Futile Flame Read Online Free Page A

wouldn’t, until this mystery was complete, this pleasure fulfilled. A wave curled up from my loins, stretching out, spreading through my small breasts as I fell onto his hand, spasms clenching inside me and my first orgasm poured over his fingers. My knees gave out. Caesare caught me and lay me beneath him, withdrawing his hand as the last pulses rocked through my body.
    ‘Oh. Luci...’ he moaned, pressing his lower body against mine.
    He pushed my legs apart as he fumbled with his breeches. I felt insensible. Lay helpless beneath him and only when I felt him press hard against me did I react and pull away.
    ‘What are you doing?’
    ‘Giving you some more pleasure.’
    ‘No, Caesare. Stop it! It hurts. Don’t.’
    His lips pressed down on mine, silencing me as he positioned himself more securely between my thighs. I felt trapped, unable to move as he held my flailing arms down above my head. For a moment he held my hands one handed as he reached down, but it wasn’t his fingers I felt this time. I squirmed, trying to break free, twisting my head away from his lips.
    ‘Caesare, Stop it!’
    But then it was too late as he ground his pelvis into mine and an agonising pain shot through my loins. I felt something rip. I thought he was tearing me up inside. I tried to scream but his lips found mine again, forcing them apart and my cries were muffled and lost inside his mouth. I struggled against him, biting his lip until he yelped and cuffed me against the side of my head. I was numbed, shocked into stillness. The pain in my head and body receded until I lay like a broken doll beneath him. His heavy breath matched his pace. I lay, dazed, afraid and unable to fight as I was raped and corrupted in the library of St Peter’s. The agonising pain left me numb and cold as my virgin blood leaked onto the back of my skirt.
    When he cried my name against my bruised lips I knew I could never tell anyone that my brother had defiled me. It was my fault. I let him touch me. I let him give me pleasure. I’d willingly looked at Father’s book, even though I’d realised immediately that it was corrupt. I’d encouraged him. He was a man and I’d been warned of male lust.
    ‘Luci.’
    I didn’t move.
    ‘Luci. Get up. Straighten your clothes and then go back to the house and clean yourself.’ Caesare kneeled above me, worry furrowing his brow as he stared into my dulled eyes.
    ‘Caesare...’
    ‘Come on. Before Father returns.’
    ‘I wanted to see Father.’
    ‘Yes. I know. But not now, not like this.’
    I let him pull me to my feet. I caught sight of my dishevelled state in the mirror across the wall behind the desk. My previously coiffured hair was tumbling down at the back and my lips were red and swollen from the way my brother had kissed me. My clothing was creased. It was all evidence that I was shameless, a whore.
    I picked up my dress and ran to the door, numbly pulling on the handle but it wouldn’t open. Caesare stopped my frantic movement with one hand, calmly turning the key.
    ‘Back to the house and go to your room. You need to lie down and sleep. Then you’ll be fine, Luci,’ he told me as he ran his hands through his hair.
    ‘You...’
    I stared at him, he looked calm, unruffled. Somehow he had fastened his breeches and there was no external evidence that he had sinned with me. Nothing at all showed on his clothing or his expression. As I pulled open the door he stopped me again. Yanking me into his embrace Caesare held me to him. Afraid to refuse I stood in his arms until eventually he let go.
    ‘You’ll be fine,’ he whispered, and his voice trembled.
    I hurried from the library and the corridor was filled with empty, shuttered, laughing eyes instead of closed doors. The next day, the evidence and stains of my defilement was washed away in the laundry of the Palazzo. That day the innocent child died and Caesare’s sexual obsession with me began.
     
     
    Chapter 4 – Lucrezia’s