TemptressofTime (11 page)

Which, over the course of the following week became
impossible to achieve. Her men were always together. Hunting, fencing,
jousting—whatever the activity together like unjoined Siamese twins. She
suspected they even bathed together!

The idea that they found pleasure from each other’s company
upset her—why, she hadn’t a clue. Unless…well, of course. As much as she wanted
to deny it, she was jealous. Plain and simple. They were giving and getting
from each other what she wanted to give and get from them. Pleasure, plain and
simple. Not together, although…

Why not together? Before she lost her courage, she made her
way to Walker’s office. Prepared to wait until his steward left after their
daily meeting, she reached the doors just as the footman was closing them.
Without hesitation, she swept in, clearing her throat to gain Walker’s attention.

She almost wished she’d waited to make her presence known.
Sitting in a ray of sunlight, his dark hair reflecting hints of red, her lover
resembled a dark angel intent on his duties. When he lifted his head, his
irritated expression forced her back a step.

“Your pardon, Your Grace,” she began, wanting to retreat,
but now ensnared by the warmth in his smile and the heat in his eyes.

When Adrian popped into view she fought to take another step
back, but couldn’t move. “I’ll return when it’s more convenient.” She bobbed a
brief curtsy.

“Nonsense,” Adrian said, sketching a half-bow at the
midpoint between Diane and Walker. “Shall we meet at my camp?”

His gaze still fastened on her, Walker grunted, dismissing
Adrian with a brief nod.

“Don’t go,” Diane said before she thought. Could a pretend
duchess countermand a duke? A mistress her master? Except she refused to call
Walker her master. “It…what I have to say concerns you both.” Oh, dear, did
that sound like an invitation? But wasn’t that why she was here? To invite
them?

Instead of waving her closer, Walker came to her side.
Taking her hand, he guided her to a chair and saw her seated before retreating
to his desk. There he leaned against the edge, his shaft stirring in his
loose-fitting breeches. Her mouth went dry, but she couldn’t stop staring at
Walker’s crotch.

“Perhaps I
should
leave,” Adrian said, drawing her
attention to him. Since he was standing and she’d kept her gaze at the same
level, his cock’s twitching under his breeches rendered her incapable of speech.

Damnation!
What next? Take off her clothes here and
now? Where the servants might discover them rutting? Embarrassment warred with
lust as she willed herself to look into Walker’s amused eyes.

“I…I thought we might…go fishing,” she finally got out.
“T-tomorrow.”

“Ah,” Walker said, that single word conveying so many
meanings she couldn’t untangle them. He seemed to understand everything she
hadn’t said. Her face heated, but she held his gaze rather than look at Adrian
to see if he understood what her suggestion included.

“If, of course, you have time for such frivolity. If not—”

“We shall make time,” Walker told her. “Will you arrange for
food or shall I?”

“I believe I can manage that, Your Grace.” Praying her
trembling legs would support her, she stood. She’d done it. Now all she needed
to complete her self-imposed mission was the courage to follow through.

* * * * *

The following day

The problem with picnics in this time and place was the lack
of condiments—at least those Diane preferred. Like ketchup and Dijon mustard
and mayonnaise. And how much longer would it take for somebody to create steak
sauce?

Even the realization that she was making lists of what this
picnic lacked failed to distract her from lustful feelings. She exhaled a soft
sigh. Sitting between her men unsettled her. She wished she’d worn so many bum
rolls and farthingales she couldn’t feel their thighs rubbing hers. Even her
skirts couldn’t shield her from feeling every bump of the wagon over the uneven
road. With only a few layers of fabric between her bum and the wagon seat, it
felt like the bouncing rubbed her labia against the plank bench and aroused her
to near frenzy. Were they not accompanied by six of Adrian’s mounted troops,
she might have begged to stop, to engage in a little foreplay and ease her
mounting frustration.

When the wagon slowed, Adrian’s men veered away. Diane found
she could breathe a little easier. Although why she thought the troops would
remain with them disturbed her. What would she do if they had? Take eight men?
The idea left her breathless and even more in need of release. She couldn’t
imagine making love to more than two at a time, but who said she had to have
all eight at once?

