Healing the Wounds

by M. Q. Barber

  “Her stomach, pale and smooth. Her breasts, round and soft, always eager to welcome her lovely playmate.” Controlled and coaxing, Henry lowered his voice. “Shall we decorate them for her?”

  Jay uttered a thick, “Yes, please,” amid heavy breaths. His focus flashed between her face and her nudity sprawled out before him.

  Henry added a twisting slide to his strokes.

  Stiffening, Jay laid his head back on Henry’s shoulder and arched forward. He thrust hard and groaned. He came in a rush, spurting in long streaks, splashing her skin with heat.

  Henry murmured to him, guiding Jay through his orgasm with practiced ease. Pure perfection, the both of them, no wasted motions, form and function in harmony.

  Jay gasped for air, and Henry patted his chest.

  Love.

  Evidence all around her.

  And on her.

  Her giggle slipped out. “I love you.”

  Tears spilled down Jay’s cheeks and collected in the corners of his smile.

  Henry released his cock and crushed his chest in a bear hug.

  Sympathetic tears gathered in her own eyes, and she blinked them free.

  “So much emotion,” Henry soothed. “My brave boy and girl. How deep your bond runs. How sweet to see you acknowledge it. You make me proud when you play so well together. Happy tears, isn’t that so, my boy?”

  Sniffling, Jay nodded. “Happy tears, ’cause Alice isn’t scared. I did good.”

  She gripped his hands and crowded her men with her legs, a near hug. “You did fantastic, loverboy.”

  He giggled along with her, Henry’s dry voice topping their amusement. “You both performed quite well. Now we only need work on expanding your use of proper grammar. ‘Did good’ indeed.”

  His snort ruined the oh-so-proper sniff of disdain, sending her and Jay into uncontrolled laughter. They fed into each other, the laughs lasting longer than they would’ve without the echo chamber, but eventually they subsided into an air-sucking competition to refill starved lungs.

  Henry hummed. “Catch your breath, my dears, and we’ll have a bit of cleanup. It seems we’ve made something of a delightful mess.”

  Jay tipped his head and raised a single eyebrow. Twice.

  Yes, she knew. He probably had firsthand knowledge—well, first-back knowledge, given his position—but fuck if she’d leave Henry out either. Not tonight.

  “Henry?”

  “Yes, my girl?” Kneeling behind Jay, Henry rubbed his thigh in a soothing rhythm.

  “You gave Jay what he needed. And you gave me what I needed.”

  “And I’m very pleased to have done so, Alice.”

  She met Jay’s eyes above his tear-stained cheeks, knowing hers likely matched, and sensed complete agreement. “But there’s something else we need.”

  “Oh?”

  Right track. His calculated, neutral tone clued her in. Henry’s equivalent of concern when he needed to be strong for them.

  “We need to give you what you need. Please, Henry.”

  “Please,” Jay repeated, his voice quiet but equally determined.

  “You’ve already pleased me tonight, both of you, with your openness and trust.” Henry squeezed Jay’s thigh with one hand and Alice’s calf with the other. “There’s nothing else you need to do for me, my dears.”

  “Maybe we need”—she took a deep breath and waded in—“to feel like you need more from us. That we’re still desirable. We’re yours, Henry, but we aren’t children. We want to satisfy you. We need to.” She cast around for another way to make him understand how badly they needed this. “When we—those first few months—when you wouldn’t—I was so confused. I thought, for the longest time, that you didn’t want me at all. That I didn’t really arouse you.”

  “Oh, Alice.” Henry closed his eyes. “I’m so sorry, dearest. That was miles from my intent.”

  “I’m not saying this to hurt you. I don’t ever want to hurt you. I just need you to understand. I don’t want to feel like you don’t want me. Or that I let you down or—” This would be the hardest one to admit. But Jay had been so brave tonight. Could she be any less brave? “Or that you don’t want to touch me because…because of Cal and the things he said.”

  Jay gasped and nodded, vehemently, fresh tears spilling from his eyes.

  “You both feel this way?”

  They answered with an echoing, “Yes.”

  Henry’s calm facade cracked.

