Naughty Temptations

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Cessie had very much enjoyed meeting Lady Esther. She’d sat in the garden going over their brief conversation in her mind until she’d started to feel cold, and then had to rub her arms under her shawl to warm herself up before going inside again.

She hadn’t expected to be asked to dance, and had been touched when the young man who’d been her dinner partner politely led her out for a country dance. She was probably a year older than him, at twenty-two, but his innate good manners warmed her heart. If she’d been hoping to find a husband she’d have been very excited by his attention, but fortunately she knew it was simple old-fashioned courtesy, and she was content with that. Besides, she was happy with the idea of never marrying at all. Somehow she found the soft rounded curves of a woman ten times more exciting than the hard planes of a man’s body.

Not that she knew very much about a naked man. She’d seen stable boys with bare chests as they washed down the horses, though, and was female enough to admire their masculine beauty. She’d also been curious enough to stare at a stallion’s extended male organ when he tried to mount a mare one day. The size of it was astounding and made her wonder just how long a man’s would be when he mounted a woman.

The answer to that question she’d found out only a few days ago. She’d told Lady Patience how much she was enjoying looking at the books in the library, and her employer had replied, “Oh my dear, do borrow and read whatever you want. Lord Stephen will be pleased to know they’re being used.”

So she’d unlatched the ladder from the corner of the room and explored the top few shelves, bringing down an armload of books she planned to spend time looking at. Hidden behind several weighty tomes of abstruse mathematical formulae was a thin book of sketches of the male and female anatomy. She’d tucked that book safely in the middle of the pile she’d chosen and taken it up to her bedroom. It had taught her a lot about anatomy, and caused her to spend considerable time holding a looking glass angled at her naked private parts, identifying the various sections of her body and then learning what it was that felt so good when she touched herself there in her bed at night.

Empowered by her new knowledge, Cessie had reread the book, making sure she understood all of it, and then brought herself to a climax while she watched her fingers penetrate her cunny in the mirror.

Then she carefully replaced the little book in its hiding place, rearranging other books on the shelf to disguise the fact that she’d taken several books from that general area to her room to read.

When she walked into the library the afternoon following the ball, she couldn’t resist looking up to the top shelf, but even to her critical gaze it looked much as it always had done. The chief difference was Lady Esther seated in an armchair with a dozen or more books spread over her lap.

“You were right. I never knew my father had so many volumes about travel. Look. This one on Venice, Italy, has illustrations of the gondolas and the houses built beside the canals.”

Cessie carried a straight back chair over beside Lady Esther and they spent a very pleasant hour together, looking at books about places all around the world, and dipping into them for the highlights of each destination.

Cessie stared at Lady Esther as much as at the books. Her hair was a shiny brown, held up this afternoon in a loose knot, with strands tumbling down to soften the long line of her delicate neck. Her eyes were a sparkling brown full of good humor and intelligence. She was of average height, perhaps an inch taller than Cessie, with delicately rounded arms and soft white skin peeking out of the top of her bodice.

Cessie had to force herself not to look too obviously at her breasts. They, too, were full and round, bigger than Cessie’s and mouthwateringly enticing. Cessie wondered if Lady Esther’s n*****s would be brown like hers were, or a deep pink. She had to force herself not to think about other parts of Lady Esther’s body. That would be a gross invasion of her privacy. But they could still be friends. Already it felt as though they were friends.

All too soon her hour was over and Cessie had to leave. “I must go. Edward will be awake and I have to help watch him. The nursery maid generally has her hands full with little Anne. She’s just starting to walk and can’t be left alone for a moment.”

“I’ve enjoyed our time together. Shall we meet again here tomorrow?” asked Lady Esther.

“I’d like that.”

*****

By the end of the week they were calling each other Esther and Cessie, and laughing together like friends who’d known each other all their lives. There was something amazing in their connection. Although they were very different people, something inside Esther called to Cessie, and Cessie completed her, filling a hole in her heart she’d never even known was there. Cessie said it was the same with her. They didn’t always agree, and Esther had no intention of learning Latin or Greek, but there were so many other things they enjoyed talking about, discussing and sharing, that their differences just made their similarities more special.

Esther was also increasingly connected to Cessie in a way that was more than friendship. She didn’t have a word for it, possibly wasn’t even acknowledging it to herself completely yet, but she longed to do more than touch Cessie’s hand or arm as they looked over travel books together. She found herself noticing how plump and pink Cessie’s lips were and wondering what they’d taste like if she kissed them. Esther noticed how the shell of Cessie’s ear was pink and pretty under her simple governessy hairstyle, and wanted to kiss that too. She wanted to hold Cessie and hug her against her body in a manner so much more than just friendly.

