Finding Their Balance

by M. Q. Barber

  Grasping her wrists, he brought her hands to Jay’s waist. “I’ve seen how you watch my lover, how your gaze has followed his lithe muscles since the day you moved into this building. Do you think I haven’t noticed?” Henry teased out his words in a flowing, hypnotic rhythm. “See the beauty he offers.”

  Jay leaned back on his hands and pumped toward her.

  She worked belt, button, and zipper in rapid succession, until his pants gaped and his cock stood unencumbered. No underwear for him, either.

  Henry dragged her knuckles down Jay’s shaft. Furnace heat ran through taut veins. Jay whimpered, and she throbbed with sympathetic anguish. Waiting would drive them both to the brink of need and insanity before Henry let them go.

  “I see you in the mornings, armored for your day at the office, taking powerful strides on slim legs, and do you know what I imagine?”

  All those times they’d passed in the lobby or on the stairs, he’d nurtured her attraction without giving a hint of his own. A fiery chill revved her arousal. “Tell me, sir. Please.”

  “I envision those same legs, bare and grasping as you mount my Jay with your purposeful, unyielding determination.”

  Jay stared with bottomless brown eyes drunk on Henry’s storytelling and her exposed body.

  “I envision the strength you would demand of the man who sought to master your wild beauty.” He stroked the tender undersides of her arms all the way up and transferred his grip to her breasts. With the pads of his thumbs, he raised her nipples to hard points. “I see you sealed between us, fluid and writhing, enjoying the best of both worlds, given freedom to pour yourself into forms of your own choosing and accept those given to you. Your place is here, Alice. A place prepared for you. Are you prepared to accept it?”

  “I am.” How she managed the rock-solid delivery with her heart surging out of rhythm, she’d never know. “I want what’s mine.”

  Henry kissed the pulse behind her ear. “Take him.”

  Permission. Room for her strengths alongside his. The stage shifted, teetering from foreplay and formality to the improvisation of co-leadership, an informal balance they perfected every day.

  With a lift from Henry, she knelt on the table and straddled Jay. Her body demanded he satisfy her, the sooner the better, but she tempered her passion with self-control. Jay belonged to her. More than his physical needs resided in her hands.

  “He’s right, you know.” She devoured him with a harsh kiss as her fingers mastered the buttons on his shirt. “I watched you.” Fabric pushed aside, she dragged her breasts over his bare chest. “All the time.”

  Weight on his hands behind him, supporting them both, Jay offered her his neck. “We watched you, too.” He rocked his hips, and his cock scorched her thigh. “First night you slept across the hall, Henry talked about us having you while he fucked me. I came so hard.”

  Jesus, fuck. She scraped her teeth on his carotid and apologized with a string of kisses. “Funny.” Taking him in hand, she glided his cockhead between her lips, coating him with her readiness. “You know what I was doing that night?”

  Legs flexing along her calves, he whimpered and strained.

  She breathed out and sank, careful not to rush. She had the weight of her toy to consider—and the weight of their master’s gaze. If he meant to paint this moment, and Christ why wouldn’t he, she wouldn’t hurry his perusal of their joining.

  “Killing the batteries in my vibrator,” she whispered. “Burying my fingers imagining the two of you fucking.”

  With curling fingers, Jay formed hills and furrows in the tablecloth. “How were we?” His sweet tenor settled in a low rasp between heavy breaths, and still he tried to shoot her a charming grin.

  “Fuck, I love you.” She rose and fell on his cock. He seemed harder. Bigger. Her toy at work, or the anniversary excitement, or the anticipation of having Henry alongside him soon. “The real thing is so far beyond fantasy. Beautiful. Amazing.”

  The descent of a zipper pitched a stutter in their rhythm, a shivering excitement beneath Jay’s urgent whine and her plunging hips. His cock kicked, and her toy got a strangling.

  Jay drew back, breathing hard. “Jesus, that’s close. Like a dinner bell, right? Henry opens his pants, and our asses pucker up for a kiss.”

  Laughter took the edge off, but the wildness stayed in Jay’s eyes as he scanned her thighs surrounding him and her swaying breasts. Meeting her gaze, he sucked in a breath. Their stare flickered. His attention darted past her.

