Kane, Samantha - Brothers In Arms 06 (8 page)

Palu raised an eyebrow at her with a little grin. “Indeed no, at least not openly. But liaisons do occur.”

“How on earth did you stand it, Palu?” she asked with a shudder. “You must have gone months without.”

Palu raised his hands in front of him and turned them several times, examining them. “At one point I was so in love I almost asked my right hand to marry me.” Nat snorted with laughter. Palu raised that eyebrow again and added somberly, “But I didn’t want my left to get jealous.”

Alecia was amused and charmed right down to her toes. He had a sense of humor, too.

39

Samantha Kane

“Nat has read everything you’ve ever written,” she told Palu impulsively.

Nat jerked beneath her and grabbed her hand on his chest. When she looked at him he was frowning fiercely at her.

Palu didn’t move, but Alecia felt his withdrawal anyway. “Have you?” he asked politely.

What on earth?
She had no idea what had prompted his reaction. “Yes, he has. He longs to travel as you do, but we simply do not have the means.”

Palu looked at her strangely. “Indeed,” was all he said.

Nat cleared his throat. “Well, I’m certainly no scholar, not like you, Palu. An amateur naturalist at most.” He glared at Alecia. “And Alecia has read almost as much as I have.”

Alecia blushed. “Only because I wanted to be able to understand what you were talking about,” she rushed to explain. “And I still don’t understand but half of it.” She desperately hoped Palu wouldn’t want to discuss his research. She had been feeling so happy and content, she had no wish to ruin it by showing how ignorant she was. Why did she bring it up? Why?

“Don’t be ridiculous, Alecia,” Nat snapped. “You are quite intelligent, and uphold your end of any conversation.”

Alecia glowed with happiness at his praise. When they’d married she’d been a silly little eighteen-year-old girl who knew nothing but ball gowns and gossip. How Nat had intimidated her! But he’d encouraged her to spread her wings and he’d shown her a whole new world with his studies.

“You both must have been very happy to find me, then,” Palu said in that cool, polite voice. Alecia did not like that voice.

“Imagine our surprise when we realized that you were
the
Gregory Anderson,” Nat said cautiously. “We had no idea you were back in England, much less at Wilchester’s.”

Palu was looking so intently at them that Alecia squirmed. His hand tightened on her leg, but he didn’t seem aware of it. “Not many people knew I was back,” he said, his tone not quite so chilly.

Alecia laughed nervously. “Honestly, Palu, I had no idea that the writer of those dry scientific treatises would be so handsome and arresting.”

Palu smiled reluctantly and Alecia realized what she’d said. She bit her lip in horror.

“Yes, very nice, Alecia,” Nat drawled. “Tell the man who just took us both past the edge of reason that he’s boring. Well done.”

At that Palu laughed and relaxed. “So you didn’t know who I was when you approached me?”

Alecia suddenly understood. “Oh, Palu. Do a great many people approach you because of who you are?”

40

Love in Exile

He nodded and began kneading her leg again, refusing to look at her. “It is quite a coup to bed Gregory Anderson, scholar and curiosity.”

“Curiosity?” Nat asked quietly. He put his hand on Palu’s, stilling his movements.

Palu’s hand tightened around Alecia’s leg again. “Do you know many other Englishmen who look as I do? Whose mothers were natives?”

“No.” Nat pried Palu’s hand off of her and brought it to his mouth, kissing his palm. Palu watched with those deep, dark, secretive eyes. “Which makes you unique, not a curiosity.”

Palu snorted. “They are one and the same.”

Nat tipped his head as he stared back at Palu. “You write about the plants and animals you discover on your journeys, but not the people. Your father became famous writing about the people.”

Palu frowned. “They are my people. I will not turn them into specimens to be pinned to a board and studied.” He looked away for a moment, and then he spun about to face them again. “My father loved me, you know.”

Alecia couldn’t stand the hurt in his voice. She reached for him, clutching his arm.

“Of course he did, Palu. He was your father.”

Now it was Nat’s turn to snort. “You of all people know that means nothing, Alecia.”

It hurt. But Nat was correct. Her father barely tolerated her. He’d married her off to Nat to gain a connection into the upper classes. Instead he got a daughter and son-in-law who skirted the edge of polite society with their unusual interests and sexual appetites. And to top off her failure as a daughter, she’d failed to produce a grandchild to assure the connection was permanently established.

