“All right.” Ashley bent over my lap and gripped my hips, his muscles hot and coiled with tension. “Christ, I don’t know where to start.”

A flash of sympathy softened Priest’s features. “Tell her who I was with in Nassau two years ago.”

Everything inside me stilled. The room melted away until all that existed was Ashley’s strong, stern, beautiful face as he lifted it to mine and said, “Me. Priest was with me.”

My head jerked back, ice in my veins. “What? No, that’s not—”

“I wrote the letter, Bennett.” Ashley straightened on his knees, forcing his way between my legs. “Priest told me you memorized it. The one you found that morning.”

“Why?” I pressed my back against the chair, seeking distance, not understanding. “That letter confessed intimacy. Love. Passion. Orgasms. Why would you…write…that…?”

My gaze flitted between him and Priest, back and forth, over and over, as I tried to imagine them together. Naked. Fucking.

The concept of two men having relations didn’t shock or offend me. I lived on a ship with a hundred lusty pirates. I witnessed all sorts of bawdy, creative, man-on-man action, especially during long months at sea.

But Priest and Ashley? No. I couldn’t fathom it.

Except only minutes ago, there had been a moment, a seed of suspicion…

Priest lowered into the chair across from me, sprawling like a watchful predatory cat. “Get to the part where I swore on my life to be your dirty, shameful secret.”

“I think she can figure it out.” Agitated, Ashley rose and shrugged out of his coat, tossing it over the couch. “I’m betrothed. I have a career and a family name to protect. Duty, honor, heirs, obligations, expectations—my entire life was put before me the moment I drew my first breath. I didn’t choose this path. I was born into it. Bred to serve and thrive as a peer of the realm.” He flicked a hand at Priest. “If he and I were discovered…”

“You would both be executed,” I said on a dazed whisper.

Priest was a commoner and a criminal. Not only did he lack the required wealth and status, but he was an enemy of England. A relationship between him and Ashley was forbidden for all those reasons. But there was a far greater danger.

Romantic attraction between two men was considered a serious offense. If they were discovered, they would be hanged for sodomy.

“So you ended things with Priest in Nassau two years ago.” My head throbbed, mind blown. “You spent the night with him, wrote him a letter, and left before he woke.”

Priest watched us quietly from beneath dark brooding brows.