Page 171 of Season of Gifts

Heat rolled up against her on both sides.“The echoes are trying to tickle you, sweet girl?”

She shook her head into waves of hair.Hands smoothed it back, tucking the frizz behind her ears.“Echoes flashing.Fingers tickling.”

“Mmm, I see.”Henry.That was Henry’s smooth, serious, trying-not-to-laugh voice.

“You said you wanted incoherent.Pretty sure she’s there.”Jay dotted her face with soft kisses.“Wild you is gorgeous, Alice.And loud as hell.Think you got over your quiet phase.”

If her cheeks burned, her body was too hot to notice.Satisfaction left her limp and lazy, letting scattered thoughts flow back in their own time.“I kinda did, didn’t I?Maybe…” Henry had said she wasn’t ahalfanything.The energy was inside her all the time, ready to follow Henry or lead Jay, the same swirling storm.“Maybe got over a lot of phases.Misunderstandings.”

She could be everything.Anything.Owned in the morning and owner at night.Follow feelings that moved in nonlinear ways, give all of herself over to the moment.She would never be not enough.She would never be too much.Whatever, whoever, she chose to be, Henry and Jay would love that Alice.

They’d already proved that love was real and she could have it—both possibilities she’d completely rejected a year ago.She really ought to choose a new hypothesis to test.Maybe that love could last a lifetime.It would be a long, arduous study period.But they were up for the challenge.After a good long rest.

Yawning, she stretched, her hips swaying, bumping two very not-resting erections.She teased the scratchy-soft hairs on Henry’s chest.“Any plans for the rest of the day, sir-husband?”

Henry rolled back slightly, angling his body up, and fisted his cock at the base.His knuckles whitened.“Our husband needs a meal.I may have one in mind.”

Well now she did, too.And what a pretty picture it made.

Chapter eighty-four

Jay

SlipperysilkfilledJay’spalm.He squeezed to keep it there, his fingers nearly catching Alice, too.His reach tugged at the cuff, and the leather tugged back, gripped by the tether Henry had clipped to the headboard.Rolling his chin to his shoulder let him grab a glimpse of pale peach—the underwear Alice had worn in the shower before they left for Maine.One of Henry’s first gifts for her, a lifetime ago.Before they’d saidI love you,or moved in together, or gotten married.Now peach silk spilled around his wedding band, overflowing his clenched hand.

Giggling, Alice stroked down the heel of his hand and traced the edge of his cuff.“Hold on to those for me, stud.I hear underwear is the new safeword signal for when...”Leaning over him, she kissed him deeply, her movements slow, her body warm and flowing.“When your mouth is otherwise occupied.”

Which his would be, real soon.Please real soon.Henry was taking his time adjusting the restraints.Jay had to be earning massive obedience points for not grabbing Henry’s cock when it was right there above his other hand.He squeezed the panties harder instead.Drop those, and Henry would stop their playtime.

Settling back, Alice lounged naked against the headboard, her legs tucked up beside her and her cuffs at her ankles, Henry’s claim blazing out across the leather.Her hair, tumbling around her neck, blocked the monogram on her collar.Henry might have her wear it up next time they went to the club.Her smile wouldn’t quit, though.That and her sparkly eyes offered a mirror of what he was in for as Henry positioned the second tether.Henry was gonna fuck Jay’s brains out, too.Just not with his tongue.

Already his heart turned cartwheels in his chest.Henry raised Jay’s hand and rolled the cuff around so slowly that the hair on Jay’s arms stood as straight as his cock.The snap hook at the end of the tether clicked into place, and now his arms spread out above him with less than a foot of play between his wrists and the headboard.

A blast of heat shot through him, like the sun cutting through the clouds on a winter ride.Both hands tied, and not with quick-release Velcro or gauzy scarves.Henry could use him however he chose.

Henry ran his hand up Jay’s arm and across his chest in great sweeping swirls, then down the other arm.He fingered the underwear in Jay’s grasp, humming all the while.Energy rippled out from him, a growly pleasure.“You are quite literally bound in my service, my brave boy.”

This was the real deal, the thing he’d been wanting since curiosity had steered him from finance bro hotel parties to the club.The dominance he’d been ashamed to crave, the fantasies that had turned to nightmares—he’d been clawing it back, bit by bit.Henry and Alice had helped him pile up victory after victory.Here, in their cozy bed, with his body tied, only gratitude and eagerness sped through his veins.

“Destined to be an instrument for my enjoyment.And I see much—” Henry traced Jay’s mouth with a single finger.He tugged at Jay’s collar with two, lifting him gently as Jay dropped his shoulders back.Glanced over his shoulder, probably at the cock wagging tall over Jay’s stomach, dripping with excitement despite not having a role to play.“Yes, I see much to enjoy.”

He meant to deliver a sassy comeback, but only a thin, pleading whine passed his lips.He’d been half gone listening to Alice begging to come, her arms flexing in his hands, Henry’s fingers turning white holding her hips steady so he could wring every orgasm out of her.If Henry hadn’t given him a quick handjob in the shower already this morning, he would’ve popped by now for sure.

Grasping the headboard, Henry swung his leg over Jay’s chest.Jay sucked in a breath—maybe the last deep breath through his mouth for a while, if he was very lucky.The thick mix of musk and sweat and desire hanging in the air washed through him, as much a taste as a scent.Hunger for more had him wetting his lips.

“I shall be listening, of course.”Henry dropped one hand from the headboard and stroked his cock.In lazy strokes, with a gradual twist, he angled his cockhead over Jay’s face, a bead at the tip just waiting to fall.“Though you may find it difficult to speak.My service can be…”

The bead started to slip.Jay lifted his chin to catch it sooner, his tongue curling—

Henry slicked his hand across the head of his cock and swept the teasing taste away, back into his rhythm.“Demanding.”

Yeah, Jay’s bucking hips might agree with that.He whined louder for the treat Henry held out of reach.

Balanced on his knees, straddling Jay’s chest, Henry combed Jay’s hair back.“Oh, I’ve plenty yet for you.”His heavy gaze promised he did.“Remind me of your safeword first.”

“Potholes.”Their safeword ritual brought him one step closer to the richness of Henry’s cock in his throat.

“Excellent.”Henry dipped lower, nearly brushing his knuckles against Jay’s chin on his upstroke.“And if you are, as Alice so politely suggests, otherwise occupied but require a pause to communicate?”

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