Simply Voracious (30 page)

Once inside, he undid the buttons of his thick army overcoat and stamped his booted feet clean of the muddy slush from the street. A footman retrieved his hat and coat, and Con spent a moment warming his hands in front of the fire before the man returned.

“Lieutenant Colonel Delinsky, sir? Would you follow me?”

Con followed the footman out of the hall and down into the more private areas of the pleasure house. A pleasant aroma of baked apples and cinnamon reached him as the footman opened a door and stood back.

“Here you are, sir.”

“Thank you.”

Con entered what appeared to be a kitchen and found the St. Clares sitting at a large pine table. Paul, of course, was eating, and Lady Lucinda appeared to have just finished. Despite the delicious aromas there was no sign of anyone else in the cavernous space.

“Con, how kind of you to come out in such horrible weather,” Paul called out to him. “Madame Durand made hot chocolate for everyone. Come and sit down.”

“Thank you.”

It wasn’t quite the scene Con had imagined, but he was more than willing to get warm before he had to deal with anything too complicated. Life in the army had taught him and Paul to take care of their basic needs before their emotional ones. He took the seat beside Paul and nodded at Lady Lucinda, who was sipping from a bowl of hot chocolate. She acknowledged him with a shy smile. He allowed his gaze to linger on her face for far longer than was polite.

The drink was indeed delicious and contained a hint of cognac or something that warmed his very bones. Paul ate his way through another piece of the apple pie Con had declined. For a man of such slight build, Paul certainly ate well.

Eventually even Paul finished his repast, and the three of them faced each other over their hot chocolate. Con decided that as he had laid down the challenge, he might as well go on the offensive.

“I assume you want to talk to me about my offer.”

Paul glanced at his wife and they both nodded. “Indeed we do.”

“You may speak as frankly as you please, Paul. I think we are beyond the polite nothings of the conventional world.”

“I should hope so,” Paul answered. He shot another look at his wife. “Actually, I think you should talk to Lucky first. As I mentioned to her earlier, you and I know where we stand; she doesn’t.” He rose. “Perhaps you might care to explain yourself.”

Con experienced a moment of pure panic. “Without you being present?”

Paul’s smile was sweet. “I trust you both. I’ll be in Christian Delornay’s study if you need me.”

They watched Paul leave and silence fell between them.

“Have I embarrassed you?” Con asked softly.

Lady Lucinda had the grace to blush. “A little. I didn’t imagine getting myself into such a complicated situation quite so early in my marriage.”

Con studied the deep lines engrained on the pine table and traced one with his forefinger. “If you feel coerced into this, you have a perfect right to make your feelings known. Neither of us wishes to hurt you.”

“But if I agree, I will be giving you both what you want.”

He raised his head to stare straight into her eyes. “Not at your expense. Never that.” He took a careful breath. “I didn’t expect to meet a woman like you again in my life. I certainly didn’t expect you to be the wife of my lover.”

Her smile was beautiful and, without thinking, he reached out and traced the curve of her lip. “I admired your courage from the first moment I met you. I appreciated you even more when I understood that you had married Paul knowing exactly who and what he was.”

She shrugged. “But I’ve always loved him. It wasn’t exactly difficult.”

“Not many women would agree with you.” He hesitated. “I keep wondering what would’ve happened if I’d made you tell me your name when we first met, whether I would’ve stood a chance with you.”

She sighed. “And I have wondered the same thing.”

He cupped her chin and stared down at her beautiful face. “Then you no longer doubt my sincerity in this offer? It isn’t all about Paul.”

“So it seems.” She brought her hand up and placed it over his. “Will you think it shocking if I confess I have thought about you?”

“In what way?” His body came to life in an instant.

She blushed, and he could feel the heat through his skin.

“In all ways a woman can know a man. Isn’t that shocking?”

He smiled. “Not to me. Are you willing to try then?”

“I suppose I am.”

He leaned into her and kissed her soft mouth, felt her lips part, and took gentle possession. She tasted sweet and wholesome, and yet he still wanted her naked and writhing beneath him.

