bore her weight.  He knew he could and for him it would be a rare pleasure to take care of family like this.  

They stood that way for a couple of minutes, Lacey releasing months of pent up worry, sorrow, stress.  But finally, Tait lowered her to the ground and let go.  He could tell Lacey didn’t want to let go… but there were other ways to give her strength and help her at the present.  He looked down.  “How do you feel about having our first “session” right now?  How does a walk in the park strike you?  Can’t exactly pass up what passes for a nice spring day in San Francisco can you?”

Lacey laughed softly as she looked up affectionately at Tait - not with the affection one would have toward a lover, but with the affection one would have for a best friend and treasured confidant - someone she now had.  “How can I refuse the invitation of such a special man?” she said.

Tait actually blushed a bit hearing that.  Lacey smiled at how much Tait’s blush resembled Kane when he let it out.  Tait replied - and though self-deprecation was not typically his thing, he felt it warranted.  “There you go, with that flattery again.  I am just the man my father and grandfather taught me to be.  You’ll understand when you meet Kane’s grandpa.  I don’t know if he has told you but we have a tradition in the family of exchanging vows in a tiny family church back in Nebraska.  We have for a very long time.”

“He told me and truth be told - I rather like the idea of something small and intimate a lot more than the cathedral my mother wants.  The way my career is heading - Kane and I will not want material things.  And I know you do not allow that to happen on top of it.  So, I have come to love the small things, those quiet moments in life.  You know?  And - It isn’t flattery if it is the truth, Tait.  You are a very special man.  I can see what Kane’s mom saw when she talked to you.”

Tait wanted to say something… something about how much of Jess he saw in her, how much of the powerful woman she was that he fell head over heels for when he was at that Stanford party.  But, he thought better of it.  Confusing his feelings for Jess with Lacey was not a path he should walk down….  He decided to ignore the comment… except for just a tiny bit.  Depending on how you saw things, how she saw things - it was either helping her relax into a very intimate subject or unwanted flirtation.  And there was no way to know until he did…

    As they left the restaurant and started toward Golden Gate Park, told the maitre’d that he would be back for his jacket and to finish up with the meeting room.  Lacey heard the man almost fearfully say, “Of course  Doctor Holden.   Take all the time you need.”  Lacey only then noticed that Tait had left his coat and was walking her out in just the amazing t-shirt.  She couldn't help but glance at those arms again.  Maybe it was just from the most minor effort of holding her in the air but… they looked even bigger.  He was right.  Those gigantic arms as strong as they are… they are big enough and strong enough to carry the burden for a while.  Maybe a long, long while.  Maybe he could just crush this thing that's taken hold of Kane in those arms…

  Tait brought her out of her revelry with a bit of an odd smile.  That… smirk, Kane called it.  “Lacey, do you mind a personal question?”

“You’re my therapist.  Every question will be personal.”  she smiled.  “But no, I never mind a personal question from you anymore.”

“This might be a bit from left field but… I take it that on a man you are rather… attracted to arms?”

Lacey laughed and turned a bright shade of red. That was the reason for that smirk.  She'd been caught.  “That obvious, huh?”

Tait chucked, “It was hard not to notice.  Not that I minded much.  So many men in particular think that I am “God’s gift’ so to speak, and how great it would be to look like this.  Now, I won’t say that I don’t love it.  I certainly do.  But it also puts up a lot of barriers.  For everyone who feels something from me… they feel as much fear of approaching or talking as anything else.  That’s another reason why I do the gym thing with athletes - by the end of a good gym session if I have done my job properly, a lot of that fear or need for bravado to save face with me is gone.  They can’t match me… but then again they do not have to.  Something I wish I could have passed onto Kane but never seemed able.”

“I can see that.  You certainly could be very intimidating.  I don’t think it is telling you something that you don’t already know from what you just said, but Kane certainly is intimidated by you as much as he loves you.  

“Now…I admit like I told you in the restaurant… people wouldn’t suspect it when I fell in love with Kane, but on a purely… I guess what would you call it - animal level, I do like strong men.  Very strong men.  A lot.  I like everything in that regard, but an arm is well… pretty accessible.  

“And you… Tait.  Kane showed me photos of you of course.  I knew from those and what is just out there online about you that you're a very big man.  But - in person.  Photos and numbers don't do you justice in the slightest.  You're so much bigger and more muscular that I could have imagined.  It's hard not to get carried away sometimes. Even when I try not to. ”

In response, Tait went one small step more.  He held out his arm, took Lacey’s, and wrapped it around his huge forearm.  They locked, and he began to escort her side by side, as if they were walking around in a Victorian kind of old fashioned courting.  “Then, there you go.  No more self-consciousness or doubts.  Not where I am concerned anyway.  Trust me, I do not judge.  Besides, everyone will look at me as the lucky guy with you on my arm… and I doubt anyone will bother us.  Like I said before, you feel as much as you want or need.  Anytime you just need a reminder that I am here and I am plenty strong enough to help you with this.”  Tait chucked, as they both knew even someone armed with a gun would think twice before ever coming close to Tait.  “So, I’ll start out the way I start out with everyone.  Tell me about yourself, Lacey.  Kane has told me a bit about you, but you know we do not talk that often.  But that is what Kane sees.  Tell me what you see about you.  What’s gone into making you, you, walking with me right now… a confident, strong woman who in these times is quite rare…”

The older man and the younger woman walked arm in arm through the park, sharing the first of what promised to be many more wonderful conversations….

***

    It was just after noon the following Sunday, and the house was empty.  And, if you asked him and he were being perfectly frank, Kane preferred it that way.  Lacey had gone to the gym earlier in the morning and said that afternoon she was spending time with her girlfriends. In the back of his mind, he knew there would be guys at the gathering too.  Kane grabbed a soda from the refrigerator and started making his way back to the couch.  He remembered the Spring just one year prior - he would have been right there along with them.  Sure, he didn’t quite fit with Lacey’s successful friends, but only one or two people had ever made him anything other than welcome.  And Lacey had always been proactive in asking him to be there.  But that was before… 

    He sat down on the couch and popped the tab on the can of sugar and carbonation.  He looked down at it.  And it greeted his eyes again.  One of a hundred sites he had committed to memory just to be safe.  He felt like… what did he feel like?  A jumbled, miserable mess perhaps.  He felt awful on so many levels.  He felt awful for what he knew he was doing to Lacey.  She wouldn’t have… wouldn’t have been that way with his father at the lunch otherwise.  She had tried so hard around the house, he knew it.  But he ignored it.  Not on purpose, but the thing in his mind.  It made him care about so little else.  And to his shame, that even extended to Lacey.  It had taken overt flirting with his father to pull him out of not caring for a few minutes.  But it didn’t last.  All he cared about was this.  And now… now, she was not trying as much anymore.  

He was treating her like shit.  And, he was treating himself like shit.  He looked at the screen - I mean, I am shit to be even looking at this, entertaining this.  Right?  Isn’t this what total shit people indulge in.  The trash so bad that people hide it on TOR…  But he couldn’t help it.  It pulled him back.  The feelings he felt when he looked at this, read it… it had to have been the high druggie’s chase.  He had never done it physically again, but… he wanted to.  Oh he wanted to.  Just like the guy told him he would.  But that would have been the last disrespect to Lacey.  

