Forbidden Desires

by Anderson, Marina

  Lewis shook his head. ‘I hate auditioning people. I’ll probably see the person I want on TV or at the cinema.’

  ‘Or here, in Cornwall,’ said Ella softly.

  Lewis felt the hairs on the backs of his arms rise and he looked down into the depths of her blue eyes. ‘Or here,’ he conceded slowly.

  Ella’s heart was pounding as she worked out what she should do next. He was interested in her, she knew that, but she also knew that if she made the wrong move or seemed too pushy then he’d have no compunction in throwing her out of the house, even if she was Harriet’s guest. Very slowly she peeled off her T-shirt, and beneath it she was naked. ‘I’ve always thought that I had the right figure to play Helena,’ she said calmly.

  Lewis felt his penis stir. She was certainly very sexy, and she had the same kind of intelligence about her that had attracted him to Harriet, plus an actress’s ability to convey emotions on command. Right now she was playing at seducing him, and it was working, as his body was only too eager to demonstrate.

  ‘Helena’s really Harriet, isn’t she?’ whispered Ella, moving her body until her legs were resting against the side of the lounger.

  ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘I saw Dark Secret and I’ve known Harriet for years. You changed one or two things, but not many.’

  ‘I based her on Harriet,’ he admitted.

  ‘And would you need to desire the actress who played her, just as you desire Harriet?’ she murmured.

  Lewis looked up at Ella and felt a surge of pure lust. She was a bright, sexy and attractive girl who could easily be made beautiful for the screen. She was also flatteringly anxious to please him, although he had no illusions as to why this was, and right at this moment he was a man who felt in need of pleasure.

  After Mark left he’d recovered the film from Edmund’s room and watched it on his television. The searing sexuality of the scene that had unfolded before him was still printed on his brain, and he needed a woman – preferably a woman who bore some resemblance to Harriet.

  ‘Yes, I probably would need to desire the actress,’ he said in a level tone.

  ‘I’d like to play Helena in the film,’ said Ella. ‘And I’d enjoy an audition. Even if you don’t normally like them I think you might like this one.’

  ‘Is that a fact?’ he mused, a flicker of amusement dancing in his dark eyes.

  ‘They won’t be back for a long time,’ continued Ella, deciding to gamble everything on this one moment.

  ‘I thought you were getting over a broken heart,’ Lewis reminded her.

  ‘Work always takes my mind off things.’

  ‘It takes my mind off food,’ remarked Lewis.

  To Ella’s surprise he put his tray down, stood up and reached for her hand. ‘Come on then, Ella. I’ll audition you out here, in the shade of those bushes.’

  ‘Out here?’ Ella had been imagining a comfortable session on a soft bed.

  His mouth curled. ‘What’s the matter? Isn’t your acting ability up to it?’

  Ella’s stomach tightened with desire. ‘Of course. I wasn’t sure that we’d have privacy, that was all.’

  ‘Surely actresses are used to an audience,’ he teased as they moved into the shade. ‘But I know what you mean, and we’ll have total privacy I promise you.’

  Ella glanced around her. As far as she could see there was no one in sight, and anyway she realised that she had to go along with anything that Lewis said if she wanted to get the part, and she did. She wanted the part almost as much as she wanted an affair with Lewis James.

  Once they were out of the sun, Lewis sat down on the ground in front of Ella and his strong hands tugged at the sides of her blue bikini bottom until he’d lowered it to just below her pubic mound. Then he let it go so that her legs were kept close together by the garment, but not so close that his tongue couldn’t touch her where she most wanted to feel it.

  Lewis, though, chose to begin higher up. He positioned her feet in between his knees and then licked very lightly at the flesh that covered her hip bones, while at the same time his nose nudged against the muscles that were jumping wildly to the side of her hips. Ella tried to move, to get him to travel lower, but he refused to be hurried and she had to content herself with reaching down and clasping her left hand round the back of his head.

  Ella’s bikini line had been waxed and she’d also removed most of her hair that normally covered the top of her pubic mound, leaving just a narrow strip leading up from the top join of the outer lips. This meant that when Lewis travelled lower he could tongue freely against the enticingly soft skin of this delicate area and he found it extraordinarily arousing.

