Fascinated

better woman than any of your suitors deserves, I fear.' Then he bent and brushed her lips lightly with his. 'We have a great deal of work to do, Lucinda, if you are to have your revenge. When you give your body to each of those three in September, it must be the absolute best passion any of them has ever experienced. It must be so good for each that the mere thought of you choosing one of the others for your husband will drive them to a frenzy. I do not believe that can happen unless I change my method of training. I think, perhaps, you will learn more quickly if we become lovers instead of master and pupil. Would you agree to such a thing?'

She nodded. 'Yes,' she said, 'but only if you tell me your name. How can you be my lover when I do not know who you are.'

'I will tell you my first name only,' he said to her. 'Will that suffice, Lucinda?'

'But you will not take off your mask, will you?' she replied.

'No, and you know that I am right in that. My name is Robert, as was your late husband's name.'

'It will certainly be easy to remember,' Lucinda said dryly. Then she chuckled. 'How deliciously amusing this all is, Robbie.'

'I want to make love to you,' he told her quietly, and withdrawing the dildo laid it aside. He stood, and pulling off his own boots, quickly undressed. His manhood was already engorged and ready for battle.

'Will you not untie me?' she asked him.

'Your legs, yes, but I should like to keep your arms bound. You will find the sensation of being fucked that way very pleasurable.' He loosened the silk cords that had kept her legs spread wide.

'So I am to remain your captive,' she said softly. He excited her. He excited her far more than her husband ever had. Than any man ever had. He pressed a finger between her lips, and Lucinda sucked thoughtfully upon it. What did he look like behind his mask. It was not, of course, a full mask, only covering his eyes and part of his nose, but it was impossible to tell what a man looked like without seeing his entire face. Did she dare to tear the mask away, but then she remembered her hands were constrained. Besides, if she did not keep to his rules of this game they were playing, she might never learn the truth of who he was. She must be patient. One thing, however, Lucinda did know. Robbie was a real man, unlike those three fools who sought to force her into marriage with one of them.

What was she thinking? he wondered, as she sucked his finger so sensuously. He bent his dark head and began to lick at her throat, kissing it first, then letting his tongue sweep up the column of warm flesh. She stirred in his arms, moving against him so that her silky skin aroused him even more than he was already aroused. His fingers tangled themselves into her chestnut hair, kneading at her scalp.

'There can be no niceties between us at this moment,' he said almost desperately, and plunged himself deep into her body. Then he began to ride her, and seeing the look upon her face, he groaned with his own desire. She was so very wet, and so very hot. She excited him by knowing she must struggle a little against her bonds to arouse him even more. Her legs fastened about him, gripping him hungrily. For the first time in his life, he cried out while loving a woman. He couldn't help himself. She was utterly delicious! To his surprise he realized that he was not mastering Lucinda, Instead, it was Lucinda who was mastering him. He kissed her, a deep, passionate kiss, and she shuddered hard beneath him even as his own juices burst forth in a torrent of lust and desire. Rolling off of her, he undid her bonds with his last bit of strength and gathered her into his arms.

Lucinda lay quite aware upon his broad, smooth chest. His heart beat slowly now beneath her cheek. She could smell their passion upon his body. It was madness! They had been together but two days, but she knew that this was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with no matter who he was. Why had she not met him in London this past season, and would she have even known him if she had? Yes! Oh. yes!

'Were you in London recently?' she finally asked him.

'I have not the means to attend the season,' he replied. 'Besides, as I am not seeking a wife, there is no real necessity for it.'

'Then, we have not met, even in passing, before,' she sighed.

'No, we have not met until two days ago,' he admitted.

Lucinda bit her lip in thought. 'But you will come to the Countess of Whitley's ball this autumn, Robbie.'

'To see you triumph over your suitors?' he said, a small smile upon his lips.

'Yes,' she responded. 'To see my triumph.'

