Kane, Samantha - Brothers In Arms 06 (3 page)

Samantha Kane

disapproving distance.” He shrugged. “Nat and Alecia do not. They are friends.”

Daniel waved them over. “I think you will like them.”

Was the man mad? Like them? Gregory almost laughed aloud at how tame the word sounded compared to the wild feelings that were coursing through him as the couple approached. If he had his way, he’d be fucking them before the night was through.

Nat couldn’t believe their luck. Daniel was waving them over. It looked as if he wanted to introduce them to the man they’d been watching since they walked into the ballroom. Who was he? He was bloody, fucking amazing.

“Oh my God, Nat,” Alecia whispered. “I think he wants to meet us.”

“I think I want to fuck him,” Nat whispered back. Alecia laughed as he’d known she would. “I’m serious, Lee,” he told her.

“I know,” she chuckled. “It’s just that I was thinking the same thing.” They laughed together for a moment, and she sounded breathless. Hell, so did he. “He’s gorgeous, isn’t he? Even more so the closer we get.”

Gorgeous did not do him justice. He was a giant, several inches over six feet surely.

His shoulders were the widest Nat had ever seen. His skin was exotic, with just a hint of brown color kissed by the sun. His hair was black, thick and curly, longer than was fashionable. It was parted in the middle and brushed back, but it defied efforts to tame it. It looked rough, and Nat shivered as he imagined the other man rubbing that hair on his thighs as he leaned down to suck Nat’s cock. Oh, please, Nat prayed, if there is a God let him make this man want me.

His features were mesmerizing. Nat had never seen anyone like him. He had a broad, flat nose and a pair of deep-set, intense eyes. His mouth made Nat tremble. It was wide, with generous lips, full and luscious. Nat wanted to kiss that mouth. He wanted to see it wrapped around his cock. He wanted to see those lips suckling Alecia’s breasts and teasing her cunt with kisses. Christ, he had to stop this fantasizing. He was going to embarrass them all in these tight breeches.

What if he didn’t like men? What if he didn’t like the idea of being the third in their bed? Not all men liked that. They were willing to fuck Alecia. But that wasn’t what Nat and Alecia wanted. That wasn’t what they liked. They liked to share, plain and simple.

Not very often, only a handful of times. But they liked to share someone, they didn’t want someone to share them. It was a fine line, but it was their line. When they took someone to their bed it was about Nat and Alecia and what they wanted. Would this giant agree to those terms? And if he didn’t, would they take him to their bed anyway?

Nat thought that perhaps they might, because he was that tempting.

Alecia’s hand tightened on his arm as they drew near the three men waiting for them on the balcony. Nat and Daniel had been lovers soon after Nat and Alecia had been married. But only once. When Daniel found out Nat was married he was livid. It had taken time, and Alecia’s forgiveness, for Daniel to speak to him again. Nat still 14

Love in Exile

shook his head in wonder at how selfish and immature he’d been then. He’d hurt Alecia so much in the early years of their marriage. He’d driven her into the arms of other men, and the hurt and confusion between them had almost caused an irreparable rift.

He looked over at Simon with affection. It was Simon who had changed everything.

Simon who had made them grow up and learn to love one another. He’d been the first one, the first man they shared, and it had been Simon’s idea. In Simon’s arms they learned to love and please one another. Nat would be forever grateful to the other man for giving him back his wife.

“Daniel, Simon,” Nat greeted them with a nod. “How are you?” The stranger was staring at him and Alecia. Nat felt the hair on his nape rise with awareness, felt the perspiration on his scalp and under his arms as his cock twitched and grew, just from that gaze.

“May I present Nathaniel and Alecia Digby,” Daniel drawled, and Nat saw Simon hiding a knowing grin behind his glass.

“Hello, Daniel,” Alecia said warmly. “Simon, dear, how are you?” Simon leaned over and kissed Alecia’s cheek, and then he whispered something in her ear that made her blush and her eyes widen as she looked at the tall stranger.

“Oh, my,” she said breathlessly. She looked at the stranger with that mix of innocent trust and lustful hunger that never failed to drive Nat mad, a fierce blush staining her cheeks. “Simon says that you would like to go home with us,” she told him, and Nat nearly choked on his astonishment. “Can we learn your name first, or is that a great secret only shared with a few?”

