I Know You Page 8

  “No,” David repeated when it became obvious that his answer wasn’t sufficient. “I will not let you go.”

  As if proving exactly how much he truly hated the idea of letting Geoff go, David reached up and grabbed him by the back of the neck, bringing his mouth down in a punishing kiss that left no room for gentleness or slow burning. This was fire. Flames driving hot and quick and engulfing everything.

  Geoff reached up for David’s shoulders, but it wasn’t to push him away, it was to steady himself against the angry onslaught of David’s passion. Geoff knew that he was being punished, but he didn’t know for what. Not yet at least.

  When David finally did break the kiss to allow both of them to breathe, Geoff moved his hands up to David’s face and caressed his cheek. “What have I done…”

  “You will not leave me!” His voice was a growl, full of pain and uncertainty that explained everything. He was caught in a fear cycle and he wasn’t going to come down until he was certain Geoff was his.

  “I will not leave you.” He tried to make his voice comforting, but a hint of resignation must have floated in because David growled again, and this time he was in a full on panic.

  “I cannot lose you. I will not let anyone take you from me.” Geoff could see tears flowing down David’s cheeks. His confusion must have broken through David’s panic because David actually heaved a sigh and explained himself. Something, he’d never done before during a panic attack. “Please just listen to my idea. Don’t say no.”

  It was all too clear now. David had already thought of a solution to their problem, but was afraid Geoff wouldn’t agree to it. And if he knew David, the idea would probably be one no one else would have agreed to.

  To show that he was ready to listen, Geoff forced himself to sigh and nod, indicating that David could continue. He wasn’t sure he actually was ready to hear anything yet, but he would give David the benefit of the doubt.

  With obvious reluctance, David dropped his hands from Geoff’s head and took a step back. He started to pace, but stopped and turned around to face Geoff. “I want to marry Anne.”

  “So you’ve said.” A quelling look told him that his sarcasm wasn’t appreciated. “Sorry. Go on.”

  “I think marrying Anne is the best way to make everything work. She needs my title to remain in the ton, I need a wife to carry on the duties of duchess and to give me heirs.” David paused for a moment and then carried on like a horse was chasing him down. “And neither of us - Anne nor I - will be completely happy without you in our lives.”

  The silence in the room was deafening. If David had confessed to being a French Spy and secretly married to one of the royal princesses, Geoff would not have been more surprised. He was admitting that both he and Anne desired him equally. That they wanted him to…to what he wasn’t sure, but he couldn’t possibly…

  “Are you going to say anything?”

  “What exactly are you asking?”

  David cleared his throat, looking more uncomfortable than ever. “I am asking you whether or not you are willing to consider a relationship with both Anne and I? Are you willing to share me with her? Are you willing to share her with me?”

  The idea was confounding. He’d never considered that a solution could be so natural, yet so…wrong at the same time. “Wouldn’t that be bigamy?”

  David laughed. The first time he’d actually laughed for joy in Geoff’s presence. “I am not asking you to marry her, Geoff. I am asking you to share her. The arrangement would have no legal merit. In the eyes of the law you would have no place in the marriage. But what we have here,” David motioned between the two of them. “This isn’t exactly legal either.”

  It was true. Sodomy Laws were very strict. Should they get caught, David would be stripped of his title and fortune and most likely transported. Geoff would be hung. No, what they were to each other existed outside the eyes of the Church and the Law.

  “Do you need time to think…”

  Geoff cut David off by striding over to him and kissing him as passionately as he could. There would be no room for misunderstanding his answer. Geoff was all in, and this kiss was proving that there was now no going back.

  David moaned in the back of his throat as Geoff’s hand wandered down his stomach to tug at his shirt. He wanted to feel David’s chest under his hands, wanted to feel the ripples of flesh that were tighter than any muscles had the right to be.

  As Geoff worked the layers off of the man who was no longer his master, but was so much more, David began his pulling at Geoff’s clothes. Together they stripped to their smalls, and then beyond. Glorying in the freedom of being able to admit to each other that their feelings were far more than just lust and release. They needed more from each other, on a higher level.

  When David stepped out of his smalls he grabbed for Geoff’s, but Geoff brushed him away. With one hand he anchored David in place by his hip and with the other he grasped the cock that had been teasing him for the last hour of their argument. He’d seen full well that David had been needing him, but now he could actually do something about it.

  “Unh,” David grunted in response. His breath kicked into a frenzied rasp, and Geoff was amazed that the man didn’t spill his seed right there in his hand. Then he remembered that David had already released once tonight - while watching Geoff and Anne.

  Slowly he pumped his hand up and down David’s shaft as he leaned in and whispered in David’s ear. “Are you sure you were completely satisfied with what you saw tonight?”

  The whoosh of air and another grunt told him that David was on a very short thread. If he wasn’t careful, he wasn’t going to be able to do exactly what he had in mind. So instead of continuing to pump, Geoff stopped his motion and kissed David in a quick and hot meld before lowering himself down to his knees and coming face to groin with the juiciest looking cock he could even imagine.

