Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Wren

B y the time Emilia was finished with her bath, Wren was already hard. It was impossible not to be when he watched her touch herself beneath the water. When he watched Aiden touch her, even in the benign act of washing her hair or helping her dry off. Not that it was benign, not really. It was still an act of passion, but also an act of love.

He had known it when he rode here to find them, when he allowed their passion to overflow earlier in the day, but now it was even more clear: he would not escape this unscathed. He would be changed forever. He welcomed it, in truth. He didn't want to be the same. He wanted to be theirs.

They moved to the bedroom together and Emilia, still wrapped in one of the towels from her bath, took a place on the settee before the fire. She lounged back, letting her towel peel away from her thigh, Wren thought on purpose.

"Aiden says I may direct you," she said, her voice thick with seduction and desire.

"I don't think you've had control in a while," Wren said softly. "So take it, angel. Take it and wrap us around that pretty finger. I'll do anything you like to him."

Aiden's pupils dilated and Wren could tell he wanted to touch him. Grab him. But he didn't. He, too, wanted to give Emilia this chance at the control she'd lost when she married a man who would use and hurt her.

She drew a shaky breath. "You don't know the multitude of wicked acts that just flashed through my mind when you promised me that. I hardly know where to begin. But…when Aiden took you in his mouth earlier, it excited me. I want you to do the same for him. So I can see it. Please."

Wren couldn't hold back a groan of excitement at the order. How many times had he imagined taking Aiden in his mouth? Or pictured him when he had some other man between his lips in some anonymous hell? Too many times to count. And now it would be real.

He was shaking as he grabbed the chair Aiden had watched from when they all first made love together. He slid it closer to Emilia and gave her a small smile over his shoulder. She was trembling, her hands trailing over her legs in the most arousing way.

"Sit," Wren ordered.

Aiden arched a brow, but his pupils dilated with the dominance. "As you say, Mr. Wren."

Wren felt the corner of his lips twitch with a smile, one that faded as Aiden sank down and slouched, spreading his legs out so he looked dissipated and more tempting than anything Wren had ever seen.

"What next, Emilia?" Aiden said softly.

She whimpered. "Wren, kneel before him."

She tossed a pillow from the settee toward him. Wren caught it without breaking eye contact with Aiden and dropped it with a thump between Aiden's feet. He leaned in, gripping the arms of the chair to support himself as he slowly dropped to his knees there. Aiden's breath was short, ragged as they stared at each other.

"Tell me what to do, Emilia," Wren whispered.

There was a long pause and Wren looked at her over his shoulder. She had pushed aside the towel entirely now and sat naked on the chair, her hand between her legs, playing lightly. "Unfasten his fall front," she murmured.

He nodded and returned his gaze to Aiden. "Is that what you want?"

"You know it is," Aiden ground out. "I want to watch you take me in your mouth. I want to feel you on me."

"Yes," Emilia said. "Take his cock out and enjoy it, Wren. Stroke it and lick it and suck it until he's begging you for release. Until I'm shaking with my own. Until you ache from it."

Wren somehow managed to keep from spending just from their combined verbal torture and placed his hands on Aiden's thighs. They were so thick and heavily corded with muscle that twitched beneath his palms. He'd seen Aiden's cock earlier when they pleasured Emilia together. But this would be different. Just for him.

He unfastened the buttons on the fawn trousers that were impossibly tight around Aiden's very hard cock and finally freed him from their confines. For a moment Wren could only stare. He liked sex. He took his pleasure when he needed to do so, despite his continued feelings for the two people with him presently in the hot, close room. But this moment felt like more than sex. It felt like sacrament.

He reached out and stroked his fingertip along the satin flesh of Aiden's cock and the other man's eyes came shut with a low groan. He lifted slightly, as if reaching for more, and Wren smiled. He knew a little about that. Earlier it had taken every ounce of control in his body not to simply fuck Aiden's throat until he spent in a wild, unruly burst of pleasure.

"Like this, Emilia?" he asked, closing his fist around Aiden's length. Without looking at her, he shifted so she could see better.

"Yes," she moaned, and he smiled up at Aiden, who watched her for a moment.

"She likes it," he grunted. "So do I, Wren. It's better than I ever dreamed."

Wren stroke him once, twice, before he said, "Good."

Then he didn't speak for a while. He only focused on the pleasure. He pumped Aiden's hard cock with firm pressure as he gazed up at him, loving how he shook and twitched with the touch. He wanted to do it all day, just tease him while he looked into his eyes and felt Emilia at his back, arching and groaning against her fingers.

