Season of Gifts (Neighborly Affection #8)

69. Henry

Chapter sixty-nine

Henry

T he fog had lifted. No nightmares chased Henry out of his dreams. He floated into wakefulness on a comforting sea, the waves resolving into gently whistling snores beside him. Dawn’s pale light announced the arrival of Christmas Eve. He greeted the day with a clear mind and a calm heart, flat on his back, pleased beyond measure with his predicament.

The bulk of the covers bunched atop Alice, undoubtedly pushed there by Jay in the night. Alice lay curled against Henry’s left side, hugging his arm to her chest like a favorite toy. Jay sprawled on his stomach to Henry’s right, his arm thrown across Henry’s chest and his knee pinning Henry’s thigh. They had quite literally draped him in the weight of their love. How could he ever have imagined this luxury a burden?

They were better than he deserved in this life. But he would take their forgiveness with gratitude and carefully unravel the harm he’d—

“You’re thinking too much.” Alice squirmed closer, her breath warm on his neck, her hair rubbing his cheek. “I’ve learned from a very wise man that sometimes it’s better to just be in the moment and accept it for what it is.”

“Wise words indeed.” He kept his voice low and his body still lest he disrupt Jay’s slumber. Their font of wisdom slept in such peaceful innocence that disturbing him would be a crime. “Have you been awake long?”

“A few minutes, maybe. Listening to my husbands sleep is the best kind of dozing.”

“Even when one of your husbands has made an ass of himself and reopened painful wounds for all of us?” The insecurity leapt unbidden from his throat, the admission of vulnerability new and fragile in the reshaping of their relationship.

“Even when one of my husbands forgets that he should receive all the protections he affords his spouses.” She butted her head against him in a not-so-gentle nudge. “Like being allowed—required, even—to ask for help when he needs it. Even when he overclocks his brain processes into an emotional meltdown and needs to go offline to recover.” A soft chuckle chased Alice’s sigh. “Not like I’ve never done that.”

He laid his lips against the top of her head and hummed. “You and I shall be each other’s warning system, hmm?”

“Call each other out before he gets hurt again.”

The he in question stirred, his light snores silenced. Stretching his legs to full extension, Jay mingled his feet with Henry’s. “I’ll safeword both of your asses before we go down that road another time. Don’t think I won’t.”

How far Jay had come from the shattered, needy young man incapable of setting safe limits for himself. Henry drew him into a kiss, a slow and pulsing exploration. Like a steady rain after a long drought, Jay filled him with life and energy. “I sincerely hope you will, should I ever again behave so disgracefully.”

Alice stretched across his chest, linking her arm with Jay’s. “Me too, sweetheart. I promise to listen better when you’re telling us what you need. Odds are good it’s what all of us need.”

Jay’s sweet smile came with an approving grunt. He wriggled from shoulders to toes and propped his chin against Henry’s shoulder. “So what’s up first today? Gotta give the plans my seal of approval.”

“So you do.” Christmas Eve. The plans had been formed ages past, stretching back uncounted generations. Prior to Robert’s arrival with his family, however, time enough existed to begin the groundwork for their own traditions. “We have a final card to open this morning.”

Hushed squeals erupted on either side of him.

The even days belonged to Alice. He would have stroked her incomparably soft skin had she not so thoroughly pinned his arm. “Before that, I thought you might help me shower, Jay. I’ve heard you performed quite well washing Alice recently.”

“He was spectacular.” Alice rocked her hips in a sensual slide and kissed Henry’s collarbone. His spouses had insisted he sleep without the formal pajama top, throwing his own words back at him regarding the benefits of skin-to-skin contact. “How’s about you two clean up, and I’ll go help Mother get ready for the day. I can shower after breakfast.”

Henry inhaled the musky-sweet scent of her, tousled and sleep-warmed. More mornings lounging in bed would certainly be on the agenda for the new year. His separation had robbed them of the small intimacies that formed the mortar of a marriage. “That would be most appreciated, dearest.”

Jay heaved himself up onto his elbows and peered across Henry. “You’re sure? You don’t have to make yourself scarce, you know.”

“I know.” Alice draped herself across Henry without apology, her breasts pressing into his ribs, her bare back an exquisite slope before him. She kissed Jay with a commanding hunger, curling one hand around the back of his neck and wringing a whimper from him. When she released him, they both breathed like sprinters after a heat. “Stay with Henry, stud. And if he gets zombie-distant with you, safeword his ass.”

