Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:53:23 -0500 From: Josh Armstrong Subject: Contracted To Justin Chapter Four NOTES>> This is the fourth chapter in the Contracted To Justin series. *Safe* sex doesn't appear in this story all that often, but I trust it appears a lot in your own lives. *Sex* does appear quite often though, sometimes quite graphically, and invariably of the gay and BDSM nature, so only read on if the law of your chosen land allows. The copyright is all mine, subject to Nifty's rules on the matter. Thanks for all your emails so far. Feedback is really appreciated, positive or critical. And just hearing that you're feeling this stuff is great too! As always, let me know what you think - josh_armstrong2007@hotmail.com CHAPTER FOUR: Meet the sub Having licked up my own piss, for the second time in less than 24 hours, I made my way to my bedroom, as instructed. I was still naked, obviously. And my hands were still bound behind my back. And, despite this morning's activities, my cock was now pretty flaccid. I really did find piss licking a turn off. My apartment had two bedrooms -- both with large double beds. The slightly bigger bedroom was where I slept. The other was one of those 'everything rooms'. It's where I kept my books and CDs. It was where I kept my PC and therefore where I had spent many nights wanking off to gay porn on the net. And if I'd ever had a guest to stay, it would also have been the guest room. The two rooms were separated by a corridor that led from the living room, at the end of which was a large walk-in cupboard. I walked into the main bedroom and found Justin, lying on the bed, reading a newspaper. The curtains were still drawn but they were quite thin so the room was light enough for him to read. He'd opened the doors of the two wardrobes on the far wall, and all the drawers in the cabinet between them. He'd also opened up a large trunk that sat on the floor next to the door. I normally kept spare duvets and blankets in the trunk, but he'd obviously moved them because it was empty. "This is my room now", Justin said abruptly, though calmly, as I entered, without even looking up from his newspaper, "so I'm going to need you to empty my cupboards and drawers of all your shit". He looked up at me, and then glanced over to all my clothes in the wardrobes and cabinet. "You can chuck them in that trunk and we'll figure out what to do with them later". I was confused again. As I say, my hands were still bound behind my back. How was I going to move my clothes into the truck? Clearly Justin could see what was going through my mind. "If you're going to ask me 'how', think again mister. You've got to get used to working without your hands. They're going to be bound up behind your ass a lot. I know what you filthy fuckers are like. Given half the chance you'll be feeling yourself up. I can't risk that happened. That's my dick hanging between your legs now. It belongs to me. You're not allowed to touch it. Touching your cock without my permission is the biggest crime of all. You don't want to know what happens to you if you break that rule. I just don't think you're ready for that responsibility yet, so we're going to have to keep your hands where they are, and you're going to have to adjust. Now, are you going to impress me with your initiative, or do I have to go and get my paddle". He said all this in a calm, matter of fact way. This wasn't angry Justin speaking, like when I'd fucked up during the blow job earlier. This was him simply explaining the ways things were going to be from this point on. Though he'd managed to include some threats in there, obviously. Given how I'd unbuttoned his jeans earlier, I quickly figured out what I was going to have to do. I went over to my wardrobe, picked up a t-shirt from one of the shelves in it with my teeth, and took it over to the trunk. I opened my jaw and let it fall in. I looked to Justin. He smiled, and went back to reading his paper. At least I'd got that right. It took me ages to move all my clothes to the trunk using just my teeth. I could only really do one item of clothing at a time, and every item seemed to take at least a minute. And I owned a lot of clothes. And picking up the clothes on lower shelves, and in the drawers, not to mention those clothes hanging up, was really quite tricky. The whole thing was incredibly tedious and, after a short time, my jaw really ached. The whole experience was a bit distressing too. I'd always kept my clothes very neatly folded or hung up, but this way I just had to drop them into the trunk and let gravity decide how they should be stored. The result was one messy mass of clothing. Justin had got up off the bed after about ten minutes and left the bedroom. He'd returned a minute later with the kitchen bin and said "when you get to your boxers and underwear, you can drop them in here". The message there was loud and clear. No more underwear for me. He smiled, and then left the room again, leaving me to my tedious chore. A minute later I heard him turn on the TV in the living room. I still had no sense of timing. I tried to listen to what TV shows he was watching and figure out what time it was. But he seemed to be flicking through the