When Cassandra awoke the next morning she found herself enfolded in Giovanni’s arms with her head resting against his chest. She tried to remember what had happened the previous evening, and slowly it came back to her.
After Sophie had been taken to the punishment chair, the baron had gone back to Nicola’s room with her and there, beneath the mirrored ceiling and with Sophie’s cries occasionally filtering through to them from the room above, he and the young English girl had lost themselves in a mad frenzy of wild sensuality that had been recorded by the cameras for Cassandra to watch if she wanted.
At first she’d resisted the temptation, knowing how deeply it would upset her. Instead she’d welcomed Giovanni’s increasingly assured touch as he brought her time and again to the height of ecstasy, but when he had left her to change for dinner she’d given in to temptation and watched the recording.
It had hurt her even more than she’d anticipated. Nicola was so clearly besotted by the baron. She’d allowed him to do anything he liked with her body, nothing was resisted, and when he’d brought Rupert in to share her so that she was filled both in front and behind as the two men rode her without restraint she’d thrown back her head with ecstasy, and whenever her eyes met the baron’s they were soft and touched by love.
The evening meal had been taken in a somewhat strained atmosphere. The baron, guessing that Cassandra knew exactly what he and Nicola had been doing, took every opportunity to touch and caress the English girl, at one stage even licking a drop of spilt wine from the inside of her bare wrist. Cassandra’s stomach had lurched with fear. It was such a tender gesture, but then she’d seen the expression on his face and there was no tenderness there, merely amusement.
After that she didn’t know whether he was becoming seriously involved with Nicola or not, all that she knew was that she was being excluded. It was a terrible feeling.
When the meal had finished, the baron, Rupert, Françoise and Nicola had decided to take a boat out and cross the lake in order to walk around the cornfield that Cassandra had once visited with Nicola only a few days previously. This was something she did not intend to do again and pleading exhaustion she’d gone to her room, where Giovanni had quickly joined her.
He’d made her feel cherished again. His hands had been less tentative, more confident in their ability to please her and his stamina was endless. When they’d finally fallen asleep she’d let him stay because there was no good reason for sending him away. She knew the baron wouldn’t be joining her and she needed company to keep her desolation at bay.
Now, in the pale light of dawn, she wondered what the future held for her. Could it be possible that she would have to leave the only man she’d ever loved, she thought to herself. If so, there seemed little point to life because everything she was, everything she did, had come about as a result of being with him. She couldn’t imagine anyone else in the world who would suit her as he did, or arouse in her any emotion deeper than affection.
Giovanni muttered something in his sleep and turned over. For a moment she considered a future with him. He’d take her back to Italy with him gladly, he’d already told her that, but he was younger than she was and a world apart from the man she loved so much. Briefly she wished that it was possible to choose the person with whom you fell in love more carefully, but she knew it was a pointless wish. Sexual attraction was impossible to control or to seek out: it was either there or it wasn’t.
As she wondered whether or not to dress and take an early stroll in the grounds while everyone else slept, the door opened and the baron entered quietly. His eyes flicked to the sleeping Italian and for a moment a look of irritation crossed his face before he managed to mask it with his more usual half-smile. His hair was flopping over his right eye and he pushed it back impatiently.
‘Get dressed, Cassandra,’ he said quietly. ‘I imagine I will need your assistance in getting Nicola to her place of punishment before the others are up.’
Without a word, Cassandra slid naked from the bed and pulled on a pair of cut-off denim shorts and a cropped white cotton top. She looked incredibly young and so appealing that the baron had to fight down a desire to take her there and then, while Giovanni slept on. He wished that he could tell her how much he wanted her to win the game, but it was out of the question.
Together they went to Nicola’s room where the baron bent down and blew softly in the girl’s ear. She sat upright immediately, her arms stretched out to embrace him, but he stepped back from the bed, his face a cold mask.
‘It is time for your punishment, Nicola,’ he said flatly. ‘Put on a robe and come with us.’
Stunned by the change in him after their night of lovemaking only a few hours earlier, Nicola felt tears welling in her eyes. ‘What are you going to do to me?’ she whimpered.
