Nate could only stare in a mix of horror and anticipation as Chloe brought the vibrator close to his left foot. She angled the buzzing top down and pressed it into Nate's foot, the smooth curve under the groove of his toes which she had pried back.

The sensation was worse than what Sully had done to the top of his legs. The gyrating purple top dug into the bottom of his foot and pulsed there, lighting up the nerves, the muscles, even the bones.

The shock and intensity of the effects made Nate's brain short-circuit. All the admonishments about staying still and calm left his mind as the instinct to get away from the vibrator sent him into a frenzy.

He tried to jerk his foot free, but the rope held. He tried to roll away, but Sully held him so tight, so constricting, that Nate couldn't escape. Sully's huge hand pressed down on his forehead, pinning his head against Sully's hard chest.

The vibrator moved down to the arch of his foot, to that middle which never felt anything as his arch was high enough to not fully reach the sole of his shoes. The skin there was soft and smooth, and for one wild moment, Nate thought the vibrator had gone into his skin and was now part of his foot, everything wild and electric with vibration.

He needed to get away from it. He must get away. He could not bear this torture any longer.

The noise he made sounded inhuman, even to his own ears. A shrieking, gasping, keening scream that lasted until he ran out of air, and when he scrambled to draw air into his lungs, she moved the vibrator to the bottom of his foot. The buzzing top explored his heel, nosing into the skin to see what reaction would occur and the pressure easing up and down but never leaving the skin.

"Please!" Nate tried to arch up, but Sully's arms held fast.

A logical part of his brain knew that he could break free, knew he could fight his way free, but he ignored that part and let his animal-self out. This wasn't the time to think or speak; this was the time to feel whatever his doting doms decided he needed. They had decided he should suffer, and he could oblige them only through feeling and letting out cries that did not quite express how fully he was feeling what they delivered.

No words, no gasps, no amount of begging could capture what was happening to his foot, and the helplessness was compounded by the fact that he rarely thought about his feet at all. He wore socks and shoes and scrubbed his feet along with the rest of his body in the shower, but he spent more time on other aspects of his appearance, like his hair and face. This irony heightened the torture, almost as if his feet were betraying him for not considering them enough.

Chloe pulled the vibrator off his foot, switching the innocent little tool off. The room was filled with Nate's pants, his desperate moans that drawled out of his chest as he tried to calm from the heights of hysteria.

"You're squirming too much," Sully said in that low warning voice which made a thrill of dread shoot through Nate. "You were told to be still."

"I'm sorry, sir, please," Nate could hardly believe how childish and desperate his voice had become. "I tried to be good – I did. I just couldn't – no!"

Sully had pressed on his forehead again, making him watch Chloe, and she flipped the vibrator back on and went at his right foot.

The slight hope that his other foot might not feel the sensations as much as the left one had immediately fled his mind as the vibrator started at the top, just below his toes, and pressed in. Nate tried to focus on staying still, but the pulsing feeling overrode any logic he could find. The feeling was just too many things at once: ticklish, energetic, pulsating, frustrating, soothing, and distracting. He knew he could bear it better if the top pressed in harder or lighter, but when Chloe applied pressure or eased off, the sensations worsened, and his hysteria veered closer to the brink of blind panic.

She moved the vibrator down the same way, and Nate appreciated each pulse on his right foot as much as he had on the left. Each second sent flashes of agony/ecstasy up his leg and into his torso. One second it felt like he had been electrocuted, but the next it was pleasurable like a massage. His screams and gasps had no effect on lessening any of the sensations.

The vibrator turned off, and Nate gasped, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"That was just the first notch," Chloe said. "You've got four more notches to go. And on each foot."

Nate's reaction surprised himself. He thought he would groan or object, but instead, he just started crying.

He didn't even know why that broke him, but it did. Perhaps it was the idea of having to endure more, or the thought of disappointing them both if he couldn't, or how stern and cruel they were being to his suffering, but the tears came. Pain filled his facial nerves, huge tears welled up, and he tried to cover his face with his bound wrists as he started sobbing.