Damnation
, she
was
a slut!

“Diane.”

Walker’s voice startled her to awareness of her
surroundings. The duke’s smile enticed her into his outstretched arms. As he
let her slide down his body, lust renewed its hold on her senses—not that it
had gone very far away. Her feet touched ground, yet neither she nor Walker
moved away. They stood staring into each other’s eyes until, at last, Walker
leaned down.

“I am glad you suggested this outing,” he whispered as if
they stood surrounded by a crowd of servants.

She wanted to ask if he realized what she intended to
happen, but couldn’t get it out. What if the men declined to take advantage of
the secluded setting? Declined to take advantage of her? Could she take matters
into her own hands—both figuratively and literally? Given what her body craved,
she caressed Walker’s cheek, then let her fingertips linger on his lips.

“Thank you for indulging me,” she murmured.

His smile wide, he turned her around. Only then did she
notice the enormous tent that took up most of the space within the tree-lined
clearing. Adrian stood at the open tent flap, his smile matching Walker’s.
Butterflies swirled in her belly, fanning heat and moisture into her pussy. Her
knees buckled, leaving Walker her sole support.

Chuckling, he swept her into his arms.

“Dare I hope,” Adrian said, closing the tent flap behind
Walker and Diane, “this is what it seems?”

Walker deposited her on a platform covered with plush velvet
and silk pillows and soft furs of ermine and fox. Leaning over her, he said,
“Is it, Diane?”

Unable to speak, she nodded. Walker’s dark eyes flared with
heat as he closed the distance between their faces, then claimed her lips with
a kiss that left her breathless and yearning. The faint aroma of sandalwood
alerted her to Adrian’s joining them on the makeshift bed. His naked flesh
along her side announced he’d shed his clothes.

Walker eased away. Adrian tilted her face to his and kissed
her so hard her lips were crushed against her teeth. She moaned a protest. He
gentled the kiss until she sighed, parting her lips then darting her tongue
into his mouth. He tasted like nothing she’d ever tasted before. Like cinnamon
and sugar and…

Heat suffused the side Walker had left. Diane mewed her
pleasure that he had returned, then reached for their penises. The men caught
her hands, holding her arms away from her body while they unlaced her sleeves
then discarded them.

To her delight they nibbled her ears, laved her neck, coaxed
her breasts from the prison of her
basquine
. Anticipating their touch,
her nipples hardened into aching tips. To her growing frustration, her men’s attention
seemed focused on removing her clothing at the pace of distracted snails.

“Mmm,” she protested, wrenching her hands free to shove at
their chests. If she could get them to move away for a minute, she’d remove her
own clothes.

“Who made that sound?” Adrian demanded, his lips against her
neck. The vibration tickled, forcing her to smother her laugh.

“I thought ‘twas you,” Walker mumbled, nibbling her earlobe
before swirling his tongue over the whorls. She shivered with renewed lust,
praying that they would now hasten to slake their mutual needs. They just
continued what they’d been doing until she wanted to box their ears.

Huffing, she sat up, then struggled to her feet. As she
reached to unfasten her skirt ties, the men tripped her. She landed on her
stomach, gasping for breath and fighting to free her trapped arms.

“Hold still,” Adrian ordered with a swat to her buttocks.

“Lift your hips,” Walker said, tugging on her skirts.

What seemed like an eternity later one of them rolled her to
her back. Both of them grinned down at her, their expressions as proud as if
they’d done all of Hercules’ labors in record time.

“Well?” Her frown made their smiles widen. She, however,
found nothing amusing in the situation. Why didn’t they just get on with it?

“Well, what?” Adrian said, tossing aside her silk thread
hairnet, then using her own hair to coax her nipples into peaks. His thick
lashes hid his eyes, but his ragged, short breaths told her he enjoyed her
body’s involuntary responses to his attentions.

“Must I beg?”

Walker tilted her face toward his. “‘Tisn’t begging when a
woman tells her lovers what she wants.” He stroked his fingertips over her
eyebrows and lids, his touch as gentle as a butterfly’s wings. “‘S’truth, it
gives pleasure to all.”