  He tried to imagine Harriet’s body similarly bare and at once his tongue moved more urgently until at last, to Ella’s delight, he was parting her outer sex lips and allowing his tongue to travel slowly down between the inner lips until he reached the tiny clitoris that was slowly becoming erect.

  When he eased back the protective hood with his nose and then drew the small button between his lips, Ella’s legs started to shake and her free hand went to her right breast, the fingers kneading at the expanding tissue so that she was being stimulated in both the areas she liked best.

  Looking down at Lewis’s head of blue-black hair working enthusiastically between her thighs Ella could scarcely believe what was happening to her, and without warning a swift climax shook her body causing her to gasp aloud at the unexpected pleasure.

  Lewis waited for the tremors to die away and then licked the middle finger of his left hand before moving it round between her taut buttocks. Ella bent her knees to accommodate him and he softly drew his fingertip in circles around the outside of her anus while his tongue continued to flick and caress her clitoral area.

  Intense flashes of the most incredible pleasure ran from the back to the front of Ella’s body and she felt her abdominal muscles tighten as a fierce tension began to build within her. Lewis knew that now she was approaching a large orgasm and his own excitement mounted. In his mind she wasn’t Ella, she was Harriet, and when she whimpered and pleaded with him to carry on it was Harriet’s voice that he heard.

  Ella bent her legs a little further and at this invitation Lewis allowed his finger to slip inside her back passage where he softly stroked the inside rim, pressing delicately on the highly sensitive nerve endings until Ella began to scream with excitement. Her clitoris retracted and realising that her climax was very close, Lewis drew the bikini pants right down to the ground and helped the trembling Ella to step out of them.

  She was disappointed to lose the touch of his finger in such a private place and desolate at the loss of his clever tongue between her thighs; but she knew that whatever followed would be even better and when he laid her on her back on the grass she spread her legs wide and stared up at him, waiting to see what he wanted of her.

  Lewis knelt across her right leg and lifted her left leg high in the air so that her foot was resting on his shoulder. ‘I’m going to enter you now,’ he murmured. ‘When I do, I want you to slide a finger in alongside me, and that way you’ll stimulate me manually while I’m inside you.’

  Ella had never done that before but she could hardly wait to try, and as soon as he slid his large erection inside her she reached down to obey. Because of his size it proved difficult at first and he had to withdraw a little in order for her to accomplish it. Then, with her finger lying by the side of his penis, he began to thrust. He thrust slowly and fiercely, building to a steady climax as Ella squirmed and gasped beneath him.

  Ella felt her finger rubbing against his shaft and with each vigorous movement she also stimulated the ridge at the base of his glans. When this happened his breath snagged and he uttered a tiny groan on the backward movement.

  She’d never felt so excited before. The fact that it was Lewis James making love to her, and that he was doing it in the open air where anyone might see them, would have been sufficient to arouse her without his incredible s
kill. The combination of both was almost too much for her and her orgasm built far more quickly than she wanted, making it impossible for her to prolong the moment.

  ‘I’m coming!’ she shouted and Lewis felt her internal muscles squeezing tightly around him as she yelled with wild abandon and her body bucked and thrashed on the grass.

  By the time she’d finished Lewis was nearly there as well. He continued to thrust inside her, but faster now, thinking only of his own pleasure. Suddenly he had a mental image of the way Harriet had looked when she’d come beneath Edmund’s knowing hands and immediately Lewis came as well, throwing back his head with a shout that was more of pain than ecstasy.

  Ella’s body was still twitching spasmodically and Lewis lay down on the grass next to her, their shoulders touching as both of them slowly recovered.

  ‘You were fantastic,’ said Ella, her voice husky with emotion.

  ‘You too,’ murmured Lewis, but he knew already he felt strangely empty and wanted nothing more than for Ella to go back into the house. It wasn’t her fault, she’d done nothing wrong and the sex had been good, but she wasn’t Harriet and emotionally he felt bereft.

  Ella rolled over and lay on top of him, her breasts brushing his chest. ‘Could I play her?’ she asked breathlessly.

