Claiming Her Master, page 7
Ten days later
I scratched at the cravat anchored around my wrist and tried to feel seductive, not silly, tied to the headboard. I’d been playing games each evening for Lucas to discover when he returned home from society events, but this was my most daring yet. It had all started that first night at the molly house where we’d hunted for Georgina.
Lucas had taken on the role of my lover and tutor, teaching me more in a week than in three months with Madame Bella. He seemed to thrill at each new lesson and every boundary he pulled me across. Last night he’d hinted at his fantasy of having me bound and naked for his pleasure. So I was trying it. Of course I couldn’t fully tie myself up and the thought of asking for Bellamy’s assistance sent a blush racing across my bare skin. One bound arm would have to be good enough. Lucas could finish the tying when he arrived home.
I tried to calm my thoughts and daydreamed of Lucas so he didn’t enter the bedroom to discover a beet-red mistress. It didn’t work. Memories of him and our last ten or so days together heated my skin and left me praying he’d be bursting through the doorway any second to help relieve the sharp ache of desire centered between my legs. The darkness in the room didn’t allow me to view the time on the mantle clock, but I guessed it was past midnight. He was late.
He usually arrived home at midnight, crawling into bed and on top of me with rough sentiments of desire. He’d claimed he missed me and wished I could attend the balls with him, but I knew that to be a hopeless desire. A respectable life and entry to ton ballrooms was lost to me forever, but here in Lucas’ bed it didn’t seem of much importance.
I stifled a yawn only to have another one sneak up on me and nearly swallow my face. Staying up to nearly dawn each night making furious love was taking a toll. Perhaps I’d close my eyes for a few moments. I’d wake up the moment Lucas entered the house.
I pressed the bedroom door shut with a near-silent click. The sole candle I held illuminated a circle around him with just enough glow to see Charlotte asleep in my bed. Something warm tightened around my heart and for a moment I had to remember to breathe. My woman was there. In my bed. This was the first night she hadn’t waited up, but something about her sleeping form enticed me. It was more a scene from a marriage than between man and mistress.
I tried and failed to suppress my wish that Charlotte would be waiting for me in my bed every night for the rest of my life. We’d known each other less than a fortnight and yet it seemed forever. If I were a decent man, an honorable man, I’d set her up as a widow in some country cottage far away from me and pay for her damn sisters to come to London for a Season. But I wasn’t. Not when it came to her. For Charlotte I was a selfish brute and demanded her frequent sexual attentions.
I lowered the candle onto the small table next to my side of the bed and undressed, not intending to wake her, but sleep holding her instead. When I slipped under the covers and wrapped my arms around her, I saw one of her arms in an awkward position anchored to the bed post. Investigating the matter, I pulled back the blanket and saw her wrist shackled. She was naked other than a tight silk ribbon around her neck.
My cock hardened with an urgency that was shocking. She was mine. Mine with whom to do what I pleased. I could plunge into her and rut like a stallion or tie her other hand and lick her from head to toe. I could make her come relentlessly, not stopping even if she begged. Or…
I smiled with a plan in mind. I crept out of bed to grab my discarded cravat from the floor. Gently I tied her other wrist. Though she stirred, she did not wake fully. I glanced down at her delicate ankles, debating whether to totally immobilize her and decided against it. If she were naughty, I’d do it. I rather hoped she’d be naughty.
Patience, I told myself. I’d find my pleasure, but later. Much later. First to find out how much pleasure a woman could take without coming. I scooted down the bed to Charlotte’s ankles and slid a palm up the insides of her calves and up her thighs. An incoherent sound escaped her, but she didn’t fully waken. Spreading her thighs, I buried my face in her curls and let my tongue do a little exploring. Lord, she was sweet. Like that sweet rice I’d had in India mixed with something distinctly earthy. Her taste described my mistress. Sweet, innocent and fresh from the country combined with a large dose of sensual appeal.
For long minutes I licked and teased and when her hips began to shift under my mouth, I thrust my tongue inside her.
”Lucas?” A quiet question.
