Henry’s unbeatable clock-sense got the three of them to the club on time Saturday morning, even after he’d let them fool around and feed each other breakfast in bed.
Stopping in the salon on their way upstairs, they greeted Emma and her early arrivers. Introductions and the understated confidence in Henry’s welcoming speech dialed down Alice’s nerves during the quick run-through. Who didn’t want to spend the morning in a Henry-led game?
The early birds rearranged the third-floor classroom into a pillow minefield. Seventeen cushions scattered on the floor. Every student desk pushed to the wall.
“Incoming.” On hall monitor duty, Jay eased off his doorway slouch. His squinting lean gave way to a smile. “Daniel’s on his way.”
Their Emma-assigned play monitor sported bulky shoulders and a placid face. Throw on a set of horns and he’d make a credible buffalo—and jump on trouble just as fast. Since the dom class would have a flow different from the sub class, Emma and Henry had worked out arrangements.
Claiming the post by the door, Henry spoke to Daniel in low tones while she and Jay mingled. Doms in everything from formal suits to cutoff jeans swaggered in with ready handshakes. Attendees sported color-coded nametags, blue for regular members and orange for guests.
She and Jay made a full circuit, talking to every player. Henry’s ostensible disinterest created the illusion of an aloof presenter reviewing last-minute details, but his attention lay like his hand on her neck. Combining the attendees’ interactions with his submissives and information Emma relayed from the front desk via Daniel’s headset, he’d have a complete picture of each participant before he greeted the class.
She had her eye on a few, though they all came up wanting beside Henry’s easy control. This one too nervous. That one too overbearing. One creepy blond leveled a dead-eyed shark gaze at Jay the whole time they talked. The mix of ages, from those who’d get carded to those with gray temples, came as a surprise. Never too late to take up a new hobby, apparently.
Jay leaned beside her, hip to hip against the teacher’s desk. “Time for the show.”
Sure enough, Henry was making his way to the front, and the noise level dropped accordingly. He stopped before them, his back to the crowd.
Jay settled into his at-ease pose, hands clasped behind his back, and she copied him.
Approval written in his soft eyes and slight smile, Henry nodded. “Are you ready, my dears?” His gaze lingered on Jay.
“Ready and waiting.” Jay bounced on his toes.
She cracked a smile. “For you? Always.”
“An enticement if ever I heard one.” He winked. In a quick pivot, he faced the assembled crowd and thanked them for attending. Thirty in all, a full house.
“For those who do not know me, I’m Henry. I’ll be your instructor today, along with my partners, Jay and Alice.” As he gestured, they stepped to either side and nodded in greeting. “Although we’ll keep this class relatively informal, I’m sure you’ll all understand when I ask you not touch them without my express permission.”
“If we can’t touch yours, are we meeting slaves or what?” Voice ringing out in challenge, shark-boy clapped his fist in his palm. “I came here to get my hands on new flesh.”
A few chuckles drifted out, but most of the men and women wore blandly disapproving expressions.
“Ten minutes of mingling, and you haven’t determined the answer for yourself?” With his pitying tone and slow headshake, Henry made his unmet expectations plain. “Perhaps you require assistance in being a good judge of character. An observant player.” He cleared his throat.
Expectant air flooded her lungs. She bowed her head. The cushion at her feet came as close to Henry-green as the pile of options had allowed.
“Waiting pose, please.”
Half the class knelt, with near-perfect precision. She silently congratulated herself on almost matching Jay’s smooth style.
Henry laid a hand on Jay’s head. “What makes you believe your temporary submissives aren’t here already?”
Fifteen of Emma’s friends had agreed to play along under Henry’s supervision. With unobtrusive pillow-nudging as they mingled, each early bird had staked out a class partner and now knelt at his or her side.
Rueful grins and teasing murmurs spread through the fifteen standing. A baby-faced man in a too-tight collar glanced at the woman by his side and delivered a cheerful salute to Henry.
“We’ll begin with a brief policy overview, after which we’ll play a game, and we’ll end with a broader discussion of what being a dominant in this club entails.”
Sour-faced, the shark crossed his arms over his chest. His own partner apparently unworthy of his time, he stared at Jay.
Head bowed in a properly submissive position, Jay remained oblivious.
Henry launched into a short speech like the one he’d given last week. Aside from shark-boy’s disdainful sniffs, the crowd stayed attentive.
She stared back. Fuck this guy and his attitude. Semi-subservient respect for Henry’s friends like Santa Will, she could manage. Enjoy, in the right context. But this rude guest needed to check his intense interest in her pro—Henry’s—property.
Henry, strolling a circuit as he delivered his address, passed in front of Jay.
Stare swimming her way, the shark bared his teeth in a silent laugh.
Suppressing the urge to charge him linebacker-style, she scrunched her nose and shot him her best whatever glare. Job done, Jay undisturbed, she bowed her head.
Henry smoothed her hair in passing. Behind her. He hadn’t crossed her staring contest, though he could’ve easily. In his intro, he emphasized responsibility and awareness, the rise and fall of his voice lulling her like the tender comfort of story time. If they hadn’t been demonstrating obedience, she’d have curled around his legs and tugged Jay along with her. Or, more likely, met a Jay who’d had the same thought in the middle.
“—to learn three things about your submissive and successfully ask them to perform one task for you.” Henry spread his arms wide and gestured toward the walls. “Have them fetch you a seat from the edge of the room. Submissive partners, on your feet, please.”
Unfolding, she stretched on her tiptoes. One of these days she’d master the loose-limbed zen of waiting pose. Though more than a few of Emma’s friends sneaked in a casual stretch. Maybe the trick lay not in the perfection but the pursuit.
“Today’s safeword?”
“Reset.” The word reverberated off the chalkboard and the wood-slat blinds in a single, determined voice of seventeen layers, though she had ears only for Jay’s rich tenor.
“Well done.” Henry clasped Jay by the shoulder. “Dominants, you will respect ‘reset’ as a safeword. If your attitude would receive a polite dismissal of interest on a play night, your submissive will say, ‘reset,’ and you’ll need to begin again.”
“First thing I’d do”—shark-boy drawled with cool indifference—“is slap that word straight out of its head.”
The woman beside him teetered back a step. Craning their necks, the pair in front shuffled aside.
“You intend to strike a potential partner as your opening statement?” On a curving arc, Henry approached the gap in the front row. “You do realize identifying as submissive does not make them your property.”
Choice did. An offer, an acceptance, and a more explicit set of relationship rights and responsibilities than she’d ever considered, let alone written in a contract. Surprisingly, pleasingly efficient. Henry didn’t mouth platitudes. When he promised to meet her needs and address her concerns, he meant every word.
“Does to me.” Shark-boy shrugged. “Open strong, and it won’t get any wrong ideas about what it’s good for.” He laughed, low and ugly. “Which had better be deep-throating my dick, or the first slap won’t be the last.”
Among his classmates, headshakes traveled like an airborne contagion. Rolling her eyes, a blue-tagged female dominant in the first row mouthed, “asshole.”
About right, except an asshole held a ton more appeal.
“If you gratify yourself without meeting your partners’ needs, you’ll quickly find yourself with a dwindling supply of players for your games.” Despite Henry’s nonthreatening posture, his clipped censure came through in his tone. “If you truly desire to master someone else, you must first master yourself.”
“If I truly”—shark-boy sneered—“desired to master someone else, I’d pick up a whip and show them their place.”
With a clenched fist, Jay tapped his thigh. Jaw tense, he leveled his gaze.
She drifted closer, narrowing the distance between them to inches.
Shark-boy feinted with quintessential bully swagger, the eye-widening, shoulder-twitching provocation that always ended with and two for flinching.
“I see.” In one casual sidestep, Henry blocked the man’s line of sight to Jay. “And when they object? When their safeword rings in your ears?”
Silence draped the classroom. Not a rustle of clothing, not the squeak of a shoe interrupted. If echoes sounded, Henry and Jay had them locked behind steel facades.
“Safewords are for pussies.” Shark-boy dripped, thick and oily, his disdain so much sludge tracked in on his fancy shoes. “Pathetic sluts who can’t please a real master.”
She slipped her hand over Jay’s knuckles. Unfurling tense fingers, he entwined them with hers.
“Safewords are required. They form the first rule of safety.” As Henry tucked his hands behind his back, his finger-wiggle greeting put a smile on Jay’s face and a heel-toe rock in his stance. “This club’s rules are based on the safe, sane, consensual ethos as both a moral imperative and a liability issue.”
The club banned extreme forms of play— unpredictable games likely to lead to injury, like breath play, and dangerous risks to the property, like fire play. Attending the sub class and listening to Henry and Emma had taught her that along with the rules against professional—paid—sessions since the club structured itself as a nonprofit social group. Like the way her dad belonged to the Elks lodge. Except with sex.
“My slaves’ first rule is no safewording.” Shark-boy kicked a cushion aside and rested his hands on his hips, elbows out. “I’m done when I say I’m done.”
“You won’t be moved from that belief?” Neutral, deceptive calm meant Henry had already determined this conversation’s end, and a punk attempt at intimidation sure as hell would lose.
“From the only real fun?” The moron laughed like he’d won a prize. “I make them scared and begging for it, until they don’t know what’s coming and can’t stop it.”
A sea of expectant faces looked to their master. Smiling for Jay, she nudged his head. He kissed her temple, the brush of his hair little-boy sweet and the strength of his clasp grown-man strong. They didn’t need to wonder what Henry would say.
“This class is not for you. Nor is this club.” Henry extended his arm toward the door. “You’re free to go.”
“You can’t throw—”
“The color of your name tag tells me you’re a guest. A probationary member sponsored by another, perhaps? You have no privileges. You admit you would not abide by the club’s code of conduct, and you have disrespected your instructor and your fellow students.”
A slight head tilt from Henry morphed Daniel from placid doorpost to buffalo scenting a threat to the herd. “Let’s go, buddy. Master Henry says you’re out, then you’re out.”
“Your name and photo will be marked in the club’s database. I recommend you don’t attempt to return.”
“No, wait.” The shark turned guppy, fending off Daniel with a wild swipe. “I was promised a full membership.”
“Were you?” Eyes lighting with curious satisfaction, Henry almost smiled. “That won’t be happening. Be certain to give your”—frost coated his voice—“benefactor—”
Red heat swept from the guppy’s blond hairline to his bobbing Adam’s apple.
“—my regards. It’s a shame you learned nothing, but I suppose your head is stuffed too full of his diatribes to admit any knowledge.”
Not a random shark—a friend of Cal’s stirring up trouble. Trying to intimidate Jay, maybe, but Jay had eyes only for Henry just now.
Daniel marched the malcontent out with a solid grip on his upper arm.
Turning his back, Henry zeroed in on his submissives. His low hum rumbled as he neared them and nuzzled her cheek. “Your trust gives me all the power I need.” For Jay, he delivered a bruising kiss, fast but rough. “And all of the exquisite service I could ever desire.”
He swiveled in place before a crowd filled with nodding heads and envious smiles. “As we’ve disposed of the unpleasantness, let’s consider a more enticing thought. How might we deliver a session that satisfies our desires and encourages our partners to return again and again—and to tell all of their friends?”