Jay collapsed into laughter. Alice began her retreat, bracing against Henry’s chest.

Devilish desire tickled him. He swept her arm from beneath her and slid his hands up her back, delving into her thick hair as she sprawled atop him.

“What—”

He kissed her. Thoroughly, leisurely, as he’d kissed Jay, and not stopping before she’d fully relaxed into his embrace. Tension had no place in their bed, unless it was the kind they’d carefully cultivated for release. “I love you.”

His declaration was quiet but heartfelt.

“I love you.” She whispered the words against his mouth and left him with a gentle peck. Two gazes tracked her every bend and twist as she donned pajamas and a robe. At the door, she rested her hand on the latch and studied them in turn. Her mouth formed a sweet bow; her hair fell in soft waves as she tipped her head. “Now that’s a picture I’ve missed seeing.”

She slipped out the door, leaving him nearly nude in the center of the bed with Jay nestled at his side. He exhaled deeply, emptying his mind of all expectation and the demands of the day that would reclaim space soon enough. Jay formed a pleasant heat against him. His hand lay flat over Henry’s heart, his arm a soothing weight. Silence blanketed the room. He could lie so for hours, appreciating the gift he’d been given in their love.

“I’m not expecting anything.” Jay spoke with steady conviction, much as he had the night before. Confidence and purpose bolstered his delightful earnestness now. “Just so you know.”

Henry’s heart fluttered, a pang for how small Jay accounted his portions, that he should accept nothing as his due and be content with that. But pride won out. For Jay to share unprompted was a victory far greater, though teaching that lesson by something other than Henry’s own stubborn foolishness would have been preferable. “You have the right to expect everything, my brave boy. Just so you know.”

Their shower began innocently enough. Jay moved his hands over Henry, slick with soap, soothing and grasping muscles whose aches had gone too long ignored. Contentment, that named this bliss. Arousal lay somewhere beyond, flickering barely into life, secondary to the joy of contact. Had he known his shoulders to be so sore? Not before Jay dug his thumbs in and released the knots holding them up.

Jay kneaded him with unceasing attention, finishing with featherlight finger swipes across his cheeks and forehead. The water sluiced him clean. Under Jay’s care, he’d been reborn.

Soaping his hands slowly, Henry hummed low approval, allowing a bassy rumble to fill his chest. “I’ve missed you. So much so I could scarcely allow myself to feel it.”

He rubbed circles into Jay’s chest, a tad roughly, briskly, letting Jay feel the force of his hands. Feet planted, head bowed, Jay tracked his movements with a heavily lidded stare. Massaging his master had hardened his cock, though not Henry’s. The pulsing heat lay buried, though. Accessible, were Henry to push his thoughts toward it. Soon, perhaps.

“I gave myself over to obligations and logistics.” Working each arm, Henry moved with the flow of musculature, his husband’s form the perfection of classical sculpture. He worshipped with his fingertips, marveling at Jay’s angular strength. Sleek shoulders gave way to a powerful core, to firm abdominals that fluttered as Henry ran his hands across them.

“I pushed aside emotion, pushed aside my own feelings and yours, and Alice’s.” And his mother’s, though this was not an opportune moment to say so. Not when he stepped close to Jay’s back, the soap a slick layer between them, and grasped Jay’s hips. “I was wrong. I couldn’t see it then, but I do now. You’ve told me. You’ve shown me.”

He rested his hand against the base of Jay’s cock. Not taking hold, not yet; the web of his thumb and forefinger formed a curving arc grazing his husband. Jay flexed with each breath; his heat mingled with the steam of the shower. “Thank you for sharing what you needed from me, Jay. Thank you for serving me this morning with your excellent massage. I am more wholly myself than I have been in weeks. May I show you, dear boy?”

Jay’s cock jumped. “Yes, please.” His whisper rose barely above the drumming of the water. “I’ve missed you, too.”

Henry closed his fist and pressed his face to Jay’s neck. His low moan offered harmony to Jay’s tenor whimper. Their bodies aligned from shoulders to feet, Jay nestled in front of him with the water beating against Jay’s stomach, running past Henry’s wrists, and flowing in steady rivers down Jay’s thick, powerful thighs.

Today was neither a day for extended teasing nor one for an efficient, unemotional quick release. He watched openly, humming his pleasure for the firm cock in his hand. His own cock twitched between his thighs and the solid wall of Jay’s ass.