    Aw, Fuck.  Lacey…Maybe he should just let Lacey go.  He loved her beyond imagination, but sometimes you have to let go of the people you love for their own good, so that you don’t cause them pain right?  He was sure his father would have a pithy answer to that one but - Jesus FUCK how could he ever speak a peep of THIS to his father… And yet–

    Fuck, it just pulled him back in.  As easy as that.  He had lost track of time thinking of everything his father… the fellow at the gym.  His father would have been like the poster child of this, the “hero” of it anyway, but then again what was he not the poster child and hero of that was… well… perfect?   All they represented, the perfect they represented and were, while he was reading.  Reading IT again, temptation to pick and watch another TOR video.  It was fucking twisted, how he thought THIS was perfect.  But he couldn’t help it–

    KNOCK,KNOCK…

The knock at the door suddenly brought him out of the thoughts.  He was startled but he glanced out the window to see an Amazon van a house or two down.  Must be that at the door.  Odd Lacey hadn’t said to expect a Sunday Amazon, but, then again, no one or nothing ever knocked at their door except for delivery when Lacey was not at home.  Her friends knew where she was, and he had no friends to visit.  

Kane slid the laptop without care to the side of the couch, not even bothering to close the screen.  Who cares if an Amazon driver saw something on a laptop.   Besides it would be but for a second or two and there was no danger of Lacey returning anytime soon.  He rose to get the door.  He opened it, but his jaw dropped.  Something blocked the doorway.  SO BIG, it blocked almost all the daylight.  A familiar smell hit him even if the sight didn’t quite register as possibly real.  The strangely alluring scent of a Man, a sweat from his childhood.

 “Hello, Son.”

    It took that long for Kane’s shocked brain to register that it was a human being looking down on him.  One GARGANTUAN HUMAN BEING.

Holy Fuck… “D–D–Dad?” Kane managed to whisper.  This could not be his Dad.  This was a human monster, but it had to be his Dad.  The face, the voice, the smell, it was his Dad.  And the body… the BODY.  Tait looked like a god standing there.  And to many eyes, he was.  He dressed in only a stringer tank top, a pair of shorts that strained to cover only half his quads, and huge trainers and socks.  His skin was tanned and flushed and made him look almost oiled up for a photo shoot though he wasn’t. Small rivulets of sweat ebbed and flowed, seemingly at random but clearly down the deep cleft of his pecs and around his visible teardrop, and assuredly down his barely covered abs.  And veins… so many veins.  Veins on top of veins, but not in knots.  Not twisted or varicose.  These veins seemed to be a web of life that made the massive, cut muscled blow up even more, look even more perfect.  His eyes fell again to the giant pecs he was staring straight into. They had to be inches thick - that cleft between them, with a dripping waterfall of salt water and scent and it was… so fucking BIG.  He involuntarily licked his lips, his mouth dry.  

He was all so fucking BIG.  And so, fucking STRONG.  It had been years since he had seen his father like this, but even then he had NEVER been like this.  Ever.  So big and strong and huge and perfect and do– Everything I am not.  Good Lord, so big.  Like with that man at the gym that day, his world changed… except His father made the man at the gym look positively tiny–  

    Tait smiled down, seemingly oblivious.  He answered jokingly, “Last time I looked I was your Dad.  I was on a long jog, and I just decided to take a run up this way.  I’ve never seen your house, but when I saw the address was within range of my running, I followed google and here I am.” Tait said.  The statement interrupted Kane’s almost worshipful adoration and awe, but the young man was still staring, taken aback at this sight.  

And above, Tait was looking down, reading his son.  Tait may have seemed oblivious to the effect he was having, but he wasn’t.  It took little of his training to read his son.  ANYONE could read this reaction.  Tait just wondered why.  He had never seen this before from Kane.  What Lacey said made sense.  Kane… was well.. He was many things.  He was shocked when he should not have been.  There was… what was that look?  Was it– Couldn’t be.  Then under it - the emotion was just as clear as the shock.  Tait had seen it since his son was still in diapers.  Kane… was afraid.  Not scared, not intimidated.  He was afraid. Afraid of something, and so far as Tait knew, Kane had never been afraid of him in his life.   And - there it was, that something else again.  When he looked back to his chest.  It was beyond shock.  If he didn’t know better, he was sure it was desi-

“May I come in?” Tait said, not giving away what he was receiving from his son.  “I took a chance that Lacey would not be here, since she said she usually went to the gym this time of day, and I don’t see her car.  I think it’s time we had a talk - and in a place where there is no chance of being overheard.”  Tait knew he had one chance at this, and he needed some ambush tactics as an ally.  That was why, in truth, Lacey had told him to come at this time, and that she would be gone.

    Kane wanted to tell his father no, to go away, but how could he?  It was his father, after all.  He had done nothing wrong.  They had left that lunch on better terms than in months, since this… this all began.  How could he be that rude?  And that tone - Kane knew it.  The subtle hint of command.  Tait wasn’t going to take any sort of no for an answer.  He was going to come in, even if Kane had said no.  No one told Tait Holden no - not with that tone in his voice.  Sure, it was a suggestion, but the way he imagined a specialist telling you that you needed chemo to live was just a suggestion.  

    Kane stepped back and said, “I guess.  Come in Dad.  I guess - I guess we need to clear the air.”  Kane turned around and then saw the laptop.  Oh shit.   Has he seen?  Well, his father COULD NOT see that.  Not dressed the way he was.  Not with Kane feeling the way he was.  Not with his Dad in such a commanding mood.  Then he realized…Had he just been drooling over his own father!?!  Goddammit.  His father wasn't stupid enough not to start putting pieces together - and Kane could not allow that to happen.  His father and Lacey and his whole family would hate him in a moment–

As fast as he thought he could without drawing even more attention, Kane made his way to the couch, shifted the screen away from Tait, and closed to the lid.  Thank fuck it wasn't that video he was thinking of playing or a chat but just a wall of fiction on a story site.  He looked up at Tait trying to hide his apprehension - Tait didn’t seem to notice, but… then his father moved to sit on the couch.  Kane tried to hide his panic… Oh fuck, Fuck, FUCK.  His father signaled for him to sit next to him on the couch.  Tait didn’t seem to be giving off any other vibe than what he did at the door, but what if he saw, what if he knew.  What if - No, play it cool until I can't.  Like with Lacey.  If he asks just a weird porn he was gonna shut off-

Tait interrupted Kane’s spiraling thoughts by looking into his son’s eyes in an odd way - a way that no one except an uberhuman like his father was capable of.  Like his father could look right into his soul, into the very thoughts in his brain. 

NoNoNoNoNo

 “Kane. I am not gonna bullshit you.  I think you know I am here for a reason right?”  Kane slowly nodded.  He must have seen, Kane thought.  Kane blew out a breath as he waited for the Sword of Tait Damocles to fall.  “Son, I got a call from your golf coach - or is he still your golf coach at this point?  Matty, he is worried sick about you.  He told me all of a sudden you’ve become a shut-in.  There is talk of dropping you from the tour.  And then I come here and I see you acting like you did at lunch.  How you look sitting here right now.  It’s like life itself has been drained from you.  You tried to hide it at lunch, but I know you too well.  I don't know what but I can see it all around you.

“And then there is Lacey.  Jesus Christ son - she is worried sick about you.”

