Copyright © 2011 by Laurel Bennett
Smashwords Edition
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
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And Miss Julianna Makes Three
By: Laurel Bennett
Chapter One
Lord Alexander Leyes, the Marquess of Caldridge, marched into his country home and sighed heavily. He glanced around and found not a single servant in sight. Good. That’s how he wanted it. “Mack,” he called loudly, as he took the stairs to his bedchamber two at a time. “Are you here?”
He burst into his bedchamber and groaned aloud when he found it empty. “Blast it to hell,” he grumbled as he turned and ran back down the stairs. Mack being out this late could only mean one thing – he was up to no good. Yet as he rounded the corner, he barreled directly into a rock-hard chest. Strong arms reached out to catch him. And hold him. Mack.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” Mack asked, straightening his arms to move him away a bit. Then he leaned in, his breath brushing across Alex’s bottom lip, just before he nipped it in his teeth. The taste of whisky abraded Alex’s tongue as Mack pressed through Alex’s lips. Alex’s heart leapt at the innocent contact. Because there was nothing innocent about it at all.
Alex pulled back, slightly starry eyed and tongue tied all at once. Mack never failed to turn his world upside down.
“Where are you rushing off to?” Mack asked.
“I was looking for you, actually,” Alex managed to say.
Mack was wearing nothing but his shirt sleeves, a pair of trousers and his stockings. He carried a bottle of liquor in one hand and two glasses in the other. “You really should keep some servants on staff for the afterhours, Alex,” he chided as he started up the stairs.
“I don’t want servants lurking about after hours. It’s not the same when they’re here.”
Mack turned and grabbed Alex’s cravat, jerking Alex to him. “You mean that I can’t make you call my name over and over and over when they’re here.” He began to work the knot of his cravat until he pulled it free.
“Why do I need a valet and a doorman when I have you?” Alex teased. “Close the door, Mack,” he growled.
“Close your own bloody door, my lord,” Mack said, as he crossed to the settee and dropped onto it instead.
“And that is why I love you,” Alex laughed as he kicked the door closed himself. He sat down on the edge of the bed and lifted his heel. “At least help me tug off my boots?”
“Servants, Alex,” Mack warned.
“Not a chance in hell,” Alex replied.
He liked having Mack all to himself. With the house empty at night, they had everything they needed, and he didn’t have to worry about anyone discovering their affair. It was more than an affair, really. They’d been together for years. They’d also shared a lot of women in the process, but none had lasted very long. They simply couldn’t compare to the love affair between the two of them.
“I had an interesting evening,” Alex began, not sure how to broach the subject of the night.
Mack tugged his boot off and started on the other. “Pray tell,” he urged with a quirk of his brow.
“I was invited at the last minute to the club.” He watched Mack’s face as he continued. “A favor was requested of me.”
“To hell with favors,” Mack muttered as he flung the boot to the side and stalked back to the settee.
“This is one you might be interested in,” Alex admitted.
Mack’s head swung around to glare at him. “Pray tell?”
Alex divested himself of his jacket and waistcoat. He tugged his shirt from his trousers and sat down on the edge of the bed.
“Are you going to tell me, or are you going to sit there and bite your lip all night?” Mack asked. If so, he’d have to put that mouth to good use.
“A late member of the club left a letter for me.” He lifted it aloft between his thumb and forefinger.
Mack snatched it from his grasp and tore it open. “Lady Julianna Murrell,” he read dramatically. He really should have been a thespian. “Who the devil is that?”
“The chit I’m supposed to save,” Alex groaned, flopping back onto the bed.
***
Mack wracked his brain. Why did that name sound familiar?
“She’s Romwell’s daughter,” Alex informed him.
“The one who just came back from the continent?” Mack asked. He vaguely recalled the name. But he couldn’t see her face in his mind.
“Not the legitimate one. The one born on the wrong side of the blanket.” He watched Mack’s reaction. Mack was a bastard himself, and tended to have a soft spot for the underdog. Alex shouldn’t have been surprised that he was immediately intrigued.
Finally, he could see her face in his mind. “Oh, that one?” Mack gasped as recognition dawned. “Pretty little thing with blond hair.”
