Page 20 of Seduced by a Scoundrel (Tales from the Brotherhood #1)

Twenty

T he sun rose warmly on the morning of June twentieth. While still half asleep, Jeremy felt something special about the day. It could have been the way Derrek’s body rose and fell under his in a steady, peaceful rhythm. They’d been cohabiting again for a month in the rooms above his shop on Jermyn Street, but Jeremy’s habit of sprawling all over his lover in his sleep was the same as it had been in their woodland cottage.

Everything had been lovely since Jeremy and Derrek had worked out their momentary burst of differences, especially since Conroy was no longer a threat. To say that their lives had intertwined quickly and peacefully after Derrek brought his things to Jermyn Street and put his boots up to stay would be a bit of an exaggeration. Jeremy’s home had not simply seen the introduction of one new person but two.

Clary had settled in quickly, and within a day, she had begun not only to assist Jeremy and the lads with the business already on Jeremy’s books, they had begun to investigate ways that they might purchase or lease the building behind Jeremy’s in order to carry out the magnificent plan of attached businesses with different fronts on different streets.

Miraculously, Jeremy and Clary had been able to find investors willing to provide the funds to purchase the other building. That did not, however, mean that Clary’s seamstress shop simply popped into existence. Even with the building purchased, the current tenants had several months left on their lease. Clary would only be able to claim that shop as her own once that lease had ended.

In the meantime, Jeremy had done whatever he could to introduce her to female members of the ton . Already, Clary had gained a few clients, and although she was forced to visit them in their homes for consultations and measurements, her reputation was already growing.

So much so that she was up early, banging around in the hallway as she dragged what sounded like an armful of fabric bolts from an upstairs storeroom down to the workshop on the ground floor.

“That woman should be locked in her room until a decent hour of the morning,” Derrek mumbled, proving that he was awake after all, just.

Jeremy chuckled and propped his chin on Derrek’s shoulder. “Clary is a country morning lark,” he said, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. “She accomplishes more before you or I get out of bed in the morning than most others do all day.”

“Yes, well, she could be quieter about it,” Derrek grumbled.

Jeremy smiled widely and pushed himself until he lay completely over Derrek’s prone form, straddling his hips so that their half-hard cocks rubbed against each other. “We could always make some noise to rival her,” he suggested in a low, warm tone.

Derrek made a sound of approval deep in his throat and slipped his large hands down Jeremy’s sides to caress his arse. “I’m always in favor of that.”

With a smile still touching his lips, Jeremy bent down to kiss Derrek. Because it was morning, it was not as much of a kiss as he would have liked, but it was the introduction to more that he needed.

He loved the way Derrek touched him, caressing his body as though he owned it and treasured it. In the month since they’d settled in together, Jeremy had lost all inhibitions when it came to the pleasures of the flesh. He was with someone he loved, so he did not have to worry about whether he was good enough or pleasing enough for his partner, as he once had. Beyond that, repetition of the act had made his body far more nimble and ready to accept intrusion without discomfort.

“I do love mornings,” Jeremy sighed, stretching over Derrek to retrieve the jar that sat constantly on the table beside the bed. “They fill me with such inspiration.”

“And you do like to be filled,” Derrek growled.

Jeremy laughed impishly and hurried through making use of the slippery substance on both himself and Derrek. A few moments later, he had positioned himself above Derrek’s groin, and with a few careful movements and Derrek’s help, he’d seated himself with Derrek firmly inside him.

“How did you become so wicked?” Derrek panted as Jeremy began a series of short, bouncing movements to create friction between them.

“It was all that fresh, forest air,” Jeremy panted, finding his rhythm.

Once he was certain of himself, he sat up so that he could display himself fully for his lover. Derrek loved to watch him pleasure himself on his cock. Derrek’s eyes lit with fire as he drank in the sight of Jeremy’s nimble body working over his. Judging by the direction of his gaze, Derrek was particularly keen on watching his thick length disappear into Jeremy over and over, complete with slapping, squelching sounds.

