Page 21 of Binding Their Hearts

Alice, pinned between his body and the counter, sucked air through her teeth. “And you’re ours. No one else’s. No client owns you or your time.” Hazel eyes turned hard, the usual melting swirl of green and brown flecks a sharp-edged mosaic. “We know your love like no one else does. We know it’s ours.”

Jay, nuzzling his neck, head-butting with catlike affection—or subby ownership—slipped a hand under Henry’s jacket and tugged at a belt loop. “You wanna say what happened? Danny says it’s good to talk. I told him you’ve been teaching me that lesson for years.”

The flames coalesced into a path, illuminating the way forward. He dropped a light kiss on Jay’s cheek, and one on Alice’s, and loosed a long-held sigh. “I have exceptionally insightful pets. Today’s prospective client was a nightmare, and I was obliged to walk out.”

Alice and Jay exchanged a wide-eyed glance before Alice spoke. “A story for over dinner?”

“Perhaps.” But he held other priorities now. “If the two of you aren’t yet starving”—headshakes, excellent, particularly given they didn’t seem to have started preparing the chicken piccata at all, merely the side dish—“I propose a different order of events this evening.”

The oven timer wailed. He freed his pets to answer the demand. “Set the pan on the wire rack to cool and leave it be. Don’t add the arugula to the filling yet. I’ll return shortly.”

The bleating appliance fell silent as he headed for the bedroom. A simple tweak of the evening’s plan would enhance the scene. The suit would suffice; Alice’s enjoyment of it removed the taint of its association with his earlier meeting. Both the annoying woman and the neighbor had voiced facts that would be potentially harmful only insofar as Jay wanted to keep his true self hidden—the result of growing up in a home where the safest thing for him to be was whatever others wanted him to be. Poor safety at best when expectations shifted on the breeze. Jay would be central to tonight’s proceedings, and a bit of rope play with Alice would satisfy his own need for control, her desire for possession, and Jay’s continued progress toward reclaiming his desire for bondage as a symbol of belonging.

The ropes lay neatly coiled in the dresser, arranged by lengths. Maintaining them would eventually be a task he might pass to Jay. For tonight, a relatively short length of the oiled jute would do. He’d practiced his knots enough for a simple one-rope box tie, and the restraint would pair well with the evening’s appetizer. The kitchen would be a fine location. He strode down the hallway, his breathing calm and even, the possessive, fiery hunger once again his to command.

Alice and Jay waited by the breakfast bar with speculation writ large on their faces. Alice gave a fluttering shiver, her gaze suddenly fixed on the rope at his side.

“All in order?”

Alice nodded, her lips sliding between her teeth.

“Then bathroom breaks now if you need them.” He pulled out Jay’s usual chair, spun it to face away from the table, and sat. “I want you both naked in waiting pose on pillows before me, prepared to tell me your safewords, in five minutes.”

They scurried to obey, Alice unbuttoning her blouse as she moved and Jay hustling toward the floor pillows in the living room. They knew the proper order of things. Others would soon enough, once he’d settled on a proposal worthy of the pair who’d claimed him heart and soul.

Chapter eleven

Alice

Safeword ritual complete, Alice rested in waiting pose on the pillow at Henry’s feet. She nudged her knees wider. Maybe that would funnel his attention toward her nudity. He’d said nothing to her or Jay in minutes, just watched them with the heated stare he’d brought home tonight. Her clit tapped out the rhythm of her pulse, which quickened the longer he made them wait.

“Alice.” Deceptively soft, that liquid baritone. “On your feet.”

She tried to rise slowly, to match his calm instead of popping up like an overeager jack-in-the-box. He stretched out his hand and grazed her waist. Fingers splayed, he hummed as he glided down her flank and cupped the underside of her ass.

“Lovely.” He landed a teasing smack, not enough to count as a spanking. “Turn.”

She spun with care; her feet sank into the large purple pillow. Jay knelt on the matching one, his back straight, his cock hardening, and his gaze fixed on Henry.

The chair creaked, and air shifted against her back. She didn’t need to check to confirm Henry’s movement—Jay’s rising chin told her their lover had gotten up. The whispering shurr was new, though. A weight, not heavy, settled on her shoulder. A loose end of rope dangled just above her right nipple. Her shiver set it swaying; the rough tip dragged over her skin, and tight crinkles rose in its wake.

Henry clasped her biceps, and she started. Humming his amusement, he guided her arms behind her back. “A bit on edge, are we?”

“Maybe a little.” They both had lousy workdays to leave behind them. This was their time—time for all three of them to sink into deeper selves. For her to relax into the excitement coursing through her, because he’d been playing with that rope on himself for weeks and never touched her with a single knot. “Sir.”

His grip tightened. “Minx. We’ll see what we might do about that.” He laid her wrists against each other and placed her fingers around her forearms, now a horizontal line behind her back. “Comfortable or a strain?”

Jay shifted his gaze to her face. She set the example, walked first through the doors he ached to open. Any misstep on her part would affect him, too.

She pressed her shoulders forward and back. The grip stretched her muscles, but not painfully. She wriggled her fingers against her elbows. “Comfortable.”

“Excellent.” As Henry pulled on the rope, the coils shook loose and slithered down her body, the ends thumping gently against the pillow. “Stay still for me, Alice. Jay, I have a task for you.”

Their stud puppy vibrated with eager attention, his toes flexing against the pillow under his ass.

“I’ll need a clean hand towel and a small bowl.” Not their usual playthings. Henry must’ve released Jay with a nod and a glance, because Jay powered to his feet in a rapid thrust and set off on his task.

Henry squared up her elbows and looped rope around her forearms, the fibers moving in long trails against her back. Her skin prickled with awareness. As Henry pressed his knuckles between her shoulder blades, the weight of her arms rested in some rope cradle he’d formed. He skimmed her upper arm with his other hand. “Cold?”

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