49. Chapter 49
Victor
“I don’t want to leave everyone,” Grace murmurs against my chest as we stand in my office getting ready to head for the airport.
“I know, sweetheart. But we’ll be back in two weeks, and it won’t even seem like we left. But we need to go because I have a surprise waiting for you in the limo.”
We said goodbye to everyone already, and the limo is waiting in the back lot.
She stands and smooths the front of her travel dress then grabs her purse. “OK. I’m ready.”
I grip her hand and take her through the kitchen to the back door where our driver is waiting to open the door to the limo. I nudge Grace to slide in first.
The squeal when she sees her surprise is worth it.
“Lili! He lied and said you weren’t coming.”
I climb in behind her and gently urge her to sit so we can leave. Lili just smiles coyly until we’re moving.
“I wanted it to be a surprise when Victor asked if I would join.”
“We can’t have a honeymoon with one of us missing, butterfly,” I say against her ear as I nibble her neck. “But there are some things you need to understand about the next two weeks before we get on the plane.”
She squirms against me and Lili slides a hand along her thigh.
“Is she ready to listen to us, Vic?”
“I am. I’m listening,” she says, already breathless.
“We’ll see,” I say, kissing her temple. “First I need to give Lili something.”
I reach into the overnight bag I had placed in the front of the limo and pull out a small gift box, wrapped in the same deep purple as tonight’s tie.
Lili raises an eyebrow. “What’s this?”
“Open it.”
She peels back the paper with far more patience than Grace ever manages, and lifts the lid to reveal a delicate silver bracelet, two charms dangling from the chain. One is a faceted crystal, cut to catch light like ice. The other is a flame shaped in warm gold, soldered right beside it.
“Fire and ice,” I say, watching her turn it over in her fingers. “Because you’re both. Sharp enough to cut and warm enough to burn, sometimes in the same breath.”
Lili’s throat works, and for a second I think she might actually cry, which would be a first. “Victor.”
“Put it on.”
She does, and it sits against her wrist like it was made for her, because it was.
“I love it,” she says quietly. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. Just wear it.” I turn my attention back to Grace, who’s watching the exchange with a soft, slightly jealous look that has nothing to do with the bracelet itself. “Don’t worry, butterfly. You’re getting something too. Later.”
“Later when?”
“When we get where we’re going.” I tug her fully into my lap, ignoring her huff of protest. “Now. Ground rules for the next two weeks, since apparently you need reminding just how thoroughly you belong to both of us even with a ring on your finger.”
Grace goes very still. “I’m listening.”
“You don’t come without permission. From either of us.
You ask before you touch yourself, and you ask before you touch either of us, unless we tell you otherwise first.” Lili’s hand slides higher on her thigh, punctuating every word.
“You use your safeword the second you need it, married or not, husband giving the order or not. That part never changes.”
“I know that part,” Grace says softly.
“I know you do. I’m still going to say it every time.” I press a kiss to her temple. “And for the next two weeks, you’re going to let both of us take care of you without arguing that you don’t need it. No client emails. No manuscript notes. Just us.”
Grace’s eyes flick to Lili, then back to me, heat already building behind them. “That sounds like a rule I can actually keep.”
“Good girl.”
“Still not going to tell me where you’re taking us?” Lili asks as we approach the tarmac where the private jet waits for us.
“Nope.”
“You better hope I packed the right kind of clothes then.”
“If you didn’t we’ll just shop, or you can stay naked. It’s private property.”
The flight is long enough for all three of us to fall asleep tangled together across the cabin’s oversized seats, and when I wake Grace with a kiss somewhere over the coastline, the sun is just starting to set.
“Where are we?” she asks, blinking against the window.
I don’t answer. I want to watch her face when she figures it out herself.
The car takes us down a familiar stretch of coastal road, salt air pouring through the cracked windows, and I watch Lili go very still beside me the second she recognizes the turn.
“Victor.” Her voice doesn’t sound like hers. “This is...”
“I know.”
The car pulls up in front of a weathered beach house with a wraparound porch and a balcony overlooking the water, and Lili is out the door before the driver even puts it in park.
“You bought it,” she says, staring up at the house. “The rental company told me it sold months ago. I thought some stranger was going to redo the whole thing and ruin it.”
“No stranger.” I climb out after her, pulling Grace along with me. “Just me. I bought it the week after you left, before I even knew if you were coming back. Renovated the parts that needed it. Left the balcony exactly the way it was.”
Lili’s eyes fill, and this time she doesn’t fight it. “Why?”
