Three Times the Scandal (29 page)

His society smile fixed in place, Darleston glanced at the man with his eyes narrowed. The glance would have set Fortuna scuttling for cover, but seemed not to bother the man at all.

“
How could you ask such a thing of a novice, Billy? No. We shall take a room upstairs for our caudle-making.”

“
Will you?” Billy raked a hand down Darleston’s waistcoat front to his loins. He cupped him and his smile broadened. “There’s no room save ten.”

Fortuna watched the movement of Billy’s hand in tense fascination. His strokes were expert, and Darleston’s responses predictably abrupt. After only a few moments the outline of his cock showed clearly, pressed diagonally by the tightness of his breeches. Billy roughly squeezed the shaft, working upwards, then kneaded his palm over the heat.

“
Then ten will have to suffice.” Darleston stepped away. He grabbed Fortuna and pulled her to him so that their bodies pressed together. His cock pulsed as their loins pressed. He dropped a kiss upon her upturned lips. “In fact, I think we’ll go up now.”

Fortuna stumbled up the steep, poorly-lit stairs ahead of Darleston, relying primarily upon touch to show her the way. She turned on Darleston once they reached the top, and pressed her fist into his chest.

“
This is a brothel. You’ve brought me to a whorehouse.”

“
Actually, it’s a tippling club.” He marched her backwards, until he drove her up against the wall. Someone had scrawled ten in chalk upon the door opposite. “A bed, liquor, fine steaming coffee—what else could a man want when he’s in the mind to swive another’s arse?”

She was too scandalized by his words to voice any coherent thoughts, though a myriad of half-formed ones yammered in her head. More than running off with Giles, more than sharing her favours, if this came out it would utterly ruin her reputation for life.

“
No one will come seeking you here.”

She couldn’t deny the truth in that.

Darleston ran his gloved hand down the side of her neck. “They’ll expect a show, just so you’re warned. There are peepholes drilled through the walls. I’ve spared you the embarrassment of having to face them while they watch. I’d like you to know before we do this that this wasn’t my intention. I hadn’t bargained on Billy’s presence. He won’t take no for an answer.”

“
To what?”

“
I think you know. You heard what was said downstairs.”

The unyielding planes of his face scared her. Nothing soft in his expression showed in that moment.

“
Trust me, Fortuna. I can make it feel nice.”

Lie still while he did what no man should to another, while the wolves from downstairs spied upon them. “Oh, no! We need to go somewhere else. I can’t stay here, and do this. What you’re asking. It’s unnatural.” She shoved at his chest, but Darleston refused to budge.

“
Sinful, maybe, but not unnatural. Think, Fortuna. Where are you going to go if you leave here?”

She thumped at his chest again. “I only need to keep out of sight for one night. Almost anywhere will do.”

His expression became even harder. His eyes black in the dim-light bored into her, unloving, angry. “Only if you’ve already given in. I honestly thought you felt something for Giles. I see I was wrong. You’re not prepared to fight. Instead, you’re taking the easy route and going home. Fine. Go. Wed yourself to Macleane and hand over your nice fat gem. But Fortuna, think on this. Which is truly worse, a lifetime of enduring his cock, or one brief press of mine?”

His words hurt. They scratched and tore at her heart. Of course she didn’t want Macleane or the wedding, but without surrendering herself what hope was there for her family. Darleston kept implying there was another way, but he’d never actually said what it was. Did she trust him? Dare she?

The door at the bottom of the stairs opened again, their audience of peeping Tom’s ready to ascend.

“
Decide now,” Darleston demanded.

She chose.

Fortuna lifted the latch of room ten, and hurried inside.

Darleston bolted the door behind them.

A large bed filled most of the room. A small dresser with a cheval mirror, and a single armchair positioned before the fireplace were the only other furnishings. Shutters half covered the mullioned windows. Darleston immediately applied himself to the fire, adding fresh coals and kindling to the collapsed embers.

