“Show me.” Bastian seemed unable to form any other words but those two. Perhaps that was because all the blood had now drained from his head and surged into his stiff and throbbing cock.
“My lord—”
“I want to know in what way he touched you, damn it! Do it for me, Gail,” he encouraged in a softer voice after she had recoiled slightly at his vehemence.
Bastian was fully aware of Gabriel’s strict standards and care of the ladies who resided at Club Venus, but that did not prevent Bastian from feeling anger toward Winter, for having examined Gail in so intense a manner as she was describing. Was it really necessary for the other man to have touched her so intimately as a way of gauging her sexual responses? No doubt Gabriel would confirm that it was very necessary if Gail was to enter the exclusivity of Club Venus as one of his “ladies.”
Bastards, the pair of them.
“Did you experienced release under Winter’s ministration?”
She blinked. “Release, my—Bastian?”
A nerve pulsed in his cheek. “Did your arousal culminate in a feeling of great pleasure?”
Gail’s brow cleared, although the blush remained high on her cheeks. “Yes.”
Bastian nodded. “I wish for you to show me how Winter gave you that release.”
“I am not sure it was his intention to do so…”
“But it happened anyway?”
“Yes.”
“Show me in what way it happened.”
Abigail bit her lip again as her fingers parted the slickness of her folds to reveal the swollen nubbin, moving her fingers so they stroked up and down either side of it and then pressing against and pinching it, in the same way Dr. Winter had done yesterday.
The pleasure was almost the same.
She closed her eyes as she became lost in the wonder of it, her legs falling wider apart, allowing her greater access so that her fingers could slide lower, gathering up the warm cream escaping her slit before rubbing those juices over her pulsing nubbin.
Still it was not quite enough to give her that explosion of pleasure she had experienced yesterday.
What had Dr. Winter done to— Ah yes. Her other hand moved to cup her breast, the finger and thumb squeezing and rolling the swollen nipple in the same rhythm as she stroked and rubbed that increasingly hard nubbin between her thighs.
The duality of pleasure still was not enough—
She gasped, eyes opening wide, as a hand closed over her own and long and sure fingers began to stroke her nubbin, the earl’s other hand moving to cup her second breast as he sat on the side of the bed and bent his head to capture the swollen nipple in the moist heat of his mouth and began to suck and lave that sensitivity with the rasp of his wet tongue.
Yes.
Abigail’s hands fell back to her sides, and she arched up into those caresses as Bastian’s fingers captured and pulled on her other nipple and manipulated her erect nubbin.
Stroking.
Sucking.
Pinching.
Squeezing.
It was even more intense—
Abigail let out a scream as she was seized by an overwhelming pleasure that coursed hot and fiercely through her whole body. She gasped and whimpered, her fingers digging into the bedcovers beneath her as that release continued relentlessly. On and on, surpassing anything Dr. Winter might have done to and with her yesterday.
Chapter Six
“Bastian?” Blackborne’s eyes widened with surprise when Bastian walked into his study unannounced and without knocking the following day after he had been told the other man was in consultation with Benedict Winter. “What can I— What the fuck? Bastian!” The duke rose to his feet as Winter received a blow to his jaw that instantly caused the other man to stagger across the room until he hit the opposite wall. “What the hell are you doing?” Gabriel moved quickly round the desk to grasp hold of Bastian’s arms and pull him back as he would have struck the doctor a second time. “Explain yourself, damn it.”
Bastian glared at Winter. “That bastard did everything but fuck Gail during his medical examination of her two days ago!” The rage he felt toward the other man had been festering since he’d parted from Gail the night before.
She had been so exhausted by the force of the release she experienced after following Bastian’s instructions, that she had fallen asleep within seconds of that climax. Instead of joining her, Bastian had covered her with the bedcovers from the other side of the bed before blowing out the candles, banking up the fire, and leaving her there in the room warmed and lit by the heat of the flames. He had lingered for a minute or two to study Gail as she slept, struck once again by how innocently angelic she looked surrounded by that halo of golden hair.
“Under my instruction,” Gabriel now answered his accusation.
Bastian continued to glare at the physician. “He should be paying you to examine these women, considering the liberties he takes!”
The duke’s eyes narrowed. “Did Gail complain to you of Winter’s behavior?”
“Of course not. She believed it to be the normal practice.”
“Because it is,” Winter answered in his usual calm but steely voice as he straightened, not a lock of hair out of place to mar his meticulous appearance. “I am sure you are aware that Gabriel wishes only the best for his ladies. An aversion toward sexual arousal and completion means Club Venus would not be the best place for her.”
Bastian’s jaw clenched. “Do not try to tell me you were not aroused by squeezing and rolling Gail’s nipples and rubbing her clit until she came!”
“I would not be a normal and healthy man if that was the case,” Winter dismissed with infuriating mildness.
“Did you take your cock out afterward and stroke it until you came too?” Bastian demanded to know.
The doctor’s brows rose. “Did Gail tell you that I did?”
