Just the names, Incubus, Hellion, Bacchus, and sacrifice, suggested a group. That Incubus would say he was going to examine her, and that he talked of breaking her, and he searched for proof of her virginity told her clearly this involved some type of sexual rite. Her exposed nudity quelled against that comprehension, but she stubbornly willed it back.
They, he, it, Incubus, Hellion, or some false macabre deity wanted her virginity. Her virginity was the coveted prize. Suddenly, the carriage bounced to a halt, jerking her against the restraints at her wrists and ankles.
"Troll, give her the potion before the others see her," Incubus snapped. "I have preparations to make." Then with curt swiftness, he left the carriage slamming the door closed behind him, while the midget Yojo bounced on his heels muttering.
Joelle strained to hear what the little man was saying. It sounded like Yojo said, "Blame me, blame me," over and over again. Joelle thought quickly about everything she'd heard since they kidnapped her. She anxiously looked for any little tidbits. It came to her abruptly. At least there was a good chance that she was right.
"Sir Yojo," she started to say, trying to wet the aridness of her mouth. "I will swear that it was Incubus that gave me the potion and I spit it out. Not, Sir Yojo." She paused. "Incubus slapped me also, just like he slapped you."
Yojo turned his black jeweled eyes to her as he rocked now from side to side. "Sir Yojo? Sir? Sir?"
Joelle had hoped it would work. She could only imagine that they treated Yojo less than humanly. "Yes, I am, Lady Joelle, and you are, Sir Yojo, and I will not struggle, if you do not give me the potion. Y-You have my word."
Yojo toddled forward with a lopsided smile as he raised his hand. His stubby fingers touched her hair. "So pretty," he sighed. "Pretty, pretty, lady."
Joelle thought hard. She thought with all her might, struggling to find the right words, with so little information. "I have never seen a wee little God like you before," she tried carefully.
Yojo's flat and out of proportion face lit up, with sudden enchanting expressions of delight. And, Joelle knew that she'd chosen right. Had she tried calling him handsome, she would not have been able to woo him at all. But she had to imagine that he aspired to be as godlike as people he served. And so, she trundled forward with more confidence.
"You never hurt me," she said softly. "And you called me pretty. I want to serve you. I want to be your good lady."
Yojo's teeth were a gnarled line as he grinned, moving the cracked tips of his fingers to touch her cheek. "Serve, Sir Yojo?"
Joelle nodded. "Yes, darling sir. No blame for either of us."
Yojo's gaze edged to her bare breasts, then back quickly. "I picked you." He nodded eagerly.
Then suddenly, there was a voice, outside the carriage, and Yojo's face crumbled into near panic as his black eyes darted from the door to her. His hand dropped with awkward swiftness to a small wine skin hooked onto his belt as he nervously bounced up and down on his toes.
"No blame," Joelle said quickly. "I won't struggle. Just to be near, my Yojo..." Joelle snapped her mouth shut as the carriage door opened and she shut her eyes, while taking up the form of false limpness.
Chapter Five
"It's a red-haired cunt."
The voice was male with a thick German accent. It was a young man's voice, not a nobleman but common. Joelle tried not to shudder at the crude opinion these men carried for women in their words and what more that foretold. She simply overrode her panic with inward congratulations at keeping Yojo occupied long enough with a convoluted and really senseless conversation, until he had no time to try to dose her with the potion. Nonetheless, she had planted the seeds with her praise of Yojo, to perhaps use and build on later.
Yes. She went over and over her triumph of being aware, when she was supposed to be incoherent, as male hands untied her, disgustingly groped her through a series of jumbles moving her body, and then a cloak was thrown over her, carrying her to the next unknown destination. She remained limp through the entire ordeal, never a more shining example of her renewed willpower. She prayed that she was acting near to the lethargy of the drug, having no clue as to what it would have produced.
"She's da queer looking one. Ja, Yojo?"
"Gypsy queen!" Yojo exclaimed.
"Queen is it, you little runt? Nice on da eyes. Ja, I'll agree. Can't wait to see da new initiate, that long haired Marquess and his fat dong, raping her cunt."
