Simply Voracious (12 page)

Suddenly Flavian flipped Carys over on to her back and covered her with his body, pushing up her skirts as he continued to kiss her. Lucky found herself tensing, waiting for Carys to realize that the pleasantness of the kissing was about to be replaced by the pain of penetration.

“I want you, my lady.”

Carys gazed up at the Roman, her breathing ragged, her nipples hard against the thin muslin of her shift. He curved a hand around her hip and then went lower to the place between her legs. Lucky felt her own body tighten in response, but Flavian didn’t drive himself inside Carys; he slid two fingers in and out in a slow, deliberate rhythm.

“Do you want me?”

Carys was moaning now and lifting her hips into each stroke of Flavian’s fingers. In the quietness of the room, Lucky could even hear the slick wet sounds he made. He shifted again, and Lucky gasped along with the woman when he lowered his mouth between Carys’s legs and started to kiss and lick her there.

Lucky wanted to squirm on her seat. What they were seeing was far too intimate, yet she couldn’t help but imagine herself in Carys’s place, her body well prepared and willing to accept a man.

Carys screamed and the man rose over her, one hand on his cock, and plunged himself deep inside her. Beside her, Paul hissed a curse and jumped, and Lucky realized that she had dug her nails into his skin.

Without his tunic, Lucky could see the taut muscles of Flavian’s arse as he pumped into Carys. He seemed to be taking a long time about it too—much longer than Jeremy had taken....

As Flavian let out a final groan and collapsed over Carys, Lucky relaxed her grip on Paul’s hand and let out a very shaky breath. Paul touched her shoulder and motioned toward the door, and she gladly followed him out.

10

P
aul took Lucky to a smaller salon that appeared to be unoccupied and sat opposite her. He took off his mask, and she removed hers as well. He fixed his attention on her face.

“Well?”

Lucky shook her head. “It was nothing like I expected it to be. Are those people employed here, or are they actors from the theater?”

“No, they are just guests who sign up to try out a particular fantasy of theirs.”

“Do they even know each other?”

“Sometimes they do, and sometimes they are strangers.”

Lucky looked down at her tightly clasped hands. “But they seemed to like what they were doing.”

“Some people like sex, Lucky,” he said gently.

She raised her head to look at him. “I don’t.”

“And I told you why.” He paused. “I’m sure I can help you enjoy it too.”

She studied his brown coat, cream waistcoat, and buckskin breeches. What did he look like under his clothes? Did he have muscles like Flavian and dark hair drifting down to a narrow point over his stomach?

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“I’m trying to picture you without your clothing.” She slapped a hand over her mouth and wished the words might disappear. “I’m so sorry, Paul. I don’t know why I said that. This place is having a very strange effect on me.”

He smiled at her and went to the door and locked it. “We’re quite private in here. I’m quite happy to undress for you.”

Lucky sat frozen in her seat as he tugged at his simply tied cravat. Did she really want him to strip for her, and what if she didn’t like what she saw?

As usual, it was as if Paul could read her thoughts. “You might as well see what you’ll be sharing your bed with. If you find me too off-putting it might stop you from making a terrible mistake.” His tone was light, but she knew he understood her fears and was giving her yet another opportunity to change her mind.

He continued taking off his coat and unbuttoning his waistcoat. Lucky couldn’t look away, her gaze now fixed to the placket of his breeches, which, like Flavian’s, was not lying entirely flat either. He undid the top button of his shirt and then his hands dropped to his waist.

“I have to warn you that I am already aroused. Are you sure you want to see me like this?”

Lucky managed to nod. She might as well go through with it. A man had already ruined her. If she was too scared to even look at Paul, at least by finding out now, she’d avoid having to run away on her wedding night.

He slowly released the placket and stopped to pull his shirt over his head. She’d seen his scars before, so they didn’t bother her. But her mother had made certain that during his convalescence, Lucky never saw Paul naked below the waist. He bent to step out of his breeches and boots, and Lucky held her breath when he finally straightened.