He snorted. “She fell asleep before I had chance to ask her.”
“Losing your touch, old man?” Gabriel mocked.
Bastian rounded on him. “How much will it cost me to take Gail away from here?” He had decided during the long night he had spent pacing his bedchamber at Shaftesbury House that he could not leave someone as beautiful and innocent at Gail to the future lecherous attentions of such gentlemen as Jonathan Gordon. It would be sacrilege to expose such an angel to that fate.
“It will cost you nothing if Gail wishes to go with you,” Blackborne answered lightly. “Does she?”
Bastian felt the burn of anger in his cheeks. “She is too young and innocent to know what she is agreeing to by staying here.”
“You have never complained about availing yourself of the attention of one of my ladies in the past,” the duke reminded in a hard voice. “Indeed, I believe the two of you met for the first time after you had allowed Carlotta to strap you to the bed before leaving you there.”
Bastian’s cheeks flushed. “Gail is not like those other ladies—”
“I am exactly like them,” she spoke quietly from the open doorway. “I apologize for interrupting, Your Grace.” She gave a formal curtsey to the duke. “But the door was open, and I could not help but overhear your conversation.” She turned an icy gaze on Bastian. “For your information, Dr. Winter behaved in a professional manner throughout his examination. His cock was never in evidence, nor did he at any time make any remarks toward me of a personal nature. Nor,” she added firmly, “have I had any change of heart in regard to your offer to make me your mistress.”
Bastian felt as if Gail had slapped him in the face. He had come here today with the idea of rescuing her from a life he did not believe she was suited for. Despite Winter’s conclusions to the contrary in regard to her sexual arousal, and having witnessed that pleasure for himself.
She looked beautiful today in a gown of cream lace, with her hair fashionably styled upon her crown. The smoothness of her cheeks and lack of dark circles beneath her eyes told Bastian she had not been plagued by the same sleepless nigh
t as he had. It added insult to the injury after she had now turned down his offer to care for and protect her.
Her chin rose. “It is my choice as to whether or not I remain here, is it not, Your Grace?”
“It is,” Blackborne confirmed.
“As I thought.” She nodded before turning back to Bastian. “You are the very last gentleman whom I would ever consider becoming mistress to.”
He bristled at this complete rejection in front of the other two men, when all he had been trying to do was protect Gail from further molestation. “Why?”
She gave him a scornful glance. “Perhaps because of the arrogance you displayed in not even considering my wishes when you approached the duke with a request to buy my release from him? Your assumption that I am too young and innocent to know what I am doing? Or it could just be that I do not care for or desire you enough to enter into such an arrangement and would rather take my chances with the clientele of Club Venus?”
Bastian was not normally a violent man, despite his having hit Winter a few minutes ago, but at that moment, he could quite happily have punched a hole in one of the wood-paneled walls of Blackborne’s study. “I am trying to help you, damn it.” He glared at Gail.
“By offering me the position as your mistress?”
“Forget I ever said that,” he dismissed impatiently. “I will simply take you away from here, set you up in your own home with servants and a carriage, and merely check on your continuing welfare at times that are convenient to you.”
She eyed him with suspicion. “And why would you wish to do something so wholly unbeneficial to you?”
“Yes, Bastian.” Blackborne leaned back against the side of his desk. “Do tell all of us why you wish do something so lacking in benefit to yourself.”
His jaw tightened. “You know why.”
The other man breathed in deeply before turning to smile at Gail. “Would you mind leaving us, my dear?” His voice was gentle. “I am sure the other ladies will be happy to help you prepare for your engagement this evening with Lord—”
“You cannot give her to that lecher Lord Gordon!” Bastian protested heatedly.
“—Evesham,” Blackborne completed smoothly.
“Evesham?” Bastian repeated sharply.
The duke nodded. “He was very taken with Gail from the little he saw of her last night and spoke to me then in regard to spending time with her this evening.”
Bastian knew Peregrine Evesham was aged no more than five and twenty and considered by the ladies, of both Society and Club Venus, as being the handsomest of gentlemen. He was also possessed of a witty sense of humor and a charm that had the ladies eating out of his hand within minutes of making his acquaintance.
Indeed, there was nothing about the younger man Bastian could find to dislike or revile.
It was infuriating.
Did no one else in the room, not Blackborne or Winter nor Gail herself, agree with him in that she was not suited to becoming a courtesan entertaining a different man every night, even in such an exclusive establishment as Club Venus?
As they all stared at him, Gail with dismissal, Blackborne with challenge, Winter with his usual air of bored disinterest, it became clear they did not.
“Very well,” he snapped. “But do not come crying to me when you decide you do not like this life after all,” he cautioned Gail. “You are the most stubborn, infuriating, ungrateful wretch it has ever been my misfortune to meet!”
“Thank you, my lord.” Her eyes glittered as she gave him a curtsey. “It is positively thrilling to know that you hold me in such high regard.”
“You—”
“If you will excuse me, gentlemen?” She turned to the other two men in the room. “I should go and rest for a while before it is time for me to bathe and dress in preparation for spending the evening with Lord Evesham.”
