When her breasts swelled and nipples tightened, she lifted her hands to the pouty tips and twisted. Sharp spikes of sensation burned through her veins, connected the diamond-hard tips of her breasts with the pulsing core of her clit. When the crisis came, she crested with a smothered scream, her balled fist stuffed in her mouth.
Her climax blasted through the memories. Shivering in the aftermath of her climax, she pulled her drenched fingers from her pussy and brought them to her lips. Rolling onto her belly, she drew the covers up over her head, buried her face in her pillows, and wept.
Dare had ruined her body for anyone but him. Her orgasm had been nothing close to the one he’d given her in the garden. When she came for him, she’d screamed aloud, the sensations so overwhelming, she hadn’t cared who heard or even saw.
Chastity blinked her tears away. Body still aching, nipples still stiff and full, she firmed her jaw. There was only one thing to she could do. She’d present her offer once more. This time, she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
Chapter Five
“You did what?” Alicia fell back against the mound of pillows, her cup of chocolate wobbling in her hand.
Chassy sighed. “I tell you, I thought the man would drop dead from a stroke, he grew so angry. I never suspected he’d have such tender sensibilities.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand what I said to anger him so. Don’t all men want the freedom of sex without the ball and chain of marriage?”
“Surprisingly, not all do. I know a large number of men who revel in the married state. Once they get past the hurdle of the actual proposal, they settle down quite nicely.”
“He hadn’t proposed. In fact, he asked me to come to his rooms so we could finish what we started.”
“Well, technically, he couldn’t honorably ask you to marry him when you hadn’t officially broken your betrothal with Bernard.”
Chastity went over to the chocolate pot and poured herself a cup of her cousin’s favorite brew. Snagging a handful of scones, she walked over to where Alicia was lying. “Scoot over.”
Alicia drew her legs up and made room for Chassy at the foot of the bed. “Don’t keep me in the dark; what else happened?”
“First, let’s get back to what you just said. You know... that statement about how Dare is honorable? Is this the same guy you were warning me about last night, the guy who is supposed to be bad for me, a social pariah?”
The marchioness fluffed her pillows and threw herself back on them. “Everything I said is true. He’s all of that and then some. I think it’s worse that he can exhibit honor at times and still act so dishonorably when it suits him. Now give... tell me what he did after you dropped that bomb.”
Chassy took a sip of her chocolate. She kept her head down when she answered. “He turned me down. Flat. For a moment, I thought he would hit me. Then he left. That’s when I came back into the ballroom and made my public ‘hell-no-I-won’t-go’ speech to Bernard. He took it well, by the way, don’t you think?”
Alicia smirked. “As well as one of Father’s lapdogs could take it, knowing he’ll have to give the great man bad news.” She sat up. “All kidding aside, Dare is a dangerous man. Angering him like you said you did could have seriously scary repercussions.”
“He should be worrying about the repercussions I’m planning,” Chassy hissed. “Do you know how much it hurts to be left primed and ready, and then have the man walk off in a huff?”
“If Monty did that to me, he’d be sleeping in the nursery for a month!”
They laughed together.
When they subsided, Ali asked, “So what are you going to do now?”
“Make him change his mind, of course. I don’t want to be a virgin anymore, but since I met him, I don’t want anyone else to be my first. It has to be him.”
“You’re in love with him.”
She stiffened in her seat. “I am not! I’m in lust with him, yes, but not the other ‘L’ word.”
“I think you’re lying to yourself, cuz. I’ve never seen you like you were last night.”
Chastity stood up and placed her empty cup back on the tray with a little snap of her wrist. “When are you getting up? I want to go shopping.”
“I’m still sleepy. Monty kept me up late last night, celebrating Father’s name on his petition. His spirits were... shall we say... very elevated!” She brought a hand up to cover her giggles.
“I really don’t want to hear about you hitting the jackpot when I crapped out. Get your lazy butt up and out of that bed and get dressed.”
Alicia threw her covers back and swung her legs out of the bed. “You are such a tyrant. I’ll go, but I get to drive the flitter this time.”
“‘Oh, hell, no,’ she said to the kamikaze flitter pilot. The last time you were at the controls, we were ticketed seven times.”
“Monty fixed them.”
“In seven minutes.”
“No one told me they had changed the speed limits there.”
Chassy raised her eyebrows. “They didn’t, Ali. They’ve been subsonic since the landing.”
“What can I say? I like to go fast.”
“What can I say? You’re not driving!”
Ali pouted while she signaled for her maid. “You are such a flathead when it’s anyone else but you acting up.”
“News flash! I may ‘act up,’ but I never endanger anyone by my actions. You can’t say that about your driving techniques. Get your bath, dress, and hurry up, or I’ll leave without you.”
Ali paused on her way to the bathing room. “And I want to go with you... why?”
Chassy poked out her tongue. “Because I’m going to flit around ’til I find Dare’s hangout, and your nosy ass will miss all the action.”
With a laugh, Ali skipped into the disrobing room. “I’ll be out in ten minutes. Don’t dare leave without me.”
