Eternal Pleasures (4 page)

  
 
Feeling a hand on her shoulder, Cassandra turned to see Paige’s foggy face just inches from her own. Through her tear soaked eyes, Paige didn’t look real to her mind.

  
 
“Are you okay?”

  
 
A tissue was tucked into her hand. “I’d put it up to your nose and tell you to blow, but for some reason I don’t think you’d find it funny.”

  
 
Cassandra smiled then leaned her head against Paige’s shoulder, her tears falling onto the floor as she slipped into the blackness.

Chapter 6

18th Century

Garrett dipped the rag into a bowl of cool water. He’d found the woman lying on the floor in the middle of his shop moments ago. Fortunate for him that he knew his way around in the dark, and hadn’t lit the shop lanterns yet, or he would have tripped over her limp body.

  
Her breasts had been slipping out of a peasant blouse made of the flimsiest fabric he’d only seen as undergarments on some of his richest clients. Minus a corset and bloomers, he wondered what had become of those undergarments. How did the woman manage to dodge the underlings of the village clothed as she was without a bruise on her body?

He gathered by her manner of dress she was not of his world, being too free and revealing with her body. Even the stable girls wore more clothing than this woman possessed. What he didn’t know was what kind of a witch she was to possess power to materialize in his shop without coming through one of the bolted doors.

  
The smoothness of her clothing against his bare chest sent waves of heat through his body. When he’d carried her into his private chambers the warmth of her body ignited his cock. Even now, as he sat next to her, it stood straight as a spear. No woman since Victoria had caused his body to react with a mere touch.

  
 
The rising moon reflected through the room’s only window, casting a silvery shadow over the woman. Her golden hair fanned out around her head, giving her the appearance of a shrouded angel. Garrett had a feeling she was anything but an innocent.

  
 
If he could get a good look at her face, maybe he would recognize her by the covet she belonged to. There would be a mark at her left temple, faint and unrecognizable unless one knew what they were looking for.

  
 
Garrett knew exactly what to look for.

  
 
“Who sent you? And what do they hope to gain by slipping you into my little shop of pleasure?” Garrett thought aloud, pulling the rag from the tepid water.

  
 
Garrett rung the rag once again, and then placed it upon her forehead. “Mmmm.” The woman’s head rolled from side to side, Garrett’s hand moving with it until her eyes fluttered.

  
 
“Paige?” She mumbled, and then opened her eyes to mere slits before going back into the deep sleep she’d been in since he’d found her. Her very presence gave him more trouble than he wished to contend with on this night.

  
 
If he stayed with her any longer he’d find it difficult to restrain himself during his lessons this night. He never allowed himself fulfillment with his clients, taking his pleasure alone once the moon retreated into daylight.

  
 
Now that the shop was well past the usual hour of opening, he’d have to open he doors soon or bring unwanted suspicion upon himself. His first client was due at his door any moment and Lady Catherine Sadelare would not take kindly to missing her lesson for any reason. Her wrath would come upon him in the form of her portly husband.

  
 
The magistrate knew the hours of his establishment and would only relish in finding a reason, any reason, upon which to send him to the gallows. Charles Sadelare only suspected, from the rumors told in the taverns and whispered behind a lady’s fan, that Garrett ran more than a chocolate shop.

      
 
A witch landing in his place at this time was not what he would have wished for. He had only one choice and he prayed it would get him through the night.

 
Cassandra opened her eyes to the moon shinning through a window, the only light in an otherwise dark room. What felt like a feather bed lay underneath her body, soft and prickly at the same time. Her head felt comfortably propped up by a couple of feather pillows. The scent of bird filled her nostrils when she rolled her head sideways.

 
She moved her hand to wipe the fuzziness from her eyes only to find she couldn’t. Her heart racing in panic, she realized none of her limbs moved either. The more she struggled to move them from their prone position; panic soared hotter through her veins at an even greater rate.

  
 
Oh God,
she thought as tears slipping from her eyes blurred her vision further.
I’m paralyzed. Where’s Paige? Why did she leave me alone like this? How long have I been here?

  
 
Cassandra searched her mind for the answers, finding a few as the cobwebs fell from the shadows with her futile struggles. She’d been alone in the shop when the man appeared, making suggestive movements with his hands. She’d been backed up against the wall as he ran a vibrator over her blouse, stimulating her nipples to hard peaks.

