84. Jay
Chapter eighty-four
Jay
S lippery silk filled Jay’s palm. He squeezed to keep it there, his fingers nearly catching Alice, too. His reach tugged at the cuff, and the leather tugged back, gripped by the tether Henry had clipped to the headboard. Rolling his chin to his shoulder let him grab a glimpse of pale peach—the underwear Alice had worn in the shower before they left for Maine. One of Henry’s first gifts for her, a lifetime ago. Before they’d said I love you, or moved in together, or gotten married. Now peach silk spilled around his wedding band, overflowing his clenched hand.
Giggling, Alice stroked down the heel of his hand and traced the edge of his cuff. “Hold on to those for me, stud. I hear underwear is the new safeword signal for when...” Leaning over him, she kissed him deeply, her movements slow, her body warm and flowing. “When your mouth is otherwise occupied.”
Which his would be, real soon. Please real soon. Henry was taking his time adjusting the restraints. Jay had to be earning massive obedience points for not grabbing Henry’s cock when it was right there above his other hand. He squeezed the panties harder instead. Drop those, and Henry would stop their playtime.
Settling back, Alice lounged naked against the headboard, her legs tucked up beside her and her cuffs at her ankles, Henry’s claim blazing out across the leather. Her hair, tumbling around her neck, blocked the monogram on her collar. Henry might have her wear it up next time they went to the club. Her smile wouldn’t quit, though. That and her sparkly eyes offered a mirror of what he was in for as Henry positioned the second tether. Henry was gonna fuck Jay’s brains out, too. Just not with his tongue.
Already his heart turned cartwheels in his chest. Henry raised Jay’s hand and rolled the cuff around so slowly that the hair on Jay’s arms stood as straight as his cock. The snap hook at the end of the tether clicked into place, and now his arms spread out above him with less than a foot of play between his wrists and the headboard.
A blast of heat shot through him, like the sun cutting through the clouds on a winter ride. Both hands tied, and not with quick-release Velcro or gauzy scarves. Henry could use him however he chose.
Henry ran his hand up Jay’s arm and across his chest in great sweeping swirls, then down the other arm. He fingered the underwear in Jay’s grasp, humming all the while. Energy rippled out from him, a growly pleasure. “You are quite literally bound in my service, my brave boy.”
This was the real deal, the thing he’d been wanting since curiosity had steered him from finance bro hotel parties to the club. The dominance he’d been ashamed to crave, the fantasies that had turned to nightmares—he’d been clawing it back, bit by bit. Henry and Alice had helped him pile up victory after victory. Here, in their cozy bed, with his body tied, only gratitude and eagerness sped through his veins.
“Destined to be an instrument for my enjoyment. And I see much—” Henry traced Jay’s mouth with a single finger. He tugged at Jay’s collar with two, lifting him gently as Jay dropped his shoulders back. Glanced over his shoulder, probably at the cock wagging tall over Jay’s stomach, dripping with excitement despite not having a role to play. “Yes, I see much to enjoy.”
He meant to deliver a sassy comeback, but only a thin, pleading whine passed his lips. He’d been half gone listening to Alice begging to come, her arms flexing in his hands, Henry’s fingers turning white holding her hips steady so he could wring every orgasm out of her. If Henry hadn’t given him a quick handjob in the shower already this morning, he would’ve popped by now for sure.
Grasping the headboard, Henry swung his leg over Jay’s chest. Jay sucked in a breath—maybe the last deep breath through his mouth for a while, if he was very lucky. The thick mix of musk and sweat and desire hanging in the air washed through him, as much a taste as a scent. Hunger for more had him wetting his lips.
“I shall be listening, of course.” Henry dropped one hand from the headboard and stroked his cock. In lazy strokes, with a gradual twist, he angled his cockhead over Jay’s face, a bead at the tip just waiting to fall. “Though you may find it difficult to speak. My service can be…”
The bead started to slip. Jay lifted his chin to catch it sooner, his tongue curling—
Henry slicked his hand across the head of his cock and swept the teasing taste away, back into his rhythm. “Demanding.”
Yeah, Jay’s bucking hips might agree with that. He whined louder for the treat Henry held out of reach.
Balanced on his knees, straddling Jay’s chest, Henry combed Jay’s hair back. “Oh, I’ve plenty yet for you.” His heavy gaze promised he did. “Remind me of your safeword first.”