  He allowed his tongue to trace over the head lightly, being careful not to use too much pressure. After all, he wanted David’s seed down his throat, not on his face.

  Remembering how David had run his tongue along the bottom ridge of his cock two nights ago, Geoff opened his mouth as wide as he could and pushed his lips over the mushroom, allowing his tongue to trace the bugling vein to the base.

  David shuddered and gasped, grabbing Geoff’s hair and holding him in position as he fought for air. “I’m…too close…Geoff. I…can’t…hold…back.”

  Not wanting to remove himself from David’s staff, Geoff simply nodded, giving David full permission to give himself over to release. David began thrusting, hitting the back of Geoff’s throat every time and eventually going down further. It took Geoff a few hits to move past his gag reflex, but after a while the motion became so arousing that Geoff found his own cock swelling with pending release. When he moved his hand, however, to stroke himself, David clamped his own hand over his, preventing him from moving it.

  With just one more thrust David emptied himself down Geoff’s throat. He shouted out his release, but it was clear he was still maintaining enough of his faculties to know that more was in the offing. David pulled away, raised Geoff to his feet and pushed him toward the bed.

  “I think tonight is a night for changes.” He then pressed Geoff down onto the bed and straddled him. “Tonight, we own each other.” And with those words he lowered himself onto Geoff’s staff.

  The lack of oil made the action slow, but the tightness presented a million other things to feel during the interminable wait to be fully seated. The walls inside David seemed to squeeze so tightly that he was in actual pain, but it was a pain worth having. The sensation brought everything into a clearer focus. The smells in the room were stronger, the sound of his own breath mixed with David’s was almost louder than he could stand.

  The moment he felt his own hips meet David’s backside though, time seemed to speed up. Suddenly everything needed to happen right then. No more waiting, no more savoring. He needed release.

  He began bucki
ng his hips at the same time David began moving up and down on his cock. The rhythm matched perfectly, and without any words at all, both of them threw their heads back and screamed simultaneous releases.

  Hours later, once the world made a little more sense again, Geoff found himself wrapped in David’s arms, tucked under a large comforter, and happily listening to David’s peaceful snores. It was a moment Geoff wanted to hold onto forever.

  Knowing that MacAuley - no, Geoff. He must start thinking of him as Geoff. Knowing that Geoff was in agreement to his future plans made David’s heart lighter than he’d felt it in a long time. He’d lived under a dense cloud of pain and misery since watching his brother die, and the only relief he’d found had been in the arms of either Geoff or Anne. To know that both of them were to be his forever now…well, it changed everything.

  His embarrassment at watching Geoff make love to Anne the night before had all but resolved itself, though he did eventually need to make his confession to her, so that she was fully aware of everything that had transpired without her knowing.

  In fact, there was going to be a lot of confessing to be done to Anne. Both he and Geoff owed her their own explanations for the lies they both had inadvertently told her in order to keep their relationship a secret, but if Anne was going to be theirs…

  David stopped half way down the stairs, realizing with horror that Anne still needed to agree to their arrangement. Once again his stomach was tied up in knots. If she said no, then not only would he lose Anne, but so would Geoff. His heartbreak he could deal with, but he would do anything in his power to protect Geoff from feeling the pain of rejection.

  He was about to turn around and call for a footman to bring him his coat and hat so he could call on Miss Edwards immediately, when he saw his father step out of the drawing room at the base of the stairs. What he was doing here at this time of morning he could only guess, but then again he was about to call on Anne, so he was in no position to really criticize.

  “David,” his father said, sounding a tad bit uncomfortable for some reason. It wasn’t like him to be out of sorts about anything. This morning was really starting to become an enigma in the making. “I was hoping to catch you at home.”

  With a raised eye brow David descended the final few steps. “Really, Father? You must get here much later in the day if you hope to catch me not at home. I am hardly an early riser.”

  “No, that is for certain,” the Duke nodded congenially. “However, the reason for my visit made the early hour necessary. I hope I am not catching you at a bad time.”

  “No.” An urgent enough matter to ignore the hour? This was sounding more and more worrisome. “Is it something thing that requires privacy, or might I be able to break my fast while we discuss the matter?”

  “Oh, it is nothing so bad that the servants cannot be risked to overhear it. I just wanted to get it off my chest before I lacked the courage to say it.”

  Now that was something that he rarely heard come out of any gentleman’s mouth, much less a Duke of the realm. “How about we compromise and I break my fast in my study?”

  With a nod, his father turned and strode down the hall ahead of him, pausing only to allow David the courtesy of opening the door to his own private office. It was a wonder that his father even remembered that he was at David’s house and not his own. The Duke rarely signified either way with any other matter, important or not.

  When they entered David pulled the rope to call for a tray and seated himself behind his desk. After the maid who answered the call bobbed her exit, David looked his father in the eye and motioned for him to proceed.

  “Ah…well,” his father stumbled over the words that moments before he had acknowledged might require courage to get out.

  “Would you care for some brandy?”

  “No,” his father replied with some surprise. “Thank you, but I believe I want a clear head while we discuss this.”

