Healing the Wounds (16 page)

Henry snagged a piece of cookie for himself, chewing and nodding before swallowing. “Though the cookies are excellent. Jay, if you’ll fetch the bags, the cooler and dry goods may stay in the kitchen, of course, and the others in the bedroom to the left.”

Alice chomped another cookie bite, unsurprised when Jay shoveled in the rest of his cookie and dashed outside. Henry’s command plus nearly three hours trapped in the car equaled a Jay eager to stretch his legs.

She poked around the cabin, one large main room sectioned off into living and dining and kitchen areas by sumptuous furnishings. A hallway to her right with bedrooms and a shared bath. Stairs against the wall on that side led to a loft. Windows from floor to ceiling on the south side, split by a central stone chimney. A set of doors leading out to a deck.

Henry guided her to the lone door on the east wall.

“Master suite.” He pushed open the door and turned on the light. “Where we’ll be sleeping, among other things.”

“Master suite for the master?” She teased him as she took in the space. Masculine, oversize furniture. A second door that probably led to a bathroom. A third out to the deck. “Sounds right to me.”

“Master, Alice?” Tugging her against him, Henry slipped one hand into the space between her back and her jeans—no, her underwear, even. He crushed her to him with a grip on her bare ass. “I’m not so demanding as all that, am I? That’s a level of control far beyond what we need. Not when you’re so beautifully obedient and responsive, hmm?”

Responsive, fuck, talk about understatement. Her nipples hardened beneath her shirt, pressed to his firm chest. She widened her stance to accommodate the warm pulse between her legs. “I like your demands, Henry.”

“I know you do, my sweet. And I’m quite pleased when you tell me so.” He sucked at her earlobe. “Do you know what else pleases me?”

Not a clue. The answer could be any of a million things.

“Making you
wait.
” His deep voice resonated in her bones. A whimper escaped her as he stepped back. “Dinner first. We’re two hours overdue.”

Her own arousal captivated her for the next hour, as Jay brought in the bags and Henry put a quick dinner together and the three of them sat and ate around the table. But finally, as the antique clock in the dining area chimed ten, Henry spoke the words she’d been waiting to hear.

“Tell me your safeword, please, Jay.”

“Tilt-A-Whirl.” No hesitation.

“Alice?”

“Pistachio.” A rush of adrenaline.

“Into the bedroom with you both, then. Leave your clothes as they are.” Henry took a deep breath and exhaled with steady calm. “I’ll remove them myself tonight.”

She sauntered into the master bedroom with a bounce in her step, an extra sway in her hips. If Jay, following her, noticed, he held his tongue out of respect for Henry’s mastery.

Standing side by side, she and Jay appeared cut from the same cloth. Henry’s choice; he’d dressed them both. He trailed his fingers over the buttons down their shirtfronts.

“You both know you may use your safewords at any time,” he prompted.

“Yes, Henry.” They responded in unison. Maybe she’d gotten the hang of being a cosubmissive.

“And you’ll use them when?”

“If I’m—confused,” she finished, as Jay ended with “scared.” Okay. They might be cosubs, but they were individuals, too. With individual needs. That Henry took care of. She wiggled her toes in her socks. Comfy.

Fingering the fabric between buttonholes, Henry nodded. “Or in pain of any sort, hmm?”

Emotional pain, most likely. She doubted they’d play games with physical pain until Jay—
be honest, Allie-girl
—until they both stopped thinking so much about the club. Henry encouraged them to show him their emotional needs. Like Jay had last week. As upsetting as his breakdown had been, as helpless as she’d felt to help him at first, he’d needed the emotional release.

Her answer followed on the heels of Jay’s. “Yes, Henry.”

“Lovely.” He circled them, and she reminded herself not to turn.

Jay had no trouble staying still. Henry in charge gave him more comfort than not. The flirtatious charm Jay donned like a costume when he went out into the world seemed an outlet for nervous energy. He didn’t lose his charm at home or in bed, but the contrast showed in his steadier, boyish expression of love. A reflection of the difference having Henry in his life made. Their love made a difference in her, too.

Henry’s kiss took her by surprise, but following his lead came easy when his lips moved against hers.

He kissed Jay with the same thoroughness. Jay whimpered at the pleasure.

An answering cry built in her own throat. She breathed deep and quick.

Henry stepped back and studied them.

