Kane, Samantha - Brothers in arms 7 (25 page)

“I’m the same man who threw you down and fucked you in those woods, Charles,”

he whispered. “I can take it as well as I can give it.”

It must have been the right thing to say. With a growl Charles thrust against Gideon’s mouth, demanding entrance. Gideon obliged. It was strange, the taste and feel of Charles in his mouth. But he liked it. He liked the salty tang of him and the velvet softness of his cock as he ran his tongue along the vein pulsing there. It was different and yet not. It was Charles. And he could admit this was what he wanted. He wanted to take and be taken by this man.

Charles gave him no quarter, and he wanted none. When Charles fucked in and out of his mouth he reveled in it. Charles was rough and hard on him, forcing him to take his cock deeper with each thrust. Gideon sucked him down and demanded more. He had longed for this from Charles, to be treated as an equal, a man, a lover, not an invalid or a shell of his former self. He wanted Charles to remember him not as the broken man on the battlements who had begged and screamed, but the man who could do this to him.

Gideon dug his fingers into the flexing muscles of Charles bottom, loving the hard feel of him beneath his hands. For years he’d wanted the freedom to explore Charles’

hard, muscled body with his hands and mouth. He would do it today. He would roll around on this bed with Charles and Sarah until he had his fill of them or collapsed from exhaustion.

“God, yes, Gideon,” Charles rasped. “Take it, suck me like that.”

At his words Gideon sucked harder. His own cock was filling again. Charles knew how to drive him mad, how to arouse him. Gideon had suppressed his desires for too long. Now the words alone were almost enough to push him over the edge. Charles continued to fuck his mouth, growing rougher by the second. And then he was pushing inside as the hot, salty taste of his release washed over Gideon’s tongue, filling his mouth, spilling from his lips. He swallowed hungrily and gripped Charles harder, holding him in his mouth until the last drop of his climax fell to Gideon’s tongue.

Charles was unsteady as he backed down Gideon’s body until he could lie next to him. Without a word he leaned over and kissed Gideon. They tasted like semen, both of them. Gideon could taste himself in Charles’ mouth, and when Charles licked the corner of his mouth Gideon knew he was licking his own semen from Gideon’s lips. His stomach clenched in need at the carnality of it.

“Sarah.” His voice was rough from the mouth fuck he’d just received. He smiled.

He liked it.

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“Gideon?” Sarah sounded desperate. He understood. When he watched her and Charles fuck he became desperate too.

“I want to fuck you now.” He looked between her and Charles. “I’m hard as a pike again from sucking him.”

Sarah laughed. “Well, that’s convenient, then.”

Gideon crawled over Charles who laughed and nipped his hip as he went past. “I’ll join you two as soon as I recover. I think Gideon may have sucked my spleen out.” He tried to untie his cravat with fumbling fingers. “And by then perhaps we’ll all be ready to undress for the occasion.”

Gideon dragged himself over Sarah as she lay down laughing. He shoved her skirts to her waist and without preamble slid inside her hot, wet sheath. He shuddered at how perfect she felt wrapped around him. She gasped and her legs went around his waist, pulling him deeper moments before she burst into climax. She moaned and trembled in his arms, and he drove into her again and again as she continued to climax.

“Sarah,” he said again. She nodded as her walls pulsed around him. She

understood that this was perfect. He kissed her temple as she sighed tremulously. Sarah always understood.

* * * * *

A few weeks later Sarah had her first inkling of unease. The night before Charles had asked yet again if she and Gideon would prefer he not come inside her in order to prevent his getting her with child. They had both vehemently denied having any worry about Sarah’s bearing Charles’ child. She believed Gideon when he said he would claim it and raise it as his own so no stigma would attach to the child. But his answer had not satisfied Charles, she could tell.

The next morning when she walked into the breakfast room she kissed Gideon’s cheek and smiled at Charles. He did not smile back. She couldn’t go to him or ask him what was wrong because Anders was in the room with them. They had not eaten silently for quite some time. This morning they did so. It was painful for Sarah, as if the last few weeks of happiness had never happened.

“I wish to have a dinner party.”

Gideon’s announcement startled Sarah and her teacup made an audible clink as she abruptly set it back down in the saucer.

