The Ghosts of Christmas Past Read online

  He reached out, meaning to clasp her hand again, but somehow she seemed to lean forward at the same moment so that their lips met, and then he was pressing her into the cushioned back of the loveseat, and they were both groaning as if they’d been starved of one another’s company for months. Their hips magically seemed to align, and a rush of desire made him tingle from the top of his head to the tip of his tail. His cock instantly swelled, causing him to grit his teeth as he pulled away from her.

  He sat back, breathing hard.

  Bella bunched up her skirts so that he was seeing the slick red folds of her cunny.

  “You did promise,” she said saucily.

  Lucerne dipped forward, sliding his hands along the insides of her thighs. He kissed the soft flesh there, before edging his way closer to her pussy. “Marry me,” he whispered, before tickling her folds with the tip of his tongue.

  “What did you say?”

  “Give yourself to me, for always and forever.”

  “I’m already yours.”

  “I mean officially.”

  The last word got drowned out by the sound of the door slamming against the wainscoting. She’d been right. He ought to have taken more care to slip away unobserved. They’d been found, and now all hell would break loose.

  However, there came no shriek of alarm, only a low sardonic purr, “Down on your knees again, Lucerne? You ought to be careful, Miss Rushdale will get the wrong idea.”

  Vaughan—Vaughan had found them.

  “It wouldn’t be the wrong idea,” he mumbled under his breath.

  “Vaughan!” Bella yelled, eyes gleaming with delight. “Did you have to make so dramatic an entrance?”

  “What other sort of entrances are there?”

  She smirked and shook her head, clearly delighted with his answer. Lucerne didn’t share the sentiment. Normally, his heart leapt and he felt an elated buzz whenever Vaughan drew near, but tonight he needed a few minutes where the other man’s presence didn’t dominate.

  Damn, he’d wasted his opportunity.

  Vaughan gave the door a kick, so that it closed, and then sallied over to where they were. “I see you have your muff out, Miss Rushdale. I suppose it’s the season for it. It’s reportedly snowing, although I can’t claim to have ventured outside to verify it.”

  “Oh, how wonderful.”

  “What wasn’t so wonderful, was your absence five minutes ago. You were supposed to be my partner for the gavotte.”

  “I was waylaid,” she replied with a shrug, seemingly not in the least bit concerned that his gaze was raking over her exposed private parts.

  “So I see.” Vaughan’s sultry gaze slid over to Lucerne.

  “Does your chaperone know that you’re dallying with a man?”

  “I assume she knows whatever it is you’ve told her to know,” Bella replied.

  Vaughan grinned so that his mouth turned up at the corners. Bella’s paid chaperone answered purely to him. In truth she was more spy than companion. “Well don’t let me interrupt your assignation.” With a languid roll of his wrist, he indicated that Lucerne should proceed.

  Damn, it was tempting to do exactly that and make the proposal right in front of Vaughan, except the result was likely to be explosive. Vaughan was privileged by birth and jealous by nature. He tolerated Bella’s presence because he preferred it to the alternative, and despite what he’d have everyone believe, there was genuine affection between the two for all that they bickered and baited one another constantly. However, that wouldn’t guarantee anyone’s safety if he felt he was being slighted. He’d killed men for less, and Lucerne had no wish to incite his wrath.

  “Didn’t your mother tell you never to keep a lady waiting, Lucerne?”

  “She told me if I didn’t want to grow up to be a scoundrel, I ought to avoid you.”

  “Hm.” Vaughan’s lips twisted into a sour expression. “I never recommend listening to one’s mother.”

  “I know perfectly well that you never listened to yours.”

  “Am I going to need to take matters into my own hands?” Bella interjected with a sigh. She wetted her index and middle fingers against her tongue, which naturally drew both their attentions. She paused, waiting for them to act.

  “Um, that won’t be necessary.” Lucerne dipped his head again and tickled her nubbin with a delicate flick.

  “Oh Lord.” Bella curled her hand around the back of his head, holding him to the task. “Yes, my love. Like that. Exactly there.”

