Finding Their Balance (37 page)

Unbuttoning his jacket, Henry took the pale blue chair across from her. “Waiting pose.”

Jay folded with the billow of a bedsheet coming off the line, his head back, his chest thrust forward, and his knees dropping into rounded, generous pleats.

Nearby conversations blipped into silent appreciation, and slight smiles spread in a graceful, widening fan. Whispers chased the silence.
First meeting … I remember mine … what a beauty ... poised and attentive….

Henry rested his hand on Jay’s head. “Have you a thought as to what you’re seeking in a pet, Mistress Alice? Beyond compatible sexual desires. The bonds anchor themselves in mysteries hidden far deeper than genitalia, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I would.” In the last year, she’d turned the full one-eighty and left her mistaken beliefs about love rotting in a barren field. With the right people, those bonds had brought her to places not on any maps. The promise of adventure and the thrill of discovery created their own age of exploration and invention. Secret worlds inside them all, beautiful worlds, like Henry’s quiet understanding and Jay’s generous heart. “I want….”

What was Jay to her? The real question swirled beneath Henry’s veiled inquiry. Get the answer right—be truthful—and she’d bring pleasure to both of her men.

“I want a playful pet who makes me laugh.”

The way Jay scooped her up at any opportunity, or made goofy faces, or dished out over-the-top innuendo.

“A happy boy who’s proud to serve his mistress.”

The way he organized their room how she liked it, and in return he only asked she notice his effort. Acknowledge that his love brightened her life.

“I want to look in his eyes and see the confidence of a man who knows how loved he is.”

His melted-cocoa stare, his subby-drugged happiness in a scene. The way he stared now, pleasure quivering from the depths of his eyes to the tip of his cock.

“I want a pet who’ll work hard at his lessons, respect himself, and trust me enough to tell me when he needs more from me.”

Because Henry was right, finding the balance didn’t always come intuitively, even with years of practice. Jay guided them as much as they guided him. If he spoke in ways different from her blunt questioning, she’d learn to decipher his native tongue.

“And it wouldn’t hurt if he were dangerously attractive.” Licking her lips, she shot him her best sexy ogle, her eyebrows dancing.

“Dangerously?” As Henry tugged Jay’s hair, Jay tilted toward his master.

“Mm-hmm.” She captured and held Jay’s gaze. “The kind of guy I almost can’t keep my hands off of, whose clothes I want to shove aside while I’m nudging him onto his back on the couch on our first date. People say good girls don’t want that—but I’m a good girl and I do, so people can say whatever they like and I won’t care because I have what I want.”

Rumbling approval, Henry shifted his knees wider. The cut of his suit hid his arousal, but Jay’s stood in as a fine symbol for both.

“It just so happens—” Henry rubbed Jay’s shoulders. “I may have what you want, as well.”

“You know a good match for me?” Oh hell, coyness, right there. She’d have to remember that tone next time she wanted to wheedle a favor out of Henry. Like a nice flogging. Or anal sex.

His slanted smile said he’d deliver. “I have an excellent one with me tonight.”

Including Jay’s squirming hips and outthrust cock in her lazy survey, she settled on his sweet face. His grin rounded his cheeks, softened his sharp, masculine angles. “He looks well-equipped for satisfaction.”

“As he appears, so he is.” With his hand clamped at the back of Jay’s neck, Henry rattled free an eager, moaning whimper. “This is my boy in his purest form, his truth running clear as a mountain stream.”

“He has beautiful skin.” The intimate lighting and low chatter in the salon crafted a newness, as if she hadn’t run her hands over Jay a thousand times. Focusing her awareness on him fine-tuned the crowd to a low-level buzz vibrating in her blood. Henry had warned her about the fishbowl effect, but the
reserved
sign seemed to dissuade interruptions as much as encourage observers.

“Sun-kissed.” Stroking Jay from shoulders to ass, Henry got a cat-stretch and wiggle for his subtle pride. “My boy shifts with the season, constant in his affections and ever-changing in his palette.”

“It’d be a shame not to pet him.” She extended her arm, palm up. “May I?”

Henry bent and kissed Jay’s forehead. “Go and let Mistress Alice examine your charms, my boy.”

Ribs swaying, cock swinging, Jay crossed the three feet separating them on his knees and resettled himself in his waiting pose directly in front of her. Hot breath washed over her calves as he bowed his head. “Command me if it pleases you, Mistress.”

