Finding Their Balance

by M. Q. Barber

  “The whereabouts of my subs are no concern of yours.” Offering a close-mouthed smile, Henry lacked the warmth that permeated his voice when she or Jay pleased him. “Though I’m certain it eases your mind to know they are well cared for.”

  Cal’s perfectly tweezed and arched eyebrows shot together. “Too frightened to show his face? I always preferred to see the back of him.” He oozed glee in a conspiratorial whisper. “He only sobbed for the whip. Cram his mouth full of cock and he’d beg for more.”

  She scrunched the dress, resisting the urge to rend and tear. At her back, Henry dug in with curling fingers.

  “Beg?” Will snorted. “Sounds like his mouth wasn’t full if he had the breath to beg for more.” Thick fingers flying, he waved a dismissal.

  Cal flinched.

  Glorious. God, let Santa keep going.

  “His partner at the time must not have been big enough to keep him satisfied.” In his mellow bass, Will goaded with an oh-so-cheerful fuck-you singsong. “I’ve never heard him begging with Henry’s cock in his throat.”

  Choking on a laugh, she lowered her chin to smother the sound. She’d have laid money on him never watching Jay blow Henry, but he hadn’t lied. If he hadn’t witnessed the blowjob, he would’ve missed the theoretical pleading.

  “Your pet is dangerously close to mockery, Henry.” Arctic chill in his eyes, Cal glared at her. Unlike their first meeting, the hair-gelled hedgehog sported a shirt tonight. He’d hauled out a netted, nipple-chafing monstrosity belonging on a raver two sizes smaller.

  Her chuckles came harder. He’d lost the ability to unsettle her and thrust her back to the wall. This pathetic man clung to shreds of power she refused to grant.

  “I don’t expect you to control the lumbering ape.” Cal waved at Will. “But these ludicrous classes should be teaching cocksluts civility.”

  Will eyed the fingers flapping inches from his chest and raised his stare to meet Cal’s.

  Hand plummeting to his side, Cal rounded on Henry. “You’re brainwashing them into baby games and disrespect.”

  She sucked in air between giggles. Fuck it. She was no church mouse, and she had a yellow ribbon. She’d damn well enjoy herself.

  “I find her laughter pleasing.” Tickling her in his gentleness, Henry traced her collarbone with a lone finger. “Whether it pleases you is irrelevant. My desires are the only ones she needs to sate.”

  Obedient as a compass needle chasing magnetic north, she swayed toward him. “Your desires are mine, sir.” He’d calmed her with no more than a touch, and the softening line of his lips suggested she’d pleased him. Reciprocity. “I’m privileged to belong to a man who knows how to wield his power to motivate his lovers.”

  Eyes darkening, Henry slipped his hand behind her neck. Santa had better be on guard for them, because the world stopped existing beyond their heated stare. Stroking, teasing, Henry twined wisps of her hair in his fingers and tugged.

  Christ, that pull. She tipped her head, a motion inexplicably tied to breasts and belly, a tingling ache he roused and soothed daily. She burned with competitive fever to outdo their morning, to take his cock where she’d only taken her toy. To show the room how her gently commanding lover mastered her. “Will I get more sizeable rewards for good behavior, sir?”

  Tightening his fingers, he dropped his gaze to her throat. “I’ve gifts aplenty for my good girl.” In his stare, he promised bruising kisses she’d need a midsummer turtleneck to hide.

  Intrusive Cal huffed. His slacks rustled. “If your bitch wants to open her mouth, she should be on her knees. At least then she’d offer something worthwhile with her noise. Does she squeal as loud as the slave boy?”

  Clenching her fists beneath her overdress, she almost swung at the bastard’s jaw. Self-control edged out of reach.

  Henry held her captive with firm fingers and steady eyes. “Prodding.” He breathed for them both, slow and untroubled, and even her lungs obeyed his tempo. “My girl has no wounds to infect.” With his intimate tone, he salved verbal grazes and slights. “No weakness to exploit.”

  Henry and Jay had seen to that. Sealed the three of them together with an amalgam of love and pain and growth. Cal’s barbs offended without significant injury. Inconsequential, like the man himself. “None, sir.”

