Samantha Kane (10 page)

Never imagined getting any woman with child and being happy

about it.

He turned away from her, trying to appear nonchalant. His

nerves were frayed this morning. Last night with Nick had been

shattering. He’d never felt like that. When Nick had taken him in

his mouth he’d felt complete for the first time in his life. Nick had been with him al night and Oliver had relished it. Nick was his

lover. Not just his best friend, but also the man he loved. A

delicious shiver raced down his spine. It was almost perfect.

Except the whole time both he and Nick had talked about how

much better it would be if Vanessa had been there to see it. And

they’d both meant it. They’d gone so far as to put off fucking

each other until Vanessa could be with them.

Oliver hadn’t expected to feel that way. He’d loved Nick for

years. He’d fantasized about fucking him. He’d always believed

that Nick would be enough when they finaly consummated their

relationship. Oliver shouldn’t want anyone else. But he did.

Whether he deserved them or not.

And there was the rub.

The inquisition by Vanessa’s aunt this morning had brought home

his inadequacies with startlingly clarity. He was a man with

nothing to recommend him except his charm and his prowess in

bed. He doubted that was what either Vanessa or Nick truly

wanted in a mate. Could men even mate with other men? And if

wanted in a mate. Could men even mate with other men? And if

there were three of them, were they mates? Or was there

another word for a union of that nature? Triumvirate? No, the

Latin clearly referred to “three men”, and was far too political.

Tripod? Again no, as one of them was clearly lacking the extra

“foot”. The linguistic semantics of the situation were mind-

boggling.

Oliver took a deep breath. He was babbling in his head, as he

was wont to do when he was nervous. He looked up at Nick…

Nick wasn’t there.

He spun in a circle and didn’t see him. Where was he? Had he

left? Was something wrong? Why couldn’t he see him? This was

a smal room. Perhaps he was in the hal. Yes, he’d go look

there. He began walking toward the door, but there were so

many children. He tried not to step on them or push them aside.

The wals seemed to be closing in on him and he couldn’t catch

his breath.

Stop it, stop it, stop it, he screamed in his head. He knew he

was being irrational. Nick had told him time and again that he’d

never leave him alone again. He promised, damn it. He

promised.

“Oliver.”

He froze, his eyes closed. It was Nick. He turned around,

He froze, his eyes closed. It was Nick. He turned around,

breathing as if he’d run a mile. Nick stood there, his eyes

apologetic. He touched Oliver’s arm lightly and then let his hand

drop. “I was right over there,” he said, pointing to the far wal. “I just bent over to help some children. I’m sorry.”

“Mr. Gabriel, are you al right?” Vanessa was at his side, a

worried frown on her face. She linked arms with him, hugging

him to her side.

He should have been embarrassed. Instead he was vastly

relieved at her physical reassurance. He held her arm tightly so

she wouldn’t slip away, as Nick had had to do. “Yes, yes, I’m

fine,” he lied. “A bit of a headache, but nothing to worry about.”

He rubbed his temple for effect.

“Shal I send for the carriage?” she asked. “I think it should be

arriving soon as it is.”

“Of course not,” Oliver protested, loath to make her leave too

soon. She was clearly enjoying herself. As a matter of fact, he

hadn’t seen her enjoy herself this much before.

She smiled and Oliver relaxed a little more. “Come then. The

children have exhausted me. I simply must sit down.”

Nick immediately cleared a path through the children and led

Oliver and Vanessa to some benches along the wal. Vanessa sat

down with a relieved sigh, puling Oliver down next to her.

down with a relieved sigh, puling Oliver down next to her.

“Shoo,” she said affectionately to some children who tried to

climb into her lap and they ran off laughing as one of the matrons

came and herded them off by waving her big white apron at

them. “I love them, I do,” Vanessa said as she leaned back

against the wal, “but they wear me out rather quickly. One or

two children at a time are preferable, I think.”

“Do you want your own children one day, Nessa?” Nick asked

from where he stood beside them, his arms crossed and his feet

spread wide in a stance that spoke more of guard than patron as

he surveyed the children settling down at the tables for their

chestnut treats.

“Of course I do, though I shal have to find a husband first,” she

said pragmaticaly.

“Of course,” Oliver murmured his agreement, though her

comment, spoken so casualy, indicated that he and Nick were

not being considered for the position. He didn’t care for the

sharp sting of jealousy and resentment that gripped him. Hadn’t

he just been lamenting his unsuitability as a mate? Her agreement

was hardly unexpected.

Nick was frowning now. Apparently he didn’t like the

implications either.

“Nick says he shal find a way for us to be together tonight,”

Vanessa said under her breath, watching the room as she

Vanessa said under her breath, watching the room as she

studiously avoided his gaze. “Do you stil want that?”

“Of course,” Oliver responded, worried he’d frightened her

away from further involvement with them. God knew that was

the last thing he wanted. “More than anything.”

“Together,” Nick said, his voice rough and low. He, too, was

looking out at the room as if commenting on what he saw. “Al

three of us. I have an idea how it can be done.”

“This way,” Nick whispered, puling Vanessa through the door

behind him. She was wearing a voluminous cape that covered

her from head to toe, although there was no one in the vicinity

who might see her. They were sneaking in a back door of

Steven’s Hotel, where Nick and Oliver were staying. Vanessa’s

heartbeat sounded so loud in her own ears it was difficult to hear

Nick.

Steven’s was wel known as the hotel of choice for officers and

former military men. Vanessa hoped and prayed they didn’t see

any. She may not be a notorious beauty, but because of who she

was, she was relatively wel known by a large number of people.

What had she been thinking to agree to something so foolish?

