Bound with Honor
Page 14
Selina stared at the door as it closed after Archie and then simply breathed in the scent of Beatrix as the other woman’s arms slid around her waist from behind. Laughing at the sheer joy of being in her lover’s arms, in her husband’s house, she leaned back into Bea’s strength.
“God, how he adores you. It’s so beautiful to see.” Beatrix rubbed the flat of her hand across Selina’s smooth belly. “Are you carrying yet?”
Her heart began to race and her pussy throbbed. “No, I told him I wanted to wait.” She gasped when Bea’s hand moved higher to cup the underside of her right breast.
“And what did he say?” Bea’s words were warm breaths close to her ear.
“He said he was happy to wait as long as I wanted. And then he put in an order for a hundred French letters to be sent up from London at once.”
Beatrix laughed this time, pressing her forehead against Selina’s shoulder and trembling with happiness. “You’ve done it Selina. You have conquered the world with your goodness.” Bea’s other hand went lower, then pressed hard and possessively over her mound. “Have you missed me?”
“You have no idea.” She turned in Bea’s arms and kissed her with all the desire and ferocity she’d had to keep at bay while Archie and Vanessa and Nora were in the room. Not that any of them were in the dark about the nature of her relationship with Bea, but it would have been inappropriate under any circumstances for her to kiss Bea in that way in front of others. She might have been an exhibitionist when it came to closed-carriage rides with Archie, but even Vanessa and Nora, who had been together for twenty years, rarely did more than hold hands in front of anyone.
And even though she had enjoyed when Christopher and Archie and she had all made love together, it did not seem like something Archie was interested in pursuing. Even tonight, when she’d invited him to stay, he’d chosen to go. At some point in the future, she would be more direct; she would seduce him while Beatrix was there in the room, and see where it led. He seemed to be more comfortable with two discrete relationships for now, rather than one that melded all three of them together. Given the extent of his generosity and understanding, she wasn’t about to push him beyond that at present.
“I want to rub up against you.” Selina proceeded to do so while undoing the fastenings of Bea’s dress.
“Right here, darling?” Bea’s voice lowered slightly.
“Where else? You can’t possibly expect me to wait another moment to have you.” She pressed Bea down onto the couch and shoved her petticoat and dress up impatiently. “God, how I’ve missed you.” Tugging roughly at her drawers, she heard a slight tear. “I’m sorry, love.” She looked up quickly to see Bea’s eyes glowing with lust and happiness, her breasts heaving in anticipation.
“No need to apologize for your ardor, sweet Selina.”
Then Selina dragged her tongue across Bea’s neatly trimmed pussy, and Bea’s head fell back against the arm of the couch. “Oh dear God, your mouth—”
Selina pulled the drawers the rest of the way off and pressed Bea’s legs wide apart. She blew a light stream of air on Bea’s slick pussy. “I love you, Beatrix.” Then she leaned in and circled Bea’s clit with her tongue. As Bea’s hips rose, Selina pressed her mouth more firmly, sucked harder, then softened and licked the entrance to her cunny. She could already feel the beginnings of Bea’s orgasm, as the tender flesh began to throb and quiver against her lips. Humming her approval, she slid three fingers into Bea’s slick opening.
Bea cried out at the welcome invasion, then began rocking her hips and keening with desperate need.
“I love you, Bea,” Selina repeated between erotic kisses, as her fingers matched Bea’s rhythm, and then she leaned in and closed her lips around Bea’s clit and drew out her orgasm, sucking and licking until Bea’s body finally stopped quaking and her breathless cries for Selina to never stop were reduced to nothing more than vague whispers of gratitude and love.
By the time Bea began to recover her senses, Selina had undone Bea’s bodice enough to reveal her splendid bosom, and had lowered her own dress so their breasts could rest against one another. The sensation was intensely erotic for Selina, and Bea was often able to bring her to a climax without ever touching anywhere but her breasts.
