She fiddled with her spoon as she tried to find a way to approach this difficult topic. “Yes,” she said at last. “I think he did want me. Perhaps he still does. He would watch me. Always watch me. I didn’t like it. Never liked being alone with him.”
Marcus glanced at Everett. “Seems like information well worth pursuing.”
She shook her head. “Perhaps you might stretch and think that was a motive for Thaddeus to kill my husband or husbands, but why would he shoot at me?”
“You said he wanted you to come back to stay with him, didn’t you?” Everett asked. “What better way than to convince you there was a threat?”
Her heart sank. “That…makes…sense, I suppose,” she admitted slowly. “God’s teeth, I hope you’re wrong.”
“You’d rather have it be a stranger who truly wants you dead?” Marcus asked.
She nodded. “Than my family murdering for me in the name of some twisted love? Taking the lives of three men who didn’t deserve their fate? Yes, actually.”
Marcus reached out and took her hand, his fingers stroking hers gently. “It’s only a theory. Don’t tie yourself in knots over it until we know the truth.”
“I’ll try. This situation is…it’s very difficult.”
For a moment, everyone at the table was quiet. The servants came and replaced the first course for a second.
Once they were gone, Everett cleared his throat. “Perhaps this is a good time, then, to discuss our other situation.”
Marcus’s eyes went wide and he stared. “Everett.”
Naomi looked between them and the tension was palpable. “The other situation meaning…what happened between each of us?” she squeaked.
Everett nodded slowly. “Will you deny that there is desire here? For all of us?”
Naomi hesitated. Although she had come to accept her desires, talking about them was still…strange. She’d always been told to hide them. And yet…
“I can’t deny it,” she admitted. “I haven’t denied it, at any rate, considering what has happened both last night and today.”
“Do you feel it isn’t right?” Marcus encouraged her gently, retaking her hand.
“Society would say it isn’t,” she responded.
Everett now reached out and took her opposite hand. She shuddered at the connection between the three of them. A desire that seemed to flow up and down her body, back and forth between them all.
“Seems to me that following Society’s rules isn’t always best,” Everett said.
Marcus shifted, as if that statement made him uncomfortable. But he continued to stroke her hand as he said, “And it would be private, Naomi. Just between us. When you told us about going to the Donville Masquerade yesterday, what stood out to me is that your husband took you there not to train you in your own pleasure, but to train you in his. Was that always the way?”
“With him…yes,” she whispered. “He stopped touching me at all once he realized I would go and watch him with the lightskirts. With my second husband there was more pleasure, but we didn’t talk about my wants or his. My first was more traditional. He was my husband, I his wife. What we did in the dark had pleasure, but that wasn’t its purpose.”
Marcus shook his head. “Idiots, the lot of them.”
“So never was any of it about your pleasure,” Everett reiterated. “What if this time with us…was?”
A shudder worked through her from head to toe as the erotic implications of that question sank through to her very soul. “Oh God,” she squeaked out without meaning to.
Everett smiled. On his normally serious face, it was a sensual, knowing expression. “Is that a yes?”
She nodded slowly, fighting to find the words these men and this situation required. “Yes,” she managed at last, her voice breathless and shaky. “But I don’t know…how.”
Marcus leaned forward and cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking across her lips. “Let us teach you.”
Chapter 7
Everett leaned against the door in Marcus’s chamber, watching as his friend led Naomi toward the bed. It had been a long time since he was here. Months, perhaps a year. But it felt like home, this big chamber with the huge bed along the back wall. The roaring fire both warmed and brightened the room—and gave him the perfect view as Marcus turned Naomi toward him and leaned in to kiss her.
Everett shifted as he stared, watching the kiss transform from something comforting to something deeper, then more passionate. Their tongues tangled, she made a soft sound deep in her throat, Marcus put his hands on her hips and drew her up harder against him.
