Her Husband’s Lover (38 page)

Darleston immediately swept towards him. ‘Good God, is that what you think? You’re not maimed, and even if you were –’ He broke off, took a deep breath. ‘I’ve wanted you both every minute of the last three months. It’s been agony maintaining my distance. Hill made it absolutely plain what the outcome would be if I came even as close as the village.’

Lyle remained silent, though he emerged from the shadows. He had not dressed as if for dinner but in a swathe of multicoloured silk that made joyous curves of his figure. It emphasised both his physique and his height, which damn near stole Darleston’s breath. He looked his former lover up and down with his mouth slightly agape and his heart thumping fast.

Lyle wore curled-toed slippers upon otherwise bare feet. Darleston recalled the shape of each of his toes, long and quite slender, the nails always perfectly clipped and buffed. But he couldn’t keep staring at the man’s feet to avoid what lay in their hearts.

Meeting Lyle’s gaze didn’t help. All he could think was how goddamn good Lyle looked.

‘Is that true, Robert? That you wanted us?’ Lyle stepped a fraction closer.

‘It’s always been true,’ he muttered, letting the words seep up out of his heart as he gazed into Lyle’s eyes. ‘It killed me to leave you when you were so badly hurt, but I had no choice. I’ve hung on every scrap of news that Drummond has brought.’ He reached out to Lyle, who accepted the touch with his head bowed.

‘We were parted once before, remember, Robert? Fate intervened eventually. I couldn’t leave things to chance a second time. I didn’t want to spend years yearning for the time when our paths would cross. What made it worse was that I sometimes thought you didn’t enquire after my health because it was really only Emma that you wanted. Your past reputation would have supported that. Or maybe the whole thing had been no more than a bit of summer fun for you, a bit of a challenge.’

Hurt, Darleston rushed to his own defence. ‘I wanted you both and could do naught about it. What we had, what we were building, it was never a game for me.’

Lyle gave a quick nod. ‘Then I beg you’ll forgive my darkest thoughts. You see, I had too much time to think while stuck in bed, and fever causes strange dreams. You never ran to me when I fell.’ He shushed away Darleston’s attempt to explain. ‘I know that you were holding Lucy, trying to keep us safe from further attack, but I damn near lost my arm, and you never comforted me. It made me wonder if you’d deliberately goaded Lucy into making the attack, so that you could remove me and have Emma to yourself.’

Darleston leapt upon the notion at once, determined to stamp it firmly into the ground. ‘Dear God, how could you think that of me? I told you from the start how it was. I never hid anything. I wanted to be with you, but there was never the opportunity to allow that.’ He turned away from Lyle, shaking his head.

‘He did offer you some comfort,’ Emma said. ‘It was just before the doctor came, after Drummond had sewn you up. I envied that you had that, while I had no goodbye at all.’

As if in response to his name being called, Drummond appeared at the door, but on seeing them deep in conversation he turned away again and closed the door behind him. They heard him shooing the maid back to the kitchen in a loud whisper.

Once it was quiet, Darleston took up the thread again. ‘I know you were hurt, but how could you make the accusation you just did?’

Lyle shook his head. ‘You’re not hearing me properly. I haven’t accused you of anything, just shared my dark thoughts. All I’m asking now is that you speak truthfully about what you want – not just now, but in the long term.’

Hellfire! Had he not already said it? Ire caused him to clench his fists. Darleston turned and looked at their expectant faces and realised that he’d have to say it all over again, stating it plainly and simply. ‘I love you.’ He turned his head to make sure he meant them both. ‘Time isn’t going to change that. Come here, you obtuse bugger.’ He grabbed hold of Lyle and pulled him into a tight embrace. Initially stiff, Lyle soon relaxed into his shoulder until there was no room between them.

He hadn’t dared hope to feel or be held like this again. ‘Emma too.’ They opened their arms and she hurried to them, so that they stood in a triangular embrace, grinning like fools.

‘I want you both, for as long as you’ll put up with me.’ Emma was as much a part of his dreams as Lyle.

‘Then all’s fine and we should eat,’ Lyle said, raising a chuckle. He took a step backwards, rubbing his injured arm.

Darleston looked from Emma to the table and then back to Lyle’s face, and knew what he wanted. ‘Cobs to food! Are you naked beneath this?’ He slipped one of the fastenings on the front of Lyle’s patterned robe and pushed his hand within. As he’d anticipated, bare skin greeted him. A grin creased his face. ‘What on earth possessed you to wear such an unsuitable outfit to dinner?’

