by M. Q. Barber
“Just-right sore.” Nuzzling his ear, she basked in his closeness and cataloged the softening of his cock. Protective best described the emotion, his vulnerability measured in her emptiness. “I love you, Henry.”
He kissed her with patient passion, a simple declaration of affection. They lay sated and sleepy for most of an hour before he carried her to the shower. As they soaped each other, the warm sweep of their hands renewed his erection.
She stood under falling water, one leg over his hip as he supported her thigh and cupped her ass. He thrust with slow, gentle strokes. Orgasm gleamed far in the distance, forgotten. Enjoying each other’s bodies mattered more than chasing fireflies. Before Henry, she’d never considered sex might be just this, too—closeness, affection, and love.
By the time they’d dried off and redressed, six o’clock loomed. Jay would arrive any minute, ready to help with dinner, possibly horny and eager to play. “Henry?”
His answering hum echoed as he pulled steaks, vegetables, and a hunk of blue cheese in wax paper from the refrigerator.
“What about Jay?” She wouldn’t leave him out, but her mind seemed bent on reliving the afternoon, affixing better understanding to everything else she associated with the name Henry. Cuddling would be enough for her tonight.
“I’ve a few thoughts about that.” Dinner fixings deposited on the kitchen island, Henry tugged her toward him. “Something special.”
He talked. She listened. They settled on a course of action with time to spare, in full agreement. When their beloved ball of energy came home, bubbling over with stories about his day, neither interrupted to spoil the surprise. Happy early birthday, Jay. You’re going to have a fabulous Friday night.
Chapter 5
While Jay set the table for Friday dinner, Alice struggled to act business-as-usual. Henry intended to crank the best night of the week to eleven for Jay’s thirtieth birthday surprises. For the first time, she knew how he intended the night to go from first kiss to climactic finale.
In blissful ignorance, Jay shared a story about the dog walker he’d encountered in a cramped elevator. Calm and encouraging, Henry asked all the natural questions.
Breathe. Relax. Laugh at the punch line. Review instructions for a fucking awesome night. Review instructions in case Jay panicked. Had he been ten thousand kinds of nervous with Henry’s instructions on repeat before their nights together?
“…think Alice’s day went as good as mine.” Dishes in place, Jay abandoned the table and swept her up in a hug. “She’s got faraway eyes.”
Henry skirted the island and wrapped his arms around them both. Laying his head on Jay’s shoulder, he tipped his forehead against hers. “Our girl often has much on her mind.” In one confident gaze, he clipped her concern. If all went well, they’d share this position horizontally by the night’s end. “Not all bad. Perhaps anticipation carries her eyes ahead of the clock.”
“I do look forward to Friday nights.” Pursing her lips, she planted a barely-there kiss on Jay. “The new experiences are top-notch.”
Tonight they’d be doubly so. Jay hadn’t been inside her Wednesday or yesterday, either, because making him wear a condom when he didn’t have to was dishonest and unfair, and letting him go bare would’ve spoiled the surprise.
“If we wish to keep Alice in the here and now, we ought to offer her an enticing view.” Henry scraped his teeth along Jay’s neck.
Wriggly and whimpering, Jay rocked between them.
“Run along to your room and shed your clothes, please.” With a growl for Jay, Henry released them. “You’ll dine au naturel.”
Jay scurried around the corner.
Leaning back, she tracked him down the hall and into the bedroom. “You’re clear.”
“For but a moment.” Henry rounded the island and opened the low cabinet. “He’ll be quick.” A pot lid chimed. “Then we shall see what we shall see.” Reaching across the counter, he placed a sacred trust in her hands. “If you’ll do the honor?”
She babied the cuffs as if handling the world’s official kilogram prototype, a rare and delicate treasure. Centered on Jay’s place setting, they rested in reverent offering. Her exhalation shuddered through her.
Henry caught her up before she’d registered him. Hands overlapping on her abdomen, he nudged her with his chin. “Merely a starter set,” he whispered. As she leaned back, he held her steady. “If he isn’t ready, the night will be equally lovely without them.”
“I know.” Her hands looked small over the top of his. Slim. Pale. Fragile. “I just worry.”
