Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Emilia

E milia had come many times with these men, but this time felt different. With Wren's mouth buried against her body, as she watched Aiden gently ready him with his thick fingers and she sucked him to release, she felt…wicked. She felt worshiped and adored. And she felt powerful. After all, she was in control of this as much as either of them. They gave her that gift.

She lifted herself up and scooted down Wren's body, now straddling his hips as she leaned up to kiss Aiden as he continued to finger Wren. Aiden moaned against her mouth.

"I can taste him," he whimpered.

She smiled and then said, "He's still hard."

"Oh yes, I see that, angel," Aiden said. "Will you ride him for me? Make him fill you up so I can see him overflowing from you?"

She shivered at the wicked images and looked back over her shoulder at Wren. He'd moved up to his elbows and he was hardly breathing as he watched her shift, lifting up, gripping his somehow still-hard cock and rub it against her dripping body. When she took him in a hard, slick stroke, he bucked beneath her and swore.

Aiden smiled. "When a man comes, he's so sensitive, Emilia. Imagine how much you're torturing him, pleasuring him as you ride him. As you use him."

She began to rock over him, lifting her hands to press them to Aiden's chest, their eyes meeting. "I want to watch you fuck him, too," she whispered, shocked at how bold these men made her.

Aiden nodded, his smile fading, his expression turning wild and wicked. He caught her hand and poured a little of the oil over her palm and fingers, then set the bottle aside as she gripped his cock. She rolled her hips over Wren again and again even as she stroked Aiden with her fist, watching his head dip back against his shoulders, his mouth open to expel a shaky breath.

Wren lifted beneath her and she gasped, herself, lost in the sensation of him for a moment. Aiden smiled at him over her shoulder and then withdrew from her palm and positioned himself at the arse he had been preparing. "Ready?" he asked, and Emilia knew it wasn't her he was asking.

"Yes." Wren's voice was garbled and harsh behind her, and he stopped breathing entirely as Aiden pressed himself at the entrance and then moved forward.

Emilia held still and watched, knowing exactly how good this man felt when he took her just like this. When he stretched her arse while she was being taken by another. She knew exactly how full and achy Wren had to be.

Aiden's fingers came into her hair and he kissed her hard and deep as together they began to move against Wren. He was moaning and arching beneath them both, and they became one organism, seeking pleasure, unaware of anything else in the world but each other and the pleasure they created.

"Come for me," Aiden whispered against her lips.

She was so close to the edge, his request wasn't hard to honor. She ground down against Wren faster, her legs shaking, her brow sweaty with exertion and sensation. The pleasure built, curling through her entire being, and then the waves hit and she cried out, clinging to Aiden as he increased his own pace. Wren was incoherent now, moaning out his own pleasure. He came as her orgasm began to fade, filling her while Aiden gripped his fingers against her hips and did the same to him.

His kiss deepened, slowed, and Wren sat up behind her, his arms coming around her stomach, his mouth against her shoulder. "God, that was everything."

She nodded as she broke Aiden's kiss. "Everything," she repeated as she traced his cheek with a finger and then turned her head so she could kiss Wren.

Slowly they all parted, and Aiden fetched damp cloths so they could carefully clean themselves up from the sticky results of the passion they'd shared. Then they collapsed on the bed together, legs tangled and mouths seeking as the warmth of pleasure and love settled into the quiet room. Emilia was floating off to sleep when there was the sound of the bell ringing from the other room.

She felt Wren stiffen and she opened one eye to see him staring at Aiden. There was silent communication that went between them, something secret that she didn't understand, and immediately she went on alert as Wren slipped from the bed and threw Aiden's dressing gown over his gorgeous, naked form.

Without a word, he exited the room and shut the door behind him. She heard the door outside open, heard Wren's voice though she didn't understand the words, and another voice respond. Then the door shut. Even after a few moments, Wren didn't return, and she looked up at Aiden. His expression was pinched and worried.

"What are you two hiding?" she asked.

Aiden glanced down at her sharply. "Nothing."

She sat up now and shook her head. "Sweetest Aiden, do you forget that I know you two? I can see when you're lying. What is it?"

"Nothing to trouble yourself about. Is that better?" he asked. "Let Wren take care of?—"

He didn't get to finish the sentence. Emilia got up and without dressing left the room and entered the main chamber of the cottage. Wren was sitting at the desk in the corner, bent over a letter.

"What are you hiding from me?" she asked without preamble.

Wren's gaze jerked up and he set the letter face down so she couldn't see, which did nothing to make her less certain that it was about her. She folded her arms across her bare breasts and shook her head.

"Have we not hidden enough from each other in the attempt to protect ourselves? Have we not gone through enough and become enough to each other now to trust that we are stronger together ?"

She felt Aiden at her back, then his hand came to cup her hip. "She's right," he said softly. "She's right, Wren."

For a moment, Wren was frozen, staring at the two of them. Emilia could practically see him working through all the answers, all the arguments. But at last, he bent his head slightly and then got up and came across the room to her, the letter in hand.

