by Megan Mulry
“I meant it in a loving way,” she said gently.
His pale eyes twinkled in the dim light of the large front hall where she had happened upon him. Sebastian and Anna were strolling in the gardens, killing time until eleven, when the four of them were set to meet. Or more to the point, when Sebastian was to be handed over to Farleigh.
“Such a shame you do not fancy a woman’s touch,” she said. Yes, he had joked of marrying her to fulfill his ducal duties, but she wanted, if not all of him—he would always adore Sebastian and that was fine with her—at least some small part that he could give of himself, that would be hers. Perhaps even a family, children. Her deeper interest probably shone bright in her gaze, but she couldn’t—or didn’t want to—conceal it.
“I’m not entirely opposed.” He stared at her mouth and took a step closer to her. “I will have to learn to tolerate a woman’s touch at one point or another. I have to beget an heir, after all. You’d do as well as any.”
She smiled ruefully and took a step away from him. “You make it sound so thrilling, Farleigh.”
He laughed. “Sorry. That’s how it makes me feel. Since we’re being honest.”
“You remind me so much of Anna, so it’s funny to hear you pretend to dislike her. It would be akin to disliking yourself.”
“Sometimes I dislike myself,” he tried.
“Very infrequently, I imagine!”
He smiled and held out his arm. “Come. I have something I’ve been looking forward to sharing with you.” She rested her hand on his forearm, and he led her down the corridor. He stopped in front of a pair of wide oak doors, then opened them to reveal an enormous picture and sculpture gallery.
Pia gasped in pleasure. “Oh, how utterly divine!”
“I’m so glad you approve. I know how much you enjoy painting. Have you ever sculpted?”
“Yes. No.” Pia covered her mouth, not wanting to gape, but it was impossible. “Yes, I have painted, but very infrequently. Canvas and oil were far too dear. For the most part, I sketched and drew with charcoal. And I’ve never sculpted. I’ve always wanted to. Oh, Farleigh, this is so fabulous. Where . . .? How . . .?” There were marbles and paintings, drawings and etchings. The walls were covered from the tilt of the tray ceiling to the baseboard molding near the wood floor.
“I enjoy collecting.”
“So you do,” Pia agreed. “May I?” she asked, reaching out to one of the classical Greek marbles.
“Absolutely. That’s why I bought them. So they would be mine to do with as I wished.” He watched her hand caress the turn of the goddess’s breast, then across the slight roundness of her belly. Pia felt his eyes on her as she touched the cool mound at the apex of the statue’s smooth thighs.
“She is so lovely,” Pia whispered reverently. “Where did you get her?”
“I fancy her, too. I got her in Athens. She is my kind of woman. Serene. Contained. Strong.”
The statue depicted Artemis, the huntress, and it was not lost on Pia that the powerful marble goddess held a striking resemblance to herself. She turned quickly to see Farleigh adjusting the cuff of his already perfect shirt. “Really?”
He shrugged again. “I like her. Aesthetically.”
“So it’s possible?”
He laughed again, low and self-assured. “I’m not repulsed by a woman’s body, if that’s what you’re asking. It’s . . . how to say it? The society we live in expects women to be dirty whores or wifely virgins. Neither of which appeals to me in the least. With men, I can be an animal.”
Pia burst out laughing.
He smiled too and waited until she’d settled down to continue. “I meant, when I am with a man, I can be a human being—a human animal—in my natural state, not a gentleman with a lady or a customer with a prostitute.”
“I think I would very much like to see you in your natural state.”
He reached out and took her hand in his. “I think today might be our lucky day.” He smiled again and led her over to a statue of a nude male Adonis. “I have a wonderful picnic planned.”
“You do?” She squeezed his hand. “Pray tell.”
“You’ll see soon enough. Come. Look at my favorite statue.” Perched on a low pediment, the sculpture was positioned so strong thighs and relaxed genitals were right at eye level. The Greek god’s taut body was turned in preparation to throw the discus. Farleigh maneuvered himself so he stood behind Pia, then lifted her hand with his.
