CHAPTER 7

INTERLUDE

The pain of pleasure

ROSETTA RETURNED AT sunset with my evening meal. When I heard the key turn in the lock, I considered rushing her to escape my confinement, but I didn't have the heart to push her down with her hands full. Instead, I glared at her accusingly as she set the heavy tray on the table before the fireplace.

"Why did you lock me in?" I demanded as I looked over the small feast before me–pheasant on a bed of potatoes and peas, more artichokes in oil, bread and pastries, along with another carafe of chilled wine. It smelled delicious but I wasn't going to let that distract me from my anger.

"You spoke about leaving," she replied.

"I have every right to. Am I a prisoner here?"

She looked away, avoiding my eyes. "You are a guest of my mistress. "

"And does your mistress lock all her guests away to prevent them from leaving? Is she that desperate for companionship?"

The maid looked distressed by my comments. "I am not privy to my mistress's reasons. I know only what she tells me, and she did not wish for you to leave."

"So you locked me up? You could have just told her I left on my own."

"You don't understand," she hissed, wringing her hands. "If you leave against her wishes, it is me who will be punished."

"Punished? How?"

She took a deep breath and composed herself. "Never mind. I will be back to fetch you shortly, then you can leave this room. In the meantime, it is important that you eat your meal. She will want to know that you are well-fed."

She turned and left then, locking the door behind her. I didn't know what to make of her remarks. Who was the Contessa, and what kind of household was she running that forced her staff to lock guests in their rooms? And what kind of punishment? Would she be beaten, denied food? The possibilities weighed on me as I picked at my prandium, and while it smelled as savory as my earlier meal, it tasted like ash in my mouth. I would rather be eating at home with my family, not being an unwilling guest whose presence is held over the head of an innocent maid.

The room had grown dark by the time Rosetta returned. She busied herself lighting the candles on the mantle before looking over the half-eaten remains on my tray.

"My mistress will not be pleased that you did not finish your food."

"To hell with her," I snapped. "How does she expect me to have an appetite when I am being held against my will? "

"Are you ready to leave this room then?"

I nodded, unsure as to where she was taking me. We walked down the hallway in the opposite direction from that I had taken earlier, passing several closed doors before coming to a wide intersection. She opened a door ahead of us and led me into the ornate hall I had traversed the night before. When we came to the door of the Contessa's room, she knocked softly and glanced back at me.

"Do not displease her," she murmured under her breath before the door swung open to reveal the lady of the house. She was clothed in a midnight blue silk dressing gown that left little to the imagination, and despite my earlier anger, I felt myself becoming aroused at the sight.

"You may go," she told Rosetta, who managed another worried glance my way before scurrying off in the direction we had come. "Come in," she beckoned to me in her honeyed voice, grabbing my hand and pulling me into the room before closing the door behind us.

I felt myself falling under her spell again and fought it, determined to get some answers. "Why am I being held here against my will?"

She smiled at me and reached out, tracing her pale fingers down the front of my shurt and pushing it open to reveal the evidence of her passion last night. Every pass of her nails sent shivers of lust coursing through me. "Were you not taken care of?" she purred, leaning into me, her tongue slipping out to taste the skin of my neck. I tried not to be distracted by her, but she was so close and smelled so incredibly delicious and that voice…that sultry voice caused the hairs on my arms to stand up and pulled at my cock.

"That is beside the point," I panted, working hard to concentrate past her seduction .

She pressed her body against mine, her nipples hard against my chest as her arms encircled me, her hands moving ever so slowly down my back to cup my ass while her warm breath teased my ear. Sight, smell, sound, touch–she filled my senses, overwhelming me. She was the most bewitching woman I had ever met, and I realized I was in over my head. I could not escape her spell, and the worst part was, I was no longer sure I wanted to.

"I wasn't finished with you last night," she whispered. "Can you blame me for wanting more?"

There was something I wanted to say, but I couldn't hold the thought in my head. Think, damn it, I urged myself while her hands found their way under my shurt. She reached up and grabbed the fabric in front and ripped it off my shoulders, her dark eyes sparking with hunger.

"That's much better," she murmured as she turned her attention to my breeches. "Remember what I said about too many clothes?" I couldn't remember anything at this point. She pulled the buttons loose and shoved the ruined garment down my legs. "This is how I want you from now on."

From now on? What did that mean?

I wasn't given time to wonder before she was on me, her tongue and teeth teasing the skin of my neck before moving lower to suck one of my nipples into her mouth while she pushed me slowly toward the bed. I tried to grab her, to return the favor and remove her gown, but she captured my wrists and held them above my head and despite my struggles, I found I could not break her hold.

"I think I want you standing up," she said, her honeyed voice silencing my objections. She reached behind me and grabbed one of the tassel cords hanging from the bedframe and wrapped it around my left wrist, pulling it taut. "Don't move," she warned while she did the same to my right wrist. She obviously had a thing for tying people up.

I strained to stay on my feet, my arms stretched above me so tight I could barely maintain my balance. She stood back and regarded me, one finger tapping her bottom lip while her other hand dropped to my cock, encircling and teasing it so hard I felt like I would scream.

"Let's see how much you can take, shall we?"

She untied the sash of her gown, letting it fall off her shoulders and puddle on the floor, treating me to the sight of her voluptuous body. My cock jumped in response, bringing a smile to her perfect lips before she turned and crossed the room to a side table where a large vase of roses stood. She leaned over them, breathing deeply, before selecting one and pulling it out of the vase.

"Do you know what I love about roses?" she asked languidly as she made her way back to my side. I shook my head, content just to bask in the warmth of her voice. "It's not the perfection of the bloom itself, though that is lovely to look at. Nor is it the scent–one of my favorites, by the way. No, what I love most about roses is the thorns."

