by Saber Vale
“Of course,” Cormac said, “I know how this place can be, don’t worry.”
Cormac sat down next to Darleen and put his arm around her. I reminded myself once again that we weren’t together, they’d known each other a long time and nothing was going on, it was none of my business anyway…
“I… I don’t think I want to sleep in the servant’s quarters,” Darleen said, looking up at Cormac with the face of a helpless, terrified child.
“That’s fine, you can stay in my room,” I said, “there are two beds.
“You guys hear noises every night?” she asked.
“Not every night,” I said with a shrug.
She didn’t look reassured.
We went back to the West Wing and turned on some lights.
“I think I need a glass of wine,” Darleen said, “my nerves are frazzled.”
“How about some excellent port?” Cormac said, already uncorking the bottle.
“I don’t even think I can sleep after that,” she said as she took her glass, “how do you guys do it?”
“Wine,” Cormac said, “lots and lots of wine.”
He poured me a glass too and I took it gratefully.
“I… I never believed in ghosts before,” Darleen said, “but I swear, I swear I heard voices…”
“I really think it’s something about the way the wind whips through the castle, especially since we opened some of the windows,” I said, though I wasn’t entirely sure.
“I don’t know, I wish I could believe that,” Darleen said.
“We haven’t seen any evidence that anyone else has been here, and we certainly haven’t seen a ghost,” Cormac said, “I’m starting to get used to a few stray screams and whispers in the middle of the night.”
Darleen shuddered.
I sat tapping the diamond ring I’d taken to wearing on the dining room table. Suddenly I looked down and realized I was wearing the ruby necklace, a black t-shirt, and two diamond rings, both easily three or four karats. Between Cormac’s ghost talk and my casually worn jewelry worth half-a-million dollars, we must look pretty nuts.
“It’s been strange since we got here,” I said, “we’ve learned a lot about the last people who lived here, my grandfather and his lovers.”
“Lovers?” Darleen asked.
“Yeah, a couple of women,” I said, “Caroline and Sophie, Sophie is the one who died.”
“What happened to Caroline?”
“We don’t know,” said Cormac, “all of her stuff is still here, but she seemed to leave right around the time when Sophie died.”
“Is that whose jewelry your wearing?”
“Well,” I said with a shrug, “it’s mine now, but yeah, I guess it was hers.”
“Where did Sophie die?”
“In the dungeon,” Cormac said, “the ropes are still hanging there.”
“Jesus,” said Darleen, “ya’ll are giving me the willies more and more by the minute, no offense…”
“It all really is weird,” I admitted, “we’ve been reading their journals, what we can find of them…”
“What are those like?”
Cormac and I shot each other a look.
“What?” Darleen said, “you guys know you do that a lot, right? Look at each other like you’ve got a secret?”
“Sorry,” I muttered, “I think we’re not sure what we should divulge… it’s all very…”
“The diaries are very… explicit…” Cormac interrupted.
“Explicit?”
“Sexually,” Cormac said with a sigh, “the Baron had a very robust sex life.”
“Ah…” Darleen said, “can I take a look?”
“Sure,” Cormac said, producing Caroline’s diary, which had been in a drawer in the kitchen, “some light bedtime reading.”
Darleen flipped through it, then opened it to a page in the middle.
“… B and I went to a brothel in Paris where we could pick any girl we pleased. We settled on a plump little brunette with short cropped hair and lips like a ripe strawberry. B spanked her and made her pleasure me with that very mouth. When I’d come, she begged for mercy while B rode her hard, pinching her tiny little brown nipples. She whimpered like a puppy as he took her ass. I watched with glee as he fucked her until she learned to like it, then begged for more as B stroked her little cunt and I kissed her. The taste of her pain as sweet as honey on my tongue…”
We all sat in stunned, uncomfortable silence for a moment.
“Yeah,” Cormac said finally, “kind of like that.”
“That is straight up raunchy,” Darleen said, her charming, Texan way of speaking slowly growing on me.
