Simply Voracious (27 page)

“If that is what you wish, my lady, but I must warn you that it is quite cold out there.” He rose and looked down at her. “May I fetch you a shawl?”

“If you ask one of the footmen to fetch it for you, they can bring it out to me.”

“I’ll do that, my lady.” Con searched the room for an available footman and could see no one. He moved out into the main ballroom and immediately collided with Paul.

“Are you looking for someone, Delinsky?”

Con drew in the sight of Paul in his evening clothes and committed it to memory. “I was looking for a footman to fetch a shawl for your wife. She is rather hot, and I offered to accompany her out on to the balcony.”

“I’ll fetch it for you and meet you there.”

Paul moved away, and Con turned back to collect Lady Lucinda. She tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and stepped out on to the balcony. A cold gust of wind immediately made her shiver.

“Are you sure you wish to be outside, my lady?” Con inquired. “I’m concerned that you might take a chill.”

She looked up at him, and he forgot all about the cold and found himself staring into her beautiful eyes. His hand fisted in an effort not to cup her cheek and bring his mouth down to hers. She let out her breath and it condensed in the air between them.

“Lady Lucinda, are you by any chance trying to seduce me?”

She blinked slowly at him like a cat. “Why ever would you think that?” She put her hand on his shoulder and moved closer until they were face-to-face.

He wanted to step away, but his body was already tightening and responding to her nearness, to her scent, to
her
.

“We should go inside.”

She sighed. “I suppose we should.”

It seemed to take forever for her to release him and turn away. She walked along the balcony and opened another set of the doors. Con followed her in and almost crashed into a piece of furniture before he realized the room was in complete darkness.

“Oh, my goodness!” Lady Lucinda turned around and flung herself into his arms, almost toppling him over. “I hate the dark!”

For one glorious moment, he held her, his face pressed to the coils of her hair, his arm wrapped around her waist. The sound of someone clearing his throat from the still-open door brought him to his senses. He turned to find Paul illuminated against the moonlit sky, Lady Lucinda’s shawl in his hands.

Con set Lady Lucinda back on her feet and immediately stepped away from her. “St. Clare, this is not what you think. I . . .” But Paul wasn’t even looking at him, let alone listening.

Paul pushed past Con and lit a branch of candles, illuminating the room and his wife’s extremely guilty expression.

“Shut the door, Con, will you, and give us some privacy?”

Lucky made a slight movement toward the outer door, and Paul held up his hand.

“Stay exactly where you are, my lady.”

Lucky subsided into a chair, and Paul returned his attention to a stricken-looking Con.

“It’s all right, Con. I’m not going to call you out. I know exactly where the blame for this episode lies. I told you my wife had a devious mind, didn’t I?”

Con walked across to the fireplace and stirred the dying embers to life. “Are you suggesting that Lady Lucinda wanted you to find us together in these embarrassing circumstances?”

“She probably wanted you to be found together by someone.”

“Ah, that’s why she asked me to get a footman to fetch her shawl.”

“Exactly. She probably thought you’d be mortified to be found with her in a private setting by one of the servants, and worried that they would tell me.”

“But you offered to fetch the shawl yourself.”

Paul swung around to glare at Lucky. “Which actually makes things a lot simpler.”

She opened her eyes wide at him. “I have no idea what you are talking about. Lieutenant Colonel Delinsky has behaved like a perfect gentleman.”

“Apart from when he thought about kissing you.”

Con’s startled gaze flew to his face. Paul studied them both for a long moment, aware that they’d surprised him, and that he hadn’t expected them to look at each other like that,
ever
. But hadn’t Lucky told him that she liked Con, and that it wasn’t always about him?

“I didn’t kiss her, Paul,” Con said.

“I know, but you wanted to.” He smiled. “It’s all right, Con. I thought Lucky intended to throw us together, but I obviously misunderstood her purpose.”

Lucky stood up, her color high. “I wanted to make you jealous, you dolt!”

“Then you succeeded.” He inclined his head an inch.