“Insatiable,” Derrek grunted, grabbing one of Jeremy’s hips with one hand and wrapping his other hand around Jeremy’s cock. “My insatiable dove.”

Jeremy made a pleasured sound at the feeling of Derrek’s hand closing around him and adjusted his movements to make the most of it. Pleasure enveloped him, driving him fast and hard toward the edge of the precipice that he so loved.

He was in no mood to wait or draw things out that morning, but to his surprise, as he began to come with a guttural shout, bells began to peal in the world outside. He laughed as ropes of cum painted his lover’s chest, delighted that all of London was celebrating his release with him.

Just as his energy began to flag, Derrek grabbed him and flipped their positions so that Jeremy lay under him. He thrust hard a few times, then groaned as his own orgasm flooded through him. Jeremy welcomed it, despite tipping into a moment of post-bliss discomfort. He loved having Derrek spend himself inside him, and though he would be mortified to admit it, he loved to feel the aftereffects of his lover’s seed seeping out of him.

Once Derrek was finished and collapsed to cradle Jeremy in his arms, the beautiful moment should have been over. They should have drifted back to sleep for several more minutes, maybe even an hour. But the bells outside were insistent.

Very insistent.

“Why are they still ringing?” Derrek asked, proving that he had noticed the ringing as well.

“I do not know,” Jeremy said, attempting to hide his face against Derrek’s neck.

A moment later, there was a thumping crash from below followed by Clary cursing, then footsteps hurrying up the stairs.

“Jeremy, Talboys!” Clary shouted from the hall, then let herself into the anteroom of Jeremy’s part of the house. “Get up!”

Derrek groaned. Jeremy had the presence of mind to reach for the bedcovers and had only just covered the two of them when, as he suspected she would, Clary burst through the door of their bedroom without knocking.

“Bloody hell, woman!” Derrek shouted at her.

Jeremy was more than a little shocked himself, but all of that vanished when Clary, wide-eyed and flushed, declared, “The king died during the night! Victoria is queen!”

In an instant, everything was forgotten, from the impropriety of Clary’s intrusion to the fact that Jeremy was unclothed and mussed from everything he and Derrek had just done. He sat bolt-upright and gaped back at his friend.

“The King is dead?” he asked.

“Long live the Queen!” Clary declared. She then noticed the state Jeremy and Derrek were in and burst into laughter before dashing out of the room. “Long live the Queen! Artie! Timothy! Jonty! The King is dead, long live the Queen!”

“It was a terrible idea to invite that woman to live here,” Derrek grumbled, rubbing his hands over his face.

Jeremy ignored his lover’s grumpiness. “Victoria is queen,” he said, throwing the covers off all the way and scrambling over Derrek to get out of bed. “We must…we must…I do not know what we must do, but we must do something.”

He nearly fell out of bed, half-tangled in the sheets as he was, and rushed to the screen in the corner to use the chamber pot. England had a new monarch, its first queen in over two hundred years. Surely, the day would be filled with celebrations, both of King William’s life and the new queen’s ascendance.

“London will be completely mad today,” Derrek said with a sigh, getting out of bed as Jeremy came out from behind the screen. “And you’ll likely want to be in the middle of the madness.”

Jeremy headed to the wash stand but paused to rake a lascivious gaze over Derrek’s body. His spend was still sticky on his stomach, which filled him with a sense of satisfaction. But there were a great many other things to think about just then.

“The entire city will be mourning and celebrating,” he said, continuing to the wash stand as Derrek ducked behind the screen. “It is a monumental event, the sort of thing one spends in company instead of tucked away, pretending business can continue as usual.”

“It is not the day of a funeral nor the day of a coronation,” Derrek said behind the screen.

“But those days are coming, and men will need suits for both,” Jeremy said, then splashed water over his face and body.

Derrek laughed. “I see your aim now. You are hoping to profit from the occasion.”

