Mistletoe Menage (6 page)

“No. Tell him to serve supper for
two after eight this evening when my man arrives. Until then, leave me in
peace.” He waved his hand at the girl, gesturing for her to leave the room.

Relief washed over her features and
he felt a flicker of pity. The poor girl was probably accustomed to being
thrown into the arms of the gentry that stayed at the inn. No doubt, the
landlord of the inn had torn her from some small farm where her family couldn’t
afford to feed her or provide a dowry, and instead she’d been haggled away for
a basket of apples or a bag of corn. Such was the way for the poor.

He thought of the people upon his
own lands for a moment then frowned. He hadn’t been back there for years,
leaving the running of the estate to his younger brother. Their parents were
long since dead and though he missed his mother, he didn’t miss the iron hand
of his father at all. That man had sought to rule all around him, including his
wife. Edward couldn’t understand how a man could marry a woman then treat her
so badly. It made his blood boil to think of it and to recall how ineffectual
he had been as a smooth-faced youth trying to defend his mother from his
father’s beatings. His stomach clenched. Surely his mother had done nothing to
merit such ill treatment. Unless…maybe she had been like Anne and broken his
father’s heart in some way. But even then, there was no excuse for physical
abuse. When Edward had stood up to his father, he’d been black and blue for
weeks and sent away to “travel” around Europe until he learned how to behave.
During the years of his absence, his mother had passed and when he’d returned,
he’d found his father an old man, much changed. Edward had absented himself
from the family home and thrown himself into the social world of London where
he had gambled and whored with his peers—until he’d met Anne and everything had
changed.

There was a short rap at the door,
then
Guy walked in.

“Where have you been?” Edward
snapped as he sprang to his feet.

Guy laid his hat and jacket on
the chair on top of Edward’s then offered a conciliatory smile. “I have begun
to seduce her, as you wished.”

Edward stared at the younger man.
His face was flushed and beautiful with youth and happiness, and his eyes
sparkled silver-blue like the snow under the crisp winter sun. He reached out
and caressed Guy’s cheek, rasping his thumbnail against the stubble on Guy’s
skin.

“How was she?”

Guy glanced at his feet and
cleared his throat.

“Guy?” Edward’s heart pounded
hard beneath his white cotton shirt as an idea began to unfurl in his mind.
“Guy?”

The artist met his gaze and
smiled. “She is…as you described.
Beautiful, cultured, well-mannered.
Though she was also…”

“Tell me!” Edward was surprised
at his own tone. He had sent Guy out to Anne, knowing she was a widow now. She
had been widowed eighteen months, in fact, but he’d been abroad when her
husband had passed, and only returned six months since with Guy in his employ.
As a widow, previously married to a much older man, Edward hoped she would now
be ripe for the picking. All his memories of Anne were of a tender, voluptuous,
sensual woman ready for marriage and mating. He had held back from taking her
during their courtship in spite of his burning desire to make her his as soon
as possible. He had been prepared to wait until they were safely wed before he
bedded her, but then she had given herself to another. A fat, greasy
businessman who was surely no
match
for her elegance
and beauty. Yes, it was true that she had no family name to match
his own,
but he had not cared a jot for that. After seeing
his parents’ loveless marriage, Edward had harbored no intentions of marrying
for money and social connections. Perhaps he had been a romantic, a dreamer, a
fool. Yes…he had been a fool because he had believed that she loved him as much
as he loved her. She had broken his heart in two.

As he would
hers.
With Guy’s assistance.

“I went to her home as agreed,
Edward. It didn’t take much to encourage her to allow me to sketch her.” Guy
didn’t finish his sentence but Edward knew what he meant. Anne had allowed the
artist to see her naked, in all her milky-white-skinned beauty as he had longed
to do. Well, he
would
see her thus.
And soon.
But it might take one or two more visits from Guy
first.

