“It does,” Aiden said, and motioned her in that direction.
They followed as if they were her servants, but she couldn’t help but laugh when she heard Wren grunt, “Jesus. Those hips.”
She twitched said hips a little more out of playful teasing even though her cheeks heated with the compliment and its accompanying desire. She gasped as she entered the dressing room. There was a big brass tub along the wall under a small window and it steamed with fresh water scented with something floral and fresh. There were clean towels resting on a stool beside the bath and other soaps awaiting her. After the past few days, her muscles ached and she felt a sharp twinge of longing as she looked at the welcoming water.
“Don’t just sit there making love to the bath with your eyes,” Aiden said with a laugh as he took her hand to steady her. “Sink in.”
She smiled at him and did just that, stepping over the edge and settling beneath the warmth. When he released her she sank a little lower and dunked her entire body, including her head, beneath the welcoming heat. When she surfaced, she slicked her hair back and then settled against the tub to watch Aiden and Wren.
They were both staring, mouths slightly agape, at her. “You two look like you’ve never seen a naked woman,” she teased.
“Not enough of this naked woman,” Wren corrected. “Only in our dreams until earlier today. I think I’d never get enough of seeing you like this.”
“And we’ve always been of a mind,” Aiden said as he removed the towels and set them on a dressing table so he could take the stool beside her bath.
Wren laughed. “That we have. Always wanted the same thing, Aiden and I.”
She took the washcloth draped over the tub edge and wetted it, then lathered it with soap. “Each other,” she said. “And me.”
Wren nodded and grabbed for the chair at the dressing table. He turned it so that the back was facing her and straddled it. “Did youalwaysknow that?”
“That you and Aiden wanted each other?” she asked. Aiden glanced at Wren and then both of them nodded. “I suppose we never really discussed it out loud, did we? It just…was.” She thought back to those lazy days when they were just becoming aware of attraction. When their longtime friendship had begun to shift to something more. “I think I started to understand the looks you gave each other when I was…fifteen? And how if your hands brushed, they would linger. Just as they did with mine.”
“Did you ever find it strange? Uncomfortable?” Aiden asked. “I doubt it’s something discussed with governesses or female friends, after all.”
“No,” she agreed softly. “But I never thought it odd. It was always so right. The way you loved each other, wanted each other, only made our bond stronger. It never diminished it. And today, watching you touch each other…” She shivered despite the warmth of the water sloshing around her as she washed. “It was so powerful. I love to see it. I want to see more of it.”
Wren reached out and his fingers brushed along Aiden’s thigh. Emilia clenched her own thighs together against the pleasure of it. She reveled in how Aiden’s breath caught.
“We can do that,” Wren said softly. “If Wilburn had known about this place, I think he would have directed me here after you, since he believes I might betray you for his money. We’ll be safe here, and I’ve doubly ensured that by paying some locals to inform me if anyone comes here asking about either of you. The letters I wrote and sent for the viscount’s benefit will take some time to filter over to him. And the information I’m seeking in the meantime will also take a while and is being handled by my most trusted associates. It all means we have a few weeks where there will be little to do but wait. We can spend those weeks here.”
“Together,” Aiden breathed.
Tears filled Emilia’s eyes at that thought. A few weeks with these two men? Being loved and loving them? Pretending they were together for life? “That sounds like heaven,” she whispered.
“But Emilia,” Wren continued, his dark blue gaze holding hers steady. “You’ve been through a great deal. If you don’t want this…if it’s too much and you only want to be safe, we would never ask for more. This is for you. Whatever you need and want.”
Emilia stared from one of them to the other and her heart swelled with the love that had never died. “What I need and want is both of you. Like we were earlier, and more. What I want is to live in this beautiful bubble and indulge in everything I was denied since I was parted from you.”
Aiden relaxed a little with a laugh. “Thank God. Then let me wash your hair and we’ll retire back to the bedroom where you can do exactly what you told me you wanted earlier.”
Wren cocked an eyebrow. “What did you want, Emilia?”
“To direct you two,” she said with a wink toward him. “As you show me how much you want each other.”
CHAPTER6
Wren
By the time Emilia was finished with her bath, Wren was already hard. It was impossible not to be when he watched her touch herself beneath the water. When he watched Aiden touch her, even in the benign act of washing her hair or helping her dry off. Not that itwasbenign, not really. It was still an act of passion, but also an act of love.
He had known it when he rode here to find them, when he allowed their passion to overflow earlier in the day, but now it was even more clear: he would not escape this unscathed. He would be changed forever. He welcomed it, in truth. He didn’t want to be the same. He wanted to be theirs.
They moved to the bedroom together and Emilia, still wrapped in one of the towels from her bath, took a place on the settee before the fire. She lounged back, letting her towel peel away from her thigh, Wren thought on purpose.
“Aiden says I may direct you,” she said, her voice thick with seduction and desire.
“I don’t think you’ve had control in a while,” Wren said softly. “So take it, angel. Take it and wrap us around that pretty finger. I’ll do anything you like to him.”
