Page 15 of Season of Gifts

Her eyes rounded; her mouth, too, falling open in what would pleasepleasebe astonishment and happiness.

“Jay, this is…” Gasping, she darted to the shelves and fingered the origami pieces he’d made for her.

He’d tried to keep their lineup the same, the categories of plants and animals and other things the way she’d had them at the apartment, only they’d been squeezed onto the dresser there.Now they had a whole art bookcase to themselves, and the bed of flowers he’d made her hung in a net on the wall.

She touched what seemed like every piece, running her fingers across the work he’d done in caresses that made him squirm for the same treatment.At the shelf displaying all the notes Henry had ever left for her—the ones she’d tucked away in the vanity drawer—she picked up the Christmas one with the tree sketch on the front.Sighing softly, she put it back, then touched the ones on the next shelf.“These are—and you have all the ones so far?”

He did; he’d grabbed the calendar sketch from this morning and added it to the scene after his shower.“I thought you’d want to keep them safe.”

“You are the most thoughtful man,” she murmured.Her eyes held a liquid sheen.

Turning, she laughed and darted the other way, to the photos he’d chosen.Some from their relationship, some from before, when he and Henry were just good neighbors trying to cultivate her friendship.He’d caught a fantastic shot of them on the old roof deck, Henry on one knee with a platter, describing appetizers, while Alice gazed at him with her softest smile.

She came back to him finally, shaking her head, her lips in a tight line but with the corners tipping up.“I don’t even know what to say, sweetheart.You…” Blinking, she raised her arms and wrapped her hands around the back of his neck, pulling his head down to hers.“You amaze me.Every day, in so many ways, it is unfathomable to me how you are this wonderful creature, this exemplary man, how youseeso much deeper.How you make everyone’s life better by being in it.I know this week has been difficult.But this space you’ve made for us, this cozy nest of the things that remind us who we are—it’s perfect.A-plus.I can’t find a single fault.”

Her approval radiated heat better than an orgasm.If he could live inside that feeling—not a disappointment, not a bother or a burden, not in the way, but valued, cherished, praised for the things that made himhim—he’d never be unhappy a day in his life.“Thank you, Mistress Alice.I was hoping you’d like it.”

“Far more than like.”She kissed his cheeks, softly, then nudged open his mouth and swayed with him in a dreamy, rolling rhythm of tongues and caresses.Her hands skimmed his back, fingers so light they almost tickled, raising electricity in his skin.“I have a reward for you.Two, actually.Would you like to choose which you want today?”

The question had only two answers: yes, and hell yes.

Chapter eight

Alice

MaybeJaywouldn’tnoticehow tightly Alice clutched the journal he’d left out for her.Murmuring her thanks, she fell back on Henry’s favorite strategy—making his subs wait for a reward.Her strategies so far were mostly echoes of his anyway.And now Jay had gone stratospheric building this—she wroteshrine, then crossed it out, then rewrote it, because what was this room if not a shrine for their relationship?The place where they held their rituals and worshiped the love and commitment that tied them together?Shrine.She underlined it twice.

He’d celebrated all the ways they valued each other and the pieces that formed them, like his childhood box of stones and other finds, now perched on a shelf beside an aging backpack with Henry’s initials.Here they could visit their past and dream their future.

Jay had set a hugely high bar with his contribution, and she had to match it for their first room check in the new house.No pressure, nope.None.

“I’ve set a few things in the hall beside the door.”She slipped the bookmark ribbon into the pages and closed the journal, pretending not to catch Jay’s sudden perk of interest.“Please bring them inside for me.”

Not much, but she wanted to offer him relaxation, and playfulness, and she didn’t have the skills or the equipment for the sensory-deprivation-like experience Henry had asked Will to give her at Halloween.Or even the knowledge of whether that would work for Jay like it had for her.But she had one safe bet and one best guess.

He carried in her tools with both hands underneath the folded blanket square, creating a level platform for the small bottle of massage oil and the deerskin flogger she’d coiled in a circle.Kneeling in front of her, he raised the items.

Well that wouldn’t work; now she couldn’t see his face.Plucking free the bottle, she set it on the nightstand with the journal.Next, the flogger, lifted with care—a good spot, a good, clear—ah.

She crossed to the dresser and extended the flogger across the top, stroking the falls into neat alignment because taking good care of her toys mattered and not at all because she was nervous about using the flogger without Henry directly supervising.He’d given his approval, and the added guardrails—limited duration and only to be used when he was also in the house—comforted rather than restricted.If she made a mistake, the expert could take over.

As she returned to Jay, she ran her fingers up under the back of his hair.The bottom held a hint of dampness from his shower; the top strands had dried into a silky river that flowed across her hand.“Thank you, Jay.”Lifting the blanket, she shook the edge so it started unfolding.“Help me lay this over the bed, please.Our rewards today might get…” She waited for his eye contact, his pupils wide as he eagerly tracked every move she made.She scrunched her nose and grinned.“Messy.”

“And me freshly showered,” he teased, taking a corner of the blanket around to the far side.

She clutched her edge and jokingly began gathering it back.“Well, if you don’t want your reward…”

“I do, I do.”He planted his hands on the blanket, pinning it in place, his body bent over the bed, his cock twitching between muscled thighs.“I do want it, Mistress.”

“Good boy,” she murmured.“I thought you might.”She catalogued the shape of him with her hand in midair.“That’s a good look.If you’d like a flogging from your mistress.Is that what you’d like, Jay?”

She smoothed the blanket, a catch-all for massage oil and other fluids.Easier to wash than a comforter.

He was thinking, a good sign, much better than immediate agreement.If he wasn’t in the headspace for impact play today, she’d offer it again another time.

“The massage is yours either way.Well—ours.”Circling the bed, she landed behind him, stroking the curve of his ass.“But you may choose whether you wish to begin with a flogging to thank you for your hard work.”Onhard, she gripped handfuls of his ass; he tightened his muscles, and dear god did that man have an ass on him.“Are you getting cheeky with me now, Jay?”

Laughing, he pushed back into her hands.“I’m sorry, Mistress.It has a mind of its own.Maybe a flogging would settle things down?”

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