His cock was large and stiff, and pointing upward toward his flat stomach. It was purple at the crown and a dark red on the shaft that seemed to quiver with life. Lucky stared hard at it. No wonder it hurt when it went inside a woman.

“Would you like to touch me?” Paul asked.

Lucky jerked her gaze back to his face and found he looked remarkably calm, considering he was naked and she was probably about to bolt. What would he do if she ran? He could hardly follow her in his present state, although in the pleasure house, perhaps no one would notice.

“Touch you where?” Her voice came out a little breathlessly.

His smile was beautiful. “Anywhere. I promise I won’t do anything except stand here.”

Almost against her will, Lucky found herself walking toward him. His hands were by his sides and he appeared quite relaxed. She reached out her hand and placed it squarely on his chest, surprised at the warmth of his skin and the way he exhaled at her touch. She traced one of the longer scars that curled around his rib cage from a lash on his back.

“I remember when these scars were fresh.”

He shrugged, making his muscles gleam and flex in the candlelight. He was finely drawn, his frame elegant rather than bulky like Jeremy’s, yet she could still feel his strength. “The guards liked to beat us.”

She concentrated on the feel of the ragged scar under the softness of her fingertip, and his heartbeat accelerated. She knew that if she looked down she would see the thrust of his cock perilously close to the silk of her dress. She hadn’t seen Jeremy’s cock, just felt it pushing at her and hurting her.

With all the courage she could muster, she reached down and touched the tip of him and almost pulled away when she realized he was wet. She wrapped two fingers around the first inch of his shaft and slowly squeezed. The softness covered a rigid interior that felt as solid as an iron railing.

“It’s hard.”

“Yes.” With a muttered groan, Paul pushed against her tight grip, making her fingers even wetter.

“Why?”

“Because I’m standing here naked in front of you and you’re touching my cock.”

“That excites you?”

“Lucky, I’m not a saint. Of course it excites me.”

“Would it matter who was touching you?”

He sighed. “It matters to me now.”

She tried to recall what Carys had done to Flavian’s cock and moved her fingers up and down Paul’s shaft. “But you also said that complete strangers come together and do this.”

“But we are not strangers, are we?”

The wetness made moving her fingers over him easier and faster. The rhythm of it absorbed her and made her whole body seem to hold its breath.

“I thought I knew the man who forced me. I thought I loved him.” She kept her gaze on his cock. Faster now, and Paul was angling his hips into each pull of her hand, his breathing as erratic as her own. “How do I know that you won’t be the same?”

“Did he let you do this?” Paul murmured. “Did he let you take control of him?”

“No.” Lucky squeezed him hard and suddenly he clamped his fingers around her working wrist. “Are you going to stop me, now? Are you going to hurt me like he hurt me?”

“God, no, I’m going to come. I’m going to . . .”

He went rigid and then his cock pulsed hard once, then twice, in her hand, and then her palm was awash with his seed. She watched it flood between her fingers and drip down toward the carpet. His cock went soft, and she slowly released her grip on him.

“Let me help you.”

Before she could even move, Paul produced a handkerchief, which he used to wipe her fingers and the rest of her hand. Despite his efforts she could still feel him there against her skin. She wanted to put her finger in her mouth and taste him. . . .

“God,
Lucky . . .
”

He turned back just as she was doing just that, his gaze fixed on her mouth.

She stared at him. “You taste like a mixture of the sea and the starch Milly puts on my petticoats.”

“I know.” He sat down in one of the chairs, still completely naked, and looked up at her. “Are you all right?”

“I feel quite odd,” Lucky admitted. “As if I have been pulled into a completely different world from the one I thought I lived in.”

“And do you like this world?”

She considered him for a long while. She didn’t yet know how she felt about having a man “come” for her. “I’m not sure. But I can’t change what happened to me, so I might as well move forward.”

Paul smiled. “That’s the spirit. Now, would you like me to pleasure you with my mouth, or do you want to complete the rest of your tour of the pleasure house?”

Lucky thought she had misheard his casually posed question. Perhaps he did know how she’d feel about what she’d done to him after all. It wasn’t really surprising. He was probably used to his effect on women.

