Page 42 of Pride, Prejudice & Wicked Pleasure

"Yes or no?"

"Yes."

He whipped the falls against her. This time she gasped.

After a few seconds while she absorbed the blow, he asked, “Again?”

“Yes.”

“I shall continue and desist when you speak your safety word.”

She felt herself eager for the touch of the flogger. He landed it against her leg. The blood coursed strongly through her, making her body come more alive. He struck her harder, but she suspected he used only half his strength. She grunted and the force of the blows increased, but the impact was easily tolerated. Only when he aimed the tips of the flogger at her thigh, did she give a yelp.

"Did that sting?" he inquired.

"Yes."

"Do you prefer it?"

She considered it for a moment before answering, "No."

He returned to slapping the body of the falls upon her. After several such blows, she purred. She was surprised to find that she did indeed enjoy the kiss of the flogger. But perhaps it would not be so if he applied it with greater force. She was curious to know the answer.

But he let the flogger hang beside him as he took a step toward her. Fitting his hand between her thighs, he fondled her. Her wetness had not retreated, and he was able to coax more of it from her. She moaned as he rubbed the petticoats into her folds. She ached with desire there.

Again? she wanted to scream when he withdrew his hand. Was torment a part of the lesson too? The agitation seemed to reverberate through her entire body.

She cried out when he struck the flogger against her with more intensity than he had done before, but the heat simmering in her loins dulled the full force of pain.

"Do you require your safety word?"

She drew in a haggard breath, shook her head, and said, "No."

He rained several more blows upon her thighs. He then paused and returned to caressing her. She arched herself further into his hand.

"May I spend?"

"Not yet," he responded but sounded impressed that she had remembered to ask his permission. Stepping back, he gave her two more sharp whacks before praising, "You have endured the flogger well, mademoiselle."

She could have suffered more and would gladly have done so if it meant he would return to fondling her. Relief flooded her when he reached between her legs and agitated his fingers against her once more.

“You may spend,” he allowed as he stroked her with increased ferocity.

Shutting her eyes, she dug her fingers into her palms as the concentration of pleasure drilled deeper into her flesh, deeper into her womanhood. She screamed as the paroxysm tore through her body. Her limbs jerked of their own accord. Her body bowed into him as if attempting to escape from the waves of sensations crashing at her with rapid succession. She was aware of nothing save for the beautiful, wondrous, overwhelming ecstasy.

He eased his touch, for, though hitherto desired, it now had an adverse effect. She felt her body at last begin to descend from its climax, shuddering along the way, though she continued to throb between the legs. Her heart had never beat so loudly. She knew not if she breathed. But of one thing she was certain, despite the warm daze still soaking her: she had bitten of the forbidden fruit and wanted more.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Though overcast the following morning, the skies signified little of the rain that had beset them the past few days. Darcy had woken early and was immediately flooded by memories of the prior evening and the young woman he had held in his arms as she recovered from the fine and pleasurable end of desire fulfilled. He could still hear her groans. How soon they had escalated into hasty cries! Hearing and seeing a woman brought to pleasure was incredibly satisfying. And provocative. But his own gratification was inconsequential in his position and not to be brooked, especially at the first encounter.

“How long is she staying as your guest?” he inquired as he and Abby took breakfast at a small table before a window in a quaint parlor of the West Wing.

“She is visiting family and stayed the night because the roads were poor. Are you traveling on to Rosings to-day?”

He watched her as she poured more coffee into his cup. Though he had not been much in her company of late, he knew her well enough to discern an agitation, albeit minute.

“Yes. My effects are being prepared as we speak.”