“You don’t understand,” she sighed. “I knew you would balk if I tried to force you and Constantine back together. I thought it would be better if I made you jealous enough to demand I leave him alone.”

“And discovered in the planning that you were not as averse to flirting with Con as you might think.”

“If I might be allowed to contribute to this discussion?” Con snapped.

Paul looked away from Lucky into Con’s furious face. “Be my guest.”

“I am not a toy to be tossed between you for your amusement, and I resent being treated as one!” Con glared at them both. “There are several perfectly acceptable solutions to your dilemma.”

“There are?” At that moment, Paul wasn’t sure if he wanted to hit Con or fuck him. “I’m sure you are going to enlighten us.”

Con took up a commanding position on the hearth rug, his hands behind his back. He looked striking in his dress uniform, the blue of the coat bringing out the silver-gray of his eyes and the pure whiteness of his hair.

“Before I was married, I met an older couple, friends of my parents, who decided to take me up and introduce me to society. I was grateful for their interest, as I found them far better company than my parents or my peers.”

“Fascinating.” Paul leaned back against the desk. “But what exactly does this have to do with our ‘dilemma’?”

Con ignored him and carried on speaking. “After a while, it became obvious that the lady was also interested in taking me to bed. I was intrigued by the possibility, but determined not to offend her husband, who had also befriended me.”

“You were always an honorable man, Con,” Paul murmured.

Con inclined his head a frosty inch. “Thank you for that, at least. Eventually the husband came to call on me and revealed that he would be more than happy for me to have his wife, as long as he was able to join in.” He paused. “In truth, the idea excited me and, being young, I agreed. As we grew accustomed to each other in bed, I also realized that the husband desired me as well, and that I was willing to let him fuck me.

“I was quite content, until they told me they had to move to France. I tried to convince my parents to let me leave with them.” He shrugged, the motion showing off his elegant, muscled frame. “Of course, I was a little too passionate for their liking, and they were horrified when I admitted to being in love with both members of the other couple. After my lovers left, my family married me off pretty damn quickly to quiet the rumors.”

“And the point of your story is?” Paul asked.

Con’s gaze narrowed. “Isn’t it obvious? You don’t need to fight over me. I’m quite willing to have you both. Or not, as the case may be.” He bowed and headed for the door. “Perhaps when you have made up your minds, you will inform me of your decision. Good night.”

As the door closed with a definite bang behind Con, Paul stared at Lucky. Her mouth was slightly open, and she looked as flabbergasted as he felt. She shot to her feet, her fingers smoothing down the satin of her dress.

“We should return to the ball.”

Paul nodded. “Indeed we should.”

Hours later, Lucky paced her bedchamber and thought back over the events of the ball and Constantine’s surprising declaration. She tried to imagine a young version of him in bed with his married couple and blushed. She’d seen more than one couple copulating at the pleasure house and hadn’t been shocked at all. Was it possible that Constantine wanted both her and Paul?

When he’d looked at her on the balcony, she’d wanted him to kiss her, had sensed he was close to doing it anyway. She also knew what held him back: his honorable nature and his relationship with Paul. She wrapped her arms around herself. And what had she been
thinking?
She’d only been married a few weeks, and she was already lusting after another man?

But her marriage to Paul was scarcely destined to be normal. She’d already accepted that and offered him his freedom. Was it destiny that she and Paul were attracted to the same man? She had to talk to Paul, had to know what he was thinking.

She picked up her candle and let herself in through the door that connected their chambers. The dressing room was empty so she went on through to Paul’s bedchamber. He was sitting in a chair by the fire in just his shirt and trousers, staring into the flames, a glass of brandy in his hand.

He went to rise, and Lucky held out her hand. “Are you still angry with me?”

He sat back and looked up at her, his brown eyes full of shadows and wary caution. “Not really.”

“But I behaved very badly.”

“No worse than Con or I.” He abruptly rose to his feet and started taking off his shirt. “Come to bed.”

“Now?”

His head emerged from the shirt. “Why not?”

“Don’t you want to talk about what happened?”

