Playing the Game (30 page)

Henry caressed her arms while her fingers worked, and she stroked Jay’s chest as she revealed him.

He leaned into her touch, a pet seeking affection, and she gave it in spades. Fingers, knuckles, palms. She used them all, spreading his shirt open and rubbing his chest until his nipples tightened and his breathing deepened. Trailing her fingers down his abdomen, she reached his waistband and dipped under to tease out the shirttails.

Jay whimpered.

Henry’s hands rolled over her shoulders and down her ribs. “Alice was the birthday girl who peeled the tape away and refused to tear the pretty paper, isn’t that so, Alice?”

She nodded, holding her breath, wishing. Her whimper echoed Jay’s at a higher pitch as Henry cupped her breasts, taking their weight and teasing her nipples between thumb and index fingers.

“Good girl. Honesty deserves rewards.” He brushed his lips across her left shoulder. “Go ahead and rid Jay of his shirt. We want to see his beautiful chest, don’t we, Alice?”

Her fingers had grasped the collar and begun to push it down Jay’s back before Henry finished speaking. “Yes, Henry. He’s a beautiful gift.”

“Mmm.” Henry kissed her right shoulder. “A beautiful gift for a beautiful girl. And you’ll be beautiful together in a moment.”

She shivered. The shirt sailed from her hands, over the side of the bed, and fluttered to the floor.

“Pants next, my dear. You want to see all of your gift, don’t you?”

“Very much,” she murmured. Her right hand skimmed the edge of Jay’s waistband, teasing him the way Henry had done to her earlier. Jay’s stomach flinched as he gasped.

Her left hand made him moan when she palmed his cock through his pants and squeezed. Payback. He’d made her come in her panties. If she weren’t so eager to have him inside her, she might’ve…

Henry pinched her nipples, and she jumped. “Such a naughty girl, playing with your present before you’ve unwrapped it. But we’ll take you to task for it later, hmm? Go on, now. Jay’s been a very patient boy, but he wants to give the birthday girl his present.”

“And I want to receive it.” She smiled at Jay, an apology for teasing, and he smirked.

She took care opening the clasp on his pants and drawing the zipper down. Damaging her present would ruin the night for both of them. But she giggled at his boxers. A match to his tie. “Festive shorts. I like it.”

Henry clasped her elbows and pulled her hands back. “I’m afraid they’ll have to go, my dear. But perhaps Jay will model them for you at length at a later date.”

He nodded. A sign Jay had been waiting for, by the way he shimmied out of his clothes in seconds. Henry barely had time to kiss her hands before Jay presented himself, his cock almost brushing his stomach. Jay might get a chance to work off some energy on top of her.

But Jay’s eagerness didn’t speed Henry along. In silence, he slid his hands across her forearms and held her hands up, fingers spreading hers. He bent his head over her shoulder and sucked her fingers into his mouth one at a time. His tongue teased, and her muscles clenched as she recalled the feel of him between her thighs.

Panic flashed on Jay’s face. He dropped into his waiting pose in front of them, vibrating with arousal and something else. Nervous energy. A performer waiting to take the stage for the first time. Something new? For her?

She shivered as Henry shifted his attention to her neck, his head nudging hers. He delivered hushed words between kisses.

“Timing is a delicate art, my dears. Alice understands how delicate, I’m certain. She balances timing and tools and stressors in her designs. Seeks the optimum combination to avoid fracture. To create harmony.”

Henry’s teeth tugged at her earlobe, and she moaned. Jay had his eyes closed, his head bowed. He breathed as though calming himself. Had she thrown off his timing with her eager grab for his cock?

“But Alice herself is a delicate creature, a wondrous harmony of elements. Her pleasure depends on optimum timing, more so than ours, my boy.”

Henry’s hands, still clasping hers, covered her breasts, molding their hands together. Her nipples hardened against her palms, the soft skin surrounding them puckering, rising. Henry ran his tongue along the side of her neck, ending in a gentle bite where the slope began its run toward her shoulder.

“Her satisfaction is a feast for the senses, beautiful to behold, but it is not inevitable. Alice requires our patience. Our focus.”

Our. Whatever Henry had planned, he and Jay would be working together. She sucked in a breath through her teeth. Her hips rocked in Henry’s lap, a movement she hadn’t intended and couldn’t stop. Henry’s hands dropped from her breasts and stilled her hips in an instant.

“Alice is ready for you, Jay. Are you ready to focus for her? To work in harmony? To remember your timing?”

To remember his…she’d been right to call Jay a performer. He’d worked on this gift with Henry, and he was nervous. Her pulse felt like a drumbeat, her clit thumping hard, her slick walls clenching around emptiness. How much of their private, noncontract time had the two of them spent thinking of her? Of her needs?

That
was a gift. She’d never fake an orgasm, never disrespect Henry that way, and didn’t expect she’d have to, because he’d make certain of it…but even if Jay’s timing stuttered, if he couldn’t quite manage the gift she waited for now, she’d fucking praise him until she was blue in the face. Because he’d worked so goddamn hard on it. On her. On his own time, because he wanted to. Because she mattered to him.

Christ, he’d better be ready, because she’d come just from thinking if she wasn’t careful.

Jay raised his head, his eyes clear and intent on hers, his face calm. He nodded, once. “I’m ready, Henry.”

“You are,” Henry agreed. “Lie back, Jay.”

He lay on his back, legs together, arms resting beside his head.

Henry grasped Alice’s waist and lifted. She bent her knees, recognizing what he wanted as he shifted forward and settled her across Jay’s thighs.

“A moment, Alice. Be still, please.”

No disrupting his timing, he meant. She’d be riding tonight. In control? Jay wouldn’t have to worry about his timing then, but she’d better start thinking about her energy level. The longer she held herself still, straddling Jay’s thighs, the more her anxiety grew. What if she was the one who couldn’t perform to Henry’s expectations?

