Miss Minnie and the Brass Pluggit (11 page)

He shuddered at her words, the fire she had built within him threatening to engulf him. He pressed against her legs and parted her. “I intend to. What else?” He let his fingernails graze the delicate skin of her inner thigh, then run up and over her soft belly, deliberately avoiding her pussy and the soft whorls of dark hair that hid her secrets.

“I want to return the favor. I want you in my mouth, Pierce. I want to let my tongue play too.”

He bit back a moan at the image as he shifted her farther up onto the bed and lay beside her. “That would be good. What else?” He leaned over and softly caressed a full breast, loving the heat and the tiny shivers that rippled through her every time he touched her. So responsive, so womanly…

He leaned over and licked her nipple, cat-like, then sucked, releasing it with a little pop. “What else?” He repeated the question.

“I want to be fucked, Pierce.” She groaned out the words as he returned to her breasts, taking them both in his hands and pressing them together, flicking his tongue from nipple to nipple and beginning to suckle at them. “I want to feel your cock inside me, I want to feel you coming.” She sucked in a breath. “I want you to take me any way that feels good. On top, beneath me, behind me…” She shivered and moaned as he sucked harder on her sensitive buds. “I want to feel that sharp pain of your hand as you slap me. It…enhances the experience.”

He paused and licked around one warm breast. “It does?”

“Oh yes.” She moved urgently, her hips pushing eagerly against him. “I enjoy the occasional restraint. Tie my hands if you want, Pierce. Do what you want to me and I’ll do what I want to you.”

He lifted himself over her then, seizing her wrists and holding them apart above her head, pinning her beneath him. They both made a sound as his cock brushed against her slick heat, matching gasps of surprise and pleasure.

She was so hot, her body on fire, her moisture scalding him. It would have been but an instant’s work to plunge inside her and do what he’d wanted to do from the first moment he laid eyes on her.

But he didn’t. This was their first night together. He wanted it to be special…something she’d remember for the rest of her life.

So instead of sating his lust, he simply held her, pressing his body against hers, rubbing his chest over her breasts, listening to her choppy breaths and catching glimpses of her face as the lightning got brighter and the storm grew nearer.

And then he released her to slide down her body and settle at the apex of her thighs.

Minnie couldn’t hold back the cry as his mouth sought and found the center of her pleasure. She was so aroused, so wet, trembling now as the tiny pricks of orgasm threatened to explode low in her body.

And yet he kept her from the ultimate pleasure. His talents were endless apparently, since he seemed to know how much to lick and how hard to suck. And then how to ease her down a little, to tease her with a breath or two blown against flesh that must be crackling with tension.

He kept her on the edge with consummate skill, until she was weeping with the need to come and come and never stop coming. She couldn’t tell whether the roaring in her ears was an echo of her own heartbeat or the thunder as the storm broke above them.

Her thighs tensed around him and yet he ignored the urgent request. Her hips moved, but he held her still with his strong hands clasped around her buttocks.

And he continued to devour her, sucking at her swollen folds, licking her in a maddeningly tantalizing way, investigating every inch of her sex and then going back to make sure he hadn’t missed a spot.

And always returning to her clitoris, laving it, sucking it, rubbing it so gently with his tongue that she wanted to sob with the sheer bliss of it.

Finally, her strength and her willpower were exhausted. And he seemed to sense it. He paused and gripped her buttocks firmly, his fingers very close to that tiny sensitive ring of muscles in her dark cleft. She held her breath.

“Here we go.” He lowered his head and thrust his tongue inside her, pressing his face hard into her pussy. With one quick flick he brought her to her first peak.

She screamed, lightning flashing over their bodies, her heart stopping then exploding into a gallop, which lifted her almost off the bed. He kept flicking his tongue, not letting the orgasm fade until he was ready—or she passed out, whichever came first.

Stars danced before Minnie’s eyes and she truly felt she might indeed faint from the power of her climax. Her inner muscles were trying to grip something—anything. It was that incomplete sensation that kept her conscious.

It was a fantastic orgasm. But it was missing something.

Pierce.

And he knew it. He loved the way she had erupted around his tongue, and couldn’t get enough of the throbbing spasms against his face. He’d sucked her into her release, felt it go on and on and then sensed she was about to come down from it.

He couldn’t stand it anymore.

With her juices still covering his mouth he reared up and found her still-trembling opening with the head of his cock.

“Hang on.” He whispered the words as he pushed his way into her boiling velvet darkness. And thrust.