"It's from the viscount," he said softly. "In answer to a message I had posted from London by a fellow investigator I trust implicitly, Derrick Huntington. I also asked him to do a bit of looking into the viscount's activities, so there is also a note from him in the pages behind the viscount's." He hesitated and didn't offer her the heavy vellum sheets yet. "Emilia, what you read will be troubling. I…I hesitate to hurt you."

She gritted her teeth as she held out a hand. "I already know my husband's disdain for me and I suspect far darker motives to his actions. I need to see this. I need to know where I stand."

Wren cleared his throat and looked at Aiden. "Then let's get you something to put on and we can sit together and look at this. And decide what our next move is."

"Yes," Aiden said softly. "We'll be with you, Emilia, no matter what."

She nodded but from Wren's pale expression and Aiden's dire tone, she was beginning to fear what she would read more and more. Because she knew, perhaps better than either of them, that what was about to happen could change everything. What she was about to read could tear them all apart.

* * *

Wren

W ren had put on his trousers, Aiden had done the same and Emilia had taken Aiden's dressing gown and wrapped it around herself. Wren might have wondered at how erotic she could look in a garment two sizes too big for her frame, but at that moment, he couldn't focus on something so pleasurable.

All he could see was Aiden's drawn, worried expression as they sat together on the settee by the fire and Wren finally handed over the letters that had drawn them away from fantasy. Permanently, he feared.

"Shall I read them out loud?" Emilia asked. "So Aiden will know and Wren can hear the words again?"

"Please," Aiden said as he covered her shaking knee with his hand to steady her.

She glanced at him in thanks and then cleared her throat. "The first is from Wilburn. He writes, I am disappointed to find that you are still in London, Mr. Wren, though I suppose you must exhaust all closest ties before you go farther. But I expect results as you head to Kent. " She cut herself off. "Why did you tell him Kent?"

Wren shrugged though he felt anything but nonchalant about this conversation. "Because it's in the opposite direction from here."

She blinked for a moment and her cheeks paled. "Because…because you think he might send someone else after us?"

He didn't respond for a moment as he tried to find a way to keep her calm. At last Aiden filled the space. "He's right to be careful, isn't he?"

She nodded and bent her head. "Yes." Her breath was shaky a moment and then she continued to read. " Your question about my wife's relations is a good one. As difficult as she is, she has not kept the favor of her cousins or friends over the years, so I doubt she has anywhere to run to. A point in our favor. I'll look for your next letter in a few days. Wilburn. "

Her lips were pressed hard together as she set the page away. "He kept me from my cousins and friends," she said through gritted teeth.

"I'm sure he did," Aiden soothed softly. "Isolating you was in his best interest."

Wren was pulsing with rage, but he refused to show it and take away from Emilia's pain by forcing her to soothe or comfort him. "And his belief that you are friendless is in ours. He doesn't seem to suspect anything still about our true relationship to each other. But...but if you look at that next page from Huntington, you'll see that things have still taken a turn."

He hated that Emilia's hands began to shake as she lifted the next page in the letter. Unlike the viscount, whose handwriting was flowing and overdone, Huntington's was more sharp and crisp. Rather like the man himself.

" I include the viscount's response to the letter you had me post here in London and also send a report from what I've been looking into. I fear you were right to worry, old friend. It seems the viscount has looked into other ways of finishing this domestic issue with your friend. He was overheard seeking less than savory characters willing to take care of her ? —"

Emilia broke off with a cry and pushed to her feet, the letter fluttering to the floor as she paced away, her shoulders shaking with emotion. When Wren began to get up to follow her, she held up a hand and waved him back. She stood at the fire, her head bent.

Aiden swallowed hard and reached out to touch Wren's arm before he swept up the page she had dropped and continued reading from where she had become overwhelmed. " He was overheard seeking less than savory characters willing to take care of her with violence. " Aiden's jaw twitched, but he continued, " Immediately I sent in my partner, Barber, to offer his services so that another criminal wouldn't take charge and create actual danger. Barber has convinced him he's the one for the job and for now we don't have any intelligence that he has hired anyone else to do the same. Please respond to me as quickly as possible and let me know your next desired step. " Aiden balled the paper up and threw it to the floor. "And then he signs it. Bloody hell."

Wren nodded. "Although there was no doubt earlier based on what you experienced, I think we have fulsome proof now that Wilburn intended and still intends to end your life, Emilia."

Her breathing became steadier and she turned. Wren's heart broke at the emptiness that was back in her stare. She had become so much more alive in the days the three of them had spent together where the hours of pleasure had let her forget fear and pain. But that was over now. He could see it by the set of her jaw.

"Yes. And there will be little we can do about it. Wilburn is powerful and influential. I'm certain he has left no trail of proof of his intentions toward me, so there will be no way to involve anyone to help in an official capacity. There is only one answer, though I suppose I always knew it."

Wren tilted his head. "And what is that?"

"I must leave the country. There is nothing else to do but start anew. And I must do it…I must do it alone."