Bound to Be a Groom (21 page)

Sebastian laughed out loud. “Oh, Anna. You are fabulous.” He gave her one last kiss, quick and innocent on the lips, then reached for Pia and gave her a similar buss. “I love you both. I’ll try to rest up for the big day, but I’m awfully excited.”

“Well you’d better not do anything about it tonight.”

“How do you mean?”

“No frigging,” Anna chided. “Now, go to bed, Sebastian.”

His eyes blinked slowly. “Yes, my love.” He walked away, turning to blow each of them a kiss before entering the connecting room and pulling the door shut behind him.

“You, too, darling.” Anna kissed Pia one last time. “I feel like I did the night before you and I first walked into the forest . . . I was so nervous and excited. I knew I had to tell you how I felt—even if you didn’t share my feelings and it meant you would shun me. I am set to burst at the prospect of seeing Farleigh take Sebastian.” She shivered.

“So am I.” Pia’s body quaked with an answering ripple of anticipation, and she reached up to feel the throbbing of her own pulse at the base of her neck.

“Ah. No touching yourself tonight, Pia.”

“Anna!” She glared at her tormentor.

“What? I’m only making it better for you. Think how worked up you’re going to be. The two of them, finally ripping each other to shreds, and Farleigh making—”

“Stop!” Pia pleaded. “I can’t spend another moment picturing the two of them or I’ll combust.”

“Precisely. Tomorrow we combust. Give me one last kiss, then off to our separate beds we go.”

Anna taunted her with one final caress, dipping her finger into the edge of Pia’s bodice and teasing her nipple into hard awareness.

“Anna . . . please let me . . .”

“Off you go.”

Pia eventually fell asleep, but only after a restless hour spent imagining Farleigh pacing around his ducal suite like a caged panther.

“So this is your home, then?” Pia asked the next morning.

Farleigh looked startled when he turned to see her descending the staircase, probably fearing she was accompanied by Sebastian and Anna. Then he smiled, likely relieved she was alone. “I suppose.”

“Why only suppose?” She stepped off the last tread and stood near him in the front hall.

Farleigh shrugged. “It still feels like my father’s home, even though he’s been dead these three years. I’m not sure how I will ever fill it. My life is in town. Gallivanting, as it were.” He smiled again, but Pia saw something wary around his eyes.

“Ah, I see.”

“You do? Please enlighten me.”

“You are looking for home. For the contentment the idea inspires. Aren’t we all?”

His face turned stormy. “If that shrew of a woman—whom you both adore for some reason I shall never comprehend—would release Sebastian into my keeping, I think I should be entirely content.”

Pia shook her head. “You adore Anna, too. I know you do. She’s only . . . impeding you at the moment, and you don’t like it.”

“That’s a very temperate way of saying how I feel about the current situation.”

“But you think if you and Sebastian were together, that you would be . . . content?”

He nodded with total certainty. “Absolutely. Seeing him again after these years apart has only fomented the feelings I had for him while we were together in Spain. Sebastian is . . . wonderful.”

“I agree. I mean . . .” She blushed. “Of course, I agree.”

“You still blush, Pia? After all the things . . .”

She raised a quizzical brow, looking at him boldly. “All what things, Farleigh?” Yes, she had done
all the things
with Anna and Sebastian, but it was so much more than that. They
were
her home—in their arms she felt the contentment and peace Farleigh alluded to.

When he did not answer her question, she stated coolly, “I fear you do not possess emotional gravity.”

“Why?” He was angry now. “Because I have admitted to my gallivanting ways, to my wild youth, you think I am incapable of a deeper feeling? That’s a hateful thing to say, Pia.”

Good
. She liked to see him angry like this. It meant he cared. On the outside, he was so immaculate. She looked at how his clothes were practically sewn on to his muscular frame; she let her eyes travel to his perfectly polished Hessian boots. But for Sebastian’s sake—for all their sakes—she needed to see not only the physical lust which was practically emanating off him like sparks from a flint but the emotional depth, the desire for commitment over consummation, that would keep the four of them together for the rest of their lives.

“I meant it in a loving way,” she said gently.

His pale eyes twinkled in the dim light of the large front hall where she had happened upon him. Sebastian and Anna were strolling in the gardens, killing time until eleven, when the four of them were set to meet. Or more to the point, when Sebastian was to be handed over to Farleigh.

“Such a shame you do not fancy a woman’s touch,” she said. Yes, he had joked of marrying her to fulfill his ducal duties, but she wanted, if not all of him—he would always adore Sebastian and that was fine with her—at least some small part that he could give of himself, that would be hers. Perhaps even a family, children. Her deeper interest probably shone bright in her gaze, but she couldn’t—or didn’t want to—conceal it.

“I’m not
entirely
opposed.” He stared at her mouth and took a step closer to her. “I will have to learn to tolerate a woman’s touch at one point or another. I have to beget an heir, after all. You’d do as well as any.”

She smiled ruefully and took a step away from him. “You make it sound so thrilling, Farleigh.”

He laughed. “Sorry. That’s how it makes me feel. Since we’re being honest.”

“You remind me so much of Anna, so it’s funny to hear you pretend to dislike her. It would be akin to disliking yourself.”

“Sometimes I dislike myself,” he tried.

“Very infrequently, I imagine!”

He smiled and held out his arm. “Come. I have something I’ve been looking forward to sharing with you.” She rested her hand on his forearm, and he led her down the corridor. He stopped in front of a pair of wide oak doors, then opened them to reveal an enormous picture and sculpture gallery.

