The Ghosts of Christmas Past

by Madelynne Ellis

  “I’ve shared women before,” he remarked scathingly. The result was rarely satisfactory. Either one fellow was subjected to bad fellatio due to the other man jiggling the harlot about as he filled her, or else one of them had to face sliding into someone else’s leavings. While he desired Lucerne, he was not desperate to bathe in his come.

  “I meant that you should take her fore and aft, not top n tail her.”

  “Excuse me?” he blurted.

  He almost bounced her from his knee, he was so surprised. Take her fore and aft? He could only assume that she meant that one man would enjoy the woman’s cunny and the other her arse.

  Vaughan rubbed his fingers over his chin as he painted an image of such a coupling in his head. Lying side by side would likely prove uncomfortable, but possibly they might stack themselves one atop the other, or find a way to kneel so that the lady became the meat and they the bread of such a sandwich.

  “I can see that you see the possibility in such positioning.”

  “Sodomy is illegal, madam.” he remarked.

  She laughed and planted a kiss upon his cheek. “Oh, milord, you do like your jokes. That would be why men take such a fancy to it. It makes them feel quite wild. And case in point, I’d wager the brandy in your cellar wasn’t procured quite legally either.”

  “Brandy and rump are hardly the same thing.”

  “Both are procured with coins. They’re entirely the same,” she countered. “And besides, I don’t believe you to be such a stickler for the law, nor your friend either.”

  Lucerne was already half undressed and at the centre of his very own orgy, so perhaps she had a point.

  Very well, he admitted it, she had his attention. The possibilities of engaging in such a threesome were stirring his passions, and making his cock stiffen. “So, supposing I was interested in such a thing as you propose—not because of any amorous feelings you erroneously believe I have for my friend, but simply due to a taste for the unusual—what then? Is there a whore here willing to accommodate such a request?”

  “For two such handsome beaux as yourselves, I’ll warrant there’ll be more than a few who are willing, but you needn’t go looking among them. I know how it’s all done, and of course, we understand one another perfectly, don’t we, milord.” She tapped the side of her nose and winked at him, then slipped off his lap and stood. “Room three, upstairs is mine. I’ll be waiting there all ready for you.” She curtsied politely, so that her scarlet polonaise-style dress fanned out around her, and kissed his knuckles, leaving a smear of rouge behind on his skin. “You’ll not regret this decision.” She glanced at Lucerne. “He’s a proper fine gent, as of course are you. The girls will all be screeching with jealousy.”

  “Make sure there’s wine aplenty up there,” Vaughan remarked. “We’ll follow shortly.”

  Vaughan remained in his seat for several minutes after she had gone. He didn’t know if this course was madness, marvellous or simply the first step along the road to hell, but he was going to tread it anyway. One thing he did know, Lucerne’s appetite for adventure, increased in proportion to the amount of liquor he consumed, so he sent over another decanter of wine.

  ELEVEN

  “Where are we going?” Lucerne laughed as Vaughan pulled him from his seat. Already tipsy on hot spiced wine, he was reluctant to leave the three ladies who had been attending to his every whim.

  “Don’t go,” the three pleaded in turn, holding on to his person, in an attempt to drag him back into their embrace.

  “Fuck off,” Vaughan barked at them, refusing to relinquish his claim on Lucerne. “He’s required upstairs.”

  “I am?” Lucerne asked. He swayed, slightly giddily. His skin was pink along the ridges of his cheek bones, and his lips were stained a much darker red than usual. Luckily, it didn’t seem to be affecting his ability to function sexually. As a matter of fact, his lance was already braced for battle, and poking obscenely from his open breeches. “Sorry.” He tucked himself away. “You did rather interrupt things.”

  “For a good reason, I assure you. I have a surprise waiting upstairs for you…us.”

  “A tasty one?” Lucerne asked, while wrestling his hair from the queue in which it was tied.

  “A warm and very willing one.”

  “Only the one?” He pouted. “I had three just a moment ago.”

  “Yes, but this one will be better than those three.”