“Keep sleeping, darling. You’re dreaming.”
She laughed. “Come up here and give me a goodnight kiss.”
I complied, though I vowed it would be the last time that evening I’d accede to her wishes.
”Mmmm,” she moaned into my mouth as our tongues rubbed sinuously together.
I pulled away to lean over her, perched on my forearms. ”That taste you’re exclaiming over is you. Your juices. You’re dripping for me, darling. Do you like it? No, I don’t need to ask. Your body told me the answer. You love my tongue inside your tight, wet—”
“Lucas.” Even in the near dark, her blush shined through. She attempted to bat me away only to discover that she’d been tied up while dozing. “Lucas, I can barely move.”
“Does it hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Good. That’ll teach you to fall asleep without staying up for me.” Without waiting for her response, I leaned my head in and nipped her right nipple, then her left. Her breathy cry told me I’d caused pleasure, not pain. Good. And bad. Tonight I wanted to explore her boundaries between pleasure and pain, or rather, how much pleasure she could take before it became too much.
Her nipples pearled into hard little treats for me to lick…to bite. “You like that.” A statement, not a question.
She nodded and thrust her chest up from the bed as much as possible with her bound arms. Instead of acknowledging her very obvious cues, I moved my mouth away from her nipples lower to her flat belly. I was pleased to note it was now softly curving. Our first days together, I’d been unhappy to note every bump of her ribs. She’d hinted that money had been tight at home. It must have been a hell of a lot more than tight if she was still slightly emaciated after a few months of eating at Madame Bella’s table. I hoped the Madame didn’t starve her girls. Fully breasted, luscious women would sell better than scrawny chickens.
Still, Charlotte looked a hell of a lot better now than ten days ago. Overcome with a sudden need to share my feelings, I looked up from my love bites around her navel. “You’re beautiful.”
She didn’t respond.
I repeated my sentiment.
She smiled but tried to shrug me away. “No, my sister’s the beautiful one.”
I frowned, hating anyone denigrating my mistress, including my mistress. “Stop insulting yourself. You’re beautiful.” When she opened her mouth to protest, I clamped a hand over her lips. ”Don’t argue with your protector or I may feel it necessary to tie more than just your hands.”
She clamped her lips closed, though I caught the flitter of desire that washed through her at my threat of binding her mouth. “You naughty girl,” I murmured with delight that quickly turned into focused intention. I lowered back from her navel to the juncture of her thighs and resumed pleasuring her with my tongue. Slowly, then faster I lapped up her creamy wetness, paying close attention to the flutters rippling through her.
When she seemed on the precipice I backed off my quickened pace and relaxed into a slow, arrhythmic savoring of her body.
“Lucas?”
I heard the wonder in her voice, but I wasn’t going for wonder. I wanted frustration.
“Lucas, I was close. Come inside me now.”
I pulled my mouth away to answer, but kept a steady finger circling but never touching her clitoris.
“Lucas?”
“Not yet.” I was only getting started. I planned on bringing her to the brink several times before allowing her to find her release. It wasn’t going to be easy. My hard cock was a screaming despot demanding I move up Charlotte’s body and pound into her until I came.
I struggled to lift my head, which was difficult considering the state of my bound arms combined with the boneless weight of my body brought on by Lucas’ sinful mouth. What was my lover doing? Normally he was all generosity, making me gasp with pleasure again and again. He never denied me or himself. I could feel his need from the tautness of his muscles against my body, but he wasn’t giving in to his need now.
Instead, he was, oh god… My head fell back as his tongue resumed its slow and steady path along my inner thighs to deep inside me. He came close to the spot where I needed him most, but he only teased with a quick lick or nibble, never giving me the pressure I craved. “Lucas, please.”
“Please what?” He stopped all body contact to kneel between my thighs and grin evilly at me.
“Please…” Though I’d learned to do everything my body craved, I had yet to gain comfort with giving voice to my needs and desires. Instead I showed Lucas at every opportunity how much I enjoyed his attentions and his body.
