The Courtesan's Bed (30 page)

Even as the three learn to let go of the notion that pleasure is the devil's work, someone else is watching. Someone who's out to reclaim what's his.

Warning:
This title contains hot ménage a trois scenes, man love, bondage, and two lonely, sexy cowboys/miners who find that catching a thief only takes a little bit of rope and a whole lot of lovin'!

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Honor Bound:

Using the last of the lye soap they'd purchased from a merchant down in Idaho Springs last fall, Zach had scrubbed his clothes before stripping free of them and laying them flat to dry on a nearby boulder. Naked, he went to work scraping the stink out of his skin from the last couple months of hard work in the mine they'd eked out of the Rocky Mountain hillside on their claim.

Clean for the first time in days, Zach floated on his back, staring up through the aspens to the clear blue sky above. “Whatcha gonna buy with your half?”

Jake stripped his shirt off and flung it over the rocks, then rubbed river sand in his armpits and across his chest. “I'm gonna buy the biggest steak, the hardest liquor and the prettiest woman in Idaho Springs. How about you?” He ducked his head under the water and ran his fingers through the long, reddish-gold locks. When he surfaced, he shook his hair, flinging water over Zach.

“Hey!” Zach went under and came up ready for a fight. He jumped on Jake's naked back and pushed him under, holding him down.

Beneath the surface, Jake hunkered low, grabbed Zach's leg and pushed up and out of the water, tossing Zach high into the air.

They wrestled and splashed, too excited to feel the cold of the stream created by high country snow melts. Nor could it dampen the arousal Zach felt at touching Jake's naked body, a secret Zach would never tell Jake for fear of losing the only friend he had on this godforsaken mountain.

When his skin started to shrivel and his balls began turning blue, Zach cried uncle and crawled out of the water to dry on a giant boulder bathed in the sunshine.

Jake climbed up on the rock next to him and stretched out.

If Zach hadn't been a man, he'd find Jake…well, too darned attractive. As suntanned and well-muscled as Jake was, Zach was surprised every woman in the Pikes Peak Mining Country wasn't after him.

Then again, there weren't a whole lot of women in the mountains who weren't already hitched or whores. Jake deserved a good woman. Shoot fire, they both deserved a good woman. But how the hell were they supposed to find one when they lived so far out in the hills? It took two days of climbing to get down to the nearest town.

Jake lifted up on his elbow and smiled across at Zach. “Well, what are you going to buy?” He glanced down at his cock, swelled and ready for action. “I don't think I can wait a couple more days to get down to Idaho Springs. I'm already itching for some lovin'.”

Zach's own cock swelled at the sight of Jake's growing in size. The mention of women made it even worse. They hadn't been completely naked since last summer. “I guess I'll get me a female.”

“Yeah, the sooner the better. Been so long since I fucked me a woman, you're beginning to look good to me.” Jake stared across at Zach, the smile slipping from his face, his mouth tightening. “Strike that. Didn't mean that to come out that way.”

Zach laughed. His laughter did sound a bit strained, even to his own ears. “Know what you mean, buddy. You're a fine specimen of a man. Any woman would be proud to have you.”

“You ain't hard to look at yourself. Now that you've scraped off that beard, all you need is to slather on some of that fancy cologne the dandies wear in Denver and you'd be right charmin'. Ain't no reason you couldn't catch you some sweet young thing to get hitched to.”

His mind on the man next to him, the only human he'd spoken to in months, Zach could hardly picture a woman, much less a pretty one, he'd like lookin' at for the rest of his days.

Squashing down the disturbing attraction he'd been feeling toward his claim partner, he sighed and lay back on the rock. “Who are we foolin'? What woman in her right mind would want to hole up in a shack with a couple of galoots for months on end?”

Jake didn't answer.

Maybe he saw the wisdom in Zach's words and silently agreed.

The next thing Zach knew, Jake had leaped onto his rock, grabbed him under the arms and legs and flung him into the pool. “Speak for yerself, old man. I'm getting me a woman if it's the last thing I do.”

Zach hit the surface, the chill robbing him of breath. He went under and came up in time for Jake to land a big splash next to him, blasting him with a spray of water that left him spluttering.