It was, I realized, the world we’d been living in, sexy, dark, erotic, mysterious. Darleen was still on the outside looking in, and what she saw was kind of freaking her out, but drawing her in the same way it had us.
“Ok,” she said, flipping the page and reading on, “…B tied me up to the dungeon wall, cold and damp on my naked skin, and slipped a blindfold over my eyes, plunging me into pitch black. He used a riding crop to torture me, stinging my nipples, teasing my cunt, until I could hardly stand up and collapsed against the wall, the chains and cuffs holding me there like a prisoner. When he was satisfied that I was broken he laid me across the chaise lounge and fucked me relentlessly, until I’d come over and over and was nothing but a quivering puddle of whip-marked flesh…”
“She’s a pretty good writer,” Cormac said thoughtfully.
“I don’t know if I want to go down to the dungeon right away or back to town and get the next bus out of here,” Darleen breathed.
I saw a hint of pink in her cheeks, a flush that betrayed her otherwise cool disposition. I felt a twinge of jealousy, but I felt something else, too… looking at her, I felt turned on.
“We should really try to get some sleep,” I said, wanting to diffuse the charged energy in the room.
“One more big glass of port and I may be able to sleep,” Darleen said, lifting her glass to Cormac.
He poured us all another round and we drank without speaking, letting the electricity from listening to Caroline’s erotica quiet to a simmer. I looked over at Cormac, who met my eyes. We shared a white-hot moment and I wondered if it was even remotely possible to stay away from him when I had a heat in my belly compelling every fiber of my being to get him inside of me.
“Ok, off to bed,” Cormac said, draining his glass.
He was teasing me, daring me to stay away from him.
Darleen and I, both turned on, both confused and intrigued, watched him as he walked down the hallway to the bathroom to brush his teeth, his white t-shirt fading to black as he disappeared into the dark.
Chapter 15
“Shhh,” I pressed my lips to Cormac’s ear, and ran my hands over his belly, his chest, under his shirt.
“Astrid,” his voice was quiet, his breath sleep-sweet, as he wrapped his arms around me, “I thought you were done with me…”
“I… I am, I just…”
“Darleen just had to go and read out of the diary,” he said, “is that what got you all worked up?”
“Shh,” I said again, and kissed him.
I reached down and found his cock, already hard, and stroked it as our lips fused, our tongues probed.
I needed him inside of me immediately. One more time, that was it.
Just the, the door opened, and light from the hallway poured into the room.
“Cormac?” Darleen’s sleepy voice, “Astrid? I heard…”
A moment of recognition crossed her face as I turned towards her and rolled off of Cormac, pulling the blanket up to cover myself.
“Darleen, sorry, we…”
“No, oh my god, sorry, I thought…”
“It’s ok, we should have…”
“No, no need to explain… I’ll just go…”
Just then, I felt the ruby necklace between my tits warming against my skin like it’s temperature was somehow changing.
“Wait,” I said, reaching down to stroke Cormac as Darleen looked on, her eyes growing wide, “you don’t have to go if you don’t want…”
She stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the hall light, frozen with indecision. I could almost feel her reluctance, her worry that whatever was going on between us, whatever dark energy compelled the things that were happening, was not something she wanted to get involved with.
Cormac felt it too, but he was hard as a rock, looking at me with hesitation, following my lead.
“Yeah,” Darleen said quietly, “ok…”
She moved across the dark room and slipped into bed beside me and Cormac.
At first she just wanted to watch, and she leaned against the bed, biting her plump lip, as I stroked Cormac, then leaned down and sucked him, glancing over at her as I took him into my mouth. Her cheeks flushed hotly, and her eyes fluttered, her body squirming slightly as she took in the scene. I stared at her dark pink lips, the soft indention where she’d bit them, and couldn’t stop myself, suddenly, from pulling away from Cormac and leaning in to her.
I’d never kissed a woman before, and I was hesitant. So was she. My hands trembled slightly as I slipped them under her shirt to find her round, perky tits, her already hard nipples, and squeezed them gently.