“Oh God.” She screamed, her muscles gripping him and clamping in a fierce response. She was coming again and he knew he couldn’t hold back much longer. Just the ripples dancing along his length were enough to make him grit his teeth, and when he withdrew, only to sink back inside her once more…well, it was damn near all over.

Two or three more quick thrusts, a garbled cry from Minnie as she clenched around him and tugged him close with her legs and her arms—Pierce was finished.

He let go, his balls aching for release, his cock buried to the hilt inside her. He came, erupting in a hot gush, filling this amazing woman with his seed. He never even considered withdrawing to come on her belly or any of the other gentlemanly things he probably should have thought of.

All he knew was that his cock was where it belonged. In Minnie. And it wanted to stay there, preferably for a good portion of eternity. He wholeheartedly endorsed the sentiment.

For her part, she was hanging on to him so tightly she would probably leave marks. Her ankles were locked behind his back, her hands clenched around his arms. Her hips were thrust high against his and she couldn’t have taken any more of him unless her body split open and swallowed him.

It was a total and complete physical union. And it was so much more. Pierce nearly sobbed as he made to move, only to have an inner fist grip him fiercely.

“Don’t move. Not yet.” Minnie groaned out the words.

“All right.”

His arms were starting to shake, so he slowly eased down, trying not to crush Minnie as he rolled them both onto their sides. Still joined, he moved their legs to keep his cock from sliding away from her body.

“Oh. That feels so good.” She sighed out the words as he stroked her skin, running his hand from her hip to her shoulder.

“I think that’s an accurate statement.” He smiled at her languorous movements.

“That’s the best thing to happen to me in years.”

“And we have just begun.” He chuckled. “Just think of what lies ahead.”

The thunder boomed loudly and the rain began to fall, slowly at first, then hitting the windows hard.

“Not a good night to be out at sea.” Minnie idly touched his chest, finding a flat nipple and playing with it.

Amazingly, Pierce felt her touch right down to his groin and his balls tingled. “But a good night to be together in here.”

She arched against him, a cat stretch of sinuous skin and muscles, still keeping his cock enveloped within her. And, to his surprise, he felt himself begin to harden again.

“I can feel you.” She touched his cheek. “I can feel your cock.”

Her words added to the resurgence of his ardor. “I know. Can you take me again, Minnie?”

“Of course.” She smiled. “I want you again. I may have forgotten to mention that I’ve rather a strong appetite for things I enjoy.” Smoothly she slid away from him and rolled over, lifting herself onto all fours and stretching her legs wide apart. He had a flawless view of her ass and her shining pussy lips.

“I enjoy you, Pierce. I want to enjoy you some more.”

There was no question that he was hard again. Confronted with a view like the one he was currently admiring, only a dead man would have failed to respond. And Pierce wasn’t dead. On the contrary, he felt more alive now—in this stormy moment—than he had in a long time.

He needed no encouragement to rise behind Minnie, stroke her buttocks with a loving hand, drag his cock teasingly down the cleft between them, pausing at exactly the right place to make her moan and shiver, and then move on to slick his way through the slippery folds—and into heaven.

She pushed back, he pushed forward.

Now that the first eager climax had been reached by them both, they could take their time, letting the sensations build. Pierce moved, experimenting with angle and depth. Minnie used one hand to tease her nipples, moaning and responding to his thrusts with wiggles and slight adjustments of her own.

They set up a rhythm of mutual pleasure, slow at first, accentuated more than a little when Pierce daringly brought his hand down on Minnie’s delectable arse.

“Oh fuck.” She moaned, loudly. “Yes, oh yes. Do that again.”

The thunder was fading around the Brass Pluggit as the storm moved inland, but there was still enough ambient light for Pierce to see the red welling up on Minnie’s white buttocks. The sound of his hand meeting soft skin with a slap replaced the sounds of the storm, interspersed with sighs and moans from Minnie.

His gentle punishment seemed to stir something inside her, since she was fighting for breaths, sobbing with pleasure and squirming in eager anticipation of his next blow. He found himself incredibly aroused as well, a sense of sexual excitement washing over them both. He wasn’t hurting her and wouldn’t, even if she begged him to.

But this love play, this erotic teasing—it was uniquely and sharply stimulating.

Minnie arched, reached for the wrought iron at the head of the bed and hung on, moving now as Pierce thrust forcefully against her. It took very little imagination to envision her wrists bound and tied to the headboard, an image which took Pierce to the edge.

His cock was sliding easily in and out of her, and at this angle he was almost certain he could feel a slight distension within her channel. A place inside that made her shiver each time the head of his cock passed over it. It made him shiver too.