“I am hoping to offer my services to those who might want them,” Jeremy corrected him, scrubbing himself clean.

“I see,” Derrek said, coming out from behind the screen with a grin.

He moved over to kiss Jeremy soundly as Jeremy completed a quick scrub of his body with a soapy sponge.

“Either way,” Jeremy said once Derrek let him go and started washing himself, “we should hurry over to The Chameleon Club right away to see what everyone else thinks of this turn of events.”

“That I agree with,” Derrek said.

They continued to fly through their morning routines of washing, shaving, and dressing, all while the rest of their household rushed about, sharing and resharing the news with each other and chatting excitedly about what was to come.

“A new queen means a whole new era,” Timothy said, brimming with excitement, as they all shared a cup of tea together in the workroom sometime later.

“Perhaps it will be a better era,” Jonty said. “Perhaps this new queen will feel differently about men like us than those who came before her.”

“It would be nice,” Jeremy said, touched by Jonty’s optimism.

“I will believe it when I see it,” Derrek murmured close to Jeremy’s ear. “Our sort needs to look out for our own future.”

Jeremy agreed, but he did not want to disappoint the lads in their exuberance.

After they finished their morning meal, Jeremy declared that the boys should have the day off so that they might join in with whatever mourning or celebrations might take place. Clary, who had already begun to make friends among London’s other seamstresses and modistes, went off to join them in exactly what Derrek had cheekily suggested before, moving through the crowds that were sure to be on the street, advertising their services and handing out cards with suggestions that a new gown would be the perfect way to mark the occasion.

Jeremy and Derrek headed straight to The Chameleon Club. Jeremy was unsurprised to find the prevailing attitude within those hallowed halls to be precisely what he’d expected it would be.

“One has to admire the king for holding on as long as he did,” Lord Wilmore said when Jeremy and Derrek joined the group he and Fulbright were part of as a veritable crowd of Brotherhood members stood around the ballroom discussing the events of the day. “He saved us all a great deal of trouble by waiting until after Victoria reached seniority.”

“I do not suppose we will ever have to hear about Sir John Conroy and the Duchess of Kent ever again,” another man with them, A Dr. Pettigrew, commented.

“I am certain the Duchess, at least, will continue to try to interfere,” Derrek said. “It is my understanding that she has been deeply protective of Victoria.”

“She is her mother,” Mr. Haythorne said with a shrug. “Mothers care for their daughters.”

“From what I have been told, the Duchess mostly cares for her own power and influence over our now queen,” Fulbright said. “You know that Charlie Everton is a footman at Kensington Palace. He was here before dawn this morning, sharing a tale of how the very first thing our new queen did when she learned of her uncle’s death and her ascendance was to send everyone away so that she might have twenty minutes to herself, for the first time in her life, I might add.”

“Charlie said that?” Pettigrew asked with a delighted smile.

“If I was a young girl who had been ruled over by her mother and Sir John Conroy for all this time, I would have sent everyone away first thing, too,” Wilmore laughed.

Mr. Haythorne let out an exaggerated gasp, then said, “Good lord. We are all ruled over by a girl now.”

“Not a girl,” Jeremy corrected him sagely. “We are ruled over by a queen. One who will, no doubt, need a great deal of assistance and protection to shield her from the wolves who would attempt to override her authority for their own ends.”

Several of the others hummed and nodded, as if they were only just realizing the position Queen Victoria would be in as well.

“We must all pledge to help her, then,” Wilmore said with an inspired look.

His comment was met with various reactions, from surprise to scoffing to consideration.

“Are you saying The Brotherhood should dedicate themselves to helping a girl queen?” Pettigrew asked. “One who would probably see us all hang if she knew what we were?”

“You do not know that is how she feels about us,” Wilmore argued.

“If it is not now, it is how she will be taught to think about us,” Pettigrew said.

