Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Aiden

A iden's hands shook as he turned the key in the lock and opened the door. He only had a moment to take in the tall, broad-shouldered man who was standing outside with the sunshine haloing him like some kind of angel before Wren shoved past him and into the cottage.

"What were you thinking?" he snapped with no preamble, despite the years that had separated them. He pivoted back at Aiden, face alive with emotion.

Aiden gulped in air as he shut and locked the door again. By God, but Wren was the same. Only…bigger somehow. His gorgeous face was rougher with stubble, though the full lips Aiden had dreamed about for so long were the same. His dark blue eyes were bright with anger, and yet as they moved over Aiden they were also filled with the same desire they always had been.

"Why are you here?" Aiden gasped out.

Wren folded his arms and shook his head. "I'm here because I was invited to Lord Wilburn's home yesterday afternoon. And he hired me to find you because he believes you kidnapped his wife. Please tell me you didn't kidnap his wife!"

The door to the bedchamber behind them clicked open at that shouted demand and both men turned. Emilia stepped out, her hands clenched at her heart, and Aiden felt the air come out of Wren just as it had come out of him the moment he saw her again after all those years of longing and loss.

"Wren," she whispered.

Wren was silent for a moment, just staring at her, and then he pivoted back on Aiden. "What the hell did you think you were doing, Aiden?"

"Will you report this back to him?" Aiden asked and immediately wished he could take the question back when Wren's expression fell, darkened.

"How dare you?" he whispered, his voice cracking. "How dare you ask me that."

Emilia lunged forward and wedged herself between them, keeping the tension from escalating with her presence. "Please!" she gasped out. Then she looked up at Wren. "How did you find us? Did he know where we were?"

Wren glared at Aiden. "No. I am an investigator. It's my job to find out things. And I would never tell that bastard a thing about either of you, not if he gave me a thousand pounds, a hundred thousand, a million."

"I'm sorry," Aiden said softly.

Wren bent his head and for a long, charged moment none of them said anything. Then he turned back to Emilia and caught her hands, drawing her in for a long hug. She clung to him, trembling, just as she had trembled when Aiden had done the same in his carriage after he swept her away. And he was so relieved to have Wren here, for them to all be together again.

He needed help. She needed help. They had always done better as a team.

"Come, let us talk," Wren said as he released her. "You two can explain yourselves and then we can work out what to do."

Emilia's gaze flitted to Aiden and he nodded slightly, encouraging her. She sighed and then moved to the settee in front of the roaring fire Aiden had set not half an hour before. He took the place beside her and Wren just stared at them. Then Wren drew in a shaky breath and, to Aiden's surprise, settled into the space on her opposite side. Emilia's breath hitched ever so slightly but none of them acknowledged the intimacy of the seating arrangement.

She looked toward Aiden and he reached out, covering her hand. "Tell him, just as you told me. He'll understand."

"I want to understand," Wren said softly, and reached across to stroke his own fingers across Aiden's. He shivered in response and so did Emilia. "Please."

They all pulled away and Emilia nodded. "I-I'll try," she whispered. "I'll try to tell you, but please understand this is difficult. So difficult."

Aiden ached for her as she drew long breaths over and over again, struggling for words. Wren said nothing as she did so, he simply held the space for her to find her own way. And at last, she did.

"I tried to be happy in my marriage," she said softly. "I knew I couldn't have what I wanted and I tried to be settled with what I had. I had nothing in common with Wilburn, but he was not unkind…at least at first."

"Emilia," Wren breathed, his expression crumpling ever so slightly.

She shrugged, tears brightening her expression. "The changes happened so slowly over the years. He became more distant, and then more sharp and then cruel in his words."

"Why?" Wren breathed.

"Because he wanted heirs and spares and I didn't provide them," she explained, her cheeks staining red. "God, how he hated me for it. Despised me for it. In the last few years, especially, he would rail at me about what a bad trade he made in me as a wife. And in the last year?—"

She broke off and turned her head. Aiden squeezed her hand gently and she looked at him, her eyes bright with tears. Clearly she couldn't continue and so he drew a shaky breath and said, "Emilia believes that he…that he tried to kill her."

* * *

Emilia

E milia felt like she was going to vomit as Aiden said the words she, herself, couldn't. That feeling multiplied as Wren sank back against the settee cushions, his expression shocked and pale. She was dragging the two people she loved more than any other into something so ugly and cruel. It was what she'd tried to prevent for years as she lived her lonely life and only dreamed of them.

"Wh-why do you think that?" Wren stammered at last, his voice trembling now.

She swallowed hard. "I got very ill a few months ago. I thought little of it until our cook whispered to me not to eat the soup. She was terrified and I didn't understand. I didn't want to, I suppose. But I realized that night that Wilburn never ate it. I-I believe he was poisoning it. When I stopped eating it, I got better. And his frustration with me multiplied as I recovered. He then became very vocal that his life would be better if I were dead."

