The Letter

by Rebecca Bernadette Mance

  Now, as Victoria lay in the crook of his arm, her head snuggled on his shoulder, William knew he would never let her go. Possessiveness raged through him. He could not let her go.

  Victoria’s dark lashes rested against her pale skin. Her breathing was gentle and silent. William couldn’t resist the urge to push back a lock of hair that lay across her cheek.

  He would give her the world. She would be the wealthiest of mistresses. Victoria would have the finest of everything. And, of course, he would never let her go.

  CHAPTER 17

  “Come to the office at half past 12:00,” the note from William read. Two days following their intimate night together, Carter handed her the note as soon as she came down to breakfast.

  “I will call the carriage for you,” Carter said, then retreated.

  She had not seen William since their night together and it hurt. She had awoken the next morning to find him already gone. He had left word with Carter that he would be keeping late evenings for the next few days. Victoria had not heard him stir in his room, let alone seen him.

  She was to be moved to her new house over the next few days.

  Despite the fact that she had experienced the most wondrous night of her life with William, she was reminded that she didn’t need his presence or his affection and both were detrimental to her. To squelch her longing, she recalled that he was a means to an end, nothing more.

  William’s use of her had been clear, and her own use of him was clear as well. She could not allow her feelings to muddy the waters.

  But now he was requesting … no demanding … her presence at his office and she could not stop the excited drummer of her heart. How dare he demand anything of her after his obvious neglect? But of course, he would dare. He would dare anything.

  And she would go even while she wanted to refuse his demand. What choice was there after all? This was part of their agreement. Being a mistress meant pleasing her man....no matter how much it galled her. Now that she had given up her virtue, she had to follow through with her plan. There was no turning back now.

  The worst shame was that she wanted to go.

  Victoria gulped down her breakfast and ran back up to her room. She didn’t wait for Mina to come in and help her dress. Opening the wardrobe, Victoria located a peach satin gown and pared it with a wide brimmed bonnet trimmed in matching peach ribbon and a sprinkling of tiny white flowers.

  When she had dressed, Victoria fled down the steps and out the door to the waiting carriage.

  Exasperated by her hasty departure, which didn’t allow him an opportunity to open the door, Carter scowled at her while Chester helped her into the waiting carriage.

  Laughing, Victoria waived to Carter from the window of the carriage as it pulled out into the street.

  It was a short ride to William’s office in what was known as the bourgeoning financial district. Victoria marveled at the breathtaking view of the bay as the horses struggled to hold back the carriage down the steep hill.

  When they arrived at the bank, Chester helped Victoria from the carriage and with a warm smile, escorted her up the steps, and opened the bank door for her.

  “That is all I will need Chester, you can go home if you would like,” Victoria told him, smiling warmly.

  “No ma’am, I’ll be wait’in for you to come out,” Chester replied.

  “I am not sure how long I will be.” Victoria blushed.

  “It doesn’t matter, I will be wait’in right outside here for you, just like Mr. Worthington ordered I do,” Chester insisted, closing the door behind her before she could protest further.

  Victoria briskly marched up the stairs that led up to William’s office. A minute later she knocked at the heavy mahogany door at the end of the hall.

  “Come in.” William’s deep voice penetrated through the door to send a shiver of sensual awareness through her.

  Turning the handle with a trembling hand, Victoria entered the room.

  Victoria stood in the threshold, held immobile by his hot molten gaze that reached down to her soul and stole her breath.

  The lush vivid memories of what happened the last time they were together stood starkly in front of them.

  William’s gaze swept over her. “It has taken every ounce of my self-control to stay away from you for the last few days—you should know that.”

  “Oh,” she said.

  “I thought I had been too hasty and harsh the first time. I wanted to give you some time to recover.”

  “Oh no—truly—that is not so, it was just—wonderful,” she murmured, breathless.

  “All the same, I was too—urgent,” he said stiffly, forcing his reluctant admission of weakness.

  “I don’t know what to say, except thank you for your concern.”

  “Victoria, darling, you may not thank me when you know why I asked you here,” he said, his voice dropping to a sensual stir. “I would have you here and now, for I will wait no longer.”

  “You cannot be serious,” she responded, her own voice raspy with passion that she didn’t welcome.

  He smiled a luscious smile and his eyes gleamed, “I am quite serious.”

  “It isn’t proper,” she whispered, unable to stave off the erotic images filling her head.

  “You will want to do this here, I will be sure of that….and after all….you are a mistress…you don’t live by the rules, you don’t want to.” He paused, his sensual power whirling around her. “And neither do I…so come to me.”

  Victoria’s knees went weak from the weight of his erotic words.

  “Now, darling …” His eyes glinted dark. “Take off your clothes and come to me. I have fantasized about seeing you undress for days.”

  Victoria gasped her shock.

  “I should tell you no. I should fight you with everything I have. And it should trouble you that I only will do what you want because this is what I have agreed to become.”

