The Parlour (VDB #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

to go?” he asked, flicking his eyes to the woman behind him and smiling a little. It was just a hint of real warmth, possibly the first hint he’d allowed himself in weeks.
    “The shipment is set for Wednesday morning,” Pascal replied with a smirk. Elizabeth was the problem. He obviously didn’t want to be alone with her, nor allow Pascal a second of time alone either. Not unpredictably. She was an exceedingly tempting prospect for men with hands such as theirs.
    “Call Phillip. I’ll set us off back to Rome now. We should be there by tomorrow morning,” he said, walking past them both calmly to the bow and beginning to unfasten the spinnaker.
    Elizabeth rounded Pascal and stared straight into his eyes, flicking her head occasionally to the man they loved to see what he was doing.
    “How did you manage that? I so wish I could do that. How do you make him do what you want him to? It’s actually repulsive to watch, if not completely fascinating,” she whispered. He leapt up to drop the main sail down as she followed him and hovered below, skimming his own eyes across her tanned body, and adjusting himself. A month was a long time to go without his cock buried to the hilt in something.
    “I used you, my dear,” he said, leaning down to kiss her mouth and then starting the upward climb.
    “How? And what will he do while we’re gone? Will he be okay without us? I mean, what if he...” She trailed off, peering over her sunglasses at the man she loved with eyes full of unease. He was moving his body around as physically as possible once more, draining his energy as he had been doing every day. Swimming, weights, cleaning the decks even, quite remarkably. It was becoming monotonous, intolerably dull, and thoroughly boring. He halted his positioning on the mast and gazed for a while. How was he going to help him find enough control for Elizabeth, for love?
    A challenge indeed.
    “He will be exemplary,” he called down, continuing his perusal of such a specimen wearing nothing but shorts. His body was now a deep, dark brown colour, his near black hair shiny and lustrous. His physique could only be described as that of a God, Neptune, maybe. Stimulating. He adjusted his cock again and untied the ropes to let the sail down. Fucking men. He needed to fuck something, without Alexander’s permission. “Would you ask him if you could fuck me, my dear? He will be more amenable if it comes from you.”
    “No,” she replied absentmindedly, now tapping her finger on her lips in concentration. “And why will he be fine without us?” she asked as he dropped to the floor beside her and picked her up. She felt quite good in his arms, and was becoming more comfortable there by the day. Love.
    It simply would not do, not at all.
    “Elizabeth, do you honestly believe that he would let me take you halfway across the world without him?”
    “Oh,” she replied, her mouth creating that wonderful shape of hers as she twitched her brow in understanding and giggled. “Good plan, Batman.” Was he not Dracula last week? Batman now, too, it seemed.
    “Hmmm. I prefer Dracula. And he is still scared of hurting you. Thankfully, he is also still anxious and quite jealous of me. It is what you call a win-win, yes?”
    She frowned again and fiddled with her bracelet. “No, Pascal. No one’s doing any screwing, or loving. There is no win-win going on here. He’s like someone I don’t know, and he won’t let me in anymore.”
    She was right. Alexander wasn’t letting either of them in. He was closed, withdrawn, a shadow of the force he was becoming, invariably ashamed of his behaviour, or at the very least confounded by it. And there wasn’t enough laughter or amusement, either. So he walked toward the man with her in his arms, stopped as Alexander slowly stood up to look at them, and then threw her over the side. She screamed beautifully, and Alexander watched her with a smile, a real smile. He felt his heart expand a little as the