It was a miracle that Joelle held back most of her response to the German's words. The small sound that did escape was lost with the sudden jostling of her body. The movements took precedence over her response to the German's revelations as she worked to keep her body limp, while also trying to sense where she was and what was happening. It was considerably darker where they were now, she could tell that behind her closed eyelids. It had been getting increasingly darker the further they traveled and she knew at one point, moments ago, they had descended what felt like, and sounded like, a set of stairs.
In the jostling, Joelle felt her body being lowered by the German, and she fought to keep relaxed when her instinct was to stiffen against the unknown of what she was going to touch next. Then, she heard light crackling and she felt a momentary cushion that gave way to a hard flat support beneath her. A tick mattress on a wood frame, she guessed.
The air was colder, damp, and musty smelling. Her buttocks touched the mattress first, then her spine as the German laid her down and she remembered to let her neck fall limply. She thought that would be the end of it, at least for a little while. She assumed Yojo, the German, and whoever else might be present, after having delivered her, would step away to discuss or prepare whatever came next. So, she was suddenly surprised when the German's hands touched her again and he began to turn her onto her stomach, as he said, "Da cunt, here is heavy unconscious. Ja, too much of da potion, little runt."
Oh no! Joelle tried to stay lax as she was turned onto her stomach, and then she felt hands dragging the cloak up her legs.
"Baco! No touch! No touch," Yojo chirped.
"Get back, Yojo," Baco grumbled, then he exclaimed. "Ouch! That was my shin!"
"No, no touch!" Yojo yelped.
The cloak that had covered Joelle fell as high as her shoulders exposing her bare back and buttocks. She shuddered, fervently cheering on her little champion Yojo. Then suddenly, rough callous hands were groping the naked flesh of her buttocks. The fingers dug deep and started to pull the cheeks apart with her thighs spreading along behind.
At the same moment, she heard a shuffle and a thud with Baco exclaiming at Yojo's kicking his shin again, while a moan churned from her throat. It was her fear and repulsion and she could not catch it back as all fell silent with the sound, and Baco's fingers stopped moving deep in the crevice of her buttocks.
"Waking up, waking up!" Yojo exclaimed, and Joelle could just imagine the miniature man bouncing up and down. "Hellion will know! He will know! He will know! He will know!"
"Fuck!" Baco cursed, and then his hands with their lewdly groping fingers left Joelle's buttocks. "Halt your mouth, Yojo!"
Joelle nearly cried with relief, but she managed to hold it back as she heard the obvious sounds of Baco stomping away. Then, she heard a shuffling sound and she felt the cloak being pulled down, as she heard Yojo's whisper, "Sir Yojo, saved, Lady Joelle, for God."
Joelle bit her lip, not moving. "Raus, move! Yojo! We have things to do for da ritual. Who cares if, da cunt, is covered?"
"Coming, coming," Yojo chirped next to Joelle's ear. Then, she heard his short shuffles as he moved away, and she was surprised to hear what sounded like the clatter of an iron cell door shutting.
Joelle tried to breathe slowly, unsure if she was alone in the cell, or room, or beyond. Luck was with her because without any conscious effort of her own, she'd ended with her face turned to the side that gave her the best view through her half-lifted eyelashes. The room was shadowy, but there was a torch ahead of her peeking gaze and one p
erhaps to her left side and beyond her feet.
The word's Yojo had used that he'd saved her for God trembled through her again, as fresh tears clouded her glimpsing vision and she forced the thoughts back in her mind. She needed to think, or to act, or to plan as swiftly as she could, because she had no idea of how long she would be left alone. First she had to decide if she really was alone, because she had a seething need to be up, moving around, and feeling more power in the dire situation. And, she needed to look at the lock on the cell as quickly as she could, because her captors did not know her very well. The tricks she'd been taught from her Gypsy heritage might aid her escape now, or save her life, because she knew how to pick locks.