Thready whines built before him, echoing off the tile. Jay rocked with Henry’s hold, thrusting lightly. He might climax at any moment, and the shower would instantly erase the evidence of the morning’s pleasure. Of Jay’s trust and belief in him.

“Turn.” Henry released his grip and urged Jay to spin at the hips. “Face me.”

Jay swung about, his face flushed and his pupils wide. “Are we stopping?”

“Not unless you tell me to, beloved boy.”

Jay’s vehement headshake sprayed water from his dark hair, strands flying wildly.

Henry nuzzled into the soft scratch of Jay’s morning stubble and pressed kisses to his cheek. “I find myself greedy for all that I’ve missed. Will you permit me to taste you? To reclaim what I’ve unconscionably neglected and reward you for your service?”

Shuddering, Jay hissed air through his teeth. “I’ll be real quick. I’m awful close.”

“You will be mine.” The banked fire within stirred, fascination flaring as he sought a satisfying conclusion for his submissive. That was the joy of creating this art together. “The moment shall come as it will. As you will.”

Jay’s shudders intensified. He braced a hand against the shower wall. “Better do it before your voice makes this moment happen before you get there, then.”

Henry laughed his delight and sank to his knees. The prize bobbed before him. He steadied Jay with his hand, squeezed hard enough to earn a gasp, and swallowed the rest of him in a smooth pull.

A glorious symphony erupted, Jay’s eager whimpers merging with half-formed words and pleas. His prediction proved true; release arrived in seconds, flooding Henry with the rich flavor his mouth had all but forgotten. He gulped greedily, swiping with his tongue to capture every drop, burying his nose to fix Jay’s earthy scent in his memory and carry their love through the day.

He relented only when wobbly legs brought Jay down to the bathtub with him. A bit of shuffling and twisting granted them room to cease the shower spray and embrace. Henry combed Jay’s hair back with his fingers, then rested their heads together. “Your trust humbles me, my dear boy.”

Jay draped his arms around Henry and squeezed. “Sometimes you reach out and get bit. But if you don’t reach, you’ll never ever connect with anyone. That hurts worse than a bite once in a while. And you and Alice don’t bite on purpose.” He cocked his head, a crooked quirk in his lips and a spark of joy in his eyes. “Except when you do.”

Henry puffed air and issued a quiet growl. The motion came naturally. Respite with his spouses had indeed blown away more of the fog shrouding his center. “Yes, except when we do.”

Jay curled up tighter against him. “We should go make breakfast for Alice. She needs time with you, too. Not gonna let her martyr herself just ’cause she thinks I need you more.”

“No, we will not.” Their pretzeled legs would require judicious untangling. “However, you will first need to assist your aging dominant in escaping this confinement.”

“Aging, huh?” Laughing, Jay laid his hands on the sides of the bathtub and lifted himself free, tucking his legs up and clear. “You didn’t seem so old a few minutes ago when you were hollowing out your cheeks on my cock.”

“We politely call that age experience .” Accepting Jay’s forearm grip, he heaved himself upward. “And I had an urgent hunger to sate.”

The feminine lilt of laughter and conversation drifted from the kitchen. Mother and Alice sat at the table, cups of tea before them. Dishes waited on the counter.

“I didn’t set it.” Alice tipped her face up and welcomed Jay’s good morning kiss. “Figured you’d want to do that.”

“I do, thanks.” Jay dropped a second kiss on Mother’s cheek. “Did you sleep good, Mom? I slept like the snuggliest bunny in the burrow.”

Henry clasped Alice’s shoulders and bent to her ear. “Thank you for the time, my sweet girl. As you undoubtedly surmised, it was precisely the medicine required.”

She shrugged lightly under his hands, but her smile spread wide. “Happy husbands, happy—okay, rhyming is not my thing.”

“Thankfully, I know something that is.” He tapped the last of the envelopes he’d filled nearly a month ago, the creamy heavyweight paper leaning against the blue globe of the sugar bowl Mother had used all his life. “Shall we open the final card now, before we begin preparing our breakfast?”

Alice snatched it up and slid her fingernail under the wax seal at the back. “No, nope, we could wait until after breakfast.” Pinching the card between finger and thumb, she eased it free. “We haven’t at all been making guesses about what it says.”

“Not at all.” He murmured the words into her hair as he left a kiss atop her head. “Such admirable restraint.”

Shivering, she nudged him with her shoulder. “Will you read it to us?”

