The Erotic Dark (28 page)

She gave him a lazy smile as he approached. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, which indicated he was heading toward the stables.

“Care for a ride?” he asked.

“Depends on what kind of ride you’re talking about,” Lydia replied pertly, then blushed at the bold insinuation of her words.

To her relief, Gabriel chuckled. “I was thinking about horseback riding, but obviously you have something else in mind.”

He lay down beside her in the hammock. His weight caused the tautness of the ropes to give, rocking Lydia closer to him so she could feel his body heat. She shifted onto her side, her gaze scanning his sharp profile.

“How often have you seen her?” she asked.

“Who?”

“Helen.”

Gabriel turned to look at her. “This is the second time you’ve asked me about her. Why?”

“I’m curious,” Lydia said, then admitted, “and a bit jealous.”

Something softened in his expression. “You have no reason for jealousy, Lydia. We only have a social relationship.”

“So did she stay overnight during the party?”

“Not with me.”

Lydia fell silent, aware of relief blooming inside her like a flower. She looked at the curve of his mouth, the dark eyelashes framing his green eyes, the disheveled thickness of his hair.

“Gabriel.”

“Hmm?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“I think you just did.”

Lydia smiled. “I mean a different one.”

“You may.”

“Why haven’t you ever…” Lydia flushed as she tried to think of a way to phrase the question. “Both Preston and Kruin have enjoyed intercourse with me, but you haven’t. I wanted to know why.”

His gaze broke from hers as he stared at the leafy canopy above them. For a long moment, he didn’t respond. A hint of both fear and regret rose in Lydia as she wondered if she had overstepped her boundaries again.

Finally, Gabriel turned to her again and reached out to cup her face in his hand. Without speaking, he leaned toward her and pressed his lips with infinite care against hers. Warmth burst through her like concentrated sunlight.

“I haven’t made love to you,” Gabriel murmured, “because I was afraid that if I did, I would never want to stop.”

Lydia lifted her head to stare at him, as stunned by the expression in his eyes as she was by his words.

“Oh.” Her heart filled with an emotion so unbearably sweet that it was almost painful. “If only you knew how much I’ve longed for you. I thought there was something wrong, that you didn’t want me—”

“Ah, Lydia,” Gabriel said, his voice husky. “I’ve never wanted anyone more than I want you.”

His words were like a melodic song to her ears. Lydia placed her hand against the side of his face, wanting to drown in the emerald depths of his eyes.

“Then take me,” she whispered. “However you want. Do whatever you want to do.”

Although it sounded like a request, she knew deep inside that she was somehow giving him permission. It made no sense since he didn’t require her permission to take any action whatsoever. But by allowing her to make the request, Gabriel was returning to her yet another small measure of control.

His hands went to her hips as his mouth came down on hers again. Lydia was becoming so accustomed to receiving orders that she didn’t touch him until he took her arms and slid them around his body. Lydia’s hands trembled as she flexed them against his back, as she parted her lips under his and accepted the sweeping glide of his tongue.

Little sparks whisked over Lydia’s nerves as her body responded to his touch and proximity. Together, they descended slowly onto the grass. Her legs parted in invitation as Gabriel came over her, his hands delving into the glossy strands of her hair. Their mouths met with increasing hunger. His tongue traced the line of her lips, their breath mingling between them.

Lydia’s fingers trembled as she unfastened the buttons of her dress to give him access to her unbound breasts. She blushed as she realized her nipples were already taut with desire, sticking up from the creamy mounds like juicy cherries. She gasped when Gabriel fastened his lips greedily around one point, eliciting a shock of pleasure clear down to her loins.

She stared up at his eyes, which were darkened to all the colors of a rainforest. He grasped her skirt and hitched it up over her hips to bare the apex of her vulva. His breath began to come rapidly as his fingers sank into her heated depths, pressing into her as if stoking her inner fires.

Lydia was almost embarrassed by the extent of her moisture, which she had felt since she first saw him approaching her. Gabriel only smiled, muttering something low in his throat as his thumb began to circle the bud and his fingers parted the soft pleats.

A delicious mist invaded Lydia’s mind, one that washed away all extraneous thought. Her entire being became focused on the taste, scent, and feeling of Gabriel as she unfastened his jeans and took his hard, male flesh into her hand. He throbbed against the surface of her palm, echoing the sound of her own heartbeat.

Lydia looked in fascination at the contrast of her pale, tapered fingers against his veined member. Her thumb stroked over the bursting tip, massaging droplets of fluid back into his skin.

Gabriel let out a groan as she guided him toward her sex. She parted her legs wider, her pulse pounding as she felt the moist knob pushing into her. Her body reveled in the sensation, so wholly different than that of Kruin and Preston, and made all the more precious by Gabriel’s admission.

He pressed her into the earth, his stalk thrusting inside her body with augmenting urgency. Lydia moaned, her eyes drifting closed as she felt the tight globes of his testicles beating rhythmically against her, as the pumping movements drove her own need to impenetrable levels. She lifted her hips to match his cadence, her sheath gripping him hungrily, her breasts bobbing with every eager thrust. Even in the profundity of her arousal, Lydia grasped onto a sliver of thought about the decree of her orgasms.

Gabriel gripped her supple thighs from beneath, pushing them upward and opening her even more fully for the carnal penetration of his thick member. Gasping cries broke from Lydia’s throat in tempo with their united rhythm. Her feminine oils coated Gabriel’s shaft with a glistening sheen, and she clutched his forearms as his pace increased even more insistently.