* * * *
As Jay scooped up their gear after class, she reached for a bag. “You want a hand?”
“Naw, I got them.” Duffels dangling over each shoulder, he pecked her cheek. “I’ll load the car so we’re ready when Henry’s done with the just-one-more-question-sir crowd.” He trotted for the door.
“A moment, please, my boy.” Henry, his voice carrying across the salon, stood in a knot of class attendees. “You and Alice may take those to a changing room. I’ll be along to instruct you shortly.”
As Henry resumed his conversation with the three stragglers, Jay bounced on his toes and nodded toward the hall.
She scurried over. If Henry had booked club playtime for Jay’s birthday, he hadn’t said a word to her. “You know what that’s about?”
“Not a clue.” He snaked through clusters of doms and subs making tentative overtures near the second-floor reception desk. “But good things come in threes. Like you, me, and Henry.” Smirking, he ducked into the first open changing room and slung the bags on a padded bench. “Last night scored a hundred out of ten on the best-fantasies-ever chart, and class with Commander Henry stoked the fire, so the universe owes us a third.” He crossed his fingers in a crazy configuration. “I’m pulling for sucking Henry’s cock all afternoon.”
Gaze straying to the duffels, she nodded. “Good choice.” Henry hadn’t opened the black one with the purple stripe during class. “Don’t need toys for that.” Cool and metallic, the zipper glinted against her finger. “So what’s in the extra bag?”
“An excellent question.” Henry shut the door behind him.
She twirled in guilty fascination. Wasn’t touching. Nope, not her.
“If the two of you will strip down to your undergarments, we’ll find out.” He closed in on Jay and tugged him with fingers slipped between his buttonholes. “Let me help you with these.”
Kicking off her shoes, Alice shucked her sundress with a swift yank.
“Folded, please.” Henry roamed Jay’s chest under the guise of unbuttoning his shirt. With firm strokes, he cued up Jay’s whimpers like a needle hitting vinyl.
She halved the dress three times and laid the neat square beside the bags. Henry had worked Jay’s shirt partway down his back, bunching cloth at the elbows.
“Arms straight.” Long fingers curled with strength over tight muscle, Henry squeezed Jay’s biceps.
Desire pulsed between her legs.
“You must let your shirt go if Alice is to fold it for you.”
Shirt. Right. Take Jay’s shirt. Sneak a deep breath of mingled maleness, except Henry noticed because he always noticed. He met her gaze with a slight smile and soft eyes, a sweet bed of deep green moss.
Squirming between them, Jay moaned. The rasp-and-tick of his belt opening followed. She drew his shirt clear and stepped back to fold.
“You are every inch my beautiful boy today, Jay.” Henry slipped the belt free and let the pants flump to the floor. “What a lovely pair you and Alice made for our class.” He splayed one hand in the small of Jay’s back and eliminated the gap between them. With the other, he gripped the fine hairs at Jay’s nape in a white-knuckled hold. “I’m proud to claim you for my own.” Growling and demanding, he conquered Jay with a harsh, nipping kiss.
Boneless in surrender, Jay issued muffled whimpers hurtling her into their sexual currents. The changing rooms weren’t for playing. Clanging knowledge couldn’t erase her desire to witness an infraction. A tiny breach. Except nothing on Henry or Jay met the definition of tiny.
Henry pulled free.
Jay, gasping, dropped to his knees and pressed his face to Henry’s distended dress slacks. “Please.” Eyes closed, mouth open, he dragged his cheek along Henry’s erection. “Please, Henry.”
“My good, good boy. Do you understand how exquisite you are on your knees? What a delicious temptation?” With hypnotic repetition, Henry combed through Jay’s messy black hair. “When we arrive home, I’ll allow you to show me. Not before.”
Jay shuddered. “Thank you, Henry.”
Home. Upstairs might not be in their future. But why the undressing—
“Your fingers are twitching, Alice.” Henry tipped his head toward the bench. “Go on and open the bag. We’ve a schedule to keep.”
The zipper flew with a satisfying zing. Inside—casual shorts, t-shirts and sneakers. Athletic-style gear. Sets for her and Jay, and even dress-down khakis and a short-sleeve polo for Henry. “Are we—”
“Save your questions, please.” Henry beckoned her over and kissed her. “We haven’t finished celebrating someone’s birthday.”
Something sporty and designed for Jay-fun. Biking? Hiking? Climbing? Kayaking?
Henry let them dress themselves, chivvied them downstairs, and retrieved their phones from the desk. Instead of pocketing his as usual, he listened while Jay hauled the duffels. More astonishing, he placed a call while Jay loaded the trunk.
“Yes, thank you for checking. They can run long.” Henry stood tall and blank-faced, offering no clues. “Quite well, I think. Time will tell.” The polo shirt gave him a rakish, informal air. “We’re still on for one?” He opened the back door and gestured them into the car. “Lovely. We’ll see you there.”
The door latched. Henry approached the driver’s door. She and Jay paused in mid-seat-belt pull.
“Biking tour on the Emerald Necklace.”
“Sailing cruise in Boston Harbor.”
“Sailing? But you like biking.”
“Henry likes sailing.” How Jay to imagine Henry’s likes before his own, even for his birthday surprise. “And he put on boat shoes.”
The door opened, and speculation ceased. Seat belts clicked. Boat shoes. Damn. When had Jay become the more observant one?
Henry guided the car through crawling Saturday traffic in the Back Bay and slipped into a rare empty parking space. “Wait here. I’ll be a moment.”
She peeked down the block of brownstones converted into small shops. “Restaurant.”
“Lunch for on the boat.”
“Or to stow on a bike’s gear rack.”
“Boat.” Bouncing his knee against the door, Jay stuck his tongue out. “When I’m right, you’re gonna be mad you didn’t guess it first.”
“Bike.” She bumped his leg. “When I’m right, you’ll crown me queen of the guesses.” Eyes trained on the front stoop five doors down, she crowed at Henry’s reappearance. “It’s a cooler.” Too big for a bike rack. “Maybe you’re right about the boat.”
Jay shrugged, affected nonchalance in his too-cool-for-school smirk. “I’ve got the birthday magic.”
Cooler deposited in the trunk, Henry drove across the Charles with smooth, silent precision. Not heading toward the harbor, but in the wrong direction for the fenway, too. Where the hell was he taking them?
* * * *
They left the car in a lot edging toward capacity at a park spilling over with Saturday-in-June enthusiasm. Shouts, laughter, and barking dogs flowed from soccer fields and baseball diamonds.
With the cooler in his arms and a bag over his shoulder, Jay swung toward the sights like a puppy sniffing out a new home. Henry led them past napping babies, cranky toddlers, and children running full-tilt. Teens using sports as cover for flirting and adults using sports for foreplay. The whole place vibrated at Jay’s frequency.
They’d passed half a hundred decent patches of grass for a picnic, but Henry kept to the blacktopped path cutting through it all. Trees arched above them. Beyond the tunnel of shade, a woman leapt from red-hued asphalt. The smack of a bouncing ball sounded as she came down, curls bobbing in a close-cut cap around her face.
Last week’s tea. Claudia. A day out with other submissives.
“Basketball.” Her murmur and Jay’s shout hit the air as one.
“Just so.” Stepping off the path, Henry angled toward a man reclining under a tree. “Tell me, did either of you successfully guess?”
Jay’s hair flew as he shook his head. “Not even close.” Damn happy about being wrong, though, with his boyish grin and messy mop.
“Does ‘starts with B’ count as matching the category?” She shot Henry an inquiring eyebrow and a sly smile. “Because I said biking.”
“And if it does?” He swerved, intercepting her and leaning in. “What prize does my sweet girl hope to receive?”
“Not just me.” If prizes were forthcoming, she’d go halfsies without complaint. “Jay said boating.” Sailing, but close enough. “That’s a ‘b’ word, too.”
“Is that so?” Losing his flirty undertone, Henry extended his arm. “Would you like a prize, Jay?”
“Man, would I.” Jay hoisted the cooler higher. “Place to set these down would be fan-tas-tic.”
No joking innuendo about a prize?
“Set up under the tree, please. The duffel contains a blanket.” Henry carried on without missing a beat. “I’ll content myself with the shade while you run yourselves ragged.”
Jay outpaced them. Not hard, since incomprehension rooted her to the ground. Alpha bro attitude from the submissive begging to suck Henry off less than an hour ago.
Linking his arm in hers, Henry kissed her forehead. “Come along, dearest. We’ve introductions to make.”
She walked out of self-preservation. He’d never let her faceplant, but he strode with purpose, and her choices were match him or stumble.
Jay dropped the gear courtside and snapped out their picnic blanket.
More bags rested on a blanket a few feet away, where the stranger climbed to his feet. “Henry.” He walked past the crouching Jay without a glance. “I’ve never seen you so casual.”
“A gentleman dresses for the occasion, Stephen.” Henry tweaked his collar. “Within reason. You won’t lure me onto the court, I’m afraid.”
Laughing, Stephen thrust out his hand. “Didn’t expect to.”
The men shook with arms extended, gazes locked, and short nods exchanged. A bouncing ball and thudding feet beat a background rhythm unchanged by their arrival. As the alphas brushed territorial boundaries, Henry left one arm clasped around her.
“If your boy can keep up with Charlie, that’ll be gift enough.” Stephen boasted kind eyes, towering height, and the t-shirt and shorts motif everyone but Henry bore. “I’m glad you called. Claudia says your girl has spine, and she’s a hard one to impress.”
Henry swept up said spine. “Stiff and supple by turns, and always with exquisite timing. Stephen, this is my Alice.”
His Alice. Warmed by the certainty of Henry’s claim, she stuck out her arm. “Hi. It’s an unexpected pleasure.”
“Nice to meet you, too, Alice.” Glancing at Henry, Stephen waited for his nod before shaking her hand. Navigating boundaries got tricky when players followed different rules. “My pets have been looking forward to this.”
“We would’ve, too, if we’d known.” She laid her head on Henry’s shoulder. Him and his surprise gestures of love. “But I like this way better.”
“I’m pleased.” Nuzzling, Henry dipped his nose into her hair. “Your playmates for the day are warming up. You ought to join them.” A nudge of command colored his voice. “Jay,” he called. “Thank you for setting up. It’s a fine job. Go on and play.”
Ahh. Dom time. She edged onto the court. The last time—gym class? Tenth grade. Hoo boy. The things she did for Jay.
Claudia, basketball on her hip, sauntered over. “Alice. Cool.” She tossed a nod at Jay. “Charlie’s been insufferable all week waiting to meet you guys.”
“Not true.” The guy shooting imaginary baskets from the half-circle topping the painted rectangle stopped jumping. “I’ve been in suffering.”
Beside her, Jay laughed and ruffled his hair. “At least you knew. I’d’ve gotten some practice in if I’d known.”
“Hi, Charlie here—you’re Jay, right?” The skinny blond zipped to his target like a magnetic lock. “So great to meet you.” He pumped Jay’s hand. “Claud said you two had a good vibe. I was so disappointed about the lunch thing. Like work was sooo important I couldn’t skip out.” His full-body droop swung stringy hair past his shoulders. “You know how work is. Or not. Do you work? I do, but socializing with the guys is tough. Master S gets all territorial.” He jerked toward the quiet mountain standing on the sideline. “Don’t tell, but I love when he pulls that shit.”