  A solid hand splayed across her back. “Spread our girl for me, Jay.”

  She shuddered. His voice. Fuck, even better than the ticking zipper and the slick squelch of lube was the unconditional command in Henry’s voice.

  Parting his knees, Jay exposed her in a wider vee, tilting her toward his chest.

  Toy handle in hand, Henry grazed her shoulder with a kiss. “Push, Alice.”

  She obeyed. As the toy’s flared center slipped free, her moan and Jay’s mingled. He wouldn’t last long, but neither would she.

  A heartbeat, a lone empty embrace, and new pressure nudged her. Thicker now, more insistent, but she no longer braced for intrusion. Pushing into the stretch, she greeted fresh joy with a saucy buzz. “Hello, beautiful. Where have you been all my life?”

  “Waiting for you.” Resting one hand on her hip, pinning her between her men, Henry penetrated her in a steady thrust. He wrapped his other arm around them both, over her shoulder and Jay’s, and grasped the back of Jay’s neck. “Preparing you.”

  She attuned to her lovers like sonar, her pulse revealing their size and strength clasped tight inside her. She contoured to their ridges and textures. Shaped for them, and them for her.

  “Alice.” Groaning her name, Henry squeezed her hip. “The singular woman who balances our composition with exquisite grace.”

  Trembling, his eyes unfocused, Jay supported her. “I feel you.” His voice shook. “Both of you.”

  “Me too.” God, did she. Hands on Jay’s shoulders, knees on the table, she lifted and sank, a half-inch at a time, a slow, dizzying ride with her filled and aching for release.

  As her head dropped back, Henry claimed a kiss. At once rough and tender, he turned fucking and making love into a unified whole.

  Shaggy locks tickling her jaw, Jay nipped her throat. Henry’s thrusts found their answer in him, a solid backstop jerking with her shifting body.

  Dueling sensations strengthened with every collision. Reinforced. Halves of an arch collapsing together, their weight sealing the keystone in place. Her orgasm would demolish the whole structure, but the rush wouldn’t stop. Too close, tension and pressure sending fault lines to the surface. She babbled against Henry’s tongue.

  He allowed her a breath.

  “Please. Can’t stop.” She cascaded energy in both directions, or maybe her men only seemed to vibrate because the whole world did. “Please, Henry.”

  He poured power into his thrusts, but he traced her cheekbone with the lightest brush of his lips. “Come for us, Alice. Take us with you.”

  “Love.” Fighting for the words through a gasping cry, she spiraled into agonizing bliss. “I love you.”

  Their triumph echoed hers, a chorus surrounding her, burning three vibrant notes into a single pure flame.

  * * * *

  Snuggled deep in a bed of pine boughs, Alice hummed at the sunny sauna heating her back. A warm breeze tickled her ear. She rolled her shoulder, and the breeze conjured up a soft whistle. A dim sun wore a white halo. Impossible, when the sunshine hit her on the opposite side.

  Opening her eyes, she transformed her warm bower into a gently snoring Jay curled at her back. The bedside lamp glowed on its lowest setting. Henry lay propped on his elbow, watching her. Draped over his hip, the sheets teased her with the muscle sloping toward his thighs.

  She eased clear of her dark-haired playmate, who slept with his nose buried in her hair, and wriggled towa
rd Henry on her elbows.

  He tucked her hair back and cupped her chin. “I’ve water and a snack for you on the nightstand.”

  Dinner had been hours ago. A light meal, sandwiched between their first go and the second, a teasing, lengthy game of who’s on top as Henry encouraged her to play with angles and momentum in his big bed. Her repertoire held a handful of positions to embrace both men at once now.

  Complimenting Jay on his staying power, she’d gotten a sweet confession. You played with your toy for an hour in the bath. Henry played with me for an hour in the kitchen. I would’ve shot the second you bent over the table if I hadn’t unloaded twice already.

  Her yawn refused to be contained. Stretching, she treasured the soreness in her bones. “You aren’t sleeping?”