‘I thought you liked punishments; you certainly enjoyed Sophie’s cries during the night. I could tell it added an extra dimension to your abandonment. You must be able to take it as well you know. Quickly now, come with us.’
‘I’m not coming with her,’ retorted Nicola, pointing at Cassandra.
The baron’s eyes went dark. ‘You will do as I say. Cassandra, bind her hands behind her back with this rope.’
Cassandra picked up the piece of rope he threw at her and wound it around Nicola’s hands as the baron held them tightly behind her. Then, with only a robe flung across her shoulders, Nicola found herself being hustled down the stairs and out into the cobbled courtyard. She stared about her in apprehension. ‘What are you going to do to me?’
‘Nothing at the moment; I simply want you in place when the household stirs. Climb up onto the wall of the well.’
All the blood drained from Nicola’s face and she looked beseechingly at the man she’d already convinced herself was in love with her, but he stared back, his eyes cold until she obeyed. Then he got up on the wall next to her, removed her robe and bent her back along one of the inward curving iron struts that covered the top of the well before fastening her there with a leather collar around her neck and a tight studded leather belt about her waist.
Her whole body was arched into a bow, her breasts pointing upwards and her stomach even more stretched than the maids’ had been the previous afternoon. Her feet were then parted and slipped through metal hoops that she had failed to notice earlier. Once the hoops were adjusted she couldn’t move at all since her hands were still bound and the leather straps were too tight to allow any leeway.
The baron jumped down onto the cobblestones and admired her slim, fair body revealed so totally in the clear early morning air. ‘Splendid!’ he announced, kissing Cassandra just below her left ear. ‘Doesn’t she look enchanting, liebling? Do not worry, Nicola, you won’t be alone for long. Once people learn that you’re here I’m sure you’ll have a constant flow of visitors, and they will all wish to keep you comfortable, or at least sexually satiated. You do enjoy having orgasms in public places, do you not?’
‘No!’ cried Nicola. ‘I don’t, really I don’t. It just happened yesterday because of the love balls and the car. Please, don’t leave me here.’
‘I shall soon be back, little one. Cassandra, tell who-ever comes out here first to bring the suntan lotion and use it on Nicola. She’s so fair skinned we must take care she doesn’t burn.’
‘Or get overheated,’ murmured Cassandra. ‘I’ll have the hose connected up in case the sun becomes too strong.’ The baron smiled at her. It was a good idea.
Left alone, Nicola had never felt so isolated in the whole of her life; isolated and incredibly vulnerable. She was tied so tightly to the iron bar that no matter who approached her or what they chose to do to her, there was nothing she could do to protect herself. At the moment it was agreeably warm, but soon, as she knew very well, the sun would become stronger and if she was left there for many hours she would become uncomfortably hot.
Then, as her spirits dropped and she started to consider the possibility that the baron had only been playing with her all along and had no intention of replacing Cassandra and letting her stay with him, she remembered their lovemaking from the previous night.
She had never been as uninhibited. When Rupert had joined them there had been an expression of pride in the baron’s eyes as she willingly accepted his friend’s attentions to her body as well as the baron’s.
She decided that although this was called a punishment it was probably another test, and one that she had sensed would prove extremely difficult for her. Nevertheless, she was determined to pass it. A public display of her nakedness, combined with what she knew would be public physical arousal and possibly even possession by the men, must be almost as much as could ever be demanded of her. If she could do this and remain controlled, or even better manage to take pleasure from it, then it seemed likely that there could be few obstacles left for her to overcome. Suddenly she began to feel less frightened, convinced now that she would triumph.
After what seemed an eternity, but was probably no more than twenty minutes, Sophie – only recently released from the punishment chair where she had been forced to endure everything that Françoise could devise – came past with a broom in her hand. She glanced up at the fastened Nicola but then hurried on by. She’d seen other women tied up like this and knew that it did not concern the staff. This was something that the baron kept exclusively for his friends. Remembering how Nicola had been determined to make her lose in the gym, Sophie was pleased that she was now being punished.