“Blond hair, pert breasts that could probably fill even your big old paws and the rosiest red lips I ever saw. She always looks like she has been thoroughly tumbled. I bet she even looks like that when she’s in church.”
He chuckled. “She was born that way, just like her mother.”
“His mistress, wasn’t she?”
“I believe so. Romwell took the girl into his household when her mother died, much to his wife’s chagrin. Rumor has it that she refused to interact with the child, and the servants raised her. A few years ago, she escaped toward the continent. She returned recently. I hear she spends more time in the stables than she does in the main house.”
“Well, evidently, Romwell has entrusted me with her care. He would like for me to check in on her. To do something to better her situation.”
“And just what do you think you could do for her?”
Alex scratched his chin. Then his gaze narrowed. “It’s not what I can do for her. It’s what we can do for her.”
“Oh, good God,” Mack groaned. He and Alex had been looking for a third, a soft body and a willing heart, for quite some time, though they hadn’t found “the one” just yet. Mack approached the bed and shoved Alex back to lay flat across it. He climbed over him, unable to keep from grinning when he felt the length of Alex’s cock against his thigh. “Just what do you think we can do for her?” he asked.
“If she’s as adventurous as her mother was, we can do a lot for one another,” Alex said with a chuckle. He pulled Mack’s head down to his. Mack fought it only for a moment. Alex always got his way. Even in matters of the bedchamber. And Mack had to admit that he’d never regretted a decision Alex had made regarding their love life. He touched his lips to Alex’s, his tongue delving deep, as deep as he wanted to take his cock before the night was over.
“Let’s discuss it more later,” Mack moaned. There were more important things to worry about at the moment.
Chapter Two
Miss Julianna Murrell tucked her hair beneath her cap and tugged it more firmly onto her head. The servants didn’t mind if she hung out in the stables, but if anyone else saw her, they’d be perfectly scandalized.
She flicked her quirt at a mare’s rump, holding firmly to the lead line hooked to the halter as the horse began to walk in a circle. “Miss Julianna,” Tom, the stable-keep warned. “It’s about time for you to go in for dinner.”
Julie laughed. “You know they prefer it when I don’t attend dinner, Tom. Admit it.” She flicked the quirt again, and the horse sped her pace.
“That may be the case, but it still ain’t fitting for you to be walking about in trousers,” he hissed.
Trousers were so much more comfortable for the stables. For riding. Julie would wear them every day if she was able. All day. Being a lady was a positively wretched experience at times.
She passed the lead line to Tom. “Here, take the lead, will you?” she asked as she approached the skittish mare.
“You’re not going to try to ride the beast, are you, miss?” Tom asked. He sputtered as he spoke.
“I’m going to do more than try,” she said with a grin. Tom’s face blanched as he held tightly to the line.
She approached the mare slowly, but with confidence, and fitted a blanket and saddle over her back. “There now,” she crooned. The mare snorted and laid her ears back.
“I don’t like the looks of this one,” Tom muttered.
She loved Tom dearly, but Julie didn’t like to be hovered over. Not at all. “This one is going to Tattersall’s. And I have a feeling she may be my way out of here.” She’d been saving for years, and if she could earn enough money with this mare, she could buy the stallion she wanted, which would get her one step closer to freedom.
She put one foot in the stirrup and hopped up as the horse shuffled her feet. She swung into the saddle. The mare pranced and called out. Julie grabbed tightly to the reins and hauled back. The horse reared. Julie rode it out. But then the mare decided she definitely did not want a rider, and began to do everything she could to remove Julie from her back.
***
“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Mack grumbled as their carriage rumbled to a stop in front of Romwell Manor. He squeezed Alex’s thigh, enjoying the way it flexed in his grip.
“I just want to meet the chit,” Alex said, his voice dry. “I admit that I’m curious about her.”
“You want to bed her.”
He chucked Mack’s shoulder. “I only bed women if we both agree and do it together. How long has that been the case? Ten years or so?”
It was true. Alex was faithful. Mack could give him that.
