6. Paolo

It might only have been 5:00AM but Paolo, Taine, and Bear were working up a sweat in the academy's combat gym. And when three alpha Daddies got together, there was no such thing as a truly friendly sparring session either…

‘Harder!' Taine barked, taking a shot to his midsection from Paolo as Bear attempted to mount him from the rear. ‘You two sonsofbitches need to do more to get the champ down.'

‘Don't worry, we will do,' Paolo grunted, landing a swift double jab to Taine's protective headguard.

‘Time to go to the mat!' Bear roared, hooking his fingers together around Taine's shoulder and taking him down to the floor.

The sight of the these three Daddies in nothing but workout shorts and protective headgear would have been like a wet dream for any number of Littles across the city. But in the privacy of the academy gym, it was simply a case of three good friends pushing one another to the limit…

‘Fuck, that was hard work,' Bear said, sitting on his heels and breathing heavily. ‘I can see why you're still the champ at thirty-nine, Taine.'

‘I'm not the champ yet,' Taine replied, wiping the sweat from his brow as he removed his headguard. ‘I've got a title eliminator in three months, and then after that I'll be shooting for the big one.'

‘Well if fighting two guys helps, I'm down to keep on helping,' Paolo said, stretching his hands above his head before checking the time on the digital wall clock.

‘Somewhere to be?' Taine asked, a knowing grin on his face. ‘Don't tell me… one on one time with Tommy Jane?'

Paolo tried to put his best poker face on, but for once his ability to hide his emotions deserted him and he let a smile creep onto his face.

‘It's professional,' Paolo said. ‘Nothing more. He's cute, but whatever. I'm in this for money. And when I'm done, I'm back out onto the street and doing what I love to do.'

‘You prefer assassinating guys to hanging out with cute boys?' Bear enquired, arching his eyebrow. ‘You do you, of course but… why can't you have both?'

Bear and Taine exchanged a look together as Paolo tried to come up with an answer. But as Paolo scrambled for a pithy comment to make, he found himself wanting. The truth was that there was no real reason why he couldn't have a boy while still being a hitman.

The only thing stopping Paolo was the trust issues that still haunted him from his last boy. And unless something major happened to the wiring in his brain, those issues weren't about to go anywhere any time soon.

‘I'll catch up with you guys later,' Paolo said, realizing that it was time to make his exit before the men started probing any deeper into his feelings for Tommy.

‘Laters,' Bear replied.

‘Give him a good spanking from us,' Taine added, laughing as Paolo exited and made his way toward the locker room so that he could shower and then get himself ready for Tommy.

Paolo wasn't one for long showers, so after cleaning himself up under the hot water, he stepped out of the shower enclosure and into the locker room's main area.

Totally nude and with his cock swinging freely, Paolo was confronted by the sight of a blushing Tommy staring right back at him.

‘I… um… I was big early, I mean that's big, I mean I was early,' Tommy said, flustered and not knowing where to look.

Paolo didn't cover himself up.

Part of being a hitman was the ability to stay calm and composed even under the most stressful of situations. So instead of concealing his manhood, Paolo stood and allowed the locker room's AC to dry his naked body.

‘Meet me in Room 2C,' Paolo said, a twitch in his cock as it rose ever so slightly to attention. ‘I'll be five minutes.'

‘Y-y-y-y-yes, sir,' Tommy replied, still seemingly unable to keep his eyes from wandering toward Paolo's bottom half.

And with that, Tommy turned and made a beeline for the exit.

‘Stop!' Paolo bellowed, his voice suddenly firm. ‘You need to pack your things away in the locker first. If you're going to train with me, you need to keep your standards high across the board.'

‘Yes, sir,' Tommy spluttered, cleaning away his stuff and stuffing it in the nearest locker as quickly as he could.

Paolo smiled as he watched Tommy desperately try to fight the urge to ogle his thick, long cock. The boy was trying his hardest, but there was definite room for improvement, that was for sure.

Tommy did take one final look and it was clear from the smile on his face that he liked what he saw. And as the boy left, Paolo wondered whether the burgeoning electricity between them was a sign of things to come…

The training room was another example of the sheer scale and size of the academy. It might have been called Room 2C, but in reality it was more akin to a series of streets.

Designed and built to replicate an inner city environment, the training room was full of twisting corridor areas, ledges, vantage points, and the kind of spots that any trained killer would relish.

‘Evasion. Stealth. Speed,' Paolo said, looking immaculate in his all-black ensemble of sports turtleneck and athletic leggings. ‘I know you've got those skills on the ice, but now I need to see evidence of it here.'

‘I've got it, don't worry,' Tommy said, evidently feeling confident.

‘Did you read my homework assignment?' Paolo enquired, not entirely convinced by Tommy's cocky attitude.

‘Um, yeah,' Tommy responded, a little too hurriedly. ‘Of course.'

‘Well let's get to work then,' Paolo said. ‘We're two assassins on the hunt for one another. We need to make it to the central pod undetected. But really it's all about who spots who first. We'll be going over this exercise until I'm satisfied. I want you to think first and foremost about staying calm and collected. Remember, a panicky hitman is a dead hitman.'

With that, the two of them dispersed and made their way around the myriad twists and turns of the room's man made micro-city.

After a minute where both of them ran to their starting point, Paolo hopped up onto a small ledge and listened for a moment.

