Page 41 of Vanquished by a Viscount (Tales from the Brotherhood #3)

Lady Sandridge beamed. “I knew you would come around,” she said. She turned to her daughter. “Come, Eudora. We must write to your father and tell him everything, then we must prepare for the banns to be read.”

A murmur went through the room as the two women left.

Lady Winifred and Miss Martin departed after Lady Eudora, hopefully to talk some sense into the woman.

The majority of the male house guests sent Pettigrew sympathetic looks.

A few shook their heads, as if it was Pettigrew’s fault for falling into the trap.

“I do not know what I will do,” Pettigrew sighed, turning to form a tight circle with Gray, Charlie, and Robert. “I cannot marry that woman. I cannot marry any woman.”

“But that woman in particular would make your life a misery,” Robert agreed.

“More like her mother would,” Charlie said.

Gray huffed in agreement, feeling desperately sorry for his friend.

Until a dazzling idea came to him.

“You could always run away,” he said.

Charlie glanced askance at him. “Is that truly the best solution when faced with difficulty?”

Gray felt the censure in those words for what it was, but he was too excited by his idea to let it dent his spirits. “Would you consider fleeing to Australia?” he asked.

Pettigrew wasn’t the only one who blinked in surprise at the suggestion. “Anything to prevent me from that marriage,” he said, stunned but considering.

“You would give up your passage to Australia to Pettigrew?” Charlie asked, his voice dropping to a thin, expectant whisper.

Gray turned to him with a bright smile. “I suddenly have no wish to explore the world,” he said. “At least, I have no desire to explore it alone.”

“But the expense,” Charlie said. “The effort you have put into securing passage.”

“I will reimburse you a dozen times over,” Pettigrew said, eyes wide.

Gray shook his head and reached subtly for Charlie’s hand. “I do not care about any of that anymore. It suddenly occurs to me that my life is right here, standing before me.”

Charlie slipped his hand into Gray’s. “You would give up your life of excitement to throw your lot in with a stubborn old viscount with a dozen responsibilities on his shoulders?”

Gray laughed. “How many times must I tell you that you are not even close to being old?”

“It feels as though I am,” Charlie murmured.

“Then I shall make you feel differently,” Gray said, squeezing his hand. “My next adventure will be returning excitement to your life and introducing you to new experiences.”

“Was it not the other way around when we first met?” Charlie asked, his smile growing as confidence in his future and everything it would hold settled on him.

Grayson laughed. “Time changes every man,” he said. “I am certain there are thing you can still teach me as well.”

Charlie’s smile blossomed into a laugh. Gray was completely certain that if they had been alone, his lover would have taken him into his arms for a searing kiss.

He was about to suggest they go upstairs when Pettigrew interrupted with, “If you are truly offering me your passage to Australia I would take it in an instant. I will leave here tomorrow, speak to my solicitor in London about transferring some or all of my estate into your name, and be halfway across the world and away from Lady Eudora and her mother’s machinations within a month. ”

Gray dragged his eyes away from Charlie and said, “Consider it my gift. I only hope that a fortnight is long enough for you to arrange your affairs well enough so that you can leave England behind you.”

“I shall endeavor to do my best,” Pettigrew said, determination in his expression. “Now, if you will excuse me, I will return to my room to pack my things at once so that I might leave Hawthorne House with all due haste. Give my apologies to Lady Felcourt,” he said to Robert.

“She will understand,” Robert said with a nod.

Pettigrew hurried off.

“I must go to my wife and tell her this whole, mad tale,” Robert laughed, leaving as well.

Gray was left standing there in the conservatory with Charlie, holding hands.

“So you will not be departing for Australia?” Charlie asked.

“No, you silly, lovely man,” Gray laughed. “Why would you ever think that I would let go of the best thing I have ever had my hands on?”

Charlie’s smile faltered. “Because I once let go of something more precious than I ever could have imagined.”

Gray faced him squarely, his heart beating with sympathy, and rested his free hand on the side of Charlie’s face. “We were young,” he said. “And green and stupid. We are very likely still stupid, but we can be fools together.”

“Are you certain?” Charlie asked. “I have done nothing if not proven that I am afflicted with a suspicious and doubtful nature.”

“I agree that we have much to forgive each other for,” Gray said. “And the rough edges of what we have will not be smoothed in a single day.” He raised Charlie’s hand and kissed his knuckles. “But I am willing to work toward full forgiveness and understanding if you are.”

“I want nothing more than that,” Charlie sighed, body going limp for a moment.

He leaned toward Gray as if he would kiss him, regardless of where they were, but Miss Kennedy returned to the conservatory at that moment to fetch a shawl that had been left behind. Gray and Charlie were forced to jump apart.

“Would you care to continue this discussion upstairs?” Charlie asked with perfect seriousness.

“I would like nothing more,” Gray said, pretending just as much gravity.

The two of them turned sharply and marched out of the room as though they were leaving on an ordinary errand.

Miss Kennedy watched them suspiciously, but Gray did not care what rumors might be whispered about them.

He had the feeling that more rumors than could be counted would make their way out of the house party.

Once they reached the top of the stairs, they joined hands again and picked up their pace.

By the time they reached the door to Charlie’s bedroom, they were practically running.

Once they burst inside, shutting the door behind them with a bit too much force, Gray could not help but fling himself at Charlie.

“I love you,” he gasped, kissing him and attempting to strip him out of his clothes simultaneously. “I love you so much.”

