by Mia Gabriel
I pulled my hand away as if it had been burned.
“I’m sorry,” I said, flustered. “I didn’t intend to cause you—”
“You did nothing wrong, Eve,” he said, breathing hard, “and everything right. Too right. You have that effect me.”
I smiled, relieved and pleased. “Then may I please touch you again, Master?”
“No, you may not,” he said. “Not until we’re in the tub.”
Before I realized it, he’d scooped me into his arms and carried me the last few steps to the tub, setting me down into the water. He’d been right: the tub did seem nearly as large as a small sea, curved at both ends with the taps flowing in the middle. I sank back against the curved marble side, luxuriating in the warmth of the water as I watched him toss aside his robe.
I thought I could watch him by the hour and never see enough. The steam had given his skin a slight sheen, burnishing it, and accentuating the flat planes of his abdomen and the lean, bunched muscles of his shoulders and biceps. His cock stood proud and thick, ready for me, and I smiled with anticipation.
He climbed into the tub, sending little waves rippling toward me as he sank into the water, his knees rising up like islands. He held his hand out to me, and I pushed through the water to join him.
I slipped between his bent knees and leaned forward to kiss him, my hair trailing behind me in the water like a mermaid’s tresses.
He smiled at me, full of temptation.
“I expect more than a kiss, Eve,” he said. “Climb on my cock, and give me what we both want.”
“In the water, Master?” I asked, laughing. “Can that be done?”
“With ease,” he said, dragging me forward. “Here, settle yourself over me, and you’ll see.”
With considerable splashing, I climbed over him as he’d suggested, and balanced on my knees over his cock. I spread the lips of my quim open with one hand and carefully seated the blunt head of his cock into my opening. As eager as I was, it felt awkward and somehow upside down.
“Don’t stop now,” he said, his jaw clenched. “Slide down to the end.”
I nodded resolutely. With my hands braced on his shoulders for balance, I sank as he’d told me to do. With my thighs held apart, I felt him sink deep into my quim, stretching me with delicious friction.
I gasped, and he smiled. “You like that, don’t you?”
“I do, Master,” I said, tentatively lifting myself up and then sliding back down. “I like it very much. I’d venture you do, too.”
“I do,” he said, putting his hands around my hips. “But I’ll like this more, and so shall you.”
He raised me nearly completely off his cock, then pulled me back down, driving himself as far as he could inside me with a great splash of water.
I gasped again, and dug my fingers into his shoulders as I ground against him. He seemed even larger, even hotter this way, filling every fraction of my channel. It was just short of being too much, but with him I’d happily dance this fine line between the perfect amount and a surfeit of pleasure.
“I—I believe you’ve filled me as far as you can, Master,” I said, tipping my head back as he rocked into me again. I pressed one of my hands low on my belly, beneath the water. “I’m sure I can feel your cock here, you’re so deep.”
“Do you know what it does to me,” he said with a groan, “hearing you say that?”
“No, Master,” I said, my grin lopsided. “Tell me, please.”
“It makes me want to fuck you even more,” he said with a growl, driving into me again, “until you truly can feel my cock in every inch of your body.”
I arched my back to take him in even deeper, my breasts bobbing on the surface of the water and my wet hair slapping against my back with each jolting stroke. Being surrounded by the lapping warm water, with each motion amplified and returned by the waves against the sides of the tub, served only to make it better.
“Say it again, Eve,” he ordered, his eyes reflecting the water. “Tell me what I’m doing to you. There are few things better than a lady who’ll tell me how much she likes my fucking.”
Now that the first shock of it had faded, I liked hearing him speak so frankly, too, using forbidden, earthy words. To speak them myself was undeniably exciting, and made me feel all the more wicked.
“I—I like how you fuck me, Master,” I said breathlessly, his thrusting setting the pace for my words. “I like how you fuck me with your—your big cock, and I—oh!”
