Red Cloak of Abandon (7 page)

and pressed wide somehow. A small moment of breathless pants escaped

her and she realized that she had never come close to the fonts of physical

desire before.

She should try to wrestle free. She should scream and yell at him, try

to startle him, break free and run. She should do any number of things not

to be discovered, yet her fingers were so close and her mind was not one

she recognized at all.

. . .
The wetness that she gives from her mouth to the cock that she

proclaims most important. How she would grip the shaft tightly with one

hand, pumping the base of the shaft as her sucking lips clenched around

the head . .

“I am not myself!” Affinity gasped sharply, and then her fingertips

were touching the incredibly soft head of Law’s male organ. Law jerked

toward her as though someone had punched him between the shoulder

blades. The movement caught her hand tightly between their bodies and

pressed her fingers into a snug circle around the knobbed head of Law’s

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rigid organ.
The smooth flesh held heat enough to toast her fingertips as

her head fell back inexplicably and Law’s head fell forward, until their

cheeks pressed
together over her veil.

“What
are you doing?” Law’s voice groaned deeply, as though he

were in torture.

“I am
not
myself,” Affinity whispered tragically, sounding as tor-

tured as he sounded. Then, she caressed one of her fingertips longingly

through the slit, dabbing creamy heat on the tip of her finger.

“My God!” Law exclaimed, then he roughly shoved away from her.

The movement was so abrupt and forceful that the open collar of Law’s

shirt snagged the veil on her bonnet. The bonnet was jerked off her head

and sailed through the air, landing on the polished wood flooring be-

tween them.

Law’s back hit the wall. He could go no further as his wild gaze took

in the woman pressed to the wall across from him. There was a riotous

battle waging inside of him between a ravenous need, denial, and moral-

ity. Yet his pitching gaze landed on the woman’s hands clutched between

her thighs and grasping her mound.
He knew then, before even looking

at her face that she was being consumed by uncontrollable temptations

also. She was not just a cock tease in these events, but
perhaps driven

beyond normal constraints by lawless desire as he was.

Then, before he could raise his gaze to fully look upon her face, she

sprang free from the wall with a strangled gasp and rushed down the

hallway. All that he could glimpse in an unfocused offering was the side

of her pale and delicate face. However, more amazing to him was

watching the bun of hair on top of her head lose the law of gravity and

spiral free into waves of long brown hair falling down her back. It was

light brown hair, with strands of honey and russet intertwined.

And
. . . he had seen it before.
“She asked after you, your grace. She

asked if ye be married.”

The sound of Nell’s voice filled Law’s mind as he watched the lady

scamper from his house. He had lost the choice to stop her moments ago,

when he had broken away from her, instead of clinging to what she might

offer. Damn his reasoning mind to hell! However, he knew he would

appreciate it better later, when he could think more clearly, when he

could think with his mind and not his cock.
A cock still rigid with lust

that he gingerly set back into his trousers, buttoning the fall front. Then,

he strode forward grasping his top hat and coat as he strode out the open

front doorway of his townhouse. He would not accost the lady or be

accosted by her again, yet at the same time he would not allow her to

travel home unattended. At least, he severely told himself these were his

reasons for following hidden behind her, until she made it to her resi-

dence some five blocks away.

But of course, the fact still remained that he now knew where she

lived.

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“I wish I were you!” Caprice declared, nodding her head so firmly

that the lustrous black waves of her hair bounced around her pretty, yet

plump oval face.

“It is sso daring,” Brevity lisped excitedly, with her pixie like beauty

animated in the glow of her periwinkle blue eyes.

“So
plucky,” Diversity proclaimed, while her six-foot tall hourglass

figure paced with suppressed energy behind the settee Brevity and

Caprice sat upon.

Affinity gazed hopefully at her friends from where she sat across

from them in Brevity’s front parlor. She had not told her friends every-

thing about her investigation of Law and the subsequent encounter with

him. Some of the events were too intimate and too private. But, she

needed their help.

“I am so completely jealous,” Caprice said.

“I sso envy you,” Brevity lisped wistfully.

“And, I wish I were half so brave,” Diversity declared, coming to

halt in her pacing with her hands on her hips as though she were

overseeing hard-pressed workers. “To take your life in hand, and to shape

the events . . .”

“It is the thing to do!” Caprice exclaimed. “We cannot sit here on our

behinds and all become old maids.”

“Which is what will happen if we do not do ssomething,” Brevity

said anxiously

“Tell us more of these extraordinary ideas, Affinity,” Diversity said.

“Oh,
do tell us more of what happened with the duke!” Caprice

added, enthusiastically.

“I am desperate,” Affinity announced. “I am not going to lose what

I have gained,
but
. . .”

“But, what?” Diversity asked, immediately prodding her.

“But . . . ,” Affinity hesitated again, chewing her bottom lip. A

person had to be quite brave in all matters to take life into their hands, or

they had to be mad. But she certainly had incentive now, where before it

had only been a half-formed dream. So, she found herself blurting quite

boldly,
“Sex,
ladies! I
desperately
need to know about sex before I

advance.”