Where are you, boy?

Make a mistake, I dare you.

I'm ready to pounce…

Paolo listened as hard as he could, but there wasn't a sound. Either Tommy was perfectly still, or he was moving with a newfound stealth. This was promising, but Paolo wasn't going to let the boy win and get to the central pod first.

After pivoting and juking across the nearby area, Paolo stopped dead in his tracks as he heard the sound of footsteps close by. It was Tommy, and he'd given himself away in the most infuriatingly obvious way.

The slight jangle of something in Tommy's pocket was the giveaway. And this was despite the fact that the homework Paolo sent Tommy made it explicitly clear that any sniper worth his salt never carried anything in his pockets that could make a sound and put the hit in jeopardy.

The boy has to learn his lesson.

This will not stand.

If he won't read his homework, I'll teach it to him in a way he'll never forget…

Paolo switched direction and rounded up behind Tommy and touched him on the shoulder. Game over. But Paolo wasn't going to praise Tommy for evading capture up to that point. It was time to explain to the boy that not reading his homework came with serious consequences…

‘What? A spanking?' Tommy squealed, incredulous as Paolo explained precisely what would happen as a consequence of him not reading his homework.

‘You knew the deal,' Paolo said, his Daddy Dom energy ramping up as the boy failed to own his mistake or accept the consequences. ‘I'd be careful about refusing to accept responsibility if I was you.'

‘This is ridiculous!' Tommy said, stomping his feet on the floor. ‘I nearly won! I was only a few moves away from the center.'

‘But I caught you. Because of your mistake,' Paolo barked. ‘A mistake that only came about because you didn't do your reading. And not forgetting that you had the audacity to lie to me about it too. No, your butt is getting heated up, and I don't mean maybe.'

‘Fine. But I'm keeping my leggings on,' Tommy protested.

‘Oh no you are not,' Paolo roared, taking Tommy by the hand, and leading him over toward the smooth, rounded central hub. ‘I'm spanking your naked buttocks and I'm going to spank them until I'm convinced that you've learned your lesson. Now give me your safeword, young man.'

‘Alphabet,' Tommy snapped, his bratty side coming to the fore. ‘And I bet you can't even spank good.'

‘Alphabet it is,' Paolo replied, bending Tommy over and yanking his leggings down and taking Tommy's jockstrap down too. ‘Now hold still and grip onto the hub. I'll have these cheeks lighting up the whole room in no time at all.'

And with that, Paolo began to bring down spank after spank onto Tommy's exposed cheeks. There was no doubting that Tommy was in pain – how could he not have been given how quickly his cheeks turned from a milky white to a roaring flame-red? But Paolo was impressed by Tommy's resilience.

‘Do you need a break?' Paolo asked, pausing for a moment to assess the state of Tommy's glowing cheeks.

‘No, keep going,' Tommy replied, a defiance in his voice that was just on the right side of sassy. ‘I don't want to cut any more corners from now on. I want to do things properly.'

Paolo was impressed.

In fact, he was very impressed.

But that didn't change the fact that he had a spanking to deliver and he was going to deliver it in full. There would be no early finish for good behavior. It was time to bring it home…

‘Five,' Paolo said, landing a crisp and accurate spank to Tommy's left cheek. ‘Four… three… two… and… one! We're done.'

Paolo stepped back and watched Tommy immediately spring up from the hub and start hopping from foot to foot, desperately reaching behind him to try and cool his cheeks.

‘It's okay, boy, I know it hurts,' Paolo said. ‘And I'm not a total monster either. Turn around and let me make your bottom feel at least a little bit cooler.'

‘Y-y-y-yeah, that would be pretty great,' Tommy replied, his voice quiet and full of humility.

Paolo quickly reached into his secret pocket and pulled out a perfect travel-sized sachet of cooling cream. As he squeezed it all out onto Tommy's red butt, he realized that perhaps Tommy might have learned his lesson – and that could only be a good thing as far as his training was concerned.

But as Paolo began to gently massage the cooling cream into Tommy's cheeks, he had something else on his mind too…

‘Tommy, it's been a while since I've disciplined a boy,' Paolo said, taking great care not to apply too much pressure to the reddest blotch on Tommy's right butt cheek. ‘Please tell me if there was anything you weren't happy about. As your... instructor… I want this to work on both sides.'

‘It was good,' Tommy replied. ‘I mean, it hurt. But that's the point, right?'

‘That's a part of it, yes,' Paolo said, tracing his fingers down the crack of Tommy's ass and making sure that there wasn't a single millimeter of skin that hadn't received the cream's soothing coolness. ‘But as long as you felt safe.'

‘I did,' Tommy said, his voice soft and serene. ‘I think it was because… it was you who spanked me. I don't know. It just felt… right.'

‘Good, that makes me happy,' Paolo replied. ‘That makes me very happy indeed.'

And with that, Paolo finished off Tommy's aftercare and the pair of them walked out of the training room together.

Paolo didn't know whether this moment was going to signal a change for the better or whether it was simply a one-off. But Paolo hoped it was the former. Because for all the boy's sass, there was the potential for him to be something truly special – and Paolo was determined to play his part in making that happen.

But whether Paolo could guarantee that he could keep his own desire for the boy under wraps for much longer was a whole other question entirely…