“Except Giselle,” Robert pushed.
“Yes, except Giselle,” Simon agreed. “What are you getting at?”
“That maybe Christy and I owe Giselle a debt for keeping you safe all these years,” Robert said. “Maybe, while you were blaming yourself and trying to die, Giselle was working very hard to keep you alive.”
Simon looked at him shock. “Are you saying that my sixth sense comes from Giselle?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Robert said, sitting down beside him, opposite Christy. They all sat and looked at Giselle’s headstone for several minutes.
“Thank you,” Christy finally whispered, “for keeping him safe for us.”
After a while Simon reached out and grasped both their wrists. “You came for me.”
“Of course we did,” Robert said. “You belong to us now.”
Simon didn’t dispute his words. “How did you find me?”
“First we went to Daniel’s,” Christy said, surreptitiously wiping a tear from her eye. “And he told us you went to Ashton on the Green. Oh, Simon, what you did to poor Hastings.”
“He’ll be a better man for it, mark my words,” Simon said with laughter in his voice. “Haven’t we all gone to Ashton Park to heal ourselves at one time or another?”
“We were at Ashton Park when we found out you’d been kidnapped,” Christy said quietly. “It was not a pleasant memory for us. Yesterday, at least we knew that we would find you today.”
“I’m sorry, darling,” Simon said. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her temple. “And how did you know I’d be here?”
“Daniel did tell us you were coming here, to Bury St. Edmunds. When we arrived we just guessed that this would be where we’d find you.”
“You know me too well,” Simon said, standing up.
“If only that were true, I would have known you were going to run after our night together,” Robert said, standing as well.
“Running? Is that what you think I was doing?” He shook his head and affectionately ran his hand down Robert’s arm, a gesture no one who might be looking would find too familiar. “I came to say goodbye. I never had, not properly. It was time.”
Christy reached a hand up, and both men stepped forward to help her stand. “Simon, this will never do. We must find some flowers for all the graves. And I am going to have a stern talk with the rectory about this. We will arrange to pay them for the upkeep, and we will come a time or two each year if we can.”
“I already pay them, Christy.”
“Well then,” she said in righteous indignation. “I can see that they have taken advantage of your absence to shirk their duties. Have you no other family to take care of them?” Simon shook his head. “We will find someone before we leave.”
“Where is Christian?” Simon asked as they headed toward the rectory.
“With Very Tarrant,” Robert said. He grinned and looked at Simon out of the corner of his eye. “Along with Mary Peppers and Essie.”
Simon burst out laughing. “I am going to get a visit from Kensington and Tarrant as soon as we get back to London,” he said. “So are we going to work for Barnabas?”
“What do you think?”
Simon had given it a great deal of thought on the way to Suffolk. “I think it’s a good idea. The pay is better, and eventually we could find ourselves at a desk if we want. Things are changing, and we can change with them. And I trust Barnabas. He will always make sure we are taken care of. I don’t think we could do better.”
“You make some good arguments.” Robert stopped and turned to him. “And I would get to work with you every day.”
“That is definitely one of the favorable arguments,” Simon agreed.
Christy stepped between them and took each by the arm, looking up at them. “So we are going to do this, then? We’re going to be together at last?”
“We’ve always been together, from the very beginning,” Simon told her. “We fell in love the first time we saw each other.”
“Not true,” Robert said. “I hated you. Your perfect hair, and handsome face, and heroic nature. I wished baldness on you.”
When he stopped laughing, Simon confessed, “I hated you, too. You were always so perfect. Perfectly polite, beautiful manners, manly physique, immaculate past. I wished you to the devil many times.” He touched his hair. “But never baldness. If something should happen, we shall look to you now.”
“Do you think that two men who fall in love with the same woman are only a heartbeat away from falling in love with each other?” Robert asked.
Simon’s heart stumbled in his chest. Was Robert saying he loved Simon? “Perhaps. I know I have seen it happen many times. Loving Christy has turned us from enemies to lovers.”
“Not yet,” Robert said, his eyes gleaming with intent. “But tonight, I plan to correct that.”
Chapter 41
Simon moaned as Robert pushed another finger inside him.