“What?” she asked.

“Why?” Charles asked at the same time, a scowl on his face.

Gideon seemed unperturbed by their less than enthusiastic responses. He waved Anders away. “Leave us.”

Anders immediately bowed politely and left, closing the door behind him. He had become very good at rapid exits in the last few weeks. Sarah often wondered if he knew what was going on. It was hard to keep secrets from family retainers, after all.

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“It is high time we entertained,” Gideon continued blithely. “Sarah and I have been married for almost two months. I know that Anne and her two will be wearing themselves ragged at this point, their rabid curiosity over our marriage driving them insane. Freddy and Brett are as bad as Anne with their managing ways and uninvited advice.” He shared a smile between Sarah and Charles. “So we shall assuage their curiosity and soothe their fears with a glimpse of our blissful married existence.”

Sarah’s look was doubtful. Gideon cocked his head inquiringly. “Are we not blissful?”

Her look turned exasperated and she tapped the back of his hand. “Of course we are. Bliss follows me around like a devoted puppy.” Gideon laughed. Charles did not.

Sarah turned worried eyes to him. “Charles? Are we not blissful?”

Charles sighed. “I didn’t consider what this would mean for you, Sarah.”

“What do you mean? Inviting people over? It is hardly something I have longed to do, let me assure you.”

Charles rested his arms on the table and twirled his table knife between his hands.

“No. I mean people knowing. About us.”

Sarah was taken aback. “I hadn’t planned on announcing it at dinner. Were you?”

Gideon chuckled, but Charles’ frown was fierce. “This is not a joke. You know that people will figure out we are all lovers. It is in every look we share, the way we touch.

Anders knows.”

“How do you know?” Sarah was aghast, although she had suspected.

“You see?” Charles said, waving his hand at her. “You do not want them to know.”

He moved his hand in a circular motion. “This is not normal and is certainly not approved of.”

“I gave you the choice of normal. You denied wanting normal, very forcefully if I remember correctly.” Gideon had turned cool again, his voice sharp and cutting.

“Perhaps I was wrong.”

At Charles’ response Sarah’s hand involuntarily went to her heart. He was thinking about leaving. She couldn’t breathe for a moment.

Charles shook his head. “No, I wasn’t. I’m sorry. I don’t want normal. I want this.

But perhaps that’s wrong of me. They will hurt Sarah, ostracize her.”

“Who? Anne? Freddy? Brett?” Gideon scoffed. “Think, Charles. They have no room to criticize since they have the same sort of relationship we do. I hardly think they will have the temerity to cast stones.”

“No. But others will. I could not stand it if my presence here caused either of you trouble.”

Sarah rose and went to Charles, pulling out the chair next to him and sitting down facing him. “I’m sorry. My initial reaction was a negative one. But I do not care. Let them scorn me.” She took Charles’ hand in both of hers. “I care about us three, and only 133

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us. I am happier than I have ever been, Charles. You both make me so happy I feel as if I’m living in a dream. Here at the farm we needn’t worry about what others think.”

“One day we will leave the farm, Sarah,” Charles told her. “We will go to London or some other place, where strangers will judge you harshly for our relationship.”

“London?” Sarah laughed to cover her unease. “What use have I for London?” She shook her head. “I would not like to be the object of pity or, worse, aversion because of my mark, Charles. No, for many reasons I will not go to London.”

Now Gideon was scowling. “Your birthmark is not hideous, Sarah. It is hardly noticeable when one knows you.”

She smiled wryly at Gideon. “I could say the same of your scars.”

Gideon waved aside her observation dismissively. “Nonsense, they are in no way comparable. You are a beautiful woman, and a small discoloration on your cheek cannot change the configuration of your features or the voluptuous curves of your form.”

Sarah was overwhelmed. “Gideon…I…I don’t know what to say. No one has ever said something like that to me before.”

“He is right.” Charles placed his hand over hers. “You are beautiful. I told you that on your wedding night.”

“Our wedding night.” Gideon spoke quietly but with an intensity that said more than his words. “I knew that night. I knew then that we would all be together like this.

At least, I knew that’s what I wanted.” He took a deep breath and his voice and posture were relaxed when he continued. “I want them to know. I want the world to know.”

