Healing the Wounds

by M. Q. Barber

  Her vision blurred. She grew numb where their bodies didn’t touch and burned where they did. The heart of the fire, the source of all heat, centered her awareness. Her body clenched him with a rhythmic pulse as he advanced and retreated, advanced and retreated, a battle promising victory for all. She babbled a string of incoherent pleas.

  “Yes,” Henry growled, his melodic baritone grown hoarse. “You make me burn.”

  She wailed. Stiffened as fire consumed her and her hips battered him with speed beyond her control. Offering no water to douse the flames, he rolled them onto her stomach and kept going. Yes. More. She flexed her ass and pushed up.

  Her arms lay curled and trapped beneath her as her face met the pillow, his body a red-hot brand at her back. He drove her deep into the mattress. Soft sheets clutched at her stomach, her breasts, her thighs. Tried to drown her in their cool waves. No. No, not yet. “No waves,” she mumbled. “Don’t stop. Want the fire. All fire.”

  A huff of breathless laughter tickled her ear.

  A pause, his. A whine, hers.

  “Hush your worries, my sweet girl.” Hoisting her back and up, he settled her on her arms and knees. Thrust deep and drove a moan from her. “I’ve fire enough left for you.”

  The ocean of silk fell out of focus beneath her. Musky maleness, clean sweat and pure desire, surrounded her. She gripped the sheets in numb fingers and reveled in the hard slap of Henry’s hips. Shuddered as his hands spanned her back, thumbs pressing on her spine and fingers curling around her sides below her ribs.

  Heat-friction formulae. Fluid dynamics equations. Variables dancing in the flames as Henry fucked her hard and deep, until he’d fucked the last thought from her head. Until they became beings of motion and emotion.

  Faster and faster, hips driving, linear growth in speed bringing exponential growth in feeling. She burned with love, with lust, with Henry. Her eyes closed tight. Stuttering groans slipped from her throat.

  “That’s it, dearest. Burn it all away. All but this.”

  He thrust, and her scream rivaled the crackle of the flames in her mind as they came together. Impurities burned away. Shining, heated perfection left behind. Solid. Strong. Lasting.

  Henry tumbled them to the bed, his body curled around hers. He pressed a kiss to her hair, nuzzling the curve of her ear. An attempt to distract her, maybe, from his hand slipping between them and holding the condom secure as his cock withdrew and didn’t return.

  She sighed, a quiet protest.

  Humming to her, he offered another kiss.

  Henry stretched past her shoulder, a shadow behind her eyelids. She blinked the world into focus.

  He cupped Jay’s cheek, fingers threading through his hair with tenderness. “Did you enjoy the show?”

  “Yes, Henry. Thank you.” With a full Jay-smile, all bright eyes and not a trace of jealousy or disappointment, he winked at her. “Told you it’d be fucking beautiful. Or beautiful fucking.”

  She giggled. He was incorrigible. Adorable. Theirs. “C’mere for a kiss, you silly boy.”

  He looked to Henry first, naturally.

  “As she says, my dear boy. Kisses first, washcloth after.”

  If the kisses numbered more than two, and the washcloth-fetching delayed several minutes—well, that, too, was only natural.

  * * * *

  She lazed between the sheets, waiting on her boys to emerge from the bathroom. Ladies first seemed a staple of Henry’s lexicon, both in bed and out, so she’d already finished her presleep routine. Henry had bathed her first, his hands sure and tender on her sex, his eyes soft.

  She yawned and stretched, pointing her toes and splaying her fingers. Seldom-used muscles reminded her of their vigorous workout today, on the lake and off it. She closed her eyes and sighed. Henry’s idea of a weekend getaway might kill her. But Christ, she’d die happy.

  “Uh-oh. Alice has orgasm smile. We weren’t in the bathroom that long, were we?” The mattress rocked as Jay flopped beside her. “I gotta brush my teeth faster if I’m missing spontaneous orgasms.”

  “Shortchange your brushing and you’ll lose your beautiful smile,” she murmured without bothering to open her eyes. “And then I’d be missing that.”

  He leaned in and pecked her cheek, his breath minty fresh. “If you think it’s beautiful, I guess I’d better keep it.”

