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Phillip could no longer hold back when he witnessed Maggie’s complete surrender to the pleasure he was giving her. This was what it would be like with Jonathan, Maggie pressed between them as she sobbed out their names, pleasure racking her body as she milked them dry. He remembered what it was like to fuck a woman with Jonathan, feel Jonathan’s cock with his own through the thin walls inside her.

His orgasm was draining, not just physically but mentally. It broke all barriers between them, and he too cried out Maggie’s and Jonathan’s names as he felt his semen pour from his cock into Maggie.

Phillip collapsed atop Maggie after the last shudder ripped through him, completely spent. Maggie was boneless beneath him, her breathing ragged.

“Maggie darling, how I love you,” Phillip whispered, blindly seeking her neck with his lips, kissing her softly, sweetly.

Maggie was awash with horror. How could she respond to Phillip’s whispers that way? The pleasure at imagining Jonathan and Phillip fucking her together was more intense than any she had felt when she was with Phillip alone. She was some kind of monster, a whore for sure.

Phillip rolled off her and gathered her to his side, unaware of her distress. He was replete with satisfaction, thrilled to have breached the last barrier between the three of them sharing a bed. Maggie had responded so passionately to his suggestions, Phillip was nearly giddy with relief.

“Maggie, you’re going to love it, darling, you’ll see,” he said sleepily. “When Jonathan joins us, you will feel more pleasure than you did just now. It will be beautiful, my darling.”

His eyes were closed, so he was taken by surprise when Maggie jerked out of his arms and scrambled to the end of the bed, hastily covering herself with the sheet.

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“Jonathan is coming?” she rasped out, stricken.“Tonight?”

Her breath was coming in short pants and Phillip immediately realized it was not desire but fear. His confusion was evident in his voice when he replied.“No, not tonight, tomorrow perhaps. You need to rest. Why are you frightened, Maggie?”

Maggie stared at Phillip in horrified disbelief. Why was she frightened? Her husband had just told her he was going to share her, share their marriage bed with his best friend, and he asked why she was frightened?

“I don’t want him to come,” Maggie whispered harshly, her breathing uncontrolled now. “I won’t, I won’t do it. Don’t ask me to, Phillip, God, don’t ask me.”

Phillip got a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. Had they moved too fast with her? Was she going to run? He reached out a hand to her slowly. She backed away until the bedpost stopped her, then she looked away. Phillip let his hand drop.

“I thought you wanted it too, Maggie, the way you’ve responded over the last few weeks to my suggestions, to Jonathan’s touch.” He kept his voice calm, almost neutral.

“Wanted it?” Maggie’s whisper cut the air between them. “Wanted to be shared by my husband with another man, like a common whore? Is that what you think of me now, now that I’ve let you do these things to me? That I’m a whore?” Her distress sliced Phillip’s heart like a rapier.

“NO!” he nearly yelled. He forced himself to calm down when he saw Maggie flinch. “No, Maggie, I love you with all my heart and soul. You are my soul, I couldn’t live without you. But Jonathan and I…”

he couldn’t finish the thought, unprepared to have to explain to Maggie. Fool, fool, he berated himself silently, of course she would want to know why. You should have thought of this.

Maggie was beginning to calm down now that she understood Jonathan was not coming tonight—that, indeed, he would not come at all if she did not wish it. She took a deep breath and turned back to look at Phillip. The sight of his ravaged face nearly broke Maggie’s heart but she could not give him what he wanted.

“Why?”

She didn’t have to explain the question to Phillip. He understood what she was asking. He sighed and, reaching behind him, pushed the pillows up against the headboard and leaned back. He was so beautiful lying there that Maggie could have wept. He looked like a fallen angel, all tangled golden locks and world-weary eyes, wrapped in the scent of sex and sin. He raised one knee and pulled the sheet to cover his privates, suddenly shy and awkward. He rested an elbow on his raised knee and scrubbed his face with his open hand, as if trying to erase a memory that would not go away.