She arched more, an almost impossible flex of spine and hips. He could go no deeper, only faster. His balls slapped against her pussy as his speed increased, his vision dimmed and the entire Brass Pluggit could have exploded around him and he probably wouldn’t have noticed.

He gave up trying to slap her arse, simply hung on to her hips, pistoning into her with all the energy of one of his own steam engines.

The sound of their bodies meeting rolled around the room, the rain pattering gently now against the windows, in syncopation to the rhythm of their passion.

Pierce wondered if he could stay like this forever. Stay naked with Minnie, sinking and withdrawing and then sinking again, balls deep, into the hot silk that was her body. Her buttocks were perfect globes, her skin cream and roses.

She was with him, around him, moving as if this was a dance they’d rehearsed all their lives. And his grip tightened as his lips peeled away from his teeth—his climax was on him, about to crush the breath from his lungs.

He roared, an exhalation that had nothing to do with civilization. It was the savage sound of a male claiming his mate.

Minnie screamed, her body milking his, taking all he could empty into her and demanding more with a clenching spasm that nearly pulled his spleen out through his cock.

On and on it went, each of them groaning and shuddering, sharing the ultimate experience of sexual release.

Eventually it ended, as all such things must inevitably do.

With a slickly wet and squishy sound, their bodies parted, Minnie slumping onto her stomach with a grunt. Pierce followed her down, landing on his side and doing his best to draw a breath.

“I’m dead.” Minnie’s voice was muffled by the quilt.

“Pass me my harp then, because I think I’m dead too.” He lay, exhausted and not a little sticky.

“I need a bath.”

“Me too.”

“I’m too tired.”

“Me too.”

Neither moved until Pierce maneuvered the quilt free and covered them with it. “Warm enough?”

She nodded and snuggled into him. “Yes. Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

“Both our pleasures.” She chuckled sleepily. “That was really nice.”

“Minnie, you have a gift for understatement.”

They were asleep before the last of the rain faded away.

Chapter Seven

“Do you think Minnie knows I’m here?”

Felicia looked at the man next to her, the man who held her arm so carefully and guided her through the greenhouse as though she was the most precious thing in it.

“Does it matter?” Dusk’s voice was gentle. “You’re a grown woman. There isn’t a need to tell Miss Minnie your every move, is there?”

“Well no.” She thought about it. “But we are, perhaps, contravening some of the more accepted rules of behavior.”

“Not half as many as I’d like.”

“Pardon?”

“Never mind.” He patted her hand. “Here. Can you smell this one?” He brought their idle progress to a halt next to one of the racks of small plants.

Felicia breathed in and smiled. “Ahh. Rosemary.” She turned to the blur that was his face. “What was it that Shakespeare had Ophelia say? Rosemary for remembrance?”

“And pansies, that’s for thoughts.” He added more of the quote.

“Poor Ophelia.”

“Hamlet didn’t fare much better.”

“Depressing.” Felicia took a breath. “My fault. Or the rosemary’s. Do you have any lavender? That’s a favorite fragrance. Always cheers me up.”

“Over here. I keep my culinary herbs apart from the others.” Dusk led her farther down the greenhouse.

Thunder boomed and Felicia smiled. “I can tell that this is a good storm. Lots of flashes. Loud thunder. Nature being a showoff.”

Dusk’s chuckle was low but quite audible. “You have an interesting perspective on things, Felicia.”

“And you are an interesting man, Dusk. Multi-talented, knowledgeable about plants and clearly possessed of an excellent intellect. Yet you are, to outside eyes, employed as a servant to Pierce.” She stroked his sleeve idly. “I find that puzzling.”

“Do you?” He moved away from her a little and she heard the tiny snap as he broke off part of a plant. “Here. Cheer up.”

A sprig of lavender scented the air beneath her nose and she inhaled with delight. “How lovely. Fresh, wonderful…smells like summer and sunshine.”

Another roll of thunder echoed around them and it was quickly followed by the first large droplets of rain splashing onto the glass ceiling of the domed structure.

Dusk laughed. “One out of two. It’s summer.” He moved away. “Here. Try this one.”

She sniffed. “Mmm. Nice.” Pausing, she ran the scent through her mind, trying to identify it. “Tangy. Sweet. Lemon balm?”

“I’m impressed.” Dusk put the sprig back down and took her arm, curving it around his and bringing their bodies into close contact. Closer than before.

Felicia fought the urge to lean against him. She was quite used to doing for herself and actually felt a bit lost without the cane. But he’d taken it from her, telling her firmly that he’d be her guide in the greenhouse.