  “Liar,” he whispered his eyes shimmered heat. “You are as wicked as I.”

  Victoria flushed scarlet her thoughts utterly wicked and unladylike despite her best effort to divert them.

  His eyes challenged and beckoned while a luscious smile tilted his sensual lips.

  Victoria pulled the bonnet off her head and let it fall to the floor, her heart pulsing blood like hot lava through her veins.

  At first William watched her as if he didn’t quite believe she had the nerve or fortitude to follow through her daring words. But as she fumbled with the buttons that ran down the front of her gown William’s eyes followed her progress with glowing anticipation framed with admiration.

  If she was to be a mistress, then she would be a darn good one, she thought even while her eyes slid away from his with a whisper of shyness and her dress slipped from her shoulders to pool around her feet on the polished wooden floor.

  With trembling hands, Victoria concentrated on her undergarments removing each article slowly with a fragile attempt at sensual showmanship.

  “You are too damned beautiful.” He said his voice low and course.

  The air from the open window blew the sheer curtains and danced along her bare skin.

  “Come to me,” his penetrating inspection seared her skin.

  She boldly stepped forward, slowly crossing the room to him. He was sitting at his desk but his chair was pushed back. As she approached, he turned his chair to the side to face her.

  “Beautiful,” he whispered when she stood in front of him. “I can smell your essence. It is the smell of flowers and woman.”

  Reaching out William touched her with his fingertips tracing slow circles on her belly and evoking a quiver in response. He moved up with aching slowness to caress first one puckered nipple, then the other, stealing the air from her lungs.

  Her breath returned in shallow, fast and soundless bursts. Victoria had never felt such need.

  Wherever he touched her, Victoria burned. Her whole body was alive with need and response. Tilting her head back Vict
oria gave herself over to his gently probing hands.

  When he nudged her legs apart a few minutes later, Victoria was completely lost in a tide of longing and raw need. A soft moan escaped her lips as William began to probe, caress and stroke her in a gentle persistent rhythm.

  Soon, Victoria’s entire body was shaking with the approaching release. Her knees were weak but she managed to stay standing.

  “Come on, darling, give me a little bit more . . . that isn’t all you can give . . . give me what I want,” came his gentle demand. His words were enough to bring her opulent release…white hot and blinding, the delicious shudders crashing like glorious waves of pleasure wracking her. She cried out.

  Folding her quivering body into him, William murmured, “You have become an obsession.”

  “I cannot imagine being anyone’s obsession. This isn’t the way it is supposed to work, I am supposed to see to your needs,” she whispered into his broad shoulder.

  “Watching you as I gave you pleasure was like nothing I have ever experienced.”

  He gently tugged her into position to enter her body.

  The image of the woman taking the man into her mouth in the red room, which had been sitting on the edge of Victoria’s mind, flashed vividly forward. The desire to experiment the image suffused Victoria’s normal sense of propriety in a shockingly liberal fashion.

  “Wait,” she whispered, smiling.

  Moving from his arms, Victoria went down on her knees in front of him.

  She ignored his sharp intake of breath and avoided meeting his eyes as she quickly unfastened his pants and pulled down his shorts underneath.

  “What do you think you are doing?” he asked but made no move to halt her intent.

  “A little something I learned not long ago in a show.”

  His member sprang forth, large and pulsing.

  She throbbed from the sight of him.

  She was wicked. Wicked indeed. Power swept through her as she gently touched his engorged rod and felt him tense. So, he wasn’t immune to her touch, she thought with deep womanly satisfaction.

  “You are a quick study,” he rasped, his hand gently tugging through her hair.

  Mimicking the actions of the woman in the red room, her mouth went down on him. He growled low in response to her gentle assault.

  As she moved her lips over him, caressing and pulling, he began to move in response, his breath heavy and labored with pleasured undertones.

  William tangled his hands into her hair and pushed her head further onto him in reaction to her gentle teasing.

  He had lost control, William thought through an immensely pleasurable haze. And he didn’t give a damn at this moment. Her mouth was so eager as it moved over him. What she lacked in experience she made up for in enthusiasm.

  Time suspended and soon he felt himself come to the ragged edge.

  No one had ever made him spend this way and he had to stop her ministrations now, before he did. To have such a complete and utter loss of control just could not be permitted.

  Through the sensual haze, William clawed his way back to resist her lurid administrations.

  “Let me inside of you,” he whispered, pulling her head up. “That is what I truly want.”

  When she looked up at him, her lips were red and swollen from their activity.

  Taking a deep calming breath, he pulled her on top of him. She sat on him, her legs folded on either side of him, her body spread and ready for him.

  Slowly, he entered her, holding onto the last shreds of his control.

  When she started moving on top of him at a feverish pace, William forgot about self-control and drove into her with his own luscious abandon.

  Soon, her soft moans mingled with his deeper ones, filling the room with tense sexual heat as they both found the release they sought.

  Before the shudders even left his body, William wanted her again.