  Lucerne eyed him sceptically, but continued to mount the stairs. “Hold on a minute.” He paused on the first landing and made a deliberate show of counting himself and then Vaughan. “One…Two…There are two of us, and there are enough willing wenches around that neither of us need be content with an already buttered bun. Why is there only one whore upstairs?”

  Vaughan grasped Lucerne’s fore-arm and tugged him into motion again, before any of the harpies he’d just chased off took Lucerne’s reluctance as the cue to re-engage. “Because we’re going to share.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re going to have her together.”

  Lucerne raised one blond brow an eloquent quarter inch. “I love you dearly my friend.” He patted Vaughan’s hand. “But that doesn’t sound like an especially appealing prospect. I mean, I could see the sense of it, if we were both short of funds, but you and I—” he ticked his finger back and forth towards each of their chests, “—we’re not in any way strapped.”

  “Just roll with it, Marlinscar,” Vaughan insisted. “Trust me; if I say you’re going to enjoy it, you’re going to enjoy it.” Leastways, he prayed that was case. “Think of it as an adventure. Any fool can couple with a willing wench, but how many men of your acquaintance have been part of a threesome?”

  A ballsy smirk spread across Lucerne’s lips. “Oh, is that what this is? Why didn’t you just say so? And quite a few as a matter of fact. According to Wakefield it’s almost de rigueur these days amongst the younger army officers.”

  “The devil it is!”

  “Oh, it’s definitely quite a fashion for two, three, or even four or five of them to share the same woman. Of course, it’s mostly down to a piteous lack of coins, but they do make a wild party of it. I shared with Wakefield just a few weeks back.”

  Vaughan swallowed back the bile that suddenly filled his mouth. How could it be that Wakefield, an idiot with the sexual prowess of a castrated bull and who trotted around after Lucerne looking like a whipped puppy, had engaged in a threesome of this sort before he, who prided himself on his excesses and his taste for the unusual, had done so? It simply wasn’t possible. Damnation, it was incomprehensible. As to the possibility of Wakefield having touched Lucerne in any sort of intimate fashion—well, if it turned out that he had done so, he’d call the bastard out.

  “Are you all right?” Lucerne asked. He squinted at Vaughan, in concern. “I’m sorry if it spoils your plans, but I think I’ll go back down, if that’s all right.” He patted Vaughan’s hand again.

  “You took a woman fore and aft with him,” Vaughan spat, using the bawd’s description.

  Lucerne paused in the act of turning around and spluttered his drink all over the landing floor. “God’s blood! That’s what you’re planning for us to do? You mean one of us in her rump and one in her quaint?” He looked around sharply, in case he’d been overheard. “Heaven’s no. That’s not at all what we did. Is that even possible?”

  “So I’m reliably informed.”

  Lucerne’s eyes lit with curiosity. “And you’ve a willing wench upstairs waiting?” Lucerne drained the dregs of his cup and left it on a step.

  “Precisely so.”

  His friend made a three hundred and sixty degree turn, and stomped up to the second landing.

  “What was it that you did with Wakefield?” Vaughan probed, coming up behind him.

  “Oh, nothing much. Nothing akin to what you’re suggesting. She sucked us both off together, is all.”

  “Together?” It was Vaughan’s turn to raise his brows. />
  “Yes, you would hardly have believed it possible for her to fit two fully erect cocks into it, seen as it was such a dainty mouth to look at, but she managed it beautifully.”

  Vaughan struggled to mask his revulsion. “What possessed you to put your cock anywhere near Wakefield’s? Ack!” He shuddered.

  “Well,” Lucerne blushed a particularly fiery shade of red. “I didn’t exactly know that’s what was going to happen, and it wasn’t as if we tossed one another off or anything.” He eyed Vaughan warily, genuine fear creeping into his smile and his cornflower blue eyes. “There’s nothing untoward going on between us. We’re not interested in pricking or fagging for one another.”

  “How very relieved I am to hear it.” He remained revolted and furious that Wakefield had touched Lucerne in an intimate fashion, but he kept that fact buried, and faked a smile.