    Kane flashed a bit of anger for a moment.  He felt violated.  By his girl of all people. He felt like Anakin Skywalker seeing Obi-Wan Kenobi standing in a doorway saying Let her go.  And…it was an opening to gaslight his father away from the computer.   “Dad, did you see her behind my back?  What did she tell you?” he asked, letting the anger show.

    But it didn’t last, as Tait met that anger with his own MUCH more powerful version.  “Matty, don’t start.  Because you are doing the one thing that I will not accept.  The thing that will torpedo your whole life.  The thing I did to your mother.  Taking Lacey for granted.  I don’t care what you do or don’t learn from me but that is ONE THING -” 

Tait took a breath, calmed slightly.  But just slightly.  “She reached out to me because she is desperate.  Not because she hates you or is attracted to me.  SHE LOVES YOU BOY!!  She begged my pardon for lunch.  She was scared she scared me away from trying to help you.  

“But damn it, Son… She is gonna leave you.  She doesn’t want to.  Fuck boy, she loves you maybe even more than Jess loved me. She loves you every bit as much and more as I have ever seen any woman love a man.  But - if you keep treating her like this, she is going to leave you.  For her own sanity, and if you don't see it, you're pushing her to it.  

“What did she tell me?  She begged me for help.  Help for you.  She doesn’t have a clue what is happening.  But you… Matty, you don’t even touch her.  And she is too much like your mother - she will not just sit here and wither away.  You got damned lucky to have a superior woman love you.  A great career. And a heart and soul ANY man would envy having at his side.  I sure as fuck envy you in that.  But you’re gonna blow it all - You changed… in a minute.  She said like you're possessed by a demon that isn't the man she met.  I care about you both way too much to just let this fall apart for the two of you without a fight.”

Kane almost scoffed.  “Why do you want to fight for me Dad?  Why?”

“Because I LOVE YOU.”

“Really Dad?  You didn't look much like you loved me or wanted to fight for me when you were letting Lacey feel you up.  Looked like you were fighting for you.”

Tait’s eyes flashed again. But it wasn't with anger.  Not this time.   It was pain.  Few people knew how to truly hurt him.  One of them sat in this room and just did. “Everything I've ever done was for you and your mother.  Everything.  And that… that was fucking stupid of me and I'm sorry Son.  So is she…  She hadn't touched a man in months.  And me…” 

Tait took a huge breath as he looked away.  “You wanna know why I became a psychiatrist.  Really know?  Really want to know why I stopped playing football when I could have made a hundred million more and become a legend?  Just one reason.  One.”  Tait’s low, usually soothing voice morphed before Kane’s ears into something he had never heard before.  Ever.  He had heard his father from happiness to anger to sadness to anguish… but he had never heard pain-driven rage.  Barely controlled rage.  Rage at the world or God or fate for taking her before her time.  His fathers voice was now a terrifying low growl.  Kane had a split second flash that the only people who might hear this sound would be someone who had hurt or killed him or his grandparents.  Kane became afraid of his father hearing the growl - that his attempt to divert had veered into this… a monster he hoped he would live to never see again.

“I - promised - your - mother.  That's why.  I - promised - your - mother - on - her - grave...”  Tait’s anger became so strong that his eyes misted as he remembered.  That grave just a few miles away.  The giant man kneeling there on the fresh earth.  His words became even colder, deliberate.  So strong, frightening that Kane almost pulled back into a ball, ready to try and run.

Tait's eyes drilled into his son’s.  “I promised her AND you kneeling on that… that fucking coffin that I would do anything, give up anything.  Whatever it took so that you would not lose another parent's love.  That I would love you enough for the both of us.  That you'd feel her even if she wasn't… wasn't there.  

“I promised her that I would help you through it all.  Only… I looked at you and I didnt know how.  I DIDNT KNOW HOW.  For the only time in my life, I didn't have a clue how to start helping myself.  Much less you.  But that was my last promise to her and by heaven or earth or hell itself, I was gonna keep that promise.

“So… I quit.  I did what I was going to do when your mother became pregnant.  I quit and I turned to the one thing I could think of that would help me learn how to help you, Matty.  That's why.  I changed my whole life for you.  I stopped letting my body take that kind of beating.  I went back to college as some famous pro-baller.  I ducked and hid and did more than I'll ever let on to even you… Just because I needed to help you.  You are the best thing I ever did.  You're the piece of her that will go on.  And I did learn to help - I think I did, at least when it comes to mental health.  Even if I messed up with you sometimes.  I dedicated whatever time and resources I had left to me to protect and help you.  I told you all your life - I take care of what's mine.   And you're MY son…

“And after all that, you think I'd want to steal away your girl?  Really?  After all these years you think I'm not capable of finding a woman on my own without going after yours?  That I'd violate the rule I live by that means the most to me?  If so… then I totally fucked up the only think left of her that I could ever do.  And I guess you could take some satisfaction that you broke me when not even your mom dying could…”

Kane looked totally ashamed.  He had no idea…  how and why his father had changed his life.  He looked up at Tait, the anger breaking.  “I didn't know, Dad.  I didn't realize...”

“I know you didn't, Matty.  I never intended to tell you.  It was just… I hoped you knew how much I loved you anyway without the why’s like that.  Everyone else seems to know.  Everyone I work with.  The family.  Even Lacey could see it and we just met face to face.  I'm… I'm just not that good at showing YOU how much I love you.  It's how a man is with his son.  Don't forget that I’m an only son too.  The only son of a very successful man and grandson of another.  Just like you.  You may not think it, but I know what it's like to be you.  In all the ways that matter anyway.  You'll understand with your own kids one day that fathers - when it comes to our boys we don't always show love by what we say to you.  We will dote all over our girls.  But our sons… We show love to them by what we do for you and with you - things that you see sometimes but other times we show our love by things you never see.  Just like - Son I know you're Kane and that's the name you use but right now, in times like this, you're Matty to me and always will be.  

Tait took another deep breath… Time for another confession.   “Son, you have your golf coach because of me, at least indirectly.  I called him about you.  Call it using my position as an unfair influence if you want.  Maybe it is.  But I love you and when you showed your talent, I wanted to do what I could.  Now before you get too angry, I didn't pay him off to make him take you on or anything like that.

“Remember when you were having a hard time finding a coach that could work with your schedule just before you graduated?”  Kane nodded.  It was the devil to fund a coach who could fit him in.  “I was just gonna ask him for some names that I could give you of coaches you could look into.  Someone you might have missed.  But, when I asked, he chose to come and evaluate you himself and saw your talent and he chose to take you on.  You did it with your own talent.  It was all you - don't ever doubt that. It just started out as me asking someone you couldn't contact for help.  To help my son.   I just wanted to use the people I know to give you some names to help and there you go.

“And now, I want to help you and Lacey. Help you both with what I KNOW about.

  “Matty, I loved Jess more than you can possibly know and that I can never explain.  Will never even try.  Same as Lacey looks when she thinks about you and the confusion and pain she is in right now.  Told you… she reminds me of Jess more than you know.  I know you never believed that from the attention I got and keep getting from women.  You were around enough as a kid to see how some athletes lived with the attention.  Saw it in college too when you were there I suspect.  But I really would have given up everything for her and you.  Gone back to the ranch and never even lifted a weight outside of calves and feed if she asked me.  But she said no. 

