Regency Romance Omnibus 2018: Dominate Dukes & Tenacious Women

by Virginia Vice

  “I know why you won’t look at me,” he whispered, circling her again; it all felt so familiar, the predator hungry for his simpering, sweet prey again. She wanted him to hunt her every day. “You don’t want to look at me, because you know if you do, you won’t be able to resist,” he growled temptingly into her ear, hands massaging her shoulders.

  “M’lord, this... this isn’t proper!” she blurted in a wisp of a tone. “I’m...”

  “Look at me,” he commanded again, his body naked, so gorgeous and so irresistible; she had to comply, this time. He had been right. She practically melted for him, her knees quaking; her cheeks bright-red as she bit her lip, taking in every part of his body.

  “I... I’m sorry, m’lord, but... I don’t know about this, about this... relationship. These improprieties,” she huffed, nervous and afraid and angry.

  “Haven’t we spoken about this before? You’re no mere serving-girl,” he hummed.

  “But to you, m’lord, I am!” she shrilly squeaked. “I... I can’t be your wife, I can’t be your lover, I can’t bear your children, I... I can’t marry...” she began to softly sob. He encircled her in his strong arms, kissing her forehead. “I don’t... want to be a mistress,” she admitted, impassioned. The duke sighed, looking out to the windows; his gaze streaking across the rolling green of the moors.

  “Audrey,” he spoke tensely, pain creased across his brow. “I don’t... a man of my place... there are certain expectations on his shoulders,” he admitted painfully. “It’s... something outside of my power. But that doesn’t mean that everything inside of me doesn’t burst with need at the very sight of you. I want you madly, and deeply, Ms. Fisher.”

  “That’s...” Audrey sniffled, eyes closed in pain. “That’s what they said you’d say. That you’d take your liberties with me, saying everything to me... that I’d fall for it, and that I’d fall in love, even if I can’t have you,” Audrey tearfully admitted.

  “Who said this?” the duke asked, his face twisted in muted anger as he stroked the maidservant’s hair.

  “A... all of them, everyone,” she sighed in exasperation, shrinking beneath his strong grasp. “My aunt... Ms. Agatha... they told me to keep my dignity, but I didn’t,” she scraped her hands down his shoulder, the tears flowing freely.

  “Audrey,” he spoke, his tone stern and warm, “do you think you’re just another woman to me? Just another maidservant?”

  “I...” she sniffled. “I don’t know.”

  “Station...” he sighed, looking out across the moors. “My station makes demands of me. But you’ve done something to me, something I hadn’t expected. It’s... true, what they say,” Lord Parris struggled to admit. Audrey squirmed, pain in her eyes.

  “And you’re telling me I’m not just another woman?” Audrey challenged him. “I’m certain... you’ve said that to the others. Even to Ana,” she recalled.

  “Ms. Rancourt and I... we had a brief affair, but she’s not a woman like you,” the lord’s expression grew vexed. “I don’t expect you to believe me. But let me prove it to you.”

  “How wou... would you expect to do that?” Audrey swallowed hard, a quivering leaf in his strong arms; she felt herself lifted by his power, and his desire; he laid her across her bed, indulging her with sweet kisses along her neck; as they laid together, their lips met at last, and she felt all the things he wanted to say, but couldn’t find the words to, all in the way their bodies melted together amid the messy sheets. He grasped her wrists as they kissed, spreading them wide; with the lace hung from the bed’s canopy, he tied her wrists to the bedposts, keeping her restrained before she even realized it.

  “M... m’lord,” she quaked.

  “Do you want to know... the truth?” he huffed hotly, kissing waves down her body, his fingers delicately unlatching each button down the front of her gown, one by one, as his lips made sweet promises every single step.

  “P... please, tell me,” she begged meekly.

  “No one else gets to see me as I really am... no woman can indulge my deepest and darkest desires as you can, Audrey,” he purred, pulling the last button free, leaving her front bared. Her ankles came next; with great care he strapped them to the bedposts, leaving her tied down; helpless. Just as she’d been bound... just as she’d been spanked... it felt so scandalous, but she couldn’t deny him. She couldn’t even think about it - because it felt like nothing her body had known.

  “I... I’m... I don’t know how I should feel, but it feels so good,” Audrey admitted sheepishly, biting her lip. “I don’t... I shouldn’t, but I can’t stop myself from wanting it.”

