Chapter 4

Not only was Lance taken aback when Nora and I entered the dining room, but so were the rest of the guests.  I hadn’t counted on the fact that the word of his gift of the dress had spread.  Instead of sending a private message to Lance that I wasn’t about to become one of his playthings, I’d announced it to the entire party.

I’d unwittingly put myself in the limelight, once again.

Lance made no comment about the dress as he held out my chair for me to sit next to him, but his eyes expressed his displeasure to the point that I questioned the wisdom of my actions.     

I caught Melanie’s intentionally loud whisper to her dinner neighbor; a very attractive woman named Donna Wright.  She was a real estate agent who’d taken a liking to Melanie; which was how catty Melanie managed to get the invite for the weekend.  “I knew that dress was too small for her.  Nora’s a lot tinier.”

“You look lovely tonight, Nora,” Lance said with a quirky grin.  It was as if he too had heard Melanie’s comment and wanted to change the focus. 

Nora’s face turned a light shade of pink as she giggled her thanks.  She was unaccustomed to any type of praise and was eating it up.  This, in itself, made me forget about Melanie’s snide remark and be happy for my decision to switch dresses.

The dress that I’d worn of Nora’s was thin with no support on top.  Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought to pack a bra.  I may have been giving him a message by switching dresses with my friend, but my fickle nipples were giving him one of their own.   Since my entire body seemed to have a mind of its own when it came to being near the man, it took a little time and the awareness of more than one dinner guest’s eyes on my breasts for me to look down and realize it.

I sucked in air with frustration as I tried to determine what to do.  As far as I was concerned the extended weekend was a complete disaster.  I hadn’t even gotten through day one and I was ready to leave.

Before he could make a comment, I whispered behind my hand, “I never packed a bra.”

“It seems, my dear, that you’d do well to hire a lady’s maid,” he said with amusement. “Or, perhaps a ladies man would suffice?”

I looked at him and chuckled.  He was far too witty, charming, and charismatic to be angry with for any length of time.  Not to mention that he looked like he belonged on the cover of GQ magazine.  “Are you offering your services?”

“I would pack better than you,” he said with a toothy grin.  “I can assure you of that.”

“What are the duties of a ladies’ maid, anyway?” I asked with interest. 

As with the afternoon’s luncheon, Lance and I managed to strike up a conversation about days gone by for both society and his household.  I found the fact that he was a wealth of knowledge in this department fascinating.  From what I could tell, he was within my generation.  Yet, his wisdom and knowledge was that of someone much older.  Ancient even.

Dinner was over before I knew it.  Unlike our luncheon, Lance was more contentious about my stomach’s limitations and monitored the amount of food offered to me.  He teasingly informed me that was a duty for a servant in days gone by, but he was happy to play the part for me.

When I laughingly remarked about how the ambience of the house practically demanded that it be filled with servants, his face took on a serious expression and he mumbled his agreement.

We took our after dinner drinks out by the pool.  It wasn’t long before guest were imbibing far more than they could handle.   Soon they were stripping off their dinner attire and hopping into the pool.  Some were completely naked, while others kept their underclothes on.

“Aren’t you going to join them?” Lance mischievously asked.

“I notice you drink very little,” I said.

“As do you,” he replied. 

“I never did develop a tolerance for drunk,” I said.

He looked over at my good friend as she tottered precariously near the edge of the pool.  “I see your friend has.”

I smiled as I listened to Nora’s delighted laugh when one of the male guests lifted her into the air in a mock attempt to toss her in the pool.  Her pleas for him to let  her remove her dress first reached my ears and I raised a brow in surprise.  Although it was good of  her to be concerned about the welfare of Lance’s dress, this was a side of Nora that I’d yet to see.  It seemed that the weekend was bringing forth the hidden sides of both of us.

“Can she swim?” Lance asked with concern as he watched the male scoop my delighted friend -who had forgone the bra at Lance’s suggestion to me and wore only her panties- and toss her into the pool.

“Like a fish,” I replied.

“Then, we need not concern ourselves,” he said with satisfaction. Grabbing my hand, he pulled me along. “Come, I want to show you something.”

I dug my heels into the ground to resist his pull.  “I’m not going to sleep with you.”

He stopped and looked at me as if he was debating about what to do or say next.  “That is not what I had in mind, but, okay.”

Mortified, I relented and allowed him to pull me into the house.

We made our way up the servant’s stairs to a small anti-chamber.

“Where are we?” I asked as I fondled the thick tapestry chair that looked to be new even though I knew better.

“This was my favorite place to hide when I was a young boy,” he said.  “It is not nearly as pretentious as the rest of the house.”  With a wistful look, he added, “I always felt safe and at home here.  It is like I belong here.”

“You do,” I said in a matter-of-fact tone. “It’s your family home, after all.”

He shook his head.  “That is not it.  It is something else.  It is like there is an entire world within this world that I am a part of.”

I was sure that my look displayed my struggle to follow what he was saying because he finally just chuckled and plopped into the chair that I’d been fondling.

Before I realized what was happening, he’d pulled me into his lap.  I made a feeble attempt to wriggle free, but I was only fooling myself.  In the recesses of my mind, I’d wanted him to hold me once more.  Never in my twenty-three years had I wanted to be held by a man like I wanted to be held by him.

Since the weekend was already a bust and I’d already behaved in a manner that was far beyond normal.  I simply went with it.

His kiss was sweet and tender.  I waited for his hands to cup my breast once more.  In fact, I longed for it.  To my surprise, he simply kissed me for a while and then snuggled me close.

After a long silence, he said, “I am not the womanizer that you think I am.”

Surprised by his remark, I sat up and looked him in the eye.  “You do know that I’m an investigator.  We’re trained to sum people up upon meeting them.”

