‘Are you going to tie my hands and ankles?’ asked Noella, quickly settling herself on the bed.
Edmund smiled, and there was something about the smile that disturbed her. ‘No, I don’t think so. You see, this is going to be a test of your self-control. I want you to be free to move, but I also want you to keep still. Do you understand?’
‘No,’ said Noella, who wasn’t in the mood for self-control after hearing Harriet’s sounds of total abandonment.
‘I’m going to do all the things you like in order to bring you to a climax,’ said Edmund patiently, as though speaking to a child. ‘The only thing is that if you move in any way, even inadvertently, then I go back to the beginning and start again. How long it takes will all depend on you. I think that should be fun, do you agree?’
Noella shook her head. ‘I don’t want games, Edmund. Can’t we just make love quickly? I want to feel you inside me. I’m ready now, I don’t need all these preliminaries.’
Edmund’s forehead creased in a slight frown. ‘I do hope you’re not in danger of becoming boring, Noella. You know very well that I prefer an inventive love life.’
‘Yes, but …’
He sighed. ‘All right, let’s forget it and go to sleep. It’s been a long day and—’
‘No!’ exclaimed Noella sharply. ‘I want you to make love to me.’
‘And I want to make love to you,’ he assured her. ‘If it proves as interesting as I anticipate then perhaps we could play it with Harriet some time. She sounds as though she might benefit from some discipline before she’s allowed satisfaction.’
Noella smiled. ‘That’s true.’ Resigned now to a long evening she waited for Edmund to begin.
He stared down at her, at the lush curves of her wonderfully feminine body, and his erection began to hurt him it was so hard. Picking up a tube of lubricating jelly he put some on his fingers and then began to spread it around Noella’s nipples and the surrounding area.
The jelly was cool and sweetly scented. Within seconds Noella could feel the edge of the leather suit cutting into the soft undersides of her breasts as they began to swell. Edmund’s hands massaged more firmly and she sighed with pleasure, arching her back slightly to increase the pressure. At once Edmund’s hands stopped moving, and then they were removed altogether leaving Noella without any stimulation. ‘You moved,’ he said softly.
‘Hardly at all,’ she exclaimed in surprise. ‘Surely that doesn’t count?’
‘It all counts,’ he whispered. ‘Now, I’ll begin again.’
Once more he massaged the jelly on to her breasts, and this time Noella concentrated all her attention on keeping still, trying to blot out the sensations of pleasure that were flowing through her nerve endings.
‘Good girl,’ he murmured and next she felt him drawing down the zip at the front of the costume so that he could slip his hand inside the tight-fitting leather and knead her sensitive abdominal muscles.
For several minutes she managed to lie there completely still, simply revelling in the sensations, but then the pressure eased a little and without thinking she pushed up against his hand. To her horror he promptly zipped the suit up again and once more her body was left untouched.
‘You were doing really well,’ he said in apparent regret.
‘I can’t play this game!’ shouted Noella, now almost angry with mounting frustration. ‘It’s not possible to keep still.’
‘Then we’ll sleep,’ he said coolly.
But Noella’s body was far too aroused for sleep and they both knew it. She gave a groan of despair which he knew was assent and then his hands were on her breasts once more.
This time Noella did really well. Edmund was even able to finish massaging her stomach without her moving and then he turned his attention to the space between her spread legs, the very core of Noella’s sexuality where she felt herself to be on fire with waiting.
‘How damp you are,’ he whispered as he stroked her gently with one finger along her outer sex lips.
Noella felt an overwhelming desire to squirm against the soft fleece of the sheepskin beneath her but managed to control herself. As Edmund’s finger pressed down and her outer sex lips parted, she nearly moved her right leg to assist him but again remembered just in time that it was forbidden.
Smiling to himself, Edmund continued to press down with his finger until he located the tiny swollen bud of her clitoris. He then maintained a soft steady pressure that resulted in a gradual build-up of sexual tension behind Noella’s pubic bone, a tension that finally could go no further without some different movement from Edmund.
