Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

Emilia

E milia was having the most wonderful dream. She was in a big bed with warm, soft bedding and she was being touched. Gently and with only her pleasure as a goal. And it wasn't just anyone touching her, but it was Wren and Aiden, their big hands crossing and interlocking as they made her arch. She felt so safe, so happy that she knew it must be a dream.

Only as they continued to stroke her skin, something changed. She felt a tension enter the room. Their smiles began to shift to frowns and then fear. Fear that pierced her, as well. She wanted to sit up on the bed and look for the threat that had entered this safe realm, but she was suddenly trapped, held down, helpless to do anything but watch as Wren and Aiden both gasped and then dissolved into smoke.

And out of that smoke walked Wilburn. Her husband smiled as he reached for her.

"My faithless whore of a wife," he said, his eyes bright with rage and cruelty and a promise of pain and death.

She did sit up then, shoving at the bedclothes, kicking at nothingness as she shrieked. The door to the small adjoining dressing room flew open and Aiden rushed through. He caught her in his arms, pulling her flush against his naked chest as he smoothed her hair.

"You're safe," he whispered as he rocked her, just as he had through every nightmare since he had removed her from Wilburn's home. "We're here, Emilia. You're safe."

Her heart was still pounding but she stopped flailing and gripped her hands against his skin, trying to draw in breath as she fully exited the dream state and came back to reality. When she no longer felt like she had been racing at full speed, she drew back a little.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "You have been so kind about these nightmares, but it must be trying."

He smoothed the tangles of her hair away from her forehead and kissed her gently. "Nothing about you has ever been trying, love. The only difficulty about the nightmares is that I hate to see you in such a state."

She swallowed hard and rested her head back in the crook of his shoulder. "You said we're here," she whispered. "But where is Wren?" She glanced at the windows and realized it was no longer light outside. "And why is it so dark?"

He smiled. "We came in to fetch you to bathe and found you fast asleep. So instead of waking you, Wren cleaned himself up and wrote the letters he talked about earlier."

"The ones to put Wilburn off our trail?" she asked, sitting up a little straighter. Now that she was coming out of the terror of her nightmares and the confusion of sleep, she was beginning to attend better.

Aiden nodded. "Then he went into the village to have them posted to the friends who will help with the subterfuge. He'll be back shortly."

"And did you bathe?" she asked.

"I did," he said softly, then lifted his gaze to hers almost conspiratorially. "In his bathwater."

She shivered at how erotic he made that sound. "Mmm, I wish I could have watched you both."

"We'll have plenty of time for that," Aiden assured her.

She smiled but she wasn't so certain of that. Her nightmare was closer to reality than she wanted to discuss at present. "And did you two…do anything together while I slept so innocently just a room away?" she asked, tracing his chest with her nails now.

He laughed, a low chuckle that was filled with heat. "There was a great deal of longing, but you know that if it's not all of us, it's none of us, Emilia." He blushed a little. "Except for kissing. We did do some kissing."

She smiled along with him. "To be fair, so did you and I. Oh, and I kissed him, too. I suppose we don't count kissing in that promise."

"Fair enough. But if the two of us are going to indulge in each other, it will be with you tangled with us. Or watching us. Or directing us."

She bit her lip. "Oh, directing you. That sounds wonderful."

Wren's voice interrupted them. "Then I'd suggest you take your own bath, my lady, which has been refreshed, it seems, while I was taking care of my business. Then we can grant your wish."

Both of them turned and found him leaning on the door frame of the bedroom. Wren had shed his jacket when he entered the cottage and was now rolling up his sleeves to the elbow as he watched them together. Both she and Aiden gave a shiver at the sight of those forearms that were deliciously corded with muscle, those hands that were so strong and firm when they touched and stroked.

She forced herself to focus and pushed the coverlet away. Of course she was naked after all their earlier passion and she still felt a need to cover herself, despite the utter trust she had in these men. She fought it, working to recall that she had nothing to fear from their heated gazes. Neither of them had ever thought worse of her somehow. She doubted they ever could. It was part of why it had been so easy to keep the love she'd always felt for them alive, despite their separation. They were the loves of her life. And that fact was so easy and lovely that she nearly cried with it.

