Set just a few days before the awful night in Chapter 8 of Crossing the Lines, “Submissive Signaling” showcases Jay’s desire to fix all of his lovers’ stresses and his high hopes for moving their relationship forward.
Either the diner had upped its mac-and-cheese game, or Alice hadn’t eaten in three days.
Jay thrust his fork between her double-time spoon rhythm and speared a bite. “If your plan is to eat so fast that I can’t steal some, you’ve definitely failed.”
Mmm, okay, the mac and cheese tasted delicious, but no different from any of the other times he’d tried it.
Alice rested her spoon on the edge of the bowl. Three-quarters empty already, and the noodles still had steam rising from them. “Steal away. You have sweet potato fries on your plate calling my name. My brain’s been working so hard all morning that my stomach is screaming for more fuel.”
“Deadline this week?” He cruised back over their last few lunches, but nothing she’d mentioned jumped out at him. He tried to keep track to make sure Henry stayed informed of when Alice had work stress. “Whatcha working on? Is it bigger than a breadbox?”
“Bigger than a breadbox and with more headaches than a concussion ward.” She filched his fries, three in a row, closing her eyes and smiling as she chewed. “Yeah, I’m gonna have to confiscate these. My team got handed a huge pile of bullshit yesterday afternoon when the design pod that was supposed to be finishing this project walked into HR and imploded all over the place.”
He was no expert, but that sounded bad. “Wouldn’t that be exploding? If it’s all over the place?”
“Gah, you’re right. See how sleepy my brain is?” She took a long drink of water. “So they aren’t as far along as they should’ve been, because apparently they’ve had a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen for weeks, and now my team is at bat, and the project’s due by end of day Thursday.”
“Harassers? In your office?” Swaggering jackasses cornering Alice in empty cubicles or following her into the bathroom. Trying to force her to do things she didn’t want to do, things she shouldn’t have to do, not at work, not anywhere, because she should be safe, dammit. “Are they fired? Did they turn in their key cards?”
“Hey, easy, it’s okay.” She rubbed his forearm, and the muscles started to relax. Shit, he’d white-knuckled his fork so hard the metal had left an imprint in his palm. “The guy is on leave for the duration of the investigation, and the two gals on his team spent most of yesterday and this morning closeted with HR. My team is me and seven guys, but at least none of them is trying to fuck me. They appreciate me for my brain.” She waved her free hand at the table. “Hence me scarfing everything in sight to keep the brain cells firing.”
“Me and Henry, we appreciate you for your brain, too.” Perfect, a chance to remind her that she had more with them than kinky sex. Unless she started worrying about not being attractive to them anymore. “And other stuff, but you wouldn’t be Alice without your smarts. Not that you don’t have a hot body. Even in chunky winter sweaters.”
She glanced down at her top, frowning like he’d uncomplimented her.
He’d only meant to say she looked sexy despite the thick-cabled maroon yarn drowning her. God, women were complicated. “I’m gonna stop talking now.”
Alice snatched a fry and playfully nudged it between his lips. “Good choice, stud. You wouldn’t be you without your smarts, either, hot body or not.”
He swallowed quick, resisting the urge to drop a kiss on her fingers before she pulled them away. “But I’m still hot, right?”
“Scorching.” Pressing her palm against his bicep, she hissed a sizzling sss and yanked her hand away. “It’s a wonder your clothes don’t burn right off.”
“Flameproof.” He nodded with Serious Face. “We should get you some.”
“The way my day is shaping up, I’ll still be wearing this outfit Thursday morning.” She picked at both their plates, scrounging along the edges, co-opting his pickle spear and taking a crunchy bite. “They’ll probably lock us in tonight and shove food under the door until we finish.”
“Well that can’t be legal.” Alice’s sketchy eating habits bothered Henry already, ever since they’d seen the inside of her fridge after the power outage last month. If work kept her late, she might forget dinner completely. “I eat a lot, but Henry’s always making enough for plenty of leftovers. You should start showing up for ‘What’s in the Fridge Wednesdays,’ and then I’d have fewer ‘Guess the Leftovers’ for lunch.”