“Shall we go and find Paul?” She licked her lips, and he immediately wanted to kiss her again. “My lady, if you change your mind at any point, you can always go back. I believe I speak for Paul when I say that neither of us wants to do anything that might hurt you.”

“I know that.”

She rose, and he held out his hand and she took it willingly. He glanced down at her.

“You will have to show me where Paul is awaiting us. I’m not familiar with the private side of the pleasure house.”

“I only know where he is because I met with Madame Helene here earlier today.”

“Is this your first visit to the place, then?”

She looked up at him. “No, I’ve been here before with Paul.”

“He brought you here?”

“How else was I to understand the kind of sex he enjoyed?”

Her blend of common sense and curiosity made him want to smile. He could imagine her trying just about anything. It wasn’t surprising that she had refused to allow her unpleasant encounter in the gardens at the Mallorys’ ball to either ruin her or define her.

“The man you were escaping when I found you at the ball. Has he caused you any further annoyance?”

“He tried to blackmail me into marrying him, if that is what you mean.”

“Ah, which explains why Paul decided to marry you.”

“I know.” She sighed. “I shouldn’t have allowed it.”

“Why not? Paul did the right thing.”

She smiled up at him. “And you would do the same, wouldn’t you?”

He stopped walking and cupped her chin. “I wish I had.”

She blushed and started walking again. “But you are already married.”

“In name only.”

They had reached an open door and Lady Lucinda went through it. Paul sat by the fire, his booted feet stretched out toward the grate, his expression thoughtful. He jumped up when he saw them.

“I assume it went well because you are still talking to each other. What was that about your wife, Con?”

Con relayed the latest information he’d received from the Russian ambassador and his hopes for a speedy conclusion to the long-drawn-out matter of his disappearing wife. Lady Lucinda perched on the arm of Paul’s chair and regarded him intently.

“Have you discovered who has been sending you those letters warning you to leave things be?”

“No, I haven’t discovered that yet, but I’m having dinner with the ambassador and some other Russians next week. Perhaps I’ll have a clearer idea of who my enemies might be after that.”

Paul frowned. “If someone felt it necessary to write to you, it would indicate there was a mystery to be solved.”

“Or something to hide,” Lady Lucinda added. “Be careful, Con.”

He smiled at her anxious tone. It was strange to be with people who cared about what happened to him again. He’d become quite used to fending for himself. Paul had wrapped his arm around his wife’s waist, and she was leaning back against him. Con wanted that, too, that physical closeness, that emotional contact.

He swallowed hard, walked across to the fireplace, and sank down on to his knees in front of the St. Clares. He rested his forehead on Paul’s knee.

“Thank you.”

He felt Paul’s hand in his hair. “For what?”

“For agreeing to this.”

Another hand joined Paul’s, and he recognized Lucinda’s lighter touch and shuddered.

“God, Con . . .” Paul whispered.

Con wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but Paul and Lucinda were down on the floor with him, and he was kissing them and they were kissing him, and, even though they were all fully clothed, it was one of the most erotic and exciting moments of his life.

Paul’s kiss was familiar, but Con took his time with Lucinda, learning what she liked, what she needed, what they both needed from him. His cock was hard, and so was Paul’s, but neither of them made any effort to attend to them. It was all about the taste of Lucinda’s sweet mouth, of Paul’s, of Con’s helpless response to them both.

He opened his eyes to find Lucinda sitting sideways in his lap and Paul clamped to his side, the hot pulse of Paul’s shaft against his arm. Paul’s fair hair was tousled, and there was an unmistakable gleam of lust in his brown eyes. Con imagined he looked the same. Lucinda was dazed with pleasure, her mouth swollen with their kisses; her skin flushed a soft rosy pink.

“This is not the best place for this,” Paul murmured. “I’d rather a nice soft bed than a hard floor.”

Con met his gaze. “I agree, but perhaps we shouldn’t rush this?” He glanced pointedly at Lucinda.

Paul groaned and bent to kiss the top of his wife’s head. “I’ve just remembered. I have an early appointment with your father and his secretary tomorrow morning.”

Whether the appointment was real or a fabrication, the mention of the duke had a startling effect on Lucinda, who tried to scramble out of Con’s embrace. He winced as her bottom rubbed against his hard cock, and then her knee narrowly missed incapacitating him as she finally broke free.

