Norrington Abbey (9 page)

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Henry found John in the study, pacing as waves of anger poured off of him. “How dare he speak so of our girl!”

“Easy, John. Neither my father nor my brother signify.”

John stopped, gawking at him. “Are you mad? You father has the power to rip Catherine’s life to shreds should he so desire.”

Henry knew he had the right of it. “My father is a bastard.”

“And your brother is no better. Let him attempt to seduce Isabella and I’ll run him through.” He slumped in the nearest chair. “We have to move quickly if we’re going to secure Catherine. I cannot stomach leaving her and my sister at those scoundrels’ mercies, though for different reasons.”

“I agree. Let us go to the parlor and see to them both. Then later tonight we’ll tell Catherine our plans.”

John stared at him. “What are our plans, pray?”

Henry met his gaze. “You’ll marry her. It’s the only way.”

John’s brow furrowed, and then he nodded. “And you will come with us to Somersetshire.”

He couldn’t say anything to that. John’s offer was more than he could have hoped for, but they would need to discuss the particulars. But not at present.

“Come,” he said, going to the door. “I find I need to see our girl.”

They played cards with the ladies for an interminable hour before Catherine pleaded fatigue. Henry hadn’t missed her expression, that worry that hadn’t eased since dinner as well as clear desire whenever she glanced at John or himself. It was little wonder that she declared herself done in when Frederick joined them.

Now, a scant half hour later, he and John stood outside of her guest chamber, each ready to give her everything. Sex, of course. Neither one of them could be near her without wanting her. But they’d agreed to give her their hearts as well. Did John truly love her? Henry suspected as much. As for himself, he’d never been more sure of his heart’s desire.

They scratched on her door and she pulled it open, an expectant look on her pretty face. She wore her thin nightdress again, and he could see every dip and hollow of her figure. “Henry,” she said on a breath. She smiled at John now. “And John.”

John kissed her as he urged her back into the room. “You cannot get rid of either one of us, Catherine.”

Henry closed the door tight. “I’m tempted to dare you to try.”

She shook her head. “Oh, no. I want you both.”

At her admission they fell on her. They rid her of her nightdress and stripped as well. “I want to taste you, John.”

“You don’t have to ask me more than once,” John quipped, coming to his knees on the bed.

She took him in her mouth and they each moaned in delight. Henry pulled her up onto all fours, stroking her silken skin and teasing her pussy. Her cunt was soaking wet already, the clit swollen, and she lifted her head with a cry of wanting. “Henry!”

His cock was ready, her pussy so close, he couldn’t resist the temptation. He stroked his shaft up against her flesh and she arched. “Do you like that?”

“Mmm,” she said, her mouth once more on John’s cock.

Henry shifted, pushing into her as he gripped her slender hips. Her round bottom was flush against his belly now, her pussy holding him tight. He began to move. She trembled, wriggling her bottom as he thrust. It didn’t take long until he felt the flutters of her orgasm begin. She threw back her head as she came, writhing in his grasp. The next moment he came, buried to the hilt as he poured himself inside her.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, surprise and satisfaction on her face. “I never knew!”

John winced, holding his still-engorged cock. “I did.” He kissed her and waved Henry away. “But there is something else I wish to do.”

Henry kissed his way up Catherine’s supple back, finally kissing her mouth. “Are you as intrigued as I?”

She eyed John’s cock and began to turn onto her back. “Take me, John.”

“Oh, I shall.” He grabbed her ass and pulled her back against him. “But you will need to stay just as you are.”

He watched as John stroked her, driving first one then two fingers into her pussy. Her face showed her growing arousal, so close on the heels of the orgasm he’d given her. Then John inserted a finger into her pretty little ass.

“Oh!” she cried.

“You’re so hot, love,” John said. He pushed his cock into her pussy. “So wet. It won’t take much to ease my way.”

Henry could smell her scent and knew she was drenched. John moved in and out of her pussy as he fingered her secret hole. Then he pulled out and sank into her ass. “That is…” She began to shudder. “Oh, that is amazing!”

John stroked her deep, slow, until she found release again. He came in the next moment and the two of them collapsed on the bed at last.

“In my bottom,” she whispered. “That’s so…naughty.”

John murmured something in answer and Henry heard the satiation in his voice. Henry hugged her close as John stroked her back. This was right. This was what had been missing from his life only he never knew it before. What John proposed was what he desperately wanted.

