Love's Strategy Page 5

Valentine had to stop speaking as he was overwhelmed with sensation when he thrust the last few inches into Kurt. Kurt’s ass was so tight and Valentine was so hard it felt like his cock was being strangled and he loved it. He groaned and thrust his hips shallowly several times, making room for his cock deep in there, stretching Kurt a little more before he began to fuck him hard and deep.

  Valentine ran his hands over Kurt’s ass and up his back to his shoulders. He stretched himself out against Kurt’s back, spreading Kurt’s legs wider and pushing him down until Kurt’s head and shoulders were on the bed, his buttocks tucked in tightly against Valentine’s hips, Valentine’s cock still buried to the hilt. Kurt groaned and shuddered, and Valentine felt an answering shiver race up his spine.

  “I want to fuck you like this for Leah,” Valentine whispered. “I want her to see how beautiful you are, how much you like it. I want you to teach her how to suck a man’s cock, and how to take one in the ass.”

  Kurt fisted his hands against the bed and a small whimper escaped him at the same time Valentine felt his muscles tighten around his cock.

  “You want her here, don’t you?” He continued to whisper roughly as he rose to his knees again behind Kurt and grabbed his hips. He pulled his cock out of Kurt’s ass slowly, then thrust back in hard and deep. Kurt thrust back against him moaning. “You want her to watch me fuck you. What else do you want?”

  Kurt was breathing heavily, his cheek pressed against the bed, his hands opening and closing. He groaned as Valentine pulled out and thrust in again.

  “I want to fuck her,” Kurt gasped. “I want to fuck her while you fuck me. I want to taste her pussy first, while you lick my ass, then I want us all to fuck.”

  Valentine’s stomach clenched at Kurt’s words, and he couldn’t control himself. He thrust hard and fast and deep into Kurt three, four, five times. Kurt’s arms were stretched above his head, his ass meeting Valentine’s hips thrust for thrust. Kurt was panting and his head was twisting back and forth against the covers. He was the picture of sexual submission as he let Valentine fuck him ruthlessly, and Valentine gloried in it.

  “I want to suck your cock while she sucks mine,” Valentine rasped, as he slowed his thrusts, still going deep. “I want to do it outside, in the garden, where anyone could walk by and see us. I could lie down on the bench there, and you can kneel over my face while Leah lies between my legs, and I want to taste your cum in my mouth as I come in hers.”

  Valentine’s words made Kurt shiver and moan, and he felt his ass tighten around the long hard cock fucking him. His climax was building, his balls were high and tight and tingling with the need to come.

  “Fuck me hard, Valentine,” he groaned out, “I’m going to come. Fuck me hard and come with me.”

  Valentine complied and Kurt met him thrust for thrust, loving the feel of the hard cock going deep, the slap of hips against ass. When Valentine fucked him like this he hit a spot inside that felt so good it almost hurt. Suddenly Valentine thrust deep and stiffened behind him, holding his hips still in a bruising grip as he cried out. Then Kurt felt the hot wash of his seed inside him, and Kurt came and came, his hips jerking against Valentine’s hold as he felt his own release on his thighs and stomach.

  Kurt lay replete on the bed, boneless and unable to move from his kneeling position. Valentine lay curled over him, breathing heavily, his stomach and chest plastered to Kurt’s back with sweat and heat. These moments were almost as sweet as the fucking to Kurt, when Valentine was so exhausted from loving him and yet wouldn’t let him go.

  “So you think it will be even better with Leah, yes?” Kurt asked teasingly, his voice still shallow and his breathing fast.

  Valentine laughed weakly from behind him. “Better than perfect? No. Just a different kind of perfect, I think.”

  “Yes,” Kurt slowly agreed, thinking back on the fantasies he and Valentine had just shared. “I think so too.”

  Chapter Six

  Leah nervously smoothed the skirt of her gown with shaking fingers as the carriage rolled to a stop in front of Cantley. She took several deep breaths, and when the footman opened the carriage door she was ready.

  She had been impressed with Valentine’s carriage and was equally impressed with Cantley. While not a palatial estate, the brick and stucco two-story home was obviously large, and on the outside it was well maintained. In the fading light Leah could make out both formal and informal landscape elements that even in their winter state were quite lovely. A fountain lay idle in the center of the gravel roundabout in front of the house.

