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Chapter 17
I stood on the opposite side of the drawing room door and debated on what to do. In the short time that I’d allowed her, Jasmine had done her best to get me dressed in something easy to put on, but presentable as well as fashioned a hairstyle that was passable for daytime entertaining. After peeking through the crack of the not fully closed door and seeing how glamorous Lilith looked from behind, I questioned my wisdom in hurrying downstairs.
I put my ear close to the small opening to listen to their conversation.
“My dear Lance, we would have made such a wonderful couple,” Lilith said in a pouty voice that made my skin crawl.
I could have sworn that I saw Lance shudder. “I am sure that we would have, Lilith, my dear, but you know that my heart has always been with Esmerelda.”
“Is it your heart?” she asked, “Or, is it the fact that the Sleuth family carries powerful magic?
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Jasmine timidly roused me from my getaway slumber to dress for dinner. Part of me wanted to send her away, but my mind wouldn’t release the last sentence that I’d heard Lilith speak. Just what family secrets was she talking about? I groaned as I pulled myself off the bed to freshen up before she assisted me with attire that was suitable for attending the evening meal. I’d never find out the truth about this family and what they were up to if I didn’t go down to dinner and mingle with them.Since Jasmine was the only person who knew that I’d slipped downstairs and eavesdropped on Lilith and Lance’s conversation, I could carry out the ruse of being ignorant about it all while I sought out the information that I needed.She’d supplied me with warm water in my wash bowl. Unfortunately, by the time I’d managed to get my reluctant body off the bed and functioning enough to walk to the w
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The guests were all abuzz with excitement and anticipation of an impromptu wedding ceremony. The only guest not in attendance was Lilith. Jason was missing amongst the crowd, but, then, I didn’t consider him a guest. He was family, after all. It was just as well that he wasn’t kept abreast of what was happening. I wouldn’t put it past him to challenge Lance right there in the middle of the ceremony.Even though I came from a time where pre-marital sex was accepted. Loose sexual behavior was still frowned upon. The fact that I’d been sleeping with one brother while bonded by a marriage contract to another being openly discussed by strangers was completely humiliating. I hated Jason Northrup for playing such a dirty trick on me. I hated him even more for going public with it. I hoped that my sudden wedding totally destroyed his plans and knocked him right on his ass.Lance was waiting at
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I was eager to be alone with Lance. Not only because it was our wedding night, but because I wanted to speak with him in private about what I suspected was going on between his mother and his uncle. I also wanted to run my theory about Lilith’s gift of poisonous bath salts past him.Since I had no desire to ruin the mood for the evening, I decided to wait until after we’d exhausted ourselves by making love before broaching my theory about his brother being sired by his uncle with him.“If what you are saying is true,” he mused, “it would answer a lot of questions.” He sat up and ran his hand through his thick hair. “I cannot believe that my father and I missed this. Now that you have shed light on the matter, it is obvious. There have been so many signs. The most prominent one is the way my uncle favors Jason over me for no apparent reason.”“Now, you know the r
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The sun was winking ‘good morning’ to the world as it pushed itself away from the horizon by the time Lance returned to our bed. I had the question of what he’d discovered about the bath salts on the tip of my tongue, but it quickly rolled to the back of my throat as he kissed me long and hard while his hand explored and teased my womanhood in a way that immediately made me forget everything except the pleasure that he was giving me. It was as if he knew my body better than I did. His hands kneaded my well-formed breasts and his lips suckled my hardened nipples in a way that made me wild with ecstasy without him having to do anything else. When he finally did move down between my thighs and his tongue found my sensitive nub, I was sure that I’d go insane before he took pity on me and entered me fully. I had to swallow the screams of ecstasy that were coming at such a rate as to almost sound like a song in the wind. At one point, I covered
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I stared into the pitch of night as I lay, naked, beside my sleeping husband. Our sex was a bit more aggressive and experimental than on our honeymoon night, but it was fulfilling and pleasurable. He’d opened my eyes to ways to pleasure ones partner as well as positions to assume during the process that I would have never thought possible. I found it fascinating how the same sexual acts, when performed with Lance, could seem natural and lovely when it felt so distasteful and wrong with Jason; even though I thought that he was Lance. My subconscious must have recognized the difference even if I didn’t.I surprised Lance by initiating some of the acts that Jason and I did. It wasn’t that I was into wide sexual variety so much as they were things that Jason had done to me and I wanted the memory of doing them with Lance to wipe out the memories of doing anything with Jason. I found the things that Jason had disgusted an
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Feeling dejected and disillusioned with the Northrup family, I sat in the drawing room of my parent’s tobacco plantation home. It felt both good to be there as well as a bit odd and uncomfortable.I was admittedly stunned when my new husband opted to send me off in exile without him. He tried to explain that it would only be for a short time while he smoothed things over with his mother, but it didn’t sit well with me. Not one bit. I was of the opinion that he was cowering to her. Having assumed that I’d married a strong man, I found this fact disconcerting. The way that he and his father bent to her demands was outrageous. It was the type of behavior that I’d be hard pressed to encounter in modern times. Not from something as simple as upsetting the woman by pointing out her wrong doings.I was even more surprised to discover that Bart and Jason remained in the house while I was sent away.&n
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