And he was damned if he would let his brother or father keep him from the life he desired.

Chapter 12

Catherine knew they would come to her tonight. Dinner had been another abysmal affair as it had last night, with the general once again asking such pointed questions about her family and fortune. She had plenty of the former but pitifully little of the latter. John and Henry each attempted to speak up for her, but between the general’s cutting remarks and Frederick’s snide comments, her lovers had little effect.

She sank onto the bed with a sigh. Another horrid evening spent at Norrington Abbey. And to think she had been so excited to come to the ancient estate. The structure was gorgeous and wild on the exterior, changed and modernized within, but both conditions were only on the surface. The general was like the abbey, in her opinion. Stately and grand on the outside yet cold and cruel on the inside.

Isabella had continued to stare at Frederick like he was some sort of god, at least she had until the general put her hackles up. That man could test the patience of a saint, as exhibited by Henry’s loss of control at his intrusive questions and derisive glances. Frederick’s open speculation was just as disturbing, however. Perhaps she could talk Isabella into cutting this interminable visit short. Where that left Catherine with her two men, she had no notion.

A knock came at the door, sending all thoughts of the general, Frederick, and even Isabella from her mind. She knew it would be her loves. She went to the door and eagerly pulled the panel open. Her breath caught as she found the general looming in the doorway.

“General Tilman!” she cried.

He raked his eyes over her, taking in her thin nightdress. She might as well have been naked for the glint in his eye. That carnal interest turned her stomach.

“I can see why Henry pants after you. I daresay your pussy is a tight and tender little thing.”

She could say nothing as he strode into the room.

“Shut the door,” he commanded.

Trembling, she did so. “What do you want?”

“Tell me straight out about your circumstances.”

She sucked in a breath. There was nothing else for it. “I will inherit next to nothing.”

He narrowed those sharp eyes and gave a nod. “Leave the abbey.”

She thought she’d heard him wrong. “Pardon me?”

“Leave. I shall call for a hack to pick you up and take you back to Bath. Be ready to leave at midnight.”

She could not speak, her throat tight and her nerves taut.

He turned from her with an air of dismissal, then stilled. “Don’t think to go to Henry about this, Miss Morris. I will not be gainsaid, certainly not by the likes of a grasping girl such as yourself.”

He left her and she finally caught her breath. She took in great, gasping breaths that made her head spin. She crumpled to the floor, her head in her hands. Midnight. A mere two hours from now. She lifted her head and studied the closed door.
Please come, Henry. Please come, John.

They had to come to her and soon. She wouldn’t disclose a word about the general’s edict. What she would do was make the most of her last night with the men she loved.

She rose from the floor and began to pack her small satchel with her few belongings. Isabella’s borrowed gowns and assorted undergarments she would leave behind. They weren’t hers and she had no right to take them. Besides, she would have no need for them in Wiltshire. No, she’d help her mother with the younger children and maybe think of the day when she can be a companion to another wealthy woman or a governess to a wealthy woman’s children.

Tears blurred her eyes as she closed the bag. She heard something shift as she set it within the wardrobe and reached beneath her clothes to find the worn copy of one of her gothic novels. Cursing her foolish imagination, she withdrew the book and hurled it across the room.

“Bloody fantasies!” What had they gotten her? Nothing. She rubbed the heels of her hands against her eyes to wipe away her tears but a moment before another knock came at the door. Her heart sped up once again, foolish and eager to meet her lovers. Nevertheless, she rushed to the door and pulled it open, relief warring with the desire in her body as she spied John and Henry in the corridor.

“Do hurry,” she said, reaching for John since he was the closest to her and dragging him within.

Henry stood in the hallway for a shocked moment before she pulled him in as well. “Catherine!”

“I want you both.” She squared her shoulders. “Make love to me. We don’t know how long this will last.” She did, however.
Until midnight.

John began to disrobe, revealing that delectable body. “I daresay I won’t last much longer.”

She let him think she only referred to this particular encounter, not their liaison. So be it. “Then hurry,” she urged again.

John sat at the edge of the bed and pulled her onto him until she straddled his thighs.

“I want to be in your pussy while Henry takes your sweet bottom, Catherine.” He kissed her lips, her ear, her throat. His cock was hard and insistent against her belly. “Tell me you will like that?

