Page 20 of Unseen

Was that the kind of love story anyone would be able to understand? Surely, such a bittersweet tale would stir people’s hearts?

With a sigh, I realised I was being ridiculous.

People loved rules. They loved their place.

They loved the privileges that their position afforded them.

They would not care for a love story like mine, even if the fantasy I had dreamed up for myself was true.

There was no possible way anyone would understand.

To understand would be to unravel the very fabric upon which they wiped their feet. I was merely the dirt left behind.

It was raining when we reached the church, and I bid Mary to wait for me, lest she get cold and wet for no reason.

I hurried down the slippery path, finding the church empty save for an elderly woman polishing the organ pipes.

She met me with a warm smile as I rushed in out of the rain, her large blue eyes twinkling underneath a green bonnet.

“I’m terribly sorry to bother you, but I had wondered if Father Price was here?”

She shook her head slowly. “I’m sorry, madam, but Father Price has been called away for the morning. A child has been born.”

“Oh, I see.” I wiped my hands over the rain on my skirts. “I’m sorry, I shall leave you to your work then.”

“No, no, this is God’s house, and you are welcome.

” She gestured to the front of the church with an open hand.

“Please, do not let me deter you. You’ve come here to seek…

” She seemed to take in my attire for the first time, and her eyes softened.

“Ah, Mistress Caine, my apologies, I did not recognise you immediately. I am Edith Foster, my brother, George, he works for - worked for your husband, God rest his soul.”

“Oh goodness.” I took a few more steps into the church as the rain began to pelt down from the sky in heavy sheets. “You are George’s sister, how delightful to meet you. ”

“I am. His much older sister.” She let out a soft laugh. “I like to come and help Father Price keep the church tidy. Now that I am an old lady, with grown children and too much time on my hands.”

“That is very kind of you.” I did not know why I was still standing in that church, why I was talking to this woman I did not know. But I did not want to return to the house. “Have you been in this parish long?”

“I have indeed.” She picked up a vase from a table beside the organ, checking the flowers held within it.

“I arranged the flowers, you know, for your wedding. Those pretty roses, all from the Chatham garden, as requested by your aunt.” She smiled at me wistfully.

“You were such a pretty bride, madam. I’ve never seen a happier groom in my life. ”

God truly was punishing me. Why else would I have encountered this kindly old woman who’d witnessed my first marriage, at this very moment? When my body ached, and there was a throb of pain between my legs, reminding me of exactly what awaited me when I returned to Linmere.

“Oh dear, have I upset you?” Edith’s eyebrows shot up, and she took a few steps towards me, the vase still in her hand. “I’m so sorry, how thoughtless of me."

I shook my head, dashing away the tear that raced down my cheek. “No, no, it’s quite alright. I am still… I am not sure. I still feel so…”

“Vulnerable?” Edith offered with a soft smile. “I understand. I lost my dear husband ten years ago, and the pain never quite goes away.”

The walls of the church seemed to close in on me, and I backed towards the door. “I’d best go. Thank you. I’m sorry again for disturbing you.”

“Not at all, madam. Be well.” She smiled and nodded, and I dipped my head before hurrying back out into the rain.

“This weather is truly dreadful, madam, you’re going to catch your death of cold!” Mary scolded as I climbed into the carriage.

Death of cold. One could only wish.

“I’m quite alright, Mary, a warm bath once we are home will do me good.”

Despite Mary’s best attempts to keep her displeasure hidden, I caught the slight exasperated widening of her eyes at my words. But she turned to me with a smile, and a nod. “Of course, madam.”

The rain continued to beat against the windows as I languished in the steaming bath. I’d asked Mary to make it hotter than usual, so my skin blushed pink at the water’s touch. I closed my eyes, letting out a long breath, imagining the water washing away all the previous night’s filth and shame.

I’d truly be bathing daily once I was Azriel’s wife.

“I could watch you like this all day.”

My eyes flew open to find Azriel smirking at me from the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Hello, beloved.”

“Am I never to know a moment’s peace?” I huffed out a sigh, pulling my knees up to my chest in an attempt to hide myself from him. “Are you no longer content with simply watching me from the walls, now you must walk in while I bathe?”