  With a nod David bade his father to continue.

  “I want you to know that you don’t have to marry the Edwards girl if you don’t want to.”

  Now that was really something David hadn’t been expecting. His father was always the utmost gentleman about duty and obligation. A contract had been signed between Mr. Edwards and David. Last night in fact. Yet now the Duke was saying that David could cry off and it would be okay with him?

  “I think the time for second thoughts has passed, Father.”

  “No, hear me out.” The Duke rearranged himself in the chair and folded his hands in his lap. His eyes were flitting between his hands and the desk itself, but not his son sitting behind that desk. “I know I pushed the match on you. I was concerned for your well being and honestly believed that a wife was what you needed to … come out of your … state. I see now that I was wrong. Your marital status would not fix what has been done to you.”

  “Father, if I may…”

  “David I want you to be happy. That is all. I thought a wife would make you happy, but two nights ago I watched you and Miss Edwards dance awkwardly around, and realized that this wasn’t something either of you really wanted.”

  “Father!” His voice rose in order to overpower his father’s increasing level of panic. “I am not unhappy with the arrangement.”

  The Duke blinked up at him owlishly. “You’re not?”

  “No.” He shook his head to cement the point further. “In fact, I am going to ask Miss Edwards today if she would be interested in moving the wedding up.”

  A sharp glint entered his father’s eyes that he took for the realization that no wedding was moved up without purpose. He leaned back in his chair and smiled. “Are you sure that is needed?”

  David sighed and sat back in his own chair, glad that his father was finally calm enough to listen to him. “I am sure. While nothing may have come of it, there is reason to believe that Miss Edwards’ reputation was compromised the night of our betrothal ball.”

  This pronouncement was met with the expected eyebrow raise. “That night, huh?”

  “Yes, Father. That night. You see, while she and I both may have had our doubts about the arrangement in the beginning, we have since discovered a kinship that can and in fact has flourished with more time.”

  “And Mr. MacAuley? What does he have to say about this kinship?”

  David shot forward in his chair, but was saved from answering right away by the maid returning with the breakfast tray. While she was setting things out on the desk, David took the moment to compose his thoughts - and his face - and really grasp at the fact that his father knew that he and Geoff were lovers.

  Once the maid exited the room once again, he shot a glance at his father and sighed as he grabbed for a scone to butter, giving his hands something to do. When his father cleared his throat though, he knew that he was expected to answer the previous question.

  “Mr. MacAuley is fully aware of my betrothal to Miss Edwards, as he tends to read my correspondence to make sure I haven’t missed crucial bits.”

  Again, the eyebrow rose. “And this includes billet deux?”

  “Not typically, no. However, seeing as I have never before received correspondence of that nature before he was not to know the difference.”

  “So he discovered your betrothal second hand? That is hardly fair of you.”

  David threw his head back and groaned. His father was not going to make this easy for him. He couldn’t exactly tell the man to mind his own business, since technically, as heir to the Dukedom, David’s life was his business.

  Finally, his father sat forward and gave him a smile and a wink. “I will not ask you to go into private details, David. But be aware that I am not a fool. I know who Mr. MacAuley is. I know where he came from, who his relations are, and the fact that his family has a home very near Mr. Edwards’ estate in Yorkshire. It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to devise that Mr. MacAuley and Miss Edwards were probably acquainted at some time in their past.”

  He wasn’t sure how he felt
about his father knowing all of the information he did, but he was definitely skeptical about the fact that his father seemed to be willing to ignore the very real fact that his son was about to enter into a relationship that could see everyone of their lives permanently altered…and not necessarily for the better.

  Rising from his chair his father motioned for him to remain seated. “You have enough to be getting on with today. I will see myself out while you finish your meal. Just remember, David, I am proud of you. I don’t say it often enough, but it has always been true. The demons that you have had to chase…”

  His father’s voice trailed off, but there was no need to hear the words. Life had dealt the entire family a terrible hand. The David had somehow managed to turn his infinitely more terrible hand into a jackpot. Whether he could continue his streak of luck would only be told by time.

  After finishing his meal and acquiring his hat, coat and gloves from Geoff, David set off for the Edwards’ townhouse. Geoff had been fully aware of his destination, and had advised him what to say to Anne to help pave the way, but David wasn’t sure the full truth was what he really wanted to reveal.

  Yes, it made him a coward, but Anne was not likely to see things as clearly as he and Geoff had. The truth was, he and Geoff were risking their own lives to carry out their plan, but Anne would be risking a bit more than that. She would be risking her reputation, her future, and that of any child she bore. They would not hang or transport her for being involved with…unnaturals. Instead they would annul the marriage and illegitimize any children who came from it. In society she would be branded a whore and her children would be bastards. And there would be little help from anyone for risk of the taint of scandal falling on them.

  As much as David agreed with Geoff and wanted Anne to walk into the marriage with her eyes open to what she was getting into, he couldn’t help but fear that it would all be too much for her. That was the reason he gave himself for not telling her moments later as he knocked on her front door.