Moving her head in a slow motion, inches at a time, she cleared the area in front of her and to the left side free of any presences. Her hearing told her clearly all was quiet, yet some inner instinct made her feel that she might not be alone. The knowledge raised the light hair on her flesh as she moved slowly without perceptible movement trying to see as much as she was able.
It was a dungeon setting, vying with the ancient legends of kings and chateaus castles. Joelle guessed that it was such a place, and from her judgment it was no more than an hour or two from the east side of Paris, where they had first kidnapped her. There were blocked stone walls leaching dampness in what appeared through the half she could see of it as a circular room. She was indeed held in a cell. A large iron box with stout and rusted bars crossed on the top and on all the sides. It was a cage set in the middle of the circular dungeon and when she lifted her head slightly she saw the stone steps leading upward at a high angle to a wooden-hewed and iron-battened door.
Providence sliced through her at the exact moment she dared to raise her head, when a soft rustling sound that seemed to come out of nowhere, echoed in her hearing. The rustling collided with the abrupt pounding of her heart, more than any loudness claimed by the sound. Rats, she thought with hope, never pausing to wonder at the dichotomy of that. Rats were nasty villains, but better than any human villains she could think of at the moment. Then, with a trembling neck, she turned her head slowly toward where the sound had come from, and it was then that she first saw him.
Instantly, her breath sucked inward with surprise at him being there, but not surprise of discovery, because his head was bowed forward. Joelle realized immediately that she could have thought him female at first glance, with the fall of long brown hair hanging before him. But it was his bare chest, seen through the long strands of dark hair draping each side of the muscular expanse that proved him male. He was sitting slumped on the floor behind the stretch of her feet, and Joelle noticed abruptly that he was chained. It came to her then, as though she was struck with a sudden flash of lightening. The Marquess.
Then without forethought Joelle rolled upward to sit, staring at the man as she clutched the cloak tightly around her nakedness. He was a prisoner as she was, with his hands perhaps bound behind his back and a chain across his chest and possibly his neck. Could he be the Marquess that Baco had so crudely stated was set to rape her? Certainly her instincts and the proof of her sight told her that he was. She turned her head and her gaze quickly from the lush river of his chestnut hair and the lean, ridged outline of his lower belly. He had a cloak thrown over him, just as she did, and she had no doubt that beneath where the heavy black cloth lay across his hips and legs, he was as naked as she was. And . . . he was drugged, where she was not.
Chained meant unwilling. Drugged meant unwilling. How would he rape her? Joelle's flesh crawled as she tried hard to think and hold back her fear at the same time. A sexual ritual, perhaps to the death, involving her, the Marquess, and her virginity. It was insanity! Hardly believable, yet she would defeat herself by not believing it completely. She had enough of the pieces to make an intelligent conclusion.
Suddenly, she rushed to stand, and then carelessly on her bare feet she ran to the cell door and she examined the lock. Her grandfather had taught her to pick locks by the time she was seven years old. Her grandmother to pick pockets. Her parents had been more reserved about such things, but they both had knowledge of unusual talents. Joelle reached through the bars lifting the heavy lock, bigger than her hand. It was a turnkey, with a hook and snap lock. If she had anything long, pointed, and sharp, she could open it. But the angle would be difficult to hold the lock, and then hold something straight and backward into the lock.
Joelle grimaced and she set the lock back down quietly. Nonetheless, when she turned away, it was with quick and agitated movements. She held the cloak tight around herself as she paced restlessly. She was avoiding a momentous decision . . . there was little time. She did look, with half-hearted attempts, for a long pointed object as she paced. A stick perhaps. But more, she kept glancing at the Marquess.
"It is useless to open the lock. They would catch you before you could escape and drag you back," she muttered, "And then, they would know that you can pick locks. When you could have saved it for a better attempt..." She lurched through a turn in her pacing, looking at the Marquess as she did so. He looked young . . . perhaps. Yet, it was hard to tell with his head bowed forward.
Rituals. She knew of many tales of ungodly and morbid rituals through her Gypsy's heritage. And all of them were of sacrificial innocents that were put to death in the end. This . . . this seemed more sexual and not a life threatening ritual. "You are fooling yourself," she hissed, slashing her hand through the air. "Whatever unspeakable use they have in mind for me, without a doubt it will eventually end in death, if nothing else, just for knowing too much."