A thrilling heat spread across her back, where Farleigh’s body pressed near, his chest and arms caging her in. She nearly melted at the prospect of being skin to skin in the same position, his hard, unforgiving flesh pressing against her sensitive back. “Ah,” she murmured, pretending to pay attention to the statue.
He placed both of their hands along the marble thigh. “I love the strength of this muscle, the coiled power.” His hand rose higher, keeping Pia’s beneath his. Her breath became shallow. She was only a few inches shorter than he was, but she had to stretch onto her tiptoes to reach the side of Adonis’s hip, where Farleigh stopped. “I love the turn of this arse,” he whispered, hot and close to her ear.
Pia felt the press of Farleigh’s cock against her lower back, the beginning of his physical arousal. Probably from imagining what he would do with that arse.
“I love the feel of being here between these two pillars of strength,” Pia whispered. “I never would have imagined . . .” She leaned back into Farleigh. A few seconds later, the door opened and a flushed Anna and Sebastian strolled into the gallery.
“Ah! There you are,” Sebastian said, smiling at the two of them caught in the act of caressing the naked statue.
Pia gasped. “We were just—”
Strangely, Farleigh pulled her tighter against him, maybe to conceal his erection, but it felt more possessive than that. Perhaps he wanted to hold her hostage until he could get a hold of Sebastian. Pia let him.
They all stared at one another, each of them weighing their own desires against the powerful desires of the other three people in the room. As the silence crackled between the four of them, Sebastian and Anna walked slowly across the gallery until they were standing side by side, mere inches in front of Pia.
“Hello, my love,” Anna whispered and leaned up to kiss her full on the lips, so close to Farleigh, so close to Sebastian, all of them so close. Pia whimpered and kissed her back. God, how she loved this woman. Reaching her free hand into Anna’s blonde hair, Pia felt Farleigh’s hold tighten and remembered where she was. She pressed her bottom more firmly against him and felt the answering twitch of his cock. Anna slowed down the kiss but reached up to caress Pia’s breast.
When Anna finished kissing her, Pia looked up to see Sebastian and Farleigh staring at one another with nothing short of tightly reined animal ferocity. “The picnic carriage is ready,” Farleigh growled. “Let us be off.” He released Pia and strode past Anna and Sebastian without looking back.
The carriage was a glorious, open-air affair. Farleigh had spent a small fortune on it, but he had no regrets. He sat up in the high seat and the other three rode in the back. After about twenty minutes of trotting along a narrow grassy lane into a wooded part of the estate, they emerged into his favorite glade. He drew the horses to a halt and stepped off the high perch.
He handed the reins to one of the servants, who was there for that purpose. Another footman had also come to ensure all the food was properly iced and presented.
“We’re here,” Farleigh said to his guests. He reached up to help Pia step from the high carriage. Sebastian helped Anna.
“Will that be all, sir?” the footman asked.
“Yes. Please do not return with the carriage until tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow morning?” Anna balked.
Farleigh’s head turned slowly. “Yes, señora de Montizon. Tomorrow morning. Unless you’d prefer the comfort of your feather bed back at Mandeville House, in which case you may accompany these fine fellows.” He gest
ured vaguely toward the two servants who were ready to leave. One of the men had mounted Farleigh’s carriage and the other was getting ready to depart in the wagon that had been used to transport all the food and gear.
Anna’s back stiffened. “No, thank you. I believe I’ll stay.”
Farleigh began to turn away.
“But twenty-four hours is very long for a picnic—” Anna started to quibble.
Farleigh, turning back with disciplined slowness, said, “It may not be long enough for what I have in mind. Are you sure you wish to remain?”
She smiled at last, and Farleigh finally began to suspect she was his ally, not his enemy. “I am quite sure, Your Grace. This is the privacy and solitude I have been hoping for all these long weeks. It will be quite lovely for the four of us to relax and become . . . familiar.” In that moment, he could tell from that serene smile that all she had ever wanted was what was best for Sebastian—for all of them, really. “I’m quite fond of very long picnics. Pardon me for questioning your proposal.” She curtsied politely and walked toward the small lake where Sebastian and Pia were already laughing and pointing out some beautiful plant or other.
