Silent Surrender (10 page)

He wouldn’t think about that now. “You have to go to Poole, mate. Tell him she needs her inheritance to move to America. Then take her out of here. Take her to see the sea. She wants to, so badly. Not the port. A proper shore. Be sure you take her to a proper shore where she can take her shoes off and put her toes in.”

Jude opened his mouth, an answer at the ready, and not one Esau would like to hear, he suspected. The parlor door opened, interrupting the man before he could speak.

Honoria stepped inside, her gaze darting nervously between the two of them. She wore her black silk robe, and she clutched it at her collarbones. Closing the door behind her, she twisted the key in the lock and faced them once more. “I’ve made my decision.”

Esau spared a glance for Jude. The poor man’s face had gone pale as the moon.

Honoria was pale herself, and the proof of that grew even more evident as her robe whispered to the floor. Her gaze moved between them, looking them both in the eye for a moment before she spoke. “I want you both.”

Chapter Seven

Neither of them said a word and the long, naked moment spread out before Honoria like a yawning chasm. As she stood there, completely bare to both of them, she felt that void grow, threatening to swallow her up. She had expected to be a bit shy standing before Jude. He was so very conscious of propriety, she had entertained the notion that he would turn her down. But Esau also stared at her as though she had lost her mind and should be carried off to the asylum.

Slowly, Esau climbed to his feet, glancing warily at Jude. He said nothing as he approached her, but wound his arm around her waist and pulled her against him, covering her mouth with his own. There was so much reassurance in his touch that she could not have gotten from words alone, and she sagged against him in relief. But Jude brushed past them and Esau released her. She knew he called to him, and Jude stopped at the door.

“How you ask me this?” Jude demanded angrily, not even sparing a glance for Esau.

So Esau could understand her, she answered out loud. “You told me I could make my choice. I don’t want to go to France. I want to stay with you. And I want to have you both.”

Esau gently turned her in his arms. “Are you asking that we both…?”

“Make love to me,” she confirmed, and she turned back to Jude. She left Esau’s side to approach him, hoping he was aware of how vulnerable she was in this moment, as she was aware of his vulnerability.

“Please,” she signed. “I want you. I can’t choose.”

Esau’s voice rumbled behind her, and she turned in time to catch the words, “only chance. If you don’t tell Mr. Poole, and she goes, you’ll never know.”

Jude looked down at her and swallowed. She loved the way his throat moved, and the motion was so very dear to her she almost laughed. It would have been disastrous if she had. She waited, her lip caught between nervous teeth as she reached up to cup his face.

That was when the dam broke, when Jude caught her up and crushed her to his chest, his mouth descending on hers. If there had been passion in his kiss the night before, it paled in comparison. He released her only a moment, to doff his jacket, and his arms were around her again, the linen of his shirt crisp against her bare skin.

Esau stood at a distance, watching them, looking guilty for doing so. She held out her hand to him, felt Jude’s posture stiffen as she drew Esau to her side and leaned up to brush her lips against his.

“I don’t think you know what you’re asking for, pet,” he said, stepping back.

“I don’t,” she admitted. “But I’m not afraid. Are you?”

She watched as something passed between Esau and Jude in silent, reluctant agreement. Then Jude checked to be certain the door was locked and Esau lifted her chin to look in her eyes. “I’ll do it for you. But if you want me to leave…I’ll do that too.”

So, he was afraid he would be an interloper. She thought she might feel the same, in his position. “Stay.”

Jude returned to her, unbuttoning his shirt. His eyes raked over her with such intensity she thought she could feel the touch of his gaze. When he reached out a finger to trace down her bare shoulder, she shivered. Esau stood behind her and his mouth brushed down the side of her throat, sucking and nibbling as his arms wrapped around her waist. The comfortable weight of his arms girdled her belly, his hands tantalizingly close to her mound.

The anticipation alone was nearly enough to bring her to release. When Jude pulled off his shirt and their skin finally met, she sobbed aloud. There was no going back now, she was certain. Finally she would have Jude as she had wanted him for years, since before he’d denied her a kiss in the garden.

