The ute came slowly up the track with something large strapped beneath a tarp.

Elara was near the stable when Bryce passed her and turned towards the barn. He reversed through the wide doors and stopped beside the end bay.

She followed him inside as he cut the engine and lowered the tailgate.

“What have you brought?”

“Need a hand first.”

The tarp was strapped down at every corner. Bryce released the ratchets, pulled the webbing free, then folded the tarp back.

Spotted gum, oiled and heavy. A broad half-round support ran along the top, padded and wrapped in dark leather. Narrow ledges projected from both sides beneath it. Steel pins sat in rows of holes through the uprights and brackets, allowing both the top and the ledges to change height. The base was cross-braced, with small dark rings fixed beneath the frame where they were easy to overlook.

Elara ran her hand along the leather.

“This is from the kitchen.”

“What was left.”

“What is it?”

“Saddle stand.”

“Is that what you’re calling it?”

Bryce’s mouth moved as though he nearly smiled.

“It’ll hold one.”

They lowered it from the tray together and carried it the few metres into the end bay. Once it was on the dirt floor, Bryce put both hands against the curved top and shoved.

It did not move.

Elara circled it, studying the joinery, the adjustable supports and the rings hidden beneath the frame.

“You built this for me.”

“Yeah.”

He pulled one of the pins and raised the curved top, then shifted the ledges beneath it.

“I remembered what you said about the breeding equipment.”

“That it was built for horses.”

“This isn’t.”

Elara looked at the width of the kneeling ledges, then at the padded curve.

“My cabin’s more private,” Bryce said. “But there’s no room for this. No room for anything else either.”

Her attention moved around the end bay.

“The barn has room.”

“That was my thought.”

He stepped back from the frame.

“If you don’t want it, it holds saddles.”

Elara looked at him.

“You spent days building something that might hold saddles?”

“Timber was already there.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“No.”

She ran her palm over the leather once more, then turned and walked out of the barn.

Bryce watched her cross the yard towards the stable.

She returned carrying an armful of equipment gathered from the tack room: two riding crops, a short stock whip, a longer dressage whip and a coiled lunge whip. She placed them along the padded top one after another.

Bryce looked from the collection to her.

“I guess this means you want it.”

Elara picked up one of the crops and ran the leather flap across her palm.

“I have ideas.”

Bryce glanced at the frame.

“Height will need setting.”

“We’ll work it out.”

He looked at the whips spread across the leather.

“We?”

Elara stepped closer and rested the crop against his chest.

“You built it.”

Bryce looked down at the crop against his chest.

“You planning to use that on me?”

“Not first.”

His eyes lifted to hers.

Elara moved to the side of the frame. She placed her free hand on the padded curve and leaned across it, testing the height against her hips.

“Too high.”

Bryce moved to the pins.

“How much?”

“One hole.”

He lowered the top and locked it back into place.

Elara leaned across it again.

“Better.”

Bryce lowered both ledges to suit the new height.

Elara straightened, stepped astride the frame and lowered one knee onto each ledge. She folded forward across the padded curve, letting it support her chest and abdomen.

Bryce stood behind her.

“That work?”

“You tell me.”

Elara held the crop out behind her, waiting. The leather handle was warm from her grip.

Bryce took it without speaking.

She lifted her hips and unfastened her jeans, working them down only far enough to bare her arse. The timber remained steady beneath her, supporting her weight without forcing her to brace herself.

Bryce touched the leather flap lightly against one cheek.

Elara waited.

The first strike was light.

A brief sting.

“Again.”

The second landed harder. Her body tightened against the padding, then settled.

“Harder.”

Bryce struck her once more.

The sound was sharper this time. Heat spread beneath her skin, strong enough to make her grip the edge of the leather.

He was drawing the crop back when he looked past her.

Vael stood at the edge of the end bay.

Bryce lowered the crop.

“Didn’t know you were home.”

“Saige dropped me off. She returned to town for something she forgot.”

Vael looked at the crop in Bryce’s hand, then at Elara straddling the frame with her jeans lowered.

“Why are you striking her?”

Bryce did not answer immediately. He looked towards Elara.

“We’re just trying it out,” Elara said.

Vael looked at her.

“You want him to strike you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

She was still deciding whether she liked the pain itself. She liked waiting for it. She liked the idea of Bryce standing behind her, reading what she gave him without needing to ask.

“Sometimes pain can be pleasure as well. It’s complicated.”

“How is it different from harm?”

“I expect it. I asked for it. And he knows when to stop.”

“What if you don’t like it?”

“Then he’ll stop.”

Vael considered the answer. He could see she was not distressed. That did not mean he understood why she wanted it.

Bryce set the crop down with the others.

