~Chapter One~
15th April 1799, Kensington, London
Behind his mask of bored indifference, Vaughan, Marquis of Pennerley, inwardly grimaced. His hostess might call this overblown cacophony singing. He called it torture. Two minutes of screeching scales and he already felt as if someone had gone at his head with a saucepan and ladle; much more and he’d gladly perforate his own eardrums to end the malaise. The sound, reminiscent of a fox let loose in a chicken coop, was not a form of entertainment he normally sought.
Vaughan turned to his lover. They were standing at the back of the small seated audience of guests invited to the evening music recital along with a few other latecomers. “Lucerne, can we not leave?” he whispered. Lord help him for wishing it, but the young woman tormenting them with this aria would benefit from an acute case of the morbid sore throat.
Despite the halo of golden hair that framed Lucerne’s face and his serene expression, Vaughan knew his companion found the performance equally excruciating. Although not a musician, Lucerne appreciated such talents in others. Sadly, unlike Vaughan, he was far too polite to express his disappointment at tonight’s torment. “We can leave only if you intend it as a deliberate snub,” he observed. “The girl is our hostess’s niece. A little fortitude will serve us well enough.”
“Assuming my ears don’t start to bleed.” The woman deserved more than a snub for putting him through this. “How much longer is the bloody piece?” Vaughan flicked open the case of his pocket watch and stared in irritation at the ornate face. Alas it did nothing to speed up the performance.
“Shh! Stop it.” Lucerne closed his hand over the top of Vaughan’s, flipping the watch lid closed in the process. “Mrs. Wincombe will be mortified if she hears you, and she’s desperate to impress. So let’s just persevere and try to enjoy ourselves. She has a nice figure, don’t you think?”
Vaughan stared at the joined palms for a moment, before returning the timepiece to his waistcoat pocket. “Wincombe?” Their hostess sat at the front of the rows of seated guests, balancing a pudgy toy poodle upon her lap.
“Miss St John.”
“Hm.” Vaughan gave the songbird another pained glance. She was skeletal in all regards save for an over-endowment of bosom, which he provisioned in part to judicious bolstering. He couldn’t in all honesty say that she’d have turned his head, but then his attention rarely strayed in the direction of women.
“Not to your taste?” Lucerne asked in response to his silence.
“You know me. I’ve always had a thing for blonds.”
A wide, disarming smile spread across Lucerne’s face, causing delicate creases to appear around his eyes. They crinkled in the exact same way after sex, when for a few brief moments they were truly at peace with the world and one another.
Things were simple when they were lost in one another’s arms. Only when their embrace ended did the trouble start. As Vaughan gazed at Lucerne, captivated by the thought of oneness, a warm glow slowly suffused his loins. That’s what he wanted to be doing with this evening—making love, not listening to this caterwauling.
Lucerne’s smile turned to bemusement over Vaughan’s prolonged scrutiny. “I don’t need to ask what you’re thinking, but you might consider our location before it becomes perfectly apparent to everyone else too.”
To the devil with perseverance! It was time he turned the tide of the evening’s events in a more enjoyable direction. Instead of tempering his thoughts, Vaughan allowed them to expand and solidify into a far filthier image of him and Lucerne top to tail in bed, sucking upon one another’s cocks. His lips parted as his imagination filled in the details of texture and taste. He caught an undercurrent of Lucerne’s scent in the sticky heat of the salon, and breathed deeply. It was a scent he associated entirely with indolent mornings spent cocooned together in bed, sleeping off the excesses of a night’s debauchery. The sort of debauchery that left them with stubble burns and muscle aches, and sometimes bruises. Nights spent chasing a single moment of bonded perfection.
They were perfect together.
Only, together rarely involved just the two of them anymore.
Just like that the blissful vision shattered. Bella was part of their lives now. He couldn’t deny it, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. Triangles were supposed to be strong, but sharing didn’t come easy to Vaughan. He didn’t want a slice of Lucerne’s affection. He wanted it all, and if he saved his wicked thoughts until they got home, the arrangement would no longer be the same. Bella would be present, and by God, she’d demand a role in whatever they had planned. There was no hiding from her, no escape. Locked doors didn’t keep her out, nor alas did threats, and he disliked casting idle ones.
She was with them here, but sat apart with some friends at present. This place, this moment, provided the perfect opportunity to slip away and find some quiet time together.
Vaughan reached out and caressed the outline of Lucerne’s arse through his breeches.
Lucerne jerked in alarm. “Vaughan!” The tremulous tenor to his lover’s voice only boldened Vaughan’s stroke. Fear brightened the blue of Lucerne’s eyes as he warily turned his head. “Not here. It’s too risky. There are too many people.” A pink blush crept over Lucerne’s high cheekbones and up into his hairline.
