by M. Q. Barber
“Is your delightful nudity an attempt to distract me from my thoughts?” He stretched out his arm, lifting the blanket across his lap with his opposite hand, and pulled her down. He hadn’t bothered to dress, either. An excellent start. “A none-too-subtle hint that you’re feeling neglected?”
He tossed the blanket over them both and cuddled her close, pressing his face to her neck and inhaling.
“Mmm. Not distract.” God, his lap was comfortable. If anyone was doing the distracting here, it was him. “Clarify.”
“Oh?” He danced his fingers down her spine and rested his hand at the top of her ass.
Fuck subtlety. Henry appreciated honesty, and Jay was waiting. “You’re conflicted about Emma’s proposal. Jay and I aren’t.”
“Because you rightly understand the two of you deserve my full attention?” He stroked her bare back with slow, steady sweeps.
“Because we rightly understand your desire to help newcomers at the club and stop a predator. Because we share it.”
“You want me to do this.” He defied interpretation, his face and his voice flat and neutral.
She threw herself into the breach. “We want you to do what you think is best. We just want you to have all of the information you need to decide that.”
“Namely, that the two of you feel comfortable returning to the club despite the disastrous, traumatizing experience you had merely two weeks ago.” Skepticism dangled from every word.
She didn’t blame him. A week ago, Jay had been shaking and crying in their bed, and she’d been shying from contact. “I think we have to. Even if it’s not comfortable. Especially then.” She needed proof stronger than words. If she explained her certainty to Henry, he’d understand.
“When I was sixteen, I went to a haunted house with my girlfriends. A community-theater fund-raiser thing. Safe Halloween fun. But one of the guys playing a monster grabbed me. Copped a feel.” The groping had seemed to go on forever, though it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds before her horrified paralysis had given way to reaction.
“I was so angry. The night was supposed to be fun, not disgusting and scary. I rammed my elbow into his gut.” The guy’s pained groan and the way his hands had dropped from her chest to grab his stomach still made her cheer inside. “And then again in his face when he bent over. Monday at school, I saw a guy in my English class. We ran in different crowds, but I still knew him, you know? He had a black eye. His buddies were ragging on him, asking if he’d groped a guy by mistake.”
The sick, angry feeling had swarmed like a cloud of bees, stinging her throat.
“I marched over and almost punched him again to see if I could make his eyes match, and I told him he ought to keep his hands to himself.” Maybe he’d learned the lesson. Maybe not. “It was awkward, seeing him and knowing he saw nothing but a set of boobs to grab. But I think that’s what we need now—me and Jay both—to reclaim that control. To act instead of feeling like victims.”
Henry laid a hand on her hair and kissed her head. “Yes. You do. And you make a lovely argument for it, though I wonder why I’m only hearing of it now.” His voice dropped to a low demand. “Why wasn’t this experience included in your contract answers, Alice?”
“I—where?”
“Did you or did you not answer ‘no’ to the question of whether you’d experienced sexual violence?” His hold barely allowed her ribs space to expand.
“It wasn’t—I haven’t thought of it in years. I didn’t let him control how I felt about it. I wasn’t hurt, Henry. His touch wasn’t anything more than a rough grope through my shirt.”
“And Cal never touched you at all, but you wouldn’t deny that his harassment and bullying is a form of sexual violence, would you? It’s certainly one that has left a strong impression on your mind.” He stroked her hair. “Touched or not, you were assaulted both times nonetheless, my sweet girl. You might have responded to our games in a way I could not have predicted. I might have harmed you for lack of information. You cannot withhold such details from me.”
He whispered in her ear as he tucked strands of hair behind it. “Particularly not as we’ll be spending a good deal of time at the club in the coming weeks. I must be able to predict your responses.”
“We’ll be—” Her mind took a moment to catch up. “You’d already decided.” She pushed back, lifting her face from his neck and meeting his steady gaze. “Before I came out here this morning. You were waiting to see if we’d try to convince you.”