  Her cries fuelled his enthusiasm for the task. They always did. Meanwhile, he ignored Vaughan’s derisive snorts. He could belittle their relationship as much as he wished, it wouldn’t change a thing. He and Bella understood one another both in and out of the bedroom. He knew what made her tremble, what to do to cause the breath to catch in the back of her throat. He kissed her clit as if it were her lips, stroking, coaxing, until her grip tightened first on the arm of the chair, and then upon his shoulder. Then he made numerous rapid strokes directly against her nubbin, driving up her need, until she was teetering on the very edge of climax.

  Vaughan’s hand replaced Bella’s upon his head. His long fingers curled against the scalp. “That’s enough. Pleasure ought to be shared equally, don’t you think?” The grip tightened, becoming painful, so that Lucerne was forced to abandon his task at risk of losing his hair.

  “Vaughan,” he snapped crossly.

  “My turn,” his lover insisted, pushing his cock between Lucerne’s lips. “That’s what we agreed two Christmases ago, that we would share, and do so equally. So suck me, mi amore. Suck me until I’m almost ready to spend, then when I’m riding the tide as Miss Rushdale is doing now, we can all have some fun together.”

  Lucerne knew better than to protest, and in fact as his mouth was full, therefore there was no real opportunity to do so unless he wanted to start a fight he’d have no guarantee of winning. In any case, it was hard not to be flattered by Vaughan’s jealousy. Lucerne didn’t doubt that was what was driving this. Also, the show of dominance excited him.

  Vaughan used Lucerne’s mouth roughly, pushing his cock to the back of Lucerne’s throat and demanding compliance, swallow, accept, take a breath, take an inch more. It was rough and repetitive, there was no softness to the possession—Vaughan never showed any gentleness when Bella was there as a witness. That sort of intimacy he reserved for when the two of them were alone. However, the lack of softness didn’t detract from Lucerne’s enjoyment. His cock grew ever more painfully erect as he sucked, until he was forced to release the frontfall of his breeches and stroke himself in time with Vaughan’s thrusts.

  “That’s enough,” Bella insisted, sitting forward from her position on the loveseat. “You’re just as close as I was to climax. You claim we should share, so do so, Vaughan.”

  “Desperate for more kisses, Miss Rushdale?”

  “I’d rather he made fine use of this.” She reached for his staff, and stroked the length of him from root to tip, drawing a quaking gasp from him in the process. “Pleasure me, Lucerne. I want you inside me, now.”

  “Best not keep the lady waiting,” Vaughan added, giving him a gentle shove in her direction. His tongue ticked against his upper teeth. “Oblige her, Lucerne. Bury yourself in her quaint, fuck her until she squeals and the walls of her sheath squeeze you to the point of spilling.”

  “While you do what?” he asked, uncertainly. He didn’t believe Vaughan was going to sit idly by and watch and wait patiently for his turn. That wasn’t his way at all.

  Lucerne didn’t get an answer.

  “Fill up her purse, Lucerne. Let me see how well you fuck her.”

  “Do,” Bella encouraged, pulling him closer. “Please, my love.”

  Lucerne feasted upon her lips, while he aligned his cock with her slick folds. He made merry a few moments, teasing her with his nearness, rubbing the crown of his cock against her nether lips, almost pushing inside, then withdrawing, until she was clawing at his back and
urging him with desperate cries to join them together.

  Bella fit him like a glove.

  For a while, Lucerne lost himself in the sheer bliss of coupling. He rode the swell of joy radiating out from his cock, let the arrhythmia of Bella’s gasps guide him. It was only when Vaughan traced a circle upon his buttocks that any sense of urgency afflicted him.

  “You don’t mind if I share a little of him, do you Bella?” Vaughan remarked.

  Share him?

  Lucerne tensed.

  Dear God in heaven, he couldn’t mean to… No!

  The scent of almond oil filled the air. He felt it, the tell-tale trickle of warm liquid between his cheeks.

  “Not here. Not now,” he protested. “Not while I’m inside Bella.”

  “Whyever not? It makes perfect sense if you think about it. We often share her between us, but it’s you we both desire, and this way we can both have the best of you.”