Was such a thing possible? “Both of you inside me?” she asked, looking from one to the other. When they nodded she did likewise, letting her head fall back to accept more of John’s kisses.

Henry came behind her and fondled her breasts. He pinched and squeezed her nipples, starting a fire that spread over her skin. She could feel his cock hot and thick behind her and wriggled her bottom against him. Henry moaned and John bit out a laugh.

“Easy, friend,” John said.

Henry ran his hands over her bottom, teasing her secret hole with his fingertip. “Please, Henry.”

“Not yet,” John said.

He flipped her onto her back in one fluid motion and drove his tongue into her pussy. In moments she was soaking wet, nearing the orgasm promised with his every caress. “Yes!”

John lifted his head and she bit back a cry of frustration. “No.”

Her mind was fuzzy from arousal, her body still throbbing with the need for release. He turned her again, bracing her legs apart. “Use your fingers, Henry. She’s soaked.”

Henry drove three fingers inside of her, and the pressure was exquisite. She knew what he would do next but it was still a surprise. His wet fingers penetrated her bottom, followed swiftly by his wonderful cock.

John held her hips still as Henry moved in and out of her bottom. She itched for completion, her pussy and clit burning for more of…something. Before she could voice her needs John pressed his cock high and deep into her pussy. She came at once, her pussy and bottom pulsing as she cried out.

“Henry, can you feel me?” John asked, his voice harsh.

“Yes,” Henry answered. “God, yes. Catherine!”

John drove deep as Henry withdrew, and then they reversed the motions until they moved faster and faster. Their bodies slid together, her nipples against John’s sculpted chest and Henry’s ridged belly against her bottom. Squeezing her eyes shut, she threw herself over to their control as she came again.

As she lost herself she felt them both begin to climax. Their groans of completion so close to her ears, their words of love and praise so tenderly given, confirmed it. This was what she needed. Both of them loving her so completely she couldn’t think of anything else. Not her imminent return to Wiltshire. Not the general’s hateful command. No, in this moment there were only the three of them.

Pity she would soon be heartbreakingly alone.

They left her a few minutes later, but only after she begged them to let her sleep. They kissed her, praised her again, and made her feel even worse about all she was leaving behind. Though she was loath to let them go she knew she had little time to indulge herself if she was going to make the hack the general ordered for her.

Once alone she washed as best she could, her body still tender from their diligent attention. After she was dressed, she eyed the book she’d tossed in the corner. She retrieved it, certain she would need the escape once she settled into her horrid, lonely life. Inexorably, her eyes filled with tears once more.

Another knock came at the door. “Is there anyone in this house who hasn’t been at my door tonight?”

Surely it would be the general, to ascertain her readiness to flee the premises. Resigned, she went to the door and pulled it open again. To her surprise, Isabella stood there.

“Catherine, I do not know what to do about this attraction to the captain.” She closed the door and turned, her mouth dropping open as she finally looked at Catherine. “Why are you dressed?”

Catherine nibbled on her lower lip, then let out a breath. “I’m leaving, Isabella. First to Bath and then on to Wiltshire.”

“But why?”

How could she tell her what the general said, what he accused her of? What she’d done with John and Henry this very night? She couldn’t.

“It is of no consequence,” she told Isabella.

“That is nonsense.” Isabella took her hand. “You’ve been crying, Catherine. Tell me what happened.”

Tears coursed down her cheeks now, but she couldn’t admit any of it. “Please, Isabella. If you ever considered me a friend, let me keep my secrets.”

“A friend?” Isabella drew her into an embrace. “I’ve come to think of you as a sister.” She held Catherine away from her. “Is this about my brother? Has he hurt you?”

“John has never hurt me. I don’t deserve—Please don’t press me.”

Isabella’s brows drew together, and then she nodded. “I’ll go, but you will stay with Aunt Beatrice in Bath. Promise me that?”

She had no place else to go in Bath, so on that point it was easy to capitulate. For how short a time, that was something she wouldn’t divulge to Isabella. “All right.”

Isabella hugged her again then left her. Catherine glanced at the clock and saw she had but twenty minutes until the hack arrived. She couldn’t go downstairs, not yet. She would wait until midnight.

And then she would leave everything she’d ever wanted behind.