Yet she could not imagine this without Esau, without his hard body behind her, supporting her as Jude’s hands skimmed down her sides and up again to cup her aching breasts. Was it greedy of her, to want them both? To want them both to bring her pleasure, and take pleasure in her body?

Jude’s cock strained at the front of his trousers; she could feel it against her belly, and Esau moved his hands away quickly, as though he were afraid to touch it. She almost laughed at the absurdity of it. After all, she was the newly initiated maiden.

At her back, Esau’s chest rumbled, and Jude’s eyes darkened with desire. He dropped to his knees before her and kissed across her belly, the hair on the top of his head brushing her breasts. Suddenly Esau lifted her and to her shock, Jude hooked her legs over his shoulders. He looked into her eyes and held her gaze as he slowly lowered his mouth over her. Her thighs quivered and she rose in Esau’s arms, grateful for his strength. Jude’s mouth felt so different from Esau’s, and the difference shocked her. Esau devoured her like a starved man, while Jude was maddeningly delicate, nibbling and sucking over her nether lips, tracing long patterns up and down her slit. Esau spoke again and Jude lifted his head, then, parting her with his fingers, he found her bud and sucked the whole of it into his mouth, his tongue swirling over her. She could not hold back her startled cry and her body bucked between them.

Esau’s tongue laved over her earlobe, down her neck. He’d taken his shirt off, but when, she could not say. She felt the heat of his skin at her back and the crisp hair over his chest, and she wondered for a moment if what she was doing wasn’t entirely too wicked. Surrounded by them, it seemed far too exciting to bear. She had wanted this, had wanted both of them, but the intensity of the moment—resting her weight on Esau, feeling her body grow wetter under Jude’s mouth—seemed all too much. Her body tightened with a ferocity that terrified her and the fingers of one hand clawed into the back of Esau’s neck while the other hand fisted in Jude’s hair. He raised his eyes to hers and the hunger she saw there seared her to the bone as he sucked and flicked over her. When her crisis came, she could not tear her gaze from his and the intimacy bared her soul entirely, leaving her to sob at the flood of emotion between them.

Esau lifted her from Jude’s shoulders and scooped her up in his arms. Her sex throbbed, an aching emptiness. When he lowered her to the floor but did not cover her body, she moaned in frustration. She want him inside of her, wanted Jude, wanted to cling to them and cry out with them, to surrender to them completely. Jude took off his shoes and stepped out of his pants and Honoria moaned again, seeing him so completely bare.

“Beautiful,” she signed, and held her arms out to him.

He settled between her thighs and propped himself on one arm, signing in reply, “You first.”

She frowned at him. Were there tears in his eyes?

“I never…before,” he signed.

Honoria’s heart felt as though it might stop. “You virgin?”

He leaned his forehead against hers and reached between them to guide himself into her body. The first touch stole her breath. His cock slipped in and he shivered above her, seemingly overcome with the sensation. He moved forward slowly, his face a mask of concentration as he pushed as deep as he could and she moaned at the fullness. He tried a tentative movement, and his features contorted into a grimace.

Esau touched her shoulder, and she looked up to see him kneeling beside her. “Make it count, he’s not going to last long,” he said, then, looking up at Jude, “it’s not personal, mate.”

She leaned up and kissed Jude, rolling her hips beneath him, and soon he moved within her in a rhythm. Honoria did not like to compare the two men in her mind, but she couldn’t help it. The differences between them were astonishing. When she wrapped her legs around Jude’s back, he was not so wide as Esau. When Jude withdrew from her clenching channel, his cock, no less well-made than Esau’s, raked against some spot within her that made her thighs quiver. When Esau was inside of her, he
fucked
her, in the most base, primal sense of the word, but Jude
made love
, and she thought her bones might melt from such happiness.

Esau had been right, though, and Jude’s end came all too soon. He gave one last, deep thrust before she felt him burst inside her, pulsing in her swollen tissue. She held him, kissed his cheek, stroked his hair, and he slipped from her, gently disentangling himself as he looked to Esau.

“She said she would have us both.” A muscle in Jude’s jaw twitched as he clenched it, and Honoria felt a stab of pity for him. He loved her, and she had picked another man.