“YOU - Son, you are the very last piece of her I have.  I promised her when we got married that I would fight for her and you.  I can’t fight for her anymore except through you.  And to see you — you actually have the chance to know and feel with Lacey what I felt with Jess.  I want you to understand that feeling - this feeling.  More than anything.  Having it for just one day is something you can't imagine, and I had it for almost 10 years. And even with how much I miss her everyday - everyday with that missing her was worth it.  Still is.  I've dated, tried. More than a few since I got out of residency.  But no one comes close to Jess.  But your chance now.  To know the only woman I've met since your mother who does come close.  And she wants you.  And it’s dying - and it's like you don’t even care.  

“LET ME HELP YOU MATTY.  Let's fight for this OK?  Let's fight together so you can be who you are and be happy.   If that is with Lacey or without OK.  But don't look back and regret that you don't have her because you didnt fight for what you have.”

    Kane’s cheeks were wet now, trying hard to control open sobs.  His father hadn't talked to him like this since his mother died.  And it didn't make sense then.  He just remembered it.  How strong his father was trying to be for him…

Strong.  He saw it in his mind’s eye for a second.  The whole hours-long event flashes before his eyes in vivid detail before he could stop it.  The man at the gym, what the man said… what he did.  What Kane felt and did and said… NONONONONONO.

Kane’s walls fell.  He forgot about whether his dad saw.  The dam began to break,  “Oh God, Dad… I don’t know.  I truly don’t know.  I'm sorry.” 

Kane was perfectly honest and he lied at the same time.  He answered questions and replied to revelations spoken and asked and unspoken.  He understood.  He knew, but at the same time, he didn’t know.  It didn’t make sense, but it did.   It - the MAN - Lacey… it was so reprehensible but felt so good.  

“It’s just.. Aw fuck it.”  Kane let loose with an open sob.  “Everything is so messed up Dad.  Everything feels so wrong.  I want what you just said you had with mom.  More than anything.  I love Lacey with all my heart but…”   Kane trailed off as voice fully turned into sobs.  

Tait reached out and immediately pulled his son into a massive embrace.  He felt his son immediately go limp in his arms.  Just like he had when he was a little boy.  Just like Lacey had.  Just like Jess had when she told him she was expecting.  Jesus, Tait thought.  He is fighting… something.  Fighting it so hard. No wonder he is withdrawn.  Is it what I – 

 Kane had tried to hide it, but he caught just a glimpse.   That website he was reading.  That is a HUGE leap to take but… Tait hadn’t thought anything of it at first.  Everyone reads some risque stuff from time to time.  But, what if it is WAY more than curiosity. OH SHIT.  

Tait tightened his grip, pulling his son in closer.  It was instinct - his promise to Jess and to his little boy the very first time he held him in his arms.  He wanted to protect him. He promised—

Tait felt Kane’s hands – FEEL him.  For a split second.  That wasn’t what hands do in a hug.  At least a normal hug.  That was like - that was like how Lacey felt him when she hugged him.  Not nearly as long, not in a sexual way.  But those hands were FEELING him nonetheless.  Like - his son needed to feel his strength for some reason.  Could THAT really be the reason?  Surely not.  Surely,  he would have noticed that by now.  At least some tell or some indication, but there wasn’t.  Never had been.  Or maybe he had been blind to it all along.  No wonder Kane was messed up though if it was THAT.

Still holding his son, Tait said, “Go on, Son.  You can tell me anything at all.  No matter what it is, you know I will never think less of you.  Never.”
    
    Kane pulled his head back and looked up at his father.  “I can’t.  I don't know Dad.  You might-”

    “Stop it Son.  I have always accepted you.  No matter what.  Go on.”

    Kane blew out a breath.  “PLEASE - don’t tell Lacey any of this.”

    “You have my word, Son.  And you know what that means to me.  Privately and professionally.  Especially now.”

    Kane looked into his fathers eyes with agony across his face.  Terror.  About so many things.  “I love Lacey, Dad.  I really do - but… there is this feeling I have found.  I can't even put a word to it.  I don’t know what it means.  I am trying so hard but… Dad, it scares me to try and put words to it.  That makes it real.  It is real but maybe if I never name it it isn't truly real.  I wish I could tell you, but I don’t know how to even tell you what it is.  It's like trying to tell someone blind what blue is.  I just don't know.  And I am scared of what it means if I ever can.  It changes everything about me.  It is so new… but it is so old.  Dad, I don’t know if I am strong enough to face it.  Everything it can mean.”

    Tait pulled back from the hug and let his son go, gently setting him down close beside him.  “It’s OK. Matty.  Profound changes, if this is what this is, can be scary.  Crazy scary.  But, if you are willing, I want to sit down with you and take this journey with you.  To help you figure this out.  Help you get on the right track - no matter what that track is.  One baby step at a time if it takes it.

“Son, I am going to be totally honest with you about what Lacery asked.  Lacey has asked for and accepted the same offer I just made you.”  

Kane almost voiced something but Tait continued, “I know what you are going to say.  That I can’t be your doctor.  It is unethical.  Let me finish.  I can’t practice with my family, that's true.  I will tell you what I told Lacey - this is not a doctor-patient relationship.  This is me - your father - helping my son.  Just like I am Lacey’s future father-in-law and friend helping her.  Yes, I am trained as a doctor and there are some things that I will bring from my training and experience into this if you accept.  On the other hand, since this is not medical care, there will be some things that I will not do, and there will be some things that I would never do with a patient that I will feel free to do with you if we need to.  Things that sometimes would make things go so much quicker and better.

    “But, confronting this truth will only change my feelings about you in one way.  Accepting difficult truths will only make me respect you more, not less.  Love you more, not less.  Always remember that.  OK?”

    Kane thought and measured for a moment.  But then he slowly nodded, “OK, Dad.  I trust you when you give your word not to tell her.  I just want to do this when Lacey isn’t around.  Like now.”

    “Deal.  Easily done.  That is what will happen for both of you.  This is as individuals UNLESS both of you agree to do something together.  And even then you will share with her and vice versa.  

I will never share what you share with me without express permission, and only then what you tell me.  Just like she told me I could tell you that I'd be helping her if I thought it might help you.  And I also give you my word - I will stay in San Francisco as long as it takes to help you both.  In fact, if you both are willing, I will check out of the hotel and stay in your guest room in the basement for a while.  Privacy when you two need it, but right here when either or both of you need it.  What do you say?”

    A hint of a smile came across Kane’s face.  “As long as Lacey says it is OK, and we have that guarantee of privacy if we need it… then, OK Dad.  I am willing  But we need to ask her.”

“Alright son.  I am looking forward to it.  We will start our sessions together as soon as we want.”  

Tait decided to push the conversation in a certain direction… just a hint, to see if what he saw on the website Kane had open was possibly related.  “When you said you didn’t know if you were strong enough to face it.  If it is a help, I think you are.  You are stronger than you ever suspect.  That being said, if you need to lean into me for a while…”  Tait then held up his massive right arm and flexed it.  “I think I am strong enough to handle it for both of us for a while.  I said I would give you a closer look when we had lunch and I did it for Lacey.  She is a girl and that's kind of important, but she barely knows me.  You've known me all your life.  What do you think?”

