Kane, Samantha - Brothers In Arms 06 (9 page)

And Nat’s heavy breathing and his murmured love words. And she was so wet Palu could hear it every time Nat thrust in and out.

“Palu,” Alecia moaned. She tugged her hand free from Nat’s grip and reached for him. Palu took her hand and kissed it. “Come, Palu,” she whispered.

Palu grinned. “Yes, I think I will, just from watching you.”

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Nat groaned and Alecia laughed breathlessly. “No, silly,” she said, pulling on his hand. “Come over here and let us taste you again.”

Palu groaned, but shook his head. “No, this is about you and Nat.”

Nat looked at him with a frown. “No, it’s about you too, Palu. It’s been about you since we first saw you. Don’t you know that?”

He wanted to believe Nat. He wanted to believe that these two young lovers wanted to share this moment with him. No matter how foolish or ridiculous that might be, he wanted to believe it. Rising to his knees he moved until he kneeled beside Alecia’s head on the mattress. He lowered his hands to the bed on the other side of them, so that he was leaning over them, his cock above Alecia, in front of Nat. The sight of his hard cock hanging there framed by their flushed faces made him want to howl in satisfaction. He took several deep breaths, trying to calm down.

Then Nat tentatively licked Palu’s cock with the tip of his tongue, and Palu came undone. He began to shake and fisted his hands in the bed linens so tightly he thought he might rip them. He lowered his hips slowly, and Alecia opened her mouth to suckle the head of his cock. Palu bit his lip and forced himself to hold still for them. Nat traced his
tatau
with his tongue again, as he’d done earlier. Palu had never been so glad he’d gotten them as he was tonight.

“You’re shaking,” Nat whispered. “Because of us?”

“Yes.” He couldn’t speak anymore. He didn’t want to speak. He didn’t want to reveal the tumult of emotions drowning him.

Nat stopped licking him, and Palu was both glad and devastated. Alecia’s lips were still wrapped around him, but she was being very gentle with him, as if she knew he was at the breaking point. Nat began to thrust harder into Alecia and her head moved on the bed and against his cock. He couldn’t hold back his groan.

“Yes,” Nat growled, his pace increasing. And then Alecia was crying out around Palu’s cock, her legs locked around Nat, her back arching. Palu pulled back from the exquisite sensation of her voice vibrating down his shaft. He sat on his heels and watched Alecia’s face as she came. And then he saw the tremors in Nat’s back, the bunched muscles of his buttocks, and Nat buried his face in Alecia’s neck as he came with a whimper, the same whimper he’d made when Palu had fucked him. That Nat should make the same noise for him and Alecia made him inordinately pleased.

When they were both done, lying there panting, Palu assumed they were spent. But suddenly Nat rose onto his hands and knees and turned to him. Without a word he grabbed Palu’s cock in one hand and then he sucked it deep into his mouth. Palu shouted out wordlessly and thrust into the wet heat of his mouth. Nat growled and tugged on Palu’s hip to turn him slightly. As soon as the angle was right Nat began to fuck Palu with his mouth, sucking hard on each fast stroke up and then sliding down slowly. Saliva ran down Palu’s shaft from Nat’s mouth, coating his testicles, as Nat hummed his pleasure at his taste and swirled his tongue over the tip. Palu grabbed Nat’s hair in one big fist and started moving his head at a faster pace. He’d needed this, 45

Samantha Kane

so badly. How had Nat known? He could never fuck Alecia like this, she was too small.

But Nat’s mouth was made to be fucked by him.

“I’m going to come, Nat,” he growled, hoping against hope that Nat didn’t pull away. He wanted to fill Nat’s mouth, fill Nat. He wanted someone to take his release inside them and not throw it away. Nat wouldn’t throw it away. Nat hadn’t thrown it away.

Nat grabbed his thigh and tugged Palu closer, sucking him down into his throat.

Palu groaned as he came, trying to watch Nat the whole time, not wanting to miss Nat taking him like this.

When it was over Nat twisted his head out of Palu’s grip and pulled off his cock with a gasp. He was laughing. “I’ve never been mouth-fucked so well before,” he said, his voice rough, as if his throat hurt. Palu felt a primitive thrill that he’d used Nat that way and put the gravel in his voice. Alecia laughed and shimmied up to kiss Nat, still laughing. Then she turned to Palu and kissed him, too, with the taste of him and Nat still on her smiling lips.

Palu felt the ground shifting beneath him. He wanted more than one night with these two. They made him long for things he’d given up hope of ever having. And that was dangerous. He knew it, but he couldn’t stop the tide of longing that pulled him ever closer to them.