How twisted everything had become. To prevent her family’s destruction she had to marry Macleane, but she wanted Giles, and yet she was about to allow Darleston to indoctrinate her into a diabolically lewd act. Shame swept over her at the thought of it. What would Giles think?

“
Does Giles know of this place?” she asked, dreading the answer. He and Neddy had been so at ease with one another. They’d even touched one another’s cocks. “Does he come here?”

“
No.” Darleston wiped the coal dust from his fingers with his kerchief. “Free love only extends to the relations between men and women in Giles’s book.”

A wave of relief washed through Fortuna’s tensed body at the knowledge.

Darleston joined her by the bed. “Tell me, when they took you, did they do so together, perhaps one in your cunny and one in your arse?”

“
No!” she blurted far too loudly. “No.”

The exclamation prompted a chuckle from beyond the door. Fortuna clamped her hands to her mouth. She had to keep her voice low, as Darleston had been doing. Else they’d realize she was no man. Although, how could he do what he proposed without exposing her?

He kissed her again, more forcefully than he had done downstairs, and then shrugged off his topcoat. He climbed backwards onto the bed, leading her by the hands.

“
Have you lain with Billy?” she asked, suddenly curious.

Darleston bent his head so his mouth laid only a fraction away from hers.

“
Several of them, on several occasions, and sometimes more than one at a time.”

An image of him lying nude and proud upon a bed surrounded by louche young men swam in her head. While one man rode his cock, he sucked upon the rod of another. Fortuna was acutely aware of her nipples steepling. The rise and fall of her breasts beneath her overlarge coat, surely hinted at what she truly was. She stared at Darleston, her lips parted. “Why?” she asked, not expecting him to answer.

Darleston expressive lips curled into a smile. The glint in his eyes dazzled her. “The same reason anybody ever lies with any one else.” He closed in upon her, pushed her onto her back, a move that brought a hoot of approval from somewhere in the corridor.

“
I’d say look scared,” he whispered into her ear, “but you’re managing admirably. Everyone is apprehensive the first time.”

His mobile lips met hers and it was every bit as good as it had been in the carriage, only now the bitter-sweet tang of debauchery on his breath was doubly real. He gripped her tight, sucking her down into a world of deceit and dark places, of unexplored vistas and depths of depravity she’d never imagined. Down into the depths of the bed he bore her too, now stripping off her coat.

“
Is it why you don’t get on with your wife?” she asked.

“
I don’t like my wife, because she’s a bitch. The marriage was not my choice.”

Darleston’s weight pressed her into the mattress. He covered her so their bodies moved together in a perfect simulation of sex. Their hips nestled together. Had they really been both men, so too would’ve their cocks. She couldn’t envisage herself a cock, but she felt an ache inside that surely surpassed any pleasure a man felt. It was an emptiness, a raging desire to be filled. With only the smallest of wriggles, she had the long ridge of his staff, splitting the lips of her quim. It was but a promise yet. They were not skin against skin. The seam of her breeches prevented him pushing in deep. She clasped at his back, his shoulders, and the firm cheeks of his arse. Wished he were Giles.

The thought conquered the explosion of lust. This was just a meeting of bodies, not even close to the same as she way she felt when she was with Giles. Meeting him had changed every aspect of her life. She’d questioned her morals and at the same time questioned his. Would he approve of this? Why couldn’t he have simply offered to run to Scotland with her?

“
Roll over.” Darleston’s command was a warm burr in her ear.

“
Is this going to hurt?”

“
Not if I’m doing it properly.”

She rolled and hid her face against the sheets as he stripped her of her breeches. He left them tangled around her knees, while he released his own buttons. She didn’t see his cock before he was pressing it hard up against her bottom. Burning hot, iron hard yet velvet soft, he slipped into the channel between her cheeks. A low groan slid from her throat. There was a deadly lure about this, about him. She was tensed up, excited by the press of his cock, while her sensibilities railed at such perversity.

