Page 121 of Enslaved
“When you win the race, I’ll know you are fully recovered.”
He made her eat a decent lunch, agreeing to spend the afternoon shopping only if she had second helpings.
“I’m still stodgy from breakfast,” she complained. “If I’d known you were a dictator, I wouldn’t have wed you!”
Their first stop was the jewelers, where they selected a wide gold wedding band. As he slipped it onto her finger, he said, “Now you can give me back my intaglio.”
Her face fell. “Oh dear, whatever did I do with it? Don’t tell me I lost it.” When she saw the look of dismay on his face, she said, “Just a minute, feel down in here.” She opened the top three buttons of her afternoon dress in saucy invitation. Mark dipped his fingers into her décolletage and drew out his emerald intaglio. The jeweler’s mouth gaped that the Earl of Bath and his lady were openly indulging in sexual byplay. He couldn’t wait to spread the news that at last the earl had chosen a countess.
“I never did buy those dining couches you suggested; however, Dearden has a pair in his shop. Would you care to have a look at them?”
“No, but you must grab them. I’m off to Madame Madeleine’s. Do you remember the costume of Goddess Diana I was wearing the first night we met?”
He rolled his eyes heavenward. “How could I forget?”
“We’ll dine in the Roman style tonight.”
He laughed. “I refuse to wear a toga.”
She went up on tiptoe and whispered in his ear, “Just bring your flagellum.”
He was reluctant to let her go off on her own, but knew he must overcome his apprehension. Diana needed complete freedom at the moment.
The Earl of Bath only bought the couches on the condition they be delivered immediately. When Dearden offered him congratulations on his marriage, Mark knew it wouldn’t be long before the news spread to everyone in town.
“Lady Diana, how lovely to see you again,” Madame Madeleine enthused, avid for a snippet of gossip about the girl who had disappeared into thin air, then reappeared so strangely.
“How lovely that you remember me,” Diana said with a straight face.
“How could I ever forget that you won the battle over the jade velvet gown?”
Diana smiled. “Not only did I get the gown, but I ended up with the earl as well.” She held up her hand to display her new wedding ring.
“Oh, your ladyship, how may I be of service?”
“Well, you do such lovely work; how would you like to create some rather unconventional garments for me?”
Mark and Diana decided to turn the dressing room adjoining their bedchamber into their own private dining room. Mr. Burke carried up a small table, which he set between the couches, then searched the other rooms for the reclining and elbow cushions Diana described. When Mark was out of earshot, she confided in Mr. Burke. “The costume I intend to wear is rather revealing. Would you mind terribly if I asked Nora to serve dinner tonight?”
“Not at all, your ladyship. Just remember she has more gaul than grace.”
Diana took her boxes from Madame Madeleine’s down to the peach-colored chamber so that Mark wouldn’t see what she planned to wear.
He fully expected to see her in the short, white tunic of the Roman goddess, Diana, and decided simply to wear his black velvet bedrobe since the dinner was to be a most intimate affair. To make her laugh, he carried a whip that resembled a flagellum. When he opened the adjoining door that led from their bedchamber, Diana was there ahead of him, posed upon her dining couch.
His black eyes widened with shock as they swept over her reclining figure with one impudent breast fully exposed. She was as composed as only a woman who was sure of her beauty could be. While his body reacted in a most pronounced manner, the earl wasn’t sure he wanted his wife to display herself in such a bold and wanton fashion.
He strode toward her without hesitation. When Diana saw the disapproval writ plainly on his dark visage, she lifted her arms and her lips for the kiss of greeting. He towered above her without touching her. “I’m not sure a countess should—”
She serenely lifted her lips to within an inch of his and said, “Don’t think of me as your countess, think of me as your slave.”
He groaned and covered her mouth hungrily. He pulled his mouth away. “You’ve done this before.”
“Mmmm,” she responded sensually.
He thrust his angry tongue into her hot, inviting mouth and felt his anger melting away. His cock stood up like a ramrod, lifting the black velvet.
Diana took the flagellum from his fingers. “You don’t need two weapons.”
