Page 26 of Centerpiece

She had a lot of sketches of his face.Angel studies, she called them.

“Holburn.”Remi took a breath.“I didn’t mean it to hurt.Only that it would be sensible to prepare.”

Holburn’s quick smile left him uncertain.“You don’t have to prove you’re sensible to me.As you don’t need to prove anything to the servants in this house—although there you won’t believe me yet.But look around, Remi, and recognize that your efforts to belong to this house have not gone unnoticed by the others.People, honest people, can’t help but adore our saint.”

A saint waiting for a tumble.Remi gave Holburn a suspicious look.“And your new priest?”

“Priests.”Holburn announced it with pleasure.“Two of them.And considering what I caught them getting up to, I doubt they will have anything to say about you.Providence.”He nearly purred it.“You should have come with us.”

Remi could maybe see that now.He had studied, but he sometimes thought there were not words enough for the emptiness in him when his graces were away.The itch, the ache, were all a part of the same longing.Love, he knew it was now.But a centerpiece had no place to speak of it.

“I missed you.”A fraction, a mere whisper, but it brought Holburn down to kiss him.First Remi’s mouth and then down his neck as if Holburn was in no hurry.Remi squirmed.“Holburn, please.Am I not wet for you?”

A soft snort against his skin made him shiver, then Holburn backed off him altogether and Remi’s shivers were more about the cold.

Holburn stilled him with a look.“We couldn’t wait.We left early and travelled all through the night to get to you.”

Remi’s lips parted on a shocked breath.“I’m your hole, though you care for me.”

It shouldn’t have made Holburn twitch a smile, not with his gaze burning.“You are, but you are not only that.Come here.There’s a good lad.”He sighed when Remi immediately shifted to kneel in front of him.Holburn slid his hands into his hair.“Ali, a mage as she is, as inclined as she is, as uniquely lovely as she is, has never been widely welcomed.Not at first.Not even among the classes you call your betters.She keeps some of herself from them.But not from you.”He pressed a kiss to Remi’s cheek and then to the tip of his nose.

“Where is she?”Remi wondered softly, voice trembling.

“Distracted on her way to undress in her rooms, I am sure.”Holburn was gentle.“‘I missed you,’ you say, with your beautiful eyes telling me it was much more than that.”

Remi closed them, a foolish move before Holburn’s cleverness.But Holburn allowed it, petting him and granting him more kisses before leaning to one side to call out.“Ali?”

Remi opened his eyes and turned toward the door connecting the Duke’s rooms to those of the Duchess in time to see Ali push through it, an open robe hanging from her shoulders and her hair half pinned and half loose.He reached out without thought.

Ali, more naked than dressed, fluttered over to the bed to kneel next to them and seize Remi for a kiss.When he was breathless, she inched back to peer at him.She looked pale to Remi’s eye, with shadows on her face that spoke of their long night of travel.

“If you will not wake your maid, allow me to tend to your hair,” he offered, but was ignored.

“Remi missed us,” Holburn told his wife, pecking the tip of her nose as well.

“Did you?”Ali kept her attention on Remi, noting as much as Holburn undoubtedly had.She clucked her tongue when Remi glanced away.“Close to a fortnight away from you.We shan’t do that again.”She seemed very certain.

Remi darted a look to her breasts, to her stomach, curved but not with the weight of a child.Not yet.“You must leave me someday, even if you don’t want to.”He would allow that much; Holburn would insist.“If it risks you...”

“Holburn,” Ali turned to her husband, “fuck some sense into her, please.”

Holburn faced Remi with fires still in his eyes.“On your back, Remi.”

Remi obeyed without grace, falling backward and hiking his nightshirt up to his neck to bare himself for their taking.He looked between the two of them and lost his breath as Holburn spread his legs and bent his knees for him while Ali stepped from the bed to grab what was needed.When she returned, she watched for several moments, gaze intent on Holburn’s fingers within Remi, before she leaned in to press kisses to Remi’s open mouth.

“I meant...”Remi tried to tell her but he was shushed and kissed.

“I know what you meant,” she whispered in response to his whining.“But do you not understand Holburn yet?Your husband has worried over you in return.”

“Husband?”Remi blinked several times and moaned into Ali’s mouth when she kissed him again.Her smile as she drew back was clever and mean, and Remi whimpered for it.When she looked at him like that, it meant she had a gift for him, something fair and soft for a good lass to wear, or that she was set to have him be used as he hadn’t ever been used before.

Then Holburn was pushing inside him and Remi’s back arched as he shook for it, and Ali kissed him again, harder now.She was enjoying the sight, and chiding him while Holburn made a home between his legs.

“Irritating though it can be, does your husband not always know what is right for you?Do I not care for you as your wife should?”

“I told you.”Holburn grunted, deep inside Remi with his hands gripping Remi’s hips tight, all while Remi panted.

“You are married.”Remi couldn’t manage more than the simple fact.Holburn yanked him down to keep him seated on his cock and then Ali’s hands were in Remi’s hair and she was turning his face for longer, deeper kisses.

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