She was here again. That blasted Lucy Thorne. I hated her. I knew her importance to the Templar Order, I wasn’t stupid. But the way she hung over him in front of me, in front of everyone, made me angry. He seemed oblivious. I could hear her voice through the large wooden door and she made me want to scream. I could do something about that, I thought to myself. I straightened my dress and quickly checked my hair in a nearby mirror before I knocked on the door.
“Enter,” his sinful voice called from inside. I did as he asked and entered quickly, closing the door behind me quietly. He looked up quickly from stirring his tea and back down again, a clear sign it was alright for me to be in the room. Crawford Starrick was quite an imposing figure in his leather chair. Lucy Thorne stood at the other side of the room, looking over at me with a grimace when I entered. It took me all my might not to tell her to go away. After all, being the lover of the Templar Grand Master made me an instant annoyance in her eyes. I walked across the room toward Crawford, nodding hello to Twopenny and Lord Cardigan, who stood at the other side of the desk, moaning about some man named Elliotson and how Soothing Syrup production had stopped. I could sense the annoyance radiating from Crawford as I got closer. I stood behind his chair and put my hands on his shoulders as he spoke to them about someone named Jacob Frye and how insignificant he was. I could feel how tense he was. Lucy walked forward and began helping herself to tea. I watched her with frowning eyes. How I hated her. She spoke, her voice grating on me as she also complained about ‘bothersome fools.’
“And what of this sister I’ve heard of? Miss Frye?” Crawford asked. Lucy grimaced once more.
“Miss Frye shall be gutted, soon enough,” she said and her eyes found mine and she looked at me with something akin to disgust. She expected me to fear her, but I didn’t. Crawford took another sip of his tea.
“Gentlemen, Miss Thorne, I pray you leave me. I grow weary and tire of this talk,” he said. “We will meet again tomorrow. May the Father of Understanding guide us.” Lucy looked at me again, knowing full well why Crawford was dismissing them. She hated me as much as I hated her. Everyone left the room, Crawford’s butler included, so it was just us left in the room. We were silent for a few moments as I ran my hands over his shoulders.
“Are you alright, my dear? I can almost hear your thoughts from here,” he said, before he stood up to shrug off his outer garments. I took them from him and moved to the coat hook to hang them up.
“Miss Thorne hates me, for reasons I do not know. She’d probably rather gut me than this Miss Frye you are all talking about,” I told him. He removed his suit jacket and cravat before he sat down again. I leaned against his desk and he finally looked at me in the eye.
“Miss Thorne doesn’t have a tolerance for many people, my dear. I would not take it personally,” he said, leaning back in his chair to watch me. “Why are you so worried about what she thinks of you?” I blushed gently. “Well?”
“Well, because ... because I’m yours,” I replied. There was at least twenty seconds of silence before he chuckles darkly. “What?”
“You think Miss Thorne hates you because she wants me? You are mistaken, my dear,” he said. “Miss Thorne has already voiced the opinion that she thinks you are a distraction for me. I agreed with her.” I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “But to her you are a bad distraction. That I disagree on. You are a perfect distraction.” I blushed once more and I bit my lip. “Jealousy does not become you, my dear.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, not looking him in the eye before he stood in front of me and he took me by the waist, pressing against me, his lips meeting mine in a chaste, yet passionate, kiss. He tasted of tea and smelled so intoxicating that I felt myself leaning in to press harder against him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Forgive me?”
“There is nothing to forgive, my dear,” he said. “Now ...” he reached across his desk and picked up his knife, bringing it between our bodies. I gulped at the sharp object. “... let’s say we get you out of that dress. I have wanted to touch you all day.” He brought the knife to the ties that held my bodice together and cut them slowly, one by one.
“Crawford, this is my favourite dress ...” I complained as he continued to snap every tie.
“I’ll buy you another,” he said, dropping the knife back to the desk to pull open the rest of my bodice with his hands, revealing bare breasts to him. My breath quickened as he looked at me with hunger in his eyes. “No corset tonight?
“I figured we would have tonight together so I skipped the corset,” I informed him and he smirked gently.
“Pity, I usually like ripping that from you,” he said. He kisses me again and I felt my knees weaken immediately. He must have felt it too as he hiked up one of my legs around his waist, pushing me into the desk before his kisses moved down my neck and to my breasts. I grabbed hold of his shirtsleeves as he bit the soft, supple skin of my breast, before taking my nipple in his mouth and working it with his tongue. I moaned and my head fell back, one hand going to his hair and the other to the desk to hold me up.
