Dionysian, most certainly, she thought with an inward giggle. Priapic even. She could see now why many people put fig leaves over the privates of their art work so as to not shock visitors. Surely looking at something as gorgeous as this all day would be most distracting.
"I'm sorry. You're gently raised and should not be forced to tolerate such an insult," he said in a low tone.
"Insult?" she said in confusion.
"My uncontrollable ardor for your gentle touch and presence."
"You mean..." Her gaze fastened on him unabashedly now.
"Yes, er, that," he said with a blush. "I hope you don't think I always walk around in such a manner!"
"I never really thought about it at all, to be honest. I don't feel insulted, though. What happened to me before was brute force, animal lust. With you, well, it's different. A meeting of minds and emotions. I think I can understand how you feel, actually. You're certain a most handsome man. Pity women don't do, well, that."
He laughed bitterly. "Now I know I'm dreaming. A woman like you flirting with a maniac like me. I'm bound to wake up in my squalid little cell all alone, cold and starving, at any moment."
She grasped his hand. "I'm here, Simon. And I'm going to cut your hair and trim you beard. Antony, have you got any food with you?"
Her cousin searched his pockets and bag. "Aye, a bit of bread and cheese I stuffed in my coat and forgot to eat, and a couple of packets of hunting chocolate." He put the cloth wrapped parcel and two bars in their cardboard packets onto the counter next to him.
"Can you manage to eat, Simon? That ought to tide you over until we can come see you again tomorrow."
He shook his head and sighed. "I'm grateful for the food, but as for the rest, please put it out of your mind. They'll never let you. And it will be more than your life is worth to even ask."
"Let us worry about that. We have friends. Powerful people who will be willing to help. Who can investigate why you've been put in here. Did your family do this to..."
"No, never," he gritted out.
"Here, eat the cheese," she commanded, when she saw his eyes going out of focus again. "Eat it, Simon."
He obeyed, chewing mechanically, his eyes tightly shut against the pain, against the memories.
After a time she pressed the bread into his hands, and then a couple of squares of the chocolate. She made him sip some water, and when he next opened his eyes she was holding a small hand mirror in front of his face and asked him, "Better now?"
He gaped. "Mon Dieu. I scarcely recognise myself."
"Just as well you didn't see yourself all shaggy, then."
"Thank you. You truly are a ministering angel." He took her hand to place a warm kiss on the back of it.
"And you my avenging one. You saved us. I won't forget that, or forget a friend."
"You'll wish you had by the time they're through with us," he warned with a grim look.
She raised her chin defiantly. "I don't frighten easily."
"And even if you don't, your family..."
"Are pretty much all in this room, apart from my cousins Randall and Michael. Michael was really unwell for a long time with all sorts of nightmares after the war, but no one locked him away in a madhouse. Now he's married and happy."
"Then why did you put your sister in here?" he asked quietly, with a long look at the blonde still prone on the floor.
Gabrielle sighed. "Because I didn't know any better. Her husband lied to me, said it was the best thing all around. That she would be safe." She gave a bitter laugh. "I thought they were going to help her. But some of the doctors are as mad as the inmates. I mean, forcing them to drink salt water, electrocuting them. It's like torture."
He shivered at the word, and met her gaze. He knew she had seen them, the scars all over his body. But of course she had been too polite or too scared to say anything.
They now showed mostly white against his flesh, but a few livid red ones where they had been particularly brutal demonstrated that a human hand had made them quite deliberately.
There were also a couple of small blue tattoos on his arms she couldn't quite make out in the dim light of the room now that the sun was setting, but she knew what they meant.
"You were in the war, Simon, like many other men I know." It was a statement, not a question. "So whatever happened to you is not your fault. You don't deserve to be here. But please, eat up and then perhaps we can get a bit more comfortable. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel a bit cold. There's only the one boiler in here and it's for water, not heat, and we might not have much fuel to keep it going. Plus, night is falling fast. I think we need to start considering what we're going to do until someone comes to rescue us."
"I might have some tea in my bag. That'll perk us all up a bit," Antony said, trying to sound cheerful. "But you're right, we have little food left now, and night is coming down dark. If they were going to do something I would have hoped they'd have come to help us by now."
Gabrielle located the tea, and a small beaker to steep the leaves in and dilute with more hot water. She poured it out into three beakers and filled them to the top with hot. Antony sat back on his heels and drank thirstily. Gabrielle blew on another beaker until the drink was cooler and tried to get her sister to drink. Lucinda swallowed reflexively, but did not open her eyes. While she worked, Antony scouted around for a chamber pot and drew the curtains around one of the smaller tubs. "That will have to do, I'm afraid." "It's fine," Gabrielle reassured him. He washed his hands and then began to look through all the lower cupboards in the room for more useful items.