“Potholes.” Their safeword ritual brought him one step closer to the richness of Henry’s cock in his throat.
“Excellent.” Henry dipped lower, nearly brushing his knuckles against Jay’s chin on his upstroke. “And if you are, as Alice so politely suggests, otherwise occupied but require a pause to communicate?”
“Drop her underwear.” His fingers rebelled at the idea, scrunching the silk deeper into his palm. He’d go cross-eyed trying to keep focus on the cock thrillingly close to his mouth. But safety stuff was the promise that let him have what his deepest self wanted: to belong so fully that he became a passenger on Henry’s ride, with no control over any of it, and to magically still realize his every desire because Henry understood all of him. That was the work of love. “I won’t forget. You can trust me.”
Henry planted his hand beside Jay’s head and folded over him, bringing his mouth to Jay’s ear. “I know.” His baritone rumble shivered through muscle after muscle, down to Jay’s toes. “You have my full confidence. You are an exceptional husband, Jay, and a stunning submissive. And I…” Henry claimed him with a bruising kiss, pressing Jay into the mattress, his legs pinning Jay’s sides. The tangy-sweet taste of Alice clung to him. “I intend to plunder your mouth and fuck you senseless.”
Yes, yes, exactly that, please please please. Jay floated above himself, spinning in circles, his heart pedaling as frantically as a first-timer trying to find the right gear on a hill.
“I love the sounds he makes.” Alice poured out the syrupy alto she saved for the bedroom, lush and low and satisfied. “Those whimpers are pure want. It’s intoxicating.”
“A heady perfume indeed.” Henry dragged his cheek alongside Jay’s, inhaling as he went, rolling his shoulders up and back until he sat upright again. “Jay is a feast for the senses.”
“Are you going to give him what he’s begging for?” Alice was good people. She had his back.
“In my own time.” Splaying his hand across Jay’s throat, Henry stroked the collar hard enough to add rolling pressure. “He is, after all, entirely mine to do with as I please.”
Jay arched into the hold. Tipping his head back left his neck exposed. His pulse throbbed.
Henry traced the column of Jay’s throat with tapping fingers, all the way up to the base of his chin. Caressing his way down, two slides forward, one slide back, he hummed lightly, teasingly. “Yes, you’ll feel me here soon enough.”
Never soon enough when his mouth ached for the weight of Henry’s cock, for the thickness and heat of him swelling against Jay’s tongue.
Bracing on the headboard, Henry knee-walked forward. The bed rolled and dipped, tilting Jay side to side. When it steadied, Henry knelt with his thighs surrounding Jay’s face and his calves flexing atop Jay’s arms. Gripping his cock, he rested the tip against Jay’s chin.
So close. Henry’s legs funneled Jay’s view right up the middle, along the length partly hidden by Henry’s fist, to the brown hair trailing away and the even, measured rise and fall of Henry’s stomach with every breath. Deep, rhythmic breaths, hypnotic as the thrusts sure to follow. Jay’s mouth fell open.
Henry lightly smacked Jay’s bottom lip with the head of his cock. “Not yet. We’ll get to that.” Eyes flashing, he pushed Jay’s jaw shut with his index finger, slick with arousal. “I must confess”—Henry glanced aside, but Jay could no longer turn his head, and straining his eyes gave him only the fuzzy outline of Alice above the vee of Henry’s thighs—“his eagerness is one of his most delightful qualities. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Mm-hmm.” Alice’s sigh could’ve been a cat’s purr. “Eagerness and obedience. He’s so very good when faced with massive”—Alice clicked her tongue—“temptation.”
Laughing gently, Henry rubbed his cockhead across Jay’s mouth agonizingly slowly, wetting Jay’s lips. All he had to do was slip his tongue out to taste. The thick scent of Henry’s arousal filled his nose. Every muscle in his body twitched for him to open and swallow. His cock swayed like a flagpole in high winds, out of his sight but fueled by his out-of-control heartbeat. He pressed his tongue hard against the roof of his mouth. Henry would tell him when to open his mouth. Henry would tell him when to taste.
