Men of Sherwood (A Rogue's Tale Book 1)

by Sarah Luddington

  The pleading in Guy’s voice surprised me. His genuine concern for Robin touched me deep inside the soft centre of my being. Even now Guy of Gisborne wanted to protect his friend.

  “I just want the people to be treated as they should be,” Robin said, looking at his hands.

  “I know, Robin, you were always fair, always just, but look where it’s got you.” Guy gestured to the forest. “You are an outlaw.”

  “I was an outlaw long before joining Will.”

  Guy began picking at a similar piece of bark. “I know,” he said with such compassion my throat closed.

  “What do you think I should do?” Robin asked, looking at Guy again.

  “You’re asking me?” He seemed surprised.

  Robin smiled. “You were always the man to have at my back in a fight, Guy. You always see the entire field of battle. Talk to me, I know you’ve thought about it.”

  Guy nodded. “Go to the king. Plead your case. Tell him you can keep Nottingham safe as the Lord of Huntingdon.”

  Robin was already shaking his head. “I can’t do that. There are too many at court who know what I am, who I am…”

  “I can protect you.”

  “At what cost, Guy?”

  Guy’s face crumbled. “I can talk to the king. I can. He listens. Sometimes. No one but me knows you are Robin Hood.”

  “Is that what they’re calling me in the city?” Robin asked.

  Guy nodded. “It’s what is on the posters they have up all over the taverns and churches. They will have your head, Robin. They will drag Will through the streets, hang him, quarter him and stick his body out on the walls to rot. They will not show mercy to Marion either. Your only protection is the king and disbanding your people, scattering them to the four winds.”

  “I cannot be Huntingdon’s lord, Guy.”

  I watched in awe as Guy reached across the space separating them and took hold of Robin’s hand. Cerulean blue met storm grey and I could hardly bear the tension that rose between the men like a mighty wave of deepest need. Guy understood Robin in a way I never could and not a moment of resentment or jealousy flashed through me.

  “I can see that, Robin. But I also cannot see another way to protect you.” Guy’s words were so quiet I wondered if my busy mind might have found them whispered on the wind rather than coming from a warrior.

  Robin’s fingers squeezed Guy’s hand. “It is not your job to protect me now, Guy.”

  “It has always been my duty and my desire,” he whispered.

  The moment hung. A dust mote in sunlight. A feather caught on a soft breeze. A leaf trembling in its dying moments before separating from its tree forever.

  27

  THE MOMENT STRETCHED, TAUT, painful, the crushing weight of unspoken words, unbidden emotions, of lost moments, surrendered caresses. Of a past so full of memories they lashed at the present, trying to flay the nebulous joy that lay strung tight between the two men.

  I could not breathe. I could not inhale that tension, not when I could shape it, give it the freedom it needed to fly free on the breezes of our lives.

  The bravery I found to give my trembling knees and feet, forcing them forwards, towards Guy, came from nothing more than a desire to be their beating heart. If they could not release the bonds binding them to their pasts, I could slice them, dice them, tear down their walls and rebuild them on the outside of us.

  I dropped to the damp ground and placed a hand over theirs. I glanced at Robin, his focus remained on Guy. I switched my attention to Guy, his eyes were focused on the place we joined together. A fine tremor betrayed him. Robin’s hand felt as strong and competent as ever, mine remained gentle, binding us. I leaned into Guy’s space a little more and his eyes snapped to mine. The focus intense and wilful. I smiled and a hint of distrust hovered about the edges of his storm.

  His breath hee-hawed in and out, and I could see his pulse pound. I just had to find a little more bravery, enough to close the distance. Guy wouldn’t, couldn’t. Until…

  “Kiss him, Guy,” Robin ordered, low and tight, a growled command.

  Guy made a soft sound of terror. I remained very still. I had the cat by the tail and its claws were threatening to rip out my throat and eyes for daring to come so close. Guy’s tongue flicked over his lips.

  “I gave you an order,” Robin pushed.

