Page 178 of High Reward

I sink to my knees on the rug in front of the bed, and Lili settles into the armchair by the window to watch, the way she has a hundred times before, except tonight feels different. Heavier. Better.

Victor crouches in front of me instead of standing over me, which he almost never does, and takes both of my hands in his.

“I made you a promise a long time ago that you’d earn my full collar when you were ready,” he says. “I’ve watched you fight for a bookstore and for your own name. You’ve spent months fighting for two people who love you more than either of us knows how to say out loud. You’ve been ready for a while now. I was just waiting for the right night to prove it.”

He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a small black box, and when he opens it, I forget how to breathe.

Inside is a necklace, a delicate gold chain, a butterfly pendant small enough to wear every day, wings picked out in tiny amethysts that catch the lamplight.

“Gracelynn Marsh.” He unclasps it and holds it up. “Will you wear my collar? Not the training piece. The real thing. Mine, completely, for as long as you’ll have me.”

“Yes.” It comes out before he even finishes the question. “God, yes, Victor.”

He fastens it around my neck himself, fingers steady despite how much his voice shook getting the words out, and when he leans back to look at it against my skin, his face goes soft, which I’ve seen maybe three times total.

“Perfect,” he murmurs. “Exactly where it belongs.”

Lili rises from the chair and crosses to us, kneeling down beside me so we’re level, and presses her lips to my temple. “Welcome home, lover.”

“I’ve been home for months,” I tell her. “This just makes it official.”

“Good.” Victor’s voice drops into the register that means playtime is over and something else is starting. “Because now that you’re properly collared, wife, I intend to spend the rest of tonight reminding you exactly what that means.”

He undresses me slowly, reverently, Lili’s hands joining his everywhere mine used to be alone, and by the time he lays meback against the bed, I’m shaking for entirely different reasons than nerves.

“Lili.” His voice is rough. “Hold her hands over her head. She doesn’t get to touch anything until I say so.”

Lili complies instantly, pinning my wrists to the pillow above me, and I arch up into nothing, already desperate.

“Please.”

“Please what, wife?” Victor’s mouth trails down my stomach, teeth grazing my hip bone. “Use your words. You know how this works.”

“Please touch me. Please, Sir.”

“Better.” He settles between my thighs and licks a slow line straight up my pussy, and every coherent thought I have is gone.

He takes his time, alternating between his mouth and his fingers, reading my body like he’s memorized every one of its responses over the last year, which he probably has. Lili keeps my wrists pinned, murmuring filthy praise against my ear the whole time, telling me how good I look collared and desperate and completely theirs.

When I finally come, it’s with Victor’s name and Lili’s both tangled together in the same breath, and neither of them lets up until I’m boneless and shaking against the sheets.

Victor climbs up over me next, and the first push of him inside me has my back arching clean off the bed.

“Mine,” he growls against my throat, right over the new necklace, right over the collar that says exactly that in gold and amethyst. “Say it.”

“Yours.” I wrap my legs around him, pulling him deeper. “Both of yours. Always.”

Lili releases my wrists to slide beneath me instead, positioning herself so I can taste her while Victor moves inside me, and the three of us find a rhythm and keep it, over and over, until I lose track of whose hands are whose.

Afterward, tangled together in a bed in the house that saved Lili’s life, wearing a collar that means I finally, completely belong to both of them, I trace the line of Victor’s jaw with one finger.

“You should get a tattoo,” I say sleepily. “Something for all three of us.”

“Already thinking about it.” He catches my hand and kisses my knuckles. “I know a guy. Noffsinger, if he’s willing to fly out. Something with fire, ice, and wings, if I can talk him into it.”

“I like that,” Lili murmurs against my shoulder, already half asleep.

I fall asleep between them, finally and completely home.