“How long has it been since you’ve been fucked?” Robert asked, his voice rough and low in Simon’s ear. He had his arm around Simon’s chest, holding him tightly against him. Christy lay between his spread legs, his cock in her hungry mouth, sucking and licking him, keeping him on the edge as Robert prepared him to be taken just the way Simon had taught him to prepare Christy.
“Not since Africa,” Simon said breathlessly.
Robert stopped. He rested his forehead on Simon’s cheek. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Should I go on?”
“This is nothing like that,” Simon said. “You are nothing like that.”
“Simon,” Christy said. She kissed his inner thigh. “Darling, I’m sorry. I would take that away from you, if I could.” She rubbed his hips soothingly.
“You are,” he said simply. “Take me. Fuck me. I want this, please,” he begged.
Christy took him in her hot, wet mouth again, and he moaned.
Robert covered his mouth with his hand. “Shhh,” he whispered. “You’ll have the innkeeper at the door.”
Robert’s hand over his mouth, the clandestine nature of their encounter, as well as this being the first time Robert would fuck him, the first Robert would ever fuck a man, made the whole experience that much more erotic for Simon. He bit down on Robert’s palm and fucked into Christy’s mouth, and they both gave low, quiet moans. Simon loved that, loved being able to please them both at the same time. He couldn’t wait to fuck Christy while Robert fucked him.
As if they’d read his mind, Christy slid her mouth off his cock and Robert pulled his fingers out. Christy continued to lick the length of his erection and Robert fondled his stones. “Now?” Robert asked, kissing his nape.
“God, yes,” Simon said desperately.
“Good, because I can’t last long,” Robert said. “I hope someday to fuck you both without feeling like an overeager schoolboy.”
Simon laughed ruefully. “I’m afraid I’m guilty of that, as well. I’m ready to come just thinking about fucking into Christy’s sweet cunt with your cock in my arse.”
“Oh my God,” Christy said. “Do it. Stop talking and do it.” She slid up the bed and rearranged herself, legs spread wide so Simon was between them. He ran his finger down her slit and was delighted with how wet she was. He licked it clean, humming in satisfaction.
“Fuck me,” Christy demanded.
He didn’t wait for another invitation. When he entered her silky passage, he had to bite his lip to keep from coming immediately. Christy turned his face and kissed him roughly, biting his lip for him, and he thrust hard into her.
“Yes,” Robert whispered. “Fuck her like that. Hard. She likes it hard.”
Simon tore his mouth from Christy’s. “Someday I will fuck her just for your pleasure and you can watch us all you like. But tonight I want to be fucked. So put your cock in me, now.”
“I am married to two very demanding people,” Robert complained.
“What did you say?” Simon asked, shocked.
&
nbsp; “Consider this a wedding vow of sorts,” Robert said. At that moment he pushed in between Simon’s legs, and his cock found Simon’s entrance. “Ask to be fucked, and I will fuck you.”
He pressed against Simon’s hole with his finger, and as soon as Simon opened for him, he replaced it with his cock and slid in. The head clearing the entrance made a satisfying sound as it slid home, and Simon gasped at the pleasure of it.
“More,” he demanded when Robert stayed still for too long.
“It feels too good,” Robert said, his voice tight. “I can’t believe I’m fucking you. I’m fucking a man.”
“Not yet. Give me your cock, damn it.”
Robert shoved the rest in in one hard push, and Simon relished the sting of it. He reached back and grabbed Robert’s thigh, and they stayed like that for a minute as they all adjusted.
Christy finally brushed her hand lightly over Simon’s hair, getting his attention. He looked at her, and then she grabbed a handful of it in her fist and pulled him down for a kiss. Then she moved her hips.
“Fuck me,” she said against his lips.
Robert was the one to obey the command. He pulled back and then pushed in, a gentle movement that brought all of Simon’s senses to life and rocked his cock into Christy. Christy hummed in his mouth. Robert pulled out again, and this time his thrust was harder. Simon groaned at the same time Christy moaned, the sounds mingling in their kiss.
Robert took Simon’s hip in his hand and held on for the next thrust. He began a steady rhythm that had Simon’s head spinning. He devoured Christy’s mouth in their kiss, a way to avoid making too much noise.