  After a lengthy silence, Henry wrapped his arms around Jay in a tight embrace. He kissed Jay’s cheek and patted Jay’s side. “To the left for a moment, Jay, please. Alice, if you’ll give me your hand and sit up a bit, my dear.”

  She straddled his thighs.

  He pressed her against him until her breasts flattened against his chest and Jay’s ejaculate transferred from her skin to his.

  “Jay, pile the pillows against the headboard.”

  Face tucked against Henry’s neck, she rocked as the bed shifted with Jay’s movement.

  “You recall the first night you took Alice?”

  “Red flowers and music.”

  Henry caressed her back. “Yes, precisely. So lovely. So nervous. You recall how I held her for you? Yes? Good. I want you to hold Alice for me, Jay, just like that. I want to look at both of your beautiful faces while I make love to you tonight. That’s what I need from you. To see that love and trust and lack of fear in your eyes. Can you do that for me? Yes?”

  Alice nodded against his neck.

  Jay added a soft, calmer, “Yes, Henry. Thank you, Henry.”

  Henry lowered her onto Jay’s lap. He coaxed Jay’s knees up, spreading her legs with them, and wrapped Jay’s arms around her. She rested her head beside Jay’s, their faces nearly level.

  “Beautiful,” Henry murmured. “So lovely together.”

  He knelt between their legs and kissed them, deep and slow, first Jay and then Alice. Limp in the aftermath of her earlier orgasms and the emotional release, she stirred with new warmth from his delicate attention.

  “You see how Alice trusts you, Jay? How she allows you to hold her like this, open and vulnerable?” He nuzzled their throats with soft kisses and softer words. “You feel the relaxation in her muscles, don’t you? She’s not afraid. She’s not thinking that you have harmed her or disappointed her. She’s thinking that you are her trusted partner, her lover, and she is entirely safe in your arms. Isn’t that right, Alice?”

  “Yes, that’s—”

  Henry brought his mouth to her nipple.

  “S’true. So safe here.”

  Jay stroked her sides and rubbed his cheek against hers.

  Henry’s fingers replaced his mouth on her breasts.

  “And my sweet girl, my Alice, you know how desirable you are, don’t you?” He brought her hand to his cock, hard and ready. “How eager you make me to feel your body around mine? I’ll tell you a secret, dearest.” He slipped a hand across Jay’s arms and down her stomach, ending at her clitoris.

  “When Jay and I reconsidered his contract in August, his opening bid—”

  Jay buried his face in her neck.

  Henry chuckled. “His opening bid was a request for three climaxes with you per day. Only three, he tells me. That’s all. I, of course, explained the unreasonable nature of his request while we were trying to lure you deeper into our den of iniquity. But what I didn’t tell him…” Henry parted her lips.

  She rocked against Jay, the long-legged barrier holding her back.

  Henry dropped his voice to a whisper. “What I didn’t tell him was that I, too, wanted to write you a contract that had you in my bed three times a day.”

  He thrust fingers inside her and swept his thumb across her clit. “No alternate Fridays. No waiting. No guiding you slowly into this relationship, this lifestyle. Just sweet Alice, mine to take whenever I pleased. And I please now, Alice.”

  His fingers left her, and he rolled a condom over his cock. He thrust slow and steady, inten
t on their faces. His rhythm rocked her and Jay. Their moans mingled above Henry’s breathing and the slick suction as he stroked deeper into her.

  He clasped the headboard and delivered kisses on their upturned faces. The tension behind his thrusts strained her body, tightening her against Jay, squeezing his erection between her back and his stomach.

  Henry thrust almost downward, pushing forward, colliding with her clitoris.

  Desperate to match him, to keep him, to please him, she braced her shoulders against Jay’s solid chest and arched into Henry. Her toes curled.

  “Love you both…so much…my dear ones.” Henry thrust hard, giving her the fullness she craved.

  Her body responded to him as it always had, obeying his unspoken need for her to come with him. Because she wanted it to. Because she loved him. She leapt over the edge, a willing victim to the free fall that shook her and both of them with her.

  When her shaking slowed, he thrust quickly, repeatedly.

  She cried out again, chasing the pleasure he gave and demanded she accept.

  He growled and dropped his head to theirs, foreheads touching, and drove them back on the mattress as he came.