“Shouldn’t that…” His fingertips drifted down her neck to
her breast, not touching the rigid peak, but circling her areola. She shifted
so her nipple rested beneath his gently questing strokes. “Work both ways?
Shouldn’t…ahhhh…her lovers…”

Adrian tongued her other nipple. She lost her train of
thought in the haze of pleasure the men cloaked her in.

“Tell her what they want?” Walker suggested, tenderly
teething the other peak. Her breath caught on a quick inhalation that ended on
a long sigh.

“Uh-huh,” she managed as she slid her fingers into his silky
hair and tried to draw him closer. She wanted him to kiss her. Kiss her so well
that she would lose awareness of Adrian’s tender rubbing of her clit. Forget
that she wanted them both—not one at a time as a more decent woman would—but
together. As the wanton she became whenever they were near.

“Adrian…please stop a moment.” His sucking ceased, but he
blew on her damp nub, which disrupted her thoughts once more. Her eyelids
fluttered closed, blocking out everything except the exquisite longing their
touches evoked.

When she opened her eyes again, she looked directly into
Walker’s. The questions he wanted to ask but would not voice were clear in
those dark depths. She knew he would go no further until she told him.

“I will give you this ménage, Your Grace, by whatever means
we require to make it so. I need but one boon from you.”

Joy so fierce it almost blinded her filled his eyes. “Yes,”
he promised without waiting to hear what she wanted.

Smoothing a stray lock of hair from his forehead, she
laughed. “I could demand that you castrate yourself and Adrian.”

“Whoa!” Adrian jerked his mouth from her breast, outrage in
that single word.

He glared at her as if she’d meant the threat. And perhaps
she had. If both were eunuchs, she wouldn’t have to worry about pregnancy. She
might not get laid either…although she’d read something that suggested eunuchs
could still get erections and have sex. If only that were a sure thing here!

Do not be stupid, girl!
that long-absent voice all
but roared in her mind.
Part of men’s charm lies in all that cream in their
balls. Take away their testicles and what do you have? A female with a prick.

A vibrator might serve just as well, Diane conceded. But she
did enjoy all that strength and heat flowing through those sculpted muscles.
All just for her.

She glanced at Walker’s lips, then met his eyes once more.
Setting aside her fears, she said, “I want you to tell me what you feel when
you both make love to me.”

He shook his head. Her heart sank. She thought he’d
acquiesce without any signs of protest. Too late she realized she should have
made him make his pledge to her in writing. Now, given they were all naked and
she too weak to fight them both, they would do with her whatever they wanted.

“You misunderstand, Diane. What I shall describe for you is
how I feel while Adrian makes love with you. First, I shall imagine myself in
his place and share it all with you.”

“B-but I th-thought—”

“I would fuck your ass while Adrian fucks your cunt?”

“Your language, Your Grace, has destroyed the mood. You may
fu—”

His lips covered hers in a kiss so tender she lost herself
to its persuasion before she finished the fulminating thought. Cupping her chin
in his hand, he eased away. Blinking, she focused on his face and waited for
him to tell her what he meant.

“Crude words can also enhance the mood,” he said, his voice
as deep and seductive as dark chocolate.

Refusing to admit his language had made both her anal ring
and her pussy clench with anticipation, she continued to stare into his
mesmerizing eyes. With an infinitesimal nod of approval, he went on.

“Your skin is as soft as dandelion down. As fragrant as
summer roses.” Sniffing her temple, he drifted his fingertips over her face,
then lingered on her lips while his gaze traced the same path over her
features. “Your mouth tastes as sweet as clotted cream and berries.” He eased
down her lower lip, laughing when she nipped his finger. When she sucked it
into her mouth then laved it as she would his shaft, his eyes darkened to blackest
night. Her heart raced, caught somewhere between primal fear and exultation
that she had such power over him.

“Your eyes glitter like the purest emeralds and I ofttimes
lose myself in their depths. Other times I wonder what you are thinking, your
thoughts are so well hidden, even when I believe I can see into your soul.”
With his hand on her throat her heartbeat stalled, recognizing he could easily
break her neck or strangle her before she could move. She licked her suddenly
dry lips, grateful that his gaze had returned to her face.