Playing the Game (37 page)

“Show me how you touched yourself, Jay.”

More buttons, laying her stomach bare, until Henry’s hands hovered at the edge of her underwear.

Jay grasped his cock with his right hand and started slow and loose, as though he feared he might come on the spot if he risked a tighter grip.

Henry’s right hand, splayed across Alice’s stomach, mimicked the movements. His fingers slid beneath her panties and stroked her clitoris. She shivered.

His left hand gave her left nipple the same treatment, and she whimpered. Her hips pushed back, her ass rubbing against Henry’s erection.

“I think Alice would prefer a heavier touch, my boy. I don’t think she can feel you yet.”

Jay tightened his grip, and Henry increased the pressure on Alice’s clit. She writhed against his body as Jay watched. She watched him stroke his cock in return, fluid leaking from the tip and sliding down to coat his fist.

“You imagined how wet she would be, didn’t you? How easy it would be to sink into her heat, to press her deep into the mattress beneath you and rock against her?”

“Yes.” Jay gasped for breath. His hips thrust faster against his fist. “Yes, Henry.”

Henry pushed a finger into her, down to the last knuckle, pulling back and adding a second as she pressed forward to meet him.

“She feels you now, Jay. She’s soaking through her panties for you. Will you make her come? She wants to come with you.”

Henry tweaked her nipple with his left hand, pinching it between forefinger and thumb. He repeated the motion while the thumb of his other hand rubbed against her clit and his fingers worked within her. She couldn’t catch her breath. Her legs trembled.

Jay groaned again, a low sound ending on a frustrated whine.

“She’s so close, Jay, her body swelling around you. Tight and hot, her hips rolling up to meet you. You have to be quiet, don’t you? So quiet, because she’s not to be in your room at all. Not to be under you in your bed, making you feel like a god as she whimpers in your ear and begs you to let her come.”

Her desire built for the orgasm Henry held perched on the tips of his fingers.

“Please. Please…” Her voice mingled with Jay’s, both of them desperate to fall.

“Come for me. Both of you. Now.”

She shook, her body obedient to the command in Henry’s tone. She gave what he demanded of her as Jay’s orgasm spilled over his chest and stomach.

Wrapping his left arm around her waist, Henry kept her on her feet as she sagged. He pulled his fingers from her and hummed as he tasted her. His right arm clasped her across her shoulders.

“Well done,” he murmured. “The two of you make a lovely duet.”

Jay grinned, head lolling against the headboard.

“But we’re not nearly done yet.” Henry eased his hold on her. “Steady, my dear?”

She nodded, her head bumping his shoulder, though her legs trembled with echoing delight.

He kissed her cheek as he pushed the straps of her dress off her shoulders and allowed the garment to fall. Her bra followed. He pressed a second kiss to the base of her spine when he knelt to remove her underwear and the sandals she’d slipped on her feet to cross the hall. What seemed like hours ago but couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes. Or just under fifteen, she amended, with a glance at the bedside clock. Jesus.

The orgasm had taken the edge off her need, but it waited within her, sparking with every touch of his skin against hers. He stood and pulled her hair aside to drop a third kiss on the side of her neck.

“Play with Jay for a moment, Alice.” He patted her backside, making her giggle as she climbed onto the bed. “Ahh, there’s a sound we’ve missed.”

He stepped out of the room.

Jay smacked his palm against the bed beside him, and she settled next to him, laying her head on his shoulder. “Well, you didn’t come in your pants.”

“Nope, just all over myself.” Jay nuzzled her hair. “Trust me, I’ve been doing a lot of that.”

“And you’ll have your reward for it, my boy.” Henry returned bearing a washcloth and sat on the bed. Unlike the two of them, he was still fully clothed. His left hand tugged at Alice’s right ankle. “Open for me, my dear.”

She spread her legs, always happy to obey that command when it came in Henry’s voice. He bathed her with tenderness, in long strokes, and performed the same service for Jay before he carried the washcloth out of the room.

“Fresh and clean and ready to go again.” Jay waggled his eyebrows.

She flopped on the bed, laughing, and ran her hand along the inside of his calf muscle, up his right leg to the back of his knee. He wasn’t quite ready to go again, but Henry’s patient attention with the cloth had gotten him started.

“You hope.”

“I know,” Jay corrected. “Henry promised I’d get my reward.”

“Maybe it’s not what you think.” Sexual, she assumed, but she stuck her tongue out at Jay anyway.

He laughed, his eyes fixed on her tongue. “He told me in advance. Incentive to be patient, he calls it. I dunno how or when, but I know what.”

Now she was curious. Her fingers teased along Jay’s thigh. “You gonna tell me?”

“You’ll find out in a moment, Alice.” Henry’s voice came from the doorway. “As it happens, you’ll have an important role to play.”

He crossed the room to the special dresser, the one that held the toys for their games, where several items had been laid out on top. She sat up to see better.

Henry’s body blocked her view, but the dresser was a brief stop for him. He came to the bed and sat with a fistful of green silk. Scarves. Bondage? They didn’t look menacing, not when she’d already tried the wrist and ankle cuffs.

But Henry wasn’t holding them out to her. He laid them across his lap, and he took Jay’s right foot in his hands, massaging.

“I’m going to tie you, Jay.”

Jay flinched despite Henry’s soft tone, his foot twitching between Henry’s hands.

“You’ve nothing to fear here, my boy. And you’ll have your reward. But I want you to submit to this. I know your capabilities, Jay. Will you trust me?”