Edmund, however, had no intention of providing that movement. Instead, keeping his finger where it was, he lay down beside his spread-eagled wife and with his free hand drew a ribbon of silk across each of her breasts in turn.
Noella was almost demented by excitement and frustration. She longed for some kind of movement between her thighs, some change of tempo that would enable her body to continue surging towards its orgasm, but she didn’t dare move in case Edmund decided to start the whole process over again. There were tiny drops of perspiration on her upper lip and Edmund licked them away tenderly, allowing his tongue to slip between her teeth for a moment in an imitation of the thrusting movement that he knew she wanted to feel between her legs.
All at once a nerve jumped in Noella’s right leg and she felt it twitch. She looked at Edmund with something close to despair. ‘It’s not my fault, it’s like cramp,’ she assured him, straining to keep the rest of her still.
Edmund nodded, and then at last he allowed his finger to move around her clitoris, massaging the whole area with firm rotations until the resulting sensations caused Noella’s eyes to widen as she struggled to remain still.
‘You’re doing very well,’ Edmund told her, ‘I expect you’d like the little black twins now, wouldn’t you?’
Noella shook her head. Normally she loved the tiny bullet-shaped black probes that Edmund would insert within her front and back passages at the same time, before turning on the power so that the pulsations would vibrate through her from front to back, causing her some of her most fulfilling climaxes, but not under these conditions, not when she wasn’t allowed to move her legs and buck with ecstasy.
‘I’d rather not,’ she gasped.
Again Edmund gave her one of his less than reassuring smiles. ‘But you like them. I remember last time we used them you kept having one climax after another.’
‘I won’t be able to keep still!’ she gasped.
‘Of course you will,’ said Edmund smoothly. ‘After all the games we’ve played over the years I expected you to be more adventurous than this, you know.’
Noella bit on her lower lip and finally nodded agreement. His fingers had already opened her up and her muscles there were tight as she held them rigid to guard against unintentional movement.
‘I knew you’d agree,’ he said with satisfaction, and within seconds she felt the lubricated tip of one probe being eased into her rectum as Edmund let the other play softly over the moist tissue around her clitoris. They were vibrating on a low setting but after all that had gone before, Noella knew that she would come in a very short time, and she prayed that her body wouldn’t betray her during these last few moments.
Edmund watched her struggling to keep still and admired her self-control. He was also incredibly excited by the sight of her subduing her normal sexual exuberance, and when her leg muscles rippled with tension he wanted to take her immediately, but instead turned up the speed on the twin vibrators and watched as her orgasm rushed nearer.
For Noella this was always the best moment of all. The moment when every nerve ending was at its most sensitive, when her senses were so finely tuned that it felt as though she’d shed her skin. She began to utter tiny sounds deep in her throat. Her breasts were larger than Edmund had ever seen them, and just as all the glorious sensations were drawing together before erupting into release he couldn’t resist tugging on he
r right nipple, drawing it out as far as possible and then tweaking it between his finger and thumb.
With a cry, Noella’s whole body jerked and her hips lifted off the bed as the highly stimulated nerve endings sent messages of impending ecstasy to her brain. The movement was involuntary and the moment she’d made it Noella shouted aloud in despair and then tried to push herself over the edge into release before Edmund could stop her, but he was too quick. With one swift movement he removed the twin probes and released her breast leaving her stranded on the very brink of what she knew would have been an incredible climax.
‘What a pity,’ he said softly. ‘Now we have to begin all over again.’
Noella’s screams of fury at being left frustrated could be heard in the next room and Harriet stirred in Lewis’s arms.
‘What on earth’s going on in there?’ she asked sleepily.
‘I’ve no idea,’ said Lewis. ‘Probably another of their arguments.’
‘It didn’t sound like an argument a few moments ago,’ laughed Harriet.
‘Well perhaps he disappointed her.’
‘I doubt it,’ said Harriet thoughtfully.
