Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Ashley gripped my hand on his stomach and closed his eyes, his expression pained.
“During the orange incident, Priest said something about your sister.” I laced our fingers together. “He said, Just like our ruse with Arabella. What did that mean?”
Shifting to his side, Ashley graced me with his deep blue stare. “Arabella was in love with Priest. To be clear, every maiden, widow, and married lady within a hundred kilometers wanted Priest in her bed. But Arabella was cunning, lovely, and relentless. For years, I ordered him not to bed her.”
“I didn’t touch her, my lord,” Priest muttered drowsily behind me.
“I know.” Ashley reached over me and rested his hand on Priest’s thigh, his thumb stroking the burn scars. “Priest rejected her at every turn,” he said to me. “She desired him so badly she didn’t care if the affair ruined her. But neither he nor I wanted that.”
“Arabella was a spitfire.” Priest chuckled. “Christ, I miss her.”
A quiet moment passed between them before Ashley continued. “My sister was in her twenties and still unwed. She refused every offer, waiting for Priest. By this time, Priest and I were sixteen and eighteen, respectively. We were young, restless, and strung tight with sexual energy, of which we put to use on the local girls.”
“But we spent most of our time alone in this manor, especially during the winter months,” Priest said. “Curiosity and tedium brought forth…experimentation.”
“You touched each other.” I smiled softly, captivated by this side of them.
“Aye.” Priest nuzzled my neck. “Hands reaching into trousers. A few strokes here and there. It felt good. Never awkward. We both preferred females, but more than that, we preferred each other’s company. When those interactions led to opening our breeches and spending our seed together, it didn’t bother us.”
“Did Arabella know?” I asked.
“No.” Ashley moved his hand to my face, clearing away a few wispy curls. “I overheard her talking to her lady’s maid, plotting how she was going to sneak into Priest’s room that night and seduce him. I knew my sister. She would’ve succeeded.”
“So little faith in me,” Priest drawled.
“She was wearing you down. You said so yourself.” With a straight face, Ashley said, “I ate an orange, swished the juice through my teeth, and smeared it on my lips.”
“Oh no.” I gasped. “You didn’t.”
“He did.” Priest chuckled. “The arsehole sneaked into my bed and put his mouth on me. Sucked my cock right down his throat. No one had ever done that before, and I only lasted—”
“Less than a minute. I daresay he embarrassed himself.” Ashley smiled a rare smile, holding my gaze. “My tenacious sister crept into his room an hour later to find her dear Priest nursing a vile rash on his groin. Needless to say, she believed he had syphilis and thereby swore him off once and for all.”
Just like our ruse with Arabella.
“You’re an evil genius, Ashley Cutler.” I leaned forward and kissed his sculpted lips.
“The evil part is right.” Priest gave a halfhearted grunt. “I still don’t trust his mouth near my cock.”
I recalled what I knew about Ashley’s carnal nature, his unseemly manners. The first time he was intimate with me, he brutally took me in my backside. Before that had been a string of merciless spankings.
“Do you spank Priest?” I fought a smile.
Priest tensed behind me. “I’d like to see him try.”
All right. That answered that.
“What happened with Arabella?” I asked.
“She found another fellow to besiege. A fisherman. Of course, my parents did not approve.” Ashley looked at me with his heart in his eyes. “He didn’t show her the same respect Priest had. She got pregnant, banished from society, and you know the rest.”
She’d died in childbirth.
“I was twenty when it happened. This house wasn’t the same without her.” Ashley idly stroked my collarbone. “So I left. Joined the Royal Navy, much to the despair of my parents.”
“And me. I demanded he stay.” Priest lifted on an elbow and curved a hand around my waist. “We fought about it. Beat the hell out of each other right here in this room.” He cut his eyes to Ashley, narrowing them to slits. “He fucked me that night. It was our first time…” His nostrils widened. “The prick fucked me and walked out. I didn’t see him again for a year.”
I looked down, my chest aching and heart raw. That seemed to be a habit of Ashley’s. The first time he’d fucked me, he’d left. Though he hadn’t made it past the door of his cabin.
“You must have kept in touch over the years,” I said.
“We wrote to each other.” Exhaling, Priest rolled onto his back. “Without Ashley, I had no job here. Over the following year, I hopped from ship to ship, doing various work, making my way to the West Indies, and looking for my father. That’s how I found a brother I didn’t know I had.”