“Tempting.” The last of the mac and cheese disappeared behind Alice’s pink lips. “I should get back. I don’t want to rush you, though. This is the absolute best part of my day. Probably the whole week.”
“Until Friday.” Henry would wanna know how bad a week Alice had in store so he could give her something relaxing. Jay stuffed a handful of fries in his mouth and dug for his wallet. Asking her whether she’d be more relaxed by a massage or a spanking would go way outside the Tuesday rules.
“Yeah.” Red swept across her cheeks, but she grinned at him as she shook her head. “Until Friday.”
They dropped their cash on the table at the same time, Jay swigging the last of his drink.
Alice skewed her mouth sideways and raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re sure you’re done eating?”
He opened his mouth wide and flexed his tongue at her. “Uh-huh, all empty, shee?”
The back of her hand landed smack against his upper arm. “Yeah, I ‘shee,’ smartass.” She fussed with her jacket, the sleeves getting caught on the bulk of her sweater until he grabbed the cuffs and held them down for her. “Thanks. So, since we’re both leaving, if you don’t need to race back, maybe you could give me a lift?”
Holy fuck yes, thank you Jesus.
“At your service.” He swept his arm toward the door. “My chariot awaits.”
She took his hand as she led the way outside.
“So she was pretty distracted”—Jay rinsed the dinner plates and added them to the dishwasher—“because of the big project that got dropped in their laps, but she made time to come eat with me anyway instead of working through lunch.”
Arms crossed over his chest, Henry glanced toward their front door with a frown. “And you’re certain she wasn’t a target of the harassment in the office?”
“She said no, and that the guy isn’t allowed in the building until all the legal stuff is sorted out.” Didn’t mean he hadn’t wanted to go inside with her after lunch and meet every single guy within a hundred feet of her desk. Not that Alice couldn’t intimidate people herself. But giving them extra incentive to keep their hands and other parts to themselves might’ve made him less nervous pedaling back to his HQ.
“Alice is quite conscientious, but I suspect keeping your standing appointment wasn’t her only reason for attending lunch today despite her workload.” Henry pushed away from the counter and moved to the breakfast bar, opening a drawer by the sound. “I’m certain that escaping the office and sharing lunch with you will have eased some of her stress—”
“She said”—Jay spun around, his feet too excited to stay still, and spied Henry’s smile as he put away the wine opener—“it was the best part of her week.” He fumbled the slippery glass in his hands, catching it by the stem after two bobbles. Whew. Safe in the dishwasher. “Until Friday, I mean.”
“Friday.” Henry hummed a bit of music, light notes that rose like tiny steps. “Yes, we’ll perhaps eschew a rigid sequence of events in favor of a more flexible evening determined by Alice’s mood when she arrives. I’ll need to get the measure of her stress before the appropriate actions to relieve it will present themselves.”
Rolling Henry’s assessment around in his head, Jay filled the silverware basket. “So we’ll play it by ear?”
Henry nestled behind him, clasping his hips and brushing his lips across Jay’s earlobe. “Precisely. You are delightfully brilliant and an excellent busboy. The universe granted me quite a boon when it brought us together.”
“The booniest of boons,” Jay sang out. Whatever those were. “And Alice, too.”
“And Alice, too.” Henry bit gently, tugging Jay’s ear, and squeezed his waist in broad hands. “Though she is more resistant to change than you are. Her awakening to her potential with us is a more gradual process than yours was.”
“You don’t see her as often. I got you every week from the start.” True, he’d been an emergency case with a deadline for building personal defenses, at least when he’d figured on still going to the club. Before Henry upended his life for the better.