As I’d spoken, he’d leaned forward to take one of my nipples into his mouth. He was suckling hard, rolling his tongue around my nipple and then grazing the tip with the edge of his teeth. The intensity stunned me, streaking directly to my core and making me tighten around his cock.
“Tell me what I’ve done to you,” he said. “Tell me what I’m going to do again, and where you feel it.”
I closed my eyes to concentrate on what he’d asked me to do.
“Look at me, Eve,” he ordered roughly. “Don’t hide. Tell me what I’m doing, what it makes you feel.”
I dragged my lids open to meet his gaze. I was perilously close to my own climax, and to judge from the tension in his features, he was, too.
“You’re—you’re fucking me,” I said, the words tumbling out rapidly, “and I’m riding your cock, and—and it feels so good because you’re so hard and hot and—oh, Savage, I can’t!”
“You can, Eve, and you will.”
He grabbed my right hand and plunged it into the water, and pushed my fingers to where we were joined. I touched his cock, marveling at how I’d stretched to take him, and as he began to pull out, I instinctively circled my fingers around his cock, brushing against his balls below.
Swearing, he rubbed his thumb between my widespread lips and over my pearl as he jammed his cock hard into me. I shook from the force of it, and at last spun out as the convulsions rocked my core. He held me as I cried out, his gaze locked on mine as he watched me lose myself, over and over.
Then he held back no longer and pounded into me as his own release seized him. His eyes were wild, even ferocious, his teeth bared in such a fierce show of possession that I would have been terrified if I hadn’t seen it before.
He held me tightly by my hips and I clung to him, riding out each demanding stroke. Water crashed over the side of the tub in splattering torrents, and when he came at last with a guttural roar, the sound echoed against the marble walls.
His chest heaving still, he sank back against the curve of the tub. He pulled me with him, loosely holding his arms around my back, and I went to him gladly. He closed his eyes as I feathered light kisses across his face, across those sharp cheekbones and the nose that was fit for a Roman general.
I didn’t dare speak, remembering how badly that had gone last time. Instead, I was determined simply to savor this moment for what it was, and no more. I felt weightless, as if I were floating, and it wasn’t due entirely to the water, either.
I rested my head against his shoulder, enjoying the warmth and feel of his chest beneath me and his arm across my back. There wasn’t nearly as much water left in the tub now as when we’d started, and what remained was turning chill.
With his fingers on my jaw, he turned my face up to his and kissed me. I hadn’t expected such tenderness from him, and it gave me an extra glow inside.
“It’s the damnedest thing, Eve,” he said softly, “but I want you again.”
“Truly, Master?” I asked playfully. I thought he was teasing, that he wasn’t serious.
But he wasn’t, and he was, his expression turning darkly solemn. He took my hand down into the water again, letting me feel his cock for myself. He was almost hard again, and if he wasn’t as thick as he had been before he’d spent, I could have sworn I felt him swelling under my touch.
“You see how it is with you,” he said. “I can think of nothing else when you’re with me.”
I lightly caressed him under the water, taking pleasure in giving pleas
ure to him.
“I thought that was why we’re here at Wrenton, Master,” I whispered, leaning closer to him. I couldn’t understand why he considered this a problem. “We only have six days left for my education, and I’ve so much more to learn.”
He grunted. “Five days. Today is nearly over, and cannot be counted.”
Warily I drew back my hand from his cock. “Are you counting the hours until we leave so closely?”
“It’s a vile habit of mine, Eve, one I cannot help.” At last he smiled, but it was a polite, distant smile, with his thoughts clearly somewhere else. “I would very much enjoy continuing your education this afternoon, and would do so, too, if we hadn’t other obligations.”
I frowned, and before he could push me away, I retreated to the opposite end of the tub, my arms crossed over my breasts. There was a distinct chill in the room now.
“What other obligations could we possibly have?” I asked. “I thought Lady Carleigh had told us that all we must do is please ourselves.”
“For the most part, yes, that is our only task.” He dipped his face under the water, then pulled it back, wiping his palms back over his face and sleeking back his black hair. Droplets of water beaded on his lashes, making his eyes appear even more intensely blue, and when he smiled again, I felt a little lurch inside.
