American Squire by Sierra Simone

Author:Sierra Simone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sierra Simone

6

Sidney wants to wait until the next day to start, much to my painful, physical frustration. Every part of it, from holding hands to him licking his thumb for the mingled taste of whisky and my mouth, has me so hard that walking back to my room is uncomfortable, much less showering and trying to sleep.

But like any good sadist, he wants me to choose his cruelty with a clear mind and after a full night’s sleep.

“Anyone might say yes like this,” he told me before we rejoined the others. He gestured to the snow and the fire and the books. “It’s easy to say yes like this.”

Meaning, I suppose, that it’s harder to choose pain and shame while the sun is shining on every crack and flaw in the room. I admire his caution, although I admire it less as I burn alone between my sheets because, of course, his only prohibition as my provisional Dominant was to forbid me to come.

Dammit.

Luckily, the specter of Proserpina Markham, whoever she was, had Auden so agitated last night that he and Cremer seemed wholly unaware of what Sidney and I shared by the window, and when I bump into Auden in the kitchen this morning, he seems distracted and not at all like he suspects I’m going to his library to be spanked by his art surveyor.

“Everything okay?” I ask as I get some water. I’m too nervous for coffee and I’d rather wait to eat until after Sidney’s used my body.

The young master of the house just pulls on his hair a little. “Everything’s fine.” He gives me a forced smile. “I’m fine.”

“Ah. Okay. Let me know if I can help with anything?”

“No one can help,” he murmurs, as if to himself. And then he tries a cheerful change of subject. “Should be a quiet day. Cremer left early to get to London, even though the roads are still terrible, and the weather’s too awful for the renovation work to continue. I’m planning on holing up in my study all day to work, if you need me for anything.”

“And you’re not going back to London for Christmas?”

“My parents are dead,” Auden says bluntly, so bluntly that I almost miss the glimpse of shy pain in his eyes. “And the rest of my life is . . . complicated. I think I’m just going to stay here and go to Mass.”

“Mass?” I say. I didn’t expect to encounter another Catholic out here in the British countryside. “Are you Catholic?”

Another forced smile. “Also complicated.”

“Ah.”

I want to ask him more, I want to ask him about Proserpina Markham and why his life is so complicated, but I also really, really want to be alone with Sidney. So I take my water and take my leave.

The narrow corridor leading to the library is lined with arched windows—one side facing the front of the house and the driveway, and the other facing an inner courtyard with some lonely benches and a fountain. Everything is blanketed in storybook bluffs of snow, thick and white and blinding.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.