Jake jerked his leg out from beneath him and Zach went under, grabbing for whatever handhold he could get, taking Jake back down with him.

When they finally came up for air, they stood face-to-face, close enough to touch…if they dared.

Inside, Zach knew his feelings for Jake were wrong. Men weren't supposed to lust after men. What would people say?

Hell, who would know? They lived so far in the back country the only living creatures they saw were wolves, deer and a few stray Indians.

If he wanted to touch Jake, he could and no one would be the wiser. His hand was halfway there before he realized what he was doing and jerked it back.

“You feel it, don't you?” Jake asked. He reached out and laid his hand over Zach's heart. “You want me as bad as I want you, don't you?”

Zach shook his head, even as he wanted to shout,
Yes
.

Jake's mouth twisted into a grimace. “I know what you're thinkin'. It ain't right. Men aren't supposed to like each other. You know…that way.” His hand slid down Zach's torso and into the water where even the cool mountain stream couldn't shrink his arousal.

When Jake's hand circled his cock, Zach jumped back. “Damn, Jake. It ain't right.” Revulsion warred with desire. Jake's hand had felt good. Damn good and Zach wanted more.

“Who's around to say it ain't right?” Jake waved at the forest around them before his gaze settled on Zach's face. “I'd wondered what it would feel like to touch you there.” He closed the distance between them again. “Don't you wonder?” He lifted Zach's hand and guided it to his rock-hard dick. “See? The sky ain't gonna crash in. The world ain't comin' to an end. We're just two men.”

“Two men sinnin'.” Zach's fingers curled around Jake's cock, reveling in the rush of heat pooling in his own groin. He backed away, his hand falling to his side. “We best get back to the shack. We got work to do before we can make that trip to Idaho Springs. Never know how long this good weather's gonna hold out.”

Jake sucked in a deep breath and let it out. “Not yet. I want more.” He stared across at Zach. The way his gray-eyed gaze locked on him made Zach's cock swell even larger.

If he didn't find some relief soon, he'd explode. “You're killin' me, Jake,” Zach said. “If we weren't such good friends, I'd punch you.”

Jake glanced down at Zach's engorged member. “I just know I can help you there.”

Zach shook his head, the horror of what would happen if the men of the hills found out making him resist when all he wanted was Jake's hands on him again.

“Let me.” Jake reached out again and this time Zach didn't back away. Seeing Jake naked made him hornier than a boy with his first whore.

As Jake's fingers closed around his cock, Zach shut his eyes. “We really need to get to Idaho Springs and find us some women.”

“We will. Soon enough. But for now…” Jake smoothed his hand over the length of Zach's shaft.

A passionate education leads to dangerous love…

Breaking Free

© 2010 Anya Richards

For Claire Montjoye, widowhood is no release from scandal. Used as sexual currency by her notoriously libertine husband, she longs for a life of quiet respectability. But the
ton's
disapproval ensures she will never be truly accepted—and any man openly seeking her company will be tainted.

When Xavier Westbourne pulls her away from peril, his touch fills her with yearning for unattainable dreams. Accepting his invitation to the opera is not only unwise for him, it's dangerous to her lonely heart. Perhaps taking him as a lover will be enough.

Scion of one of Society's most upright families, Xavier knows propriety as a cold, brutal master. Having endured one loveless marriage, he refuses to repeat the mistake, even for his motherless son. Yet Claire easily breaks through his wall of reserve, and her offer of private instruction in the sexual arts is irresistible.

Consumed by passion, overwhelmed by ecstasy, they discover something neither thought existed—the freedom to open their hearts. Yet not all the horrors of the past are content to remain hidden by the mists of time. And suddenly their very survival depends on trusting that love really can conquer all.

Warning: A Regency hero who can't keep his hands to himself and a heroine who encourages him in the most shocking, explicit manner. If conflicted heroes, heroines with a past, velvet, mirrors, self-love or the occasional extra pair of feminine legs in the bed offend, this book is not for you.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Breaking Free:

“What is this room, Claire?”

He did not know why it was important for him to ask, but suddenly it was. He recognized his transience in her life, realized the gift she offered him, yet felt a strange reluctance to share her with the ghosts of her past.