Peter was the next person to cross the courtyard. He stopped by the well and stared up at the fastened figure, admiring the way her body curved outwards due to the shape of the iron strut, and he let his hands caress her ankles and the calves of her legs, his fingers dancing gently against the shrinking flesh for a few moments before he moved on to carry out his morning duties.
The first human touch caused a frisson of fear to rise in Nicola. It was frightening to be in a position where anyone could casually touch you, feast their eyes on you, do anything they liked and all you could do was remain motionless and passive.
Giovanni was the first of the baron’s guests to cross the courtyard on his way for a walk before breakfast. He stopped a few feet away from her, utterly astonished at the sight before him. Then he remembered what the baron had said when he’d related the story of her public orgasm in the courtyard in front of the church, and realised that this was her punishment.
As he stared, Cassandra emerged from the chateau and handed him a bottle of sun protection cream. ‘Would you put this on her, Giovanni?’ she asked with a smile. ‘The baron doesn’t want her getting burnt.’
‘When I awoke this morning, you were gone,’ he said accusingly.
‘I’m sorry. The baron came in; he needed me to help him with Nicola.’
‘Why do you always run to obey him? He does not cherish you as I would. Leave him, Cassandra. Come away to Italy with me,’ said the Italian passionately. ‘I would make you happy. We are good together in bed, is that not so?’
Cassandra nodded. ‘Yes, we are, Giovanni and I wish I could come but …’
‘But what?’
‘I love Dieter,’ she said simply.
Giovanni frowned. ‘One day,’ he said at last, ‘you will stop loving him. He will go too far, demand too much of you, or possibly lose interest. If anything like that should happen, then would you come with me?’
‘I’d never love you like I do him,’ she said quietly.
‘I would make you love me,’ replied the Italian, with all the arrogance of youth.
‘If I have to leave here,’ said Cassandra slowly, ‘then I would like to leave with you.’
He smiled, knowing that it was the best he could hope for and then he took the tube from Cassandra and crossed the cobblestones to where Nicola was standing trussed against the well top.
He jumped up beside her, and her deep blue eyes looked anxiously into his. Her hair had fallen across the side of her face and he pushed it behind her ears, at the same time blowing softly against her neck.
Nicola’s skin began to tingle. With her daily glass of the special cordial and the almost incessant sexual stimulation she’d undergone since her arrival at the chateau, her body now responded instantly to even the lightest of touches.
‘I have brought you the sun protection,’ announced Giovanni. ‘I think I shall enjoy putting it on for you.’
Nicola kept silent. She heard the sound of the liquid falling from the tube into his hand and then suddenly he was spreading the cool lotion over her slim shoulders, paying careful attention to the points of her shoulders and the base of her neck where the skin was thin and vulnerable to the sun’s rays. Only after that did he let his hands move to her breasts, but once there he took great delight in spreading the lotion as slowly as possible, carefully rubbing it in with tiny circular movements until she could feel the blood rushing through her veins, which became more visible as her breast tissue swelled.
He worked his hands along the undersides of the now firm globes, and around the sides before finally covering her dark nipples, where he worked the cream in by using only the very tips of his fingers.
Already Nicola’s body was beginning to crave further touches from him. Her stomach, bowed outwards by the iron strut, felt as though it was screaming its need aloud and she whimpered in her throat.
‘What is it?’ asked Giovanni, pretending not to understand what her desperate but limited body movements meant. ‘Should I stop?’
‘No!’ gasped Nicola. ‘I burn very easily.’
He nodded and smiled knowingly. ‘Then I must proceed . How was it that you painted the little maid yesterday? Ah yes, I recall.’ And almost before the words were out of his mouth he was pouring some of the lotion directly from the bottle into the small dip in the centre of Nicola’s stomach and she gasped as it filled her there before oozing out over the surrounding skin.
Now Giovanni worked it into the whole abdominal area, his hands pressing firmly against her muscles. When he felt them start to tighten and heard her rapid breathing he smiled to himself, knowing that once again she would be having an orgasm in public.
