You don’t approve, do you?’ Michael demanded, shaking his head ruefully.‘Just wait until you see it, though, Elena. You’ll love it. It’s a perfect example of...’‘We’re already very close to the limit of this year’s budget,’ She warned him sternly, ‘and—’‘So what? We’ll just have to increase this year’s funding,’ he told her with typical laid-back geniality.‘michael,’ Elena protested, ‘you’re talking about an increase of heaven alone knows how many million dollars... The Trust...’‘I am the Trust,’ Michael reminded her gently, and Elena had to acknowledge that he spoke the truth. Even so, she gave him an ironic look to which he responded by informing her loftily, ‘I’m just doing what I know the old man would have wanted me to do...’‘By buying a decaying neoclassical pile in the middle of Derbyshire?’ She asked him dryly.And she was still shaking her head as he told her winningly, ‘You’ll love it, Elena..I promise you!’Cravenly Elena was tempted to tell him that she was far too b
That relief had turned to something very different, though, when he had received a fax from Michael advising him that his assistant, Ms Elena Bennett, would be flying over to Britain to act as his representative over the repair and renovation of the property. He could, of course, have simply chosen to turn his back, walk away, and leave someone else to liaise with Elena, but Roth wasn’t like that. If he had a job to do he preferred to see it through for himself, no matter how unwanted or potentially problematic that task might be.Potentially problematic! A bitter half-smile curled his mouth. There was nothing potential about the problems that Elena was likely to cause him... Nothing potential at all.He had heard scraps of news about her over the years, of course, mainly from lucas and Lia. Elena had completed her degree course and majored summacum laude... She was living in New York and looking for a job... She had got a job... Elena was working in Venice... In Rome... In Prague...
FIVE miles or so before her ultimate destination Elena pulled the car she had hired at the airport over to the side of the road and switched off the engine—not because she was unsure of where she was going, not even because she wanted to absorb the beauty of the Derbyshire countryside around her, magnificent though it was as it basked warmly in the mid-afternoon sunshine, devoid of any sign of human occupation apart from her own.No, the reason she had stopped was that she had been tellingly aware for the last few miles not just of the slight dampness of her hands on the steering wheel but, even more betrayingly, of the increasing turmoil of her thoughts and the nervous butterflies churning her stomach.When she finally met...confronted...Roth, she wanted to be calm and in control of both herself and the situation. She was not, she reminded herself sternly, meeting him as an idealistic teenager who had fallen so disastrously and desperately in love with him, but as a woman, a woman wh
Set on a small incline, so that it could overlook its surrounding gardens and parklands, it was everything that the neoclassicist architects had decreed their houses should be and then some more, Elena acknowledged as she drove slowly towards the gravelled parking area in front of the massive columned portico to the house. Stopping the Discovery, she opened the door and started to get out.*Roth had seen her drive up from an upstairs window. She was just a few seconds short of five minutes early. Remembering a younger elena, and her apparent total inability to arrive anywhere on time, he grimaced ruefully to himself before making his way downstairs.They met on the paved portico. Roth opened the massive front door just as elena mounted the last step. She stopped the minute she saw him, freezing instinctively like a gazelle scenting the presence of a leopard.He hadn’t changed, but then why should he have? He still looked exactly the same. Tall, broad-shouldered, with the smooth warm
‘Roth!’Was that really her own voice, that soft, husky, and, yes, somehow invitingly sensual little thread of sound, gasping his name in a slow-drawn-out moan that was more invitation than protest?But it was too late to correct the erroneous message she knew instinctively, But it was too late to correct the erroneous message she had given; Roth was already acting on what he had obviously interpreted her ‘protest’ to mean, his hands lifting from her waist to her arms, her shoulders, as he drew her closer, his mouth fastening on hers as he kissed her, not as an old acquaintance or a friend of her brother’s, Elena recognised, her senses reeling, but in all the ways she had dreamed of him kissing her all those years ago, as a man kissed a woman.Despairingly she struggled valiantly to resist but it was useless. Her own foolish senses were doing far more to aid Roth than to support her, turning traitor and welcoming his sensual assault of her mouth with the eagerness of parched land gree
She was under no illusions about why he had kissed her like that... It was his way of reminding her not just of the past, but also of his superiority...of telling her that, whilst she might be the one who was in charge of the project they were going to be working on together, he still had the power to control her...to control her and to hurt her.Elena turned swiftly on her heel, not waiting for him to see the emotions she knew were clouding her eyes. knew were clouding her eyes.‘The lake needs dredging,’ she commented crisply as she shuttered her eyes and stared out towards the large ornamental lake several hundred yards away from the house.It was the wrong thing to say. She could hear the mocking amusement in Roth's voice as he drawled, ‘Well, yes, it does, but let’s hope this time you don’t end up head-first in the mud. We’ll have to hose you down out here if you do.There’s no way Mrs Lucia is going to let you into the Rectory smelling of stagnant lake water and covered in mud a