Wren pushed to his feet and started for the door. "I'll kill him myself. I'll kill him with my bare hands."

Aiden was up before Emilia could be. He caught Wren's arms, yanking him back, keeping him from exiting the cottage. Wren fought him for a moment and then turned, collapsing against him as he shook.

"I know," Aiden whispered close to his ear. "I know, I felt the same way when Emilia reached out."

"Then how can you not want to rip him apart?" Wren growled.

"If you think I don't then you have forgotten a great deal about me," Aiden said. "But my main goal is to protect Emilia. And storming off to confront her husband may not do that. It could make things worse."

Wren's jaw tightened and Emilia caught her breath. She knew that look so well—Wren had always done that when he was frustrated. Then he let out a ragged sigh and rested his head forward on Aiden's shoulder. She was warmed by their support of each other.

"What can we do?" Aiden asked softly.

Wren lifted his head and stepped back, running a hand through his thick, dark hair and making himself look attractively bed-tousled in the process. He paced for a moment, his lips thin.

"I can…I can write some letters to the man about my so-called investigation," he said, nodding as if in agreement with his burgeoning plan. "I'll use contacts so that they seem to come from far away. I'll draw him off the track with false leads. And it will buy us some time to decide how to best proceed."

"Thank you," Emilia said, relief flooding her, not just that he had ideas in mind that might help her, but also that he was no longer intent on rushing off to confront her husband.

Wren glanced toward Emilia, holding her gaze steady. "What you've been through, I…I cannot imagine. Though I always knew your strength, I see it even more here now."

Emilia's breath caught. "I fear I haven't earned that compliment, Wren. I haven't felt strong in the last seven years. All I've done in that time is try to survive. And missed you." She looked toward Aiden behind Wren. "Both of you. I missed… us all these years. What kept me going was dreaming of you two…thinking about what could have been."

Wren stared at her for a long moment and then he closed the distance between them in a long step. He reached his hand up to touch her cheek, traced the line of it until his fingers glided into her hair. She couldn't breathe now, just stare into the darkness of his blue eyes and feel all the passion and love and desire she had lacked in her years as Lady Wilburn.

And when he bent his head to kiss her, she surrendered to it, just as she had to Aiden before Wren's arrival. But where Aiden had been gentle, Wren was something different. Not cruel, never that, but more demanding, more forceful. She opened to him, lifting against his chest, losing herself in his warmth and protection.

"I'm sorry," he said, pulling away with a shake of his head.

"I'm not," she whispered. "I never could be."

Aiden stepped up, his pupils dilated with clear desire after seeing Wren kiss her. It made Emilia shiver to see it. To feel the crackling tension between them all.

"You must be exhausted, Wren," Aiden said. "Can I get you tea?"

Wren nodded. "Yes."

"Sit with her and I'll prepare it." He smiled at them both and then slipped away, allowing Emilia a moment alone with Wren.

He motioned to the settee where they sat together and he caught her hand in both of his, cradling and protecting her with just the barest touch. "I cannot believe I'm here with you," he said.

She smiled up at him, drinking him in. He really was beautiful, not changed at all in the years that had separated them and yet deeply changed. His dark blue eyes were the same, his full lips, the way he looked so deeply into her eyes when he spoke to her, like she was the only person in the whole world. But he had grown into himself, as well. He was more broad-shouldered and though it was evident he was usually clean-shaven, he had stubble slashed across his cheeks that only highlighted that his face had become more angled.

"You are beautiful," she whispered. "I had forgotten how beautiful."

"Hmmm," he said, and pushed a lock of her hair away from her face. "I think that's my line."

She laughed a little, the sound rusty after so long of no use. "You must have been shocked when Wilburn called you to him."

"I thought it was your doing," he said, and his gaze grew distant for a moment. "I could hardly breathe with the idea that I would see you, stand with you after all this time. And then I stopped breathing entirely when he told me what he thinks he knows and I realized you were in danger."

She nodded. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that."

"Again," he whispered. "That's my line."

They were quiet for a moment, just looking at each other. And then Emilia dared to draw in another deep breath. "I used to dream of you. Of both of you."

He shifted and his pupils dilated with desire. "Did you now? And what did you dream."

She stood on shaky legs and drew him up with her. "That you would kiss me like you did a moment ago."

"But this isn't a dream," he whispered, and then his mouth came back to hers as she wound her arms around his neck and leaned into his solidness and warmth once again.

She lost herself in that for a moment, savoring the feel of this man with his arms around her. It was only when Aiden returned to the room that she became aware of her surroundings again. There was the clatter of him setting the tea service down on a table, but she didn't break her mouth from Wren's. She couldn't. She needed him more than she needed breath in that moment. Needed so much more than just him.

