Part 3

                                    

                                          
Warning:  Non-Consensual elements in this chapter.
                          
     
                          
                How had he come to this so fast?  Sherlock led him into his darkened room.  Outside, the sun began its descent behind the horizon and London prepared for night.  John could hear the normal sounds of moving cars, honking horns and wailing sirens in the distance.  Life moved along just like it always did on Baker Street.  For John, life would never be the same. 
                          
     “Lie down,” Sherlock told him.  “Get comfortable.”
                          
     Sherlock took off his own jacket and removed his shoes.  He unbuttoned his shirt, the tight, white one, and laid his clothes in a neat pile on the floor near his bed.  He stretched out his hand to help John do the same but John shot him a look and he pulled it back with a small smirk. 
                          
     “I can undress myself,” he said evenly.  “I don’t suppose you got enough sleep earlier.” He hoped maybe Sherlock might just want to lie down with him and let him adjust to this slowly.
                          
     “I’m fine, John really,” Sherlock chuckled darkly.  John saw the first glimmerings of real lust in his friend’s eye.  When before there had been hesitancy, now the look Sherlock gave him suggested pure heat and want.
                          
Mycroft's words echoed in his mind as he thought about his next move. "Make sure he sees you want him as well. He may wait for you to initate or pounce on you right away. Either way, give him what he wants. Make him feel like you want this as much as he does."
                          
"But, I don't want this, Mycroft! I'm his best friend. I have felt...things for him briefly but I don't see this working out in the way you and he seem to want it to. I have a crush on a nurse at the clinic for god's sake!" John felt panic rising in him. Part of him had always wanted to see what made Sherlock tick sexually. Of course he'd been curious about his sexual tastes. Sherlock's physcial beauty granted him a special kind of attention from both sexes until he opened his mouth and drove any interest in him away. John had suspected the woman, Irene played largely in his fantasies until Mycroft told him otherwise.
                          
"You've stuck by him through countless adventures, and you put up with many, many of his ridiculous experiments. You already are together. I don't think either one of us expects you to change your feelings for women. But he's let you in. As far as I know, you are the only person he's let this close, ever. We've comissioned you for this because you are uniquely qualified to do it."
                          
"I'll help you, I'll do this if you keep my family out of it," John said feeling like he needed to get some part of this fucked up situation under his control. "I'll do this for you; I'll even act like I like it if you assure me they are out of it. I'll need some kind of guarantee they can't or won't be harmed."
                          
John could see he'd struck a nerve with the man. He seemed to think about it and nodded. "You have my assurances that if you perform your duties as Sherlock and I see fit, I'll keep them out of it. But John, the collar stays on."
                          
John blew out a sigh of relief and finally bowed to the inevitabile. He'd do this but if his family weren't part of the equation, maybe he could get out of this a different way.
                          
     Back in the present moment, John couldn’t help but stare at the long, pale expanse of Sherlock’s chest.  He’d seen it before of course, many times, but this time …  He’d have to run his hands across it, caress it.  The thought didn’t immediately repulse him, but he found it nearly impossible to take the gigantic step forward and actually treat Sherlock as a lover.  He’d touched men before.  He’d had two distinct, sexual encounters with “blokes” in his past, one in med school and one in the army.  They’d both been brief but intense moments in John’s life.  And, while he enjoyed and didn’t regret either one, he’d decided he liked the idea of finding the right woman to have a family with someday.  Being with a man didn’t fit in with John’s life plan, but then he’d never planned to meet and live with Sherlock Holmes.