Pleasure and Purpose Page 7

  Nessa disentangled herself from a loop of sheet and Edward's arm to prop herself on an elbow and look down upon him. Alaric had rolled onto his back upon Edward's other side, arms and legs flung wide.

  "Edward," Nessa said. "You are utterly destroyed." Edward's hand snaked up to cup the back of her neck, his fingers sliding into her hair. "I am, indeed."

  "Your head will ache upon the morrow," she murmured as he tugged her closer.

  "The one above my shoulders may, but I don't intend for the one below my belt to face the same fate." Edward pulled her down to brush her mouth with his. He took her hand from his chest and settled it on the bulge in his pants.

  She glanced at Alaric, who hadn't moved, his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling slowly. "Sir, we are not alone."

  "Huh?" Edward got up on one elbow to look to his other side. "By the Void, Alaric, you're asleep? What manner of fool have you become?"

  Alaric cracked open an eye and turned his head to look at his friend. "If only I were not walking on the clouds right now, I would give you a smack for that accusation."

  "Handmaiden," said Edward. "It would greatly please me if you would help me off with my clothes."

  Nessa smiled. "Indeed? You care not to sleep in your clothes?" Edward smiled, too. "I do believe I have already indicated I don't intend to sleep."

  "Ah." She looked over at Alaric, who had rolled onto his side, facing them. "And what of your friend, my lord?"

  Edward looked at Alaric, then back at her. "It wouldn't please me for my friend to be lonely, Handmaiden. I should find myself very far from absolute solace should I know my dear friend Alaric was left distressed."

  She couldn't hold back another giggle. She looked at Alaric, who'd now propped himself on one elbow to avidly watch the conversation. She didn't balk at being asked to allow someone else to touch her, but there was something else of import, here, and that was the emotional tie between Alaric and Edward. She sat up to look at them both, one to the other. Alaric was in love with Edward, but her loyalty wasn't to Alaric. It would not please Edward to leave his friend distressed, but worm and herb could prompt the tongue to spew what would normally have been kept hidden by the heart. Would it please Edward if this night convinced his friend to reveal the depth of his emotion?

  "Handmaiden?" Edward slid a hand up to cup her breast. "Have I asked you for something you are unable to provide?"

  Alaric looked at Edward, who was still staring up at her.

  "Edward and I have been boon companions for a long time. Naught could change that." The answer to her unasked question was enough, and she nodded slightly when Alaric met her gaze again. "Then it would please me greatly, Edward, to help you both out of your clothes."

  "Ah, Stillness," said Edward, "you do make me happy. Every day I thank the Prince of the Land Above I sent for you."

  Her fingers worked the buttons of his waistcoat and then his shirt. Parting the fabric, she ran her hands across his bare skin. "Sit, and let me take this off." He did, obediently. Alaric didn't wait for her to assist him but was already shrugging out of his shirt and tossing it to the floor. He took the ribbon from his hair and let it fall like a shower of gold across his shoulders. The next moment she'd done the same to Edward's and the river of ebony, like raven's wings, made a dark contrast to Alaric's blond ripples. Nessa pulled off Edward's shirt as he kissed her. The kiss deepened as she tugged the fabric off his wrists, and when they were freed he put his arms around her. Both men had disrobed to skins while she remained fully clothed, and Edward pulled away from another searing kiss to shake his head.

  "This will not do. Alaric, you're swift with the ladies. Help my Stillness off with her gown."

  "My pleasure." Alaric grinned. "Come here, Nessa." Cool air caressed her as the front of her gown parted. Alaric put a hand to her face and tilted her head to kiss her fully while he used his other to pull the dress off her arms and push it down. His tongue slid inside and teased hers to explore the hot cavern of his mouth.

  The bed shifted beneath her knees. Edward knelt behind her, his mouth suckling the back of her neck. Hands covered her breasts, fingers pinching her nipples to stiffness through the fabric of her shift. At last she knelt, naked, with one man in front of her and the other behind.

