At that moment, I thought I heard the sound of a woman’s sigh, even through the high vibrato of the mandolins. I thought it might be my imagination until I recognized the muffled grunts of the Wanderer. My eyes snapped open and I brought my head up.
“Celia is a born slut,” Adrianna said conversationally. “She could enjoy an illustrious Life if she ever learns some self restraint.”
“Surely they are not making love right now!”
“I think they might be.”
“With all these people around?”
Celia’s sighs escalated to moans and cries, and even through the music, I could hear the slap of flesh on flesh. Unable to resist the urge, I turned around. Celia lay backwards on the divan, her coppery hair cascading to the rugs, and her was face flushed from her head hanging over the edge. Her tapering, pearly legs were wrapped around the Wanderer’s waist, and her breasts bounced as the Wanderer thrust in and out of her.
“It certainly looks like they are.”
Adrianna sounded delighted as she murmured in my ear. When I turned around, the stewards smirked and the maids smothered their giggles. Even the awkward girls on mandolins couldn’t repress their grins, and Astrid twittered as she continued her massage of my shoulders. It suddenly occurred to me that I was the only one on the back patio who was shocked.
“A little discretion if you please!” Adrianna called out. “Celia, please remember I have two honored guests here, and I want them both to be completely at their leisure.”
Celia giggled and made an effort to muffle her cries by burying her face in the Wanderer’s shoulder. He pulled her up and flipped her on top of him, leaving her free to ride him, her rump rolling back and forth.
“Shepherd, you have two beautiful women trying to spoil you. So be a darling and grace us with your attention, please.”
I turned around.
“We are used to this,” Adrianna continued. “And clearly, you’re not. But it is possible to focus on the pleasures before you, rather than on the pleasure for another.”
Astrid moved one hand to the middle of my upper back and one hand on my upper chest.
“Hmmm…” Astrid murmured, pressing deeply.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I can feel your pain, Shepherd. I can feel you holding on to it.”
I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t speak. It didn’t help when Celia’s sharp cry of ecstasy rang out through the back patio. Next to me, Adrianna laughed out loud.
“Why must Celia be so cursedly loud when she meets her crisis?”
Then the Wanderer joined her with a whooping yell, and I could feel the blood rush to my face.
“And he is no quieter,” she concluded.
Astrid kept her hold on my back and chest, and moved her hands in slow circles.
“Breathe,” she whispered. “Let yourself melt, Shepherd. I promise I’m not trying to seduce you.”
I laughed hard. I simply couldn’t help it. Everything about this scene was unreal and so outside of my reality that in that moment, it all seemed like an elaborate prank. The moment of brevity gave me a welcome release, and I even did as Astrid suggested. However, the ecstatic cries and moans of a coupling between two people who had met not even an hour ago made relaxation and ease impossible. I couldn’t remember any time I had ever been so embarrassed.
“Your effort to ignore them is valiant,” Adrianna murmured.
For more excerpts from this work in progress, click here and/or here.