Chassy kept the smile on her face until the door closed behind Alicia. When she heard the snick, she sank down on the side of the bed and buried her head in her hands.
Ali thought they were going to find Dare so she could proposition him again, pressure him into an affair he’d already said he didn’t want; but she needed to find Dare and apologize, to ask him if they could start over again. Her mind shied away from the memory of how badly it had hurt when he’d turned her offer down.
Pain had flashed throughout her system, burning along her nerves like carbolic-acid-etched steel. The scary part had been realizing her pain had very little to do with still being horny as a celebeast in heat, and more to do with fearing he was walking out of her life before he’d walked into it.
Why did she only remember what Liana said when it was too late?
* * * * *
The men rushed into the apartment, Dare shooing away the last of the persistent angel-serpents that clung, fluttered, cooed, and groomed him every chance they got. Going outside in the daylight hours always ended this way. Thank the gods the angel-serpents weren’t nocturnal beasties -- he’d have no social life at all.
“Damned persistent things won’t leave me alone.”
“You aren’t aggressive enough with them.” His brother never took his eyes from the flash of iridescent colors. No one could ignore the beautiful, winged, snakelike creatures. Their presence drew fascinated stares and wishful thoughts of being accepted as a companion. In all of Landing history, no one had ever drawn a cloud of them the way Dare did.
“They know you don’t mean it when you shoo them away.”
“Oh, I mean it, all right. I just have no intention of accidentally angering one and dying a quick, horribly painful death.”
C.C. picked up the decanter of bourbon before glancing over his shoulder. “I don’t think you have to worry about that. Those serpents are highly protective of you. I’ve never seen the like. In fact, if we went according to legend, you couldn’t possibly be guilty of anything, because the angel-serpents only flock to those they’ve judged pure in heart.”
Dare s
norted, amusement lighting his countenance. “I wasn’t feeling very pure in heart last night, I’ll tell you. After being propositioned by the woman I planned to make my wife, being pure was the last thing on my mind. I wanted to fuck her to within an inch of her life and then beat that last inch out of her.”
Chezann’s eyebrows twitched together. He tilted his head to the side and studied his elder sibling, a confused glint in his eyes. “You never came back into the house. I saw Chassy, and she looked like she’d been run over by an out-of-control celebeast. I wanted to ask her what happened, but when I got close enough for conversation, I saw her eyes...”
Dare jerked around to glare at his brother, quick panic running up his spine and jangling along his nerve endings. “What was wrong with her eyes?”
“They were lifeless. Dead. She looked traumatized.” C.C.’s voice held censure and disapproval. He flopped down on the long settee in the drawing room. “She didn’t deserve whatever it was you did to her. I didn’t defer my interest in her for you to mistreat her.”
“Mistreat her? Mistreat her? Hell, I was ready to offer her marriage, and she offered me carte blanche!”
After a moment of shocked silence, C.C. threw himself back on the settee, convulsed with laughter. “You’ve got to be kidding! She really offered you carte blanche? Oh, to have been a fly on the wall --”
“She really did.” Dare snapped, his words clipped and surly. He still couldn’t believe it. He had found the woman of his dreams, and all she had been thinking of was turning him into her gigolo!
“Well, what were the terms?” Dare’s younger brother could hardly get the query out without choking on his giggles. “I mean... was it a generous offer?”
“You find this funny, Chezann?”
C.C. sobered at the warning chill radiating from his elder brother. Dare only called him by his full name when he was beyond irked at him. But he could only maintain his sober mien for a moment before his grin broke out again.
“Well, yeah, but I can see you don’t.” Laughter erupted, and it took several tries to get his words out. “But you should, Darian, you really should,” he gasped. “The situation is hilarious!”
“You think so?”
“Look at it from anyone’s point of view but your own. The most notorious lady’s man of New Britain falls in love for the first time, and, before he can propose marriage, is propositioned as a mistress.”
Dare’s empty tumbler sailed past C.C.’s head to shatter against the far wall. Teeth clenched against renewed pain, he stalked over to his brother. “We connected last night. Even you had to have seen it. It wasn’t a figment of my imagination. Was it?”
“No, you didn’t imagine it. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Thank you for that.” Dare clasped C.C. on the shoulder, gave a squeeze. “Anyway, when I saw her, everything clicked, fell into place. For the first time in a long time, my life felt right. You know, these last eight years people have clothed me in guilt until my innocence felt like an ill-fitting coat. No one believed it belonged to me.”
No longer able to sit still or talk calmly without moving, Dare began to pace off the confines of the studio. “She took one look at me and saw straight to my soul. She knew I was innocent. Do you know what that meant to me? How it cleansed me?”
Dare inhaled and held the breath for a long time, then let it out slow and easy. His voice dropped. “Do you have any idea how I’ve felt all these years, knowing women spread their legs for me not because they think me innocent but because they believe I’m guilty? They fuck me for the nasty thrill of trysting with a murderer, a deceiver, a man with no honor or brotherly love. Society thinks I whore for money and labels me a gigolo. I used to deny the term, but what else do you call a man who allows himself to be used like that?”
“I call him brother.”