Face blank as a porch-sitter in a twister, Jay mirrored Charlie’s nod.
“Master S says work comes first and playtime is a reward for after. Like eating vegetables, right?” Charlie patted his stomach beneath the words finish him on his t-shirt, where a gape-mouthed Pac-Man approached a blue ghost. “What the big man says goes. You know.”
Hovering within inches of slack-jawed yokel, her chatterbox stared without answering. Charlie hadn’t said anything Jay wouldn’t—at home. Or in the club. But he’d donned his guy-armor out here. Understanding why Charlie hadn’t seemed beyond him.
“Claud came back with all these lunch stories and I was way jealous.” Charlie scowled at his girlfriend with exaggerated drama. “She’s not big on details, so when Master S pulls more out of her than, ‘it was nice,’ I know it was wicked crazy.”
Her silent urging didn’t drive Henry from his dom-talk or propel him to Jay’s side for comforting support. They’d pulled the separate mingling act before, at Henry’s gallery show. She’d played the bridge between them, the lover two friends shared. But why bother with subterfuge here?
“I was so jealous I whined my way into corner time, and that sucked.” Cheeks puffed, Charlie blew out like a deflating balloon. “It lasted forever. I mean, for-ev-er.”
In mid ball-bounce, Claudia flashed her hands up, palms out and fingers spread. Ten minutes, she mouthed.
Unwanted, intrusive awareness swamped her. Jay wouldn’t appreciate the comfort. Henry hadn’t called Jay to him or hurried out because he knew better than to try. The months before she’d been invited in, the times she’d wavered between fantasizing Henry and Jay were a couple and thinking them just roommates. Because they never got touchy-feely in public.
“I hate corner time. But Master S let me crawl over and apologize for acting bratty, and that rocked.”
Talk about no boundaries. Jay babbled in private, but Charlie took the cake.
“I give awesome blowjobs.”
Two cakes.
“Five-star-restaurant blowjobs.”
Pizza parlor birthday sheet-sized cakes.
“Oh man, did Claudia tell you—”
“Enough, little frog.” Stephen wrapped massive arms around Charlie and knocked their heads together. The blond went limp, closing his eyes and sagging into his master’s embrace. “You get all afternoon with our new friends.”
Henry slipped alongside her. She almost—almost—copied Charlie’s move. But Jay wouldn’t join in. Distance didn’t belong between them. Not after the communion they’d shared last night. Not after they’d spent the morning in sub-mode while Henry gave lessons in dominance.
“Don’t eat up every minute with chatter,” Stephen warned. “I want to see your ball-handling skills put to use on the court, Charlie.”
Jay swiped the ball from Claudia and danced toward the basket. The wider the world, the smaller Henry’s hold over them. Wrongness itched at her, a nagging center beyond her reach.
As Charlie rattled off locations where he’d displayed his skills, Henry scratched between her shoulder blades. Trust him to find the perfect spot without a map. “Have a good game, my dear. I’ll be watching.”
Jay sank his shot. Claudia recovered the ball while Stephen whispered in Charlie’s ear.
“You sure you won’t play?” Knowing the answer, she selfishly hoped for a different one.
“Today is for our boy. I enjoy seeing him unburdened at play.” He inhaled, sharp and deep, his nose buried in her hair. “This court is not mine.”
But I am. Jay is.
Henry had held court like a king this morning. His retreat to the picnic blanket, though poised and graceful, tore at her.
Grabbing the hem of Charlie’s t-shirt, Stephen exposed his submissive’s chest. “Give me this. You can start shirts versus skins. Since we’re in public, you and Jay will be skins.”
“Yeah, girls on guys!” Charlie whooped. “Your dom’s awesome for setting this up, Jay.”
Jay stumbled, and Claudia dribbled past him for the basket.
Charlie laughed. “Claud kind of kicks my ass at hoops, but I can’t say I hate it when she slams into me and goes up for a shot, you know?”
“Yeah, I—” Grinning, Jay swung around and spotted her. “Alice, you okay with those teams?”
“It’s your birthday.” Adorable the way he checked in, though. Like she got first dibs on him. She did, didn’t she? After Henry. “I’ll play however you like.”
Charlie whistled. “Dayum. I gotta have more birthdays. Claud, you think—”
“Hell no.” Laughing, Claudia grabbed her rebound. “I know how you like to play, and it involves me doing all the work.”
“Maybe the both of you boys can give Claudia a challenge.” Stephen sluiced the shirt over Charlie’s head and draped it on his own shoulder. “No offense intended, Alice. I don’t know you well enough to judge your contribution.”
“My goal is to avoid hindering Claudia’s inevitable victory.”
Stephen stood rubbing Charlie’s bare chest—hairier and not so firm as Jay’s—in the middle of the park. Bent and bit his neck, for chrissake.
“Me and basketball have a passing acquaintance.” Words fell out of her mouth on autopilot. Henry would never pull those moves on Jay in public. “In that I usually passed on playing.” Worming her fingers under Jay’s shirt, touching his hips, she lowered her voice. “I bet Henry would hold this for you.” If he wouldn’t listen to Henry here, he’d damn well listen to her. “Shirts versus skins is traditional. You know how he likes to uphold traditions.”
Jay jogged to their courtside blanket. Liminal space in the big oak’s shade. Not center court, where the pressure to be a man trumped all. Where Charlie’s easygoing approach to manhood locked him in stunned silence. He exchanged quiet words with Henry before yanking his shirt over his head.
“Don’t worry, Alice.” Claudia dribbled and shot from behind the wide arc painted on the asphalt.
Accepting Jay’s shirt, Henry maintained middle-school-dance distance, all the way. Appearances.
“Swish.” Charlie whistled. “Nice one, Claud.”
As the ball bounced into the grass, Stephen smacked Charlie’s ass. “Hop to, little frog. Play a good game and you’ll earn a treat. I expect a dazzling display of athletic exertion.”
Dazzling? She’d be outclassed before the first play. Thank God Henry wouldn’t expect the same from her. Face intent, mouth moving, he stood inches from a bare-chested Jay. Time to invest in lip-reading classes.
With kisses for Charlie and Claudia, Stephen retreated to the blankets. Two dominants, sitting around discussing who knew what while their submissives entertained them.
“Seriously, don’t sweat it.” Claudia squeezed her shoulder and let go. Maybe she lived a testosterone-soaked life, too. Years without a female friend to hang with. “We’ll have you shooting like a pro before the food hits the blanket. Enough to score off Charlie, at least.”
“Whoa, hold up, I am a major impediment to any drive for the basket.” Charlie hopped and hooked his shot up and off the backboard. The ball bounced along the rim and out. “Shit.”
Claudia rolled her eyes. “You’re a major impediment to any drive for your team, you mean.”
“That didn’t count.” Charlie snatched the ball. “Practice jitters.”
Bearing a wide grin, Jay jogged back. “Shirtless.” As he slung his arms around her, his woodsy scent enveloped her. “You like?”
“My stud.” Not Henry’s, though, not in public. “This is supposed to be your birthday game, but here you are giving me a present.” Allowing Henry to act like a boyfriend in public would be a better one. He didn’t have to voice disappointment or crack the dominant façade. Down to her bones, she knew Jay’s public distance pained him. “I love when you and Henry get all naked and sweaty.”
Charlie dribbled to Claudia and faked a pass. “Or you put girl cooties on the gear. Did you lick this ball?”
With a well-timed reach, Claudia swiped the ball from Charlie. “What, you think because I licked your balls before breakfast that I snuck out to the garage…”
The teasing bickering carried through the first game. Light trash talk. Wagers won and lost. She lasted two half-court games to fifteen points and dragged her ass in a third before her body begged for a reprieve. Bent over, she gripped her knees with trembling knuckles and sucked in lungfuls of air.
“Jay, bring your playmate here.” Henry waved them over. “You’ve quite worn her out.”
A heat sink of sweet male musk, Jay hoisted her to his bare chest. Three games hadn’t winded him. He dripped more sweat on his daily routes. “One Alice, coming in for a landing.” Crouching, he laid her beside Henry with the delicacy of a researcher sliding a prize into the balance pan for weighing.
“Thank you, my boy.” Henry kept his voice low. “I’ll keep our girl with me, but you’re free to continue your game. Are you having fun?”
“Tons of fun. Thank you, Henry.” As the men reached for the same strand of hair stuck to her forehead, Jay grazed Henry’s fingers. “I’m glad you played, Alice.” With his goofy grin and shining eyes, he more than recompensed her for her aching lungs and tight calves. “I’ll make it up to you with games you like better later. Promise.” He plastered her face with tiny kisses and loped back to the game.
Stephen jogged out to take her place, congratulating Charlie with a massive hug and a deep, delving kiss. Claudia got the same treatment billed as consolation for her unprecedented loss.
Fumbling for water, Alice came up with an empty bottle. Must’ve swigged the final drops during their last drink-and-dash.
“Try this.” Henry held a glass to her lips. Orange juice-ish, but with a sweeter kick. “Better?”
“Definitely.” She swished her second sip before swallowing. “Honey?”
“Maple syrup.” He dug in the cooler and presented her with trail mix. “Have some raisins, please.” Nuzzling her hairline, feeding her bite by bite, he kissed her temple. “At least I’ll get something healthy in you before the birthday cupcake feast.”
“Anything you wanna put in me is healthy in my book.” As she waggled her eyebrows, he rewarded her with a laugh and a growl.
On the court, Jay drove to the basket and dropped one in over Charlie’s block. She hooted while Henry clapped.
“You know it’s adorable that you set up a playdate for his birthday, right?” A picnic at the park totally nailed normal family. “It’s baby-panda levels of cute.”
“He’s an active man.” Kneading her leg across his lap, Henry drained her aching weariness. “He needs stimulation.”
A pent-up Jay bounced like a big dog denied a daily walk. Different from how his energy flowed at home, though. Or even this morning at the club. He didn’t seek Henry’s approval here. He passed out high-fives and kissed her with abandon, but he didn’t display the ease with Henry that Charlie did with his master.
Stephen touched his subs as if the world beyond didn’t exist. All the time. Henry limited himself to touching Jay in guy-approved ways. Maybe Jay gravitated toward Henry in private to soak up attention he refused to request in public.
Henry switched to her other calf, and sadness washed through her as her muscles unknotted. Anyone paying attention for five seconds would see Claudia and Charlie were two people in love with Stephen and each other. But anyone looking at Henry and Jay? They’d see two men in love with the same woman.
“You’re fretting, my dear.”
“He needs to see he can be proud of himself for being yours outside the apartment.” Maybe Charlie would be a good example.
Staring out at the court, Henry paused his massage. “Yes, that too.”
She downed her drink, he finished the massage, and they settled in to watch the game. Jay and Claudia had pulled ahead. Stephen and Charlie huddled and hustled to catch up.
Lying on his side, Henry propped his head on one hand. The other lay on her bare stomach, her shirt nudged aside as he sketched sweeping arcs with his thumb. Lavishing on her all the possessiveness Jay shied from on a day out.
“I’m sorry, Henry.” She couldn’t leave it lie.
“Sorry for what?” Brow raised, he drew back.