The stranger’s smile was as hungry and open and Alecia’s. “My name is Gregory Anderson. If you wish to know more, there is a price.” His voice was deep. Nat had expected some sort of foreign accent, but he sounded very British.

Nat cleared his throat, and to his eternal gratitude the man turned a gaze as hungry and delighted on him as it had been on Alecia. His eyes were a rich, deep, dark brown.

“A price?” Nat said, a little embarrassed by the tremor of desire in his voice. But only a little. Gregory Anderson’s smile deepened as he nodded. “And what might that be?”

Nat inquired, beginning to enjoy the game.

Mr. Anderson tilted his head, and Nat noticed that he had just a touch of gray hair at his temples, lost amid the curls there. He was older than Nat had first thought, then.

“That, you will have to discover on the journey,” Mr. Anderson declared quietly, and Nat stopped trying to hide his desire. Daniel and Simon were forgotten as Nat devoured the other man with his gaze.

“Then let us begin the journey, by all means,” Nat replied. He turned toward the ballroom doors, bringing Alecia with him, and looked over his shoulder. “Are you coming, Mr. Anderson?”

Gregory Anderson walked up to Alecia’s other side. “Where you lead, I will follow,” he told Nat with a sly grin.

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Samantha Kane

“I thought you were the intrepid explorer on this journey,” Alecia teased.

Mr. Anderson grinned as he stopped to let Nat and Alecia precede him through the ballroom door. “Not tonight, my dear Alecia,” he murmured. “Tonight I am the territory to be explored.”

* * * * *

Alecia’s mouth was dry. She licked her lips and Mr. Anderson followed the motion of her tongue with his eyes. She couldn’t disguise her breathlessness, either. When he wasn’t watching her lick her lips, he seemed mesmerized by the rise and fall of her chest with each deep breath.

She was a puddle of want. Good lord, the man was gorgeous. She couldn’t

remember ever wanting someone like this. Well, someone besides Nat. And she hadn’t wanted him like this since before they were married—since before all the hurt and scandal and fear. Mr. Anderson made her feel like an untried virgin again. As if he had all sorts of wicked things in mind she’d never tried before. And she’d tried quite a bit, truth be told. Sometimes more than she wanted to remember the next morning. But she wanted to make Nat happy. And Nat was happy when she let her inhibitions go and enjoyed her passions. Truthfully, she was rather happy then, too.

She very much wanted to enjoy passion with Mr. Anderson.

And the way he was staring at Nat made Alecia squirm. She loved to watch Nat with another man. There was something so illicit about it, so naughty and divine.

Watching Nat fuck a man made Alecia happy. She wasn’t sure if that was because she knew how much Nat enjoyed it, or if it just aroused her tremendously. The thought of Nat and Mr. Anderson fucking each other nearly made Alecia swoon right there on the sofa in their drawing room.

“So you are the famous Gregory Anderson, explorer and naturalist?” Alecia asked politely, if a little breathlessly. They were sitting in the drawing room because Alecia wasn’t sure how to proceed, and neither was Nat. Once they’d realized who he was, Nat was full of admiration in the carriage, but Alecia had been embarrassed that she hadn’t made the connection immediately. And she’d teased him about being an explorer at Wilchester’s, too. Now she was overwhelmed and tongue-tied. He was a brilliant naturalist who had seen half the world. She was formally trained in etiquette, not classical literature or the sciences, and had never left England. Surely he would find her lacking if she attempted conversation.

Mr. Anderson had been very quiet on the drive to their townhouse. It was almost as if he were observing them. She felt a little like a scientific specimen under his scrutiny.

“Yes,” he answered simply, clearly in no hurry to fill the silence that stretched between them.

Alecia looked at Nat in desperation and he just shrugged.

“I’m not sure what to do here, Mr. Anderson,” Alecia ventured tentatively.

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Love in Exile

“Call me Palu,” he interrupted. For a moment he looked startled, as if he’d surprised himself by speaking.

“Palu?” she asked. “Is that Italian?”

He shook his head. “No. It’s my name in the language of my mother’s people.” He seemed to reach a decision of some sort, which in turn seemed to open the floodgates of speech. “My father called me that. It was the name my mother gave me before she died.

It is the name I am called in the islands.” He stood abruptly, and Nat stood as well.