“Uh-uh. If you can’t say it, you don’t get what you want.” His voice was a low torturous rumble, but he didn’t give me time to respond. He pushed my thighs farther apart and up until my knees were at my chest. “Hold your legs like this.”
I tried to hold the position, I truly did, but when he nudged his penis into me, one leg slid down helplessly. He pulled out immediately and left the bed. He returned a moment later with two strips of fabric. My legs, which had flopped to one side while he was absent, were pushed back into position. Deftly he wrapped one strip around my right thigh and shin, anchoring them so my calf pressed against the back of my thigh, then did the same for my left.
I didn’t want to complain since it wasn’t painful or uncomfortable, but I felt vulnerable opened up like this. I couldn’t meet Lucas’ gaze when he stepped back to survey his work with a satisfied smile.
“Charlotte.”
I turned my head to find his concerned face close to mine.
He brushed a kiss on my forehead and whispered to me. “This is a game, Charlotte. Simply a game. If at any point it makes you uncomfortable, say something and we’ll stop and I’ll untie you immediately. Understood?”
I nodded and warmth spread back into my body. I trusted him implicitly with my body and my heart. I froze at that thought. I didn’t dare trust him with my heart. Madame Bella had warned repeatedly that the worst mistake a mistress could make was to fall in love with her protector. So I suppressed my burgeoning tender feelings for Lucas and concentrated instead on what he was doing to my body. He kneeled at my bottom and massaged my buttocks while nudging at my entrance with his shaft. He never entered fully. Instead he rubbed his dripping cock up and down my slit. I could do nothing but revel in every sensation that began and ended at my core.
Lucas built a rhythm, creating a pattern of thrusting, pulling out and rubbing against me. Over and over he repeated it until I was strung tight with my need to find release. And then he stopped.
Leaving the bottom half of my body completely without touch, he scooted up to kiss my lips then trail a line onto my chin, my neck and my breasts. My nipples, already hard, swelled and tightened to near pain from his ministrations. “Lucas, please.”
He looked up from my breasts. “Please, what?” he asked. “Are you ready to beg?”
Yes! Couldn’t he see how desperate I was? My skin was scorching with need. “Please, Lucas.”
He shook his head. “You’re asking politely. I want you to beg.”
My fingers gripped the bars of the headboard with a shocking strength and I used the leverage to roll my bottom toward Lucas’ body as a screaming hint. He didn’t take it. Instead he untied the silk ribbon around my neck and teased me with it. First a tickle of my lips, then my belly, my breasts. My eyes closed as part of the game, trying to guess where the ribbon would go next.
When it landed between my legs, my eyelids flew open then closed again. The sensation was…different, unexpected and decadent. The cool slickness of the ribbon glided through my wetness, sending sparks of sensation along every inch. Faster and faster Lucas moved the ribbon until I tasted the beginning of my climax. So close. And yet so far.
“Uh-uh, my darling mistress. I haven’t heard you beg.”
I cracked open an eye with effort to see how Lucas was handling the torture. It was inhuman that he could bring me to the brink so often without letting me find fulfillment. Wasn’t he in a similar amount of need? His body seemed to be in a similar state as mine. Sweat gleamed on his skin, glowing golden in the candlelight. Veins stood out in stark relief on his forearms, and his penis was as hard as the wooden post I was tied to and dripping with liquid silver.
“I’m begging, Lucas. Please.”
“Better.” He nodded approvingly. “But not quite enough.”
A tear slipped out of one eye. “Lucas!” I was going to crack. Cry, scream, or possibly yank the headboard apart in frustration.
Lucas stopped his finger making lazy circles around my swollen clitoris. He’d heard my desperation. He was looking for something from me, but I wasn’t sure what. If I knew, I’d give it. Anything to get him inside me, bringing us both to completion.
“You want me to beg? I’m begging. Finish it. Finish me. Please. I’m empty without you. I need you.”
“You need me to what?” The stark angles of his face were distorted in the flickering candlelight. He was a god, or a demon holding the keys to everything I wanted and needed.
