First Parker had to convince them. She’d been looking forward to it for almost three weeks. A nice, quiet night at home, reading an old favorite novel by the fire. A glass or two of wine – not too much, of course; soft music playing in the background; lovely art pieces to admire. Unfortunately the art was being somewhat stubborn.

Alec wanted more information before he agreed; she wasn’t really inclined to give him a chance to back out. "Consider it payback for the nurse thing," she said firmly. After all, Parker had gone out and bought the entire seventies nurse's uniform from their shopping list, dressed up like Dixie from Emergency for fuck's sake. Well, for fucking-Alec-and-Eliot’s sake anyway. They'd played all night that night and it really wasn't her fault the nurse's uniform wasn't on her body for most of it. Well, okay, she had orchestrated the evening; she seemed to end up orchestrating all of their evenings. Funny, that. But it wasn’t entirely her responsibility. They both had safewords after all. And they wouldn’t use them again tonight if she had any say in it. She felt the corners of her mouth rise a little. Because she did.

Eliot's eyes had kind of glazed over as he remembered how the silky white thigh-high stockings had set off Alec's legs so beautifully, how his impressive erection had looked tucked almost daintily under the lacy garter belt. Eliot was tempted back into reality by the soft caress on his cheek. He almost agreed automatically to whatever Parker was asking, but caught the nod before it could fully form, stopping it at a bow of his head instead. Not that implied submission was all that much better than actual agreement, but then all three of them knew Parker would get her way in the end. It was never as good when she didn’t. With a pleased little closed-mouth smile, she gentled his chin up with one finger until he was staring into Alec’s eyes again. Or would be if Alec’s eyes were open.

As Parker’s attention turned to Alec, Eliot’s gaze wandered again to the artful tangles of harnesses and ropes hung on either side of the huge fireplace that took up a good quarter of one wall of Parker’s high-ceilinged cavern of a studio/apartment. ‘Maybe it’s a loft,’ he thought. He half-suspected she slept in the gear strung across the upper reaches of the room when he and Alec didn’t stay over. He fought a grin as Parker reached to pinch their lover.

Alec snorted as Eliot fell hard at the mere mention of that damn nurse’s uniform, then shifted a bit to relieve the discomfort of his own response to that memory. That night had spawned yet another in the Fetishes Parker Has Induced In Me collection. He’d had to clear out a drawer to house the stockings he’d bought in the weeks since. The only ones he didn’t like were the fishnets. They looked great, but were uncomfortable as all get out. That imported French light gray silk pair, on the other hand… He jumped at the sharp pinch to his thigh and opened his eyes to see Eliot’s amused ones glimmering back at him.

Alec swallowed hard and said “OK. Whatever you want, Parker.” Eliot’s eyes narrowed a little and his head cocked just so to the right. Alec shrugged. “What? I just don’t feel like dragging it out tonight. I’m a little tired.” He glanced at Parker out of the corner of his eye to see if this would alter her plans; she always got a certain look when she was re-thinking things.

Instead she was grinning broadly. “Oh, that’s okay. You could even fall asleep if you want.” She nodded once. “I won’t mind.” Quicksilver swift, a frown replaced her smile. “I’d have to nudge you if you started snoring though; I want to get some reading done. And snoring would clash with the music.”

Now he was thoroughly confused.

Parker hung Eliot first, knowing he would cooperate and enjoy the experience. Seeing that should make Alec more relaxed about it. She started with a blindfold, then strapped her big jock in, tightening bits here and there to make sure his pretty muscles would be emphasized. With one good rub of girl-skin over boy-skin, thoroughly enjoying the shudder he gave, she kissed him slowly.

While his eyes were still closed, she stepped back and pulled on the line dangling from the pulley. Eliot was hoisted about two feet into the air while staying mostly vertical. She adjusted the system to give him more horizontal support and he suddenly went almost boneless. ‘Huh,’ she thought, tying off the rope. ‘File that away for future reference.’

She stepped over to the other side of the fireplace and held out the harness there for Alec to step into. She was a little startled when he did so without even a comment, much less a complaint. As she buckled him in, she took a good look at his face. ‘Lines, bags, and droopy eyes. Poor exhausted thing!’

Looking in his eyes to be sure he understood her seriousness, she told him, “Relax into the sling. You can go to sleep and you won’t fall. If you can’t go to sleep, tell me. I’ll let you down and you can go get in the bed.”

“You’d give up your symmetry for me?” he grinned.

“Yep. Now wipe that grin off your face before I decide to enjoy the contrast between hand-warmed black and cool white.”

Eliot, relaxed in the snug darkness, was struck with a sudden wave of gratitude for Parker, who had never once used force with him, even though she often gave Alec the pain he wanted. Parker, who had figured out immediately that if she wanted him to lose control (and she frequently did), she should stay away from the places where he had to have it. Eliot’s thrill lay in being as perfect as possible; Parker’s disappointment burned more than enough for him.

He was equally grateful for Alec, the absolutely necessary third wall in their triangle. Parker would have grown bored with only one perfect pet. She needed someone to challenge her authority. Alec did that as easily as breathing, sometimes even unintentionally. Although not tonight.

Eliot didn’t wonder about that for long, but he did notice that Parker failed to follow through on her threat to nudge Alec if he started snoring.

Alec barely woke up enough to get himself to the bed when Parker took down the art a couple of hours later. Sleeping all snug and surrounded was the best part of owning these particular works of art. “G’nite,” she slurred into Alec’s chest, one arm flung possessively over his waist.

“Mmm” was his only response.

Eliot murmured goodnight against her neck as he settled in to spoon her even more closely, one of his legs tucked between Alec’s, with one of Parker’s flung over the top all akimbo. It was a very complicated tangle.