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A Delicate Touch
by Lianne Burwell
November 1998
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"This is the most popular brand of mechanical safe on the market," Mac 
said with a flourish. "Today we are going to practice cracking it."

Victor rolled his eyes at his partner. "You mean that *I* am going to 
practice," he said.

The safe was the cliched type that you saw in the movies, made of heavy, 
dark grey colored metal. It sat on top of the solid wood table that took 
up a large part of the kitchen in the country cottage that they had 
recently moved into.

A little over six months ago, Victor Mansfield and Mac Ramsey had landed 
in Paris and had become Richard Thornton and Matthew Blake. They had 
avoided using their cash stock for as long as possible, since they didn't 
know how long it would have to last. Instead they had worked first as 
bouncers, then as bodyguards. After a couple of lucky breaks, they had 
been well on their way to establishing themselves as security experts. 
However Mac still had plans for them as Robin Hood-style thieves, 
targeting the crooks and exposing their crimes. But to do that, first he 
had to train Victor in all the skills that a top thief needed.

"No," Mac responded. "I mean *we*. Skills get stale if you don't use 
them. Electronic safe-crocking equipment is all fine and well, but a lot 
of people still have the mechanical type, and you need to know how to do 
this on your own."

Victor frowned, something occurring to him. "How do we both practice on 
the same safe? After all, as soon as one of us succeeds, we both know the 
combination."

Mac grinned, making Victor nervous. A grinning Mac was always up to 
something. "Simple, you don't pay attention to the numbers."

"And how do you stop from looking at the dials?" he asked in a slightly 
sarcastic tone of voice.

Mac didn't say anything. He just pulled a long stream of black silk from 
his back pocket. Victor glared at the glistening fabric. "You have *got* 
to be joking."

Mac stepped up behind Victor and gently wrapped the black silk around his 
eyes, folding it over itself several times. Victor blinked, but not even 
a glimmer of light made it through the layers of fabric.

"Too tight?" Victor jumped at the sudden question, then shook his head. 
"Can you see anything?"

"No, I can't see anything," Victor said, exasperation coloring his voice. 
"So how the hell do you expect me to crack a safe?"

"By touch, of course," Mac's voice said, right at his ear. "What did you 
think? That the dial would light up every time you got the right number? 
You turn the dial very slowly, using just your fingertips. With the right 
touch, you can feel the vibration as the tumblers fall into place. Now 
try."

Victor shook his head. This was ridiculous, but if he *didn't* try, he'd 
never hear the end of it from his partner. He fumbled for a moment, trying 
to find the safe's dial. Locating it, he started to turn the dial slowly.

"No, Vic! You're gripping it too tightly. You want to be just barely 
touching it, so that you can feel every vibration."

Victor sighed. "Shouldn't I be using a stethoscope or something? 
*Listening* for the tumblers?"

Mac laughed. "You *can* do it that way, but you still need to learn to do 
it by touch. You don't always get to carry equipment with you, you know. 
Now, try again. And remember... *gently*."

Victor sighed and shook his head. Then he tried again.

* * * * *

An hour later, Victor was almost snarling from frustration. No matter how 
hard he tried he hadn't been able to get even *one* tumbler to fall into 
place. In a way it would have been better if Mac were making fun of his 
failure. Instead, his partner was all too sympathetic.

He slumped back in his chair, sweating from the effort. He didn't bother 
removing the blindfold. "This is ridiculous. I'm never going to get it," 
he griped. Mac massaged his shoulders, easing some of the strain.

"Sure you will," the young man in a soothing tone of voice. "You're just 
trying *too* hard. You need to develop a more delicate touch."

"Delicate?" Victor said, finally reaching the breaking point. "I'll show 
*you* delicate."

He spun in his chair, too fast for Mac to get away, and grabbed the young 
man by the hips. With a twist, he had Mac perched on the edge of the 
table, leaning against the still tightly locked safe.

"So you want delicate, do you?" Victor murmured, reaching forward. He ran 
one fingertip down the fly of Mac's pants, barely touching the fabric, 
then back up. Mac didn't make a noise, but Victor could feel the swelling 
beneath his finger.