“To see how committed you are to the idea, yes. To gauge the depth of your avoidance after the progress we made last week. Haven’t I always encouraged you to confront fears and desires openly when you’re ready?” He glanced toward the sliding glass door, which hadn’t moved since she’d closed it. “I note Jay didn’t accompany you on this little ambush. Did you draw the short straw?”
They’d had him all wrong. Rather than punishing himself or playing the overprotective dominant, Henry had been waiting on them to recognize their need and come to him on their own. To ask for it. “How long would you have waited?”
“As long as I needed to.” He caressed her cheek with sliding knuckles. “Had you been unable to approach me with the idea, you also would have been unable to follow through and return to the club, where you’ll certainly be forced to confront the emotions surrounding the event.”
“You would’ve prodded us forward at home, though.” Doing nothing wasn’t his style. He constantly assessed the materials at hand, tested their weak points, and found ways to reinforce the overall structure. “Like you’ve been doing with Jay.” He might call his work artistry, but the method was all engineering. “Using scenes that introduced me to new things and helped him confront his fears.”
“I want you both healthy and happy.” He pulled her closer, tucking her sideways in his lap and clasping his arms around her. “There’s no timetable for that, Alice. No deadline you must meet.” He brushed kisses over her face. “I won’t grow tired of you. Nor of Jay. Whatever you need, I will provide.”
“Jay’s afraid.” She blurted the words before overthinking could stop her. “That’s why I’m the one out here convincing you of something you didn’t need to be convinced about.”
Henry stilled in midkiss. Neither a sigh nor a whimper, the soft hitching in his breath conveyed the same pain.
“He feels like he lied to you.” Might as well get it all out. “But he didn’t. I mean, I know he didn’t mean to. Not any more than I meant to in the contract questions.”
“He feels guilty.” Henry relaxed.
She relaxed with him. She’d done right to mention Jay’s problem, even if Henry’d already been aware.
“Something he desired so badly turned out so disastrously, and he’s quite conditioned to blame himself in such cases.”
“He thinks you won’t trust him.”
“Then we shall find more ways to show him what a wonderfully trustworthy boy he is. Starting now.” He scooped her in his arms and stood, leaving the blanket to fall to the deck at their feet. “He’s waited long enough to hear the outcome of your quest, don’t you suppose?”
* * * *
Henry circled the bed. Nude. Yummy. “A bit of fun to celebrate seems in order.”
True to form, Jay’d been in his waiting pose when Henry carried her in and settled her beside him. Told him they’d return to the club in time. Skipped the lengthy explanation and said nothing of her confession or his intention to foster Jay’s self-confidence.
“An activity I’m certain you’ll appreciate, my boy.”
Jay didn’t need to hear those things, not like she did. For him, knowing Henry had made the decision was enough.
“Alice has a very talented mouth, wouldn’t you say?”
If a full-body nod counted as a yes, Jay didn’t need to speak.
“We wouldn’t want her to lose her talent for a lack of practice, would we?”
“No, Henry.” Jay’s quick glance held a n
ervous edge.
Did he think she’d freak out? Hell, after the bastard’s offer to fuck her face, she might, so maybe Jay had the right idea. No guy welcomed a crazy woman’s teeth so close to his most treasured appendage.
“The two of you are going to play a game for me, my dears.” Henry stacked the pillows and lay back against them, his sprawled legs an enticement demanding her attention.
“Jay will be the bold, fearless leader, and Alice will be his lovely little copycat.” Henry’s cock lay soft, relaxed, amid the short-trimmed pale brown hair between his thighs.
“Be sure to explain yourself as you go, my boy. Hands and mouths only.” Henry crossed his arms behind his head. “You may have…we’ll say thirty minutes, shall we? Thirty minutes to play with my cock as you like.”
She exchanged a glance with Jay. He squared his shoulders, reached over, and took her hand in a confident squeeze. She forced her expression to seriousness despite her desire to giggle at his intensity.
“If I come more quickly than that, you’ll have earned praise rather than penalties. A reward afterward. I trust you both understand the rules?”
Months ago, she’d imagined asking Jay for blowjob tips. And here was Henry, offering a teacher for her training, easing her concerns and giving Jay a task to shore up his faltering confidence.