The snack had helped, but her legs were bound to falter fast after they’d already been pushed so hard. Her teeth worried at her lower lip. She didn’t want to disappoint Jay after he’d worked so hard and waited so patiently. She’d be devastated if she disappointed Henry, for reasons she couldn’t define.

She looked into Jay’s face and found him confident. Determined. He squinted up at her and cleared his throat.

Henry shifted in an instant and dropped the silk ties and a condom on Jay’s stomach. His hand touched Alice’s chin, turning her face toward him. He studied her in silence until she lowered her eyes. God forbid he see her nerves.

“Thank you, Jay,” he murmured. “You’re thinking too much, Alice. Trust I wouldn’t demand more than you’re able to give, hmm?”

She blushed. “Yes, Henry.”

“There’s always your safeword, if you find you’ve reached your limits. Don’t be afraid to use it if you need it.”

She shook her head. “I don’t need to. I’m just…I want this to be good for Jay.” Jay, who smiled up at her, his head shaking as he reached for the ties on his stomach. “I don’t know if I have the energy…”

“I think you will, dearest.” Henry kissed her cheeks. “Trust me a moment longer.”

“I do,” she murmured.

She fell silent as Henry guided her hands forward. He pressed them together once her arms were extended. A command for her to remain in place? He dropped his hands, one to her left thigh and one to her back, lightly massaging.

“Good girl.”

Jay bound her wrists with a different knot, his lips moving while he worked, though no words emerged. Henry stayed silent, and she followed his lead. If he wanted Jay to focus, she needed to let him focus. The second tie was knotted around the first, between her wrists, until Jay had…a leash.

“Excellent work, Jay.” Henry leaned down and kissed him, a thorough, deep kiss that made Jay’s cock bob scant inches in front of her.

She understood the impulse. If she’d had a cock, it would’ve been bobbing, too. With her hands bound, and the leash in Jay’s hands, she’d have little balance and less control.

She wanted to be on his cock, to feel filled as she hadn’t been in weeks. Her thighs might not lift her much, but they would lift her enough. Henry wouldn’t let her fail. He’d already considered her fears. Of course he had.

If Jay had spent so much time perfecting knots and timing, it was at Henry’s direction. She might be the one tied, but even Henry’s
silence
had been a sharp reminder to Jay. Henry controlled him in ways she couldn’t fathom yet. Years of practice, maybe. Conditioning. Maybe someday…

Her mind shied from completing the thought, and she focused on Henry’s hands, unrolling a condom over Jay’s cock with a light touch. Not wanting to stimulate him too much, she assumed. She waited, expecting Henry’s command to shuffle forward at any second.

He’d have to make it verbal. She couldn’t read his silent cues the way Jay did. The waiting made her eager, trembling, when Henry leaned in and kissed her as he had Jay. Firm lips, his tongue stroking hers, a familiar sensation that relaxed her. Reminded her of every time he’d made it good.

“Soon,” he whispered.

He moved down the bed, out of her sight. Settled at her back, his legs thick and warm around her own, the soft wool of his pants rubbing against her. An odd mix of excitement and panic stole her breath.

“Shhh. Easy, Alice. Easy.” The breadth of Henry’s chest pressed to her back, his hands coming around to the center of her own, not atop her breasts so much as her heart as he clasped her. “No surprises, my sweet girl. Just Jay, your next present, waiting so patiently, and a bit of help for your trembling legs.”

She nodded, tiny movements repeated unthinkingly. She didn’t know what had frightened her, or why fear added to her arousal. She took a deep breath. This was nothing more than a birthday gift. A special day. That’s why they’d put so much effort into it. But a smaller voice whispered in the back of her mind.
So you’ll enjoy it. Which wouldn’t matter to them if you didn’t matter to them.

Henry lowered his hands to her waist and raised her up. He urged her forward, supported by his body. His right hand traveled between her thighs, his fingers opening her labia and spreading them, dragging through her wetness. A single finger parted her with ease, slipping inside.

Her sigh emerged as a whine. She needed more.

“Good girl, Alice. You’re ready for your present, aren’t you?”

“Yes…yes, Henry.” She hardly dared to breathe as Henry lowered her onto Jay’s cock. She sank until their bodies rested flush. They groaned, both of them, and Henry chuckled.

Neither she nor Jay moved. Henry laid his hands on her hips. A tight hold. Secure. Commanding. Jay showed no signs of impatience, none of the boyish need for attention and constant fidgeting she associated with him outside this room. He waited with an intent stare over her shoulder. Jay might hold the leash, but Henry controlled the action here.

Jay tugged the silk tie in his hands, though she’d neither heard nor seen a prompt. She rocked forward, her weight shifting, tipping her toward Jay’s chest and flattening her clitoris against his pubic bone. His body gave her a hard surface, and her own weight provided the pressure. She inhaled deeply. This game could be fun. Very fun. For her, at least. But would rocking be enough for Jay?

Sensitive skin dragged across Jay’s wiry curls when Henry’s hands on her hips pulled her back. His clothes seemed a delicious sin against her bare skin, hers and Jay’s.

Jay tugged her forward. Henry pulled her back. They were both silent, intent on their tasks, and the concentration surrounding them buzzed like the aura off a high-tension wire. They’d started slowly, but they’d found a faster rhythm, the pressure and teasing relief alternating against her clit.

Oh holy fuck.
Had she expected to have control in this position? Any at all? A ridiculous notion. But having no control…how was…why did…what made it so good? How did Henry do that?

She shuddered. Henry clamped down hard on her hips, raising her up and dropping her on Jay’s cock. Her breath whooshed out in a groan.