She had gone mad, obviously. What if Aunt Grace came looking

for her in the middle of the night? True, she did not make a habit

of checking on Vanessa in the wee hours, but there was always a

first time, wasn’t there? Vanessa had pleaded exhaustion after

they returned from the Tarrants’ dinner party, however, so that

they returned from the Tarrants’ dinner party, however, so that

should keep her away.

Getting out of the townhouse had been torture. Never before

had Vanessa realized how many floorboards creaked and doors

squeaked. She’d planned to try to sneak out the kitchen door

into the yard, but Nick said it would actualy be easier to leave

by the French doors in her father’s study. He and Oliver waited

in the garden for her and then spirited her out the gate to a

waiting hackney.

The whole thing was ludicrous. So many things could go wrong.

And al for the thril of a forbidden carnal experience? Now that

she was living the scenario, Vanessa better understood the tales

about ladies and gentlemen who had falen from grace out of an

il-conceived lust. She sympathized. Because the truth was she

wouldn’t miss this opportunity for the world. The chance for

someone like her—someone forced by station to lead an

exemplary if extraordinarily dul life, no beauty or wit or vivacity

to recommend them—to be with two such handsome, sought-

after gentlemen? Vanessa was no lackwit. She knew this was her

one and only chance to experience this kind of passion.

“Why is there no one here?” she whispered, the deserted

halways rather ominous.

“It’s early yet,” Oliver said from beside her. “Everyone is stil

out, and the hotel is half-empty as it is.”

“And when I leave?” Vanessa asked as she and Oliver waited in

the shadows at the end of the corridor while Nick unlocked the

door to his room.

“We’l be careful, Vanessa,” he promised as he kissed her

gloved hand. “We wouldn’t have you hurt in any way.”

She believed him. She trusted them both more than she could

remember trusting anyone, except perhaps Aunt Grace. “Al

right,” she said, not realy sure what her response meant, just

knowing she wasn’t going to worry about it. She’d let them take

care of it al.

Nick beckoned them from the doorway and they hurried

forward. She rushed into the room and spun around as Nick

closed the door behind Oliver.

“I can’t believe we made it,” she said breathlessly, throwing

back the hood on her cape.

“Believe it,” Nick said with seductive grin. “Now the real

excitement starts.”

Oliver laughed. “First, let me take the cape. You are completely

lost in there.”

Vanessa laughed with him as she looked down at the cape

pooled on the floor. “Yes, I am. Whose is it?”

pooled on the floor. “Yes, I am. Whose is it?”

“Mine,” Nick answered. “A gift from my mother. I’m not exactly

sure what she was thinking when she bought it. I have never

worn a cape in my life.”

Vanessa admired his broad shoulders in his greatcoat. “No, I

think I prefer you in a coat. It shows off your shoulders quite

wel.”

“Like my shoulders, do you?” he said with a waggle to his

eyebrows as he shrugged his coat off that made her laugh again.

“His are indeed broad. But he is a lumbering beast on the dance

floor,” Oliver commented. “Unlike my svelte and graceful self.”

“Nonsense,” Vanessa scoffed. “Your shoulders are just as broad

as his, and he is just as graceful.”

Oliver cupped her jaw and angled her head up as Nick puled

the cape from her shoulders. “My dear,” Oliver said sweetly,

“you look through eyes blinded by lust.”

He kissed her then. Vanessa had been breathless with wanting,

and she was ever so grateful he’d seen that. She slid her arms

around his shoulders, stil covered in the thick wool of his

greatcoat. It was slightly damp, but the smel and feel of it only

added to the atmosphere of intrigue and excitement.

The kiss turned passionate as Oliver stroked his tongue into her

mouth and she buried her hands in the hair on his nape. She rose

on tiptoe and fit her body to his and his hands slid from her

upper back to her bottom, squeezing. No man had ever handled

her like that until Nick and Oliver. She liked it, liked being the

object of their desire.

Nick came up beside them and puled one of Vanessa’s arms

down. She was startled and began to pul away from Oliver, but

Nick murmured, “No,” and with a gentle hand on the back of

her head pushed her toward Oliver again. So she kissed Oliver,

not caring that Nick was right there, that she could feel his breath on her cheek as she kissed another man. It was al so exciting

and forbidden. She knew it was, even more so than her being

here at al. And then Nick leaned in and licked at the corner of

her mouth as it was pressed to Oliver’s.

Oliver moaned and his lips moved to the side of Vanessa’s

mouth with a little nip on her lower lip. And then Nick was

kissing her too. Both of them licking and sucking her lips, dipping

their tongues into her mouth as she licked back. She wasn’t sure

whose tongue and lips she was kissing at any given moment, just

that it was Nick and Oliver. It was wildly arousing. She had to

break away to catch her breath, only to forget to breathe as she

watched Nick and Oliver kiss each other. As they’d been kissing

her. Open mouths slid across each other and she saw their

tongues tangle. Oliver puled her closer to him, settling her

between his legs, and Nick’s hand rubbed her back and then slid

between his legs, and Nick’s hand rubbed her back and then slid

down to cover Oliver’s on her bottom. Nick bit Oliver’s lip as

he had Vanessa’s and then he turned to her with a smile. He

leaned over and kissed her again, and she let him. She wanted to

taste Oliver on him. Oliver let her go and stepped away and she

moaned in distress against Nick’s mouth.

“I’ve got to get this damn coat off,” Oliver said.

Nick stepped in to take his place and he roughly puled her close

so they were touching from chest to groin. He rubbed his

erection against her stomach and she gasped into his mouth. He

had one hand on her bottom and maneuvered her so that she

straddled his leg, and now that hard, hot part of him was on her

hip, thrusting and rubbing lightly. He puled her in with his hand

stil on her bottom and her sex rubbed on his muscular thigh.

“Oh,” she said softly, the tingle from that contact making the hair

on her nape rise. She rubbed against him again.