Kane’s jaw dropped as a mound that looked the size he imagined Everest must look like exploded into existence.  No - not Everest - the fucking Matterhorn.  It is so big and peaked and strong and…  his father really did make the man at the gym look like a fucking dwarf.  Which must make me look… positively weak and miniscule and pathetic and… Kane remembered at that moment a vivid image and feeling of looking up from waist high to this powering figure of a god.  Like a comic book superhero.  And the man was looking down at him… smirking.

Shit, So big and strong…  At that moment, Kane remembered when his father called him his little man.  And - something inside him, then as now, kind of liked it.

Tait used his skills to examine his son closely.  Several emotions were crossing Kane’s face - not all of them simply shock at his new muscularity.  He didn’t know precisely what those emotions were - they were a mess of a mixed, twisted jumble of conflict, that much was clear.  But, in a split second, Kane tried to bury them… but they were still not quite gone.  “Ahhhh…. Ya…. Dad.  You were always pretty big and strong.  I guess you still are.”  Then Kane did something neither he nor Tait ever thought would happen until that moment.  Kane’s hand flew forward and rested on the giant rock of living granite - much as Lacey’s hand had earlier in the week.  Feeling.  “But I don’t ever remember you being this…” Kane’s voice lilted just for a moment before he said almost in a whisper, “this big and strong.”

Tait pressed on just a bit more.  “Thank you, little man.  I for sure am trying to be.  Go ahead, maybe you can judge for me if I am improving the way I think I am while I am here.  Be my biased, unbiased eye on my growth.  I will help you grow in answering this question and you can help me grow too.  Maybe a little more literally but still growing.  But you know I am reminded of something.  Keep your hand right there for a minute.”  

Tait began to flex and unflex his arm under Kane’s hand.  Up… down.  Rock… not.  Power… softer. There was a flash of a dreamy expression, almost a slight hypnosis.  Kane was utterly taken in by what his senses were telling him.  “That’s it.  Just like that.  You remember when you were wrestling.  Did you or one of your opponents or teammates ever get hard during a match or at practice?  You remember?”

    There was a moment of shock on Kane’s face, but it faded as quickly as it was there.  His mind focused on his father’s arm, watching.  For a second he focused on his dick.  Was he hard… like he was with the man at the gym?  His body told him no, he wasn’t.  He had not given it away.  The traditional blocks about such things with his father, thankfully, were still there.  Kane tried to pull his hand away, but Tait raised his free hand and forced Kane to keep feeling.  “No son, keep feeling and answer the question.  There is a reason I asked.”

Kane then answered, “Ya Dad, it didn’t happen a lot but it did happen several times… both to me and guys I know and saw in matches.”

“I know Son.  Now, let me ask, did that response mean that those guys were gay or bi?  No, it didn’t.  Almost all the time, such a thing is simply a physiological response to close contact or touching.  Or with some it means that they were excited by dominating an opponent… or you and putting that little ass of yours in its place.  OR maybe you felt it putting someone else's ass in their place.”  

Tait then looked down at Kane.  “Son, our feelings are NEVER cut and dry.  In that way they are like bodybuilding and powerlifting.  Sometimes, our feelings are exactly as they seem.  Sometimes that bodybuilder really is as strong as he looks.  Like I hope I am.”  Tait smiled.  “But just as often, if not most of the time, those feelings actually point to something entirely different than what the surface seems like or what society might say they mean.  

“Just like that wrestler who gets hard might be gay, or he might be straight as an arrow, but loves dominating an opponent and the physical stimulation it takes to work your will on a mat.  Just like there are many bodybuilders who are weak as fuck though they are huge, and there are powerlifters who are your size who are twice as strong as guys who outmass them by 80 pounds or more.  

“Whatever it is you are feeling.  Whatever we find it means… if it is easy or it is something huge and hard and difficult to overpower that hasn’t even occurred to you yet.  You and I are as strong as the strongest muscle - and together we will be even stronger as we face it.  OK little man?”

    Kane was so relieved, as if his father had lifted off the too heavy bar the man had lifted off him at the gym that day… when he failed.  He dove toward his father’s exposed pecs and as best as he could he hugged them - and their giant owner.  He had not even entertained the idea that what he felt and went through that day with the gym man could mean something totally different than what the internet said it did.  That maybe it meant something different… and that his giant of a man of a father would be willing to face it with him.  That maybe - just maybe - he wasn’t alone.  Lacey wouldn’t understand - how could she - but his father just might and he might help her understand.  Maybe it wasn't the end of everything…

    “Thanks Dad.  Thanks for helping me and for facing it with me.”

    “Always son.  Always.  You never have to thank me for being there with you.  No matter what.  Like I said, you are my son and I love you.  You may be a grown man, but you’ll also always be my little man.  Yes, you are Kane, but you'll always be Matty too.  It is a grown man’s job to be strong and to be there for the people he loves.  We will be strong for each other and for Lacey when the time comes.  I love you kiddo.”  For several minutes, Tait and Kane kept sharing the moment - a moment they had not shared since Jess’s death.  Loving each other, Kane again learning he could lean into the giant man and he could hold him up.  That the giant man would face the world with him - no matter how different they were.  And that Lacey might… just might… face it with him too.  He wasn't alone anymore.

    As the hug between father and son went on, the wheels in Tait’s mind were turning.  Several times now, he felt Kane’s hands feel him - as if in reassurance. It was not a mistake or isolated incident that he had felt earlier.   So strange … so much like Lacey had been when she was feeling his muscles for strength and security.  Both of them needed a man’s strength in their lives right now.  A proper man.  The sort of man his father and grandfather and Jess taught him how to be.  The reasons behind that need from both were different to be sure, but they both were in dire need of a man.  They both felt so out of control.  He could tell.  They needed someone to help them feel in control.  He was more than enough man for the both of them for all they needed.

    When the hug pulled back, Tait knew he needed to offer Kane a way out and to be comfortable with what he shared. Another assurance that their relationship hadn't changed except for the better. So he offered that in a way he often did - humor.  “Now, little man.  I know you are strong but -”  Tait reached down, lifted his tank top up and revealed a truly monumental, etched deep wall of abs.  Then he pulled back his fist and leveled it into the bricks with a terrifying smash… which only resulted in a loud thwack against the horrifically strong brick wall, “ever think you’ll be THIS strong???”

    Kane looked disgusted, amazed, and grateful at the same time.  That smash would have broken bones on someone else.  Kane, however, let loose a broad smile.  He took his little hand and gently patted the warm granite bricks.  “Fuck you, old man.”

    Tait chuckled, “Always nice to have goals in life you can never reach.  But keep trying Champ.”  Tait smiled more widely.  “Got anything besides that soda?  Growing muscle requires a little better food and I'm starving.”

“I can see those abs aren't going to last long at this rate…”

***

    Lacey’s phone lit up with a text while she was at the park with her friends.

    Tait: Lacey.  We need to speak in person at your earliest convenience.  There is something about Kane that I need to share with you - concerning helping him and you too.  Things went quite well, I think. But please let me know when I can pick you up - an evening before dinner would be best considering the discussion that needs to be had. 

    Lacey’s reaction was instant..

    Lacey: I can do this evening if it will help Kane.  He is accustomed to me having dinner with my friends on Sunday before I come home.  Can I meet you in the lobby of your hotel at 6 pm?

    Tait: Fantastic.  That is perfect.  I will be waiting.  Please erase this interchange on your phone.  I will send something about you both coming to the 49er’s gym with me in a few moments.  The text is true and something we will talk about tonight.  But - as part of what Kane needs, he cannot know about this meeting and what we will discuss.  Not until it is time to reveal it.  See you this evening.