Farleigh looked over all the arrangements, making sure the servants had done all he’d asked, then he gave them permission to leave. They had spent many hours this morning executing his orders: two white linen tents had been constructed. One was filled with iced delicacies—potted shrimp, oysters, cool wine—the other was a sybaritic pile of silk and satin pillows heaped atop a carpet of animal skins, with two trunks storing kimonos and sarongs and other delights from his travels in the West Indies and the Orient.
Needless to say, Farleigh would happily forgo the food.
He pulled off his confining jacket and tossed it over one of the canvas campaign chairs. Pulling off his boots and silk socks, he reveled in the feel of the cool grass between his toes. He watched as Anna and Pia laughed together by the lake, then he stared at the turn of Sebastian’s shoulders, narrow hips, and backside. He must have felt the weight of Farleigh’s attention because he turned and stared back. The two of them were held like that for a few seconds. Farleigh continued undressing. He planned on being unclothed for the rest of the day and night.
Sebastian’s eyes on him turned the casual act of disrobing into something turbulent. He pulled his shirt over his head, then undid his buckskins, all while staring across the distance at Sebastian’s partially opened mouth. When he was naked, finally, after all the weeks of torture, he strode toward the lake.
Anna and Pia were standing close to one another, their hands gripped together. “Oh,” Pia whispered when he passed.
He dove into the lake and swam out to the center without saying a word to any of them. When he came up for air, he burst out laughing. All three of them were scrambling to get their clothes off as quickly as they could. He called out, “Are you finally in a rush, Anna?”
“I am!” she called back. She was helping Pia undo her corset, while a perfectly nude Sebastian helped Anna remove hers. Farleigh was treading water so his heart rate was already accelerated, but seeing the three of them like that made his heart constrict and pound harder. He wanted to be part of that, to be joined the way they were. Not only for the sensual pleasures but for the daily intimacy of touch and caring.
After having spent his whole life believing adulthood required that he divide duty from desire, Farleigh was chilled and breathless when he glimpsed the potential future that was standing right before him. The water was cold against his skin but the chill came from the terrifying hope that he could be joined with these three people, that the four of them—together—could define and direct their lives as they wished. The terror came from the same sliver of fear that had always dogged him: that he didn’t deserve that kind of fulfillment, that a consuming happiness was reserved for good people. And he had been led to believe—by society and its self-appointed judges—that his particular desires made him a very bad person.
He watched as Sebastian finished helping the women, then dove into the lake. A few seconds later, his slick face popped up a few feet away, like an otter.
“Farleigh . . .” Sebastian swam up to him and wrapped his arms around his neck and coiled his strong legs around Farleigh’s hips. “Kiss me, man.”
Farleigh would not have called what followed a kiss—more of a ravishment. He pulled at Sebastian’s wet hair, tugging and scratching him, the two of them like a pair of sea creatures set free at last. Eventually, after they became winded, Farleigh pulled them to shore, desperate to see all of Sebastian while he touched him and made Sebastian’s body bend to his will.
“God, how desperate I am for you,” Sebastian gasped as Farleigh slammed him to the soft, earthy edge of the lake. They lay side by side, panting and staring at the crystalline blue sky.
“What shall we do about it?” Farleigh teased.
Sebastian turned on his side and rested his head on his palm, staring down the length of Farleigh’s body. Farleigh watched out of the corner of his eye as Sebastian licked his lips and looked down at Farleigh’s jutting cock. “Come, Seb. Suck me off quickly, for a start, to sand off this jagged edge.” Farleigh spread his strong thighs, letting his legs rest wide and inviting.
Sebastian sat up and shifted so he was on his bent knees, crouched near Farleigh’s cock. “How do you want it?” Sebastian asked.
“Hard and fast.”
