"Won't you dress for dinner?" Lucy asked.

"Must I? I am so sleepy this evening. The thought of making conversation at the table seems beyond me tonight."

"Today's activities too vigorous for m'lady?" Lucy teased.

Vigorous and exhausting, Thea thought. Her escapades with Niall and Melina outdoors had sapped her strength. "Nothing could sound better to me right now than a hot bath and dinner in bed--is that too awful to admit?"

"Your pleasure is our first concern, Miss Thea, as you know. I'll have dinner sent up after you bathe," Lucy said.

"Might there be any beef? And, maybe some chocolate for desert? I'm starving."

Lucy laughed, her young face full of delight, and Thea laughed with her. It felt so good to be among friendly people who were willing to care for her.

If only Jordan would walk through the door, Thea thought, her life would be complete. The people at Ingram Hall didn't need her, but Jordan did. She wanted to see to his needs, discover all his favorite foods, his favorite activities.

Be his wife.

It was as simple, and as complicated, as that. These few days away from Jordan had only served to increase her desire for him. She loved him.

"Beef and chocolate it is," Lucy said, drawing Thea from her musings. "You worked up an appetite, but don't get too full, if you know what I mean." The pretty maid winked and implied with a somewhat lewd gesture that Thea's day was not over yet. There would be more on the sexual exploration menu before Thea could close her eyes for the night.

"Never a dull moment," Thea said happily. "I suppose I won't be allowed to dine alone in my room . . ."

"Part of the fun is not knowing, don't you think? Doors never locked, people coming and going at all hours, one never knows when one will get a visitor or two," Lucy said.

Thea remembered her first night at the Hall, when her carved bed had seemed to come alive, and dream had blurred with reality.

"One never knows." Thea sighed and stretched back onto the soft coverlet on her bed. "But I would like some time alone to write a letter," she added. If she couldn't see Jordan until the end of the week, she would tell him how much she missed him in a letter.

"You need only request your privacy to obtain it. You know Miss Rose will not allow any of her guests to be displeased for any reason," Lucy said, gathering a pile of linens and heading for the door. "But she also hopes her guests will take full advantage of what we have to offer." Flashing Thea another quick grin, Lucy left the room. Thea knew she would not bar the door tonight. Her body had become accustomed to sexual activity and she was beginning to crave more.

Thank God her sister, Tess, was safe in the convent. Tess had never been daring or brave, and her sweet, naive nature would have been crushed under the events of the last several days. But Tess's dear heart was loyal and true, and now Thea understood the feelings her sister must have for the young, handsome Lord Bascombe.

Poor Tess. Thea knew she would do anything within her power to reunite her sister with her betrothed. Viscount Easterly be damned. They had Jordan on their side now, or so she hoped, and justice would be served in the end.

When her bath was ready, Thea soaked in the hot, fragrant water until the skin of her fingertips puckered and her body shone with a rosy glow. No sooner had she dried off, wrapped her wet hair in a towel, and donned a silk robe, the door to her bed chamber opened.

A familiar young man entered the room. Like her, he was dressed in a loose-fitting robe, and his broad smile and obvious happiness at seeing her pleased Thea.

"Luke!" Thea greeted her faithful coachman once again.

"Miss Blanchard," he said, bowing low in mock courtliness, "at your service."

He looked exactly as he had on her trip to the Hall, rugged and masculine, his wavy blond hair unbound, reaching his shoulders.

"I'm so glad to see you," Thea said. He was very near her own age and the prospect of sharing her evening meal with this personable, handsome young man suited her just fine.

"I'm very glad to see you too. I told you we'd meet again under more enjoyable circumstances," he said. Luke took up her hand, placing a light kiss on it. "Please sit."

"Let me finish getting dressed," she said.

"No, please don't," he insisted when Thea started toward the great mahogany wardrobe. "You look very pretty in that silk wrapper," he continued, a slight blush coloring his finely sculpted cheekbones. "I'd like to think, I mean, I hope covering your body will be the last thing on your mind tonight."

He was adorable, Thea thought. Almost shy, but not too shy to make his meaning clear. "It will give me great pleasure to spend the evening with you, Luke," she said.

They ate ravenously and shared a bottle of wine. They were comfortable with each other and laughed and teased. It was very refreshing to talk to a male her age and not feel aware so much of their differences, but of their similarities.

"Your wit is as fine as your manner, Sir Luke," Thea said after recovering her breath from laughing at one of his jokes. "Tell me," she began more seriously, regaining her composure, "why you have yet to be caught by a pretty young woman?"