music channels so that was no help. It must have taken me at least two hours to move all my clothes into the trunk. When I was finished I wasn't sure what to do, but decided I should let Justin know the job was done. So I went back into the living room. "Please master, I've finished that master". "Good timing suck boy, I need another piss, come here and get it". He undid his trousers and pulled his dick out again. It was completely flaccid, but to me it was still the perfect cock. Just the sight of it turned me on again. To be honest, I really didn't want another tummy load of his piss. I really didn't. But , less that 24 hours after all this began, my submission to him was so far developed that I didn't even mentally question what he'd just told me to do, let alone actually question him about it out loud. I simply walked over to him, knelt down before him, and put my mouth over his cock. And he started to piss. He seemed to go quite gently this time, perhaps realising the chances of spillage were greater in this position. As it was I was able to swallow it all. Yet another helping of piss. "OK, good boy. Now go and stand in your corner like how I told you. Obviously you can't put your left hand behind your neck, given you're a bit tied up, but that's no excuse to not stick your finger up your ass". I did as he said. I stood in my corner, behind the TV. I bent my legs slightly, bowed by head, stuck out my tongue and shoved the middle finger of my right hand up my ass, all the way. I stared straight ahead, and resisted the temptation to turn round. My body was still a little achy from everything that had happened the day before, and from spending the night locked in a small kitchen cupboard, and of course standing in this way made it all much worse. As I'd discovered yesterday, everything about the way he had me stand while I was in 'my corner' was designed to be unpleasant. After about twenty minutes it was becoming unbearable. Justin turned off the TV and left the room. He returned a couple of minutes later, stood behind me, and gently squeezed my balls. "OK," he said, "We've got visitors this afternoon so I'm going out to get some food and drink. Normally I'll get you to do shit like that. You better be good at cooking, because you're going to be doing a lot of catering for my friends. But I'm not letting you out there on your own just yet, and I'm certainly not untying your hands. We've already discussed that -- if I untied your hands we both know you'd be tugging on that dick down there within minutes, because you're a pathetic little wanker. I can't risk that. Even though it means I've got to go and do the shopping. Don't think I'm happy about doing that, but I'm going to do it, just this once". He made the fact he had to go shopping out like it was my fault, even though it was his rules that were stopping me from doing it for him. That was hardly fair. But I was too busy processing the other thing he'd said to notice. We were having visitors this afternoon. Here in this flat. That would be mean more people seeing me in my new sub status. Naked. Bound up. And who knows what Justin would make me do while they were here. How many people? Which people? Were these the friends I'd have to 'service'? This news both terrified me and excited me in equal measure. Which sent my cock rising again. Coupled with the fact Justin was gently squeezing on my balls, I was soon pretty much erect. "Which one of these cards should I use?", he said, interrupting my thoughts. He held my three credit cards in front of my face. I'd forgotten that I had given him my wallet during lunch yesterday. I had paid for all five of our previous lunches, but yesterday, rather than me dealing with the bill directly, Justin had taken my wallet and sorted it all out. Then he'd kept my wallet. I'd not thought much about it at the time. Mainly because, this happening before the start of my new life, Justin had been so nice and charming about it all, it had really felt like he was doing it just to be helpful. Plus I knew that, according to our contract, he had access to my main bank account for the duration of our relationship anyway, so presumably that meant he had access to my wallet too. I really hadn't thought about the money dimension of the contract when I'd signed it. Which was possibly foolish -- I had savings of around a hundred grand at the time, mainly what Mum had left me, including the profit from the house sale. But most of that was out of the way, in 'hard to access' savings accounts. I only had about five grand in my current account, and while that went up a little every month because I rarely spent anywhere near my two grand a month net salary, if Justin managed to empty my current account during our six months together, well, it didn't really matter, and frankly it would be worth it given how much better my life was sure to be compared with before. And it wasn't like Justin having access to my bank account didn't make sense. According to the contract he had to make sure all my bills were paid on time, and look after my general welfare, so obviously he was going to need access to my bank account. Until that moment, though, it hadn't occurred to me there was another fifteen grand available