Free Purr by Paisley Smith Page B

everything Giselle had shared with her, a
shudder tore through Arabella at the other woman’s touch. This woman held some
sort of sexual power over them all that rattled Arabella to the core. She
gnawed her bottom lip, desperately wanting to rock her hips toward the taboo
touch.
    With a dark chuckle, the komtesse withdrew her finger and
slid it between her rouged lips. “Mmm…”
    Arabella trembled so badly she could hardly stay put. The
memory of Petra’s ordeal flashed like a nightmare in her head, both titillating
and terrifying. Becoming a kitten would make escape far more difficult, for the
kittens were watched closely. And yet…
    The promise of slaking the ragged edge of her desire loomed
like a beacon from which she couldn’t turn away.
    A more sensible part of her realized she didn’t have a
choice in this matter, and intuition told her the komtesse would brook no
refusal.
    “What about you, dear? Would you like to be one of my
kittens?” the komtesse purred.
    “Yes, my Mistress,” Arabella managed, her voice faltering.
    “Very well,” the komtesse said, rising. “The initiations
will take place tomorrow.”
    Her wide skirts brushed Arabella’s legs as she passed by on
the way out of the den. Arabella stared after her, painfully aware of the
hateful looks shot at her by the other attendants, many of whom had been at
Katzenhalle far longer.
    Immediately Karin began to gloat. She clapped her hands
together and squealed with delight. “I’m to be a kitten! I’m to be a kitten !”
    Eva, the girl who’d trained Arabella, snorted. “I’ve been
here months longer than either of you.”
    Helga appeared. “There’ll be no arguing. The komtesse has
made her choices.”
    Dejected, Eva sulked out of the den.
    Arabella gazed at the dais, suddenly terrified of what was
to come. Images of Petra—bent to receive all manner of erotic
punishments—filled her thoughts. The initiation had seemed sensual to watch. Receiving would be an entirely different matter.
    Pity flashed in Helga’s eyes.
    “I couldn’t have denied her, could I?” Arabella asked
brazenly.
    “No,” Helga muttered.
    * * * * *
    Arabella lay awake, staring at the ceiling. No matter how
tired she was, sleep would not come.
    A soft knock sounded on her door before it opened and
Giselle’s nude silhouette appeared.
    Sitting, Arabella gasped. “Come in before anyone sees you,”
she whispered.
    Giselle closed the door behind her. “What are you thinking?
You can’t become a kitten!” Her face looked stricken.
    “She singled me out. I didn’t feel as if I had a choice,”
Arabella defended.
    Raking her fingers through her lustrous locks, Giselle
sighed. “I suppose not. But it will make it far more difficult to escape.”
    Arabella stood and closed the distance between them. She
covered Giselle’s lips with her fingers. “Hush. Would you want anyone to hear
you?”
    She removed her fingers and Giselle shook her head. “It’s
just that…that I can’t bear the thought of another woman putting her hands on
you.”
    “Do you mean that?” Arabella asked.
    Giselle tucked a strand of hair behind Arabella’s ear.
“Yes.”
    Arabella couldn’t help herself. In spite of the rules, she
brushed her lips against Giselle’s, softly at first and then with bruising
force. Arabella wanted out of her night rail. She wanted to feel the kitten’s
skin against her own, to touch and kiss every inch of her body, to taste a
woman’s sex for the first time in her life.
    Ending the kiss, Arabella pulled her garment over her head
and dropped it on the floor.
    “If we’re discovered, we’ll be killed,” Giselle said, even
as she moved toward the small bed.
    Arabella did not respond. Any words that came to mind only
sounded melodramatic and reckless. Instead, she moved over the other woman’s
body and kissed her. Her skin felt like smooth satin, her lips like the softest
rose petals. She wanted to know this sweetness, this innocent coming