Darrius nodded, lifting his head from her sex and revealing lips that shone with her release. She wanted to lick them clean. She wanted to taste her own flavor and then start all over again.
“Was that what you needed?” Benedict asked her.
She shivered at the question and gave a shaky nod. “Yes.”
Darrius pushed to his feet. There was no denying the outline of his hard cock through his tight fawn breeches. She wanted to touch him, draw him down to cover her, fill her. Then let Benedict do the same. She wanted to ride this pleasure forever, never stop, forget all her responsibilities and just be theirs until the world stopped turning. But he caught her hand and bent over her, kissing her knuckles lightly.
“There is nothing I want more than for you to touch me,” he said, as if he could read her mind. “And to watch you be touched by Benedict. But the chances of our being caught this way increase with every passing moment. And I want you to have time to truly consider what we’ve done. If it is truly something you want to take further. To take all the way.”
She blinked at the generosity of that offer. This man who had always seemed so indifferent was only thinking of her. Her pleasure. Her future. Her desire. Her consent. How had she ever believed he didn’t like her when he looked at her like he was right now? With such gentleness, but also such heat. It had always been there, she realized it now.
Benedict turned her face toward his again and kissed her gently. “He’s right.”
“So take the time,” Darrius whispered. “And if you want more…both of you…come to my room after everyone else turns in tonight. You’ll have everything you desire and more.”
She felt Benedict draw in a short breath, as if that promise moved him, but he didn’t reveal his reaction on his face. He just kissed her one last time and then went about the work of helping her fix herself so that what they’d done wouldn’t be so obvious when Darrius opened the door and let the world back into the parlor.
But inside she’d always know that she’d been changed. No matter what happened next.
Darrius
Darrius burst from the house and down the stairs from the terrace to enter the garden. He could scarcely breathe as he rushed down the pathway, not seeing the well-manicured greenness around him that often gave him peace. Today there was none of that. Not after the encounter with Benedict and Vanessa.
He could still taste her on his tongue, her desire and release both sweet and salty. And he could still feel Benedict’s stare hold his, a thousand needs and feelings and thoughts Darrius had avoided sparked by that intimate exchange.
“Wait!”
He froze on the path and looked back to see Benedict coming after him in a few long, graceful strides. Darrius pinched his lips. “I thought we’d agreed to go to separate corners to consider what just happened?”
Benedict scrunched his face. “Vanessa has the most to lose. She must consider. I think we both know that for us, it’s easy.”
Darrius shook his head. They had danced around this topic for years now and it felt impossible to continue to do so after what had just happened. Or maybe he just didn’t want to anymore.
“For you, it’s easy,” he snapped, emotions bubbling to the surface. “You always make it look so fucking easy. For me, it’s not.”
Expression falling, Benedict took another step toward him. “Why?”
“Because…because…” When Benedict was looking at him like that, heat flowing between them…something deeper than heat, too…he almost couldn’t remember why. He shook his head. “I have responsibilities.”
“So do I,” Benedict said softly. “One of them is to be as authentically myself as I can be. The alternative is untenable. And perhaps I cannot run through the street declaring my—” He cut himself off, and for a moment Darrius wished he would have completed the sentence. “When it is you and me, you can be who you are. Don’t you want that?”
Darrius sighed. “And what if she doesn’t want that?”
As he ran a hand through his hair, Benedict turned away a moment. When he looked back, there was a flash of anger in his eyes. “You said earlier that we could have everything we desire and more. Well, you know what I desire, Darrius. What I’ve always desired. So don’t pretend you don’t.”
Darrius scrubbed his palm over his face. “I—”
“Don’t say anything.” Benedict snapped. “But perhaps that is what you should think about while we wait for tonight. Because I can’t play games with you anymore. I can’t accept anonymous encounters in dark halls where you can pretend it away afterward. I need more.”
With that, he turned away and left Darrius staring after him. And longing, as he always had longed and probably always would long, when Benedict Norfolk walked away from him.
CHAPTER 7
Vanessa
It had been two hours since the shocking encounter on the settee in the parlor and Vanessa had been pacing her chamber ever since. She could think of nothing else, imagine nothing else, remember nothing else but Benedict’s hands on her, Darrius’s mouth on her. Strange since she had been abandoned almost at the altar barely twenty-four hours before. Thoughts that humiliation should have been more forefront of her mind.
What a gift that they were giving her.
