Page 4 of Binding Their Hearts

Henry unwound his rope and started again, folding the length in half and pulling the loop end. He’d made the same knot around his ankle at least a dozen times tonight. “I understood her to be an English major. Not that I doubt the value of your wisdom, my lovely engineer.”

Jay tipped forward onto his stomach, giving her access to the other half of his ass. He’d heard most of the Leah talk on Friday, when they’d run into her and her master at the art unveiling. Alice switched cheeks and stepped up her kneading. “Or history—she hasn’t made a final decision. She’ll probably end up both just to avoid making one.”

Henry hummed, and the rope whispered against itself. “You’ll be coaching her on indecision?”

That would be one hell of an assignment. Leah seemed happiest—most relaxed—when Drew made the decisions for her. Like Jay did with her and Henry. But maybe that would change after this week.

Nope, not thinking about that any more tonight. She crammed the worries into a mental footlocker and slapped a padlock on the clasp. “Sort of. Drew wants her prepared for interviews, and given how she struggled with setting boundaries in the sub class this summer, he thought more one-on-one talks could help her. So I get a willing”—she narrowly avoided the victim on her tongue—“practice partner, and she gets a mentor.”

“Anf I pheth—”

“Jay, I must regretfully inform you that your pillow talk is indecipherable.” Henry winked at her, and she bit down on a laugh.

Jay flexed his arms into a half pushup and lifted his face off the cushion. “I said, and I eventually, on a day way too far away yet, get to reap the rewards of Alice’s practice. Win-win.”

“You wouldn’t have to sit in on the coaching part.” She kept talking; Henry would be listening with the part of his brain not hungrily eyeing Jay’s lean torso, those strong shoulder blades curving together at the top of his sleek back. A girl could get distracted, too. “Drew’s hoping to talk with you about a commission, I think.”

“Mmm. With Claire leaving, we do need a replacement partner for you. Just a while longer.” His slight nod at her conveyed the things he wouldn’t say aloud—that training was less about ensuring she had perfect form when throwing a flogger and more about desensitizing Jay in a safe environment. If they could break up the association between the activity and his abuse, he could actually enjoy flogging again. “Jay, Leah is acceptable to you? It is your right to raise concerns if you have them.”

“I’m good.” He arched his back in a crescent and shook out his dark hair, his shoulders lifting as he pressed his hips against the couch. “We talked about it Friday night—you were with Master William, and it looked serious, so we didn’t want to interrupt. As long as Alice’s flogger isn’t kissing other subby boys, I’m cool. I can wait for her to be ready for the awesomeness that is me.”

She rolled her eyes, a move he sadly couldn’t appreciate in his current position—but she wasn’t about to ask him to move. “You are awesome, stud.”

“Exquisite,” Henry added. “Alice, you may tell them we’ll meet them for a test run.”

She tapped at her phone. The autocomplete had started recognizing when to feed her flogging as an option. Excellent, until it started suggesting it for work exchanges. The affirmative confirmation came back from Leah in seconds. “Phase one complete.”

Henry pulled at the knot around his ankle and gave a satisfied hum. Pulling didn’t make the binding smaller; he’d looped it somehow so the tie stayed steady regardless of the force on it. “Is there anything else I ought to know about your activities Friday?”

Well, wasn’t that an opening.

Okay. Sure. Why not?

Alice tossed her phone to the seat. “I think we should set up Will and Emma.”

Jay’s elbows collapsed, and he wriggled and rolled until he lay on his back with her feet tucked under his ass. “For real?”

Henry frowned. “You intend to play a prank on them in some way?”

“No, not a prank, and yes, for real. Hear me out.” She marshaled her thoughts. Henry had nearly twenty years of history with Emma and almost thirty with Will. He would see them differently than she did, knowing them not even half a year yet. Her hypothesis would have to be supported by massive evidence.

“Claire’s going to be gone in a week. I know, yes, Santa Will can find other nonsexual play partners with a snap of his fingers. But he wants one he can love, doesn’t he? And Emma”—she took a quick breath, lest Henry start refuting her before she’d finished—“she hadn’t participated in a scene for—since her husband—last month was like her first time in four years, right? But she was comfortable in front of you and Will. She wasn’t trusting my ability with a flogger—her faith is in you two, because she and Victor helped you learn. Emma needs a dominant she can trust, and Santa needs a submissive who needs his love.”

She closed her mouth and waited. She could trot out examples of how closely Will and Emma had been working together this summer, but better to see which angle Henry challenged first.

“I’m…” Henry smoothed the long ends of the rope and glanced past the couch, toward the dark windows overlooking the street. The narrow line of his lips could charitably be called thoughtful instead of resolutely opposed. “I’m not certain it’s that simple, sweet girl.”

Nothing ever was. She scooted herself taller against the back of the couch, using Jay as leverage. “So list the obstacles, and we’ll design a workaround.”

“Uh-oh.” Jay, grinning, ostentatiously wrapped his hands behind his head, elbows out. A bowl of popcorn, and he’d be set. “Alice thinks our friends’ love lives are an engineering problem. She’s gonna fix the hell out of them.”

“Mmm. We shall see.” Henry untied the rope and abandoned it—neatly—on the coffee table. As he came around the end of the couch, Jay stomach-crunched up with his gorgeous abdominals and gave up a seat. Henry claimed it in a smooth motion, as if he’d never doubted it would magically become available for him. “Astound me with your observations.”

His eyebrow twitched. Sonuva—definitely not opposed. Amused, like a man who’d already checked the answer key and wanted to see how his co-dominant-in-training would handle rearranging people’s lives for the better. Mind games tonight it was.

“The basic structure’s sound. They care about each other, and that’s the most important thing to both of them.” She’d think better on her feet. She pushed herself up and paced to the edge of the rug and back the other way. Best to start with the obvious. “You care too, but you and Emma would never work together.”

Jay choked on a cough and pounded his palm against his chest.

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