In “On Top,” set after Alice’s birthday celebration in Chapter 10 of Playing the Game, Henry and Jay have one more gift for Alice—and Jay has a special request for Henry.
Inhaling musky heat, Jay pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth. Henry’s rich claim soaked into him thick as syrup on a stack of pancakes. Delicious and long lasting—at least until he levered out of bed and into the shower.
No rush. Henry made a fantastic pillow, his sturdy-soft thigh outmatched in the post-blowjob ranking only by him finger-combing Jay’s hair. The slow, steady stroking would drop Jay back into dreamland if he didn’t fight the pull. But not on a Tuesday. Especially not this one.
Full up on praise, he rolled to his stomach and rested his chin beside his lover’s softening cock. “Henry?”
Henry swept back the hair falling over Jay’s eye and cupped his ear. “You’d care for actual sustenance to start your day?” Liquid amusement flowed beneath his rolling baritone, curving his lips and crinkling his eyes. “Shower first. I’ll have breakfast for you when you’re done.”
“No—” His stomach growled, ample evidence to the contrary. “I mean, yeah, I want breakfast.” The food came guaranteed, though. Desire ran deeper, and mapping the perfect route might take a few dozen trial runs. “But more I was thinking what if you converted the whole floor?” The condo deal Henry had cooked up to swallow the other neighboring place would let them make room for Alice the way Henry’d made room for him. The seams where the apartments used to be separate didn’t show. Having her in the bed would be worth weeks of construction noise and dust. “Alice could move in without moving. Not scary, right?”
With narrowing eyes and fingers tightening around the back of his neck, Henry pinned him in place. The silence stretched. A brilliant idea or a question too far.
Sprawled between Henry’s legs, Jay dug his toes under the blankets. In his eagerness to get started this morning, he’d tumbled the comforter to the floor and kicked the sheets askew. Making the bed would be job one after his shower. After Henry considered his proposal.
“Do you intend to begin each morning with a new and varied way to ask me the same question?”
Fuck yes. Unless Henry ordered him not to. Green eyes offered no answers, but Henry’s light tone signaled Jay hadn’t tumbled head over handlebars. Alice wouldn’t speak up. Henry wouldn’t speak first. That left him to be the sticky pine sap between them.
“I’ll stop when I find the one that makes you say yes.” When waking beside Henry and Alice belonged in everyday joys and not rare Saturday mornings and wishbook somedays. This last Friday, celebrating Alice’s birthday, had been their best yet. “Promise.”
“I see.” Henry gripped the back of his head and tugged. “What a concession you’re making.”
Taking the invitation, he launched himself full-out. A hard-snuggle morning. Chest to chest, thighs to thighs. He tucked Henry’s ribs between his forearms and breathed in the sharp bite of citrus and deeper notes from his neck. As their feet tangled, he wriggled closer. His hug squeezed deeper than Henry making juice. One blend, sweet and fresh.
“You’ll only continue pleading”—Henry wrapped him tight and rolled—“until you’ve gotten the answer you desire.” A puff of laughter fluttered against Jay’s cheek. “How considerate.”
Henry bore down with storm strength and kissed him. So deep he’d sample himself.
Jay sank into the mattress, all loose-limbed comfort and good-boy submission. Henry breathed, and Jay’s abdomen shifted to make room. Henry rocked his hips, and Jay’s knees rose into a cradle. Easy and right, he fell into the joyous freedom of coasting down a hill with the wind in his face.
Alice had felt it, too. Friday night. She’d gotten the spanking she deserved because she wanted Henry’s touch enough to ask for it. The proof had spilled into Jay’s mouth with the sweet tang of her flowing heat. By the time Henry had flipped her over the bench and fucked her, she’d been coasting in the joy-thrill, her mouth hanging open and her body shaking.
“You could ask her in a note. I’ll take it to her at lunch with her birthday dessert.” The delicious apple hand pies waited in the fridge. Playing chief taster had filled his belly last night. “No intimidation. She can’t feel pressured to accept the move-in invite if you aren’t even there.”
“She can.” In feathery thumbstrokes, Henry swept sleep from Jay’s eyes. “She very likely would.” A light kiss landed on his lips. “And then we would have a much larger problem on our hands, my boy.”
