Fascinated

The thought made her breathless. She girded herself and swung open the library door.

He was sitting in the wing chair, staring moodily into his brandy snifter, immovable as a king, and she wanted to play.

'Now we are alone. So tell me, Jeremy, if you were with your mistress tonight, what would you do now?'

'I'd tell her she's a damned fool,' he said roughly, 'and that she's as green as glass and twice as fragile, and a man would crush her to pieces just with his hands, she's so breakable.'

'Well, we keep coming back to the main purpose: teach me.'

'You don't know what you ask.'

'Then tell me. Hold nothing back.'

'And how honest shall I be?' he demanded violently. 'Where they list you in Whoremonger's Guide depends on who is paying how much to fuck you. And for all that money, you have no life. You belong to your lord every minute of the day, even if he never comes to you. You must be willing to spread your legs at his will and whim, and he'll fuck you every which way he can think of, and ten more ways besides. He owns your naked body, every inch of it, and he's paying for what's between your legs. He'll make sure no one else can have you, and you hope to hell he never tires of you. That is the life of a mistress, my lady who has never been touched, barely been kissed, and knows nothing about anything. And there is nothing romantic about it in the least.'

But there was, there was. Every word made her body twinge; every image made her shake with excitement.

'But you will show me how to please a man,' she whispered, and his eyes darkened as his mouth thinned. She licked her lips, and the movement arrested his attention. She saw then the endgame was here. He was wavering-he wanted to, he didn't, he couldn't, how could he not-and she shrugged and turned away. 'Or someone else will.'

He jacked himself out of the chair in one explosive motion and grabbed her shoulders. 'You do love using that threat, my lady. You'd come crawling home in a day, your innocence pounded to a pulp and so sore between your legs, you'd never want to leave your father's house in this lifetime.'

'Then you do it. You. Teach me everything I need to know.'

'Goddamnit…!'

She squared her shoulders and thrust out her breasts. And where did that come from? 'Pretend, then. Pretend I'm your mistress. Do to me what you do to her.'

He slammed his hand down on the nearby table. 'I want you to do everything to me that you do to her.' 'You don't know what you mean,' he growled. 'I do know. I understand perfectly.' She did, she did, and here was the moment she must make a commitment and back up her bold taunting words. 'I'm saying I will be naked for you. Willing. Welcoming. You will own my body, every inch, to do with what you want. And all you have to do is show me everything you do with a mistress and everything a mistress knows.'

Oh, God, she had said it, she wanted it, and she was stunned at her audacity and that her own words aroused her to such a fever pitch.

She wanted him to stop talking and start doing and bury his conscience when he knew he wanted to do to her all that he had described.

And that she wanted him to.

'You-or another man,' she whispered, her body taut with her burgeoning desire.

'Goddamn hell…'

'Another man touching my naked body, another man between my legs…' Oh, this was so dangerous, and that insinuating voice she used was like setting a match to tinder. He was morally so much stronger than she ever imagined, but she had set the stage, she couldn't go back, and she needed him.

Now.

She waited, shivering with excitement.

Nothing.

'Fine,' she whispered, turning away.

Two steps, and he had her, pulling her up rough and hard against his chest. 'It is not fine, do you hear? It is not fine, but if you're aching to be fucked, then goddamn, I will fuck you to a faretheewell. I'm not a patient man in this arena, my fancy lady, and you'd better learn to please me quickly, because as of this moment, I hold you to every promise you made to me in this room.'

'Yes,' she whispered, her body shaking uncontrollably. 'Yes.'

He pushed her away. 'Until then, well-I can handle two of you.'

She stiffened. 'Two of us?'

'Two.'

Her excitement escalated again. 'One, Jeremy. Just one.'

'You don't know enough yet,' he said harshly.

'So I practice with you and you spend yourself on her? No.'

'I have enough juice, if that's what you're worried about.'

'I have yet to find that out. So, one only.'

'I'm hard, hot and juicy right now.' He waited a long moment to see what she would do. 'That was your first test, fancy lady. You failed. You don't know anything about a man's need. But you can be sure my mistress knows exactly what to do about it. So…' He turned toward the door. 'I'll be back…'

Lesson one: he is in control and can do whatever he wants with whomever he wants anytime anywhere.

Lesson two: I must be willing to do anything he wants, anywhere, anytime even if I don't know what it is I'm supposed to do.

'If you leave, you will still have a mistress, but you will never have me.' Bold brassy words. Some women didn't have that choice. It was implicit in all he had told her: never challenge the lord who paid for your body. She knew it. And by those words, she was testing him.

But it stopped him, and he turned, bracing himself against the door.

'Oh, the fancy piece thinks she's a lady, making threats like that. It's fortunate I haven't fucked you yet, because I would own you, and if you spoke to me like that even once, I would never fuck you again.'

'Then we are at an impasse.'

'There is no impasse. I have the length, strength and juice for two. Make up your mind if you want it.' He turned away, and she heard him unlatch the door.

Bluff called. 'I want it.'

'Tell me again?' He latched the door.

'I.,.want… it.'

He turned to face her again. 'And again?' He began to pace toward her.

She started shaking again. 'I want it.' The length and strength and juice- I want it. Whatever it means, whatever it entails, I want it.

Juice enough for two…

'A lesson well learned, fancy-piece.'

Goddamn, nothing scared her. He cupped her chin, and then slid his hot hand down her neck to rest on her heaving breast. Not even that. 'I won't make many demands tonight, tempted though I am.' He slipped his arm around her and slowly moved her to the wing chair and onto his lap.

She felt it tight against her bottom, huge, hot, hard, flexing and nudging her. It was so big. As though she were sitting on a bar of iron.

And every mistress knew what it looked like and exactly what to do with it.

Why didn't she?

What could she tell from how it felt against her buttocks? That it was long and thick and it moved of its own volition. And it elongated with his escalating male need. She could feel every little spurt beneath her thin dress.