Love's Fortress

by Samantha Kane

  Gideon froze. There were so many things careening through his mind. The feel of Charles against him, the sight of Sarah beneath him, the sounds of his breath sawing the air and Charles panting in his ear, Sarah murmuring his name. Then her hand slid along his thigh and he shuddered at the sensation.

  “I want to watch, Gideon,” Charles whispered roughly. “Let me watch you and Sarah.”

  That was a desire Gideon understood perfectly.

  Sarah held her breath for fear of drawing their attention. This was something, oddly enough, that seemed to be between Gideon and Charles, although it obviously involved her as well. Sarah simply enjoyed watching them. She had never seen two men in such an intimate embrace. It was arousing seeing Charles’ arm heavy with muscles wrapped around Gideon’s leaner frame, Charles whispering in Gideon’s ear. Sarah could imagine the things he was telling Gideon. She shivered, but not in trepidation.

  Whatever Charles said convinced Gideon. He nodded and Charles pushed him down over Sarah again. “Leave your thigh there, Gideon. Spread her legs with yours.”

  Gideon hesitated, actually pulling his injured leg back slightly from her, and Sarah suddenly understood that he was afraid to touch her with it, afraid she would be repulsed. She was not. That leg was a part of Gideon, a warm, rough, naked part of Gideon touching her intimately. She wanted more of it, not less. Sarah followed that leg, scooted down and pressed herself wide on it. Gideon was startled and jerked it back. Sarah simply followed it again. “I’ll follow it down until I fall off the bed,” she told him with determination. To make her point she rubbed her thigh along the side of his. Over his shoulder she saw Charles smile approvingly.

  “Sarah…” Gideon seemed to change his mind and let whatever he was going to say trail off. “All right.” Sarah tried not to gloat. Gideon raised his brow. “Victory is yours,” he murmured, almost as if he could read her mind.

  He moved closer and her legs were forced wider apart, his hips snuggly secure between them.

  “That’s right,” Charles whispered. “Keep your left leg up like that. You’ll have to use it for leverage, Gideon. You’ll have to dig in with your leg, just as if it were your foot.”

  “You’ve got it all figured out, have you?” Gideon asked tartly. But he followed Charles’ instruction.

  “Of course,” Charles said with that smile in his voice. “I have thought a great deal about how to fuck Sarah.”

  That caused a delicious shiver down her back. She liked the idea of that very much.

  “Haven’t you?” Charles continued, curiosity in his voice.

  “Not like this,” Gideon replied stiffly. “I try not to think about things I cannot do.”

  Sarah’s heart broke. Charles stopped what he was doing behind Gideon. Then he just ran his hand down Gideon’s back in a gentle caress and Sarah watched Gideon close his eyes as the muscles in his shoulders and arms quivered. But before she could say anything, Gideon was pressing inside her and she could hardly catch her breath.

  When he was deeply inside her, he slowly lowered his chest until it pressed against her breasts. “I will try, Sarah,” he whispered to her, his light eyes gleaming in the weak light.

  Sarah reached for him, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. “Oh, Gideon,” she said with a ragged sigh. “Yes.” She tried to kiss him, but he turned away and buried his face in her shoulder, kissing her there. His hands pushed under her until he gripped her shoulders from behind, and then he began to move. He was tentative at first, but it felt so marvelous Sarah couldn’t contain a moan of sheer pleasure.

  Charles moved to the bed beside them, and his pose perfectly mirrored Gideon’s earlier. “Can you feel him now, Sarah?” he asked. It took her a second to remember the first time they’d all been together and she blushed. Gideon pressed deeper inside on a hard stroke, and Sarah cried out.

  “Gideon,” she pleaded, her mouth seeking his. How she wanted to taste him, to kiss him and share his breath as he shared her body right now. She was desperate for his kiss.

  He did not understand what she wanted. He kept turning away, kept his face hidden in her hair as he moved in and out of her. She could hear it, hear the movements of his body in hers as she grew wetter with her arousal, and it embarrassed her.