Bea tilted up slightly and brought one of Selina’s breasts to her mouth. It was Selina’s turn to cry out. She buried her face in Bea’s neck, licking and sucking and kissing the long-missed familiar scent and taste of her. “God, I have missed you. It’s so good to have you back.” Her hips were tilted provocatively, and Bea’s hands worked to pull up her skirts. When Bea’s long, knowing fingers found her wet and exposed, Bea drew her mouth away and laughed. “You no longer wear any undergarments? I thought you enjoyed wearing vaguely scandalous drawers as much as I did.”
Selina blushed, which she knew was rather preposterous under the circumstances. “Archie and I . . . We . . . It’s easier that way . . .” She kept her face buried in Bea’s neck.
“Look at me, darling.” Even as Bea’s familiar hands caressed the turn of her bottom and then down her inner thigh and back again, Selina was suddenly shy. “Your happiness is my happiness. And I can tell he makes you happy. I don’t need to know the specifics of your lovemaking. Perhaps one day all of us could be together in one bed—”
Selina inhaled and felt her breasts tighten in obvious excitement.
“Would you like that, my naughty, lovely girl?” Bea pinched her nipple.
“Yes,” she gasped.
Bea pinched harder. “Tell me everything you would like. Do you want him to fuck you while I devour your gorgeous breasts—” Lowering her mouth again, Bea pulled the taut bud of Selina’s nipple into her mouth.
“Yes!” Rocking her hips, she pressed her pussy against Bea’s fingers. “God, yes!”
When Bea bit down on her nipple and pinched her clit at the same moment, her body exploded in a fury of all-consuming ecstasy, and she collapsed against Bea.
“Oh God . . . I am so glad I’ve already been to hell.”
Selina’s trip to hell on earth had finally become a joke between them, after she had frequently collapsed into tears after their lovemaking early on in their relationship. Bea had ultimately convinced her that neither of them were going to hell, especially not Selina. She pointed out that Selina had already been to hell—when she’d been confined in the asylum in Yorkshire. Therefore, Bea rationalized: Selina had served her time.
Bea dragged her fingertips lightly along Selina’s exposed hips and legs. “You like the idea very much, of all three of us together. Is that it?”
She sighed and reveled in the simple joy of feeling her body flush up against Bea’s. “I do . . . but only if you wish it. Or if Archie does. I can’t tell how he feels. He’s so respectful all the time.” She turned to rest her cheek against Bea’s shoulder and pulled a strand of her beautiful chestnut hair between her fingers. She began to twirl it as she spoke. “I want to know that he will not be hurt if I suggest it. The male ego is a surprisingly fragile thing.”
Bea laughed and kissed her forehead. “So I’ve heard.”
She looked at Bea more seriously. “Do you have any desire . . . any curiosity? For men, I mean?”
Bea quirked up her lip, as she might while listening to a new piece of music for which she had yet to determine an opinion. “For men in general, I would’ve said no. But Archibald Cambury in particular intrigues me. Very much.”
Tugging on Bea’s hair to get her attention, Selina pretended to be affronted. “I say! Do you have designs on my husband?”
Positioning herself so they were even more closely pressed together, Bea whispered, “I certainly have designs on his wife.”
“Thank heaven for that.” She kissed Bea’s neck and then the two of them lay like that for many minutes, finding the familiar pattern of their shared breathing, their breasts somehow soft and firm all at once, their bodies aligned.
Startling awake when a log split and sparked, she sa
t up quickly and realized the two of them had dozed off. “Wake up, love. I have a surprise for you.”
“Mmm, I’ll be there in a minute,” Bea mumbled.
Selina stood and adjusted her dress. If one of the servants happened to pass by, at least her breasts were no longer cascading out of her bodice.
“Now, sleepyhead. You will be pleased.”
“Yes, yes, I’m coming.” Bea was notoriously difficult to rouse. Selina leaned down and began to kiss her awake, something they both adored. After the kiss went from light lips against lips to hot, hungry tongue against tongue, she pulled away.