    Lacey did as she was told and erased the interchange.  And sure enough, less than 30 seconds later, Tait had texted about times to meet for them to go to the gym together - a joint message between her and Kane and Tait asking about times.  They shortly arranged a time of 11 am the next morning.  As long as Kane did not look too closely at a cellphone bill, this interchange would explain messaging between them…  

    That evening just before six, a beautiful young woman came into the lobby of the Four Seasons.  She was in casualwear - jeans and a nice blouse, but she was an absolute knockout.  A lot of men looked and several contemplated walking up to her - until the giant muscle model fellow who had been staying at the hotel that weekend came up to her.  

The pair seemed to go together like peanut butter and jelly everyone thought.  Of course the rugged man’s man would have such a woman at his side… none of them ever considered that this was a father-in-law and daughter-in-law when Tait leaned down and kissed Lacey's hand as usual.  The entire lobby was quite sure… that was only for public consumption until there were more fireworks later.

Tait led Lacey up the bank of elevators that led to his suite.  As soon as the door closed she was quite intent - “What's wrong with Kane, Tait?  I have to know.”

Tait smiled, “I don't get the direct approach that much.  It's something I appreciate.  You might want to sit down when we get to the room first.  I promise - I don't think it's life-threatening.”   

Tait brought Lacey to a set of rooms she was sure had to be more appointed for one of her father’s banking clients or the very wealthy than for someone normal enough to stay here.  Once the door was opened, he led her inside, guided her to the very nice couch in the living area, and sat next to her.

Then Tait began, “Well the good news is that Matty agreed to work with me the same way you are.  The bad news, that wasn't unexpected, was that he was totally tight-lipped about exactly what he is going through.”

Lacey immediately looked deflated and the glint of tears just began to highlight her eyes.  Tait immediately reached over and took her hand.  “No, no.  No reason for tears.  I know my son.  We talked for a long while and the fact is… I have an idea.  Like you, he asked that I not share some things and of course I will do that unless his safety is threatened.  But we wer3 able to share some things and I hope over time he will truly open up to me from his own mouth.

“Now, that said, I need to test to see if my hunch is right.  But if it is what I suspect… Lacey, I don't mean to put you on the spot.  But, I'll need your help with this.  With Matty's version of therapy.  Just like you finding out a bit more about who you are, we are going to help Matty do the same thing.  For you - it will mostly be a solo thing.  You and I talking, exploring of course.  But mostly for you, this is a path you'll navigate yourself.  You're ready for that.

“Matty, though, is different.  For him,  It will take both of us.  And some things that will seem quite… odd.”  Lacey looked perplexed.  But Tait patted her hand, “Don't worry.  I'll explain everything we will be doing over dinner.  And I really think doing this will help you as well. 

“But I want you to understand.  You may come to view Kane very differently when we are finished.  Like sometimes I see him as Kane, but sometimes it’s Matty.  As he may view both you and me differently.  What we need to do… Well it is a bit of a risk.  Like I said, I'll explain.   But if it goes as I think - both of you may be so different that your relationship as you know it might end.  Not that your relationship will end, don't misunderstand.  Rather I think you'll build a new, much healthier one for you.

“Can you be prepared for that?

Lacey took a breath.  “I guess I don't have a choice do I?  At least this way there is a chance we can stay together.  If it keeps going the way it is… There isn't any hope.  You've already helped me see that.  I love Kane.  I want to be with Kane.  But if I have to go - either for myself or for him…. I guess I will.

Tait beamed down at her.  “You really are an amazing woman.  But let's look at this as a positive.  Matty said the almost exact same words to me.  He loves you.  And he wants you to be happy more than anything.  And he wants you to work.  

Now, what I'm planning for us to do, all you have to do is be who you naturally are.  You have a natural dominant personality that will work very well for this.”

“Dominant personality?  Lacey asked.

Tait laughed, “As they say, it takes one to know one, even if you don't fully grasp that part of yourself yet.  Part of your self-discovery is making peace and embracing the dominant personality inside you.  I certainly had to, and I will help you.  Thing is - society loves dominant men but sort of frowns on dominant women.  But me… I am quite comfortable around women like you.  So no matter what kickback you might see, just know that with me, I want YOU and YOU - and Matty will need it.

“Now, just think.  Two dominant personalities with the same goal?  Nothing in this world stands a chance against us.” 

“Tait, why are you calling Kane Matty again?”

Tait looked a bit sheepish.  “Today's talk of a long time ago.  Like I said, sometimes he is Kane to me and sometimes Matty.  And, I have other reasons.  I’ll share, but it's quite intentional.  Now, one last thing before dinner and we get down to nuts and bolts.  

“Because of that natural affinity between us, and what you and I will do where Matty is concerned, you and I will bond in a way that you won’t with him.  We have to make sure he isn't jealous of that… except when we want him to be.  Because his bond with you and his bond with me will be just as unique.  OK?

Lacey smiled.  “Wow, can you make a girl curious?  OK.  I'll do my best.  But if you and I are dominant… I notice you left out Kane.  How does he fit?”

“Ah now that is a question. I don't know.  But that question goes into the first thing we are going to do to him.  It is going to require something he doesn't have large stores of these days.  Patience.”  

Tait opened the door to his room and invited Lacey to again take his arm as they had earlier that week in the park.  They walked arm in arm toward the elevator, the restaurant, and their meal.  

“But your personality and mine are not known for our patience either.  Playing ball made me patient.  Which brings me to you.  Other than our talking, I thought that our first steps in therapy for you might be a very practical one.  The invitation to the gym - if you are willing, I don't want to just take you to the 49ers facility.  While I am in town I'd like to train you in the gym personally one on one.”  

They stepped into the elevator and the door closed.  “As a cheerleader you know that learning the balance skills, the lifting skills, the choreography of cheers takes quite a while and patience.  Building a body is the same.  You look incredible, but there is always a new method of training to learn.  I'd like to teach that to you and see if you gain things from it… Including patience and some things that might help Matty along the way.   As a very practical matter, if I need to change things with what we are doing with Matty the gym alone gives us time to do so.  Besides…”  

Tait smiled and rippled his pecs through his shirt and the effect on Lacey was instant… another hint of what Tait had hidden behind his shirt as what looked in his full glory moved at his whim.  “I think I have some skill and knowledge to pass on in that area.  Not only in building men's bodies but women's too.  What do you say?”

Lacey smiled immensely.  “I'd LOVE it, Tait.  Kane and I used to work out together sometimes… But he doesn't anymore.  Little by himself and none with me. We bonded and got so much closer… I miss it.”