To her surprise, she’d agreed. And she was enjoying this rare opportunity to be alone with a man and feel…safe.

“This way.” He tugged a little and steered her to the left where she could see the flashes of lightning getting brighter. The storm was a strong one and she guessed he was taking her to the outside wall of the greenhouse. “I have a seat here. I like to watch the ocean in the evenings when the plants are at their most fragrant.”

He gently eased her onto one side of a garden chaise, sitting down on the other. It was a snug fit and her thigh pressed warmly against his.

“Talk to me, Dusk.” The rain intensified, a rush of drops muting the sound of the thunder. It was as if they were completely isolated in the glass bubble around them. “Tell me about yourself. Tell me…”

“About the mask?”

“I…”

“It’s all right. Really. You’d have asked sooner if you’d been able to see me in greater detail.”

“I would
not
.” She poured outrage dramatically into her words and rested a hand on her bosom. “That would have been appallingly bad taste.”

He was quiet for a moment, and then she grinned. “Just joking.”

His body relaxed, and she sensed the tension drain away. “You are very good at that.” He tapped the back of her hand with his warm fingers. “Bad girl.”

She laughed. “Sorry. But I did mean it. Talk to me. This is…an evening I want to remember. Help me?”

He took a breath. “There’s little to tell. I always loved science, but my background wasn’t the sort to land me in university. I had the benefit of a basic education, but there was no real money to send me any further. Going into service seemed the most logical course. I wasn’t interested in the military as a career.”

“Don’t like guns?”

“Don’t like to be told what to do.”

“Ah. And yet you’re still working for somebody else. Amazing.” She snickered.

“Hush.” Dusk nudged her. “Save your teasing for when I’m finished.”

“Sorry.”

“I was very lucky. Some might even say blessed. I found a position with a scientist in Oxfordshire. A young man, about my own age, incredibly brilliant and committed to his research with total focus and complete dedication. He was fascinated with various compounds, how they blended, what sort of synergistic interaction they produced…that sort of thing. We ended up working side by side—almost as colleagues rather than master and servant.”

“You enjoyed it. And you liked him.”

Felicia’s eyes were closed as she listened, her acute hearing picking up the nuances of his words. She felt the slight motion of his body as he nodded. “I did. Right on both counts.”

“There was an accident, wasn’t there?”

“Right again.” Dusk paused for a moment. “I suppose it was inevitable. Neither of us knew as much as we should have about the compounds we were using. The wrong proportions of some of the ones we had on hand—disaster in a beaker.”

“How bad?”

“As bad as it gets. It literally blew me out of the small laboratory, through the French doors and out into the garden.” His arm moved and Felicia opened her eyes. She saw the motion of his dark arm as it lifted to his face. He was touching the mask.

“It also lashed me with half a container of chemicals. They…they burned.”

She touched him then, daringly resting her hand on the strong thigh next to hers. “And your master?”

“Did not survive.”

Silence fell, broken only by the sounds of the storm as it roiled overhead. The thunder was weakening, being replaced in ferocity by the pounding rain. Snug inside, Felicia waited, letting the sadness of Dusk’s tale wash over her.

“I’m sorry. I’m depressing you again.” Dusk shifted fractionally, moving his thigh away from hers.

She sensed his unspoken withdrawal and would have none of it. “Give me your hand please.” She held out hers, palm up.

Hesitantly, his warmth surrounded her, and she folded her fingers together. “There,” she said with satisfaction. “Better. Now I feel like I am truly sharing a special evening with a special friend.”

“Thank you, Felicia.”

“Silly. There’s nothing to thank me for. Just finish your story please?”

He sighed. “Not much more to tell. I spent some difficult months healing and trying to deal with my disfigurement. Then, one day when I was about ready to look for work once more and my family about ready to throw me out of the door, I met Dr. Pierce. He was brilliant in his own sphere, electromagnetism, about which I knew little. He was looking for a servant—more of an all-purpose fellow—and lived here, on the Isle of Wight. What more could I ask for?”

“Your mask?”

“Well yes. It wasn’t long before he asked if he might try something…he was very good at making an order sound more like a suggestion. And although I was hesitant, I let him try his hand—this is the result. As soon as I put it on…well, it may sound stupid, but I suddenly felt like a man of mystery, not a man to be pitied. It seemed as if my presence changed overnight from frightening to intriguing.”

“Can I touch it, please? If you don’t mind?”

“Of course not.” Dusk turned and took her hand, lifting it and placing her palm against the cool metal that covered half his face.

