He growled deep in the back of his throat. “I like to watch you do anything.”
I glanced down at his trousers. “Would you like to watch me give you release?”
His face reddened, and his hand stretched over to the bed post, undoing his cravat.
“Is that what you want, Audrey?”
I shuddered at the sound of my Christian name on his lips and nodded.
Standing up, he pulled me off the bed like a slave, my wrists still bound. My night shift billowed all around me, and he twined the silk tie around his hand until I stood a hairsbreadth away from his body. He pushed his hips into my abdomen, and his rigid sex jabbed into me.
“I will not force you,” he whispered, brushing a lock of hair over my shoulder. His sweeping fingertips made me shake, the aftershocks of my orgasm sending small tremors through my body. I swallowed, my throat dry, my mouth eager to please him.
“I want to,” I said.
He nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Kneel down.”
I did as I was told, my body tingling from his commanding voice. His doctor voice. So sure. Assertive.
He tugged at the silk binding, pulling me between his knees. He ran his finger across the line of my jaw. “Unbutton my trousers.”
My hands shook as I reached for the buttons lining the front of his hips. They felt cool to the touch, and when I did the last one, his cock still strained against his smallclothes.
He wrapped the silk tighter around his hand, guiding me toward him. “Take me out,” he demanded.
Awkwardly, I grasped the sheer cotton and pulled him free, cupping his full cock in my bound hands. Hot and firm, it pulsed between my palms, a small drop of come seeping from the tip. I took my thumb and rubbed it around the head, back and forth. He groaned, clenching the sheets with a tight fist while the other pulled my wrists taut. I smiled to myself and rubbed my hand up and down, his impossibly large erection growing even larger. My sex ached to feel him between my legs, to have him pump into me, but I wanted to play this game first. I thought of the initiate in the Gathering, how she had submitted completely to the bull, and I wanted to submit to Joseph, do exactly what he told me to. I liked kneeling in front of him, tied up and at his mercy. I liked the feeling of knowing he could do anything he wanted, that I was truly his slave. It wasn’t oppressive.
It was liberating.
“Put me in your mouth,” he said.
My fingertips lingered around his fullness, and I lowered my head.
“Place your hands in your lap.” He tugged at my wrists.
I did as he told, my lips hovering over his tip. He smelled earthy beneath his spicy, familiar scent, heat emanating from his skin.
“Suck me, Audrey,” he commanded. “I want to feel your lips around me.”
I nodded and kissed his head before taking him in my mouth.
A low groan echoed in my ears, and I closed my eyes at the sound, moving farther along his shaft.
His hand cupped my cheek before traveling against the crown of my head. “Look at me.”
I let go of his cock and stared up at him. Perhaps I had done it wrong. I had only done it once, and found the entire ordeal unpleasant.
“You have not done this many times, have you?”
A blush crept up my neck and looked away. “I’m sorry…I…”
He took my chin in his hand and forced me to stare up at him. “No, Audrey. Do not apologize. It is important whatever you do with Lady Aberthorne…or me…that you are honest. If you play the slave, it is vital for your partner to know your own experiences and limits.”
I took a deep breath and frowned. “I’ve only done it once, and it was…”
He blinked slowly and caressed my neck. “You do not have to say it. I understand.”
I stared up at his dark eyes, and felt the floor shift beneath me, the light dimming for a moment. All I knew in that half second was him, the pads of his fingertips against my skin, the musky smell of his manliness, the sweat beading on his forehead as he strained against his erection. He must have had so much control to wait, to converse. As if we were having tea and he asked me how many sugars I preferred. The thought made me smile, and he grinned down at me.
“What is it?” he said.
“Nothing, it’s just…” I glanced down at my bound hands. “Is it being a doctor that makes you so…forthcoming?”
A shadow passed his face, and he nodded. “I have seen a great many things, Audrey. There is no shame in our bodies and what they can do.”
A faint pressure hit behind my eyelids, and I blinked the sudden tears away. I had no idea why his words sent such a pang through me, but there in his bedroom, all the shame I might have felt melted away, and I threw back my shoulders, my smile growing wider.