By the time he had moved lower and was working the cream into her legs and up along her smooth, pale thighs, Rupert and Françoise had come out to watch. Nicola’s body tensed at the thought that her pleasure, already threatening to spill over, would be witnessed by them but Giovanni’s fingers working assiduously at the creases of her inner thighs were making her flesh leap and she could feel her own juices beginning to escape from her vagina.
Françoise reached up and touched the bound girl between the thighs. ‘She’s very wet,’ she remarked to Giovanni. ‘Let’s see her come before we have breakfast. Have you always liked perfoming in public, Nicola?’ she added.
‘No, I hate it but I can’t help it when you …’ She stopped talking as the Italian let one finger, still covered in the sun protection cream, slide between her outer labia, drum softly against the stem of her clitoris and then without warning he removed his hand, slid the lubricated finger between her body and the iron strut and inserted it into her rectum, rolling it round against the inner rim while Françoise languidly reached up and caught the swollen clitoris between two fingers then squeezed with firm, constant pressure.
The glorious hot swelling pleasure from the clitoris mingled with the sharp electric tingles coming from her violated rectum and with a strangled cry Nicola’s body heaved forward until she was stretching her leather bonds to their limit as the contractions rolled over her.
Rupert laughed. ‘How easy you are to please, Nicola. Perhaps you would have been wiser to have learnt better how to hold back. Come Giovanni, it is time for breakfast. Don’t worry, Nicola, we will return immediately we are finished.’
‘I try to hold back!’ she shouted as they disappeared towards the chateau. ‘It isn’t my fault. You’ve all made me what I am.’
There was no answer and all she could do was wait for whatever stimulation they had in store for her after their breakfast.
It was impossible for her to judge the passage of time and it seemed an eternity before she heard the sound of footsteps on the cobblestones. By now her skin was very warm and her whole body felt tight and it was tingling slightly from the massage and the rays of the sun. Her need for sex, for some kind of physical stimulation, shamed her. Until that moment she hadn’t realised how much she’d come to depend on the eroticism that was the normal way of life at the chateau. Now it seemed that it was impossible for her to go for any period of time without some kind of arousal, either visual or tactile.
Only when the person was near could she turn her head sufficiently to see who it was, but for some reason she’d convinced herself that it was the baron who was crossing the courtyard. When she saw that it was Rupert she felt like bursting into tears because her desire to see the baron was almost overwhelming.
Rupert ran a hand up the inside of her leg. ‘You have lovely skin,’ he commented, sitting himself on the wall of the well. ‘English women usually have good skin; perhaps it’s the climate. Françoise will wrinkle terribly as she gets older if she doesn’t take more care in the sun.’
Nicola didn’t care about Françoise or what happened to her skin, she simply wanted Rupert’s hand to continue caressing her burning flesh.
‘Mind you, it’s Cassandra I really admire,’ the Frenchman went on, and he felt Nicola stiffen beneath his touch. ‘She’s so self-contained that when she abandons herself to sexual pleasure the contrast is the most erotic thing I’ve ever experienced. I think that’s what keeps Dieter’s interest,’ he went on, aware that every word was eating into the soul of the tethered girl. ‘He’s so skilled at every aspect of sex that he never has any trouble teaching women how to lose themselves in his kind of sensuality, but it’s only Cassandra who manages to do it and yet keep part of herself secret.’
Nicola didn’t respond. She listened to every word, but felt certain Rupert was wrong. She believed that the way to the baron’s heart was absolute compliance to his will and a willingness to give over to him totally, both in mind and body. She felt sure that Cassandra’s strange aloofness that would surface from time to time displeased him, which was why Nicola was sure she was going to win him. There would be no secrets between them ever, at least not on her side.
‘You want to stay here, don’t you?’ continued Rupert, getting to his feet and letting his hands glide over her hot body. ‘You intend to displace Cassandra?’
‘It will only happen if it’s what the baron wants,’ replied Nicola.
He bent his head and nipped softly at the underside of one of her breasts. ‘That’s true,’ he conceded. ‘Dieter only ever does what he wants. Has it occurred to you that he may demand more of you than you can give?’ he added.
‘He couldn’t,’ declared Nicola confidently. ‘I’d do anything he asked, anything at all.’