"For God's sake, suck me," Aiden finally moaned, his knuckles whitening against edge of the chair as he gripped it.

Wren chuckled. "Can you see, Emilia?"

"Yes, yes, yes," she whimpered, her voice broken.

Wren bent his head and lightly licked just the head of Aiden's cock, and Aiden gasped out his name as his hands came into Wren's hair. He didn't resist when Aiden tugged closer, forcing him to take a little more into his mouth. He liked the wordless demand, liked the feel of Aiden's thick hardness stroking over his tongue. He took more of him, filling his mouth up, circling the length of him, slow and steady.

"Fuck," Aiden whimpered. "Fuck."

And so Wren did. He fucked him with his mouth, deeper and deeper, with slow, certain strokes and firm suction. He reveled in the act, in the salty taste of Aiden's skin as he became more excited, in the way he stopped breathing entirely. And then Aiden began to thrust even deeper and Wren was undone. The feel of him against the back of his throat, the way Aiden looked as Wren took him, the sound of Emilia's pleasure as she dragged herself closer and closer to completion was almost too much to bear.

And yet it was everything Wren had ever wanted in his wildest, wickedest fantasies. He wanted all of it and more. He never wanted it to end and he also wanted to end Aiden in the most explosive way, only to start all over until he was weak beneath Wren's tongue.

Aiden met his eyes and there was a sensuality there, an intent that matched his own. "You are so fucking good at that," he said, then he caught Wren's chin and tugged him off his knees to claim his mouth with a searing kiss. "But I want more."

"What is more?" Wren asked, hardly able to find words when his mind and body were rolling.

Aiden pointed over his shoulder toward Emilia and together they looked at her. She was shaking, and when both their attention was on her she arched, wetness coating her fingers as she came with a wailing cry that echoed in the room.

"Fucking hell," Wren said, his voice low and rough.

"Do you want us to fuck you, Emilia?" Aiden asked. "Back and forth, over and over until you are shattered?"

"Yes," she gasped out. "Please!"

Wren pushed to his feet and pivoted, grabbing Emilia's hand and tugging her to the bed. Aiden was already standing by the time he turned back, and he groaned as Wren pushed her down so she was bent over the high edge of the mattress, her fingernails scratching against the soft fabric of the coverlet as she waited. He didn't allow her to wait long.

He speared her body with his cock in one long thrust and she bucked against him, gripping him in her wet heat to the point where he could have spent right there. But that wasn't what he wanted. He took her a few times, then stepped back so Aiden could take his place. As he rolling his hips against her backside in a few heavy thrusts, he cupped the back of Wren's neck and kissed him.

She was arching and mewling now and the two men took advantage, taking her back and forth, kissing and touching in between, the pleasure between them so powerful that it was almost impossible to separate it all. Emilia's fingers went back to her clitoris, rubbing it as she was taken, and as Wren gripped her hips and slammed into her, she came. It was impossible to exit her body then. She milked him and he threw back his head with a long moan of pleasure. Then he came with her, filling her with his essence and his love and his desire until he felt weak with it.

They were both shaking as he withdrew from her wet body. He waited to Aiden to return to his place behind Emilia and take his pleasure, as well, but she seemed to have other ideas. She turned and grabbed Wren's hand.

"Finish what you started," she whimpered.

He understood, his heart rate increasing as he went back on his knees and took Aiden back in his mouth. He tasted of Emilia's pleasure now, sweet and sticky, salty and earthy all at once, and Wren sucked harder and faster to devour all of their combined flavors.

He felt Emilia's fingers come into his hair. She pressed against the back of his skull, taking control of his pace as he took Aiden closer to oblivion. When he looked up at them, he found Aiden kissing her, their tongues tangling wildly as he moaned out his pleasure into her mouth.

When he came, Wren took every drop, savoring it like fine wine until Aiden went soft against his tongue. Only then did he withdraw and stand to join in their kiss as the heat between them transformed from heady passion to something more gentle, more loving. They moved to the bed together, a tangle of arms and legs and kisses, and for a while they simply lay that way, silent in the face of pleasure and the power of their connection.

But Wren knew in his heart that very soon they would have to be far more than silent. They would have to work out the past, the present, and mostly the future.