“So, these investigator skills of yours told you that I am a womanizer?” he asked with tension in his voice.

“Actually, no,” I replied.  “It was your behavior in my bedroom.”

He threw his head back in laughter.  “My dear, beautiful Esmerelda.  I was a red blooded man in the presence of a sexy female who took her top off to expose her spectacular breasts even though I’d expressed my intentions of returning to wake her from a nap.  What did you expect?”

“Are my breasts really spectacular?” I asked while I tried to ignore the tingling of my aroused nipples while remembering his expert treatment of them.

“They are more than spectacular,” he said in a husky tone.  His eyes clouded over.  “There is no adequate word to describe your wonderful breasts.”

I filled my lungs with air as I struggled to maintain my composure.  I could feel his arousal beneath me, but I made no move to get off his lap.

This time I kissed him.  My kiss was less gentle and more passionate.  I was wrestling with myself over what to do next.  I wanted to take things all the way, but memories of my one time fiasco sex encounter jumped to the forefront to put the brakes on things.

When I released his lips, he said in a breathless tone, “I thought you said you wouldn’t sleep with me.”

“I won’t go all the way,” I whispered as I took his hand and placed it on my breast, “but I’ll fool around a bit.  If you want to, that is.”

“Silly question,” he said as he stood up and carried me into the nearest bedroom.

The servant’s bedrooms were far more modest than the ones we occupied, but they still housed furnishings of quality.   The mattress was thick and firm beneath the cotton coverlet as he laid me on my back.

I shuddered with delight as he removed first one of my pumps and then another.  His lips traveled lightly up my legs until he reached my thighs.  I gasped with desire as he rolled me onto my stomach and carefully unzipped Nora’s dress.

He sat me up and then removed it with a slow, seductive pace that was enough to drive me mad.  When I was finally free of its confines, I lay back and waited to see what he’d do next. 

He did nothing.

I propped myself onto my elbows and looked at him with confusion.

Standing at the side of the bed, he cocked his head to the side and threw his arms wide.  “Are you going to leave me fully clothed?”

As crazy as it sounded, all of the foreplay that I’d done with my boyfriends involved them enjoying my body.  I’d done very little to them.  Least of all, undress them.  I felt clumsy and awkward as I fumbled with buttons and zippers. 

It seemed like forever before I finally had him standing naked before me.  His manhood was surprisingly abundant and ready for action.  This made me question if he was really intending to settle for foreplay only, but I said nothing.

Instead, I let him gently push me back onto the bed.  His flesh caressed mine as he moved his lips from place to place.  When they finally settled on my eager nipples, I released a sigh of satisfaction.

Like he’d done before, he brought me to an orgasmic peak with his suckling.  This time, he slid his strong fingers between my legs and encouraged the moment with them.  When I found myself soaring to heights that I’d never reached before, he reached inside my womanhood to satisfy my g-spot.  The world exploded.

He spread my legs wide and positioned his head over my womanhood, letting his strong tongue take over for his equally effective fingers.  Within no time, I was soaring once again.

I peaked several times before he laid on his back next to me and smiled.

Now, it was his turn.

My heart raced with panic.  I’d only taken a man in my mouth once before and it was only for the briefest of time.  I was anything but skilled at it.  After the way he’d tended to my needs, I was afraid of ruining the mood with my inadequacies.

I’d seen a few stag movies during college and Nora and I had practiced on dildoes while in our early teens.   I pulled on those memories as I wrapped my lips around his manhood.  His sigh of satisfaction was encouraging. 

Replicating what I could remember of the movies, I did my best to please him.  I even cupped his balls, although I had no idea the reason behind that move.  It seemed to please him and that was all that mattered.

It would have been an absolutely perfect experience if he hadn’t released in my mouth.  That was something I was definitely not ready for.  Not physically or emotionally.  I immediately gagged, both from reflux and repulsion.

He sat up with surprise as he watched me leap off the bed and look for a place to spit out the contents of my mouth. 

“I am so sorry,” he said as he held a small trash pail for me to spit into.  “I thought… you were so good at it… I am so sorry.”

Once again within less than twenty-four hours I was mortified by my actions and the situation.  I did my best to spit out his seed and then went back to the bed.

Sitting down on its edge with a dejected look and still struggling to stop the automatic gag reflex that had kicked in, I whimpered, “I’m not a virgin, but I’ve only had full sex once.  This was the first time I’d done that to a man.  I didn’t expect…”  I ran my fingers through my hair.  They caught in a few tangled curls before I was able to move them through completely, but I barely noticed.  “I don’t know what I expected.”

“I would have never known,” he said as he sat down next to me.

I looked at his manhood with surprise.  After the raucous of what just occurred, I would have thought that he’d have lost his desire.  He clearly hadn’t.

“I should know more at my age,” I admitted.  “It’s just that I’ve never had the desire to be with a man like that until now.”

Realizing what I’d just said, I pursed my lips together and looked away while cursing in my head.  What was wrong with me?  What was it about being around him that made me everything I wasn’t?

“I want to be with you, too,” he said in a soft tone.  Pushing some wayward curls away from my face, he added, “I want it more than words can say.  Not just because you are beautiful, but because we belong together.”

“We do?”  I said with surprise. 

Why did his statement feel so right?

“I felt it the moment I set eyes on you in that bar,” he said.  “Couldn’t you?”

“I felt a type of energy charge from you, but not that we belonged together,” I admitted.

He shook his head.  “Some detective.”

“Hey,” I said with mock annoyance.  “Don’t dis the professional.”

He pushed me back onto the bed and gently placed his hand in the apex of my thighs.  “What say I bring this love tryst to a close properly?”

I hesitated. “Will I have to…”

He shook his head.  “Never again, if you do not want to, my love.”