When it came time for Cessie to return to the nursery, she stood up and took her hand.

“We’re friends aren’t we, Cessie. Very special friends.”

“Yes, we are. You’re the closest friend I’ve ever had.”

“I want to—” Esther didn’t know quite how to explain herself. She stepped closer to Cessie, right between her arms, and kissed her on the mouth. She shivered with fear that Cessie would rebuff her, but she also shivered with something else. Something that she was beginning to recognize was lust.

Greatly to her surprise Cessie smiled at her and pulled them even closer together, until their bodies were hard against each other and their gowns were pushed sideways, out of shape. Then Cessie kissed her back, but this time she also licked along Esther’s lips.

Esther opened her mouth and copied Cessie, tasting the flavor of her lips. When Cessie pressed her tongue inside Esther’s mouth, she gasped and then flicked her tongue over it. It was a very strange feeling to have someone else’s tongue right inside her mouth like that, but she liked it. She liked it a lot.

Esther kissed Cessie back, copying her lip movements and her tongue thrusts, until they finally broke apart. Instinctively Esther knew she’d made a commitment to Cessie. A commitment to be so much more than friends.

Cessie looked at her in silence and Esther touched her lips. They felt swollen from their passionate kiss. “Come to my room tonight, please. I want to do that again.”

“Are you sure?”

“Oh yes. I want to see you, and hold you, and kiss you.”

“I want that too. Until tonight then.” Cessie turned and hurried out of the library.

Esther dropped back into her chair and sat and smiled imagining them kissing again and again, and then undressing and touching each other’s naked bodies under the blankets. Being together, holding each other, becoming so much more than just friends.

*****

Esther sat on the side of her bed. The maid had left long ago after helping her out of her gown and brushing her hair. Esther was more than capable of styling her hair for everyday wear herself, but she needed help to undo all the buttons on her dress, so it was relaxing to sit and let the maid brush her hair with long soothing strokes once she was in her nightrail.

But Cessie would still be dressed of course. The governess wouldn’t walk around the house at night in her bed attire. A young woman’s virtue was strictly protected, with the maids having their sleeping quarters on the floor above the nursery, and the men sleeping on the floor above them.

Although Esther wasn’t completely naïve. She understood that maids and men did form relationships outside wedlock even though the lord and lady of the house were supposed to protect the women’s virtue.

She shrugged. Her virtue wasn’t really in danger here. No harm would come to her reputation at Cessie’s hands. Even if someone saw them naked together it might be possible to pretend Cessie was helping her bathe or some similar excuse.

But no one would come into her room now unless she summoned them. Once the maid prepared her for bed the girl was free for the evening and eager to get to her own bed. Maids had to rise early to tidy the house and prepare breakfast before the ladies rose. Men had to rise even earlier to groom the horses and have them ready in case the lord needed to ride around the estate.

“I’m so lucky to be who I am and where I am. My family cares for me and no one forces me to do things I don’t want to do,” she whispered softly.

Just then a faint tap sounded on her door. Esther jumped off the bed and raced across to open it, finding Cecilia standing there as she’d expected.

“Come inside,” she whispered, closing the door behind Cessie. All her thoughts about her life fled from her mind as she gazed upon Cessie’s pretty face and shining dark eyes. She was about to learn about love. The love that only women could share.

“You know what my hearts wants, don’t you?” Esther whispered.

Cessie nodded.

“Have you—have you—um—done it before?”

Cessie shook her head. “I only learned the details myself a few weeks ago. From a book in your family’s library.”

“There are books about women—”

“Realdo Colombo, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Padua, published a book called De Re Anatomica in 1559. I don’t know exactly what the original looked like, but the book in your family’s library is a discussion of his work and it has pictures, sketches of body parts and diagrams of where things are and their names. Men as well as women.”

“Oh, my. My father had this book?”

Cessie grinned. “I don’t know that he ever read it. Quite a lot of the books don’t look as though they’ve been read.”

Esther sat back down on the side of the bed, patting it to ask Cessie to sit with her. “You know, now that you mention it, my father seldom read anything. When he became very frail I would sometimes read him articles from The Times, but mostly he preferred to sit and stare out the window, or to talk about people he’d known when he was a young man. Neither Stephen nor Patience is interested in reading books either. Erasmus left a long time ago to care for his lands. He inherited them when Mama died when I was six. That was eighteen years past. He would have been twenty-two then. That sounds strange. It’s so long ago. I never noticed him read more than a newspaper when I was in town with him, but it was the Season and he was busy I suppose.”

“I wonder who collected the books then. Has this house been in your family for many years?” asked Cessie.

