Red Cloak of Abandon (13 page)

Redgrift. However, at this precise moment, all he could come up with

was his desire to see her naked upon her bed again.

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“He wants me,” Affinity muttered as she continued to dress carefully

for her planned adventure that evening. “A man does not give a woman

heated and mind-bending cunnilingus, just to get his journal back. He

could easily just have taken it.”

Her voice sounded certain, she just wished that she was certain, she

thought as she adjusted the black lace corset beneath her breasts. It lifted

the weight of her breasts to a pertly naked position, held by the corset

beneath. Madame DeJonge had said that men wanted to look at their

woman, the less dressed the better, but some scanty clothing was reported

to be enticing.

Well, this was certainly scanty, Affinity thought looking at herself

in the mirror. It was lucky that her mother had started her daughter’s

trousseau before her death, because that allowed her to find this beautiful

black corset, which she would never have been able to afford to buy now.

She wore the corset because she had to wear stockings, because she

ultimately had to wear evening shoes, otherwise she might not wear

anything at all beneath her red mink-lined cloak. The luxurious cloak was

a gift from Brevity to all the Lady Rogues, along with the red high heeled

slippers. It would be the Lady Rogues uniform of sorts and Affinity

agreed with them in the fact that it fit their mission and design daringly.

Her plan this evening, was to visit Law in a place that he least expected,

while wearing nothing under her cloak but the black corset and stockings.

She could ruin her reputation just by going where she was going, a

place that only gentlemen, their mistresses, and prostitutes attended. Yet

did she really have a reputation to ruin to begin with? Still, she added a

bonnet and veil to her ensemble. It was a good thing that she had Aunt

Fuchsia and that her uncle paid so little attention to her. Although, Aunt

Fuchsia had asked after her health this afternoon, when she had once

again used the tried and true lie of not feeling well. Affinity grinned, she

had never felt better. She was nervous, but it thrummed in her veins like

a heady liqueur.

60

After she had snuck out of the house, Affinity took a rented hackney

to the boxing match. She realized that her one sticking point in this

adventure was that she did not have the funds to buy a ticket, nor was she

certain how to go about doing so to get inside. That was why they called

them adventures, she decided, never once considering what the other men

attending the boxing event would be assuming about her presence there.

Her thoughts were focused on only one man.

Affinity saw immediately that the location of the boxing match was

in a lower-class section of London. Perhaps, she had been wholly wrong

in her assumption of who attended these events, because there was a vast

quantity of common folk milling about outside the large brick facade of

the warehouse. As Affinity stepped down from the hackney, carefully

holding the cloak together, she thought that this gathering held the

appearance and atmosphere of a rowdy county fair, and her naked flesh

shivered beneath her cloak in proportion to her rising alarm.

Too late she turned back to see her hackney already pulling away,

then quite suddenly she had to sidestep a group of rambunctious men

whose quarrel broke out into fisticuffs before her. Perhaps, this had not

been such a winning plan after all, Affinity thought, biting her bottom lip.

She could acutely feel her nakedness, and she defensively raised the

closed parasol that she had thought to bring along at the last moment.

Now she knew why, because somewhere in the back of her love besotted

mind her common sense was still valiantly struggling with the idea that

if she would do this idiotic thing she should carry some type of defense!

It did not take her long to confirm that she had made a very bad

mistake coming here. All the men milling around her thought that she

was a prostitute! Of course, ninny! Then what saved her was fear-in-

spired anger and her ability to use the point of her parasol to advantage.

Her anger was a result of the realization that a lady could not walk

unmolested in such a public forum. She really had wanted to
see
a boxing

match. Nonetheless, Affinity was not sure her anger was going to help

her now as she began backing up, nearly tripping at the awkward back-

ward motion in her higher than normal high heeled shoes. Nor was the

point of her parasol going to hold out long against the concentrated group

of slipshod men trying to surround her.

“Come on with me, fancy, I got a twopence for ye!”

“Hey ya fancy-slut!”

“
Look
here, birdie, I’s got threepence.”

“You just blow me now for a half quid, girlie!”

“Give us a look! Lift them skirts!”

“Show
us yer snatch!”

Affinity was assaulted by the lurid mens rabid jeers and catcalls. She

refused to assess their meaning as she raised the hem of her red cloak

readying to run. She jabbed the point of her frilly parasol into the ribs of

the boldest villain trying to grab her. The pot-bellied ruffian screeched in

surprise and Affinity did not hesitate, but quickly ran past him with a

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shriek of her own. She ran as fast as her high heels would allow, while

she could hear the men at her back shouting the most vile and embarrass-

ing jibes. Panic overcame her, surely some decent soul would help her,

and she drew a breath to scream, but suddenly she tripped!

Law froze in mid-step. He could not believe what his gaze was

telling him was true. Yet with no time for second thoughts and with the

instinct born through many battles, he pulled one of the two pistols he

always carried from his cloak pocket and immediately shot it into the air.

“Unhand the lady!”

Law’s command carried the sharp directive of a military officer. He

stood with his legs braced apart, ready for action as he sneered at the

felons groping Affinity, who was sprawled on the ground.
“Now!”
he

snarled

Affinity, at her first sight of him, cried out his name as she struggled

fiercely to free herself from the man who still held her by her arms. The

blackguard deftly tugged Affinity to her feet as though she were a mere

doll and pulled her body in front of him, to use as a shield as the rest of

the mob fell back, edging away from the threat of a pistol. Law took sight

of Affinity’s disheveled state. Her bonnet was trampled into the ground

at their feet and her hair flew around her like a shawl, while the blood-red

cloak that she wore was wrenched off one of her pale shoulders, baring

it to the top mound of her breast.

