Alleyn, Fredrica (27 page)

'Why nothing,' purred Frangoise, who guessed what was happening. 'I think though that the baron was right and it is a little warm in here for Nicola. Why don't you take her for a ride in the country in your sports car?'

Nicola dropped her head at the thought of such intense stimulation but Giovanni loved his car almost as much as he loved women and clearly thought it a good idea. 'I will collect it at once,' he announced and went to fetch his keys.

'You'll be quite safe,' Frangoise assured Nicola, who was getting up from the rocking chair with relief. 'He drives fast but well. Better than he makes love in fact, which is simply fast!'

'I think that's unfair,' protested Cassandra. 'He was superb once I'd given him a few hints.'

'Really? Perhaps he's more interested in pleasing you than he was in pleasing me,' commented Frangoise, who had already noticed the way Giovanni's eyes followed Cassandra whenever she was in the room.

'I doubt it,' said Cassandra calmly, remembering too late the ever-present cameras and microphones, and wishing that she could erase her comment.

'Now we go!' announced Giovanni, returning with his car keys in his hand.

Nicola nodded, and as she walked across the room she could feel the heavy downward pressure of the love balls stirring within her.

'Show me your herb garden,' said Frangoise as soon as she and Cassandra were alone.

'Why? Have you decided to take up cookery?'

'I'd rather die!' shivered the young Brazilian model with an exaggerated shudder. 'No, it is only that they are peaceful places and I need some peace before this afternoon.'

Cassandra knew as well as Rupert's wife that in the herb garden they could talk undetected, and together they slipped out of the French doors, across the lawn and through an avenue of shady beech trees before emerging into the walled herb garden.

Once there, Frangoise sank onto a wooden bench, weathered by the years. 'Tell me, is Nicola doing better or worse than you expected?' she asked abruptly.

Cassandra sat down next to her and turned her face up towards the early morning sun. 'Better in many ways, but I don't feel that we're getting to know her at all. At least, I'm not; perhaps Dieter is. He's fascinated by glimpses of her father in her reactions.'

'She seems very determined,' mused Frangoise. 'Does she wish to remain here, in your place, do you think?'

Cassandra switched her gaze to the herbs. 'I imagine so.'

'But you still love Dieter?' persisted Frangoise.

'I've never said I love him,' protested Cassandra.

Frangoise gave a peal of laughter. 'You've never needed to. It is there in your eyes, your smile, the way you touch him. Rupert thinks it's very sweet.'

'Does he really? I'd have thought any kind of deep emotion would have repelled Rupert, not enchanted him.'

Frangoise made a small sound of protest. 'You misunderstand him. He is different from Dieter; less intense it's true, but far more understanding of emotional commitment.'

Cassandra turned to look at the only woman she could possibly count as any kind of a friend. 'Do you love Rupert?' she asked.

'Naturally; why else would I have borne him twins! To make myself ugly and undesirable was a great sacrifice, but he needed an heir and as his wife it was my duty to give him one. Our marriage is very - how do you say? - open?' Cassandra nodded. 'Yes, it is open, but always we stay together.'

'So he loves you too?' Cassandra was intrigued.

'At the moment he loves me. For how long it is not possible to say but provided that I keep myself attractive, continue to amuse him and be amused by him I do not see why the marriage should fail. It satisfies us both.'

'Dieter isn't like that.' Cassandra knew that she sounded envious.

Frangoise put a hand on the other woman's knee. 'Dieter is very content with you. This game is troubling him. He is afraid that Nicola will win, when all he probably wanted was to worry you and have the pleasure of training someone new as well. He possibly underestimated this little Nicola.'

'Why won't he ever talk about love?' asked Cassandra. 'Sometimes, when we're alone together, I feel sure that he's going to, but the moment always passes without the words being said.'

'He will never say them.' Frangoise stood up and began to stroll back towards the house. 'His marriage, his childhood, everything in his life has combined to make him afraid of such a commitment. But if you know that he feels love for you, why does it matter?'

'Don't you like to hear Rupert say it?'

Frangoise shrugged. 'Not always. Many times it means that he has done something he is ashamed of, and the words are to comfort him as much as to reassure me. I would rather he showed it, as he does.'

'If I lose,' said Cassandra slowly, 'will Dieter go through with it and make me leave?'

Frangoise turned to look at the English woman's face and met her anxious eyes frankly. 'Yes, he will make you leave. For him the game is all. It is underway now, and only you can ensure the right outcome.'

'But if Nicola's willing to do everything; if she shows more aptitude than I do for things like punishing the maids and taking pleasure in pain, how can I make sure I win?'

'She is very new to everything,' Frangoise reminded Cassandra. 'There will come a time, towards the end, when a lot will be asked of her, of you both, because Dieter loves a dramatic ending to his games. It is then that you will have the advantage. Remember the slave auction when you first met him? No one expected you to win, but you did. You have hidden depths, and it is this that Dieter loves. Nicola is a little more upfront, more openly determined, but deep inside myself I believe that there will be a barrier that she finds impossible to cross before the game is over. As long as you are prepared to play to the end, you will win.'

'The trouble is,' admitted Cassandra as they approached the chateau, 'I can understand how she feels. I was bewitched by him the moment we met, and she's the same. You feel that without him life would have no purpose!'

'She does not feel sorry for you; she resents you and wants you gone from here,' Frangoise reminded Cassandra. 'Save your pity for people who deserve it.'

'Like Sophie and Monique?'

Frangoise laughed. 'Exactly! Like your two little maids. It will be interesting to see what they have to do in that magnificent gymnasium of Dieter's, will it not?'

'Whatever it is, I'm glad I'm not taking part,' murmured Cassandra.

'You will enjoy watching though?'