  "Touch her," Edward ordered. "Feel how hot and wet she is, Alaric." Alaric's hand slipped through her curls and stroked her, then moved to dip inside. "She's so tight—by the Arrow, Edward, how do you last more than one good poke with her?" Edward kissed her shoulder blade. "I'm a better man than you? See how beautifully she responds?" he murmured, lips moving on her skin with every word. "Put another finger inside her."

  Alaric did. Now she knew something else about Alaric. Not only did he love Edward, but he also gained his pleasure from submission. Edward's hand pushed her thighs wider again, then came round the front, too. With Alaric's fingers inside her and Edward's on her clit, Nessa couldn't suppress her low cry. It became louder when Edward's soft kiss on her shoulder became a bite.

  "She likes that," Alaric said.

  "She loves it." Edward licked the small wound. "Kiss her, Alaric. I want her whimpering."

  Alaric bent to capture her mouth again, and Nessa had no need to fake a reaction to please her patron; two mouths, four hands, two erect cocks brushing against her, all were enough to make her body respond without effort.

  Alaric swallowed her cry with his kiss. Edward locked his fingers in the hair at the base of her neck, holding her still while he rubbed her.

  "Put your cock inside her, Alaric."

  With two men to lift her, two to turn her, Nessa needed to do nothing but allow them their freedom. Moving together as if they were of one mind, Edward and Alaric shifted closer to the edge of the bed until Edward supported her from behind and Alaric's feet hit the floor, his prick still inside her.

  "Smooth piece of dancing," Alaric commented, twisting his hips to adjust himself. Edward laughed, his breath hot on her back as he pushed his body against her, a leg on either side of her hips. His cock rubbed the line of her spine as his hands crept round to cup her breasts.

  "With such skilled partners," Edward said, "How could this be anything but?" Alaric chuckled and thrust inside her again, making her moan. She let her head fall back again onto Edward's shoulder. His mouth latched on to her skin, teeth nipping hard enough to send pain-pleasure shudders through every limb.

  "Does this please you?" Edward whispered into her ear after a moment.

  "Yes," she replied immediately.

  "And this?" His hand returned to her clit and pinched it lightly with his finger and thumb. She could only utter a wordless reply, but he chuckled and continued. Her cunt clasped Alaric's prick in a way that made Alaric grunt and grip her hips harder.

  "Shall we let her come, Alaric?" Edward's voice had gone deep, shadowed, like a thick forest. "Or shall we make her wait for it?"

  "Sometimes the longer you wait for something, the more you love it once you have it." Alaric was looking at Edward. Reflected in the mirror on the dresser across from her, Edward was looking at Alaric. She saw her own face, eyes glazed with desire, saw her body held between two others. She saw Edward turn his gaze to her, felt him turn her head to kiss the corner of her mouth, and the moment, whatever it had been, passed.

  "I think," murmured Edward into her ear, "we should let her have her joy, Alaric. She can always have more, later. Come for us both, Stillness."

  There was no difficulty in obeying him; in fact, she had no choice. She was already tipping over the edge into ecstasy. She cried out, body arching and taking Alaric in as deep as he'd go. Bright flashes danced in her vision as every muscle leaped and quivered. Alaric groaned, his thrusts becoming ragged. "By the Arrow!"

  "You can feel every ripple, can you not?"

  Alaric made no answer as he pumped. Nessa floated down from her place in the clouds, smiling when Edward kissed her again. She was happy to lie back in his arms and accept the joy her body had granted. />
  "You have well pleased me," Edward told her, with another kiss. He looked upward toward his friend. "And so have you. Handmaiden, I fancy feeling your mouth on me. Alaric, take the chance to taste her now. Unless you'd rather finish inside her?" The question sent a thrill down her spine, and she looked toward the blond man. He shook his head and withdrew, slowly, and gripped his erection in a fist.

  "No, old man, I think I'd very much like to taste her." Alaric grinned smugly. "I told you I could last more than a moment inside her."

  "Oh, a competition is it?" Edward laughed. "We'll see." Again, Edward orchestrated the position, his commands slurred but firm and made in such a manner both Nessa and Alaric hastened to comply. Now, with Alaric on his back beneath her and Nessa on her hands and knees, Edward leaned against the headboard and offered his prick for her to taste, and she took it eagerly.