  Fuck, the things she’d do to earn his smile. Approval in upturned lips. Delight in smoldering eyes.

  Alice three, fears zip.

  “Be easy, Cal.” Will’s thunderous clap silenced nearby chatter. Maybe he imagined crushing Cal’s skull between his hands. “I’m certain the girl didn’t mean for her laughter to imply anything about the size—or lack thereof—of the bulge in your pants.” Pinching his fingers, Will shook his head in teasing concern. He’d pitched his voice loud, his rumbling bass gathering attention and snickers. “She’s a giggly little one by nature, and she likely has her eyes on bigger prizes.” With a satisfied lip-smack, he leaned in as if confiding a secret. “The things she does in a man’s lap—Calvin, you can’t imagine the pleasure.”

  True, if misleading. Cal couldn’t begin to understand the joy Will took in non-sexual cuddling.

  “Why, the evening she spent in mine?” Sighing like a bellows, Will tweaked her chin and winked. “The best I’ve had in ages.”

  As Henry cradled her close, he tickled her neck. “You still blush beautifully, dearest.”

  “Any of these whores”—Cal flung his arm wide toward the crowd—“can be taught to adequately suck a cock.”

  A disapproving murmur raced through their nearest neighbors.

  “I don’t see any whores here, Cal.” Mild though it was, Henry’s voice carried in the following quiet. “To whom were you referring?”

  “Sounds like sour grapes to me.” Gaze on her, Will brushed his knuckles along her cheek.

  She tipped into his touch. Nuzzling as performance art. He meant to goad Cal, and Henry was letting him. So long as she only participated indirectly, the club’s rules would survive.

  Will tsked. “Poor Calvin calls them whores and cries when they won’t play with him.”

  “Whores play when I tell them to play.” Cal thrust forward.

  Forearms clashed in a cross beside her head. Will left an echo on her cheek, so fast he reacted. With a beefy block, he shoved Cal back a step.

  Henry stood motionless as he did before a sublime work of art. “Lay hands on her and I’ll have you ejected.” Voice cool, light, and measured, he projected complete unconcern. “Has your dullness dimmed your eyes as well?”

  “Yellow ribbon, Callie-boy. Touch by invitation only.” Arm still raised, Will cracked his knuckles. “If you need a refresher on the house rules, Henry could kindly school you on Saturdays with those hoping to better themselves.”

  “A lovely thought, Will.” Henry wrapped her, settling the weight of his palm above her ass. “Some novices have delightful minds. The quick-witted and strong-willed few.” Bending his head, he trailed his lips across her jaw. “Others, however”—he pulled back, leaving her heart racing—“claim expert titles while neglecting the comportment and refinement implied by such things.”

  Flushing, Cal cradled his arm to his chest. Under her stare, he let it fall. His eyes gleamed with pale blue flame. Oh, he hated her. If he hadn’t hated her before, he sure as hell did now.

  She tossed him a wide fuck-you-very-much smile. The quick rhythms in Henry and Will’s responses teased her imagination. Ten years gone, fifteen maybe, the two of them might’ve prowled the club with pleasurable intentions, stalking submissives and trading off control between them. Now she and Jay played those roles in turns, the stalking partner and the double-teamed submissive. Jay’d gotten his. She’d have her turn soon.

  Cal lifted his chin. “You’ve wasted enough of my time, Henry. Play your word games and pretend they’re powerful. Hide behind your ape, parade your sluts—”

  “I hope I’m not interrupting.” Slipping from the c
rowd, a slender man in formalwear cast an assessing glance at their standoff. “I wanted to thank the woman whose honesty inspired my kitten.”

  Leah popped her head around the man’s arm and waved with childish enthusiasm.

  The stranger extended his hand. “Andrew. If I may, miss?”

  Henry brushed the makeshift yellow ribbon corsage on her chest. Her choice tonight. And what a sweet fuck-you.

  “I’m always happy to meet a gentleman.” Accepting the newcomer’s handshake, she smiled for Leah. “Your girl served with distinction at tea. She has excellent attention to detail. Let me introduce you to these gentlemen—this is my master, Henry, and our good friend Master William.”

  Cal slunk away without a word.