“I missed you.” He looked me up and down, dragging his lower lip through his teeth. “And you do look so beautiful like this.”

I glared at him. “Go away.”

“How was church?”

“How is it that you know exactly where I was? ”

“I told you, Evie, I know everything.” He sauntered into the bathroom, kneeling down beside the tub and leaning on his forearms on the domed edge. “And? Did you find absolution?”

“I don’t think that’s possible for people like us.”

Azriel flashed me a wide grin. “Like us? And what are we like, beloved?”

“Filthy. Broken. Debauched.”

Azriel shrugged and swirled a hand through the water. “Was your maid very shocked when you admitted to her where you had been?”

“I thought you knew everything, Azriel?” I said with a smirk, narrowing my eyes. “As it is, I have not yet told her. The poor girl would probably drop dead from shame.”

“I see.” His gaze flickered down my body. “And how did you explain the marks upon your skin?”

I sank down into the tub with a sigh. “I did not explain and she had the good sense not to ask.”

“What a sensible and discreet girl.”

My eyes flashed up to his. “What do you want?”

“I am doing the gentlemanly thing. After a night like the one we shared, it is unbecoming not to inquire after a lady.”

“Go away.”

“Are you sore?”

My cheeks burned violently at the question. “What do you mean?”

“Your cunt, beloved.” He chuckled quietly at my outraged gasp. “You are so very sweet when you act the part of the innocent.”

“Of course I am sore.” I crossed my arms over my chest to impede his lecherous gaze on my breasts.

“Did I hurt you?” His serpentine voice sent goosebumps erupting over my skin .

“I bade you to slow down. I told you that you… You are too big.”

His smile widened. “The words every man longs to hear.”

“I told you to slow down, to… to take your time.” I swallowed hard, shifting my hips and once again feeling the dull throb between my thighs. “Why did you not listen to me?”

“It wasn’t possible, Evie. Yearning for you, all these years. How could I take my time after that?” His fingertips brushed my knee. “I want to, though. I want to look upon your face as you come undone for me.”

I jerked my legs away from his hand. “Stop it. I don’t even want to think of it, and yet it’s all I’ve been able to think of all day.”

The corner of his mouth tilted, shifting his face into a crooked grin. “So you thought of me then? Every time you moved?”

I shook my head, wishing I could somehow muster up the strength to drown him in this very bath water. “I had no choice. Just like last night.”

He leaned closer, reaching out a hand to run the backs of his fingers down my bare shoulder. “Do you know what it does to me to know that I brought you pleasure?”

“Pleasure?” I slapped his hand away, sending water splashing against the edge of the tub. “You call that pleasure? You violated me, and I felt no pleasure in it.” God I hated him. I hated his proximity and the wickedness in his eyes.

“I felt your pleasure when you came on my cock, beloved. I heard it. I saw it.” He rose to his knees, leaning over me in the tub and caging me in with his arms. “You can deny it all you want, but we both know the truth. You were aching for me, Evie, aching to be fucked properly. That is why you are sore today.” He brushed a hand against my cheek, and I flinched. “Your body aches for me still. ”

“I ache for my freedom, to be as far away from you as possible.”

He moved, then, to the foot of the tub, and I allowed myself a short breath. But then he unbuttoned his shirt, his eyes remaining fixed on me.

“What are you doing?” I held out a hand. “Do not even dream of getting in this tub. I will tear your manhood clean off.”

“Don’t worry, beloved.” He tore the shirt sleeve from his arms and discarded it on the floor. “I have something much better in mind.”

“Get-” The rest of the sentence was torn from me as a strangled scream bubbled out of my mouth.

It was smothered by the bath water as Azriel yanked me by the legs, throwing them over his shoulders.

I was still caught in the wild tangle of bubbles as his mouth descended on me, heat shooting through my core at the feel of his tongue.

I gripped the edges of the bathtub, hauling myself out of the water, gasping for breath. Azriel’s dark head of hair was buried between my thighs, and he licked and sucked like a man starved. My hands shook as I struggled to stay above the water, my heart pounding against my ribcage.

“Stop,” I breathed, trying to clench my thighs together.

