They walked back to the studio space together in an awkward silence. As Ezra got out his pencils and a sketchpad, Oliver shifted at the doorway and Anna walked around the space, staring once more at the erotic paintings Ezra had done in the past. Ezra could see her drinking in those images, studying what he had created before. Was she imagining herself in those same scenarios with Oliver? If so, it seemed to arouse her. The edginess to her body language was clear and it seemed to be from anticipation rather than fear or regret.
“Where do you want us?” Oliver asked, his voice a little shaky.
That question pierced Ezra’s fog and he glanced at him. God, all the answers to that question. But he knew what was meant and crossed the room to a filmy curtain. He drew it back and revealed a large bed.
“It’s your choice. Here or the settee. In front of the fire on the rug,” he said, motioning all around the room at the places one could play.
Oliver looked toward Anna, of course. The man’s feelings were patently obvious. She was the focus. Always.
She looked toward the settee. “There?” she suggested softly.
Oliver nodded and moved to the couch. She followed and for a moment, they just stared at each other, tension thick between them. Tension and uncertainty.
Ezra moved closer, dragging a chair near so he could see better when they began. “I’ll sketch you,” he explained, hoping to make them more comfortable. “I may move a bit to get different angles. But I won’t interfere.” He hesitated. He so wanted to add,unless you want me to. This wasn’t the right time for that. “There is nothing you can do wrong. This is about your pleasure. You’ll simply have an audience."
Anna let out a soft laugh, though there was little humor to it, more nervousness.
Ezra tilted his head. “I understand it may be difficult, the idea of being watched while you do something so intimate, with a person you haven’t had experience with before.”
She looked away from Oliver at last and her dark blue eyes held his. Her cheeks brightened, but she didn’t hesitate as she said, “I’ve been watched before, Ezra. At the Donville Masquerade. And as for Oliver…” Her hands shook and she gripped them at her sides as she returned her attention to him. “I…I know it was you that night. I know it was you in the hallway, when I was watching my husband with his mistress.”
Ezra’s eyes went wide. Even without full knowledge of what she spoke, the context was clear. They’d shared what had been a supposed anonymous encounter. And judging from the way all the color drained from Oliver’s face in that moment, it wasn’t something they’d ever discussed before.
This night had just become all the more interesting.
CHAPTER5
Oliver
He couldn’t breathe. It was impossible as Oliver stared down into Anna’s face and he saw the secret that had hung between them torn into the light. In front of an alluring stranger.
“Anna,” he breathed. “I…I’m sorry.”
“Why?” she asked, and sounded truly baffled by his apology. “I wanted you so much that night. I needed exactly what you gave me as you held me against the wall and thought only of my pleasure. And I’ve dreamed of that night over and over again. I don’t want you to be sorry.”
He drew in a shaky breath. “When did…when did you know it was me?”
She smiled, a little sad. “That night. I knew the moment I came out of the hell with Sedgewick and you were there waiting for us. When you touched my hand, it was electric. And I thought of that stranger’s whiskers against my thighs. Of his low, rough voice, and I knew instantly that it was you.”
He couldn’t have been more shocked by any other statement. His heart throbbed. “I wanted to tell you. It felt wrong to keep it from you.”
“I saw that. I saw it hang on your tongue so many times,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “Why didn’tyousay something?”
She shrugged. “As I said to you that night when you tried to confess your identity in the hall, it was a moment meant for the dark. And it would only have complicated things.” She sighed. “It complicated things enough, though I have never regretted it.”
She rested her hand on his chest, just as she had in her room earlier. Her fingers clenched against the fabric of his jacket and he felt the pressure of each one as if she were gripping his heart with her bare hand. “But I want all of you now, Oliver. In the light. Without masks. I want to see your pleasure, I want to take it like you took mine that night. I want all of that. And I don’t care about the cost anymore.”
Oliver glanced at Ezra from the corner of his eye and found him sitting in the chair close by, pencil in a white-knuckled grip. He was sketching them already, but when he lifted his pale blue gaze, his desire was evident. Anna and Oliver had an audience, and he was part of this now. Not something Oliver ever would have guessed would arouse him just as her touch did.
And so he surrendered to it.
He caught Anna around the waist and drew her to him slowly, gently. She shivered as her curves molded to his chest and her eyes fluttered shut when she lifted her mouth in offering. He took it. Gently at first, he was always gentle with her, but hunger began to take over. Desire. The realization that he would have, even for a brief moment, this woman who he’d believed he’d never have again. Better yet, he would truly have her. He would feel the flex of her around his cock, watch her as she came instead of feeling it in the dark.
No, he couldn’t think of those things. He would spend too quickly, and he wanted to savor this stolen moment. Milk it for all he could. After all, he had to believe it would truly never come again.
He pushed his hands into her hair and the soft silkiness was heaven against his fingers. She grunted and lifted against him, her body beginning to tremble as she leaned like he was her support.