  * * * *

  The crush on the third floor beat out the salon. Snug between Henry and Will, with her overdress left at the second-floor desk, she thanked genetics for giving them broad shoulders. They funneled traffic the way a proper roofline shed water.

  Hand-lettered signs swarmed near the ceiling. Prepare to be shocked. We’ve got the key to satisfaction. Please hold applause until the performance is finished.

  The first two rooms—electrical stimulation and chastity play—they bypassed. At the third, Henry checked his watch against the schedule. Inside, a modest audience attended a concert. Unclothed, the woman at the piano and her string players delivered a frenetic melody, judging from the fast bowing and the hints of sound escaping.

  Will shadowed Alice. “Stopping for Clara’s Quintet?”

  “Perhaps later.” Henry resettled his cuffs over his watchband. “My dear girl would hardly see the sights if I ensconced her in the music room.”

  “That, and you’d hardly be seen yourself.” Will created a gap in the crowd, and they returned to the flow. “The low profile you love can only do so much in stirring up support. A leader has to be visible.”

  “How odd.” Clasping her hand as he led them, Henry swirled his thumb in her palm. “I would have sworn my good friend Will was speaking, yet I hear Emma’s words in his mouth.”

  Will chuckled. “Caught.” Turning, he nodded respectfully to a woman in full body paint with rippling tiger stripes as she passed. “But when she’s right, she’s right.”

  A thwack resounded from the next room. Get benched and drenched graced the sign.

  Henry shuffled her in front of the viewing window. A half-dozen spanking benches in different materials and configurations sat spaced around the room. Black-ribboned attendants demonstrated positioning and restraints on volunteers from the crowd.

  The furniture saved the spankers’ knees, maybe. Put submissives in more vulnerable postures. Like being bent across a table and left to wonder what her dominant would do with her. As she shifted her weight, her bare thighs rubbed together. Without underwear, she was one slip-raise and a zipper pull away from taking him inside her.

  Breathing across her neck, Henry sent a shudder coursing to her toes. “The more pleasurable sort of spankings you enjoy, are they not?”

  Even the tear-streaked players wore smiles as they massaged reddened cheeks. Pressing into his embrace, she nudged. A gratifying bulge thumped her ass. “You too, sir.”

  Nibbling her neckline, he hummed around his teeth. “I take pleasure in every activity guaranteed to make my sweet girl wet and ready for me.” With his hands at her hips, he teased her dress up an inch while she squirmed. “Tonight offers an excellent showcase of this club’s potential to do so. Most of the interest groups have practitioners giving demonstrations.”

  “It’s not a party.” The room signs with attitude. The excess of play monitors. The enormous crowd and its surging sea of seduction with an educational bent. “It’s a career fair.”

  Henry chuckled in her ear.

  Beside them, Will joined in. “Another woman who knows when she’s right. Will you be putting her words in your mouth?”

  “Something like that.” Henry enveloped her in a full-body press. “If my girl sees a vocation that arouses her interest”—his twitching cock exposed his own—“I’m certain I’ll have a position to offer her.”

  She sweltered in thin silk chiffon. Any and every position. If he invented new positions, she’d grab with both hands.

  Will leaned on the glass. “A man could feast on her moans.”

  Oh God. Had she lost control of her throat? She snapped her lips together.

  “Delicious.” He kissed his fingertips and spread his hand in a starburst. “Is that how you spent your day?”

  Nudging her to his shoulder, Henry nuzzled. “We played a game of spades this morning.”

  Pride spurred her to playfulness. “I thought we were playing hearts, sir.”

  “So we were, my sweet girl.” He tapped his thumbs against the top of her ass. “So we were.”

  Eyeing them, Will laughed. “I bet both of you won that game.”

  “Always,” Henry murmured.

  The men escorted her at her pace, pausing when she paused, Henry quick with questions and encouragement, Will with supportive but unobtrusive interest.

  At the flogging demonstration, wielders asked rapid-fire questions of everyone seeking a session. Soft slaps crossed palms as the supplicants chose materials. Agreement on both sides, and a wielder went to work. Flexing muscles, he flowed controlled power as an extension of his arms to a chorus of yelps and moans. A series of brief snaps grew into a gorgeous rhythm until he swung in a continuous figure eight.