  “You’re something different, Audrey,” he whispered. “You’re something primal... something real,” he breathed steam into her ear, his fingers grasping the burning candle at bedside. Her tender breasts and curves exposed as she lay helpless, he tilted he candle sideways, a tendril of hot, melted wax falling from the wick. The liquid clung to Audrey’s exposed curves, and she whimpered, body arching out intensely; the wax ran in a hot rivulet along her vulnerable, naked stomach, and while it burned at first the sensation made her cry, beg for more.

  “I’ve never...” she started, swallowing a hard breath as she felt another tease of wax, along the cleft between her full, supple young breasts. Her heart erupted into a flurry of hot beats as his lips teased along her helpless and squirming body, tongue swirling around her left nipple as he whispered hotly to her.

  “This is why you’re special,” he hummed against her skin. “No one understands the things I want... I don’t do this to anyone,” he admitted. “None of them are like you, Audrey... and I knew, when you melted, first feeling that belt wrapped around your wrists... I had to have you.”

  “P... please, m’lord, I...” she gulped deeply. “I don’t understand this, I don’t know... why it feels g... good,” she said. “I... I’ve never experienced...” his tongue plunged deeper, licking a lascivious and lusty trail of damp saliva along her body as the wax seared hot on her skin. She felt her plush femme bead, throbbing hot, as he tongued in gentle circles around her clit. Her hips bucked out against him involuntarily; she tried to reach down and grasp him, but those damn binds kept her tied tight. Completely submissive to her master, he pleasured her with his talented tongue, twirling along he folds. The duke savored every twitch and squirm, and there were many; her body shook under his dancing tongue, and she was completely at his mercy.

  “I want you to hold off, until I tell you,” her master demanded, his thumb now relentlessly twirling around her bead, his tongue beginning to dip deeper into her pouting, feminine folds. She took in a deep breath, face full of fire; it felt near impossible, as all the things he did to her made her feel waves of fulfilling release bubbling up in her chest right now. Instead she fought hard; her breath so intense she nearly hyperventilated, her limbs shaking hard in their bonds.

  “P... please, master,” she murmured, her hips bucking hard against his adoring lips and his wandering tongue. “Pl... please,” she started to cry out louder, unable to hold herself back any longer. “Pl... oh god!” she exclaimed.

  “Not yet,” he demanded, even as his tongue slipped deeper into her sweet folds, tasting her and teasing her.

  “I c... it feels so good,” she crooned, feeling the sensations fill her faster, and hotter, her chest squirming and her entire body pulsing with throbbing sexual intensity. He dipped deeper, tasting her insides, taunting and teasing her clit, until her moans reached a fevered pitch, echoing loud through the windows, over the fields outside the estate.

  “Now,” he demanded, and she complied, her orgasm coming hard and intense down every limb, just like he told her to. She called her lord’s name, over and over again, until she couldn’t even speak from the strain in her throat. She gasped, heaved, until the very last wave of her powerful orgasm left her limbs, moaned from her lips, leaving her exhausted.

  “M... M’lord,” she exhaled sharply. “I...”

  “You don’t need to sa
y anything. Lay with me, here, until we have to face reality again,” he murmured, full of lamentation. He crawled to her side, their bodies twining together as he let her loose of her bonds.

  “I like... calling you master,” she admitted sheepishly into his ear.

  “It’s accurate. I am your master,” he smirked.

  “I... I know,” she nodded. “But...”

  “And you are my servant. My perfect, supple, beautiful servant... with the perfect sense of impropriety,” he kissed her cheek like the devil he was. Audrey smiled dreamily.

  If only they could stay like this forever.

  Chapter 8

  Revulsion filled Audrey’s chest. She dreamed all night about staying in that bed forever - tied up, serving him; his submissive, pliable and pretty companion; his to play with, in all the wild ways he could imagine. Instead, this morning, he watches the duke fritter away his hours preparing himself for a date with another woman - a woman she cannot stand.

  “Don’t you have business to be attending to, Agatha? The last time I visited, I found your staff loafing lazily about in the dining hall!” Audrey could hear Duchess Francine from the third floor; sullenly dragging herself down each flight of stairs, she emerged into the foyer, hopeful to spend a moment with her master before he parted. “Ah, and here she is! The lazy maidservant, in person,” Francine sneered. “I’m surprised you’re still a part of the household staff. Or, considering Agatha’s track record, perhaps I’m not so surprised.”