  Lewis frowned. ‘What?’

  ‘Could I play Helena in the film? Was my audition satisfactory?’

  ‘You were very satisfactory,’ he assured her.

  ‘I understand how much your work means to you,’ Ella assured him. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t say a word to Harriet. After all, this was just research, wasn’t it?’

  ‘I don’t know what it was,’ admitted Lewis. ‘You’re a very desirable woman, Ella, and I’m most definitely not a saint.’

  ‘I wouldn’t want a saint. You know, you should have married an actress,’ she added, rolling off him again and reaching for her clothes.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Harriet’s not happy because she doesn’t understand you the way someone from the profession would.’

  Lewis looked at her thoughtfully. ‘Harriet understands me very well. I was married to Rowena Farmer before Harriet and she didn’t understand me at all.’

  Ella smiled. ‘My mistake then. When will I know?’

  ‘Know what?’

  ‘If the part’s mine.’

  Lewis felt a flash of annoyance. ‘Look, this was something we both enjoyed wasn’t it? I told you, I’ve no idea who’ll play Helena.’

  ‘You asked me to do an outdoor audition.’

  ‘Yes, but we both understood what I meant.’

  ‘I hope Harriet understands that too, if I don’t get the part,’ said Ella sweetly as she walked away from him.

  She felt guilty about it when she got back into the house. After all, she’d known he and Harriet were only just married, and knew too that she’d have slept with him whether or not there was any chance of the film part. However, now that she knew what he was like, now that she’d experienced his lovemaking for herself, she wanted to stay near him. If that was possible by appearing in his film then she’d be happy, but if not she was willing to try and take him away from Harriet. In Ella’s opinion friendship ended at the bedroom door.

  Lewis pulled on his swimming trunks and got wearily to his feet. For the first time in his life the transient thrill of sex hadn’t been enough for him. Ella was sexy and attractive but she wasn’t Harriet, and it was Harriet he wanted.

  ‘Perhaps you were right, Mark,’ he murmured to himself. ‘But it’s all out of my hands now.’

  Luckily he didn’t realise how greatly his sense of emptiness contrasted with Ella’s sense of elation.

  Chapter Eight

  * * *

  STANDING IN THE middle of his hotel room, receiver held to his ear, Mark could scarcely believe what he was hearing. ‘Change the character?’ he exclaimed in horror. ‘I can’t, not at this stage.’

  ‘You have to,’ said Lewis shortly, and Mark could hear the tension in his employer’s voice over the line.

  ‘But it won’t make sense.’

  ‘Then you must make it seem logical. After all, you were the one who kept warning me about the dangers of all this.’

  ‘Helena’s husband’s character has been constant throughout both films,’ said Mark patiently. ‘I don’t think the audience will accept a radical change at this point.’

  ‘Contrary to what we’re led to believe, people do change,’ said Lewis bitterly. ‘I wouldn’t have believed it myself a few hours ago but now I know it’s true.’

  ‘Are you all right?’ asked Mark anxiously.

  ‘No, I’m not, but that’s not important. What’s important is that this film reflects the truth, and the truth is that by the time the confident, strong, emotionally-detached husband is half-way through his little experiment he discovers that he stands to lose more than he’d ever realised.’

  ‘I tried to tell you that at the beginning,’ Mark pointed out.

  ‘Save it, Mark. Just write it the way I tell you. Our hero, if that’s the right word for him, has casual but exhilarating sex with his wife’s best friend and instead of thoroughly enjoying it he ends up feeling empty and annoyed.’

  ‘With the friend?’

  ‘No, with himself! Are you deliberately trying to wind me up?’ demanded Lewis angrily.

  ‘Only getting the facts straight. Right, so it’s a sudden change but brought about by a particular incident. That makes it a bit easier for me.’

  ‘I’m so pleased,’ said Lewis sarcastically.

  ‘So you should be; I’ve got to make this thing hang together. How about Helena? Is she finding her affair empty and unsatisfying too?’

  ‘No!’ retorted Lewis shortly, and Mark heard the sound of the receiver being slammed down at Penruan House.