  Henry rolled away and returned with a pineapple cube he pressed between her lips. “I’m indulging in one of my favorite pastimes.”

  She chewed slowly, letting the sweet juice flood her mouth, and questioned him with a lilting hum. His sketchpad, closed, leaned against the lamp. If he meant drawing, he’d already finished.

  Running his thumb across her lip, he captured a stray drop. “Watching my lovers enjoy peaceful slumber, their minds and bodies equally exhausted.”

  She smoothed a whorl of hair above the flat circle of his nipple. For all the care he took and the praise he delivered, she could improve at reciprocating. “You do good work. The formality, Jay butlering, everything special from the second I got home. You made it so easy to let go of the outside world and concentrate on the three of us.” Rubbing his chest, she warmed her hand on his muscled planes. “The dress was a beautiful touch. Thank you for thinking of it. And for—” His sternum, so solid and broad, protected a heart unlike any she’d known. “For not giving back my panties.” If the time ever came, she’d know it now for the end of their relationship. “You’ll keep them forever?”

  “On the day I’m laid to rest, they shall occupy my inner breast pocket.” Combined with his unblinking gaze, his words held the weight of a vow. “Your first act of submission, not merely in the giving but in the courage to accept their absence and thereby begin exploring your boundaries.” Feeding her a second piece of pineapple, he lingered while she sucked his fingers clean in a promise of her own, love and service bound together. “I’m a visual creature, my dear. Your clothing is an integral piece of your landscape.”

  “The things you choose for me to wear, they’re meaningful to you.” And the ones she’d been dressed in only once more so, maybe treasured and put away, maybe inspiration for his next creation. She’d suspected, but black-box guessing paled beside going over the blueprints with the inventor himself.

  “To an extent.” He peeled the covers back, dragging his hand down her ribs as he revealed her. “On some occasions, the intended meaning may simply be to appreciate your beauty in an exotic cloak.”

  “Exotic like the red dress for your gallery show?” She leapt on the chance. Her question had gone unanswered for months, and he seemed in an accommodating mood. Mellow and pleased, as they’d all been since last week’s success at the club. “The one with the Chinese-style collar.”

  “So you’ve finally returned to your interrogation on the subject.” Teasing, swaying, he kissed the tip of her nose. “Have you found the right question yet?”

  “I think so.” She picked through her phrasing with care. “What gave you the idea to put me in that dress, and why did you choose it over the others you had me try on that night?”

  He wagged his index finger. “Still trying to get away with two questions, I see.”

  “Just one. The ‘and’ makes it one sentence.” She followed his chest hair on its downward trek to his navel. “Are you gonna tell my English teachers they gave me bad information?”

  “No, Alice.” He slung his arm over her. With his hand flat between her shoulder blades, he dragged her closer. “But perhaps it’s time Jay and I gave you another lesson in the difference.” His intimate murmur gained weight as he nuzzled her cheek. “Counting when you feel one item and when you feel two will help fix the notion in your mind.”

  God yes. “I’m game for a remedial class or two.” Even her sore muscles uncoiled with eagerness. “But you’re going to answer my one question first, right?”

  “I am.” Eyes dark and serious, he exhaled with steady precision. “Several years back, I attended a lovely ceremony at which the bride revived a generations-old custom and wore her grandmother’s wedding gown.”

  Bride. A vise compressed her chest. Her throat closed.

  Light and easy, he stroked her spine. “The dress was a deep, rich red, a traditional symbol to bring boldness and blessings upon the marriage. An auspicious beginning for the happy lovers.”

  With his gentle delivery and comforting touches, he unlocked her voice. “You wanted our date to feel like a wedding?” Henry had chosen the clothes for all of them, the red dress for her and matching ties for himself and Jay. Jay, who’d called the night a renewal of vows. “Was that when you knew you wanted me to stay?” For good, she meant.

  Shaking his head, Henry resettled himself a hair closer. “I knew long before then. The dress was merely a subtle reminder of that feeling. One I had intended to enjoy without discomfiting you with the implications.”

  She’d listed her college boyfriend’s proposal on her contract answers. Henry would’ve considered how gun-shy she’d gotten about serious relationships. At every turn, he’d shielded her from the depth of his love, even when her hesitance pained him.

