Playing the Game (34 page)

He laid his head atop her back, his skin warm, his hair soft. He pressed his cheek to her spine, his breath hot and fast across her skin. He turned his face. Kissing. Kissing her back. The lightest brush of his mouth, again and again, between puffs of breath, and each kiss a burning brand that ignited under her skin.

Flash point. Combustion. Her body burning to a cinder beneath his, her scream silent. Her victory complete when Henry thrust hard and groaned, the bench lurching beneath them.

Her eyes flooded, and she was grateful beyond words for the silk tie covering them. How could she ever explain why she was crying as she came, what this feeling was that burned through her, when she couldn’t understand it herself?

She lay across the bench, trembling, with Henry snug against her back. His right hand caressed her arm from shoulder to wrist and rubbed her fingers.

He whispered in her ear. “It’s all right, dearest. A bit of exhaustion, hmm? I’ve pushed you hard tonight, sweet girl, and you’ve responded beautifully.”

She made a quiet humming moan, a sound of agreement, of happiness at his praise of her, as she tried to blink away the tears.

Henry kissed her cheek below the edge of the blindfold. If he tasted salt, he didn’t mention it. “Happy birthday, my lovely Alice.”

She mumbled, her voice thick. “Thank you, Henry.” She didn’t add that it was quite possibly the best birthday celebration she’d ever had, though it was. Or that he was the best sex partner she’d ever had, though he was.

His fingers stroked back up her arm and across her shoulder, danced over her neck, and slid the silk tie from her eyes. She blinked, though his body shielded her from direct light.

Jay knelt beside the end of the bench. She could only hope if he noticed the tears, he thought them a reaction to the light. She blinked faster. Henry’s index finger slipped down her nose and tapped the end.

“Much as I enjoy this, I expect we’ll all find the bed more comfortable for the rest of the night.” His hand dropped from her face and brushed her thighs as he pulled out.

She gave a hitching half sigh. He wrapped his arms around her waist and shoulders, lifting her from the bench and settling her on his lap as he leaned back on his heels. Like Jay. She and Henry were sharing a waiting pose.

She smirked and pressed her head against his shoulder. “I don’t know, Henry. Your lap’s awfully comfortable.”

Jay laughed, and Henry chuckled.

“Yeah, Henry. Your lap’s awfully comfortable.” Jay’s smirk matched hers. He’d come at some point, though she hadn’t taken notice. His chest gleamed with it.

“A ringing endorsement from you both.” Henry’s voice was dry, but his arms squeezed her tight. “Come here, my boy. You’ve a kiss for me and one for Alice, don’t you?”

He did. Jay’s kisses were tender, and Henry sent him off to the bathroom to clean up and fetch a washcloth. Henry lifted Alice to the bed, setting her on the edge and tipping her face up toward his own. He swept his thumbs beneath her eyes, from the inner corners to the outer.

His voice dropped to a gentle whisper. “My sweet girl, tell me truly now, are you well?”

He’d sent Jay off to give her privacy. She swallowed hard, nodding. “I am, Henry. I–it was–I don’t know how to describe it.”

Henry kissed her forehead. “Shhh. That’s all right. There’s no need, dearest. Such things can be overpowering, hmm? And difficult to understand. You needn’t worry yourself, Alice. It’ll come to you.” His fingers combed through her hair. “It’ll come.”

He stripped off the condom and discarded it. Bathed her and himself when Jay, his chest clean, returned with the washcloth. Rubbed soothing cream into her backside.

She struggled to keep her eyes open. A comfort and a pleasure, Henry’s care further relaxed her. She snuggled into the sheets, the heated handprints on her ass not enough to stave off sleep when she was so exhausted. She didn’t bat an eye when Henry and Jay slid under the sheets beside her. Even the shifting movement as Henry pulled her onto his chest couldn’t draw more than a muffled grunt of agreement from her.

“Thank you, Henry.” Jay’s hushed voice flowed past her ear. He had to be tucked into Henry’s shoulder.

“You’re welcome, dear boy. You performed wonderfully tonight, Jay.”

A happy hum. Jay’s. “I could thank you more…personally.”

Her lips twitched in a smile.
Thanks, Jay. I know what I’ll see in my dreams tonight.

“In the morning, my boy. We might enjoy Alice’s boneless contentment a while longer, hmm?”

“Do you think she–”

“I think she’s not quite asleep yet, Jay. Perhaps we ought to be quiet and allow her that pleasure.”

“I think we could be shouting right now and she’d still get there. You wiped her out, and she loved it.”

“Mmm.” Henry’s whisper was the last sound that reached her ears. “One can only hope so.”

Chapter 11

When Alice closed her apartment door behind her and checked her messages on a Saturday morning in early December, she found she’d missed one. A text from her sister reading
Noon yr tm.

Fuck. Less than five minutes away. She’d lingered too long at Henry and Jay’s. Or not long enough, because if Henry had demanded she spend the whole day, she wouldn’t have been able to say no. Then she wouldn’t be facing her sister still keyed up from the morning and unshowered. She booted up her laptop, and the chime alerted her to an incoming call the instant she opened the program.

She sat at the table and accepted the call.

“Allie!” Eating a bowl of cereal, Olivia wore a t-shirt and pajama bottoms, her legs curled up in front of her. Twenty-five now, and aside from the partly completed medical degree, pretty much the same as she’d been at eleven. “I wasn’t sure the time would work for you. You didn’t answer my text. Something I should know about?”

She’d loaded her voice with insinuation, an impression spoiled by the milk spilling over the side of her spoon. “Damn. I need to work in a laundry day. This intern schedule is killing me.”

