Page 46 of Binding Their Hearts

“No.” His whisper wouldn’t have even blown the seeds off course.

“Why is that?”

He bowed his head. The sweet scent of maple syrup from his unfinished breakfast almost suffocated him. Or maybe admitting the truth churned his stomach, flipping it over and over. “Because I do.”

He heaved out a breath, just a breath, and raised his head. Alice’s face blurred, but her sad eyes sat above a sad mouth. He could tell that much, all the downward curves he hated to put there. “Maybe you don’t need me to prove myself. But I need it. For me.”

She kissed him almost before he knew she’d left her seat. Standing over him, tipping his head back, gripping behind his ears with her spread hands, she kissed him with the tartness of raspberries on her tongue. Her knees crowded against his. Their noses slid alongside each other in soft strokes, no bumping, and finally she sank to his lap and sat across his thighs before she released his mouth. She straightened his hair and then his shirt, fussing adorably like Henry, and rubbed her thumb over his collarbone. “Then you should handle the ceremony. All of it. However you think best, sweetheart. I get to marry the two of you, and that’s all I need.”

Wordless, he wrapped his arms around her and pressed grateful kisses against her neck.

“Then the matter is settled. Jay will plan the ceremony, roughly to coincide with our relocation to a new home, which I will endeavor to identify with all haste.” Henry coughed lightly. He did have going-out clothes on today, not staying-in-to-paint clothes. Maybe he’d be meeting the real estate gal. “For now, alas, breakfast is getting cold, and the two of you have places to be.”

Alice twisted and flexed. “Oh shit, I didn’t realize it was that late.” Pushing down on his shoulders, she propelled herself to her feet and took her seat back. “Sorry, gotta hurry.” She shoveled in food nearly as fast as he did most days. “Good talk.”

No extra-early deliveries today for him—and he’d gotten out of bed early to start his shower. He was sure wide awake now, and surprisingly happy for having accidentally set off a grenade at breakfast. His cock didn’t mind the teasing he’d just got, either, though it had taken plenty of notice.

“Great. So unless one of you has a special date in mind, we’ll hold the ceremony at the club so our friends can be there, and I’ll check with Emma about available days.” Friends, in this case, meaning all the ones who would accept three people claiming each other, not people from work or whatever. “Henry, I can run everything past you before we commit.”

A thing didn’t exist that Henry couldn’t manage down to the last millimeter. Letting go of the details for something so meaningful would be tough for him.

“Only as you feel necessary, my boy.” The slim smile could’ve been acknowledgment of Henry’s sacrifice. “Your judgment is sound.” Gazing into the distance, he chuckled and tapped his fingers on the table. “Emma served as Victor’s logistical person in most endeavors—I sometimes forget how much authority he delegated to her in that role.”

“Mmph.” He would’ve said more, but his mouth was full of French toast. Emma had to be the most dominant submissive he’d ever met. She ran all sorts of things, and nobody questioned her ability to do it. Unless she did. Maybe he could ask her.

Henry speared a tri-level bite stack. “I would like to relay the news of our engagement to her personally, perhaps Saturday after class. I’ll arrange to discuss the matter with Will then as well, so as not to hold up your planning.” He smiled, eyes and teeth and all, lit up from the inside. “Thank you for offering, Jay. I will be delighted to see what you come up with.”

He would, too. It was only the most important day of their lives. The day they’d celebrate for the next sixty-some years. No pressure.

Chapter twenty-two

Henry

The box with its carefully packed cargo rested innocently against the plush chair beside the window in Will’s suite, but in the shadow of the empty suspension rig, it might as well have been an open wound.

“Take it out, display it, keep it as long as you like.” Henry offered the balm, weak though it was. The painting could conjure the memory but never the absent partner. “When you’re ready to let go, call Elliott. He’ll repack and ship the piece to her for you.”

“No need.” Will gripped the top edge and released it in the span of a single deep breath. “The piece is for her, and who am I to deny her the confidence she seeks in a new city, a new community?” A wry shrug rippled through his shoulders. “He can send it straightaway. I’ll leave it at the desk for him with her new address.”

“If you like.” Multiple missions had carried Henry to this meeting, but announcing his engagement in the midst of Will’s gloom hardly seemed appropriate. He cast about for another topic—the crowd at this morning’s introductory class for submissives, perhaps, though touting a prospective replacement for Claire minutes after delivering her portrait could be construed as terribly gauche. And Alice had her own thoughts on a true partner for Will. Though that also would be far too delicate to introduce at this juncture.

“Did I tell you”—Will spun in place and steepled his fingers beneath a devilish grin—“I’ll be running the rope room for the Halloween party? We’ll have two portable suspension setups and three additional riggers for floorwork. You’re attending, aren’t you?”

Ahh, distraction via passion, a tried-and-true method for sublimating emotional pain. Of course Will had a new project.

“It’s inescapable, I’m afraid.” His faux sorrow drew a laugh. “I promised Jay ages ago that he could be a dancing skeleton, so it seems we will be making an appearance.” Jay’s outfit would be the most complex to pull off; the fluorescing body paint would need to be applied after they arrived at the club and showered off before they left, lest it stain clothing or the car upholstery. “Alice has kindly left her costuming choices to me. I’m hopeful the evening will entertain her.” The trip to his mother’s had worked, briefly. Another weekend distraction would as well—though every hour spent relaxing her took another away from solving the larger concerns about housing. “She’s been under a great deal of stress at work.”

“Which you’re less than pleased about.”

Will solved no mystery there; in a scene, stress was a smartly wielded tool to bring about delight. From outside forces, it was an intruder wreaking havoc on a smoothly running household. Alice’s long hours gave him less time to restore her each day, and her inattention raised Jay’s fears of having done something wrong to deserve the neglect. “Relaxing her for any length of time is proving difficult.”

Will grunted. “It’s hard to control a mind that won’t settle in the body.” He laid a hand on the portable rig and tapped the support pole. The wall beyond held a sea of ropes draped over a multitude of hooks and bars, organized in whatever fashion Will followed—material, lengths, color. He raised an I’ve had a thought finger and gestured toward the wall. “Bring her by the rope room. If her costume allows, many people find binding surprisingly soothing. You’ve been practicing?”

“Chest harnesses, yes, and thank you for the thought; I may do that.” The crucible of multilayered challenges facing them tested his ability to provide a comforting environment for his submissives. Jay had taken to therapy with unexpected enthusiasm, but Alice yet hoarded her struggles with the independent streak of one forced to grow up too quickly. “I worry about her confronting excessive changes simultaneously. She’s cautious, thoughtful. A planner.”

Will conveyed more in a silent glance and raised brows than a thousand words could have done.

“Touché. I do recognize the similarities.” The commonalities he shared with Alice explored dimensions Jay would never travel; his talents lay elsewhere. “But change makes her skittish, and”—ah, lovely, the segue he’d been hunting for had presented itself at last—“I would hate for her to get cold feet, as they say, before the wedding.”

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