Pia gasped in pleasure. “Oh, how utterly divine!”

“I’m so glad you approve. I know how much you enjoy painting. Have you ever sculpted?”

“Yes. No.” Pia covered her mouth, not wanting to gape, but it was impossible. “Yes, I have painted, but very infrequently. Canvas and oil were far too dear. For the most part, I sketched and drew with charcoal. And I’ve never sculpted. I’ve always wanted to. Oh, Farleigh, this is so fabulous. Where . . .? How . . .?” There were marbles and paintings, drawings and etchings. The walls were covered from the tilt of the tray ceiling to the baseboard molding near the wood floor.

“I enjoy collecting.”

“So you do,” Pia agreed. “May I?” she asked, reaching out to one of the classical Greek marbles.

“Absolutely. That’s why I bought them. So they would be mine to do with as I wished.” He watched her hand caress the turn of the goddess’s breast, then across the slight roundness of her belly. Pia felt his eyes on her as she touched the cool mound at the apex of the statue’s smooth thighs.

“She is so lovely,” Pia whispered reverently. “Where did you get her?”

“I fancy her, too. I got her in Athens. She is my kind of woman. Serene. Contained. Strong.”

The statue depicted Artemis, the huntress, and it was not lost on Pia that the powerful marble goddess held a striking resemblance to herself. She turned quickly to see Farleigh adjusting the cuff of his already perfect shirt. “Really?”

He shrugged again. “I like her. Aesthetically.”

“So it’s possible?”

He laughed again, low and self-assured. “I’m not repulsed by a woman’s body, if that’s what you’re asking. It’s . . . how to say it? The society we live in expects women to be dirty whores or wifely virgins. Neither of which appeals to me in the least. With men, I can be an animal.”

Pia burst out laughing.

He smiled too and waited until she’d settled down to continue. “I meant, when I am with a man, I can be a human being—a human animal—in my natural state, not a gentleman with a lady or a customer with a prostitute.”

“I think I would very much like to see you in your natural state.”

He reached out and took her hand in his. “I think today might be our lucky day.” He smiled again and led her over to a statue of a nude male Adonis. “I have a wonderful picnic planned.”

“You do?” She squeezed his hand. “Pray tell.”

“You’ll see soon enough. Come. Look at my favorite statue.” Perched on a low pediment, the sculpture was positioned so strong thighs and relaxed genitals were right at eye level. The Greek god’s taut body was turned in preparation to throw the discus. Farleigh maneuvered himself so he stood behind Pia, then lifted her hand with his.

A thrilling heat spread across her back, where Farleigh’s body pressed near, his chest and arms caging her in. She nearly melted at the prospect of being skin to skin in the same position, his hard, unforgiving flesh pressing against her sensitive back. “Ah,” she murmured, pretending to pay attention to the statue.

He placed both of their hands along the marble thigh. “I love the strength of this muscle, the coiled power.” His hand rose higher, keeping Pia’s beneath his. Her breath became shallow. She was only a few inches shorter than he was, but she had to stretch onto her tiptoes to reach the side of Adonis’s hip, where Farleigh stopped. “I love the turn of this arse,” he whispered, hot and close to her ear.

Pia felt the press of Farleigh’s cock against her lower back, the beginning of his physical arousal.
Probably from imagining what he would do with that arse
.

“I love the feel of being here between these two pillars of strength,” Pia whispered. “I never would have imagined . . .” She leaned back into Farleigh. A few seconds later, the door opened and a flushed Anna and Sebastian strolled into the gallery.

“Ah! There you are,” Sebastian said, smiling at the two of them caught in the act of caressing the naked statue.

Pia gasped. “We were just—”

Strangely, Farleigh pulled her tighter against him, maybe to conceal his erection, but it felt more possessive than that. Perhaps he wanted to hold her hostage until he could get a hold of Sebastian. Pia let him.

They all stared at one another, each of them weighing their own desires against the powerful desires of the other three people in the room. As the silence crackled between the four of them, Sebastian and Anna walked slowly across the gallery until they were standing side by side, mere inches in front of Pia.

“Hello, my love,” Anna whispered and leaned up to kiss her full on the lips, so close to Farleigh, so close to Sebastian, all of them so close. Pia whimpered and kissed her back. God, how she loved this woman. Reaching her free hand into Anna’s blonde hair, Pia felt Farleigh’s hold tighten and remembered where she was. She pressed her bottom more firmly against him and felt the answering twitch of his cock. Anna slowed down the kiss but reached up to caress Pia’s breast.

When Anna finished kissing her, Pia looked up to see Sebastian and Farleigh staring at one another with nothing short of tightly reined animal ferocity. “The picnic carriage is ready,” Farleigh growled. “Let us be off.” He released Pia and strode past Anna and Sebastian without looking back.

The carriage was a glorious, open-air affair. Farleigh had spent a small fortune on it, but he had no regrets. He sat up in the high seat and the other three rode in the back. After about twenty minutes of trotting along a narrow grassy lane into a wooded part of the estate, they emerged into his favorite glade. He drew the horses to a halt and stepped off the high perch.

He handed the reins to one of the servants, who was there for that purpose. Another footman had also come to ensure all the food was properly iced and presented.

“We’re here,” Farleigh said to his guests. He reached up to help Pia step from the high carriage. Sebastian helped Anna.

“Will that be all, sir?” the footman asked.

“Yes. Please do not return with the carriage until tomorrow morning.”