‘You mean he looks like a man who’d know how to please?’ queried Lewis, his voice amused.
Harriet snuggled closer to him, her breasts brushing against his chest. ‘I suppose so, yes.’
‘He does want you. You know that, don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ admitted Harriet.
‘And you’d love to know what he’s like in bed, isn’t that true?’ he persisted.
Harriet sighed. ‘Lewis, we’ve only just got married. I don’t need anyone but you. I love you and I don’t want to lose you.’
‘We’re not talking above love,’ Lewis reminded her. ‘We’re talking about desire. Now, isn’t it true that you desire Edmund?’
‘No.’
Lewis laughed and hugged her tighter. ‘You’re a fibber. You desire him but you don’t want to do anything about it because you don’t think that you should. There’s nothing wrong with desire, it’s perfectly normal.’
‘Not when you’ve just got married!’ exclaimed Harriet.
‘We’ve been lovers for over two years now. Hasn’t “custom staled our infinite variety” as the Bard once said?’
‘All right,’ she conceded. ‘I suppose I would like to know what he was like. He’s very attractive, in an unusual kind of way.’
‘What’s unusual about him?’ asked Lewis with an air of detached interest that Harriet found rather disturbing. ‘I’d have said he was a typical product of the English public school system, except for the fact that he prefers women to men.’
‘I suppose it’s the fact that he seems on the surface to be exactly what you say. He’s very smooth and urbane, and at first there’s no obvious sexual magnetism about him, but as soon as you start talking to him and really look into his eyes, you get this feeling that he isn’t what he’s pretending to be. There’s something almost dangerous about him. When Noella said earlier that he’d “gone on the turn” I wasn’t surprised because that’s the feeling he gives me, that he could turn, and probably into something much more exciting than the conventional image he chooses to present to the world.’
‘You’ve certainly given him some thought,’ laughed Lewis.
‘Only because you’ve encouraged me.’
Lewis’s arms tightened round her. ‘Oh no, Harriet. I think we should both be quite honest about this. I saw the way you looked at him on the day of our wedding, and it wasn’t the way you look at most people. Even then, long before I’d told you about this film, you were interested.’
‘I might have been,’ conceded Harriet reluctantly, ‘but I wouldn’t have done anything about it if—’
‘You haven’t done anything about it now, and you don’t have to if that’s not what you want,’ interrupted Lewis. I can’t stop Edmund lusting after you, but the rest is entirely up to you. Whatever happens, Harriet, you’re not coming back to me when it’s over and saying I made you do anything, because that’s not the way things happen. You’re an adult and you make your own decisions. Do what you want, but at least have the decency to take the responsibility yourself.’
‘That’s not fair!’ exclaimed Harriet. ‘If you’d only tell me that you don’t want me to respond to Edmund, that I’m your wife now and you expect fidelity, then I’d never think of going with him, however strong my desire.’
‘I’m your husband, not your gaoler. I don’t suppose for one moment that I’ll remain faithful to you for the rest of our lives, so how can I possibly demand the same thing of you?’ he asked casually.
Harriet felt as though he’d slapped her. ‘You mean you’ll have affairs?’
‘Let’s not be naïve about this. I had an affair with you while I was married to Rowena, why should I have changed? I’m not saying I’d fall in love with another woman, in fact that’s most unlikely, but sexual fidelity isn’t high on my list of priorities.’
‘Then why did you want us to get married?’ asked a bewildered Harriet.
‘Because I’m in love with you.’
‘But if you’re in love with me how can you—’
‘Harriet, you are being incredibly unsophisticated and it doesn’t suit you,’ said Lewis, his voice beginning to take on a hard edge. ‘If you wanted a conventional marriage and an ordinary life then you should have married that merchant banker you were running away from when we first met. This is a different world, darling, and if you’re the woman I think you are, you’ll enjoy it to the full.’
In the silence that followed his remark they both heard a cry of ecstatic pleasure from Noella, followed a few seconds later by another and then a third. Harriet shivered. The cries were almost too intense, as though the pleasure had gone far beyond anything Harriet had ever experienced.
