Melanie Unmasked
Madam Periwinkle’s Erotic Delights
Michele Bardsley
All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2008 Michele Bardsley
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ISBN: 978-1-59596-930-9
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Editor: Sheri Ross Fogarty
Cover Artist: Reneé George
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Melanie Unmasked
Madam Periwinkle’s Erotic Delights
Michele Bardsley
Melanie Trident is an accountant for Viva Venus, her stepsister’s über successful day spa. Mel is used to being the plain one, especially when compared to her gorgeous blonde sibling. That’s probably why she keeps reading her favorite romance novel, Wizard’s Heart. At least then she can pretend she’s the heroine of her own story.
Her sis insists she attends a masked ball to celebrate the opening of Club Mirage. Mel reluctantly agrees and hits the shopping district. She discovers an unusual store called Madam Periwinkle’s Erotic Delights. It has every naughty thing a girl needs to entertain herself and a bevy of lovers. Yet, Melanie is drawn to the golden Mask of Aphrodite. The unusual proprietor has it wrapped and boxed before Mel decides she even wants it.
As if that’s not weird enough, she meets a gorgeous stranger in a coffee shop. Nic Chival’s interest in her is both surprising and intriguing, but Melanie doesn’t trust easily. However, she doesn’t count on Madam Periwinkle or the special qualities of her merchandise. The magic of the mask opens up a whole new world… and Melanie has to decide if she wants to risk everything for the heart of a man who already loves her.
Chapter One
“Pick me up a latte, will you?”
Melanie Trident stopped tapping numbers into the computer and looked at her stepsister, the luscious Venus Montgomery, head honcho of Viva Venus, the West Coast’s premiere spa. And in California, where spas were as numerous as Paris Hilton’s sex tapes, being booked six months in advance was no small feat.
Venus was the spa’s best advertisement. She leaned casually against the desk, looking thin, blonde, and gorgeous. Venus and Melanie were the same height, 5’ 5”, and yet Venus always looked taller. Her sis never had a bad hair day. Her body had no flaws -- no fat, no scars, no pimples.
Melanie had all the above. Her curly hair could never be tamed, her eyes were the color of dirt, and -- due to a childhood accident -- she had a scar that curled from the top of her right cheek to her eye. She fought the war on acne every day, and nearly always lost.
“Hel-lo, Mel?”
“Are your other minions busy?”
Venus rolled her eyes. “How long have you been in this office?”
“All morning.”
“And for the last two days, you’ve been stuffed back here, cave dweller.”
“Quarterly reports are a bitch.”
“So am I. I need a latte and you need some sunshine.”
Melanie sighed. Venus was genuinely nice, which made it really damned hard to hate her beauty and golden-touch success. She was Melanie’s only family, even though the unfortunate marriage between her father and Venus’s mother lasted a mere three years. Her father’s death had left Melanie in financial hell. The bank took Dad’s house, the finance company reclaimed his battered Ford truck, and the credit card company stuck Melanie with the $10,563 her father had spent. She really should’ve known better than to open that account and give her Dad an “emergency” credit card. Richard Trident had deemed everything an emergency.
Venus offered her a job as the spa’s accountant despite the fact Melanie had been unable to finish her degree. The salary was overly generous -- Venus had given her the help she so desperately needed without making her a charity case.
“You haven’t gone out with me in a while,” said Venus. Her rosebud lips dipped into a pout. “How about attending the opening of Club Mirage this weekend?”
“I’d rather fall into a pit of spikes.”
“It’ll be fun. It’s sorta like a modern version of a masked ball. You get to dress in something shiny and you get to wear a sexy mask. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
“Not as fun as dying slowly on a sharp piece of metal,” said Melanie. “Of course, if I sorta aim when I jump into the pit, one spike could pierce my heart.” She pressed her hands against her chest and widened her gaze. “Gaaaaaaaah.”
“Way to be melodramatic.” Venus leaned forward and handed Melanie her platinum credit card. “I’m pulling out the boss card and pummeling you with it. I hereby order you to take my credit card and slack off. Go shopping. Buy something outrageous and useless. Do not come back here until tomorrow.”
“I still have a lot of work to do,” said Melanie.
“I don’t care. Take the card and go away.”
* * *
Melanie followed the waitress to the outdoor patio. She settled into a black plastic chair and put her bag underneath it. The white umbrella shaded her from the sunshine. She ordered a sandwich, French onion soup, and a chai tea.
Since it was after the lunch rush, the place was nearly empty. In the opposite corner, a couple enjoyed coffee and dessert. The man said something, and the woman laughed. She reached across the table to touch his hand.
Melanie looked away.
The waitress brought her a glass of water and the chai. She grabbed her bag and tugged out her ragged copy of Wizard’s Heart. It was her favorite romance. She’d read it many times over the years. And she owned several copies.
Melanie opened the book and started to read…
At the tender age of twenty-one, Honor Karn fell in love.
As he caressed the luscious body of Giselda, he inhaled her perfumed skin and tasted her satin lips. Her experienced, slim hands slid up his chest, her body writhing under his touch. His touch!
