The Price of Desire (17 page)

Nobody was rising up to claim her.

Gareth Hughes, though, was looking remarkably thoughtful. “If I hadn’t had Cora in my arms just half a minute ago, I would swear it was her,” he said. “She has Cora’s hair, her height, her shape, and most of all her delightful lack of clothing. All of it screams Cora. But it can’t be her.” He held up the chemise that he had pulled off her body. “I have her forfeit here.”

A dark suspicion was brooding in Dominic’s mind. The last person he would expect to see cavorting so confidently behind the curtain, striking wanton poses with such insouciance, was his Caroline. But hadn’t Cora Hughes been attired exactly the opposite to what Gareth had expected?

He stood up and gestured at the others. “Ordinarily I would never believe she would be my Caroline,” he began. “The hair is too long, for a start. But we have all seen on Mrs. Hughes what a difference a wig can make.”

“Damn near played me for a fool,” Gareth Hughes growled.

“I don’t think she is Caroline. I really don’t. She looks nothing like her, moves nothing like her. And I cannot imagine Caroline parading behind a curtain wearing nothing but a garter.” He paused for a moment. “Which is why I am so sure it
is
her. If you are Caroline, come out and show yourself. You owe me a forfeit.”

Caroline heard Dominic’s words with a sinking feeling in her breast. Their elaborate disguise had been all for nothing. He had found her out.

Shyly she poked her head around the curtain. “You shall have your forfeit,” she said, fumbling with the garter around her leg.

A growl of disappointment went around the gentlemen. “Not so fast,” Dominic said. “Come on out where we can all see you.”

Caroline lifted her head high and stepped out from behind the curtain, her arms at her sides, feeling truly like a courtesan, a beautiful and desirable courtesan, for the first time. If Dominic wanted to show her off before the company, then she would show herself proudly. She would not stoop to vainly trying to hide as much of herself as she could behind her hands.

Dominic beckoned her over to stand in front of him.

She could feel the eyes of the men in the room on her as she walked obediently over and stood before him, nose-to-nose. The knowledge that every man’s gaze was firmly on her burned away her shyness. They wanted her. At that moment all of them wanted her. They would be hard in their trousers with the sight of her and they all ached to own her, to possess her.

With a growing sense of power, she could feel the waves of lust rolling off them as she displayed herself to them all. Their desire for her stoked her own lust. Though it was warm in the room, her nipples were peaked into hard buds that longed to be fondled. In between her thighs she could feel the telltale wetness begin to seep out of her pussy at the thought of all the cocks in that room, hard as stone for her.

“You tried to make a fool out of all of us.” Dominic’s words were harsh, but the tone of his voice was like a lover’s caress. “All of you women did.”

“You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear,” she retorted. “We merely decided to work with what we had.”

His glare turned into an outright scowl. “Give me my forfeit, woman.”

She pushed him back into his chair and placed her foot on his knee. “Take it for yourself.”

He gave a hiss of indrawn breath as he looked at her standing in front of him, her pussy wide open, its wetness plainly visible. His fingers trembled as he pulled the pale blue garter down her thigh and over her foot. “Are you trying to kill me, Caroline?” he murmured as he blindly took his prize. His eyes seemed to be glued in place, looking at her, open in invitation. “I want to fuck you so damn badly I’m about to disgrace myself in the middle of the company and come in my trousers just from looking at your wet pussy.”

She drew one finger through her nest of curls, wetting it with her juice, and then placed it on his lips as he gazed at her, completely stunned. “Later, Dominic, later,” she promised in a sultry voice. Then she took her foot off his knee and gave him a saucy wink before she sauntered off again. If she was to act like Mrs. Hughes, she might as well carry it off until the bitter end.

Dominic sat immobile for a moment, the taste of Caroline on his lips. He would never have dreamed it possible that she would act like such a wanton, that she would show off her nakedness with such aplomb, and then touch herself openly while others watched her every movement.

By God, he was a lucky man. She was more desirable than any other woman here, and more packed with guile than a basketful of snakes.

