A Rational Arrangement, page 62
“My word,” Wisteria said, watching them. “Is he always like this, my lord?”
Nikola shook his head, laughing as he struggled to shift into a less undignified position. “Only when he’s in a very good mood.”
“Stop squirming,” Justin ordered him, moving to hold him in place with one arm and using his free arm to grab Wisteria and put her over his other shoulder. “There, now I have you both!” Awkwardly, he shoved open the door into the bedroom with his foot. The room’s south-facing windows were shaded by small awnings and the room remained cool despite the warmth of the day.
Justin staggered to the wide, canopied bed – fortunately the curtains on it were tied back – and leaned over to lie them both on it. “Now I can have my – erk!” Wisteria and Nikola interrupted him by grabbing an arm each and pulling him down between them. They divested him of his shirt, Nikola unbuttoning it while Wisteria pulled the ends from his trousers and drew it off. She kissed and caressed the bare skin of his back while Nikola nibbled at his throat and prised apart the buttons of his still-damp trousers. Justin closed his eyes as they worked their magic upon him. They had the entire house to themselves, with no chance that servants would return until tomorrow. They were in a second-floor bedroom overlooking a private forested hillside. No outraged spouse could interrupt, no parents to defend a daughter’s virtue. The vigilant part of Justin’s mind let go of fear and left him to bask in these glorious attentions.
“I have so longed to do this again, you have no idea. Your skin feels divine,” Wisteria said against his back, as she rubbed her cheek against his shoulders, then flicked out her tongue to lick him. “You even taste good, Lord Comfrey.”
The formality of the title penetrated the delicious haze of desire; at some level it bothered him, as if she considered herself a courtesan or prostitute with no right to a more intimate address. He rolled over to face her. “Wisteria.” Justin kissed her briefly. “Call me by my name.” Another kiss. “My given name.”
“Oh.” Her pale brown eyes seemed large in the dim bedroom. “Yes, Justin.”
He kissed her again, longer and deeper now. One arm encircled her back while his other hand pushed up her skirt, fingers running over her stockinged calf and up her exposed thigh. She clung eagerly to him, curling her leg over his to press her hips closer. He groaned against her lips, hand squirming beneath the lower edge of her drawers to cup her derriere. Behind him, Nikola had stripped off his own clothing and pressed his naked chest to Justin’s back, hands tugging Justin’s trousers down. The dark-haired man shifted enough to let Nikola accomplish his desire, kissing Wisteria’s neck and pulling off her drawers. Her pussy was already wet as she curled tight to his side, rubbing against his erection. At the same time, Nikola slipped his own hard cock between Justin’s nether cheeks, reaching across with a hand to caress Wisteria’s cheek, one bare foot stroking over their intertwined legs. The intimate press of flesh was intensely erotic despite, or perhaps because of, the awkward angles that made penetration almost impossible. Justin was intoxicated, part of him urgent to screw now (quickly before I wake, before they come to their senses, before this delusion is dispelled) and part wanting to make it last, to savor each moment (will I ever have this opportunity again?)
“I want to feel you inside me, Justin,” Wisteria said, voice soft, body insistent. “I’ve dreamed about this so long and the reality is so much better, oh, Nikola, is it all right? May I, my lords?”
Speech was beyond Justin: part of him was shocked to hear Wisteria speaking, shocked but aroused by that clear statement of desire. Grinning, Nikola answered for him: “Of course you may, my love.” His longtime lover shifted to roll Justin onto his back, while Wisteria moved to straddle him, dress bunched about her hips. Nikola snuggled against Justin’s side, stroking the curve of her rear as she lowered herself onto Justin’s prick.
Conscious thought impinged on Justin’s pleasure-addled mind, and he locked his hands about her hips to stop her. “W – wait.”
Wisteria stopped at once. “My lord?”
Justin struggled for words. “Your wife – I can’t get your wife pregnant—”
“I don’t mind,” Nikola said, as if he truly did not.
“I do!” Justin growled, although he was close to the point of not-minding-enough to restrain himself from resuming.
