Page 30 of Binding Their Hearts

“I’ve been contemplating an elaborate proposal for weeks, possibly to take place at Christmas.” He would need a new final gift for—a problem for later, easily remedied. The most important proposal of his life, and his focus had scattered. “And now I’ve no token of my sincerity to present, and I’ve lost all eloquence, and I am merely a man with a hammering heart and a wild and desperate hope.”

Jay laid his hand against Henry’s chest, just above his heart, his fingertips at the hollow of his throat, skin to skin. If he felt the racing pulse as Henry did, he’d have been worried about cardiac arrest. Jay leaned closer, so close the warm puff of his breath touched Henry’s lips a second before Jay did. He planted a firm, calming kiss, absent all nervous energy, and Henry’s anxiety drained away in an instant.

Jay eased back. “Not wild or desperate.”

Alice, standing now, added her own sweet kiss. “And the answer was yes before you asked.” A wicked curve lifted her lips. “Or demanded. I’m not sure there was a question there. Jay?”

Jay might have laughed off the night’s strange aura, the mingling of music and mood and revelation. But he met Henry’s gaze with somber sincerity. “I’m sorry it ever felt like it had to be a question. I’m glad you didn’t wait another two and a half months to ask.”

Henry swallowed the relieved exuberance crowding his throat. “So am I, my loves. So am I.”

Chapter fifteen

Alice

Clawing at the pillow, Alice slammed her hips back to meet Henry. He surrounded her, engulfed her, for all that he was the one inside her, driving her toward a peak she could almost grasp. One arm encircled her waist, demanding she stay put so he could fuck her properly.

He wound her hair tighter in his fist, lifting her head, and she panted what might have been yes or oh God or fuck but was probably all three as a kaleidoscope of color splashed in front of her eyes. She raced ahead of the starburst, riding the surging edge until the waves shattered her into atoms drifting on a lazy galactic sea.

“Something like what you had in mind, my dear?” Henry loaded his voice with cat-who’d-licked-the-cream smugness, but the breathless strain underneath proved the intensity had gotten to him, too.

“Mmmph.” She blew out a breath. The hair matted to her forehead with sweat wouldn’t budge, and her shaky arms promised to give out if she lifted a hand. Henry had more than met her request for a no-toys, all-ownership fuck after his unexpected proposal tonight. She could’ve asked for sweet and slow—but then she wouldn’t have this satisfied, heavy exhaustion sinking into her limbs or the unquestioned certainty that she belonged right here, in bed with Henry and Jay. Not just her boyfriends now. Her fiancés. Holy shit. “Something exactly like I had in mind.”

She scrubbed her forehead against the pillow, making more of a mess, and suddenly Jay was sweeping her hair back, his hand almost cool after her sprint to the finish. She kissed the heel of his hand as he passed by her lips. “Thanks, stud.”

Henry hadn’t moved, his hips pinned to hers, his cock a puzzle piece nestled tight—and his knuckles a knobby pressure against her thigh. He must have gripped his cock to stave off his climax. She nearly squeezed around him in tease and temptation, but if she accidentally made Henry lose control, she’d be denying Jay their connection until systems were fully operational again.

She held perfectly still as Henry withdrew, then collapsed to the bed and let the aftershocks curl through her. The shudders worked her over, head to toe, a fresh zip of pleasure every time she thought she’d felt the last of them. “If this is the engagement, I’m not sure I can survive the marriage.”

As she rolled on her side, Henry squeezed her thigh. “Are you well, Alice?”

“Just basking.” She flexed her hands. Could a person get orgasm spasm? Like tennis elbow, but from more exciting pursuits. “Don’t let me hold you up. I know someone who’s been waiting incredibly patiently for his turn.”

Jay tossed his hair, interlaced his fingers, and rested his chin on the bridge they formed, his elbows hanging in midair. He batted sinfully dark lashes, an old-timey movie flirt in an athletic Adonis’s body. “Is it me?”

“It is you,” she enthused. Her vocal cords might’ve been the only part of her not too satiated to move. “Smart boys get rewards, you know.”

With a restive stallion’s snort, Henry released his grip on his cock. “If he wants his reward to last long enough to be one, I believe I’ll need a moment yet.”

“I almost had a moment myself.” Kneeling on the bed in a casual waiting pose, Jay took a comical peek downward. His cock gleamed, shiny in the pale wash of the bedside lamps. “Watching was intense.”

She resisted the urge to lick her lips and declare that his condition needed immediate attention. They hadn’t quite made tonight formal playtime, but this was Henry’s show. He wanted to give them their heart’s desires—maybe as an unnecessary apology for proposing like he had.

She would’ve loved his grand gesture at Christmas, whatever it was. Of course she would, because caution and planning and patience formed part of his foundation, and if she couldn’t love those things about him, she couldn’t love him. But the way he’d leapt in tonight, and the flash of panic in his eyes like he hadn’t known what he was going to say before the words tumbled out? That was pretty damn endearing too. Like those times when she and Jay pushed Henry’s control to the limits and glimpsed the massive, cresting wave of hunger in him.

Fluffing her pillow, she stuffed it under her ear for a better view. “Personally, I can’t wait to watch you two have a moment together.”

Henry bent close and kissed her forehead, nuzzling her with the faint texture of his day’s beard scruff before he pulled away. “For that, we’ll need a decision. Jay, my beloved husband-to-be?” He cupped Jay’s chin in one outstretched hand and ran his thumb across Jay’s lips. “What is your most fervent desire on this momentous occasion?”

Jay sharpened his pose, tucking his toes beneath his ass and straightening his back. His chest filled out with his breath. He rubbed one hand against the outside of his thigh.

“I want what you gave Alice. Aggressive. Possessive. All the -essives.” Jay’s lopsided smile held a pleading shape beneath hopeful eyes. “I belong to you. Let me belong to you.”

For a handful of heartbeats, nothing happened.

Then Henry’s breathing grew louder. His heavy exhales rumbled.

Jay’s hair had to be standing on end; Alice had goose bumps, and she wasn’t even the target of Henry’s unyielding stare.

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