It was just past one that night when Aidan made his way to Claire’s room in the hopes of having a slightly warmer reunion than the one earlier in the evening. However, he pushed open the heavy carved door to find Eliot looking up from where he was laying upon the bed, leafing through a book. He sat up quickly as Aidan glanced around the room questioningly.

“Apologies, I was looking for Claire” Aidan greeted him in that honeyed British accent which was just as distracting to Claire’s ears as Eliot’s flowery French accent was.

“She’s having a bath I’m afraid” Eliot stated warily as he gestured to the door of the privy.

“Alone? Shame that” Aidan stated, more to himself as he stepped into the room, moving his eyes over where Eliot now sat at the edge of the bed, his own wariness apparent. “I would have knocked, but I didn’t realize that she still had company.”

“You don’t normally knock on Claire’s bedroom door when you enter?” Eliot asked, the words leaving his lips before his mind could check their departure.

Though Aidan simply smirked at the comment as he absently let the door fall shut behind him, giving the other young man a more curious look then. “I guess it’s a habit left over from all the nights she and I had shared chambers in the past” Aidan couldn’t help replying, that mischief always present in him, even after two centuries.

“I see” Eliot stated, looking away as he tried to find any other words in the face of the presence that Aidan possessed, which was only a bit less overwhelming than Claire’s own.

“So, Eliot Bonaparte, you said?” Aidan stated as he invited himself to lounge across the plush red sofa, propping his head against one of its arms, his booted feet against the other.

“I didn’t catch your name I’m afraid” Eliot managed, equally annoyed by and drawn to this beautiful man and the charisma that nearly dripped off of him.

“Aidan, Aidan Tudor” he smiled, not even hiding the way his eyes traveled over the young man.

Eliot narrowed his eyes at that as he looked back, “there are still Tudors?”

“Well, you know us royal bastards, we tend to just keep popping up, don’t we?”

“I see you seem to know a bit more about me than I know about you” Eliot managed.

“Long black curls, gorgeous brown eyes, a royal father who was a bit too liberal with his seed. I practically am you. Or is it you that are practically me?” Aidan added with another smirk.

“Pardon?”

“Claire has her tastes, doesn’t she?” Aidan smiled again, his eyes moving over Eliot once more.

Eliot blinked at the insinuation before finding words again, “I’ve known you for five minutes and I honestly can’t tell if you’re trying to insult me or seduce me” he stated bravely.

Aidan simply let out a laugh at his perception, “I like you. No wonder Claire was so damned sad about having lost... your companionship” he settled on.

“Still can’t tell” Eliot mumbled to himself as he looked away again.

“So, you somehow talked Claire into pretending to be your wife? That is extremely interesting to me” Aidan stated as he glanced at the privy door again before continuing the conversation.

“Why is that?” Eliot returned.

“How could it not be? It begs so many questions. Especially since I know Claire’s actual husband very nearly as well as I know Claire. I know both of them, very, very well” he added with a bit of sultriness.

“She gave the impression that she and this Sean, they have a very open marriage” Eliot stated, watching Aidan closely for any sign that that may not have been the case after all.

“Oh believe me, they do. You can trust me completely on that matter. I promise” he added pointedly.

Eliot narrowed his eyes at Aidan’s tone and words. He then looked back at the still closed privy door before dropping his voice, “so you were her husband’s lover too?”

“Oh don’t get me wrong; it took Sean a very long time to come around to me. Especially since I had been making love to Claire long before he and I ever shared a bed. But come around he definitely did, eventually.”

Eliot’s breath was shorter then, his skin flushed a bit as he continued watching Aidan’s amused smile, “so you like both then?”

“Both Sean and Claire?” Aidan asked, “I’d say that is apparent at this point in the conversation, isn’t it?”

“I mean both... women and men. You like them both equally... as lovers?” Eliot breathed the words more than spoke them.

Aidan narrowed his eyes then before answering, “as does Claire, and Sean, and almost every one of us in our little ring of acquaintances” he assured as he watched the young man even more closely then.

Eliot’s breath caught again then as he looked back at the door, then Aidan once more.

That was when Aidan seemed to have an epiphany as he spoke again, “my my, is that the reason you needed Claire to help you get out of your marriage?”

“What?” Eliot asked, his blush deepening.

“Darling, I just told you about how I enjoy making love to women and men both. You don’t have to look so terrified” Aidan assured with another smile.

Eliot finally gave in and spoke, though quietly, “I’m trying, with Claire. She was helping me to be more... to get used to the idea...” he shook his head, “then she left and came here. I need her back. She’s the only woman I’ve ever even trusted... like that” he finished softly.

Aidan smiled more sincerely then, “yes, Claire definitely has her tastes.”

When Claire finally returned a moment later, she found the two men giving each other smiles across the room: Aidan’s playful, Eliot’s nervous. She shook her head as she moved toward them, now wearing a simple white silk robe, loosely tied at her waist and clinging to her damp skin.