He simply stared at Maggie for what seemed like minutes, his face blank. She almost gave up and climbed off the bed, as a matter of fact was turning away when he finally spoke.

“You’ve met my family.” It was a statement, not a question, but Maggie answered.

“Yes.” She had met them and disliked them on sight. A more avaricious, conniving, unfeeling, loveless lot she’d never met in her life. Thank God Phillip felt the same, and they spent no time in the company of his
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relatives. Since all were distant relatives, Phillip’s parents having died when he was quite young, it was easy to avoid them.

“Have you thought about what it was like, to be a young boy and
that
is the only family available to you?” The question was deceptively casual.

“N-no,” Maggie stammered a little, embarrassed at her lack of insight into Phillip’s apparently miserable childhood. She really hadn’t thought about it.

Phillip’s grin was crooked and sad. “It was actually a good thing when they sent me off to school and never thought about me after that. It was lonely but much better than having to be with them.”

He stared off over her shoulder for a moment. “The older boys picked on me at first, but when Jonathan came, they stopped. Even as a boy, he was tougher than most of them.”

His eyes came back to meet hers, and she could see the love shining in them, love for Jonathan.

“Jonathan and I became inseparable. His parents were also dead, and he didn’t even have the inconvenience of awful relatives. He was truly alone in the world. So I adopted him, so to speak, and we became each other’s family. We spent most holidays together at school, went on to Oxford together, briefly, and finally in a drunken stupor, purchased commissions together.”

Phillip stopped his narrative, and a shiver went through him. His eyes now held the horrible memories of war, memories he had never shared with her, and she had never asked about. War had always been a distant event for Maggie, something that happened to someone else far away and made tea expensive, nothing more. Now it was more, as seen in Phillip’s eyes.

He was once more staring into space. “I’m not going to tell you about the war, Maggie. I won’t make you a part of that horror. Suffice it to say, thank God Jonathan was there. He saved my life more than once and, I suppose, I his. But the things we saw, the things we did, after a while they began to take their toll. I began to lose my humanity, and so did Jonathan.”

He turned to look at her. “An officer in our camp took me aside one day and asked if I would like to share a woman. There weren’t enough to go around, and I knew it was a common practice. Jonathan was off, finding supplies. I’d stayed behind because I just didn’t care anymore. But when Tony, the officer, shared that woman with me, talked me through it, made me care about her pleasure and his, I finally felt alive again, and it was glorious. All I could think about was sharing that with Jonathan, and I did, that night.”

He paused for a moment, and smiled sadly. “We were closer in that act than we had ever been before. I loved him as I never had before and felt the bond between us grow stronger each time we were together with a woman. The connection between us was the one true thing in my life, my lifeline. We became more than friends, more than brothers, at those times. He became the other half of me.”

His head had dropped during this last speech, that one wayward lock of hair falling across his forehead.

When he was done speaking, he raised his head again and Maggie saw the tears on his cheeks, and her own eyes filled.

“I still need that connection, Maggie. I love you, but I feel incomplete without Jonathan, without that lifeline. I don’t know how else to explain it. I
need
him, and he needs me.”

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“Phillip, I’m sorry.” Maggie’s voice was broken with her own sorrow and regret. “I can’t give you what you need then. Would you like me to leave?” The question was the hardest Maggie had ever asked. She didn’t want to leave. Phillip was the first person to ever love her for her, and she knew leaving would cause a wound in her soul that would never heal, but she would do it if he asked her to.

Phillip stared at her for a moment and then smiled. “We both love you, did you know that?”

Maggie was a little shocked at the abrupt change in the conversation. “What?”

“Jonathan and I, we both love you. The minute we saw you, we knew you were the one. When we were with you, it felt as if everything fell into place inside. You completed us.” Phillip’s tone had become pleasant, almost convivial, as if they were having normal conversation about the weather.

“Completed you?” Maggie felt like an idiot, repeating after Phillip, but she’d had too many shocks, she couldn’t keep up with the conversation.