Dare turned and looked at the only one who had expressed faith in him during the last eight years. His face relaxed and his lips quirked in a soft smile. “You saved my life, you know. I was at the lowest point when you came to me -- ready to put a gun to my head and pull the trigger.”
Chezann nodded at him as he arose and went to the bar. He poured them both another drink. “I kinda thought that might be the case when I approached you. I wasn’t sure you’d allow me to help you.”
Dare sighed and thankfully accepted the tumbler of golden liquor. “You offered me something inestimable that night. Your trust gave me back the love of a brother.”
“I have never felt cheated. Over the years, you’ve returned whatever I gave a hundredfold.”
Dare held up his glass and gazed into the amber depths. “You know what she did to me, to us?” He didn’t wait for an answer.
“She took what was growing between us, took something fragile, sacred, and fine and turned it into something crude and sordid. While I was dreaming up ways to offer her love, honor, and fidelity, she was busy mapping out terms for a tawdry affair.
“For being ready to service her whenever she feels the need, I will have a fashionable townhouse fully furnished and staffed; a monthly allowance of three thousand pounds; and in addition, she will pay off all my outstanding debts. Oh, I forgot to mention she is a virgin,” he snarled. “If I initiate her without pain, the monthly stipend doubles.”
Chezann’s laughter dried up. His eyes widened at the insult Chastity had served Dare. As he watched his older brother storm about his bachelor digs, his stance grew wary and cautious. “I’m glad she refused my suit,” he admitted. “I don’t think even I am up to handling a situation like this. Since I haven’t heard any uproar, may I assume you hid the body?”
“I haven’t killed her... yet!” Dare growled, angry again after verbalizing the chit’s boldfaced terms. “I’m more tempted to whip her curvy ass. That wild little tumbleweed has gotten her way far too long. She needs trimming back.”
“So what do you plan to do about it?”
Dare came to an abrupt halt, a smile widening his mobile lips, his eyes narrowing with some wicked intent. “I believe I shall accept Chastity’s offer. In the meantime, I’ll teach the forward little baggage the difference between being a wife and a mistress. Only after she admits the error of her ways will I marry her!”
“There’s only one problem with that scenario, brother.”
“What’s that?”
Amid uncontrollable laughter, C.C. got out, “You’re the mistress.”
Chapter Six
The flitter hovered over the entrance of Hookman’s Lending Book Store. Inside the leftover technology of a dead world, Chastity and Alicia scanned the crowd, trying to decide where they should begin their search.
“I will never understand why the Touchdowns decided to pattern this world after Regency Britain. I mean, what was the point? Look at us. We might have been thinking to go back to a better time, a gentler time, but we brought their troubles with us.”
Alicia looked confused. “I don’t understand what you’re saying. Our society is stable and --”
Chastity turned a disbelieving gaze on her cousin. “Do you ever listen to yourself? Who was the one who took me to task last night about visiting the slum-infested portion of Whitechapel?” She threw up her hands. “Ali, we have the super rich exploiting the super poor. Eventually, if something isn’t done, we’ll have the same upheavals that tore apart the original society.”
“But what can we do about it? We are only two women... how can we expect to change the world?”
Chassy looked grim. “We do it one step at a time. And we can teach our children to do the same. We have a responsibility to the underprivileged in our society. If we abandon them to their despair, we will be guilty of suicide, for our neglect will bring about our ruination.”
“Good galaxies, Chassy, I can’t wrap my mind around all this gloom and doom you are spouting. Today is too beautiful to spend it speculating on a dreary future that might not even happen. I thought we were supposed to be finding your boyfriend.”
“Dare is far from being a boy. There’s not a man in New Britain that can hold a candle to him.”
“There!” Ali shook her finger at her cousin. “That sentiment is probably why Monty can’t stand you. You’re quick to point out his shortcomings.”
“Hey, what does he care what I think? As long as you can’t see his shortcomings, that’s all that should concern him.”
“Chassy, isn’t that Chezann?” Ali tapped the onboard visual screen. It showed a figure walking away from Hookman’s.
“Yeah, that looks like him.”
“If we can find where he’s going, he might lead us to Acer. He can usually be found in his company. But we can’t just walk up to him in the street. We’ll go to Hookman’s and do some discreet snooping.”
At the thought of seeing Dare again, Chassy’s heart thumped once and then settled back into a slightly faster beat. Her tummy felt hollow and cold. She pressed a hand to her middle, trying to contain the fluttery sensations beating there. “Yes, let’s go find Dare. I have many things to say to him.”
They exited the craft after setting the control for it to remain aloft and ready for reboarding upon their return. The ramp retracted when they reached the bottom, sliding soundlessly back into the skin of the ship.
The proprietor of Hookman’s greeted them at the door, ushering the two women into his establishment with a lot of toadying and scraping. “Ladies, welcome, welcome to my humble shop. Allow me to serve you some tea while you browse our selection. You will find we stock the latest journals and novels. We even have a large section of romantic tales on the back wall.”
The cousins exchanged an amused look, the need for words between them erased due to their practice of communicating with a glance or a raised eyebrow.
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