  A click brought deeper darkness behind her eyelids. Henry, turning off the light on his way to bed. The sheets lifted to her right, cooler air slipping beneath and Henry with it. She hadn’t expected to end up in the middle tonight, not when Jay needed cuddling more than she did.

  An offer to switch flitted through her mind, dismissed as Henry laid his hand on her stomach. If he intended to play musical sleeping spots, he’d manage it subtly without saying a word.

  Jay tangled his feet with hers, teasing and pushing, and she indulged him. A squirmy, playful boy not ready for sleep. Not seeking sex, though they all slept nude in what had seemed a decadent thrill to her at first.

  Wearing pajamas had been a habit ingrained after sharing a bedroom for years. With Ollie, at home. With roommates through college and afterward. She hadn’t stayed the night with lovers after sex or let one stay with her. Even getting her own place hadn’t broken the habit. Only Henry had done that. He and Jay slept naked, so she did, too, on nights she spent with them.

  Now she spent every night and never wore pajamas. She wore nothing unless she was bleeding, and only underwear then. Not even as a silent “no, honey, not tonight.” The panties acted as her nonverbal clue. If Henry planned to play penetrative games, she’d need a minute. Not help he required, because he probably paid closer attention to her cycle than she did, but the panties added to her comfort. And he hadn’t objected.

  But tonight she lay bare beneath the sheets and pressed between two warm, naked bodies. What would Henry say if she came to bed covered from neck to ankles? Order her to take them off. Turn up the thermostat. Cut strategic holes?

  She giggled, bobbling his hand on her stomach. No, the scissor-wielder would be Jay. He’d give her an adorably innocent smile and insist he was just helping.

  Henry hummed. “What’s made you so amused?”

  Opening her eyes, she rolled her head to face him. He lay shadowed in the darkness but beautiful to her eyes nonetheless, and at her side. Always. “Trying to remember when it became normal to sleep naked.”

  “You didn’t before?” Jay paused his footsie campaign. “Why not?”

  “Did you? Before you moved in with Henry?”

  “Well, yeah. Once I had my own place. Slept naked, watched TV naked, ate dinner naked.” Tossing out a smile, he ran tickle-fingers up her arm. “Who needs clothes?”

  Mmm, naked Jay sprawled on the sofa. Across the dinner table. “Obviously not you, stud.”

  “Whatever Alice’s reasons, perhaps we ought to be grateful for how quickly she has grown accustomed to our preference for skin-to-skin contact, hmm?” Henry stroked her stomach with his thumb, his fingers spread and resting above her curls. “A lovely way to enhance our bond with her.”

  Jay eagerly agreed, bouncing the mattress as he assured them he’d be more than happy to demonstrate his gratitude whenever they desired.

  Henry pulled him in and worked magic above her, relaxing Jay with a single kiss as if he drew out every drop of excess, playful energy and stored it away to return at a more appropriate time. They broke apart and snuggled down on either side of her.

  “Nudity encourages pair bonding and enhances calm, soothing feelings.” Henry picked up the conversation as if he hadn’t interrupted it to care for Jay. Of course not. Their needs were never an interruption for him. His tone turned sly. “When it isn’t enhancing other needs.”

  If denying her pajamas had been a calculated part of his strategy, she’d better get a bigger chessboard to play with Henry. “Is that why you started extending our time? Letting me spend the night?”

  “Aside from the two of us simply desirin
g your company?” He squeezed her waist in a half hug. “Certainly. The more I was able to increase your attachment to us without speaking of it, the more your comfort level grew.”

  “Lowering my defenses.” He’d waged a sneaky little war under her nose. No—under her clothes. She snickered.

  “Parents of newborns are encouraged to spend time holding their offspring skin to skin.”

  She pushed at his shoulder, a teasing shove. “I know you’re not calling me an infant.”

  Henry chuckled. “No, dearest, certainly not. But you are a new member of our family. The more Jay and I snuggle against your bare skin, the more the chemicals in our bodies attune to each other.” He inhaled at her neck. “Recognize our bond with you and wish to spend even more time deepening it.”

  “So I was right all along.” An unexpected victory. “Love is just addictive substances changing my brain structure, and you’re my dealer.”