  “Sarah,” Charles whispered, and then he had his hand in her hair and was turning her face to his. His mouth claimed hers, mated with hers, and Sarah moaned against his lips, his tongue. Charles had known what she needed. It was decadent to be kissing Charles with abandon while Gideon…fucked her. She moaned again as she thought the word, feeling a blush stain her cheeks. To even think something like that was so new and exciting.

  “Yes, Sarah, yes,” Gideon whispered harshly in her ear. His back was slick with sweat, the hair on his chest rubbing her sensitive breasts, his voice hot in her ear, and then he bit her earlobe. He moved faster, harder, and Sarah found herself panting, unable to catch her breath as pleasure spiraled low in her belly. It was as if a knot grew tighter and tighter there, and she sought the relief she knew climax would bring her. Gideon lost the rhythm of his strokes as he readjusted his legs, and when he pushed inside of her again he did something that made Sarah cry out and arch in ecstasy against him. She sank her nails into his back, wanting the almost painful pleasure to stop but at the same time hoping it would never end. Gideon hissed and moved harder inside her.

  Charles broke the kiss and moaned, jerking on the bed beside them. His head hung right next to their shoulders, and his hair tickled Sarah’s skin.

  “Touch him, Sarah,” Gideon rasped out in a breathless, rough voice. “He needs it. Wrap your hand around his cock. Do it.”

  All three of them froze. Charles raised his head slowly and met Sarah’s eyes, and above her Gideon turned his head to look at Charles. Charles pulled his hips back, and Sarah couldn’t keep from looking down. His member was long and hard, raised high against his stomach, the end shiny with moisture.

  Gideon pulled his arm from under her, took her hand in his and guided it to Charles’ cock. The word fit. It looked hard and fierce and proud. Gideon wrapped her hand around it and then left her to stay or go. Charles shuddered at her touch. She stayed. Gideon pressed deep within her as Charles showed her how to move her hand on him. He sucked in a breath as she caught the same rhythm Gideon was using in her.

  Soon they were all moving. There were no more words, as if the spiraling tension was choking off all but their breath. The sounds of their mating were earthy and harsh and Sarah tried to catch them, to remember them. She loved the crass sounds, the exquisitely wanton things she was doing. Gideon found that spot inside her again, and Sarah knew she couldn’t last, she was going to come and she wanted them with her. She wrapped her legs tighter around Gideon, moved her hand faster along the silky smooth rod of Charles’ cock, loving the heat and hardness of it in her hand.

  Her thoughts were base, her focus on Gideon’s cock tunneling into her, Charles’ breath against her shoulder, his hips moving his cock in her fist. And then it was there, stealing her breath, her voice, her very thoughts. She let out a low keening cry and thrust her hips up, pressing Gideon so wonderfully deep as she felt her sheath grip him and tremble with pleasure. Charles cried out then and Sarah felt a wash of hot, sticky moisture coat her hand and her side and then Gideon gasped and his release inside her triggered another ripple of pleasure in her core, this one slow and long and deep, and Sarah actually laughed weakly at how wonderful it was.

  “Where are you going?” Sarah spoke quietly, still lying there under the bedcover. She’d been dozing lightly and wasn’t sure what time it was, although she knew it was not morning yet.

  Both men paused as they were rising from the bed. “We were going to let you sleep,” Gideon answered politely. How she hated that polite voice. “We do not wish to disturb you.”

  Sarah tossed aside her pride yet again. She sat up, clutching the blanket to her chest. “Don’t leave me.”

  Gideo
n looked surprised. She held out her hand to him. Hesitatingly he took it and slid in next to her, lying on his back stiffly. On the other side of the bed Charles slid back under the cover with her. “Sarah,” he said, and kissed her shoulder.

  Sarah snuggled down under the covers and put her head on Gideon’s shoulder. “Gideon.” He didn’t look at her, just made an inquiring noise. She became more insistent. She put her hand on his cheek and turned his face to her. She was on his left side. She could see that it took every nerve he possessed not to turn away from her. “Thank you.” She raised her face to his for a kiss and he did pull against her hand then, but she held him tightly. “Please,” she whispered.