“Keep an open mind, Mack,” Alex encouraged. “She may like us as much as we like her. Or we may not rub along at all.” He shrugged. “But I want to see if I can do something to improve her situation.”
“You don’t even know what her situation is. That’s the point,” he groaned, throwing his head back against the squabs.
“Do this for me, and I’ll make it up to you later,” Alex growled in his ear. He grinned unrepentantly. “I’ll do that thing you like with my tongue.”
Mack pretended to sulk. “Promise?”
He pressed a hand to his heart. “I swear.”
“Fine,” Mack gritted out. He wouldn’t enjoy it, but he’d do it. The carriage jerked to a halt and a footman lowered the step. “I’ll see you when you’re done.”
“Absolutely not,” Alex grunted as he shoved him out the door. He stumbled from the carriage with a curse, and Alex shushed him. “Quiet. Someone will hear you.”
“If you don’t want me to curse, don’t shove me out of a bloody carriage,” he bit out.
“If you don’t want me to shove you, get out when the door opens.”
“It’s a miracle I keep you around,” Mack muttered.
The door opened and the butler lifted his nose in the air until Alex presented his calling card. “I’d like to see Miss Murrell, if she’s here.”
“And who might you be?” the butler asked, looking at Mack. Of all the cheeky…
“Mackenzie Sherrod,” he said with a nod.
“What did you want with Miss Murrell?” he asked.
“I’ll speak with her guardian about that.” God, he loved it when Alex got all holier-than-thou. Made him ache to tie him to the bed post.
The butler sat them in a ridiculously pink parlor while he went to retrieve the ladies of the house. Mack wanted to leave immediately, but then the matron herself bustled into the room. Followed by her were three beak-nose daughters. “Good God,” he murmured. But Alex shot him a look that bid him to hold his tongue while they were introduced. Now they would be forced to fend off a marriage-minded mother and her offspring. Just listening to their voices grated across Mack’s nerves.
***
Alex could tell when Mack reached the end of his patience. He began to fidget and stood up to look out the window. Just then, a horse darted by the window. “What the devil was that?” he asked aloud. Then he realized he’d done so and winced. “Beg your pardon,” he said.
Lady Romwell joined him at the window and glared out. “That girl,” she groaned. “She will be the death of me.”
The site that greeted his eyes was not one he expected. It was that of a racing horse, thundering toward the street with a startled lad upon its back. But then the lad’s hat blew off and a stream of blond hair blew loose and unfurled. “That’s her.” Alex murmured to Mack. And in breeches, no less.
Mack ran for the door.
“No need to pay any attention to that,” Lady Romwell called from behind him and her daughters made noises just as annoying. But Mack was already out the door and watching the horse and rider.
“Is that horse for sale, Lady Romwell?” Mack asked.
Lady Romwell arched her back, making her breasts plump over the bodice of her gown. “Everything is for sale, sir,” she replied with a wink. She shoved her eldest daughter forward, directly into Mack’s path.
Mack didn’t stop. He walked around her as though she was a rain barrel on the corner of the street. He followed the horse all the way around to the stables, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. Alex had seen that look before. Mack spotted something he wanted. And now he would have it.
“Mack,” Alex called from a few paces behind him.
“I have to see that horse,” Mack called back with a brisk wave of dismissal. “Carry on about your business,” he said.
Mack was a purveyor of horse flesh and owned a magnificent stable full of prime horses. It was both a hobby and a passion. Of course, he was interested in the horse.
But then Mack said, “I’m not certain what’s more beautiful. The girl or the horse.” Mack’s hand strayed to the front of his trousers as he adjusted himself. At Alex’s arched brow, he grinned and tucked his hand into his pocket.
Alex had to admit that the site of the girl riding astride in breeches with her hair blowing behind her peaked his interest as well. He shifted his weight, a slight accommodation for his growing erection.
But as they got closer to the barn, Lady Romwell shrieked at Miss Murrell. When she did so, the horse bolted, terrified at the sound. Three stable hands couldn’t calm it, yet Miss Murrell held tightly with her thighs to the heaving sides of the horse. It wasn’t until her step-mother stumbled in front of the horse like a complete ninnyhammer that Miss Murrell threw herself from atop it.