Bound to Be a Groom (14 page)

Anna sat up straighter and pushed her skirt down to cover herself. Sebastian suspected it was one of the few times he was ever going to see his wife consumed by real shame. Sebastian lifted himself up, quickly buttoned the fall of his buckskins, and then sat quietly on the bench next to Pia. He tried to tuck himself into the corner as best he could, to remove himself from the conversation.

“Answer me.” Pia’s voice held an authority that was completely at odds with her dark, innocent beauty. Sebastian had thought she looked like some sort of tender earth goddess—full and generous—when she was in the throes of ecstasy. But when she was angry, she was more like a mountain—immovable.

“Yes.” The single word from Anna’s lips sounded to Sebastian like the most abject apology. A single tear trailed down his wife’s cheek.

Sebastian tried to make himself invisible. Which proved impossible.

“And you!” Pia raised her voice and pointed at him. “Did you laugh at me? Did you make her cry out like that, with your tongue and your lips, and think how useless I was?”

“Pia! No!” Anna cried.

“No,” Sebastian whispered, staring into her stormy eyes. “If anything, I was jealous of you.”

Pia’s head pulled back in confusion. “
You
? Jealous?” She barked a laugh, then changed her voice into something akin to a courtly butler. “The great gentleman from Madrid! The wealthy and powerful Sebastian de Montizon! Heir to countless hectares! Jealous of an orphan!”

“She adores you,” Sebastian continued quietly. “She usually cries out your name when she is with me.” Anna was shaking, weeping softly. Sebastian yearned to comfort her, but he knew it was ultimately between Pia and Anna. “She may not deserve it, but Anna craves your forgiveness, Pia. And I see now, I must beg for it, as well. Please forgive me. I am deeply sorry for any hurt I’ve caused.”

Hanging her head and staring at her clenched hands, Pia stayed silent. Her face was still clouded with frustrated anger when she looked up at Sebastian. “I accept your apology.”

The thick silence let him know Anna would not be let off so easily.

“Do you forgive me?” Anna asked after many minutes, her voice cracking on the last word.

Pia finally looked up, staring at Anna through narrowed eyes. “Oh. I’m sorry. Did you apologize? I must have missed that portion of the discussion.”

Sebastian wanted to cheer, but he pulled his lips into a tight seam instead. He was going to love this woman and her whiplash understanding of Anna’s faults and foibles.

“You know I am sorry,” Anna tried.

“Not sorry enough,” Pia snapped. “You are too easy on yourself, Anna. We all know you are strong and willful.” Pia sighed finally. “And wonderful.”

Anna smiled slightly.

“But let me have a few moments to weigh all of this. You owe me a proper apology.”

“But didn’t I show you how much I missed you?” Anna teased, licking her lips.

Pia smiled, then frowned. “No. I mean, yes. But no! You always show me with your body, but sometimes you need to say the words, Anna. You get away with too much. You need to apologize to me with words; I need to hear the regret in your voice, so I know it’s true. Otherwise, it will be one more contest you secretly believe you’ve won.”

Anna was properly chastised. “I am deeply sorry, Pia. I was in a mess of confusion, and then . . . I was . . . selfish. Especially after Sebastian told me he would send for you, that we would all be together . . .” Anna shrugged helplessly. “I felt like everything was resolved. In my mind, we were all three together.”

“Well, we were not.”

“I know!” Anna was getting angry. “I’m sorry!”

Pia smiled. “You are such a child sometimes. You can’t bear to admit when you are wrong. Simply say it.”

Into the yawning silence, Anna finally mumbled, “I was wrong.”

Sebastian was no longer able to repress his smile.

Anna shot him a quelling look.

“I didn’t say anything!” Sebastian said, but he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face.

“I was wrong,” Anna said clearly, looking straight into Pia’s eyes. “I beg your forgiveness.”

“There,” Pia said, smoothing her dress. “Was that so difficult?”