“Of course,” Vaughan acquiesced with a nod. He closed his eyes and allowed his jaw to relax, faking deep affinity with the music. The risk itself was half the appeal. What he intended wasn’t merely taboo, like stealing away with a maiden for a quick grope in a broom closet, it was illegal, a deplorable and debased act according to both the Crown and the Church.
“Stop it!” Lucerne tilted his head towards him so that his hiss blew straight across Vaughan’s ear. “I’m not fooled. I know what you’re planning.”
“But no one else can read my mind.” Vaughan pursed his lips and allowed Lucerne’s imagination to fill in the details of the fantasy running through his head. The result increased the colour in Lucerne’s cheeks to a warm shade of ruby. “You’re blushing like a virgin now.” Actually, Lucerne blushed far more prettily than any of the virgins he knew. Vaughan touched the tip of his tongue to his upper lip. The one thing guaranteed to set Lucerne’s blood afire was anticipation. Lucerne was all about the slow burn, and Vaughan could stretch out this tease for five minutes or the rest of the night. Regardless the outcome would be the same, Lucerne overeager, standing to attention and begging for affection.
Fear of reprisal really wasn’t everything. Sometimes lust prevailed.
“You know you’ve got me all wrong,” Vaughan said a moment later.
“Have I?”
“Actually I was imagining things the other way around. You must contemplate that too sometimes, don’t you? You have to have considered how it feels to give and not receive.”
Lucerne’s jaw fell slack.
I have you. Vaughan knew it would work. He was after all dangling a very tender morsel before his lover’s eyes. Bella’s presence necessitated certain arrangements. Namely that she and Lucerne took turns being in the middle. He never gave up his position of dominance. Anything else would upset the delicate balance of their relationship. That and he struggled to master his emotions at the best of times. There was no question of his being able to do so while Lucerne was swiving him. The sensations involved were far too exhilarating and far too raw. In truth, he didn’t like to dwell on where such a scenario with the three of them present would lead. Individually the pair continually stretched the limits of his endurance. If they ever made a genuine, concerted attack on him… Well, the results were unlikely to be pretty.
But Lucerne alone, with no observers was a different matter. For Lucerne he’d willingly prostrate himself. Particularly if it got him exactly what he wanted.
Lust really was an intolerable thing. He tried hard not to let it rule him. A smile stretched the corners of his mouth. But sometimes giving in to it was life’s biggest reward.
“Vaughan.” Lucerne’s teeth were pressed tight to his lower lip. His gaze continued to dance about as though any moment he expected them to be seized and their relationship made public.
“Would you like to fuck me tonight, Lucerne?”
He actually heard Lucerne gulp. “Don’t do this now.”
Vaughan looked deep into Lucerne’s eyes, binding their thoughts together. He wished he could reach up and offer even a touch of reassurance. A simple caress was all it would take to seal the pact, but maintaining a certain distance was absolutely essential to the rouse. “Do it now. Here. While she’s still warbling. It’ll mask the cries.”
Lucerne’s tongue flicked once over his lips. He tugged at the edge of his collar. “As if you’re genuinely game. I know when I’m being teased.”
“Do you? I’m not teasing. I want you inside me. I want you to fuck me.”
“No, you don’t. You’ve never wanted it like that before.”
“Haven’t I? Ever considered that something…someone kept getting in the way?”
“This is not about Bella.”
“It’s absolutely about Bella. Don’t you think it’s a little unfair that the pair of you get all the fun all of the time?”
“Wha—No.” Lucerne shook his head. “There’s no way you’re going to let me do that. Besides, what makes you think that being sandwiched between you and Bella is fun?”
Vaughan lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Something about how hard you come. Not that we’re involving Bella. This is purely about you and me.”
Another shake of the head followed. Lucerne hid behind the fringe of his hair. “Listen to the recital,” he rasped after another minute or so.
“Wouldn’t you rather hear me sing?” Vaughan cocked an eyebrow in the direction of a carved oaken screen. “Conservatory.”
“No.”
“Now. Right now. Go, or I’m going to kiss you in full view of the room.” He wasn’t, or leastways not in any way that could be construed as anything other than acceptable behaviour, but Lucerne didn’t need to know that.
Lucerne’s shoulders lifted as his back straightened, then he passed quickly behind Vaughan and headed for the conservatory.
Good man. Vaughan folded his arms and waited a minute or so. He doubted anyone was paying them any attention, the audience’s focus remained on the girl, but it never hurt to take precautions.
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