"Oh ho, a packet of bikes and some more tea here, and a little thing of milk from this morning. And look, some sandwiches and a couple of meat pies. We can have a real feast. But this just makes me wonder all the more. I can't understand where all the staff have gone."
Simon shook his head. "I can't understand it either. Between here and the kitchen there are always at least half a dozen people on duty. Where can they all be?"
"I think they gave the patients something and told them all to clear out. What did they say when you went to the gate, Antony?"
"That they didn't have enough staff. Couldn't let me out and couldn't let anyone in."
"So we're definitely trapped in here until someone comes to rescue us, and with no staff on hand to subdue everyone, that could be ages." She handed Simon a meat pie, and then went over to check behind the curtain to inspect the toilet facilities. Some further hunting revealed several chamber pots and a drain and sink to empty and wash them. They had all they needed now except for blankets, and so she now began a search for them.
Her cousin nodded. "That's my guess. Until whatever it is that's provoked them into acting this way wears off."
"So you agree with me. They were drugged."
"Aye, I think so. I don't know why, but it's the only thing that could explain what we've seen here today."
She sighed and offered another pie to Simon. He shook his head.
"It's untainted, safe, and there's plenty now. Go ahead. You need to keep your strength up," she urged/
"Not too much, dear," the doctor cautioned. "His stomach isn't used to it and might well rebel."
"He's right. A little at a time, later. And you ought to eat too, Gabrielle," Simon said.
She sat down beside Antony on the floor, sharing his warmth and her sister's. "I'm fine. My main concern now is you and Lucinda?"
He shifted around to peep under her skirts. "So far, so good. I wonder if they have any candles in here."
"Ah, yes, silly me. I'll look." She got up and began to gather everything she could think of to make them all comfortable for the night, or at least try to. It was going to be damnably cold without any fuel, unless they could hack apart one of the wooden tubs and use it for kindling.
"Good idea," Antony said when she suggested it.
He had a couple of small saws in his bag he usually used for amputations, and he and Simon soon had the tub i
n pieces, and started on a second one for good measure. Then they filled the boiler and felt the difference in the chilly tiled room at once.
While they sorted out the fuel and heat, Gabrielle made up two pallets out of towelling and sheeting. At the top of the cupboard she at last found a couple of blankets. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
Having laid out the bedding by the boiler, there remained only having to get Lucinda onto one of the pallets.
To her surprise Antony insisted on staying with her. "You and Simon can bed down on that pallet. I need to know if she wakes in the middle of the night."
Gabrielle blushed and Simon looked away.
"No, really, I should stay with Lucinda--"
"No, really, you would do better to share your warmth with Simon and keep an eye on him," Antony said, all notions of propriety taking second place to the needs of his patient Lucinda.
"Unusual family you have," he muttered. "Letting you sleep with a madman."
Chapter Five
Gabrielle sighed. "You're not mad, Simon, and I'm perfectly safe. More's the pity." She gave him a small shy smile. "You've seen what he can do with that saw."
Simon cringed and laid down on the blankets. He felt both enervated and inexpressibly weary. "No, in behind me," he said shortly, shaking so badly that his teeth almost chattered.
"What is it? Are you ill again?"
"Non. J'ai envie de toi," he whispered.
She translated his words quickly and shivered herself. I want you.
"I'm sorry. I can make up another..."
"Not on your life!" he growled in a husky tone, then laughed again. "Just lie down with your chest to my back and we'll be fine. I'm damned if I'm going to let you freeze just because I've got a horn the size of a rhino's,"
She giggled and earned herself a long stare from Antony. She made sure her hands were above the blankets while he watched, but as soon as her cousin curled himself around her unconscious sister carefully, she let one hand slip down into the top opening of Simon's shirt.
He flinched and gasped. He cleared his throat as Antony raised his head to look at him.
"Another seizure?" the doctor asked, a frown of worry creasing his brow.
"No, I'm fine. Just getting comfortable on this hard floor," Simon said tightly.
Antony tilted his head slightly, listening. At length he said, "They seemed to have settled down a bit for the night. They must have spent their fury. Still perhaps one of us should sit up and keep watch..."
"It's too cold for that and we really have had a long day. I'll take the first turn. I'll wake you if I need you."
"All right, if you're sure."
"The food has done wonders for me. I'll be fine."
"Warm enough?" Gabrielle asked as he settled down facing the door.
"Steaming," he said through gritted teeth, earning himself another stroke of Gabrielle's hand.
She didn't like to think she was teasing him or leading him on, but if anyone was in need of some human comfort it was Simon.