  “Do you feel better now, duchess?” Agatha asked snidely.

  “No, I can’t say I do,” Francine intoned even harsher. In her golden gown and red corset she stormed across the foyer, until she stood nose-to-nose with Audrey, who shrank away, quivering in quiet fear. “Have you been heeding my advice?” came a seething warning through the duchess’s lips.

  “Wh-what? I’m— m’lady, I have—” Audrey stammered. She hated having to hide the truth, but she knew what it could mean for herself - and for the duke - if word slipped of the bond they had begun to share.

  “Haven’t you taught your help how to talk properly yet, Agatha?” Francine howled.

  “She’s perfectly capable of speaking, duchess. Perhaps she just has no desire to speak to you?” Agatha always stood up for her staff, and Audrey felt a hint safer, knowing the strong, older women would defend her.

  “Did you hear what I asked?” Steely fingers grasped at Audrey’s fire-red hair and tugged; Audrey howled in pain, and Agatha’s expression turned grim.

  “Don’t you dare touch her again. I don’t care how much money you have or whose station you’re in or if you’re sleeping with the damned queen, Francine, you don’t touch my staff,” Agatha snarled, stepping forward. All it took was a few stern steps for Francine to let Audrey free.

  “Good. That’s better,” Agatha nodded. “Now, go wait in your carriage. Outside of my estate.”

  “Your estate? I’ll be telling Bryce about that one,” the duchess scoffed, turning in a fury and clacking her way through the door, throwing it shut with a loud clatter. Audrey, near tears, straightened her hair and smoothed her gown, keeping herself composed.

  “Don’t let her intimidate you,” Agatha reassured Audrey. “Lord Parris would never abandon any of us to her wrath, as much as she likes to throw her station around.”

  “Th... thank you, Ms. Agatha,” Audrey replied meekly.

  “Is Francine causing trouble again?” his voice came to her hopeful ears like water to a man in a the desert; her eyes lit up as she watched the duke, clad in his finest suit, rushing down the stairs towards the foyer.

  “M’lord,” Audrey nodded, blushing; she expected a kiss, a hug, maybe... something, anything.

  “If she did, I apologize ladies. Have the bedchambers tidied before I return yes?” he requested, smiling that stately smiling to Agatha and Audrey. Then... gone. He breezed out the door, with little regard for Audrey. She felt her heart sink; with a deep sigh, she realized this is what she would have to deal with. Being a mistress. A hushed lover, kept behind closed doors. Shoulders slumped, she dragged herself up the stairs to the second floor, watching the cart carrying her forbidden lover and the woman he had to make appearances with off into the distance, between the rolling verdant hills.

  “Oh, Audrey?” a familiar voice, full of scorn, struck the young housemaid’s ear. She glanced heated over one shoulder and caught sight of Ana - a sadistic smile on her face, her long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail that she twirled knowingly with her fingers. “I wanted to ask you about something. Could you come check the study, with me?” Audrey gulped.

  “I... the one on this floor?”

  “Yes, just here, around the corner,” Ana beckoned young Audrey on. She followed, hesitant; Ana had never acted in so friendly a manner. The moment they rounded the corner into the study, Ana’s expression shifted to abject rage; with a wide swinging arc, her palm slapped harshly across Audrey’s face, leaving a blooming redness on her skin. Shocked, Audrey held her hands up to defend herself, unsure of what Ana had in her head.

  “H-how— why? What— what are you doing?!” Audrey squeaked, stumbling backward from the force of the strike, landing in the overstuffed chair in front of the study’s desk.

  “Did you think you could get away with this forever, you little viper?” she snarled, rage thick in her voice. “How dare you think you can traipse in here off the street and try to take my place. You filthy harlot!” Ana drew her hand back as if to slap poor Audrey again, the younger girl wincing, recoiling in her chair.

  “I-I didn’t do anything! Ana, please— calm down!” Audrey squeaked in terror.

  “You didn’t do anything? You did EVERYTHING! Everything you know you weren’t supposed to! I warned you,” Ana shrieked, her voice tense, like a coiled snake looking to strike. “I warned you. And now I’m going to make sure your life is as much of a disaster as you’ve made mine!”