“Will you teach me this?” I nodded down toward his cock.
“We shall take it slow,” he said. “But you have your special word if you need it, do you understand?”
“I do.”
The lines of his face grew hard again, his hair falling across his jaw. “Take me in your mouth once more, but look up at me.”
I suctioned my lips around him once more. He tasted salty, his skin soft over the rigid hardness darting against the roof of my mouth. He grasped tight onto my hair, his other hand still tight around my bonds. My eyes watered, and I closed them, trying not to gag.
“Look at me, Audrey.”
I opened my eyes again, and Joseph steadied his cock. “Try to relax the back of your mouth, like a yawn. It helps.”
I inhaled, opening the muscles in my throat as he instructed, and he eased himself farther inside. My hand grasped onto him, and he stood up, his cock falling from my mouth. He tugged sharply onto the silk cravat binding my wrists.
“Place your hands down,” he said.
I let them fall.
He stroked the back of my head. “You need to trust me, Audrey.”
I nodded.
“Tighten your lips around my cock,” he said. “I am going to ease into you more.”
He guided himself back into my mouth, and I made sure to create a firm suction as he moved deeper inside. I focused my attention on releasing the muscles in the back of my throat even as we maintained eye contact. He stared down at me, his teeth grinding as a low sound escaped his lips.
“That is beautiful, Audrey,” he whispered. “Suck back and forth along my cock now, and this time draw your tongue over me.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, finding the rhythm with my neck as I ran my mouth up and down his shaft. My tongue unfurled over him, rolling across his hard flesh. I wanted to taste all of him, and I teased the tiny slit overflowing with come. His cock pulsed, filling me, and each time I took a little more of him deeper into the back of my throat until the wiry hairs around his sac tickled my chin.
“Look at me,” he demanded.
I paused, his cock rammed completely into my mouth.
“Do you see how deep I am inside you, Audrey? Do you see how well you have done?”
In response, I ran my tongue up and down his shaft, sucking harder.
He groaned, his hips thrusting against my face. “Relax your throat, my darling. I am going to fuck your mouth.”
His words sent a gush of wetness between my legs, and a bolt of pleasure shuddered down my spine.
He grabbed my hair and pumped hard, a tremor passing from his sac through his length until hot come pulsed down my throat. I swallowed him, drinking him in, and he doubled over, his hand still grasped tight against the back of my head. He pushed me down farther with a groan as he shuddered into me one last time. He grew slack in my mouth, and Joseph pressed his hand to my face, rubbing my cheek with his thumb. With the gentlest of movements, he drew himself out of me and knelt down.
“You are quite the quick study, Miss Byrnes,” he said in a low voice, untying my bonds.
I swallowed the last of his come, salty and spicy on my tongue. “Did you enjoy it?”
“Oh my darling.�
� He threw away the silk cravat and crushed me against his chest. “Come here and let me hold you.”
He drew me up to standing, and swept me into the bed, tucking me close beside him. We lay like that for a long time, and my eyes grew heavy. I yawned and stretched out against his long body, my fingertips dancing against the buttons of his shirt.
“I should go,” I said. “If the maid catches me here, there will be scandal.”
He laughed, and the sound reverberated in my ear. “I’m sure it won’t be the first scandal beneath this roof.”
“I know.” I sighed, rolling away. “But I can’t afford scandal right now. As it is, I’m not sure how I’m going to play this game with Lady Aberthorne. It seems so precarious.”
Joseph placed a hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear. “You leave Lady Aberthorne to me.”
Chapter 12
Joseph
I should have been paying attention to Audrey’s words. To the chapter she was reading and the trials of Jasmine and her English lover, Thomas the priest. But each time I did, my gaze focused too long at Audrey’s beautiful mouth and not the prose falling from it. Audrey’s mouth kissing me. Audrey’s mouth wrapped around my cock, her big green eyes staring up at me.
