Page 13 of Their Viscountess (Theirs #5)

CHAPTER 12

Emilia

E milia clenched and unclenched her fists against the rough stone of the terrace wall as she looked with unseeing eyes over the well-tended garden below. She could hardly breathe with the weight of uncertainty pressing against her chest. The weight of guilt.

“It’s a lovely garden, isn’t it?”

She turned to watch Peregrine Huxley exit the house. He walked across the terrace with a surprising grace of movement and stopped beside her. He drew a cigar from the inside pocket of his jacket and lit it with flint, then puffed out a perfect ring of smoke so that it floated away from her.

“I apologize for my outburst,” Emilia said softly. “What you must think of me.”

“I think you’re human and that if you didn’t have emotions in this situation, you would likely have something very wrong with you.”

She looked at him. He was very handsome and had a bright intelligence to his eyes—she could see why Zara and Mr. Fitzroy were attracted to him. “Thank you, Mr. Huxley.”

“Hux,” he said softly. “I don’t go by Mister anything.” He drew a long breath of his cigar and puffed another ring. “I was once like you, you know.”

“Like me?” she said.

“Hard to picture, isn’t it? That we could be alike when our positions are so disparate.” He chuckled. “But it turns out I have emotions, too.”

She faced him. “Of course you do. But I don’t think you mean that is how we were alike. So what do you mean?”

“I wanted to protect them.” He motioned toward the house with his cigar. “I was willing to leave them to do it. To break myself into a thousand pieces just so I wouldn’t leave even a hairline crack on them.”

She swallowed, for that description did feel too familiar. “Why?”

“Because I was the reason your Wren was chasing us. Or I thought I was. I would have sacrificed myself to the man who hired him because I thought that was all I was worth after all I’d done and seen. But they wouldn’t let me. Thank God they didn’t.”

“But your situation is different. Clearly you found a way to continue to protect them.”

“Yes. Wren helped us, which is why we owe him.” Hux’s jaw set a fraction, and in that moment Emilia saw how dangerous the man could be. “I owe him everything.”

“My husband won’t let go so easily,” Emilia said. “He needs me taken care of so he can marry someone else and produce the heirs he hates me for never giving him. He can only do that if my…situation is resolved. He’ll do everything in his power to destroy Wren and Aiden. He’ll do it for fun, Mr… Hux .”

“Yes, they are good at that. Men of power. You didn’t want to marry him, you said earlier.”

“No, I was forced, as is the way of these things so often,” she said.

“And your whole life, you were made to turn away from everything you wanted, everything you needed to make some other poxy fuck happy, whether it was a father or an uncle or a husband not worth a third of those two inside.”

She pressed her lips together. “Yes.”

“And now you’ll give away the same happiness, not to mention steal it from them in the process, instead of grabbing it with both hands, drawing a line in the sand and declaring no more .”

Her breath caught because those impassioned words hit her in the chest, wrapped around her aching heart and squeezed. “Will they resent me for taking what they’ve built, though?” she asked, more to herself than to him, though he answered regardless.

“I don’t know. I don’t see that in either of their eyes when they look at you. But I guarantee they’ll resent you for walking away again if you do that.”

She stared up into this man’s face and saw all the ways their lives had been different and yet all the ways they were the same. She saw her own future, a shining and happy one. And yet she still feared.

“I’ll think about what you’ve said,” she murmured.

He nodded. “Do that. May I escort you back inside so you can help with the planning?”

He extended an arm to her and she took it without hesitation. While he guided her back into the house, she asked, “Is it everything you wish it to be…being with them?”

There was a hesitation and she saw a world of emotion flicker over Hux’s handsome face. “Oh yes. More than I deserve, perhaps, everything I need and want. I would go to war to keep them with me.” They reached the study where she could hear the others talking. Hux looked at her before they entered. “I hope you’ll do the same. It’s worth it.”

He took her into the room before she could respond. And as she crossed to the two men she loved more than anything in the world, she wondered if she was strong enough to fight as Hux had. She feared she’d soon find out.

* * *

Aiden

“I t was kind of them to ask us to stay here tonight,” Aiden said as he crossed the large chamber where Richard Fitzroy had put their threesome up for the night.

“It was,” Wren agreed, but he was watching Emilia.

Aiden did the same. Since her outburst earlier and then her return to the group with Huxley, she had been pensive and quiet. He and Wren had been giving her space but now, closed up in this lovely room with its big bed and roaring fire…when it was just them, he knew they’d have to discuss the future. He just hoped it wouldn’t be for the last time.

“Emilia,” he began.

She lifted her gaze from where she’d been staring at the dancing flames in the fire grate and nodded. “I know. I know, Aiden.” She stepped forward with a heavy sigh and paced the room restlessly. “What would you each do if we were to go to Athawick together?”

Wren glanced at Aiden and there was such hope on his wonderful face that Aiden could hardly breathe. He widened his eyes, hoping Wren could read his thoughts, would understand that they had to go slow if they were to convince her.

“I have connections with the royal family there,” he said carefully. “They are forming a new government and I know for a fact that the king would like help as they navigate those waters.”

Her lips parted. “Oh. I didn’t know.”

Aiden smiled at her. “Because you didn’t let me tell you, you were so driven to protect me and Wren from ourselves.”

She bent her head. “It’s what we’ve always done, isn’t it?”

Wren moved to her and wrapped an arm around her gently. He was also careful now as he said, “We had no one else to protect us, not truly, and so we all fought to become a balm to each other. And it is a wonderful drive…and also a terrible one.”

She nodded and Aiden stared as she looked up into Wren’s face with such adoration and love. It was powerful and beautiful and he could watch their connection forever. He so desperately wanted to.