Luke smiled and looked down at his hands, his embarrassment evident. "I am hoping," he started, looking back into Thea's eyes. "I am hoping to find a woman such as you." He dropped his gaze again. "I have yet to meet a woman who stirs my body as well as my mind," he said quietly.

Oh, he was so sweet and honest, Thea thought. If she was not already so in love she could see how easily it would be to fall for Luke. "I cannot believe you have not already stolen a young girl's heart," Thea said gently, taking his hand. "Any woman would be honored to have the attentions and love from a gentleman such as yourself."

"Do you think so?" he asked.

Thea could tell that Luke really did not understand the true nature of his charms. He had been so sweet to her she would have to prove to him that she was sincere. "Luke, you must know that you are handsome and capable of fulfilling a womans desire or you would not work for Miss Rose, am I right?"

"This is different," he said, waving his hand through the air. "This is a job--a job I feel lucky to have, mind you," he said, grinning, "but a job just the same. It is very hard to truly get to know a woman under these circumstances, let alone form a bond."

Thea could see his point. Although a week's worth of sexual exploration was exhilarating, she could not imagine staying at the Hall for any length of time, deprived of one person to share her life with.

"Do you ever think of leaving?" she asked.

"Yes, I am saving enough money to return to my family's farm and rebuild it to its former prosperity. I am the oldest, and with my father buried these last two years, my mother is not able to make it on her own."

Thea's heart went out to him. She could not guarantee his future, but she could ease his mind now.

"Luke, may I feed you?" she asked.

Luke stared at her, not sure what to say. "I'm supposed to be tending to your desires, m'lady" he said.

"It is my desire to tend to you," she said, letting go of his hand to stroke his cheek.

Luke swallowed hard and nodded.

Thea picked up her fork. She jabbed the last remaining piece of rare beef on her plate and pushed it through its own rich juices. "Enjoy," she said softly, and nudged Luke's lips open with the tip of her fork.

He took the meat carefully into his mouth and began to chew. Thea watched his throat move as he swallowed and noticed some of the juice had dripped down the side of his mouth. "May I?" she asked, indicating her intentions by picking up the white cloth napkin on her lap.

"Please," he said in a strained voice.

Thea leaned toward him to wipe the juice off his mouth, but found herself drawn to his lips and licked him instead. It was a sudden reaction that surprised them both. She could sense that he didn't want her to stop, so she traced the edge of his full lip with the tip of her tongue, licking away the juice and savoring the feel of him.

"I can tell you for certain, Luke, that the right woman will find your company and conversation as stimulating as your wonderful lips," she said into his mouth.

Then he grabbed her to him and seared her lips with his own hot kiss, his tongue probing and seeking the inner depths of her mouth. "Whomever you love," he said, drawing abruptly away from her, "is a very lucky man."

Thea could not stop a flush of pleasure that rose in her cheeks. She hoped Jordan felt lucky, as lucky as she did to love him. "You go back to your farm, Luke, and I promise a lovely maiden will be there waiting for you." Thea picked up another morsel of food from her plate. "But I hope you won't leave before you've performed whatever task you were sent here to do tonight," she added, smiling at him so he'd know she was being playful.

"My God," he muttered. "I had all but forgotten! You've got my head spinning, m'lady, and you'll have me fired for sure," he said, smiling back.

"I wouldn't allow it," Thea said. "Miss Rose would never dismiss one of her employees with a glowing review from one of her guests."

"You'd give me a glowing review, before I've even shown you any of my talents?" he asked, playful as she.

Thea remembered exactly how well formed this man was. The vision of him leaning against the walnut tree with his massive cock thrusting through his own clenched fist was too much for her. "I've already seen some of what you have to offer," she reminded him. "It's up to you to prove I wasn't mistaken about your skills."

"You do me a great honor, Thea, allowing me to spend time with you. I'd like nothing more than to remain locked away with you in private this evening, but Miss Rose had another idea if you're up to experiencing something new."

"Will you be with me?" Thea asked.

"Yes, I'll be with you the entire time," he replied, his eyes roaming over her body in a way that she fully understood by now.

"I am ready, then," she said.

"Come," he said, pulling her to her feet. "This house is full of surprises. You did not know you had a secret door in your room, did you?"

Luke led her to the damask-covered wall next to her dressing table and pushed on a piece of scrollwork on the decorative corner molding. The wall swung open on an invisible hinge revealing a dark passageway.