Just to 'see' what the reaction would be, he repeated the move several 
more times. On each pass, the swelling grew. Mac's breathing was getting 
a little faster and a little louder. Victor decided to move a little 
further south. Now he was using the pad of his finger to trace tiny paths 
over Mac's cloth covered balls. But a delicate touch was difficult when 
working through multiple layers of cloth, so Victor moved to deal with 
the problem.

A tactile examination of Mac's fly revealed that it was a button fly, 
something that the young man seemed to prefer. Maybe he didn't like the 
feel of a metal zipper when he went commando, which he did a lot. Victor 
figured that Mac did it just to drive him insane. Walking around a fancy 
dress event trying to concentrate on a bodyguarding job when he *knew* 
that Mac wasn't wearing any underwear was guaranteed to get a 'rise' out 
of him.

"Well, this is one case where a delicate touch *isn't* a help getting the 
'safe' open," he said. Slowly, one button at a time, he popped the fly 
open. Each touch got a hiss or a gasp from the young man. Victor grinned 
and dragged it out as long as possible.

Finally, Mac seemed to decide that he was tired of waiting. He pulled 
away from the table and Victor could hear the sound of clothing being 
quickly removed and dropped to the ground. Mac was such a clothes horse 
that it was rare for him not to take the time hang the clothes over 
something to prevent wrinkles. The fact that he *didn't* this time 
indicated how worked up he was already.

Then, without a word, Mac hopped back into place on the edge of the table 
in front of Victor. Victor reached out a hand, the heat guiding his 
fingers to Mac's half-hard cock, and it gave a definite twitch as 
Victor's fingertip examined it.

"Oh, yeah," he murmured. "Now *this* definitely needs a delicate touch."

Victor ran his fingertips over the entire surface of Mac's cock, mapping 
out ever vein running over its surface. It was interesting, he realized. 
When he was looking at it he had never noticed that little knot of veins 
near the base. With his eyes covered, concentrating entirely on his sense 
of touch, he was more focused.

Victor rubbed the pad of his thumb over the head of the cock, enjoying 
the strangled moan that the move caused. It was time to up the ante, so 
to speak.

"Maybe I should try that safe again," he said with a grin, pulling away.

"Viiic!" was the immediate response, along with a grab to keep him where 
he was. Confident that he had his partner's full attention, Victor 
reached out again.

Using his hand's position to guide him, he bent his head closer until the 
scent of his lover was overpowering. He stuck out his tongue and moved 
forward a bit more until it came into contact with the head. Victor 
hummed in pleasure at the familiar and very welcome flavor that said 
'Mac' to him. Still humming to himself, he devoted himself to this new 
task that he had set himself.

Every square millimeter of Mac's erection was carefully examined, this 
time by tongue, until it was slick with saliva. By this time Mac had 
moved from moans to strangled whimpers, so Victor finally decided to take 
pity on the man. Opening his mouth wide, he swallowed Mac to the root.

Long practice allowed him to flex his throat muscles in a way that gave 
Mac's erection a massage so stimulating that the young man was quickly 
thrusting upwards. Victor grinned, as best he could around his mouthful, 
and slipped a finger down, petting Mac's balls as it went past. He tickled 
the sensitive flesh behind the balls, then moved further back to rub at 
Mac's anus.

That was something guaranteed to set Mac off. Mac thrust, gasping, and 
Victor was drinking fast to keep from losing a drop. Once Mac settled 
down, he release the now-soft flesh. A couple licks cleaned it off, 
making Mac whimper again, then Victor settled back in his seat grinning 
in a *very* self-satisfied way.

After a few minutes, Mac had gotten his breathing back under control. He 
took Victor's mouth in a soul-stealing kiss, then pulled back 
fractionally.

"And what about you, hmmm?" he asked, reaching down to cup Victor's 
neglected erection in one hand. Victor groaned as the heat from Mac's 
hand bled through the fabric of his pants. "What can we do for you?"

"I'm... sure you'll... think of something," he gasped.

Mac hopped off the table and pulled Victor to his feet. Still 
blindfolded, Victor let his lover lead him from the room, towards the 
bedroom.

"Oh, I'm sure I will," came the throaty response.

* * * * *

A week later, Victor finally got the safe open. Inside, he found a bottle 
of lube and a package of wildly flavored and colored condoms, which he 
promptly put to good use. That was so Mac.

THE END