Lucy and the Doctors (9 page)

“I’ve never felt so inept in my life,” Thomas said miserably. “How could we have been so wrong about this young woman?”

“I agree,” Benedict said. “Things certainly aren’t as they seem. We underestimated her maturity. And her passion.”

“Indeed we did,” Dr. Allard said fretfully. “How ironic is it that we were told Lucy suffered from nymphomania, ruled it out upon examination, and now find that she is afflicted after all.”

Dr. Crane was about to take a sip of his drink. Now he looked at his friend with a shocked expression. “What? You think she’s a nymphomaniac?”

Dr. Allard stared at him. “Well… of course. And you obviously see it as well. You yourself just said we underestimated her passion.”

“You misunderstand me!” Benedict put down his drink and faced his friend. “I’m not agreeing that Lucy suffers from nymphomania, Thomas. I’m disputing it!”

“Disputing it?” Thomas shook his head in bewilderment. “Did you not hear her? She touches herself daily. Sometimes more than once!”

“And why, Thom?” his friend shot back. “For want of a feeling we introduced her to! Don’t you see?
We
sparked her passion!
We
did this to her! And every night she burns with need for what we awakened, and has discovered that touching herself is the only way to relieve the ache! Is it really fair to call that a sickness? What man would not want a woman to yearn for his touch? Isn’t that kind of passion what we have sought to instill in frigid women?”

Dr. Allard rubbed his chin nervously as he rose from his chair and began to pace. “But all the studies so far on nymphomania. She has all the signs of all that’s written…”

“But remember, it’s all been written by men, Thomas.”

Dr. Allard stopped and eyed his friend. “What are you saying? That there is no such thing?”

“No. I’m not saying that,” Benedict replied. “Excessive desire can be a disorder. But have you ever noticed that physicians—ourselves included—only seem to see excessive passion as a female ailment?”

“Oh, Ben…” Thomas scoffed, but his friend continued.

“No, think on it!” Benedict pressed. “Neither of us are virgins, and in our younger years we were quite randy! How do you think you’d have perceived a woman with an appetite that matched your own?”

“That’s different!” Thomas said, but his tone was defensive and he knew it. “Women are…”

“What?” Dr. Crane arched an elegant eyebrow and then sighed. “They are people of passion, too. I’ve seen it time and time again. If anything kills passion in a woman it is being scolded for it. How many tinctures and boluses have we given to urge a patient’s passion beyond the convention that restrains them?

“And here’s our Lucy. Our sweet, innocent, honest Lucy. She knows nothing of what a man and a woman do, so sheltered has she been. She only knows that the skilled touch of men she cares for feeds a hunger she never knew existed. She’s unspoiled, Thom. She’s
entirely
unspoiled, and that has made her the best subject on nymphomania. For in her honesty, I believe she’s showing us what we’re getting wrong about it, at least where females are concerned.”

Thomas was quiet for a moment. “Perhaps you are right, Ben. In fact, I’d say you are probably right. But we both know that we can’t publish such a paper. We’d be accused of sanctioning women in following their desires. It’s an idea ahead of its time.”

“Sod the damned study,” his friend said. “At this moment I’m more concerned about Lucy. She needs relief, Thomas. She spoke the truth earlier. While we keep her as a child, she is still a woman. We have unlocked her woman’s needs, even if that was not our intention.”

“Yes. You’re right.” Thomas nodded. “I have a tonic we could give her. It would dull her senses…”

“Dull her senses?” Benedict all but leapt from his chair, anger in his voice. “Are you really suggesting that we cool her natural passions by unnatural means when it was our touch that awakened them? Are we to punish her anew by teaching her that her feelings are a source of shame, and expect her to go on to function as a healthy partner to her husband?”

Thomas’ tone was exasperated when he replied. “What choice do we have, Benedict? These feelings won’t subside otherwise! How can we keep her here without relief? Do not criticize me without offering other options.”

“I do have another option, Thomas.” Benedict grew quiet for a moment as his friend looked at him questioningly. When he spoke again, his voice was quiet. “Marriage to one who has awakened that passion.”

“Marriage?” Thomas choked out the word. He swirled the ice in his glass as he gazed around the room thoughtfully. “I’d not even thought of taking a wife, but perhaps it’s time…”

“No, not to you, Thomas. But to me.”

