Page 103 of Season of Gifts

“Do you know how wonderful it is to hear you call me that, Alice?”Mother tucked her shoulders tight and squeezed her eyes shut, held in an invisible hug.Sighing, she unveiled a green gaze that warmed Alice to her toes, like standing barefoot in a sun-drenched garden bed.“Robert’s wife is a gracious woman, and I adore her, but they’ve been married nearly two decades, and she still calls me Mrs.Webb.Helen, in rare moments.‘Mother’ simply won’t roll off her tongue.”

“She sounds…” The woman in the photo in the music room, a sister-in-law she hadn’t even met.Just a few months ago, Henry had joked with Alice about his brother the Fourth and his nephew the Fifth.“Formal.”

Mother nodded, her gaze distracted.The wide king-size pillows stuffed behind her engulfed her slender frame “By your answers, I’m supposing you and Henry have not yet talked this evening.”

“Not really.”If Mother hadn’t been referring to Alice’s secret visit home, then some significant topic existed that Alice didn’t know about either.A secret Henry was keeping.News from the doctor?Henry’s distance might be trying to shear off avenues to more pain if he knew he’d need to stay longer.Weeks.Months.Maybe he meant to give them this weekend and Christmas before he told them.Her chest ached, her lungs harder to inflate.“I, uh, I came to get the walkie-talkie.He was worried about not being able to hear if you needed us.”

“And that is my fault.”Mother’s whisper barely left her lips.She plucked at the quilt and firmly smoothed it flat.“I’m afraid my illness has reawakened painful memories for us both.Do you have time to talk, Alice?”

Icy tendrils wove into her spine.The problem went beyond stress.Beyond exhaustion.She’d given Henry the best of her support tactics learned from helping Mom, and they weren’t working, because he wasn’t her mom, and the challenges he grappled with were different.Whatever Henry wasn’t saying, she wouldn’t leave this room without answers.“Tell me what’s wrong with him?”

Chapter fifty-four

Jay

Thedoortickedshutbehind Alice, and Jay’s heart took off like a sprinter.

Henry stood right in front of him.Within arm’s reach, even.The back of Jay’s neck tingled.Any second now, Henry would pull him in with a fierce hold and rumble in his deepest voice how he’d missed his best boy.

The first days after their usual two-week holiday separation were always combustible.Like dousing a burn pile in gasoline and dropping a lit match.

Jay trembled.Just being alone with Henry for the first time since they’d arrived—hell, for the first time in two weeks—scrambled his gears.He was a kid with his first ten-speed, squeezing one lever and flicking another, trying not to pitch himself off the front like a forkful of winter straw when he hit the brakes by accident.

Henry wore neutral dom-face, but his eyes lacked their usual luster.And lust.The shadows underneath carried the weight of late nights.

Fuck, right.Starting things tonight was Jay’s job.Alice had asked him to do one simple thing, and he’d nearly let the whole effort go sideways in the first minute.Jesus, get it together.Putting Henry to sleep shouldn’t take much at all.

Jay rested his hand on the old-man pajamas hiding the real Henry.Top button, where Alice had been playing a little.Tugging Henry toward him, even in play, gave him twitchy shoulders.He stepped in closer, and that was better.He should be the one giving, the one Henry could lose himself in so he could let go of the stresses he’d been under.Things would be so much easier now that they were all together.

“I missed you.”He brushed his cheek against Henry’s, his heart still competing for a gold medal.A quick inhale for courage turned into a deep one.Henry smelled perfect, all citrus and leather, commanding and powerful.Kissing the hollow under Henry’s jaw, Jay slipped the top button on the pj’s free.“I’m sorry we didn’t get here sooner to help.”

“We’ve all had roles to play,” Henry murmured, his voice so low he might not have been talking to Jay at all.Or maybe he wanted to keep Jay close.Doms did that, played games with their voices.Henry always lured him near to give him the best gifts.“This time apart must have been quite difficult for you, my brave boy.”

“For you, too.”He’d have to stay on his toes.Tonight was supposed to be about Henry’s needs, but Henry could turn any talk around to take care of Jay instead.He laid down more searching kisses, a whole patch of them on Henry’s neck.That scent, fuck.He hadn’t thought of how good having it around him would be until Alice had used Henry’s soap on him yesterday.He’d just inhaled the last of his lovers from their pillows and then gone without when all the scents faded to his own.“You haven’t had a minute to relax, but you can now.Me and Alice can step up while you catch your breath.”

Or lose his breath.Henry was playing it cagey, not giving any hint of his desire.Those were some of the best times, when Henry was all buttoned-up dominant one second and fierce lover the next, his fingers tangled in Jay’s hair and his cock in Jay’s throat.

Jay swallowed hard.He only needed to work Henry up to that moment, and the rest would be out of his hands.Things would go back to normal.So what if he’d never really had to seduce Henry before?So what if the mere fact of his existence generally did that on its own?He could figure it out.He’d spent the first two months of their relationship begging for Henry’s cock.He pressed his hard-on to Henry’s hip.His undershorts had him trapped, but Henry could grab his junk and free him.Stroke him, tease him, order Jay to wait and suck Henry first.He whined softly.

Henry threaded his fingers through Jay’s hair, smoothing it back.“I had thought to read to you this evening, but perhaps you’d care to take yourself in hand first?”

He would, no doubt, but he was supposed to be relaxing Henry, not himself.He rocked his hips, getting a good thrust against solid thigh.“If watching me is what you want.I want to serve you.I wanna give you what you want.”

Henry’s chuckle held a powerful edge.“Then perhaps you could be persuaded to save that for Alice.Have the two of you taken time to reconnect?”

“Yesterday.”A third button loose, and he slid his hand inside Henry’s pajama top.Warm from the shower, firm and steady.Alice’s body moved with his hands, molded her to his touch, but Henry’s demanded Jay be the fluid one, shaping his hand to hard chest and broad ribs.Rough hair teased his palm.The sooner he got on his knees, the sooner his face would be buried in rough hair and Henry’s musk.“She planned a surprise for me when I got home.”

“Tell me about the surprise.”

Shivers worked from Jay’s toes to his neck.Henry dropped words with the weight of steel behind them.Talking wouldn’t mesh with Henry’s cock in his throat.But maybe talking could get him there.Henry and Alice did this dance all the time.Make his brain plan ahead while his dick demanded more and more of the oxygen-rich blood swirling through his body.No problem.Alice was counting on him.And then Henry could fall asleep watching them fuck for him.Everyone a winner.

“You might wanna sit down for this.”He leaned his weight into Henry.Just enough to be encouraging.The bed was right there, after all.“I did.”Another button dealt with.The pj top wouldn’t be an obstacle much longer.Alice would be so proud of him.“In the shower.”

“Our girl is delightfully inventive.”Henry gripped Jay’s side, the muscley bit above his hip.Fingertips skated the edge of his boxer-briefs, alerting nerves wired directly to his dick.“You were on the bench?”

“Uh-huh.”Those pants needed to go, and the undershorts, too.Tripping out of them on the way to the bed might be funny, but go-for-laughs Jay wasn’t on the menu tonight.He had the mood going.He oughta pick up the pace.Get Henry lying back on the bed so they could both be in the blissed-out zone where Henry’s cock was pumping deeper into his mouth with every suck.“If you sit back against the headboard, I could show you.”

With some lube, he could slide his ass right down into Henry’s lap.But he was supposed to be focusing on simple.Relax Henry as fast as he could, with the least amount of fuss.Fucking would be at least a little fuss.

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