  
 
Paige had walked through the door and accused her of self-gratification when it was him who’d been doing everything. Yet Paige said there was no man in the shop, just her and Cassandra.

  
 
Maybe he’d been sent to torment her through his sexual manipulations, whether during in the night’s shadows or the light of day. If so, then all her troubles could be laid at his doorstep, not hers. Then again, the gentle way he’d touched her she couldn’t imagine he’d been sent to punish her for whatever reason.

  
 
She and Paige had been fighting and now she lay tied up. Just where the hell was she?

  
 
“Paige!” Struggling against the restraints at her wrists and ankles, the fear of her captivity raced through Cassandra’s soul. The one thing in life she feared most, and she lay in the middle of it…being held captive.

  
 
“Paige, let me out of here! The joke’s over.”

  
 
“Hush woman!”

  
 
The male voice came out of nowhere, sounding familiar yet not. Cassandra felt the catch of her breath hard in her chest. She heard herself whimper softly. Still as a statute, she waited for what would happen next.

  
 
At the foot of the bed, a shadowy figure passed through the moon’s light, than disappeared into the darkness. Cassandra felt his presence, but could not see him. He carried the scent of a woman on him; a woman whom he’d had sex with not too long ago. The very acknowledgment sent her pussy quivering with jealousy and need.

  
 
“Who are you, witch?”

  
  
Before the words were spoken, Cassandra felt his breath upon her ear. She turned her head away from the enticing warmth it left upon her skin. Maybe Paige had hired him to teach her a lesson. As crazy as it sounded, what other explanation could there be? She wasn’t about to give in to this man and Paige’s little game of Scare the Shit out of CJ.

“I asked you a question, woman,” he whispered, sending fear and desire through her body. Even in a hushed tone, his voice demanded obedience with the promise of pleasure.

Cassandra fought to still the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. She was not about to give him the satisfaction of knowing he scared the living hell right out of her. Maybe her best bet would be to go along with Paige’s game until they grew tired of it. Hopefully, sooner than later.

She turned her head to meet the warmth of his breath. “Cassandra Jameson.”

“Cassandra Jameson…I know of no such family name. Which shire do you come from?”

Shire? What the hell, this guy is good. Wonder where Paige found him. Probably at the local playhouse, no doubt.
“Ask Paige…she knows everything. And while you’re at it, get me out of these things.”

“Cassandra Jameson.” He stood just inside the moonlight, yet far enough away so Cassandra couldn’t make out his features. He stood tall with broad shoulders in the shadows. A dark figure with a voice sexy enough to melt chocolate, not unlike her fantasy lover who materialized whenever he saw fit.

Cassandra attempted to reach out through the shadows, forgetting for a moment she was bound spread eagle on the bed.

“Paige, the person who hired you, calls me CJ. But I’d prefer you call me a free woman and nothing more.”

CJ? The woman called CJ lies in my bed? How can this be?
Garrett sucked in a slow breath gaining control of his emotions. How had he not recognized her before? He knew just about every curve of her body from the sweet smell of her sex to the softness of her skin.

  
“Mistress Jameson.” Her name melted on his tongue like the rich chocolate found in his store front; sweet, silky and rich. Garrett strolled around the bed unsure of the woman laying in the dark and the feeling to ravish her taking over his body. The lust for her was much like he’d felt on his trip to the future only days before hand…hot and urgent.

  
Why is she here in my time? No one ever crossed over in this manner before, no one.

  
Garrett had been unable to resist the call of the siren and soon found himself in a world centuries into the future. For him, it was a world consisting of his shop with a major change; two woman were its proprietors and that he couldn’t step more than ten feet beyond the brick and mortar of the building itself.

  
The woman referred to as CJ, the sexual vixen who’d summoned him, always looked to be pleasured in some way; mostly by her own hand. He found himself more than happy to show her how a man, mortal or immortal, could pleasure a woman.

  
Her call suddenly stopped one day. He didn’t know the reason why or what had happened to cause the siren’s silence. More so, why he even felt a warm empty spot in his otherwise dark, cool soul.

  
What he did know was that if he didn’t find a way to quiet the woman in his bed, here and now, she’d alert a night watchman on the street something was amiss.

  
“Carrying on as you are is not going to help get you free, that I can assure you. Now, tell me again, where you come from before I must take matters into my own hands.”