Page 180 of Season of Gifts

Jay swallowed and wet his lips.Alice narrowed her eyes, her gaze smoky.

Exaggerating an approving sigh, Henry folded his hands across his stomach, his half-removed shirt fluttering at his sides.“Continue.”He spoke barely above the crackle of the fireplace, encouraging Alice and Jay to bend their senses toward him, focusing wholly on his commands and their responses.“You’ve much more to explore, my dear boy.”

Sweeping upward, Jay encountered a barrier to Alice’s breasts—her arms and the glass bowl she nestled between them.He chose the path out and around, clasping her arms, squeezing his way to her shoulders, and slipping down the front of her breasts.Jay had been the tease and the soother this afternoon, raising her nipples to fierce peaks as he lapped at the buds past the pinch of the clamps, then claiming as much flesh as his mouth could hold when the clamps’ release drowned her in sensation.

Her wordless pleas had been exquisite, a spiraling pitch that woke a fierce urge to roll her beneath him.Henry curled his fingers into his slacks.That hunger would be sated tonight.But first he would exquisitely frustrate his wife.She had, after all, so thoughtfully carried the torment herself.

“What a shame it would be for those luscious grapes to go uneaten.”

Always a quick study, Jay rolled his fingers closer to the bowl, tracing minute corkscrews as he spiraled inward.“These grapes?”

Henry hummed quiet agreement.“Their sweet coating can be quite sticky.Messy, perhaps.Clinging.”

Jay rocked a grape back and forth beneath one finger.Alice’s breasts pressed deeper into the bowl with each new inhalation.With a patience he rarely possessed, Jay coaxed the grape to the edge and finger-walked it upward.A trail of sugar gleamed in the firelight, rising from the bowl to the outer edge of Alice’s collarbone.Holding the grape steady, Jay bent his dark head beside Alice’s and curled his tongue around it.As the bite disappeared into his mouth, he kissed the spot where it had been.

“Harder.”Henry kept his hands well away from his cock, lest temptation overtake him.Not yet.Not until he’d seen his fill.“Sample her, Jay.Suck her in and taste the sweetness on her skin.”Any top she wore to work would cover her there.“Leave a mark.”

Jay fastened his mouth to Alice.His hair swept across her shoulder, swaying as he rocked into each pull.

Lips parting, she arched into him, thrusting her shoulders against Jay’s chest.Her eyelids fluttered; the dancing flames behind her seemed a glorious shower of sparks originating from her.

The glow outlined Jay’s firm buttocks, the strength running down his legs as he planted his feet and held his ground.Apollo he might be, the emblem of eternal youth, the sunny optimist bathed in golden light.

Alice moaned, and Jay lifted his head, his dark eyes watching Henry.

“Beautifully done.”Henry rubbed his hands down his thighs, fingers gripping, the bite of pressure-pain a distraction and prod for his own arousal.Elegant torture.“But we mustn’t leave our girl unbalanced.”

Alice, leaning her head against Jay’s shoulder, rolled her neck toward Henry.Hazel eyes flashed.

He deployed a serene smile.“Give her another to match, would you?”

As Jay swayed toward Alice’s other shoulder, their bodies brushing, he snaked an arm around her waist.Slowly his arm rose, until he clasped her just beneath her own arms and the bowl she held.His forearm flexed, and Alice’s relaxed.A clever bit of assistance, that, and a true reflection of how Henry’s spouses instinctively supported one another.He would hold his praise until later.Let them believe they alone shared this small bit of beauty.

Jay teased free a plump burgundy grape.Its delicate sugar snow eagerly transferred to Alice’s skin, gleaming in the warmth of the fire.At the near end of the crystalline vee, Jay pushed the grape into his mouth and lapped at the sweetness left behind.His jaw worked, his cheekbones prominent as he finished the treat and swallowed it down.With a scant glance at Henry, he pressed his mouth to Alice and pulled.

Magnificent composition.Jay’s dark head bent to her shoulder, black strands dangling forward.Alice rose above, her head tipping back, neck corded, teeth gritted, waves of wheat-gold shaking across Jay’s upper back.A low hiss might have been her inhalation or the wood sweating on the fire; they were one and the same, locked in a cycle of desire and combustion.

His girl wanted a more active role.More control.So long as he refused to allow it, her arousal would simmer and boil.The closer he pushed her to the boiling point, the longer he held her there, the more frenzied her passionate spillover would be.

Pucker lines decorated Jay’s mouth and Alice’s flesh, a testament to his devotion.The first flush of bruising might appear in minutes.

“It occurs to me—” Henry waited for Jay to lift his head.Jay’s deeply trusting eyes, his enormous pupils, suggested his enjoyment of service and exhibitionism had flooded his bloodstream with the feel-good chemicals that altered mental states.“That our dear Alice is falling behind.”Hetsked in mock sorrow, and Jay subtly mimicked his headshake.“Aha!”Henry raised a finger; Jay tracked him with his eyes.Henry plucked an imaginary grape from an imaginary bowl and dragged it up his chest to his mouth.He kissed the tips of his finger and thumb.“If you feed her a grape, she’ll begin to catch up, won’t she?”

Jay rubbed a line of sugar from Alice’s sternum to the collar at her throat.He presented the grape to her lips with the same twisting flourish Henry had used.Mouth at her ear, he issued a ragged whisper.“Henry says you should eat.”

Alice smiled; a hint of a scoff passed through her lips.“Henry likes playing with fire.”

Ohhh, good girl.He held himself back, though the balls of his feet pushed into the floor, ready to propel him to standing.Ready to propel them all from achingly slow foreplay to wild, driving pleasure.She would plan extensive scenes of her own soon enough, and then what shows he’d witness—surprises, gifts for his pleasure as she and Jay explored their bond.

Taking the grape between her teeth, Alice bit down.Juice flowed over Jay’s fingers, which she sucked thoroughly clean, each in turn.Jay rocked against her, his ass clenching.

Alice deserved a reward for that ingenuity, though she might imagine it a punishment for rushing the timeline.

“Grapes are not the only source of sweetness from your partner, Jay.”Henry tapped two fingers against his mouth, miming losing himself in thought.“How far does your reach extend?Might you dip your fingers into another bowl and see what sweets you discover?”

Jay slipped one hand down Alice’s side as neatly as if sliding into a pocket.He stroked broad circles over her hip.Tangled his fingers in the short hairs guarding her center.Fingers leading, Jay cupped her in his palm.

Alice inhaled sharply, her tongue tip touching her lips.Jay must have found the treasure he sought.The tendons rose in the back of his hand; he drew back and curved forward again.Alice widened her stance.A soft moan wavered in her breath, her mouth open, her eyes lidded.The scent of her floated on the currents, musky desire woven with woodsmoke.The bowl in her hand trembled.

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