  For several delicious moments she sat on top of him, encasing him with her warm body. Then he started touching her again. And soon the fire burst anew.

  He gently lay her on top of the shiny surface of his desk. Worshiping her body, William gently pulled her to the edge and buried himself into her welcoming flesh.

  This time he loved her slowly, inducing her thrash on the desk beneath him.

  “Give me more, sweetheart, give me more,” he whispered low.

  When she cried out her release softly, it brought him to his own exquisite culmination, where the white, hot release was the only relief.

  William murmured her name in pure clawing gratification, as he thrust into her one last time, spilling his seed into her hot flesh.

  Pulling her up into his arms, he held close while brooding over his loss of control coupled with the stark knowledge that he needed her again.

  Gently, he stroked Victoria’s hair while his meeting in twenty minutes crept in to filch the moment.

  “Let me help you with your clothes,” he said tenderly pulling away from her to put his pants back on.

  The aftermath of their passion left her with scalding humiliation and Victoria averted her gaze from William and jumped down from the desk top.

  Covertly eying the desk, she knew she should be utterly appalled and filled with regret by her actions, instead, other than embarrassment over such an abandonment of her normal shyness, Victoria had enjoyed every moment she had spent in that office. And would never see a desk in the same fashion as previously.

  As she watched him retrieve her garments and return them to her, a deep blush spread over her as much as a result of her thoughts as seeing William pluck her undergarments from the floor.

  “Let me help you redress,” he said in a scratchy low voice.

  “I can do this,” she whispered while plucking her undergarments from him and donning them with mortifying haste.

  “I can do this too,” he replied, stepping forward to tug her peach gown over her head.

  “Take a moment to relax.” He gently guided her to a table and chairs along the wall opposite his desk where a tea service had been set up before she arrived.

  With trembling fingers, Victoria added sugar and milk to her tea then took a sip. The lukewarm tea was calming.

  William took the seat across from her at the small table and poured himself some tea. He probed her face over the rim of his cup with eyes that shimmered with the memory of their recent activities.

  In the cold reality that had returned her from the passion of the previous moments, Victoria flushed with shame under his knowing scrutiny.

  “What is wrong, Victoria?” His deep voice penetrated her troubled thoughts.

  “I don’t know — I should feel bad about doing these things.” Victoria paused, searching for words that she was willing to say.

  “But you don’t, do you?” He caressed her cheek and she immediately responded, her body betraying her once again.

  “No . . . . I mean yes. Oh William, it is wrong!” Victoria jerked her scalding face from his touch and focused on her half empty tea cup.

  “What is between us is not wrong, darling,” he replied, his finger coming under her chin and forcing her to meet his gaze again.

  His hypnotic silver eyes soothed her.

  “There is no shame between us, only pleasure between two people.”

  “There is shame.”

  “There is also life. What do you have besides memories of a full life lived as you choose, taking passion where you find it?”

  When she returned home, these memories were all she would have to last her a lifetime.

  “Perhaps you are right, but it still is not right,” she said.

  “I think you believe it is wrong, therefore you should not take pleasure in the act. Victoria, remember that we should make our own rules in life instead of the rules others make for us.”

  Her face was scalding. “It is just so illicit!” she said harshly.

  William laughed low. “I think I should have warned you of my exotic tastes,” he said.<
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  “I must go,” she said in a husky voice, standing up in an obvious retreat.

  She wanted to get away before someone came to his office. She couldn’t face anyone after what they had just done.

  She went to the table by the door and retrieved her bonnet and secured it on her head.

  William walked over to her and pulled her into his embrace, planting a gentle kiss on her lips that were still red and swollen from his previous plundering.

  “I won’t see you tonight, will I?” Victoria asked, shyly pulling away from him and busying herself with retrieving her bag.

  “No,” he replied, his face set in grim regret. “But you couldn’t possibly know how much I want to see you. Or how much I want to say to hell with my responsibilities and enjoy hours uninterrupted with you. But, unfortunately, I have immense responsibilities that require almost constant attention.”

  “Oh, I wasn’t complaining. I was just trying to schedule my evening,” Victoria lied. Masking her humiliating disappointment she hastened to the door.

  “Of course, it is only fair I discuss my plans with you,” he replied.

  Was he going to see Faith?

  She turned and forced a smile, “I best be getting on home then.” She gave him a small wave before walking out of his office on shaking limbs.

  “Be assured my dearest, you will be seeing me very soon.”

  His words brought heat to her face as she stepped through the cool bank lobby and out to the windy street. She felt the weight of many knowing eyes dogging her steps. Did they guess what had been going on in William’s office only moments before?

  Let them think whatever they wanted.

  She made her own rules now.

  CHAPTER 18

  “Can we count on your investment sir?” Peter Cochran asked William for the second time, dragging him from thoughts far removed from the moment.

  Damn, William thought as he looked up to find himself surrounded by the conference table of questioning eyes and waiting for a response.