And it was like Aiden understood that, for in that moment, she felt another set of hands on her back. She shivered as her lips parted from Wren's and she looked over her shoulder to find Aiden behind her. He stood very still for a moment, one hand on her hip, the other against her ribcage. Then he leaned in and his mouth found the side of her throat. She whimpered and lifted her lips back to Wren.

He groaned as he returned to kissing her and she gripped his lapels as sensation began to mob her. This was what she'd dreamed of, foggy dreams when she was younger, before she knew what the physical union between lovers was like. After her marriage, the dreams had become sharper, more powerful. And eventually they had been the only thing she could do to endure her husband's touch. She would close her eyes and pretend it was one of these men.

And when she was alone in her bed?

Well, she dreamed of them both, touching her as they were now, fingers gripping against the fine silk of her gown. She'd dreamed of them having her in so many ways as she arched against her own fingers in her lonely bed.

Wren drew back, his fingers smoothing against her jaw. "Should we do this?" he whispered. "You're married and you've been through so much."

She blinked up at him, hating how he was bringing reality to this fantasy. Hating that Aiden lifted his mouth away from her throat, as if Wren's words had brought him out of the spell between them, too.

"My marriage was over the moment I believed my husband could kill me," she said softly. "And I want this. I've always wanted this, wanted both of you. Whatever is going to happen next, I…I need this. I need both of you. Together. Now, while we still have the chance."

She turned a little and caught Aiden's chin, drawing him to her. She kissed him, darting her tongue out to taste him, feeling the growl from deep in his chest as it reverberated through her. Then she turned back and pulled Wren down to her the same way.

"Please, forget everything but this. Let me forget everything but this, too."

He stared into her eyes for a long moment and then he nodded, his mouth coming back to hers, his hands drawing up into her hair, pulling it down around his fingers as she arched against him, ground back against Aiden. Their bodies were so hard as she was wedged between them. Hard chests, hard cocks, one pressed to her belly, another against her backside. She shivered at the feel of them, at the promise of what was about to happen next.

She felt them moving as a unit, Wren guiding her back through the door to the bedroom where she had been hiding not an hour before. Aiden followed, his hands gliding over her hips, massaging her there.

"Look at me," Wren said as he drew back yet again.

Emilia's gaze felt blurry as she forced herself to do so, staring up into that gorgeous face. "Y-Yes?"

"If you want to stop, we stop," he said. "Either of you."

She nodded and glanced back over her shoulder at Aiden. He had a half-smile on his face as he leaned over her shoulder and bunched his fingers into Wren's cravat, tugging him closer.

"I'm not going to want to stop, Wren," he promised before he hauled Wren in for his own kiss.

Emilia could hardly breathe as their tongues tangled before her, their passion for each other as powerful as theirs for her. Oh yes, she would enjoy this ultimate fantasy. She would forget the truth that it couldn't last. And she would lose herself in everything she had ever wanted.

Wren turned her to face Aiden and she lifted up to wrap her arms around him, kissing him. He drove his tongue into her now, no longer gentle, but purposeful, hungry. She felt Wren's hands along the buttons at her spine and her breath caught as he unfastened the first one and dropped his lips to the tiny bit of skin he had revealed. He repeated the action on the next button, the next, until he reached the edge of her chemise and traced the line of lacy across the top with his tongue.

"You're so sweet, Emilia," he murmured against her skin. "I can't wait to taste you all over."

"Please," she murmured against Aiden's lips, and he chuckled without breaking their kiss.

Wren was pushing her gown forward. Aiden caught the bodice and helped. Hands slid down her body and with her eyes shut she began to lose herself, uncertain who was cupping her breast through her chemise and who was sliding thumbs into the folded fabric of her gown to guide it past her hips.

And it didn't matter who, really. They were one now, moving toward an ultimate pleasure that she had longed for. She pulled away from Aiden's mouth and forced herself to look at him. Aiden's pupils had dilated with desire and he played with the strap of her chemise, stroking it between his thumb and forefinger before he guided it down to her elbow.

"You don't know how many times I imagined this," he said, and lowered the other strap. "Seeing you like this. Touching you like this." The fabric fell away from her breasts and she was naked from the waist up.

Heat filled her cheeks at being so revealed. She had never liked showing herself to her husband, who only had criticisms for her body that had grown louder as she pleased him less and less. But when Aiden looked down at her, all she saw was his admiration, his adoration and she forced herself not to lift her hands and cover her breasts.

"Gorgeous," Aiden whispered as he bent his head and traced his tongue around her nipple. "Perfect."

She glided her fingers into his hair, holding him there as he licked and sucked and sent lightning bolts of pleasure through her body. As she began to moan, Wren ground against her backside, his hands bunching the fabric of her chemise at her hips.

"I love that sound," he whispered against her ear, sucking gently on the lobe.

She moaned again. She couldn't have stopped herself for all the gold in England, and Wren chuckled against her. Aiden looked up at him from his place at her breasts and smiled.

"I want to watch you," he whispered, his breath short. "I want to watch you have her before we share her."