‘How nice for Dieter! Now then, I believe it’s my turn to keep you amused so we must stop talking and get down to the serious business of the day. How long have you enjoyed performing in public places?’
‘I don’t! I keep telling the baron, but he won’t believe me.’
‘It’s more likely that he chooses not to believe you because it suits him! Now then, let me show you something.’ Out of his pocket, Rupert drew a gold-coloured vibrator, at least eight inches long and beneath the cover were numerous tiny beads. He rubbed his hand along the shaft of the vibrator and Nicola saw the beads rotating and rubbing against each other in a rippling movement. ‘I’m going to insert this into you,’ he explained. ‘It’s very stimulating, Françoise loves it, and it even twists when the battery is started. Once this is in your front passage I shall insert something else into your back passage and then proceed to bring you to orgasm. If you manage to climax without letting either of the objects fall then you will be released. If not, then you stay here for another half hour. Do you understand?’
Nicola nodded. ‘What’s the other object?’ she asked nervously.
Rupert smiled. ‘It’s just an ordinary wax candle, see.’ This time he held up a thick white tapering candle whose smooth sides Nicola realised at once would make retention almost impossible.
‘Which would you prefer me to insert first?’ he asked politely. She had no idea, but already her buttocks were clenching tightly against the forthcoming invasion. ‘I think the candle,’ he murmured as though reading her thoughts, and then he loosened the thick leather belt around her waist so that he could reach behind her and ease apart the soft globes of her bottom.
As the pointed tip of the candle protruded into the puckered opening Nicola made a sound of protest. Rupert ignored her and proceeded to press gently but continuously until it was so far in that only a tiny thick stub at the base remained in view.
‘Now clench and hold,’ he instructed Nicola, and she did as he said, but it still seemed to be slipping out. ‘Tighter than that,’ Rupert admonished as he watched it slowly descending. She gripped with all her strength and at last the candle was still.
Now he crouched on the wall between her outspread legs and caressed the soft hair that covered her pubic mound. As he worked, the baron and Cassandra came to stand in front of the well and the baron laughed softly.
‘If only Sir James could see you now, Nicola. He would be proud of you, I’m sure!’
She didn’t dare respond because she was concentrating so hard on keeping the wax candle deep inside her rectum, and the soft flickers of excitement that Rupert’s ministrations were causing were making it increasingly difficult.
He pressed the palm of his hand against her entire vulva and then rotated the heel of his hand. At once jolts of delight shook her lower torso and her muscles jumped so that the candle started to fall. Quickly she realised the danger and with a superhuman effort drew it back in with a sharp muscular contraction.
‘Well done,’ murmured Rupert, parting her outer sex lips and letting his tongue lave her delicate inner tissue until he could spread the seepage from her front opening all around the area. She was quivering with tension as he gently eased the smooth phallic head of the vibrator into her and then rotated it while maintaining the pressure until it was inserted as far as it would go. Then he turned it on and watched her lower belly flutter and contort as the tiny beads began their insidious caress against her vaginal walls, the vibrations travelling through the thin membrane to her rectum where she was struggling to keep the candle still.
‘Look at her nipples,’ the baron murmured to Cassandra. When she looked she saw that they were as erect as they had ever been, tight hard little points that were so engorged they appeared painful.
‘Lick them while Rupert works where he is,’ said the baron.
‘That’s not fair!’ protested Nicola.
The baron’s eyes went wide with astonishment. ‘I decide what’s fair here, Nicola,’ he said coldly, and lifted Cassandra up onto the well so that she could lick at the tiny little points, covering them with saliva that cooled them briefly before they were again exposed to the sun.
As Cassandra did this, Rupert very lightly stroked around the throbbing clitoris, and Nicola began to moan as her muscles refused to listen to her instructions and started to take on a life of their own. He stimulated smoothly for a few seconds and then changed the rhythm and patted against the flesh with the pads of his fingers, occasionally striking the underside of the little nub.