“Yes, yes he is.” Back and forth, sliding easier with each pass, Henry teased Jay with the head of his cock, resting the crown in the seam of his lips. “Magnificent, really. Such hunger and devotion. His eyes alone incline me to reward him again”—Henry raised his cock and bumped the tip against the center of Jay’s mouth—“and again”—bump—“and again.”
Jay resisted the bait, though his breath gusted through his nose and his heels dug into the mattress.
Henry resettled his hips, rocking his weight across Jay’s chest and arms, pinning him down in short bursts. Green eyes gleaming, he captured Jay’s gaze and bent closer. “Lick.”
His tongue was swirling around Henry’s cock before the k hit the floor. Wide, flat, and fluttering. Pointed and flicking. Stealing the salty-sweet taste from the tip.
Henry held his gaze, hissing his pleasure in lengthy inhales and broad exhales. “I do so enjoy tormenting myself. His perfection raises quite a dilemma.”
“Does it?” Alice’s voice had gone breathy too.
“Shall I go slowly, and experience all the pleasure I may withstand from this sweet service?” Henry lifted his cock clear of Jay with a growl. “Open for me.” Pressing forward, Henry slid his cock down Jay’s tongue as Jay rounded his mouth to take him in. “Or plunge ever onward and satisfy the thrumming drive to fill him to overflowing and mark him as my own?”
Henry thrust, and Jay hungrily sucked him in. Hard pulls had him practically leaving his body, floating and bobbing on Henry’s ocean. Henry drew free with a suction-pop, his cock shiny with Jay’s effort right to the edge of his knuckles.
Alice let out a soft moan. “You’re right, that is a dilemma. He’s a keeper, this one.”
With a quiet hum of agreement, Henry curved his lips in the gentle smile that said well done . He brushed his thumb against Jay’s cheek with his free hand and swept Jay’s hair back. “I’ve known that for more than five years.” The fingers tightened in his hair. “I will keep him with me always.”
Henry’s low, commanding tone made it a vow.
A wave poured through him, sweeping away tense muscles, giving a cushion to the urgent need to come. He could rest easy, in safe hands, in the love of the two people who’d sworn to accept and value his service.
A steady push sent Henry through Jay’s lips again. Slow thrusts tested his openness, danced at the borders of his cheeks, teased the back of his throat. Jay closed his lips around every pullback, slipping his tongue around the crown and over the head to inspire a return visit.
His own need faded into background, his pulsing cock less important than the fullness of Henry in his mouth. Henry’s face gave cues, tiny twitches signaling when to shift his tongue, when to pull harder or longer. Two bodies but one mind, rolling along in tandem.
“He’s beautiful.” Alice trailed her fingers up his arm on a meandering path. “Lean and strong and utterly focused on pleasing you.”
Her praise lifted him up on a giddy wave, had him thrusting at empty air. His service mattered. His submission was beautiful. His wife said so. She wasn’t ashamed to have a husband who greedily sucked cock. He would’ve pulled her in for a better view, but Henry had him so well pinned. He wouldn’t be going anywhere until their husband was done with him. Not ever. He could stay like this forever, his mouth filling and refilling with every thrust.
Henry paused halfway in, his clenched fingers tugging at Jay’s hair and digging into his scalp. “I’ve seen you wear this look, sweet girl.”
Alice leaned into Henry’s shoulder, her hazel-flecked gaze joining Henry’s heavy green stare. She traced her upper lip with her tongue tip. “Mmm, but when he wears it I just want to…” Scrunching her nose, she curled her hand around Henry’s arm and squeezed. “Eat him right up.”
Eyes on them both, Jay firmed his lips and sucked hard. His cheeks hollowed; he rolled his tongue over the uneven ridge of Henry’s cock. Here, he belonged. Here, he could be desired and used and never discarded. His spouses wanted him again and again. Only him and exactly him. He whined his plea for more ways to be their very best Jay.
Henry raised an eyebrow. He might chastise Jay for trying to rush him, but that could mean even slower fucking. More time with Henry on his tongue. But Henry pushed deeper, daring Jay to take more, his smile spreading. “Our beloved pet has many uses, should you care to investigate.”
Jay’s cock jerked, rigid and vibrating. Henry had given permission. Alice, too, could do whatever she liked to him.
Alice tilted her face away, over Henry’s shoulder. Fluttery caresses dotted Jay’s abdomen, circling down past his navel. “I wouldn’t want my play to distract from the beauty you’re creating.”