  “If it helps you to think of it in such a way.” He kissed her neck. “Though I would never say love is ‘just’ anything.”

  “For me it’s home.” Jay wriggled until she made room for him to lie with his head cradled at her neck. “Wherever I am, I know where home is. And that’s you and Henry.”

  Christ, he’d make her cry. She closed her eyes tight. Jay made the most intimate complexities easy to explain in two words. It’s home. Simple, and somehow everything.

  “Exactly right, my boy. So it is.”

  Jay’s happy little sigh tickled her skin. He slung his arm over her alongside Henry’s. Sleep came courtesy of all-natural, chemically induced contentment. Who needed pajamas when they had love?

  Chapter 10

  “Alllllice. My sweet girl.” Henry’s breath warmed her ear.

  She grunted into the pillow. It felt early. Opening her eyes to check the time would take too much effort, but it felt early.

  “I thought we might enjoy the sunrise.”

  Was he joking? That would make it, what, five o’clock? On a Sunday morning. Was this really something she needed to be awake for?

  “Sleeping,” she mumbled. “Take Jay.”

  A hard cock pressed into the small of her back. “I’m taking you, my dear.”

  She squirmed, her hips pressing back of their own accord. A sexy wake-up call appealed, so long as she didn’t have to move too much. Or open her eyes.

  A chuckle rolled from across the room.

  “Not this time, Alice.” Jay sounded awake. Like, awake-awake, not just-rolled-out-of-bed awake. “I’m on my own this morning.”

  She cracked open an eyelid. One of the lamps brightened the room. Somewhere behind her, thankfully, not the one in front of her face.

  Jay had donned biking gear, tight little shorts and one of his sweat-wicking T-shirts. Damn. Sorry she’d slept through him dressing.

  He stepped closer to the bed and tapped the nightstand twice with his palm. “But I left you all the gear you’ll need.”

  She tipped her head back. Her brain took a moment to interpret the dark outline beside his hand. Binoculars. She snorted. Figured he hadn’t been kidding. “Bird-watching?”

  “Bird-watching,” Jay confirmed. “Have fun with that. I’ll be flying down hills.”

  “And crawling back up them,” she grumbled at him. Teasing him was too enjoyable to pass up. “So have fun with that.”

  “I will.” Bending down, he kissed her cheek and Henry’s. “See you both later.”

  “Don’t forget to grab your bag from the kitchen. I’ve packed high-energy snacks for you.” Henry leaned over her shoulder to kiss Jay more thoroughly. “Be safe. Call if you run into trouble.”

  Jay promised to bike safely, be back around lunchtime, and call if he’d be late. And then he was gone, wide-awake and eager and out the door. At five in the morning. He’d grown up rural, even more than she had. He might miss biking less-traveled roads, even with all the hours he spent roaming city streets.

  Henry descended on her shoulder, nipping and biting with gentle tugs. Parts of her were definitely waking up.

  “Are we really going bird-watching?”

  “Mmm.” He sucked at the cord of muscle running up toward her neck. “We’re really going outside, Alice. What you watch while we’re there is entirely your choice.” He rolled away, and his feet thudded against the floor. “Best bring the binoculars in case you want them, though.”

  A drawer opened, and a zipper, and the sliding doors to the deck. Footsteps faded and returned. The lamp switched off, leaving the room bathed in pale predawn light.

  The binoculars landed beside her chest. “Hold these, my dear.”

  She’d hardly gotten her fingers around the strap when she was scooped up, blanket and all. He carried her out, pausing to let her tug the screen door closed behind them. A few minutes’ work had them settled in a deck chair, the binoculars on the table beside them along with Henry’s cellphone and a sketch pad and pencils.

  Yesterday they’d gone inside and played in bed with Jay. Henry obviously had something else in mind today. Being naked and in his lap boded well. Except Henry had thrown on a robe. Soft and warm as it was, it wasn’t him. She’d much rather touch skin to skin, especially if she was going to be woken up and dragged outside so early on a non-workday.

  Yawning, she rested her face near his neck. He tucked the blanket around her shoulders with care before slipping his arms beneath.