"Most of the rooms are linked to each other in such a fashion," he said.

"My goodness," Thea said, amazed. Her family home had a secret chamber hidden behind a centuries' old tapestry, but nothing as elaborate as this tunnel at Ingram Hall.

"Take my hand," Luke said.

Thea gladly accepted, placing her hand in his strong, warm grasp, and followed him into the dark passage. The hidden door immediately closed behind them.

"How do you know which way to go?" she asked. "It's as black as pitch in here."

"After a few months of working here," he whispered, "you get to know the place fairly well."

Thea had always been uneasy in dark, enclosed places. But with Luke's strong presence, she felt adrift in a safe void, lulled by the heat radiating from his body. She would have followed him anywhere.

After a few moments of scuttling about like moles, he stopped and said, "Here we are."

But Thea could see nothing to warrant his stopping. It was so dark she could not see her hand in front of her face. And from what she could sense, they were still surrounded on both sides by hard walls.

"Where? I don't see anything," she said quietly.

"What you are about to see might surprise you," he whispered in her ear. Luke had moved behind her in the dark and she could feel his hot breath on her cheek. Thea shivered in excitement. "I will be with you the entire time and we can leave whenever you wish," he assured her. "What you will witness will bring your body to full arousal and I will be here to appease your need if you'll allow it."

Thea could hardly wait. She was already trembling and her moist core was beginning to throb pleasurably. "I want you here with me," Thea said breathlessly. "I want you show me."

"Grab hold of this," Luke instructed, and placed her hands on a wooden railing of some sort hanging on the wall. Then there was a clicking sound to her left and a sliver of light slowly grew into a rectangular shape, revealing a chest-high opening that offered a view down onto a large pit below their level.

Thea looked down into the pit--a circular room with steps radiating up from the lowest platform in the center. Not one piece of furniture adorned the room, but that didn't seem to bother the occupants in the least.

This was a sexual den of pleasure, lit by the soft glow of candlelight that illuminated beautiful bodies in every possible sexual position and combination imaginable--and some Thea would never have imagined.

"Feast your eyes, Thea," Luke whispered in the dark.

Thea clutched the rail, unable to turn away from the fantastic scene. Silky fabrics and soft pillows filled the room. Men and women in all stages of undress caressed each other with hands and mouths.

Thea could hear and smell them. Moans and muffled panting mingled with the scent of sandalwood, candle wax, and sex. On one of the lower steps, a particularly voluptuous young woman was held captive in a most provocative way. She reclined with her legs spread wide and her arms over her head, wrists and ankles pinned down by her captors.

The man who held her wrists knelt over her face, thrusting his engorged penis into her mouth. While she struggled to take him in, another man teased her wet pussy mercilessly with a flick of his tongue, pressing her pale thighs apart, securing them beneath his muscular arms.

Her body jerked uncontrollably against the onslaught of the his tongue bath. Thea watched, mesmerized, as he carefully opened her tender folds and probed his tongue deep into her love channel. Then he licked her inner thighs and downy nest of dark curls. He finally gave her what she needed so desperately and ran the tip of his tongue rapidly over her sensitive clitoris until her climax brought her hips off the ground.

Her screams of ecstasy were silenced by the force of the other man's semen shooting down her throat when her pleasure brought on his climax. He strained above her, bucking against her face, and she took in all of him, swallowing him whole, it seemed to Thea.

Luke's excitement was as palpable as her own. At some point he had disrobed and stood behind her with his strong arms wrapped around her waist. She could feel his body heat through her silk wrapper, feel his hard erection pressed against her bottom. Thea pushed back firmly against his arousal and began moving her hips. Luke responded with a low growl of appreciation and rocked his hips against her.

Thea was on the verge of her own climax. It was not possible to view the scene below her and not respond. Her juices ran down her inner thighs and her pussy throbbed with an unbearable ache.

Luke knew what she wanted. He pushed her robe off her shoulders and down past her hips. Then he knelt behind her and began licking her legs and buttocks with his hot, wet tongue. He reached around and pressed his palm firmly on her mound so she could grind against his hand to ease her tension.

He ran his tongue down the seam between the soft curve of her bottom and nudged her legs apart so he could find his way to her dripping core. Thea arched her back and moved against his eager mouth with a surge of urgency. Luke licked and tasted her slippery cunt, probing with his tongue until she thought she would pass out from delirium.