“We can do something else.” Wisteria sat back against Justin’s thighs and surprised him again by boldly caressing his cock with her fingers.
“No – I’ve got a preventative in my room – just a moment—” Nikola started to rise, stopped to kiss them, and ordered, “Don’t go anywhere!” before he hurried nude through the door that joined her suite to his.
As he left, Wisteria wrapped her fingers about his erection and worked up and down in slow firm strokes. “Do you like it when I do this?”
Breathing unevenly, Justin managed a nod, reaching to grab her other arm. He pulled her down beside him, fumbling to unbutton her dress.
She cuddled against his side, still stroking him. “I want to please you, my lord. I want to find out all the things you like best and do them with you. I know I ought to be patient but I fear this is too good to be true and I won’t have another chance.” She stopped petting him to let him pull her dress over her head. Then Justin rolled her onto her back to kiss her breathless, unhooking the front closures of her underbodice, pushing it open to touch her breasts again, small and soft and as delicious against his fingers as he remembered. He bent to kiss one, slid a hand between her thighs – she was very slippery – and tried to remember how one went about pleasuring a woman. She arched into his hand as he slipped one finger inside her. “Oh, that’s nice, my – Justin,” she murmured, curling her fingers through his hair to hold his head to her chest. “Would you use another finger inside – oh yes, like that—” she pushed against his hand, clutching him closer. “And put your thumb higher – here—” she guided his fingers with her own hand “—oh my yes, oh Justin…”
No one had ever tried to give him directions on lovemaking before. Justin found it unsettling, even insulting, as if suggesting he didn’t know what he was doing. Although he had to grant that he arguably didn’t; most of his experiences with women had been prostitutes who had no expectation of pleasure and little interest in receiving the kind of attention that might result in it. Yet the results of utilizing Wisteria’s instruction were charming: the murmur of pleased words, the very appealing writhing of her body under his touch. He was so intent upon her that it was a few moments before he realized that Nikola had returned and perched at the edge of the bed, watching them. Justin paused when he noticed, and Wisteria opened her eyes. “No need to stop on my account,” Nikola said, with a mischievous smile. “I think I can appreciate what my wife finds appealing about watching.”
“Get over here,” Justin mock-snarled to cover his embarrassment, and shifted just enough to seize Nikola’s arm and drag him down beside them.
“Why, Justin, are you blushing?” Nikola asked, his grin widening. “Surely you’re not shy…?”
“Shut up or I’ll give you what’s coming to you, and then you’ll have to face your wife’s wrath for displacing her,” Justin growled, snatching the prophylactic from Nikola’s hand and putting it on.
“Ooh, I don’t mind waiting if I get to see that,” Wisteria offered.
Justin fell onto his back against the bed. “You are both terrible perverts,” he announced. “This must be what drew me to you. If only I’d realized months – ahhhhh—” his words were interrupted by Wisteria stroking his cock through the thin sheath of sheep intestine.
“How curious. Can you still feel through it?” Wisteria bent unselfconsciously to kiss the tip, then engulfed it and suckled as Justin gasped and thrust into her mouth. She drew back after a few moments to say, “It doesn’t taste as good as Justin’s skin.”
Justin growled again, grabbing her by the hips and pulling to position her on top of him; he was in the habit of taking a first-time lover from the lower position, so that the other could set the rhythm. It did not occur to him until she was sliding against his erection that this would be less important with a woman, and by then he had better things to think about. Like how wonderful she felt as he entered her. Her fingers clenched against his shoulders as she eased herself down, rocking against him and sending waves of pleasure radiating through his body. She fell forward to kiss him, and he wrapped his arms about her. As he ran his hands down her back, he felt Nikola’s hand brush his. Justin laced his fingers together with his friend’s. He was dimly aware that Nikola had positioned himself directly behind Wisteria, knees to either side of Justin’s legs. What is he doing…surely he wouldn’t be… The thought was impossible to focus upon when there was so much else commanding his attention. Wisteria shifted against him to angle her rear higher and tilt her head back. Justin nipped at her exposed throat, suckling hard. “Oh yes, my lord,” she said, arms curled about his head and shoulders, “please…”
Then he could feel her tightening around his cock, could feel Nikola through the thin vaginal wall as her husband penetrated her ass. He did not have time to be shocked, the sensations so overwhelming in intensity that every conscious thought disappeared in the moment of uncontrollable climax, pure ecstasy blinding his mind. He roared involuntarily, an animal noise that mixed with Nikola’s own cry, with the shuddering of Wisteria’s frame as she collapsed panting against him.
