Playing the Game (9 page)

“Henry gave me an amazing orgasm, and Jay thinks about me when he jacks off. Whatever happens, I refuse to lose their friendship over this. The priority is boundaries. Follow their lead.”

She returned to her seat, giving Henry a small smile and a nod when his sharp-eyed gaze landed on her, and she dug into the cheesecake with enthusiasm.

Jay confessed he’d hated pineapple as a child.

Alice shared a story about her little sister’s failed attempt to make their mom’s pineapple upside-down cake.

Henry slyly inquired whether his dessert was more acceptable, and Alice’s and Jay’s voices tumbled over each other’s in their haste to express their delight.

As Jay started clearing plates, Alice half rose to carry her dishes to the kitchen.

“You needn’t trouble yourself, Alice. Jay will clear tonight.”

“Is handling the dishes, umm.” She stopped.

Whatever arrangement Jay and Henry had was
theirs
, wasn’t it? Not her business. She was a bit of excitement. Like they were for her, right? Temporary. Friends with occasional benefits.

Jay swooped in and snatched up her plate.

“Is busing tables one of my kinks, you mean? I promise, it’s not.” He kissed her cheek before sailing off with her dishes.

“It’s not a formal part of my contract with Jay, Alice, no. It’s more in the nature of a roommate exchange, as Jay’s cooking is…hmm. ‘Inedible’ would be the politest term, I believe. Setting the table and clearing is a much safer contribution to mealtimes for him.”

“Hey, now, no need to sling personal insults,” Jay called from the kitchen. “My dry toast is fantastic. Fan-tas-tic.”

Henry smiled at Jay’s chatter, but Alice frowned. Henry’s statement made no sense, unless she didn’t know them as well as she thought.

“You have a contract with Jay? He’s paying you?”

Henry’s eyes widened. His eyebrows lifted.

“Oh, my dear Alice, no, not at all. I’m afraid I’ve given you the wrong impression entirely by handling everything backward this evening. Not that that sort of thing isn’t done. It is, and the pay for professionals can be quite handsome indeed. But my arrangement with Jay is much less formal and more personal. No, the contract I’m referring to isn’t a business contract. It’s a statement of intention, a delineation of desires, a promise of fidelity and trust. The contract exists to protect Jay and guide my interpretation of his needs. Something like a prenuptial agreement with an erotic focus.”

He paused to sip his wine, still on his first glass. Was sobriety, too, part of his responsibilities to Jay? And to her, tonight at least.

“If you wish to extend this relationship beyond tonight, Alice, you will also need a contract.”

“Earlier, you said…when I said you were in charge, you said that wasn’t quite right. But Jay listens to you. Does what you say. And I listened to you and did what you said.”

“Mmm. Yes, you did so quite well, dearest. But what Jay and I do and what the three of us have begun this evening is not about me. I am in the dominant role, directing the action, yes, but the goal is not to fulfill my desires at the expense of yours or Jay’s. Rather the opposite, in fact. My primary goal is to ensure that your experience is exciting and memorable, meeting your needs and testing your boundaries without causing physical or emotional harm not expressly requested in your contract.

“In a sense, one might say my role is to serve, though properly the role you and Jay have accepted is termed the submissive one. I take my responsibilities as a dominant quite seriously, Alice, which is why I am ashamed to see I have begun your instruction in such haphazard fashion. You deserve better from me.”

“I’m the one who said I was ready. That I wanted to…well, okay, I didn’t know exactly what you had in mind, but I wanted it. And I knew I trusted you.”

“Then I have doubly failed you, Alice. You had already granted me your trust, based upon our friendship, and still I neglected to be certain you understood the game you were stepping into. I am the expert. You are the novice. The responsibility was mine.”

“Are you saying that this–” She gestured at Henry, at the table between them, at Jay, standing in the kitchen, watching them talk. “That it can’t happen again? Because you feel guilty about how it started?”

Wow, she sounded more angry and panicked than she intended. Just because she wouldn’t be fucking them again didn’t mean she couldn’t keep their friendship. Once was enough, wasn’t it?
No. I want that again.

Henry replied with quiet restraint, his voice as fluid as ever. “I’m saying I’ve inadvertently abused your trust, Alice. I will atone for that, as I’m able.”

He studied her in stillness as she trembled on the edge of certainty that he would send her away, to her empty bed across the hall. Pushing his chair back, he stretched out his hand instead.

“But at the moment, I’ve compounded the problem by allowing this distance between us. Come here, my dear. Please.”

She went without hesitation, surprised by how much her worries eased when he pulled her into his lap, settling her legs sideways across his and wrapping his left arm around her back. His right hand stroked the outside of her left thigh. She shifted into his touch and inhaled sharply as the bare skin of her labia grazed the fabric of his pants. A deliberate roll of her hips rubbed her against him.

He chuckled. “Such initiative. Is that a request for more?”

Was she being greedy? She’d already had a turn, and Henry hadn’t even come.

His voice lowered to a whisper. “It’s quite all right, Alice. You’ve done nothing wrong. I’m still learning to read your needs. It’s to be expected that I’ll question you far more often than I do Jay until I am able to anticipate what you desire most at any given moment.”

Oh. Of course. “Is that what the contract will tell you?”

“Precisely. The document provides a starting point for understanding. You’ve decided, then? You wish to go forward?” His fingers mimicked his words, sliding under her dress, slipping over the top of her thigh until they rested so close to her lips the heat warmed her.

She spread her legs wider, biting her lip at the rush of sensation, the not-quite-scratchy, not-quite-soft fabric and the nudging against her right leg as his cock swelled in his pants beneath her.