“Yes, but…” Sarah couldn’t voice it. She loved Charles, truly, but could she handle the consequences of their arrangement?

“I know,” Gideon said rather sadly. He sat back in his chair, his shoulders drooping. “I can’t tell them. But surely letting our friends know of our happiness is not dangerous to Sarah’s reputation?”

“What of yours?” Charles asked, as dejected as Gideon. “I know the last few weeks I have not done a very good job of hiding my feelings for you either. I grin like a fool when you’re around, and Lord knows that has not been the case for the last several years.”

“Look at us,” Sarah said sharply. “What a sorry lot we are.” She stood up and brushed out her skirts. “Of course we shall have our acquaintances to dinner. I dare any of them to cast a disparaging eye on us.” She made a fist and stuck her thumb out, swinging her arm like a pugilist. “I shall poke them in the eye if they try.”

Charles leaned forward and rested his cheek on his fist with a silly grin as he watched her.

Gideon laughed outright. “Ah, Sarah. What would we do without you to defend us?”

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Love’s Fortress

“How are you this evening, Mr. Haversham?”

Sarah was extremely nervous. She hadn’t seen the Duke and Duchess of Ashland and Mr. Haversham since the wedding day. The knowledge that the three were lovers like her and Gideon and Charles did not quell her unease. She simply was not good around people. Perhaps eventually she would grow accustomed to them. Presumably she would be seeing a great deal of them since they spent most of their time at the ducal seat at Ashton Park. And from what the duke said, with the birth of their child the time they spent in the country would increase. Gideon had drily noted that their absence from Blakely Farm for the past two months was the longest he had been relieved of their company since his arrival in Ashton on the Green. Sarah had tried to hush him, but the duchess, Anne, had only laughed and assured him that she would resume her frequent visits if he continued to be so entertaining.

The vicar, Mr. Matthews, was also here. Gideon and Charles had told her he knew of the relationship between the ducal couple and Mr. Haversham. There was something about Mr. Matthews that set her at ease. She feared him far less than the others.

The presence of near strangers in what she now thought of as her home did indeed overset her nerves a little. But it was this conversation with Mr. Haversham that had her shaking with trepidation. She’d planned what she wanted to say very carefully over the last week, since the invitations had been sent and accepted. Now she could hardly think of the speech she had prepared.

“I am quite well, Mrs. North, thank you,” he answered politely. “And you? Married life seems to agree with you. Even married life with North.” He raised his brow and smiled, and the twinkle in his eye took the sting from his remark.

Sarah gave him a mock reprimanding look. “Do you not like my husband, Mr.

Haversham?”

He laughed. “Much more tonight than before.” He looked around the drawing room, which Sarah had redone in Chinese red and light blue, a mixture of the masculine and feminine, which had pleased her very much. “You have changed things here.”

“Do you like it?” she asked. She’d been a little nervous about that too. She’d redecorated without any real knowledge of how to proceed. Mr. Howard at the store in the village had gone through pattern books with her and ordered what she needed, but his was the only advice she had sought. The house was very much hers now, her stamp on every room. There was still some work to be done, but she was pleased with the outcome so far. She hoped it wasn’t too ordinary or plebeian for Gideon’s friends’

tastes.

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Mr. Haversham smiled warmly. “I like the room very much. But that wasn’t what I was referring to.”

He set his glass of wine down on the table beside him and turned a gimlet-eyed gaze on her. They stood in the corner of the room, set apart from the others who sat in the center of the room conversing. Sarah had deliberately led Mr. Haversham over here.

She did not want anyone else to hear them. She blushed now at his scrutiny.

“I am assuming you did not separate me from the crowd to discover my opinion of your decorating,” he said. “So I am going to take a stab in the dark and suggest that you wish to talk about North.”

“No.” She could see her answer surprised him. “I wish to talk about Mr. Borden.”

Understanding dawned in his eyes. “Ah, I see.”

Now that the moment was at hand, Sarah found words escaped her. She licked her dry lips. “Actually, I would like to talk about you. If that is all right?” She glanced nervously at him from the corner of her eye and then turned her attention to the hunting print on the wall as if they were discussing it.