Bastian was barely aware of her sweeping from the room, so caught up was he in thoughts of Peregrine Evesham and the pleasure the other man would know this evening when he saw Gail in her corset, black stockings, and those scandalous drawers.
Abigail managed to maintain her cool air of detachment until she was safely out in the hallway and the door closed behind her. Which was when she finally allowed the tension to leave her body and she leaned weakly back against the wall outside, breathing deeply as the hot tears stung her eyes.
Chapter Seven
Why did Bastian have to be that Sebastian, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and the very man responsible for her having to sell her body in this way in the first place?
She had been totally confused when she woke this morning, alone in bed and still in the room where she had dined with Bastian the evening before. The fire had gone out in the interim, but she was snug and warm beneath the bedcovers, which had been pulled over her.
Her cheeks had become hot with embarrassment when she recalled the events of the previous evening. Removing her clothes. Demonstrating for Bastian how the doctor had examined her. The way in which Bastian had taken control of those caresses until she attained a climax far more powerful than the one she had experience in Dr. Winter’s presence.
But she remembered nothing that had happened after that release.
Had she fallen asleep and Bastian had simply left her there? Or had he remained for a while, hopeful she might awaken so that he could take his own pleasure?
Whatever the answer to that question, the lack of discomfort or blood between her legs indicated she was still in possession of her virginity. Which told Abigail he had not taken advantage of her in her sleep.
She had felt an emotional softening toward him then for his consideration. A curiosity to see him again and perhaps discover why he had decided not to take her innocence last night after all.
Overhearing his conversation with the Duke of Blackborne and Dr. Winter had told her exactly the reason Bastian had not been in any hurry to take her innocence the previous night. It was because, despite her having already refused him, Bastian still had every intention of continuing with his plan to make her his mistress.
His arrogance in believing he had the right to make that decision for her had infuriated her immensely.
To the point Abigail now no longer cared whether she saw Bastian Forbes ever again.
* * *
“Care to explain what that was all about, old chap?” Gabriel prompted lightly as he resumed his seat behind the desk.
“If you gentlemen will excuse me,” Winter dismissed as he bent to pick up his medical case. “I have another young lady I need to go and molest.” He nodded abruptly before crossing the room to open the door, his back stiff and unyielding.
“I believe you owe Winter an apology,” Gabriel said softly once the other gentleman had departed the room. “Two apologies, in fact. One for having hit him, the other for having accused him of taking sexual advantage of the ladies here.”
“To hell with that.” Bastian threw himself down in the chair in front of the desk. “I had Gail show me exactly how Winter examined her and…and… The bastard touched and manipulated her tits, cunny, and clit until she climaxed.” He scowled his displeasure.
Blackborne shrugged. “As he stated, that, along with verifying her virginity, was the purpose of the examination. Considering Winter’s good looks and sexual prowess, most of the ladies in my employ have been only too happy to submit to the intimacy of his examination.”
“Gail is not one of the usual ladies you employ here!”
The duke eyed Bastian curiously. “Dear God, are you jealous of Winter?”
He glared. “Yes, damn it, that is exactly what I am. The thought of any other man touching Gail, for whatever reason, is revolting to me.”
“Why?”
“Because… Because… Oh fuck off, Gabriel!” he snapped.
The other man relaxed back in his chair. “I saw something in Gail just now that interested me greatly.”
Bastian scowled his displeasure. “Am I going to have to fight you for her too?�
�
“I did not mean that kind of interest.” Gabriel gave a distracted shake of his head. “As I said before, I prefer my women more experienced. No, it is only… I had not seen it before but… Did you notice how well-spoken Gail is even when angered? How courtly her manners? How she carries herself with the grace of a lady?”
Of course Bastian had noticed it. That combination of the lady and the wanton was one of the things he found most intriguing about her. “And?”
“And perhaps that might be because she is those things?”
“Well-spoken and well-mannered?”
“And a lady.”
Bastian gave the matter further thought. “You now believe Gail might be a daughter of a gentleman of the nobility, albeit in all probability an illegitimate one?”
“I believe Miss Abigail Brown— Yes, that is her name. At least that is the one she gave me,” Blackborne confirmed as Bastian raised questioning brows. “I now have reason to doubt its validity. As I also believe she might be harboring other secrets it would be in my best interest to expose. I have no intention of being visited by a male member of Society—worse, of having him visit here as a client, only to discover his own daughter is one of the ladies on offer for a night’s entertainment.”
Abigail stood in the adjoining room and listened unashamedly to the conversation between the duke and the earl.
She had still been standing outside in the hallway when she heard Dr. Winter take his leave, and rather than be caught and possibly questioned by him as to her reason for malingering, she had ducked inside the storeroom next to the study. Her intention had been to wait until the doctor had disappeared into the bowels of the club before leaving herself, but she had remained frozen in place when she heard her name mentioned as Shaftesbury complained to his friend concerning the intimacy of the doctor’s examination of her.
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