A woman of means

Elena deBalzaac stood in shock as the messenger repeated his message. Her father had finally pegged it, leaving her the sole heir of his considerable estate. She was free now. Free to whatever she chose.

Her father had been trying to her to marry her neighbour at this country hellhole. A creepy, perverted older man with no charm to speak of. But she could break that off now – she could marry some young upstart from Luziel – or no one at all. After all, the law of the land allowed her to inherit. Why would she shackle herself to a man who would automatically control her inheritance?

She looked around the homely surroundings of the cottage and cringed. No more would she have to live in these shadows, scraping off the allowance her mother's had provided for her. She thought of her father's palazzo in the golden circle, famous for its hedonistic masquerades, or his villa in Belgatsa: the city of the rich and powerful where the government ministers played their games against the backdrop of the hot sun; or the townhouse in Luziel: the city of sin and shadows.

She tried to stop the smile creeping across her face. Even though he had banished her to some country hideaway while he had lived in splendor in Luziel, it would have been unseemly of her to gloat.

Still, she wanted to celebrate somehow.

Her gaze landed on the messenger in front of her.

He was young, perhaps even as young as her. She thanked the gods her father had waited until just after her eighteenth birthday to die. She had not fancied the idea of her Aunt Muriella controlling her fortune for her.

He stood nervously in the doorway, uncertain of himself, with the awkward stance of a youth not quite at ease in his own body.

Perhaps, she thought, he had only recently become so handsome. Because handsome he was, with his dark hair tied back and his white shirt straining over his broad shoulders. She dropped her eyes to his hips, and noticed the livery badge of her father embroidered there. Her livery badge now.

He shifted uncomfortably on his feet as she stared, and she realised she had moved her eyes from his hips to the tight crotch of his trousers.

Again she fought to keep the smile from her face, as she thought she saw the material twitch. Her stare was arousing him.

She considered what she must look like in his eyes: her dark hair long and tousled, her simple shift of white cotton strained over her breasts. She had tumbled from bed not half an hour before, roused by her maid's insistence that a man was riding towards the house. She had not bothered to dress. They never had visitors at the cottage, and when she had heard it was only one of her father's servants… Well. She had considered just getting back into bed and ignoring him.

But she was glad she had not.

'Please,' she said, graciously stepping back and welcoming him into the room. 'Come in. Take some refreshment – I am sure you must be wearied by your journey.' She called for Alicia, and instructed the girl to get some coffee. She considered offering him wine, but then she remembered it was shy of the midday hour, and probably not a suitable thing to be doing. Not that what she had planned now was any more appropriate.

She managed to sneak another glance at his trousers as he stood aside the fireplace, distracted by Alica's return with the coffee pot. Elena felt a stab of jealousy as his eyes lingered on Alicia's more developed curves. She wanted him to look at her like that.

Last summer she had seen Alicia with one of the farmboys out in the stables. At first, she had wanted to barge in, outraged at her maid's behaviour. But she had stood, fascinated, as she watched Alicia take out the young man's cock and press it against her mouth. Elena had watched, the secret place between her thighs burning in arousal, as her maid ran her tongue over the man's hard cock, flicking over the swollen head...

In the last year Elena had thought so much about that day. Rubbing herself against her palm as she remembered the man moaning in pleasure as Alicia had allowed him to spew his seed over her face.

Elena wanted to make a man lose control like that.