Chloe stood after examining both his ankles. "A little red, but not too bad."

Sully pulled the rope around Nate's wrists back and forth to see the skin underneath. "Pretty red here," he tutted.

Nate's stomach flipped.

"Get his feet loose," Sully motioned to the edge of the bed.

Chloe removed the ropes from his ankles while Nate tried to come to grips with the fact that he was about to get a spanking, perhaps the first of two spankings. In the back of his mind was the reminder that he could have them stop at any time, but he would have rather had fallen off the helicopter that Sully had used to recuse him than get them to stop. The sudden dread that washed over him was about the humiliation and pain he was about to endure, not wanting to escape.

As Sully started to untie the edge of the rope from the metal ring, Nate decided to just embrace the spirit of the scene and let himself be a begging sub so they could up the drama of their part.

"Please, Sully. Please don't spank me. I'll be a good boy, I promise. I just couldn't stay still."

Sully didn't reply as he got Nate to stand up, moving him to sit while cautioning, "Not too fast. You'll get dizzy."

Nate nodded and reached out to hold onto both of them while waiting for his equilibrium to settle.

"Keep breathing normally," Chloe rubbed the back of his neck, and he resisted the urge to bury his face in against her and let her pet him.

"I'm good now," he promised. "Still green."

They brought out the water bottle, and he gulped it down without hesitation.

Two strong hands got him to turn, and then he was bent over Sully's lap with his bound hands before him that Chloe reached for and secured over her own lap as she sat next to Sully. The position made Nate lift his pelvis slightly higher than the small of his back as his bare feet hit the floor under his bent knees.

"Ahh," Chloe sighed, "look at his back. So much pretty skin. Even with these muscles, you know we could play here for hours."

"All in good time, my dear. First, we have to punish this naughty boy."

Tucked against Sully, Nate could feel the man shift to raise his hand. Nate tried to cast his mind back to what a spanking felt like. The nuns had spanked him a few times, but that had always been a handful of whacks with a paddle in the matron's office. There he had been furious, missing his brother and hateful to all the nuns for punishing him but too scared to make a fuss. Those spankings were horrid affairs, moments he had erased from his memory.

If you would have told 12-year-old Nate that he would grow into an adult who not only allowed someone to spank him, but that he would want a spanking, that he would lie still in dread but also excitement to wait for punishment – it would have seemed insane back then. Perhaps it was insane now, but he needed it. He wanted nothing more than to be where he was now, body still trembling from the tickling hysteria, about to be settled with pain directed to his backside.

A second later, the first slap landed on Nate's black shorts that covered his bottom. Nate had had a passing hope that the fabric would offer some padding, but the first swat dispelled that illusion.

"Ow!" he protested before he could stop himself.

Sully hesitated before asking, "Yellow?"

Nate squirmed, but he couldn't go far with both of them holding him.

"I said," a deeper note in Sully's voice, almost a warning, "yellow?"

"No, still green," Nate admitted. "But – but …"

"But?" Sully waited.

Nate realized he was wiggling his rear back and forth, but he couldn't answer. His thoughts were too shameful to admit out loud.

"I'm about to take off my belt if you don't answer."

"I might have to move if it builds," Nate rushed out. "Before you tied me down, but now – I just … what if I kick you or hurt Chloe?"

"We could tie him face-down on the bed?" she suggested.

"No, I like -" Nate broke off, embarrassed.

"You like what?" Sully prodded.

No answer, and Sully was about to issue another threat, Nate felt sure, when Chloe gave a small laugh. "Oh, our sweet boy likes being over our laps."

Nate refused to comment, but she tickled his exposed side and his gentle wriggles confirmed her suspicions.

"He loved us holding him, petting him, but I bet you every artifact in this place that he would resent us if we just cuddled him. He thinks he needs to earn those cuddles, and he really needs that punishment. Tickling helped, didn't it?" more strokes over his hair. "But it couldn't quite get you there, could it? Those hysterics helped, but you need something a little darker to push you over the edge."

Nate had rested his head on her knee, scared to reply.

A loud slap landed on the back of his thigh, jerking him up with a cry.

"Answer her," Sully stayed stern as he put his spanking hand on Nate's bottom in warning.

"Yes," Nate gasped out. "But I don't understand why. I'm not that weak."

Sully spanked him hard on the rear, once on each side, with enough power to rock Nate forward with both.

"Ow! Ah!"