“Not a distraction.” Henry nudged Alice with his nose and goaded her into a deep, searching kiss. His cock bounced against Jay’s tongue. The jolt rippled to Jay’s own cock before Henry drew free. Harsh breathing and Alice’s moan echoed against the high ceiling. “An enhancement.”
Biting lightly into Henry’s shoulder, Alice winked at Jay. “If you’re sure…”
“My pet loves to serve.” Henry cut his gaze right, and Jay tightened his hold on the panties. If they fell, he’d be begging for a do-over.
With a quiet grunt, Henry rolled his hips forward until Jay’s lips rested against Henry’s knuckles. Jay swallowed, trying to send out calm readiness vibes instead of the dizzying backflips his heart kept turning. He could take whatever his lovers had to give. Would love to take it, all of it, and drink in their pleasure and praise.
Henry freed his cock. He gripped the top rail of the headboard. Towering over Jay, he blocked the light. He thrust steadily forward. “And I make his decisions for him.”
Hazy gratitude swept over him in a blanketing wave, filling every space Henry wasn’t occupying. So many years, so many dreams—he relaxed his throat and let them all come true. Bracing his tongue against Henry’s cock, he swallowed and gave Henry room to take more, to go deeper, to own him inside and out.
Faint squiggles brushed his legs. Grew firmer. Swirling strokes traveled up his calves and over his knees.
Alice’s vibrating hum held half a giggle in it. “Ma…” Her fingers fluttered. “Jes…” Teasing dips took her between his thighs. “Tic.”
She rubbed his balls, not cupping but bumping—knuckles?
“Did I use that word last time?” She started again, drawing around his cock, more teasing touches. “Don’t answer, I know you have important work on your mind. Or nothing at all.” She closed her hand around the base of his cock, and his hips pistoned toward her. “Mmm, I love those moments. When you can’t hold a thought because your body is overwhelmed with input. You know those moments, don’t you, sweetheart?”
She stroked him to the tip and rubbed the head. Her weight settled across his legs, pinning him deeper into the mattress. He whimpered, pushing into her hold, and Henry thrust further down his throat.
“What a lovely bit of teamwork.” Henry held himself deep longer, then burst free in a sharp pullback, his cock shining with Jay’s hunger. Jay dragged his head higher in chase. “Do that again, my dear girl, if you’re so inclined.”
Sweat streaked Henry’s face. The thick earthiness of arousal covered even the crisp citrus scent from their shower. The green of his eyes thinned to the narrowest ring around dark pupils, and his gaze never left Jay’s.
Alice cradled Jay’s balls in one hand and stroked with the other, steady and sliding and shooting jolts of need up his spine. His gasp opened him up and sent Henry plunging down. His lips grazed soft skin. Henry’s balls swayed across his chin. His mouth hung wide, his jaw relaxed, taking thrust after thrust. He’d promised Alice more lessons. Maybe begging would inspire Henry to be their practice field. Night after night just like this—
Wet warmth covered his cock. Alice swiped her tongue down the sides. He bucked into her and whined his apology. Too much, too much—he’d watched Alice flex nearly in half coming like a string of firecrackers, and the fizzing lit ends burned in his brain now too. Henry, growling, tugged Jay by his hair and tipped his head back. Henry’s other arm, curling into the headboard, shook with tension.
Hands curved over Jay’s hips; fingers dug into the sides of his ass. Warm air gusted across his cockhead.
“I’ve got you, stud.” Alice flicked her tongue against his tip. “Gonna see if I can make you come for me.”
Wouldn’t take much. She dove back down, pulling him in, feasting on his cock.
Head bent, Henry panted above him. “My brave boy. You outshine the sun.”
Henry thrust faster, full depth, his thighs glued to Jay’s cheeks. More of his weight fell across Jay’s arms. No moving, no adjusting, only accepting. Accepting Henry’s cock in his throat and his collar around it. Accepting Alice’s tongue on his cock. Accepting they wanted him, owned him—
He belonged.
His orgasm hit with the roar of a dam breaking. He couldn’t warn—
Alice sucked him hard, and her happy moans sank into his ears between the slaps of Henry’s thighs. Faster, driving, Henry chanted under his breath. Too quiet, but his lips moved as a pulse rolled through his cock.
My Jay my Jay my Jay mine.