“Because this is where you finally started figuring out who you wanted to be without him. I wasn’t about to let anyone else own that.” I tip her chin up. “Consider it a wedding gift. To all three of us.”
Grace looks between the house and both of our faces, clearly missing context she doesn’t have yet, and Lili laughs through her tears.
“I’ll explain later, lover. Right now I just want to go stand on that balcony.”
We do, all three of us, watching the sun finish setting over water Lili stared at alone every night for four months. She doesn’t say much. She doesn’t need to.
Grace
Why am I nervous? I’ve submitted to Lili and Victor at the same time before.
The only difference tonight is that Victor is my husband.
But I’m trembling as Victor pushes open the door to the bedroom at the top of the stairs, the one with the best view of the water, the one Lili’s clearly given us without being asked.
Lili follows us in, already peeling out of her sundress like she’s been waiting all day for this part.
“Kneel,” Victor says, and it’s not a suggestion.
I sink to my knees on the rug in front of the bed, and Lili settles into the armchair by the window to watch, the way she has a hundred times before, except tonight feels different. Heavier. Better.
Victor crouches in front of me instead of standing over me, which he almost never does, and takes both of my hands in his.
“I made you a promise a long time ago that you’d earn my full collar when you were ready,” he says.
“I’ve watched you fight for a bookstore and for your own name.
You’ve spent months fighting for two people who love you more than either of us knows how to say out loud.
You’ve been ready for a while now. I was just waiting for the right night to prove it. ”
He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a small black box, and when he opens it, I forget how to breathe.
Inside is a necklace, a delicate gold chain, a butterfly pendant small enough to wear every day, wings picked out in tiny amethysts that catch the lamplight.
“Gracelynn Marsh.” He unclasps it and holds it up. “Will you wear my collar? Not the training piece. The real thing. Mine, completely, for as long as you’ll have me.”
“Yes.” It comes out before he even finishes the question. “God, yes, Victor.”
He fastens it around my neck himself, fingers steady despite how much his voice shook getting the words out, and when he leans back to look at it against my skin, his face goes soft, which I’ve seen maybe three times total.
“Perfect,” he murmurs. “Exactly where it belongs.”
Lili rises from the chair and crosses to us, kneeling down beside me so we’re level, and presses her lips to my temple. “Welcome home, lover.”
“I’ve been home for months,” I tell her. “This just makes it official.”
“Good.” Victor’s voice drops into the register that means playtime is over and something else is starting. “Because now that you’re properly collared, wife, I intend to spend the rest of tonight reminding you exactly what that means.”
He undresses me slowly, reverently, Lili’s hands joining his everywhere mine used to be alone, and by the time he lays me back against the bed, I’m shaking for entirely different reasons than nerves.
“Lili.” His voice is rough. “Hold her hands over her head. She doesn’t get to touch anything until I say so.”
Lili complies instantly, pinning my wrists to the pillow above me, and I arch up into nothing, already desperate.
“Please.”
“Please what, wife?” Victor’s mouth trails down my stomach, teeth grazing my hip bone. “Use your words. You know how this works.”
“Please touch me. Please, Sir.”
“Better.” He settles between my thighs and licks a slow line straight up my pussy, and every coherent thought I have is gone.
He takes his time, alternating between his mouth and his fingers, reading my body like he’s memorized every one of its responses over the last year, which he probably has.
Lili keeps my wrists pinned, murmuring filthy praise against my ear the whole time, telling me how good I look collared and desperate and completely theirs.
When I finally come, it’s with Victor’s name and Lili’s both tangled together in the same breath, and neither of them lets up until I’m boneless and shaking against the sheets.
Victor climbs up over me next, and the first push of him inside me has my back arching clean off the bed.
“Mine,” he growls against my throat, right over the new necklace, right over the collar that says exactly that in gold and amethyst. “Say it.”
“Yours.” I wrap my legs around him, pulling him deeper. “Both of yours. Always.”
Lili releases my wrists to slide beneath me instead, positioning herself so I can taste her while Victor moves inside me, and the three of us find a rhythm and keep it, over and over, until I lose track of whose hands are whose.
Afterward, tangled together in a bed in the house that saved Lili’s life, wearing a collar that means I finally, completely belong to both of them, I trace the line of Victor’s jaw with one finger.
“You should get a tattoo,” I say sleepily. “Something for all three of us.”
“Already thinking about it.” He catches my hand and kisses my knuckles. “I know a guy. Noffsinger, if he’s willing to fly out. Something with fire, ice, and wings, if I can talk him into it.”
“I like that,” Lili murmurs against my shoulder, already half asleep.
I fall asleep between them, finally and completely home.