'I will come,' he agreed. 'I shall not want to master any more females after you, Lucinda. Your suitors have been very generous with your fees. I shall be able to afford one small treat. I shall stay with my friend, Sir Derek, attend the countess's ball, and then return home to my horses.' He stroked her thick chestnut hair. 'And what shall you do afterward, Lucinda?' he asked her.

'I shall live happily ever after just as they do in the children's stories, Robbie,' she told him.

'Without passion when you have such a capacity for it?' he wondered aloud. Damn, why could he not have the means to offer for her himself?

'Oh, I shall remarry,' Lucinda assured him, 'but the choice shall really be mine, and no one else's. Like my sister, Julia, I care not for position or possessions. Thanks to my late husband I can wed with a pauper if it pleases me. I cannot, I will not, be mastered by anyone, Robbie. I will only truly yield to a man who loves me. The man I love. That is what Robert Harrington wanted for me, and it is what I want.' She lifted her head off of his chest and looked into the green eyes behind the black silk mask. 'Have you ever been in love?'

'Once, years back,' he responded. 'I wanted to marry the daughter of a wealthy local gentleman. We had known each other since our childhoods. Elise was very lovely. We made love for the first time when I was seventeen, and she, fifteen. After that our passions were unleashed, and scarcely a day went by that we did not meet. I was planning to offer for her when her betrothal was announced to a marquess from Yorkshire. When we next met I asked her if it was what she wanted. I practically wept with my distress. She coolly informed me that her marquess was fabulously rich, and she wanted to be a marchioness.

''But when he learns you are not a virgin,' I replied angrily, 'what shall you do then, Elise? Your marquess will divorce you and send you back to Oxfordshire in disgrace.' She laughed, and said they had already lain together. 'I cried,' she told me, 'and played the innocent. Then afterward as he slept I smeared my thighs and the sheets with a small skin of chicken's blood my nanny obtained for me.' I was astounded at her perfidy, but then came a worse revelation. She told me she was already with child, although whose it was she couldn't be certain. Mine, or her marquess's, she said. It made no difference as he would believe it to be his and recognize it as his heir. She was married with much pomp the following week. My grandmother and I attended her wedding. We could not avoid it. I was amazed at the dewy innocent she appeared that day,' he finished.

'So that is why you dislike women,' Lucinda said.

'I do not dislike women!' he protested.

'Then, why do you allow the Devil's Disciples to use you to prepare reluctant lasses for ravishing?' Lucinda asked him politely. 'You are, I believe, still angry at this girl for deceiving you, and so, unable to punish her, you punish them.'

Her clever reasoning overwhelmed him. 'My God,' he exclaimed. 'What have I done? I did not realize I was still angry, but even now as I spoke on it I felt wrath again at being so deceived. Fury that Elise could have been so heartless as to throw away the love I had for her. Indignation that a title greater than mine and a purse of gold meant more to her than I did. What have I done in my selfish ire?'

'What is done is done,' Lucinda said. 'Will you allow this woman to continue to control your life by wallowing in remorse over your role as The Master? You have said no one was truly harmed, and you cannot change the past. What you can do is make a better future for yourself, Robbie.' She kissed his mouth gently. 'We shall spend the rest of the summer being lovers, not adversaries. I will heal all of your wounds. Come September, I shall have my revenge on a duke, a marquess, and a lord. You will have helped me, and certainly that will exculpate your sins.' Then she kissed him again.

For the first time in years he felt free, but one thing disturbed him. 'You will have to yield yourself to your suitors lustful desires, or they will not believe your charade. I cannot bear it that you must do this, Lucinda,' he said.

'I am not afraid,' she told him. 'There is no other way I can whet their appetites; no other way in which I may turn them one against the other; no way in which I may have real revenge unless I do this. For the rest of their lives they will remember coupling with me before their companions, crying with their pleasure, hearing me cry with mine, and knowing that never again will they have such delight. Each must marry for his own family's sake. While it may