<strong>Hugh, Baron Covington</strong><br/><br/><div class="floatright">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/0/03/Geraint_Baron_Hugh_Covington_Av.jpg)</div>Lucy is a delicious mystery to be probed, though he doubts that there is any mystery why she is here tonight.  She holds herself almost rigidly still, though he hears the hitch of her breath as his finger caresses her neck.  It's not that he can read her like a book, but that her presence and her responses tonight speak for themselves.  And the fact that she stands in her shift before him, of her own free will, responding to his touch is a strongly suggestive of what he truly needed to know about her before progressing.  But he talks her through it, needing Lucy to know as well.<br/><br/>She gasps at the pinch to her ear, and her chest heaves, but it is clearly the smack to her arse that stirs her.  Her whole body goes rigid.  It's something that he is tempted to explore here and now, but he can defer gratification to intensify anticipation, especially if it has her doing the same.  No, for now, he wants to provoke the desire he sees in her, put it plain before her eyes to accept or reject.  So he coaxes her with his voice and provokes her with his touch, staying close enough that she can't ignore him, and telling her exactly what he wants.  And when he pauses for her response, she turns to face him, her cheeks flushed her bosom heaving erratically with her breath, despite her arms wrapped around it.  Perhaps she has rubbed her nipples as suggested, perhaps not.  All that matters at the moment is her response.  Her voice is strained, perhaps hoarse, as she answers.<br/><br/><em>"Yes …"</em><br/><br/>He smiles encouragingly.<br/><br/><em>"Some port might help." </em><br/><br/>His smile doesn't change.  She doesn't need port to run away, but it will buy her time to summon her wits and her courage to proceed, and perhaps also calm her.  Without hesitation he turns to the sideboard to fill her glass.  And when he turns back, her arms are lowered, as he had requested.  She is a beautiful young woman, possibly struggling with her conscience at the moment.  He sees a delicious mix of fear and concern in her eyes, and anticipation in her body.  Her nipples are prominent and apparently taut beneath her shift, and her flush seems to extend lower than her face and neck.<br/><br/>He makes no attempt to hide the fact that he finds pleasure in viewing her, perhaps even pleasure in her state of distress.  It's clear that more than his fingers have touched her already and that she had listened to what he said.  So he hides neither his interest nor the hint of things not so gentle in his demeanor.  But he does give her time: time to sip, time to consider, time to comply.  The choice is hers, not his, and she sips deeply of the cup he offers her.  And then she speaks what is on her mind.<br/><br/><em>"My lord, Lady Katherine... will you seek this pleasure for her? … If I succumb, will you leave her be?  She is a gentle woman, and I do not believe she would feel the same pleasure from pain that you describe."</em><br/><br/>His smile changes a bit now, to something still encouraging, though perhaps less forgiving.  But he answers her with honesty.<br/><br/>"I shall not seek this of her …<br/><br/>"As you say, Lady Katherine is a gentle soul, and I have come to care for her greatly already.  I shall give her gentle passion and caring and cherish her as who and what she is.  I shall be the husband she wants and deserves, and will expose her to no needs less gentle that she desires …"<br/><br/>"That I promise you …<br/><br/>"… regardless of your own decision tonight."<br/><br/>He pauses a moment for that to sink in.<br/><br/>"So if you are here only to protect Lady Katherine from the ungentle urges of her husband, I have great respect for the nobility of your gesture, and shall make no further demands of you ... you are a very brave young woman and Lady Katherine is lucky to have you as a friend."<br/><br/>The look in his eyes confirms the honesty of his words; he does admire her courage and devotion.<br/><br/>"But I suspect, Lucy, that you are not so gentle a soul as Lady Katherine ... and have different needs."<br/><br/>He reaches out now to caress one of her nipples through her shift, rubbing back and forth across it with increasing pressure to produce the sensation he described before from the rasp of the material across her delicate flesh.<br/><br/>"I think that you find passion also in the ungentle, as I do."<br/><br/>He pinches her nipple then, hard, as demonstration of his words.<br/><br/>"In which case your needs and mine correspond nicely."<br/><br/>His fingers move to her other nipple again rubbing gently at first.<br/><br/>"If that is so, you should demonstrate your assent by disrobing as I suggested, and we can proceed.  You will retain the option to change your mind, and depart without prejudice nor consequence to yourself.<br/><br/>"If you stay, though, I do require one further thing of you before we begin:  a safe word.  It is a word you would not normally say but that you can share with me and readily recall under stress.  You give your will over when you come to me, so I may choose to disregard any no you utter as we proceed."<br/><br/>He pinches her other nipple harder than the first.<br/><br/>"But if you speak your safe word but once, I shall immediately cease what I am doing,  and desist from further attempts unless specifically requested by you to do so.<br/><br/>"As I said, I would do you no harm."<br/><br/>Then his smile becomes more of a normal one.<br/><br/>"The choice is entirely yours, Lucy.<br/><br/>"More port?"<br/><br/><br/>Edited typos<br/>