Page 41 of Season of Gifts

Fastest fucking pushup he’d ever do in his whole life.

Down, up, and down, down, down.He dropped to his elbows and tented his arms around her face.Lowered his head, his breath blowing her hair out of his eyes.His lungs burned.His hips snapped.Their abs slapped together, a crackling soundtrack of thunder.Her fingers dug into his shoulder; her other hand still held the leash coiled between them, her knuckles bony points against his ribs.She clamped her legs to his thighs so he hardly pulled back at all between thrusts, just pistoned in her heat, the two of them building an inferno.

She climbed his neck, her hand landing at the base of his skull, fingers clawing through his hair.“Fucking love you.”Her breath whistled past his ear.“All that passion.All that purpose.You—” Groaning, she panted.“You’re—”

Her back arched.She jammed up against him, lifting off the mattress, her shoulders flexing deep as he held on and pressed his lips to her neck, pouring his spiraling need into her skin.He drove his hips harder, relentless, his balls tight and his dick begging him as she tightened around him, her body a coil, a vise she meant to crush him in.

“With me,” she gasped.“Be with me.”

The inferno swept over him, turning his vision white.

He stumbled back to the here and now who knew how much later.Fuck, he’d smother her if he didn’t move.Easing up, he earned a grumbly growl and a dig at the back of his neck.He dragged his head alongside hers, rubbing their sweaty foreheads together.“Am I too heavy?”

“Not yet.Just right.”Sighing, she unwound her hand from his leash and spread her fingers across his chest.Her thumb moved in a slow arc, tracing the metal ring at the center of his harness.“Am I…” She took a shivery breath.“Am I too soft?”

Too soft?What would that even mean?If this was a fat versus muscle thing, he did not want to step wrong.He kissed her hairline.“Your soft bits are some of my favorite parts.”

She giggled.

Thank fuck, he hadn’t crammed his foot in his mouth.

“No, I mean…” The hand at his neck swept down his back and up again.“As a dominant.Am I too soft?Too easy?Not stern enough?”

Why would—

How could—

“You’re a fucking badass, Alice.”She’d made him earn his orgasm with pushups for chrissake.She’d had him on a leash for the last hour.And he’d loved every damn minute.In fact, his strength training routine was about to get more upper body work, maybe on a stability ball, for the next time she wanted him to flex.“You’re amazing.I don’t even know—is it ’cause I don’t tell you enough?”

“No…” She shook her head gently, but she clung to him with more ferocity.“I don’t know.I get these thoughts, and I don’t know what to do with them.”

Therapy.That’s the thing he did with them now.Alice of eight months ago would’ve run away rather than confess her feelings.Would’ve forced herself to stay away for a whole week, because she was so damn stubborn.He swallowed hard against his racing heart.

“This, what you did tonight?”He rolled them on their sides so he could wind his arms around her.“It was incredible, Alice.You only had today to improvise it, and you nailed it.You made tonight so special, and sous.If Henry was here, it would’ve been different, still incredible, but three-of-usus.This was you-and-meus.”He nuzzled in for a kiss.She hadn’t released the scene, so he waited for her to take his invitation before he moved his lips against hers in a rolling wave.“You’re not too soft, Alice.And I’m—thank you for trusting me enough to ask.Have you…” He slipped his hand under the back of her bra, in the flat space between her shoulder blades, where if he held her tight enough, he could feel the strength of her spine in his hand.“Have you talked to Henry about the thoughts?”

“Not yet.”She stroked the edge of his harness, the leather strap angling up toward his shoulder.“I was going to, and then…”

His mom’s heart attack.

“Yeah.”

They drew their heads back at the same time.He waited, not wanting to be the first to say it.Especially not after her fretting about not being in charge or being in charge but not enough in charge.

She gave him a sideways smile.“Let’s finish getting cleaned up and check our phones.I want to hear from him before bed, too, you know.”

He breathed easier.She knew; she felt it.Voicing how he missed their husband wouldn’t make her feel less than.“I wish he’d let us go up for a visit.”

“I know.”Her mouth twitched into a frown that disappeared quick.“I think he just has a lot on his mind, a lot to juggle.But I know he misses us.He’ll tell us when it’s the right time.Medical stuff, it changes day to day.It’s not just how he feels—it’s how she feels, too.She might not want more people in the house right now.”

“Maybe.”But it had been six days, and Henry hadn’t even sent a picture of his mom sitting up in bed or eating terrible hospital food or coming home.Seeing for himself that she was okay would be better than waiting at home and wondering.“I just feel…”

“Left out.”

Yeah, she understood.

Henry hadn’t made him feel that way in a long, long time.Not since those first few weeks, that night Henry had tried to teach him introductions and negotiations and manners.When he’d thought for sure Henry was looking to pawn him off on someone else because he’d decided Jay wasn’t worthy.

He pressed his lips to Alice’s forehead.“Let’s go check those phones.”

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