Henry washed over the back of his throat. Jay swallowed over and over, gulping down his reward as his own spent cock bounced in Alice’s mouth.
He would never move again.
Blinking and breathing might be enough for a good long while. The rest of his body could stay sprawled beneath his spouse-doms, so joyous and sleepy his fried brain cells sang a lullaby. A nice one, filled with Henry’s pleased humming and Alice’s low giggles.
Shadows shifted above him.
Henry smoothed Jay’s hair as he settled back on his heels. His cock rested across Jay’s chin, the tip folding Jay’s bottom lip beneath. Henry smoothed that, too, his finger firm and heavy, his laugh soft and warm. “You are a delicious mess, my blissful boy.” He leaned over, his rib cage a curving fender, sturdy and protective. Prodding nudged Jay’s hand open; silk spilled out, slippery and heated by his skin. “It’s all right to let go now, dearest. You’ve given unsurpassed service this morning.”
He drummed his feet lightly against the sheet. Alice slumped to the bed beside him and wriggled forward. Resting her chin on Henry’s thigh, she gazed at Jay. Her eyes sparkled, shiny as the rings on their fingers.
“A gorgeous mess, mm-hmm.” She swiped the corner of his mouth, rubbing wetness into his cheek. “Stunning.”
Henry pushed back off the headboard. His softening cock slipped away.
The world moved in slow motion, a little not-real. Maybe what being hypnotized felt like. Maybe Henry would leave him tied and paint him like this and title it come-drunk at both ends.
“And such a beautiful smile.” Henry swam through the slowed time, green eyes closer, brighter, then closing as he kissed Jay’s mouth. Drawing back, he peered into Jay’s face. “We may have reached a new record for leaving you speechless. Have I erred by leaving breakfast so late this morning? You’ve expended a fair few calories in your exceptional work.”
If his stomach was hungry, it hadn’t said so to him yet. He had more important activities, like falling so far into Henry’s eyes that the way out never showed itself. Good. He wouldn’t need it.
“Alice.” Henry tipped his head and gestured to his left. “Help me untie him, will you? I’d like to be sure—”
“No, please?” He croaked out the request and forced his fingers to waggle like a magician’s for extra proof. The cuffs moved with him, kept him drifting on the hypno-land’s floating sea, riding the current of Henry and Alice’s love. “All good, I swear. I just wanna stay here with you longer.”
Henry nodded to Alice, and the two of them rolled up against his sides. Arms and legs draped across him, his lovers holding him safe. Staying.
Henry traced the edge of Jay’s collar. “As long as you like, my love.”
As long as Jay liked pushed breakfast to nearly noon. That was only fair; they couldn’t shortchange time for snuggling or cleanup or redressing in the daytime outfits Henry had chosen for them.
Three weeks and two days since they’d all sat in their places at the table. Not that he’d been counting. Well. Maybe a little. He stabbed his waffles and dragged them through the syrup without looking, because nothing could beat the view of Henry across from him and Alice to his left. Mornings at Mom’s had been pretty sweet, but this was how meals should be.
Didn’t hurt that he could be nearly naked again, finally. All the important things clung to him: wedding band, collar, cuffs, and harness. Henry had even tethered the cuffs to the central ring on Jay’s harness. Not so much that he couldn’t set the table, but enough so the weight tugged at him when he moved and the metal attachments whispered and clinked.
“Shall I take your silence as a sign that the waffles are satisfactory?” Eyebrow raised, Henry cast a teasing smile at Jay and Alice.
“The waffles, reliving the morning…” Alice, shrugging, splashed syrup from fork to plate. “Oops.” Ducking her chin, she scanned the fancy nightgown dress Henry had draped her in. “Close call. But, you know, it’s probably a mix of yummy breakfast and blanked-out brains caught in a replay loop. Jay?”
“Sounds right to me.” His brain—his whole body—hadn’t moved on from how blissful he’d been with his head tucked between Henry’s thighs. Safe and protected couldn’t be wants a guy spoke out loud, especially not a guy with strength and endurance built up from cycling. But inch-shorter, less-muscled Henry fucking Jay’s face with abandon had given him peace and comfort that had made it okay to ask, to be a little spoon in an Alice-and-Henry silverware stack. “I missed this a lot when you were both gone. Bed stuff, but other stuff, too. Just simple silly stuff, like helping in the kitchen.”