'Oh yes/ agreed Cassandra. 'I shall probably get lost in the excitement very quickly, but it's one of those days when I'd far rather be a spectator than a competitor.'

'I have always hated physical exercise,' announced Frangoise, entering the chateau and lying down on one of the settees. 'That's why I'm lucky to enjoy sex, it burns up the calories quicker than any workout can do!'

'Well, you certainly stay slim, so I shan't argue/ agreed Cassandra. 'Now I'd better go and speak to the maids, then I'll get them to bring us some drinks.'

'Citrus cordial for me,' requested Frangoise. 'I wonder how little Nicola is getting on in the Ferrari/ she added thoughtfully.

'I've been wondering that as well,' admitted Cassandra as she left the room.

The ride in Giovanni's Ferrari was proving a considerable endurance test for Nicola. The bucket-shaped seats meant that she seemed to be pressing down on the love balls all the time, and since the Italian loved to drive fast through the narrow lanes, braking too hard and too late at every turn, the vibrations never ceased.

'Look!' exclaimed Giovanni for at least the fourth time since they'd set off. 'How lovely the churches are here. Imagine the history behind them/ he continued enthusiastically. 'I will stop the car here and we will go inside and see for ourselves if the interiors are as beautiful.'

He swung off the road into a shady square where he parked in front of a tiny coffee shop. Nicola climbed carefully out, and as she straightened the love balls rolled together with an audible clicking sound.

Giovanni turned to her in surprise. 'What was that?'

She was already drenched in perspiration from trying to ccmceal the numerous tiny orgasms she'd experienced during the drive and the last thing she wanted was further embarrassment. 'My knee,' she muttered.

'I hurt it years ago and it sometimes makes an odd noise after I've been sitting still for a time.'

The Italian looked more carefully at her. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright and there was an air of sexual excitement about her that didn't tie in with what she was saying. All at once he guessed what the noise had been. He remembered a girlfriend of his in Bologna who had once worn love balls inside her for a whole day while they went sightseeing, and the noise he'd just heard from Nicola was exactly the same as the noises his girlfriend had made when they'd climbed some steep steps.

With an inward smile he took Nicola's hand. 'Then I must help you up these steps. They lead us to the interior of the church I think.'

Nicola looked at the steep flight of steps and her heart sank but he was already ahead of her, pulling her quickly behind him and as she hurried to catch up the clicking sounds became even more audible.

Inside the church was cool and she sat down carefully on one of the pews, but Giovanni pulled her upright and dragged her round to look at the chapel, dedicated to a saint Nicola had never even heard of, while the stained glass windows figured scenes of St Michael fighting the dragon and weighing souls. There was also a large statue of St Joan of Arc standing in a stone niche set halfway up one of the walls.

When he finally tired of his sightseeing, Giovanni hurried Nicola outside and then lifted her onto one of the cobbled walls of the square, leaving her to shift restlessly on the surface as he went off to fetch them both ice creams.

The pressure of the uneven wall against her increased the sensations caused by the love balls and all at once Nicola knew that despite the presence of numerous tourists and locals she was going to have a climax that would be hard to conceal. She felt it stealing up on her. At first just the tiniest of tremors, then the warm glow that suffused her lower stomach and after that the tightening of her entire body as her breasts swelled and her nipples pressed against the cotton T-shirt she was wearing.

Her breathing grew more rapid and in order to stop the feelings from rushing on too fast she clenched her pelvic muscles just as Cassandra had told her, forgetting that this would have the opposite effect.

As Giovanni reappeared carrying two large ice cream cones, Nicola stared at him with stricken eyes and her whole body trembled from head to toe as though she had a temperature, while beads of sweat broke out on her upper lip and across her forehead.

He sat on the wall beside her, handed her an ice cream and then rested his free arm round her so that he could add to her pleasure by squeezing one of her ample breasts. He heard her breath snag and unable to resist the temptation he then slid his hand lower pressing down over her stomach so that the last flickers of her orgasm were suddenly rekindled by the downward pressure and this time she gave a tiny muffled cry and her whole body stiffened.

When she was at last still, Giovanni grinned at her. 'It was not your knee, you are wearing something special inside you, are you not?' he asked.

'Yes, but you're not supposed to guess. I'm meant to conceal my pleasure, not flaunt it,' she said anxiously. 'You won't tell the baron what happened, will you?'

'I must,' he responded with what Nicola felt to be an inappropriately charming smile. 'He is my host. My first duty is to him.'

'I couldn't help it!' protested Nicola, struggling to keep her voice low. 'The vibrations in your car, and then the stones of this wall, they all made it worse.'

'I will watch you carefully on the drive back!' Giovanni assured her.

'I don't want to annoy the baron; he's never punished me yet and I don't want him to,' wailed Nicola.

'From what my friends tell me, that is something you will not be able to avoid. If you somehow managed to keep to all the rules he would invent a new one to trap you. That is how he gets his fun/ commented the Italian.

The drive back to the chateau was even worse, because now that Giovanni knew what was happening he drove faster over every small bump in the road, sometimes reaching across to caress Nicola's knees and ease his hand up the hem of her skirt, once even pressing lightly against the tightly stretched fabric of her bikini pants so that he could feel her moist, swollen vulva for himself.

They arrived back at the chateau ten minutes before lunch, and Nicola rushed up to her room, determined to remove the love balls before she betrayed herself again, but to her astonishment the baron was in her bedroom, waiting for her.

'How was your morning?' he enquired pleasantly. 'Did Giovanni show you some of the sights?'

She swallowed hard, her mouth dry. 'It was extremely interesting.'

'Did you come many times?'

Nicola's mouth opened but no sound came out.

'Did Giovanni notice?' the baron pressed on.

'Yes/ said Nicola, her voice very low. 'I couldn't help it, you see . . .'