  Echoes of last night caressed her back. Fucking amazing. Did Henry wear this determined, focused face when he flogged her? With godlike power and precision coursing through him? She’d never know, not unless Jay wanted to experience the thudding sting.

  “Henry, tell me you’ve invested in a mirrored wall.” A growling edge sharpened Will’s voice. “She’s shaking with the need to watch.”

  As her slip dress swished at her thighs, a current of air tickled the flesh beneath.

  “My Alice has an exquisite eye for beauty.” Henry wrapped his arm tight across her chest. “Inner workings arouse her interest.” He pinched.

  Fuck, the pleasure-pain in her nipple replicated in her clit with his squeeze. “Please.”

  Prompted by her hoarse whisper or his own pleasure, he delved between her legs. “She delights in the function underlying the form. The rhythm of a runner’s steps.” Her dress, draping across his wrist, shrouded his actions. “The arms pumping in counterpoint. The lungs filling to capacity.” With thudding strikes, he churned a two-fingered footrace propelling her toward the finish line. “As each element’s purpose is fulfilled, so she is as well.”

  She ground against his hand, thick and solid and forcing her focus inward.

  He drove his fingers inside her, stroking hard. “Show us what victory looks like, Alice.”

  Breathing deep, she arched forward. The tape broke across her breasts. Her feet slapped the far side of the line with an adrenal rush courtesy of generous, commanding Henry. In an indistinguishable wave of noise, the hall buzzed as blackness stole her vision. She sagged on wobbly legs.

  Henry held her secure, one arm a band of iron around her chest and other terminating between her legs.

  She caught her breath in slow gulps. “Thank you, sir.”

  He kissed the back of her neck like he meant to brand her. As he eased his fingers free, he left her dress cascading down her thighs.

  Shivering from the ticklish touch and the loss of him, she opened her eyes.

  “Welcome back.” One shoulder resting against the glass, Will greeted her soft and low, with uncharacteristic seriousness in his eyes. “A woman unbound, unashamed, and undone is a beautiful sight.”

  “A joy beyond measure.” Henry sampled her on his fingers and claimed her mouth after.

  Unashamed. The word lingered as she recovered her balance. Greedy and tender, Henry stole her soul and gave it back in a stronger frame with unexpected flourishes. The heat in her c
heeks grew out of excitement and pleasure. Embarrassment no longer registered, not in his arms. Whoever she became, whatever she needed, Henry would never disparage her for being herself.

  She wriggled and twisted, breaking his hold only to throw her arms around his neck and hang on tight. “I love you, Henry.” Breaching protocol, but she’d whispered, and aftercare came in all forms. Including the scent of him, his solid base and floaty zest, steady and whimsical and so strong when she buried her face at his throat.

  “My love for you is boundless, dearest.” He spoke as if they stood alone, not near elbow to elbow with strangers. The polite bubble they’d gained while mini-sceneing in the hall had popped. “You surprise, delight, and challenge me daily. What is a life well-lived if not that?”

  In the last year, she’d approached well-lived. The last two months redefined life with a blueprint unlike any she’d drawn in girlish fantasies. Somehow, the future promised even better.

  “Lovebirds. Can’t take you anywhere.” Loosing an explosive sigh, Will patted her head and Henry’s cheek. “We haven’t covered half the circuit yet, and you’ve mired your feet in canoodling.” With his broad back, Will acted as a boulder in a stream, sending passing players to either side. “You promised the girl adventure, Henry.”

  “So I did.” Chuckling, he pulled her into the flow of traffic. “And I keep my promises.”

  They passed nurses with medical implements, police with handcuffs, and a demonstration of gags from cute and squishy to metallic and alien. One boisterous group governed a game with a spinning wheel of so-called punishments. The latest victim played catcher for the ring toss, a fake cock strapped on like a miner’s headlamp. Either he had terrible depth perception, or the crowd had awful aim. Or they liked watching him bend over and retrieve dropped rings. Decent ass. Not so cute as Jay’s or sexy as Henry’s.

  “Master Henry, isn’t it?” A woman interrupted the teasing as Henry and Will debated the merits of various games for a dinner party. “I was hoping I’d run in to you.”

  Swiveling, Alice stumbled back a step. The woman had dogs.