“To you?” Thomas looked in shock at his friend. “No, Benedict. It was I who decided to start this research project. It is my fault that Lucy came here from St. Bart’s. I should be the one…”

“It hardly matters,” Benedict interrupted. “We both went to retrieve her. We have both touched her. We have both awakened her. I was the one who proposed the idea of marriage. I should be the one to marry Lucy. We’ll end the study first, of course. It would most certainly violate ethics for me to marry a subject we were both working with.”

“No!” Thomas repeated. “I won’t stand for it!”

“And why not?” Benedict pressed. “Because for all your talk of objectivity you’re as smitten as I am with her? At least I’m honest enough to stand here and admit that I’ve fallen in love with the girl. Yes, Thomas. I’m in love with our little Lucy Priven, and I want her to have her wish to remain here.”

“You’re quite some friend,” Thomas said quietly. “Has it occurred to you that I feel the same, only I’ve been more careful to balance my affections for Lucy with my professional responsibilities?” His voice was pained as he spoke. “And for that you offer me a life of seeing her married to my best friend? If you think seeing her joined in marriage to any man—even a dear friend—will diminish my love for her, then you have sorely misjudged me, Ben. Besides, what of her? She hasn’t even been asked.”

Benedict sighed and ran his hand through his dark hair. “I’m sorry, Thom. Of course you are right. It is wrong for me to just announce my intentions. It’s wrong to you, and it’s wrong to Lucy. We should give her the chance to choose between us, and the one she chooses will have to set up house somewhere else with her, to at least diminish the pain of loss to the other. But she will have to choose.”

From across the room a noise got their attention and both men turned, wondering at the same moment how long Lucy had been standing there listening. She’d changed from her dress into her shift, and her hair was unbound and flowing about her shoulders.

“Lucy,” Benedict said. “How long have you been in the doorway?”

“Long enough to hear what you said,” she replied. “And long enough for me to make the choice you say must be made.”

Stepping into the room, she walked to the front of the fireplace and turned around to face them.

“You have told me that as your legal ward, you have custody of me, and that I can live with you as long as I wish. I do not desire to be the woman you would marry, but rather to remain the woman you would keep forever as your little Lucy. It is what makes me happiest, being kept as a child. But I know that I am also a woman, and now I know that you have awakened in me a woman’s needs. Please don’t force me to deny them any longer.”

Then, as the men watched in rapt attention, in one graceful, perfect movement, Lucy slipped the shift down and off. She was naked underneath, and her body all but glowed in the firelight.

“I choose both of you,” she said with bold candor. “And think of me what you will, but I cannot wait another moment for you to take me as your own.”

Chapter Nine: Claiming Lucy

“Oh, Lucy… you can’t…” Even though he was objecting, the need was apparent in Dr. Allard’s voice. Beside him, her other guardian stood staring, his gaze intense but unreadable.

“And why not?” she asked, spreading her hands out as if in supplication. “You’ve already seen me. You’ve already touched me. I’m already yours! To send me away will be to condemn me to a life of unhappiness—to condemn
all
of us to a life of unhappiness. Or are you to both now deny the truth I heard you speak, which is that you love and desire me as much as I love and desire you?”

Thomas walked over to Lucy, and when he reached her his gaze swept down her body to fall on the shift pooled at her feet. For a moment she expected him to pull it back up over her, but what he did completely surprised her.

She’d not expected the kiss he gave her, his lips gentle on hers as he cupped her face between his large hands. Lucy had never seen him smoke a pipe, but could taste the hint of cherry tobacco combined with the smoky bitterness of the Scotch he’d been drinking. She moaned against his mouth, and her moan deepened when Dr. Crane suddenly appeared behind her, moved the curtain of hair gently over her shoulder, and dropped a kiss on the side of her neck.

A moment later, all three fell silent as the two doctors faced one another over the top of her fair head. Lucy said nothing as they spoke.

“She’s right, Ben. In the eyes of the law, she’s already ours. We have custody, transferred to us by Dr. Litman at St. Bart’s. Under the law her age isn’t a factor. She’ll remain in our custody until we end or transfer it. She loves us. And we love her.”