  “I thought you objected to her watching.”

  “No, Lucerne. Watching isn’t the issue. I refuse to perform for her. There’s a difference.”

  Not one that Lucerne could easily discern.

  Vaughan nuzzled up against him and used his tongue and fingers to loosen him up and drive him demented. Until, he simply didn’t know if he’d manage to last more than a second with Vaughan actually inside of him. A finger was almost too much. He’d probably come before they were even properly joined.

  “I’m not ready for this.”

  “Of course you’re not. You need to relax more.” Vaughan’s hot breath buffeted the back of Lucerne’s neck, raising hairs all over his body. “Relax, Lucerne. You can handle this.”

  “Fuck!” he swore. A finger was plenty. Two had his eyes rolling up into his skull and his mouth hanging open.

  There was no way he could do this. No way… Except then it wasn’t Vaughan’s fingers stroking inside of him, loosening his muscles, but his cock knocking against his forbidden hole demanding entrance.

  Lucerne held himself impossibly still torn over what to do. Push forwards, and he’d slide deep into Bella’s heat, pull back and Vaughan stood ready to impale him. While part of him might be screaming in joy at the thought of both acts happening at once, the rest of him had serious doubts about the logistics. What if he lost his erection as he sometimes did when Vaughan first entered him? What if it was all too intense and he came so quickly neither of his partners reached any sort of climax? What if Bella saw something she wasn’t expecting to see, and that ruined everything? A man had to keep some secrets.

  “Relent, Lucerne. Just accept it’s going to happen, and enjoy it.”

  “That’s easy for you to say.”

  “Bella’s not going to think any less of you. You know she’s fascinated by how we love one another, and in any case, she’s seen me come in your arse before.”

  “Let him do this. Let us all do this together.” She grasped his hand, where it was formed into a fist against the seat of the settee. “Let him… No, don’t let him. Push back, take charge, my love.” She smooched a kiss against his lips. “Push back, then come forward into me.”

  Somehow his hips moved of their own volition, so that he did press back and impale himself as she encouraged him. Lucerne groaned as Vaughan filled him in one long smooth stroke.

  He fell forward, driving his hips down level with Bella’s as he filled her pussy.

  Damn that was good.

  More importantly, he was still rigidly excited. Sweet streams of stars were flowing through his skin and connecting all his pleasure points. The sensations intensified as Vaughan drove deep again. Then when Bella fluttered the muscles of her sheath around him Lucerne fought hard not to let the sharp assault on his senses cause him to spend. He clung to Bella, teetering on the precipice for the next few glorious strokes.

  “I can feel him when he pushes forward into you. It’s as if he jolts all your nerves.”

  That was exactly how it felt to him too. Each time Vaughan thrust forward, he hit that special place inside him that reduced Lucerne to nothing more than a careening ball of energy. He lost track of time. Almost forgot his own name as he drowned in the twin sensations of penetration and being penetrated. Was it him now driving this, working himself back onto Vaughan’s cock and causing their flesh to slap, and then driving forward with equal zeal causing Bella to cry out?

  Bella was staring at him—mouth agape, gaze a little glazed as if something fantastical were about to happen, and from the way that Vaughan was crooning deep in his throat between increasingly quickening gasps, he could feel it too.

  Vaughan pulled his hair, and Lucerne’s lost control. He soared and climaxed, rocking between the two points of ecstasy.

  “Pull out,” Vaughan cursed, as Lucerne’s cock began to jerk. “Pull out. Don’t be a fool.”

  Vaughan’s hands were on his shoulders, his hips tearing him away from Bella and onto him, but Bella was holding on tight him too, so that his seed flooded her pussy.

  Face-making had not been his intention, but if his seed took root in her belly, the he would not consider it cause for sorrow. He wanted a family.

  “I love you.” He sought Bella’s clit, rubbed just enough to tip her over the edge. She came shaking in his arms, while looking him in the eyes.

  In response, Vaughan tore away from them both as if the devil had just branded him across the backside. He backed away into the shadows. Lucerne didn’t waste time seeking him out. He was lost in paradise.

