Retribution Read Online Free PDF Page B

of intimacy, I was unwilling always to deprive myself of so
harmless a pleasure. As our years of domesticity jogged contentedly
along, there had never been any indication that Stefan was aware of
the triple nature of many of the nights he spent with Dominic, and
I had become so accustomed to the sharing I had ceased to worry
over the morality of it, or even to question it.
    Niall’s gift was more finely attuned than
Stefan’s. There were times when I wondered if he felt something of
my presence in his lover’s consciousness, but he never complained.
That his lover had a wife mattered little to Niall, I imagined. If
the wife enjoyed an occasional vicarious thrill, Niall couldn’t
take such female nonsense seriously enough to be offended.
Certainly, after a year and a half, I was far too comfortable with
the situation to contemplate giving up my gratification now.
    “Sleep well,” I said as they hurried out,
fondling each other with playful abandon. Niall sent a silent
afterthought of thanks to me over his shoulder.
    When one of Lucretia’s household women
entered my room I was ready to strangle her. It was no trouble, she
assured me, settling herself into a large cushioned chair near the
fireplace. If my husband was not to spend the night with me, Lady
Ladakh insisted that I not be left alone. What if I needed help
during the night?
    The woman sat awake for hours, cold and
dutiful. She had picked up on all her mistress’s dislike of us, and
I could not relax in her presence to share in the waves of
sensation that washed over me. Niall and Dominic made love late
into the night—it had been a strong passion that Niall had
provoked. I heard them, through the thick wall between our rooms,
and I felt the traces of Dominic’s emotion, like a man releasing a
pent-up fury, even without full communion.
    After my attendant had at last dozed off, I
made communion with Dominic. He and Niall were sleeping now, but I
sensed they would enjoy love again before morning. I settled myself
contentedly into my husband’s mind until the time when he would
awaken and rise…
    It was not long. I rolled over onto my
stomach, smiling to myself in the secret darkness of communion.
Dominic knew I liked it when he made love to Niall in this way.
Although I always feel some of Dominic’s pleasure when he is with
me, as he feels mine, sharing in my husband’s active sexuality with
a man is different. Unlike when they use their mouths, it is
something I cannot experience directly as a woman, with my own
body. I rose to my knees, following Dominic in unconscious mimicry
as he straddled the prone body of his companion.
    The searing pain took me so by surprise I
almost screamed aloud. Amalie , the voice entered me. Amalie, yes, let me in. You know me . Reynaldo filled the
place in my mind I had unsealed for Dominic. You see how well we
fit together. I have the right .
    It was rape, the worst form of violation,
unexpected, obscene in its sudden complete control of my essence.
My body bucked and shuddered, my throat convulsed in a series of
gulping glottal contractions. I fought silently against my
attacker, a battle I had already lost. The thing inside me, that
Lucretia Ladakh had assured us was a man, emptied the filth of his
mind into mine.
    I buried my face in the large soft pillow,
muffling the groans I could not completely suppress, so as not to
wake the children who slept beside me. As Reynaldo sent his
thoughts of anal rape to me, I had a moment of realization. He was
paying me back for what Dominic had done to him.
    Dominic! I attempted to call out to my
husband to stop this insanity.
    My rapist shuddered with pleasure. Yes,
Amalie , he said. Tell your lord husband what I am doing .
He pulled back slightly, opened one narrow channel of
communication.
    Just before I made contact with Dominic’s
mind, I understood what Reynaldo wanted. He was planning an
ingenious revenge for my husband and me, if we were stupid enough
to fall for it.
    Rape is