* * *

Emilia

E milia hadn't felt peace for so long that she hardly recognized it as she lay with her head on Wren's chest, his fingers tangling in her hair. Aiden rested his head on her hip, brushing his lips there from time to time even as his fingers played along the thick muscle of Wren's naked thigh. But this was peace. Not fear. Not acceptance of a life she didn't want. Not anticipation of whatever horror would come next. Peace.

But it was an illusion. It felt real but if she tried to cling to it, she knew it would disappear. And worse still, it could destroy both these men. If it…and she…hadn't already.

And so she had to break the spell that had been woven so sweetly by passion and surrender.

"You wrote your letters to Wilburn, Aiden said earlier," she said softly, tracing the line of muscle on Wren's bicep.

He hesitated a moment and then looked down at her. His expression was now hooded, concerned. "Yes."

"Do you think he'll believe your false leads?" she asked. "That he'll truly leave us alone for weeks?"

He was quiet, like he was calculating, before he spoke. "Wilburn believes Aiden and I were rivals for you, so I doubt he would imagine the truth. And I…leaned into that idea in the letters. I think it will take time for him to become truly impatient and start to demand more action on my part."

"But you will take action on your part," Emilia said with a sigh that shuddered out. "Not against me, but for me. As much as we'd all like to do so, we can't stay in this cottage for the rest of our lives and pretend Wilburn and the world don't exist."

"No," Wren said, and she saw his gaze shift to Aiden. "As heavenly as that sounds, it isn't a solution."

"And nor is you going back to the viscount," Aiden added with a deep frown. "We'd never send you back to danger, Em."

"I know that," she said, and shut her eyes. "I seem to be the only one of the three of us willing to put the others in danger."

Now Wren sat up and it forced her to do the same. "Don't ever say that again, Emilia." His tone was sharp. "Ever. I'm glad you reached out to Aiden, I'm glad I was the one sent to pursue you two. I don't give a damn about the consequences. You mean too much to me. If that man had harmed you, I would have died, myself. Or at least tortured myself to my dying day that I had done nothing to save you."

"He's right," Aiden added. "I won't regret any consequences to helping you. I never could. I only wish we could have done so sooner."

Tears stung her eyes at their passionate defenses of her, even against her own self-loathing. "It's been so long since I had kindness, I almost forgot what it was like. Kindness and desire and pleasure and…and love." She looked to Wren and then Aiden. "You know I never stopped loving either of you."

Wren smiled a little, his normally serious expression brightening significantly. "I have ached to hear those words for years."

Aiden nodded. "We were too strongly bonded to stop the love between us. I always knew time and distance wouldn't be enough. And it hasn't been. I love you both as much as did all those years ago. Perhaps more, because I know what it's like to lose you."

"And I fear we'll all know it again, before this is over," Emilia said. She detangled herself from the two men and went down from the bed. She paced over to the window and peeked around the filmy curtain that protected them from the outside world and all its prying eyes and terrible concerns. Aiden's cottage was situated away from the village a few miles away, so there were no people, just green fields and a copse of trees in the distance.

"I know you're afraid." Emilia turned back to see that Wren had left the bed as well and he came toward her slowly, like she was a filly that could spook if he wasn't careful. "And after so long, I understand how it might feel hopeless. But let that go for now. We'll work out our next step, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy what we're sharing here as we do."

She blinked. "More of…more of this?"

Aiden was sitting up in the bed. "Yes. You deserve that respite. We all do after so much time apart. Please, Emilia, don't run off into some terrible future before it comes. Stay here with us. Be with us. Trust us."

Wren looked back over his shoulder at him with a smile of adoration that warmed Emilia's heart. Trust them. Of course she did, even though she realized that trusting anyone was hard after so many years of only having herself to depend upon. But the idea of not having to protect herself was such a relief.

She nodded. "I want that. And I…I'll do my best not to let whatever the future may be ruin what is present. Ruin this."

Wren reached out and took her hand, drawing her forward against his chest where he folded her into his safe, warm arms. She relaxed against him, reveling in the smell of him, the feel of him.

"As much as I'd love to watch you two hold each other for the next hour," Aiden said, the smile in his voice recognizable even before Emilia looked at him and saw it brightening his face. "You need to eat. I'll make food."

Wren crooked his finger and Aiden's brown eyes dilated instantly. He got up and came to them. Wren tugged him into the embrace. And just before he kissed Emilia, then drew Aiden in to join them in that kiss, he whispered, "In a little while, love. In a little while."