  “You understand that the only contact between us was while we were in her mouth.” Lucerne continued, evidently greatly concerned by the matter. “She had to clasp us close together in order that we’d fit.”

  “Please—” Vaughan raised his hand, so the lace at his wrist spilled back over his coat cuff. “—spare me the details.” If the encounter were related in an any more specific manner he would have to arrange a very unfortunate accident for Wakefield to ensure his cock never came close to Lucerne’s again.

  “Yes, of course, sorry.” Lucerne bowed his head sheepishly and focussed on his toes, whereupon Vaughan clapped him across the back.

  “I understand, Lucerne. I shan’t think of you as an effeminate. It was simply a bit of good natured fun.”

  “That’s exactly what it was.”

  “This will be even greater fun. Pleasure, hereto unknown, in fact, or so I’m advised. Shall we find out?”

  “Most assuredly,” Lucerne agreed.

  Having reached the room he’d been directed to, Vaughan knocked, then turned the knob and ushered Lucerne inside.

  It was a small, Spartan chamber, filled with only a bed dressed with a blanket and a patchwork quilt, a squat chest that clearly doubled as a table, and a threadbare rug that had perhaps once been brightly coloured. A small fire burned in the grate, but the lack of furnishing was easily overlooked, given the bounteous beauty of the woman awaiting them. She stood poised before the coals dressed in nothing but her stockings, stays and chemisette.

  “I was beginning to think you had lost your nerve, milords.” She gave a high sharp laugh. “I trust you’re not disappointed with what you find?” She rose onto the balls of her feet and made a slow pirouette in order to show herself off.

  “Definitely not.” Lucerne crossed to her immediately, already shucking off his coat and starting on his waistcoat buttons, few of which were still fastened thanks to the ladies downstairs. He caught the wench in an embrace and twirled her around before kissing her fervently. “I’m told you’re woman enough to entertain us both, which if true, will be a feat indeed.”

  “I can handle the pair of you just fine, milord. What remains to be seen is whether you’re able to satisfy me.” She twirled out of his arms and over to the fireside, where she plucked something from off the mantle. “Some oil to ease the way,” she said turning to them in order to present the vial of liquid, which she held balanced on the pad of her thumb with her fore-finger upon the stopper. “Which you fine dandies should I oil?”

  They hadn’t discussed that point. In truth, she seemed keener to be started with this thing than Vaughan had anticipated. From his past experiences, whores either tried to engage you in a way that secured your patronage for the night, or else aimed for quick and dirty so as to maximise their profits by servicing as many customers as possible. He’d assumed this activity would fall into the former category.

  “My vote is for exploring her buttonhole over her arse.” Lucerne put his hand under her linens and traced the shape of her puss. “I’ve no experience of the latter. I’m afraid I’ve never seen the point. For certain a nice rump makes for a pleasant ride, but why squeeze into a place that tight when there’s a hot, wet pussy available?”

  Vaughan resisted the urge to cover his face. Lucerne still needed educating in so many ways if he was ever to be even half the rakehell he aspired to be.

  “Then as you’re to be the one to plant your spear in my behind.” The girl tossed the oil to him, which he expertly caught.

  “I thought you intended to anoint me?”

  “I can’t do anything while you’re still fully clothed. Strip and then maybe I’ll rub it in.”

  “Minx,” he sighed under his breath, though he rather liked her feistiness. Better that than the simpering, insipid procession of women his mother insisted on parading before him in the hopes he’d find one dull enough to wed.

  Vaughan undressed, starting with his coat while he watched the woman help Lucerne strip naked. The man was beautiful, everything Vaughan expected, his skin smooth and unblemished, limbs and torso long and well-formed. The hair around his loins was the same golden blond as on his head. Vaughan refused to stare at his cock, much as he was tempted. He needed to tread carefully, so that joy would have to wait for another occasion.

  “Do you have a name?” Lucerne asked, as if mattered.

  “Jessie, milord.”

  Miss Jessie was clearly enamoured of Lucerne too, since her hands roved incessantly over his skin, touching, and rousing him, until his cock was fully hard.