Before he’d finished the three short words, Sebastian had pulled him into his mouth with enough force to knock the breath out of both of them. When Farleigh recovered enough to realize he was finally getting what he’d been anticipating every minute of the past few weeks, he let out a satisfied groan.
Sebastian made a similar noise, the vibration at the back of his throat shooting up Farleigh’s spine.
Lifting himself up on his elbows, Farleigh watched Sebastian’s incredible mouth, the strain of his lips, the tension of his cheeks. “God, you are so miraculous, Seb.”
Sebastian’s eyes—at half-mast while he worked—closed in pleasure at Farleigh’s praise. The force of his powerful mouth paired with the sweet gentleness of those thick black eyelashes put Farleigh right over. He cried out his release within minutes, slamming his hips up into Sebastian’s face and loving the way Sebastian sucked harder still, wanting every drop of him. So beautifully desperate.
When Sebastian flopped back onto the moist earth, Farleigh said, “Come here, boy.” He reached out one arm and pulled Sebastian into his hold, so his dark hair, still wet from their swim, was cool against his pounding chest. “Jesus, Sebastian. I’ve wanted you terribly.”
Sebastian was slowly rocking his cock against Farleigh’s hip and humming his pleasure at being in the man’s arms. “And I you.”
They stayed like that, with their eyes closed and the summer air caressing their bare skin, listening to the noises of the forest and the animals around the lake mix with the laughter and tender sounds of Anna and Pia swimming nearby in the shallows.
Waking about half an hour later, Farleigh opened his eyes to see Anna in one of his rich brocade caftans. She was reclining against a tree a few feet away, reading aloud from a book while she caressed Pia’s cheek. Pia smiled when he caught her eye, her head on Anna’s lap. He was able to decipher a few scraps of what Anna was reading and realized they must have raided his trunks and were enjoying one of the erotic novels he’d found on his travels.
He smiled back at Pia then glanced at her lush body; she looked so completely at ease with her naked flesh against the grass, almost as if she had risen up out of the earth like a mythological creature. Sebastian rustled in his arms and came slowly awake. Gorgeously aroused.
Rested and ready, thought Farleigh with a sharp spike of desire.
Pia gazed up to see Anna had fallen quiet, her attention on the two men. Pia watched as Anna’s face turned from scientific wonder to elemental lust.
“Oh my,” Anna whispered.
Pia turned to see Sebastian’s head pull
ed back at a seemingly painful angle, with Farleigh tugging on his hair and making ravenous love to his mouth while pinning him down with one strong thigh across his hips. The duke was somehow beautifully loving and brutally demanding at the same time, making Sebastian appear almost weak by comparison.
But he wasn’t weak. Sebastian was terribly strong, as both Anna and Pia knew firsthand. When Pia looked closer, she realized that Sebastian was actually resisting, his strength forcing both men to strain all of their muscles in order to hold each other in that intense grip.
Farleigh pulled his lips away from Sebastian. “God, you are splendid.”
Sebastian looked so blissfully happy, his neck muscles straining, his mouth open. So open. Open to anything, Pia thought with a lustful sigh.
“Oh my,” Pia echoed. “Should we leave them to it? It’s almost too much.”
Anna was silent, her eyes wide, darting from Sebastian’s mouth—wet and open—to Farleigh’s mouth, closed and showing the hint of a deviant smile.
“I think I want to fuck you properly while your two women watch. Would you like that, Sebastian?”
Pia covered her mouth again, appalled and delighted. Anna was simply delighted.
“Into the larger tent,” Farleigh ordered as he stared into Sebastian’s glowing dark eyes. “One and all.”
Farleigh released Sebastian’s hair after one last rough tug then pulled him quickly to his feet and into a one-armed hold. “This way, you beautiful man.” The two of them sauntered toward the tent until Farleigh turned his head at the last minute and called lightly, “Are you joining us, ladies?”
He might as well have been inviting them to tea, the way he tossed the words over his shoulder like an afterthought. Anna grabbed Pia’s hand, and both women leapt up and trotted quickly behind the men as they took long strides toward the sinful harem-like den Farleigh had created.
