Chapter 34

34

Lustina

Lustina clipped the freshly-washed linens to the line, careful to make sure they didn’t touch the grass below. Through the ripple of fabric, she caught sight of Jericho making his way into the church. Although seeing him filled her heart, a sadness lingered there, as well. He would undoubtedly be taken to the undercroft for more experiments afterward, and even though he’d assured her it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, she couldn’t bear the thought.

It wasn’t long before the young baron appeared in the garden and pulled her toward the undercroft, as he had a couple of times before.

She laughed, allowing him to drag her toward the dark corridor.?“How do you manage to sneak away every time?”

“I am a man of many excuses.” He glanced over his shoulder wearing the endearingly mischievous smile he seemed to reserve only for her. “You look ravishing today. In fact, I may have to ravish you.” Once inside the undercroft, he backed her into the wall of the alcove and seized her lips with a fervent kiss.

“My Lord …” It was all she could get in before he stole the words with his mouth. She could scarcely draw a breath with his frenzied plundering. “I cannot bear to do this so close to the room where you will be tormented.”

Trailing his lips down her throat, he unraveled the ties of her dress, allowing it to fall to her shoulder, and kissed her collarbone. “There will be no torment today.”

Frowning, Lustina did her best to focus on his words, but his lips and hands were everywhere, distracting her thoughts. “Why?”

“A friar arrived from Rome today. Everyone is occupied with him.” He bent forward, drew her breast into his mouth, and sucked at her flesh.

The sensation pulled at something deep inside her belly, and she arched into him, wanton and desperate for more. “Friar?”

“Felix is his name.” He spoke against her breast and tugged at her nipple with his teeth. “Enough of this chatter. I long to capture your moans in the palm of my hand, while the bishop speaks of sin and carnal temptation above us. While he offers the body of the Messiah, I want you to offer me yours. I want to suck it from my fingers, so the taste lingers on my tongue.”

The thought of that brought a smile to her face.

“Turn around.”

“My Lord?”

Before she could protest, he’d spun her to face the stones and pressed her cheek against the cold surface. “Do you remember our last meeting in the woods?”

Of course she did. After the first night they’d made love, he’d come to her again the next night. And the next. And the next. He’d shown her pleasures she’d never dreamed--darker pleasures, such as the blindfold and the ropes binding her wrists to one of the nearby trees. The restraint should have terrified her, but instead, she’d found it oddly exhilarating. Freeing.

“I have thought of it every night.”

“And have you touched yourself to those thoughts?”

“Yes, your Lordship.”

“Good girl. I am going to fuck you this time, and I want you to scream. As loud as you can. Will you do that for me?”

“What if they hear us?”

“They will not. I intend to cover your mouth.” He lifted her skirt, and not a moment later, she could feel the pressure of his tip pressing against her entrance. His hand slipped over her mouth, and in one thrust, he was inside of her.

Lustina grunted into his palm, as he drove his hips in and out in a lazy, languid pace. Had anyone stumbled upon them, she would’ve surely been strung up, and either whipped publicly, or executed for such deviance. According to the church, sex was strictly designed to bear children, and without marriage was a grave sin. Sex for pleasure was forbidden.

And, by God, she found every inch of the baron pleasurable.

When he upped his pace, he pressed his lips to her ear and whispered, “Nothing on this earth should feel so good as your warm cunt, Lustina.”

With his hand pressed to her mouth, she gasped through her nose at the sound of his dirty words. Ones that would have resulted in excruciating punishment, had the bishop heard him speak them. And yet, something about that thrilled her. Eyes hooded with lust, she moaned, mentally repeating the verboten word inside her head.

“You like when I speak to you so crudely?”

She nodded and moaned again, as he filled her so deeply, her stomach tensed.

“You are my lady, Lustina. But when we are together, like this, I want you to be my whore. Does that trouble you?”

On the contrary, the thought excited her. Perhaps because he truly had treated her like a lady--the only boy who ever had. In fact, since their first tryst in the woods, she’d found him to be exceptionally more reverent of her. Protective. Jealous, even.

“Tonight, I will fuck my own hand to thoughts of you. The hand which touches your lips now will stroke me to ecstasy later.”

At that, she moaned again, the sound muffled by his palm.?Tiny contractions pulsed up inside her belly, a sensation she’d noticed every time she’d been with him. Small uncontrollable jolts which seemed to be given off by his flesh. A vibration that gripped her insides, milking her arousal.

“How does it feel to sin in the very church where holy men take their vows? To be taken like an animal in the home of the Holy Father?”

Her knees nearly buckled with his words, her entire body trembling with the climax building inside of her like a kettle, ready to boil over. She let out panting grunts, and when he reached in front of her with his other hand and stroked her sensitive flesh, she flattened her palms against the wall in an effort to keep upright.

“Please,” she begged behind his hand.

“Do you enjoy the way my cock feels inside of you?”

She nodded and curled her fingers into the stones, as he flittered his finger across her seam. The sensation left her wanting to sob.