“
Downstairs they make do with spit, but I think we can allow ourselves a little honey.”

He was a devil. There was no denying that.

Darleston wrapped an arm around her hip and forcing a hand beneath her, found her quaint. His long fingers swept over her clitoris, the motion just as rough as if he’d been masturbating a cock. Fortuna moaned again. Her body arched towards him and the not so subtle press of his cock.

His fingers slicked with her juices, he rubbed circles around her anus. The shocking press of his fingertip squeezing inside had her tearing at the bedspread. He slid backwards, and bent over her, bringing his lips to her bottom.

Every hair on her body stood on end. Every nerve sang. The sensation was so intense it lay on the border between pleasure and pain. She squirmed, not sure if she was trying to get away from him or if she was begging for more. Yet this was wrong, so very wrong. It felt so much more wicked that having Giles and Neddy both in her bed. That at least was real. This was plain perversion built upon layers of deceit. But when Darleston’s tongue dipped into the channel between her cheeks and found the puckered entrance to her forbidden passage, she didn’t protest. Instead, she stuffed the covers into her mouth to muffle her squeals. The sensation was intense and delicious, and knowing that he intended to push his cock in there soon only heightened her enjoyment. In fevered anticipation, she awaited his pleasure. Would he go in deep and easy, smooth as silk as Giles did when he entered her puss? The pair she’d watched downstairs seemed to have taken a little longer to get comfortable.

Once she was taking his finger happily right up to the joint he drew back again. The firm pressure of his cock against her anus still came as a shock, the head much wider than his fingertip. He kept pushing and pushing, increasing the pressure until her muscles relaxed and her body welcomed him inside just a fraction.

Her little nubbin, hard as a bed, seemed to spark as he entered her, sending shivery waves of pleasure hurtling through her body.

“
Oh, God, it’s too much!”

“
It’ll come good in awhile. You just need to get used to it.”

Get used to it. Never! Yet, her hips started rocking to his motion, meeting his downward thrusts with upward ones. He was right inside her now. All the way in.

Her cheeks burned with pleasure and shame.

The heat of her... Lord, he wished he could say that was all he wanted. She enchanted him, enthralled him. He didn’t understand it, but it was there, and he knew she’d didn’t feel the same. Yes, he intrigued her. Yes, she was writhing beneath him like the whore they’d all made of her, but her heart, her heart, like his, belonged to Giles.

It’s good, he thought. That’s good. He wished his friend happiness. Wished him many things, in fact.

Still, devil that he was, he didn’t regret for a moment the fact that he was the one enjoying her slender virgin arse. That knowledge alone heightened his senses. He drew back and watched himself slide into her bottom again. It was a truly magnificent site, watching her body swallow him, seeing her darkened skin stretched taut around his cock. He repeated the motion until he could no longer concentrate on maintaining such a slow paced assault and his instincts took over.

The heat of her passage scorched him. He drove himself deeper, faster, while his fingers moved dexterously over her clitoris. She was sobbing into the coverlet, but her cries were those of passion not pain. She was pushing herself onto him, begging wordlessly for more.

Darleston slapped a hand down across her cheek and watched the skin flush red. “God, you’re amazing,” he gasped, riding so close to the edge now. He knew the observers on the other side of the wall were likely tossing themselves, perhaps even enjoying the pleasant deed with each other.

He covered her, nuzzled up tight to her back, and pressed a row of kisses to her shoulder blade. He sucked at the pulse point above, while their hips rose and fell. Just a few more thrusts and he really was going to explode. He felt her twitch beneath him and her breathing become doubly ragged. Hell, if she came too, that would certainly add an extra piquancy to the moment.

Her body arched. She quaked beneath him, the muscles of her back passage clasping him tight in a rhythmic pull. Too much! He saw stars as his cock loosed its seed deep inside her, making the last few strokes of their coupling intolerably sweet. He had to hold himself still. Let the moment sweep over him.