Dr. Crane nodded. “We’ve shared so much as it is—a home, our fortunes, research, our careers. It’s all mingled.” He looked down at Lucy. “Why not share her? Should something happen to one of us, she’ll always have the other. We’ve always been private. No one needs to know.”

“And no one will,” Dr. Allard said quietly. “And it’s not because we’re ashamed, Lucy, only because it would certainly raise questions of decorum.”

She nodded. “I understand. But it is no business but our own. Our love is a private thing.” Lucy turned as she spoke to look up at Benedict, who tipped up her chin to offer her his first kiss as well. This one was different, his tongue parting her lips to probe hers as Thomas’ hands moved around to cover and massage her breasts, bringing her nipples to hard, aching peaks under his palms.

She could feel the throbbing start anew in her pussy, stronger than ever, as wetness trickled down the inside of her thighs. Something hard was pressing against her bottom, and she had a fleeting memory of Judge Bonham’s soft, pudgy lump pushing against her, and instinctively knew that what she felt now was the healthy reaction of an aroused man. She pushed back, her sensitive buttocks seeming to increase the hardness nudging against them. And there was another sensation now as Benedict’s hands slipped around to part the cleft of her pussy, his fingers sliding up the slick folds of skin to finally touch the spot that ached the most—the spot she’d discovered with her own fingers not long after relentless memories of the exam led her to ease her own growing sexual tension. His expert manipulation of that little bud of desire quickly had Lucy crying out as her body shuddered violently with the most exquisite sensation she’d ever known. Both men were pressing against her now, as they took turns plundering her mouth with their tongues. Hands roamed her body, leaving a trail of heated pleasure in their wake.

“Lucy…” Benedict’s voice seemed to come to her as if in a dream. “Do you know what it is to be taken by a man?”

“No,” she said. “Not entirely. I only know I want more of you…” she pushed her hips against him, not caring whether it made her seem wanton, “…more of
this
.”

Thomas stepped away now and Benedict, still standing behind her, wrapped his arms around Lucy as she watched her tall, dark-haired guardian remove his vest and shirt in the firelight of the study. His upper body was well muscled, his torso lean. He removed his shoes and then his pants. There was a nest of sandy-colored hair at the apex of his long, muscular legs, and from it sprung a fleshy probe that bent upward toward his belly. The head of it was flared, with a slit from which oozed a pearlescent drop of liquid. For some reason, the sight of it caused Lucy’s pussy to clench.

“That is a cock, Lucy,” Thomas was saying, and the heat of his breath on her ear made her moan. “It is what a man puts inside a woman, and we will both put ours in you, in your pussy. And later, as you become more experienced in the ways of sex, even in your sweet mouth and your bottom.”

She flushed with pleasure at this carnal disclosure. To think they would use her so!

“Will it hurt?” she asked.

“Only a bit, for you do have the barrier of virginity to be yet dispensed with. But heightened arousal will lessen the discomfort, and between the two of us… well, sweet Lucy, I don’t think working your body to a fever pitch will be too difficult.”

Benedict stepped back now and began to undress as Lucy watched with bold, childlike innocence mixed with a woman’s excitement. She observed and noted the differences. Benedict was taller, and slightly paler. Where Thomas had a sprinkling of downy hair across his chest, Benedict’s chest was smooth. Only a line of hair ran from his navel to the top of the pants that he was now shucking off.

The line of hair ended at a darker thatch of hair than what Thomas boasted. And the manhood rising from its midst was not so thick, but was longer. Lucy’s eyes widened as Benedict’s hand wrapped around the base of it. The hard shaft in his hand seemed to increase in size as he pulled on it.

“See how it grows, sweet Lucy? It’s in response to you. Just as your pussy aches to be filled, our cocks ache to fill it. That’s why you get wet, to ease the way. It’s your body’s way of welcoming us.”

“Oh,” she said, staring. Her tongue darted out and she licked her lips as she looked from one man to the other. Their cocks were so… big. How would they possibly fit?

“Don’t fret,” Thomas said as if reading her mind. “We’ll fit very nicely inside of you. You’ll see.”

“And we’ll make sure you’re more than prepared.” Benedict walked over and scooped her up in his arms. Gently, he laid her on the sofa. Both men were kneeling beside her now.