“But you did not…”

Guy shook his head. “No I did not
take her fully. I kissed her and caressed her and tasted her. She really has
the sweetest flavor, like honey-cake and madeira wine.” Guy licked his lips and
Edward pulled him into his arms and kissed him hard. He pressed his tongue
between Guy’s teeth and plundered the younger man’s mouth, desperate to find
some trace of Anne. Guy responded to him, running his hands down over Edward’s
behind, and squeezing his firm cheeks until Edward knew that they’d continue
this until they were both spent.

Edward pulled away and stared
into Guy’s eyes. “Will she surrender? Do you really believe she will?”

Something flashed across Guy’s
face and Edward wondered at it for a moment. Was it guilt? Regret?

“I believe that she will, Edward.
I truly believe that. She is lonely and needy. I don’t think she has been loved
as a woman should. She is not like the others.” His golden eyebrows met above
his aquiline nose as he frowned. “They are grasping, clawing, and it’s all
about them. But Anne Blackburn, she responded so sweetly and so tenderly that
it was hard to leave her. The others I could not wait to escape from once I had
attended to their needs but with Anne…”

Edward swallowed hard. He could
see in Guy that same affection growing for Anne that he had once felt. Was it
because Guy was his lover and they were in some way similar in their tastes?
Guy did not usually lust after women. He had lain with women of the ton for
Edward’s sake so that his plan would work, but when they took a woman together
it was Edward who desired the female presence most. Guy just seemed to go
through the experience to please his patron. So Edward was surprised that Guy
actually seemed to be attracted to Anne. Yet he should not be, because she
truly was beautiful in an innocent yet worldly way. She was a walking oxymoron
of naïve experience and virtuous passion—a spring waiting to be tapped like the
one in Bath which offered restorative properties and improved health to those
who drank from it. Would Edward’s mind and body improve under Anne’s tender ministrations?
Lord knew that he had not been right since he lost her. He had never again experienced
that same joy and hope that she had given him during their brief courtship. And
though he knew that he wanted to hurt her, he also knew that a life without her
in it would be a dull life indeed. But crush her he would to avenge himself for
the way she had torn his heart and life to shreds.

“Undress, Guy.” Edward pulled off
his own clothes and watched as his lover did the same. When they were both
naked, Edward pulled Guy to him and kissed him again, this time more tenderly
than before. Guy ground his hips into Edward so that their erections met and
their mutual arousal intensified.

Edward reached around his lover
and slipped his finger between the artist’s tight buttocks, sliding it into the
tight heat that he longed to penetrate with his cock. Guy gasped against Edward’s
mouth. “Let me suck you first.”

“Yes.” Edward allowed Guy to
lower him to the bed, then he surrendered to the hot mouth and tongue of his
lover, his pleasure all the sweeter because he knew that the very same lips had
so recently caressed the woman he loved.

****

Guy opened his eyes and rolled
over. He was in bed alone and in the late afternoon, the room was orange with
the setting sun. Edward stood at the window still naked. Guy admired his tight
buttocks and broad shoulders. Edward’s hair was jet black and shiny as a
raven’s feathers but he kept it short, cropped close to his head. He was Guy’s
image of the perfect male. Tall, dark, honed. He had eyes as brown as cinnamon
and thick black lashes that a woman would envy. Guy loved him. Not just because
Edward had saved him from a life of poverty and degradation but because his
patron was such a good man. Though Edward tried to portray himself as a
hardened aristocrat who cared not a damn for man
nor
beast, Guy knew that he was in fact generous and kind. Edward would not see a
puppy kicked, let alone a maid beaten or a child starving in the street. Which
was why his lover’s determination to humiliate and hurt Anne Blackburn was
all the
stranger to him. Did he really hate her so? If
indeed it was hate.

“Edward?” Guy spoke softly,
wanting to encourage Edward to talk. Anne had been a stranger when they had
discussed her previously but now that Guy knew her, he was concerned by
Edward’s plans.

“Yes.” Edward turned and Guy eyed
his broad chest with its black hair and small brown nipples. The hair ran in a
narrow line from Edward’s chest and past his navel, down to his cock which
swung now as he moved.
Long and thick, even when relaxed.