A man who might not love her in return.

Her heart turned to stone her chest as she looked at Esau. Something in the stiff way he stood, the grim set to his mouth, made her think that perhaps he was not as pleased with this arrangement as she’d thought. Still, he came to her, and kissed her, and she could not help but respond to his touch. Perhaps that also made her wicked, to be capable of sharing so intimate an experience with a man who did not love her. Esau’s familiar weight settled between her legs, his mouth fell to her breast, but she was already prepared, open for him, wet and wanting, and he pushed his trousers down and kicked free of them. He rolled to his back, pulling her with him, and with a hand between them guided his cock into her.

Honoria rolled her hips, crying out in relief. As long as he was inside of her, he was hers, and she would not think to what would happen after. He picked up a rhythm, hips rising and falling beneath her as she rocked on him.

Jude sat in one of the chairs before the fireplace, seemingly as comfortable nude as he was when dressed. He watched her, an unreadable expression on his face. He did not look away as she cupped her breasts and rose and fell in time to Esau’s thrusts.

Esau reached his hand out and motioned to Jude, saying something Honoria did not catch. She took his meaning when Jude came to kneel behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Esau grimaced as he took Jude’s hand and moved it down Honoria’s body, and Honoria realized his intention soon enough. She put her hand over theirs and guided them both to her opening. Fingertips skimmed over her open, wanting flesh and finally found that place that would make her come undone, did, in just a few quick strokes. The pressure behind that little bud grew larger and larger, swelling until she burst, screaming, twisting on Esau’s cock. The pleasure was inescapable and she sobbed, leaning on Jude for support as Esau drove into her and their entwined fingers kept swirling over her. Esau’s face flushed, his neck corded, and his head rocked back as he thrust deep. The sudden sharp pain drove her over the edge once more and she sobbed, clenching on Esau as he pulsed deep inside her.

She did not know how long she stayed upon him, shuddering around him as his chest rose and fell heavily beneath her cheek, but eventually he slipped from her and Jude came to help her to the floor. They lay together for a long time, Jude at her back combing his fingers through her hair, Esau in front of her with his arm draped over her waist. She doubted there was any place in the world so comfortable and safe as where she was, but all too soon, Esau got to his feet.

“I’ll leave you two, then.”

She started to protest, but Jude touched her gently on her shoulder. He signed with one hand, “Let him go. He have you every night. Tonight, only us.”

She watched Esau pull on his trousers and his shirt, though he did not bother to button either. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Once he had gone, Jude helped Honoria to her feet and back into her robe. He dressed quickly and they went to his bedroom, not hers.

She had never been in the room Jude slept in. It was an alien, fascinating place, and once she crossed the threshold she felt a thrill of the forbidden. Even though she had taken him into her body, even though she had made love to another man in front of him, it felt almost too intimate to be there, in the space that had been strictly taboo to her as she’d grown up.

There was a desk covered with stacks of books and papers, all neat and tidy but cluttered at the same time. The hearth was smaller, and the bed too. There were no tall posts here, though the bedstead itself had ornately carved lions’ feet clutching the globes that settled into the rug. For a servant—tutor or not, Jude was most certainly employed by the family and not a friend of—it was an uncommonly nice room, and at least not some dreary attic cell.

“Surprise,” she signed, gesturing about the walls. “Big.”

Jude’s very serious face erupted into a grin, a true, unguarded smile the likes of which she had seen only very rarely. Usually when he wasn’t aware of her presence. He came to her across the length of the room, meeting her at the foot of his bed, much more narrow than hers. She wondered for a moment if he had brought her here to have her all to himself, if he feared Esau would intrude in her own chambers.

She wouldn’t think of Esau now, when Jude held her in his arms as if in one of her girlish dreams. There was nothing innocent about this waking fantasy, though. She opened her mouth beneath Jude’s, gripped with not only passion but a fear that the moment might not be real.

He pulled back and stroked her hair away from her face. “You not go to France,” he signed, then lifted one of her hands in his to kiss her palm. Her skin tingled beneath his lips.