I wished he hadn’t called what he’d shared with me a task. And I wished he weren’t such a ridiculously beautiful man, so that it stung when he’d said that.
“But our generous hostess does have one or two little amusements planned for us for which she’ll accept no excuses,” he continued. “I suppose they’re almost traditions by now. Dinner tonight with the assembled company is one of them. Barry!”
Immediately the bathroom door opened and the manservant came striding in. He bowed before Savage, deftly avoided stepping in the puddles, and with brisk twists of his wrists, turned the faucets back on to refresh the bathwater.
I gave a startled yelp and sank low beneath the side of the tub, covering my breasts with my hands. I’d lived with servants my entire life, but not with this much familiarity. Most likely Barry had already seen me without clothes last night in Savage’s bed, but then I’d been asleep, which somehow didn’t make it as bad as this.
“Don’t concern yourself with Barry,” Savage said, comfortably stretching his arms out along the sides of the tub, his biceps glistening. “He’s a modest fellow, to be sure, but he has seen so many naked ladies in his time with me that he’s completely immune to the sight of another one. Isn’t that so, Barry?”
“Yes, my lord,” Barry said. He left us briefly, returning with a long tray that he set across the tub before Savage as a specially designed tea table. Like a tea table, too, it was set with a small lace-edged cloth, napkins, a porcelain plate of sandwiches, and another with sweet biscuits.
Warily I watched from my end of the tub. Why shouldn’t Savage have paraded other naked conquests before his manservant? He was a young, unmarried gentleman in his prime, and the aristocratic set centered by the king would not expect the earl to remain celibate. The very fact that Savage was so familiar with Lady Carleigh’s rituals proved he’d entertained other Innocents at other Wrenton house parties before this one.
Of course, I knew all this. I’d claimed I wanted the same, too, a lover to give me the passion my life so sorely needed, without any awkward promises of fidelity to complicate the pleasure. I’d come here to Wrenton expecting that, and I’d gotten exactly what I wanted. I’d agreed to play Lady Carleigh’s game, and so far I’d enjoyed myself—and Lord Savage—immensely.
And hadn’t I set my sights on Savage in the first place after watching him fuck another woman?
I’d absolutely no reason to feel unhappy, or neglected, or wounded, or jealous, or whatever it was that was plaguing me now.
None.
“Would you have tea, Mrs. Hart?” asked Barry. “Or would you prefer sherry?”
“Sherry, thank you,” I said without looking up as he brought me a glass.
“You didn’t say ‘Sherry, Barry,’” Savage said, bemused. “I’m disappointed. How could you resist?”
I wasn’t in the mood for his teasing. “I resisted,” I said. “Apparently I’ve no ear for low poetry.”
“Now, Eve, don’t be sarcastic with me,” he warned. “An idle observation doesn’t merit sarcasm.”
I sighed. “Forgive me, Master. No more sarcasm.”
“Thank you, Eve,” Savage said, devouring a beef sandwich with obvious relish. “You should eat something too, you know. You must be hungry. Unless you secretly crept out to the kitchens, you haven’t eaten since last night, either.”
“You know I didn’t leave,” I said, a little resentful if not sarcastic. “You’ve been watching me the entire time. Master.”
“True enough,” he said, unperturbed as he reached for a second sandwich. “But you should be thankful that I’m not a harsh master. There are some here who won’t let their Innocents eat at all as part of their education, or who will make them eat from a dish on the floor like a dog.”
I frowned. “That’s dreadful.”
He licked a spot of mayonnaise from his finger. “‘That’s dreadful, Master.’”
“That’s dreadful, Master,” I repeated, wishing I could watch him lick the mayonnaise without imagining he was licking it from me instead. “You can’t fault me for not playing the Game. I’ve done everything you’ve asked.”
“You have indeed, Eve,” he said. “Everything, and far, far more besides.”
