Page 81 of Binding Their Hearts

“I do, yes, with my everything.” Heart, head, cock—hell, his elbows and earlobes and pinkie toes too, they all accepted.

Alice, silently weeping happy tears with him, tugged at the harness. “Then rise.”

He stood, turning with Alice and Henry to face their guests. Nat and Ollie had scored the closest seats on one side, and Henry’s mom and Emma the other side. A sea of friends filled in the rest, and smiles bobbed on every face.

Master Will cleared his throat. “By the power vested not in me as a club director, but in these three people and their freely given commitments, I present to you the Webbs: Master Henry, Mistress Alice, and service submissive Jay. Welcome them into your company, that we may witness their joy and support their union evermore.”

Their friends roared to their feet, shouting and cheering and blowing kazoos that he definitely hadn’t put in the plans but someone must have handed out, because one kazoo could be an accident, but two dozen was for sure on purpose.

With minimal shuffling, Henry offered an arm to each of them. “I believe we’ll stop the noise more quickly if we recess. Shall we?”

They shalled.

Chapter thirty-nine

Henry

Possession coiled in Henry’s chest, sated and almost slumbering, flicking a lazy gaze that flared into interest each time Alice and Jay touched their new symbols of belonging.

The receiving line forced him to watch them openly, denying him the opportunity for furtive glances. Friends jested about his besotted nature, hinted at honeymoon fever—and his satisfied hunger cared not one whit. A contentment beyond happiness suffused him.

His spouses positively glowed.

For all the time Jay and Alice had spent with him at the club, in classes and at events, this ceremony was their formal introduction to the community. Guest after guest complimented Mistress Alice on the event, praise she deflected to Jay even as her eyes brightened and her chin lifted. Jay, his fingers returning again and again to stroke his harness, swelled his chest with their friends’ recognition and approval.

Much as Henry ached to take them home and claim them in more personal ways, the greater part of him yearned for an endless afternoon that demonstrated to his lovers beyond all doubt that they were accepted—embraced—by far more people than they realized. They had built a family, albeit an unconventional one.

As the receiving line dwindled, the room swirled into clusters of conversation. At last the trio of women he’d not imagined seeing today stood before him.

“Mother.” He opened his arms and engulfed her, carefully but with strength. That Jay had managed this—he pressed his eyes tightly shut for but a moment. “Thank you for the kind words. Your support has always meant more than I could properly express.” A soft chuckle spilled from him. “I promise not to mention to Robert that I’m your favorite.”

She gave a delicate sniff. “As if the two of you didn’t know. Robert was your father’s creature, and you were mine.” She squeezed hard, then patted his cheeks and kissed them for good measure. “And now you’ve brought me two more, and they each come with an accessory sibling!”

Behind her, Olivia and Natalie exchanged glances.

Olivia flicked her earlobe. “I’m the earrings.”

“Ballcap.” Natalie adjusted an imaginary headpiece.

Mother waved Alice into an embrace, and their receiving line folded into a circle of eight as Will and Emma joined them, bringing glasses of a sparkling and presumably nonalcoholic beverage. On the periphery, Henry spied their photographer capturing more candid shots—perhaps Jay’s blush as Mother commented on how handsome he looked in his harness and noted the fine stitching and finished edges. “Henry has a keen eye for quality. Of course he and Alice would choose a piece meant to last forever, just as their love for you will last forever.”

Natalie, blinking hard, stepped into Henry with a forearm grip and pounded his back with her other hand. “You are the best thing that ever happened to my brother,” she whispered in his ear. “Don’t let anyone tell you different.”

He masked his startlement in a reflexive grip between her shoulder blades. “You are a welcome part of this new family, Natalie. Nat. Your presence here and your acknowledgment are a vital piece of Jay’s healing.” She had helped bring Jay back to them, guarded Jay when he could not. He wouldn’t forget that. “I believe he would very much benefit from a closer relationship with you.”

“Don’t be a stranger, yeah.” Nodding, she drew back and glanced aside. “I’m gonna work on that. I’ve got a lot of stuff in my life I could’ve done better.”

Beside them, bubbly Olivia swooned as Alice held up her left hand. “Help, help, I’m dazzled by the shine off those rocks.”

Rolling her eyes, Alice yanked her sister into a hug. “Yeah, yeah, c’mere, you.” She rattled her sister from side to side while remaining exquisitely stable on the heels he’d acquired for her. The shapely arch of her feet and curve of her calves proved the suitability of his choice. “The ring is gorgeous, and I don’t know a thing about it. Henry?”

“Our rings are a fusion of something old with something new.” The custom belonged to the bride, but his tie served well enough as something blue, and the event space itself as something borrowed. Tradition ought to be satisfied with that. “A bit of family history went into them.”

Alice glanced at her hand and back at him, and in the lifting of her brows he heard the rapid calculations of the mind behind them.

“May I?” Mother raised Jay’s hand into a stronger pool of light and squinted as she studied the ring’s design. “Oh, it’s marvelous, Henry. What a wonderful incorporation.”

“You were correct—the set was just the thing for this purpose.” As the pleas for the story came in, he deferred to his mother’s telling, taking the opportunity to finally indulge the temptation Alice’s bare back presented.

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