Stephanie's Castle (11 page)

'Aren't you
the lucky one,' she said coolly.

'They, I would
rather say, are the lucky ones.' He smiled broadly, pleased at his
own remark.

'Really. Well,
that's a matter of opinion.' Stephanie was developing a rapid
dislike for this man. From the moment he stepped ashore her
instinctive reaction was distaste, which was hardening into a very
definite dislike. She had never liked arrogance in men. Gianni
clearly thought his charm was quite irresistible and that any woman
should be grateful to be graced by his presence.

'I'm English-craz
ee
,' he continued. Stephanie tried to look bored.

'Even his meat
is flown in from England,' Devlin volunteered.

Stephanie
laughed, startling both men. She had no intention of being a piece
of 'meat' for Gianni, if that was what Devlin had in mind. If he
had come to the castle to experience the delights of the cellars,
to have Devlin organise whatever sexual scenario he had in mind, in
exchange for a quid pro quo to relieve the problem that had come up
this morning, that was up to Devlin. But she had no intention of
joining in. Not with Gianni.

'I think I'll
go and change, Devlin.'

'But you look
so elegant like this,' Gianni said at once.

'Have another
cup of tea first.' Devlin took her cup. 'Gianni is right. You look
wonderful.'

Gianni reached
forward in his chair and put his hand on hers. She pulled her hand
away. He put his hand on her knee. She looked down on it as if it
were some fat slug.

'Do you
mind?'

'Your flesh is
so soft.'

'I prefer not
to be pawed.'

He took his
hand away reluctantly.

Stephanie gave
Devlin the dirtiest look she could muster. Gianni was beginning to
annoy her now, and Devlin was not going to escape her wrath. Now
that she understood Gianni's penchant for the English it was
dawning on her why Devlin had brought this particular man over to
the island this particular afternoon. It was no coincidence. No
doubt if Stephanie cooperated, and she had, after all, cooperated
with everything else he had suggested so far, Gianni would be in
his debt. The way Devlin was deferring to Gianni with an
obsequiousness she would not have thought he possessed seemed to
confirm her theory.

But she was
not one of Devlin's slaves and had no intention of behaving like
one. Devlin handed her another cup of tea. Quite deliberately she
let the saucer slip through her fingers and it crashed down on to
the unforgiving ceramic tiles where it smashed into a hundred
pieces.

'I didn't want
another cup,' she said in her frostiest tone, being sure not to
apologise for the breakage. 'I'm going to change.'

She got to her
feet. Both men did the same.

'I look
forward to seeing you in a moment,' Gianni said, smiling broadly.
Clearly his skin was extremely thick.

Stephanie
walked into the castle. Obviously more sensitive than his guest,
Devlin caught up with her at the foot of the stairs.

'Is anything
wrong?' Devlin asked solicitously.

'Who is that
awful man?'

'You don't
like him?'

'I thought I'd
made that pretty obvious.'

Devlin looked
genuinely disappointed, a look Stephanie had not seen before. For a
moment his years fell away and he looked like a little boy who'd
just been told his favourite dog had died.

'He's a very
important man to me at the moment. Very important.'

'I gathered
that by the way you've been fawning over him.'

'I was
hoping...'

'That I'd
provide some meat...'

'That you
might like each other. I can see he's crazy about you.'

'Craz
ee
,' she
mimicked.

Devlin still
looked pathetic. She had clearly been right about his
intentions.

'There's at
least two English girls downstairs, aren't there?' she said, trying
to be helpful.

'Yes.'

'Devlin, you
know I like you. But don't ask me this. Not with him. You can't say
I haven't been cooperative so far.'

'Of course
not. Forget it.'

But he didn't
make it sound very convincing. Stephanie turned on her heels and
ran upstairs. When she reached the landing she looked down and saw
that Gianni had come in and was talking animatedly to Devlin. It
did not take a genius to guess at the subject of the
conversation.