Especially since she so pointedly knew that it might not matter in the end.

But she pushed that away and motioned her head to the adjoining chamber where Aiden had come from earlier. "I assume my tub awaits me through there."

"It does," Aiden said, and motioned her in that direction.

They followed as if they were her servants, but she couldn't help but laugh when she heard Wren grunt, "Jesus. Those hips."

She twitched said hips a little more out of playful teasing even though her cheeks heated with the compliment and its accompanying desire. She gasped as she entered the dressing room. There was a big brass tub along the wall under a small window and it steamed with fresh water scented with something floral and fresh. There were clean towels resting on a stool beside the bath and other soaps awaiting her. After the past few days, her muscles ached and she felt a sharp twinge of longing as she looked at the welcoming water.

"Don't just sit there making love to the bath with your eyes," Aiden said with a laugh as he took her hand to steady her. "Sink in."

She smiled at him and did just that, stepping over the edge and settling beneath the warmth. When he released her she sank a little lower and dunked her entire body, including her head, beneath the welcoming heat. When she surfaced, she slicked her hair back and then settled against the tub to watch Aiden and Wren.

They were both staring, mouths slightly agape, at her. "You two look like you've never seen a naked woman," she teased.

"Not enough of this naked woman," Wren corrected. "Only in our dreams until earlier today. I think I'd never get enough of seeing you like this."

"And we've always been of a mind," Aiden said as he removed the towels and set them on a dressing table so he could take the stool beside her bath.

Wren laughed. "That we have. Always wanted the same thing, Aiden and I."

She took the washcloth draped over the tub edge and wetted it, then lathered it with soap. "Each other," she said. "And me."

Wren nodded and grabbed for the chair at the dressing table. He turned it so that the back was facing her and straddled it. "Did you always know that?"

"That you and Aiden wanted each other?" she asked. Aiden glanced at Wren and then both of them nodded. "I suppose we never really discussed it out loud, did we? It just…was." She thought back to those lazy days when they were just becoming aware of attraction. When their longtime friendship had begun to shift to something more. "I think I started to understand the looks you gave each other when I was…fifteen? And how if your hands brushed, they would linger. Just as they did with mine."

"Did you ever find it strange? Uncomfortable?" Aiden asked. "I doubt it's something discussed with governesses or female friends, after all."

"No," she agreed softly. "But I never thought it odd. It was always so right. The way you loved each other, wanted each other, only made our bond stronger. It never diminished it. And today, watching you touch each other…" She shivered despite the warmth of the water sloshing around her as she washed. "It was so powerful. I love to see it. I want to see more of it."

Wren reached out and his fingers brushed along Aiden's thigh. Emilia clenched her own thighs together against the pleasure of it. She reveled in how Aiden's breath caught.

"We can do that," Wren said softly. "If Wilburn had known about this place, I think he would have directed me here after you, since he believes I might betray you for his money. We'll be safe here, and I've doubly ensured that by paying some locals to inform me if anyone comes here asking about either of you. The letters I wrote and sent for the viscount's benefit will take some time to filter over to him. And the information I'm seeking in the meantime will also take a while and is being handled by my most trusted associates. It all means we have a few weeks where there will be little to do but wait. We can spend those weeks here."

"Together," Aiden breathed.

Tears filled Emilia's eyes at that thought. A few weeks with these two men? Being loved and loving them? Pretending they were together for life? "That sounds like heaven," she whispered.

"But Emilia," Wren continued, his dark blue gaze holding hers steady. "You've been through a great deal. If you don't want this…if it's too much and you only want to be safe, we would never ask for more. This is for you. Whatever you need and want."

Emilia stared from one of them to the other and her heart swelled with the love that had never died. "What I need and want is both of you. Like we were earlier, and more. What I want is to live in this beautiful bubble and indulge in everything I was denied since I was parted from you."

Aiden relaxed a little with a laugh. "Thank God. Then let me wash your hair and we'll retire back to the bedroom where you can do exactly what you told me you wanted earlier."

Wren cocked an eyebrow. "What did you want, Emilia?"

"To direct you two," she said with a wink toward him. "As you show me how much you want each other."