Claire's chin rose at an almost combative angle, her eyes shuttered against his intrusion, and he thought she would refuse to answer, or ask him to leave. Then her face softened and one shoulder shrugged in a self-conscious motion.

“It is a play room, a place where fantasies can come to life. It was here I began to truly understand myself, to learn what I was, and what I could be when necessary.”

She looked around, as if seeing it for the first time, and smiled.

“There is nothing to fear here, for it is a different world from that which exists outside the doors. Once it was my world, and now…” she turned in a circle, arms flung wide, “…I give it to you.”

There was a forced note to her explanation, which did little to soothe the final misgivings he harboured. But somehow they faded when she spoke again, an odd mixture of confidence and hesitancy in her voice.

“I promise, if you decide to return after tonight, this room will be completely ready for you. I will see to it tomorrow, but tonight…” she shrugged and smiled, “…tonight the bed cannot be slept in and I am not in the mood to wait. There is something I long to do, something perhaps selfish, although I hope it will be pleasurable for you. Will you indulge me, Xavier?”

Her low voice, flushed cheeks and gleaming eyes begged for his trust. Wordless, rooted to the spot, he found the strength to nod, once, and her smile lit up the room.

Time fractured, stretched and contracted in turns, each movement of her approach taking a year, but each touch of her fingers far too fleeting.

Caresses flowed from her naturally. The soft stroke of his cheek with the back of her hand, his lower lip with the pad of her thumb, were as inevitable as sunlight, or rain. The passage of her hands down his neck to his chest left a river of heat in their wake. Sensitized to the lightest contact, even her easing of the evening coat and waistcoat off his shoulders and releasing his suspenders caused spasms of desire. When she found his nipples through the thin lawn shirt, made a sound of pleasure at the back of her throat as they hardened beneath her fingers, it was as intimate as a kiss.

Pushing him back against the wall, her fingers cupped the length of his erection. The heat of her palm penetrated through the fabric. Arching into her hand, desperate for more, he moaned.

Claire laughed then. A sultry, siren's laugh, filled with joy, captivating. He reached for her, wanting to touch her as intimately as she touched him, but she grasped his hands, raising them to place a soft kiss on each before tugging them down to his sides.

“Tonight, just let me touch you, Xavier.”

The muscles in his legs quivered, threatening to give way, forcing him to brace against the wall, fingers convulsively curled for purchase.

She pulled his shirt free and pushed it up, bending to place a swirling, open-mouthed kiss on the shuddering skin of his stomach. Sublime sensation, almost painful in its intensity, had him arcing away from her lips. The motion served only to draw her closer. Holding his shirt above her head, she plunged the wet heat of her tongue into his navel, trailed down to outline the top of his breeches. And her hand,
oh God, her hand,
measured and pressed and squeezed his prick, taking him to the edge of sanity.

He wanted her hands on his naked flesh, the craving for it pulsing through every vein. Pushing away from the wall, he pulled off both his cravat and shirt, tearing the latter's cuff in his haste.

Claire stood, her face flushed and intent and, as though hearing his desire, used both hands to open his breeches. Teasingly, slowly, she pushed them down his hips, hesitating for an eon, until finally, with a sudden rapid motion of her wrists, they fell to the floor.

For a moment, she just looked at his straining erection, and he began to tremble, a pulse travelling the length of his engorged flesh. Claire made a soft sound in the back of her throat and licked her lips. His trembles turned to shudders, and Xavier thought he would explode right then and there.

A wicked little smile playing about her lips, she whispered, “How long has it been, since you have been with a woman?”

“Almost two years.”

The smile widened into a grin. “Ah, Xavier, I will make it up to you for the lack.” She grew serious for a moment, her gaze locking with his as she asked, “Will you trust me? Let me show you prolonging the pleasure can only make it better?” She rested her hands on his stomach, fingers lightly stroking, down and around, making his skin shiver as though each separate inch had developed a thousand more nerve endings. “There may come a moment when you want me to stop what I am doing, when all you want is for me to let you have your climax, but bear it, just this once. If it is not to your taste, we will never do it again. But tonight…” she rested her head on his chest, fitting into his arms as though made just for them, “…tonight I want to have you, in my mouth, for as long as possible.”