  "Very good." Edward's voice went rough. His fingers wove into her hair and he held it away from her face as she suckled him. "You are such a very, very good girl, my Stillness. My Handmaiden."

  She might have forgotten his intoxication if not for these murmurings, this litany of praise. In his drunken state, Edward had become someone different than the man with whom she'd been acquainting herself for the past fortnight. This Edward was free and easy with his commands, with his teeth, with his demands of her. He wasn't shamed by them.

  Edward's hand tightened in her hair, the small pain making her climax even fiercer, and she shuddered so hard the headboard rattled behind him. Breathless, blinking in shock, she lifted her head as Alaric moved from beneath her to kneel behind her. Alaric slid into her with a load groan, echoed by Nessa's and a low one from Edward as she bent her head to take him in her mouth again. She was out of control with arousal, her body so much at the mercy of another. She craved oblivion such as this, but had more often found it beneath the kiss of a crop. In pain. She'd never been able to lose herself so totally in pure ecstasy before.

  The men filled her completely and left her no room for thought of anything but this, them, of their taste and smell and the touch of their hands on her body. Of fingers twisting in her hair, pulling it as tears of delighted discomfort leaked down her cheeks and the taste of them mingled. Of hands gripping her hips. Fingers pinching her nipples, twisting, making her cry out again and again.

  Nessa opened for them both as Alaric moaned his release and Edward climaxed without a cry, a moan, or a shout, merely a whispered, sibilant murmur . . . her name. Stillness. The sound of it made one last tremor pass through her. Then, cradled between two very smug and smiling men, she laughed.

  "We amuse her," mumbled Edward. "Alaric, she must not have had enough from us."

  "Give me time to breathe and I'll be ready to go again," Alaric assured her, still grinning.

  "Just 'ware the Order doesn't come after me.

  "I think you're safe," Edward said, winding lazy fingers in Nessa's hair. "For I did request it of her, after all."

  That comment Alaric answered with a snore, which made Nessa and Edward laugh again, so fiercely the bed shook, and sometime after that, Edward eased inside her and made her cry out his name in hushed tones so as not to wake their companion.

  Chapter 6

  "A pity I spent so long dressing myself this morning," said the languid drawl from the doorway, "else I'd be fair tempted to climb into that pile with you." Edward cracked open an eye instantly at that voice. A soft, warm weight on his chest turned out to be Stillness. She stirred as he struggled to sit, discovering in his travails another warm body alongside him . . . this one rather more unexpected.

  "Don't get up. I'm rather famished and will seek my own refreshment, since it's obvious you're unable to serve as host." Cillian tossed off the words with a flick of his glove and a smirk that set Edward's teeth on edge, but he could do naught but agree. Alaric burrowed deeper into the blankets, and Stillness sat, pushing her hair from her eyes. Thus released, Edward got up, too, well aware of his nakedness but unconcerned. Cillian had seen him in naught but skin many times before.

  "My lord, I wasn't expecting you."

  "I see that." Cillian let his gaze fall down to Edward's groin, sporting its usual morning pride, and the prince's eyebrows rose. "Don't let me keep you from your just-rising fuck, Edward, though I must say, it's well past the midday hour and I'd have expected you to be up and about already."

  The midday hour? Edward ran a hand through his hair and winced. His throat bore a suspicious dryness. Last night's indulgence was slowly returning to his mind, and he looked up at Cillian with as even an expression as he could muster.

  "Margera will see to your needs, and I'll be down shortly. I apologize for not being better prepared."

  "I told you, Edward, fret not. I'll be in the kitchen scaring your flighty downstairs maid and charming that mannish chatelaine of yours into giving me some of her fresh sugar rolls. I do so adore her sugar rolls."

  Edward heard the shuffle of fabric from beside him, and Stillness appeared with his robe, sliding it up his arms and belting it without fanfare. She remained in her skin, her hair falling down over her shoulders and back, and Cillian's gaze took her in with the same flat look a snake gives a mouse before it strikes. "Handmaiden," Edward said stiffly.