Henry crossed his knife and fork over his plate. He’d cuffed his dress shirt at his elbows while he was cooking and hadn’t unrolled the sleeves yet. The tendons in his forearms flexed as he steepled his hands, same as they had over Jay’s face when Henry clenched down on the headboard. “Your desires are neither simple nor silly, in the bedroom and out, Jay.”
“I know.” He did, because Henry told him so, and therapy was helping him tell himself so, too. He had years of his sister’s judgments to shove out of his head, though. “But you both had big, important things going on, and me being selfish—”
“Whoa, whoa.” Alice stretched across the corner of the table and fished for him, the blue-black drape of her gown giving him veiled flashes of her body. She clamped down on his fingers, rattling his hand and making his metal rings clatter. “In no fucking universe are you selfish, sweetheart. Not even the tiniest bit.”
He trusted her, he did, but the message was so different from the ones he’d grown up with.
“Alice is correct, Jay.” Henry softened his gaze, his eyes a carpet of pine needles inviting Jay to a sweet bed. “Your generous heart and unyielding faith in the goodness of others are qualities quite far from selfishness. Remember that your value is no less than those you serve. You deserve equal consideration from those who love you.” Dipping his head, he breathed out slowly. “My commitment as your dominant requires more of me than mere lip service. Ritual and devotion are central to the renewal of our bonds; they feed a well that never runs dry.”
Jay pushed back against the urge to apologize for making Henry apologize. He didn’t have to do that here. Those were the old instincts, the defensive ones Danny said he could thank for helping him grow up safe before he let go of them. A life of ritual and devotion sure sounded nice. And today was an awfully good start. “Like when people who’ve been married a long time go on dates to get their spark back.”
“Precisely. Allowing our bond to languish creates a distance—” Scanning the table, Henry frowned.
He stood and carried his chair to Jay’s end, his suit jacket hanging off the back. When he retook his seat, his knee brushed Jay’s bare thigh, and he rested his hand just above Jay’s knee. Now Henry and Alice both had ahold of him. Sparks, yup. Cozy little sparklers writing his name in the air like Alice tracing words on his skin.
Nodding slightly, Henry hummed a pleased note. “Doubts spread and grow in those gaps, tangling our thoughts in uncertainty and fear. I would not again give you cause to doubt me as I have these past weeks.”
“You know, I took this class once.” Alice scooched her chair closer and set her elbow on the table, propping her face on her hand. “Or maybe half a dozen times. Great teacher.” Staring at Henry, she cut her gaze toward Jay. “Taught me a ton about recognizing red flags. And green ones.”
“Riiight.” He picked up her smile for his own. “I think I had that class, too.” Only every month at the club since Henry started it. “About taking responsibility, and apologizing, and creating systems to make sure the mistakes and miscommunications don’t repeat. Big green flags.”
“And I learned this other thing.” Alice blinked at him, her wide eyes all innocent, as if Henry wasn’t studying them both with fond exasperation and maybe the teensiest hint of tears.
“Oh?” Jay called on his abs to stop the laugh rippling in his gut. His angel face wasn’t half so composed as Alice’s. “What’s that?”
Henry honest-to-God snorted at them. So that seemed like a good sign.
“It turns out dominants have feelings and need check-ins, too. Can you imagine?” Alice faked staggering back in her chair, flattening one hand against her chest. The sheer fabric, losing its billowy swirls, clung in an extra-nice distracting sort of way. “The audacity.”
“We do, as it happens.” Henry skirted Jay’s plate and added his hold to Alice and Jay’s clasped hands, covering them in his palm. He squeezed twice, like a thank you, and swallowed hard. He must’ve shaved before waking them this morning; up close, his smooth jawline invited worship. “A good reminder to all of us, and particularly prescient as we contemplate our desires and resolutions for the year ahead. Tomorrow we shall set aside time to discuss and amend our contract terms.”
Alice clicked her tongue behind gritted teeth, nodding as she grimaced. “Like what to do when we act in good faith but create bad outcomes anyway.”