Swearing harshly beneath his breath, Law aimed his remaining

loaded pistol at the man’s temple as the ruffian dragged Affinity back-

wards. “
I repeat!
Unhand the lady!”

“Easy now, gov’nr! You just take yer lady and I’ll be going! No

harm done!”

Having shouted that, the bully pushed Affinity forward roughly and

with enough force that Law had no choice but to lower his pistol to catch

her before she fell. Law grasped Affinity, steadying her as he watched the

last blackguard stumble through the crowd. Then, quite without thought,

but with great emotion, he pulled Affinity’s trembling body into his

embrace.

“
Are
you totally insane?” he exclaimed roughly. He could feel his

body vibrating in total collapse of his usual staid demeanor. “Are you

hurt, Affinity?” he asked, and he noticed that his voice was shaking as he

glared over the top of Affinity’s head to assess any further dastardly

attempts.

Affinity shook her head as she frantically burrowed her face into his

chest, rubbing her cheek against his fine linen shirt. His hands moved up

and down her spine, seeking assurance as he tightened his embrace and

her disheveled silky brown hair tickled his throat. He turned them in a

circle to surmise if there were any other louts about, and it was quickly

apparent that none of the other passers by them had any inclination to

tempt his pistol or his devilish scowl, for they all made a wide birth

around them. Damnation, he thought his heart would collapse when he’d

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seen Affinity, and here of all places, being molested by what he could

only dub as a mob of ruffians.

Law could feel the fullness of Affinity’s breasts pressed to his chest,

and hotly on top of his alarm, a surge of sexual energy flooded his body.

For moments, he allowed his body free reins, opening his stance and

drawing Affinity closer between his legs, while his hands stopped their

roaming over her spine and settled on her delicious bottom, which he

cupped warmly. The motion pressed his erect cock into her belly like a

waiting pillow.

“I say
, is that Lady Affinity
Redgrift?”

“Oh no!” Affinity gasped, instantly clutching him harder as her body

shook more.

Swiftly, Law tugged Affinity forward, but she stumbled against his

stride. Then, quickly he reached down, sweeping Affinity up into his

arms to carry her as his gaze scanned the crowd for the owner of that

voice. He could not tell which man had spoken, nor did he recognize that

voice, but he did know this entire episode was a recipe for social disaster.

He did not stop his purposeful stride until he reached his carriage,

calling out before him to his driver to turn the carriage about and get them

out of the crush of carriages before and aft. Without waiting for an

answer, Law threw open the carriage door and stepped up inside with

Affinity still in his arms. He sat abruptly in the seat as the carriage jerked

with the beginnings of maneuvering out of the tight space. His long arm

reached outward and he grabbed the carriage door, slamming it shut. He

took one quick look around to see if he could see any familiar face about,

but all he saw were the drivers and footmen of different conveyances.

Then, he tugged the green velvet curtain closed as he cussed lowly and

crassly, while reaching over and closing the other curtain.

He had known before this time that Affinity’s antics and his own

were ghastly beyond societies norm. He assumed it was one of the

reasons he had been so quickly enthralled. Yet, that ominous voice had

recognized Affinity for one, and possibly him. It had been like a slap in

the face. His anger for Affinity’s protection and safety,
and
his sexual

arousal, which was riding him hard, was all out of proportion. So much

so that he was riding strangely high on his emotions and he found himself

forcefully jostling Affinity around and turning her face down over his

knee.

“If
you ever dare do this again,” he hissed through his gritted teeth.

“You could have been
raped
by that mob!”

“Law!” Affinity cried, as he clamped his forearm over the small of

her back, while his other hand tossed the hem of her cloak upward.

The last thing Law expected to see was a naked ass! Yet, there it was.

There was no gown with skirts beneath, but a plump and wriggling bare

ass with stockings below and a black corset above. Why this infuriated

him further, he had no clue, but his hand came down on those fat

alabaster globes with a hearty smack!

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“Ow!” Affinity squealed, thrashing her legs and bobbing her head.

“
What
in the hell are you wearing?” he demanded, as his hand lifted

upward, then smacked her buttocks again. The woman was naked be-

neath her cloak . . . well nearly!

“Ow! Ow!” Affinity cried, as she tried to wiggle her small hands

around to cover the bare and unprotected exposure of her buttocks. “I was

coming to seducce you!”

Well hell, his hand was already descending and the flat of his palm

spanked sharply against Affinity’s plump ass cheeks.
“You
will not sit

for a week, thinking of your foolhardiness!” Law claimed.

It sounded perfectly rational to him, beside the fact that laying his

hand smartly to Affinity’s naked and squirming buttocks was ridicu-

lously arousing him further. Perhaps, it was her seesawing motion across

his lap and therefore his rigid cock? It could be his position of dominance

over her struggling near nakedness. The view itself was heatedly erotic.

Then a lusty whim entered his mind. He wanted to see Affinity’s chubby

wriggling ass cheeks stained a rosy pink color.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

“Oh,
Law! Ouch,
ow
that hurts!” Affinity cried wrestling over