Azriel lifted his head, smiling that devilish smile, my arousal coating his lips. “I knew you’d taste like heaven, Evie.”

“Stop.” Even I could hear the fight leaving my voice. His hot breath washed over my sensitive skin, every nerve tense and wanting. “Please, I can’t-”

Azriel wrenched my thighs apart and resumed his ministrations.

My head fell back in the water, and I cried out, desperate to stay afloat and not drown while he continued to kiss and plunder the most intimate parts of me.

His mouth covered me thoroughly, and while my head was swimming far too much to even know where and what and how he was kissing and sucking and probing, one emotion screamed through me.

One emotion that made me hate him even more, hatred upon hatred, wishing he would burn in hell and be flayed by Lucifer himself for this.

The one thought that I could not escape while heat flared in every single cell - God, this feels good.

Perhaps it was true what they said, that love was not a necessity in the bedroom.

I had thought they meant for the case of procreation, but perhaps they had also meant for pleasure.

I could hate Azriel Caine and also welcome his tongue lapping at my bud, eliciting moans so loud I was sure Mary would come running in at any moment to see what was the matter.

I thrashed in the water, my arms becoming weak, my hands slipping.

“Azriel,” I gasped, my legs trembling violently either side of his head, a panicked whimper echoing off the ceiling above me as the first wave rolled through me.

“Azriel!” This time it was almost a scream, a prayer, a plea, I’m not sure which.

He groaned loudly against my flesh, his trembling fingers digging into my thighs.

Then the waves took over, crashing through me with the force of a hurricane.

My whole body convulsed, shock after shock sending my limbs jerking, before they went languid, and with a moan I collapsed into the water, floating on its surface like one deceased.

Gasps burst from between my lips as I struggled to fill my lungs.

Azriel lowered my legs from his shoulders, then stood over me, gazing down at me with a look of satisfied awe.

He sank to his knees, lifting me into a sitting position, curling me against his chest.

“So beautiful,” he murmured, kissing my forehead in a way that I did not welcome. It was too sweet, too soft, too much like something a lover would do. Something stirred deep within me, like a faint breeze through a barely-opened window.

“I’ve been dying for that. Dying to know what you taste like.” His lips traced along my jaw, and I could smell the scent of my arousal on his skin. “You’re even sweeter when you’re about to come.”

I realised with a startled jolt that I was laying against him, my hand resting on his bare skin. With an outraged grunt, I pushed him away, clutching to the side of the tub, the only thing that was now between us, and I gripped it even harder as I willed it to protect me from him.

“Get out.” I fixed him with a glare, my breath still shuddering in my lungs as I tried to regain some sense of equilibrium. “Get out of here this instant, you vile fiend.”

He laughed, rising to his feet. Horror coursed through me as I saw his cock protruding from his trousers, half spent and covered in his seed. He was soiled with it, which did not seem to bother him at all as he buttoned himself up and hid the mess he had made.

“Do you see now what you do to me?” He asked as he retrieved his shirt from the ground. “How much I desire you? Simply eating your cunt is enough to have me spent on the floor.”

“I said, get out.” I could not look at him anymore, leaning over the edge of the tub and clenching my eyes closed as he finished dressing.

His footsteps sounded across the floor, and then came to a stop.

“I must say, I do like you screaming my name as you come.” His filthy, delighted snigger was lost as he opened the door and disappeared from the bathroom.

I gulped for air like a fish stranded on the shore, my body still entangled in this awful, wonderful feeling of what he had done to me.

The words of the nuns, my governesses, every priest I had ever encountered, rang through my head - Pleasure is the way to madness. Through Sin, you will lose your mind.

That place I had never been allowed to touch, that I had not even dared stray a finger near for fear of going mad, of ending up in an asylum, had now been assaulted twice by Azriel. Perhaps he had not meant to drown me in the bath while feasting upon me, but his intention truly was to drive me mad.

I’d said I wouldn’t let him do it to me again, and I had. I knew he would continue to take, and take.

I would simply have to refuse to give.

I rose from the now-cold bathwater, and met my own reflection with a determined stare.

He will never do that to me again. Control yourself. Do not let him have that. He will not drive you mad.