“Wake up, you beautiful creature.”
In a perfectly awake voice, with her eyes still closed, Bea replied, “But I’m still very, very sleepy. More kisses, please.”
“Up!” Selina laughed. She tugged on Bea’s hand until they were both standing. Bea stood still and smiled while Selina fixed her dress for her. “There. Now we are somewhat presentable. Come with me.”
Holding hands, the two women walked the length of the main hall until they were approaching the orangery.
“Are we going to make love in the greenhouse?” Bea asked.
“No! I mean—” She stopped abruptly and kissed Bea hard and quickly on the lips. “Yes, but not right now.”
They continued through the orangery and along another glassed-in corridor that led to a smaller building.
“Where are we going?”
“To your house.”
“What?” Bea stopped in her tracks. “Our cottage is in the opposite direction.
“I didn’t say cottage. I said house.” She smiled and waited for Bea to grasp what was happening.
“I don’t have a house.”
“You do now. You have your own beautiful house right here on the Camburton estate, with the most beautiful piano and furniture and bedrooms and antiques and lovely paintings—”
She tugged on Bea’s hand and pulled her along until they were nearly running. Pushing open a heavy door, she was breathless from both effort and excitement when they came to a halt. They had entered through a side door, but they were standing in the small entryway of a beautiful home.
“But this is the dower house.” Bea’s voice was awed.
“It is your house. For as long as you want it.”
“It’s too much. It isn’t right.”
“You are my tender love, my only real family until Archie. Of course it is not too much. Archie and I have spoken about it at great length. He knows that your travel schedule will keep you away and you may not use it for any great length of time, but we both agreed you should have your own space, as you’ve always wished. And in the future, when perhaps you decide to settle . . .”
Bea was weeping slow tears. “I don’t deserve you, sweet Selina.”
“You saved me. You saved my life.” She brushed away Bea’s tears with her thumbs as she spoke. “You made me believe I had a life worth saving. You deserve every wonderful thing.”
They kissed tenderly in the hall and then she showed Bea upstairs to the large bedroom that overlooked the informal gardens at the back of the estate, and the rolling hills that were all limned in icy moonlight. She pulled back the covers, and then they undressed each other slowly. After another hour of slow, attentive lovemaking, she finally kissed Beatrix good-night and returned to Archie.
As she walked back through the orangery, her steps echoing through the night, she realized she was willing to pay any price to be living this life of openness and freedom.
When Selina returned to their marital bed a few hours later, Archie, half-asleep, reached for her warm naked body like a flower reaches for the sun, with instinct and gratitude.
She snaked her hands around his waist and twined her bare legs with his. “Did you miss me?” Her body rubbing against his warmth made him hard within seconds.
“Mmm. Absence definitely made me grow—”
“Archie!” She laughed and then softened into him, kissing his lips and his shoulder, then licking one of his nipples playfully.
“Your scent is different.” He burrowed his face into her neck, then pulled up her arm to smell her wrist and the crease at her inner elbow. “You smell like Beatrix.” He kissed the spots and then kissed her on the lips.
She inhaled sharply. “You don’t mind?”
He paused, not understanding the hint of worry in her voice. They’d decided together that Beatrix would live in the dower house, that she would be a part of their family. In his mind, Beatrix would be a maiden aunt to their children, a loving fixture in all of their lives, for the rest of their lives. “Mind? It’s what we decided. And now she’s here and you are so obviously delighted. Why would I ever mind?”
Her arms flew around his neck and her legs flew around his hips. “You have kept your promise . . .” He was on his back, and she was straddling his hips.
“Which promise is that?” He grabbed her hair and pulled her down to kiss her nape as he spoke.
“You’ve made me the happiest woman in England.”
He looked up into her shining eyes, then down the length of both their bodies where they were about to be joined. As she began to lower herself onto him, he released her hair and held her hips, stopping her. “Wait, I’ll put on a sheath—”
“I don’t want to wait any longer. I’m ready. Are you?”
