Free Whispers of the Flesh by Louisa Burton Page B

slippery. David couldn’t help but recall Domenico Vitturi’s account of the delirium and strange apparitions the deeper precincts of this cave could produce. Was he feeling this way because Vitturi had put the suggestion in his mind, or because there really was some supernatural energy emanating from within these walls of rock, this mountain of cooled lava?
    “Was it worth the trek?” Lili asked.
    “It is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” David said. “Astonishing. Where does the light come from?”
    Pointing, she said, “If you’ll look beneath the surface on that side, you’ll see two outlets. They’re tunnels that curve upward, opening to the outside and letting the sunlight in. If we want to swim here at night, we sometimes put torches out there, so that their light emanates from below.”
    “Extraordinary,” David said.
    “It cannot be properly appreciated when there are other sources of light.” Lili lifted an iron bucket tucked between two of the pinkish stone “curtains” and filled it with water from the pool.
    “Wait,” David said, walking toward her. “What are you doing? You’re not going to—”
    The cresset sizzled as she plunged it into the water, hissing the dirty tang of doused embers and engulfing them in darkness—except for the radiant pool behind her.
    “Why the devil did you do that?” David asked, hating the strident edge to his voice. “That cresset was our only source of light for the return trip.”
    “No, it wasn’t.” Lili shoved the cresset with its iron basket full of sodden pine chunks into a bracket on a floor-to-ceiling natural column. “That’s full of more pitch pine,” she said, pointing to a kindling box on the floor nearby, on top of which sat a tarnished brass casket about the size of a deck of cards. “And there are Lucifer matches in that match safe.”
    Thus reassured, David was in a more receptive state of mind to appreciate the sight of Lili backlit by the Lake of a Thousand Diamonds as she shucked off his coat and hung it on a nearby stalagmite. She untied the shoulder ribbons of her corset, reached behind to loosen the lacing, and stepped out of it. Holding his gaze, she walked toward him, her body silhouetted by the lambent glow through her chemise.
    David grew instantly hard.
Please, God, don’t let her see,
he thought, since he no longer wore that concealing coat.
    Lili came to stand before him, so close that he could feel her heat, breathe in the exotic floral warmth of her skin, plummet headlong into those inky eyes.
    She reached up and, with a fluid gesture, lifted his hat off his head and spun it away into the darkness. His heart thundered in his ears as she untied his cravat, pulling that off along with his collar.
    Unbuttoning the top few buttons of his shirt, she said, so softly that he could barely hear her, “Swim with me.”
    David undressed down to his shirt and drawers as she waded into the pool. When it was deep enough to swim in, she did so, disappearing around the curve of the crescent for a little while before reappearing. She swam with practiced grace, seemingly unencumbered by her chemise.
    She stood, whipping her head back to fling her wet hair off her face. The water rose to just beneath her breasts, to which the chemise clung damply, revealing their lush contours and the shadows of her nipples.
    “You’re not going to leave your shirt on, are you?” she asked.
    “Yes.” Even if he was willing to invent some specious excuse, it would be pointless. Lili was a woman experienced in the ways of the flesh. He was quite sure she knew why he wanted to retain the long, concealing garment.
    David braced himself for a jolt of cold as he stepped into the water, only to feel a delicious, all-encompassing warmth . . . followed by a thundercrack of lust so profound that it almost brought him to his knees.
    “Are you all right, David?” she asked.
    “Just a bit . . .Yes,” he said. “Yes, I’m fine.”
    She