“I know my grandparents lived here, although I don’t remember them at all. But someone must have bought the books even if they didn’t read them. Including this De Anatomica.”

“De Re Anatomica.”

“Yes.” Suddenly Esther couldn’t wait any longer. “Let me help you get undressed and you can show me what you’ve learned.”

She jumped off the bed and Cessie stood up and turned around, so she could help her unbutton her dress. It didn’t take them long to remove her dress and underskirts, then her lace-edged drawers.

Esther was about to climb back onto the bed when Cessie said, “Wait a minute. Have you got a small looking glass you can hold in your hand?”

“Of course.” She went across to the chest of drawers and picked it up, handing it to Cessie.

“Take off your nightrail and we can begin.”

Cessie’s gaze was hot as she looked at Esther and Esther felt the heat despite the distance separating them. She let her own gaze drop from Cessie’s shining eyes to her round breasts with their dark n*****s, down over her creamy belly, to the secret place hidden behind brown curls. With all her heart Esther wanted to touch and taste every inch of Cessie and learn all her secrets, especially the secret of how to please her.

“Teach me everything, please.”

*****

Cessie’s heart was pounding and her palms were damp. Esther was everything she’d ever dreamed of in a special friend, and so much more. Their interests were similar and they laughed at the same kinds of jokes. They enjoyed clever word plays and puns, and yet were content to simply sit beside each other reading their own books.

But now the game was about to change. Cessie’s entire world was about to change. The knowledge she’d learned about her own body and her own needs, she was about to share with another woman. And not just any woman. No, she was to share the results of her experiments with the woman she valued above all other people.

She heaved a deep breath into her lungs and said, “Sit up on your bed and spread your legs wide apart. Put your feet flat on the mattress and hold the looking glass in one hand.”

Esther did as she said and Cessie sat at the foot of the bed, but facing Esther.

“Now what?”

“Now hold the looking glass so you can see inside your private place.”

“Look at it?” Esther sounded surprised and her cheeks flushed pale pink.

“You can’t learn to write your name without looking carefully at the letters. So if you want to know what to touch that pleases you most you need to see it.”

“I suppose so.”

Hesitantly, Esther angled the mirror and looked in it.

“Use your thumb and first finger to hold your nether lips open and you will see right inside your core.”

Esther glanced up at her, blushed a little more so that now her cheeks were a darker pink, and looked in the mirror, touching herself.

Cessie’s heart was pounding and her n*****s were tight little points. Watching Esther touch herself was making her own body long to be touched.

“See the tiny nubbin? It’s covered with a piece of skin, but the more your body becomes excited the more visible it gets. Professor Colombo said he was the first person to find that nub and he named it the sweetness of Venus. Touch it and you’ll know why.”

“Oh. Oh!”

“Stroke it, rub it gently, tease it.”

Oh! I—Ohhh.”

“Keep going. Keep touching it.”

Cessie couldn’t resist. Watching Esther learn about herself, and discover the great pleasure hidden in that tiny organ was making her more and more want to touch her own tiny button. She parted her legs and began to stroke her own sweetness of Venus, relishing the tingling up and down her spine and the sensations of heat and desire running through her veins, teasing herself, and then pressing harder, but never taking her gaze from Esther’s body.

Esther’s n*****s were enlarged and pointed, her head thrown back and her eyes closed as she worked herself up to completion. Watching her shudder in climax was enough to send Cessie over the cliff of pleasure as well.

She took the looking glass out of Esther’s limp hand and returned it to the dressing table, then laid her down, crawling behind her and snuggling against her body, while tugging the sheet and blankets over them both.

Esther rolled over and faced her. “That was amazing. I never knew that before.”

“Have you never touched yourself at all?”

Esther blushed redder than before. “Yes. But never like that, and never with such a strong and intense effect.”

“Knowledge is power. Now you know how to please yourself.”

Esther giggled. “I’m quite certain the professor didn’t precisely discover the sweetness of Venus. I suspect women have known about it for a very long time. Possibly all the way back to Eve.”

Cessie laughed and rested her head on Esther’s shoulder, holding her close. “I expect you’re right. Some people call it the c******s, but the book said there’d been many arguments about what the c******s was and if it even existed.”

“It exists. It really truly exists.”

Cessie sighed and sat up. “I must go back to my own bed.”

“Will you come again tomorrow night, please, and teach me more about what you’ve learned from that book?”

Cessie kissed her cheek. “I’d like that.”

Esther sat up, and pulled her close. “Kiss me properly before you go.”

Cessie put all her love and passion into the kiss, sweeping her tongue into Esther’s mouth, tasting every part of her gums and teeth, and tangling their tongues together until she couldn’t breathe.

“Until tomorrow.”