“I’m so very pleased with you both.” Speaking in a conversational tone, he began unbuttoning her shirt.

She shivered at the brush of his knuckles against her breasts.

“Brave. Resilient.” With each word, he loosed another button. “Beautiful. Brilliant. Eager.” He pulled her shirt free of her jeans and pushed it from her shoulders, sliding his hands down her back and unclasping her bra as well.

Leaving her half-naked, he sidestepped in front of Jay and repeated the process. “Courageous. Obedient. Beautiful. Giving. Enthusiastic.” Henry grasped Jay’s jeans, sending his hips rocking and pulling him forward. Nimble fingers unfastened the top and lowered the zipper. Henry pressed his hand against the hard cock outlined by tented boxers. “
Very
enthusiastic.”

She squeezed her thighs together. Jay hadn’t cornered the market on enthusiasm. Her panties practically sloshed with anticipation.

Having stripped Jay bare, he returned. Her body hummed under his touch. He lowered her underwear, and the thick scent of her own arousal flooded her nose. His deep inhalation and satisfied sigh fluttered through her, tightening her stomach and provoking a downbeat of thumping anticipation. But he directed them to lie on the bed on their backs, a narrow space between, arms at their sides, legs comfortably spread.

Henry undressed himself with customary care, his gaze wandering over her body and Jay’s. Each attractive to him in its own way, she supposed. To her, the body functioned as a system. A machine variable in the weight it could lift, the pressure it could sustain, the rhythm of its movement. God knew he’d built gorgeous machines when he made Henry and Jay.

But Henry had an artist’s eye for anatomy. The private delights he saw in Jay’s slender, boyish hips and long, lean muscles and in her own padded curves stayed locked in his head or flowed from the tip of a brush. She might never understand him with certainty or precision. But she was learning to accept that what he saw, he loved.

“Such beautiful creatures you both are.” Nude, aroused, he knelt between them on the bed. “But far from delicate.” He ran his hands down their arms, solid pressure crossing shoulder, bicep, forearm, palm. “So very strong. Inside and out.”

Lowering his head, he raised their hands in his until he knelt, head bowed, with their palms on his cheeks.

Alice turned her head, a slow movement mirrored by Jay. An infinitesimal nod passed between them as Henry touched his lips to their palms. Humbled by their devotion, he meant to worship them tonight. A healing voice, a healing touch, for his wounded partners.

He ran his hands over her as he praised her. He moved with patient, sweeping strokes, leaving not an inch untouched before he rolled her onto her stomach and did the same to her back. Toes curled, she lay panting and trembling on the edge of orgasm when he finally pushed her onto her back once more. Christ, the intensity in the green depths of his eyes pierced her.

“Come for me, sweet girl.” He ducked his head between her thighs. “Let me taste your pleasure.”

Closing his mouth over her sex, he tugged her lips and clit inside and sucked with rapid repetition. His tongue pushed and rolled. Disobeying him would’ve been impossible even had she wanted to. Her climax had already begun, a flow of heat and pressure and release crashing outward, an earthquake with his tongue at the epicenter.

The wavering wail in her ears came from her own throat, her urgent plea for more answered with thrusting between her lips and a hard press against her clit. The cascade seemed never-ending, even when his tongue left her and he blew warm air across oversensitive flesh. Even when his fingers entered and his tongue bathed her clit. These quakes defied measurement on any scale. Unquantifiable. Limitless.

She lay dazed and sated. Her eyelids slid down. She forced them open. Amusement greeted her in Henry’s soft gaze and pursed lips.

“Drift, dearest.” He caressed her cheek. “You’ve earned a rest after providing such a delicious dessert. And I’ve a date for seconds.”

He tapped her nose with his finger and turned away.

She struggled to keep her eyes open. Dessert. Seconds. Jay. Her body’s sluggish wash of desire failed to dislodge the laxity in her muscles and the mellow contentment in her head.
Love you, Henry.

“My patient boy. Such a kind, generous heart, with so little room for envy.”

She lay quiet as he praised Jay, his hands moving over Jay’s body as they had hers.

“Filled with love you want only to express. Your service accepted.”

She’d burned with more jealousy watching Henry settle a coat on another woman’s shoulders than she did as he stroked toward Jay’s naked cock. Henry praising Jay, touching Jay, gifted her with redoubled pleasure, a joy to witness.

“Your beautiful submission appreciated and honored.”