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Love in Exile

Palu walked into the drawing room and Nat turned from where he was standing at the window. He had one hand braced against the frame and he’d been looking out on the street with a frown. He wiped the expression from his face but not before he saw Palu make note of it.

“All cleaned up?” he asked lightly, moving away from the window.

“Yes, thank you,” Palu replied politely. Nat had noticed that the other man retreated into painstaking politeness when he was unsure of a situation. The refuge of the well-bred Englishman, Nat thought wryly.

“Where is Alecia?” Nat asked, ignoring Palu’s questioning look.

Palu gave him a genuine, amused smile. “She evicted me from her dressing room.

She said I took up too much space and distracted her with my intense observation of her toiletry.”

Nat laughed. “Don’t worry. I have received much the same treatment on occasion.”

Nat didn’t know what to do. Should he walk back over to the window and pretend occupation with the busy street? Or should he sit down and pretend a nonchalance he didn’t feel? He stood there staring at Palu in indecision and frustration.

“Tell me what is wrong, Nat,” Palu demanded quietly. “Do you wish me to leave?”

“Leave?” Nat’s astonishment was genuine. “No! Do you wish to leave?” He

couldn’t leave yet. It was too soon.

Palu shook his head. “No. But your behavior seems agitated. Why?”

Nat chose the option of sitting. He dropped onto the settee and clasped his hands together, his elbows on his knees. He couldn’t look at Palu. “Agitated behavior? Are you going to write a study of me?”

“No one would believe the things I’ve seen you do.”

Nat barked with laughter and looked up to see Palu giving him a barely-there, wry grin. “Yes, well, I am a nimble fellow, aren’t I?” Nat felt himself blushing. The things they had done over the last day and two nights were almost unbelievable to Nat as well. Had he really let this man fuck him over and over, shared his wife, licked, nibbled, sucked and tasted every inch of Palu’s dark,
tataued
skin? Yes, he had. And he’d do it again. He was hoping to do it again, at least.

“What do you study?” Palu asked suddenly. Nat jerked his head in surprise. Palu had an intent look on his face, watching Nat closely. “I know you have read my work, but you have not talked about your interests.”

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Samantha Kane

Nat blushed. “My interests are not as broad as yours.” He cleared his throat self-consciously. “Fish.” At Palu’s blank look he expanded his answer. “I’m interested in fish. Your father’s writings mention a few of the new species he saw in the South Seas.

But yours do not. Do you know anything of the fish there?”

Palu smiled engagingly. “Only the ones that are good to eat.”

Nat sighed. He’d hoped the topic would occupy them for a while.

“They are beautiful.” Palu’s comment brought Nat’s head up again. He looked for signs of mockery or indulgence, but Palu actually seemed interested in the discussion.

“There are many that are similar to those found here in Europe, but there are also many fish that are breathtakingly beautiful, masterpieces of color and design and form. They are quite exotic, and in some cases quite lethal.”

“Lethal?” Nat sat forward, fascinated.

Palu nodded. “Yes, as in poisonous. So when I say I know which ones are good to eat, I meant more than mere taste.” His smile was amused and brought out the dimples in his cheeks. He was so bloody fucking gorgeous that Nat wanted to jump across the room and take him right there.

He stood up, not caring that his restlessness confirmed his agitation. He paced over to the bookcase along the wall. “You make Alecia very happy,” he told Palu honestly.

He spun to face the other man who still stood where he’d stopped when he came in the room. He caught surprise and relief on Palu’s face. “Thank you.”

“You thank me?” Palu asked incredulously. He finally walked across the room, not stopping until he was roughly a foot away from Nat. “Nat, this time with you and Alecia has been one of the single most enjoyable things I’ve ever experienced. I thank you for letting me be with you.”

Nat shook his head, denying Palu’s gratitude. “No. You don’t understand.” He sighed deeply. “I try, but I can’t make her happy alone, Palu. I’ve tried, God knows.”

He turned back to the bookcase, overcome with frustration and unfocused rage. “I can’t take care of her or give her what she needs.”

“Nat.” Palu spoke quietly but firmly from directly behind him. Nat felt his hand on his shoulder, a solid, gentle caress. He turned to see Palu looking at him with compassion and concern. It twisted his gut and made him more confused and angry than before. He tried to shake off his hand, but Palu’s grip tightened and he held fast.

“Nat, Alecia loves you, more than you know, I think.”

Nat snorted in disgust. “Yes, and a lot of good it’s done her.”