The crying actually felt good. The need to just be still and sob out feelings that he couldn't express in words. The want to let himself break and grieve for everything he had endured and everything he had lost. His brother, his lonely childhood, his lonely adult years, so many fights where other humans had wanted to wound or kill him, his desperate longing for connections and a family.

Then it felt wonderful because Chloe was beside him, and she had her hands in warm comfort on his cold hands. Sully was no longer gripping him but hugging him. Both of them were hushing him, and Chloe kept interspersing her soothing with encouragements of "Good boy. Our good, sweet boy."

He accepted their care. They seemed to understand. They must have known what he wanted to say, and what he couldn't say, and that he had to cry it all out before it swallowed him whole. They didn't pull away, and Nate nuzzled back into Sully's chest while gripping Chloe's hands tight to his throat.

When Nate's sobs calmed to soft hiccups, Chloe only moved to get him more water. She held it for him to gulp down and wiped his face with such tenderness that he had to blink back the last few tears. Sully's strong arms grounded him into the moment, but when Chloe swiped a tissue under his eyes before dabbing at his nose, so close he could see the glints of light in her dark eyes, he wanted to lean forward and kiss her.

"All right," Chloe held his jaw as she examined his eyes. "You look so tired. We had more, but you can be done. Just call red."

Nate drew a shuddering breath. The need to kiss her pounded harder through him.

It wasn't about sex. Everything he had endured tonight was bigger than sex. Bigger than the girls he had charmed into bed, usually after a few too many drinks, awkward fumbling with clothes and condoms, hesitancy to participate fully in the moment with a practical stranger, the dragging silences afterward that ended in excuses about why spending the night wouldn't work. Those last moments with Nate's "Oh, I'm pretty tired," and the girl's "I have to get up early for work tomorrow," and then a half-hearted attempt at a kiss at the door. The girls usually came from money and couldn't wait to leave his cramped place, and Nate had usually stolen something off them by then to help with the feelings of inadequacy and the rock-sure knowledge that a Park Avenue princess had been bored with her expensive life so she went slumming for hot tail in a bar. A few of the girls had tried to hide wedding rings and engagement diamonds, insisting they were single which made Nate feel even worse.

Here, on Sully's bed, between the two of them, Nate felt the intimacy and comfort of being vulnerable with two people he trusted. The pleasure they had given him, the pain, that delicious agony, the freedom to bawl like a baby without having to hide his tears – all of it loomed brighter, bigger, better than any silly orgasm with some hot girl.

"Nate?" Chloe gently tilted his head. "Your eyes are not focusing. Are you about done?"

"It's okay," Sully assured him. "You've lasted a long time. No shame in quitting now."

"No, you were really brave," Chloe assured him.

Nate looked right at her. "Do you think I can take more?"

Chloe pursed her lips, shooting Sully an isn't-he-adorable? look, but she was serious when she replied, "It isn't what we think. You get to decide. Aren't you getting tired?"

"We barely started," Nate pulled back from her hands to pout against Sully's chest.

Sully's mild chuckle rumbled against Nate's back. "Kid, it's almost midnight. We've been playing with you for more than 2 hours."

"Nuh-uh," Nate shook his head.

Sully gestured to the clock beside his bed that read 11:52.

"You changed the clocks to trick me," Nate insisted.

"What?" Chloe's amusement sounded in her voice as Nate refused to look at her.

"You've been tricking me all night. It's been like ten minutes."

"You lose track of time in play," Chloe assured. "And subspace makes a long time feel really short."

"I don't care. I don't want to go to bed. Green!"

"I'm not using the vibrator on your feet again," she warned. "You looked nearly insane at the end, and those screams hurt my ears. If you want more play, it's going to be calmer and less stressful. We have to bring you down before we tuck you in for the night."

"I'm never going to bed!" Nate hadn't said anything so childish since he had been at the orphanage and the nuns told him he could not sit at the window and watch for his brother all night. A grumpy nun had gripped him by the ear and marched him to bed then, but now Chloe stroked over his head as if he were an over-excited puppy.