“All right, Palu,” Alecia said, the name strange but exotic sounding in her mouth.

The man was as exotic as his name. He dwarfed their small drawing room. Alecia had feared for the welfare of the small settee upon which he’d sat. At the same time she’d wanted to crawl into his lap, straddle him, and ride him until she screamed. She worried her lip a bit as she stared up at him, wondering if he could read her decidedly wanton thoughts in her face.

He smiled and Alecia relaxed. It was the hungry, relaxed, playful smile he’d given them at Wilchester’s. It was desire. Alecia knew what to do with that.

He reached for Alecia’s hand and pulled her up from the sofa. She went willingly, letting him lead. It was clear he knew where they were going far better than Nat and Alecia did. He threw his arm around Nat’s shoulders, and then gently pulled her against him, too, hugging her with one arm. He began to walk them over to the drawing room door, both of them clasped to his sides and Alecia found that she fell in step with him quite easily.

“Come on,” he said jovially.

“Where are we going?” Nat asked, and Alecia heard the laughter and desire in his voice. He wasn’t used to being led, she realized. Usually Nat set the pace when they invited another man over.

“I thought you might like to watch me fuck your wife,” Palu said happily. Alecia lost a step and his arm tightened around her as he kept moving, holding her up.

“And then?” Nat asked, his voice low and breathless.

“And then she can watch me fuck you,” Palu answered matter-of-factly.

They’d reached the drawing room doors and Palu released them to step over and grasp the handles. He turned to look at them over his shoulder with a grin and he waggled his eyebrows, his eyes twinkling.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Oh, yes,” Alecia said on a trembling breath, and Palu rewarded her by throwing the doors open and ushering her through.

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Samantha Kane

Nat closed the bedchamber door behind him and Palu turned to see the other man leaning back against the door, regarding him intently. “Everyone calls you Gregory.

Why?”

Palu didn’t sense any disapproval in his tone, just curiosity. “It is a name they are comfortable with. I suppose it is my real name to them, the name from my father’s family, and the name on all the legal documents.”

“And yet, to you it is not your real name?”

Nat showed a perception that Palu had not expected. He shook his head. “No. To me it is not my real name.”

“We want you to be the real you when you are here with us.” Alecia’s voice was sweet and tentative and Palu turned to see her sitting on the edge of the bed clutching her hands nervously. “If that is acceptable to you?” When he didn’t answer right away she rushed to fill the silence. “I mean, I am comfortable with Palu. Nat?”

“Comfort has nothing to do with it, Alecia,” Nat told her with a smile. “He
is
Palu.”

“Yes.” Palu interrupted before Alecia felt the need to reassure him again. It was sweet, how nervous and unsure she was. “Yes, here I am Palu.” Palu felt free, unencumbered by the worries that usually beset him here in England. In the carriage he’d watched Nat and Alecia, and it was clear that they were happily married, perhaps even in love. This was not a whim or some scheme to use him to hurt one another. And now they’d accepted his real name. Perhaps here with them he could let down his guard for a few hours. He could be Palu, and not the Englishman Gregory Anderson. It was so bloody hard sometimes to try to be both. He hadn’t had to don his English nature for years. He avoided Englishmen and civilization as much as possible. But for the last month, day in and day out he’d been playing the role and he wanted, no, needed to set it aside for one night. Perhaps if all went well, for two or three nights with Nat and Alecia.

“So, Palu,” Nat asked with a wicked gleam in his eye, “are you going to fuck my wife?”

“Yes.” His simple answer seemed to please the laughing Englishman.

“Short and to the point. Very good.” Nat walked over and slowly circled Palu. After one pass around he put his hand on Palu’s shoulder and dragged it across his upper back and down his arm as he circled a second time. The touch left a wake of desire licking at Palu’s skin. As he passed in front he stopped and faced Palu, then he unbuttoned Palu’s jacket.

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Love in Exile

“May I?” he asked quietly, with his hands poised in front of Palu’s torso. He knew Nat wanted to slide the coat off. He nodded, and Nat placed both hands on his stomach.

His muscles involuntarily clenched at the touch and he heard Nat’s indrawn breath.

Nat slowly glided his hands up under the lapels and onto Palu’s shoulders, and then ran his hands down Palu’s arms, pushing the jacket down and off. It fell unheeded to the floor.