As Cassandra worked on the nipples, the beads rotated within her vagina and Rupert brought her inexorably to fever pitch, sweat rolled down Nicola’s face. She tried to force the cheeks of her bottom together to keep the smooth candle in but with a sudden blazing sensation all of her nerve endings exploded and she arched back against the hard iron strut, her body convulsed by the most intense paroxysm of ecstasy she’d yet encountered. As she screamed into the warm morning air, the wax candle slipped out of her and fell with a splash into the water beneath.
‘What a pity,’ murmured the baron, but there was no disappointment in his voice, only a note of amusement. ‘Now you will have to stay here for another half hour. After that you will be released. During that time, however, anyone of us may use you as they wish.’
‘I couldn’t help it,’ Nicola wailed. ‘No one could have controlled their muscles like that. It wasn’t a fair test.’
‘I’m quite sure Cassandra would have managed,’ said the baron scathingly, ‘and even if she had failed she would not have complained.’
‘I’m too hot,’ Nicola murmured. ‘My head’s beginning to ache.’
The baron sighed. ‘Then we will make sure you are kept cool. Rupert, when you’ve finished perhaps you would hose her down. An adjustable nozzle has been attached to give a fine spray.’
Rupert quickly replaced the vibrator in his pocket, tightened Nicola’s leather belt again and then jumped off the well and went to fetch the hosepipe. The baron and Cassandra stayed where they were, both of them anxious to see the tethered girl’s reaction.
Nicola was already wishing she’d kept quiet about the heat. In truth she didn’t have a headache and could easily have coped with another half hour; it was only later on that the sun would have become unbearable.
Rupert returned to stand beneath her, pointing the hose upwards. ‘Here you are, Nicola, something to keep you cool. Are you ready for it?’
Tiny goosebumps rose on her forearms and she began to shiver. When the first stinging spray of ice cold water hit her in the middle of her stomach she shrieked with shock and struggled to free herself, even though she knew it was hopeless.
After being warm and drenched in perspiration during her climax, the contrast was almost unbearable, and by the time Rupert allowed the spray to fall on her breasts she was frantic to escape the freezing droplets.
Her nipples didn’t seem to share her aversion and rose upright immediately, while the skin around them tightened and ached so that she longed for the touch of warm human hands on them.
‘Now for your legs,’ called Rupert.
The hot aroused tissue between her thighs was the last place she wanted the spray to fall but despite her pleas Rupert aimed directly upwards between her thighs and suddenly she felt her outer lips being forced apart by the strength of the water and then it was playing against her inner channel and falling in a relentless stream on the hood of flesh which was covering her clitoris. It fell softly and steadily, and even as she shivered and shook Nicola could feel her clitoris swelling beneath its protection. ‘Bear down,’ said the baron shortly. ‘I want the spray to cover your tight little nub.’
‘Please, it’s too sensitive,’ pleaded Nicola.
‘It will feel sensational; do as I say,’ he retorted.
Knowing that to disobey him would mean she had no chance of ousting Cassandra from his affections, Nicola gritted her teeth and bore down with her pelvic muscles until the clitoris was protruding more than it had ever protruded before.
Rupert watched it being forced out of hiding and felt his own erection growing further inside his trousers. Very carefully he directed the spray towards it and as the droplets splashed in a continuous stream Nicola’s release was triggered again and she shuddered violently as the contractions gripped her and the relentless bittersweet pleasure swept over her once more.
‘Hose her down every ten minutes until she’s released,’ ordered the baron as he and Cassandra walked away. ‘I’m sure Giovanni and Françoise would like to have a turn. You should make sure you don’t neglect her other entrance either. I’m sure she’s equally warm there.’
‘I’m sure she is,’ agreed Rupert, dropping the hosepipe on the cobbles in order to go inside and tell the others what they were to do. He left the unfortunate Nicola to dry in the sun while her exhausted body awaited the next onslaught.
Once inside the chateau the baron caught hold of Cassandra’s hand and drew her up the main staircase and along the gallery to his own room, the one place where total privacy was assured. As soon as they were inside the door he turned to her, his eyes gleaming. ‘Take off your clothes,’ he said huskily.