Watching men and women fuck each other and lick each other while Luke devoured her body like a ripe peach, was so carnal, so animal, Thea wanted to howl like a cat in heat.

Then she spotted a man enter a woman from behind who knelt on all fours. He plunged his lance deeply into her pink sheath and the woman cried out, then began sucking frantically on the firm breasts of a woman directly in front of her. The second woman straddled another man's head while he stroked her to climax with his tongue.

"Luke," Thea pleaded. "I need you inside me--now."

Without a word, he stood and entered her from behind with one smooth thrust. His massive cock, hard as steel, filled her tight channel with heavy fullness. He drove into her slick pussy with powerful, sure strokes.

Thea moaned and grasped the rail for dear life, rocking back to meet Luke's thrusts until they were rutting like animals. He reached around and kneaded her breasts with his hands, squeezing and rolling the nipples between his fingers while he fucked her.

"Luke, Luke," Thea moaned. He had mounted her like a stallion to a mare, and her entire body shook with the force of it. Just like the man and woman in the pit.

The wet suction sounds of their bodies mating sent Thea over the edge. Luke had spread the cleft of her buttocks apart and had slipped a dampened finger into her other sensitive hole, probing in and out, matching the thrusts of his penis.

When the woman screamed out her release, Thea and Luke climaxed at the same time. "Thea, God!" he hissed, shooting his cum deep inside her while her muscles contracted around him.

Thea sagged back against Luke, who supported their body weight against the wall. His sex still pulsated within her. She breathed in deeply, savoring the smells of their heated union, and the warm stickiness that lubricated their joined bodies.

"I have never imagined such a sight," she whispered breathlessly.

"If you want more, Thea, we can stay a little while longer. I can manage if you can," he said, nudging his strengthening erection in her slick channel again. "Touch yourself" he urged.

Thea slipped her fingers into her damp thatch of curls and rubbed her highly sensitized clitoris. She pushed back damp tendrils of hair off her forehead and turned her face to meet Luke's mouth for a kiss.

His tongue mated with hers, mimicking her finger strokes, while he penetrated her deeply . . . pumping, pumping, their bodies rhythmically moving in an age-old dance.

All Thea remembered before she closed her eyes to embrace oblivion was the rapturous expression on the face of a woman in the pit being licked and kissed at every orifice by an impressive array of firm male tongues.

Safely back in her room, Thea collapsed on her bed and waited for Luke to finish dressing. "I had no idea men and women would share so much of each other in such a public way," she said.

"Sometimes the forbidden, the idea of breaking the rules, heightens sexual gratification," he said.

"I didn't know what to expect when I arrived at Ingram Hall, but I haven't been disappointed," she said, smiling at him as he crossed the room and sat next to her on the bed.

"What did you think when you first saw the painting on your door?" he asked.

"I was embarrassed at first, but at the same time excited. I wanted to find out what it felt like to have a man take me that way."

"And have you found the experience to be all that you thought it would?"

Thea sighed happily and rolled on her side. "More than I thought it would be."

"You have encouraged me and given me hope that there is a woman out there waiting for me. I want to repay you by giving you the reality of the picture on the door" Luke said. He walked over to the wash basin and dipped a cloth into the water. "Let me wash you."

Thea sank back on the pillows and shifted her robe so he could see her naked body. Then he came to her and gently cleaned away the residue from their joining.

She closed her eyes and let the sensation of Luke's hot breath fanning over her pulsing sex envelop her. Then she felt it--his tongue and lips licking and caressing every fold and crevice of her womanhood with maddening care. She looked down at his head between her legs and came.

Jordan,

I count the minutes until you arrive. Ingram Hall has been all you promised, but I long for your touch, and yours alone. If you still have the desire for me as I have for you, then fetch me soon else I parish from want. They have taught me well. Now I must be the dutiful student and perform my talents for you.

Yours, Thea

Thea folded the vellum and sealed the letter in an envelope. She would have it posted the next morning and then wait for her beloved. If only she could be sure the marquis of Ashton hadn't realized his folly and decided to disentangle himself from a love-struck orphan and her convent-imprisoned sister.

No, he would not abandon her. Thea had known, despite his gruff posturing, that Jordan was a man of his word. Even if he did not love her he would still see to her welfare and Tess's. For that security, Thea was very grateful.

But could she bear it if he rejected her love? She would just have to chance it. Her father had always told her that to get anything meaningful out of life, one had to be willing to take risks. Well, she would risk her heart if that's what it would take--risk her heart . . . and pray.