“
You
complete us, Maggie. Don’t leave, don’t ever leave.” Phillip’s tone was commanding rather than pleading.

“If this isn’t something you can do, then we won’t make you. We just want to love you, and if this is how you want it, then Jonathan will not try to seduce you, and I will not ask you to let him in our bed.” Phillip paused until Maggie met his eyes. “But I will not ask Jonathan to leave. I need him, Maggie, as much as I need you, although in a different way.” He stopped again and closed his eyes, and when he spoke again, his voice was ragged with the tears he would not shed. “Please, please, don’t leave me, Maggie. Please.”

Maggie suddenly remembered the three months they’d spent without Jonathan and how unhappy they had been. His arrival had given Maggie hope, and with him came a sense of completion. She could understand what Phillip meant finally. No, Jonathan could never leave. But could they live this way? She crawled across the bed and hugged Phillip’s head to her chest. His arms came around her fiercely, so tight she could barely breathe.

“I won’t leave, darling,” she whispered.

Two days later, the three of them were in the Neville carriage on their way to a dinner party at Lord and Lady Randal’s. Maggie had hidden in her room for those two days, too embarrassed to see or speak to Jonathan and even avoiding Phillip as best as she could. Phillip had insisted they accept the last-minute invitation, since Lord Randal was a dear friend from his army days.

Jonathan and Phillip both stared at Maggie with hot eyes for most of the carriage ride though few words were spoken. They were starved for the sight of her but her blushing cheeks and inability to look at either of them kept them quiet.

In frustration over her withdrawal they had turned to Jason and Tony and their wife Kate. The three had agreed to this dinner party in the hope that Maggie would see how fulfilling a three-way relationship could be.

Maggie had taken great care with her appearance, wanting to make a favorable impression on Phillip’s
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and Jonathan’s friends. She tried not to dwell on the fact that she was thinking in terms of the two of them now instead of just Phillip. She had chosen a dark green dress, simple in line, with little adornment save an emerald necklace and bracelet. Her hair was piled on her head in an elaborate coiffure that left small curls near her temples. She felt the gown created a more demure outline for her figure and her hair made her face appear more angular and sophisticated.

In reality the dress accentuated her lush breasts and shimmered as it slithered over her full bottom, drawing every eye. Her hair looked as if it would cascade around her shoulders in abandon any second, leaving bated breaths behind her. She was simply stunning, or so the guests told Phillip and Jonathan quietly beyond Maggie’s hearing, not wishing to embarrass her, recognizing her innocence and grace.

She had met the Randals before. She’d known Lady Randal when she was still Mrs. Collier and had liked her immensely. She was very happy for her now, for on the one occasion when she had seen her with Lord Randal before their wedding it was obvious that he was deeply in love with her. The couple rarely went about in society. She had heard rumors that Lady Randal had been another man’s mistress before marrying his lordship. There were other, darker, rumors that she was never privy to, although she knew there were whispers.

They arrived after most of the other guests and Maggie tried not to feel overwhelmed as she felt many pairs of eyes on her, measuring her. For what, she wondered? Whether or not she was good enough for Phillip? For it was apparent he was a great favorite, and Jonathan too. They were warmly greeted with hugs and kisses by Lady Randal, and even by some of the men present. Phillip had mentioned that most of the men here this evening were military veterans like he and Jonathan and had served with Lord Randal.

Lady Randal, or Kate as she insisted Maggie call her, was charming, warmly welcoming her, clearly giving the impression she was ready to accept Maggie into the fold. She was a beautiful woman, long of limb, with a small bosom and light blonde hair, lighter even than Phillip’s. Standing between two large men, she looked almost dainty but Maggie knew that was a false impression.

Lord Randal, on her right, was a handsome man, older than his wife by several years, as attested to by the gray just barely discernable in his light brown hair at the temples. He was more reserved than his wife but his greeting was quite cordial.