As Edward perched upon the edge
of the bed, Guy sat up and moved behind him, kneading the older man’s
shoulders. Edward leaned into his touch and groaned as Guy worked away the
knots of tension that had gathered there.

“Edward…why do
you want Anne’s degradation so badly?”
His lover stiffened beneath his
fingers.

“I told you. She is a wanton and
should be punished.”

“But are you certain she hurt you
deliberately?” Guy continued pressing his fingers into Edward’s shoulders while
he worked around his spine with his thumbs.

“She hurt me badly. A long time
ago, maybe, but she deserves to be punished for it.”

“I know, my love, I know. But are
you sure that you want to see her publicly humiliated? What can you hope to
gain, now, after all this time, by ruining her reputation? Remember, I have
been with her and spoken to her. She is not some heartless harpy out to destroy
any male who steps in her path.” He chewed his lip, fearful of upsetting his
lover.

Edward pulled himself out of
Guy’s hands and turned to him, his eyes filled with fire. “How would you know?
You’ve been with her on but a few occasions, you fool.”

“Edward, please. There is no need
for anger. I love you…I want to understand.”

“Guy, she took my heart when I
was but a young man and she made me love her. Then I returned to my family home
to seek approval for our marriage. I actually asked my father for his blessing,
even though it tore me apart to do it because I knew what a scoundrel he was
and how it would delight him to deny me what I wanted most in
all the
world. Even after I put myself through all of that
and she knew how hard it would be for me, I returned to find that the bitch had
married another man she barely knew. So you see, you don’t know her at all, Guy.
Not at all!”

Edward sank onto the bed and Guy
stared at his quivering shoulders. He had seen Edward angry before, seen him
sad, but not consumed by sorrow. Edward had really loved Anne Blackburn and she
had hurt him. But Guy found it hard to marry the idea of her as a cold
heartbreaker with the woman he had spent time with. Surely, there must be an
explanation for what had happened.

As he pulled Edward back onto the
coverlet, then straddled him upside-down so that his face was above Edward’s
cock and his own shaft was free for Edward to suck, he determined to find out
Anne’s version of events. For if he could save Edward from such bitterness and
the darkness that would surely engulf him if he didn’t escape it, as well as
rescue sweet, curvaceous Anne from a public scandal,
then
he would do so. Guy knew what it was to be low, to be hurt both physically and
emotionally, and it was a fate he would not wish upon a dog, let alone the man
he loved and the woman he could not stop thinking about.

Chapter Five

The weeks leading up to Christmas
passed in a blur as Anne eagerly awaited Guy’s visits. The initial fears she’d
nursed about him being interested in her only as a source of income, as a
business opportunity, diminished each time he took her into his arms and kissed
her or lavished her needy body with affection. It was, she realized, as if she’d
been damaged, broken by her past, and Guy had the power to heal her and bring
her back to life.

Each visit progressed much the
same way as the first one. Guy would sketch Anne while she was fully clothed,
then they’d move on to more intimate poses before allowing their mutual passion
to take over. But what Anne enjoyed even more than the physical element of
their relationship was the time they spent together talking. Guy had so many
stories to share and he made her laugh and cry with the tales he told.

The saddest story he had shared
was the one about his own past. He had been reluctant to divulge details about
his youth at first but Anne had held his head to her breast and encouraged him
with soothing words and caresses, and he had soon surrendered and told her of
his youth.

She played his words through her
head now as she lounged in her bath of fragrant water in front of the fireplace
in her bedroom.

“I was a stowaway, Anne.”

“You were?”

He had nodded his head then
nuzzled into her breast as if afraid that his confession would repel her. All
it did was make her fonder of him.

“Indeed. I had a dreadful
childhood. My father died when I was very young so my mother married again. We
lived in the outskirts of London in a small house, all squashed together. It
was unbearable because my stepfather resented my four brothers and me. We were
reminders of my mother’s life before his arrival.”