He wanted to shout and moan and cry out at the sheer pleasure of fucking and being fucked with Christy and Robert. How long had he wanted this? Fought this? Had he known even last year that eventually this would happen? Maybe. All he knew was that no cunt and no cock had ever felt as fine as these to him, and he would never want any others.
Christy came. She dug her nails into his shoulders and cried out in his mouth, a high, keening cry that he caught and swallowed even as he ground into her, intensifying her orgasm. Her sweet cunt clenched him so tightly, and all he could do was rock inside her.
At the same time she was coming all over his cock, Robert gave him no quarter. He continued to thrust into him, slamming home now, riding him hard, breathing heavy above him, owning him, pushing him, fucking him so well, so right.
“Yes, yes,” Simon said just below his breath after he broke off the kiss with Christy. “Fuck me.” His voice was high and tight. He was going to come. “Fuck me like that.” His hips raised of their own accord, pushing back, fighting for more cock, harder, and Robert gave it to him. “Robert, yes.”
When he began to come, he pushed back into Christy, wanting to come inside her, needing to. “Christy,” he said.
She shook in his arms, and then he felt her coming again, fucking his pulsing cock, and he trembled at the storm that gripped him. He started to collapse, but Robert yanked up his hips.
“Now I’ll fill you,” Robert said gruffly. He held both of Simon’s hips and fucked him harder for another minute, and Simon loved it. Loved being used like that by Robert. He fucked him back, giving it all to him, and when Robert came he sat back on his haunches and pulled Simon with him, holding him with a hand on his chest, his cock pulsing in Simon’s passage, filling him, spilling out of him, owning him.
“I love you,” Robert said when it was over, when they were panting and sweaty and stuck together like that. And he kissed Simon between the shoulder blades. “Say it.”
“I love you, too,” Simon said. And he meant it. “Christy, come here.”
She came to them, kneeling in front of him, her hands on his shoulders, looking happier than he’d ever seen her. “I love you, too, silly,” she said before he could say anything.
“I know.” And he did.
The End
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my sister, Charlotte Herring, for the title Mission to Love. I was staying with her, helping to take care of my mother who was recovering from pneumonia, and when I mentioned I couldn’t think of a title—well, let’s just say she shamed me by rattling off a dozen. This is the one we liked best for Simon. Thank you to my editor, Mackenzie Walton, who, as usual, did an excellent job picking it apart and putting it back together again. (She didn’t get the chance to go over these acknowledgments so file all complaints with management.) Thank you to Jaycee DeLorenzo of Sweet n’ Spicy Designs for the beautiful cover. I’d like to thank my critique partner and best friend Julie Parkinson for her invaluable assistance with brainstorming and encouragement. And I can’t let this one go without thanking my husband for his invaluable input in every step of the process. He is brilliant, a historian, a walking encyclopedia/dictionary/thesaurus, and an excellent businessman, not to mention and avid reader who is my first and best beta reader.
About the Author
Reviewers have called Samantha Kane “an absolute marvel to read” and “one of historical romance’s most erotic and sensuous authors.” Her books have been called “sinful,” “sensuous,” and “sizzling.” She is published in several romance genres including historical, contemporary and science fiction. Her erotic Regency-set historical romances have won awards, including Best Historical from RWA’s erotic romance chapter Passionate Ink, and the Historical CAPA (best book) award from The Romance Studio. She has a master’s degree in American History, and taught high school social studies for ten years before becoming a full time writer. Samantha Kane lives in North Carolina with her husband and three children.
www.samanthakane.us
[email protected]
Also by Samantha Kane
Brothers in Arms
The Courage to Love
Love Under Siege
Love’s Strategy
At Love’s Command
Retreat From Love
Love in Exile
Love’s Fortress
Prisoner of Love
Love’s Surrender
Love Betrayed
Defeated by Love
Fight for Love
For Love and Country
Valor
Daniel and Harry
Mercury Rising
Cherry Pie
Cherry Bomb
Cherry Pop
Birmingham Rebels
Broken Play
Calling the Play
Jacked Up
Misconduct
The Saint’s Devils
The Devil’s Thief
Tempting a Devil
Devil in My Arms
The 93rd Highlanders
Hamish
Conall
When Love Comes Calling (anthology)
Play It Again, Sam
Tomorrow
Islands
Mission to Love (Brothers in Arms Book 14) Page 29
