And neither do you.”

Gabriel moved lightning fast, whipping his arm out and latching onto Liam’s arm, twisting it behind his back and marching him into an alcove beside the manor. He forced Liam to his knees in the grass, burying his hands in the man’s silky tresses as he yanked his gaze up to meet his own. Liam hadn’t even tried to resist, a fact Gabriel made note of.

“I know exactly what you need.”

Liam stared up at him, his face carefully blank, but Gabriel had seen the hopeful flare in his eyes.

“You need a strong hand. So does she. Luckily for you both”— Gabriel allowed a slow, wicked smile to form on his mouth—“I have two such hands.”

Liam flushed, dropping his gaze to Gabriel’s mouth. He licked his lips nervously.

Gabriel groaned. “The two of you are lucky you’ve made it this far. I swear, it’s like the blind leading the blind with two people as submissive as you living together. I blame myself for not having noticed it until now. But no matter. Now that I’ve noticed, I’ll take the appropriate steps.” He began to massage his hands through Liam’s hair. The man had clearly never been trained, and the combination of two such innocent subs available to him had Gabriel in full Dom mode.

“Liam. We need to make a few things clear. First”—he gripped Liam’s hair in one hand, cupping his chin in the other—“you want Lady Jessamy. Yes?”

Liam swallowed, his eyes molten pools. “Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

Liam swallowed harder. “Yes, Your Grace.”

Gabriel stroked his hand down the back of Liam’s neck. “Good. You’re learning.” He began a slow massage of the muscles in Liam’s neck, noting for the first time that the man was at the perfect height for him to thrust his cock forward into Liam’s mouth. Soon, he promised his dick, hard once more at the thought.

“Second, you want me. Yes?”

Liam stared up at him, and Gabriel watched the war within him make its way across his rugged features. Finally, Liam sagged and would have dropped his head if Gabriel had let him.

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Excellent. Then you and I are of the same mind.” Gabriel watched as Liam’s eyes returned to his, the expression in them incredulous. Gabriel smiled a decadent, lopsided grin. “What’s the matter, sub? You haven’t heard the stories about me? How I hold orgies for the members of my club? How I fuck my way through men and women alike, spanking and figging as I go? There might be more to those particular stories than just speculation, but my personal favorite is that I bring disgrace to the title of duke, and I’m the most debauched, perverse man in England. What a delicious rumor.” Gabriel laughed as Liam flushed, knowing he’d heard the stories.

Gabriel moved behind Liam, kneeling down behind him. Even kneeling he had at least three inches on Liam, and he filed the information away for future use. He leaned down until his lips brushed Liam’s ear. “I think, sub, you’ve earned a reward for telling your Dom what you need. Especially because what you need is me.”

Liam all but melted back, his clean, masculine scent filling Gabriel’s nostrils.

Gabriel laughed softly.