The Letter (21 page)

“
Victoria, darling, you may not thank me when you know why I asked you here,” he said, his voice dropping to a sensual stir. “I would have you here and now, for I will wait no longer.”

“
You cannot be serious,” she responded, her own voice raspy with passion that she didn’t welcome.

He smiled a luscious smile and his eyes gleamed, “I am quite serious.”

“
It isn’t proper,” she whispered, unable to stave off the erotic images filling her head.

“
You will want to do this here, I will be sure of that….and after all….you are a mistress…you don’t live by the rules, you don’t want to.” He paused, his sensual power whirling around her. “And neither do I…so come to me.”

Victoria’s knees went weak from the weight of his erotic words.

“
Now, darling …” His eyes glinted dark. “Take off your clothes and come to me. I have fantasized about seeing you undress for days.”

Victoria gasped her shock.

“
I should tell you no. I should fight you with everything I have. And it should trouble you that I only will do what you want because this is what I have agreed to become.”

“
Liar,” he whispered his eyes shimmered heat. “You are as wicked as I.”

Victoria flushed scarlet her thoughts utterly wicked and unladylike despite her best effort to divert them.

His eyes challenged and beckoned while a luscious smile tilted his sensual lips.

Victoria pulled the bonnet off her head and let it fall to the floor, her heart pulsing blood like hot lava through her veins.

At first William watched her as if he didn’t quite believe she had the nerve or fortitude to follow through her daring words. But as she fumbled with the buttons that ran down the front of her gown William’s eyes followed her progress with glowing anticipation framed with admiration.

If she was to be a mistress, then she would be a darn good one, she thought even while her eyes slid away from his with a whisper of shyness and her dress slipped from her shoulders to pool around her feet on the polished wooden floor.

With trembling hands, Victoria concentrated on her undergarments removing each article slowly with a fragile attempt at sensual showmanship.

“
You are too damned beautiful.” He said his voice low and course.

The air from the open window blew the sheer curtains and danced along her bare skin.

“
Come to me,” his penetrating inspection seared her skin.

She boldly stepped forward, slowly crossing the room to him. He was sitting at his desk but his chair was pushed back. As she approached, he turned his chair to the side to face her.

“
Beautiful,” he whispered when she stood in front of him. “I can smell your essence. It is the smell of flowers and woman.”

Reaching out William touched her with his fingertips tracing slow circles on her belly and evoking a quiver in response. He moved up with aching slowness to caress first one puckered nipple, then the other, stealing the air from her lungs.

Her breath returned in shallow, fast and soundless bursts. Victoria had never felt such need.

Wherever he touched her, Victoria burned. Her whole body was alive with need and response. Tilting her head back Victoria gave herself over to his gently probing hands.

When he nudged her legs apart a few minutes later, Victoria was completely lost in a tide of longing and raw need. A soft moan escaped her lips as William began to probe, caress and stroke her in a gentle persistent rhythm.

Soon, Victoria’s entire body was shaking with the approaching release. Her knees were weak but she managed to stay standing.

“
Come on, darling, give me a little bit more . . . that isn’t all you can give . . . give me what I want,” came his gentle demand. His words were enough to bring her opulent release…white hot and blinding, the delicious shudders crashing like glorious waves of pleasure wracking her. She cried out.

Folding her quivering body into him, William murmured, “You have become an obsession.”

“
I cannot imagine being anyone’s obsession. This isn’t the way it is supposed to work, I am supposed to see to your needs,” she whispered into his broad shoulder.

“
Watching you as I gave you pleasure was like nothing I have ever experienced.”

He gently tugged her into position to enter her body.

The image of the woman taking the man into her mouth in the red room, which had been sitting on the edge of Victoria’s mind, flashed vividly forward. The desire to experiment the image suffused Victoria’s normal sense of propriety in a shockingly liberal fashion.

“
Wait,” she whispered, smiling.

Moving from his arms, Victoria went down on her knees in front of him.

She ignored his sharp intake of breath and avoided meeting his eyes as she quickly unfastened his pants and pulled down his shorts underneath.

“
What do you think you are doing?” he asked but made no move to halt her intent.

“
A little something I learned not long ago in a show.”

His member sprang forth, large and pulsing.

She throbbed from the sight of him.

She was wicked. Wicked indeed. Power swept through her as she gently touched his engorged rod and felt him tense. So, he wasn’t immune to her touch, she thought with deep womanly satisfaction.

“
You are a quick study,” he rasped, his hand gently tugging through her hair.

Mimicking the actions of the woman in the red room, her mouth went down on him. He growled low in response to her gentle assault.

As she moved her lips over him, caressing and pulling, he began to move in response, his breath heavy and labored with pleasured undertones.

William tangled his hands into her hair and pushed her head further onto him in reaction to her gentle teasing.

He had lost control, William thought through an immensely pleasurable haze. And he didn’t give a damn at this moment. Her mouth was so eager as it moved over him. What she lacked in experience she made up for in enthusiasm.

Time suspended and soon he felt himself come to the ragged edge.

No one had ever made him spend this way and he had to stop her ministrations now, before he did. To have such a complete and utter loss of control just could not be permitted.

Through the sensual haze, William clawed his way back to resist her lurid administrations.

