The comment hung in the air, and then Blackstone inhaled deeply and rose to his feet. “Shall we go to dinner, then, my good friend? We shall see how obedient the young Miss Blanchet has been.”
* * *
Lina had been escortedback to her room, and told to rest and change for dinner. A servant, she was told, would be along after her rest, to assist her with her dress and her hair.
When the door was closed behind her, Lina had the intention of pacing the room, for she found that she could not sit still or lie down; her body was too full of wild emotions and arousal to stay in one place. As she moved, however, the object inside of her made her even more desirous to spend, so much so that she could even feel a light sheen of sweat on her skin, as though she were playing sport.
With great difficulty, she wriggled out of her dress, and sat on the bed. She clasped her hands together and closed her eyes tightly.
Never in her life had she felt such a craving before. Certainly, the feeling itself was not totally new to her. Words like discipline, and manuals about flogging the maid, and thoughts like those, of spanking and punishment, had always caused a little thrill in her lower abdomen. But the place where she felt the thrill had been so improper, she had barely acknowledged it even to herself.
And never, ever,everhad the feeling felt anything like what she felt now. Her limbs were nearly shaking as she pressed her hands together and tried to push from her mind the thoughts of what Dr. Doyle and Mr. Blackstone had done to her.
In the pit of her stomach churned the desire to please them, and obey them.
Especially Mr. Blackstone, whose strappings and whippings had left her bottom sore, her skin burning at even the slightest touch. And yet, thinking of his hand on her bottom, disciplining her... it only drove her to want to slip her fingers beneath the shift she had slipped over her head, and stroke the center of her lady parts as he had done, and feel the sweet release of “spending.”
Her heart was beating rapidly. She reclined in the bed and placed her hands properly on her abdomen, still clasped together.
How would Mr. Blackstone know if she disobeyed him? she wondered. Could he know such a thing?
She shifted in the bed, and the object inside of her moved around, making her mewl softly. It would be so easy to disobey... and perhaps delightful to be punished...
She squeezed her eyes closed. At the same time, she did not want to further vex Mr. Blackstone. Shewantedto obey him, to show him that she was capable of being obedient.
And yet, she very much wanted to be defiant, to show them that they had not conquered her entirely.
Her eyes flew open.
Would it not be more defiant, in a way, to pretend as though she did not even desire or need the pleasure it would give her to seek release?
She could do that. She could pretend, she could keep herself from doing this naughty, disobedient, but delicious thing. It would not be easy, but she would resist Mr. Blackstone, and he would know that even if she had no choice but to accept her fate in this “harem” he spoke of, she was not entirely broken, or entirely submissive.
In her bed, Lina jutted her chin and closed her eyes with the determination to rest.
It did not come easily to her.
* * *
There was somethingquite different about Miss Carolina Blanchet that evening when she arrived in the dining hall for dinner.
She was dressed in a beautiful gown he had chosen to be made for her while she was in London, and he was privately pleased to see that, in spite of her hasty departure from the city, this particular gown had made it into the trunks that had been packed so haphazardly and which had given his head maid fits when she had opened them.
It was a rich blue that matched the color of her eyes, and he was also privately pleased with his recollection of their color, for he had seen them only in a portrait and the dim light of the Harlowes’ dining room. The dress had been fitted to her lovely, svelte figure, her small, firm breasts pushed up to the low neckline, her narrow waist requiring no corset, and the new raging fashion of the bustle accentuating what he knew to be the very lovely shape of her bottom and her slender hips.
Her eyes glinted in the candlelight, and she entered with a faint smile upon her lips—one he had not seen before in her expressions. It was subtle, hardly noticeable, but the lift of her lip carried with it the features of her face, so that one could not help but retain the impression that she was quite pleased withsomething.
Blackstone looked to Doyle as though for an explanation, but his friend was pulling a chair out for Miss Blanchet with an expression upon his own face that indicated he was thinking much along the same lines as Blackstone.
Miss Blanchet, for her part, kept her eyes lowered demurely, but absent from her body language and her expression were the traces of confusion and fear which she had brought with her from London.
It was curious, and it piqued his interest in much the same way that Miss Blanchet’s wild hair and rosy cheeks in the fields by Green Grove Manor had captivated him. He could see in her the spirit he had so admired and wished to tame.
He cleared his throat.
Hadwished to tame, he reminded himself. Miss Blanchet’s outrageous behavior had changed everything, and his decision to send her to Laroui could not be undone. And whatever Doyle might say, they could surely find, somewhere in the world, a suitable bride to share their secrets and their lifestyle.
Itwasa pity that it could not be this captivating creature—