“That you can’t touch Jay like this.” She waved toward the runners and Frisbee-tossers, the dog walkers and kid-wranglers. “Out here, I mean.”
“Ah.” He glanced at the court. “He isn’t ready for that.”
Jay missed a block, his jump a fraction of a second too early to stop Charlie’s shot.
“For now, it’s enough for him to know he has my rules to guide his behavior. He takes comfort in that.”
Stephen walloped Charlie with a hug and a kiss on his head. “Great shooting. Nice hop, little frog.”
Alice held back a sigh. “But you want more.”
“I always want more.” Henry claimed her mouth as a conqueror reveling in his spoils. “To own every last inch of you both.” His smile carried a distinct wolfish pleasure. “Lucky for me, I’m a patient man.”
* * * *
At dinner Thursday night, music blared. Jay hopped from his chair, froze, and turned toward Henry. “It’s Peggy’s ringtone.”
The name rang a dim bell.
“It’s all right. Go on and take your call, my boy.”
Jay raced to the hall table and snatched his phone.
Was Henry sick? No calls at dinner was practically a rule. Hell, it might be in Jay’s contract. The time belonged to the three of them to unwind and talk without interruptions.
“Exceptions to every rule,” Henry murmured.
Jay tilted sideways, almost perpendicular at his waist. “But you said Saturday lunch.” Palm flat and fingers spread, he tapped his thigh. “No, I know.” Rocking foot to foot, he fiddled with the charger cord. “I didn’t—I’m sorry, Peggy.” His head dropped until his chin grazed his chest. “I know you’re doing a bunch of work just for me. I don’t mean to be ungrateful.”
Jay, ungrateful?
Henry shared her frown.
“Who’s Peggy?” Aside from some liar who thought she had the right to make Jay feel guilty.
“Eldest sister. Something of a second mother.” Matching her whisper, Henry rapped the table twice. “He’ll lose this argument, I’m certain.”
“No, it’s not that—I can, but—no.” Mouth twisted, Jay glanced at the dining room. “Okay. I won’t. See you then.” He lined up the phone on the charging pad with Henry-level precision and dragged his feet on his return. “I’m sorry, Henry. I didn’t mean to interrupt dinner.”
“The phone interrupted dinner, my dear boy. You waited for permission, as you should.” Picking up his fork, Henry acted as if dinner would simply resume its normal course. “Have your weekend plans changed?”
Jay slumped into his seat. “Peggy says I need to show up earlier.”
“To what?” She hadn’t gotten an inkling of special plans, but Henry must’ve approved them already.
“Jay’s family is hosting a birthday celebration at their farm.” Henry laid his fork down with a slight clink. “I’d intended for us to discuss this after dinner.”
“We’re going out of town?” Last-minute trip surprises would take getting used to. Maybe Henry meant to test her trust, reinforce his control over the household. The cabin weekend had been amazing despite the lack of warning. Fantastic shower, lovely deck—fuck, no sexy thoughts when meeting Jay’s parents. “How early? I can’t cut out of work. We’re…”
Face reddening, Jay stared at his plate. Corner creases grew around Henry’s eyes and mouth.
Shit. She’d stepped in it this time. “I’m not going, am I.” Good enough for the fucking but not for the family. As cream sauce dripped from her fork tines, she forced a nod. “Okay.”
Her flat tone missed okay by a mile. Stupid and unfair, because no way did Jay think of her as a part-time fuckbuddy. If he’d suggested taking her home for Christmas six months ago, she’d have freaked. So what if the guys left her home? New puppies needed constant looking after. Not her.
“You’ll have plenty to keep you entertained, Alice.” With his low rumble, Henry coated her in soothing balm. “I don’t expect I’ll be going, either.”
Hold. The. Phone.
“Jay, when does your sister demand your presence?” If Jay leaving him behind upset Henry, he concealed his hurt behind a neutral front.
“In time for dinner.” Not a speck of birthday excitement infused Jay’s mumble. “Friday dinner.”
He’d miss Henry’s time with them. Excellent reason to pout like a kid denied dessert.
“Did you express to her that you’ll have to abbreviate your workday to arrive in time?” No, obviously. Henry had heard every word of his side of the conversation, same as she had.
Jay shook his head. “No, Henry.”
“Because you didn’t wish to inconvenience her?”
“She’s doing all the work—the cake and everything.” His tenor earnest and naïve, Jay shrugged. “I shouldn’t make things harder for her.”
Baking a cake. So much fucking work. Alice bit her lip.
“Are the inconveniences arriving early poses for you less important than those a Saturday lunch poses for your sister?” Henry hooked Jay on the sharp point beneath gentle inquiry.
Jay didn’t want to be away from them Friday night. He just hadn’t been able to put himself first, say “no,” and disappoint his sister.
“It’s all weekend.” He toyed with his napkin. “I’ll be back Sunday afternoon.”
Way to dodge the question. “And we’re not welcome.”
“I’m sorry, Alice.” Apologizing, Jay left lightspeed in the dust. “I’ve never brought anyone home before.”
The fuck? He’d taken Henry to meet his family. They’d been together for years.
“Not, you know”—Jay fumbled toward Henry—“someone special.”
Either Jay had stopped making sense, or her misfiring brain had ceased rational thought.
“I mean, not overnight.” Jay babbled under her stare. “Not with anybody knowing. I don’t talk about”—his crumpled napkin disappeared into his fist—“it.”
It.
His love life. His preferences. His lovers.
She struggled to breathe. Before Christmas, Henry’d said Jay’s family knew them as roommates. His meaning had bounced off her then. Jay made the truth real tonight. To his family, Henry wasn’t someone special in Jay’s life. She was likely nonexistent. An it.
But would she bring Henry and Jay home to South Dakota? God no. Not because her men made her ashamed, but because she’d end up ashamed of her parents. Dad would call her a whore, and Mom would pretend everything was fine.
“It’s okay, Jay. I was just…” Hurt. Angry. She refused to guilt him the way his sister had. “Surprised.”
Celebrating Jay’s birthday last weekend hadn’t been about the timing working out better for her or getting ahead of their sweetly impatient birthday boy. Henry had expected Jay’s family would take priority this weekend.
“Surprised, yes. Alice is correct. We’ll miss you, but your desire to visit family is understandable.” With years of experience cushioning the blow, Henry managed to sound unaffected. “I’ll be certain to assign homework to occupy you while you’re away, my dear boy. I’d hate for you to fall behind.”
“I’ll keep up, Henry.” Eager and smiling, Jay loosened his death-grip on his napkin and sat up straight. “I promise.”
She returned his smile to reassure him, but her twitchy nerves lingered. Territorial—clingy—had never described her in a relationship, and uncertainty pricked like a hedge of sticker bushes. If a right way to feel existed, what was it?
The bastard thorns insisted on staying the night. She slipped under the covers without even a mock squabble with Jay over who’d sleep in the middle. As he flopped beside her, her muscles tensed.
Playfully wrestling with him, Henry delivered a good-night kiss that ended in a smooth switch. Henry claimed the center, and Jay curled on his left.
She lay on her back, inches of distance a yawning chasm, eyes adjusting to the darkness. Henry’s silence weighed as if the ceiling cranked downward. Normally she’d welcome his keen insights and prods to share. But wanting to avoid hurting Jay left her with nothing to say.
Murmuring good night and nothing else, Henry blanketed her in relief. Right now, she needed to process. Alone.
She could leave. Take the bedroom they never treated as one. If being in this relationship hadn’t changed her beyond recognition, she’d sleep fine alone.
Long way to go to prove a point to herself.
Back to her lovers, she hugged the edge of the bed and lay awake as night passed into morning.
* * * *
Jay’s empty seat at the dinner table Friday drew Alice’s eyes more often than it should. By the time she’d finished work, he’d already gone. She should be enjoying her time with Henry. In the eleven months since she’d started seeing—fucking—her men, she’d spent only two nights alone with him.
On those nights, she hadn’t felt abandoned. Unwanted. What the hell was wrong with her? Jay was with his family, not cruising to meet other women. Knowing her attitude wronged him made her feel worse. Ashamed.
“Alice.” Watching her for the last hour, Henry hadn’t challenged her silence. “It’s after seven o’clock. Have you finished your supper?”
She’d choked down four bites. Five, maybe. Didn’t matter. “Yes, Henry.”
“Then tell me your safeword, please.”
“Pistachio.” The ritual lacked Jay’s infectious excitement, their doubled anticipation, the conspiratorial glee of sharing Henry’s attention.
“When will you use your safeword, my dear?”
“When I want to stop,” she whispered. She and Jay heightened and reinforced each other’s arousal. Being without him made her incomplete. “For any reason.”
Why didn’t they have a word that stopped important things? If they had, Jay wouldn’t have submitted to his sister’s demands and left them.
“Do you promise to use your safeword if that time comes, Alice? Lift your head and look at me when you answer, please.” Face unreadable, Henry stared at her with those perceptive green eyes.
Her breath caught in her chest. “I promise, Henry.”
“Thank you.” Surveying the table, Henry stopped on her plate.
He’d require her to eat more, have her clear, and—
“Go to the bedroom and undress.” His tenderness disappeared under pure command. “Lie on your stomach on the bed and wait for me.”
Fumbling, she pushed the chair back and stood. “You’re sure you don’t want—”
“I’m certain I’ve told you what I want from you, sweet girl.”
After a quick detour to the bathroom, she stripped off her clothes, lay on the bed, and steeped in her own nudity. Air wafted across her back. Cool silk sheets cradled her breasts, her stomach, her thighs. The linens retained the faint scent of Henry—and Jay. Breathing deep, she chased the tenuous connection.
Loneliness answered her, the bed empty and her with it.
Henry filled the door frame.
Her heart thudded for his broad shoulders and narrower hips, for his forbidding stare and his strong hands.
He entered in silence and passed behind her. His clothes rustled, faint clues to his movements. The shirt, button by button. The belt with its buckle. Pants. Socks. Underwear.
The mattress sank in slow waves rolling up from her toes. He added his weight to hers, their bodies electrical fields rubbing edges and generating heat. Settling astride her hips, he rested atop her ass. His hands landed on her shoulders.
She sparked hot as a live wire. Christ, how had she functioned all day with shoulders so tight? No wonder sore and empty formed the sum total of her emotional battery.
Henry balanced his palms inches from her head. “You’re upset with Jay, sweet girl.”
Not sweet. An utter bitch pissed at her lover because what, he couldn’t tell his sister no? Worried about them meeting his family? A selfish, immature bitch. “That obvious, huh?”
Warm and tender, Henry blanketed her back. “You’re making yourself tense. Tell me what you feel. Say the words aloud.”
“I’m—” The sheets offered a comforting hollow for her face.
“Alice. Don’t hide from me or yourself.”
“Rejected.” The word burned and scratched her throat. “Like he doesn’t love us.” Her eyes itched. “I know I’m stupid to think that, and he loves us, and I’m being a bitch.” A chill rattled deep in her chest, beyond his reach. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Henry.”
Lips pressed to the nape of her neck, he hummed a low, soothing melody while he warmed her with his breath. Minutes slipped by as she inhaled in deep gulps.