One week ago, in a gilded suite at the top of the Purple Palace, he had lost his virginity to Giselda. He had returned every night since to experience her charms, to hear her sweet promises. They hadn’t spoken of love. But he knew she felt the same as he. He knew she did not talk to her customers the way she talked to him. She didn’t make them feel as special, as needed as she made him feel. In a moment, he would reward her loyalty. Yes, he would give her more than money, more than jewels.
Tonight, he would give her his heart.
He cupped the most intimate part of her, sliding his finger between the folds of slick flesh. Honor remembered Giselda’s lessons well. Stroke my clitoris as you would the petal of a rare flower. Moaning, she grazed her teeth along his shoulder.
“Yes,” she said, “oh yes, my lover.”
Sweat dewed her pale skin; he licked the tiny droplets, drawing patterns on her pale flesh with his tongue. Slowly, he worshipped his goddess, kissing and touching until Giselda shuddered beneath him.
Honor nipped the firm skin above her pubic bone. Only a thin strip of red hair covered her beautiful cunt. He breathed onto the gliste
ning mound, knowing she liked the warm whoosh of air. Her hands fisted in the covers and she looked at him, her jade-green eyes filled with passion.
A woman enjoys a man’s mouth on her pussy. When you taste me, act as though you are partaking of the sweetest nectar. Do not delve between my thighs like a hungry man at a feast. Be gentle. Soft. Slow. Suckle my clit. Lick my pussy lips. Tease my entrance.
He knelt between her legs and parted her trembling thighs. He swept his thumbs along the outside of her labia. Hmm. Her flesh was so soft, so wet with her need for him. Happiness wound through him, tempering his lust. Oh, to spend every evening with his lady this way -- showing her with word and deed how much he loved her. And she would do the same for him.
He slid his hands under her buttocks and pulled her close, inhaling her earthy and intoxicating scent. Her swollen clit was as juicy as a ripe berry. He tugged the morsel between his lips and then he tortured her clit with tiny, brief suckles.
“I taught you too well,” she said in a hoarse voice. Her fingers plundered his hair then clamped onto his skull and pressed him against her wet, swollen cunt. “I’m ready, lover. Make me come!”
Pleased that he had inspired such ardor, Honor flicked his tongue over and over against her clit. Giselda cried out, her hips lifting as her orgasm claimed her.
Her cream coated his chin and cheeks. He soothed her with long strokes, sipping from her feminine honey. Her hands were still wrapped in his hair holding him hostage, then she collapsed to the bed. He bent low and rubbed his face against the coverlet. He loved her juices, loved the smell, the taste. He loved her. All of her.
She pulled at his shoulders, her smile one of feminine satisfaction. “Come here, lover,” she purred, drawing him up her body. “Give me your cock.”
He positioned himself above her. She guided him to her entrance. He pushed inside, shuddering at the tight, slick feel clenching his cock. One stroke nearly made him dizzy with pleasure. They had played too long. He wouldn’t be able to control his urge to come. Trembling, he sucked in a breath. He kissed her neck, trying to stall his own release.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered. Her green eyes seemed filled with love and devotion. Some had compared Giselda’s eyes to emeralds -- hard and cold. But Honor had always thought her gaze soft as the summer fields in the Barrens. “Fuck me, Honor.” Her lyrical voice flowed over him. “Fuck me and come in my pussy.”
Tears of the Goddess! Another stroke sent more pleasure rippling through him. She pulled him close, grasping with hungry little hands; her body arched against him and he let go of his restraint, thrusting harder and faster. Giselda moved her hips against his, her hands sliding to grasp his buttocks. “More,” she whispered in his ear, her breath feathering his lobe. “More.”
He let go then, matching her frantic movements with more lust than grace. His goddess didn’t care… she met his every thrust… matched his every moan… Then she dug her nails into his buttocks and came again.
The pulsations of her orgasm tugged at his cock and he went over, crying out her name as his come filled her.
After a moment, he gathered her into his arms and kissed her cheek. “You are beautiful, Giselda.”
“Yes, lover. I know.” She yawned then pushed at his shoulders. “Goddess, it’s a shame. You may be young and new to bed games, but you are talented. And so very yummy.”
Honor stared at her. “What do you mean? A shame?”
She swung her legs off the bed then looked at him over one pale shoulder. “Because you’ll forget me. You’ll marry someone worthy of your heart.”
Honor grinned. “You are worthy of my heart.”
She shook her head, rising to slip on a robe and to bind her hair. “I know my place, lover. I’m a whore at the Purple Palace. You’re a prince. The only child of True Karn, who is one of the few wizards left in our world.”
She loves me. She doesn’t think I love her. Excited, Honor bounded off the bed. He would prove his love to the beautiful Giselda. After pulling on his black pants, he dug into the pocket of his tunic, which still lay on the floor. He skirted the bed and took Giselda’s hand into his. “I love you. Will you marry me?”