Justin was still reeling from bliss as Nikola fell onto his side beside the two of them and snuggled close with an arm over his wife’s back as she lay on top of Justin. She extended an arm blindly to circle his waist. “Oh, my lords, that was the most sublime, amazing thing I have ever felt.”
“Agreed.” Nikola slipped an arm under Justin’s head and kissed first him then Wisteria, before hugging both fiercely. “I love you both so much.”
The slim, long-legged beauty laying against Justin caressed Nikola before wriggling off to lie on the opposite side of Justin and rest her chin on his chest. “You are the best husband in all Paradise,” she told Nikola. “I’ve loved Lord Com – Justin – for so long.” Addressing Justin directly, she added, “You have been such a good friend to me, to both of us, strong and loyal and brave.” Justin found himself blushing again, listening to them. He’d long known Nikola loved him, but the two of them had never spoken of emotions before. It was strange to hear it now, strange and heart-achingly sweet. “But I always thought it would make you unhappy, Nikola, if you knew of my feelings.”
Nikola shook his head, smiling. “I would have thought so too, but it doesn’t. I am thrilled. My sole regret about marriage was giving him up. And now I have you back.” He rose on one arm to kiss Justin, stroking his cheek.
Justin hugged Nikola one-armed to his side. He still could not believe that this was real. Madness seems so much more plausible.
I will never consent to be cured of this.
He had never been happier in his life. Lying between his two favorite people in all Paradise, he realized that this was what he had been longing for. This peace, this connection, this comfortable physical ease, this is what he had needed even more than gratification. To stop hiding, to stop pretending, if only with these two, if only for a little while. He was more relaxed than he’d been in months, no guilt, no shame, no regrets.
“I wish we could stay like this forever,” Nikola murmured, reaching across Justin’s chest to stroke his wife’s cheek.
She stirred to press against his fingers. “Oh yes.”
Justin chuckled, squeezing them closer. “Alas that we cannot. Does Fireholt still hold Temple service at four o’clock, Nikola?”
“Ugh. Unfortunately.” Nikola shuddered. “What time is it?”
Wisteria lifted her head enough to see the clock on the mantlepiece against the wall beyond Nikola. “Half past two.”
Nikola groaned and snuggled closer to Justin, curling one leg across his and stroking Wisteria’s thigh with his toes. “I suppose I ought to get ready. I’m leading the service so it’ll be short, at any rate.” He sighed.
“Probably we all should.” Wisteria turned her head to kiss Nikola’s hand, then Justin’s chest. Her lips drifted to encircle one bare nipple, hand gliding down his abdomen to rest atop his hip.
Justin arched, half-laughing. “Ahhhh, my very dear Wisteria, that will get one part of me to rise, but it will by no means encourage me to leave your bed.”
The blond man on his other side shifted to drop kisses on both of them as he sat up. “You two may play as you like, but I had best arrive a little early. Excuse me, my lord, my lady.” He slid from the bed and padded into the bathing chamber to clean up.
Justin snagged Wisteria’s hand and pulled her up with his other arm for a quick kiss before she could tempt him further. As if she wasn’t tempting enough just being her beautiful self pressed nude against him. He ran a hand through her thick curls, smiling at her. “I should not wear myself or you out completely, my dear.”
She nodded, settling for a moment with her legs twined about his thigh and her face against his shoulder. She held him tightly, and they lay together a few minutes longer before rising.