  Gideon stilled and let her place her lips on his, but he remained passive. She didn’t give up. She employed all the lessons Charles had taught her. She rubbed her lips along his, licked the seam of his lips, nibbled his lower lip. Finally he relented and his lips softened. After a moment he took over the kiss, turning them so Sarah lay on her back. He devoured her, kissed her like a starving man, and she fed him all the passion she had for him. His hands trembled as he held her and Sarah moaned at his taste and the rasp of his beard against her. The hunger of his kiss overwhelmed her. But she understood what it meant, the warm touch of another after a lifetime of that kind of unsatisfied hunger.

  The bed moved and creaked and Gideon broke the kiss. Breathing hard, he looked over at Charles. “Stay.” It wasn’t a request. Before Charles could protest, Sarah tempered Gideon’s order by reaching over and touching Charles’ hip with one hand, pulling him to her. He came with a gentle smile, pressed against her side and slid his leg over hers. She caressed his bottom and leg and he made a noise that sounded like a satisfied purr as he nuzzled her neck. Gideon turned her head with the backs of his fingers pressed to her cheek and came close to kiss her again.

  “I don’t want to sleep,” Sarah whispered against his lips, and behind her Charles chuckled while Gideon smiled slightly before his lips met hers again.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sarah stared out her bedroom window at the early morning sun shining over the meadow. The grooms were bringing the horses from the barn. Those lucky enough to be released in the meadow were frolicking in the high grass. Is that what one called it? Did horses frolic? It certainly seemed so to her. She couldn’t blame them for their high spirits. It was a glorious morning.

  Sarah set her open palm against the window, feeling the heat of the sun warming her. Let this be a good day, she silently asked. But inside she knew it would be. She felt the smile curving her lips with smug satisfaction. She’d done it. She’d asked Gideon to come back to her bed, and he had come. And he had brought Charles. She was almost afraid of how perfectly happy she’d been this morning when she woke with the two men still beside her. They had both been asleep and she’d simply lain there listening to their deep breathing, feeling their big, warm, hair-rough bodies against hers. It had felt divine, as if the hand of a benevolent God had answered her morning prayers.

  Sarah laughed. The situation could hardly be classified as divine. After all, she’d woken up with two men, one of who was most definitely not her husband. As far as Sarah knew, there was no church that condoned such behavior, not even the papists.

  She turned from the window and was confronted by the rumpled linen of her bed. She could smell the lingering scent of last night’s exertions. She bit her nail in indecision. Should she strip the bed? The maid would certainly find that odd. She shook her head. No, she would merely ask for new linen. Lord knew they had enough of it. And even if the staff knew what had gone on here last night, they would not know with whom. They would assume it had been Gideon, and of course it had. But they would not know that Charles had lain here with them.

  Sarah’s cheeks heated with her blush and she huffed in exasperation. For heaven’s sake, there was no else in the room! And she’d only thought it, not even said it out loud. Why on earth was she blushing? Why couldn’t she control her embarrassment? It was extremely vexing to know that every illicit thought was reflected in cheeks as red as cherries.

  Sarah stumbled. She hadn’t thought about her birthmark once last night. Nor this morning as she had kissed Gideon and Charles goodbye at her door before the sun rose. She could not remember a time when the mark was not on her mind in some way. But last night there had been so much more going on here than Sarah’s petty fears about her physical inadequacies. Gideon had needed them last night. His fears had taken precedence. And they had given him back something of himself last night that the war took away. Something Charles alone had been unable to give him, though he had tried in different ways. But Sarah had done it with Charles’ help. Sarah had shown Gideon in the most basic of ways that he was still a man—her man.

  Sarah fell back against her bedroom door with a huge grin on her face. She clasped her hands together and brought them to her chin, hardly able to contain her happiness. This is what she had dreamed of for them. A marriage of equals, a marriage where Sarah was able to give as much as she received. Gideon needed her. He needed her. She was not a substitute, as she’d been for her younger siblings, filling in the void left by their mother’s passing. She was the woman Gideon wanted, the woman who finally gave him back a vital part of himself. His wife.