  Guy closed his eyes for a moment, the tension in his body so tight I feared his limbs would fracture if he tried to move. Then he breathed out and I watched in awe as he handed himself over to Robin. I could almost see it happen. A physical transfer of Guy’s trust, or maybe a piece of his damned heart, occurred and I could see Robin’s eyes widen as a new weight settled inside him. The gasp shook us both.

  When Guy looked at me a level of peace coloured his eyes a silver moon mist again. He became a creature of the other world, a beautiful denizen of lands lost to time and man’s cruel ways. He smiled at me, cupped my jaw with his long fingers and drew me in. I didn’t close my eyes as his lips brushed mine. A tickle soft caress of barely there contact. The next pass became stronger, our breath mingling, our bodies shivering, our linked hands – now gripped together by Robin – the only other point of contact.

  Guy kissed me with more insistence. Still feather light but becoming more needy, firmer, faster, until his lips parted and his tongue flicked over my mouth. I parted for him as any lover would, and we met inside my mouth. It burned through us, a tempest of raw desire. I groaned, Guy whimpered, his free hand snaking around my ribs and yanking me off my knees and into his chest. He devoured me, overwhelmed me, I couldn’t think and I began to panic.

  I tried to pull back, just to give myself a little time, a little space, the strength of the man, the passion, it was pulling at the strings of the very fabric of my being.

  “Guy, stop,” Robin ordered.

  His lips broke from mine but he didn’t release me and I felt his brow press into mine, hot and fevered with need.

  “Let him go.”

  Guy trembled, unable to release me.

  “You’re scaring him, let him go. Trust me, please,” Robin kept his voice measured, careful but I could hear the trace of worry that he’d have to physically separate us and prove his dominance in a show of strength I knew he didn’t want to resort to using with Guy.

  Guy’s grip slackened and I wriggled free but didn’t remove my hand from his.

  “Look at me,” Robin ordered again.

  Guy’s eyes rose to meet his master’s. Robin’s gaze softened, darkening as it did when he looked at me, a small nod was all the permission Guy needed. He moved over the log, our grip broken at last and I watched him curl into Robin’s arms, laying his face against the bigger man’s neck. Robin wrapped his arms around Guy’s shoulders and drew him even tighter, burying his nose in the white cloud of hair. I sat on the log and one of them reached for me, pulling me into Guy’s back. I lay over him and felt the heartbeat of three men sharing a forbidden moment that bound us together and re-directed our lives into the path fate had always intended.

  Guy’s breathing settled and Robin stroked my head as he lay soft kisses against the snowy scalp. “Beautiful, you are so beautiful, my light and shadow,” he murmured. “My heart and sword.”

  “Help me,” Guy murmured against Robin’s chest.

  “I will. I understand now, Guy. I will help you. Look at me.”

  Guy shifted and I sat back a little to watch them. Robin took Guy’s face in both his hands and didn’t waste time with tender kisses. He wrenched Guy’s mouth towards his and forced his mouth to accept the dominance of the kiss. Guy melted against Robin, clutching him, drowning in him, a quivering musical note hovering in the last of the sun’s rays.

  Robin broke the kiss with brutal efficiency by holding Guy’s throat in a punishing grip. He reached for me and I slipped back to press against Guy’s shoulders. Robin manhandled Guy far enough away to claim my mouth and I tasted both men at once but this was not a kiss of domination, this fe
lt like a desperate search for reassurance. I gave it, as I knew I always would. I would act as their lightning rod, whatever storms they created, no matter the rage or passion, I would ground them, draw them back and bind them together so they could not lash and tear at each other but become one.

  When Robin released me the shift of Guy’s body brought his neck close to my lips. I kissed his flesh. I kissed Robin’s fingers where they gripped strong enough to bruise. I kissed and licked until he softened his punishment and I soothed the soft skin under his rough pads. Meanwhile he ravaged Guy’s mouth, biting and sucking, teasing and testing until Guy began to rock into Robin’s groin and back into me. The hunger in my body woke with more violence than ever before and I grabbed Guy’s hips to help me match his movements so we could both push against each other even as he ground into Robin, his legs now hooked over the larger man’s.

