Page 8 of Season of Gifts

Jay’s mouth dropped open, and Henry took it.His kiss was rough, possessive, demanding submission and humming with pleasure as it was granted.He nudged Jay’s cheek.“Our wife desires a kiss as well.Go and find what’s below the mistletoe.”

Jay sank to the floor on unsteady legs and claimed his pillow.With his back to the fireplace, he knelt beneath Alice, gripped the blanket covering the bricks, and exhaled slowly, his cock swaying over his open shorts.

As Jay raised his face under Alice’s skirt, Henry finally let his zipper fall and gripped his own aching flesh.Their wife’s moans mingled with Mozart.He pitched his suit coat to the sofa.Uncuffed his sleeves and rolled them.The mistletoe swayed as he approached.He rubbed the smooth globes of Alice’s ass; slipped his hand around the front of her corset; found the ovoid weight at the center of her chain and lifted it.Two inches, no more.

Her breath came in but not out.Her body quivered.

He kissed the join between her shoulder and neck, brushing waves of wheat-blond hair aside with his face.“Shall I let go, sweet girl?”

Her exhale held a sibilantyesss.

He released the chain and thrust between her thighs, his cock meeting Jay’s tongue as Alice arched.Slick with excitement, she eased his entrance.He drove deep, burying himself with the passion of hours of restraint.

Snapping his hips in short, sharp thrusts, Henry made Jay work to stay ahead of the rhythm.Smart boy, he took his hands from the hearth and gripped Alice’s thighs, his steady pressure a stabilizing counterpoint.They’d pinned her between them, and her moans spiraled upward, surging atop the violin ofThaïsnow—“Méditation.”How apropos.

The weighted chain swung with Alice’s quickening breaths.He covered her breasts in his hands, fingers hunting for the release.The clamps fell into his palms, and he tossed them aside.

Crying out his name, Alice responded with a rippling vise around his cock.Her knuckles strained in high relief against the mantel.He thrust his arm forward, covering one hand with his own, and flattened his other hand across her chest, splaying his fingers in the space between her breasts and her throat.Her heaving breaths and surging heartbeat became his.He drove relentlessly forward, demanding every second of her bliss as her orgasm ignited his.

Breathless, he pressed his forehead to her shoulder.They shuddered together.He dropped his hand from Alice’s chest, searching and finding Jay’s hair.They would all need another shower before bed.He smoothed the strands back, buying time for his mouth to function properly.“Do you have something for me, Jay?”

A hiss of air greeted him.“If I don’t breathe wrong, I think so.Not for long.”

With an apologetic kiss for Alice, he slipped free and sank to the floor.

Jay’s forehead rested against her skirt, his hands affixed to her thighs, his abdomen fluttering as his cock jerked on its own.“One touch is gonna—”

Henry closed his mouth over the tip and kept going.He relaxed his throat, the slick heat emanating from Jay an aid in his effort.The tenor of Jay’s whine shifted, and Henry tasted the tang of release before he’d even reached the root.

He demanded every drop from Jay as he had from Alice, his fierce hunger sated only when he’d commanded and achieved their pleasure.Then could he rest, secure in the knowledge that his spouses were well cared for.He came up for air, leaving a last teasing tongue tap against Jay’s sensitive tip.“Well done.One touch indeed.”

Jay snorted.“Every time I think I know my limits, you help me go just a little further.”

“I do hope you enjoy the process.”A light tone for a serious inquiry.

“Every time.”Jay let his hands fall and grasped Henry’s in a tight hold.“What we have, the three of us, it’s the best thing in my life.”

“Agreed.”Alice sagged beside them, folding her legs and tipping to lie on her back.“I love learning what sets me off.And you two”—she found Jay’s hold and added her hand to the pile—“definitely win awards for that.”

“And tree trimming.”Jay twisted around until he could sprawl against Alice, pressing a light kiss to her cheek.The quiet glow of the Christmas lights illuminated their faces and twinkled in their eyes as they gazed upward.“We crush that, too.It’s all the teamwork.”

“It is that,” Henry murmured, settling beside his loves.No trade-offs this year.No goodbyes as he sent Jay north; no unanswered invitations as Alice pretended to be satisfied with less.This year, the three of them would be together for the holidays.“Our hearts gaze at one another and supply what each needs to be whole.It is the very definition of love.”

Chapter four

Jay

Jaydidn’toftenwalkaround with a bottle of rum tucked into his coat.Pretty much never, actually.But leaving alcohol outside with his bike while he finished Mrs.Eickhoff’s grocery shopping would be asking for trouble.Good thing she was his favorite customer; he didn’t stop at the liquor store at ten in the morning for just anybody.

Mrs.Eickhoff wasn’t a drinker.In the year and a half he’d been making weekly deliveries for her, she’d only ever requested alcohol for fancy dessert things.She and Henry would get along like a house on fire if mixing work and home life wasn’t weird.Today she’d asked for just over a cup of rum, which some quick math on his phone had decided should be the pint warming in the inner pocket against his chest.

He scooped up the golden raisins, the good butter, and the whole milk—dang, her rum raisin cake was gonna berich.If she wasn’t baking today, maybe there’d be a slice waiting for him at next week’s drop-off.The rest of the list went quick, just her regular asks and a last-minute addition.The deli counter gal knew the order before he even opened his mouth.

He loaded up the panniers real careful.No broken eggs, no squashed bread on his deliveries.No stop at the pharmacy, either; she must not have any refills until next week.But he’d ask, just in case she’d forgotten to mention something on her list.Her grown kids were counting on him to look out for their mom since her surgery.The delivery contract had started with a three-month term, but they kept on renewing, even though Mrs.Eickhoff got around pretty good on her new hip now.

Unlocking his bike, he savored the crisp air.The day was cloudy and windy; didn’t smell like snow yet, but it would get there soon enough.

He cruised up to Mrs.Eickhoff’s apartment building at eleven on the dot.Plenty early.Putting away the groceries would take fifteen minutes, tops, and then he’d have at least forty-five to catch up on the stories about the grandkids and sit in on a hand of cards with the girls—all the ladies in their eighties who lived in the building.Then lunch with Alice, the best part of the workday.

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