“Not really.” He grimaced as he worked the buttons on his trousers and stepped out of them and his underclothes, leaving him naked and most definitely aroused.

He reached for Lucky and drew her against him, his mouth urgent on hers, his hands roaming her body. She kissed him back and touched him in return, glorying in the hard planes of his back and shoulders, the insistent press of his wet cock against her belly.

He groaned and thrust his hand into her hair, drawing her head back so that he could ravage her mouth more thoroughly. She barely noticed when he maneuvered her on to his bed and came down over her, her nightdress gone, his mouth covering her breast.

He wedged his hand between her legs and stroked her there until she opened herself to him. His fingers plunged inside her in a demanding rhythm while his thumb worked her bud.

“Are you wet for me, Lucky, or is this for Con?” he whispered.

“That’s not fair.” She moaned as he slid inside her and began thrusting. “I can’t think, I can’t defend myself when you are, ah . . .” She climaxed, and he kept up the fast rhythm, pushing her onward and upward to another wave of sensation.

He gathered her closer, one arm moving lower to tilt her hips and spread her even wider. “You want him, don’t you, Lucky? You want him like this, just like I do.” He shuddered in her embrace and came inside her in hot, pulsing waves that made her gasp his name.

After a long while he rolled off her, his hand still tangled in her hair, his thigh heavy against her hip. She stared up at the dark embroidered canopy over her bed and tried to rearrange her scattered thoughts.

“Paul?” she whispered.

He stirred beside her, but he didn’t respond.

“Paul, how does it feel when a man like Constantine Delinsky takes you to bed?”

His hand tightened in her hair, and she felt him tense.

“Does it feel different from how it is when you bed me?”

He sighed. “Do you mean because I fuck him in a different hole?”

She felt her cheeks flush. “Yes.”

Paul slid his hand down over her hip and around the curve of her buttock, his long fingers circling the pucker of her arse. She was already wet, and he gathered his seed on his fingertip and swirled it around her tight entrance.

“I can tell you, but I’d rather you experienced the difference yourself.”

He eased the very tip of his finger inside her and gently circled it around. He’d entered her like that before, had pushed his whole finger deep while he fucked her, and she’d seemed to like it. He wanted to give her more now, more fingers and then his aching cock.

He moved away from her to find some oil to ease his passage, and she lay still, watching him, her eyes dark with arousal, her body displayed for his pleasure. And he did like looking at her. She was his in a way that no other woman would ever be. He thought of them together, the three of them, and his cock stiffened even more.

He returned to Lucky’s side and knelt over her, spreading her legs wide and sliding a cushion under her buttocks. The mingled scent of their lovemaking rose from her skin, and he bent his head to kiss her now swollen clit. He licked her slowly and lavishly, tending to each fold of her skin, sliding his tongue deep inside her even as he worked his oiled finger deep in her arse.

She bucked against his questing tongue and he murmured his approval, sucking her clit into his mouth and making her come. He added a second finger, and took his time helping her grow accustomed to the sensation of being stretched and open to him in more than one way. Her fingers grazed his scalp, and he looked up at her.

“Do you like this, Lucky?”

“Yes.” She bit down on her lip.

“Touch yourself while I fuck you, touch your breasts. Imagine what it might feel like if there were two men tending to your every need, two mouths, two cocks.”

“Paul . . .”

“Touch yourself, Lucky.”

She cupped her hands around her breasts, and he wanted to come at the luscious sight. Instead, he bent his head and eased a third finger inside her arse. He almost wished they were at the pleasure house, and he could use a dildo to show her exactly the difference between the two types of penetration. Maybe he should do that next time, or maybe there was an even better solution.

He returned his attention to her sex, flicking her bud with his tongue, working her arse, his thumb delving into her cunt with every deep stroke. She started to shudder around him, and he buried his face against her, sucking up every tremor, every lush emission from her soaking wet cunt. His cock was dripping now and aching to be buried deep inside her.

He forced himself to crawl up her body, paused at her breasts to add his tongue strokes to her fingers plucking at her nipples, and then came down over her mouth, giving her a taste of herself.