Back in her
bedroom Stephanie fumed. The peace of this idyll had been rudely
shattered by a boorishness of which she would not have believed
Devlin capable. Up to now he had been charm itself, attending to
her every wish. She had been only too happy to play his sexual
games in return. But this was different. She was not a whore. If he
had mistaken her compliance in his outlandish sexual games to mean
that she was prepared to do anything in exchange for extravagant
presents and lavish hospitality, he was sadly mistaken.

She tore off
the wrap, regretting that she ever wore it, and went into the
bathroom to run a bath. She only just heard the timid knock on the
bedroom door over the noise of the water. She knew at once it was
Devlin. Without bothering to put on a robe she flung the door open
and stood in front of him naked, arms akimbo.

'What do you
want?' she asked angrily.

'To explain,'
he said.

'Explain
then.' She went back into the bathroom and adjusted the flow of
water. Devlin followed. He sat on the toilet seat.

'I know what
you think.'

'What do I
think?'

'That this was
some sort of plan. I got you here this weekend for Gianni, because
he's so keen on English women.'

'You're right.
That's exactly what I think.'

'Stephanie,'
he said quietly. 'It's not true.'

'I'm English-craz
ee
,' she said, mimicking the accent again.

'I know, I
know. I need him, Stephanie. I need him badly. I've got to get him
to sign a contract this afternoon. That's why he's here. No other
reason. If he doesn't sign...' He let his expression of gloom
finish the sentence for him.

'And you were
going to help matters along by introducing him to the cellars?'

'No. No. It
was strictly business. I need that contract signed. Now it's
academic.'

'Why?'

'Because of
you. He doesn't want to talk business. He just wants to talk about
you. I don't blame him, I have to say. You looked stunning this
afternoon. But I didn't plan it. Believe me, it's the last thing I
wanted to happen. I wanted to get the damn contract signed and get
him away again. So we could go back to our weekend.'

'Lust at first
sight.'

'Exactly! I
had no idea this was going to happen.' The look of anxious
desperation had returned to his face. He looked like a man facing a
firing squad. Stephanie felt sorry for him. And she was beginning
to believe what he said.

'You'll work
it out,' she said gently.

'I'll try.
Please, let's try not to allow it to spoil what we had.'

'Deal,' she
said, kissing him on the cheek.

'I need that
contract signed. Everything depends upon it.' He paused. He was
looking at her but his mind was elsewhere. 'Everything.'

Stephanie felt
he was genuine. 'It's just I don't go to bed with men I don't like,
Devlin. I never have. And I don't like him.'

She could not
help a wry smile to herself. She hadn't even known the man who had
fucked her this morning in the cellars, nor the masked man on the
plane, so perhaps Devlin was justified in thinking her sudden
acquisition of principles was rather odd. But, strictly speaking,
since she had not known the men, she could hardly dislike them.
With this syllogism she squared her moral tone. She knew Gianni,
and definitely disliked him.

Stephanie's
anger was assuaged. She turned off the water in the bath and tested
the temperature with her hand. Then she went and sat on Devlin's
knee and stroked the contours of his face with the back of her
hand. As her breast was closer to his mouth than her face, he bent
slightly and kissed her nipple, then the top of her breast. He
kissed her tentatively as though she might object. Stephanie hugged
his face to her bosom. Her feeling of affection for him had
returned; for the first time she sensed something in him she had
not felt before. He seemed suddenly vulnerable as though the world
were about to collapse around his shoulders, where he had carried
it for years. Obviously his desire to please Gianni was every bit
as serious as he had suggested.

Stephanie
stroked the thick wiry hair on his head. She wondered if she could
distract him from his veil of tears.

'What's Gianni
doing now?'

'Sulking.'

'Seriously?'

'He's in the
office. He's got some calls to make, if he can stop thinking about
you for five minutes.'

'How long will
it take?'

'An hour,
maybe.'

'Does he need
you?'

'No.'

'Good. So
let's take a bath together. Then you can relax for awhile. You'll
feel better.'

'That would be
nice,' Devlin responded with no real enthusiasm.