“Yes, please.”

He brushed her lips with his fingers, parting them easily. She was already wet, already plump and eager for his touch, and he didn’t make her wait. He sank a finger into her, and she gasped. He added a second without pausing.

Her hips rocked.

“Jay,” Henry’s hushed call vibrated past her ear. “At my side, please.”

Her eyelids drifted shut.

Henry’s palm rubbed over her clit with each thrust of his fingers. His left arm cradling her back, he delved beneath her dress under her arm and cupped her left breast. She hadn’t worn a bra, judging a backless halter bra too much trouble, the black dress enough concealment and her breasts not requiring the support. His hand fell on bare skin, thumb tracing her nipple as his fingers held the weight of her breast in a secure grip.

Sighing, she leaned into his chest and pressed her left cheek to his. New warmth settled alongside her legs. She was too comfortable to investigate. No one here but Jay, and he would do…

Whatever Henry tells him to.

Alice giggled.

Henry murmured in her left ear, his fingers slow and steady between her legs. “Now that’s a happy sound from our sweet girl.”

The soft warmth of his lips as he kissed the corner of her jaw made her shiver. He nuzzled her ear. “Jay must be feeling exceptionally contrite for upsetting you, Alice. He’s never quite so patient. Shall we give him a chance to redeem himself?”

Henry pulled his head back from hers.

She opened her eyes and followed his gaze, angled to the floor where Jay knelt back on his heels alongside the chair.

He raised his bowed head to meet their inspection, laying his cheek against her left knee and delivering silent pleas with puppy-dog eyes.

“We should,” she said.

She wasn’t mad at Jay. If he hadn’t spoken, she wouldn’t have had the courage to tell Henry she wanted this. His teasing had been exuberant, not mocking. She wasn’t so thin-skinned. Besides, he was so damn cute down on his knees, all boyish charm and puppy pleading folded into a grown man’s body.

She smiled at him. “He wants to be a good boy.”

Henry chuckled. His left hand briefly tightened on her left breast.

“You’ve found favor with the lady, Jay. You mustn’t squander the opportunity. Hands and mouth only. Practice, slowly, what you plan to say as you work from the farthest reaches of exile to the sweet depths of forgiveness. You may begin.”

Jay lifted her right foot. His fingers stroked and massaged, in lines and circles, in incomprehensible patterns, at times firmly and others gently.

All the while, Henry’s fingers provided torment of their own, unmoving inside her except when her body clenched around them. When he allowed a slow thrust or two as he murmured to Jay, “More of that, yes” or “Our girl prefers a firm hand, Jay.”

The slow pace, the restraint they showed, confused and aroused in equal measure. Tortured anticipation kept her nipples hard and breasts aching, satisfaction waiting miles down a twisting road. Her body threatened to wiggle right off Henry’s lap. Involuntary shivers coursed through her, as if she teetered on the cusp of sleep and jerked herself awake again and again.

She had to be dripping all over his left leg given the wetness sliding down her thighs. His pants were probably dry-clean only. She didn’t care. She wanted to leave a mark on him, on them both, something to prove she wasn’t dreaming.

Jay kissed the top of her right foot with light, fluttering kisses. He suckled at her toes, twining his tongue around them and tugging. He bit lightly into the arch of her foot, and Henry urged him to do so harder when her toes curved around Jay’s cheek and her thighs tightened and her body trembled with near-orgasmic pleasure.

Her breath came hard.

Henry laid his lips against her neck. A kiss? No, feeling her pulse. An excruciating wait, and bliss denied.

“Go on, Jay. The left, now.”

Her left foot received more focused treatment, every brush of finger and tongue a certain, sure movement ratcheting up her desire. When Jay’s touch made her gasp or shudder, Henry stepped in with his lips on her neck and his fingers in her pussy to coax a moan from her.

She floated on the edge of intensity, her skin hypersensitive to every stimulation as Henry urged Jay on.

Jay hooked his hands behind her knees and slid her across Henry’s lap. Her dress rode up her thighs. Her body reclined against Henry’s strong left arm.

The tightness spreading through her seemed endless, a pleasure almost painful in its need. She’d beg without shame if Henry asked her.

Jay mouthed her thighs with lips and teeth and tongue, the barest hint of stubble on his cheeks a teasing scratch. She couldn’t shift away, as she had nowhere to go. Jay’s hands held her knees open, baring her for his mouth, and Henry’s body cradled her.

She throbbed around his fingers, wanting more, but his hand slipped free, fingers sliding away and not returning. She whimpered.

“Don’t stop, please. Please, more.”

Henry raised his fingers to his lips and pulled them in with his tongue. His eyes briefly closed.

The pleasure at pleasing him rippled through her. A breath alone might have served to send her over. When his hand descended, she couldn’t control her panting breaths or the moans trapped in her throat.

He brushed her dress aside, and her hips strained toward the movement of air and fabric. His hand flattened against her stomach, holding her dress up and out of the way. Beyond lay the fullness of her labia, flushed rose red and spread wide, shining with desire between close-cropped curls the deep gold of ripe wheat. And an inch away, the back of Jay’s head, a shock of dark hair between pale thighs.

“Beautiful,” Henry murmured, and she wondered if her body had become a canvas in his mind. “Will you accept Jay’s apology now, Alice? You’re ready for it, I think.”

Excitement buzzed in her ears and through her brain, and every spark directly connected to such a tiny patch of flesh between her thighs.

“Wha…yes, I…yes, now, please, I accept, whatever, whatever he, I don’t know what he…”