  “Ana, plea— please, calm down! Talk to me,” Audrey pleaded.

  “Talk to you? I tried! I tried the day you set foot here, and you didn’t listen. Instead, you had to worm your shrill, harpy way into the master’s bedchamber. How dare you!” Ana exclaimed, absolutely shaking with rage.

  “Ana... I don’t... I don’t know what you think you know,” Audrey swallowed hard, her voice trembling. “But—”

  “Are you going to try to lie to me? Do you think I’m deaf? Do you think everyone in the whole manor is deaf?” Ana snarled. “We’re not, Audrey. I warned you.”

  “I’m... you misunderstand,” Audrey nervously babbled, “that’s not... it’s not what you think.”

  “Yes, it is, and if you lie about it one more time to my face I’ll make things even worse! Sleeping with you, a commoner,” Ana spat in disgust. “And one so young. You know the scandal it could cause for the duke. And for you,” Ana threatened.

  “What... what are you trying to say, Ana?” Audrey whimpered, sinking deep into the heavy chair.

  “I know everything. And soon, the duchess will know everything. And if you think I’m scary,” Ana growled threateningly, “you’ll never see anywhere except the streets of London again when she’s through with you.”

  “Ana, you can’t—”

  “So you’re admitting what you did now, are you?” Ana intoned snidely.

  “Ana, please, you can’t— it will ruin my aunt, my family, and it will make things so much worse for the duke,” Audrey begged, her face mortified. “You have to understand what... what telling her would do.”

  “I understand completely. If you had listened to my warning, instead of trying to replace me, trying to HURT me,” Ana seethed in jealous rage, “this wouldn’t have happened.”

  “Please, Ana, you’ll hurt the duke— I’ll do anything!” Audrey cried out painfully.

  “Anything? You mean like taking back what you did and breaking it off with the duke?” Ana suggested coyly. Audrey’s heart plummeted, her stomach churning; she felt sick, her eyes and mouth ag
ape in shock.

  “Ana, you...”

  “I made an offer. You can accept it, or I’ll be telling Francine about everything you’ve done,” Ana gave the cold ultimatum.

  “I... the duke, he’ll be... we’ll both, be...” Audrey stammered.

  “Audrey? Audrey!” Agatha hurried up the stairs. Standing in the doorframe, Agatha glanced with a curiously surprised visage at her two maids. “What’s... what’s going on in here? Ana, are you harassing poor Audrey again?” Agatha scolded.

  “Harassing? Was I harassing you, Audrey?” Ana asked, an evilly satisfied smile on her face. Audrey’s breath rumbled like fire through her nostrils as she staggered out of the chair, to her feet.

  “N... no,” Audrey painfully replied, knowing the bind she was in.

  “Are you sure about that? Because you sure don’t seem sure,” Agatha skewered Audrey with a skeptical gaze.

  “We were having a discussion about some of the duties around the house. Weren’t we, Audrey?” Ana coaxed a response from poor Audrey with an intimidating scowl.

  “Y... yes, that’s all, Ms. Agatha,” Audrey sighed.

  “Worry about your duties around the house later, then. The duke’s returned, and he wants to see you, Audrey,” Agatha said. Audrey’s face lit up briefly, before Ana’s cutting scowl brought her back down to reality.

  “I’m... I mean, what... what does he want to see me for?” Audrey swallowed hard.

  “I don’t rightly know, but he returned in a hurry. He’s waiting in the foyer for you. The duchess rode off, and by the sound of her screaming, she was none too amused by the duke’s return,” Agatha chuckled. Like a cruel slave-driver, Ana nodded to Audrey. As Audrey anxiously stepped towards the grand staircase, Ana shadowed her, anxious to see the outcome of her devious plot.

  “Audrey,” the duke spoke in an urgent voice, before Audrey had even reached the ground floor. “We need to speak. Privately, away from all of this. I’ve prepared a carriage for the two of us to ride in to the town. Come, Agatha will help dress you in something more appropriate - we have a lot to talk about,” he said, in a tone firm and serious - one Audrey had never heard the duke speak in, in all their time together. He seemed anxious, almost - worried. Audrey looked back up the stairs. Ana stood watchful at the top of the stairs, shooting a dangerous glare at the young maidservant.