Jay’s trust. Henry’s trust. They balanced on a yoke across her shoulders, and yet the weight never bogged her down but lifted her up.

“Up on your knees, then.” She cupped his chin, pulling him with her lightest touch, and he rose with trembling joy. “Let me look at the frame of this fascinating machine.”

Desire pounded her fingertips with the constancy of the tide, tingling need flowing in and demanding she trace Jay like an unfamiliar blueprint. She couldn’t grant him permission to come, not in the salon, though the need already made itself plain in his straining cock. God, so much trust in him as he watched her every move. She ached to topple him back and drop her pantyless self on top.

Not here.

Henry must contend with the same urges. But the war for control almost never showed on his face.

Mapping the ridges and hollows of Jay’s throat set his cock jumping. His balls tightened.

“Jay.” Her responsibility to see his cues and deescalate. “I have a task for you.” As soon as she thought of one. God, don’t let her look as desperate as she felt. Her heart thudded double time.

Coasters. Empty.

“I want you to fetch me a drink. Something sweet from the kitchen.” Releasing Jay, she leaned sideways. “Anything for you, Master Henry?”

“Yes, thank you, that’s a lovely thought.” The intensity in his green gaze gentled, and he inclined his head. Confident in her abilities, he hadn’t even unfolded his hands. “Water with lemon, my boy. A tall, slender glass. A fresh wedge, cut from a new lemon if one is available.”

“Yes, Master Henry.” As Jay bowed his head, his cheek brushed her arm. Almost her breast. “Thank you, Mistress Alice.”

“Go on. I’d like a peek at your sexy behind.” She gestured toward the kitchen, the entrance obscured by the steadily growing crowd. “Bring me back something nice—aside from yourself, stud.”

With a broad grin and a grace balanced on the fine edge of humble and cocky, Jay sauntered off.

As he disappeared, she let out the last of her breath. “Jesus. How do you stop yourself?”

Henry perched on the front of his seat and steepled his hands below his lips. “From grabbing your waist and flipping you around on that chair? From tossing your dress over your ass, clamping my hands atop yours against that high cherry back, and taking what’s mine?”

Her throat went dry. She’d need that drink now. “Uh-huh.”

Eyes flashing, he returned to a neutral posture. “Because I enjoy the anticipation—and the denial. And I believe in the value of the rules in place here.”

“He needed a breather.” She had, too. The tight knots dotting the room bulged with players in the same game, a free-flowing mesh of glances and caresses and departures. They’d better make theirs before she missed a cue and caused Jay embarrassment. “The praise and attention had him on the edge.”

“Mm-hmm. We’ll sip our drinks enough to make his service worthwhile. You do seem parched, dearest.” With his smirk, Henry offered a rare glimpse into his amusement. “And then we’ll take him upstairs, where we might find a relief valve for his excitement.”

Without questioning her assessment, he accepted her read of Jay’s needs. Bringing their game outside the second bedroom, into a public-ish space like the club, challenged her skills—but she’d never shied from a challenge.

“You’re doing well, Alice.” Henry soothed in his rumbling baritone. “You found a method to give him space to calm himself, and you presented it as a command he desired, to allow him to fulfill his need to serve. I would have done the same. Have done, in fact.” With no more than a green-eyed stare, he pinned her to the seat. “I’m finding it exceptionally difficult to refrain from rewarding your brilliance with an orgasm or three.”

She clenched her thighs against the rush. Her readiness would seal her lips until one of her men parted them and unleashed an unstoppable flood.

Tilting his head, Henry lifted one eyebrow.

She followed his cue to a flash of bare flesh heading their way. Back in character. Jay’s mistress. Not a fake role, but one with specific priorities.

“Of course—” Henry raised his voice, not truly overloud, but pitched for ears a dozen steps away and buried beneath black hair. “I would never send my boy off for an unsupervised play date.”

“No, I understand.” She matched his aloof tone, as if Jay’s approach passed unnoticed. The salon’s growing flock of players, too, she ignored, even as some strayed closer. Faces familiar from classes. Watching Henry work a negotiation, they’d paused their own extracurriculars. “He’s a wonderful find. I’d be protective, too, if he were mine.”