“You seek the results before you’ve performed the experiment.” Comforting and safe, he swayed with her. “Our boy will give all he’s able. As will you.” With a head-top kiss, he warmed her. “Your confidence will help him. Can you find it for me, sweet girl?” Henry pep talk. His low rumble soothed as much as his truth. “Trust your capabilities. Trust I know the extent of them. Trust our love will help him stretch his boundaries and rebuild the strength to love himself.”
“I can. I will.” Bare feet slapped against hardwood in the hall. “Showtime. You have mine?”
He tickled her stomach. “Hidden up my sleeve.”
Her squirming flight pressed them closer. “So that’s how the magic happens.”
“Magic?” Jay skidded to a stop and swung in a circle, arms flung wide. “One naked me, at your service. Izzat better, Alice?” As he whirled, his cock bobbed against his thigh. “I’m a fabulous view.”
Fuck yeah he was. A spire of lean muscle, slim and solid, narrowing at his waist—but most beautiful of all, his flashing smile.
“Woo. Dizzy.” Wobbling to a halt, he planted his hand on the table. Strong, tanned fingers lined up alongside his fork. He jerked and froze.
Henry, tightening his arms around her, kept her heart in her chest.
Jay traced the cuff.
Her fingers tingled with the memory of soft edges and rougher Velcro flaps. The pull, the restraint, had jumpstarted her clit like live wires. Jay had given her an incredible night. She wouldn’t do less for him.
“What’s this?” Jay whispered. His fingertips stayed on the cuff.
“Welcome to your birthday dinner.” Henry matched Jay’s soft tone, minus the slight tremble. “The birthday boy deserves a party favor.”
Jay squirmed in a naked dance of bowed-head, lip-chewing fidgets. “My birthday’s not until next weekend.”
“Your gifts are ready now.” Henry ran his hands up her arms and squeezed her shoulders.
Chin lifting, Jay tracked the movement.
“And we wouldn’t wish to punish their eagerness, would we?”
In a hurried headshake, Jay scattered hair across his forehead. “You always say eagerness is a joy, with—” Staring at his party favors, he dropped two fingers down one cuff’s inner lining.
“With what, my brave boy?” Henry would smother Jay’s fears as he had hers, with tones low and gentle. His chest rose and fell in steady rhythm at her back.
“With the proper restraint applied,” Jay whispered. Muscles drawing tight across his abdomen, he held his breath. Remembering the flick of a sadist’s whip?
“And so it is. A great joy.” Henry, in his bedrock-firm voice, left no room for doubt. Their eagerness, his control—perfect equilibrium. “My rules are a restraint you embrace, are they not?”
“They keep me safe.” Wide-eyed faith and bent knees promised his submission.
Goddamn, she’d pay to keep his sweet, open beauty like this forever. He’d agreed, whether he realized the truth yet or not. And she’d read his cues the way Henry did.
Humming, Henry nodded. “Tell me why I keep you safe, Jay.”
Jay flashed a brilliant grin. “Because you love me.”
“I do love you. You’re my good boy.” Henry’s declaration wriggled through Jay from the tilt of his head to the twitch of his cock. “My strong boy. Strong enough to allow yourse
lf to be vulnerable, to give your whole heart to me and to Alice.” He cocooned her in a tight band across her chest, his warmth and pressure inducing a contrary shiver of pleasure. “We take good care of your heart, do we not?”
“You do.” Jay bounced heel-toe. “So good.” As he idly tipped the cuffs, a steel D-ring clinked against the plate. “I don’t—I’ve never—you’re amazing. Spectacular.”
Heart soaring, she wrestled the urge to shout hallelujah. Did he realize—
“As are you.” Henry squeezed. If he didn’t want to call Jay’s attention to the cuff Jay tumbled over and over, she wouldn’t, either. “Tell me your safeword, please.”
Let Jay arrive at his own speed. Slower than his default setting, but so important.
“Tilt-A-Whirl.”
“When will you use it?”
His choice, not Henry’s command. No force, no coercion, no tempting him or distracting him with hands and mouths while restraints slipped around his wrists.
“When I have to stop.” Jay clutched a cuff in each hand. “When I’m not ready.”