  She took the outstretched hand offered by the young footman. Leah had been impressed by her first encounter with some of Valentine’s and Kurt’s servants. They were everything that was proper in their manners and behavior. Leah was relieved. She hadn’t known what to expect. This was so far out of the realm of her experience. Her stomach was in knots from excitement and trepidation.

  Her perusal of the house was cut short when the front door opened to reveal not a servant but the master himself. Valentine stepped out under the portico and smiled welcomingly. “Mrs. Marleston,” he said warmly, and Leah was glad he’d used her proper title and surname in front of the servants. She didn’t want there to be more talk than necessary in the neighborhood.

  “Mr. Westridge,” Leah answered a little shyly, “it’s so good of you to have me here.”

  Suddenly Kurt was at the door behind Valentine, grinning wickedly. “Why, Mrs. Marleston, as soon as we met we knew we must have you here as soon as possible.”

  Leah didn’t miss the innuendo in his remark and she felt her cheeks heat.

  “Kurt,” Valentine admonished gently, but Leah could see the twinkle in his eye and her heart raced. “Come in,” he invited, holding out his hand, and Leah stepped forward. When their hands met, Leah’s gaze flew to Valentine’s. Had he felt it too, she wondered, that wonderful hot slide of awareness? It felt as if the earth shifted just slightly, and Leah thought, my life will never be the same again. As she walked through the door and Kurt closed it behind her it all felt so right it almost frightened her.

  “Leah?” Kurt asked quietly, stepping closer and laying a hand on her arm. “Are you all right?”

  “Oh yes,” she replied with a tremulous smile, “yes, I’m all right.”

  After the emotional undercurrents of her arrival, the evening progressed rather banally. They had a sherry before dinner and idly talked of the neighborhood—who was who, and who Kurt and Valentine should meet. The only thing that distinguished this dinner from any other Leah had attended was that it was just the three of them. When they went in to dinner Leah found that Valentine was sitting at the head of the table, she was sitting to his right and Kurt was directly on her right. She was a little disconcerted to be surrounded by them, but as dinner progressed with normal light conversation Leah relaxed.

  “Tell us about yourself, Leah,” Kurt asked after the last dish had been removed. The men opted to take their port in the dining room with her. She declined their offer of a glass and settled on another sherry. With her before-dinner drink and wine with dinner she was feeling very relaxed.

  “Oh I’m very boring. My family is country bred on both sides. I grew up about thirty miles from here, in Sedgely. Our house was half the size of this one, and the grounds not nearly so impressive. My father was a kind, forgetful, playful man who adored my mother. His death in a hunting accident was a tragedy she never recovered from.” Leah sighed. “I guess I haven’t either.”

  Kurt was sitting forward, his arm leaning on the table, his chin in his hand. At her remark he reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear and Leah shivered, her nipples puckering in awareness much to her surprise. She had never become aroused from such an innocent touch before. She immediately put down her sherry. Clearly she’d had too much already.

  “I’m sorry, beautiful Leah.” He smiled at her shiver. “Tell us about your marriage.”

  “My marriage,” Leah mused.
“Well, because we were alone, I think I married too young. I was only nineteen when I accepted the first offer made to me. Thomas Marleston was a good catch for a country-bred girl with very little dowry and no connections.” She shrugged, not wanting to reveal the harsh and sometimes ugly aspects of her marriage. “We had two children together in a few short years. Thomas began to gamble irresponsibly, he died in rather mysterious circumstances, and I came to live with my mother.”

  Both men regarded her silently for a moment. In her nervousness Leah forgot her earlier decision not to drink anymore and she took a sip of her sherry.

  Valentine sighed. “I think there is a great deal there that you are not telling us,” he chided gently. “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” Leah answered evasively. “My marriage was no different from hundreds, thousands, just like it.”

  “It was very different,” Kurt argued, “because it involved you.”

  Leah blushed, and Kurt’s fingers were suddenly there on her hot cheek, brushing the overheated skin softly. “So shy,” he murmured. “Why are you here, Leah?”