Anna laughed. “Yes! I hate it and you know it! Don’t you remember how I despised confession? As if everything I ever wanted was wrong, every inclination, every desire? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.”

“I remember,” Pia said gently. “But I am not your confessor, Anna. I am your closest friend. I love you.”

“You’re going to make me cry again,” Anna said with a peevish tone, as if crying were an inconvenience.

Sebastian watched the two women, watched as the forgiveness settled between them.

“Come here.” Pia gestured to Anna, patting her lap. “I want you in my arms when he makes you come again.”

Anna smiled and switched seats. Pia spread her legs apart to create a space for Anna to settle her back against Pia’s front, both of them fully clothed and looking at Sebastian expectantly.

“Make her cry out for me, Sebastian,” Pia said softly, obviously unaccustomed to telling another person what to do. Her hands were roaming over Anna’s bodice while she spoke, and Sebastian felt the heat slam into him again. All thoughts of forgiveness and apologies evaporated in the haze of sensual promise.

He leaned forward slowly, lifting Anna’s emerald silk skirts and petticoats. He kissed his way up her pale thigh as Pia’s hands continued to trail lightly across the swell of Anna’s small breasts and the bare skin of her chest.

Anna reached one hand behind her and wrapped her fingers around Pia’s neck, letting her fingers grip the hair at the base. When Sebastian’s lips touched her pussy, she bucked. Pia pressed down with one strong hand on Anna’s hips. “Let me watch him,” Pia whispered hoarsely.

Groaning into the restraint of Pia’s hold, Anna’s other hand reached for Sebastian’s dark curls. When her orgasm finally tore through her, Anna’s hands clenched with fierce possession, tangling into both of their scalps. Pia and Sebastian locked eyes as Anna cried out. The connection between them was powerful and immediate; their shared love of Anna was something that would bind them together for the rest of their lives. Pia kissed the side of Anna’s neck as the final waves of her release pulsed through her, never taking her eyes from Sebastian’s.
We will both love her
, that look seemed to say. And the thought swamped Sebastian with an entirely different—more profound—satisfaction.

When he pulled away from Anna’s sex at last, his lips and chin still moist, he lifted onto his knees and leaned up to kiss the sweetness into Pia’s mouth. She closed her eyes and took it, and he could tell she was loving the taste of Anna between them, loving the admixture of all three of them.

Then Pia withdrew from Sebastian and tilted Anna’s face to bring her lips to hers.

“All three of us in one kiss,” Anna whispered in profound wonder. She adjusted her position so they were able to settle into each other’s arms, then each of them slipped into a gentle slumber as the carriage rocked along the north road toward Bilbao, where they would board the packet to London.

The trip to Bilbao lasted many hours. Pia awoke first. She untucked herself from Anna’s loose hold, where she’d fallen asleep against her chest. She moved to the other seat to avoid waking either Sebastian or Anna. Amid the usual bounce and rumble of the carriage, her change in position did not cause Anna to stir. Sebastian, on the other hand, was awake in a flash, his hand reaching for his sword beneath the seat. When his eyes cleared enough to remember where and with whom he was, he smiled gently and slid out of Anna’s hold to join Pia on the forward-facing seat.

Pia pulled aside one of the curtains to look out across the passing landscape. She gazed at a range of mountains to the west, purple and majestic in the fading light of dusk, then let the curtain fall back into place.

“So beautiful.” She turned to Sebastian. “Do you know this part of the country?”

“I do, actually. Those are the
Montes Obarenes
. Even though I grew up in Madrid, Javi and I went to university in Pamplona.”

“And you and your friends spent much time in the countryside in this region?”

He looked skeptical. “We did.”

She nodded; it was more than enough information to draw the conclusion she’d been forming.

“What do you know of the countryside?” Sebastian pressed.

She smiled. “You can put your tongue on my breast, your lips on my mouth, but you think it ill-advised to give details of a political nature to a mere miss. I understand.”