“But it would be nice if The Brotherhood could make some sort of pledge to protect and uphold the interests of someone who, at present, is just as vulnerable and prone to danger as we are,” Jeremy said.

“I think it is a lovely idea,” Derrek said, smiling at Jeremy and reaching for his hand.

Jeremy was no fool. He knew the likelihood of anyone in a position of power doing anything to protect the interests of men like them was slim. But if those who were in a vulnerable position did not even try to watch out for each other, then where would the world be?

“I will speak to Cecil about bringing up the idea of protecting our young queen in any way we can at the next meeting of the governing council of The Brotherhood,” Haythorne said with a nod. “But for now, I think we should all enjoy whatever festivities this turn of events brings our way.”

“Well said,” Wilmore said with a nod.

Their group broke apart, and in the course of the next hour, Jeremy and Derrek found themselves involved in the same conversation over and over.

“I do believe that the young queen will need people looking out for her,” Jeremy said later in the afternoon, as they went out to join the crowds in Hyde Park. “I also believe that the members of The Brotherhood will need protection in the coming years as well.”

“Yes, and fortunately, someone is already looking out for them,” Derrek told him with a wink.

Jeremy paused his steps to turn to Derrek. “Have you found a premises for your new business endeavor, then?” he asked.

“I think I might have found something, yes,” Derrek said with a contented grin.

“So it will truly happen,” Jeremy said, gripping Derrek’s arm, even though the crowds around them were growing by the moment. “You will be able to establish your office of assistance for members of The Brotherhood after all.”

“It appears so,” Derrek said. “And I have a few former colleagues from Scotland Yard who have said they’d be willing to offer their services as well, not to mention inquiries from several solicitors who would like to work for the cause wherever they can.”

“I am so happy for you,” Jeremy said, brimming with joy and wishing he could throw his arms around his lover in congratulation. There would be time for that later, though. “I feel as though so many good things are coming,” he went on, walking forward with Derrek to where a small band was playing mournful tunes to an entirely too exuberant crowd. “We have a new organization, a new club, and now a new queen. It is enough to make me think that anything is possible.”

“Anything is possible, dove,” Derrek said quietly, using the excuse of being jostled by someone in the crowd to take Jeremy’s hand for a moment. “Anything and everything is possible for us as long as we have each other.”

Jeremy smiled, saying nothing. He would save his words and his actions for later, when it was just the two of them. For that moment, though it was not just the two of them. They were part of something bigger, part of a whole that would be better than its parts. He would do whatever he could to do his part to serve the world around him, and he would love Derrek until the day he died and beyond.

* * *

I hope you have enjoyed Jeremy and Derrek’s story and the return of The Brotherhood! I’ve been wanting to get back to these stories for a long time.

So. Was there really a plot by the Duchess of York and Sir John Conroy to speed King William to his demise so that a regency could be set up to rule in Queen Victoria’s place? Maybe? It’s one of my favorite speculations of that era of history and provides a tiny bit of a backdrop of one of my favorite movies, The Young Victoria . It’s true that there were concerns the King would die before Victoria reached her seniority, and it also seems true that if that would have happened, the Duchess, Victoria’s mother, would have had a major part in a regency. What is less clear is how involved Conroy was and whether he and the Duchess would have been able to manipulate things to stay in power after Victoria turned eighteen. On the one hand, it isn’t very likely. On the other, it makes for a really intriguing plot! So I’ve taken a few liberties in this story.

Up next in Tales from the Brotherhood … Lord Deveraux Ogilvy, a rakish younger son of a marquess, has never had to worry much about his life and has had more than his fair share of lovers, both male and female. But when he rescues the traumatized, terrified Earl of Castleton one evening, his life changes forever. Particularly since he rescues Kit from an attack one night…then meets the alluring Miss Kitty Dryden at a ball several days later. In Dev, Kit finds the champion he has always wished for, but is Dev’s love enough to help him transition from living as the Earl of Castleton into making a life as Kitty? Find out next in Enticed by an Earl !