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drifted closed. “Please do.”
    James groaned again, satisfaction in every breath as he held her as well. “No, love. Stay with us like this. Forever.”
    She nodded, and then their words penetrated. Her eyes snapped open, and she found James gazing at her with open affection. “What did you say?”
    “We want you forever,” he said.
    He kissed her so tenderly she could almost believe him. James would be faithful, she knew in her heart. But what he was proposing? That they continue this mad affair? It was preposterous.
    “The both of you?” She sat up, flipping her hair out of her face. “How can you ask that of me?”
    James appeared crestfallen, his eyes shocked and saddened. “Are you ashamed of what we just shared? Did it hurt?”
    She waved a hand. “No on both counts, believe me. That is not the issue.”
    Frederick cupped her chin and turned her to face him. “Then what, pray, is the issue?”
    Her heart clenched as the truth struck her. “You, Frederick. You are precisely the issue.”
    His beautiful mouth dropped open. “What are you saying?”
    She couldn’t speak it, the certainty in her soul that his attentions could never be held by one woman for long. Considering the fact that she’d also been with James, there was little to keep him faithful to her now. As for James? She knew he would be hers, forever if she wanted it so. But when the resentment inevitably set in? When he was forced to acknowledge that his wife gave herself willingly to another man? He would hate her as surely as Frederick would forget her.
    Her heart shattered, at last no longer torn in two equal parts. No, there were now far too many pieces to ever put back together again.
    “Go, please,” she whispered.
    “No.” Frederick grabbed her shoulders. “We want you, Isabella. Both of us.”
    Fear curled in her belly as her heart attempted to believe his words. “No.”
    “Why not?” James asked, his eyes clouded. “You cannot deny that you care for us.”
    “Care for you?” A sob escaped her. “Oh, I care for you both. That is true.”
    Frederick smiled that crooked grin she loved. “Then what is the trouble?”
    For one insane moment she longed to give in to them both. To take their mild affection and rampant desire as enough for as long as it lasted. She wanted more than the moment, however.
    She wanted forever.
    They took her silence as a kind of agreement and began to make love to her again. As tears coursed down her cheeks, her release so sharp and sweet she cried with it, she knew this was the last time she would be with either one of them.
    Three days, she thought as they again collapsed on the bed together. It was passing strange, but now that seemed like far too long a time to endure their closeness without their love.
     
    * * * *
     
    “You were right, of course,” James intoned as he walked beside Frederick in the formal gardens. “It was remarkable. She was remarkable.”
    Frederick nodded. “And more than even I expected. But afterward, James. Her reception was not what I’d expected after our proposal.”
    James shook his head. “That was no proposal. We should have convinced her that we love her.”
    Frederick stopped and turned, arching a brow. “So you admit you love her?”
    James let out a breath. “Yes. Now will you?”
    Frederick barked out a laugh. “All right, friend. I love her, too.”
    James waited for a twinge of jealousy, but after seeing Frederick loving Isabella he knew they belonged together as much as she and himself. After both being as close to her as two men could get, he knew the three of them were meant to be. It was beyond curious, but there it was, as clear as the attraction Catherine had sensed for weeks now.
    “I can marry her,” he said.
    Frederick shook his head. “No, James. I have Norrington Abbey and a fortune I inherited from my mother. I will not relinquish either of them.”
    “Marriage to you would be advantageous to Isabella, to be sure. But why would you