She held the rose up to me, passing the flower under my nose where the sweet scent filled my head. She traced the velvety bloom across my cheek and down my chest along the furrows her nails had left the night before, spreading gooseflesh in its wake.

"Do you wonder at how close pleasure is to pain?"

Suddenly it wasn't the softness of the bloom that caressed my chest but the sharp bite of the thorns. I hissed and sucked in a breath as she dragged the stem across the already injured skin. " Hush," she whispered. "Not enough to draw blood." She brought the stem down to my torso. "Not yet."

I stared wide-eyed as she scraped the stem closer to my cock, hissing in a breath at the first bite of the thorns on my head.

"I promise," she breathed as she licked her lips, "I will personally remove any blood they draw."

Then she pulled the thorns across my cock. I bit back a scream and squirmed to get away from the cursed stem, but she grabbed my straining appendage and held me in place.

"You will come to enjoy such pain."

She closed her hand on the stem, pressing it against the sensitive skin. Tears pricked my eyes but I refused to utter a sound. I would not give her the satisfaction of knowing she had hurt me.

She watched my reaction and smiled to herself, a wicked gleam in her eye. "You may be stronger than I thought. It'll make breaking you that much sweeter."

Breaking me? My gaze dropped to her hand, where I could see blood pooling between her fingers and wasn't sure if it was her hand or my tortured member that bled. "Please stop," I finally sobbed, suddenly desperate to get away from her.

"Shh," she soothed. "Imagine how much more intensely these wounds will make you feel when they're rubbing inside my cunt."

"You're insane," I lashed out, not caring if I hurt her feelings.

"There, there, Julianus. You have so much to learn about pleasuring a woman."

"How can you call this pleasure? "

She offered a throaty chuckle. "As I said, you will learn." She pulled the stem away and leaned closer to me, her eyes imperious. "And if you do not, we will revisit the pain. You should not have tried to leave today."

"So what was that, my punishment?"

Her lips curled up in a smile as she reached above me and untied my wrists. "Now you will be well-motivated to please me."

She shoved me back onto the bed and climbed on top of me, her face inches from mine, her dark eyes seeming to drink the light from the room. "You will make love to my cunt with your tongue, and be warned–if I am not satisfied, I have many ways to punish you." She then flipped off me and stretched out on her back with her knees bent, her legs spread wide, her sex calling to me. I could see it was already moist with need, and part of me, the part that was still a sexual being, wanted to fall upon it and lose myself in its mysteries.

But the other part, the rational part, practically screamed at me to get up and run away, only where would I go? I was naked in a possibly insane woman's house far outside the city. There was no telling what form of punishment she would dream up if she caught me. My cock still throbbed from the assault of the thorns.

"I am not a patient woman, Julianus," she warned.

I sat up and looked down at her, her deceptive beauty splayed across the velvety covers, her dark eyes watching me with feral interest. I raised up on my hands and knees and crawled over to her, pushing her legs further apart while I dipped my head between them.

I wanted to hurt her like she had done me, and determined to use my teeth on her, but one whiff of her scent drove that thought from my head. Her musk was intoxicating, filling my senses until I could think of nothing but having her. I dove into her, my tongue lapping at her lips before darting inside, finding the nub of her clit and massaging it until she started to squirm and moan. Her fingers tangled in my hair, urging my head closer, mashing my mouth against her pussy while I burrowed deeper inside her, getting to know all of her. Her clit was already swollen and extremely sensitive, judging by how she responded to my tongue's attention, and as I continued to tease it, she became soaked with desire.

I could feel her body tense and knew she was close to climax. To help her along, I stuck two fingers in beside my tongue and pinched her clit. She sucked in a breath as her back arched, her hands clenched around my head, then she screamed and filled my mouth with her sweet juices.

Despite my predicament, I was pleased with myself for having satisfied her like that. She tightened her fingers in my hair and pulled me up her body, seeking my mouth, where she licked her own juices off my lips.

"Do you want to fuck me?" she purred, her voice still thick with desire.

I did. I may be crazy, I may regret it afterwards, but gods I wanted to bury my cock in her sweet pussy. I raised my hips and angled the head above her lips, waiting for her to signal she was ready.

"Do not wait for me," she said. "Take what you want."

With that I drove into her, burying myself in her until our bodies slammed together with a violence that would have scared most of the girls I had previously fucked. She responded by grabbing my ass and urging me to go harder, faster. I pummeled her cunt with all the anger and frustration and desire I felt, and she took it and gave back in kind, her nails scoring my back and sides while her legs wrapped around and squeezed against me to drive me deeper inside. The places where the thorns had pierced the skin of my cock were on fire as they rubbed against her tight pussy, but the pain only seemed to intensify the pleasure.

When she bit my neck, I returned the gesture, clamping onto her alabaster flesh with my teeth, wanting to mark her as mine. It was like madness, this need to possess, to claim her as my own. She was my captor, my lover, my savior, and all I could think about was making her cum again. To hear that scream again, to feel the walls of her cunt squeeze every last drop from me. Despite my own climax threatening to overtake me, I slowed my pace and waited for her to catch up, my thrusts no less deliberate as I tried to bury myself as deep into her as I could get. In response, she pulled herself tighter onto me, her teeth digging deeper into my neck as I felt the warm gush of her orgasm and I finally let go, my cock exploding inside her.

I felt like I had run miles, my heart pounding in my chest as my breathing tried to level out. I was vaguely aware that her mouth was still painfully clamped to my neck, but it suddenly didn't matter as the world faded back and I slipped slowly out of consciousness.