“We understand, Henry.” Jay answered for the both of them.
She’d watched Henry pleasure Jay twice in the last week. Commandingly so, both times. No way Jay would show her that—a dominant performance—and she trusted Henry to keep things relaxed.
“I’ll leave you to it, then.” He wanted this to go well. Of course he did. To banish any lingering panic in her. “Your time starts…now.”
Lying on his side, Jay hugged Henry’s leg like a full-body pillow and rested his head on Henry’s hip. She hurried to mirror him, curling her leg over Henry’s, pressing her palm to the inside of his thigh, her eyes aligned with Jay’s.
His tongue came out, flicking his upper lip. She copied his movement.
He laughed. “Sorry. Thinking. I like to get the whole picture first. Like checking a map, knowing where everything is so you’re not locked into a bad route when the GPS doesn’t know a street’s one way or closed for construction.” He pinched his lips together. “Sorry, that maybe doesn’t make sense.”
“No, no, a survey. I get it.” She slid her cheek along the smooth skin over Henry’s hip bone. Fuck if she’d let Jay drown without throwing him a line. He’d rise to the challenge of being in charge. If he looked at things geographically, spatially, that wasn’t so different from her own structural paradigm. “You’re logging a status update and a menu of options.”
Jay grinned. “You do understand.” He moved in closer, nose trailing along the crease of Henry’s thigh, inhalations loud and deep as he rubbed Henry’s twitching cock with his nose and cheek. “Gotta get a feel for where we are…the scent…the muscle tension…the taste.”
With his lips wrapped around Henry’s cock, he gave a quick suck, down to the base and back in two seconds, no more. He waited, his eyes on her.
She belatedly remembered her role. Jay’s mouth on Henry’s cock was enough to throw anyone off their game. Kicking back and enjoying the show for the next thirty minutes appealed.
But she took a deep breath and followed Jay’s example, nuzzling and caressing, tension melting away. Henry’s cock was a treat, not a threat. His scent alone prompted a throbbing pulse between her legs. The man’s smell seemed perfectly calibrated to attract every cell in her body. Jay’s sweeter musk stirred a mix of arousal and the desire to cuddle him. But Henry’s scent…she’d crawl over broken glass to fuck him. A soft bed, a mostly still soft cock fitting entirely in her mouth, yeah. Better. Much better.
Henry hummed a few bars. Something she didn’t recognize, but he sounded happy. Good so far.
Jay teased his fingers along the inside of Henry’s thigh and cradled his balls. Firm pressure, not a tentative touch. He knew the line between pleasurable and stop-right-fucking-now. She’d always erred on the side of caution and hesitance.
Hand cupped beneath Henry’s balls, Jay massaged in a beckoning motion and encouraged her to copy him. He covered her hand, tightening up, and the grip felt…solid. The sort she’d use to squeeze her breasts while masturbating. A testable hypothesis, if she set up an experiment to measure grip strength and—
“Earth to Alice.”
Oops. “Sorry, coach.”
“See, you get too focused, you forget the bigger picture.” Jay shot her his cockiest grin. “And the picture’s getting bigger by the minute.”
She choked on a laugh. Henry had hardened under their handling, his cock thick and expanding, lifting away from his body.
Jay released her hand, sliding his own up to grip the shaft at the base. He squeezed, once, without real motion, and Henry’s humming developed a slight hitch.
“Once things are well in hand”—Jay waggled his eyebrows, and she groaned dramatically—“a little combo action sets the pace. Sometimes it’s a leisurely ride on a two-lane road. Sometimes it’s a wild drop down a mountain trail.”
She smirked. “Got it. Sometimes you’re melting tin, and sometimes you’re cranking the furnace for carbon steel.”
“If you say so. What I know about steel is it’s a little heavy but it gives a great ride.” He closed his mouth over the head of Henry’s cock and sank down to the edge of his grip. He bobbed, his hand loosely following his mouth up and bringing lubrication back down. “A little straight up and down to start. No sense wasting your best moves. You gotta hold a little something back in case there’s a long climb on the trail.”