She sighed as I slid my lips along her neck, and ran her own hands along my tits, my belly, acquainting herself, as I was, with another female body for the first time. We kissed and touched as Cormac watched, and it didn’t take long for us to get more and more comfortable, her sighs and moans becoming more pronounces as I slipped a hand into the hem of her panties and found a neatly waxed mound that I pressed two fingers inside of.
“Mmm,” her voice was breathy and ragged in my ear as I fingered her, finding her wet and ready, her clit tight and swollen against my fingers.
I pulled off her panties and, to my surprise, Cormac rolled onto his back and pulled Darleen, grabbing her by the hips, into a mounted position on his face. He opened his mouth and devoured her as I watched for a moment, as hot as I was jealous, before I realized he intended for me to fuck him while he ate her out.
I got on top of Cormac and rode him while Darleen rocked her hips on his generous, talented tongue. She and I took off each other’s shirts and leaned in to kiss, our moans like a pleasured harmony. I felt her fingers playing with my nipples, felt Cormac’s cock throbbing inside of me, felt her tongue, soft and velvety in my own mouth, and the edges of my bod blurring with theirs.
Before long, Cormac rolled over, laying Darleen down in the bed, and lay me down beside her.
He mounted me, fucking me hard next to Darleen, who leaned in to kiss me as she touched herself, Cormac’s hand on her tits, squeezing her as he fucked me, his focused, intense eyes moving from her to me and back again, as though feasting on us with his gaze.
“Yes,” I moaned, and Cormac kissed my mouth while Darleen kissed me along the neck.
The pleasure was too much. Cormac reached down and pushed two fingers inside of Darleen, thrusting his hand with the same rhythm that he fucked me with his enormous cock.
Darleen came hard, whining as she trembled and writhed on the bed beside us, and just watching her made me boil over. I kissed her softly as I moaned, and she kissed me back, sighing and pressing her body against me and Cormac as he continued to fuck me and stroke her, his hands on her ample tits, his mouth on mine. Before long he was groaning and coming inside of me, filling me with his seed, as I sighed.
I rolled over and kissed Darleen, who seemed, already, to be turned on again. She went beneath the covers and, as Cormac propped himself up on an elbow to watch, proceeded to lick me and suck my clit, like she wanted to taste us both at the same time. I parted my legs further for her and collapsed back onto the pillow, my eyes shut, as Cormac ran his fingers through my hair and kissed me along my neck.
“Is that good?” he whispered, as her warm mouth pressed against me.
“Mmm-hmm,” I moaned softly, arching my back as he leaned down to suck on my nipples one by one.
It didn’t take long before I was coming again, a release so complete that I felt like my body was levitating. I switched places with Darleen after that, and ate her out as she lay back in the bed, Cormac still watching with intense appreciation, like he’d never seen anything more beautiful in his entire life.
I ran my hands along Darleen’s smooth, creamy thighs, and over her belly, trembling and quivering under my touch, until I reached her tits, and pinched her nipple between my fingers until she shuddered and made a guttural, sexy moan.
“Ok, that’s it,” Cormac growled, and took his place behind me, lifting my hips up so he could impale me from behind as I lapped Darleen’s cunt. He fucked me hard, so hard it was a challenge to keep my tongue pressed against Darleen’s quivering clit, but before long I had her coming as hard as she’d made me.
Cormac fucked me in hard, dominating thrusts, his eyes on us, me sort of on top of Darleen, the two of us kissing and glancing up at him with glassy, hazy eyes.
“Fuck you’re both so beautiful,” he said, before groaning and filling me a second time as I bit my lip and collapsed against Darleen’s soft, warm body.
When I woke up, I was in bed with Cormac, but Darleen was gone. The sun was out, and I realized we’d actually slept in. I groped for Cormac’s phone and saw that it was after nine. Somehow, I’d had no crazy dreams, and there had been no late night visits from ghosts. Everything felt strangely… normal.
Cormac groaned and wrapped an arm around me.
