also strangely safe. These must be the sensations that I dimly imagined I was missing in my marriage bed. But they’re so powerful, so befuddling, yet so beautiful. My eyes fill with tears, but I’m not sad. No, never that.
Reaching for knowledge, I almost coo in response to my two paramours.
Who respond to my silent, formless prayers.
Clarence kisses me, his tongue pressing importunately into my mouth, searching, tasting. At almost the same moment, I heave up from the surface of the chaise in delicious shock.
A finger—a stiff, warm, clever finger—pushes inside me.
Ambrose breaches my hot body in a smooth, bold action, and as his finger enters me, his broad, flat thumb settles on the tiny sensitive bead at the apex of my womanhood. Instantaneously, delight seems to pierce me like a spear, touching not just the warm, sticky crevice of my sex, but also my breasts, my lips, my toes, my heart and my very soul.
The men move in. They overwhelm me. I’m exquisitely assaulted by questing fingers and warm tongues, and by the scents of my body and the clean odors of their linen and their flesh.
The heat and the tension in my flesh soars to a sweet, unbearable pitch, building like a raw flame in my loins…and then, and then… I cry out into the kissing mouth of Clarence, when without warning, all that selfsame pressure seems to release in a great, wild rush and throb through my body in a wrenching wave so profound I almost swoon.
Goodness, what’s happened to me? Did I lose my senses?
Opening my eyes, I realize that I’m just lying here, on the chaise, my heart and my body all of a flutter. My breasts and belly are still naked and I’m cradled in Ambrose’s arms. My face is wet, and I realize I’ve been weeping.
Struggling to sit up, I look around and find that Clarence has discreetly slipped away.
“Were those the transports of delight that my friends have whispered of?” I ask Ambrose as I struggle to gather just a few of my scattered wits. The deficiencies of my marriage are now readily and distressingly apparent to me. Are all men as lacking in the sensual arts as my poor late husband was? “I confess that’s the first time I’ve experienced them.”
“They were indeed, my dear Mrs. Harewood.” Ambrose’s voice is quite grave as he moves away quickly, only to return with a little more Madeira for me. It’s cold now, but just as delicious, and very welcome. “And it pains me to hear that such an obviously sensual woman as yourself is only now discovering the joys of eroticism.”
I still feel a little stunned. I’m shocked and surprised by what I’m capable of. But in my heart, a seed of determination has been planted. Never again will I accept second best in this matter. Never again will I lie thwarted and unsatisfied while a gentleman uses me to service his own desires. If my next husband is ignorant of my needs, by heaven, I will show him what I require and insist he provides it!
The Madeira braces me. I square my shoulders and look into Ambrose’s intense brown eyes. My heart lifts at the look of awe and wonder there. It’s as if he saw my inner transformation.
“That…that was quite a revelation. But I sense there’s more to learn. Many additional tricks and techniques that I may employ to enhance my enjoyment of the bedroom.”
“Indeed, my dear, and bravo! It’s clear that you’re a quick study and a natural born sensualist. That perfect pleasure you just experienced is called an orgasm, and now you’re acquainted with it, I’m sure it’ll be the first of many.”
“I do hope so.” And that is the truth. My glowing body is already rousing anew, despite my recent pleasure. “I’m eager to experience it again. And to learn more.”
“Of course, my dear lady, of course. We usually suggest that further, shall we say, ‘therapies’ be explored on another day. When the client has had time to absorb the impact of her first experience and perhaps experiment a little herself. But in your case—” he pauses delicately “—in your case, I feel that you’re ready to move swiftly ahead, to the second stage.”
Second stage? Oh, my, what might that be?
A delicious rippling in the pit of my belly tells me my body is eager and willing to explore it.
Just as I’m about to speak, the door opens and Clarence returns with a bundle of silk and lace over his arm. When he shakes it out, and holds it up, it proves to be an exquisite peignoir of ivory Peau de Soie, adorned with Brussels lace and narrow satin ribbons. Ambrose hands me from the chaise longue and it seems the most natural thing in the world to divest myself of all my underclothes and slip happily into the delicate luxurious garment.
The awareness that I’m momentarily nude before both Ambrose and Clarence only excites me even further. In fact I’m almost disappointed when the silken robe is tied and my flesh is respectably covered again.
“Come this way,” says Ambrose, taking my hand, and leading me out of the room. Glancing backward, I see Clarence begin to tidy up and gather my clothing. Ahead lies I know not what, but I feel a little sad when the younger man doesn’t follow us.
We reach another room, which, when Ambrose escorts me within, proves to be a sumptuous if somewhat gaudily decorated bedroom, of the sort I would imagine a high class courtesan to inhabit. The bed is a huge, brass-railed four-poster, and the walls are decorated with a rich, silk wallpaper. Works of art hang here, too, as they did downstairs, but here the paintings and prints are bigger and undeniably lewd…and stimulating.
As Ambrose turns down the sheets and quilt, releasing a waft of delicious tuberose fragrance from the linen, another door to the chamber opens and a newcomer enters.
“Oh, my! You’re…”
It’s Yuri, the exquisite young man from the engraving.
He’s naked, alive and perfect, right down to every last inch of beautiful swarthy flesh and every vibrant dark curl on his head.
His male member is enormous and already on the rise.
“This is Yuri, Mrs. Harewood, and he’s here to pleasure you.” Ambrose leads me forward, toward this vision of idealized male pulchritude. “And to instruct you in ways that you may pleasure him, in order to increase a man’s enthusiasm and thus your enjoyment of the act.”
“Enchanted,” the young man says softly, taking my shaking hand and bringing it to his lips for a kiss. His mouth is warm and firm, and parts slightly against my skin to allow his tongue to delicately tease.
“I…um… It’s a pleasure to meet you, too,” I stammer, unable to stop myself glancing at his male organ, which seems to be rising and growing yet further, as we speak.
“I sincerely hope so, madame,” he whispers against my skin, his tongue flicking again in way that’s positively indecent. Especially as he’s at full and magnificent stand now.
“Here, let me help you,” says Ambrose from behind me, and he reaches over my shoulders and unfastens my silk robe. Immediately Yuri parts the garment and exposes me. A heartbeat later, Ambrose slides it off my shoulders and makes me bare.
I’m in a room, stark naked, with two men again.
Acutely aware of Ambrose behind me, I reach, on pure instinct, for Yuri. He makes a sound
