Page 23 of Centerpiece

Holburn’s hold was inescapable.Not that Agreeable would have tried to.He moaned before he could stop himself.It did not get any better when the Duchess’ smile turned smug, and she leaned in to place her hands on his shoulders.She was so warm and her bosom was inches away, and Agreeable had often wondered what those might feel like.

Then he remembered imagining himself with breasts to fill Holburn’s hands and nearly moaned again.He suspected they’d both like the thought as much he had.Holburn had said his wife liked what she liked.Maybe she would touch Agreeable in return, and grind atop him like a woman desperate for a hand between her thighs.Agreeable wanted to ask her to.He felt almost as if he could say whatever he wanted, be whatever he wanted, and they would eat it up.

He’d be that morsel if they asked it of him...or her.Whichever or both, if devoured joyfully.

“Never had anyone worry so much over whether or not they meant me well.”It spilled from him as though he’d been at the wine all night.“Not even my, well, my friends.There’s my ma only.”He wanted to clean the fine lady’s cheek for her but was trapped between her and an oak.He was dizzy and warm all through with that unnamed feeling.“I couldn’t resist a duke anyway, nor a duchess, if you don’t mind me saying.Any more than resist the Church.But neither do I exactly want to right now.”

“I’d like to think we would manage better with you than some randy priests.”The Duchess smiled and then reddish sparks appeared in the air around her, winking out of sight almost as soon as they had appeared.She was a mage.The Church didn’t like mages who weren’t priests, but didn’t like lady priests either.A mage and a duchess.Holburn had married what other men would have feared to.And he loved her as she was.

Even Holburn hadn’t had a chance.What choice did Agreeable have but to give in too?

The Duchess looked him over, wild eyes narrowed and clever.Then she leaned in, her gaze flicking from Agreeable’s eyes to his mouth.

“I suppose the Count can wait a little longer,” she said in response to nothing that Agreeable had heard, but perhaps she and Holburn knew each other’s thoughts.But she did not lean in farther, and her tiny, vexed look reappeared, her lip out to sulk.“Really, Holburn, how do you get us in these situations?You have stressed over your new role all these past weeks.Now people are waiting on us, and all I want to do is be selfish and have our pretty page.I want to let him try to keep me from trees.Would he be upset if I fell?”

“Oh,” she went on when Agreeable nodded and Holburn muttered, “Iwould be upset too, as you know.”

“Oh,” the lady said again, “butyouworry and scold, andhewould gaze at me with those eyes and make me feel quite naughty.”Agreeable jumped.The Duchess scarcely seemed to notice.“What power he has.”She focused on Agreeable.“You’d have a much easier time attending to me.I already have a companion so you wouldn’t need to do much.Heis nothing but trouble.”

“I figured he must be.”Agreeable had to say it, because Holburn wanted honesty from him.“But perhaps you’d like me to help keep an eye on him for you, as part of me attending to you?”

To his dismay, she leaned back, but it was only to clap her hands together in approval.“That sense will do you good!Although I wonder if you can hold onto it for long.”

Between the two of them, Agreeable would have long days of worry and fuss...and nights he couldn’t think about now without moaning again.“Please,” he said first, like a fool, before trying to be as sensible as she thought he was.“If it’s all that keeps you from tossing me out, then I will.I willtryat least.But I’m not known for my thinking.No one comes to me for that.”

Holburn tightened his arms around him.

The Duchess lost some of her smile.“These friends of yours, are they asses as well as liars?”

“Yes.”Holburn answered before Agreeable could, but pressed a kiss to the back of his head.“Aliette?You agree?”

“He’s nearly always right, in the end,” the Duchess complained to Agreeable, but with the ripening-apple pink returning to her face.That was why she’d made Agreeable think of scrumping; she was lively and ready to be harvested.Agreeable often was too, but she was strong enough to demand instead of merely agreeing.

“He’s a jewel.”Agreeable sighed.“So are you, Your Grace.Though I still don’t know what to do with jewels.”

“Aliette.”She put her hands back on his shoulders, then slid them up to tug the scarf off his forehead and expose some of his hair.Agreeable’s face was as hot as the rest of him.“Like this?”Aliette wondered, before tugging the cloth forward again to cover his hair as though Agreeable were a modest, goodly woman.“Or this way?”She pulled it all down around his neck and shoulders, then tossed one corner of it across his throat.“Or like this?Against your skin but permitting us to see all of you?”

Agreeable could not breathe.“Whatever you like.”

“Good lass.”Holburn began to pull the loaned chemise up to spread his hands over Remi’s stomach.“Good lad.Good for us, aren’t you?”

Aliette’s hands joined her husband’s, then dipped lower into Remi’s breeches.

Remi nodded desperately.“A centerpiece, as you said.”

Aliette paused.Then her lips were against Remi’s, and her breasts as well as the sprig of greenery in her bodice were pressed to his chest.“Much more than that, I think.Ourcenterpiece at least.Oh, you like that so much.”She and her husband both had a hand on his prick and were enjoying his trembling.“I feel quite greedy about him.”

“Then be greedy,” Holburn murmured.“He likes to be had.Until he is sore.Until she is ours.Isn’t that right?”

Remi whimpered.

Aliette wriggled in delight in the sound.“You did say she was agreeable.”

“Remi,” Remi begged.He had never been so wanted and he would never be the same for it.He couldn’t seem to mind.“Remi, if I am yours.”

“Remi,” husband and wife agreed, and kissed him, and petted her, and kept her right there between them, where he was theirs.

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