"No more fussing. We're going to untie you and move this to your bed so you can sleep when we're done," she went to loosen the ropes on his ankles.

"What can you do to me on my bed?" Nate groused. "It's too small because someone wouldn't spring for a queen."

"Because," Sully began untying his wrists, "someone was a drama queen the day I bought it and wanted to lie on every mattress a dozen times to 'feel it out'."

"I get more injuries than you do—I need a better mattress to recover."

"That's why," Chloe cut in, "we're going to give you a thorough massage now."

Nate was about to complain that a massage sounded too ordinary, too dull, when Sully added,

"And you got another spanking coming."

Oh, right, he had forgotten. The heat in his rear was still there, and as they helped him stand, the shift in movement made him wince.

"Look at me," Chloe waved a hand in front of his face. "Is your vision clear? Anything blurry or black?"

"Your beautiful hair."

"I'm serious. We can't have you fainting."

"Oh, come on. I've had worse injuries than this after a mission. Hell, I had worse injuries when Sully and I stole the golden key from the auction."

"You take abominable care of him," Chloe scolded Sully.

The older man made a face of protest. "He just jumps into action. By the time I start to move, he's already punched three guys, swung from light fixtures, and been knocked over four times."

There were all kinds of smart remarks to make to that, ways to rib Sully about being old and slow, but Nate waited as Sully took his bare arm and walked him towards the doorway and then to his own room.

Technically, Nate's room was a corner of the open loft that he had enclosed with an ancient Japanese screen and two bookcases full of old manuscripts. The twin bed had white sheets and a brown cover with a single pillow, and Chloe turned to Sully to demand,

"What Oliver Twist nonsense is this? You take the orphan kid and put him in this sad bed in this tiny corner so he knows his place?"

"Hey! I paid a lot of money for the mattress and frame," Sully returned. "It does that hard/soft thing."

"That 'hard/soft thing'?" Chloe mocked. "You mean a Sleep Number bed?"

"Whatever. He likes it. And we don't have room for a bigger bed."

"Are you blind? Look at all the space."

Nate looked around the room, realizing for the first time that there was tons of room in the huge loft. He had never thought about his small sleeping space as he only used it to sleep, but it did look kind of pathetic now that she pointed it out. Was that something girls clued into that guys didn't notice? Maybe –

"Always critical of anything I do," Sully sat on the bed and caught Nate's wrist. "Bend over, kid. You're getting whacked again."

It felt completely crazy to go from analyzing the spatial possibilities of the loft room to tumbling over Sully's knee. Nate got most of his torso on the bed, but before he could comment, Sully landed a hard blow on his rear.

The already-sore skin did not like the slap, and Nate whined, "Oooww!"

"Go get the hairbrush," Sully directed Chloe as he spanked again.

"What?" Nate's head shot up. "Wait a minute. I don't need the hairbrush."

"You didn't want to go to bed," Sully said in between solid slaps. "Any good boy would have taken a massage and gone to sleep, but you turned all bratty on us. So – I have to use the hairbrush."

The spanking awoke all the sore nerves and hurting muscles from the earlier spanking (seriously, was he insane to agree to getting two spankings in one night?), and Nate couldn't imagine how the hairbrush would feel. He wanted to shout after Chloe to leave the hairbrush and come save him instead. Yet, Nate just focused on breathing.

Subspace was still there. It beckoned to him, peeking out of the shadows like an alluring dark fairy who would wrap her black wings around him and suck out his soul.

"I'm just concentrating here," Sully smacked Nate's rear. "And I'm going to use the hairbrush here as well. I'm saving the back of your legs for a grand finale."

"Wh-what?"

"They're kind of red, but I'm going to belt them at the end, and I want to make sure you can feel it."

Footsteps, Sully pausing, Nate drawing in a breath as he tried to settle himself, and then the hairbrush walloped down on his rear. It was just as big as Sully's hand, but the impact landed with more force and drove pain deeper, erasing everything in Nate's mind.