The ring was silver and held a single teal stone -- the color of the Wizard Karn. It was the first stone he had ever made. Wizard stones were rare and it had taken most of his life and studies to learn how to craft a single gem. Twenty-five years ago, his father had given his mother a similar ring. To this day, they loved and honored each other. And that was what he wanted for himself and Giselda -- a life of love.
“You want me to marry you?”
Honor nodded and Giselda smiled. “Do you offer me your heart, Honor?”
“Yes.”
The room filled with purple smoke. Coughing, he waved away the pungent fumes that reeked of dark magic. Giselda’s hand slipped from his. When the cloud dissipated, he was facing not Giselda, but another woman. The years had not been kind to her. Her body was thin and bony. Her blonde hair was streaked with gray and her face was a mask of bitterness, the lines mapping every disappointment. But it was her eyes that shocked him the most. The green orbs were filled with hatred.
“You’ve given me your heart,” she said in a gravelly voice.
The evil glee infused in those words sent Honor’s stomach plummeting to his toes. “I… no… what have you done to Giselda?”
“She doesn’t exist, you silly fool. Twenty-five years! A long time to get revenge. Gave me time to plan, to plot. To cast the right spells. I lost everything, you know. Ownership of The Palace. My customers. My beauty. All because a plain little accountant captured the heart of a wizard. The wizard who was once mine.”
Honor felt horror claw at his belly and crowd his throat. “My parents? You hate them?”
“To the depths of my soul, lover. But killing them is a hard thing to do. After they helped end the Great War, the Goddess granted immortality to wizards and their mates. Bah!” She shuffled to the bed and sat down. “And you… you who are the first wizard born without the wizard’s moon curse. You have the same blood, the same protection. Can’t kill you, either, can I? But I can bespell you. And doing so will cause unbearable pain to your parents.” She cackled.
Honor’s feet felt glued to the floor. He couldn’t move his legs at all.
The old woman watched him, her thin lips pulling into an awful smile. “Don’t bother trying to leave. The spell is cast. You are cursed and your heart is mine.”
“Vivian!”
In the blink of an eye, his parents appeared in a flash of teal sparkles. His father looked the same as he always did, tall, imposing, his longish blond hair cut in jagged lengths around his face. His teal eyes flashed with anger. “Relinquish my son.”
“No.” The old woman’s gaze fell onto the small, brown-haired woman next to True Karn. “Alissa. You don’t deserve him. Deserve the life you have. Love. Immortality. A son.” Tears rolled off Vivian’s cheeks. “You have everything. And I have nothing.”
“You made your choices,” said Alissa. She looked at Honor. “Are you all right?”
Honor felt completely frozen now. His body wouldn’t move -- not even his mouth. He gazed at his mother, panic burbling. Help me! Please!
“What have you done to him?” demanded True. He grasped Honor’s shoulder, but Honor couldn’t feel the warmth or pressure of his Dad’s hand. His gaze found his mother’s. I’m sorry, he tried to convey. I love you both.
Vivian raised her hand. Light pulsed and when it faded, a heart-shaped, fist-sized diamond lay in her palm. Inside it glittered the ring he’d offered Giselda. “The essence of Honor’s heart is here, with his token of love.”
True sent a beam of teal light toward the diamond, but it merely bounced off.
“You can’t take it or destroy it,” said Vivian. She grinned. “Without his heart, he’s turning to stone. And stone he will remain for all of his days.”
“No!” cried Alissa. She lifted her hands and teal light whirled,
hardening into a crystalline dagger.
“Go ahead. My death will not end the curse.” Vivian stood and walked to Alissa, her eyes blazing with malice. “You’ve changed so much, my little accountant. There was a time when you wouldn’t dare to raise your eyes to me, much less your hand.”
“Harm none,” whispered Alissa. She looked at her son and wept. “That is every witch and wizard’s oath.”
The dagger clattered to the marble floor. Honor watched his mother drop to her knees. He couldn’t form tears or words. How sorry he was to have brought his parents to this horror. Mother!
“Please, Vivian. Release my son. I will take his place.”
True knelt next to his wife and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Am I not the one you want to harm, Vivian? Take me. I honor my wife’s pledge and my son’s sacrifice.”
Vivian crowed in triumph.
Then the room glowed brightly, so brightly that Honor could not see anything but the soft, golden light.
“Neither witch nor wizard shall harm those who are in my favor,” said the most beautiful voice Honor had ever heard. “The Karn wizards are under my protection.”
“The curse cannot be broken, Goddess!” Vivian shouted angrily.
Honor strained to see, but his vision was blackening. And his hearing was fading, too. He’d lost all sensation in his body and had long stopped trying to move. He couldn’t even feel the beat of his own heart anymore. The golden light wrapped around him, as comforting as his mother’s arms.
“I cannot undo what has been wrought, but I am not without recourse. Honor Karn will not be a statue forever. Each month during the wizard’s moon, he shall wake and seek the means to end his curse.”
“And if he does not find the means?” asked Alissa in a broken whisper. “What kind of life will he have if he’s only allowed two days a month as a human? And what of us, his parents? Through your divinity, we are immortal. I cannot bear knowing my son is trapped and alone for eternity while I live.”
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