“I do trust you, Henry.” Jay’s voice trembled. “I’m just…”

“You’ve only to say your word and the games will stop. But you’re my brave boy, and you’ll have Alice here with you. You’ll be able to see her. You simply won’t be able to touch.” Henry smiled, a coaxing, enticing curve of his mouth. “We can’t have you rushing your own reward, can we?”

She played silent witness as Henry tied the first scarf around Jay’s right ankle and pressed a kiss atop his foot. The floaty fabric wasn’t long enough to fasten to anything, not the way he’d tied it. With the ends tucked inside, the scarf fit like nothing so much as a wide bracelet.

“It’s not long enough.” Jay’s voice hovered between confusion and relief.

“It’s exactly as long as it needs to be,” Henry corrected. “You won’t be tied down, my boy. Nothing will hold you but your own belief. Your promise to me that you will treat these scarves as though they restrained you utterly.”

Jay nodded, his smile blindingly beautiful. “I can do that. I can do that, Henry.”

“I know you can, my boy.” He reached for Jay’s left foot with the second scarf.

She was missing something, some key piece of information about Jay’s past that would tell her why the idea of being tied made him skittish. Why Henry would want to push his limits with such gentleness. The panic on Jay’s face the night Henry had first flogged her had been real. The “bad choices” he’d mentioned. He’d been with Henry for years, but what about before?

Because Henry would’ve never hurt him. Henry was trying to help him, clearly. And now she was, too. Tender affection flooded through her, a warm bath for her arousal.

Once Jay’s wrists were tied as symbolically as his ankles, Henry positioned him against the headboard with arms spread wide along the top rail. Legs spread on the mattress. He commanded Jay to stay in place, reminding him the scarves bound him, and kissed him sweetly before rising.

Her gaze followed Henry to the dresser. She recognized the blindfold dangling from his fingers when he turned back, but not the fistful of dark brown leather and silver rings.

“I’m certain Alice won’t mind waiting on your pleasure, my boy, as your need is obvious.”

She glanced at Jay, who was more than half-hard again already. Whatever his reward, he was eager to receive it if he’d managed such a quick recovery. Henry had taken his time bathing her and Jay, sure, but biology was biology. She hadn’t expected Jay would get another turn before Henry had even gotten off.

“Alice is quite a patient girl, isn’t she?” Henry sat on the bed, facing her, watching her as he ostensibly spoke to Jay. “I’m sure she knows very well she ought to have come to me if her need was too pressing to wait. But waiting four weeks was no trouble for her, was it? So she won’t mind waiting now. Will you, Alice?”

He had to be punishing her. Gently mocking her, because he knew damn well how strongly just his voice had affected her. She’d brought this on herself. Was it a control thing? Was that why Henry wanted her to admit how damn needy she’d been?

She couldn’t blame Jay. He’d expected her to spend that Sunday in bed with Henry. He’d all but shoved them into bed himself. She didn’t want to delay his reward. So she swallowed hard and shook her head. “No, Henry. I don’t mind. I can wait.”

“Self-sacrificing,” he murmured. “A bit too willing to deny her own needs.” His lips quirked in an odd smile.

She was tempted to verbalize her own mental response.
Says the man with the hard-on who brings us to climax but won’t even take off his pants yet.
His smile grew. Shit, was he reading her mind?

“She puts you first, Jay. So you’ll be allowed to come first. Alice will work very hard to make that happen.”

Jay’s seated position, his hips forward and his body reclined against the headboard, would make riding him easy. Was that what Henry had in mind?

“Because until it does, she won’t be coming either.”

A test. A challenge. How hard could it be? She could outlast Jay. A few Kegel contractions and he’d be over the edge in a heartbeat.

“Alice. You’re familiar with Jay’s waiting pose. Kneel for me, just like that, between his legs, please.”

Between? Not straddling? She climbed over Jay’s right leg and faced him. Sat on her calves, her legs folded beneath her, feet curved under her ass.

He gripped the headboard railing. His hips shifted. He liked being dominated or he wouldn’t be with Henry, she supposed. The idea of her on top would excite him.

“Hold out your arms, Alice, straight in front of you, please.”

Henry hadn’t brought any more scarves to bed. But the leather…

She extended her arms, a tremor of excitement rolling through her. He wrapped the strange cuff around her left first, slipping straps through rings, tightening until leather encased her from wrist to elbow. He followed suit with her right arm.

Aesthetics, maybe? She twisted her arms to look. The lining inside of the cuffs wasn’t rough or harsh. The outside was the glossy brown of a freshly oiled saddle. She stifled a giggle. Jay ought to have the leather and she the silks if she was playing jockey tonight.

Henry bent her arms toward her chest, bringing her hands under her chin. Metal closed with a snap. What?

She tried to turn her arms, to see what he’d done, but they wouldn’t go far. She tugged harder. Metal clinked. He’d bound the cuffs to each other somehow. Her arms, from wrist to elbow, couldn’t move more than two inches apart. She tugged again.

Henry closed his right hand over both of hers in a gentle squeeze.

“You know how to stop the game if you need to, my dear.” He let go of her hands. “Do you need to?”

Did she? Jay was watching her almost as closely as Henry. Nothing to panic about. If Jay could play his part, she could play hers.

“No, Henry.”

“Good. Wiggle your fingers for me, please.”

She wiggled.

“And clap your hands.”

She clapped, the sound soft as the cuffs limited her ability to part her hands.

“No numbness, tingling or discomfort, my dear?”