by JB Duvane
A faint smell of smoke wafted into the room and the Beauchamps started to panic. Young and old women and men ran into the room, their eyes pleading with the old woman to tell them what to do.
“Let her go! The contract has been broken and we are free! Run!”
I watched as the servants all disappeared down different cavern tunnels. Charlotte walked toward me but the look in her eyes wasn’t what I was expecting. I opened my mouth to say something when I heard Gerald’s voice behind me. “We’d better get out of here, Raymond!”
“Just one more thing.” I pulled a book of matches out of my pocket and lit it, then set the whole book underneath my mother’s hair. It went up in flames immediately and I grabbed Charlotte’s hand and followed Gerald out of the caves.
I stood in the middle of the road that led up to the house and watched as the front window, the one I used to look out when Mama and I were playing hide and seek, shattered. As soon as that window blew out the fire spread instantaneously, filling every window on every floor.
I thought of the library where my families priceless manuscripts had been stored for centuries. Now reduced to ashes. The rooms filled with heirlooms that stood right next to torture devices were soon to become a pile of unrecognizable black pulp. And Charlotte’s room. The room I had designed just for her. To keep her captive in my insane world. It was just a matter of minutes before it was wiped off of the face of the earth forever, and I was glad of that.
But what I didn’t want to think about was my mother. Mama was burning. That sweet face of hers was surely black and warped by the hot flames by now. I knew it was for the best, but it tore my heart out to think of her leaving me again. I hadn’t completely said goodbye the first time fifteen years ago, and this time it was final. My childhood home, my families history, and my mama were all burning down to the ground in front of me.
Charlotte stood next to me while I watched the house burn. She didn’t say a word and she didn’t touch me. She just stood close. I could feel her there and I wanted to wrap my arms around her, but after what they told her in the caverns I was terrified. I stood there and watched the house burn and collapse as the sun went down. I had never felt so alone in my life.
Eventually I looked over at Charlotte, but I knew when I saw the look in her eyes that this wasn’t going to be the ending I had hoped for.
“Charlotte …”
“I can’t, Raymond.” Tears were streaming down her face. “I can’t.”
“Please, Charlotte, listen to me. I can explain everything. Please don’t leave me. I don’t think I can bear it if you leave me now.”
“Raymond!” She was sobbing now. “I can’t stay! Please don’t ask me again. I don’t know what to think about any of this. I don’t know what I believe anymore.”
“You can believe me, Charlotte. I didn’t lie—“
“Yes you did! You told me that my father was dead that afternoon that you found me! You said that he died while you were there! That woman in there said you sent Gerald to kill him. So he wasn’t dead when you told me he was!”
“Charlotte, please let me explain—
“I don’t want to hear any more lies, Raymond!” She shook her head while she slowly backed away from me.
“Just give me a chance, Charlotte. I never, ever meant to hurt you. Everything I did was for you.”
But she didn’t hear the last few words I said. She saw Gerald in her field of vision and turned to him. “Can you take me …”
“Sure. Where do you want to go?” Gerald said to Charlotte, but his eyes were looking up at me. I nodded, letting him know that he should take her anywhere she wanted to go.
“I don’t know!” Charlotte put her face in her hands and sobbed. “I don’t know where to go. I just have to get out of here.” Gerald put his arm around her and turned to walk her over to his car.
“Gerald,” I called after him. He turned around and looked at me, his eyes filled with sympathy. “Give her whatever she needs. Anything she wants.”
Gerald nodded and turned back around, then got in the car. It felt as if a knife had been plunged into my chest as I watched him drive Charlotte away.
20
Charlotte - One Year Later
“Goodnight, Miss Charlotte!”
The sound of the happy little girl voices rang in my ears.
“Goodnight, class! See you next week!”
Twenty little girls in tutus jumped up and down and skipped across the studio floor where their mothers were waiting to pick them up and take them home.
I walked over to my own pile of possessions and picked up my coat and duffel bag.
“Mommy! Miss Charlotte says I dance like a real ballerina!”
“She does? That’s wonderful!” The mother beamed up at me. “I’m Jezelle’s mother, Brady.”
“Hello, Brandy. It’s the truth. Jezelle is one of my best students. Is she planning on continuing with ballet?”
“I hope so. That’s something I wanted to ask you. Are you going to be teaching the older students next term?”
“I’m still getting my teaching certification, so it might not be next term. But I’m planning on taking on older students in about year.”
“That’s fabulous. Jezelle loves you. Don’t you, sweetie?”
“I do!”
The girl reached up with both arms and gave me a hug.