Henry always delivered the patience talk in a gentle voice. Too many times to count since August. Alice’s contract acceptance had turned a maybe-never into a whole map of branching routes. Jay’d be the first to choose journey over destination—but not this time. The twisty paths and dead ends got in the way of nuzzling Alice’s breasts when he woke up and passing her the pancakes at Sunday breakfast. Besides, once she moved in, she’d open a whole new map of journeys. Spectacular ones.
Skimming Jay’s jawline with his teeth, Henry left tiny nips in his wake. “We had an exceptional weekend with her.”
Nip and hum, down one side and up the other. Best cure for a pouty mood.
“She allowed a significant slice of her emotions space to breathe.” With a nudge, Henry turned Jay’s face aside. “When we pressure her, she smothers them back into nonexistence.”
Warm breath tickled his ear. Henry’s full weight rested on him, and no urges to shift to lower gear hit him. Alice would learn to love pressure if she let herself.
Henry kissed his pulse point under the back of his jaw. “In pulling her to move faster, we push her away.”
“Alice is stubborn.” A backpedaler, wearing herself out by working against herself.
Henry hummed. “Or afraid.”
“But she’s so brave about trying everything.” The contract, the cuffs, the flogging, the spanking. Alice didn’t need the coddling he did. “Braver than me.”
“No, not more than you.” Green eyes turned dark and serious. Henry held him safe with eyes and arms. “Brave in different ways. I would hate to repay her bravery with ultimatums she is unready to accept.”
No demands on Alice. He recited Henry’s wisdom in his head through the rest of their morning routine. Through his ride to work and his standing shop-and-drop for Mrs. Eickhoff. While pedaling to the diner, the birthday treat tucked safe in the insulated pack in his shoulder sack. A quick word with the hostess finalized Henry’s arrangements. Not spoiling the surprise for Alice was the hardest part.
Her red-cheeked beauty below a tight blond twist. Her smile when she saw him, and how it grew to a gentle laugh when he stood for her. At least she couldn’t see his cock twitching beneath his winter layers.
She swung into the chair opposite him and blew out a hard breath. “I’m starving. Are you thinking soup today?” As he sat, she yanked off her gloves and shoved them in her pockets, leaving her coat draped cocoon-like against her seat. “I’m thinking hot-hot-hot.”
Covering her hand, he stopped her from pulling a menu out of the wire frame. “Can we start with dessert today?” He rubbed the chill from her skin with both palms. “I kind of already ordered.”
“Dessert first?” She pumped thanks with a clasp and reclaimed her fingers. “That’s a switch.”
A switch for a switch. Half choking, he covered with a cough. “That’s a birthday girl perk.”
His wave sent the server hurrying into the back.
“Jay, you don’t have to buy me birthday dessert. We—” Blushing, Alice tipped her head and studied the ceiling. The lighting teased the long curve of her bare neck. “Celebrated.”
“No, I know.” Fuck, did he know. Sampling her through her panties. Tying her down so, so carefully. Watching her ride him and trying not to blow his—timing. He dug for his phone.
As the waitress set the plate between them, Henry’s hand pies bubbled from their ride under the diner’s broiler. Cinnamon apples, walnuts, and cheddar snuggled together, all three, inside Henry’s homemade crust. The pinching ridges around the edges bore the imprint of his knuckles.
Eyes falling shut, Alice breathed deep. “God, that smells amazing. Is it a seasonal thing?”
He snapped a quick photo.
“I don’t remember it on the menu.” She scooped one up in both hands and bit down. “Mmm.”
“It’s not.” He captured a shot of her as she chewed. Now-now-now, finally, time to spill the secret. “Special delivery.”
Cinnamon-sugar dusted her fingers and her lips. The specks glistened as her mouth dropped open. The green and brown specks in her eyes glowed, too, as she stared at the pastry in her hands.
Thinking face. Perfect. He grabbed a final photo and shipped all three to Henry. She’d breathe out in three, two—
Her exhale came with a quiet moan. She licked the sugar from her lips. “Will you thank the chef for me?”
“Not a problem.” Already done. The photos would let Henry share in the giddy satisfaction he’d given Alice with his last birthday gift. And delivering a post-dinner blowjob on Alice’s behalf would make a great whatchamacallit, bookend, to the day. He’d have to try for one when he got home.
“Here.” Leaning across the table, she held the mini-pie inches from him. “You have ‘I want something in my mouth’ face.”
He swallowed back a whimper and snapped his teeth around a bite. She knew him so fucking well. More than well enough to move in.
He’d ask again in the morning. Gotta stay on top of that goal.