Page 177 of High Reward

Grace goes very still. “I’m listening.”

“You don’t come without permission. From either of us. You ask before you touch yourself, and you ask before you touch either of us, unless we tell you otherwise first.” Lili’s hand slides higher on her thigh, punctuating every word. “You use your safeword the second you need it, married or not, husband giving the order or not. That part never changes.”

“I know that part,” Grace says softly.

“I know you do. I’m still going to say it every time.” I press a kiss to her temple. “And for the next two weeks, you’re going to let both of us take care of you without arguing that you don’t need it. No client emails. No manuscript notes. Just us.”

Grace’s eyes flick to Lili, then back to me, heat already building behind them. “That sounds like a rule I can actually keep.”

“Good girl.”

“Still not going to tell me where you’re taking us?” Lili asks as we approach the tarmac where the private jet waits for us.

“Nope.”

“You better hope I packed the right kind of clothes then.”

“If you didn’t we’ll just shop, or you can stay naked. It’s private property.”

The flight is long enough for all three of us to fall asleep tangled together across the cabin’s oversized seats, and when I wake Grace with a kiss somewhere over the coastline, the sun is just starting to set.

“Where are we?” she asks, blinking against the window.

I don’t answer. I want to watch her face when she figures it out herself.

The car takes us down a familiar stretch of coastal road, salt air pouring through the cracked windows, and I watch Lili go very still beside me the second she recognizes the turn.

“Victor.” Her voice doesn’t sound like hers. “This is...”

“I know.”

The car pulls up in front of a weathered beach house with a wraparound porch and a balcony overlooking the water, and Lili is out the door before the driver even puts it in park.

“You bought it,” she says, staring up at the house. “The rental company told me it sold months ago. I thought some stranger was going to redo the whole thing and ruin it.”

“No stranger.” I climb out after her, pulling Grace along with me. “Just me. I bought it the week after you left, before I even knew if you were coming back. Renovated the parts that needed it. Left the balcony exactly the way it was.”

Lili’s eyes fill, and this time she doesn’t fight it. “Why?”

“Because this is where you finally started figuring out who you wanted to be without him. I wasn’t about to let anyone else own that.” I tip her chin up. “Consider it a wedding gift. To all three of us.”

Grace looks between the house and both of our faces, clearly missing context she doesn’t have yet, and Lili laughs through her tears.

“I’ll explain later, lover. Right now I just want to go stand on that balcony.”

We do, all three of us, watching the sun finish setting over water Lili stared at alone every night for four months. She doesn’t say much. She doesn’t need to.

Grace

WhyamInervous?I’ve submitted to Lili and Victor at the same time before.

The only difference tonight is that Victor is my husband.

But I’m trembling as Victor pushes open the door to the bedroom at the top of the stairs, the one with the best view of the water, the one Lili’s clearly given us without being asked.

Lili follows us in, already peeling out of her sundress like she’s been waiting all day for this part.

“Kneel,” Victor says, and it’s not a suggestion.