Dr Casswell's Student by Sarah Fisher Page B

insides of my thighs.
    I could feel the colour rushing to my cheeks, imagining the picture I presented to my lord, huddled there under the canopy of trees like some wild forest spirit, a creature of passion, reduced to the very essence of being.
    My lord’s eyes were dark with unspent desire. He circled me while Lord Usher adjusted his clothing.
    ‘’Tis a fine prize you have there,’ Usher said to my master. ‘When you are weary of her, perhaps you will consider a trade.’
    But his voice seemed no more than a bird call on the wind, as distant as the sound of the tide upon a foreign shore, for as our eyes met there seemed to be just the two of us; only I and my lord caught together by this dark alchemy. Nothing Orme or the Lord Usher can ever do to me will match the passion I feel for my master.
    He caught hold of my hair and jerked me up. As our lips met I felt my heart soar and my stomach flutter. It makes no sense; what spell is this, what unholy magic is it that binds me so tight to him, this man who humiliates me and having stole my virtue brings me into such debauchery?
    He kissed me hard, his tongue driving deep into my mouth as if to seek out the seed of his compatriot, and then he dropped me back onto the grass, and slipped off his belt. My pulse raced as I watched him wind the buckled end around his fist, leaving the other hanging like a livid tongue. And as he did he asked who I considered to be my master. Is this some game, some ritual to entrap me?
    I answered him as before. ‘Why you, sir. You know I am pledged to serve you and your family.’
    And then he laughed, momentarily easing the tension between us. ‘I had thought, Beatrice, that your powers would be diluted once you were broken, but it seems I have underestimated you. What a prize you are, sweet little Beatrice. I am to be your master in all things. Your body, your very soul belongs to me now. Do you understand?’
    I nodded. How well I understood.
    His voice lowered a little and the humour left his eyes; desire returning like the moon’s rise. ‘I will teach you how a maid should truly serve her master.’
    I knew I had heard these words before. These were the things he had said in his chamber. But before I could reply the broad leather belt exploded across my rump. I screamed out in pain and surprise as the raw fire spread out like a molten veil across my flesh.
    ‘Trust me, Beatrice, trust me and give yourself to me completely,’ he murmured breathlessly as the next stroke found its mark. ‘So brazen – so ripe. I already know you are mine to command. Give yourself to me and I will not betray your trust. I will show you paradise. You are mine now, do you understand?’
    ‘Yes, yes,’ I sobbed, as the belt cracked out again. What did he want me to say? Through the haze of pain I wondered whether Usher and Orme had stayed to watch this final act – or once their own passions were spent had their interest waned?
    The belt found its mark again and again, and with each stroke I screamed. Even now my body glows white-hot with the memory of that cruel unspeakable hunger, which the kiss of the leather both fed and created.
    By all the saints I craved to feel him against me then, buried to the hilt in my quim, which craved the sweet release of a climax. And as my body reached out for that pinnacle my master dropped the belt and threw me to the ground.
    Gathering up my ragged skirt, he lifted my hips and drove his cock deep inside me. The ferocity of his entry took my breath away. He gripped my shoulders and pulled me up, so that I knelt astride him, and while his fingers clawed at my raw back he drove deeper still.
    My naked breasts pressed tight against the cold leather of his waistcoat, my nipples brushing against the studded metal emblems of his house.
    It seems no more than an instant before we both reached that ancient ground where all reason is lost and all that remains is pure pleasure. I cried out with delight as the first waves