to him on my credit cards. "Any of them, Master" I said. "OK, I'll use this one, what's the PIN?". "3, 0, 1, 6". "Good boy. Now you stay here, in your corner, just like this, and I'll see you later". With that he gave my balls one last squeeze and then left. The credit card thing worried me a little after he left. But I decided that, even if he emptied my bank account and maxed out my credit cards, that was still only a fifth of my overall savings, so I could live with that. Anyway, I was going to have to live with it, there was no going back on it now. So I decided not to worry about it. Which was possibly not a good idea, because once my mind stopped concerning itself with such matters I noticed how painful standing this way was again. And my tongue, which had been stuck out for half an hour now, was really dry. After another couple of minutes I pulled my tongue back in. And a couple of minutes after that I stood up straight. And a couple of minutes after that I pulled my finger out of my ass and sat down. This wasn't an act of rebellion, far from it. I just simply did not have the stamina to stand that way any longer. You should try it, it really isn't easy. Of course it's partly training -- eventually I could stand that way for hours -- and often did. But on that day I just couldn't do it. And believe me, even when I was sitting down, there was pain. Not quite so much physical pain, but excruciating mental pain. I was failing my master, and that felt horrible. So much so after a few minutes I couldn't stand the mental pain, so I stood up again and resumed my position. But a few minutes later it was the physical pain I couldn't stand, so I sat down again. And a few minutes later I stood up again. I was doing that for the best part of two hours. It was a horrible two hours. A few minutes of physical pain, then a few minutes of mental pain, then a few more minutes of physical pain. Plus whenever I was sitting there was the genuine fear that Justin would return at any minute and find me that way. And he very nearly did. Fortunately I heard the key turn in the door, and was able to resume my position - standing, bent legs, bowed head, tongue stuck out and finger up my ass -- before he actually reached the living room. I would have spent a minute considering how lucky I was, except I had other things on my mind. Justin was talking to someone. My heart start racing a new. He wasn't alone. The visitors he'd talked of were here. I desperately wanted to turn round and see who they were as they walked into the living room. But I knew that would be the wrong thing to do. I expected to be the centre of attention straight away, but in fact they ignored me completely for a few minutes. This both surprised and disappointed me. You'd think if there was a naked guy standing in the corner of a room, with his hands tied up and a finger up his ass, someone would say something. It's not like that's an everyday occurrence (though, with hindsight, for these guys perhaps it was). And in a way I wanted someone to say something. The thought of being naked in front of these guys, and of what Justin might make me do in front of them, made me really really nervous. But at the same time I wanted whatever was going to happen to get started. I guess I was also very excited about what might happen. Of course they knew all that, and that's no doubt why they went out of their way to ignore me. Why they pretended to be more interested in Justin's new flat than his new sub. "Nice flat" one of them said. "Thanks" Justin replied, "it's a bit small, but it'll do. I'll show you around". I could hear Justin talking them through each room, telling them what he planned to do with the place. This shocked me a little. I hadn't expected Justin to change the flat. Though, I suppose, there was nothing in the contract to stop him. I listened to their conversation. Partly because I wanted to know what Justin was going to do to my flat. But also because I was desperately trying to work out how many people were with Justin. After a few minutes I was pretty sure there were three -- and I'd heard mention of the names Jake, Paul and Jay. "So this is the new bitch is it" Jake said, finally. I didn't actually figure out which one was Jake, which one was Paul and which one was Jay until later that day (needless to say, I wasn't introduced), but I now know it was Jake who first acknowledged I was in the room. They had all come back into the living room, though I think Justin was in the kitchen, because he shouted his response from another room. "Yep, that's it". Jake was standing behind me, feeling my ass. Then he squeezed my balls. Then he grabbed my right hand and wiggled the finger that was stuck up my ass around a bit. "That's one very bruised ass" he said. "Good effort". "Well, you know how these fuckers need to know their place", Justin replied, obviously back in the living room. A couple of the guys laughed, while Jake said, to himself really, "you certainly do". Then he slapped my ass and left me alone. It was a good half hour before anyone paid me any attention again. They were sitting and chatting and lunching in the living room, just a few feet from me, yet they didn't once acknowledge that I was there. It