“And aligning action with intention.” As both spouses swiveled toward him, Jay sat straighter. His collar rested against his throat, promising he could say whatever he needed to without risking their love. “Danny says that’s how I can make mental room for the good stuff to float up, if I ask whether what I’m gonna do matches with what I want in my life.” The vision exercise was a favorite now, even though he’d felt ridiculous the first few times. Once he’d decided it was just a different way to think about his wish book, it hadn’t felt so strange. “And what I want is the three of us married for so long that people ask us our secret to being happy.”
Henry hmm-hmm ed, his smile the soft one he got when he’d been sketching them napping and Jay woke up all bleary-eyed and dozy. “A worthy ambition. Do we know such a secret, beloved?”
“Not yet.” He’d been working on it, though, putting the pieces together. Why the three of them fit. Why lousy days couldn’t keep them down for long. “But I’m pretty sure partly it’s searching tree lot after tree lot and driving all the way out to a cut-your-own farm to give your husband the holiday feeling he needs, and it’s decorating a bedroom with tons of relationship mementos so your wife can remind herself whenever she needs to that love is real and all around her, and it’s your wife getting up at three in the morning to fly home and booking a last-minute car rental because something’s wrong and she’s damn sure gonna fix it.” More than that—he could’ve rattled off a hundred examples, and that was the real secret to happiness. They didn’t do big-gestures-only love. They did everyday love. “It’s noticing, and it’s caring enough to try. Even when sometimes the chicken lands on the floor. And then we laugh it off and try again.”
Alice flung herself forward, wrapping around his shoulders and burying her face in his neck. “You are so fucking wise, sweetheart. I’m gonna tell you every single day, because it’s a crime if you don’t know that.”
Henry shuffled Jay’s hair back. He kissed him gently, then harder, his lips firm and his hand tightening on Jay’s knee. “Extraordinarily wise. You are a gift, my brilliant boy.”
Like they’d never left the bed at all. Guess they could’ve come down for breakfast sooner if he was gonna get sandwich hugs at the table, too. He breathed it in, the sweetness of the maple syrup and the tickle of Alice’s floor-length nightie-dress and the safety in Henry’s fierce grip. Those were gifts, too. But didn’t they—
“Oh! You have another gift for us. The last calendar gift. Is it—are we opening—” Exhaling slowly, he forced his heart to stop revving his brain. “I mean, does that figure into your plans today, Master Henry?”
Giving Henry the title while wearing the branded collar and cuffs did not help with slowing down his heartbeat. But otherwise, A-plus for effort. Their plates were empty, and the dishes could wait, just for today. Whatever present Henry had saved for last on their calendar had to be meaningful and important.
“Ah, yes. I thought we might get to that next.” Henry, glancing over his shoulder, seemed to sum up the same math about breakfast. “Leave these for later.” He pushed off Jay’s leg to his feet and extended an arm to Alice. “Shall we investigate the last of your Christmas gifts, my dears?”
They climbed. Past their bedroom and the playroom. Past the floor where Jay served Mistress Alice once a week and the bare-bones guest room where Nat had left laundered sheets stacked at the foot of the bed. Into the finished attic and the weak winter sunlight stretching across the floor toward Henry’s studio. Everything sat the same as it had a couple of weeks ago when Jay had come through on the scavenger hunt. The night he’d despaired before unwrapping his collar. He fingered the cuffs. Still there, still holding him steady. Alice reached back for him and pulled his arms around her waist, lacing their fingers together. Their cuffs overlapped; his tethers gathered her dress like a belt.
Henry flicked the wall switch. A pair of spotlights beamed down on a thick white drape tossed—okay, arranged neatly—over an easel. He lured them in front of the display with teasing tugs and caresses. Maybe he’d been missing all the touches, too. They’d been more themselves at Mom’s house than in any other vanilla space, but nothing compared to the casual ass pats of being home.
“It has seemed to me”—Henry shook out the bottom edge of the cover and scrunched it in both hands—“that our home has been lacking a key piece. I do so enjoy a matched set.”
Jay sucked in a breath and held it. If Alice had guessed, she’d’ve gone tense, too, waiting to see, but she swayed softly, all boneless curiosity.
The drape whoosh ed away and puddled on the floor behind the easel.
She was gorgeous. Light and shadow, straddling a chair backward, her body angled away but her face tipped to the side like she knew they were watching her. Her breast curved behind a shielding arm; her thigh blocked the shadowed vee between. Her tilted chin hinted at challenge, a coy invitation and a warning.