“Well then, we will make him see just what he is missing.  Maybe seeing both of us change will help motivate him to get back.  He agreed to help me keep a check on my progress and I intend to hold him to it.  And maybe your progress too.  We are certainly going to work on his motivation.”  Tait smiled broadly as they went to Tait's vehicle.  He helped Lacey in and then went to the driver's seat.  He cranked the vehicle and began, “Alright. Let me share first what we are going to do with Matty.  It is a version of something called exposure therapy.  It is usually done with someone who has particular kinds of anxiety or PTSD.  WhIle I'm not certain he has that, he certainly shows some signs.  And this modification will serve us in other ways  …”

***

“The Boss isn’t going to like this, Doctor Holden.”  James, Tait’s New York office manager, said over the phone.  James was a good man about ten years younger than Tait, who suffered an injury that had taken him out of organized sports well before his time.  Among many things, James had the guts to stand up to him when he needed to. It was rare for Tait to find in another man, and Tait had helped cultivate it when he found it. Besides, like it or lump it, having a man on the other end of the phone with league officials always seemed to cut some of the red tape.  James would often get a lot less flack than his personal secretary when she placed a call over the same exact issue.  Maybe someday things in the league might be different…

    Tait laughed over his cellphone.  “Come on.  I can be extremely persuasive.”

    “How well I know.  You conned me into working for you, after all.  Are you sure about the time?”

    “Conned?  Tell that to your wife.”  

    “Ouch.  Low blow.”  Both laughed.  The pair shared an unspoken double meaning, a secret both shared.

“But in all seriousness, I am not exactly sure on the time I need.  May be finished sooner, or it may take more time.  Depends on how things go.  But, I have the time off stored up.  Roger knows I will not take no for an answer when it comes to my family.  My son and daughter-in-law have a personal issue, and I WILL help them deal with it.  He can tell the owners that too.  Or I will.  

“I’ll be available if there is some real need, just like when I go to the cabin.  I'm sure the Niners will allow me to use office facilities if necessary, and I will buy tickets out of my own bank account to get anyone truly necessary here if I need to do an in-person interview.  It means that much to me.  No different than a normal year.  Just that my time off is going to start earlier.”

    “I doubt the Commissioner will risk the wrath of the Union and half the owners not to do things the way you want, Doctor Holden.  Would you want an unnecessary call from Jerry Jones or the Haslams?”  

    Tait chuckled again, “What do you mean?  I love getting calls from Jerry.”  Both laughed at that one.

    “I have the letter for the Commissioner and your forms ready for you.  Should be in your email for your signature in a few minutes.  See you at the cabin in August, Doctor.  And – Good Luck.  You and Kane deserve a good break.”

    “Thank you.  I’ll be in touch as I need things.  And if you need anything special besides–”

    “You know we will have to run that old Triple Tight End play you are accustomed to before the summer is out.”

    Tait laughed.  “Of course.  You're welcome to bring her to our little Montana work retreat like always.  The creek is always perfect for swimming and fresh fish.  Just tell her I'll have had all summer to grow even bigger.  It will have been a few months since I will have seen either of you.”  Tait snickered over the phone  “Remember when she insisted on measuring my arm and it turned out it really is bigger around than your head?  Just think… EVEN BIGGER. Have to give you more gym time to keep up, Jimmy.”   Then, he said, “Alright.  Enough fun.  Now get to it… little man.”

***

    Triple Tight End.  

It was code between him and James and James’ wife Janet.  Stanford was famous for running the triple tight end and quad tight end formations as an offense.  Stanford was often called Tight End U around football.  Tait had run plays of that design more times than he could count.  No one could question it in context… And it meant exactly what it was intended to imply, except when James or Janet said it to him.  

James had come to Tait’s attention during his last year of med school.  As an advanced student. Tait had been asked to take several cases for his own in a very supervised forum.  Given Tait’s history and that James had been until the month prior a Stanford scholarship football player, the fit was expected to be a natural.  

James had done many things for Tait.  Their sessions had given the clue that working with athletes was where Tait had a true gift, above and beyond his gift at psychiatry.  He had worked with James on a wide scope of issues in those first months together.  James was the one and only time where Tait had ever crossed professional boundaries with a patient and had allowed that relationship to become intensely personal.  It taught Tait many things about himself, and how to keep detachment, though he never did with James or Janet again.  

In his interviews, James had voiced sexual concerns in his relationship with his wife.  Sexual counsel wasn’t anything new.  He had found a lot of players had issues with their significant others being on the road and the time needed.  He had had it himself. And after such a significant injury, where self-confidence and physical injury could lead to dysfunction, it became a topic Tait had helped James with at some length.  And, as part of this, Tait had occasionally invited Janet along with James into the office for couples therapy when James allowed… and it began there.

    It was slow, of course.  Both of them voiced the tensions to Tait and to each other as their comfort levels grew.  Turned out that while everything was there for a healthy sexual relationship, both felt like something was missing.  But, neither was sharing what it was, if they understood it themselves.  

Tait had no idea just how far this missing thing went until one night over a month.  A group of senior med school students were out for a dinner party.  And while Tait was ALWAYS noticeable wherever he went, the place was very crowded with a large number of boisterous students among the other regular restaurant patrons.  The initial gasps around Tait had long subsided and he had gained enough anonymity to enjoy his meal, when his eye happened to land on a familiar face.  

Janet.  She was alone - or he thought so at first until he saw the man sitting at the intimate booth along with her.  The man she was with was so different than James - much more like Tait.  Tait could feel it.  Though the man was quite a bit smaller than James in spirit he was very take charge, dominant. Tait tried to watch where he could and he noted some sexual looks.  Body language.  Was it an affair?  Was that the issue? An issue James didn't know but felt?   It was not Tait’s place to inform James, as much as he might have liked to.  But he used the information in his sessions with James, seeing that James was different around the topic of intimacy.

    All the pieces fell into place another night in mid-January of his last semester. This time, he was at a rather raucous club where one of the football graduate assistant staff was having a bachelor party. Tait was invited this time, as was James and Janet. Everyone was there, introductions were made.  The usual.  But Tait didn't want to draw too much attention as sometimes social gatherings together made patients feel awkward.  

The party was in full swing and Tait was moving toward the bar for a drink when he noticed a nondescript, metal side door.  A side door with a rather large doorman in front of it.  As Tait looked on in curiosity as fate had it, he saw James and Janet with a small bag at that door.  They quietly showed something to the doorman and he allowed them into what looked like a stairwell that led down.  

It was their body language, and curiosity, that led Tait to want to know what was behind that door and down those stairs.  It was just… odd.  So he went up to the doorman and looked down at him.  The doorman, feeling tiny for the first time in years said, “Well fuck me.  Someone hit the damned motherlode.  I take it you are here for someone?”  Tait pressed his luck and said James and Janet’s names.  His eyes got wider still.  “Oh, them.  They just went down.  No need to see an ID for you… SIR '' The doorman opened the locked knob and permitted Tait entrance but the way he said SIR.  It was… odd.  Again.  

    If you had told Tait what was at the bottom of that stair, he never would have gone down.  And he would have never discovered this world.  Until that night, such things had only been the butt of locker room taunts and legend in his world.  There were some references in his sexual psychology classes of this.  But that was all.  

Before Tait stretched a smaller bar.  A dark bar with music and decorations and implements.  On a couple of televisions, Dominance BDSM porn played.

Tait’s eyes were wide when he noticed and the noise of the bar stopped.  James and Janet looked up - now dressed in a much more revealing fashion.  Janet in all black, James in white with a chain and small lock around his neck.  It was then that Tait noticed everyone was in some form of black or black and white.  And as usual he was in comfortable but slightly revealing club clothes… all black.

“Oh my God.  Oh, no.”  Both said in unison.  

They ran up to the giant muscle man who looked like both the patron saint of this place and also like a fish out of water.  The pair were shocked at first - and angry.  They were furious at Tait for following them and prying where he did not belong until it became very clear that Tait didn't have a clue what this place was or what they were really doing there.  

