Page 178 of Season of Gifts

“Spread the blankets, please, Jay.”The coffee table had been shifted and the pillows and blankets carried down while he’d prepared dinner.A vast expanse waited between the sofa and the hearth, as fine a bed as any they’d shared.“When that is accomplished, I will have a great many things you may do for me.”

Gratifying, how quickly Jay sprang to his feet, his cock half hard and growing.Allowing him to come twice this afternoon lessened the risk that he might need release before Henry’s greedy eyes had drunk their fill.“If you are also satisfied with the day thus far…?”

Dark eyes widened; Jay could pour his whole heart into those endless brown pools in seconds.“Satisfied…” He gripped his collar, his fist curling around Henry’s claim.“That’s not a big enough word.I’m…” Shaking his head slowly, Jay moved his mouth wordlessly.He rose on the balls of his feet and shook out a shrug.“I’m home again.In my skin, with you—I want the day to last forever.It’s better than if we’d gotten our collars after the scavenger hunt, because it’s a whole day of nothing but being yours.Just us being us, the all-of-us us, not the okay-for-public-consumption us.”

Jay and Alice deserved more opportunities for extended play.No, not only them.The quality of the air changed when they were granted so much time.The feel of it on the skin, the freedom in the lungs, the clarity in the mind—so much of modern life depended upon rushing.So many souls frantically stole time for themselves, a mere hour here or there, but never enough to fully rest.Never enough to simply be.

The collars served as a reminder that they could relax into themselves.That Jay could be proud of his submissive nature.That Alice could explore emotional depths she’d rarely imagined in herself.

“The all-of-us us.”Stretching his arm along Alice’s spine, he rested one hand at the nape of her neck, touching her collar.He extended the other to Jay, inviting him to kneel, clasping Jay’s hand when he did.“I cannot think of anything I have wanted more in my life.”

Yet he’d held himself at a distance.

He’d been Jay’s age when he’d despaired of having the life he imagined for himself.Thirty and unable to find a proper spark to last beyond a handful of play sessions, politely declining further interaction.Victor and Emma made love look effortless—the perfect marriage, the perfect play partners, the perfect family in progress.But he could not find it, regardless of how deeply he interrogated and studied each new potential partner.

“Have faith, Henry,” Victor had counseled him.“The life you dream of will find you.”They’d been sitting in his office, away from the din and the curious eyes of the salon.Emma lay drowsing on the chaise, her head on Victor’s thigh, his hand resting in her hair and a blanket draped over her.Victor spoke in hushed tones.“Keep your eyes open—or don’t.You’ll feel it in their energy.The way they entwine with you, so strongly you cannot imagine returning to life without them.”

A shame he couldn’t tell Victor how right he’d been.About the patience, and the faith, and the way Alice and Jay would wrap so deeply around his very bones that the threat of losing them would stagger him.

Curling his fingers, he reassured himself of the reality of the flesh beneath: Jay and Alice, solid, real, loving him so much they had chased him to Maine and confronted him with his fears.“I imagined finding love a test of mental discipline, an endeavor to be approached with caution and calculation.”

Alice snaked her hand down the sofa and squeezed his knee.No doubt she understood the impulse.

Jay tugged his lips between his teeth.“And when caution didn’t work?”

“I allowed my heart to do the choosing.”Both times.He’d tried to manage love—to deny it, to control it—but in the end one could only surrender to it.“And I accepted what your hearts had also chosen.”

Therein lay the wonder.Alice and Jay had achieved innumerable milestones in the last year.They had grown tenfold their confidence in themselves and their capabilities.These two people, so crucial to his own happiness, had become stronger, happier, and healthier.They had formed robust support networks in sharing truths with friends and family.

They still chose to be his.

He could receive no greater love or accolade in his lifetime.

He kissed Jay with the wonder and gratitude in his heart.Melting kiss into kiss, he fed Jay his full attention, a steadily burning flame.When finally he drew back, Jay tracked him with dazed, hungry eyes.

“Spread the blankets, my love,” Henry murmured.“It’s my turn to choose our amusements.”

Layer upon layer cushioned the floor, Jay snapping each into the air and allowing it to float downward.

Henry’s brisk, teasing swats pleasingly pinked Alice’s ass and thighs.Hints of dusky rose appeared between her thighs in the gap that widened each time she relaxed.

Crawling deliciously across the cozy nest, Jay tugged and flipped misbehaving corners into position.The top sheet from their bed served as the final touch, thin and crisp and cool as it rode the currents of the comforters below.

With a whisper, Henry sent Alice reaching up and beyond the arm of the sofa.Muscles fired in extension, her body reshaping to fulfill his request, a flowing tension akin to the moments before orgasm.She wriggled backward and rolled up onto her knees beside him.In her hand she cradled the small bowl of sugared grapes before her breasts like an offering.The frosted dark fuchsia of the grapes rose in a mound above the wide edge of the bowl, a lustrous emerald-green glass.

Henry plucked a grape from the top with delicate pressure.Sugar created friction against the pads of finger and thumb, rough and toothy as a sketchpad for charcoal.Holding Alice’s gaze, he raised the grape to her mouth.As her lips parted, he dragged the fruit across her bottom lip, pulling it outward, leaving a starry trail of glistening sugar.

She teasingly attempted to bite down; he pulled the fruit back.Her pout drew her mouth to a smaller point, accentuating her cheekbones.The firelight cast her hazel eyes in gold.

“My sweet Demeter.”Goddess she was, in the dress and out of it.Achingly slowly, he pushed the grape between her lips and his fingers with it.“Mind you don’t leave a mess, now.”

She tongued the fruit away from him, tucking it into her cheek as she stole sugar from his fingertips.Drawing back, she released a suctionpopwith his fingers.“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

But her gaze strayed past him, and her brow lifted as she savored the dessert.Mmm, yes, the vision before them inspired a suddenly sharp desire to make a delightful mess.

Jay lolled in the center of the blankets on his back, his arms flung wide and one knee raised.His cock bobbed higher beneath their stares.

Memory created an overlapping exposure.Today’s contented, confident Jay sprawled beside the painfully uncertain Jay stepping into Henry’s domain for an early lesson.His steadfast gaze gradually overtook his younger self’s tangle of joy and disbelief that he might carry Henry’s sheets home with him.

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