Page 63 of Binding Their Hearts

“Inflation,” he somberly intoned, and she laughed.

“Tomorrow we’ll be in the new house.” Stating the obvious, but enumerating established premises could be useful. Grounding. “Sunday I’ll be a married woman twice over.”

Speaking of, Jay had disappeared down the hall even before Henry had placed the food order, and he’d already had his post-work shower, so he probably wasn’t spending twenty minutes in the bathroom. “Did Jay say—”

Henry laid a finger across her lips, then palmed her cheek and stepped aside as he guided her gaze.

At the door to the spare bedroom, Jay stood completely naked, hands behind his back, head bowed.

Stroking her back, Henry murmured in her ear, “I believe you have a room check to complete.”

His low, steady baritone should have been soothing. But her heartbeat shuddered, an unexpectedly loud thump in her chest. There couldn’t be anything to check. The room had been cleared of everything but the furniture. She and Jay had made short work of packing their things. All of their things. “I don’t have my book,” she whispered, words slurring with panic. “My notebook. For tracking Jay’s room checks. I packed it. Shit, why did I pack that?”

Henry decorated her face with kisses, each paired with a hushed note of calm. “Shhh. You might make an exception this once. All will be well.”

She shouldn’t have forgotten. Yes, the room had been stuffed with piles and boxes earlier in the week, and yes, they’d been busy packing—and yes, she still should’ve made time to give Jay a room check. This was their ritual. If she didn’t uphold her promises, he wouldn’t know how she valued him. And this would be—she sucked in a breath and blinked hard. “But it’s the last time. It should be perfect for him.”

Green eyes wooed her with sympathetic depths. “Far from the last. We’ll find an appropriate replacement in the new house.”

Jay stood motionless, as patient as she’d ever seen him. Not a flicker of doubt that she would complete the ritual, give him her full attention and love.

“I’ve been scattered for weeks. I want him to know how much I love him. How much I appreciate him.” How much she didn’t deserve the devotion he gave her, and how much she wanted to. Today and always, because who couldn’t be a better person when they were loved so well?

“Then tell him so.” Hands atop her shoulders, Henry somehow willed warmth into her, chasing away the questions and imperfections. “You and Jay have built a beautiful bond around this ritual. We won’t allow that to diminish, dearest.” He caressed her arms, a welcome pressure through her thin work top, and clasped her hands. “Go. He’s waiting.”

She squeezed his hands as if she could steal his strength and calm—borrow Dom Mode long enough to give Jay the amazing experience he deserved—and strode toward her pet.

“Your excellence is inspirational, Jay. I was just admiring your form. Nothing hidden from your mistress.” She stalked a slow circle around him, giving herself time for the mantle of authority to settle. Dragging a nail lightly across his back, she copied Henry’s usual hum of approval.

“All open and on display. All mine to judge.” She slipped in close and nuzzled his cheek with hers. The crisp evergreen scent rose off his skin, clean and inviting. She nudged a knee between his legs and gloried in the twitching as his cock rose. As she flicked her tongue against his earlobe, his breathing deepened. “And to appreciate.”

Work Alice dropped away, leaving Jay’s mistress in control. If she gave him his reward here in the hallway, Henry could enjoy the show. But for the sake of the game, she really ought to at least look inside the room and declare Jay’s work well done first. “You have something to show me, Jay?”

Jay trembled. He flexed his feet, stepping like a horse eager to run. “Yes, Mistress.”

She palmed his stomach, riding the rise and fall of muscles firing with his rapid breaths. She could spend the rest of her life mapping his reactions—surely that was the power and pleasure Henry felt about the both of them. “Let’s check your work, stud. I’m in the mood to reward good behavior.”

Reaching behind himself, he turned the knob and pushed open the door, stepping back to stay with it. The mirror above the vanity reflected their bodies in the doorway, but also—a flash of color? But they’d cleared out the room, nothing should be—

Barely a full step inside, she locked up, her body refusing to move except for a crackle in her throat. “Oh!”

He’d carpeted the bare mattress in origami flowers. Hundreds of paper creations, in all the hues and shades of the rainbow—spring green and periwinkle blue and blazing orange and the richest royal purple, dozens of colors clamoring for her attention.

“Jay, this is—” She lifted a snow-white daisy with a golden center in her palm, somehow standing beside the bed though she couldn’t imagine having moved forward. Intricate folds gave the daisy’s center an almost honeycomb texture. He had pieces she’d never seen before, different from the ones he set beside her plate each night at dinner. Those, except for tonight’s two-toned butterfly, sat safely packed in a box she’d labeled Fragile on all six sides. “This is incredible. You made these? All of these?”

“For a while now.” He tucked a hand behind his neck and rubbed at his hair. “Mostly between when I got home from work and when you did. Henry let me keep a box for them in his studio so you wouldn’t stumble over them early.”

The secret she’d almost ruined. Not about his therapy, not some scary thing he could share with Henry but didn’t want to tell her. Just Jay being his sweet fucking self, spending hours on a surprise for her. Because that was the kind of man he was.

“I don’t even know—” She set the daisy down and touched the tips of a half-dozen others—roses and daffodils and lotus flowers and ones she couldn’t name—with a sacred reverence that welled up like a spring in her chest. Every single flower represented minutes when he’d been putting her first. Putting their relationship first. Jay understood what was important in life far better than she did. “So much time…”

“They don’t take long, I mean, once I learned the folds.” He spoke in a rushing river, a hint of uncertainty in questioning brown eyes. “I added a few every day. They were going to be for your birthday, but since we’re moving, and things have been busy, I thought…” He shrugged, both hands behind his neck now, elbows out, his chest bare and beautiful, his cock half hard between the arrowing vee of his hips and his muscled thighs. “I thought you deserved something special. Something beautiful.”

She let the paper tips tickle her fingers before she turned away and planted herself directly in front of him, clasping his face in her hands. “I have the most special, the most beautiful, thing in all the universe, and it’s the man standing right here. The man who sees my grouchy and raises me a sunshine.”

As she pressed forward, he let her lead. The door scratched against the wall behind him. It could leave a dent for all she cared; the wall might not even be there in two days. Sacred energy flooded her in swells. She had important work to do. Holding Jay still, her fingers splayed at either side of his neck as she tried to match Henry’s strength, she claimed his mouth.

Chapter thirty

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