He was going to make me say it. Digging into my reserves, I pulled all the vocabulary Madame Bella taught me onto my tongue. “Finish me. Put your cock inside me. Fuck me.” I’d expected embarrassment at my coarse language, but instead was free as a bird and found myself experimenting with other phrases, shocking desires rolling off my tongue and into Lucas’ ear.
He took me at my word and positioned his hips between my thighs. I was so damp he slipped in with ease and I squeezed around him to keep his cock in place. But he didn’t stay still long. His hands found mine and wrapped around my wrists over the tied cravats.
“You’re mine?”
“Yours,” I confirmed.
I met his gaze for a brief second, but it was too much. We both closed our eyes and concentrated on the slick thrust of his body into mine.
“You needed me.” His smugness made it a statement, not a question, but I answered anyway.
“I did. I do, so much.”
I inhaled his tangy sweat, knowing I’d forever remember the smell of Lucas in the throes of passion. He pushed into me with frenzied need and I met every thrust. I needed it, needed him, his warm smiles, his commanding presence, and his body pressed skin-to-skin with mine. We’d been poised on the precipice so long it didn’t take much to send us flying together into bliss.
Slowly we sailed back to reality. His large body draped on my bound one, offered a sense of security. The pounding of his heart was a drumbeat against my breast. When it slowed from a military march to a slow waltz, I murmured to him.
He pushed off and untied me, starting with my legs. When I was completely free, he rolled me to my belly and rubbed my stiff, sore muscles until I was practically purring. As he rubbed, we spoke quietly—little nothings about his evening and who he’d met at the ball. I shared that I’d be visiting Madame Bella’s tomorrow to see about letters from my sisters.
“Don’t get too comfortable there,” he said. “I need you back here.”
“I promise,” I said with a yawn. “I’ll always return to you.”
“Charlotte!”
Thin, young arms engulfed me as soon as I stepped into Madame Bella’s front parlor.
“It’s good to see you,” Emmy said, squeezing even tighter.
“How is life on the outside?” Lucy asked. She hadn’t hugged me, but instead stood three feet back with her observer’s eyes as she nearly always did in a crowd.
I laughed, thrilled to be back with girls I’d welcomed into my heart as sisters. “Girls, let me take my coat off first. Then I shall tell you all.” I unbuttoned my wool pelisse and shrugged it off, laying it carefully on the back of a chair.
“Sit here, Charlotte.” Emmy patted the cushion next to her and grinned.
I returned the smile and skirted my way around the three other eager girls to join Emmy.
“Very well, what shall I tell you first?” I asked, folding my hands in my lap.
“How is Mr. Morgan? Is he as kind as he is handsome?” Emmy asked.
“Or is he cruel like his brother?” Lucy countered.
I threw a sharp look at Lucy. “How do you know of Lucas’ brother?”
“Oh ho, he’s Lucas is he?”
My cheeks felt warm at the hint of intimacy. Getting dressed to visit the girls this morning, I’d deluded myself into feeling every inch Lucas’ wife and lady of the manor. However, stepping back into Madame Bella’s domain hammered home the fact that I was nothing more than Lucas’ highly trained mistress and would never amount to anything more. “How do you know of Mr. Morgan’s brother?” I asked.
“We overheard Madame talking,” Lucy said.
“A lucky thing he didn’t win the auction,” Emmy said and patted the back of my hand. Though there was a smile on her face, I could see fear in Emmy’s eyes. Any one of the girls could be sold with little recourse to a monster like Westhunt. “Is it common for a man to beat his mistress?”
Now it was my turn to pat her hand. “Of course not. Some men are inclined to evil. Most will treat you as gently as Mr. Morgan treats me.”
“Does he love you?” one of the other girls asked.
All five girls leaned in, watching me intently. My gaze circled the inquisitors, and I tried to smile but failed. I might be falling for my master, but he’d said nothing in kind to me. “Don’t be silly. Men don’t fall in love with their mistresses. We serve a different need. Remember Madame’s lessons. Falling in love is a path to heartbreak.”