Every shift of the mattress rippled through her when Jay rolled over. Every buck of his hips into the sheets.

Henry kneaded tight, round ass cheeks under his hands.

She reveled in Jay’s groaning punctuated by sharp breaths—interrupted by Henry’s commands to wait a bit longer—and finally his pleading cries and thanks. She forced her eyes to stay open, grateful not to miss Henry dragging his mouth over Jay’s cock. Twice in two weeks. Jay had to be in heaven.

Apology and affirmation both. Tender care, and Henry’s promise to make them whole. Spreading Jay’s thighs wide, he sank his lips to the base of Jay’s cock. The muscles in his throat and jaw worked in flawless rhythm. Jay reached the finish line as quick as she had and with louder enjoyment. Bemusement crinkled in the corners of Henry’s eyes.

Mumbling from Jay, and Henry nodded, bending forward and kissing Jay’s chest. “Pillows.”

Jay scrambled around the bed adjusting covers and pillows.

Henry turned his attention to her. “Still satisfied, my sweet girl?”

“Mm-hmm.” She didn’t feel…
shortchanged
, her brain chimed in, to silent laughter. Neither Henry’s cock nor Jay’s had filled her tonight, but she hadn’t been left empty. Not like the nights when she’d wondered whether Henry desired her at all.

“Comfy,” she added. “Humming.” Staring into Henry’s eyes made her own tear up. “In love.”

“Exceptional,” Henry murmured. “Come here, dearest.”

Reclining into Jay’s pillow-nest concoction, Henry tucked her into his side. He kissed her with slow deliberation, weaving one hand through her hair and cradling her with the other. Pulling back, he revealed Jay kneeling between his legs, head bowed, a perfect waiting pose.

Henry unthreaded his hand from her hair and stroked Jay’s face, knuckles following his cheekbone. “All right, my beautiful boy. Show me.”

Perfect. Front-row seat for gorgeous action. Resting her head on Henry’s shoulder, she studied Jay’s tongue technique and Henry’s responses, his hand clutching her ass when Jay particularly pleased him. His fingers drifted, sliding between her cheeks. Unintentional. Hell, if Jay had his head between her thighs, she’d be distracted, too.

Legs tightening, Henry flexed his muscles. Jay splayed his hand at the base of Henry’s cock. His fingers paled against the purple flush of excitement. His lips, wet and swollen, matched the color much better. He sighed as he sucked with greater speed, crooning his pleasure at being allowed to show his love and satisfy Henry’s desire.

Henry’s groans reverberated through his cheek and into her skull. Her hips surged against his side in echoing arousal, his approaching climax eliciting a sympathetic response.

“So close, my boy, you’ve such”—Henry took quick, panting breaths—“delightful devotion to your task.” Clenching Jay’s shoulder in a white-knuckled grip, he squeezed her ass with the other hand.

Fuck yes. Henry’d trapped her between the pressure of his hand and her clit grinding against his hip.

With a harsh growl, Henry bucked his hips.

Jay rushed to swallow, gulping and gasping.

Tense and ready, she sent her fingers diving toward her pussy.

Henry got there first. He slid his fingers into her from behind, the heel of his hand bumping her ass as she rippled around him. Her climax arrived with sudden speed, her body shaking for one unending moment.

She lay in bliss, jolted into blinking finally when Henry’s fingers left her. Accepting the offered fingers, Jay sucked them clean. Henry beckoned Jay forward, and they kissed with deep appreciation before kissing her in turn.

The three of them lay together, Jay sprawled on Henry’s chest and Alice cradled at his side, until Henry patted their hips. “All right, my dears. Cleanup and sleep. It’s time to put this day to bed, hmm?”

They agreed it was, stretching sated and sleepy bodies as they rolled to their feet and headed to the bathroom. Head drooping, she noticed little beyond the softness of the washcloths and the wide expanse of counter.

Less than ten minutes later, she lay under the covers, sleep claiming her almost before her men settled beside her. “Should go camping more,” she mumbled. “S’nice.”

Alice pressed her head into the pillow and stretched. Her arms encountered no bodies. She popped her eyes open.

Jay lay on his side, cheeks stubbly and lips soft and full. “Hey, sleepy.”

“Mmph.” She yawned. The hour felt early yet. They’d fallen asleep so late. “Henry?”

Jay poked a hand out from under the covers and gestured behind her. “Outside.”