Page 36 of Hastings (Brothers in Arms #15)
CHAPTER 36
A fter Maddy came apart under him Stephen was frantic. He wanted her so much. He needed her in a way he hadn’t known was possible. He was all desire and sensation, and it was making thinking hard to do. He couldn’t, shouldn’t , take her. If he did, he was honor bound to marry her. And of course, he did want to marry her. But she was not prepared to make that sort of commitment. She’d gone into this evening’s lovemaking on the understanding that she would be leaving him.
But he understood from what she’d said and the look in her eyes that if he denied himself, she’d see it as a rejection and denial of her. And he wouldn’t hurt her like that for the world. So, the logical thing was to make love to her and simply not let her leave.
But he had to give her fair warning.
“Maddy, darling,” he said. He was alarmed at how tense he sounded, how much of his desire was seeping out in his voice.
“Yes,” she said, as if she was answering a question he hadn’t asked yet.
“You don’t understand,” he told her, talking very fast. Too fast. “If I, we, do this, then I’m going to marry you.”
“What?” she asked, a little frown on her face. She was still panting from her release, and he could see sweat on her brow. Her blonde hair was spread across the pillow, and she was as enticing as Venus, as desirable, and he was having a hard time remembering why he was hesitating.
“Stephen,” Hastings said, making Stephen look at him where he sat beside Maddy’s hip. He shouldn’t have. His lips glistened with Maddy’s cream, and Stephen groaned and leaned down and kissed him because he couldn’t not kiss him like that.
Hastings took his kiss, as he always seemed to do. He never pushed Stephen away or insisted on talking about it first. He was a man of action, and Stephen was starting to understand why. It was better to ask forgiveness than ask permission. But Hastings never required either. He just gave Stephen whatever he wanted and was happy to do so. Stephen tasted Maddy and Hastings all mixed up together in the kiss and it was heaven, and it was hell. He couldn’t give this up, he couldn’t. He broke the kiss and Hastings was looking at him sadly.
“Don’t,” Hastings whispered. “Don’t ruin it. Don’t try to make plans. Just…acts of love, remember?”
“Acts of love,” Stephen whispered to him, trying to make him understand that, yes, he did love them. He loved them to madness. This was madness. He turned back to Maddy and silently vowed, I will marry you. I will not let you go, nor Hastings. Neither of you shall ever leave me. Just saying it to himself gave him a sense of peace. He was flooded with the rightness of this, the rightness of them . This was meant to be, and Stephen needed to let his faith take the reins. All would work out as it should.
“Acts of love,” he said to Maddy, and she smiled.
“Yes,” she said, reaching for him. “Acts of love.”
When Stephen covered her with his body, and she enclosed him in her embrace it felt like home at last. Her warmth, her passion, her insecurities, all of them made her perfect, made her meant for him. And he would give her all of himself, including his body. He’d given himself to Hastings in the same way. He owed Maddy nothing less.
She spread her legs and he tucked himself against her wet juncture, the vision of Hastings kissing her there making his head swim. His cock throbbed to be inside her. He rubbed against her, loving the feel of her wet pubic hair on the sensitive skin of his erection. “Is that all right?” he asked.
“Yes. It will always be yes for you,” she said. Then she did the one thing that could make the moment more perfect. She turned to Hastings and held out her hand. “And you. Always yes. Whatever you want.”
“Acts of love,” Hastings said, taking her hand. He lay down beside her and kissed her shoulder. Then he leaned over and kissed Stephen’s shoulder, too.
“Kiss me,” she whispered to Hastings. “While he’s inside me I want you to kiss me.”
“Why do I feel like I’ve lost all control here?” Hastings murmured against her lips. “Both of you ordering me around all night.”
“You love it,” Stephen told him, and then he pushed his cock into the damp heat of Maddy’s passage and lost the ability to speak or even think clearly. Maddy moaned into Hastings’s mouth and then Hastings silenced her with a deep kiss as Stephen worked himself in and out several times, going deeper each time. She was so tight, so exquisite. It had not felt like this his one time before, not at all like this.
Maddy had one arm wrapped around Hastings and the other wrapped around Stephen, pushing the two men so close together that with every move Stephen made inside her his shoulder rubbed against Hastings’s. He loved feeling them both like that. Maddy wrapped her legs around his waist and began to thrust against him, and it took Stephen a moment to adjust his rhythm to hers. When the perfect synchronicity was achieved it was bliss. Unlike anything he’d felt before, even when he’d been with Hastings. Maddy broke her kiss with Hastings only to pull Stephen’s mouth to hers. They kissed and made love like that, exchanging kisses among the three of them while Stephen moved inside her, until it grew rough, and his thrusts were harder. She broke away from Hastings’s mouth with a cry and he put a hand over her mouth.
“Shh,” Hastings whispered. “Don’t wake anyone up.”
Maddy moaned and Stephen thrust harder into her, wanting to fuck her right through the mattress. “Hold her down,” Stephen said, in a gravel-filled voice he hardly recognized as himself.
Maddy moaned and arched her back, taking his cock with frantic movements of her hips. Hastings grabbed her hands and held them over her head, and she bit her lip, and Stephen leaned down and took her nipple between his teeth. Maddy growled, shaking her head as if she desperately needed to cry out again. He grabbed her hip and forced her to his rhythm. She made a keening sound, and then she was coming on his cock. He could feel the pulsing beat of her passion and he exploded inside her in a relief of heat and shuddering pleasure.