Lyle ran his fingers over the front seam. ‘I thought it might make things easier once it was time to retire. You’ve stolen my valet, and it’s damned hard to get in and out of a coat one-handed.’

For all the laughter that erupted, Darleston recognised the seriousness hidden within the remark. ‘You can have Drummond back right away,’ he insisted. He’d only taken the man on because he’d been dismissed so unfairly. It damn near broke his heart to know that Lyle wasn’t fully healed. His alarm eased a little as Lyle leaned into him so that their lips met. Shivers raced down his throat and into his groin. Darleston tore at the remaining fastenings on Lyle’s robe until the silken knots gave way. Lyle wore only a pair of underbreeches beneath. The cotton clung to his hips.

Lyle’s years of hard toil in India had fashioned him into a sleek white tiger. He’d lost a little tone because of his illness but his skin remained smooth and unblemished save for a golden patch of hair that grew in a diamond between his nipples, and the tear in his shoulder. His brown eyes burned with need, though he said nothing, not even when his robe slithered from his shoulders and fell like a stole into the crooks of his arms. He shook it loose, so that it dropped to the floor.

Darleston pressed him backwards until his bottom hit the table, and then held him trapped there, just looking and skimming his hands lightly over his upper body. New skin, shiny and pink, stretched over the site of the wound in his upper arm. The indentation of the ball remained at the centre of the scar. Darleston examined the exit wound too, discovering its contours with his fingertips. He bent and kissed the scar, then briefly rested his head there upon Lyle’s shoulder.

‘Don’t grow maudlin on me, I’m fine.’

‘Not maudlin, relieved. I thought I’d lost you.’

Lyle’s good hand caught in Darleston’s hair. ‘I’m here. Nothing need separate us.’

‘There’ll always be obstacles.’

‘That’s not cause to surrender.’

Darleston held onto Lyle harder then, encircling Lyle’s waist so that they were linked together chest to skin, Lyle naked, him clothed. They stayed that way for several minutes, both breathing hard, until their lips sought one another again.

This time the kisses made them groan. Lyle gave everything, affording Darleston no chance to pull away. Not that he wanted to, except perhaps to extend a hand to Emma.

Together, all three of them. That’s how it had to be now.

‘Upstairs,’ he whispered to Lyle.

Up they went, tugging Emma along too. She seemed determined to hang back and let them have their moment first, but that’s not how Darleston wanted it to be. This had to be correct from the start. The bond between them might be triangular, but he intended that to be its strength; exclusion was not going to be part of the arrangement. It didn’t matter if Lyle and Emma chose not to touch, as long as they were comfortable with one another and understood he wouldn’t play at taking turns or having favourites.

They stumbled into the first bedroom, the one he’d given Emma for the night. It was a cheerful, sunny room, a mix of gold and lavender, with frilly feminine drapery. He and Lyle took time getting to the bed, content to drift while they kissed and explored one another’s bodies. Lyle’s tongue stabbed between Darleston’s lips, striking him like a lance in the guts, but overwhelming him with arousal rather than pain. Years had flown by but nothing had ever really changed between them. The desire to be with one another, the hunger to meld their bodies into a single shape, remained as insistent and sharp as the first time Darleston had felt it. Lyle had always been and ever would be his greatest invitation to sin. Those eyes, that wicked grin, they were like an offer of gin to a sot. He couldn’t resist. That this man had somehow stumbled upon a wife whose appeal Darleston equally relished was nothing short of a miracle.

‘I need this, Robert.’ Lyle turned in his arms. He slithered briefly from Darleston’s grasp to spread himself out over the flowery eiderdown. ‘I’ve had nothing but my own hand to take the edge off for so long, and that was not so easy to accomplish with two maidens sitting by my bedside.’

Darleston ducked his head to bring his nose close to the cotton tented over Lyle’s erection. ‘You could have asked Emma to perform her duty.’ He remembered the feel of her lips around his cock and how pleasing her sucking had been. She would have given swift satisfaction.

Lyle shot him a look of distaste. ‘I’d never ask her for that. We both know it would be a lie. Nothing has changed in that regard.’