The three of them helped one another dress in lieu of the usual servants. Nikola finished first and went to his study to collect his notes, leaving Wisteria alone with Justin as she tied his neckcloth. He stood at ease, watching her as she worked. Like her husband, she wore simple jewelry for the occasion: a single brooch of onyx and gold styled in Fireholt’s symbol pinned to the short-waisted embroidered violet jacket she wore over her long gown, gold bracelets clasped around her wrists. Her expression was neutral as always, her motions brisk and efficient. When she was done, he caught her about the waist and pulled her close; her body melted gratifyingly against his. “How are you feeling?” he asked her. “No regrets?”
Wisteria shook her head. “I am so very happy, my lord.” She rested her cheek against his shoulder. “I feel wonderful. A little wicked, perhaps, for doing something so outrageous that even I never imagined such things could happen. And I was sure you must have lost all interest in me, and that it was very wrong of me that I could not put you out of my mind even as much as I love Nikola. Now…it’s as if I had been trying to put a puzzle together with half the pieces flipped over. Now that they’re all right-side up everything fits together beautifully.” She burrowed in against him, as if to remind him just how well they had fit together. As if he needed any reminders.
Justin smiled and kissed her forehead. “A little too well, perhaps.”
“What do you mean, my lord?”
“Ah, do not mind a cynical old madman, my dear. I am only thinking that something so improbable cannot possibly last. But that will not stop me from enjoying it in the moment.” He released her to offer his arm. “Come, let us join Nikola that we may all walk out together. We ought not arouse suspicions.”
Notwithstanding Justin’s fears, the remainder of his stay continued in much the same joyous vein. They had to be more circumspect during the week, with all the servants underfoot. But Nikola had a long-established reputation of valuing his privacy, so it surprised no one if he gave orders to his greatcat employees to keep everyone out of the forest when the three of them went walking there, or if all three were shut up together for hours in Nikola’s study, or in the library. It was not so comfortable for lovemaking as a bedroom, but they were not spending all their time alone indulging carnal appetites, either.
Much of it was spent engaged in conversation. Justin had always enjoyed conversation as a pastime, and he’d carefully nurtured his skills at it. He had cultivated an excellent sense for when to speak and when to listen, what responses and questions would steer a conversation towards or away from a given topic, what topics would be of interest to a group in general, whether a given participant needed to be encouraged to speak or would be happiest left to listen – all the little talents his society valued in a conversationalist.
Justin had always regarded Nikola as equally skilled, but he learned over the next few days that Nikola had good habits by instinct more than by conscious intent. He found this out because Wisteria asked Justin how he directed conversations, a skill her husband had been unable to articulate and one where her difficulty at reading body language put her at a disadvantage. It was not the kind of thing one normally discussed, but Justin did his best to explain in a way that would be useful to her.
But the irony of her request for his advice on this subject was that he found himself at a loss to direct conversations with Wisteria and Nikola.
Speaking with either of them alone, or among other people, was never – well, almost never – anything outside the ordinary bounds of polite conversation. But when the three of them were alone together, he discovered that Wisteria and Nikola had an openness between them unlike anything he had ever before witnessed. The two of them could talk about anything. Anything. They talked about lovemaking. It was not merely an activity in which one engaged but the subject of frank discussion on tastes, desires, and timing, in which Justin was expected to take part. He learned that Wisteria and Nikola had engaged previously in anal intercourse because she’d asked Nikola what intercourse with another man consisted of and he answered. And then she wanted to try it. Her, a gentleborn woman and a lord’s wife! Most of the prostitutes Justin knew of refused to engage in that. And Wisteria liked it.
About which he ought not complain, of course, given that intercourse with her and Nikola together was Paradise perfected, an experience to rival his most erotic fantasies. And Justin did not complain, but this openness made him uneasy. He had gone through life segregating the various parts of it so that they did not interfere with one another, and part of that meant that there was an entire world of emotions and experiences that he did not give voice to. That was the way society worked: one could do these unspeakable things, as long as one left them unspoken. This frankness violated that compact of hypocrisy. It wasn’t even restricted to lovemaking: they touched on an array of subjects he’d always thought untouchable.