‘Sounds as though they’ve kissed and made up,’ murmured Lewis laconically.
‘I don’t want to lose you,’ said Harriet huskily.
‘You won’t lose me, unless you ask me to go,’ he assured her.
‘But suppose I find that Edmund’s addictive?’
‘I’m afraid,’ said Lewis slowly, ‘that’s a risk we both have to take.’
‘Why?’
‘Because if we don’t there won’t be a film.’
Harriet was suddenly filled with rage. ‘Do your films mean more to you than I do?’ she demanded.
‘I think we’d better go to sleep now,’ said Lewis softly. ‘There are some questions, Harriet, that are better left unanswered.’
Chapter Three
* * *
THE NEXT MORNING when Harriet awoke the sun was streaming through their windows. Slipping out of bed, she opened the curtains slightly and saw that it was a perfect summer’s morning. A few fluffy white clouds moved lazily across the blue sky and there was a soft dew on the grass. From the window she could see the figure of a man – Oliver Kesby she assumed – cleaning the surface of the outdoor pool with a large net; the water looked clear and inviting.
‘The rain’s stopped, Lewis,’ she said happily.
Lewis mumbled something unintelligible and rolled onto his back, shielding his eyes from the light. ‘What time is it?’
‘Half-past eight. Why don’t we go for a walk before breakfast? We could explore the grounds.’
‘You go,’ he said sleepily. ‘My legs won’t function until I’ve had coffee, especially not when I’m jet lagged.’
‘I think I heard Mrs Webster tap on the door, she might have left an early morning tray outside,’ said Harriet, crossing the room to open it. She was entirely naked and Lewis felt himself hardening at the sight of her long slim body with its softly rounded breasts and deliciously small waist. Once again he was struck by the realisation of exactly what he was risking by going ahead with his film, but he had to know the truth of where people’s desires could lead them even when they were at their happiest. He wanted to know not only for his film but also for himself. Until he did he w
ould never feel secure with Harriet.
Unaware of her husband’s own fears, Harriet had resolved during the night that she would do exactly what he said and follow her desires. If Edmund continued to prove attractive to her and an affair became possible, then she’d have one. She had a suspicion that deep down she was no different from Lewis. Certainly an unconventional life made her feel more alive if not as safe as the one she’d envisaged when she was a young girl.
‘Sorry,’ she exclaimed as she placed the tray on the bedside table. ‘Mrs Webster’s only left us tea. You’ll have to get used to it while we’re in England.’
‘I’ll never get used to it,’ muttered Lewis grumpily.
Harriet ignored him. She drank a cup herself, pulled a hyacinth-coloured sundress on over a short sleeved white T-shirt, thrust her feet into a pair of white canvas shoes and then hurried out of the house. Once outside she took several deep breaths and felt her whole body relaxing. Everywhere seemed totally peaceful. Birds were singing in the distance and somewhere far off some children were playing, but here at Penruan all was silent.
Oliver Kesby watched Harriet coming across the lawn towards the pool and decided that she was far more beautiful than the woman he’d met the previous night. Although she lacked that woman’s sophistication, she had an air of free sexuality about her that set his imagination racing.
He’d heard of Lewis James and had enjoyed Dark Secret more than anything he’d ever seen, but somehow this girl – for that was all she looked in her simple T-shirt and sundress – didn’t fit with his image of the kind of woman such a man would choose for his wife. The blonde would have fitted the bill better he thought as he smiled at the approaching young woman.
Harriet smiled back at him. She could quite see why Noella had found him attractive, although he wasn’t Harriet’s type. His well-built muscular body, obviously kept in trim by weight-lifting, rippled beneath a tight blue T-shirt, and his legs, clad only in brief shorts, were tanned and well muscled. When he smiled, his light blue eyes glinted in the framework of their surprisingly dark lashes.
Forbidden Desires Page 4