“I love you too, honey.”
“Come on, sweetie, your teacher wants to get home.”
“Okay, bye, Miss Charlotte!”
“Goodnight.” I waved at the girl and her mother as they walked across the studio and out the door. I was steeped in pleasant thoughts about finally getting my dance teacher’s certification when my heart stopped. A dark outline filled up most of the door frame and I immediately knew who it was.
“Raymond?”
The shadow stepped out of the doorway and into the light of the studio. “Charlotte,” he said with a warm smile. “It’s so good to see you.”
I had thought about this moment a million times over the last year. I had tried to picture what it would be like to see him again. But when it finally happened it was nowhere near as sophisticated as it had been in my mind.
Tears flooded my eyes and my throat closed up. My mouth was open and it was trying to form some words, but nothing came out. I put my hands over most of my face as I watched him walk across the room, his footsteps echoing on the hardwood studio floor. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. He looked incredible. I didn’t remember him being so gorgeous or looking so confident.
“Let’s get these out of the way.” He reached out and took my hands away from my face. They were shaking and he held them in his to keep them steady. “I came here to see your beautiful face.”
“Raymond. What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see you, Charlotte. I had to see you. And I hoped that you might want to see me too.”
“Yes, I do. I’m really glad you’re here. How did you find me?”
“I’ve always known where you were. Gerald is a master at finding information on the internet and I’ve had him help me. I hope you don’t mind. I know that sounds a little creepy.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.” There was an awkward pause for a moment but then I burst out laughing and Raymond did too. He looked incredibly relieved. “I’m glad you found me. Really,” I said as I squeezed his hands.
“I see you’re a dance teacher now. That’s fabulous. That’s one of the things I wanted to give to you, but it wasn’t mine to give.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty happy that I got to where I am on my own. It’s nice to have help every once in a while, but it’s a lot more satisfying to be able to say that you did something like this yourself.”
“I can imagine. I’ve always had things handed to me, so I don’t have much I can claim as my own.”
“That’s not true at all. You’re a fascinating person and you have a lot of talents.”
“Oh re
ally? Name one.”
I was speechless for a moment. I knew exactly what talent Raymond had that made him stand out head and shoulders over any man I had ever known, but I didn’t know if I could just come out and say it. “The way you make me feel.”
We stared into each other’s eyes for a long time before he said anything. “That’s what I came here to talk to you about. I know how messed up everything was. I know I did some horrible things, but you have to believe me. I’m not the person anymore. And I’m not the person that old woman was trying to make me out to be. I suppose maybe I was to some degree back then. Probably more than I realized or wanted to know. But I’m not now.”
“I know.”
“What do you mean?”
“I talked to Gerald in the car. I asked him to tell me everything he knew about you. I thought about contacting you right away but I knew it was best if we had some time apart. I knew it would be best for both of us.”
“Well, you were right. I definitely don’t feel like the same person I was a year ago. I think letting go of my mother really helped with that.”
“I hoped so hard that you would come, Raymond. I knew if anyone could fine me, you could.”
I couldn’t wait any longer. I threw my arms around Raymond’s neck and laid my head on his shoulder. It felt wonderful to feel his arms around me again. “Oh God, Raymond. I’ve missed you so much.”
I closed my eyes as I felt my arms touch his warm skin. I had waited for this for so long. “I’ve missed you too. Do you think there’s any chance we could—“
“Yes.”
“I didn’t even finish what I was going to say,” he said as he pulled away and smiled down at me. “You could have agreed to anything.”
“Whatever it is, if it’s with you, the answer is yes.”
“So yes to us living together?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said with a big smile.
“Yes to us traveling together?”
“Yes. You know how much I want to travel!”
“Then yes to us traveling around the world on our honeymoon?” His eyes twinkled when he said the words.
“Honeymoon?”
“I want you to be with me, Charlotte. Forever. I want to marry you.”
“Yes!” I pushed my fingers through his hair and brought his face down to mine. “I want to be yours, Raymond … forever.”
I looked up into his dark eyes. I could see them glass over as tears started to form and a sweet smile spread across his face. He lowered his head and I could feel his warmth envelop me until his lips were touching mine.
The kiss was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. I didn’t know if it was because of the time apart or because we had both grown over the last year, but the kiss felt deeper and more intense than any I’d ever experienced.
His lips melted into mine as his tongue parted them and invaded me. But I was feeling more inside me than that. It was as if I could feel his essence enter me with each thrust of his tongue into my mouth. His energy melted inside me and flowed down into my chest where it lit my core on fire.