  She blinked rapidly several times, trying to focus on his abrupt question.

  “Because you asked me?” she offered helpfully.

  Valentine laughed at her response. “We did. But why did you accept?”

  “I thought you wanted my answer,” Leah said in confusion.

  Kurt’s fingers had moved from her cheek to her neck and were now smoothly brushing back and forth along her collarbone, which was exposed by the fashionably low square neckline of her pale violet gown. Leah’s breath hitched in her throat.

  “Tell us your answer,” Kurt encouraged her, his voice a low seductive purr.

  Leah cleared her throat delicately, almost overwhelmed by the desire to take Kurt’s hand and press it firmly against her breast, against the hard aching nipple there, tingling with the feel of Kurt’s soft caress. She looked over at Valentine, unsure of how to progress. If she was to marry Valentine, shouldn’t he be the one touching her first? He was sitting back in his chair, the very picture of wealthy, self-satisfied complacence. The description made Leah smile, and Valentine tilted his head inquiringly. Leah answered before he could ask the question.

  “I was thinking how self-satisfied you look, very opulent and indulgent.” Valentine looked momentarily taken aback and then his laugh joined Kurt’s deep chuckle.

  “I look that way because that’s how I feel.” Valentine leaned forward, bracing both elbows on the table, and held her gaze, his face serious. Gone was the stammering lover of yesterday. “I love watching Kurt’s hands on you, watching you respond to his touch. I can see your breathing getting just a little ragged, your pulse quickening in your throat, and it makes me want you both.”

  Leah became conscious of the things Valentine described, her breathing and her heartbeat, and both increased as his words sank in and Kurt’s caresses became bolder. His fingers were now running lightly over the soft swells of her breasts above her neckline. Shivers raced across her sensitized skin at the feather light brush of his fingers.

  “You haven’t answered us, Leah. Tell us, will you marry us?” Kurt’s tone was casual, almost disinterested, but one look in his eyes dispelled that notion. His gaze was intense, pinning her to her seat.

  Leah made sure to make eye contact with each man as she gave her answer. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  For a moment Kurt’s hand stopped caressing her and he held it tightly in a fist before relaxing it again and resuming his gentle torment. Valentine leaned back in his chair with a relieved smile.

  “Thank God,” Valentine said with a shaky laugh. “We weren’t sure, we couldn’t be sure, and the uncertainty has been killing us.”

  “Really?” Leah asked, proud of how calm she sounded. Inside she was a bundle of nerves over the realization that she had just committed herself to these two men for life, and she knew so little about them. “By my being here I thought you’d have figured out my answer.” She glanced at Kurt and smiled. “In spite of what you might think, I don’t generally let men fondle me at the dinner table.”

  Both men laughed, but the atmosphere had changed subtly. Kurt suddenly ran his fingers down over her breast and her tight nipple, and Leah couldn’t stop a little gasp from escaping.

  “You say yes without knowing what we’ll ask of you.” Kurt’s eyes rose from her breast to meet hers. “Perhaps you should wait until you’ve sampled our lovemaking before making a final decision.”

  The thought had Leah’s heart racing and her eyes went wide. “Now?” she squeaked, and winced at how panicked her voice sounded. “I mean, here?”

  “Kurt—” Valentine began, but Kurt cut him off.

  “Yes now, although not necessarily here in the dining room.” He cut his gaze to Valentine. “It’s best to find out now if she likes it, Valentine, rather than after the wedding, when it will be too late if she finds it’s not to her taste.”

  Leah’s eyes were darting back and forth between them, her mind a blank as to what she should say. If she said no, they might think she was not willing to share a bed with them both, and their offer may be rescinded. If she said yes, she was committing herself to this marriage of three, a relationship that flew in the face of everything society dictated was right and proper. For God’s sake, her husbands would be each other’s lovers, were lovers now. A day ago the idea was inconceivable. Now it was her future. And even more surprising was that the idea didn’t scare her as much as it ought. In fact, it didn’t scare her at all.

  She’d had a marriage condoned by society, a good marriage by their standards, and it had been only tolerable at the best of times and a nightmare when Thomas had been gambling and Horatio had stepped into the void with his cruelty and possessiveness. She knew in her heart these two men were nothing like her dead husband and his brother. They would never be cruel and hurtful or neglectful.