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Affinity was certain that if she had been a sexual veteran, events

would have turned out momentously different than they had. She had no

intention of being on the short end of sexual knowledge during the next

meeting with Law. And, there would
be
another meeting! But right now

there just had to be a way for a young lady to discover the practical

applications of sexual play. The encounters, she had read about in Law’s

journal were explicit, but maddingly incomplete, and now she also knew

with all her heart that sexual relations were of paramount importance

between a man and a woman. Perhaps the most important, and certainly

not her knowledge of boxing. Although, she had been studying boxing

and teaching herself to play chess, while she read Mystery Island.

“Sex!” Caprice proclaimed, outright.

“SSex, Sex!” Brevity and Diversify both piped in right after Caprice,

and Affinity knew that her friends did this
so
stalwartly and loudly to

keep her from feeling embarrassed.

“It
must be on the top of the list about how to seduce a man and

completely capture his attention,” Affinity said seriously.

“We need to form a group! A bold and forthright group, not afraid

to dare anything in our quest to interest men,” Diversity said.

“Oh,
just like they call men rogues sometimes, they—,” Caprice

started, then was thoroughly interrupted by Brevity’s squeal of excite-

ment.

“Roguesss!” Brevity exclaimed, with a harder hiss to her lisp than

normal in her excitement. “The Lady Roguess!”

“That is it!” Diversity nearly shouted. “Just like men have their

groups for sometimes open reasons and sometimes nefarious reasons. We

shall have ours!”

Then all three of Affinity’s friends declared with three voices be-

coming one, “The Lady Rogues!” as they all looked at Affinity with hope

and determination.

Well, why not,
Affinity thought? This
was
just what they all needed,

and she began nodding her head slowly. The plan had merit, four together

would be stronger and more inventive than one.

Then, she looked up at all of them with more determination than joy,

as she said decisively, “Yes!” Her three friends cheered as she stood and

started to pace. “Now we must vow as one that there is nothing we will

not consider doing, just this side of murder,” she said.

They all nodded, then Caprice said, “We must vow to think and act

outside of our normal social conformities.”

“And, we must utilize our wit and our intelligence,” Diversity added.

“And, we must be each others ssupport in anything we do,” Brevity

said

“Exactly,” Affinity announced. “ And, that will be the start of the

Lady Rogues motto until each one of us has found the man of our dreams

and has him secured.” Affinity dusted her hands together. “Now, ladies,

our first mission is to become sexual experts like no woman of our social

33

standing would ever dare to do. It can only help each one of us in our

quests, and I believe that it will give us all a momentous upper hand,”

Affinity paused. “Now the larger question is how?”

“We do not want superficial knowledge. We already have that,”

Caprice said.

“So asking older women of our acquaintance is out,” Diversity said.

“I cannot imagine they are anything but stiff and suffering like martyrs.”

“Gentlemen, sshould know,” Brevity said. “Any man sshould, but I

cannot ssee any of us finding one we could sspeak to about it.”

“A woman seems preferable.” Affinity said. “An older woman. I can

only think of prostitutes or madames—.”

“Yes!” Diversity exclaimed, interrupting Affinity. “A madame

would be perfect. Think of all that we could learn. Why, she would

actually teach us the art of it.”

“But, how does one find a madame?” Brevity asked.

“Or approach a madame?” Caprice echoed.

“Hmm.” Affinity paused. “ I do not think we could just go to her

establishment. That would appear at first glance to be out of the question.

However, we should not overlook it entirely. We
are
daring now,”

Affinity said with positive tones.

“I could try to trick a name from my brother,” Caprice said. “I am

certain he knows a name and I know that I could do it without him

realizing.”

“A name is paramount,” Affinity agreed.

“And, we can use Able, my butler and all about man to deliver

messages. You all know how loyal he is to me, ssince my parents died

sso long ago,” Brevity said.

“If we send a forthright note stating clearly what we desire, in

addition to the promise of a hefty fee if she agrees, that could do it,”

Affinity said, looking around for agreement from all, which she received.

“Well then, Lady Rogues, this shall be our first daring adventure!”

34

“I had my faithful Able deliver the message to Madame Vivian

DeJonge jusst as we all agreed. I know Able must have wondered, but

you all know how loyal he iss to me,” Brevity said, to the three young

ladies sitting nervously in her sitting room.

Affinity barely heard Brevity’s ever present lisping, it was so normal

to her now. It was frightfully sad that the other ladies of London society,

the younger and pompous ones especially, could not be so compassion-

ate. Their ridicule of Brevity for her lisp and pixie like stature was a

binding reason she was a member of their secretly conceived group the

Lady Rogues. Brevity’s lisp, Caprice’s plump weight, and Diversity’s

statuesque tallness were the beginnings of a long list that seemed to

portray them as outcasts in this year or any year of the London season.

But we are not having it,
Affinity reminded herself firmly. They

were the Lady Rogues now and with that adventurous and bold name

attached, they would outwit all of them. Between them, they had decided

to treat Madame DeJonge with respect and equality, even to treat her a

tad grandly. It could not hurt to start out on the high road as none of them

had a clue how to treat a Madame, who was the procuress of ladies for

the
sole
purpose of gentlemens pleasure and fornication.

And just the word fornication sent shivers down Affinity’s spine . .

. all because she
had
held a stout and hot fornication rod in her hand.

And, she vowed she would do so again!

So the formal tea was set before them as she and her friends ner-

vously awaited the promised arrival of Madame DeJonge into Brevity’s

luxuriant front parlor. At times Brevity’s parentless state and hefty