“What time is it?” he mumbled.
“After nine,” I said, kissing his ear.
“Wow,” he said laughing, “we actually slept in.”
“What the fuck happened last night?” I asked, looking over at him as he opened one eye.
“We had fun,” he said with a shrug, “it’s nothing to obsess over.”
“It was crazy!” I said, feeling like something more meaningful had happened than just a bit of fun.
“Sure, a lot of crazy stuff happens around here,” he said, “I’m not worried about it.”
“I’m not worried, Cormac,” I said, exasperated by his easy-breezy attitude, “just confused.”
“Nothing to be confused about, babe,” he said, “just relax.”
I couldn’t relax. Why was I back in Cormac’s bed? What was I going to do? When was our stalemate going to end? Was I just going to let him steamroll me and leave the castle one day, giving him everything he wanted?
I grabbed a sweater from my suitcase, and saw that Darleen wasn’t in either of the twin beds, then headed down into the kitchen. I still hadn’t seen any trace of Darleen, but I made coffee and sat down at the dining room table, where Caroline’s diary was sitting open, like Darleen had maybe been reading it that morning. I pulled it close to me to see what page she’d read last.
“…B and I had a party in the boathouse, and as always it turned into quite a rage, but when he kissed Sophie in front of everyone, I got hot with jealousy. To punish her that night, I took her to the dungeon, tied her up in a kneeling position, and made her watch while B fucked me over and over. I let her lick my cunt clean at the end, but that’s all I allowed, and she squirmed and begged like a little slut until she fell asleep still tied in the ropes. B untied her and carried her upstairs like a doll, kissing her little red wrists as he put her to bed.”
Caroline, I thought, blended sex and jealousy in a way that made me uneasy, especially as I could suddenly relate to it. I thought back to the night before. I’d felt intense jealousy, but Cormac had seemed to attuned to me, so responsive to my needs, that it had never really gone beyond a few hot little twinges in my belly. I wondered what Darleen was feeling. Cormac seemed completely ok with it all, oblivious or unbothered by whatever complications may arise.
After a quick, hot shower, I went to the West wing to try to write, setting up my laptop on my great grandfather’s desk overlooking the lake. I sat there like t
hat, trying to get images from the night before out of my head as I tried to focus, for once, on the book I’d come there to write.
I sighed deeply and put my head in my hands.
I hadn’t been able to write a single paragraph since I arrived, and it was becoming clear that as long as I stayed in the castle with Cormac, the ghosts of the past dwelling among us, I wouldn’t be able to get back to normal, while Cormac seemed to be forging ahead, hiring architects and making plans to destroy everything that I’d come there to protect.
I went back downstairs and found the keys to the Aston Martin so I could go in to town and use the Internet. I still saw no sight of Darleen, but I reminded myself that she was a grown woman who could take care of herself, so I didn’t worry.
I drove to the little cafe in town, ordered a coffee, and finally sent a few emails to preservation societies and historical organizations, hoping, somehow, for a hail-mary save for the castle. Whoever bought the castle would have to pay market value, Cormac would be sure of that, but I hoped, perhaps naively, he cared about me enough to accept an offer if it came.
“Astrid, hey,” Darleen said, slipping into the seat opposite me after I’d been there for about an hour.
“Oh, hey, I didn’t see you,” I said.
We both smiled nervously at each other, neither sure if we should acknowledge the night before.
“You left early,” I said, “what have you been up to?”
“Oh, well, I needed to get on-line to send some pictures of the castle to my team back home, so they could do some digital renderings,” she said, “and I woke up early, so I just walked into town.”
“Thats a long walk,” I said, nodding, remembering my first day.
“Yeah I worked here for a wile, then I went to this little bookstore, have you seen it? Upstairs from the only hair salon in town?”
“Oh, uh, no, I haven’t seen it actually…”
“Really? It was… interesting…” she said.
“Interesting how?”
“Well, I told them I was staying at the castle, and the owner, an older guy, kind of gave me a funny look…”