Palu grabbed Nat’s shoulders with both hands and he shook him. “Don’t disparage that, Nat. Don’t cheapen how she feels for you. She’s a grown woman and she’s given you her love. That is a treasure beyond price.”

It was Nat’s turn to grab Palu’s arms. He shoved his hands away, but he didn’t let go of Palu’s arms. He held on tightly trying to make him understand and desperately 48

Love in Exile

hoping that he wouldn’t. “Do you think I don’t know that? It isn’t Alecia or her love that I question. It is me, Palu. I am the inadequate one here.”

Palu tugged free and pulled Nat into a tight embrace. Nat wrapped his arms around Palu’s chest and dug his fingers into his back. He buried his face in the freshly shaved skin of his neck and inhaled. Palu smelled like him. He’d used Nat’s shaving soap, and his scent on Palu made Nat feel possessive and hungry and despondent.

What was he doing?

Palu pressed his lips to the side of Nat’s hair, his breath ruffling the hair over his ear, making Nat shiver. “Nat you are everything someone could wish for. You are intelligent and kind, amusing, handsome, generous. Should I go on? If I were Alecia I would feel as she does. I would do anything for you, Nat. Anything.”

Nat felt lightheaded. Did Palu feel that way, too? Or was he just talking about Alecia? He rested his forehead on Palu’s shoulder. Did it matter? Palu was leaving, they’d known that from that start. And Nat had always said he wouldn’t do this. He wouldn’t let himself care for a man. Palu was a lover, nothing more. A temporary distraction. They might like each other, they may have a great many things in common, but that didn’t change the fact that they were both men, and that Nat and Alecia were married. Nat wouldn’t hurt anyone like he’d seen Derek Knightly and even Tony Richards hurt. They’d been shut out in public, relegated to bachelor “friend” for the benefit of social acceptance. Did they feel as if their love was unimportant? Palu deserved more. He deserved someone who would claim him boldly and proudly, and Nat and Alecia couldn’t do that.

He pushed Palu away roughly, surprising him. Palu stumbled back a step against the bookcase. Nat fell on him, pinning him there with his hips, his hands flattened against the books on either side of Palu’s shoulders. “You don’t understand,” he growled, frustrated beyond belief at his inability to convey his real meaning to Palu.

Palu settled back against the bookcase calmly, not at all disturbed by Nat’s aggression. “You keep saying that. Explain it to me.”

Nat shook his head, the words stuck in his throat. How could he explain that they were using him? That because there could never be more between them, they were going to use Palu for their own ends? How could he adequately describe how sick and angry it made him that he had no other choice?

It didn’t matter. What any of them felt in this situation made no difference at all.

Things were what they were. All that mattered was the desire between them, the physical satisfaction they could give one another for a brief time. That’s all there was and all there ever could be.

“This needs no explanation,” he whispered, staring at Palu’s mouth. He had a vision of Palu as he’d been just that morning, his mouth buried between Alecia’s legs, pulling back with lips gleaming, and Nat had licked those lips clean, eaten all the sweet cream of Alecia’s passion from Palu’s full, sensuous mouth. He leaned in to kiss Palu and the other man twisted as if to avoid the contact.

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Samantha Kane

“No, Nat, we need to talk—”

Nat ignored him. He grabbed a fistful of rough, curly hair and Palu’s protest turned to a groan. Nat smiled darkly. He’d learned quite a bit about how to please Palu in the last day and a half. “Don’t tell me no,” Nat growled.

Palu’s eyes were gleaming with heat and he narrowed them as he stared at Nat.

“No,” he said quite clearly.

Nat’s smile grew. Apparently Palu had learned a thing or two about pleasing him, too. Palu suddenly spun Nat around and slammed him against the bookcase, rattling the books and knocking over a little figurine of a shepherdess. As it shattered on the floor the two men smiled grimly at each other as if in challenge. And then Palu swooped in and tried to take control of their kiss. Nat nearly let him. Christ, the man could kiss.

Palu drove his tongue into Nat’s mouth and ate at him like a starving man. He wrapped his arms around Nat’s middle and dragged him close, holding him so tightly Nat could barely breathe. Nat drove both hands into Palu’s hair and tugged, hard. Palu grunted but he didn’t move an inch. Instead he bit Nat’s lower lip roughly until Nat whimpered and lessened the tension on Palu’s hair. Palu rewarded him by gentling the kiss, licking Nat’s lips and tangling sensuously with Nat’s tongue. Nat groaned at the pleasure. Palu tasted sweet, like mint toothpowder, but the flavor was mixed with something wild that was distinctly Palu. Nat was beginning to crave that flavor, and that would never do.