  “Come over to the bed, milord.” She led Lucerne there by his tail, while throwing a sly look in his direction.

  “Wait,” Vaughan stopped them both as they were about to climb on top of the coverlet. “I think we’ll have these off too.” He ignored her squeak of protest as he spun her around so that he could unfasten her stays. He was well practiced and the knots of her laces were easily unpicked. Once all the rigid boning was removed, he grabbed the hem of her chemisette and pulled it off over her head, before making a point of lazily looking her over. “I like to see what I’m getting.”

  She was plump with a sweetly rounded belly and thighs that would make for a heavenly pillow. Her bottom was full too, but marred by a criss-cross of silvery lines, that spoke of a violent encounter some time in her past. He traced the lines with the tip of one finger. “Who did this to you?”

  “It was long ago, milord. I can hide them with salve if they displease you.”

  “Why should they do that?” He traced each mark with his tongue, making her shiver.

  Lucerne watched him in clear fascination.

  “Some men want a girl to be completely unblemished.”

  “Dull, and impossible,” he muttered. “Stop gawping, Lucerne. Suck her tits or something.”

  “Shall I?” Lucerne asked, before kissing her lips instead. Only after a thorough exploration of her mouth did he shift his attention to her breasts, first caressing them with his fingers before following through with his tongue.

  Vaughan wrapped his arms around her middle, so that his loins rubbed against her rump, while he coaxed her nubbin free of its hood.

  “Oh, milords,” she sagged a little in their arms. “I wasn’t expecting… You don’t have to make it good for me. It’s supposed to me that’s making pleasure for you.”

  “Hearing you sigh does bring us pleasure,” Lucerne remarked. “Also, if you’re wet it makes for a more pleasant dive.”

  “Yes,” she murmured in agreement. “Yes, milord, it definitely does.”

  “I’m not a lord. I’m merely the third son of a viscount, which merely makes me an honourable. Craven here is the one with title, though even his is borrowed.”

  “Oh, I know who he is. Lord Craven is to be the next Marquis of Pennerley when his father dies. His family are known by all hereabout. They’re said to be a dirty, wicked lot who practice heathen ways and sacrifice virgins.”

  “Is that true, Vaughan? Have you spoiled a few maidens?”

  “Spoiled them for what? I prefer to think of it as having provided them with an education.”

/>   Lucerne sniggered. “Tis it any wonder your mother banished you to the family seat?”

  “Oh, that wasn’t so much over a defiling a maiden as the loss of her co-conspirator. I pricked her bosom friend, and then deflowered that lady’s daughter.”

  “That’s appalling,” Jessie laughed, and covered her mouth with both hands. “Was she a high-born lady?”

  “The niece of an Earl.”

  Lucerne’s eyebrows lifted, and his lips pursed. “You never told me that. That is, that was you, who pricked sweet Lady Jane Sutton.”

  Vaughan nodded. “My motivation was purely spiteful. Virgins are such tiresome bores.”

  “You prefer a woman who knows what she’s doing, eh, milord?” Jessie winked.

  “My preference is for anyone who doesn’t talk overly much.”

  “Only because you hate anyone to outwit you.”

  “Actually, Lucerne, I just like to be able to hear the thoughts inside my own head, and most virgins are chattering ninnies.”

  “You don’t care much for highborn ladies then?” Jessie remarked. “You’d prefer to have your fun with the common ones.”

  “I’ve no particular fondness for either, as long as she’s wet and willing and knows how to please. And speaking of pleasure, shall we perhaps get on to the bed now? Lucerne you lie down first, then Jessie can straddle you and I can kneel behind her.”

  “That should work,” Jessie agreed.

  They all got into position.

  “So we’re just going to do this?” Lucerne remarked. He met Vaughan’s gaze, over Jessie’s shoulder.

  “That’s the plan, yes.”

  “Yes do,” Jessie added.

  The moment felt so poignant Vaughan was sure he’d remember it forever. Tension crackled between he and Lucerne. “Do we do this together or one first and then the other?” his friend asked.

  “Any way you please, as long as you’re quick about it,” Jessie interjected.