  "Dress yourself." She looked up at him, and then at Cillian. "If it pleases you." She grabbed up her gown from its place on the floor, and he had time to note the unusualness of that—that she had not bothered to fold it as she always did, before she ducked past him and into the bath chamber.

  Cillian's tongue slid out along his mouth. "She is most fair." "She is . . . satisfactory." Edward didn't wish to discuss this with Cillian, whose vivid gaze now flicked back to the bed, where Alaric was still snoring.

  "I'll leave you, then," said Cillian. "I'll be in the kitchen." With that, he swept from the room iii a flourish and swirl of his cloak. Edward watched him go, his guts clenching from more than overindulgence. He went to the bathing chamber, and found a basin of icy water already filled. Stillness had dressed and bound back her hair, and held out a damp cloth to him as he entered.

  Edward took it and pressed it to his eyes. Her warm hands urged him to sit in the hard-backed chair next to the tub, and she kneaded his shoulders. The touch relieved some of the tension . . . but created as much as it relieved.

  She went to her knees before him, taking his hands in hers. "I can bring you tea and some breakfast, and I can step quietly and speak low . . . but I cannot take away the affects of worm and herb."

  He looked down at her, meaning to snap, but found himself unable. "I asked you to bed the pair of us?"

  "You don't remember?" She let her thumbs trace circles on the insides of his wrists, then pressed firmly to spots next to the tendons.

  The pressure made the roiling in his stomach ease, to his surprise. "I was foolish yestereven, with my consumption."

  "I did what I thought would please you."

  He studied her. "And did it please you, as well?"

  She smiled. "Very much."

  He thought he might kiss her then, and the impulse startled him, for such a tender gesture it seemed. He was saved from his own foolishness by the stumbling arrival of Alaric, rubbing his face, who went immediately to the wastechair and pissed in such a long, hard stream it rang against the chair's porcelain bowl.

  "Morning." Alaric grunted, looking over his shoulder at them. "Sinder's Balls, have I got a headache."

  "I'll go brew some tea," said Stillness, getting up. "Enough for both of you." With one more squeeze to Edward's wrists, she stood and left the room. Alaric finished, shook his cock with two fingers, and then bent to splash his face and neck with the icy water in the basin.

  Cursing and blowing, he stood, face dripping. "And how fare you this morn, my friend? If my head hurts, yours must be fair to bursting. Did I hear Cillian?" Edward nodded. "He's here."

  Alaric went to the small window and peered out, then turned back to Edward. "Not alone. It would appear our lord prince
has arrived with full retinue." Edward pushed Alaric aside to look out the window. "To the Void with him!"

  "Looks like you're about to host a brannigan."

  "You are utterly too jolly for this morning." Edward bent to the basin himself, splashing frigid water all over himself and yelping with it.

  Alaric handed him a towel. "Why shouldn't I be, after last night?" Edward took the towel and looked up. Their gazes met. "Last night is a mite hazy to me, Alaric."

  The other man's smile didn't dim in the least, though his gaze flickered a bit. "We both made love with and were made love to by that beautiful woman now brewing us ease for our poor abused pates. Nothing else."

  Edward nodded. "If there had been something else. . . ." Alaric lifted a brow, but said nothing. A first for him, letting a statement like that slide, and Edward understood at once the significance of his friend's silence. Alaric said nothing further, merely shrugged and bent back to the basin.

  "If I'm going to be hosting a brannigan, I shall call on your help," he said. "As I'm rather shite with that sort of thing."

  "I'll do my best to help you with my remarkable skill with parlor games." Alaric looked out the window again. "Well, fuck me hard behind the stable." Edward looked up at that, a laugh forcing its way out his reluctant throat. "What?"

  "Lady Larissa." Alaric grinned. "She's just stepped out of her carriage." It was the wrong season for a brannigan, the weeks-long house party generally thrown in winter when weather made travel difficult and guests and activities helped ease the dullness of short days and long nights. Apparently, Cillian Derouth didn't care for such constrictions on his social life.

  "Food and lodging I can easily provide," Edward said that night, slouched in front of the fire while she knelt before him to unlace his boots. "But entertainment I'm sorely lacking."

  He took the glass of warmed wine from her and settled back while she put soft slippers on his feet.