Bound to Be a Groom (22 page)

“Tomorrow morning?” Anna balked.

Farleigh’s head turned slowly. “Yes, señora de Montizon. Tomorrow morning. Unless you’d prefer the comfort of your feather bed back at Mandeville House, in which case you may accompany these fine fellows.” He gestured vaguely toward the two servants who were ready to leave. One of the men had mounted Farleigh’s carriage and the other was getting ready to depart in the wagon that had been used to transport all the food and gear.

Anna’s back stiffened. “No, thank you. I believe I’ll stay.”

Farleigh began to turn away.

“But twenty-four hours is very long for a picnic—” Anna started to quibble.

Farleigh, turning back with disciplined slowness, said, “It may not be long enough for what I have in mind. Are you sure you wish to remain?”

She smiled at last, and Farleigh finally began to suspect she was his ally, not his enemy. “I am quite sure, Your Grace. This is the privacy and solitude I have been hoping for all these long weeks. It will be quite lovely for the four of us to relax and become . . . familiar.” In that moment, he could tell from that serene smile that all she had ever wanted was what was best for Sebastian—for all of them, really. “I’m quite fond of very long picnics. Pardon me for questioning your proposal.” She curtsied politely and walked toward the small lake where Sebastian and Pia were already laughing and pointing out some beautiful plant or other.

Farleigh looked over all the arrangements, making sure the servants had done all he’d asked, then he gave them permission to leave. They had spent many hours this morning executing his orders: two white linen tents had been constructed. One was filled with iced delicacies—potted shrimp, oysters, cool wine—the other was a sybaritic pile of silk and satin pillows heaped atop a carpet of animal skins, with two trunks storing kimonos and sarongs and other delights from his travels in the West Indies and the Orient.

Needless to say, Farleigh would happily forgo the food.

He pulled off his confining jacket and tossed it over one of the canvas campaign chairs. Pulling off his boots and silk socks, he reveled in the feel of the cool grass between his toes. He watched as Anna and Pia laughed together by the lake, then he stared at the turn of Sebastian’s shoulders, narrow hips, and backside. He must have felt the weight of Farleigh’s attention because he turned and stared back. The two of them were held like that for a few seconds. Farleigh continued undressing. He planned on being unclothed for the rest of the day and night.

Sebastian’s eyes on him turned the casual act of disrobing into something turbulent. He pulled his shirt over his head, then undid his buckskins, all while staring across the distance at Sebastian’s partially opened mouth. When he was naked, finally, after all the weeks of torture, he strode toward the lake.

Anna and Pia were standing close to one another, their hands gripped together. “Oh,” Pia whispered when he passed.

He dove into the lake and swam out to the center without saying a word to any of them. When he came up for air, he burst out laughing. All three of them were scrambling to get their clothes off as quickly as they could. He called out, “Are you finally in a rush, Anna?”

“I am!” she called back. She was helping Pia undo her corset, while a perfectly nude Sebastian helped Anna remove hers. Farleigh was treading water so his heart rate was already accelerated, but seeing the three of them like that made his heart constrict and pound harder. He wanted to be part of that, to be joined the way they were. Not only for the sensual pleasures but for the daily intimacy of touch and caring.

After having spent his whole life believing adulthood required that he divide duty from desire, Farleigh was chilled and breathless when he glimpsed the potential future that was standing right before him. The water was cold against his skin but the chill came from the terrifying hope that he could be joined with these three people, that the four of them—together—could define and direct their lives as they wished. The terror came from the same sliver of fear that had always dogged him: that he didn’t deserve that kind of fulfillment, that a consuming happiness was reserved for
good
people. And he had been led to believe—by society and its self-appointed judges—that his particular desires made him a very bad person.

He watched as Sebastian finished helping the women, then dove into the lake. A few seconds later, his slick face popped up a few feet away, like an otter.

“Farleigh . . .” Sebastian swam up to him and wrapped his arms around his neck and coiled his strong legs around Farleigh’s hips. “Kiss me, man.”

Farleigh would not have called what followed a kiss—more of a ravishment. He pulled at Sebastian’s wet hair, tugging and scratching him, the two of them like a pair of sea creatures set free at last. Eventually, after they became winded, Farleigh pulled them to shore, desperate to see all of Sebastian while he touched him and made Sebastian’s body bend to his will.

“God, how desperate I am for you,” Sebastian gasped as Farleigh slammed him to the soft, earthy edge of the lake. They lay side by side, panting and staring at the crystalline blue sky.

“What shall we do about it?” Farleigh teased.

Sebastian turned on his side and rested his head on his palm, staring down the length of Farleigh’s body. Farleigh watched out of the corner of his eye as Sebastian licked his lips and looked down at Farleigh’s jutting cock. “Come, Seb. Suck me off quickly, for a start, to sand off this jagged edge.” Farleigh spread his strong thighs, letting his legs rest wide and inviting.

Sebastian sat up and shifted so he was on his bent knees, crouched near Farleigh’s cock. “How do you want it?” Sebastian asked.

“Hard and fast.”

Before he’d finished the three short words, Sebastian had pulled him into his mouth with enough force to knock the breath out of both of them. When Farleigh recovered enough to realize he was finally getting what he’d been anticipating every minute of the past few weeks, he let out a satisfied groan.

Sebastian made a similar noise, the vibration at the back of his throat shooting up Farleigh’s spine.

Lifting himself up on his elbows, Farleigh watched Sebastian’s incredible mouth, the strain of his lips, the tension of his cheeks. “God, you are so miraculous, Seb.”