He owed her a punishment for her trickery in trying to pretend she was Cora Hughes. She had given him a forfeit, and he would make her pay to regain her garter.

He smiled to himself. Oh, yes, he would make her pay.

The other women had already dressed themselves. Caroline threw on her pantalettes and chemise as quickly as she could and hurriedly fastened her gown over the top. By the look in Dominic’s eyes when she left him moments ago, she was due some retribution for the trick she had played on him.

Not that she and Cora were solely responsible for the men’s failure to guess their identities, but they were the only two who had been found out and had to pay a forfeit. The ire of the whole group would be taken out on them.

As soon as she had buckled her slippers back on her feet, Mrs. Hughes took her arm and the pair of them entered the room, trailing behind the others. The curtain had been removed and the men stood on one side, their faces as grim as avenging angels.

Mrs. Bertram was seated by the basket of forfeits. “Welcome back, ladies. And may I congratulate you all on your superb performances. You nearly tricked them all.”

“We got two of them,” Mr. Hughes growled. “And now we are going to make those two pay, even though we can’t touch the rest of them.”

Dominic stepped forward. “Caroline first, as she was the last to be guessed.”

Mrs. Bertram nodded her agreement and picked Caroline’s garter out of the pile. “Here is a thing, and a very pretty thing,” she called. “What shall be done by the owner of this very pretty thing?” She looked around the room at the gentlemen gathered there. “What say you, Mr. Savage, who found her out? What price will you demand for the return of this pretty garter?”

There was a quick conference among the men and then Dominic spoke. “It is agreed that she shall choose one of three signs.” The wicked light in his eye did not bode well.

Nervously, Caroline stood in front of Mrs. Bertram and allowed a scarf to be bound over her eyes.

Dominic stood behind her. “This is the first sign,” he called out.

Caroline could not see or sense what motion he was making—a kiss, a pinch, or a box on the ear. Whatever she chose was what she would receive from all the company.

“The second sign.”

A ripple of laughter went around the room, but Caroline could see nothing. She waited in darkness until he spoke again. “This is the third sign.”

The ripple of laughter expanded into a wave, spilling out every corner of the room.

She licked her lips. “I choose sign number one.”

She pulled the blindfold off her eyes and wheeled around to face Mrs. Bertram. “I do not trust Mr. Savage to tell me the truth. What was the first sign? What forfeit must I pay?”

Mrs. Bertram shook her head sorrowfully. “I’m afraid the first sign was that for a spanking.”

Dominic took her hand and pulled her over to a sofa. “And a well-deserved spanking it will be.”

“You men are simply poor losers,” she protested. Though she had chosen what was likely the worst sign of the three, she wasn’t in the least bit afraid of paying the forfeit. Gentlemen never smacked a lady. The worst she could expect would be a light rap on her knuckles.

Her confidence turned to dismay when Dominic upended her over his knee and flipped her skirts above her waist. “Put me down,” she squealed, trying in vain to pull her skirts down over her pantalettes again. “This is not funny.” She had exposed herself all she was going to for one day.

Dominic had other ideas. “A spanking on your bare bum is what you deserve,” he said, holding her effortlessly across his knee. “And it’s what you’re going to get. Will someone volunteer to hold this wildcat down while I take down her pantalettes?” He said this last to the men, who were standing around watching his struggle with smirks on their faces.

A couple of the men stepped forward. “I guess since I can’t punish my wife for her tricks, I will have to make do with yours instead,” one of them said, grabbing hold of her legs in an iron grip before she could kick him away.

“Exactly my sentiments,” the other replied, pinning down her arms so she could not move.

“Thank you, gentlemen.” Dominic’s hands snaked around her front toward the fastening of her pantalettes, pulling on the ribbons that tied them together.

This was not the sort of forfeit she had expected to have to pay. Dominic would not get away with this as easily as he’d counted on. She tried to wriggle and squirm out of their grip but couldn’t break free.

She shivered as her pantalettes were slowly pulled down her immobile legs, exposing her bottom to the whole room.

“What a fine rump for a spanking.” Having dismissed his helpers with his thanks, Dominic held her down with one hand and caressed her bare bottom with the other. “I suppose I must be polite and invite you ladies to go first.”