“This isn’t something you’ve allowed yourself to feel before, is it, dearest?” Henry rumbled, his voice as much vibrating against her back as in her ear. “You’ve avoided deep emotional ties with your sexual partners. You hoped, perhaps, you might avoid this moment—this pain when you feel one has wronged you.”
“I know Jay didn’t wrong me, Henry. I get it.” Christ, if he’d let her put the whole damn attitude behind her, she could focus on trying to enjoy the night without Jay.
“Nonsense. You know no such thing.”
“I kn—what?” Where was Henry’s vigorous defense of Jay? His chiding for her unkindness and distance?
Forearm flexing, Henry levered himself up. “What you know is that you are here, and he is not.” Seated across her thighs, he massaged her back and sides, his kneading heavy and deep. “And what you feel, perhaps, is that you are a shameful secret.”
His prodding drove a sob from her. In her only other long-term relationship, she’d actively avoided chances to meet her boyfriend’s parents. Hi, I’m Alice, and I’m using your son for mediocre sex. Is that what marriage is like? Today, her heart starved because Jay hadn’t taken her home for the weekend. So fucking juvenile.
“Your feeling is magnified now, both because you love him, and thus your soul finds perfection where it is not, and because you’ve never allowed yourself to feel such pain before.” As he dug into her shoulders, knotted muscles rolled and shifted at his command. “Every slight, intentional and unintentional, has pooled in a reservoir of pain.”
Wrong. Her brief flings hadn’t touched the real Alice. No exposure, no hurt. Lovers hadn’t been worth more of her time or attention. And I wasn’t worth theirs.
“You’ve kept a distance, believing it insulated you from the risk. The electrical current could not reach you, could not shock you, could not burn you.”
In his splayed hands, Henry covered her shoulder blades. She couldn’t help but let his warmth touch her. He delivered more than a physical sensation. A comfort. A love.
“But when that painful current reaches you now, it electrifies the entire pool. It’s not the lack of insulation, sweet girl. And the answer is not to add layers. You cannot keep out what is already within.”
Was he right? Embracing maturity, she’d constructed her self-image as a fun, flirty, sex-positive woman who didn’t need a man—or another woman, for that matter. Independence was her emotional fulfillment.
But she liked her men’s touch. Not the physical touch alone but the emotional one. Losing the amazing flutter in her chest when Henry gazed at her or Jay curled himself around her like vacuum-formed plastic would break her. Strong, solid Henry wouldn’t let anything hurt her if he could prevent it. Not even herself.
“This is merely another kind of confrontation, my brave Alice.” Resuming his massage, Henry used force enough to carve her into the mattress. “Allow the tears to flow. Do not berate yourself for feeling as you do. Acknowledge and accept your pain as valid.” With every declaration, he smoothed a wave from the slope of her ass where his weight rested to her shoulders. Pushing up and out. “Whether Jay intended to cause pain is irrelevant. All that matters is that you feel. Only then can you dislodge the resentment that will form if you refuse.”
She’d never resent Jay. He was so open and trusting—and he’d left them. How could he claim to be Henry’s boy with blazing pride and act so damn ashamed? A scream built in her chest. A demand he explain himself to her, right now, goddamnit. Her breath blew hot in her face, clinging to the sheets and her cheeks.
Wide brown eyes wavered in the heat mirage. Jay, with downturned lips as he swallowed her scolding rage and believed he deserved no less. He’d take whatever punishment she dealt, fair or unfair, and apologize until long after her pleasure coated his tongue and his jaw ached.
“I can’t. I can’t.” She blinked until his sweet face faded. “He’d never defend himself.”
Tightening his hold on her, Henry growled. Not happy-sexy growl. “You must accept your feelings before you empathize with his. Jay is not here to be harmed. You’ve no need to minimize your pain in front of me.”
Of course he’d recognized the brave face she’d worn for Jay. But things too big for her to process could be shared during Henry’s time. Tell him everything. Tell him or use her safeword.
Someday she might need to safeword, but not as an excuse to run from her feelings again. She might make new mistakes. She wouldn’t make the same one.
“I thought we were a family.” Jay’d called the three of them a family so many times. “He said. Aren’t we good enough to meet his real family?” Sharp and raw, she scratched the stillness with her whispers. “Why would he go and leave us behind?”
Sheltering her beneath himself, Henry braced her with his firm chest and enclosed her in his steady arms. “That’s right, my sweet Alice. Let yourself feel without blame.”
He comforted her with weight and warmth as her tears came, bringing a few guttural sobs she stopped trying to hold back. His gentle humming told her he understood. That he’d help her fix her confusion and pain, find a stopper at the bottom and drain her supposed reservoir. Henry would bail out her pain a bucket at a time if he had to—and he’d never stop.
“You’re in new territory, dearest. The terrain of love is unfamiliar to you, and Jay has helped guide you here. It’s natural to feel abandoned when your steps carry you farther than he has gone, in a direction he is not yet able to travel.” With his nose buried in her hair, Henry released a soft sigh. Maybe he, too, still pinched in pain’s vise. He wanted Jay here with them, safe and happy, able to tell his sister “no.”
“You’ll each try to take that burden on yourselves. For Jay, the sense he has failed you and must take those steps to please us. For you, the sense your pain must be suppressed or ignored because it was unintended.” Henry dabbed her neck and shoulders with tiny kisses. “Alice. My sweet, sweet girl. That Jay did not intend to harm you does not make you less harmed, nor does it make your feelings worthless, stupid, or, heaven forbid, bitchy.”
Her sob hiccupped into a giggle. Henry cursed with such disdain for it. He swore rarely, and with purpose.
“Aha—progress. Music from your lips.” Taking his time, he traced the curving outline of her ear with his tongue. As he reached the sensitive lower lobe, he triggered shivers in her. “Tell me what you’ve learned. Tell me your feelings at this exact moment.”
“I made errors in my premises. I was angry at Jay because his behavior didn’t fit.” Ideas she’d chewed on all night and carried to work this morning. “But then I thought about what I would’ve done differently, and I—”
The reservoir might be deep. Henry encouraged her to think things through her own way, but he wanted her to have all of the information—as she and Jay had wanted for him in wrestling with returning to the club. His breath lapped like waves on her skin.
“I was being hypocritical. I feel guilty. Ashamed. People aren’t as easy as plastics and metals.” Materials behaved according to natural laws, no response unquantifiable. “I don’t know where their fracture points are. I don’t—” She plunged into chilly, deep waters. “I don’t want to break Jay.”
“And yourself? Will you break yourself, then, to avoid hurting him?” Driving his fingers between hers, Henry pressed his warmth into her. “You must know I can’t allow that. I will never make one of you whole at the other’s expense.”
Closing her fist, she squeezed back. “I know. I’m—I feel—safe knowing that. But sometimes I see Jay hurting, and I need—I feel like I need…” Remove sex from the equation, and the same need drove her to make life line up perfectly for her sister. “I need him to be happy.”
“He will be. This challenge isn’t one he can conquer overnight. But with our understanding—and the properly leveraged application of pressure?” Henry clenched his bent legs around her hips.
Arousal swamping her, she gasped for breath. Her body, waiting for her mind to catch up, held all she needed for the thrill she’d tried earlier to force into existence.
“He’ll learn better awareness of his emotional needs.” Forehead resting on her temple, Henry sharpened his tone. “Realize his first impulse may not be what’s best for him.”
She flushed. “Like I’m learning? Not to hide or minimize what hurts me, even if that’s my first instinct. To revise flawed premises.”
“My brilliant girl.” As he rolled his hips, he branded her with sudden heat.
The expression of emotion. Not their nudity or position, but her sharing and growing understanding—those things aroused Henry. Her willingness to be open and vulnerable to him, to let him guide her, triggered him. And those traits were ones she and Jay shared.
Nestling against the upper curve of her ass, he flexed his cock. “Tell me about these flawed premises of yours.”
Now? Her mind had jumped to a new track, one she hoped led to destination fucking-Henry-town. “A false dichotomy.” Drain unstoppered, her words spilled in a rush. “I thought love wasn’t real because it couldn’t be perfect. Everywhere I looked, people were fucking it up. That couldn’t be love. And then I felt it. And it was perfect.”
“Until Jay put someone else first,” Henry murmured.
She nodded, the prick of tears less acute, acceptance a heated towel after her cold swim. “Love doesn’t make every problem disappear.” She’d stumbled in equating love with perfection, assuming imperfection as evidence of nonexistence. “It’s not an either-or—either we’re in love and perfect or things aren’t perfect and love is an illusion. Imperfect love. I can’t quantify it, but I feel it.”
“And at this moment? What feelings accompany your love?” His questions came quick, in baritone approval thickening with arousal.
Breathing deep, she took stock. Henry deserved the whole truth—and so did she. “Unhappiness. Hurt. Anger. At Jay for going, and you for letting him go, and myself for being so selfish. And—arousal.” Less shameful, because Henry had already revealed his own. “Need.”
“So much swirling within you, yearning to be released.” Embracing her like a second skin, he rocked them. “Will you trust me to do that for you tonight, Alice? To find the proper release?”
“Always.” Her voice didn’t wobble, though she waggled her hips. “The evidence stacks up solidly in your corner.”
Chuckling, he patted her ass. “I’m pleased to know you’ve been checking out my solid stack.” He sat up as she giggled. “Wait here.” He left the bed entirely. “Eyes closed, please.”
Anticipation, flowing into hollows where hurt and anger lingered, diluted the mixture. She shifted focus to his light footfalls, to smooth sheets and her lovers’ scent clinging to them—their fragrance no longer a stinging reminder of absence but a promise of return.
“We haven’t done this in a while.” Henry spoke over the rolling glide of a drawer. “But perhaps it will prove precisely what you need tonight, dearest.”
The drawer closed with a quiet but solid thunk. More sliding, closer, from the nightstand. No need for condoms, but lube, maybe, and her ass was rather accessible. He wouldn’t introduce a new toy tonight, would he? Unless he thought a distraction would help her.
He grasped her ankles and slid her feet apart. “Tell me your safeword, Alice.”
“Pistachio.” Uttering her safeword, she unlocked the woman who reveled in surrender. The woman shivering for his control as he knelt between her spread legs.
“I believe you’re ready for this. I believe you need it. But if you disagree, you need only say your safeword and I’ll stop. Do you understand?”
“I understand, Henry.”
With softness, he brushed her left shoulder and descended to her ass. Teasing flickers—her suede flogger.
“Jay’s absence tonight is fortuitous.” Henry caressed her with his voice as much as with flowing suede. He hadn’t spanked her since the night at the club. He hadn’t flogged her for longer than that. “He may not yet be ready to watch pain, however fleeting, displace your pleasure. You, too, must be granted the chance to recall your enjoyment without undue pressure to perform.”
In a light slap, he created a waterfall of suede tails tickling her shoulder.
Back twitching, she pushed her breasts into the sheets. Her tingling fingers, at the end of arms splayed wide, curled and relaxed.
“Good girl.” A second slap, to her opposite shoulder, fell as gentle as the last. “Let yourself go with the feeling. Raw emotion, open and vulnerable.” The flogger swished in a teasing zigzag. “Thinking has no place here and now, not for you.”
Thwack!
Moan escaping, she squirmed and danced from the pattern change, the unexpected burn on her ass cheek. Her cry mingled with the snappy echo, the sound of please, sir, may I have another.