She stroked his chest, arm and hand. He clasped her fingers against his chest. When he was sure Antony wasn't looking, he brought it to his lips to plant a long, lingering wet kiss upon it.
Gabrielle could feel her hips thrusting against his backside and her knees coming up even more tightly to fit into his curled body. She couldn't imagine how it seemed so natural to be lying with this man in such a way.
But ever since they had met she had been drawn to him irresistibly. All he had to do was look at her and she felt sure she would melt into a puddle at his feet.
It was a good comparison, she decided, for she felt the most incredible moist heat flooding through her now as he pushed backwards against her, filling her lap. Her breasts were flattened against his back intimately. Boldly she unlooped the bib of the apron from around her neck, and dragged the loose shirt up to his shoulders.
She pressed and glided her breasts along the scarred flesh of his back, wondering as she did so just how much he could feel with the skin so damaged. Her nipples peaked at the contact and she shivered with longing.
He grabbed her hand now and thrust it down between his legs. She started and would have pulled away, but he had already released her wrist, giving her a choice.
She touched his manhood again, softer than satin, harder than steel, and felt it pulsing into her hand. Fascinated, she insinuated her fingers under the waistband of the trousers. She could hear him grind his teeth.
"Quelle une femme incroyable," he gasped when she dared move her hand.
Gabrielle had never been told what an incredible woman she was before. It made her feel even more heated.
She squeezed him, hoping that might silence him before her cousin, five feet away, noticed anything was amiss. But it only made things worse.
Simon sounded as if he were choking, and she covered the noise with a cough. Her hand was now very damp indeed, and she guessed what had happened even as she was surprised at the speed with which it had occurred.
She wriggled her other hand down and reached into the pocket of her apron. She fished out a cleaning cloth, and handed it to him under the blanket.
"Merci beaucoup, ma chérie."
He mopped her hand and then himself. When she brought her other hand back under his neck once more he kissed her hand again.
"Bonne nuit."
"Are you all right?" she whispered.
"Just so tired now. Too much excitement for one day. But thank you, my treasure. I know it is only gratitude on your part for having helped you and yours sister, but--" "Gratitude? No, it's more like--" "You have no idea what this means to me, to be treated like, well, like a man again, in every sense of the word. Especially by someone as lovely as you."
She looked over to see if Antony had stirred but he was still lying with his eyes closed. She removed her hand from his trousers and sought his left hand.
She pulled it backwards and rested it on her buttock. His hand was so huge that a small shift had his fingers splayed over both. He also rubbed up and down the small of her back until she was sure she was on fire.
A few gathered handfuls of skirt gave him better access to her posterior. As she grew more heated she reached to the front to feel him once more.
He was both pliable and rigid, and she could sense him gathering his energies for another torrent of passion. With another look at Antony, who was now snoring, he rolled gently onto his back.
"Kiss me, please?"
He had brushed his teeth after their meal and was now willing to bestow what he had felt embarrassed to give before. She drew the covers right up over his shoulder, shielding them somewhat from her cousin's gaze, and brushed her lips softly against his.
"Mon Dieu, I'm going to explode again," he rasped against her ear as he nuzzled her.
She could feel the rousing power in his loins as it gathered. This time she took a much less short and tentative stroke. Her fingers cupped his tender pouch lightly before stroking all the way up his shaft.
She felt him swell and surge. His hand grabbed hers to trap her palm around the throbbing velvety tip. It sprang into her delicate hand and he rammed his mouth over hers to silence his gasp of passion.
She tasted his tongue and actually found herself gladly drawing it into her mouth.
One man had tried to treat her thus at a ball one evening after he had had too much to drink. She had thought it the most repellent thing in the world.
But now it was as if she wanted to inhale and absorb every part of Simon's body into her, starting with his mouth. No, this was not mere gratitude. Whatever it was, shock over having been saved, or the fact that every moment with Simon left her more and more attracted to him, she was finding it harder and harder to draw back from the brink of she knew not what.
She suddenly realised her legs had spread and her own flesh had swollen and distended. She was shocked. It was almost as if she had grown a new part of her body, something which could only ever be conjured
up by the incredible passion he evoked deeply within her.
"I can't. No. My sister--" She scurried up from the pallet and hurried over to where Lucinda lay.
"Hmm, what?" Antony muttered, blearily opening one eye.
"Oh, er, nothing. Just checking that everYone is all right."
He rose on one elbow. "I should be checking you. That was quite a blow to your ribs."
"I'm fine, really," she said, waving him back down onto the pallet. "I think I'll just have more tea and then head to bed."
The Rakehell Regency Romance Series Boxed Set 6 Page 6