“You want to touch me?”

He shrugged. “If you want to be touched.”

For a moment, Lucky actually considered the shocking idea, and then she headed for the door. “I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet. Shall we go?”

“Do you want to wait until I put my clothes on?”

She looked back at him over her shoulder and saw that he was grinning at her.

“I’m quite happy to follow you around naked, Lucky, but that will create a lot of interest, and you might have to stop and wait for me to fuck someone.”

Lucky felt her cheeks grow warm. He’d said “fuck” to her, a word she’d only heard once before in her life when she’d inadvertently come across one of the stable hands and a maid copulating in the hayloft.

“I’d rather you were clothed,” she said primly.

Actually that was a lie. She’d like to stay in that room and touch him for hours, but it was probably best that she didn’t mention it, because he’d probably let her. She tried not to stare as he pulled his shirt over his head and stepped into his breeches and boots.

It would be difficult enough to look at him now, knowing what he concealed beneath his clothes, wondering whether he was aroused as they walked around the pleasure house and why. Difficult to see him as just her friend anymore as well.

“You liked it, didn’t you?” Paul said.

“Liked what?” Lucky knew she was blushing.

“Touching me, making me come.”

She raised her chin. “Yes, I did.”

His smile was slow and full of warmth and admiration. “I’m glad.”

He picked up his waistcoat and then dropped it back on to the chair. “I don’t think I’ll bother with that. I’ll pick them up later. Shall we go?”

Being seen with a man in his shirtsleeves was tantamount to seeing him in his nightshirt, but Lucky was determined not to say anything. She’d voluntarily entered Paul’s world and now she had to accept it. It was also possible that he was testing her again.

“Yes, indeed.” They replaced their masks, and she unlocked and opened the door. He moved past her into the hallway and took her hand again. “What else is there to see?”

He guided her back on to the main landing again and pointed up the stairs. “There are three levels to the pleasure house. On the second level, things become a little more risqué.”

“
More
risqué?” Lucky murmured.

“Yes.” Paul took her arm and drew her out of the way of a group of men who were heading up the stairs. “Men are able to find other men up there to fuck. Others with very distinct sexual tastes can find partners who share them, and pair off for the evening.”

“And on the third floor?” Lucky asked.

“The third floor is for those with a taste for pain and domination in their sexual play. You do not need to worry yourself about that level. I have no intention of taking you up there.”

“Do you go there yourself?”

“I used to, but I found myself growing bored with it.” His smile grew pensive. “I realized I liked to be fucked without being hurt or humiliated.”

“Are you sure that it isn’t the level for me?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You enjoyed being hurt and humiliated?”

“No, I hated it.”

“Then it is definitely not the place for you.”

“Why would anyone enjoy being hurt?”

“I can’t explain that, but trust me, some people do.” He looked back up the stairs. “Let’s go and inspect the second floor. It
is
where I spend the majority of my time after all.”

Paul led Lucky up the stairs and considered what best to show her first. Despite being exposed to some particularly sensual sights, including his own cock, she’d done remarkably well so far. Her composure and ability to understand what she was seeing was mature beyond her years. Yet she’d always been like that. As an only child much in the company of adults, she’d grown up fast.

He spied Marie-Claude, who kept the second floor working in perfect order, and waved her over. She was an older woman in her mid-forties with a pleasant, round face and a voluptuous body that Paul knew many patrons of the house still craved. She was extremely selective of her lovers, and the competition to win her favors was fierce.

“Good evening, Lieutenant,” Marie-Claude said. “Ambrose told me you might be bringing a guest through with you tonight.” She turned to smile at Lucky. “You are most welcome, ma’am.”

“Thank you.”

Paul squeezed Lucky’s arm. “This is Marie-Claude. She works here and organizes all the activities on this floor.”

“Indeed I do.” Marie-Claude looked back at Paul. “Is there anything in particular that you wish to show your guest tonight?”

“Nothing in particular, thanks, Marie-Claude. I just wished to give her a general taste for what goes on here.”