Nat hugged her hard. “I’m sorry, Lee,” he whispered.

“What do you mean?” Palu asked sharply.

Alecia looked at him and she suddenly wanted to be held in his arms. She wanted all that strength and heat and
tatau
wrapped around her. She surprised Nat when she scampered out of his lap. He gave a yelp as her knee slipped down into his crotch.

“Oh, Nat,” she cried out, trying to turn around and move her knee without falling.

“Are you all right?”

Nat groaned and cupped his sex. “I wish everyone would stop asking me that,” he said breathlessly. He poked at himself experimentally. “I believe we shall live to fight another day.”

Palu laughed and settled Alecia in his lap, hugging her tight. “Does your father not appreciate you, pretty Alecia?”

Alecia put her head on his shoulder and hugged him back. Surely it was wrong that he made everything seem all right. “My father dislikes the very sight of me,” she told him. “And I believe he wishes he could shoot Nat on sight.”

Nat laughed and leaned over to kiss her shoulder. “Too true, my dear.”

41

Samantha Kane

Palu rested his chin on the top of Alecia’s head as Nat rubbed his nose on Palu’s shoulder.

“Why do you do it?” he asked quietly.

Alecia was confused, but Nat understood his question. “I didn’t know how to love her.”

“What?” Alecia said, not sure she’d heard him correctly.

Nat looked at her, settling his shoulder against Palu’s. “When we married, I’d never been with a woman before. She was completely innocent, and I might as well have been. Neither one of us enjoyed our time in bed.”

Alecia felt her jaw drop. “You’d never been with a woman?” she asked

incredulously. “Natty, you never told me that.”

He looked surprised. “Haven’t I? Well, I suppose I thought it was obvious.” He ran his finger down her arm until he took her hand in his. “I blamed her, because I was young and ignorant. I went back to what I knew and enjoyed.”

“Men?” Palu asked, his tone curious.

Nat nodded and then grinned at Palu. “I like to fuck men. Just because I got married didn’t change that.” He shrugged. “And I don’t need to tell you that it is easier to find a man to fuck in England than a woman. We are not so heavily guarded.”

“That is true,” Palu chuckled. “Unless one is lucky enough to find both.” He leaned over and kissed Nat while he slid his hand up and fondled Alecia’s breast. She held her breath at the sight of the two men kissing, their tongues languidly dueling. She felt her sex open and grow moist, and noticed Palu’s cock growing hard beneath her. Nat thrust his hips against Palu’s side, and she knew he was getting aroused again, too.

When Palu broke the kiss he smiled tenderly at Nat, and Alecia realized that she’d never seen Nat like this with another man. Nat and Alecia fucked them, one or two had spent the night, and then they left and Nat and Alecia would talk about what they did, but not who. But it was so different with Palu. Everything was different.

“How old are you, pretty Nat?” Palu whispered. Then he turned to look at Alecia, and he leaned down and kissed her nipple. “And innocent Alecia.” He sat up and leaned back against the wall. “Just how long have you been married?”

Alecia’s breathing was uneven. Such a small, simple thing, a kiss—one for Nat and one for Alecia. And yet she was more aroused by Palu’s simple kisses than by the elaborate sexual games played by most of the men they’d entertained here. “We’ve been married for seven years,” she told him. “I’m twenty-five.”

Palu looked surprised. “So old, then? I’d thought you younger.”

Alecia blushed. “Am I too old for you?” she teased. “You are, after all, an old man of thirty-six.” Suddenly she was nervous. She knew older men who wanted their women very young.

Palu grinned wolfishly. “Hardly. You are, I think, perfect.”

42

Love in Exile

Nat chuckled and kissed Palu’s neck. “Yes, she is.” He pulled back with a sigh and sat up. Alecia could see his cock, semi-hard, pink, his sac peeking through his pubic hair beneath. She liked Nat like that, knowing that it would take only a touch, or a kiss, to make him fully erect. The anticipation was delicious. “I’m twenty-six.” He ran a hand through his hair, mussing it further. “We were married very young.” He shook his head. “Too young.”

“But somehow you went from two young, inexperienced, estranged spouses to this,” Palu said, and it was more of a question than a statement.

Alecia laughed, surprised at the bitterness in it. Was she still bitter? She’d thought not. “Nat went back to his men and I thought I’d see what he found so wonderful about them,” she said crisply. “The first few years of our marriage were not happy ones.”