Cassandra slipped out of her linen skirt and blouse. She had no underwear on and he drank in the sight of her; her long shapely legs, the slender yet feminine body, the perfect posture and in her eyes that same disconcerting look of detachment.
‘What did your Italian lover say to you outside?’ he asked abruptly.
‘He told me that he loved me,’ she responded calmly.
‘And what else? The conversation lasted too long for that to have been all.’
‘He asked me to go away with him,’ replied Cassandra.
For one brief moment the baron looked surprised. ‘Away from here? He wants you to live with him in Italy?’
‘Yes. Is that so strange?’
‘But you’re mine!’ He sounded amazed at Giovanni’s suggestion.
‘At the moment I’m yours. I think Giovanni understands your little game, and was offering me an escape route.’
The baron relaxed. ‘You mean, he offered you somewhere to go if I ask you to leave!’
She shook her head. ‘No, he wants me to leave you of my own free will, but if I won’t then he’ll take me should you tire of me.’
‘Do you want to leave?’ he asked softly, running a finger slowly down the valley between her breasts and tracing delicate patterns over her sides and stomach as he removed his own clothes.
‘No.’
‘Is that what you told him?’
‘I told him that should I ever leave here I would go to him.’
‘To him?’ Now the baron seemed genuinely incredulous. ‘He’s only a boy; he can’t even make love in a way that would satisfy you for very long. I’ve tutored you too well for a boy to keep you happy.’
‘Perhaps there’s more to life than perfect sex,’ she responded.
He stepped closer to her and began to kiss her mouth, letting his tongue slide in around the insides of her cheeks before easing it past her teeth and invading every part of her there.
Cassandra loved to kiss him. To her it seemed a more personal act than any of their sexual experiments, and she felt herself relax against his chest as her tongue responded by pressing into his mouth and their lips ground fiercely against each other.
When they finally drew apart the baron continued to kiss her shoulders and the pulse beneath her ear. Then he moved behind her, lifted her heavy fall of hair and kissed the tender nape of her neck, drawing his tongue lightly over the skin so that shivers ran down her spine.
‘Sit down,’ he murmured, pushing her carefully backwards towards the high-backed armchair that he sat in to watch his home videos. When she settled back against the cushions he lifted her legs and placed them across the two arms so that she was fully open to him.
As she lay there, watching him out of her unfathomable dark eyes, he buried his head between her thighs and she felt his tongue glide upwards towards her emerging clitoris, flicking delicately against the moist tissue as he went and stroking the outspread thighs with his long fingers.
She relaxed into the pleasure. Now he was taking her clitoris between his lips and immediately her belly arched because she knew how intense her orgasms were when he did this. With a murmur of pleasure she waited and then he began to suck with almost uncanny tenderness on the bunched nerve endings while the slithering coils of excitement began to throb low down in her stomach.
She waited for him to graze the top with his teeth and trigger her final release, but instead he released the swollen nub and then held the hood back with one hand so that he could let his tongue flick against it in a remorseless tattoo that made her utter a cry of ecstasy. Her hands gripped his thick hair and her body went rigid and still with the intensity of the orgasm.
As her eyes opened and she started to look at him he knelt upright, pulled her legs off the wings of the chair and placed them round his back instead. Then, as she felt his penis stroking up and down the length of her slick channel, her arms went down and round his waist. He let his erection stimulate her clitoris again, and immediately she began to tremble on the edge of another explosive climax but before she could come he plunged into her warm welcoming opening and his hands grasped the sides of her head so that he could kiss her as deeply as he was penetrating her. Both of them climaxed in unison.
Afterwards they lay in a tangle of arms and legs in the chair while their breathing slowed and the baron’s eyes closed for a moment in total relaxation. Then, remembering that it always took Cassandra a long time to come down to earth after lovemaking, he pulled her closer to him and let his hands stroke the back of her neck and the sides of her face in an unusually tender and non-sexual gesture.
‘Is it that good with Giovanni?’ he asked lightly.
The question startled Cassandra. ‘Of course not,’ she replied softly. ‘How could it be?’ He’s young and I hardly know him.’
‘You’d miss me then, if you went away?’