They stayed poised in that moment, both realizing they were on the cliff edge of their shared future. “I think I’ve been ready since the first day I came upon you in the maze and heard your voice through the hedgerow.”
“Oh, Archie.” Her voice was so full of trembling love he was unable to say anything more. He loosened his grip on her hips, and she touched her slick pussy against the very tip of his straining shaft. “I love you.”
Then she lowered herself completely onto him, and they both inhaled through the power of the connection. Her fingers dug into the muscles on his chest, the sharp turn of her fingernails adding a hint of something fierce to the emotion that was passing between them. After a few long seconds, he tilted his hips and began a slow rhythm. He watched as gooseflesh spread across her belly and breasts, and she tipped her head back.
When she arched forward and pressed harder onto him, he was lost. They were lost in each other for hours—light touches and rough scratches, soothing words of love and crashing cries of passion. They fell asleep at last, her back against his front, his hand resting over hers low on her belly, as he thought of the new life they were creating together.
When he woke the next morning, the room was still dim in the winter dawn. Selina was awake and looking at him, her face a few inches from his on the large pillow they shared. “Good morning, beautiful.” His hand reached for her belly. “How do you feel?”
She smiled dreamily. “I feel like you are inside me . . . even when you’re not.”
He kissed her and then remembered his London plan. “I was thinking we could go to London for Christmas. You could meet with your publisher and we could celebrate at Camburton House in Mayfair.” He rubbed her stomach lightly as he spoke. “I want to experience London with you, properly this time. And I think Georgie and Trevor and James will be returning soon and, well, I just thought . . .”
She smiled wider. “You are a magician.”
“How so?”
“Bea was telling me last night that she’s been invited to meet with a renowned teacher named William Dance. She was going to postpone until after the New Year, to spend the holidays with us, but this is divine.” Selina rolled onto her back and stared at the canopy over their bed, then sighed happily. “When would you like to leave?”
“I have a few things I need to do here.” He moved over her and pulled the covers over both of them to keep the cool air from touching her sleep-warm body.
“Really?” she asked provocatively, lifting her hips to his. “What sorts of things?”
He leaned down and kissed her, and they didn’t emerge from the bedroom for two more hours.
“You promise you won’t stay overlong?” Vanessa asked.
Selina replied quickly, “Oh I promise! After I turn in my manuscript and speak to my publisher about my next idea, I will want to sprint home and begin writing the next series of books.”
“Very well.” Vanessa toyed with her coffee cup. “I always traveled when I was your age and I’m happy to see Archie wanting to leave the nest for once, but— Oh, I’m just spoiled, I suppose.”
Archie had to suppress a laugh. “Spoiled? You, Mother? Never!”
“Mind your tongue, Archibald Cambury.” She tried to chide him but she was smiling nonetheless.
Nora put her napkin on the dining table and stood to go. “I’m going to paint the rest of the morning. Bea, would you care to practice in the studio?”
Beatrix was sitting across the table with her hand resting lightly on Selina’s shoulder. Archie and Selina had told her about the London plan before they’d all gone in to breakfast, and she’d been thrilled. “Yes, I’ll come with you now.” Beatrix turned to Selina when she stood up. “Would you like to hear me play, love?”
Selina blushed, and Archie had an answering roll of desire as he watched her. He thought of that moment on the carriage in London—with her face turned to the sky as if she were receiving the universe into every cell of her body. Whether it was her best friend or his touch or the way she wrote her stories, Selina exuded a brilliant light of joy.
She caught him staring at her and smiled in return. “Would you like to join us to hear Bea?”
He pulled out his pocket watch and declined. “I have a timed experiment that I have to check on. Leave the door open, will you? And then I will be able to hear it wafting through the castle.”
Selina nodded and that small connection throbbed between them. “Excellent.” She stood and joined Beatrix and Nora and the three of them left the intimate dining room.