She gave him an acid-sweet smile. ‘The Rectory may have been yours, Roth, but as part of the estate it is now owned by the Trust and—’ ‘Not so.’ Roth stopped her even faster than she had him. ‘I have retained ownership of the Rectory and the land. I intend to farm it and to develop the fishing and shooting rights.’ Elena was momentarily caught off guard. It was most unusual for Michael to allow something like that. He normally insisted on buying whatever land went with a property, if only to ensure that as much of its natural background and with a property, if only to ensure that as much of its natural background and surroundings as possible were retainedIf you’d like to follow me we can drive over to the Rectory now,’ Roth offered coolly. Immediately Elena shook her head. ‘No... I want to see over the house first,’ she told him crisply. Roth stared at her and then looked at his watch before telling her softly, ‘That will take at least two hours, possibly longer; it’s now five o’
THEY had covered the ground floor of the house, walked the length of the elegant gallery, with its windows overlooking the parkland and the distant vista of the Derbyshire hills, and were just inspecting the enormous ballroom which opened off it when Elena acknowledged inwardly that Roth might have been right to advise her to wait until after she had rested to inspect the house. Haverton Hall’s rooms might not possess quite the vastness of the palazzo’s marble-floored rooms, nor the fading grandeur of the Prague palace, but Elena had already lost count of the number of salons and ante-chambers they had walked through on the lower floor. The gallery felt as though it stretched for miles, and as she studied the dusty wooden floor of the ballroom her heart sank at the thought of inspecting its lofty plasterwork ceiling and its elegantly inlaid panelling. And they still had the upper floors to go over! But she couldn’t afford to show any weakness in front of Roth and have him crowing ov
Cory caressed his shoulder.“It’s not the pain that’s bad,” Ayn talked. “It’s the fact that the jerk thinks he owns me. That I’m his bitch now.”“Ayn, it’s not like that,” Cory tried to stop the torrent of self deprecating words pouring from Ayn’s mouth. “He likes you. He will take good care of you. And it gets better after the first time...”“No shit,” Ayn retorted. “The last thing I want is to moan like a slut in heat as he stuffs his cock in me. You don’t understand, Cory. Where I come from, if you’re settled to being a bitch, that’s all you will ever be. If you sleep with a guy, you better make fucking sure you top the guy, too, or else everyone will stare at your ass and think how it would be to ride you.”Cory opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no sound came out. He had no idea what to say.“Don’t worry. I’ll set this straight. I’ll fucking jump him, too. See how he likes it with a cock up his ass.”The servant shook his head, horrified. “Don’t do it by force, Ayn. If
“Do you like it, Ayn?” Xavier breathed over his face.Man, how he wanted to punch that handsome face! But it had to be done later, as now, there was something really strange happening, as he felt his ball sack tightened and fluid broke free from his cock, without any other stimulation.“You do,” Xavier said haughtily and started grunting and coming inside his slave’s ass, his moves shorter, harder and harsher.Ayn lay to one side, breathing heavily. He’d been stupid to close his eyes; he’d let his guard down. Now, he was nothing but the man’s bitch.A hard slap on his ass made him jump. He turned to look at his master, reproach and anger written all over his beautiful face.“What? It was obviously long overdue,” Xavier mocked. “I was stupid to let you go for so long. You’re everything my cock needs, Ayn,” he whispered and dragged his reluctant slave into an ardent kiss.Ayn’s mind was set. He needed to get the fuck out and fast. There was no way he was going to like taking that guy’s
He was made to get up slowly, as Lucas gently grabbed him with one hand, as he used the other to stuff his spent organ inside his black pants.“Would you like to go to the bedroom, now?” Lucas asked.“Yes, please ... Lucas,” Cory avoided the honorific at the last moment. It felt strange, but good. So good that Cory could not remember anything being like this ever in his life.He did not expect to be so ceremoniously lifted off the floor and carried by strong arms to Lucas’s bedroom. It was just going to be for one night, so he had to make it last. It was not common for servants in Drena to ever dream of being used by one of the masters. No, used was not the proper term. That was what Xavier was doing. Lucas’s hands were caring, loving, as he placed his sweet burden on the enormous bed and started to undress the young servant.His mind became devoid of any thought, a simple vessel meant for desire, as Lucas’s lips descended on his neck, nibbling playfully along the collarbone, only to