  I felt Robin struggle with Guy’s clothing, so I left off my murderous assault on his neck and helped divest our victim of his cote and tunic.

  The moment the pale flesh appeared Robin bit hard into Guy’s shoulder. Guy cried out and bucked up. I bit into the other shoulder and felt his hands grasping at the air until Robin captured the fluttering things and pinned them behind Guy’s back. I sucked hard enough to leave marks and Guy threw his head back onto my shoulder as Robin worked down his chest.

  Of course, Robin couldn’t get far while still on the log, supple he was not, but his large hands engulfed Guy’s waist and he lifted the other man up, so he arched over my shoulder as Robin licked a line from the top of Guy’s braies to his nipple where he sucked hard.

  Guy groaned and this time I held his wrists as he writhed against me. “God, Robin, I need more. Have mercy, please.”

  “No mercy, not for you, never for you,” Robin mumbled, his lips and teeth still punishing Guy.

  I decided to add to the man’s torment. I left the fallen tree, knelt once more on the ground, letting Guy hold himself up against Robin’s brutal mouth by bracing on the log, and stroked Robin’s inner thigh to gain his attention.

  His fingers gripped Guy’s head so tight I could almost see the hair tear from his scalp, but when his eyes met mine, they were hot and heavy with lust, his lips swollen, his breathing ragged.

  “I want to taste him,” I pleaded with meek need. I didn’t feel meek but in this moment I realised Robin might not respond well to me asserting any kind of sexual control. He’d slipped off the veil of the careful, tender lover I needed from him and had become another creature. The dark savage dog fox of a forest far older than this one.

  “Make him ours, Will,” Robin ordered.

  “No,” Guy gasped. “No, I cannot do this again, Robin, I cannot surrender to you again…”

  “You surrendered to Robert of Huntingdon, not Robin Hood,” I said. “And I am the heart you both need.”

  “You are the temptation the faerie lord used to seduce me,” Guy snapped as he tried to pull away.

  Robin shook the white head, the grip making Guy whimper and go pliable once again. “Fight me and you’ll lose.”

  Guy shifted enough to push his under garments down, to expose himself to me. “Fine, then seal this pact of the Devil’s between us and may we all go to Hell together.”

  His desperation brought tears of compassion to my eyes. I could feel the loathing he had for his need, as if he thought it wrong or weak. For my part I’d never seen anyone more beautiful. He gave himself over to Robin’s desire, surrendered himself in a way I’d never witnessed and it looked soul-deep painful, far beyond the physical.

  “Robin, let him go.” I reached up and stroked the hand holding Guy in place.

  “Never. He came here to be claimed –”

  “He’s not an object. He might need to feel pain, he might need to be controlled but this is too much. You’re breaking him.” I now clutched at Robin’s wrist, trying to pry him away from Guy.

  The two men stared at each other and I watched in awe as a tear slid down Guy’s cheek. Robin sucked in a breath and in a moment the haze of dangerous lust washed back, his hand gentling and holding Guy’s head in his large palm.

  “Guy?” Robin asked.

  For a moment longer Guy remained still, a look of such longing in his eyes I wondered what he truly wanted to say to Robin, but he shut down. He pushed himself away, yanking at his clothing, forcing his cock down, ensuring he remained out of arm’s reach.

  “You have your information, I’m leaving. Do whatever you think is best but know I will not betray Philip Marc or my king.” He looked away as he spoke and I heard the lie. He’d given himself to our plan but neither of the other idiots knew how to deal with the implications.

  I approached our wild cat and despite Guy jerking away the first time, I managed to get him to remain still on the second attempt. “Don’t go. Don’t run. Let me give you something of the love I share with Robin.”

  “You said he’d never told you he loved you,” Guy snapped at me.

  I shrugged and forced down the painful reality of that statement. “Doesn’t make it less real. I can feel it.” Not a complete lie but not the truth, at least not for me.

  It didn’t stop Guy’s anger either. “Lucky you.” He tried freeing himself once more but considering how easily he could hurt me it wasn’t much of an attempt.