As before, she closed her eyes, letting her fingers “see” the detail. She moved slowly, stroking the different textures, noting the tiny hairs comprising an eyebrow and the strong cheekbone beneath the opening for Dusk’s eye. Something warm stirred inside her and she raised her other hand to his unscarred side. “And this too, if I may?”

He murmured something unintelligible as she cupped his face, her hands caressing in a matching fashion. His open cheek was warm, slightly rough as his end-of-day beard was starting to show through. She touched the delineation between clear skin and mask and then worked her way downward, daringly touching his lips with feather-light brushes of her fingertips.

She felt them part, then felt them tense into the lightest of kisses. She smiled at the gentle caress.

Then gasped as they parted again and he sucked one of her fingers deeply into his mouth.

“Oh.” A shiver coursed down her spine at the sensation of his hot wet tongue circling her sensitive flesh. And again “Ohhh…”

He released her. “I’ve been wanting to do that for ages, it seems. I’ll apologize for the liberty if you wish, but I hope you won’t ask me to. I hope you found it…pleasant.”

“Pleasant is a masterful understatement.” She choked out the words, every nerve ending she possessed jumping around and on the verge of screaming in shocked delight.

She heard his low chuckle and knew he was closer to her now. Close enough to slide an arm around her waist and lift her—up, up onto his lap. “Then forgive me if I do
this
, as well…”

Without further ado, he kissed her.

His mouth moved gently at first, learning her, pressed warmly to hers. Then he sighed, and his tongue flicked out to lick the seam of her lips and force its way inside.

Force wasn’t necessary. She was opening for him even as he delved within, as eager as he to learn, to explore, to find that wet warmth and that unique taste lurking there. He was solid, his arms banding her like steel, encompassing her in his heat, holding her possessively within his embrace.

She’d never been so aware of her diminutive stature, her sensitive fingers or her womanhood. Dusk was appealing to all three. He held her easily, felt good beneath her hands as she stroked whatever part she could reach, and started a fire low in her body that threatened to engulf her from her eyebrows to her toenails.

He made a sound of pleasure. “Oh yes, Felicia. I knew. I knew as soon as I picked you up from the quay and felt how right you were in my arms.”

“Dusk, I…” she stuttered, her heart stuttering at the same time.

“I know. I won’t rush you. But fair warning, I will be kissing you at every opportunity.”

Laughter and desire warred beneath his words, and her own desires leaped to life. It scared her. “I’m not a young woman, Dusk. No longer attractive or appealing. I’m a widow as well as being almost as blind as a bat. I don’t know if I can give you what you need.”

“When you’ve figured out what I need, I’ll let you decide.” He pulled her back against his chest. “Sometimes the heart can see better than the eyes. Look with your heart, Felicia. Everything else is unimportant.”

“In that case…” She paused, knowing her next words could change matters between them. “Please—kiss me again?
Without your mask
.”

She sensed his stillness, his utter immobility. And prayed it was simply due to her unexpected request—nothing more. She didn’t want to be a conquest or another name on a man’s list of women he’d bedded. If Dusk were sincere, he’d be ready to reveal himself in more ways than one.

Then, after what seemed like a lifetime, he moved and reached for his face. Her heart thudded so loud she swore it rivaled the storm outside.

He made a tiny sound, more of a sigh than a word.

And kissed her again. Without his mask.

The storm that had swept over the coastline of the Isle of Wight left little evidence of its fury in its wake. There were puddles, of course. One or two branches blown down, but overall no damage to the Brass Pluggit or its environs.

Minnie smiled happily at the brilliant blue sky and the sunlight glittering off the ocean as she walked into the large living room, appetite sharp and emotions sizzling with energetic bliss.

She nearly tripped when she caught sight of Felicia there before her. And if Minnie wasn’t mistaken, Dusk had just dropped a kiss on her hand before pouring tea in her cup.

Well, well. Wasn’t this interesting?

Minnie cleared her throat. Loudly. “Good morning. What a perfectly marvelous day.” She pulled her chair out and sat down. “How are we all this morning?”

“Tea, Miss Minnie?”

“Yes please.” She glanced at Dusk, who was imperturbable as always. “Did you sleep well, Felicia?”

The older woman hurriedly swallowed a fragment of toast. “Oh yes. Yes thank you.”

Minnie snickered.

“What?” Felicia asked the question with a properly and delightfully inquiring tone.

Minnie snickered some more. “Well, I’m sitting
here
grinning from ear to ear and you’re sitting
there
with beard burn.”