A Rose Between the Thornes (7 page)

Jasper raised one eyebrow, and for all that his body throbbed with a myriad of sensations, most unpleasant, Nat had to smother a grin. Neither of them had considered Rose Sophia to be an easy conquest, indeed they both relished the chase, but even now, when he would have thought she felt at a disadvantage she was pushing and he would wager, not cowed an inch.

Good. I look forward to our couplings; they will be everything but dull and predictable.
He glanced at his arm. That was an example of her feistiness.

“You have a point,” Jasper said. His tone was grudging, and once more Nat concealed his mirth. Jasper was a natural leader, and struggled when others drew attention to something he should have thought of.

With gritted teeth, Nat succumbed to Jasper’s ministrations as he began to ease his form-fitting jacket off. The resultant pain was like a red-hot poker applied to his arm as his injury was jarred, and it brought sweat to his skin. He swallowed hard.

A flesh wound, nothing more than that. It will be over soon, do not faint, do not empty your stomach. Think of those who are shot on the battlefield, think...

“Oh, for goodness sake,” Sophia burst out. “Untie my hands and let me do it. Jasper, you are not usually this clumsy surely? You who I have been told can make a body sing with pleasure?”

A red flush ran over Jasper’s face. Nat waited for his twin’s response. Neither of them said a word.

Eventually, Jasper nodded.

“I thank you for the compliment, my dear, and look forward to seeing your body sing. I would be grateful for your help, and I will hold you to your promise that you will do nothing untoward.”

“Yet,” Sophia added. “Nothing untoward yet; not until I have helped you, that was my promise.” Jasper grunted as he busied himself with the ties around her hands. Sophia flexed her fingers as her wrists were loosened, and moved her feet.

“Oh no, my love, you do not need to move far, and I will help you. There is no need to untie your legs.”

“There is when I fuck her,” Nathaniel said, his voice pain-filled. “How else do I fill her properly if I can’t get between her thighs?”

“You mean you are so limited in ideas? I am disappointed; I thought from your introduction to me, such a minor detail as my legs bound would be but a superficial irritant,” Sophia mocked him.

He frowned. They would have to remind her to think before she spoke.
Don’t be a prosy stupe, she speaks her mind and I admire her for it. This grumpy mood is not me.

“And if she fucks you, Nat, think how tight and delicious it will be to have your cock drawn into that restricted space. Don’t worry, once you are able, you will enjoy all the fruits of our labors,” Jasper said. “On my oath, I will not enjoy our lady, or she me until we are able to be three.”

***

“If I am here,” Sophia could not help but add that. She may have no intention of trying to escape, the pictures that had painted for her were much too enticing, but neither was she going to let them think she was compliant. She would push and prod as far as possible, and enjoy all they meted out.

“But of course,” Jasper said urbanely. “But I tell you now, Rose our love, you will be here.”

“Why Rose? I dislike that name.” She was curious. They had once before intimated they would use her hated first name, and try as she might she could see no reason for it.

“It is you, love. You are our Rose. Think about it.” Jasper advised. “Now can you aid me with this garment so we can tend to this wound?”

She nodded. She would think about their insistence to use Rose as a name when she had time. “Move away and let me...no, on second thought use one hand to steady him, and keep the other available to grab me if I fall. I have no balance.” That was a lie. Playing circuses as a wild child, standing on the back of a horse as it cantered around a field, had given her an incredible sense of balance, but she saw no reason to demonstrate the fact.

Jasper held Nat steady for her. Sophia pondered the best way to ease the coat off. There was a wicked gleam in Nat’s eyes as she leaned over him, and her breasts touched his chest. Sophia jumped, and her quim clenched at the desire she saw there. She had forgotten she was naked except for the remains of her tattered gown around her shoulders. Impatiently, she shrugged out of the rags and threw them onto the floor.

“In the absence of being offered a robe to conceal my nakedness, I will ignore the look in your eyes and the condition of your cock,” she said. “And trust you to behave like a gentleman. Both of you, therefore please ignore my state of undress. Now.” She became brisk. “As this jacket is soiled and ripped I suggest we cut it off. Do you have scissors?”

“Hold him, whilst I go to the cabinet.” Jasper walked away. Nat leaned toward her, his mouth on a level with her nipple. He took one in his mouth and sucked hard, his teeth grazing the sensitive areolae. Sophia’s body was filled by a surge of red-hot emotion, like lava as it spilled from a volcano. Her juices gathered and her body became as damp as his. How could she feel so aroused by such a small thing?