  The scriptwriter got out his notebook and began to write. It wasn’t really as hard as he’d made out – he’d guessed what would happen from the very beginning.

  *

  ‘We had a wonderful time,’ exclaimed Harriet, running into the drawing room and kissing Lewis enthusiastically. ‘Wait until you see my picture.’

  ‘Picture?’

  ‘I had one done of me in Victorian costume, I look really demure.’

  ‘Noella had one done too,’ said Edmund, ‘but she looks like someone who was on the game, don’t you honey?’

  Noella pulled a face. ‘That’s because I’m too well-built for the costume. I guess Victorian maidens were slender and sexless.’

  Lewis tried to sound interested in their day but all he wanted to do was take Harriet to bed and make love to her, just as he’d made love to Ella but this time with love and feeling. ‘Did Oliver have a good time as well?’ he asked.

  ‘Sure, he wasn’t that turned on by the historical part. He said all those costumes and the mud just made him grateful he was living in the twentieth century, but he sure enjoyed his trip into the copper mine.’

  Harriet shivered. ‘I didn’t. It was freezing cold and I kept worrying about what would happen if the train broke down and we got stuck in the bowels of the earth.’

  Edmund rested a hand on her shoulder for a moment. ‘I’d have kept you warm,’ he said softly, and Harriet turned her head to smile at him. Lewis’s heart began to race and he quickly stood up.

  ‘I’ll ask Mrs Webster to make us some coffee,’ he murmured.

  ‘What did you do all day?’ asked Harriet innocently when he came back.

  ‘Spent a lot of time with Mark and then sat outside enjoying the good weather.’

  ‘Where’s Ella?’ asked Noella sharply.

  ‘She sat out for a bit but then said something about taking a bath and I haven’t seen her since,’ said Lewis smoothly.

  ‘I must have a proper talk with her after dinner’, said Harriet. ‘She hasn’t mentioned breaking up with Simon yet, and I know she’ll want to talk about it. At one time it looked as though they were going to get married.’

  ‘I do
n’t think her heart’s really broken,’ commented Lewis.

  Harriet stared at him. ‘How do you know? Has she discussed it with you?’

  ‘No, but she seemed quite cheerful. It’s a pity she can’t swim,’ he added.

  ‘Why’s that?’ asked Harriet, who knew perfectly well that Ella could swim.

  ‘A waste of the facility.’

  Edmund nodded. ‘I know what you mean. No strutting around in her bikini and no shared pleasures of the pool for our Ella.’

  ‘Oh, she wore a bikini,’ said Lewis with a grin. ‘Quite a neat little number too.’

  A warning bell sounded in Harriet’s head. ‘Has she talked to you about working in any of your films?’ she asked.

  ‘She’s dropped a few hints, yes.’

  ‘Just don’t use the casting couch to try her out,’ warned Harriet, smiling to hide her genuine fear.

  ‘Why not?’ asked Lewis softly. ‘Does the thought of that disturb you?’

  ‘It would sure as hell disturb me,’ said Noella quickly. ‘I’m popping over to Oliver’s cottage,’ she added. ‘He seems to have walked off with my camera.’

  ‘How convenient,’ remarked Edmund. ‘Come on, Harriet, show Lewis your picture.’

  Harriet reached inside a carrier bag and drew out a framed sepia photo of herself dressed in Victorian costume. Lewis stared at it and felt his desire for his wife increase even more. She looked so innocent, so untouched, and yet her gaze was watchful as she stared out at him. With her long hair drawn back from her face she seemed both wary and trusting. Like a child, he thought, a child with a woman’s body and mind.

  ‘Good, don’t you think?’ said Edmund quietly. ‘They put one up on display straight away, to trick other visitors into thinking they’d look as good. Noella’s would have proved otherwise.’

  ‘Noella looks fine,’ said Harriet. ‘I think you’re being really unkind about her picture. No wonder she spent more time talking to Oliver than to you today.’

  ‘He’s more her type,’ said Edmund in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. ‘It’s just a pity he isn’t rich. If he were she’d run off and leave me and they’d live happily ever after.’