“This looks like an utterly terrifying conversation I’ve just walked in on” she greeted. Looking between them with a biting of her lip.

“Relax, darling, we were just discussing past loves, and such” Aidan assured her with that continued mischief clear in his voice, his eyes, and his smile.

“Like I said, terrifying” she repeated quietly. Despite her nervousness at their meeting one another, she did still seem to be in better spirits than she had been when she had spoken with Aidan earlier that evening.

“And I wanted to have an actual reunion with you, aside from that poor excuse for the one we had earlier” Aidan added as he finally moved his feet to the floor, leaning forward in his seat as he smiled up at her.

“I was in a slightly bitter mood earlier” she confirmed what had already been obvious, “and I didn’t think you had spent a lot of time putting much thought into our reunion at all these past few years” she couldn’t help adding.

“Ouch” he stated as he stood next to her, only casting the briefest glance at where Eliot watched them from his seat at the edge of the bed.

“Well you and I were barely speaking before you left Los Angeles, so...” she then glanced back at where Eliot hung on their every word and piece of body language as the two stood speaking closely, “and this really isn’t the time for this conversation, Aidan.”

“Very well. Should we skip to the part where you forgive me and we make love for the rest of the night. Because I’d be fine with that too” he told her as he gently moved a hand to her waist, his eyes moving down the length of her body.

“Aidan” she told him pointedly.

“Claire” he smiled back down at her.

“As you can see, I have company” she told him, trying her best to keep her tone even, and not turn her eyes back to see whatever reaction Eliot was possibly having to Aidan’s obvious familiarity.

Then he leaned down to speak next to her ear, “and since when has having another beautiful man in the room ever stopped you and I from making love?” he teased.

“He is not Sean or Daniel, Aidan, and I seriously doubt that he’d be...” she began, only to have her voice break off as Eliot stood and moved closer to them as well.

“What were you saying?” Aidan teased again, as he finally turned from Claire and moved his hand up to gently caress Eliot’s cheek, to which the younger man made no attempt to pull back from the touch.

“Eliot?” Claire asked warily, hoping he would give some clear indication of whether he really did want Aidan to continue his advances, with either of them.

“Maybe this is what I need Claire” Eliot breathed the words as he moved his hand up to cover Aidan’s, “a sort of stepping stone between only being with men, to at least trying to be with a woman too” he whispered, looking down into Aidan’s eyes that were just barely darker than his own.

“Me? A stepping stone of sorts? Now, I wonder if you can relate to such an idea, yourself, Claire?” he told her pointedly before moving to cover Eliot’s lips with his own as Claire just watched, unable to find any words at all right then.

Eventually, Aidan and Eliot had finished giving each other so much pleasure that the living one among them was in danger of passing out if Aidan didn’t give him a chance to breathe. Aidan then rolled over to where Claire was laying on the other side of the lovers. In the same moment, he took Claire’s lips with his own instead, pulling her against his naked body as Eliot laid his head back on the other side of their now shared lover, trying to catch his breath.

Aidan’s lips devoured Claire’s, still suffering his own afterglow from the encounter that Claire had merely watched, her desire for both of them increasing exponentially as she did. He hungrily pulled her robe open and nearly ripped it from her body, leaving her as bare as each of them, before pulling her even closer then.

In mere moments, he was pulling her leg over his hips and reaching down to slide himself inside her, producing a loud moan from both their lips at the penetration. He moved against her, entering her more and more deeply with each thrust, making it obvious that he had missed her much more than she had thought.

As Aidan feverishly made love to her, Eliot couldn’t help turning his eyes to watch the encounter, swallowing a lump in his throat as Claire came closer and closer to that actual moment of pleasure, rather than the one she had merely faked on their first night together; all just to save him from a life of misery.

Eliot turned onto his side and continued to let his eyes linger on first Aidan then Claire, then pass over each of them again and again as they made love. As he watched the encounter, he began feeling that desire taking over his body once more. Though he honestly couldn’t say which of them he was feeling more desire for right then; perhaps both of them, after all.

Once both of their bodies shuddered in that final climactic moment, Claire and Aidan collapsed against one another, each holding the other tightly as they waited to recover. After several minutes of much softer, warmer kisses, Aidan finally pulled himself from her and rolled onto his back as he smiled over at Eliot’s lust-filled eyes on them both. He couldn’t help the small chuckle as he also moved to place another kiss over Eliot’s lips before pushing himself up from the bed between them. He tossed another smile back at them both before moving out of the room toward his own chambers before dawn would be upon them once again.

That was when Claire let she and Eliot’s eyes meet across the space Aidan had left between them atop the large bed. She couldn’t help her own smile as Eliot let his eyes move over every inch of her pale, bare skin, not seeming to shy away from taking it all in after all.

She finally made her smiling lips speak, “should I now officially consider you ‘eased into it?’” she teased, as he simply gave her a sheepish smile and pulled her close for their most passionate kiss yet.