Nat’s look was full of pain and regret. Hadn’t she made him suffer enough? Hadn’t she set out to hurt him, too?

“I’m sorry, Natty,” she whispered. She looked away from both men, sitting up in Palu’s lap, clasping her hands together. “I adored him, you see, and I knew I was not the ideal wife to him. I was ignorant of everything, not just sexual relations. I was childish and spoiled and I pushed him away because I didn’t think I deserved him.”

Palu was rubbing her back and she looked over to see Nat staring down at his lap.

“And then?” Palu asked gently.

Alecia smiled, and Nat looked up at her and gave her a little half-smile. “And then there was Simon,” she said.

“Simon? Simon Gantry?” Palu asked.

Alecia nodded. “Yes. Simon became lover to us both at the same time. After a while, he suggested that we all three,” she waved her hand around, “you know, together.”

Nat laughed and waved his hand in imitation of her. “Yes, together.” He let his hand drop. “Simon taught us how to love one another. It was pretty simple, actually.

We discovered we had a great deal more in common than Simon. After a few months, Simon faded away as he is wont to do, and Alecia and I found that we had fallen in love. With each other.” He laughed his sweet, teasing laugh, and Alecia’s heart was light again. “Falling in love with your wife. How odd!”

“How odd, indeed,” she agreed with a laugh. “But I confess that even though he hurt me, and I him, I never stopped loving him.”

“Lee,” Nat whispered. He leaned over and kissed her. When his lips touched hers she realized that they had not kissed all night. They had been so intent on Palu. Her heart beat fast and she felt panic. Was it happening again? Were they drifting apart?

Was that why she felt so drawn to Palu? But Nat’s kiss aroused her as it always did, his taste so familiar and yet so enticing for its very familiarity. She cupped his cheek in her palm as she bit his lower lip. Nat rose to his knees before her and ran his palms from her knees to her thighs, and she quivered at his touch. She could feel Palu watching them, and it heightened her arousal. They’d never shared this with another. They might fuck someone else in their bed, but they only came together when they were private.

43

Samantha Kane

But suddenly she wanted to do everything for Palu. She wanted to fuck Nat for Palu, for she could tell he enjoyed watching them together. He was breathing heavily, and his hand rested on her backside, kneading it suggestively.

Nat broke the kiss and stared into Alecia’s eyes for the longest time. Finally he spoke. “Palu,” he said quietly, “would you like to watch me fuck my wife?”

Alecia’s heart skipped a beat and she smiled at Nat.

“Yes,” Palu answered simply. “Yes, I would.”

Palu had never truly seen anything like it before. He’d thought he had. In the islands crew members had not always been circumspect when it came to their sexual encounters. But it was clear that there was a world of difference between what he’d seen and this act born out of love. It was…breathtaking.

Nat lay atop Alecia, slowly thrusting into her, her arms held over her head by Nat’s hands in hers. She had her legs wrapped around him, hugging him tight with her heels pressed to his muscular arse. Palu loved the way those muscles flexed in the candlelight as he fucked his gorgeous wife. And Alecia, she had her eyes closed and her perfect, white teeth were clasped on her lower lip. With each thrust her neck arched just a little.

The act was simple as they were doing it, but incredibly intimate in its simplicity.

“Lee,” Nat whispered, his mouth pressed to her ear. She turned her head on the mattress toward Palu, and opened her eyes. Their eyes met and held, and Alecia smiled.

Almost as soon as she released her hold on her lip she moaned as Nat ground into her.

“Natty,” she groaned. “Harder.”

Palu was mesmerized. They were gorgeous. He couldn’t believe he’d fucked them.

Did Nat still feel his semen in his passage? Was Alecia still sore from his cock? The thought of them still feeling what Palu had done to them while they fucked one another was exciting beyond belief.

“I love fucking you,” Nat whispered. “You’re so sweet and wet, Lee, so beautiful.”

“Yes,” Palu whispered, and then he could have bitten his tongue off, afraid he’d ruined the moment for them.

But instead of resenting his intrusion, Nat turned to him with a teasing smile. “You know, don’t you, Palu? You know how sweet her cunt is.”

“Nat,” Palu groaned. He slid down to lay on his stomach next to them, his cheek resting on his fist as he watched them. He thrust his aching cock into the bed and found a small measure of relief. “You two are perfect.” The sounds of their fucking were as arousing as the sight. Alecia’s little moans that she tried to stifle—why did she do that?