“Good boy.” Palms up, empty, and open, Henry reached past her for him. “If you’re ready to extend the trust with your body that you do with your heart, bring me your gift, Jay.”
Neoprene rustling, Jay stared as if magic had placed the cuffs in his grasp. After three steps, he sank to his knees and extended his arms above his head. “I’m ready.” His clear tenor promise, at first wondrous and thin, gained strength. “I’m ready, Henry.”
Henry laid a hand on Jay’s bowed head. “I’m proud of you, brave boy.” Smoothing Jay’s hair, he nudged her forward.
She took over the calming strokes, pressing Jay to her. As she cradled him, his breath warmed her belly. His trust warmed the rest of her.
Accepting the greater responsibility, Henry worked around her and removed the cuff from Jay’s left hand. Velcro scratched beside her ear. Leaning across her, he took hold of Jay’s hand and kissed the pulse point in his wrist.
“A gift for my Jay, who works so hard at his lessons.” Fingers steady and sure, he closed the first cuff. “Good boys deserve special rewards.”
Repeating the ritual on the right, Henry branded her through their clothes with the heat of his erection. Good girls deserved special rewards, too.
Forearms resting on her shoulders, he squeezed Jay’s fingers. “But how to best honor a man who lives to serve?”
“Let him serve.” In her half-embrace, Jay nodded and shuffled his knees.
“Indeed.” Henry tugged Jay up. “On your feet.”
Catlike, Jay rubbed his face against her belly and stood. Naked but for the black cuffs with their gleaming metal rings, he sported an almost solid erection. Henry’s praise puffed him up in all the right ways. He made no move to cover himself, to hunch or hide his excitement for greater submission. Brave Jay, proud of himself and of his role.
“Ladies first.” Henry stirred her to action. No missing cues, not tonight.
Cupping Jay’s face in both hands, she toured the softness of his lips.
He gazed at her with sleepy-eyed adoration. In choosing to accept Henry’s control, he made the only decision he ever needed to make and gained peaceful contentment in return.
She kissed him with lingering passion. He had no idea what awaited him. For once, she out-eagered him. Waiting to share herself with him tested her patience. But making the night special gave the occasion well-deserved reverence.
Henry chased her kiss with his own, pressing her tight between masculine angles. Pulling away, he nodded toward the table. “Clear the place settings, please, my boy. It seems we won’t need them, not when we have a beautiful server available to us.”
As Henry complimented Jay’s streamlined athleticism, Jay stacked plates and cleared without complaint. Different demands for different desires. She’d have questioned. Resented the busywork. Instead, she fetched their light meal from the fridge, lining dessert-sized dishes on the island. Their final resting place had yet to be created.
With the chairs against the wall and the table empty of all but the linen tablecloth, Henry patted the top. “Well done. Up you go.”
Jay hoisted himself up, his swinging legs flexing in oh-so-tempting ways. “I’m serving from the table?”
“Lie back.” Henry guided Jay with a hand on the center of his chest. “You’re serving as the table.”
The wood spanned just long enough to accommodate Jay’s lanky frame as he wriggled into place. Curving chest. Muscled abdomen. Sloping arrow toward his stiffening cock. Powerful hips and thighs made for pumping.
“It’s only fair.” Leaning back, she gripped the island. “I got my turn spread across the table.” Solid, cool granite would keep her hands off Jay until called for. “Time for Jay to return the favor.”
“He makes a lovely platter.” Henry dragged a line from the hollow at Jay’s throat to his increasingly interested cock. “And I’ve a mind to feast.” With a lone finger sliding up Jay’s shaft, he drew forth a whimper. “Dessert is always so enticing.”
She groped for the dishtowel. Granite, granite, cloth. Henry lifted Jay’s head, and she slipped the rolled towel behind his neck for cushioned comfort. Fingers dallying on his throat, she bobbed with him as he swallowed. Mirroring Henry’s hold at the pulse point behind his ear, she encountered a horse at full gallop thundering beneath.
“So difficult,” Henry murmured. “How hard he works to stay still for his master.” He swooped in and kissed Jay with a force powerful as gravity, as if he’d push him through the table with lips alone.