“Talking?” Cory seemed surprised. “About what?”“About all kinds of crazy shit. Of course, I pretend I understand squat, so I just stay there, while he keeps my hand and goes about his stuff.”“Could you please tell me more?” Cory sat on the sofa, next to Ayn, his curiosity picked.“Yeah, it’s basically the same stuff, with some variations. At first, he starts telling me about his day at work, like I’m his wife. Then he starts talking about the jerk-offs in a committee or something like that.”Ayn stopped for a second. Cory pushed him a little to make him talk again. Like awaken from a dream, the slave continued.“He sounds a bit ... scared sometimes. And sad. He talks about how he never knew his parents. Did you know that even the most powerful guys in the city are raised by some monks?”“The trainers?” Cory could not believe his ears.“Yeah, them. By the way, your Lucas is not from around here.”“Good to know,” Cory murmured.“After he talks and talks until I almost fall asleep, he
The servant let the towels next to the door. He was supposed to act like a savior or something like that, to stop Xavier from ravaging Ayn. Yet it seemed that the master-slave couple was reaching an understanding he could not comprehend.“What do you mean, that was all?” Cory whispered, not believing his ears. Although he had seen some of it with his own eyes, that didn’t mean he was ready to accept it.“I am telling you, man, he just sucked me off, swallowed everything like a good boy, and then jerked off and came all over my feet,” Ayn stretched and yawned. “He’s a fucking great cocksucker, this master of yours.”“He’s your master, too,” Cory kicked him playfully in the ribs.“Not when it comes to bedroom affairs, he’s not,” Ayn said triumphantly, raising enough from the bed to tickle Cory in response. “I am telling you, he’s a bit fucked up or something.”“I don’t get it,” Cory shook his head. “He’s always so domineering and...”He was lost for words.“Maybe he could not resist my
It had to be done sooner or later. In his search for a remedy, Xavier believed more and more that having his slave would set things straight once more.Cory tried to put on a neutral face as he broke Ayn the news. The beautiful brunet bit on his lower lip in annoyance.“Shit. What am I going to do?”“You just do what I told you. Relax, let him do his thing, and it will be over. There is no point in fighting. You will only end up hurt.”“I’m going to end up hurt anyway,” Ayn said morosely. “There is no way he can put his fucking cock inside me, without breaking me.”Cory sighed. Ayn could not understand and was incredibly stubborn, on top of it all. Cory had tried to tell him that it could be pleasurable, but the brunet had just frowned and shook his head.“I’ll fucking bleed to death,” the slave added and Cory caressed his shoulder briefly.“If he’s pleased with you, he’ll let you roam free. Even give you some clothes. At some point, he will let you come shopping with me. Then I will
“Go give him the same treatment you were giving Ayn just now,” Xavier ordered, knowing well Lucas would hear his words, and wonder what Cory had been doing until now.Cory obeyed and knelt between Lucas’s parted knees. He touched the perfect mounds with reverence and slid his tongue on the ass crack, making sure to apply enough pressure so that Lucas could feel him. His head was spinning, filled with the sensation of touching Lucas, the man ever present in his dreams, in such an intimate manner. Except for that encounter, when he’d been a servant to Xavier for just a few days, he had never been so close to Lucas.He kissed and licked the man’s secret entrance. He had heard how Lucas had never let anyone in there. He knew it was a matter of minutes until that was going to change.Under his ministrations, Lucas’s breath grew deeper, ragged. Cory closed his eyes and caressed the man’s hole with his lips. He was not just giving a rim job; he was making love to his beloved’s prized entranc
“So, are you ready?”“That thing looks big,” Ayn’s eyes were glued to the dildo.“This little thing? Come on, Ayn, you’ll have to take Xavier, don’t be a coward.”He gestured for Ayn to get on his fours, and the slave complied. He giggled as the cold lube made contact with his puckered hole. Cory pushed a finger slowly inside.“Ouch,” Ayn wiggled his ass.“Really, now, it’s just my finger,” Cory chided.“Yeah, that’s one finger too many in my ass,” Ayn replied.“It will feel better at some point,” Cory tried to assure the slave, but Ayn was just too tight.The servant caressed the beautiful globes, as he tried to push a little more inside. Between Ayn’s legs, his dark member stood flaccid. Without thinking too much, Cory bent and took the dangling balls in his mouth.A surprised gasp came from Ayn, as his member started to lengthen.“Wow, Cory,” he whispered. “You’re good. I only had one girlfriend who used to do that to me.”Taking advantage of having Ayn a bit distracted, he took th
“I won’t be your friend anymore. At night, when you’re alone, you’ll have to think if satisfying a mere fling was worth destroying the special bond we used to have.”For a brief moment, it looked as if Xavier was ready to think everything over.“A mere fling? I’ve wanted you for years. It is your newly acquired obsession with my Cory that is destroying our bond,” he hissed.“He may be your servant, but he is not yours. I won’t be yours, either, no matter what you do,” Lucas said with his head held high, while Xavier took the silken scarf left on the stand to blind his friend for what was to come.Nothing could be heard from the perfectly insulated master bedroom, and Cory felt his heart growing smaller and smaller. Was Xavier going to hurt Lucas? Why was the beautiful man doing that for the likes of Cory?He chose to roam to Ayn’s room, to settle his nerves a bit. He found the slave stretched on the bed, with a game pad in his hands, watching closely whatever action was happening on t