It was like magic as Naomi’s posture changed. She’d been tense after her acquiescence to this arrangement, nervous. But now, as Marcus continued to kiss her, stroked his hands up and down her sides, she relaxed into him and Everett watched her transformation to utter surrender.
With all their history, he hadn’t been certain Marcus would truly give in to what Everett asked for. And yet here he was, surrendering as sure as Naomi was. Everett was rock hard already, trembling at the idea that tonight he could have everything he wanted. That was so very rare to him. So precious.
Marcus broke off the kiss and held out a hand, crooking his finger for Everett. It was like an invisible string drew him forward, into their coupling. Marcus turned Naomi toward Everett, and she lifted her face to his. Everett groaned at her submission and bent his head to kiss her. She opened to him just as she had opened to Marcus, lifting her hands to stroke his chest as he cupped her cheeks and kissed her deeper.
He opened his eyes, watching as Marcus unbuttoned the back of her dress. He leaned in to kiss every inch of skin he revealed, bending to lick the curve of the small of her back before he slid his hands beneath the silky, black fabric and tipped it forward.
Everett broke the kiss, stepping back and dragging the dress from her arms. Naomi’s gaze was hazy as she shimmied her hips and the fabric pooled at her feet. She was wearing nothing beneath, and now she stood before them both, naked. And so utterly beautiful that it almost hurt to look at her.
The night before, when he’d watched her in the bed, that afternoon when he’d taken her in the carriage, he hadn’t gotten a good look at her. Now he stared at her full breasts, her rounded hips, her legs. She was gorgeous. Unbelievably beautiful. What was even better was that she seemed confident in her nudity, staring at him without a blush or a turn of her head to indicate she was uncomfortable. She had given in to this experience. She was ready.
He watched as Marcus’s hands, a shade darker than her pale skin, moved to her sides, sliding up, around, until he cupped her breasts. Marcus plucked her nipples and she gasped, lolling her head back to rest on his chest as she watched Everett through a hooded gaze. He dropped to his knees before her, pushing her legs wide and pressing his mouth to her stomach, her hip, her thighs. She moaned, a tiny, soft sound in her throat, and he scented the ready, earthy smell of her sex as he placed a hand on her and lifted against her shaking body.
“Please,” she murmured.
Marcus tilted her head, turning her chin toward him. He began to kiss her, but he kept his eyes open, watching as Everett spread her sex lips open and licked her as he had in the carriage. As the flavor of her burst on his tongue, he locked eyes with Marcus. Naomi was grinding against him now, alive with desire and on the edge of pleasure. He wanted her over that edge, ready for what was to come.
He slid a finger inside her sheath, felt her clench against him as she had around his cock earlier. Her mouth broke from Marcus’s as she cried out in both pleasure and relief. He added a second finger and began to thrust, tonguing her clitoris in time as her knees gave out.
Marcus chuckled as he caught her, holding her upright, positioning her so that Everett had better access to her sweet, soaking-wet sex. She came with a keening cry, grasping at Marcus’s arms as her sheath fluttered against Everett’s fingers.
She was still pulsing when Marcus tugged her away from Everett, turning her around a
nd lifting her. She wrapped her legs around him immediately, her mouth hungry on his as he carried her to the bed and set her down there.
He stepped away and she whimpered her displeasure. Everett exchanged a smile with Marcus. He saw what his friend wanted to do now. He knew what would happen and how it would change everything. But his life had been stagnant for a long time. Change was good.
He moved up next to Marcus and reached up to remove his own jacket. Marcus did the same. Slowly they each undressed. Everett sent a side glance toward Marcus from time to time, watching how his body moved. He knew Marcus was doing the same, though less frequently. As they did this show for her, Naomi sat up on her elbows, watching them with wide eyes.
And when they were naked, she exhaled with a shaky breath and whispered, “Oh my.”
It was a foolish thing to say. Naomi knew it. But it was all she could think to whisper as she stared at the two men, fully naked for the first time. They were both specimens. Different but each utterly gorgeous.