That was as he suspected, but was glad of the confirmation. ‘I know your desire doesn’t extend in that regard.’ He tickled the root of Lyle’s cock with his tongue, making the entire length of his shaft grow doubly stiff before he plucked open the drawstring around Lyle’s waist and tugged down the plain cotton fabric. Lyle’s prick rose, hard, seeking urgent relief. His fingers twisted in Darleston’s hair, communicating urgency as Darleston aligned his mouth. ‘But that doesn’t mean I can’t entertain myself with the thought of it.’

Lyle made a croaking noise in the back of his throat that complemented Emma’s gasp of surprise. He almost laughed at them both. He’d never really understand how they could be happy sharing him but not want to love one another in the same way. Still, he wasn’t about to bemoan it.

Lyle tasted both salty and tart. He wanted to linger, but sometimes swift worship usurped a more lengthy exploration, and this was one of those occasions. Lyle’s nails bit into his scalp, entwining pain with the pleasure Darleston gleaned from the rhythmic thrusts into his mouth. His lover had not been lying when he’d claimed that he needed this. Lyle was wound incredibly tight. Unrestrained sighs spilled from his mouth. He burned too hot, too quickly, so that the act came to an altogether bitter-sweet ending. He jerked, giving an almighty cry. Darleston swallowed the gift and rose to cover Lyle with his body afterwards. They lay pressed tight, breathing hard, he clothed, Lyle undressed, exchanging kisses until his jaw ached.

Emma had waited patiently throughout, and her eyes gleamed when he sat and turned to her. She came and lay beside him on the bed with her head propped upon her hand. A passionate warmth filled her eyes. A hereto unremarked dimple flashed briefly in her cheek as she curled her legs behind her and rose to her knees.

Lyle held on to him, seemingly unwilling to release his grasp. Darleston didn’t mind the tug upon his buttons. He gave a gasp when Lyle’s hands found his cock and began to knead. Still his gaze remained steadfastly on Emma.

She unfastened her hair first, allowing the chestnut strands to cascade down her back. Following that she poured into his hand a sea of pins, which he promptly deposited on the floor. The front of her gown gaped as she moved, revealing a glimpse of the creamy skin beneath. She seemed not to notice, though the buttoned-up woman he’d met back in June would have been mortified by such exposure.

Following a nod from Lyle, Emma shrugged off the dress and at least one petticoat. She knelt before them in nothing but her stays. Her chest rose and fell with each breath. Darleston released the uppermost clasp, then a second, which exposed her breasts with their darker areolas. Playfully, she circled a finger around one nipple until it peaked. Then she twisted it, making her breath catch and grow quicker.

Darleston watched her, unable to mask his delight. Her cunny grew moist and he inhaled the scent of her arousal. ‘I see you’ve mastered your lessons in self-pleasure.’

If he circulated the tale of her awakening amongst the beaus in town, no one would believe it. Not that he had any intention of doing so.

Lord, she was an absolute delight, but he had not forgotten their last encounter, or the promises he’d made. He wanted to stroke her cunt. To wet his fingers there and know her heat, then be able to slide his prick inside her and ride them both to fulfilment.

They sat on either side of him, watching him, beseeching him. Darleston raced through the buttons of his waistcoat, not caring if he dislodged one or two or tore the fabric in his haste. His shirt and breeches were easier as the fastenings were fewer, and Lyle had already dealt with his placket. He stepped free of boots, breeches and stockings all in one go. Then he stood before them for inspection, his long lean body flatteringly bronzed by the candlelight. His cock reared straight and proud. It bucked, seeking again the comfort of Lyle’s hand.

Darleston covered the brand upon his stomach, only for Lyle to peel his hand away and trace the raised lines with his tongue.

‘You shouldn’t be ashamed of it. We each of us have our scars.’

True enough, though he still didn’t care for this one. It was the only gift Lucy had given him that he couldn’t be rid of. Still, Lyle’s kisses soon chased away the painful memories associated with the ugly blemish, particularly when his mouth closed over his cock and began to suck.

Darleston pumped his hips a little. Lyle’s attentions were too skilful for him not to respond. But he reached out over Lyle’s back to where Emma still knelt.

A more riveting sight he’d never seen. He knew her nervousness, the fears that crippled her, but she came willingly enough into his arms, her hand shooting out to greet him in the place he needed to feel her touch most. My God, he hadn’t realised how much he’d craved this. He’d shut off so many of his emotions in order to deal with Lucy. Now Emma’s tongue, the brief, precious, brush of her lips, cast wide the floodgates. He didn’t hear or see for several minutes. He only felt.