Little flames of desire that burned and ached deliriously shot, through the nerves down there-and then spread all through her quivering body.
Rose abandoned herself completely. She could not even speak and if she had been able to articulate she would have probably pleaded that this marvelous torture should end-and that Freeman should do anything and everything he wished to end the exasperation of her disordered senses, and to bring facility and ultimate repose to her shaken nerves.
She was not aware that she had grown pale with this torment that was yet a delight. She did not realize that she had breathed a long drawn “Ohh! God!” that was just one moaning sigh of passion. She did not know that she had writhed up until she lay in a shivering ball in the man's lap-and that now his other hand played no longer upon her silken gown, but directly upon her sexual nakedness.
She became vaguely aware at last that both his hands were lustfully engaged in toying with her secret flesh- and that a finger of each, from front to rear, bore down more firmly now and travelled to meet each other along the hotly pouting, throbbing furrow of her cleft.
And he shook her by what he held-so roughly that all her body was in movement Rose wailed hoarsely in a keen delight that overcame all sense of shame or fear. In a moment it seemed that she must explode… spending-spending-spending. The animal treatment she was now undergoing… even the pain that she experienced- served as a palliative for her sensual passion… yet it was a palliative that increased instead of banishing the tumult of her senses.
If she had a thought in the midst of her confused and frantic desire, it was not of resentment at being treated as the target of his caprices. Instead, it was the firm conviction that now, now he would take her body. That immense thing on which she writhed as her flesh and hair were so deliriously tugged would be buried deep within her body. Her chastity and all her vows of chastity would vanish like smoke before the tempest of his unchained desires.
Scarlet and quivering, she acknowledged to herself that she did not fear the prospect at all. He would possess her-he must possess her! She believed that she would die if he did not take her-and take her instantly!
Ahh! Now he was releasing her tormented flesh from the grip of his fingers. He was stroking her thighs, her loins, her back-as if to calm her. He was breathing quickly, but otherwise there was no sign on his part of that desire which corresponded to her own.
Rose emitted one long, despairing sigh as his hands were withdrawn from beneath her skirt It had been then, just a terrible, lovely dream. He did not intend to take her at all. He had just meant to torment her, to work her up to a state of palpitating passion and submission-so as to shame her more than she had already been shamed — by abandoning her.
Calmer now, she extended her body from the ball into which it had been rolled-not minding, if she noticed, that now the lovely nudity of her thighs protruded quite noticeably below her disordered skirt. She was beginning to awaken to a sort of gratitude that he had decided to spare her chastity… to be thankful in spite of her hotly throbbing pulses, that he had proved incapable of thus consummating her final disgrace by taking her in a sexual embrace while she was ecstatically incapable of any sort of resistance.
But what was that low demand he was making-in firmly measured tones?
“Show me your pussy… and your pretty little cunt, Rose!” he was saying quite calmly.
Ahh! Dear God in Heaven! A minute earlier he might have done anything he wished… seen anything he desired… by his own volition. But no… he had to wait till she had regained her composure-and then compel her to the utter degradation of denuding herself as indecently as possible-in cold blood.
She had no thought that she could escape doing what he demanded. And yet she protested. “But — but, Mr. Freeman,” she quavered, “after what you have already done… to m-me-am I not disgraced sufficiently… in your eyes and my own?”
“Are you going to do as I tell you?” he inquired, in a tone that sent a quiver of fear through her body.
“Yes-ohh… b-but-y-yes… I will!” she promised, and her voice rose crescendo with fright as he grasped one of her rounded arms.
He seemed to read her mind-and to disapprove of her mental attitude.
“You will, indeed, show me your cunt,” he said. “And not because you are afraid of me at this moment… nor because we have both been passionate together and you are still sexually aroused and unsatisfied-but because- listen to me…”
“You are going to stand up in front of me and expose all of your intimate body as fully as possible-and then you will lie on your back in my lap and spread your legs apart for such examination as I may wish to make-and then you will ask me to have you… to fuck you!”
“And you will do all this because you owe me money that you cannot pay. You will pay that bill with your body — like any woman of the streets… and in any way that I choose!”
Rose Bolton was standing now before her persecutor. She looked at the door-as if contemplating flight He gave her a smile as he strolled over to the door and locked it, pocketing the key before he returned to his seat.
“Proceed with the penalty-the poor debtor's penalty — imposed upon you…” he said.
The distracted Rose descended to argument-when she would have wished to crush him with material force if such had been at her disposal.
“I am not a poor debtor,” she murmured. “If I could only collect what is due to me I should have forty thousand dollars in the bank.”
“But you are my poor debtor,” insisted Freeman, “for you cannot pay me! And you shall be penalized later for your carelessness in ruining a good business. You will offer me things which you never dreamed of-if only I will show you how to extricate yourself from your financial difficulties…”
She gasped faintly at his clear reading of her earlier thoughts-that his friendship would be invaluable to her — once it were acquired. Of course, any idea of such a friendship with a man of bis character must definitely be abandoned.
Meanwhile the unspeakable thing was inevitable. There was no way out of it. She clutched suddenly at the hem of her skirt-in haste to terminate the ordeal.
“Slowly-quite slowly…” he enjoined her. “Raise up the curtain on your hidden charms very gradually- try to make it as pleasantly tantalizing to me as possible… try to yield your nudities to me rather than flaunt them before me too defiantly!”
So he was quite determined to plunge her as deeply as possible in her bath of shame, she thought vaguely. Her slim fingers were quivering on the thin silk which she raised slowly to the tops of her stockings… and then upward over white nudities which were faintly rosy and yet luminous-the beautiful naked thighs of a lovely woman.
For an instant the edge of her garment faltered and stopped below the convergence of her thighs. Freeman lifted his eyebrows… and Rose hastily evidenced her fear of continuing her delightful revelations.
The summits of the tightly closed thighs-with dark brown tendrils clustering there… then the entire forest of silken curls in the mystic triangle — and the white, quivering belly to the navel was displayed to his eager gaze…
Holding her skirt and her unfastened undies around her waist-undergoing a shame beyond words… Rose found herself fascinated by his apparent imperturbability.
Could he look upon her thus-in a state of such naked and lascivious abandon and complaisance as no other person had ever witnessed… and remain unmoved? A sensuous and uncontrollable irritation at him possessed her suddenly, and entirely without her own volition she found herself giving a lascivious movement to her hips which thrust her sex forward in a gesture of invitation.