Elara pushed herself upright and pulled her jeans back over her hips. She fastened them, then ran her hand across the padded curve.

“Since you’re here…”

She looked at Vael, then Bryce.

“I have another idea.”

She settled forward against the padded curve again.

“Vael, stand in front. Bryce, behind.”

They moved to opposite ends the frame.

Bryce could stand close behind her, but Vael had to reach along the length of the curve to get near her from the front.

She adjusted her position.

“Swap.”

Bryce moved to the front while Vael took his place behind her.

The second arrangement was no better.

The frame technically allowed access from both ends, but only one of them could stand comfortably behind her. The other had to kneel awkwardly on the frame in front of her.

Elara swung one leg back over the frame and shifted sideways. She knelt on the ledge at one side, folded herself across the padded curve and gripped the opposite ledge with her fingers.

"Try it like this."

They tried the positions once more. Bryce behind, Vael in front. Then Vael behind, Bryce in front.

Elara straightened.

“It will work,” she said. “Just not how I imagined.”

“I want both of you inside me. One in each.”

Vael considered the problem.

“I could alter myself to form two appendages. I could penetrate you in both places while Bryce remains at your mouth.”

Elara looked at him.

“You could.”

“That is not what you meant,” Vael said.

“No.”

She looked from him to Bryce.

“It would still only be one of you.”

Elara climbed down from the frame.

Bryce looked past them towards the central space of the barn.

The chain hoist hung from the existing beam.

“What about suspending you?”

Elara followed his gaze.

"Bryce..."

“You would need to be upright,” Bryce said.

“One of you in front. One behind.”

“Supported in a squat. Your weight carried by the hoist. Hands free.”

Elara looked up at the beam, already imagining the position.

“There are lifting slings in the locker,” Bryce said. “Different lengths.”

He retrieved several and laid them beneath the hoist.

Vael remained nearby while Bryce lowered the hook and compared the slings. He chose one to support beneath Elara’s hips, another for her back and two shorter lengths for beneath her thighs.

“This is only to test the position,” Bryce said.

Elara stepped beneath the hook.

Bryce arranged one sling beneath her arse and around her hips. Another supported her torso beneath her arms. The shorter slings passed under her thighs near her knees.

He checked each connection before taking up the chain.

The webbing tightened around her.

Bryce raised her slowly until her boots were only a few centimetres above the dirt.

The slings held her upright in a rough squat. Her hands were free, and there was space for Bryce and Vael to stand on opposite sides.

For a few seconds, the concept seemed to work.

Then the lower slings began drawing inward.

Elara’s knees moved towards each other.

“They’re closing my legs.”

Bryce studied the angle. All the lower supports ran towards the same point above her, pulling her thighs together as they took her weight.

The sling beneath her arse created another problem.

Elara shifted against it.

“This one’s in the way.”

Bryce walked around her and looked at the space they were trying to leave clear.

The broad sling carried her weight directly through it.

He crouched beside the lower supports, following their lines back to the hook.

“Needs a spreader bar.”

Elara looked down at him.

“So my legs stay open.”

“Yes.”

“And the support underneath?”

“Needs to come from the waist, lower back and thighs. Nothing directly through the middle.”

The narrow lifting webbing was already pressing into her legs.

"Needs to be more comfortable."

“Broad leather straps,” Bryce said. “Padded. Adjustable lengths so I can change the angle.”

Elara tested the position again.

Vael watched while Bryce studied where each support sat.

Bryce lowered the hoist.

Elara’s boots returned to the dirt. She stepped out while Bryce removed the slings and spread them across the ground again.

“Well that tells us what’s wrong,” he said. “And hopefully what we need to fix it."

Elara looked around the barn.

The saddle stand occupied only the end bay. The other bays beneath the lofts remained empty.

Her mind was already filling them.

Bryce began gathering the slings.

“Saige’s next full university day?” Elara asked, although it seemed more like a statement.

“That gives me time to make a bar.”

“One piece at a time,” she said. “Nothing obvious appearing overnight.”

“Anything left here has to look like farm equipment.”

“The crops go back to the tack room.”

“And we don’t assume what happens once it’s built,” Elara said. “We agree before we use it.”

Vael nodded.

The sound of a vehicle reached them from the track.

Bryce looked towards the barn doors.

“She’s back.”

He returned the slings to the equipment locker while Elara gathered the crops and whips from the saddle stand.

The hoist hook rose back towards the beam.

“Next university day,” Elara said.

Bryce looked up at the hoist.

“With a spreader bar.”

They left the saddle stand in the end bay and walked out of the barn before Saige reached the yard.

The barn had not changed except for the frame.

Bryce was already working out how to build the next piece.

Elara was already imagining what might follow.