“
Let me inside of you,” he whispered, pulling her head up. “That is what I truly want.”

When she looked up at him, her lips were red and swollen from their activity.

Taking a deep calming breath, he pulled her on top of him. She sat on him, her legs folded on either side of him, her body spread and ready for him.

Slowly, he entered her, holding onto the last shreds of his control.

When she started moving on top of him at a feverish pace, William forgot about self-control and drove into her with his own luscious abandon.

Soon, her soft moans mingled with his deeper ones, filling the room with tense sexual heat as they both found the release they sought.

Before the shudders even left his body, William wanted her again.

For several delicious moments she sat on top of him, encasing him with her warm body. Then he started touching her again. And soon the fire burst anew.

He gently lay her on top of the shiny surface of his desk. Worshiping her body, William gently pulled her to the edge and buried himself into her welcoming flesh.

This time he loved her slowly, inducing her thrash on the desk beneath him.

“
Give me more, sweetheart, give me more,” he whispered low.

When she cried out her release softly, it brought him to his own exquisite culmination, where the white, hot release was the only relief.

William murmured her name in pure clawing gratification, as he thrust into her one last time, spilling his seed into her hot flesh.

Pulling her up into his arms, he held close while brooding over his loss of control coupled with the stark knowledge that he needed her again.

Gently, he stroked Victoria’s hair while his meeting in twenty minutes crept in to filch the moment.

“
Let me help you with your clothes,” he said tenderly pulling away from her to put his pants back on.

The aftermath of their passion left her with scalding humiliation and Victoria averted her gaze from William and jumped down from the desk top.

Covertly eying the desk, she knew she should be utterly appalled and filled with regret by her actions, instead, other than embarrassment over such an abandonment of her normal shyness, Victoria had enjoyed every moment she had spent in that office. And would never see a desk in the same fashion as previously.

As she watched him retrieve her garments and return them to her, a deep blush spread over her as much as a result of her thoughts as seeing William pluck her undergarments from the floor.

“
Let me help you redress,” he said in a scratchy low voice.

“
I can do this,” she whispered while plucking her undergarments from him and donning them with mortifying haste.

“
I can do this too,” he replied, stepping forward to tug her peach gown over her head.

“
Take a moment to relax.” He gently guided her to a table and chairs along the wall opposite his desk where a tea service had been set up before she arrived.

With trembling fingers, Victoria added sugar and milk to her tea then took a sip. The lukewarm tea was calming.

William took the seat across from her at the small table and poured himself some tea. He probed her face over the rim of his cup with eyes that shimmered with the memory of their recent activities.

In the cold reality that had returned her from the passion of the previous moments, Victoria flushed with shame under his knowing scrutiny.

“
What is wrong, Victoria?” His deep voice penetrated her troubled thoughts.

“
I don’t know — I should feel bad about doing these things.” Victoria paused, searching for words that she was willing to say.

“
But you don’t, do you?” He caressed her cheek and she immediately responded, her body betraying her once again.

“
No . . . . I mean yes. Oh William, it is wrong!” Victoria jerked her scalding face from his touch and focused on her half empty tea cup.

“
What is between us is not wrong, darling,” he replied, his finger coming under her chin and forcing her to meet his gaze again.

His hypnotic silver eyes soothed her.

“
There is no shame between us, only pleasure between two people.”

“
There is shame.”

“
There is also life. What do you have besides memories of a full life lived as you choose, taking passion where you find it?”

When she returned home, these memories were all she would have to last her a lifetime.

“
Perhaps you are right, but it still is not right,” she said.

“
I think you believe it is wrong, therefore you should not take pleasure in the act. Victoria, remember that we should make our own rules in life instead of the rules others make for us.”

Her face was scalding. “It is just so illicit!” she said harshly.

William laughed low. “I think I should have warned you of my exotic tastes,” he said.

“
I must go,” she said in a husky voice, standing up in an obvious retreat.

She wanted to get away before someone came to his office. She couldn’t face anyone after what they had just done.

She went to the table by the door and retrieved her bonnet and secured it on her head.

William walked over to her and pulled her into his embrace, planting a gentle kiss on her lips that were still red and swollen from his previous plundering.

“
I won’t see you tonight, will I?” Victoria asked, shyly pulling away from him and busying herself with retrieving her bag.

“
No,” he replied, his face set in grim regret. “But you couldn’t possibly know how much I want to see you. Or how much I want to say to hell with my responsibilities and enjoy hours uninterrupted with you. But, unfortunately, I have immense responsibilities that require almost constant attention.”

“
Oh, I wasn’t complaining. I was just trying to schedule my evening,” Victoria lied. Masking her humiliating disappointment she hastened to the door.

“
Of course, it is only fair I discuss my plans with you,” he replied.

Was he going to see Faith?

She turned and forced a smile, “I best be getting on home then.” She gave him a small wave before walking out of his office on shaking limbs.

“
Be assured my dearest, you will be seeing me very soon.”

His words brought heat to her face as she stepped through the cool bank lobby and out to the windy street. She felt the weight of many knowing eyes dogging her steps. Did they guess what had been going on in William’s office only moments before?

Let them think whatever they wanted.

She made her own rules now.