“Gabriel,” Lydia panted, her lips quivering as she looked up beseechingly at him. “Please…oh, please…”

“Please what?” he grated between clenched teeth, even as his fingers sought between their bodies to the slippery button of her desire.

“Please let me come. Please…oh, God…”

Her words died in her throat, lost in the maelstrom of sensations. Pressure built inside her like a dam about to burst, and only one flick of Gabriel’s finger would be enough to send her over the edge. His lips pressed hard against hers, his tongue delving deeply into her mouth.

“Do it,” he hissed.

She did, shrieking as rapture exploded through her body. Then she felt Gabriel spilling into her, his responding groan sinking into her skin. His body collapsed heavily onto her. His breath was hot against her neck as they recovered.

When Gabriel rolled away, he gave Lydia a slow, satisfied smile.

“Well?” she murmured throatily. “Do you want to stop?”

He chuckled. “I don’t intend to, no.”

Lydia smiled and tucked her body against his. When she first arrived at the plantation, she had never imagined that she would ever feel this way. She hadn’t thought she was even capable of such intense layers of emotions.

“You’re lovely,” Gabriel said. “And I’m glad you’re here to stay, Jane.”

Lydia smiled again and lifted her head to look at him. She brushed a disheveled swath of hair away from her face and bent to give him a lingering kiss.

“Lydia,” she whispered. “My name is Lydia.”

EPILOGUE

“Delicious.” Preston patted Lydia’s bottom affectionately and flipped her skirt back over her hips.

Lydia pushed herself up from her bent position over the arm of the sofa. Her sex throbbed from Preston’s masculine plundering. She was learning to appreciate each man’s unique sexual style, even Preston’s frequently coarse and quick thrusts.

He fastened his trousers and smiled with satisfaction. “See how wonderful our little arrangement is turning out? All you had to do was truly submit to your circumstances.”

Lydia looked at him for a moment—the sharp planes of his face, the malicious glint in his blue eyes.

“I’ve never thanked you,” she finally said.

“What?”

“For what you did,” Lydia explained. “Your offer came with a heavy price, but if it weren’t for you…”

Her voice trailed off, and she shrugged. “You gave me a whole new life.”

Another slow smile spread across Preston’s face. He put his hands on the sides of her face and pressed his lips against hers.

“And you fulfilled my fantasies of you,” he replied. “Believe me, Lydia. There are many more.”

She flushed. “I don’t doubt it.”

He gave her a wicked grin and left the room. Lydia went upstairs and grabbed her riding clothes, realizing she was already late for a date with Gabriel.

She hurried outside, pausing when she saw Kruin sitting on the veranda.

His attention was fixed on a newspaper, but he looked up when she approached. His black eyes skimmed over her, assessing the curves of her breasts and hips underneath her dress.

“Let me see what Preston did yesterday,” he commanded.

Dropping her riding clothes on a table, Lydia turned her back to Kruin and lifted her skirt. The crimson lashes of a crop swept across her white buttocks like a painting. Rather than the usual embarrassment, she felt a glimmer of pride over the punishment she had borne and its visual evidence.

“Quite nice.” Kruin’s blunt fingers pressed painfully against the welts. “Perhaps I will try that soon.”

Lydia turned back to him, ridiculously pleased by his praise. She suspected she would never grow tired of Kruin’s approval, just as she would never stop seeking it. Although they had reached an unspoken level of understanding in their relationship, his degree of power over her remained as strong—if not stronger—than ever.

“You’re an interesting man, Kruin,” Lydia remarked.

His eyebrow rose. “Am I?”

She almost smiled. “You don’t know that?”

Kruin lifted his broad shoulders in a shrug and picked up the newspaper he had been reading.

“I’ll…I’ll be grateful for anything you want to do with me,” Lydia said rather shyly.

For a moment, he didn’t respond, but then he said, “You’d better go to the stables. I believe Gabriel is expecting you.”

Lydia nodded. She picked up her riding clothes and started to leave the veranda. His voice stopped her just as she reached the steps.

“Lydia.”

She turned back to him. “Yes?”

Kruin continued looking at a newspaper article. “You look very pretty in that dress.”

Lydia stared at him for a moment, her soul filling with the compliment as if he had granted her a benediction.

“I…thank you.” Knowing she would wear this particular dress more often now, Lydia flew down the veranda steps and headed for the stables.

The sun fell warm and caressingly upon her bare arms. A corresponding warmth filled her heart, one elicited in part by Preston’s sustained control over her and the variability of his malicious streak. She was beginning to find a deep, sensual excitement in his sheer unpredictability.

Her warmth was also evoked by Kruin’s enigmatic yet affectionate power and by Gabriel’s gentle authority and tenderness. Her relationship with her dark triad was beginning to acquire a strangely natural rhythm, as if she had always belonged with them.

As she continued walking, Lydia’s blood sparked with the anticipation of an exhilarating horseback ride that would sting her welts into a rich, delicious pain. The ride would be followed by numerous other possible scenarios, the mere thought of which both thrilled and frightened her.

She saw Gabriel waiting for her by an oak tree, his tall figure leaning languidly against the heavy trunk. Quickening her pace, Lydia felt the wind whipping through the dark strands of her hair, the ground firm and solid beneath her feet, the lingering soreness of her bottom. Her soul lightened like a breezy cloud.

Yes, she had learned to fully live at
La Nouvelle Vie
, even to stretch the boundaries of what she had once thought living really was. This was no longer about her arousal. It was about becoming the role that had been assigned to her. It was about finally realizing that she was—that she had always been—Lydia.

THE END

What happens to Lydia when she leaves the safety of the plantation?

Watch for THE EROTIC LIGHT, the spicy sequel, coming soon!