The Aberthornes demanded she read from her new novel this morning, but the sound of her voice sang to me, my chest tightening every time she paused to take a breath. My thoughts kept retreating to last night, the last time I kissed her before she closed the door and padded away on her tiny feet. So far we had avoided any scandal. No servants had seen her. But I wondered about this new masquerade we had begun in the Aberthornes’ mansion and where it might lead us.
I hadn’t even told Weston about Lady Aberthorne’s advances. He was far too busy fighting and making up with Lady Elliot. The pair of them sat in the corner, back in love with each other for the time being, their eyes locked in some sort of lustful staring contest.
I glanced over at the Aberthornes. He had nodded off, and she had a bored look on her face, her thumb running back and forth on the lace edgings of her skirts. She could have been plotting what cake to serve for dinner or planning how to tie up Audrey to best tease and torture her for all I knew. The thought of Audrey naked and bound sent a shot of desire straight down my spine, and I shifted in my seat, leaning forward to listen.
Lord Castlevane cleared his throat, and Audrey glanced up.
“My dear, I must stop you right there,” he said.
A blush crept up Audrey’s neck, and my fists clenched at my sides. That man needed a sound thrashing, and I wished I were the man to do it.
“Yes, my lord?” She blinked, her head tilted to the side. The paper in her hand shook ever so slightly.
“Your heroine, Jasmine, speaks quite ill of the Empire,” Castlevane drawled. “I would imagine she would be grateful for English occupiers, to liberate her from this pagan Indian nonsense.”
Audrey’s new book took place in India. An unlikely follow up to her Irish novel, but I admired her for challenging herself. Her shoulders tensed, but she flashed Castlevane a brilliant smile before placing her chapter on the table. She arranged the pages in a straight line, and sat down on a chair.
“I do say, I might have agreed with you before I began researching my novel,” Audrey replied. “But what I found is that Indian women no more need liberation from the English than Englishwoman do for themselves.”
Lady Aberthorne let out a high, yelping laugh. “Oh, my dear. Do explain yourself. We may not have all the freedoms of our menfolk, but at least our widows are not forced to burn on our husband’s funeral pyres.”
Lord Castlevane nodded rigorously, the flesh beneath his chin wobbling like a turkey’s.
“Yes,” Audrey said. “But without the right to land or property after the death of our husbands, we might as well burn.”
Lady Aberthorne laughed, and the sound made me flinch.
“Oh, you’re quite right about that,” she said. “If something ever happened to Harold, I would probably be beggaring in the streets.”
The Aberthornes had no heir, and while Lady Aberthorne wouldn’t end up cold and alone in the gutters of London, it was no secret that all of her husband’s money would go to a distant cousin once he died.
“Quite right, my lady ,” Audrey said. “Before we judge our Indian sisters, we need to closely examine the forces at home that keep us prisoners in our own country.”
Lord Castlevane let out an exasperated sound. “My dear, you sound like a bluestocking.”
She giggled, but a glint of steel flashed in her eyes. “A bluestocking? Maybe. A rebel? Definitely.”
My heart leapt in my throat as she locked gazes with Lord Castlevane. She threw back her shoulders as if in a challenge, her long hair billowing down her back. I loved her like that. So fierce, so utterly courageous.
“You would be careful to check that Celtic pride of yours, Miss Byrnes,” he said. “You are on English soil now.”
Lady Aberthorne clapped her hands. “Oh, nonsense. I find Miss Byrnes’s Celtic sensibilities most diverting.” She stood up and grasped Audrey’s hand, pulling her close. Perhaps a little too close. “It’s splendid to have a little rebel in the house.”
From the angle I was sitting, I glimpsed Lady Aberthorne run her fingernail across Audrey’s wrist. I shifted to the edge of my seat, ready to take charge at any hint of distress. Cursing myself inwardly, I took a deep breath, loosening my cravat. I couldn’t understand what Audrey needed these horrible people for, but she seemed intent on making a good impression. I wished fate had given me fortune so I could drag her from this terrible place, but I had to help her see this through. Somehow.