  Sarah’s smile faded as she remembered there were more than just the two of them involved. What about Charles? What was he to her and she to him? She cared for him a great deal, she knew that much. He was a rock, and more and more she found herself wanting to lean on him for advice and support. He made her feel stronger, as if she could handle anything this new life threw at her. But he had refused to consummate their relationship last night on the grounds that he was not her husband. Sarah felt no shame in admitting she would have welcomed him into her body. Was the lack of vows between them insurmountable to Charles? Was he only in her bed for Gideon?

  Which made her wonder yet again, what were Charles and Gideon to each other? They were friends but not lovers. She believed Gideon. After watching them last night, even in the most intimate of embraces, they had not spoken, touched or looked at each other as lovers. And yet Sarah believed there was love there. But there was enmity too. Why? What had happened between them? She was sure it led all the way back to the war and to Gideon’s injuries. They were bound together by that experience. Perhaps it was time she found out exactly what had happened to the two of them on the Peninsula.

  Sarah nervously sipped her tea and watched Gideon and Charles eating silently as they sat at the breakfast table. The two men were very much alike in their morning routine. They liked to eat heartily, and they liked to do it silently. It was a trial. Sarah was usually brimming with ideas and plans for her day and felt constrained to sit quietly contemplating her china. She summoned up some courage from her rapidly dwindling supply and cleared her throat.

  “Ah, Anders, I believe that I would like to talk with…with Mr. North, if that is all right? We are fine? Aren’t we?” she asked Gideon and Charles a little helplessly. She was not good at dismissing the servants. She really needed to work on being more authoritative. But Anders was quite, quite nice and very proficient at his duties. She didn’t want to offend.

  Gideon put down his fork and looked at her. Then he waved his hand negligently over his shoulder. “Leave us.”

  “Very good, sir,” Anders replied politely. He didn’t seem offended at Gideon’s high-handed manner at all, but quickly gathered up the tea tray, handed it to the footman and closed the door as they left.

  “Gideon, really,” Sarah reprimanded him gently. “You must be more polite to the servants.”

  “Why?” He seemed genuinely perplexed. “I pay them handsomely. I don’t feel the need to compound their income with unnecessary pleasantries.” He surprised her by taking her hand and kissing it gallantly. “Those I shall reserve for you.”

  Sarah couldn’t resist teasing him. “I shall only get the unnecessary pleasantries? I consider myself duly warned.”

  A
cross the table Charles laughed and winked at Sarah.

  Gideon had the last word. “My dear, to me all pleasantries are unnecessary.”

  Charles laughed even louder at Gideon’s remark. “I can attest to the truth of that,” he agreed. “Gideon is tightfisted with his pleasantries.”

  Sarah pondered that a moment with a puzzled look on her face. “Wouldn’t that be tightlipped?” she asked innocently.

  Gideon grinned at her. “Touché, my dear.” After their laughter subsided, Gideon took her hand in his. His touch was still tentative, as if he was unsure whether she would welcome it. Foolish man. She clasped his hand tightly in hers. “Is there something amiss, Sarah?” he asked gently. “Are you all right?”

  This time she was perplexed. “Yes, of course. Why do you ask?”

  Charles leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “You did ask to speak with Gideon privately, Sarah,” he reminded her. “Would you like me to leave?”

  Outrage and disbelief coursed through her at his question. “How can you ask me that? You know I do not. But I cannot ask to speak privately with you, Charles. Not even here in our home.” She pulled her hand from Gideon’s and crossed her arms. “I’m sorry that you think I would do so.” She shook her head. “I cannot.” The last was said in a whisper as the enormity of their situation hit Sarah. How hurtful it must be for Charles to be treated that way.

  It was Charles who reached out first. He sat forward and stretched his hands across the table, palms up. She uncrossed her arms and placed her hands in his. “I’m sorry, Sarah,” he whispered. “I know. I understand.” And the awful thing was he meant it. His understanding and forbearance humbled her. With a squeeze of her hands he let go and sat back. “Is this about last night?”

  Sarah blushed and looked down at her lap, smoothing her skirts. “No, no it isn’t. Last night was…” She paused and raised her head. How to describe such a wonderful thing as last night? She shrugged helplessly.