Alice’s portrait wasn’t the submission his showed. She wasn’t him. She brought other kinds of beauty and grace and strength to their bond, and all of it vibrated from the canvas in front of them.
Jay shoved his tongue to the back of his front teeth. It wasn’t his place to say how she oughta feel. But he’d been in that moment, in the—
“That’s me.” Her voice broke on a gasp in the middle. She trembled in his arms. “That’s me.”
The wonder of the moment when Henry presented them with something so stunning wasn’t only that’s me . The wonder was this is how you see me . He’d fallen to his knees and sobbed the night Henry had unveiled the painting of him. Day after day he’d posed, nude, never seeing the canvas, uncertain why Henry could possibly want to paint him. But then he’d seen the painting, and he’d known.
His submission was beautiful to Henry. He was beautiful to Henry.
Astonishment was the only true response to that much love. He’d felt it in his bones the way Alice would be feeling it now, cupping her hands over her mouth and nose, making hitching breaths that set her ribs jerking in the circle of his arms.
He met Henry’s steady gaze and nodded slowly. They would hang this piece today, in the hallway between their bedroom and the playroom, alongside Jay’s portrait. If Alice was anything like him, seeing herself would be a game-changer. That was the moment he truly understood— believed —that Henry loved him with his whole heart, with an acceptance so profound that acknowledging it scared him. Henry’s painting had put Jay on the path to accepting himself. He couldn’t walk past that painting every day and still believe that he wasn’t beautiful, that he wasn’t loved, that Henry found anything about his submission shameful.
Henry strode toward them, dress shoes echoing on the hardwood. Jay spread his arms just enough to let Alice sag against their husband. Wordless and shaking, she scrabbled at Henry’s shirt and twined her arms around his neck.
“My sweet, sweet girl.” Henry cupped one hand around the back of her head and stretched the other to Jay’s cheek, patting lightly. His smile spoke of memory before he pressed his lips to Alice’s temple. “Such an exquisite challenge you were to capture. So much beauty, in so many forms.”
“But I didn’t…” Alice sniffled. “How did you…”
Jay’s portrait had come only after weeks of practicing stillness every evening. He would’ve noticed Alice disappearing for studio sessions, and that for sure hadn’t happened. “Yeah, how did you?”
Henry laughed, warm and gentle, his delight in surprising them so good and right that he glowed like a well-tended fire. “An inordinate number of sketches scattered across the past year. Moments when you slept. Moments when the two of you enjoyed each other at my direction. In your moments of distraction and focus on other tasks. You might be surprised how useful the mundane may be—opening the mail, brushing your hair, collapsing into a chair after a long day of work. All of you resides in these flowing lines, my love.”
Alice squeezed Henry so hard she raised up on her tippy-toes. The sleeveless dress showed the cords of her arms standing out. The tension in her rounded ass lifted into Jay’s fingertips, resting at her hips. “Thank you for this. Nobody’s ever…” She shook her head, her swallow audible. “Your soul is in those lines, too. You make me believe in love.”
The portraits promised permanence. Henry would never sell them; he would hang them on his wall and keep them always. One more claim binding them together so they could never lose one another, never forget who and what they were.
“You don’t have a portrait.” He hadn’t meant for the thought to leap out like that. But if his picture reminded him that he was chosen and cherished and that his service was his choice and not out of fear of rejection if he said no, then Henry should have one too, so he didn’t question their love for him, either. “Me and Alice could try, but…”
Alice, sniff-snorting, raised her face from Henry’s chest. “My art skills are strictly math based.” Leaning back against Jay, she studied Henry. “You’d make a spectacular equilateral triangle. Does that make me Picasso?”
“Indescribably better.” Henry gripped Jay’s shoulder. “Fear not. I have devised a solution. If you’d care to hear it?”
He clamored like a kid, Alice joining in. Their begging extensions of pleeeeease grew fancier, a song with at least eight syllables.
“For our final gift this year”—Henry spoke, and they both quieted immediately, the only sound the shush of the furnace fan—“I have arranged a photo session with Avery for family portraits next month. Both those suitable for sharing with our friends and families and those…” Henry slow-blinked; a smile crept up his cheeks. “Less so. From those, I will have the basis for a portrait of the three of us.”
Permanent proof that they belonged together. This day just kept getting better.