He smiled slowly, so devastating and wicked that I blushed, unable to resist his charm. How could I, when he looked at me like that, making me remember everything we’d done together?
And I was hungry. With my water-puckered fingers, I took a sandwich from the plate as daintily as if I were sitting in a proper drawing room, and not naked in a marble tub with an equally naked, beautiful English lord.
“Some Protectors demand complete abjection and debasement,” he continued. “For that matter, some Innocents wish it, too.”
“I can’t believe that anyone would wish to be made to eat like a dog, Master,” I said. “That makes little sense to me.”
As an experiment, I tried licking mayonnaise from my fingers, too, to see if it had the same effect on him. I did it slowly, dragging the flat of my tongue along my fingers and lingering on the tips, and never taking my gaze away from his.
It worked. Clearly interested, he was watching every movement of my tongue.
Beneath the makeshift table, I felt his foot gently rubbing against my calf.
“You tempt me, Eve,” he said, his voice dropping low.
I slipped my finger into my mouth and sucked the last bit of the thick, white sauce from it. “Do I, Master?”
“You do, Eve,” he said, “you wicked, winsome creature.”
The way he said it made me quite sure that if I could look beneath the tray, I’d see he had a cockstand again.
But, to my regretful surprise, he didn’t continue what I was sure we’d begun.
“If only we weren’t expected downstairs,” he said with genuine regret. “Then you’d learn the punishment for eating like that.”
Disappointed, I raised a single brow. “What can be more important than my education, Master?”
“Oh, I’ll guarantee your education will continue downstairs, Eve,” he said. “Just not perhaps in the ways that you expect. Barry, has Mrs. Hart’s maid appeared yet?”
“How will my education continue, Master?” I asked, more than a bit anxiously. It was one thing to be fucked by Savage in his rooms, but I wasn’t sure I was ready—if I ever would be—to do so before the other Protectors and Innocents. “What will I be expected to do at dinner?”
He smiled. “You are not to question me, Eve. Only masters have the privilege. Remember that, especially when we are with the others. Ah, here’s your maid now. Simpson, isn’t it?”
With a basket of my toiletries on her
arm, Simpson joined us with the same lack of embarrassment as Barry had displayed. The voluptuous lady’s maid curtseyed, somehow turning this simple act of deference into a seductive little dance. Her smile—and Savage’s in return—was much warmer than I could have wished, nor was Savage’s blatant, unrepentant nudity before the maid reassuring, either. Had Simpson once served as an Innocent for him, too?
“Mrs. Hart requires her hair washed and dressed, Simpson,” Savage ordered, as if I myself were incapable of asking the maid to do it. “No pins, mind you. Her hair must be loose.”
“Yes, my lord,” Simpson said, setting the basket beside the tub.
“See that she is ready within the hour,” he said. “I do not like to be kept waiting.”
“I will be ready, Master,” I said, even though I wasn’t the one he had addressed. “You are not the only one who believes in promptness.”
“Eve, Eve.” He smiled indulgently. “Didn’t I warn you about speaking only when addressed?”
My smile was more of a challenge. “You forbade me to ask questions, Master. You said nothing regarding statements.”
He sighed with mock dismay. “Perhaps I’ve been too lenient,” he said. “But what I’ve permitted here in private will not be tolerated when we’re with the rest of the company.”
I raised my brows quizzically, making my unspoken question so obvious that he laughed.
“I will not tolerate it,” he said. “It’s for your own good. You must trust me, Eve. Stubborn or obstinate Innocents will not be tolerated, and the punishments can be … dramatic.”
Completely unself-conscious, he rose dripping from the water like some ancient river god. He was almost shockingly beautiful, his skin ruddy and glistening, and, fascinated, I watched the play of his muscles and sinews as he stepped from the tub.
I was glad to see he was no longer aroused, his handsome cock at ease. While it was unlikely that even he would wish to appear that way before the servants, I also preferred that—at least for this week—he’d keep that delectable sight for me alone.