“Crawford ...” I gasped and he hummed gently, the vibration only making the sensations heighten. His hand that held my legs up around his waist slipped under my skirts and up the smooth skin of my thigh and higher still. He pulled back from me and looked me in the eye. “What’s wrong?”
“No undergarments at all tonight, my lady?” he asked but it was pointless answering him. I blushed scarlet and he smirked once more. He kissed my lips once more and left another trail down my body before he’s on his knees in front of me, quickly unbuttoning and discarding his waistcoat.
“Crawford, please ...” I begged him and he pushed my skirts up to my waist before he’s kissing a trail from the inside of my thigh, pushing my legs apart so he could get to his destination. His tongue assaulted my folds before I even had a chance to breathe and I crie out his name, only for his tongue to move faster, finding and licking over my clit relentlessly. This man would be the death of me. I grabbed his hair in my free hand, pulling it, but that only seemed to spur him on. He settled my legs on his shoulders and pulled me to the edge of the desk, sucking hard on my clit which caused my vision to blur for a moment before he moaned deeply.
“My lady, you taste sublime,” he said in a deep, aroused voice. I began to pant harder as he brought me closer to the edge. My hips started moving of their own accord against his mouth. He licked me teasingly slow that it didn’t take much for me to come hard, my arm giving out and my back hitting the desk as I cried out loud, my whole body shaking in pleasure. I tried to catch my breath before I began giggling as my body came down from the high it had just had. I felt Crawford kiss the inside of my thigh again, nipping gently at the skin before he was standing between my legs. He took my hands and hauled me up into a sitting position, lifting me off the desk with my legs wrapped round his waist. He sat down on his chair with me straddling his lap as I surged in for a kiss, kissing each other hard and passionately. One had came up to unpin my hair and mine slipped his braces off his shoulders before I unbuttoned his high collar on his shirt, biting gently at the skin that was now on show. Then my hands were fumbling at his trousers, undoing them and releasing his erection. Crawford sighed gently as he was finally released from his confines. I stroked him a few times, his eyes closing in pleasure, his mouth dropping open when I squeezed hard a few times. I let go for a moment to cup his face to kiss him, biting his bottom lip, rutting my hips against his a few times before he reached down to hold himself while I lowered myself onto him, my skirts covering us. We both froze as he slipped easily into my wetness, him buried to the hilt inside me. I grabbed his chin for a moment and made him look at me.
“You are mine,” I said, feeling so brave. This man could make or break me any second of the day and here I was telling him he was mine. What was I doing?! “Do you hear me?” His eyes turned icy for a moment before he moved inside me, causing me to drop my hand from his chin and held his shirt in a vice like grip as I gasped out loud.
“It’s a dangerous game you play here, my lady,” he said, his voice unsteady. I pulled the rest of my ruined bodice from my person and threw it to the floor. “Like I said, jealousy does not become you.” He moved again, grabbing my hips hard as I began to ride his lap for all I was worth. I grabbed hold of the back of his chair as I held his cock tight within me. He moaned loudly, the loudest I had heard him all night as his hands slid up to my breasts, rubbing his hands over them as I rode him. The touch of his hands and the sound of his voice moaning my name for the first time that night had me almost there again, his eyes staring at mine the whole time made it impossible to look away.
“Fuck, Crawford ...” I managed to moan before my eyes closed of their own accord, my head falling back as my rhythm begins to falter, his own moans becoming loud and clear.
“Such a dirty mouth you have,” he said, his hand sliding round my throat, grasping gently, as not to cut off my air. One, two, three more thrusts and I was (almost) screaming out his name, grasping hard at him as I rode out my orgasm, pulling him over the edge with me. He cried out, the hand round my throat tightening for a moment as I felt him let go inside me, his body shaking under mine as he came hard. There was sweat on his brow and on my face and chest as we came down from our high together. The hand around my throat slid down my chest and over my breasts. I leaned forward and kissed him gently, his hand smoothing over my back, his fingernails leaving a tingling sensation on my skin as he did so.
“You...” he said, curtly, making me frown gently. “...are mine, do you hear me? Don’t you forget it.” I nodded gently in panic. He could kill me when he wanted or loved me if he so desired. I knew, for definite, that I’d prefer the latter of those two options.