Free Fascinated by Marissa Day

warm, so good. But there wassomething else now, some new sensation brushing against her skin. At first Alicia thought it was sunlight, or perhaps the frantic rush of her blood as Edward’s hand continued to stroke her with such unending urgency, but it was not either. This was stranger and stronger than any of these things. It did not come from within her as the rising tide of pleasure did, or from outside like the heat of the sun. It was as if a current of heat and energy flowed directly from Edward’s body into hers.
    The glass wall of her mind shuddered and pain bit deep into Alicia’s soul.
    “No!” she cried. “No, stop!”
    Edward’s hands froze instantly. The sensation of the current flowing between them vanished at once and took all the warmth with it. The pleasure that had throbbed through her folds and her clit a moment before was washed away in a rush of cold. Alicia slumped weakly in Edward’s arms.
    “It’s all right, Alicia,” said Edward. “It’s all right. I’ve stopped.”
    “I…I…” Alicia struggled to right herself. How could she possibly explain this sudden outburst, after she had begged so wantonly for him to touch her?
    “Look at me, Alicia.” Edward turned her to face him. She shook her head. She couldn’t look at him. She wished she had the strength left to run away. This was impossible. This was madness. It was like the scene in the conservatory, only this time played out far more shamefully.
    A sudden realization dropped like a stone into the flow of Alicia’s thoughts. Now she did look at Edward, straight into his surprised, gray eyes.
    “You knew about this!” She pulled herself free of his steadying hands.
    “Alicia…”
    “Do not try to deceive me!” Anger, as hot and unfamiliar as the delight had been, flooded her. Alicia welcomed it, for it drove out the last lingering riot of pleasure and left her thoughts much clearer. “I may not have a woman’s feeling, but I do have a brain! You brought me here on purpose to shame me!”
    “No, Alicia, never that. I swear it.”
    “Then what? I don’t know how you did this, but you…you hired those…actors, somehow. You thought to draw me out!”
    Edward sighed and his shoulders drooped. But not in defeat. He was not sorry. Not he. Her supposedly respectable fiancé had schemed to expose her. He had wanted to make her feel indecent. How had she ever believed he was a gentleman? All his decorous manners, his solicitousness—that was all a game. He was something else, something wicked and dangerous. Her gaze drifted to his hands, and her pussy strained to open between her clenched thighs, but she could not tell whether it was from anger or desire.
    “I did arrange for you to see Freda and Marcus,” Edward told her. “And I did mean to draw you out. But it was not to shame you.”
    “Then why?”
    “I wanted to be close to you. I wanted to understand you better.”
    “By forcing me to witness such a display!”
    “I never forced you,” he replied evenly. “Had you asked me to take you away, we would have gone. But you did not ask to leave. You wanted very much to stay, because you enjoyed what you saw.”
    “I was paralyzed with shock.” Alicia tried to gather her usual calm back about her, but she could not. Desire was too hot, anger was too strong and neither was lessened by the sight of Edward
smiling
at her.
    “Now you’re the one who’s attempting to deceive me, Alicia, and that displeases me greatly.” He stepped closer to her. The breadth of his body seemed to block all possibility of escape. “You enjoyed what you saw, and you wanted to see more. Further”—he took another step forward—“you enjoyed what we did.”
    “What
you
did. I did nothing.” He was too close. She caught his scent, even over the green aromas of the summer grove. As she breathed him in, she remembered his hands on her arms, her shoulders and her hips. She felt again how his fingers pressed into her slit to touch the