“Stoke the flames, keep that heat intensity right below melting.” Copying Jay, she kept her hand loose and her mouth all lips and no tongue, adding her own lubrication. She held Henry’s absolute attention, his eyes dark and fixed on their playground, throaty groans leaking from his closed mouth. “You were saying?”
“A little twist. Like you’ve hit a switchback. Zig, zag, pedaling hard.” Jay moved his tongue like a wave, an upward roll, and covered Henry’s cock. Hand gliding in a half-circle, he stroked toward the head, mouth popping off every time, tongue flicking out before coming down again.
Henry arched his hips as they switched control. She and Jay drew closer, straddling his legs, their weight holding him in place. The hair on his legs brushed her breasts and sex, a spur for her growing arousal. Blowing Henry in concert with Jay got a foreplay thumbs-up from her pussy.
She added the hand twist, the mouth pop, the tongue flick, every step as Jay had done.
Henry’s cock swelled, the tip deep purple.
She shared a grin with Jay as he guided their hands back to Henry’s balls, drawn tighter against his body and coaxing a low growl from him when squeezed.
“Race you—”
She nodded. Oh hells yes.
“—to the finish line?”
They set to work, tongues twining up the shaft, worrying at the head, backing off in turns to allow each other to engulf as much as they could. Less for her than Jay, but she’d ask for a lesson in that sometime, too.
Henry’s rumbling growl proved her only warning as she pulled back, ready to cede ground to Jay’s quick tongue. Heat splashed her cheeks, her chin, her neck with sudden swiftness. Surprise turned into giggles.
Jay cleaned off Henry’s cock with a long pull and grinned at her. “You, uh, got a little something.”
She pushed down her giggles. “Do I?”
“Don’t worry. I got it.” He waited for her nod, laid his tongue to her cheek, and bathed her in long strokes. Tipping her head back encouraged him to shift his attention to her neck.
“Delightful, the pair of you,” Henry murmured. “And in under thirty minutes. You’ll have to have a reward for such excellent work.”
They wriggled up the bed and burrowed on either side of Henry as he brought his arms up and embraced them. Deep kisses for them b
oth, entirely indifferent to, or enjoying, his salty musk on their tongues.
“Henry?”
“Yes, my dear girl?”
“Thank you for not, I mean, for trusting—just, thank you. And Jay, too.” Lifting her head, she smirked at him across Henry’s chest. “You’re fun to play follow the leader with, stud.”
Jay dusted his knuckles on Henry’s chest and blew them off in a puff of air. “That’s what all the ladies say.”
“All the ladies?” She raised a what’s-this-about eyebrow.
“Well, just the one. But she’s the only lady I love.”
She savored the warmth in her chest. Didn’t blink back the tingle crawling along the edge of her eyes.
“So that makes her all of ’em, right, Henry?”
He hummed and ruffled Jay’s hair. “Exactly right.”
They loved her, and she loved them. No reason not to let herself feel the depth of their love, even when the feeling seemed bottomless.
Henry had let them play without interference or guidance. A no-pressure blowjob, because if she’d spooked, Jay could’ve finished. Her responsibility ended with herself. Which was nice, but…
She drew random shapes on Henry’s chest and shoulder, fingers following no map. For all the control he exercised over them, he never treated them like toys to be teased and laughed over. A set of genitals to fuck. They’d been less considerate of his needs. Selfish.
“You aren’t a toy to me, either, Henry,” she blurted.
Jay’s blank stare greeted her. “I missed something. What conversation is Alice having?”
Lifting her chin, Henry caught her gaze. “Your playful behavior was entirely in keeping with the exercise, sweet girl.” He stroked her cheek and tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. “My own pleasure was beside the point, though a beautiful bonus. Your comfort, and Jay’s, are of far more interest to me.”
“But don’t you ever want anything for yourself?”
“For now, I’d like to watch the two of you play.” Henry cupped Jay’s chin in his other hand. “As a reward for your lovely leadership, my boy, you may pick a position.”