was a horrible half hour. Aside from the being ignored thing, there was the fact I was now really hungry, and that was made worse by the fact these guys were all eating lunch. The smell of their food made my stomach rumble quite loudly. And at the same time I really needed to shit. Justin, after all, hadn't let me shit when I'd asked earlier. And on top of all that, as I said, standing this way really hurt. Then, when I was starting to think they might never mention me again, Justin suddenly said: "Hey Jay, how do you fancy earning yourself fifty bucks?" That seemed odd, why would Justin be offering a job to one of his friends? "Butt muncher here needs shaving. I'd get him to do it himself, but he'd probably use it as an excuse to start playing with himself, you know what these filthy fuck boys are like. And I can't risk having him touching his dick. Would you take him into the bathroom and shave him? Everything from the neck down. And get rid of that stubble on his face too". Shocked again. I'm not sure why, I had read stories on the net about how subs were often shaved of all their body hair, but for some reason it had never occurred to me that Justin would have me shaved. It wasn't something he'd mentioned prior to me signing the contract. And the thought of having someone else shave me was especially humiliating. Though at that stage, having still not actually seen any of our visitors (despite having stood right next to them for forty minutes) I didn't know how humiliating. "Yeah, I'll do that" Jay responded. He seemed strangely eager to earn the fifty bucks. I felt two hands on my shoulders and I was spun round. I instinctively pulled my tongue in and stood up straight. With hindsight I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have done that, but no one seemed to care. Jake and Paul, who I now saw for the first time, sitting on the sofa in front of me, seemed to be too busy checking me out (or, at least, checking my cock and balls out) to notice how I was standing. Nor to check whether I still had my finger stuck up my ass -- which I did, just for the record. Jay, who was still behind me and out of sight, ushered me straight into the bathroom (which had two doors, one onto my bedroom and one directly onto the living room) before slamming the door shut and turning me around. And that's when I saw him for the first time. I nearly died. This was a teenager. I couldn't immediately say how old, but he had to be still at high school. What the fuck were these guys doing hanging out with a teenager? What were they doing bringing a teenager round to the house of a dom who wanted to show of his new naked sub slave? And what was Justin thinking asking him to shave me? Though I could now see why he'd been so keen to earn fifty bucks. Fifty bucks is quite a lot of money to a school kid. Justin saw my face and smiled. I'm pretty sure he knew how much more humiliating it was for me to have someone his age see me like this. "OK fuck boy" he said, "you know the rules. And I hope you're going to behave. I wouldn't want to have to take over my lap and smack that ass of yours". This was so embarrassing. I was standing here, fully naked, in front of this kid, with my hands bound behind my back and my cock on show. And he was relishing his domination over me. He was even threatening to spank me. "Let's do it shall we?" There was a pair of scissors, a pack of disposable razors and a can of shaving foam laid out on the toilet seat. Jay picked up the scissors, pushed the razors and can on the floor, and sat down on the toilet lid. "Come here bitch boy". I stepped over and stood before him. He looked up at me and smiled. And then he started to cut off my pubes with the scissors. I'm not the hairiest person in the world, but I do have a bushy crotch, linked to a slightly hairy chest by a very noticeable treasure trail. I have some hair on my arms and legs, a little in my crack and pretty hairy arm pits. My ball sack has some hairs on it too. As I say, I'm not actually that hairy, but I have very dark hair so it had always looked like there was more than there really was. Jay quickly cut off much of the pubic hair above my dick, letting it fall on the floor. My dick had been pretty soft to start with, but as the scissors touched my pubic region my dick started to grow. I wasn't erect by any means, not even a semi, but my dick was definitely responding. Jay noticed. "You really are the saddest fuck I've ever seen" he said, looking up at me. "I mean, Sammy was pretty sad, but you're the worst". Sammy, I assume was one of Justin's previous subs. I knew I wasn't the first. After he'd cut away as many as my pubes as he could with the scissors, he picked up the shaving foam and squirted some over my crotch. Then he took one of the razors, reached over to the sink, turned on the hot water tap, and stuck the razor under it. I was slightly relieved. I didn't like the idea of a dry shave down there. Come to think about it, Jay really seemed to know what he was doing here. I got the impression this wasn't the first time he'd done this. As he started running the razor over my pubes he spoke again. "When did you lose your virginity?" I started to blush. I don't know why. But the thought of