Marcus was thick and heavily muscled, with powerful thighs and strong arms and ripples that seemed to cover every part of him. And just as he looked in clothing, Everett was more wiry. Leaner, with a peppering of chest hair that ended in a trail down his waist.
Both their cocks were hard. Curling up toward their stomachs. She’d felt each of them inside of her, grinding her to ultimate pleasure. Now she shook as she looked at them together, waiting for her. All for her.
They exchanged a look filled with unspoken communication, and together they approached the bed. Everett took one side, Marcus the other. She was squeezed between them, just as she had been at the dining table. Only this time there was a bed and everyone was naked, and it all felt more fraught and desperate and wonderful than just a supper.
She was certainly ready for so much more.
Everett rolled her toward Marcus, who lifted her chin to kiss her. While he did so, she felt Everett’s hands moving over her, strong and sure as he stroked her neck, her shoulders, down her spine. She found herself grinding back against him, aching for him the same way she had in the carriage. Only this time she felt no hesitation because Marcus was there, and his hands had begun to stroke along her collarbone and down between her breasts. It was magnificent, so many hands and fingers stimulating her, finding all the places that made her shiver as she surrendered to it all.
“From behind?” Everett whispered, and Naomi jolted as she realized he was talking to Marcus. Marcus kissed her again, then nodded.
Together they moved her. Everett rolled her over so she was on her hands and knees, then gently dragged her halfway down the bed as Marcus propped himself up in a seated position against the headboard. She smiled as she positioned herself over his hips, one hand on either side of him and his cock.
Meanwhile, Everett had curled himself around her, opening her, smoothing his fingers across her entrance just as he had earlier when he licked her to completion. She felt the head of him at her entrance and met Marcus’s eyes as Everett took her inch by delicious inch. She moaned, and it elicited the same sound from Marcus. He leaned far forward, tilting her head up to kiss her as Everett began to slowly thrust, languidly taking his time.
She fell into the rhythm, meeting him stroke for stroke as Marcus pulled away. She was positioned just above him, his cock inches away from her mouth. And she knew what to do with it. This act she had been taught. She liked it, actually, that power that pleasuring a man with her tongue could bring.
She had never wanted to do something more. She held his gaze as she caught him in her hand and stroked once, twice. He hissed out pleasure even as he glanced over her shoulder at Everett.
“You don’t have to—”
She didn’t let him finish, but wrapped her lips around him and took him as deeply as her throat allowed. He made a garbled sound, his head straining back as he gripped the coverlet with both hands. Behind her, Everett’s strokes grew harder, faster, and his breath came shorter, as if watching her do this excited him as much as claiming her did.
She began to move, fisting the length of Marcus that she couldn’t take as she thrust with her mouth over and over. She loved the feel of him, so thick and hard in her mouth, the taste of him. She loved how Everett stretched her so easily, how he reached around to flick her clitoris as he took her and made her his. Theirs.
The pleasure hit her like a lightning bolt. Marcus’s cock popped free and she continued to stroke him with her hand as she cried out, riding Everett’s cock harder as she rippled around him in release.
As soon as it faded, Everett pulled free and Marcus caught her hips. He guided her forward, positioning her above him, and she thrust down around him as her orgasm returned with full force. He arched up, she ground down, crushing her mouth to his as Everett moved up on the bed beside them. She turned toward him, catching his cock, licking her own essence from it and then sucking him as she had Marcus.
“Fuck,” Marcus groaned, lifting harder into her as she milked every bit of pleasure from them both.
Everett clung to her chignon, gently guiding her mouth over him as his eyes rolled back and his neck strained with pleasure. As he twitched in her throat, he tried to pull away, but she reached out, keeping him inside of her as he pumped his essence into her throat. She took it all, aware of the answering twitch of pleasure as she pulsed around Marcus once again.
