Julia Keaton
Historical Romance/Erotica (ménage)
Published in 2013
H/h - Darcy St. James and Nicholas Cain/Bronte Dunmore
Setting: Regency England.
Read in Feb 2014.
My rating:
[spoiler alert]
Just finished another Julia Keaton book after quite a while. I generally enjoy her books and Their Wicked Ways
was no different. I never thought I’d say it in a ménage but the story
was totally hilarious. Not your average ménage erotica out there for
sure!
Darcy and Nick, two very close friends since their childhood, have always been inseparable. They are like two peas in a pod, understand each-other so well that others just stare at awe. Sometimes they don’t even have to talk to communicate. They also like sharing things, sometimes even mistresses. No, they’re not gays, very much straight men, but they’ve just… always been together as far as everyone remembers.
Darcy and Nick, two very close friends since their childhood, have always been inseparable. They are like two peas in a pod, understand each-other so well that others just stare at awe. Sometimes they don’t even have to talk to communicate. They also like sharing things, sometimes even mistresses. No, they’re not gays, very much straight men, but they’ve just… always been together as far as everyone remembers.
Darcy is very tall, muscular with dark curly
hair and hazel eyes, whereas Nick is a little shorter and less muscular
in built, with dark hair and blue eyes. Whereas Darcy is jovial,
friendly type, Nick is distant and cool, always assessing everything
before speaking. And they come to blows, mostly with each-other but
they’re equally good in everything they do and those incidents turn out
to be nothing more than friendly fisticuffs and harmless jibes. One
thing, for now, these two are squabbling about is, which one of them
holds the title of England’s Greatest Lover (imagine me eye-rolling and
laughing). This leads them to a stupid wager and to the doorstep of
Bronte, a widow from America, who is currently visiting her ‘ailing’
mother.
I put ‘ailing’ in quote because the woman is actually
anything but. But she loves emotional blackmail, to Bronte’s annoyance.
It’s not that she doesn’t love her mother, but she can be a bit too much
at times. Incidentally, we learn that both Nick and Darcy’s parents’
estates border on Bronte’s parent’s and they played together when they
were young. They had another playmate, Isaac. Bronte was a willing
puppy-like creature following Nick and Darcy’s wake when she was nothing
more than a little girl. But they were much older boys and though they
tried their best to accommodate her wishes, sometimes it wasn’t
possible. They had another playmate, Isaac.
Bronte has been
moony-eyed over both Nick and Darcy since then. But they never paid any
serious attention to her. And it hurt bad. She knew they never found her
attractive even when she grew up to be a freckly red-head. Isaac, the
jealous a$$ made it sure that Bronte knew what kinda scrapes Nick and
Darcy had gotten into (concerning girls of their age) or what they think
of her. Somehow, Bronte was married off to Isaac pretty young. No
wonder she was never really happy. She moved to America and has been living there so far. This time, her mother was able to
summon Bronte with an urgent ‘this is THE time’ kind of message, which
was of course not true. The elderly woman is doing pretty well, and even
though she guessed it, Bronte still returned for a visit.
When
Nick and Darcy stop by at her house suddenly, Bronte, very painfully
becomes aware of the fact that she hasn’t gotten over that ‘infatuation’
she had for them as a girl. Or so she thought and tried to brush aside
her hurt of rejection by marking her feelings as ‘infatuation’. But this
isn’t good, not when the only thing she can think of how good-looking
they still are and that they are here to see her.
At the same
time, it’s revealed that Nick and Darcy have both always harbored much
deeper affection for Bronte, maybe even loved her. Yes, she was too
young, too thin and freckly for them but they never realized that she’d
grow up to be an auburn haired beauty. And this shakes them rather bad.
Both now want her, no matter what... But the thing is that, Bronte
didn’t seem happy to see either Darcy or Nick. At all. Hmmm, what could
be the matter?
What we see next are some silly, yet endearing,
competitions between Nick and Darcy to see who can win her over and
Bronte spurning them every step of the way. Not that she wanted to but
she knew these two are bad news. Incidents after incidents left me
laughing my a$$ off, scenes and dialogues so funny yet not overly
comical. The best thing about this story was that I felt Nick, Darcy and
Bronte sharing an inherent connection, as well as attraction, that was
always there. When Bronte was kissing Nick or Darcy, or these two were
bickering over her, it never felt ridiculous. Neither did I find their
attraction out of place or thought that they were only blinded by lust. I
absolutely loved their interactions.
At one point, the
misunderstanding arising throughout the story (some from their
childhood) were solved. Nick and Darcy both ask for Bronte’s hand. But
she doesn’t want to marry because she thinks she’s barren. Though
neither Nick nor Darcy need to sire heirs being born after ‘the heir and
the spare’ (or so to speak), Bronte still doesn’t want either of them
to regret their decision at a later point in their life.
When
they, still, ask her to choose between them, Bronte comes to a decision.
It was a tough one but she had to try something out. It might be
unorthodox and might ruin her reputation entirely (not that she cares
much about that) but Bronte can’t deny that she wants them both. It was
clear, as she had told Nick and Darcy, that she loves them equally. So
wouldn’t it be better to taste passion with them both, rather than never
being with them at all? She can’t imagine breaking another’s heart by
choosing one. Nick and Darcy were in for a big surprise when they come
to a hunting lodge at her request to find her waiting for them with that
probable solution... Must add, sex scenes were hot.
The ending
was rather rushed and kinda sketchy. They do end up marrying... er,
Bronte marries both Nick and Darcy, on the ship bound to America, though
I’m not sure how are they going to live there without anyone
noticing their unusual relationship. 4 stars and I seriously wish there
were more.
Note that Their Wicked Ways was previously published under another penname of the author.
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