  Chapter 3

  Alice hummed and danced her way around the kitchen on Saturday morning, getting out supplies to make French toast. Eggs, check. Milk, check. Bread, check. Vanilla extract and cinnamon for flavor, check. Butter and syrup, check.

  Finding a wide, shallow bowl for dredging the bread took a couple tries. She wasn’t entirely familiar with Henry’s kitchen—their kitchen—yet, not as a chef instead of a guest, but she wouldn’t hesitate to make herself at home.

  Besides, Henry was occupied.

  She smirked as she cracked the eggs one-handed and tossed the shells. She’d gotten her morning treat in bed, sweet kisses from Jay and his fingers on her clit as Henry took her from behind while she lay on her side. Their climax had been quiet, gentle, but no less fulfilling for that. She’d bowed out of the postcoital shower quickly to give her boys time to themselves, promising to put breakfast on the table if they promised to work up an appetite.

  She whipped the eggs and added the milk, vanilla, and cinnamon while the griddle warmed. The motion of her wrist stirred fantasies of Jay’s morning treat. Henry’s hand tight around their lover’s cock, stroking him off in the shower. She’d have to stay next time. The show had been fantastic last night.

  Jay could be so vocal in his pleasure. Not like Henry, not verbal, but vocal. Grunts and groans. Moans and whimpers. Strained breaths and a raspy edge in his voice when Henry did make him talk. Wind him up, and his teasing charm transformed into an uninhibited, driving need coursing desire through all of them.

  French toast mix sloshed onto the counter. Whoops. Distracted by the sexy Jay-soundtrack in her head, she’d gotten a little overexcited with the stirring. She wiped up the mess and wet her fingers under the faucet.

  The sprinkle of water sizzled on the griddle. She dipped the first slice of bread.

  An unfamiliar ringtone trilled from the entryway. Bread dropped and fingers wiped clean, she popped out to the side table. Henry’s phone. He didn’t get many calls. If it was his agent, a sale might be on the line.

  She picked up the phone. The display read Em.

  Not his agent, but the name teased her memory. Em. Emma. The woman from the club. She kissed Henry. The submissive who sat on the board. The call could be about Cal and whether her punishment had affected Henry’s status at the club.

  Her thumb swiped the screen without permission. “Hello?”

  “I think I must have dialed the wrong number. Pardon—”

  “No, you’re Emma. You’re labeled on the phone. From—” She strove for nonchalance. “From the club, right?” Like she talked about sex clubs all the time to women who had seen her half-naked and kissed her lover.

  “And you’re Alice.” Surprise colored the lilting, feminine voice. “You answer his calls?”

  “Sometimes.” Times like now. And possibly times in the future. So sometimes was an accurate answer. Not one she’d try on Henry, though.

  “I see.” Emma’s tone implied she did see. “Is Henry available to talk?”

  “Not right now.” If Jay was enjoying being aroused, comfortable being naked and even arousing Henry, she refused to interrupt their shower for anything short of Armageddon.

  “Is he—” A long silence followed. “Is he refusing to speak to me?”

  Was he what? Did this woman think Henry would sever all ties with the club? Had he? He could’ve met with the board while she and Jay were at work. Fuck. She never should’ve picked up his phone.

  “Should he be?” She tried to keep her voice cool.

  “Please tell him—no, I’m sorry, Alice. I’ve called to apologize, not only to him, but to you and Jay as well.”

  “You’re worried about him.” And felt guilty, somehow.

  “About the three of you, yes.”

  Emma had approached them as a friend in the hall. Warm. Laying her hand on Henry’s shoulder and kissing his cheek. Complimenting him. About her.

  “But you’d rather see him in person.” Meeting her, Emma hadn’t seemed jealous or threatened. She’d seemed happy for Henry. Like a good friend. “To make sure he’s okay.”

  “You’re a perceptive and forthright young woman, Alice. I expect it’s part of why Henry…enjoys you so.”

  Loves, she mentally corrected. Henry loved her so. And this woman knew it. If she was his confidante, he’d appreciate her support and advice.

  “Yes, I’d rather see all three of you in person, but I suppose that would be out of the question.”

  “We aren’t going back there.” She rushed out the answer. “Not anytime soon.”