Audrey glanced at me before smiling back at her. “My dear Lady Aberthorne, I do believe your hospitality surpasses that of my own people.”
“Oh, what a compliment!” she said, her gaze never leaving Audrey’s face.
I needed to intervene and fast. I would not dare stand in her way if she wanted to continue with Lady Aberthorne’s fantasies, but that woman need not have so much control over Audrey. I needed to concoct a feasible plan to diffuse the situation and make Lady Aberthorne think it was her idea.
A footman entered and cleared his throat in the ear of Lord Aberthorne, who spluttered awake, blinking and shaking his head. The footman placed a note in his hand, bowed, and retreated from the room.
“What is it, Harold?” his lady asked.
“Emergency session in Parliament.” He growled and eased himself out of the chair. “We must be going, Lord Castlevane.”
I tried to keep my face blank, but inside I cheered to see the back of Castlevane as he mumbled about packing his things.
“We shall return in a few days, my dear.” Lord Aberthorne nodded at his wife and smiled. “Try not to get in too much trouble while we’re gone.”
He almost made it to the door before he turned and looked at me. “Dr. Moorland, my wife has pleaded your case to me in such a fashion, I doubt I shall be able to deny her now. I will put forth your request in committee tomorrow before the session ends. We’ll see your program funded.”
I stood up, grinning, reaching my hand out to shake his. “Sir, I…I don’t know what to say. Thank you. You will do a world of good for England.”
He took my hand in a limp grip before waving me away. “Yes, yes. Please stay as my guest while I am gone, Dr. Moorland. I shall iron out the details with you after I return.”
“Thank you, sir. Yes.” I stammered, nodding. “That is…that is very good, sir.”
He gave Lady Aberthorne a small peck on the cheek before leaving.
As soon as the door closed, she turned to us. “It’s become such a lovely day. Would anyone care for a stroll through the gardens?”
Weston and Lady Elliot begged off, but Audrey gave me a questioning glance. I shook my head with an almost imperceptible movement. I needed to get Lady Aberthorne alone.
“Forgive me, but I believe I shall return to my room to fi
nish this next chapter,” Audrey said, packing her manuscript together and straightening the papers against the desk. “But by all means…”
Lady Aberthorne took up her shawl and intertwined her arm with mine. “I suppose it will be you and me, Dr. Moorland.”
I nodded, leading her out across the verandah. The light morning rain had given away to brilliant sunshine, bright green buds bursting on the trees as we walked across the gravel walkway leading into the more rustic gardens.
“Lady Aberthorne,” I began in hushed tones. “I am pleased we have a moment alone.”
Her fingers grazed over my arm, and she pressed her breasts against me. “As am I, Dr. Moorland.”
I paused and took hold of her hands, leaning away from her. “You see, my lady, I have a confession to make.”
She gave me a sly smile. “Oh my. I do love secrets.”
I swallowed. “I am flattered by your attentions, truly, but I am afraid I am torn with guilt.”
“Guilt?” She threw her head back and laughed. “Lord Weston is one of your greatest friends, and you are going to play the prude with me?”
I bowed. “No, my lady. It is true Lord Weston and I have enjoyed singular pleasures in our travels together, but I am at present engaged to someone.”
She blinked. “I do not see what this has to do with me.”
I pressed my hand to my heart and lowered my eyes. “I do not have it in my heart to lie with another woman.”
“Ah…” Her eyes widened with understanding. “And who is this lucky lady?”
I took a deep breath, praying my plan would work. “If I tell you, I must impress upon you the sacredness of such a secret. Neither of our families know, and in our current states, we are both too poor to wed.”
“Who is it?” she pressed.
“Audrey Byrnes.”
Her mouth dropped open and she spluttered, shaking her head. “Oh, that is… that is wonderful!”
“We met long ago through mutual English acquaintances, and we have remained true to one another ever since.”
Her face softened. “Oh, my dear Dr. Moorland. Your secret is safe with me. That is quite romantic.”
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