“Oh, my goodness, it is late, isn’t it?” She patted ineffectually at her disordered hair, her gaze straying to Con’s groin. “Perhaps I should go and make myself presentable. I’ll wait for you in the kitchen, Paul.”

She hurried out without saying good night to Con, who groaned and fell back on the floor, one hand cupping his aching balls. Paul made as if to follow Lucinda, and then paused at the doorway to look back at Con.

“Are you all right?”

Con couldn’t help but rub his thumb along the ridge of his shaft. “I will be in a moment. You just run along and take care of your wife.”

Paul leaned against the door. “Let me watch. Let me watch you come.”

Con unbuttoned the placket of his breeches and shoved down his underthings. His cock sprang free, and he wrapped his fingers around it and pumped himself hard. It didn’t take long for him to come all over his hand. When he finished, Paul was beside him again, licking him clean, taking the taste of Con into his mouth and on to his fingers.

Con tensed as Paul opened his own breeches and placed his wet fingers around his shaft. He could only watch as Paul climaxed, too, his expression somewhere between pain and pleasure. When he’d finished he brought his dripping fingers up to Con’s mouth and Con sucked on them.

“I’ve missed you, Con, missed this. Have you?”

“What do you think?” Con whispered. “I’m already hard again just thinking about you.”

“And my wife?”

“God, yes.”

Paul’s kiss was fierce and unexpected. “I’m going to tell her what we just did while I have her. She’ll love it.”

Paul stood and buttoned up his breeches, leaving Con on the floor. “Perhaps we should arrange a room here for another night? It will be safer. I’ll speak to Ambrose on my way out and let you know when we can meet again. Good night, Con.”

Paul blew him a kiss and was gone, leaving Con still lying there and already anticipating what would happen the next time they met. He licked his lips, tasted them all, and smiled for the first time in a very long while.

23

I
t seemed far easier to
imagine
being with two men than to actually be in the same room with them while they stripped off their coats and chatted about inconsequential things Lucky had no knowledge of. Not that watching the men strip was that much of a hardship. They were both beautiful in their own ways, Paul’s elegant strength a striking contrast to Constantine’s taller, more muscled frame. Both of them bore the scars of their war-like profession. Lucky had a strange desire to kiss every single one of them.

She studied the lush surroundings of the large bedchamber Paul had escorted her to in the pleasure house. The curtains were drawn against the bitter chill of the night, and the gray satin bedcovers had been pulled back. Paul had waited several days to see if she was going to change her mind about anything before proposing that Con join them at the pleasure house. She’d agreed, her dreams filled with salacious images of the two men, her body restless and suddenly unsatisfied.

But the reality was slightly different from her dreams. Paul had already stripped down to his shirt and breeches before he turned to her.

“Is something the matter, Lucky?”

Of course he would notice. She’d never been able to escape his scrutiny. Lucky folded her arms more tightly over her chest.

“Nothing at all, Paul.”

“Do you not want to undress?”

She gave a nervous laugh. “Not really.”

He took her hand and kissed it. “Are you regretting this?”

“A little.”

Paul glanced across at Con, who was looking worried. “Lucky is going to watch for a while. Is that acceptable to you, Con?”

“Whatever she wants.” Con came over, too, and took Lucky’s other hand. “Perhaps she might like to sit on the bed so that she will have the best view possible.”

They led her over to the large bed, and Paul lifted her up onto the mattress. She scooted backward until her shoulders touched the oak headboard and wrapped her arms around her raised knees.

“Are you sure you are comfortable, Lucky?” Paul asked.

“Completely.”

“And you don’t mind if Con and I start without you?” That made her smile, and Paul grinned back at her, which somehow helped. “If you change your mind and want to participate at any point, there is no need to ask, just go right ahead.”

Lucky nodded and concentrated on her breathing as Paul and Con joined her on the bed. Paul cupped Con’s cheek and leaned in to kiss him, and Lucky was enthralled by the sweetness of Con’s shuddering response. It occurred to her that on her previous visit to the pleasure house she’d not seen Paul kiss anyone so deeply or so movingly.