Raymond gripped my shoulders and turned me around so that we were both facing the studio mirror that ran from floor to ceiling along the entire wall. The reflection of his eyes met mine and held it as his mouth dipped down to taste my neck. As his lips moved across the sensitive skin where my shoulder met my neck, my eyes closed and I felt those kisses melt into every cell of my body.
When I opened my eyes again he was still watching me. His intense, black eyes were trained on me as he watched the ecstasy that his kisses brought me spread across my face.
He pulled one shoulder of my body suit down and showered my back and arm with soft, electric kisses. Then moved to the other side and did the same with the other shoulder.
My eyes kept closing as the waves of pleasure rippled through me, but whenever I opened them up again and looked at him, his eyes were on me. As if the sight of my pleasure was enough for him.
He turned me back around again and pushed me up against the mirror. Then grabbed both sides of my body suit and pulled down hard, exposing my breasts to him. My arms were caught up in the sleeves, which prevented me from moving them, and I think that’s what he had intended. He let me struggle in vain while he cupped both of my breasts and covered them with kisses.
The studio was cold and the air rushed in wherever his mouth had just touched. My nipples grew incredibly hard but the cold air seemed to vanish wherever his lips passed over my skin. He left my breasts and his kisses gently grazed my bare stomach.
He was on his knees in front of me now and as he gazed up at me his hands found my breasts again. He squeezed them and massaged them and twisted the nipples until I moaned out in pleasure. My arms were still caught up in my clothes and the feeling of being restrained while Raymond had his way with me was overwhelming.
His fingers moved slowly back over my belly button, down my stomach, and hooked themselves into my body suit. He teased me as he pulled it down slowly, but I had a feeling this was all part of the new Raymond. Slow, seductive torture. I wanted more.
I felt the body suit slide down past my hips, then down my thighs and finally it dropped to the ground. I stepped out of it and watched Raymond as his hands slid up my thighs to the space between my legs. He buried his face in the gap and gripped my ass, then turned me around so that I was facing the mirror again.
“Put your hands on the mirror.”
“Yes, Sir.” It felt so good to say those words again.
I felt my hard nipples press against the cold glass as I did what he told me to do. He was still on his knees behind me and I felt his hands spread my ass cheeks apart. He pressed his face into me and buried his mouth in between my pussy lips, his tongue darting between my clit and my vagina. Then moved his tongue up slowly to tickle my sensitive asshole.
I gasped as he licked and sucked on me ferociously. It felt like he was going to eat me alive. My legs started to shake and I pressed myself into him, then suddenly felt a hard smack on my ass. I screamed out in pain and pleasure as Raymond squeezed the very spot on my ass cheek that he had just spanked.
I couldn’t stop myself from pressing into his mouth. I thought maybe the spanking was a warning like the last time, but I didn’t care. He could hit me twenty more times and I would beg for more. I was almost doubled over as I arched my back and offered my pussy up to his mouth.
Raymond gripped both of my hips with his hands as he sucked on my clit, then just as I felt my orgasm build to a crescendo he spanked me hard in the same spot as before.
“Oh God! Raymond,” I screamed as I gyrated my pussy into his hungry mouth. “I need you inside me, now!”
Raymond stood up behind me and picked me up, then laid me down on a long wooden bench. He pulled his clothes off within seconds and got on top of me, spreading my legs and pushing them up so that my ankles were next to my head.
Then he entered me with one swift, deep movement. The entirety of his cock slammed into me as his eyes burned into mine. His thrusts took over. I was no longer on this planet. Everything was gone except the feeling of Raymond deep inside me. Every time I opened my eyes there he was staring down at me. His dark eyes so hypnotic; calling me deeper and deeper into him.
There was nothing I wanted more in the world than for that moment between us to go on forever. I wanted to feel him inside me until the end of time. I wanted to float forever in bliss with the two of us intertwined; inextricably linked together as one living, breathing being.
I wanted it but knew the moment couldn’t possible last that long. But I also knew that after that moment there would be another moment, and another. The rest of my life would be filled with moments, and every single one of those moments would be filled with Raymond.
The End
About JB Duvane
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Also by JB Duvane
Dark Romance
His to Take (She’s Mine Book 1)
His to Keep (She’s Mine Book 2)
His Forever (She’s Mine Book 3)
The Dark Doctor
Colin: A Serial Killer Romance
Contemporary Romance
Bad Patient: A Bad Boy Romance
Hooked: A Bad Boy MMA Romance
Jet-Set Billionaire: The Complete Series
JB Duvane’s Amazon Page
