Set during Chapter 5 of Playing the Game, in the week between Alice’s second and third contract nights, “Blanket Promise” has Jay giving Alice a ride back to work on his bike before he arrives home to a sexy surprise.
Dragging his feet on the pavement, Jay coasted to a stop in front of an imposing block of glass and steel. The place boasted a bike rack out front with a jumble of well-kept workhorses and a handful of fancy-ass models way beyond commuting needs. Alice worked with a bunch of tinkerers and a few wanna-be execs. Easy to tell their rides apart.
“End of the line.” The quiet office park held clusters of mirror-image buildings a few blocks from his favorite stop of the week. “See, the cargo arrived safe and sound, as promised.”
“I never doubted you.” Alice squeezed his shoulder, the one she’d been gripping for balance since she’d agreed to let him give her a lift back from lunch. “Whether I could balance sidesaddle in this skirt without crashing us was the dicier variable.”
“Slander. You’ve got fantastic balance.” He oughta know. She balanced like a fucking goddess over his face when he made her squirm and shake and moan. Three more days of waiting. “Engineer’s just another word for theoretical tightrope walker.”
“Engineering’s a practical field.” She leaned into his back in a quasi-hug, his messenger bag a chaperone between them. “We like testing theories.”
“And the test run proves you’ve got great balance.” Tossing a sly grin over his shoulder, he soaked up her pink-cheeked beauty. “I never doubted you.”
Laughing, she hopped down from the pannier platform over his back tire. “How about we agree not to doubt each other and call it even?”
“I promise.” He pulled the words from his head, his heart, his balls—everywhere their lives intersected. Alice might be short on faith in long-term relationship plans, but he’d double down on his. That way he’d always have extra to loan her while Henry crafted a place she’d want to stay.
She fiddled with the chin strap on his spare helmet. “Deal.”
He planted his feet and reached for her. She made a damn adorable good sport, blond hair poking out beneath the gray shell. “Here, lemme get it.”
He wore a helmet at Henry’s insistence. Made all his guys wear ’em, too, no matter how they bitched. Liability, he called it. Insurance regs. But his belonged to his service, a reminder that he had a man at home who loved him and wanted him safe.
“Gotta pinch the latch just right.” He grazed her lips with his knuckles. Putting a helmet on her for a five-block ride had nothing to do with liability and everything to do with extending Henry’s loving protection over her. “There we go.”
He eased the helmet up, flipped it around, and dropped it in his satchel. A pair of guys in khakis and button-downs scurried past them and into the building. No more lunch-break world. Time to armor up for reality.
Alice shook her hair out and finger-combed like mad. “Good thing I like you so much. My teammates are gonna think I got lucky at lunch.” She showered him with her flirty smile, the one that came with shining eyes and rich, warm tones in her voice. “Thanks for the ride, Jay.”
“It’s always my pleasure.” For damn sure, as true on talk-only Tuesdays as it was on fuck-me Fridays.
“Mine, too.” Giggling, she took two steps back. “I have to get moving.” She spun around and waved over her shoulder. “Have fun at work.”
Her narrow skirt stretched at her calves. He’d buried his appreciation in a tease at lunch, and she’d blamed the dressy look on some big morning presentation. Now he had time to enjoy the view.
Alice swayed when she walked. Not all the time, but her ass fucking bounced in that black skirt. Round and tight, soft flesh he could sink his hands into.
His dick tested the fit of his compression shorts. No escape for now.
He’d have to lobby Henry for another round of letting Alice straddle his face Friday. Put her in perfect position for kneading her curvy ass in his hands while he worked her clit with his tongue.
Acourse, burying his head between her legs while she lay back on the blankets had a certain charm, too, especially when Henry grabbed hold of his hair and made him stop and wait. When Alice, lost in sensation behind her blindfold, writhed and moaned.
Henry edged her two or three times for every orgasm he allowed. By the time permission came to get Jay’s cock in the game, she was incoherent and overflowing with sweetness.
He hissed at the ache in his balls. Silly to get so worked up with hours of work left in the day, but the lure of satisfaction loomed large.
She slipped inside the building, and he slapped his feet on the pedals. The ride back to home base would bleed off some of his Alice-energy. Switching gears, he stood up and made his legs work the burn.
Cars cruised along to his left, the assholes crowding him toward the curb and the timid swinging into opposing traffic and jamming the gas to get by him. Idiots. He’d catch up at the light anyhow.
He swung into the garage and ran through his post-ride checks. The spare helmet snuggled alongside his own in his cubby. With a wave for his dispatcher, he scooped up the paperwork chores waiting for him.
Worst part of the job, hands down. Shifting the whole mess of it to Tuesday afternoons had been a brilliant move. He’d spaced everything out before, a half hour here and there, but the annoyances dragged down the whole week. A minor headache every day.
When he’d taken his whining home, Henry’d pushed him hard, made him find the source and the solution. Tuesday afternoons, he rode the high from his service at lunch. Being around Alice for that hour in the middle of the week, he pleased Henry with his attentiveness to their lover and Alice with his friendship and himself with the opportunity to bask in her attention and reinforce their bonds.
Now when the paperwork fidgets hit, he brought up the memory of her laughing at his jokes or spoon-battling for the last bite of sundae. He made her happy. He made her day better—and that made his better, too.
Besides, he’d get to share every detail with Henry tonight after dinner. Sandwiched between rewards from his lovers, paperwork was manageable. Four hours of desk work pushed his limits, but he rode home satisfied with the results.
Boxes and tissue paper covered the coffee table. He hooked his bike on the wall, peeled off his shirt, and took a peek.
Fancy. Slippery. Colorful.
“Admiring the day’s work?” Henry rubbed Jay’s shoulder blades and planted a deep kiss at the back of his bowed head. Teeth scraped the nape of his neck. “I know I am.”
Jay would be on his knees—or his back—by the end of the night. His favorite outcome.
“You went panty shopping?” Bet it’d be some high-end salon Emma knew.
“I did.” Henry tugged at his hair with a hint of the power he craved. “Our girl has been bemoaning the contents of her underwear drawers.”
“Oh, she be moaning.”
Henry groaned and gave him a playful shake. “My dear boy.” Reaching past his hip, Henry teased out a pair of panties in peach silk. “They’ll darken quite nicely once you’ve licked and sucked until her need for you is dripping through them.”
“Plans for Friday?” His cock jumped into the conversation, uncomfortable pressure in his shorts.
“Mm-hmm.” Henry fingered the silk. “Go and start your shower. I’ll talk you through the scene”—he dropped the panties and cupped the front of a pair of very tight-fitting bike shorts—“while you show me what you’ve been holding back since your lunch today.”
Henry’s slow rubdown pulled him right to the edge. “Promise?”
“Always.”