"Indeed."
Joelle gasped, whirling about at the sudden sound of a masculine voice. Her gaze sweeping immediately to the Marquess. He looked the same however with his head bowed.
"Are you awake?" she whispered in a rush that sounded like a hiss.
"Barely."
She nearly jumped backward at the quickness and reality of the confirming sound, but not from any action of the Marquess. He was still slumping forward with only his chest rising and falling . . . a bit heavier perhaps. Spirits take her, he was English, not French! She could hear it in the two short words he'd spoken. And, she realized that providence really did shine harshly in moments of decision, pressing her forward, guiding her. It did not allow her to waver from the only good plan that she had, no matter how much she despised to do it.
Fate had just burst in on her, because with the Marquess semi-awake, then she really could do it. Where before, because he'd been unconscious, she'd been unsure. She knew quite a bit about sexual relations between men and women, and she knew enough about male physiology to understand that it might have been impossible to harden the Marquess' cock if he had remained unconscious. Nevertheless, now he was regaining consciousness. A perfect time to implement her plan and use the only form of drastic diversion, vengeance, or complete insanity she had.
Virginity, verses no virginity. And being semiconscious the Marquess would be an adaptive tool.
Chapter Six
Saxon had the impressions of intelligence, petiteness, and burnt red hair. On one of his moments of clarity, through the dredges of the drug they had given him, he thought she was a ploy in the macabre game that was being played out. However, he also remembered his fury pressing through the murky fog of the drug. His rage at Baco's rough hands on her helpless nudity, and on her alabaster buttocks, nude white globes with creamy pink-edged curves. He had seen the splendor of that soft naked ass.
Then, he heard it again, the sultry frames of an exotic voice. A voice he longed to lose himself in. A voice to hear in a never-ending rhythm of pleasure. A husky vibrato. An accent he could not claim, and therefore it intrigued him all the more.
"I am Joelle."
Soft hands touched his chest, running curling ribbons of sensation down his sides. Tender fingers heating his bare flesh.
"You are a ploy then," he muttered, trying to feel disappointed over the smooth caresses from small hands circling his belly.
"I am pleasure in moments of uncertainty. Can you feel that?"
A rumbling sound of acknowledged relish, rolled upward in answer through Saxon's chest as fingers of golden heat petted, and then they circled the flaccid groin between his thighs. A male organ that until recently, he'd neglected for so many years. So that now the slightest attention sent tendrils of covetous sensitivity thrumming deep inside it. It with envy so acute that it filled and firmed, suffusing with greed, while brought to fullness by the industriously tight pumping of a feminine hand. Then, his mind sparked more fully. Abruptly, energized by the promise. Then, he found the will to lift his chin, smelling a cloud of lilies around him.
His gaze floated into irises the color of black velvet. A trembling feminine gasp filled his ears, dallying from plush lips the color of damask wine. "You are . . . beautiful," she said with dulcet murmuring.
Saxon might have murmured the same revelation back to her . . . were his senses not wavering over the gossamer heat of her fingers stroking his roguish penis to attention. Handmaiden? The word floated through his mind on the strands of arousal being pumped deep inside him. He had heard the name somewhere and he wondered if she were of this nimble calling. His own personal handmaiden of sex.
Then, he gasped in rising bliss at the talent she displayed to her craft. "Are you my lovely handmaiden t-then?" he rasped through a deft stroke and squeeze of his stiffening, lusty penis, and through the thick dryness of his mouth that left him voiceless after one attempt.
Joelle looked into the face of erotic male seduction and beauty. Yet, she understood he did not realize that his masculine lines were so overcoming. From his shaded tea-colored skin to his sensually full lips. But it was the myriad and melting depths of his mahogany-colored eyes, framed by black-tipped lashes that pulled tremendous and immediate attraction inside her. Making her heartbeat flutter and her desperate task to harden his imposing cock so much more inviting.
My Lady Series Bundle (1-5) Page 42
