Page 69 of A Gentleman's Wager
Of course, the confirmation didn’t mean there wasn’t thinking and negotiating to be done. Bella, considering her confessed intrigue over seeing he and Vaughan kiss might be amenable to the notion of the three of them sharing, but Vaughan’s scowls of yesterday suggested he’d be a far less willing participant, and that was a shame. They’d enjoyed such things in the past, plus it would provide a form of protective cover. To share a willing wench with a friend was common enough to be almost a rite of passage. Whereas, buggering or being buggered by one’s friend was an entirely different matter—a damned hanging matter.
He could not pretend he wasn’t afraid. He might not be in fear of his soul, the Lord forgave after all—wasn’t that part of the doctrine?—but he was in fear for his neck and the family name. What shocked him was that Vaughan did not seem to hold the same dread.
Yet, he also knew that his trepidation wouldn’t prevent him from indulging in such perversity again. Not when all he had to do was close his eyes and clench his arse and it revived the sensation of Vaughan being inside him.
Tupping Bella hadn’t rid him of the desire, not in the slightest. He wanted a repeat. Perhaps not this very second, but soon. Definitely, soon.
At the rap upon his door, Lucerne responded, “Come,” fully expecting it to be Ivo come to dress him for dinner.
“Is this sprawl for my benefit?” Vaughan asked.
Lucerne levered his shoulders off the bed and found his friend regarding him through narrowed eyes. He was already dressed in his evening finery. “I need not ask if Miss Rushdale has been found, the answer is all too evident.”
“Don’t be sour about it.”
“Whyever should I be?”
“You were impossibly rude about her earlier.” They’d squabbled rather viciously. Not to the point of disharmony, Lucerne understood too well that jealousy was the major cause, but certainly to the extent of requiring time apart.
Vaughan adopted an elegant pose at the foot of the bed. His gaze lingered over Lucerne’s body, making appreciative passes from toe to tip, before settling around the mid-point. “Is this my punishment, to be neglected in her favour, and have that fact flaunted before me?”
“We can be lovers, Vaughan, but you can’t expect to command the whole of me. I think I made that clear yesterday.”
“That was before.”
“And remains so after,” he said firmly. He expected a retort, but Vaughan said nothing, only showing his displeasure through the pursing of his sensual lips. “I mean it.”
“Of course you do.”
Lucerne slumped down against the pillows with a sigh and pushed his hands into his hair, perfectly aware that Vaughan’s statement did not guarantee acceptance or compliance with his wishes. It was simply an acknowledgement that he’d heard. “Do you intend to forgo all future relations with women? Of course not, so don’t expect it of me.”
“One has a bet with Charles that necessitates such things.”
“A bet. Do I want to know?”
“I shouldn’t imagine so. Best not to let it trouble you.”
It no doubt would, if he allowed it to, which he would endeavour against. What two gentlemen had shaken upon was not for a third to attempt to annul. “All the more reason why you should not expect it of me.”
“One can be persuaded to compromise.” Vaughan walked his fingers up Lucerne’s leg to his knee, where he halted, a smile pulling on his lips and shining in his inky eyes. Then he continued his ascent until his touch sat parallel with Lucerne’s slumbering cock.
Lucerne found himself curiously paralysed waiting for what came next. He inhaled sharply, when Vaughan’s touch hopped from his thigh to the base of his shaft and drew a wavy path along the length of it to the tip.
“I wonder, if I kiss you, will I find the taste of her still on your cock?”
“There’s only one way to find out.” Lucerne made a key turning motion before his mouth. He probably ought not to goad him, for who knew where it would lead, but he was still in the thrall of post-coital bliss.
Vaughan leaned in closer, lowering his head so that his chin almost met Lucerne’s naked skin. His tongue tip pressed against his front teeth. Lucerne began to stiffen. It was entirely involuntary, likewise the clenching of the muscles of his arse. An anticipatory reaction that also rolled shivers down his spine and had him pressing his thighs together.
Vaughan drew closer still, breathing in the scent of him, and moving over Lucerne so stealthily the sensation of his passing stirred all the tiny hairs upon Lucerne’s body even though no contact was made. After a sultry glance up at Lucerne, he touched him with just the tip of his tongue. One delicate lick part way along the shaft, which had Lucerne straining upwards urgently, aroused in a way he didn’t think possible after his recent release.
Vaughan sat back on his haunches. “It would seem so.”
Lucerne cocked a brow. “One might wonder how you were so familiar with the taste.”
“One might not like the answer.”
“What game are you playing, Vaughan?”