Then they looked at each other, “Doctor Holden… Tait…I… I guess we should explain.” James said.  James and Janet invited him into a private sort of room with a bed and various items.  On the bed, what Tait came to know later was called a “gimp suit.”  And also in the room was a man - dressed in black.  Much smaller but in black and well toned.  Perhaps a rock climber or yoga instructor.  He definitely had the outline of abs through his black get up.

The man Tait didn't know looked terrified of Tait.  That this had become some sort of victimization with a man who could gently break them all without himself shedding one drop of sweat.  It was then that Tait remembered - he was the man he had seen Janet out with that night alone.

“It’s OK, Tom. Please stay.” Janet said.  Then James chimed in, “This is… i hope will still be a friend, Sir.  And we need to explain.”  

James and Janet finally began to explain the missing piece Tait never grasped.  James and Janet were in a Dominance/submission sexual relationship.  While James was normally quite the dominant sort of fellow, he had a massive fetish for being submissive in the bedroom.  And Janet, his opposite number, got off on being in control over James with another dominant man.  That was Tom.  He was their bull, in the language.  

Over the evening no sex was had but everything was explained to Tait, who found himself curious, despite how foreign the desire was to him.  Tait was a very dominant man and enjoyed being so in every aspect.  James apologized and said he never should have gotten past the doorman when Tom laughed and said - “Look at HIM.  Would you tell the God of all Dominant men "No" at that door?  I mean… I met Janet at the gym and things went from there.  But how he is dressed and - Tait was it - may I ask for you to hold up your arm?”  Tait didn't put much into it but he did. “Jesus fucking Christ - tell HIM and that body no.  Here?!?”

They stayed until last call.  And after that… Tait became curious.  How did this world work?  He began to read and found it oddly fascinating.  He found scholarly literature on the subject from someone named Guy Baldwin.  He could understand at least some of the appeal to a dominant personality.  One who liked being in control like he did.  There was the allure of the taboo for sure.  And slowly, as Tait gained James and Janet's trust, they began to share with him from more than just an introductory or academic point of view.  

Just one home visit at first - and that became two and then three.  James began to call him SIR.  Janet explained and invited Tait in. Tait saw James transformed into a subservient beta bitch.  And Tait found… He liked taking control of James when invited.  Not sexual contact, just control of a very intimate sort of way.  

Within a year, Tait took control of them both… and he became their bull.  James submitted to him and revealed himself as a cuck.  James sat to the side and watched Tait and Janet - and as the barriers dropped, both began to almost worship him as that patron saint they spoke of that night at the bar. 

Tait kept this to just these two, but found the relationship both curious and strangely exhilarating.  Janet was so verbal - talking about how much bigger, stronger, how much better at sex Tait was than James.  How much bigger his tool was.  How much more Tait could make her orgasm. And he had to admit James' tiny dick - while a bit above average he knew - was nothing compared to his.  Well before he had ever seen it, Janet pointed out James’ hard dick through his jeans.  Tait -in a little more locker room fun -  smiled and winked and pressed his own jeans around his purely flaccid member and James gasped… and withered a bit.  They knew EXACTLY who was the MAN and who wasn't between them. 

Tait thought that belittling a man would bother him.  But Tait saw that James CRAVED what she was saying.  What she was doing.  And what he did to him.  So, Tait naturally began to engage too.  Lording over and belittling “little Jimmy” as Tait now called him behind closed doors, like hyperactive locker room banter.  He found he rather enjoyed the control over the pair.  Both of them wanted it, and Tait - Tait slowly learned to deliver that dominance.  He became SUPREMELY good at it. 

He shaped them - shaped them both in the bedroom and out.  He shaped James to become what seemed to most to be an Alpha male.  James stood up to everyone - just as he did now as Tait’s office manager.  But with those words - Triple Tight End - Jimmy collapsed into a submissive cuck, almost a male slave to Tait’s whims.  

And Janet - Janet craved so much what Tait gave her.  Over the years, Tait found that women like Jess and Lacey - who were actually instinctively attracted to the kind of veiny huge bodybuilder muscle he had was rare.  Even if they were attracted to his height, an over 6’9” Frank Zane was scary to most.  Not Janet though.  Janet came to very nearly worship every muscle and compared them to James with him standing there whenever she could.  She LOVED muscle worshiping Tait.  So much so that full out sex in their encounters, while not uncommon, didn't happen nearly as often as compared to how much she loved his body and strength.

And in return, Tait changed her into the take charge kind of woman James needed in his day to day life.  She kept James going.  The hole in their lives was filled.  The couple’s love grew and flourished.  

But, they had both become dependent on Tait’s size and power and command and his cock… Though for Tait it wasn't love or proper female companionship with an equal like he loved.  It was a fetish he really liked, but not love.  Tait the Bull, Janet the dominant woman, and little Jimmy the cuck.  No more or less.  

***

As good as his word, James had the documents in Tait's email box.  Tait signed the forms and sent them up the chain.  He had never asked for time off outside of his contract before.  Not a single day of PTO.  Now, he had just asked for two months off.  But he had the time… and he was going to use it.

As Tait drove back toward the hotel, he began to think.  His little banter with James and the codewords and the memory of his first time dominating them.  Why had he thought about that?  

It was that website he saw Matty was reading.  It was a page about dominance and submission.  A porn page, porn stories about it, but Tait read enough words before Matty shut it off to understand what it was.  What Matty was saying, what he was feeling… Tait had no idea if Matty was thinking about the dominance or the submissive side.  But the emotions, the conflict, the forbidden allure.  If Matty had some feelings in that world - it could explain everything.  And why he was so scared to share.  Taboo subjects of a sexual nature that were frowned upon by society - though so many people had them.  But few were able to express them.  

But, Tait had a plan.  A plan to help both his son and future daughter-in-law - in more ways than one.  He had helped James get his backbone in every way but one.  Perhaps all of that experience with James and Janet was for a reason… Perhaps the apple was not that far from the tree.
 

[Jtchef2]

WOW WOW WOW what an amazing chapter that you have presented to us @dredlifter

Thank you for your excellent writing! I am loving this story and can’t wait to read more!

[TonnyGiant]

Tait = Dominant Giant, Alpha, god of muscles.  

Lacey = dominant girl.  

Kane/Matty = submissive puppy.

 I'm liking this setup.

[gymratX]

One chapter? More like whole friking novela, don't get me wrong i'm not complaining of getting it just that i don't have time to read it rigth now

 

[ploder4]

Great chapter.   I'm kinda nervous that we'll find Kane/Matty become a complete submissive to anyone. 

I hope he ends up like James, submissive in the bedroom, dominant outside.

Wherever this story goes it will be a great read.  It's really pulling the emotions in me. 

[TonnyGiant]

39 minutes ago, ploder4 said:

Great chapter.   I'm kinda nervous that we'll find Kane/Matty become a complete submissive to anyone. 

I hope he ends up like James, submissive in the bedroom, dominant outside.

Wherever this story goes it will be a great read.  It's really pulling the emotions in me. 

I think that's exactly what will happen if there isn't a very surprising twist.

[DennisFLL]

What a refreshingly unique and intelligent style of writing!  And the story certainly veered in a surprisingly different direction than I had first thought we were heading after reading chapter 1.  Bravo!