“If. Two tiny letters with a wealth of meaning. For the right woman, Alice—may I call you Alice?” He caressed her name, a long, licking ‘L’ and a melting “ice.” She must’ve nodded, because he carried on with a flicker of a smile. “I’d consider a shared custody arrangement. Assuming the initial games are mutually satisfying.”

A glass secure in each hand, Jay stepped between them and knelt.

“Shuttling your poor pet back and forth would promote instability. All that friction wearing him down.” She plucked her glass free and drank deep. Sweet, wet, and cooling. “Excellent choice, Jay, thank you.”

“I’m happy to serve you, Mistress.” Relaxed and smiling, he preened under their attention. Despite his safely soft cock, his eyes shone. The club gave him something impossible at home—a quasi-public audience for his submission. Everywhere else, he buttoned up his need for Henry’s dominance. “However you and my master see fit.”

In a sensual slide, Henry trailed his hand down Jay’s arm and claimed his drink. “I suspect we’ll manage to find a frictionless fit, with suitable incentives.” Tipping the glass and sipping became performance art closely watched by their adoring server. “The proper care of one’s submissive is a tremendous responsibility. Thankfully, the joys in return are tenfold.”

Henry took so much care balancing Jay’s needs. His more blatant domination at home helped Jay power through the hours when he wouldn’t let himself accept what he needed. The things he’d be ashamed to ask for.

“I can see you must take excellent care of him.” The protected space here gave both of her men something they needed—the ability to show their true relationship without being judged. Without being shoved into boxes of masculinity that could never contain all they were to each other and to her.

“It’s lovely when one has the leisure to study a potential partner, to learn their behaviors and quirks before extending an invitation.” As he ruffled Jay’s hair, his gaze never left her. “Yet still they surprise and delight us.”

He’d catalogued her from the day they met. Assessing the purpose of each piece in her design, he’d determined the best shape for their three-sided relationship. The one he’d deem aesthetically pleasing, she’d call functionally efficient, and Jay’d name the smoothest ride.

“I took the liberty of reserving a room upstairs.” Henry lifted the
reserved
tag from the table, creased the heavy paper at the fold, and tucked it in his breast pocket.

A courtesy, to let others claim the space once they’d left, but a memento, too. The sole question was whether the card would end up in her contract folder or Jay’s—or if Henry had created a joint one for them as well.

Rising to his feet, Henry buttoned his suit coat. Command clung to him tighter than tailored fabric as he extended his arm. “Shall we adjourn to ascertain the exactness of our fit?”

She slipped her arm around his. “I’m honored, Master Henry.” Pouring her impish joy into the title, she laid her head against his shoulder. “I have an idea or two for sampling your boy’s charms.”

“I thought you might.”

* * * *

At a red-carded door, a nook tucked in a quiet corner of the third floor, Henry stopped. Blinds covered the viewing window. Releasing her arm, he turned to Jay, who’d trailed them with silent steps, up the stairs and through the halls, past countless others enjoying their service. The threshold of new adventure waited.

Henry clasped Jay’s shoulders. “This room belongs to Mistress Alice tonight. Tell her your safeword, please.”

“Tilt-A-Whirl. I promise to use it”—he shot her a sly eyebrow waggle over Henry’s shoulder—“if Mistress Alice is too much for me.”

She circled him and grabbed a handful of ass cheek, prompting an indrawn breath and a bobbing thrust. “I plan to be just exactly enough for you, stud.”

“Will you obey Mistress Alice tonight, my boy?” Sweeping down Jay’s arms, Henry coached him loose and easy, prepping his prizefighter for the improvisational thrill of the ring. Santa Will had claimed to be a boxer as a kid. Surely Henry had been his stalwart ringside support. “Will you treat her commands as if they were my own?”

“I will, Master Henry.” As Jay craned around and peered down at her, he poured love and respect into his gaze. “Thank you for accepting my service, Mistress Alice.”

“I couldn’t ask for better.” She kissed his cheek. Once the door opened, they’d be different people. The private people they always were and yet weren’t. More fully the people they were all the time. Just—freer.

Henry’s assessing stare slid into a crinkle-eyed smile, a match for her pounding heart.

She nodded to him. “Let’s play.”

Knob in hand, Henry gave the door a push. “Ladies first.”

Once she flicked the light switch, her quick scan showed about what she’d expected—their classroom on a small scale, two rows of three desks. Henry’s bag sat beside the teacher’s desk. He must’ve sent a runner after Jay had changed.