  “Don’t be so sour,” Bella called out. “If you need help finishing off, you need only ask. I’m sure we’ll both be only too willing.”

  “I don’t need your help.”

  There was a soft swish of a hand moving rapidly against flesh, and a brief gasp that told Lucerne that Vaughan had found relief on his own terms. Bella peeped around him curiously.

  “He almost never does that,” she observed. “I thought he would tuck himself away and make us suffer for his lack of release later.”

  “I expect suffering may still occur.”

  “Only if we allow him to dictate. He quite took over our little assignation. I don’t think we ought to allow him to prescribe terms for the whole of the night.”

  “I don’t much care for strife, Bella.” Any attempt to thwart Vaughan’s will would result in a showdown and there were sticking points enough to negotiate—like the fact he still had a ring burning a hole in his pocket.

  Bella mussed the front of his hair. “Then I fear you chose the wrong two people to love. Vaughan is like a spinning top, his moods are more changeable than the weather, and I’m afraid I enjoy baiting him.”

  “I also happen to be within hearing range, Miss Rushdale.”

  “Are you? Then you’ll be pleased to learn how wonderful I thought that was. We must do it again some time. I swear you go out of your way to please me. You must care for me very deeply.”

  Vaughan snorted in disgust, and remained in the shadows. “You’re a fool if you believe that.”

  “As are you if you expect me to believe that you don’t feel a shred of anything. I know you love me, deep down.”

  “I most assuredly do not.”

  “Well I hardly expect you to confess it,” she claimed, rising to the argument. Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “You can barely admit to yourself that you love Lucerne, and it’s plain for anyone to see that you do that wholeheartedly, so I don’t expect you to admit the smidgen of something you have for me. I on the other hand am far more brave.” She looked Lucerne in the eyes. “I love you, Lucerne Marliscar,” she said, but I do hold your esteemed lover in considerable affection too, so that I’m afraid I can’t ever be wholly yours.”

  “Ninety per cent?” he proposed.

  “Eighty-five. After all, he’s handsome, elegant, and a ridiculously good lover.” She snatched a glance in Vaughan’s direction. “Just not the sort you consider tying yourself to for life, because, of course, he’s an absolute rapscallion as well.”

 
“Did no one ever tell you that it is rude to discuss other people in such a fashion?” Vaughan re-joined them before the fire, his attire now neatly in place, and not a ringlet of his hair out of place.

  “I believe my brother omitted that lesson, and my parents sadly weren’t around to impart it.”

  “Yes, the lack of parental influence is particularly noticeable.”

  “Oh do stop bickering,” Lucerne remarked. He offered Bella his handkerchief so that she could clean herself up while he straightened his own attire. His cock was slick with her juices, and his bottom felt well and truly used, but he tucked his shirttails around himself, buttoned his frontfall and straightened out his waistcoat and evening coat.

  “Did you still want to say something to me?” Bella questioned as she stood and swayed her hips so that her skirts fell neatly back into place.

  Lucerne shook his head. Now wasn’t the moment. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll talk about it later.” He pushed his hand in his pocket and gripped the ring box. “When we’re home.”

  “I thought it was urgent, and you didn’t want to speak of it there. Wasn’t that the whole premise of this little tête-à-tête?”

  He clasped his hand tight over hers, and patted them both. “It’ll save.” He leaned closer, dropped his voice to a mere whisper. “Come to my room later tonight, once the servants have retired and we can discuss it then.”

  Her grin was as broad as it was lascivious. “It truly is Christmas Eve. I’ll come to you.” Then raising her voice she added, “I believe I might be ready to leave the ball now.”

  “That would seem wise,” Vaughan remarked. “Better to have people believe we all left early, than to have them speculating over what we’ve been doing out of sight of your chaperone for so long.”

  “Oughn’t we to fetch her?”

  “Best just to forget about her,” Vaughan advised. “And as for leaving, we had better use the back stairs and be quick about it.”

  “If we do that, we’ll have to do without hats and coats,” Lucerne reminded them. “And did you say it was snowing?”

  “A light flurry. Home isn’t so very far away, and I’m sure we can devise a way of keeping warm on the journey.”