They were both whispering so as not to wake Anna, but if Sebastian’s surprised look had been given voice, it would have been heard from a mountaintop. “What do you understand?”

She shrugged and continued whispering. “I understand that, at the convent, we used to leave food and other basic provisions at the edge of the garden for . . . people . . .”

“And?”

“And . . . I have heard Javi’s name mentioned,” Pia continued slowly. “I don’t know if it is the same Javi, but . . .” She shrugged again. “I am nearly invisible to many people. I am a parentless charity case of no consequence. People tend to speak freely in my presence. As if I were a deaf-mute.”

He reached for her hand. It wasn’t a seductive touch necessarily, but it was warm and made Pia trust him. “And you’ve remembered every word, I suspect?” He rubbed her knuckles in a lovely back-and-forth way.

“It’s exhausting keeping it all in.” She leaned her head back against the velvet squabs and closed her eyes as she spoke. “But the abbess and the older nuns, they are powerful. They are landowners or mothers of landowners. Sisters and widows of powerful men. They are aristocrats. They are mothers of kings. Grandmothers of queens. Daughters of dukes, like Isabella.”

Sebastian brought Pia’s hand to his lips and kissed her lightly.

“What was that for?” she asked, opening her eyes and turning to look at him.

“I don’t know.” He smiled at her. “Anna’s been so excited—distraught really—about what would happen when we came to get you.” He looked down at their joined hands. “I’m relieved, I suppose.”

Pia pulled his knuckles to her lips this time. “I am also relieved.” She set their hands in her lap gently. “I thought . . . terrible things about you.”

“Like what?”

“I thought you would be cruel and domineering.”

He stifled a laugh.

“I know. Silly, yes?” Pia blushed.

“Yes,” he replied, then his voice turned more somber. “But perhaps it is to be expected if that is what you have heard of men and their treatment of women.”

She nodded, glancing across the luxurious carriage at Anna’s delicate features pressed against the velvet squabs. “Isabella used to talk to us about how we should try to fight harder for our independence, and we would all look at her as if she were crazy.” She turned back to face him, continuing to speak in a low voice, just loud enough to be heard over the rhythmic clatter of the horses. “She may as well have suggested we go work in the garden without breathing any air. Anna especially would challenge her.”

“I got to know Isabella fairly well when we were traveling to Aveiro.”

“Really?”

“Yes. She can be single-minded.”

“Well, she can
afford
to be single-minded, can she not? What with her fortune.”

“Yes and no. There are plenty of women with fortunes who still defer to the wishes of others for their whole lives. I do not think you or Isabella or Anna are cut from the same cloth as most women today.”

“That may be true.” She was silent for a few moments. The roll and sway of the carriage lulled her, made her want to be more candid with him. “Although, I do not think I am cut from the same cloth as either of them. Both are fierce in their ways.”

“Perhaps. But I think you, too, are fierce in your way. Mindful in a way that Anna is not. Powerful.”

She nearly choked out a disbelieving laugh. “Powerful? What a strange word to use to describe me. The clothes on my back and a small canvas sack constitute the entire expanse of my dominion.”

Sebastian smiled, and Pia had the strangest feeling. Again, it wasn’t lust, though there was that still unfamiliar frisson of physical attraction in it, but something deeper and more far-reaching. He felt like an ally.

He tapped the side of her head. “Your power is here. You remind me of Javi in some ways. You collect information. I can see it in your eyes.” He stroked a finger across her forehead. “Your wealth is here. I am interested to see how you will use it.”

“Use it? How can I? I am nothing.”

He squeezed her hand. “Ah. That is where you are wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“You are about to be surrounded by the most elite members of London society. Men will approach you and want to dance with you at balls. You will be pursued. I have a wealthy friend who is going to introduce us into his circle. These are important times in the corridors of power. The New World is still so new. Lives are being made and lost all the time.”

Pia felt a combination of fear and delight. “I thought I was to be a lady’s maid. Do lady’s maids attend balls and dance with gentlemen in London?”