  Voice as hushed and tender as his, she nestled nearer. “When did you know?”

  “You can’t guess, sweet girl?” His lips twitched, his crooked smile fleeting. “A special night.”

  “They were all special nights for me.” Her mental survey failed to pinpoint when his treatment of her had changed once they’d embarked on sexual adventures. “Every time you touched me was a new thrill. It still is.”

  Closing the thin gap, he muffled a groan in her neck. “November. You’d role-played so well with Jay on our previous night, instinctively offering what he needed without knowing the source of his nerves.” His ticklish investigation of her spine ended with her ass cradled in his palm. “I was certain, then, you would be able to handle our unconventional situation. That in having two men in love with you, what frightened you was never the number but only the love.”

  “I didn’t recognize it at first. But I knew something was different.” She muted her laugh to avoid waking Jay. “I came up with excuse after excuse and convinced myself every one was valid.”

  “As I watched and worried. November was an indulgence.” He brushed kisses at the corners of her mouth. “A night to have you to myself after allowing Jay that freedom. To carry you over the threshold and claim you, as much as you would allow.”

  Not even figuratively, but literally. He’d swept her into his arms and carried her from the bath to his bed, and she’d bled on his sheets. Old traditions in keeping with his bent toward artistic theater and history.

  “Our wedding night.” The darkness beyond the lamp swallowed her up, blinding and incomprehensible. Henry considered her his wife. No way divorce existed in his lexicon. “I didn’t have a clue.”

  “Would you have stayed then if I’d told you?” So gently he asked, with acceptance and not blame in his voice.

  “I would’ve run far and fast. I wouldn’t have let myself get this involved.” Foolish. She’d given men less consideration than design projects, marking them all under failed tolerances and refusing to re-run the simulation. Until Henry and Jay had wedged themselves into her life with their undemanding friendship and their structured arrangement. The warm security of their love flowed all the way to her toes as she pressed them to Henry’s legs. “I would’ve missed everything that came after.”

  With one searching kiss, he poured his soul into hers. She succumbed, letting him overwhelm her senses and race through her blood.


  He grazed her forehead before drawing back. “Then the time was well spent, even if success required we remain apart for longer than any of us would have liked.”

  Staying apart had disturbed Henry, but her confused circling must’ve crushed the man asleep behind her. Henry would’ve borne the brunt of his boyish enthusiasm and adorable persistence. “When did Jay start nagging you?”

  “With a desire to have you move in?” In a near-silent laugh, Henry puffed air through his nose. “The day after your birthday celebration. Mere moments after the door closed behind you, in fact.”

  “That soon?” Thanksgiving, God. Less than four months into their relationship, and both Henry and Jay had been certain. Her heart had taken half a year more to convince her head.

  “Only because Henry’d already said kidnapping you was off the table,” a sleepy Jay answered from over her shoulder. “A move-in invite sounded like a good compromise.”

  “Holding her captive in the apartment until she agreed seemed a tad overdone. Though the thought did occur.” Henry pressed his hardening cock to her thigh.

  Laughing, she encouraged him with a firm grip on his ass. “You’re as incorrigible as Jay.”

  “As insatiable as well.” He rolled her on her back and rested a share of his weight on her. “Your counting class will be in session momentarily.”

  She twisted in his arms, reaching out and brushing Jay’s chest. “Were we too loud? Did we wake you, sweetheart?”

  He shuffled closer, blinking the sandman from his eyes, and stole a kiss. “Sleep is overrated.”

  Gripping Jay by his hair, Henry claimed a kiss of his own. “How fortunate we are to have forty-eight hours to indulge our fantasies on this anniversary weekend.”

  True. Their next class at the club was two weeks away, she had no overtime projects demanding her presence at the office, and they’d planned no dinners with friends, no basketball outings. A weekend to recuperate would do them good, especially with next week’s challenge on deck.

  “Let’s enjoy it while it lasts.” Her mental tally of things to do and chant of please let this go well kept track of the hours already. “My baby sister will be here in five days.”