“So Aiden will have a future there,” she said. “But what about you, Wren?”

“I’m sure I could build new connections there. Transitions of the kind the royal family in Athawick is trying to enact are always fraught with troubles. I’m sure they’d also welcome an experienced investigator to assist with thorny troubles. And if they wouldn’t? Then I’ll find something else to do. I’ll become a fisherman or a shopkeep or…or a vicar.”

At that, Emilia laughed. “A bit too wicked for that, aren’t you?”

Wren grinned. “Perhaps.”

“Emilia, I swear to you,” Aiden said, finally stepping closer and joining their circle of devotion and love. He drew his fingers into her hair and placed his opposite hand on Wren’s hip. “I swear to you that the future together will be so much better than any future apart.”

She seemed to ponder that a moment. “Hux said something to me on the terrace this afternoon. He said that I might not be able to guess that you would resent me for drawing you away from your lives. But I can’t forget that there would also be resentment if I took away what we could be to each other.”

“I would never resent you, no matter what decisions you made,” Aiden said. “But we’ve lost too much time together due to fear. I don’t want to lose another moment.”

“Please, Emilia,” Wren whispered before he bent his head and kissed her. When she relaxed against him, he drew back and turned her toward Aiden so he could do the same. He tucked her closer to him, loving how her body molded to his so perfectly, reveling in her flavor, the way her tongue swirled with his in a dance of pleasure.

He drew back with difficulty. Now was the time to ask her for what he and Wren wanted. One last time, and pray it would be enough. “Please, please my love. Choose us .”

* * *

Emilia

E milia was shaking as she stared into the eyes of the two men she loved, standing there together, arms around each other, waiting for her to decide what their futures would hold. Her fears remained, but they had been softened considerably by her conversation earlier in the day with Hux and this one tonight. What had definitely become stronger was her hope.

She had hope for what they could share and be together in the new life they could make in Athawick. She had hope to be happy again, as she hadn’t truly been until they had been reunited.

The hope won. She nodded slowly. “Yes,” she said, her voice breaking and her eyes stinging with tears of joy. “ Yes . I want a life together. I always have. And if you two are brave enough to risk it, I must be too.”

They moved on her together, Wren’s mouth finding hers, Aiden’s arms gripping around them both. What started as a happy embrace of love, though, swiftly shifted to something more heated. Wren turned his face toward Aiden and their mouths met, too, as Emilia began to unbutton Wren’s jacket. She needed these men, both of these men. She needed to stake the final claim on the future they would build.

She needed pleasure after this day of worry and fear and, at last, surrender.

They were wordless as they touched and kissed and undressed each other. After so many days and nights this way, it was all so easy . Aiden unbuttoned her gown as she shoved Wren’s jacket away and tugged the buttons of his shirt so he could pull it over his head. Immediately she put her mouth on his skin, sucking a path down his chest while she pushed her dress away. As she dropped to her knees to unfasten his trousers, Wren undressed Aiden and the two men kissed above her.

She pulled Wren’s cock to her lips. She stroked the sensitive head against her cheek before she licked him and finally took him into her throat.

He made a garbled sound of pleasure and Aiden’s husky laugh made her pussy clench with need. She glanced up at Wren, smiling at him from around his cock. He shook his head.

“You two will be the death of me,” he said, but he didn’t pull away. Instead he unfastened Aiden’s fall front and lowered the placard.

Emilia groaned around his cock and slid him free from her lips, instead stroking him with her hand as she turned her attention to Aiden. She swirled her tongue around his length and sucked him gently. Back and forth she pleasured them with her mouth, loving how they surged for her, needy and panting between their own sweet, passionate kisses.

“Please,” she panted at last as she got back to her feet. “I need you both. Now!”

She didn’t have to ask twice. They staggered toward the bed together, hands stroking and mouths seeking. Wren leaned against the high edge and caught her by the hips, lifting her up as she let out a squeal of surprise. He positioned her carefully and Aiden reached between them to help Wren take her in one wet stroke. She ground against him, wild with passion. Already her sensitive body trembled, pleasure inching up with every relentless thrust.

Aiden had stepped away, but now she felt him at her back again. He kissed her shoulders, licked her neck as she moaned and then his fingers trailed down her spine and into the globes of her arse.

Wren slowed his thrusts as Aiden prepared her for his cock. She whimpered at how he teased the rosette of her bottom, then stretched her deliciously with his fingers. When she was so close to the edge that she feared she’d fall without him, he pressed his cock to her and glided forward.

She came at once with the fullness of them, the feel of them rubbing together inside of her. She bucked between them as they worked her back and forth, their hands gripping at each other, their mouths sucking her skin.

“Fuck,” Wren groaned as he came hot and heavy inside of her.

She whimpered as she kissed him, sucking his tongue gently before she drew back and smiled at him. “Play with him,” she whispered. “I want him to lose control.”

Wren’s eyes lit up and he nodded as he slipped from beneath her, leaving her to bend over the edge of the bed as Aiden continued to slowly fuck her arse. She looked over her shoulder, watching him track Wren as he moved around behind Aiden. She could tell when he’d begun to finger him by the way Aiden’s thrusts increased.

She ground back against him, shoving a hand between her own shaking legs, bringing herself back to the edge with only a few strokes of her fingers. She came a second time as Aiden pulled his cock from inside of her and the heat of him splashed over her back and bottom, a tattoo of their pleasure, though only temporarily written on her heated flesh.

As they all collapsed forward, pulling themselves onto the bed weakly, arms and legs entangling, Emilia couldn’t help but smile. This was her life now. Her future, as it always should have been.

And there was nothing that could take the joy of it away.