He inclined his head and she raced from the room and back upstairs to her chamber. Inside, she threw herself on the bed, yanking the covers over her head, but she couldn’t hide from herself. She could still taste him on her lips, still feel him on her skin. Oh God, but she wanted that. Wanted him. Wanted more.
She closed her eyes and lowered her hand, shoving her nightrail out of the way. And then she touched herself as she thought of Benedict, thought of what she’d seen in the library, thought of…Darrius Warwick. Her eyes flew open as an image of his handsome face loomed into the middle of the passionate fantasy. Both men, focused on her as her body began to spasm with pleasure. And those images remained with her even as she collapsed in relief against the pillows and drifted into restless dreams of even more wicked things the two of them could do to her.
Darrius
Darrius had never believed he would sleep that night. He hadn’t even tried, instead dismissing his valet and returning to his brother’s study where he began to go through every paper and ledger on Arthur’s messy desk. What he was finding was such a pattern of mismanagement and irresponsibility that it made his head hurt.
He was about to get up and pour himself a drink when the door to the study opened and Benedict stepped inside. Darrius watched him a moment, outlined in the glow of the lamps and firelight. By God, but he was beautiful. Like a beacon in the darkness that was currently Darrius’s life. He wanted so much to get up, cross the room and just…surrender himself to everything he’d ever wanted. He let his gaze flit over Benedict and hesitated when he realized the other man had what looked like half a cockstand.
And his mouth watered. But he blinked and shook away the reaction. There was no wasting time on such things now. “Do you not know how to knock?” he asked, his voice harsh.
Benedict ignored the question and entered the room, shutting the door behind himself. “I have an idea. A potential solution.”
Uneasiness filled Darrius at the way he said that. “It’s late, Benedict. I’m tired.”
Benedict’s lips pursed. “Are you so incapable of being around me for five minutes that you won’t even listen to me? That you can’t allow that I have your best interest at heart? Hers, too? That I might actually be useful to you as a friend?”
Darrius stared at him for what felt like a lifetime, then swallowed. “I know all that. I know…I know.” He shook his head and thought of what Egerton had said to him hours before about his relationship with Reid and Merritt. “It’s complicated, though.”
Benedict stepped closer. “Because you make it so. Because you don’t want to face…” He trailed off. “I’m not here to talk about that, actually. Or not exactly. Can’t you just forget the so-called complications and listen to me?”
Darrius motioned toward the seat across from the desk. “Please.”
Benedict sat and leaned forward, draping his elbows on his knees. His eyes shone in the light, his face lit up in a way Darrius hadn’t seen in a long time. “Vanessa will have to marry.”
Darrius flinched. That had been the path of his own mind, as well. “Yes. She cannot be unprotected.”
“And it makes sense that it will be one of us,” Benedict continued.
Darrius got up and moved to the fire, staring into the dying flames as he pictured Vanessa coming toward him. As much as he longed for Benedict, he couldn’t deny that he had felt the same stirrings of desire and interest toward his brother’s fiancée. He’d hated himself for it, had tried to avoid her just like he avoided Benedict.
It had worked just as well, for now he was here, with both the objects of his desire right before him, tempting him. What would marriage to her be like? Would she despise him for forcing her into a path like her parents had tried to do not once but twice? Would she feel trapped?
Would she come to care for him and ask for the same in return? Could he give that knowing that he still throbbed and would always throb for the man who sat behind him, waiting for him to respond?
Except Benedict wasn’t just waiting. Darrius heard him get up and move toward him. He gripped the edge of the mantelpiece as Benedict stepped up behind him, close now. He could almost feel his breath and sucked in one of his own in anticipation.
“But she doesn’t want something empty, Darrius. She doesn’t want something cold,” Benedict said, his voice becoming more seductive. “She wants to be wanted. Desired.” Darrius felt Benedict’s fingertips brush along his hip. “Pleasured.”
He swallowed hard and turned slightly toward him. “How could you possibly know that?”
Benedict didn’t step back, he didn’t stop tracing the line of Darrius’s hip, but he didn’t surge forward and demand anything else, either. “You know that the Marquess and Marchioness of Egerton are involved in a relationship with Peter Reid.”
Darrius sucked in a breath. “Y-Yes. I’d heard the rumors in certain corners. And Egerton verified it was true when I was talking to him this afternoon. What does that have to do with Vanessa?”
“I caught her in the hallway a short time ago, watching them as they…indulged in the library together,” Benedict said, and now his breath came shorter, too. As if he was recalling what he’d seen and was aroused by it.
Darrius was, too. The idea of Vanessa and Benedict standing in a hallway not ten paces away from this very study, watching something so intimate, so passionate—it set his body on edge.
“I know you want her, Darrius,” Benedict continued, and now he did lean forward, his lips close to Darrius’s jawline. “I know when you want. And you know the same about me, so you must have guessed that I want her, too.”
Darrius jerked his gaze to him, their faces too close. He was getting dizzy with the proximity, with the heat this conversation created. He gripped the mantel tighter and nodded. “Yes.”
“So why couldn’t we…share her?”
It was like someone had thrown a bomb into the middle of the room. Darrius staggered a little, but Benedict didn’t allow him time to recover his senses, he just continued on.
“We could give her all the pleasure, all the adoration, she deserves after what she’s gone through. Show her that she is wanted, despite the idiot men who came before us. And when she’s had her fill, we’ve had our fill, she can pick between us for a husband, knowing full well what her future would look like instead of having it thrust upon her as has happened before.”