Though she hadn’t spoken, Henry obliged in his slow, steady rhythm. Flogging her more with heavy drag and thudding fall than stinging tails, he wielded her suede as an extension of his hands. Nothing to fear or fight existed in such a natural evolution of his deep massage. This touch—his touch—was love.
Nothing had been ruined. The night at the club hadn’t left a permanent mark. That night, like last night, had been a single, discrete imperfection. Her responses to pleasurable pain remained her own. Her truth.
Spilling joyful tears and uncontrolled giggles, she soared with goddamn effervescence. Shook up and fizzing, she tingled to the tips of her fingers and toes. She would follow Henry’s lead, and she’d offer Jay her hand to help him farther down the path. Imperfect love was real. And they could reach perfection together.
As Henry brushed her outer thigh, her oversensitive skin goosebumped. “Are you with me, Alice?”
“Always with you.” Throat dry, body humming, she nodded and struggled to produce words. “Happy. Harder. More?”
A growl. Happy-sexy growl.
She cascaded in instinctive, shivering reaction. Henry growling from across the room—over the phone, across the continent, even—would clench her muscles in the hope of squeezing his cock.
“You’ll have your more, my little temptress.” Suede tails rained over her shoulders in quick succession. “And I’ll have mine.”
Her giggling euphoria deepened into a moan as he delivered. Her body throbbed, a growing chorus of pleasure-pain, each nerve ending raising in harmony and all praising Henry in every thud against her skin. With his voice he became the low rumble of the timpani, a vibration she registered not in her eardrums but in the pulse of her sex.
White bliss erupted behind her eyelids. Her loud cries marked an affirmation, a promise—a wordless challenge urging Jay to come with her from his lonely bed in northern New Hampshire. Floating in lazy-daze land, where time never intruded and all places converged, reaching Jay became reasonable. Rational.
“Jay came, too,” she mumbled. Henry ought to know, in case her overeager desire had fouled his plans for the night. “S’okay?”
A chuckle dotted his groan as he kissed the notches of her spine. “That’s fine, my sweet. No doubt he did. You’re superb at sharing with each other.”
The bed rippled. Her flogger lay fanned out beside her.
Tugging, Henry lifted her backward. Her body followed with agreeable unconcern. Everything about her grew soft and pliant in lazy-daze land. Nudging between her legs, parting her lips, Henry demonstrated everything about him stayed firm and demanding.
With his welcome invasion, he unbalanced her. Bracing for his thrusts would’ve required controlling her own body, and just now more than slumping and sighing taxed her skills. But Henry didn’t require her help.
“My beautiful girl.” Hands splayed over her ass, he caressed where the flogger had landed. Reddened her skin, certainly. Blossoming into bruising reminders, possibly. “Such an exquisite peak.”
Pumping with growing force, he rocked her forward. Neat trick, how he’d gotten her knees to hold her up.
“It’s left you so open for me.” In constant motion, he skimmed her thighs, her hips, her ass. “This delightful laxity in your muscles. All of your tension has drained away, hasn’t it?”
Tension existed no more than time or thinking did. “Mm-hmm. All gone.”
“Good girl.” Steadying her with a deep thrust, he rubbed slick fingers above their joining and pushed one inside.
Her ass tightened, but not to shove him out. Wrapped around him, twice-filled, she clenched in newfound pleasure.
“That’s it, my lovely Alice.” Stiff and unmoving, he hummed approval. “It’s easier without distracting thoughts, isn’t it?”
She scraped together focus for a tentative backward push. “Easy,” she echoed, as he met her thrust. “Smooth.” She giggled. Awkward attempts had raised her suspicion she’d never catch up to Jay and his beautiful acceptance, his effortless taking of not just Henry’s finger but toys of varying sizes and Henry’s cock. Her frustration had held her back. But now when Henry retreated, she pulled him in, eager to seek out fullness again. As she rolled her hips, her muscles stretched to accept him.
“Good girl,” he repeated. “Beautiful instincts.” Voice low and strained, he clamped her hip in his other hand. “But not so quick.” Following the curve of her pelvis down and under, he cupped her sex. “Not without you.”
He grazed her clitoris.
Swollen and sensitive, she shuddered and buried her whine in the sheets. Pushing back, she demanded more.
“Easy, my sweet.” He crooned in his soft baritone. Touch firming, he thrust his cock deep and fingered her ass in a steady rhythm.
She tumbled beyond the ability to separate sensations, to identify and quantify. Only Henry remained, and he was everywhere. Everything.
With his deft hands and hard cock, he brought heat, motion, and a blur of pleasure. As they sprinted to the finish, his heavy breaths overtook her own, his grunting exhalations more than a match for her high-pitched moans. Shoving her across the line first, Henry followed in the same second. Thunder from the timpani. His rolling growl filled the room.
Rippling with aftershocks, she held him fast as he handled cleanup. The cooling drag of a baby wipe swept away excess lube once he’d cleaned his hand. He stretched over her, and the trash can liner rustled.
At her command, her mouth moved with sluggish obedience. “Two points?”
Lying down, he rolled them onto their sides. “Two spectacular points, driving up the inside lane and encountering no defenders.” Behind her, still connected, he wiggled gently. “Practically a free throw.”
“Helps to be on the same team,” she teased. Either he actually understood basketball, or he’d picked up the lingo watching Jay. A birthday surprise Jay had enjoyed almost as much as the night before it. “Don’t wanna keep you from scoring.”
Turning her in his arms, he caused her whimper with his departing cock. He nuzzled their noses. “Open your eyes, Alice.”
Obedience automatic, she blinked and cleared her vision.
Loving green eyes waited on her. “Every player wins on my court.” He kissed her with unhurried thoroughness. With love.
She yawned afterward, unable to stop herself.
Henry chuckled. “Take your well-deserved rest. I’ll wake you as needed.” Rolling her once more, he ordered her to stay on her stomach. Cool, arnica-coated fingers soon canvassed her back.
She dozed through aftercare, following his directions with half-lidded eyes, drinking juice at his patient insistence. She snuggled close when finally he pulled the sheet over them both. Adrift in contentment, she wandered through stray thoughts—a tender mental goodnight to Jay first among them—until sleep took her.
* * * *
Alice’s nagging bladder urged her out of Henry’s embrace Saturday morning. His chest hair tickled her cheek. Cocooned in the covers, the lingering scents of sex and sleep swept into her lungs as she pushed free and rolled to the mattress’s edge.
Henry snatched her wrist. “Straight back to bed afterward.” With heavy, suckling kisses, he teased her palm. “I’ve plans for our morning.”
Fingers trailing, he let her slip away. The arousal of anticipation promised she’d make her escape brief.
Tender but not sore, her ass smarted less than the absence of Jay’s toothbrush in the filigreed holder. She followed Henry’s advice, breathing deep and accepting her disappointment without judgment. Feel and release. Better the momentary sting than the unreachable, incurable ache.
As she rubbed her ass, her reflection smirked. Sure, the emotional philosophy contradicted her physical desire for the flogger’s bone-deep thud over the crop’s sharp thwip. Didn’t mean the strategy wouldn’t work for her. Henry’s idea-presentation techniques raised her capacity for adapting to most anything.
Like the towel-draped pillow greeting her from the center of the otherwise empty bed when she returned. For weeks, the pillow had belonged to Jay. A soft platform for her demonstration model as Henry guided her and their submissive lover reveled in the attention.
Toes curling, she plucked at the soft fiber rug. “Jay’s not here.”
“No, he isn’t, is he?” Henry, standing nude beside the special dresser, closed a drawer with a near-silent bump. “But you are.” He turned, and metal glinted through his fingers. “And class is in session.”
Test day, more like. But he’d thrilled her with his touch last night. Relaxed her, filled her, and showed her pleasures only he delivered. “For me?”
“Jay has homework to keep him in the proper mindset this weekend.” He nodded toward the bare sheet and its waiting centerpiece. His thickening cock nodded, too. “Did you imagine your tutoring would be less thorough and demanding than his?”
Not for a moment.
Stepping to the bed, touching the warm nest where they’d lain, rattled her with an intoxicating mix of excitement and trepidation. The solid rock of his authority settled in her mental sweet spot, his anchored calm freeing her to float weightless. “May I, Henry?”
He scanned her in stillness, motion limited to the steady downward drift of his gaze and the slow upward curve of his lips. “On your stomach, please.”
As she crawled into position with shuffling knees and swaying breasts, she envisioned herself an instrument to bring them both pleasure, a tool molded for his grip.
“Hips centered on your pedestal.” He rolled out his beautiful baritone lush and low, vibrating against aroused flesh. “I’ve something I wish to admire.”
Settling on her stomach propped her ass in the air and brought shivering awareness of her nudity. She lay open, exposed. Behind her, Henry admired and assessed with mossy green eyes and a keen mind that missed nothing. Her constant and variable both, unexpected joys delivered with steady hands.
“Such tempting sights you present.” Gripping her by the ankles, he drew her legs straight and together. “In uncounted positions.” The bed dipped with his weight. “And because you’ve been such a good girl at your lessons”—solid and strong, he straddled her legs—“we’ll soon have many more positions to try, won’t we?”
The shudder started in her shoulders and coursed to her toes. “Yes, Henry. Please.”
With one hand creating a gap, he slipped something cool and hard between her thighs. A bottle. Lube.
“Hold tight, sweet girl. Keep this warm.” Pushing her legs together by flexing his own, he sent energy flowing like a pulse between them. As he leaned down, he tickled her with the heat of his body and the hair on his chest. “I’ll have use for it later.”
Stretching, she arched into him. “Promise?”
He kissed her cheek. “Hold out your hand, Alice.”
She offered up her palm. Kisses or cuffs, she’d love whatever he gave.
Gleaming silver landed with a hefty smack. A plug like some of Jay’s but smaller, a smooth metal bulb at one end and an elliptical handle at the other.
“I promise.” He traced the sleek, curving slope. “You won’t be permitted to play with your new toy without it.”
“All mine?” As she stroked her toy, she sank into thick, wet desire.
“All yours.” Clenching his hand, he wrapped hers around the metal. “Feel the shape of pleasures to come.”
God, when he put it that way, the echo reshaped the thumping muscles between her legs.
“Share your warmth as you are with the lubrication.” Henry slid back on his knees and kneaded her shoulders. “Temperature play is a game for another day.”
Delicious Henry-promises. She’d call them teases, except they never were. He delivered every goddamn time.
She caressed her toy with the same thorough attention Henry gave her. Memorizing the angles and curves, she mapped her expectations on steel he’d chosen for her alone.
With his broad hands, he spanned the dip in her spine and crested the slope of her ass. “Your cheeks are delightfully pink.” Breath flowing over the object of his praise, he chased the whisper with his lips. The gentle pressure sparked the pleasure-pain of awareness where her suede had left an impression. “A hint of color. Increased blood flow.”
Wet warmth—oh God, he tongued her slow and firm around the underside of her ass, along the crease at the top of her thigh. As her mouth fell open, her moan pushed forward to urge him on.
“Not overmuch for my sweet girl, though, hmm?” He scraped his teeth, light and teasing.