But if a jackass ran a red light and took Alice out tomorrow, he and Henry would have to live with a string of regrets where memories should’ve been. No more back-to-the-office rides with Alice pressed against him, curling her arm around his waist, her fingers squeezing him tight as he swerved around an elephant-size pothole. They should be making more of those memories now, dammit. Every day. Henry could account for Alice’s heart, but he couldn’t force bad things not to happen just ’cause they needed to go slow.
Jay turned in Henry’s arms and tried to pour his heart out through his eyes. “It’s been eight months. Maybe more time with us is what she wants, but she doesn’t know how to ask. Couldn’t we maybe mention renegotiating her contract? Or we could talk about mine in front of her. I wouldn’t mind. Just so she’d remember she can do that, too.”
“So perceptive.” Henry glanced at the counter and abandoned the leftovers, leaving the dishwasher hanging open as he tugged Jay into the living room. “I had hoped Alice might approach me on her own, but thus far she has seemed content with the current arrangement—if not downright skittish about more.”
Seating himself on the couch, Henry left Jay his choice. Jay settled at Henry’s bare feet and laid his head against Henry’s knee. Skittish-Alice meant more waiting, more watching the signals she gave off for the tiniest hints of unhappiness.
“I won’t rush her, no.” Henry rested his hand on Jay’s head and finger-combed the flyaways. “But a reminder, given the time that has elapsed, might be in order Friday.”
“For real?” Jay shot up straight and searched Henry’s face. Neutral, distant, not teasing but lined with the concentration-grooves of Very Serious Thoughts. Jay bounced on suddenly energized legs, gripping Henry’s knees in his palms. “We’re gonna nudge Alice?”
“If her stress level is high when she arrives, I might have you run her a hot bath to begin our evening.” Stroking Jay’s arms, Henry added a firm massage for each muscle group he passed. “A bit of pampering for our girl could put her in the appropriate frame of mind for recognizing the benefits of an expanded relationship.”
Bingo. Henry could seduce her with his magic hands, and maybe Jay could give her an orgasm or three with his tongue. “And then she’ll say she loves us, and she wants to move in, and—”
“And what have I said about such realizations?” Henry turned soft, patient eyes on him, same as he’d done a thousand times before.
Sagging, Jay stifled a sigh. “That she’ll come to them in her own time.”
“Correct. I know the progress seems infinitesimal to you at times, my dear boy, but Alice truly has come far already.” Henry moved on from arms to shoulders, smoothing out the strain from Jay’s hunched-over riding posture. “If I am not mistaken, she has finally accepted the premise that romantic love exists beyond body chemistry, and she recognizes the love you and I share. These are enormous shifts in her strictly rational worldview. When she needs time to adapt, we must grant her that.”
With nudging, though. Jay leaned into Henry’s massage and let his head drop forward. Not harasser nudging, or stalker nudging, or pushing Alice in ways that added more stress to her life. “But keep loving her while she’s adapting, so she knows we’re here for her all the time, not just Friday nights.”
“I have tried to show her love in the ways she will accept.” Henry’s heavy two-finger pressure on each side loosened the stiffness in Jay’s neck. “I have tried to use our love for each other as an example—but I cannot be certain of the effect we are having.” Henry slid his hands forward and cupped Jay’s cheeks, raising his face. “Despite what people think of dominants, I cannot peer directly into her mind and pull out her thoughts.”
The green stare holding him in happy-muscle stupor kinda disagreed. “Could’ve fooled me.”
A quiet puff of air-laughter passed Henry’s lips. “I make educated guesses that get better with time and experience—and with how well she communicates her needs to me. And each time we meet, that guesswork becomes less and less.”
“So we should meet more and more.” See, he could be logical, too. Henry and Alice didn’t have a lock on planning and order. “Like every week. And have her over for dinner.”
“I believe we’re quite close, my boy.” Henry relaxed into the corner cushion, tucking the mustard-yellow pillow behind his back. “Our brilliant problem-solver has amassed her evidence of love. Soon enough she’ll recognize the irrefutable truth of our rightness for one another.”