  “It’s all right to sleep, Alice, though I do hope you’ll enjoy this.” He clasped her waist in a gentle squeeze. “Perhaps such an early arousal on vacation is a bit much to ask of my sleeping beauty after a late night.” His voice vibrated in her ear. “Do you see the light beginning its journey?”

  The deck faced south-southeast, out over the lake. The edge of the sun invisible yet, but its effects made its presence known—the lightening sky, the orange-and-purple tint, the calls of birds in the morning mist.

  “It’s beautiful.”

  “Predictable,” Henry murmured.

  A boring word, yet he’d said it with approval. The way she might when a materials test returned the result she’d expected—the proper tolerance for heat or weight or other stresses the design demanded—and a project could move forward.

  “Predictable?”

  “Mm-hmm. Predictable. Sunrise. Predictable in its timing. In its path.” His stroke across her stomach lengthened, his palm running up and over her breast, and she shivered. “We know where and when it will occur every day. It keeps no secrets. It spills its light across the earth with a steady hand.”

  He swept down again, not stopping at her stomach but rolling over the top of her thigh. She parted her legs in answer to his unspoken demand.

  “Fingers first, Alice.” He stroked the inside of her thigh.

  She clutched fistfuls of his robe.

  “The smallest rays of light, tentative tendrils creeping across the landscape, outlining what they find there.”

  His touch matched his words, slow and light, tracing the outline of her sex, the outer lips as they swelled, the inner concealing the slickness building within. Jesus. She’d never look at sunrise the same way.

  “And all the while, the sun is rising. Its reach is growing. Steady and patient.” He nuzzled her neck with soft kisses. “It knows time is on its side.”

  Henry, her sun, imposing his will on the land below. Mmm. The sweet compulsion and confidence she loved. “Because the sun knows it always wins. Every day the landscape submits.”

  He tapped her clitoris, and her hips jumped. “This isn’t about winning, my dear girl. Not like that.”

  Returning to soothing strokes, he teased the seam of her lips and parted her with slow attention. “The sun offers light and warmth, and the earth responds with a welcoming embrace. The flowers turn to greet the day, their petals opening.”

  He added more pressure, opening her, eagerness seizing her as he circled her entrance with a single finger. “Their nectar sweetly flowing.”

  He thrust. One ha
nd held her hips down as the other moved. He pumped steadily, quick to add a second finger. “Watch the lake, sweet girl. When the sun crests the horizon, the water ripples and shines like colored glass.”

  She turned obedient eyes toward the lake, though her mind fell prey to Henry’s fingers within her and his hard cock pressing from the other side, his robe between them.

  He abandoned her hips for her stomach, sliding over the curl-covered curve that led to fiery bliss. He rubbed her clitoris with lazy strokes while his fingers inside her increased their speed. She whimpered at the contrast.

  The sun reached its tipping point, a broad curve almost too much to watch, at the southeastern end of the lake. The light spread across the water, burning away the morning mist, leaving shining reflections to sparkle and dance.

  “Oh! It’s beautiful, Henry.” Her words emerged in a breathy rasp, her mouth too dry and her breath too short for anything else.

  “Beautiful. Predictable. The sun spills itself out across land and water every morning. Always the same. And never the same.” He spoke directly into her ear, a hushed, urgent rumble, as he drew her closer to climax. “A unique beauty each and every time. A fresh palette of colors. The earth stretches, and wakes, and breathes—”

  Tension tightened her limbs. Her breath stopped in the split second between need and fulfillment. His fingers pushed her forward, made her body wake for him. Her cries rivaled the birds. Her hips rocked with more speed than the waves lapping at the lakeshore. Unfettered exuberance rippled as if she were what Henry named her, a landscape of natural, wild beauty.

  She trembled with aftershocks.

  Resting his hands on her thighs, he pressed his lips above her ear. “And begins every day with a glorious climax stirring everything touched by the sun’s heat.” His quiet chuckle tickled. “Good morning, Alice.”

  “Henry?” Jumbled thoughts coalesced. The sunrise this morning. The way he made every moment special, memorable.

  “Yes, my sweet girl?”

  His words and his touch stirred something deeper than lust. Nothing before had come close to the intensity of her life with Henry and Jay. I was sleeping. And now I’m not.