As she rotated the card, the final artwork appeared. Her quiet gasp drew Jay and Mother from their pleasantries. All of them gazed at the sketch—sketches, truly. He’d filled the front of the card with cameo portraits. The three of them formed the center, their faces a monogram surrounded by Will, Emma, Mother, Olivia, Natalie, and the other friends who’d had a hand in bringing them together.

Alice ran her finger along the edge of the card. “It’s beautiful, Henry. Everyone looks so happy.”

“It’s lovely, darling.” Mother touched his wrist, and he lightly squeezed her fingers. “An excellent composition, well-balanced in the space, and as Alice says, simply overflowing with joy.”

“That’s our family.” Jay nodded decisively, taking the card as Alice passed it over. “You gave us a family for Christmas.”

“Not I. All of us formed this family together, in the choices we made to be vulnerable with one another and trust in the feelings that propelled us here.” His recent lesson in the opposite notwithstanding.

Jay presented the card to him with the formal stiff arm of a seasoned maitre d’. “Your reading materials, sir.”

Mother side-hugged Jay, rubbing his back as he stooped beside her chair. “Splendid form, darling.”

Henry opened the card at the crease and cleared his throat. “ My dearest loves: My fondest desire has been to restore the joy of the season for us all, free of outside concerns. ”

His lips pulled back across his teeth. “Well, that sentiment didn’t age well.”

Alice snorted. “You can’t control everything.”

“No, I daresay I’ve proved that.” He smoothed the waves in her hair, lifting it off her neck and exposing the tempting curve to the brush of his fingers. “ This year has been filled with gifts: with abiding love, with strong friendships, with deep understanding. Yet you yourself are the most exquisite gifts I may imagine. Your presence immensely enriches my life— ” He hmphed at the thrust of regret in his ribs. “It does when I do not foolishly cast aside your love to cling to fears that belong to another time. What a mess of contradictions I have been.”

Murmurs of support and affirmation came from all quarters, love in every glance and touch and word spoken.

“ Nevertheless, you yet have a final surprise at home to unwrap, as we carry the joy of the season into the coming year. I eagerly await the awe and wonder the next year holds for us. ”

The surprise he’d meant had been the family gift, but now too it meant putting Jay in his collar and cuffs for the first time. Watching Alice discover her own anniversary gift. Taking them both on the rug before the hearth, the blazing heat casting flickering shadows across their skin and making them all sweat-slick. The air fragrant with desire, the floating chords of pleading and pleasure. Their new year’s celebration would differ from his original vision, though incorporating the gifts they’d missed in his absence would be invigorating.

Alice lifted her chin, peering toward the card in his hand. “Did you finish?”

“Almost.” Impertinent minx—she’d phrased her query so deliberately. “Ahem. You enthrall and delight me more with every day that passes. I may only aspire to make your lives as happy and fulfilled as you have made mine. All my love, now and always, your Henry. ”

He set the card gently on the table once more, a sea of supportive faces gazing up at him. “I’ll hold no secrets from you that you do not wish, my loves. If you would rather know your final gift now, I shall tell you of it.”

A glance passed between Alice and Jay.

“I like your secrets.” Alice squeezed out of her seat without backing the chair into him. “I still want to be surprised.” Facing him, she rubbed the neckline of his sweater beneath her fingers and patted his chest. “I don’t doubt your intentions, Henry. Your judgment lately has been…”

“A little off.” Jay shrugged, his grimace perhaps an apology for the truth. “But we know it’s a temporary thing.”

“Yup, a temporary thing, never to be repeated, because we’ll make sure of that.”

With contract revisions, his spouses’ eyes said, though they held their tongues in front of his mother.

“I’m quite fortunate to have the two of you to keep me honest.”

Alice kissed his cheek. “We will,” she whispered. Prodding his arm in what seemed likely part performance for his mother, she eased back half a step. “And I’m fortunate to have the two of you to keep me fed. What are you making for breakfast?”

He rattled off a menu as Jay scurried for the dishes. The morning routine got underway, Mother leading the conversation with stories of Robert and his family. Her astute social sense would derail any nerves Alice and Jay might have about meeting his brother for the first time at the holiday.

For now, Henry held no worries beyond whether he ought to have included a third dozen eggs in their shopping trip. Their trial by fire had proven the strength of their marriage bonds. Apparently he’d even learned something from Jay in the experience—how to find the silver lining.