“And I love you,” Charlie panted in return, pushing Gray’s jacket from his shoulders.

They grabbed and tugged at each other’s clothes, popping a few buttons in their haste to undress. All the while, they kissed and grasped, growing more frantic by the moment as they crossed the room to the bed.

They were forced to pause their ardor long enough to peel out of the rest of their clothes. Gray finished first and rushed to the bed, throwing back the covers so that he could splay himself, face down, across Charlie’s cool sheets.

“That is a sight that would bring a lesser man to his knees,” Charlie growled as he tossed aside the last of his clothing and moved to stand between Gray’s wide-spread feet, which hung off the edge of the bed.

“You think that’s a sight?” Gray asked teasingly, then tilted his hips up and reached behind him to part his arsecheeks and show Charlie his hole.

He could not keep a straight face as he made the crude gesture, though, and dissolved into laughter. He almost let go of his cheeks as he did, but Charlie growled a hoarse, “Don’t you dare.”

Lust shot through Gray, drying up his laughter and hardening his cock beneath him. The deeper implications of his position and Charlie’s demand had his pulse pounding. He loved a bit of play with control, but having Charlie take the upper hand made him as randy as a goat in heat.

“That arse belongs to me,” Charlie said, reaching for the jar on his bedside table.

“Does it?” Gray asked, breathless and deliberately teasing.

“Do you need me to show you?” Charlie asked, scooping a large amount of grease from the jar and slicking himself.

Gray answered with giddy laughter, lifting his hips and wiggling his arse as best he could.

It was a saucy gesture, but it gained him exactly what he wanted and needed.

Charlie swiped his greased fingers across his hole, slicking it and penetrating to test how tight Gray was.

That was the work of a moment, though. Quickly, Charlie grasped Gray’s hips, yanked him back, and lined up so that he could thrust mercilessly into Gray.

Gray yelped with the burning pain of the dominant gesture, but the pain was nothing to the way Charlie’s brutality made him feel possessed.

Whatever forceful emotion had prompted Charlie to take and claim softened as soon as the man was inside him.

Instead of taking him and using him with overwhelming power, Charlie held himself deep inside and curled his body around Gray’s.

“I love you,” he repeated, jerking slightly as he shifted to hold Gray with his full body. “I always have and I always will.”

Gray hummed with contentment, straining and flexing to create as much friction between them as Charlie’s tight embrace would allow.

“I love you,” he panted, looking over his shoulder at Charlie.

He grinned and went on with, “And in case you have any doubt or are tempted to feel any guilt whatsoever, I love this. I love being taken roughly by a dominant man who bends me to his will. Even the pain of it feels good. So give yourself free rein.”

“Free rein to fuck the memory of every other man who has spent his seed in your whorish arse from your mind?” Charlie asked, grabbing one of Gray’s legs and holding it in a twisted pose that gave him better purchase and made it impossible for Gray to even think of wriggling away from him.

Gray let out a sordid sound of pleasure as Charlie thrust into him a few more times. A whole new pleasure, something he’d never dreamed he would enjoy, washed over him. “I am a dirty whore,” he gasped, gripping the bedcovers and throwing himself into the fantasy. “I need to be fucked like one.”

“Disgusting,” Charlie hissed and pushed harder into him. His words were debasing, but the way they felt was filled with deepest affection.

Gray felt nothing but all-consuming love as Charlie pounded into him, using him for his pleasure.

It was both of their pleasure because they understood each other and what each of them needed.

And while he was certain there would be years and years of sweet, tender lovemaking between them as well, in the moment, his soul sang with delight at the feeling of being vanquished and bent to Charlie’s will.

He caught his breath and let the beauty of it all wash over him as Charlie’s jerks and grunts signaled his climax.

As soon as he was spent, Charlie pushed him to his back and reached for Gray’s cock, stroking it until Gray came with a groan, spilling all over himself.

Charlie watched, his eyes blazing with hunger and with love.

When they were both spent, Charlie collapsed onto the bed with Gray, pulling him into his arms and spreading the mess between them. “I love you,” he said before slanting his mouth over Gray’s in a tender kiss.

The mood shifted between them to tenderness and care. They kissed and touched, their hands exploring everything as all energy seeped away from Gray. He was sore and overheated, but he’d never been happier.

“I love you, too,” he said between kisses.

They were together at last, their bodies entwined, and Gray was determined that their lives would be forever entwined as well.

I hope you have enjoyed Charlie and Grayson’s story!

And I hope you had fun getting a glimpse into the world of Hawthorne House and the Hawthorne family.

I’ve actually written about Hawthorne House and the contemporary heirs, who have turned the entire estate into a community arts center, in my series The Art of Love .

If you’re interested, the first book in that series is Thrown !

But what about Dr. Elias Pettigrew? Does he escape a miserable marriage to Lady Eudora by making a new life in Australia?

He certainly tries as he sails off to antipodean shores on the HMS Fortune .

He even meets a charming and enigmatic young sailor…

or is he a fellow passenger…or perhaps a merchant…

traveling with him. He has no idea who Caspian is or why the alluring young man sometimes seems to disappear from the ship.

The mystery grows even deeper when the Fortune hits bad weather, endures a mutiny, and wrecks in a storm.

What will happen to the survivors when they end up stranded on an unknown island?

Could Caspian be their only hope of survival and Elias’s own, true love? Find out next in Hooked by a Hero .