  Henry had promised. Though the promise seemed as much for him as for them. He’d punish himself for his perceived betrayal of their trust in little ways until he felt he’d atoned. He wouldn’t let Jay get away with it, but himself he’d punish for no reason at all.

  “…didn’t think you would.”

  “But you could come here.” It was a fabulous idea. Henry needed to talk to someone who’d help him stop punishing himself, and he considered this Emma woman a peer.

  “I couldn’t possibly.”

  “You should come for dinner.” For Henry, she could keep her jealousy under control. He wasn’t in love with this woman. He loved her and Jay. “We eat at seven.”

  Emma laughed, her voice thin and fading. “Do you? Victor’s influence, I suppose. Henry often joined us at suppertime when he—” She clucked. “And now I’m talking out of turn.”

  “Come to dinner,” Alice urged. “I won’t ask about your history with him.”

  “Which I won’t be divulging to you in any case, you realize.”

  “You wouldn’t be a very good friend to Henry if you did.”

  “You’re not going to try to push me for information? You were blazing with curiosity when I saw you last.”

  “Henry gave me the answers I needed. And if I needed more reassurance, I’d ask, and he’d give it.” The truth radiated warmth in her chest. She didn’t have to feel guilty about asking for what she needed. Henry wanted her to need him.

  “Hmm. He would, wouldn’t he?” Emma sighed. “But I cannot accept your dinner invitation, Alice, not without his approval. I understand you aren’t in the same—that you don’t answer to him in every area of your lives, but I won’t drop in and surprise him in his home.”

  The shower had stopped. Jay stood in the bathroom doorway naked and smiling as he rubbed a towel over his hair.

  “Just a minute, please.” She muted the phone, waved to get Jay’s attention, and called down the hall. “Get Henry.”

  “Demanding little thing, aren’t you?” Jay smirked at her. “Where’s my breakfast?”

  Oh, shit. Breakfast.

  “Jay, catch.”

  He dropped the towel and grabbed the phone in midair.

  “Tell Henry Emma’s coming to
dinner and he needs to tell her it’s okay with him.”

  Thank God the smoke rising from the pan on the stove hadn’t set off an alarm. At least she hadn’t dropped bread on the griddle. As it was, she only had to turn down the heat and fish soggy bread pieces from the egg mixture to trash them.

  Potentially burning the place down probably wasn’t a reasonable way to demonstrate her prowess at breakfast duties. Make a note, Allie-girl.

  * * * *

  A stack of French toast waited, warming beneath a foil tent, when Jay sauntered into the kitchen. Fully dressed, sadly. She was rather fond of the look he’d sported right out of the shower. He sidled up to her as she turned off the stove.

  Aluminum foil rustled.

  “Hey.” She blocked him with the spatula. “Breakfast at the table, goof, and not until Henry’s ready, too.”

  Jay walked his fingers up the spatula. “But if I don’t taste them first, how do you know they’ll be good enough for Henry?” Wide, innocent eyes gazed at her with puppy pleading. “I’m doing this for you, Alice. From the bottom of my heart.”

  She snorted. “From the bottom of your stomach, more like. Can you carry the plate to the table without sampling?”

  He heaved an exaggerated sigh. “If I must, my cruel-but-beloved chef.” He kissed her cheek and danced away with the plate.

  Following with the syrup and cut fruit, she surveyed the table, mentally checking things off.

  Henry caught her as she turned, trapping her against his chest. Freshly showered and scented, his chest warm and broad. Mmm. Good morning.

  “I forgot the juice.”

  “Jay will fetch it.”

  She tipped her head back. “So serious. I can—”

  “Jay, will you fetch the juice and glasses, please?”

  “On it.” He raised his eyebrows when he passed her.

  Henry prowled her back with his fingertips. He still hadn’t smiled.

  A prickle of not-lust crawled up her spine. Concern.

  “Now, my dear girl, shall we discuss what orders I am to carry out?”

  “Orders?”

  “Mmm. I believe Jay informed me I was to tell Emma to join us for dinner because it was okay with me.”

  Oh. Fuck. Yeah, she’d pretty much said it like an order. Jay would never have done what she’d done. He might’ve brought Henry the phone, but arbitrarily invited someone to dinner? When hell froze over.