“Give me the other,” Nat commanded. “Let me taste. It will give me something to think about as you probe my arm. I will imagine ‘tis me probing you elsewhere. “He lifted his face to stare at her. “Now,” he said, command in his tone. “Hold your breast to me.”

Startled, she did as he bade her do, and lifted her breast. His tongue circled the tip before he took it into his mouth. Once more the sparks and shards of excitement bombarded her as his touch invested sweet sensations from her nipple to her quim and back again.

“Ah, I sup, as I wish to taste all of you,” he said as he nipped, his words slurred by her breast inside his mouth. “I want more, and ah...hades that hurts.” Jasper with a nod to Sophia to keep Nathaniel occupied had returned and slit his coat sleeve from wrist to shoulder.

“Now hold still whilst I remove the remains of what was once a very fine jacket. By Stultz,” Jasper said. “Feast on Rose and let me work.”

Sophia glared at him. It was not easy to remain detached and annoyed with either of their diktats when, she opined, she was enjoying the heightened awareness of what may transpire. Nathaniel nodded without removing his mouth from her and the tug on her sensitive nipple was enough to make her tremble. Her skin was a sensation of tiny prickles, as if someone was running a pin over her. Each minute stab sent a message to her cunt, telling her to be ready for anything. Her juices gathered and she knew the evidence would show on her.

“Touch yourself,” Jasper said, his voice hard. “Use your fingers inside your cunt and run your nub with your juices. Show us how you like to be felt. Let the feel of Nat on your breast excite you further. Do it, Rose.”

She moved her hand to her quim and circled her nub before putting a finger inside herself. As she had predicted she was so wet, so ready to come, she knew it would take one pinch and she would spiral over the edge and into ecstasy.

Nat pulled away from her, and she saw the pain in his eyes. His coat and shirt were cut away, and his arm revealed. If anything was designed to cool her ardor that sight was it. Sophia was ashamed. How could she forget what had transpired to such a degree that one word from either of them, and she did as she was asked—no, commanded, she reminded herself—and she was ready to pleasure herself, to come, in front of them?

“Let me tend to his arm,” she said abruptly as Nat began to slip sideways. “Put him flat on the bed.”

Jasper did as she asked, and Sophia, with an impatient look at her ankles, shuffled forward. “Do you have hot water and a clean cloth?” she asked him.

“I have them ready outside the room,” he replied. “I will get them.”

Sophia gently prodded the reddened area on his arm, being careful to avoid the gouge her bullet had made. “It’s a mere graze,” she said, and heard the relief in her voice. “I had intended to singe your breeches and make you fear for your balls, but I was pulled backward and spoiled my aim. You are lucky. I could have spoiled your chances of procreation.”

“Then I thank the gods you did not,” Nat said in a thready vice. “For even I care not about the procreation, I swear my cock is in dire need to fuck you every which way I know and a few more besides. If you had spoiled that, I would never have forgiven you. I intend, my dear, to see you impaled between us, your skin flushed, your arse rosy and your juices coating all three of us as we show you heaven.” He paused. “Or hell. It will be up to you to decide which.”

Sophia pondered his words. She took the bowl of water from Jasper with a swift word of thanks and soaked a soft cloth in it.

“Why hell?” she asked him as she began to wipe around the wound. “I thought the idea was for all of us to reach paradise? You promised me that. Surely you are not going to renege on your words?” Would he realize she was trying to keep his mind off her ministrations? Jasper must have done, because he took up the tenor of the conversation.

“So we did, love, and we will do. But there are those who say we are depraved and perverted. That to do what we intend to is wrong. I do not see it myself. What say you, Nat?”

“Do not dismiss what you have not tried,” Nat said, his voice threaded with humor. “And I am with Jas on this. I want to be inside you, I care not where, and feel Jas on the other side. To fuck you long and hard, and to hear you come with us. You promised us twenty nights, and I for one want them all.”

“As you are now?” Satisfied the wound was clean, Sophia began to bandage it. “There. You will live.”

“I thank you, my lady,” Nat’s voice was ever stronger. “I knew ‘twas but a graze also, but to be able to suckle as I did, I would endure more.”

