Page 77 of The Laughing Game

He hooked a finger under my chin and turned my face so he could kiss me. It was tender and greedy at the same time. He took his time, and when he pulled back finally, it was like I’d woken from a dream.

“I’ve been waiting to kiss you that way,” he said.

“Really?”

“Well, yes. A real, non-performative, kiss. Without an audience.” He gazed at me with such affection and warmth, I almost felt guilty. He was another man’s husband.

“Um, so how does this work, exactly?” I asked, gazing into Vihaal’s blue-green eyes.

He smiled again. “Well, I get some body wash, and I use it to—”

“Cute,” I said, kissing him softly on the cheek. “I mean, how does this thing with you, and Gideon, and me, work? How do I know what’s allowed and what’s not allowed? Or what’s polite and what’s rude? I feel like I’ve been thrown into a game I’ve never played and handed…the ball.”

We both grinned at my double entendre.

Vihaal gave me a look as he reached around me and pumped some body wash into his hand. Then he slid his palm up my chest, over my collarbone, and cupped the top of my throat, forcing my chin up. I stared at the top of the shower stall, wondering what was going on in his head.

He kissed the lobe of my ear and licked a line along my jaw.

“Don’t worry so much. We’ll let you know if you’re stepping on anyone’s toes.”

“Okay,” I said. “I don’t want to interfere with what the two of you have.”

“Oh, Angel. You already have, but in the very best of ways,” he said, smoothing his hand down my throat and rubbing the body wash over my chest in slow, sensual, circles. “You enhance our relationship, you know.”

“Even when it’s just the two of us? Like now?”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” I said. “And Gideon won’t be jealous?”

Vihaal laughed. “I doubt it. And if he is, he’ll tell me. And we’ll figure out some new guidelines. Communication is the basis of everything we do together, Angel. The kinky stuff. The unconventional relationship. Really, everything. So, please do speak up, like this, if you need clarification, or you have emotions you want to express. We need to be open and transparent if this is going to work.”

“I’ll do my very best.”

“Oh, I know you will. You’re a very good boy, Angel,” he murmured, smoothing the body wash over my shoulders and down my arms.

“Fuck. Why does it feel so good when you say that? And so fucking hot?”

“I think you’ve been waiting for that kind of validation for a very long time. You seem to have slid right into the kinky side of our relationship without a problem.”

He grinned against my neck and pressed his lips just below my ear, his breath a warm puff against my wet skin.

“You like me to take over.”

“Yes.”

“You like to be told what to do.”

“Yes.”

“You like to please me.”

I sighed. “Yes. Fuck yes,” I said, turning my face toward him.

He caught my lips with his and kissed me like he had all the time in the world. My heart, that vulnerable organ that I’d guarded so fiercely for most of my life, thumped in my chest and loosened, drumming to the beat of Vihaal’s.

When he released me, I closed my eyes as he spread more body wash over my chest and belly. My hands lay on his forearms as he washed me all over, even in the most intimate places, and I let him, my desire rising.

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