“No, Henry.” Shivering and nuzzling the silk sheet under her head, she rocked into the rougher nap of the towel beneath her hips. Delicious contrast. “Just right. You’re always”—amazing, sensational, powerful enough to be worth her surrender—“just right.”
“Such gentle, flowing curves you have.” Cupping her ass, squeezing faintly, he joined his promise of safety and self-restraint with the surety of his complete control. “Round and full as a woman ought to be.”
Praise tickled as he woke her base instinct to be pleasing to this man, to have her femininity recognized and appreciated.
He traced the cleft between her cheeks and parted her, ghosting across muscles she struggled to relax for him. Not as easy as last night, when she’d been spaced out from her flogging.
Skirting her outer lips, he rubbed on either side. “Here, too. Full and heavy.” As he tugged her lips, he swept between. “Rich with passion. Guarding sweet treasures.”
Demanding as a cat, she pushed up for more petting.
He pinched.
She jerked.
“Easy, dearest.” He drummed the back of her thigh. “You’ll dislodge the bottle you’re warming with your lovely flesh.” Kissing, he followed the line his fingers had set out. “Such an infraction would delay our game. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
Never. His waiting games were hard enough without her adding to the anticipation. “No, Henry. I want your claim on me. In me.”
Humming, he nuzzled up her spine to the back of her neck. “And you’ll have it. You are always mine, Alice.” He rocked against her, his cock hot as iron tipped into a mold and hard as the finished piece tipped out. “However I choose to claim you.”
With energy crackling beneath her skin, she shuddered and danced in his grasp. An aching pleasure, belonging. Long desired, finally and fully obtained, hers without question.
Arm extended, he curled her hand in his. The hair on his forearms darkened him against her paleness, both vivid against the navy blue sheet and missing only Jay’s deep summer tan alongside. Henry stroked her fingers. “Open for me.”
His low murmur shot straight from her ears to her wet center. Somehow she’d traded her pussy for a muscle car’s engine, all power, vibration, and revving need. As she unclenched her fist, the metal weighed heavy in her palm.
“Good girl.” He plucked the plug from her as if grasping a feather. “Wearing this will remind you to always be so—open and available for my pleasure.” Slipping away, he dragged the metal over her back. “We’ll train your body to awareness of its responsibilities.”
Awareness, hell. She purred and fluttered with more than simple awareness. She’d attuned to him on a molecular level, as if their atoms comingled, electrons flying between them without regard for boundaries of the flesh.
The metal handle sank between the top of her cheeks, the bulb a weight resting at the base of her spine. Part of her nervous system waiting to be plugged in. Rolling her hips brought tremors, tiny shifts of the curving metal wobbling in place.
Henry growled. “Your curiosity is an incessant delight.” Sliding past her opening, he stroked deeper down her legs. “And how do you find your toy, Alice?”
“Weighty. Thick.” Making her hungry and desperate to have her fill. Not merely the toy, but him. The fullness of his cock.
In a slow spiral, he twisted the lube bottle free of her thighs.
“Round. Blunt.” Saliva deserted her, left her parched and licking to call it back. “I want to feel it, Henry. Please.”
Wet heat drizzled against her ass. Lube, trickling down, set her shivering. Her skin heightened every contact as if he’d flogged her this morning, too, as if she hung in the infinite moment between one strike and the next. The kiss of lightning.
Oh God, he swept the streams with his fingertips and redirected them to his desires. Back and forth he went, crossing and recrossing the place she no longer feared he’d tread. Hoped for, yes. Begged for.
Sheets rustled, the scratch of his legs against her smooth ones faint beneath her harsh breaths and his humming pleasure. She ached to spread herself and offer him a wider view, more room to maneuver, anything to urge him to sate the never-ending need building and pushing at her.
“What lovely eagerness, flashing an exquisite, hidden beauty.” Voice soft, he clamped his legs around her with punishing pressure.
Her leaping joy nearly dislodged her new toy.
“But we want to stretch your pretty holes gently, not tempt me to bury myself.”
Christ, he’d fucking kill her. Torture her with waiting. “I like when you bury yourself.” Please. Please-please-please.
“You like me here.” He sank his thumb into her pussy.
“Yesss.” Her moan filled the room.
“A proper introduction will have you begging for me here as well.” Ending his circling tease, his finger slick and stiff, he entered her ass.
She offered no resistance, only surrender and acceptance—and mute astonishment as his knuckle bumped her with the pressure and pleasure behind his steady thrust. Jesus, fuck.
He’d buried himself all right, his thumb in her pussy and his finger in her ass, his hand stuffed between her clenching cheeks.
Thrusting blindly, she scrabbled for purchase on the sheet to leverage herself deeper on him.
He chuckled, gruff and throaty. “You feel magnificent to me, dearest.” As he squeezed, her rhythmic contractions rolled in from all sides. “But tell me how you feel.”
“Owned.” Like a stress ball he commanded and shaped. Utterly his to play with as he would. “Naughty.” Filled and dying for more, she blazed with the illicit thrill. “In all the best ways.”
“Good girl.” Digging his free hand into her ass cheek, he growled. “My sweet Alice. Unsurpassed perfection, fucking yourself on my hand.”
Fuck, she was. She’d started tilting up and down, experimenting with the depth of his hold from either side. And her new toy waited. She’d take more soon, play with bigger toys and graduate to the fullness Jay savored, Henry prodding them to accept him inside.
“Stretch your arms over your head.” As he pumped one-handed, he spread her ass in the other. Watching her, maybe. Anticipating as she did. “Wrap your hands around the headboard.”
Shuddering, she gripped the spindles. Solid wood in her palms and soft silk under her cheek.
He stretched, too, sliding his thumb free.
She whined at the loss.
“You want to come for me, don’t you, Alice?” He pulled his finger back. “To show me you enjoy this game?”
“I do.” Pulse racing, she hovered on the cusp. “I want to.”
Drops of lube fell, scattered, and she trembled. Thicker pressure, but not her toy, not yet, because that sleek weight rested at the base of her spine.
Henry, humming appreciation, sank two fingers in her ass and thumbed her clit. “Every inch of you is mine, Alice. Inside and out. You have the leverage you need, your strong grip on the headboard.” He thrust his fingers deep. “Your strong grip on me.”
Buzzing in her ears and tingling in her toes threatened to split every atom in her body.
“That’s it, good girl. Show me.”
Fucking herself on him, she jolted with each swipe against her clit. Dug her hands into the rails and shoved back harder.
“Take your climax and show me how much choosing this excites you. Show me you want it again, and again, and I’ll put your new toy where it belongs.”
Lightning sizzled. The room went white. In her clamping release, she found emptiness on one side and fullness opposite. As she shook, he nudged her thighs apart and drove her knees wide, holding her open with his legs. The weight on her spine disappeared.
A magic trick. Her new toy rested where his fingers had with no more than gentle pressure in the midst of explosive pleasure. Drawing the metal deeper, she mapped its shape inside her as she had in her hand.
“Wondrous,” Henry murmured. Her toy began slipping away. “Shall we play tug-o-war?”
Fuck no, he wouldn’t steal her plug that fast. In one fast, tight pull, she regained smooth control.
Chuckling, he tugged again. He’d promised her this toy, and now he kept trying—
“Training.” As she flexed and grasped, the plug made sensations real, gave her a focus better than any imagining. “This game is practice.”
The plug waggled up and down, sending vibrations inside her and plucking her clit. A nod in her lover’s hands.
“Such a quick mind and a competitive spirit you have.” With bumping knuckles, he brushed her cheeks on either side of the slender handle. “We might add another layer of difficulty. A bonus round.” He wedged the blunt head of his cock between her labia.
Oh fuck yes. Seeking his thick heat, she wiggled backward.
With teasing swipes, he coated her in her own slickness. Wielding his cock with confidence, brisk and slow, rubbing and flicking, he remained always out of reach. He jostled her toy. “This is a mere placeholder. An invitation readying you for my possession.”
She whined her impatience, dropping her head and pulling on the headboard. He hadn’t given her permission to move her hands. Hair shrouding her face, she closed her eyes. Nothing to see but the dark sheet in any case, and she had better senses in her arsenal.
Her nose, buried in the sheet, brought her their mingled scents, citrus and leather and fainter traces of Jay’s sweet, woody musk. Her ears captured Henry’s purring growl. Her skin sang with input. The roughness of his legs, spreading her wide. The probing tip of his cock, firm but gentle. The squeeze of one broad hand on her ass. The warm weight inside her revealing its shape with her every contraction. Shivering, sensitized need rose, humming through her veins.
“What say you, Alice?” Holding her toy in place, he plunged and claimed the rest of her with his cock. “Will you tug doubly hard for me?”
Stuffed. Fuller in front than behind, but oh so deliciously owned. The heat overwhelmed, as if she sweated out a fever. Her body contracted without consultation.
Henry, groaning, pumped deeper. “Do that again, mischievous minx.”
Controlling the motion fell beyond her ability. But obeying him on instinct—her body never failed her in that goal. The flickers in her belly drove flames low and spreading, a leaping wildfire determined to win this tug-o-war. A single pull for a double reward, her lover and her toy buried, her body molding to their intractable demand.
“Do you know yet why I’ve chosen this toy for you, dearest?” His voice held the rough burr of strain.
Sized for a beginner. Easy to clean. The lessons he’d taught as she’d played with Jay unrolled in her head. The shape, though—strawberryish in three dimensions. A spade in two. And he’d always called their fun a game. “A spade.” But he’d choose for deeper reasons. Aesthetics. Meaning. “I don’t—” Fuck, his thrust knocked her mind off course. “I don’t know why.”
“The ace of spades.” He drew back. “The highest card in the deck. Extremely valuable.”
Shoving hard and squeezing, she pulled him in. Maybe she’d manage not to lose her grip before he lost his.
He drove her harder, hips slamming, his swaying balls slapping her center. “But it’s a matter of perspective, isn’t it?”
“Per-perspective?” Fuck, she’d lost. Or won. Whatever outcome the shaking in her thighs portended as heat blazed a path to her curling toes and clenching fingers.
“Just so.” Harsh breaths split his words. “Those wide, curving lobes and sleek pointed tip.” Groaning, he gave two sharp thrusts. “Viewed from the opposite side, a spade is—”
“A heart.” Snaking under her skin, the bonfire exploded in a supernova with two brilliant centers. They burned together, atomized in endless white-hot pleasure.
* * * *
“Let go.” With heavy strokes, Henry rubbed her knuckles. “Come back to Earth with me, sweet girl.”
Mmphing agreement, she jerked her hands open. The headboard spindle’s imprint decorated her flesh. Death grip, Christ.
Bent over her like armor shaped for her alone, he tsked. “You played well this morning. Well and hard.” With soft lips swift and dancing on her red-lined palms, he soothed her aches. “You threw yourself into our game with ease and excitement and much less fear.”
“My fears seem silly now. This was—is—amazing.” Though he’d slipped free while pleasure locked her in a feedback loop, her toy rested snug inside her, a constant reminder of his plans for her.
“Not silly. A necessary step in your growth.” Folding their arms around her, he brushed her forehead with a kiss. “Your progression is a gift, Alice. One I am privileged to watch and to guide.” With nudges and rolls, he righted her beneath him.
