Page 1 of Season of Gifts

Chapter one

Alice

Alicesnuggleddeeperintoher pillow, squirming in her warm nest of covers.Sunday mornings were for sleeping in—particularly Sunday mornings after two full days of exploring the fun of their new dedicated play space.The thuddy massage of the buffalo flogger had left her boneless.Henry and Jay wouldn’t begrudge her a lazy start.

If they wanted her, they could wake her.Or not.Sometimes not was even better, a “yes, please, more of this” she’d added to her contract yesterday, along with permission to use more toys with Jay independently.Waking on a tide of arousal to discover Henry had started without her always carried her to the breaking crest of the wave without any effort on her part.

But this morning she lay wrapped in sheets, not naked husbands.Yawning, she curled her toes and kicked out her feet and stretched her arms and—

And touched bare skin.

Blinking her eyelids open, fighting the sandman’s pull, she patted the body beneath her fingers.Mmm, thickly muscled thigh and a solid kneecap.

Jay knelt naked in his waiting pose atop the covers, his knees spread, his hands resting lightly on his thighs.Stretching, she brushed her fingers against his.

His cock, relaxed and wrinkled and resting in its bed of neatly trimmed black hair, twitched.

She licked her lips.Had she slept through Henry’s commands?A quick glance over her shoulder revealed the empty expanse of the rest of the bed.Something else, then.As adorably vulnerable as Jay’s cock appeared, as sinfully seductive as his taut abs seemed, his face gleamed with pure excitement.

Big brown eyes gazed unwaveringly at her face.Delicious, full lips tucked themselves into the thin line of a man desperate not to spill a secret.The aura of anticipation around him throbbed through her.She could order her husband to stroke himself hard for her right now and watch him wrestle with whose commands to follow first—but that would hardly be a fair reward for his excellent service.

She traced the edges of his fingertips.“Sweetheart?”

Jay practically vibrated.“Are you awake?”

“Uhh…” What kind of question was that?“Yes?”

He whipped his head around, black hair flying, pivoting faster than a sprinkler.“Henry!She’s awake!”His shout could’ve covered a football field.Or a real field, probably; he’d grown up on a tree farm, after all.“I’m gonna bring her out, okay?Can we now, please?”

She winced at the noise, squinting as if her eyes could somehow lower the level of sound in her ears.Completely ineffective.“Can we what now?”

“I don’t know.”Jay rocked on his knees, periodically checking the open bedroom door.“Henry said it’s a surprise.I had to wait for you, he said.”

“A surprise?”She half sat, lifting herself to her elbows.The blankets drooped low, exposing her breasts, but Jay barely spared them a glance.She gave a mental whistle.The surprise had him fixated if even her nudity couldn’t lure him back.Although, to be fair, Henry’s last surprise had been the magically transforming coffee table flogging horse spanking bench whatchacallit, and they’d run that through its paces since Friday.“No clues at all?”

“No, just that it’s for—” Jay’s breath hitched as he finally noticed her state.“It’s for, uh—” He snagged the edge of the sheets and pulled them lower still, dragging his fingers down her stomach, his gaze flicking up to her face as he tested the limits of what she might allow.“For both of us, and I had to wait here.”

She arched her back, rolling her still-hidden hips.“Did he say what we should do while we wait?”

“He did.”The smooth baritone of the man himself came from the doorway, where Henry appeared in a bathrobe the same deep green shade as his eyes.“Did Alice wake on her own, Jay, or did you help her?”

“On her own.Promise.”Well, that explained why he’d been in his waiting pose instead of blanketing her with kisses.“I was very patient.”

Henry brought a hand to his chin and tapped his mouth.One eyebrow lifted.“Alice?”

“Confirmed.”She shoved herself upward, shaking off the last of sleep and pressing her back to the knobby spindles on the headboard.“I didn’t even know he was there until I opened my eyes.”

“Well done, my boy.”Henry crooked his finger and called Jay to his side.

Jay flew off the bed as if Henry had thrown a compressed-air valve wide open and cannoned him into Henry’s arms.Alice rolled her neck and pulled her knees up to rest her arms while Jay received his reward—a tight hug, some whispered words, and a hot-as-fuck push back against the doorframe.Henry ground his hips into Jay’s as he fused their mouths.Jay’s throaty whimper danced along her nerve endings.

Henry drew back with a lingering kiss, leaving Jay gazing with naked adoration.“Fetch robes for yourself and Alice, and then you’ll have your surprise.”As Jay ducked into the closet, Henry strode to the bed.“Good morning, my sweet girl.”

She crawled across the comforter to the edge of the bed and raised up on her knees, matching his height.A slight lean bought her a kiss of her own, along with a tight two-handed grip at the sides of her face as he held her at the angle he chose.She slipped a hand inside his robe and stroked his chest.

Laughing, he gently rattled her head between his hands.“Did you sleep well, Alice?”

“Perfectly.”She let him draw her forward and set her feet on the soft rug.“I would’ve tried to wake up sooner if I’d known there was a surprise waiting.”

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