Her dampening panties clung to her. Caution. Slippery when wet.
Jay, singing a chorus of moans, lay otherwise immobile.
“Magnificent. I know my boy will remain in position because I ask it of him.” Henry stroked Jay bicep to wrist and fingered the wide cuff. “He needn’t be tied to respect the rules and restraints I give him. Such a delightful pet.”
In his smooth face and dark eyes, Jay radiated sheer bliss with perfect stillness.
Copying Henry, she traced the cuff on her side. “He’s well-trained, but it’s more than that.”
“Yes, he reveals his true heart here, where he is safe and loved.” With slow reverence, Henry kissed his cheeks. “Would you like Alice to feel as secure in my service as you do, my boy?”
Jay aborted his nod and curling fingers, blips and ripples testing his obedience. “Yes, please.”
“We might find her something decorative so she may share in your bravery. To feel my claim on her as you do.”
As Henry extended his arms in silent request, she grabbed the leather forearm sleeves secreted in the dishtowel drawer. Tonight they’d be a symbol, not buckled together as she’d worn them in January. Her steady pace horse to Jay’s fractious colt. If he grew worried as the night progressed, he’d have her example and she’d have the glory of restraint and the weight of responsibility clasping her tight.
Precise and careful, Henry centered her wrists a foot above Jay’s face. Her playmate would have an excellent view of her joining him in bondage. Henry repeated his steps. Confirming her safeword. Kissing her pulse points with open-mouthed gentleness. Buckling the sleeves. No quick-release Velcro for her. No need.
Their faces cradled in his hands, Henry rubbed their cheeks. “Now both of my beautiful pets are ready for dinner.”
A long, slender, rectangular platter waited atop the island. Plastic clung to the cut fruit and continued below, a thin protector to keep juice from making Jay too sugar-sticky to play with. A barrier like the ones they’d abandon later. God, the moment couldn’t arrive soon enough. As she helped position dinner atop Jay, he gave the tiniest flinch at the lingering chill and inhaled the sweet aroma.
The feast of pineapple fingers and pear cubes, apricot slices, whole strawberries, and pitted cherries spread from collarbone to navel. Miniature bowls of honey, nuts, and whipped Greek yogurt topping covered h
is sternum. Cool delights for a warm summer’s night. Fuel, not food. Bites of sugar and protein to keep them wide awake and wanting.
Henry swirled pineapple in the topping and carried both to Jay’s lips. “My taste tester must sample everything.” Swiping the treat sideways, he left a speck of white behind. “Try some of my cream.”
Slow and teasing, Jay licked his lips. Henry pressed closer. Jay sucked the topping clean and nibbled the pineapple. Only when Henry gave permission did he snatch the whole treat and swallow.
Service and love. Jay excelled at merging the two. She savored each bite to share with her lovers in a communal sensory feast. The fruit and its toppings, soft, fluid, and tart-sweet. The man beneath, firm, supple, and salted. Obedient to their commands.
She held an apricot slice between her teeth, dipped it in honey, and brought it to Jay. Rubbing and bumping noses, arousal flaring, they nuzzled their way through the bite. How he kept his chest so still she’d never understand.
His urge to please Henry went far beyond her own. His need didn’t stop at fulfilling a function or ask for reasons. The freedom to follow Henry’s commands without fear drove him. In the right hands, in Henry’s hands, his trust reaped rewards.
“What an exquisite table I’ve found.” Henry fed Jay on alternating bites and kisses. “A grand centerpiece worthy of my home.”
Drugged bliss flowed in Jay’s eyes, melted cocoa pools. He tracked Henry, gaze following as he would in body given permission.
“Strong, rounded corners.” Starting at Jay’s shoulders, Henry traveled along his collarbone. “A sturdy frame that warms to the touch.”
Henry stroked the notch at the base of Jay’s throat, and his tension thrummed beneath her hands on his ribs and thigh. Did Jay ache, holding back the desire to tip his head and bare his throat to the man he worshiped? God knew she did when Henry touched her there.
“Intricate details that invite closer inspection.” Bending, Henry sucked Jay’s throat. “A master craftsman poured love into this creation.”