Hmm, she wondered what would happen next. She had not forgotten her promise not to try and escape until she had tended to Nathaniel. That was now done, and Sophia had no intention of submitting in a meek and mild manner. Indeed she suspected the Thorne’s would be disappointed if she did. She stood up and looked at each of them. Now she needed to plot. Twenty nights was not to be thought of.
I would not be able to walk, and neither would they. Berry and Ran would chop them into tiny bits and feed them to the animals in the Royal Exchange.
She took heart in the fact that surely Hermione would look for her, even if it wasn’t until Sophia didn’t communicate about the troubles at Midwood.
If there are indeed troubles. All this is too arranged to be a coincidence
. Sophia decided not to show her hand and disclose she’d discovered their part in her travel plans. There was time for that later.

“My lords, there is a delicate matter I need to attend to. I am chilled, and I need the facilities.” It was not a total lie. She did need the facilities, but the room was warm and her body on fire from the touches she had received and the images that flitted through her brain. However to try and leave the area, she needed something to cover herself. She may want all they had to offer, indeed she did want it, but she had to deplore the way they went about it.
Even,
she reminded herself,
though secretly you enjoyed it all.

Jasper shook himself as if to wake up. “Through the door over there. My apologies I should have thought of such things. You will not be disturbed, but, my love, I will not clothe you.”

Damn him
. “Untie my ankles?” she suggested. “To er facilitate my er..” There was no way she could continue.

Jasper looked at her closely. It was as if he could read her mind.

“Untie? No my lady, but I will allow you some leeway.” Deftly he stooped and lengthened the tie between her legs to around a foot in length. Then before she could stop him, her wrists were once more hobbled in a similar manner. “Until you vow not to try to leave, I will restrain you, love. You are ours and you know it. You need to be here with us and us with you. Only when you accept that can we live in freedom. Until then, I will keep you shackled either to us or to the bed. And I tell you now, Rose, we will all enjoy every second of it.”

Sophia glared, her chest heaved, and try as she might she could not bring herself to be scared. Angry, excited, aroused—all of those things—but not scared. She knew they would not hurt her.

“For twenty nights,” she pointed out.

“Forever,” Nat said, his voice growing stronger with every minute. Sophia didn’t kid herself he would remain incapacitated for long. “Twenty will not be long enough, you’ll see.”

“If I do not use the facilities I will see nothing,” she retorted. Not a very good reply, but all she could think of in the circumstances. She left the room as best she could with short steps that made her arse sway.

“I look forward to tanning that arse soon,” she heard Nat say with satisfaction, as she shut the door behind her. So did she.

The facilities were clean and spacious. Once she had relieved herself, Sophia did her best to tidy her hair. It was a losing battle and she left it to flow down her back. Carefully, she pulled some forward to cover her breasts. As she moved, her nipples peeked through the tresses and reminded her of the game of peek-a-boo. Now you see me, now you don’t.

Ah well, I cannot help it if they titillate, I can’t do anything else.

A quick perusal of the room showed her another door. She expected it to lead to some back stairs, to facilitate the servant’s entrance. To her annoyance it was locked. However, a brief look at the lock made her decide to secret a hair pin nearby. She would open it easily when she had more time.
Once I have sampled what my men have to offer. Argh, I call them my men
. She made a mental note not to do so in their presence. It would do no good to hand them any ammunition.

Composed, she returned to the bedroom. Jasper, she presumed, had lit more candles and she was able to look around her with ease. What she saw made her eyes widen and her hands tremble. Why had she seen none of this before? Then she realized the screens that she’d thought were close up to the wall had in fact been shielding several items from view. Evidently Jasper now thought it was time to reveal them.

Sophia tried not to show her interest, though it was piqued by the velvet, silk, and leather she glimpsed. Instead, after a quick glance from the corner of her eye, she stared at Jasper, who lay next to Nathaniel on the wide bed with a foot or so between them. Both were naked, their cocks proud and tall, stood out from their nest of curls. There seemed to be not one whit of difference between them. Their hair was identical in cut, and color, their physiques likewise. In the candlelight and with their eyelids lowered it was not possible to see the slight difference in the shade of their eyes. She let her gaze roam lower once more. Both pricks were long, hard, and thick. If it hadn’t been for the bandage showing white on Nathaniel’s arm, most people would have been hard pressed to tell who was who. A jolt of awareness struck her as she realized that she would always know which of her soon to be lovers was which. It had been the eyes, now it was a sense of them as individuals.