One after the other the ladies lined up to spank her, giving her baby taps with the tips of their fingers, taps that would not have hurt a sparrow.

“Now that that farce of a forfeit is out of the way,” Dominic said, his voice dripping with disgust, “let the real spanking begin. Men, spank her as you think she deserves.”

The first slap on her bare bottom made her flesh burn hot and caused her to squeal in indignation. “Ow, that hurt.” Forfeits were not supposed to be painful. Embarrassing, maybe, but never more than that.

Her punisher gave a satisfied cackle. “Good. It was meant to.” He followed up his first blow with half a dozen more, all of them equally as hard as the first. “That will serve you for playing tricks on us.”

As the blows rained down on her bottom, her squirms grew wilder and more frantic, but she could not escape. Dominic held her too tightly for that.

By the time all the men but Dominic had rained spanks down on her, her bottom was stinging, but not in any painful way. To her dismay, the spanking had excited her. By the time they had finished with her, her squirming was more for show than from any desire to escape her punishment.

“What do you think, Caroline?” Dominic ran one hand over her beaten rump and nudged it between her legs to caress her there. “Have you been punished enough?”

“More than enough,” she panted, renewing her struggles to rise. If he touched her like that, she would compound her embarrassment one hundred fold by coming as she lay over his knee.

“Are you sure you don’t want just a little more?” With one hand he stroked her pussy while with the other he smacked her lightly on her rump.

“Dominic, please.” She didn’t know whether she was begging for him to stop or to keep going with his torture.

“You’re so wet,” he whispered. “I think you enjoyed your punishment. I think you enjoyed having all those men smack you on the backside, one after the other.”

By now she was beyond answering him coherently. All her thoughts were focused on her pussy, on the mindless delight that was coming nearer with every stroke of his fingers.

“I think you are excited by being smacked and caressed. I think you’re about to come, right here, right now.” As he spoke, he thrust two of his fingers right into her.

Despite her embarrassment, she couldn’t hold back any longer. She arched her back and gave a guttural cry as her orgasm swept over her, before collapsing, boneless, back onto Dominic’s lap.

He withdrew his dripping fingers and gave her backside one last caress. “The forfeit is paid,” he said, pulling up her pantalettes and flipping her skirts back over her backside. “Caroline has been duly punished.”

Gareth chuckled with anticipation. “That makes it Cora’s turn to choose the sign. Come, Mrs. Hughes, and on with the blindfold. Time to redeem your forfeit.”

Caroline watched as Cora tied the blindfold over her face. Mr. Hughes stood behind her and made the signs that Cora would have to choose between. The first sign was a kiss, nothing peculiar in that. For the second sign he opened his mouth, stuck his tongue out and made as if he were licking something. The third sign was a thrusting motion with his fingers.

Caroline gasped as the import of the signs he was making hit home. Being spanked in public was shameful enough, but what Mr. Hughes was suggesting seemed far worse. Was he really offering Mrs. Hughes up to be touched so intimately as easily as that? And would she not run from such a prospect?

“I choose the second sign,” Cora announced.

A murmur of excitement ran through the room. Mr. Hughes just grinned at her and said nothing.

“Well, tell me what I have chosen,” she demanded.

“You have chosen a kiss,” he replied.

To Caroline’s surprise, Cora’s face fell slightly. “Just a kiss?” she asked.

“In a very particular place,” he amended. “You have chosen to have your pretty pussy kissed by everyone in the room. Make yourself ready to pay your forfeit.”

Without hesitation, Cora removed her pantalettes and arrayed herself on the sofa, her arms flung back over her head, her skirts around her waist and her legs wide open. “Come kiss me,” she said, her voice full of anticipation. “I’m ready to pay.”

Caroline’s heart skipped a beat. Were all of them supposed to lick Cora’s pussy? The women as well as the men? She had never heard of such a thing.

Her unspoken question was soon answered as one of the women knelt between Cora’s legs and applied her tongue industriously to Cora’s nub as Cora moaned in pleasure and thrust her hips forward in encouragement.