He watched in
the long mirror that ran the length of the bath as Stephanie undid
the buttons of his shirt and stripped it off his shoulders. Still
sitting on his lap she kissed each of his nipples in turn, flicking
at them with her tongue. Then she took his face between both her
hands and kissed him on the mouth, pushing her tongue between his
lips until it met his. As she kissed him she kept her eyes open.
There was something sexually electric about this man: she could
already feel a hard node of excitement tightening in the pit of her
stomach. Perhaps it was his extraordinary ugliness, the pitted face
and bulbous nose, or a chemical response, an over-endowment of
pheromones to match his overlarge genitals: whatever it was, the
impact was startling.

'You're so
sexy,' she told him honestly.

'Am I?' he
said shyly as though a surprise to him.

She dropped to
her knees and pulled off his shoes and socks. 'Stand up.'

He did as he
was told and she unbuttoned and unzipped his trousers. They fell to
the floor. She tugged his boxer shorts down to his ankles too and
he stepped out of them. His penis was flaccid, as Stephanie had
come to expect. With Devlin an erection had to be provoked by
something other than nakedness: this afternoon, distracted as he
was, this was probably doubly true.

'Sit in the
bath. I'll wash your back.' Again Devlin obeyed meekly. Stephanie
soaped his back lavishly, leaning over the bath, her breasts
occasionally prodding his shoulder as she worked. She washed the
soap off with a big sponge.

'Nice?'

'Very.' He
meant it.

'Now the
front.'

She repeated
the procedure with his chest. Here the wiry hair meant she had to
use more soap to get up a thick lather.

She climbed
into the tub sitting in front of him, her legs spread out to either
side. Conveniently the taps were sited in the middle on one side so
they both could slide down the bath and rest their heads. She
closed her eyes and squeezed her legs together slightly, feeling
Devlin's hips between her calves.

'I went back
to the cellars this morning after you'd gone,' she told him without
opening her eyes. 'You knew I would, didn't you?'

'I thought you
might.'

'Don't you
want to know what I did?'

'Yes.'

'I got one of
the slaves to fuck me. I don't think he'd been allowed sex for some
time.'

'He was
very... ardent?'

'Very.'

Stephanie
slipped her foot under Devlin's thigh until she could feel his
balls resting on her toes.

'Do the same,'
she said.

She felt his
foot slide under her until his toes were brushing her pubic
hair.

'Put your toe
in,' she prompted.

Devlin pushed
forward with no result.

'It's too
dry.'

'Try
again.'

She felt his
big toe push against her labia, searching for an opening. She felt
it nudge her clitoris and then work its way lower. She tried to
wriggle herself down on to the toe but it was as though her cunt
had been sealed over by the water.

'Won't
work.'

'Push
harder.'

'It'll
hurt.'

Stephanie did
not reply. She lay back in the water. The toe pressed forward
again. It was still not in the right place. Devlin moved down
further.

'There,' she
said and he pushed hard, forcing his toe past the dryness of the
labia into the heat and wetness of her cunt. Devlin pushed his toe
deeper, enjoying the feeling. 'You must have some very imaginative
guests, judging from all the equipment you have in cellars.'

'I told you we
cater for all tastes.'

Stephanie
moaned, feeling his toe pushing forward again. The water had washed
away her juices, reducing their lubricating effect and making real
movement, in and out, difficult. Only the top of his toe, sealed
away from the water, was really wet.

'Do you watch?
What do they do? Have the slaves strung up and whipped? What do you
like to watch, Devlin? What's your favourite? Tied down on the
floor while you wank over them?' She squirmed down on his toe,
enjoying the strangeness of the sensation. She was surprised at how
it filled her cunt, but then perhaps his toes matched the
proportions of his fingers.

'I've never
been toe-fucked before.' She opened her eyes and looked at Devlin.
His erection had risen like Excalibur from the bathwater.

'Can I fuck
you properly?' he said.

By way of
answer she climbed out of the bath, feeling his toe pop out of her
cunt like the cork from a bottle of champagne. She bent over the
side of the bath, opening her legs and thrusting her arse into the
air, water running from her body on to the marble floor.