  When his hands stilled I drew them to my lips and kissed the knuckles, some damaged from old battles. His eyes widened in shock. The sensation that ripped through me and must have torn through him as well roared like lightning caught in a wine flask by the old gods of the forest.

  “What are you?” he whispered, half in fear, half in awe.

  “The heart of us if you’ll let him. I gave up fighting him a long time ago,” Robin said, “and life has been happier for me ever since. Whatever gift Will has it isn’t easily shared. If he sees you for the man I know is inside that frosty, cold, exterior, then we are lucky and shouldn’t waste it.”

  Guy didn’t take his eyes off me but he reached up and cupped my face in both his hands, brushing my thick black tangles back in the process. Confusion warred with reverence in his quicksilver gaze. “Why me?”

  “Because I think you need Robin and me. I think he needs you. I think you know what Marc is doing is wrong and you’re in need of redemption.”

  “I have it, I’m a Crusader.”

  I kissed his palm. “That’s not the kind of redemption you need, Guy. You need to be seen and loved despite your attempts to close yourself off from the world.” How were these words coming to me? Was I tapping into the same source my music came from? The muse of one being the muse of the other?

  His thumbs brushed over my cheekbones. “Do you see me, minstrel?” Fear, I could sense the fear of that – Guy did not want his soul naked before me. He was not ready.

  “Not completely. Not yet. But I want to try, if you’ll let me.”

  His gaze slid to Robin. “I want him.” He asked for the permission I would grant whether Robin wanted it not.

  I glanced over my shoulder. Robin’s cheeks were flushed, the scar a pale disfigurement in the dim light. The man nodded, giving his consent.

  Guy’s lips brushed mine again and I yielded to him as I did Robin. His arms encircled me, drew me into his body, even as his tongue trailed in lazy circles around my mouth. The exploration fizzled and tingled through every fibre of my being and I felt my knees give way. Guy held me safe against his defined chest and I clawed at his back. Another heat seared through me as Robin pressed against my spine and helped hold me in place. Guy used the extra strength Robin offered to grind his cock against mine, the friction of the linen and wool too much deliciousness. I cried out as he moved away from my mouth to my jaw.

  Robin twisted my face enough and took over the sweet and gentle torture, his beard a rough contradiction to Guy’s softness. With tender licks and kisses Guy explored my neck and shoulder but made no attempt to undress me.

  A large hand began to reach under my clothes and its famil
iar search yielded my aching and leaking cock.

  Robin’s mouth brushed my ear. “Find his manhood, Will. I want to taste you both.”

  I shuddered at the thought and my trembling fingers made their unsteady way into Guy’s undergarments. I wrapped my hand around his long slim length and he groaned, resting his head on my shoulder for a moment. “It’s been so long since anyone cared,” he murmured.

  “I care, I will always care,” I whispered for him alone. The truth of the depth to which I cared I kept to myself because it scared me.

  Guy nuzzled my neck and made his way back to my aching mouth, Robin leaving my kisses for him. Robin pulled Guy close enough for his large hand to hold us both. Guy cried out into my mouth. I licked the soft mewing sounds out of him and he swallowed my groans as Robin rubbed his thumb over our joined heads, smearing our wet desire together so he could pump more smoothly.

  “You both look so fucking beautiful,” he told us. “You are meant to be one.”

  Guy left my mouth for a moment, only to claim Robin’s. I pushed into Robin’s hand, against Guy’s cock and it felt hot and tight and I wanted more. I wanted more from both of them. I wanted to be owned by both men. Robin kissed Guy with a tenderness he used for me and Guy quivered, shivered, trembled, the desperate need in him to be loved surfaced, rolled around and through all three of us. Robin and I had found our refuge in each other and now we opened the door for Guy, he just had to walk in and share it.

  “We are one,” I gasped as Guy began to move into Robin’s fist as well. I felt the weight of Robin’s cock at my back and he rolled against me, pressing me closer to Guy. The tempo rose, the passion heated, the need grew, grew, grew. Our sounds became guttural, animalistic, and the passion broke down into harsh breaths, groaned demands and curses.