“Hi, Ollie. They’re keeping you busy?”
Yes, good, let’s talk about you instead of me, and then you won’t ask–

“What’s that you’re wearing, Allie? It looks rumpled.”

She concealed her moment of panic. She hadn’t told her sister about Henry and Jay–and she told Ollie everything.

“You should work in a laundry day, too. We could keep each other company while we do laundry on opposite sides of the country.”

Oh thank God. She wasn’t about to be called out for wearing last night’s clothes.

“I’ll need the company if I want to stay awake long enough to do it anyway. Double shift, overnight. But I got to suit up and help on a gallbladder removal.”

“Sounds disgusting.” Alice wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue. “And messy.”

“It’s pretty clean, actually. We doctors do know what we’re doing.” Olivia teased with a hint of pride. “You look kind of dirty, though. What’s that on your neck? Is that a
hickey
?”

She looked down, though seeing her neck that way was impossible. She’d have been better off looking at her tiny image in the corner of the screen. At least then Olivia wouldn’t have crowed about it.

“I knew it. You have a boyfriend!” The cereal bowl tipped toward the camera, milk flirting with freedom, as Olivia leaned forward and stared into the lens. “You’ve been getting sex on a regular basis. Tell me everything.”

“Nothing to tell, Ollie.”

“Oh, right, sure, ‘nothing to tell’ my ass. This from the woman who told me all about her sexual experiences to keep me from sleeping with scruffy-but-totally-hot Jimmy Wiebersick senior year.”

She’d known she’d live to regret being so open with her then-seventeen-year-old sister. Getting across the point that masturbating would be safer and better than fooling around with an inexperienced boy in the back of his dad’s pickup after homecoming had seemed of vital importance at the time. She’d donned her cloak of college experience, which at the ripe old age of twenty had consisted of two guys in two years, and given her sister a vivid, humorous description of her first time.

“Now, Alice, I want you to know you can come to me with any questions you have.”

She closed her eyes and tipped her head back. Her baby sister’s revenge. Ollie even had her tone down, the delivery the same as hers had been years ago. How long had she been waiting for this one? And would it ever end?

“You’re being careful, aren’t you? Because you don’t want to end up with a baby while you’re still–”

“Oh, for crying out loud, Ollie. Yes, I’m using birth control, and they’re–
he’s–
using protection. I’m not going to make you an aunt.”

Alice looked at the screen and wished she hadn’t.

“You just said
they
. As in, more than one.”

“I said he.”

“Nuh-uh, no way, you aren’t backtracking now. How many guys are you dating? Do they know about each other?”

“My God, what kind of person do you think I am? I’m not sleeping around behind some guy’s back.”

“Hey, five minutes ago I would’ve said you weren’t the kind of person to be sleeping with anyone, based on the lame guys you pick. Unless you’re trying to hide that you have a
girl
friend.” Olivia crunched down on a bite of cereal. “Is that it? Because it’s totally fine if you do.”

“So I’m either some conniving bitch with a guy on the side or a secret lesbian? Those are my choices?”

“Unless you’re in some kinky three-way arrangement, but–”

Fair skin was a curse. A gods-be-damned curse coloring her face right now.

“Oh. My. God. You are. You’re having fabulous sex with two guys. I’ve got to meet the men who got my sister to relax and enjoy herself in bed.”

“Not happening.”

“C’mon. You gotta give me something. I’m so dead tired from working so many shifts I don’t even have time to look at a hot guy and imagine the possibilities. Tell me about them, at least. Out of bed. How did you meet?”

“They…live across the hall.”

“Wait. Wait. You’re having sex with smoldering art guy and flirty bike boy? When did this happen? Where did they take you?”

On the dining room table
was on the tip of her tongue.
Don’t say that. Whatever you say, don’t say that.

“Where–uh, what?”

“On your first date.”

“Our first…umm…right. Uh, Henry made us dinner. At their place.”

“Sounds romantic. And?”

“And what?”

“What’s it like? Dating two guys. Do you go on separate dates? Do you all three go on dates together? Do you like one better? Jeez, it’s like pulling teeth here. You’re never this closed off about guys.”

“It’s not…we don’t…look, Ollie, let it go, okay?”

“No way. Not now. Are you all right? Allie? Are they…is this relationship…I mean…you’re in it because you want to be, right?” Olivia set her cereal bowl aside and pulled her computer into her lap. The screen adjusted. The camera showed her little sister’s face disturbingly close, as if they sat in the same kitchen instead of three thousand miles apart. “Talk to me, Allie.”

Alice sighed. Her fingers rubbed the tabletop. Almost five months. Longer than she’d expected to be able to avoid talking to her sister about this…thing.

“It’s not a relationship. We don’t go out.”

“Okaaay…” Olivia raised her eyebrows.

“It’s a…I agreed…umm…we’re sort of trying–”

“Is this some gayboy hetero exploration? Are you a guinea pig?” Olivia made a face. “Sorry, bad image. But you know what I mean.”

“No. I don’t think so. Maybe. I don’t know.” She pulled her legs to her chest, feet resting on the edge of the chair, arms curling around her knees. “I think maybe Jay–”

“Bike boy?”

“Yeah. He dates women sometimes. At first I thought he badgered Henry into it or something, because I didn’t think Henry was into women. Whatever.” She shrugged, forcing herself to smile. “It’s not like they’re my boyfriends or anything. It’s just sex. Really good sex.”

“How good could it be if the one isn’t even into women? No offense, Allie. It’s just you don’t have a history of stellar picks.”