"This isn't weakness," Chloe assured him. "This type of play we're doing, the bottom is always in charge. Even if you dip into subspace and want to stay there, you're still in charge because of the safe words. Don't think about why you like it or need it. Pretend like you are doing this for Sully and me because we need to be doms tonight. Take us there, sweetheart."

The tension eased out of Nate, and he snuggled down on their laps as Sully started the spanking for real.

All jokes about Sully's age vanished from Nate's head as the man landed open-handed swats down with precision and speed. The first few spanks hurt individually, but after that, his bottom was warmed up, and the swats blended into a volley of rising heat under his shorts. Every so often, Sully slapped the back of his thighs which made Nate groan, but the man returned to his first target where the hot skin took the blows better.

"I'm going soft for your first spanking," Sully had the dom edge back. "A naughty boy to receive more than one, but I don't mind giving a boy what he so obviously needs. You couldn't stay still while Chloe and I tended to you and cheered you up, and you tried to distract yourself by hurting yourself which is never acceptable."

The edge of Nate's brain wanted to argue that no one could stay still with being tickled so ruthlessly, but Sully's scolding and steady slaps were pushing him down, back to the subspace that he couldn't find before.

Sully paused, and Nate could feel Chloe's hand on the back of his neck. She also gripped his bound wrists and with a heavy hand around his waist and another resting on his sore bottom, Nate had the unreal feeling that a creature with four arms had a hold of him. The spanking had been so fast and hard that he would have sworn Sully had grown an extra hand to use on him.

"Consider this a warm-up spanking," Sully rumbled in that no-nonsense tone that made Nate's toes curl. Chloe was holding her own, but Sully had slipped into the stern dom role so clearly that Nate was having trouble remembering that this was the guy he goofed around with as he had been replaced with a blend of the confident authority that his brother had shown when Nate was a child and a boss/father who was fed up with a boy's foolishness and wanted to put him in his place.

But Chloe complicated the whole world because she added a thrill of danger, of beauty, of intense longing to what might have only been punishment without her presence. She had ground him, and somehow it felt more natural to submit to two people than it would be with just Sully. Two people meant they outnumbered him so of course he had to agree with what they wanted because … two heads were better than one?

Nate's brain skipped from one idea to another like a lazy game of hopscotch as he considered reasons why his submission happened so easily.

Sully resumed the swatting, and Nate heard the loud noises of a hand slapping him, but the pain was barely registering as he sank into the quiet of subspace. It felt like dipping into a hot bath after a long day, curling up under covers on a cold night to sleep, kissing a girl at the end of a fun date on a dark night where she held him close before releasing him.

"Such a good boy," Chloe was stroking his hair with her other hand massaging the fingers of his bound hands.

Sully did not move, and Chloe gently scratched the span of Nate's shoulder blades. His shiver shook through his whole body, but Chloe began speaking in a soft, soothing voice,

"You are being a good boy for us, but that doesn't mean you get to escape the rest of this first spanking. I know how naughty boys pretend to behave to escape punishment, but nothing gets into their thick skulls until it's drilled into them, preferably with loud, hard slaps to their bottoms. We could stop now, but that would be taking it too easy on you. All three of us know that you need us to go on, and on, and on while you try to stay still and quiet."

The looming subspace edged closer as her words sunk into his brain, each sentence more deliciously humiliating than the last. The truth or validity of anything she said did not matter as Nate nodded with whatever she expressed. More pain was coming, but words worked just as well to wring tension from him and let him float in the moment under their care.

"I love watching you suffer," Chloe whispered. "I want to sit here and hold you while Sully spanks you until you cry. I want him to spank you a dozen more times, a hundred, a thousand awful swats, and I want to watch you fall apart."

Nate gave a keening groan, a desperate longing in his throat even if he couldn't articulate words.

"I want you a shuddering, shaky mess," Chloe dug her fingers into his damp hair and let her nails drag over his scalp. "I want you distraught when we finally let you up, and your eyes will be wide with terror when you remember that this is just your first spanking. And you will beg for anything other than another spanking because you can't fathom the thought of getting one more hard slap to your poor, red bottom."

An almighty slap landed squarely on his shorts, pounding her words into him, and Nate felt the world slip away as he dropped into subspace where nothing mattered and time had no meaning. Chole held him, and Sully swatted over and over again over already sore skin, but Nate went still and relaxed, mouth unable to express the intensity of his feelings.

His leg kicked or jerked with a particularly hard swat, but otherwise, he slipped down to a place where the pain melted into comfort.

At one point he thought he heard someone sobbing, maybe begging, "Oh, no, please!" But those sounds disappeared as he sank further down.