being asked such personal questions by this kid embarrassed me. "When I was 17 sir" I replied. It felt wrong calling a teenager 'sir'. But I knew if I didn't there'd be trouble. Big trouble. "17," he giggled, "was it your first boyfriend". "No sir, it was a girl". "A girl, fuck me, a girl. So this..." as he said 'this' he flicked my dick, hard "has felt the inside of a vagina has it? Wow. How many girls have you fucked?" "Two, sir" I replied. These questions were really putting me on edge. Talking about such personal things with a stranger is really embarrassing, and more so when that stranger is so young. And especially embarrassing for me, given my lack of sexual experience. I could have lied of course, but again, I knew that wouldn't work out well. I would probably have been able to convincingly lie to this kid, but if Justin got involved I knew I wouldn't be able lie to him. I could never lie to Justin. "And how many boys? Have you stuck this in any boy cunts?" He flicked my dick again. "None sir" "None? You kidding me? How old are you?" "Twenty-six sir" "That is the saddest thing I've ever heard. Do you know how old I am?" "No sir". "I'm 17." Actually, that was a couple of years older than I'd thought, he obviously looked young for his age. But he was still a school age teenager. The fact he was slightly older then I'd thought didn't really make this any less humiliating. "Do you know how many girls I've fucked?" he continued. "No sir" "20. Fucking hell, I've fucked ten times as many girls as you, and your nine years older than me. I've fucked 20 girls and when you were my age you'd only fucked one" He laughed again. He grabbed a cloth off the sink, and wiped off the shaving foam. All my pubic hair, from my naval down, including my treasure trail, had gone. I looked down at it. I could never remember my dick not being surrounded by hair. It looked odd. And it made me feel even more vulnerable. He pulled my ball sack down -- not painfully -- but so it was stretched out, and he began to run the razor over it. "And then there's the boy cunts I've fucked" he continued, as if that was an entirely normal thing for a 17 year old guy to say. Somehow when I talked about my sex life I sounded pathetic. When he talked about his he sounded so cool and manly. That was partly because he was so much more experienced than me, despite being nine years my junior. But it was also partly because of his attitude compared to mine. I guess it was because I was a sub and he was a dom in the making. "I've fucked three boy cunts," he continued. "I'm not a filthy fag like you. But girls can be so demanding. Pussy is the best, but all that dating and foreplay can be a drag. And girls give rubbish head. Even the slutty ones. And I've had some slutty ones" He smiled as he said that. At first I'd thought this conversation was simply designed to humiliate me (which it had, a bit), but now I got the impression Jay just wanted to brag about his conquests. "But with fagboys like you", he continued "I can just stick it in there, fuck your brains out, dump my load, get you to lick me clean and then go home. And credit where it's due, you fuckboys know how to suck. You're fucking useless at anything else, but put a dick in your mouth and suddenly you have a purpose. That's all you're any good for isn't it, sucking on this". As he said that he grabbed his own crotch through his jeans. There was definitely an impressive bulge down there. "Bet you can't wait to suck on this can you?" Now I was feeling really humiliated again. Was I really going to have to blow this kid? Did Justin share his subs with 17 year olds? Being raped by tall dark strangers was one thing, but a 17 year old kid? Even one as seemingly sexually experienced as this one. I really hoped not. Though deep down I suspected I would. He told me to turn round and then yanked my finger out of my ass (it had been stuck up there all this time). I felt him soap up my ass crack and start shaving there. Then he switched razors and started on my legs. He got me to turn round, did the front of my legs and then started on my chest. Then he pushed me back a little, stood up, and did my arms and then soaped up my face and shaved away my stubble. And then he was done. Well, everything but my pits, but he couldn't really get to them while my hands were bound behind my back. He didn't really say anything else to me after that initial conversation about his sexual conquests. He occasionally shuck his head and said something like "sad, sad fucker", but other than that he seemed to concentrate his efforts on my shaving. I think he wanted to impress the other guys. When he was finished he said "OK, piss boy, job done" and then positioned me in front of the full length mirror. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. Somehow without my hair I not only felt subservient, I looked it too. "Now you look like a gay boy who's only had two fucks in his life" he said. Then he opened the bathroom door and ushered me back into the living room, leaving me standing in the centre of the room, surrounded by my visitors. Without my body hair I felt more naked than ever. Jay returned to his arm chair. "Give us a spin then shit head" Justin said. I span round 360 degrees. "Good job Jay. Give him his fifty bucks suck boy". I looked to see if he was being serious. He was. "Master, I don't have fifty bucks on me, master". "I guess you don't" Justin said, smiling. "It's a good job I've got your wallet then isn't it?" Justin pulled my wallet out of his pocket and took out all the cash that was in there. Twenty bucks. That didn't surprise me. There'd been sixty when I'd handed him the wallet yesterday, but I knew he'd paid for our dinner out of what was in there. "Hmmm," he said. Then he took out one of my ATM cards and threw it at Jay. "Take that" he said, "next time you pass an ATM help yourself to fifty bucks. Piss boy, tell him the PIN". Another shock. It had been one thing giving Justin the information he needed to use one of my credit cards. But giving this teenager access to my bank account? There was at least five grand in there just now, how did any of us know he wouldn't take out whatever the maximum amount you're allowed on one of those cards? This I really didn't like. "Well hurry up piss licker, tell him the PIN. Or do you want me to beat it out of you?". Clearly I didn't have any choice. "6, 5, 6, 5" I said. Jay took a pen from his pocket and wrote it on his hand. As I was processing all this I realised that the Jake guy had told me to come over to him. I stepped forward so I was directly in front of him. He grabbed my dick with his left hand and squeezed hard. It was a bit painful, but at the same time it was great to feel someone touch my dick. It certainly took my mind off the fact some random kid had just got uncontrolled access to my bank account. "He's got quite a nice dick hasn't he?" Jake said, to no one really. "It's a bit of a waste when you think about it" he joked. "Yeah," Jay added, "why do bitch boys have a cock and balls at all? I mean, it's not like they need them. They've got their two holes, that's all they need really". They all laughed at Jay's response. So innocent and yet not innocent at all. Then Jake replied "yeah, but they have a cock and balls so you can do this". With that he delivered a sharp, fast punch to my bollocks. It came completely out of the blue, and I fell backwards as a result, banging both my head and sore ass on the wooden floor. They all laughed again, even louder than last time. I, meanwhile, struggled on the floor in real agony. That had been a really powerful punch, and my balls really really hurt. And as any guy knows, when you're balls get hit like that it's not just your balls that ache as a result. And it was all the worse because I couldn't cup by ball sack with my hands -- surely the most natural reaction when someone attacks your balls like that. "There are other reasons," Paul said, "it's great if you let them cum when your dicks up their ass, you should try it sometime, it's feels awesome". "Actually a sub's dick is quite important", Justin added, in a really quite serious voice, "it's how you control them". That comment interested me. On a number of levels. Firstly it was interesting how these guys, and Justin in particular, were taking Jay's question about my dick so seriously, even though it was surely meant as a joke. But I also wondered what Justin meant about using my dick to control me. But nobody asked him what he meant, and he didn't embellish his point. It was a long time before I understood what he had meant. "Fucked him yet?" Jake asked, moving the conversation away from my dick to my holes. "Not the ass yet no, thought I'd break him in tonight," Justin said, very matter of fact. "Steve fucked his mouth yesterday, and I got him to blow me earlier". "Any good?" Paul enquired. "Not really, he needs some practice. Actually, he needs lots of practice". I didn't know what to think. The way they talked about me, as if I wasn't there -- was so dehumanising. And the fact no one had shown any concern for the fact I had fallen, or banged my head, was really soul destroying. They really didn't care. And as for him telling everyone my blow job skills weren't up to much -- that was both embarrassing and depressing. Embarrassing because, well, having your blow job skills discussed in that way is just embarrassing, you'd be embarrassed too. Depressing because I really wanted to be able to serve my master well, and finding out I'd failed was just gutting. Still, the thing that had caught my attention most from what Justin had just said was the news he planned to fuck my ass later. "How about I give him some practice now?" Jay piped up. "I could do with a blow job". "Yeah, why not." Justin responded, "it will be good to check if he's remembered everything I taught him. Cunt boy, get back on your knees, we're going check you were paying attention this morning." I was shocked. Yet again. I couldn't quite believe he was going to make me suck off this seventeen year old, and in front of everyone else. On one level I'd expected it to happen of course, yet on another level I'd never actually thought it would. And certainly not in front of these other guys. Jay stood up and positioned himself in front of me, his crotch lined up with my face. "Go on then," Justin said from behind me, "you start with the begging remember". Jay smirked. "Yeah, bitch boy, fucking beg your ass off".