Sebastian’s eyes—at half-mast while he worked—closed in pleasure at Farleigh’s praise. The force of his powerful mouth paired with the sweet gentleness of those thick black eyelashes put Farleigh right over. He cried out his release within minutes, slamming his hips up into Sebastian’s face and loving the way Sebastian sucked harder still, wanting every drop of him. So beautifully desperate.

When Sebastian flopped back onto the moist earth, Farleigh said, “Come here, boy.” He reached out one arm and pulled Sebastian into his hold, so his dark hair, still wet from their swim, was cool against his pounding chest. “Jesus, Sebastian. I’ve wanted you terribly.”

Sebastian was slowly rocking his cock against Farleigh’s hip and humming his pleasure at being in the man’s arms. “And I you.”

They stayed like that, with their eyes closed and the summer air caressing their bare skin, listening to the noises of the forest and the animals around the lake mix with the laughter and tender sounds of Anna and Pia swimming nearby in the shallows.

Waking about half an hour later, Farleigh opened his eyes to see Anna in one of his rich brocade caftans. She was reclining against a tree a few feet away, reading aloud from a book while she caressed Pia’s cheek. Pia smiled when he caught her eye, her head on Anna’s lap. He was able to decipher a few scraps of what Anna was reading and realized they must have raided his trunks and were enjoying one of the erotic novels he’d found on his travels.

He smiled back at Pia then glanced at her lush body; she looked so completely at ease with her naked flesh against the grass, almost as if she had risen up out of the earth like a mythological creature. Sebastian rustled in his arms and came slowly awake. Gorgeously aroused.

Rested and ready
, thought Farleigh with a sharp spike of desire.

Pia gazed up to see Anna had fallen quiet, her attention on the two men. Pia watched as Anna’s face turned from scientific wonder to elemental lust.

“Oh my,” Anna whispered.

Pia turned to see Sebastian’s head pulled back at a seemingly painful angle, with Farleigh tugging on his hair and making ravenous love to his mouth while pinning him down with one strong thigh across his hips. The duke was somehow beautifully loving and brutally demanding at the same time, making Sebastian appear almost weak by comparison.

But he wasn’t weak. Sebastian was terribly strong, as both Anna and Pia knew firsthand. When Pia looked closer, she realized that Sebastian was actually resisting, his strength forcing both men to strain all of their muscles in order to hold each other in that intense grip.

Farleigh pulled his lips away from Sebastian. “God, you are splendid.”

Sebastian looked so blissfully happy, his neck muscles straining, his mouth open. So open.
Open to anything
, Pia thought with a lustful sigh.

“Oh my,” Pia echoed. “Should we leave them to it? It’s almost too much.”

Anna was silent, her eyes wide, darting from Sebastian’s mouth—wet and open—to Farleigh’s mouth, closed and showing the hint of a deviant smile.

“I think I want to fuck you properly while your two women watch. Would you like that, Sebastian?”

Pia covered her mouth again, appalled and delighted. Anna was simply delighted.

“Into the larger tent,” Farleigh ordered as he stared into Sebastian’s glowing dark eyes. “One and all.”

Farleigh released Sebastian’s hair after one last rough tug then pulled him quickly to his feet and into a one-armed hold. “This way, you beautiful man.” The two of them sauntered toward the tent until Farleigh turned his head at the last minute and called lightly, “Are you joining us, ladies?”

He might as well have been inviting them to tea, the way he tossed the words over his shoulder like an afterthought. Anna grabbed Pia’s hand, and both women leapt up and trotted quickly behind the men as they took long strides toward the sinful harem-like den Farleigh had created.

Sebastian had always adored Farleigh’s combination of devil-may-care and blinding intensity. As a political attaché in Spain, Farleigh had been dedicated and responsible, but away from those obligations he was bold and daring. So much like Anna in some ways—or what Anna would have been like if she had been raised in a world of power and privilege as Farleigh had been. Sebastian shivered at the prospect of how glorious Anna would be—was already becoming—in full possession of her sexual power, as well as the power to command everything a large purse could provide.

Soon enough.

“Taking a chill?” Farleigh asked.

Sebastian smiled at him. “Not in the least. I was thinking how much you remind me of my wife.”

Farleigh laughed aloud and turned to look at the two women close on their heels. “That little sprite of a thing?”

“I wouldn’t underestimate her. She is quite . . . ambitious.”

Shaking his head, Farleigh said, “I think I can handle myself . . . and you for that matter.” In a lower voice, he continued, “How rough can I be? I don’t want to frighten the ladies, but I’ve missed you.”

“Do with me what you will. Anna has given her blessing.” He paused for a moment to look over his shoulder. “And I think Pia is in a state of lust-induced shock. She’d probably marry you after all, if you asked her.”

Pursing his lips at the possibility, Farleigh said, “Mightn’t be a bad solution, you know?”

“I was not being serious. Are you daft?”

Farleigh raised an eyebrow as he pulled back the curtain to the tent. “It would bind us to one another in a way society would never allow otherwise. We could be together.”

Sebastian realized Pia and Anna were standing close and had heard what Farleigh had said. He looked at Anna and Pia and saw the tenderness and joy he always did, but there was something more: he felt as if the four of them made up a solid unit, a perfectly balanced whole.

“We could live openly as two couples. You and Anna, obviously.” Farleigh looked at Pia. “Perhaps Pia could come to tolerate me.” He reached out and touched her moist bottom lip.