The spanking has stopped, Nate noticed, but he couldn't decide how long ago it had stopped. He was sore, the entire bottom and back of his thighs very hot, but he didn't want to move.

A soft cloth cleaned the tears and sweat off his face, and he heard himself making a wet, gasping draw for air as he tried to calm down.

"Okay," Chloe rubbed his ear and massaged the skin behind it. "You don't have to move. Are you done? Need to call red and go to bed?"

He made a thoughtful noise to show he had heard.

Did he want to stop? He had no idea how long they had been playing so he just weighed out the two options to decide which sounded better: collapse into bed and sleep or let them do more things to him?

He wasn't that worn out. Yes, his rear ached, but that wasn't as bad as the myriad of bruises that had marked his body throughout their adventures together. His curiosity—his fatal flaw that compelled him to keep going through all strife because he just had to know—wouldn't let him stop now. What other things could they have in store for him? They had already gone places Nate had never thought possible, said things that Nate never imagined either of them could think, let alone shape to torment him and take him apart one shameful bit at a time.

He would have agreed to almost anything they wanted, would have agreed with anything they asked, but he could not suggest stopping of his own volition.

He shook his head.

"You have to say the word," Chloe prompted. "If you are too far under and can't consent, we need to stop or at least slow down."

Why did she have to make him say it? But he filled his lungs with relieving air and breathed, "Green."

"Let's stand up for a second," Sully started to lift him.

The movement hurt his sore bottom, but Nate tried to grip one of them with his bound hands as he whined.

"Don't worry," Chloe squeezed his fingers. "One of us will be with you, holding you until we stop. No one is leaving you, and even if you say your safeword, we won't leave."

That helped but they made him sit on the bed. Nate tried to roll off, but Sully wrestled him down to sit with a sharp, "Settle down. I know it hurts but you can take it."

Eyes squeezed shut to keep back all the tears, Nate shook his head. He expected Sully to order him to stay, but then—as a wonderful act that made Nate want to hug him—Sully sat down on the bed behind him and drew Nate close to him with those big, powerful arms.

Nate ended up sitting on his sore rear with his legs stretched out straight in front of him with his bound hands resting on his thighs. But the entirety of his back was against Sully, and he could lean back to rest against the man's chest, feeling the lines of Sully's shirt. Sully was tall enough that he could rest his chin on the top of Nate's head, and encased by those steel-like arms, Nate felt very small, precious, and very, very safe.

Chloe was wrapping a rope around his ankles, but Nate watched her without much interest. Whatever she was planning couldn't be too bad, and though his rear and the back of his upper thighs hurt, it was a quiet thrum of hot pain that he could notice, embrace, and then ignore to drift off again into subspace. He wished Sully would pet his hair, but that might be too much, too mushy for their oldest team member.

Chloe tied the loose end of the rope to the bedpost, making the length from his ankles to the post go taut and Nate have to keep his legs very straight.

"Now," Sully's voice rumbled beneath him, "we know you are tired, but we need you to stay still for this next part. I got you," the arms tightened, a squeeze of warning, "but you need to stay relaxed and not move to show your respect to Chloe."

"Don't let him accidentally headbutt you," Chloe advised.

"Good thought." Sully loosened one hand and placed his big palm over Nate's forehead, pinning his head against Sully's chest.

Was immobilization by a person better or worse than immobilization by rope? The rope wasn't as confining, but Nate's heart soared at the feel of Sully's grip, especially with Sully's spanking hand which pressed on his forehead now, the heat from spanking so long now seeping warmth through a steady hold.

Nate wanted to protest that he wasn't going anywhere, that he would stay and be good – very good in fact because –

Chloe pulled a device out of a box. It was about a foot long with a rounded top, light purple with a row of buttons. She pushed one and the top began gyrating as a low hum emitted from it.

A vibrator? Or a muscle massager? Maybe something that could be both like (Nate's mind wandered wildly) the one Samantha had owned in Sex and the City that had broken because she used it too much?

"It's on the lowest speed," Chloe said. "But we're going all the way to the top, 5 little notches to test on you. Be a good boy, and let us know how each feels."

Nate's heart almost skipped a beat as she stepped away from him, rounded the end of the bed, and approached his bound ankles.

"Chloe!" the word burst from Nate like a plead.

The hand on his forehead tightened. "Be still, Nathan. You need this."

Chloe moved slowly, her eyes sparking with malice and anticipation. She placed one hand on the top of his bare left foot to pry his toes back, gave him a wicked smirk, and then brought the humming vibrator to his defenseless foot.