When she’d released Everett from her lips and he fell back on the pillows, Marcus rolled her toward him, putting her back to his chest. He thrust harder, faster, his gaze holding hers, and then he roared and pulled away from her, coming between them. He collapsed down, his head in the crook of her neck, her head in Everett’s lap, and with the fire dying down across from them, the room heavy with the scent of sex, she drifted off to sleep, so completely satisfied that she could barely stand to think of it.
Chapter 8
Marcus sprawled across his bed, Naomi tucked into his side, her bottom flush against Everett’s pelvis as he lounged on the other side of her. After five long days together, this was how they often spent a languid, rainy afternoon. And it was becoming all too comfortable.
It wasn’t that they didn’t do other things. He and Everett investigated her case. They had easily dismissed any lovers the earl had taken at Donville, just as he’d known they would.
And when they weren’t working or fucking, they simply…were. Everett would read aloud from a novel or Naomi would play pianoforte for them. They took walks in the tiny garden behind his home.
It was all very comfortable. Very…right.
Which was terrifying beyond measure. And every time he felt it, Marcus dove into the one thing he could control: the passion. He would touch Naomi, and Everett would join in, and soon it was fingers and mouths and a physical connection that set everything on its head because it was so easy and pleasurable.
Everett stroked his hand along Naomi’s hip with a sleepy sigh, and then he reached out and rested it on Marcus’s thigh. He jolted at the touch, the touch that sent electricity up his body, made him half-hard just looking at Everett’s hand so close to his cock.
That was the thing he’d been avoiding for a very long time. The thing that would bring this all crashing down. Even now Naomi was looking at that hand, at his thigh, and slowly she lifted her gaze to his face.
He jerked from the bed and turned away, grabbing for his trousers on the floor. He didn’t have to look back to know that Everett had a look of hurt on his face. That Naomi was confused by it.
“I should get back to work,” he muttered, trying to pretend normalcy to reduce the tension of the moment. “I’d like to question some of your late husband’s servants.”
He looked back to find that Everett was staring at him, his jaw tight. Naomi had sat up, covering herself with the sheets. She smiled, but it was lined with tension.
“If you think you’ll go to my home, would you ask about arranging more clothing for me? I’d like a few more dresses.”
He nodded. “O
f course.”
Everett gently extracted himself from around Naomi. “I’ll go with you,” he suggested.
Marcus held up a hand. The last thing he needed right now was to be alone with Everett. That would only lead to trouble on too many levels to fathom.
“No,” he said, sharply. Too sharply. Cruelly, though he didn’t mean to be. “Stay here. Naomi shouldn’t be left alone.”
Everett opened his mouth, and Marcus knew that he was going to say they had left her at least twice in the past few days. That she was safe with their protective and well-trained staff on hand.
Marcus didn’t allow that. He just pivoted and exited the room, shutting the door to his dressing room hard enough that he hoped it left no room for either of them to follow. As he hurriedly dressed himself, he shook his head.
He’d let himself enter a fantasy world since Naomi entered their lives. One that gave him a brief glimpse at a future he knew he couldn’t have.
Now he had to get his head on straight. And remember what he was and why what he wanted wasn’t something he could truly ever have.
Naomi watched as Everett stood naked at the window, staring out into the rainy bleakness of the afternoon. He had not moved in five full minutes, and her heart ached at the way his shoulders rolled forward. At the way his pain was clear on every line of his strong body.
“Is he angry with me?” she asked, though she knew the answer. It was obvious.
He faced her slowly and she saw him fighting to maintain his composure. He shook his head. “No, not you.”
She swallowed hard. It was evident that if she pushed, she would open a Pandora’s box. One she had sensed existed for a long time. One that had been unlocked today when Everett touched Marcus as they lay together.
“Do you want to tell me about it?” she asked.
He bent his head. “I’m not certain you would understand.”
Guarding the Countess: (The Scandal Sheet Series Book 5) Page 5