The dark fairy was there. Out of a haze of pain she stepped towards him.

The hairbrush thwacked against his bottom with precision, but Nate couldn't find the strength to holler. It felt so good, to be punished without concern about his pain, to have discipline administered by a dom who cared so much about - No!

Nate forced himself to admit it, to recognize the truth. By a dom who loved him. What kind of love didn't matter, but Sully loved him and looked after him and wanted him and all that meant more than Nate could ever understand.

"Okay," Sully's voice broke through, almost like Nate were underwater, "last bit, on the back."

The sound of a belt sliding free. His bottom burning from punishment. He would have trouble sitting tomorrow. He wore the marks of their love.

Out of his sporadic thoughts, he could see that the fairy was close now. She knelt beside the bed, putting her arms on the mattress and placing her hands over his. Her dark eyes framed by black lashes stared at him.

"Please?" Nate whispered.

The belt slashed down on the back of his thighs.

The fairy came forward, and they kissed.

The belt landed again, and Nate groaned into Chloe's mouth, but she kissed him back hard, hands now in his hair.

The belt left lines of fire when it landed, but Sully aimed it half-an-inch down each time he swung. The third strike made Nate start, but Chloe gripped his hair hard and bit down on his bottom lip before kissing him again.

All the sensations hit him at once, and Nate swan-dove into subspace.

How long he floated there, blissful and unaware, he didn't know. When he returned to his senses, he was on the bed, front down, and hands were massaging his back.

"Is he always this stubborn?" Chloe asked as she moved to squeeze the muscles of his upper arms. "He still hasn't said red."

"I told you. Kid's as obstinate as they come. I'm dead on my feet here – I can barely keep my eyes open."

"I told you to drink more coffee at dinner," Chloe sounded very self-satisfied. "If you know how stubborn he is, you should have been prepared for this to take a while."

"I know, but three hours? My arms are killing me. Do you how hard it is to hold anyone like that, let alone a guy with his strength? I couldn't get leverage because we were sitting, and my legs were going numb. You took too long with that vibrator thing. You promised a few seconds for each foot, and then you just stayed there."

"He was too beautiful. Straining against your arms with his head back, and his eyes kept glazing as he screamed. I wish I could paint. I would paint him just like that."

"You're not painting me," Nate mumbled into the bed.

"You've got to be done," Sully insisted. "We've put you through the wringer. Say red."

"No."

"Say it!"

"Never!"

"Actually," Chloe cut in, "doms can decide if their subs have had enough and end the play."

"Ha," Nate gave a small smile. "You say red then."

"I'm not saying it," Sully crossed his arms.

"Me neither," Nate couldn't cross his arms from his position so he settled for glaring up at both of them.

"I'll say red," Chloe offered, but both men snapped, "No!"

"Fine, fine," Chloe stepped back. She hiked her dress up a little, giving Nate a glimpse of her thigh through the slit in her dress, and grabbed Sully's hand. "Boost me up."

Sully blinked but assisted her to step up on the bed.

"Oh," she wiggled bare feet into the mattress, "this is nice."

Nate smirked, but then he felt her foot on his back.

"I'm going to stand on your back and loosen all those muscles that got tight tonight and were tight before. When I am done, you are going to say, 'Thank you, Chloe. Red.' And then you are going to sleep. If not, this will be the last time we do this for you. Do we have an understanding?"

"Yes, yes!" Nate put his elbows out to the side with his hands on the bed near his head to give her a flatter space on which to walk.

Chloe didn't walk on his back exactly. She put both hands on Nate's shoulders and stepped up on his back, but she remained on all fours so her weight was spread out. She moved slowly, feet and hands pushing into his back. The muscles shifted and joints popped under the slow onslaught, but Nate just lay still, drooling onto the bed.

"All right," Chloe stepped off his back but remained above him with a foot on each side of his hips and her hands on the back of his neck, "it's time."

"Thank you, Chloe," Nate murmured. "And Sully." He breathed in, exhausted but peaceful, finally letting the word escape him, "Red."