“Is it release you desire, Lustina?”

She nodded frantically, whimpering into his hand as the tension in her body wound to unbearable intensity.

“Will you scream when I fill you?”

Another nod, and she let out an agonizing moan.

“Then, give me your release.”

Unable to stand it any longer, she tipped her head back against his chest and let the waves of pleasure crash over her. Pulse after agonizing pulse left her screaming into his palm, as he’d commanded of her. She could barely stand upright as her legs turned weak and soft.

He spun her around and lifted her up off the ground, wrapping her legs around his waist. Head resting against her breast, he drove into her with the desperate determination of a man in search of the holy grail. He tipped his head back, staring up at her with the veneration of a knight kneeling before his queen. Body shuddering, he let out a quiet sound of utter relief and pulled her tightly against him, as he filled her with the warmth of his release.

His brows came together, and he reached for her hair, stroking his hand down the long, raven locks. “You are mine, eternally.” He pressed his lips to hers, eating the air from her mouth. “And I am yours.”

* * *

Hiding her smile, Lustina emerged from the undercroft, fixing the skirt of her dress. The evidence of Jericho’s release trickled down her thighs, and at the thought of standing before the bishop as it dried to her skin, she wanted to chuckle. The baron had ventured in the opposite direction, heading back up to the cathedral to meet with his father, but not before he’d taken a moment to stare at her disheveled body, with her breasts peeking out from her dress.

“Lustina,” a familiar voice called to her, and she turned to find Drystan crossing the courtyard toward her. “May I talk to you?”

The sight of him trampled her mood, and she groaned. “I would rather not.”

“Please. I promise I just want to apologize.”

“Then, apologize.”

“Will you please give me just a moment of your time?”

With a huff, she crossed her arms. “Fine. Say what you have to say.”

“Not here.” The pleading in his eyes did nothing for her. It was only the risk of someone thinking they might be up to something that had her following after him, to the undercroft from where she’d just met with Jericho. Reluctant to step into the alcove where she’d just had her dress hiked, she halted before one of the doors.

After a quick glance around, Drystan opened it and drew her inside with him. The room darkened as he closed the door, the only light coming from the cracks in the wood.

“I don’t … I don’t feel comfortable.” She strode toward the door, but not before he blocked her path. “I want out of here.”

“Give me a moment. I need to tell you something important.”

“Tell me, so that I may get on with my afternoon chores. I do not like being in this room with you.”

“Is it the room that troubles you? Or me?”

“Both.”

“I have a confession.” Rough palms gripped her arms, setting off a chime of distress inside her head. “I cannot stop thinking about you. It is unholy the thoughts that come to mind. Wickedly iniquitous thoughts of defiling you.”

A cold and abrasive shock stifled her breath. “Let me go. Now.”

“Why?”

“Because I will not indulge these fantasies with you.”

“But you will fuck my cousin in the undercroft of a holy cathedral? What kind of whore discriminates against a willing cock?”

Lustina cracked her palm against his cheek, kicking his head to the side. Anger exploded inside of her, but when she drew back for a second slap, he caught her wrist.

“How dare you touch me with your filthy hands.” Before she could fight him, he spun her around to the wall and pressed his body against her, smashing her cheek against the stones. “You know I watched him take you like a sire fucking a bitch. How utterly appropriate for you.” Fingernails scraped at her calves as he dragged her skirt up.

“Release me! Now!”

“Tsk, tsk. If you scream, I shall tell the bishop you lured me in here, like Lilith herself. I shall tell him you seduced me to fuck you like a dog. I will be spared and you will burn like your bitch mother.”

A flare of crazed anger beat through her, and she did let out a scream. She reached back to scratch at him, but he pressed into her harder, and the sounds of his shaky breaths in her ear sent a feeling of dread to her gut.

“Relax, Lustina. Your cunt is already warmed for me. I am certain you will not feel any pain. But if you do, I cannot say I’ll be disappointed.”

“Get off of m--!” Her scream was cut short by the palm of his hand, and at the first prod of his tip to a new place where Jericho had not yet been, she wriggled and clawed at the stones for escape.

“On second thought, I would rather not put my cock where my cousin’s has been. This hole will do. I intend to plunder you like a vicious beast.”

“No!” Lustina screamed. Long and hard. She screamed until a dizziness swept over her. And as he wedged his member between her cheeks, prodding that forbidden place, she sobbed.

A crashing sound startled her, and Drystan, it seemed, as he released her. The figure standing in the doorway carried the rage of a thousand men. His hands balled into fists at his sides, spoiling for a fight. Shoulders bunched.

Lustina ran toward Jericho, whose jaw was clenched, the veins in his neck thick with poisonous fury. He didn’t take his eyes off his cousin as he urged her to leave.

“Come with me,” she whispered.

“Go now.”

With a glance toward Drystan, whose face had blanched, she slipped out of the room and heard the click of the door.

A long, painful outcry followed her out of the undercroft, and as she wiped the tears from her cheeks, she did not bother to look back.