  Leah pulled her mind back to the conversation and suddenly realized Valentine was stammering in his endearing way again. Apparently he’d taken her silence as a denial. Kurt had retreated into himself, his face unreadable. Already Leah knew this was how they both responded to adversity. It was amazing how much she did know about them already, after knowing them only a day. How had she become so comfortable around them, so attuned to their feelings and desires? A sudden irrational thought brought her up short. Perhaps she’d always known. Perhaps she’d been made for these men, for this life, and she’d only been waiting for them to find her. She smiled at such a fanciful thought.

  “Valentine,” she said quietly, “the answer is yes, to the marriage proposal and to Kurt’s suggestion. He’s right, we need to find out if we are all comfortable with the arrangement before we make it permanent.”

  Her statement silenced both men, Valentine in shock and Kurt in assessment. “Are you always so practical?” Kurt asked her.

  She had to smile. “About most things, yes, although it would seem there is very little of the practical about what you ask of me.”

  Valentine cleared his throat and stood. “Well then, I guess, would you like to go upstairs?”

  Before Leah could answer him Kurt spoke. “I think it would be best if we went into the drawing room. The servants will talk already, but we should not give them more ammunition.”

  “Of course, of course,” Valentine said abruptly, shaking his head at his own poor suggestion. “Not the bedroom. Of course.”

  Leah placed a hand on his arm. The heat and hardness of his muscled forearm beneath her palm had her sex clenching in anticipation, and Leah felt her mouth tilt in that age-old secret woman’s smile. “Valentine, it’s all right, relax. I’m nervous enough for us all.” She took a deep breath and jumped off the precipice. “You see, I have absolutely no idea what…or…or how…” She trailed off, embarrassed again. “I know I want to, I think, but I’m not sure what I want to do.” She scrunched her nose, a habit left over from a shy youth. “Does that make sense?”

  At her adm
ission Valentine’s nervousness disappeared. He got up and pulled out her chair, lending a hand to help her rise. “In that case, let us go so we can show you.”

  Chapter Seven

  The walk to the drawing room was as excruciating as it was exciting. Valentine held her hand on his arm, his thumb stroking over her skin like a kiss. Kurt followed behind, a hot, imposing presence stalking them. Leah’s skin felt overly sensitive, as if she could feel their eyes and their breath caressing her. It was her vivid imagination, she knew, but it was thrilling just the same. She’d never been so aroused in her life, and they’d hardly even touched her yet.

  Kurt gently closed the door behind them and Leah heard the lock snick into place. She waited for the fear to come, but all she felt was excitement and arousal like a buzz in her head. Valentine brought her over to the settee. He turned her to face him, still standing, and kissed her on the cheek. The kiss spoke more of carnality than camaraderie. “What do you wish to know?” he asked her, his nose trailing softly over her hair and then down to her neck where he buried it in the curve of her shoulder. Leah felt a soft hot swipe of his tongue on her tendon there, and froze for a moment before heat sizzled along her nerve endings, straight to her sex where a dull insistent throbbing commenced.

  Kurt walked over and took his place behind Leah, only this time he pressed close against her, touching from his chest against her back to the hard ridge of his cock along the top curve of her bottom. He leaned over her free shoulder and whispered in her ear.

  “What do you want to learn first, Leah love? How to fuck two men at once? Or how men make love? Would you like to watch Valentine and me fuck each other?”

  Leah moaned, she couldn’t help it. She had never heard such talk before in her life, and definitely not directed at her. Vague, unbidden images of what he described flashed in her mind, and her body temperature rose until she felt flushed and out of breath.

  “Fuck?” she whispered. “Is that what it’s called?” Valentine’s hands slid down from her waist and around to gently squeeze her buttocks, and Leah’s legs became weak. She sagged slightly between them, and Valentine’s hands tightened while Kurt’s hands gripped her waist high, nearly touching the bottom curve of her breasts. She found herself wishing fervently that he would touch them, fondle them. She suddenly realized her acquiescence had little to do with practicality and everything to do with a primal kind of desire she had never felt before. She wanted them, really wanted them.