“Mmm?”
He was silent for several moments. “Why did you cry? Because it ... because it felt wrong?”
Sighing, she lifted her head to look at him, shaking her head slowly. “Because I spent most of the night last night, and all day worrying about what you’d said, wondering if I really did love you ... that way, or only as the dearest of friends. And then, when you kissed me, it felt so very, very right, that I knew you were wrong and I’d been worrying about nothing.” She skated a hand down his stomach and ran it over his flaccid member. “I love you just exactly that way,” she said, smiling in satisfaction as she felt his cock grow beneath her palm.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Despite her best efforts to tamp the afterglow of their night together in consideration of Reuel’s feelings, she couldn’t think that she’d been altogether successful, but then Pierce made no effort at all to hide his satisfaction. Every time she looked at him he was grinning, and every time he happened to catch her looking at him, a dull red blush would creep up his cheeks.
Reuel spent most of the day in the fields.
For months it seesawed like that, with first one and then the other wavering from fair mood to foul. After a time, however, they managed to rub along without so much tension when both Reuel and Pierce saw that she was true to her word and lavished attention upon them in equal parts.
On the first anniversary of their contract, they decided to celebrate in the city as they had celebrated the signing. Claire, a year old and often saying some really embarrassing things, sat in her chair like a little angel and managed to draw looks of approval as well as admiration, and even, Dalia thought, just a little envy from the couples sharing the restaurant with their own infants, who were as fussy as Claire had been the first time they’d come.
They were almost through with their dinner when she realized that tonight was her night to be with Reuel. She sent him a speculative glance, wondering what she might do to make it extra special for him since it was their anniversary.
Unfortunately, nothing really enterprising came to mind. Sighing in frustration, she glanced from Reuel to Pierce, who’d been unusually quiet. He was holding Claire in his arms, stroking her soft cheek with one finger, a faint smile on his lips as he studied her sleeping face.
A rush of love for both of them filled her, and then the realization that what she really wanted was to spend the night with both of her partners.
She wasn’t entirely certain they were ready for that, but she decided, if the opportunity arose she would test the waters. It was Pierce’s night to watch the baby, but she usually went right to bed now and hardly ever woke.
When they reached the plantation, Pierce led the way upstairs and took the baby to her room. Dalia trailed along behind him, casting a provocative glance over her shoulder at Reuel as she reached the upper landing and crossed the living area to her room.
She soaked in a hot bath, feeling the strain of the day slip away and the tension of anticipation take its place. Then she bathed in soap scented with flowers. When she’d finished, she dried herself and walked naked into the bedroom. The gown she’d chosen for Reuel lay across the bed where she’d left it. Lifting it by the shoulders, she examined the material with a sense of satisfaction. It looked as if it had been fashioned of gossamer. As she turned it, light gleamed off of it like sunlight on dew.
Separating the thin fabric, she pulled it over her head and went to study the effect in the mirror critically. The dark fabric lay like a shadow over her skin. Her nipples and the dark, curling hair between her thighs were as clearly visible as if only mist preserved her from nakedness. The neckline plunged halfway to her navel. The hem stopped at the tops of her thighs. Turning, she saw it fell short of covering the cheeks of her ass by a good two inches.
She felt aroused just wearing it.
She was fairly confident Reuel would find it--interesting.
He was lounging on the couch when she reached the living area, his arms propped behind his head, his legs sprawled on the top of the low table in front the couch. He glanced at her lazily where she stood in the doorway, watching him. His eyes glittered as his gaze slid up her as sensuously as a caress.
Pushing away from the door, she walked languidly toward him. He didn’t move. He looked as if he was holding his breath. Turning when she reached him, she lifted one leg over his and straddled his lap. Sliding backwards slowly over the hard ridge beneath her buttocks, she lifted her feet and hooked her heels on the edge of the cushions, then leaned back against his chest. Lifting a hand to his cheek, she turned her face against his neck, breathing in his scent, nuzzling his ear with her nose, then tracing the swirls of his ear with the tip of her tongue.
He expelled a harsh breath and brought his arms down, dropping one on her flat belly. He slipped his other hand through the neck of her gown and strummed the edge of his thumb back and forth across her nipple until it stood erect, then pinched the erect nipple between his thumb and forefinger, plucking at it almost lazily.
Heat cascaded over Dalia’s chest and belly like warm wine, intoxicating her. She sucked his earlobe between her lips, nipping at it gently with her teeth.
Shifting slightly, he lifted his hand from her belly and curled his fingers around her cheek and the back of her neck, plucking at her lips with his own teasingly before he opened his mouth over hers.
The sound of footfalls on thick carpet penetrated the haze of passion and both stiffened as they came near, then paused abruptly. Reuel’s hand tightened on her when she would have pulled away, but she knew even without looking that Pierce had stumbled upon them.
She felt him watching.
Moist heat flooded her passage in a gush as her mind seemed to float free of her body and she found herself looking down upon the three of them; at Reuel, fondling her breast, kissing her, her legs splayed wantonly on either side of his thighs; at Pierce, mesmerized by the sight and unable to pull his gaze away.
She kissed Reuel back when he would have pulled away, slipping her tongue between his lips and exploring his mouth as he had hers. He groaned, arching his hips upward as he sucked at her tongue so that his rigid flesh dug into the cleft of her buttocks. Her short gown rode higher as he placed his feet on the floor. Slowly, he pushed her thighs apart, spreading them until the coolness of air licked along the heated, sensitive flesh of her sex and she felt the damp petals yielding gradually to the pressure of his knees against her thighs, opening like the deep pink petals of a dew laden flower.
When Reuel broke the kiss at last, he slipped his hand down her throat and beneath the neck of her gown to pluck at the nipple neglected of his attentions. Dalia moaned, arching her head against his shoulder even as she lifted heavy lids to gaze at Pierce across the room.
As if he sensed her watching him, he dragged his gaze upwards from her sex and met hers. She arched her body against the teasing torment of Reuel’s hands, beckoning him closer. He swallowed as Reuel released one nipple and slipped that hand down her belly, raking a thick index finger along her cleft, smoothing the petals of flesh wide so that cool air blew across her body’s opening.
Dalia gasped, squeezing her eyes closed as Reuel’s touch sent a sharp knife of pleasure through her, making the muscles of her channel quake and clench with anticipation. When she opened her eyes again, she saw that Pierce had moved closer, his gaze riveted to the movements of Reuel’s hand as he plucked and teased her clit, slipped his thick index finger inside of her, moving it slowly in and out before he traced her cleft again.
He shifted her on his lap, shoving his trousers down his hips far enough he could grasp his erection and free it. His cock landed, thick and heavy, against her cleft as he released his hold on it. He pressed his hand against it, rocking her hips so that his cock slid teasingly along her cleft. She moved with him for several moments. Finally, catching Pierce’s gaze, she pushed Reuel’s hand away and wrapped her fingers around his thick cock. Lifting up slightly, she pressed the rounded head inside of her. A rush of pleasure went through her. Bearing down with careful pressure, she worked his erection deeper, then lifted once more, feeling the flesh of her sex yield, and then cling to him.