Her ass hit the fitted sheet. Holy fuck. The plug handle bounced against the mattress, shifting the metal inside her and dear God in heaven when she squirmed just right—
Henry broke out a Jay-sized grin. “You ought to see your eyes, dearest. Widen them any farther, and I’m terribly afraid they’ll wander off somewhere.” Nipping her bottom lip, he ended on a sharp tug. “Though I’m quite fond of your open-mouthed joy in discovery. Very enticing.”
“God, Henry.” She lacked the romantic words for this experiment, but he’d interpret. “Equal and opposite reaction, I can’t even—I don’t want the ripples to stop.”
“Had I begun with this game last summer, your fears would have cast the experience in an unpleasant light.” He dropped a kiss on her jaw. Warm and supple, his lips. Thoughtful and generous, his mind. “You might have come to see this pleasure as a chore to be dreaded. An obligation rather than an act of love. But now…” Falling silent, he raised his head and stared at her, his eyes a deep pine forest of adventure and rapture.
“Now I’ll ask for it. For”—his cock—“greater pleasures.”
“Exactly right.” With one intense kiss, he bathed her in longing fulfilled and the promise of more. “Off to the shower. It’s time we begin our day.”
Every ass-bouncing step stretched her. Squeezing kept her post-orgasmic flood—and Henry’s release, God, holding a piece of him after sex ended hadn’t lost its thrill—from soaking her, but squeezing tightened her ass around the outline of rippling metal, too. Like the sex hadn’t stopped. Addicting.
Lazing in heavy-headed subspace beneath the heated spray, she twisted and bent at his direction without worry. He’d never let her slip. Safest place in the world, his hands.
Until he grasped the ring nestled between her ass cheeks. “Time for a break.”
“But it’s my toy.” Burying her face in his neck, she mewled in protest. “I’m not done playing.”
“You may fight with me now, and lose this argument, or you may submit and enjoy the rewards good behavior brings.” Firm, growly-voiced Henry wrapped one hand around her hair.
“Submit,” she whispered. Draping herself on him almost made up for the loss of her new toy. The water droplets on his collarbone begged to be licked off. “Experiment over.”
He tugged her hair, tipping her head back, and delivered a commanding kiss, all hard lips and pushy tongue. “Now I know you’re missing your playmate.” He kissed her forehead. “You’ve stolen his pout. All but the pleading eyes.”
He’d know better than her how best to adapt her body for this. But going slow grated when Jay made these games look so beautiful. Still, she helped push the plug free—easier out than in—and washed the metal with soap and hot water.
“Well done.” Henry toweled her dry. “You’re my good girl. Even when you aren’t quite certain you want to be.”
His gentle handling and praise lasted through their morning routine. Attentive and tactile, he dressed her in loose-fitting Saturday-at-home clothes. No underthings.
A teasing shiver rippled through her. Leaving the decision to him, giving him unfettered—and sometimes delightfully fettered—access to her anytime he liked, soaked her in pride-laced naughtiness.
He rubbed her ass through her thin cotton pants and delivered a light spank.
Enough to wake tingles. Not enough to hurt. She arched her back and wiggled.
Chuckling, he gave her a push. “Beautiful instincts. Now go and put your toy away, please.”
A drawstring pouch waited on the special dresser. Fingering the bag against the nap, she discovered rough pleasure. “No velvet?”
Henry wrapped her in a crushing embrace. “My Alice is a strong woman. Suede is her velvet.”
Damn straight. Her suede rested in a drawer, wiped down and laid away with care after last night’s flogging.
“Prickly when pushed. Soft when stroked.” As he eased open the strings and flipped the top, he exposed a green satin lining. “And so welcoming within.”
Forcing herself to let go, she nestled the plug in its home. No, its home away from home, because its true home sat empty and wanting it back. But Henry said to wait, and she’d wait. Experimenting on her own and skipping steps might have unforeseeable consequences.
“Lovely, thank you.” He pulled the strings, closing the bag, and squeezed her shoulders. “Off to the kitchen with you.”
He rattled off instructions and sent her ahead. By the time he emerged, clean-shaven and dressed, she had the table set and the omelet ingredients chopped and lined up beside the stove. Within minutes, he turned out a made-to-order feast. Fluffy eggs. Flavorful ham and veggies. Thick slices of toast slathered in butter and jam.
Quiet settled while they ate, good for musing but also for missing. Halfway through her omelet, she hadn’t fended off a creeping fork or a teasing plea for a bite. Messy dark hair and a bright smile and deep, liquid eyes whose owner’s sweet tenor—Share with me?—echoed Henry’s frequent refrain with different intent.
Warmth engulfed her, Henry covering her hand perfectly with his long fingers. His eyes softened to tiny black centers on mossy green discs. “I expect we’ll have waffles next Saturday.”
Swept along in his understanding smile, she needn’t worry he’d read ingratitude or ambivalence into her behavior. They both knew the sex had been fantastic and the omelets delicious. Her tense funk flowed out in a sigh. “You think he’s having birthday waffles?”
Henry shook his head. “I expect he’s eating whatever has been put in front of him, without complaint.” As a frown flashed across his lips, he waved a dismissal. “A discussion for another day. Today, we have an evening out for which to prepare.”
“We’re going out?” With a puzzle in the offing, she swam clear of the satiation of sleep, sex, and a full stomach. “Do I get to know where, or is this one of the great Henry mysteries?”
“No mystery.” He cut his omelet, leaving a crisp diagonal behind. “It’s time.” Assessing her with a piercing stare, he chewed and swallowed. “As our dear boy has given us this opportunity, we mustn’t waste it.”
“We’re going to the club.” Certainty struck deep as a well-seated support post, straightening her spine. “On a play night.”
“On a party night. They’ve a Fourth of July soiree, an annual event.”
“Clever.” As they mingled with the contacts they’d made at tea and in class, they’d expand their anti-Cal reach among the membership. Twisting her fork over, she prodded the omelet. “Guess I’d better get all of my rebellion out at home.”
He hummed a discordant note. “You ought to be you, dearest. Whatever else our agenda holds, do you believe my primary concern would ever be other than your comfort and safety?”
“No.” Outfoxing Cal would please him, sure, as much as crushing the jackass’s balls beneath her heel would her, but Henry always had higher goals. “This is for me.” Since the night of her spanking, she’d only entered the club during off-peak hours. Morning classes, afternoon tea, and Jay’s painful, necessary breakdown. “Testing phase.” Without Jay at her side. “Isolate the variables for total focus.”
She’d ace this exam. Be the best goddamn sub in the place, Henry’s perfect companion.
“A monochromatic work, but lovely all the same.” He smiled his teasing grin, the one with the hint of white teeth behind kissable lips. “My bold adventurer is ever anxious to scale new heights.”
“Will you take Jay by himself—” No. The permutations had a best order, and that wasn’t it. “It’s not just that he isn’t here—you would’ve taken me alone first anyway.”
“Yes.” Eyes narrowing, he tilted his head. “Tell me why, Alice.”
“If I do well, you’ll have my support when Jay’s ready. Double the protection for him. Enough safety to satisfy you and let him have fun showing off his submissive side the way he wouldn’t do at basketball.” Better for Jay to have them reinforcing their pride and love for his true self the next time he attended the club during playtime. “And if I flop, he won’t bear witness. My faltering confidence won’t infect him with extra fear or shame.” The conclusion fit, though she lacked visual confirmation of the evidence chains. “Either way, you won’t let him play until I’ve proven I can handle a night out first.”
“Exquisite.” He folded his napkin and laid the rose linen beside his plate. “I yearn to capture the movements of your mind in color on canvas. Such a beautiful, rolling sea.”
No less than she ached to map his. With love and comfort, he coddled her when she needed and pushed her to grow in the times between.
“Alice.” A wolfish smile lurked in the corners of his mouth and his eyes. “Stand up and step to your right, please.”
Fuck yes.
Heart racing, legs trembling, she pushed back from the table. He’d delivered those words in her dreams since the night in August when he’d made her fantasies real. If she prayed before bed the way she had as a child, knees on the floor, elbows on the bedspread, hands pressed together in front of her face, she’d thank God every night for that moment.
Hands clasped behind her back, she waited for his next command. Close enough to prayer. He answered hers in uncounted ways.
As he stood, he displayed the best sort of surprise, his hardening cock rippling under his pants. He delved in his pockets and pulled out—
“My toy.”
He held the pouch on his palm.
She flexed with stubborn impatience, a rush of heat. “But I put it away like you said.”
“You did.” In his other hand, the black cap of the lube bottle peeked over the side as he rounded the table. “And I promised you would reap the rewards of your good behavior.”
The choice between staring at the bulge in his pants or the one in his hand proved impossible.
“I know you ache to progress with speed. But in this you’ve set aside your competitive desire for victory and your insatiable craving for comprehensive knowledge.” Boxing her in, he laid the pouch and lube on the table. “And why have you done that?”
“Because I respect you.” For so many reasons. He’d given her proof after proof. “I trust your judgment.”
“And because you’ve shown your willingness to follow my direction”—he gripped her hips, and thin cotton slid south—“I’m inclined to grant you latitude.”
“I get to wear it again?” Halle-fucking-lujah.
“For a short time.” Stooping, he swept her pants off. “We’ll increase the time—and your comfort level—incrementally.”
The idea felt pretty damn comfortable now.
He skimmed the backs of her legs and kissed her ass cheeks. “Practicing your lessons ought to be pleasurable.” One-handed, he continued upward, beneath her shirt, and bent her forward. “Lean on your elbows for me. Back arched, please.”
She shoved her ass in the air and wiggled.
The suede pouch gave up its treasure to his slender, penetrating fingers. Swish and flip, the lube opened. Heavy breaths sounded behind her, deep and focused. A man blowing to start a fire. Or to warm metal in his cupped hand.
As he pressed the tip of her toy between her cheeks, lube flowed in a steady stream from above. With slow rotations, he stirred anticipation in sensitive flesh while the plug gained a protective coating, slick against her skin. Her shiver owed nothing to the modest chill.
“Good girl,” Henry murmured. “Be aware of your movement and the feelings, both physical and emotional, wearing your toy inspires.”
Sliding deeper, growing wider, the toy burned, but oh God, what a beautiful burn. “S’good. Makes me want it all.” She stretched in welcome, her muscles beginning a satisfying workout. The slick suction and gentle pop of full depth came with familiarity, the thrill without the fear. “Giddy and expectant.”
“Proud of yourself, are you?” He returned the lube to the table. Massaging her ass, he made her toy shift and bump. “You should be.”
“Are you going to fuck me now?” God, she hoped so. He’d gotten her wet and clenching without a single brush of her pussy or clit, and the far side of the table beckoned in memory. “Is that part of my reward, too?”
“No, Alice.” Growling, he spun her by her elbows and hoisted her onto the tablecloth.
Her thudding ass rattled the plates. Rocking into weighted fullness, she moaned.
He silenced her with a hard kiss. “Your reward is firmly lodged in place. This?” As he spread her knees wide, he dragged her to the edge. “This dessert is my reward.” Sinking to the rug, he buried his face between her legs and inhaled. “Shall we see if I might make you come for me as many times as I denied myself the pleasure of taking your ass these last eleven months?”