‘For a time,’ she responded, knowing better than to admit to the terrible aching pain that even the thought of such a thing brought about.
‘In forty-eight hours,’ said the baron slowly, ‘the game will end. So far there has been little to make me decide one way or the other. I’ve enjoyed the novelty of having Nicola here, but as to whether or not I wish her to remain, that decision proves difficult.
‘She has a great aptitude for certain aspects of my sexuality that do not, however hard you try, appeal to you. Pain, particularly inflicting pain, turns her on. As yet she is not very good at receiving it, but I have noticed that it quickly turns to pleasure for her once she is lost in the sensations.
‘You have played your part well. You tried to advise her, to help her accept the rules and regulations here, as well as using your skill on her when requested, but you lack the killing instinct.’
Cassandra frowned. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘You could have put her off, without making it obvious, very early on. Instead you went out of your way to be fair, to assist rather than hinder her initiation.’
‘That was my role,’ she reminded him.
The baron laughed. ‘There are always ways round rules that you wish to flout. The truth is, Cassandra, that in two days’ time you will have to fight a great deal harder than you have done so far. Nicola, despite her somewhat abject performance this morning, has progressed very quickly. She no longer needs your assistance. The competition tomorrow will be a straight head to head. You are both allowed to make it more difficult for each other where possible, so bear that in mind as the evening proceeds.’
‘What’s going to happen?’ asked Cassandra, wishing that her heart wasn’t racing quite so fast because since she was lying against the baron’s naked body he would be able to feel her fear.
‘It’s a role reversal between you and Nicola and Sophie and Monique. In a couple of days’ time, when it is dinner time, you and Nicola will serve us while the maids, dressed appropriately as guests, will eat at table. Later in the evening, you and Nicola will take it in turns to submit to the sexual desires of all the dinner guests. Some, like Giovanni, will be a pleasure for you to serve. However, I think it more than likely that Monique and Sophie will take the opportunity to settle a few scores.’
‘And how is the winner decided?’
‘The winner is the one who accepts everything and takes pleasure from everything. Any refusal, any request for a particular entertainment to be curtailed is the end of the contest.’
‘Suppose it’s a draw?’ asked Cassandra.
‘It can’t be a draw,’ he said with a smile. ‘I shall be watching you both for every second. I will know which of you truly abandoned yourself to every one of my guests’ desires and which of you pretended.’
‘We may neither of us pretend.’
The baron nuzzled his head against her breasts, less tight and swollen now but ready at even this slight touch to swell with desire. ‘Something will prove too much for one of you,’ he said confidently.
‘And you?’ asked Cassandra, her breath coming more quickly as he started to re-arouse her. ‘Does it matter to you which of us wins?’
He kissed her at the curve of her waist and felt her body start to tighten with pleasure. ‘Yes, it matters.’
‘If Nicola wins, will I ever see you again?’
The baron lifted his head and Cassandra could have sworn that his eyes were sad. ‘No, liebling, if Nicola wins you will never see me again.’
She stared at him in silence and his hands stopped roaming over her body. ‘Don’t you see, I need this kind of excitement,’ he said at last. ‘Without it, life is boring.’
‘You’d tire of her quickly,’ murmured Cassandra.
‘I know it.’
‘Then for your sake I’d better make sure she doesn’t win.’
The baron smiled. ‘What about for your sake?’
His hands were between her thighs now, his finger gently probing her front opening as he sought to locate her G-spot. Just as he found it Cassandra caught her breath, determined to give him her reply. ‘I’ll be happier with Giovanni than you will with Nicola,’ she said sweetly, and then she was lost in the whirlpool of sensations that his carefully massaging finger was producing as it pressed against her front vaginal wall and when she doubled up in an almost painfully sharp orgasm she knew that for once he was lost for words.
Even so, when Nicola was finally released from the well and after a bath and hairwash joined them all for the rest of the day, Cassandra studied her in a new light. All thoughts of pity or kindness had to be banished before the final contest because they would only play into the deceptively gentle-seeming English girl’s hands.
Nicola was the enemy, and Cassandra’s one advantage was that only she knew what lay ahead of them both in two days’ time.